Distant history as represented by architecture is a subject which has engaged the attention of all students of national development, and to their extensive researches the public is deeply indebted. Architects and archaeologists also have pieced together the evidence available and have reconstructed the past with great thoroughness. The mode of life at different periods has been revealed by means of plans and other drawings, often prepared with infinite labour. By such illustrations and by the records which have been transcribed it is possible to visualize the appearance of the country and its inhabitants from the beginning. In this supremely interesting occupation we are helped by imagination and, moreover, we have the advantage of the imaginative efforts of others better qualified to clothe the framework of the story. To Sir Walter Scott the highest tribute must be paid, for though his visions and word-pictures cannot be relied upon always for minute accuracy, he caught the spirit of the past and with wonderful insight restored it in vivid language. His heart was in the work of making the past live again, and he succeeded in giving verisimilitude to the scenes he described.
Illustrations abound of the buildings of Elizabethan and Jacobean date, from the measured drawings which owe their origin to prize competitions among students, to the elaborate pictorial reconstructions which sometimes astonish us by their wealth of detail and fanciful accessories. Painters in Victorian days attempted with varying success to interpret the past, generally introducing architectural backgrounds as settings for the dramatis personæ. One of the chief artists of the period to attain success in this direction was George Cattermole (1800-1868), who in such pictures as The Hunting Party and Old English Hospitality proved himself to be well equipped with the necessary imagination and knowledge. He successfully illustrated Scott, and, indeed, founded his fame on his drawings inspired by the great author’s romances. One of Cattermole’s most distinguished contemporaries was Joseph Nash (1808-1878), in whose work the figures as a rule are subordinate to the architecture. This was to be expected from one who had been trained in the office of an architect, namely, the elder Pugin. Yet Nash, while treating buildings with the respect due to them, did not err on the side of technical hardness. He made the beauties of architecture intelligible to the public, contriving also to appeal to the professional mind. His object was to produce essentially picturesque interpretations, to make a set of views of the mansions of England from a new and attractive point of view. To use his own words, he tried to make them interesting, “not as many of them now appear, gloomy, desolate and neglected, but furnished with the rude comfort of early times or exhibiting the more splendid luxury and elegant hospitality of later periods; in short, the stately homes of England glowing with the genial warmth of their firesides and enlivened with the presence of their inmates and guests, enjoying the recreations and pastimes or celebrating the festivals of our ancestors. The artist has endeavoured to place himself in the position of a visitor to these ancient edifices, whose fancy peoples the deserted halls—stripped of all movable ornaments and looking damp and cheerless—with the family and household of the old English gentleman surrounded by everyday comforts, sharing the more rare and bounteous hospitalities offered to the guests or partaking of the boisterous merriment of Christmas gambols.”
Nash deserted the practice of architecture to good purpose, for he produced the standard books illustrating the mansions of the olden times existing in his day, and he made a greater name probably than he would have done had he stuck to the medium of bricks and mortar. The influence of his work was good, and as a transcriber of architecture for popular appreciation he occupies a similar place to that attained by the Lambs in their prose interpretations of Shakespeare. Both Cattermole and Nash were members of the “Old” Water Colour Society. They established traditions which endured and which are still to be detected in the exhibitions at the gallery in Pall Mall East.
Among other early Victorians who won fame by their representations of domestic architecture and accessories was C. J. Richardson (1806-1871), who was articled to Sir John Soane, and remained an architect, but devoted himself mainly to his task of illustrating the great work of the past. His drawings are more precise and laboured than those of Nash, but they are excellent records and enable us to realise the beauties of many buildings and details now destroyed or scattered. Thomas Allom (1804-1872), also a practising architect, produced some exceptionally good pictorial work, his Haddon Hall ([Plate I]) being typical. Ewan Christian (1814-1895), the architect of a large number of buildings, including the National Portrait Gallery, was a recipient of the Royal Gold Medal, and is better known by his building work than otherwise; but in his earlier days he executed many drawings of popular interest, such as Ince Hall ([Plate III]). Henry Shaw (1800-1873) is mainly known to fame by his architectural illustrations, many of which are included in this book. F. W. Fairholt (1814-1866) combined the life of author and artist with conspicuous success, his Horeham Hall ([Plate XI]) showing evidence of his deep love of pageantry as well as his architectural sympathies. A Belgian artist who lived and worked in London, Louis Haghe (1806-1885) established a considerable reputation for his able interpretations of old Flemish architecture, chiefly interiors. He was a most accomplished draughtsman, and, like other artists of the period, made great use of lithography as a medium. Though the drawings by Nash and other artists with similar ambitions come within the category of made-up pictures—that is to say, were inspired by the past rather than the present—they were often of considerable charm and bore few traces of being rather second-hand in design. To achieve success with a composition relying for its incidents and accessories on scenes enacted, or supposed to have been enacted, two centuries or more previously requires gifts of no mean order. Not only must there be a proper understanding of the sentiments of the times, but the people introduced must be dressed appropriately and must take their part in the proceedings naturally. Nash, of course, studied his backgrounds on the spot, and chose the point of view which would be most picturesque. For him it was then a comparatively simple matter to imagine what scenes had taken place there long years before. He saw with his mind’s eye and recorded his impressions with due regard to historical probability and artistic requirements.
Posterity owes much to the painstaking and capable artists who toured the country in search of likely material and who published the results of their labours in such a permanently attractive way. Without such drawings nothing would exist to remind us of some of the most interesting examples of craftsmanship produced in the preceding centuries. The illustrations are useful also for comparison with the modern views of buildings by means of photography, and it is curious to notice how much alike are some of the records. One often suspects photographers of taking up the same point of view as the less speedy draughtsmen of nearly a hundred years ago, not because one vantage-ground inevitably suggests itself, but because artists of the camera are inclined to follow the lead of their predecessors. This plagiarism may be forgiven, however, for it enables us to see exactly what changes have taken place in the interval of years.
Our thanks are due not only to those who illustrated but to those who published the drawings which are so valuable for reference, with the appropriate comments which accompanied them. The authors made light of difficult travel, and with much evident pleasure elaborated in prose the now hackneyed lines of Mrs. Hemans:
“The Stately Homes of England,
How beautiful they stand
Amidst their tall ancestral trees
O’er all the pleasant land.”
HENRY SHAW
