It was of course inexpedient to reduce drawings of crowded details to the size of an octavo volume,—I do not say impossible, but inexpedient; requiring infinite pains on the part of the engraver, with no result except farther pains to the beholder. And as, on the other hand, folio books are not easy reading, I determined to separate the text and the unreducible plates. I have given, with the principal text, all the illustrations absolutely necessary to the understanding of it, and, in the detached work, such additional text as has special reference to the larger illustrations.

A considerable number of these larger plates were at first intended to be executed in tinted lithography; but, finding the result unsatisfactory, I have determined to prepare the principal subjects for mezzotinting,—a change of method requiring two new drawings to be made of every subject; one a carefully penned outline for the etcher, and then a finished drawing upon the etching. This work does not proceed fast, while I am also occupied with the completion of the text; but the numbers of it will appear as fast as I can prepare them.

For the illustrations of the body of the work itself, I have used any kind of engraving which seemed suited to the subjects—line and mezzotint, on steel, with mixed lithographs and woodcuts, at considerable loss of uniformity in the appearance of the volume, but, I hope, with advantage, in rendering the character of the architecture it describes. And both in the plates and the text I have aimed chiefly at clear intelligibility; that any one, however little versed in the subject, might be able to take up the book, and understand what it meant forthwith. I have utterly failed of my purpose, if I have not made all the essential parts of the essay intelligible to the least learned, and easy to the most desultory readers, who are likely to take interest in the matter at all. There are few passages which even require so much as an acquaintance with the elements of Euclid, and these may be missed, without harm to the sense of the rest, by every reader to whom they may appear mysterious; and the architectural terms necessarily employed (which are very few) are explained as they occur, or in a note; so that, though I may often be found trite or tedious, I trust that I shall not be obscure. I am especially anxious to rid this essay of ambiguity, because I want to gain the ear of all kinds of persons. Every man has, at some time of his life, personal interest in architecture. He has influence on the design of some public building; or he has to buy, or build, or alter his own house. It signifies less whether the knowledge of other arts be general or not; men may live without buying pictures or statues: but, in architecture, all must in some way commit themselves; they must do mischief, and waste their money, if they do not know how to turn it to account. Churches, and shops, and warehouses, and cottages, and small row, and place, and terrace houses, must be built, and lived in, however joyless or inconvenient. And it is assuredly intended that all of us should have knowledge, and act upon our knowledge, in matters with which we are daily concerned, and not to be left to the caprice of architects or mercy of contractors. There is not, indeed, anything in the following essay bearing on the special forms and needs of modern buildings; but the principles it inculcates are universal; and they are illustrated from the remains of a city which should surely be interesting to the men of London, as affording the richest existing examples of architecture raised by a mercantile community, for civil uses, and domestic magnificence.

Denmark Hill, February, 1851.

CONTENTS.

page
Preface, [iii]
CHAPTER I.
The Quarry,[1]
CHAPTER II.
The Virtues of Architecture,[36]
CHAPTER III.
The Six Divisions of Architecture,[47]
CHAPTER IV.
The Wall Base,[52]
CHAPTER V.
The Wall Veil,[58]
CHAPTER VI.
The Wall Cornice,[63]
CHAPTER VII.
The Pier Base,[71]
CHAPTER VIII.
The Shaft,[84]
CHAPTER IX.
The Capital,[105]
CHAPTER X.
The Arch Line,[122]
CHAPTER XI.
The Arch Masonry,[132]
CHAPTER XII.
The Arch Load,[144]
CHAPTER XIII.
The Roof,[148]
CHAPTER XIV.
The Roof Cornice,[155]
CHAPTER XV.
The Buttress,[166]
CHAPTER XVI.
Form of Aperture,[174]
CHAPTER XVII.
Filling of Aperture,[183]
CHAPTER XVIII.
Protection of Aperture,[195]
CHAPTER XIX.
Superimposition,[200]
CHAPTER XX.
The Material of Ornament,[211]
CHAPTER XXI.
Treatment of Ornament,[236]
CHAPTER XXII.
The Angle,[259]
CHAPTER XXII.
The Angle,[259]
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Edge and Fillet,[267]
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Roll and Recess,[276]
CHAPTER XXV.
The Base,[281]
CHAPTER XXVI.
The Wall Veil and Shaft,[294]
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Cornice and Capital,[305]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Archivolt and Aperture,[333]
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Roof,[343]
CHAPTER XXX.
The Vestibule,[349]