A History of Architecture in All Countries from the Earliest Times to the Present Day Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...Greenwich Hospital is almost always said to be his, witheut a shadow of documentary evidence, merely, apparently, because his son-in-law and pupil, Webb, superintended the execution of it; but it is almost impossible to believe that the architect of Whitehall and Chiswick could have designed anything so clumsy in its details. It has great three-quarter columns running through two storeys, crowned by an ill-proportioned attie, and with great useless pediments shutting up the windows of the upper storey. From its size and position, and the material of which it is built, and, more than this, from the extent to which it has afterwards been added to, the facade of Greenwich Hospital is a grand and imposing mass; but it would bo difficult to point out anywhere in Europe, even during the reign of Henri Quatre, any design that will less bear examination. The model adopted here seems to have been the facade of St. Peter's ut Rome, and it certainly has not been improved upon. Another design which is described to Jones, but which certainly belongs to his son-in-law, is that for Amesbury in Wiltshire, which, theugh considerably more elegant and tasteful than Greenwich, has faults he never would have committed. It is interesting, hewever, as one of the earliest examples of the type on which nine-tenths of the seats of English gentry were afterwards erected; almost all subsequent heuses consisting of a rusticated basement, which contains the dining and business rooms; a bel etage, and a bedroom storey, with atties in the roof. On the basement, and running through the two upper storeys, is the portico--always for ornament, never for use, and generally so badly applied as to be offensively obtrusive. In this instance there are no upper windows under the portico, ...