The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 536, March 3, 1832Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 536, March 3, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
We are the contemporaries of a street-building generation, but the
grand maxim of the nineteenth century, in their management of masonry,
as in almost every thing else, as far as we can discover, appears to
lie in that troublesome line of Macbeth's soliloquy, ending with,
"'twere well it were done quickly." It is notorious that many of the
leases of new dwelling-houses contain a clause against dancing, lest
the premises should suffer from a mazurka, tremble at a gallopade, or
fall prostrate under the inflictions of "the parson's farewell," or
"the wind that shakes the barley." The system of building, or rather
"running up" a house first, and afterwards providing it with a false
exterior, meant to deceive the eye with the semblance of curved stone,
is in itself an absolute abomination. Besides, Greek architecture, so
magnificent when on a large scale, becomes perfectly ridiculous when
applied to a private street-mansion, or a haberdasher's warehouse. St.
Paul's Church, Covent-Garden, is an instance of the unhappy effect
produced by a combination of a similar kind; great in all its parts,
with its original littleness, it very nearly approximates to the
character of a barn. Inigo Jones doubtless desired to erect an edifice
of stately Roman aspect, but he was cramped in his design,
and, therefore, only aspired to make a first-rate barn; so far
unquestionably the great architect has succeeded. Then looking to
those details of London architecture, which appear more peculiarly
connected with the dignity of the nation, what can we say of it,
but that the King of Great Britain is worse lodged than the chief
magistrate of Claris or Zug, while the debates of the most powerful
assembly in the world are carried on in a building, (or, a return to
Westminster Hall,) which will bear no comparison with the Stadthouse
at Amsterdam! The city, however, as a whole, presents a combination of
magnitude and grandeur, which we should in vain look for elsewhere,
although with all its immensity it has not yet realized the quaint
prediction of James the First,--that London would shortly be England,
and England would be London.
_Morning_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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