chapter I
am indebted to Mr. Wolfe. He alone aided Sir Charles by encouragement and help, by suggestion and criticism, in the labour of the first conception of the design, and the greater labour of its subsequent development.
[106] He did not regard even Clapham Church as hopeless, as a sketch for a chancel made in his Prayer-book before service can testify. But such sketches were sometimes dangerously artistic, and excited hopes which it was hard to realize.
[107] Thus in the competition for the New Palace at Westminster it was thought highly liberal to offer four premiums of 500_l._ each. In the competition (now going on) for the new Law Courts, each of the selected competitors, some twelve in number, receives 800_l._
[108] It is strange that great builders, who are encircling our chief towns with lines of “villa residences” generally vile in point of architecture, so seldom take the trouble to secure from some good architect a series of designs (to be carried out by themselves), both for the general laying out of a district, and for individual houses. The cost to them, and therefore the increase of rent to tenants, would be trifling, where the work was on a large scale; the gain to the public would be incalculable.
[109] In speaking of this as an advantage, it was, of course, conceived that some provision should be made for the hundreds of people dispossessed. Sir Charles surveyed the district, not without considerable difficulty, and he found that inordinate profits were made out of the misery of its crowded and filthy dens.
[110] At the present time (1866) the site is being cleared of the buildings upon it at a cost roughly estimated at 1,250,000_l._; and designs are being prepared in competition by a limited number of architects for a “Palace of Justice” on a scale of unprecedented magnificence.
[111] The information on this subject is derived from my eldest brother. He adds, “It may be doubted whether any ability of treatment would have made a design perfectly satisfactory, which involved so large a surface of stone wall, unrelieved by windows. But, had this proved to be the case, Sir Charles would certainly have modified it in execution, in the course of that consideration and reconsideration which he invariably bestowed upon his designs.”
[112] It has been already stated that the position of Bridgewater House was fixed in distinct relation to this plan.
[113] I find the first notice of such designs in his Diary for 1843.
[114] See Parliamentary Paper No. 55, Session 1863.
[115] See Parliamentary Paper No. 333, Session 1855.
[116] Mr. Digby Wyatt, whose official connection gave him the opportunity of accurate knowledge in the matter, says: “The section of the columns, with its ingenious provisions for attachment of girders and superposition of other columns, the general proportions and arrangement of the leading parts, and the form of the transept roof (which I saw him sketch on the suggestion of Brunel, that, rather than cut down or exclude the great trees, it would be better to roof them in), were all his.”
[117] M. Hittorf is clearly a strong anti-Gothicist. Whatever praise he gives to the New Palace at Westminster is, as it were, under protest. But the Gothic School of French Architecture were not behindhand in their appreciation of Sir Charles Barry’s works.
[118] I subjoin it, as his last architectural opinion delivered:--
“Protest of the undersigned, a member of the Committee for carrying into effect certain internal alterations and decorations of St. Paul’s Cathedral, in respect of a proposed second organ, and a new screen to the choir, upon the following grounds:--
“1. Because upon æsthetical as well as practical grounds, it is undesirable to have an organ of large dimensions in the south transept.
“2. Because if a second organ be required, it might be erected, not only without any disfigurement of the cathedral, but with advantage to its effect, in a capacious gallery over the western entrance to the nave, where it is considered that an instrument and a choir of sufficient power might be accommodated, and heard with striking effect throughout the cathedral.
“3. Because, owing to the great size of the proposed organ and gallery, &c., it would have the effect of a gigantic piece of furniture out of scale with the building, and tend to destroy the simplicity, harmony, capacity, and grandeur of the interior of the cathedral.
“4. Because, as it is proposed to make use of the marble columns of the old screen to the choir to support the gallery for the proposed organ, the opportunity will be lost of employing those columns (in connexion with certain beautiful iron work, in and about the choir, and no longer required in its present situation), with striking effect and great economy, in the formation of the proposed new screen to the choir of the peculiar character required.
“And lastly. Because if a second organ must be placed in the south transept, the sub-committee have not had sufficient opportunity of duly considering the design of the proposed organ-case, gallery, &c.
“_8th May, 1860._
“CHARLES BARRY.”
[119] He never built himself a house, but wherever he went he carried out his delight in alterations and reconstructions. No house of his was ever quite untouched; and his landlords must have found him a most excellent tenant.
[120] A “Barry Club,” formed and kept up for some years by those who belonged to his office, was a practical evidence of their feelings. It seems almost invidious to single out any one of these, to whose aid he owed so much. But I cannot pass over the name of R. R. Banks, Esq., the head of his office for many years (the years in which the chief work of design was done), and afterwards the partner of my eldest brother. All who know anything of the work then done, know how much it owed to his single-hearted energy, ability, and conscientiousness. And Sir Charles himself was well aware of the warmth of attachment, which animated that
## active and conscientious labour.
[121] One great inventor (a German) passed into a proverb with us. He had some invention which was to cure smoky chimneys, and his favourite declaration was “All men are fools; it is me shall make him (the smoke) go straight high.” But he was only an extreme type of a very numerous class, and he certainly acted as if he believed his preliminary axiom.
[122] Report in ‘Times,’ May 23rd, 1860.
[123] Agreed to, as a matter of course.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
Professsor Airy had=> Professor Airy had {pg 177}
=> {pg}
=> {pg}
=> {pg}
=> {pg}
=> {pg}
=> {pg}
=>