PREFACE. HE SUBJECT OF ARCHITECTURE is one which, owing to its vastness, it is impos sible to treat with full justice in any one work. The different styles are almost as numerous as the nations of the globe, each country having to judge of its requirements, its climate, and the materials for building produced. A detailed account of all is therefore impossible; and as the size and intention of the present volume is such as to preclude even the mention of all styles of Architecture, those prevailing in Europe, and more especially in our own country, will alone be described. The external and internal decoration of public buildings must tend much to elevate the public taste. The impression produced in foreign countries even on the common mind, by constant association with works of true art, tends much to raise the standard of the intellect, and it is believed that the same associations would produce the same impressions on the people of this country. Time was when our own countrymen stood among the foremost in architectural skill, as the remains of our glorious abbeys and cathedrals still testify; and it is hoped that a proper training exercised upon the young mind may enable future generations to appreciate more exactly all noble works of art. Mr. Parker,* whose works have done so much to direct the attention of the public mind to the study of Architecture, has recently remarked: Unfortunately the leading facts of the history of Architecture are unknown to the greater part of our educated classes; well informed as they are on most subjects, they have never given their attention to this. They have travelled much, but with their eyes shut in this matter for want of a little preliminary information. Our schoolmasters are, as a rule, entirely ignorant of the subject, and they cannot teach what they do not know. The words of Professor Goldwin Smith should be dinned into the ears of every schoolmaster in England: "The buildings of every nation are an important part of the history of that nation, and a part that has been entirely neglected by all historians, because the historians themselves have been entirely ignorant of the subject. Why are they ignorant of it? Because the subject has never formed part of the English school education as it ought to do. Happily a change has begun, but it makes slow progress at present. It has begun in the first class ladies' schools, and it is now a good test whether a young lady *Vice-President of the Oxford Architectural Society. has been educated in a first class school or not, to see whether she knows anything of the history of Architecture In the present work I have endeavoured to supply a want that has long been felt, by the preparation of a textbook for the preliminary education of the student. I have been especially anxious to point out the real and essential distinctions to be observed in the various styles of Architecture, which are mainly caused not only by the difference of principle on which the style is based, but also by the system of ornamentation adopted to decorate that style; and, throughout, my aim has been to enable the student to test the theories put forth on the growth of successive styles by a plain statement of facts aided by illustrations of existing examples, showing that the development of styles is not an arbitrary and irregular process, but a gradual growth, which may be traced with scientific minuteness and completeness, and holding to the position that there is a scientific connexion between the several stages of all Architectural styles. To this is appended a Glossary explaining briefly the meanings of above 600 technical terms, which the student is likely to meet with in pursuing his study. I need scarcely say that the student, after he has gone through this little book, will yet have much to learn, more especially about the Romanesque styles of Germany, Lombardy, Normandy, Aquitaine, and France, &c., and their development into the various continental Gothic styles; but I venture to hope that the perusal of this manual will at least lead on to further study, and that nothing here advanced will have to be then unlearnt. An apology may perhaps be due from an amateur for attempting so much; and this, I hope, will be accepted, together with the assurance that the work has had the benefit of the revision of three professional gentlemen eminently qualified for that purpose, to whom I gratefully proffer my sincerest thanks. The principal authorities quoted or referred to are: Freeman's History of Architecture,' Fergusson's History of Architecture,' the Articles on Architecture in the 'Edinburgh Review,' Stuart and Revett's 'Antiquities of Athens,' Gwilt's 'Encyclopedia of Architecture,' edited by Wyatt Papworth; Bloxam's Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture elucidated,' and Nicholson's 'Principles.' Many of the illustrations are engraved expressly for this work from Nicholson, Britton, and Bloxam, and the Oxford Glossary, and the rest are from Gwilt's Encyclopedia. May 1870. T. M. |