"In the case of the larger trees, of which they made use, it is by no means hard to imagine, how-by affixing to the tops and bases of them pieces of plank of a more solid and massive make, and placing upon them cornices consisting of but few members; and, in the case of the more slender trees, doing the exact contrary—it is, I repeat, by no means hard to imagine, how they would arrive at a sort of rough sketch of the two principal orders -the Doric and Corinthian. Such a supposition, at least, has probability enough on its side; whereas there is something rather too far fetched in that other hypothesis, which would refer the origin of the three orders of architecture to an attempt to impart to different structures the robust form of the man*, the slender make of the woman, and the delicate proportions of the girl.

"In the same manner may we suppose, that it was the inequalities and roughnesses in the bark of trees, and not the folds of the female dress, that first suggested the fluted columnt.

* De Chambre asserts, that the Doric column is after the model of a strong man, who is constantly represented bare-footed. He also observes, that the base to a column is the same as a shoe to a man, and therefore censures the use of a base as improper and unchaste. Le Clerc admits, that the most ancient specimens are without bases; though he considers it difficult to assign any good reason for it. “But I must own (says he) I cannot consider a column without a base, in comparing it to a man, but I am at the same time struck with the idea of a person without feet rather than shoes."

+ It was from accidentally seeing a basket encircled with the leaves of the acanthus, that Callimachus first took his idea of the Corinthian capital. (Vitruv. Lib. iv. c. 1.)

"From the tree also, or its various parts, it was that architects borrowed the foliage, the rosettes, the festoons, and other similar ornaments with which they decorated their edifices-edifices which, in progress of time, were brought to that pitch of sumptuousness and elegance which still extorts our admiration in the remains of antiquity."

But to return:-The great fault of the architecture of modern Rome is its want of simplicity, and excess of ornament; nor is it too much to say, "that, in all the experiments the Romans have made in architecture, they have never yet hit even upon a moderately good design for the outside of a church." To the churches it is justly objected, that, though the Greek orders are invariably introduced, they are employed in false fronts, rising into two stages of columns, while the interior consists but of one; that a false pediment, shooting up to an immoderate height above the ridge of their tiled roof, leads to certain disappointment when you enter; and that their aisles shelving out under the side windows, give rise to a series of connected faults-to the adoption of two orders in front, which make the façade

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a splendid lie+"-to the extension of the lower order beyond the upper for the purpose of covering the aislesand to the introduction of two huge reversed consoles.

• Woods.

Il fare la facciata di un tempio, che dentro sia di un ordine solo, compartita in due ordini-viene con ciò ad accusare se medesima di falsità. Algarotti, Saggio sopra l'Architettura.

resembling ears, on each flank of the upper order, for the purpose of palliating the inequality between that and the lower one. Such are the consequences of that fondness for "fronts, where most columns can be stuck and most angles projected.”

THE PALACES of Rome, though from their magnitude they contribute not a little to that general air of magnificence which pervades the city, are not exempt from faults in the details. It is objected to them, that they are built rather for the spectator than for the tenant; that, hence, the elevation is more studied than the plan; that some are mere fronts, so crowded with stories as to suggest the idea of a lodging-house rather than the residence of a prince; that, where different orders are piled in front a matter of rare occurrence- their natural

succession is seldom observed, and is sometimes actually reversed; and that the gateway with its balcony and its superstructure, generally forms an architectural picture at variance with the style of the palace, and breaks its front into unconnected parts. But after all, their very magnitude covers a multitude of sins, and "however they may be abused as extravagant, absurd, or preposterous, they at least avoid the greatest fault a building can have, that of being mean and paltry*."

Wherever the palace forms a court, the porticos below are composed of arches resting on single columns, or else on coupled columns, like those of the Borghese

• Woods.

Palace.

"This jumble of arcade and colonnade," says Forsyth," of two architectures different even in origin, was unknown to the ancients, and crept first into the basilical churches from economy in building, and from a command of ancient columns."

In the internal distribution of the building, the picturesque has been more studied than the comfortable. "On entering the palace," observes the same writer, "you meet a staircase of unexpected grandeur, usurping perhaps more than its proportion of the interior, but tending both to expand and to ventilate the mansion. A few flights, straight, easy, and wide, but sometimes tremendously long, lead to the Sala. From this great hall, when it occupies the middle of the first floor, you command the palace in different directions, and can pierce it at a glance through lengthening files of marble door-posts."

"THE VILLAS are to this day the 'ocelli Italiæ.' Their casinos generally stand to advantage in the park. Light, gay, airy, fanciful, they seem to court that load of ornament to which all architecture must here submit. Some of their fronts are coated with ancient relievos, and their porticos composed of ancient columns. The Belvedere above is often a blot in the symmetry, an excrescence too conspicuous; a hut stuck upon a housetop, and seldom in the middle."

FOUNTAINS.-The magnificent vases in front of St. Peter's and the Farnese Palace, are, owing to their sim

plicity, much safer from criticism than Bernini's creation in the Piazza Navona, which, to use Forsyth's expression," affects puzzling conceits, and looks like a fable of Æsop done into stone. The sculpture of Trevi is another pompous confusion of fable and fact, gods and ediles, aqueducts and sea-monsters; but the rock work is grand, proportioned to the stream of water, and a fit basement for such architecture as a castel d'acqua' required— not for the frittered Corinthian which we find there. The design of Termini- Moses striking water from the rock-if better executed, would be more appropriate to this seat of religion, more simple and sublime than any. The Acqua Paola derives all its effect from the volumes of water; for its elevation is poor, and absurdly imitates the gable of a church."