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Read Ebook: The Englishman's House: A Practical Guide for Selecting and Building a House by Richardson C J Charles James
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Ebook has 929 lines and 80502 words, and 19 pages
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 3
DESIGN NO. 1. A GARDENER'S COTTAGE 50
" 2. A SMALL COTTAGE OR LODGE 56
" 3. A PICTURESQUE COTTAGE 62
" 4. A DOUBLE COTTAGE 66
" 5. A DOUBLE COTTAGE AND VILLAGE SUNDAY SCHOOL 70
" 6. A HUNTSMAN'S LODGE OR COTTAGE 78
CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION FOR BUILDING COTTAGES 82
" 7. A GARDEN GATE 95
" 8. A PARK LODGE 99
" 9. A PARK LODGE 102
" 10. AN ENTRANCE LODGE TO A PARK 104
" 11. AN ENTRANCE LODGE AND GATEWAY TO A PARK 112
" 12. A STOVE FOR AN ENTRANCE HALL 120
" 13. QUEEN'S GATE LODGE, HYDE PARK 124
ON THE FOUNDATION AND BASEMENT WALLS OF BUILDINGS, DAMP PREVENTION, AND FIRE-PROOF CONSTRUCTION 151
" 14. A SMALL COUNTRY RECTORY 162
" 15. A SMALL COUNTRY HOUSE 174
" 16. A COUNTRY VILLA 182
" 17. A DOUBLE SUBURBAN VILLA 192
" 18. VILLAGE SCHOOLS AND READING ROOM 208
" 19. A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL AND SCHOOLS 210
" 20. A BATH HOUSE AND SUMMER ROOM 214
" 21. A SMALL COUNTRY VILLA 222
" 22. A VILLA IN THE OLD ENGLISH WOODEN STYLE 232
" 23. A GARDEN SUMMER HOUSE 262
" 24. A SMALL COUNTRY RETREAT, OR FRENCH MAISONETTE 268
" 25. AN ELIZABETHAN VILLA 280
" 26. A SUMMER OR GARDEN VILLA 302
" 27. A DECORATED WINDOW 336
" 28. A SCULPTOR'S VILLA 338
" 29. A GARDEN SEAT 361
" 30. A GARDEN SEAT 368
" 31. AN ICE HOUSE 370
" 32. A SUBURBAN VILLA 373
" 33. A SUBURBAN VILLA 382
" 34. RIDING-HOUSE AND STABLING 389
" 35. A BACHELOR'S HOUSE 401
THE FIREPLACE 404
" 36. A LECTURE HALL, OR LITERARY INSTITUTION 456
" 37. ENCAUSTIC TILES 460
" 38. RESTORATION OF CASTLE GUNNARSTROP, SWEDEN 464
" 39. SUMMER VILLA FOR THE COUNT KINSKI AT TEPLITZ 470
" 40. HARRINGTON HOUSE, QUEEN'S PALACE GARDENS 476
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
ON THE PICTURESQUE IN RELATION TO ARCHITECTURE.
It has been said that a definition of the picturesque in respect to architecture, or indeed any branch of the fine arts, is scarcely possible. The most able writers on the subject have failed to convey an adequate and popular idea. In fact the term has so great and extensive an application as to forbid exact definition. The architect usually considers that if his building look well when seen by moonlight, or through the medium of a foggy or dull atmosphere, it is picturesque, and he is satisfied. Blenheim Castle and Castle Howard have always been pointed out as eminent examples of the picturesque in buildings. But this quality varies with every change of situation and circumstance under which it can be conceived.
The entrance to the Acropolis of Athens, with its noble equestrian statues in the foreground, the steps between them, and the beautiful temples rising at different heights behind, giving a varied outline, the whole probably delicately coloured, must have been picturesque in the highest degree. The Temple of the Winds and the Monument of Lysicrates were equally examples of the picturesque. Yet although great efforts were made on the publication of Athenian Stuart's volumes to introduce pure Grecian architecture here, it has obtained no hold with us. St. Pancras Church, and St. Stephen's, Camden Town, are probably the last specimens in our metropolis. The delicate mouldings of the one are destroyed by the roughness of the climate, and the beautiful figures of the Caryatidae in the other are covered with soot.
There is no doubt that the Roman temples were as picturesque and as varied in outline as the Grecian buildings of which they were studies, but none remain
sufficiently perfect to illustrate them. In their original, entire state, with the surfaces and colour smooth and even, either in painting or reality, they were beautiful; in ruins, there is no denying they are highly picturesque. Observe the process by which time, the great author of such changes works, first by means of weather stains, partial incrustations, mosses, &c., which simultaneously take off the uniformity of surface and of colour, giving a degree of roughness, and variety of tint. Then the various accidents of weather loosen the stones themselves: they tumble in irregular masses upon what was perhaps smooth turf or pavement, or nicely trimmed walks and shrubberies, now mixed and overgrown with wild plants and creepers that crawl over and shoot among the falling ruins. Sedums, wall-flowers, and other plants that bear drought, find nourishment in the decayed cement from which the stones have been detached; birds convey their food into the chinks, and yew, elder, and other berried plants project from the sides; while the ivy mantles over other parts, and crowns the top. The even, regular lines of the doors and windows are broken, and through their ivy-fringed openings is displayed in a highly broken and picturesque manner that striking image described by Virgil:
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