Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/26

 2 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. we may not all at once succeed to our utmost wishes. In ameliorations necessarily involving considerable expense, much cannot be expected to be performed immediately ; yet, by making known the various particulars in which these ameliorations consist, to those who are to derive important benefits from them, we may rest certain, that, sooner or later, they will be effected. The efforts of Architects, in all ages and countries, have hitherto been, for the most part, directed to public buildings, and to the mansions of princes, noblemen, and men of wealth ; and what have hitherto been considered the inferior orders of society, have been, for the most part, left to become their own architects. Hence the tardiness with which the improvements made in the accommodation, arrangement, and exterior beauty of the mansions of the wealthy, have found their way to the dwellings of the poor. The great object of this work is, to show how the dwellings of the whole mass of society may be equalized in point of all essential comforts, conveniences, and beauties. By implanting in the minds of general readers, and especially of the youth of both sexes, some knowledge of the good and bad of Architecture, as an art of Design and Taste, it is evident that this main object will also be promoted. Teach the young what architectural beauty is, and they will admire it; show them how it may be produced in their dwellings, and they will desire to possess it. Whatever is generally and ardently desired, and unremittingly pursued, is certain of being ultimately obtained Independently of the usefulness of the study of Architecture, its pursuit, as a fine art, recommends itself, like the study of painting and sculpture, as a rational source of intellectual entertainment ; easily indulged in, since buildings occur every vs'here, and form one of the principal sources of interest in all towns and cities, and in travelling. The great use of the study of any of the fine arts is, to polish and refine the taste, and divest tlie mind of vulgac and common-place feeling. Architecture is the only fine art open to the inspection of all, and interesting to all ; and could we only succeed in raising the taste of the mass of society in this art, we should not only effect an universal improvement in Architecture, but materially contribute towards the universal adoption of correct and elegant liabits of thinking and acting generally. As the buildings of every country are open to all its inhabitants, it may be asked, why all have not already a correct and elegant taste in this art ? To this we answer, by asking how it happens that all persons have not a correct knowledge of their native language ; or a good taste in written compositions? The truth is, that but a very slight knowledge of any subject can be obtained without studying its first principles. There is a grammar in Architecture which must be taught, no less than the grammar of language ; and when that grammar is mastered empirically, there remains to be acquired the principles of human nature, upon which its rules are founded. It is on Architecture, as founded on these principles, that we chiefly rest our hopes of creating a general taste for the art, and of rendering architectural criticism as common among all classes of society, as the criticism of general literature. " It is not," says a clever architectural writer, (Foreign Quarterly Review, April, 1831,) when advocating the study of Architecture by women, " in order that they may be able to draw columns, for that is merely the means, not the end of the pursuit, that we would suggest the propriety of ladies applying themselves to what has hitherto never been included within the circle of female acquirements; but that they may thereby cultivate their taste, and ground it on something less baseless and shifting than mere feminine likings and dislikings. And when we consider how wide is the province, how influential the authority, which the sex are apt to claim in such matters; how much, in all that regards ornamental furniture and interior embellishments, depends on the refined or trivial taste of our fairer halves ; it must be acknow- ledged that to initiate them into such studies would not be an act of perfect disinterestedness." Independently of its subsequent advantages, the study of the Grammar of Architecture, or, in other words, " the elementary practice of architectural drawing, would be highly bene- ficial to the youthful pupils, inasmuch as it aflfords an immediate application of the simpler principles of geometry ; as it forms the hand to correctness, the eye to a scrupulous examina- tion of forms, and, consec^uently, implants habits of careful deliberation and attention, as well as the seeds of taste." We entirely agree with this writer in his opinions of the influence which women would have on the public taste in Architecture ; believing, as we do, that the improvement which, within the last fifty years, has taken place in landscape gardening, is, in a great measure, owing to the more general adoption of the art of sketching landscapes from nature, as a branch of female education. If the study of landscape drawing, by ladies, has led to the improvement of landscape gardening, why should not the study of architectural drawing, on their part, lead to the improvement of domestic Architecture?