Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/921

 VILLAS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 897 radiating raised panels are found in the cabinets, and other pieces of furniture, of that time, still extant, which belonged to Cardinal Wolsey. Design XVIII. — A Villa Residence, in the Tudor or Old English Style. 1832. Introductory Remarks. This Design has been contributed by an able and zealous architectural critic, W. H. Leeds, Esq., the stores of whose portfolio evince him to be as proficient with his pencil as with his pen ; and we shall give his observations upon it in his own words ; — " Whatever merit they may possess in themselves, very few published designs are at all satisfactory as regards explanatory description. The greater number, indeed, are lamentably deficient in this respect ; so that the Architect's ideas would be but imperfectly elucidated, by even a more copious graphic illustration than it is usual to give. It very rarely happens (at least in English publications of the class here alluded to) that any notice is taken of the interior of a building ; or, at most, only a general section of it is exhibited, as if the interior of a residence required no other consideration than that of plan alone, nor afforded any scope for the display of taste and invention. This extreme reticence, whether arising from the excess of modesty, or the opposite quality, is not only sufficiently l)rovoking in itself, but tends to deprive architectural works of this class of the interest they might be made to possess ; so that, at present, they have rarely attrac- tions for any save the professional man, or the devoted amateur. It will, perhaps, be said, that a design ought to speak sufficiently clearly for itself, without any assistance from the pen, or interpretation on the part of the Architect. Were every part completely dis- played, this might be the case ; but, even then, the Architect's silence might be a positive injustice towards himself, since, for want of stating his own views, or the circumstances by which he was directed, he may be criticised for not having done what it was out of his power even to aim at ; and, on the other hand, he may obtain no credit for having sur- mounted difficulties which, because they have been felicitously conquered, may not even be suspected to have existed. Besides all this, there are a variety of collateral circum- stances which, although it may not be indispensably necessary that they should be no- ticed, might very properly be pointed out, certainly without in any degree diminishing the interest of the Architect's performance. If the author of a design do not care to ex- plain his own ideas — which, it is to be presumed, he must be better acquainted with than any one else, he can hardly expect that others will take the pains to investigate them very studiously. In an article entitled ' J Visit to Monplaisir' (see Library of the Fine Arts, vols. ii. and iii. ), I lately gave a description, at some length, of an imaginary man- sion. The present Design is far more sober in every respect : there I indulged in rather lavish extravagance of embellishment ; particularly in those favourites of my imagination, tlie four transept galleries, and the ' saloon of the four oriels : ' here, upon a moderate scale, not exceeding that for the residence of a private gentleman of fortune, I have had some regard to ecuiiumy, although greater attention has been had to decoration and effect, than is observable in many houses of much greater extent. By no means does it follow, that embellishment is to be regulated according to the actual size of the struc- ture ; nor is there any reason why architectural elegance should not be aimed at in a private residence, merely because the owner does not keep up an establishment equal to that of a nobleman. There is no province of his art which opens so delightful and varied a field to the Architect ; none which affords him so many captivating combinations as Domestic Architecture, provided he possess any imagination or invention, and be at all at liberty to display them. What my own notions are on this subject may be partly gathered from some hints thrown out in the introductory chapter to Mr. Britton's work entitled ' The Union of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting;' which, together with the greater part of the remaining letterpress, proceeded from my pen. To that publica- tion I must refer those who care to learn more of my opinions on this point. 1833. General Description. The present plan was originally designed for a villa in a very different style of Architecture, namely, the Grecian. It would then have had an advanced but enclosed Ionic portico in the centre, distyle in antis (a portico of two columns, between pilasters), flanked on each side by a lesser colonnade, ex- hibiting a different example of the same order, and raised upon a stylobate (pedestal) concealing sunk areas. The walls behind the columns would, in this case, as a specimen of decoration unusual in this country, have been painted with subjects in fresco ; the space between the walls and these lateral colonnades, which would have been two columns in depth, having skylights so as to protect the paintings from the weather, and yet throw down the light upon them, which would be relieved by the shadow of the inner columns, and that of the soffit. The centre portico would have exhibited quite as striking a deviation from usual practice, inasmuch as the back or inner wall would have risen no higher than the vestibule, so as to admit a view between the antce (pilasters), 5 Ji