Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/909

 1869.] Architect lire A-La-Mode. 741 ARCHITECTURE A-LA-MODE. "TTTE are all more or less desirous for V V change ; and none like to per- petuate anything of our surroundings. Admiration may be carried to the great- est excess when viewing a recently finished structure, but that admiration soon consumes itself, and apathy suc- ceeds it, slowly, but very surely. It is thus that what is termed " Fashion" has its being, and seems undying; for like hereditary monarchy, no sooner does the awaiting herald hear the last respi- ration of one king, than his trumpet in- stantly proclaims the name of his suc- cessor. It is in like manner that Fashion continues on its endless line, and no sooner does the public eye be- gin to weary of the one mode, than another is ever ready to displace it. Fashion pursues its course in a circle, of a pretty distinct diameter. In proof of this assertion, it is easy to trace the returning modes of past centuries in all the freshness acquired by a long recess of retirement from the constant criticism of the public eye, which grows so much the sharper for the lengthened acquaint- ance with its object. Architecture was by our fathers deemed exempt from this variation of public opinion, and the staid and well admeasured symmetry of the good old Greek and Roman orders seemed to them to occupy their position in per- petuity. The Gothic style was by many deemed a piece of charlatanism in Archi- tecture, and, instead of its ordinary name, was termed the grotesque. But those were the days of slow, methodical thinking, and very different indeed from these days of ours. Then a building- commenced was a topic of conversation for some time. Now whole blocks of buildings fail to call forth a remark. Novelty rules the building world, now- a-days, just as much as it does the dress- ing World of Fashion, why then should we wonder to see our Architects labori- ously culling from long-neglected ex- amples of the frivolous designs of gone- b} - ages, those features which two dozen j r ears since were so repugnant to what was then considered to be a true taste ? The much lamented Mr. Welby Pu- gin, some twenty years ago, in his lec- tures on the principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, speaking of houses built in what was called "the castellated style," then fashionable in England, made the following most truth- ful remarks : " What absurdities, what anomalies, what utter contradictions do not the builders of modern castles perpetrate ! How many portcullises which will not lower down, and drawbridges which will not draw up ! How many loop-holes in turrets so small that the most diminu- tive sweep could not ascend them ! On one side of the house machicolated par- apets, embrasures, bastions, and all the show of strong defence, and round the corner of the building a conservatoiy leading to the principal rooms, through which a whole company of horsemen might penetrate at one smash into the very heart of the mansion ! for who would hammer against mailed portals when he could kick his way through the green-house? In such castles we have donjons which are drawing-rooms, watch-towers where the housemaids roost, and a bastion in which the butler cleans his plate !" All this is caustic and well-merited satire on the state of Architectural de- sign in Great Britain at that day, florid volumes of engravings of which have come to us across the Atlantic, but, all honor to our brethren here who failed to follow the absurdity of the a-la-mode Architecture, which sought to regener- ate the feudal reign of the Listy old English barons of the helmet and buckler.