Reviews.
First Additional Supplement to the Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.ByJ. C. Loudon, F.L.S., &c. London: Longman and Co.
It was said by theTimes, of the Encyclopædia to which this is a supplement, that “no single work had ever effected so much in improving the arrangement and the external appearance of country dwellings, generally,” and nothing that was ever said by that influential journal had in it greater truth. We scruple not to go out of our way to subscribe in full to this opinion. And we say more, that no man living has ever laboured more assiduously, generously, and usefully, to effect every practical improvement in the building art, than our good and worthy friend Mr. Loudon.
And why should we scruple or be ashamed to confess the strength of our partialities for one of whom we entertain such an opinion? It may be said,—but no! we will not do any man the injustice to suppose that he will say any thing in disparagement of our motives, and certainly none will be so ungrateful as to undervalue the honest disinterestedness of our friend. See him, read his works, and if any one after that retires with a feeling of less reverential respect than our own, we will give him license to bate us for a partiality of an over-measured and unfair amount.
What if he has put at our service in the Precursor Number and in this review the choice of those pleasing illustrations that adorn his works? We point to these as additional proofs of his title to the respect and esteem of our readers. He was influenced, we know fullwell, by that same generous purpose which has sustained him through life, which has made him to triumph over physical difficulties and to stand now a living, and to be a memorable instance of the supremacy of mental over material power. He will pardon us, if in the honest excess of our gratitude on personal grounds, but much more in our humble capacity as of the “craft” for whom he has so well laboured—a gratitude which took possession of our minds through the reading of his works long before we knew him—he will pardon us, if, unrestrained by a sense of the little pain we may cause him on the one hand, we thus tender to him that which we are assured, will on the other be acceptable—our honest and undisguised, but feeble expression of grateful esteem.
As we profess to teach not so much by criticisms, which after all can have but little weight, or at any rate little more than the opinion of an individual, and when delivered with an air of authority that the test of inquiry would dissipate, only make criticism ridiculous, and confirms error; as we teach not so much by criticisms as by joining in the commendations of generally acknowledged good; and as every one who has travelled on the North Midland Railway has acknowledged, that the station-buildings on that line have more of the picturesque and attractive than any thing of the kind on our other railways, we have a pleasure in transferring from Mr. Loudon’s Supplement the accompanying elevation of “a cottage in the style of the Ambergate Railway Station,” by Mr. Francis Thompson, who was also the architect of that station, and it will readily be admitted that there is a meritoriousness which entitles this design to the regard which that gentleman’s other works have obtained.
The next selection which we make is a design, by Mr. E. B. Lamb, of “the Keeper’s Lodge at Bluberhouses,” which, it appears, was built, with some slight variations, for Sir F. R. Russell, Bart., on his estate of Thirkleby Park, Thirsk, Yorkshire.
In Mr. Loudon’s text there are some judicious remarks on the elevations; the construction is also described, and plans likewise given, as indeed with all the designs, both of this supplement and its parent or precursor volume. The supplement alone contains nearly 300 engravings.
The next design is also by Mr. Lamb, and is one out of a number of “small villas in the Gothic style,” originally intended to be built near Gravesend. We have not space to transfer Mr. Loudon’s critique, and are precluded by the rule we have laid down from any observations of our own.
In a future number it is our intention to return to this subject, and, in connection with the question of the improvement of labourers’ and workmen’s dwelling houses, several plans for which are now before us, we shall have the assistance of Mr. Loudon’s matured lucubrations, as given in the Encyclopædia and the Supplement.