p. 211. and condemning Grecian and every other kind of architecture that requires any degree of uniformity. The subsequent passage exhibits a specimen of his mode of reasoning on the subject:

When we look back a few centuries, and compare the habits of former times with those of the present, we shall be apt to wonder at the presumption of any person who shall propose to build a house that may suit the next generation. Who, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, would have planned a library, a music room, a billiardroom, or a conservatory? Yet these are now deemed essential to comfort and magnificence: perhaps, in future ages, new rooms for new purposes will be deemed equally necessary. But to a house of perfect symmetry these can never be added.'

Where does Mr. Repton begin his so much extolled irregularity for a beginning it must have. Is it a small slip; or is it a corner of the building, taking in several windows each way? and by what rule does he determine the quantity of this regular beginning of his irregular design?

With regard to the inefficacy of forming the dwelling to the character of the grounds and plantations, we request Mr. R. to recollect the unsuccessful attempts in his former publication respecting particular kinds of trees as adapted to harmonize with the house. Commendable pains have been taken to investigate the beauties of nature in land scenes: but contracted minds have thus been led to confound them with objects of a distinct kind, in not discriminating between the operations of nature and the productions of art; and in consequence of this inattention, they have lost sight of the great beauty resulting from variety and contrast, which arises from each maintaining its proper character. The importance of an edifice is lost in assimilating its forms with those of the productions of another kind; and the whole is thus involved in one confused mass. When the subject of a dwelling has been admitted into these essays on landscape gardening, we find it almost invariably adapted to the introduction of some imaginary picturesque building, conveying very little idea of any useful application of it. The purpose of a house is of the first consideration, which should not be sacrificed to any ideal fancies; and whatever does not bespeak this design cannot be right, but is an affectation of taste which offends as soon as the falsity is discovered. Nothing has been more productive of absurdities, than some late ideas of constructing the exterior of the building in conformity, as it has been thought, with the nature of the place; as, in the instance of a building near the termination of a valley somewhat like a dell, it has been judged necessary, for picturesque beauty, to erect for a dwelling a round tower with battlement roofs, an open porch,

and

and an outside cloister. Here the internal conveniences are completely sacrificed to external appearances; which, besides their incongruity, produce an absurdity in a tower with a top which is open to be pelted from the almost contiguous hills. This must ever be the result where an imitation, instead of the intended application of the building, is the object in view.We cannot view the remains of antient magnificent edifices, without associating some idea of the purpose for which they were erected; and we are thus led to a train of thought which pleasingly employs the mind in tracing the habits and customs of our venerated ancestors. All this pleasure, however, is annihilated when a building does not accord with the manners and customs of the time of its construction. It soon becomes an object of ridicule on account of the great waste of expence and labour, and is strongly characterized by the vulgar epithet of such-an-one's Folly.

The forms of buildings for use cannot be assimilated with those of wild nature, to produce the same picturesque appearance; since there is a wide distance between the unbounded maze of nature's productions, and the confined operations of art. The beauty resulting from each depends on their different conformations. Many of the bold features of nature are occasioned by convulsive eruptions; and the sublime masses, which ponderously overhang their bases, cannot be imitated, because we are not able to produce the necessary, and to us inexpli cable, force of adhesion. These effects, as if intended for only a temporary exhibition, are continually wearing down, seeking one general level. The pyramidal shapes, so produced, with their extensive bases, are but ill suited for the imitation of man in the short period of his existence; since they require the employment of so much labour, in the accumulation of a great pile of materials disproportionate to the contracted space afforded within. The vegetable kingdom also displays an endless variety in its pendant forms, which cannot be imitated without a like provision of fibrous continuations. The corporeal powers of man being thus limited, his intellectual faculties are called into action; and raising the edifice on principles deduced from the laws of statics*, he is enabled to obtain the proposed convenience without an extravagant waste of labour and materials. The character and beauty attached to buildings depend

*For the benefit of those who discuss the subject of architectural construction without having duly studied it, statics, or the laws of the equilibrium of matter when at rest, may be described to be a knowlege of those circumstances by which the parts of a building will remain in their place,

on the arrangement of the materials, on the forms produced for the purpose of giving due strength, and on their being placed in economical order. It is of a distinctive kind so long as it can be viewed as a creation of art and as an object of utility. After continued neglect of artificial objects, nature seems to claim them for her own, and clothes them in her mantle; and by giving them her sportive forms, she unfits them for the original destination. The characteristic of a building therefore depends not only on the constructive principles, but also on the attention to its preservation. An old building, part of which has fallen and left an irregular line, low at one end and high like a steeple at the other, may be picturesque and pleasing from its curious and romantic forms, as a ruin; and the interest is increased by the expected fall of some of the remains which surprizingly retain their situation from day to day :-but can the same pleasure be derived from the same source in a building destined to protect all that shall be within it? Can a person repose, and be pleased, because an interest is excited in the expected fall of a mass which may crush him to atoms? Nothing but ignorance of the danger can render him contented in such a situation. The beauty of architecture must be of a different kind to be pleasing; and from it results uniformity and order: that is, parts supporting and ballancing each other, and satisfying the spectator or the occupier by an apparent as well as a real security.

Is it reasonable that a mansion should form part of a wild scene, as if neglected, or consigned to the accommodation of paupers, for whose reception some additions have been charitably made to the building? Is it not more consonant to sound sense, that it should correspond with the wealth of its proprietor, by all the parts appearing to be strictly appropriate to the destined purpose; and by the grounds, as they approach the house, being worked up to a regularity that may add to its consequence, testifying the owner's ability, marking his attention to convenience and order, and exhibiting a due gradation from art to nature ?

Chapters 13 and 14 detail some examples, with the author's observations on them.

Chapter 15, which concludes the book, contains some curious remarks on colours and shadows, furnished by Dr. Milner; and which, though not altogether new, may be usefully consulted in painting. The harmonic triangle, there exhibited, has been adopted some years in practice: but a satisfactory account of quantity in colours is still wanting.

Our readers will have perceived that we regard this work as of considerable importance; and however we may differ

with Mr. Repton on other subjects, that part of it which treats of landscape gardening, and which is the main object of public attention in it, obtains our decided approbation. A great portion is occupied in the display of ingenious contrivances to overcome local defects, which cannot be satisfactorily described without referring to the plates. In the management of landscape scenery and the situation of objects, Mr. R. has been particularly successful; and if he has not established fixed. principles on landscape gardening, he has at least furnished materials from which the diligent inquirer may collect ample store, and turn them to good account.

The volume is elegantly printed, and enriched with numerous plates, beautifully coloured, and ingeniously contrived to illus trate, by slides, the original state and proposed improvements of the different places in which the author's abilities have been most fortunately employed.

ART. III. Observations made at Paris during the Peace; and Remarks in a Tour from London to Paris through Picardy, and to England by the Route of Normandy; containing a full Description of every Object of Curiosity in the French Metropolis and its Environs; a Critical Review of the Theatres, Actors &c. and every interesting particular that may serve as a useful Companion to the Stranger, and amuse the Mind of the Curious and Scientific. By Edmund John Eyre, formerly of Pembroke Hall, Cam. bridge, now of the Theatres- Royal, Bath and Bristol. 8vo. PP. 393. 108. 6d. Boards. Robinsons. 1803.

ACTUATED by a curiosity which was very general, Mr. Evre

Saun.

availed himself of the interval of peace to visit the French metropolis, and, like other travellers to the same spot at the same period, has presented the public with the result of his observations. Having, however, been prevented (to use the word in its old acceptation) in his undertaking, the journal before us will be found to possess little novelty: yet, as he professes to give the most accurate account of his tour into France,' and as a comparison of different statements may be coveted by the attentive reader, this volume may win its way together with its several competrs. Mr. Eyre classes himself among inquisitive travellers: but, as all tourists claim this character, the designation is not sufficiently discriminating. He might have termed himself the cheap traveller; for his object seems to have been (and we applaud his good sense in this respect) not to squander away money with idle profusion, but to obtain gratification at a moderate expence; and to shew to his countrymen for how small a sum, with prudent management, the journey to and.

A a 4

from

from Paris, with a month's residence there, might be accom plished. A common vehicle was his conveyance; the journey in which, with his passport and every expence on the road, cost him from London to Paris, by way of Calais, 12/. 45. 10d. and the return from Paris to London, by Rouen, Dieppe, and Brighton, 71. 35. ; so that the whole tour was performed for 171. 75. 10d.; and as Mr. Eyre's expences at Paris, including board, lodging, washing, coach-hire, and all public and private exhibitions, spectacles, &c. were four guineas per week,' for which he had every pleasure and comfort that reason and moderation could possibly desire,' and he remained there a whole month, the whole charge of the excursion amounted to no more than 34. 35. 10d. Unfortunately choosing for this tour the months of July and August, during which the heat at Paris is very intense and oppressive, Mr. Eyre's pleasure and amusement were considerably abated: he agrees, therefore, with other travellers, in cautioning his countrymen, who may hereafter visit this city, to avoid these months; and he offers it as his opinion that three weeks are sufficient for a person to visit and examine every place worthy of notice,—adding that, when curiosity is satisfied, Paris has but few comforts for a stranger.'

As this traveller did not quit his native soil with any view of being introduced to Parisian society, but for the sole purpose of seeing the Paris lions, the reader will do him the justice to expect from him merely an account of objects of ordinary attraction; and, as he appears to have made the most of his time, few things of this kind have escaped his attention. The stages from Calais to Paris are regularly marked, the fruit of every day's ramble is noted down, and the prices of admission to every theatre and spectacle at Paris are carefully inserted. After Mr. Eyre's profession of reverence for truth, and his marked aversion for the character of the lying traveller, we cannot suspect him of fiction and imaginary adventure; yet the story of the poor blind soldier,' belonging to the Hopital des Invalides, is very improbable in some of its parts; and, if it were actually related, it must have been for the purpose of exercising the Englishman's credulity.

An objection, however, must certainly lie against this journal, on account of the incorrectness of its composition and typography; of which we have met with more instances than it would be convenient for us to specify. We have species for specie; Ionic, Corinthian, Composite and Attic, for the enumeration of the orders of architecture; Ruben for Rubens; in which was inserted our names;'-' the people are doomed to grasp at what is beyond their reach and never can possess ;’— 'the