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ARCH ITECTURE
obvious that there are serious flaws in it. Morris’s idea that mediaeval architecture alone was worthy the name, we may, of course, dismiss at once; it was the prejudice of a man of genius whose sympathies, both in matters social and artistic, were narrow. Nor can we regard the mediaeval cathedrals as artisan’s architecture. The name of “architect” may have been unknown, but that the personage was present in some guise, the very individuality and variety of our English cathedrals attest. Peterborough front was no mere mason’s conception.
Fig. 3.—American Type of Country-house Architecture. And when we come to consider modern conditions of building, it is perfectly obvious that with the complicated practical requirements of modern building, in regard to planning, heating, ventilation, Ac., the planning of the whole in a complete set of drawings, before the building is begun, is an absolute necessity. We are no longer in mediaeval times; modern conditions require the modern architect. The real cause of failure, as far as modern architecture is a failure, lies partly in the fact that it is practised too much as a profession or business, too little as an art; partly in the deadening
Fig. 4.—American Seaside Villa. {Bruce Price.) effect of public indifference to art in Britain. If the public really desired great and impressive works of architecture they would have them; but neither the British public, nor its mouthpiece the Government, care anything about it. Their highest ambition is to get convenient and economical buildings. And as to the theory of the new school, that we should throw overboard all precedent in architectural detail, that is intellectually impossible. We are not made so that we can invent everything de novo, or escape the effect on our minds of what has preceded us ; the attempt can only lead to baldness or eccentricity. Every great style
of architecture of the past has, in fact, been evolved from' the detail of preceding styles; and some of the ablest and most earnest architects of the present day are, indeed, urging the desirability of clinging to traditional forms in regard to detail, as a means of maintaining the continuity of the art. This does not by any means imply the absence of original architecture; there is scope for endless origination in the plan and the general design of a building. The Westminster Houses of Parliament (one of the greatest buildings of modern times), is a prominent example. The detail is a reproduction of Tudor detail, forced upon the architect by order of the Government; the plan and the general conception are absolutely original, and resemble those of no other pre-existing building in the world. It is necessary to take account of all these movements of opinion and principle in English architecture to apIn the preciate properly its position United and prospects at the time with States. which we are here dealing. Turning noV from England to the United States, which, as already observed, is the only other important country in which there has been a general new movement in architecture, we find, singular to say, that the course of development has in America been almost the reverse of what has taken place in England. The rapidity of architectural development in America, it may be observed, during the last quarter of a century, has been something astonishing; there is no parallel to it anywhere else. Some thirty years ago, or even less, the currently accepted architecture of the American Republic was little more than a bad repetition of the English Gothic and Classic types of revived architecture. At the present day no nation, except perhaps France, takes so keen an interest in architecture and produces so many noteworthy buildings ; and it may be observed that in the States the public and the official authorities seem really to have some enthusiasm on the subject, and to desire fine buildings. But the stirring of the dry bones began in America where it ended in England. The first symptoms of an original spirit operating in American architecture showed themselves in domestic architecture, in town and country houses, the latter especially; and the form which the movement took was a desire to escape conventional architectural detail and to return to the simplest form of mere building ; rock-faced masonry, sometimes of materials picked up on the site; chimneys which were plain shafts of masonry or brickwork; woodwork simply hewn and squared; but the whole arranged with a view to picturesque effect (Figs. 3 and 4). This form of American house became an incident in the course of modern architecture; it even had a recognizable influence on English architects. About the same time an impetus of a more special nature was given to American architecture by a man of genius, the late H. H. Richardson, who, falling back on Romanesque and Byzantine types of architecture as a somewhat unworked field, evolved from them a type of architectural treatment so distinctly his own (though its origines were of course quite traceable) that he came very near the credit of having personally invented a style; at all events he invented a manner, which was so largely admired and imitated that for some ten or fifteen
