The area for the meeting of the merchants is entered from the west by a colonnade, relieved from the corresponding pilaster 8 feet 6 inches only-those of the Mansion House being 8 feet. This depth is increased in the centre. Laterally-north and souththe Exchange is entered from a single archway, of equal dimensions with the shop fronts. In the interior area, four groups (mentioned above) of columns at either angle, offer an obstruction to the view of the merchants of 11 to 12 feet, so that no man seeking another upon 'Change can be satisfied till he has run round each of those groups. The lateral colonnades are contracted at the ends, and the going (as it is termed) impeded, by an expedient to give depth to that shallowness of the shops we have remarked above, and which, but for this, would be reduced to a tangent. The open portion of the area is entirely upon the plan of the former Exchange, as respects the exposure to weather. The publication of the block plan by its author (of which we have given the reduced copy) enables us to offer these criticisms. He has wisely withheld the upper, or first floor plans, from the public, and we do not venture to notice them further than as respects the apartments of Lloyd's.

In the 'Surveyors' Journal' of last August, Mr Tite has given his western front. This, together with our recollections of the drawings exhibited in Mercers' Hall, and a further view of the interior of the Exchange, published in the same journal for October, will enable us to offer some remarks upon the external architecture.

The western elevation is adorned with a portico, apparently in the proportion of that of the Pantheon at Rome, but about one fifth less (see the preceding plates) than the majestic original. This occupies the entire height of the proposed building, about 70 feet, to the point of the pediment: that of the Mansion House is 66 feet-backed, however, by a building 101 feet high; so, indeed, is the Pantheon backed by a wall 102 feet high; and, finally, the dome of that glorious building is 150 feet high. This portico is raised ten steps (5 feet), in correspondence with a stylobate, which surrounds the building, and is cut in the flanks into pedestals, dividing each shop front. The Bourse of Paris, which Mr Tite has been bold enough to name in comparison with his

* It was objected to the open court of Mr Cockerell, that it suggested the idea of a roof, without giving one. This was really a merit in the design. A meeting of merchants in a damp, humid climate, should always be held under cover, as in the Bourse at Paris, but the instructions of the committee required an open court. Mr Cockerell designed one to which a roof could have been added at any time, without interfering with his original plan.

own, is raised 9 feet on an unbroken stylobate. Mr Tite's friend in the Surveyors' Journal' is so tremblingly aware of the sort of appearance which is likely to be made by the ignoble baldness of the pediment, and want of depth and character in his western front (Mr Tite calls it "plain grandeur," and says he could easily have produced picturesque effects had he chosen, but he did not choose it), that he actually recommends a separate block of building to be run up, to prevent Mr Tite's portico being seen from the westward! We have said, and may say, severe things of his handiwork, but nothing so severe as this! The recommendation is so incredible, though prompted by a friendly and just foresight, that we give it in the very words of Mr Tite's illustrator. After observing that the National Gallery is "but an insipid object" from a distance-which he attributes to the distance, instead of the architect, in that case as in thistheSurveyor' proceeds:

"We are more inclined to deprecate than to advocate the intention of laying the west end of the Exchange entirely open, so as to form a distant architectural object, when the same purpose [nay, the opposite purpose-that, namely, of hiding it] may be more profitably accomplished by building upon the ground now designed to be left a vacant gap, and there erecting, in plainer but elegant style, a range of building whose western point might be rendered sufficiently striking in the view from the Poultry."

Sufficiently screening was the right word.

If we revert to the entourage of the Royal Exchange, which Mr Tite's friend in the Surveyor' proposes, as we have seen, to complete by so considerable, and, we may add, so considerate an addition, we find that, though its neighbour, the Bank, is low, the houses in Cornhill and the surrounding vicinity are seldom less than 55 to 65 feet. The original Exchange, which may be considered to have been a low building, presented a height of 47.6 feet in the general range, independent of its tower and accompaniments, 62 feet and 128 feet, which compensated in this respect, and marked the public nature of the building. In respect of the essential quality of height, there is nothing in the new elevation which can impose. Chimney-shafts eke out this desideratum and are made to play the part of ornament above the pediment, and in lieu of those sculptures which it should contain. As the plate in Taylor and Cresy's 'Rome,' so is Mr Tite's elevation. The reader, however, who recalls to mind the glorious original, by a Roman individual (see plan to the same scale), will be shocked when he compares the humble imitation which the metropolis of this empire is about to adorn

itself with-boasting such a type as Marcus Agrippa has left us, and to show how far nineteen centuries have improved upon the taste and grandeur of Augustan antiquity. But what will be his astonishment when he finds those noble niches, in which the colossal statues of Augustus and Agrippa reposed, turned into Venetian windows, comprehending the whole height of the order, and of the three floors, and those Venetian windows, occupying the two intercolumnia, and intersected, therefore, by the second column of the portico, at the distance of 9 feet only! Mr Tite has better employed his business hours than in visiting the original, or he would have remembered that a similar displeasing effect can never arise to the spectator of that noble work, the distance of the niche being upwards of 40 feet from the columns in front of it. Even the flat portico of the Mansion House may be regarded as deep in proportion, the extent of the front considered: that of the Post Office is delineated in the preceding plates to the same scale, and the reader may judge the contrast.

On viewing the angles of the north and south, the incongruity of the ordonnance of the two fronts will be apparent; this has been studiously concealed in the Surveyor's' view; but we give on the following page a sketch of it. These flanks are to contain a ground floor, entresol, and first floor. If the reader will then carry these through, he will perceive that he must subdivide the Venetian window, and conceal the section of those floors by ground-glass, copper bars, and other usual expedients. How will these accommodate themselves to the interior apartments?

But an equally important observation occurs at this angle, which Mr Cockerell laboured to explain in his report, but which only the prophetic eye of taste, and a knowledge of perspective, can properly appreciate, namely, the discordance of the planes of the flanks with the planes of the sides of the rectangular portico, exhibited in the lines d, e, d, f. Such cases require great skill, and may sometimes be artfully concealed. Many buildings of importance, and great apparent regularity, are not, in fact, rectangular, of which the Grimani Palace, one of the most renowned works of San Michele, is a signal example. But when the two angles, as in this design, are athwart the leading lines upon the eye, juxtaposition will be fatal to all decent perspective effect.

However

66

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures
Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus."

Common eyes (not common councillors') will be sufficient to judge the discrepancy.

The application of a portico to the west front of the Exchange was magnificently carried out by Mr Donaldson, and expressed in drawings which were amongst the most delicate and beautiful of the exhibition in Mercers' Hall. That gentleman had, however, given two intercolumniations at the side, and added to the depth of the centre by a receding pronaos, which also Mr Tite has taken and degraded as usual. The objection we are speaking of (to be well appreciated in a model of good size, or in the final execution only) was skilfully evaded in Mr Donaldson's perspective view; but would be fatal to the effect of a portico, projecting in rectangular direction from a plane, having an obtuse angle in juxtaposition, challenging the eye so conspicuously.

It was, we think, conclusive against the application of such a portico. The piracy reminds us of an analogous and a technical case.

A hodman, tempted by a bird's-eye view of a large lead flat on a neighbouring and empty house, took advantage of a dark night to roll up these tempting sheets in a neat form, and to throw them over the parapet into the street, where a colleague was prepared with a truck to convey away the spoils. By a slight mistake, he had involved his coat-tail in this compact enrolment, so that when the weighty prize was heaved over the parapet into the street, the hodman followed-the punishment labelled to the crime. Mr Tite has made this slight mistake, and retribution will no less follow. But the application of a temple front of close-set columns to the mart of commercial exchange, in which vast space, openness, and free view are essential, appears to us altogether a misapplication. Character is in no sort consulted -the portico of a temple cannot be equally appropriate to the entrance of every edifice, sacred or profane.

Continuing our observation of the flanks, we are struck with the flatness of a range of pilasters, 255 feet in extent, pierced with niches for flat shops, and standing stilted upon isolated pedestals. We have already remarked upon the sacrifice of ground made, and in Mr Tite's description the reason is here given, viz., that he may obtain those long unbroken lines, of which Mr Barry (lugged in very flatteringly, head and shoulders), has shown the example in his new Reform Club-house. That club-house exceeds 100 feet by very little; the merit of 255 feet is, therefore, comparatively the greater.

The shopocracy will be splendidly and truly represented in eighteen continuous arches, as unsubstantial in depth as obtrusive in prominence. The two westernmost will be 12 feet in front, by 7 and 5 feet deep; the centre of these is to form the opening into the exchange, and, unless marked by a sign or a bush, will be undistinguished from its shop-window compeers. Above the entablature we remark a low attic, crowded with small figures in high relief, the only sculpture in the front. prototype of this arrangement may be remembered by those who are old enough as having decorated the new Custom House, put up by Mr Tite's master in architecture, Mr Laing, which the good sense of those who directed the reparations of that notable architectural failure removed altogether.

The

We approach the south-east and north-east circular angles, in which Mr Tite is bold enough to re-establish by his authority an exploded system of building, namely, the use of semi-circular arches in a circular plane, contrary to all principles of mathematics and of reason.

VOL. XXXV. No. I.

G