WILLIAMS' BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF Eminent WelshMEN.-Parts V. to IX.-Five parts of this valuable book of reference are now lying on our table, and bring us far on the way towards the completion of so interesting a work. work. The biographical notices contained in them, succinct as usual, are characterized by the author's habitual accuracy, and, as far as we can judge, omit no particulars worthy of note. It is no small merit in a book to be brief, if brevity be not attained at the expense of information; and this is precisely one of the main excellencies of Mr. Williams' writings. In the present number will be found the lives of many eminent Welshmen, of whose names the following are a sample:-Owen Glyndwr, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Judge Jeffreys, Iestyn ab Gwrgant, Jones of Llanddowror, cum multis aliis, St. Illtyd, Edward and Humphrey Llwyd, Llywarch Hen, all the Llywelyns, Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, Beau Nash, General Nott, and no end of Owains.

THE ENGLISH AND WELSH DICTIONARY, by the Rev. D. S. Evans, has now reached its sixth part, and maintains its place, as it well deserves, in public estimation. The scientific terms are rendered into Welsh in this work with far greater care and skill than has been hitherto attempted, and a large portion of them are altogether new. We have no doubt that Mr. Evans's work will be considered one of our standard works of reference.

BOUTELL'S MONUMENTAL BRASSES OF ENGLAND.-The 12th number of this admirable book is now published, and completes the work. It is not inferior to any of its predecessors; and it contains, besides seventeen plates, the descriptive notices, with classified and topographical lists of the various monuments. The plates in this number, as indeed throughout all the work, are curious instances of the great facility with which wood engraving, in the hands of an intelligent artist like Mr. Utting, may be applied to objects of this nature. The whole book forms a copious repertory of brasses of all kinds, and will make its way into the collections of all antiquarians.

VESTIGES OF OLD LONDON.-This is the tempting title of a series of views and descriptions of the remarkable monuments of London, of all dates, principally taken from the large collection of drawings made by W. Twopeny, Esq.-a most accomplished antiquary. It is coming out in quarterly parts, six shillings each, at Bogue's in Fleet Street. We heartily wish it success, and should like to see appearing "Vestiges of Old Chester," "Vestiges of Old Caernarvon," "Vestiges of Old St. David's" -in fact, of all and every old town and corner of the land.

Reviews.

A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE.

By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A.,

late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. London, 1849. THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE. BY JOHN RUSKIN, Author of "Modern Painters." London, 1849.

The past year has contributed two most valuable additions to the literature of art. Differing widely, as well in points of detail as in their general scope and tendency, they completely agree in this, that they treat architecture as a branch of "high art," ignoring alike ecclesiologists and archæologists-pokers in holes and corners, and diggers and delvers after pagan pots and pans-to whose domain it had unhappily been relegated, and regarding it as what it is in truth, a reflection of the imaginative faculty in man, and, as such, to be studied with the same views and principles as regulate the study of music, painting, and sculpture, of poetry itself, and-as our fair readers will be disposed to add, not without the authority of the Stagyrite of the gai science of Terpsichore. It is true that we antiquaries have nothing to do with this side of the subject; we care more to determine the date of Coutances, than to draw out the central principle which animated its builders; we prize more highly the driest records of the erection of Rouen, than the most elaborate discussion of the utmost degree of "realization" which could be conceded to the scores of grotesques that decorate its portal. Still, as long as architecture is an important part of archaeology-which it must surely be while stone and timber are lasting materials-any work professing to treat of it, must fall so far within our proper province. Mr. Freeman's History, indeed, does so in a special manner, by virtue of its historical character. Its principal object is to trace the progress and actual development of the art from the wooden hut, supposed by the author to be the parent of the earliest Grecian style, to the latest specimens of Perpendicular or Palladian. The grotesque and barbaric magnificence of Eastern and Western Asia, of India and Egypt, is rather summarily dismissed, as having exercised little or no influence on the works of after ages, though these have elicited some most valuable and ingenious observations from the author. Our old friend the Cromlech is not even allowed to come into court, but is treated as fairly arμoc in an architectural point of view. The Grecian, the Roman,

1 We may well call the Cromlech our old friend, for it gave us rare sport at Cardiff. An excellent contributor had been seduced into the belief of its derivation from one god Crom, a sort of Irish cloud-compeller, and that in the nineteenth century!

Τὸ ΚΡΟΜ νομίζειν ὄντα τηλικουτονί.

However, Dr. Todd annihilated the Milesian idol, as completely as his Hellenic prototype was overthrown by Socrates, and happily without inaugurating Vortex in his place.

and Romanesque, and the Gothic and Arabian styles, are regarded as one family, the breed having been considerably modified by "crossing" with the plain round-arched style of ancient Italy. This produced the strange hybrid known as Roman architecture, the principal feature of which is the retention of the old decorative system of the entablature, side by side with the new constructive system of the arch. However, our hybrid, contrary to the maxims of naturalists, proved prolific, and gave birth to a large family of daughters, who gradually attained that artistic consistency to which their parent was a stranger. In the East arose the Byzantine style, which in due time produced the Saracenic; while, under the auspices of the Western Church, the Lombard and Provençal grew up, the Romanesque of Germany, the Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman styles. At length out of the northern Romanesque arose that glorious form of art, of which the Pointed arch is the most characteristic, though not an inseparable feature.

We turn awhile from Mr. Freeman's book to that of Mr. Ruskin. We have already intimated that they differ widely-as widely, indeed, as any two books, treating the same subject in at all the same way, can possibly be supposed to do. We speak not of such points of discrepancy as the following:

.

66 Truly the Abbey of St. Ouen may claim the first place among all the edifices that human skill has ever reared. * Nothing is introduced which derogates from its claim to be the noblest of Gothic churches, and, consequently, of all human creations."-Freeman's History of Architecture, p. 399.

"I do not know anything more strange and unwise than the praise lavished upon this lantern; it is one of the basest pieces of Gothic in Europe."—Ruskin's Seven Lamps, &c., p. 35.

"Nor is it only the tower of St. Ouen that is overrated. Its nave is a base imitation, &c. There is nothing truly fine in the church but the choir, the light triforium, and tall clerestory, the circle of Eastern chapels," &c.—Ibid., Note.

"Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" Yet the disagreement of doctors is sometimes instructive;-it shows what a man may come to who deserts his common sense for the sole guidance of theory. Perhaps we ought not so much to marvel at the opposition in this case, as Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Freeman start from totally different points. The latter gives us the history of the art, while the former is chiefly occupied in developing its morale. In fact, he seems to us to have carried this to a length not altogether philosophical, occasionally confounding moral with artistic considerations, as in the chapter entitled the "Lamp of Sacrifice;" and, while he perhaps possesses a higher and more expansive reach of mind than our other author, he sadly lacks his soundness, clearness, and precision. Gifted with a keen and fervid imagination, he looks upon architecture with the eye of a poet and a painter; but this same imagination occasionally leads him into paradoxes, and nearly always draws him away from what is, after all, the characteristic and distinctive principle of the art—the due and consistent harmonizing of the modes of construction and decoration. Mr. Freeman's mind, evidently accustomed to trace historical

causes in their effects, could not fail to see this, and to give it its due prominence. At the same time, it must be confessed that he labours under a great disadvantage as compared with Mr. Ruskin, in not having become acquainted with the great buildings of continental Europe by personal observation;-it appears so, at least, from his own statement. This may have tended to make his views more definite, as having been unconsciously moulded upon a single class of instances: still it could not fail to have a narrowing effect, and to imbue his mind with a pardonable predilection for forms to which his eye was accustomed. We could have wished that he had seen fit to bestow one tithe of the praise which Mr. Ruskin has lavished, on the Campanile of Giotto, or the ducal palace of the Bridegroom of the Adriatic.

ANTIQUITIES OF IONA, ARGYLESHIRE. By H. D. GRAHAM, Esq. London: Day & Son, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

1850.

We feel great pleasure in drawing the attention of our readers to this interesting volume, but fear that the unavoidable brevity of our present remarks will hardly do justice to its intrinsic merit.

It contains fifty-two lithographic plates, with explanatory letterpress. The former comprise views of St. Oran's chapel, of the cathedral, and monastery; but the more remarkable series are those which we believe are for the first time brought before us-the monumental effigies and sculptured slabs which cover the remains of princes and chieftains who found repose within the hallowed precincts of those sacred edifices.

Time, neglect, and wanton injury, have done much to mutilate and disfigure these specimens of ancient art; but, if we may judge from the plates and we have no reason to doubt their accuracy—we may safely pronounce, that they surpass in curiosity, richness, and variety, any which have hitherto been submitted to the public.

We confess we are no admirers of lithographic plates for architectural, or even monumental, subjects, in a general way; but these are so clear, and the quiet tinting of the back-ground so admirable an assistance, that, considering the moderate price of the volume, viz., One Guinea, we are not only satisfied, but thankful, to Mr. Graham, for affording us so great a treat, and we feel sure that those who may be induced, by our humble testimony in its favour, to purchase this volume, will have no cause to regret having done so.

Amongst the effigies, the most remarkable are those of Maclean of Coll, Abbot Mackinnon, and the Prioress Anna; of the sculptured slabs, that of the four Priors, of the Rider, four stones in Reileag Orain, and four in the nunnery. There are also three plates of crosses, all more or less remarkable for the richness of the sculpture which covers them; they are all that remain of 360 which it is recorded at one time existed in different parts of Iona.

Archeologia Cambrensis.

NEW SERIES, No. III.-JULY, 1850.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF ARCHEOLOGY ON

ARCHITECTURE.

ARCHEOLOGY has long since been so far reduced to the form of a science, and has been so far carried into practice, that we may reasonably expect the results to be now showing themselves in various branches of science, arts, and manufactures, but in none more strikingly than architecture. Indeed, it is this very branch of scientific art which has been the largest and the most extensively inquired into and illustrated by antiquaries-unless, indeed, numismatics and diplomatology be excepted; and, as architecture is calculated at all times to have a lasting effect upon the public mind-more, perhaps, than any other art-it is not devoid of interest to inquire what good effects may have been hitherto produced on it by the labours and researches of careful observers.

The attention of antiquaries has hitherto been chiefly directed to ecclesiastical architecture, because buildings of that kind have been the best preserved, and have presented the greatest store of enriched details. Hence, the main effect of the archæological movement of the present century has been witnessed in the restoration and edification of ecclesiastical buildings. Some attention has been paid to castellated remains, and a still smaller degree of observation has been exercised upon domestic buildings;

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. I.

Y