m especially anxious to rid this essay of ambiguity,
because I want to gain the ear of all kinds of persons. Every man has,
at some time of his life, personal interest in architecture. He has
influence on the design of some public building; or he has to buy, or
build, or alter his own house. It signifies less whether the knowledge
of other arts be general or not; men may live without buying pictures or
statues: but, in architecture, all must in some way commit themselves;
they _must_ do mischief, and waste their money, if they do not know how
to turn it to account. Churches, and shops, and warehouses, and
cottages, and small row, and place, and terrace houses, must be built,
and lived in, however joyless or inconvenient. And it is assuredly
intended that all of us should have knowledge, and act upon our
knowledge, in matters with which we are daily concerned, and not to be
left to the caprice of architects or mercy of contractors. There is not,
indeed, anything in the following essay bearing on the special forms and
needs of modern buildings; but the principles it inculcates are
universal; and they are illustrated from the remains of a city which
should surely be interesting to the men of London, as affording the
richest existing examples of architecture raised by a mercantile
community, for civil uses, and domestic magnificence.

DENMARK HILL, _February_, 1851.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Preface, iii

CHAPTER I.
The Quarry, 1

CHAPTER II.
The Virtues of Architecture, 36

CHAPTER III.
The Six Divisions of Architecture, 47

CHAPTER IV.
The Wall Base, 52

CHAPTER V.
The Wall Veil, 58

CHAPTER VI.
The Wall Cornice, 63

CHAPTER VII.
The Pier Base, 71

CHAPTER VIII.
The Shaft, 84

CHAPTER IX.
The Capital, 105

CHAPTER X.
The Arch Line,