Should it happen, on the contrary, that various portions of the elevation are quite dissimilar from each other, the whole is too apt to appear like a series of buildings, erected at various times, and according to no one systematic plan."

"Very true: and that, I presume, is the idea intended to be conveyed."

"It is, however, a clumsy kind of 'make-believe', and, at the best, too much like copying the accidental blemishes of a model, which is hardly more warrantable in an architect, than it would be for a sculptor to make noseless and otherwise mutilated statues, in order to give them a more faithful resemblance to antiques. At any rate, this Gothic irregularity, which is generally regarded as a kind of chartered' architectural libertinage, ought not to be indulged in, without some obvious excuse or advantage. When a building is of such extent, that the eye cannot well comprehend the whole of it at once, irregularity may be even preferable to symmetry. For a contrary reason, too, it is not objectionable in very small buildings, because there, piquancy of effect is rather to be studied than uniformity, which, in such cases, cannot excite any high degree of satisfaction."

(To be continued.)

SKETCHES BY A TRAVELLING ARCHITECT.

WITH a sorrowing adieu to Venice, I embarked in a decked barge for Padua. Crossing the Lagunes, we traversed two canals and a portion of the Brenta, the tedium of our slothful progress being relieved by the town of Dolio, several neat villages, and the occasional appearance of a Palladian villa. The irksomeness of cold and low company increased with the sun's decline; nor was it till patience had well nigh taken her departure, that a mouldering bastion announced our arrival at fair Padua, nursery of arts,"

where Livy was born; where Goldsmith sojourned; and where lived Katherine," the Shrew," ere Petruchio took her into "taming." The Guide-books mention several objects of art in this city worthy of note. Circumstances, however, with which it would be impertinent to trouble the reader, imperatively hurried me to Vicenza. The coach in which we travelled might challenge even England for its superior, and we passed with very reasonable celerity through a delightful country,

rich in vines and villas, with a bold frontage of distant Alps bounding the view.

How fluctuating our inclinations!-now enamoured of the brilliant gaieties of Venice, and anon sighing for permanent residence on the peaceful banks of the Bacchilignione. Splendid, indeed, is the Piazza S. Marco; but the soul, which, like that of King John, cries out for "elbow room," had rather revel in the Campo Marzo of Vicenza. This charming little city is situate in a valley of surpassing beauty, the southern heights of which command a prospect of such united majesty and loveliness, as might prompt the tongue of an enthusiast to exclaim, "How dare we expect a future Paradise to better this?"

Vicenza may, in a certain sense, be regarded as the metropolis of modern Italian architecture. In no other compass of equal extent or population can we recognise such a pervading exhibition of out-door taste. Parts of the city, it is true, are plebeian enough; and we frequently see a noble palace (though, as it would appear, not a proud one) standing in familiar alliance by the side of the humblest dwelling, like an amiable patrician mixing with his meaner liegemen. Of the numerous decorated façades at Vicenza, one in particular is interesting, as the least pretending on the score of scale and costliness, while it is at the same time the most distinguished by association. The reader may find nothing very striking in the effect of the accompanying outline; but, when he is told that it represents the front of a house said to have been built and inhabited by PALLADIO, he will possibly regard it with at least a portion of that reverence which it claimed from the writer of these Sketches.

Palladio was born in Vicenza, which contains, among a large number of his works, several of the most select. His name is more devoutly uttered by the ciceroni than that of the city's patron Saint; nor will the English architect withhold his sympathy, for Palladio's fame is connected in some degree with British patronage, and his genius was no doubt greatly influential as the guiding star to a superior condition of British taste. Still, this great artist's merit should be rightly understood. It were most unfair to subject his works to a comparison with many now existing; nor is it prudent to vaunt their superiority in regard to actual beauty, where it chiefly exists in reference to the different circumstances under which they were designed.

Palladio did for

the Roman, what Stewart and Revett have done for Grecian architecture; but the Italian artist filled not his professional chalice at the fountain head; and Roman art contained no less impurity, when compared with the crystal brightness of its Attic source, than the muddy waters of the Tiber when associated with the virgin snow of the Apennine. Let us neither hear Palladio's genius disputed, nor any of his works upheld to the disparagement of such residences as the Duke of Buckingham's mansion at Stow, or Burlington House in Piccadilly. As an author of original talent he is to be studied; as a man devoted to his profession he is to be imitated; as an artist, most generous in his estimation of contemporary talent, he is to be beloved: but his greatness as an architect is apart from the present worth of his designs, many of which exhibit as much for our careful avoidance as for our grateful acceptation. Let us, however, hesitate to censure such faults as might perhaps have originated in a workman's inaccuracy or patron's wilfulness. Some of the examples bearing his name are wholly unworthy of the genius which is displayed in others: but there is, in several instances, so much conjecture as to the share which Palladio had in the composition, and such a bewildering commixture of opinions relative to variations and alterations by Scammozzi and others, that we are scarcely at liberty to express anything less than a very lofty opinion of Palladio's general merits. The thick-and-thin eulogiums of his countrymen would do him an essential injury, were there not a certain moral weight in his professional celebrity, which would have established it in spite of opposition, and which, with equal certainty, will preserve it from the ill effects of extravagant encomium.

Vicenza is a complete museum of Palladian design. The Corso, or principal street, is lined with buildings of all degrees, from the neat to the beautiful, though the more distinguished edifices are to be found elsewhere. In the famous Basilica we see a noble conquest of difficul

ties, and a singular instance of powerful invention, in adapting the then newly revived classic garb to a most ill-conditioned Gothic body. In some of the principal residences we also find the requisites of modern convenience grafted on the ancient Roman fashion, as transmitted by Vitruvius; and here, too, may we behold an actual restoration of the antique theatre, in the contemplation of which we dream ourselves back to the days of Terence, and feel half bewildered, when our guide suddenly dispels the illusion by an anomalous ejaculation in the language of Goldoni !

Again and again I wandered through the streets of Vicenza, and experienced each time an impulse to professional fame. Yet the pleasure derived was not without alloy. The unfinished state of many of the residences might be borne with; but it is melancholy to see some of the finest among them mouldering in their pride,

"Dying or ere they sicken."

There is yet another cause for the moderation of an architect's enthusiasm, viz. the neglect in which this bijou of a city is held by tourists in general. Without Mrs. Starke's "Information for Travellers," few, I believe would, on the strength of their individual sagacity, discover much to admire. Mrs. S. (by the way) deserves our warmest thanks, though we cannot but smile occasionally at her heterogeneous style of composition, which admits of sonnets, silver-spoons, criticisms, bills-offare, Pompeii, Epsom-salts, pillow-cases, and the Bay of Baiæ, almost in a breath.

There is in Vicenza one of the handsomest Lombard-Saracenic edifices which I have seen in Italy. Napoleon changed it from the church of S. Lorenzo to a military store-house, and it is now used by the Austrians as a magazine for horse provender. The richly carved marble altar-pieces still remain, deprived of their paintings, and a large wooden crucifix yet retains its position over the ci-devant choir, smothered with hay-dust-not incense! Tombs of deceased greatness are likewise to be seen, wherever straw is not; but the bishop's crosier is changed for a pitch-fork!

Adjoining was a fraternity of holy beggars; but their residence now forms the military barracks-better employed than formerly, though it might be better still.

I travelled from Vicenza in company with a young Bolognese. "O, che bella ragazza!" cried he, as we passed an English carriage on its way to Venice, and proceeded (as is not unusual with the Italian) to speak of the coldness and pride of my fair country-women. On my re

criminating, as I thought, much to the disadvantage of the Southern ladies, he exclaimed, with a true continental shrug and pshaw ! You speak ignorantly on the subject: an Italian lady would remain just what you conceive she ought to be, if married to an Englishman and resident in England, but here it is not possible; and I will wager," continued he, "that no married Englishwoman in Italy could resist the attentions of an Italian gallant for six months!"

This was beyond bearing. The moisture left my lips. "It is to be hoped," said I, that she would be able to resist an Italian gallant, at all events."

Verona is at least remarkable for "Two Gentlemen," one lady, and a noble example of Roman antiquity. Shakspeare and the Amphitheatre equally contribute a most attractive interest to this handsome city, which, in a general way, (according to the accepted rule of topographical dictionaries,) may be described as "spacious, clean, well paved, and beautifully situated on the Adige, about fifty-four miles west of Venice, and twenty miles north-north-east of Mantua." Though its modern specimens of architecture are not so numerous as at Vicenza, there are two or three palaces which rival the best of the latter city. The exterior of the Amphitheatre, when complete, must have had an imposing though somewhat sombre effect. As a cage, in which the unfortunate captive or criminal was condemned to die in the jaws of a lion, or under the blow of a rival combatant, there is no reason for objecting to that prison-like character which an entirely rusticated front must exhibit: but, at any rate, it is against the received rules of strength (and therefore of beauty) that the heaviest order should be placed (as at Verona) on the top. The elliptic outline is here, perhaps, more elegant than in the plan of the Coliseum. The interior retains, to a considerable elevation, its original aspect; but, of the outer wall, only four arches remain: the inner corridors and staircases are uninjured.

As to the dimensions of this or other remains of antiquity, I would only caution the general reader from putting any trust in the statements of Guide-books and translated accounts; where the authors speak of feet and inches as if they were the same in all countries. Desgodetz seems to have measured the ancient remains with singular care, and states the relative dimensions of the amphitheatres of Rome and Verona, in French measure, as follows: