Stair Parts Fig. 315 House in Mansfield Street
But restraint is ever commendable, and restraint marks most of Adam's work. It is present in the doorway at Harewood House ( Stair Parts Fig. 316) and in the two chimney-pieces, one from Belcombe and one from Bedford Square, figured in the illustrations Stair Parts 317, 318. In these it will be noticed that overmantels are replaced by designs worked on the wall itself. Their interest depends almost entirely upon grace of composition and skill in execution, and derives nothing from aptness of association with the houses or their occupants. In this respect the ornament differs from that of earlier days, when it was usually adapted from the family coat of arms ; but the time had now come when houses were more often built to let to unknown tenants than as homes for particular families. In the drawing-room at Kedleston (Stair Parts Fig. 319) the treatment again strikes a note of simplicity and severity-a note which is seldom so well maintained in the disposition of the pictures and the choice of furniture as it is in this case. The ceiling and the great cove beneath it are filled with that flowing and delicate ornament which demands great accuracy of line and equal care in modelling its low relief.
As time went on this delicate ornament faded away and, except here and there, ceilings became merely large unbroken surfaces, save that with the introduction of gas-pendants there came the tradesman's centre-flower from which they might depend. This and an equally interesting cornice served for years as the principal decoration of most houses ; the plasterer's art seemed to have died out. But for some time past matters have been improving, and, given the requisite money, ceilings can now be devised equal to anything that has been done in the past.
Indeed English craftsmen have always been able to produce good work when adequately guided. But modern conditions, among which one of the most pressing is the supply of an enormous number of cheap houses, are adverse to the display of that capacity for design and execution which requires some amount of leisure and a great amount of wealth to bring it forth.
Stair Parts Fig. 316 Doorway Harewood House
There are indications that after the war a vast number of workmen's dwellings will have to be built, and, moreover, will have to be built cheaply. A survey of the domestic architecture of the last three hundred years is fruitful of suggestions for this undertaking, although it will be one demanding little or no ornament. Such a survey points towards a suitable placing of the houses on the site; avoiding dreariness and monotony on the one hand, and on the other avoiding attempts at the grandiose, and the imposing on posterity a scheme too complete in itself to allow of those variations which time will inevitably require. It points equally to treating the houses themselves with a simplicity corresponding to the simplicity of the requirements. It points further to the value of good, sound building. The smaller Georgian houses, which we find so charming, furnish admirable suggestions. No attempt at actual reproduction need be made; but the means which produce the effect in the old houses can be applied to the new. These means are simple enough. The general proportion, the size and shape of the windows, and the shadow of the eaves will be found on examination to be the chief causes of the pleasure which many of the old houses arouse.
The past has not only its suggestions, but also its warnings, and of these the most obvious is against the impairing of comfort and convenience for the sake of appearance. The first canon of utilitarian art is that an object should answer its purpose well. It is in availing himself of these suggestions, and in profiting by these warnings, that the architect is enabled to help his own generation and give pleasure to those that come after.
The vast increase in population during the last two hundred years has accentuated the division of the course of design into two streams ; one directed by the highly trained architect, the other by the workman trained only in the use of his tools and the knowledge of his materials. Could the two streams be brought into one channel they might flow on into ideal conditions. But the very complexity of modern life has a tendency to resolve itself into the simplicity of specialisation.
Stair Parts Fig 317 Chimney Piece At Belcombe
Since the beginning of the eighteenth century the course of domestic architecture has been conditioned partly by the nation becoming too large and complex to admit of a single expression in national architecture ; partly by the tendency, common to all the arts, for ideas to pass into excess in one direction and into tenuity in the other. A wider outlook over the civilised world, a greater knowledge of the achievements of foreign countries, led inevitably to the disappearance of a truly national style, such as that which we call Gothic. On the one hand the homes of the wealthy grew in splendour and in fidelity to theories of architecture expounded in books, with the result that use and convenience were largely subordinated to grandiose effects. On the other hand, richness of architectural thought declined in smaller houses through the stages of dignity and comfort down either to a consistent plainness of character or one only marked by individual caprice. Such caprice, schooled by a study of bygone styles, led to the eclectic imitativeness of the nineteenth century. But the last twenty years have seen many signs of a new beginning. Based upon actual needs, and striving after beautiful expression, domestic architecture is slowly progressing on lines characteristically English. Sooner or later this movement will accelerate, and will eventually reach heights as great as those upon which we now look back with admiration and delight. Architecture, like other arts, is immortal ; the qualities of proportion, ornament, and fitness can never long be disregarded, for no building is quite complete which is not beautiful to look upon.
Stair Parts Fig. 318 Chimney Piece at 25 Bedford Square London
Stair Parts Fig. 319 The Drawing Room Kedleston Hall Derbyshire