A GRECIAN VILLA.
DESIGN No. 12.
* PERSPECTIVE VIEW,—PLATE XXIV.
• TWO ELEVATIONS,—PLATE XXV.
TWO PLANS,—PLATE XXVI.
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Internal effect, rather than external decoration, or any thing strikingin the elevations, has been here studied, for these, it must be admitted,offer little to captivate the eye of a connoisseur, although of thatdescription which finds admirers among persons in general, whose tastemust in some degree be consulted in works of this nature, even thoughit be attended with some inconsistency as to correct architecturalcharacter and costume. Such a house in fact appears to greater advan-tage in reality than it can be made to do upon paper, because actualsize and substance confer on it an importance, which it cannot possesseither in elevations or a perspective view, where the eye looks for somemore positive indication of taste than the order alone, however beautifulin itself, can produce. This is what many are pleased to term a chasteand simple style of Grecian architecture, whereas it wants that consis-tency and keeping' essential to chasteness and simplicity; and might,therefore, more correctly be termed Semi-Grecian. Such as it is, how-ever, it is not without something like elegance in the general proportionsand masses, but would require to have all the rest worked up, in orderto correspond with the order here applied. How this might be done,will be shown in the Supplementary Volume. In the interim, let itsuffice to observe, that this exterior pretends to no more than toannounce the style adopted within, and we shall therefore proceed atonce to an examination of the plan. ji . _ >
The entrance hall offers a richer architectural coup d'ceil than it isalways advisable to make at first; because whatever may be urged infavour of first impressions in architectuie, they may be rendered tooforcible and too favourable, and so occasion comparative disappoint-ment in what follows. Yef, as in this case, the hall is intended to serveas a billiard room, it becomes in a certain degree one of the apartments,