significance of Gwynn's perceptions see chapter nine of John Summerson's Georgian London, rev. ed. (Harmondsworth, 1962). His perceptiveness was recognized by the early nineteenth century. Gregg International published a facsimile reprint of London and Westminster Improved in 1969.

3. (return)
A work which shows Gwynn's awareness of the differences between the casual and perhaps well-read dilettante and the dedicated professional is his essay The Qualifications and Duty of a Surveyor (London, 1752). For discussions of the development of the architectural profession in eighteenth-century England, see Colvin, pp. 10-25, and, in spite of his excessively narrow definition of "profession," Barrington Kaye, The Development of the Architectural Profession in Britain, A Sociological Study (London, 1960), pp. 39-67.

4. (return)
One indication of Gwynn's admiration for Robert Morris is the title page of The Art of Architecture. The elevation used as an ornament is not just modelled on a design by Morris; the plate used to print the elevation is the very plate, slightly reworked, which printed the design facing p. 209 in Morris's Lectures. Most of the original dimension lines have been obliterated, and the original pyramidal roof has been truncated.

5. (return)
Epistle to Burlington, II. 17-18; Imitations of Horace, II, i, 185-186; The Dunciad in Four Books, III, 327-328.

6. (return)
C. H. Collins and Muriel I. Baker, The Life and Circumstances of James Brydges, First Duke of Chandos (Oxford, 1949), pp. 115-120, 146, 300, 387-389.

7. (return)
Colvin, p. 342.

8. (return)
A Treatise of the Five Orders of Columns in Architecture, trans. by John James (London, 1708).

9. (return)
Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, 3rd ed. (London, 1962), p. 142. For a summary of England's part in this "break-away" see pp. 150-153.

10. (return)
Parenthetical references to the Ars Poetica are to the Loeb edition, trans., H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, Mass., 1929).

11. (return)
Cf. Pope, "You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse,/ And pompous buildings once were things of Use" (Epistle to Burlington, 11. 23-24).

12. (return)
See Sir Henry Wotton, "Elements of Architecture" (1624), in Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), pp. 304-305.

13. (return)
Ibid., p. 201.

14. (return)
Essay on Harmony (London, 1739), pp. 27-31.

15. (return)
Ibid., p. 9.

16. (return)
This work was supported, in part, by the Ohio State University Development Fund through its Faculty Summer Fellowship program, and by a grant from the Penrose Fund of the American Philosophical Society. I should like to express my gratitude for both of these grants.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

This facsimile of The Art of Architecture (1742)
is reproduced from a copy in the British Museum.

THE
Art of Architecture,

A
POEM.

In Imitation of HORACE'S Art of Poetry.

Humbly Inscribed to the R^t. Hon^ble the Earl of ——

LONDON:

Printed for R. Dodsley, at Tully's Head in Pall-Mall; and
Sold by T. Cooper at the Globe in Pater-noster-Row, 1742.

[Price, One Shilling.]

THE
PREFACE.

The great Freedom with which Horace has been used, I hope will be in some Measure an Excuse for the Liberty I take in this Essay.—The Art of Cookery, and Harlequin-Horace are two glaring Instances, not to mention Numberless Translators, Commentators, &c. upon his Works; in which some have so Remark'd and Revis'd, that they have explain'd the Sense of Horace quite away.—I for my Part, either as a Poetical Architect, or an Architectural Poet, profess myself to be only an humble Imitator of him: I have seldom lost sight of the Original, at least as far as the Subject will permit.—-But Architecture is a barren Theme, and a Path so beaten, that to step out of it, though purely to avoid the Crowd, is looked upon as an unpardonable Singularity. How far I may have strayed in this Poetical Excursion, I know not; but of this, I am certain I can with Truth say with Horace,

THE
Art of Architecture,

In Imitation of HORACE'S Art of Poetry.

Should you, my Lord, a wretched Picture view;

Which some unskilful Copying-Painter drew,

Without Design, Intolerably bad,

Would you not smile, and think the Man was mad?

Just so a tasteless Structure; where each Part

Is void of Order, Symmetry, or Art:

Alike offends, when we the Mimick Place;

Compare with Beauty, Harmony, or Grace.

Painters, and Architects are not confin'd

By Pedant-Rules to circumscribe the Mind:

But give a Loose, their Genius to improve;

And 'midst the pleasing Fields of Science rove.

But then the Laws of Nature; and of Sense,

Forbid us with Contraries to dispense:

To paint a Snake, engend'ring with a Dove;

Or build a Prison 'midst a shady Grove.

At setting out, some promise mighty Things,

Temples they form, and Palaces for Kings;

With a few Ornaments profusely drest,

They shine through all the Dulness of the rest.

At some long Vista's End, the Structure stands;

The Spot a Summit, and a View commands:

The wide-extended Plain appears below,

And Streams, which through the verdant Meadows flow.

Here Towns, and Spires, and Hills o'er Hills extend;

There shady Groves, and Lawns, the Prospect end.

Through lavish Ornaments, the Fabrick shines

With wild Festoons of Fruits, and clust'ring Vines:

Luxuriant Decorations fill each Space, }

And vast Incumbrances, void of Rules or Grace;

Without Coherence, crowded in each Place.

Should you require a little rising Pile,

The Parts appropriate to the fertile Soil:

Where Neatness, Order, and Proportion join;

Where Strength, and Art, and Nature should combine:

The mimick Architect perhaps would be }

As much to seek in his Design; as HE

Whose only Talent was, to paint a Tree.

With such gay Structures, why do they begin

Such Glare of Ornament to usher in?

Why such external needless Dress and Show?

The End impropriate, and the Meaning low.

Form to each Clime, each Place, a Modus still;

But use the same Proportions at your Will.

Change, modify your Form: Transpose, divide;

The same unerring Rules the Science guide.

Most Architects in something do offend,

When led by, aim'd-at-Excellence; to mend—

By striving to be plain, they sometimes fall,

So Mean, so Dull, so Tasteless: they spoil all.

Others affect Magnificence alone;

And rise in large enormous Heaps of Stone;

Swell the huge Dome, and Turrets bid to rise,

And Towers on Towers; attract the Gazer's Eyes.

Some dare not leave the old, the beaten Way,

To search new Methods, or in Science stray:

Others with wild Varieties engage,

And build a Seat to face the Ocean's Rage;

Carve Fruit and Flowers, to face the raging Floods,

Festoons of Shells, or Fish, for shady Woods.

Thus willful Erring, join'd with Want of Skill,

Is the most certain Way of Erring still.

The meanest Workman, may attempt to place

A little Dress to decorate a Space;

May put an Ornament about a Door,

Or decorate a Window, and no more:

But then to finish, is beyond his Skill,

And we suppose the rest, exceeding ill.

And 'tis ridiculous for one good Part,

Where what remains are Scandal to the Art;

Where only one is luckily adorn'd,

And all the rest remarkably deform'd.

Let Architects attempt their Skill to show

In small Designs at first; in what they know.

Then as they find their Genius rise, to try

How much their Structures they can magnify.

Shew how Convenience, Beauty, Symmetry,

How Method, Art, and Nature will agree.

Rules well appropriate will ever please,

And proper Dress, is plac'd with greatest Ease.

First study Nature, where, and how to fill

The various Voids, and ornament with Skill.

Chuse the just Emblems for