226 HISTORY OF AUCIIITECTUIIE. ru:y. I.

near Poitsoown Hill, a house in riccadilly for tlie Duke of Grafton, a mansion in Ilcrts foi
Lord Howe; Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn; ICly House, Dover Street, a very clever
conii)Osition ; Sir Jolni Hoyd's at Danson, near Shooter's Hill; the beautiful bridge at
Henley on Thames, and Lord Grimstoue's at Gorhamliury. He had for some time a seat
It the Board of Works, was surveyor to the Admiralty, the Bank, and other jiublic bodies.
His reputation was unl)ounded, and met with reward from tlie ])ublic. Sir Ilobert Taylor
died in 1788 at the age of seventy-four.
516. Cotemjjorary with the last-named artist, was one to whom the nation is indebted foi
first bringing it to an intimate acijuaintauce with the works of Greece, to wiiich lie first led
the way. The reader will, of course, anticipate us in the name of James Stuart, who began
Ids career as a painter. After some time jiassed in Greece, he, in conjunction with Nicliolas
Uevett, about the year 176ti, published the well-known Antiquities
of
Athens, from which
he acquired the soubriijuet of Athenian. The ])ublic taste was purified by a corrected
knowledge of the buildings of Greece, csjiecially in res|)ect of the form, composition, and
arrangement of ornament
; but we doubt whether mischief was not for a time induced by
it, from the absurd attem))t, afterwards, to adai)t, without discriiuination, the ))ure Greek
porticoes of the temples of Greece to pidjlic and jirivate buildings in this country, often
with buildings with which they have no more natural relation than the interior arrange-
inent of a church has with that of a theatre. The architects of our own time seem, however,
at last to be aware of the impossibility of a])|)lying with success the forms of Grecian temjjles
to lOnglish habitations
;
and a better system has been returned to, that of applying to every
object a character suitable to the ])iiri)oses of its destination. We consider Stuart's best
work the house, in St. James's S(|iiare, which he built for Lord Anson. Among other
works, he executed Belvedere, in Kent, for Lord Eardley
;
a house for Mrs. Montague, in
Portman S(]uare
;
the chajiel and infirmary of Greenwich Hospital ; and some ])arts of the
interior of Lord Spencer's house, in St. James's Place. Stuart died in 1788, at the age of
seventy-five. His colldhordteur, llevett, shared with him a jiortion of the patronage of the
public. He survived him till 1804, when he died at the advanced age of eighty-two years.
He was employed on the eastern and western porticoes of Lord l)e S])encer's house at
NVest Wycombe, and on some teni])les. For Sir Lionel Hyde he built the church of Ayot
.St. Lawrence, Herts, the front wl.ereto is a Doric portico crov/ned with a low Grecian
pediment, and on each side an Ionic colonnade connects the centre with an elegant
cenotaph. He also built a jiortico to the eaiiteru fiont of Standlinch, in WiJlshire, for
Mr. Dawkins.
.517. The chasteness and ])iuity which the two last-named architects had, with some
success, endeavoured to introduce into the buildings of England, and in which their zeal
had enlisted many artists, had to contend against the opjjosite and vicious taste of Ilobeit
Adam, a fashionable architect, whose eye had been ruined by the corruptions of the
worst period of Roman ait. It can be scarcely believed, the ornaments of Diocletian's
palace at Spalatro should have loadid our dwellings coiitem|ioraiieously with the use among
the more refined few of the exquisite exeinplars of Greece, and even of Rome, in its better
days. Yet such is the fact; the depraved coin|)ositioiis of Adam were not only tolerated,
but had tlieir admirers. It is not to be supjiosed that the works of a man who was content
to draw his supplies from so vitiated a source will here require a Itngtheiud notice. Yet had
lie his hap])y moments
;
and th:it we may do him strict justice, we not only mention, but
present to the reader, \n Jigs.
221. and 222., the ground plan and elevation of Kedlestonc, iii
Derbyshire, which he erected for Lord Scarsdale. The detail of this is, indeed, not
exactly what it ought to have been ; but the whole is magnificently conceived, and worthy
of any master. Adam died at the age of ninety-four, in 1792
;
and, besides the Adelphi,
in the Strand, which he erected on speculation, he was engaged at Luton Park, in Bedford-
shire, for the Earl of Bute
;
at Caenwood, near Hampstead, for Lord Mansfield
; at Sliel-
burne House, in Berkeley Stjuare, now Lord Lansdowne's, well idanned, but ill designed.
a meagre aflair
;
the disgraceful gateway at Sion, near Brentford
;
and on ])art of the
Register OHice at FJdiiiburgh. None, however, would now do credit to a mere tyro in the
art except the first named