Àpeil 15, 1899.
,THE ESTATES GAZETTE,
610
as the employers have to deposit sufficient money with the authorities to guarantee the pensions, this means the payment down of a lump sum such as would stagger any but a very wealthy firm. The action of the employers in disestablishing and disendowing married men has given rise to a good deal of unpleasantness and friction, and it is thought that either insurance companies or the government itself will have to take the matter in hand, and guarantee the payment of pensions. A new tax to be levied upon employers generally in proportion to the number of people they employ is accordingly spoken of. The subject is an interesting one to Englishmen. In many quarters the working of our own last Employers’ Liability Act is not causing satisfaction.
Several other architects beside Chambers designed furniture and decoration, as John Carter, Nicholas Revitt, W. Thomas, and J. C. Ivnaft, the last two of whom designed in the style of the brothers Adam, the most notable of the series.
Though the buildings scattered about the gardens at Kew were termed “ unmeaning fal-ballas of Turkish and Chinese chequerwork,'׳ their effect at the time was very great. Chambers obtained the co-operation for his book on the subject of Cipriani, whom he had brought back with him from Italy, of Kirby, T. Sandby, and Mailon; while the drawings were engraved by Paul Sandby, Woollett■ Major, Gugnion and other well-known men.
(To be continued.)
To adapt a well-known saying, I do not like “Society” journalism, and I do not like those who do like it. But the accounts of the Fair-Vanderbilt marriage are certainly interesting. Each successive writer has seemingly tried to go one better in his or her story of the luxe effiene of this function. The amount of live ducks and roses and diamonds and dollars used on the occasion was quite extraordinary, and one does not wonder that Miss Fair never takes less than three hours to dress—she must be so puzzled in her choice of what to wear. Speaking seriously, I do not know whether it is good policy for such ostentatious displays of unbounded wealth to be made, and in due course advertised in America. There is a very large and very discontented poor population there, and if anything were calculated to spread communism, anarchism, socialism, and every other objectionable “ ism ” amongst them, it would surely be these tales of ducks, diamonds, and other “fixings,” as aforesaid. [I will make a statutory declaration that I wrote this before the news of the fire at Idle Hour, supposed to be the work of an incendiary, came to hand.]
Ought horses as well as asses—men, we should say—to be total abstainers, even in the face of medical advice? The question lias been raised at the Liverpool City Council, the occasion being the supply of whisky to Corporation horses. The question was raised by a Mr. Taggart, a temperance advocate; but Alderman Hornby explained that the whisky had been given to two horses, one of which suffered from pneumonia and the other from sewer gas poisoning. Allusion was made to the fact that the tramway horses received no whisky, but this, the Alderman pointed out, was because the veterinary surgeon in charge or those animals did not approve of whisky, and pinned his faith to old ale. As a matter of fact, it is not at all an uncommon thing to administer alcohol medicinally to horses, as anyone accustomed to dealing with them will know.
Under the Inebriates Act, 1898, and the־ regulations connected with it, the close time־ for habitual drunkards will shortly cease, so that Mr. Wyatt Paine’s book, “The Law of Inebriate Reformatories and Retreats,” which has just been published by Messrs. Sweet and Maxwell, comes opportunely, and will be found a very complete and useful authority. A propos of this subject, it is interesting to note that drunkenness is not and never was an offence by the common law of England. More than one statute, however, has been directed against it. The preamble of an Act passed in the reign of James I. runs, “ Whereas the loathsom and odious Sin of Drunkenness is of late grown into common Use within this Realm, being the Root and Foundation of many other enormous Sins, as Bloodshed, Stabbing, Murder, Swearing .	.	. and such like to the Great Dis-
honour of God and of our Nation, the overthrow of many good Arts and manual Trades, the disabling of divers Workmen and the general Impoverishing of many good Subjects, abusively wasting the good Creatures of God,” and the statute provides that drunkenness shall be punished by a fine of 5s., with confinement in the stocks in default of distress. There are, of course, modern statutes which provide for the punishment of drunkenness when occurring in licensed premises or in public places, but the only attempt by the Legislature to treat drunkenness per se—drunkenness pure and simple, if I may use the phrase—from the moral standpoint indicated by the Act of James I., is contained in the Habitual Drunkards Act of 1879 and the statutes concerning inebriates, which since that date have been passed.
I see that Judge Collier has been making־ a suggestion for preventing the evils of money-lending. “ In my opinion (says his Honour) the best means of checking money-lending— the evils of which as at present conducted I admit—is to put difficulties in the way of borrowers. I have a very strong belief that publicity would effectually do this. I propose to register not the lender but the loan; that in all cases in which the interest chargeable shall exceed 8 per cent, the lender should be compelled to register the loan in the offices of the County Court; that he should state under dif-
Those interested in social and metaphysical questions must have often observed the peculiar effect on the temper and mode of thought of the average man of settled pecuniary circumstances. A regular income generally superinduces peace, contentment and an active practical interest in life—the man is no longer what he was in the days when he had to live for an indefinite time on a five pound note which he had not yet succeeded in borrowing. As with individuals, so with nations ; unrest, vague aspirations and chimerical schemes commonly disappear with the advent of prosperity and the reasonable assurance of its continuance. I note that a well-known Irish politician and writer has been pointing out with regard to what used to be known as the “ distressful country,” that “looking at Ireland as a commercial man would at a bargain,” one finds that modern legislation has had a wonderful effect for good both on the country and the towns. It would seem, indeed, that the efforts of Parnell have obtained for Irishmen so much of what they wanted that they are now content to occupy their minds with the trade and commercial prospects of their nation and to leave la haute politique severely alone—and good judges, too.
The writer to whom we'refer is a good and expert witness, for he is an Irishman and a close student of Irish matters. He considers that the future is full of topics more interesting to the people than the dead and gone question of Home Rule. For instance, he points out that with the foreigner pouring in his food stuffs at a price which the home grower can never hope to compete with, Ireland can place no dependence on her agricultural resources even if the farmers were to get the land for nothing. “ It is to manufactures she must look, to the development of her mines and quarries, her fishing, her cottage industries, the opening up of the country as a field for tourists, re-afforestation, the establishment of ports for Atlantic traffic, the utilization of her peat bogs, the higher education of her youth of both sexes, the improvement of her literature, light railways, cheapened transit, and so forth.” This would be a tolerably long list of reforms and developments without the “and so forth.” But I quite think that if even a part of them were seriously initiated, the name of Ireland would cease to be anathema maranatha to investors.
The announcement that orders for locomotives have been placed by English railway companies in the hands of an American engineering firm has given rise to no little controversy. It is certainly not pleasant to hear of England, the natural home, as it were, of the mechanic, having to go abroad for her machinery. As a friend said to me the other day, it is like America sending to England for wooden nutmegs. It is unfortunate that■ this episode should have followed so closely on the entrusting by our authorities of important contracts with regard to railway construction in Africa to foreign firms. Of course, reasons for this line of action have been forthcoming from those who are responsible for it—considerations of time and money have been put forward. I take it, however, that some critics would be a great deal more easy in their minds if they could be assured that there were no “ wheels within wheels ” about ־ the placing of these contracts, that everything was fair and above board. For the rest, Free Trade principles, like other good things, or supposed good things, may, it is obvious, be carried too far.
In France, it is reported, in consequence of a new law which makes employers liable to pension off the widows and children of any of their workmen who may be killed or injured in the course of their employ, the employers are refusing to take on married men at all. This is cutting the Gordian knot, and shows a good deal of sharpness on the part of French capital. Certainly, under this new legislation, it would seem that if a few young married men were killed, pensions might have to be paid for 20, 30 or 40 years afterwards, and
tecture, showing a preference for modern Italian design. Classic taste being thus foregone, the way was opened up for his own Chinese ■style, pointed Gothic, Louis Quinze, and Wedgwood cameos. At the same time he advocated many improvements as more graceful outlines, easily-flowing foliage, and elegant imitations of flowers and plants.
From 1757 to 1762, Chambers ־was engaged at Kew Gardens, erecting several neat semi-Roman temples, the well-known Pagoda, imitations of a mosque, a Gothic cathedral, of the Alhambra■, and of a Corinthian colonnade known as the “ Theatre of Augusta.” To appreciate Chambers’s work at Kew, one should remember that up to his time the ground was a continuous dead flat, while the soil was barren, and devoid of wood and water.
As Royal architect and Comptroller of the Royal works, Chambers was regarded as an oracle of taste, and being consulted on every point, he was able to carry out his designs. Among the subscribers to his Chinese book had appeared Horace Walpole, Earl Tylney, Paul Sandby, Kent and Sir Joshua, who, with Goldsmith, Johnson and Garrick, was counted among his friends.
In 1763, Chambers published “ Plans, Elevations, Sections and Perspective Views of the Gardens and Buildings at Kew.” In this, while fully describing his own pagoda, temples, mosque and Gothic cathedral, he refers to a
“House of Confucius,” built by Mr. Goupy, near the Temple of JEolus, and containing sofas and chairs covered with Gobelins tapestry.
One of the original drawings for a temple may still be seen at Kew Palace, which was opened to the public by the goodwill of Her Majesty the Queen on May 24, 1898, as also a few articles of Georgian furniture, as a bureau and some couches and painted chairs.
The Georgian works at Kew set an example which the country followed. Chippendale and Johnson introduced pagodas, bells, mandarins and dragons. Sheraton, in his “ Cabinet Dictionary,” mentions chairs of rounded wood, made from Chambers’s drawings, of turned beech to match the colours of reed or cane. Ince and Mayhew’s designs freely exhibit the influence of Chambers, as do likewise those of Lock and Mainwaring.
Chambers had exhibited at the Society of Artists in Spring-gardens in 1761; and was appointed first treasurer of the Royal Academy upon its inception in 1768.
His fame suffered some slight eclipse in 1772, subsequently to his publication of the “ Dissertation on Oriental Gardening,” wherein he endeavoured to advance the superiority of the Chinese system of landscape gardening over that practised in England. His preface is said to have been inspired by jealousy of “ Capability Brown,” whose design for Lord Clive’s villa at Claremont had been preferred to his ■own. “ An Heroic Epistle,” and its Postscript, both supposed to be by William Mason, the poet, and translator of Lucretius, were among the satires which this work called forth.
In 1775, all this was put right by his appointment as architect of Somerset House, with a salary of £2,000 per annum ; and this has long been considered the greatest architectural work of the reign of George III. Chambers will also be remembered by his Palladian bridge in the grounds of Earl Pembroke’s seat at Wilton, and other work at Blenheim, Milton Abbey, and the town houses of Lord Melbourne and Earl Gower.
Chambers, who left a considerable fortune, was buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Jnrmiuit (®lib att& Jbfo.
XXXII.
SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS’ INFLUENCE.
A very wide range of influences from without concurred to bring about the revolution in the design of English decorative furniture which characterised the latter half of the 18th cen-tury.
Wren’s interior woodwork emulated the grandeur of the Louis Quatorze period, and was responsible for the French taste apparent !n most of his successors, as, for instance, Grinling Gibbons, whose lifelike groups foreshadowed the school to which Chippendale, Lock, and Johnson belonged.
The classic influence of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren was kept alive by Hawksmoor Kent, Sir Robert Taylor, Colin Campbell, the designer of Wanstead House, and Gibbs, the Scottish architect and antiquary, who published his “ Book of Architecture ” in 1728. The profuse adaptation of urns and stone globes in the designs for mantels therein conta ned left an abiding effect upon his successors.
Kent, who had designed the gardens at Claremont■ and Chiswick, and the mirror frames, tables and chairs for Kew Palace, was followed at the last-named place by Sir William Chambers, who laid out the gardens.
Sir William Chambers, whose title was of Swedish origin (he having been created a Knight of the Polar Star in 1771 by the King of Sweden, in acknowledgment of some highly-finished drawings of Kew־ Gardens), was born at Stockholm in 1726. He was descended from a family of Chalmers, barons of Tartas in France. His grandfather had been paid in base ^coin for stores and cash supplied to Charles XII.. and his father therefore sojourned some years in Sweden with the view of prosecuting the family claim. Though the future Sir William was brought home by his father to the family estate at Ripon, and educated at the Yorkshire cathedral city, he entered the service of the Swedish East India Company in 1742, as supercargo, and made more than one voyage to China. While at Canton he made a series of sketches of buildings, gardens, furniture and costumes. In 1744 he quitted the sea, and went to study under the best masters at Rome, making measured drawings the while of the art remains of the quattro cento and cinque cento. On returning to England he married the beautiful daughter of Wilton, the sculptor, settled in Poland-street; and having been tutor to George III. during that Prince’s minority, was appointed his architect, besides filling that office for Augusta, Princess-Dowager of Wales.
In 1757 was published. “ Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils,” from originals by William Chambers, architect. Rooker, Grignion and other clever engravers had for some time been engaged in the work of reproducing the drawings, to which Thomas Chippendale must somehow־ have had access, since their influence is traceable in “ The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director,” the first edition of which appeared in 1754.
Chambers states in his preface that the designs only appear in compliance with the desire of several lovers of the arts, who thought them worthy of the perusal of the public.
In describing the better-class abodes of the Chinese, he says: “ The saloon is 18ft. to 24ft. deep and 20ft. broad, paved ־with stone or marble. The side walls are matted to a height of 3ft. or 4ft. from the pavement, the rest being covered with paper; and instead of pictures they hang on them long pieces of satin or paper, stretched over frames. On these are written moral sentences or proverbs. Over the table runs a long sheet of thicker paper covered with paintings supposed to be inspired; and high prices are paid for originals.
“ The moveables of the saloon consist of chairs, stools and tables, made of rosewood, ebony or lacquer work, and sometimes of bamboo, which is cheap and nevertheless very neat.
“ When the moveables are of wood, the seats are often of marble or porcelain.
“ In the corners of the room are stands, on which they set plates of citrons. On tables intended for ornament are artificial landscapes made of ivory, crystal, amber, pearls and various stones, some costing the equivalent oi 300 guineas. Among the principal ornaments of the rooms are the lanterns, of which there are generally four, suspended from the ceiling by silken cords. The beds are sometimes very magnificent, much like ours, of carved rosewood and lacquered work; the curtains are of tatfeta or gauze, sometimes flowered with gold, and commonly either blue or purple.
“ The walls of the study are hung with moral sentences. The moveables consist of elbow chairs, couches and tables ; there are several shelves filled with books, and on a table near the window are placed pencils and other implements for writing, also choice books.”
In 1759, Chambers published “ A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture,” in which he unduly depreciated Greek arch¡-