HOUSES AND LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 883, 1 August 1910, Page 8

HOUSES AND LIFE.

EXPRESSIVE BUILDING.WESSEX TO LAMBTON QUAY, [By J.Q.X.] A critical - friend began to tell mo that he had noticed a mistake in. my articlo on Thomas Hardy; I was just preparing to assuro him that I never accused myself of infallibility, that I. had learnt most of tho little that. I know by going wrong and. taking tho consequences,' and, in short, to thank him as pleasantly as'l could for pointing out my latest error; but he stopped all this by saying that ho had forgotten what the .mistake was. If ho reads those lines, he will, perhaps, recognise that I have discovered it for. myself.

I said, in tho peccant articlo of a fortnight ago, that tho Wessex novels might be used by students ;of architecture (and certain other sorts' of people) as works of reference. .And, of. course, the phrase "works of referenco" was wrongly used, because one does not go to the novels of Mr. Hardy, or anyboay, else, with the certainty, of finding precise information on a given subject. Literature and information aro not tho same thing. There is a great deal about law in Shakespeare, but even his contemporaries did not turn to his plays when they wanted to make a will or execute a contract. Bacon and Shakespeare, labouring together in some quiet corner of heaven, from their own oarthly day to ours, could not combine "Hamlet" and : the . "Instauratio Magna" into ono magnificent book of reference and artistic whole. • Tho thing , is,lmpossible. What!the architect and" the amateur of architecture will find in Mr. Hardy's novels is an ever-present sense of the .meaning of the art of building.- This finds such vivid expression in so many descriptive paragraphs and passing allu-' .sions that Hardy, as- a : literary interpreter of architecture, seems to : stand not far. from Rnskin! It is satisfactory to know that whatho has-written ". in this sort, is - based .upon serious professional study. He was trained in his. youth to be ..an architect! and studied Gothic under Blomfi'eld, .'■ Doubtless in ■those.days,he wandered, liko his George Somerset;.in "A Laodicean," through Normandy and Wessex; taking careful measurements of medieval, woodwork arid stonework. . ■-;"■ . "Bj means- of a. strip of lead •'.called a leaden tape, which ho : pressed around and into the fillets ; and hollows! with his' finger and 'thumb, he transferred the exact contour of each', moulding; to .his. . drawing, that. lay on ■ a sketching- . stool a few feet distant; where also ; ' were; a •skc'tching-block, a : small . T-sqiiare, a bow-pencil, and other .'■. mathematical instruments. When ho. had marked dowii the line thus. fixed, he returned-to the doorway '" to. copy another- as .before.'-'- ■•'..' It is said that engineers,, soldiers, naval officers, and other's, can find'niany -mistakes in Mr. .'Kipling|s spirited handling of the -technicalities of their trades. I should like to know whether architects have.. any • similar' quarrel with Mr!-' Hardy. ■.'■■'_. , Professional knowledge married to imaginative sympathy,. with, literary art to bless tho union, has enabled Mr/ Hardy to make the buildings ho writos of almost equivalent to characters in his stories. They, seem to have personality. I should like to introduce ■ray'readers to. Myrtle Villa: ■'' ; ."It was almost new, of;.streaked :•; ■ '■' brick, .having a central -door,' and <- . a small bay 'window on each side. ' to light the two front parlours. A : .little lawn spread : its green surface . in front,- divided from the road by ■ iron railings, tho low Jiiie of shrubs immediately within them,being coated with pallid dust from the highway. On the neat piers of the neat. cntranco gate' were chiselled the words, ! Myrtle Villa.' (Genuine: roadside respectability sat smiling on every brick of tho eligible • .dwelling." . In contrast there is the grey, crumbling castle of the De Stancys, or that ancient street in a. town of Normandy, where timber' stories' overhung so" far on each side' that only a slit of sky was- left .at the top; where six-toenth-ccntury smells pbrvadeil the air, and "the faces of the people in the doorways seemed. those of individuals who > habitually gazed, oh';, tho great Francis; and spoke of Henry .the Eighth as the King aoross the sea." That .illustratesmy point, that Mr. Hardy, in his novels, has raised buildings to the rank of human characters. His houses are not. merely details .of the setting; they'can'takb part in the action. They,influence the other char-| acters. Stancy Castle 'introduces .a lover to ; Paula, and, alter aiding his cause for a whilo, becomes a still stronger assistant to the suit of a rival. One does not feel sure that the 'wooer whom the Castle, has bitterly and moio strongly favoured is finally done with until the stony''embodiment'of medievalism, which had almost played the part of Dostiny, is tragically destroyed. And even then, while the young people arc full of their scheme to "build a new houso from the • ground, eclectic in style," the last line of the story is Paula's 'exclamation—"l wish ,my castlo wasn't burnt; and I wish you were-a Do Stanoy!" Stancy Castle is but one instance of the houses that dothings in the Wessex novels. Even when' the ' building is not an active influence,' but only a part of the environment; it may bo 'ranked as, at any rate, a minor character. What are the "lords, ladies, officers,' soldiers, citizens, and servants," with which the list of dramatis persoriae at the head of every play of Shakespeare tails off,, if they are not parts of the environment of the principal characters? That, whatever rudiments of individuality are conferred upon them, is their place. .'. v . Of course, Hardy is _ not the first to treat buildings as influences upon liuman beings. Ho is following, in this aspect of his art, poet after poet in all civilisations. More than that, the underlying idea is of tho very essence of the art of architecture. If any production of human hands—be it picture, statue, church, town hall, or dwellinghouse—does , not communicate some feeling to the beholder, and thereby fulfil an intention of its designer, it is not a work of art. A Gothic cathedral brings the spectator into a devotional framo of mind; a thatched cottage fosters the domestic affections. It has boon remarked that the architecture of typical modern hotels is 'vulgarly ornate.' That is because, they express tho sentiment of self-indulgence.

What shall we say of some of our own buildings?—or, rather, what do they socm to say to us as we walk along the Wellington streets? ■ The Bank-of New Zealand is admirable. Tho very spirit of Financial Stability is idealised and embodied in its ample well-spacos, its regular and moderate ombellishments, the solid curve of masonry with which, at its narrow end, it parts tho traffic of two main thoroughfares. The impressionable stranger feels that he could safely commit his fortuno to such a bank. Tho Public Trust Offico ought to produce a similar feeling, but it does not. Its luxuriant, imaginative, scenic linos mark it out as tho appropriate homo of the Tourist Department—which does, in. fact, cecum:, a small j>art of it as a

tenant. A Public Trust Office ought to have the same expression as an ideal Public Trustee— "Deep on his front engraven Deliberation sat and public care." The mercantile* buildings havo their own suggestions to make. They look at us, inviting bur business, from each side of Fcatherston Street. ■ A certain honest-looking pile of brick seems to mean that wo shall get a "square deal" if wo go there. The clerks in another edifice should have serious but engaging manners. Every business firm likes to announce its strength in tho impressive language of brick and stone. These, like all the principal business buildings in all tho cities of the European civilisation, . whatever , their "stylo," technically so called,, belong to the Architecture, of . Advertisement. That is not a term of . vituperation. Advertisements are best—that is, most widely and permanently effective—when they are honest and artistic.. When the Architecture of. Advertisement is transferred to private dwellings, it makes them, ostentatious, vulgar, and deplorable. . What 'is best in tho continuing improvement of our domestic architecture may be summed up. by saying that our houses arc getting more homelike. ' Their shapes and colours direct our sentiments towards that.revival of-family life which /we are often told is one of our greatest social needs.