Brief memoir of Sir John Soane. From Fisher's National Portrait Gallery / [John Britton].

  • John Britton
Date:
[1834]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brief memoir of Sir John Soane. From Fisher's National Portrait Gallery / [John Britton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of architectural drawings; and several fine pictures, by Reynolds, Lawrence, Hogarth, Turner, Calcott, Howard, Jones, Canaletti, together with many objects of virtu and rarity. These are dispersed and arranged over nearly the whole of the house, from the attics to the basement floor. At the conclusion of the Professor’s twelfth lecture, at the Royal Academy, March 21,1833, Sir John, speaking of his house and its contents, said, “ This collection, which is now my absolute property, I hold now as only a trustee for the country; and when I can no longer give my personal care to its protection and enlargement,' that duty will devolve on others, who will exercise this trust under such regulations as will insure the perpetuation of those national advantages, to the promotion of which I have dedicated a large portion of an active and anxious life.” * The erection of the house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, for the residence, oflices, and museum of Mr. Soane, excited considerable notoriety in the year 1812. The district surveyor, Mr. Kinnaird, then indicted the professor of architecture for having violated the Act of Parliament commonly called “ the Building Act,” by raising a sort of stone veranda, or screen, before the front wall of his house. The design is novel, and, for a southern aspect in a large open area like Lincoln’s Inn Fields, is well adapted to preserve the front rooms cool in sum- mer, and warm in winter. The Act alluded to prohibits the erection of any bow-window, or “ other projection,” in front of a house next to any public street, square, &c., excepting open porticoes, steps, or iron pallisades.” The case was fully argued before the magistrates, who decided against the district surveyor. That gentleman next tried the question at the quarter sessions, where he was nonsuited ; and then moved it into the Court of King’s Bench, where Lord Ellenborough confirmed the decision of the magistrates and the sessions. We have now pointed out the principal professional works of Sir John Soane, and these are sufficiently prominent in situation, in mag- nitude, and character, to attract the notice of all lovers of architecture, and of those who pretend to any knowledge of, or partiality for, the buildings of other countries and other ages. Without the aid of illus- trations, it would be useless to make further comments on their varied designs and distinctive features, nor will our limits allow us to extend * A ground plan, with views of the different apartments, and of several architectural and sculptured objects, with a descriptive account of the house, are published in a quarto volume, entitled, “ The Union of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, by John Britton, F.S. A.”