half of a composition, or little more; but when a corresponding wing shall have been added on the other side (where there are now some excessively mean and shabby houses), as we presume is intended to be done some time or other, there will then be a façade of some importance as to extent; and pleasing and handsome, if of no particular architectural merit.

5. CLUB-HOUSES AND PRIVATE MANSIONS.

The exterior of the Army and Navy Club-house may now be considered completed; all that remains to be done to it being the insertion of the window sashes. That it forms a rich and imposing architectural mass, and exhibits a decided advance beyond the equally feeble and penurious style of some of the earlier club-houses, those of the Union and United Service Clubs for instance, is not to be denied. Still it leaves much to be desired; there is a good deal of both inequality and coarseness of taste betrayed in it; and what is expressly copied from Sansovino's Palazzo Cornaro, namely, the ground-floor or basement to the order, while it has no particular architectural merit in itself, is very unsuitable. We now find that the small windows, which in the original structure serve to light a mezzanine floor, and which we at first understood were introduced for the same purpose here, form within the Morning-room and Coffee-room an upper series of apertures. This can hardly produce a good effect internally, while externally it tends to give an air of littleness to the lower part of the building. And if not a positive defect, the making the upper floor windows square-headed, although apparently arched, is at least a singularity, and will be hardly less than a defect, if those arched heads are to be glazed in continuation of the real apertures beneath them. The interior is still only in carcase.

Since last year, Bridgewater House has undergone some change of plan, which requires to be here pointed out, as it no longer answers to the description then given of it. We then remarked, that "there was nothing of that inordinate display made on first entering, which frequently causes all that follows to seem a falling off;" for according to the first plan, there was only a moderatesized inner ball beyond the entrance vestibule, with the lower part, or first flight of the staircase extending from it northwards, so as to divide what would else have been a single central court into two lesser ones. That has now been reformed by removing the staircase to the east side of the building, and converting the space before occupied by that and the two side courts into a spacious, we might say, vast central hall or covered cortile. Something undoubtedly is gained by this alteration, namely, a north corridor or gallery in the space which was at first given up to the second flights of the staircase, to the right and left. It can no longer be averred of the central hall, that it does not make an inordinate display. On the contrary, its magnitude is such as must detract very much from that of the principal rooms. One alteration which ought to be mentioned, is the erection of an additional staircase at the northeast angle of the house, by means of which strangers can have

direct access to the Picture Gallery, without passing through the private part of the mansion.

Mr. Hope's new mansion in Piccadilly is of so eccentric a character that it is almost incapable of verbal description, and perplexes criticism. It certainly excites regret, to find so much cost and elaboration bestowed upon a composition so ill proportioned both in its ensemble and individual features, that embellishment has only served to make its defects all the more glaring. The panels of polished granite add nothing on the score of beauty, for owing to the same colour not being carried out consistently, they show only as so many spots. Nor is it the least fault of all, that notwithstanding the unusual pretence made by it with respect both to materials and embellishment, there is something even undignified in the general look of this mansion. It has altogether a foreign air, and it was designed by a foreign architect.

6. RAILWAY STATIONS.

To Mr. Ruskin, who protests against railways, and every thing connected with them, the new buildings at the Euston Station (by Mr. Hardwick), on which 150,000l. or thereabouts has been expended, must be an abomination; yet those who look at it architecturally, will find in the "Great Hall" much to admire, with something also to disapprove. Of ambitious display there is enough, and, perhaps, more than enough; but it might have been more judiciously managed by being more equalized, for at present the upper part of it and the ceiling cause the lower to look bare, not to say mean, by comparison; proportion as to the quantum of decoration being not at all observed. In fact, all above the order is, if not too rich, in too heavy a style to accord with the order itselfItalian Ionic of somewhat plain character. There is, however, something both striking and pleasing in the arrangement of the staircase, or rather flights of steps which lead up to the loggia or recessed gallery at one end of the hall, whose ceiling has glazed panels that throw down light behind the columns. The effect would have been all the better, had the pedestals on which the columns are raised been lower, that is, no higher than the parapet or railing between them, for besides that an ungainly difference would have been avoided, the order itself would have been proportionably increased, and would have thereby gained in importance.

Of the Central Railway Station at Newcastle, the façade is to be commended as a more than usually picturesque, yet at the same time perfectly regular composition, therefore belonging to the true architectural picturesque. This façade, which is towards Nevillestreet, is 600 feet in length, and is formed into three equal divisions, each of which consists of seven open arches (32 feet high) between coupled columns of a bold Roman Doric order, raised upon an equally bold and unusually lofty stylobate, which is continued between the intercolumns, thereby closing up the arches below, and forming a screen between the street and the lower part of the interior of the arcade or portico. The central division is distinguished from the lateral ones, first, by advancing 40 feet forwarder, whereby a