on every tier, no disguise whatever can counteract that unpleasant expression always produced by this equidistant dotting of square holes; and which, from the buildings in which it originated, we call the factory character, though it might now with more reason be called the English.

The Jewel-House, at the east end of this pile, is worth the attention of villa builders. But the most novel combination of one character with another style, is to be seen in an appendage to the west side of the White Tower, which may be described as a stone castellar verandah. On the whole, though it will doubtless be thought by some that the Tower is improved, and the new works "in keeping" with their situation; we cannot but think that, as the character of the old remains (or at least the oldest) in absolute unpretence, total absence of any kind of representation, or of anything not required by their own purposes; if the new could have possessed these same qualities, though we admit their design on such a principle would have been far more troublesome and difficult, and yet their expense far less, though they might have had neither battlement, machicolation, nor loop-hole; still they would have been more truly “in keeping' with the White Tower.

The Small-Pox Hospital, Highgate, of which we give a view, enjoys the finest kind of situation possible for any building, viz. about halfway up a slope, facing the south. It is arranged with much compactness and unity, and presents from the distance a neat outline, and, on a nearer inspection, good common-sense details, though too much crowding. The openings bear so large a proportion to the wall, that every opportunity of obtaining a breadth of mass or plain surface should have been seized on. The long panels for inscriptions, and the stone quoins at every external angle, might certainly have been omitted with advantage.

New street buildings, in provincial towns, still affect chiefly the fashion set by the Travellers and Reform Club-Houses, of a treatment somewhat Florentine; but the majority of them have only served to prove that the success of this treatment absolutely requires some refinement of taste, and eye for proportions, which seem (though never reduced to rule) to be even more important in this astylar composition than in any other. Indeed no other kind of architecture seems so entirely dependent on this refinement, and to become so unpleasing in its absence.

The branch of the Bank of England, at Darlington, by Mr. I. Middleton, is said to be a convenient building, and finished within the estimate. The front, though consisting only of the ordinary dwelling-house façade, of three stories (above ground) and three equal openings in each, has yet considerable elegance of proportions, though a greater width in the extreme piers (which are only equal to the others) would have been better. The style of detail most resembles that of the beautiful Palazzo Pandolfini, and altogether is very satisfactory, so that the work may rank with any of its style in this country.

The New Corn Market, Edinburgh, is an iron and glass shed,

in the manner of a railway station, 152 feet long, and 98 feet broad, in three spans, roofed with glass tiles. To the end next the street is applied a building 60 feet high, forming the façade, which is in the style above-mentioned, with a capanile attached to one side.

The Exchange at Wolverhampton, by Mr. G. Robinson, consists of a well-proportioned hall, a double cube of 50 feet, with a central cupola, 35 feet in diameter, and to the ends are attached lower buildings containing a library and news-room. The whole, therefore, forms a pyramidal group, of which the front is 160 feet wide, and the apex 109 feet high. The site being very sloping, the basement (containing stores) is high, and by avoiding any windows in its front a proper appearance of solidity is obtained. The treatment of the whole may be called Palladian, the features are good and on a bold scale; but there is much breaking up, and modern-churchlike disunion, especially in the low wings. The high central building has a full entablature all round, and a roof forming real (not mock) pediments over the ends. The front is broken into seven portions, advancing more and more from the ends to the centre; the three middle ones being marked out by four Corinthian columns, of which the two central support a pediment, and the whole space between them is occupied by the lofty arched entrance, from which ascents, right and left, lead up to those of the main hall. Its interior has a deeply coved and panelled ceiling; the main beams being supported by Corinthian pilasters, having between them a reversed arcade.

The proposal of much polychrome decoration in this and other buildings at present, evinces at least a liberal profusion; for, of all kinds of ornament, one which (in the atmosphere of our towns) calls for renewal every few months, is certainly the most costly. Of the bad effect of not first counting this cost, but setting up such decoration where we cannot afford to keep it in repair, the Royal Exchange, London, is a standing warning.

Two prisons of great extent are rising in opposite outskirts of the capital, one on Wandsworth Common, and one near Holloway. Both consist of lofty ranges of cellular buildings diverging from a central body, and contrived precisely like those at Pentonville, but the Holloway prison has four (of the five) ranges parallel, thus giving up the advantage of seeing them all from one supervisor's room. This immense pile, also, presents so much stonework and Gothicism throughout its whole extent, that it will excel in splendour even the felons' palace at Reading, and will be the most ornamental (as well as largest) building for miles round.

5. PRIVATE BUILDINGS.

Cliefden House, near Maidenhead, is being rebuilt, with a restoration of that fine design of Inigo Jones, which formed the river front of Old Somerset House, the destruction of which has often been regretted by the admirers of our first classic architect. The situation, upon an architecturally fronted terrace much longer than the house itself, seems well adapted, presenting some analogy to the place of the original. Mr. Barry is conducting the work.

While we have here to rejoice over the recovery of one of the finest works of the early Anglo-classic school, supposed to be lost, a little further on the same road we have to mourn the loss of another. Caversham House, near Reading, which, except its colonnaded wings, was destroyed by fire last year, is rebuilt in so very common-place (not to say mean) a fashion, compared with the splendour of those appendages, that, unless they be removed, it will be placed nearly in the ridiculous plight of the official's house at Greenwich, that terminates and forms the central point of the finest architectural vista in the country.

The Army and Navy Club-House at length exposes its finished exterior, and with its huge toppling load strikes terror and amazement into such passengers of Pall Mall as may be accustomed to architecture that admits such a thing as measure, and the possibility of such things as excess and defect thereof.

It is just to observe, however, that this extravaganza did not appear in the design, but was the effect of influences that reached our gallant defenders during the progress of the work. Mr. Ruskin's Lamps' said something about the grand effect of a frowning brow, and a building "beetling o'er its base," which must forthwith be attempted, without considering whether there was anything to beetle over, anything corresponding with the brow in expression. Italian precedent was found for the cornice of an upper order being proportioned, not to the order itself, but to the entire building, but then the frieze had not been exaggerated too; and either the stories were all columnar, or they had in some other way a decided connexion, and suggested vertical lines from the ground to the summit; whereas, here, the two stories are as distinct and different as possible, so that the mind can by no effort refer the cornice to the whole building, but only to the upper story, to which the other seems a mere pedestal.

6. RAILWAY BUILDINGS.

On this head we have losses rather than gains to record. In London the neatest, most artistic, and most real station front, that of the Brighton line, has disappeared to make room apparently for one of less merit, with an addition also of a row of ugly houses and shops. The Great Northern Station at present consists only of temporary sheds. On leaving the terminus, this road, quickly entering a deep cutting, passes nearly at right angles under the Camden Town and West India Docks branch, here on an embankment, so that the difference of level between the two is considerable. The bridge, in seven spans, promised to be a striking ornament to the neighbourhood, but it is now crossed by tubular beams, and though arches were turned over the other openings, they fell and are now being replaced by the same ungraceful and unpicturesque covering.

We have unfortunately to announce that the grand design of which a partial view and description were given last year, has proved (as was then suspected) merely a flight of fancy. Its pro