John Soane

“ It was, perhaps, fortunate both for Sir John Soane, and that example of the Corinthian which he employed for the Bank of England, that it was not an invention of his own, or it would, in all probability, have been ridiculed as a monstrosity ”

“ PARKE, HENRY (1792?–1835) , architect, born about 1792, was a son of John Parke [q. v.] , the oboist. Henry was intended for the bar, and studied under a special pleader; but, owing to his indistinct utterance, he abandoned law, and, after vaguely considering many other pursuits, studied architecture. His father placed him with Sir John Soane, R.A. [q. v.] ; and some of the finest drawings exhibited during Soane's lectures on architecture at the Royal Academy were made by Parke. These are still in the Soane Museum, along with many others of his drawings while a pupil. ”

“ LAING, DAVID (1774–1856) , architect, son of a merchant in the city of London, was born in 1774, and articled to Sir John Soane [q. v.] about 1790. In 1811 he was appointed surveyor of buildings at the custom house, and was directed to prepare designs for a new custom house on a site to the westward of Sir Christopher Wren's structure. In five years (1813–17) the building was completed and occupied, but in 1825 the beech piling and planking used as the substratum of the foundation decayed, and the front fell down. ”

“ Matthew Cotes Wyatt, the Sculptor of the colossal Wellington statue, died 1862, at 86. The oldest engraver of the above period was John Landseer, who died 1852, aged 90.
Sir John Soane, R.A., the Architect, died 1837, having reached the age of 84, bequeathing his museum, in Lincoln’s-inn Fields, to the nation. Sir John was the son of a Berkshire bricklayer, and by his own energy rose to eminence as an architect: he designed a greater number of public edifices than any contemporary. His last work (1833) , the State-Paper Office, in St. ”

“ His old master, Holland, had also commissioned him to collect in Italy antique fragments relating to ornamental architecture. He got together a noble assemblage, which was brought to England two years later. Tatham published a description of them in 1806, and they now, along with his own collection of architectural drawings made at the same time, are in the collection of Sir John Soane in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Tatham first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1797, and continued to do so until 1836, contributing in all fifty-three designs. ”

“ Dallaway, Anecdotes of the Arts, p. 155) . His practice of charging 1, 2, or 21⁄2 per cent. for measuring buildings, in addition to the usual architect's charge of 5 per cent., was severely censured by Sir John Soane, who considered it ‘highly unwarrantable’ (Soane, Letter to Earl Spencer, 1799, pp. 3–12) . He was made F.S.A. in 1797.
For the Association of Architects, of which he was a member, Holland acted on a committee, appointed 1 March 1792, to inquire into the causes of the frequent fires in the metropolis, and drew up the ‘Report’ in the same year. ”

“ RICHARDSON, CHARLES JAMES (1806–1871) , architect, born in 1806, was a pupil of Sir John Soane [q. v.] From 1845 to 1852 he was master of the architectural class in the school of design at Somerset House. In 1852 he designed the Earl of Harrington's mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens ”

“ Who is he? One of your German pedlar friends at Grogan’s? Be careful, Soane. You Sinn Feiners are headed for trouble.”
He turned and mounted the stairs. Soane looked after him with an uneasy expression, partly humorous.
“Ah, then, Mr. Barres,” he said, “don’t be botherin’ afther the likes of us poor Irish. Is there anny harrm in a sup o’ beer av a Dootchman pays?” ”

“ Soane was elected A.R.A. in 1795, and R.A. in 1802. In 1806 he succeeded George Dance as professor of architecture at the academy, and the courses of lectures which in that capacity he delivered, commencing in 1809, attracted much attention. In 1810 they were temporarily suspended in consequence of a vote of censure passed upon him by the academy for adversely criticising the work of a brother-architect. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1795, of the Royal Society in 1821, and was a member of the academies of Vienna and Parma. ”

“ Soane was the son of an Irish peer. He had magnificent features—a little blurred nowadays—and a remainder of the grand manner. His nose was a marvel of classic workmanship, but the floods of time had reddened and speckled it—not offensively, but ironically; his hair was turning grey, his eyes were bloodshot, his heavy moustache rather ragged. He inspired one with the respect that one feels for a man who has lived and does not care a curse. He had a weird intermittent genius that made it worth Fox’s while to put up with his lapses and his brutal snubs. ”

“ Soane returned to England in 1780, and during the next few years erected many country houses, the designs for which he published in a volume in 1788. In 1784 he made a wealthy marriage. In 1788, on the death of Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) [q. v.] , he was appointed architect to the Bank of England, and this success proved the starting point of his prosperous career. ”

“ Th’ Sinn Fein will shtand f’r no burkin’, mind that!”
“Ach, wass!” grunted Freund; “iss it your business vat iss done to somebody by Ferez? If you Irish vant your rifles und machine guns, leaf it to us Germans und dond speak nonsense aboud nodding!” He leaned over and pushed a greasy electric button: “Now ve drink a glass bier. Und after, you go home und vatch dot girl some more.”
“Av Misther Barres an’ th’ yoong lady makes a holler, they’ll fire me f’r this,” snarled Soane.
“Sei ruhig, mon vieux! Nihla Quellen keeps like a mouse quiet! Und she keeps dot yoong man quiet! 162 You see! No, no! ”

“ The thing had reduced itself to a mere matter of policy. Or was it passion?
A clatter of the wheels of heavy carts and of the hoofs of heavy horses on granite struck like hammer blows on my ears, coming from the well of the court-yard below. Soane had finished his bottle and was walking to the cupboard. He paused at the window and stood looking down.
"Strong beggars, those porters," he said; "I couldn't carry that weight of paper—not with my rot on it, let alone Callan's. You'd think it would break down the carts." ”

“ Dot letter she tear herself in two. Pas de chance! Your kid she iss mad like tigers! Voici—all zat rests me de la sacré-nom-de sacrèminton de lettre——”
“Ah, shut up, y’r Dootch head-cheese!—wid y’r gillipin’ gallopin’ gabble!” cut in Soane wrathfully. “D’ye mind phwat ye done? It’s not petty larceny, ye omadhoun!—it’s highway robbery ye done—bad cess to ye!”
The one-eyed man shrugged:
“Pourtant, I must haff dot letter——” he observed, undisturbed by Soane’s anger; but Soane cut him short again fiercely:
“You an’ y’r dommed letter! Phwat do you care if I’m fired f’r this night’s wurruk? ”

“ The two who loved him were not yet really worried by his disappearance, since they had his significant letter. In time their confidence would give place to anxiety, and heaven [101] and earth would be moved to uncover his hiding-place. This loving notice was a trap set by Sonia. On the road which led from Mulberry Street to Cambridge, from the home of Anne Dillon to the home of Lois Endicott, Sonia's detective lay in wait for the returning steps of the lost husband, and Sonia's eyes devoured the shadows, her ears drank in every sound. He laughed, he grew warm with the feeling of triumph. ”

“ And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane."
Pope's Moral Essays, Epistle IV.
Hans Sloane (the seventh and youngest child of Alexander Sloane, receiver-general of taxes for the county of Down, before and after the Civil war, and a commissioner of array, after the restoration of Charles II.) was born at Killileagh in 1660. An Irishman by birth, and a Scotchman by descent, he exhibited in no ordinary degree the energy and politeness of either of the sister countries. After a childhood of extreme delicacy he came to England, and devoted himself to medical study and scientific investigation. ”

“ Soon after his appointment as professor of architecture at the academy Soane began to form, for the benefit of his pupils and other students, collections of antiquities, books, and works of art, and upon these towards the end of his life he expended large sums of money. ”

“ We shall take her over when the time comes—probably off the Irish coast at night. Now, Soane, and you, Lehr, I want you to help recruit a picked crew, all Irish, all Sinn Feiners or members of the Clan-na-Gael.
“You know the sort. Absolutely reliable, fearless, and skilled men devoted soul and body to the cause for which we all would so cheerfully die.... Will you do it?”
There was a silence. Soane moistened his lips reflectively. Lehr, intelligent, profoundly interested, kept his keen, pleasant eyes on Murtagh Skeel. ”

“ It is far more comprehensible to the abstract tastes of the twentieth century than in accordance with the ideals most widely accepted in the England of Soane’s own day.
Soane’s Dulwich Gallery of 1811-14, outside London, is likewise built of common brick and has similarly primitivistic detailing. This structure is most characteristic of its period in being a museum, indeed it is the earliest nineteenth-century example; but it could hardly be more different from the line of sculpture galleries that runs from Klenze’s Glyptothek in Munich through Bindesbøll’s Thorwaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. ”

“ It was a wilful, impatient little face, exacting and rather obstinate, without very much depth of character, but amazingly mobile and young, capable of a child's ecstatic abandonment to happiness and of a melting tenderness when she looked at her husband's unseeing eyes and whimsical, self-protective smile.
"In some ways it's extraordinarily like some of his omnium-gatherum parties at Oxford, Sonia," murmured George, as the tireless fingers at the piano passed from waltz to march and from march to Scandinavian boating-song half as old as time.
Mrs. O'Rane's big eyes swam. ”

“ I was often reminded of a chorus girl I once saw in undergraduate days at a Covent Garden Ball, whirling through the night—like Sonia—from one till three, and at four o'clock lying asleep in a box with her cheek on her arm, oblivious and—I hope—happy; in any case too weary to dream what the future might hold. Looking back on the four years of carnival that ended with the war, I seem to find in Sonia the embodiment of the age's spirit.
"You know how that sort of thing ends, I suppose?" I took occasion to ask.
"Oh, don't be heavy, George!" she exclaimed impatiently. "We can only die once." ”

“ Sonoy said sharply. Vermeil stood silent, with the eyes of us all fixed on him, Gaspar laughed.
Then Sonoy turned to me:
"John Newstead, you have been near suffering a great injustice. You have already borne much, and you have shown yourself a gallant gentleman and a true servant of the Prince in spite of all. We owe you much, sir, and your bearing under this charge has not lessened the debt. So far well." I turned half-confused, and saw Gabrielle's eyes dancing with joy, and a smile hovering round her lips. Sonoy did not look at her. ”

“ Sonia, during that same time, was shut within her room, thinking as intensely as he. She had been able, by dint of enormous will-power, to control herself in all other points while indulging herself in one. She had said to herself during those crucial minutes in the cab, while she consciously threw open the windows of her soul to this man in that clear and unrestricted gaze, that she would neither speak nor stir, though the effort should kill her. ”

“ The society, in a word, was healthily barbarian, from our host, aged forty-three, to his over-indulged only daughter, Sonia, aged eleven. Since the days when Tom Dainton and I were fellow-fags, it had been part of my annual programme to say good-bye to my mother and sister a week before the opening of the Melton term, cross from Kingston to Holyhead, call on Bertrand Oakleigh, my guardian, in London, and proceed to Crowley Court for the last week of the summer holidays. ”

“ No one spoke yet, and Sonoy's finger still moved on the map.
Then Sonoy looked up into my eyes.
"There is despair!" he repeated. In truth there was, and little else in the justice-room at Breuthe then. No one answered him, and he leant back in his chair with one hand lying along the arm of it. Then he began to speak slowly in a deep resonant voice:
"We are all of one mind," said he. "No force of ours can help Alkmaar in straits like these. There is no hope in us, as you say. But do not forget—in the last resort the man who cares not what he loses must win. ”

“ Before dressing he scribbled a note to Oxford, and, when we met in the drawing-room before dinner, I heard him tell Summertown that he would be ready to start by the end of the week.
In my uncle's phrase, women are the strangest of all the sexes, and I do not pretend to explain Sonia's frame of mind at this time. Perhaps O'Rane was right in thinking she must be allowed of her own accord to grow weary of the world that Crabtree and Summertown represented ”

“ I refuse to take from you a smaller thing. It is easier to give you up than to face that thought.”
“But Sonia! Darling! You have got that love! I tell you it is just the same!”
She shook her head.
“It cannot be,” she said. “You would feel that what had been once might be again. You could never feel secure for even one moment. I could not bear it. You must remember what I felt in that one embrace. Oh, Harold, I want you to remember that! ”