Still this Italian elevation looks sadly out of place where it stands, ranged against the choir end of St. Sebald's church, and on entering the quadrangle, or walking round to the Rathhaus-gasse, and contemplating what of the old structure has been preserved, one cannot but regret deeply the loss of the rest. The great hall, 80 feet in length, with its barrel-vaulted roof, and its walls adorned by Dürer's pencil, has undergone such extensive alterations, that the old citizens would hardly recognize its identity.

The Thirty Years' War broke out before the Rathhaus was completed, and during the succeeding century, when Nuremberg was harassed with foes without and dissensions within, comparatively few new houses were erected. The old Egidienkirche was burnt down in 1690; and that any thing like taste had vanished from the city of Albert Dürer is too plainly proved by the monstrosity which, in 1716, usurped its place. The exterior, with its unsightly towers, and their caps, its brackets, its pillars, and its pediments, is only exceeded in offensiveness by the interior-an array of scrolls and ornaments of the most hideous and unsightly forms that ever were devised. Either from its shape, or from its congregation, being the most fashionable in Nuremberg, this new Egidienkirche is generally known as the "Kleiderschrank" or wardrobe.

Up to the accession of the late and still living king of Bavaria, there is nothing further to chronicle. Lewis, the greatest royal patron of the fine arts since the days of the Medici, immediately took in hand to prevent the further destruction and mutilation of Nuremberg. A society was formed, under his auspices, for the preservation of monuments of ancient art; and while useful regulations were made to enforce the keeping of old houses in repair, there was at least an attempt on the part of those who planned the

new to revive the old Nuremberg style. Among the earlier specimens of modern Nuremberg Gothic, too much of an anxious adherence to the mere form of the old style may be detected, and even in some instances an ostentatious display of its quaint and curious ornaments in inappropriate positions witness the interlacing bars of the old Rathhaus repeated above the arch of the Bamberg railway station. But the later attempts are freer of this mannerism. Reindel and Heideloff have shown, that it is possible to build in the style of the old Germans without sinking into servile copyism; to adhere to the spirit of the ancient builders, without losing sight of the requirements of the nineteenth century.

I have in this rapid survey kept you within the walls of Old Nuremberg; but this is not because the district around is devoid of architectural interest. The Nuremberg nobles had their castles or country seats, as well as their town residences, and these Schlösser still stud the country for some distance off, though many of them have been dismantled, and others have passed into new hands since the breaking out of the Thirty Years' War. The plan of these castles is various; but for the most part they have a square tower at each angle, forming a line with the walls of the building. Moats and ramparts, with round towers, were also indispensable as a protection in the days of the Knight of Gailingen and the other robber nobles. The village houses have high pitched roofs, and are built of a framework of timber, filled in with brick or stone. There is often much beauty and intricacy in the geometrical patterns in which the beams are arranged. The little country churches have generally an octagonal tower and spire in the centre, and the chancel end higher than the nave. Altogether, except perhaps in the Salzkammergut, I have never seen villages more picturesque

than those of Franconia. Farther off, following the course of the Pegnitz, are three little decaying towns, once dependencies of Nuremberg, with quaint old walls, houses, and towers. Lauf, Hersbruck, and Velden, have all been places of strength in their time, and the beautifully lying Velden in particular, was most successfully defended by a gallant body of men during the Thirty Years' War. The romantic upper valley of the Pegnitz being away from post roads, is as untrod by the tourist as the wilds of Siberia, yet easy enough of access to any one prepared to rough it a little, and travel either on foot or in the rude carriole of the country.

This sketch, imperfect both from the necessary limits of a paper read in this Institute, and from the fragmentary state of my own knowledge, is the result of a residence of about six weeks in Nuremberg. Though much engrossed with the attractions offered by the sister arts, I devoted a considerable time to the architectural antiquities, which increased in interest on me day by day; and on quitting Nuremberg, I found that much as I had seen, a greal deal remained unexplored. Strange it is, that while Venice, Rouen, and other mediaval cities of France and Italy are daily visited by our artists and amateurs, the old towns of central Germany, and more especially Nuremberg, should be so completely neglected. I would recommend to any lover of architecture who has a little spare time at command, to take a run over to the banks of the Pegnitz, and settle himself for a month under the comfortable roof of Mr. Hess, the excellent landlord of the Wittelsbacher Hof. I can promise that he will find abundance of delightful occupation for that period. While Venice is but the ghost of herself, Nuremberg, in externals at least, is still in some measure the Nuremberg of former days. I have seen an engraving of Nuremberg three hundred years old, which in all its essential

VOL. V.

F

features might stand for Nuremberg of the nineteenth century. The old citizens and nobles still survive in their descendants. Go where you will in Nuremberg, every step brings you into contact with times gone by. Accompany me to the grass-grown Egidien Platz, and you will find a group of the largest of the ancient patrician residences standing as formerly in all the pride of civic aristocracy. Among them are the ancestral mansions of the Pirckheimers, the Behaims, and the Holzschuhers, all still occupied by the representatives of these families. Within the Holzschuher House is Albert Dürer's famous portrait of Jerome Holzschuher, with features precisely the counterpart of those familiar to the eye in the person of Jerome's lineal descendant. The old church in the centre of the Platz alone is gone the church where worshipped the Paumgärtners, Pirckheimers, and Holzschuhers of old, for which the "Kleiderschrank" is, alas, a poor substitute. If you require to consult books or maps, or wish other assistance in the prosecution of your researches, you have only to go to the Stadt Bibliothek, where a stranger will meet with every possible aid and courtesy from the librarian; and at the "Germanische Museum" also, much interesting information may be acquired.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL INSTITUTE OF SCOTLAND,

SESSION 1855-56.

No. III.

ON THE PRINCIPLE OF USEFULNESS

AS A

GOVERNING FEATURE IN THE ARCHITECTURE

OF THE

ANCIENTS.

BY

PATRICK ALLAN FRASER, Esq.

OF HOSPITALFIELD, ARBROATH.

[Read at a Meeting of the Institute in Edinburgh, held on 4th February 1856.]

ALTHOUGH it cannot be denied, that during the last few years, we have had better signs of real progress in architectural science, than when the world was treated only with learned disquisitions and curious conjectures regarding the origin, comparative proportion, and consequent beauty of the five orders with antiquarian research in the fruitless endeavour to fathom the perplexing mystery hanging over the introduction of the pointed arch, and with vain attempts to discover when this or that Gothic moulding, and this or that foliated Gothic ornament first emanated from the creative genius of a creative period-I think the importance