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Essay XLV: Of Building
Essay XLV: Of Building
Houses are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be
preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Leave the goodly
fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of the poets; who
build them with small cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat,
committeth himself to prison. Neither do I reckon it an ill seat only where
the air is unwholesome; but likewise where the air is unequal; as you shall
see many fine seats set upon a knap ^1 of ground, environed with higher hills
round about it; whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth
as in troughs; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of
heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air only
that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets; and, if you will consult
with Momus, ^2 ill neighbors. I speak not of many more; want of water; want of
wood, shade, and shelter; want of fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of
several natures; want of prospect; want of level grounds; want of places at
some near distance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races; too near the
sea, too remote; having the commodity ^3 of navigable rivers, or the
discommodity of their overflowing; too far off from great cities, which may
hinder business, or too near them, which lurcheth ^4 all provisions, and
maketh everything dear; where a man hath a great living laid together, and
where he is scanted: all which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together,
so it is good to know them, and think of them, that a man may take as many as
he can; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so, that what he
wanteth in the one he may find in the other. Lucullus answered Pompey well;
who, when he saw his stately galleries, and rooms so large and lightsome, in
one of his houses, said, Surely an excellent place for summer, but how do you
in winter? Lucullus answered, Why, do you not think me as wise as some fowl
are, that ever change their abode towards the winter?
[Footnote 1: Knoll.]
[Footnote 2: The God of fault-finding.]
[Footnote 3: Lat., no commodity or convenience, which gives better sense.]
[Footnote 4: Intercepts.]
To pass from the seat to the house itself; we will do as Cicero doth in
the orator`s art; who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator;
whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the
perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model
thereof. For it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the
Vatican and Escurial and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair room in
them.
First, therefore, I say you cannot have a perfect palace except you have
two several sides; a side for the banquet, as it is spoken of in the book of
Hester, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the
other for dwelling. I understand both these sides to be not only returns, ^5
but parts of the front; and to be uniform without, though severally
partitioned within; and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in
the midst of the front, that, as it were, joineth them together on either
hand. I would have on the side of the banquet, in front, one only goodly room
above stairs, of some forty foot high; and under it a room for a dressing or
preparing place at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the
household side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel (with
a partition between); both of good state and bigness; and those not to go all
the length, but to have at the further end a winter and a summer parlor, both
fair. And under these rooms, a fair and large cellar sunk under ground; and
likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries and pantries, and the like. As
for the tower, I would have it two stories, of eighteen foot high apiece,
above the two wings; and a goodly leads upon the top, railed with statuas
interposed; and the same tower to be divided into rooms, as shall be thought
fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair open
newel, ^6 and finely railed in with images of wood, cast into a brass color;
and a very fair landing-place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point
any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants. For otherwise you shall
have the servants` dinner after your own: for the steam of it will come up as
in a tunnel. And so much for the front. Only I understand the height of the
first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the lower room.
[Footnote 5: Wings running back from the front.]
[Footnote 6: The center pillar, or, when "open," the well, of a winding
stair.]
Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it, of
a far lower building than the front. And in all the four corners of that court
fair staircases, cast into turrets, on the outside, and not within the row of
buildings themselves. But those towers are not to be of the height of the
front, but rather proportionable to the lower building. Let the court not be
paved, for that striketh up a great heat in summer, and much cold in winter.
But only some side alleys, with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept
shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side, let it
be all stately galleries: in which galleries let there be three, or five, fine
cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance; and fine colored
windows of several works. On the household side, chambers of presence ^7 and
ordinary entertainments, with some bed-chambers; and let all three sides be a
double house, without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms
from the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast ^8 it also, that you may
have rooms both for summer and winter; shady for summer, and warm for winter.
You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell
where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For inbowed windows, I hold them
of good use (in cities, indeed, upright do better, in respect of the
uniformity towards the street); for they be pretty retiring places for
conference; and besides, they keep both the wind and sun off; for that which
would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window. But let them
be but few, four in the court, on the sides only.
[Footnote 7: Reception-rooms.]
[Footnote 8: Plan.]
Beyond this court, let there be an inward court, of the same square and
height; which is to be environed with the garden on all sides; and in the
inside, cloistered on all sides, upon decent and beautiful arches, as high as
the first story. On the under story, towards the garden, let it be turned to
a grotto, or place of shade, or estivation. ^9 And only have opening and
windows towards the garden; and be level upon the floor, no whit sunken under
ground, to avoid all dampishness. And let there be a fountain, or some fair
work of statuas in the midst of this court; and to be paved as the other court
was. These buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides; and the end for
privy galleries. Whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an
infirmary, if the prince or any special person should be sick, with chambers,
bed-chamber, ante-camera, and recamera ^10 joining to it. This upon the second
story. Upon the ground story, a fair gallery, open, upon pillars; and upon the
third story likewise, an open gallery, upon pillars, to take the prospect and
freshness of the garden. At both corners of the further side, by way of
return, let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly
hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst; and all
other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery too, I wish that
there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers
places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. ^11 And thus much for the
model of the palace; save that you must have, before you come to the front,
three courts. A green court plain, with a wall about it; a second court of the
same, but more garnished, with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon
the wall; and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to be
built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces, leaded
aloft, and fairly garnished, on the three sides; and cloistered on the inside,
with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand at
distance, with some low galleries, to pass from them to the palace itself.
[Footnote 9: For summer use.]
[Footnote 10: Retiring-room.]
[Footnote 11: Secret outlets.]
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