In the following passage Eastlake, who writes as an especially devout disciple of John Ruskin, mentioning him approvingly whenever the subject permits, here follows the author of The Stones of Venice and The Seven Lamps of Architecture in emphasizing the essentially functionalist nature of Gothic because one can place windows, rooms, and other parts of a structure where needed and the style grows out of these requirements. — George P. Landow.
Mr. A. Salvin, [an] architect whose career was destined to be one of great success, and who, throughout his life, took a conspicuous part in the Revival, came into public notice about this time. He built Moreby Hall, in Yorkshire, for Mr. Henry Preston — a house presenting no remarkable characteristics beyond the evidence which it affords of a gradual return to the manorial Gothic of old English mansions. The windows are square-headed, and are provided with double transoms as well as mullions of stone. The roofs are raised — not, indeed, to the high pitch which should properly belong to the style — but at an angle of about 45°. Chimney shafts, instead of being kept out of sight or arranged in symmetrical stacks at each end of the building, are allowed to rise where they are most needed, and being designed in accordance with the rest of the work, become picturesque features in the composition. Servants' offices, instead of being crowded at the back of the house (an almost inevitable condition in the Palladian villa), are planned so as to extend to the right or left in buildings of lesser height, and thus give scale to the principal front
Scotney Castle, Sussex (1837), designed by A. Salvin.
The facility with which this kind of domestic Gothic could be adapted to the requirements of any sort of plan, or any size of house which the owner might require, was probably a strong plea in its favour. Even those country squires and landed gentlemen who had affected a taste for classic architecture, began to ask themselves whether the dignity of a Greek portico or an Italian façade was worth the inconvenience which such features were sure to entail on the house at their rear; whether there was not some greater advantage to be derived from the employment of a style which was not only thoroughly English in character but also permitted every possible caprice regarding the distribution of rooms to be freely indulged without detriment to the design. [128-29]
Bibliography
Eastlake, Charles L. A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans, Green; N.Y. Scribner, Welford, 1972. [Copy in Brown University's Rockefeller Library]
Last modified 7 February 2008