A gloss from the Type-Setter: the Editor having succumbed to the lure of the hunting field, it falls to the Type-Setter to endeavour to resolve another question of attribution.
Tag: Norris Castle (Page 1 of 2)
West Cowes from the esplanade
‘“On this principle they have proceeded too hastily at Plas Newydd in grubbing hedges & pulling down cottages, for the sake of showing an extent of open lawn in a direction where plantations ought to be encouraged to screen a bleak country,
‘The approaches at Norris Castle are symmetrical and have a certain overriding geometry. There is nothing else like this in Repton’s oeuvre, hence they are unlikely to have been designed by him.
The Type-Setter is to be found in transit. The Nonpareil of the Mall, the exquisite of Almack’s, where now the waterfalls of his white cravat, his silk stockings, his chapeau-de-bras – where his dancing shoes? He is all a-puff, either running upstairs from the editorial sopha to the observatory in the attic where the Professor contemplates the works of Humphry Repton, or downstairs in the other direction. Orders from the editor fly one way, rebuttals and refusals fly the other. ‘Rush! Rush! Always rush!’ he can be heard to say. It is his business to transmute the sparks and ferocities of his colleagues into the honeyed stuff of mutual delight.
Oofy here: Editorial: I hear a fellow speaking. Makes perfect sense. Beautifully expressed. A treat. Then think of saying something m’self, I get the phrases. Jumbled up though. Can’t work out which comes first.
‘If the Bathing House at Norris Castle is in his character and style, we might then ask what Humphry Repton might have made of its location and the location of the other buildings on the estate.
‘If the location of Norris Castle was not chosen by Humphry Repton, then we should not abjure the evidence for settings that he provided for other buildings in the late 18th century.’
A gloss from the Type-Setter: while some will know me as the Nonesuch, the man of immaculate taste, there will be those still unaware of my contrary distaste for the beasts, and other such objects of the field, and hence a great aversion to the outside world. It is to this trait – it has been called a craven surrender to a childish fear, I will admit as much – that our Editor alluded in note 1821, and it has warmed me to my editorial role – whatever difficulties the post may bring to my posture, they are as nothing to the shock of flies on an otherwise impeccable and doubly pressed silk shirt. Allow me then to bring Humphry Repton’s landscapes to you through the medium of his sketches, without the trouble of muddy boots, cow-berries and barb-wire in the crotch.
As promised in my recent note 1820 therefore, I now append the Professor’s submission for the Gothic (he prefers ‘Sondergothik’ – that late form of Gothic peculiar to Central Europe which speaks to the romantic, fantastical and sometimes overwrought soul of the Czech nationalist):
‘Humphry Repton was perfectly happy to work with the inspired idiosyncracies of Gothic design that James Wyatt provided for Norris Castle.
Norris Castle, with every indication of treasure