ESSAI I ESSAY
THE SHAMROCK AND THE MAPLE LEAF: THE IRISH ROOTS OF GEORGE BROWNE'S CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE IN MEMORIAM SIR JOHN NEWENHAM ["COOLMORE'1 SUMMERSON (1904-1992}
J. DOUGLAS STEWART is Pr·ofessor Eme1·itus 1n > J. DouGLAs STEWART the History of Art, Queen's University. With !an
Wilson. he co-authored Heritage Kingston [1973].
He has published numerous articles on Kingston architects, Including George Browne, Thomas
Rogers, William Newlands. and Francis Sullivan eorge Browne died in Montreal on 1 His publications also include books and a1·ticles on GNovember 19, 1885. Having been English ba1·oque artists and architects, such as born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on No vember 5,1811, 2 he is said to have been Van Dyck, Kneller, Gibbons, and Wren. the son of an architect of the same name, but no trace of either has been found in Ireland. Indeed nothing is known about George Browne from his birth to his arrival in Quebec City in 1830, but we need not doubt his Irish birth since it is stated in two independent sources. However, he might have been taken from Ireland at a tender age. Only Browne's Canadian buildings demonstrate an Irish architectural background.
There has been a great spate of publica tions on Irish architecture over the last decades, among which are the writings of Irish architectural historians Mark Bence Janes, Maurice Craig, the Knight of Glin, Edward McParland, Alistair Rowan, and others. But Irish architecture is insepara bly linked to that of Great Britain. Hence there have been important contributions from British architectural historians, no tably the present and past doyens of that field, Sir Howard Colvin and the late Sir John Summerson.
The Middle Ages in Ireland saw the con struction through the land, inter alia, of the characteristic tall "Tower" houses, which continued to be built until the end of the seventeenth century. "Classical" Irish architecture began with Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (c1699-1733), who travelled to Italy and on his return became the fa ther of Irish Palladian ism. Yet Pearce loved massive, weighty forms; not for nothing was he related to Sir John Vanbrugh! The greatest Irish "neoclassical" architect FIG. 1. CASTLE GAR, COUNTY CORK, BY SIR RICHARD MORRISON, 1801 .1 J.D. STEWART
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The city hall has nine: two on the front corner pavilions, two inside the entrance "tunnel," and five at the back.7 Wyatt win- dows also appear in profusion on the original five front fa~ades of the Hales cottages (1841 ; fig . 2). 8 At Ro ckwood Villa (fig. 4}, there is a Wyatt window on the left side, and two at the back. At St . Andrew's Manse (fig. 3}, it appears twice on the west side. At Ashton (Cana dian National Institute for the Blind, 826 Princess Street}, a variant on the design of the Manse, there is a large Wyatt win dow in the centre of the main fa ~ ade 9 Otterburn's fa~ade has French-window versions of Wyatt windows.10
Browne's St . Andrew's Manse (fig. 3} dis plays another lrishism, the gathering of chimney flues into one, or at most two, central stacks, linked together, rather than
FIG. 2. HALES COTTAGES, 313 KING ST REET, KINGSTON, BY GEO RGE BROWNE, 184 1. 1J. NOLEN PAPERS. CORNELL UNIVERSITY incorporating them in outside walls. Ac cording to Maurice Craig in Ireland, from James Gandon (1743-1823) was born in The architecture of George Browne the eighteenth century "in a remarkably London, of Huguenot extraction, and (whose large library of architectural high proportion of houses" the flues are became a pupil of Sir William Chambers books included John Woolfe and James treated in such manner, despite the ar (1723-1796}. The latter was the rival of Gandon's 1767 continuation of Vitruvius guments of theorists (like the Rev. John the Adam brothers, who revolutionized Britannicus) shows a love of massive Ba Payne) against the practice, because English and Scottish architecture from roque forms.• Browne also had a strong twisted flues soot up more readily and are the 1760s, making Palladianism in those penchant for Irish architectural motifs, more difficult to clean." Examples of cen lands seem heavy-handed and old-fash for example the Wyatt window. It was trally gathered flues are Francis Johnson's ioned. But Gandon, who came to Ireland supposedly first used at Doddington Hall, 1808 designs for Phoenix Park Lodge (en in 1781, in the words of Sir Howard Col Cheshire, by Samuel Wyatt in 1776. It is graved 1819) and Sir Richard Morrison's vin, "rejected what he regarded as the actually the old Palladian, or Venetian 1807 Bearforest, County Cork." meretricious elegance of the current window, or Serliana, modified by abol Adam style and looked to French neo ishing the central arch, and carrying a Browne used his St . Andrew's Manse cen classicism [ .. . ). French influence [ ... ) is straight lintel across the top of the three tral chimneystack (substituting a window apparent in many features of his public openings. Although invented in England, for the panel) in his 1848 Montreal villa, buildings in Dublin.[ ... ]" Furthermore, as the Wyatt window became especially Terra Nova, for John Molson, Jr., the Sir John Summerson observed, Gandon, popular in lreland, 5 for example on the documents for which were discovered unlike Chambers, "could open his mind fa~ade of Sir Richard Morrison's Castlegar, by Robert Lemire.'' More recently, Lemire to Wren," which makes Gandon's "Liffey County Cork (begun 1801; fig. 1). 6 discovered a photograph taken around side buildings [the Customs House and 1914 by architect Robert Findlay, of Bel The Four Courts) infinitely more powerful The Wyatt window is perhaps the com leview Hall, the Mussen residence, which than [Chambers's Thames-side) Somerset monest motif in George Browne's Kings once stood on Dorchester Street, Mont House." Thus, despite his neoclassicism, ton work. He used it in virtually every real. As Lemire noted,14 Belleview Hall Gandon, like Pearce, had a strong Baroque design he made there, even if it did not had the same kind of chimney as Terra element in his style.' always appear in the finished building. Nova. Also, Belleview Hall's hipped roof,
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FIG. 3. ST. ANDREW'S MANSE, KINGSTON, BY GEORGE FIG. 4. ROCKWOOD VILLA, KINGSTON , BY GEORGE BROWNE, 1841 . OBLIQUE VIEW OF FA\ADE.I JOHN BREBN ER BROWNE, 1841. REAR VIEW. I JD. STEWART
Tuscan brackets, corner pilasters, and "Mr. Crane" was probably Edward Crane, accepted by Dana Johnson, who also dis wide stringcourse are all reminiscent of the architect and builder of the 1831-1836 covered that the commission had been Browne's 1841 Rockwood Villa at Kings Upper Canadian Academy (later Victoria awarded after a competition announced ton (fig. 4). Between the Belleview Hall College), Cobourg (fig. 6) . That structure in the May 28, 1843 Kingston Chronicle chimneystacks, there is a Wyatt window has been aptly described by Katherine and Gazette." However, all four drawings and that motif also appears on the main Ashenburg as "a movingly pure building appear to be by the same hand, as does fa~ade. Lemire's attribution of Belleview with a three-storey Doric portico and two the lettering, which appears on two of Hall is entirely convincing, and an im flanking pediments, an elongated cupola them (note the very long crossing on the portant addition to George Browne's and a solitary line of dentils as decora letter "t"). The designs include favourite oeuvre. tion."'7 Such characteristics are quite un Browne motifs and there is a clear de like the robust masculinity of the Kingston velopment in the fa~ade designs, from In 1977, I identified four architectural Bank of Montreal designs, or the finished complex, even decorative forms, towards drawings in Queen's University Archives building, with its blockiness and power simple, almost abstract forms. A similar as designs for the Kingston branch of ful modelling. Rather, this is the style of evolution is seen in Browne's designs for the Bank of Montreal at King and Wil George Browne. Presumably, Crane ad the Kingston City Hall, and also those for liam Streets (now the Frontenac Club Inn; vertised for tenders in February 1845 as Rockwood (fig. 12; fig. 4). 20 fig . 5). 15 1 attributed the drawings and the supervising architect for Browne, who, building to George Browne.'• The build by that time, had left for Montreal with What appears to be the first design for ing had been given to "MR. CRANE, Ar the capital. Supervision was usual for out the Kingston Bank of Montreal (fig. 7) chitect, Princess Street," who advertised of-town designers: Browne himself had has the same chimneystack as Browne's for tenders for "the erection and Joiner's acted as supervising architect for John St. Andrew's Manse (fig . 3), but the fa Work of a BUILDING, 52 x 42 feet; in King Howard's Christ Church, Tyendinaga ' 8 ~ade is a shortened, flattened version of Street[ ... ]," in the Kingston Chronicle and John Carr of York's 1773 Newark Town Gazette of February 19, 1845. The attribution of the Kingston Bank of Hall (fig. 8). 21 In what appears to be the Montreal branch to George Browne was second design (fig. 9), textural contrasts
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FIG. 5. FRONTENAC CLUB INN (FORMERLY BANK OF MONTREAL), KING AND WI LLIAM STREETS, FIG. 6. VI CTORIA COLLEGE, COBOURG, BY EDWARD CRANE, 1831 -1836. 1VENETIA STEWART KINGSTON, BY GEORGE BROWNE, 1845.1 GEORGE LILLEY, QUE EN"S UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
are abandoned and, above the main en Such dies are also found above the side he had earlier used in a more restrained trance, two Wyatt windows appear. In doors on the main far;:ade of St. George's fashion for the Bank of Montreal branch the building itself (fig. 5), even greater Cathedral, which I have attributed to in Kingston." 25 While Browne's Molson's simplicity and severe monumentality are Browne. My attribution rests partly on Bank certainly follows the "mansion-club" achieved by the uniform use of rectilin the similarities between the far;:ades pattern, his earlier Kingston Bank of Mon ear windows, and by employing a Tuscan and the interior first western bays of treal seems to have different sources. giant order plus an attic, a motif which St. George's, Belfast, and St . George's, echoes the end pavilions of the Kingston Kingston. The latter far;:ade is also in The tall block-like character of the Kings City Ha ll, including the (now destroyed) debted to a great exemplar of French ton Bank of Montreal is another Irish ism, King Street pavilion then only a few neoclassicism, S. Philippe du Roule, Paris, following the Irish "tall house" tradi hundred yards away.n a debt of which francophile James Gan tion, which may begin with Mount lev don would doubtless have approved." ers, County Clare, of the 1730's. While A very subtle feature of the order in the there are also plenty of horizontal Irish Bank of Montreal as built, is that the cor The "extruded" corners at the Bank of houses (and George Browne also fol ner pilasters are set back (unlike those at Montreal are yet another example of lows the horizontal tradition with e.g . the city hall, or in the early designs for Browne's distinctive handling . At the his Kingston St . Andrew's Manse and the Bank); only the uppermost cornice St. Andrew's Manse {1841) (fig. 3), Browne the Montreal Belleview Hall), the "tall links the King and William Street far;:ades . also cut back the wall at the corners; the house" continued to be popular through That arrangement produces "extruded" same feature is also found at Ashton . At the eighteenth century and beyond, as corners, which create movement and re the round corner of Wilson's Buildings is seen, for example, at Coolmore, Carri inforce the distinction between the King (now Bank of Nova Scotia) {1841-1842; galine, County Cork of 1788 (fig. 11) . Yet, Street far;:ade, with its public entrance figure 10). 24 the side far;:ades " extrude" the roots of the tall, blocky Irish country (whose entablature is topped by a trian beyond the giant pilasters just as they house lie in the actual tower houses of gular pediment), and the Wi lliam Street do at the Bank of Montreal. the late Middle Ages, which had per front, which included the entrance to the sisted through the seventeenth century. private quarters of the bank manager on Of George Browne's 1864-1866 Molson's The Irish tall house thus had its origins in the upper floors. The entablature of the Bank, Montreal, Susan Wagg wrote fortifications. Hence, the Irish tall house latter entrance is surmounted only by a "[ ... ] Browne's edifice follows the man would have seemed a very appropriate simple rectangular die, like those above sion-club pattern that had now become model for a bank. 26 the King Street windows. standard for Canadian banks and which
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George Browne's Rockwood (fig. 4), al- tunnels to connect the house and service building feature to be seen at the city hall though not three full storeys, also has quarters. Good examples are Sir Edward is the basement. It is, as Maurice Craig the character of an Irish tall house. That Lovett Pearce's Bel lamont Forest of c1730 notes "[ ... ] a commonplace of English results from the house being raised over (fig. 14) and James Wyatt's Castle Coole classical architecture[ ... ] but in Ireland it a basement, the use of emphatic verti- of 1789-1795. The latter's Tuscan end pa- is much more nearly universal." Craig at cals, including the residual pilasters at the vilions display sunken panels above niches, tributes that practice to the necessity for corners, and the giant order of Tuscan the motif which Browne employs, albeit a damp course (because of the climate), columns, whose lines are continued by fielding the panel, so prominently on the the classical aesthetic of the plinth, and the chimneystacks. The Rev. John Payne west side of Rockwood.28 finally the persistence of the influence had advised against building high in the of the round tower house, which had its country("[ .. . ] it is easy to imagine what At Rockwood there is no tunnel, but entrance on the first floor. 29 The cross a ridiculous and aukward [sic] Figure a rather, a deep cutting on the eastern side section of Browne's early plans for the House of three or four Stories High would (fig. 15), which concealed the service en market shows shops on two storeys, on make in an open Field"). But Irish build trance to the basement kitchens and also either side of the tunnel. 30 That is remi ers ignored the injunction, just as they isolated the house from the stable block. niscent of the galleria developed in late ignored his forbiddance of gathered Originally, as the Farrell view shows, the eighteenth century in France and Italy. chimneys. Maurice Craig dismissed eco cutting allowed one to see beyond to the However, there is also a very early Irish nomic reasons for the former, i.e. that "a lake. My photograph of the cutting was example, which Browne could easily have cubical house uses the least materials." taken in the autumn of 1982. Recently, known, Home's Royal Arcade, Dublin, of Instead, concluded Craig, the practice the illusionary effect of the cutting has 1819.31 reflects"[ ... ] more likely, perhaps, some been completely destroyed by the erec- persistence of the tower-house habit[ ... ] tion of an iron fence on the parapet of Some of Browne's internal planning for at work." 27 the cutting, and the creation of a car park domestic architecture derives from Irish in front. sources. For example, Sir Richard Morri- Rockwood's verticalism is emphasized son's design for a villa, from his Useful by its isolation from other buildings. In While Rockwood has only a cutting, the and Ornamental Designs in Architecture particular, the stables (now demolished Kingston City Hall had a large, full-scale of 1793, breaks with the traditional Irish but seen in Sidney Farrell 's 1854 view; tunnel, which originally extended right single rectangular entrance hall by substi- fig. 13) are set at a distance. The isolation through the whole building from Ontario tuting the sequence of a vestibule and an derives from the Irish practice of using Street to King Street. Another very Irish octagonal tribune. 32 Browne adopts that
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FIG. 9. SECOND DESI GNS FOR BANK OF MONTREAL, KINGSTON BRANCH, BY GEORGE FIG. 10. WILSON 'S BUILDINGS (NOW BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA), KINGSTON, BY GEORGE BROWNE, 1844, DETAIL. IDRAWING : KAD 17 (1): 15 3/4 X 19 314": QUEEN 'S UNIVERSilY ARCHIVES BROWNE, 1841-1842.1 JOH N BREBNER
arrangement at Rockwood (fig. 12) but beautiful site on the St . Lawrence River as ber" recalls the grandest English country works out the spaces more picturesquely "a Cottage in the Gothic style" for (later house planning, which generally includes and sculpturally, as Morrison was to do Sir) Dominick Daly (1798-1868), then Pro a set of staterooms intended for visits of in his later villas. 33 The dished, concave vincial Secretary for Lower Canada.36 It is royalty. In Ireland, aside from the vicerega l entrance of Rockwood (fig. 4) appears in very plain outside, with pointed Gothic staterooms of Dublin Castle, such rooms Morrison's early villas, Bellair and Cangort windows on the ground floor and rectan are rare. But there is a State bedroom at Park (fig. 20). The concave entrance porch gular windows with hood mouldings on Castle Coole (reputedly designed for a was both functional and very Irish. The the floor above. Inside there is a vestibule projected visit by George IV, which never Rev. John Payne in 1757 claims that"[ ... ] and shallow vaulted hall. The basic plan took place), 39 a house which, as we saw, The Porch taken off the length of the is a "butterfly" of four octagonal-shaped Browne probably knew. Benmore's "state Hall is not one of the least conveniences rooms and hall, with glazed cupboards bedchamber" is analogous in function, in a Country house." In that case, Irish filling the angles. But the most unusual even if multum in parvo, since its owner, builders seem to have taken Payne's ad aspect of the interior is the "state bed as a senior administrator, had to entertain vice, albeit at a later date. Maurice Craig, chamber" (to quote the "Specification") the Governor (the monarch's representa citing that passage, adds that in a mezzanine floor, in a small projecting tive) and other distinguished guests. wing at the back. 37 Below that bedcham hollow ing a porch out of the front and ber is a very high kitchen. A very similar Browne's grandest early mezzanine is robbing it from the inner hall is found in rear (though not projecting) mezzanine known only from his 1835 specifications numerous houses in the [I rish] Midlands, appears in a series of small houses around for a villa for the Quebec brewer Colin especially in Leix and Offaly, though most Dublin in the early nineteenth century, McCallum. Its central block, forty-five seem later than Payne's time, an d this including Beechlawn, Rathgar, Dublin of feet square "contained a drawing room, ex pedi ent, w hich is ve ry well adapted to c1816, probably designed by Francis John dining room and saloon. A picture gallery the Irish climate, was much favoured by Sir ston .38 Because of the similar shape and on the mezzanine level was lit from above Ri chard Morrison half a century later.34 position of the Benmore mezzanine, it by a lantern."40 The latter feature is de seems likely that those Dublin houses are veloped from what McParland calls "that Browne's earliest known villa, Benmore, Browne's source. Yet, in its planning, Ben characteristic Irish villa feature, the top is very ingeniously planned.35 It was built more is an altogether grander and more lighted centrally placed bedroom lobby in 1834 to the west of Quebec City at a complex structure. The "state bed cham- which enlivens the spatial interest of so
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and exc itement of Ben more or Rockwood. Worse still, the upper stairway is poorly lit because its one narrow oblong window seems to be an afterthought: two feet beyond the window is a bank of chim neys! That is a most unlikely design for an architect who was careful to harmonize his exteriors and interiors, and whose up per floors, following Irish tradition, are well lit.
As McKendry noted, Bellevue's first owner, Charles Hales, was an important patron of Browne, having commissioned from him Hales cottages (fig. 2) in 1841 and additions to the Commercial Mart (now S. & R. Department Store) in 1842.
FIG. 11' COOLMORE, CARRIGALINE, COUNTY CORK, 1788.1HUGH DORAN COLLECTIO N, IRISH ARCH ITE CTURAL AR CH IVE But there is also "patronage" evidence against Browne as the architect of Bel levue, viz its description, in letters to his many Irish houses." 41 That Irish ism, which Institute Library and allowed visitors a sister, Margaret Greene, by its most fa seems to have first appeared at Sir Ed panoramic view of the surrounding area mous tenant, John A . Macdonald, as "the ward Lovett Pearce's Bellamont,'' is seen (including the beginning of The Thousand most fantastic [concern) imaginable" and at Browne's Rockwood (figs. 16-18).43 Islands), remain some of the most brilliant "Pekoe Pagoda."48 It is difficult to believe surviving pieces of planning of Browne's that Macdonald would have mocked the The McCallum mezzanine design has career. work of the architect of the city hall (Mac important progeny. In his first plans for donald had served as Alderman during the Kingston City Hall, 1842, Browne used Bellevue is Kingston's best-known villa, its construction) and Macdonald's own some very ingenious mezzanine planning because it was rented in 1848-1849 by Sir houses on Brock Street. 49 The likeliest which enabled him to fit extra floors at John A . Macdonald, the architect of Con conclusion, given the present evidence, is the sides in the attics above the Ontario federation and Canada's first Prime Min that Bellevue was designed, after Browne Street wings. (He maintained his exte ister. It was attributed to George Browne left Kingston in 1844, by an unknown rior elevations by running a floor-line by Marion MacRae; Margaret Angus chal builder. between the semi-circular tops and the lenged this on the grounds that the villa lower rectangular parts of his second must have been built in 1838, three years The Irish sources for the Kingston City Hall 44 storey windows. ) In the final building, before Browne came to Kingston. In 1992, far;ades are extremely interesting. The gi Browne builds above the tunnel what is Jennifer McKendry cast doubt on Angus's ant pilastered corner pavilions with at in effect a mezzanine floor between the early documentation and re -attributed tics of the Ontario Street far;ade and the second floor and the cupola. There he cre Bellevue to Browne; she is supported by latter's rooflines recall the front of Theo ates a large windowless, " hidden" room, Pierre du Prey. 46 dore Jacobsen's 1752-1759 Trinity College, lit only by glazing at the bottom of the Dublin (with the updating of Palladian circular staircase in the cupola. The origi McKendry argued for her attribution part to Wyatt windows). 50 Many years ago, nal purpose of that room was similar to ly on the grounds of the canopied balcony James Gandon's Dublin Customs House the McCallum picture gallery: it housed at Bellevue, a feature Browne had used was identified as a source for Browne's
5 the Mechanics Institute Museum. Later on the back of Rockwood. Such balconies far;ade. ' Both have porticos and corner it became the Alderman's Library.45 It, were, of course, common in Regency ar pavilions; and statues were erected (or at together with the staircase and cupola chitecture.47 But the interior planning Kingston, Lord Sydenham's was planned above, which housed the Mechanics of Bellevue lacks completely the variety to be placed) above their central domes.
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/
FI G. 12. ELEVATIO N AND PLANS OF ROCKWOOD, KINGSTO N, FIG. 13. ROCKWOOD, BY SI DNEY FARRE LL, 1854;WATERCOLOU R, 8 X 111 14"; SIGNED BY GE ORGE BROWN E, 1841.1 SOURCE: NATIONAL MAPCOLLECllON, PAC AN D DATED LOWER LEFT: SIDNEY FA RRELL I ROYAL ENGINEERS I 22 MARCH 1854.1 SOURCE: AGNES ETHERINGTON ART CENTRE, QUEEN 'S UNIVERSITY
FIG. 14. BELLAMONT FOREST, COOTE HILL, CO UNTY CAVAN, BY SIR EDWARD LOVEn PEARCE, C173 0. FIG. 15. ROCKWOOD VILLA, KINGSTON, BY GEORGE BROWNE, 1841. VI EW OF CUTIING VI EW OF REAR WITH TU NN EL ENTRANC E. IJ.O. STEWART FRO M BELOW. IJ.O. STEWART. 1982
Another link with Gandon can be seen portico and the other on the King Street [mausoleums] are relatively, and perhaps in the Dublin Four Courts, which include pavilion, which was destroyed by fire in even absolutely, more numerous than one of his favourite motifs, the triumphal 1865. 53 in England." 54 The Molson vaults have arch.52 The Four Courts Liffey front has ribbed vaulted ceilings, reminiscent of two of them, the type with a high arch The 1863 Molson Mausoleum, at Mount the vestibule of St . George's and the city in the middle and two small ones, one to Royal Cemetery, Montreal, is Browne's hall's Coun ci l Chamber and Memorial Hall. each side. George Browne's city hall also signed masterpiece of a very Irish genre: Like the upper floors of Irish houses, the had two triumphal arches with similar as Maurice Craig observed, "in propor- Molson vaults are top-lit, the light com openings: one under the Ontario Street tion to Ireland's much smaller population ing f rom beneath the hollow ca st-iron
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FIG. 16. ROCKWOOD VILLA, KINGSTON, BY GEORGE BROWN E, FIG. 17. ROCKWOOD VILLA, KIN GSTON, BY GEORGE BROWNE, FIG. 18. ROCKWOOD VILLA, KIN GSTON, BY GEORGE BROWNE, 1841. FIRST FLOOR, VIEW ACROSS TRIBUNE TO MASTER 1841 . TRIBUNE VAULT ING. I JOHN BREBNER 1841 . TR IBUNE SKYLIG HT. IJOHN BR EBNER BEDROOM. IJ OHN BREBNER sarcophagi above. The vaults have elab beneficent figures. Christian allegorists in the ground plan of the Molson Mau orate cast-iron doors set in "dished," pictured sirens singing "celestial music soleum. George Browne's use of the concave entrances (fig. 19), miniature ver drawing souls upwards to heaven." 56 shamrock demonstrates his command of sions of the entrance to Morrison's Can Milton follows the allegorical tradition. symbolism and his continuing feeling for gort Park (fig. 20). In 1991, I suggested Since George Browne possessed a library the land of his birth. that the two winged females holding a of over 5000 volumes, he almost certainly seven-stringed harp in the roundels at the knew his Milton.57 The Molsons were also Uncovering Browne's Irish sources estab top of each door might be "grotesques." keenly interested in English literature: lishes his architectural heritage. Hence I Those figures can be now identified as they endowed McGill University with a must now qualify my 1976 statement that the sirens apostrophized by Milton in his chair in that subject in 1856. 58 However, the "neo-baroque" elements in Browne's 1645 At a Solemn Musick: it must have been Browne the artist style were "in tune with the most up-to who designed and drew the "Blest pair date ideas of London and Liverpool [ ... ) Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns joy, of sirens," giving them a seven-stringed closely related to architects [ ... ) such as harp (a reference to the known number Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, Sir Charles Barry, 59 6 Sphear-bo rn harmonious Sisters, of planets ) and placing them in a circle, and C.R. Cockerell." ' We can now be sure Voice, and Vers[e], alluding to them as "sphear born." that, because of his Irish background, Browne was pre-disposed to adopt the Wed yo ur divine sounds and mixt A shamrock pins the swags below the 1840's Neo-Baroque ideas of London and power employ Molson name. Hope is part of their fam- Liverpool. Like James Gandon, Browne ily motto (Industria et Spe). and Cesare could "open his mind to Wren." 62 [ ... ] present Ripa gave Hope (Speranza) the shamrock (trifolgie). The plant is an ancient emblem But the discovery of Browne's Irish heri- That undisturbed Song of pure content, of Salvation, because of Pliny's claim that tage has even deeper significance. Seeing it was an anecdote for snakebite. To dem- how Browne adapted his Irish heritage to
Ay sung before the saphire-colour'd throne.55 onstrate the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, his new Canadian environment helps us St. Patrick used the three-leaf clover, or to assess what is original about his archi In the Odyssey, sirens were beautiful shamrock, thus it became Ireland's em tecture. Why did Browne so frequently but evil singers; later, they also became blem60; and there is Trinitarian symbolism employ the Wyatt window in Canada? Its
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FIG. 19. MOLSON MAUSOLEUM, MOUNT ROYAL CEMETERY, FIG. 20. CANGORT PARK, COUNTY OFFAL'{, BY SIR RICHARD MORRISON, 1807. FA\ADE I JD STE WART MONTREA~ BY GEORGE AND JAMES BROWNE, 1863. VAULT ENTRANCE. Iw STEWART
form was both grand and functional. It had the Molson Mausoleum, the top lighting of the British Empire"63-Lord Sydenham's a noble ancestry in the Serliana-Palladian and ventilation of the vaults through Union of the Canadas-, which, within window; yet the Wyatt window's rectilinear hollow cast-iron sarcophagi is extremely little more than a generation, would shape made it easier to construct. Above all, ingenious. widen into Sir John A . Macdonald's 1867 its triple openings of different sizes gave Dominion of Canada. That year also it flexibility for ventilation, an important In other cases Browne's lrishisms are es- saw the publication of Alexander Muir's consideration for Canadian climate, which sentially stylistic. The gathering together unofficial Canadian anthem: The Maple varies greatly. of chimneystacks at the Kingston Presby- Leaf Forever. terian Manse (and elsewhere) increases Climate was doubtless also a factor in the building's mass and compactness of NOTES Browne's use of the concave porch and silhouette. Browne's Rockwood and the vestibule at Rockwood. Anything that 1845 Bank of Montreal Kingston branch 1. This is the first part of " In Memoriam George Browne, Architect, Obiit November 19, 1885: can be done to mitigate the wintry blast were based on the Irish "Tower House;" His Irish Roots and Canadian Influence >> , a at the front door is welcome in a coun the latter adaptation seems to be a unique lecture sponsored by the Frontenac Historic try where winter la sts four months and Irish-Canadian solution to the problem Foundation, at Memorial Hall, Kingston City more. Furthermore, at Rockwood, the of nineteenth-century bank design. The Hall, on November 19, 1985. (The second part of that lecture will be published by the Univer development of the Irish top-lit bed simplicity, massiveness, and monumental sity of Toronto Press in 2007 in a festschriftfor room lobby into a two-storey "tribune" ity of Browne's Kingston buildings also Professor Douglas Richardson edited by Ste must have provided cooling ventilation derive in part from his Irish predecessors, phen Otto and Malcolm Thurlby.) A more de for the house during hot summers. Pre from Sir Edward Lovett Pearce to James veloped version of the 19851ecture w as given as a paper, " An Original Provincial Architect: sumably to avoid direct lighting, Browne Gandon and beyond. Those stylistic fea George Browne of Belfast and the Canadas >> , also adapted the traditional Irish top-lit tures underlie Browne's greatest Kingston In Regionalism: Challenging the Canon, As bedroom lobby for a picture gallery in achievement: his heroic, primitive style, sociation of Art Historians 16'h Annual Confer the McCallum Villa designs. Later, at the which reached its apogee in the Kingston ence, Trinity College, Dublin, March 25, 1990 (<< Abstracts >> , p. 30). For recent Browne bibli Kingston City Hall, Browne used circular City Hall and Market. It was a powerful ography, see Stew art, J. Douglas, 1998, << The top lighting for the Mechanics Institute personal style, which also reflected the Kingston 'Palladia': Ci vic and Imperial 'Virtue Museum, brilliantly surmounting it w ith confidence and optimism of the era when and Grandeur' at George Browne's Forum Re the spiral staircase and viewing cupola. At Kingston was capital of that "vast portion giopolis >> ,Journal of the Society for the Study
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of Architecture in Canada, vol. 23, no. 3, p. 81. of the Hales cottages in the John Nolen pa- 1979, <
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vel. 132. p. 1152-1155; and Bence-lones: xx-xxi, er's family house, Ardfry, Orenmore, County 50. Craig, Maurice, 1984, Georgian Dublin: Twen 91, 214. Coolmore was built for W.W. New Galway (for the house see Bence-lones: 9). ty-Five Colour Acquatints by James Malton, enham (Bence-Jones: 91) and was the seat Daly also employed Browne to build two town Mountrath, Portlaoise, Dolmen Press, no. 3. of Sir John Summeron's mother's family. In houses in Quebec City, and was in touch with 51. Angus, Margaret, 1966, The Old Stones of the 1930's Summerson sometimes used the him socially when the capital moved to Kings Kingston, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, pseudonym "Coolmore" for his articles (Obit ton. There Daly rented a house belonging to p. 22. See also Maitland : 7 and 23 (illustrating uary, London Daily Telegraph, November 13, J.S. Cartwright (see Stewart, 1991 : 99 and the two monuments). 1992). I am indebted to Elizabeth Gibson of note 12). Queen's University Library for corroborating 52 . McParland, 1985: 162. 37. For a ground plan and an illustration of the that reference. (modernized) staircase and landing leading to 53. However, Browne's arches have an attic sto 27. Craig, 1976: 21 (including the Payne quota the "state bed chamber," see Gagnon-Pratte : rey and derive from the Arch of Constantine; tion). 99, 201. I am most grateful to Madame Ga see Stewart, 1998: 74. On November 8, 1996 gnon-Pratte for arranging for my visit to Ben at the UAAC I Universities Art Association of 28. Craig, 1976: 21; and Edward McParland, 1981, more in April 1984, and to Mother Superior Canada Conference, McGill University I gave a Castle Coole [guidebook]. The National Trust, Bellanger of the Soeurs d 'Afrique for her kind paper entitled « Constantine's Arch at Kings opposite 6. Browne probably knew Castle ness during my visit. ton City Hall: 'Neo-classical gesture' or British Coole, which is less than 100 miles from Bel Imperial Panegyric? >> (« Abstracts >>: 57). fast, his birth-place. The house is illustrated 38. See Craig, 1976: 13, 114-117, 164. in Richardson, G., 1808, The New Vitruvius 54. Craig, Maurice, 1975, « Mausoleums in Ire 39. Bence-lones : 65. For a colour illustration of Britannicus, London, vel. 2, plates 65-70. land >> , Studies, winter, p. 410 (quoted in the Regency bed, see Guiness, Desmond, and Stewart, 1991 : 99). 29. Craig, 1976 : 19. William Ryan , 1971, Irish Houses & Castles, London, Thames & Hudson, p. 174. 55 . Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur (ed.), 1948, The Ox 30. Stewart and Wilson : no. 166. ford Book of English Verse 1250-1918 [new 40. Wright: 118 and note 43. 31 . Craig, 1982: 306-307. ed.]. Oxford University Press, p. 317. I am very 41. See McParland, 1985 : 134-135. grateful to Mary Stewart for identifying the 32. McParland, Edward, 1973, «Sir Richard Mor Milton quotation. rison's Country Houses: The Smaller Villas I>>, 42. Guiness and Ryan: 41; Craig, 1982: 86. Country Life, vel. 153, p. 1462-1463, fig. 2. 56. Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spaworth 43. Stewart, 1976 : 46. (eds.), 2003, The Oxford Classical Dictionary 33. For Morrison's early and later villas, see The 44. Stewart and Wilson : nos. 160, 165. [3'" ed. rev.]. Oxford University Press, p. 1413. Architectural Archive, op. cit. The mysterious objects at the bottom of the 45. Maclennan, Neil, 1974, « Kingston City Hall 34. Craig, 1976: 41. One of the ultimate English Molson Mausoleum doors may be "Pompeian" Today >> , In Wilson, op. cit. : 26 (with illustra sources for that motif may have been the hourglass shaped mill-stones (Hornblower tion). The room is described by "leo" in 1843: porte cochere of Montagu House, Bloomsbury, and Spaworth : 981). "The attic floor is intended for the Mechanics London, built in the 1670's by an unknown Institute, having a large room 50 feet by 25 57. Stewart, 1998 : note 46. architect and destroyed in the nineteenth cen for a Museum: this is lighted by a splendid tury. It is illustrated in Godwin, George, 1850, 58. Stewart, 1991 : 106. lantern of ground glass[ ... ]" (See Stewart and Buildings and Monuments, Modern and Me Wilson: 143) 59. Winternitz, Emanuel, 1967, Musical instru diaeval, London, The Builder, p. 51, a volume ments and ther Symbolism in Western Art, which Browne owned, and which is now in 46. McKendry, Jennifer, 1992, « 'A Residence fit london, Faber, ·'· 97. Queen's University Library. for any Gentleman in the Country': Three Kingston Villas by George Browne >> , RACAR I 60. For shamrock symbolism at the Molson Mau 35. Gagnon-Pratte, France, 1980, L'architecture et Revue d'art canadienne I Canadian Art Review, soleum, see Stewart, 1991 : 104. Ia nature a Quebec au dix-neuvieme siecle: vel. 19, p. 74. (I see Roselawn as by Coverdale Les villas, Quebec, Musee du Quebec, p. 97- 61 . Stewart, 1976 :39. rather than Browne; Stewart, 1991 : 45, 47); 100, 199-201 (with earlier references). I am de Ia Ruffiniere du Prey, Pierre, 1994, The Vil 62. Browne owned James Elmes's Memoirs of Sir very grateful to Janet Wright for providing las of Pliny from Antiquity to Posterity, Chi Christopher Wren (London, 1823). The volume me in July 1980 with a copy of the contract cago, University of Chicago Press, p. 18-19. (signed on the title-page G Browne I Archi for "Carpenters and Joiners work" (Quebec, tect) belongs to the Fraser-Hickson Institute Archives nationales du Quebec; Greffe E.G. 47. Pilcher, Donald, 1947, The Regency Style, Lon Library, Montreal, part of the gift of George Cannon; Marche de construction, October 8, don, Batsford, p. 43-44. C. Browne, 1921. The bulk of that donation is 1834, no. 16). 48. The Papers of the Prime Ministers: Volume 1: now at Queen's University Library, Kingston, 36. See his biography by Elizabeth Gibbs in the The Letters of Sir John A. Macdonald 1836- Ontario. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 1976, To 1857; J. K. Johnson, ed., 1968, Ottawa, Public 63. Governor-General Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bart, ronto, University of Toronto Press, vel. IX: Archives of Canada, 148-149. quoted in Stewart, 1998: 78. 1861-1870, p. 189-193. Daly was Irish (and a 49. Angus, Margaret, 1984, John A. Lived Here, Roman Catholic) and that may have been Kingston, Frontenac Historic Foundation, one reason why he employed George Browne, p. 12-13. who, although Presbyterian, was clearly no bigot. Daly was apparently born at his moth-
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