Casa Loma and the Gothic Imagination

Peter Coffman Casa Loma and the Gothic Imagination

n 1911 , Sir H enry Pell att commissioned the architect E.J . I Lennox to build him a new house. ' The result was the most ex travagant hom e that Toronto would ever see (fig. 1 ). Most Torontonians would say that Casa Loma has a great deal to an swer for. In a conservati ve, p olite city that has always valued dis creet understatement, Casa Lorna is neither conservati ve, polite, discreet, nor understated . Locals tend to regard it as som ething of a joke, or simply as a huge fake. Moreover, Casa Loma has been all but ignored by scholars.' Even Marilyn Litvak's biogra phy of Lennox never addresses the questi on of why Pell att and Lennox decided to build a medieval castl e in Toronto 3 Roger Hall's review of Litvak's book in the Globe an d Mail newspa per

Fig. 1. Casa Lorna, from the northwest. refers simply to "the whatever-it-is-eclecticism of Casa Lom a."' (Photo: Peter Coffman) The purpose of the present p aper is neither to praise Casa Loma nor to bury it, but to give some substance to that "wha tever-it-is" by setting it into an appropriate architectural and intell ectual contex t. The key lies in identifying Casa Lorn a's true architectural lineage. The noti on that Casa Lorna is a "fake" is rooted in a mis understanding of that lineage; it assumes that Casa Loma is a fake medieval castl e. A "fake," however, must be meant to fool someone, and Casa Loma could never have been intended to fool anyone. The architectural and imaginative home of Casa Lorna li es not in the thirteenth, but in the eighteenth century; in the lit erary and architectural movem ent referred to in the title as the "Gothi c Imagina ti on." Casa Lom a is not the illegitimate child of the medieval castle-it is the legitimate child of the Gothic Imag ination. The Gothic Imagina ti on is primarily concerned with rein venting the middle ages; with finding features of medieval cul ture (however inaccura tely perceived) that seem to hold up a Pe ter Cojfnmn is n docto ral student at Queen's Un iversill;, ll'ith previous de mirror to certain eighteenth-century sensibilities. One of the first grees fro Ill the University of To ronto, Ryerson and York. He has published on architectural expressions of that tradition is Va nbrugh Castle, uarious aspects of English Ro 111 nnesque architecture, and his architectural w hi ch the architect built as his own home in 1717 (fig. 2). Van photography has beeu exhibited at venttes in Canada and the United States. brugh Castle is qualitatively different from the posthumous Gothic of his near contemporaries, Wren and Hawksm oor.' Wren admired the stru ctural skill evident in Gothic, while H awksmoor had a deep respect for its importance in the history of architec ture; but Vanbrugh is the first major architect to love the emo JSSAC I /SEAC 28, n" 3, 4 (2003) ; 3-12. ti onal power of Gothic." It is important to remembe r that as well

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Fig. 2. Vanbrugh Castle. {Photo: Peter Coffman) as being an architect, Vanbrugh was an accomplished play wright, for while his Gothic is even less archaeologically accurate {Photo: Peter Coffman) than Wren's or Hawksmoor's had been, it is certainly more the atricaL' For Vanbrugh, Gothic was a psychological entity, as well as an architectural one. This idea is at the core of the imaginative reinvention of Gothic which occurred in the eighteenth century. What grew from the idea was a highly romantic, overtly theatri cal, and archaeologically inaccurate style of Gothic, which would flower architecturally in the second half of the eighteenth century. The first generation of Gothic Revival buildings would later be dismissed contemptuously as "sham" by subsequent genera tions of architects and critics who believed their own under standing of Gothic to be superior. Following the lead of A.W.N. Pugin and the critic John Ruskin, architects such as William But terfield and George Gilbert Scott saw Gothic as the embodiment of their own notions of taste and morality.' For them, Gothic was virtuous while all other styles were immoral, and they believed such notion to be rooted in historic truth. To us, their designs look unmistakably and quintessentially Victorian, rather than medieval (figs. 3 and 4). A later generation of architects and crit ics found Gothic to be a prefiguration not of the Heavenly Jerusalem, but of International Style Modernism-in spite of the fact that, as the late Lawrence Hoey once commented, unneces sary masonry in Gothic can be measured by the ton.• Somewhat more recently, Gothic architecture has been interpreted as a pet rified equivalent of a mystical abstraction.'" One result of that was to reduce a style of architecture that proliferated throughout Fig. 4. Midland Hotel. St. Pancras Station. by George Gilbert Scott (Photo: Peter Coffman)

4 Fig . 5. Finchale Priory. near Durham. (Photo: Peter Coffman)

Fig. 7. Strawberry Hill , Gallery. (Photo: Peter Coffman)

civilization. They are a powerful affirmation of mortality, and of the ephemerality of even the greatest human achieve ments. Those impressions alone can explain the affinity between Gothic architecture and Gothic literature. More broadly speaking, it is fair to say that, to eighteenth-cen tury romantics, the char acteristics of Gothic that had been condemned by previous generations began to look really at tractive. Consider the following statement

Fig. 6. Strawberry Hill, exterior. made by John Evelyn in (Photo: Peter Coffman) the 1660s: Greek and Roman ar Western Europe for over three centuries to a single formula, chitecture answered based on a study of two buildings. all the perfections re In all of those cases, skilled architects and conscientious, quired in a faultless meticulous scholars have looked at the medieval past and seen and accomplished their own preoccupations reflected back at them. In so doing, building. The Goths Fig. 8. Strawberry Hill, Tribune. (Photo: Peter Coffman) they recreated Gothic in their own image. That is precisely what demolished these, and occurred at the birth of the Gothic Imagination in the eighteenth introduced in their century, but those preoccupations were somewhat different. stead a certain fantastical and licentious manner of building: con As is well known, the eighteenth-century interest in things gestions of heavy, dark, monkish piles, without any just proportion, medieval owes as much to medieval ruins as to intact medieval use or beauty." buildings.'' Of all the cultural products to grow out of such fas Evelyn's understanding of the medieval use of proportion is cination, the most widely known is not the architechtre but the demonstrably incorrect, but that is not the point." The point is literature. From the outset, one of the defining features of the that, a century later, a generation looking to extend the emotion Gothic Imagination was its equation of Gothic architecture with al ceiling imposed by Evelyn's values would have used the same tales of melancholy, dread, and supernatural horror. It is that im words to describe Gothic, only they would have meant them as pulse that caused Horace Walpole to set the world's first Gothic a compliment. Evelyn hated Gothic because it seemed irrational. novel, The Castle of Otran to, in a twelfth-century castle, and, later, The eighteenth-century reinventors of Gothic loved it for that inspired Bram Stoker to set key scenes of Dracula in the shadow same reason. of Whitby Abbey. But how did the Gothic of sites such as Fin That is the background to the Gothic Imagination. Horace chale Priory (fig. 5) become the Gothic of horror literature? The Walpole provides its most complete early manifestation, both in answer lies in the powerful emotional impact of such ruins. architecture and literature, in his novel, The Castle ofOtrnnto, and Ruins are not just fragments of buildings. The decomposing ar his house, Strawberry Hill (figs. 6-8). The literature of that early chitectural skeletons are the mortal remains of medieval phase of the Gothic revival is crucial, but it is not entirely

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Fig . 9. Fonthill Abbey. exterior. (From Rutter, courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto)

"literature" in the way that architectural historians typically un derstand the term. Michael McCarthy has stated, "Professional pattern-books, books of architectural criticism and studies in an tiquarianism form the literary background to the revival of the gothic style in architecture in the middle decades of the eigh teenth century."" McCarthy is right to emphasize the importance of the literature -there may be no style of architecture for which it is more important to read the text in order to understand the buildings. In the case of the Gothic Revival, however, the ' text' is not merely a collection of pattern-books and critical and anti Fig. 10. Fonthill Abbey, St. Michael's Gallery. quarian sh1dies-it is also a group of lurid, melodramatic novels (From Rutter. courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto) and short stories.'5 The first such novel is Walpole's Castle of Otran to, published Bertrand: a Fragment" (1773) is an incomplete piece of a story, as in 1764. Set in the middle ages, it is the story of a usurped Prince if the narrative had failed to survive the vicissitudes of the Re whose ghost haunts, and ultimately destroys, the descendants of formation and Civil War. " The playfulness easily segues into his usurpers. The story begins at a wedding celebration, which is satire, as in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818), or Bret Harte's rudely interrupted when the ghost dismembers the groom on the Sed ina Sed ilia (1865), where a young aristocrat visits his betrothed second page. The novel ends with the wrongs of the passed re in her ancestral home at sunset: dressed, but with most of the main characters either dead or clin "My Selina!" ically depressed: "Edgardo! You here?" [ .. . ]Theodore's grief was too fresh to admit the thought of another "Yes, dearest." love; and it wasn't till after frequent discourses with Isabella, of hi s "And-you-you- have-seen nothing?" said the lady in an agitated dear Matilda, that he was persuaded he could know no happiness and nervous manner, turning her face aside to conceal her emotion. but in the society of one with whom he could forever indulge the "Nothing-that is, nothing of any account," said Edgardo. "I passed melancholy that had taken possession of h.is soul. 16 the ghost of your aunt in the park, noticed the spectre of your uncle That novel sets the tone for subsequent Gothic literature. in the ruined keep, and observed the familiar features of the spirit Members of the genre share several characteristics. First, as any of your great grandfather at hi s post. But nothing beyond these tri reader reaching page two of The Castle of Otrmzto could attest, fles, Selina."" there is a great love of melodrama. The genre also has a love of Such playful sensibility pervades both Horace Walpole's exotic content and setting; especially, not surprisingly, an intense novel and his house. The love of melodrama, the taste for me infatuation with the Middle Ages. Underlying the Gothic novel dievalism; the enthusiasm for medieval forms as exciting, exotic is a pervading sense of fear, or dread, even horror; a sense that toys, all these are expressed at Strawberry Hill in wood, plaster, the powers of darkness are lurking just below the surface, and and papier-mache. The enduring impression is less of horror could erupt at any moment. As well as horror, there is a sense of than of fantasy. Gothic, both visually and verbally, has become a playfulness; albeit of a rather serious, spine-chilling kind. landscape through which the imagination can roam unfettered At times, early Gothic literah1re even took on the form of the by rules and conventional expectations. architectural ruins that inspired it. Anna Laetitia Aikin's "Sir

6 Fig. 12. Fonthill Abbey, Octagon, or Saloon. (From Rutter. courtesy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. University of Toronto)

hopes they will think the house "a very proper habitation of, as it was the scene that inspired, the author of The Castle of Otranto." '.1 The Castle of Otranto requires considerable suspension of dis belief. It must be read innocently, with a child-like sense of won der. Its premises, irrational as they may be, must be accepted unconditionally; it only works if the reader agrees to play along. The same is true of Strawberry Hill. A detached, intellectual approach to it will miss the point entirely. If the bubble of illusion bursts, then there is little choice but to agree with Kenneth Clark: "Bad art flourishes in every epoch, but art may be healthily or unhealthily bad, and Strawberry was bad in a peculiarly omi nous way."" But the appeal of Strawberry Hill will never be found in conventional taste. Strawberry Hill is a place where the imagination is invited to come out and play.

Fig . 11 . Fonthill Abbey, Great Western Hall The same must have been true of William Beckford's home, (From Rutter. cou rte sy of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Libra ry, University of Toronto) Fonthill Abbey, built by James Wyatt between 1796 and 1812 (figs. 9-12). Unfortunately, sloppy construction methods, exacer For those who read between the lines, it is clear that the con bated by Beckford's impatience to see the job done, brought nection between Walpole's novel and his house is more concrete about Fonthill's collapse in 1825. Fortunately, numerous descrip than simply a shared sensibility. In one passage that has become tions survive, along with illustrations published in 1823, to con a cliche of the horror genre, a figure depicted in an ancestral por vey a vivid sense of the Abbey at its brief but sensational zenith.'' trait comes to life and "descends on the floor with a grave and If the element of sublime horror was a little understated at melancholy air." " The spectre then leads Prince Manfred through Strawberry Hill, the same cannot be said of Fonthill Abbey. Beck a room called the "Gallery," and disappears through a locked ford knew of Walpole, and of Strawberry Hill, and despised door into what is referred to as a "chamber on the right." The them both: "The place was a miserable child's box-a species of "Gallery" seems to be based on the gallery at Strawberry Hill Gothic mousetrap-a reflection of Walpole's littleness."'• That (fig. 7), which was under construction as Otranto was being pub being said, it must be admitted that some aspects of Fonthill, lished. Walpole, in his 1784 description of his house and its con such as St. Michael's Gallery (fig. 10), show an obvious debt to tents, admits that a portrait hanging in the Gallery of Henry Strawberry Hill. However, as Beckford's comments on Strawber Carey Lord Falkland had inspired him to write the scene.20 More ry Hill imply, he had in mind something much more grand. Once over, when one walks through the Gallery, there is a doorway again, the literary context is crucial. Beckford was also a Gothic that leads to a "chamber on the right," which Walpole called the novelist. His contribution to the genre was Vath ek (1786), the Tribune (fig. 8). This puts Walpole's introduction to the first edi story of a Caliph with a bad attitude. Vathek's main character tion of The Castle of Otra11to into a mischievous light. In that in flaws were an insatiable lust for physical pleasures and a patho troduction, Walpole, who had not yet publicly admitted that he logical thirst for forbidden knowledge. In order to penetrate the was the author, wrote: "The scene is undoubtedly laid in some secrets of Heaven, Vathek built an enormous tower atop his real castle," and refers to several passages in the book, which palace. A few years later, Beckford built Fonthill Abbey. "are strong presumptions that the author had some certain If certain medievalizing details of Fonthill can be traced to building in his eye."' 1 The author did have some certain building Strawberry Hill, there can be no comparison at all of the spatial in rus eye-his own house." In the preface to his description of effects. Beckford's Great Western Hall and his octagon, or saloon Strawberry Hill, Walpole appeals for good humour from readers (figs. 11-12), reveal a Vathek-like compulsion to "out-Goth" not who might be disposed to condemn the fantastic fabric, and only Walpole, but the middle ages themselves. Fonthill was less

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Fig. 13. J.M.W. Turner. Southwest View of Gothic Abbey (morning), now building at Fonlhill. The Seal of W. Beckford, 1799. (Art Gallery or Ontario)

by Sir Henry in Casa Loma, li ke ancestral portraits. The paint ings, however, depict the ancestors of Casa Loma, not of Sir Henry Pella tt. One was a J. M.W. Turner watercolour of Fonthill Abbey, commissioned by Beckfo rd in 1799 (fi g. 13). The other was a Reynolds oil portrait, painted in 1756, of Horace Walpole (fi g. 14). The latter provides a rather satisfying concrete link be an actual building th an tween The Castle of Otmnto and the Castl e of Toronto. Both paint a theatrical depicti on of ings were sold at aucti on on June 26, 1924, when fin ancial one. lt was the sta ge collapse forced Pellatt to liquidate most of his assets.'• The upon wh ich Beckford Reynolds was bought by J. P. Bickell for $2700, while the Turner coul d en act wha t he fe tched an aucti on-high $5100 fro m a certain G. Ed wards of O t considered to be his tawa.30 Architecturally speaking, Casa Loma became an orphan p rope r role in the when the two paintings were removed from its wall s, cau sing an world-as q uasi-feudal identi ty cri sis from whi ch its public image has never recovered . Lord of a great estate, Henry Pellatt's castl e-building aspirati ons rested on a fo un pa tron of the arts, and d ation of sp ectacular fin ancial success. Born in Kingston, he grand socialite. It must made a small fortune in his father's brokerage firm, then a large have been a bitter irony one through hyd roelectric development in Niagara Fa ll s, On to Beckford that, owing tario. Fri ends and business acquaintances seemed to regard him to his social ostracism, as warm, generous, self-effacing, egomaniacal, ru thless, lawless, the stage was filled with or some combinati on thereof-'' Undoubtedl y, in business he was players only once, when visionary, hugely ambitious, and w illing to do anything neces Fig. 14 . Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Horace Walpole. 1756. he entertained his old sary to succeed . In E.J. Lennox, he found an architect whose (Art Gallery of Ontario) . frie nd Sir Wi llia m imaginative vision matched his commercial one. By the same H amilton, Ha milton's token, Lennox, an architect whose im aginati on sometimes d ra w ife Lad y Emma, her lover Horatio Nelson, and a (mostl y paid) maticall y outstripped his patrons' budgets/' must have regard supporting cast of hundreds. With this love triangle at centre ed Pell att as the perfec t patron. It is not surprising that the two stage, the evening of dazzli ng entertainments against the larger became fast friends.'' than-life backdrop of Fonthill Abbey unfo lded like a Gothic Peter The 98-room behemoth w hi ch Pellatt and Lennox concoct Greenaway film." ed became the building that Torontonians love to h ate. '' It is not This was the monu mental stage built by the pioneers of the hard to see why. Towering above Toronto's conservati ve skyline, Gothic Imagination-a stage that is still occupied by Strawberry Pell att and Lennox erected an a rchitectural leviathan to rival Hill. Ex it Wa lpole, w ith his death in 1797. Exit Fonthill Abbey, Dracula's castle. At the time of th e castle's completi on, most of which collapsed in 1825, and Beckford, w ho died in 1844. In 1911 , Toronto unfo lded from the bottom of Casa Lorna's spectacular enter Casa Lom a. hillside site southward toward Lake O ntario-nestled, as it were, The patron, Sir Henry Pell att (1859-1 939), never wrote a at the castle's feet. This strong visual impression of almost fe u gothic novel. Pellatt was a hugely successful businessm an who dal dominati on persists today, in spite of the city's subsequent filled his spare moments w ith athleti c and military pursuits; it northward expansion and growth of its dow ntown core. could not be stated with any confidence that he ever even read a From w hatever direction it is approached, Casa Lorn a's Gothic novel." Whether his fri end and architect, E.J. Lennox asymmetry is striking. According to Michael McCarthy, the most (1854-1933), ever did so is not recorded . However, that Casa revolutionary feature of Strawberry Hill was not its medieval Lo ma is firmly and consciously located w ithin the architectural ism, which was a growing fas hion of the mid-eighteenth centu and literary tradition of Wa lpole and Beckford is clearly demon ry, but its conscious asymmetry, which integrated theories of the strated by two paintings, now in the collection of the Art Gallery picturesque w ith medievali st taste." With an extra centu ry and a of O ntario. These two paintings had been purchased (presum half of picturesque design to draw from for inspiration (as well ably in England, although the detail s are not recorded ) and hung as other major ni neteenth-century intermediaries, such as

8 PETER COFFMAN 1!1~1!111J81:t'l!1~1~··81~:t

Fig. 15. Casa Lama , from the south. (Photo: Peter Coffman)

Neuschwanstein), it is not sur prising that Casa Lorn a's asymmetry is far bolder than that of Strawberry Hill. The view of the castle, which Torontonians d rive by on Austen Terrace, consists of a spectacularly uneven massing of rooflines, turrets, gables, and chimneys, fl anked by an immense round tower to the east and a somewhat sm aller one to the west (fi g. 15). The castle's main entrance is nes tl ed among a highly pictur esque grouping of rectilinear and curvilinear forms. Th at asymmetry is not only in keeping with the well established taste for the pi c turesque. It is also fundamental to Lennox's per sonality as a designer, or at least as one persistent aspect of it. At Casa Lorn a, as at Toronto's "Old" City Hall (1 887-99) or the Massey Mau soleum (1892), also designed by Lennox, the architectural ex terior is treated as a mas sive, sculptural surface to be chisell ed and penetrated in a formidable variety of ingen ious ways. Nowhere is Lennox's virtuosity with mass Fig . 16. casa Lama . the Round Room. and surface more evident than (Photo: Pet« Coffman) at Casa Lorn a. After such an imposing display of feudal grandeur on the (fi g. 17). These and other examples notwithstanding, however, exterior, it comes as something of a surprise that many of the in the medievalist illusion still dominates. On the ground fl oor is terior spaces are in fact classically detailed. 36 The so-called the enormous, two-storey Great Hall, complete with a hammer "round room" is decorated with classical mouldin gs and egg beam roof (fig. 18). It is separated from a long, groin-vaulted and-dart (fi g. 16). The same is true of Lady Pellatt's suite of corridor ("Peacock Alley") by two levels of arcading decorated rooms, which is also a wonderfully lyrical exploration of pictur with grotesque corbels (fig. 19). Mid-way up the east wall of the esque spati al groupings- showing that what Lennox achieved great hall is a shallow balcony that opens up directly into with mass on the exteri or, he achieved with space in the interior Pellatt's bedroom suite. From this elevated vantage point, Sir Henry could survey the immense grandeur of his world, like a

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Fig . 17. Casa Lorna, Lady Pellatt's Suite. {Photo: Peter Coffman)

latter-day Charlemagne gazing down from the throne of his Palace Chapel.37 Like Strawberry Hill and Fonthill Abbey, Casa Lorna re quires complete suspension of disbelief. It must be regarded not as a fake, but as a work of fiction, to which words like "fake" and "real" do not apply. The reality behind Casa Lorna is not generally understood by Torontonians, but it is well un derstood by the motion picture industry, which not only recog nizes the Castle's true calling, but regularly allows it to do its proper job, which is to act as stage scenery for dramatic produc tions (in fig. 20, the castle is used as the setting for an episode of the children's television show Goosebumps, entitled "A Night in Terror Tower"). For Lennox, the combination of architectural literacy and imaginative extravagance seen at Casa Lorna would not have been a stretch at all. Many of his more ambitious works-such as the double-cube "Pantheonesque" bank at 205 Yonge or the Massey's Romanesque two-celled 'chapel' in Mount Pleasant Cemetery-demonstrate not only a considerable fluency with ar chitectural languages from the past, but an ability to make new and unique statements in those languages. The denouement is (almost) tragic enough for a Gothic novel. After living for ten years in the not quite completed castle, Pellatt fell victim to a combination of hydro nationalization and a revised tax assessment on his home. He died, virtually penni less, in Mirnico in 1939.38 In the movie Dead Poets ' Society, there is a scene where Robin Williams' students, their imaginations emancipated by poetry and inspiring teaching, run through the school grounds by moonlight-surrounded, not coincidentally, by Gothic architec ture. From Walplole's time to our own, Gothic has seemed the ideal architectural analogue to the wildest flights of the imagina tion. It has become the architectural language of the irrational; the naturalized setting of those who dream big and plunge into the unknown. Between Walpole and Pellatt, another generation briefly but spectacularly appropriated Gothic, imposed the light of reason upon it, and proclaimed it, in Ruskin's words, "the only ra tional architecture" (his italics).39 Thus was Mr. Hyde trans formed into Doctor Jekyll. Gothic, however, never lost its associ Fig . 18. Casa Lorna, the Great Hall. (Photo: Peter Coffman) ations with emotional melodrama. John Evelyn's "certain

10 Fig . 19. Casa Lorna , Peacock Alley, detail. (Photo: Peter Coffman)

fantastical and licentious manner" was ideall y suited to Pellatt's aspirations and Lennox's imagination. Classical restraint would have been unthinkable. Gothic suited Pellatt and Le1mox be cause it reached for the stars, revelled in drama, and, like them, acknowledged no rules.

Notes Tower, Oxford, in w hich Gothic was adopted to harmonize with would li ke to thank Dr. the existing gate. Similarl y, Katha rine Lochnan, Mr. David H awksmoor's towers at Westmin Wistow, Ms. Ma ia-Mari Sutnik, ster Abbey blend w ith the and Ms. Faye van Horne of the medieval work, although at All Art Gallery of Ontario for their Souls College, Oxford, he help and insights; I would also like designed an entirely new building to thank the AGO's Photo in Gothic. Resources Department for permis sion to reproduce the Reynolds 6. The literature on these three and Turner paintings. I am grate architects is extensive. Standard fu l to Mr. Emrys Evans and Ms. monographs include Downes, Katharine Martyn of the Thomas Kerry, 1959, Hawksmoor, London, Fisher Rare Book Library, Univer A. Zwemmer, 296 p.; see also de Ia si ty of Toronto, for permission to Ruffiniere du Prey, Pierre, 2000, photograph and reproduce john Hawksntaor 's London Churches, Rutter's illustrations of Fonthill Chicago, Chicago University Abbey. Permission to photograph Press, 170 p.; on Vanbrugh see Casa Loma and Strawberry Hill Downes, Kerry, 1987, Sir folw Van was kindly granted by Ms. Vir brugh: a Biography, London, Sidg ginia Cooper of Casa Loma and wick and Jackson, 560 p.; on Wren Ms. Noreen Evans of Strawberry see Whinney, Margaret, 1971, Fig . 20. Casa Lorna , temporaril y named ~ Terror Tower" for an episode of the television show, Wren, London, Thames and Hud Goosebumps. Hill Enterpri ses Limited. I am (Photo: Peter Coffman) especially grateful to Professor son, 216 p. and Summerson, john, Malcolm Thurlby for his help and 1965, Sir Christopher Wren, Lon encou ragernent. don, Collier, 159 p. Wren's atti tude toward Gothic can be dis 31 p .; and The True Principles of Look at Medieval Architecture7 » , 1. On H enry Pell att, see cerned in hi s reports on the fabric Pointed or Christian Architec tu re, unpublished paper presented at Oreskovitch, Carli e, 1996, The Ki11 g of Salisbury Cathedral and West (first published 1841, reprinted the University of Wisconsin-Mil of Casa Loma, Toronto and New minster Abbey (Wren Society, vol. 1969, Frome, Somerset, St. Barn waukee. York, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 257 XI), and his discussion of the Tom abas Press), 56 p.; Ruskin, John's, 10. See Panofsky, Erwin, 1946, p. Tower (Wren Socie ty, Oxford, The Seven Lamps of Architect ure, Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church 2. Guidebooks, however, Oxford University Press, 20 vols., (first published 1849, reprinted of St. Denis and its Art Treasures, abound. See Freeman, Bill, 1998, 1924-43, vol. XI) and his discus 1989, New York Dover Publi ca Princeton, Princeton University Casa Loma: Canada 's fairy- tale castle sion of the Tom Tower (Wren Soci tions), 222 p.; and The Stones of Press, 250 p. and von Simson, and its owner, Sir Henry Pel/all; pho ety, vol. V). Venice, The Sto1res of Venice; (first Otto, 1956, The Gothic Cathedral, tography by Vince nzo Pietropaolo, 7. His major literary works published 1851-1853, republished New York, Pantheon Books, 307 p. Toronto, James Lorimer, 72 p. 2001, London, The Folio Society), were Tire Relapse, or, Virtue in Dan 11. See Clark, Kenneth, The Goth 350 p.; and Scott, George Gilbert, 3. See Litvak, Marilyn M., 1995, ger (1696) and The Provok'd Wife ic Revival, (first published 1928, 1853, Remarks 011 Secular and Edward fames Lennox: "Builder of (1697). Both plays were attacked London (Constable), third edition, Domestic Architectul'e, London, Toronto", Toronto, Dundurn Press, for immorality. London, john Murray, 1962), John Murray, 290 p. 11 8 p., p. 58-62. 8. Seminal versions of that 236 p . 9. Hoey, Lawrence, 1994, 4. Globe and Mail, December 16, widely held attitude can be found 12. Quoted from A lec Clifton << Modernism, Postmodernism, 1995. in Pugin, A.W.N.'s Contrasts (first Ta ylor, 1967, The Cathedrals of Eng and the Heavenly Jerusalem: How 5. The most visible example of a publi shed 1836, reprinted 1969, land, London, Thames and Hud Does (Should) the 20"' Century Gothic Wren design is the Tom New York, Humanities Press), son, 288 p., p. 11.

11 JSSAC I JSEAC 28. n ~ 3. 4 C2003l

13. For example, see Fernie, Eric, 22. The first to make that connec 36. In fact, Lennox was also very 1976. << The Ground Plan of Nor tion was Megan Aldrich (p. 67). fluent with classical forms, as can wich Cathedral and the Square 23. Three Gothic Novels, 1784 : iv. be seen in buildings such as his Root of Two », Journal of the British Bank of Toronto (1905); the Power 24. Clark : 64. Archaeological Association, vol. house for the Electrical Develop CXXIX, p. 77-86; Fernie, Eric, 25. Illustrations of Fonthill are ment Company (also built for Pel 1979, « Observations on the Nor from Rutter, John, 1823, Delin latt, 1904-1912); and some of the man Plan of Ely Cathedral >>, ea tions of Fonthi/1 and its Abbey: An interiors of the otherwise magnifi Medieval Art and Architecture at Ely lllustrated History and Description of cently Richardsonian Romanesque Cathedral, London, British Archae Fonthi/1 Abbey (Shaftsbury, William 'Old' City Hall, Toronto. Beckford, 1823, 127 p.), courtesy ological Association, 98 p.; 37. Alas, Pellatt never got to play of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book McCague, Hugh, 1992, Durham Charlemagne in quite that way: Library, University of Toronto. Ca thedral and Medieval Architecture: his bedroom was not completely Manifes tation of the Sacred through 26. Quoted from Fothergill, Bri finished until after he left Casa Number and Geometry, unpub an, 1979, Beckford of Fonthi/1, Lon Lorna, and Sir Henry never got to lished master's thesis, York Uni don & Boston, Faber and Faber, enjoy the view (see Oreskovich versity. 387 p., p. 267. 133). 14. McCarthy, Michael, 1987, The 27. The soiree took place on 38. Ibid. : 238-244. Origins of the Gothic Revival, New December 20, 1800. See 39. Ruskin, 2001 : 142. Haven and London, Yale Universi Fothergill : 262; see also Hudson, ty Press, 212 p., p. 4. Roger, ed ., 1994, Nelson and Emma 15. More recent surveys of the (London, The Folio Society, 256 Gothic revival have been more p.) in which an extraordinary eye successful at integrating that liter witness account from The Gentle ature with the architecture. See man 's Magazine is reproduced on Aldrich, Megan, 1994, Gothic pages 168-170. Revival, London, Phaidon Press, 28. According to Carlie 240 p.; Brooks, Chris, 1999, The Oreskovich, Pellatt's library could Gothic Revival, London, Phaidon hold 10,000 books, but never held Press, 447 p.; and especially more than a few hundred Lewis, Michael, 2002, The Goth ic (Oreskovich : 134). Revival, London, Thames and 29. For an account of the auction, Hudson, 208 p. see Oreskovitch : 205-218. 16. From the Penguin edition of 30. Reported in Th e Evening The Cas tle of Otranto in Peter Fair Telegrmn, Friday, June 27, 1924. clough, ed ., 1968, Three Gothic Nov els, H armondsworth, Penguin, 31. See Oreskovich, especially 505 p., p. 148. chapters 4-9. 17. Aikin, Anna Laetitia, 1992, 32. That was especially true at << Sir Bertrand: a Fragment >>, 'Old' City Hall. See Litvak : 33-51 . reproduced in Chris Baldick, ed., 33. See Oreskovich : 138. Th e Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, 34. That is not a new phenome Oxford, Oxford University Press, non. On the subject of Pellatt's 533 p., p. 3-6. financial distress, which necessi 18. Ibid, p. 158. tated the liquidation of most of his 19. Three Gothic Novels, 1968 : 60. assets, William Dendy has com mented, "Toronto, which had nev 20. Walpole, Horace, 1784, A er understood Pellatt, clucked Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace smugly" (Dendy, William, 1986, Walpole: Younges t Son of Sir Robert Toronto Observed, Toronto, Toronto, Walpole, Earl of Orford, Strawberry Oxford University Press, 327 p., Hill, Twickenham, London, 96 p., p. 182). p. 51. 35. See McCarthy : 63-91 . 21. Three Go thic Novels, 1968 : 42.