In the adaptation of ancient forms to modern uses and inventions, we are often under the necessity of deviating from the rules of true Gothic. Under such circumstances it is perhaps better to apply old expedients to new uses, than to invent a new and absurd style of Gothic or Grecian architecture. At PLAS-NEWYD, where the house partakes of a Gothic character, I suggested the addition of a green-house, terminating a magnificent enfilade through a long line of principal apartments. The hint for this model is taken from the chapter-rooms to some of our cathedrals, where an octagon roof is supported by a slender pillar in the middle, and if this were made of cast-iron, supporting the ribs of a roof of the same material, there would be no great impropriety in filling the interstices with glass, while the side window-frames might be removed entirely in summer, making a beautiful pavilion at that season, when, the plants being removed, a green-house is generally a deserted and unsightly object. The effect of this building by moonlight is shewn in the foregoing sketch [fig. 79]; and there are many summer evenings when such a pavilion would add new interest to the magnificent scenery of water and mountains with which PLAS-NEWYD everywhere abounds *.
[Plas Newydd, located in Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, Wales]
