University of Virginia Library

87. Morris, Robert.

SELECT / ARCHITECTURE: / BEING / REGULAR DESIGNS /
OF / PLANS and ELEVATIONS / Well suited to both Town and
Country; / IN WHICH / The Magnificence and Beauty, the Purity
and Simplicity of Designing / For every Species of that Noble Art, / Is
accurately treated, and with great Variety exemplified, / From the Plain
TOWN-HOUSE to the stately HOTEL, / And in the Country from the
genteel and convenient Farm-House / to the Parochial Church. /
With Suitable Embellishments. / ALSO / Bridges, Baths, SummerHouses,
&c. to all which such Remarks, Explana-/tions and Scales
are annexed, that the Comprehension is rendered easy, and / Subject
most agreeable. / Studium sine divite vena. Hor. / Illustrated with
FIFTY COPPER PLATES, Quarto. / By ROBERT MORRIS, Surveyor.
/ LONDON: / Sold by Robert Sayer, opposite Fetter-Lane, in
Fleet-Street. MDCCLV. / Price 10 s. 6 d.

4to. Two-color title page (1 leaf); preface (1 leaf); introduction (4
leaves); explanation of plates (1-8); list of subscribers ([i]-iv); 50 engraved
plates.

The plates were drawn by Morris and engraved by Richard Parr
(fl.1755), English.

The subscribers included one attorney, seven bricklayers, twentyone
carpenters, three carvers, one glazier, two instrument makers, four
joiners, seven masons, five painters, one plasterer, and six surveyors. The
architects subscribing were John Adam, Sr., John Adam, Jr., Robert
Adam, James Horn, William Jones, and John Sanderson, while the engraver
Richard Parr was also listed.

Robert Morris (fl.1754) was an architect "of Twickenham," as he
described himself in one of his books, as well as a surveyor, according to
the title page of Select Architecture. He had trained with his kinsman
Roger Morris, the carpenter and principal engineer to the Board of Ordinance.
Robert Morris was associated with both the earl of Burlington
and John Carr, as well as with his relative.

Plate LXXXIV. From No. 87. House with a "Back Break for Part of the Octogon"
(Pl. 2).

Plate LXXXV. Jefferson's sketch for a Hotel, University of Virginia (N-359).

Plate LXXXVI. From No. 87. "A Plan . . . of a Little Garden-House" (Pl. 9).

Plate LXXXVII. Jefferson's drawing for Pavilion II, University of Virginia (N321).

He wrote, in addition to this work which was first issued in 1755
and again in 1759, the following: An Essay in Defense of Ancient Architecture,
1728; Lectures on Architecture, 1734, with a second part issued
in 1736, and a second edition of the first part in 1759, a book which was
based on lectures given between October 1730 and January 1735 for the
Society for the Improvement of Knowledge in Arts and Sciences, which
he had founded; Rural Architecture, 1750; The Architectural Remembrancer,
1751; Architecture Improved, 1755; and, with T. Lightoler and
John and William Halfpenny, The Modern Builder's Assistant, 1742,
with a second edition in 1757.

Morris wrote Select Architecture because he thought that there
were "so few Persons residing in the Country, that are capable of Designing,
something of this Nature might be acceptable." He goes on to say:

Kimball (p. 97) says Jefferson had a copy of Select Architecture as
early as 1783. As Clay Lancaster has pointed out, it was a book well used
by Jefferson.[15] It is uncertain whether he owned a copy at the time of
building operations at the University of Virginia, but he undoubtedly remembered
Morris's use of arcades, and his liking for the projecting semioctagon,
so frequently illustrated in Morris, as in Plate 2 (see Plate
LXXXIV), is reflected in an unfinished sketch for one of the hotels of
the University (see Plate LXXXV). Lancaster (p. 10) has suggested
that the plan of Pavilion II at the University was derived from Plate 9 of
Select Architecture, a plan for what Morris calls "a little Garden-House.
. . . The Dress is plain and Simple" (see Plate LXXXVI). A comparison
of Jefferson's drawing for this pavilion (see Plate LXXXVII) and

Plate 9 in Morris tends to show differences, however, rather than similarities.

Lancaster (p. 10) has also suggested Morris as a source for the
arcades of East and West Ranges at the University. He describes them
as having "long arcades of brick set on square piers. The model for these
passages onto which open the students' rooms may well have been a
Select Architecture plate [plate 38] showing the front elevation of a
`Green House.' This is an open gallery adjoining three rooms with doors
and windows only at the rear of the building. The plinth and projecting
course at the necking of each pier appear on the students' quarters,
which, like Morris' greenhouse, are hipped-roofed." But it should be
noted that the piers of the arcades of the Ranges are rectangular, not
square as in Morris's plate, and the roofs of the Range dormitories were
originally flat, not hipped as Lancaster describes and as they appear in
Morris's plate. Thus, the resemblance between the Morris and Jefferson
designs is considerably weakened, and it is problematical whether Palladio
(No. 92b), or Morris might be the major source for Jefferson's
designs.

The direct use of Palladio by Jefferson as he designed the University
is discussed at No. 92b, but it may be pointed out here that
although Plates 16, 17, 29, 38, and 44 in Morris show arcades, in no case
does he show an arcade of the length of the Ranges, whereas Palladio
shows one with the same number of bays as the longest arcade on the
Ranges.

On the other hand, one cannot help wondering if Jefferson's drawing
for an octagonal chapel (N-419), perhaps intended for Williamsburg,
might not have been inspired by the Morris Plates 31 and 32 (see
Plates LXXXVIII and LXXXIX) in spite of Jefferson's reference on
the drawing to "Pallad. B. 4. Pl. 38. 39," designs which show a circular
rather than an octagonal building.

Jefferson sold his copy of Morris to Congress. It was not ordered for
the University. The library's present copy was acquired during the
twentieth century.

M

Sowerby 4219

*NA7328.M6.1755