If one doesn’t think Robert Ferrars is a coxcomb after his behavior at\nGray’s in chapter 33, then one should after listening to him go on about\ncottages in chapter 33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For my own part,” said he, “I am excessively fond of a\ncottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I\nprotest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one\nmyself, within a short distance of London, where I might drive myself down at\nany time, and collect a few friends about me, and be happy. I advise everybody\nwho is going to build, to build a cottage. My friend Lord Courtland came to me\nthe other day on purpose to ask my advice, and laid before me three different\nplans of Bonomi’s. I was to decide on the best of them. ‘My dear Courtland,’\nsaid I, immediately throwing them all into the fire, ‘do not adopt either of\nthem, but by all means build a cottage.’ And that, I fancy, will be the end of\nit.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From the fact that the Robert Ferrars derides the work of Bonomi work, I\nthink we can take it that JA approved of him. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a little background information on Bonomi. He was born on 19 January\n1739 in Rome, the eldest of five children of Giovanni Giacomo Bonomi, agent to\nsome of the Roman nobility, and his wife, Teresa Corbi. He studied at the\nCollegio Romano, and, according to his son Ignatius, writing in 1808, having as\na child employed himself in endeavoring to solve architectural problems, he was\nplaced under Antonio Asprucci, architect to Prince Borghese. He studied also\nwith Girolamo Teodoli and possibly received tuition in drawing from\nCharles-Louis Clorisseau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About 1763 James Adam, then on his grand tour in Rome, saw some of Bonomi’s\nwork, including drawings in competition for a gold medal in architecture, and\nengaged him to work exclusively for the Adam brothers in drawing Roman\nantiquities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As to his work…. Other forceful features used by Bonomi were a double, superimposed portico\nemployed at Barrells House, Henley in Arden, Warwickshire (1792-4), for Robert\nKnight, and Stansted House, Sussex (1786-91), for Richard Barwell and\nground-floor wings linked to the piano nobile of the main house by descending\nquadrant passages, at Eastwell Park, Kent (1793-9), for George Finch Hatton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See Peter Meadows, Joseph Bonomi: architect (1988) page 178 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If one doesn’t think Robert Ferrars is a coxcomb after his behavior at Gray’s in chapter 33, then one should after listening to him go on about cottages in chapter 33. “For my own part,” said he, “I am excessively … Continue reading
\nIn 1767 Robert and James Adam invited Bonomi to Britain, where he worked as a\ndraughtsman in their London office until 1781. Bonomi left the Adams in 1781\nand set up as an independent architect. He prepared designs dated 1782, all\napparently unexecuted, for several clients, including his later patrons the\nbluestocking Elizabeth Montagu and the fourth earl of Aylesford. Bonomi\nexhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1783. In 1789, after several\nattempts, he was elected an associate on the casting vote of the president, Sir\nJoshua Reynolds. He died at home at 76 Great Titchfield Street, London, on 9\nMarch 1808, and was buried in Marylebone churchyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn his designs Bonomi turned away from the Adam brothers’ elaborate delicacy,\nproducing stronger and more chaste designs which possibly reflect the influence\nof James Wyatt (with whom he occasionally collaborated) and Henry Holland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBonomi’s exteriors, however, were often blockish and severe, unless enlivened\nby a bold feature, such as a porte-cochere (at Longford Hall, Shropshire, built\nin 1789-92 for Ralph Leake, and Laverstoke Park, Hampshire, built in 1796 for\nHenry Portal) or an open colonnaded belvedere on the roof (as at Rosneath,\nDunbartonshire, 1803-8; dem. 1961, for the fifth duke of Argyll).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThis is probably the connection with JA: her brother Edward was a friend and\nnear neighbour of the Finch Hattons who lived at Eastwell Park in Kent, and, as\nJA visited that house while staying with Edward (see Letter number 89) she may\nhave known of the name of its architect via this family.
\nLink<\/a>\nto house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n