Note 99 — Chapter VII · THE NEW PALACE AT WESTMINSTER.

Two stories, equal in importance, were not satisfactory. There was duality of design. In grand compositions he preferred, on a base well raised above the ground, three stories nearly alike; but the upper one somewhat more important (as in the Farnese Palace), so as, in some measure, to combine the three. When the three stories differed much, they should be perfectly dissimilar. By making the middle one the principal; the upper, of little importance; and the lower, a mere basement, the eye would not be distracted by three separate objects, but would rest upon the one principal story, by viewing the others as subordinate. When two stories only could be introduced, he preferred that the upper should be the principal, and the lower, a basement—as in the Thiene Palace at Vicenza. In the Reform Club and Bridgewater House, where he could not make the upper story important, he would, had convenience allowed, have made the lower one much less so than we now see it. Two stories of nearly equal importance, as in Whitehall and his New Palace, jarred with his principle of unity.—MS. note W.