240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was generally the favorite one of the deceased. How poetical is the 

 destiny of that tree receiving in its bosom the man to whom it had 

 formerly afforded shelter and, perhaps, nourishment ! 



Between the sixth and the eighth centuries, owing to the increasing 

 activity of the Church in multiplying establishments of all kinds, and 

 to the spreading of agriculture and industry, as well as to the unceas- 

 ing wars, carpentry had widely enlarged its province. Thus it is not 

 surprising that division of labor was applied to carpentry ; and bridge- 

 makers, or "pontiffs," as they were called, after the Latin fashion, 

 builders, joiners, ship-builders and military carpenters were recognized 

 as distinct trades, nor could one division intrude upon the duties of 

 the others. 



Though the middle ages are generally estimated as an epoch of re- 

 trogression in art, carpentry improved. Its military department was 

 naturally perfected by the unrelenting wars. In these an enormous 

 number of workmen found employment. The battering-rams, the 

 wheeled turrets, and all war-engines received further development. 

 In the ninth century many castles were exclusively made of wood, 

 which proved so strong as to increase the desolation of the invaded 

 countries, for invaders set fire to those they could not take. Such was, 

 in 886, during the siege of Paris by the Normans, the fate of the cas- 

 tle rising on the spot on which the " Chatelet " was afterward built. It 

 was defended by only twelve men ; yet the Normans tried again and 

 again in vain to take it, until, tired of their useless assaults, they de- 

 stroyed it by fire. Byzantine and Gothic architecture, too, becoming 

 bolder, afforded carpentry the opportunity of acquiring an incontes- 

 table artistic value; and, if it lost somewhat of its importance in refer- 

 ence to the creation of the great body of a building, it gained ground 

 in the accessories. The interiors of temples and palaces were stocked 

 with furniture ; the wooden ceilings were set into compartments of 

 elaborate carvings ; the doors divided into panels and ornaments ; the 

 cold nakedness of the kalsomined walls was concealed by panels of oak 

 and chestnut, set off in modillions and figures in bas-relief, separated 

 by columns supporting entwined arches. A variety of chests was 

 manufactured ; the holy-lofts of churches, as well as the halls of pri- 

 vate and public dwellings, were furnished with benches and chairs, pre- 

 viously very rarely seen. All this was, then, the work of carpenters ; 

 it was not until later that wood-carvers and cabinet-makers formed 

 a distinct branch of the trade. " Capable, as they were, of accom- 

 plishing many more things than the carpenters of our day," Paul 

 Lacroix says, " and being at the same time geometers, constructors, and 

 modelers, the carpenters of the middle ages must be considered rather 

 as artists than as artisans." 



About the end of the twelfth century, France having grown tired 

 of war, the throng of pontiffs and carpenters, formerly connected with 

 the armies of the Carlovingian kings, no longer found employment. 



