96 



This Roman method of roofing 

 is not unfrequently imitated in the 

 present day, but when this is done 

 it is supposed to be effected by 

 merely making an escalloped or 

 lozenge-shaped base, as Pig. 2 ; but 

 this plan, it will be seen, does not 

 render a roof so Hght as it would 

 be, if the sides had been taken off, 

 as marked in our figure by the 

 dotted lines. 



rig. 3 would seem to show a 

 further advance upon Fig. 2, and is 

 the complete lozenge-shaped roofing 

 tile, but in this the work at the 

 upper portion is quite thrown away; 

 as, if the tile were made shorter, 

 the upper edge might be made flat, 

 and then allow sufficient space for 

 overlap. 



Now if we arrange a series of 

 tiles as seen in Fig. 1, we can form some idea of the ingenuity 

 displayed in the manufacture of these Liassic tiles, as exhibited 

 in the Bradford Abbas examples; and I cannot help thinking 

 that, simple as this matter might appear, this ancient plan 

 might be followed in the present day with considerable advantage. 

 It was, no doubt, the method of making the tUes lighter, by 

 the clever calculations by which our tile ITo. 1 was formed, that 

 enabled the ingenious people from whom they emanated to 

 employ almost any stratum they might meet with within a 

 convenient distance, for roofing pttrposes, notwithstanding the 

 low pitch of roof in classic architecture. There is, then, no 

 wonder that we should find the same materials too ponderous, 

 even with a higher pitch, without those refinements by which 

 not only weight was lessened, but heaviness of expression was 

 got rid of by the lozenge bases, when contrasted with the flat 

 ones. 



Fig. 3. 



