725 



SPIRE. 



SPIRE. 



726 



spire, like that of the pointed arch, is merely matter of conjecture. 

 The probability is that it arose out of the peaked roof usually given 

 to campaniles and towers of a preceding period, which form was after- 

 wards gradually improved upon and refined, till it eventually grew up 

 into the slender tapering spire. The tower of Than church, Normandy, 

 engraved under NORMAN ARCHITECTURE, may be referred to as an 

 example exhibiting the rudiments of the spire, it being no more than 

 a steep peaked roof or low pyramid, whose height does not exceed 

 three-fourths of its base. A peak of this kind differs also from the 

 spire both in being the same in plan as the tower on which it is placed, 

 and in being immediately set upon it, whereas the spire is almost 

 invariably an octagon or other polygon, and is surrounded at its base 

 with a parapet. In Italy, where campaniles are usually detached 

 square towers of very slender or lofty proportions, the spire is almost 

 unknown, for such towers have seldom more than a mere pyramidal 

 roof or peak. There are some few instances of square spires ; among 

 them a very singular one at Egeln in Germany, where two such spires 

 are set immediately together upon the same tower. But however 

 slender in then- proportions such spires may otherwise be, they have a 

 certain heavy inassiveness of form. When therefore greater loftiness 

 aiiif lightness were aimed at in this feature, the adoption of a polygonal 

 plan for it became almost matter of course ; for although in a geo- 

 metrical drawing the general outline and proportions of a spire are the 

 game whether it be square or octangular in plan, the perspective or 

 actual appearance is widely different ; because in the latter case the 

 diagonal breadth of the square tower below is cut off, and each side or 

 place of which the spire is composed becomes a much more pointed 

 triangle. Besides which, the polygonal spire produces a degree of 

 contrast and variety highly favourable to general effect in the Pointed 

 style. 



A gradual and progressive transition from the mere peak or pyra- 

 midal roof to the slender tapering spire, cannot, however, be clearly 

 traced. On the contrary, some of the earliest deviations from the 

 simple pyramidal form appear to hare produced uncouthness rather 

 than lightness ; for although much greater loftiness upon the whole 

 was so occasioned, the appearance of it was reduced by the sides of the 

 tower being made to terminate in gables cutting into, and therefore 

 partly cutting off, the base of the pyramid or spire itself. Many of 

 the earlier German edifices contain examples of this peculiarity one 

 almost confined to them ; among others the cathedrals of Worms and 

 Gelnhausen, the church at Andernach, and that of the Apostles at 

 Cologne, exhibit many varieties of spires, or rather tpire-roofs, springing 

 up from gable* at their base : and in some the gables are so large, and 

 rise up BO high, that the appearance of spire is almost entirely lost. 

 Such is the case with the pyramidal covering of the square tower at 

 the west end of the church at Gelnhausen, of which the portion above 

 the gable forms a mere capping. In this country the spires in the 

 First Pointed, or Early English style, were usually much less acute 

 than in those of the Second Pointed period, when this feature arrived 

 at its greatest perfection both in design and decoration. The outline 



of spires of this Second Pointed period is commonly very graceful and 

 refined, a well-considered entasis being often given : the spires of 

 Salisbury Cathedral and St. Mary's Church, Oxford, are well known 

 and admirable examples of this period. 



^ Spires vary much in character. In this country a spire set imme- 

 diately upon a tower without any parapet, &c., at its base, is technically 

 described by the term broach. There are indeed so many peculiarities 

 in spires, that it is highly desirable to have descriptive terms for them. 

 First, as regards its base, a spire may be said to be cluster-based when 

 surrounded below with pinnacles connected with it, and from among 

 which it seems to spring up ; of which kind St. Mary's, Oxford, is a 

 celebrated example. The Hotel-de- Ville, at Ypres, has a spire clustered 

 with four exceedingly tall pinnacles or lesser spires. Where there 

 are windows placed ayainst a spire, rising upright like the dormers or 

 lucarnes on a roof, the term Lucarned would express that character ; we 

 have therefore not scrupled to make use of it in the annexed table of 

 spires, where it is applied, among others, to those of Lichfield cathedral, 

 which have several tiers of such windows, and are described accordingly. 

 Where the height does not exceed two diameters of its base a spire 

 might not inconveniently be termed a stump-spire. Crocheted and 

 banded are terms requiring no explanation ; but in regard to the first 

 it may be remarked, that spires, otherwise quite plain, are sometimes 

 ornamented with crockets along their edges ; and with respect to bands, 

 they are sometimes little more than string-mouldings, but in other 

 cases broad and enriched surfaces. Many of the spires in Normandy 

 are ornamented with such a number of bands, that they form alter- 

 nating courses with the plain spaces between them. Finiatted is a 

 term which does not apply to any of our English spires ; but that of 

 St. Stephen's, Vienna, and some other continental spires, have an 

 exceedingly large and rich fini.il, which ornament gives them a par- 

 ticular boldness of expression. The Tabernacle-spire also is one of which 

 there i no example in this country, but of which the one just men- 

 tioned, and those of Strasburg, Ulm (as designed), Thaun in Alsace, 

 and many others, are specimens, the tower and spire being carried up 

 from the ground in a succession of diminishing stages, all profusely 

 adorned with pannelling, niches, canopies, pinnacles, and other taber- 

 nacle-work, in such a manner that it is barely possible to distinguish 

 where the upright portion or tower terminates, and the spire itself 

 begins, the latter seeming little more than the uppermost stage in con- 

 tinuation of the rest. Neither have we any instances of Open-work 

 spires, or of such as, if not actually perforated, are yet entirely covered 

 with tracery. That at Freyburg, and those at Burgos and Batalha, 

 are exceedingly rich specimens of the kind. The chapter-house of 

 Burgos also has a series of very large pinnacles or small spires of 

 tabernacle character. Cambrai and Esslingeu on the Neckar afford 

 other examples of open-work spires. 



There are various other circumstances which, though they do not 

 affect the spire itself, produce greater or less difference in regard to the 

 character of the structure of which it is a component feature. Very 

 much, for instance, depends upon its situation in the general plan : at 



TABLE OF SPIRES, ENGLISH AND FOREIGN. 



