226 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[August, 



under its domain, and at length such a thinfr as a 

 ])ninted Imildinf,'-, or a coloured statue, was not 

 broufjlit fortli: and had matters gone on thus, 

 notliing else than classicality would have been 

 seen. Polyelironiy has shaken the pseudo-classical 

 in architecture, but sculoture is still fettered; and 

 though Gibson has indulged himself with a tinge 

 of colour, he must be a bold man who will ap- 

 ply the resources of art to the sublime works of 

 the sculptor. For ourselves, we cannot see why 

 colour is to be limited to a flat surface, nor why, 

 because we like INIadame Tussaud's well enough 

 so far as it goes, we should not like much more 

 a work in which the powers of sculpture and of 

 painting are e(mally brought to bear. If in 

 Haily's Three Graces the eyes had been put on, 

 the hair of the head and eyebrows tinged, the 

 lips reddened, and the ground distinguished by 

 colour, we cannot see what harm would have 

 been done. iSIarble may be a very good repre- 

 sentative of the flesh,— Pliidias thought ivory 

 lietter; but either is a very bad representative of 

 tlie hair. — Who will be the first to show that 

 he can think for himself in sculpture .'' 



By the example from Ely Cathedral, as by so 

 many others, we see that the mediaeval architect 

 was neither afraid nor ashamed to overlay rich 

 car\ed stonework with colour, and the bright blue 





Mg. 2. 



and crimson given in Mr. Colling's first plate show that an effect 



is produced beyond that of plain white stone. Architects are now 

 timidly beginning to put in a coloured marble column or tablet in 

 e.xteriors; but what, except themselves, is to prevent all the re- 

 sources of coloured stones and metals from being brought into use 

 — and where such cannot be got, artificial colour } Many a pimp- 

 ing cornice might be improved by colour, and in the so-called 

 Gothic buildings, flat panels ought to have appropriate heraldic 

 decorations. What more foolish than a shield without charges, if 

 a shield is to be put up ? 



Mr. DoUman's 'Ancient Pulpits of England' supplies a great 

 want, for even this piece of church furniture is now becoming 

 the subject of study. We wish he had said something about 

 foreign works ; but, at any rate, he has given us three-and-twenty 

 English examples, some coloured and some plain, executed in stone 

 or wood, between tlie years 1270 and 1533. All the examples are 

 drawn and delineated with great care, and the dimensions marked, 

 and are further illustrated by the details being enlarged. The 

 engraving (Plate XV.) represents the Stone Pulpit in St. Peter's 

 Church, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, and is described as follows 



"Sale circa 1480. — An elaborately enriched example, attached to one of 

 the piers on the south side of the nave. The panelled enclosure of the stairs 

 is original ; across the coping of which, at the foot of the staircase, a gro- 

 tesque sniraal, in a sitting posture, forms a remarkable singularity in the 

 design. The leaf ornaments are boldly carved and considerably undercut, 

 and are very effective." 



Messrs. Brandon's book is particularly important, for there is 

 now a great demand for open timber roofs, and an acquaintance 

 with the best constructive examples is most desirable. They have 

 evidently given to their subject great labour and research, and 

 they have produced a work which will be useful to the architect, 

 whether practising church building or any other branch. The 

 number of examples given in detail is thirty-five, mostly from 

 Norfolk and the eastern counties, but with some others. They are 

 all from churches. 



Messrs. Brandon have given a very useful and interesting pre- 

 liminary dissertation, founded on their own experience, and we 

 wish much our space allowed us to transfer it to our pages, for it 

 is of a character eminently practical. They class the roofs in four 

 main divisions— 1st. Roofs with tie-beams; 2nd. Trussed rafter or 

 single-framed roofs; 3rd. Roofs with hammer-beams and braces; 

 Uh. Roofs constructed with collars and braces, or with the latter 

 only. As an example of the first division, we select the engraving 

 of the Roof over the Nave of Outwell Church, Norfolk, (see 

 woodcut, fig. 1.) 



"In the churches of the middle ages, a perfectly horizontal tie-beam is of 

 extremely rare occurrence. Where a tie-beam is used, we almost invariably 

 find it cambered, as are also the coUar-heams : even the hammer-beams will 

 be getierally found, on close inspection, to incline upwards from the walls. 

 The disagreeable effect of a straight tie-beam was often further counteracted 

 by having curved braces framed from its underside, connecting it with the 

 wall-pieces ; thus forming an arched support for it, as at Outwell Church, 

 Norfolk. 



1^11" 



-Roof over North Chapel, Wellingborough Church, t^Tortharoptonshire. 



"In roofs of higher pitch, the builders still endeavoured, with varied suc- 

 cess as to effect, to retain the arehcd shape in conjunction with the tie-beams. 

 A curious specimen exists at the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Pulhaui, 

 Norfolk, where the beam literally divides the arch in two. 



"As the Perpendicular period drew towards a close, tie-beam roofs of very 

 low pitch were of general occurrence; in fact, they were frequently almost 

 flat, with no more rise to throw oflf the wet than could be obtained by the 

 camber of the beams. These roofs were oftentimes profusely ornamented, 

 as in that over the North Chapel of Wellingborough Church, Northampton- 

 shire (see woodcut, fig. 2). In this instance, the eastern bay, as was very 

 frequently the case, is panelled, while the others are left open to the raf- 

 ters. 



"Of Collar-braced Ronfi. — These include also roofs braced together with- 

 out collar-beams, the braces simply connecting the wall-pieces and principals 

 together. This style of roof is a natural simplification of the hamnier-heain 

 roofs, among which we have already described some varieties without collar- 

 beams, others without struts, and one without either; having found that these 

 members could be dispensed with safely, the next transition, that of omitting 

 the hammer-beam itself, followed very soon ; indeed, in either of the before- 

 mentioned cases, it plays a very subordinate part — take, for instance, the roof 

 over the nave of Capel St. Mary's Church, Suffolk ; the hammer-beam, with 

 its brace and wall-piece, form little more than a continuation of the collar- 

 beam brace ; nor is it of much more importance in the roof over Palgrare 

 Church ; at Brinton it is boldly omitted : the wall-piece is tenoned into the 

 underside of the principal rafter, the foot of which is likewise connected with 

 it by means of the usual horizontal piece of timber, which might to distin- 

 guish it be called a wall-beam ; the arched braces, which in this roof termi- 

 nate somewhat abruptly, effectually bind and hold the main timbers together. 

 It is worthy of remark, that this roof in appearance and general construction 

 bears a striking resemblance to a form of roof that had been executed at least 

 a century eatlier — we mean the roof over Tunstead Church, the most impor- 

 tant difference being, that in the latter the curved braces are of the same 

 thickness as, and appear to form part of, the principal rafters ; whereas, in 

 the former they are not more tban four inches thick, while the principal raf- 

 ters themselves are about ten. Of course, this observation applies only to 

 the general appearance of the two roofs, that at Brinton being more orna- 

 mental, especially in its cornice and cornice-braces, as well as being more 

 elaborately finished. 



"The next roof illustrated, that over the nave of St. Mary Magdelen's 

 Church, Pulham, Norfolk, is one of the most beautiful of the kind that we 

 have met with ; the shape of the arch, and the general design of this roof, 

 are far more pleasing than in the preceding example; all the timbers are well 

 moulded, and the cornice and purlins fringed with a cresting of strawberry- 

 leaves, the former being further enriched with a double range of figures of 

 angels and flowers alternating, and their positions in the second range coun- 

 terchangcd. The eastern bay of this roof is much more highly ornamented 

 than the other parts, the mouldings of the various timbers are more elabo- 

 rate, and the spaces between the principal rafters are boarded under the com- 

 mon rafters, and subdivided into panels with the emblems of the Evangelists 

 painted thereon: the whole of the roof still retains traces of the colours and 

 gilding with which it was once rcsfilendent, the distinction between the east- 

 ern bay and the remainder of the roof being still kept up in the treatment of 

 the colouring ; the former was coloured all over, whereas the colour was only 

 applied to the ornamental parts of the latter, such as the carvings and the 

 more impoitant mouldings, leaving the general ground-work the natural co- 

 lour of the wood; and this v\as tlie most usual way of introducing colour in 



