1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



179 



one minute. The friction increases the labour 2J per cent, for every 

 additional 40 fi'ot of hose, which shows the necessity of having the 

 engine, and of course the supply of water, as close to the fire u3 is 

 consistent with the safety of the men at the lovers. 



REVIEWS. 



The Geometric Tracery of Brancepelh Church. Illustrated by Ro- 

 bert Bii.lini.s. London: Eoone. 21 Engravings. Quarto. 



This work is by the author of numerous puhliciitioris illustrating 

 ecclesiastical architecture. The works of Mr. Billings are Illustra- 

 tions of Durham Cathedral ; of Carlisle Cath(-dral ; the Temple 

 Church in London ; Kettering Church in Northamptonshire ; and 

 several other books of a similar nature. The present work is confined 

 to the illustration of a screen, or portion of a screen, in Brance- 

 petli Church, which is divided into numerous panels, all of them 

 carved in dilTerent designs. The patterns of each of these panels, 

 between twenty and thirty in number, are exhibited at large in sepa- 

 rate engravings, which contain also outline diagrams corresponding to 

 each pattt'rn, and showing the circles and straight lines by which it 

 may be supposed to have been produced. The following extract will 

 give a clear idea of the nature of the screen itself. 



The title plate furnishes a complete miniature resemblance of the whole 

 subject set forth in the following illustrations. It would perhaps be difficult 

 to find in any similar production of art so many designs represented in so 

 small a compass, and at the same time exhibiting memorials of Gothic skill 

 80 full of interest, although produced at comparatively a late period, viz., 

 sbout the year 1500. Various conjectures might easily he formed as to the 

 original use to which the mass of ornament here delineated was applied, hut 

 according to trailition the prototype belonged to the ancient Rood Screen 

 of Brancepetli Church, and was removed to the place it now occupies over 

 the chancel arch at the time of the erection of the present Screen by Bishop 

 Cosm, who was previously Rector of Brancepeth. 



It has undoubtedly been a portion of the crowning member of a screen or 

 a monument, because tlic three divisions are slightly canted (canopy like) 

 and surmounted by a foUated border. 



At each end of the paneling, corresponding fragments are clearly discern- 

 ible, giving undeniable evidence that the magnitude of the original work 

 exceeded its present dimensions. It may, however, be considered fortunate 

 that so much practical knowledge relating to tracery has been bequeathed to 

 us in the construction of these remarkable specimens, and although some are 

 marred by singularity rather than distinguished by beauty, they form in the 

 aggregate a most interesting collection, as they bear in a remarkable manner 

 upon the system of construction employed in the geometric paneling iu Car- 

 lisle Cathedral, which has been completely iUustrated by the author of the 

 present volume. 



Possibly vN-e are indebted to the genius of the same individual for the 

 analogous designs of which the Church of Brancepeth and the Cathedral 

 just named are the depositories, or, if they are not the results of one master 

 mind, they must undoubtedly be ascribed to individuals guided by the same 

 rides of art. Upon comparison of the histories of Carlisle and Durham, ar- 

 guments are adducihle that the former conjecture is a true one, because two 

 distinguishcil persons respectively connected with each place must have been 

 brought into intimate association by their ecclesiastical position, — we mean 

 the reputed author of the Carlisle tracery, Thomas Gondibour, Prior of Car- 

 lisle (1484-1507), and Richard Bell, Prior of Durham, who was Bishop of 

 CarUsle from 1478 to 1496; and our conjecture is greatly strengthened by 

 the fact, that most of the works, if not all, in the churches of the diocese of 

 Durham emanated from the dignitaries of the cathedral establishment in that 

 city. IIe.\ham Abbey, in Northumberland, equidistant between Carlisle and 

 Brancepeth, contains in its organ screen some tracery which forms a remark- 

 able connecting link between the same class of ornament in both places, and 

 was alnmst to a certainty designed by the same hand. 



It is Mr. Billings' object in the present work to show that the beau- 

 tiful forms which Clhristian Architecture exhibits were all produced 

 by systems of circles and straight lines. We give a copy of one of 

 his illustrations iu order to show clearly how he sets about his task. 



In the view of those whose architectural notions coincide with those 

 of our author, the Art of Architectural Design was, among the me- 

 diaeval architects, uot so much the result of vivid imagiHation and an 

 exquisite perception of beanty as in the kindred arts of painting and 

 sculpture; but it was rather a " mystery" or "craft" which must be 

 learned by fixed rules, which rules were kept secret from the public 

 with all tlie jealous care of freemasonry. To be an architect of those 

 times — Mr. Billings and those of his school will have it — a man must 

 not only have exquisite taste and a genius tempered by the study of 

 existing models and masterpieces ; — he must have something more 

 even than tiiis— he must be iniUaled, he must be admitted the incor- 



porate member of a guild, and learn its geometric secrets, or his taste 

 and genius and study all go for nothing. With this view of the case 

 it is cle.ir that the architect could nolle strictly said to design freely 

 — his curves could not be drawn Uberd maim : tho rules by which he 



was to design were laid down for him with a precision and minute- 

 ness quite diflTerent from those general axioms which, in painting and 

 sculpture merely warned and suggested, but did not attempt to guide. 

 The architect must never have approached his working drawing with 

 pencil in band, unless at the same time armed with the rule ami com- 

 pass. 



It is certainly very interesting to know whether there be any or 

 how much truth in this theory. It assuredly receives powerful corro- 

 boration from certain marks and traces which have been discovered 

 in stones of ancient buildings which have been dislodged by violence 

 or decay, or have been necessarily disturbed during works of restora- 

 tion. The modern architect has frequently observed with interest the 

 pencil marks remaining on these stones of intersecting circles, triangles, 

 and straight lines drawn at right angles to each otlier: these marks 

 usually exist in those parts of stones which were covered with mortar, 

 or by the adjacent stones ; and the antiquary who spends his long 

 holiday hours in loitering about ancient ruins and the half falling walls 

 of decaying edifices, soon learns by experience where to search for 

 these interesting vestigia of the skill of old bygone times. It has been 

 said, also, that some of the stones of mouldings have been, uot chi- 

 selled, but turned in the lathe, and that th& centre holes by which 

 these stones were fixed to the " chuck" may still be distinctly seen. 



Such seems to Mr. Billing to have been the method by which the 

 "geometric" tracery of Brancepeth Church was produced. 



Each series commences with a simple elementary panel composed of a 

 number of quatrefoils within an equal number of squares. Proceeding from 

 that primitive form, the centres of the curves being upon the same founda- 

 tion lines, the designs become so complicated that it is by no means easy to 

 decipher their construction, and some indeed, without close investigation, 

 might, by the complexity of their apparently fanciful intersections, he said to 

 have refused subjection to the regularity of linear projection, and conse- 

 quently might be placed among those produced in modern times by " rule of 

 thumb." 



It will bo immediately conceived that if the whole science of me- 

 dieeval architecture be resolved into a geometric system, such as our 

 author would suggest, the limits within which the architect might 

 exercise the fertility of his genius would be much narrowed. He 

 might, indeed, combine his circles and straight lines in ditfering orders 

 of succession ; but his efforts, like arithmetical combinations, though 

 very numerous are not quite infinite. We can no longer look upon 

 him as a poet wrapt in visions of beauty which are called up sponta- 

 neously, without effort, before his " mind's eye," passing in rapid suc- 

 cession in and out of sight, or else preserved con furore — with enthu- 

 siasm, — with the fervour of inspiration as it were— by a hasty skctcli, 

 which rather reminded of the original than delineated it. It is thus 

 that we believe that the great masters of painting originated their 

 noblest works; and those who gaze on the wondious, almost miracu- 

 lous, beauty which our cathedrals exhibit, and in gazing feel that ele- 

 vated enthusiasm and admiration of the master mind of the architect, 

 (without which none can be deemed inspired with the true spirit of ar- 

 chitecture,) will be loath to admit that while Rubens' " Descent from 

 the Cross" was the work of genius and inspiration, the glorious 

 cathedral which that work adorns was itself no more than the result 

 of squares and circles combined according to the secret rules and sys" 

 tern of a " craft" of artificers. 

 The doctrine then, which we here entmciate, has been, us might he 



