1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



16 



pillars tend to interfere with this communion in some degree, the few 

 sittings, so placed as to be out of view of the minister, will only be 

 resorted to on emergencies. In designing and disposing the altar, 

 the desk, and the pulpit, the organ, and the font, as well as the re- 

 quired number of seats, the most scrupulous attention will be paid by 

 the architects to the ancient usages of the Anglican church, and thev 

 confidently anticipate many striking and beautiful scenes and effects 

 ■when the whole is completed, the subordinate appendages being made 

 to correspond and harmonize with the architectural disposition and 

 character of the church. A learned and travelled clergyman who has 

 devoted some years to the study of the church architecture of the 

 middle ages, writes to me thus — "The harmonious effect of Redcliffe 

 Church must at one time have been quite unrivalled. I am not aware 

 of any cathedral or parish church, either in England or abroad, that 

 contains an equal amount of rich and uniform vaulting. The bosses, 

 more particularly, both in quality and quantity, surpass all that I have 

 met with elsewhere." 



To accommodate and afford every degree of comfort to even 

 larger congregations than have generally assembled within the walls 

 of this church, we have made such arrangement of the seats, as shall 

 bring all persons more fully and freely within sight and hearing of the 

 minister; and have also taken especial care to display the complete 

 height and design of all the graceful clustered pillars of the edifice. 



There are four palpable varieties of Christian architecture in 

 Redcliffe church, manifesting as many architects, and as many dif- 

 ferent times when they were respectively designed and erected. The 

 inner north porch, or vestibule — the tower and spire — the outer north 

 p 0rc h — the body of the church, with the lady chapel, and the south 

 porch — we feel assured were built successively, and it is generally 

 admitted, that an older church was removed to give place to the 

 present nave and chancel with their ailes and the transept. The 

 oldest of these members, i. e. the vestibule, is of a date between A.D. 

 1200 and 1230. " In 1207 Lord Robert de Berkeley granted to Red- 

 cliffe church, at the request of William, the chaplain, his fountain of 

 water from Huge well, for the friars of St. John the Baptist in Red- 

 cliffe." Lands were conferred on the same church, about that time, 

 plainly showing that there was one then in the parish. The tower 

 and spire we may safely refer to the reign of Edward I, as corres- 

 ponding with known specimens of that age. According to the 

 chronicles of Bristol, Simon de Burton, who was mayor in 1293, 

 " began to build the church of St. Mary de Redcliffe, when John 

 Lamyngton was chaplain," — (Evans's " Chronological Outline.") 

 Seyer, in his "Memoirs of Bristol" (Vol. II., p. 77) from MS. Calen- 

 dar, more cautious and particular, says, " It was about the year 1293 

 or 1294 that Simon de Bourton, a person of wealth and consequence, 

 who was Mayor of Bristol in that year, and bore the same office six 

 times, built the church of St. Mary, Radcliffe, where the eastern end 

 now is." Here we find it positively stated by one writer, that the 

 church was built, and by another that it was begun, at the above date. 

 To us it is quite clear that no part of the present church is so early 

 as 1291. 



YORKSHIRE ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY. 



Sir — My attention has been drawn to a letter in the last number of your 

 Journal, containing remarks on the Yorkshire Architectural Society. "What 

 is personal in the letter may be safely left unanswered, as the tone in which 

 it is written will be its best counter-agent. 



With respect to the Society, your anonymous correspondent has made 

 several statements, of the falseness of which I hope he was ignorant; these 

 appear to require some notice. 



In his letter, it is said " The prospectus contains the names of two archi- 

 tects only, and neither of them attended the Autumn meeting." 



Before the Autumn meeting, the prospectus contained the names of twelve 

 architects; I saw four present at the meeting, aud I believe more attended. 



Your correspondent says, " Two meetings arc to he held in the year, and 

 from the information given at the la-t, it appears, that for general accom- 

 modation, they are to he in the remote corners of the country." 



Two general public meetings will lie held during the year, the places of 

 meeting being various, and appointed by tin: Committee, so as to suit the 

 convenience of the members generally. 



Again, "All admitted must he members of the Established High Anglo. 

 Catholic Church." It is true that this Society fur promoting the study of 

 Ecclesiastical architecture, admits only churchmen ; but without respect to 

 their peculiar sentiments. No exclusion of any member of the church has 

 yet taken place, and the Society, amongst its 400 members, includes many 

 churchmen of different opinions. 



The last misstatement is, that " the standard for all buildings is to be 

 Parker's Glossary." 



At the request of a dignitary of the church, a list of elementarv works on 

 Gothic architecture was added at the end of the report, as a guide to any 

 member beginning the study of architecture ; in this li.t Mr. I'arker's 

 Glossary was mentioned, together with the works of Rickman, Bloxam, &c. 

 This so far as I know, is the only foundation for the imaginative writer's 

 assertion, " that the standard for all buildings is to be Parker's Glossary." 

 Whether the insertion of such venturous statements on the authority of an 

 anonymous writer suits the character of a respectable periodical, I leave to 

 your judgment. 



I am obliged by your having pointed out in your Editorial remarks an 

 unintentional omission in the advertisement there alluded to. It was con- 

 sidered, or rather assumed without consideration, so much a matter of course, 

 that the architect whose plan should he chosen, would have the carrying 

 out of his design, that no express mention of this was thought necessary. 

 I am, Sir, 

 Your obedient Servant, 



S. Wilkinson, 

 Hon. Sec. to the Yorkshire Architectural Society. 



Leeds, Dec. bth, 1842. 



THE KENTISH TOWN COMPETITION. 



Sir — Should what I am about to say appear too pointed against a parti- 

 cular party, that individual has mainly to thank himself for the pointedness 

 of some of my remarks. When we find a man pursuing that very course 

 which he has both loudly and publicly reprobated in others, and protested 

 against — we must suppose, upon principle — when we see a would-be Cato 

 all at once changed into a Clodius, such an offender has little reason to look 

 for that lenity which might perhaps be extended to those, who, whatever 

 their conduct may lie, at least make no parade of being greatly more upright 

 and conscientious than their neighbours. 



That after expressing himself decidedly hostile to competition, after actu- 

 allv saying, " I have endeavoured to go into t he strongest possible condemna- 

 tion of which I am capable, of the depreciating effect of competition in ar- 

 chitectural design;" that after thus pledging himself in print, anil the 

 strongest possible manner, to be opposed to the system of competition in 

 any shape, Mr. Bartholomew should have liecome, or have even though! of 

 becoming a competitor for the intended church at Kentish Town, is indeed 

 most strange. He cannot disavow those words, and a great many others to 

 the same effect, unless he should now choose to say, that although his name 

 appears upon the titlepage, he is nr t the bona-fidc author of the work ; anil did 

 not even know until after its publication, what opinions it really contained; 

 yet hardly will he re»wt to sucb evasion. He must therefore put up with 

 the mortification of having been so imprudent as to puldish a good many 

 very harsh reflections that now recoil upon himself. Hardly is it possible to 

 conceive how a man who has denounced the whole Bystem of competition 

 in the most unmeasured— even virulent terms, as one compounded of folly 

 and knavery, and which lie accordingly laboured earnestly to put down, 



should now abet it ; a Id not onlj join in a public competition, but in doing 



so, should unfairly eia.le tin- restrictions laid upon others, having good 

 reason to know that his doing BO would I"' winked at. 



In the list of printed conditions, one was to the effect that none of the 

 drawings sent in Bhoutd be <■»/„„,,, l. bul merelj tinted in sepia. This m 

 sufficiently explicit ; there was no possibility of mistaking it. Nevertl 

 Mr. Bartholomew's principal elevation was a coloured drawin 

 lie violated the instructions which Ins rivals bad been obliged to conform 

 to: consequently he ought in justiie to have been put Aon de combat at 



