1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



161 



after the completion of the Cathedral in 1258, and its design is attri- 

 buted to Bishop Bridport, who died in 1262. Price, in his history, 

 published in 1753, merely affirms, "that by several diligent searches 

 into and careful inspections upon the nature of the work, I find that 

 the Cloisters, Chapter House, and Monument Room, were not begun 

 till the Cathedral was considerably advanced, because the stone-work 

 is not bonded together, as it must have been had all been carried on 

 together, though manifestly by the same architect." But by whom- 

 soever built, it must have been, in its original state, "with its central 

 clustered columns, its vaulted roof and ramified ribs, its light, large 

 and lofty windows, all decorated with stained glass, its sculpture, and 

 a floor paved with richly glazed tiles," perhaps the most beautiful 

 room of its class in Europe; or as Gilpin says, "nothing in architec- 

 ture being more pleasing." The only paper or notice relating to it 

 which 1 can hear of amongst the Cathedral records, is the following 

 quaint report made in 1091, by a Mr. Thomas Naish, clerk of the 

 works to the fabric; with an estimate of the charge of bringing it 

 into good repair. "And first to begin with what threatens the sud- 

 denest ruin! The Chapter House is an octagon of 08 feet diameter 

 built with too slight abutments to support the thrust of the vaulting, 

 the least space of time fthe weight of the former being too little for 

 the thrust of the latter) were not the springers of the vaulting braced 

 together with 8 bars of iron united at the centre, and fixed in hooks at 

 each angle, which hooks are gutted with lead to fix them to the wall ; 

 but by the thrust of the arching several of these hooks are drawn 

 out of their first place, some six inches, some more, some less ; by 

 which means the vault is spread and hath rent the walls in several 

 places 3 in. or 4 in. wide, and drawn the columns which standeth in 

 the middle (being not more than 16 in. diameter) about 6 in. from its 

 perpendicular, and by a small declension further, must in all likelihood 

 fall to the ground. The roof is also decayed, and thrusts the malls 

 outwards and helps towards lis rum. Some of the buttresses are de- 

 cayed at foot, the stones being loose or scaled by frost. Part of the 

 walls between the vaulting and roof is by some former wet (qij. rent?) 

 so shattered that it scarce well supports the roof. The mullions of 

 windows also are scaled by the rusting of the iron bars that are fixed 

 in them, and some of the tracery work like to drop by the spreading 

 of the walls. 



"The cure proposed is, a brace of iron round each buttress, fixed to 

 the bars which now are in the crooks, which need be 3 in. broad and 

 1 in. thick, and will weigh the whole eight, 21601b. at 6tf. per lb. 

 amounts to 54/. 



"An iron band quite round the Chapter House on the top of the 

 windows, of the same dimensions, will weigh 2500 lb. at 6rf. per lb. =: 

 62/. 10s. 



"Repairing the defective part of the timber work of roof, 40/. 



"Repairing the walls between the vaulting and roof, new footing 

 the hutments where decayed ! Restoring the mullions that are scaled 

 and broken, and new pointing and keying of the walls and vaulting 

 where rent, and all mason's work, '.ID/. Total 246/. 10." 



So much for the only official document existing ! The only portions 

 of restoration which I can give Mr. Naish credit for having carried 

 out, are as follows : 



1st. Rendering the iron ties more effective than they could have 

 been when merely gutted in (although not done as he proposed;. 



2nd. Certain repairs to the feet of buttresses. Of all his other 

 grounds of lamentation, 1 see no proof that thev were attended to. 

 The iron band round the head of the windows was never introduced. 

 The defective parts of roof, of walling between the roof and the 

 vaulting, and the tracery of the windows may have been repaired, but 

 certainly not in a manner to do credit to Mr. Naish's constructive 

 powers. 1 am at a loss to reconcile his assertion, " that without the 

 eight iron ties, the vault could not stand the least space of time," with 

 the current report that Sir Christopher Wren introduced these ties ; 

 seeing that the building must have been completed 400 years before 

 Sir Christopher reported in 1669. How far it is probable that the 

 author or authors of this beautiful design would have introduced so 

 clumsy a means of support, (even if they had subsequently imagined 

 their abutment weak) when they had under their eyes the "magic 

 flying buttress" so lavishly used in the Cathedral, i leave the admirers 

 of Gothic architecture to determine. In Sir Christopher Wren's 

 report on the Cathedral and spire, there is not a word as to the Chap- 

 ter House ; an omission not very probable if he had felt it necessary 

 to have recourse to such a remedy. They were probably introduced 

 at a period previous to his, and consequently to Mr. Naish's report, 

 when either the present injurious roof (or the high pitched one which 

 I doubt not originally exited) may have exercised a far more dan- 

 gerous effect in the central column than any thrust from the groin. 

 1 will now proceed to describe the state in which I have found this 

 building. 



The present roof is a flat one, rising to the level of the parapet, as 

 at Wells and as at Lincoln (previous to 1800, when the high pitched 

 roof was restored). It is covered with heavy lead, by no means in a 

 weather-tight condition. The construction of the roof is of the most 

 primitive order, and has exercised a very injurious effect on the walls 

 and on the centre pillar. Its general effect is very much like that of 

 an open umbrella. From the solid spandiil on the centre column rises 

 a heavy octagonal post of oak, 16 in. diameter and 17 or 18 ft. high, 

 morticed into which are eight heavy beams about 12 in. square, taking 

 their other bearing on the solid wall over the buttresses. These 

 beams, which are 33 ft. long, are supported bv bent braces of all sorts 

 of form and substance. The outer ones, which spring from corbels 

 very low down, and only just over the spandril of the groin, have rent 

 the wall in some places, and have occasioned a considerable outward 

 thrust. These braces have become twisted and decayed ; some of 

 thpm have got out of bearing, and have allowed the strain on the 

 centre pillar to become most irregular. The space between these 

 eight main beams which I have described, is filled with soven heavy 

 timbers 12 in. by Sin. most injudiciously applied, the outer ends bear- 

 ing on a heavy plate about 4 ft. above the point of the window, the 

 thrust from which has much shaken the wall and injured the tracery 

 of the windows ; the other ends are wedged and skew nailed into 

 principal binders. Nothing can be more injudicious than this con- 

 struction; instead of throwing the weight of all these timbers on to 

 the eight main beams, and so weighting the abutments, their load is 

 thrown on the weakest part of the enclosing walls. The timbers are 

 of oak and Baltic fir, indiscriminately mixed, and are generally in a 

 pretty sound state. 



The buttresses, which are of solid Chillmarke stone, are perfectly- 

 sound, and show hardly any symptom of decay or settlement; the 

 intermediate walling is not so free from injury, the spaces below the 

 windows showing indicatioi s of unequal settlement, from the greater 

 mass and weight of the buttresses. The tracery of the windows is 

 very much shaken, and the mullions have suffered considerably from 

 the action of the weather and the corrosion of the iron bars. Inter- 

 nally the masonry is much injured, the exquisitely sculptured capitals, 

 and the interesting series of scripture subjects commemorative of the 

 life of Joseph having been shamefully mutilated by the Parliamentary 

 Commissioners and their satellites, who quartered men and horses in 

 these sacred buildings. The walls and niches bear evidence of having 

 been highly decorated with colour and gilding, and there is still a 

 strongly coloured ornament diverging from the bosses at the junction 

 of the ribs. The stone seat running round the Chapter House origi- 

 nally occupied by the members of that body, is in a damp and perish- 

 ing condition. The encaustic tile paving which covers the whole 

 space of the floor is in a verv unsatisfactory state, the colour much 

 faded, and where the concrete foundation is carried round the walls, 

 andthe central pier does not extend, it has sunk considerably below the 

 original level. The windows have, alas, long lost the rich and glow- 

 ing colours which, little doubt, originally added to the beauty of this 

 exquisite room; the last remaining one having been taken down sub- 

 sequent to Mr. Britton's survey in 1812. Although of the frailer 

 material, wood, the old Chapter table (a most interesting relic) exists 

 with less apparent injury and decav than even the walls which enclose 

 it. The Purbeck shafts and capitals in the interior are, curiously 

 enough, more decayed than the Chillmarke stone ones. 



The centre shaft, of Purbeck marble 1 ft. 6 in. diameter, surrounded 

 with its eight smaller ones, 4i in. diameter, from which springs the 

 groin enclosing the room, is still in good preservation, though it has 

 been thrust out of the perpendicular an extreme distance of 4| in. to 

 the east. The smaller shafts have perished considerably, and will 

 require to be replaced with new stone. The simple gioin which springs 

 from this shaft has its ribs of Chillmarke stone, 2 ft. deep, and about 

 12 in. wide : the intermediate groin being of chalk, 1 ft. thick, in the 

 upper surface of which is a coating of fine concrete or mortar, the 

 underside being plastered, and the joints of the stone m irked upon it. 

 I believe I have nothing to add to the description of its present state, 

 and I now pass to the consideration of its restoration. 



The removal of the iron bars to which I have already alluded, and 

 which have a very prejudicial effect on the appearance of this room, 

 was the first point to which my attention was directed, and this has 

 naturally involved a difficult anil anxious consideration, resolving itself 

 however into this one point : Whether the abutment now offered by 

 the buttresses, with the additional power of resistance they will gain 

 by the whole weight of the roof being thrown upon them, instead of 

 being scattered over the whole enclosing walls, is sufficient to counter- 

 act the thrust of the groin itself; (for care will ef course be taken that 

 the new roof shall occasion no outward thrust). 1 was led to suppose 

 that, in the Chapter Houses of similar form and construction to this 

 one, as at York, Lincoln, Wells and Westminster, I might find prece- 



