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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[September. 



without compromising the darling principle of imitation and precedent. 

 It is indeed strange, that so little advantage should have been hitherto 

 drawn from the employment of this material, in a style to which it so 

 readily lends itself as the Gothic. 



The principle of Gothic architecture, as opposed to the Greek, 

 the prevalence of the perpendicular line, has been well discriminated 

 by Rickman; and it is not to be doubted that another principle with 

 the Gothic architects, if indeed it be not identical with- the first, was 

 the reduction of all the points of support, both really and apparently, 

 to a minimum. This is especially obvious in the earlier style of 

 Gothic, where the clustered shafts alculated to effect this impression 

 on the eye, are detached from the main body of the constructive pier 

 with which they were at a later period incorporated. Sometimes 

 this effect is greatly increased by a combination of isolated shafts, 

 without the nucleus of a central pier, and in the composition of sub- 

 ordinate parts, as in double and triple lancet windows, where the 

 support given by the columns is only apparent, we have single iso- 

 lated shafts of excessive slenderness — and there are some remarkable 



Gothic Shafts from the Lady Chapel, Salisbury. 



examples, which go far to prove this principle of design to have 

 been limited only by the capabilities of the materials employed. 

 Such is the lady chapel of Salisbury Chapel, where four single iso- 

 lated columns, 32 diameters or thereabouts in height, form, or appear 

 to form, (it is not very certain which,) the actual support of the main 

 vaulting of the roof, leaving after ages to marvel at the hardihood of 

 the design, and the skill of the execution, and though last, not least, 

 the success which has attended it. There are other cases in which 

 it is evident that the supports have been reduced as far as prudence 

 would admit. The nave of Heme Church in Kent, affords an ex- 

 ample of single shafts, in which the proportions have undoubtedly 

 been thus regulated. 



Now this characteristic of Gothic architecture, which the archi- 

 tects of the middle ages attained generally by the help of Purbeck 

 marble, with much limitation and difficulty, we in the 19th century 

 have the means of producing with far greater facility, and carrying 

 to a much greater extent, by the aid of cast-iron, which places it in 

 our power to arrive at a degree of lightness, of which the Gothic ar- 

 chitects could only dream, though they made bold efforts to realise it ; 

 and it does appear most extraordinary, considering how popular 

 Gothic architecture has become, and how well its details are under- 

 stood, that so few attempts should have been made to render iron 

 available for the combined purposes of construction and beauty. On 

 the former consideration, it has sometimes been used, but either in 



disguise, or with economical views only, in the naked deformity of a 

 mere post or joist, without relation to the fitness of the whole, and 

 with scarcely even a pretence at architectural character. Considering 

 how essential it is in modern churches that the internal supports 

 should cause the least possible obstruction, it is strange that the pe- 

 culiar sympathy between obvious utility, Gothic architecture, and 

 cast-iron, should not have been more diligently studied. The invete- 

 rate canker of imitation and precedent, has in this case as in others, 

 poisoned the sources of invention. There is no original precedent 

 for cast-iron columns, and we must therefore persist in building them 

 with stone, or with something whicn*is to pass for stone ; or if we 

 use iron, we must give up as impracticable all attempt to give it a 

 genuine architectural character. We may with certainty pronounce 

 in this case, that iron might be used strictly in the spirit of the 

 Gothic architects ; and it may even be affirmed that they would wil- 

 lingly have taken the utmost advantage of this material had they 

 possessed the art of casting it. If a precedent is yet demanded, the 

 actual use of metal, if not iron, in columns, may be seen in Exeter 

 Cathedral, where isolated shafts of brass enter into the composition of 

 the sedilia adjoining the altar. 



Let us bring the search after the kalos in the construction of Gothic 

 columns in cast iron, to a practical test. The weight of the clerestory 

 and roof on an ordinary church of forty feet high or thereabout, 

 standing on lateral arches of eleven or twelve feet opening, may be 

 about twenty tons on each column, and supposing the shafts of the 

 columns to be twenty feet long, the requisite strength in cast-iron 

 would be met by a diameter of six inches. Now there is no reason 

 whatever why a column of forty diameters in height, should be ab- 

 stractedly considered deficient in beauty. The effect of this, as of 

 any other proportion, would depend entirely upon its being in unison 

 with the other members of the architecture, or the reverse ; but if we 

 suppose a stone arch to be carried on this column, a very material 

 practical objection arises, inasmuch as there will not be room on the 

 top of the column to develop the necessary bulk of the stool of the 

 arch, either as regards its construction or decoration, unless the 

 capital were spread to a degree involving weakness, both real and 

 apparent. Hence an incompatibility between such a column, and 

 such an arch, destructive of relative beauty. If, however, we con- 

 sider the properties of cast-iron, we shall find that a solid column on 

 this scale is the most disadvantageous mode of employing it, since 

 a much smaller quantity of metal expanded into a hollow cylinder will 

 possess a much greater degree of strength. If we make the shaft of 

 a column under these circumstances twelve or fourteen inches in 

 diameter instead of six, we shall find, while we consult economy and 

 utility in the column, that the arch will grow from it without exag- 

 gerating the projection of the capital, or departing in the slightest 

 degree from any form or proportion authorized by precedent. 



There is, however, an original example which might have been put 

 in the foreground, where the columns are actually re- 

 duced beyond the proportions which the architect, for 

 reasons best known to himself, has thought fit to give 

 to the stool of the arch ; and the capital is pieced 

 out on each side, by a sort of attached corbel upon 

 which the mouldings terminate. It is at Winch- 

 combe Church in Gloucestershire. Whatever may 

 be thought of the principle of this arrangement, the 

 effect is very bad, but being a precedent, and there- 

 fore a desirable addition to the stock of materials 

 for imitation, it is thought right not to withhold it. 

 Whenever the rage for precedent and imitation shall 

 abate, there are stupendous effects to be produced in 

 architecture, especially of the Gothic character, by the use of iron 

 columns; but it must be when the material is recognised to be legiti- 

 mate, and not cased with deal, or " painted and sanded," or "jointed 

 and coloured," as the price books have it, "as stone." 



Thus far, in this branch of the subject, cast iron has been con- 

 sidered with reference to columns only. In subjecting other mem- 

 bers of the Gothic style to a similar inquiry, it will be necessary, 



Springing of 

 Arches, Winch - 

 combe Church. 



