320 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[September, 



are satisfied that they ate oi comparatively rare occurrence in ancient parish 

 churches, and that properly speaking they are adapted only for very large 

 and rich edifices. An example, indeed, occurs in the chancel at Trumping- 

 ton ; and in churches of this date circular gable lights sometimes may be 

 found ; we think, more frequently than in early-English. 



4. Of western doors and western triplets we need in this place say no- 

 thing, having endeavoured in a former number to prove them inadmissible 

 in small churches. In general, we greatly object to the common practice of 

 coupling or tripling lancets in every position, and not less so to making them 

 nf the very exaggerated size and disproportionate breadth we frequently 

 find in them. The disposition and just dimensions of lancets in general is a 

 subject requiring the greatest judgment and nicety, and is therefore de- 

 serving of the most earnest attention, since there is no detail so generally 

 misused as this. "We have constantly seen small modern churches lighted 

 by lancets almost large enough for a cathedral, and admitting as much glare 

 as perpendicular windows. We may instance the new churches of St. Mi- 

 chael at Stamford, and St. Andrew at Northampton. Wbat a contrast do 

 such buildings as these present to the sombre and subdued light which was 

 eminently characteristic of all early- English churches! 



j. Apses. We have often had occasion to remark upon the impropriety 

 of these in any but Norman parochial churches, and even here we by no 

 means recommend their adoption. We believe that no instance of an early- 

 English apse in a small church occurs in England. Certainly, if any can be 

 found, they are but exceptions. Yet our modern architects generally termi- 

 nate their churches eastward by a semi-octagonal or a semi. circular apse, 

 jierhaps only ten or twelve feet deep. This is a cheap and in some i 

 showy substitute for a full chancel; but it is not an English feature, uor is it 

 hy any means either a becoming or appropriate one, since it is iu fact a mere 

 altar recess, and in nine cases out of ten is without an entrance arch. 

 Moreover, as the right position of the altar in an apse is upon the chord of 

 the arc and not against the east wall, the altar is either so placed as to vio- 

 late the original meaning and use of the ipse, or brought prominently for- 

 ward almost into the nave. 



6. Parapets and gable-ends. The first are not necessary in small Churches. 

 The eave-roofs of most ancient examples, we think, fell simply and unaffect- 

 edly upon the hare walls; whereas an ornamental parapet, with a cornice of 

 notch-heads, or dog-tooth, or corbels, is now usually Considered indispen- 

 sable. We recently inspected a design for the restoration of an early- 

 English church in Lincolnshire, where very insufficient funds were obtained 

 even for absolutely necessary repairs; yet among the "essentials" a 

 "moulded parapet to the chancel," though it did not appear ever to have 

 bad one, was prominently set forth. There is no need to be ashamed of a 

 great roof, or to attempt any disguise or superfluous decorative concealment. 

 A parapet will often, by its over-neatness and appearance of affected finish, 

 detract from the bold and picturesque simplicity of a small church. And 

 the lower the roof, the more objectionable a parapet becomes. Modern ga- 

 bles too are generally awkwardly terminated at the eaves by heavy shoulders 

 or prominent saddle-stones, or look somehow as if the architect did not 

 know exactly what to do with them ; whereas what he ought to have done 

 with them was simply to let them alone. The ancients seem seldom to have 

 cared much about them, but to have let them fall easily away with a not. a- 

 head, or a bead, or a chamfer; or at most with gablcts, as at Stapleford ; 

 hut always plainly, and therefore gracefully and appropriately. The complex 

 gable arrangements we have seen in numerous modern designs are strikingly 

 contrasted with these. 



Nothing, in fine, is left to itself ; nothing is plain, unpretending, simple, 

 irregular, accidental. Every detail is overdone; we must have nothing but 

 triplets, and arcades, and wheel-windows, and trefoiled ornaments; and we 

 must always improve our towers and cast and west elevations by pinnacles 

 and flying buttresses. Thus much is affected, but nothing attained ; parts 

 arc strained and exaggerated, but general effect is rather injured than im- 

 proved. For what constitutes effect as applied to ecclesiastical architei tufe 

 Appropriateness, solidity, grandeur, honesty, chasteness, boldness ; not un- 

 necessary and meretricious ornament, but the position of a feature just 

 where it is wanted and as it is wanted, without disguise, without hesitation. 

 It is not the insertion of a north window merely because there is a south 

 one exactly opposite ; not the making one side exactly of the same size and 

 shape as the other; not having buttresses, windows, ami doors of precisely 

 the same height and breadth and desigu in every part of the fabric. Such 

 w, ri certainly not the principles which guided our forefathers in the erection 

 of their churches, anil we must endeavour to enter fully into their princi- 

 ples of composition and distribution before we can hope to produce the same 

 effect merely by the use of the same kind of details; a truth which has in- 

 deed often been urged, but still has not met with due attention. 



It must, nevertheless, be observed that there is a wide and important dif- 

 ference between plainness and meagreness in church architecture. The 

 former is simply the absence of ornamental detail, the latter is a scanty and 

 stinted development of the essential parts of construction. A building may 

 It plain, and yet perfectly graceful and pleasing; but if it be also meagre, 

 it necessarily becomes ugly ; as all who have seen Christ church, St. Paul's, 

 and St. Andrew's, in this town, will readily acknowledge. For in the one 

 case we perceive at once that all, as far as it goes, is genuine and complete, 

 and therefore pleasing and satisfactory to the eye. In the other, the affec- 

 tation without the attainment of the primary characteristics of ancient 

 models implies deception ; wc desiderate that reality which could alone en- 



sure successful imitation. Costliness and ornament should be regarded only 

 as a step in advance of plainness and simplicity. The same elements of 

 beauty are contained in both, but in one only is it developed. The ab- 

 surdity, therefore, of ornamental meagreness instead of simple massiveness 

 is evident, since decoration was never intended as a substitute for, but only 

 as an addition to, solid and substantial construction. Yet upon this false 

 principle modern churches are almost without exception erected. 



We have ventured to offer the above remarks chiefly, as will be readily 

 understood, in reference to designing small early-English churches, from a 

 conviction that architects arc often content rather to copy one another and 

 the depraved fashion of the day, than uniformly to make antiquity alone the 

 test of correctness in their compositions. By neglecting to do this, they 

 have imperceptibly contracted a formality and a mannerism which is very 

 detrimental to the revival of the art, and which nothing but a close adhe- 

 rence to ancient models is likely to remedy. Modern early-English, instead 

 of being identical or at least closely allied with the style of the thirteenth 

 century, is quite a distinct and isolated production, which in future ages will 

 be regarded in the same light as we now regard the debased perpendicular, 

 namely, an attempt to imitate its forms without a knowledge of its princi- 

 ples. 



FRCCEEDIPJGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



T 

 1NSTITUTI0N OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 



April 4. — WrLLiAM Cumtt, V.P., in the Chair. 



"On the !>itj>jili/ of Hater to the City of Glasgmc." By D. Mackain, 

 M. Inst. ( -.!•:. 



This paper contains a history of the progressive increase of the water- 

 works ot Glasgow, caused by the rapid extension of the city and its manu- 

 factories, derived from the documents in the archives of the Water Company, 

 to which the author is the engineer. The statement commences from the 

 year 1759, at which time Mr. John Gibson, in his History of the City of 

 ed a desire for several improvements, among which he par- 

 ticular!;, mentioned abetter supply of water, as although the population 

 1 t" 23,000 pel i used by the inhabitants was drawn 



from the Clyde, fr the several streams running through or skirting the 



.1 from wills in ilie streets ; the water from the latter was unlit for 

 domestic purposes, and the manufactories gradually extending on the sides 

 of the burns polluted their waters, and (bus rendered a better general supply 

 absolutely necessary. The various plans proposed in the year 1780 and sub- 

 sequently are then detailed, and as an instance of the low estimate then 

 formed of the quantity of water required for a community amounting to 

 about 43,000 persons, it is stated that the produce of a spring at Whitehall, 

 was then proposed to convey to the City for its entire supply, is now 

 found inadequate for the wants of a bouse of refuge for j'nenile delinquents 

 lately erected near it. In describing the project of Mr. Henry Bell for 

 j water by a canal from the Falls of the Clyde, his reasons arc given 

 for rejecting the use of steam-engines. " These engines," he says, " are not 

 only in themselves objectionable, iu so far as they will be hurtful to the 

 value of surrounding property, and a general nuisance to that part of the city 

 or neighbourhood where they are erected : but the consumption of coals 

 which will thereby be occasioned will tend in no small degree to heighten 

 the price of that fuel." An account is given of the speculation of Mr. Hur- 

 ley, who erected pumps at Willow Hank, and forced the water through pipes 

 into a reservoir in Upper Nile Street, whence it was carted through the 

 town, its sale producing a revenue of about .C1O00 per annum. 



Ai i. ngth a water company was formed, and Mr. Telford was requested to 

 report upon the proposed plans, all of which he found objectionable, and 

 recommended that steam-engines should be placed on the banks of the 

 Clyde, at a spot about two miles up the river, with the necessary reservoirs, 

 filters, &c, and that the water should be forced by pumps into the city. He 

 estimated that the quantity of water required for a population of 80,000 

 persons would be about 500 gallons per minute ; that, including manufac- 

 tories, the renters would be about equal to 6000 families ; and that the 

 average rent upon that number would be '-/■ per family, which would produce 

 ±'12,000 per annum. Acting upon this report, in the year 1800 the company 

 ordered from Messrs. Boulton & Watt two engines with cylinders of 36 in. 

 diameter, and laid pipes of 14 iu. diameter to a reservoir on the spot, then 

 called the Callow Muir; from this small commencement sprung the present 

 extensive works, whose gradual increase is carefully traced in the paper until 

 the enumeration of its actual position in 1842, when the population of the 

 city exceeded 300,000 persons, and the annual income was about £j0,J00, 

 making the average payment about nine shillings per annum for each family. 

 The works had increased until they consisted of thirteen steam-engines, of 

 various powers, with their filters, reservoirs, &c, an accurate account of 

 which is promised in a future communication. In this history many sta- 

 tistical details are given, obtained from the archives of the company ; and 

 the difficulties encountered by the engineers who preceded the author in the 

 management of the works, are clearly described. 



The details of the various oppositions from local interests, the several 

 Acts of Parliament, the fluctuation of the mercantile value of the shares, the 



