1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER aND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



H7U 



Fig. i. 



Fig. 8. 



the Temple, besides many others. Several of these present points of great 

 interest, and we hope we shall he affording some gratification to our readers, 

 by devoting a series of illustrated articles to the architectural antiquities of 

 the metropolis and its vicinity. The subject we have selected for the present 

 occasion is the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, in Smithtield. Smith- 

 field is a place it might be thought but little attractive for the architectural 



carefully removed by the wood engraver, a process extremely expensive, 

 tedious, and often unsuccessful in producing the effect intended by the de- 

 signer, all which evils appear successfully removed by this new method. The 

 finer descriptions of wood engravings are also at present extremely limited 

 in size owing to the impossibility of obtaining the material box wood of a 

 larger size than six or seven inches square, but by the Gypsographic process 

 there is no limit to size. It may by necessary to explain the term Gypso- 

 graphy: it derives its name from Gypsum or Plaster of Paris, which forms 

 the etching ground used in this method. 



The extreme simplicity of this invention is not the only great advantage it 

 offers to the artist, draughtsman, or engraver, and may be readily understood 

 by the following description : — 



A plate of copper is thinly covered with a composition of which plaster of 

 Paris forms the staple ingredient, and through which to the surface of the 

 copper, the drawing or design is etched with an etching point ; when the 

 etching is completed the plate having the lines sunk in or drawn through 

 the composition forms a matrix or mould, the plate then is cast in type metal 

 by the stereotyping process, and a perfect cast or block is taken reproducing 

 an exact facsimile of the artist's original design and which may be immedi- 

 ately transferred to the hands of the printer. 



Wood engravings have hitherto been the only description of illustration 

 capable of being conjointly used and printed with type, the great cost both 

 of engraving and printing on steel or copper having been an insurmountable 

 barrier to the general use of the latter in ilustrating works requiring pictorial 

 additions, hut now as the Gypsographic process combines with it all the ad- 

 vantages of wood engravings both in printing and effect, as well as many of 

 the peculiar advantages of steel and copper-plate engravings, we have hut 

 little doubt it will be generally and extensively used in the illustration of all 

 descriptions of bookwork. Messrs. Milner & Co. the patentees of the process 

 have several specimens exhibiting the art applied in a variety of ways which 

 they will be most happy to show to any person who may favour them with 

 a visit at their office in Racquet Court, Fleet Street. 



or antiquarian student, and yet to both it is of equal interest. Originally a 

 large fen or waste, draining, probably, into the river Fleet, or some of the 

 then pure streamlets of the city ; it was, in the twelfth century, in a very 

 neglected state, occupying a much larger district than now, and used as a 

 market, the higher ground being the site of a gallows for thieves, and the 

 scene of frequent executions. It seems to have been, at that time, the pro- 

 perty of the crown, and, lying outside two of the city gates, it attracted the 

 notice of the founder of more than one religious house as the convenient site 

 of a large conventual establishment. The priory of St. Bartholomew was 

 founded on the south, that of St. John of Jerusalem on the west, and that 

 of the Chartreux on the north ; and in their remains, and in the disposition 

 of the modern buildings are to bejound many interesting architectural relics, 

 and very good studies of the arrangement of the ancient religious houses. 

 Three establishments, St. Bartholomew's and Christ's Hospitals, and the 

 Charter-house, keep up the hospitallary character. 



The convent of St. Bartholomew the Great was founded about 1113- by 

 Prior Rahere, who begged the site of King Henry I, for Black Canons of the 

 order of St. Augustine ; and upon the strength of a legend that it had been 

 hallowed by King Edward the Confessor, obtained abundant alms from the 

 Saxon people of London. Some, indeed, have supposed that the present 

 edifice is founded on one of Saxon origin, as to which no records exist, but 

 it is not improbable that some Saxon chantry or hermitage might have 

 existed here. It is such a spot as the religious mendicants often chose ; out- 

 side the city walls — close to a main road, and on the scene of traffic and of 

 death, it would be a tempting settlement. Indeed, it was by no means un- 

 common for religious houses to be instituted on such foundations, and we 

 may well suppose Rahere to have occupied some deserted oratory or cell 

 Be this as it may, the bulk of the existing structure is clearly of Norman 

 origin, and was raised by Prior Rahere during his lifetime, under the direc- 

 tion of Alfune, who built St. Giles's, Cripplegate. It was abundantly 



- The Cottontail MSS. Vespasian, Book IX, says in one i place. 110.3. 

 another 1113, and according to Dugdale it was 1123. 



