1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



3S.3 



to geometrical forms, nnd of another who allows himself, or seems 

 to allow himself the license almost of a sketch, is surely enough 

 to separate between them. 



But the free hand of the later designer had its rules too, and 

 those rules were apposite to those of his predecessors, and tliis is 

 reallv the difterential which I shall ju-opose. In designing a Geo- 

 metrical window, the architect adhered to true circles, or parts of 

 true circles, never flowing oif into anotlier curve struck from an- 

 other centre. The ogee was unknown. Cusps, — besides a charac- 

 teristic so remarkable that I must refer to it, though parentheti- 

 cally (besides their being let into the soffit, instead of being taken 

 out of the cliamfer — besides this, cusps) were of circles, or jjarts of 

 circles, struck from circles within the greater circle, independent 

 of one another, but with absolute dependence on the centre of tlie 

 first circle; these points were cut off by another circle, concentric 

 with the first, or that which circumscribed the wliole figure. 

 Hence a transparency of purpose and a pre-fjision of effect in this 

 style never afterwards attained. All is complete in itself; and 

 each member perfect, either as a part or as a «hide — a character 

 which Professor Whewell abundantly recognises when he calls the 

 Geometrical Complete Gothic. 



It must be confessed, however, that something of sameness and 

 of restraint resulted from the use of the compasses, restricted by 

 so narrow laws. This was remedied in a subsequent development 

 of the same style, which let in far greater variety; sometimes 

 amounting almost to license, and yet I think not quite. Indeed, 

 though the forms on which I am about to touch must have often 

 struck us with surprise and pleasure, I think they have never yet 

 been fully appreciated. Mr. Sharpe, in his work on ' Decorated 

 Tracerv,' alludes to them thus equivocally: "Towards the close of 

 the Geometrical period there occurred some attempts at originality 

 in the designs of window tracery. Becoming apparently dissatis- 

 fied with the extreme formality of the usual geometrical forms, 

 several fanciful experiments were tried by the builders of this 

 period, which, without betraying any symptoms of impending 

 change, present- — under forms which may still be termed Geome- 

 trical — very little similarity in their general outline to the (former) 

 examples." Now this variety, ivhich 'Sir. Sharpe seems to consider 

 purely fanciful in effect and abnormal in structure, I shall endea- 

 vour to reduce to certain rules, and to elevate, by consequence, to 

 a higher rank. 



1 admit that it is an escape from a certain very stringent law ; 

 but look at the result, and you will be pre-disposed to find in it a 

 recognised rule of its own. In its effect it amounts to a sort of 

 facetiousness of design; a juxtaposition of curiously associated 

 and highly contrasted parts, but yet, without ever losing its pre- 

 cision; so that playfulness and repose are combined in it, just as 

 they are in the most irresistible kinds of wit. Every thing is 

 trenchant, piquant, scintillating, yet stiU retaining the very 

 strongest expression of precision and retrnue. 



And how is this point gained.^ By the interlacing of two 

 figures — to speak in general terms — similar, that is, each a square 

 or triangle for instance, but of exactly opposite texture, one 

 being composed of parts of circles struck from within, the other 

 of parts of circles struck from without, the resulting figure 

 (whereas, before, all were struck from within), which distinguishes 

 this from the former variety of the Geometrical style: and yet 

 they still continue always to cut, never to flow into one another, 

 which distinguishes this from the Floiving Decorated. Here is, 

 for instance, a trefoil from Beaumaris thus treated, and a square 

 from Great Bedwyn, to which last example I shall recur presently. 

 And there is, again, the same resemblance between tracery and 

 cusping here, as in the earlier Geometric; — what is tracery at 

 Beaumaris being cusping at Stoke Dry; what is cusping at Can- 

 terbury being tracery at Great Bedwyn. Now you will observe 

 how these figures are formed — the pointed figure by curves from 

 centres without, the rounded by curves from centres within the 

 figure. And, as for the result, if I could stand with you before 

 the windows, I should at once ask, and be certain of the answer — 

 are they not riant and fanciful, yet still self-possessed and perfectly 

 balanced? 



That the fascinations of this new method should lead to license, 

 cannot excite surprise. It must have done so to a vicious extent 

 had the compasses ever fallen from the hands of the designer; but 

 with this guarantee of precision, Fancy might almost disport her- 

 self at will. 1 have, however, already alluded to an instance in 

 which she did a little overstep the bounds of sobriety. At Great 

 Bedwyn, vou have subsidiary tracery breaking in upon the gravity 

 of a principal mullion, like Folly attempting to discourse with 

 Reason in one of Aloorg's melodies. I do not think Beauty can be 



offended at the result, but Order may, and it has certainly a revo- 

 lutionary aspect. 



And, in fact, a revolution is not only at hand, but it is clearly 

 indicated, notwitlistanding Mr. Sharpe's remark that no symptom 

 is betrayed of the a])proaching change. We have already drawn 

 circles from centres sometimes within and sometimes without the 

 resulting figure; iiresently we shall not only do this but also let 

 those circles glide into one another, so as to form complex curves, 

 and we shall have the flowing tracery of the fully-developed 

 Decorated. 



But, before we do this, let ns attempt to assign names to the 

 two kinds of Geometric tracery with which we have already formed 

 acquaintance. 



For the generic term, or that including the whole of that tracery 

 which is formed of circles, or parts of circles, secants and tangents 

 of one another, but never flowing into one another, we cannot 

 hesitate in taking that commonly in use— t'.e. Geometi-ic. To 

 supply names for its two sub-divisions is not so easy. It is now 

 some six months past that I endeavoured to do this, in an article 

 in the Archceological Jntiriuil, where I ventured to suggest the 

 terms Concentric and Excentric, to express the opposite characters 

 of the two divisions. The first, you will observe, is of pattei-ns 

 formed of circles, or parts of circles, all the centres of which are 

 within the resulting figure; and, as the figures are all uniform, 

 even the subordinate parts must be repeated with the same neces- 

 sary relation to the general centre. Thus, in a circle enclosing 

 six other circles, grouped around a seventh (as at Grantham), the 

 centre of the seventh is the same as the centre of the containing 

 circle, and the centres of the six others all lie in the circumference 

 of another circle drawn from the same general centre. All form 

 one system, bound by a sort of centripetal force to one centre. 

 The term Concentric is, therefore, at least intelligible, as applied 

 to this variety of Geometrical tracery. 



The other variety is formed by a combination of curves, some of 

 which are struck from centres without the resulting figures; and, 

 if the window is sufficiently complex, these other centres fall 

 within other patterns in the same window, giving, by a centrifugal 

 influence, to the curves to which they belong, a place in another 

 system with another centre. And the term Excektkic seems suf- 

 ficiently appropriate to this development of tracery — to this group 

 of architectural comets. We have, therefore. Geometric for the 

 whole style, and Concentric and Excentric for its two varieties. 



And now we return to description, and to the successive changes 

 of tracery, which we left on the verge of a revolution. 



The use of figures composed of parts of circles, some within 

 and some without the resulting figures, had commenced; and this 

 had also the effect of giving to several figures a reciprocal interest 

 •n the parts of each other. And this which was partially effected 

 in the Excentric Geometrical, is fully attained in the Flowing 

 Decorated, where the curves run into one another, and each line 

 becomes a part of the boundary of two figures, of one without, of 

 another within, the influence of its own centre. 



There are one or two curious results from this. 



In the first place, the great variety and the double importance 

 of the lines of the tracery tend to make these the principal object 

 of attention, and whereas before the lines were used to form the 

 lights, now the lights are made to adapt themselves to the lines — 

 a manifest lowering of principle, since mullions are clearly for 

 windows, and not windows for mullions. 



Secondly, there is a great tendency to sacrifice apparent security 

 to grace of form. Some Flowing Decorated windows look as if 

 they could not stand without the influence of the window arch, as 

 if the parts were unequally balanced, and a disproportionate 

 weight was laid upon the feeblest part of the feeble curve. This 

 never happens in a Geometrical window. 



Thirdly, the patterns are enabled, by accommodating curvatures, 

 to run into every corner of the space to be filled, and the intersti- 

 tial spaces, which in Concentric tracery are generally triangles, 

 and in Excentric tracery are multiform, either entirely disappear 

 or are made so large as to have their own part in the composition 

 and their own cusping. This is, I think, the only decided advan- 

 tage which the Flowing has over the Geometrical style, and this is 

 too dearly purchased. 



I do not propose to carry my remarks into the subdivisions of 

 Flowing tracerv; and I shall therefore be content with giving you 

 one type of it, the common reticulated tracery, which exemplifies 

 almost all that I have said. Here parts of circles, drawn alter- 

 nately from within and from without the figures which they form, 

 compose the whole of the design; each curve is a part of two 

 figures, and the spaces left by the tracery appear only at the 



