384 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrs JOURNAL. 



[Ueceuber, 



window arch, where the pattern is as arbitrarily cut off as a piece 

 of damask coiihl he with the scissors of tlie mercer's apprentice. 



One objection will be made to all that I have advanced. There 

 are cases where my definitions and descriptions will not abso- 

 lutely hold. In the window of Great Bedwyn, for instance, there 

 are several oj^ees. In the east window of Market Ilarborough, 

 parts of the design are Geometrical, part Flowinfj Decorated; and 

 so of many other cases, 'i'his is very true. But remember that 

 we 3|jrreed, awhile ago, that tliis must always be so, and indeed, it 

 is the case equally with Decorated and Perpendicular, and with all 

 the styles. In Kirkstall, Fimntains, and IJuildwas, what would be 

 called Norman, if seen alone, actually occurs over what would be 

 called Early English. In I'atrington, Yorkshire, the east window 

 is pure Perpendicular, all the rest is Decorated. In many other 

 churches we have windows which cannot be historically separated, 

 yet which cannot architecturally be classed together. These are 

 difficulties which occur now and then, and must occur. Yet they 

 do not render it less necessary to call this or that building as a 

 whole, Norman or Early English, Decorated or Perpendicular. 1 

 only claim for the Geometric style the same indulgence. 



Directly or by inference I find otliers agreeing with me in 

 demanding that the Geometrical shall be acknowledged as an- 

 other style. iMr. Sharpe, for instance, in his work on 'Decorated 

 Window Tracery' (to which I cannot allude without adding a word 

 of very high commendation,) having defined the difference between 

 tlie windows in what used to be called Early and Late Decorated, 

 adds, " We have only to carry our incpiiries a step further in 

 order to satisfy ourselves that these points of difference are not 

 confined to the windows alone, but extend also to the buildings to 

 which these windows respectively belong; and, having arrived at 

 this point, we shall not be long in coming to the conclusion that 

 there e.xists a large and important class of buildings, characterised 

 by the Geometrical forms of their window tracery, whicli has 

 hitherto been treated as belonging partly to the Early EngHsli and 

 partly to the Decorated style, but which is, in reality, distinct 

 from both, and pre-eminently entitled, from the number and beauty 

 of its e.\amples, to separate classification." 



1 had hoped, indeed, that before this Mr. Sharpe would have 

 published, with ample illustrations, his own arrangement and 

 nomenclature. In what I say now 1 would rather be considered 

 his pioneer than as having any substantive importance of my 

 own. Some time past I stated my views to him on this subject, 

 and found that his were already in a far more produceable shape, 

 and I doubt not that he will soon formally claim the title Geo- 

 metrical, not only for a certain character of window tracery, but 

 for the style of architecture in which it is found. 



Again, I find that Mr. Freeman, in his 'History of Architecture,' 

 where he divides all Gothic architecture into two great classes, 

 Discontinuous and Continuous, actually places his one broad line 

 of demarcation where, at present, all distinction is sometimes 

 denied, between Geometrical and Flowing Decorated. 



Finally, .Mr. Scott, in his 'Plea for the faithful Restoration of 

 our ancient Churches,' a work which is of great interest to the 

 people of Northampton, since the restoration of St. Peter's church 

 is committed to him, and vvhich has few competitors in general im- 

 portance, claims not only a place, but the highest place, for the 

 Geometrical style. But what he says is too long to be transcribed 

 at length, and too important to be retrenched. I must, therefore, 

 refer you to his chapter On the Choice of a Style for present 

 Adoption. 



I am not very fa\'ourably situated for reference to books here, 

 therefore, my appeal to the judgment of others closes; but not with- 

 out a formal assertion of the principal objects of my paper. Let 

 US uphold the right of the Geometrical to a place, and that the 

 highest place, among the distinct styles of Gothic architecture. 



I fear that the method of my discourse has not tended to pro- 

 duce the impression that I have been wandering with you along 

 one of the most flowery paths of architecture; and yet this is 

 really the case. But you must remember that I have been playing 

 the part, not of the florist, but of the liotanist, who is, in com- 

 ))arison, a very dull sort of fellow. Nowhere is the beautiful, 

 for its own sake, more visibly the object of the architect than in 

 the disengaging of tracery, and nowhere has that object been 

 more ha]ipily attained. Here he works, to borrow an expression 

 of Ruskin's, as if he was happy as he worked; and we follow him 

 in his task with an ever-growing interest, and look deliglited on 

 each successive form and character whicli he evokes from his stub- 

 born materials. The first germ, hidden from all eyes but those 

 who watch for spring with the imi)atience of love — the swelling 

 bud, veiling yet promising countless forms and hues of beauty — 



the bursting^ flower, compact yet full, glowing yet half coy in con- 

 scious loveliness, and all the sweeter for its coyness and reserve — 

 the leaves expanding with a new vigour, crisped with life yet still 

 crumpled with the kindly compression from which they are escap- 

 ing — the bright smooth petals of the wide-spread flower, tremu- 

 lous with exultation, and but too ready to fall in their redundant 

 beauty, when \Yinter, envious or too rigidly severe, lays his icy 

 hand upon them lest they should become wanton in their exuber- 

 ance — such, almost, are the forms which we have now reviewed in 

 their order and their destiny. We have seen the first germ of 

 tracery hiding countless beauties. We have seen it expanding, 

 but yet under the most severe restraint, in the first or Concentric 

 tracery. We have seen it put forth more fantastic forms — let me 

 repeat the very words, the crisped and crumpled forms — of the 

 Excentric or Later Geometrical; and, finally, we have seen the 

 widely-expanding, half-flaunting, half-fletri Flowing Decorated, 

 stiffened at last, and not undeservedly, into the harsh and hard, 

 soulless and sapless Perpendicular. Oh! that we might be allowed 

 to anticipate a return to the opening bud, and its expansion into 

 another flower of a higher kind of beauty and a better fate! 



VERANDAH, SANS SOUCI, NEAR BERLI.V. 



The above engraving represents the Verandah of a Flower 

 Window in the head gardener's lodge at Sans Souci, the royal seat 

 of the King of Prussia, near Berlin. 



According to the Annates des Chemins de Fer, an arrangement 

 has been made by the directors of the North of France and Stras- 

 burg Railway (\mipanies, that they will, at common expense, 

 build a line of communication, which will start from the De la 

 Chapelle (Joods Station, transect the national line No. 1, from 

 Paris to Calais, the rural roads des Paillettes and la Croix des 

 Evangiles, and join the Strasburg line about 151) yards above the 

 viaduct of the Rue des Tournelles. The whole length of this 

 railway, from one line to the other, will be 1200 yards. ^Vhen, 

 however, the important plan of a circular line, which will bind 

 together all the lines starting from Paris, shall have been com- 

 pleted, the junction of the North and Strasburg lines will be 

 effected by a small branch line of about 300 yards, which will 

 branch off from the main line of junction. The line will have 

 but one rail, and will be worked by horses, as the space to be tra- 

 versed is very short. 



