1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



423 



lications of the Society mere barren records of what was once effected ; and 

 yet, even if the funds of the Society should not he adequate to any direct 

 exertions, much will be effected by this means. 



For the stuily of ecclesiastical architecture cannot be pursued without 

 originating and fostering a degree of interest and enthusiasm which must be 

 influential on the many, although it be called into active exertion only in a 

 few. The very collection of information, with the examination of churches 

 requisite to that end, will enlist many on the side of propriety and good 

 taste, and there are many cases in which these appeal so intelligibly to com- 

 mon sense, and even to mere utility, that they have only to be fairly stated 

 to be acted on. Every member, too, of this society will feel himself pledged, 

 by the very fact of his membership, to exert himself in the furtherance of 

 its objects ; and at least when he has any voice and intiuence in the erection 

 or repairs of a church, (and veiy few indeed of the clergy, at any rate, are 

 wholly without such occasions of influence.) he will feel bound even at a 

 little self-sacrifice, to care eftectually for the appropriate character of the 

 House of God. Nor ought we to refrain from the praise which is due in 

 general to churchwardens and others who may be charged with the main- 

 tenance of the church's fabric. In rural districts they are generally chosen 

 from among those whose very different pursuits leave them little opportunity 

 for a personal acquaintance with ecclesiastical architecture and design ; but 

 good feeling they have to a great extent, and good sense ; and when they 

 find one, as for instance, the clergyman or squire of the parish, to direct 

 them, they will seldom be found opposed to those measures which are really 

 the best. 



But we may surely anticipate the time when the funds at our disposal 

 shall enable us to do something, as a society, in the way of restoration ; and 

 something, also, towards raising the architectural character of churches still 

 to be erected. There are churches and chapels in this county diverted from 

 their holy purposes, which we should wish, and which perhaps we may even- 

 tually be able, to rescue from secular and degrading uses. There are beau- 

 tiful structures, with enough of them left to show what they once were, 

 which we may hope gradually and one by one to restore. There are churches 

 worthy of being imitated, which we may hold forth to the admiration of 

 church builders, and the adoption of the plans of which we may procure by 

 a seasonable addition to the building fund. 



Meanwhile the members who may be really disposed to enter into what 

 may be called the business of the society, will find it one of great interest, 

 and will be amply repaid for their contributions to the society's museum aud 

 stock of knowledge, by the pleasure which the pursuit has afforded. The 

 value of an oljject of interest in our rambles is proverbial, and hence a great 

 part of the pleasure of the botanist, the mineralogist, and the painter. The 

 student of ecclesiastical architecture is not less abundantly stored with inte- 

 resting objects wherever he goes. With an interest attached to that par- 

 ticular object, and none other, every one, though but a wayfarer, with a few 

 minutes' leisure, turns at once to the village church ; but the members of 

 our society will go thither with far greater assurance of pleasure and instruc- 

 tion, and stones will be vocal to him that are dumb to others. Every church 

 has a history which may be read in its walls, its buttresses, its doors, its 

 windows, its mouldings, its font, its roof, its seats, its chancel, its altar; a 

 history with his eras, its incidents, and its episodes marked in broad lines, 

 ami in traces deep and vivid of the chisel of the mason and the sculptor, and 

 of the brush of the plasterer and painter; in the restorations and additions 

 of medieval architects, and in the perversions and monstrosities of modern 

 carpenters and masons. The history is one of interest and of value, and one 

 which he can transcribe and bring away for the amusement and instruction 

 of others, and not without a hope that he is acquiring and conveying infor- 

 mation which will be practically applied in many future instances. 



But let us attempt to convey some impression of the interest of the pur- 

 suit which we are entering upon, by a particular instance. Three years ago, 

 two persons, now enrolled among the original members of the society, were 

 walking on the banks of the river Ure, near Ripon, when their attention was 

 arrested by what seemed in the distance a neglected ruin, but of what cha- 

 racter, whether a church, a house, or a barn it would be ditficult to say. 

 However, they bent their steps towards it, and first approaching a cluster of 

 alms-houses, found the supposed ruin to be a little chapel, sadly neglected, 

 and almost desecrated, by the near approach of houses, farm yards, pig sties, 

 and every kind of rubbish. The exterior, besides being extremely pictu- 

 resque, chiefly from the effect of a tall bell-gable, afforded indications of 

 great antiquity, and of very consi<lerable changes ; and in short, bore upon 

 its face the history of six hundred years. The door-way had been Norman, 

 the East window was of three or four hundred years later date, and there 

 were traces of intermediate alterations ; while the present dilapidated state 

 of the whole edifice, gave in sad colours the story of the last two or three 

 centuries. Within, the little unpretending chapel was full of still deeper 

 interest. The wooden roof, the original open scats, and the screen remained, 

 though craving many repairs. Altar rails there were none, and never had 

 been; before the altar was a little circle of mosaic, and the a'tar itself was 

 such as was not then generally known to exist in the whole kingdom — it 

 was the old stone altar, which had escaped the hands of sacrilege and de- 

 struction. Now this was, all will admit, an interesting discovery, and it was 

 certainly more than will fall to the lot of every one every day ; but it is so 

 far from being unexampled, that day after day other stone altars are being 

 discovered, and other churches and chapels v. hich have been liilherto as little 

 noticed as that of St. Mary Magdalene, Kipon, are found lo contain the most 



interesting remains, and details well worth tlie study of the student of prac- 

 tical ecclesiastical design. 



Enough, perhaps more than enough, has been said, to conciliate your fa. 

 vour to this society, and to stimulate your interest in its pursuits. Here 

 therefore, we should conclude ; but it is perhaps as necessary to disarm sus- 

 picion, by stating the limits of this society's operations in one direction, as 

 to say what we may well hope it really will effect. It will not, then, inter 

 fere with the strictly professional labours of the architect, nor in any respect 

 supersede the application of his skill and science. Ou the contrary, it will 

 afford him a very great support, unless we over estimate its influence on tha 

 public mind, against the injudicious suggestions and the very irritating inter 

 ference of those who cannot be supposed really to understand the subject 

 yet who stand greatly in tlie way of any degree of excellence in the works 

 committed to their oversight. Those architects who really understand the 

 principles of Gothic architecture and of ecclesiastical design, and who only 

 want room and liberty, and a just appreciation of their talents to distinguisb 

 themselves, will, we are persuaded, find in the Yorkshire Architectural So- 

 ciety a very effective ally. 



Having thus stated the object of the society, we may, we trust, leave it to 

 the favour of the public, and at once, with the confidence of all parties, entei 

 upon its pleasing and useful sphere of duties. 



REVIE^VS. 



Appendix E, F to tie ntio edition of Tredgold on the Steam Engine. 

 Engines of tlie Trent and Isis, Dee and Svlrvay, Sfc. Twenly-one 

 Illustrations. London: John Weale, 1S42. 



Tut chief fault we have to find with this work is that there is too 

 little of it. Brevity, indeed, is a quality of which we rarely have to 

 complain, yet in the case of such machinery as that of the Trent and 

 Isis, we should rather have had all the details, though the work had 

 been a little dearer and more voluminous in consequence. It forms 

 no part of our function to inquire whether it is upon the publisher of 

 the work or the makers of the engines, that the absence of these de- 

 tails is chargeable ; but the policy which has withheld tbem, wherever 

 it may have originated, is, we are satisfied, a blind and injudicious 

 one, and is impotent for everything but mischief. The only drawings 

 of these engines which are given, are a plan, elevation, and end view ; 

 and these, we suppose, are to prove their title to the public admi- 

 ration: — as if any one could tell whether an engine were good or bad 

 by merely looking at the outside of it. We are, it is true, provided 

 with the performance of the engines as determined by the indicator; 

 but every one knows that an indicator diagram furnishes no criterion 

 of tlie quality of an engine as a piece of mechanism, and that an 

 engine may give an admirable diagram, and yet be a bad engine in 

 many respects. The true character of an engine is, it appears to us, 

 only to be determined either by an examination of the details of its 

 construction, or by the experience afforded by its prolonged operation. 

 The latter test is certainly a very satisfactory one, but requires a life- 

 time for its application, and is, we fear, too tedious and transcendental 

 to arrest very forcibly the public attention, or enable a man to make 

 his way among a crowd of tumultuous competitors. Those who plume 

 themselves upon mysteries unknown to the commonalty, and imagine 

 that the public confidence is to be won by lofty and unsupported pre- 

 tension, will be laughed at and disregarded, and we think that Messrs. 

 Miller, by witbholding from the public eye the details of their engines, 

 have defrauded themselves of the glory to which they were justly 

 entitled, and rendered vain the superiority which those details would 

 have made manifest. However sensible we may be of the excellence 

 of Messrs. Miller's machinery, we are as sensible that any praise of 

 ours is open to the charge of partiality which is based upon evidence 

 inaccessible to the public ; and we are heartily provoked at a policy 

 which renders our commendation fruitless, and casts a veil over such 

 high and varied excellence. 



It may, indeed, be the case, that tlie denial of these details to the 

 public is only a peace oft'ering to that passion for secrecy which has 

 become epidemic among engineers, and which we look upon as one of 

 the most humiliating events in the history of that great fraternity. 

 But this is surely a very pusillanimous motive, and even on the score 

 of expediency affords, we think, but a poor palliation. The sober 

 part of the community very well know that any attempt at secrecy in 

 engine making is preposterous, and that it is impossible to prevent 

 people from becoming acquainted with the structure of engines which 

 are scattered all over the world, and to which any one may obtain 

 such easy access. Engravings of the best engines of Messr.". Mauds- 

 lays and Messrs. Mi.ler, in xv'hicli all the details of construction are 

 represented, are current enough on the Continent, and the French are 



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