Nature and Art, December 1, 18GG.] 
FLORAL DECORATION OF CHURCHES. 
211 
Norman, at once tells us that care must be taken 
not to construct the decorative materials of a very 
massive description, and as the architectural features 
generally are more refined and elegant, the floral 
ornaments should be made in keeping. As the 
pointed arch is an important and characteristic 
feature of the period, and as the round arch, 
although sometimes used in very early work, is no 
longer consistent, it is obvious that wherever arches 
are introduced in the decorations, they must be of 
the pointed or lancet shape. Arcades may be used 
as in the Norman style, but they must not be of 
interlaced arches. Columns, when circular, may 
be ornamented, as in the preceding style, with bands 
ot evergreens, and their capitals, when not carved, 
should be enriched with chaplets of holly, berries, 
and flowers. 
Single spiral wreaths of small size may be twined 
round the columns, although they are not so con- 
sistent as when applied to Norman shafts. Piers 
consisting of several small columns placed round a 
centre one are frequently met with, and when the 
columns are sufficiently numerous to leave moder- 
ately sized spaces between them, vertical ropes of 
evergreens may be hung in the spaces from the 
capitals to the bases. Should the columns stand 
sufficiently far from the centre pier to admit of 
wreaths being passed behind them, the pier may be 
wreathed spirally, allowing the small columns to 
stand in front of them, or the detached columns 
may be delicately wreathed, and the centre pier left 
plain. When columns are constructed of attached 
members divided by deep hollows, ropes of ever- 
greens may be pressed into all the hollows, but they 
should never be wreathed spirally. In Plate II., 
Figs. 11 and 13, are shown an elevation and section 
of portion of a quatrefoil column having ropes of 
holly down its four angles. 
Mouldings may be ornamented in the same 
manner as the columns with attached members ; 
that is, they may have ropes of evergreens pressed 
into the most important hollows, and small bosses 
of holly leaves, berries, and flowers, may be placed 
at intervals in the minor hollows. It is of course 
obvious that either of the above methods of de- 
corating mouldings may be resorted to alone. 
Diapers may be used to any extent in ornament- 
ing wall-spaces, but they should not be of too 
massive a description ; those as shown on Plate I., 
Figs. 8, 9, and 11, are very suitable ; perhaps Fig. 9 
is most to be recommended, as it displays the pointed 
form. 
For the decoration of spandrils or tympani of 
arches and other small spaces of wall, flowing scroll- 
work may be used with great effect. It may be 
formed of holly, Ac., on a ground-work of stout wire 
bent into the proper forms, and soldered, or other- 
wise securely fastened together. The scroll-work, 
when finished, may either be suspended in its place, 
or secured, if it is on stone-work, by two or three 
wire hooks driven into the joints of the masonry. 
Creased ribbons, bearing illuminated texts, form 
very suitable enrichments for spandrils or spaces 
over windows, doors, Ac. Bands bearing texts may 
be hung under the cornices of nave and other walls 
where admissible. Medallions containing sacred 
devices should be used in all cases where favourable 
spaces occur, such as between nave arches and side 
aisle and clerestory windows. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 on 
Plate I., and Figs. 4 and 5 on Plate II., supply 
designs perfectly suitable for this purpose. Over the 
chancel arch, where no permanent decoration exists, 
a large device, in which the cross forms the principal 
feature, should be suspended ; a suitable design for 
this is given in Plate I., Fig. 5. On each side of 
this centre medallion, in the centres of the remaining 
spaces over the arch, small medallions containing 
an alpha and omega may be placed. 
The decoration of Middle Pointed buildings may 
be executed in a similar style to those just described, 
and with the same designs as far as they go, but we 
can now introduce two very important ornamental 
adjuncts in the shape of emblazoned shields and 
banners, bearing symbols, monograms, or other 
devices. These should in all possible cases be 
associated wij.li floral patterns. Fig. 1, Plate II., 
shows the banner associated with a rayed circle of 
holly and spruce fir; and Fig. 1, Plate I., and Figs. 
2 and 3, Plate II., show shields enclosed in floral 
devices. Crosses either composed of evergreens only, 
or of evergreens with richly coloured ground-work 
(as Fig. 6, Plate II.), may be used wherever suitable 
spaces occur for them. The most suitable positions 
for designs similar to Fig. 1, Plate II., are in the 
spandrils of nave arches, or between clerestory 
windows, where flat spaces of wall occur. In small 
panels, such as are frequently met with in Middle 
Pointed architecture, coloured shields charged with 
appropriate emblems, Ac., may be placed without 
any floral work, the cusps or mouldings of the 
panels taking the place of the evergreen outlines, 
as in the case of the medallions before described. 
Stars may be used in place of the shields if preferred. 
We may here remark, although what we are 
going to say is equally applicable to works in all the 
styles, that in every case great care should be taken 
with, and the most el alio rate ornament devoted to, 
the decoration of chancels, and particularly the East 
walls of same. Where rich reredoses exist, their 
decoration with evergreens and flowers must be a 
matter to be decided by some competent person in 
each individual case, for it is perfectly impossible 
for us to give even general directions beyond the 
recommendation to do what may be decided on 
with the choicest materials procux-able. If such a 
feature as an arcade should exist in the east wall of 
a chancel, taking the place of a reredos, its columns, 
if of marble, shorxld be banded or wreathed with 
ever-lasting flowers, attached at short intervals to 
coloux-ed ribbon, or strips of coloured cloth. The 
most suitable flowers for this pux-pose are those of 
a blight ox-ange and scar-let coloixr about the size of 
a florin. If the columns are of stone, they may be 
wreathed with evergreens, relieved at intervals with 
everlasting flowers. In chancels where the East 
wall is not richly ornamented, a large floral cross, 
with a gold star in its centre, becomes an appropriate 
and highly desirable ornament above the altar, 
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