Notes and Reviews 
“ EnTglish Interior Woodwork” * 1 is a 
collection of fifty plates of measured draw¬ 
ings executed by Henry Tanner, Jr., illus¬ 
trating the interior design of English 
buildings belonging to the sixteenth, seven¬ 
teenth and eighteenth centuries. A desire 
to present the most representative work of 
the types which obtained during the period 
in question has brought from oblivion many 
of the finest examples we have yet seen of 
English joinery, while at the same time it has 
afforded sufficient excuse for the inclusion of 
several examples already well known. It is a 
pleasure to remember that for the actual 
effect of some of the oldest woodwork we 
may repair to the South Kensington Museum 
and there complete a study to which Mr. 
Tanner has introduced us by means of his 
measurements reduced to paper. There is 
no interior architecture worthier ot study 
than the English ; and aside from details and 
ornaments,—the hall-marks of that age in 
which Hardwick rose, and Bolsover, Knole 
and Hatfield H ouses,—there is apparent in 
this ancient woodwork a certain integrity ot 
design and an honest treatment of materials 
in which richness of effect never belied 
construction. True, it was the Renaissance 
that had transformed English Gothic, but the 
sturdy northern forms were not to be al¬ 
together overcome by Latin grace, so-called. 
For the fine sense of proportion that English 
architects possessed any one of Mr. Tan¬ 
ner’s plates are a proof. Take, for instance, 
the simple problem of a door, at first seeming, 
the mere primer of design,—in reality only 
a set of limitations circumscribing the fancy. 
But a score of examples in the present work 
show satisfactory and beautiful arrangements 
of panels, the proportioning of mouldings 
and intervening spaces. With a skill so 
ready for a simple problem were designed 
chimney pieces, stairways with pierced and 
solid balustrades, pulpits, pilastered screens 
and walls of galleries to some of which are 
coupled the names of Wren, Inigo Jones 
and John Webb. The drawings, combining 
sections and plans with elevations, have been 
'“English Interior Woodwork,” by Henry Tanner, Jr., A. R. 
I. B. A. 50 plates with short text. Folio. London, B. T. Batsford, 
1903. Imported by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Price 
$1 5.00 net. 
made in ink and in pencil. The latter are 
unusually fine and reach their highest ex¬ 
cellence in the drawing of St. Lawrence Jewry. 
In many cases a small perspective sketch 
serves to better illustrate the subject as a 
whole, and at the beginning of the volume 
the author gives a paragraph of text upon 
the subject of each plate. 
“ Trees and Shrubs for English Gar¬ 
dens ” 2 illustrates on the part of its author 
the rare possession of horticultural knowl¬ 
edge combined with an esthetic feeling of 
design in landscape composition. The book 
is more technical than some others emanating 
from the group of writers engaged upon 
The Garden , of which Mr. Cook is one, but 
an intimate knowledge of the propagation of 
trees is here secondary to that of their out¬ 
ward form. External characteristics of trees 
have been studied equally with the uses to 
which they may be applied. Attention is 
called to the weeping and variegated forms 
of trees, bamboos, heaths, climbing shrubs 
and pleached or green alleys; and when we 
are told what a tree must possess to suit it 
to wind-swept places, sea-coast, rock garden, 
ornamental planting in orchard, in street and 
small or town gardens, the advice holds good 
for all times and countries, the fact that the 
author’s own materials grow in the British 
Isles being less important than may at first 
seem. Many of the applications, indeed, 
will be new to American readers ; and after 
examining the present volume they cannot 
but discover the means which trees and 
shrubs offer for obtaining a quiet and sober 
dignity of effect in places where flowers 
would be discordant and any artificial work 
of man would be effrontery. The extended 
list of trees and precise data upon their 
rearing does not impair the author’s principles 
and aims. With these established the only 
task remaining is for us to gain those ends 
with our own means. The volume contains 
many beautiful illustrations which make a 
strong appeal for the skillful planting of 
trees and shrubs in the precincts of the home. 
2 “ Trees and Shrubs for Finglish Gardens,” by E. T. Cook. 471 
pp., octavo, with 129 illustrations in half-tone. London, George 
Newnes, 1903. Imported by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 
Price, $3.75 net. 
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