their hands raise high those formidable weapons, which they are still not permitted to let fall on their forgetful sons; yet those sons might hear their sighs, which float hollow on the winds that murmur round the battlements, and their groans, which mix with the tempest, and swell the sullen horrors of the storm. O that they would hear them! O that they would be persuaded, that, although out of London they can only address their Chief Magistrate by the same title, yet that the consequence of their City is of a different description to that of the Metropolis; and that, if they would maintain its real reputation as the second City of the kingdom, they would, as much as possible, preserve the vestiges of former times, and not suffer its Antiquity to be no more. To absolute necessity, London has yielded much of its primæval grandeur; to absolute necessity, Ousebridge must also yield. An air of modernised importance will necessarily characterise the seat of modern Empire. But this necessity is indigenous to the Metropolis; it extends not hither: and the air of grandeur which proudly tells us THIS IS YORK, is the grandeur of ages long ago; of times, that we are convinced have been, by the substantial memorials which croud upon the sight; yet how well modern improvement, when judiciously introduced, will harmonize with antient interest, let the New Walk, that modern glory of the City, testify and confirm. York will ever preserve the pride and boast, how justly merited! of its unequalled Cathedral; but deprive it of all other remains of what it has beep, and though it wil! possess an object which cannot be viewed without the highest admiration; yet it would then be viewed alone, and the association of ideas, perpetually recurring to us wherever we turn our eyes in this venerable City, and which so greatly adds to the contemplation of the Minster itself, would then be wanting to complete the pleasing picture; and for myself I must own, that without this unavoidable association, I could not have felt the same interest in the Procession of the Judges into York, a Procession on which, while passing through this antient City, the mind could amply rest and expatiate: I could not with the same ardour have accompanied it to the Castle; nor with the same emotions have contemplated those Judges commissioned by His Majesty to dispense justice, and maintain order in his provinces; nor with the same lively impression have marked the subsequent transmission of those Judges from the Coach of the Sheriff of the County, to the Coach of the Sheriff's of the City; thus evincing, by a speaking form, the sensibility of Jurisdiction, and appealing palpably to the surrounding multitude; many of whom, perhaps, might not be able to discuss the nature of their sensations, but all of whom could feel them to be just, and that something had been presented to them of an importance beyond the visible perception of the ceremony. Nor without this imposing association of ideas could I have experienced sentiments so sublimed, when, on the following Sunday, I attended in the Temple of the Lord, in such a Temple! to hear that Liturgy accompanied with all its Cathedral magnificence, which, whether thus presented to us in choral sublimity, or sanctified by the unadorned simplicity of the pious Pastor of the Village Church, is always interesting, and can always reach the heart; but, in this place, it was grateful to hear the Commandments of Heaven delivered from the High Altar, as of old by Moses from the Holy Mountain, and to listen to the soft melody of responsive supplication, floating among the grand enrichments of this amazing edifice, and ascending, we trust, above its walls, to mix with the Hymn of Praise chanted by Cherubim and Seraphim beyond the skies. It was grateful to have the fervour of emotion afterwards brought down to earth and earth's concerns, by a judicious, practical, and impressive discourse, presenting the grand outlines of a picture, which it was the duty of the mind to fill up; and delivered with that plainess which was suitable to the place and the occasion; and which, in my inind at least, and if I may judge from the attention with which it was received, could not, in the opinions of numbers, have been heightened, had it been attempted to have been set off by the unappropriate aid of forensic energy, or the still more inadmissible accompaniment of dramatic effervescence. These graces of Oratory, in their proper places, please and interest; and the want of them there is felt: but I think they should not be transplanted into the Pulpit, from whence should proceed the sacred directions of Truth, in language plain, but energetic; in manner impressive, but not fantastic. Sermons are to speak to the heart, not to the eye; for it is to be hoped, that we do not, and certainly we should not, go to Church with our minds so totally unprepared for the occasion, that there, as it were, we are now to receive a new Commandment, and to have the Proposition maintained, and the conviction enforced upon us, by all the arguments and auxiliaries which the tongue and the arm united can press into its service: and it was grateful to be finally dismissed with the Archiepiscopal Benediction from those sacred walls, within which, along with the humble, had been assembled together for social worship, those exalted characters whom the Constitution had placed in stations which will always secure to them respect; but on whose own conduct alone it depends to unite with it the nobler sentiments of reverence: nor could I leave this Sanctuary without the felicities of Britain rising to the mind, and prompting the Prayer and the Hope, That a merciful Providence will still preserve us; that Piety and Penitence may walk hand in hand amongst us; that Peace may be within our walls, and Plenteousness within our palaces: so that we may be ever able to repeat with the Preacher, and that even our Enemies may see it, and say, Happy are the People that are in such a case; yea, Blessed are the People who have the Lord for their God! Yours, &c. ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION. No. CXLIX. W. POINTED STYLE, &C. (continued.) IN studying the nave of Winchester Cathedral, erected by Bishop Wykeham in the reign of Edward III. a striking peculiarity in the windows is visible; the form of the head, or arch to them, is a segment of a Pointed arch, while a regular triangular proportioned Pointed arch, containing the tracery, is, as it were, stuck within it. This kind of window-construction is certainly an original thought of Wykeham's, although we find numerous instances of the arches to the entrances of castles done at this period with a segment of a Pointed arch only. Thus much by way of observation in this plaee; proceed we, therefore, on our regular course in the illustration of the Rise and Progress of Architecture among us. ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL, Westminster; date, 1330. In this building, every trial of the arts of Architecture and Painting is brought to the utmost stretch of human ability; and while our wonder is excited at those who wrought its completion, our disgust is at the same time raised against the savage hands that, since the Dissolution, have either mutilated its divine attractions, or horded up the beauteous relicks still in being, with common wainscoting, from the public eye. It is from that laudable publication by the Society of Antiquaries of this Chapel, in plans, elevations, and sections, that we are enabled at this time to entertain any idea of its original glorious state, to which we refer. West Front. The portion left of the elevation, consists of the porch. The pediments over the arches to the compartments of the screen before it, indicate a gentle sweep; leaving, in a certain degree, the pyramidal line, so conspicuous in theexamples spoken of at this period of the art. East Front*. The East window presents a kneed outline; and as all vestiges of the tracery is gone, some doubt must be conceived in what way its head was filled in; yet by exa mining the interiors of the side windows of the crypt (they remaining perfect, each having this kneed outline and accordant tracery) some hints perhaps may be derived, necessary to assist the mind in this respect. Be this as it may. Interior of the Chapel. The piers between the windows are made out with clusters of delicate columms, studded over with small enriched patera's. Similar columns are disposed in the dados to the windows; they *This front has been lately modernSee our Survey, vol. LXXVII. p. gaid ised. 539. were were certainly once continued up wards, so as to constitute the mullions; but the openings to the win dows are now wholly curtailed of such dividing particulars, and the consequent tracery. Pateras are introduced likewise on the architraves, both to the arches of the windows, and to that of the entablature. These pateras, thus introduced, are peculiar to this Chapel, as are the infinity of minute ornaments, laid on every moulding throughout the design. From the nature of the entablature, running in a direct line above the windows on each side the building, it is very certain, that there never were any groins intended to complete the same, but some open timberwrought roof, correspondent to the general contour of the main work. Those spaces, left untooled by the Mason, or Sculptor, are penciled upon by the Painter, in armorial, ornamental, historical, and scriptural subjects, In fact, this last artist has not left the smallest moulding or foliage untouched; as they are either filled in with various tints, or overlaid by gilding, which must have produced, upon the whole, the most sublime and gorgeous scene that ever adorned this kingdom. -Pointed Style of Architecture from the reign of Edward III. to the reign of Henry VI. WESTMINSTER HALL. This structure, excepting the dados on its sides, East and West, (these parts of the walls are the remains of the Hall of William II.) is allowed to have been erected in the reign of Richard II. The West Front, although it carries on in some respects the splendour of the Edwardian æra, evinces many departures therefrom. The tracery to the windows, more immediately the great centre window, is purely architectural, without ornamental or foliaged ideas introduced thereon, as before practised. The height of the mullions divided by transoms of mouldings and compartments, and the tracery run into various compartmented forms likewise. The heads of the niches bear octangular canopies, with square, instead of pyramidal terminations; and on each side the openings of the niches are small clusters of buttresses. In those parts where any thing like a pyramidal idea is retained, it takes the sweeping direction. In regard to the clustering of the co lumns, they bear but little change. In the mouldings, some novelty is brought forward, in the many squares or fillets, mixed with the hollows and rounds; and in the foliages a more minute, and less conspicuous boldness of leafing occurs. The arches to the windows in the side walls give, at their springings, certain degrees of a circle struck from the necessary centre, from whence the Pointed arch itself is extended to the required height, forming a new species of Pointed arch, struck from four centres. Here a remarkable deviation from the true geometric or triangular proportioned arch appears, and which conception in the succeeding reigas was carried still farther, by taking more of the circular and less of the extending sweep: Thus this kind of Pointed arch continued to depress or flatten itself, until at last the heads of the windows fell to a mere straight, or horizontal line. The great feature in the interior of this august erection is, the openworked tumber roof, once professionally called one of the wonders of the world; and I hope there are still those, whose feelings can give way to something like enthusiastic praise. I bear my weakness in this sort, if it is a weakness, and own, that ever as I comment on its surprizing framing, draw from its geometric composure, its all enduring, resisting powers; some new attraction, or some new stroke of art, still presents itself to my admiring view. I shall here presume to lay down its geometric principle. The stone walls on the sides of the Hall, from which the several divisions of the wood framing take their rise, is done nearly into two equal heights, in the dado and window lines. On the top of the walls, or window lines, (speaking of one half of the framing) the first, or principal rafter, springs pyramidally to its pitch or apex, in the centre of the roof; the second rafter springs from consoles on the top of the dado line, in one prodidigious regular Pointed arch. From the top of the window line is laid, horizontally, a flying joist to a given length, supported by a second pointed rafter, rising from the above console. This arched rafter, with the horizontal joist, support a third pointed rafter, meeting in the centre, and uniting itself with the the first arched rafter. These conjunctions act in the most satisfactory manner to support a second horizontal joist, bringing the whole of the connecting mediums near the summit of the first exterior, or pyramidal rafter. The voids within the several rafters and joists are filled in with perforated compartments, curiously contrived as perpendicular supports to the whole mass of framing. Viewing narrowly the properties of the roof, for the express purpose of illustrating this paper, I found that since my first drawing its parts, some fourteen years past, the greater portion of the perforated compart iments have been destroyed. Surely this deserves reprehension; not alone as a pleasing decoration is lost; but, what is of greater importance, much of the collateral strength of the roof itself done away, and rendered less able to resist the push of Time than heretofore. In direct opposition to those opiaions gone before me, I maintain the addition of stone work to the interior of the dado walls, and octaugular pilasters, run up about thirty years ago, are not of that distinct use, by way of support to the roof, as then supposed; but an useless and irrelevant waste of material and masonry, and disfiguring the symmetry of the whole design. I argue thus: The side walls are kept from falling out by the vast buttresses externally set against them; and from falling inwards, by the pressure of the timbers themselves, right and left. Therefore, while common attention by way of repair is paid to the real state of the walls and timbers, more than to patch and restore them with perishable materials (as is seen on the East external wall) little fear can be entertained for the safety of a pile, which may be confidently asserted, is (reviving the old designation) one of the professional "Wonders of the World." GUILD - HALL, London. Another work erected about the date of the preceding Hall and, if History did not, its great similitude of style would confirm the same; notwithstanding many of the decorations must have been executed subsequent to the other, as they are of a much later turn, aud seem to have led the way to those decided features, which, ia process of time, became general, and is constant practice, until the art itself was lost in the universal change wrought in men and things in the sixteenth century. Turning with contempt from the innovations, both external and internal, such as the cieling by Sir Christopher Wren, the South porch by a living Artist, and the metamorphosis of the charming compartmented divisions for the setting up of monuments, &c. &c.; let it be observed, that the arches of the door-ways and windows (in general) shew the new conjunctive sweep, as premised in the Westminster Hall Survey, and in one instance, the East door-way to the crypt, the arch is flattened to that extreme, as almost to mark at once the total extinction of the form. But this expedient, at this state of the art now under notice, was rare; and we may conclude the idea did not at its first dawn meet with the approbation of professional men, but was left to take it course, until, at a distant day, it became a masonic rage, as no kind of edifice was raised without this conjunctive arch. The tracery in the windows, like those in Westminster Hall, is architectural, and the mouldings and ornaments are more in advance than there found. As the decorations of the internal walls of this Civic mansion are so far gone into with high embellishment, while the Royal Palace at Westminster has little to boast of in this respect, may we surmise, that it might be possible the roof of the former, before the Fire of London, outshone the latter ? But the absolute existing gigantic beauties of the one, forbid us to give way to a futile supposition in favour of the other, now departed; therefore, let thus much be observed with reference to Westminster Hall, that its roof is not alone the most extraordinary performance of the kind, but the earliest in point of workmanship that we have now remaining. May admiration still continue to be paid to its stupendous construction, notwithstanding Sir C. Wren, in the Parentalia, calls the builders of this roof, "senseless artificers!" AN ARCHITECT. (To be continued.) The View of the West Front of LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, promised in vol. LXXX. p. 50, as a companion to that of York, vol. LXXIX. p. 700, will be given in the Magazine for next month. METE METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL kept at Clapton, in Hackney, from the 21st of September to the 6th of October, 1810. Sept. 21. Some Cirro-cumuli appeared about 5 p. m. : the evening became misty. Oct. 22. A great disturbance of the Electric state of the atmosphere was con- 25. Overcast at sun-rise; very clear day afterwards; falling stars ob- 26. Clear day, and rather windy in the middle; calm clear night. Small meteors observed. 27. Cirro-stratus prevails during the day, disposed in beds of small aggregates, extending in arcs across the zenith. Clear night; small meteors, called falling stars, frequent. 28. Small meteors observed at night. 29. Foggy at sun-rise. After it cleared off, I observed the modification of Cirro-stratus dispersed about in the atmosphere; in some places in thin films, in others in rows of small spots. Cirro-cumulus also appeared. Loose flocks of dark reddish Cumulus floating beneath in a lower region. At sun-set a very highly coloured Cirro-stratus, on an almost golden sky, gave the Western horizon a very beautiful appearance. Rain came on during the night. 30. Pleasant day after the rain; Cirrus and Cirro-stratus prevail. The Western sky appeared deep red after sun-set. 1. At night the stars' light suddenly diminished, and a lucid Burr (not a Halo) was observed round Jupiter. 2. Electric state of the atmosphere very much disturbed; various mo. difications of cloud prevail. A breeze rose from E. at 10 a. m. Clouds highly coloured at sun-set, 3. Clear day; only Cumuli passed over with the wind. 5. Cirri and Cirro-strati observed. Glapton, Oct. 22, 1810.. THOMAS FORSTER. |