Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/164

148 148 ENGLISH AECHITECTURE. Part II. fig. 2, Woodcut No. 578), you may get either a small diamond-shaped space in the centre or a square, but in both cases the pyramid becomes very awkward ; and by carrying on the system as before, you never arrive at a circle, but at an elliptical section as shown at d, fig. 2, (Woodcut No. 578). The builders of King's College Cliapel strove to obviate the diffi- culty by continuing the conoid to the centre, and then cutting off Avhat was redundant at the sides, as in e, fig. 2,- or, as shown in the view of the interior (Woodcut No. 010) further on. The richness of the ornaments, and the loftiness and elegance of the whole, lead us to overlook those defects of Cambridge, but nothing can be less constructive o-r less pleasing than the abruptness of the intersections so obtained. In the central aisle of Henry VII.'s Chapel it was avoided by a bold series of pendants, supported by internal fiying buttresses, producing a surprising degree of complexity, and such an exhibition of mechanical dexterity as never fails to astonish, and generally to please, though it must be confessed that it is at best a mere piece of ingenuity very unworthy of English art. By far the most satisfactory of these roofs is that at Windsor, where a broad flat band is introduced in the centre of the roof throughout the whole length of the chapel. This is ornamented by panelling of the most exquisite design, and relieved by pendants of slight projection, the whole being in such good taste as to make it one of the richest and probably the most beautiful vaults ever constructed. It has not the loftiness of that at Cambridge, being only 52 ft. high, instead of 78, nor is it of the same extent, and consequently it does not so imme- diately strike observers, but on examination it is far more satisfactory. The truth of the matter seems to be that .after all their experience, the architects had got back to precisely the point from which they started, namely, the necessity of a square space for the erection of a satisfactory intersecting vault. The Romans saw this, and never swerved from it. The side-aisles of all cathedrals and all cloisters adhered to it throughout ; and, when it Avas departed from in the wider central aisles, it always led to an awkwardness that was hardly ever successfully conquered. In some instances, as in the retro-choir at Peterborough (1438-1528), two windows are boldly but awkwardly included in one bay (Woodcut No. 582), and the compartments are so nearly square that the difficulty is not very apparent, but it is suffi- cient to injure considerably the effect of what would otherwise be a very beautiful roof. In Henry VII.'s Chapel the difficulty was palliated, not conquered, by thrusting forward the great pendants of the roof and treating them as essential parts of the construction, and as if they were supported by pillars from the floor instead of by brackets from the wall. By this means the roof was divided into rectangles more nearly approaching