Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/958

 934^ COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 1630 which case the eaves and gables of the roofe were very appropriately made to afford shelter to the walls by their great projection, while their ornamental character was improved by the use of" carved verge-boards, showing either a continued pattern of foliage, or a profusion of undulating line and elegant tracery. One more variety of external character is that which results from the substitution of timber and plastering for solid walls, as seen in the streets of many of our old towns. Here, too, there is great oppor- tunity for picturesque effect, as derived from the use of overhanging stories, each pro- jecting beyond the face of that below it, to protect it from the weather, and being sustained by the continuation of the floor joists ; the ends of which thus assume the appearance of a line of ornamental blocks, or corbels. The timber framing of the sides themselves, according to the old practice, is made to imite expression with economy, by giving an ornamental character to the crooked and less serviceable timber, and applying it to the purposes of diagonal braces in the squares formed by the vertical posts, and the horizontal plates and rails ; in addition to which, the surface of the plastering is also occasionally relieved by various forms impressed upon it while moist. To this style of work, such finishings as the carved verge-board, &c., are also applicable as before; it is a style, how- ever, which requires considerable discrimination, lest Elizabethan specimens, of which we have a great multiplicity, should be actually imitated, when those of an earlier date are professedly so. 1 887. Decorative Peculiarities of Domestic Pointed Architecture. Having thus glanced at the varieties of general aspect exhibited in the dwellings of the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, it may be enquired wherein consist the decorative peculiarities of Domestic Pointed Architecture, as opposed to the decorative characteristics of ecclesiastical examples. We may rejjly that one striking point of difference ia, that Domestic Architecture rarely makes use of pointed windows, but generall y of square- headed ones, as in figs. 1628 and 1630, while the practice in the ecclesiastical style is just the reverse : both, however, are subject to variations. Domestic Architecture, again, is scarcely ever seen to adopt the common pyramidal pinnacle, not very frequently the buttress, and never the flying buttress; the place of the former being ordi- narily supplied by the ogee pinnacle, and that of the others, in many instances, by a slender polygonal pier. High-pointed doors with pyramidal labels, niches and canopies, towers, sj)ires, &c., are excluded from the features of the domestic style ; as, in fact, are all those objects generally which have a tendency to produce an eflcct of solemn grandeur, rather than an air of liveliness and social comfort. The various members of Domestic Pointed Architecture we shall however proceed to notice more ia detail ; observing, at the outset, that it is with them that we have to do, rather than with any general modes of domestic arrangement and collocation pursued by our forefathers. If, indeed, the principles that regulate the form, ajiiilication, and utility of such members individually, and their effects collectively, be well understood, we shall lose nothing of beauty or of character in departing from the old peculiarities of plan and disposition of rooms, while modifying component features to suit our wants. To pursue imitation farther than tlijs would be, in fact, not only to clieck invention, and sacrifice sound judg- ment, but to oiijiose the example of our ancient predecessors in a most important jioint ; namely, the readiness with which they modelled their architectural works to meet the changes of time and circumstance, and the demands of convenience. 1888. The iruulows in the Pointed Style of Domestic Architecture. In turning to the individual members of Domestic Pointed Architecture, the first to occupy our attention is the window, a feature upon which our old builders delighted to lavish their skill and "Mr K