Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/993

 RIDING-HOUSES. 1712 969 1713 hipping of an ordinary roof. The ridge pole of such a roof Is made exactly like one of the main ribs of the principals, •with similar sockets for the rafters. The slates are fastened to the laths in the ordinary way ; and, where a metallic covering is used (which is usually cheaper, as requiring a substruction of far less strength), it is laid in the common form. It will ge- nerally be cheapest to put perforated or solid gables to such a roof as this ; but, when of great length and span, it will need to be hipped, the modification for which is so simple, as not to need description. The rafters may remain bare inside in these roofs, or may be ceiled ; but when the slates are rendered smooth underneath, or the roof is sheeted with wood, and painted inside, it looks very ornamental, and is more suitable to a riding-house than a plastered ceiHiig. The wood is all exposed, so that it is not liable to the dry rot. For spans above forty feet this roof will always, in this countrv-, be cheaper by far than a fi-amed timber roof, and better too. I have never seen a roof, or heard of one, like this ; and, therefore, it is original with me. The roof which most resembles it, of any I have seen, is that of the sheds at the Clarence Docks, Liverpool ; but these sheds have been erected long since I made my original drawings of this roof. 1941. For Roofs of less than Thirty Feet Span there may be a modification of the main tension rods, as in fig. 1714; and ornaments may be appKed, particularly .. in the Gothic style ^'<^y (where appropriate), ^.^ ^ :^ ^>^-v as in fig. 1715. These x^^^'^ ^^^^^^N ornaments are pro- duced by cast-iron, cast on the wrought- iron tension bars ; but when great strains are expected, they are cast with holes, and leaded on, as casting on injures the fibre of the wrought iron." — We greatly admire the construction of tliese roofs, but we cannot bring ourselves to consider as in good taste, the practice of applying ornaments to the tension bars, either by casting on, or leading on. A tension bar of metal can uever be so expressive of its use, as when it is perfectly plain ; loading it with ornaments