Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/27

Rh the various revolutions which occurred during the reign of Henry VIII., and the intemperate scenes of the succeeding century. We might reasonably suppose that if the same arrangements had then been made previous to the erection of buildings, that we are now accustomed to make, some one at least of the numerous designs which must have been prepared would have been preserved to the present day.

I know not that any cause has hitherto been assigned for the absence of such documents, but the nature of the materials employed in ancient times may, as it has appeared to me, supply a probable explanation.

The implements of design may be described as follows.

Those substances, such as paper, &c., on which the design is delineated; those substances which are used for marking the necessary lines on the tablet to be drawn upon; and the substances or means employed to efface or destroy erroneous or superfluous marks from the tablet. To these might be added, the mechanical arrangements to facilitate the production of the necessary lines.

In regard to the substances which were in use in Greece and the east, the information which we possess, though pretty clear as to writing, gives us no distinct idea with respect to drawing or designing. The Abbé Barthelemy, describing in the travels of Anarcharsis every authenticated matter connected with Greek literature, speaking of a Greek library, does not make mention of any tablet or other preparation proper for the delineation of diagrams, though he pays considerable attention to the article of paper.

We may however fairly suppose from incidental observations, that the following substances were used by the Greeks for purposes analogous to design.

1st, stone tablets.

2ndly, preparations of wood.

3rdly, the papyrus.

4thly, linen stretched.

5thly, brass plates and perhaps plates of lead.

6thly, the waxed tablet.

Of these it must be obvious that the greater part were not at all adapted for ordinary use. Stone tablets could only be serviceable to any extent, considering the cost of preparing them, when a design engraved on them was intended permanently to remain, and stretched linen would be liable to nearly