Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/284

 238 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [October, other nobles, many of which are still to be found, nearly all in ruins ; but occa- sionally, one perfect. Among the most striking peculiarities in this style, we may enumerate the gate-houses, the beautiful bay and oriel windows, gables with pinnacles, the numerous turrets and chimneys, and the roof. The projecting windows form a very beautiful and novel feature, and are of two kinds : the bay, rising immediately from the level of the ground ; and the oriel, projecting out in the upper part of the building, than either of which there can hardly be con- ceived an architectural form which has a more enlivening and brightening effect in the interior, or a more attractive and ornamental appearance on the exterior Both these kinds of windows are con- structed in different forms, semi-octago- nal, rectangular, semi-circular, &c. ; and could, if desired, be carried up through several floors. Oriel windows are very general throughout all the mansions erected in this reign. Cardinal Wolsey's palace, at Hampton Court, was a per- fect specimen of this style, as it existed in his day, before it was altered to its present mixed condition. Previous to the^reign of Henry VII., the roofs of edifices had been formed flat for the purposes of warfare ; but, with that monarch, the feuds which had so long devastated England, between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, ceased ; and, with the prospect of a long and continued peace, men began to prefer elegance and beauty to strength, and comfort and convenience to the sense of security against attacks. Hence the first approach to an attempt at beauti- fying their roofs was to conceal them, to give the building a castle-mansion ap- pearance. But it was not till Wolsey erected his palace, that gables, pedi- ments, pinnacles, and, above all, the most peculiar characteristics of this style, clustered chimneys, first made their appearance. These latter deserve particular notice, for, up to this time, chimneys of any description had been rarely used. Now they not only came into very extensive application ; but were made particular subjects, in the construction of a building, for display and ornament. They were usually of lofty proportions, standing out in bold relief; and in forms frequently pic- turesque and curious, resembling groups of small columns, with pedestals, plinths, bases and capitals ; the shafts embel- lished with mouldings of lozenges, roses, fleurs-de-lis and other ornaments. In- deed, no amount of ingenuity and skill seems to have been spared on this fea- ture, hence it is one of the peculiarities and characteristics of the Tudor style The windows, both in this and in the pre- ceding reign, had all low obtuse Gothic heads, which have been, and are still termed the " Tudor arch," each divided by one mullion, with a cross transom, and having a label moulding over the head. The third and last division of this style, what is known as the Elizabethan, we must pass over with only a very brief description, as it will form the ex- elusive subject of a future sketch. In the reign of Elizabeth, at the close of the 16th and commencement of the ltth centuries, there was no material differ- ence in any of the characteristics, only they were made much simpler and plainer. The battlements along the ridges of the roofs, hitherto retained only as embellishments, altogether dis- appeared. Square heads to the win- dows took the place of the Tudor arches, and the windows were divided by more mullions and a cross transom to. each. The attic windows were forme.l Xyy acute triangular pediments, having brackets and pendants crowned with pinnacles and finials. The subject of our descrip- tion, of which we have given a plate, rather blends the characteristics of the times of both Henry VIII. and Eliza- beth ; but the former in a much greater degree, as will be seen by comparing the design with the foregoing brief re- marks. The prevalent and most strik-