Gents Mag 1840 part 2 p.156

Gents Mag 1840 part 2 p.156




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	Gentleman's Magazine 1840 part 2 p.156 interior of the choir are equally rich; and until the end of the last century it presented one of the most splendid displays of carved work in this country, at least. A considerable portion of this most beautiful carved work was removed, to allow of a series of arches of carpernter's Gothic design to be substituted. So lamentably are our finest churches injured, more effectually by those who are bound to take an interest in their preservation than by actual outrage. We cannot think the structure depicted in plates xl. xli. xlii. and xliii. is rightly styled a confessional. Judging from the position of the monk and the penitent represented in plate xliii. the confession must have been anything but auricular. Surely Mr. Billings does not give the stained glass coloured after the original in plate xv. as an example either of beauty or purity. The glass must have been set up in very recent times, and that by the meanest glazier in Carlisle. Pl..xxxix. shows a perspective of a very fine crypt under the Fratery. It is of early date, and the architecture very interesting and curious. The following passage evinces great carelessness in allusion to a carving of some roses in the cathedral. We are told in a note that "when whitewashed they may have been emblematical of the house of Lancaster: but that coating being taken away, instantly changed the rose (from the colour of the stone) into Yorkist." Surely Mr. Billings does not suppose that the white rose was the Lancastrian badge! The ingenious author of the present illustrations has announced his intention of proceeding with all the cathedrals left undone by Mr. Britton. We truly hope he will receive the support he justly merits, and that he will be enabled to complete the series in the same style as the present. We believe Durham will be the subject of the next illustration. The second work which stands at the head of this review is devoted to the excellent purpose of tracing out the geometric rules by which the architects of the ancient churches proceeded to construct their wondrous fabrics.The theory of Mr. Billings may be best understood by giving his own words: "The application of the circle, or intersecting circles, to the plan of Gothic buildings, is not new; but the application of scales, composed of a regular division of parts of that figure, fixing both the position and substance of the columns within the building, besides the various parts of the elevation, has hitherto been unknown; and the author, consquently, claims the invention or re-discovery of this principle, if it be really that which the ancient architects used, as his own. From the variety in the proportion of every part of our cathedrals, he cannot possibly conceive how any other rule could have regulated the design." Mr. Billings works out his theory by an analysis of the cathedral of Carlisle, the first structure on which he applied successfully his system of circles. A single division of Worcester cathedral, traced from Mr. Britton's work, he also finds to contain within it equal evidence of the same principles. Whatever may have been the profound ignorance of the architects and writers of the last two centuries, who have condemned the Gothic style, of the merits of the architects of our ancient churches, no one will be found at the present day to controvert the position that in the general form, as well as in the detail of a Gothic structure, the utmost harmony prevails in every part: no one will be hardy enough to assert that the Gothic architects worked without rule, or to bestow on them the name of barbarians. Some difficulty may exist in discovering the rules which guided them, and in laying them down with sufficient precision to enable a workman to carry them out in an intended design. Mr. Billings considers that he has effected this. We receive with great satisfaction his attempts at so useful and desirable an object; and though, when the various irregularities in Gothic buildings thrust themselves before our vision, a doubt will arise whether the author's rules will in all cases apply, yet we hopes that he will, when he "elucidates the more perfect and gorgeous specimens scattered over the country," find his theory fully confirms; and that the irregularities are, in fact, exceptions to

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