An Ellustrated Glossary of Technical
Terms used in Architectural and
Interior Decoration.

(Continued from page 146.)

CARPENTRY, the art of employing timber in the construction of edifices, divided into two grand branches, carpentry and joinery, the first including the larger and rougher descriptions of work, the second all the interior finishing and ornamental wood-work.

CASING OF TIMBER-WORK, the plastering of a wooden house all over on the outside with

CINCTURE, a ring or list at the top or bottom

A

mortar, and making it resemble stone-work, of a column; marked a in the engraving.

by striking it while wet with the corner of a trowel or like instrument, guided by a rule,

CINQUEFOIL, an ornament used in gothic

which gives the exterior of the house the architecture.
appearance of a stone building. This is best
performed on heart-laths, because the mortar
is apt to decay the sap-laths in a short time.
It is commonly laid on in two thicknesses, the
second before the first is dry.

CAUSTICUM, a composition for the removal of paint from old carved wood, stone, iron, &c. It is prepared as follows:-Six ounces of soft soap, six ounces of American potash, and three ounces of spirit of ammonia, mixed with quicklime and water to the consistency of thin paste, strained, and bottled for use.

CHANDELIER, an immense branched candlestick, suspended by a rope or chain from the ceiling. It is sometimes gorgeously decorated

CIRCLE, see "First Steps to Geometry," page 14, ante.

COMPASS or COMPASSES, a mathematical instrument employed by artists and mechanics

with cut-glass ornaments, which, by reflecting the light one upon the other, produce a succession of varied tints almost dazzling the eyes of the beholder.

No. 20.-VOL. I.

A

B

Painted Decorations.

monly introduced, and are matters of frequent and particular account.

During the long reign of Henry III., occupying the whole of the first half of the thirteenth century, directions as to such are numerous and special, in connection with the various works ordered by this king to be performed at his several palaces and residences at Westminster, Northampton, Guildford, Winchester, and elsewhere.

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CHROMIC Or Coloured embellishments in architecture have their origin in remote antiquity. The Egyptians painted their temples and habitations, as did several other of the primitive eastern, nations; and the practice descending, became common alike to the classical and mediæval ages. In that of England, properly In 1220, the fourth year of this reign, the so distinguished, such or similar decorations king's painted chamber, "cameram nostram occur very early. Among the Anglo-Saxons, depictam," in the castle of Winchester, is "pictures of saints," with "embroidered referred to. In 1232, the sixteenth, the figures clothes," used as hangings,-"pictas vestes," of the four Evangelists, with those of St. -as they were called, and painted sculptures, Edward and St. Edmund the king, are ordered ornamented the walls and altars of churches to be painted in the chapel of the palace, at so early as the latter part of the seventh Woodstock. Again, in 1233, the following century, following a custom coevally and long year, a mandatum, addressed to the sheriff of antecedently exhibited throughout the adjacent Southampton, directs the king's wainscoted continent. At the commencement of the chamber cameram regis lambruscatam," in ninth, sanctioned by authority and example the castle of Winchester, to be repainted with derived from this source, we find the introduc- such "histories and pictures as were previously tion of such pictures or paintings the subject depicted there;" and there are other further of express ecclesiastical injunction. By a notices almost yearly throughout this reign. canon of the second council of Calcuth, or Celicyth, in Northumberland, held A.D. 816, every bishop dedicating a church, is strictly required to see painted on the walls or altars thereof the figure or picture of its patron saint. As a relative illustration, it may be noted also that in a Saxon MS. of this age, quoted in Muratori Antiq., are contained (among others relating to similar arts) directions for staining glass, so as to form " pictures of mosaic work," with which it would seem many of the altars and shrines of this period, in imitation of the foreign glass and other mosaics similarly applied, were constructively and otherwise ornamented.

In the following reigns of Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III., similar applications continue to be recorded in the descriptions of the decorations by these kings, to the palace, the chapel of St. Stephen, and the abbey church at Westminster, as well as in those referring to others performed by several of the higher ecclesiastics of this period to their palatial residences and churches. Early in the reign of Edward II., Bishop Walter Langton caused the coronation, marriages, wars, and funeral of his patron, the late king (Edward I.), to be painted on the walls of his episcopal hall at Lichfield, then newly built. About the same time also, Adam de Sodbury (Abbot) adorned the nave roof of Glastonbury with "beautiful paintings;" and in 1335, 1336, and 1339, "nova pictura" are mentioned among the works at Ely.

Of the extent of these and the like applications of painting and mosaic during this and the next succeeding century, little or nol irect and authoritative record now exists, though indications of the adoption of such are to be Henceforward it is hardly necessary to follow traced in the descriptions of the altar tabulæ, the order of further reference, or to recur to and other similar gifts, made to the early the numerous additional evidences that might Saxon church. Approaching the Norman be adduced of the continued and increasing era, however, an extended use of "picture admission of painting and colour during this work," under which term both these forms of and the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. decoration were at this time included, is deci- Many examples yet remain, and sufficiently dedly and distinctly established. "Superb exhibit both the universality of the practice. picture work," intermixed with gold, is des- throughout those periods, and its great beauty, cribed as among the works performed by the discriminately applied, as an accessory enrichSaxon Archbishop Aldred to his cathedral of ment in our ancient architecture.-From Mr. York in 1061, and the pictured ornaments of Blackburne's new book, on Decorative Painting, the church of St. John, at Beverley, of a cor- applied to English Architecture, during the responding age, are also alluded to by the same | Middle Ages. authority. At a little later date, the second, or Lanfranc's cathedral at Canterbury, had its ceiling egregiè depictum." Subsequently, Malmesbury also notices its "pictured roof, and in continuation, the choir paintings at Ely, by Bishop Ridel, and the ceiling at Peterborough, may be adduced, which latter, erected according to general authority between the years 1177 and 1199, has descended (restored) to the present day.

From the period to which the above notices have reference, pictured or painted decorations of several kinds appear to have been com

SUSPENSION BRIDGE ACROSS THE DANUBE.The Pesth suspension-bridge across the Danube is now nearly completed. The fol lowing are its dimensions:-Length, in three spans, 1,200 feet; centre span, 600 feet; side spans, each, 300 feet. The chains are preparing in England; the granite was brought from Linz, in Upper Austria. Nearly all the principal workmen were Englishmen. bridge was designed by Mr. Tierney Clark, and its cost will amount to £600,000.

The