Perspective view of riding-house.
and it is very seldom attempted. Such buildings mostly form a portion of the offices which are placed out of view, concealed by plantations or shrubbery, and generally at some distance from the mansion to which they appertain.
The present design, carried out in 1846 and 1848, was for some additional stabling to a baronial park, and it formed a conspicuous object. It stands on the
Plan of riding-house and stabling.
eastern side of a quadrangle, the larger stabling being on the west, the offices of the mansion on the north (see above), and on the south there was a terrace-walk overlooking the park. The block of buildings as represented in the plan, comprised a riding-house a, 62 ft. in length by 32 ft. in width, a four-stall stable e, 30 ft. in length, a loose box b, 13 ft. square, and the boiler room d. The dung pit g, into which the liquid manure from the stable was sent, was on a very low level, and had a cart road at its side. The coach-house between the riding-house and stable was 40 ft. in length by 20 ft. in breadth; it had a covered area in front 44 ft. in length, with a width of 13 ft., and a well and pump. The prospect tower h, as well as the tower i, had iron staircases, which led to the stud-groom’s sleeping room, two harness rooms, and the gallery of the riding-house.
The latter was erected first. It is in brick, with a circular-ribbed wooden roof, on the plan introduced by Phil. de l’Orme, whose well-known book was published in Paris in 1567. He introduced a construction for roofing that is both cheap and efficient, and one that while plenty of light and ventilation can be obtained, gives the largest space in the interior of the room.
The walls of the riding-house were two bricks thick, laid English bond. As the foundation rested on the stone no concrete was used, but the rock, which was on a steep incline, was levelled in step-like fashion, to receive the walls. Buttresses were placed where the circular ribs of the roof were situate; two lines of iron-hoop bond, 1 in. by 1/16 in., tarred and sanded were laid in all the walls, piers, and buttresses; there were 13 courses 2 lines in side walls, 16 courses 2 lines in gable walls, and 7 courses 2 lines in buttresses. The walls were covered with brick copings formed of two courses of moulded bricks cut to lengths and mitred, and set and jointed in cement to gable ends: the flaunches of the angle buttress were formed with stocks, the upper courses set and pointed in cement, and the angles of parapets cut and mitred to the same.
Ragstone moulded corbels were placed over the piers inside the building, from these the circular ribs sprung and into which they were stubbed. The roof was thus described in the specification:—The roof will be formed of circular ribs placed two and two, each 7½ inches apart, screwed and bolted together, each single rib to be in three thicknesses, the inner one of oak and to consist of twenty-six pieces of 1¼ inch deal and ten of 1¼ oak, each separate piece 1 foot in width, and to be as long as the scantling of the timber will allow, the ribs to be wrought and glued together, and at each joint to have two hard nails or ¾ inch screws having a good thread; the top and bottom edges of rib cut fair for linings, the side finished for paint. Cross pieces, 7½ by 2½ inches, twelve to each pair of ribs, the whole to be bolted together. To prevent the ribs from being at an unequal distance, the two outer ribs to be sunk half-an-inch at the places where the purlins notch in them.