135. Calgarth Old Hall, Westmorland.
(Early 17th cent.)
The plasterer’s art blossomed out into wonderful results. Founding his designs at first on the wood-ribbed ceilings of his youth, he gradually elaborated them into the amazing richness which characterises the end of the sixteenth century. The variety of his patterns is wonderful, and, considering the number of ceilings which are left, it is surprising how seldom two instances of the same design are found. As a rule great judgment was shown in the choice of patterns: simple designs of slight projection being used in low rooms, and more elaborate ones of heavier section in lofty rooms. Frequently in the latter the principal points in the design were emphasised by pendants, which broke the monotony and added greatly to the richness of the effect.
136. Parham, Sussex. The Great Hall (1593).
At Parham in Sussex (Fig. 136) is an example of this treatment, which, indeed, would be almost meagre, were it not for the pendants. This room is the great hall, and, it will be observed, is covered with a flat ceiling instead of an open timber roof. The latter form of covering, which had been customary from the earliest times, was giving place, in the early part of the seventeenth century, to the ceiling, inasmuch as the height of houses was increasing, and an upper storey was formed over the hall. In some cases, where vacant space permitted, plaster ceilings, instead of being flat, were carried up and formed into a large cove as is the case at Herringstone in Dorset (Fig. 137), which is one of the most notable of its kind. The pattern is of the simplest, but gains much character from being on the curve; the main ribs are bent down at intervals, where they intersect, to form the root of pendants which vary in their forms. The tympanum on the end wall, resulting from the curves of the ceiling, is also ornamented with a suitable pattern, and the cornice, making the circuit of the room, binds the whole together with its strong horizontal lines. There is another fine coved ceiling at Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire, differing in treatment from this at Herringstone by reason of its being curved all four ways, the point of intersection being furnished with a large, open pendant. The work in these old ceilings is generally too irregular to suit the correct taste of the modern workman, yet the effect is softer and more pleasing than that of the mechanical accuracy of the present day.
137. Herringstone, Dorset.
Coved Plaster Ceiling.
The variety of ornament in the ceilings of this period is extraordinary; sometimes it was merely a geometrical pattern duly repeated; sometimes a flowing pattern so varied that not a single portion of it occurs twice, save that the two halves of the ceiling are repeated in reverse fashion. Then, again, there is a strong simple framework with all the interspaces decorated either with floral ornament or subjects of natural history, or, still oftener, heraldic devices. As Gray says, in those days they employed the power of fairy hands