The foregoing letter came to hand as we were going to press. We have only time to assure our correspondent that we will pay immediate attention to the subject it refers to, and we invite further information from all those who may be in the way of procuring it. At the same time we would urge a calm and steady purpose in the pursuit of this or any similar object of our vigilance.
Legislation on matters affecting building interests, above all things, should be deliberate and not capricious. Much mischief may be done by over anxious meddlings, indeed, we may say in this respect with Shakspeare in Hamlet,
“Better bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of,”
or run the risk of so doing.
ON METAL WORKS.
(From Pugin’s principles of Pointed Architecture.)
We now come to the consideration of works in metal; and I shall be able to shew that the same principles of suiting the design to the material and decorating construction, were strictly adhered to by the artists of the middle ages, in all their productions in metal, whether precious or common.
In the first place, hinges, locks, bolts, nails, &c., which are always concealed in modern designs, were rendered in Pointed Architecture, rich and beautiful decorations; and this, not only in the doors and fittings of buildings, but in cabinet and small articles of furniture. The early hinges covered the whole face of the door with varied and flowing scroll-work. Of this description are those of Notre Dame at Paris, St. Elizabeth’s church at Marburg, the western doors of Litchfield cathedral, the Chapter House at York, and hundreds of other churches, both in England and on the Continent.
Hinges of this kind are not only beautiful in design, but they are practically good. We all know that on the principle of a lever, a door may be easily torn off its modern hinges, by a strain applied at its outward edge. This could not be the case with the ancient hinges, which extended the whole width of the door, and were bolted through in various places. In barn doors and gates these hinges are still used, although devoid of any elegance of form; but they have been most religiously banished from all public edifices as unsightly, merely on account of our present race of artists not exercising the same ingenuity as those of ancient times, in rendering the useful a vehicle for the beautiful. The same remarks will apply to locks which are now concealed, and let into the styles of doors, which are often more than half cut away to receive them.
A lock was a subject on which the ancient smiths delighted to exercise the utmost resources of their art. The locks of chests were generally of a most elaborate and beautiful description. A splendid example of an old lock still remains at Beddington Manor House, Surrey, and is engraved in my father’s work of examples. In churches we not unfrequently find locks with sacred subjects chased upon them, with the most ingenious mechanical contrivances to conceal the keyhole. Keys were also highly ornamented with appropriate decorations referring to the locks to which they belonged; and even the wards turned into beautiful devices and initial letters. Railings were not casts of meagre stone tracery, but elegant combinations of metal bars, adjusted with a due regard to strength and resistance.