ridge, has part of the top cut off, and there forms a leaden roof, a little raised to a ridge in the middle, but scarcely differing from a flat. This roof is affixed to large spans ; it is compact, and shows less elevation than the common roof.*

Whatever be the form of the roof, the architect should always take care in the construction to preserve its weight equally on the separate parts, that it may not bear more upon one side of the building than another; and in the construction of the whole edifice he will do well to contrive that the inner division walls, where there are any,t bear their share of the load, and that not more than is needful be laid upon the outer ones. The roof embracing every part of the building, and pressing equally everywhere, becomes what it was intended, a bond of union and firmness, as well as a covering to the whole house: and making the middle or inside walls assist in supporting the roof is very desirable for another reason; that is, not being in danger of falling in course of time, occasioned by the rotting of the end of the tie-beams; although leading their ends to keep off moisture will prevent the catastrophe, or an auxiliary foot-piece may be added to the beams, which is now very commonly done. This assumes the form of a corbel, on which the tie-beam rests, giving great additional strength to the very part which is the soonest to decay.

All roofs should be kept low, with the exception of those on Tudor buildings, whose character is highpitched and ornamental, having scalloped barge-boards and pinnacles on their gables, with cranelated parapet walls. But the various heights of roofs depend in some measure on the nature and quality of the covering to be placed on them, as well as on the situation, whether they are sheltered, or stand exposed to the boisterous elements. In Eastern countries, where it rains but seldom, the houses are covered with flat roofs, and surrounded with a plain parapet wall, where the family frequently take an airing in the evenings, and in the summer months sleep at night.‡

The Egyptians had the roofs of their houses also flat.§ The Greeks constructed their public buildings with a common span-roof, of two inclined sides,|| the height of which was from one-sixth to one-eighth of the span, and laid them over with slabs of marble. The Romans followed the Greeks in the same form of roof, but made them rise from the base of the triangle from one-fifth to twoninths of the span, and finished their parapets with balustrades. In England our roofs rise from one-fourth to the third of the span; but this determined rise must depend on the width of the building, the materials, and kind of covering to be used, and the screened or exposed situation of the edifice. A wide building requires a higher roof than a narrow one, and smaller slates, such as the ladies; the duchess slate are most proper for a lower pitch. Plain tiles require a higher rise of roof than pantiles; and slates again admit of a still lower pitch than tiles: on an exposed situation in the country they require a higher pitch of roof than to a house in a town. The lower

* The projecting roofs in the Tuscan manner or Italian style, where they are great, and ornamented with cantilivers, give a boldness of effect by their depth of shadow, as well as being a great preservation to the walls of a country villa; but then it is to be observed, that those roofs should have sunk or concealed gutters at the eaves. And it is also essential to observe a due medium in the projection of the eave, so that where the top of the windows comes near the roof they may not be too much darkened, and the bed-rooms rendered gloomy; nor on the other hand have too little projection, so as to give the eaves a meagre appearance.—(B.)

+ If there are partitions and not internal walls, the roof must be so constructed as not to depend on them for support, but on its own principles.-(B.)

Mr. Buckingham informs us, that when he was at Bagdad he slept on the top of the house, which was divided into small rooms without any ceiling, and open to the sky; that the breast-wall was somewhat above his head, and the house being higher than those around him, awaking early in the morning, his curiosity tempted him to climb up and look into the adjoining dormitories of the other houses. In which act, he says, had he been discovered, he might have paid dearly for his curiosity, in prying, by having a ball sent through his head; an act at this place justifiable.—(Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia.)

§ There is a small model of an Egyptian dwelling-house to be seen in the British Museum, lately brought from Egypt, from which the author of this work has taken a drawing.—(A.)

|| Some had no roofs, particularly their temples, but were left open to the sky. (See Pausanias.)

TT

a roof is kept down, the more the strain as well as weight presses on the abutments of the timbers. The higher it is framed, the more the weight is thrown on the walls, and the better the walls will be held together.

Roofs which have a gutter in the middle, like the Roman letter M, are likely to hold and retain the snow, and become a serious load.* Roofs which are high-pitched or more elevated, discharge the rain and snow from them more quickly than those which are low, and are less liable to be stripped of their covering by the wind, and the rain is not so easily blown between the slates; but they are unsightly, and more expensive than low roofs, for they require longer and larger timbers, and a greater quantity of covering. The low roof possesses the advantage in point of economy; but then it requires larger and longer slates, and greater care in the construction.

The early English roofs were very remarkable from their being constructed of oak and chestnut, and without iron ties: they were lofty, and generally contained inferior lodging-rooms. Shakspeare, who sometimes adopted the custom of his own country in his foreign plays, alludes to these garret bed-rooms in his "Two Gentlemen of Verona:"

"Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground,

And built so shelving that one cannot climb it
Without apparent hazard of his life."-Act III. Scene 1.†

A DESCRIPTION OF THE FIR-TIMBER USED IN CARPENTRY.

The following is the name of each kind, beginning with the best in quality and descending in order. First, Memel, brought from Prussia, in the Baltic; second, Riga, from Russia; third, Dantzic, from Western Prussia; fourth, red stone-pine, from Miramichi in North America; and lastly, yellow pine, from Quebec, the capital of Canada.

CRITICAL REMARKS.

Added to the defects of modern English building, particularly that in the metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood, is the improper state in which timber is used. The major part of our best timber is imported from the north of Europe, and is immersed in docks, and lies there floating till it is sold for immediate use. The consequence of this is, that the timber (which some suppose is by the water freed of its sap) becomes swelled to much beyond its former bulk; it is then hastily framed together while the very water is running from it, and very soon after being so converted, it shrinks to such a degree that every tenon becomes loose, every joint strains falsely from the shrinkage, and every ceiling and quartered-partition crack by the opening, diminishing, and distortion of the wood. (R. B.)

* Of all the ill-constructed roofs, that of the V form, frequently adopted in the third and fourth-rate houses in London, is most to be avoided: here the roof lies on the top of the building like an open book, with each cover leaning against the two adjoining houses, the middle pressing with all its weight on the gutter-plate, which runs from front to back, and rests with all this superincumbent weight on the partitions which divide the front and back rooms, whereby the floors are thrust down in their centre, and the doors brought out of square.-(B.)

+ The carved roofs in the great halls in the time of the Tudors were extremely picturesque and grotesque, many of which still remain of the one at Haddon, we have the following account. The roof, the timbers of which were formed with pendents richly carved, and emblazoned with heraldic insignia, formed the most striking picture of the building. (Pennant.) Of a much earlier period, that of Westminster Hall is deservedly admired. The original hall was built by William Rufus, the present one was built by Richard II, in 1398. This magnificent roof is made of chestnut, and the principals are in the form of a trefoil leaf, with winged figures at the sections of the curves; these hold shields to their breasts, and their legs are enveloped in carved clouds. The series of little Gothic arches which ornament the principals, and the beautiful lantern-light on the roof outside, produce in each a picturesque effect. This roof is covered with slate, but the original was of lead. The interior is ninety feet high from the stone floor, and seventy feet in length by seventy in breadth, and is not exceeded in its dimensions by any other in the world.-(Maitland's History of London.)

DISSERTATION XIX.

ON THE DIFFERENT COVERINGS OF ROOFS.

"No part of a building is so uninteresting as the monotonous slanting roof."--PAYNE KNIGHT'S Analytical Enquiry into the Principles of Taste.

Roofs, in the present style of English suburban architecture, are less susceptible of decoration than any other parts of the building, as they admit neither of the highly wrought covering of ancient Greece, nor of the fluted tiles of the Romans. It is only by varying the continuity of the outline that an ornamental appearance can be produced: decoration is therefore difficult; and though the sloping roof is slightly diversified in its slated surface, when compared with that of the wrought stone in front of the walls, yet it has no effect of light and shadow, and it has also a more plain and unfinished look than any other part of the edifice, which is heightened by the greatness of its surface and inharmonious opposition of colour, contrasted with the other parts of the building, a very material fault in whatever is to be combined with the most highly finished forms and ornaments of architecture. It is to be considered, therefore, by what means these defects may, by reference to ancient modes, be obviated.*

The roofs of ancient buildings still remaining, however, show us that a peculiar attention was paid both to beauty, regularity of design, and effect by light and shadow. The Tower of the Winds, at Athens, an octagonal building, whose roof terminates against a pedestal, on which is a Triton hold ing a wand, pointing to the wind that blows, is covered with slabs of marble, in each of which the horizontal edge presents so much as to give a strong shade, while the vertical joists are so elevated as to form high ribs, which break the uniform surface in a very beautiful manner. The Lantern of Demosthenes, a circular building, whose roof terminates against a scroll-pedestal, on which is placed a tripod, is roofed in the form of laurel-leaves, which in a different way have the same effect. The ancient mode of covering by semicircular tiles laid within each other, gave a sort of fluted look to the roof, and the old flat tiles of the Lower Empire, which were joined with a high rib, something in the way of the Tower of the Winds at Athens, had the same effect of light and shadow.+

* From the accounts of historians and travellers, we have shown that the roofs among the first and present inhabitants of the East were made flat for walking upon, and sleeping there during the hot months; but to prevent the settlement of rain and lodgment of snow in other countries where it was frequent, Alberti says, that the roofs sub dio were not continued or adapted for ambulation, like those non sub dio, the covering materials here consisting of thatch, wooden planks or shingles, and slabs of stone, though sometimes metal or lead.—(Alberti.)

+ Buzzes, of Naxos, who lived five hundred and eighty years before our era, is said to have been the inventor of those marble slabs, worked into the shape of tiles for the roof. As the wet would be admitted through the joints of these tiles, another set, called harmi, or joining-tiles were used. At Rhamnus these last tiles were semi-hexagonal prisms, hollowed underneath. The upright pieces of the eaves of the roof, rounded at the top, terminate the alternate row of harmi or joint-tiles. The ornaments upon them were painted. The joint-tiles of the eaves terminated on upright pieces, first rounded at the top, and afterwards indented or scalloped. The lower course of the tiles was formed in blocks thrice the length of the other ties. In the Doric public edifices the joints take place over the centre of every triglyph. The tiles of the eaves, to which the joint-tiles were attached by plugs, were the raking bed of the cornice.-(Inedited Antiq. of Attica, pt. xxxiv. pp. 12, 13.)

In the roofing of the Propylæa at Eleusis, and in the Doric buildings generally, the roof terminates in a stillicidium, (dropping eave,) but in the temple of Diana Propylaia, at the same place, the upper moulding (nina) of the pediment-cornice was a terracotta, and a channel was hollowed in it for the purpose of receiving the rain which fell upon the roof. In this member of the building lions'-heads are sculptured in bold relief, through the perforations of which the water effected its escape. The tiles of the roof were made of baked clay. The alternate joint-tiles terminated at the ridge and eaves with a flowing ornament (called an anthemion), composed of the honeysuckle flower, and two scrolls belted together, and supported by three acanthus-leaves. The top bed of the cornice, in blocks thrice the length of the tiles, was saddled at the joints, and constituted the lower course. In the centre of the upper surface of this a check or stop was formed, to which the joint-tiles, ending with a flowered ornament, were cramped. Every block had two perforations, through which the water falling upon the roof passed off.-(Ionian Antiquities.)

Even the ridge and hip-rolls of our roofs diminish in some degree the nakedness of their appearance. The richness occasioned by variation from dull uniformity of surface, is also very striking in some of the old leaden roofs of our cathedrals; where the sheets are narrow and the rolls large, and where the ends are seen in divisions along the eaves, they have a very picturesque effect. The roofs of the monastic buildings before the Reformation appear, from a writer of those days, not only to have been covered with lead, but to have had curious grotesque spout-heads, which details, unimportant as they may appear, have been thought worthy of poetical commemoration. Lydgate says,

"Every house ycovered was with lead,

And many a gorgoyle, and many a hideous head,
With spouts thorough."

The architects of the middle ages seem to have had it in view to give both lightness and richness to their roofs, by a sort of fleur-de-lis lacing on the ridges, as well as to decorate the gables with quatre-foil, open-work, carved vine-branches, and clustered grapes in a serpentine form. This kind of ornament yet remains with peculiar elegance in many of the old manor and city houses in some of our ancient towns in England. Ornamental crest-tiles, too, of every grotesque form and character, may still be met with, which has a truly pleasing and picturesque effect.*

Of slate, Dr. Whitaker says, "there is a kind of covering which is now universal in Manchester,+ and was first introduced there at an early period." This is that light-coloured species of flaky stone of which we have numerous quarries in England, and which we still designate by its British appellation of sylatta, or slate. Pliny mentions it as a white stone that was divided by the Celta more easily than wood, and sawed by them into thin plates for tiles. It was primarily divided into plates, and first applied as tiles within the northern region of Gaul; was so used very commonly in the first century, and still retains among the French its Celtic denomination of esclate, or slate. And at this era, if it was introduced into Britain from Gaul (France,) so is it found among us during the period of the Romans' stay in this island. Some Roman buildings in Britain appear, from remains that have been discovered, to have been actually covered with slates, and they were fastened to the roofs with nails of iron, hooked, long and large.‡

The best covering, without doubt, for houses is lead or copper, but on account of its great expense it is now but seldom used for that purpose. Thus having taken a brief view of the history of slated houses in other countries, we shall return to our own, where this material is now the standard and most general article for covering all good houses. The best slates which can be

* The covering used for houses at an early period in the North of Europe, was that of bulrushes, but the Romans seem to have introduced the use of reeds for this purpose, and the buildings of colleges and town-houses in other countries were then generally covered with it: even in our own country, at Oxford and Cambridge; and such was the roofing in London within these three last centuries: but afterwards some of the more respectable structures would probably be roofed with scindulæ (shingles), or boards; such are the common covering in all our American colonies; and this was equally used among ourselves in former ages, and continued even in Edinburgh beyond the beginning, and in most parts of Cheshire before the middle, of the last century. And they were generally used even in Rome for the long period of nearly five ages. But either their houses afterwards, or others at the same time, were probably covered with tegulæ, the Saxon tægles, and the Armorican teolen, or tiles, which were first invented at Cyprus, were, after the shingles, the general roofing in Rome, and appear sufficient from the name to have been brought into Britain by the Romans.

In Virgil's first Eclogue, written about 41 B.C., we are informed that his cottage in the neighbourhood of Mantua, his native place, was covered with turf. The passage is here translated:

"And shall I after many a year of woe,

E'er my loved country tread, e'er hail again
My turf-roof'd cot, the palace of my reign ?"

+ Whitaker's History of Manchester.

Hearne's Strusfield Pennant. Leland, vol. viii. p. 30.

procured are those brought from North Wales, and which are of a blue colour. The Westmoreland slates are by many persons strongly recommended: the colour of these slates is considered very beautiful, being of a light green, which certainly harmonizes well with a building surrounded by trees. The slates in Devonshire and Cornwall are not so excellent in comparison with those just mentioned, because they decay quicker; but their colour is generally of a good tone, being in some parts that of a purple-grey. The Dennybole quarry in Cornwall produces the largest, finest, and most durable.+

Slates are much dearer in London than tiles, but the former are nevertheless getting greatly into use, slate being found preferable in every respect. It is a lighter covering, lies much closer, and more beautiful and agreeable to the eye; and there are instances of a greater duration, sometimes continuing good and sound for centuries. Some slates will certainly last much longer than others, and in this respect they vary according to situation. There is a drab-stone used for covering houses in Dorsetshire, and another kind of this colour in Kent, called Kentish ragstone; these are much coarser in their particles than the common slate, and they have this disadvantage, that they greatly load the roof, considerably more than the Welsh slate, and do not bear the weather so well, neither will they split into so thin pieces: but they have the good qualities of harmonizing and being better adapted for the covering of cottages than the crude blue slate, where thatch is made an objection, such covering many people having a great dislike to; but where thatch is adopted, as on genteel rustic cottages, it should always be kept in a good state of repair. The month of May is said to be the best for this performance.

"Where houses be reeded (as houses have need)

Now pare off the mosse and go beat in the reed;

The juster ye drive it, the smoother and plain,

More handsome ye make it to shut off the raine."-TUSSER'S Redivivus.

TO ASCERTAIN THE SOUNDNESS OF SLATE.

The greatest value of slates consists in their soundness when split into thin pieces, and their fine texture, by which they resist the entrance of water. Those which are soft and spongy, or loose in flakes and unsound in substance, are bad, as they will let in the rain, to the destruction of the timbers in the roof. To judge of the quality and goodness of slate, let the architect in his first experiment strike some of them against a block of wood; if they ring or sound well, it is a sign that the slate is sound; at the same time let him break one or more, and he will have a further proof. If the slate does not ring well, there is something unsound in the texture, which by breaking will be discovered. After this a further experiment may be tried; let him weigh a few slates, and afterwards

At Laurgaard, in Norway, there is a beautiful, or at least singular, kind of slate. In this quarter (says the writer) it is as thin as sheets of copper, and has the same metallic lustre and colour. It is cut round or in lozenges, and sits so regularly, thinly, and closely upon the roof, that the houses might have seemed roofed with copper, till I considered how unlikely it was that in this poor country it would be so applied.-(Laing's Journal of a Residence in Norway, p. 31.)

+ We sometimes meet with slates which have small pieces of yellow substances sticking in them, like bits of solid brass, apparently inserted by art. These are lumps of a substance called by some people mundic, and composed wholly of sulphur and vitriol: they are faults in the stone, though they look beautiful on a building, and they soon moulder after being exposed to the air, and let the rain through, though some are very hard, and last a long time.—(B.)

Tiles, though extensively used in many provincial towns as well as the metropolis, constitute a very heavy covering for houses; and what is still worse, they injure the timber upon which they are laid, and tend to make a house damp from the facility with which they are penetrated with moisture. All unglazed tiles imbibe a seventh part of their weight of water in the space of ten minutes, and cannot be deprived of this water without a degree of heat equal to sixty degrees continued for six days; it must therefore be obvious, that a roof covered with them can in the country seldom be dry. The timbers also of the roof must be calculated to support their weight in their wet state. (Bishop Watson.)