Now if the eye can fix on any one proportion for a door, then another door of any given width or height may easily be formed by drawing a diagonal line from one of the lower corners of the door through the opposite corner of the door on the top, and where it cuts the given line at top or on the side, will be its point for obtaining the line to the one given in all cases.

ANCIENT LOCKS.

The locks to domestic dwellings appear always to have been the same as those used to ecclesiastical edifices, but the ancient lock has now been superseded by the more convenient, neat, and secure mortice-locks of modern times. There are still many examples of ancient locks, which are peculiar for the beautiful ornaments on them, and on the scutcheons; one in Henry the Seventh's Chapel is remarkable for its beautiful tracery, and another of this kind is still to be seen on the door of the great hall at Beddington, in Surrey, an ancient seat of Sir Francis Carew,* built about 1597, well worthy of notice, having on it the arms and supporters of King Henry VIII.

The bedchamber locks and bolts of our monarchs at this period seem to have been movable articles, and were carried about by his smith wherever the king went, as the following account from the privy-purse expenses of King Henry the Eighth shows:

1532. July.

Sept.
Dec.

Item, paide to the smythe that caryeth the lock aboute wh the king in rewarde. vijs. vjd.
Item, paide to the smythe for bolts and rynges for the kinge's chambre-dores all the
time of the progresse

xls.

Item, paide to the smythe that caryed the lock to Calys, and for his charge all the

way

xlvjs. viijd. It would also appear that the bedchamber doors of our monarch at this time had sometimes a plurality of locks, and that one was called the "privy lock," as a note in Nichols' Progress has this remarkable passage: "The Lady Elizabeth hearing the privy lock undo, ran out of her bed to her maidens."

The device of making locks to open by adjusting letters impressed upon them for that purpose, is not a recent invention, for in Beaumont and Fletcher's Noble Gentleman, one is alluded to with the word Amen:

"A cap-case for your linen and your plate,
With a strange lock that opens with Amen."

(Beaumont and Fletcher's Plays.)

In the highlands of Scotland wooden locks are still existing, so artfully contrived by notches at equal distances, that they can only be opened by wooden keys which belong to them, and match the notches.-(Fosbrook.)

Holingshed gives the following most incredible account of a lock made, as he says, in 1579: "This yeare, in the moneth of Maie, Marke Scaliot, blacke smith, citizen of London, borne in the parish of St. Clement's Dane, without Temple Bar, and now dwelling in Cornehill, neere vnto Leaden-hall, for triall of workemanship, made one hanging locke of iron, steele, and brasse, of eleven several peaces, a pipe keie filed three square, with a pot vpon the shaft, and the bow with two esses, all cleane wrought, which weied but one graine of gold, or wheat-corne-a thing almost incrediable, but that myselfe (amongst manie others) have seene it, and therefore must affirme it to be true.”—(Holingshed's Chronicles, vol. iv. p. 406.)

ANCIENT HINGES.

The doors of the ancients did not turn on hinges but on pivots, as they still do in the East, which were sometimes of metal, but generally of the same substance as the door, which worked in sockets below and above in the lintel and threshold, so that one of the sides opened inwards and the other outwards. As the weight of the whole door rested on the mere pivot, it opened with much less ease than one mounted on hinges, particularly when the lower socket became worn by the weight and friction. The modern butt-hinges, where only the knuckle or head is seen when the door is shut, like that of the mortice-lock, is a great improvement on the flourished strap-hinges of the Tudor period, which were nailed, bolted, and riveted against the front of the door; but the numerous and diversity of forms which door-hinges had at that time branched into were almost endless, particularly those on their cypress chests.+ Coffers and chests at this period were

uncommon to have large folding-doors, the opening of which serves to throw two rooms into one.

In such cases the width

of the aperture will generally be of less height than twice its breadth, as all the doors of the same story are commonly of the same height, although these doors may have the addition of an upper frieze-panel added to their height where the common door of the room is of four panels.-(R. B.)

In the house of Sallust at Pompeii, we find, instead of folding-doors, that curtains were drawn on rods, like those of our windows, and to the common internal doors they had them in like manner. These are mentioned by Corippus, who gives, like the ancient Romans, similar ornaments to the Byzantine Atria. In his Justin Minor, he says, "Clara superpositis movebant atria velis."-(Rosin. 46.)

* Sir Francis Carew planted the first orange-trees seen in England, at this seat; they were placed in the open ground, and protected by a movable shed, but were destroyed by a hard frost in 1740.

There is a very ancient and curious cypress chest in the possession of my much-respected friend F. W. L. Ross, Esq., at Topsham, which ought to be engraved. It is most sumptuously ornamented with carved work, representing Scriptural and other interesting subjects. The dimensions of the chest are as follow: six feet long, two feet wide, and two feet deep; the sides, ends, and cover are each one inch and a half thick. Although it is very old it shows not the least symp

the general repositories for articles of every kind; writings, apparel, food, and even fuel were kept in them. Many of these chests, which were raised on feet to protect them from damp and vermin, were beautifully ornamented with carving and other sumptuous enrichments. "In ivory coffers," says Gremio, "I have stuffed my crowns; in cypress chests my arras, counterpoints," &c. Cypress, known in Holy Writ as Gopher-wood, was selected for its rare properties of neither rotting nor becoming worm-eaten. The ivory coffers were small, and either carved or engraved in devices, with silver or gilt locks and ornaments, and were used for keeping jewels and other valuables. In 1523, Sir William Compton, Knight, bequeathed to King Henry VIII. a little chest of ivory, whereof one lock is gilt, with a chess-board under the same and a pair of tables upon it, and all such jewels and treasure as are inclosed therein.+ Small coffers of silver are also mentioned. Large trunks, in which clothes, hangings, &c. were packed for removal, were called trussing-chests: they were substantially made, and bound in every direction with iron straps, wrought into fanciful and multifarious forms; and secured by locks of artful and curious contrivance. The same sort of metal-work was, indeed, applied to coffers of lesser dimensions. Two standard chests were delivered to the laundress of King Henry VIII.; "the one to keep the cleane stuff, and the other to keep the stuff that had been occupied."

Many of the ancient hinges were not only branched and wrought into scrolls and leaves, but terminated with roses, fleur-de-lis, and other florid devices in the Florentine, Flemish, and arabesque styles, and were occasionally still further ornamented with inscriptions, which were to be met with in the Tudor structures of that day, particularly in the ecclesiastical edifices. On the church door at Dartmouth, in Devonshire, the hinges and their scroll-work cover nearly the whole surface, representing a tree with its roots above-ground, with a leopard on each side. In Solomon's house the hinges were of gold, both for the doors of the inner house and that of the most holy place.§

DEVICES ON SECRET DOORS.

On secret doors many ingenious devices have been painted as deceptions, perhaps none more curious than are to be met with on a jib-door to a bookcase in the library at Killerton Park, the seat of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, M.P., of Broad Clist, in Devonshire. Take these as specimens: "Playfair on the late Formation of Trap ;"" Trap on Fictitious Entries;" "Friend's Right of Entrance;" "Continuation of Chambers;" "Pasquin at Home;" "Treatise on the Law of Partitions;” “Mullington on Covered Ways;" "Noah's Log-Book ;" and "Snug's the Word, by a Clerk of the Closet." The titles on the sham books near the hinges, are alike appropriate, but more quaint, viz., "Squeak on Openings;" “ Bang on Shuttings" and "Hinge's Orations."-(From my Note Book.)

Garrick's sitting-room, in his house at the Adelphi, in London, had a jib-door so contrived as to appear when shut precisely like the other parts of the room, and, of course, not easily to be found but by those who had been used to it. One day a tailor came to him on business, which after being finished, the tailor bowing and intending to leave the room, was unable to find the door; searching all round the room in vain, and affording much amusement to Garrick, whom I heard relate this circumstance while he was in Sir Joshua's painting-room, which had a door of a similar kind.-(Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds.)

Perhaps the largest and most ingenious, as well as difficult door of this kind that has ever been constructed, (which is always difficult to execute well) is at Northumberland House, in the outer court-wall adjoining the Strand, and at the right-hand

toms of decay. The hinges are ancient, and flourished with scrollwork and fleur-de-lis ornament; they are as bright as silver, the lustre it is supposed being preserved by the oily and balmy nature of the cypress wood.

The inside of the cover is divided into three compartments, and ornamented with historical subjects; the borders surrounding these compartments contain celestial figures within an ornamented band of foliage and scroll-work. All the carved work is sunk, engraved in hatching-strokes on the shaded sides, and burnt and softened off with hot irons, producing the appearance of monochromatic painting. In the centre compartment is represented a terrestrial globe, on which are seen ships sailing, curious animals, and the globe itself supported by two winged figures. The right-hand compartment contains a picture carved, that of the judgment of Solomon, where the two harlots are addressing him respecting the living and dead child. (See 1 Kings, iii. 16, 17.) In the compartment on the left hand of the centre is represented the armed guards about to divide the living child. In smaller compartments on each side of these are Hebrew warriors, each armed with a spear and shield; and in the top border are angels playing on lutes; in the lower one are birds of the falcon kind amid foliage.

The front of the chest outside is divided into three large and four smaller compartments, inclosed within mouldings: the centre panel contains a group of centaurs, male and female, the latter holding a young one in her arms. In the righthand panel is represented a king in a tent, sitting on his throne, giving judgment on a prisoner, who is brought before him by his guards. On the left hand the panel contains the same prisoner undergoing decapitation in the presence of the king, who is here sitting under a tent. In the smaller compartments of each is a satyr: one carries a goat on his shoulder with a tortoise at his feet; the second is blowing a horn, with a trident in his right hand and a snake at his feet; the third, also blowing a horn, is accompanied by a greyhound; and the fourth carries a stag followed by a dog. Among the foliage are storks, and celestial figures playing on musical instruments.

The ends of the chest on the outside are each ornamented with a dragon with expanded wings.-(Author.)

* Paid William Grene, the king's coffer-maker, for making of a coffer covered with fustyan of Naples, and being full of drawe-boxes, lyned with red and grene sarcynet, to put in stones of diverse sorts, vjl. xviijs. jd. And to Cornelys, the lock-smythe, for making all the iron-worke, that is to saye, the lock, gymowes, handles, and rynges to every drawe-boxe, the price xxxvjs. ivd.—(From a Record, temp. Hen. VIII., quoted in the Privy Purse Expenses.)

+ Testamenta Vetusta.

The inventories generally describe these chests as "standards." Henry VIII. paid for half a year's rent for a house in London, for the standing of the great standards with the rich coats of the guards, 17s. 4d.-(Privy Purse Expenses.) § 1 Kings, vii. 50.

side of the general entrance-gate towards Charing-cross. The face of the door is painted to imitate the brick wall of the house itself with which it ranges, and so well is the whole performed, that it would be with difficulty that a stranger could find it out, though the door is of an immense size, being intended to admit carriages through. The whole iron railing outside also moves in mass with the door itself whenever it is opened, which is used only at stated times, that of routs.

ANCIENT PAINTINGS ON DOORS.

Aubrey describes the doors of the upper story of Lord Bacon's seat, Verulam House, at St. Albans, to have had painted outside of them, in dark umber, "figures of the gods of the Gentiles." Those of Solomon's Temple were of carved work.* Devices and sentences were also frequently painted on the panels of doors. In Tusser's "Five Hundred Pontes of Good Husbandrie," there is a sort of posies or proverbial rhymes to be written in various rooms of the house, such as husbandrie posies for the hall, posies for the parlour, posics for the guests' chamber, and posies for their own chamber.

The Manor-house of Northumberland, a seat of the noble Earl Percy, who was celebrated in the ballad of Chevy Chase, had a profusion of these posies and proverbs. In one of the rooms was a dialogue of thirty-two stanzas, between the "Parte Sensatyve" and the "Parte Intellectyve;" and in another, a poem of thirty-two stanzas, a "Descant on Harmony." There were also proverbs in the earl's library of twenty-three stanzas, of which the following is a specimen :

"To every tale geve thou no credens :
Prove the cause before thou give sentens;
Agayn the right make no dyffens;
So has thou a clene consciens."

And in another room was the following:

"Punyshe ye moderately, and discreetly correct,
As well to mercy as to justice havynge a respect;
So shall ye have meryte for the punishment,
And cause the offender to be sorry and penitent.
If ye be movede with anger or hastynes,
Pause in your mynde, and your yre repress:
Defer vengeance unto your anger sswagede be;
So shall ye mynyster justice and dewe equyte."

Northumberland Household Book.

DISSERTATION XXXII.

ON THE INSIDE DECORATIONS OF A House.

"The walls in the interior parts of houses in the early ages in Great Britain were not at first plastered, but hung with tapestry after this wainscoting became the fashion, and at a later period it was customary to paint pictures in the panels." -HARISON'S History of England.

There is no branch of architecture in which we may not receive instruction from the practice of the ancients: they were the first and great inventors of the science, and it was they who perfected it. We see in the remains of their labours, which the malice of the times (now passed away). has spared, everywhere lessons of gradual improvement; and as we have no progressive history of domestic architecture, I have on all occasions throughout the preceding dissertations interspersed historical evidence with practical detail, whenever it could be obtained; I shall therefore do so here. Now in all the ancient structures we see a dignity which is not so much as attempted in those of modern works, for our ambition runs into another channel; we sacrifice the noble to the pretty, and would rather what we finish should be called fine than great. The ancients were of a contrary mind; they admitted ornament it is true, but without luxuriancy; they indulged in fancy, but not at the expense of judgment; and they considered first the essential parts; they began with plainness, and they advanced to decoration. The original mode of finishing a room among the classic

* And the doors also were of olive-tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm-trees.-(1 Kings, vi. 32.)

nations was at first by covering the walls with an encaustic plastering: this they made as fine as our well-trowelled stucco, and afterwards painted them with figures and landscapes.*

In the course of time a change took place; columns, so graceful on the outside of a building, were at last brought into the apartments of magnificent houses, and arranged round the walls with their pedestals, bases, capitals, and entablature, thus supporting around the room the whole ceiling, which appeared as a necessary weight above. After this the architects soon brought a portion of the decorations of the more magnificent rooms into such as, though elegant in themselves, were yet in their nature of less dignity, and completed upon a less expensive plan. They understood an order duly proportioned to be a very good measure and guide for the decorative parts of a building. Thus on the lower part of the plain wall they raised from the floor the pedestal of a column, with its base, die, and cornice, which they also continued round the room, now called by the moderns the skirting, dado, and surbase. Here the wall was now carried up plain without the columns to the ceiling, where they had a cornice. Though they did not, in those rooms where there were no columns, at all times adopt the whole cornice, in resemblance of the entablature; nevertheless very proper for conformity where there was this kind of embellishment; still in those plainer rooms it would have been too much, therefore the pedestal with its mouldings alone was continued round the lower part of the walls, and the cornice of the entablature round the top near the ceiling; thus were furnished those plainer or second degrees of rooms.†

* This was found to have been the case at Herculaneum and Pompeii. And in Holland the walls of the rooms are still generally painted with a series of landscapes in panels. This method was also occasionally practised in England during the Tudor period, when even falls of water were commonly met with on the walls.

"Then collours cast they o'er the walls, and deckt old houses gaye."

Tapestry or arras was very early used for covering the walls of superior apartments. The making of hangings with figures came first from Babylon, from whence they were called Babylonica.—(Plin. lib. viii. c. 48.) See Cowley's Davideis, book iii.

"He spoke, and straight led in his thankful guests

To a stately room prepared for shows and feasts:

The room with golden tap'stry glister'd bright,

At once to please and to confound the sight,

Th' excellent work of Babylonian hands."-(Cowley.)

The most ancient tapestry now existing is preserved in the church at Bayeux in Normandy, and exhibits an entire series of the circumstances attending William the Conqueror's descent on England.

The arras was loosely hung on projecting frames by tenter-hooks against the walls, (which were sometimes not even plastered,) covering the whole surface from the floor to the ceiling, and was, like most other furniture, removable from one residence of its owner to another. Shakspeare makes constant allusion to arras being used in the decoration of walls.

The walls of the gallery of York-place, at Whitehall, in London, the residence of Cardinal Wolsey, and seized by King Henry VIII., were hanged with cloths of gold and tissue of divers makings, and cloth of silver likewise on both the sides, and rich cloths of bondkin of divers colours. (Cavendish's Life of Wolsey.) In the seventeenth century the walls of the rooms were covered with leather, having gilt edges.-(A. M. R.)

+ Among the Romans ivory inlaying seems to have become rather a common method of ornamenting the interior of mansions owned by the wealthy. Horace mentions it as an evidence of his humble way of life, that no walls inlaid with ivory adorned his house. (Ode xviii, b. 11.) And Lucan shows us that ebony was used next to ivory. (Pharsalia, x. 119

Having shown this, and of which an idea of the original might be seen in the ruined temples of Balbeck and Palmyra, (which are of Roman origin,) we shall next see how the like decorations of skirting and cornices were afterwards brought into plainer rooms; that is, such rooms as had not the dignity of the pedestal, columns, and entablatures. Now, by taking away the stylobate, the cornice of the same, and that of the columns, the whole was at once accomplished in all its true relative proportions, and agreeably to the height of the rooms. This was the precise origin of the splendid, the moderate, and the more simple manner adopted in decorating apartments by the old masters; and this it is necessary in large mansions and public rooms still to adhere to by the modern practitioners.

The columns being now removed and the original system not known, many of our young architects have run into error in these decorations. Ornament, it must be remembered, is the medium between what is necessary and what is overfinished: ornaments ought to arise only from the right ordering of things. And between the Grecian and the Roman ornaments there is a great difference; the former appear mostly adapted for internal apartments, the latter for external decoration; the one is effeminate and delicate, the other bold and well relieved. The great care is at all times to give equality of ornament; no part is to be crowded, nor any left wholly vacant, and plain surfaces are to be judiciously intermixed to give relief and repose to the eye, and these are to be united into a pleasing whole. Nothing can be elegant which is not proper; it is the same in every part of architecture. There is a great beauty in having some parts of a cornice plain while others are enriched: two successive carved enriched mouldings should never be placed together; they create confusion, and savour more of expense than of taste. Neither is it sufficient that enrichments are beautiful, they must also be appropriate or they lose half their merit.*

DISSERTATION XXXIII.

ON DECORATIONS OF CEILINGS.

"The ceilings of ancient palatial buildings were covered with ivory plates, which moved and turned round in such a manner that at intervals they could make the ceiling rain flowers and perfumes."-MONTFAUCON.

We know nothing of the method the luxurious Greeks adopted in ornamenting the ceilings of their domestic residences, unless we suppose it was like that of their temples, which is very pro

et seq.) We may infer from this, that they were associated when used for interior ornament; and this was doubtless for the sake of the effect obtained from the contrast, as intimated by Virgil, (En. x. 135,) when he tells us, that “the Dardan boy," with "his radiant temples bare," shone

"Like wrought ivory, when the workman's sleight
Circles with ebony the glossy white."-(Symmons.)

We would therefore venture to suggest that the ebony was employed to form a sort of panel-work in numerous compartments, disposed in complicated but regular forms; the ribs or framework, being of ebony, and the compartment filled up with the polished ivory. This idea is suggested, says an Eastern traveller, by the frequent occasion we have had to notice such panel-work in different parts of Western Asia, particularly as used for ceilings. In this case, however, wood only is used, often valuable wood; or, if not painted, the ribs being gilt or painted with a colour different from that of the body of the work, so as to suggest the idea of a different substance. The Orientals still exhibit much partiality for inlaying their grand apartments; but we are not aware that ivory is now employed for this purpose. Looking-glass is commonly chosen, and some of the most splendid halls of regal palaces are thus inlaid. Ornamental work in stucco is also much employed in interior decoration; and the manner in which certain prominent parts are covered with gilding, other parts richly carved, with intervals of clear white, has often suggested ideas of the ivory, ebony, sapphire, and fretted gold, which ancient descriptions give us.-(E.)

As a guide for ornamenting rooms, let it be remembered, that the enrichments of the dining-room should consist chiefly of fruits: that of the drawing-room, of flowers: the library, of laurel-wreaths: the music-rooms, of lyres and musical-instruments. To give light to the rooms, the cornices should be carried further on the ceilings, and less down on the walls, and to be deep cut in the quirks, and well-contrasted by light and shadow on all sides of the room.-(B.)