Of ElthamJ

THE BAY WINDOWS—TIIE ROOF.

127

recess, and exhibiting, in design and workmanship, all the characteristic beautyof its class and epoch. The most cursory view will enable the reader to judgeof their shape and proportions; butto form any adequate conception ofwhat they must have been when filledwith richly-stained glass, and pouringa flood of gorgeous colours upon theroyal banquet, requires no little effortof the imagination.

“ There the raised platform, near the bay,

Served well for stage: that oriel gayRose with light leaves and columns tallMid ‘roial glass’ and fretwork small;

While tripod lamps from the coved roofShowed well each painted mask aloof:

Lanfranc and Saxon Edward thereWatching the scene they once could share- "

'iTf)C Hoof.—The following ob-servations on the construction of theroof were given by Mr. ChesselBuckler while the last repairs weregoing on. The preservation of tinsnoble monument of ancient Englisnarchitecture is an honour to the country. When stripped of its external cover-ing, the roof distinctly exhibited the beauty of its carpentry, and the extent ofits injuries. It is wholly constructed of chestnut, the strength and solidity ofwhich, though unimpaired by time alone, were in many places destroyed by theoperations of the weather.* The main beams of the roof are full seventeeninches square and twenty-eight feet long, perfectly straight, and soundthroughout, and are the produce of trees of the most stately growth. A forestmust have yielded its choicest timber for the supply of this building; and itis evident that the material has been wrought with incredible labour andadmirable skill. The repairs are limited to the roof, the parapet by which itis protected, and the buttresses by which it is upheld. As it has been statedthat the joints and mouldings of the roof are secured by wooden pins only,

* The upper or western part had suffered the mostfrom neglect; the cornices and beams, which weredangerously decayed, had been repaired, and perhapsrestored to their original stability. Formerly, thedeficiencies were supplied with chestnut, which is nowsubstituted by oak, strongly bolted and strapped withiron. Whatever might have occasioned the injury,

which was arrested several centuries ago, it is certainthat the mischief which has been in operation up-wards of fourscore years to the present time, was notaccelerated by the dry-rot, which has not been dis-covered in any part of the building, except a smallspot in the principal wall-plate, over the south bay-window.—Buckler’s Eltkam.