Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/133

NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 93 been deprived of that fostering care which presided over its early growth, and stimulated its progressive eflforts. All who know the generous patronage with which the late Bishop of Norwich promoted every exertion for scientific and intellectual advancement, all who appreciate the unde- viating impulse, — nihil humanum alienumputare, by which his character was signalised, — the members of the Institute more especially, who shared so freely in his kindness and the genial impulse of his encouragement, — must hold his memory in grateful remembrance. The Norwich Society has, happily, found no unworthy successor of their first President, in the dis- tinguished possessor of Garianonum — the Comes of the Eastern shore. Under the auspices of Sir John Boileau, we anticipate that their future exertions will give a continued stimulus to the intelligent study of National Antiquities. A TREATISE ON THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF DECORATED WINDOW TRACERY IN ENGLAND. By Edmund Sharpe, M.A., Architect. lUustrated with 97 Woodcuts and 6 Engravings on Steel. 8vo. Van Voorst. A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS OP THE WINDOW TRACERY OF THE DECORATED STYLE OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. 60 Steel Eogravings, with Descriptions by Mr. Sharpe. 8vo. Van Voorst. All studies which embrace groups of visible objects have been more indebted to monographs than to almost any other class of works ; nor do we know any instance, falling under our notice as archaeologists, in which a better subject for a monograph has been selected, or in which the subject has been more satisfactorily treated, than in the plates before us, with the accompanying letter-press. No where is " The Beautiful " for its o%vn sake more visibly the object of the architect than in the designing of tracery ; and no where has that object been more happily attained, or by surer and more equal progress. Here, at least, he works almost with the plastic hand of nature ; and we follow him in his task with an ever-growing interest and delight as he evokes each successive form and character from his stubborn material. When we open Mr. Sharpe's plates and letter-press, and look at the transept chapel at Kirkstall (p. 12), we perceive at once that in the grouping of two windows with a third circular window above them, beneath a pointed vault of Semi-Norman character, we have the unconscious germ of traceried lights : pass over more than half a century, and we arrive only at several lights under an arch ; they become a two-light Early English window, with a circle or some other figure in the head, as at Netley, Win- chester, or St. Cross (plate B). The solid stone-work is soon attenuated into tracery bars, and we have a geometrical window of two lights, which reduplicates itself into such windows as Raunds, Leominster, Grantham, and Ripon : by and bye, with a Idnd of centrifugal force, (which we shall presently endeavour to reduce to rules), the more compact forms shoot out into strange shapes, struggling for freedom, but still half in bondage, as in Whitby, Chartham, and Great Bcdwyn ; until these again are softened into a new series of figui-es, bounded by undulating lines, and we have the