with, the water-path or guttering, that passage itself being primarily and properly implied by the term. On the use of this archaism, however, of considerable interest in connexion with the terminology of medieval architecture, we hope that Professor Willis may hereafter, at his leisure, elucidate these difficulties.
The contracting parties were bound to find carriage of materials, and to "void,"[1] or clear the stone away at the quarry, as the masons obtained them, and "schapils" them, or rough-hewed them into shape with the scabling hammer, as it is now termed. The word scapple is perhaps not strictly of local use; it is well known in Yorkshire. Dr. Carr, in his Craven glossary, gives "scapple, to break off the protuberances of stones with the hammer, without using the chisel; hence called hammer-scapple." The said parties were also to provide all timber-work,—namely, the "branderathes," or piling for the foundation of the piers and abutments, the "seentrees," or centres for the arches, and every kind of scaffolding required. "Branderathe" is a term of carpentry not found hitherto, we believe, in any ancient document. It had been supposed to signify here the fence or kind of coffer-dam, now termed the battardeux (battoir des eaux?), a case of piling in which the pier is constructed. That contrivance appears, however, to be here denoted by the expression, that these parties should "kepe ye water were, and defende it fro (i. for) ye saides Thomas, &c. to ye tyme ye branderathe be laid & yair werke of masoncraft be passed ye dangere and ye noiesance of ye same watir." The local use of the verb to were, in Northern dialect, to ward off, to defend, illustrates the meaning of the word. A were is "a defence, an embankment, to prevent the encroachment, or turn the course of the stream."—(Brockett). The means actually employed, in accordance with the contract, was probably of the kind last mentioned by turning the river into a new channel.
In a curious MS. English and Latin Dictionary, dated 1483, in Lord Monson's Library, the term occurs, precisely in the sense here intended. "A brandryth to set begynnynge on, loramentum."[2] The fashion of construction of such timbered frame of piling may have probably originated the name. In the north, a gridiron, or an iron tripod placed over the fire to support a pot, is called a brandrith. So also, in Lord Monson's MS., compiled probably in Yorkshire or Lincolnshire, is found "a brandryth, tripos." Loramentum is explained to be "concatenatio lignorum quæ solet fieri in fundamentis ædificiorum."[3] The contracting parties were to make also for the masons a lodge or shed of wood, suitably closed in, and with four "romes of syelles, and two henforkes." In Yorkshire the blades or principals, in roofing, are called "siles," as we are informed by Sir William Lawson. The meaning appears to be that the work-shed should consist of four rooms covered by a ridged roofing, and two lean-tos, or penthouses (query, hung forth, or projections from the main walls?)
In Mr. Raines notes on the Catterick Church contract much valuable information will be found bearing upon various other points in this docu-
- ↑ Thus in Prompt. Parv. "Voydyn, or awoydyn, exacuo." Palsgrave gives also the verb to "voyde, or empty," to voyde out of the way or out of sight, oster.
- ↑ Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial Collections, explains brandrith as a fence of wattles or boards, set round a well to prevent the danger of falling in. Lansd. MS. 1033. The same is given in Nicholson's Archit. Dict.
- ↑ Mamotrectus. See further in Ducange.
