AS those architects who have attempted half-timber construction in this country are aware, a wall built by the ancient method soon begins to admit air freely, through the crevices left between the posts and the plaster panels by the shrinkage of the timber. Our ancestors felt the draughts coming through these crevices, and tried to stop them by hanging the inside of the walls with tapestry, or by covering it with panelling; and panelling was sometimes applied on the exterior to cover the joints; but the cheaper and more effectual method of lathing and plastering both the inside and the outside of the walls soon prevailed over the others, and a large proportion of the English half-timber structures have been treated in this way. Where a house stood on a corner, it was obviously desirable to have it overhang on both streets, but, as architects need not be told, this was not always an easy thing to accomplish. Usually, the difficulty was met by putting at the angles in the first story, an enormous post, sometimes three feet square or more, which carried a diagonal girder into which the floorbeams were framed, all the floorbeams running at right angles to the street over which their outer ends projected. A post of such dimensions, particularly with the bracket which was usually formed on it to carry the outer end of the projecting girder, and which was often a piece of a natural branch, offered a tempting opportunity for carving, and these corners are generally elaborately sculptured, with figures, coats-of-arms, and so on. The floors were usually covered with inch boards, the beams which supported them being moulded or carved, and left exposed; but the transmission of sound through them was found objectionable then, as it is with similar floors now, and in the better class of houses boards were nailed to the underside of the joists, and the joints covered with moulded battens — a construction which is even now quite common. Later, the same effect was obtained in a much cheaper way, by lathing the underside of the joists, and covering the whole with a uniform coat of plastering, in the way which has ever since been generally followed. The rest of the construction was quite simple. Panelled doors were then little known and most doors were of moulded sheathing, battened, and hung with large wrought-iron hinges, which spread so far over the door as to give stiffness. The windows were usually mullioned in wood, and glazed with leaded glass, set in tight, with the exception of a few swinging lights, in iron frames.
LA SEMAINE EES CONSTRUCTEURS gives a very
good account of the famous Baron Haussmann, who died recently in Paris, at the age of eighty-two. Since the fall of the Second Empire, Baron Haussmann has lived very quietly, but he had a great part in the making of the modern Paris, and will be long remembered as one of the most energetic instruments of the reforms carried out by Napolean III. Curiously enough, Haussmann was educated for a musician, at the Paris Conservatoire; but, before he had completed his course, concluded to study law, and was admitted to the bar. After the accession of the Orleans family, while he was still a very young man, he was appointed sub-prefect of Nerac, and was transferred later to Saint Girons and then to Blaye. Under the Republic, he was advanced to the rank of prefect, first of the Department of Var, then of Yonne, and then of the Gironde. In 1853, at the age of forty-four, he was made Prefect of the Seine, to succeed M. Bayer, and began the career which made him famous. He found a firm supporter in the Emperor, and, by attacking with a resolute hand the nests of filth and vice of which Victor Hugo tells us, sweeping away rotten hovels, and opening wide, straight streets everywhere, he let in light, air and decency through nearly all Paris. To him is due the “percement” of the Boulevard de Sebastapol, the Boulevard Saint Michel, and the Boulevard Haussmann, while his example led the way to the later improvements of the Boulevard Saint Germain and the Avenue de 1’Opéra; and he was the first to secure the improvement of the Bois de Boulogne, the Parc de Vincennes, the Parc Monceau, and that of the Buttes Chaumont; while the whole Batignolles quarter, now one of the most beautiful parts of Paris, was developed by him, by skilful widening and planning of streets, from a wretched district, inhabited by the vilest poor. Just before the Prussian War, the Imperial finances having fallen into confusion, violent attacks were made on the great Prefect, who, it is certain, was not a person who looked to economy in his designs for public improvements, and the Emperor was forced by the clamor of his ministers and the newspapers, to ask his resignation. He declined to offer it, and was removed, just before the
collapse of the Empire itself. He was afterwards elected Deputy from Corsica, but took no active part in political matters, and, on the expiration of his term, retired altogether to private life, busying himself by writing his autobiography. He was, notwithstanding his age, still strong and active to the time of his death, and might have lived many years longer but for the depression which followed the recent death of his wife and daughter. Notwithstanding the immense expenditure of public money which he directed, he died poor, and if it had not been for his wife’s income, he would have been absolutely destitute.
ASIA MINOR seems likely to be the next region to be vigorously attacked by the railway builders. Most civilized countries have already more railroads than they can support, while the uncivilized ones, such as the interior of Australia and Africa, present few attractions to merchants or tourists; but Asia Minor is a most beautiful and fertile district, producing in immense quantities articles, such as rugs, dried fruits, and many other things, which are exported to all parts of the world, while it supplies with more perishable products the great market of Constantinople. In addition to the local business with which it could furnish a system of railways, Asia Minor forms the terrestrial connecting link between Europe and Asia, and, over the routes which the railways will, for the most part, follow, thousands of richly-laden caravans have been annually passing since the days of the Trojan War. There is a saying that a railway will be profitable over any route where a stage-coach will earn its expenses, and, in view of the vast traffic which has for twenty-five centuries passed through Asia Minor in all directions, it is not wonderful that, since the movement has begun, new surveys have been following each other rapidly. At present, English companies are engaged in building lines inland from Smyrna, but important concessions have been granted to German companies, and two main lines have been surveyed, which, starting opposite Constantinople, will penetrate the very heart of Asiatic Turkey in two different directions. As at present laid out, these two lines will be united in one from Maida, nearly opposite Constantinople to Ekischehir, a town at the head of the valley of the Sangarius, or Sakaria River. Here they will divide, one line running easterly, through the ancient Phrygia, to Angora, the ancient Ancyra of the Galatians. From Angora, which is a mountain fortress in the range of the Asiatic Olympus, the line passes southeasterly to Kaisari, the ancient Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, under the shadow of the Mons Argæus, now the Arjish Dagh. The next important stopping-place, still in Cappadocia, is Malatia, the ancient Melitene, on the upper course of the Euphrates; and the line then crosses the Euphrates and runs a short distance to Diarbekr, the ancient Amida on the Tigris, another fortress of the Classical and Byzantine age. From Diarbekr the road follows the Tigris to Bagdad, and thence to Bassa, the Bassora of the Arabian. Nights’ Entertainments, on the Persian Gulf. The second line, parting from the first at Ekischehir, runs southerly, through Kutaya, the Classic Cotyæum to Afioum Karahissar, literally, the Black Opium Castle, a large city, in the very heart of the Phrygian mountains; thence, by Akschehir, to Konia, the ancient Iconium, for centuries the Moslem Capital, From Iconium, the line crosses the Taurus Mountains, following nearly Alexander’s route, to Adana; and thence to Aintab, the ancient Antiochiaad-Taurum, on a branch of the Euphrates. At this point the railway emerges into comparatively familiar ground, and passing through Aleppo and Damascus, will end either at Acre or Jaffa, probably the latter. A more interesting country than that which these two lines will traverse does not exist in the world. The northern part of Asia Minor, in which lies the route from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf, is believed to be inhabited by the descendants of the same people who lived there in the days of Homer. This country has been traversed by troop after troop of Persians, Greeks, Saracens and Turks, but their very defencelessness has preserved them, and no conqueror has thought it worth his while to exterminate them. Naturally, they have adapted themselves to the religion of their successive masters; and there are no more devoted followers of the Prophet than the posterity of the Christians of the Seven Churches; but their humble domestic arts and customs have probably been preserved nearly intact. The southern route is more closely identified with the Crusaders and their Saracen opponents, and nearly all the principal stations on the line are fortresses of the Seljuk sultan, and they have not been greatly changed since they were the centres of Saracen art and power.
LA SEMAINE EES CONSTRUCTEURS gives a very
good account of the famous Baron Haussmann, who died recently in Paris, at the age of eighty-two. Since the fall of the Second Empire, Baron Haussmann has lived very quietly, but he had a great part in the making of the modern Paris, and will be long remembered as one of the most energetic instruments of the reforms carried out by Napolean III. Curiously enough, Haussmann was educated for a musician, at the Paris Conservatoire; but, before he had completed his course, concluded to study law, and was admitted to the bar. After the accession of the Orleans family, while he was still a very young man, he was appointed sub-prefect of Nerac, and was transferred later to Saint Girons and then to Blaye. Under the Republic, he was advanced to the rank of prefect, first of the Department of Var, then of Yonne, and then of the Gironde. In 1853, at the age of forty-four, he was made Prefect of the Seine, to succeed M. Bayer, and began the career which made him famous. He found a firm supporter in the Emperor, and, by attacking with a resolute hand the nests of filth and vice of which Victor Hugo tells us, sweeping away rotten hovels, and opening wide, straight streets everywhere, he let in light, air and decency through nearly all Paris. To him is due the “percement” of the Boulevard de Sebastapol, the Boulevard Saint Michel, and the Boulevard Haussmann, while his example led the way to the later improvements of the Boulevard Saint Germain and the Avenue de 1’Opéra; and he was the first to secure the improvement of the Bois de Boulogne, the Parc de Vincennes, the Parc Monceau, and that of the Buttes Chaumont; while the whole Batignolles quarter, now one of the most beautiful parts of Paris, was developed by him, by skilful widening and planning of streets, from a wretched district, inhabited by the vilest poor. Just before the Prussian War, the Imperial finances having fallen into confusion, violent attacks were made on the great Prefect, who, it is certain, was not a person who looked to economy in his designs for public improvements, and the Emperor was forced by the clamor of his ministers and the newspapers, to ask his resignation. He declined to offer it, and was removed, just before the
collapse of the Empire itself. He was afterwards elected Deputy from Corsica, but took no active part in political matters, and, on the expiration of his term, retired altogether to private life, busying himself by writing his autobiography. He was, notwithstanding his age, still strong and active to the time of his death, and might have lived many years longer but for the depression which followed the recent death of his wife and daughter. Notwithstanding the immense expenditure of public money which he directed, he died poor, and if it had not been for his wife’s income, he would have been absolutely destitute.
ASIA MINOR seems likely to be the next region to be vigorously attacked by the railway builders. Most civilized countries have already more railroads than they can support, while the uncivilized ones, such as the interior of Australia and Africa, present few attractions to merchants or tourists; but Asia Minor is a most beautiful and fertile district, producing in immense quantities articles, such as rugs, dried fruits, and many other things, which are exported to all parts of the world, while it supplies with more perishable products the great market of Constantinople. In addition to the local business with which it could furnish a system of railways, Asia Minor forms the terrestrial connecting link between Europe and Asia, and, over the routes which the railways will, for the most part, follow, thousands of richly-laden caravans have been annually passing since the days of the Trojan War. There is a saying that a railway will be profitable over any route where a stage-coach will earn its expenses, and, in view of the vast traffic which has for twenty-five centuries passed through Asia Minor in all directions, it is not wonderful that, since the movement has begun, new surveys have been following each other rapidly. At present, English companies are engaged in building lines inland from Smyrna, but important concessions have been granted to German companies, and two main lines have been surveyed, which, starting opposite Constantinople, will penetrate the very heart of Asiatic Turkey in two different directions. As at present laid out, these two lines will be united in one from Maida, nearly opposite Constantinople to Ekischehir, a town at the head of the valley of the Sangarius, or Sakaria River. Here they will divide, one line running easterly, through the ancient Phrygia, to Angora, the ancient Ancyra of the Galatians. From Angora, which is a mountain fortress in the range of the Asiatic Olympus, the line passes southeasterly to Kaisari, the ancient Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, under the shadow of the Mons Argæus, now the Arjish Dagh. The next important stopping-place, still in Cappadocia, is Malatia, the ancient Melitene, on the upper course of the Euphrates; and the line then crosses the Euphrates and runs a short distance to Diarbekr, the ancient Amida on the Tigris, another fortress of the Classical and Byzantine age. From Diarbekr the road follows the Tigris to Bagdad, and thence to Bassa, the Bassora of the Arabian. Nights’ Entertainments, on the Persian Gulf. The second line, parting from the first at Ekischehir, runs southerly, through Kutaya, the Classic Cotyæum to Afioum Karahissar, literally, the Black Opium Castle, a large city, in the very heart of the Phrygian mountains; thence, by Akschehir, to Konia, the ancient Iconium, for centuries the Moslem Capital, From Iconium, the line crosses the Taurus Mountains, following nearly Alexander’s route, to Adana; and thence to Aintab, the ancient Antiochiaad-Taurum, on a branch of the Euphrates. At this point the railway emerges into comparatively familiar ground, and passing through Aleppo and Damascus, will end either at Acre or Jaffa, probably the latter. A more interesting country than that which these two lines will traverse does not exist in the world. The northern part of Asia Minor, in which lies the route from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf, is believed to be inhabited by the descendants of the same people who lived there in the days of Homer. This country has been traversed by troop after troop of Persians, Greeks, Saracens and Turks, but their very defencelessness has preserved them, and no conqueror has thought it worth his while to exterminate them. Naturally, they have adapted themselves to the religion of their successive masters; and there are no more devoted followers of the Prophet than the posterity of the Christians of the Seven Churches; but their humble domestic arts and customs have probably been preserved nearly intact. The southern route is more closely identified with the Crusaders and their Saracen opponents, and nearly all the principal stations on the line are fortresses of the Seljuk sultan, and they have not been greatly changed since they were the centres of Saracen art and power.