Bay window

“ The date of Layer Marney may be put at 1520, Lacock Abbey at about 1540, and the screen at 1535. The greatest development of windows was, however, to be found in the bay. The bay window is one of the most important features in the architecture of the time. English designers had always been fond of bay windows: they put them to the daïs of their halls in quite early times, and there are many examples of small bays being corbelled out on an upper floor, where the exigencies of the ground plan did not permit of their starting from the ground. ”

“ But the locality was remarkably healthy. People who fell down the embankments found their wounds heal rapidly in the steady sea-breeze. Ventilation was complete and thorough. The opening of the bay-window produced a current of wholesome air which effectually removed all noxious exhalations, together with the curtains, the hinges of the back door, and the window-shutters. Owing to this peculiarity, some of my writings acquired an extensive circulation and publicity in the neighborhood, which years in another locality might not have produced. ”

“ Such things as a bay window, a dormer, a dining alcove, built-in tables, radiator enclosures, hanging china closets, and medicine cabinets are among these.
A bay window is a delightful addition to any room. It affords a view up and down the street that an ordinary window does not allow, and also takes advantage of sunlight and breezes from three directions. A dormer may supply light and air for some unused space in the attic and add interest to the roof lines. ”

“ It is not at all necessary to treat the windows alike. A bay window may have a long, heavy curtain running across the bay and forming a nook where two or three may sit cosily together, and the other windows may be treated to sash or half-sash curtains of soft silk, Madras muslin, or even Turkey red calico. ”

“ A “bay-window” or “bow-window” is a window projecting outwards and forming a recess in the apartment. Bay-windows may be rectangular, polygonal or semicircular in plan, in the last case being better known as bow-windows. The bay-window would seem to have been introduced in the 15th century, but the earliest examples of importance are those which were built during the reign of Edward IV. (1461–1483) , when it was largely employed in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge and in the feudal castles of the period. ”

“ The usual position of the bay-window is at one end of this dais, and occasionally but rarely at both ends. The sills of the windows are at a lower level than those in the hall, and, raised on one or two steps, are seats in the recess. The recess of the bay-window was generally covered with a ribbed vault of elaborate design, and the window itself subdivided by mullions and transoms. ”

“ In a bay-window in a [56] one-pair sits, from nine o'clock to one, a gentleman with rather long hair and no neckcloth, who writes and grins as if he thought he were very funny indeed. At one he disappears, presently emerges from a bathing-machine, and may be seen, a kind of salmon-coloured porpoise, splashing about in the ocean. After that he may be viewed in another bay-window on the ground floor, eating a strong lunch; and after that, walking a dozen miles or so, or lying on his back in the sand reading a book. Nobody bothers him unless they know he is disposed to be talked to ”

“ The recess or bay window of the ground floor will afford us the means of giving a nice dressing-room for the children’s or guests’ room on the first floor; and that of the billiard-room will furnish a very agreeable addition to Monsieur N.’s room. [Pg 24] As to the bay window in the drawing-room, we will cover with a flat, with a balustrade, which will give your sister’s room a handsome balcony, where an awning and flowers can be placed in the summer. ”

“ When using a striped goods that would admit of any number of seams, a seventeen-foot bay window has been effectively dressed with twelve yards of goods, including in the treatment two double tails, and presented such an elaborate appearance that a disgruntled representative of a rival house offered to alter it and save enough from it to drape an eight-foot window at the back of a room. ”

“ The eastern bay belongs to the retro-choir, and is of later date.
Above the wall-arcade are the graceful two-light lancet windows, with their slender columns, deep mouldings, and rich dog-tooth decoration.
In each bay there are four divisions; the two outer ones blank, and the two others forming the window. The shafts are detached from the wall; the central one is higher than the rest, and its capital is foliated. From the outer columns in the blank divisions, the shoulder, or hipped rib, after rising a short distance, sinks to the level of the capitals of the vaulting columns. ”

“ It contains four bays, distinguished externally by buttresses of good form (Fig. 934) . Each bay contains one window, those of the south or sheltered side being large and filled with tracery; while those in the north wall, which is exposed to the sea, are small plain lancets, with hood moulding. The windows in the east and west walls are large and filled with tracery, having five and four lights respectively, divided by mullions. The tracery of the east window, which has been renewed, is of geometric form, while that of the west window consists of simple intersecting mullions. ”

“ Most of the windows have four lights, but there are some exceptions, which will be duly noticed as we pass by them. To begin with, the west window of the outer south aisle has five lights. On turning round the south-west corner of this aisle we find the south porch projecting from the second bay. The porch itself consists of two bays, and has two stories. The lower story of the porch proper is lighted by two two-light windows on the western side, the upper story by two windows on the western and southern faces, and by one on the eastern face. ”

“ In the bay windows and for the long windows that give access to the balconies and piazzas we will have blinds that roll up out of the way. A few of the windows on the sunny side will have for summer use outside blinds, a few more will have cloth awnings. The most of the windows will have no blinds at all, only such shades and curtains as we choose to furnish. I don't think the eyes of a house ought to be closed much of the time. It is certainty absurd to hang blinds at all the windows when we only need them at a few. ”

“ The tracery now filling the former is in the Early Perpendicular style, and dates from the end of the fourteenth century. From the broad sill of this window a good view of the interior can be obtained, and a much finer one still from the passage which runs beneath the other window above. From the latter position we have an uninterrupted view of the entire length of the minster, which [84] looks longer than it really is, from the fact that the vaulting is carried at an almost uniform height throughout.
Elevation of One Bay on the North Side of the Nave. ”

“ Its walls were originally made of mud from the flats, held together by the wiry marsh grass, which, being dried, was mixed in the sticky substance as hair is in plaster; but as these walls gave way from the effects of time the seams and cracks were plastered up, and by degrees boarded over, until now the original shows only in one part of the interior.
The houses throughout this region are almost invariably without blinds or outside shutters, and consequently look oddly to us, who are inclined to screen ourselves too much from "the blessed sunshine". Bay windows are popular. ”

“ DOVER BEACH° The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
[p.89] Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
5Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! ”

“ Fault, no doubt, has been found with the windows that they do not throw down the light sufficiently from above, but the windows themselves are traceried and filled with beautiful stained glass. Upon entering by the great portal at the west, the eye is caught in the far distance by the glimmering colours of the grand east window, whose dimensions are colossal, as may be gathered from the fact that its traceried compartments comprise no fewer than 350 pictures in glass, copies, in many instances, of known paintings. ”

“ The clerestory windows are Perpendicular in style, and contain five lights. Though the design is not beautiful in itself, like that of the great east window, it makes an admirable frame for glass. There are certain differences in detail between the windows of the eastern bays and those of the western. The windows of the eastern bays are almost transitional. ”

“ The fashion of the day builds plate-glass windows round them, but it is truly a gross superfluity.” The room in which Lady Cressage and the luncheon-table awaited them was of a more hospitable aspect. A broad expanse of lawn, and of distant trees and sky-line fading away in the sunny autumn haze, made a luminous picture of the high embrasured window stretching almost from corner to corner across one side. By contrast with the other apartments, the light here was brilliant. ”

“ The windows are enormous. Not satisfied with the giant sliding doors that open on the street, revealing windows—unencumbered with sash or glass, there are sliding doors under the window sills, that roll back right and left and offer the chance to introduce a current of air directly on the lower limbs. ”

“ No degree of familiarity with old glass quite prepares one for the kind of thing which has made the humdrum market town of Gouda famous. Imagine a big, bare, empty church with some thirty or more huge windows, mostly of six lights, seldom less than five-and-twenty feet in height, all filled with great glass pictures, some of them filling the whole window, and designed to suggest that you see the scene through the window arch. ”

“ What goes by the name of a window is half of it stuffed with rags or covered by boards to keep out wind and rain; the rest is so begrimed and obscured that scarcely can light enter or anything be seen outside. Should you have ascended to the attic, where at least some approach to fresh air might be expected to enter from open or broken window, you look out upon the roofs and ledges of lower tenements, and discover that the sickly air which finds its way into the room has to pass over the putrefying carcases of dead cats or birds, or viler abominations still. ”

“ The fine yellow tint of the stone, the grand and unique contour of the arches, the beautiful star-shaped window in the front, the simple yet effective lines of carving on pilaster and pillar and doorway, the symmetrical Moorish tower and dome, the worn steps leading up to the belfry,—all make a picture whose beauty, apart from hallowing associations, is enough to hold one spell-bound. Reverent Nature has rebuilt with grass and blossoms even the crumbling window-sills, across which the wind blows free from the blue ocean just beyond ”

“ The curious windows that are everywhere are likewise instructive. Like the blinds, they slide in grooves on the railings of the balconies, and serve to shut out the weather from the interior. They consist of frames containing a multitude of small lattice-work squares, into which are placed thin, flat, translucent sea-shells which admit light, but are not look-throughable. We have all heard of shell-roads, but never of shell-windows, and one misses the presence of glass until he has got accustomed to a Manila house, [27] whose sliding sides are one vast window that is rarely closed. ”

“ Jutting out of the black, moss-vegetating roof, is an old-maidish looking window, with a dowdy white curtain spitefully tucked up at the side. The mischievous young negroes have pecked half the bricks out of the foundation, and with them made curious grottoes on the pavement. Disordered and unpainted clapboards spread over the dingy front, which is set off with two upper and two lower windows, all blockaded with infirm, green shutters. ”

“ Such windows are obviously windows. The huge sheets of plate glass that people are so proud of are all very well for shops, but they are seldom right in small houses.
I remember seeing one plate glass window that was well worth while. It was in the mountain studio of an artist and it was fully eight by ten feet—one unbroken sheet of glass which framed a marvelous vista of mountain and valley. It goes without saying that such a window requires no curtain other than one that is to be drawn at night. ”

“ The designer describes this effect as follows:
“In describing the window as seen through the plate glass, one can easily imagine he is looking at a bit of nature, only in a miniature form. In the foreground, moored to a dock, is seen a gondola, majestically rising and falling upon an effect that looks precisely like a deep, clear body of water, with a slow, even motion so perfect that it is impossible to determine when it begins or stops. In the distance old Vesuvius is belching fire and lava, which looks so real it is hard to believe it is only an illusion.” ”

“ Windows without panes of glass are seen here, formed by upright panels, an inch wide, nailed to a crosspiece three inches wide, each having four such crosspieces. Intersecting the spaces made by the panels and crosspieces are smaller pieces of lath, which form three-inch squares in the window. In these three-inch 358 squares flat pieces of light-colored seashell are placed, which admit light, but through which the hot sun cannot penetrate. The windows do not raise or swing, but slide from side to side, when closing or opening. ”