The record-union., 1897-07-22
KEYSTONES.
Some Curious Survivals in London
Architecture.

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Keystones and keystone masks are
only to be found in classic, neo- classic
and Renaissance architecture by reason
of the Gothic styles not using the
rounded arch The pointed windows
and doorways ranging from early Eng
lish to late Elizabethan have no promi
nent keystones
Perhaps the best-known and alto
gether most notable keystone masks
are those that decorate the center arch
of Henley Bridge. The present bridge
of five arches that crosses the Thames
at Henley was built IN 1856 The mask
facing up river is a head of Isis; that
FACING down stream represents the c-n-
ventional idea of Father Thames, and
they are really admirable examples OF
the sculptor's art. They We're the work
OF that very accomplished lady the
Hon. Mrs. Dawson Damer, who at that
time resided at Park Place, Henley.
She was cousin to Horace Walpole, for
whom she carved an eagle so exquisite
ly that he wrote under it-this enthusi-
astic cousin-Non Praxiteles sed Anna
Damer me fecit- So, you see, Praxi-
teles can never fitch the credit of that
piece of sculpture from this lady artist
of the eighteenth century. But the
Hon. Mrs. Dawson Damer was, after
all, but an amiable amateur She gave
her work to the bridge authorties-a
most reprehensible vagary. Yet the re-
cipients We're grateful, as witness the
Bridge Minutes True, they only ac-
knowledge one mask: May 6, 1855.
Ordered that the thanks of the Conn
Il
Damer for the very elegant head of the
River Thames which she has cut and
presented to them for the keystone Of
the center arch of the bridge
There are several good examples of
sculptured keystones in London. There
is an elaborate design, for instance,
over the western doorway of st. Brides,
Fleet street, contemporary with Wren
possibly his work. 1t exhibits that
widespread convention of the winged
cherub, podgy and smiling, whom you
may find gracing all the city churches
in different positions of usefulness; now
as keystone, now cOrbel, and, again,
most appropriately used as a decoration
for fonts The Guildhall Museum-that
CHA podrida of London antiquities, from
Romano-British old boots and potsherds
to massive Jacobean carved fireplaces-
has two keystones in its crepuscular
crypt. One came from an old house in
PaternoSter Row, now demoliShed 1t
was the keystone of a window An
other, from the doorway of a house in
Spital Square, is an example of that
very debased art, the domeSticated key
stone mask, so to speak. There was at
the end of last century, and at the be-
ginning Of this, quite a classic rage.
Buildings fondly believed to be of claS-
sic design sprang up everywhere, and
traces of that faHacy are to be seen at
this day, even in the undistinguiShed
streets of what We're at that time the
suburbs of London. Parts of the Mary
lebone Road the Chaplain Road, the
Old Kent Road, and many streets of
K Remington and Brixton show this de-
based classicism and many of these
houses bear keystone masks over their
arched doorways. For the most part,
however, they are not sculptured. They
are of, perhaps, half a dozen different
patterns. and they are nearly adj cast in
plaster from a mold. Also the would-be
classcism of them is generally very
dreadful to look upon.
"A kGySlOfle tIldl IlO IOIlSSI
Office of completing an arch is to be
seen in the shape of a grotesque head
built into the wall of a house in Kings
Cross Road, above a singular tablet
bearing the inscription: This is Bag
nigge House neare the Pindar a Wake
feilde, 1880" The "Pindar of Wake
field" was the sign of an old inn that
stood near here and took its name from
a popular play of that title that was
written in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
Bagnigge House, too, is gone, and also
Bagnigge Wells that one-time fashion
able suburban spa
There is an archway in the Renais
sance style leading into New Square,
Lincoln's Inn, that has a sculptured
keystone ON either side-gaping and
glowering masks that look down with
forbidding aspect upon the barriste rs
and solicitors, the attorneys and clerks
who pass beneath continually to and
from the law courts across the street
Dour and thre atening they are, and typ
ical of the teqTors of the law to urisuc
ceSsful suitors, mulct in heavy costs,
but never yet have portents even more
inSistent than these guardians Of the
legal precincts of Lincoln's Inn, dis
suaded the angry and litigious Briton
yers fear to tread ON their own account.
st. James Budget.