ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. 293 tinent speaking commonly of " V architecture Bomane, ou a plein-cintre,'^ and its transition, "a V architecture Gothique ou a ogives." Again, we find des arches aig lies, ogives," with many similar expressions, showing that ogive is a general term in French for a pointed arch. Moreover, the frequent use of the plural number in tiie application of this term leads me to infer that the ogive, properly, denotes a curve less than the fourth part of a circle, — a pointed arch being composed of two such curves ; whilst the arche « plein-cintre contains a semi-circle. We must bear in mind that the greater number of our old terms of architecture were borrowed from the French language ; and so, I believe, was this term in the contract for Catterick bridge. It is true that the want of ribs in the arches of this bridge goes directly against the application of the term to that member ; and I can only account for this apparent contradiction by supposing that either the arches have been rebuilt in a different form, as was the case with the bridge at Barnard Castle, or that an alteration was made in the progress of the work, — and the ribs intended by the contract were not formed, — perhaps in order to lessen the charge of construction. The word Brandreth, or Branderathe, is another term requiring explanation. The two pillars and the two landstathes of the bridge were to have their several hrandereths. These, whatever might be their form or use, were to be framed of timber, and were to be furnished by the gentlemen who made the contract with the masons, and whom, for the sake of distinction, I shall call the trustees. These parties were to find all the timber, or tre-werke, as it is called, that was required for the construction of the bridge. These hrandereths were evidently considered of great importance to the stability of the masons' work, as the times at which they were to be laid down by the trustees, with the help of the masons, are distinctly specified. The first hrandereth, for one landstathe, was to be laid before the Invention (or feast of the finding) of the Holy Cross, May 3rd, 1422. The other, for the opposite landstathe, by the Nativity of St. John Baptist, on the 24th of June. The hrandereth for one pillar was to be laid by the 3rd of May, in the following year, and that for the other pillar by the 24th of June. The use of coffer-dams in building bridges was unknown, I believe, to the builders of bridges in the middle ages ; and the usual practice was to turn the current of water aside, by some means, until the lower portions of masonry were built. In this case, I suppose, the trustees, who covenanted to keep off the water and prevent its annoying the masons, diverted the course of the Swale, a shallow stream in summer time, by temporary weirs ; so that the landstathes could be built in the first summer, and the pillars in the second. The hrandereths, I think, were frames of timber, laid flat, below the bottom courses of stone, in order to strengthen the foundations, and give them an equal pressure on the soil. I have not^ indeed, seen the terra so employed in any architectural document ; but I have heard such a frame, made to support a stack of corn, and set upon large stones to raise it from the ground, in a farm-yard, called a hrandereth ; and that would author has enlarged upon the brief cxpkuia- middle ages, printed in the Memoires de la tion of this term given in the Glossary to Soc. dcs Antiquaires dc la Normandie, 8vo., Pugin's Specimens of Gothic Architecture 1825, made very frequent use of the term [4to., third edition, 1825, p. IG], but the o^rnr, applying it to the pointed arch; and term deserves a more thorough investigation. subsequent French writers have continued to •* M. de Caumont, in an essay on the eccle- use it in the same sense, siastical architecture of Normandy in the
