to understand how, with very simple means, these evils were
successfully overcome.
We next come to the double architrave a. In order to
protect its upper face and assure its steadiness, we will place
over it beam c, whose salient rini will meet the grooved edge of
pillar D, and prevent its slipping backwards. Having now given
a back prop to pillar d, we must see that it does not bend and
fall forward. The result can be obtained by the simple use of
pegs. In carpentry work, no better means can be devised than
wooden pins for joining pieces together. A carpenter who knows
his business employs no metal bolt, hook, or nail, but is content
to secure his scarf-joints with wooden pegs and straps. Wooden
clamps and pegs, moreover, have this advantage over iron bolts :
being of the same substance as the elements to which they serve
as means of union, atmospheric variations act on both alike ; this
would not be the case with a substance of different nature, such
as bronze and iron ; pegs prevent both the spreading and tension
of the timbers, and their parting and breaking under the pressure
of a foreign body. Pegs did well enough as means of attach-
ment between the architrave and timber b^; but they were wholly
inadequate to hinder warping, twisting, and consequent gaps
between the pieces, or to assure the horizontality of the frieze.
These serious drawbacks were obviated by a small tablet b,
which fitted into the channelled edge of pillar d above the
architrave, where it rendered a twofold service to this member
of the wood-frame. The greater tailing of the pegs into the
thickness of the timber gives them more stability, whilst the
number of the small boards would diminish the hydraulic pressure
on the woodwork, and help rather than interfere with the play
of the wood.
Having gone thus far, it only remains to fix the frieze in
such a way that it shall stand well. This can be satisfactorily
accomplished by uniting the ends of the two pieces, plate f
and pillar d, by a scarf joint, so as to form a continuous piece.
Now, in the pillars of the Tirynthian frieze, this portion is left
plain or with unfinished ornaments ; a clear proof that the part
was concealed by a lining f, whose existence we have been led
to divine independently. Thus, examination of the alabaster
slabs confirms at every point the assumption reached by inductive
reasoning and constructional necessities. Fig. 305 shows the
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The Origin of Doric Architecture.
153
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