SOME ESSEX WELL-SECTIONS. 167
head. Its triangular spandrils are filled, not with carving, but with
a mere outline, incised so as to suggest a carved leaf, of that three-
lobed type which was commonly used in such places during the
Perpendicular and Tudor periods.
The second floor still remains as one room. Its roof is the
most interesting part of it, and indeed of the building generally.
It is divided into three bays by very substantial roof-trusses.
Although the span is scarcely 20 feet, the principal rafters are
13 inches in thickness. They are connected by wide collar beams,
below which there are well-proportioned "four-centred" arches of
oak, moulded on both faces. The purlins, too, are large, and are
secured diagonally to the trusses by windbraces of similar arched
form. As it usually happens in old work, the timbers are all laid
with the broader side downwards ; not set on edge according to the
modern custom. The carpentry altogether is good in design ;
though, considering how near it is to the eye, its mouldings might
have been the better for a little more delicacy and refinement. But
the craftsman who made it had learned his art, probably, in roofing
church naves and lofty halls, and hardly made allowance enough
for the lowness of the room he was here dealing with. The bold-
ness of his details would be admirable if they were only fixed a
few feet higher ; and even as it is, their excess of strength and spirit
is a failing which leans to virtue's side.
SOME ESSEX WELL-SECTIONS.
(Part IV.)
WITH SOME WATER-ANALYSES.
By W. WHITAKER, B.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. CE.
[Read June 27th, 1896.]
TO the accounts of 277 Essex Wells already published,1 I am
now able to add 49 of others that have not been printed,
making 326 in all. Some day, perhaps, when County Councils are
led to help in such work, the whole of these may be collected
together into a volume on the Wells and Well-waters of Essex.
1 Mr. Whitaker's previous papers on Essex Well-Sections will be found in our publications as
follows: Part I., "Trans. E.F.C.," vol. iv., pp. 149-170; Part II., Essex Naturalist, vol. iii.,
pp. 44-54 ; Part III., E. N., vol. vi., pp. 48-60. In the first of these papers Mr. Whitaker
catalogues the 130 Essex Well-Sections published previously in the Geological Survey Memoirs,
and gives some general details relating to the subject.—Ed.