ORIEL. The origin of this term is uncertain ; its use is, however, thoroughly established, and the meaning now affixed to it is sufficiently clear and precise. It is applied to that particular kind of bay-window which is made to project from the upper story of a building. The distinction therefore between a bay and an oriel is this : by a Bay is understood a projecting window, or rather a projection pierced with window openings in its entire width, and rising immediately from the ground, whether it be confined to the lower part of the building or carried up through one or more stories above the ground floor ; by an Oriel, is understood a bay which does not descend to the ground, but is suspended over the face of the wall beneath it. Oriel accordingly corresponds with the German terms Erker-fenster and Ohor-fenster, which are almost the only ones of similar import in any foreign lan guage. This absence of a name for it is accounted for by the thing itself being little known in the architecture of other countries, and in our own it occurs only in our Domestic Tudor, such form of window being very rare indeed in ecclesiastical structures. In our domestic, which also comprises collegiate, architecture, it is a beautiful and valuable feature, and one which admits of very great diversity of design, and imparts much variety and liveliness of effect to a building, more especially if there be ground-bays likewise, the two kinds of projection both harmonising and contrasting with each other. The colleges of Oxford and Cambridge afford numerous excellent examples of both bays and oriels.
Internally there is no distinction between bays and oriels, inasmuch as both the one and the other form a recess whose sides are filled with windows. But greater variety of plan occurs in oriels than in bays, which are usually more spacious as to breadth, and of shallower proportions as to depth ; they are also either rectangular in plan, or form three sides of an octagon, whether a regular one or not ; whereas curved forms are of frequent occurrence in the plans of oriels, and are occasionally combined with straight ones. Yet as similar plans do
occur in bays, no real distinction can be founded upon such accidents of design. Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire, contains an example of a bay of very unusual character, both in respect to plan and elevation, its plan in the upper part being different from that of the lower, and in some degree projecting over it, as is indicated in the annexed figures, the first of which describes the plan of the lower, the other of the upper floor.
Bays generally terminate in either a plain or embattled parapet; but oriels are for the most part made to show some sort of roof, either rising behind or resting upon the mouldings which serve as their cornice. Occasionally this roof or crown is rendered an ornamental part of the design, and terminated by some kind of finish. Oriels may therefore be described as consisting of three distinct parts, namely, the supporting portion, consisting of a series of mouldings, splayed off so as to come down to a point below, somewhat after the manner of a corbel (for which member we would accordingly suggest corbel-stool or corbel-base as a significant and very convenient term); 2ndly, the body of the oriel, consisting of the window-apron or window-parapet, and the window-openings themselves, the former of which is almost invariably panelled so as to correspond with the lights, whereby the whole is made to consist of a series of panels, those in the lower range being blank or solid, the others perforated and glazed • 3rdly, the crown or roofing, occasionally including under that term the ornamental finish, of whatever kind it may be, above the windows, when that happens to form a conspicuous termination to the design, as is the case with the semicircular oriel at Great Chalfield, where the parapet is formed by a rich bandeau or crown of strawberry-leaf ornaments or Tudor-flowers with open work between them.