STAIRCASE. This is an indispensable part of the interior of buildings which consist of more than a ground-floor, and stairs of sonic sort must have always been employed wherever there were upper rooms, and even to obtain access to the terraced roofs which are used in the East. But we are altogether ignorant of the character of ancient staircases. Vitruvius- —who touches upon so many matters that aro very remotely connected with his subject—gives no information about staircases ; neither has much light been thrown upon the subject by the discoveries of Pompeii. Scarcely any indications even of upper floors to the houses have there been found, and what few traces of staircases, or rather of stairs, remain, show them to have been exceed ingly incommodious, fitted only for obtaining access to an upper loft, or to the roof, and not at all adapted for constant communication between dwelling apartments on different floors. It may, therefore, very safely•be taken for granted—at least until some direct evidence to the contrary shall be found—that the houses of the ancients were in this, as well as in many other respects, greatly inferior to our own, and had nothing whatever corresponding to the modern staircase. Nearly the name may be said with respect to the ancient domestic architecture of our own country, where, even in residences of the highest class, the staircases were generally very confined, placed within turrets, and exceedingly steep and narrow : narrow not only as regards the actual width of passage up and down, but as regards the diameter or space occupied by the whole, there being no well, or central opening, but the steps winding around a solid newel; so that, in ascending or descending, a person is continually revolving, without any " foot paces " for resting upon, and cannot see whether he will encounter any one else. Turnpike was a term formerly applied to staircases of this kind; also rise, from their spiral or screw-like shape, whence the more modern appellation of corkscrew stairs, corresponding with the Italian scala ally lutnaccia, or scale ella chiocciola, with the French &caller a lime con, and the German tcenddtreirpe.
It was not till about the time of Elizabeth that staircases began to be planned more commodiously in this country, and were made a deco rative feature in the interior of a mansion. But though they were greatly improved, the flights being made wider, and the steps parallel to each other, with intermediate landings or^resting-places between the several flights, and although considerable decoration was bestowed upon them,—the walls being panelled, and the parapet of the stairs formed either by richly carved balusters or open fretwork, frequently with heraldic figures of animals on the pedestals at the angles of the diffeient flights,—the staircase itself was usually inclosed within a comparatively small area, so as to admit of no general view of the whole of it, there being very little open space, or well, as it is termed, sometimes none at all. The staircases at Aldermaston, Berks ; Crewe
Hall, Cheshire ; and Knole, Kent, may be taken as examples of the kind. At a later period, staircases in mansions of a superior class were made disproportionably spacious, being upon a scale as to size with which the apartments themselves were not at all in keeping.
The planning of a staircase is generally considered one of the most difficult matters in internal architecture, and it is certainly one that requires great consideration. Yet there is no particular difficulty, except where, as is generally the case in moderate-sized houses, the architect is cramped for room, more especially if, while restricted in that respect, the ascent from one floor to another is greater than usual. The number of stairs, and the space required for the convenient arrange ment of them, are easily estimated when the height of the ascent from one floor to another is given, and the dimensions are determined for the risers and treads. Stairs are technically described as consisting of risers and treads, the former being the fronts or heights of the steps, and the other their flat surfaces or breadths. Stairs are further dis tinguished as being ft Ears, those which ascend straightforward ; and winders, which having their treads triangular, coming quite to a point at their ends near the balusters, afford no footing there, and ought consequently to be avoided whenever it is at all practicable to do so. A ,flight is a consecutive series of stairs in the same direction, or between one quarter-space or half-space (palter) and another, which last aro short intermediate landings, serving to lessen the fatigue of a con tinuous ascent, by subdividing it into shorter flights. For the area containing, or rather constituting, the staircase itself, we have no distinct term in addition to the general one, similar to the French cage, the Italian gabbia, and the German treppenhaus.