of twenty-one inches--has been
designed, not consciously upon a geometric base, but simply as a
composition of lines and masses to repeat, the mechanical conditions of
the work when it comes to be printed will supply a certain geometric
control, since it necessarily begins in the process of repetition a
series of squares of pattern in which the curves are bound to recur in
corresponding places. Without a geometric plan of some sort, however, we
may easily get into difficulties with awkward leading lines, gaps, or
masses, that tumble down, and are only perceived when the paper is
printed and hung.

The designer should not feel at all restricted or cramped by his
geometric plan, but treat it as an aid and a scaffolding, working in as
much variety and richness of detail as he likes, bound only by the
necessity of repeating or counterbalancing his forms and lines. In the
diagram (p. 131[f078]) the plan of making a repeat less obvious by means
of what is termed "a drop" is given, and this system also increases the
apparent width of a pattern.

[Frieze and Field]

The feeling which demands some kind of contrast or relief to a field of
repeating pattern, however interesting in itself, seems now almost
instinctive. It is felt, too, in the case of plain surfaces, where the
eye seeks a moulding to give a little variety or pattern-equivalent in
play of light and shadow upon different planes, lines, or concavities
and convexities. The common plaster cornice placed to unite walls and
ceiling, in our ordinary houses, is a concession (on the part even of
the jerriest of builders) to the aesthetic sense. We get the decorated
frieze in architecture in obedience to the same demand, though
originally a necessary feature of lintel construction, as we have seen,
from the days of the festal garland hung around the eaves of the classic
house, to its perpetuation in stone in so many varieties.* The carved
garland depending in a series of graceful curves, or contrasted with
pendants, or their rhythm punctuated, as it were, by ox-heads, as on the
temple of the Sibyls, Tivoli, formed the needed contrast to the plane
masonry of the wall below. Sculptured figures, with the added interest
of story, as on the choragic monument of Lysicrates, fulfilled the same
decorative function in a more complex and elaborate way.

[*] "Bases of Design."

To satisfy the same feeling we place a frieze a