occupy one-half the width, and the piers the other: where the diagonals of the figure eross is the centre, from which the principal arch is struck.

The Arch of Trajan at Beneventum.Circle struck from the centre which describes the archivolt; comprises all within it except the attic: division of width into seven, two for each pier, three for centre; attic half the height of the order.

In the foregoing examples, we have attempted to show that the beauty which belongs to form in architecture rests upon one principle based on the laws of nature, and that the first element in a good design is the proportion of the parts as well as the whole: nothing has more misled the critics upon this subject, as well as architects themselves, than implicitly following the rules laid down for drawing the orders. In treating upon the antique, they have frequently been right as far as regards the letter, but essentially wrong in the spirit. The laws of nature do not vary, nor do our organs of sense or perception, and what was apparently fit and proper in the opinions of the Greeks is equally so at the present day in their sculptures we never find a man represented carrying more than his own weight, and such laws ought to be our guide.

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After the destruction of the Roman empire, the character impressed upon architecture by the Greeks was lost: other styles arose in succession, which have been designated as Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic, Saxon, Norman, Saracenic, and Pointed. The five first retained the semicircular arch, and only differed in the quantity of material employed for examples of the three first-mentioned we must refer to a work entitled "Architecture of the Middle Ages at Pisa," by Edward Cresy and G. L. Taylor, containing measurements made in 1817.

CHAP. III.

MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE.

SECT. I.

THE STYLE IN GENERAL

The question that first naturally arises is, What is Gothic or Mediæval architecture? Although Rickman, in his essay mentioned on page 971, gave a sketch in which he wished to show the differences between Classic and Gothic architecture, the first real attempt at defining the character of Medieval art seems to have been made by the late A. W. Pugin, who, in his True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, 1841, enunciated the following principles, which have formed the keynote for the various works and lectures on the subject since written and delivered:

I. There should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction, or propriety. II. All ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building. III. The smallest detail should have a meaning or serve a purpose. IV. The construction itself should vary with the material employed. V. The design should be adapted to the material in which it is executed. VI. Pointed architecture does not conceal her construction, but beautifies it. VII. Plaster, when used for any other purpose than coating walls, is a mere modern deception. VIII. A flat roof is contrary to the spirit of the style. IX. A splayed form is necessary for piers, arches, basemoulds, strings, and copings. X. All mouldings of jambs are invariably sunk from the face of the work. XI. Large stones destroy proportion. XII. The jointing of masonry should not appear to be a regular feature. XIII. A joint in tracery should always be cut to the centre of the curve where it falls. XIV. The external and internal appearance of an edifice should be illustrative of, and in accordance with, the purpose for which it is destined. XV. It is a defect to make the two sides of a design correspondent if their purposes differ. XVI. The picturesque effect of the ancient buildings results from the ingenious methods by which the old builders overcame local and constructive difficulties. XVII. The elevation should be subservient to the plan. XVIII. Details are multiplied with the increased scale of the building.

These principles, with the addition of the subject mentioned in the next paragraph, seem to form the creed of the most advanced foreign archæologists, such as M. Viollet le Duc, for the consideration of the spirit of the style has been neglected in favour of an investigation of details by French and German writers on architecture.

"Internal altitude," writes Pugin in the same work (p. 66.), “is a feature which would add greatly to the effect of many of our fine English churches, and I shall ever advocate its introduction, as it is a characteristic of foreign pointed architecture of which we can avail ourselves without violating the principles of our own peculiar style of English Christian architecture, from which I would not depart in this country on any account. I once stood on the very edge of a precipice in this respect, from which I was rescued by the advice and arguments of my respected and revered friend Dr. Rock, to whose learned researches and observations on Christian antiquities I am highly indebted and to whom I feel it a bounden duty to make this public acknowledgment of the great benefit I have received from his advice. Captivated by the beauties of foreign pointed architecture, I was on the verge of departing from the severity of our English style, and engrafting portions of foreign detail and arrangement. This I feel convinced would have been a. failure; for although the great principles of Christian architecture were everywhere the same, each country had some peculiar manner of developing them, and we should continue working in the same parallel lines, all contributing to the grand whole of Catholic art, but by the very variety increasing its beauties and its interest."

This author claimed for pointed architecture the merit of its having been the only phase of art in which the "principles " had been carried out, and is supported, with some reservations, by Viollet le Duc. Our space is too limited to discuss that assertion; the student who desires to investigate the subject must refer to Pugin's publication for his arguments, and must guard against being captivated by the one-sided illustrations given as "contrast.” For an assertion of the same general principles in regard of Classic and Modern architecture, the reader is referred to the chapter on BEAUTY IN ARCHITECTURE, in the present work

(par. 2492, et seq.), written, we are inclined to consider, before the publication of Pugin's propositions.

A more strictly architectural definition of the term Gothic architecture has been deduced from the writings of various investigators, as being that combination of art and science in building which followed the adoption, during the middle ages, of broken arches for vaults. openings, and ornaments, in lieu of the previously existing arches of continuous lines. The term Gothic architecture, according to such writers, does not acknowledge as its legitimate productions any structures that are point vaulted and point arched, point vaulted but not arched, point arched but not vaulted, or neither arched nor vaulted, unless they conform to rules approved by the builders in north-western Europe (and especially in England) during the middle ages. These regulations are, in effect, nine :-I. Daylight must not fall upon any apparently horizontal plane surface, however small, except pavements, steps, seats, and tables. II. Every arch must be moulded within a chamfer, or at least be chamfered. III. Every impost must follow the plan of the arch or arches which it receives. IV. Every pillur must be an assemblage of juxtaposed shafts or mouldings. V. Every pier must be polygonal, or at least circular in plan. VI. Every base must follow the plan of the pillar or pier to which it belongs, or at least be either polygonal (preferably octagonal), or cylindrical if under a shaft. VII. All decoration must be worked within the plane of the walling to which it belongs, except in the cases of bases, bands, capitals, cornices, copings, and dripstones. VIII. Roofs of high pitch and flying buttresses, spires, and pinnacles, tracery and foliation, are incidental, rather than peculiar, features. IX. The continuous arch may be exceptionally employed when it, with the rest of the building in which it occurs, exhibits submission to the preceding regulations.

These regulations were observed to the north of the Loire and of the Alps, which was the seat of what may be designated original Gothic. South of those boundaries we have to deal with what may be designated imitative Gothic, to which, as a matter of course, appends itself one of the two divisions, Christian and Mahomedan, of Pointed art. We take it for granted that the reader is already convinced that the Romanesque and Byzantine perfect developments of Roman construction do not become transitional to original or imitative Gothic architecture merely by the introduction of the pointed arch as a mere form, independent of the regulations above enumerated. On the contrary, they become new styles, with their own periods of transition and development; which, by those writers who do not feel that the architecture of the Mahomedans has been as consistent as that of north-western Europe, are at present considered as mere solecisms, deserving to have the epithets of pointed Romanesque and pointed Byzantine given to them.

These regulations, therefore, define the difference between Gothic and Pointed architecture. They exclude from the title of Gothic those branches of the transition from Romanesque art which, in Germany, Italy, and the Spanish peninsula, were, whatever the period might be, merely imitation Gothic; as they also exclude any branch of the pointed Byzantine school, which was employed by the Normans in Sicily, or by other Christian communities.

The readers who are desirous of considering this subject more in detail are referred to Freeman, History of Architecture, 1849, wherein Chapter I. Part II. treats upon the "Definition and Origin of Gothic Architecture;" and concludes with the observation : "We may then define Gothic architecture as a style whose main principle is verticality, a principle suggested by the pointed arch, and carried out in its accompanying details." writer in the Archæological Journal, for February 1847, has expressed his notion that “it would be very possible to build a thoroughly good Gothic church, taken entirely from ancient examples, without a single pointed arch throughout; " a principle which would astonish most of the talented practitioners of the present day.

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An eminent amateur has written a very studied and elaborate explanation of what he considers to constitute Gothic architecture. "I believe," says Mr. Ruskin, in Stones of Venice, Vol. II. Chap. VI., after a short inquiry into the mental power or expression, "that the characteristic or moral elements of Gothic are the following, placed in the order of their importance: -I. Savageness; II. Changefulness; III. Naturalism; IV. Grotesqueness; V. Rigidity; and VI. Redundance. These characters are here expressed as belonging to the building. As belonging to the builder they would be thus expressed :— I. Savageness, or rudeness; II. Love of change; III. Love of nature; IV. Disturbed imagination; V. Obstinacy; and VI. Generosity. The withdrawal of any one, or any two, will not at once destroy the Gothic character of the building; but the removal of a majority of them will." He then proceeds to examine them in their order; but our limited space prevents our following him word for word, and we have found it necessary to curtail some of the following paragraphs.

66

In defining its outward form, he states that the most striking feature is that it is composed of pointed arches. I shall say then, in the first place, that Gothic architecture is that which uses, if possible, the pointed arch for the roof proper ;" and subsequently adds, "Our definition will stand thus: Gothic architecture is that which uses the pointed arch

for the roof proper, and the gable for the roof mask."-" All good Gothic is nothing more than the development in various ways, and on every conceivable scale, of the group formed by the pointed arch for the bearing line below, and the gable for the protecting line above (fig. 1056.). The subject of the masonry of the pointed arch has been discussed in Chapter XI. of Volume I. (of his work), and the conclusion deduced, that of all possible forms of the pointed arch (a certain weight of material being given), that generically represented in fig. 1057. is the strongest. But the element of foliation must enter somewhere, or the style is imperfect; and our final definition of Gothic will, therefore, stand thus:-Foliated architecture, which uses the pointed arch for the roof proper, and the gable for the roof mask."

Fig. 1056.

Fig. 1057.

The figure 1057, though of the outline as given by Mr. Ruskin, really exhibits the stone arch erected in granite across the chancel of the Bruen Testimonial Church at Carlow, designed by the late J. Derick (Builder, 1854, p. 34.). The trefoiled arch exercises a force within the building neutralising the outward thrusting force of the lancet arch, the two forces producing a state of rest.

"A few plain and practical rules," continues Mr. Ruskin, "will determine whether given building be good Gothic or not, and if not Gothic, whether its architecture is of a kind which will probably reward the pains of careful examination :--I. Look if the root rises in a steep gable, high above the walls. If it does not do this, there is something wrong; the building is not quite pure Gothic, or has been altered. II. Look if the principal windows and doors have pointed arches, with gables over them. If not pointed arches, the building is not Gothic; if they have not any gables over them, it is either not pure or not first-rate. If, however, it has the steep roof, the pointed arch, and gable all united, it is nearly certain to be a Gothic building of a very fine time. III. Look if the arches are cusped, or apertures foliated. If the building has met the first two conditions, it is sure to be foliated somewhere; but, if not everywhere, the parts which are not unfoliated are imperfect, unless they are large bearing arches, or small and sharp arches in groups, forming a kind of foliation by their multiplicity, and relieved by sculpture and rich mouldings. If there be no foliation anywhere, the building is assuredly imperfect Gothic. IV. If the building meets all the first three conditions, look if its arches in general, whether of doors and windows, or of minor ornamentation, are carried on true shafts with bases and capitals. If they are, then the building is assuredly of the finest Gothic style. It may still, perhaps, be an imitation, a feeble copy, or a bad example, of a noble style; but the manner of it, having met all these four conditions, is assuredly first-rate. If its apertures have not shafts and capitals, look if they are plain openings in the walls, studiously simple, and unmoulded at the sides. If so, the building may still be of the finest Gothic, adapted to some domestic or military service. But if the sides of the window be moulded, and yet there are no capitals at the spring of the arch, it is assuredly of au inferior school."

"The next tests to be applied are in order to discover whether the building be good archi tecture or not; for it may be very impure Gothic, and yet very noble architecture; or it may be very pure Gothic, and yet, if a copy, or originally raised by an ungifted builder, very bad architecture :-I. See if it looks as if it had been built by strong men; if it has the sort of roughness, and largeness, and nonchalance, mixed in places with the exquisite tenderness, which seems always to be the sign-manual of the broad vision and massy power of men who can see past the work they are doing, and betray here and there something like disdain for it. If it has not this character, but is altogether accurate, minute, and scrupulous in its workmanship, it must belong to either the very best or the very worst of schools: the very best, in which exquisite design is wrought out with untiring and conscientious care, as in the Giottesque Gothic; or the very worst, in which mechanism has taken the place of design. On the whole, very accurate workmanship is to be esteemed a bad sign. II. Observe if it be irregular, its different parts fitting themselves to different purposes, no one caring what becomes of them so that they do their work. III. Observe if all the traceries, capitals, and other ornaments, are of perpetually varied design. IV. Lastly, Read the sculpture. Preparatory to reading it, you will have to discover whether it is legible (and, if legible, it is nearly certain to be worth reading). The criticism of the building is to be conducted precisely on the same principles as that of a book; and it must depend on the knowledge, feeling, and not a little on the industry and perseverance of the reader, whether, even in the case of the best works, he either perceives them to be great, or feels them to be entertaining."

"The variety of the Gothic schools," says Mr. Ruskin, in another portion of the same work, "is the more healthy and beautiful, because in many cases it is entirely unstudied, and results, not from mere love of change, but from practical necessities. It is one of the

chief virtues of the Gothic builders, that they never suffered ideas of outside symmetries and consistencies to interfere with the real use and value of what they did. If they wanted a window they opened one; a room, they added one; a buttress, they built one; utterly regardless of any established conventionalities of external appearance. Every successive architect employed upon a great work built the pieces he added in his own way, utterly regardless of the style adopted by his predecessors. These marked variations were, however, only permitted as part of the great system of perpetual change which ran through every member of Gothic design, and rendered it as endless a field for the beholder's inquiry as for the builder's imagination; change, which in the best schools is subtle and delicate, and rendered more delightful by intermingling of a noble monotony, in the more barbaric schools is somewhat fantastic and redundant; but, in all, a necessary and constant condition of the life of the school. Sometimes the variety is in one feature, sometimes in another: it may be in the capitals or crockets, in the niches or the traceries, or in all together, but in some one or other of the features it will be found always. If the mouldings are constant, the surface sculpture will change; if the capitals are of a fixed design, the traceries will change; if the traceries are monotonous, the capitals will change; and if ever, as in some fine schools, the early English for example, there is the slightest approximation to an unvarying type of mouldings, capitals, and floral decoration, the variety is found in the disposition of the masses, and in the figure sculpture."

SECT. II.

PERIODS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

The divisions of Gothic architecture in England, as made by King, Dallaway, Millers, and others, have been used in Book I. Chap. III.; but their subdivisions and nomenclature have been discarded by later investigators; and many tables have been put forward of divisions and subdivisions. Thus, Britton's nomenclature (1807) was, English 1189-1272; decorated English 1272-1461; highly decorated, or florid, English 1461-1509; debased English 1625. Millers's division (1807) was early English 1200-1300; ornamented English 1300-1460; and florid English 1460-1537, as adopted herein in Book I. E. Sharpe classifies the style as, Romanesque-Saxon period until 1066; Norman 1066-1145, Gothic-transitional 1145–1190; lancet 1190-1245; geometrical 1245-1315; curvilinear 1315-1360; and rectilinear 1360–1550.

The following table introduced by Rickman, Attempt to Discriminate, &c., shows his nomenclature and the duration of the periods; these names have maintained themselves, in consequence of their general appropriateness, from 1819 to the present time:

The reign of Richard I. was the chief period of the transition from the Norman to the early English style; that of Edward I. for the change from the early English to the decorated style (the Eleanor crosses belonging rather to the latter, than to the former, style); while in the latter part of the long reign of Edward III. the transition to the perpendicular style commenced, and was almost completed by the time of the accession of Richard II.