2 ON THE ARCH. 



it really the arch of ^Egeus, or had that monarch ever erected 

 a similar structure, the often discussed aiid still undecided 

 question as to the origin of the arch would long since have been 

 put to rest ; but as that is not the case, I shall, with every respect 

 for those learned disquisitionists who have so ably treated the 

 subject, offer a few remarks upon this elegant and useful order. 



It may be difficult to fix the exact period of the reign of 

 -^geus, but it is universally allowed to be much anterior to the 

 retreat of Xerxes, and it apj^ears more than probable, had an 

 arch been understood in his day, that it would have been intro- 

 duced into some at least of those magnificent structures whose 

 erection followed that important aera of Greek history. It must 

 be admitted that the applicability of the segment of a circle to 

 architectural purposes, as exhibited in the lanthorn of Demost- 

 henes, was known to the Greeks, but the applicability of the 

 arch was not known, consequently, so far as I am acquainted 

 with early Greek architecture, never used by them at the time or 

 anterior to such retreat. Although Mr. Pope, in his beautiful 

 paraphrase of Homer's Iliad, repeatedly describes domes and 

 arched columns, yet little is he borne out by the original text, in 

 which not one word is discoverable warranting their use, or which 

 could convey to the reader the inference even that in the whole 

 of Priam's spacious palace one arch existed ; nor has one been 

 discovered in the ruins of Persepolis, nor in the other ancient 

 buildings upon which time has laid a more gentle hand. It is 

 well known that there are writers who maintain an opposite 

 opinion. A late very entertaining traveller maintained that the 

 pointed arch had existed in Asia Minor from the earliest periods, 

 but the investigations of a friend proved the fallacy of the 

 hypothesis, and shewed to him that it existed only in his sanguine 

 expectation. The supposed tomb of Ajax presented the wished 

 for (construction, but a little cool enquiry discovered that the 

 keystone was wanting, and that the approach of two walls, even 

 to contact, could not by possibility form an arch. The friends to 

 the antiquity of the arch have not been more fortunate in their 

 Egyptian researches, nor is a single unquestionable authority to 

 be found through the whole of its architectural range, of a date 

 preceding the invasion of Caesar. Belzoni, a traveller of great 

 perseverance and industry, found a single arched doorway in one 

 of the pyramids, a model of which pyramid was, years back, 

 exhibited in London ; but, be it remembered, that the Romans 

 were in possession of Egypt for several hundred years after the 

 introduction of the arch into their own country, and there can 

 be little doubt that, after breaking through the solid wall, they 

 adopted the then Roman method of making an arched doorway 

 as the means of future entrance into the pyramid. The Romans 

 were accustomed to make architectural alterations in all countries 

 which they conquered, and were peculiarly fond of introducing 

 the arch wherever opportunity allowed. This opinion is farther 



