98 Remarks on Wilton Church. ° 
it is hard to imagine a different or more agreeable arrangement than 
that which the first Christian architects adopted, while for general 
effect and acoustic properties, the Basilica, is not, I think, matched. 
With Justinian, as I have said, in the year of our Lord 527, a 
development of this style—nay, almost a partial revolution in it, 
may be said to have oceurred. The Emperor Justinian not content 
with aspiring to be the legislator of mankind, claimed also to be 
their great architect. I suppose he must have had at Constantinople 
some master mind to consult; but of one of the two chief character- 
istics of the new style of building introduced in his time, he claimed, 
it is said, himself to be the originator. The Cupola or Dome, as 
applied to a Christian church, was his own idea, and this with the 
short equal-limbed Greek Cross was the vital distinction of the 
Byzantine style. The first experiments in this style were made at 
Constantinople, and between the reign of Constantine and that of 
Justinian it is said that 1800 religious structures were erected in the 
Eastern Empire. 
As there is hardly however a trace in Wilton church of anything 
Byzantine, I need not occupy time in describing this style. Perhaps 
we ought to call mosaic decoration a Byzantine idea, (since the 
Greeks are supposed to have taken out a sort of patent in enamel at 
this time) and if so, all ages are indebted to them. The splendour 
and finish which this work gives to every part of the interior of any 
spacious church, can hardly be described. One must go to the 
scenes of its triumphs, at Milan, at Venice, at Ravenna, to see what 
can not be imagined. At the latter-named place there is perhaps 
the oldest mosaic, since of St. Vitale Justinian was himself the 
builder, and the example serves to show many features of the style 
of which I am speaking. There may be noticed the dome, the 
massive piers, and the tiers of arcades which occur on the face of 
the inside walls, and it may be readily imagined to what endless 
modifications or exaggerations the introduction of these two features 
alone gave rise. To the introduction of the cross by the Greeks 
who repaired to Ravenna (the seat at that time in the west of the 
Imperial Government) the Latin cross as applied to building almost 
owes, I believe, its existence. In all the early Basilican churches 
