i6 On GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



ploy; which is done as follows: A pair of thefe unoccupied rods 

 being brought from any two polls which (land diagonally to 

 each other, (A and F, fig. 6.), and made to meet in the middle, 

 not as in the firft cafe, eroding in an angle, but fide by fide, 

 forming a femicircle, and joined together after the manner of a 

 hoop, (fig. 4.) ; and the fame being done with every pair of dia- 

 gonal pofls, (fig. 9. & 13.), the whole rods will have been employ- 

 ed. 



Each of the three fets of arches having thus been feparately 

 defcribed, (fig. 7, 8, & 9,), the complete ftrudure, in which 

 they are all combined, may eafily be underflood, (PI. I. fig, 10. 

 and 14., and PI. II. fig. 15, & 16.). 



In this manner a frame would be conftrucT;ed, fit to fupport 

 thatch or other covering, and fuch a one has probably been 

 often ufed. It would feem, however, that, for the fake of flrength, 

 the number of rods has been iacreafcd in each duller, by the 

 introduction, between every two of them, of an additional i-od, 

 which, rifing with them to the roof, ftill continues its middle pofi- 

 tion, as they fpread afunder, and meets the horizontal pole at 

 an intermediate point. This is fliown in Plate III. figure 19, 

 which is drawn wath its covering of thatch j and the fame is ex- 

 prefl'ed in the correfponding ground-plan, figui-e 20. 



From the imitation of a dwelling, fo conflrucfled, we may 

 now trace the three leading charadleriftics of Gothic Architec- 

 ture, the pointed arch, the cluftered column, and the branching 

 roof, (PI. II. fig. 17, & 18., and PI. III. fig. 21, & 22.)*. 



The 



• In buildings of ftone, the arch or groin, which joins the diagonal piers, is very 

 generally a real femicircle, Tike that in the willow ftrudlure juft defcribed ; as I 

 have found to be accurately the cafe at Beverley and Melrofe. This rule of execu- 

 tion, with the deviations from it, which we meet with occafionaUy, will be fully 

 confidertd in a fubfequf nt part of the EfTay ; in which it will be ihown, that in 

 the ufual roof, where the diagonal groin is a femicircle, it becomes the regulator of 

 all the reft, determining tlieir height and form in every refpcft. 



