114 Architecture and Mosaics of Wilton Church. 



We have fine examples in the cathedral and church of St. Cross at 

 "Winchester, Ronisey Abbey, and at Christchurch Priory, as well as 

 in St. John's and St. Mary's at Devizes. 



The commencement of the 13th century brought with it a violent 

 and remarkable change in the Ecclesiastical architecture of Northern 

 Europe ; the heavy ponderous forms and details of the Northern 

 Romanesque suddenly sprung up into the light and elegant lancet, 

 the pointed arch succeeded the round, and then took place a com- 

 plete deviation from, and contrast to, the whole spirit of Christian 

 architecture. The most remarkable point of distinction was the 

 substitution of the vertical for the horizontal principle. 



Instead of heavy massive members, square-edged projections, and 

 the pilasters, cornices, and entablatures of the Roman style, we 

 have elongated pillars variously clustered and combined, prolonged 

 by corresponding mouldings along the arches, and running con- 

 tinuously into the vaulting; also the use of strongly projecting 

 buttresses, which shoot upwards and terminate in pinnacles, with a 

 constant tendency to the predominance and prolongation of vertical 

 lines. 



The question of the causes of the transition from one of these 

 styles to the other has been much canvassed. The origin of the 

 pointed arch has generally been put forward as the most important 

 branch of the inquiry ; this, however, by no means embraces the 

 whole question, for it is possible for a building to be decidedly 

 Gothic in character, while it has scarcely a single detail which can 

 be pronounced purely Gothic. The church of St. Eustache in Paris 

 is an illustration of this. Besides, the pointed arch existed several 

 centuries before Gothic architecture was known. I saw not long 

 since in Egypt a fully developed series of pointed arches in a 

 curious building at Old Cairo, called the Nilometer, probably of the 

 ninth century ; and again, the mosque of Tailoom at Cairo has 

 completely formed pointed arches in abundance ; this was built 

 a.d. 879. 



The predominance of the vertical line, then, is the great dis- 

 tinguishing feature of Gothic architecture ; it would be impossible 

 to have a more apt or beautiful illustration of this principle than 



