a : 
274 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [March 4, 
futility of the various theories propounded by Milner and others, 
who reduced the question as to the origin of Gothic archi- 
tecture into a mere question as to the origin of the pointed arch, 
and sought for the latter in the intersection of round arches and 
similar sources. 
From the -Orientals then the western architects learned sys- 
tematically to employ the pointed arch in the main arcades of 
their churches and other great buildings,* of which the Abbey 
of Malmesbury is not improbably the earliest example in England. 
But much more remained to be done before Gothic architecture 
was fully developed; in other words, before the architectural 
expression of the idea of vertical extension was thoroughly 
worked out. Those who laid its foundations did but place the 
pointed arch of the Saracen upon the massive pier of the Norman, 
and channel its surface with the same ornaments which had 
adorned its semicircular predecessor. Slowly and gradually was 
a harmonious system worked out, the progress of this transition 
forming one of the most interesting pages in the history of the 
art. ‘The pointed form was extended from the great constructive 
arches to the smaller arches of doorways, windows, and merely 
decorative arcades, and the Gothic or vertical principle was carried 
out in 
1st. The use of mouldings affecting the section. 
2nd. The clustered, or its substitute the octagonal, pier. 
3rd. The round or octagonal instead of the square abacus. 
4th. The confirmed use of vaulting. 
Into the subdivisions of the Gothic style, which he had fully 
treated of in other works, the Lecturer refrained from entering. 
He would simply mention its two great forms, the Early, in which 
the principle of subordinating the parts to the whole, so charac- 
teristic of Gothic architecture, is applied only to the subordination 
of the secondary to the primary parts, and the Continuous, which 
while effecting this more completely, extends the same principle 
to the further subordination of the primary parts to the whole. 
The former includes the Lancet and Geometrical Decorated ; the 
latter the Flowiag Decorated, the Perpendicular of England, and 
the contemporary Flamboyant of the continent. 
[E. A. F.] 
Mr. Farapay read the following letter which he had received from 
Mr. Stevenson, relative to the coincidence of a secular period in the 
* See History of Architecture, pp. 311-3. 
+ See them examined more at length, History of Architecture, pp. 303-8. 
