1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



tains of stone, vast gigantic buildings, but not worthy the name of 

 architecture," or Evelyn could say "Gothic architecture is a conges- 

 tion of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish piles" — vague and inap- 

 propriate expressions, bearing as little assimilation to the style as did 

 the attempts of the architect to the churches he reviled : — since the 

 time when Gough and Carter, and other honoured few, alone upheld 

 the merits of our antiquities, how much has the study of our na- 

 tional edifices increased ; and from this study, wonderfully syste- 

 matised within late years, has resulted a high admiration of the old 

 English architects, and of the principles which guided them in their 

 sublime conceptions. Yet, the opinions of the seventeenth and eigh- 

 teenth centuries have been revived in the nineteenth, and Gothic ar- 

 chitecture treated as devoid of sound principles of proportion and 

 taste. Though no Vitruvius of the middle ages has bequeathed to 

 posterity written rules, and though heights and projections be not 

 governed by modules, the opinion has been gradually growing, and 

 has now reached conviction, that principles of design did exist, and 

 that proportions of parts were observed. In the main principles of 

 design, all styles, having claims to rank as beautiful, agree ; and in 

 those principles the medieval architects were consummate masters. 

 In any style of architecture, whose horizontal and vertical lines are 

 of equal number and prominence, we should not expect to find that 

 beautiful effect, which results from an increased importance being 

 given in one of those positions. Thus, while in the Grecian temple 

 the main lines are horizontal, in the Gothic they are vertical ; a like 

 principle being observed in each. So when, during the decline of 

 Gothic architecture, the horizontal line came into increased use, all 

 the richness of ornament — so profusely lavished upon the structures 

 of that age — failed to conceal the original mistake. In attention to 

 pyramidal outline, whether of masses or of parts, the Gothic archi- 

 tects surpassed all rivals. In " unity and sub-division of parts," the 

 groined vaultings and the window tracery of the best period, exemplify 

 those main principles of beauty, which govern the disposition of the 

 members in the Greek entablature — the beams and coffers in Italian 

 ceilings — the cartoons of Raphael, and all beautiful compositions of 

 whatever style and date. The west window of York Cathedral, 



Fig. 2.— West Window of York Cathedral. 



(Fig. 2,) -will exemplify this. In this fine composition, no effect is 



257 



improperly lessened by the presence of any neighbouring part. An 

 arch of unomamented but elegant mouldings, placed beneath a rich 

 crocketed canopy, circumscribes tracery of the most elaborate de- 

 signs. Three mullions, each 1 1 inches in width and 8 inches in pro- 

 jection, divide the opening into four equal parts; each of these com- 

 partments is subdivided by another mullion, which is only 8 inches 

 wide and 6 inches in projection. The ramifications of the head are 

 marked out into large and bold features by the continuation of the 

 larger mullion, from the sides of which spring the mouldings, winch 

 form the smaller ramifications. Drawing attention to so celebrated 

 an example, with which all present must be quite familiar, affords me 

 a main link in the chain of argument— indeed proves that the main 

 unvarying laws of composition were known to the Gothic architects 

 as to the great in art of every time. — 



" 'Mid curves that vary in perpetual twine, 

 " Truth owns but one direct and perfect line." 



This principle of dividing by large features, and subdividing by smal- 

 ler, being— to use the words of Burke— "as it were, moulded into 

 each other"— has been ably elucidated by Professor Willis in an 

 elaborate paper on Gothic vaultings, published in the transactions of 

 this Institute. It may be difficult to deny, that the principles of 

 pointed design permitted a greater latitude, or, that exceptions to 

 the general arrangement were not unfrequent in a style of such inven- 

 tion and variety ; and it is also probable, that in the different lodges 

 of Freemasons, the principles themselves might slightly vary; but to 

 assert, by implication, that the beautiful creations of Gothic archi- 

 tecture are the results of accident rather than design, seems akin (if 

 the comparison can be drawn without offence) to the belief of one 

 who, in the order and regularity of the universe, can discover no sign' 

 of a pervading Mind. The fact that the knowledge of the Free- 

 masons was jealously guarded, is sufficient to account for our not pos- 

 sessing a written explanation of their secrets. Whilst, in one edifice 

 the proportions are to some extent deficient in elegance, in another 

 we are delighted with their exquisite effect ; which shows that they 

 are still matter for study and attention, though they may not square 

 with those of an opposite style. Take the example of an early English 

 doorway of good character: we shall find that the perpendicular lines 

 could not be lengthened or diminished without destroying the effect 

 which its present proportions produce, unless we at the same time 

 make some change in the decorative features. Thus, in the drawing 

 of the doorway, Fig. 3, from Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire, 



Fig. 3.— Doorway from Rothivell Church. 



the opening is much narrower in proportion to its height than we 

 generally find it in other doorways of the same date; but the effect of 

 the whole composition is not lessened, for the increased width is gained 



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