ARCHITECTURE OF DIFFERENT AGES. 473 



tal iu perfection, pointing out the very origin of this ornament, 

 viz. a number of long graceful leaves tied lound the head of the 

 column with a fillet ; a custom which we know was common in their 

 temples and banqueting rooms. Where the distance between the 

 columns is great, so that each had to support a weight too great for 

 one tr^e, we see the columns clustered or fluted, &c. In short, 

 we see every thins of the Grecian architecture, but the sloped roof 

 or pediment ; a thing not wanted in a country where it hardly 

 ever rains. In the stone-buildings of the Greeks, xthe roofs were 

 imitations of the wooden ones ; hence the lintels, flying corniches, 

 ceilings in compartments, &c. 



The ancient Egyptian architecture seems to be a refinement on 

 the hut built of clay, or unburnt bricks mixed with straw : every 

 thing is massive, clumsy, and timid; small intercolumniations, and 

 hardly any projections. 



The Arabian architecture seem a refinement on the tent. A 

 mosque is like a little camp, consisting of a number of little bell 

 tents, stuck close together round a great one. A caravansary is a 

 court surrounded by a row of such tents, each having its own 

 dome. The Greek church of St. Sophia at Constantinople has 

 imitated this in some degree; and the copies from it, which have 

 been multiplied in Russia as the sacred form of a Christian church, 

 have adhered to the original model of clustered tents in the strict* 

 est manner. We are sometimes disposed to think that the painted 

 glass (a fashion brought from the east) was an imitation of the 

 painted hangings of the Arabs. 



The Chinese architecture is an evident imitation of a wooden 

 building. Sir George Staunton says, that the singular form of their 

 roofs is a professed imitation of the cover of a square tent. 



The great incorporation of architects who built most of the ca. 

 thedrals of Europe departed entirely from the styles of ancient 

 Greece and Home, and introduced another in which arcades made 

 the principal part. Not finding in every place quarries from which 

 blocks could be raised, in abundance, of sufficient size for forming 

 the far-projecting coruiches of the Greek orders, they relinquished 

 those proportions, and adopted a style of ornament which required 

 no such projections : and having substituted arches for the hori- 

 zontal architrave or lintel, they were able to erect buildings, of vast 

 extent with spacious openings, and all this with very small pieces 



