294 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Paet II. 



from Assyria; and this will accord with its introduction by the 

 Arabs from Asia. To be imitated it must have been seen. 



75. The pointed arches of the Christians (already mentioned) 

 were of a construction very similar to the earliest Egyptian 

 round arches, the bricks being placed lengthways ; but the 

 greater part had the centre formed of a half brick, or of two 

 fragments of different sizes, to serve as a key; and small 

 pieces of stone were inserted between the upper edges of each 

 brick, when not bevelled off into a wedge shape, in order to 

 fill up the vacant space at that part.* The key was there- 

 fore adopted in the earliest pointed arches. It was often dis- 

 pensed with in later times ; and this is not surprising, as it is 

 by no means a necessary feature of a pointed or even of a 

 round arch, the real principle being that each brick or stone 

 shall radiate to a common centre. The central brick gives to 

 these pointed arches an oval form, and looks like a transi- 

 tion from the round arch ; of which they preserved the height, 

 while the span was diminished ; and instances even occur 

 of similar shaped arches in Koman buildings, even though the 

 bricks are placed laterally, as at the Baths of Caracalla, over 

 a small pent-headed opening in a wall. 



There can be little doubt that the round arch owes its origin 

 to the use of bricks in roofing buildings constructed of that 

 material ; and nowhere is it more likely to have been required 

 than in a country like Egypt, where timber for rafters was 

 rare, and bricks were extensively used. We are not, therefore, 

 surprised to find round brick arches at the early period of 

 1490 B.C. at Thebes. Both the round and pointed arch seem 

 to have begun with rude bricks, placed lengthways. And if 

 the early Christians only used the latter to cover passages and 

 other small spaces, the early imitations of it (1460 B.C.) hewn 

 in the rock are, in like manner, confined to narrow chambers ; 



* See my " Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs," pp. 138 — 141. 



