296 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



adoption ; and neither there, nor elsewhere in Europe, did it 

 grow out of the previous style. Moreover, Grothic is not 

 necessarily ornamented with foliage ; the earliest style, the 

 Transition, had none ; only mouldings, and those mostly bor- 

 rowed from the Norman; and in this it showed its nearer 

 resemblance to the Saracenic of that period when it took its 

 rise. Tracery and rich foliage were superadded afterwards ; 

 and they became, but were not originally, a necessary feature 

 of Grothic, or pointed, architecture. Whence the Arabs first 

 obtained the pointed arch is a question not yet solved ; though, 

 as I have said, it was not from Byzantium, as once supposed, 

 but from Asia, and probably from Assyria. 



76. With regard to the invention of the round arch, the 

 same mystery prevails as about the later pointed one. All 

 we know is that the Egyptians commonly used it for the roof- 

 ing of tombs at least as early as 1490 B.C., as is proved beyond 

 doubt by some still remaining at Thebes of that time ; the 

 paintings of Beni Hassan seem to show it was known to them 

 five centuries earlier ; and there is reason to believe it existed 

 two hundred years before in the chambers of the crude brick 

 pyramids. But it never became a feature of their architec- 

 ture, to the character of which it was by no means suited ; and 

 the same may be said of it in Greece, where, though known, it 

 was never introduced into any sacred building. It is men- 

 tioned by Aristotle (de Mundo, c. 6), and is said by Posidonius 

 to have been invented by Democritus, who was born B.C. 460 

 (Vitruv. Pr. 7, and Seneca, Ep. 90) ; and from the description 

 of it, with the stones gradually inclining (or radiating to the 

 centre,) with a centre or key to bind them together, it was 

 evidently on the same principle as our own, and not merely 

 a domed vault, which differs from a real arch. But, as Seneca 

 says, there must have been arched bridges and doors long 

 before Democritus ; and there is reason to believe that many 

 of those that remain in Greece date before his time. One 



