1 8 6 State of Archite5lure to the end of 



"ter are fo confined that they may ahnoft all 

 be. reduced to the trefoil, extended and 

 varied, I fhall not appeal to the edifices 

 themfelves — It is fufficient to obfer/e, that 

 Ini"-o Jonesj fir Chriftopher Wren and Kent, 

 who certainly underflood beauty, blun- 

 dered * into the heavieft and clunnfiell com- 

 pofitions whenever they ajrned at imita- 

 tions of the Gothic — Is an art defpicable in 

 which a great mafler cannot fhine P 



Confidering how fcrupuloufly our archi- 

 te6ts confine themfelves to antique prece- 

 dent, perhaps fome deviations into Gothic 

 may a little relieve them from that fervile 

 imitation. I mean that they fhould iludy 

 both taftes, not blend them : that they 

 fhouLI dare to invent in the one, fince they 

 will hazard nothing in the other. When 

 they have built a pediment and portico, 

 the Sibyll's circular temple, and tacked the 

 wings to a houfe by a colonade, they feem 

 nu hout de leur Latin, If half a dozen man- 

 fions were all that remained of old Rome, 

 inftead of half a dozen temples, I do not 



• In Lincoln's-inn chapel, the fteeple of the church 

 at Warwick, the king's- bench in Weftminiter-hall, the 

 fcreen at GlouceHcr kz,^-^ZLL Q^-^l m a>vw ^C^ 



il. ' doubt 



