GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



llic fall of the Greek empire. The holy war gave tlic 

 Chfiftians who had been there an idea of the Saracen works, 

 which were afterwards imitated by them in the Well,'' 



This fyftcm concerning the pointed llyle, namely, that it 

 originated with the Saracen;^, has, out of mere rcfi)ecl to the 

 name of its author, I'r Chrillopher Wren, been followed by 

 bifhop Lowth, in h\s life of Wykeham, by Rious, by War- 

 ton, by Grofc, and, in (liort, by the generality of modern 

 writers who have had occafion to enter upon the fubjeft. In 

 refutation, however, of this fyilcm, we have to remark that 

 the firft, or Grand Crufade, in which the conqueror's fon, 

 Robert, and many other Normans and Engliflimen embarked, 

 making part of above a million of pcrfons, who were en- 

 gaged in it, began in 1096, and terminated hv the capture 

 of Jerufalem in IC99. Now it is certain from hiftory that the 

 cathedrals of Exeter, Roeheller, and Chichefter, with many 

 abbey churches, were built wholly in the circular llyle after 

 the laft-mentioned year. Amongll tliefe the inllance which is 

 mo'l: to the preleiit purpofe is that of Rocheiler cathedral, 

 which was built by that greateil architett of his age, Gun- 

 dulph, formerly a monk of Bee abbey, then bilhop of Ro- 

 cheftcr, as well as the callle of that city, the chapel in the 

 white tower of London, &c. without the leaft mixture of 

 the pointed llyle. The reaCon of this is, becaufe Gundulph 

 had travelled through the Eaft on a pilgrimage to Jerufaleir, 

 a little before the crufade took place, when he had an oppor- 

 tunity of furveyingthe churches and other bui'dings of tliofe 

 countries at his leiiure. Again, it has been remarked by 

 Grofe, Bentham, and other writers on the fubject, that in all 

 the defcriptions and drawings of buildings in the Holv Land 

 and other parts of the Eall, given us by Pocock, Norden, 

 Shaw, Le Bruyn, &c. there is but one church, namely, that 

 of St. John d'Acre, in th- proper pointed ilyle (which 

 church the writer of this article has dilcovered to have been 

 built by William, an Euglitliman,at the time when our Richard 

 L made himfclf mailer of that city) ; and that very rarely 

 fuch a thing as a pointed arch is repreiented as exilling 

 in thofe countries. It is true a late writer, the Rev. 

 Mr. Whiitington, in his " Survey of the Ecclcliallical 

 Antiquities of France,'' has pro{)ofed to difcover from 

 thefe and other drawings pointed architetlure in every 

 part of the Eail, from the Euxinc lea to Egypt ; but 

 then it appears that he calls the mis-lhapen obeliiks and 

 minarets ^f the Mahomedanmofquespointed architetlure. He 

 has another argument for his allertion, namely, that " it is 

 improbable the dark ages of the Well fhould have given a 

 model of architedlure to the Eail.'' If there is any force 

 in this argument, it would folio v/ that themulical fcale of bells, 

 optical glaffes, the mariner's compafs, gun-powder, and print- 

 ing were difcovered in the Eail inltead oi the Weil, contrary 

 to the knov.;n fad. 



Mr. Murphy, to whom the admirers of pointed arehitec- 

 ture are indebted for his elegant views of the church of Ba- 

 talha in Foi-tugal, conjeclures that this llyle v.-as borrowed 

 trom the pyramids, and that of courle Egypt w.is its native 

 foil. But in almo'.l every country and age men have built 

 their habitations with (h)ping roofs to carry off the falling 

 rain ; hence they mull have feeji the figure ot a triangle at the 

 gable ends of them, no lefs than the Egyptians did in their 

 pyramids. Denon's, Meyer's, and other views of ancient 

 builJings in Egypt, arc by no means favourable to Mr. Mur- 

 phy's I'yllem. Tiiere is indeed an ancient hall in the cafllj 

 . of Cairo, called Jofeph's Hail, which is a great deal in the 

 pointed manner, and w.iieh is fuppoled by the vulgar to 

 hdve beer) built by the patriarch of that name ; but Niebuhr 

 and lord Vafentia give fufficient reafon to believe that it was 



built by Saladin, the enemy of our Ricliard I, whofc tr.e 

 name was Jofcph. In fact, it is in the llyle of that period. 

 According to this fuppofition, wc are wairanted in believing 

 tliat this hail was the workmanlhip of Chrillian prifoners, or 

 fugitives, after the third crufade. Mr. Murphy's theory ik 

 equally deltitute of hiilorical gronnds and moral proba- 

 bility. 



Biiliop Warburton, in his " Notes on Pope's EpilUes," 

 endeavours to unite together two of the above-mentioned re- 

 futed fy Hems, that which derives pointed architecture from 

 the Northern Goths, and that which brings it from tlic 

 Eaftern Saracens, at the fame time that he alligns the wcllem 

 pcninfnla of Europe for the real place of its birth. The 

 lollowing is an abridgment of his account. " When tl)e 

 Goths had conquered Spain, and the religion of the old 

 (Chrillian) inhabitants had inflamed their piety, they (Iruck 

 out a new fpecies of arcliiteclurc miknown to Greece ar.d 

 Rome. For this northern people having been accullomet!, 

 during t)ie gloom of Paganilm, to worlhip the Deity in 

 groves, when their new religion required covered edifice, 

 they ingenioudy projected to make them rcfemble proves ; 

 at once indulging their old prejudices, and providing f(,r tlieir 

 prefent conveniences by a cool receptacle in a fultry climate, 

 with the allillance of Saracen architects, whofe exotic ilvie 

 of building fuited their purpofe." All this is a mere rcverv. 

 The Goths and Vandals entered Spain in the year 409 Tliev 

 did not, hov. ever, acquire there a new religion from the oh! 

 iah;'l)itants, for they were already Chriilianj, and habituatid 

 to the ufe of churches. On tlie other hand, tlic MocTijli 

 Saracens did not enter Spain till three hundred years after- 

 wards, namely, till the year 712, when havir.g cooped 'ip 

 tlie Chrillians n the mountains of Allurias, there conti- 

 nued ever aftervvards the moll relentlefs warfare between the 

 two people. It is impofTible to conceive more monftrous ideas 

 than that the Chrillian Goths fliould have brought wiih them 

 into Sjiain a partiality for the Pagan wonliip which Uiey hjd 

 praftii'ed in the foreils of Germany, and t'aal they fhould 

 have retained it for the fpace of three hundred vears after- 

 wards, till they had the means of employing th.eir implacable 

 enemies, the Mahomedan Moors, to buiid Chrillian churches 

 for their ufe; and that when this was effecled, ihey fhould 

 have kept /ne fecret of pointed architecture to themfelves 

 for the ipace of 400 years longer ! Were all this pofTible, 

 or were it a fad that this llyle had been imported into oiir 

 country from any other, where it had been praclifed for a 

 confiderable tm.e before, it would have made its appeaniKci- 

 amongil us all at once, with its feveral ilriking characters ; 

 contrary to what we actually fee was tl;e facL After all, if 

 the aifle of an ancient cathedral refembles an avenue of tret-rJ 

 in fome refpecls, it differs from it in many others, which are 

 obvious to the fight. 



Having followed different guides, north, eaft, and weft, 

 in fearcli of the original pointed architeclure, we have latter- 

 ly been invited by an ingenious artill to accompanv him to 

 tlie fouth, namely, into Italy, the cradle of' modern 

 arts, with a promife that he vvid there poi' t out to us miicli 

 earlier fpecimens of this llyle than are to be met with in this 

 northern climate. In the ye<'.r 1S05 Mr. Smirke jun., then 

 returned from Italy, laid Ijcfore the Society of Antiquanis 

 a certain drawing, iince engraved in the " -Archsologia," 

 vol. XV., of the drelfmgs of a window belonging to the ca- 

 thedral of MefTuia, in the richc;l (lyle of the third pointe il 

 order, being fuch as we have no exasnjile of in this country- 

 before the middle of the 15th century. Thefe drelfmgs Le 

 would have us believe are -oeval with the cathedral ;tfclt, 

 which was built bv the Norman chicftaia Roger, earl cf Sici- 



