GOTHIC ARCIIITECTURF. 



ly, in i\\: ck-ventH century. He pvefented another drawing, 

 publillied by the fociety as aforefaid, vvliicli appeared to be 

 much more' for his purpofe, bccaufe of the known dates of 

 theorij;inal. This drawing reprcfents a portion of the out- 

 fideof thebnptillery of the cathedral church at Pifa, whichbap- 

 tilierv was certainly built by Dioti Salvi in ii 52. Tiic drawing 

 exhibits what we (liouldcall Roman and Saxon work, with in- 

 termixed croeketted pediments and pinnacles, fueh as we 

 were unacquainted with for more than a hundred years after- 

 wards. Laftly, this gentleman fliewed a view of the cloif- 

 ter of Campo Santo, adjoining the lail mentioned cathedral, 

 built in 1278. Here we fee the richeft tracery mtdhons 

 under femi-circular arches, the whole of wliich he confider- 

 ed as being the fame original work. Thefe fpeeimena gained 

 many converts to his fyltem, that of Italy being the parent 

 countrv of pointed architedure. 



But there is no error which we have fo much to gv.ard 

 ai-ainft in ihidying architeftnral antiquity as the confound- 

 ing of fubfequ'ent alterations with the original work. There 

 are few adepts in this fcience who would not dart at the lirit 

 fi^'ht of Mr. Smirke's drawings, and who would not pro- 

 nounce the works tkey repreieiit as an incongruous mixture 

 of the architefture of different ages ; but it was referved 

 for fir Henry Englefield's profound knowledge of tlie fub- 

 ■,cft and critical acumen to detetl and exhibit in detail the 

 "pointed enrichments with vvljich later architects had deco- 

 r.ited the plain circular works of their predcceflbrs. To the 

 juftice of this learned antiquary's remarks the accurate hiflo- 

 rv c-f the cathedral of Pifa, written by Martini a canon 

 of that church, bears ample teftimony. In a word, the 

 very fpecimens which Mr. Smirke has produced in favour of 

 Italy's claim to the invention of pointed architeftnre, as 

 well as all the other buildings, tombs, and altars at Rome, 

 aiidine'-ery other part of Italy, demonllrate its great infe- 

 riority botii in date and in execution, to England, France, 

 and Germany, with refpeft to this particular ityle. 



Aflied, in one refpedlto the fyftem of biilioj) Warburton, 

 is that of fir James Hall, bart , who, in " An Eflny on 

 ■ Gotl ij Architefture,'' now publiflied, endeavoiu-s to Uiew 

 tl at the pointed ilyle was borrowed from the idea of upright 

 polls furroundtd with ofiers, the heads of which are to 

 meet like thole of trees in an avenue. But the utmoll that 

 the ingenious baronet proves is that baflcet-work may be made 

 to r--femble pointed architecture, not that pointed architecture 

 was borrowed from exifting models of ballcet-work. Lord 

 Orford, heretofore fir Horace Walpole, in his " Obferva- 

 tions on Englidi Architecture,'' fays, that the architecture 

 in queftion was copied from (hrine-work ; juil as if the mak- 

 ing of boxes preceded the building of ho\ifes ! After all, 

 this is only placing the tortoife under the elephant ; for 

 where did artills learn to falhion their llirinesin the pointed 

 ityle ■! Lallly, Mr. Payne Knight derives this ftyle from 

 all the three parts of the world, heretofore known, Europe, 

 Afiaand Africa, where he decides, in his" Principles of 

 Talle,'' that " the llyle of architecture which we call ca- 

 thedral or monaftic, is manifellly a corruption of the facred 

 architefture of the Greeks or Romans, by a mixture of the 

 Mooridi or Saracenic, which is formed out of a combination 

 of the Egyptian, Perfian, and Hindoo.'' 



But why fhould v,e wander into every remote corner of the 

 world, and even into the regions of fancy in fearch of an in- 

 vention wliich belongs to our own climate ? And for what 

 purpofe diould we take fo much pains to prove a plant to be 

 an imported exotic which we havefeen fproOting up, and at- 

 taining its full growth in our own gvden ? Let us now go 

 Mck to the point from which we llarted in purfuit of va- 



rious falfe fyftems. We have feen above that the grcateft 



people, without difpute, of the eleventh and twelfth c^-ntr.- 

 ries, namely, the Normans, the conquerors of Enghuid, 

 France, Italy, Sicily, and various regions in the Eall, were 

 at the fame time a moll indullrious and ingenious people, 

 andpoffelfcd of the moil ardent paffion forecclefiailical archi- 

 teCtiu-e of a^ly people we read of, and that they vied 

 with each other in the grandeur and beauty of their 

 refpefth'e llruftures. To produce the effeCl of gran- 

 deur, as it has been before obferved, they gave the greateft 

 pofdble length and height to their churches ; for that of 

 beauty tliey devifed feveral architeiftural ornaments ; the 

 moil common of which was the arcade or feries of fmall 

 round arches, which appear on fome part or other of all 

 their churches built in this country fubiequent to their con- 

 queft of it, and which fometim.es cover the whole of them 

 over ; as we fee on the outfide of St. Botolph's priory, and 

 St. Olyth's abbey in EiTex, and in the bafement flory of 

 the infide of Durham cathedral. Thefe arcades the archi- 

 tcfts diverfitied in a great vai'ictv of ways, as may be feen 

 upon the tower of St. Auguiline's monailery in Canterbury, 

 built by the Norman abbot Scoltandus in to8o. One of 

 tl'.e varieties coniiiled in making the circular arches inter- 

 feft each other. The portion thus interfefted formed a 

 new kind of arch, more graceful in its appearance, and far 

 better calculated to give an idea of height than the round 

 one, which, however, had hiil-.erto been adopted by all 

 natior..;, whether Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, or Saxons. 

 In faCl, every one muil be fehllble that a pyramid or obcliil<, 

 from its aipiring form, appears to be taller than a femi- 

 circular arch, the diameter of which is equal in height to 

 it. Theie plain and interfcCling arcades were fometimes 

 irregularly intermixed, as in Carileplio's and Flambard's 

 work on the north fide of Durham cathedral ; and fome- 

 times placed in alternate rows, as in that of Remigius on 

 the facade of his church at Lincoln. The pointed arch 

 tlius formed appeared iirtl in mere l/iiffa rdlnw, as in the 

 above mentioned inllances, amongil leveral others ; but 

 foon it vrixs likewife feen in alio relievo over niches and rc- 

 cefTesy in the walls of churches, as in the i-emains of arch- 

 bidiop Lanfranc's work in Canterbury cathedral, and in 

 the abbey churches of Glailonbury and Rumfey. It is 

 probable that fome of the firft, if not quite the firil open 

 arches in the pointed ftyle now exifting, are the twenty win- 

 dows in the intcrfeCled portions of fuch eroding arches in 

 the choir of St. Crofs near Winchefter, made by that great 

 encoiu-ager of the arts, and particularly of architecture, 

 bilhop Henry de Blois, king Stephen's brother. The date 

 of this work is 1 132, according to Godwin, Grofe, and 

 others, or elfe 1130, according to bilhop Lowth, who had 

 examined the records of this foundation, and Rudborne, the 

 monk of Wincheilcr, in liis " Hiiloria Major Wintonienfis.'' 

 Moil probably the choir was begun in tlie former year, and 

 finidied in the latter. As the prelate proceeded in his 

 work, from the choir to the tranfcpt and tower of his 

 church, he made feveral other pointed arches without any 

 interfecling circles over them, notwithftanding the greater 

 part of his work, as ftill appears, was the circular Saxon. 

 In 1 138, as we are adured by the above-mentioned monk of 

 Winchefter, and another monk who wrole the " Annalcs 

 Wintonienfes," bifhop De Blois rebuilt his epifcnpal manfion 

 of Farnham in Surrey, where his fuccelTors ilill ordinarily 

 refide. Now in the ancient part of this building, we fee 

 at the prefent day pointed arches reiling upon circular 

 Saxon columns, juil as we do at St. Crofs : and no archi- 

 teftural critic, with tlicie documents before h.im, will hefi. 



tate 



