1 88 MY LIFE 



had a little architectural and engineering work, in designing 

 and superintending the erection of warehouses with powerful 

 cranes, which gave me some insight into practical building. 

 To assist in making working drawings and specifications, my 

 brother had purchased a well-known work, Bartholomew's 

 " Specifications for Practical Architecture." This book, 

 though mainly on a very dry and technical subject, contained 

 an introduction on the principles of Gothic architecture which 

 gave me ideas upon the subject of the greatest interest and 

 value, and which have enabled me often to form an inde- 

 pendent judgment on modern imitations of Gothic or of any 

 other styles. Bartholomew was an enthusiast for Gothic, 

 which he maintained was the only true and scientific system 

 of architectural construction in existence. He showed how 

 all the most striking and ornamental features of Gothic archi- 

 tecture are essential to the stability of a large stone-built 

 structure — the lofty nave with its clerestory windows and 

 arched roof; the lateral aisles at a lower level, also with 

 arched roofs; the outer thrust of these arches supported by 

 deep buttresses on the ground, with arched or flying but- 

 tresses above; and these again rendered more secure by 

 being weighted down with rows of pinnacles, which add so 

 much to the beauty of Gothic buildings. He rendered his 

 argument more clear by giving a generalized cross-section of 

 a cathedral, and drawing within the buttresses the figure of a 

 man, with outstretched arms pushing against the upper arches 

 to resist their outward thrust, and being kept more steady by 

 a heavy load upon his head and shoulders representing the 

 pinnacle. This section and figure illuminated the whole con- 

 struction of the masterpieces of the old architects so clearly 

 and forcibly, and though I have not seen the book since, I 

 have never forgotten it. It has furnished me with a standard 

 by which to judge all architecture, and has guided my taste 

 in such a small matter as the use of stone slabs over window 

 openings in brick buildings, thus concealing the structural 

 brick arch, and using stone as a beam, a purpose for which 

 iron or wood are better suited. It also made me a very 

 severe critic of modern imitations of Gothic in which we often 



