94 ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. 



little attended to. The style, indeed, is ill adapted to it for two 

 reasons ; first, because it was originally used only for temples, 

 where simplicity and grandeur prevailed in every part, but 

 especially in the outline ; and, secondly, because, as fires were 

 less necessary in Greece and Rome than in this country, they 

 had less opportunity of studying the effect of chimney tops in 

 their private buildings. The genius of the true Grecian style 

 does not admit of . near so much variation of outline as the 

 Gothic ; for nothing destroys simplicity so much as an outline 

 varied by a number of small parts. Large masses, however, 

 may be introduced for this purpose, and with good effect, as 

 domes, or even square masses such as were used by Sir John 

 Vanburgh. The cubical towers, however, of that singular ar- 

 chitect, as at King's Weston and Dun combe, only deserve 

 praise for their general form and effect ; for, in their finishing, 

 the Grecian style is superseded by a coarse modern Gothic*. 

 Had that architect practised in the Gothic style, or rather had 

 he invented a distinct style of his own, he would have produced 

 wonderful effects ; but, unfortunately, most of the edifices 

 which he has executed, though they strike at a distance, from 

 the boldness and the irregularity of their outlines, are yet, when 

 minutely examined, so far Grecian as to excite a comparison 

 with that style ; whence their incongruities efface in a con- 



* Such as in the Queen's Palace, Windsor. 



