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must be a cathedral or nothing; nor shall we attempt to 
copy some vast church within a twentieth part of the space, 
and with a hundredth part of the money." 
Proceeding upon the same profound principles by which 
they were regulated in their designs, we may hope to produce 
compositions, which, although not exhibiting all the pristine 
excellencies of the style, (but merely the hectic flush of its 
consumption and decay,) shall yet bear the partial impress of 
its former beauty. 
PLANS. 
In pointing out some of the geometrical principles of 
Gothic architecture, I shall commence by noticing the 
remarkable symmetry observable in the arrangement of the 
ichnography of three of our cathedrals. 
The theory which I advocate is this, (and, I believe, it is 
peculiar to myself,) that the half width of a structure with 
AISLES is to he considered as a normal or regulating scale, 
which, increased or decreased in geometrical progression, deter^ 
mines the principal points on the plan. 
If we take the plan of Romsey Church, (Hampshire,) and 
strike two circles, whose respective diameters equal half the 
width of the nave, and from the point where they touch each 
other (that is, the centre of the nave) we strike another 
circle of equal diameter, the extremities of the diameter of 
this last circle give the true line of the columns separating 
the nave from the aisles, and a continued series of similar 
circles, intersecting each other, will find the position of the 
centre of all the columns, the centre line of the external but- 
tresses, and necessarily that of the windows. 
The nave of Romsey Church is just three and a half circles 
(of half the width) up to the centre of the main pillars of the 
central tower. The tower is one circle, and the projection of 
the transept on each side half a circle. 
The same arrangement is found to exist in several of our 
