GOT 
diDiocletiano, which shews the perspective 
of a long passage very similar to the aile 
of a church, where the roof is made com- 
pletely and decidedly gothic by the inter- 
section of arches throughout. 
Some enquirers as to the origin of the 
style, have thought that the first idea of 
high pointed ailes was taken from avenues 
of lofty trees, the branches of which inter- 
weaving suggested the rich ribs and tracery 
of the later specimens of the art, but this 
is mere conjecture and fancied resem- 
blance. 
One of the most plausible reasons for 
supposing the invention gradual, is the find- 
ing of interlaced arcades on the sides of 
Saxon buildings, intimating an inclination 
to deviate from the semicircle of that style. 
(See plate Gothic Architecture, fig. 1.) 
The pointed arch, as has been mentioned, 
intermingled with tiie circular in the ribs 
or groins of the roof, and lastly occurred 
the plain and positive pointed manner, the 
earliest instances of which have very little 
decoration compared with the more modern; 
indeed the rapid increase of ornament may, 
be traced in our numerous and magnifi- 
cient cathedrals, till their introduction ope- 
rated to render the gothic style too ex- 
pensive for continuance, 
That this taste was imported into England 
from the Continent will not admit of a 
doubt, but it is absurd to suppose that 
architects and masons were imported with 
it, as certain authors have imagined ; it 
would he just as erroneous to say that be- 
cause Somerset House has a general re- 
semblance to continental palaces the archi- 
tect and his masons came from thence. 
It is impossible to treat this subject me- 
thodically, as the principles of the gothic 
are simply those mentioned at the com- 
mencement of the article ; indeed the vari- 
eties and caprices often observable in the 
same building set all rules at defiance, and 
yet there are numbers of regular structures, 
the parts of which correspond exactly. 
One of the arcades in the choir of 
Gloucester cathedral is seventeen feet 
wide, the columns oil its sides are fifty- 
seven feet high, and the arch from the 
capitals to the point twenty-one feet; a 
circular arch, aperture, or window into ano- 
ther part of the church, in the same arcade, 
has the following proportions, width twelve 
feet, and the height fifteen feet. The west 
front of the same church has a great central 
window, and two lateral, those certainly 
GOU 
should be of the same dimensions to pre- 
serve the necessary uniformity, but that is 
not the fact, one being sixteen feet wide 
and thirty-one high, and the other twenty- 
nine feet high and twelve wide. 
Two segments of a circle meeting at the 
tops! make the pointed arch, (see fig. 2.) 
to improve the nakedness df this figure, the 
inventors introduced the section of a qua- 
trefoil, or figure formed of four leaves, with- 
in the arch, (see fig. 3.) and ribs or borders 
sometimes raised, ar,.d at others excavated ; 
each of those were afterwards enriched by 
pierced tracery, see fig. 4, 
The windows were bounded by nume- 
rous pillars with beautiful capitals of foliage, 
and intersected by perpendicular and hori- 
zontal bars or mullions, the former of 
which turned into delicate ramifications 
and filled the arch, '(see fig. 5.) ; painted 
glass rendered those extremely grand when 
viewed within the structure, mouldings or 
cornices almost universally divided the dif- 
ferent ranges of windows, the doors of the 
casement nearly reach the lower, and the 
angles above the arch are adorned with 
tracery, see fig. 6. 
The' windows are separated by buttresses, 
which vary in breadth, depth and solidity, 
according to the fancy of the architect, 
and are frequently very magnificent, as 
they admit of being pierced into an arch, 
as (in fig. 7.), in order that they may con- 
tribute to the support of two. wails on dif- 
ferent lines, and are decorated with niches 
under fretted canopies, statues and pin- 
nacles, see fie - . 8. 
Battlements extend along the summits 
of the walls, those are of different kinds, 
see fig. 9, 10. 
The interior generally exhibits three 
ranges of arches in each arcade, the lowest 
are bounded by a strong pillar, with others 
more slender filleted round it; from the 
capitals of those arise the first arch, three 
of the small pillars ascend to the spring of 
the roof; the second range of arches open 
into a gallery, and the upper are windows 
(see fig. 11.) which exhibit the tracery or 
ribs from the pillars on the roof. Fig. 12, 13, 
14, 15, 16, 17, shew a variety of ornaments 
peculiar to the gothic or pointed style of 
architecture. - ' 
GOUANIA, in botany, so called in ho- 
nour of Antoine Gouan, M. 1). a genus of 
the Polygamia Monoecia class and order. 
Natural order of Rhamni, ' Jussieu. Essen - 
tial character : hermaphrodite, calyx fiye-i 
