16 
ACRE. 
CHAP. 
1. 
^— V 
Existence 
of the 
Pointed 
Arch in 
the Holy 
Land: 
and else- 
where in 
the East. 
of a lofty building represented in the Vignette of 
this Chapter, belong to the edifice noticed by Le 
Bruyn\ The pointed arches, so accurately 
delineated by that very able artist, have been 
a stumbling-block in the way of some modern 
theories, respecting the origin of Gothic archi- 
tecture ^ But these are by no means the only 
examples of the pointed style in the Holy Land, 
which refer to an earlier period than the erec- 
tion of such arches in England. The author 
has already enumerated other instances, as 
old as the age of Justinian^, if not of Con- 
stantine. There are similar remains, of equal 
antiquity, in Cyprus and in Egypt. It may 
indeed be matter of surprise that such works 
should have been ascribed to the labours of 
English workmen, in the time of the Crusades, 
when foreigners, or the pupils of foreigners, 
were employed in Engkmd, for every undertaking 
of the kind, so late as the reign of Henry the 
(1) See the engraving in Le Brut/n's Travels. 
(2) And will continue to be so. Acre was taken by the Saracens, 
A. D. 1291 ; the Christians have never been permitted to gain a footing 
there since that event ; therefore tiie pointed arches noi'ieedhy Lc Brui/n 
belong to an edifice which has been a ruin during the last six hundred 
and twenty years. 
(3) The author of "Munimctita /Intiqua" notices />o»j<e<f arches in 
an aqueduct of Justinian. See Vol. IV./;. 75. Nofe\. Lmid. 1805. The 
pointed arch is also seen in aqueducts built bvTRAMN, 
