Britton, John: The architectural antiquities of Great Britain: represented and illustrated in a series of views, elevations, plans, sections, and details, of ancient English edifices ; with historical and descriptive accounts of each (Band 5) (1835)

warburton's theory. 49

^ He proceeds to say, that the " manner of pointed arches was derived from the
. acens> who had well nigh conquered Spain ; they brought it from Africa, ori-
ginally from Arabia and the southern parts of Asia, where it still subsists. When
lave bought on the origin of Architecture, I persuade myself, this Arabian
^anwer, as we ought to call it, is the most ancient of all, which the ingenious
and S' ^ 'n every thing else, improved into the delicacy of what we call Greek
Roman architecture. The original of all arts is deduced from nature, and
ssuredly the idea of this Arabian arch, and slender pillars, is taken from the
t^^63 Sacred to religion, of which the great patriarch Abraham was the inventor,
and ^reS6nt Westminster Abbey, and generally our Cathedrals, the Temple Church,
and * 6.^e' Present us with a true notion of those verdant cathedrals of antiquity ;

which the Druids brought from the east into our own island, and practised
before (Ld

^ me Komans came hither."49

relaf6 ^at*er Part of this extract coincides with the singular theory of Warburton,
will b 6 t0 ^e 'nvent'on °f the Pointed style, which has often been referred to, and
event 6 jSjU'3secluently noticed. It might be questioned, whether the Doctor did not
secoi (J ^ alter his opinion concerning the source of the Pointed style ; for, in the
"b ^hime of his " Itinerarium" published after his death, it is stated, that
call P SSeS' to&ether with pointed arches, slender pillars, and the like, which we
it b ' came from France ;"b0 but by referring to his paper in the Archaeologia,

pra^C°mes evident, that although he considered it to have been introduced from

Bi 1 ' ^S country> he decidedly deduced its origin from Arabia,
style ,ar^ur^on's fanciful hypothesis relative to the invention of the Pointed
own C°m^'nes the notion of its oriental origin with some peculiar opinions of his
from tl 6 endeavours to unite the discordant systems, which deduce it

to accou n°rl'^ern G°ths, or the Eastern Saracens, but also hazards a singular theory
Saxon n 'tS iminecliate origin. After stating the distinction between the

and the Pointed styles of architecture, he says, " When the Goths had con-
quered

i 1 V *>ain' ana" the genial warmth of the climate, and the religion of the old
1 ants had ripened their wits and inflamed their mistaken piety (both kept in
andrUSe V the neighbourhood of the Saracens, through emulation of their service,

»nknaVerSI°n t0 tll6ir suPerstition). tliey struck out a new species of architecture.
own to Greece and Rome, upon original principles, and ideas much nobler than

rchaeologia," vol. i. p. 40. so « Itinerarium Curiosum," 1776, vol. ii. p. 71.

h