EARLY EXAMPLES OF THE POINTED STYLE. 37

°f this formula intended no allusion to ecclesiastical buildings, much less to

0 hie churches, will probably be generally admitted. Conjecture alone can

e offered, relative to his real meaning, which, if it pointed to any particular

listing structure, might perhaps imply a reference to some portico or colonnade

SuPported by Ionic columns.

Among the authors who have described the Pointed architecture, as merely

^ ased imitation of the classic orders as practised by the Romans, are some

assert that examples of the pointed arch may be found in very ancient

1 aings in various parts of the world ; and that the principles on which it
Was f

wormed were known in Egypt, Greece, and elsewhere, long before the origin of
Christianity.

Gunn27 refers to the aperture of the greater pyramid at Memphis, as.
Ps, one of the oldest specimens of the pointed arch in the world ; and to the
J clopean gallery at Tiryns, in Greece, as another. In Denon's " Travels in
^ojf is a view of the former (PI. 20) ; and in Gell's " Itinerary ' is an account
„ j tne construction of the latter; which Dr. Clarke represents as exhibiting
arches " almost as ancient as the time of Abraham.28 He mentions also the
„ j^a*ns of an aqueduct near Argus ; and, from the style of these structures, says.

ls evident that the acute, or lancet arch is in fact the oldest form of arch /mown
J tl}e Wo>'ld, and that examples of it may be referred to in buildings erected before
the war of Troy."23

account of the ruins of Tiryns, of Mycense, and of other relics of the oldest
p architecture is given by Hamilton in a paper entitled, " Remarks on the

gen^esses °f ancient Greece," published in the Archaaologia, vol. xv. This
the d an 1S °^ °Pm'on tnat arches of all kinds were unknown to the Greeks ;
■ °0rvvays and windows being: surmounted by single architraves. He observes,
,n a note « tu .

the 1 ' 0n^ specimen of an arch I have seen in the Grecian buildings is

have b ^ °^ a sma1^ detached fort on a rock above Ephesus, where it seems to

Sol-6611 heWn °Ut °f the S°lid Wal1' in tbe f°rm °f a Gothic arch'" P- 323"
Per"°d'tar^ 'nS*ances °^ pointed arches in sepulchral monuments, attributed to the
10 when the classic style prevailed among the Romans, may also be found in
aich of the contrasted kind, in a temple erected in Egypt by the Emperor

27 " Inquiry into the Inn. and Orig. of Goth. Architecture," p. 98.

28 Travels, v. iii. p. 654. 29 lb. v. iii. p. 696.