Fergusson, James: The illustrated handbook of architecture: being a concise and popular account of the different styles of architecture preveiling in all ages and all countries (London, 1859)

260

GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE.

Eook YI.

placed upon as perfect a specimen, Jbuilt in regular courses, or wliat
is technically called ashlar work, as any to he found in Greece; and on
tlie other side of the'gateway at Assos (woodcut No. 198) there exists
a semicii’cular arch, shown hy the dotted line. It is constructed hori-
zontally, and could only have heen copied from a radiating arch.

198.

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Gateway at Assos. From Texier’s Asie Mineure.

199. Arch at Delos. From Stuart’s Athens.

Tlieir city walls are chiefly remarkahle for the size of the hlocks of
stone, and for the heauty witli which tlieir irregular joints and courses
are fittcd into one another. Like most fortifications, they are generally
devoid of ornament, the only arcliitectural features heing the openings.
These are interesting, as showing the steps hy which a peculiar form of
masonry was perfected, wliich, in after ages, led to important archi-
tectural results.

One of the most primitive of these huildings is a nameless ruin
cxistiug near Missolonghi (woodcut No. 201). In it- the sides of tlie
opening are straight for tlie whole licight, and, though making a very