DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0403
Bk. YII. Ch. III.
EXTERNAL PROPORTIONS.
383
temporary lantern externally, and, as was always the case in England,
no drawing—no written specifications of the designer have been left.
The masons on the Continent were careful to preserve the drawings of
unfinished parts of the designs. The gentlemen architects of England
seem to have trusted to inspiration to enable them to mould their forms
into beauty as they jDroceeded. With true Gothic feeling they
believed in progress, and it never occurred to them but that their
successors would surpass them in their art, in the manner they felt
they were excelling those who preceded them.
836. Lincoln Cathedral.
The three-towered cathedrals are not less beautiful and character-
istic of England than those with three spires. ISTothing can exceed
the beauty of the outline of Lincoln 1 as it stands on its cliff looking
over the Fens (Woodcut HSTo. 836) ; though the erection of a screen in
front of the western towers cuts them off from the ground, and so far
mars their effect when seen close at hand. York perhaps possesses the
best façade of the class in England, both as regards proportion and
detail. The height of the towers to the top of the pinnacles is under
1 Tlie towers of Lincoln were surmounted by threc spires, rcmovcd about 100
years ago.
EXTERNAL PROPORTIONS.
383
temporary lantern externally, and, as was always the case in England,
no drawing—no written specifications of the designer have been left.
The masons on the Continent were careful to preserve the drawings of
unfinished parts of the designs. The gentlemen architects of England
seem to have trusted to inspiration to enable them to mould their forms
into beauty as they jDroceeded. With true Gothic feeling they
believed in progress, and it never occurred to them but that their
successors would surpass them in their art, in the manner they felt
they were excelling those who preceded them.
836. Lincoln Cathedral.
The three-towered cathedrals are not less beautiful and character-
istic of England than those with three spires. ISTothing can exceed
the beauty of the outline of Lincoln 1 as it stands on its cliff looking
over the Fens (Woodcut HSTo. 836) ; though the erection of a screen in
front of the western towers cuts them off from the ground, and so far
mars their effect when seen close at hand. York perhaps possesses the
best façade of the class in England, both as regards proportion and
detail. The height of the towers to the top of the pinnacles is under
1 Tlie towers of Lincoln were surmounted by threc spires, rcmovcd about 100
years ago.