DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7595#0031
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 19
given in the frontispiece. In it all the peculiar forms chap. i.
of Gothic architecture have been restored to their
alleged original state. The facility which has attended
this restoration is very satisfactory, and affords, \
conceive, no small confirmation of the theory by which
it has been accomplished; the variations, too, which
time and the course of nature have produced upon
this little fabric, contribute to the same end, and fur-
nish explanations of some Gothic forms, which are
frequently employed in works of the best times. I
shall hereafter produce some documents, which prove,
that this mode of construction was in fact employed
in old times, in cases of peculiar necessity; and that
some fabrics of this description were connected with
legendary circumstances, which conferred upon them
the highest degree of veneration, in the eyes of men
of the middle ages.
In an Essay read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Essay for-
morly read in
on the 6th of April, 1797? and afterwards published theR0yaiso-
cietyofEdin-
in their Transactions,Vol. IV. I announced, by a shortburgh-
sketch, my ideas as to the origin of Gothic architec-
ture, which every observation of these last 15 years,
has tended strongly to confirm, and which I now
bring forward at full length, with the advantage of a
given in the frontispiece. In it all the peculiar forms chap. i.
of Gothic architecture have been restored to their
alleged original state. The facility which has attended
this restoration is very satisfactory, and affords, \
conceive, no small confirmation of the theory by which
it has been accomplished; the variations, too, which
time and the course of nature have produced upon
this little fabric, contribute to the same end, and fur-
nish explanations of some Gothic forms, which are
frequently employed in works of the best times. I
shall hereafter produce some documents, which prove,
that this mode of construction was in fact employed
in old times, in cases of peculiar necessity; and that
some fabrics of this description were connected with
legendary circumstances, which conferred upon them
the highest degree of veneration, in the eyes of men
of the middle ages.
In an Essay read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Essay for-
morly read in
on the 6th of April, 1797? and afterwards published theR0yaiso-
cietyofEdin-
in their Transactions,Vol. IV. I announced, by a shortburgh-
sketch, my ideas as to the origin of Gothic architec-
ture, which every observation of these last 15 years,
has tended strongly to confirm, and which I now
bring forward at full length, with the advantage of a