Hall, James: Essay on the origin, history and principles of Gothic architecture (London, 1813) [Cicognara, 527]

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

51

same in willow. But it would soon occur, that a chap. ir.
considerable addition might be made to the quantity
of light, without much loss of strength, by removing
the four corners, as in Fig. 2, a narrow fillet CB being-
left between the two sloping surfaces AB and CR.
Lastly, with a view to ornament, each of these faces
might be cut out with a concave sweep, as a h and
c r; thus producing the entire form in Fig. 3, which,
with two small grooves at G and g for the purpose of
receiving the glass, is exactly the horizontal section of
the simplest mullion of the window of Westminster
Hall.

In all windows of small size, this simple mullion
would afford sufficient strength ; but where the size
was increased, and, of course, when the strain from
wind became more formidable, a demand would arise
for additional strength in the mullions. This would
naturally suggest the idea of interposing among the
simple mullions others of larger size. The first idea
would be to place two simple mullions side by side,
as in Fig. 6, by which means the strength would be
doubled, though at the expence of interrupting twice
as much light as in the simple case. But this being
done, a great addition could be made to the strength