DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7595#0105
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
93
introduced which enable us to rank them among the chap. iv.
literal imitations of the prototype.
Fig. 1. Plate LV. is a representation of an interlacing piate lv,
arcade on Kelso Abbey. The arches, which are of the
old Saxon form and character, spring from the same
line of front, Fig. 6. Plate LVI. dc g; but at the point piateLvi.
of their crossing, the substance of one of the arches
a c advances beyond that line d c g, and that of the
other d b retires behind it, producing a distance be-
tween them, a b, of about one inch, the span of each
semicircle being about five feet, and where beg, the
continuation of d b, just mentioned, crosses the neigh-
bouring arch c f\ the point e is as much advanced
before^, as a had been before b. The consequence is,
that if a vertical plane were raised through d and g,
it would be found that the arch d b e g retired behind
that plane at b, and advanced before it at e, meeting
it at the points d and g, and crossing it at some point
above c, consequently that each of these semicircular
arches performs a waving line, being at one part, b,
concave to the front, and at another, e, convex to it.
To execute such a form in stone must have been
extremely inconvenient, and contrary to the habits of
persons employed to cut the usual Saxon arches, each
93
introduced which enable us to rank them among the chap. iv.
literal imitations of the prototype.
Fig. 1. Plate LV. is a representation of an interlacing piate lv,
arcade on Kelso Abbey. The arches, which are of the
old Saxon form and character, spring from the same
line of front, Fig. 6. Plate LVI. dc g; but at the point piateLvi.
of their crossing, the substance of one of the arches
a c advances beyond that line d c g, and that of the
other d b retires behind it, producing a distance be-
tween them, a b, of about one inch, the span of each
semicircle being about five feet, and where beg, the
continuation of d b, just mentioned, crosses the neigh-
bouring arch c f\ the point e is as much advanced
before^, as a had been before b. The consequence is,
that if a vertical plane were raised through d and g,
it would be found that the arch d b e g retired behind
that plane at b, and advanced before it at e, meeting
it at the points d and g, and crossing it at some point
above c, consequently that each of these semicircular
arches performs a waving line, being at one part, b,
concave to the front, and at another, e, convex to it.
To execute such a form in stone must have been
extremely inconvenient, and contrary to the habits of
persons employed to cut the usual Saxon arches, each