DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7595#0106
94
ESSAY ON
chap. iv. of which invariably lies in one plane. We must there-
fore ascribe the circumstance to some peculiar motive,
and that motive could only be the desire of imitating
a set of interlacing arches, formed of some flexible
substance. As nothing can be conceived less flexible
than a Saxon arch, we are therefore compelled to look
elsewhere for the model of this form. We find it in
a set of semicircular willow rods thrust into the
ground, in one straight line, and made to interlace
each other, as in Fig. 1. Plate LVI. which would be
forced to assume exactly the form already described,
belonging to the stone-work. This appears clearly in
the two projections in Figs. 2 and 3 ; Fig 2, as seen
by looking down; and Fig. 3, as looking up. The
same letters being employed as in Fig. 6. the corre-
sponding convexity and concavity may be traced in all
of them.
I am inclined to look upon the interlacing arch as
a Gothic, and not as a Saxon idea, and to derive it
from the origin which I have ascribed to the Gothic
style. The same idea has frequently been adopted in
ornamental Gothic work, as already shewn in Figs 11.
and 12. Plate XXXII. among the ornamental borders,
only that in the stone-work, Fig. 11. the arches in
ESSAY ON
chap. iv. of which invariably lies in one plane. We must there-
fore ascribe the circumstance to some peculiar motive,
and that motive could only be the desire of imitating
a set of interlacing arches, formed of some flexible
substance. As nothing can be conceived less flexible
than a Saxon arch, we are therefore compelled to look
elsewhere for the model of this form. We find it in
a set of semicircular willow rods thrust into the
ground, in one straight line, and made to interlace
each other, as in Fig. 1. Plate LVI. which would be
forced to assume exactly the form already described,
belonging to the stone-work. This appears clearly in
the two projections in Figs. 2 and 3 ; Fig 2, as seen
by looking down; and Fig. 3, as looking up. The
same letters being employed as in Fig. 6. the corre-
sponding convexity and concavity may be traced in all
of them.
I am inclined to look upon the interlacing arch as
a Gothic, and not as a Saxon idea, and to derive it
from the origin which I have ascribed to the Gothic
style. The same idea has frequently been adopted in
ornamental Gothic work, as already shewn in Figs 11.
and 12. Plate XXXII. among the ornamental borders,
only that in the stone-work, Fig. 11. the arches in