Ruskin, John: The elements of drawing: in three letters to beginners (London, 1857)

letter in.] ON COLOUR AND COMPOSITION.

265

his largest arch over it with a leap, and with an-
other little one or so gains the opposite shore. Of
course as arches are wider they must be higher, or
they will not stand; so the roadway must rise as the
arches widen. And thus we have the general type
of bridge, with its highest and widest arch towards
one side, and a train of minor arches running over
the flat shore on the other: usually a steep bank
at the river-side next the large arch; always, of
course, a flat shore on the side of the small ones:
and the bend of the river assuredly concave to-
wards this flat, cutting round, with a sweep into
the steep bank; or, if there is no steep bank, still
assuredly cutting into the shore at the steep end
of the bridge.

Now this kind of bridge, sympathising, as it
does, with the spirit of the river, and marking
the nature of the thing it has to deal with and
conquer, is the ideal of a bridge; and all endea-
vours to do the thing in a grand engineer's man-
ner, with a level roadway and equal arches, are
barbarous; not only because all monotonous forms