DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0017
LLTTER. XIII
tlie Goths disappeared from the theatre of
the world. Finally, they all describe the
Saxon and the Norman styles as agreeing in
their form and differing only in their dimen-
sionsf; whereas some ingenious and re-
spectable Avriters of the present day, by way
of exploding the term Gothic, make use of
the word Norman, to signify the pointed style.
The confusion that must arise in the minds
of uninformed readers from the use of these
leading terms, in contradistinguished senses
by eminent writers, is easily conceived. My
present object, Sir, is merely to suggest the
necessity of an agreement amongst the learned
in the use of scientific language on the pre-
sent subject, and not to dictate the conditions
of that agreement. I flatter myself, however,
that, when speaking of that light and elegant
species of architecture which properly began
in the reign of our first Plantagenet, and
finished in that of our first Tudor, I call it
the pointed style; and when describing this,
in conjunction with the heavy circular order
which preceded it, in the time of the Saxons
and first Normans, I term them both together,
the architecture of the middle ages, I say, I
flatter myself that I am clearly understood by
persons of information, and that the subjects
r» iOVartonj p'4- Beafluarii, p. 6i,, 62, 63,, 64. Grose,
tlie Goths disappeared from the theatre of
the world. Finally, they all describe the
Saxon and the Norman styles as agreeing in
their form and differing only in their dimen-
sionsf; whereas some ingenious and re-
spectable Avriters of the present day, by way
of exploding the term Gothic, make use of
the word Norman, to signify the pointed style.
The confusion that must arise in the minds
of uninformed readers from the use of these
leading terms, in contradistinguished senses
by eminent writers, is easily conceived. My
present object, Sir, is merely to suggest the
necessity of an agreement amongst the learned
in the use of scientific language on the pre-
sent subject, and not to dictate the conditions
of that agreement. I flatter myself, however,
that, when speaking of that light and elegant
species of architecture which properly began
in the reign of our first Plantagenet, and
finished in that of our first Tudor, I call it
the pointed style; and when describing this,
in conjunction with the heavy circular order
which preceded it, in the time of the Saxons
and first Normans, I term them both together,
the architecture of the middle ages, I say, I
flatter myself that I am clearly understood by
persons of information, and that the subjects
r» iOVartonj p'4- Beafluarii, p. 6i,, 62, 63,, 64. Grose,