DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0018
XIV REV. J. MILNER S
themselves are characteristically denomi-
nated.
The next point which, I think, requires to
be clearly ascertained amongst architectural
antiquaries is, the true origin of the pointed
style. I have already exposed in part the
absurdity and contradictions into which those
persons fall who derive it from the Goths and
Vandals of the North, or from the Saracens
of the East, or, finally, from the Moors of
the West, rather than admit our own an-
cestors to have been capable of inventing it.
I shall farther observe, that whatsoever has
been advanced in support of any one of these
systems, is the produce of mere conjecture,
without a shadow of any kind of historical
evidence. For example, we no where read
of any architect from i\rabia, Morocco, or
Spain, arriving in England, France, or Italy,
to teach the inhabitants how to construct
their churches: nor do we hear of any English-
man, Frenchman, or Italian, that ever tra-
velled into those countries in order to learn
architecture. But we find, on the other hand,
such an emulation amongst the prelates and
princes of the times in question, in our own
and the neighbouring countries, but chiefly
in our own, to outvie each other in the mag-
nificence and beauty of their buildings; par"
ticularly of the ecclesiastical kind; and such
themselves are characteristically denomi-
nated.
The next point which, I think, requires to
be clearly ascertained amongst architectural
antiquaries is, the true origin of the pointed
style. I have already exposed in part the
absurdity and contradictions into which those
persons fall who derive it from the Goths and
Vandals of the North, or from the Saracens
of the East, or, finally, from the Moors of
the West, rather than admit our own an-
cestors to have been capable of inventing it.
I shall farther observe, that whatsoever has
been advanced in support of any one of these
systems, is the produce of mere conjecture,
without a shadow of any kind of historical
evidence. For example, we no where read
of any architect from i\rabia, Morocco, or
Spain, arriving in England, France, or Italy,
to teach the inhabitants how to construct
their churches: nor do we hear of any English-
man, Frenchman, or Italian, that ever tra-
velled into those countries in order to learn
architecture. But we find, on the other hand,
such an emulation amongst the prelates and
princes of the times in question, in our own
and the neighbouring countries, but chiefly
in our own, to outvie each other in the mag-
nificence and beauty of their buildings; par"
ticularly of the ecclesiastical kind; and such