DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0103
ESSAY. 75
I find of late the fashion is to apply the term
solely to the latter; tiie reason for which is
not very apparent. The word Gothic no
doubt implies a relation some way or other to
the Goths; and if so, then the old Roman
way of building with round arches above
described seems to have the clearest title to
that appellation; not that I imagine the Goths
invented, or brought it with them; but that it
had its rise in the Gothic age, or about the
time the Goths invaded Italy. The stjde of
building with pointed arches is modern, and
seems not to have been known in the world
till the Goths ceased to make a figure in it.
Sir Christopher Wren thought this should
rather be called the Saracen way of building:
the first appearance of it here was indeed in
the time of the crusades; and that might
induce him to think the archetype was brought
hither by some who had been engaged in those
expeditions, when they returned from the
Holy Land. But the observations of several
teamed travellerss who have accurately sur-
veyed the ancient mode of building in those
parts of the world, do by no means favour
that opinion, or discover the least traces of
"" Indeed I have not yet met with any satis-
factory account of the origin of pointed arches,
s Pococke., Nordeii; Shaw.
I find of late the fashion is to apply the term
solely to the latter; tiie reason for which is
not very apparent. The word Gothic no
doubt implies a relation some way or other to
the Goths; and if so, then the old Roman
way of building with round arches above
described seems to have the clearest title to
that appellation; not that I imagine the Goths
invented, or brought it with them; but that it
had its rise in the Gothic age, or about the
time the Goths invaded Italy. The stjde of
building with pointed arches is modern, and
seems not to have been known in the world
till the Goths ceased to make a figure in it.
Sir Christopher Wren thought this should
rather be called the Saracen way of building:
the first appearance of it here was indeed in
the time of the crusades; and that might
induce him to think the archetype was brought
hither by some who had been engaged in those
expeditions, when they returned from the
Holy Land. But the observations of several
teamed travellerss who have accurately sur-
veyed the ancient mode of building in those
parts of the world, do by no means favour
that opinion, or discover the least traces of
"" Indeed I have not yet met with any satis-
factory account of the origin of pointed arches,
s Pococke., Nordeii; Shaw.