Waterhouse, Percy Leslie: The story of architecture throughout the ages: an introduction to the study of the oldest of the arts for students and general readers (London: B. T. Batsford, 1924)

VII
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
The Romanesque architects on the Continent,
as we have seen, had made great progress in
the art of building by the middle of the twelfth
century, and had mastered most of the prob-
lems which had puzzled their predecessors, so
that their architecture throughout Europe—
especially in the north and west—bad regained
much of its lost dignity. But they had not
yet arrived at a successful method of roof
treatment. The wooden roof was unsatisfac-
tory, and led to destruction by fire of many a
substantial building; while the alternative to
this, the barrel-vaulting, which had been used
in the buildings of the old Romans, was too
ponderous. True, the “lids” of solid concrete
with which the Romans covered their vast
buildings exerted no lateral pressure upon the
walls, but their enormous weight required
equally massive walls to carry them. When
masonry took the place of concrete, the vaults
were still more difficult to support, for the
arched form of the heavy vault tended to force
the walls apart—exerted a lateral thrust, as
we say-so that it was necessary, not only to
make the walls massive and strong, but also to
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