ARCHITECTURE is an art of so much importance, and capable of so many embellishments, as to have employed the attention and talents of men of science in almost every age, and in every country. It is generally thought to have been carried to the utmost perfection among the Greeks and Romans; and it has been the aim of the most eminent architects of modern times to imitate with fidelity the buildings of those accomplished nations. There is, however, another species of architecture, which was introduced into Europe in the middle ages, and is of such a nature as to strike every unprejudiced observer with admiration and astonishment. The architecture to which we allude has been called, perhaps with little propriety,

Gothic Architecture. It is that which is to be viewed in all our ancient cathedrals, and in other large buildings, which have been erected from the middle of the 12th to the beginning of the 16th century. That such edifices have been constructed on principles of science, has been shown elsewhere (see Roof, Encycl. and Arch., in this Suppl.); but a question still presents itself to the inquisitive mind, "How came such structures to be thought of by a people whom we are accustomed to call ignorant and barbarous?" This question has occupied the attention of many ingenious men, who have attributed the Gothic style of building, some to necessity, and others to an imitation of the works of nature. That, where materials are bad, larger edifices can be erected in the Gothic than in the Grecian style, has been made sufficiently evident in the articles to which we have referred; and that necessity is the parent of invention, is an adage which has been too long received to be now called in question. But whence came the peculiarities of the Gothic ornaments in building, the pointed arch, and the double row of clustered pillars composed of slender shafts, which, reaching from the ground almost to the roof of the building, are there spread out in all directions, forming the ribs or groins of a vaulted roof?

The most satisfactory solution of this question which we have seen, is in a memoir published in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, by Sir James Hall, Bart. with whose permission the following abstract is laid before our readers.

"Although the connection between beauty and utility be still involved in such obscurity, that we are unable to decide concerning the universality of that connection, of one thing we are certain, that, in a work intended to answer some useful purpose, whatever visibly counteracts that purpose always occasions deformity. Hence it is, that, even where ornament is principally intended, the oftenest useful object of the work, if it have any such, must be provided for, in the first place, in preference to every other consideration.

"But in most useful works, some parts occur, the shape of which is quite indifferent with respect to the proposed utility, and which, therefore, the artist is at liberty to execute as he pleases: a liberty which has opened a wide field to the taste and invention of ingenious men of every age and country, who have turned their attention to the composition of ornaments; and whose exertions have been more or less influenced by the state of civilization in which they lived. It would seem, however, if we may judge by those various efforts, that little has been effected by mere human ingenuity; since we see that recourse has been had, almost universally, to nature, the great and legitimate source of beauty; and that ornament has been attained by the imitation of objects, to which she has given a determinate and characteristic form.

"Where the materials employed are themselves possessed of variety and elegance, the attainment of this object requires little or no alteration of their natural forms. Thus cups are made of shells, of cocoanuts, or of ostrich eggs; the character and beauty of which depend upon the natural form of the materials; and in the case of the bottles used by the Roman Catholic pilgrims, an example occurs of an utensil, in which the natural form has undergone little or no variation, since it consists of the hard outward skin of a gourd, of the same shape in which it grew upon the plant (a). This last class of forms has been introduced, by imitation, into works..." composed of shapeless materials. Thus we have silver cups in the form of those made of shells, and fruit-dishes of stone ware in the form of baskets.

"As stone is not naturally possessed of any peculiar shape, and as the useful object proposed, by structures formed of it, may be accomplished in various ways, very great latitude is left to the invention of the artist. We see, accordingly, that in every country where much refinement has been introduced, great pains have been bestowed in ornamenting stone buildings with figures representing various natural objects; whilst the building itself has been executed in imitation of a structure, composed of materials which naturally possess a determinate and characteristic form. Such was the method followed by the architects of ancient Greece, who constructed temples, and other public edifices, in imitation of a rustic fabric, composed of square beams, supported upon round posts or stems of trees, and who derived the numerous ornaments of that beautiful style from circumstances which would naturally take place in such a structure.

"A faint and distant resemblance, however, of the original, has generally been found to answer all the end propounded by the imitation; a resemblance, which may sometimes be traced in the general distribution of the edifice, sometimes in its minute parts, and not unfrequently in both.

"But the forms of nature thus introduced have been greatly modified by those of masonry. For though stone is by nature shapeless, yet, in the course of practice, many peculiar forms have been long established, and currently employed, in working it; such as straight lines, plain surfaces, square angles, and various mouldings used to soften the effect of abrupt terminations: all of which, originating in motives of mechanical convenience, and of simple ornament, had, in very early times, been appropriated to masonry, and considered as essential in every finished work of stone; so that, when the imitation of nature was introduced, these masonic forms still maintained their ground, and, being blended with the forms of nature, the two classes reciprocally modified each other.

"This combination of art with nature, of which we see the most perfect example in the Corinthian capital, produces what are called architectonic forms, in which the variety of nature, being subjected to the regularity of art, the work acquires that peculiar character which, in a natural object, we consider as offensive, under the name of formality; but which, in architecture, we admire as a beauty, under the name of symmetry; thus, we reprobate the formality of an avenue, and praise the symmetry of a colonnade.

"Such is the nature of architectonic imitation; a device which probably originated in accident, but to which architecture is indebted for its highest attainments."

As the stone edifices of ancient Greece were constructed in imitation of a wooden fabric, composed of square beams laid at right angles on round posts or stems of trees, Sir James conceives that the Gothic fabrics with pointed arches have been executed in imitation of a rustic dwelling, constructed in the following manner: Suppose a set of round posts driven firmly into the ground in two opposite rows, the interval between the neighbouring posts in the same row being equal to that between the rows, and each post being raised above the ground to a height equal to three of those intervals: then a set of long and flexible rods of willow being applied to each post, let them be thrust into the ground at its base, and bound to it by two twigs, one near the ground, and another at two-thirds of its height; the rods being left loose from this last point upwards, and free to be moved in any direction. Let three rods be connected with each outside corner post, and five with each of the others, and let their position be such as to cover the inside of the post, so that when seen from between the rows the lower part of each post shall be concealed from the view, and present the appearance of a bundle of rods (fig. 1).

Things being thus disposed, the skeleton of a thatched roof may be formed by means of the loose ends of the rods. A rod from one of the posts being so bent as to meet a similar one from the post immediately opposite to it, in the middle of the space between them, let the two rods be made to cross each other, and let them be bound together at their crossing (fig. 2), and we shall have the exact form of the Gothic arch. The same being done with each pair of opposite posts, and a set of pointed arches being formed, let them be connected together by means of a straight pole laid upon the forks of the crossing rods, and bound to each of them, as in fig. 3: then let a loose rod be brought from each of any two contiguous posts in the same row, so as to form a pointed arch, similar to that just described, and nearly of the same height. This being done with every two contiguous posts (fig. 4), and a new set of pointed arches being thus produced, standing opposite to each other in pairs, let each pair be bound by a horizontal pole lying on the opposite forks, and crossing the longitudinal pole described above.

"Two of the rods of each corner post, and three of those of each of the others, being thus disposed of, we have one of each corner post and two of each middle post still to employ, which is done as follows: A pair of these unoccupied rods being brought from any two posts which stand diagonally to each other, and made to meet in the middle, not as in the first case crossing in an angle, but side by side, forming a semicircle, and joined together after the manner of a hoop; and the same being done with every pair of diagonal posts (fig. 5.), the whole rods will have been employed.

"In this manner a frame would be constructed fit to support thatch or other covering; and such a one has probably been often used. It would seem, however, that, for the sake of strength, the number of rods has been increased in each cluster, by the introduction, between every two of them, of an additional rod, which rising with them to the roof, still continues its middle position, as they spread afarther, and meets the horizontal pole at an intermediate point. This is shown in fig. 6., which is drawn with its covering of thatch; and, from the imitation of a dwelling so constructed, we may easily trace the three leading characteristics of Gothic architecture, the pointed arch, the clustered column, and the branching roof, as exhibited in fig. 7."

Upon the same principles Sir James Hall, with much ingenuity, accounts for the peculiar forms of the Gothic door, the Gothic window, and the pointed spire; but it is not our intention to superfluous the necessity of having recourse to his memoir, but to excite the desire of Architects of our readers to peruse as well that paper as a larger work which he promises on the same subject, and in which we doubt not but they will find both entertainment and instruction. We shall conclude this article, therefore, with an experimental proof of the justness of his hypothesis.

In the greater part of our late attempts at Gothic architecture, it is allowed by every man of taste that we have failed. The failure is to be accounted for by the buildings having been constructed upon no consistent principle, applicable to every part of them, but upon a fervent copying of ancient edifices, of which the structure was little understood by the copiers. Sir James Hall, however, by applying his theory to practice, has constructed a building in this style, which has far surpassed, he says, his own expectations, and has certainly gained the approbation of every man of taste and science by whom we have had occasion to hear it mentioned. "A set of poles of ash, about three inches in diameter, were placed in two rows, four feet asunder, and at the interval of four feet in the rows; then a number of slender and tapering willow rods, ten feet in length, were applied to the poles, and, in the manner which we have described, formed into a frame, which being covered with thatch, produced a very substantial roof, under which a person can walk with ease."

This little structure exhibits, in miniature, all the characteristic features of the Gothic style. It is in the form of a cross, with a nave, a choir, and a north and south transept. The thatch, being so disposed on the frame as not to hide the rods of which it is composed, they represent accurately the pointed and semicircular arches, and all the other peculiarities of a groined roof."