OF RIBBED VAULTS.

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have been the praise bestowed upon this vault, it doesnot afford as complete satisfaction as the vaults inthe ailes of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster,which are surmounted over a square plan. The ob-jection here hinted at might have been avoided, ifthe ribs in the inverted quadrants had been ellipticalof different curvatures by the base of the invertedfigure being an ellipse inscribed in the oblong. Butthis would have been a sacrifice of practical sim-plicity, perhaps not compensated by the geometricalcorrectness.

It is observable in the construction of this vault,that the principle of using free-stone for the ribs,and toph for the pannels, has not been followed ; butthe whole vault has been “ got out” of the samedescription of stone, and with an uniform face, andthe pannels worked afterwards, and reduced to atenuity hardly credible, except from measurement.The artists of this building might be trusted in thedecoration of a vault, with what is now called trace-ry ; they knew how to render it the chief support,and what was the superfluous stone to be taken away:every part has a place, not only proper, but neces-sary ; and in the ribs which adorn the vault, we mayin vain look for false positions. This is the ocularmusic, which affords universal pleasure. It is notalways that the professor and the patron are able toharmonize their plaster and composition ribs, so asnot to give pain to those acquainted with the con-struction of the vaults of the middle ages. It isdangerous to reduce those parts of a composition tomere ornaments, which have originated in use, andare to retain a semblance of it. It may be pardon-able to exclaim in the phraseology of a great patron