OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

ORIGIN OF THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES

OF

DECORATIVE ARCHITECTURE. *

During an inquiry into the properties of arches,

I was desirous of having sections of such buildingsas are most remarkable for the arcuation in them jand circumstances induced me to select TrinityChurch Ely, King’s College Chapel Cambridge , West­ minster Abbey , Ely, Lincoln, Salisbury t, and York

* Read before the Society of Antiquaries , January 9. 1817,and published in Vol. XVIII. of the Archaeologia.

f The engraving of the section of Salisbury Cathedral is takenfrom Price’s observations on that building. The other engravingsare taken from drawings made from the author’s own measure-ments. The following quotation is from Sir C. Wren’s survey ofSalisbury Cathedral . “ Almost all the Cathedrals of the Gothic“ form are weak and defective in the poise of the vaults of the“ isles: as for the vaults of the nave, they are on both sides equally“ supported, and propped up from spreading, by the bowes or“ %ing buttresses, which rise from the outward walls of the isles.“ But for the vaults of the isles, they are indeed supported on the“ outside by the buttresses, but inwardly they have no other stay“ but the pillars themselves; which, as they are usually propor-“ tioned, if they stood alone without the weight above, cotdd not“ resist the spreading of the isles one minute. True, indeed, the“ great load above of the walls, and vaulting of the nave, should“ seem to confine the pillars in their perpendicular station that