Chap. III.

GRECIAN.

71

Where a lintel or stone could not be found suJlicientlv long to extend from one jamb toanother, the upper course on one or both sides required inclining, as in the gate at Signa{fig. 74.) where the early Greek construction is adopted; to trace the regular arch fromthese rudiments is difficult, as we do not discover in any of them the next step by whichthe process was completed. Among the researches of modern travellers, an account of a

Fig. 73.

perfect arch is not to be found; and the writer looked through Greece for a specimen, invain. That such a form was unknown to them, can hardly be supposed; but it certainlyis curious, that no examples are left us.

By a combination of the second and third kinds, and the introduction of upright posts orjambs, we have a gateway of the fourth sort, of which we find many examples, particularlythat called the Gate of the Lions at Mycenzc. Pausanias informs us that it existed in histime. (See fig. 75.)

Fig. 75. MYCEN.B.

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This gate, like others of the early Greek cities, which formed the chief entrance,is not built in the continued line of wall, but recessed at the end of a narrow passage, ata considerable distance within the outer circuits. This arrangement was undoubtedlycontrived for defence, it not being possible for a number to make an approach through thisnarrow defile at the same time.

This gate is 8 feet in width, and the horizontal stone which serves as a lintel is 12 feetin length ; the Hons mentioned by Pausanias are cut in relief out of a single stone, 9 feetin height and about 13 in width : it may date as among the earliest works of sculpturein Greece .

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