Some enquirers as to the origin of the style have thought that the first idea of highpointed ailes was taken from avenues of lofty trees, the branches of which inter weaving, suggested the rich ribs and tra the later specimens of the art, but this is mere conjecture and fancied re semblance.
One of the most plausible reasons for supposing the invention gradual is, the finding of interlaced arcades on the sides of Saxon buildings, intimating an inclina tion to deviate from the semicircle of that style. (See plate GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, fig. 1.) The pointed arch, as has been mentioned, intermingled with the circu lar in the ribs or groins of the roof, and lastly occurred the plain and positive pointed manner, the earliest instances of which have very little decoration, com pared with the more modern ; indeed the rapid increase of ornament may be traced in our numerous and magnificent cathe drals, till their introduction operated to render the gothic style too expensive for continuance.
That this taste was imported into Eng land from the continent will not admit of a doubt, but it is absurd to suppose that architects and masons were import ed with it, as certain authors have ima gined.
It is impossible to treat this subject me thodically, as the principles of the gothic are simply those mentioned at the com mencement of the article ; indeed the va rieties and caprices often obervable in the same building set all rules at defi ance, and yet there are numbers of regu lar structures, the parts of which corres pond exactly.
One of the arcades in the choir of Gloucester cathedral is seventeen feet wide, the columns on its sides are fifty seven feet high, and the arch from the capitals to the point twenty-one feet ; a circular arch, aperture, or window into another part of the church, in the same arcade, has the. following proportions, width twelve feet, and the height fifteen feet. The west front of the same church has a great central window, and two la teral; those certainly should be of the same dimensions, to preserve the neces sary uniformity, but that is not the fact, one being sixteen feet wide and' thirty one high, and the other twenty-nine feet high and twelve wide.
Two segments of a circle meeting at the tops make the pointed arch, (see fig. 2.) To improve the nakedness of this figure, the inventors introduced the sec tion of a quatrefoil, or figure formed of four leaves, within the arch, (see fig. 3.) and ribs or borders, sometimes raised, and at others excavated ; each of those were afterwards enriched by pierced tracery, see fig. 4.
The windows were bounded by nume rous pillars with beautiful capitals of fo liage, and intersected by perpendicular and horizontal bars or mullions, the for mer of which turned into delicate ramifi cations and filled the arch, (see fig. 5.) ; painted glass rendered those extremely grand when viewed within the struc ture, mouldings or cornices almost uni versally divided the different ranges of windows, the doors of the casement nearly reached the lower, and the angles above the arch are adorned with tracery, see fig. 6.
The windows are separated by but tresses, which vary in breadth, depth, and solidity, according to the fancy of the ar chitect, and are frequently very magnifi cent, as they admit of being pierced into an arch, (as in fig. 7.) in order that they may contribute to the support of two walls on different lines, and are decorated with niches under fretted canopies, statues and pinnacles, see fig. 8.
Battlements extend along the summits of the walls, those are of different kinds, see fig. 9, 10 The interior generally exhibits three ranges of arches in each arcade, the low est are bounded by a strong pillar, with others more slender filleted round it ; from the capitals of those arise the first arch, three of the small pillars ascend to the spring of the roof; the second range of arches open into a gallery, and the upper are windows (see fig. 11.) which exhibit the tracery or ribs from the pil. lars on the roof. Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, chew a variety of ornaments pecu liar to the gothic or pointed style of ar chitecture.