Gundulphus, bishop of Rochester, one of the greatest builders of that age, visited the holy land previous to the Crusades ; but in none of his works is there one specimen of the pointed architecture to be found. Po cock, Norden, Shaw, Le Brun, found only one church, and that was built in the pointed style in the time of Richard I. by an Englishman. The first crusade began in 1096 ; Jerusalem was taken in 1099 ; but no feature of the pointed style was brought from that quarter; nei ther Exeter, Rochester, or Reading had any in their ori ginal works.
In Persia there were no pointed arches earlier than Genghis Khan, in the 13th century. In India there are mausoleums with cinquefoil, but they are of a late date. The temple of Madura is not ancient. The ancient ex cavations in India, are the same as the primitive style of Egypt, which was also the parent of the Greek. Joseph's Hall in Cairo was built by the rival of Richard I. Sala din, whose name was Jusseff, probably by means of Christian captives after the third crusade. St Sophia, the model of the Turkish mosques, has no pointed arch.
Bishop Warburton says, that the northern Goths in Spain struck out Gothic architecture in imitation of the groves in which they had formerly worshipped, and exe cuted it by means of Saracenic workmen ; hut the Goths and Vandals entered Spain in 409; the Moorish Sara cens not till 712 ; and the pointed architecture did not appear tiil 400 years after. Instead of England drawing instruction in Gothic from the Batalha was built by David Racket, an Irishman, 200 years after this style had been practised in England. It is only a variety of Winchester and St Stephen's chapel, and not equal to them in sublimity or beauty. The cathedral of Burgos, built in 1221, is more gorgeous but less elegant than Sa lisbury, and not so magnificent as Lincoln. The speci mens from Italy and Sicily, which were produced by Mr Smirke to the Antiquarian Society, have been de tected by Sir Harry Englelield to have been additions in times posterior to the original buildings.
DrIner, having proved that the pointed style was not imported into this country, proceeds to trace its rise and progress in England.
1. The intersections were at first sometimes only plain semicircles, as in the south transept at Winchester.
2. Resting upon pillars with capitals, or at least an abacus by way of impost, as on the north transept of Durham, the facade of Lincoln ; in the latter instance they present a pointed arch with a cusp.
3. By the addition of one or more cusps on each side of the pointed arch, they made a trefoil cinquefoil.
4. By four cusps being introduced into the plain cir cle, or cell de Greiff, it was converted into a quatrefoil or cross, and by adding more it became a catherine wheel or marigold window. But these did not make their ap pearance until the beginning of the 13th century.
5. During the latter part of the 12th century, is to be found, as usual, during a change, a mixture, or, as Car ter calls it, a struggle between the circular and pointed style. This woub not have been the case had the latter been copied from models in Syria, Spain, &c. The first pointed arches were sometimes obtuse, as in St Cross, but more frequently very acute, as in St Mary Magda lene on the hill, built in 1174.
6. Pointed arches were used alone before any other feature of that style.
7. The heavy columns were next made into the form of 8, and in ornamental arcades they were very thin and of Purbeck marble, as in the east end of Canterbury cathe dral, rebuilt from 1175 to 1180, by William of Sens, and another person also named William Gervase, who knew the old cathedral burnt down in 1174, and was present when the before mentioned repairs were made. He de scribes the difference which took place in 90 years from its former construction, viz. that the pillars of the new choir were of the same form and thickness, but 12 feet longer than in the old; that the former capitals were plain, and the new delicately carved ; that there were no marble columns in the old, but an incredible number in the new ; that the stones of the ancient arches were cut with an axe, but those of the new with a chisel ; that the vaulting of the side aisles, formerly plain, were now pointed with keystones; that the old was covered with a flat ceiling ornamentally pointed, while the new one was elegantly arched, with hard stone for the ribs and tough stone for the interstices ; finally, that there was only one triforium or gallery round the ancient choir, and two in the modern one. Twenty years before the close of the 12th century, no member of Saxon architecture remained in the chancel or choir of Canterbury except the main arch es of the basement story, and certain billet mouldings, which gave way as the work advanced upwards to the quatrefoil moulding, which very soon became univer sal, and is a sure criterion of the first order of the pointed style in its most pure state.