On the Continent there are some also of great height ; that at Vienna being 465, and at Strasburgh 456 feet ; but in those, as well as at Rouen, Constance, and Bayeux, in France, from the diminution commencing at the base, the general outline has not the same degree of elegance as the English, which are elevated upon lofty square towers. Some of the latter are constructed with walls of incredible thinness, Salisbury spire being only seven inches. The finest effect is produced by spires whose outlines are quite plain, as those at Shrewsbury and Worcester. St Michael's at Convcntry is hurt by sculp ture.
Many of the Gothic structures have very lofty square towers only, some highly decorated. The tower of the fine church at Boston in Lincolnshire, finished by an oc tagonal louvre, is 282 ; Lincoln 288 ; Ely 270; Canter bury 235 ; York 234 ; Gloucester 224 ; Durham 210 ; Beverly 198 ; St Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 194 ; Derby 174 ; Taunton 153 ; Doncaster 152 ; Radcliffe, Bristol, 148 feet in height.
On the Continent ; the tower built at Florence by Giotto in 1334, is 264 feet, diameter 46 ; the falling tower of Pisa, 188; the centre tower of St Owen at Rouen, which is octagonal, and built in 1309, is 240 feet, This variation in the style of ecclesiastical architecture, as it regards spires and towers, is \ cry evident in difer cnt parts of England. In the counties of Northampton, Leicester, and Huntingdon, spires arc found almost in every village. Whereas in the counties of Lincoln, Suf folk, and Somerset, towers generally prevail.
In Gothic architecture, the columns, arches, some particular moulding and buttresses, arc members which require to be noticed. With regard to the distribution of columns, it has been observed, that the rule, in our finest cathedrals, has been to divide the whole extent from north to south ; that is, including the length of both transepts and the breadth of the choir, into ten parts ; three of these parts or arches were given to each tran sept, one to each side aisle, and two to the nave or mid dle aisle ; that the breadth of the side aisles determined the distance at which the columns were placed longitu dinally. Perhaps the general mode of distribution may be explained in a still more simple way, by dividing the breadth of the nave into four, or, in some cases, as in the before-mentioned great church at Milan, into six equal parts ; but, in order to obtain more free space, omitting the row of pillars which would, by this mode of division, have occupied the middle space, and which the use of arches enable the architect to do without inconvenience.
It may here be also, without impropriety, noticed, that attempting to make the narrow side arches as high as those over the middle space, may possibly have first sug gested the idea of pointed arches.
In respect to columns, conclusions have too generally been drawn, front considering the slender purbec mar ble columns (which arc, in sonic instances, attached to a large central cylinder,) separately, or otherwise, by taking by itself each column of the great clustered pillar ; and being thereby astonished at proportions in which the height is sometimes 120 diameters. But this is fallacious, because there ought, in a comparison of height with diameter, to be included the whole mass of which the pillar is composed, and from which the incumbent weight derives support ; and when viewed in this mariner, the pillars used in Gothic buildi'igs will not much differ in the ratio of their height and diameter from those employ ed in the Roman architecture.
In the cathedral of Milan, the height of the column is one-third of the whole extent across the edifice, at the transepts, t iz. cubits of 25 inches each ; and this height is 7-1 (1i...int.:ter, of which the base and capital each occupied -1. of a diameter. The four large columns in the Louvre weft: cianteter, of which the cap was and the base of a mann:ter.
Two pillars in Westminster Abbey were carefully measured by Batty Langley in 17-12. They each consist of a large central cylinder, having four slender col tin ins attached. The height of the central cylinder of one, which was erected in toe time of Henry III. about I 240, is, including base and capital, five diameters of the whole cluster, and 7,1 of the central cylinder ; the base is and the capital of a diameter. In the other, whien was erected in the time of Edward I. the central cylinder, including base and capital, is five times the diameter of the whole cluster, and times that of the central cylin der; the base and plinth is one diameter, the capital i a diameter. These instances arc sufficient to enable the student to pursue this suede of investigation, for which recent publications, cting the English cathedrals, will afford sufficient data. We shall add another instance, which may lead aim to consider this part of the subject in a still more important view.