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yet genteel, vaft, yet light, vener- hardiness in the execution of fome

able and picturefque. It is difficult for the noblett Grecian temple to convey half fo many impreffions to the mind, as a cathedral does of the best Gothic taftea proof of skill in the architects and of address in the priests who erected them. The latter exhaufted their knowledge of the paffions in compofing edifices whofe pomp, mechanism, vaults, tombs, painted windows, gloom and perspectives infused such sensations of romantic devotion; and they were happy in finding artifts capable of executing fuch machinery. One muft have tafte to be fenfible of the beauties of Grecian architecture; one only wants paffions to feel Gothic. In St. Peter's one is convinced that it was built by great princes-In Weftminster-abbey, one thinks not of the builder; the religion of the place makes the first impreffion and though ftripped of its altars and fhrines, it is nearer converting one to popery than all the regular pageantry of Roman domes. Gothic churches infufe fuperftition; Grecian, admiration. The papal fee amaffed its wealth by Gothic cathedrals, and displays it in Grecian temples.

I certainly do not mean by this little contraft to make any comparifon between the rational beauties of regular architecture, and the unreftrained licentiouinels of that which is called Gothic. Yet I am clear that the perfons who executed the latter, had much more knowledge of their art, more tafte, more genius, and more propriety than we chufe to imagine. There is a magic

of their works which would not have fuftained themselves if dictated by mere caprice. There is a tradition that Sir Christopher Wren went once a year to furvey the roof of the chapel of King's college, and faid that if any man would fhew him where to place the first flone, he would engage to build such another. That there is great grace in several places even in their clusters of flender pillars, and in the application of their ornaments, though the principles of the latter are fo confined that they may almost all be reduced to the trefoil, extended and varied, I fhall not appeal to the edifices themselves--- It is fufficient to obferve, that Inigo Jones, Sir Chriftopher Wren and Kent, who certainly understood beauty, blundered + into the heaviest and clumfieft compofitions whenever they aimed at imita tions of the Gothic-Is an art defpicable in which a great mafter cannot fhine?

Confidering how fcrupulously our architects confine themselves to antique precedent, perhaps some deviations into Gothic may a little relieve them from that fervile imitation, I mean that they fhould study both tastes, not blend them: that they fhould dare to invent in the one, fince they will hazard nothing in the other. When they have built a pediment and portico, the Sibyl's circular temple, and tacked the wings to a house by a colonade, they feem au bout de leur Latin. If half a dozen manfions were all that remained of old Rome, inftead of half a dozen temples, I

*For inftance, the facade of the cathedral of Rheims.

+In Lincoln's Inn chapel, the fteeple of the church at Warwick, the King'sbench in Weftminster-hall, &c.

do

do not doubt but our churches would resemble the private houses of Roman citizens. Our buildings muft be as Vitruvian, as writings in the days of Erafmus were obliged to be Ciceronian. Yet confined as our architects are to few models, they are far from having made all the ufe they might of those they poffefs. There are variations enough to be ftruck out to furnish new scenes of fingular beauty. The application of loggias, arcades, terraffes and flights of steps, at different stages of a building, particularly in fuch fituations as Whitehall to the river, would have a magnificent effect. It is true, our climate and the expence of building in England are great reftrictions on imagination; but when One talks of the extent of which architecture is capable, one must fuppofe that pomp and beauty are the principal objects; one speaks of palaces and public buildings; not of fhops and fmall houses---but I must reftrain this differtation, and come to the hiftoric part, which will lie in a small compass.

Felibien took great pains to afcertain the revival of architecture, after the destruction of the true tafte

by the inundation of the northern nations; but his discoveries were by no means answerable to his labour. Of French builders he did find a few names, and here and there an Italian or German. Of English he owns he did not meet with the leaft trace; while at the fame time the founders of ancient buildings were every where recorded: fo careful have the monks (the only his torians of thofe times) been to celebrate bigotry and pafs over the arts. But I own I take it for granted that these feeming omiffions are to be attributed to their want of perfpicuity rather than to neglect. As all the other arts * were confined to cloyfters, fo undoubtedly was architecture too; and when we read that fuch a bishop or such an abbot built fuch and fuch an edifice, I am perfuaded that they often gave the plans as well as furnished the neceffary funds; but as thofe chroniclers fcarce ever specify when this was or was not the cafe, we must not at this diftance of time pretend to conjecture what prelates were or were not capabe of directing their own foundations."

"That

The arts flourished so much in convents to the laft, that one Gyfford, a visitor employed by Thomas Cromwell to make a report of the state of those focieties previous to their fuppreffion, pleads in behalf of the houfe of Wolftrop, there was not one religious perfon there, but that he could and did use, either embrotheryng, writing books with very fair hand, making their own garments, carving, painting, or graffing. Styrpe's memor. vol. i. p. 255.

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CONTENT S.

HISTORY OF THE WAR.

CHAP. I.

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