Kinds Of Buildings Research Articles

I. Observations on the Origin of Gothic Architecture, with an Appendix. Communicated by George Saunders, Esq., F.R.S. and F.A.S., in a Letter to The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., Pr. R.S. and F.A.S.

When in conversation I offered some ideas on the Origin of Gothic Architecture, you were pleased to express a wish that they should be committed to writing. I am sorry that various circumstances should so long have prevented me from presenting the following observations, which, after all the attention other avocations would allow, I am still afraid are not so clear as could be desired. Many of the technical terms in common use, relating to this subject, not being well defined in the English language, I must solicit your indulgence in regard to the notes of explanation which I have occasionally been induced to add: and I beg it to be understood, that the appellation of Gothic is here restricted to that kind of building, in which the covering of a void space is composed of two similar curves meeting together, and forming an angle at the top, usually termed a Pointed Arch.