formation it affords on the jurifdiction and mode of proceeding in claims to dignities. Such is the work which gives its author a new claim to the applaufe of his profeffion, and the gratitude of the public. The dedication to Lord Ellenborough must be highly gratifying, as his enlarged mind and profound learning muft teach him how to eflimate fuch a production, and diftinguifh it from the many flovenly compilations which operate as advertisements to young barrifters, or form the ftanding annuity-warrants of their feniors. The book is hand fomely, we wifh we could add correctly, printed; but the numerous errors of the prefs are difgraceful and fatiguing. Almoft every page would furnish inftances, but one or two, not selected, but taken almost at hazard, may fuffice. In page 90, it is faid, that Fiennes Twifleton died in 1730, leaving iffue a fon named John, who, in 1633, prefented his petition, &c.; that is ninety-feven years before his father's death; and in the fame paragraph, Willis is printed inflead of Willes, as the name of the Chief Juftice. In page 99, a ludicrous effect is produced by printing her general, instead of heir general. The latin is often no more correct than the Englifh as in page 184, where proteft is printed inftead of poteft. ART. VIII. An Historical Survey of the Ecclefiaflical Antiquities of France; with a View to illuftrate the Rife and Progress of Gothic Architecture in Europe. By the late G. D. Whittington, of St. John's College, Cambridge. 4to. 188 pp. 11. 6s. Taylor. 1809. ART. IX. A Treatise on the Ecclefiaftical Architecture of England, during the middle Ages, with ten illuftrative Plates. By the Rev. John Milner, D.D. F. S. A, &c. - Svo, 15s. Taylor. 1811. 157 PP. THE ftyle of ecclefiaftical architecture, which had long enjoyed exclufive favour in this and the neighbouring Countries, fell fo completely into contempt, on the revival of the Grecian or claffical style, that the name of GOTHIC was beftowed upon it rather as a reproach, than with any definite reference to its origin. Even fo great a man as Sir Chriftopher Wren, mifled by this appellation, and probably not thinking the fubject worthy of investigation, betrayed a total ignorance relpecting it. He quotes Mr. Evelyn with approbation probation for faying, "The Goths and Vandals, having demolished the Greek and Roman architecture, introduced in its ftead a certain fantaftical and licentious manner of building, which we have called modern, or Gothic *." Now, nothing can be more certain, than that the Gothic and Vandals were long extinct, and almost forgotten, before a fingle attempt was made to erect a building in that style, which, moft improperly, has been diftinguished by their name: and that the people who invented it, whether in France or England, had not borne the name of Goths for a long fe ries of generations, and cannot even trace an hereditary though diftant title to it . So little was this unfafhionable ftyle thought worthy of attention, that, in refitting the choirs and other internal parts of old cathedrals, and fometimes even in adding porches and other external adjuncts, the most wretched attempts at Grecian architecture were, for a long period, thought preferable to any fort of compliance with the general style of the building. At length a material change has taken place. Withous depre ciating the juft tafte for the Grecian orders, the peculiar me is of the old ecclefiaftical ftyle have been felt and appreciated; fome progrefs has been made in the ftudy of its principles; and it has been thought a worthy object of contention be-tween men of tafte, whether France or England gave birth to a fpecies of architecture confeffedly not more ancient, in thefe countries, than the twelfth century. The attempts to derive this ftyle from the east, whether by means of the cru fades, or otherwife, feem to have failed in point of proof; no eastern building having been pointed out, at all of this kind, that may not more probably be afcribed to the cru faders themselves, after this mode of architecture had been invented and approved in Europe . It is true that pointed ‡. arches may be difcovered in various parts of the east; but nothing altogether refembling our ecclefiaftical architecture, which if it had been brought from abroad, as an invention already formed, would have arrived at fome degree of perfection; whereas we fcem to trace among ourselves the gradual progrefs of an original thought, from its fir rude and perhaps accidental conception, to the highest degrees of improvenient and elegance. Parentalia. See Milner, p. 51. + The Goths, in fact, when they built at all, made only very clumsy attempts towards imitating the Roman or Grecian ftyle. Milner, p. 57. In 1 In contemplating the two works at present before us, a ftrong feeling of regret attaches itself infeparably to that of Mr. Whittington. That a man fo devoted to curious refearch, and fo well qualified to pursue it, should have been loft to the public and his friends at the early age of 27, will be confidered as a misfortune by every reader of this elegant volume; which at the fame time does credit to the feelings and the taste of his noble friend and editor *, LORD ABERDEEN, whofe words we probably cite in tranfcribing the following paffage : "His friends, indeed, must greatly lament, that one endowed with fo many fuperior attainments should have been fnatched from life, without leaving fome more important memorial of himfelf to the world, than the prefent volume, and even that in an imperfect and unfinished ftate. With refpect to themselves, never will the remembrance be effaced of that lively and ardent mind, that most tenacious memory, that difpaffionate judgment, that inexhaustible variety of converfation, that warm and affectionate heart, and above all, to make ufe of a favourite expreffion of his own, that "flow of the foul," which feemed to be inherent in him, and which never failed to excite the kindness and complacency of all whom he approached; the recollection of these and many other excellent qualities which diftinguifhed him, will through life be cherished by his friends as the most dear to them perhaps of all memorials. "By thofe to whom he was lefs known, it should be remembered that his death took place before he had completed his twenty-feventh year; that he was twice engaged in a tour upon the continent, during which every moment of his time was em ployed in ingenious and interefting, if not deep and learned refearch; and that had his life been extended, it was his deliberate purpose to have devoted it to the acquifition of learning and fcience. "He died regretted by a circle of friends and acquaintance not lefs numerous and extenfive than his own qualifications; more justly lamented by none than by the writer of this note." P. 172. This teftimony we transcribe with pleasure, as little lefs honourable to the writer than to the fubject of it; and as calculated to create a livelier intereft in a production thus originating. Yet while we in this way recommend the book, to all who are attached to fuch enquiries, we cannot go the They are spoken of as Editors in (p. 172) but the Preface is figned by his Lordship. 5 length length of adopting the opinion fupported in it; namely, that the ftyle of architecture, which has been currently called Gothic, was invented in France, and from that country paffed into England. The contrary opinion, which is fupported by Dr. Milner, as it had been before in his hiflory of Winchefter, feems to us to have more probability; though we do not allow that demonftration has yet been produced on either fide. So large a part of France was in the hands of our monarchs, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, that whatever was invented in the one country would immediately be communicated to the other; and it must become difficult to determine the priority of claim. The dates produced by Dr. Milner do, indeed, appear to confirm his affertion, in favour of the Englifh; but we must have more extensive knowledge, than at prefent seems to be obtained, of the dates and styles of French churches, before we can pronounce that the queftion is decided. If it be true, as Dr. Milner understands it to be, that "the received tradition in all the northern provinces of France is, that almost all their grand churches were built by the English," this will certainly form a strong prefumption in our favour; fince the French are very far from being inclined to attribute to us, any merit or difcovery, that they can poffibly affume to themselves: and on the whole we cannot but confider this opinion, if not entirely proved, as rendered very highly probable, by the arguments here produced. Refpecting the origin of the pointed arch, our own observations, long ago made, and recorded in our volumes*, tend exactly to confirm the hypothefis advanced by Dr. Milner. It was in furveying the old towers of Southwell, in the autumn of 1804, that we were firft ftruck with the effect of the interlaced round arches, in producing the pointed arch, by their interfections. This recollection, however, leads us to observe, that the hypothefis of the interfecting arches is not the invention of Dr. Milner, though he has fupported it with great ability. Mr. Wilkins, (of Caius College, Cambridge) on whose paper in the Archæologia, vol. xiv. we were remarking, when we first mentioned our observations at Southwell, fpoke of it, at that time, as a common opinion, and added that it is as fatisfactory perhaps as any that has been of. fered." We confider it as much more fo; and the confir mation of it which we then offered is fo remarkable, that we think it muft in future be adopted by the defenders of the fyftem. The old part of Southwell Minfter is of the ancient flyle of Saxon or Norman architecture, which prevailed till the establishment of the pointed arches, with low femicircular arches, round pillars, &c. The Weftern Towers, that to the fouth in particular, are much ornamented with the small arches, fome plainly femicircular, fome interfecting; but what is most remarkable, alfo with fome fmall pointed arches, exactly correfponding with the interfections of the interlaced arches, merely omitting the intermediate femicircular tops. Here, therefore, is the very flep made, and the new arch exhibited in company with thofe interfected arches, from which it fprung, and evident and exactly taken from them. A ftronger illuftration, if not a proof of the fact, can hardly be imagined. The fame circumftance may, perhaps, be obfervable in other places, if attention be paid to it, but there it is particularly ftriking and obvious. Having premifed this ftrong confirmation of Dr. Milner's opinion, we shall fuffer him to ftate it to our readers in his own words, "But why fhould we wander," he fays, "into every remote country in the known world, and into the regions of fancy, in fearch of an invention which belongs to our own climate? And for what purpose fhould we take fo much pains to prove a plant to be an imported exotic, which we actually fee fprouting up and attaining its full growth in our own garden? Let us now go back to the point from which we ftarted, for the purpose of running down the different falfe fyftems. We have feen that the greatest people, without difpute, of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the conquerors of France, England, Italy, Sicily, and of different countries in the Eaft, namely, the Normans, were poffeffed of the moft ardent paffion for ecclefiaftical architecture, of any nation upon record, and that they vied with each other in the grandeur and beauty of their refpective ftructures. For the former of thefe effects, grandeur, we obferved that they gave to their churches the greatest length and height in their power; for the latter, beauty, they enriched them with a variety of architectural ornaments, feveral of which appear to be of their own invention. The most common of thefe was the arcade, or feries of arches, with which fome of their buildings, [as for example, the outfide of St. Ofyth's and St. Bottolph's conventual churches in Effex, and the infide of Durham on the bafement ftory] were covered over, and which occur, more or lefs on all their cathedral and conventual churches extant. Thefe arcades were diverfified many ways, as may be particularly feen on the tower of St. Auguftine's mo Br. Cr. loc. cit. Something of this fort appears on the old fquare towers of Exeter Cathedral, but not fo clearly marked. naftery |