APPENDIX, 18, 19 457

18. P. 140.-EARLY ENGLISH CAPITALS

The depth of the cutting in some of the early English capitals is, indeed, part of a general system of attempts at exaggerated force of effect, like the “black touches” of second-rate draughtsmen, which I have noticed¹ as characteristic of nearly all Northern work, associated with the love of the grotesque; but the main section of the capital is indeed a dripstone rolled round as above described; and dripstone sections are continually found in Northern work, where not only they cannot increase force of effect, but are entirely invisible except on close examination; as, for instance, under the uppermost range of stones of the foundation of Whitehall, or under the slope of the restored base of All Souls College, Oxford, under the level of the eye. I much doubt if any of the Fellows be aware of its existence.

Many readers will be surprised and displeased by the disparagement of the early English capital. That capital has, indeed, one character of considerable value; namely, the boldness with which it stops the mouldings which fall upon it, and severs them from the shaft, contrasting itself with the multiplicity of their vertical lines. Sparingly used, or seldom seen, it is thus, in its place, not unpleasing; and we English love it from association, it being always found in connection with our purest and loveliest Gothic arches, and never in multitudes large enough to satiate the eye with its form. The reader who sits in the Temple church every Sunday, and sees no architecture during the week but that of Chancery Lane, may most justifiably quarrel with me for what I have said of it. But if every house in Fleet Street or Chancery Lane were Gothic, and all had early English capitals, I would answer for his making peace with me in a fortnight.

19. P. 175.-TOMBS AT ST. ANASTASIA

WHOSE THEY ARE IS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE TO THE READER OR TO ME, AND I HAVE TAKEN NO PAINS TO DISCOVER; THEIR VALUE BEING NOT IN ANY EVIDENCE THEY BEAR RESPECTING DATES, BUT IN THEIR INTRINSIC MERIT AS EXAMPLES OF COMPOSITION. TWO OF THEM ARE WITHIN THE GATE, ONE ON THE TOP OF IT, AND THIS LATTER IS ON THE WHOLE THE BEST, THOUGH ALL ARE BEAUTIFUL; UNITING THE INTENSE NORTHERN ENERGY IN THEIR FIGURE SCULPTURE WITH THE MOST SERENE CLASSICAL RESTRAINT IN THEIR OUTLINES, AND UNAFFECTED, BUT MASCULINE SIMPLICITY OF CONSTRUCTION.

I have not put letters to the diagram of the lateral arch at page 176, in order not to interfere with the clearness of the curves, but I shall always express the same points by the same letters, whenever I have to give measures of arches of this simple kind, so that the reader need never have the diagrams lettered at all. The base or span of the centre arch will always be a b; its vertex will always be V; the points of the cusps will be c c; p p will be the bases of perpendiculars let fall from V and c on a b; and d the base of a perpendicular from the point of the cusp to the arch line. Then a b will always be the span of the arch, V p its perpendicular height, V a the chord of its side arcs, d c the depth of its cusps, c c the horizontal interval between the cusps,

¹ [i.e. noticed in his studies and here remarked on, for there is no reference earlier in the volume which precisely applies. For the general point-namely, the Northern straining after effect and reliance upon deep shadows-see above, p. 329, and Vol. VIII. p. 128.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]