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THE ORIGIN OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.
75
about it that is very interesting. It is true that
some of the most quaint and antique-looking portions
are the most modern; having been rebuilt after fires,
and the old materials put together without any
particular reference to what they were intended for:
columns being let into walls for mere ornament,
or placed on niches as though they were statues. I
should like to bring an archaeologist who knows all
about the symbolism of Gothic ornament, and can fix
the date of an edifice by the shape of its arches, to this
building, and set him to read it without any knowledge
of its recorded history: he would make some
magnificent blunders. I suspect that Mr. Laing is quite
right in stating that " it shakes the theory of Saxon
and Norman, the round and pointed arch having been
used exclusively in particular and different centuries,
and affording ground for determining the comparative
antiquity of Gothic edifices. The Norman arch in its
most florid style is connected with the Saxon in its most
simple and massive form, in a building where the known
date of the portion containing this admixture is more
ancient than the ascertained date of those English
edifices from which the theory is derived."
Were I an archaeologist, I should regard this
building as worthy of a special pilgrimage and the most
minute and careful study. If the original design could
be fully made out (and the materials for working it out
are in existence), I suspect that it would throw more
light upon the real origin and history of Gothic
architecture than any other edifice in Europe. It appears to
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