See! fportive fate; to punish aukward pride, You how us, Rome was glorious, not profuse, Must Bishops, Lawyers, Statesmen, have the skill NOTES. VER. 19. See! Sportive fate, to punish aukwardpride,] Pride is one of the greatest mischiefs, as well as abfurdities of our nature; and therefore, as appears both from profane and facred Hiftory, has ever been the more peculiar object of divine vengeance. But aukward Pride intimates fuch abilities in its owner, as eafes us of the apprehenfion of much mischief from it; fo that the poet fuppofes fuch a one fecure from the ferious refentment of Heaven, though it may permit fate or fortune to bring him into the public contempt and ridicule, which his native badness of heart fo well deferves. VER. 23. The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the Defigns of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palla dio. P. VER. 28. And of one beauty many blunders make;] Because Load fome vain Church with old Theatric ftate, Turn Arcs of triumph to a Garden-gate; NOTES. 39 the road to Taffe, like that to Truth, is but one; and thofe to Error and Abfurdity a thousand. VER. 29. Load fome vain Church with old Theatric ftate,] In which there is a complication of abfurdities, arifing both from their different natures and forms: For the one being for religious fervice, and the other only for civil amufement, it is impoffible that the profufe and lafcivious ornaments of the latter fhould be ome the modefty and fanctity of the other. Nor will any examples of this vanity of drefs in the facred buildings of antiquity juftify this imitation; for thofe ornaments might be very fuirable to a Temple of Bacchus, or Venus, which would ill become the fobriety and purity of the prefent Religion. Befides, it fhould be confidered, that the ufual form of a The tre would only permit the architectonic ornaments to be placed on the outward face; whereas thofe of a Church may be as commodioufly, and are more properly put within; particularly in great and clofe pent-up Cities, where the inceffant driving of the fmoke, in a little time corrodes and deftroys all outward ornaments of this kind; efpecially if the members, as is the common tafte, be fmall and little. Our Gothic ancestors had jufter and manlier notions than thefe modern mimics of Greek and Roman magnificence: which, because the thing does honour to their genius, I fhall endeavour to explain. All our ancient churches are called, without difinétion, Gothic; but erroneoufly. They are of two forts; the one built in the Saxon times; the other during our Norman race of kings. Several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches of the firft fort are yet remaining, either in whole or in part; of which this was the Original: When the Saxon kings became chriftian, their piety, (which was the piety of the times) confifted in building Churches at home, and performing pilgrimages to the Holy Land: and thefe fpiritual exercifes affifted and fupported one another. For the moft venerable as well as moft elegant models of religious edifices were then in Palestine. From thefe our Saxon Builders took the whole of their ideas, as may be feen by comparing the Reverse your Ornaments, and hang them all On fome patch'd dog-hole'ek'd with ends of wall; NOTES. drawings which travellers have given us of the churches yet ftanding in that country, with the Saxon remains of what we find at home; and particularly in that fameness of ftyle in the later religious edifices of the Knights Templars profeffedly built upon the model of the church of the holy Sepulchre at Jerufalem) with the earlier remains of our Saxon Edifices. Now the architecture of the Holy Land was entirely Grecian, but greatly fallen from its ancient elegance. Our Saxon performance was indeed a bad copy of it, and as much inferior to the 'works of St. Helene, as her's were to the Grecian models the had followed: Yet ftill the footsteps of ancient art appeared in the circular arches, the entire columns, the divifion of the entablature, into a fort of Architrave, Frize and Corniche, and a folidity equally diffufed over the whole mafs.. This, by way of diftinction, I would call the SAXON Architecture. But our Norman works had a very different original. When the Goths had conquered Spain, and the genial warmth of the climate, and the religion of the old Inhabitants, had ripened their wits, and inflamed their mistaken piety (both kept in exercife by the neighbourhood of the Saracens, thro' emulation of their fcience and averfion to their fuperftition,) they ftruck out a new fpecies of Architecture unknown to Greece and Rome; upon original principles, and ideas much nobler than what had given birth even to claffical magnificence. For having been accuftomed, during the gloom of paganism, to worship the Deity in GROVES (a practice common to all nations) When their new Religion required covered edifices, they ingeniously projected to make them refemble Groves, as nearly as the diftance of Architecture would permit; at once indulging their old prejudices, and providing for their prefent conveniencies, by a cool receptacle in a fultry climate. And with what art and fuccefs they executed the project appears from hence, That no attentive obferver ever viewed a regular Avenue of well grown trees intermixing their branches over head, but it prefently put him in mind of the long Vifto thro' a Gothic Cathedral; or ever entered one of the larger and more Then clap four flices of Pilafter on't, That, lac'd with bits of ruftic, makes a Front. NOTES. elegant Edifices of this kind, but it reprefented to his imagination an Avenue of trees. And this alone is what can be truly called the GOTHIC ftyle of Building. Under this idea of fo extraordinary a species of Architecture, all the irregular tranfgreffions against art, all the monstrous offences against nature, difappear; every thing has its reason, every thing is in order, and an harmonious Whole arifes from the ftudious application of means proper and proportioned to the end. For could the Arches be otherwife than pointed when the Workman was to imitate that curve which branches make by their interfection with one another? Or could the Columns be otherwife than fplit into diftinct fhafts, when they were to represent the Stems of a group of Trees? On the fame principle was formed the fpreading ramification of the ftone-work in the windows, and the ftained glafs in the interftices; the one being to reprefent the branches, and the other the leaves of an opening Grove; and both concurring to preferve that gloomy light infpiring religious horror. Laftly, we fee the reafon of their ftudied averfion to apparent folidity in thefe ftupendous maffes, deemed fo abfurd by men accustomed to the apparent as well as real ftrength of Grecian Architecture. Had it been only a wanton exercise of the Artist's skill, to fhew he could give real ftrength without the appearance of any, we might indeed admire his fuperior fcience, but we muít needs condemn his ill judgment. But when one confiders, that this furprizing lightnefs was neceflary to complete the execution of his idea of a rural place of worfhip, one cannot fufficiently admire the ingenuity of the contrivance. This too will account for the contrary qualities in what I call the Saxon Architecture. These artifts copied, as has been faid, from the churches in the holy Land, which were built on the models of Grecian architecture; but corrupted by prevailing barbarifm; and ftill further depraved by a religious idea. The first places of Chriftian worship were Sepulchres and fubterraneous caverns, from neceffity, low and heavy. When Christianity became the Religion of the State, and fumptuous Shall call the winds thro' long arcades to roar, 35 Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door; Conscious they act a true Palladian part, And if they starve, they starve by rules of art. brother Peer, A certain truth, which many buy too dear: 40 COMMENTARY, VER. 39. Oft have you hinted to your brother Pear, and in this artful manner begins the body of the Epiftle. I. The first part of it (from 38 to 99) delivers rules for attaining to the MAGNIFICENT in just expence; which is the NOTES. Temples began to be erected, they yet, in regard to the first pious ages, preferved the maffive Style: made still more venerable by the Church of the holy Sepulchre: Where, this Style was, on a double account, followed and aggravated. Such then was GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. And it would be no difcredit to the warmest admirers of Jones and Palladio to acknowledge it has its merit. They muft at least confefs it had a nobler birth, tho' an humbler fortune, than the GREEK and ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. VER. 30. Turns Arcs of triumph to a Garden-gate; ] This abfurdity feems to have arifen from an injudicious imitation of what these Builders might have heard of, at the entrance of the antient Gardens of Rome: But they don't confider, that thofe were public Gardens, given to the people by fome great man after a triumph; to which, therefore, Arcs of this kind were very fuitable ornaments. VER. 36. Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door; ] In the foregoing inftances, the poet expofes the abfurd imitation of |