Lectures on architecture and painting, delivered at Edinburgh in November 1853 . ,there is in the sill no necessity for the pointedarch as a bearing form; on the contrary, itwould give an idea of weak support for thesides of the window, and therefore is at oncerejected. Only I beg of you particularly toobserve that the level sill, although useful, andtherefore admitted, does not therefore becomebeautiful; the eye does not like it so well asthe top of the window, nor does the sculptorlike to attract the eye to it; his richest mould-ings, traceries, and sculptures are all reservedfor the top of
Lectures on architecture and painting, delivered at Edinburgh in November 1853 . ,there is in the sill no necessity for the pointedarch as a bearing form; on the contrary, itwould give an idea of weak support for thesides of the window, and therefore is at oncerejected. Only I beg of you particularly toobserve that the level sill, although useful, andtherefore admitted, does not therefore becomebeautiful; the eye does not like it so well asthe top of the window, nor does the sculptorlike to attract the eye to it; his richest mould-ings, traceries, and sculptures are all reservedfor the top of the window; they are sparinglygranted to its horizontal base. And farther,observe, that when neither the convenience ofthe sill, nor the support of the structure, areany more of moment, as in small windows andtraceries, you instantly have the point given tothe bottom of the window. Do you recollectthe west window of your own DunblaneAbbey ? If you look in any common guide-book, you will find it pointed out as peculiarlybeautiful,—it is acknowledged to be beautiful Plate Fij I. ARCHITECTURE. 20, by the most careless observer. And whybeautiful? Look at it (fig. 7). Simply becausein its great contours it has the form of a forestleaf, and because in its decoration it has usednothing but forest leaves. The sharp and ex-pressive moulding which surrounds it is a veryinteresting example of one used to an enormousextent by the builders of the early EnglishGothic, usually in the form seen in fig. 2Plate II., composed of clusters of four sharpleaves each, originally produced by sculpturingthe sides of a four-sided pyramid, and after-wards brought more or less into a true imageof leaves, but deriving all its beauty from thebotanical form. In the present instance onlytwo leaves are set in each cluster; and thearchitect has been determined that the natu-ralism should be perfect. For he was nocommon man who designed that cathedral ofDunblane. I know not anything so perfectin its simpli
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