extent disused, but the buttress, the
turret, and other vertical features, from which a level sun will cast
shadows, begin to appear; and windows are made numerous and spacious.
This description applies to Gothic architecture generally--in other
words, to the styles which rose in Northern Europe.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--TIMBER ARCHITECTURE. CHURCH AT BORGUND.]

The influence of materials on architecture is also worth notice. Where
granite, which is worked with difficulty, is the material obtainable,
architecture has invariably been severe and simple; where soft stone
is obtainable, exuberance of ornament makes its appearance, in
consequence of the material lending itself readily to the carver's
chisel. Where, on the other hand, marble is abundant and good,
refinement is to be met with, for no other building material exists in
which very delicate mouldings or very slight or slender projections
may be employed with the certainty that they will be effective. Where
stone is scarce, brick buildings, with many arches, roughly
constructed cornices and pilasters, and other peculiarities both of
structure and ornamentation, make their appearance, as, for example,
in Lombardy and North Germany. Where materials of many colours abound,
as is the case, for example, in the volcanic districts of France,
polychromy is sought as a means of ornamentation. Lastly, where timber
is available, and stone and brick are both scarce, the result is an
architecture of which both the forms and the ornamentation are
entirely dissimilar to those proper to buildings of stone, marble, or
brick, as may be seen by a glance at our illustration of an early
Scandinavian church built of timber (Fig. 6), which presents forms
appropriate to a timber building as being easily constructed of wood,
but which would hardly be suitable to any other material whatever.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--EGYPTIAN CORNICE.]

CHAPTER II.

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE.

The origin of Egyptian architecture, like that of Egyptian history, is
lost in the mists of antiquity. The remains of all, or almost all,
other styles of architecture enable us to trace their rude beginnings,
their development, their gradual progress up to a culminating point,
and thence their slow but certain decline; but the earliest remains of
the constructions of the Egyptians show their skill as builders at the
height of its perfection, their architecture highly developed, and
their sculpture