ver fails of seizing the true and leading expression
of whatever he touches: he has made this ornament the leading feature of
the niche, expressing it, as in distance it is only expressible, by a
zigzag.

Sec. V. The reader may perhaps be surprised at my speaking so highly of
this drawing, if he take the pains to compare Prout's symbolism of the
work on the niche with the facts as they stand here in Plate IX. But the
truth is that Prout has rendered the effect of the monument on the mind
of the passer-by;--the effect it was intended to have on every man who
turned the corner of the street beneath it: and in this sense there is
actually more truth and likeness[74] in Prout's translation than in my
fac-simile, made diligently by peering into the details from a ladder. I
do not say that all the symbolism in Prout's Sketch is the best
possible; but it is the best which any architectural draughtsman has yet
invented; and in its application to special subjects it always shows
curious internal evidence that the sketch has been made on the spot, and
that the artist tried to draw what he saw, not to invent an attractive
subject. I shall notice other instances of this hereafter.

Sec. VI. The dogtooth, employed in this simple form, is, however, rather
a foil for other ornament, than itself a satisfactory or generally
available decoration. It is, however, easy to enrich it as we choose:
taking up its simple form at 3, and describing the arcs marked by the
dotted lines upon its sides, and cutting a small triangular cavity
between them, we shall leave its ridges somewhat rudely representative
of four leaves, as at 8, which is the section and front view of one of
the Venetian stone cornices described above, Chap. XIV., Sec. IV., the
figure 8 being here put in the hollow of the gutter. The dogtooth is put
on the outer lower truncation, and is actually in position as fig. 5;
but being always looked up to, is to the spectator as 3, and always
rich and effective. The dogteeth are perhaps most frequently expanded
to the width of fig. 9.

Sec. VII. As in nearly all other ornaments previously described, so in
this,--we have only to deepen the Italian cutting, and we shall get the
Northern type. If we make the original pyramid somewhat steeper, and
instead of lightly incising, cut it through, so as to have the leaves
held only by their points to the base, we shall have the English
dogtooth; somewhat vulgar in its piquancy, when compared wi