of
adaptation which I rather choose to illustrate by particular examples,
of which we shall meet with many in the course of our inquiry, than to
delay the reader by specifying here. As for the conditions of beauty in
the disposition of the tracery bars, I see no hope of dealing with the
subject fairly but by devoting, if I can find time, a separate essay to
it--which, in itself, need not be long, but would involve, before it
could be completed, the examination of the whole mass of materials
lately collected by the indefatigable industry of the English architects
who have devoted their special attention to this subject, and which are
of the highest value as illustrating the chronological succession or
mechanical structure of tracery, but which, in most cases, touch on
their aesthetic merits incidentally only. Of works of this kind, by far
the best I have met with is Mr. Edmund Sharpe's, on Decorated Windows,
which seems to me, as far as a cursory glance can enable me to judge, to
exhaust the subject as respects English Gothic; and which may be
recommended to the readers who are interested in the subject, as
containing a clear and masterly enunciation of the general principles by
which the design of tracery has been regulated, from its first
development to its final degradation.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] The architrave is properly the horizontal piece of stone laid
across the tops of the pillars in Greek buildings, and commonly
marked with horizontal lines, obtained by slight projections of its
surface, while it is protected above in the richer orders, by a
small cornice.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE ROOF.

Sec. I. The modes of decoration hitherto considered, have been common to
the exteriors and interiors of all noble buildings; and we have taken no
notice of the various kinds of ornament which require protection from
weather, and are necessarily confined to interior work. But in the case
of the roof, the exterior and interior treatments become, as we saw in
construction, so also in decoration, separated by broad and bold
distinctions. One side of a wall is, in most cases, the same as another,
and if its structure be concealed, it is mostly on the inside; but, in
the roof, the anatomical structure, out of which decoration should
naturally spring, is visible, if at all, in the interior only: so that
the subject of internal ornament becomes both wide and important, and
that of external, comparatively su