from this point, the vaultings of the roof
are square, with broad, simple groinings. Beneath, are two ranges of
windows, running quite round the chancel, and decorated with an
amazing variety of mouldings. Those below form the grand
characteristic of this venerable pile, being likewise _circular; but
so intersecting one another as to form perfect and beautiful pointed
arches_." This then is the hypothesis of Dr. Milner towards the
settlement of the controverted origin of the _pointed_ or _English_
style of architecture. It is, probably, the most reasonable of all
solutions. Sir Christopher Wren's account of a Saracenic origin was
vague and unsupported; and Warburton's deduction from groves and
interlacing boughs, though ingeniously illustrated by the late Sir
James Hall, has more prettiness than probability. Dr. Milner's
"intersecting hypothesis," as it is technically termed, is brief and
simple: "De Blois," he says, "having resolved to ornament the whole
sanctuary of his church with intersecting semicircles, conceived the
idea of opening them, by way of windows, which at once produced a
series of highly-pointed arches." Hence arose the seeming paradox,
that "the intersection of two circular arches in the church of St.
Cross, produced Salisbury steeple." Conclusive as this hypothesis may
appear, it has been much controverted, and among its opponents have
been men of great practical knowledge in architecture. Messrs. Brayley
and Britton observe "though the specimens referred to by Dr. Milner
may not entirely warrant the above supposition, yet they clearly mark
the gradation by which the Saxon and Norman styles of architecture
were abandoned, for the more enriched and beautiful order that has
conferred so much celebrity on the ecclesiastical architects of this
country."[9] The clever writer in _The Crypt_ remarks "the history of
the science appears so easy and natural according to Dr. Milner's
hypothesis, and so many difficulties must be softened down, so many
discordances reconciled, according to any other, as to go a very great
way towards establishing the credibility of his idea. Here then is a
complete history of an invention, for which every quarter of the globe
has been ransacked. And, be it remembered, that the pointed arch did
not first display itself in those magnificent proportions, which would
have accompanied it from the beginning, if brought over from foreign
climes in its full perfection; but exactly in that