lf. And now observe this most interesting fact, that all the
loveliest Gothic architecture in the world is based on the group of
lines composed of the pointed arch and the gable. If you look at the
beautiful apse of Amiens Cathedral--a work justly celebrated over all
Europe--you will find it formed merely of a series of windows surmounted
by pure gables of open work. If you look at the transept porches of
Rouen, or at the great and celebrated porch of the Cathedral of Rheims,
or that of Strasbourg, Bayeux, Amiens, or Peterborough, still you will
see that these lovely compositions are nothing more than richly
decorated forms of gable over pointed arch. But more than this, you must
be all well aware how fond our best architectural artists are of the
street effects of foreign cities; and even those now present who have
not personally visited any of the continental towns must remember, I
should think, some of the many interesting drawings by Mr. Prout, Mr.
Nash, and other excellent draughtsmen, which have for many years adorned
our exhibitions. Now, the principal charm of all those continental
street effects is dependent on the houses having high-pitched gable
roofs. In the Netherlands, and Northern France, where the material for
building is brick or stone, the fronts of the stone gables are raised
above the roofs, and you have magnificent and grotesque ranges of steps
or curves decorated with various ornaments, succeeding one another in
endless perspective along the streets of Antwerp, Ghent, or Brussels. In
Picardy and Normandy, again, and many towns of Germany, where the
material for building is principally wood, the roof is made to project
over the gables, fringed with a beautifully carved cornice, and casting
a broad shadow down the house front. This is principally seen at
Abbeville, Rouen, Lisieux, and others of the older towns of France. But,
in all cases, the effect of the whole street depends on the prominence
of the gables; not only of the fronts towards the streets, but of the
sides also, set with small garret or dormer windows, each of the most
fantastic and beautiful form, and crowned with a little spire or
pinnacle. Wherever there is a little winding stair, or projecting bow
window, or any other irregularity of form, the steep ridges shoot into
turrets and small spires, as in _fig._ 8,[6] each in its turn crowned by
a fantastic ornament, covered with curiously shaped slates or shingles,
or crested with long frin