_At the time of the sudden and deplorable death of Sir Gilbert Scott in March last, more than 200 illustrations had been made and engraved. The remaining ones are completed in conformity with his marginal directions._ _Many of these were prepared by me for the Lectures ten years ago, and all have been compared with Sir Gilbert’s sketches, with the diagrams in the MSS., and redrawn. The engraving is by “Leitch’s photographic process.”_ _Some valuable woodcuts, lent by permission of Mr. Fergusson and Mr. Murray, have also been inserted among the letterpress._ W. SAMᴸ. WEATHERLEY. 20 COCKSPUR STREET, LONDON, S.W. CONTENTS. VOL. I. LECTURE I. The Claims of Mediæval Architecture upon our Study. Introduction--Art follows the course of civilisation--Three _primâ facie_ claims Gothic Architecture has upon Study--Additional claim, that it is Christian Architecture--Objections to the title--Explanations of the term--Byzantine the earliest Christian style--Summary of the Historical claims of Mediæval Architecture--Its intrinsic claims--Abstract beauty--Advantages of an arcuated over a trabeated style--Facility in decorating construction, and in converting structural features into elements of beauty--Adaptability to varied climates--Unites all arts in one--Painted glass--Sculpture--Foliated sculpture--Gothic Architecture suited to the severest and most elegant styles--Beauty of external outline--Delicacy of mouldings--Religious solemnity of the interior of its temples--The spirit with which the study of Mediæval Architecture should be undertaken--How to be pursued--Practical objects for which it should be followed up Page 1 LECTURE II. Sketch of the Rise of Mediæval Architecture. Anomalous state of things in Western Europe after the destruction of the Roman Empire--Art almost extinct--Saved by the Western Church and the Eastern Empire--Architectural elements of the new races--Charlemagne’s attempts to revive art--Primitive art in England and the north of France--Dawn of better things--Architecture of the tenth century--Schools of art and science--Bishop Bernward’s works--Origin of early styles in France and Germany--Early architecture of Rome--The arcuated and the trabeated systems--Development of Romanesque--Its leading characteristics--Romanesque and Pointed architecture not TWO styles, but ONE--Barrel vaults--Groined vaults--Oblong bays--Main arches of groined vaulting changed from the semicircle to the pointed arch--Flying buttresses--Groin ribs--The pointed arch arose from statical not geometrical or æsthetical motives--Wall ribs remain round long after the wider arches become pointed--Two modes adopted to avoid the difficulty of oblong groining over naves--Sexpartite vaulting Page 37 LECTURE III. The Transition.