Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 1Scott, George Gilbert, Sir
History
Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 1
Scott, George Gilbert, Sir
Architecture, Gothic; Architecture, Medieval
The choice and order of the particular buildings which we select for our
studies must depend much upon accidental circumstances; but, as a
general rule, I would advise each student to begin with those which are
readiest to his hand. If your home is in the country, visit, study, and
sketch from your own parish church, and from those immediately
surrounding you, widening your circle as you proceed; generally studying
the simpler specimens before you venture upon the more magnificent. If
you live in London the case is different. The humbler specimens have
mostly perished, but the earnest student will still find out many of
which the public are ignorant. Here, however, you must for the most part
attend to the more magnificent works, and reserve the humbler for your
rural excursions; and, above all, you must diligently study the glorious
abbey church of Westminster--internally, perhaps, the finest in England,
but which, from its proximity, is made nothing like so much use of as it
ought to be. Though the village churches round London have suffered more
than almost any others, you would still do well to make pedestrian
excursions among them, and carefully sketch what remains of them; and by
extending your excursions to Waltham and St. Alban’s, to Eltham and
Hampton Court, you will find objects of study of the highest merit and
the most thrilling interest. I would, however, recommend, as the most
profitable mode of following up the subject, more lengthened excursions;
as, for instance, pedestrian tours through particular counties or
districts, walking from village to village, and carefully sketching
everything worthy of note to be found in it, whether ecclesiastical or
domestic. This should be repeated over and over again in different
districts. If you wish to direct your attention to the nobler
productions of architecture, you must seat yourselves down in some
cathedral town, and follow it up patiently from day to day, till your
time is exhausted. A hasty view to these noblest of structures is of but
little use.
Especially would I entreat your attention to those beauteous but
melancholy ruins which still mark the sites of ancient monastic
institutions. You may find in them the finest and best studied examples
of your art--works designed and carried out, not in the bustle and busy
hum of cities, but under the quieting influence of learned retirement:
they are the works of the most thoughtful spirits of their age, and have
received their utmost study and consideration. Not only are they
intrinsically among the most beautiful specimens you can visit, but
their present condition is calculated to impress them the most deeply
upon the imagination and memory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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