In Lincluden College the vaulting shafts, which are heavier than usual, all rest on corbels in the side walls, not far above the floor, so that none of their loads are conveyed to the foundation. Vaulting is very generally adopted in the side aisles, but in these, too, the Gothic idea is often lost sight of, the wall responds having frequently their bases supported on side benches or seats, instead of being carried to the ground. Externally, as well as internally, our Scottish Gothic is somewhat defective in its mode of carrying out the arcuated principles. The wooden roofs so frequently employed really require no buttresses, and, therefore, our buildings are in so far right where in such cases only very slight pilaster-buttresses are used in the triforium, as is the case in Glasgow, Elgin, and Dunblane Cathedrals. In the side aisles, which are vaulted, the buttresses are sometimes heavier, but these features are insignificant as compared with the great flying buttresses and piers of the genuine arcuated or Gothic style of Northern France. In many other respects there may be traced in Scotland a certain absence of the Gothic spirit, which discarded every element not essential to the carrying out of the arcuated principle. Even in our finest structures the Romanesque or Norman influence continues to prevail. A large expanse of heavy walling, with small openings, is not unusual. In almost no building are the solid side walls omitted and light tracery substituted between the main supporting piers, as is the case in the best Gothic in France. The broad masses of masonry in the triforium and clerestory of the churches at Linlithgow and Haddington may be cited as examples of the absence of the Gothic spirit. The continued adherence to solid walls with narrow lancet-formed windows is a marked feature of both English and Scottish architecture. Moulded caps, with round abaci, are usual here, as in England, and have the same defects, both in principle and practice. In the later examples the relation between the shafts or mouldings, which carry the caps, and the arch-mouldings above them is abandoned, and that genuine Gothic principle is entirely ignored. Many of the above defections from pure Gothic arise from, or owe their origin (as we have seen) to, the use of wooden roofs. It may be argued that there is no necessity for the above principles being adhered to, and that English and Scottish architects were quite at liberty, when required, either from want of skill or absence of funds, to cover their naves with wooden roofs. That argument is at once conceded; but, then, they should have frankly acknowledged that they departed from the arcuate and adopted the trabeate system. That, however, was never done; hence the imperfect carrying out of the arcuate system, as practised in France, which we find in most of our churches, and which shows that the style was here not original, but imitative.