A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS

A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS

A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS

No
person can have devoted
much time
and pains to the
in-
vestigation of Christian
architecture, as it
was practised in
this country
during
the Middle Ages, without feeling
the im-
portance of acquiring an
accurate
knowledge of Moldings.*
That certain conventional
forms or
details were in use at
certain periods, and
were uniformly adopted
in the constructive
decoration of
all
edifices, ecclesiastical and secular, throughout
the
length and breadth
of the land,
with varieties rather of
combination
or
disposition
than of
the component members,
is an undoubted fact, well known to
and admitted by all who
have
paid any
attention
to the
subject. But whence these
forms
arose, whether from a natural
process of gradual develop-
ment,
or from some real
or pretended
secret of freehrasonry,
or, lastly, from mere accident or
caprice, are
curious questions,
which,
so far as
the author is
aware, have
never yet been
made
the
subjects of much
investigation.
Again,
how
far the same
forms were arbitrary
or obligatory
in ancient
freemasonwork,
how
far they
emanated from some
particular source, and were
dispensed
by
authority through
the
country,
or were
assumed
by
some tacit agreement on
the
part of the
masons themselves,
are equally interesting
speculations,
though,
perhaps,
equally
*
This, the ancient
orthography of
the word,
has been adopted after
Professor
Willis.

F.A.PALEY,M.A