Excerpt from Essays on Gothic Architecture The want of a concife hiftorical account of Gothic architecture has been a juft caufe of complaint: the fubjeet is peculiarly interefting to every Englifhman, as his country contains the belt fpecimens of a ite of building not unequal in grace, beauty, and ornament, to the moit celebrated remains of Greece or Rome. This {tyle of architecture may pro perly be called Englifh architecture, for if it had not its origin in this country, it certainly arrived at maturity here the fcience and tafte of our forefathers being equally confpicuous with their piety and liberality. On this fub jeet, England mutt be confidered as a country, for it was under the Saxon dynatty this fte of building was introduced, and under the Nor man dynafty it received its ultimate degree of beauty and perfection. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.