Gents Mag 1840 part 2 p.157
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Gentleman's Magazine 1840 part 2 p.157
the general rule. The attempt to trace out the harmony and the proportions of Gothic architecture to their true source is creditable to Mr. Billings, and will be sufficient to place his name high upon the list of the scientific writers on the architectural styles. One extract more and we will conclude:- "We allude to the east end of the cathedral, (the author is apeaking of Carlisle) the gem of the building. By examination it will be found that an equilateral triangle, whose base is the whole width of the cathedral, comprised the total height of the east end to the point of the gable. This cannot be refuted; and if it were attempted, we could refer triumphaantly to the upper window in the gable, where that form is repeated four times. Although it may be as well to avoid the question of symbolical forms, the idea that this window was intended to convey a type of unity of the Trinity - all coequal, neither superior or inferior, so forcibly strikes the imagination, that we cannot refrain from expressing our belief that the architect designed it with that intention." We have no doubt that the window in question was designed with the very object which Mr. Billings alludes, - the architectural "three in one;" so aptly designated by the late John Carter, and to be met with in some shape or other in every early structure, was by that eminent writer always judged to be an emblem of the sacred Trinity. The doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement were never lost sight of in our ancient churches. The repeated occurrence of the triplication of parts, held and bound together by a common band of union, is seen in the windows, the cusps, the columns, the mouldings, and the ground plan; and the form of a cross is equally conspicuous and predominating, showing incontrovertibly that even the fabric of an ancient church bore testimony to the Catholicity of the doctrines which it was erected to support and promulgate. |
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