know to have been discovered after wards. 3. Bishop Warburton, struck with the resemblance between a long avenue of tall elm-trees, with slim branches—and a Gothic nave-went no further for a solution of the problem. But these avenues were not planted till ages after the invention of this style. We should be nearer the truth, if we said, that the idea of the avenues was taken from the architecture. We know that all the early and barbarous attempts at pic turesque gardening were the uncouth imitations of walls, buildings, artificial, and mathematical forms. Hence parterres in the shape of the very ornaments used in architecture, and sculpture, love-knots, &c. while trees and hedges were clipped and chiselled into the form of fruits, and even of animals. Architecture and gardening abould never strive to imitate each other, their nature and principle are so irreconcileably opposite. And though the Chinese may have had avenues for a thousand years, yet they had architecture for ages before. Besides, the same objection that applies to the preceding speculation applies here, the Chinese were not known to the inventors of the style in question. But it is enough for us, that Gardening is younger than Architecture; the more antient could never have imitated at first the more modern. 4. Another ingenious solution is offered by a writer in the "Quarterly Review," vol. II. The Society of Freemasons having daily before their eyes the minarets introduced with the circular dome from the East, it must soon have struck them that these were not of a piece, and there fore they broke up the top of the arch, and pointed it! This idea would naturally occur to a modern critic sitting at leisure by the fire in his study, and without the trouble of further excursion into antiquity, having before his eyes the vignette in Clarke's Travels, representing the flattened dome of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, with its four surrounding minarets. But to the end of the world, this would never suggest any thing further than a steepled-spire; if the observer had not the idea of the pointed arch in his mind already. In tracing the bistory of inventions, it is very difficult to abstract the mind from a But the objection, in point, to this 4th theory is, that the regular semicircular dome and conical staircase followed mathematical proportions, which the pointed arch, as I will shew in the next letter, did not. The former is also the strongest; and for the very reason the latter is the weakest of all the arches; its tendency is to press obliquely against its lower extremities. And hence the necessity of buttresses. The walls of Cathedrals do naturally divaricate, and have a tendency to fall outwards. It is the property of the true circle only, to clasp together and to bind; and this wonderful property is not confined to its semi-circle, but extends to every segment of it, however small. The pointed arch would, first of all, never have occurred to mecha nics nics and builders, conversant in mathematical forms, whose object is strength; and next if it had occurred, it would have been rejected by them. 5. Dr. Clarke, in his Travels, has very eloquently argued that sepulchres were the original site, the first pattern, and the very occasion of sacred architecture, in the large sense of the word. This idea (which I will, in the next, concluding letter, shew to have arisen from the mistaking the relation of resemblance, and contiguity for that of causation) is not singular. CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS, and EUSEBIUS, both refer the origin of temples to sepulchres. The relation that struck him is certainly stronger than that of the preceding theorists, and it is more philosophical :-if it can be held philosophical to draw a general principle from one or two particular observations. He had just traversed Tartary, where he had seen innumerable tumuli; the external contour of which, and the form of their subterraneous vault (of which he gives a section), approach to that of the pointed arch. He had also just surveyed the pyramids of Egypt; and he had at that moment before his eyes the Turkish Mosque, the vast unfurnished appearance of which, together with (to a Christian observer) its solitude and silence, wherein a single votary is represented having his face turned towards Mecca, all impress us with the notion that a Turkish temple has for its prototype, as well as worship, the Impostor's tomb. But certainly among the Greeks and Romans, temples repel altogether the notion of a tomb. They were constructed in the gayest style of architecture, they were the rendezvous of public thanksgivings, festivals, and rejoicings, not omitting triumphal processions, accompanied with musick, feasting, and dancing. Even in their deprecatory sacrifices, and in consulting the oracles of their gods, life, and national prosperity and glory, not death, were in their thoughts. And while they ordinarily brought their temples into their cities, and FORUMS, at the same time, beyond the walls of these, they expressly relegated, by a law, their sepulchres. 6. Another theory is, that of intersecting arches, or, according to Barry, the intersecting angles of the cir cular-vaulted cieling of any arcade or square chamber. This idea is natural to a draughtsman, or indeed to any schoolboy drawing with compasses, in the first proposition of Euclid, two equal circles, the circumference of one of which passes through the centre of the other. The preceding theories are the hobbies of painters, travellers, and philosophers. But without going to the trouble of forming with compasses, or in masonry, these intersecting arches, we have only, after passing under any bridge, to view obliquely the intersection of the upright planes of its two opposite sides, to form the same image in perspective. There would be no end of these likenesses, if this is to be our rule of philosophising. It is sufficient to observe, that the pointed arch (as I will shew directly) existed before the circular one. 7. As to borrowing from the Orientals the Gothic arch-this is only staving off a little further the investigation. Whence did the Orientals derive this idea? It may be reduced to a very simple element, just as all the letters used in our Italian running hand-writing are reducible to a book and a straight line. But the elementary form of this arch is still simpler.-What that is, I will endeavour to shew ia my next (or concluding), letter. YORICK. Mr. URBAN, Sept. 5. neighbourhood of Tipton in StafPASSING through the populous fordshire, I was surprized to observe Tipton old Church in a state of great apparent decay, and at being informed that the new Church is the only one fit for Divine Service. On my return home, I looked into Shaw's Staffordshire, expecting to find some particulars; but was completely disappointed at meeting with little more information than that two such Churches were there when he wrote, and that the old one was then in a state of decay. If I do not widely mistake, the population there must be abundant to fill both Churches; and it seems a matter of great national importance that those who would gladly attend the Established service, should, if possible, be accommodated, and not be driven to Dissenting places of worship through the Church being unfit to receive them. M. Mr. Mr. URBAN, August 1. HE accompanying View (see Plate THE Pristic of the fine rock-scenery of the Wye, though not its richest specimen. Gilpin says, (Tour, p. 37,)" At Coldwell, the front screen first appears as a woody hill, swelling to a point. In a few minutes, it changes its shape, and the woody bill becomes a lofty side screen on the right; while the front unfolds itself into a majestic piece of rock scenery." The Monument (for the sake of effect) is introduced into the rock scene, though it is situated upon an opposite bank of woody acclivity, In September 1804, Mr. and Mrs. Warre, of Hendon, in Middlesex, were making a tour down the river, and stopped here for refreshment. Tempted by the fineness of the day, their son, a youth of 16, was induced to bathe, but, in attempting to cross the stream, suddenly sunk. One Smith, a boatinan, dived after him, but the youth caught him so strongly by the arms, that Smith with difficulty extricating himself, was obliged to leave him to his fate. The Monument was erected by the afflicted parents near the spot. A. B. C. Mr. URBAN, THE Aug. 26. HE following account of an extraordinary Oak may be interesting to some of your Readers. "The large Golanos Oak, which was felled in the year 1810 for the use of his Majesty's Navy, grew about four miles from the town of Newport in Monmouthshire. The main trunk at 10 feet long, produced 450 cubic feet; one limb 335, one do. 472, one do. 236, one do. 156, one do. 106, one do. 113, and six other limbs, of inferior size, averaged 93 feet each, making the whole number 2426 cubic feet; which at 40 feet to the load, is rather more than 60 loads of sound and convertible timber. "The bark was estimated at six tons; but, as some of the very heavy body bark was stolen out of the barge at Newport, the exact weight is not known. Five men were twenty days stripping and cutting down this tree, and a pair of sawyers were five months converting it, without losing a single day (Sundays excepted). The money paid for converting only, independent of the expence of carriage, was 821.; and the whole produce of the tree, when brought to market, was within GENT. MAG. October, 1817. a trifle of 6001. It was bought standing for 4051. The main trunk was 92 feet in diameter, and in sawing it through, a stone was discovered six feet from the ground, above a yard in the body of the tree, through which the saw cut; the stone was six inches in diameter, and completely shut in, but round which there was not the least symptom of decay. "The rings in its butt were carefully reckoned, and amounted to above 400 in number; a convincing proof that this tree was in an improving state for upwards of 400 years: and as the ends of some of its branches were decayed, and had dropped off, it is presumed it had stood a great number of years after it had attained its maturity." The above account came from an eminent Ship-builder in my neighbourhood, and I have no reason to doubt its accuracy. D. A.Y. Mr. URBAN, Sept. 1. LAVING accidentally purchased HA some MS Tours of a highly-respectable Kentish Divine (of whom you have given a biographical account in vol. LXXXII. P. ii. p. 291), I trust you will think extracts from them may be acceptable to your readers. The Tourist seems (like ourselves, I believe I may say, Mr. Urban,) to have been enthusiastically fond of hearing "the solemn organ blow To the deep-ton'd Choir below." On arriving at a Provincial city, the Cathedral, and its service, were the first objects of his enquiry. If you think fit to admit what I now send, other extracts shall follow for your future Numbers. N. R. S. Journal of my Travels in the June 25. The week was chiefly spent in business, and at the Cathedrals of Westminster and St. Paul's till Sunday, June 26. In the morning to the Asylum: Mr. Hodgson preached a decent Sermon, and well delivered. Two of the girls, who seemed about 16, sung an Anthem, with musick in their hands: they sung very prettily, but to me it had too much of the theatrical appearance. In the afternoon, to the Magdalen, John Thompson preached. He spoke very well, very earnestly, but very much too fast. His text, "Rebuke a wise |