WEMBLY. The characters of Grecian and Gothic architecture are better distinguished by an attention to their general effects, than to the minute parts peculiar to each. It is in architecture as in painting, beauty depends on light and shade, and these are caused by the openings or projections in the surface: if these tend to produce horizontal lines, the building must be deemed Grecian, however whimsically the doors or windows may be constructed: if, on the contrary, the shadows give a prevalence of perpendicular lines, the general character of the building will be Gothic: and this is evident from the large houses built in Queen Elizabeth's reign, where Grecian columns are introduced; nevertheless, we always consider them as Gothic buildings.
In Grecian architecture, we expect large cornices, windows ranged perfectly on the same line, and that line often more strongly marked by an horizontal fascia; but there are few breaks of any great depth; and if there be a portico, the shadow made by the columns is very trifling, compared with that broad horizontal shadow proceeding from the soffit; and the only ornament its roof will admit, is either a flat pediment, departing very little from the horizontal tendency, or a dome, still rising from an horizontal base. With such buildings it may often be observed, that trees of a pointed or conic shape have a beautiful effect, I believe chiefly from the circumstances of contrast; though an association with the ideas of Italian paintings, where we often see Grecian edifices blended with firs and cypresses, may also have some influence on the mind.
