Gardenvisit.com The Garden Guide

Book: Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, 1816
Chapter: Fragment XxvIII. Containing Extracts From The Report On Woburn Abbey.

Roman arch

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The arch was rather of Roman than Grecian invention; and, when composed of a semicircle, its construction belongs rather to perpendicular than to lateral pressure; but in every other arch (except the elliptical and the Catanarean arch) there is a great lateral pressure, and this constitutes the basis, or first principle, of Gothic architecture; to which pinnacles and finials, and other parts, were added for the purpose of strength to the abuttals, although frequently mistaken, and ignorantly copied, as if merely ornamental.