Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/484

382 ON THE LATE, OR DEBASED, " ad valli marginem," and therefore the words " duplici vallo," or double ditch, imply to my mind that the work was two- fold, enceinte and envelope ; moreover, the introduction of the plate in 1674, shows that it was intended to represent the fortifications that were really made, not merely such as were suggested. The difference between the Latin translation and Wood's own manuscript, appears to have arisen from the following cause : the Latin translation is not from Wood's own pen, it was made by one Richard Peers, a student of Christ Church, who offended Anthony a Wood by permitting Dr, Fell to insert passages not in the original ; but where one can detect no motive for alteration, save a regard for the preservation of facts, I am ready to receive and acknowledge him as worthy of credit, and believe the works at Oxford to have been such as are represented in the plan which he has given, — such as never before or since were constructed in England, or, as far as I am aware, in any other country. GIBBS RIGAUD, Capt. 60 <A B^g. Royal Rifles. ON THE LATE, OR DEBASED, GOTHIC BUILDINGS OF OXFORD. FROM THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. READ AT THE MEETING OF THE ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE AT OXFORD, JUNE, 1850. Gothic Architecture seems to have attained its ultimate per- fection in the fourteenth century, at which period every thing belonging to it was conceived and executed in a free and bold spirit, all the forms were graceful and natural, and all the details of foliage and other sculptures were copied from living types, with a skill and truth of drawing which has never been surpassed. Conventional forms were in a great measure abandoned, and it seems to have been rightly and truly considered that the fittest monuments for the House of God were faithful copies of His works, and so long as this principle continued to be acted on, so long did Gothic Archi- tecture remain pure. But in the succeeding century, under the later Henrys and Edwards, a gradual decline took place, everything was moulded to suit a preconceived idea, the foliage lost its freshness, and was moulded into something of a rectangular form, the arches were depressed, the windows