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speedily distinguished mediæval art, and which we cannot fail to trace in some degree to a Celtic origin.

As the fervour of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries carried their modes of faith amongst the barbarian races still unconverted in many parts of Europe, so did they carry with them an acquaintance with original types of art peculiar to the lands in which they had been reared; and which they procured to be introduced at first perhaps in manuscripts and metal-work, but ultimately in monuments, far and wide, over the continent.

As these three influences waned,—as they ultimately all three did, their place was taken by that which has been foolishly called Gothic, but which really was, as I believe, a spirit of affection for the really beautiful in art, which sprang into existence during the latter part of the twelfth century.

With the introduction of this sentiment the form of arcuation generally changed. For the round was substituted the pointed arch; a lighter scale of parts took the place of the heavy proportions, derived from the exigencies of unscientific structure and an abuse of what was vainly supposed to have been the practice of ancient Greece and Rome, and retained in the heavy Norman; piers still of ponderous section were substituted for columns; and long reeded shafts, such as those which carried the Rhenish vaultings, took the place of pilasters as they had been used in classic ages.

From the banks of the Rhine, as has been admirably traced by one whose name can never be mentioned in Cambridge but with respect,—the late Master of Trinity,—there spread over the face of Europe new systems of vaulting, and new uses of vaulting shafts and ribs.

In France, as the Church acquired wealth, power and consistency, its monuments became more and more majestic; and at Rheims, Paris, Chartres, Bayeux, Rouen, &c. monuments