170 ox THE GEOMETFJCAL PERIOD OP ON THE GE0:METRICAL PEEIOD of GOTHIC AECHITECTURE, BY E. SHARPE, M.A. READ AT THE LIXCOLX ILEETIXG OF THE INSTITUTE IN JULY, 1848. We have been so long accustomed to speak of our national architecture in the terms and according to the classification bequeathed to us by Mr. Rickman, and those terms and that classification are so well understood, and have been so universally adopted, that any proposal to supersede the one or to mocUfy the other, requires somewhat more than a mere apology. To disturb a nomenclature of long standing, to set aside terms in familiar use, and to set up others in their place which are strange, and therefore at first unintelligible, inYolves an interruption of that facility with which we are accustomed to communicate with one other on an}" given subject, that is only to be justified by reasons of a cogent and satisfactory" nature. The sufficiency of Mr. Rickman's nomenclature and divisions, and their suitableness at the time and for the purpose for which they were made, are best evidenced by the fact, that, although the attempts to supersede them have been both numerous and persevering, they have remained for nearly half a century the principal guide to the architec- tural student ; and Mr. Rickman's " Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England " is still the text-book from which the greater part of the popular works of the present day have been compiled. In referring, however, to these attempts to supersede Mr. Rickman's system, it is proper to remark that one observation applies to the whole of them ; although they propose to change the nomenclature of his different styles, or to subdivide them, his main division of English architec- ture into four great periods or styles, is adopted by all, and still remains undisturbed. No point, therefore, has been hitherto proposed to be gained by these alterations beyond a change of name : and this may be taken as a sufficient reason why none of these attempts have been
