Publisher's Synopsis
-We rejoice to see that this work has attained to a third edition; this proves that there is a steady, hard-working body of students of Gothic Architecture, for there is nothing attractive about the work except the subject. It appears to have been studiously made as dry and uninteresting, as much like a mathematical treatise, as possible. This observation, however, does not apply at all exclusively to Mr. Paley's work, it is one of the characteristics of the school to which he belongs; an affectation of learning, and a wish to display it; a desire to show the world the great qualities of the author, that he is really a great scholar and a mathematician, takes the place of the desire to make his work as simple and easy, and as attractive to the learner, as possible. The manner of spelling the word Moulding adopted in this work-that is, the medieval form of Molding-is an instance of affectation: to adopt the spelling of a period when nobody knew how to spell his own name, when the language was altogether unformed, is absurd. Nor is Mr. Paley consistent in this, for the true medieval form is Mold, and not Molding. He has, however, the good sense to retain the established English names for the different styles of Gothic Architecture, and does not adopt the erroneous, misleading names of "First Pointed, Middle Pointed," &c, though his editor considers it necessary to apologize for not adopting this nonsensical fashion: or perhaps he does this out of policy, to conciliate his companions who have stuck to the blunders of their youth and inexperience. He has fortunately no need to introduce the new-fangled terms of Hagioscope and Lychnoscope, without himself knowing "which is which," as several of his school have done in various "Papers," in Journals.
Mr. Fawcett has certainly improved this work greatly; it is now possible to find out the names of the places from which the mouldings are taken in most instances without wading through the whole mass of unreadable text, but as for the dates, neither Mr. Paley nor Mr. Fawcett is sufficiently up to the mark to put them, although they profess in the title-page to do so, and the want of them makes the work very unsatisfactory and confused. A Manual of Gothic Mouldings ought to be strictly an historical work. The buildings of the principal architects or builders in each succeeding generation should have been carefully examined, and the mouldings of each carefully delineated. Such a work would be an important and most useful guide to the age of any building -although we cannot go the length of Mr. Paley and Mr. Fawcett, even though backed by Mr. Brandon, in asserting that mouldings were never copied in after ages. If they had been acquainted with the buildings of Somersetshire, we think they would have modified their assertions considerably. However, as a general rule, mouldings were not copied, as witness the nave of Westminster Abbey compared with the choir; the general forms are carefully copied, the mouldings are not. A real Manual of Gothic Mouldings is still a desideratum which is not supplied by Mr. Paley and Mr. Fawcett.
The five new plates added to this edition are the best in the book, and the woodcuts now inserted in the text make it far more intelligible than it was before, and are a great improvement. But the want of dates, and of a strictly chronological arrangement, are great drawbacks, and irremediable, except by an entirely new work.
-The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review, Volume 219
