3 - FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO LOUDON'S “ARCHITECTURAL MAGAZINE” (1838, 1839), WITH A PAPER FROM LOUDON'S EDITION OF REPTON'S “LANDSCAPE GARDENING” (1840)

Summary

[Bibliographical Note.—Particulars of the first publication of the papers in this section are given at the beginning of each one. None of them has hitherto been reprinted in this country; the paper on the Scott Monument, etc., No. IV., below, was included in the American edition of The Poetry of Architecture. No MS. of these papers has been discovered. For introductory notes on them, see above, pp. xxxviii., xlvi.]

NOTES ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PERSPECTIVE

Remarks on the Convergence of Perpendiculars.

1. If Candidus had reflected a little more attentively on the cause of the apparent convergence of retiring lines, he would not have been so witty at Mr. Parsey's expense, and would not have committed the absurdity of supposing that perpendiculars were not subject to the same laws as horizontal or inclined lines.

First. Let Fig. 32 be a space of flat pavement, the chequering lines of which are at right angles to each other; one series going to the point of sight a; consequently, the others are all at right angles to the line of vision a b. These, therefore, do not retire from the spectator, and will not appear to converge. But the eye is incapable of receiving at once rays of light which enter it converging at a greater angle than 60°.