all of which have been already referred to. In a
great part of that large portion of Europe, which is included under
the name of Germany, the materials and modes of construction adopted
during the middle ages, bear a close resemblance to those in general
use in France and England.

Some of the characteristics of German Gothic design have been already
alluded to. The German architects display an exuberant fancy, a great
love of the picturesque, and even the grotesque, and a strong
predilection for creating artificial difficulties in order to enjoy
the pleasure of surmounting them. Their work is full of unrest; they
attach small value to the artistic quality of breadth, and destroy the
value of the plain surfaces of their buildings as contrasts to the
openings, by cutting them up by mouldings and enrichments of various
sorts. The sculpture introduced is, as a rule, naturalistic rather
than conventional. The capitals of piers and columns are often fine
specimens of effective carving, while the delicate and ornamental
details of the tabernacle work with which church furniture is
enriched, are unsurpassed in elaboration, and often of rare beauty.
The churches of Nuremberg are specially distinguished for the richness
and number of their sculptured fittings. There is, moreover, in some
of the best German buildings a rugged grandeur which approaches the
sublime; and in the humbler ones a large amount of picturesque and
thoroughly successful architecture.

In the smaller objects upon which the art of the architect was often
employed the Germans were frequently happy. Public fountains, such for
example as the one illustrated in Chapter II. (Fig. 10), are to be met
within the streets of many towns, and rarely fail to please by their
simple, graceful, and often quaint design. Crosses, monuments, and
individual features in domestic buildings, such _e.g._ as bay windows,
frequently show a very skilful and picturesque treatment and happy
enrichment.

NORTHERN EUROPE.

Gothic architecture closely resembling German work may be found in
Switzerland, Norway and Sweden, and Denmark; but there are few very
conspicuous buildings, and not enough variety to form a distinct
style. In Norway and Sweden curious and picturesque buildings exist,
erected solely of timber, and both there and in Switzerland many of
the traditions of the Gothic period have been handed down to our own
day with comparatively little change, in the pleasing and oft