“For all their individual variety, the wonderful collection of pinnacles, crockets, turrets, urns, chimneys and statues on the roofs integrate the composition of the whole, softening the potentially harsh link between bright sky and dark buildings. Just as in Greek and Roman classical architecture, with its cornices and pediments that rely on intensely sharp sunlight to produce deep shadows, interesting and varied skylines are one of the many architecture responses to the English climate with its many days of rain and mist.”

Chapter 5, page 137