Montero. “A close hood wherewith travellers preserve their faces and heads from frostbiting and weather-beating in winter.” (Cotgrave.)
Monteth, O. E. A vessel used for cooling wine-glasses in. (Halliwell.)
Mont-la-haut. “A certain wier (wire) that raises the head-dress by degrees or stories.” (Ladies’ Dict., 1694.)
Montmorency Escutcheon. (See the illustration to Hunting flask.)
Monumentum, R. (moneo, to remind). In general, any token, statue, or monument intended to perpetuate the memory of anything. Monumentum sepulchri is the name given to a tomb. The Monument of the Great Fire of London, erected by Sir Christopher Wren, is of the Italo-Vitruvian-Doric order, of Portland stone, and consists of a pedestal about 21 feet square, with a plinth 27 feet, and a fluted shaft 15 feet at the base; on the abacus is a balcony encompassing a moulded cylinder, which supports a flaming vase of gilt bronze, indicative of its commemoration of the Great Fire. Defoe describes it as “built in the form of a candle with a handsome gilt frame.” Its entire height is 202 feet, and it is the loftiest isolated column in the world. Its interior contains a spiral staircase of 345 black marble steps. (See Cochlis.)
Monyal, O. E. for Mullion (q.v.).
Moorish Architecture, or Arabian or Mohammedan architecture, arose at the beginning of the 7th century in the East, and in Spain, Sicily, and Byzantium in Europe. The style originated in a free adaptation of different features of Christian architecture, and their earliest mosques were built by Christian architects. The horse-shoe arch is a very early characteristic of their style, and the pointed arch appears at Cairo and elsewhere three centuries earlier than in Europe. The most perfect specimen of the luxury of decoration of which this style is capable is found in the Alhambra. (See Alhambraic Architecture; consult the Essai sur l’Architecture des Arabes et des Mores, by Girault de Prangy, 1841.)
Moor-stone. A very coarse granite found in Cornwall and some other parts of England, and of great value for the coarser parts of building; it is also found in immense strata in Ireland. Its colours are chiefly black and white.
Moot-hall, O. E. A public assembly-house; a town hall, &c. (See Moat.)
Mora, R. (mora, an obstacle). A projection or cross-bar on a spear to prevent its penetrating too far.