Sx 
 
A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
A MANUAL 
 
 OF 
 
 GOTHIC MOLDINGS 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 
 
 ON THEIR 
 
 FORMATIONS, GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT, 
 COMBINATIONS, AND VARIETIES; 
 
 WITH FULL DIRECTIONS FOR COPYING THEM, AND FOR 
 DETERMINING THEIR DATES. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY NEARLY SIX HUNDRED EXAMPLES. 
 
 By F. A. PALEY, M.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF “ A MANUAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE,” ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 M.DCCC.XLVII. 
 
Cofi> 5 
 
 NP 
 
 uo 
 
 / o s 
 
 p a 
 
 I £ Y7 
 
 V 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, 
 Bangor House, Shoe Lane. 
 
 
 THE GETTY CENTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
TO 
 
 J. H. PORTEUS OAKES, Esq., 
 
 OF NOWTON COURT, BURY S. EDMUNDS, 
 
 THIS SMALL TOKEN OF ESTEEM, 
 
 FOR THE ZEAL AND LIBERALITY WHICH HE HAS EVER EXHIBITED 
 
 IN THE CAUSE OF CATHOLIC ART, 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 
 BY HIS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 This volume is the substance of two papers read before the 
 Cambridge Camden Society in the year 3 844, and illustrated 
 at the time by the full-sized sections of ancient Gothic Mold¬ 
 ings, of which the greater part is now presented to the reader 
 on a reduced scale, with the addition of some others subse¬ 
 quently procured. 
 
 Perhaps more than ordinary indulgence may fairly be claimed 
 for the many faults and imperfections which those who are 
 conversant with the science of Moldings will doubtless detect 
 in the course of the work. Written in great measure at the 
 solicitation of Members of the above Society, amidst various 
 engagements which caused frequent interruptions and long 
 delays; written, too, upon a subject hitherto, it may almost 
 be said, uninvestigated, and requiring for its illustration by far 
 the most difficult kind of sketches on which the architectural 
 pencil can be employed ; the merit of completeness and per¬ 
 fect accuracy it cannot reasonably claim, while any pretension 
 to deep research or scientific discovery it would seem presump¬ 
 tuous in the author to entertain. 
 
 Uninviting as the study may at first sight appear, upon a 
 casual survey of the present series of illustrations, it is believed 
 that its acknowledged importance as a primary department of 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Ecclesiology will soon render it a popular one, when sufficient 
 information shall have been afforded, in a practical and intel¬ 
 ligible form, to induce the uninitiated student to enter upon it. 
 Of the great interest which it in reality possesses, all will readily 
 be convinced who have once made the trial. And till better 
 works appear, the “ Manual of Gothic Moldings 1 ’ is offered as 
 an elementary treatise, a grammar of that language which is 
 inscribed on every detail, and which speaks in mysterious though 
 expressive characters upon every page of the imperishable 
 Records of the Medieval Church. 
 
 S. John’s College, Cambridge, 
 
 The Feast of the Annunciation. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The gradual but steady sale of a limited impression of the 
 “ Manual of Gothic Moldings” has induced the author to pre¬ 
 pare, and the publisher to adventure a new, revised, and 
 considerably improved edition of that work. Though the sub¬ 
 ject is now pretty generally understood, (and it must here 
 be confessed that it is neither a very extensive nor a very 
 difficult one,) and though an immense improvement in prac¬ 
 tical architecture has been made, in this as in other respects, 
 during the two or three last years, still it appears probable 
 that a book of reference and of select examples may continue 
 to prove acceptable, especially as no other work has as yet 
 been announced to verify the author’s anticipations that a 
 more elaborate and scientific treatise would have soon followed, 
 and deservedly superseded his own elementary and introductory 
 performance. 
 
 It is true that the means of learning the characteristic 
 details of Gothic Moldings are now abundantly at command, 
 much more so, indeed, than when the present work was first 
 published in 1845. The valuable examples in Mr. Sharpe s 
 “ Architectural Parallels,” the “ Guide to the Churches ot 
 Oxfordshire,” Mr. Potter’s “ Monastic Remains,” the “ York¬ 
 shire, Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire, and Northamptonshire 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Churches,” periodically issued; Messrs. Brandon’s “ Analysis,” 
 Professor Willis’s “ Architectural History of Canterbury and 
 Winchester Cathedrals,” Mr. Bowman’s “ Specimens of Ecclesi¬ 
 astical Architecture,” and several other recent works, contain 
 numerous and excellent illustrations of moldings of all kinds. 
 A few cuts (drawn on wood by the author) have been in¬ 
 troduced into the present edition, illustrative of the text, and 
 five new plates of examples added. 
 
 Alton Towers. 
 
 The Vigil of All Saints, 1847. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. —Introductory 
 
 • 
 
 1 
 
 II. —The general Principles of Formation 
 
 • 
 
 11 
 
 III. —Of copying Moldings . 
 
 • 
 
 . 23 
 
 IV. —Of Early Moldings in general . 
 
 • 
 
 29 
 
 V. —Of Early English Moldings . 
 
 • 
 
 . 34 
 
 VI. —Of Decorated Moldings 
 
 • 
 
 41 
 
 VII. —Of Perpendicular Moldings . 
 
 • 
 
 . 54 
 
 VIII. —Of the Plans of Gothic Columns 
 
 » • 
 
 60 
 
 IX. —Of Capitals .... 
 
 • • 
 
 . 65 
 
 X.— Of Bases .... 
 
 • • 
 
 76 
 
 XI. —Of Hood-moldings and String-courses 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 No person can have devoted much time and pains to the in¬ 
 vestigation of Christian Architecture, as it was practised in this 
 country during the Middle Ages, without feeling the importance 
 of acquiring an accurate knowledge of Moldings.* That certain 
 conventional forms or details were in use at certain periods, and 
 were uniformly adopted in the constructive decoration of all 
 edifices, ecclesiastical and secular, throughout the length and 
 breadth of the land, with varieties rather of combination or dis¬ 
 position, than of the component members, is an undoubted 
 fact, well known to and admitted by all who have paid any 
 attention to the subject. But whence these forms arose, -whether 
 (as is most probable) from a natural process of gradual develop¬ 
 ment, or from some esoteric principle of symbolical design ; 
 whether they originated in some real or pretended secret of free¬ 
 masonry, or, lastly, in mere accident or caprice, are curious 
 questions, which, so far as the author is aware, have never yet 
 been made the subjects of much investigation. Again, how far 
 the same forms were arbitrary or obligatory in ancient free- 
 masonwork, how far they emanated from some particular source, 
 and were dispensed by authority through the country, or were 
 assumed by some tacit agreement on the part of the masons 
 themselves, are equally interesting speculations, though, perhaps, 
 
 * This, the ancient orthography of the word, has been adopted after Profes¬ 
 sor Willis. 
 
 B 
 
 «v 
 
2 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 equally difficult to determine. However this may have been, it 
 is quite certain that a strict intercourse must have been kept up 
 between the members of this body of artisans, or almost every 
 ancient church would exhibit new and strange varieties in the 
 details of its moldings. When we consider the difficulty which 
 then existed of constant and speedy communication between 
 distant parts of the country, this general resemblance and unifor¬ 
 mity, not only indeed in moldings, hut in all the parts and fea¬ 
 tures of Church architecture, must appear still more surprising. 
 There is in all these enough of licence and variety to make the 
 knowledge of them a comprehensive and difficult study to us, 
 and yet such evident resemblance and decided adherence to rule, 
 as to convince us that some system must have been observed both 
 in designing and executing them. 
 
 Or shall we refer this acknowledged uniformity to no more 
 recondite cause than fashion ? Shall we say, that as the same 
 kind of hat, or coat, or other article of dress, is seen in London 
 which we find commonly used at York, with varieties, indeed, 
 and a considerable degree of caprice in adorning or diversifying 
 them ; and that, as all these things are exclusively in the hands 
 of certain bodies, as hatters and tailors, and no one ever dreams 
 of employing others than these in providing them ; so there was 
 at once a fashion and a monopoly in architecture, and a solecism 
 in moldings would have seemed to the ancient churchmen as 
 striking and offensive a fault as we consider a solecism in dress ! 
 Perhaps this is the most rational and probable view; hut then 
 it is one so very different from modern architectural practice, in 
 which every professor is at liberty to design just as he pleases, 
 and even when he pretends to imitate, is apt very freely to 
 indulge his own pleasure, and even to ridicule the restraints of 
 strict rule, that it certainly does appear strange and unaccount¬ 
 able to us. 
 
 However, all these questions are quite foreign to the object 
 of the present work. They are all the province of the Antiquary 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 3 
 
 rather than the Architect, and as such we do not propose to say 
 anything more about them, especially as we are quite incom¬ 
 petent to give any learned solution of the difficulty which they 
 involve. But this we may reasonably observe, that it is to be 
 regretted that so little has yet been done in reducing to a 
 science this most interesting and most practically important 
 department of sacred architecture. Probably a fancied un¬ 
 certainty and obscurity of the study, or want of sufficient data 
 founded on philosophical principles; our ignorance of the exact 
 periods at which buildings were erected, and the apparent ano¬ 
 malies and inconsistencies which seem often to occur, have all 
 tended to deter even the most competent from writing a com¬ 
 plete treatise on the subject. To these may be added the tedi¬ 
 ousness of making any considerable collection of drawings and 
 sections of moldings, the delay and difficulty of copying them 
 with minute accuracy, and the great observation and research 
 which are necessary for attaining a knowledge of their history 
 and true theory. These are causes at once sufficient to render 
 a first attempt imperfect, and to induce the reader to pardon any 
 errors or deficiencies which he may notice in the course of the 
 present work. 
 
 We say a first attempt , because, with the exception of not a 
 few good and valuable specimens which may be found dispersed 
 through various periodicals and popular works on Gothic archi¬ 
 tecture, no contributions have been made towards elucidating the 
 subject, or at least, no systematic treatise on moldings has 
 appeared, containing rules for determining styles and dates, or 
 classifying the different orders. Of the numerous and costly 
 publications on Gothic architecture which have issued from the 
 press since the time of the admirable John Carter—of all the 
 treatises which have been written, and all the essays which have 
 been read, not one has come to our knowledge, in which more 
 than a very partial and casual mention is made of moldings. 
 To Professor Willis, whose most valuable and acute investiga- 
 
4 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 tions into the science of Christian architecture are already known 
 to the public, and whose interesting works on the Architecture 
 and the Nomenclature of the Middle Ages contain some im¬ 
 portant remarks on the present subject, we have already ven¬ 
 tured to say that the hopes of those are directed, who feel the 
 want of a full and philosophical exposition of the science of 
 Gothic moldings; and it is not, perhaps, too much to express our 
 own very sincere desire, that those hopes may some day be 
 realised. 
 
 In the mean time, an humble attempt to supply in some 
 measure this acknowledged want will meet with more or less 
 favour according to its deserts. It may possibly be said, Why 
 should such profitless pains be taken in investigating these dull 
 and insignificant minutiae: why should we not be content to 
 copy them in our new churches without writing books about 
 them, and so turning an amusing pursuit into a hard lesson, 
 by imposing on beginners so much to learn ? We answer, that 
 moldings are of the greatest possible importance: so much so, 
 that they have rightly been called “ the very grammar of the 
 art.'” They are by far the most certain, and very frequently 
 the only guides in determining the dates of buildings, or of 
 architectural members; they are just as essential to a know¬ 
 ledge of architecture, as a map is to the study of geography. 
 In practice, too, they are of the first importance. No one 
 has any claim to the name of architect, who thinks the science 
 of moldings beneath his notice. 
 
 It must be confessed, that till within the last three or four 
 years, very serious, and indeed surprising mistakes w r ere fre¬ 
 quently committed, even by architects of great repute, in the 
 details of their moldings. There was but little discrimination 
 of styles, and a general poverty of appearance prevailed, espe¬ 
 cially in the working of capitals and bases. In modern struc¬ 
 tures of considerable pretension it is but too common to find 
 the most wretched and meagre imitations of ancient examples, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the spirit and character of which are completely lost or per¬ 
 verted by some culpable violation of leading principles.* This 
 certainly ought not to be. It is impossible that professional 
 men should now acquire respect and celebrity, when they neglect 
 such essential elements of their art. It is gratifying to find 
 such rapid improvement and so much increased attention on 
 the part of our present architects, who are fully sensible to 
 the great importance of correct moldings to the effect, as well 
 as to the distinctive character of their designs. 
 
 In making these preliminary remarks, the author would by 
 no means discourage amateurs from essaying the task because 
 it is difficult, and is very far indeed from implying his own 
 competency to be their guide and instructor in doing so. A 
 work on moldings may have any one of the three following ends 
 in view. It may either contain a great collection of the best 
 examples, accurately reduced to a scale, or accompanied by 
 measurements, so as to form a magazine of reference, and thus 
 supply the wants of practical men, who may often be unable 
 to procure in their immediate neighbourhood any available mo¬ 
 dels ; or, secondly, it may profess to be a complete and elaborate 
 exposition of the theory of moldings, dealing with principles 
 rather than with bare facts, and taking a comprehensive view of 
 the whole subject through the medium of the Classic and Ro¬ 
 manesque varieties; or, lastly, it may be an elementary treatise, 
 intended only to convey plain and easy information on the most 
 ordinary forms, and on the differences observable in each style. 
 The first could perhaps be satisfactorily accomplished only by a 
 professional man, who might be supposed to know the wants of 
 architects and the best method of supplying them. The second 
 would require not only very considerable acuteness and ingenuity, 
 
 * As an instance, the molding of the rich and costly archway in the centre of 
 the cloister to the new buildings of S. John’s College, Cambridge, is partly 
 Early English and partly debased Perpendicular; apparently an original com¬ 
 position of the late Mr. Rickman’s. 
 
6 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 but the observation and collections of many years. The last 
 alone seems capable of being tolerably well treated by an ama¬ 
 teur, who has himself seen the want of some work on the subject, 
 and been thrown entirely upon his own resources in examining 
 and investigating it. 
 
 Such then is the aim and object of the present work, the 
 pretensions of which are humble, as the method of treatment 
 is simple and practical as far as possible. It is obvious that 
 the number of examples given might be absolutely unlimited, 
 and that to attempt a complete illustration would require many 
 hundreds of engravings, and a judicious selection out of thou¬ 
 sands of drawings. Such extensive resources the author does 
 not profess to possess; nor can he even assert that every one 
 of the examples he has given, from a collection of a few hun¬ 
 dreds of full-sized sections, and about as many drawings, made 
 at different times and places by the eye alone, is of that perfect 
 and minute accuracy which might have been attained by a 
 laborious reduction of full-sized outlines to one and the same 
 scale. The object being to explain details and formations, and 
 to point out differences, rather than to furnish models for modern 
 imitation, this extreme faithfulness of delineation, though of 
 course highly desirable, is unnecessary, and was in the present 
 case quite impracticable. For the same reason the measure¬ 
 ments are only occasionally added.* The specimens engraved 
 are mostly those of ordinary occurrence, rather than examples 
 of rare exceptions to the general practice of the ancient archi¬ 
 tects. 
 
 Viewed as an inductive science, the study of Gothic moldings 
 is as curious and interesting in itself as it is important in its 
 results. Any one who engages actively in it will be amply 
 repaid, if only by the enlarged views he will acquire of the 
 ancient principles of effect, arrangement, and composition. The 
 
 * Most of the woodcuts, and the examples in the five last plates, have been 
 reduced from actual measurements. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 7 
 
 curves, the shadows, and the blending forms, are really in 
 themselves extremely beautiful, and will soon become the fa¬ 
 vourites of a familiar eye; though viewed without understand¬ 
 ing, they may seem only an unmeaning cluster of holes, nooks, 
 and shapeless excrescences. Many persons are not aware that 
 every group can be analysed with perfect ease and certainty; 
 that every member is cut by rule, and arranged by certain 
 laws of combination. But such is surely the case ; and a know¬ 
 ledge of the fact should convince the student of the reasonable¬ 
 ness of the study. Let him only enter upon it, and he will 
 be rewarded for his pains. The only necessary conditions are, 
 a tolerable idea of delineation, and a general interest in church 
 architecture. Possessed of these simple qualifications, he will 
 be led on by his subject from step to step, almost imperceptibly, 
 ever observing and adding to his store of facts and examples, 
 and tracing out to his own satisfaction the forms and processes 
 through which he conceives moldings to have passed in the 
 various stages of their development. He will learn to pro¬ 
 nounce with confidence the date of the merest fragment of 
 sculptured stone. A broken piece of a capital, a string-course, 
 or a door-jamb, dug up on the reputed site of an ancient build¬ 
 ing, will tell him of what style and date the fabric was, of 
 which so insignificant a remnant alone remains. He will ever 
 and anon meet with some new and singular conformation, per¬ 
 haps overturning his previously formed theories,—perhaps clearly 
 reducible to and confirmatory of them. He will look at every 
 ancient building, however dilapidated or defaced, with a more 
 searching eye,—for he will be sure to find in its very demo¬ 
 lition peculiar facilities for research. He will regard every 
 shattered arch with a new attention. He will find the same 
 satisfaction in examining it (a melancholy satisfaction perhaps, 
 yet a like feeling of keen interest) which a botanist finds in 
 a rare plant, a herald in an ancient escutcheon, or a geologist 
 in a fine specimen. 
 
8 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 The learner must be duly apprised that the best work on 
 Gothic moldings which could possibly be written will do no 
 more than set him in the right way to obtain a knowledge of 
 the subject by his own research. A few examples in the page 
 of a book are as nothing, if he does not apply in practice that 
 which he has learned from them. The look of a molding is 
 so very different in section, projected in a reduced size on paper, 
 from its appearance in perspective reality, that the same form 
 seen in the one may not even be recognised in the other. We 
 will here, therefore, once for all, explain how our engravings are 
 to be understood. 
 
 Supposing a molded archway were to be taken down, and any 
 one of the voussoirs or arch-stones placed upon a large square 
 sheet of paper, in such a manner that the wall-line , or part of 
 the stone which lies in the plane of the outer wall, should be 
 parallel with the end of the paper nearest to you, and the soffit , 
 or inner surface, at right angles with it, parallel to one side; and 
 then a pencil were to be carried along the wall-line first, and 
 afterwards in and out of each cavity and round each projection, 
 and so up a portion of the soffit-plane ; the outline thus obtained 
 reduced to a small size, (say a scale of half an inch to a foot,) 
 and shaded on the part which represents the flat side or bed of 
 the stone, would form a diagram exactly similar to our illustra¬ 
 tions. Again, if a string-course were to be sawn across, or a 
 capital or base down the middle, and a piece of paper inserted in 
 the crevice, and marked off by the sharp edge of the molding, 
 this would in the same way represent our own 
 little shaded sections of these details. The 
 usual popular way of engraving Gothic mold¬ 
 ings is to give a perspective sketch of a stone 
 or slice cut out of the arch, shewing at once 
 the flat end or upper face, and the molded side, 
 
 Decorated decr-jamb, 1 1 
 
 Maxey, Northampton. aiu | shading the cavities and projections. But 
 this, though its general appearance is certainly much more like 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 9 
 
 the reality, does not give so clear a view of the forms of the 
 members. The method adopted by architects is uniformly that 
 which has been followed in the plates illustrating the present 
 work. Each example is, in fact, the same as the templet or 
 mold , a thin plate of zinc, tin, or wood, which is used by work¬ 
 men in marking out the stones previously to cutting them out. 
 
 But the student must not only observe; he must copy moldings 
 in order to understand them. Without the latter, his know¬ 
 ledge can never be otherwise than vague, partial, and imperfect. 
 How to do this, we shall shortly endeavour to shew, by explain¬ 
 ing the various methods which have been practised with more or 
 less success. It must be understood at the outset, that though 
 certain lines, planes, and measurements, may be drawn in all 
 cases to assist the process, and ensure general fidelity, there is 
 nothing so difficult to copy minutely by the eye, because the 
 exact curves, which are not always geometric, especially in early 
 work, can scarcely be caught without long and laborious prac¬ 
 tice. And if the true form is not attained by the first stroke, 
 the endeavours to improve it will seldom be very successful. 
 Perhaps the student’s first attempts will be altogether futile ; 
 but it is surprising how well and how readily a practised hand 
 can copy in a few minutes a most complex group. A small 
 note-book, with metallic pencil, should be kept exclusively for 
 copying moldings by the eye, the measurements and name of 
 place being duly registered with each example.* 
 
 For the medieval nomenclature of moldings, the learned and 
 useful work lately published by Professor Willis, and already 
 alluded to,f supplies an authentic source of information. In 
 this treatise, some of the ancient names of moldings have been 
 
 * Nothing is better adapted for a pedestrian tourist than a block sketch¬ 
 ing book, in the pocket of which a small “ T square,” for ruling parallel and 
 rectangular lines, should be kept. 
 
 t The Architectural Nomenclature of the Middle Ages, being Part IX. of 
 the Transactions of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. 
 
10 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 recovered; and it is to be hoped they will be revived, especially 
 in the present dearth of terms. 
 
 A few expressions used in the present work it will be neces¬ 
 sary clearly to define before entering upon the subject. 
 
 Any architectural member is said to be molded , when the edge 
 or surface of it presents continuous lines of alternate projections 
 and recesses. 
 
 The directions of these lines are three in Gothic architecture ; 
 horizontal, vertical, and curvilinear. 
 
 A drawing which represents these lines as they appear to the 
 eye placed exactly opposite to them, is called the elevation of a 
 molding. 
 
 A drawing which represents the outline of these projections 
 and recesses, is called the section or profile of a molding, being 
 the appearance it would present if cut through in a line at right 
 angles to its bearing. Thus, fig. 10, plate 1, if cut across the 
 line A B, would present the appearance of fig. 5. 
 
 A mold , or molding (the former is the ancient term), jjroperly 
 signifies the entire series which ornaments a jamb or arch; but 
 it is here generally used in the common sense of a particular 
 part or member of such series. 
 
 Members are said to be grouped , when placed in combination, 
 as we generally find them ; but 
 
 A group is a bunch of moldings or separate members, stand¬ 
 ing prominent or isolated, either on a shaft, or between two deep 
 hollows. 
 
 An arch of two or more orders , is one which is recessed by so 
 many successive planes or retiring sub-arches, each placed behind 
 and beneath the next before it, reckoning from the outer wall-, 
 line. Thus, fig. 5, plate 1, is the section across an arch of 
 “ two orders, ” and fig. 7 is of “ three hollow-chamfered 
 orders.” 
 
 As it is necessary for every student in this science first to 
 understand the general principles of formation, and, secondly, to 
 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 
 
 11 
 
 be able to draw or “ take 11 moldings, either full-sized or reduced 
 to a scale, with tolerable precision, we will explain these preli¬ 
 minary points as simply and briefly as possible, before we enter 
 on the consideration of the combinations and more minute varie¬ 
 ties of detail. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 
 
 It seems certain that all the forms of Gothic Moldings are 
 the peculiar and genuine offspring of Christian architecture, or 
 at least are very partially and indirectly borrowed from the Clas¬ 
 sic styles; although, as we might expect, some coincidences of 
 form exist between them. There are some who contend that 
 Gothic moldings are derived, mediately indeed, yet very de¬ 
 cidedly, from Roman; a supposition hardly probable in itself, 
 when we observe that in the Norman style (in England at least), 
 which was most closely connected with the Classic, the forms of 
 the moldings which we call Gothic are merely nascent, and 
 entirely undeveloped ; and one which appears scarcely tenable, 
 from the consideration that the medieval architects of this coun¬ 
 try* could have known little of Italian architecture, and if they 
 had, we cannot suppose they would have cared to copy in its 
 details what they altogether repudiated in its kind. But the 
 convincing argument is this: that in Gothic molding all the 
 links in the process of formation are connected and complete, 
 from the first and rudest origin to the most elaborate develop- 
 
 * It is true that the Freemasons were an ecclesiastical body under the Pope, 
 and not confined to this or any other particular country in Europe. It is also 
 true that the intercourse with Rome was always frequent, from the time of 
 S. Augustine downwards. Still it is impossible to trace in pure Gothic build¬ 
 ings the least symptom of Italianizing either in composition or details. 
 
12 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 ment ; and the steps are so natural, the transitions so easy, that 
 any two styles working independently of each other from the 
 same beginnings and elemental forms, could hardly fail of arriv¬ 
 ing at least at some of the same results. Again, if at this or 
 that period a new member was introduced, and, as it were, a 
 new letter added to the alphabet, why should we not attribute it 
 to invention, rather than seek for it in the resemblance which an 
 Italian molding may happen to bear to it 1 However, the dis¬ 
 cussion of this question is rather for those who have to do with 
 the theory of moldings, as the determination of it does not in 
 the least affect the facts with which we alone profess to deal- 
 And it must be confessed that those only are competent to 
 decide it who have minutely examined for themselves the details 
 of the Romanesque churches on the Continent. 
 
 It is, however, certain that some connexion exists between 
 Gothic and Classic moldings. The early English base is allowed 
 by all to have been borrowed from the Attic; and we shall here¬ 
 after clearly demonstrate that such was the case. And it is 
 undeniable that several forms and combinations of the ogee 
 curve are nearly identical in Classic and in Gothic buildings. 
 Still, if every Gothic form can be shewn to be an improvement 
 or modification of a preceding one, we may fairly conclude 
 that the whole series is the offspring of one and the same pro¬ 
 gressive art. 
 
 In their use also Gothic moldings differ as widely as possible 
 from Classic. The former are repeated to almost any extent, so 
 as entirely to occupy the large recessed spaces in jambs and 
 arches. They are repeated too in groups, each group being com¬ 
 posed of the same members, or nearly so, especially in the earlier 
 styles. The latter are few in number, and very limited in 
 their application. The combinations of the one are in a great 
 measure arbitrary, though the forms themselves are fixed ; in 
 the latter both are absolutely defined. The former run princi¬ 
 pally in vertical lines, the latter in horizontal. In Gothic archi- 
 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 
 
 13 
 
 tecture, horizontal moldings occur in water-tables and string¬ 
 courses, and in capitals and bases, in which positions they 
 invariably form subordinate lines, so as to contrast and display 
 the predominant principles of a vertical ascending sweep, and 
 may so far perhaps be regarded as lingering vestiges of the 
 Classic usage—evidences of the victory of Christian over Pagan 
 art. For it is needless to remind the reader that Gothic owes 
 its origin, though not its development, to the Basilican, that is, 
 to Roman architecture. 
 
 An intelligent and thoughtful writer in the English Review* 
 has the following remarks on the differences between Grecian 
 and Gothic moldings : “ Where the Grecian delighted in broad 
 level surfaces, catching the light in masses, or in projecting 
 curves on which it dies away by degrees into shadow, the Gothic 
 roughened and encrusted them with carving. And thus in 
 general we measure, or, if the expression may be used, we read 
 and peruse a Grecian molding by its lights, and the Gothic by 
 its shadows. 1 ’ Again : “ Of the differences between the two 
 classes of molding, some may be detected by a superficial view. 
 For instance, the Grecian delights in convex lines, the Gothic in 
 concave ; the Grecian in broad lights, the Gothic in narrow. 
 The Grecian throws out projections to catch the eye ; the Gothic 
 endeavours to bury it in deep recesses. The Grecian leads it 
 gently along in sweeping, unbroken undulations ; the Gothic 
 fractures its lines, and combines them in angles and curves. The 
 lights and shadows of the Grecian melt and slide insensibly into 
 each other ; those of the Gothic are planted together in strong 
 and bold contrast.In the purest Grecian buildings, ver¬ 
 
 tical moldings are rare. Horizontal moldings form the lead¬ 
 ing lines ; and it is by these, even in later and degenerated 
 specimens, that the vertical moldings are regulated. In the 
 Gothic, vertical moldings are most frequent ; and they over¬ 
 rule and determine those which are horizontal. And Grecian 
 
 * For December, 1844. 
 
14 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 moldings are simple and easily divisible into parts ; Gothic are 
 entangled in labyrinths, and perplexed with innumerable intri¬ 
 cacies.” 
 
 The notion of ascending moldings is coeval with the intro¬ 
 duction of the arch, and may indeed be traced to a still earlier 
 period in the sides of doorways and similar positions. When 
 the Romans broke up, by means of the arch, the continuous 
 horizontal entablature of the Grecians, the cornice moldings were 
 carried around it, and fell on each side in vertical lines into the 
 horizontal, thereby producing the same result as in Gothic, 
 though with a different effect; in the one case, horizontal lines 
 continuing to predominate, in the other, being subdued and ren¬ 
 dered secondary and subordinate to the vertical principle. 
 
 Gothic architecture revelled in the use of moldings. We are 
 not speaking of what are usually called ornamental moldings, 
 such as the dog-tooth, the ball-flower, &c., so much as of the 
 plain continuous lines of light and shadow ; though they are in 
 effect identical, since the former are nothing but serrated ridges,* 
 more or less rounded and modified from the first process. Every 
 door, window, monial,f every edge, vertical or horizontal, every 
 band, string, groin-rib, roof, label, arch, and jamb, whether of 
 wood or stone, internal or external, was molded. Of course the 
 effect produced by so free and extended a use of them was mag¬ 
 nificent in the extreme. Construction gained thereby a rich per¬ 
 spective, a beautifully diversified pictorial embellishment; a depth 
 of shade, an attempering of bare prominent outlines, a fine tone 
 which arrested the eye, and made it dwell on certain parts of 
 higher pretension and more exquisite elaboration than others. 
 And yet moldings are merely the ornamental adjuncts, not the 
 essentials, of architecture. Some buildings of the best periods 
 
 * This may occasionally be seen, when the molding was left for some rea¬ 
 son or accident partially uncut. It is probable that they were generally worked 
 out after the completion of a building. 
 
 t The medieval term for what we now call mullion. 
 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 
 
 15 
 
 were quite devoid of moldings; whence it is evident that they 
 are not necessary even to a perfect design. Boldness and sim¬ 
 plicity produce effects, different indeed in their kind, yet not less 
 solemn and striking than richness of detail. But the power of 
 moldings was appreciated to the full by the ancient architects, 
 and it is quite evident that they delighted in their extensive use. 
 It was their ambition to work them wherever they could pos¬ 
 sibly find means and opportunity. Hence it is that such a vast 
 quantity everywhere remains, that no ordinary pains are requisite 
 in examining any considerable moiety of them for the purposes 
 of investigating their principles. If the uniformity in their use 
 had not been very strict and close, it had indeed been a hopeless 
 task ever to master the subject; indeed, if there had not been a 
 system of molding, there would have been nothing to investigate. 
 But so little did the medieval masons depart from the fixed 
 conventional forms, that we often find a capital, a base, or an 
 arch-mold of perfectly the same profile in an abbey or a cathe¬ 
 dral, which we had copied in our note-book from a village church 
 at the other end of the kingdom ; so that we might almost 
 suspect that the very same working-drawing had been used for 
 both. And this, when we consider it, must appear a very won¬ 
 derful fact. 
 
 Our readers will now be fairly tired of this tedious preliminary 
 chapter, and will be anxious to enter upon the subject at once. 
 And at this point we are in a condition to comply as well as we 
 can with their wishes. 
 
 We will begin with very early buildings, and see if we can 
 discover the origin of the practice, and then gradually trace the 
 progress of development until we have analysed and classified all 
 the forms according to their respective dates. 
 
 If we take the plan of a Saxon window or door-way, we shall 
 perhaps find it nothing more than a rude square-edged aperture 
 in a plain wall, as in fig. 1, plate 1. This may often he met 
 with, even considerably later, in small and rude country churches, 
 
16 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 especially in belfry-arches. It may, however, he relieved and 
 expanded hy splaying it on one or both sides, that is, by sloping 
 or chamfering off the edges, as in fig. 2. So in an ordinary Early 
 English lancet window, the long narrow opening has a very wide 
 splay inside and a very small one on the outside, fig. 3. But in 
 arching over the upper part of such an aperture, as fig. 1, made 
 in a thick wall of loose rubble masonry, it was not uncommon to 
 add, for the sake at once of ornament and security, a sub-arch, 
 or under-rib, like the groin-rib of a vault, constructed of fine- 
 jointed ashlar, as fig. 4. This sub-arch rested either on a pillar 
 at each side, or a projecting impost,* or it was carried continu¬ 
 ously down to the ground, that is, without any interruption or 
 change of shape. Now in this rude arrangement, which is ob¬ 
 servable in many continental Romanesque churches, and may 
 probably be connected in its origin with the overlapping stone- 
 courses or fascia, in classic architraves, we shall find the germs of 
 an usage which ever afterwards prevailed, with some improve¬ 
 ments of form and detail, but no alteration of principle. In the 
 abbey church of S. Albans the nave and transept-arches are 
 constructed of two rectangular sub-ribs, or soffit-pilasters, which 
 are continued from the ground with the intervention of a mere 
 band or string-course at the impost. The same is observable in 
 several of the Transition arches at Buildwas Abbey.*)* 
 
 If we chamfer off each arris, or square edge, of this aperture, 
 which now becomes recessed , or of two orders , or retiring mem¬ 
 bers, we at once obtain the plan which was most constantly 
 used, especially in pier-arches, without the least change of form, 
 for centuries afterwards (fig. 5). Of course there may be two or 
 more sub-arches, if the wall be very thick : each one retiring 
 behind the other. And the chamfer may be hollow, or fluted, 
 as in fig. 7, which is common in early English and Decorated 
 
 * In Transition arches the inner order, or subarch, is often corbelled off at 
 the impost, the jambs being left square, with a small shaft at the angles. 
 
 t Potter’s Monastic Remains, Plates iii. and iv. 
 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 
 
 17 
 
 arches. This is the case in the chancel-arch at Cherry Hinton, 
 near Cambridge, and was much in vogue from about 1260 to 
 1320. 
 
 In practice, however, especially in the fully developed Gothic, 
 the sub-arch was no longer a separate construc¬ 
 tive formation, but was worked out of a single 
 stone together with the first or outer order of 
 moldings. The accompanying diagram repre¬ 
 sents a voussoir or arch-stone of an ordinary 
 Decorated nave-arch. 
 
 It is quite evident that the above was the origin of the com¬ 
 monly occurring arch of two plain chamfered orders. Were any 
 proof wanting, we might refer to cases where only one side is 
 chamfered and the other left square, as at Horningsey, near Cam¬ 
 bridge, circa a.d. 1190 (fig. 9), or to the peculiar termination re¬ 
 presented in elevation in fig. 10, which is common in Early 
 English arches, as at Waterbeach, near Cambridge, or to the 
 springing of a three-quarter edge-roll from a square archivolt 
 immediately above the capital, as in fig. 8, which is a transition- 
 Norman arch at Little Casterton, Rutland. Fig. 10 may con¬ 
 veniently be called the broach-cliamfer. It is the way of chang¬ 
 ing the square into the chamfered edge without abruptness, or of 
 blending the one into the other. See plate xxi. fig. 3. 
 
 But there was another method of taking off sharp edges, 
 which was introduced perhaps even earlier than the other, and 
 exercised a much more direct influence in the formation of mold¬ 
 ings. This was by rounding the edge instead of cutting it away. 
 Hence arose the cylindrical roll or bowtell, which was after¬ 
 wards made more or less nearly a circle by cutting out a small 
 angular channel on each side. Fig. 6 is one side or face of an 
 arch-mold at Little Casterton, showing this method, which is 
 given more at large in fig. 21. This seems soon to have sug¬ 
 gested the contrast of light and shade, formed by hollows alter¬ 
 nating with (relatively) projecting members. As this stage of 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 our inquiry is extremely important, let us take a few more exam¬ 
 ples by way of illustration. 
 
 Fig. 11 is the section of a Norman pier-arch at Friesland, 
 Lincolnshire. In this the square edge is worked into a shallow 
 triple roll. 
 
 Fig. 12 is an Early English pier-arch at Skirbeck, near Bos¬ 
 ton. Here the bowtell is formed by rounding the edge as before, 
 and cutting a deep three-quarter hollow on each side. Thus the 
 bowtell becomes attached only by a narrow neck, as was very 
 usual in this style. 
 
 Fig. 13 is from Great Grimsby, and fig. 14 from Clee, both 
 in Lincolnshire. In the latter church a Dedication-inscription 
 still remains,* bearing the date 1192; and the other is of very 
 nearly the same period. Both these are good examples of the 
 same principle; and arch-molds of this kind are of constant 
 occurrence in the Norman and Transition styles. The pier- 
 arclies in the nave of Peterborough Cathedral are molded pre¬ 
 cisely in the same manner. 
 
 These bold early moldings are generally called “ edge-rolls,” 
 because they occur at the external angles of the receding orders, 
 and are not yet extended on each side. They are commonly 
 single, as fig. 2, plate 21, an arch from Seaton church, Rut¬ 
 land, but occasionally double, as fig. 1 of the same plate, the 
 belfry arch of Morcot church, in the same county. From this 
 latter arrangement is derived the double-roll and fillet which 
 forms the central member of fig. 8, plate 18, an arch-mold 
 from the choir of Ripon Minster. 
 
 In considering the origin of the cylindrical roll, or bowtell, 
 the first element of moldings, we must not omit to take into 
 account the influence of jamb-shafts. In Norman doorways, 
 we observe that every nook formed by the receding under-ribs, 
 already described, is occupied by a detached column. Fig. 15, 
 
 * Given in the “ Ecclesiologist,” vol. iii., p. 138. 
 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 19 
 
 plate 1, is from Adel Church,*' Yorkshire, and illustrates this 
 arrangement. Now this column seems at first to have borne 
 a square-edged member, or sub-arch, which projected above 
 the impost exactly where the jamb receded below it, and which 
 was afterwards, in some cases, rounded off so as to correspond 
 in form and size with the column itself. This may very clearly 
 be seen in an early Norman doorway at Hauxton, near Cam¬ 
 bridge. Hence, by omitting altogether the impost or capital, 
 we get the idea of continuous moldings. Of this subject, 
 however, we shall speak more fully in treating of capitals and 
 shafts generally. We would here only add, that the view we 
 have taken of the formation of the recessed arch, seems to us 
 more correct than that held by some, who suppose the rect¬ 
 angular nooks to have been cut out of the square or chamfered 
 plane expressly for the reception of jamb-shafts. 
 
 Another form, which occurs frequently in the Transition 
 Norman and Early English periods, is the pointed bowtell, 
 resembling, and coeval with, the introduction of the pointed 
 arch. Its formation may be seen in fig. 16, which is the plan 
 of a late Norman arch in St. Mary’s Church, Ely. This mem¬ 
 ber arose from a desire to decorate the an¬ 
 gles of recessed arches, without either cut¬ 
 ting away or rounding off the square edge, 
 as in the annexed example from Croxden 
 Abbey, Staffordshire. Hence its occurrence 
 in early Gothic may be expected, and in 
 truth it is very frequently found in the T ransition period, 
 though not in the pure Norman. Yet something closely re¬ 
 sembling this member often occurs in Norman work, between 
 two cylindrical bowtells, as at a, fig. 13. Fig. 17 is a triple 
 respond or half-pier, of very singular form, at Clee; and fig. 
 19 shows its use in an Early English arch at St. Beliefs, 
 
 * See “ Churches of Yorkshire,” Part YU., from which this example is 
 borrowed. 
 
20 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 Lincoln. In this case the under-edge is withdrawn at the 
 point, which seems the origin of what is called the scroll¬ 
 molding , hereafter to be explained. Fig. 24 shows this form 
 more at large. 
 
 The pointed shaft, the plan of which may be described as 
 a spherical triangle engaged at the base, is of constant occur¬ 
 rence in Early English work, and is generally a mark of its early 
 date. The clustered columns at Byland and Whitby Abbeys 
 (the former circa 1190) exhibit the pointed shaft alternating 
 with the circular. The western porch at Ely is flanked by 
 clustered columns of pointed shafts. Undoubtedly this form 
 existed earlier than, and afterwards led to, the filleted shaft 
 and bowtell, which are so well known by the name of the 
 “ roll-and-fillet.” As a general rule it may be stated, that a 
 shaft may take almost any form to suit the primary molding 
 which it sustains on its capital, on the principle of continuous 
 moldings already alluded to. 
 
 Figs. 12 and 23 show the cylindrical and the pointed bow- 
 tells with the addition of a small fillet at one side. Fig. 22 
 is a groin-rib from Robertsbridge Abbey, where both sides are 
 thus filleted. Fig. 18 is a groin-rib from Tintern Abbey, 
 where the fillet is at the end or central point. And fig. 25 
 is an Early English arch at Little Casterton, where there are 
 three fillets. Of all these varieties we shall have more to say 
 hereafter. 
 
 Fig. 1, plate 2, is a pier-arch of very Early English date, at 
 Middle Rasen. Fig. 2 is a doorway at Ludborough, fig. 3 the 
 chancel arch at Langtoft, and fig. 5 the jamb of the archway 
 of the south porch at Great Grimsby, all in Lincolnshire. The 
 first three exhibit the use of the pointed bowtell. Fig. 4, 
 plate 18, is the jamb of a lancet window at the east end of 
 Rivaulx Abbey. This is one of the commonest moldings at 
 the angles of Early English window-jambs. 
 
 The student will already have perceived, from the manner we 
 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION. 
 
 21 
 
 have adopted of drawing the sections, first, that all these mold¬ 
 ings are formed out of the solid block solely by removing edges and 
 sinking hollows , and must never be regarded as excrescences on a 
 plane surface ; secondly, and in consequence, that the groups lie 
 in the planes of the uncut blocks , the outermost edge of each mem¬ 
 ber touching the rectangular or chamfered surface, that is, not 
 being cut away so as to fall below, or short of it. The original 
 planes, or uncut square surfaces, are represented in our engravings 
 by dotted lines. These two facts must be regarded as funda¬ 
 mental canons in the arrangement of moldings. 
 
 There are three planes in which moldings will be found to 
 lie: one parallel with the outer wall, which we shall designate 
 the wall-plane; one at right angles to it, or parallel with the 
 soffit, which may be called the soffit-plane; and the third, the 
 plane formed by chamfering an edge, which was generally (not 
 invariably) done at an angle of forty-five degrees , or the chamfer- 
 plane. In fig. 10, plate 2, a is the chamfer-plane, b the soffit- 
 plane, c the wall-plane. It is clear that by sinking hollows in any 
 one of these surfaces, a group of moldings would be developed. 
 
 In considering any series of moldings previously to copying 
 them, the first point is to lay down on paper the various planes, 
 that is, to ascertain the plan of the arch, or other feature, before 
 the moldings were cut. When this is done by accurate mea¬ 
 surement, the rest of the process becomes comparatively easy, and 
 the most complex and extensive combination, which it appears 
 at first sight impossible to copy with any thing like accuracy, 
 may be readily disentangled, analysed, and sketched with pre¬ 
 cision. Without attending to these facts, all attempts to do so 
 will be futile. 
 
 It may be alleged as a general rule, that Early English mold¬ 
 ings lie on the planes rectangular ; that Decorated, according to 
 their kind, fall either on these, or on the chamfer-plane alone ; 
 and that Perpendicular moldings almost always lie on the last. 
 If some members seem to fall short of one plane, they will gene- 
 
22 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 rally be found referable to some other; and if they fall on the 
 segment of a circle, which is much more rarely the case, as in fig. 
 15, a pier-arch at All Saints, Stamford, the inclination must be 
 determined by bending a ruler or piece of lead across them. It 
 is, however, by no means uncommon to meet with moldings of 
 all the styles in which some of the members are withdrawn con¬ 
 siderably below the plane of the others. It is obvious that this 
 is the most expensive kind of molding, because more has to be 
 cut away from the solid block. The arrangement of moldings 
 on the original block-planes was less and less rigidly adhered to 
 as the styles progressed, and in the latest, or Third-pointed, it 
 was frequently entirely lost. Figs. 2 and 3, plate 3, are in¬ 
 stances of Early English moldings not falling upon the regular 
 planes. 
 
 Fig. 11 is an example of a molding from Over, Cambridge¬ 
 shire, truly copied according to the above rules. Fig. 12 is the 
 distorted and inaccurate form it would probably assume if an 
 upractised and untaught draughtsman were to attempt to copy it 
 by the eye. 
 
 Fig. 7 is an Early English molding from the interior of the 
 priest’s door, Cherry Hinton. Fig. 8 is a pier-arch, and fig. 6 
 the northern doorway of the same church. Fig. 19 is a very 
 fine molding from the inner door of the south porch. (The 
 semicircle round the central group represents the capital of the 
 jamb-shaft.) Fig. 9 is a doorway, and fig. 13 a window-jamb, 
 both from Over. These are early Decorated. Fig. 14 is a door¬ 
 way at Madingley, and fig. 16 one at Trumpington, near 
 Cambridge. These are both pure Decorated. Fig. 18 is a mag¬ 
 nificent archmold from the doorway of St. Clement’s church, 
 Cambridge, showing the capitals of the two jamb-shafts. This 
 is not an easy example to copy by the eye, for the central mem¬ 
 ber in each group does not extend to the angle, but falls on the 
 line of the chamfer. The observation of this circumstance im¬ 
 mediately removes the principal difficulty. 
 
COPYING MOLDINGS. 
 
 23 
 
 This section illustrates a very common peculiarity of its style, 
 which may he called the triplicity of moldings. Whether 
 constructive or symbolical, or (as a writer in the English Review , 
 already quoted, imagines) suggested by philosophical principles 
 of effect, we need not now consider, though symbolism may have 
 had its influence, since the architects of the period greatly 
 affected representations of the mystic number three. This 
 molding consists of three distinct groups, each group having 
 three members. Occasionally each member has three fillets, so 
 that there is a triple triplicity in the entire composition. It is 
 clear, however, that if an archway has two sub-arches, or con¬ 
 sists of three orders, the angle of each will naturally form a 
 group of three rolls with a hollow on each side, as in fig. 5. 
 Early English and Decorated Moldings very often consist of 
 three groups. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 OP COPYING MOLDINGS. 
 
 There are several ways of doing this. The best and simplest 
 of all is by inserting the paper in a loose joint, or by passing a 
 saw through an arch or jamb, or by applying a large sheet of 
 paper where a stone has been removed, and left the edges suffi¬ 
 ciently clear and sharp to trace their outlines by pressure against 
 them, or by a pencil. These methods, however, are but seldom 
 available, except in ruined buildings, and even here we ought not 
 to damage or destroy any portion of the little that is left. But 
 many fragments of monials, groin-ribs, voussoirs, and other 
 molded stones, may be found in every old abbey; and these may 
 readily be placed upon sheets of paper for the purpose of tracing 
 their outlines. By these means alone a large collection of very 
 valuable specimens may be made. 
 
24 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 Another way is by the use of the leaden tape. A thin flexible 
 riband of this metal, about a yard in length, may be rolled into 
 a coil so as to be easily portable. By being manipulated and 
 impressed upon the moldings to be copied, and thence carefully 
 removed, and laid upon a sheet of paper, it retains the exact 
 shape it has received, and may he traced off with a pencil. In 
 this process, however, which requires both pains and practice to 
 ensure tolerable accuracy, there are many difficulties to overcome. 
 First, it is clear, that if the molding extends over a considerable 
 space, the tape, by its extreme pliability and great weight, is 
 almost unavoidably bent in transferring it to the paper, which 
 must be spread flat on the ground, or some level surface nearest 
 at hand. If this should happen, the true bearings of the mem¬ 
 bers, that is, their relative position to each other, are confused or 
 altogether lost, and the copy is incorrect and worthless. Se¬ 
 condly, where the molding is much undercut, or contains deep 
 and wide hollows with a narrow neck, the lead, when fitted into 
 them, cannot be withdrawn. In the first instance,' it is better to 
 copy only eight or ten inches of the molding at once; or the 
 planes in which the members respectively lie, (that is, a full-sized 
 plan by measurement of the block jamb or arch) may be first 
 marked out on the paper, and the tape adjusted to them; in the 
 second case, it is advisable to carry the tape merely over the 
 necks of the hollows, and subsequently to determine their breadth 
 and width by inserting a measure into them. As Early English 
 moldings are often mutilated, from being so far undercut that 
 portions of the projecting members have fallen or been broken 
 off, the lead may frequently be manipulated into a part which is 
 entire, and afterwards drawn upwards or downwards till it finds 
 exit at a broken place. In all cases, dirt, moss, and whitewash 
 must first be scraped clear away from the part to be copied, or 
 the sharp and rounded edges, the depth of the hollows, &c., can¬ 
 not truly be ascertained. 
 
 In using the tape, the rough draught of the pencil must in- 
 
COPYING MOLDINGS. 
 
 25 
 
 variably be corrected by close comparison with the original, and 
 every separate member should be tested as to size, projection, 
 bearing, and curvature, by the aid of the measure. A pair of 
 compasses with the ends bent inward is very useful in obtaining 
 the breadth of the members; and if furnished with a segmental 
 scale-bar, or slide affixed to one leg and passing through the 
 other, the width of the neck of each undercut bowtell may be 
 exactly marked. Sharp indented edges and angular hollows 
 cannot be closely copied with the leaden tape, so that these espe¬ 
 cially must be supplied by the eye. 
 
 There is a process similar in its nature and results to the use 
 of the leaden tape, which is very successful where the moldings 
 are not too much undercut. This is technically called squeezing , 
 and is practised by applying wet clay, plaster, or a composition 
 purposely prepared of wax and some other ingredients, to the 
 part to be copied, the form of which is thus readily and accu¬ 
 rately obtained, though the convex and concave surfaces are of 
 course reversed. By pouring plaster of Paris into the matrix 
 thus formed, the original molding is exactly copied. But in the 
 case of undercutting, the difficulty is here insurmountable. 
 
 A beautiful and ingenious instrument has been invented by 
 Professor Willis, and called by him the Cymagraph, by which 
 moldings may be copied with the most perfect accuracy, and of 
 the full size. It is described and illustrated in the “Engineers’ 
 and Architects’Journal,” No. 58. It can be successfully used 
 with a very little practice ; and the most extensive and complex 
 moldings can be taken by its aid. The only disadvantages are, 
 that the instrument, though by no means large, is an inconven¬ 
 ient appendage to the equipment of a pedestrian, and that only 
 about a foot’s width of a molding can be taken at once; so that 
 a number of separate pieces of paper must be pinned together 
 on the spot, and that with great accuracy, or the planes and 
 bearings will be incorrect. 
 
 Another instrument of great elegance, and about the same 
 
26 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 size, has (since the first edition of this work) been brought to a 
 considerable degree of practical utility, though not perhaps fully 
 to perfection, by Mr. Henry Bashforth, a Fellow of St. John’s 
 College, Cambridge. This very clever contrivance possesses the 
 remarkable advantage of copying moldings on the spot, reduced 
 to any scale which may be desired; and by reversing the pro¬ 
 cess, the reduced copy may afterwards he enlarged to its original 
 or any other size. In smaller and simpler moldings, as in ordi- 
 dary door and window jambs, bases and capitals, and the like, 
 this machine answers perfectly, with one and the same applica¬ 
 tion, as the author of the present work can attest, from having 
 used it in company with the inventor; but for very extensive 
 and deeply undercut groups, it is generally necessary to take a 
 portion at a time, as in the case of Professor Willis’s cyma- 
 graph. 
 
 Geometric methods, both of copying and reducing moldings, 
 are fallible; for the members and curves were very often drawn 
 libera manu,* especially in earlier work ; so that very consider¬ 
 able deviations from geometric precision must be expected in ob¬ 
 serving ancient examples. 
 
 Another, and for ordinary purposes much the best and simplest 
 way, is to copy by the eye alone, on a reduced scale, adding the 
 measurements of each face, as in fig. ] 2, plate 1. If the parti¬ 
 cular measurements of each member are required, they should be 
 given in respect of a horizontal and a vertical plane, as in figs. 
 20, 21, 22, plate 2. This is rather a troublesome process, and is 
 apt to produce a complex diagram. Generally, it is enough to 
 give the whole breadth or width of a series of moldings, which 
 is simple and easy when they lie in one plane, as in fig. 1, plate 
 3, an Early English doorway at Louth. The depth to which 
 
 * If not so designed by the master, they certainly were often so cut by the 
 mason. Mr. Potter, in giving the full-sized sections of moldings from Tintern 
 Abbey, has drawn them for the most part with the compasses, and in this case 
 no doubt correctly. 
 
COPYING MOLDINGS. 
 
 27 
 
 hollows are sunk from the surface of any plane may readily be 
 added, as fig. 3, plate 8. 
 
 By adding the measurements of all the parts, any inaccuracy 
 of proportion resulting from a hasty sketch will readily be recti¬ 
 fied, should the molding be adopted in practical architecture. 
 For example, in plate 17, fig. 3, it is obvious that the double 
 groove or hollow chamfer in the centre cuts off a less portion of 
 the projecting angle than the diagram represents; for the line 
 marked 3|j inches is nearly as long as that marked 7. In this, 
 as in other cases, the measurement serves to correct the drawing. 
 
 It is well, in copying moldings, to adopt uniformly the plan 
 already pointed out, of drawing the outer wall-line parallel with 
 the bottom of the page, and the soffit parallel to the side. The 
 same side of a doorway or a capital should be taken in all cases 
 where it is possible, to avoid the natural awkwardness of pre¬ 
 senting to view the position of moldings drawn promiscuously 
 right or left. 
 
 The practice of coj^ying moldings by the eye alone is of the 
 greatest importance in acquiring a sound acquaintance with the 
 subject. It is indeed, as we have before stated, indispensable. 
 The eye becomes perfectly familiar with every kind and variety 
 by frequently contemplating new examples and collections previ¬ 
 ously made ; and thus a very great degree of accuracy is in time 
 attained, and a perfect copy of the ordinary and plainer mold¬ 
 ings, with their measurements, may be made in two or three 
 minutes. In this way also moldings which are quite out of reach 
 may be sketched very tolerably at the distance of many feet, if 
 the planes in which they lie be carefully attended to. 
 
 These two points, the planes in which moldings lie, and the 
 relative proportions of the parts, must be invariably observed, 
 and the practised eye will seize the outline almost instinctively, 
 with a very close approximation to truth. It may be remarked, 
 that in the example given by Professor Willis, in his “Architec¬ 
 tural Nomenclature,'” from the Journal of William of Worcester, 
 
28 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 the plane is marked by a line, as in the illustrations of the pre¬ 
 sent work. 
 
 In copying the moldings of capitals, measure the depth from 
 the top of the abacus to the under side of the astragal, or neck; 
 and the projection of the abacus over the shaft. Both these are 
 easily taken by dropping a small plummet (a string with a bullet 
 is best) from the outer edge of the abacus, and applying the 
 foot rule. 
 
 We have observed that edges are generally chamfered at an 
 angle of forty-five degrees. But as this is by no means invari¬ 
 ably the case, it is highly important in every instance to put it 
 to the test. There are two very simple and effective means of 
 doing this. One is by bending the measure at its joint (fig. 15, 
 plate 2), by which the angle can he accurately transferred to the 
 paper, however small the copy may be ; the other by the use of 
 a right-angled triangle of wood or brass, by applying the hypo¬ 
 tenuse of which to the chamfer, the two sides will he respectively 
 parallel to the wall-plane and the soffit-plane, if the chamfer is 
 at an angle of forty-five, hut not otherwise. In the latter case, 
 which is quite the exception, the former method may then he 
 adopted with advantage. See fig. 12, plate 5. 
 
 Full-sized moldings are reduced by the use of the well-known 
 instrument called the Pentegraph. All other methods require 
 both time and care. Every member may be reduced separately 
 by means of the compass and scale; or circles may be drawn, 
 inclosing certain portions of the copy, and repeated .of the pro¬ 
 portionate size in the same positions on the reduced drawing. 
 
EARLY MOLDINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 29 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 OF EARLY MOLDINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 Having thus far explained the general principles and the 
 methods of drawing moldings in section, we will revert to the 
 theory of the first formations of moldings, on which more re¬ 
 mains to be said. 
 
 The first and rudest attempts at molding which we observe 
 in this country, are the rough and coarsely chisseled members, 
 generally semi-cylindrical, which occur in the Ante-Norman 
 chancel-arch at Wittering, Northamptonshire (fig. 10, plate 3), 
 the balustre shafts in the tower of St. Benet’s, Cambridge, and 
 other churches of that date, to which must he added the very 
 curious and antique attempt at a molded architrave on the 
 impost of the belfry-arch at Barnack. This last example, an 
 exact parallel to which occurs in a doorway* of the Roman¬ 
 esque palace of Theodoric at Ravenna, and, indeed, the very 
 nature of the case, would lead us to conclude that the earliest 
 element arose out of a desire to relieve, by coarse irregular chan¬ 
 neling, a plain flat surface. And a square-edged rib easily be¬ 
 came a cylindrical bowtell, by first chamfering, and then removing 
 indefinitely the remaining angles. Thus, for instance, Norman 
 string-courses often consist of a square projecting fillet, with the 
 angles chamfered off, so as to form a semi-hexagonal projection. 
 St. Sepulchre’s church, Cambridge, affords, both in its groin- 
 ribs and pier-arches, an excellent illustration of the first idea of 
 forming rounds by removing edges, and of setting off the parts 
 thus rounded, by sinking a small channel or furrow on each side 
 a little below the surface. Thus, then, a square-edged arch, 
 with its sub-arch or soffit-rib, was either worked into rounds at 
 each angle (fig. 1, plate 4), or into pointed rolls, as fig. 2, 
 * Engraved in Mr. Gaily Knight’s “ Italian Architecture,” Part I. 
 
30 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 which is an arch at Reymerston, Norfolk, circa 1200, or some 
 edges were chamfered, others worked into rolls, and the sub-arch 
 cut away into a broad semi-cylindrical rib, as in fig. 4, which 
 represents a semi-Norman arch at Barholme, Lincolnshire, and 
 fig. 1, plate 21. Figs. 7 and 8 are groin-ribs of common profile 
 in Norman work ; the one from Glastonbury, circa 1200 ; the 
 other from Peterborough, early Norman : both clearly and satis¬ 
 factorily exhibiting the formation of the roll-molding or bowtell. 
 
 The deep rounded hollow, (as contrasted with the mere 
 notch), by which the contrast of light and shade was obtained, 
 was an after-thought, which was not developed till the Early 
 English period, when it was carried to an extravagant excess, 
 so that roll-moldings were extensively undercut, or attached 
 only by a small neck of stone; thus having the effect of a 
 series of detached arches or ribs, rising in succession above and 
 behind each other, each independent and unconnected, the eye 
 being unable to penetrate to the depth of the dark hollow. 
 Fig. 5 is a very Early English pier-arch, at Barnack, in 
 which the first appearance of the deep hollows may be traced.* 
 
 It might appear probable that the true origin of the deep 
 three-quarter circular hollow must be looked for in the wish to 
 form a cutting inwards , at the point of the interior angle, cor¬ 
 responding to the bowtell at the edge or point of the exterior 
 rectangle of the sub-arches. (Fig. 10, plate 6, and fig. 7, plate 
 7.) From these two points both the hollows and the bowtells 
 
 may have been extended each way, till no 
 space was left unoccupied, and thus a great 
 width was covered with minute members, 
 alternately dark and light, hollow and pro¬ 
 minent. Still this inner hollow at the 
 angle is not very observable in the earliest 
 
 * An excellent example of a similar kind is engraved in p. 85 of Professor 
 Willis’ “ Canterbury,” where the contrast between the Norman edge-mold and 
 Transition bowtell with side hollows is well shewn. 
 
EARLY MOLDINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 31 
 
 arches, but is rather characteristic of the work of the first two 
 Edwards, so that this view is hardly correct. 
 
 The roll-molding being once established, it became natural 
 to multiply it as an ornamental feature to an unlimited extent; 
 and to prevent sameness of effect many modifications in the 
 forms of the projecting members were introduced, as well as 
 considerable variety in the size and depth of the alternating 
 hollows. Now multiplication naturally implies reduction in 
 size ; so that, in place of two or three heavy round moldings 
 placed at the angles only, and without hollows of any great 
 depth, we find a whole series of minute and skilfully diversified 
 members, designed not on any exact geometric principle, but 
 regulated by taste, effect, and no doubt, to a certain extent, 
 by caprice. We may suppose the architect to have drawn on a 
 board or a stone, with a free hand, the outline to be followed 
 in working out the hollows; and fig. 3 represents such a stone, 
 with the profile scratched or marked on its surface. The templet, 
 being applied to every stone to be worked, afforded exactly the 
 same shape for each, so that the pieces, when put together, 
 coincided with perfect accuracy. 
 
 Deeply recessed archways consist of several courses of molded 
 stones, each order , or sub-arcli, having its own independent con¬ 
 struction, and each joint being overlapped by the stone next to 
 the back of it. When the moldings are meagre, the arch gene¬ 
 rally consists of a single row of voussoirs. In taking a molding 
 of the former kind, it is well to mark the joints of the different 
 courses. 
 
 The grouping and multiplying of members was greatly facili¬ 
 tated in its development by the Gfothic principle of distributing 
 weights and thrusts under a number of different supports. Thus 
 each group of arch-moldings in an Early English doorway is 
 borne by a detached jamb-shaft below the impost. In later 
 times, the shafts were engaged in the wall, and at the latest 
 period the roll-moldings were often continuous, but with small 
 
32 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 pseudo-capitals and bases attached after the manner of real 
 columns. 
 
 The Norman architects never got much beyond the plain 
 cylindrical edge-roll. They paid so much attention to surface 
 sculpture and shallow ornamental work in the archivolts and 
 soffits, that the notion of alternate hollows and projections does 
 not appear to have been fully comprehended by them, or, if so, 
 was found to be incompatible with the enrichment by shallow 
 superficial detail. It was reserved for the period of Transition to 
 effect this. 
 
 The invention of the pointed bowtell, contemporaneously with 
 the pointed arch, opened the way to a great number of new 
 forms, all more or less referable to this common origin, and all 
 used with the most refined taste in varying the members of 
 complex Early English groupings. The first and by far the most 
 important of these, is the roll-and-fillet, fig. 4, plate 2, and 
 fig. 20, plate 1, a doorway in the precinct of Lincoln Cathedral. 
 The introduction of this new feature may be said to have 
 wrought a complete revolution in the system of molding. It 
 is the key- note of almost all the subsequent formations. It may 
 be defined to be a flat bead set rib-wise on the surface of a roll¬ 
 molding, at first with a square under-edge, as fig. 18, plate 1 ; 
 afterwards, and most commonly, with a slope or ogee curvature, 
 as in fig. 17, plate 2, a groin-rib from Tinterne Abbey. It is 
 not certain at what precise period, or from what cause, the fillet 
 was first added to the cylindrical bowtell. It may be that the 
 idea of a surface-line having been suggested by the pointed 
 bowtell, the fine feather edge was either cut off (fig. 9, plate 4) 
 or was throated or widened, so as to produce a more prominent 
 effect. As, however, it will be found in the earliest examples 
 that this fillet usually falls in a line with the chamfer-plane, as 
 in figs. 9, 15, 19, plate 2, and in fig. 6, the north doorway at 
 Cherry-Hinton, it may possibly have been left as a standing 
 portion of the uncut surface ; a view which is certainly borne 
 
EARLY MOLDINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 33 
 
 out by the general analogy of molding. The position of dia¬ 
 gonal projection is undoubtedly the ordinary one throughout the 
 Early English period, and the fillet is not often found coincident 
 with either of the other planes, as in fig. 8, a pier-arch from 
 Cherry-Hinton, till towards the end of the thirteenth century. 
 Still, examples are not wanting in much earlier molding; so 
 that it is not intended to insist on this theory of its origin. 
 
 One fact is worthy of notice in the use of the roll-and-fillet; 
 that it commonly occurs in alternation with the pointed bowtell; 
 whence it would appear to be merely a variety of the latter, 
 introduced for the sake of contrasting and diversifying the mem¬ 
 bers of a group. For example, fig. 5, plate 2, has in the central 
 group a filleted roll between two pointed ones. So also fig. 8, 
 and the juxtaposition of these two forms may be noticed in 
 many other instances. 
 
 Another plausible account of the origin of the roll-and-fillet 
 may be offered. Its occurrence in early groin-ribs cannot have 
 escaped the notice of the observer. Perhaps, indeed, the earliest 
 instances of its use may be traced to the obvious propriety of 
 forming sharp and hard edge-lines instead of mere round members 
 in positions in which, from their distance, the eye would other¬ 
 wise have an ill-defined and imperfect outline. Again, in 
 mitering , or joining rolls at right angles, as well as in making 
 them die into, or spring out of plane surfaces, the addition of the 
 fillet presents important advantages in neatness of construction. 
 
 But all these are mere conjectures. The author has devoted 
 considerable pains and attention to the discovery of the true 
 origin of this very important feature, but without satisfying 
 himself with the theories given above. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 OF EARLY ENGLISH MOLDINGS. 
 
 We may define the characteristics of the moldings of this 
 style to he, deep undercut hollows between prominent members, 
 which comprise a great variety of pointed and filleted bowtells, 
 clustered, isolated, and repeated at certain intervals; a great 
 depth or extent of molded surfaces; and the general arrange¬ 
 ment in rectangular faces, as shown in fig. 5, plate 2. The 
 hollows are seldom true circles ; and, like the projecting parts, 
 they assume a great number of capricious forms. Figs. 2 and 3, 
 
 plate 3, would alone be quite sufficient 
 to convey to the eye an idea of the 
 general method. The first is the 
 belfry arch at Plymouth, the second 
 the pier-arches in the choir of Ely 
 Cathedral. Both were taken with 
 the cymagraph, and are reduced to a 
 scale of half an inch to a foot. 
 
 The annexed section will serve as 
 an illustration of the ordinary forms 
 
 of Early English moldings. 
 
 Early English moldings may be said to comprise the following 
 members:— 
 
 1. The plain bowtell or edge-roll. 
 
 2. The pointed bowtell. 
 
 3. The roll-and-fillet. 
 
 4. The scroll-molding (rare). 
 
 5. Angular forms, consisting of chamfered ridges and inter¬ 
 vening projections, of irregular character. 
 
 The other forms chiefly consist of modifications of the roll- 
 and-fillet, which are so capricious as almost to defy any attempt 
 to assign them distinct names and formations. It will be right, 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MOLDINGS. 
 
 35 
 
 Doorway, Fountains Abbey. 
 
 therefore, briefly to point ont some of the most commonly 
 occurring varieties, leaving a more particular investigation to 
 the student’s own exertions. 
 
 The roll-and-triple-fillet, (fig. 25, plate 1 ; fig. 3, plate 4, 
 A.) is much used in the more advanced buildings of the style, 
 and was the favourite form during the reigns of the first two 
 Edwards. The ordinary roll-and-fillet projecting from a ridge, 
 (fig. 5, plate 6; 12, plate 7,) each side of which is undercut 
 by a deep hollow, naturally produces, and therefore probably 
 suggested, this compound molding. It will be observed in 
 figs. 5, 6, 9, plate 5 ; figs. 7, 8, plate 7 ; 
 figs. 12 and 13, plate 2. A common form 
 is shown at large, fig. 10, plate 4. A plain 
 bowtell or roll very often stands forward 
 upon a short ridge or neck in Transition 
 moldings, the edges being sharp on each side, 
 in consequence of a slight hollow imme¬ 
 diately below. This is of frequent occurrence even in semi¬ 
 circular arches, and may be found in doorways of that kind 
 in many of our abbeys, as at Fountains. It is illustrated in p. 90 
 of Professor Willis’s Canterbury, (fig. 37, pier-arches of the 
 choir.) Sometimes only one side has a fillet 
 attached (figs. 12, 23, plate 1). Sometimes 
 there are two fillets, one at the top, the 
 other on the side, fig. 3, plate 5, and fig. 1, 
 plate 18, from Rivaulx Abbey. Figs. 11 
 and 13, plate 2, are varieties of very fre¬ 
 quent occurrence. Fig. 12, plate 4, is a 
 form often found in labels, as fig. 13, both from Lincoln Minster. 
 This diagram also illustrates the fillet as it were depressed into 
 the roll. Fig. 11 is the chancel doorway at Ludborough, Lin¬ 
 colnshire, which shows some other varieties. Fig. 15 is a groin- 
 rib from Furness Abbey. Figs. 4 and 7, plate 3, are groin- 
 ribs from Robertsbridge Abbey ; 5 and 6 are fragments from 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS, 
 
 Tinterne and St. Mary’s Abbey, York. Fig. 9 is the arch¬ 
 mold of a double piscina with its capital from Histon, near 
 Cambridge. 
 
 The members in fig. 11 fall wholly on the chamfer-plane, as 
 in fig. 1, plate 3, which is seldom the case in this style. Three 
 pointed rolls placed together, somewhat in the form of a fleur- 
 de-lis,''' form a combination of very frequent occurrence. It 
 may often be found between the detached shafts of large door¬ 
 ways, as at Peterborough and Ely, and indeed in any posi¬ 
 tion, with many minor varieties of shape. Fig. 21, plate 4, 
 and 5, plate 2, are examples. In some cases it closely ap¬ 
 proaches the character of the roll-and-triple-fillet, as 6, plate 
 5, the beautiful Decorated window-jamb at Northborough, 
 N orthampton shire. 
 
 In Decorated work the fillet became extremely broad, (19, 4,) 
 often as much as three, or even four inches. In this case it 
 may be said to lose its original character, especially in clustered 
 piers, where it very often occurs, as in those to the east of the 
 octagon at Ely. But in Early English it is almost always a 
 narrow edge-line. If set square on the roll, it is generally a 
 sign of early work. See the outline diagrams in plate 4. The 
 depressed and elongated forms on each side of fig. 11 are prin¬ 
 cipally found in later buildings, the first in Decorated, the latter 
 in Perpendicular. 
 
 We have said that a great degree of licence is observable 
 in the forms of Early English roll-and-fillet moldings, in respect 
 of size, shape, and composition, and that geometric accuracy 
 was avoided in a rather remarkable maimer; the irregular 
 
 * There is sometimes so close a resemblance to the head of a fleur-de-lis in 
 this complex molding, that it is difficult to disconnect the idea of the one from 
 the other. An example is given, full size, in Plate XIII. of Potter’s Monastic 
 Remains, Tintern Abbey,—a work, we may here observe, which is quite in¬ 
 valuable in shewing the curves and geometric formations of early Gothic mold¬ 
 ings, and which every lover of Catholic architecture ought to possess. It 
 contains an immense number of moldings of the finest era and the richest 
 design. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MOLDINGS. 
 
 37 
 
 shape, (almost like a vegetable growth, or a lump of manipu¬ 
 lated clay,) and the freely undulating curve, having been com¬ 
 monly preferred. Almost every conceivable modification of the 
 plain roll, peaked, depressed, elliptical, grooved at the end, might 
 be found and catalogued by a careful observer. 
 
 An important form, generally considered distinctive of De¬ 
 corated, but not very uncommon in advanced Early English 
 work,''' is the scroll-molding ; so called from its resemblance 
 to a roll of thick paper, the outer edge of which overlaps upon 
 
 the side exposed to view. It may be described as a cylinder, 
 
 the under half of which is withdrawn, or shifted a little be¬ 
 hind the upper. We shall find it almost universally used in 
 the abacus and neck of Decorated capitals, and very often in 
 strings and base-moldings. 
 
 It is certain that this form was known and in use even in 
 the pure lancet architecture of 1200-1240. Fig. 19, plate 1, 
 from St. Benet’s, Lincoln, is a proof of this. It also occurs, 
 perhaps in an accidental or undeveloped form, in fig. 3, plate 2. 
 As the fillet is not generally set square on the roll, and when 
 it is so, is a mark of earlier work, so the edge of the scroll¬ 
 molding is usually rounded underneath,F except in the earlier 
 
 instances, when it is almost always square, (fig. 20, pi. 4,) and 
 usually also the under half of the cylinder is more deeply with¬ 
 drawn. It is represented in fig. 14, plate 4, an Early Deco¬ 
 rated doorway at Yaxley, Hunts., and in figs. 11 and 16,— 
 the latter an arcade in Lincoln Minster. Here we have the 
 
 * It occurs, for example, in the moldings of the very elaborate triplet at the 
 east end of Castle Rising church ; engraved in Plate VIII. of Mr. Bowman’s 
 account of that church in his Specimens of Ecclesiastical Architecture. The 
 presence of the scroll-molding in any elaborate group marks its approach 
 towards the Geometric age. See fig. 6, plate 17, which, together with the conti¬ 
 guous sections, figs. 4 and 9, represent the jambs of the immense early Decorated 
 and Geometric windows in the south aisle of Grantham Church. 
 
 t The ancient name in this case was the ressant lorymer. Architectural 
 Nomenclature, p. 9. 
 
38 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 unusual combination of the scroll-molding and the side-fillet. 
 Fig. 5, plate 7, is a fragment from Rievaulx Abbey. Fig. 7, 
 the rich and beautifully moulded doorway at Northborough, 
 circa a.d. 1270, exhibits the scroll form on the interior order. 
 
 The origin of this molding we have been unable with any 
 certainty to ascertain. It may perhaps be regarded as a roll- 
 and-fillet with one side left uncut, either because it was removed 
 from sight, as in capibals, or afforded a more effective drip in 
 strings and weatherings, where it most constantly occurs. The 
 shadowed edge-line was presented by the scroll-molding as well 
 as by the roll-and-fillet; and the principles of effect which sug¬ 
 gested both forms are probably identical. The scroll-edge is 
 rarely inverted, so that the withdrawn surface is placed upper¬ 
 most, as in some of the bases at Tintern Abbey (fig. 33, plate 
 14). It is rather singular that the withdrawn edge is almost 
 invariably placed on the side removed from sight in jamb and 
 arch moldings, so that from an external view the profile of this 
 member is not visible. 
 
 Two rolls-and-fillets conjoined at their bases, so that their 
 respective fillets are at right angles to each other, constitute 
 the double-ogee, or double-ressant , as it was anciently called,* 
 —one of the commonest moldings of the Decorated and Per¬ 
 pendicular styles. It is rare in Early English, and apparently 
 the result of accident rather than intention when it does occur, 
 as in fig. 12, plate 4. Fig. 1, plate 7, is the west doorway 
 of Landaff Cathedral, of pure Early English detail. The capi¬ 
 tals which bear the two moldings in question are marked in 
 outline. Fig. G, plate’4, is a Decorated molding of sufficiently 
 common occurrence, (as in the belfry archway at Trumping- 
 ton,) where the shafts which carry the capitals are set together 
 so as to form the double ogee. And the same may be con- 
 
 * Professor Willis says this molding is sometimes called a brace, from its re¬ 
 semblance to a printer’s bracket (History of Winchester Cathedral, 
 
 Archaeological Journal, p. GO.) 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MOLDINGS. 
 
 39 
 
 stantly observed in the common arrangement of Early English 
 and Decorated piers, figs. 14 and 15, plate 5. See also fig. 
 17, plate 2. 
 
 Early English arch-moldings are so easy to distinguish from 
 all others, that it is not necessary either to say more in ex¬ 
 planation of their peculiarities, or to give a great number of 
 examples. They are by far the most difficult of all to copy 
 with exactness, from the irregular and capricious forms of the 
 curves and undercuttings; and their great extent, often many 
 feet across, renders it an extremely tedious process to draw any 
 of the rich and complex examples on a reduced scale. The 
 very deep and dark hollows constitute the most character¬ 
 istic difference between the moldings of this and those of the 
 succeeding style, in which most of the forms already enumerated 
 will be found to recur. But we lose the extravagant display of 
 deep cavernous undercutting in Decorated moldings. We 
 there find a hollow of three-quarters of a circle, accurately 
 formed with the compasses, in the angle of every receding sub¬ 
 arch, as in fig. 2, plate 6, the west doorway at Hingham, 
 Norfolk, fig. 11, the inner doorway of the south porch at 
 Deopliam, fig. 12, the same from Benington, Lincolnshire, and 
 fig. 3, plate 17, from Bottisham, Cambridgeshire. And these 
 hollows must be particularly observed as the real division of 
 the orders of moldings when they all lie on the chamfer-plane. 
 The Decorated hollows are usually of larger size than the Early 
 English; and there is this general difference in their use, that 
 in the Decorated they divide groups , in the Early English , indi¬ 
 vidual members. 
 
 The exquisite skill, taste, and patient labour invariably evinced 
 in the working of Early English moldings, are truly admirable. 
 The ingenuity that was never at a loss in any difficulty of finish 
 or constructive irregularity, and the minuteness with which 
 even the most concealed and darkened parts were executed, are 
 circumstances of much interest, if we contrast the hasty and 
 
40 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 economical practice of the present clay. The deepest hollows 
 are all as cleanly and perfectly cut as the most prominent and 
 conspicuous details; and in the village church as much so as in 
 the most glorious cathedral. An Early English doorway is 
 often a wonderful piece of art, however little it may attract the 
 attention of ordinary observers. It is most pleasing to notice 
 the long trails of dog-tooth lurking in the dark furrow of a 
 label or chancelled recess; to see the end of some inconvenient 
 member got rid of by throwing a flower across the point where 
 it suddenly stops or dies into the wall; to admire the efflorescent 
 boss and the foliaged capital intruding their luxuriance upon 
 the moldings and hollows, as if they had overgrown their 
 original and proper limits. How beautifully, too, the knots of 
 pierced and hanging leaves extend like some petrified garland 
 or bower of filigree work round the arch, dividing the plainer 
 moldings into groups, and almost imparting life and vegetation 
 to the very stones 1 There are abundance of doorways of this 
 style which exhibit the most delightful varieties in their forms 
 and groupings; always, yet never the same. Some examples 
 occur at Bolton and Furness Abbeys, whose arch-moldings ex¬ 
 tend five or six feet in width. The west fronts of several of 
 our Cathedrals have Early English doorways of amazing mag¬ 
 nificence. The entrance doorway of the Chapter House at 
 Lichfield is a very fine example of the molding of this style. 
 But almost every Cathedral and every ruined Abbey will sup¬ 
 ply very fine specimens, so that it would be useless to multiply 
 illustrations. Plate 18, fig. 3, is a doorway in the cloisters 
 at Peterborough ; fig. 2, a doorway immediately opposite, in 
 the south aisle of the nave, both on a scale of half an inch 
 to one foot. Fig. 5 is a ruined doorway at Bivaulx Abbey. 
 Fig. 6 is from the east window of Castle Bising Church ;* 
 
 * This and fig. 10 from the same, arc taken from Mr. Bowman’s illustra¬ 
 tions of that church, plate viii. 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 41 
 
 fig. 7, from Beaulieu Abbey ,* the southern triplet of the Re¬ 
 fectory ; fig. 8, an arch-mold from the choir of Ripon Min¬ 
 ster ; fig. 9 is borrowed from Brandon’s Analysis of Gothic 
 Architecture. 
 
 These latter examples (6, 7, 10) show the method of insert¬ 
 ing the tooth ornament in, or rather across, hollows. Many 
 of the more elaborate groups of Early English moldings con¬ 
 tain several successive trails of this decoration, often of different 
 sizes, shape, and planes of projection. In the very beautiful 
 west doorway at Binham Priory, Norfolk, a curious variety 
 of the dog-tooth is set in hollows of such depth, that the eye 
 cannot fathom the point of attachment. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 OF DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 The student will bear in mind that the details of Decorated 
 moldings are in great measure identical with those of the pre¬ 
 ceding style, with the addition of some new members, and 
 several important modifications of grouping. And the latter will 
 be found to produce an entirely different effect, though in de¬ 
 scription the distinction may appear very trifling. The eye 
 must be familiarized to the profile and general appearance of 
 moldings of different dates, so that, without dismembering, and, 
 as it were, analysing the group, or examining the separate 
 details, it may discern at a glance the style to which any ex¬ 
 ample belongs. And this may be done with a considerable 
 degree of certainty by practice and attention; though we are 
 not prepared to assert that all the differences of style admit of 
 being reduced to unvarying and infallible rules. We sometimes 
 
 * From Weale’s Quarterly Papers, vol. ii., Plate ii. 
 
42 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 meet with moldings of much earlier or later date than we should 
 have expected from other characteristic marks in the building; 
 and there are not a few instances in which, without the aid of 
 such marks, it would be impossible to say whether a molding is 
 of the fourteenth or the fifteenth century. In fact, this science 
 does not appear capable of more than general treatment; though 
 there is quite enough of uniform system to enable us to appre¬ 
 hend the broad distinctive principles which obtained in the 
 different periods. 
 
 Generally, then, we observe much greater geometrical pre¬ 
 cision in drawing both the hollows and the projecting members 
 than prevailed in the preceding style. Segments of circles, both 
 concave and convex, were much used ; and there was a softness 
 of blending, a delicacy and gentleness of grouping, an avoidance 
 of strong and violent contrasts of light and shade, which im¬ 
 parted a more pleasing, though much less striking, effect. There 
 can be no doubt that the perfection of molding, as of all archi¬ 
 tectural detail, was attained in this style. 
 
 Early English arch-moldings have a monotonous effect which 
 is but imperfectly remedied by the free use of quaint, irregular, 
 and fanciful members. The reason is, first, that the numerous 
 members do not vary materially in size, and secondly, that each 
 stands between two deep hollows, so that the entire group looks 
 like a mere alternation of dark and light, repeated with little 
 change twenty or thirty times over. Now the composition of 
 Decorated moldings is materially different. For not only do the 
 
 members vary in size, but also in kind ; the 
 deep hollows are principally confined to the 
 inner angles, and there is no extravagant iso¬ 
 lation of small and unimportant parts. The 
 roll and fillet is formed with as little under¬ 
 cutting as possible, as in figs. 2, 3, 9, 10, 
 plate 1 7, in fact only just enough is hollowed away at the sides 
 to develope the outline. 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 43 
 
 In the Geometric-Decorated age (that is, in the reign of the 
 first two Edwards), the moldings of arches and jambs differ very 
 slightly from those of pure Early English ; so slightly indeed, 
 that they cannot alone be taken as decisive of this or that date. 
 It was not until the Flowing-Decorated era (that is, during the 
 reign of Edward III.), that these moldings took the characteris¬ 
 tic turn which brought about the surrender of the roll-and-fillet, 
 and its many varieties, for the ogees, bowtells, and wide, shallow 
 casements of the Perpendicular period. 
 
 Rich Decorated moldings are of rather rare occurrence. A 
 great many of the finest buildings in this style scarcely afford 
 as good examples of molding as the smallest and humblest 
 church of the Early English age. Very often plain chamfers 
 are used in all the windows, doorways, and pier-arches ; while 
 minor parts, such as bases, capitals, sedilia, sepulcral recesses, 
 and the like, have fine and elaborate details. It is in this kind 
 of work that we must look for the best moldings in the De¬ 
 corated style. In arches, doorways, and windows, the plain 
 chamfer of two orders (fig. 5, plate 1) is perhaps most com¬ 
 monly found. Windows especially are often singularly meagre 
 in their moldings, however rich their tracery may be. The 
 monials stand near the outer surface of the wall, and separated 
 from, or recessed behind it only by a single order with a plain 
 or hollow chamfer, as figs. 20 and 21, plate 7. Frequently, 
 indeed, the tracery of good Decorated windows stands quite flush 
 with the wall, so that the jamb-moldings are, as it were, entirely 
 omitted. 4 ' And again, the monials and tracery often consist of 
 merely chamfered planes, without any edge-lines to relieve them; 
 and so, fig. 20, pi. 7, the East window at Trumpington. Fig. 
 19, a window at Hingham, Norfolk, is one degree richer than 
 this, two orders being introduced in the monial, though of equally 
 plain character. 
 
 * In the churches of Norfolk and Suffolk this is the rule, and not the excep¬ 
 tion, from the scarcity of stone in those parts. 
 
44 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 There appear to be three distinct kinds to which Decorated 
 moldings may generally he referred ; though there are many ex¬ 
 amples which it might be difficult to assign to any one of them. 
 These are:— 
 
 1. The plain or hollow chamfer of two or more orders, which, 
 properly speaking, is only the step preparatory to molding, and 
 stopping short of that ulterior process. 
 
 2. Roll-and-fillet moldings, with hollows between each mem¬ 
 ber, nearly resembling, in principle and arrangement, the Early 
 English method, as fig. 12, pi. 5,—a doorway at Attleborough, 
 Norfolk, and figs. 4, 6, 8, pi. 17. 
 
 3. A succession of double ogees, divided by hollows of three 
 quarters of a circle, as figs. 9, 11, 12, 14, plate 6. Fig. lfi, 
 pi. 2, is similar in kind, and both of these are exceedingly 
 common moldings in this style. It is not uncommon to find 
 these two varieties combined, as in fig. 0. plate 7,—the belfry- 
 arch at Deopham, Norfolk. And as they rarely occupy any 
 other position than the chamfer-plane, it seems proper to regard 
 them as virtually the plain chamfered edges of class 1, slightly 
 relieved from their flat and naked form. Their distinctive pecu¬ 
 liarity consists in the repetition of the same members in each 
 order, though, as we have observed, other varieties of the cham¬ 
 fer are sometimes intermixed. Thus fig. 11, plate 6, might be 
 described in words thus :—“ A double-ogee order between two 
 hollow chamfer orders, divided by three-quarter hollow’s; all 
 lying in the chamfer-plane of 45°; total width across, twenty- 
 three inches.” 
 
 The plain or hollow’ chamfer is extremely common in all 
 jambs and archways, (especially if they be continuous, or have 
 no imposts or jamb-shafts,) in the Early Decorated style. The 
 inner angle which divides the orders, (and which has been called 
 the re-entering angled) is either left solid, or cut into a deep three- 
 quarter hollow. Of this latter arrangement, which produces a 
 very bold and good effect, it might be difficult to name a better 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 45 
 
 example than the west doorway of St. Mary’s, Ely. Here 
 the chamfers are hollow, or quarter-circles. In such cases there 
 are often trails of ball-flowers, quatrefoil patera?, roses, or other 
 ornamental leaf-work disposed at regular intervals, and repeated 
 in rows in two or more of the chamfers. See 2, plate 6 ; 10, 
 plate 7. 
 
 The second kind is generally, but not always, early in the 
 style ; and it is perhaps the most perfect and beautiful of all. The 
 members in this case usually fall in squares, (that is, on the 
 wall-planes and soffit-planes in succession,) as in the west door¬ 
 way at Trumpington Church, fig. 3, plate 7. Fig. 3, plate 17, 
 is from the south porch of Bottisham Church, near Cambridge. 
 Fig. 5 is from a doorway at Langham, Rut¬ 
 land, of the Geometric age. Fig. 8 is from 
 the beautiful decorated archway of the south 
 porch at Over, Cambridgeshire. Fig. 10 is a 
 window jamb from Grantham Church. Some- 
 
 r»i*i , • - Window-jamb, Over church. 
 
 times moldings ot this class are combined 
 with those of the third, as fig. 11, plate 5, the Priest’s door at 
 Hingham, Norfolk. Fig. 7, plate 17, a doorway at Burfield, 
 Suffolk. Fig. 17, plate 20, the chancel door at Willingham, 
 near Ely ; and fig. 1, plate 5, a monument at Boston. Figs. 6, 
 7, 8, 12, plate 7, are all of this second kind. 
 
 There is, however, a perceptible difference in the shape of the 
 Early English and the Decorated roll-and-fillet. In the later 
 style the fillet is broader, not set square on the roll, 
 and the neck is wider from the hollows between the 
 single members being less deeply undercut. The 
 
 capricious and irregular forms of the earlier 
 
 style are no longer found; the roll-and-triple 
 fillet, arranged upon rectangular lines, is gener¬ 
 ally one member of the group, and the gently 
 
 bulging ogee curvature predominates throughout. In many 
 instances the roll-and-fillet forms a member of very large 
 
 Decorated 
 filleted rolls. 
 
46 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 size, as fig. 15, plate 20, a monument in the choir of Bolton 
 Abbey. 
 
 While moldings of the second kind are generally borne by 
 jamb-shafts, as in the Early English style, (though now engaged 
 in, and not detached from, the wall,) those of the first and third 
 are almost always continuous, except in pier-arches, where they 
 constantly occur, in which case they are stopped by the capitals. 
 Thus, fig. 4, plate 7, is a pier-arch at Trumpington ; fig. 3, 
 plate 6, one at Hingham. Sometimes a series of four or five of 
 these together, as fig. 12, 6, gives a very deep and rich effect to 
 a doorway. It is not uncommon to find one member of a double 
 ogee considerably larger than the other, or those of one order of 
 different size from the others. It must be particularly observed, 
 that in the third class of Decorated moldings, the fillets on each 
 side of the three-quarter hollows (i. e. the untouched portions of 
 the rectangular nook,) almost invariably stand at right angles 
 with each other, the principle of which is shown at fig. 3, plate 
 5,—the west doorway at Attleborough, Norfolk. Exceptions, 
 such as fig. A, plate 7, are seldom found in ancient , but very 
 often in modern moldings. We may further observe on fig. 3, 5, 
 that if the sides of the re-entering angle are equal, the chamfer- 
 plane is the diagonal of a square, that is, it forms an angle of 
 45°. So, in fig. 2, 7, the angle of the chamfer-plane is ascer¬ 
 tained by measuring the two sides of the central nook. Some¬ 
 times the group appears to have been designed on the principle of 
 a series of squares, as seen in fig. 3, plate i 7. 
 
 Moldings are either simple or compound. A simple molding is 
 a plain single form, complete in itself, as a bowtell, or three- 
 quarter round. A compound molding is either composed of two 
 or more distinct parts, as a roll-and-fillet, a double ogee; or in¬ 
 volves a profile of reflex or double curvature. This is properly 
 the character of the ogee itself, which is formed by a segmental 
 inward curve conjoined continuously with a similar outward 
 curve. Of the same kind is a very important and universal 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 47 
 
 Decorated form, which may be called the compound ogee, or the 
 wave-molding, from its gently undulating outline.* It is repre¬ 
 sented in figs. 0, 9, 17, 18, 19, plate 7, and elsewhere. It is 
 composed of two ogee curvatures, forming a central bulge or 
 entasis, sometimes projecting forward beyond the edges, but 
 usually in the same plane with them. Scarcely any method of 
 molding is so common in, or so characteristic of, this style, and 
 especially of the flowing , or later Decorated, to which era its use 
 was principally confined. It frequently occurs with a hollow 
 between, as fig. 17, plate 7. The formation of this detail may 
 be traced either to the half of a triply-filleted roll, fig. 10, plate 
 4, the other half being considered as undeveloped, or merged in 
 the block; or to the insertion of a quarter-shaft into a rectangular 
 nook, the edges at the points of junction being rounded instead 
 of sharp and abrupt. The latter is not impro¬ 
 bable, on the analogy of the earlier and later 
 (that is, the square and rounded) forms of the 
 roll-and-fillet and the scroll moldings. Indeed 
 the form shewn in the accompanying outline is 
 actually found, though rarely. It is represented 
 in the “ Guide to the Neighbourhood of Oxford,” p. 333, from Gar- 
 sington Church; and in plate xxiv. of Potter’s “Buildwas Abbey/’ 
 (Early English.) There are several modifications of it: the 
 edges are either sharp, as fig. 17, or there is a small width of the 
 chamfer-plane left uncut on each side, as fig. 11, plate 5, fig. 1 ; 
 plate 20, a doorway from Landbeach Church, Cambridgeshire. 
 In this case the concaves are sometimes slightly under-cut. The 
 former is most common in Decorated, the latter in Perpendicu¬ 
 lar : but all the varieties of this molding appear to occur without 
 any definite distinction throughout both periods. Yet it is so 
 much more common in Decorated work, that its occurrence may, 
 in default of other proofs, be taken as a presumptive evidence of 
 
 * Inigo Jones applied the term wave to the ogee. See Architectural Nomen¬ 
 clature, 5 16. 
 
 The wave-molding. 
 
48 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 the style. It is also wider and shallower in early than in late 
 work; that is, the side hollows are less deep, and the central 
 entasis less bulging.* Sometimes, indeed, the wavy line is so 
 faint as to he scarcely different from the plain chamfer, as A, pi. 
 7. And sometimes we find nothing more than a flat surface 
 sunk between two raised edges. See B, plate 7, and the low r est 
 order of fig. 8. This may he termed the sunken chamfer. It is 
 not of very common occurrence; a very good specimen is en¬ 
 graved in the Oxford u Guide,” p. 281, from Headington Church. 
 
 Another variety is shown in figs. IS, 16, 23, pi. 7, and fig. 2, 
 plate 20, a window-jamb from Quy Church, near Cambridge. 
 This appears to have arisen from cutting down to an angle, 
 instead of scooping out in an ogee curve, one end of the member. 
 It is generally a mark of Transition to Perpendicular. 
 
 A rare form is exhibited in fig. 16, plate 5. It maybe called 
 a double wave-molding. By cutting the central hollow down to 
 an angle, (as shown in the shaded part,) a double ogee would be 
 the result. This molding occurs in the Decorated belfry arch at 
 Stretham, Isle of Ely, and in the east window of the south aisle 
 at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire, (plate 19, fig. 8). 
 
 A plain bowtell, or a roll-and-fillet, between two wave-mold¬ 
 ings, is found in Decorated work. Fig. 2, plate 17, is from the 
 north porch of Bottisham Church, Cambridgeshire ; fig. 1, from 
 the outer archway of the south porch (fig. 8 being the inner) of 
 the same church. In fig. 2, the rolls-and-fillets fall within, or 
 short of, the rectangular plane, because they would otherwise 
 have been too large. 
 
 The ogee molding is a form so extensively used, and so diffi¬ 
 cult to explain fully in its origin and varied relations, that we 
 
 * The formation is shewn in figs. 1 and 2, plate 19. It will be seen that 
 the early form involves the equilateral, the later the obtuse triangle. It is 
 clear from fig. 5, plate 19, that this form was not unknown in Early English 
 architecture. It also occurs, in the form approximating to the outline diagram 
 in p. 47, in an archway at Croxden Abbey, circa 1240. 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 49 
 
 must begin by professing our inability to do more than point out 
 its general and leading characteristics. In respect of its origin, 
 the ogee curve is so prevalent in the Classic styles, that we might 
 easily suppose it was thence imported into the Gothic, were there 
 not abundant opportunities of self-development presented by the 
 varieties of the roll-and-fillet. It is believed that the ogee 
 scarcely, if ever, occurs in Norman architecture, in England at 
 least, whatever may be the case in the Romanesque edifices in 
 other countries. We have already observed its occasional ap¬ 
 pearance in the Early English style, where, however, it is very 
 sparingly used. What we would now especially point out is 
 this: that whenever the ogee occurs in Decorated moldings, it 
 always suggests to the mind the idea of one side of a roll-and- 
 fillet. In its most ordinary position in a window-jamb, it actu¬ 
 ally corresponds to a perfect roll-and-fillet in the monial, as figs. 
 9, 10, 11, plate 7, and here it must, of course, be regarded lite¬ 
 rally as half of that member. Since, however, the quirked ogee, 
 (see fig. 2, plate 16,) so common in Classic edifices, is identical 
 in form with this part of a monial, (fig. 3,) it seems extremely 
 difficult to decide how far the form was introduced from this or 
 that suggestion. Again, we have seen that the wave-molding, 
 which contains an ogee curve, may be regarded as a modification 
 of the roll-and-fillet ;* so that it would not perhaps be saying 
 too much, if we should vindicate for Gothic architecture the self¬ 
 development of the ogee, rather than refer it to an imitation of 
 uncongenial Classic details. 
 
 The following, therefore, are the principal forms found in 
 Decorated moldings :— 
 
 1. The roll-and-fillet. 
 
 2. Roll-and-triple-fillet. 
 
 3. Ogee. 
 
 4. Double ogee, or double ressant. 
 
 * See fig. 9, plate 18, where the wave-molding is developed in a roll-and- 
 triple-fillet ; also in fig. 5, plate 19; both Early English. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 5. Scroll-molding, or ressant lorymer. 
 
 6. Wave-molding. 
 
 7. Plain or hollow chamfer. 
 
 8. Sunken chamfer, (B, plate 7.) 
 
 It is difficult to give a name to the form shewn in 16, plate 7, 
 and perhaps it is not of sufficiently frequent occurrence to render 
 a particular term desirable. 
 
 We might add other minor varieties of form which are prin¬ 
 cipally found in Decorated work. Sometimes we find a semi¬ 
 circle sunk in the chamfer-plane, as fig. 6, plate 6, a doorway 
 at Deopham, Norfolk, fig. 14, plate 7, a fragment from Rievaulx 
 Abbey, and fig. 13, plate 6, a very fine archway at Harding - 
 ham, Norfolk, and fig. 14, 5, a window at Hingham. So also 
 fig. 2, plate 5. This detail is the most usual in Transition to 
 Perpendicular, circa 1360—70. 
 
 The bowtell, or three-quarter round, is used, but rather spar¬ 
 ingly, in Decorated work; it was extremely common in Perpen¬ 
 dicular. Fig. 18, 7, is a doorway of Transition date, at Swan- 
 ton Morley, Norfolk, in which the bowtell occupying the centre 
 forms an engaged shaft. When this is the case, the fillet is 
 seldom wanting, except in very advanced work. But the plain 
 roll appears in figs. 1, 3, 5, plate 5, all of which are late in the 
 style.'* Sometimes the bowtell is seen in juxtaposition with 
 the sunken semicircle, as in figs. 1, 4, 5, plate 5. 
 
 In fig. 6, plate 7, a window at Fen Stanton, a small tongue¬ 
 shaped member projects from the inner side of the principal roll- 
 and-fillet. This should be noticed as a very characteristic detail 
 of Decorated moldings of the second class, to which this exam¬ 
 ple belongs. See also fig. 5, plate 17. A combination ex¬ 
 tremely common in labels and capitals is shewn in fig. 48, plate 
 16. This occurs also in jambs and arches, as fig. 14, pi. 2. 
 
 * All the examples in plate 5 are lute Decorated. The occurrence of the 
 small three-quarter round, as in figs. 1, 3, 4, A, is a sure indication of approach 
 to Perpendicular. 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 51 
 
 Fig. 9, plate 5, and 14 and 15, plate 6, shew the method of 
 principal and secondary monials. The moldings are of course 
 coincident in every part of the tracery and monials, and in the 
 corresponding parts or planes of the jamb ; so that, for shortness 1 
 sake, architects generally draw double monials as in these exam¬ 
 ples, merged into one another. Thus the outer edge represents 
 the actual profile of the jamb, which, as being identical in detail, 
 may of course be also taken to represent one side of the monials. 
 In drawing the section of a window-jamb, the monial-members 
 may be represented by lines across, parallel with the wall-plane. 
 Fig. 9, 5, is the inner jamb of the east window at Heckington ; 
 fig. 14, 6, the same part of a window in the Chancel at Boston ; 
 fig. 15 is from Stoke Golding, Leicestershire. 
 
 When a window has primary and secondary monials, it is 
 obvious that they carry distinct planes or orders of moldings. 
 Yet these orders are not always of the same nature as those we 
 have before described as such, namely, the group of members 
 constituting the separate sub-arches; for the face of the smaller 
 monial often falls within or behind that of the larger only by a 
 single retiring step, or member of a group. Thus, in 1.4, 6, 
 both the monials combined carry (properly speaking) the same 
 order, but different members of it. 
 
 The plane in which the outer moldings of the jamb lie is 
 seldom coincident, as in the last example, with that on which 
 the monial members are arranged, for this would in most cases 
 give too great thickness to the monials themselves, the slope 
 or inclination of which must of course be the same on both 
 sides of each aperture or light. The difference of inclination 
 is sometimes very slight, but this point must be carefully 
 attended to in copying moldings. See fig. 5, plate 8; fig. 8, 
 plate 20. 
 
 In Decorated windows, the face of the monials is generally a 
 flat edge or fillet; but in some early examples, a roll-molding is 
 carried all round, and is furnished with small bases resting on 
 
52 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 the cill. This roll-tracery is very common in Perpendicular 
 windows; and sometimes, as at the west end of King’s College 
 Chapel, it has small stilted bases in the jamb. 
 
 Many Decorated windows have shafts in the jambs and 
 monials both internally and externally. This produces a very 
 fine effect, especially when the primary monials carry a triple, 
 the secondary a single shaft. In these cases the moldings of 
 the tracery follow the common law of pier-arclies and shafted 
 doorways, that is, they are different in section above the capi¬ 
 tals.^ Ordinary windows, on the other hand, follow the princi¬ 
 ple of continuous archways. 
 
 The interior arch, or rear-rib , of Early English and Geometric 
 windows is generally borne by a shaft,* except in very plain 
 and inexpensive buildings. Shafts, in fact, form a very essential 
 part in the composition of the more elaborate windows in these 
 styles. The aisles and clerestory in the nave of St. Alban’s 
 Abbey, and the south choir-aisle of St. Mary’s church, Stafford, 
 afford most beautiful instances of shafted window-jambs. 
 
 The labels or hood-moldings of the date of Edward I. and 
 II. are often undercut by a three-quarter circle, sunk in the 
 surface of the wall, as in figs. 1 and 10, plate 6, doorways at 
 Little Ellingham, Norfolk, fig. 8, the north doorway at Hing- 
 ham, and fig. 13, at Hardingham. This latter example is un¬ 
 usually hold and deep. It measures three feet across from the 
 outer face of the label to the soffit, and the effect is remarkably 
 fine. Fig. 5 is the interior of a window-jamb at Sleaford. Fig. 
 7 from a monument at Boston, the soffit at A. Fig. 4 is the 
 molding of the pier-arches in the same church, of unusual and 
 decidedly early character, though of rather late Decorated date. 
 
 Fig. 2, plate 5, is a doorway at Great Ellingham. It closely 
 resembles fig. 6, plate 6. Fig. 4 is the inner doorway of the 
 south porch at Boston. There is a close resemblance in the 
 
 * Called anciently, the rear-shaft. Willis’s Architectural Nomenclature, 
 p. 57. 
 
DECORATED MOLDINGS. 
 
 53 
 
 composition of this and of fig. 1, a monument in the same 
 church, betraying the hand of the same artist. This resemblance 
 should always be attended to, not only in the same church, but 
 in the neighbouring edifices, because a strong presumption of 
 coeval date is thence to be derived. And monuments especially 
 were so often inserted subsequently, that it is very important to 
 compare the moldings with other parts of the same church. 
 The character of these two examples is rather late ; and they 
 are wiry and poor in their effect, from being cut away too deeply 
 and widely from the block surface. 
 
 Fig. 5, plate 5, is from a fine Decorated tomb at Ewerby 
 church, Lincolnshire; a noble structure, which almost rivals its 
 immediate neighbour, the celebrated St. Andrew’s, Heckington. 
 This molding is a good and effective composition. It is shewn 
 in perspective, to illustrate the singular difference in appearance 
 which exists between the same molding exhibited in section 
 and in elevation. The roll-and-triple-fillet invariably produces 
 a fine effect in moldings of this style. Its edge-lines are sharp 
 and delicate, and the profile beautifully relieved by the deep 
 side-hollows with which it is necessarily connected. 
 
 Fig. 7 is the interior of a window-jamb at Bennington, Lin¬ 
 colnshire, and fig. 10, the exterior of the same. Fig. 8 is the 
 interior of a window-jamb at Heckington. Fig. 13 is one side 
 of the belfry-arch at West Real, Lincolnshire.* 
 
 Fig. 8, plate 7, is the outer archway of the west entrance to 
 the precinct, Peterborough; a very fine Decorated group. Fig. 9 
 is a very common plan of a Decorated window. It is taken 
 from Yaxley, Hunts. Fig. 10 is from Clipsham, Rutland,— a 
 window which is elegantly enriched by a trail of ball-flowers in 
 the hollow chamfer of the outer order. Fig. 12 is a Decorated 
 window from the Chancel at Over ;f Fig. 11, from Horbling, 
 
 * This example is badly copied, and must not he depended upon. 
 
 t A remarkable structure, with window tracery and other details approaching 
 Terpendicular, but with pure Decorated moldings. 
 
54 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 Lincolnshire. This also is a very common form in Decorated 
 windows. Fig. 13 is from the outer porch doorway at North- 
 borough. Fig. 15, a groin-rib from Rievaulx Abbey; fig. 16, a 
 doorway from West Real; fig. 21 is a window from the fine 
 Decorated Chancel at Keddington, or Ketton, Suffolk. Fig. 
 22, the molding at the angle of a piscina, Thurlby, Lincoln¬ 
 shire. Fig. 23, the south doorway at Langtoft, near Market 
 Deeping. 
 
 Fig. 4, plate 20, is an archway in the cloisters at Peter¬ 
 borough, with double jamb-sliafts. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 OF PERPENDICULAR MOLDINGS. 
 
 In the moldings of this style we shall at once perceive a de¬ 
 basing influence in the comparatively meagre, save-trouble method 
 of working them. Large and coarse members, with little of 
 minute and delicate detail, wide and shallow hollows, occupying 
 spaces which, in early work, would have been filled with groups 
 of separate moldings ; hard wiry edges in place of rounded and 
 softened forms, and general shallowness of cutting, are all con¬ 
 spicuous characteristics. Add to these, that their general ar¬ 
 rangement on the chamfer-plane, which is a marked feature of 
 the Perpendicular period, gives a flatness which is unpleasing to 
 the eye in comparison with the rectangularly recessed grouping 
 of the two preceding styles. Three peculiarities are so common 
 in perpendicular moldings, that their absence almost forms the 
 exception to general usage. These are :— 
 
 1. A wide shallow casement, or hollow, usually occupying the 
 centre of the group, and equal to about one third of the entire 
 width; 
 
PERPENDICULAR MOLDINGS. 
 
 55 
 
 2. The constant use of bowtells, or beads, of three quarters of 
 a circle, resembling small shafts; 
 
 3. The frequency of the double ogee, and some varieties of it 
 peculiar to the period. 
 
 The casement alluded to may undoubtedly be regarded as 
 an elongation or extension of the Decorated three-quarter hol¬ 
 low, by which width is gained at the sacrifice of depth. It is 
 generally a mark of early Perpendicular work when the case¬ 
 ment is deep and narrow, of late when wide and shallow, and of 
 debased when it is, as it were, so stretched as to become almost 
 or quite a flat surface, sunken but little below the chamfer- 
 plane, or external line of the group. The latter result may be 
 observed in the windows of St. Botolph’s church, and in those 
 at the back of St. John’s College, Cambridge. 
 
 Of many forms which the casement assumes, the most fre¬ 
 quent are those represented in figs. 11, 16, plate 9, and figs. 4, 
 10, 13, plate 8. It is very common to find one or both ends of 
 the hollow returned in a kind of quasi-bowtell, as seen in figs. 2 
 and 15, plate 8, and fig. 3, plate 20, a window in the chancel 
 of Grantham church. Frequently, however, perhaps generally, 
 the ends are sharp and angular, as fig. 14, plate 9, fig. 14, plate 
 20, the arch-mold of the nave of Lancaster church, or fig. 3, 
 plate 8. The three-quarter hollow also occurs in this style, and 
 sometimes, as in fig. 2, plate 9, in the same group with the great 
 cavetto. 
 
 The bowtell will be observed in some form or other in almost 
 every example given in plates 8 and 9, and if the student com¬ 
 pares the three plates of Decorated moldings, he will perceive 
 the importance of assigning this feature as a peculiarity of the 
 Perpendicular. In fig. 6, plate 20, from Bievaulx Abbey, a 
 small double bowtell forms the central member. Fig. 10 the 
 western doorway at Newton church, near Cambridge; fig. 11 
 and fig. 12, both from Bolton Abbey; fig. 13, from a small 
 doorway in the choir of Grantham church, and fig. 5, a door- 
 
56 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 way in Ripon Minster, all contain examples of the cylindrical 
 bowtell. It is often formed from a plane by sinking a channel 
 on each side, as in figs. 1, 3, 6, plate 8. Occasionally it stands 
 like an excrescence on the surface of a plane, as fig. 5 ; but 
 this is a departure from the usual practice, as well as from the 
 true principle of moldings. 
 
 The double ogee is much more common in Perpendicular than 
 in Decorated moldings. There is some difference, too, in the 
 form which it assumes in the later style. For whereas the 
 
 Decorated ogee, as we have stated before, 
 always represents the profile of the half of 
 a roll-and-fillet, the Perpendicular appears 
 rather to be composed of a semicircular hol¬ 
 low continued in a bowtell; see figs. 4 and 
 5, plate 16. However, the earlier form 
 (fig. 5), is extremely common in Perpen¬ 
 
 dicular moldings, and especially in the double ogee. Other 
 varieties, peculiar to the style, are the double ogee with a 
 bowtell in the centre, fig. B, pi. 9 ; an ogee combined with a 
 quarter-circle,* fig. C ; an ogee with a small bead or fillet at 
 the base, as figs. 7, 9, plate 8, an ogee with a bowtell forming 
 one side of the great casement, figs. 1, 8, 10, 16, 17, plate 9, 
 and the combination exhibited in fig. 15, where the depth of the 
 hollow is generally conclusive. All these may be considered as 
 distinctive criteria of the style. 
 
 The form represented in outline in the preceding woodcut is 
 found in all the styles. It occurs in Early English work with 
 the roll or bowtell plain, and not filleted, in a doorway at 
 Fountain’s Abbey. The shape, however, of the ogee curve and 
 the breadth of the fillet will be found to follow the rules laid 
 down. 
 
 The double ogee is sometimes of large and clumsy size in 
 
 * This is one of the commonest and most decisive combinations in Perpen¬ 
 dicular moldings, as figs. 10 and 14, plate 20, fig. 3, plate 9. 
 
PERPENDICULAR MOLDINGS. 
 
 57 
 
 Perpendicular arch-moldings. In Decorated, it is usually rather 
 small, and is principally confined to the outer members of door¬ 
 ways and windows. A roll-and-fillet between two ogees is pro¬ 
 perly a Decorated combination, as in fig. 14, plate 2, fig. 3, 
 plate 7. In 16, pi. 8, the inner doorway of the south porch at 
 Great Shelford, near Cambridge, it is of the Transition period, 
 that is, before 1400. 
 
 The form of the roll-and-fillet, prevalent in this style, in 
 which, however, it was not extensively used/'' is that between 
 figs. 10 and 11, plate 4. Fig. 21, pi. 8, is also 
 peculiar to the style ; it is much used in basement 
 moldings and capitals. Sometimes we find the 
 roll-and-triple-fillet in a debased form, as in fig. 
 
 13, pi. 9, the belfry-arch at Hasliugfield, Cam¬ 
 bridgeshire. Two other corrupted varieties are 
 exhibited in fig. 16. In the annexed diagram the upper figure 
 represents the Early English, the lower the Perpendicular roll- 
 and-fillet. 
 
 A half roll-and-fillet frequently occurs, as in fig. 7, plate 20, 
 a window-jamb from the south aisle of the nave at Ripon 
 Cathedral; fig. 9, a doorway from Bolton Abbey. The pointed 
 bowtell is very rare in this style; it is shewn in fig. 3, plate 20, 
 and it occurs in the aisle windows at the west end of St. John’s 
 church, Stamford. 
 
 Window-moldings are usually extremely meagre, though the 
 tracery is generally set deeper in the wall than in the preceding 
 style, and, consequently, a larger space is available for the pur¬ 
 pose. But the great casement, or hollow, encroaches so much 
 upon the group that little room is left for more than a double¬ 
 ogee on the outside of it, and the monial-members on the inside 
 —by which term those moldings of the jamb are meant which 
 
 * The absence of the roll-and-fillet, except in a very corrupted form, is in 
 fact, one of the most remarkable features in the moldings of the late Gothic. 
 When it does occur, it usually springs from the capital of a small bowtell. 
 
58 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 coincide with the monials. Fig. 10, plate 8, represents the 
 almost universal plan of Perpendicular windows. Sometimes, 
 however, especially in earlier examples, we find the double ogee 
 externally, comprising the first order, and the monial-members 
 occupying the next, without any casement in the angle. Figs. 
 12 and 18, plate 9, are taken from different churches, and 
 illustrate the remarkable uniformity which prevailed in the use 
 of moldings. 
 
 Having pointed out these facts (which deserve to be regis¬ 
 tered as essential and characteristic differences), we have little 
 to add on this part of our subject. Rich and good Perpendi¬ 
 cular moldings are not very common, most examples consisting 
 but of three or four very ordinary members, which offer nothing 
 either novel or interesting to the view; while in the two pre¬ 
 ceding styles there is ever something singular, or beautiful, or 
 ingenious, in the treatment of the moldings, to arrest our atten¬ 
 tion and add to our store of knowledge. But Perpendicular 
 doorways are often very deeply recessed, and the engaged jamb- 
 shafts bear isolated groups of considerable delicacy. 
 
 Fig. 1, plate 8, is from the west doorway at Uffington, near 
 Stamford; early in the style. Fig. 2 is the same, from the 
 isolated tower at Dereham, Norfolk. Fig. 3 the same, from 
 Sahara Toney; fig. 4 from Fishtoft, Lincolnshire. Fig. 5 is 
 from the east window at Leverton, in the same county ; fig. 6 
 from Partney, fig. 7 from Louth, both doorways; fig. 8 from 
 Stewton, a window-jamb; fig. 9 from an oriel window in Lin¬ 
 coln ; fig. 12 from the south Choir Chapel, Lincoln Cathedral; 
 fig. 10 the east window at Chesterton, near Cambridge ; fig. 13 
 an arch in St. Sepulchre Church ; fig. 14 from a niche at Great 
 Gransden, near St. Neots ; fig. 15 the east window at Staple- 
 ford, near Cambridge; 16 from Great Shelford; fig. 17 a pier- 
 arch from Holy Trinity, Colchester ; fig. 18 the same from Long 
 Melford, Suffolk; fig. 19 a doorway at St. Martin’s, Stamford. 
 Fig. 20 the pier-arches of the same church. Fig. 21 from Louth. 
 
PERPENDICULAR MOLDINGS. 
 
 59 
 
 Fig. 1, plate 9, is from the east window of St. Martin’s, 
 Stamford. Fig. 2 the west doorway of the same. Fig. 3 the 
 same from St. John’s church, Stamford. Fig. 4 from the Bede 
 House in that town. Fig. 5 is from a pier-arch in the noble 
 church of All Saints; fig. 6 the west doorway, and fig. 7 a 
 window, from Histon, near Cambridge. Fig. 8 is the priest’s 
 door at Skirlaugh, Yorkshire.* Fig. 9 the north doorway at 
 Harlton, near Cambridge. Fig. 10 the south doorway, Skir¬ 
 laugh.'* Fig. 11 from Basingstoke, Hampshire; fig. 12 a win¬ 
 dow of common form. Fig. 13 the belfry arch at Haslingfield; 
 fig. 14 the south doorway at Grantchester; fig. 15 a molding of 
 constant occurrence; fig. 16 from St. Albans; fig. 17 a door¬ 
 way, and fig. 18 a window, from Byhall, Butland. The former 
 has large sculptured paterae in the central casement. 
 
 It will be observed that the distinction of the orders is often 
 completely lost in this style, while it is seldom undefinable in 
 Decorated moldings. It also appears from the examples given, 
 that in many cases the chamfer-plane is either more or less than 
 an angle of 45°; and that occasionally, as fig. 11, pi. 8, two 
 parallel planes are taken for the basis of the arrangement. 
 
 The casement is sometimes so extravagantly hollowed as to 
 give the appearance, and probably the actual effect, of weak¬ 
 ening the jamb. This is a great fault, and always produces 
 a very unsatisfactory result to the eye, which desiderates the 
 idea of perfect and substantial support.*!* An instance may 
 be noticed in the .west window of Grantchester Church. 
 
 One general principle of composition may be observed in the 
 moldings of all the styles, but especially of the later. This is 
 the custom of ending with a repetition of the same members 
 
 * These two moldings are borrowed from the “ Churches of Yorkshire,” 
 and figs. 11 and 16, from Messrs. Brandon’s excellent work, the “Analysis of 
 Gothic Architecture.” The author would particularly refer to the section of 
 the Transition Norman pier-arch, given in Part IX., as a peculiarly interesting 
 example. 
 
 t Willis’s Architecture of the Middle Ages, p. 15. 
 
60 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 which commenced the group, the centre being occupied by a 
 different one. This may be illustrated by figs. 3, 6, 8, plate 9. 
 
 Students of the present 
 subject will find a very 
 valuable series of illustra¬ 
 tions of base, capital, and 
 arch molds of the three 
 styles in pp. 76, 77, of 
 Professor Willis’s Archi¬ 
 tectural History of Win¬ 
 chester Cathedral, publish¬ 
 ed by the Archaeological 
 Institute, and many others 
 
 West doorway, Overstrand, Norfolk. . n 
 
 in the account ot Canter¬ 
 bury Cathedral by the same very profound architect and 
 antiquary. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 OF THE PLANS OF GOTHIC COLUMNS.'* 
 
 This subject falls properly under the head of Moldings, since 
 the forms of piers or columns more or less partake of the details 
 of the arch-moldings. But it is one of such extensive scope that 
 only a few general rules can here be given for distinguishing the 
 styles. And of these the bases and capitals will generally afford 
 the surest indications. 
 
 A few sections have been given for the purpose in plate 3. 
 
 The general plan of the columns which support the nave or 
 other principal arches, is either square, circular, octagonal, 
 
 * The medieval terms for columns, capitals, and shafts, were respectively 
 pillars, chapiters, and verges. The plinth, or footing of the columns, was the 
 pat in. See Professor Willis’s Architectural Nomenclature, p. 39—41. 
 
PLANS OF GOTHIC COLUMNS. 
 
 61 
 
 diamond-shaped, or parallelogrammic; and these forms are either 
 simple or complex. 
 
 Simple, when composed of one plain member, that is, not 
 involving a number of aggregate parts; 
 
 Complex, when consisting of a core surrounded by smaller 
 shafts, detached or engaged. 
 
 Norman piers are, in their earlier form, mostly square masses 
 of wall, with rectangular nooks containing detached shafts at the 
 angles, and with one or more semi-cylindrical shafts engaged in 
 the cardinal faces. The circular and octagonal seem to have been 
 generally adopted about the time of the Transition; and these 
 two forms continued in common use throughout the Early English 
 and Decorated periods in ordinary parochial churches, where 
 they are sometimes disposed alternately, or in opposite rows. 
 Circular Norman columns, of immense diameter, and of course 
 constructed of small ashlaring and internal rubble-work, may he 
 seen at Norwich Cathedral, and good early examples occur at 
 St. Sepulchre, Cambridge. Octagonal Norman piers of vast 
 size and strength support the eastern transept walls at Peter¬ 
 borough Cathedral. 
 
 Complex Early English piers are often extremely beautiful; 
 more so, perhaps, than those of any other style. They are so 
 varied in arrangement that it would be impossible in this place 
 to do more than notice their general characteristics, which con¬ 
 sist principally in the number of smaller isolated shafts, clinging 
 to a central column, to which they are at intervals attached, in 
 reality as well as in appearance, by molded bands or fillets. 
 These shafts are generally of native marble,* or of some other 
 kind of stone than the central pillar. The capitals and bases are 
 often conjoined, being worked out in one large piece. 
 
 A circular column, surrounded by four, six or eight smaller 
 detached shafts, is a beautiful and common device. Examples 
 
 * It is a curious fact that the medieval English architects appear never to 
 have used any foreign marbles, in construction at least. 
 
62 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 are very common; the choir aisles at Ely, the Lady Chapel of 
 Fountains Abbey (plate 19, fig. 8), and many parts of West¬ 
 minster Abbey have this kind of compound pillar. In some 
 cases the column is made up of several shafts, generally four, 
 placed close together, without any central core, as in the round 
 nave of the Temple church. In this case there is always a 
 midway band or bonding stone, worked into annular fillets to 
 the shafts. The shafts are not always separately applied, though 
 usually so in the pure lancet style. Fig. 11, plate 2, is an 
 instance of attached shafts so deeply undercut that they have 
 the appearance of complete isolation. It forms an exquisitely 
 graceful feature in the Chapter-house of Furness Abbey. The 
 lower part of a similar one, rather later in date, still stands 
 in the vestibule of St. Mary’s Abbey,* York; and there is a 
 very good example at Exton, Rutland. Fig. 8 is from All Saints, 
 Stamford; fig. 13 from Ruskington, Lincolnshire; and fig. 12 
 from St. Peter Gowt’s, at Lincoln. Fig. 17 is from Skelton, 
 near York; and this is a very common form of Early English 
 and Decorated piers, with some varieties, as fig. 16, pi. 3, figs. 
 
 14, 15, pi. 5. Fig. 5, plate 19, is a 
 beautiful example of the former style 
 from Stretton church, Rutland. Fig. 
 6 is from Grantham church. The 
 annexed is from Ruskington church, 
 Lincolnshire, and is reduced from 
 the section given in Mr. Bowman’s 
 illustrations of that church. Half 
 of a roll-and-fillet set on each side of a square, the corners of 
 which project, and are sometimes worked into smaller pointed 
 beads, is of constant occurrence. The square being set to the 
 cardinal points, the addition of the shafts changes the outline to 
 
 * A place laid out in very questionable taste after the most approved fashion 
 of a London tea-garden, and profaned by a ridiculous temple, encroaching upon 
 the hallowed site. 
 
PLANS OF GOTHIC COLUMNS. 
 
 63 
 
 the diamond form. The fillets running up the face of each shaft 
 usually pass over or round the astragal, and die into the bell of 
 the capital, as in fig. 40, plate ] 0. 
 
 Towards the Geometric era, that is, after 1240, the shafts (or 
 verges as they were anciently called) began to be generally en¬ 
 gaged, or attached to the central mass. This will he seen in the 
 choir of the Temple church, erected at the above period. The 
 construction, therefore, is entirely different, the whole diametric 
 section being worked out of one block, for the sake of greater 
 strength. Decorated piers always have their shafts engaged, so 
 that a clustered column is in reality formed by channelling the 
 surfaces of the mass in lines and hollows of graceful lights and 
 shadows. Figs. 14 and 16, pi. 3, are among the commonest 
 forms; but the richness and extent of the great piers in Cathe¬ 
 drals and Abbeys, it would require a volume to set forth. Fig. 
 14 is from Utterby, Lincolnshire, and is remarkable for the 
 hollow faces, which are seldom found but in small shafts in 
 Perpendicular work. 
 
 Perpendicular piers are generally of oblong or parallelogram- 
 mic plan, the longitudinal direction extending from north to 
 south. On the east and west sides 
 half-shafts are attached, which bear the 
 innermost order, or soffit-moldings, of the 
 arch, the rest, including the great case¬ 
 ment or hollow, being usually continuous, 
 without the interruption of any impost. 
 
 Very good examples exist at Great St. 
 
 Mary’s, Cambridge, where vaulting-shafts 
 are also added on the northern and 
 southern faces. Fig. 15 is from Attle¬ 
 borough, Norfolk, of late Decorated date. 
 
 Fig. 18 from St. John’s, Stamford, a plain hut good illustration 
 of this almost universal method. Fig. 4, plate 19, from Saffron 
 Walden, Essex. The principle which led to this form was the 
 
64 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 desire to obtain width in the direction of the thickness of the 
 wall, combined with the least possible bulk, and the greatest 
 span between the columns. In this they followed the plan of 
 window monials. 
 
 Another form, however, occurs not unfrequently in Perpendi¬ 
 cular columns, which is shewn in figs. 19 and 20, pi. 3, the first 
 from St. Martin’s, the second from St. Mary’s, Stamford. In 
 these the ground-plan is a square, and each face (as in fig. 19), 
 or each angle (as fig. 20), if set diamond-wise, carries an engaged 
 shaft. In the first case, the angles are chamfered away, in the 
 second, a hollow is sunk in the face between the shafts. This is 
 usually of later date than the parallelogrammic plan. Still 
 examples are not wanting of early Perpendicular character, as in 
 Long Ashton Church, Somersetshire,* built about, or rather 
 before, 1400. The nave columns in this church consist of a 
 square, with a three-quarter circular shaft engaged in each face, 
 the angles being cut away into the wave molding, which runs 
 continuously round the arches. In plate 19, fig. 7 represents a 
 column of good Decorated date in the crypt at Grantham, in 
 
 which the same principle of formation 
 is exhibited. 
 
 The parallelogrammic plan is some¬ 
 times found in Decorated columns, but 
 not until the close of the style. The 
 marginal woodcut represents such a 
 column from Woodchurch, near New¬ 
 market. An instance is given in the 
 Oxford Architectural Guide, p. 139, 
 from Ensham Church, c. 1400. 
 
 * Engraved in Mr. Bowman’s Specimens of Ecclesiastical Architecture, 
 Plate IV. 
 
OF CAPITALS. 
 
 65 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 OF CAPITALS. 
 
 The moldings of capitals and bases form not the least interest¬ 
 ing, extensive, and important part of the study. And they 
 have the peculiar advantage of being more definitely marked, in 
 the various periods of architecture, than any other kind of 
 moldings. It is by no means impossible, even for an experienced 
 eye, to mistake the details of a Decorated for those of a Perpen¬ 
 dicular archway: but no one moderately acquainted with the 
 subject could hesitate in pronouncing the style of a capital or 
 base, provided it possessed any character at all. 
 
 To go very rapidly through the history of a column, we may 
 suppose that an upright post planted in the earth was found to 
 sink, or decline from the perpendicular, by a great superincum¬ 
 bent pressure. This failure suggested the necessity of a plinth, 
 or broad footing of masonry, on which it might stand firm, erect, 
 and immoveable. This arrangement we may often observe in 
 the construction of wooden sheds or rustic homesteads of rude 
 timber-work. Again, a great square stone would naturally be 
 placed on the top of the pillar or post, as the bed or cushion to 
 receive the superstructure, whether arch or entablature. It was 
 from such an origin that the highly elaborated Gothic base and 
 capital arose. 
 
 Examples fully as rude as this do actually exist in English 
 Ecclesiastical Architecture, so that we have positive fact to 
 guide us instead of mere theory. The Ante-Norman belfry 
 arches at Barnack and St. Mary Bishophill Junior, York, with 
 a great many others of probably much later date, have square 
 pillars on each side resting upon, and surmounted by, rude and 
 clumsy blocks of stone. 
 
 In the Norman period, when the shaft was round, the highest 
 and lowest members only, respectively called the abacus and the 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 plinth (anciently the patiri), were square, the parts immediately 
 below the one and above the other being rounded off to suit 
 the shape of the shaft. How this was done in Norman capitals 
 
 Transition Norman Capitals, Bolton Abbey. 
 
 is shewn in fig. 2, plate 10, and it is seen in the ordinary form 
 of what has been called the cushion capital. We may observe 
 the lingering reluctance to get rid of the square plinth, in the 
 tongue-shaped leaves or other grotesque excrescences which are 
 often seen to issue from the circular moldings of Transition- 
 Norman bases, and extend to the otherwise vacant and super¬ 
 fluous angles of the plinth. It was felt that these angles were 
 obtrusive, but they preferred to decorate what as yet they 
 hardly dared to cut away. Even in the advanced Early 
 English columns in Westminster Abbey, instances of floriated 
 bases may be observed. 
 
 But the simple square was sure to undergo some changes. 
 And this took place first in capitals. In the more elaborate 
 Classic styles, the sides were cut out, or curved inwards,—a 
 feature sometimes seen in Perpendicular octagonal capitals: but 
 this method of relieving and lightening the massive impost does 
 not seem to have occurred to the Romanesque builders. They 
 either cut off 1 or cut out * the corners, as soon as the pier-arch, 
 by becoming recessed, or involving a sub-arch, (fig. 4, pi. 1,) left 
 a portion of the bearing surface unemployed and superfluous. 
 
 * That is, rectangular nooks were cut in the angles of the square abacus, 
 corresponding to the graduation of the sub-arch. Examples may be seen in 
 Mr. Potter’s illustrations of Buildwas Abbey, plate vi. 
 
OF CAPITALS. 
 
 67 
 
 From the former process came the octagonal form; and either 
 by removing angles indefinitely, or, more probably, by adopting 
 the shape of the shaft, we obtain the circular capitals and base 
 of the first and second Gothic periods. But capitals became 
 octagonal before plinths; and similarly octagonal plinths were 
 retained long after circular capitals had become universal. 
 
 Gothic capitals may be divided into two kinds, molded and 
 floriated. The upper member, or abacus, is common to both, 
 and is the relict of the rude impost which first surmounted the 
 stone post, from which it was transferred through the medium of 
 the Classic to the Christian styles. This seems, in fact, to be 
 the primary and essential, and, as it were, 'practical member, the 
 others being only decorative adjuncts. The lowest member, 
 called the neck, or astragal, is also common to both kinds; but 
 in floriated capitals foliage covers the intermediate space, which 
 is otherwise occupied by the overhanging and undercut member 
 called the bell, with its accompanying moldings. In the Trans- 
 ition-Norman and Early English, the foliage, as is well known, 
 is arranged vertically; in the Decorated it twines horizontally, 
 or rather transversely, round the capital. In Perpendicular, 
 floriated capitals are rare; more frequently small leaves, or 
 paterae, are set like studs at intervals round the shaft above the 
 neck, as in Great St. Mary’s church, Cambridge. But the vine 
 and the strawberry leaf is sometimes seen ; very differently 
 worked from the deep overhanging foliage of the earlier styles, 
 being only a shallow kind of surface ornament. 
 
 The dog-tooth, the nail-head, the ball-flower, and other orna¬ 
 mental moldings, sometimes occur in capitals, as well as crests 
 of the Tudor flower, or of minute battlements, in the later 
 buildings. Even angels’ heads with spread wings are sometimes 
 found, as in the belfry arch of Great Shelford, near Cambridge, 
 and in the choir of Wingfield church, Suffolk. Occasionally (in 
 Norman work commonly) some subject is grotesquely sculptured 
 below the abacus. Of this there is a very curious example at 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 West Keal, Lincolnshire.* Or a subject is intermixed with the 
 foliage, as in some very interesting Early English capitals in the 
 south transept and the north porch of Wells Cathedral. 
 
 But of floriated or sculptured work it is not at present our 
 province to speak. It is enough to observe that the origin of 
 foliage is probably classical, since in the Romanesque we find 
 the style of it, as used in capitals, very closely approaching the 
 Corinthian acanthus, or the Ionic volute; for example, the 
 Transitional Norman capitals at the east end of Canterbury Ca¬ 
 thedral, and not unfrequently in parochial churches (as at Bar- 
 nack), seem clearly to be classical in general features, and almost 
 so in their details. Others, however, will have it that the origin 
 of the foliated capitals is rather from the East. There can be 
 little doubt that the influence of both prevailed in the introduc¬ 
 tion of foliage into Gothic capitals, from whence it was subse¬ 
 quently transferred to other parts of buildings. 
 
 The use of capitals, in pure Gothic architecture, to speak con¬ 
 structively, is to receive the clusters of arch-molds which are 
 stopped by it at the summit of the column, and not continued 
 down to the ground. For, when the arch-molds are not wholly 
 identical with those of the jamb or column, they must either die 
 away at the spring, (in which case they are called discontinuous,') 
 or be abruptly stopped by a projecting impost. In many cases 
 the moldings are partly continuous, and partly stopped by the 
 capitals; certain groups being borne by shafts, j* while the inter¬ 
 vening hollows are continued to the ground, forming at the same 
 time deep lines of division between the groups of arch-molds 
 
 * On one of the capitals (which are Decorated) a fox is carrying off a goose, 
 while a chained ape is laying hold of it behind. The Decorated capitals in 
 Oakham Church exhibit the same design, among others. This kind of capital 
 may be called Pictorial, as the author has suggested in the “ Manual of Gothic 
 Architecture,” p. 110. 
 
 t By what is called decorative, i. e. apparent construction. The moldings 
 would in reality remain in their places as well without as with the bearing 
 shafts. Willis’s Architecture, chap. ii. 
 
OF CAFITALS. 
 
 69 
 
 above, and the separate jamb-shafts below. This is particularly 
 the case in Perpendicular piers and arches, as described in 
 Section VII. Here the soffit, or innermost, moldings are borne 
 by a shaft, the outer being continuous; while in Early English 
 doorways the soffit is generally continuous, the others carried by 
 shafts, as in figs. 18 and 19, plate 2. Again, in Norman and 
 Early English, the shafts stand isolated ; in the latter, so far 
 that the hand, or even the arm, may be passed round them; in 
 Decorated, they are engaged, fewer in number, less prominent, 
 less important in the apparent work of support. And in Per¬ 
 pendicular they become entirely subordinate, and merely deco¬ 
 rative, as may be observed in the porches and doorways of King’s 
 College Chapel. Hence, by an ulterior debasement, mere bow- 
 tells, as we before remarked, are furnished with quasi-capitals 
 and bases. In some cases a member of the same projection and 
 diameter as the bowtell is continued above this quasi-capital (if 
 the term be allowable), but slightly varied in form and profile. 
 
 The moldings of pier-arches became entirely continuous only 
 in very late work; and the reason is, that the idea of a capital 
 or impost is essential to that of an isolated column ; while in the 
 jamhs of doorways, and entrance arches, the shafts themselves, 
 and therefore the impost, may be omitted or added at will, as a 
 mere matter of decoration. 
 
 A good Gothic capital is a feature of remarkable beauty. 
 Take for example, those of the piers in the nave of Trumpington 
 church, fig. 11, plate 12, fig. 15, from Hingliam, Norfolk, or the 
 two woodcuts following. Small in projection, comjdex and 
 graceful in their members, yet judiciously subordinate to both 
 arch and pier, they seem to bind into one the bundles of shafts 
 which form the column, while, by their reversed or horizontal 
 outlines, they intercept and at the same time form a satisfactory 
 termination to the vertical lines above and below. 
 
 Gothic capitals consist of three parts; the abacus, the bell, 
 and the neck. And these parts are distinctly visible in block 
 
70 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 capitals, or those in which the members have not been worked 
 out. Such may occasionally he met with in village churches. 
 
 Fig. 1, plate 10, shews the two uppermost members in their 
 rudest state. Fig. 3 is from Laceby, Lincolnshire; fig. 4 from 
 Middle Rasen, and fig. 5 from Walesby, both in the same 
 county. Here a is the abacus, b the bell, c the neck, marked 
 by dotted lines. It will be observed that Gothic capitals may 
 generally be reduced to this outline, as fig. 16, from Great 
 Abington, Cambridgeshire. 
 
 The most certain evidence of date is furnished by the moldings 
 of the abacus. In Early English capitals it is almost invariably 
 undercut, or hollowed out, so that it seems to overhang the bell 
 just as the bell does the shaft, and with the same profile, con¬ 
 sisting of the half of a roll-and-fillet. The Decorated abacus has 
 the scroll-molding, with a cylindrical roll of rather less size 
 below it. Figs. 38 and 39, plate 10, represent these peculia¬ 
 rities, and an examination of the sections of capitals of both 
 styles will shew how rarely this distinctive mark is wanting. In 
 Early English capitals the abacus is sometimes quite plain, as 
 fig. 17 from Thurlby, and fig. 8 from Frieston, Lincolnshire. In 
 the reign of Edward I. a peculiar molding occurs, something 
 between the two, which may be called an undercut scroll¬ 
 molding. This is seen in fig. 9, from Stickney, and 12, from 
 Lincoln Cathedral, and it may be considered a characteristic of 
 transition from Early English to Decorated. 
 
 In Early English capitals the bell is sometimes double, which 
 gives a very handsome effect. This is seen in figs. 19, 28, from 
 Tinterne, 22, from Furness, 24, from Bolton, Abbeys. 
 
 Capitals occur in their greatest perfection in shafts. The 
 larger piers, of octagonal or circular form, are seldom so ela¬ 
 borate or so decidedly marked. In these the abacus is the 
 only member which affords any sure indication of date. 4 '" 
 
 * It is by no means improbable that the smaller capitals and bases were 
 turned in lathes. The author is assured by an eminent architect that he has 
 
OF CAPITALS. 
 
 71 
 
 The distinguishing feature of Decorated capitals we have 
 stated to be the scroll-molding of the abacus. And in per¬ 
 haps ninety in every hundred ex¬ 
 amples the rule holds good. Yet 
 some Early English capitals pre¬ 
 sent the same feature, as those in 
 the triforia of Jesus’ College Cha¬ 
 pel, Cambridge. It is believed 
 that the Early English abacus 
 scarcely ever occurs in pure 
 Decorated work. 
 
 The bell is seldom so prominent or so deeply undercut in this 
 as in the preceding style. As a general rule, the projection (i. e. 
 the relative diameter to that of the shaft) became gradually less, 
 both in capitals and bases, as the styles advanced. The above 
 cut furnishes an exception to the rule. Thus, in Perpendicular 
 work, when the shafts became, as it were, mere parts of the 
 entire groups of moldings, both these features became minute and 
 subordinate. Decorated capitals preserve the happy medium 
 between the clumsiness of constructive members, and the inuti¬ 
 lity of mere ornaments. In this their remarkable beauty really 
 consists, in that they occupy the truest and most consistent 
 position as architectural parts of the whole. With respect to 
 their details, the moldings of the bell present the principal 
 varieties; but these are generally some modification or cor¬ 
 ruption of the roll-and-fillet. Very often the under 
 part of tlie bell is composed of an entire roll-and- 
 fillet, as in figs. 3, 8, plate 12, and 12, 20, plate 11. 
 
 It is still more frequently formed by the compound 
 member shewn in the cut, and in fig. 4, plate 11. 
 
 Out of forty-three examples of Decorated capitals given 
 
 found small holes in the centre of each end which seemed to have been made 
 by turning. Shafts were inserted by a socket into their bases, and secured 
 with lead. See the Author’s “ Manual of Gothic Architecture,” p. 97. 
 
72 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 in plates 11 and 12, ten of them have the bell thus formed ; 
 and others present some slight variety of it. It is seen in ele¬ 
 vation in fig. 15, plate 12, the beautiful capital of the nave-piers 
 at Hingham. 
 
 Decorated capitals seldom have the double bell, at least much 
 less frequently than in the Early English style. We have 
 given three examples, fig. 2, plate 11, from Yaxley, Hunts., very 
 early in the style, as appears by the abacus, fig. 9, plate 12, 
 and the annexed cut. 
 
 The neck, or astragal, forms an important detail in deter¬ 
 mining the dates of capitals. In 
 the Early English it is usually 
 a heavy and bold annular molding, 
 of a stilted or oval shape, or 
 rather more than half a circle, as 
 fig. 11, plate 10. Either this or 
 the semi-hexagon (fig. 15) is the 
 prevailing form. The Decorated 
 neck is almost always the scroll¬ 
 molding ; but both the Early 
 English forms, with many others, will be found to occur. The 
 capitals of both styles are often so nearly identical in general 
 character and principles of formation, that a practised eye may 
 now and then be deceived in their date. And it is here im¬ 
 portant to remark, that though the vast majority of capitals in 
 all English buildings will be found to fall in with the rules laid 
 down in this work, anomalies will often occur which defy any 
 attempt to classify them ; and the same is true of bases. 
 
 Perpendicular capitals present very marked features, which 
 are seldom liable to be mistaken. The moldings are large, 
 angular, meagre, and few. Neither abacus nor bell is clearly 
 defined,—a fact similar to that already stated with regard to 
 the arch-moldings of this style, that the distinction of orders is 
 generally lost. The abacus, in short, no longer appears as a 
 
 Harrin£worth, North ante. 
 
OF CAPITALS. 
 
 73 
 
 separable member, and the bell either wholly vanishes, or is very 
 imperfectly developed. The upper part of the abacus is usually 
 sloped off to a sharp edge, like the chamfer of an angle ; the 
 section of the molding below resembles the letter S, being an 
 ogee formed by a bold concave returning into a prominent 
 convex ; (tig. 4, plate 16,) and, above all, the capital is octa¬ 
 gonal, while that of the preceding styles is round. The shaft, 
 however, is circular in Perpendicular work; while octagonal 
 capitals only occur in the other styles in the case of large single 
 columns of the same shape, if we except a few cases of Early 
 English arcading shafts with octagonal capitals, as in the 
 transepts at Histon, near Cambridge, the west front of Peter¬ 
 borough Cathedral, and in the choir-aisle of Fountains Abbey.’ 
 
 The same principle which induced the later architects to pre¬ 
 fer sharp edges and abrupt lines in their moldings, to the soft 
 and blending Decorated forms, made them revert to the octa¬ 
 gonal capital to the rejection of the circular. The base, how¬ 
 ever, is generally circular in its upper members, and octagonal 
 below, as in figs. 1 and 2, plate 15. 
 
 Perpendicular capitals are often embattled, as figs. 16, 22, 26, 
 29, plate 12, an arrangement which is rare in the preceding 
 style. 
 
 The astragal, or neck, is either a plain round, or a kind of 
 debased scroll-molding with the upper edge chamfered as in the 
 abacus. Another form common to both 
 members is that shewn in fig. 21, plate 
 8, which occurs in the abacus of fig. 8, 
 plate 13, and the neck of fig. 15. 
 
 The bell with its overhanging and 
 undercut moldings having vanished, the 
 projection of the capital is produced by 
 a meagre slope, as figs. 3 and 5. Some¬ 
 times, however, but not very often, the 
 bell remains. Its form seems capricious, and reducible to no 
 
 Lancaster Church. 
 
74 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 certain rule, though the profile is often much the same as in 
 Decorated work. Perhaps greater licence was taken in general 
 in designing the moldings of this style than in any other. 
 
 The section of the Perpendicular abacus is a mere corruption 
 of the Decorated scroll-molding. Thus, in figs. 7, 10, and 12, 
 plate 13, we see nearly the same form as in the Decorated ; and 
 by omitting the under roll, as in figs. 20, 21, we obtain the 
 ordinary profile of fig. 15. This debasement of the scroll¬ 
 molding is separately shewn in fig. 22, plate 4. 
 
 It will not be necessary to occupy much space in stating the 
 places from which our numerous sections of capitals and bases 
 are taken. A few only of the most remarkable shall be thus 
 specified. Figs. 7, 8, plate 10, are from Frieston, Lincolnshire. 
 Here the bell is of rather unusual form, perhaps more so in this 
 than in the next style, as in figs. 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, plate 11. 
 Fig. 9 (pi. 10) is a noble capital from Stickney, Lincolnshire, 
 late in the style, as appears from the undercut scroll-abacus. 
 Fig. 10 is from the same place. Of the same date and character 
 are 12 and 13, the former from Lincoln Cathedral, the latter 
 from Ruskington. 18 is from the Chapter House of Furness 
 Abbey, and has the double bell. 19 from Tinterne Abbey, very 
 rich and fine in its profile.* 22 is shewn in elevation, by study¬ 
 ing which those who are unacquainted with the details of the 
 styles may form a correct idea of the leading characteristics of 
 the capitals of this period. It is from Furness Abbey. Figs. 
 23, 24, 26, are from Bolton Abbey. 28 is from Tinterne, rather 
 late, and remarkable in its profile. 29 is from Arreton, Isle of 
 Wight. 30 from Saffron Walden, of much larger size than 
 usual. 37 is from Bolton Abbey, with the nail-head in the 
 hollow above the bell. 40 is the elevation of the most ordinary 
 form in shafts and clustered piers. 
 
 Figs. 1 and 2, plate 11, are from Yaxley; fig. 4 is a fine 
 
 * The student is again referred to Mr. Potter’s illustrations, for many beau¬ 
 tiful capitals and bases in this abbey, drawn on a large scale. 
 
OF CAPITALS. 
 
 75 
 
 Willingham, 
 
 Cambridge. 
 
 capital of very unusual size and depth, in a chapel used as the 
 Vestry in the Church at Boston. Fig. 3 is from Fletton, Hunts; 
 figs. 6, 7, from Leverton; fig. 9 from Sibsey; fig. 10 from Stick- 
 ford; fig. 11 from Partney, all in Lincolnshire. Fig. 12 is from 
 Legburn, in the same county, of large size (15 inches in depth) ; 
 fig. 13 from Waltham. Figs. 15, 16, 17, are all from Lincoln¬ 
 shire, and almost identical. This is the form of the pier-capitals 
 at Heckington. Fig. 18 is from Aswardby, Lincolnshire, depth 
 one foot; fig. 22 is from Ahington, Cambridgeshire. 
 
 The sections of Decorated capitals in plate 12, are mostly 
 from churches in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. 
 
 Fig. 14 is not uncommon in Transition to Perpen¬ 
 dicular. This capital occurs at Maxey, Northamp¬ 
 tonshire, and at Louth. (See fig. 28, plate 11.) Fig. 
 
 13 is from a fine monument at Little Shelford, near 
 Cambridge. The rest of the sections in this plate 
 are Perpendicular. 
 
 Fig. 16, plate 12, is from Carehy, Lincolnshire. This has a 
 battlement above, and the double ogee below the abacus. A 
 similar feature is the wave-molding, in the same position, in the 
 Decorated capitals of the nave columns at Dunchurch, Warwick- 
 shire. 
 
 Fig. 19 is from Uffington, near Stamford. This and the next 
 illustrate the methods of obtaining the plane of the moldings, 
 which in this style should be attended to. Figs. 22, 23, 24, are 
 from St. Martin’s, figs. 26 and 27 from St. John’s, fig. 28 from 
 St. George’s, and fig. 29 from the Bede House, all in Stamford. 
 
 Fig. 1, pi. 13, is from Long Melford, Suffolk; fig. 4 from 
 Louth; figs. 8, 9, 12, from Colchester; fig. 14 from Harston, 
 near Cambridge; fig. 13 from Fen Ditton; fig. 17 from 
 Mattishall, Norfolk. Here the abacus is octagonal, the hell 
 and neck circular. Fig. 18 is from Elsworth Hall,* Norfolk ; 
 
 * An interesting specimen, very little known, of a moated mansion of the 
 time of Henry VI. or VII. 
 
76 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 fig. 16 from Dry Drayton, near Cambridge; fig. 19 from Saham 
 Toney. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 OF BASES. 
 
 The earliest examples of bases must be looked for in the rude 
 monolith blocks which support the pillars or pilasters in the 
 Ante-Norman Churches, such as at Wittering, near Stamford, 
 and others already mentioned. These are often mere shapeless 
 lumps, laid down as they were raised from the quarry, and con¬ 
 sisting only of the single member thus presented to view. Nor¬ 
 man architecture first adopted a more regular method in con¬ 
 structing the footing of a column, and from that arrangement 
 those of the subsequent styles are readily deduced. The classic 
 pillar was evidently the prototype of all these. 
 
 Bases consist, in early work, of at least two distinct mem¬ 
 bers ; the ‘plinth , or lower step, of solid masonry, generally 
 square, but in Early English often octagonal; and the base- 
 moldingis, a series of annular rolls, slopes, or hollows, taking the 
 form of the column, and forming an ornamental junction between 
 the shaft and its essential constructive member, the plinth. In 
 Decorated and Perpendicular columns, the plinth is usually 
 entirely omitted, and the base is divided into heights, stages, or 
 tables , by gradually spreading courses, each separated from the 
 next by a plain or molded chamfer. 
 
 Of Norman bases it is not necessary to treat at length. The 
 varieties of form are not numerous; and as they do not involve 
 complex moldings, like the after styles, it will be sufficient to 
 direct the attention of the student to the upper members, in 
 which the character of a base may be said principally to consist. 
 In shafts, the base often resembles the capital inverted ; in some 
 
OF BASES. 
 
 77 
 
 instances, the one might be substituted for the other with scarcely 
 any perceptible change of appearance. Often a bold annular 
 roll, quirked on the under side, (as seen in figs. 8—7, pi. 14,) 
 divides the shaft from the plinth. Fig. 9, plate 21, is from 
 Fountains Abbey. Fig. 10 is a little later, from the Chapter¬ 
 house of the same place. A very common form is shewn in fig. 
 8, pi. 14, from the nave of Peterborough Cathedral. This occurs 
 in St. Sepulchre, Cambridge, where the present bases were cut 
 from a very small piece, only a few inches wide, which alone 
 remained in the eight massive columns of the circular part. 
 
 The moldings of the earliest Norman bases are frequently 
 “ little better than scratches upon the surface, - ”'"' and generally 
 consist of two reverse curves, a concave above and a convex 
 below. Nothing approaching to developed isolated members 
 and distinct gradations was known in the early part of the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 A little before the Transition period, a modification (often 
 with very trifling departure from the Classic) of the Attic base 
 was introduced, from which the Early English is directly de¬ 
 rived. The Attic base is given in figs. 1 and 2. It consists of 
 two rounds with an intervening hollow, separated from them by 
 fillets. If we compare this form with some of the early Italian- 
 Gothic bases, figs. 3, 4,*}* and with one from Canterbury Cathe¬ 
 dral, (date about 1180,) fig. 5, we shall find them rather identi¬ 
 cal with, than similar to, the Classic. The uppermost fillet, or 
 first member at the lower extremity of the shaft, was, however, 
 omitted in most, if not in all cases; and the form in fig. 7, from 
 Peterborough Cathedral, was very much in vogue.j This exam¬ 
 ple leads us at once to the ordinary Early English base, (fig. 12,) 
 the chief peculiarity of which consists in the intermediate hollow 
 
 * Willis’s Canterbury, p. 76. 
 
 t From Willis’s Architecture of the Middle Ages. 
 
 I The bases of the pointed Norman columns in the nave of Buildwas Abbey 
 are nearly identical with this. See Potter, plate 10. 
 
78 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 being cut downwards rather than sideways , and extended from 
 half to three-quarters of a circle, so that it is capable of contain¬ 
 ing water, which may often be observed standing in exterior 
 bases. The filleted rolls on each side, above and below the 
 hollow, are naturally formed by cutting off the feather edges 
 seen in fig. 3. A valuable example of the Transition base is fig. 
 6, taken from the great central piers of Byland Abbey, shortly 
 after some extensive excavations had revealed a great part of the 
 ground-plan and lower portions of the columns of that once 
 splendid church. Here we most distinctly recognise the peculiar 
 feature of the Attic base, the side-hollow of fig. 1,—the lateral 
 semicircle in place of the descending three-quarter circle. It 
 must be particularly remembered that this water-holding base is 
 contemporary with the first dawn of the Transition style, and 
 may commonly be met with in pointed Norman work, i. e. as 
 early as 1160 or 1170. It is found in the Transition work of 
 William of Sens at Canterbury.* 
 
 There are two kinds of Early English bases. The first, and 
 by far the most common, is the form given in fig. 12; the other 
 seems to be derived either from omitting the hollow altogether, 
 as in figs. 10, 11, and thus bringing the rolls into contact, or 
 from supplying its place by another similar roll, as fig. 15, or even 
 by an interposed square edge, or plinthiform member, as fig. 9, 
 the bases of the choir columns in Rivaulx Abbey. Generally, 
 this intermediate roll is rather smaller, and often a little de¬ 
 pressed inwardly, as fig. 16, from Ely. This base occurs almost 
 invariably in Westminster Abbey. It is seldom found except 
 in the more advanced or florid period of the Early English, when 
 geometric windows of two or more lights had begun to supersede 
 the single lancet. Hence was at once derived the ordinary 
 Decorated base, figs. 33, 34, 35. 
 
 In very rich Early English bases there are often double 
 hollows between filleted rolls—after the analogy of the double 
 
 * Willis’s Canterbury, p, 76. 
 
OF BASES. 
 
 79 
 
 bell in capitals. And below these, at some distance, occur 
 other series of very bold annular rolls, single, double, or even 
 triple. Fig. 18 is the base of a 
 great pier in Lincoln Cathedral. 
 
 Fig. 26 from the beautiful Galilee 
 at Ely, where the bases are work¬ 
 ed out of hard Purbeck marble, 
 and have all been elaborately 
 polished. Fig. 27 is from Skel¬ 
 ton, near York. 
 
 Fig. 4, plate 21, is an example 
 of the most ordinary form, from 
 the revestry or chapter-room, at 
 Ripon Cathedral. Fig. 7 is from York Cathedral. 
 
 Sometimes the fillet is omitted in the upper roll, as fig. 25. 
 In fig. 20, the hollow again approaches that of the Attic base. 
 Fig. 18, from Lincoln Cathedral, is a fine piece of detail, of 
 great richness and considerable spread. Fig. SO, from Furness 
 Abbey, is remarkable for the omission of the hollow in the 
 upper member. The examples given in elevation, figs. 29 and 
 28, the former from Furness, the latter* from Tinterne Abbey, 
 will convey a correct idea of the general appearance. The 
 spread of the base generally equals that of the capital, or 
 nearly so. 
 
 There is something extremely elegant in the form of this, the 
 more usual, kind of Early English base; and it is, moreover, 
 surprising to notice the uniformity which everywhere prevails 
 both in it and the capital of this period. The plainer form (figs. 
 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 21) may possibly have gradually superseded 
 the more elaborate, either from the difficult and complex work 
 of the latter, or because the hollow was externally apt to be 
 filled up with standing water, moss, or earth, and internally with 
 
 * The engraving is slightly incorrect, from the shaft not standing true in the 
 centre. 
 
80 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 dust and dirt, as it will almost invariably be found to be. 
 Probably the desire of forming a better weathering had much 
 influence in the change. 
 
 In Early English bases it is also to be remarked that the 
 large spreading roll, which forms the lower of the two members 
 between which the deep hollow is placed, is worked out of the 
 block, with which it usually stands flush , or in the same plane, 
 by a quirk or angular nook. This is almost invariable ; and it 
 is mentioned particularly with reference to Decorated bases, 
 where a marked difference in this part is observable. Here we 
 usually find either the scroll-molding (fig. 35, from Coton, near 
 Cambridge) or a flat under-edge, as fig. 42, from the nave-piers 
 at Trumpington, or the part of the base below it cut away, so 
 that it overhangs clear, as fig. 40, the base of the beautiful central 
 column in the chapter-house at Wells; fig. 39 from the door¬ 
 way in the same place ; fig. 37, from St. Mary’s Abbey, York. 
 Fig. 45 from Fishtoft, Lincolnshire. This is generally a mark 
 of late or florid Early English, when found in work of the 
 thirteenth century, as fig. 5, plate 21, an elegant base from the 
 library of York Cathedral. 
 
 One of the commonest Decorated bases is that shewn in fig. 
 35 ; the number of rolls being generally three, but often only 
 two, as fig. 34. In fig. 39 there are four; but the uppermost is 
 of lead, by which the shaft is fastened. Not a few modifications 
 of this form occur ; but they are seldom very complex. Fig. 43 
 is from the nave-pillars at Bottisham, near Cambridge; fig. 38 
 is from the arcade in the Ladye Chapel at Ely, worked in Pur- 
 beck marble. Here the lower member is the roll-and-fillet, 
 which is not uncommon. It is partially developed in fig. 41, 
 from Over and Histon; an example which retains a singular 
 trace in its upper member of the side hollow of the Attic base. 
 Fig. 3, plate 15, is of unusual profile; it is from the chancel at 
 Over, Transition to Perpendicular. Fig. 33, plate 14, is from 
 the nave-piers at Tinterne—already noticed as a specimen of the 
 
OF BASES. 
 
 81 
 
 inverted scroll-molding. Fig. 44 is from Boston. This form 
 is not unusual late in the style. 
 
 Decorated bases are often stilted, or raised above the floor, 
 without any plinth, (except in great clustered columns,) but by 
 graduated stages or tables, as before described. This principle 
 was carried to an extravagant excess in the next style; in some 
 instances, as those under the western tower at Ely, the upper¬ 
 most member stands six or even eight feet from the ground. 
 The lower part of Decorated bases is sometimes octagonal, or 
 polygonal, as in the columns which support the octagon at Ely; 
 and sometimes these faces are fluted or hollow-chamfered. In 
 the Decorated columns supporting the vault of the Lady Chapel 
 at Wells, the base-moldings are raised a considerable height 
 from the floor. In the choir at the Temple church (1240), the 
 principle of stilting the bases may be seen, the plinth being very 
 large and high, and the moldings approximating to the Decorated 
 profile. 
 
 Instead of the three half-rounds which ordinarily constitute the 
 Decorated base, one member, generally the second, but often the 
 first, is sometimes, as it were, scooped out in the middle, in what 
 might be called the inverted wave-molding, so as to form an 
 ogee curvature. This is seen in figs. 36, (from the Lady Chapel, 
 Ely,) 40 and 42. Hence the hell-shaped base of the next style 
 (figs. 1 and 2, plate 15) was immediately derived. Compare fig. 
 6, plate 21, a Decorated base from the nave of York Cathedral, 
 with fig. 8, a Perpendicular base from Bipon Cathedral. The 
 sharp under-edge of the second member in the former example is 
 a peculiar feature, decisive of Decorated work. 
 
 So similar, however, are the two forms, that some pure Deco¬ 
 rated bases may occasionally be found which would have been 
 equally correct in a Perpendicular column. Professor Willis 
 considers this ogee curve as a corruption of the Attic base, 
 caused by the omission of the fillets of the two rolls, and the 
 partial development of the hollow. And this seems to he a very 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 reasonable account. It does not appear to occur in early, or 
 geometric Decorated. 
 
 But few examples of Decorated bases have been given, be¬ 
 cause any important varieties from the forms described are not of 
 sufficiently frequent occurrence to render it necessary to illus¬ 
 trate them. They are very chaste and elegant in profile ; often 
 standing but a little above the floor-line, especially in shafts, and 
 thus of modest and unpretending contour. They are for the 
 most part of decided character; and where any difficulty occurs 
 in determining their date, an inspection of the capital, according 
 to the rules already laid down, will readily remove it. 
 
 The bases of Perpendicular columns are various; but rather 
 
 in degrees of richness and the number 
 of graduations than in difference of 
 form in the principal members. The 
 prevailing characteristic is a large bell¬ 
 shaped spread in the upper part, often 
 resting on a cushion-like member, and 
 forming with it the contour of a double 
 ogee in section. Figs. 1 and 2, plate 15, 
 are from Crosby Hall, and give a correct 
 representation of the most ordinary kind. 
 It will be particularly observed that 
 the lower part is almost invariably octagonal, the upper being 
 generally round, though sometimes, as the capital always is, 
 octagonal. From the great size and height of the best exam¬ 
 ples they are not so easily engraved in a small space: plate 
 15, however, contains enough specimens to guide the student 
 under ordinary circumstances. Fig. 5 is from Louth; fig. 13 
 from All Saints, Stamford; fig. 17 from Haslingfield ; fig. 18 
 from Holy Trinity, Colchester; fig. 20 from St. Edward’s, 
 Cambridge. Fig. 21 from Herne, Kent. 
 
 Almost every Perpendicular base has either one or more 
 stages, sloping off by a hollow lodgement or chamfer, as figs. 15, 
 
 Lancaster. 
 
OF BASES. 
 
 83 
 
 16, 17, or by a second bell-shaped slope, as figs. 5, 6, 14. The 
 ancient name for the lower member was the ground-table* 
 (especially when applied to mural basement moldings). All 
 Perpendicular bases have an annular roll, resembling tlie neck of 
 capitals, for the uppermost member. This is often the debased 
 roll-and-fillet shewn in fig. 21, plate 8, as in fig. 15, or the 
 debased scroll-molding, as in fig. 18. This feature is almost 
 invariable, and is not found in the same isolated form in any 
 other style. 
 
 It is singular that edge-lines occur less in Perpendicular 
 than in any other bases, almost every point being carefully 
 rounded off. There is a peculiar nakedness in the straight 
 unbroken line of the lower, or ground-table , rising, as it does, 
 abruptly from the floor to the height of two feet and more, as in 
 the interior of King’s College Chapel; but the bell is of remark¬ 
 ably graceful form; and perhaps few will prefer the contour of 
 fig. 29 or 82, plate 14, to that of figs. 1 and 2, plate 15. 
 
 Fig. 4 is from the Lady Chapel, Peterborough ; fig. 6 from 
 Carbrook; fig. 7 from Sahara ; fig. 8 from Dereham; fig. 9 from 
 Norwich Cathedral; fig. 10 from Mattishall; fig. 11 from 
 Swanton Morley, all in Norfolk; figs. 12, 15, from Colchester ; 
 fig. 14 from St. John’s, Stamford ; fig. 16 from St. Alban’s; fig. 
 22 from Saffron W alden. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 OP HOOD-MOLDINGS AND STRING-COURSES. 
 
 This is by no means an unimportant branch of the study of 
 Gothic Moldings, the varieties and peculiar characteristics of 
 the styles being as well defined in such details as in any hitherto 
 described. Of the immense diversity of forms we can only 
 
 * Sec Willis’s Architectural Nomenclature, § 39. 
 
84 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 enumerate some of the most ordinary ; for capricious irregulari¬ 
 ties constantly occur, which, as they seem reducible to no certain 
 rule, hardly claim a place in laying down the principles of a 
 system. Yet, though the form may be arbitrary, the character 
 is generally maintained. 
 
 Plate 16 contains a series of moldings of this sort, (for hood- 
 moldings and string-courses must he classed together, being in 
 fact very often identical, or the one continued from the other,) 
 divided into three parts illustrating the three styles. 
 
 We have before observed that string-courses may be regarded 
 as the vestiges of the horizontal lines by which Classical is prin¬ 
 cipally distinguished from Gothic architecture. These strings 
 consist of projecting ledges of stone, carried below windows, both 
 within and without, round buttresses and other angular projec¬ 
 tions ; and in cornices, parapets, tower-stages, and other parts of 
 edifices, used as dividing lines to set off one particular portion as 
 distinct from another. Though subordinate, and seemingly in¬ 
 significant details, they are of the greatest possible importance in 
 imparting a character to a building. Sometimes rising abruptly 
 in graduated and rectangular heights ; sometimes carried over a 
 doorway or round an arch ; now dying into the wall, now, 
 as it were, passing into some interrupting projection, and, 
 nothing baffled by it, reappearing on the other side; now 
 starting aloof into a window label, and playing the most fan¬ 
 tastic tricks before it again descends ; a string-course at once 
 relieves naked masonry, and binds into a whole the seemingly 
 detached portions of a rambling and irregular construction. In 
 most cases, especially in windows, it forms a real drip, or 
 weathering, and of course adapts its upper surface especially to 
 this end. Hood-moldings, when used internally , cannot be said 
 to have any real use : but they form a decorative finish of too 
 important a kind to be neglected with impunity. 
 
 Norman string-courses are generally of uncouth and awkward 
 profile—full of edges or hard chamfered surfaces. In most 
 
HOOD-MOLDINGS AND STRING-COURSES. 
 
 85 
 
 cases they are adorned with some sculptured decoration of the 
 style, as the billet, the chevron, the hatched or serrated molding-, 
 and the like. The plain half hexagon, or square bead with 
 chamfered angles, is one of the commonest forms. Two or 
 three only are given in plate 16, as specimens of the kind, viz., 
 figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9. The latter is from the chancel-arch at St. 
 Giles’s, Cambridge, erected before the year 1100. The semi¬ 
 hexagon with a notch in the middle of the outer face similar to 
 that in fig. 6, is frequently found. Not less than eleven of this 
 form, with varieties scarcely perceptible, and merely accidental, 
 are given in plate xix. of Mr. Potter’s work on Buildwas Abbey. 
 The upper edge is often left square, instead of being weathered 
 off; and the wide but shallow form presents a heavy and clumsy 
 appearance, especially as it is not relieved by the dark shadows 
 caused by undercutting the lower surface. 
 
 The commonest Early English strings are those given in figs. 
 13, E5, 18, 22, 25. Figs. 10 and 12 may 
 also very often be found. But the under¬ 
 cutting is the most striking characteristic of 
 this, as of all other moldings of the style. 
 
 Fig. 11 is from Furness Abbey: fig. 17 
 from Tinterne; fig. 19 from Bievaulx; fig. 
 
 21 from Byland. The latter is curious from 
 its late form, (see fig. 71,) though the date is about 1200. The 
 same remark applies to fig. 20, from Furness, in which even the 
 characteristic Perpendicular ogee of fig. 4 occurs. Fig. 23 is 
 from Lincoln Minster. It is peculiarly elegant, and of frequent 
 occurrence. Fig. 24 is from All Saints, Stamford. Fig. 25 has 
 the scroll-molding; fig. 26 the roll-and-fillet complete. Both 
 are equally common in Decorated work. Fig. 28 generally 
 marks the time of the First and Second Edwards. 
 
 The most frequent Decorated form is perhaps fig. 35 or 48. 
 Figs. 44, 49, 53, are also very common. The scroll-molding 
 with a half-round next below it, the same as in the abacus of 
 
86 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 Decorated. 
 
 capitals of this period, is very characteris¬ 
 tic, as fig. 36. Fig. 41 is generally found 
 in Transition to Perpendicular. Fig. 43 is 
 from the vestibule of the Chapter House 
 at Wells, early in the style. Fig. 50 is 
 from Over, near Cambridge; fig. 45 from 
 Bottisham. 
 
 The rounded form of the upper side, or weathering, is charac¬ 
 teristic of the two first styles ; the angular or chamfered of the 
 last, although this peculiarity is also very common in late Deco¬ 
 rated buildings. In this respect also string-courses follow the 
 
 principle of the abacus of capitals.* Figs. 
 52 and 55 may therefore be pronounced late 
 in the style. Undercuttings, it has already 
 been remarked, occur principally in the time 
 of Edward I. and II., as figs. 32, 44, 51. 
 
 Perpendicular strings and hood-moldings 
 are generally marked by the sloping plane 
 of the upper surface, as figs. 60, 61. The details of the 
 parts underneath are so varied as to render it almost im¬ 
 possible to give anything like a com¬ 
 plete account of them: yet, numerous as 
 they are, they will generally be found to 
 recur with tolerable uniformity. Usually 
 there is a small bowtell in the lowest part, as 
 in figs. 57, 59, 62, 64, 68, 71, and others, 
 more or less clearly developed. This is 
 rather a characteristic mark of the style. Fig. 16, plate 20, 
 from Grantham Church, is another example. Fig. 18 is a string¬ 
 course from the same place. Perhaps the most ordinary forms 
 are figs. 61, 68, 71. The double ogee, as fig. 60, and the com¬ 
 bination of the ogee with the under fillet, already described, as 
 
 * Early English strings are often continued from the abaci of capitals, which 
 perhaps accounts for this fact. 
 
HOOD-MOLDINGS AND STRING-COURSES. 
 
 87 
 
 in figs. 56, 77, often occur. Fig. 78 exhibits the peculiar Per¬ 
 pendicular form already pointed out. A semi-circle sunk in the 
 under side of half a square projecting diagonally, as in fig. 66, is 
 also a common variety. Embattled string-courses occur now 
 and then in this style, as in the cornice of the aisles at Cromer 
 church, Norfolk. 
 
 In copying string-courses, it is better to draw the parts of the 
 wall above and below, perpendicularly on the paper, not only for 
 a guide to shew the direction of inclination or projection, which, 
 without this, is left quite indefinite, hut also because the wall 
 often recedes above the string, or even overhangs, as fig. 56. 
 The angle of the chamfers can best be attained by bending a 
 piece of lead across them. Sometimes a foot-rule maybe bent 
 against the wall and the under part, as fig. 67, and thus the 
 exact angle can readily he transferred to paper. 
 
 Much more might, and indeed ought, to be said on the subject 
 of moldings, were it the intention of the writer to attempt any¬ 
 thing like a complete essay. For example, there yet remain 
 wholly unnoticed several important cases of the application of 
 moldings in Gothic architecture. Basements, weatherings of 
 buttresses, cappings of parapets and battlements, plans of mo- 
 nials, groin-ribs, timbers of roofs, and other wood-work ; besides 
 the many and interesting varieties of ornamental or floriated 
 moldings, are all well deserving of the closest attention. But a 
 great book is a great evil , as a philosopher of old has declared; 
 and it has been the wish of the author rather to win the attention 
 of the reader to a most curious and satisfactory study, by point¬ 
 ing out the way to copy and observe, than to deter him by the 
 uninviting form of a grave and heavy book. Quite enough has 
 been said, it is conceived, to illustrate the really essential prin¬ 
 ciples of the science. And no one need feel any difficulty or per¬ 
 plexity in recognising the details of the styles, who will take the 
 trouble to apply the rules laid down in this little work. 
 
 Since the publication of the first edition, the author has con- 
 
88 
 
 MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. 
 
 tinued to pay attention to the subject, as well as to enlarge his 
 collection of sections and diagrams of remarkable and interesting 
 ancient moldings. He has much less to add to the second 
 edition than he had expected, as he has not discovered any 
 forms or varieties of particular importance, unnoticed and unde¬ 
 scribed in the first essay. For, although singular modifications, 
 evidently exceptions to general practice, may now and then be 
 found, they involve no principle, and do not appear to deserve par¬ 
 ticular classification. It is some disappointment not to have arrived 
 at more definite conclusion respecting the dates of the different 
 moldings; but it appears as impossible to assign certain limits to 
 the prevalence, as certain fixed times to the introduction or inven¬ 
 tion of particular forms. And after all, this is a purely antiqua¬ 
 rian matter; it would be absurd to suppose that the science of 
 Gothic Moldings had no higher or more practical use. 
 
 That this subject may involve far deeper laws, and more re¬ 
 condite geometrical investigations, is very probable. The author 
 does not pretend to the capability of carrying it far; in fact, he 
 can claim no advantage over other practical or amateur archi¬ 
 tects, unless it be that he has taken more pains in collecting 
 examples, and felt, perhaps, more curiosity in tracing the deve¬ 
 lopment of moldings, than they have generally done. Many 
 persons have been instrumental in calling attention to a new 
 or neglected topic, who have found themselves, very soon after it 
 has been taken up by others, transferred from the position of 
 teachers to that of learners. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Kley, 
 Bangor House, Shoe Lane. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Plate r. 
 
 J.H.Le Jlcj/**: sr. 
 
 Londo.n. Published by John Van Voorst. Paternoster Row, 1640 • 
 

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Plate U. 
 
 
 
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 Loudon: Published hr JohnVa a Voorst. Paternoster Row 1846. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Plate HE. 
 
 London: PublistiecLbv' JoLn Van Voorst. Paternoster .Row; 1840. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
EARLY ENGLISH. 
 
 Plate IE. 
 
 London.: PublisTiedhr John Van Voorst .Paternoster Row; 1S46. 
 

 
 
 

 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DECORATED . 
 
 ■Plate V. 
 
 J.S.ZeKeuj:, sc. 
 
 
 London: Eublish-el'bvJolm. Dux \ r oonst,Pateruoster.il ow. 1546. 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DECORATED . 
 
 Plate PI. 
 
 J.H.Le Sauc.so. 
 
 London: PublislieAbv JoinVanVoorst-Patemoster Row, 1845. 
 

DECORATED. 
 
 Plats VR. 
 
 Loudon.- Published by JolmVkuToc'rst.Patemoster Roa r , 1846 . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Plate TIE. 
 
 J.ff.Ie £muc, so. 
 
 -Loudon. PablisKedby' Jolm Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1846. 
 
J. KL& ITeuac so. 
 
 London: Published bv John Van Vo or s t. Paternoster Row: 1846. 
 


 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 EARLY ENGLISR CAPITALS. 
 
 Plate X. 
 
 
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DECORATED CAPITALS. 
 
 London: Published "by Jdm VanVoorstTar emoster Row 1845. 
 

 
 
 
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Plate XII, 
 
 ■Tff. Lr Kevc- sc. 
 
 XoncLm: Published. hr John.VauVoorst, Paternoster Ro«; 1846. 
 

PERPENDICULAR CAPITALS. 
 
 Plate XIR. 
 
 
 London: PnbTisliei'by JoImTan.l'oorst.Parei'noBrer Hew*. 1846. 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 Plate XIV. 
 
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 London:Published.Toy- JohnVan. Voorst. Paternoster Row: 1845. 
 
 2 ‘L.iru 
 

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 XI 
 
 JM. LeJfeu.r. sr. 
 
 London: Published "by JolmVan Voorst. Paternoster Row: 1640. 
 

 
 
 
 
STRINGS AND LABELS. 
 
 Plate XVI. 
 
 London: Published tr Joint Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1846 ■ 
 

 
 
 - 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Plate XVH. 
 
 T. Turnbull sc. 
 
 London: Published. Try John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1847. 
 

 
 

Plate XVUI. 
 
 T. TurnbuIZ sc 
 
 Xan.don.: Published. "by Jolm Van Voorst,Paternoster Row, 1847 . 
 


 Plate XIX. 
 
 TJTunibvJZ, sc 
 
 
 London.: Published, 'by John YantToorst. Paternoster Row. 1847. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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Plate 2X. 
 
 T.TumbuZL sc. 
 
 London. Published hy John ‘Van "Voorst.Paternoster Row, 1647. 
 

 
 
 
 
 


Plate XXI. 
 
 T. Turnbull sc . 
 
 jl: I 
 
 ) 
 
 
 A 
 
 London: Published by John Van Voorst, Paternoster Rev.', 1847 • 
 
 
ORIGINAL WORKS ON ARCHITECTURE, &c., 
 
 RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY MR. VAN VOORST. 
 
 THE CHURCH RESTORERS; 
 
 A TALE, 
 
 Treating of Ancient and Modern Architecture and Church Decorations. 
 By F. A. PA LEY, M.A. 
 
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 A MANUAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
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 An Oak Grave-Cross. 
 
 An Oak Lettern. 
 
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 Head-Stones, 
 
 Ground Plan of the Chancel of the 
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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
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33 138 ^ 7^1 
 

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