Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Research Library, The Getty Research Institute http://www.archive.org/details/analysisofgothic01bran AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE: ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF UPWARDS OF SEVEN HUNDRED EXAMPLES OF DOORWAYS, WINDOWS, ETC. ETC. ACCOMPANIED WITH REMARKS SEVERAL DETAILS OE AN ECCLESIASTICAL EDIEICE. BY LONDON: PELHAM RICHARDSON, 23, CORNHILL. SOLD ALSO BY THE AUTHORS, 11, BEAUFORT BUILDINGS, STRAND, AND BY GEORGE BELL, 186, FLEET STREET. MDCCCXLVII. LONDON . WILLIAM STETBNS, PRINTER, BF.IX YARD, TEMPLE BAR. TO THE MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUESS OE NORTHAMPTON, P.R.S. ETC., ETC., ETC., WHOSE DISTINGUISHED NAME IS SO JUSTLY ENDEARED TO THE CAUSE OF ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE, THIS WORK IS, WITH PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY HIS LORDSHIP'S GREATLY OBLIGED AND VERY OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANTS, RAPHAEL AND J. ARTHUR BRANDON, 1847. BE.^LFORT BUILDINGS, PREFACE. F the numerous works recently called into existence by the prevalent spirit of inquiry and research into the Ecclesiastical Architecture of the Middle Ages, none has supplied such an analysis of details as is absolutely essential, no less for the complete abstract elucida- tion of the principles of this great art, than for their correct practical application. The present work has been undertaken with a view to supply this deficiency, by presenting a series of good and pure specimens of the various details which occur in Church Architecture, as they are exemplified in existing Edifices. The examples thus selected commence with the closing style of the Romanesque,* and range throughout the Gothick era, properly so called. The Authors, desirous to adhere in every respect to their plan of producing a practical rather than an historical work on English Church Architecture, have purposely avoided all notice and illustration of the architecture of the Anglo- Saxons. Many excellent treatises have been devoted to the investigation of the style of building at this remote period, and much of both curious and valuable information has been thus elicited. Saxon Architecture, however, though abounding in materials for interesting research to the antiquary and historian, is at best but rude and barbarous as a constructive system, and consequently by the architect of the present day it cannot be considered as a guide or authority. And indeed its successor, the Anglo-Norman, has but very few, if any claims to our regard and adoption. That this style * This term was first adopted by the Rev. W. Gunn, in his "Inquiry on Gothic Architecture." In a note explanatory of this term, Mr. Gunn thus justifies its analogy: — "A modem Roman, of whatever degree, calls himself Romano, a distinction he disallows to an Inhabitant of his native city, who, though long domiciliated yet from dubious origin, foreign extraction or alliance, he stigmatizes by the term Romaneseo. I consider the architecture under discussion (Norman), in the same point of view," p. 80. B vi PREFACE. possesses many features in themselves liighly meritorious, we readily admit ; yet on the one hand, we trace in it all the impress of a lingering barbarism, and on the other, true to its Roman prototype, it is shackled even in its noblest efforts by the characteristick horizontality of classick architecture. Indeed we do not find Mediaeval Architecture to have been absolutely set free from the influence of debased ancient principles, until, with the complete establishment of the pointed arch, the manifold elements of building had under- gone an entire, although a gradual renovation. It was then that, in the Early English style, Gothick Architecture attained to its first decided development. With the same view to their practical usefulness, the examples given in this work have been entirely derived from English Churches. Continental Gothick, beautifiil as it is in itself and influenced by the same spirit with our own, cannot be consistently associated with English details : each possesses peculiarly distinctive features, which it is impossible to blend together without serious injury to both. It has also been a principal object of the Authors to collect their examples from Parish Churches only ; and to this determination they have adhered vnXh very few exceptions. Cathedrals, and the larger Abbey and Conventual Churches, have been already amply illustrated, perhaps even to the detriment of the art which it has been the object of such illustrations to advance : for, from the want of proper information upon the subject of architectural details, considered wath reference to Edifices of various designs and magnitudes, we see in many Churches of comparatively recent ei'ection, numerous features belonging essentially to our Cathedrals, and contributing in the very highest degree to their appropriate decoration ; but which, from the necessarily diminished proportions and general incongruity of effect, appear absolutely ridiculous when introduced into the architectural composition of the smaller Edifice. Any remarks, therefore, that occur in the course of the work, as well as the illustrations themselves, must, unless otherwise stated, be understood to have special reference to Parochial Structures. The illustrative portion of the work will be found to have been divided into two sections : of these the first is devoted solely to a full exposition of the mason's art in all its various branches, while the second embraces a similar elucidation PREFACE. vii of detail in the important accessories of wood-work and metai-Avork. In the execution of the plates, no less than in their selection, the strictly practical character of the work has been uniformly kept in view ; without aiming at pictorial beauty, the object has been to ensure the greatest possible fidelity and accuracy of delineation : to accomplish this, the authors have personally visited every Church, from which examples have been drawn, and have them- selves taken the admeasurements, made the drawings, and engraved them on zinc. Two subjects only form exceptions, the one a floor-cross from St. Patrick's Cathe- dral, Dublin, which they have drawn from a rubbing kindly sent them by J. K. Colling, Esq. ; and the other, the diapers upon the shield of Sir Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, A.D. 1221, in the Church of Hatfield Broadoaks, Essex, for a rubbing of which the authors are indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Charles Boutell : to whom they also have to offer their sincere acknow- ledgments for much valuable assistance in the arrangement of their letter-press description. Had the plates been executed by more practised zincographers, they would doubtless have exhibited a higher degree of artistick treatment, and greater beauty of finish ; but this, it was feared, might have involved the risk of some slight inaccuracy, and thus have considerably diminished the utility of the examples. The humble labours of the authors have been sweetened and rendered dear to them by the sincerest admiration for those noble monuments of piety and skill, our English Churches ; which even now, cruelly mutilated and dishonoured as they often remain, are still foremost among the glories of our land : and should their exertions in any way tend to encourage and enhance sentiments of interest in the matchless architecture of the Middle Ages, their desire will be most fully accomplished. INTRODUCTION. ERY shortly after the commencement of the second thousand years of the Christian era, the Ecclesiastical Architecture of this country, as if preparatory to the accession of a Norman dynasty, became assimilated to the pecuhar form of Romanesque then estabUshed in the Duchy of Normandy, and at the present day distinguished among ourselves as the Anglo-Norman style. The first principles of this style appear to have been introduced into England by Edward the Confessor, or possibly by Canute, and by them apphed to the construction of the numerous Churches erected during their reigns : so that the rapid improvement in Church Architecture which took place under the Norman princes, was in reality the development of a system fairly established before the conquest. That the Anglo-Norman architects raised their style to the very highest degree of perfection to which it was capable of attaining, is most evidently shown by many of their works which yet remain : still, intrinsically excellent as it became, there was in its very essence that which necessarily involved its suppression. It appears, indeed, true that Architecture shares in the general instabihty of things ten-estrial : for by the working, as it would seem, of some latent yet constraining law, one style, or one distinctive form of a style, no sooner an'ives at full maturity, than it is gi-adually superseded by some other form or style, differing in a greater or less degree, yet still essentially differing. But besides the influence of this inherent principle of change, the Anglo-Norman retained by far too much of ancient classick architecture to admit of its permanent estabUshment. The low and massive propor- tions, the ponderous and self-supported walls, the rectangularly recessed arches, the square abaci and plinths, and the strictly supei-ficial character of every decoration, — these all spoke rather of a gi-ander style in a state of debasement, of Roman degenerated to Romanesque, than of a gi-eat style rising upward fi-om its foundation ; of the Architecture of the Middle Ages preparing to measure its strength with the Ai-chitecture of antiquity. And again, in the Anglo-Norman the essentially aspuing and expansive character of Christian Ai'chitecture was wanting ; at the best, there was something Basilican in it, — something not far removed fi-om a Pagan origin, though not itself actually Pagan. Therefore, in reviewing the c 2 • INTRODUCTION. Transition Period which intervened between the tinal close of the Anglo-Norman and the full estabhshment of the Anglo-Gothick styles, all regi-et for the passing style is more than overbalanced by joyous contemplations of superior excellence in its successor. After an Architectural struggle of unusually protracted continuance, during which the elementary features of the new style appeared blended with the estabUshed characteristicks of the old, Gothick Architecture assumed a definite form ; and at once gave fiill assurance of its superiority, in the hghtness, the elegance, the loftiness, and the spaciousness which distinguished the Early English style : — " a style," observes the author of the Manual of Gothick Architecture,* " so transcendently beautiful, so perfect in itself, that it may well be questioned if ever a parallel to it has existed in any age or countiy, or if the hands that reared or the minds that conceived the choirs of Ely and Lincoln Cathedrals, the Abbeys of Whitby, Westminster, and Rivaulx, have not achieved that, which as unsurpassed by former ages, so future generations shall never see equalled again." As the reign of the third Henry (A.D. 1216 — 1272) approached its close, certain novelties, both of detail and combination, appeared in the works of Gothick Architects. In place of distinct lancets, isolated by strips of the main wall in which they were pierced, and yet combined by continuous dripstones and hoodmolds, windows of large dimensions and divided into several hghts by muUions, were introduced ; and with the mullions came tracery- bars, filling the wdndow-heads with various rich geometrical figures : — the alternation of bold projections and deep hollows in the moldings gave way to a system of gi'ouping, richer and far more beautifully blended : — shafts ceased to stand detached, or banded into clusters, and became instead firmly compacted into a mass ; the bands, no longer of any use, real or apparent, being suppressed : — foliage, ever a favourite Gothick enrichment, appeared more closely studied fi'om the natural tree or plant ; and instead of waving trefoils, expanding fi-om clustered and upward-tending stalks, the several leaves were disposed in a WTcath-Uke form, and made to encircle the member which tliey adorned : more abundant and diversified decoration also, began to overspread the several component members of a Gothick Edifice, imparting a finished richness to the whole. Thus it was that the Early English gi-adually merged into the Decorated, — that most admirable style, which has identified with the Edwardian era (abounding as it does in matters of high historick interest) the perfection of Anglo-Gothick art. As this style advanced, its several peculiarities assumed a very clearly defined distinctness of character ; while, at the same time, the geometrical precision of its earliest form yielded to a predominance of fines, flowing with gi-aceful undulations. A tendency to direct verticality, placing itself in, perhaps, violent contrast with the * A Manual of Gothick Architecture, page 230, by F. A. Paley, Esq., M.A. Van Voorst. INTRODUCTION. 3 Romanesque horizontalism of the Anglo-Norman, had been in the Early English Gothick, the special characteristick of that beautiful style. In the Decorated Gothick, the prin- cipal lines of the composition verged pyramidically, rather than vertically or horizontally. And, to complete the series of changes in this fundamental principle, a tliird distinct period of Anglo-Gothick was distinguished by the prevalence of perpendicular lines, crossed at right angles by others of scarcely less importance than themselves. This last gorgeous style, fi'om the position of its leading lines denominated the Perpendicular Gothick, gi-adually supplanted the Decorated ; as the mature, yet ever chaste and harmonious richness of the Decorated had itself succeeded to a supremacy before enjoyed by the more youthful gi-ace and elegance of the Early EngHsh. For a while the new style was content to retain much that was characteristick of its predecessor, in combination with what was more especially its own : and of this the first (or, historically speaking, the Lancastrian) period of the Perpendicular Gothick, although certainly wanting in the majestick beauty of the pure Decorated, it would be difficult to speak in terms of too high admiration. With the depressed arch of the Tudors, however, came that multiphcity, profusion, and minuteness of panelling, and other ornamental detail, which but too clearly indicated a decadence in Ai-chitectonick taste. A single retrogi-ade movement in Architecture is almost always a fatal symptom. Debasement, once admitted, speedily pervades the entire system ; and then a period of utter degradation will intei-vene, before the art can again revive, animated by its former exalted spirit, and capable of aspiring to even nobler achievements. It has been thus with the Church Ai-chitecture of the Middle Ages : magnificent even in decline, it spread over its last gi'eat works those elaborately fretted vaults of fan-tracerj', as monumental canopies, not unworthy of Gothick art : and then speedily came on the long and di'eaiy age of Architectm'al debasement. Taking thus a retrospective view of the history of our Ecclesiastical Edifices, there is much reason for associating with the past, both present congratulation and future hope : for it is truly satisfactory to observe the existing recognition of the superior merit of Mediseval Architecture, as Church Architecture, and the prevalent anxiety to obtain con'ect views both of its principles and of their practical application ; and from the actual existence of such a state of feeling it is not unreasonable to anticipate that complete revival of the original Gothick spirit, which may even lead to an Architectural perfection hitherto unknown. But before advance can become practicable, it is indispensable that there be a recovery from retrogi'ession. The first thing to be attained is the mastery of Gotliick Architecture as it has been practised. It is accordingly the object of these volumes, by conveying a clear and full exposition of the various details of Church Architecture as they exist in om* Churches, to contribute, in 4 INTRODUCTION. however humble a degi'ee, toward the attainment of tliis all-important preliminary step. And here it may be remarked, that undue importance must not be attached to the terms Early, Decorated, and Perpendicular Gotliick, as though they denoted so many distinct styles in Church Architecture.* For convenience in studying, and also with a view to simplify the process of classifj'ing details, these terms have been invented and assigned, as distinctive titles, to certain Architectural forms or periods : the forms and periods themselves, however, are really but modifications and progressive eras of one and the same style ; and it is most important that in this light they should be regarded. As it has been already observed, " the great principles and essential characteristics of Gothick Architecture remained unchanged, fi'om the first establishment to the final suppression of the style : and hence, though the several conditions of Gothick Architecture have led to its subdivision into styles, each distinguished by a peculiar name ; still, these minor styles must, in the first instance, be regarded as mere subdivisions, or rather as the more prominent transition stages of the one gi-eat style, the Gothick. "f Accordingly, notwithstanding that dates have been assigned to these several subdivisions of Gotliick Architecture, it is impossible to fix with absolute and peremptoiy certainty where one stage of the art left off, and where another began. There can be little doubt but that Early English was still in use in some parts of the kingdom (unwilling to depart, as it were, fi'om the scene of its many glorious triumphs) at the veiy same time that, in other localities, complete Decorated was struggling into existence ; and in like manner Decorated may be observed to have still lingered here and there for a considerable period subsequent to the time that is generally considered to mark the estabhshment of Perpen- dicular. The usually received dates, therefore, of the commencement and close of the Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular Gothick, in strict reaUty sei-ve only to indicate those minor stages of transition which intervened between the several more important periods of Anglo-Gothick Architecture ; and in this capacity they are veiy useful : their utihty is gi-eatly increased also, fiom the circumstance of then- ranging with the reigns of successive sovereigns, for the association of Ai'chitecture wdth history is always most desirable. In pursuing the study of Mediaeval Architecture, it is absolutely necessary to pass on from WTitten and illustrated treatises to original examples themselves. Gothick art can neither be so completely described, nor so illustrated by the pencil as to convey any adequate conceptions * This nomenclature, introduced by the late Mr. Rickman, has been retained by the Authors, as being in itself sufficiently well adapted to its purpose ; while at the same time it possesses the very important advantage of being generally recognised and understood. And, in like manner, where words already exist which clearly explain the different details of Architecture, they have uniformly been adopted ; but where such terms are wanting, free use has been made of the nomenclature of the Middle Ages revived by Professor Willis. t Lectures upon English Church Architecture, delivered before the St. Alban's Architectural Society, by the Rev. C. Boutell, M.A., Secretary. May, 18-16. , INTRODUCTION. 5 of its reality. It may, therefore, be held as an axiom, that personal inspection of the old chm-ches of England is the otili/ mean, by which it can be possible now, either to appreciate the genius of our mediaeval architects, or to sympathize with the spirit which animated them. But in carefully studying early remains, it is possible that even experienced observers may sometimes be misled by a practice, the very existence of which can scarcely be considered to have received a general recognition : the practice, that is to say, of occasionally assimilating work in a later style to some already existing portion of an mcomplete general design. This is a remarkable and highly important circumstance ; Ipng, as it does, at the very basis of authoritative rules for restoration of original Edifices by ourselves. And indeed, it forms a strongly marked exception to the usual practice ; for it was a general rule with the builders of the Middle Ages, never to fall back upon a past era of their art, even when engaged in completing Stinictures of a by-gone age. Influenced by a spirit, which in these times it is scarcely possible yet to understand, their sole aim was advancement : one " Master" was ever anxious to surpass another ; and each sought in any fresh design to improve upon his own previous works. It would seem that when engaged in repairing, or making additions to their Churches, the style then prevailing was invariably and boldly adopted : the architects of those days trusted in the beautiful harmony which breathes throughout their great art, and wliich they well knew must necessarily exist the same at any period of it. But when they had to complete a design, left from the first imperfect, they appear to have been induced in some instances to mold their work in such manner, as to maintain in the general outline some degree of uniformity throughout the whole. The grand and venerable Abbey Church of St. Alban preserves examples, no less remarkable for diversity than excellence, of the proceedings of the " Masters " of old. The Nave, including the triforia and clearstory, was originally Anglo-Norman ; plain and massive in the extreme, yet strikingly majestick in its austere simplicity. It would appear that when, after a lapse of time, the Early English Gothick was fairly estabhshed, it was determined to alter the Nave to that style, and thereby improve it. The work of renovation accordingly commenced, began at the west, and the design extended to the first four arches on the north side, and the three corresponding ones on the south. We must imagine that for some reason the works were suspended, and that an interval of several years elapsed before they were again resumed : for when once more proceeded with, the style had considerably progressed, and Early EngHsh Gothick was shortly to give way to Decorated. Two more of the Anglo-Norman arches on the south side were rebuilt at this period, their general design being the same, the strings &c. corresponding with the earlier work, while a partial diflference is observable in the moldings and other ornamental details. Again were the works discontinued ; nor was any further effort attempted, with a view to the reconstruction of D 6 INTRODUCTION. the Church, until the Decorated Gothick had attained to ahnost the very highest degree of its beauty and jierfection. And here begins, correctly speaking, the work of assimilation. Since the commencement of these improvements, Gothick Architecture had gradually undergone a remarkable change : so that it is very certain that, had not the architect been desirous of assimilating his work to that of his predecessors, he would have adopted a design very different from that which has actually been carried into effect. As it is, the general character of the Early English pier-arches is here preserved, though the moldings of the arch-heads, and the capitals of the piers are pure Decorated. In the south triforium also, the arrangement of both the arches and sub-arches of the arcade corresponds with the similar members in the earlier work ; shafts (though no longer detached) are })laced in the jambs, and strings are continued above and below the arcade, in which the long trails of tooth-ornament are superseded by a series of the square flower of four leaves. And again, the walls of the clearstory (quite at variance with the practice of the time) are piei'ced with lancet windows, in evident continuation of the original design: the propoitions of these windows are precisely similar to those in the adjacent Early English portion of the Church, but their moldings are beautiful and pure Decorated. The corbel table also, beneath the parapet on the exterior, is continued : but in the later portion of it, the Early English notch-heads are seen to have given way to a series of male and female heads (valuable specimens of the head-dresses of the period) and lions' heads, peculiarly a Decorated ornament. In Westminster Abbey Chui'ch this same curious process appears also exemplified, and that in a manner still more remarkable, in the Nave-piers and arches, triforia and vaulting. The eastern part of the Nave and Aisles was rebuilt between the years 1269 and 1307 ; and the western portion was continued at intervals, between the years 1340 and 1483.* The Early English character, however, has been so well preserved throughout, that in many cases it requires a close inspection, and that by an experienced eye, before it is possible to detect and authenticate the presence of Perpendicular work. Thus, the windows in the Aisles erected by Henry V. are very decidedly of Early Decorated character : and it might, indeed, be difficult to assign any reason, from the aspect of the work itself, which would militate against their being classified as such, did not the customary octagonal and molded cap of the Perpendicular period occupy the place of the con-esponding circular and foliated members which, had the windows really been erected some hundred years earlier, would assuredly have surmounted the bowtels placed in their jambs. An equally characteristick distinction is also observable in the plans of the Nave-piers of the two eras : in the early work, four shafts stand clearly detached fi'om the main body of the pier ; but subsequently the pier * Neale's History of Westminster Abbey. INTRODUCTION. 7 was worked with eight shafts, all equally attached to the central mass. This last, perpendicilak Nave Pier. thougli in rcality but a trifling deviation fi'om the original plan, is nevertheless indicative of the altered fashion of the day, in which detached shafts, once such a favourite feature, were entirely discarded. In the Nave of Westminster Abbey, as at St. Alban's, in the midst of this partial amalgamation of styles, one most important member appears to have invariably rejected the slightest symptom eaelt English Nave Pier. of compromisc, aud maintained its characteristick identity : for, in the treatment of their Moldings we find that the architects of the fifth and sixth Henr}'S, have put aside all attempt at assimilation, and pursued with scrupulous strictness the molding system of their own times.* It is, indeed, truly worthy of remark how capricious these architects seem to have been in their adaptation, — jealous, apparently, of retm'ning to what was then felt to be an inferior style, yet at the same time anxious to preserve and be guided by the conceptions of the original author of the general design. It must be noted that, when introducing, for the general purpose of assimilation, a member altogether foreign to their own style, the architects of the Perpendicular period disdained to copy exactly the model : it was the original idea, and that idea alone, that they cared to cany out ; thus in the piers they worked the bands of the thirteenth century with the moldings peculiar to the fifteenth. The accompanying cuts, both drawn to the same scale, show how fearlessly they departed not only fi.'om the outline, but also fi"om the size of the original. And thus also in the triforia, the Early English Band to Nave Piers. ABU English, (jggjgn jg equally apparent in the former and latter portions of the work ; but the moldings in these respective portions differ essentially, each being true to the style of its own period. And again, although the gi'oining is tolerably in keeping throughout ; in the 'pL'^Eh^DicoLAR."^' Aisles and in the later portion of the vaulting, the original spring and height of the ridge-rib have been preserved, while to the elegant acutely pointed lancet of the * It may not be out of place here to remark, that the architect in chief to our King Henry V., and the probable author of the assimilations referred to in the text, was Alexander de Bemeval, the builder of the later portion of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen ; in which Edifice is still preserved an Incised Slab of elaborate workmanship, the memorial of his predecessor in that great and splendid work, as well as of himself. The effigies depicted in this interesting monument are figured in the Rev. Charles Boutell's Treatise upon Monumental Brasses and Slabs ; and the entire tomb is represented by Willemin in his Monuments Inedits, and also in the description of the Church of St. Ouen by Gilbert. Band to Nave Piers. 8 INTRODUCTION. earlier groining, an obtusely pointed arch has been preferred ; which consequently it has been necessary to stilt. Early English Arcade. AVestmisster Abbey Church. Peependicdlar Arcade, Westminster Abbey Church. In the arcading also, under the windows, we find another striking illustration of the process we are describing. In the Early English portion of the Church, this arcading was made such a prominent feature, that it was not deemed advisable to omit it in the Perpendicular work : accordingly we find it has been continued quite round the Church ; and although this mode of decoration had long since been disused, and supplanted by the new system of panelling, still in this instance, in its main features it has been revived, and made closely to assimilate to the earlier portion. On examining the moldings, however, we again perceive how rigidly the distinctive peculiarities of the Perpendicular style have Sectio.n of Cap at D. Section on Line N N. Section on Li.ne A A. Section op Cap at C. Westminster .\bbey Church. been adhered to. This is especially to be remarked in the two capitals of which we append cuts : the one a beautifully molded specimen of Early English work, the other an equally good and pure Perpendicular example. The stilted and octagonal base of the Perpendicular shaft contrasts very forcibly with the low and unpretending Early English base, each indicative of the prevailing spirit in the Architecture of its respective age. INTRODUCTION. 9 One more notable instance of assimilation may be mentioned : we refer to the Church of Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. The choh of this Church is supposed to have been built by Edmund of Langley, fifth son of Edward III. ; and in 1435, (13th of Henry VI.) Richard Duke of York, his son's nephew, signed by commission a contract with William Horwood, fi-eemason of Fotheringhay, for the rebuilding of the Parish Church on a scale, and in a style exactly corresponding to those of the choir.* This contract, w^hich is still preserved, states that the said William Hoi-wood, " graunts and undertakes to mak up a new body of a Kirk joyning to the quire of the College of Fodringhey, of the same hight and brede that the said quhe is of," and that in " eche Isle shall be wyndows of freestone, accordyng in all poynts unto the wyndows of the said quire, sawf they shal no bowtels haf at all ;" and also that " aither of the said Isles shal have six mighty botrasse of fre-stone, clen-hewyn ; and every botrasse fynisht with a fynial, according in all points to the fynials of the said qwere, safe only that the botrasse of the body shal be more large, more strong and mighty than the botrasse of the said qwere." Now here we have a document which expressly states that in building the new body of the Church, the Decorated choir already existing is to form the guide and be exactly copied ; and yet William Horwood, we must imagine, was so entirely imbued with the Architectural sphit of his day, that even with these positive injunctions before him, he still let the Perpendicular architect be visible in almost every portion of his work. Truly, that our ancient builders should not merely have hmited their practice to one style, but actually to one period of that style, is remark- able even among the many extraordinaiy facts connected with the Architecture of the Middle Ages : such being the case, how can we wonder at the astonishing perfection at which they arrived. It is in the piers that we may observe more particularly the assimilation to those of the choir ; as in Westminster Abbey Church, with a plan of an earUer period they combine an aiTangement essentially Perpendicular : such is the stilted base, and octagonal phnth and capital, with the intermediate continuous moldings, so common about this period. Indeed when we remember that the then existing choir had two aisles, we can easily understand that if uniformity of design was sought after, it would be so more especially in the piers and arches, as they form in a Parish Church the most striking internal features. The arches in the nave are pointed, and of good proportion, and were probably made conformable with those already existing in the choh. From these examples, therefore, it is clearly evident that in reconstructing certain portions of the fabrick of the larger Churches, it was an occasional practice with the mediaeval architects to assimilate new work to old, so far as would tend to caiTy out the genei'al uniformity of an original design ; and it is highly probable that further researches will show this practice to have been far more extensively adopted, than at present is imagined. * Memoirs of Gothick Churches, published by the Oxford Society. E 10 INTRODUCTION. Whether it was also followed in small %allage Churches, and if so to what extent, are (juestions desemng a close and searching investigation.* Possibly many features which occasionally present themselves, and which it is difficult to reconcile with the style in which they occur, may result from some such an arrangement. Be this as it may, one thing appears sure and invariable amidst whatever of uncei'tainty may ai'ise fi'om this practice of assimilation ; and that is, that the assimilating process never extends to the moldings. To however great an extent the earlier portion of an Edifice may have been subsequently copied, these important members were always worked in strict conformity with the ordinary system prevalent at the time of their constiniction ; and thus they will be found guides of the greatest possible authority, as well for detecting the application of this principle of assimilation, as for determining the date of those Strac- tures, or parts of Structures, which maintain throughout an architectural consistency. Such, at least, is the conclusion fairly deducible from all the instances, which the authors of these volumes have examined. Before adverting to their analysis of more strictly Architectural details, the authors here remark that monumental brasses may fre- quently be studied by the architect, with satis- factory and beneficial results. The arrange- ment of the canopies in these interesting memorials is almost invariably elegant and effective ; while, in some examples, they display designs of most elaborate magnificence. The annexed illustration is from the brass, in Westminster Abbey Church, of Alianor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, who died in 1399. * Mr. Paley, in his manual (p. 214), mentions that "now and then the arches on one side of a nave were rebuilt after the model of the other side ; as at Little Casterton Church, Rutland, where there are semi-circvdar arches of the fourteenth century, evidently suited to others of the twelfth." AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I.-OF MASONEY. 1. WINDOWS. TRACERIED window may be justly regarded as a peculiarly distinctive characteristick of Gothick Ai'chitecture, — its own grand conception, and most beautiful emiclunent. Well aware of its remarkable suitableness for the display of both artistick and constructive skill, the Mediaeval architects delighted to exemplify in this one member, in preference as it would seem to all others, the versatihty and the power of their great art. Hence the astonishing diversity in their traceiy, its almost invariable grace and elegance, its just harmony of proportion, and imposing richness of effect. It is, however, most certain, that Gothick windows are far from being specimens only of mediaeval genius, most admirable as these specimens are : for, upon a critical examination, it becomes evident that they are regulated by certain general principles of design, as weU as of composition ; and consequently, the apparently capricious ramifications and undulations of the stonework, are in reahty no other than variously modified applications of the same fundamental laws. In now sketching out the origin of traceiy in the heads of windows, its gi'adual developement and successive changes, we shall endeavour to illustrate the several more prominently distinctive forms which at different periods it assumed ; previously to entering upon an examination of the rules by which its construction may be considered to have been governed. 12 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Possessing several important features, and being also characteristick of certain periods, windows altogether devoid of tracery are the first to present themselves to our notice. In the early Norman Edifices, and particularly in the small village Churches, the openings for the wandows were smaU and remarkably narrow, — indeed but little more than plain, round headed slits pierced, at as great a height as possible above the ground, in the massive walls. Examples occur in South ease Church, and StejTiing Church, Sussex, tangmere chircu, Nately Church, Hampshu'c, and Stow Church, Norfolk; in which the Susses. * entire window openings are between two and tlu-ee feet high, and in width do not exceed a few inches. These windows have a considerable internal splay, but externally their glazing is set almost flush with the wall-face. Glass, however, being at that period an object of considerable scarcity in England, many of these early windows do not appear to have been ^"^ constinicted with a \aew to their being glazed ; as may be seen at Waltham Abbey Church, Essex, and Darenth Church, Kent, where evidently no pi-ovision was originally made for fixing panels of glass. A shutter, probably, was designed to close upon the rebate, winch sometimes may be seen worked externally in the masomy ; as at Southease Church, Sussex.* These windows merely resulted fi'om absolute necessity ; and, accordingly, but slight attempts were made to render them subservient to decorative purposes. Many examples are absolutely devoid of all ornament whatsoever. In Nately Church, the east window of the apse is perfectly plain on the outside, without even a dripstone ; and internally a very sUghtly indented saw-tooth molding appears over the arch. The very early round-headed triplet at the east end of Darenth Church exhibits a few rude and imperfect attempts at zig-zag and billet work about the heads of the lights on the exterior (Section 1, Norman, Plate 2) ; over one light a dripstone may be noticed, but its occun-ence here would seem to be the result rather of accident than of design, as the two other lights are without it. These lights are slightly splayed externally, and in the interior their splay is very wide. The windows in the south aisle of Waltham Abbey Church, (Section 1, Norman, Plate 3) though still veiy early, exhibit a considerable advance in decoration ; and in their construction also, a new and important feature presents itself. The window-opening is no longer flush with the outer wall, or withdrawn from it by a slight external splay : here the opening is regularly recessed, and ornamented with jamb-shafts, having bases and capitals, which carry an arch molded with the cIicatou : a dripstone worked with * In Clymping Church, Susses, all the ^yindows in the Chancel, including the east triplet, are rebated internally, and retain the hooks on which the shutters hung. A plan and two \iews of this Church are given in the '• Parish Churches," Vol. II. page 75. WINDOWS. 13 billets is also appended, and this membei* is continued from window to window by horizontal returns similarly ornamented. These windows are themselves greatly increased in size, and particularly in wadth as proportionate to their height. Beneath them i-uns a string, which in the interior is simply molded, but externally is enriched with the saw- tooth. As the style advanced the windows increased in both size and richness : the arches were recessed in two or three orders, additional shafts were added, and a profusion of the most elaborate carving ornamented the heads of the lights, in some cases ex- tending to the jamb-shafts and completely covering the innermost order of the masonry. In a window in Stourbridge Chapel, Cambridgeshire, (Appendix, Plate 1), the surface of the arch is richly diapered. Iffley Church, Oxfordshire, presents some tine specimens of recessed windows with jamb-shafts ; and here the chevi'on is continued fi-om the arch- head down the jamb masonry on either side. Amongst many others, the Churches of Castle Rising, Norfolk, and Beaudesert, Warwickshire, may be specified as containing some rich and valuable examples of windows of this style. Other admirable specimens will also be found in that most interesting Edifice, the Church of St. Cross, near Win- chester. In the clearstoiy it was a common practice to construct windows having larger openings than those of the aisles, as in Steyning Church, Sussex ; where the aisle-lights measure one foot only from jamb to jamb — while in the clearstory the same admeasurement amounts to about 2 ft. 9 in. Internally, these clearstory windows (themselves consisting each of a single hght) commonly opened into an arcade of three arches — the centre one being stilted. This arrangement displays a passage pierced in the thickness of the walls, which traverses in front of the clearstory windows, and forms an upper triforium. It occurs in Waltham Abbey Church (Appendix, Plate 1), in the Cathedrals of Oxford, Winchester, and Norwich, and elsewhere. This same feature was continued throughout the transition or semi -Norman period : thus, at Romsey Abbey Church a precisely similar arrangement appears, with pointed, in place of semi-circular headed arches. Triplets, although occasionally introduced, are not characteristick of Norman work : their most usual, as well as most beautiful, position would be at the eastern end of the Building ; and as the common termination of a Norman Chm'ch toward the east was apsidal, their rare occurrence is without difficulty accounted for. Circular windows are not unusual ; as, indeed, appears but natural in a style expressly distinguished by its rounded arches. In the earlier period they are mere openings, simply moulded, or perhaps orna- mented mth the chevron and other equally characteristick caiving. A series of such circular windows constitute the clearstory lights to the nave of Southwell Minster: and 14 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. again in Waltham Abbey Church, the original aiTangement appears to have been the same ; although at the present time, in consequence of subsequent alterations, it is difficult to determine whether the existing remains were once actual openings, or merely sunk panels. In the west fi'ont of Iffley Church, a Perpendicular window has been inserted : in this same position the remains of a circular window of consider- able size may, notwithstanding, be distinctly traced ; and again, part of a similar window yet remains in the west fi'ont of St. Botolph's Priory Church, Colchester. A small but perfect example, simply ornamented with a band of nail-head, occupies the eastern gable of the Church of St. Cross ; and in Chichester Cathedral and New Shoreham Church are other good examples, though both partake of a transitional character. At a late period of the Anglo-Norman style, it was usual to divide the openings of circular windows with small shafts, radiating from a common centre. Good specimens of this usage occur in the Churches of Barfreston and Patrixbourne, both in Kent.* From the time of its first introduction until the final close of the Anglo-Norman style, the pointed arch diffisred from the semi-circular headed arch merely in form — the general characteristicks, details, and ornamental accessories of the two arches remaining the same. It was also a common practice, anterior to the Gothick period, to introduce the two forms of arch in close connection the one with the other, in the same Building, or part of a Building. Thus, in Chichester Cathedral three pointed lancets appear arranged under a single large semi-circular arch. In the triplet at the east end of Castle Hedingham Church, Essex, the arches externally are pointed, while internally their heads are rounded : and again in Barfreston Church, a pointed window is placed side by side with one that is rounded, and the two are connected by a string continued between their dripstones. Semi- circular headed and pointed windows are also inserted indiscriminately in the clearstory of Oxford Cathedral : in all other respects, however, the details of these windows are precisely identical, and essentially Anglo-Norman. Forced into existence by the exigencies of construction,! a considerable space of time elapsed before the peculiar faculties and beauties of the pointed arch were duly appreciated or even discerned : and consequently, we find it to have been in frequent * It is highly remarkable that these windows, thus divided, and bearing so close an approximation to tracery, do not appear to have originated the idea of a traceried window-head. The circidar window in St. James's Church, Bristol, is a curious instance of a near, but still purely accidental, approach to a complete piece of tracery. f There can be little doubt but that it was in vaidting that the pointed arch was first introduced as a necessary constructive form. WINDOWS. 15 use, merely with a view to produce an agi-eeable variation from the more general rounded form. The pointed arch thus used, may be distinguished as the pointed Norman arch, and this period may also be correctly indicated by the term semi-Norman : the period, that is, intervening between strict Norman and pure Gothick — in which the gi-and feature of the coming style appeared in association with the general characteristicks of that already in its decline. Fine specimens of the transitional character of this Semi-Norman period exist in the ruined Churches of Buildwas Abbey, Salop, Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, and Croyland Abbey, Lincolnshire ; in the chapel, also in ruins, of St. Joseph at Glastonbury ; in the Church of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester ; and in the conventual Churches of Malmesbury and Romsey. From the circumstance, however, of the exact period of its construction having been recorded by a cotemporary writer, as well as from its intrinsick merit, the eastern part of the choir of Canterbury Cathedi-al justly claims a pre-eminence in value and interest over all other remains of this period. Here, in the clearstory windows, a remarkable deviation from both the pointed and semi-circular form is observable in the head of the window- arches : the actual openings of these windows have trefoiled heads, each one circumscribed by a semi-circular arch.* But this new form, notwithstanding its close approximation to the heads of the lights in pure Gothick windows, clearly had no real influence in the formation of traceiy : its introduction, whether fortuitous or resulting from design, produced nothing more than another form of window-arch, and led directly to no more important results. f In the smaller Semi-Norman Churches, the windows appear to have frequently been pointed, but in other respects constructed and ornamented after the Norman style. Several good examples of this aiTangement remain in the Chancel of Bloxham Church, Oxfordshire : and at the east end of the Chancel of Barnwood Church, Gloucestershire, is a single-Ught window (from its great width scarcely to be called a lancet) with plain molded jambs, a pointed arch, and dripstone ornamented with chevi'on-work.J It appears unnecessaiy to refer to other examples of these transition windows : we, therefore, here recapitulate the more prominent features of the windows of the Anglo-Norman style : — (1.) They were small, each consisting of a single-light semi-circular in the head, and placed as highly as possible above the ground. * The trefoil-arch is also observable in the heads of doorways of this period. See subsequent article upon Doorways. t Professor Willis, in his admirable histoiy of Canterbury Cathedral, fixes the date of these windows between A.D. 11 7o and 1178 ; William de Sens, architect. X See " Parish Churches," Vol. II. p. 71. 16 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. (2.) In the earlier examples the splay was entirely internal, and in many cases no preparation for glazing appears to have been made : later in the style the windows began to be recessed, jamb-shafts with quaintly carved capitals were introduced as the supporters of richly ornamented arch-moldings, and the openings were considerably elongated. (3.) No decided indications of traceiy had yet appeared : the wheel-windows of even the Semi-Norman period, though possessing what might have been regarded as the germ of tracery, were discontinued when the Early Enghsh Gotliick became positively established. On the first establishment of the Gothick style, little essential difference, beyond the invariable adoption of the pointed arch, was apparent in the design and proportions of the windows, but as the style advanced, the development of Gothick details and accessories in the windows gradually increased : the openings of the Hghts became, in most cases, naiTower in proportion to their height : a new and pecuharly characteristick principle of construction was introduced in the heads of window-arches : and, after a while, the juxta-position of several distinct windows brought on the general use of mulhons and tracery. At its first introduction, and throughout the continuance of the Semi-Norman period, the pointed arch was very obtuse, rarely becoming equilateral, and perhaps in no single instance acutely-pointed. In the Early Enghsh Gothick, on the contrary, the equilateral is the usual form of the window arch ; while in some cases, and more particularly in the Cathechals and larger Churches, we find the windows most acutely-pointed, as at Lincoln and Southwell Minsters. The single-light Early Enghsh lancet, in general use during the first Gothick period, was of the simplest aiTangement ; its very simplicity constituting its peculiar charm. In these windows the glass was generally brought within three or four inches of the outside face of the wall. (See plans. Section I. Early Enghsh, Plates 1 and 4.) In the interior the openings were widely splayed; and consequently, in walls of great thickness, this splay caused the width of the jambs to be, in most cases, four or five times the width of the light. Now, if the arch of the window had been allowed to widen inside with the jambs, besides the unsightly appearance which would have been produced, it would have necessitated a much greater height in the walls of the Church than was considered desu-able by the Early English architects ; and hence arose a pecuhar treatment of the interior of windows, the general arrangement of which consisted in having totally distinct arches inside and out : tlie outer adapting itself to the peculiar character of the window, but the inner being almost invariably a segmental pointed or drop- arch ; the point of which, in many examples, was considerably below that of the window itself, as in the south aisle of St. Alban's Abbey Church. It will be obsei-ved, in this mode of construction, that the head of the lancet is cut out of a mere WINDOWS. 17 slab a few inches in thickness, which is carried up internally till it meets the soffit of the di'op-arch. (See Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate II.) The eftect also of this treatment of their lancets was to tlirow the light doivn into the Church, and leave the valley of their high-pitched roofs in a state of semi-obscurity, an object they so evidently sought for in their interiors. So characteristick was this aiTangement considered, and also so peculiarly effective in itself, that shortly after its introduction it was generally adopted even in windows so placed as not to requu-e its constructive advantages : thus, in gable-triplets, the combined windows were very commonly finished in the interior with drop-arches (see Section I. Early English, Plate 15) ; and, again, the same arrangement appears in the tower of Brockworth Church, Gloucestershire (Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 11), where the interior ai"ch, though segmental, is actually concentrick with the arch of the light. This last-named circumstance is, indeed, of by no means rare occurrence in those positions, in which the drop-arch was intro- duced, rather as an essentially characteristick feature, than a necessary constructive application. As a matter of construction, tliis drop-arch is by far more secure than an arch sloping so con- siderably as would have been requisite had the interior and exterior arches been concentrick. We may here observe, that this aiTangement, variously mocUfied, continued to be in use in the constraction of windows throughout the Gothick style.* (See Section 1, Decorated, Plate 2.) In some early examples we meet with a simple segmental arch inside, connected with the lancet-head by rough and irregular masomy, any effort of design or systematick construction. The proportions of Early English lancets vary to a remarkable de- gree ; the lights bemg, in height, in some instances, as much as eleven times their width, as in the Churches at Oundle and Clymping ; or ten times, as at Shorne Church (see Section I. Early English, Plates 1, 4, 7) ; while, in other examples, as at Brockworth and Great Casterton, the height of the lancets does not exceed five times their width. Eight, or perhaps nine times their width may be regarded as a fair average for the height of these lancet-wdndows when in their gi-eatest perfection. The instances are rare in which we find a Church still retaining the original aiTangement of its lancet- windows ; but in such cases we may generally remark, Manton Church, RuTLANDSHiEE. ^]-,^^ jj-^ ^|^g gaUcs aud in the north and south walls of the Chancel they are of more slender proportions than in the other parts of the Edifice. * A contrivance of this kind was not necessary in the Auglo-Norman Churches, the windows being almost invariably of much less height, and the walls in some instances comparatively higher. Where there was sufficient height, even in the Early English period, in some examples the exterior and interior arches of the windows were concentrick, as in the North transept of York Cathedral. G Clvmpixo Chdech, Sussex. ^«^^ 18 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. The reason for this is ob^dous : were the narrow proportions of the Chancel lancet presei*ved in those placed in the less elevated walls of the aisles, the light thus obtained would be altogether insufficient ; and hence appears to arise the general i-ule, that the width of Early EngUsh lancets varies inversely in proportion to their height.* Early English lancet-windows occur either singly, or in groups of two, three, five, and seven ; but combinations of four and six lancets are rarely to be found. Repton Church, Derbyshire, furnishes an example of this latter arrangement : of the former, the east end of the Chapel of St. Mary's Hospital, Leicester, affords an instance. A single lancet is very rarely placed at the east end of a Chancel ; nor is a similar window much less uncommon in a western elevation. The eastern gable of the Chancel at Llanabar, Merionethsliire, is pierced with a single lancet : and at Little Casterton Church, Rutland, and Tangmere Church, Sussex, are single lancets to the west.f Single lancets also appear in western towers, in the Churches of Stanwick, Ringstead, and Etton, in Northamptonshire.! The usual position of single lancets is in the north and south walls of Chancels and Naves, and in the east and west extremities of aisles. In a small country Church, the arrangement of two single lancets tall and narrow, is productive of the most beautiful effect. This arrangement is sometimes seen to the east of a Chancel, as at Great Casterton Church, Rutlandshire and Tangmere§ and Ports- lade Churches, Sussex ; and commonly to the west, as at Barn- well, Cambi"idgeshu'e. Couplets of lancets occur in the aisles of Churches, more fi'equently than in any other position, as at Little Wenham Church, Suffolk, and Stoke Pogis Church, Bucks, (Section I. Early English, Plate 1,) and Hythe Church, Kent: this probably results from the same desire to obtain light, which caused the single lancets in aisles to have a greater propor- tionate width than in other positions. A lancet couplet also is commonly found in the side walls of Chancels, as in the Churches soBTB Newton Church, Wilts, at Grcat Weuliam, Suft'olk, aud Hartley, Kent (Appendix, Plate 2). * The beautiful little Church of St. Michael's, Long Stanton, Cambridgeshire, retains the Chancel lancets in nearly their original state ; but in the aisles the original windows have been altogether destroyed. Clymping Church, Sussex, may also be specified as containing most valuable examples of Early English lancet-windows. Parish Churches, Vol. II. page 75. ■f See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 1. X Single western lancets sometimes may be seen in Semi-Norman Edifices, as at !Manton Church, Rutland ; and in a Church of similar character at Barnwood, Gloucestershire, is a single eastern lancet. § See Parish Churches, \o\. II. p. 34. See also Section I. Early English, Plate 13. WINDOWS. ' 19 The triplet, at once the most characteristick and the most beautiful arrangement of lancet-windows, generally appears to the east in the gable of the Chancel, and this may be safely considered as its original position. Hei'e its impressive symbolism is most appropriate, and also in most exact accordance with the spu-it of the Early Gothick age. Instances, however, occur, which authorize the introduction of the triplet into every possible posi- tion in the walls of a Church, without in any degree infi-inging the general rule of its peculiar applicability for the eastern extremity of the Chancel. Lancet-triplets exist in the west front of the Church, at Werrington, Northamptonshire (a small picturesque Edifice, having a double bell-gable over the Chancel-arch, but without any west door) ; at the west end of the aisle, at Tinwell Church, Rutlandshire (Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 20) ; and at Warmington Church, Northamptonshire ; it appears at the east end of the aisle, and is also four times repeated in the south wall of the south aisle. At Great Casterton, Rutlandshire, the side of the Chancel contains a triplet ; and at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon, two triplets are pierced in either side of the Chancel. In the Cathedrals and larger Churches, triplets were placed to the north and south in the transepts, and also in a continued series in the clearstory ; frequently two, and sometimes even three, were placed successively one above the other in gable walls, as at Whitby. In triplets it was customary to mark with gi'eater impoi'tance the central light, by giving to it addi- tional height, and in most cases increased width also ; this modification may be satis- factorily deduced from the form of the gable, in which, as we have already remarked, the triplets of lancets without doubt were originally placed. (Section I.Early Enghsh, Plates 1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 15, and 20.) Where, on the exterior wall, lancet-triplets are surmounted bv dripstones, each lancet has its own distinct dripstone; though, in most cases, the three dripstones are united by short, strings traversing between the lights. Tliese strings are ge- nerally placed at the spiinging of the arches of the two outer lancets ; and consequently either the dripstone of the central light is stilted, as St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Kent (Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 1 5) ; or in some instances, as at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon, the connect- ing string is inteiTupted by perpendicular returns, and again continued horizontally to join the central dripstone at the springing of its own window-arch. In some examples the tlii-ee windows of a lancet-triplet are placed within a dripstone forming a single arch ; and thus, though essentially and reaUy distinct from it, they bear a strong general resemblance to a single three-hght window. The glass, in these combinations of lancet-windows, is usually placed near the outer face of the wall, in the same manner as in single lancets, and internally the three windows are widely splayed : in this last respect, no less than when placed under a single dripstone, they produce a general effect closely approximating to a single window of three lights. This effect is, in the gi'eater number of instances, considerably enhanced 20 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. by the narrow fillets of the wall which intervene between the splays of the windows, being faced with bold shafts, fi-om which rise the combined hood-molds. In both single lancets and triplets, and also in all other combinations of this beautiful window^ the tooth-ornament is fi-equently introduced in long trails, in the molding of the window-arch, or of the hood- mold : fine examples of this characteristick enrichment occur in the south aisle of St. Alban's Abbey Church.* In Cathedral and other very large Churches, four or more lancet-windows of the same height and width, were occasionally introduced in combination. In the less important Buildings, and also, in many instances in the larger ones, the lancets in combination, are of an uneven number, and are generally arranged after the same system as the triplet, — the central window, that is, having both the greatest width and height, and the exterior window on either side the group being smaller than the inner pair. In these combinations of lancets, exceeding three in number, the several windows are commonly surmounted by a single dripstone, as in the Churches at Etton and Oundle, Northamptonslm-e (Section I. Early English, Plate 7), w^here five lancets form the group. Seven lancets similarly arranged but rarely occur : examples, however, exist in the Churches of Blakeney, Norfolk, and Oakham, Surrey. In place of the customary simple arch-head, in some examples of lancet-windows, the head of the light is foiled ; at Great Wenham Church, Suflfolk, the eastern end of the Chancel is pierced by a triplet of this character. (Section I. Early EngUsh, Plate 1.) This form of window-arch was in common use at an early period ; and in this, with its first modification, a foliated lancet, (see in the same Section, pi. 4, the example from Hangleton Church,) we see the germ of cusping, properly so called.f At Winnal Magdalen Church, near Winchester (Appendix, pi. 2,) the lancets display early and rude specimens of foliation or cusping, in its primitive condition. To this style of cusping the distinctive title of soffit - cusping has been apphed, fi'om the circumstance of the cusps springing fi'om the soffit of the arch, and not, as subsequently was the invariable practice, from the chamfer or slope of the arch-side. This soffit-cusping may be regarded as a sure indication of early work ; and in most instances it is characteristick of a transition from Early to Decorated Gothick. In early cusped circles, a similar distinctive peculiarity is observable in the cusping : here the foils are produced fi-om the inner curve, without rising at all into the chamfer, and * The tooth-ornament, also appears on the exterior in some lancet-windows, as in the triplet in Tinwell Church, Rutlandshire (see Section I. Early English, Plate 20 ;) and in Warmington Church, Northants. t Professor Willis derives the idea of a foliated arch from a compound archway, of which the first order is a simple, and the second a. foiled arch. WINDOWS. 21 thus no eyes whatever are formed ; or the foils themselves are cham- fered, hut the eyes are imperfect ; their chamfer being- restricted to their outer curves (B). Another marked peculiarity in early foils is that, in place of being segments of intersecting curves, they are formed fi-om a scries of distinct circles, which all cut a larger circle inscribed within them. Tracery, in the cusping of which any of these peculiarities occur, is invariably of an early, when not actually of a transitional period. The two windows in Meopham Church, Kent, (Section 1, Early English, Plates 10, 11,) and also the windows of Evington Chm-ch, Leicestershire, illus- trate this early cusping.* From the combination and cusping of distinct lancets, a single window divided by muUions and tracery derives its origin. It is no less remarkable than interesting to trace, as w^e are enabled to trace in existing examples, the gradual development of this grand Gothick conception. Thus, as in Glapthonie Church, Northamptonshire, two lancets were in the first instance placed side by side in a closer proximity than heretofore was customary, and the spandi-el between their heads was pierced by a simple oval- shaped opening ; a second window in the same Church exhibits the lancets more No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. Glapthorne Chuech. acutely pointed, with an opening of a lozenge shape in place of the previous oval, and the whole enclosed within a common dripstone ; and in a third window a more de- cided advance is apparent, for in this composition, while the lancets remain the same, the oval has been superseded by a circle with soffit-cusping forming a quatrefoil, and the plain space in No. 1 has been converted into sunken spandrels. These three windows occur in the south side of the Chancel of this interesting Church : and they exemplify, in a manner perhaps unparalleled in any one similar Structure, the idea of traceiy being conceived in the artist's mind, and gradually worked out in three successive designs. The window in Belgrave Church, Leicestershire, is another good specimen of this period (Appendix, Plate 3) : it is somewhat richer in moldings, but does not exhibit any advance- * luArreton Church, Isle of Wight, is a window with this description of cusping, where a stone ring connects and intersects the foils (Sharpe's Decorated Windows), thus illustrating in construction the formation of the foliations. H 22 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. ment in design. The windows in Houghton Church, Durham, are of precisely the same character, with a veiy peculiar an-angement of dripstone.* The idea of several distinct lights with minor compartments of an ornamental character, constituting a single window, was no sooner fairly recognised, than examples of its practical application rapidly increased in both number and variety. The j^eculiar aptitude for modification and variety which distinguished a window divided by mulUons and tracery, appears fi'om the very first to have convinced the Gothick Architects that in this member the essentially pliant character of Gothick Architecture might be most signally displayed. Hence the almost countless multiplicity of designs and modifications of each design, which were so speedily produced in the windows erected after the first inti'oduction of tracery. A two-light window with a quatrefoiled circle at the head of the lights was, as we have seen, the first decided step towards the adoption of regular tracer}^ It was a natural and easy advance to place two such windows in combination, and to pierce with a larger circle the space enclosed by a dripstone forming a single arch above them both : here appears, therefore, a four-light window with its geometrical tracery. Then one of the lights would, no less naturally, in some instances be suppressed ; while under circumstances of a con- traiy nature, a fifth or even a sixth light might ^ be introduced ; and in each of these cases some alteration in the tracery must necessarily ensue : and, again, every such alteration would lead to the introduction of fresh variety, and thus illustrate the faciHty with which window-tracery admits of change, even whilst fet- tered by geometi'ick forms, without diminution either of beauty or of consistency .f In the fii'st instance, in these early windows, the cusping was for the most part restricted to the geometrical tracery, the heads of the lights remaining plain ; but after a while a similar enrichment was introduced at the heads of the lights, to the great improvement of the entire composition : examples, however, remain which show that, even in large Aldwinkle Chcech, Northamptonshire. * Billing's Durham. t Etton Churcli, Northants. (Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 13,) a pure Early English Structure, affords some excellent specimens of early tracery. The windows in the aisles consist of two lancet lights, surmounted by a plain circle, and all inclosed within a common dripstone : those in the Chancel are of the same design, but a trefoil of softit-cusping enriches the circle. At Oundle the addition of a third light, and two head circles to a similar composi- tion, produces a three-light window. In St. Alban's Abbey Church, a very fine three-light window is the result of the same arrangement. WINDOWS. 23 windows of many lights, cusping was occasionally omitted altogether.* The circle, the original form of tracery, itself trefoiled and quatrefoiled, was soon modified by distinct quatrefoils and trefoils ; and in many instances a reversed trefoil became the central figure of the tracery in two-light windows, and sometimes, as at St. Alban's, in three-light windows. In trefoiled circles also, the trefoil formed by the cusping is frequently reversed, as at Meopham Church, (Sect. 1, Early Enghsh, Plate 10). The trefoil appears to have been a favourite arrangement of early cusping : two beautitul examples of its introduction into single lancets, with a view to impart to them a traceried character, are given at Section 1, Early EngUsh, Plate 8, from the Chancel of Raydon Church, Suffolk. In Plate 13 of the same Section is engi-aved a singularly beautiful two-hght window, also from that Church. During the progi-ess of the development of window tracery, a change gradually becomes apparent in Gothick Architecture itself ; and the observer is led to discover that the first great period of the style has merged into its successor. In thus passing on from Early English to Decorated Gothick, the only sure criterion for deciding upon the windows of either, lies in the moldings combined with the cusping. It being a necessary result that the works executed during a transition period should lose, in a greater or a lesser degree, the general characteristicks of an established style ; — such works must be either regarded (as in strict reality they are) as transitional specimens ; or their assignment to one or other of the successive periods between which they appear, must depend altogether upon peculiarities in matters of detail. Thus, the general design of two windows of geometrical ti'acery may be precisely identical : and yet, if the idea of transition windows be rejected, the one may be correctly assigned to Early English, and the other with no less accuracy to Decorated Gothick ; because of the moldings being essentially different, or because in the one there may appear soffit-cusping, while in the other the cusping may expand from the chamfer of the window-arch. For example, the windows in Stoke Albany Church (Section I. Early English, Plate 17), in their general aspect might be reckoned pure Decorated ; their soffit-cusping, however, more con-ectly classifies them with the Early EngUsh period. And so also in the clearstory over the choir of the Abbey Church of St. Alban, the composition is altogether Early English, but the mold- ings partake more of a Decorated than of an Early English character.! In this tran- sition period it was customary to construct many windows of more than two lights, * See in Sharpe's Windows, an example from Grantham Church. t It is, perhaps, impossible to consider these windows otherwise than as transitional, from the want of any decided peculiarity of style. 24 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. having no other tracery than would be produced by the intersection of the muUions in the window-head : a practice wliich was in some instances continued considerably later, and forms the basis of a numerous class of Decorated windows. In some examples of this an-angement the intersections are cusped, but very frequently they are entirely plain, and consequently produce a meagre and unsatisfactoi y appearance. ^"ely different, however, is the result, when the intersections of the mullions are filled in with quatrefoils, trefoils, and other enriched forms of tracery : in these cases the general effect is singularly beautiful and elegant, as is shown by the examples from the Churches at Southfleet and Heme, in ^TTjii'Ziy iiiivj/li [vja, Kent, and at Trumpington, Cambridgeshu-e, (Section I. Decorated, dcnton basset, leicestershike. Plates 20, 29.) But, before entering upon the direct consideration of Decorated Gothick windows, one pecuUar kind of tracery, common to the close of the Early English and the commencement of the Decorated periods, demands to be particularly noticed : we refer to that in which, contrary to the usual practice, the general design is indicated by foliations, and not by foliated geometrical figures. This arrangement may be distinctly refeiTcd to the trefoiled arches, adopted by the early Gothick Ai-chitects jft-om their Anglo-Norman predecessors, and is exemplied in the east triplet at Great Wenham Church, Suffolk (see Section I. Early EngUsh, Plate 1). The windows in the south aisle of Northfieet Church, Kent, are instances of considerable merit (Section I. Decorated, Plate 1) : other examples occur in the Abbey Church of St. Alban (Appendix, Plate 4), and in Wooton Church, Northants.* As Gothick Architecture ad- vanced, this foiled tracery was almost abandoned, appearing only in occasional specimens, and then perhaps resulting rather fi'om accident than design -.f a fine late example may be cin»eui.o"x cmacii. clovcester^iuri:. mentioned as existing in a Perpendicular window in Churchdown Church, Gloucestershire. Neither may we here omit to notice the remarkable evidences which yet remain in windows undoubtedly constnicted during this transition period, of the manifold experiments which were tried and rejected before the perfect Decorated window was produced. Thus, at Rickenhall Church, Suffolk,! the east window of the south aisle, which is * This window is figured at p. 12.t of Paley's Manual of Gothick Architecture. t The windows in the Lady Chapel at St. Alban's, Appendix, Plate 4, show the two kinds of tracery combined in the same design. J Parish Churches, page 45. WINDOWS. 25 KviNGTON CnuRcn, Leicestershire. Fig. decidedly of the same date with the other windows (temp. Edward I.), exhibits ahnost every peculiarity of Perpendicular tracery : the main lights are cinquefoiled, and the window- head comprises batement-lights, super-mul- lions, &c.; all features directly at variance with the general custom of the time. At Evington Church, Leicestei'shire, in the north aisle are two windows still more curious : of these, the western window (Fig. 1) might be regarded as a tine specimen of flowing tracery, were it not for its soffit cusping ; the invariable test of early work : the ornaments also, with which it is richly studded, are a mixture of the Decorated ball flower, wdth the dog tooth and masks of the Early English period. The composition of the east window is even more remarkable, and indeed contradictory (Fig. 2) : it consists in its general design of a series of equilateral-headed arches springing from small shafts with delicately carved foliated caps of pure Decorated character, and the upper part of the traceiy is divided by super-mullions and transoms into two octo-foUated squares and a row of tre- foUated batement-lights. Thus, in these two windows, evidently both of the same date, are displayed pecu- liarities characteristick of the tlu-ee gi'eat periods of Gothick Architecture : the Early English soffit- cusp, the Decorated foliated cap, and the Pei'pen- dicular super-muUion and tracery -transom. Such phenomena afford ample scope for conjecture : shall we say that William of Wykeham first introduced Perpendicular tracery, when we find every one of its essentials in a window of the time of Edward I. ? Shall we not rather conclude, that in their endeavours to arrive at perfection in traceiy, the early builders, in the course of their experiments, actually invented Perpendicular tracery, proceeded to a partial development of its peculiarities, and finally rejected it as unworthy? With the decided establishment of the principle of window- tracery, it became a recognised constructive arrangement to recess the mullions from the face of the wall in which the window-arch was pierced ; and the I Evington Church, Leicestershire. Fig. 2. 4 i^^^'ip;iirf!ii'iiiii' Capital from E.\st Window. 26 ■ ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. fine effect thus produced was, as the art advanced, speedily enhanced by the introduction of distinct orders of mullions, and by recessing certain portions of the tracery from the face of the primary mulHons and then* corresponding tracery-bars. The distinct planes of tracery and mullions thus produced, constitute one of the most beautiful features in Gothick windows : four of these planes are well exemplified in the window fi'om Heme Church, figured at Plate 20, of Section I. Decorated: here are, first, the wall-plane; second, the muUion and tracery -bar plane ; * third, the tracery-plane ; and fourth, the plane of the eyes of the cusping.f This last plane, sometimes, coincides with the plane of the tracery: and again, in some examples there are primary and secondary planes of both mullions and tracery-bars : all these modifications appear in the beautiful window of the north aisle of Sleaford Church, Lincolnshire.! (Section I. Decorated, Plate 26.) Decorated window tracery has been generally divided into two chief varieties, Geometrical, and Flowing : the former so called, from strictly consisting, as its name implies, of geometrical figures, such as circles, curvilinear triangles, lozenges, trefoils, quatrefoils, &c. ; while in flowing tracery these figures, though still existing, are gi'acefiilly blended together into one design. Of these two varieties, the geometrical is the earlier ; though it appears to have been retained in use subsequently to the introduction of flowing tracery, and in many instances both forms were used indifferently in windows of the same Edifice, and these erected at the same period. Indeed, the two varieties of tracery are not unfrequently exemplified in the same com- position : for tracery, like almost every other feature of Gothick Architecture, passed through its changes with such extremely gradual progress, that in many cases it is absolutely impossible to carry out any complete rule of classification. In its most perfect state, geometrical tracery invariably exhibits some large figure of distinct and decided character, which occupies the entire upper part of the window head : this figure is generally either a circle, itself foliated and cusped or subdivided by smaller geometrical figures, in most cases similarly enriched ; or it is formed by tracery-bars diverging fi-om the head of the central light in such a manner as to resemble the upper portion of the window-arch inverted, and containing ornamental work of the same * Tracenj-Bars are those portions of the masonry of a window-head, which mark out the principal figures of the design : from these, the minor and more strictly decorative parts of the stonework may be distinguished under the title of Form-pieces. See Willis's Nomenclature. y<: — ;^ . t For want of a better, the term exje has been adopted by the authors, to indicate //V* ^\^ *'^^ small triangular space, whether pierced or not, which intervenes between a cusp and the curve that circumscribes it. ■"-^ + We occasionally, however, meet with instances where, probably from the great scarcity A..'v.ti,peyesofa.|uaireioii. of freestone, the mullions have been brought flush with the outer wall. WINDOWS. 27 COTTINGUAM CHUKCH. NOETH AMPTONSUIEE. character as the large cii'cles.* In some other designs three circles or three curvilinear triangles (Section I. Decorated, Plate 2) of equal size, are introduced, and variously emiched and modified. And again, in other win- dows the geometri- cal forms are subor- dinate to intersect- ing cui*ves (Sect. I. Decorated, PI. 20) ■ sawbkidgewoetu church, hekts. or the entire tracery consists simply of one geo- metrick figure (Section I. Decorated, Plate 8). To enter into a full de- scription of even the chief of the manifold variety of designs w^hich appear in the wdndows of the Decorated period, would gi-eatly exceed the Umits of this w^ork : and this is especially the case in windows of flowing-tracery, which comprise almost eveiy possible modification of almost every possible design. It must suffice to refer, in general terms, to the more distinctive peculiarities in tracery ; lea\ang it to the illustrations to explain the details of upwards of one hundred specimens, selected from all the principal varieties which are pro- fusely scattered over the countiy. In two-light windows, the Early English arrange- ment, fi'equently varied and enriched, was for a long time continued ; as in the beautiful specimens fi"om the Churches at 1,„ X , SOUTHFLEET, KeNT. RiNGSTEAD ChURCU, NoRTHAMPTONSHlBE. Northfleet and Roydon, figured in Plate 5, of Section I. Decorated. In other two-light windows in which the tracery- bars diverge from the muUion, describing cm-ves similar to those of the window-arch, the heads of the two lancets thus formed are filled with various traceiy (Section I. Decorated, Plate 3). Others, again, are of a character so veiy peculiar, as to form an absolutely distinct class from any we have yet noticed. They occur in the purest period of the Decorated * See in Sharpe's Windows, specimens from the Churches of Rudston, York ; Billinborough, Lincoln ; Howden, York ; Exeter Cathedral ; Fishtoft, Lincoln ; Trent, Somerset ; Wellingborough, Northants ; Ripon Cathedral, &c. Also Appendix, Plate 3. 28 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. St. Alban's Abb£¥ Chubch. era, and are characterised by a remarkable angularity and abruptness of outline : such are the windows in the Chancels of Chartham Church, Kent (Section I. Decorated, Plate 22,) Belgrave Church, Leicestershire, and Lyddington Chm'ch, Berks. (Appendix, Plate 4.) " The tracery is different in each of these examples, but they agree in being dissimilar from all other Decorated windows of the same date."* In other examples the heads of two- light windows are filled with flowing traceiy : — so endless, indeed, are the varieties in this species of decoration, that we are as much astonished at the gi'cat effort of imagination which could, in a comparatively short space of time, produce such numerous designs, as we are gratified with the exceecUng beauty and appropriateness of the designs themselves. Larger windows of three, four, and a still greater number of lights, were produced by repeating with certain mocUfications, the same designs as were introduced in a simple state into two-light windows. In many of these large windows a fine effect is produced by the primary muUions and tracery-bars being very richly molded : in some examples, as at Bottisham Church, Cambridgeshire, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 27,) the rich moldings of the mullions are con- tinued tliroughout the entire composition. The mullions also, in many instances, have shafts, with bases and capitals characteristically molded and enriched. In some specimens, also, the ball-flower is introduced with admirable effect, stud- ding the hollows of both mullions and tracery in rich pro- fusion. (Sect. I. Decorated, Plate 38. )t Specimens of some of the most beautiful forms assumed by flowing tracery, are given in Section I. Decorated, Plates 6, 7, 11, 12, 18, 2G, 29. To these may be added, as ranking amongst the finest windows of the same class in England, the east window in Carlisle, and the west window in York Cathedrals. | SOUTHFLEET ChURCH, KENT. Sawbridgeworth Church. Herts. * Remarks on the Principles of Gothick Architecture, as appHed to ordinary Parish Churches ; by the Rev. J. L. Petit. See also Bloxam's Gothick Architecture, Ed. 8, p. 217; and Sharpe's Decor.itcd "Windows, where is a plate representing one of the windows in the north aisle of the ruined Abbey Church of Whitby, which contains tracery somewhat of the same character with that at Chartham. t See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 07; also Sharpe's AVindows, part (J, window from Leominster Church Herefordshire; and Britton's Gloucester Cathedral. X See Sharpe's Windows. WINDOWS. 29 A class of windows are occasionally met with in the more magnificent of our Churches, of which the rich and elahorate design fails to entirely satisfy the eye, owing to the inelegant an-angement of the tracery bars. We refer to such windows as those in tlie N. transept of Sleaford Church, in the S. transept and E. of Chancel of Heckington Church, in Selby Abbey Church,* and in the Chancel of Redgrave Church, Suffolk. The diagram A represents the primary curves of the E. window of seven lights in Heckington Church, where we may notice that two intersecting and iiTcgularly shaped ogees form the principal featm-e in the design, and by their awkward combination detract from the merits of an otherwise beautiful production. In a nine light window on the contrary, as shown in diagram B, this ar- rangement might be well canned out and create a very fine effect, for here the main lines throughout the composition would be equally balanced. Amidst all the surpassing beauty of Decorated tracery, anomalies sometimes present themselves to our notice, for which, while it is difficult to assign any reason, it would be still more difficult to find admirers. For example, in the fine conventual Church at Dorchester, Oxfordshire, is that curious and contradictoiy composition known as the Jesse-window, in which the real use of tracery, and consequently its beauty, are together lost sight of; and where the muUions, branching out into various shapes, are made to represent the tree of Jessef. Again, scarcely less reprehensible is the introduction into window traceiy of canopies and pinnacles, however beautiful in themselves, and however richly they may be decorated. These members are designed to form an external protection, and at the same time in their proper position to enhance the beauty of window traceiy, but not to be interspersed amidst the tracery itself Examples of this arrangement occur in the otherwise fine east windows of Merton College Chapel, Oxon,j St. Alban's Abbey Church, Barnack Church, Northants, and in the west window of Henry Vllth Chapel, Westminster. One other kind of tracery, veiy common in windows of every variety of dimension throughout the Decorated period, we must not omit to notice before passing on to that great change, which has given its title to the last of the tlu'ee periods of English Gothick Architecture : we I'efer to the net-tracery , so named fi'om its resemblance to the meshes of a net. This, when double-cusped, as in the cloisters of Westminster * Sharpe's Decorated Windows. f See Addington's Dorchester Church. X See Britten's Antiquities, Vol. V. K 30 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. l\lvll,„.vUi|l,..jJl,^txJln.:AW|l Wheathampstead Chcech, Hants. Abbey, is productive of gi-eat richness of- effect: though at the same time, and particularly in windows comprising more than thi-ee lights, it almost invariably presents rather the appearance of diaper cut to the shape of the toifidow-arch, than of tracery specially designed to fill the head of the arch within which it is contained. This appearance results in part from the want J,' ' ' " :J r of variety in the several subdivisions of the design, but more paiticularly from those portions of the tracery wliich come in contact with the curves of the window-arch, being cut off abruptly, instead of cui-ving upwards to adapt themselves to then- situation. It also appears requisite here to refer to one other pecuUar species of flowing tracery common in continental Gothick Buildings, but very rarely indeed to be found in this country. From the flame-like undula- tions of its tracery-bars and form-pieces, this traceiy has been distinguished as Flambo- Section of Jamb and Sill. From a Dksecbated Chuech at Rouen. yant. In England this term Flamboyant is restricted to form or design in tracery ; but, on the continent the same ex- pression denotes not a peculiar style of window -tracer)^ alone, but the entire range of Gothick Architecture at a period commencing with the decUne of Decorated Gothick in England. The term, however, can hardly be con-ectly apphed to English windows, inasmuch that however flame- hke* their tracery may be, they are still to be referred to the purest period of Gothick Art, if we have recourse to that unfailmg test, the mold- ings : whereas in the real Flamboyant of the continent, (of which we append an illustration from a desecrated Church at Rouen) the moldings show at once the debasement that has taken place. MulHons finishing with an anis are perhaps never met with in Decorated work, though they harmonize well with the general angularity of the Flamboyant. * That we should meet with niauy Decorated windows in our own country having flowing tracery, closely resembling Flamboyant, is in no ways remarkable, if we consider this last named style in the light of a debased Gothick, in which flowing tracery alone was preserved tolerably pure amidst the general debasement of all its other parts. Indeed, tracery itself soon shared in the total wreck of good taste, which took place earUer on the continent than with us : losing all consistency in construction, it became distorted and unsightly. WINDOWS. 31 Towards the close of the reign of King Edward III. the outline of window-tracery began to show a tendency to adapt itself to the vertical bearing of the mullions, instead of branching oiF from them in flowing undulations. This, the death-blow to flowing tracery, and with it to Decorated Gothick, gave rise to a new variety, at present known, in common v\ath the period of Gothick Architecture during which it prevailed, as Perpen- dicular. Here however, as in the previous changes, the alteration was very gi-adual ; con- sisting at first, rather of the introduction here and there of a perpendicular member into compositions in other respects strictly flowing in their cha- racter, than of any decided verticality in entire designs. Thus -^^ -=?. ^ in the east windows of the Churches of Houghton-le-Spring, Dur- ham, St. Mary, Stratford, Suftblk, Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxford, , \ / ' '\ and in the S. Aisle of Tunstead, Norfolk, a perpendicular tendency ,' is apparent in parts of the tracery (Section I. Decorated, Plate 9).4^||iilt«^i>;J^]||ll|;^|/^>;|iPv^>^ The N. & S. windows in the Chancel of Wheathamstead, Herts, Tu^sTEAD chdecb, Norfolk. also, are curious examples of the gradually progressive influence of the vertical principle. In the Church at King's Sutton, Northants, is another window of transition- tracery. The earliest examples in which the leading principle of the new style of tracery is completely carried out are, probably, those of William of Wykeham in the nave of Winchester Cathedral, and the corresponding windows in the Church of St. Nicholas at Lynn, Norfolk ; here the mullions rise through the window-head into the curves of the arch. This continuation of the vertical bearing of the mullions is the basis of all Perpendicular tracery : and though, as the Perpendicular period advanced, the application of this fun- damental principle was carried to such an excess as to degi'ade tracery into mere panelHng, and almost to destroy the characteristick qualities of the mullions themselves ; stiU for a while it must be admitted that Perpendicular windows possessed features of great interest and beauty. In these earUer specimens of this style, the window-head is generally divided by tracery-bars rising direct fi'om the mullions into the arch, and also by other similar members branching off" from the same mullions and describing curves corresponding with those of the main-arch. The principal compartments thus formed are again subdivided by form-pieces, variously arranged and modified, but for the most part having a vertical tendency. These members, fi-om their bearing and position deno- minated super-mullions, generally rise alternately from the heads of the main-lights, and fi'om the actual mullions ; and thus they divide the head of the window into double the number of lights contained in the lower part. (Section I. Perpendicular, Plates 5, 13, 16, 18, 23, &c.) The heads of the main lights are almost invariably cinquefoiled ; whereas in the Decorated period the trefoiled heading of the lights was so prevalent 32 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. as to constitute a characteristick of the style. Above each exterior light, or of those main subdivisions which are formed by traceiy-bars following the curves of the window- arch, a compartment of traceiy is produced by a minor tracery-bar following the same curve, while an inverted arch, foliated, is placed within the space thus formed. This is a no less beautiful than peculiar feature of the tinest Perpendicular traceiy : it prevails in William of Wykeham's work in Winchester Cathedral, and is also exemplified in the beautiful windows in the south transept of Beverley Minster,* in the north transept of Merton College Chapel, Oxford,! in Ashborne Church, Derbyshire, :f Headcorn Chm-ch, Kent, and St. Mary's Church, Oxford. § The transom, which had been occasionally used during the Decorated Gothick period, and then generally consisting of a simple horizontal mullion, crossing the lights at right angles, speedily became a regular com- ponent of Perpendicular windows : this member dividing the lights into an upper and lower series ; and the heads of the lights in either series being similarly foliated. Instances are fi'equently met with in which the transoms are embattled, as in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, Wiggenhall, Norfolk : this Church also exemphfies the use of an embattled transom in the tracery. For another specimen of an embattled tracery-transom, see Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 18. A rich, though perhaps a scarcely legitimate, effect was sometimes AsHBv ST. LKOK.-S ch.kch, nokth.mpto»sh,kb. produccd by cuspittg thc lights of thc uppcr series at the foot as well as at the head, and uniting them with those of the lower series, without any intei'vening transom-bar. A modification of this an'angement appeal's to have produced the panelled windows at the west of Winchester Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey Church. Perpendicular tracery continued to degenerate in character fi'om an early period after its first introduction, until its utmost effort appears to have been the production of the largest possible window containing, in lieu of tracery rightly so named, the greatest number possible of small pierced panels. Nothing can be more monotonous, or more devoid of all beauty or effectiveness, than this glazed panelling. * See Britton's Antiquities, Vol. V. t See Ingram's Memorials of Oxford, and Blo.xam's Gothick Architecture. X See Bloxam's Gothick Architecture. § See Oxford Glossary, Vol. II. WINDOWS. 33 Blackeney Chcech, Norfolk. With the progress of the Perpendicular period, a remarkable change took place in the form of the window-arch : and indeed long before other parts of Perpendicular Structures felt its destructive influence, the four-centred arch was in general use in the formation of win- dows.* In the tracery of windows constructed with the four-centred arch, if any degree of richness was attempted, it became a general practice to carry it considerably below the springing of the arch. Possibly fi'om this arrangement, the idea of t tracer led -transoms might have been derived. f In this period many windows were con- sti'ucted of such ample size, as entirely to fill the end of that portion of the Edifice in which they were placed ; as at Winchester, York, St. Alban's, &c. This vast extent of window was produced (in accordance with tlie laws of Gothick Architecture) not so much by inci'easing the size of the lights, as by adding to their number: thus, the west window of Henry the Seventh's Chapel contains fifteen lights, and those at Winchester, St. Alban's, and York, each nine lights. Nearly every possible variety of arch appears to have been used in the construction of window-heads. As we have already seen, the pointed arch was the almost invariable shape adopted in the Early English lancets ; occa- sionally however, as in Thanington Church, Kent, (Ap- _^ [^ pendix, Plate 2,) we meet wdth square-headed trefoiled lancets. The accompanying illustration is the north r] lychnoscopickj window fi-om Westhamptnet Chui'ch,'^*;-] Sussex. the north side of the tower The one from Thanington Church occurs in j^r Farndisb Church, BKripoEDSHiRE. Westhamptnet Chcech, Sussex. * We occasionally meet with Decorated windows with four centred arches, as in Deopham Church, Norfolk. t This arrangement is not uncommon in Decorated windows, though by no means so frequent as in those erected during the closing years of the Perpendicular period; see Section 1, Decorated, Plate 13; also the beautiful window figured by Sharpe, from Billingborough, Lincoln. Other specimens occur at Heme, Kent, and Evingtou, Leicestershire. X The term lychnoscope has been applied to a very pecuhar window, to be found in Gothick Churches of all the different periods : most frequently it is placed at the south west or north west of the Chancel, and the sill is generally brought much nearer the ground than in any of the other windows. Temple Balsall Church affords an example of one to the south west (Parish Churches, Vol. L page 15). It is still more frequent that both the north west and south west windows are of this description, as in the Churches of Westhamptnet, Raydon (Sect. 1, E.E. L 34 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. At the close of the Early EngUsh, and throughout the Decorated Gothick period, the window-arch in most frequent use was the equilateral ; and this is always the most beautiful form. Other window-arches which occurred during the Decorated period, were the acutely-pointed, the obtusely-pointed, the ogee, the segmental- pointed, and the segmental-circular. The ogee arch is not of fi-equent occun-ence, nor is it often productive of a good elFect : r- ^ C Bfii^NDON Church, Norfolk. the segmental-circular is very rare. The | KX^iX)^ 'I K)<>lix>Ol I square headed arch was veiy generally in souxHriEET cnuHcn. kent. use at this period : all the windows to the south aisle of Leckampton Church are of this description (Parish Churches, Vol. II. page 65). The tracery in these windows is sometimes very good and rich, as in Harbledown Church, Kent, (Appendix, Plate 6,) and Roydon Church, Essex, (Sect. 1, Decorated, Plate 13.) Triangular-headed windows are occa- >sionally to be met with, but they are defective both in gi-ace of out- line and soundness of construe- LufY^^'AVu^^ tion. The example from Keymer Bicker Church, Lincolnshire. Keymer Church, Sdssbz. Church, Sussex, is another curious instance of the never-ceasing search after improve- ment, in its course naturally producing some such extraordinary designs as the present, which is not instanced as a fit example for imitation. It may be considered as a link between the several successive changes in Gothick Architecture, — comparing it with the square-headed window from Southfleet, we can clearly identify- it as a modification of the Plate 8), and Cl^inping (Parish Churches, A'ol. II. page 75). A'ery rarely are windows in other parts of the Church thus treated. Aldwinkle Church, Northamptonshire, (Parish Churches, Vol. I. page 51) may perhaps furnish an example of one at the west of the south aisle. Sometimes a separate opening m the wall was expressly provided, as in Crick Church, Northamptonshire, where we find a quatrefoiled circle ; or in Bishop's Lydeard Church, Somersetshire, (Parish Churches, \o\. II. page 63,) where the wall of the south Chapel, which apparently was suhsequently added, is splayed so as not to block up the lychnoscope. The real use of these curious openings in the walls of the Chancel (for, as we have seen, they are almost exclusively to be found in this part of the Church) is still a " vexata qusestio" among Ecclesiologists : of the various uses to which they have been supposed to have been devoted, such as confessionals, openings to watch the Easter Sepulchre, lepers windows, &c., none seem to adapt themselves entirely to the different peculiarities of the case : at any rate we feel that no apology is necessary for not entering into a discussion, which, though highly interesting, is no ways in accordance with the nature and objects of the present work. We would refer to some very instructive notices of this subject in the " Ecclesiologist," Vol. V. pages 1G4 and 187; Vol. VI. page 40, and Vol. VII. page 65. WINDOWS. 35 ; former, by the omission of the two spandrels. Triangular windows were comparatively rare, except in clearstories : the example from Cottingham Church, Northamptonshu-e, occurs at the west end of the south aisle. All these arches were continued, with the exception perhaps of the acutely-pointed and the ogee, in the Per- pendicular era, with the important addition also of the four-centred arch. In very late windows, of this last named style, a label* sometimes took the place of a pointed dripstone or hood-mold ; and in this case, the spandi-els, as at Monksilver Church, Somersetshire, were occa- sionally pierced and glazed. Square-headed windows were cottixgha,, church, noethants. in constant \ise in the Perpendicular, as well as in the preceding periods : of these several specimens are appended. Circular windows also occasionally appear, but this beautiful form is by no means common in Gothick Edifices in this country. CLEARSTORY WINDOWS, Which are almost essential features in Perpendicular Edifices, were of comparatively rare occurrence at an earlier period. The Anglo-Normans used them much more frequently than did the architects of either the Early English or the Decorated eras : thus, at Steyning Church, Sussex, we observe Anglo-Norman clearstory windows placed singly ; while they form arcades at St. Margaret at Cliffe, Kent, and St. Peter's, Northampton. At Southwell, as has already been remarked, the clearstory windows are circular. In Early EngUsh Churches the clearstory but rarely formed a part of the design, except in the Cathedrals and other large Structures . SaMsbury, Ely, Lincoln, and St. Alban's, have Early English clearstories : and in Warmington Church, Northants, we find this feature consisting of a series of two-light windows. f Clearstories in the smaller Churches of the Decorated period were usually lighted * The term Label (borrowed from Heraldry) exclusively denotes a horizontal string with rectangular returns : and the terms dripstone and hood-mold, severally refer to exterior and interior strings which enclose arches or openings. These terms are often, but most incorrectly, used indiscriminately. t See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 1". 36 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Scale of fti I Mbopham Church, Kbn Ont pot FiLBT, Norfolk. by a series of quatrefoiled cii-cles. Examples of this aiTangement occur at Meopham, Kent, Filby, Norfolk,* and Great Milton, Oxfordshire. At Garsington, in Oxfordshire, the circles have six foils ; and at Stanton St. John, in the same county, in place of circles, the clearstoiy lights are triangular and with five foils. f In the exquisite Decorated Gothick Church at Cley, Norfolk, the clearstory consists of double-cusped cinquefoiled circles, alter- nating with single lancets. At Bottisham Church, Cambridge- shire, a series of finely molded two-light clearstoiy wndows ig^,j occur ; and at Raunds, Northants, a similar series approximates more nearly to the subsequent period — the Perpendicular.]: From the introduction of Perpendicular Architecture to its decline, the clearstory was almost invariably introduced into all new Churches ; and very fi-equently (to the great detriment of their beauty) was added to those Edifices which had been previously constructed. Bishop's Lydeard Church, Somerset, is one of the rare examples of a Perpendicular Structure devoid of this feature. § In the smaller Churches, two-light and three-light clearstory windows, with square heads, were in common use, as at Humberstone Chux'ch, Leicestershire ; and similar windows segmental pointed, as at Histon Church, Cambridgeshire. As the period advanced, clearstories became much more important members of the compositions into which they were introduced ; and the several windows being placed in close connection the one with the other, they frequently exhibited a considerably larger surface of glass than actual walling. Of this an-angement the Churches of Lavenham and Long Melford, in Suffolk, afford traly magnificent examples : in other Churches, however, of about the same date, the clearstory destroys the whole beauty of the Building by its monotony and apparent insecurity. At Long Melford the clearstoiy over the nave is pierced by twelve large three-lights windows, which are also continued round the north and south transepts. HCMBERSTONE ChCRCH, LEICESTERSHIRE. * See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 37. t See Oxfordshire Churches. X See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 69 ; also Northamptonshire Churches, Vol. I. p. 59. § See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 63. 37 BELFRY WINDOWS, In Norman Structures, generally consisted of a doubled semi-circular arch divided by a shaft : or in richer designs, parts of the panelling were pierced for this purpose, as at St. John's Church, Devizes. Another not unfi-equent arrangement is exemplified at Iffley, Oxon ; where two panels are formed upon each face of the tower by two external strips of masonry and one central strip, and a recessed window of a single arch occupies each of the panels. In Semi-Norman towers the double arch with a central shaft is retained, as at Dudding- I ton, Northants,* and Repps, Norfolk. The same arrange- ment was continued throughout the Early English Gothick , \ New Haven Church, Sussex, period, with such modifications as the new style demanded : ^= examples occur in the Churches at Etton and Barnwell, Northants. t In the last named Edifice, the belfry windows are richly ornamented with foliage and dog-tooth. In the more important towers of this period, a pierced arcade was also a common arrangement, as at Raunds, Northants. J And again, in this, and also in the succeeding period, the belfry windows consisted of a series of small quatre- foiled circles, one pierced in each face of the tower, as at St. Mary's Cray, Kent, and Lindfield Church, Sussex (Section I. Early EngHsh, PI. 4). In the Decorated period, a single two-light window in each face of the tower was the most usual arrangement, as at Badgeworth, Gloucestershire. In the fine Decorated Gothick tower of Southfleet Church, Kent, the belfi-y lights are four single lancets, each trefoliated at the head.§ At Heme Church, in the same county, two similar lancets occur in each face of the tower ;|| and in the large and magnificent Church of St. Mary, Redclyffe, Bristol, the upper stage is divided into three compartments, each containing a fine three-light window. In Perpendicular Gothick Edifices, the belfi-y windows differed from those of the pre- * Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 5. The tower at Repps is one of the circular flint Structures so common in Norfolk : in this example, however, the flint-work is headed by an octagonal stage of ashlar, forming an arcade which is pierced towards the cardinal points with shafted double belfry windows, of strictly Semi-Norman character. t See Parish Churches, Vol. I. pp. 13 and 31. I See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 69 ; and the Churches of Northamptonshire, Vol. I. p. 53. § See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 19. !l See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p, 7. M 38 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. ceding period rather in points of detail, than in general design. In Churches of moderate size, a two-light belfry window in each face of the tower was the usual arrangement ; while in more important Edifices two windows* were similarly placed. In the latter case the genei-al effect was considei'ably heightened by a buttress rising up between each pair of belfiy windows, and being crowned by a light and lofty pinnacle. The towers of the Churches of St. George, at Doncaster, of St. Margaret, at Leicester, and at Bishop's Lydeard, Somersetshire,! are good examples, each containing a series of double belfiy windows ; and a similar series also occurs in the noble tower of Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford. The towers of many Churches in Norfolk and Suffolk contain a peculiar window deserving of notice. It lights the floor of the ringing loft ; and usually consists of a square enclosing a foliated circle, or some other geometrical figure. Some specimens of this window are given in Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 22. In the Early English towers of Northamptonshire, a circular window of this same description is also very fi'equent ; and it is used for the same purpose. Examples occur in the Churches of Barnwell and Aldwinkle.J Similar windows of the same period appear in the Church towers of Leicestershire, as at Humberstone Church. At Section I. Semi-Norman, Plate 5, is figured a window curiously situated : it is pierced through the south and east buttresses of the tower of Clymping Church, Sussex ; the detached chevi-on, which is carried round the opening, imparts considerable richness to its pleasing pro- portions. § The window in the west of the tower of Hunworth Church, Norfolk, is of very singular design : it is exceedingly diflicult to assign a date to it, and at first sight it presents the appearance of a very early gable Cross, built into the wall of the tower II ; the rough terminations of the four arms, however, show HuN^i^^^I^nuRCH. that this was not the case, though it is more than probable that a gable Cross suggested the idea. * Windows of three lights, so fre((nently occurriug iu the body of the Church, appear to liave been sparingly used in belfries. In towers of great magnificence, two double lights under one arch was a more usual arrangement, as in St. Margaret's Church, Leicester. t See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. G.'?. Also see Bloxam's Gothick Architecture, Ed. 8, p 236. X See Parish Churches, Vol. I. pp. 31 and n9. § See Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 75. II See gable Cross from Edith Weston Church, Rutlandshire, Section I. E.E. Plate 16. 39 AcHURCH Church, NORTHAMPTOXS TURRET LIGHTS. No part of an ancient Building, not even the minutest detail, was considered by the Builders of old as unworthy of their attention : accordingly we find that these small openings for lighting a turret staircase fi'equently displayed considerable elegance in design, and no little skill in then- construction. Early examples are of rare occuiTence, for, during the continuance of Norman and Early English architec- ture, a staircase tuiTet was by no means an usual adjunct to the towers of parish Churches.* In that of the Norman tower of St. Martin's Church, Leicester, the lights are mere square- headed slits ; while in the turret at the N.W. angle of the tower of Achurch Church, Northants, an Early English Edifice ml'z. of gi-eat beauty, is a very graceful arrangement for admitting yl light to the stairs, consisting of a series of small lancets with gabled canopies. Early in the Decorated period lancet openings continued in use for turret fights ; as in a tun-et to the N.E. of the choir of St. Alban's Abbey Church. f At this same period naiTOW cruciform openings were also in use for this purpose, as in the conventual buildings at Ely, (Appendix, Plate 7,) and Waltham Abbey Church (Section I. Decorated, Plate 3). Subsequently, and during the Perpendicular Gothick era, small circles, squares, or triangles, were more generally adopted ; and these for the most part were enriched with various cusping and traceiy (Section I. Decorated, Plate 36, and Perpen- dicular, Plates 13 and 22). C-x fxt WiNTRRTON CHUBCH, NORFOLK. St. .\lb.\n's Abbry Church. * Even during the Decorated period we occasionally meet with towers in which the only ascent to the belfry is by means of ladders ; such is the tower of Weekley Church, Northamptonshire, (Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 84.) In Perpendicular Churches the turret is of invariable occurrence. t The Newel in this stair-turret is encircled by a spiral molding, admirably adapted to the grasp of the hand. 40 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SPIRE LIGHTS In their general features did not differ materially from other windows in the same Edifice, except that in consequence of the peculiarity of their position, thev were somewhat naiTow^ in proportion to their height ; and also, being generally set at right angles to the gi'ound line, they rose like dormer windows from the sides of the spu-e, and were surmounted by acutely pointed canopies, which most frequently terminated in beautifully designed Crosses. In some early spires, however, the lights were merely quatrefoiled openings hdng in the same plane with the spire, as at Fleet Church, Lincolnshire,* and Humberstone Church, Leicestershire. Canopied spire lights occur singly, as at Newington Church, Oxfordshire ; or in two rows, as at Leckhampton Church, Gloucestershire, and Duddington Chm'ch, Northants, which is an early specimen of such an ari-angement ; while in other spires, tlii-ee and even four rows of lights have been introduced, as in the Churches of Warmington, Northants,t and Ew^erby and Grantham, Lincolnshire. The hghts of the lowermost tier were of course invariably placed upon the cardinal sides of the spire, the upper rows sometimes alternated, but very fi-equently continued on the cardinal sides. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRACERY IN WINDOWS. From a review of the chief varieties of Gothick windows, we proceed to examine into the principles of their geometrical formation. It is impossible for any person to have observed with the smallest degree of attention any number of Decorated windows, without becoming aware of the constantly recurring combination of the equilateral triangle. With very few exceptions, the window-arches of the Decorated Gothick period are actually founded upon that figure, or upon a veiy close approximation to it. The greater number of the heads of Early English Gothick lancets are similarly formed, as is shown at Section I. Early EngUsh, Plates 1 and 7. In Plate 1, from Great Wenham Church, where the lights of the triplet are trefoiled, the system of equilateral triangles has been, nevertheless, kept in view, as is shown in Diagi-am (B.), wiiere the centres for the curves are at the several points of the triangle. * See Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. .Ol. t See Parish Churches, Vol. I. pp. 65 and 17. Also for other specimens of spire-lights, see pp. 11, 13, 31, 51, 55, 57, 59, 61, 69, and 77, &c. of the same volume. See also, Northamptonshire Churches. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRACERY IN WINDOWS. 41 SOUTHPLEET CHURCH. KENT. A minute examination of numerous specimens of tracery, collected fi-om all parts of England, has led us to form the conclusion that this same principle of the equilateral triangle constitutes in them all the basis of their formation : in very many cases its truth is undeniable, and it will not invalidate this (assumed) constructive law that in some others, examples occur which do not in mathematical strictness comply with its requirements : for it is both easy and just to imagine that occasionally the design may have been duly prepared fi'om the fixed rule of the equilateral triangle, and yet in executing the work, may have been slightly altered or modified, to suit some pai'ticular circumstance or taste, or even as a mere practical experi- ment. Thus, for instance, the annexed illustration of a window from Southfleet Church, Kent, will be seen to have been both designed and executed upon strictly equilateral principles ; the window-arch is equilateral, so also are the heads of the two lights, above which is placed a quatrefoiled circle. In Shorne Church, at the east end of the north Chapel, occurs another window of precisely similar design, but in the execution of which we may perceive that the architect has allowed himself to deviate slightly from the pre- cision which characterises the window at Southfleet : still he can scarcely on this account be regarded as working in absolute variance from the principles which determine the formation of this style of window. Such a deviation is but an instance of the legitimate modification of a general rule ; it does not in the slightest degree tend to frn-nish an argument calculated to disprove its existence. So in Classick Architecture, to the disci'eet architect is left the privilege of slightly varying from the exactly-defined relative proportions of the column and its entablature, withovit his being thereby rendered obnoxious to the charge of impugning the ])roportional laws which hav^e been estabUshed. In the window from Northfleet Church (to resume the illus- tration of two-light windows), it is distinctly evident that the archi- tect had in view the same principle which produced the Southfleet window, though he chose to depart from it in practice so widely, by unduly increasing the circle in the window-head. These examples will serve to show that, in endeavouring to ascertain the correct principles of formation in different varieties of windows, a satisfactory result cannot be obtained by experimentalising upon any one par- ticular specimen : on the contraiy, the only course calculated to lead to a really accurate conclusion is first, to classify Gothick windows in general, and then to search out from N Shorne Church, Kent. NuBTlIFLEET CHURCH, KeNT. St. Nicholas Church. Colchester. 42 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. a variety of specimens of each class (as, for example, from a variety of two-light windows haAang a circle in the window-head,) the existence of some particular principle by which their formation may have been regulated. For ourselves, having carefully proceeded wnth such an investigation from one class of windows to another, we have been led to adopt the opinion that the equilateral triangle is tlie basis of alt Decorated Gothick tracery ;* and now we desire to justify, and if possible establish the accuracy of that opinion, by adverting to a diversity of examples in every class, into which that important member can be divided, during the Decorated Gothick period. In some windows it is difficult, or rather scarcely possible, to discover the existence of the equilateral principle of formation, except by actual admeasurement ; in others, a comparatively slight examination will I'ender that principle clearly apparent ; and again in other examples, it is at once ob^^ous to all beholders. Commencing with windows of this last character, we will adduce a specimen from the Church of St. Nicholas, at Colchester, wliich may be fairly regarded as a type of a class : here the principle of formation is distinctly evident ; we easily perceive that the equilateral triangle ABC subdivided into four similar figures, will give all the centres for the tracery ; B, C, being severally the centres for the window-arch, and e, e, e, A. the centres for the arches of the tracery. In Plate 2 of Section 1, Decorated, is a similar example from Northfleet Church ; and in Plate 8 of the same subdivision, is figTired another elegant variety of this style of window, from Capel St. Mary, Suffolk. Hingham Church, Norfolk, affords an example of a three-light window of like character, (Appendix, Plate 4,) and in Trinity Church, Hull, is one of a similar design with six lights. t The circular window in Leek Church, Staffordshire, is also a remarkable specimen :} as are likewise those in the Bishop's Palace, Southwark,§ and Chichester Cathedral. || The east window of the Church of St. John, at Staunton, Oxon,^ again, is a curious example, and at the same time a most valuable witness in favour of this principle of the construction of tracery : * Tlic term Tracery must, to a certain degree, be restricted to the windows of the Decorated Gothick period : inasmuch as in those of the succeeding period, the window heads for the most part degenerated into a species of pierced panel-work. t See Sharpe's Decorated Windows. X See Bloxam's Gothick Architecture, Ed. 8, p. 220. § See Brittou's Antiquities, Vol. V. II See Britton's Antiquities, \o\. \ . ^ See Architectural Antiquities in the neighbourhood of Oxford, p. 225. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRACERY IN WINDOWS. 43 for here, what in other cases must have been the formation Unes, are worked into the design, and the ti-acery consequently consists of intersecting lozenges which, if subdi^dded, would naturally produce a series of equilateral triangles. The example from Harbledown Church, Kent, could hardly be the result of any other than of a system of triangulation. We pass on to the second class of windows, in the tracery of which this principle of formation, though existing, is not so manifest • ■ III/ / as in the preceding examples. Of these there are two chief varieties : ,/f/,y first, those with intersecting tracery, as in the two-light windows ^J|(/C' at Stoke Albany (Section 1, Early English, Plate 17), and Little ^^a Wenham, Suffolk (Section I. Early EngHsh, Plate 5); in three-light ii,.kbledown chubch, kent. windows, at Meopham, and Heme, both in Kent (Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 10, and Decorated, Plate 20) ; and in windows of five lights at Trumpington, Cambridgeshire (Section I. Decorated, Plate 29). In all these windows, whether of two or more lights, it will easily be seen that the outer arch being equilateral, all the subdivisions of the window-head, produced by traceiy-bars following the curves of the outer arch, must of necessity be equilateral also. Many endows of this style have no further attempt at tracery than that which is formed by this intersection of tracery-bars continuous with the mullions : and even where further enrichment is added, it is always of a secondary character, and leaves the original formation of the more important members of the window-head distinctly visible. Such enrichment usually consists of circles, or other geo- metrical figures, which must of necessity be tangent to the four intersecting sides of the compartment within which they are inserted ; or, sometimes it extends no further than to the mere foihng the several compartments. With these intersecting windows may be classified all two-light windows, in which tracery-bars diverge from the head of the mullion, and describe curves similar to those of the window -arch ; in fact, these tracery-bars, if produced, would intersect the sweeps of the arch, within which they are contained.* (See Section 1, Decorated, Plate 3.) The second subdivision of this second class of windows comprises by far the greater SOUTHFLEET CHURCH, KENT. * No two-light window can be said to have iiifersecfiiii/ tracery, except uiion the principle here laid down. It is upon this principle, therefore, that the tracery in the windows of the Churches at Stoke Albany and Little Wenham, is said to intersect. 44 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. part of that manifold variety of designs which is exemphtied in the window-heads of the Decorated Gothick period. In windows of net-tracery we detect, more readily perhaps than in any other \-ariety of flowing tracery, the working of the equilateral principle. It is time, indeed, that in examples of this class the angularity of the figure which governs the formation is, in execution, altogether suppressed ; not only is eveiy line a curve, but also every cun-e is made to undulate : nevertheless, upon examination, the practical influence of this figure is speedily recognized, and in forming a diagram, it will almost involuntarily be reproduced. Thus in two-light windows of net-tracery, as at St. Margaret's, Herts, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 8,) three equal circles tangent to each other, the centres of which must of necessity be the three angles of an equilateral triangle, determine the tracery of the window ; and the undulations of the main cm'ves of the tracery all result fi'om the apposition of other similar circles. In constructing a three, four, five, or six light window of this class, we have only to set out a proportionate number of triangles, in order to find the centres for all the requisite curves. An admirable modification of this tracery, so easy to set out, and of such gi'eat beauty, is exemplified in the door of Holbeach Church, Lincolnshire (see Section I. Decorated, Plate 10) : here the apparent capriciousness of the design is brought wdthin the simplest rule, as showm in the accompanying diagi'am. One series of equilateral triangles determines the centres of the larger circles, wliile a second series of similar and equal triangles gives the smaller and inner circles. In the window figured in Plate 5, of Section I. Decorated, fi-om Northfleet Chm'ch, this principle of formation is shown to determine the construction of a totally different design : the same is the case as regards the subsequent specimens, in Plates 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, and 26, all differing more or less one from another. Nor will this princii)le be found applicable onlj- to tracery of windows. The beautiful mosaick pavement in the Chapel of Edward the Confessor, Westminster Abbey, is a most remark- able example, of the not always observed but ever active influence of the equilateral triangle in all the purer designs of the Middle Ages, and also of the earnest desire to assign to that figure a distinct and prominent position. The same remark is equally applicable to the exquisite diaper in the gi-eaf Flemish Brasses at St. Alban's, Lynn, and Newark. 1 ,vi n ,, ,, u,-,Mi>M,,. A,n.i^ The peculiar geometrical properties of the equi- lateml triangle, — its easy subdivision into similar triangles, — the part it takes in the forma- I ^y '^. -^v^^- "^ ■"4sr _^^ i- ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRACERY IN WINDOWS. 45 ^T. Alban's AintEY Church. tion of the hexagon (the most compact of all figures, and therefore the best adapted to form the basis of tracery) — these points are more than sufficient to fiirnish a satis- factory reason for our finding this triangle the governing principle in the formation of all that is most beautiful in the most beautiful style of Archi- tecture. With its geometrical value also, we may not fail to associate the remarkable symbolism of the equilateral triangle : a qualification of no slight importance in the sight of those who employed it so eftectively ; as we needs must infer fi-om their evident anxiety visibly to impress its form upon their works, as well as to employ it as a governing principle in the formation of them. The very elegant tracery in the spandrel fi'om Bottisham Church (Section II. Woodwork, Plate 14) illustrates in a striking manner the desire both to use and to show the equilateral triangle : the construction of the design is evidently a combination of such triangles, and in the form and arrangement of the decorations we perceive throughout the prevalence of a similar figure ; even the hexagon is subdivided into trefoils. So also in window tracery, the same studious display of triangularity is constantly apparent : the window in Northfleet Church, represented in Section I. Decorated, Plate 2, comprises thi-ee trefoiled lights, surmounted by as many triangles, each of which is doubly trefoiled, while single trefoils occupy the intervening spaces. This remarkable triplicity is, indeed, in a greater or a lesser degree inherent in all pure Gothick work. In Plate 25 of the Early English portion of Section I. this tripUcity is even unusually apparent ; for in the Cross engraved on a coped coffin stone at Barnwell, Northamptonshire, the entire design consists of a series of trefoiled leaves. But let us return to the more direct consideration of the subject, from which we have permitted ourselves thus widely to digi'ess. In the four-light window of Sleaford Church (Section I. Decorated, Plate 26) we are led, without any gi'eat difficulty, to detect the influence of the equilateral principle. Here the main bars of the tracery display, somewhat modified, the outline of a window of net-tracery of two lights only : and though it is not actually struck fi-om the angles of an equilateral triangle but has the central figure slightly elongated, in order to impart a greater degi-ee of elegance to the second order of tracery with which it is filled ; still it cannot be doubted that in this, as well as in all similar specimens, that same principle of formation was carefully kept in view. In the 46 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. other window fi-om the same Church, which is figured in Section I. Decorated, Plate 18, the deviation fi-om the outline of net-tracerj^ is can-ied to far greater extent : but even here it would he difficult to maintain that the constructive principle of net-tracery had not, in the first instance, been used as the ground-work of the design. And once more, the four-light window from Holbeach Church (Section I. Decorated, Plate 7) is another instance of a somewhat similar departure fi-om a strict rule with a v\ew to suit the cu'cumstances of a special case, or to gratify' peculiar ideas of the beauty of a traceried window. In the woodwork of the porch of Bradwell Church, Essex, (Section II. Woodwork, Plate 13) are instances of two jierfectly different designs of tracery, though both formed upon the same basis. In the same plate is another specimen, in which an attempt has been made to produce net-tracery fi'om the intersection of squares instead of equilateral triangles ; but the effect thus produced is singularly distorted and unsatisfactory, and would appear still more so, were the design continued over a larger space. How different is the result where the triangle is the principle of formation : then all is consistent, harmonious, and elegant. Finally, with reference to those windows, in which the equilateral principle, though certainly existing, cannot be discovered without a more searching examination ; the circular window in Waltham Abbey Church is a ti-uly wonderful specimen. By referring to the diagram in Section I. Decorated, Plate 4, it will be seen that the intersection of a series of equilateral triangles will give the centres of every, even the minutest, curve in the entire figm'e.* It cannot be that such a circumstance is merely fortuitous : rather it argues the window to have been the work of a profound practical geometrician, who produced his design, compass in hand. A similar instance occurs in the crowning ornament over the doorway into the cloister of the Abbey Church of St. Alban's (see Section I. Perpendicular, Plates 1 and 2,) the curves for every portion of the design may be proved to have been described from centres determined by the angles of equi- lateral triangles (see Plate 2). In these and like examples, indeed, a careful investigation is necessaiy in order to discover the principle of formation, to reproduce, as it were, the original design. But then that principle /* thus to be detected, and, in like manner, a similarly careful investigation will not fail to show that, throughout the purest period of Got hick art, the equilateral triangle was the gi-eat pi'inciple of general design and * It does not appear necessary to increase the space occupied by this article upon windows by a further reference to any of the other plates ; still less because in nearly all the specimens of windows the centres of the tracery have been laid down, and the existence of the equilateral principle, in a greater or a lesser degree, made apparent. ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRACERY IN WINDOWS. 47 formation, and also was, in very many cases, made prominently apparent in the work itself when executed. Hence, its equilateral triangularity may be pronounced an essential charactei-istick of Gotliick Architecture. In the outline of the canopied windows, doorways, and niches of a Decorated Gothick Structure, and in the prominent position assigned to its buttresses and pinnacles, we may recognise this characteristick no less than in the form of its traceries and diapers,* its pavements and carved ornaments. It is true that some examples of windowsf may be adduced which it would be difficult, if even possible, to class in common with any of the varieties which we have now ex- amined: but, in an age in which the love of novelty in architectm-e was ardent and almost universal, when eveiy endeavour was constantly directed to the improving what already was of surpassing beauty ; in an age in which there must have been gradations of talent scarcely less multifarious than the diversities in taste — in such an age the existence of some anomalies cannot be reckoned in any degree extraordinary, or rather it would indeed be most extraordinary had no such anomalies been found. As we before observed, therefore, in our search after a governing principle of Gothick formation, we must be guided, not by individual examples, but by the general practice.! * A very beautiful diaper on this principle occurs in Canterbury Cathedral. See Willis's account. t The statements here made with special reference to windows, extend with equal justice to the other members of a Gothick Edifice. X The lodge in Rushton Park, Northants, exemplifies the practical application of the equilateral triangle in a manner too remarkable to be here altogether unnoticed. The plan is an equilateral triangle. The roof on all three sides is divided into three equilateral gables ; and in the windows and from them to every minutest detail, the same principle has been carefully kept in view. We subjoin a cut of one of the windows of this curious building, a full account of which will be found in the "Builder," Vol. III. Window in Rushton Lodge. 48 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. MOLDINGS.* N treating of the Moldings of Medieval Architecture, we propose to notice separately the more important of those members with which they are usually associated ; for we hope to be better enabled by this than by any other system of aiTangement, to produce a practical analysis of the science of Gothick Moldings, without at the same time being in any degi-ee induced to depart from that conciseness and brevity which the general plan of this work renders imperatively necessary. It appears requisite, however, first to advert to the gi'cat and remarkable diiference which is apparent between Gothick Moldings and the corresponding members of Classick Architecture ; a difference extending alike to their outline, grouping, and position. Thus, the entire collection of moldings in ancient examples comprises but a few different forms ; and these definite in their character, and introduced into certain positions, and in accordance with established rules : whereas, in Structures of the Middle Ages, variety of outline is no less essentially characteristick of the moldings themselves, than the frequency of their occurrence is characteristick of the Gothick style. Gothick moldings, indeed, appear in almost every conceivable position : fi'om the bases of piers and the j^iers themselves to the I'ibs of the fretted vaults which they sustain, scarcely a member occurs which is incapable of receiving consistent decoration by this most elegant method. And it may be added that in this multiplicity of molding-work, the almost only combinations which are not commonly found are such as would have appeared to assimilate to, or to have been derived from, classick authority. Such being the practice of the Masters of Gothick Art, we are disposed rather to assign to themselves the invention and development of their own admirable system of moldings, than to seek its origin from another source. It is no argument whatever in support of the opinion that Gothick Moldings are derived fi'om Classick Architecture, that in buildings of the Anglo-Norman style a rude resemblance to certain ancient moldings may be traced, especially in bases : for the Anglo-Norman being a form of Romanesque, is altogether distinct fi-om Gothick Architecture. Neither does the same supposition acquire much weight from the fact of a casual similitude of outline in a * The authors feel much pleasure iu avaiUng themselves of this opportuuity to express thus publicly their high opinion of the Treatise upon Moldings, lately published by Mr. Paley, which possesses the rare combination of being equally valuable to the professional architect and the amateur student of architecture. MOLDINGS. 49 No. 2. few instances, between Roman and Gothick Moldings ; or from a close approximation to the attic base, occasionally to be obseiTed in some few Early Gothick examples. This resemblance to a regular classick member only existed dm'ing a tran- sitional, and necessarily an imperfect, period : mth the final abandonment of the circular arch, a sudden change appears to have taken place in the moldings of bases, as well as of other members ; and, in place of a modification of the attic base, a widely different composition was introduced. In the annexed figures No. 1 is the attic base, No. 2 its Early English imitation, and No. 3 a base which is found to have immediately succeeded to the latter, if, indeed, it was not in use at the same time. Leaving to others a further investigation of their origin, we now proceed to the more direct consideration of mediaeval moldings.* These members most fi-equently occur in the jambs to windows and doorways, in pier-arches, in capitals and bases, in cornices, vaulting ribs, strings, basements, and in some other positions. And first of Jamb Molds. These, in the earliest examples of Norman doorways, are for the most part simply squared back from the walls without the slightest attempt to eni'ich the surfaces with moldings, properly so called, as at Fritwell Church, Oxfordshire. Recessed jambs were, however, introduced at a very early period of the style ; and this arrangement continued in favour, both in windows and doorways, until the most perfect period of Gothick art.f In Norman jamb molds when thus recessed, it was the prevalent habit to place detached shafts in each nook or interior angle, and in this case the several recessed orders, and sometimes the jamb shafts also, were often enriched with the peculiar though diversified surface-carving of the style ; the S. doorway of St. Mary's Church, Easton, Hants, furnishes a good example of shafted jambs ; and other specimens are figured in Section I. Norman, Plates 1, 4, 6. These jamb shafts occur in a great variety of forms ; most fi-equently, indeed, they are circular, yet occasionally g^, maey's, easton. their form is octagonal, or twisted, as at Section I. Norman, Plate 4, or slightly pointed ; this last-named variety is restricted to late specimens, as in the Chancel arch at Codford St. Maiy's ; (Section I. Semi-Norman, Plate 5,) and again, at Weald in Essex, in the S. * The moldings of the Anglo-Norman stjle being in so many Edifices associated with their Gothick successors, it has been considered expedient here to give a place for the consideration of these latest developments of Romanesque work, in connection with Gothick moldings. ■f It will be borne in mind that the jambs of Norman windows differ but very slightly, if at all, from those of the doorways : in fact, in most cases they are precisely identical, except in use and position. 50 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. doorway, another curious form of jamb shaft is exemplified. In some arches the customary shafts were either entirely dispensed with, or restricted to the sub-arch only, while the different faces of the recessed orders in the jambs were richly ornamented, as at IfRey Church, Oxon, and Malmsbury Abbey Church. Before proceeding any further, we must remark that in jamb and arch molds, three different planes occur in which the moldings lie : these have been distinguished by Mr. Paley as the Wa/l Plane, that is any plane (A A) parallel with the main wall ; \ the Soffit Plane * or any plane (B B) at right angles with the wall plane ; and K the C/iai//fer Plane, or such a plane (C) as is generally, but by no means » invariably, placed at an angle of 45° with the two planes before mentioned. In the Anglo-Norman style the jamb molds were almost always worked in the wall and soffit planes ; and this continued to be the general arrangement throughout the Early English Gothick period, although we occasionally (as in Section I. Early " English, Plate 3) find the jamb molded on the chamfer plane. During the earlier portion of the Decorated Gothick period, the wall and soffit planes still continued to be most generally used, but then in tolerably fi'equent connection with the chamfer plane ; which at this time was in most cases worked exactly at an angle of 45° with the wall and soffit planes. Perpendicular moldings are generally characterised by their lying in the chamfer plane, which was no longer usually true to the angle of 45° : and as the style advanced towards the era of decided architectural debasement, the moldings shared in the prevailing desire to produce a meretricious effect, without any reference to correctness of composition : accordingly we find that in many late examples, as in the west doorway of Lavenham Church, Suffolk, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 7,) the moldings, besides the debasement of their contour and grouping, appear hardly to lie in either of the proper molding planes. But to return to the jamb molds : in the Early English Gothick period, the door-jambs continued most frequently to be worked in a series of rectangularly recessed orders, with detached shafts of cylindi'ical form and comparatively slender proportions placed in every nook. An elegant deviation from the common and simple form of this arrangement occurs in the S. doorway of St. Martin's Church at Leicester, (Section I. Early English, Plate 23,) where a secondary series of shafts is introduced with excellent effect. In this period, also, as in the pi'eceding style, some door-jambs occun-ed in which shafts took no part in the design ; or at least in which (also as before) they only appear as supporters of the sub-arch of the compound archway : in these examples, however, the angles of the several orders which the Norman * This term is scarcely correct, when applied to jamb molds : still, it has been here retained in consequence of its general accuracy, and to avoid the introduction of new terms. MOLDINGS. 51 architects left untouched, theii- successors invariably chamfered off ; and the chamfers thus produced were frequently hollowed out and tilled with the beautiful tooth ornament, or they were carried up plain to the impost of the arch, and there terminated in some elegant device (see Section I. Early EngUsh, Plate 21). In the Decorated Gothick period the de- tached shafts were entirely abandoned, in door-jambs as well as other positions ; in doorways, however, shafts were still retained, but so far altered in their character as to be almost invariably attached to the mass of the Structure. It may here be remarked as a general rule that when shafts, engaged or othenvise, were used, the moldings they earned were placed on the rectangular planes ; but if the shafts were dispensed with and the jambs were continuous wath the arch, then the moldings were worked on tlie chamfer plane, as in the priest's doorway. Fen Ditton Church, Cambridgeshire. This arrangement is well illus- trated in the N. doorway of Swatton Church, Lincolnshire, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 23,) where part of the jamb mold is on the chamfer plane, and part on the rectangular planes ; the former is continuous with the arch mold, the latter has a shaft with cap and base, and carries a perfectly distinct series of arch moldings. Perpendicular jamb molds being, perhaps, invariably worked on the chamfer plane, were therefore, much more often Fen Ditton. Ca^ebridgeshire. * continuous with the arch mold than produced by shafts. The arrangement of the window-jambs during the successive periods was generally in close accordance with that of the dooi-ways. In the richer examples small shafts were intro- duced, (after the fashion of the Norman architects) which, rising up to the springing of the window, can-ied one or several orders of the arch moldings. At all times these shafts were used much more frequently in the interior of the window than on the outside ; a window in the south transept of Wissendine Church, Rutland, however, has a magnificent arrangement of triple jamb shafts externally, resting on a steep and weathered sill. The south aisle of S. Martin's Church, Leicester, has some excellent examples of the use of this member internally. Other instances of jamb shafts in windows will be found in Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 13, where they are placed outside ; and in Plates 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20, and Section I. Decorated, Plate 29, in all of which they occur on the inside. It must, however, be borne in mind that though most exquisite adornments, moldings are not nevertheless essential accessories : many windows with tracery of the richest descrip- tion have their mullions and jambs composed of simple chamfers ; see the windows in North- fleet, Section I. Decorated, Plates 2 and 5, and also those given in Plates 13 and 15. 52 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Arch Moldings, even when not continuous, partook of the same general aiTangement as those in the jambs, with greater richness of detail: thus, when shafts were employed, they can-ied groups of moldings more elaborate than those of the jambs, though still falling upon the same planes ; as in the west doorway of North Mimms Chm-ch, Herts. (Section I. Decorated, Plate 25.) During the continuance of the Norman, Early English, and Decorated periods, it was the invariable practice, in the case of arches dividing the nave fi-om the aisles, or the Chancel from its adjoining chapels, to keep them entirely distinct from the piers on which they were carried : these latter were frequently simply circular, or octagonal, while the arches were most elaborately molded or emiched, as in New Shoreham Church. (Section I. Semi- Norman, Plate 3.) Even when both members were equally ornamented, as in the magnificent examples in S. Patrick's, Patrington, their separate characters were nevertheless preserved; while in Perpendicular, on the contraiy, we may perceive a much closer connexion to exist between them. The piers and arches given in Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 14, show the an'angement generally adopted at this period ; shafts placed at the cardinal points of the pier supported part of the arch moldings, the remainder being continuous and common to both members. Capitals were either molded or carved with foliage, animals, &c. ; they always, however, consisted of three distinct parts, which require to be most strictly ^ kept in view, if we would preserve the peculiar character of this important feature. Tliese three divisions of the capital may be described as the head mold A, the bell B, and the neck mold C. ----- In Norman capitals the head mold was, almost without exception, square on plan, and consisted of a few simply arranged moldings ; in the richer examples this member was adorned wath some of the innumerable sculptures common at that period: (see Section I. Norman, Plate 5.) In this same plate are represented different examples of ornamented bells,* some of them very quaint. The pecuUar form of capital which occurs in Waltham Abbey Church, has been distinguished by the name of cushion capital; it is usually a mark of early work. At other times, and especially in late work, the bell was carved with the most elaborate, and sometimes most beautiful, sculpture ; geometrical and interlaced patterns, foliage, flowers, rude representations of animals and human figures, and even entire legends, occupied the whole space. Such endless variety in design would excite our sm-prise, were we not to reflect that it was (and indeed /*) in the spirit of Got hick * This term, borrowed from classick Architecture, is in many cases scarcely appropriate ; yet it is so coavenient, and its meaning withal is so well understood, that it has been considered ad\isable to retain it, rather than add further complexity to the architectural nomenclature by the introduction of a new term. HV'M»«W>,» MOLDINGS. 53 architecture to embody in its sculptui'e any matter of faith or legend, which were thus trans- mitted fi'om one generation to another ; even passing events, we may imagine to have been, in the olden times, at once, and almost imperishably noted down with the chisel. Could we but read them, how much of historical lore might not these old Norman sculptures reveal to us. The neck mold, the lowest portion of the capital, never assumed an important position ; and during the Norman period generally consisted of a bead, or a square with the angles taken off. In the succeeding styles these three parts of the capital, though always existing, were less prominently marked ; and indeed it has been a very common practice in the revived Gothick moldings to lose sight of the distinct existence of the head mold and bell, which have accordingly merged into one, and the character of the capital been thereby entirely destroyed. In the accompanying cuts, A is a capital fi-om St. Alban's Abbey ■ — -n, ~:?vi Church, and B shows how the separate parts of the head mold and the ^ J^ ^-^A.' bell, if lost sight of by the undue projection of the latter, become ^^K^ ^ converted into one. Now a close examination of ancient examples /—' ^ will establish, as a general rule,* that the head mold was the most ^ , ^N projecting member ; then came the bell, falling back a little fi'om it ; and L L . — _. lastly the neck mold, which receded still further fi-om the face of the "^^"'^ ^^'^ bell. In other words, we might regard a Gothick capital as consisting of thi'ee circular pieces of stone : the lower one a thin slab, out of which the neck mold would be produced ; the second, a thick block projecting considerably over the first, would form the bell ; and lastly, another slab at top, somewhat thicker than the first, and projecting the most of the three, out of which would be cut the head mold. The heaviness obseivable in some modern capitals is principally owing to the neglect of this simple arrangement. The bell, when not foliated, generally consisted of a group of moldings in the upper part, which were united to the neck mold by a beautifully undercut and gi-aceftiUy curved outline ; or occasionally, and the effect is extremely beautiful, the bell was double, consisting of two different groups, the one receding fi-om the other, as in Fig. 3, Section I. Early English, Plate 24 ; and Fig. 2, Decorated, Plate 35. The neck mold of the Gothick period did not acquire more importance than it had during the Norman ; it still consisted of a bead or some other simple molding. Finally, we would remark that while a general squareness of outline marked the Norman capitals, the Early English and Decorated were distinguished by being circular, and the Perpendicular by being octagonal. * Examples are occasionally found in old work in whicli this principle has not been followed, but their rare occurrence iu no way affects the general rule. 54 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Bases consist of two distinct parts, the plinth and the base moldings : the former member was most apparent dming the Norman and Early EngHsh periods ; in the sub- sequent styles, though always to be found, it was, nevertheless, at times hardly discernible. The Norman plinth, in conformity with the head mold of the capital, was almost invariably square, and usually consisted of a plain unmolded mass of stone, on which rested the base moldings : these latter took the shape of the pier, and the blank spaces which result from placing a circle or octagon upon a square, were enriched with foliage, animals, or other ornaments. (See Section I. Semi-Norman, Plate 3.) Frequently the phnth was double, in which case the lower member was generally chamfered, as at Orpington (Section I. Semi- Norman, Plate 1); or molded, as in the triplet fi-om the Chapel of St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Section I. Early English, Plate 1.5). In Early English, double and even triple plinths are commonly met with, as at Clymping, (Section I. Early English, Plate 5,) and from the richness of the moldings with which they are ornamented, frequently assume considerable importance : see a base fi-om Westminster Abbey Church, Section I. Early English, Plate 24, Fig. 12. During the Decorated period, the plinth lost much of its prominence, in fact the entire base was generally a less striking feature than it was in the preceding style : instances, however, may be found of triple plinths, as in Hingham Church, Norfolk (Section I. Decorated, Plate 33, Figure 10) ; and Tunstead Church, in the same county, furnishes an example of a quadruple arrangement of this member. The Perpendicular plinth grew to a most exaggerated height, was constantly double or triple, and from the number and lichness of its parts, requires a close examination to separate it fi'om the base moldings. The tower piers to St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, have tine specimens of this style. Sometimes, as in the sedilia at Cob ham, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 9,) the base consisted solely of a plinth, the base moldings being entirely omitted. In plain Churches of the Early English, and still more so of the Decorated period, a chamfered plinth of a few inches projection was the most usual termination to the nave piers. Shortly after the introduction of the Early English, the plinth began to adapt itself to the form of the pier which it supported : the change, however, was gradual ; the square became an octagon, as in Westminster Abbey Church, where delicately carved knobs of foUage fill up the spaces which occur between the octagonal plinth and the circular base molds ; finally, the plinth assumed the form of the base moldings and bent in and out with the outline of the pier. It is veiy singular that after a lapse of time the plinth should once more have become octagonal, though the base moldings still retained the circular form ; and in Perpendicular it was fi-equently the case that both plinth and base molds were wrought in octagonal faces, leaAang only the upper molding of the latter to follow the MOLDINGS. 55 shape of the shaft. In Churches of PerpencUcular date it was customary for the base moldings to encircle the shafts only, while the plinths, on the contraiy, were earned round the whole pier, as in Lindfield and Lavenham Churches, Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 14. Base moldings admit but of Uttle variety of form or arrangement. A very common Norman base molding consisted of a hollow and quarter-round, and it is ^\ not a Uttle singular that the I'esemblance to the attic base did not occur till the style was considerably advanced ; in fact it was during the Early English period % that this resemblance became complete. Base moldings were also extensively used round the walls, buttresses, and towers of Churches. Those of the Early English period were generally very plain and unimportant. The beautiful little Church of Skelton, near York, is enriched inside with moldings of the most elaborate description, though externally the walls and buttresses have merely a chamfered table* The tower of Fen Ditton Church, Cambridgeshire (Appendix, Fig. 1, Plate 6) has a plain but effective arrangement of moldings. In many of the Decorated and Perpendicular towers, the base moldings became highly ornamental and essential portions of the design : those in Hingham Church are peculiarly magnificent, and are panelled with a gi'eat variety of beautiful designs.! The tower of Worstead Church is an equally rich example of a somewhat later period ; the combination of the panelled flint work and the sunk quatrefoils has a very good appearance. The neighbouring Chui'ch of Tunstead of the same date, has also some excellent and carefully wrought moldings. (Section I. Decorated, Plate 30.) Generally in Decorated work the gi'ouping of the moldings is so judicious that even when left unenriched by tracery, they still present a pleasing, and in some instances, a grand and imposing effect. Perpendicular basement moldings were much more frequently panelled. In Norfolk and Suffolk, flint panelling is a very common enrichment, and, indeed, a volume might be devoted to the illustration of the elegant and ever vaiying devices which abound in these counties. St. Mary's, Stratford, may be cited as a most perfect specimen of this style of workmanship. In this instance an inscription appears on the basement moldings, by which we learn that that part of the Church (the north aisle) was erected in 1430; see Section I. Perpendicular, Plates 11, 19, and 20. In producing these flint enrichments the " modus operandi" consisted in tracing the outline of the design on the stone, then sinking it a few inches, and afterwards filling up the sunk pai-ts with small flints ; or where the cavities were very minute, a kind of black pigment was used. * Table appears to Lave been the general term for any horizontal member in Gothick Architecture ; such as corbel table, crest table, skew table, water table, &c. see Willis's Nomenclature. t This interesting and pure specimen of a Decorated Church was erected between the years 1316 and 1359. It is illustrated by two views and a plan in Vol. I. of the Parish Churches. 56 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Stringcourses and Dripstones are so fi-equently identical, the one being carried on and forming the other, as to render it necessary to examine them together. Strings perform no insignificant part in the general design of the Building, " Sometimes rising abruptly in gi'aduated and rectangular heights ; sometimes carried over a doon\'ay or round an arch ; now dying into the wall ; now as it were passing into some interinipting projection and, nothing baffled by it, re-appearing on the other side ; now starting aloof into a window label and playing the most fantastic tricks before it again descends ; a stringcourse at once relieves naked masonry and binds into a whole the seemingly detached portions of a rambling and irregular construction."* The most usual, and perhaps the essential position of the stringcourse is under the windows ; which are thus divided from the moi-e solid parts of the basement. The greater number of Churches, especially those of the Early English and Decorated period, were adorned with this apparently insignificant member ; and in most cases where it was omitted, the walls present an unfinished and naked appearance. A corresponding string was generally carried round the inside of the Church, under the windows and over the doorways, as at Southfleet Church, Kent. Norman strings were usually heavy in their outline, and rarely displayed any particular beauty of arrangement : they were, however, very frequently much emiched with the ornamental sculp- ture of that period, as in Waltham Abbey Church, and St. Peter's, Northampton. Early English strings, on the contrary, were remarkably light and elegant, and displayed a great amount of taste and judicious treatment : freed from the restraint and horizontality of the previous style, they delighted in closely attaching themselves to those members which they were intended to adorn ; accordingly we find them now rose up close under the sill of the window, and then suddenly dropping to accom- modate themselves to the arch of a low doorway, and again rising to run immediately under the adjoining window : at this period the strings were gene- rally carried round an intei-vening obstacle, such as a buttress, rather than dying against it to re-appear on the other side, and such became the most accustomed treatment in the following style. Decorated strings were frequently of gi-eat beauty ; in these and in all other moldings of this period, there is a gracefuhaess of outline and a finish of * Paley's Gothick Moldings, p. 69. GOSGHOVR Cllt'ECH, NORTHANTS. TlCHMAESH tliriKlI, NORTHANTS. MOLDINGS. 57 execution, that we look foi* in vain in any of the other styles. The very interesting Church of Bottisham in Cambridgeshire, may be mentioned as peculiarly rich in moldings of the most exquisite workmanship. In opposition to the practice, till then prevalent, the drip- stones were most usually quite distinct from the stringcourse, and terminated in heads, flowers, animals, or some quaint devices. Occasionally, however, the hoodmolds were con- tinued on from one window to the other, of which arrangement the Chancel of Chartham Church, Kent, offers a most pleasing example. (Section I. Decorated, Plate 22.) In the beautiful Decorated Chapel of St. Etheldreda in Ely Place, Holborn, the continuation of the hoodmold between each window, rises up into gables emiched with flowing traceiy. Perpendicular strings differed but little from the Decorated, except in their outhne ; which partaking of the general character of the moldings of this period, became more angular and distinctly marked. Their use was less frequent than was previously the case, and often the small village Church was erected entirely without them. Dripstones, how- ever, were generally retained, and in most cases were simply returned at the springing of the arch, instead of finishing with terminal heads and flowers, such as were used by the Decorated Architects. In the i-icher Buildings, initials, shields bearing the Sacred Monogram, squares, pentagons, and octagons, sometimes with small flowers in the centre, and innume- rable other devices were freely introduced. (Sect. I. Perpendicular, Plate 27.) Cornices are not essential features in Gothick Ai'chitecture ; in fact, when used they might more rightly be considered as enlarged stringcourses. They occur principally under parapets, or at the eaves of roofs and spires : of the important part, however, which they perform in the open timber roofs of Norfolk and Suffolk, we shall treat hereafter. In Norman, and some Early English Buildings, the cornice was formed by the projec- tion of the upper part of the wall, which was supported on brackets or corbels, and hence termed the corbel table. This arrangement was susceptible of and frequently received con- siderable enrichment ; at Bicker Church, Lincolnshire, this table assumes the appearance of the heraldick nebule line ; by an easy modification the circles after- wards became trefoiled, and sometimes ornamented with dog tooth in the soffit, as at Romsey. The spire table is deserving of considerable attention, for in a great measure the beauty of the spire depends on its judicious St. M.^rtin's Church, Leicester. ■nji >-Hii Bicker Chuech, Lincolnshire. 58 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE Oadby Church. Lbu estershibe. junction with the tower. Its projection from the wall was in all cases very inconsiderable. In the Early English Structures a series of small trefoiled arches corbelled out from the wall, are commonly met with ; the beautiful spires of St. Mary's, Stamford, and Ketton, Rutland, have ex- amples of a very elegant arrangement ; and a single hollow studded here and there with ball flower or heads, was also introduced with excellent effect. Tlie hollow, more properly termed the casement* which holds a prominent position in most cornices, was generally filled with heads, flowers, or running ornaments : we may notice that the flowers in Decorated cornices usually spread over the re- mainder of the moldings, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 37,) while in the Perpendicular examples they were most frequently confined to the casement. (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 12.) Having now reviewed the arrangement, and the most ordinary positions in which moldings occur, we will examine the subordinate parts of which they are composed. The earliest molding found in Norman work appears to be the circular bowtel, worked out of the edges of a recessed arch. This formation is clearly shown in many instances where the bowtel only commences some few inches above the springing of the arch, as in Sandridge Church, Herts. f A bowtel alternated with a hollow forms the principal arrangement of Norman mold- ings ; their great richness was rather the result of a profusion of sculpture, always wrought on the rectangular planes, than of mul- tiplicity or beauty in the moldings. The chevron and its almost innumerable varieties were conspicuous ornaments in Norman Architecture, and in some instances their formation was so complex as to require no little attention to disentangle the maze of stone-work. This beautiful ornament continued in use long after all others of the same date had been discarded. It was of constant occurrence in Semi-Norman, and may even occasionally be traced in Early English work. Norman stringcourses partook of the heaviness of the moldings of that period. They SANHRIDfiE CnURCH. HkRTS. * Willis's Nomenclature. t It is a peculiar characteri stick of pure Gothick, that all moldings, panelling, or sculpture were always sunk from the face of the work. Such an arrangement is the natural result of a style, a distinguishing type of which was only to introduce ornament as an emhellishment to construction ; thus a capital would naturally be corbelled from the pier, the better to carry the sujicrincumbent weight ; hence its subdivision into headmold, bell, and neckmold ; panelling resulted from a desire to enrich that which would otherwise be a plain surface, and consecpiently was wrought out of the face already existing ; a row of dog tooth generally exemplifies very well how ornaments also were worked out of the block. As the debasement gradually crept in, we find the contrary to have taken place. MOLDINGS. 59 had veiy little variety in form, fi-equently consisting of projecting ledges with one or both sides chamfered off. A few sections of the most oft occur- ring varieties are given in Appendix, Plate 6. The adjoined Semi-Norman example occurs internally in the north chapel of Bapehild Church, Kent, and in the original is coloured blue and yellow. The hollow soon after its introduction became more and more undercut, and in the Early English style was fi-equently earned to such an extravagant excess, as to materially affect the durability of the moldings. During the continuance of the Semi-Norman, a new member made its appearance, the 'pear-sliuped or pointed bowtel. We can easily trace its formation fi-om the circular mold already noticed, by leaving the anis of the ' original square block uncut. From this pointed bowtel most of the subsequent Gothick moldings \\all be found to be derived, for by an easy transition it became a bowtel of one, two, or three fillets ; all of which, with their numerous varieties, performed important parts in the molding system of tlie purest period. The example in the appended cut was common in Early English and Decorated work, and eventually gave rise to the wave molding — that most elegant of Gothick moldings — it having become usual by this time to gently round the fillet into the bowtel.* That this wave mold derived its oriarin from the filleted bowtel is singularly clear ; for at first we meet with instances, as in the doorway of St. Margaret's Chapel, Herts, with only one of the fillets rounded ; and shortly afterwards in the Chancel windows of Fleet Church,+ Lincolnshire, we find both fillets rounded off, though s^ MARa.K.T-^cn.p.L, the molding still preserves its character of a filleted bowtel. As the Decorated period advanced, it lost more and more of its resemblance to its prototype ; the curve which at first gently united the fillet to the bowtel, gi-adually assumed more importance at the expense of the latter ; and it is not a little singular that in its most complete state, and when Decorated had arrived at its highest degree of perfection, the formation of the wave mold appears to have been from the three points of an equilateral triangle. A group of two or more wave molds, with intervening hollows, was a common and most beautiful Deco- rated arrangement. This mold was also of fi-equent occun-ence in Perpendicular, though belonging more especially to the former period. * This fillet gradually became smaller and smaller, until at last it was reduced almost to an arris. t For a drawing of one of these windows, see Appendix, Plate 4, Fig. 37. The Church itself is illustrated in the Parish Churches, Vol. I. page 51, Flbet Chukch LlNlui.,NsUIKti GO ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. The ogee, tlie most generally used perhaps of all moldings, may with equal certainty be traced to the same source as the wave mold. It is in fact a half of the filleted bowtel. The ?>^^ - double ogee, formed by the junction of two ogees, was introduced towards the close of the Decorated, but became a more constant and characteristick feature of the Perpendicular period. A remark- ably early instance of this molding (probably fortuitous) occurs in the central shaft of the double bell gable of Skelton Church, Yorkshire : its formation DOUUI.E ()(iEK, Skelton Chuhch, yorksbire. appears the result of an an-angement of four clustered filleted bowtels. One more molding remains to be noticed, and though last it is perhaps the most characteristick and essentially Gothick of any : we allude to the scroll mold. Here again we may certainly refer to the bowtel for its origin. It is in fact a bowtel, with one fillet partially developed, and, as might be expected, its first occurrence is traced to shortly before the close of the Early English period. Agreeably with their ideas of beauty, the Decorated architects treated it as they had the filleted bowtel : we find its angular outline gently softened, and at last it assumed the appear- ance so peculiar to the 14th century. This mold was more extensively used perhaps than any other, and its varieties became so numerous as almost to dety classification. It entered abundantly into the formation of capitals, bases, hoodmolds, and strings :* it was rarely used in Perpendicular work. Before leaxang this subject, yet one other variety must be mentioned. The sunk chamfer is simple in its constraction, yet generally effective in execution. Its production may have been the result of cutting away the projection ti"om a filleted bowtel, though it is perhaps easier to imagine that it was simply sunk from the plain chamfer with ^\^\ a view of gaining more effect. In the muUions and tracery of windows, it is sc:.K Chamfer. q£ partlcukrly happy introduction. To resume briefly the various pecuUarities in moldings at the different periods. We observe that the Norman hardly got beyond the alternating round and hollow ; that the Early English, extending the example set them by the architects of the Semi-Norman period, liollowed their moldings to an extravagant degree, and that the hollows until then divided individual members of a group, but that in Decorated the hollows only divided the complete * It is occasionally, though very rarely, fouud in vertical groups of moldings, such as door and window janihs. It occurs in Wootton Church, Beds, in the north doorway ; in such instances, however, it should rather be considered as a partially developed filleted bowtel. At other times, and more especially in bases, this mold will be found reversed ; these, however, are exceptions to the general practice, and can hardly be sanctioned by correct taste. DOORWAYS. 61 groups ; * that while Early English moldings, from the irregular section of their hollows, present more the appear- ance of having been drawn " libera manu," Decorated on the contrary were remarkable for geometrical precision ; that in Perpendicular, the hollow was converted into the shallow casement, the character of the moldings suffering in common with all other parts, fi'om the general debasement of Architecture ; and lastly, that the many beautiful moldings, wliich at various times made their appearance, may all be distinctly traced to a common origin, the bowtel ; thereby clearly showing how little was derived from Classick Antiquity in the formation and gradual perfection of these most lovely adornments of Go thick art. DOORWAYS. Norman doorways are generallj'^ remarkable for excessive richness and elaborateness in design. On, perhaps, no other part of their Buildings did the architects of those days bestow such care and attention ; they seem to have considered no detail so minute, but that it was capable of receiving further decoration, which was liberally supplied from apparently an unfailing source.f Their usual an-angement consisted of two or more recessed arches, with a con-esponding number of shafts in the jambs. A common practice was to place a stone Untel from jamb to jamb, thus forming a square-headed door with the spandrel under the arch generally enriched with sculpture. Such is the example from St. Mary Magdalen's Church (Section I. Norman, Plate 4). In other examples the lintel is shghtly arched to gain a little additional height, or perhaps merely to produce an effect of greater lightness, as in Middleton Stoney Church, Oxfordshire, and Essendine, Rutland. This lintel became afterwards enriched by having carved on its soffit three * Paley's Mouldings, p. 34. t The extraordinary power of invention and facility of execution displayed in the ornaments of the Norman architects are perfectly surprising. The entire succeeding periods of Gothick architecture failed to equal them in versatility of design, however superior they may have heen in chasteness and elegance of form. Many Norman designs are of such exceeding intricacy that we must entirely reject the idea of their having been projected on paper or board ; they must be considered as the productions of clever artificers, designed and set out on the stone itself, and possibly considerably modified as the work proceeded. S 62 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. ornaments like pellets, as in Weald Church, Essex. This device may possibly have suggested the idea of a triple arch, such as we find in Nately Church, Hants, (Section I. Norman, Plate 1,) and in Bibery Church, Gloucestershire. Norman doorways occasionally occur without shafts, the arch moldings being continuous down to the gi'ound, as in Iffley Church, Oxfordshire ; a veiy fine example of this kind occurs in Malmsbury Abbey Church, Wilts, where the wide bowtels which run down the jambs terminate in bases.* It was a common practice at this period, to project that part of the wall through which the doorway was pierced, and hence, from the necessity of protecting this projection, the dooi-ways became gabled, as in Merrington Church, Durham, or Sempringham Church, Lincolnshire, the latter of which is surmounted by a Cross (Section I. Norman, Plate 6) ; a magnificent example of the same description occurs in St. Germain's Church, Cornwall. Sometimes the projection of the wall was weathered at top in lieu of being gabled, as at Iffley, and in other examples, the gable no longer an object of necessity, w^as retained as an ornamental accessary. In St. Margaret's, at ClifFe, near Dover, a valuable and interesting Structure of pure Norman character, is a doorway of this description once recessed, with one set of jamb shafts. The gable is formed by an ornamented string, which rising fi"om the springing of the arch, terminates in a kind of trefoil. During the transitional period which occurred between the close of the Norman and the complete establishment of the Early English architecture, we meet with many extra- ordinary arrangements in the designs of doorways, as well as in all other parts of the Edifice. Such arrangements are by no means to be adopted, and are merely interesting in showing with w^hat reluctance the old style was finally abandoned, after having been used in the erection of a greater number of magnificent and costly Buildings than were called into existence in any of the subsequent periods of Gothick Architecture.f In the doorway of Little Snoring Church, Norfolk,! we find a pointed arch enriched with the chevron, between two circular arches, the outer one being stilted ; such a construction would almost indicate that they were fearful of trusting solely to the strength of the newly introduced form of arch. In Northleigh, Church, Oxon, the south doorway is pointed and enclosed wdthin a cii'cular arch.ij Transition doorways, however, were sometimes of elegant design and careful work- manship. The west doorway of Orpington Church, Kent, (Section I. Semi-Norman, Plate 1,) * Engraved in the Antiquarian Itinerary. t Between the Conquest and the first year of Henry III. there were foiuidcd and re-estabUshed 476 abbeys and priories, and 81 alien priories. — Tanner's Notitia Monastica. X Britton's Architectural Antiquities. § Antiquities of Oxfordshire, Part II. ji. 163. DOORWAYS. 63 is an excellent specimen of good proportions, with a delicate trail of dog tooth and a boldly undercut chevron, which produce a beautiful effect. A benatura or holy water stoup, has been rather awkwardly introduced against one of the shafts, as shown in the plate. Highly enriched examjiles of Norman doorways occur in Ketton Church, Rutlandshire, and in the prioiy Church of St. Leonard's, Stamford ; this latter has an almost unique an-angement of double jamb shafts. Both these are flanked on either side by blank arches on a somewhat smaller scale, partaking of the character of arcading, yet belonging essentially to the general design.* Early English doonvays are distinguished by their usually great beauty and purity of detail, yet they are by no means so numerous as those of the preceding style, in part no doubt, owing to the general custom of preserving the older examples. They may be classed under the various heads of shafted, continuous, discontinuous, banded, foliated, and double arched. The lai'ge doorways, when shafted, commonly preserve the deeply recessed Norman character ; bold and effective arch moldings, often enriched with trails of dog tooth or flowers, are earned on the detached shafts, which very frequently were of a different stone from that used in the rest of the doorway. Purbeck marble was most generally employed for the pm'pose, and was in gi-eat requisition during the entire duration of this style. The immense consumption of this costly material in Westminster Abbey Church is truly sui-prising. It probably never was employed without being highly polished ; those, therefore, who have seen the restored purbeck piers in the Temple Church, London, can form an idea of what must formerly have been the effect of this magnificent Abbey Church with its vast masses of dazzling brightness. A fine example of a shafted doorway from the south aisle of St. Martin's Church, Leicester, is given in Section L Early English, Plate 23. In this case a beautiful and effective an-angement is obtained by using a double row of shafts, the inner ones being engaged. The moldings of the arch, however, are of a somewhat poor character ; and though lying in the rectangular planes, the four orders of which they are composed have lost considerably of the rectangularity of outline so characteristick of that epoch, by being in two instances subdivided into secondaiy gi'oups. Dunstable Church, Bedfordshire, retains in its west front a magnificent, though sadly mutilated example, with five detached shafts alternating with as many others that are engaged ; the arch moldings, as may be imagined, are of very great beauty and are enriched, among other ornaments, with a very elegant * The very frequent occurrence in all parts of the country of Norman doorways, evidences the estimation in which this feature, however plain in its design, was generally held by the Gothick architects. It appears to have been the custom to spare these interesting works of the early builders, even when all the rest of the Church was taken dovra to make way for the more magnificent Structure in the then prevailing style of building. 64 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. variety of the dog tooth. In the example fi-om Barnwell Church (Appendix, Plate 7,) the moldings are of two orders, very rich, with two rows of dog tooth. Here we may observe a feature, boiTOwed fi'om the Normans, and extensively used during this style : we refer to the band which occurs midwaj^ and which became a necessary constructive arrangement ; for the diameter of the Early English shafts was so small, that without some such contrivance, it would hardly have been possible to have effected a durable joint in their length. In Felmarsham Church, Bedfordshire, is a fine doorway with detached and engaged jamb shafts, and with an an'angement ah'eady noticed in Norman works, namely, an arcade on either side in continuation of the central design.* In the present instance two trefoiled panels or orbs,^ with a quatrefoil above, are enclosed in a pointed arch springing fi-om the same level as the doorway. The interior arrangement of this example will be found illustrated at page 75. The foiled doorways introduced by the Normans were presei-ved and still fiirther enriched by the Early English Architects, and during the continuance of this style were of frequent occuri'ence. In large examples it was most usual for the first Order of moldings only, to be foiled, as in the beautiful specimen fi-om Warmington Church, (Section I. Early English, Plate 21,) a very perfect illustration of a pure Early English doorway, where the jambs are composed of four detached shafts placed in a coiTcsponding number of square recesses, whose anises are chamfered, and while the two outer chamfers are simply hollowed and terminate in delicately carved trefoil flowers,! the centre one is richly ornamented with dog tooth. The arch moldings are all placed on the i-ectangular planes, and exhibit most of the members characteristick of the style ; among others are the pear-shaped or pointed bowtel, and the filleted bowtel. The quasi bases, resting on the capitals and terminating the filleted bowi;el of the first order, must not pass unobserved, though they are features belonging more particularly to the succeeding periods. We may notice in the capitals the early appearance of the scroll mold, which is also repeated in the dripstone. Other examples of foiled doorways occur at Merstham Church, Surrey,^ which has one row of shafts and is enriched with dog tooth ; at Woodford Church, Northamptonshire, a singularly beautiful composition with the inner order of moldings trefoiled, the others as well as the * The west front of this interesting Building is well worthy of an attentive examination ; it is a beautiful and pure specimen of Early English. Four views and a plan of this Church are given in the Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 96. t Willis's Nomenclature. X See Section I. Early English, Plate 26. % Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 99. DOORWAYS. 65 dripstone being circular ; and at Higham FeiTars Church, where the priest's dooi"way has a tre- foiled head: in this charming httle specimen, the dripstone, as was generally the custom, is simply pointed, and in each of the spandrels which occur between it and the trefoiled head, is sunk a carved rose. Illustrations of these two last mentioned examples will be found in " The Churches of Northamptonshire." In other foliated specimens all the moldings follow the form of the foliations, as in the doorway in the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral, which is cinquefoiled ; even in this case the dripstone in accordance with natural construction, follows the sweep of a pointed arch instead of the outline of the several curves. The doorways of this period were not always pointed ; under certain restrictions a square-headed form was introduced, and in many instances added an increased charm to the beauty of the general design. Their use was however chiefly confined to the priest's entrance, or to turret and other small doorways. A good example occurs on the south side of the Chancel of Meopham Church, Kent, and is illustrated in Plate 3, of Section I. Early English. Westminster Abbey Chui'ch furnishes many instances of its introduction, in the naiTow passage which is continued all round the Building in the thickness of the walls. In all these cases a trefoiled appearance is produced, by the lintel being carried on two projecting corbels : this form is generally distinguished as the square-headed trefoil. During the Early English Architecture the double-arched doorway first made its appear- ance. This magnificent feature, however, is almost entirely confined in its application to Cathedrals and Conventual Buildings. Though very rarely met with in the smaller Edifices, we are enabled to mention two fine examples : the one at Higham Ferrars, and the other at St. Cross, near Winchester. The former is, in fact, almost two distinct doorways, under one large arched recess or porch ; each having its own distinct jamb molds, which are continuous round a segmental-headed arch : both entrances are richly sculptured with fohage, and between them rises a slender shaft, which in a most elegant manner bursts forth into foliage at the top ; forming a pedestal for a figure, now destroyed. The space between these two arches and the large circumscribing one, is diapei'ed with circles containing scriptural subjects.* The pseudo porch, within which this double doorway is contained, is very general in the more important Churches in these parts ; we find it in the immediate neighbourhood at Raunds,t and also at Roth well. The immense weight of the lofty spires, so numerous in the Midland Counties, required proportionably thick walls to sustain them ; and in North- amptonshire, in many instances, advantage has been taken of this thickness to form openings, which, while they present aU the appearance of deeply recessed archways, have at the same * This doorway is very faithfully represented in page 25 of the " Churches of Northamptonshire," a valuable and elegant serial work, now publishing. t Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 69. T 66 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. time the convenience of porches ; the soffit being generally diapered (as in Higham Ferrars) or otherwise enriched. The gabled doorway of the Norman period continued a favourite feature in this and the following style : excellent examples of it abound in the middle counties, where, indeed, they are more abundantly met with than elsewhere.* Loddington Church, Northamptonshire, has a very curious doorway in the west of the tower, the gable of which projects considerably and is carried on two brackets placed at the springing of the arch. The very beautiful Early English Church at Uffington, in Berkshire, has a good gabled priest's doorway, also a very excellent gabled entrance on the east side of the south transept ; a most unusual position, but which, in this instance, from its approxima- tion to an Altar, appears to have been reserved for the sole use of the priest. Decorated Doorways are distinguished from those of the former periods, by the gradual abandonment of detached shafts in their jambs. The gabled dooi'way from Milton Church (Section I. Decorated, Plate 14,) presents a rare example of their retention. In this instance, the Norman method of projecting the jambs has been adopted, without however obtaining the originally intended advantage of increased depth. An apparent effect of projection is obtained for the gable by the set-off in the wall of the tower, which takes place above the string * This frequent occurrence of certain features in particular districts, to the almost total exclusion of them in others, is a very remarkable fact in the history of EngUsh Church Architecture. We can readily conceive that a difference in the supply of building materials may have regulated to a certain extent the designs of Churches erected in parts where such a difference existed ; for instance, that in the stone-bearing counties of Northants, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, &c., the spire, gracefully tapering, by a bold display of masonick art shall attain a most daring elevation ; while, on the contrary, in the woody districts of the southern counties, the timber and shingle-covered spire will be seen modestly peeping over the woodland scenery. But the distinctions to which we refer had clearly no connection with peculiar facilities or wants ; neither did they any way result from alterations in the style, for so long as it lasted, that remained singularly uniform throughout the laud : and yet there appears to have been very often a local method of treating one particular part of the Building, the style being identical and the material the same. Let any person observe the characteristick towers of Kent, and compare them with those of Somersetshire ; both examples may consist of the same number of parts, both have buttresses, embattled parapets, and a staircase turret, yet how essen- tially different are the two designs. So also in the arrangement of the eaves of the roofs : in some districts, parapets were invariably constructed to collect and carry away the water; while in other parts, such as Norfolk and Suffolk, Churches, even of the richest description, were most frequently erected vrithout them. From these facts we would gather, that while the style itself was in the hands of an experienced body of men, and by them jealously guarded and gradually improved ; still, that in the execution of any particular Church, the design of its several details was greatly influenced by that of the neighbouring Cathedral, or most important Conventual EstabUshment. The beautiful little Church at Skelton favours this supposition, for " there can be little doubt, from the close similarity which many of the details of its architecture bear to similar parts in the transepts of the Minster (York), that some of the same hands that were employed upon that magnificent building were also concerned in the erection of this more humble l)ut not less beautiful httle Church." Evan Christian's Skelton Church, p. 3. DOORWAYS. 67 course. The termination to the gable, now broken away, probably partook of that trefoiled form so common to the gabled buttresses of this period.* In the capitals to the shafts, we may remark the somewhat unusual feature of a double bell. The bases have been very plain, but are so much decayed that their correct outline can no longer be ascertained. The small bowtel wliich originates in the jambs, is carried round the arch and winds tlirough the intricacies of the panelled gable, adding considerably to its richness and good effect. The tower in which this doorway is placed is a fine specimen of flint work, and in the Plate, the junction of the flint with the di'essed stone is shown with minute accuracy. As the Decorated style advanced, crockets and foliage became more frequently and abundantly used in its Architecture ; and these, combined with a more studied and harmonious an-angement of moldings, operated considerably in promoting the greater splendour of the dooi-ways. Cley Church, Norfolk, a complete study in itself of the richest and most perfect details of Decorated Gothick, possesses a west dooi-way of such great magnificence, and with such beautifully and carefully executed parts, that it is probably unequalled by any other occumng in a Church of similar size. Section I. Decorated, Plate 39. In the abrupt, and perhaps awkward, manner in which the arch moldings join on to those of the jamb, we may trace a lingering indication of a past era.f Possibly it was felt that these arch moldings were too minute and deUcate for the exposed position of the jamb, which was consequently simply rounded off: but even then, one cannot help wishing that a more perfect and studied junction had been practised. However, the artificers of those days thought otherwise, and it ill becomes us to criticize such minute points, when the whole is so surpassingly elegant. This single specimen almost comprises in itself all the several characteristicks which occur in doonvays of this period. We have the beautifully crocketed and finialled dripstone (ogeed, although the arch is pointed, a pecuUai'ly Decorated feature) ; the exquisitely carved drip terminations, in this instance, crowned heads (probably indicative of royal benefactors) ; the well molded arch of two orders, the inner one becoming cinquefoiled, and each foil again trefoiled ; the leafy cusps and richly car\^ed spandrels ; the quaintly wTought foliage in the capitals, and delicate finish to the chamfers in the jambs ; the double-plinthed bases ; the stone sill ; and last though not least, the original and richly ornamented ironwork of the door : all these features, each highly worthy of obsei-vation, combine together to form a most magnificent and characteristick Decorated doorw'ay. The stone sill was frequently used during this and the preceding period. An example is given of it in Section I. Decorated, Plate 23, the doorway in Swatton Church, Lincolnshire; and it occurs also in the priest's doorway at Fen Ditton. (See page 51.) In the arch mold- * See buttresses from Holbeach Church, Section I. Decorated, Plate 17, and also those in Plate 19. t See arcade from St. Alban's Abbey Church, Section I. Early English, Plate 28. 68 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. ings Ave may observe, that those which come over the engaged shafts, He on the rectangular planes, whereas those which are continuous are on the chamfer plane ; thus illustrating and strengthening a remark we have already had occasion to make in the chapter on moldings. The beautiful roses which stud the inner soffit, although not very conspicuous in a geometrical drawing, nevertheless add considerably to the general richness, and are themselves well displayed and set off by the elegant moldings over which they are placed. Under the crown of the arch a head occupies the place of a rose. The Church at North Mimms offers an example of a plainer but equally characteristick doorway. (Section I. Decorated, Plate 25.) We may here again notice that the arch moldings carried on the engaged shafts, lie on the rectangular planes. They are very beautiful and effective, and the flowers placed in the hollows add not a little to the elegant simphcity of this specimen. The foliage of the capitals is of a very peculiar character, and in its arrangement essentially Decorated, rather twining round the bell than rising up stiffly against it. The bases are extremely plain, and in this respect they agree with those in the Milton doorway ; the square return of the dripstone is not the most usual arrangement of this period. Gabled doorways were still very commonly introduced, occurring, as did those of the previous style, more frequently in the south of Lincolnshire and those counties that imme- diately surround it, than elsewhere. Ewerby* has a very fine example of this description ; it is finialled, though not crocketed, which is a peculiarity observable in many of the details of this Church. In the gable there has been, as at Milton, a small niche for the statue of a saint : it has been blocked up and is now hardly discernible. The inner order of moldings forms a trefoiled arch ; the upper foil being shghtly ogeed, as at Cley Church. Some very elegant foliage fills up two of the hollows. At other times the gable was ogeed and richly crocketed and finialled, as in the priest's doorway at Crick Church, Northamptonshire : in this case the head of the doorway is also a flat ogee, and the space between it and the gable is filled with very beautiful foliage. The moldings are con- tinuous and on the chamfer plane. Byfield Church in the EWERBY chdech, lincolnshise. sootb doobwat. sauic couuty possesses two very fine examples : that in the south of the Church is ogeed, terminating in a bunch of foliage which supports a niche, and * For a further description of this beautiful Building, see Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 11. DOORWAYS. 69 is flanked by pinnacles, crocketed and finialled ; the other at the west is of the same description, but without the niche. Doorways with continuous moldings occur very frequently in Buildings of this period, though the effect is rarely satisfactory ; the absence of shafts is severely felt, for without them the springing of the arch, which should always be well defined, appears un- determined. The doorway from Holbeach Church (Section I. Decorated, Plate 10,) is a good plain example, mth a door of the same date very I'ich and perfect. The framing, and the " setting out " of its tracery will be found fiilly explained in the plate. The jamb shafts have molded caps and bases ; these latter are of a very unusual character, or perhaps, rather of no particular character. It is curious to observe, even in works of considerable richness, how frequently the bases were neglected and left very plain, as in the examples from North Mimms and Milton ; or presented some extraordinary anomaly, as in the present instance ; or seemed to lack a sufficient projection, as in the doorway from Heckington. In truth, good moldings in any position were much more rare in this style than in the preceding one : in many cases simple chamfers were used throughout the entire work. In the arched monuments and in the smaller details of the Church, such as the sedilia and piscina, we are more likely to meet A\"ith minute and exquisitely wrought moldings. The doorway from Heckington referred to above and illustrated in Plate 23 of Section I. Decorated, is a beautifiil example with three rows of shafts having foliated caps, and with excellent arch moldings. The finial which terminates the dripstone is not quite perfect, and judging from its present mutilated condition, we should imagine that it had had another leaf on either side lapping back. Here we may once more remark, that shafts being used in the jambs, the arch molds lie on the rectangular planes. Circular-headed doorways were occasionally introduced, but must be considered rather as instances of the caprice of the builders, than as features appertaining to this style. A very rich example occurs in Badgeworth Church, Gloucestershire ; the moldings are continuous, of extraordinary merit, and proftisely studded with ball flower.* Towards the close of the Decorated period, the label over the pointed arch and spandi'els filled with rich cai'ving, gradually gained gi'ound. Worstead Church, Norfolk,! and Deopham in the same county, both present instances of the introduction of this new feature : in the latter the label is embattled. In the doorways to turret staircases, almost A window from this Church is illustrated in Section I. Decorated, Plate 38, the moldings of which closely resemble those of the doorwaj' ; in fact the two dripstones are identical. A plan and two views of the entire Building are given in the Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 67. t Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 35. U 70 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Aldwinkle Chl'bch, Northamptonshire. any shaped arch was equally applicable ; and accordingly we find them sometimes pointed, or sometimes ogeed, now square-headed, or again, as in the example from Aldwinkle Church, partaking of the character of all. Tlie priests' doorways are frequently par- ticularly interesting : those already mentioned, in the Churches of Crick and Heckington, are beautifril and rich examples ; that at Oadby, Leices- tershu'e, has a traceried head ; and the one in Brandon Church, Norfolk, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 12,) is commendable for its simple elegance. The example at Sutton at Hone, Kent, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 1,) is an instance of continuous moldings occumng on the rectangular planes. A soUtary case like this, however, can hardly miHtate against, but should rather be considered as an exception from a general nile, which, for the ^3,il2= greater convenience of study we would attempt to establish, without at all presuming to put it forth as the one by which the masters of old worked. Indeed we cannot readily conceive that such rules as these were then wanting, for they are but the necessary results of that natural construction which is so remarkably displayed in all theu* works. If shafts are used, as a consequence almost, they would be placed in square recesses, and hence he on the rectangular planes ; and their capitals, projecting from these planes, become naturally so gi"ouped as only to be consistently adopted for arch molds that also lie in similar planes. At the present day, when the student in Medifeval Architecture has before him such exquisite specimens of the art in its matured phase — when he can turn at once to the truly gi'aceftil compositions of the Edwardian period, it is perhaps mainly as a matter of curious inquiiy that his mind is directed to the minute steps by which such excellence was gradually accomplished ; and yet the investigation must assuredly enable him to arrive at a more refined appreciation of its eminent beauties, while it will also forcibly illustrate the great advantage resulting from close apphcation to the study — it will show how master minds, through many generations, continued to labour in the same field, each generation receiving with reverence the bequest of its predecessor, and invariably striving to advance it on the road to perfection. This research may be the more useftil, inasmuch as Gothick Architecture, at present at any rate, can scarcely be reduced to precise laws — its spirit soars above rvile — yet often when it may wear the appearance of caprice, close investigation will prove it to have been guided by purest taste : it must be studied in the spirit in which it was conceived, and pursued with ardour and constancy. The ancient arcliitects devoting the energies of their powerful minds but to o;?e style of building, were every way qualified to develop the manifold gi-aces it is capable of, and thus render it more and more worthy of its high purpose. Yet, however great the excellence thereby attainable, it can hardly now be of frequent occurrence that an architect should devote his sole and undivided attention to the DOORWAYS. 71 study and advancement of one particular style out of the many which are in foil practice, and each of which has its ardent votaries : the more especially when we consider (and the con- sideration after all is of some weight) how disproportionate would be the encouragement he would probably meet with. But be that as it may, as regards Gothick Architecture, the day is surely coming when it will no longer be studied as a dead language, as an art which a gulf of nearly four centuries divides fi'om us : once well understood (it is ah-eady appreciated) its admirers will boldly strike out anew the track in which our ancestors laboured and, armed with their pi'inciples, will advance it to a climax of beauty unknown even to them. To return to the subject more immediately under our consideration, In Perpendicular Doorways, the constant use of the label characteristically dis- tinguishes them from those of the preceding styles, though, as we have already observed, this feature may occasionally be found in Decorated work ; in Perpendicular, however, its appear- ance is in keeping with the then prevailing fashion, which delighted in the contrast of horizontal and vertical lines. In the example from St. Alban's Abbey Church, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 1,) the entrance into the south aisle from the cloisters, we find combined many beauties and excellencies. The interior elevation, which is the one represented in the plate, is flanked by two niches with pedestals, the whole forming a very grand and imposing composition, adapted of course only to a very large Church ; and in so far, perhaps, not consistently occupying a place in the present work, were it not for the manj' valuable points which it possesses, pecuUar to the doorways of this period. The very beautifol effect produced by the double- cusped arch, carried in front of and distinct from, the first order of moldings, may be obsei-ved in many examples of a similar date. In the present instance, the terminations of all the primary cusps are broken oflf, with the exception of one representing a lion's head. The singularly beautifol crowning ornament exhibits a veiy early specimen of that distinguishing Perpen- dicular decoration, the strawbeny leaf, combined with much that belonged to the stage of art which had just closed : on its geometrical formation, which is exhibited in the plate, we have already commented in p. 46. The door itself is a very rich and well preserved specimen, and will be found illustrated more at large in Section II. Woodwork, Plate 4. The small roundlets with which it is studded seem to have been suggested by the ball flower of the Decorated era. The arms of England and those of the Abbey are placed in the spandrels. The doorway from Coltishall Church, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 20,) is a very good type of the general arrangement of the period at which we have now arrived. It is placed at the west end of the Church and in the tower, and exhibits the combination of both label and dripstone; the horizontal part of the former is continued through, and is earned round the 72 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. tower as a string.* Above it is placed a very rich band of flint and stonework, consisting of shields in octofoiled circles, alternated with the crowned I for St. John the Evangelist. The same device occurs in the base moldings of the tower, and his symbol, the Eagle, is cai-ved in the spandrels of the door. A second string course encloses the band of circles, and im- mediately above is a three-light window. This arrangement had then become the prevaiUng fashion ; a west doorway and window might almost be considered as forming one design ; we meet with an early instance of it in the Decorated tower of Worstead Church, Norfolk. f The jamb molds of the Coltishall doorway are on the chamfer plane, and consist of an exaggerated filleted bowtel between two casements, leaving two wide, plain chamfers, which in the arch have a kind of wave mold sunk from the face. The west doorway in the tower of Towcester Church, Northamptonshire, is a singularly rich and beautiful specimen of this style. It is very deeply recessed, and has a crocketed and finialled dripstone within a group of moldings which follow the outline of the label. The slen- der octagonal bowtel, rising from the ground and at top spreading into a small pedestal for the reception of a statue protected by a crocketed canopy, is a rather unusual but beautiful feature. The moldings all lie on the chamfer plane, into which they die at the bottom. In the tower of Lavenham Church, Suffolk, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 6,) is a mag- nificent, though very late specimen. Even in this instance, the two-centered arch is stiU retained, with the addition of an ogeed dripstone beautifully crocketed, which, interpenetrating the string- course, appears again on the upper part, and was originally terminated with a finial. The moldings are of veiy poor character : in the desire for rich- ness of appearance, the usually wide, and some- times effective, casement has been abandoned, and Towcester Church, Northamptonshire. groups of moldings have been formed ; but by their not lying in either of the usual planes, * This an-angement was a very common practice, and is also observable in windows ; see window in north Chapel of Barnwood Church, Gloucestershire, Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 71- t Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. .55. DOORWAYS. 73 they produce an effect at once confused and unsatisfactory. In the arch head, especially, the various groups are composed of very minute members, divided by large and plain hollows ; very different from the previous and purer practice, when all was so beautifully blended together. The peculiar shape of the middle shaft in the jamb should be noticed ; manv instances of it may be found in Perpendicular work, and it would appear to be a corruption of the Decorated filleted shaft. All the caps have double bells, but are otherwise as irregular in their construction as the moldings of the arch and jambs. They are all octagonal, and in the principal ones, small square flowers of four leaves occupy the place of the beautiful foliage of former times. In the bases we may notice the then prevalent fashion of their being ex- ceedingly stilted; the outer base is exaggerated to such an extent, as to be nearly equal to the shaft in height. The buttresses and shafts which flank the doorway, however elegant they may appear at first sight, must be considered as instances of a debased taste, which sought more after meretricious effect than correct and consistent decoration. Still the design is so rich and attractive, and the base moldings and the buttresses to the tower are all in such excellent keeping, that we are induced to overlook the imperfections of the details, in our admiration of the composition as a whole. The door itself has been a rich and beautiful design, but is now so much decayed, that the moldings and smaller portions of the tracery are no longer discernible. The flint work of the tower is remarkably well worked ; a portion of it is shown in the Plate. Ishp Church, Northamptonshire, possesses a very good illustration of a small Perpendicular doorway. There, as at Coltishall, we find both label and dripstone ; the latter ogeed, and both uniting and carried on small shafts, resting on the base moldins;s of ISLip Church, Nortiiamptonshire. Shobxe Church. Kent. the tower. Some well carved tracery fills up the span- drels, which, with a deeply sunk casement, produces a fine, bold effect. The string round the tower is lowered, to allow of the usual accompaniment of a window : altogether this is a simple, yet pleasing example. The west doorway of Shorne Church, Kent, is well adapted for a plain village Church. It is flanked by buttresses, which are judiciously X 74 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. introduced into the composition ; and in either jamb is a shaft canying a single group of moldings. It has no dripstone nor label : and this leads us to notice a peculiarity, which we may also observe in Basingstoke Church, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 3,) and in Chesham Church, (Plate 17,) namely, that in some cases, especially in the more advanced and fully established Perpendicular, the spandrels to the doorways form an essential part of the composition, and would exist whether a label were thrown over them or not ; whereas in others, and principally the earlier examples, the span- drel is the immediate result of using both label and dripstone, as in the doorway from Coltishall ; and it would appear probable that on the dripstone becoming gradually obsolete, the spandrel assumed its position as an actual portion of the dooi^way, and was enclosed by the outer molding of the jamb. Continuous mold- ings were now very frequent, but even in small ex- amples they were very deficient in beauty ; and when employed on a large scale, as at Potterspury Church, Northamptonshire, the effect was altogether poor and unsatisfactory. Perpendicular priest's doorways were usually plain and uninteresting. The example, however, from Basingstoke is a remarkable exception, and particularly valuable from having the date of its execution cai-ved on a shield in the head. (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 3.) On the shields in the spandi-els are carved the monograms of Our Saviour and of the blessed ^'irgin ; other shields, with inscriptions now become unintelligible, terminate the label. In the arrangement of these doorways we have frequent op- portunities of remarking instances of that unbounded freedom, L so characteristick of this style of building. Does a window occur just where it was cashed to have placed a doorway, — with the utmost boldness they are both incorporated into one design ; or, ji-rC does a buttress present an apparently insurmountable obstacle to •^J, the doorway's being placed in a particular position, — it is at once ■ -' made to expand on either side, and by a clever contrivance the j."iv 'I . . . 1^ desu'ed doorway is pierced through it ; or again, we mav have to admire the ingenuity with which the difficulty has been overcome, LE,B c„v„c„. L.,cK»rK».„,»E. of i^oti^ erecting a buttress, and adding a porch to an already existing Cr.^nsi.ey Church, Northamptonsuire. DOORWAYS. 75 ,1 TR0N-CH Chcech, Norfolk. doorway. Throughout every minutia of Gothick Architecture, we shall ever find that construction and design go hand in hand, and that anj-thing actually required by the former, instead of being concealed, is immediately and gracefully made sub- ser\aent to the beau- ty of the latter. The priest's doorway in Merstham Church, Surrey, exhibits a gracefiil combina- tion of the jambs Geundisburgh Church, Norfolk. with the base moldings, by which the former are altogether brought fonvard from the face of the wall ; the arrangement of the drip- stone is also commendable. The interior of the doorways fi'equently shows how a necessary constructive feature is converted into a highly ornamental one. In an arched entrance, where the door is placed considerably nearer the outer than the inner face of the wall, it becomes ne- cessary to stilt or give a difterent McRSTHAM CHCRCH, scRRRv. ^1™ ^o thc lunBr arch , so as to allow of the door opening ; hence the constant use of the segmental pointed arches on the inside of doorways. In Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 7, is shown the very elegant arrangement of the inner arch of the doorway in the tower of Lavenham Church, the soffit of which is richly panelled with quatrefoils. The EarJyEnglish arch- ways in Felmarsham Church* are also very gi*aceftil, with slender shafts canying a beautiful group of moldings. * See Parish Churches, A'ol. II. p. 95. ;i.\M Church, Bkdfobdsiuek. 76 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Trunipington Church, Cambridgeshire,* has a singularly fine interior arch, with a hood mold and bold moldings carried, as in Felmarsham Church, on slender shafts with molded capitals. The priest's doorway in Higham Ferrars Church presents a good example of internal arrangement a few moldings on the face of the arch, with the stringcourse continuing as a hoodmold over it, are all that are required to produce a very satisfactorj' eftect. In Northampton- shire, Lincolnshire, and other counties, where stone spires abound, a small opening is most usually contrived in one of the faces of the spu'c to give access to the parapet ; these openings ^.^^■-^ are generally well managed, and oc- casionally, as in Weekley Church, are made ornamental features. Weekley Chuece, nokthamptonshire. HiGHA.M FeERAES CHUECH, NORTQAMPTONSBIEE. PIERS AND ARCHES. Chancel Arches. — ^With such rare exceptions as in Ewerby, Lincolnshu-e, Raunds and Higham Ferrars, Northamptonshire, and some few other Churches, it was an universal practice to mark the termination of the nave and the commencement of the Chancel, by an arch thrown across from one wall to the other. In early Norman Buildings this separation is occasionally indicated by a triplet of arches, an arrangement very fi'equently met with in the village Churches of Sussex, as in Piecombe Church, and Ovingdean, near Brighton. Though sometimes occurring of extreme simplicity, as in Keymer Church, Sussex, the Chancel arch of this period was in general highly enriched ; those in the Chm-ches of Add and Bubwith, in Yorkshire, are beautiful examples. The Semi-Norman architects followed closely in the footsteps of their predecessors ; the substitution of a pointed for a cucular arch being the most important change which they eftected. In the Church of Codford St. Mary is a good instance of a transition Chancel arch (Section I. Semi-Norman, Plate 5) : the outer shafts are slightly pointed on plan, and the cap, band and base moldings are considerably undercut ; on the east side, on the contrary, the shaft is * All excellent engraving of the interior of this doorway is given in "The Churches of Cambridgeshire," p. 53. PIERS AND ARCHES. 11 simply circular, and the arch recessed but not molded. It is said that during some repairs that have recently taken place, it was discovered that the outer portion of the arch had been remodelled and converted from Norman into Semi-Norman by pointing it, and making the other members somewhat to partake of the new style then coming into vogue ; but that the inner or east side had been left almost in its original state. Certainly the east elevation is veiy plain and simple, compared with the west, but this will be found to be almost always the case in Norman work ; the parts that would more immediately strike the eye are very richly ornamented, while the others are left comparatively unadorned. Tliis we find to be particularly the case with Chancel and nave arches ; in New Shoreham Church, for instance, the arches dividing the Chancel from the aisles are richly molded and elaborately carved with foliage on the sides which open into the Chancel, while those sides which face the Chancel aisles are almost without moldings, and the foliage is altogether omitted.* That such a practice was due to some received idea of beauty in composition, and not to that contemptible spirit which would seek only to decorate those portions more immediately in sight, we may gather from the extreme care with which eveiy part of the Building was finished. In this veiy Church of New Shoreham, the window which lights the space between the roof and the vaulting over the Chancel aisle, and which naturally could hardly ever be seen, is nevertheless richly ornamented inside with moldings and dogtooth, while (curiously enough) outside, the opening is perfectly plain ; being simply once recessed. (See Appendix, Plate 1, Fig. 6.) A favourite and elegant Early English practice, was to carry the inner rim of the Chancel arch on corbels, the other moldings being most frequently continued down to the ground. Such is the an-angement at Acton Bunnell ;t a small foliated shaft carries the inner order of moldings, while the outer order Acton Bunnell, Shropsqire. * The arches in Felmarsham Church are also richly molded towards the nave, while the sides in the aisles are simply chamfered; see Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 95. t We are indebted to the kindness of C. Hansom, Esq., Architect, for the use of some very accurately measured drawings of this elegant example. Y 78 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. dies into a broad chamfer, which is continued down to the gi-ound. The Chancel arch in Barnwell Church, Northamptonshire, is similarly managed, but with a corbel of far greater beauty ; the shafts are detached and carried on a group of notch-heads, which are singularly effec- tive. In Warmington Church, in the same county, slender corbelled shafts with foliated caps of ex- quisite workmanship, are also introduced ; and indeed, in this instance, form quite a peculiar feature in the internal decoration of the Chm"ch, for they are employed to support the springers of the groined roof In Clymping Church, Sussex,* the inner order is carried on a corbel, and the jambs of the archway have small nook shafts, indicative of their very recent emancipation fi-om Norman rule. In Wliitwell Church, Rutlandshire, the arrangement of the Chancel arch is yet more simple, the corbels being dispensed wdth, and the inner moldings dying into the jambs on either side.f In other instances, and more particularly as the style advanced, the arch was carried on a regular cluster of columns, properly capped and based, as in Skelton Church, Yorkshire : j a half octagonal pier is a very ordinary arrangement, which continued in practice until the termination of the Decorated period. This, a simple, and always effective method of treating the Chancel arch, is well illustrated in the example fi*om Long Stanton Church, Cambridgeshire. § Preston Church, Sussex, a pure and simple little Early English Building, has a very good and characteristick arch. (Section I. Early English, Plate 5.) It is not a little singular, however, that in very rich and splendid Churches, such an important feature as the Chancel arch should so fi'equently have been left devoid of ornament. The arch in Raunds Church, Northamptonshire, a Decorated addition to Barnwell Church, Northamptonshire. * See interior of this Church in Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 75. t See view of the Chancel arch, in Vol. II. of Parish Churches, p. 85. X Hartlepool Church, Durham, has a richly molded Chancel arch, carried on beautifully clustered shafts, having very early foliated caps with square head molds. See Billing's Durham. § Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 33. PIERS AND ARCHES. 79 the Building, is ornamented with a double row of ball flower, but this forms quite an exception to the general rule : a few simple moldings, or even a recessed and chamfered arch, is far more fi-equently met with. Even the Perpendicular examples do not exhibit any particular alteration in the mode of treatment : the moldings and details were of course accommodated to the new fashion, but the Chancel arch itself, did not assume more importance than in the preceding style. To resume, then, we may remark, that in most cases the Norman Chancel arch was distinguished by its quaint ornaments and rich sculpture, and was very usually carried on shafts in recessed jambs ; that the Early English was generally, and especially if the inner moldings were carried on corbels, of considerable elegance, though caived ornaments were then but veiy rarely introduced ; while Decorated and Perpendicular arches were of great simplicity, with the moldings either supported on semi-piers or continuous down to the ground. It is not improbable that the gradual introduction of rich and costly screens of wood induced the builders to transfer to these latter the decorations which, had they not existed, would have been lavished on the former. As regards their proportions, it is with the Chancel arch, as with those of the nave, the belirjs and all the other arches in the Church, scarcely possible to lay down any positive rules : ever)' vaiiety of size and shape may be met with, and in each case it appears to have been mainly influenced by other parts of the Structure. Besides, we can easily conceive that many circumstances would influence its proportions : an unusually handsome east ^dndow or roof would naturally induce the builder to heighten his arch ; or, when it was intended, as was very frequently the case, to paint the Last Judgment over the west face, he possibly might be inclined to lower it, so as to give a wider field for the display of the artist's talent. In some Churches the height of the Chancel arch piers corresponds with those of the nave, in which case the moldings are generally identical, as in Weekley Church, Northamptonshire ; at other times, and much more frequently, the springing of the Chanoel arch is quite independent of any other. Norman piers were generally circular or octagonal, and in the earUer Buildings, of gi-eat size and of massive proportions. Such are the octagonal piers at St. Nicholas, Harbledown, Kent : those in Sandridge Church, Herts, also octagonal, are of much better and more graceful outline. In Polstead Church,* Suffolk, we find the pier, which is rather a late specimen, subdivided into parts, and considerable effect produced by the introduction of engaged nook shafts. Early English piers, octagonal and circular, are frequently, as in Felmarsham, counterchanged in the same Building. Other examples are of extraordinary beauty, with complex arrangement of shafts. At Boxgi-ove Church, * See Appendix, Plate 6. 80 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Sussex,* those on the north are most daringly detached ti-om the central pier, while on the south, small channels have been sunk for their reception : in both cases Purbeck marble, richly polished, is the material employed. Eaton Bray Church, Bedfordsliire, ftu'nishes an example of a somewhat similar gi'ouping, and has well carved foliated caps. At St. Alban's, the piers are magnificently clustered, with four detached and twelve engaged shafts. Even in Early English work, however, the shafts A J were not always detached : in St. Martin's, Leicester,* we find four small shafts engaged, between four other and larger ones, wliich we may observe are filleted. This fillet applied W v.ii.x ^^ ^i^g ^^^g ^£ ^j^g principal shafts, became an established Eaton BEArBloFOBDSHiEE. fcaturc lu Dccorated piers. We may notice it in the examples fi'om Bottisham and Trumpington, (Plates 16, and 27,) and elsewhere. Morton Church, Lincolnshire, (Plate 21,) has a simple and elegant pier, the plan being produced by four half circles apphed to the several sides of a square. All the caps in this Church are beautifully foliated. The occasional absence of molded work in this style, frequently extended itself to the piers, which were simply octagonal, and carried plain chamfered arches, even in Buildings whose details in other respects, testify' the care that was bestowed upon them. The exceeding, yet beautiful simplicity of the piers and arches in a Decorated Church, were little in accordance with the taste of the Perpendicular architects, who consequently very rarely copied them, though it can scarcely be allowed that they replaced them by a more appropriate substitute. A great sameness pervades the piers of this period : the most usual form is shown in Section L Perpendicular, Plate 14, a pier from Lindfield Church, Sussex. Afterwards, and especially towards the close of Gothick Architecture, the plan assumed more of a diamond shape, by being made considerably wider fi-om north to south than from east to west, as in Lavenham Church, Suffolk. As we have already had occasion to observe, a peculiar characteristick of Perpendicular piers, and one which distinguishes them fi-om all previous examples, consists in the moldings of which they are composed, being partly continuous from the arch. Arcades were generally employed as decorative features to the lower parts of walls ; their use was principally confined to the interior, but they are not very commonly met with in Parish Churches. The Norman architects however delighted in extensively introducing them in their works, and fi-equently enriched with them the outer walls of their towers. In St. Alban's, a small cloister formerly connecting the Chmxh with the * See Appendix, Plate 6. PANELLING. 81 Abbey buildings, is enriched with an arcade, the details of which are very carefully wrought, with capitals remarkably quaint and variously carved. Two examples of Semi-Norman character, fi-om New Shoreham Church, are given in Section L Semi- Norman, Plate 2. The Chancel of Stone Church, Kent, a deservedly well-known Early English Structure, has a very beautiful arcade both on the north and south sides which, in this case, appears to answer the purpose of the customary wooden stalls that were afterwards used ; for it is placed immediately over a stone bench table, of a convenient height for a seat. In Westminster Abbey Chui'ch (see page 8) the arcade occupies a similar position with regard to the bench table. The example fi'om St. Alban's Abbey Church, given in Section I. Early English, Plate 28, is rather late in the style ; it has veiy beautiful moldings, and is highly effective. Polebrook Church, Northamptonshire, contains some very good arcading in the north transept ; other instances of its applica- tion internally in Churches of this date will be found at Histon Church, Cambridgeshire, and Thurlby, Lincolnshire. In the Chancel of Merstham Church. Surrey, a capital and a portion of an arch may yet be traced, built up with the Perpendicular additions and alterations. At All Saints Church, Stamford, an Early English arcade is carried externally round the greater part of the Church. Arcading was fi'equently a decorative adjunct to the towers of this period, as at St. Mary's, Stamford ; Ketton, Rutlandshire ; and Raunds, Northants. In Decorated architecture the arcade was generally omitted, and was at last entirely superseded by the introduction of panelling, which rapidly increased during the Perpendicular era, and was eagerly introduced in the Buildings then erecting. There w^as no portion of the wall but what was considered susceptible of receiving this new enrichment : buttresses, parapets, soffits and jambs of doorways, windows, and archways, and especially basement moldings, are found profusely ornamented with it. The Abbot's tower at Eversham is completely covered with panelling, from the basement moldings to the parapet. Tichmarch Church, Northamptonshire, has a double row of panels, very rich and effective. Those from Lavenham Church, given in Plate 8 of Perpendicular, are of a very unusual character, and in the centres of several of them are the initials and mark of the clothier, Thomas Spring, the munificent founder of this noble Structure. In the flint work to which we have already referred, foliated panels are abundantly introduced ; or in their stead we find, as at Coltishall and Hunworth Churches, in Norfolk, the crowned initial letter of the patron saint ; or a cypher, as in Kenninghall Church. During the Early English and Decorated periods, a beautiful metliod of diapering plain surfaces w^as very prevalent. This diaper usually consisted of a small flower or geometrical pattern. We may notice its appearance even in Norman work, as over the window 82 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. in Stourbridge Chapel, (Appendix, Plate I. Fig. 2,) and in the gable of the west doorway of St. Margaret's at ClifFe ; but it is in Early English Buildings, such as Chichester Cathedral and Westminster Abbey Church, that we may first remark the extensive use of this enrichment: the last named Edifice contains many beautiful and varied designs. In Dunstable Church it is used externally over the doorway ; Beverley Minster may also be mentioned as an instance of its external application. Four Early English examples are given in Plate 19 of Section I. and four of Decorated date, in Plate 24. The elegant and well known specimen at Canterbury, is illustrated in Professor Willis's History of the Cathedral.* Buttresses are distinguishing, as they are also important, members in Gothick Architec- ture. They do not occur veiy fi-equently in Norman work, the most usual resemblance to a buttress being a naiTOw strip of wall, which is generally flush mth the corbel table ; so that in fact it was the wall that was made to recess rather than the buttress to project. The tower of St. Peter's Church, North- ampton, has some very curious angle butti'csses, somewhat resembling on plan a cluster of three engaged shafts ; they diminish gradually in stages. At the east end of the Chancel and under the window is another small Norman buttress, semi-circular on plan, with a conical cap. The Semi- Norman tower of Clymping Churchf has some good examples with weathered heads ; they are divided midway with a string, but have the same projection above as below. In the small Early English village Structures, the buttresses still remained but secondary features in the design ; their projection was very sHght, and they were rarely divided into more than two stages. Very frequently their heads were gabled, as at Little Wenham Church, Suffolk ; (Section I. Early English, Plate 14,) or a small gablet rose from the weathering, and was sometimes enriched with cusping, as in Raydon Church, Suftblk ; (see the same Plate) or with incipient tracery, as in Achurch, Northamptonshire. A curious variety occurs in Raydon Church, on the north side of the Chancel ; it is triangular on plan with a sloping head. (Also illustrated in the above Plate.) In larger Buildings of the same date, we find the buttresses more fully developed. Good examples occur in FelmarshamJ Xn T ^^^^^^yt- Church ; in the Chancel they have a very slight projection, but at the west ST. MARGARET-s, LEICESTER. p^^(\ ^jjgy gtaud out boldly, aud are well proportioned. St. Margaret's, * Also beautifully engraved in Bloxam's admirable Principles of Gothick Architecture. t See Section I. Semi-Norman, Plate 5, and Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 75. X Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 95. BUTTRESSES. 83 Leicester, has a fine arrangement of buttresses : those on the north side are gabled, on the south they are simply weathered ; in the latter an elegant peculiarity may be observed in the leafy terminations of the lower set-ofFs. It was during the Decorated era that buttresses reached to their fullest development of beauty : they were then always worked in stages, frequently had gabled heads, and were enriched wdth niches, tracery, &c. Very excellent examples, however, are fi'equently met with without the slightest attempt at decoration ; deriAdng all their beauty fi'om their graceful pro- portions. Such are those in Pytchley Church, Northampton- shire. Fen Ditton Church, Cambridgeshire, (Section I. Deco- rated, Plate 17,) has also some plain, yet very good specimens of about the same date : in this instance the arrises throughout ^4 are chamfered ; a practice which prevailed during the preceding period, yet perhaps not to the extent that is generally imagined, at least as applied to village Churches. In the same plate is figured a buttress from Holbeach Church ; a large and imposing Decorated Structure, in which the buttresses, partaking of the magnificence of the other parts, are gabled and terminate in a Pytchley Church, Northamptonshire. kind of trefoiled ridge. In Bottisham Church, Cambridgeshire, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 19,) they are also similarly finished, with the addition of beautifully molded chamfers at the angles, and a trefoiled panel on the face. Dronfield Church, Derby- shire, has some magnificent examples in the Chancel, worked in two stages with both set-ofFs gabled, and enriched with tracery. In Debenham Church, Suffolk, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 19,) is an instance of a buttress having a niche with an ogeed and trefoliated head, beautifully finialled, and flanked by diminutive Redgrave chvrch, Suffolk. crockctcd buttresscs. Another vcry interesting specimen occurs at the east of All Saints Church, Colchester. At Towcester Church, Northants, the niche is placed on the side instead of the face. The buttresses fi'om Redgrave Church, Suffolk, are of 84 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. ■i^M Besthokpe Church. Norfolk. perfect beauty ; very lofty and rising in graduated stages, they terminate in gables with trefoiled ridges, and have very elegant foliated niches in the upper stages, with pedestals exquisitely carved. It is during this period (the Decorated), that we may first notice the habitual practice of placing the corner buttresses, at an angle of 45° with the walls. This position however has been considered, without sufficient grounds, as a distinctive peculiarity of Decorated work ; whereas an inspection of some of the finest and purest specimens, will show that it was by no means the invariable practice. In tower buttresses we sometimes find both kinds used conjointly in the same group : those placed at an angle of 45° being uppermost ; partly dying into the others that are at right angles with the tower, and partly corbelled out or carried on small cusped and gabled squinches ; as in the rich examples from St. Margaret's, Leicester. Perpendicular buttresses are generally higher and of greater projection in proportion to their width ; nevertheless they are not ordinarily divided into more than two stages. In Ryall Church, Rutlandshire, (Section I. Perpen- dicular, Plate 24,) they are exceedingly lofty, with gabled heads and trefoiled ridges, as in the previous style ; an elegant crocketed niche occupies the upper part. In the same plate is engraved a buttress from New Wal- singham Church, it is of three stages, though very much lower than that from Ryall Church ; the small gablet on the lower set ofi", and the diminished width of the upper one, give it a peculiar and pleasing character. The example from St. Mary's, Stratford, (Section I. Perpen- dicular, Plate 11,) becomes interesting, fi"om the knowledge we have of the date of its erection (1430), it being stated in an inscription, which is carried round the basement moldings. It is exceedingly simple in outUne, and derives its claim to beauty principally from the elaborate flint ornaments with which it is enriched, in common w^th the whole of the north aisle. The initials of the two founders, Edward and Alice Mors, and the mark of the husband's trade, occur on shields in various parts of the design. Blakeney Church, Norfolk, has also some good buttresses, worked out of flint and stone with panelled faces : those, however, in Lavenham Church far exceed all previously mentioned in richness and elaborate detail. (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 12.) They are entirely of dressed stone, with faces variously panelled, and are in blakenrvi excellent keeping with the other poi'tions of this magnificent Structure. The armorial : Church, Norfolk. PARAPETS. 85 bearings of the Veres, Earls of Oxford, and generous benefactors to the Church, appear on the buttresses. Pinnacles were sparingly used during the Decorated period, and then, do not appear to belong so much to the design of the entire Building, as to particular parts of it. For instance, we fi'equently find an aisle, as at Rickenhall Church, Suffolk,* highly enriched with pinnacled buttresses, while the Chancel is of excessive plainness ; or again, the Chancel may have been enriched with pinnacles, as in Over Claybrook, Leicestershire, without the other portions of the Church displaying a similar degree of enrichment; so that we may conclude, that these elegant features were not usually introduced into the architecture of the ordinary parish Church, until the full establishment of the Per- pendicular, when they became of fi-equent occurrence. Staunton Harold, Leicestershire, is thus enriched with them. In Ayston Church, Rutlandshii-e,* pinnacles occur at the angles of the Chancel only. In Knowle Chapel, Warwickshire, they rise out of the buttresses to the Chancel and aisles, and also out of the embattled parapet to the clearstory. Louth Church, Lincolnshire, is similarly enriched. The tower buttresses to the Early English Chm'ches, were generally simple and elegant ; at Etton,* Northamptonshire, they are of three stages, the upper one djing into the spire table. At Stanwick,* in the same county, they appear rather as ornamental accessories, are very low, and are profiled off on the sides, as well as in fi'ont, in a very curious and unusual manner ; while at Achurch, they only rise to the second stage of the tower. Again, some towers, even of the Decorated period, have no buttresses at all ; such are Southfleet,* Kent, and Barnwell,* Northamptonshire, while in other, and far more fi-equent cases, the buttresses in towers such as Fleet,* Donington,* Ewerby,* Worstead,* and St. Mary, Redcliffe, have never been surpassed for magnificence and grandeur of outline. In all these instances the buttresses are placed at right angles with the walls. Perpendicular towers are mainly indebted for their grandeur to the noble proportions of their buttresses, most usually terminating in richly crocketed pinnacles : very fine examples occur in the Churches of Bishops Lydeard,* Beaminster (Dorset), Ludlow (Salop), the Holy Trinity, Coventry, St. Maiy's, Taunton, Louth, and St. George's, Doncaster. In Martham Church,* they are excellently proportioned, but terminate below the parapet with a simple weathered table. In Deopham Church,* they are in six stages and finished in hexagonal turrets, embattled and panelled. The Parapet, as we have elsewhere remarked, is as frequent in some parts, as it is rare in others. The Norman architects seldom introduced it into their works ; they * See engravings and plans of these several Churches in Vols. I. and II. of the Parish Churches. A A 86 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. seem to have prefeiTed the corbel table with dripping eaves ; very possibly, however, many Norman parapets, becoming ruinous owing to their exposed situation, have been replaced by others in the style in vogue at the time the restoration occun'ed. The tower of Clymping Church,* has a plain parapet, apparently original ; it is chamfered at top, and carried on a row of corbels. In its complete state, the parapet may be divided into three distinct parts : the string or cornice, the parapet wall, and the coping. Polebrook Church, Northants, has some verjr good examples of Early English character ; at Sutterton, Lincolnshire, the cornice is filled w^th a variety of ornaments, notch heads, dogtooth, hearts, &c. ; Evington in Leicestershire, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 37,) has one over the north aisle of a little later date, where the cornice is similarly enriched, but with the parapet wall cai-ved with a succession of sunk trefoils, filled with leaves or flowers in low relief. In Decorated examples, the parapet wall is frequently pierced with quatrefoils, trefoils, or some flowing tracery, as in Heckington Church (Plate 37). In this style, also, we may first notice the positive introduction of battlements, though it is not at all unlikely that they were used in Churches of an earlier period. Higham Ferrars exhibits some examples of very early date. The embattled parapet became almost an universal feature with the Perpendicular architects : a difference that may be noticed between the earlier and later examples is, that the coping in the former is only employed in its legitimate and horizontal position, whereas subsequently it was made continuous and carried down the sides of the battlement. In the two Churches of Hingham* and Martham,* in Norfolk, the distinctive peculiarities of the Decorated and Perpendicular parapet are well contrasted. In St. Mary's, Stratford, erected in 1430, the legitimate use of the coping is still held in view ; in Lavenham Church, on the contrary, it is continuous ; the battlements, also in the latter, are pierced with a four-centered arch ; the opening thus formed, being partly filled uj) with a large leaf rising upwards, and the intermediate spaces enriched with boldly cai*ved foliage in square panels. By far the richest specimens of Perpendicular parapets, however, are to be met with in the towers of the period. Bishop's Lydeards* is very fine, with a row of quatrefoils, above which the embattlement rises ; in Badgeworth Church,* it is of a simpler, yet still pleasing, character. The parapet in Martham Church,* exhibits a good specimen of flint decoration ; the coping is not returned. In Deopham Church,* a crocketed gable, much enriched with flint panelUng, and surmounted by a fine Cross, rises out of the ]iarapet on the four sides of the tower ; and at Filby, near Yarmouth, the parapet rising in graduated stages, forms a stepped gable in the centre, with two half ones, also stepped, abutting against the angle pinnacles. This stepped parapet is a characteristick * Engraved in the Parish Churches, Vol. II. CROSSES. 87 feature in Norfolk towers. The tower of St. George's, Doncaster, has a remarkably rich pierced parapet, with three slender pinnacles rising out of it, on each side. Louth, Lincolnshire, and Bitton, Gloucestershire, have both veiy handsome panelled parapets, with pinnacles rising out of each battlement. The Cross*, the most natural and appropriate termination of a gable, was made use of at a veiy early peiiod. From the testimony of the old Saxon MSS. we may conclude, that even then, they were invariably introduced, though owing to the want of durability in the material, it is hardly hkely that any have lasted to the present day. The fanatical violence of the Puritans, sacrilegiously destroyed many which the ravages of time would longer have spared and left unhai'med. The Church builders of old dehghted in exhibiting the symbol of their faith, not only on gables, but in every position where it would become a commanding and distinct object. We find Crosses, carved in low rehef, over the windows of the ancient tower at Barnack, and worked in flint over the belfi-y windows of Martham Church. In Cranford, St. John's, they occupy the N.E. and S.E. angles of the aisles, which have lean-to roofs. In a Church near Norwich, we find them at the four angles of the tower, and at Deopham, in barnack cnuEca, noet..ampto.vsuike, '^^ ^■ the same county, they crown the centre battlement, which is gabled to receive them. The earhest Crosses (probably for symbolical reasons) appear generally to have been enclosed within a circle, or with the arms slightly projecting, as in Edith Western Church. (Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 16.) The Cross, lately destroyed, over the Norman Chancel of Barnwood Clmrch, is mentioned by Lyson as a Cross patee inscribed within a circle, the badge of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. Dm-ing the Early Enghsh period this form was considerably modified, and led to many varied and elegant arrangements. For facihty of examination we would classify them in the several divisions of 1 , Simple Crosses ; 2, Wheel Crosses ; 3, Floriated Crosses ; 4, Tracery Crosses. In Simple Crosses the arms sometimes are merely chamfered, as in Churchdown Church, Gloucestershire, or engrailed, as at Badgeworth Church, in the same county, or cusped, as at Tinwell, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 28,) or with the extremity of the arms trefoiled, as in St. Maiy's Church, Stamford ; or again, we sometimes meet with them ornamented with a small flower raised on the face of each arm. A fine and perfect example of a wheel Cross occurs over the east gable of the nave of Oadby * The authors are now preparing illustrations of a series of Gable Crosses, to which they would refer for a more ample account of this beautiful feature. 88 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Church, Leicestershire; it has eight spokes with trcfoilcd terminations, radiating from a small flower in the centre. Whitwell Church, Rutland, has also a fine Early English example. The Cross from Helpringham Church, Lincolnshire, (Section L Early EngUsh, Plate 16,) may Hkewise be included in this class, for though the circle is omitted, its influence in the design is very visible. In floriated Crosses small branches diverge from the arms of the Cross, gi'ouping the whole together in a very beautiful manner, as at Hingham Church, Norfolk, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 33,) or at Peterborough. (Plate 28) Cley Church, Norfolk, probably possesses the finest example of this class in the kingdom. Tracery Crosses are generally of great beauty and richness ; that at Hasingfield, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 33,) is certainly the most magnificent of its class that the authors have hitherto met with : it remains very perfect, owing to the durable material (Barnack) out of which it is worked. In this class we would include the very rich eight-armed Crosses, fi-equently to be found in Norfolk ; such are those fi-om Stoke Ferry and Morton, (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 15,) Ludham, (Plate 33,) and Trunch and Stody. (Plate 21.) Two early and exceedingly elegant examples of this class ai*e given in Section I. Decorated, Plate 28, fi-om Peakirk and Methwold. Other varieties may occasionally be noticed which are not so easy to classify ; yet they are in reality, but quaint modifications of one or other of the classes we have been examining. Such is the simple and effective Cross over the Chancel of Wichford Church, Wilts, (Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 16,) and its enriched counterpart fi-om St. Mary's, Norwich. (Decorated, Plate 33.) Over the north transept of Gunthorpe Church, Norfolk, is one which would be classed with tracery Crosses, had not the usual an-angement been whimsically departed fi-om in the lower part, and cusps substituted for the two secondary branches. On some Crosses we find the figure of Our Saviour carved on one of the faces, as at Oakham; (Section I. Perpendicular, Plate 21,) while at Little Casterton a smaller Cross is inclosed within a circle sunk upon the larger one. At Louth a Crown of Thorns is beautifully twined round the arms ; and at Godeby Maureward, the Cross has (or had) its outer circle cut into teeth like a saw, symbolizing thereby the martyi'dom of some of the early Saints of the Church. The Cross was generally let into the saddle stone to the depth of five or six inches, and fixed with a leaden joint, a practice which has probably caused the destruction of many beautiful examples ; for, in course of time, the expansion of the metal bursts the thin socket, the Cross is loosened, and finally drops down ; and very rarely (we hope we may now say) in former days, was it set up again. The thickness of the Cross depended of course in a great measure upon the strength of the stone employed ; generally CROSSES— FONTS. 89 fi'om four to five inches may be considered a fair average. Over the south aisle of Humberstone Church, Leicestershire, the stem of the Cross was (for the socket is all that now remains) only five inches by two and three quarters : the material is Barnack stone. The Umits of this work forbid om* entering into a description of the many different ways in which the Cross is introduced into the sacred Building and its adjuncts : we will therefore, merely refer briefly to its beautiful and appropriate use in marking the resting place of the departed faithful. Two elegant examples of floor Crosses are given in Section I. Early Enghsh, Plate 25. The one fi-om Barnwell Church is cai-ved in relief, while the other, fi'om the Cathedral Church of Dublin, is incised or sunk in the slab. Ancient Fonts,* even if regarded merely in an sesthetical point of view, will be found to possess so much interest, and to exhibit in so high a degi-ee the architectural character of the times in which they were executed, that we can hardly conclude without at least directing attention to them. At the same time the great number, and exceeding variety of beautiful specimens, render it impossible to give an illustration, even of the types of the different fonts used during the three grand periods of Go thick architecture. The examples introduced, each illustrating one of these epochs, must be considered, therefore, as good specimens of theu" several eras, but by no means as decided characteristicks of the dates they represent. It has been considered inexpedient to give an illustration of a Norman font, for it would be rather difficult to select one only (and the Umits of the work forbid a greater number) among the many which are constantly met with ; all very quaint, and some elaborately and beautifully enriched. The two earliest forms of Norman fonts, appear to have been the tub-shaped and the cube : the former, still presei-ving its cu'cular character, was aftei'wards raised on a low stem with molded cap and base (a very beautiful example of this arrangement occurs in Shefford Church, Berkshire, and is engi'aved in the " Baptismal Fonts"), while the latter was most usually raised on a central stem, suiTOunded by four small shafts. In many Early English fonts this fashion was preserved : the Churches of Merstham and Shiere, in Sun-ey, have excellent specimens of this class. The single stem was also occasionally made use of, as in the font in Weston Church ; (Section I. Early English, Plate 27,) it is a simple and elegant design, and has a broader step at the west for the priest, which is not shown in the plate. In the shape of Decorated fonts, gi-eater license seems to have been used than at any other time : at Galway the font is square, earned on a central stem, and four small angle shafts ; at Orchardleigh, it is circular and cup-shaped ; and at Ewerby is an * For a brief yet interesting account of ancient fonts we would refer to the "Baptismal Fonts," lately published by Van Voorst, and illustrated by many excellent woodcuts. B B 90 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. hexagonal font, with the sides richly diapered. It is in the fonts of this period that we first find the richly crocketed canopy, and the octagonal stem with slender engaged shafts, as at Redgrave Church; (Section I. Decorated, Plate 32), or panels divided by small pinnacles, as at Hedon Church, Yorkshire. Perpendicular fonts, though frequently richer than the previous ones, exhibit never- theless considerable sameness and repetition of design. They were generally eight-sided and raised on a molded stem, though at Hurley Church, Berkshire, the font is a simple octagonal block, tapering downwards, with panelled sides, and buttresses at the angles ; while in Cornwall some extraordinary and anomalous forms are occasionally met with. Sculptured decorations were then very prevalent ; animals, especially lions, frequently suiTound the stem, while the basin is supported by rows of angels with extended wings. Walsoken Church, Norfolk, has a very beautiful and rich font of this description, rendered highly interesting fi-om the date of its execution (1544) being cut upon it, together with the names of the donors.* Both bowl and shaft are octagonal ; the former has at the angles, buttresses and pinnacles, and on the sides are crocketed ogee arches sup- ported by brackets formed of foUage and angels, and which are occupied by the Crucifixion and the seven sacraments of the Church of Rome. The buttresses, also, are supported by angels. The shaft is ornamented in the same manner as the bowl, but the niches contain figures of saints, very well carved and displajnng much artistick skill. The emblems of the Crucifixion occur in shields placed round the base. The example given in Plate 28, fi'om CljTnping Church, though very inferior in point of richness, is nevertheless a pleasing specimen; of good proportion, with some very well executed foUage. Fonts of all dates were not unfrequently raised on a series of steps, either square, circular, or octagonal. In the later examples, the risers are frequently enriched with quatrefoils ; as in the Churches of Walsingham and Worstead, in Norfolk. In both these instances the upper step is in the form of a Cross, while the lower one follows the shape of the font. A kneeling stone, consisting of a raised block or step at the west of the font, for the use of the priest, was a very usual appendage : it is met with even in early fonts, though more commonly in those of a later date. The Sedilia, or seats for the officiating priests, always south of the Altar, were frequently of great beaut}^ Examples are given in Section I. Early English, Plate G, and Perpendicular, Plate 9. Sometimes the siU of the window was lowered to form the sedilia, as in Great Wenham Church, Suffolk; (Appendix, Plate 2, Fig. 14,) and in St. Martin's, Leicester. The piscina or water drain, was very frequently incorporated in the same design as the sedilia. * Engraved in the Baptismal Fonts. SECTION IL— OF WOODWORK AND METALWORK. ROOFS* TIMBER roof of the fifteenth century, with its massive timbers elaborately m'ought and molded, its rows of hammer beams terminating in beautifully carved figures of angels, its enriched panelling and traceried spandrels, its exquisite bosses, and above all its profusely ornamented cornice, — is truly as glorious a sight, as it is a grand triumph of the carpenter's art. Such excellence, however, was but very gi'adually accomplished. Of unquestionably Norman work, very few specimens indeed remain : judging fi'om them, we would conclude that the construction of that period, was as unscientifick as it was rude. These early roofs may, perhaps without exception, be all classed under the head of tie-beam roofs. t The one over the Chancel of Adel Church, Yorkshire, is of this description, and appears original : the principals pitch on to the tie-beam, and are braced together by collars ; slanting struts are also tenoned into the principals, and are carried down on to the tie-beam, which thus receives a great part of the weight of the roofing. Over the nave of Wliitwell Church, Rutland, is a roof of a somewhat similar construction ; the collar, however, is much lower down, and immediately under it is a purlin, which supports the rafters, and is itself carried on struts framed into the beam, as at Adel : these struts are further strengthened by smaller ones, fi-amed fi'om them into the tie-beam, and following very nearly the rake of the roof. There is a continuous plate inside ; and another would probably be found, almost flush with the external wall, in accordance with what seems to have been then a very general practice. All the timbers are very roughly worked; indeed, cutting off the projecting * Such au important subject requires a more extensive and careful illustration than the limits of the " Analysis" permitted ; the authors have therefore devoted a separate volume to its consideration — the work is now in the press, and they hope very shortly to be able to lav before the publick the fruits of their researches. f In all ancient roofs the tie-beam was employed to hold the walls together; and in addition generally carried the greater part of the weight, which was brought down on to it by the king post and struts ; being the reverse of the present principle by which the king post is employed to tie it up. 92 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. knobs and branches seems to have been all the finish that has been bestowed upon them. Yet even in very early examples we sometimes meet with a certain degi'ee of embellishment, evincing careful workmanship : one of the beams of the Norman roof remains in Old Shoreham Church, Sussex, and is enriched with a billet molding ; and other instances are occasionally found in various parts of the country. The next advance in the framing of roofs, was to truss each rafter, sometimes by means of cross braces pinned into the two opposite rafters, and halved at the intersections, as in the example over the porch of Stuston Church, Suffolk ; (Section II. Woodwork, Plate 24,) or, as was more usually the case in roofs of considerable span, each rafter had a collar, and was further stiffened by braces sometimes crossing above the collar, and at other times tenoned into its underside. The foot of each rafter was so framed, as to assume the shape of a triangle, whose base generally was equal to the thickness of the wall on which it rested, and by this contrivance obtained an excellent hold : thus any danger from spreading was almost entirely obviated. These roofs have fi-equently only one plate, placed midway in the wall, the feet of the rafters being halved upon it ; but sometimes they occur with an internal and external plate ; or, as at Heckington, with a central plate, and an internal one molded, and forming a slightly projecting cornice. Neither ridge pieces or purlins ever occur, and when they are not boarded, w'hich is very frequently the case, it becomes quite a matter of surprise how such roofs should have held up so long. Wlien not boarded, however, the trusses are generally out of the perpendicular, inclining either to the east or the west. In the earUer instances of this kind the tie-beam was still retained, and introduced at intervals in the length of the roof; as in the example over the Chancel of Sandridge Church, Herts, which has a molded cornice projecting from the wall and carried on notch heads, and into which the tie-beam with similar moldings is fi-amed. There are two ties in the length of the Chancel, with about twelve rafters between each.* It was not long, however, before the tie-beam was altogether omitted ; and the rafters, simply trussed, continued a favourite style of roofing with the Early English and Decorated architects. The rafters are generally from one foot six inches to two feet from centre to centre ; their scantling averaging about five inches by four. Remaining examples of these roofs are more numerous than any others, but in most cases they have been lathed and plastered. That in their original state they were occasionally boarded appears extremely probable; though after all, for picturesqueness and beauty, nothing can exceed the view of the rafters intricately crossing. Sometimes a trussed rafter roof spans both the nave and aisles, as in St. Michael's, Long * The roof over the nave of Clymping Church is an Early Enghsh construction, with internal and external wall plates, and occasional tie-beams. See au engraving of it in the Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 75. / ROOFS. 93 Stanton, Cambridgeshire ; the rafters to the nave being continued down on to tiie side walls, and terminating in the usual triangularly framed foot. Decorated roofs, however, far fi-om being always of this simple description, are fi-equently of great beauty, and display considerable constructive knowledge in the framing of their principals, ridge, purlins, &c. They may be considered under the two heads of tie-beam and collar roofs. The former, perhaps, are the most frequent ; an excellent example remains in Adderbury Church, Oxfordshire, enriched with good and characteristick moldings. Its framing may be described as a tie-beam supporting a king-post, from the four sides of which spring braces framed into the principals and ridge ; both principals and braces being fohated, produce an excellent effect. Other curved and molded braces are framed into the underside of the tie-beam, forming a pointed arch, and serving to bring the weight of the roof lower down on the walls. Higham Ferrars Church, Northamptonshire, also, has a good roof of Decorated date ; the tie-beam is very much cambered, and forms an arch with the curved braces which are framed into it, and spring fi'om small shafts with caps and bases ; a king-post rests on the tie-beam, with braces supporting the ridge ; small struts also rest on the tie-beam, and with similar braces caiTy the purlins. The cornice and principal timbers are simply molded. An equally interesting specimen is the roof over the nave of Wimmington Church,* Beds, built by "Softer Clirtfys tlUS! tie aS^yminston," who died in 1391. The Church remains almost entirely as first designed, and unquestionably the roof is of the same period. It con- sists of a cambered beam with foUated braces, can'ied as in Higham Ferrars on small shafts ; the ridge is also supported in the same manner as in this last-named Church, and so low is the pitch in this example, that the purlins rest directly on the tie-beam without any intervening strut. The spandi'cls between the beam and the curved braces are pierced with trefoils. f Of Decorated roofs without tie-beams, there is a simple yet beautiftil example over the south aisle of Knighton Church, Leicestershire. It is of very bold consti'uction : each truss consists of a pair of principals, which pitch on to a molded cornice-plate ; about midway is a collar also molded, with small curved braces framed from it into the principal ; on the collar * For an engraving of this roof, see Parish Churches, Vol. II. p. 93. t Ancient roofs, though characteristically acutely pointed, were by no means invariably so : an angle of 90° was perhaps the most usual for Norman roofs, while Early English ones, although acutely pointed, are nevertheless rarely found of an equilateral pitch, or angle of 60*^ : indeed, in this and the succeeding style we occasionally meet with some, so remarkably low as to rival the flattest of the Perpendicular roofs ; such are those over the Earlv English Church at Warmington, Northants ; the interesting e.\ample from Polebrook Church, in the same county, is also very low. The Decorated roof over the south aisle of St. Martin's, Leicester, has a span of twenty-one feet, with a rise of only four. The roofs in Wimmington and Higham Ferrars are both verj' flat. The Perpendicular archi- tects gradually lowered their roofs, though in Norfolk and Suffolk many beautiful examples remain of noble pitch. C C 94 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. lies tlie purlin, which is further strengthened and kept in its place by small curved braces, tenoned into the principal. There is a carved flower under the centre of the collar, and carved heads projecting from the wall at the foot of each principal. There is a roof of a somewhat similar construction over the Chancel of St. Mary's Church, Leicester, with the addition, however, of wall pieces, into which the braces are fi-amed. Over the large south aisle of St. Martin's Church,* in the same town, is a roof of very early Decorated character, and exceedingly interesting. Its construction is simply an enormous beam rising up to the ridge, and following the rake of the rafters : the underside is slightly curved in the centre, the curve being completed by means of the braces, so as to produce almost a semi-circular arch. These braces, and that part of the beam which enters into the curve are beautifully molded, as are likewise the ridge and cornice plates ; the former is paiily carried on corbel heads tenoned into the tie-beam, into which also are framed the latter, the moldings at the junction being stopped with foliage ; the spandrels are filled with tracery. A peculiar and interesting feature in this roof are the figures which are carved out of the wall pieces and carry the curved braces ; they are about four feet in height, exceedingly well carved, and full of expression ; we might suppose them to be emblematical of some of the principal virtues, Humility, Patience, &c. The roof over the nave of Capel St Mary's Church, Suffolk, shows a great advance upon the examples we have already examined. Here we may first notice the introduction of that distinguishing feature of the Suffolk roofs, the hammer-beam. In this instance, the pitch is exactly at an angle of 90° ; the embattled collar, which is placed very high up, supports a strut or small king-post, into which the principals and ridge are framed ; a cui-ved brace in two pieces is tenoned into the undersides of the collar and principal, and fixed with wooden pins ; and the foot of the brace is also fi'amed into the hammer-beam. In these roofs the cornice is altogether differently constructed, and answers a distinct purpose fi-om that of previous examples, where it generally sei-ved as a plate for the rafters to pitch upon. In the roofs of Suffolk and Norfolk, it may be di\aded into three parts : the lower one, usually consisting of a molded plank of three to four inches in thickness, is tenoned fi'om hammer- beam to hammer-beam, to which it affords an additional lateral tie ; the centre one is either pierced with panelling or otherwise ornamented, not unfrequently with angels having * St. Martin's Church has two south aisles ; the roof over the larger oue is a sjiau roof, and the rafters from it arc continued down over the smaller aisle, which is covered by a lean-to. The parishioners have lately, in the same hearty spirit which actuated their ancestors, reconstructed entirely, and with similar worthy materials, these two roofs, as well as that over the Chancel (a very fine and rich Perpendicular example) : in both cases, the originals having been minutely copied, as to scantlings and details. The old timbers on being taken down, were found to have been richly coloured ; why not fully carry out the restoration, and extend this enrichment to the new roofs ? ' ROOFS. 95 expanded wings, as at Knapton Church, Norfolk ; while the upper part like the lower is usually molded, and sometimes, as in Capel St. Mary's, becomes in fact an additional purlin, being in every respect similarly treated. We may easily trace the origin of these cornices to a peculiarity in these two counties already referred to, namely, the absence of parapets ; for where eaves were used, the hammer-beams and rafters were carried very far back, and in some cases quite to the outer face of the wall, thus leaving a considerable space inside between the wall plate under the hammer-beam, and the soffit of the rafters. To fill this space with masonry would not only be a piece of useless construction, but it would also tend much to destroy the beauty of the design as a whole, by separating the hammer-beam fi-om the remainder of the roof. This space was therefore either left open, or the cornice was adopted as affording a legitimate mode of further enriching the roof, and at the same time giving it greater lateral strength. In Old Basing Church, Hampshire, in a Perpendicular roof of rather peculiar construction, a similar difficulty has been met by the use of upright panelhng ; the effect, however, is very inferior to the Suffolk arrangement. The example over the north aisle of Wymondham Church, Norfolk, (Sect. II. Wood- work, Plates 17, 18, 19,) exhibits the hammer-beam roof in its fullest development. The most usual way of fi-aming these roofs may be briefly described as follows : a hammer-beam is bedded on a plate, and extends sometimes almost to the outer face of the wall, while in- ternally its projection varies perhaps fi'om one-fifth to one-sixth of the width of the opening ; a wall piece is framed into its underside, and is generally, though not of necessity, canned on a corbel ; the weight on the hammer-beam is brought down to the wall piece by means of the cun^ed or spandrel brace, wliich is tenoned and pinned to the soffit of the former, and in a similar manner is also fixed to the latter. A strut rising fi-om the extreme end of the hammer-beam, supports the principal, which is tied in by the collar, and further strengthened by curved braces which bind it to the collar and supporting strut : the whole framing is thus perfectly secured. The Wymondham roof presents a curious variety, for the collar is rather daringly dispensed with, and at the summit is a large wedge-Hke piece of wood, into which are tenoned the extremities of the principals and ridge. The sides of the roof are divided into compartments by three purUns and an intermediate principal, and are enriched with foliated panels : the tracery in the spandrels is also very varied, many of the designs produced being of exceeding beauty : eight specimens are given in plate 1 9 ; in one of them we may notice the crowned M. These tracery panels rarely exceeded an inch in thickness, and the pattern is merely pierced through, or with the edges chamfered, as in the examples before us, but with no eyes to the cusps. Veiy beautifully carved bosses cover the intersections of the principal timbers. In this roof we may notice the introduction of wall braces, uniting and stiffening the comice and wall pieces. 96 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. In Grundisburg Church, Suffolk, (Section II. Woodwoi-k, Plates 26 and 27,) we find a double range of hammer-beams, one above the other : the principle of the construction, how- ever, is precisely the same, but with a proportionate increase in rich effect. The king-posts are beautifully wrought into figures of angels with outspread wings, and others also with expanded wings are placed at the feet of the wall pieces, and at the extremities of the lower hammer-beams. The effect produced by this host of angels, leaning forward fi'om their airy lieight, is grand and solemn almost beyond description. In the example over Knapton Church, which is also a double hammer-beam roof, the angels representing the heavenly choir, hold in their hands instruments of musick, or some holy texts or symbols. Trunch Church, also in Norfolk, has a magnificent roof over the nave, without a collar, being merely tied in by the curved braces ; its tracery spandrels are of the most elaborate richness. Wool- pit Church, in Suffolk, has a most glorious double hammer-beam roof;* every part of it is profusely ornamented ; the rafters and purlins are richly molded ; rows of strawberry leaf divide the cornice, and angels, applied to tlie extremities of all the hammer-beams, seem hovering midway in the air on their extended wings. Tlie lower parts of the waU pieces are also worked into niches, filled with figures of saints, over whose heads are suspended elaborately carved canopies. The splendour of the roof of St. Mary's, at Bury, is too well known to need description. In another kind more fi-equently met with in the Midland Counties, and also in Devon- shire and Somersetshire, the tie-beam once more becomes an important consti-uctive feature. A liighly enriched example occurs in Cirencester Chui'ch : the braces under the tie-beam are double-cusped and have foliated spandrels ; the wall braces are of the same elaborate descrip- tion ; tlie tie-beam itself is finely molded with a deep casement filled with flowers ; and in fact every part susceptible of enrichment has received it in a high degi'ee. As the Perpendicular period drew to a close, the expiring genius of Gothick art exhibited itself in the roofs no less than in all other parts of the sacred Edifice. They were then made exceedingly flat, and what was missing in constructive skill was sought to be remedied and replaced by crowded, but frequently ill-executed, ornament. Such an example occurs over the north chapel of Wellingborough Church, Northamptonshire. Many other specimens of roofs might be adduced, for the variety is almost infinite, but we have already exceeded the limits which we proposed in the present work to devote to this interesting subject ; and thei'cfore, in conclusion, we will briefly sum up the most striking points concerning these ancient constructions : — 1st, we may be sure that a vigilant search would prove Decorated and Early Enghsh roofs to be yet remaining in tolerable abundance, and that even Norman specimens are not wanting ; 2nd, that their pitch varied from an angle * For an engraving of this roof, see Parish Churches, Vol. I. p. 49. I WOODWORK. 97 of 90'^ to one of 60°, rarely exceeding the latter, but not unfi-equently, even in Early English examples, very much below the former, and that tie-beams are common to the roofs of all the different periods ; 3rd, that the various timbers were simply tenoned and pinned together ; 4th, that the purlins, in lieu of Ipng over the principals, as in a modern roof, are invariably framed into them, thus allowing the rafters to lie flush with the tops of the principals ; and finally, that in common with all the other accessories of a Church, these elaborate and splendid works were richly coloured and gilded. Perhaps even now, most examples, if closely examined, would still present some lingering marks of their past splendour. And, before leaving the subject, we would fain raise our humble voice, urgently pleading for the careful restoration of these truly national glories : for after all, none other than our own oak-bearing land can boast of roofs such as those that abound with us, either in beauty or boldness of execution. But while we would urge their restorations as peculiarly national works, let not the pressing necessity of such a course be forgotten. None but those who have devoted close attention to the subject, climbing the ladders and bestowing a careful and minute inspection, can form an idea of the effect produced by neai'ly four centuries of neglect and decay. A few years must assuredly witness the restoration, or total destruction, of many most exquisite roofs, — pious legacies of our forefathers. The general arrangement of the old seats in our Churches will be sufficiently understood fi'om an examination of the plates ; for notwithstanding that they were frequently profusely ornamented, the actual construction and disposition ever remained the same, and consisted of a continuous sill laid along the floor, into which the bench ends were stubbed, the seats being supported on brackets placed at intervals, with the backs either terminating level with the seats, or carried down to the floor ; the book board was placed but little higher than the seat, and never slanting ; it was, in fact, simply a ledge to lay the book on when not in use. Great Waltham Church retains almost all its old seats in very good preservation ; their arrangement and details are shown in Plate I. of Section II. Woodwork. The sill is molded as was almost always the case, and the bench ends are ornamented with small buttresses, in this instance cut out of the solid, and some very excellent tracery panels, all varying more or less one from the other ; a selection of the most beautiful is given in Plates 2 and 3. The top of the bench ends is capped with a molding, also carried round the backs which finish level with the underside of the seats. In Comberton Church, Cambridgeshire, we find the same description of seat, but very much more highly enriched ; here the backs are continued down to the floor, and framed into a cross sill. The square bench end was also generally adopted in Devonshire and Somersetshire. Bishop's Lydeard, Trull, and Crowcombe Churches are still filled with very beautiful seats, though they are all of late workmanship. Several examples are given in Section II. Woodwork, Plate 31. The date of those in D D 98 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. Crowcombe Church (1534) is carved on one of them in conjunction with some initials, having probably reference to the name of the donor. At other times, and especially in Noi'folk and Suffolk, the bench ends were ogeed, and finished with finials,* affording the carver opportunities for the freest display of his imagination, which indeed appears to have been most wonderfully prolifick, for not only were two finials rai-ely found alike in the same Church, but even the two sides were generally different. St. Mary's Stratton, in Norfolk, would furnish nearly one hundred distinct patterns; nor is this a solitary case. Thirteen varieties are given in Plates 6, 16, 20, and 30. The peculiar form common to most finials is supposed by somef to be derived from the fleur de lis, both a religious emblem and a royal heraldick charge. Poppy, or poppy head, the more correct term for designating these wooden "Crops," would appear to be derived from the frequent custom of working the terminations into figures of priests, warriors, &c. Ketton Church, Rutland, furnishes many beautiful specimens of this desci'iption ; in one instance a bishop is represented in his pulpit. Grundisburgh Church, Suft'olk, has some fine examples of ogeed bench ends richly panelled, though of rather late date and exhibiting a declining taste. The bench ends in the Church of St. Mary's Wiggenhall, Norfolk, are of the most elaborate splendour ; they are ogeed and finished with a poppy head, supported on either side by figures, while another figure occupies a niche in the panel. The Chancel screen, a no less beautiful than necessary appui'tenance, yet remains in many of the remote village Churches of Norfolk in almost all its original splendour. Though the carver exhausted on it the resources of his wonderful art, still was it not considered com- plete and worthy of its purpose, until it had been made to glow with the richest colours and gilding. To delineate the delicacy of the tracery, without at the same time supplying the rich tints of the colour, is to deprive the design of a principal part of its beauty : the aid of poly- chromy, eagerly acknowledged in all parts of the Church, in the case of screens more especially, was considered essential. Scriptural texts were constantly introduced in the cornice, and sometimes, as in Bishop's Lydeard, the whole of the Creed filled the casement. On the lower panels were customarily painted the holy Apostles, or other Saints and Martyrs. But a few specimens of screens have been given, for, to do them justice, a whole work should be devoted to the subject : and we much hope that such a one will soon be undertaken, — one in * This word is singularly degenerated from its original and proper meaning : its present sense however is now so universally adopted, that we must almost despair of seeing the abuse corrected. The ancient " fynyall " always re- presented the entire pinnacle, while the crojj is the legitimate term for the bunch of foliage terminating the fynyall : " et altitudo a le gargayle usque le crop qui finit le stone-work 31 pedes," see Willis's Nomenclature of the Middle Ages. t See Ecclcsiologist, Vol. V. p. 209. WOODWORK. 99 which shall be depicted, not only the architectural beauties, but also the polychromatick effects. An interesting examjjle of a Decorated screen from Waltham Abbey Church is given in Section II. Woodwork, Plate 7; its proportions are exceedingly massive, and its moldings very characteristick. Other examples of Decorated woodwork, selected from screens in Bottisham Church, Cambridgeshire, are given in Plate 14 : a spandrel piece in this plate is remarkable for the beauty and triangularity of its design. In Plate 21, is a selection of panel heads from a veiy beautiful screen lately in Chester Cathedi'al, but which we understand to have been destroyed since our drawings were made. Barton Church, Cambridgeshire, (Section II. Woodwork, Plate 10,) has a very beautiful Chancel screen in good preservation, the doors alone being missing. The carving in this example is particularly well executed ; some of the crockets, spandrels, and cusps terminations are given in Plate 11. The lower panels of the doors to the screen in Wells Cathedral (Section II. Woodwork, Plate 8,) have some very rich tracery, in which the equilateral triangle, as the gi'oundwork of the formation, is made veiy apparent. The construction of the Doors was always of the most solid description ; early examples however, never display any carved work, owing to the general practice of those times of intro- ducing ironwork in the design : at once a strengthening and a beautiftil enrichment. Some few Norman doors are yet existing ; their framing is exceedingly rude, and they derive their great strength from the ironwork with which they are banded. Such is the example in Sempring- ham Church, Lincolnshire, (Section I. Noi'man, Plate 6,) where the material, strange to say, is deal.* Towards the close of the Early EngUsh period, ornamental ironwork began to fall into disuse, although tracery was hardly yet introduced. St. Margaret's Chapel, Herts, has a very good and perfect specimen of an early Decorated door : it consists of battens slightly raised towards the centre, which are tongued into each other, and divided by molded ribs cut out of the soUd. These panels are strengthened and tied together by cross pieces placed inside, and nailed through to the outer face : the entire thickness is three inches and a half. Milton Church, Kent, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 14,) has a door precisely of this descrip- tion. In North Mimms Church, (Section I. Decorated, Plate 25,) the door is similarly framed, but without the raised panels. Rushden Church, Northamptonshire, has a Decorated example, where the head brace is elegantly shaped into an ogeed trefoil. The south door of Holbeach Church is a beautiftil and perfect specimen of Decorated woodwork ; its fi'aming and details are minutely described, and will be best understood by reference to the Plate 10, in Section I. Decorated. Stoke Church, Suffolk, has a magnificent door, probably un. * Only one other instance has come under the notice of the authors, where this material has been preferred to oak, namely, the doors to the chapter house at York, which are of later date, but also profusely enriched with iron- work. 100 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. surpassed in richness ; tracery, moldings, figures of saints, and canopies, all of the most costly workmanship, cover the entire surface. Many perfect and elaborate examples of Perpendicular doors remain ; the one in Deopham Church is transitional fi-om Decorated, and has some good flowing tracery in the head. The Abbey Church of St. Alban contains many beautiful Perpendicular speci- mens ; one of them is represented at large in Section II. Woodwork, Plate 4. Other instances will be found in Section I. Perpendicular, Plates 6, 17, 20, and in Section I. Early English, Plate 23. Porches were frequently built of oak, and Decorated and Perpendicular examples are even now very numerous. The south porch of Aldham Church, Essex, is illustrated in Section I. Woodwork, Plates 12, and 13. The accompanying plans and sections will sufficiently explain the construction, which was very similar in all cases. Plates 9, 25, 28, and 30, illustrate different specimens of strings, bosses, spandrels, and cusps terminations, all exhibiting in a high degree the talent and taste of the artificer. The bosses from Haslingfield Church, in Plate 28, are situated at tlie intersections of the principal timbers of an interesting Decorated roof, remarkable for the beauty of its moldings. METALWORK. NDIFFERENCE and cupidity on the one hand, and the ravages of time on the other, have despoiled our Churches of the greater part of their ancient ironwork ; enough remains, however, to show that in the treatment of it, difficult as it is to work, the same care and patient attention was devoted as was bestowed upon all other materials entering into the composition of tiie sacred Fabrick. The Norman Architects frequently displayed the greatest ingenuity in this branch of art. In St. Alban's Abbey Church are some hinges of that early period ; two of them are engraved in Plates 1 and 9, of Section II. Metalwork. That in Plate 1 has the straj) continued quite through and is finished with an ornamental termination, a portion of which only now remains : in the second example, in Plate 9, the strap terminates with the commencement of the scroll work. The knob at the welding point is fashioned into the head of a serpent ; this de\'ice, with jaws extended, also occurs at the ends of some of the scrolls, is in high relief, and exceedingly well executed considering the nature of the material. In both these examples the surface is enriched with a kind of chevi'on, easily produced with the METALWORK. 101 chisel : the thickness of the metal is three-eighths of an inch at the commencement, and is gradually brought down to one-eighth towai-ds the exti'emity. A most valuable and perfect specimen of Norman u-onwork is to be found in Sempringham Church, Lincolnshire. The entire door is represented in Section I. Norman, Plate 6, and a portion of the ironwork to a larger scale in Plate 5 of Metalwork. The north door of St. Margaret's Chm'ch, Leicester, is also covered with some very early work : the design is rather fantastick, and consists of top and bottom hinge, in which, as at St. Alban's, we may notice the terminating serpents' heads ; and between the two hinges is a radiating centre-piece of eight branches ; the whole being enclosed in an ornamental border, as in Sempringham. The art of working tliis metal, however, was as yet but in its infancy ; the Early English Architects rapidly improved it, and, perhaps, brought it to the highest degree of perfection attained during the Middle Ages ; for if the finish of the workmanship was not quite so great as in subsequent periods, the freedom and beauty of the design were incomparably superior. Numerous examples of doors covered with the elegant scroll work of this age are yet remaining in diiferent parts of the country. The example from St. Marj'^'s, Norwich, is most excellent, and in a very perfect state ; it is represented in Plate 8, with several of the ornamental parts at large. The broad and enriched Norman border, which we have noticed, is here restricted to a very nan'ow strip, nailed at intervals. No less beautiful and perfect is the work on the south door of Eaton Bray Church, Bedfordshire (Plate 11). That which is spread over the doors of the Chapter House at York, is merely used as a stifFener, the hinges being kept quite distinct. The design and execution of this example, (see Plate 6,) are quite worthy of the extreme beauty of the Building to which it is attached. The raised boss for the closing ring is veiy ingeniously managed ; the narrow border strip occurs here as in St. Maiy's, Norwich. The doors to a closet in Chester Cathedi'al belong also to this class of ironwork. They are divided into four panels, which division is made apparent in the different designs of the scroU work ; they are all exceedingly gracefiil, and of the most finished work- manship. The details which are appended, (see Plate 4,) exhibit some of the varieties of the terminations, and also the junctions of the several scrolls, which are cleverly managed, a leaf generally lapping over to hide the welding point. In all these examples we may remark, that the small branches invariably proceed from the outer side of the scroU ; the section of the scroll is sometimes raised to an an-is, as in Chester Cathedi'al, or with a channel sunk on it as in York Chapter House. Many plainer examples of hinges are dispersed thi'oughout the accompanying plates : a very good one from Market Deeping is engi-aved in Plate 9. In the same plate is given a very elaborate stifFener from Tunstead Church, and also one of a plainer description from Great Casterton Chm'ch. Sometimes the closing ring was so enlarged as to answer both as a E E 102 ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. ring and a tie to the door ; as in the examples from Aldham Church, Essex (Plate 5) ; St. Mary's, Norwich, (Plate 8) ; and Filby Church. (Plate 13.) The closing ring, or door latch, was generally more or less enriched, even when the remainder of the ironwork to the door was left quite plain. Examples of all kinds are very abundant ; they generally consist of three parts : the flat plate or washer, fixed to the outer surface of the door ; the handle or ring ; and the spindle to which it is attached, which, passing through the door, is fixed to the latch inside. The plate is susceptible of great richness, and occurs fi"om the simply indented pattern in the Churches of Diss, and Bapchild, (Plate 7,) to the highly ornamented examples in Eye and Martham Churches,* (Plates 5 and 12.) The most usual construction is shown in Plate 5, where a flat plate, slightly raised in the centre, to allow of the handle hanging clear, has two rims of metal variously enriched applied to its surface ; and the whole is firmly fixed to the door with nails having heads ornamented in keeping with the rest. In Martham, the washer is further enriched by being pierced with tracery. The ring was not so generally ornamented ; very fi-equently it consisted simply of a plain circle, or it was elongated, as at Exton and Haconby Churches (Plates 7 and 12) ; at Ashby, St. Leger's, it assumes a trefoiled shape and is slightly ornamented, while at St. Alban's two serpents twine round it. A good effect was fi-equently produced, as at Floore Church (Plate 9), by simply forming the ring out of a square bar of iron twisted. The closing ring in Plate 12, fi-om St. Nicholas, Gloucester, is an extraordinary specimen of the smith's art. Even the key plate was fi-equently made an ornamental feature, and helped to carry out the general richness of the whole door. At Martham Church (Plate 13,) is a very elaborate specimen enriched with tracery ; Westminster Abbey Church has also some good specimens (Plate 2), and in Diss Church, Norfolk, (Plate 7,) there is one of a triangular shape, and finished with serpents' heads at the angles. The termination of the stancheon in the ironwork of the windows was occasionally ornamented, sometimes being finished with a kind of fleur de lis, as at Rushden (Plate 13), or with tracery heads as at Potterspury (in the same plate), or with a bunch of oak leaves and acorns, as at Eyworth Church, Bedfordshire, or simply twisted as at Rothley, Leicestershire. The few examples that remain of the railings round monuments, are generally characteris- tick of the time of their erection. Some specimens of this kind are still preserved in Arundel Church. The tomb of the Black Prince at Cantei'buiy also retains its original railing enriched with various devices. Queen Eleanor's tomb was formerly pi'otected by a most costly and elaborate piece of metalwork, consisting of scrolls and flowers, peculiar to the period (1292) : though removed fi'om its proper position, this beautifiil work of art still * When enriched with tracery, a piece of crimson cloth was frequently placed between the door and the plate, the better to show off the design of the foliations ; this cloth sometimes remains. / METALWORK. 103 remains in the Abbey. The doors into tiie Chantry ot Henry V., were formed of cross bars of iron bolted together at each intersection : a screen of this description remains in good preservation in St. Alban's Abbey Church, a portion of which is represented in Plate 13. hi the same plate is given another piece of screen work also fi'om St. Alban's. In thus bringing the Analysis to a close, w^e will candidly admit that our researches have ftirnished us with many more subjects that we would most gladly have transferred to its pages, had our prescribed limits pei'mitted. For the sake of various beautiful examples, we would fain have extended our work into greater detail and more elaborate illustration, but we have borne in mind the terms of our prospectus, and have endeavoured to adhere to it as closely as possible. Besides, tlie pos- session of the most voluminous collection of Examples will never make a Church Architect ; something more than books is necessary. Let him who would aspire to the honourable title, go and minutely examine and study the Buildings themselves ; there is hardly a village Church, however unpretending, but will furnish some information to the diligent inquirer ; for, " Yet do the structures of our fathers' age Shame the weak efforts of art's latest stage." THE END. SECTION I iflMt ^^ PLATE 2 Tvcalgl £^a,ft o^ ChaneeZ Darent Ciurei JCunt AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. fef? SECTION I, PLATE 4. ■*So^^Z ^oor pram S /'Saru Jtfmja.aien. Courch , Hfal&ri , C-lcucfT^pTjinTe u4rc6 -meuLdinf-r /'A'" scale • Scale y ." 1^ 1 A U AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK A RGHlTEaTU fcE. SECTION I. kmm s/^ PLATE S. from 'S'J Mary J^a^daitn^s C* Wooften Clatter sf^rj'hire. from Waliham AUioti CAupcA, fsict. f/-om 4'f ^ll-ak'^ Ahbe^ Cf* . J/cr/t mwmmfi AN ANALYSIS OF COTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I. PLATE 6. Sechon «/" arci moulaings, ^ ^caif Section oj taviD mould. L scale. iS'euih f^ntTance io SfTnhrtija/jani Church. Ijinctlnshirf AN ANALYSIS OF G-OTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I PLATE 7 AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE ■SECTION I. ^\m\ MoMan -^ PLATE 2 Jirea<^e /rem ^^'sft^ S'4or^AtX7Tt O AurcA. , iPeex^cj: . f* *fcelsoH ^ ^ioa/(/cn^-s on /■c?ies j^ . £ . ^ar/x oj(^ u^re ^^^ on» ^aerrdsr ^eee/ 'ff/<^ y/ai OyC ^tZj'C / '." j'c/r/f. ''■Cr^=^_-<<*~ -K^ -^,.*\ .'>^nJ-_ S.<^' 'fen^— -,^' T ■■■ ■! ^arf a/ sffctt^ one p'/xaf^er -/f*~^vr fc/& . Sc€t/f. y y^"- T'/crjv oA /cr//t^ . //s ^crt/c AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I J-ca/e ^ g-f f ^ .- >./ AN ANALYSIS Or OOXHICK ARCHITECTURE SEv n OK I A|< ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I. j^ai-ii) ^yf^''^''*-'^' PLATE 6. Pi^mix If Sedciia. J^roTn CAaneel , fratoii, C^tyuJsox, -n:s^ J'lien,EUualto/i ir jferlioR of -Pucina .from Wivtlifi'eU ttarei . Stttrtx . South Cka.pti . •? * II 9 6 i fl ■iih -/ I I I I I iJ_l _l I I \ -A AN ANALYSIS OF C-OTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I PLATE / ff?>!y.i/ Ea^t of Chancel. »!/KZ- AN ANALVSI5 OT GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. PLATE 10. AN ANALYSIS OF COTHICK ARCHITECTURE m'a^? h SECTION I. mwif ^a#^|)js^ PLATE /f. Eoj-t 7f7ndow ^rem Chapel , Aletpoam Ci, JCfnt. JfCltMi fj 7n Scafe cj: AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. PLATE tt^ IripUi JLajl uC C oancfl , Marniufti la iamartdiopshtr Sca/e "/ I T I ' I I I / S f^d. tS^ecuon on line tAR. 'Ja ■fuUsizfi. Half oC plan of icjnida AN AN AUYSrS or GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SELCTtON I. tilp ,^^i|ili4^ PLATE 7J Ai-aA- c/ '\ ^ S ^ °l / ^ ftfl. 1 r fCeea of btu^e to josft^. 7 Chancel, ff' Ciuhrton Ch H'allani jJeetcon on line C.C, AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHiCK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. ah PLATE /^. ^uitrC'Tser (mm Chancel of Aaudon. C% S'utfolk ^ttTlTCj-jes, hrcru Little M^nham Ch.S'uffolk- AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. pip Mfe|!A4"^ PL-\TE IS. Section o/( •Arc/i mouldinas I '/i ''"j-cale. Jrtfiht trcm the Chapel at S- -Barlholomeuj's Jiospilal, near iS'andiaich , Jfe;i AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. ^-*^^ Plate n. AN ANALYSIS OF G-OTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION 1. PLATE /7 Ma-re of sha/l^s JfoTlharniitonsh i re : ft^ndoie from Ui/ihe C'iarci Jiiit „ 7 V" # < J fl I -^ />^^ AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE ^ SECTION I. PLATE iS. DiipSlcni l-(.riru-n'f>U^\s from k . Swritfin ('h'irch . l,iii}if.n- Abh«,y ClmrcU/ , AN RNftLYSIS OF OOTHICK R R C H IT ECT U R E . SECTION «^PIO^i^ PLATE/;). X^. M >^ i 99 \ ^ i^'/ j^^^ 0"^^>j [^"j-^-Ql yf^ ^ Diapers en J^j^minsTer ijihu C'ourci. '/6 fidl size. n AN ANALYSIS OF GOTH I CK ARCH ITECTURE. SECTION I. Section4- of cofi. lase and aici-moic^^ /'/^"^scale. ^^2- of JV.Aijl,. Tinaell Ch. It utlandsh PLAT E 2S. SeeiioK of u/3/3*r cuf^- ^'A V scale . AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHlCK ARCHITECTURE! SECTION I, AN AMALYSI^ OF OOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I '?=^ PLATE25, /S'eeteon on line ^M. JfarTiwtii CiurcA ^Vortiam/iloniiiTe- i" I'aTrici'i- Cathedral , jOuIlin . AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. ^O^- PLATE 26. Specimtns of Chamfer ter7ntnationi!. iliiii J frlWr'! AN ANALYSIS OF &OTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I . JT PLATE IT SCAUOF ^ ^ ^ t -X =Jf. Z^rt^Tt oficwL. Pl:jyT" «- T .-^L_l LJ^J. '''^ , ^^' c _i i_ jTwxTzrnh' V AVi7jfl^/iijie c/' WaltAam ^3ieu CA-arcA, Ji^ttx. % YT-!^ M It Cen^Tea oJ^ Traee^^. ^ 'S'e^icGTL a£ Ctt^'Stccc arn^ J\ =^:- .^^ ^. .,V- ^Or^e ^ ' ^^al^ AN >*NAL_vSi5 O^ tiOTM'CK AS.CMiTECTfJRE SEICT ION. I PLAT E . S. AN ANALYSIS 3F GOTHICK. ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I AN ANALYSIS OF CQ-THICK ARCHITECTURE PLRTE 7 . AN ANAi-YSIS OF GOTHICK ft R C HI T ECT UB E . S EC T I O M I . cx® PLATF 8 •^i^rri^^^s^-- Scale of L., ,r- ,:t — '— AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK A RCH ITEC T U RC. SECTION I PLATE p. AN ANALYSIS OF &OTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION mmtu % pcATc ro: SeeZio n AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. PLATE n. Section o/" laltl i*'jeale VVtndoar Soul/i. cjT CAancei . Jrfoli/eatk CAurc^ , ^tncoin-f^tr-e ?/* y fSea ie ojT fe y t* tJertnl m-oulJcngs f ^ " scale . AN ANALYSIS OT COTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I PLATE II AN ANALYSIS OF &OTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I plate; 13. AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I <\^s^ m PLATE li- Wrsi ioormou fnm MiJtin CI, Kent. AN ANALYSIS OT OOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. ^^ PLATEL/J- \:r'_^:'^i%<^m.^^^mr^/^^^^^ West ujcTiJow Xrcm £tiag'/itiy7i Alu-nh C If Kent %. p 6 Q Scale I I I I I I I I I I I °/ v AN ANALYSIS OF OOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION PLATE 16. AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION 1. !coi?ale^^^ PLATE q B. SuttTer-r from /■?n Ditton C& CamlriaaeJ'hire. c E3 q m ^ ", 'I .^llUf III jHt I -~ ^ .III ^' ^L III •■'if v 1 ^^^^V~T^ I 111' M ^ ^ k::3E35j ^71 ....I. ^l' r:>,i i a\ I J :'ii "TT I ! II l| M ipfryj— rrr \A f ' ! *V 1,1. ■•; 1' ■'( I SIJ — -rm I' ,.1, iiir"^' :l J ^^ C I / y F- ^! ^. lj:j:vi 1'. . I 17 Xl Scele ■_(■"'■ ' ■> 1 ^ jf«^- AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I ^ PLATE ;S Tf.-ndew lit *A*■wlllUllll|llP^^^'"/^^A.l|||]|l'flll|(||||||ll^*M^|(|^ ^1 "^ ■^' '^' ? ffrl Scah ^/"k ^i '■ 'i "I §a AN ANALYSIS OF OOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. PLATED/ SECTION I "''■' ''"^'yi^cla.aythCl. &loacfsTrrs. Tri'/'pi-'^jfon Ch CamlndaeJuTC ^ N ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE, PLATE It SECTION 1 AN ANALYSI 5 OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION f. >' ^ PLATE Z3 ''.rs^s c/' i'f'Hrtx.f , jdecKiiirfion Churc/i.^tncotjis'mre. >trr/-^ doonrviy Sivaiton CauTca , jLincolizsiire . S tell on CD. 'St-alt of f.f«t ta delacls. AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION 1 PLATEZ5. AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I . PLATE Z6 AN ANALYSIS Ol &OTHIC< ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. >^S!> flf>. PLATE27 ^ndox in ^orlh Aisle. Settisham Ch Camlnd^t" . Seale 0/ b '/ •i '< -"i fret. AN ANAIYSIS OF GOTHiCK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I . «fOifa%l PLATE 28. A. Tinwell O} , Rutlandshire. AN ANALYSIS OF COTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION I. PLATE ZS ^j-/ fiJ/ia'^.^ ^ CAanct/ /''■"X T>^m/>cnjr/i,n CAa;-c4 . Camin^^oJ'A, j'c^U ^y^ > I 3 I I ' I 1=JL ^/e.^. AN ANALYSIS OF COTHICK ARCHITECTURE. . ECTION PLAT E iO AN ANALYSIS OF.&OTHICK A RCH IT ECTL* RE ^-^'^ SECTION I. ,^ PLATE J/. Sfjecimens c/' (^av-ceis AN ANALYSIS OFOOTlCK ARCHITECTURE- SECTION f^ rwiiri w PLATE 3L ^0jr ^ - ^^ xfL ? ^ ^ ^ r V V fenl in Bedgraoe Ciurci. Suffolk. f' i {eel. J*/an ojz /ine CD. X^ian o-C loiijl f Plan on line ^i jjech'on o et/* font f AN ANALYSIS OF &OTHICK ARCHITECTURE SECTION I. * PLATE 33. /yea if i-^-~ ^o aj'oe?. fAccin.tj:r y' crtij-^ i —. r D. AN ANALYSIS OF C-OTHICK ARCHITECTURE. SECTION . I. yy PLATE S4. k ^^- w^.. LLj^.., S'^eecmens ojC eAaziiyCffrS e^nySS^ent turmoza^i^nj AM AMALI5IS OF COTHICK ARCHITECTURE. AN ANALYSIS OF GOTHICK ARCHITECTURE. nl .5 \ ■^ 1 -y ^ 1 3 ^^m$ ^^-^ / / T 1 SI "e^B-r ' 1 SECTION I &..5^-i ^j.'^IStafl*^ 1-4-' PLATE 37 /Vf/Vf/UfCv /Tt'rii Stvtimv of J'«>'