Chapter V: Introduction (3)

THE GRADUAL CHANGE FROM THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE TO THE DECORATED.

The change from the Early English to the Decorated style was so very gradual, that it is impossible to draw any line where one style ceases and the other begins. The time of Edward I. was that of the change, and some of our most beautiful examples belong to that period.

In the early Decorated the sculpture of the human figure is remarkable for the ease and chasteness of the attitudes, and the free and graceful, though at the same time rich, folds of the drapery. Few figures can surpass in simplicity and beauty the effigy of Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey, and those on the crosses erected to her memory are almost equally fine, especially those on the Northampton cross; those at Waltham have been mutilated and restored. They were all executed between 1291 and 1294, as appears by the builders’ accounts, which are still extant. The cross at Geddington is perhaps the most perfect of those which remain. This is not mentioned in the executors’ accounts, but probably only because that part of the accounts has been lost; it is as plainly a memorial cross to Queen Eleanor as either of the others.

The three arches of the sedilia and the small one of the piscina at Harleston, Northants, may also be considered as transitional; the trefoil arch used under the pointed one, if taken by itself, would be Early English, and the moldings are deeply undercut, which is another mark of that style. On the other hand, the form of the moldings is that of a roll of parchment, and this form is more usually of the Decorated style.

The transepts of Westminster Abbey are recorded to have been built in his time, and they contain some of the most beautiful work that can be found anywhere; the capital next, with its natural foliage standing out quite free on the bell of the capital, would be considered as belonging to the Decorated style; but the deep undercutting of the abacus would rather belong to the Early English, and the roll-molding may be either Early English or Decorated. Some of the capitals are molded only, without foliage, and some of these have the abacus octagonal, which is more usual in French than in English work.

Some have proposed to divide the Decorated style into two--the geometrical and the flowing; but here the distinction is not sufficiently broad to constitute two distinct styles, although, as sub-divisions, these terms were used by Rickman himself, and are useful. But these two divisions are so frequently contemporaneous,

and run into each other so continually, that it is almost impossible to separate them in practice: the windows may indeed be distinguished, though even in these we often find windows with geometrical tracery and others with flowing tracery in the same building, with the same moldings and details; and no distinction can be drawn in doorways and buttresses. It is better, therefore, to continue to use the received divisions of styles, and the received names for them. There is no broad line of distinction and of division in medieval buildings, it was one continual progress or decline; the divisions are arbitrary, but very convenient in practice.

The beautiful crosses erected by Edward I. at all the places where the body of Queen Eleanor had rested on its way from Grantham, Lincolnshire, where she died, to Westminster Abbey, where she was buried, all belong to this time of change, but are usually reckoned as early examples of the Decorated style. The accounts for preserving these are for the most part among the Public Records, but Geddington is not included, probably only because that account had been lost or mislaid in the Record Office, which was long much neglected; so much so, that for many years the valuable records were kept in the stables of Carlton House, the residence of the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV.

THE DECORATED STYLE.

EDWARD I., II., AND III. A.D. 1272-1377.

The choir of this church is an excellent example of the Decorated style, especially the east window. It is merely a parish church, not monastic.]

The name of the Edwardian style is sometimes given to this second Gothic style, which Rickman justly called DECORATED. The name of Edwardian implies the reigns of the three Edwards, and is convenient for England, but does not apply anywhere else, which is the objection to its general use.

THE PORCHES are sometimes shallow; others have a very bold projection, as at Kidlington; sometimes with windows or open arcades at the sides, and, though rarely, with a room over: there are also many fine timber porches of this style, distinguished by the moldings and barge-boards, as at Aldham, Essex. These wooden porches are common in some districts, as in Herefordshire, and rare in others. There are good examples at Binfield and Long Wittenham, Berkshire, although that is not one of the districts in which they are commonly met with.

There is frequently a niche over the outer doors, or door into the church from the porch; this was for the patron-saint. Occasionally, but rarely, there are remains of a wooden gallery in that position, supposed to have been for the choir-boys to stand when part of the marriage-ceremony was performed in the porch. There is frequently a staircase at the corner of the porch next the church, to ascend to the room over.

This porch is a good typical example of the outer doorway with the ball-flower ornament in the hollow molding, and the niche over it for the figure of the patron-saint.]

THE DOORWAYS of this style are frequently large, and very richly sculptured, and have a rich canopy over them, with crockets and finials, as at Crick, Northants; but in small churches they are as frequently plain, and have merely a dripstone over them, the roll-molding often terminated by two small heads, which are generally a king and a bishop; this is the case also with the windows. It is often not easy to distinguish the plain doorways of this style from those of the preceding one, but in general they are not so deeply

recessed. A few doorways of this style are double. When there are shafts in the jambs they are worked on the same stones, and not inserted as separate shafts of stone or marble, as in the Early English, and as at Dorchester, Oxon. The wooden doors are sometimes ornamented with panelling of a better description than that which is common in the next style; they were originally painted in colours like the interior of the churches, and often have ornamental iron-work upon them; even the nail-heads are made ornamental. This is also the case in the Early English style, and it is frequently not easy to distinguish one from the other, there being very little difference between them. In ordinary parish churches the old wooden door, with the original iron-work upon it, is often preserved longer than any other ornament.

THE DECORATED STYLE is distinguished by its large windows divided by mullions, and the tracery either in flowing lines, or forming circles, trefoils, and other geometrical figures, as at Dorchester, and not running perpendicularly; its ornaments are numerous and very delicately carved, more strictly faithful to nature and more essentially parts of the structure than in any other style. In small country churches, however, there are perhaps more very plain churches of this style than of any other; still the windows have the essential decoration of tracery. The ornament is also part of the construction, a point in which it differs from the other styles; a Decorated cusp cannot be inserted in the tracery.

There is a very fine window, with reticulated tracery and richly molded, in the south walk of the cloisters at Westminster. No rule whatever is followed in the form of the arch over windows in this style; some are very obtuse, others very acute, and the ogee arch is not uncommon. (See p. 141.)

Decorated tracery is usually divided into three general classes--geometrical, flowing, and flamboyant; the variety is so great, that many sub-divisions may be made, but they were all used simultaneously for a considerable period.

The earliest Decorated windows have geometrical tracery; Exeter Cathedral is, perhaps, on the whole, the best typical example of the early part of this style. The fabric rolls are preserved, and it is now evident that the existing windows are, for the most part, of the time of Bishop Quivil, from 1279 to 1291. The windows all have geometrical patterns, and some of these are identical with those of Merton College Chapel, Oxford. The chancel of Haseley Church, Oxon, is a good example of the early Decorated style of Edward I. One of the windows in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, p. 137, and the aisles of the choir of Dorchester Abbey Church, Oxon, p. 136, are also excellent examples.

The buildings of the time of Edward the First have geometrical tracery in the windows. In Merton College Chapel the side windows still retain the original painted glass, with the kneeling figure of the donor several times repeated, with the inscription “Magister Henricus de Mannesfeld,” recorded by Wood as of A.D. 1283.

Many windows of this style, especially in the time of Edward I., have the rear-arch ornamented with cusps, with a hollow space over the head of the window in the thickness of the wall, between the rear arch and the outer arch.

Windows with flowing tracery, as at Great Milton, and in the church of the Austin Friars; also those with reticulated, or net-like forms, are in general somewhat later than the geometrical patterns; at least, they do not seem to have been introduced quite so early; but they are very frequently contemporaneous, and both classes may often be found side by side in the same building, evidently erected at the same time. An early instance of this occurs at Stoke Golding, in

Leicestershire, built between 1275 and 1290, as appears by an inscription still remaining: the windows have mostly geometrical tracery, but several have flowing. The same mixture occurs at Selby Abbey, and St. Mary’s, Beverley. In some instances windows with geometrical tracery have the moldings and the mullions covered with the ball-flower ornament in great profusion, even to excess: these examples occur chiefly in Herefordshire, as at Leominster; and in Gloucestershire, as in the south aisle of the nave of the Cathedral at Gloucester: they are for the most part, if not entirely, of the time of Edward II.

Finedon, and Higham Ferrars, Northants, are good examples of the ogee form of arch, and the manner in which the tracery is made to harmonise with the arch is very pleasing to the eye, and not very common.

What is called the net-like character of tracery, from its general resemblance to a fisherman’s net, is very characteristic of this style at its best period, about the middle of the fourteenth century, of which there is a very fine example in the west window of the Franciscan Friary at Reading, p. 143, of which the remains are valuable, although a great deal of it was destroyed in the Georgian era, from the neglect that was usual at that period. It has been carefully restored in the time of Queen Victoria, at the expense of a gentleman of Reading, and is now used as a chapel-of-ease for the large parish in which it is situated. The roof now used at St. Mary’s Church in Reading is said to have originally belonged to this chapel. One of the side windows, with a segmental head of the same period, is also a very good example of the style. This kind of tracery is the most usual characteristic of this style, and begins in the time of Edward II. There are good examples of this period in the south aisles of the churches of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Aldate’s, Oxford.

The inner arch, or rear-arch, is frequently of a different shape and proportion to the outer one: there is also sometimes a series of open cusps hanging from it, called hanging foliation.

It is more common in some parts of the country than in others: this feature seems to have taken the place of the inner plane of decoration, with tracery and shafts, of the Early English style, and it disappears altogether in the succeeding style. There is a good example of this inner arch in Broughton Church, Oxfordshire. This foliated inner arch is not a very common feature.

Square-headed windows are very common in this style in many parts of the country, especially in Leicestershire and in Oxfordshire, as at Ardley. Windows with a flat segmental arch are also frequently used in this style, and the dripstone, or projecting molding over the window to throw off the wet, is sometimes omitted, as at Stonesfield, which has also an elegant detached shaft in the interior.

Interior and Exterior.]

Windows in towers are usually different from those in other parts of the church. In the upper storey, where the bells are, there is no glass; in some parts of the country there is pierced stonework for keeping out the birds, but more usually they are of wood only. These are called sound-holes.

The storey under this, where the ringers stand, is also commonly called the belfry, and the windows of this storey are also peculiar, sometimes richly ornamented as at Irthlingborough,--where it is part of the work of Pyal, the founder of the college in that parish, A.D. 1388.

Clere-storey windows of this style are often small, and either circular with quatrefoil cusps, or trefoils or quatrefoils; or the spherical triangle with cusps, which forms an elegant window. The clever manner in which these windows are splayed within, and especially below, to throw down the light, should be noticed.

In some parts of the country, as in Oxfordshire, small clere-storey windows of the Decorated style, as at Great Milton and Garsington, are not uncommon, but more usually the churches have been rebuilt in the Perpendicular style, along with the roof, when the church has been raised.

DECORATED WINDOWS OF CLERE-STOREYS

Interior. Exterior.

Great Milton, Oxon, c. A.D. 1320.]

Circular windows are also a fine feature of this style, chiefly used at the ends of the transepts in large churches, or at the west end in small ones. A rare instance of an east window of this form occurs at Westwell, Oxon, and a fine one on the side of a transept at Cheltenham.

Flamboyant tracery, and the forms approaching to it, generally indicate a late date. We have no instance of real Flamboyant work in this country, although forms of tracery approaching to it are not uncommon; the moldings are never of the true Flamboyant character, which is quite distinct both from the Decorated and the Perpendicular; it coincided in time with the latter, and therefore does not properly belong to our present subject.

The arch is sometimes cinquefoiled, and ornamented with crockets and bunches of foliage for finials, and with pinnacles also, as in Beverley Minster, where this arch is that of a canopy over a tomb, between two tall piers of a lofty arch. The ogee arch is frequently used in small arcades and in the heads of windows. The drip-stones or hoodmolds are generally supported by heads, and are frequently enriched with crockets and finials. The most important are naturally those between the nave and aisles; those of the triforium, if there is one, as at Beverley, are not so tall, and are commonly divided into two in the same space as the one below.

DECORATED ARCHES.

THE ARCHES do not differ very materially in general effect from the Early English, but are distinguished by the moldings and capitals as before described.

THE ARCADES which ornament the walls in rich buildings, and those over the sedilia, are very characteristic features of the style. In some instances the sedilia, or seats for the officiating clergy by the side of the altar, have projecting canopies over them, forming perfect tabernacles, as if for images; more commonly they have canopies on the same plane with the seats.

Capital

Coupled shafts

Bases

Pedestal

Naseby, Northants.]

THE PILLARs have no longer detached shafts, and the capitals are ornamented with foliage of a different character from that which preceded it, as has been mentioned. Occasionally, though not very frequently, the base of the pillar is stilted upon a lofty plinth, as at Naseby, Northants. In a few instances, even in genuine work of the fourteenth century, this is done in a parish church merely for convenience, to raise the base above the level of the backs of the seats. This is an exceptional example, but is convenient as shewing beginners all the parts belonging to a pillar, the arch-molding resting upon the capital, and the pillar itself consisting of a cluster of shafts, with separate molded capitals and bases to the shafts that are united in one pillar, and the base resting upon a pediment.

In ordinary parish churches the pillars and arches are frequently as plain as in the Early English, and there is no very perceptible difference at first sight. In richer churches the pillars are clustered and the arches richly molded, and often have the hood-molding over them.

The pillar is usually much more lofty than the one at Naseby (p. 151), and has in general a capital, or several smaller capitals, to the shafts that are united; there is not always any pediment, though there sometimes is, as at Frome, Somerset. More usually there is what is called a stilted base only. The example here given from Exeter Cathedral is an extremely good one of a clustered pillar, with molded capitals and stilted base. When there is foliage on the capital, it is usually longer, as in York Minster; but in this style, notwithstanding its name, the capitals are more frequently of moldings only, though the foliage obviously gives much more decoration.

1 2

Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, c. A.D. 1320.]

In the richer examples of this style, the CAPITALS are ornamented with beautiful foliage, each leaf being accurately copied from nature, as well as the best modern artist could do it. These were arranged so as to encircle the pillar, sometimes by means of a stalk forming a branch, as at Beverley (1). In other instances each leaf is separate, arranged round the bell of the capital, but by no means flat, and having almost as good an effect as when ranged upon stalks, as at Beverley (2). A large pier is sometimes a cluster of six shafts, each with its separate capital, some of which have foliage under a molded abacus, as at Beverley (3), others a series of moldings only. More frequently a pier consists of four shafts only, with a series of moldings for the capital, the upper or abacus being usually the roll-molding. Sometimes the hollows are rather deep, though not so deep as in the Early English, as at Beverley and Stanwick. In other instances there is no hollow, but the molding stands out clear from the bell of the capital, with a ring at the foot of it, as at Irthlingborough.

THE BASES are usually molded only, and stand upon a plinth, the height of which varies very much; it frequently happens that a new pavement of a church has raised the level several inches, which must, of course, be taken from the height of the base.

In small country churches, the pillars or piers are simply round or octagonal, and the arches that rest upon them are sometimes molded and sometimes not; but in richer churches the piers consist of a number of shafts clustered together, which add much to the effect. It frequently happens that four shafts are arranged diamond-wise, with a small hollow between them, as at Irthlingborough. There is sometimes a fillet on the shaft, or the shaft is pear-shaped; both of these occur in the same pillar at Beverley.

DECORATED CAPITALS.

Sometimes there is a fillet on the edge, as at Beverley Minster (3); in other instances the edge is brought to a point, as in the same example. These clustered pillars add very much to the effect of the building; but this is not always noticed until they are drawn, and a section of them is shewn, and then the skill of the medieval architect has justice done to it. The moldings are chiefly shewn on the arches.

THE MOLDINGS of this style differ from the Early English chiefly in having the rounds and hollows not so deeply cut, and more generally filleted: the roll-molding, and the quarter round, are very much used; the abacus of the capital is in general a roll or filleted round, and the base is formed of round moldings without the deep hollow: as the style advances, the moldings become, generally, more shallow and feeble. The roll-molding is perhaps the most characteristic of the style, though it is used occasionally in Early English work also. A bold quarter-round is frequently used on arches without any other; the plain chamfer is used in all styles, but in Decorated work it is frequently sunk so as to leave a small square edge at each angle, thus varying the light and shade, and giving a precision to the angles of

DECORATED MOULDINGS.

the chamfer which has a very good effect, as at Dorchester, p. 157. In late examples this is varied by a gentle swelling in the middle, forming a kind of shallow ogee molding, as at Kidlington. The ornamental sculptures in the hollow moldings are numerous, but there are two which require more particular notice; they are nearly as characteristic of the Decorated style as the zig-zag is of the Norman, or the tooth-ornament of the Early English. The first is the ball-flower, which is a globular flower half opened, and shewing, within, a small round ball. It is used with the utmost profusion in the moldings of windows, doorways, canopies, cornices, arches, &c., as at Raunds, Kidlington, and Dorchester (p. 157), generally with good effect, but sometimes in such excess as almost to destroy the effect of the moldings; but at the same time it gives great richness to the general effect of the windows. The ball-flowers are sometimes placed at intervals, and connected by a stem with or without foliage.

The other ornament is the four-leaved flower. This has a raised centre, and four petals cut in high relief; it is frequently much varied, but may be distinguished by its being cut distinctly into four petals, and by its boldness: it is sometimes used abundantly, though not quite so profusely as the ball-flower. In some instances the centre is sunk instead of being raised.

The battlement as an ornamental feature in the interior of buildings is frequently used in this style, although it is more common in the Perpendicular. Decorated battlements may generally be distinguished by the horizontal molding being cut off at each opening, and not continued vertically down the sides of it, as is usual in the later styles; and this applies to the actual battlement on the parapet, as well as to the merely ornamental battlement in the interior. It occurs on the top of a screen, or of a piscina or other niche; also on the transom, and sometimes on the sill of a window; in all which situations it is more common and more conspicuous in the Perpendicular style.

The use of the battlement as an ornament in the interior of a building, often on the edge of the sill of a window, is a singular caprice, but very common in English buildings; it is one of the English features that is much quizzed by the French architectural antiquaries.

The foliage in this style is more faithfully copied from nature than in any other: the vine-leaf, the maple, and the oak with the acorn, are the most usual. The surface of the wall is often covered with flat foliage, arranged in small squares called diaper-work, which is believed to have originated in an imitation of the rich hangings then in general use, and which bore the same name. These diaper patterns were originally coloured in imitation of the silks from which they were copied, and which at an early period came from the East, though they were afterwards imitated by the European manufacturers in Belgium and France, particularly at Ypres and Rheims. This kind of ornament was used in the Early English style, as in the choir of Westminster Abbey, but it more commonly belongs to the Decorated style. The colouring of the ornaments to make them more effective was far more common in mediæval Gothic work than is generally supposed, because it has been so universally whitewashed over, either by the Puritans, or during the bad taste of the Georgian era. This colouring frequently comes to light during modern restorations, when the whitewash is scraped off, and sometimes good pictures of scriptural subjects have been whitewashed over in the same ignorant manner.

THE BUTTRESSES in this style have great variety of forms and of degrees of richness. Sometimes they are quite plain, or merely have the angles chamfered off, and terminated by a slope, either under the cornice, as at Irthlingborough, or independent of it, as at Stanton St. John, Oxon. In other instances the buttress terminates in a pediment or gablet, as at Raunds, either with or without crockets and a finial, according to the richness of the building. Over each buttress there is frequently a gurgoyle, or ornamental water-spout. They usually have pediments, and are frequently enriched on the face with niches for figures (which sometimes, but rarely, are left), and canopies, and often terminate in pinnacles, as at Gadsby, Leicestershire. In large buildings there are fine arch-buttresses spanning over the aisles, as at Howden. There are sometimes also groups of pinnacles round the base of the spire in this style, which have a very rich effect, as at St. Mary’s, Oxford.

DECORATED BUTTRESSES.

These groups of pinnacles are among the most ornamental features of the style; those at the east end of Howden are among the most celebrated. The buttresses of this style are almost invariably divided into stages with a set-off between each, and sometimes have a succession of niches with crocketed canopies over them. Our eyes are so much accustomed to empty niches in this country that they do not offend us, but an empty niche is in fact an unmeaning thing, a niche was originally intended to contain an image, and the canopy over it was to protect the head of the image.

The flat surfaces in niches and monuments, on screens, and in other situations, are covered with delicately-carved patterns, called diaper-work, representing foliage and flowers; among which are introduced birds and insects, and sometimes dogs or other animals, all executed with much care and accuracy, and proving that the artists of that time drew largely from nature, the fountain-head of all perfection in art.

The sedilia, or seats for the officiating ministers on the east side of the altar, are frequently the most ornamental feature in the choir of a parish church; as at Chesterton, Oxon, in which they are very elegant, with light shafts and the ball-flower molding. These, with the piscinas, are frequently the only ornamental features in a country church, which is in other respects quite plain; the name Decorated is sometimes objected to on this ground, but the name has special reference to the window-tracery, which in the Decorated is a necessary part of the construction; this is not the case in the Early English style.

THE PISCINAS, or water-drains, and niches, or tabernacles for images, are often very rich, with canopies and open tracery. These objects commonly shew the chief beauties of this style; they are always on the south side of the altar, the locker or ambry for keeping the chalice, &c., is usually on the north side. The pediment, or straight-sided canopy, is much used in this style over doors, sedilia, piscinas, and monuments.

THE GROINED ROOFS, OR VAULTS, are distinguished from those of the preceding style chiefly by an additional number of ribs, and by the natural foliage on the bosses. Many fine examples of these remain, as in the Cathedral of Exeter, and at York in the chapter-house; at Norwich in the cloisters; at Chester[E] the vault is of wood, with stone springers. There are a few instances of stone roofs of this style over narrow spaces of very high pitch, supported by open-work, as if in imitation of wood-work, as on the vestry of Willingham, Cambridgeshire, and the porch of Middleton Cheney, Oxfordshire.

DECORATED PISCINAS.

TIMBER ROOFS of this period are comparatively scarce, although they are more common than is usually supposed; but it is lamentable to observe how fast they are disappearing: that of the hall of the abbey of Great Malvern, the finest example that existed in this country, or probably in any other, was wantonly destroyed: it was a wooden ceiling, with an outer roof.

Bradenstoke Priory, or Clack Abbey, near Chippenham, in Wiltshire, is, or was, a fine example. The timber roofs of churches of this style are not generally so fine as those of halls. There are, however, many very good specimens of Decorated roofs remaining in churches, as at Adderbury, Oxfordshire, Raunds, Northamptonshire, and several others in that neighbourhood.

It should be observed that what are called open timber roofs are, very frequently, inner roofs or ceilings for ornament only, with a plain substantial outer roof over them, as at Sparsholt, Berkshire. These inner roofs or wooden ceilings, are sometimes of precisely the same form as stone vaults, which are, in fact, ceilings of another kind. The wooden vaults of Warmington and the cloisters of Lincoln have been already mentioned; those of the nave of York Minster and Winchester Cathedral are also of wood only. At Kiddington, Oxfordshire, is a good example of a Decorated timber-roof of an ordinary parish church. At Kidlington, in the same county, there is also a Decorated timber-roof to the south aisle of the nave.

Ceilings are very useful and often necessary, and the proper thing to be considered is how best to make them ornamental also, as they were formerly. The Puritan fashion of plain whitewashed plaster ceilings caused a natural prejudice against ceilings altogether, which has been carried too far. These were introduced in the seventeenth century, and continued during the ignorant and apathetic eighteenth, and first half of the nineteenth. In some instances these flat plaster ceilings entirely concealed the upper part of fine Decorated windows; this was notably the case in the fine church of Haseley, Oxfordshire; the plaster ceiling had there been introduced in the time of George the Third. This church was the first to be restored by the Oxford Architectural Society, and the first in which open-seats were restored in the diocese of Oxford.

The open timber-roofs of the Victorian Gothic architects, whether in what are miscalled _restorations_ or in new churches, have quite a distinct character of their own, a general imitation of the time of Edward the First or Second; but no one with eyes in his head can mistake _these_ for old work, although in some of the _real_ restorations the work is so well done that inexperienced eyes are frequently deceived. In roofs and painted glass this is never the case; the English painted glass of the Decorated style is generally very good, with grey backgrounds, and bands of figures in colour, which are thus well seen; in modern glass, bright colours are put in the backgrounds, and destroy the effect of the figures. The roofs are also generally a bad imitation of the old work.

THE TOWERS of the Decorated style are usually placed at the west end, and follow very much the same general appearance as in the Early English, but of course with the doorways, and windows, and other features characteristic of the style. The cornice is also generally richer, with a panelled battlement, and with gargoyles projecting from it at the corners, and pinnacles at the angles, as at Moulton, Northants, where the lower part of the pinnacles only remain. Sometimes there appears to have been a wooden spire, but this is by no means always the case.

THE SPIRES of the Decorated style differ but slightly from those of the Early English, excepting that there are generally more of the spire-lights, small windows at the bases and on the sides of the spire, as at Wollaston and Ringstead, Northants.

THE EAST FRONT of a church of this style most commonly consists of one large window at the end of the choir, flanked by tall buttresses, and a smaller one at the end of each aisle; the west front usually has the same arrangement, with the addition of a doorway, or doorways, under the central window, but there are frequently two narrow windows, with a buttress between them carrying a bell-cot, in small country churches of this style. The east ends of Carlisle and Selby, and the west end of Howden, are among the finest examples. On the Continent the large rose-window is almost always a principal feature of the west front; with us it is comparatively rare, and more often found in the transept ends than at the west end. The south fronts of Howden and Selby are also fine examples of the arrangement of the side of a large building of this style, with large windows both to the aisle and the clere-storey, separated by buttresses with pinnacles. The interior of the choir at Selby is one of the finest examples of the general effect of a Decorated interior, and on a smaller scale the choirs of Hull, and of Dorchester, Oxfordshire, are good examples. Lichfield Cathedral has the great advantage of having its three spires perfect, and on this account perhaps gives us the best idea of the effect intended to be produced by the exterior of a perfect church of this style: there can be no doubt that the same arrangement was contemplated in many other instances.

The lantern of Ely and the nave of York must not be omitted in this mention of some of the leading examples of the Decorated style, the general character of which is thus ably summed up by MR. RICKMAN:--

“THE GENERAL APPEARANCE of Decorated buildings is at once simple and magnificent; simple from the small number of parts, and magnificent from the size of the windows, and the easy flow of the lines of tracery. In the interior of large buildings we find great breadth, and an enlargement of the clere-story windows, with a corresponding diminution of the triforium, which is now rather a part of the clere-storey opening than a distinct member of the division. The roofing, from the increased richness of the groining, becomes an object of more attention. On the whole, the nave of York, from the uncommon grandeur and simplicity of the design, is certainly the finest example; ornament is nowhere spared, yet there is a simplicity which is peculiarly pleasing.”

THE GRADUAL CHANGE FROM DECORATED TO PERPENDICULAR.

RICHARD II. AND THE LATTER PART OF EDWARD III.

FROM _c._ 1360 to 1399.

Having now traced the gradual development of Gothic architecture, from the rudest Romanesque to its perfection in the Decorated style, it only remains to trace its decline, which, though not equally gradual, was much more so than is commonly supposed. Up to the time of its perfection the progress appears to have been nearly simultaneous throughout the northern part of Europe, with some exceptions; but during the period of its decline, chiefly the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it assumed a different form in each country, so distinct one from the other as to require a different name, and to be fairly considered as a distinct style. To call the Perpendicular style of England by the same name as the Flamboyant style of France, Germany, and the Low Countries, can only cause needless confusion; and the received names for these styles are so expressive of their general character that it would not be easy to improve upon them.

The gradual change from the Decorated to the Perpendicular style has been less generally noticed than the earlier transitions; but though less apparent at first sight, it may be as clearly traced, and examples of it are almost equally numerous: they occur in most parts of the country, though more common in some districts than in others, especially in Norfolk.

Professor Willis has demonstrated that this change began to shew itself, in the choir and transepts of Gloucester Cathedral, before the middle of the fourteenth century. The panelling and the window tracery have so much the appearance of the Perpendicular style that they have been commonly supposed to have been rebuilt or altered at a late period; but the vaulting and the moldings are pure Decorated, and the painted glass of the fourteenth century is evidently made for the places which it occupies in the heads of the windows with Perpendicular tracery: it must therefore be considered as the earliest known example of this great change of style. In this work of alteration the walls and arches of the Norman church were not rebuilt, but cased with panelling over the inner surface, so as to give the effect of the latter style to the interior. This was just the same process as was afterwards followed at Winchester by William of Wykeham, in changing the Norman to the Perpendicular style in appearance without any actual rebuilding. The work was begun as early as 1337, and carried on for a number of years. The funds were procured by offerings at the tomb of King Edward II., who, as is well known, was buried in this church, the body having been removed from Berkeley Castle for that purpose by the Abbot Thokey. It has been ascertained by Archdeacon Freeman, at Exeter, by a careful comparison of the building with the fabric rolls, that the greater part of that fine Cathedral was also _altered_ from the Norman to the Decorated style without rebuilding.

The Dean’s Cloister of Windsor with the buildings surrounding it was built between 1350 and 1356, as appears by the builder’s accounts still extant in the Public Record Office. The style is Perpendicular, but with Decorated moldings, or at least a mixture of them. The vault of the porch under the Ærary or treasury, and the doorway to it, are among the richest pieces of work of this period. It was originally the porch of the chapter-house of the Order of the Garter.

Sir G. G. Scott, in his “Gleanings from Westminster Abbey,” has also shewn that part of the cloisters, and some other work recorded to have been built by Abbot Litlington, 1362-1386, are in a style of transition, belonging rather to the Perpendicular than the Decorated.

The substructure of all the canonical residences running southward from the Deanery, (itself the Abbot’s house of old,) displays a range of vaulting of simple and elegant character, with here and there a window of the period still remaining to testify that the whole was completed, before the tasteless alterations of subsequent centuries destroyed the workmanship which they were as unable to appreciate as to imitate. Two archways still remain, in the length of this substructure, connecting Great Dean’s Yard with the courts to the eastward of it. They are of the style to which their known date would assign them; though perhaps a close consideration of their details (such as the cavetto and double ogee moldings) would lead to the conclusion that those characteristics, hitherto assigned to the fifteenth century, are here found in one of the earliest examples of their application.

The whole of Abbot Litlington’s work is in a style of transition between the Decorated and Perpendicular period; it is almost impossible to say to which of these received styles the moldings and details can be referred. As the divisions of the styles of Gothic Architecture are entirely arbitrary, arranged for general convenience, and for the use of beginners in the study, it is perfectly natural that this sort of mixture should take place for a certain period between each of the great changes. The latter part of the fourteenth century was the period when the Perpendicular style was coming into general use, but was not fully established: as the distinction is less marked than in the similar period between each of the other styles, it has been commonly overlooked, but the same overlapping of styles occurs at this period as in the similar transition between the others. This is more marked and prominent between the Norman and the Early English styles, and therefore that is commonly called _the_ period of transition; but a similar period exists equally between each, a gradual change was always going on.

One of the earliest authenticated examples of this

Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1376-1386.]

transition is the church of Edington, Wiltshire, built by William de Edington, Bishop of Winchester: the first stone was laid in 1352, and the church was dedicated in 1361. It is a fine cruciform church, all of uniform character, and that character is neither Decorated nor Perpendicular, but a very remarkable mixture of the two styles throughout. The tracery of the windows looks at first sight like Decorated, but on looking more closely the introduction of Perpendicular features is very evident. The west doorway has the segmental arch common in Decorated work; over this is the usual square label of the Perpendicular, and under the arch is Perpendicular panelling over the heads of the two doors: the same curious mixture is observable in the moldings, and in all the details. This example is the more valuable from the circumstance that it was Bishop Edington who commenced the alteration of Winchester Cathedral into the Perpendicular style; he died in 1366, and the work was continued by William of Wykeham, who mentions in his will that Edington had finished the west end, with two windows on the north side and one on the south: the change in the character of the work is very distinctly marked. Bishop Edington’s work at Winchester was executed at a later period than that at Edington, and, as might be expected, the new idea is more fully developed; but on a comparison between the west window of Winchester and the east window of Edington, it will at once be seen that the principle of construction is the same; there is a central division carried up to the head of the window, and sub-arches springing from it on each side: it may be observed that whenever this arrangement of the sub-arches occurs in Decorated work, it is a sign that the work is late in the style. Before the death of Bishop Edington the great principles of the Perpendicular style were fully established. Those chiefly consist of the Perpendicular lines through the head of the window, and in covering the surface of the wall with panelling of the same kind. These features are as distinctly marked at Winchester as in any subsequent building, or as they well could be.

The next great work of Wykeham was New College Chapel, Oxford, certainly one of the earliest, perhaps the first, building erected from the foundations entirely in the Perpendicular style; and a finer specimen of the style does not exist. The first stone was laid in 1380, and it was dedicated in 1386. Winchester College, built immediately after New College, is of precisely the same character with it, as might have been expected: they are both excellent specimens for the study of the Perpendicular style. Another very remarkable and valuable example of the transition from Decorated to Perpendicular is the choir of York Minster, commenced by Archbishop John de Thoresby in 1361, and completed in 1408; the general appearance of this magnificent work is Perpendicular, but there is great mixture in all the details. The chancel of St. Mary’s Church at Warwick, rebuilt by Thomas Beauchamp, second Earl of Warwick, between 1370 and 1391, has more of the Perpendicular, being covered with panelling like Winchester, but the moldings are quite of mixed character. King’s Sutton Church, Northamptonshire, deserves notice as a specimen of this transition. In some instances, as at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the perpendicular line of the molding is carried on straight through the flowing lines of the tracery to the arch.

The nave and western transepts of Canterbury Cathedral were rebuilt between 1378 and 1411, but the Perpendicular style was then so fully established that there are scarcely any signs of transition. Chipping-Camden Church, Gloucestershire, was rebuilt by William Greville, a rich wool-stapler, who is buried in the chancel with his wife, and there is a fine brass to their memory; he died in 1401. This church is almost entirely of transitional character. The glorious chapter-house of Howden, and Gisburne Priory Church, in Yorkshire, are of this period, and very fine examples of early Perpendicular work. The roof and the casing of the walls of Westminster Hall belong also to the close of this century, 1397-99. The gatehouse of Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire, is another splendid example of this transition. The cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral are decided Perpendicular in the fan-tracery of the vaults, but are partly of earlier date and character.

Houses and castles of the time of Richard II. are rather numerous and fine, and have frequently such a mixture of the Decorated and Perpendicular styles that it is difficult to say to which they belong. This is the case with a part of Warwick Castle, of Donnington Castle, Berkshire, Wardour Castle, Wiltshire, and Wressel Castle, Yorkshire; and Bolton Castle, in the more northern part of Yorkshire, is another fine example, and remarkably perfect. It is a very lofty and fine building, rather a fortified house than a castle intended for military purposes; there are two courts, and all the towers are perfect, or nearly so. It belongs to the time of Richard II. Dartington Hall, Devonshire, near Totnes, is another remarkable example of this period and character; it is a manor-house not fortified, with extensive farm-buildings attached to it. All the original windows are of four lights, with arches of the form called the shouldered-arch, which has been adopted in the modern Gothic front of Balliol College, Oxford. The original parts of the Vicar’s Close at Wells are of the same character and period; the remains of the Vicar’s Close at Lincoln are in part also of this character, one house is earlier, more decidedly Edwardian, and remarkably perfect. Most of these buildings are well known and have often been described, but are sometimes said to belong to the one style and sometimes to the other, this important transitional period having been very commonly overlooked.

The chancel of the fine church at Warwick is an excellent example of this change; it has sometimes been described as of the earlier style, and by other writers as of the later. The chapel on the south side of it, with the celebrated tomb of the Earl of Warwick, is an addition, and belongs to the later style.

THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.

RICHARD II. TO HENRY VIII. A.D. 1377-1547.

Having thus taken a rapid historical survey of the introduction of the Perpendicular style, it should be mentioned that this style is exclusively English, _it is never found_ on the Continent, and it has the advantage of being more _economical_ in execution than the earlier styles. It remains to describe its characteristic features. The broad distinction of the Perpendicular style lies in the form of the tracery in the head of the windows; and in fully developed examples the distinction is sufficiently obvious. We have no longer the head of the window filled with the gracefully flowing lines of the Decorated tracery, but their place is supplied by the rigid lines of the mullions, which are carried through to the architrave moldings, the spaces between being frequently divided and subdivided by similar Perpendicular lines; so that _Perpendicularity_ is so clearly the characteristic of these windows, that no other word could have been found which would at once so well express the predominating feature. The same character prevails throughout

A remarkable example of a Perpendicular church, the contract for
building which has been preserved, and was published by Mr.
Hartshorne for the Oxford Architectural Society in 1841.
]

the buildings of this period: the whole surface of a building, including its buttresses, parapets, basements, and every part of the flat surface, is frequently covered with panelling, in which the Perpendicular line clearly predominates; and to such an excess is this carried that the windows frequently appear to be only openings in the panel-work. This is equally apparent at the beginning, in the interior of the west end of Winchester Cathedral, and in the exterior of the Divinity School, Oxford, near the end of this style. The towers of Boston in Lincolnshire, and Evesham in Worcestershire, are also fine examples of exterior panelling. Panelling, indeed, now forms an important feature of the style; for though it was used in the earlier styles, it was not to the same extent, and was of very different character, the plain surfaces in those styles being relieved chiefly by diaper-work.

In the earlier or transitional examples we find, as has been mentioned, a mixture of the two styles. The general form of the tracery is frequently Decorated, but the lines of the mullions are carried through them, and perpendicular lines in various ways introduced. A very common form of transition is the changing of the flowing lines of a two-light Decorated window into a straight-sided figure by the introduction of perpendicular lines from the points of the sub-arches, as at Haseley, Oxfordshire. Sometimes we have Decorated moldings, with Perpendicular tracery, but frequently the features of both styles are intimately blended, and produce a very good effect.

This peculiarly English style is found far more convenient for domestic buildings than the earlier styles. There are a large number of palaces and houses of this style remaining, such as nearly all the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge; it can also be very well executed in brickwork. Some of the finest mediæval houses that we have remaining are of brick, and the tall brick chimneys of this style are both ornamental and convenient; they are usually built in the outer wall, and carried up above the level of the roof, and for this reason the fires made under such chimneys never smoke. Modern builders have greatly neglected this precaution, and the wind blowing over a high-pitched roof naturally descends on the other side, and carries the smoke down the chimney, instead of letting it float away freely with the wind.

No one who has seen the fine brick buildings of the time of Henry the Seventh can despise them. Eton College is almost entirely built of brick, excepting the chapel, which is faced with stone. In many districts the difference of expense between brick and stone is enormous. The old Romans were quite aware of this, and used brick far more than modern builders are willing to do, even for their imperial palaces and magnificent aqueducts.

The arches of this style are not usually so acute as in the earlier periods, and in the latter part of the style become very flat, but in the earlier portion they are similar to the previous style, as in the compartment of Fotheringhay. In this instance there is also a deep hollow molding, which looks at first sight like Decorated, and beginners in the study are frequently misled by this feature, but it is often continued for the first half of the Perpendicular period. The arch of the clere-storey window over the former is comparatively flat. The name of _clere-storey_ is usually continued even when there is no _triforium_, or blind-storey, as it is called by William of Worcester, writing in the fifteenth century. The French have adopted the English name of _clear-storey_, with the old spelling [as clèrestorie]: it is therefore more expedient to observe it, but for beginners it may perhaps be necessary to explain that _clere_ is the old spelling of ‘clear.’ The different forms of the two arches of the windows of the aisle and of the clere-storey in this dated example, prove that the form of the arch is never a safe guide to the date of a building; to fix a date, various details have often to be considered.

Arch over a tomb of a knight in plate armour, of the fifteenth century.]

It is not always easy to distinguish at first sight the arch over a tomb of early Perpendicular from one in the Decorated style, as at Waterperry, Oxon. Here the battlement on the top of the wall at the back, and the plate-armour of the knight, and the crockets on the ogee arch, are more like the Decorated style.

* * * * *

The capitals and bases of columns in this style can generally be distinguished by the shallowness of the moldings, sometimes panelling is introduced; one of this kind, with the base stilted and molded, is in the Lady-chapel at Winchester. Foliage, if used, is generally shallow, and not so good as in the Decorated.

Pier, Fotheringhay, A.D. 1435.]