fine and interesting examples. Aydon Hall or Castle, Northumberland, is rather a fortified manor-house than a castle. Stoke Say Castle, in Shropshire, is another of the same kind, and with the hall perfect. Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, is another very interesting and perfect example, and the more remarkable as being of brick, and the bricks of the form and size now used, not large and flat like the Roman bricks or tiles which continued to be used

in the twelfth century. Woodcroft Castle, Northamptonshire, is a very remarkable and foreign-looking building of this period. There are remains of houses of this style at Acton Burnel, Shropshire; Godmersham, Kent; Longthorp, Northamptonshire; Charney, Berkshire; West Dean, Sussex; and Oakham, Rutland, called Flore's House. There are also considerable remains of monastic buildings of this style.

A.D. 1222-1235.

CHAPTER V.

The Decorated Style.

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

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. Some persons, indeed, deny that it is a distinct style at all; but whatever may be the case as a matter of abstract theory, or on philosophical principles, all are agreed that as a matter of practical convenience the distinction is useful and necessary. It has its own very characteristic features; the windows, doorways, buttresses, mouldings, and sculpture are all different from those of either the preceding or the following style. On the other hand, some have proposed to divide this style into two-the geometrical style, and the flowing style; but here the distinction is not sufficiently broad to constitute two distinct styles, although, as subdivisions of the same style, 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 side by side in the same building, with the same mouldings and details, and evidently built at the same time; but no distinction can be drawn in doorways and buttresses. It is better, therefore, to continue to use the received division of styles, and the received names for them.

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, 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.

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

The earliest Decorated windows have geometrical tracery, and of this class one of the finest examples is Merton College Chapel,

Oxford (113), which was commenced by the founder, Walter de Merton, but had not made much progress at the time of his death this having taken place suddenly, he appears not to have made any provision for carrying it on, and the expense thus fell upon the college. The bursars' rolls shew that it was carried on gradually for above a century, but the high altar was dedicated in 1277, and there can be little doubt that the east window and the side walls and

113. Merton College Chapel, Oxford, A.D, 1277. Shewing geometrical tracery.

windows of the choir must then have been completed,

although the roof was of a temporary character only:

the intention appears to have been to have had a wooden vault, the vaulting-shafts having been executed with their capitals, but without any stone springers, which would naturally have been put on at the same time if a stone vault had been intended, as we may see in numerous other instances. The tower-arches were not erected until 1330, and the transept was not completed until 1424, the design for the nave and aisles being abandoned.

The chapter-house at York (114), with the passage to it, is a fine example, the exact date of which is still disputed, but it is probably between 1260 and 1280. The transept and part of the choir of Exeter Cathedral were partially rebuilt and altered in style by Bishop Quivil, between 1279 and 1291: these windows are amongst our finest examples of geometrical tracery. The

of

chapter houses Southwell and of

Wells should also be mentioned.

114. Passage to the chapter-house, York, c. 1260-1280. As a Shewing geometrical tracery,

general rule, it may be observed that the buildings of the time of Edward the First have geometrical tracery in the windows and panelling, and are of early Decorated character: the Eleanor crosses, and the tomb of Queen Eleanor at Westminster, are among the best examples

of this style; they were all executed between 1291 and 1294, as appears by the builder's accounts, which are still extant, and have been carefully edited by Mr. Hudson Turner, and printed at the expense of Mr. Beriah Botfield, for the Roxburgh Club. The names of the builders and sculptors shew that they were almost entirely natives, and not foreigners, as has often been asserted. One name only, William Torel, has been supposed to be the same as William the Florentine, a painter who was employed at the same time on some other works in England, but there is no evidence of this being the case; while other names, as Alexander of Abingdon, "the imagineur," or sculptor, William the Irishman, Richard and Roger of Crundale, in Kent, sufficiently prove the employment of natives. As additional examples of this style may be mentioned the hall of Acton Burnel Castle, Shropshire, built by Bishop Burnell, between 1274 and 1292; St. Ethelbert's gate-house, and part of the cathedral at Norwich, rebuilt after the riots in 1275, and re-consecrated by Bishop Middleton in 1278. The chapter-house of Wells Iwas built in the time of Bishop William de Marchia, 1292-1302. The nave of York was commenced in 1291, and continued until 1340, the same style being adhered to: the windows have geometrical tracery.

The work of Prior Henry de Estria, at Canterbury, in 1304-5, belongs also to this style. An instance of

the use of geometrical

tracery at a later period occurs at Canterbury, in St. Anselm's Chapel, the contract for which (A.D. 1336) is extant.