Cathedral, Chestor, South Aislo of Choir, A.D. 1284.

This is a good example of the vaulting of the Early English style,

at its best period, just before the change into the Decorated.

bears a striking resemblance to Lincoln; there is also a parish church at Ely of the same character. A considerable part of Worcester Cathedral was built between 1208 and 1218, consisting of the choir and presbytery with the aisles, which are fine Early English work, and, though much restored from the bad quality of the stone, the restoration has been carefully executed. The choir and transepts of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, were built between 1205 and 1212 by Abbot John of York. The choir and transepts of Rochester Cathedral, built by the sacristan William de Hoo, is another fine and elegant example, with some peculiarities. Salisbury Cathedral is usually referred to as the type par eminence of the style, because the lator additions have been destroyed, so as to loavo only, as we have it, a more perfect whole, all of this style, and it belongs to the period when the style was fully established, that is, from 1220 to 1260. The choir and transepts of Westminster Abbey (commenced in 1245, and suspended also about 1261) are another admirable example of the Early English style, with a slight admixture of the Early French in the buttresses, which partake of the scaffolding character of the French buttresses. The west front of Wells Cathedral is the richest example of the kind anywhere; it is entirely covered with successive bands of sculpture, and the niches or canopies are worked with all the characteristic details of the style. It is also an early example, the work of Bishop Jocelyne, A.D. 1213-1229. The work was considered by Professor Cockoroll as superior to any similar work on the Continont; ho was well acquainted with Italy, which has nothing to compare with it of the same period. The French work in the porches, both at Amiens and Rheims, is later.

The cruciform plan, which had been introduced in the Norman period, was continued in the Early English, in which were frequently added chapels for altars on the east side of the transept, as in Lincoln, and at the east end of the choir in the nine altars at Durham, 1242-1290. Ashburn Church, Derbyshire, which is dated A.D. 1241 by an inscription in brass let into one of the columns, is a fine parish church of this style. Parish churches of this style and of this period are very common in some parts of the country, as in Kent, Northamptonshire, and Yorkshire; but it is not easy to ascertain their dates exactly, excepting by

the principle of comparison with the cathedrals and great mo. nastic churches, which are always dated historically. The north transept of York Minster is a well-known example, and Skelton Church is a small parish church built by the same person. The presbytery of Ely Cathedral, built by Bishop Hugh Northwold, 1235-1252, is another very marked and rich example, also the choir of the Temple Church in London, consecrated in 1240.

CHAPTER V.

The Decorated Stylo.

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 caso as a matter of abstract theory, or on philosophical principles, all are agroed 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 stylo into two-the geometrical style, and the flowing style; but here the distinction is not sufficiently broad to constitute two distinct styles, although, as sub-divisions 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 oven in these wo often find windows with goomotrical traeory and others with flowing tracery side by sido in the same building, with the same mouldings and details, and evidently built at the samo timo; and no distinction can bo drawn in doorways and buttresses. It is better, therefore, to continue to use the received division of styles, and the received names for them. We must always bear in mind that each style is naturally subdivided into early, middle, and late, and that the early is often mixed with the previous style, the later with the subsequent one. 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 DECORATED STYLE is distinguished by its large windows divided by mullions, and the tracery either

M