The mouldings of the pier-arches commonly die into the pillars without any capitals, as at St. Lo, Normandy (181).

The crockets are a conspicuous feature, being large, and distant from each other, when compared with English examples. The effect of them is striking, and generally very good.

The entire absence of battlements in French buildings, whether as parapets, or merely for ornament, as is so common in the English Perpendicular style, very remarkable b.

is

The mouldings of this style are a sort of caricature of the earlier styles,

generally shallow

and feeble, but

often much exaggerated (182).

The pillars are sometimes fluted, more often plain rounds, with the arch-mouldings dying into them without any capi

tals, as at St. Lo (181); the bases are stilted, and a good deal like the Perpendicular bases. Anothor pillar which is very characteristic of this stylo con

The only examples in France of the use of battlements as an ornament, are believed to be at Dieppe, where the style is more English than French; and at Calais, where there is a small piece of it also on a building of English character; the absence of the four-centred arch, or Tudor arch, is also remarkable.

sists of a series of rounds and hollows, in a sort of undulating line, without any fillets or other marked division, as at Abbeville (183).

Rich open parapets and

gallery fronts are a striking feature of this style. The panelling and ironwork are also very rich and characteristic.

The Flamboyant style continued in use throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and part of the soventeenth, though getting gradually moro and more mixed with the revived Classical details. The singular mixture of styles known by the name of the Renaissance often presents very picturesque combinations and striking effects; it is generally superior to the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles, which cor

respond to it in England.

183. Abbeville, c. 1450. Section of a Flamboyant pillar.

It is remarkable that we have no satisfactory work on foreign Gothic architecture as compared with English at the same periods. So long ago as 1817 Mr. Rickman observed,

264

THE LATE FLAMBOYANT AND RENAISSANCE STYLE. Paris-S. Eustache.

Built by David, A.D. 1532-1552, under Jean de la Basse.

"That in every instance which had come under my notice of buildings on the Continent, a mixture more or less exact or remote, according to circumstances, of Italian composition in some part or other, is present; and that I had little doubt that a very attentive examination of the continental buildings called Gothic would enable an architect to lay down the regulations of the French, Flemish, German, and Italian styles, which were in use when the English flourished in England." Subsequently, in 1832, on his return from a tour in France, in which he was accompanied by Dr. Whewell, he says, "It is with great pleasure I find myself enabled by this journey to go some way towards this conclusion, with respect to that part of France at least which was included in this tour." But this included only a part of Picardy and of Normandy. Dr. Whewell has also favoured us with his valuable observations made on the same tour, but confined to the same limits.

Professor Willis, in his very instructive work on the Gothic churches of Italy, has also included a part of France. But unfortunately, neither of these learned writers and accurate observers has taken much pains to examine and authenticate the dates of the buildings they describe. Mr. Gally Knight's interesting Tour in Normandy supplies this deficiency to a great extont, so far as rogards the principal buildings of Normandy, but loavos the othor provincos of Franco untouched. Tho Society of Antiquaries of London have done me the honour to print, in the Archæologia, vols. xxxv., xxxvi., xxxvii., some architectural tours of mine in the western or English provinces of France, which afford some information on the architectural peculiarities of those provinces, from which it seems most probable that our English Gothic was chiefly derived. But much still remains to be done before the English reader can form any correct ideas on the subject.

e Further information respecting that province can be obtained from the valuable work, entitled, La Guienne Militaire pendant la Domination Anglaise, par M. F. S. G. Drouyn, 1868, 4to. This work was originally published under the title of La Guienne Anglaise, but the Prefect objected to that name, and insisted on its being altered.