this style, by which they are readily distinguished, may be briefly described.

The towers are without buttresses or staircases, and are either of the same dimensions from the ground to the summit, or diminishing by stages, or in some late examples slightly battering. The masonry of the earlier examples is very rude and irregular, often with tiles built in among the stones, and frequently of the kind called herring-bone, and it has, in many instances, been originally covered with plaster. There are almost always at the angles quoins formed of long stones set upright, alternately with others, either long or short, laid horizontally, being what is technically called long and short work. In several instances this long and short work is carried over the surface of the tower in the manner of a frame-work of timber. frame-work is evidently intended to bind together the rude masonry of the walls, and gives an idea of their having been imitated from timber buildings. Each side of the tower of Sompting church (see p. 18.) ends in a gable, and from thence rises a pyra

This

liquely and meeting in a point, whilst the jambs are formed either of single stones, or of long and short work. Sometimes the single windows are mere rude openings in the walls, round-headed, and in many cases the arch formed of tiles set edgeways; in small windows the head is frequently cut out of a single stone, and often a frame-work of square-edged stones runs quite round the window; the opening is likewise, in many instances, wider at the bottom than at the top. Another common feature is that they are splayed on the outside as well as

the inside, the window being set in the middle of the wall; the opening widens both outwards and inwards, whereas in the windows of the later styles the window is usually placed near the outer face

of the wall, and splayed within only. The double windows are either triangular-headed or roundheaded, but their

chief peculiarity

consists in the di

vision of the lights;

these are usually not divided by a piece of masonry, but by a rude kind of shaft, or balustre, set in the middle of the wall, and supporting the impost, which is a long stone carried through the entire thickness of

St. Mary, Bishop's-Hill Junior, York.

the wall. The doorways, like the windows, are either triangular-headed or round-headed, and are sometimes built of rough stones, and perfectly plain, sometimes, like the windows, surrounded by a frame-work of square

edged stones, with plain stones for imposts, but in some instances these imposts are moulded, or ornamented with fluting, and the arches are also moulded; some of these mouldings are exactly like Norman work.

Sculptures are not frequent, but the cross of the Greek form is found sculptured in several places. In general few mouldings are used, and some of these are thought to resemble Roman rather than Norman work, as at Sompting and Deerhurst. (See p. 26.) The chancel-arch and the tower-arch frequently remain in the buildings of this class; they are distinguished chiefly by the peculiar character of the impost mouldings, which are different from those of any subsequent style, sometimes merely a square tileshaped stone is used, and sometimes the lower edge is chamfered off, like the common Norman moulding; in other cases the mouldings are very singular, as at Barnack and Corhampton. The impost frequently has its projection inward from the jamb of the arch, and is not carried along the plain face of the wall.