THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN ESSEX. 1 79 



the exception of those parts that have been damaged, are in good 

 condition. 



Second only in importance to Hedingham is Colchester Castle. 

 Several battles have been fought over this building, some stoutly 

 maintaining that it was a Roman temple built by the Romans, whilst 

 on the other hand papers have been written to prove its Norman 

 origin. I do not propose to enter minutely into this discussion, 

 because to examine the question thoroughly and exhaustively would 

 occupy more time than I can afford out of that at my disposal. 

 After examining the building many times, and reading the arguments 

 for and against, I have never been able to come but to one con- 

 clusion, and that is that this is a building erected for defensive 

 purposes in the Norman period, and not one erected for religious 

 purposes in the time of the Romans. It occupies a much larger 

 area than Hedingham, but is not so lofty, and is not such a fine 

 piece of masonry. 



The transition from Norman to Early English work was very 

 gradual, insomuch that it is sometimes difficult to place the building 

 or feature on the right side of the line. For instance, it has often 

 been said that the distinguishing feature of the Norman style is the 

 semicircular arch, and that of the Early English the pointed, but I 

 am disposed to believe that arches not quite semicircular were used 

 by the Normans. For mstance, in the tower of Boreham Church 

 the windows of the ringing chamber have semicircular heads, whilst 

 those in the belfry in the stage over have heads slightly pointed, but, 

 with some few exceptions, we may describe the principal features of 

 the Early English style, the next division of my subject, as being : 



1. The pointed arch. 



2. Long narrow windows without muUions, Init sometimes 

 grouped together in threes. 



3. The heads of the windows often plain at the commence- 

 ment of the period, but as it progressed the heads became trefoiled. 



4. Columns frequently consisting of small shafts grouped round 

 a large central shaft. 



5. The capitals of columns bell-shaped and decorated with grace- 

 ful foliage, as distinct from the squat, cushion-like shaped capital of 

 the Norman column. 



6. The foliage of this period is bulbous, very distinct from the 

 sharp, acanthus-like foliage of a later period. 



7. An ornament known as the tooth ornament. 



8. As the St) le progressed the groups of windows began to get 



