76 BRADBOURNE CHURCH. 



It is now used for a water-trough ; a font has been put to a worse 

 purpose at Bradbourne, as I will show you later on. 



To carry forward the history of the church, the stones have now 

 to speak for themselves, and we accordingly gather from their 

 details that nothing more was done to the fabric until the 

 middle of the fourteenth century (1350). 



A considerable work was now taken in hand. The south wall 

 of the nave was pulled down, an arcade set up in its place, and 

 the south aisle built. At the same time a window was inserted 

 in the north wall, exactly facing the centre of the middle arch 

 of the arcade, no doubt taking the place of an Early English 

 single light window, and of precisely the same design as the two 

 Decorated windows in the south aisle. The Norman doorway, as 

 we have seen before, was removed to the tower, and one of the 

 Decorated period now forms the present entrance to the church. 

 The pitch of the nave roof was lowered, as we find by the second 

 chase on the west face of the tower, unless, indeed, this chase 

 may be taken to indicate the pitch of the Norman roof. 



As regards the style of the Decorated work, the arcade is plain 

 and solid, and by no means devoid of dignity. The windows are 

 large in detail, and have the peculiar, feature of their hood 

 mouldings being worked close up to, and forming part of, the 

 string course. The hoods of both windows are terminated by 

 heads of men and women, and these alone would fix the date. 

 Those of the easternmost window represent Edward III. and 

 Philippa. The king is shown with a beard which we know with 

 absolute certainty, from his Great Seals, he first began to wear 

 between 1338 and 1340. It shows the interest of the study of 

 all the branches of mediaeval art when we can date a window in 

 the Peak, at least in one direction, by the beard of a king. 



It must be remembered that the division of Gothic into styles 

 is entirely arbitrary, and for the convenience of students. Unlike 

 Classic, which has its rules, fixed and immovable, the history of 

 Gothic architecture is one of continual progress and change, and 

 there must therefore be a Transition, more or less emphasized 

 either way, between each style. For instance, we say roughly 



