ON THE PERPENDICULAR OF SOMERSET. 37 
such a structure, but the two churches next in importance 
which the county contains, belong essentially to the local 
Perpendicular. I mean Bath Abbey and St. Mary Red- 
cliffe. The latter is perhaps the only parish church in 
England conceived throughout on the cathedral model, 
with the sole and unfortunate exception of the absence of 
a central tower ; and it is one which Somersetshire may 
claim as its own with the most perfect right. It is through- 
out an example of Somersetshire Perpendicular, a develop- 
ment on the cathedral type of the style of Wrington and 
Banwell. And Iam by no means sure that we ought not 
to point to St. Mary Redcliffe as the cradle of the style. 
Its most important features are beginning to be developed 
in the transepts of that church, which are transitional from 
Decorated to Perpendicular. If we conceive them to have 
afforded the general model, we can readily account for the 
retention throughout the whole Perpendicular period of 
what I regard as the distinguishing and characteristic 
merit of Somersetshire work, namely the combination of 
unity and grandeur peculiar to the Perpendicular style with 
much of the delicacy and purity of detail more com- 
monly distinctive of the earlier style. Nowhere is this 
so conspicuous as in the transepts at Redcliffe. The 
general notion is intensely and magnificently Perpendicular, 
while the details are still to a great extent Decorated. 
I have spoken of St. Mary Redcliffe as a Somersetshire 
church ; [hope my Bristol friends will not consider their 
munieipal independence invaded, if I place their whole 
eity, for architectural purposes, within the limits of my fa- 
vourite county. The architectural march, indeed, extends 
a good way into Gloucestershire; but Bristol is an integral 
part of the mother county. Its churches certainly form, 
in some respects, a marked class by themselves, but they 
