PERPENDICULAR OF SOMERSET AND EAST-ANGLIA, 9 
Of these Iam very difident in pronouneing an opinion. 
I know that I have not seen some of the finest among 
their number, but, as far as I have seen, I have not the 
slightest hesitation in saying that, in this respect, the 
supremacy of Somersetshire over all other parts of 
England remains altogether unaffected. No Fast-Anglian 
towerthat I saw could be compared for a moment, as a real 
architectural design, to even a second-rate specimen of 
any one of the three Somersetshire classes. One thing 
that especially struck me was that I could not in the same 
way divide them into classes; each tower of any conse- 
quence must be described for itself. First came the de- 
tached tower at Wisbeach, a fine piece of masonry, with 
good details. Its lower stage forms a splendid porch, 
opening by a large arch, rather to be called a gateway. 
It has double buttresses, a most elaborate battlement 
in steps—a feature which I do not remember to have 
seen in Somerset— very small single belfry-windows, the 
richness of the belfry-stage being kept up by a lavish 
display of heraldie and similar figures. There is 
no sort of resemblance between this and the tower at 
Terrington, also detached, a bold, plain structure, 
with rather large single belfry-windows, and diagonal 
buttresses supporting a common pierced battlement 
and pinnacles.. St. Margaret’, Lynn, has a west 
front with two towers, the central octagon having been 
destroyed. Of these, the northern one is Perpendicular, 
not unlike Terrington, only that naturally the buttresses 
are not diagonal. Proceeding to Swaflham, we find 
in the very fine tower of its church, something which 
has no resemblance whatever to these two last exanıples, 
except in the use of a single large belfry-window, where 
a Somersetshire architect would certainly have employed 
1854, PART II. B 
