16 PAPERS, ETC. 
continental Flamboyant than is common in other parts of 
England. This is no more than might naturally be ex- 
pected from the almost insular position of the country, 
and the close intercourse which it constantly maintained 
with the opposite coast. It is shown in other respects; 
for instance, I believe that the paintings on the sereen- 
panels, which are very common in this distriet, are said by 
persons versed in such matters to bear a close resemblance 
to the Dutch and Flemish schools of art. In architeetural 
detail the eastern Perpendicular certainly displays the 
Flamboyant characteristics of discontinuous imposts and 
interpenetration of mouldings, which are quite unknown 
in the west; and the prevalence of these unpleasant 
peculiarities at once stamps this variety of Perpendicular 
as far inferior to its Somersetshire form. The piers 
frequently exhibit that mullion-shaped form, longer 
from north to south than from east to west, of which 
Somersetshire has few or no example. The capital, 
as in Somersetshire, is seldom continued round the whole 
pier, but the hollows are less universally continued in the 
mouldings of the arch, and we miss the prevalence of the 
wave-moulding. At Wisbeach, the piers are perhaps as 
unlike anything in Somersetshire as can be imagined. 
A long flattened pier, a parallelogram in fact, running 
north and south, with its angles chamfered off, has 
a semi-octagonal shaft attached to its east and west 
faces. These shafts have capitals of their own shape; 
the portion of the arch not supported by them rises from 
the chamfer with a discontinuous impost. This is cer- 
tainly an extreme case, and we shall not find all the East- 
Anglian piers presenting such a marked contrast to those 
of Somerset. It is common enough to find the ordinary 
Somersetshire section, only with the lozenge somewhat 
