GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



Complete Middle Pointed; the dividing line being variously fixed 

 bout 1315 and 1*30. 



Exeter. 



Kit-ton. 



In the first of the examples given above, the pattern IB -formed 

 chiefly by a single large circle subdivided into three spherical triangles 

 sixfoiled, and three lesser ones trefoiled; to which minutiio we coll 

 attention in order that the reader may be led to examine the figure 

 attentively, and thereby learn, without further explanation, what is 

 meant by those terms, and by fuilt and etttpi generally. He will here 

 further observe that small shafts and capitals have given way to 

 mullions as dividing the lights, although retained at the sides of the 

 window. The other example differs from the one just spoken of, not 

 only in ita tracery, which is more playful and flowing, but in having 

 two orders'of mullions, that in the centre, or the principal mullion, 

 being thicker, and composed of more mouldings than the secondary 

 ones. It deserves also to be remarked, that here the number of the 

 open spaces, or lights, as they ore termed, is even, and that of the 

 mullionft uneven ; whereas in the other and the preceding figure the 

 lights are uneven, and the mullions even in number; a circumstance 

 quite independent of style, since either mode is followed according 

 as it bent suits the design for, and principal divisions of, the window- 

 head. Of what is called geometrical tracery numerous specimens 

 occur in the rich west front of York Cathedral, finished about 1330. 



As mullions began to be substituted for pillars or shafts in windows, 

 so too, both in the splays of doorways and in arch piers, columns 

 began to be incorporated with the main pier, or splay itself ; and in 

 smaller doorways the arch mouldings arc frequently continued down 

 vertically, without any indication of capital, or impost to the arches, 

 and die away, as it is termed, into a sloping surface, at a short distance 

 from the' ground. The external projecting mouldings of the arch, 

 called by some hood-mouldings, by ethers weather-mouldings, or drip- 

 stone, as serving to throw off the droppings of rain, usually rest on 

 corbels cut into the forma of heads. In many instances these hood- 

 mouldings, both of doors and windows, are surmounted by other 

 mouldings, forming a kind of gable, distinguished by the name of 

 canopy. These canopies are generally enriched with crockets, small 

 leaf-like ornaments, placed at intervals on the outer edge, which were 

 first introduced, but used much more sparingly during the First Pointed 

 period. The pediment beads to the different stages of buttresses are 

 often similarly decorated. In conformity with the rest, greater 



ornament was likewise bestowed upon pinnacle*, as will be seen 

 on comparing a specimen of First Pointed character, from Wells 



Cathedral, with two others belonging to the Second Pointed style, 

 the first from St. Mary's, Oxford, the other from York. 



Doorways of the Second Pointed style are hi the more Important 

 mildings often very richly sculptured. The shafts are thin, the capi- 

 tals have the characteristic freely -carved foliage; the jambs are finished 

 with crocketed canopies, and small statues occupy narrow niches; 

 ildings are enriched with ball-flowers, foliage, Ac.; the weather- 

 Moulding is supported by corbels carved as heads, or by bosses of 

 foliage, and is terminated by a finial ; and where the opening is i. I.- it 

 s sometimes divided by clustered shaft*, as at the chapter house of 

 York minster. Some of the earlier doorways are narrow, and resemble 

 those of the First Pointed period, but are less deeply recessed, a dis- 

 tinction maintained throughout the period. Stone porches are not 

 infrequent ; they are often large, richly sculptured, and in some 

 instances have a room over them. The buttresses of this style are 

 much more varied than in the First Pointed ; flying buttresses are 

 Frequent, and of excellent outline and proportions. Parapets ore > 

 pierced or panelled, and sometimes embattled. Columns are in the 

 plainer churches cylindrical or octagonal ; but in those of a superior class 

 Ihey consist of clustered half or three-quarter cylindrical attached shafts, 

 sometimes set lozenge-wise on the plan. Their bases are somewhat 

 peculiar ; in plan they sometimes differ from the shafts, and they are 

 formed by a series of mouldings. The capitals usually, but not inva- 

 riably, agree with the form of the shafts, and have fillet ogee or other 

 cap-mouldings. In larger rhun'hen the capital* are enriched with 

 foliage, sharply and often admirably carved, and sometimes seemingly 

 direct from nature. The abacus is less prominent than in First Pointed 

 capitals. Mouldings are very varied, and introduced with great . 

 but it is quite impossible to particularise them. They will be found 

 amply described and illustrated in Mr. Paley's ' Gothic Mouldings, 1 and 

 other works which treat of the details of Gothic architecture. As a 

 useful generalisation, not to be received as an invariable law, we 

 may quote Mr. Paley's broad discrimination of the mouldings of the 

 three periods : " It may be stated as a principle, that First Pointed 

 mouldings exhibit a predominance of concave, Middle Pointed of 

 convex, Third Pointed of sharp-edged members." As characteristic 

 examples of this style may be mentioned the choir of Lincoln cathedral 

 (1324); the nave and the west front of York Minster (eompl 

 the lady chapel and choir of Ely ; parts of Lichfield, Bristol, Worcester, 

 Winchester, Norwich, Wells, Canterbury, and Carlisle cathedrals ; the 

 magnificent parish churches of Grantham, Boston, and Heckington, 

 in Lincolnshire ; Hingham, Norfolk ; Howden, Yorkshire ; Dorcli- 

 Adderbury, Stanton-Horcourt, and Bloxham, Oxfordshire ; Trumping- 

 ton, Cambridgeshire; several of the churches of Northamptonshire ; 

 and many others to be found in every part of the country. 



In France, as in England, the Gothic of the 14th century (Ogival 

 secondairc) is distinguished from that of the 13th chiefly by an increase 

 of sculptural ornamentation, the introduction of more elaborate window 

 traccrv, greater lightness and venturesomeness of conntructioi 

 altogether a greater solicitude for splendour of. effect. But whilst in 

 England this tendency was kept in check by sound judgment and great 

 sobriety of taste, in France the architects permitted themselves to run 

 into excess; and, despite their surpassing splendour and picturesque- 

 ness, even their best buildings exhibit a decline from the high standard 

 of the preceding century. Among the more remarkable examples of 

 this period are the churches of St Ouen, Kouen, and St. Laurent au 

 Puy, and parts of the cathedrals of Rouen, Tours, Amiens, Parix, 

 Bayeux, Poitiers, Kevers, Nsrbonne, Ac. 



In order to exhibit the progress from this to the Third Pointed style, 

 we give two transition specimens of windows from York choir, the 

 first decidedly of a transition character. 



In both the arches of the windows are those of the preceding styles, 

 in the first being extra-centred, in the second equilateral. But the 

 tracery here begins to assume some of that compactneos and square- 

 ness which is so characteristic of tlm after-period. Upright lines or 

 shorter mullions are introduced into the window-head, some in con- 

 tinuation of those below, others rising from the points of the arches 

 which form the heads of tike lower compartments ; so that if we wished 

 to express this circumstance by a single term we might employ the 



