415 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 



448 



epithet tuper-mullioned, as indicating that the upper divisions of the 

 windows have mullions rising from the arches of the lower ones. 

 These two examples will further be useful, the first as supplying an 

 example of crockets on the outer arch-moulding, and of bfinial on its 

 apex ; the other as an instance in point, as respects what we have said 

 of very acute arches being included in the tracery to windows whose 

 arches are equilateral, or even much lower ; for those which form the 

 heads of the two compartments, each comprising two lights on either 

 side of the centre one, are highly pointed, being extra-centred, and 

 their height equal to lij their span. 



Of the Third Pointed, or Perpendicular, style, which may for con- 

 venience" sake be dated from 1400, and considered that of the 15th 

 century, we must repeat that although the name Perpendicular, first 

 bestowed on it by Ricknian, and since very commonly adopted, appears 

 to be tolerably correct in some respects, it is objectionable, and indeed 

 misleading, in others ; because, if " the mullious of windows and the 

 ornamental panellings run in perpendicular lines," it is no less obvious 

 that the numerous transoms, square-headed labels to doorways, and 

 ornamental string-courses and cornices, produce as many horizontal 

 ones ; consequently Horizontal would be an equally appropriate term ; 

 perhaps even the more appropriate of the two, since the mullions thus 

 crossed by transoms do not exhibit that prevalence of perpendicular 

 lines which mullions alone, or slender columns do. The same may be 

 said in regard to labelled doorways, &c., where the pointed character 

 produced by the arch in a great measure loses itself, and is exchanged 

 for that marked by squareness of outline. Nay, in the later examples, 

 the very form of the arch itself shows a tendency to horizontality, by 

 becoming so flattened that the height is sometimes less than one-fourth 

 of the span (whereas in the equilateral arch it exceeds that measure). 



Windows of this period are of two classes, two or four-centred : the 

 former belong to the earlier, the others to the later half of the con- 

 tinuance of the style. What at once distinguishes Third Pointed 

 windows from those of the earlier styles, is the vertical bearing of the 

 mullions. In First and Second Pointed examples the mullions diverge 

 in the head of the windows into curves or flowing lines : in the Third 

 Pointed they are carried straight up till they cut the enclosing arch, 

 while smaller divergent and upright mullions and transoms divide the 

 head into smaller arched and panel-like compartments. In some of 

 the richer examples the transoms are embattled, or indented by being 

 cut into small battlements. As to the variety displayed in the tracery 

 of the windows, it is quite impossible to describe it, since almost every 

 specimen exhibits a different pattern ; its general character may how- 

 ever be understood from the second of the examples above given from 

 York Cathedral. The depressed or four-centred arch is so character- 

 istic of the latter portion of this period, that a few words may be well 

 devoted to a more particular notice of it. By the annexed diagram it 



will be seen that the superior centres, e c, for the shorter radii de- 

 scribing the two quadrants at the spring of the arch, are upon the 

 span-line itself ; and the two inferior centres, c c, whose radii are in 

 continuation of the others, describe the remaining curves meeting at 

 the vertex of the arch. This compound form admits of great diversity, 

 according to the proportion the shorter and longer radii bear to each 

 other, or in other words, according as the centres are fixed. In order 



> exhibit at the same time a comparison of this kind of arch, both 

 with the semicircular and the varieties of the two-centred one, we have 



nclosed it within dotted lines, representing the others in succession 



above it, by which it will be apparent that if the span be the same, 



s extra-centred or lancet arch will be the highest, next to that the 



two-centred arches, then the semicircular one, and lastly the 



Mmpound or four-centred arch. But if, on the contrary, they were all 



made equal in height, the order of precedency would then be reversed 



for the four-centred one would be the widest, and the lancet the 



narrowest, as has already been partially exemplified in a preceding 



diagram. Ex tmpiti of this compound arch occur in French buildings 



of the latter part of the 15th century, but so rarely that it may be 

 regarded as almost peculiar to England. From its frequent occurrence 

 in the buildings of the close of the 15th and firat half of the 16th cen- 

 tury, it is commonly known as the Tudor arch. 



Of Doorways the outline became square, owing to the arch being 

 inclosed within mouldings forming what is called a label, which gene- 

 rally terminated at the spring of the arch, where it either rested upon 

 corbels in the form of shields or heads, or was else bent and returned 

 horizontally for about double the breadth of the other mouldings. 

 The triangular spaces or spandrels thus formed between the curved 

 mouldings of the arch and the square ones of the label are mostly 

 filled up with quatrefoil circles or other decoration. In the larger 

 and richer kind of doorways, as in the porch of King's College Chapel, 

 Cambridge, the spandrels are greatly enlarged by the head of the 

 square panel or compartment in which the arch is placed being carried 

 up much higher. In this example there is an ogee canopy formed by 

 what are called mouldings of contrary flexure ; and this is crocketed 



Doorway, King's College Chapel, Cambridge. 



and surmounted by a finial. Although this specimen, which has been 

 selected as a beautiful instance of the Third Pointed style, does not exhibit 

 the four-centred, or compound arch, it should be remarked that the 

 latter characterises the other parts of the edifice. In the architraves 

 or mouldings along the sides of doors and windows there are generally 

 one or more large hollows, which may be taken as one of the marks of 

 this style. 



Although they have not labels, both windows and pier arches are 

 not unfrequently treated somewhat similarly, being placed within 

 square-headed compartments, whose spandrels are filled up with 

 tracery resembling that of the window; which practice, no doubt, 

 afterwards led to that of square-headed windows, by perforating the 

 whole compartment, and making the spandrels part of the window 

 itself. Windows placed within compartments, with spandrels of blank 

 tracery, may be seen in the clerestory of Henry VI I. 's chapel. 



Hitherto we have spoken chiefly of arches and windows, but wo 

 must now briefly advert to the roof, at least to one species of vaulting 

 used for it, peculiar to the richer examples of this style, we mean that 

 consisting of fan-tracery, BO called from the numerous small riba or 

 mouldings spreading out from the spring of the groining as from a 

 stem, and radiating so as to describe a semicircle, the fan on one side 

 meeting that on the other, in the centre of the vaulting ; whereby a 

 spandrel with four convex curves for its sides is left between two 

 opposite pairs, and this space is either filled with tracery arranged so 

 as to form a circle, or else is occupied by what is called a fan-pendent, 

 similar to the other fans, except that its base on the ceiling is an entire 

 circle instead of a semicircle. Of fan-groining with enriched spandrels 

 only, the cloisters of St. Stephen's chapel, Westminster, offered a 

 beautiful example ; and of that with pendents, the chapels of King's 

 College, Cambridge, and Henry VII., Westminster. The two struc- 

 tures just mentioned and St. George's chapel, Windsor, are in every 

 respect perfect examples of this style, being of uniform design through- 

 out, without intermixture of any other. Examples of the plainer 

 vaulted roofs occur in the nave of Winchester cathedral, the nave and 

 choir of Norwich, the choirs of Gloucester and Oxford, and the 



