216 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOE. 



narrow stones were placed in regular courses, at an angle of 

 about 45 degrees, the stone in each layer sloping in a different 

 direction ; and to this mode of building the name of " herring- 

 bone work " has been applied. 



In the reign of Henry I. more attention began to be paid to 

 the external appearance of the 

 walls, which were now often built 

 of stones squared or smoothed 

 on the outer surface, and finely 

 jointed together. 



With the introduction and de- 

 velopment of Gothic architecture, 

 the softer stone called freeston9 

 came to be more and more em- 

 ployed to supplement the brick 

 or hard stone used as the chief 

 material of the fabric. The use 

 of freestone was rendered both 

 necessary and advantageous by 

 the more regular and refined or- 

 namentation which the Gothic 

 style introduced; and by degrees 

 the Middle-age builders moulded 

 it to the freest expression of 

 their ideas, whether those ideas 

 were purely beautiful or simply 

 grotesque and fantastic. 



The solid masonry of the Anglo- 

 Saxon and Norman walls required 

 little or no external support, but 

 the lighter character of the walls 

 in Gothic buildings led to the de- 

 velopment of the buttress. The 

 early Norman buttresses were flat 

 projections from the outer wall. 

 As Gothic structures came in 

 vogue, these projections were carried farther out, and sometimes 

 rose tier above tier, until the highest and narrowest range termi- 

 nated in a pinnacle. Moreover, when the upper storey of the 

 building was much narrower than the base, it was supported 

 by a buttress of its own, which rose from the buttress of the 

 lower storey in the form of the segment of an arch. To these 



NORHAN BUTTRESS. 



marks of the various periods of Gothic architecture. In the 

 Norman buildings they were small and deeply recessed, while 

 they presented the characteristic form of the semi-circular or 

 segmental arch. The pointed or lancet-shaped window came 

 in with the Gothic style being, in fact, an adaptation of the 

 Gothic arch although at first, 

 like the Norman windows, it was 

 extremely narrow. The defect in 

 the admission of an imperfect 

 light was remedied by placing 

 two or three of such windows 

 side by side, thus forming one 

 more useful in character and 

 imposing in appearance. The 

 glazing of church windows ap- 

 pears to have been introduced in 

 the seventh century. The use of 

 painted or stained glass came in 

 with Gothic architecture, its pur- 

 pose being to subdue and mellow 

 the greater light admitted by the 

 Gothic windows. The lancet- 

 shaped windows of the "Early 

 English " style are illustrated in 

 the first cut below. But these 

 plain -windows were often ac- 

 companied, in large buildings, 

 by others of a circular shape, 

 known as ' Catherine Wheel " 

 windows, which were highly orna- 

 mented. 



The general plainness and 

 simplicity of the Early English 

 period gave place, in the " Deco- 

 rated" style, to a refined and 

 elegant manner of ornamentation. 



Among other peculiarities, the window was widened, and its 

 upper portion was filled with geometrical tracery, varied in 

 character, and often of great beauty. A good example of the 

 windows of the " Decorated Gothic " period is included in our 

 engravings. 



The " Perpendicular " style shows less purity of taste, but ia 



GOTHIC AND FLYING BUTTRESSES. 



' EARLY ENGLISH " WINDOWS. 



' DECORATED GOTHIC " WINDOW. 



" PEBPENDICULAE GOTHIC" WINDOW. 



offshoots of the lower buttress the name of " flying " buttresses 

 is applied, and they may be observed in many of our principal 

 church edifices, such as Westminster Abbey. The earlier and 

 the later forms of the buttress are shown in the illustrations on 

 this page. 



The windows are the most striking and distinguishing external 



frequently productive of very rich effect. Our cut represents 

 one of the most elegant of the windows of this period. The 

 mullions, or divisions between the window-lights, here run 

 up in perpendicular sections, instead of, as in the preceding 

 style, branching off into geometrical figures ; and this is one 

 of the distinguishing features which have caused the name 



