174 ENGLISH MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 



diversion from our subject, so interesting, beautiful, and 

 varied are they. 



Next to the arrangement of plan may be considered the 

 sectional parts of a church. These consist of walls, with 

 their windows, doorways, buttresses, and parapets ; arcades, 

 separating aisles from nave or chancel, with or without a 

 clerestory ; roofs varying in pitch and construction. These 

 are features which prevail throughout the whole period, 

 but their treatment varies in a marked degree in each 

 division, and I proceed now to point out their several 

 characteristics. In doing this I propose not to confine 

 myself to any particular feature, but to speak of them 

 generally, as I am better able to illustrate them by the 

 examples at hand. First, of the wall and what belongs to 

 it. Norman walls are always of great thickness, and their 

 faces are always built of small stones ; often the height of 

 these is greater than their length. Small stones con- 

 tinued to be employed during the Early English and 

 Decorated periods, but in the last or Perpendicular times 

 large stones were used often of great length and of con- 

 siderable height. Walling is not generally considered im- 

 portant as distinguishing works of the different dates, but 

 I have found the study of the different kinds of common 

 masonry as useful as any other feature, or more so, in 

 determining the age of ancient buildings. Often the more 

 prominent features are so disguised as to puzzle your 

 scrutiny. For instance, you may find a tower with 

 buttresses, base moulds, and string courses of late date, and 

 confining your observation to these you would naturally 

 put the whole as coeval, which might of course be in- 

 correct. I would mention the towers of Forton, near 

 Newport, and Checkley, as having been altered in this 



