ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 175 



fashion, and without acquaintance with the particular 

 treatment of common masonry mistake as to date would 

 ensue in these instances. The old masons were in the 

 habit of marking their wall stones with distinguishing 

 characters, and throughout all Middle Age works these 

 marks are to be seen : whether they were individual or 

 guild marks we will not now stop to discuss. Walls 

 mostly have bases in projection from their common face 

 above the level of the ground, and these differed in each 

 of the several periods. The Norman base was either a 

 simple square projection or a beveled one. The Early English 

 rose some distance up the wall and spread at the foot, 

 as at the tower of Checkley and the chancel of Patting- 

 ham. The Decorated base rose high up the wall, and 

 mostly consisted of an upper and lower moulding, the top 

 edge of the latter being mostly simply beveled off, as in 

 the chancel at Checkley and the north aisle at Madeley. 

 The Perpendicular wall base became a still more prominent 

 feature, sometimes reaching almost to the sill of the win- 

 dows and consisting of several members, as in the tower 

 of Brewood, Penkridge, and elsewhere. 



Next we come to the Buttress, which was an external 

 projection of the wall intended to give it additional strength. 

 This in Norman work was broad on the face and shallow 

 in the projection, running mostly in one height from its 

 base to its sloping top immediately under the parapet. In 

 Early English work the buttress loses some of its width 

 but gains in projection, and in small buildings is often 

 treated rather as an ornamental adjunct than as an addi- 

 tional stay to the wall. This is seen in the restored east 

 end of Weston Church, and in that of Pattingham, of 

 which a drawing is here. In Decorated work the buttress 



