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each other, and again the whole pierced and included under 
a label. This form of window is Early English or geometric 
decorated, the mouldings touching, but not blending with 
each other. Very fine examples are found in Tintern Abbey, 
Monmouthshire, Stone Church, Kent, and Durham and 
Lincoln Cathedrals, &c. 
The transition from the geometric to the flowing Decorated 
style of window, appears to have arisen from the interception 
of a portion of the geometric forms ; it is the peculiarity of 
this style, that the inscribed line of the window is an equi- 
lateral triangle. Even the gorgeous west window of York 
Minster may be resolved, without much difficulty, into severe 
geometrical forms. I cannot adduce a more remarkable in- 
stance of the concealment of these forms under the most 
playful tracery, than that exhibited in the windows of Little 
Maplestead Church, Essex. They consist of two lights tre- 
foiled, with ogee quatrefoils over the same. The whole of 
the lines are perfectly meandering, (if the expression may be 
allowed,) and yet the centres by which they are struck occur 
at the angles of a regular hexagon ! 
The Perpendicular form of window evidently arose gra- 
dually and imperceptibly from those of Decorated character. 
The arch being now four-centred, and two of the centres 
being below the springing, the curve of the arch became 
depressed; some portion of the geometrical tracery was 
necessarily excluded, and short perpendicular tracery was 
introduced to supply the vacant space ; and at length the 
arch becoming more and more depressed, the former subsi- 
diary straight lines became the principal ones, and the curved 
lines were used merely as of secondary importance. This 
depression of the arch, thrusting the whole of the ornament 
into a confined space, gave an ungainly appearance to the 
windows, and transoms were introduced to give stability to 
the mullions, and for the more equal distribution of the 
ornaments. 
