ARCHITECTURE, 
two side aisles, one on each side of the nave, 
and were divided into three tiers or stories, 
the lower consisting of a range of arcades 
on each side, the middle, a range of galle- 
ries between the roof and the vaulting of 
the aisles, and the uppermost, a range of 
windows. The pillars were either square, 
polygonal, or circular. Such was the thick- 
ness of the walls and pillars, that buttresses 
were not necessary, neither were they in 
use. The apertures are splayed from the 
rr;n!!ions on both sides. The dressings are 
generally placed on the sides of the splayed 
jambs and heads of the arches, and but sel- 
dom against the face of the walls, and when 
this is the case, the projeetures are not very 
prominent. The dressings of the jambs fre- 
quently consist of one, or several engaged 
columns upon each side. The imposts, par- 
ticularly those of the windows, have fre- 
quently the appearance of being a part of 
the wall itself. The doors in general are 
formed in deep recession, and a series of 
equidistant engaged columns placed upon 
each jamb, and were such, that two hori- 
zontal straight lines would pass through the 
axis of each series, and would, if produced, 
terminate in a point. Each column is at- 
tached to a recess formed by two planes, 
constituting an interior right angle. The an- 
gle at the meeting of every two of these re- 
cesses formed an exterior right angle, which 
was sometimes obtunded, and frequently 
hollowed. The archivqlts resting on the 
capitals of the columns are formed on the 
soffit shelving, like the jambs below. The 
ornaments of columns and mouldings are 
of very simple forms. The rudely sculp- 
ted! figures which often occur in door- 
cases, when the head of the door itself is 
square, indicate a Roman original, and are 
mostly referable to an sera immediately pre- 
ceding the conquest. 
After the Norman conquest, the general 
forms of the parts remained the same, 
though the extent and dimensions of the 
churches were greatly enlarged • the vault- 
ings became much more lofty, the pillars 
of greater diameter, the ornaments more 
frequent and elaborately finished; towers 
of very large dimensions and great height 
were placed either in the centre, or at the 
west end of the cathedral and conventual 
churches. These were often ornamented 
with arcades in tiers of small' intersecting 
arches on the outside. About, the end of 
the reign of Henry I. circular arches, thick 
walls without prominent buttresses, and 
massive pillars with a kind of regular base 
and capital, generally prevailed ; the capi- 
tals of the pillars were often left plain, 
though there were a few instances of sculp- 
tured capitals, foliage, and animals. The 
shafts of the pillars were usually plain cylin- 
ders, or had semicolumns attached to them. 
The first transition of the arch appears to 
have taken place towards the close of the 
reign of Stephen, its figure which had 
hitherto been circular, becoming slightly 
pointed, and the heavy single pillar made 
into a pilastered cluster which was at first 
ill formed, but gradually assumed a more 
elegant figure and graceful proportion, the 
archivolts still retaining many of the Saxon 
ornaments. It may here be observed, that 
antecedent to this period, neither taberna- 
cles nor niches with canopies, statues in 
whole relief, pinnacles, pediments, or spires, 
nor any tracery in the vaultings were used ; 
but at this time, or soon after, these began 
to obtain. Towards the close of the 13th 
century, the pillars, then supporting sharply 
pointed arches, were much more slender ; 
the ceilings were seemingly sustained by 
groined ribs resting on the capitals of the 
pillars, and the windows were lighted by 
several openings in place of one. 
After the reign of Stephen, the circular 
and pointed arches were frequently em- 
ployed in the same building ; but the pointed 
style gaining more and more upon the cir- 
cular, prevailed ultimately at the close of 
the reign of Henry III. and prevented all 
farther confusion of mixture. The archi- 
tecture of this age now exhibited unifor- 
mity of parts, justness of proportions, and 
elegance of decoration ; the arcades and 
pillars became numerous, the single shafts 
were divided into a multiplicity of equal 
slender, distinct shafts, constructed of pUr- 
beck marble, and collected under one capi- 
tal, luxuriantly decorated with leaves of 
the palm tree. The east and west windows 
began to be 'widely expanded, these re- 
quired a number of mullipns, which, as well, 
as the ribs and transoms of the vaulting, be- 
gan to ramify from the springing of the 
arches into a variety of tracery, which was 
uniformly ornamented with rosettes or poly- 
foil, cuspidated figures forming trefoils, 
quatrefoils, &c. Canopies were introduced 
over the arches, and in rich work were 
decorated with crockets and creeping foli- 
age, and terminated m a flower. The but- 
tresses were made in several diminished 
stages towards the top, and mostly termi- 
nated with purfied pinnacles. 
In the reign of Edward II. detached 
