OF THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE.
Q. During what era did the Early English style prevail?
A. It may be said to have prevailed generally throughout the thirteenth
century[86-*].
Q. How is it distinguished from the Norman and Semi-Norman styles?
A. The semicircular-headed arch, with its peculiar mouldings, was almost
entirely discarded, and superseded by the pointed arch, with plain
chamfered edges or mouldings of a different character. The segmental arch,
nearly flat, was still however used in doorways, and occasionally the
semicircular also, as in the arches of the Retrochoir, Chichester
Cathedral.
Q. Of what three kinds were the pointed arches of this era?
A. The lancet, the equilateral, and the obtuse-angled arch.
Q. Which of these arches were most in use?
A. In large buildings the lancet and the equilateral-shaped arch were
prevalent, as appears in Westminster Abbey, where the lancet arch
predominates, and Salisbury Cathedral, where the equilateral arch is
principally used; but in small country churches the obtuse-angled arch is
most frequently found. All these arches are struck from two centres, and
are formed from segments of a circle. In large buildings the architrave
is faced with a succession of roll mouldings and deep hollows, in which
the tooth ornament is sometimes inserted. In small churches the arches,
which are double-faced, have merely plain chamfered edges.
Q. What was the difference of the piers between this and an earlier era?
A. Instead of the massive Norman, the Early English piers were, in large
buildings, composed of an insulated column surrounded by slender detached
shafts, all uniting together under one capital; these shafts were divided
into parts by horizontal bands or fillets; but in small churches a plain
octagonal pier, which can, however, scarcely be distinguished from that of
a later style, predominated.
Q. How are the capitals distinguished?
A. They are simple in comparison with those of a later style, and are
often bell-shaped, with a bead moulding round the neck, and a capping,
with a series of mouldings, above; a very elegant and beautiful capital is
frequently formed of stiffly sculptured foliage. The capital surmounting
the multangular-shaped pier is also multangular in form, but plain, with a
neck, and cap mouldings, and is difficult to be discerned from that of
the succeeding style; the cap mouldings are, however, in general not so
numerous as those of a later period.
[Illustration: Capital, Chapter House, Southwell.]
Q. How are the doorways of this style distinguished?
A. The small doorways have generally a single detached shaft on each side,
with a plain moulded bell-shaped capital, which is sometimes covered with
foliage; and the architrave mouldings consist of a few simple members,
with a hood moulding or label over, terminated by heads. We also find
richer doorways with two or more detached shafts at the sides, and
architrave mouldings composed of numerous members. Large doorways of the
Early English style were sometimes double, being divided into two arched
openings by a shaft, either single or clustered; and above this a
quatrefoil was generally inserted, but sometimes the head was filled with
sculptured detail. Examples of the double doorway occur in the cathedrals
of Ely, Chichester, Wells, Salisbury, Lincoln, and Lichfield; also at
Christchurch and St. Cross, Hants; Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire; and
in other large churches in this style.
[Illustration: Doorway, Baginton Church, Warwickshire. (13th cent.)]
Q. What kind of windows were prevalent?
[Illustration: Window, Beverley Minster. (13th cent.)]
[Illustration: St. Giles’s Oxford. Ely cathedral.]
A. In the early stages of this style the lancet arch-headed window, very
long and narrow, was prevalent; frequently two, three, or more of these
were connected together by hood mouldings, the middle window rising higher
than those at the sides; sometimes they were unconnected, and without
hood mouldings. In the east wall of Early English chancels three lancet
windows, thus arranged, are frequently displayed. At a later period a
broader window, divided into two lights by a plain mullion, finished at
the top with a lozenge or circle, was used; and sometimes a window divided
into three lights, the middle one higher than the others, and comprised
under one hood moulding, was in use; windows of four and even five lancet
lights, thus disposed, are to be met with, but are not common; the sides
of the windows were in general simply splayed, without mouldings, and
increased in width inwardly, but slender shafts were sometimes annexed;
and we also find, in the interior of rich buildings of this style,
detached shafts standing out in front of the stonework forming the window
jambs, and supporting the arch of the window. Towards the close of this
style the windows assumed a more ornamental cast, and became much larger,
being frequently divided into two or four principal lights, with one or
three circles in the heads; both the lights and circles are foliated, and
these evince the transition in progress to the next, or Decorated style.
Beneath the windows a string-course is generally carried horizontally
along the wall; and a roll moulding, similar to the upper members of the
string-course of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is most commonly met with,
as the string-course.
[Illustration: Interior of Window, St. Giles’s, Oxford.]
Q. How is the buttress of this age distinguished?
A. In general by its plain triangular or pedimental head, its projecting
more from the building than the Norman buttress, and from its being less
in breadth. It is also sometimes carried up above the parapet wall. The
edges of the buttresses are sometimes chamfered; and plain buttresses in
stages finished with simple slopes are not uncommon. We very rarely find
buttresses of this style disposed at the angles of buildings, though such
disposition was common in the succeeding style; but two buttresses placed
at right angles with each other, and with the face of the wall, generally
occur at the angles of churches in this style. Flying buttresses were
sometimes used to strengthen the clerestory walls of large buildings, and
have a light and elegant effect.
[Illustration: String-Course, Merton College Chapel, Oxford.]
Q. Were the walls differently built?
A. They were not so thick as those of an earlier period, which occasioned
the want of stronger buttresses to support them.
[Illustration: Pottern, Wilts.]
[Illustration: Hartlepool, Durham.]
Q. Were the Early English roofs of a different construction from those of
a later style?
[Illustration: Groining Rib, Salisbury Cathedral.]
A. The Norman and Early English roofs were high and acutely pointed. The
original roofs of most of our old churches, from their exposure to the
weather, have long since fallen to decay, and been replaced by others of a
more obtuse shape; but in general the height and angular form of the
original roof may be ascertained by the weather moulding still remaining
on the side of the tower or steeple. The interior vaulting of stone roofs
was composed of fewer parts and ribs, which were often not more numerous
than those of Norman vaulting, and does not present that complexity of
arrangement which occurs in the vaulting-ribs of subsequent styles. In the
cathedral of Salisbury also in the nave of Wells Cathedral are simple and
good examples of Early English vaulting. A curious groined roof, in which
the ribs are of wood--plain, cut with chamfered edges--and the cells of
the vaulting are covered with boards, is to be met with in the church of
Warmington, Northamptonshire, a very rich, perfect, and interesting
specimen of this style.
Q. Was not the spire introduced at this period?
A. Yes, many spires were then built; among which was that of old St.
Paul’s Cathedral, more than five hundred feet high, and which was
destroyed by fire, A. D. 1561. The spire of Oxford Cathedral is also of
this style. Early English spires are generally what are called Broach
spires, and spring at once from the external face of the walls of the
tower, without any intervening parapet.
Q. Whence did the spire take its origin?
A. It appears to have been suggested by the Norman pinnacle, which, at
first a conical capping, afterwards became polygonal, and ribbed at the
angles, thus presenting the prototype of the spire.
[Illustration]
Q. What ornament is peculiar, or nearly so, to this style?
A. That called the tooth or dog-tooth ornament, a kind of
pyramidal-shaped flower of four leaves, which is generally inserted in a
hollow moulding, and, when seen in profile, presents a zig-zag or serrated
appearance. The tooth moulding appears to have been introduced towards the
close of the twelfth century; and an early instance where it occurs is on
a late Norman doorway, at Whitwell Church, Rutlandshire: we do not,
however, meet with it in buildings of a later style than that of the
thirteenth century. It is sometimes found used in great profusion in
doorways, windows, and other ornamental details; but many churches of this
style are entirely devoid of this ornament. The ball-flower, though
introduced in the thirteenth century, is not a common ornament until the
fourteenth, to which era it may be said more particularly to belong; we
find it in cornice mouldings, and sometimes on capitals.
Q. What may be observed of the sculptured foliage of this style?
A. As applied to capitals, bases, crockets, and other ornamental detail,
we find the general design and appearance of the sculptured foliage of
this style to be stiff and formal compared with that of the succeeding
style, when the arrangement of the foliage more closely approximated
nature, and a greater freedom both in conception and execution was
evinced.
[Illustration: Boss of Sculptured Foliage, Warmington Church,
Northamptonshire.]
Q. How are the parapets distinguished?
A. They are often plain and embattled; but sometimes a simple horizontal
parapet is used, supported by a corbel table, as in the tower of Haddenham
Church, Buckinghamshire, and on that of Brize Norton Church, Oxfordshire.
At Salisbury Cathedral the parapet is relieved by a series of blank
trefoil headed pannels,[TN-4] sunk in the face.
Q. What may be said in general terms of the style of the thirteenth
century, in comparing it with the styles which immediately preceded and
followed it?
[Illustration: Parapet, Salisbury Cathedral.]
A. In comparison with the Norman style, with its heavy concomitants and
enrichments, the style of the thirteenth century is light and simple, and
the details possess much elegance of contour. These, in small buildings,
are generally plain; but in large buildings they exhibit numerous
mouldings, combined with a certain degree of decorative embellishment.
This style is, however, far from presenting that extreme beauty of outline
and tasteful conception, combined with the pure and chaste ornamental
accessories, which prevail in the designs of the fourteenth century.
Q. What particular structures may be noticed as belonging to this style?
A. Salisbury Cathedral, built by Bishop Poore between A. D. 1220 and 1260,
is perhaps the most perfect specimen, on a large scale, of this style in
its early state, with narrow lancet windows; the nave and transepts of
Westminster Abbey, commenced in 1245, exhibit this style in a more
advanced stage; whilst Lincoln Cathedral is, for the most part, a rich
specimen of this style in its late or transition state. The west front of
Wells Cathedral, erected by the munificence of Bishop Joceline, between
A. D. 1213 and A. D. 1239, is covered with blank arcades and a number of
trefoil-headed niches, surmounted by plain pedimental canopies, which
contain specimens of statuary remarkable for their extreme beauty and
freedom of design.
[Illustration: Corbel, Wells Cathedral.]
FOOTNOTES:
[86-*] From the economic principles on which our modern churches are,
with few exceptions, planned, they are mostly designed after and are
intended to resemble in style those of the thirteenth century, in which
more detail can be dispensed with than in any other style. Hence it
follows that the just proportions and adaptation of the different parts
and the minutest details and mouldings in ancient churches of this style
required to be carefully studied, more so perhaps for practical purposes
than in churches of any other style.
[Illustration: Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire.]