OF THE DECORATED ENGLISH STYLE.
Q. When did the Decorated English style commence, and how long did it
prevail?
A. It may be said to have commenced in the latter part of the thirteenth
century, or reign of Edward the First, and to have prevailed about a
century. The transition from the Early English style to this, and again
from this to the succeeding style, was however so extremely gradual, that
it is difficult to affix any precise date for the termination of one
style, or the introduction of another.
[Illustration: Bracket, York Cathedral.]
Q. Whence does it derive its appellation?
A. From there being a greater redundancy of chaste ornament in this than
in the preceding style; and though it does not exhibit that extreme
multiplicity of decorative detail as the style of the fifteenth century,
the general contours and forms which this style presents, and the
principal lines of composition, which verge pyramidically rather than
vertically or horizontally, are infinitely more pleasing; and it is justly
considered as the most beautiful style of English ecclesiastical
architecture.
Q. What difference is there between the arches of this style, which
support the clerestory, and those of an earlier period?
A. The lancet arch is seldom seen; the equilateral arch is generally,
though not always, used. Both this and the obtuse-angled arch are, taken
exclusively, difficult to be distinguished from those of an earlier
period. In small buildings the edges of the pier arches are plain and
chamfered. In large churches a series of quarter-round or roll-mouldings,
which have often a square-edged fillet attached, are applied to the
sub-arch, edges, and facing.
[Illustration: Section of Piers rom[TN-5] Grendon Church, Warwickshire,
and Austrey Church, Warwickshire.]
Q. What difference occurs in the piers from which these arches spring?
A. In large buildings piers of this style were composed of a cluster of
slender cylindrical shafts, not standing detached from each other, as in
the Early English style, but closely united. A common pier of this kind is
formed of four shafts thus united, without bands, with a square-edged
fillet running vertically up the face of each shaft. Sometimes a simple
cylindrical pier is found. The octagonal pier, with plain sides, is very
prevalent in small churches, and does not differ materially from the Early
English pier of the same kind. The capitals are either bell-shaped,
clustered, or octagonal, to correspond with the shape of the piers; but
the cap mouldings are more numerous than in the earlier style. Sometimes
the capitals are sculptured. In the churches of Monkskirby, Warwickshire,
and of Cropredy, Oxfordshire, the arches which support the clerestory
spring at once from the piers, without any intervening capitals, a
practice not uncommon in the style of the fifteenth century, but very rare
in this.
Q. How are the vaulted roofs of this style distinguished?
A. Of the large stone vaulted roofs each bay is intersected by
longitudinal, transverse, and diagonal ribs, with shorter ribs springing
from the bearing shafts intervening; thus forming a series of vaulting
cells more numerous than are to be met with in the Early English style,
though not subdivided to the excess observable in the vaulted roofs of the
fifteenth century. Sculptured bosses often occur at the intersections. In
the nave of York Cathedral, finished about A. D. 1330, the groining of the
roof is less complicated than that of the choir of the same cathedral,
constructed between A. D. 1360 and A. D. 1370[106-*]. Small structures are
more simply vaulted. In a chantry chapel adjoining the north side of the
chancel of Willingham Church, Cambridgeshire, is a very acute-pointed
angular-shaped stone roof, the plain surface of the vaulting of which is
supported by two pointed arches springing from corbels projecting from the
walls; and these sustain straight-sided stone vaulting ribs, obliquely
disposed to conform with the angle of the roof, and which act as
principals; and above each arch, and between that and the ridge-line of
the oblique ribs or principals, the space is filled with an open
quatrefoil and other tracery. The north transept of Limington Church,
Somersetshire, has a high pitched stone roof supported by groined ribs.
Q. Are there many wooden roofs of this style remaining?
A. We find comparatively few original wooden roofs in structures of the
fourteenth century, for such have generally been superseded by roofs of a
later date and of a more obtuse form. The high and acute pitch of the
original roof is, however, still generally discernible by the weather
moulding on the east wall of the tower. In the nave of Higham Ferrars
Church, Northamptonshire, is a wooden roof which apparently belongs to
this style: the roof is angular-pointed and open to the ridge-line, the
walls are connected by tie-beams, and under each of these is a wooden arch
formed of two ribs or beams springing from stone corbels.
Q. In what respect do the doors of this style differ?
[Illustration: Window, Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire.]
A. Large doorways of this style have lateral shafts, with capitals, and
between the shafts architrave mouldings intervene, which run without stop
into the base tablet: of such the south doorway of St. Martin’s Church,
Leicester, is an instance. Small doorways are generally without shafts,
but have a series of quarter-round, semicylindrical, and tripartite roll
mouldings at the sides, which are continuous with the architrave
mouldings; and these have sometimes a square-edged fillet on the face. The
doorways of this style are frequently enriched with pedimental and
ogee-shaped canopies, ornamented with crockets and finials; of which the
north doorway of Exeter Cathedral and the south doorway of Everdon Church,
Northamptonshire, may be cited as examples. Large doorways have sometimes
a double opening, divided by a clustered shaft, as in the entrance to the
Chapter House, York Cathedral. In some instances the head of the doorway
is foliated, and we observe in detail an approximation to the succeeding
style. The west doorway of Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire, is in this
stage of transition.
Q. How are the windows of this style known?
[Illustration: Square-headed Decorated Window, Ashby Folville,
Leicestershire.]
A. In the later stage of the Early English style the windows became
enlarged, and the heads were filled with foliated circles. To these
succeeded, in the fourteenth century, windows ornamented with geometrical
and flowing tracery, peculiarities which exclusively pertain to this
style, and by which it is most easily known. The windows are of good
proportions, and are divided into two or more principal lights by
mullions, which at the spring of the arch form designs of regular
geometrical construction, or branch out into flowing ramifications
composing flame-like compartments, which are foliated[109-*]. The variety
of tracery in windows of this style is very great, and they frequently
have pedimental and ogee canopies over them, ornamented in the same manner
as those over doors: examples of this kind may be found at York
Cathedral. In the south transept of Chichester, and west front of Exeter
Cathedrals, are two exceeding large and beautiful windows of this style;
the first filled with geometrical, the other with flowing, tracery. In
some windows of this style the mullions simply cross in the head, as in a
later style, but the lights are commonly foliated, and the difference may
in general be discerned by the mouldings: such windows occur in Stoneleigh
Church, Warwickshire. There are also many square-headed windows in this
style, distinguished by the flowing tracery in the heads, and by other
characteristic marks: of such a window in Ashby Folville Church,
Leicestershire, is a rich and good example. Circular windows, filled with
tracery, are not uncommon in large buildings; and we also meet with
triangular spherical-shaped windows, as in the clerestory of Barton
Segrave Church, Northamptonshire[111-*].
[Illustration: Window, Barton Segrave Church.]
Q. Of what description are the mouldings which pertain to this style?
[Illustration: Moulding, Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire.]
[Illustration: Roll Moulding, Chacombe Church, Northamptonshire.]
A. They approximate more nearly, in section and appearance, those of the
thirteenth than those of the fifteenth century, but the members are
generally more numerous than in those of the former style; quarter-round,
half, and tripartite cylinder mouldings, often filleted along the face and
divided by small cavetto mouldings, sometimes deeply cut, are common. The
string-course under the windows frequently consists, as in the preceding
style, of a simple roll moulding, the upper member of which overlaps the
lower. A plain semicylindrical moulding, with a square-edged fillet on the
face, is also common, and occurs at the church of Orton-on-the-Hill,
Leicestershire. The hood moulding over the windows often consists of a
quarter-round or ogee, with a cavetto beneath, and sometimes returns
horizontally along the walls as a string-course; a disposition, however,
more frequently observable in the Early English style than in this: of
such disposition the churches of Harvington, Worcestershire, and of
Sedgeberrow, Gloucestershire, may be cited as affording examples. In
decorative work we often meet with the ball-flower, one of the most
characteristic ornaments of the style, consisting of a ball inclosed
within three or four leaves, and sometimes bearing a resemblance to the
rose-bud, inserted at intervals in a cavetto or hollow moulding, with the
accompaniment, in some instances, of foliage; a four-leaved flower,
inserted in the same manner, is also not uncommon.
[Illustration: String-Course, Sedgeberrow Church, Gloucestershire.]
[Illustration: Ball-Flower Ornament, Bloxham Church, Oxfordshire, and York
Cathedral.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Decorated Buttress, St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford.]
Q. How may the buttresses of this style be distinguished?
[Illustration: Flying Buttress, Salisbury Cathedral.]
A. They were worked in stages, and their set-offs have frequently
triangular heads, sometimes plain but often ornamented with crockets and
finials of a more decorative character than those of the Early English
style. Many buttresses have, however, plain slopes as set-offs, and they
are frequently placed diagonally at the corners of buildings, as at
Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire. The flying buttresses at Salisbury
Cathedral, in which the thrust is partly counterpoised by
pyramidal-headed pinnacles decorated with crockets and finials, are of
this age.
Q. What parapet is peculiar to this style?
A. Besides the plain embattled parapet, which is not always easy to be
distinguished from other styles, a horizontal blocking course, pierced
with foliated or wavy, flowing tracery, which has a rich effect, is
common. Of this description specimens occur at St. Mary Magdalen Church,
Oxford, and Brailes Church, Warwickshire.
Q. What is observable in the niches of this style?
A. They are very beautiful, and are generally surmounted by triangular or
ogee-shaped canopies, enriched with crockets and finials, while the
interior of the canopies are groined with numerous small rib mouldings.
The crockets and finials of this style, as decorative embellishments, are
peculiarly graceful, chaste, and pleasing in contour.
Q. Was the transition from this style to the next gradual?
A. Both the transition from the Early English to the Decorated style, and
from the Decorated to the Florid or Perpendicular, was so gradual, that
though many individual details and ornaments were extremely dissimilar,
and peculiar to each particular style, we are only able to judge from
examples when a change was generally established.
Q. From what cotemporary writers of the fourteenth century can we collect
any architectural notices, either general or of detail?
[Illustration: Part of the Altar Screen, Winchester Cathedral.]
A. In Chaucer we find allusions made to _imageries_, _pinnacles_,
_tabernacles_, (canopied niches for statuary,) and _corbelles_. Lydgate,
in _The Siege of Troy_, in his description of the buildings, adverts to
those of his own age, and uses several architectural terms now obsolete or
little understood, and some which are not so, as _gargoiles_. In Pierce
Ploughman’s Creed we have a concise but faithful description of a large
monastic edifice of the fourteenth century, comprising the church or
minster, cloister, chapter house, and other offices.
Q. What edifices maybe noticed as constructed in this style?
A. In Exeter Cathedral this style may be said generally to prevail,
although some portions are of earlier and some of later date. Great part
of Lichfield Cathedral was also built during the fourteenth century. The
beautiful cloisters adjoining Norwich Cathedral, commenced A. D. 1297, but
not finished for upwards of a century, although proceeded with by
different prelates from time to time, rank as the most beautiful of the
kind we have remaining. Several country churches are wholly or principally
erected in this style. Broughton Church, Oxfordshire, may be instanced as
an elegant, pleasing, and complete example of plain decorated work.
Trumpington Church, Cambridgeshire, is also deserving of notice; and
Wimington Church, Bedfordshire, built by John Curteys, lord of the manor,
who died A. D. 1391, is a small but late edifice in the Decorated style.
Annexations were also made during this century to numerous churches of
earlier construction, by the erection of additional aisles or chapels as
chantries. In all these structures we find more or less, in general
appearance, form, and detail, of that extreme beauty and elegance of
design which prevailed, as it were, for about a century, and then
imperceptibly glided away.
[Illustration: Parapet, Magdalen Church, Oxford.]
FOOTNOTES:
[106-*] The allusion is made to the vaulted roofs of the nave and choir
of this cathedral as they existed previous to the late unfortunate and
destructive fires.
[109-*] The Flamboyant window, common in France, is not often met with
in this country. On the north side of Salford Church, Warwickshire, is,
however, a window of this description, filled with flamboyant tracery.
[111-*] For specimens of Decorated windows with flowing tracery in the
heads, vide cuts, pp. 12 and 13.
[Illustration: South Porch of Newbold-upon-Avon Church, Warwickshire.]