The Anglo-Saxon doorway would, in all probability, be an arched opening
straight through the wall, the door hanging against the inner face (Fig.
232). It may or may not be relieved by a pilaster strip on either side,
and an impost to crown the pier, leaving it still a very primitive and
inartistic composition, with the door itself dealt with as if it had
been forgotten and no provision made for it. We will suppose the Norman
doorway to be of the same width and height with the Saxon one (Fig.
233). Its reveal, to begin with, is reduced to perhaps one-fifth of the
thickness of the wall, and the door itself placed at such a distance
from the exterior as the architectural grade aimed at may dictate, and
this distance is divided into so many orders or recesses (each some 8 or
10 inches in depth in a moderate doorway) as may be thought best. These
arched rims or orders may be either left plain or may be moulded, or
otherwise decorated at pleasure. The jambs of such a doorway may be
treated in several different ways. The simplest is to make the jambs
continuous with the arch, with or without the interposition of an
impost. A second mode is to substitute a shaft or decorative column, for
one or all of the orders, excepting, generally, that with which the door
itself comes in contact. Add to this an outer or drip moulding to sever
the arch from the wall face, and you have the elements of a really
well-considered and artistic doorway. Internally, the remaining
thickness of the wall is arched in another order (either square or
sloping), which arch has to spring at a higher level to avoid the
catching against it of the door while opening.
A doorway thus constructed may be clothed with what decorations you
think good; and, if you are working in the Pointed style, the principle
applies just as well as in Norman; indeed, we have here the principles
of nearly all good doorways, whether Romanesque or Gothic (Fig. 234).
[Illustration: Fig. 234.]
I have already described the application of the principle to an archway,
which in its elementary form is merely the outer jamb of a doorway
repeated on both sides of the wall. A shaft or demi-shaft may be
substituted for the central order, or, if the wall be a little thicker,
this shaft may be doubled; or, if thicker still, there may be two orders
on either side of the wall besides the central one, or other obvious
combinations may be made, rendering the archway, instead of a mere crude
opening, an artistic composition, though trusting for its effect to a
perfectly reasonable constructive system.
I will now suppose two such openings brought so closely together as to
leave only a short space of wall between. We have then two such systems
of recesses brought into close contact, making either a plain pier of
comparatively sightly form, such as those at St. Alban’s; or, if
shafted, we at once obtain the great feature of Gothic architecture, the
clustered pier.
In cases where it was preferred to support the adjoining springings of
two arches upon a single column, though the arch was sometimes left
undivided, the same system of sub-orders was more usual. In this case if
the abacus remained square, its angles, being unoccupied, would present
a clumsy appearance. This led to the breaking of the capital into
orders, though resting upon a single shaft, or the abacus was made round
or octagonal.
Such a column as this often alternated between two clustered piers,
making an extremely agreeable group.
The developments I have described--so logical in their motive that one
fancies that one might have originated them all by a mere process of
inductive reasoning--supply nine-tenths of all the elements of the
perfected Romanesque style.
Extend, now, the same principles to a vaulted space which we have
hitherto applied only to an arcaded wall, and we gain another great
instalment of the elements of the style by a simple process of
reasoning.
[Illustration: Fig. 235.