Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/171

Rh Bk. VI. Ch. III. WINDOW TRACERY. 155 Shortly after this, as in the choir at Litchfield (1250-1325) or at Exeter (1308-1369), the mania for the display of painted glass upset all these arrangements — generally at the expense of the triforium. This feature was never entirely omitted, nor was it ever glazed internally, as was frequently the case on the Continent ; but it was reduced to the most insignificant proportions — sometimes not pierced — and, with the wider spacing just alluded to, deprived the English side screen of much of that vigor and beauty which characterized its earlier examples. Window Tracery. The date of the introduction of the pointed arch in England — for it may be considered as established that it was introduced —is a qnastion which has been much dis- cussed, but is by no means settled. The general impres- sion is that it was at the re- building of the cathedral of Canterbury after the fire of 1174 that the style was first fairly tried. The architect who superintended that work for the first five years was William of Sens ; and the de- tails and all the arrangements are so essentially French, and so different from anything else of the same age in Eng- land, that his influence on the style of the building can hardly be doubted. Of course it is not meant to assert that no earlier specimens exist ; indeed, we can scarcely suppose that they did not, when we recollect that the pointed arch was used currently in France for more than a century before his time, and that the 2yointed style was inaugurated at St. Denis at least thirty years befoi-e. Still this is probably the first instance of the style being carried out in anything like completeness, not only in the pier-arches and openings, but in the vaults also, which is far more characteristic. Even after this date the struggle was long, and the innovation most unwillingly received by the English, so that even down to the year 1200 the round arch was currently employed, in conjunction with the pointed, to which it at last gave way, and was then for three cen- turies banished entirely from English architecture. 588. Five Sisters, York. (From Britton.)