Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/401

 ENGLISH GOTHIC (THE DECORATED STYLe). 343 The general appearance, although there is an increasing rich- ness of ornamentation, is simple, from the small number of parts, and magnificent, from the size of the windows filled in with geometrical and flowing tracery. Clerestories were enlarged at the expense of the triforium. Vaulting ribs were more numerous and complex than in the previous style, the vault becoming a main feature in the effect of the interiors. In London the principal examples are : — Westminster Abbey (three bays of the eastern cloister walk and the polygonal chapter house) ; the Chapel of S. Etheldreda, Ely Place, Holborn, and the Dutch Church, Austin Friars. In the Provinces the principal examples are : — Lincoln Cathedral (nave and east end, including angel choir, 1 260-1280), Ely Cathedral (the eastern portion), York Cathedral (the choir, west front and chapter house), Exeter and Lichfield Cathedrals (naves), S.Albans (choir), Salisbury, Wells, and Southwell (the prolonged chapter houses). Stone Church, Kent, and the Eleanor Crosses. A. Plans. — The new plans were set out with a wider spacing in the bays, more noticeable in parish churches than in cathedrals already started in earlier periods. The progress of vaulting regulated the planning of the piers, and was in itself strongly influenced by the increased size of the openings required to exhibit stained glass. In domestic architecture the '^ Hall " was highly developed, as at Westminster and Penshurst (No. 132). Several of the great central towers were now carried up, a^ Salisbury (Nos. 116 a, 121 and 140 d), Lincoln (Nos. 116 b and 125), and Lichfield (No. 116 f). Spires, usually octagonal, are lofty, and the " broach " form, characteristic of the thirteenth century, gradually gave way to parapets with angle pinnacles (No. 140 c, d, e). Spire-lights are ornamented with crockets (No. 147 k), and ribs occur on the angles of the tapering spires. B. Walls. — The increased size of the traceried windows, and the importance of the buttresses are characteiistic of the style, and the extension of tracery to the walls in the shape of panelling was now introduced. Buttresses occur with offsets in stages, and in later periods are ornamented with niches (No. 141 c) and crocketed canopies, as in the exterior of Lincoln (No. 125). Angle buttresses, set diagonally, were introduced in this period. Parapets were often pierced with flowing tracery (No. 147 n), but this was especially a French feature, the English generally keeping to the battlemented form (No. 147 m). c. Openings. — The proportions of height to width are less lofty than in the Early English period.