Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/152

 122 Architecture in Great Britain. occasionally introduced in the upper storeys of a building, whilst those in the lower remained circular. We even see them alternating here and there with the old form. Norman columns, though higher than the Saxon, are of immense diameter as compared with their height and the distances between them. They have circular, hexagonal, or octagonal shafts, with fluted, reticulated (i. e. like the meshes of a net), or lozenged mouldings (Fig. 54). Their Fig. 54. — Late Norman shafts, capitals, and arches. capitals are of a well-marked type, and either plain or decorated with a kind of volute (i e. spiral enrichment), or with plants, shells, animals, etc., etc. Norman windows are narrow and semicircular-headed like the Saxon, but they are larger, and are often grouped together in twos or threes. The ceilings are generally flat and of timber, except in crypts, which are vaulted with stone, the groins being plain, or if decorated, only on the edge. Norman