Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/956

 932 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 1626 1627 1628 detailed notice, we may add that a corresponding improvement in design characteiised all the details of internal composition, whether groined ceilings, clustered columns, arches, screens, niches, or other features. It must, however, be confessed, that even this middle species of Pointed Architecture is, with all its merits as compared with that of the former period, imperfect in decorative character, and inadequate to the purposes of modern application in general, and to those of domestic fitness in particular. We have, indeed, given one example, tig. 1628, of a window of the middle of the fourteenth century, which may be considered of a legitimate character for domestic use ; but it is to be viewed as assimilating rather with specimens of a subsequent, than with those of a previous, date. The style of the middle period is rendered unfit for ordinary application, by the unmanageable character of its high-pointed windows, doors, and ceilings; and, as to the question of beauty in matters of detail, we may remark, in general, that the composition of its window heads, and of its various decorations of tracery, though at first sight dazzling, does not or the most part offer to the eye, on a close examination, that graceful developement of curves, and continuity of line, and that union of delicacy with dignity, which constitute the great excellence of works of a subsequent date. Subject to the same comparison, too, the mouldings of the middle period exhibit a want of distinctive character and of systematic application; being frequently tortured into the forms of tracery, or made to do the office of columns, when, from their profile, they are rendered incapable of answering either purpose without clumsiness. 1884. The Third and last Period in the History of Pointed Archi- tecture displayed not only its master power and beauty, but also its universality of adaptation. This last period we shall consider as occupying a century and a half, from about the year 1 S70, which was towards the close of the reign of Edward III. The style of Architecture which then rose into prevalence has been denominated the " Perpendicular Pointed," the significancy and fitness of which term will be apparent to all who contrast the ]3rinciples of com- position in window heads and tracery at this period, with those which regulated the specimens of the former age. We may here observe that a distinction is drawn by some writers between the earlier and later varieties of the period, the works of which we here comprehend under one denomination ; a distinction founded upon the fact, that the flattened or obtuse arch, which had its origin at the beginning of this period, was, till about the middle of it, made use of only for minor purposes, and in subordination to the simple-pointed or two-centred arch ; whereas, in the latter part of the same period, the flattened arch assumed the predominance, giving a character of additional complexity and elaborate finish to all inferior matters of accompaniment. This distinction, however, is of little moment as compared with the greater differences which separate the perpen- dicular modes, both the early and the Tudor, from the classes which we have before noticed. Indeed, the unity of feeling which prevails throughout the whole of Perpen- dicular Pointed Architecture is so entire that we might safely adopt all its varieties of « feature in one and the same work, provided such work were of sufficient extent to avoid crowded composition and violent contrasts. An example of the principal lines of window head appropriate to the early part of this period is given, divested of its tracery, in fig. 1629 ; and it will be observed that in this figure the perpendicular lines predominate in a manner which has no parallel in the case of either of the before- noticed instances. Indeed, the prevalence of per- pendicular lines constitutes not only the distinction of this species, but forms also, as we before observed, one of the most striking characteristics of Pointed Architecture generally, as opposed to the classic styles ; and it is in the works of the period now under con- 1629