Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/121

Rh Willis at Canterbury and Winchester have opened a new field to the architectural antiquary. It may be doubted whether the bulging of the spire is a mark, as Mr. Freeman supposes, of the lateness of its erection. Several spires, especially in Lincolnshire, are so much sugar-loaved, that we must look upon them as so designed and constructed originally, as no possible alteration could account for their present form. Of these we may notice Caythorpe in Lincolnshire.

The Decorated windows in this church are principally of the reticulated character, which is nowhere uncommon, and is very prevalent in Northamptonshire. This kind of Decorated window is the one most successfully imitated in the present day. Some of the windows have ogee heads, a feature somewhat peculiar to this district. Of the porch, "the outer doorway has shafts with good moulded capitals, and very beautiful foliaged terminations to the label; the inner doorway, though mutilated, is a good example of the style, and from the use of the square abacus, although there is no other vestige of Norman character about it, would appear to be early in the style, and therefore, in all probability, the most ancient feature of the church. It has four shafts to the jambs, and the architrave is well, al- though not very richly, moulded. The gable of this porch is not low, but has been higher than at present, as appears from the gablet, which is adapted to a considerably higher pitch than now exists."

The church of Higham Ferrers is rich in monumental brasses, and has an example of tile-pavement, which is valuable, from the few which remain of original arrangement. "The steps which led to the High Altar remain, they are covered with indented and encaustic tiles, laid in various patterns, one of these being a lozenge formed by a square black tile, scored in squares, as a centre, surrounded by four narrow yellow bordering tiles, having a small black one at each angle. Another part of the steps is laid down with lozenge-shaped tiles.

"The tiles used here are different from those generally met with; the device or pattern is generally pressed into the soft clay, and the impression so produced is tilled up with a light-coloured clay previous to the tile being glazed; but in these the outline only of the pattern is pressed into the clay, and the whole surface is glazed over of one uniform colour.

"In the upright part of the steps, or risers, as they arc called, three