Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/322

 224 REMARKS ON THE COMPLETE GOTHIC niouldiugs, which accompanied these shafts, were equal rolls, separated by a deep hollow ; but there were never really a different set of arch staves for each roll moulding. And it soon became usual not to make each upright shaft a separate piece, but to cut these shafts upon the stones of a central pier or a w^all ; and then the hollows between the mouldings became less deep, the forms of the shafts and of the mould- ings were no longer circular, but w^ere marked with a fillet, or a qtdrk, and became also of different breadths. This practice of combining mouldings of different breadths, and of accompanying strong mouldings with fine ones, and thus producing shadows of various breadth and sharpness, alternating with each other, is one of the main and most universal characters of the English Decorated style, as dis- tinguished from the Early English, and it is one of its great and peculiar beauties. Something of the same kind appears to prevail in German architecture ; although there is not, in that country, any style which exactly represents either the Early English or the Decorated. At a certain stage of German architecture, the shafts and mouldings lose their cjdindrical form, and become what Mr. K. calls " pear-shaped," — meaning, I conceive, that the transverse section of the moulding resembles the loncjiUi- dinal section of a pear, the outline being drawn out to an edge and inflected. (See Halberstadt, xlvii.) At a later period, the pier loses its separation into upright parts alto- gether, and is a cylindrical or polygonal column, out of which the vaulting ribs spring abru])tly, forming what Mr. Willis calls " a discontinuous impost." The principle of lateral continuity thus shows itself, by giving a continuity to the mass below which does not extend to the vaulting frame above ; and in this manner the principle of frame-work is interfered with and destroyed, which is, as I have said, one step in the decline of the Gothic st3'le. This principle of lateral continuity may be called, also, the princijjle of wall-work. The members which are designed, and to a certain extent conceived, as vertical or as curved members, according to the principle of frame-work and the principle of tracery, are really paiis of walls, and arc modified l)y this con- dition, as I have said. And this condition, that the structure consists of wall-work, not merely of frame-work and bent staves, not only does actually operate as being the real construction.