Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/485

 GOTHIC BUILDINGS OF OXFORD. 883 lowered, the flowing curves of the tracery converted into straight Hnes, panelhng profusely used, and the square form everywhere introduced ; until at length the prevalence of the horizontal line led easily and naturally to the renaissance of the classic styles, though in an impure and much degraded form. The mixture of the two styles first appears in the time of Henry VII. , a period in which, (though remarkable for the beauty and delicacy of its details) the grand conceptions of form and proportion of the previous century seem to have been lost. Heaviness or clumsiness of form, combined with exquisite beauty of detail, are the characteristics of this era. In the time of Henry VIII. the details also became de- based, and there was a greater mixture of Italian work, but still the Gothic ideas predominated, and there are some good examples of this date remaining, of which the Hall of Christ Church may be adduced as a proof. In the reign of Elizabeth the mixture of the two styles was more complete, and though the details were frequently incongruous, there resulted from the union a style which when applied to domestic buildings was highly picturesque, and occasion all}'' produced great richness of effect. ' In the succeeding period the decline still continued, feature after feature was lost, until at length all was swallowed up by its rival. That feature, however, w^hich was always the most important and most characteristic of Gothic Archi- tecture, and on which at all periods the distinctions of the styles chiefly depended, namely, the window, was the last to depart, for when every other trace of the style was lost, we find the Avindows still retaining either their Gothic form or their Gothic tracery, and thus evincing the lingering love which was still felt for the ancient forms. During all this period of decHne however, frequent at- tempts were made to stay its progress, and in no place more successfully than in Oxford, as the number of buildings of this period will testify. To point out the peculiarities, and to give the most remarkable points of the liistory of these buildings will be the subject of the present paper, the his- • A curious example of Elizabethan being a mixture of Ionic columns and work occurs at Sunningwell Church within Gothic windows. There is also some pood a few miles of Oxfor.l, where there is a woodwork of the same period. The church singular polygonal porch at the west end, was chieHy rebuilt by Bishop Jewel.