Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/346

 270 ON THE ARCHITECTUEE OF periods of its architecture.® The tracery of the windows on the north side is also a valuable study, two of them presenting singularities in the wa}^ of filling up the circle in the head. The aisle seems never to have been designed for vaulting ; its steep lean-to roof has been already commented on. There are shafts, already mentioned, against the north wall, but far too low to be connected with any vault or other roof; they were doubtless designed for pillar brackets. Besides this north aisle of the choir, there is reason to be- west Front of hcvc that a south aisle to the nave was commenced South Aisle. ^^ ^i^-g ii^ne, though only commenced. The pre- sent south aisle is indeed, in its most important features, both within and without, of a later date, and we shall presently liave to consider it at length. But it contains one very impor- tant portion which can hardly fail to belong to this first stage of the Decorated enlargement. Its west end, though now wretchedly defaced and mutilated, must have originally been not the least attractive portion of the church, and, from its peculiar arrangements, it derived unusual importance. It was in fact the west front of the church, as some of the con- ^ It will be remembered that this door- Vay is placed immediately east of the seam in the wall and change of string at (/. The Decorated string here has a curious ap- pearance at the point where it terminates, or rather commences, as if it had been in- tended to continue it along some building at right angles to the wall of the church. There is, however, this difficulty, that no important part of the conventual' buildings could possibly have joined the church at this jioint, as they would have interfered with the window to the west, and would also most probably have left some trace of their presence. On the other liand, one cannot imagine why a mere breast-wall, which is all that seems capable of having existed, or being designed here, should have been so elaborately treated, or so studiously identified with the church, as by this continuation of the string. It has indeed been suggested to me, and that on the very highest authority, that there was, or was to be, a porch over this doorway, and I therefore infer, that this string would have been contmued along the inner face of the western wall. From this opinion I must beg leave to dissent. A porch in such a position, though, I be- lieve, not unique — I do not distinctly remember whether that at Wimborne Minster is original or otherwise — is certainly extremely unusual ; and this particular doorway, from its whole cha- racter, and its intimate connexion mth the strings, windows, &c., seems peculiarly ill- suited to such a finish. A porch of any sort could hardly fail to have cut through the window above, whose cill comes down immediately upon the head of the door- way. Again, if the string wei'e turned to be carried along its western wall, a similar treatment would doubtless have been ap- plied to its eastern also ; and there is no break or other noticeable appearance in the string to the eastof the doorway. It seems to me perfectly clear that no porch was ever actually erected, and I cannot bring myself to believe that any was ever contemplated ; at all events, not when the aisle was built, an opinion which would seem involved in any argument built upon the appearance of the string. It is to be noticed that on either side of the window over this doorway is a vertical string, projecting from the wall like a label, running up a considerable portion of the height of the jamb. It is not quite clear whether they were continued to join the label of the window : if so, the effect must have been very bad. These strings, which are not easily understood on any view, but which form an additional argument against the porch theory, are not correctly given — a rare instance of inac- curacy — in Mr. Addington's engraving.