Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/181

Rh and of the great ribs is at the same level—which is that of the clerestory string, and there is, therefore, no narrowing of the lower part of the vaulting conoid upon the line of the clerestory buttress, such as is found in true Gothic.

The vaulting shafts, however, which are but three in number, though there are six ribs to carry, start from the pavement, and are unbroken in their ascent to the springing of the vaults. Their continuity gives a degree of Gothic expression which is not very common in England at this time, though at a later period it became more frequent, as at York and Winchester.

The clerestory of Lichfield is noticeable among clerestories in England, as having in each bay but one opening which nearly fills the space beneath the longitudinal rib of the vault. The form of this opening is the peculiar one of an equilateral triangle with segmentally curved sides.

There is no need of further or more detailed consideration of the forms of piers and buttresses, for these in England are never structurally complete and never exhibit anything like consistent development. There is hardly such a thing in the country as a continuous pier, all of whose parts are functionally adjusted at once to the arcades and to the vaulting, nor am I aware of an example of an entirely logical and well-adjusted buttress system; much less is there evidence of any experimental or inventive development of these members.

From what has already been said it will be seen that in England the mode of enclosure, in the pointed architecture of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, is substantially the same as in the round arched Norman style. Massive walls, pierced with comparatively small openings, continue for the most part, throughout this period. The openings are usually, indeed, larger than they were in the older style, and they are perhaps more generally, and more closely grouped, so as to give a larger proportion of opening to that of wall; but in hardly any case does the wall wholly disappear and a vast glazed opening take its place. It could not, indeed, be otherwise, for the Anglo-Norman pointed structure has no such sustaining skeleton of piers and buttresses as would render safe the entire suppression of the walls. It was not until after the middle of the thirteenth century that openings