A. Freeman Smith

“ Almost every feature was enriched with carved ornament. The predominating form is the curvilinear line, the ogee or ogival (Plate VI., Fig. 2) , Hogarth’s “line of beauty and grace,” which occurs in the lines of tracery, the shape of arches, sections of mouldings, and of foliated ornament.
The Geometrical period, 1245-1315, is the overlapping of Early English and Decorated. The term Geometrical is applied on account of the window tracery, which is made up of circles and triangles more or less elaborate. ”

“ Difficulties were met in forming intersecting vaults of unequal span, clumsy contrivances were resorted to, until, in the Transition period, 1145-1190, the introduction of the pointed arch solved the problem, and led the way to the development of Gothic vaulting. The Roman and Norman vaults were built upon temporary centering. A centre is a timber frame made like a roof-truss shaped{76} to the form of the arch ”

“ In a properly constructed roof-truss all the stresses are neutralised in the truss itself, and the whole{67} framework rests as a dead weight upon the walls without any lateral thrust to force them out of the vertical. The King-post-truss is suitable to roofs up to 30 feet span, the Queen-post-truss to 40 feet.
Open timber roofs have their construction visible from the interior. Plate X., Fig. 8, shows a crude Queen-post-truss in an old Worcestershire church, in which the tie-beam has been chosen from a bent log so as to prevent its bending under the roof load. ”

“ This is the simplest form of Gothic vault, and belongs chiefly to the Early English period. The ribs ah, bh, ci, di are wall ribs;{78} bg, cg, ag, dg, are cross ribs; ae, ce, be, de, are the diagonal ribs. The ridge-ribs eg and h, e, i, are horizontal, and intersect the summits of the cross ribs and diagonals. At every intersection there is generally a carved keystone or boss.
In the vaulting of a nave the breadth across is about twice the breadth of the aisles, so that the nave bays are not square, but rectangular.
Plate XI., Fig. 4, and Plate XII., Fig. ”

“ Plate III., Fig. 7, is a Norman font of the simple bowl form enriched with carved Norman heads connected by Byzantine ornament and surrounded with a Norman arcade of intersecting arches—a feature often introduced in the walls of churches and cathedrals.
Plate III., Fig. 8, is a double-recessed window with an arch of three orders. The columns in the positions shown are called jamb-shafts or nook-shafts; those on the right are detached and may be removed, leaving the bases and capitals remaining. On the left the shafts are engaged—i.e., form part of the masonry of the wall. ”

“ Loftiness is a special trait of the Perpendicular period. Walls were carried to a greater height than previously. The external roof was frequently covered with lead, and inclined at an angle easy to walk upon. The roof-timbers were supported by ornamental principals exposed to view from the interior, or there was a stone-vaulted internal roof of rich design, the increased thrusts upon the walls being counteracted by larger buttresses. ”

“ This symbol was extensively adopted in the decoration of baptismal fonts.
The Vesica piscis (Latin, the bladder of a fish) (Plate I., Fig. 5) was used as a nimbus or{17} glory to surround the figure of a sacred personage in sculpture and in painting. Its name shows the use of Latin terms in the Roman Church as distinguished from the Greek in Byzantium, which was an ancient Greek city adopted by Constantine, the Christian Emperor, as the capital of the eastern division of the Roman Empire under the new name of Constantinopolis—the modern Constantinople. ”

“ Plate X., Fig. 4, is a trussed rafter roof requiring no purlins nor principal—each common rafter is a truss. This kind of roof is suitable{68} only to small spans; its weakest part is from a. to b.
In the roof-truss, or principal, the Gothic architects objected to the tie-beam as an obstruction to the sense of loftiness, so desirable in the church interior, and therefore invented the hammer-beam principal (Plate X., Fig. 7) , which resembles a Queen-post-truss, having a collar and King post. The hammer-beams (h.b.) are substitutes for the tie-beam. ”

“ Plate X., Fig. 6, shows a low-pitched Perpendicular roof with principals and half-principal. The common rafters are concealed by a panelled ceiling, the panels being formed by principal rafters and purlins. The arched trusses bring part of the thrust low down on to the walls, which are strengthened by heavy buttresses on the outside. The half-principal is placed over a window arch. ”

“ The smaller buttress (C.) resists the thrust of the window arches. Norwich Cathedral displays an interesting array of flying-buttresses.
Plate VI., Fig. 6, shows a tower and spire at the crossing of nave and transepts. The base of the spire and its broaches (Plate V., Fig. 7) are concealed by a parapet wall, with battle{51}ments protecting a footway round the spire, which could be used as a place of observation. Mouldings in the Geometrical period attained the greatest refinement. Many can be favourably compared with those of the best Greek periods. ”

“ Its purpose as a handbook is to explain the origin and use of some of the forms which are presented to the eye of the visitor to these ancient monuments, not as being the result of caprice, or mere æsthetic motives, {vi}but as derived originally from a deep conviction of the living truth which their founders professed, and which they attempted to express in all their constructive work. ”

“ In it Gothic con{61}struction attained its climax; ornamentation declined from a refined realism to coarse conventionalism, coinciding with the decline of spiritual life in the Church. Cathedrals and churches increased in all dimensions, and everything showed the tendency towards the renaissance of classic art which was flourishing on the Continent. Classic mouldings were imitated, and carved ornament of pure Italian design was applied to decorate Gothic forms—notable instances being the tomb of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, and the Salisbury Chantry in Christchurch Priory near Bournemouth. ”

“ Plate XII., Fig. 1, shows fan-vaulting having no ribs. The lines shown indicate mouldings on the masonry imitating ribs. The structure is built up of slabs of stone, accurately joined{79} together forming concave half-cones, their vertices being the springers of the vault. The dotted lines show some of the jointing; the other lines represent the imitation ribs. The crown of the vault is the flat surface gh, gi, generally richly ornamented.{81}{80}
INDEX A, B, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W.
Abacus, Pl. III., Fig. 1
Arcade (Norman) , Pl. III., Fig. 7
Ball-Flower, Pl. ”

“ The ball-flower (Plate VI., Fig. 3) is a dis{52}tinctive feature of the Decorated period superseding the tooth ornament of the Lancet (Plate V., Fig. 12) . It was applied to hollow mouldings of arches and tracery of windows, vaulting, and spires.
Capitals were moulded as in the section (Plate VII., Fig. 13) , or carved, as Plate VI., Fig. 4, generally in imitation of natural foliage, varying from a bold conventionalism (Plate VI., Fig. 5) to a close imitation of nature, as Plate VI., Fig. 1 (a.a.) . Animal forms and small human figures were occasionally introduced. ”

“ V., Fig. 8
String Courses and Dripstones, Pl. IV., Fig. 4; Pl. V., Fig. 6; Pl. VII., Fig. 12; Pl. VIII., Fig. 8
{83}Strut, Pl. X., Figs. 1, 2, 7
Studs, Pl. II., Fig. 3
Symbols, Pl. I.
Tie-Beam, Pl. X., Figs, 1, 2, 3, 8
Tooth Ornament, Pl. V., Fig. 12
Tracery Development, Pl. V., Figs. 4, 5; Pl. VII., Figs. 1 to 5
Transitional, Pl. IV.
Transom, Pl. IX., Figs. 1, 2, p. 58
Trefoil, Pl. I., Fig. 7
Triforium, Pl. XI., Fig. 2
Triquetra, Pl. I., Fig. 8; Pl. III., Fig. 9
Truss, Pl. X.
Tudor Arch, Pl. VIII., Fig. 4; Pl. IX., Fig. 6
Tudor Flower, Pl. VIII., Fig. 2
Vaulting Ribs, Pl. ”