The Decorated Style. — Edward I., II., and III. A.D. 1272-1377
The name of the Edwardian style is sometimes given to this second Gothic style, which Rickman justly called Decorated. The name of Edwardian implies the reigns of the three Edwards, and is convenient for England, but does not apply anywhere else, which is the objection to its general use.
The Porches are sometimes shallow; others have a very bold projection, as at Kidlington; sometimes with windows or open arcades at the sides, and, though rarely, with a room over: there are also many fine timber porches of this style, distinguished by the moldings and barge-boards, as at Aldham, Essex. These wooden porches are common in some districts, as in Herefordshire, and rare in others. There are good examples at Binfield and Long Wittenham, Berkshire, although that is not one of the districts in which they are commonly met with.
There is frequently a niche over the outer doors, or door into the church from the porch; this was for the patron-saint. Occasionally, but rarely, there are remains of a wooden gallery in that position, supposed to have been for the choir-boys to stand when part of the marriage-ceremony was performed in the porch. There is frequently a staircase at the corner of the porch next the church, to ascend to the room over.
The Doorways of this style are frequently large, and very richly sculptured, and have a rich canopy over them, with crockets and finials, as at Crick, Northants; but in small churches they are as frequently plain, and have merely a dripstone over them, the roll-molding often terminated by two small heads, which are generally a king and a bishop; this is the case also with the windows. It is often not easy to distinguish the plain doorways of this style from those of the preceding one, but in general they are not so deeply recessed. A few doorways of this style are double. When there are shafts in the jambs they are worked on the same stones, and not inserted as separate shafts of stone or marble, as in the Early English, and as at Dorchester, Oxon. The wooden doors are sometimes ornamented with panelling of a better description than that which is common in the next style; they were originally painted in colours like the interior of the churches, and often have ornamental iron-work upon them; even the nail-heads are made ornamental. This is also the case in the Early English style, and it is frequently not easy to distinguish one from the other, there being very little difference between them. In ordinary parish churches the old wooden door, with the original iron-work upon it, is often preserved longer than any other ornament.
The Decorated Style is distinguished by its large windows divided by mullions, and the tracery either in flowing lines, or forming circles, trefoils, and other geometrical figures, as at Dorchester, and not running perpendicularly; its ornaments are numerous and very delicately carved, more strictly faithful to nature and more essentially parts of the structure than in any other style. In small country churches, however, there are perhaps more very plain churches of this style than of any other; still the windows have the essential decoration of tracery. The ornament is also part of the construction, a point in which it differs from the other styles; a Decorated cusp cannot be inserted in the tracery.
There is a very fine window, with reticulated tracery and richly molded, in the south walk of the cloisters at Westminster. No rule whatever is followed in the form of the arch over windows in this style; some are very obtuse, others very acute, and the ogee arch is not uncommon. (See p. 141.)
Decorated tracery is usually divided into three general classes—geometrical, flowing, and flamboyant; the variety is so great, that many sub-divisions may be made, but they were all used simultaneously for a considerable period.
The earliest Decorated windows have geometrical tracery; Exeter Cathedral is, perhaps, on the whole, the best typical example of the early part of this style. The fabric rolls are preserved, and it is now evident that the existing windows are, for the most part, of the time of Bishop Quivil, from 1279 to 1291. The windows all have geometrical patterns, and some of these are identical with those of Merton College Chapel, Oxford. The chancel of Haseley Church, Oxon, is a good example of the early Decorated style of Edward I. One of the windows in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, p. 137, and the aisles of the choir of Dorchester Abbey Church, Oxon, p. 136, are also excellent examples.
The buildings of the time of Edward the First have geometrical tracery in the windows. In Merton College Chapel the side windows still retain the original painted glass, with the kneeling figure of the donor several times repeated, with the inscription “Magister Henricus de Mannesfeld,” recorded by Wood as of A.D. 1283.
Many windows of this style, especially in the time of Edward I., have the rear-arch ornamented with cusps, with a hollow space over the head of the window in the thickness of the wall, between the rear arch and the outer arch.
Windows with flowing tracery, as at Great Milton, and in the church of the Austin Friars; also those with reticulated, or net-like forms, are in general somewhat later than the geometrical patterns; at least, they do not seem to have been introduced quite so early; but they are very frequently contemporaneous, and both classes may often be found side by side in the same building, evidently erected at the same time. An early instance of this occurs at Stoke Golding, in Leicestershire, built between 1275 and 1290, as appears by an inscription still remaining: the windows have mostly geometrical tracery, but several have flowing. The same mixture occurs at Selby Abbey, and St. Mary’s, Beverley. In some instances windows with geometrical tracery have the moldings and the mullions covered with the ball-flower ornament in great profusion, even to excess: these examples occur chiefly in Herefordshire, as at Leominster; and in Gloucestershire, as in the south aisle of the nave of the Cathedral at Gloucester: they are for the most part, if not entirely, of the time of Edward II.
Finedon, and Higham Ferrars, Northants, are good examples of the ogee form of arch, and the manner in which the tracery is made to harmonise with the arch is very pleasing to the eye, and not very common.
What is called the net-like character of tracery, from its general resemblance to a fisherman’s net, is very characteristic of this style at its best period, about the middle of the fourteenth century, of which there is a very fine example in the west window of the Franciscan Friary at Reading, p. 143, of which the remains are valuable, although a great deal of it was destroyed in the Georgian era, from the neglect that was usual at that period. It has been carefully restored in the time of Queen Victoria, at the expense of a gentleman of Reading, and is now used as a chapel-of-ease for the large parish in which it is situated. The roof now used at St. Mary’s Church in Reading is said to have originally belonged to this chapel. One of the side windows, with a segmental head of the same period, is also a very good example of the style. This kind of tracery is the most usual characteristic of this style, and begins in the time of Edward II. There are good examples of this period in the south aisles of the churches of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Aldate’s, Oxford.
The inner arch, or rear-arch, is frequently of a different shape and proportion to the outer one: there is also sometimes a series of open cusps hanging from it, called hanging foliation.
It is more common in some parts of the country than in others: this feature seems to have taken the place of the inner plane of decoration, with tracery and shafts, of the Early English style, and it disappears altogether in the succeeding style. There is a good example of this inner arch in Broughton Church, Oxfordshire. This foliated inner arch is not a very common feature.
Square-headed windows are very common in this style in many parts of the country, especially in Leicestershire and in Oxfordshire, as at Ardley. Windows with a flat segmental arch are also frequently used in this style, and the dripstone, or projecting molding over the window to throw off the wet, is sometimes omitted, as at Stonesfield, which has also an elegant detached shaft in the interior.
Windows in towers are usually different from those in other parts of the church. In the upper storey, where the bells are, there is no glass; in some parts of the country there is pierced stonework for keeping out the birds, but more usually they are of wood only. These are called sound-holes.
The storey under this, where the ringers stand, is also commonly called the belfry, and the windows of this storey are also peculiar, sometimes richly ornamented as at Irthlingborough,—where it is part of the work of Pyal, the founder of the college in that parish, A.D. 1388.
Clere-storey windows of this style are often small, and either circular with quatrefoil cusps, or trefoils or quatrefoils; or the spherical triangle with cusps, which forms an elegant window. The clever manner in which these windows are splayed within, and especially below, to throw down the light, should be noticed.
In some parts of the country, as in Oxfordshire, small clere-storey windows of the Decorated style, as at Great Milton and Garsington, are not uncommon, but more usually the churches have been rebuilt in the Perpendicular style, along with the roof, when the church has been raised.
Circular windows are also a fine feature of this style, chiefly used at the ends of the transepts in large churches, or at the west end in small ones. A rare instance of an east window of this form occurs at Westwell, Oxon, and a fine one on the side of a transept at Cheltenham.
Flamboyant tracery, and the forms approaching to it, generally indicate a late date. We have no instance of real Flamboyant work in this country, although forms of tracery approaching to it are not uncommon; the moldings are never of the true Flamboyant character, which is quite distinct both from the Decorated and the Perpendicular; it coincided in time with the latter, and therefore does not properly belong to our present subject.
The arch is sometimes cinquefoiled, and ornamented with crockets and bunches of foliage for finials, and with pinnacles also, as in Beverley Minster, where this arch is that of a canopy over a tomb, between two tall piers of a lofty arch. The ogee arch is frequently used in small arcades and in the heads of windows. The drip-stones or hoodmolds are generally supported by heads, and are frequently enriched with crockets and finials. The most important are naturally those between the nave and aisles; those of the triforium, if there is one, as at Beverley, are not so tall, and are commonly divided into two in the same space as the one below.
The Arches do not differ very materially in general effect from the Early English, but are distinguished by the moldings and capitals as before described.
The Arcades which ornament the walls in rich buildings, and those over the sedilia, are very characteristic features of the style. In some instances the sedilia, or seats for the officiating clergy by the side of the altar, have projecting canopies over them, forming perfect tabernacles, as if for images; more commonly they have canopies on the same plane with the seats.
The Pillars have no longer detached shafts, and the capitals are ornamented with foliage of a different character from that which preceded it, as has been mentioned. Occasionally, though not very frequently, the base of the pillar is stilted upon a lofty plinth, as at Naseby, Northants. In a few instances, even in genuine work of the fourteenth century, this is done in a parish church merely for convenience, to raise the base above the level of the backs of the seats. This is an exceptional example, but is convenient as shewing beginners all the parts belonging to a pillar, the arch-molding resting upon the capital, and the pillar itself consisting of a cluster of shafts, with separate molded capitals and bases to the shafts that are united in one pillar, and the base resting upon a pediment.
In ordinary parish churches the pillars and arches are frequently as plain as in the Early English, and there is no very perceptible difference at first sight. In richer churches the pillars are clustered and the arches richly molded, and often have the hood-molding over them.
The pillar is usually much more lofty than the one at Naseby (p. 151), and has in general a capital, or several smaller capitals, to the shafts that are united; there is not always any pediment, though there sometimes is, as at Frome, Somerset. More usually there is what is called a stilted base only. The example here given from Exeter Cathedral is an extremely good one of a clustered pillar, with molded capitals and stilted base. When there is foliage on the capital, it is usually longer, as in York Minster; but in this style, notwithstanding its name, the capitals are more frequently of moldings only, though the foliage obviously gives much more decoration.
In the richer examples of this style, the Capitals are ornamented with beautiful foliage, each leaf being accurately copied from nature, as well as the best modern artist could do it. These were arranged so as to encircle the pillar, sometimes by means of a stalk forming a branch, as at Beverley (1). In other instances each leaf is separate, arranged round the bell of the capital, but by no means flat, and having almost as good an effect as when ranged upon stalks, as at Beverley (2). A large pier is sometimes a cluster of six shafts, each with its separate capital, some of which have foliage under a molded abacus, as at Beverley (3), others a series of moldings only. More frequently a pier consists of four shafts only, with a series of moldings for the capital, the upper or abacus being usually the roll-molding. Sometimes the hollows are rather deep, though not so deep as in the Early English, as at Beverley and Stanwick. In other instances there is no hollow, but the molding stands out clear from the bell of the capital, with a ring at the foot of it, as at Irthlingborough.
The Bases are usually molded only, and stand upon a plinth, the height of which varies very much; it frequently happens that a new pavement of a church has raised the level several inches, which must, of course, be taken from the height of the base.
In small country churches, the pillars or piers are simply round or octagonal, and the arches that rest upon them are sometimes molded and sometimes not; but in richer churches the piers consist of a number of shafts clustered together, which add much to the effect. It frequently happens that four shafts are arranged diamond-wise, with a small hollow between them, as at Irthlingborough. There is sometimes a fillet on the shaft, or the shaft is pear-shaped; both of these occur in the same pillar at Beverley.
Sometimes there is a fillet on the edge, as at Beverley Minster (3); in other instances the edge is brought to a point, as in the same example. These clustered pillars add very much to the effect of the building; but this is not always noticed until they are drawn, and a section of them is shewn, and then the skill of the medieval architect has justice done to it. The moldings are chiefly shewn on the arches.
The Moldings of this style differ from the Early English chiefly in having the rounds and hollows not so deeply cut, and more generally filleted: the roll-molding, and the quarter round, are very much used; the abacus of the capital is in general a roll or filleted round, and the base is formed of round moldings without the deep hollow: as the style advances, the moldings become, generally, more shallow and feeble. The roll-molding is perhaps the most characteristic of the style, though it is used occasionally in Early English work also. A bold quarter-round is frequently used on arches without any other; the plain chamfer is used in all styles, but in Decorated work it is frequently sunk so as to leave a small square edge at each angle, thus varying the light and shade, and giving a precision to the angles of the chamfer which has a very good effect, as at Dorchester, p. 157. In late examples this is varied by a gentle swelling in the middle, forming a kind of shallow ogee molding, as at Kidlington. The ornamental sculptures in the hollow moldings are numerous, but there are two which require more particular notice; they are nearly as characteristic of the Decorated style as the zig-zag is of the Norman, or the tooth-ornament of the Early English. The first is the ball-flower, which is a globular flower half opened, and shewing, within, a small round ball. It is used with the utmost profusion in the moldings of windows, doorways, canopies, cornices, arches, &c., as at Raunds, Kidlington, and Dorchester (p. 157), generally with good effect, but sometimes in such excess as almost to destroy the effect of the moldings; but at the same time it gives great richness to the general effect of the windows. The ball-flowers are sometimes placed at intervals, and connected by a stem with or without foliage.
The other ornament is the four-leaved flower. This has a raised centre, and four petals cut in high relief; it is frequently much varied, but may be distinguished by its being cut distinctly into four petals, and by its boldness: it is sometimes used abundantly, though not quite so profusely as the ball-flower. In some instances the centre is sunk instead of being raised.
The battlement as an ornamental feature in the interior of buildings is frequently used in this style, although it is more common in the Perpendicular. Decorated battlements may generally be distinguished by the horizontal molding being cut off at each opening, and not continued vertically down the sides of it, as is usual in the later styles; and this applies to the actual battlement on the parapet, as well as to the merely ornamental battlement in the interior. It occurs on the top of a screen, or of a piscina or other niche; also on the transom, and sometimes on the sill of a window; in all which situations it is more common and more conspicuous in the Perpendicular style.
The use of the battlement as an ornament in the interior of a building, often on the edge of the sill of a window, is a singular caprice, but very common in English buildings; it is one of the English features that is much quizzed by the French architectural antiquaries.
The foliage in this style is more faithfully copied from nature than in any other: the vine-leaf, the maple, and the oak with the acorn, are the most usual. The surface of the wall is often covered with flat foliage, arranged in small squares called diaper-work, which is believed to have originated in an imitation of the rich hangings then in general use, and which bore the same name. These diaper patterns were originally coloured in imitation of the silks from which they were copied, and which at an early period came from the East, though they were afterwards imitated by the European manufacturers in Belgium and France, particularly at Ypres and Rheims. This kind of ornament was used in the Early English style, as in the choir of Westminster Abbey, but it more commonly belongs to the Decorated style. The colouring of the ornaments to make them more effective was far more common in mediæval Gothic work than is generally supposed, because it has been so universally whitewashed over, either by the Puritans, or during the bad taste of the Georgian era. This colouring frequently comes to light during modern restorations, when the whitewash is scraped off, and sometimes good pictures of scriptural subjects have been whitewashed over in the same ignorant manner.
The Buttresses in this style have great variety of forms and of degrees of richness. Sometimes they are quite plain, or merely have the angles chamfered off, and terminated by a slope, either under the cornice, as at Irthlingborough, or independent of it, as at Stanton St. John, Oxon. In other instances the buttress terminates in a pediment or gablet, as at Raunds, either with or without crockets and a finial, according to the richness of the building. Over each buttress there is frequently a gurgoyle, or ornamental water-spout. They usually have pediments, and are frequently enriched on the face with niches for figures (which sometimes, but rarely, are left), and canopies, and often terminate in pinnacles, as at Gadsby, Leicestershire. In large buildings there are fine arch-buttresses spanning over the aisles, as at Howden. There are sometimes also groups of pinnacles round the base of the spire in this style, which have a very rich effect, as at St. Mary’s, Oxford.
These groups of pinnacles are among the most ornamental features of the style; those at the east end of Howden are among the most celebrated. The buttresses of this style are almost invariably divided into stages with a set-off between each, and sometimes have a succession of niches with crocketed canopies over them. Our eyes are so much accustomed to empty niches in this country that they do not offend us, but an empty niche is in fact an unmeaning thing, a niche was originally intended to contain an image, and the canopy over it was to protect the head of the image.
The flat surfaces in niches and monuments, on screens, and in other situations, are covered with delicately-carved patterns, called diaper-work, representing foliage and flowers; among which are introduced birds and insects, and sometimes dogs or other animals, all executed with much care and accuracy, and proving that the artists of that time drew largely from nature, the fountain-head of all perfection in art.
The sedilia, or seats for the officiating ministers on the east side of the altar, are frequently the most ornamental feature in the choir of a parish church; as at Chesterton, Oxon, in which they are very elegant, with light shafts and the ball-flower molding. These, with the piscinas, are frequently the only ornamental features in a country church, which is in other respects quite plain; the name Decorated is sometimes objected to on this ground, but the name has special reference to the window-tracery, which in the Decorated is a necessary part of the construction; this is not the case in the Early English style.
The Piscinas, or water-drains, and niches, or tabernacles for images, are often very rich, with canopies and open tracery. These objects commonly shew the chief beauties of this style; they are always on the south side of the altar, the locker or ambry for keeping the chalice, &c., is usually on the north side. The pediment, or straight-sided canopy, is much used in this style over doors, sedilia, piscinas, and monuments.
The Groined Roofs, or Vaults, are distinguished from those of the preceding style chiefly by an additional number of ribs, and by the natural foliage on the bosses. Many fine examples of these remain, as in the Cathedral of Exeter, and at York in the chapter-house; at Norwich in the cloisters; at Chester E the vault is of wood, with stone springers. There are a few instances of stone roofs of this style over narrow spaces of very high pitch, supported by open-work, as if in imitation of wood-work, as on the vestry of Willingham, Cambridgeshire, and the porch of Middleton Cheney, Oxfordshire.
Timber Roofs of this period are comparatively scarce, although they are more common than is usually supposed; but it is lamentable to observe how fast they are disappearing: that of the hall of the abbey of Great Malvern, the finest example that existed in this country, or probably in any other, was wantonly destroyed: it was a wooden ceiling, with an outer roof.
Bradenstoke Priory, or Clack Abbey, near Chippenham, in Wiltshire, is, or was, a fine example. The timber roofs of churches of this style are not generally so fine as those of halls. There are, however, many very good specimens of Decorated roofs remaining in churches, as at Adderbury, Oxfordshire, Raunds, Northamptonshire, and several others in that neighbourhood.
It should be observed that what are called open timber roofs are, very frequently, inner roofs or ceilings for ornament only, with a plain substantial outer roof over them, as at Sparsholt, Berkshire. These inner roofs or wooden ceilings, are sometimes of precisely the same form as stone vaults, which are, in fact, ceilings of another kind. The wooden vaults of Warmington and the cloisters of Lincoln have been already mentioned; those of the nave of York Minster and Winchester Cathedral are also of wood only. At Kiddington, Oxfordshire, is a good example of a Decorated timber-roof of an ordinary parish church. At Kidlington, in the same county, there is also a Decorated timber-roof to the south aisle of the nave.
Ceilings are very useful and often necessary, and the proper thing to be considered is how best to make them ornamental also, as they were formerly. The Puritan fashion of plain whitewashed plaster ceilings caused a natural prejudice against ceilings altogether, which has been carried too far. These were introduced in the seventeenth century, and continued during the ignorant and apathetic eighteenth, and first half of the nineteenth. In some instances these flat plaster ceilings entirely concealed the upper part of fine Decorated windows; this was notably the case in the fine church of Haseley, Oxfordshire; the plaster ceiling had there been introduced in the time of George the Third. This church was the first to be restored by the Oxford Architectural Society, and the first in which open-seats were restored in the diocese of Oxford.
The open timber-roofs of the Victorian Gothic architects, whether in what are miscalled restorations or in new churches, have quite a distinct character of their own, a general imitation of the time of Edward the First or Second; but no one with eyes in his head can mistake these for old work, although in some of the real restorations the work is so well done that inexperienced eyes are frequently deceived. In roofs and painted glass this is never the case; the English painted glass of the Decorated style is generally very good, with grey backgrounds, and bands of figures in colour, which are thus well seen; in modern glass, bright colours are put in the backgrounds, and destroy the effect of the figures. The roofs are also generally a bad imitation of the old work.
The Towers of the Decorated style are usually placed at the west end, and follow very much the same general appearance as in the Early English, but of course with the doorways, and windows, and other features characteristic of the style. The cornice is also generally richer, with a panelled battlement, and with gargoyles projecting from it at the corners, and pinnacles at the angles, as at Moulton, Northants, where the lower part of the pinnacles only remain. Sometimes there appears to have been a wooden spire, but this is by no means always the case.
The Spires of the Decorated style differ but slightly from those of the Early English, excepting that there are generally more of the spire-lights, small windows at the bases and on the sides of the spire, as at Wollaston and Ringstead, Northants.
The East Front of a church of this style most commonly consists of one large window at the end of the choir, flanked by tall buttresses, and a smaller one at the end of each aisle; the west front usually has the same arrangement, with the addition of a doorway, or doorways, under the central window, but there are frequently two narrow windows, with a buttress between them carrying a bell-cot, in small country churches of this style. The east ends of Carlisle and Selby, and the west end of Howden, are among the finest examples. On the Continent the large rose-window is almost always a principal feature of the west front; with us it is comparatively rare, and more often found in the transept ends than at the west end. The south fronts of Howden and Selby are also fine examples of the arrangement of the side of a large building of this style, with large windows both to the aisle and the clere-storey, separated by buttresses with pinnacles. The interior of the choir at Selby is one of the finest examples of the general effect of a Decorated interior, and on a smaller scale the choirs of Hull, and of Dorchester, Oxfordshire, are good examples. Lichfield Cathedral has the great advantage of having its three spires perfect, and on this account perhaps gives us the best idea of the effect intended to be produced by the exterior of a perfect church of this style: there can be no doubt that the same arrangement was contemplated in many other instances.
The lantern of Ely and the nave of York must not be omitted in this mention of some of the leading examples of the Decorated style, the general character of which is thus ably summed up by Mr. Rickman:—
“The General Appearance of Decorated buildings is at once simple and magnificent; simple from the small number of parts, and magnificent from the size of the windows, and the easy flow of the lines of tracery. In the interior of large buildings we find great breadth, and an enlargement of the clere-story windows, with a corresponding diminution of the triforium, which is now rather a part of the clere-storey opening than a distinct member of the division. The roofing, from the increased richness of the groining, becomes an object of more attention. On the whole, the nave of York, from the uncommon grandeur and simplicity of the design, is certainly the finest example; ornament is nowhere spared, yet there is a simplicity which is peculiarly pleasing.”