and removed. A more preservative spirit has been induced, in late years, by the works of a few writers, and by the various archæological and antiquarian societies established throughout the country. As a member of one of these bodies sings,

"These clerks sturdy men were they,

As ever wore gown and hood;

And they wandered about from day to day,
In coif of black velvet and jacket of grey,
And they visited every church by the way,
Wherever they walk'd or rode;

And they measured each buttress and tower and pier,
And deciphered black letters on every bier;

And they climbed the tall ladders to trace the old glass,

And they fell on their knees as they rubbed the bright brass;
And they thought themselves wonderful wights, no doubt,
To make such illegible writing out,

And to tell all the people far more about

Their own parish church, than the yeoman stout
Who'd been the churchwarden (as who could doubt)
For twenty long years and more ;

Or the rector so fat, or the vicar so lean;

Or the curate, as yellow as vellum with spleen;

Or the clerk, or the sexton, or she who should clean,
But does not, the church every Saturday e'en ;
Or the sturdy archdeacon, or sturdier dean,—
Cathedral or rural,-or bishop, I ween;

Or patron himself, with his visage so keen,—
So vast and profound their lore!"

To Mr. Britton, for his efforts in this respect, at a time when most people seemed to think, with Evelyn, that Gothic buildings were "dull, heavy, monk

DIVISION OF STYLES.

159

ish piles, without any just proportion, use, or beauty," the thanks of all are due. To him belongs the merit of having founded the present efficient school of architectural illustrators and engravers. This, however, is a digression.

Gothic architecture passed through several stages, which have been termed, in the broadest division of them,

The Lancet, or Early English;

The Decorated; and

The Perpendicular.

Various other titles have been given to them, but I am disposed to retain the old ones, simply adopting one further division,

The Geometrical, between the Early English and the Decorated, instead of speaking, as was formerly done, of Early decorated and Late decorated.

We will look a little more closely at the matter hereafter, when we come to examine the characteristics of these styles; but, in very broad terms, you may call

Norman, the architecture of the twelfth century; Early English, that of the thirteenth century; Decorated, that of the fourteenth century; and Perpendicular, that of the fifteenth century.

Thus, you see, when you have learned how to distinguish the styles-and I will try and tell you how to do this easily in my next-you will at once, on

falling upon one of our old cathedrals or churches, recognise the period of its erection, and so view it with much more knowledge and much more pleasure.

Believe me, my dear Sorillah, always sincerely yours.

LETTER XII.

AM almost disposed to hope that you reproach me for my brevity, as I must otherwise fear that you have not found our story so interesting or useful as I hoped you would; and I always prefer hope to fear; it carries you more buoyantly and pleasantly through the waters in which we are all struggling. If you have not found interest in this, look back into the past,—the "unrelenting past,"-seeing

"Far in her realm withdrawn,

Old Empires sit in sullenness and gloom,

And glorious ages gone,

Lie deep within the shadow of her womb!"

it is my fault, and not the fault of the subject. From Egypt and her mummy, of which will you let me say,

"Perchance that very hand, now pinion'd flat,

Has hob-a-nobb'd with Pharaoh glass to glass,
Or dropp'd a halfpenny in Homer's hat,

Or doff'd his own to let Queen Dido pass,
Or held, by Solomon's own invitation,

A torch at the great temple's dedication,"

down to the present day, the story is continuously curious and curiously continuous. It is a look back,

M

too, which will not tend to weaken our confidence or lessen our strivings, but should rather awaken us to a fuller knowledge of our powers, and arouse our dormant energies; which should lead to greater doings, by showing what has already been done.

I gave you, in my last, the broad divisions of Gothic architecture, and promised to put before you the more obvious means of discriminating them. In the Early English or Lancet style-its first phase ("architecture ogivale primitive," as Caumont calls it), the arches are acute, lancet-shaped, in fact, as you see them in this example of a triple window, fig. 28, and the openings are long and narrow. At first the lights were used singly; but later in the style, two or more of these lancet openings placed together under a connecting arch, and the solid masonry

were

Fig. 28.-WINDOW, LANCET between the heads and

STYLE.

beneath the connecting

arch being perforated, say in a circular form, on each side of the central light, gave rise to tracery and larger windows, such as we find in the succeeding style. The foliage seen in the capitals of the Early English style is free and crisp, entirely conventional, and the leaves are for the most part trefoils in form,