THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.

Towards the close of the XIVth century a great change came over English Gothic architecture, a change which was to a certain extent a return to classical ideas. The curvilinear tracery gave place to a rigid vertical and horizontal form, with the result that windows and panels instead of being filled with curved bars of stone, were sub-divided by straight perpendicular bars and transoms or cross-bars.

This style of architecture is popularly known as Perpendicular, but as the horizontal lines are quite as distinct a feature as are the vertical, it would perhaps be more correct to speak of it as Rectilinear. This change in architectural form made its appearance towards the close of the XIVth century, although it was by no means generally introduced at that period, for the old methods and styles were carried on side by side with the new for many years.

Yeovil Parish Church (A.D. 1376).
Early Perpendicular in style, without a clerestory,
and called, for its large window area, the "Lantern of the West."
Click to [ENLARGE]

For example, the eastern end of the choir of York Minster (1361-99) possesses a window the traceries of which contain both curvilinear and rectilinear lines, while Shottesbrook Church in Berkshire (1387), and Wimmington Church, Bedfordshire (1391) are examples of village churches neither of which has any feature of the Perpendicular style.

In its earlier stages the Perpendicular style presented an effect at once good and bold; the mouldings, though not equal to the best of the Decorated style, were well defined, the enrichments effective, and the details delicate without extravagant minuteness. Subsequently the style underwent a gradual debasement; the arches became depressed; the mouldings impoverished, the details crowded and coarsely executed, and the whole style became wanting in the chaste and elegant effects for which the Decorated stands unapproached and unapproachable. The flowing contours and curved lines of the previous style now gave place in the windows to mullions running straight up from the bottom to the top, and crossed by transoms. As the arch became more and more depressed the mouldings became shallower and less effective. In early buildings of this period the drop arch is very prevalent, but as the period advanced a form known as the Tudor arch began to be used. It is an arch in which, as a rule, the centres of the upper portion lie immediately below those of the lower, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the whole of the upper portion uniting the arcs of the ends is struck from one centre, in which case the arch becomes a three-centred one, being, in fact, half an ellipse. Towards the close of the style the curvature of the upper portion is so slight that it can hardly be distinguished from a straight line, and as the debasement progressed it became really straight. Ogee arches are also found at this period, and foiled arches are very frequent. When the Tudor arch was not used, we generally find the low drop arch, these three last being mostly used for small openings.

A Fine Parish Church showing Rich Perpendicular Work.
Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk.
Photograph Dexter & Son.
Click to [ENLARGE]

Perpendicular Windows.

The peculiar characteristics of the windows—the perpendicular mullions and horizontal transoms—we have already alluded to. The window heads, instead of being filled with flowing tracery, have slender mullions running from the heads of the lights between each mullion, and these again have smaller transoms, until the whole surface of the window becomes divided into a series of panels, the heads of which being arched, are trefoiled or cinquefoiled. In the later windows the transoms at the top are often furnished with a small ornamental battlement, causing the mullions to present a concave outline.

A Perpendicular Doorway.
Merton College Chapel.
Drawn by E. M. Heath.
Click to [ENLARGE]

The plans of churches in this style differ from all others in that they are more spacious, the columns more slender and wider apart, the windows much larger, and the walls loftier and thinner. Panelling is used most abundantly on walls, both internally and externally, and also on vaulting, while some buildings, as Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, are almost entirely covered with it. Fan tracery vaulting, a feature peculiar to this style, is almost invariably covered with panelling.

The mouldings of this period are essentially different from those which preceded them. As a general rule they are cut on a slanting or chamfer plane, the groups of mouldings being separated by a shallow oval-shaped hollow, entirely different from those of the Decorated period.

Perpendicular Doorways.

The doorways of the early portion of this period had two-centred arches, but the characteristic form is the four-centred, enclosed in a square head, formed by the outer mouldings with a hood mould of the same shape, the spandrels being filled with quatrefoils, roses, shields, etc.

Perpendicular Capitals.

Perpendicular capitals are either circular or octagonal, but the necking is usually of the former shape, and the upper members of the abacus of the latter form. The bell portion is mostly plain, but is often enriched with foliage of a very conventional character, shallow and formal, without either the freedom or the boldness of the Early English, or the exquisite grace of the Decorated periods. A distinguishing feature in the ornamentation of this period is that called panel-tracery, with which the walls and vaulted ceilings are covered. Fan Vaulting.The patterns are found in a variety of forms, as circles, squares, quatrefoils, etc. The rich vaulting called fan vaulting previously alluded to, is composed of pendant curved semi-cones, covered with foliated panel-work, which bears some resemblance to a fan spread open.

Perpendicular Ornament.

Another very characteristic ornament is the Tudor flower. It is formed by a series of flat leaves placed upright against the stalk. It was much used in late buildings as a crest or ornamental finishing to cornices, etc., to which it gave an embattled appearance. Cornices and brackets were frequently ornamented with busts of winged angels called angel-brackets, and angel-corbels. The portcullis and the Tudor rose—both badges of the house of Tudor—also figure prominently among the ornaments of the period. The crockets for the most part partake of the squareness which pervades all the foliage of this style. See page [64].

Perpendicular Buttresses.

The buttresses are very similar to those preceding them in their plainer forms, but, in richer examples the faces are covered with panel work and are finished with square pinnacles sometimes set diagonally and terminated with a crocketed spire, or finished with an animal or other ornament. Parapets with square battlements are very common at this period, but they too are frequently panelled or pierced with tracery, or with trefoils or quatrefoils inserted in square, circular or triangular compartments.

Perpendicular Roofs.

The roofs of this period, both in ecclesiastical and secular buildings, are very magnificent, and have the whole of the framing exposed to view; many of them are of high pitch, the spaces between the timbers being filled with tracery, and the beams arched, moulded and ornamented in various ways; and frequently pendants, figures of angels, and other carvings are introduced. The flatter roofs are sometimes lined with boards and divided into panels by ribs, or have the timbers open, and all enriched with mouldings and carvings, as at Cirencester church, Gloucestershire.

The gradual decline of the Gothic style is very evident in late Perpendicular churches, especially in those erected at the beginning of the XVIth century. The elements of Gothic architecture became much degraded and led to that mixture of features called the Debased Gothic in which every real principle of art and of beauty was lost.

The chief characteristics, then, of the Perpendicular style are the vertical mullions, and the general flattening of arches, mouldings and carvings. Should there be no other guide, a Perpendicular church carries its style and period stamped upon its carvings.

A Perpendicular Porch.
S. Nicholas, King's Lynn.
Photograph Dexter & Son.
Click to [ENLARGE]

The plants represented are, almost without exception, the vine with or without grapes, and the oak with or without acorns. The leaves are generally full blown and crumpled. The earliest building showing the Perpendicular style is the beautiful little priory church of Edington, in Wilts, erected by William Edington, Bishop of Winchester. The same style, but more fully developed, is seen in the nave of Winchester Cathedral, at New College, Oxford, and at Winchester College.

It is generally admitted that the Perpendicular style was, to a certain extent, a return to classical ideas, for Gothic architecture in its aspiring grace and feeling for motion was becoming a little unsteady in construction, and although the movement was started by Bishop Edington, it was left to William of Wykeham to save our English Gothic architecture from developing into the flamboyant[¹] style so characteristic of the late Gothic buildings of France and Germany.

It is little less than astounding that William of Wykeham, at once Prime Minister, diplomatist, scholar and energetic churchman, should have found time to introduce such far-reaching reforms into the art of building, and whatever his fame may be in other directions he will always be remembered by posterity as one of the most remarkable geniuses of the Middle Ages, a man of giant mind and immense physical energy, who carried into all his work a large and dignified character, stamping it with the unmistakable personality of a master mind.

Perpendicular Towers.

As builders and designers of church towers the masons of the Perpendicular era have never been approached, and all our finest English towers are of this style and period. Considerations of space will only allow a few of these towers to be mentioned, but among the finest are those at Boston, Lincolnshire; Wrexham, Denbighshire; Wymondham, Heigham and S. Clement's in Norfolk; Southwold Church in Suffolk; Manchester Cathedral, S. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle, and S. Mary's Church, Taunton.

A Fine Perpendicular Tower.
St. Mary, Taunton.
Photograph H. Montague Cooper.
Click to [ENLARGE]

Of Perpendicular date and style, also, are the great lantern towers of Worcester, Bristol, Gloucester, York and Durham Cathedrals, in addition to the fine bell-tower of Evesham Abbey.

Perpendicular Spires.

The spire, although less commonly used than formerly, was by no means abandoned, and beautiful examples of Perpendicular spires are those at S. Michael's, Coventry, and Rotherham Church, Yorkshire. Although nearly all our cathedrals have some portion of their fabric in the Perpendicular style, chantries, chapels, cloisters, vaulting, screens, etc., it was in our parochial churches that Perpendicular architecture reached its highest and finest development. Just as the XIIIth century was the great age for cathedral building, so the latter end of the XIVth and earlier half of the XVth centuries was the period to which we owe some of the most beautiful of our parish churches, as S. Michael's, Coventry (fin. 1395); S. Nicholas, Lynn (fin. 1400); Manchester Cathedral (formerly a collegiate church), (1422); Fotheringay Church, Northants (fin. 1435); Southwold Church, Suffolk (1440), and S. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol (about 1442). A little later came, among others, Wakefield Church, Yorkshire (1470), S. Stephen's, Bristol (1470), S. Mary's, Oxford, and its namesake at Cambridge (both in 1478) and Long Melford Church, Suffolk (1481).

Apart from the actual buildings the Perpendicular architects, masons and sculptors have left us some beautiful work in the form of timber roofs, screens, stalls and seats. Among the more notable roofs of this period are those at S. Peter's, S. Andrew's and S. Mary's, Norwich, the one at Morton Church in Somerset, those at Saffron Walden and Thaxted, Essex, and a particularly fine one at S. David's Cathedral in Wales. Among the remarkable domestic roofs in this style are those at Westminster Hall and Eltham Palace.

[1]: So called from its "flame"-like appearance, producing forms which resemble elongated tongues of flame. There is great beauty in much of this work, but it is constructionally weak. The finest example is Chartres Cathedral.

THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.

CHAPTER VII.