Fig. 350.—Herdmanston Font. Details.
the twelfth century, it is evident that it was not made for the chapel of Herdmanston.
From Dunfermline Abbey.
THE TRANSITION STYLE
The term “transition” might be applied to any of the periods during which one Gothic style is passing into another, as the buildings erected at such periods partake of a transitional character. But the change from the round arched and elaborately ornamented Norman to the pointed arched and plainer style of the first pointed period being more marked than that between any of the other Gothic periods, it has been generally agreed to reserve the term “transition” for the architecture of the end of the twelfth century, when the Norman style gradually gave place to the first pointed Gothic style.
The chief elements which mark the Transition style are the gradual introduction of the pointed arch and its use along with some of the decorative features of the Norman style. The pointed arch shows the advent of the new style, but the ornaments of the old style continue to linger for a time. The first pointed style was not complete till these old ornaments were abandoned, and the more vigorous enrichments of the new style were introduced. The other constructive features of the Norman style gradually changed at the same time as the arch. The buttresses by degrees assumed the projecting form of the first pointed style, and the pinnacles and spires of the latter style were in course of time introduced.
During the progress of the Transition there was naturally a considerable mixture of architectural elements. The round and the pointed arch were used indiscriminately, and were frequently employed together in the same structure, round arches being sometimes placed above pointed arches. Of this there are examples in the nave of Jedburgh Abbey and the south transept of Elgin Cathedral. In other instances, although the building is chiefly Norman, the pointed style is introduced in certain positions; as, for example, at Kelso Abbey, where to all appearance, contemporarily with the Norman walls, the piers and pointed arches of the crossing are in the first pointed style. At Dundrennan Abbey we find the older Norman work partly converted into first pointed by alteration, and in other examples, such as Coldingham, there is a mixture of the features of the two styles.
In many of the examples of the different periods, given or to be given, some Norman features may be discovered which, it might be thought, entitled the structures to be ranked as transitional. The buildings, however, have been arranged under the various periods to which the most prominent, not the most ancient, portions of their architecture belong.