Exterior Compartment.
The walls of a Norman building are usually strong and massive, and built of small stones. They have a plain Base-course, of little projection, and are generally finished above with a Corbel-table, consisting sometimes of a series of small arches, on rude heads, and sometimes of a projecting horizontal table resting on a series of rudely sculptured blocks. Upon this Corbel-table is a plain PARAPET and COPING where these are left, which is rarely the case.
The compartments are divided by a shallow Buttress or Pilaster Strip.
The Windows are low and broad, and have usually a single shaft set in an angular recess, carrying a cubical capital and a single roll.
The String-courses, when not plain, have frequently indented ornaments of different kinds—such as the billet, the saw-tooth, the star, and the chevron.
The Clere-story Windows, in the larger and richer buildings, are usually placed in an arcade, consisting of three or more arches, of which the centre one, filled by the window, is the largest.
Interior Compartment.
The proportions of the interior are invariably heavy and massive.
The Piers consist either of a stout cylindrical column, or of a rectangular mass, having semicircular shafts attached to its different faces. They are sometimes, when circular, scored and ornamented with zig-zag, spiral, and other mouldings.