The invariable Billet moulding disappears from the String-courses.
The Windows are more elongated in form, and have lighter shafts.
The circular Corbel-table gives place to a regularly moulded Cornice, carried on a series of blocks of uniform profile; and a sloped Coping covers the Parapet.
In some of the latest examples indeed, the Buttresses have Set-offs, and, rising above the parapet, have also a pyramidal Capping.
An increasing lightness of proportion is perceptible in all parts of the buildings of this Period.
Interior Compartment.
Except in the earliest examples of this Period, the heavy cylindrical column disappears; and the Pier consists of a lighter mass of semicircular shafts, and square edges; occasionally also, a shaft having a pear-shaped section is substituted for the semicircular shaft.
The Capitals consist still of a square block, moulded down to the circular form below; with this difference, however, that the lower part of the capital is hollowed down to the circle, instead of being left as in the Norman Period, full and round; the latter showing a convex, and the former a concave profile. Both the larger and the smaller Capitals have also very frequently an ornament peculiar to the Period, which consists of a small volute, forming the curled end of a plain leaf, which enfolds the bell of the Capital. This volute may be looked upon as one of the most characteristic features of the Period. The abacus of the capital is invariably square in plan, and has its upper edge (except in a few of the latest examples) also square in section.
In the later buildings of the Period, foliage, exhibiting considerable freedom of design, is occasionally to be seen.