PERIOD OF TRANSITION, A.D. 1160-1195.
WE have seen that during the half-century which intervened between 1125 and 1175 an immense number of churches were built or rebuilt in England, and that the art of building consequently made rapid progress, the work becoming every year better executed, more highly finished, and of lighter character, it being one of the characteristics of a good workman not to waste his material. In the early Norman period the masonry was very bad, and, to make the work secure, great masses of material were used; but at the period to which we have now arrived the masonry is as good as at any subsequent period, and the workmen were fast discovering the various modes of economizing their material. This practice, in combination with other causes, tended greatly to introduce the change of style, and to facilitate its ready and rapid adoption, in the generality of cases, when introduced. The custom of vaulting over large spaces, which was now being commonly adopted, and the difficulty of vaulting over spaces of unequal span, also without doubt contributed largely to the use of the pointed arch.
The capitals of the period are also very characteristic, and the gradual change may be clearly traced; at first the abacus-molding is very wide, and frequently only chamfered; a little later it is molded.
Capital of Window-shaft.
Base of Niche-shaft.
Nun-Monkton, Yorkshire.
The church of Nun-Monkton, in Yorkshire, is a very curious and fine example of this great period of Transition; the details are very boldly and well executed. The rich doorway by itself would be late Norman, whereas the niches on each side of it, and the three lancet-windows in the west front, are quite Early English. The square buttresses at the angles are late Norman, and the small square tower on the point of the gable has Norman corbel-tables. The heads of the windows in the tower are of the form sometimes called the shouldered-arch. The capitals of the window-shafts are a singular mixture of the two styles; the capital itself is well-molded Early English, and there is a hollow molding by the side of the shaft, with the tooth-ornament.