Crick, Northants, c. A.D. 1320.
The Doorways of this style are frequently large, and very richly sculptured, and have a rich canopy over them, with crockets and finials, as at Crick, Northants; but in small churches they are as frequently plain, and have merely a dripstone over them, the roll-molding often terminated by two small heads, which are generally a king and a bishop; this is the case also with the windows. It is often not easy to distinguish the plain doorways of this style from those of the preceding one, but in general they are not so deeply
Dorchester, Oxon, c. A.D. 1320.
recessed. A few doorways of this style are double. When there are shafts in the jambs they are worked on the same stones, and not inserted as separate shafts of stone or marble, as in the Early English, and as at Dorchester, Oxon. The wooden doors are sometimes ornamented with panelling of a better description than that which is common in the next style; they were originally painted in colours like the interior of the churches, and often have ornamental iron-work upon them; even the nail-heads are made ornamental. This is also the case in the Early English style, and it is frequently not easy to distinguish one from the other, there being very little difference between them. In ordinary parish churches the old wooden door, with the original iron-work upon it, is often preserved longer than any other ornament.
East Window, North Aisle, Dorchester, Oxon, c. A.D. 1300.
The Decorated Style is distinguished by its large windows divided by mullions, and the tracery either in flowing lines, or forming circles, trefoils, and other geometrical figures, as at Dorchester, and not running perpendicularly; its ornaments are numerous and very delicately carved, more strictly faithful to nature and more essentially parts of the structure than in any other style. In small country churches, however, there are perhaps more very plain churches of this style than of any other; still the windows have the essential decoration of tracery. The ornament is also part of the construction, a point in which it differs from the other styles; a Decorated cusp cannot be inserted in the tracery.
