The other ornament is the four-leaved flower. This has a raised centre, and four petals cut in high relief; it is frequently much varied, but may be distinguished by its being cut distinctly into four petals, and by its boldness: it is sometimes used abundantly, though not quite so profusely as the ball-flower. In some instances the centre is sunk instead of being raised.
The four-leaved flower.
The battlement as an ornamental feature in the interior of buildings is frequently used in this style, although it is more common in the Perpendicular. Decorated battlements may generally be distinguished by the horizontal molding being cut off at each opening, and not continued vertically down the sides of it, as is usual in the later styles; and this applies to the actual battlement on the parapet, as well as to the merely ornamental battlement in the interior. It occurs on the top of a screen, or of a piscina or other niche; also on the transom, and sometimes on the sill of a window; in all which situations it is more common and more conspicuous in the Perpendicular style.
The use of the battlement as an ornament in the interior of a building, often on the edge of the sill of a window, is a singular caprice, but very common in English buildings; it is one of the English features that is much quizzed by the French architectural antiquaries.
The foliage in this style is more faithfully copied from nature than in any other: the vine-leaf, the maple, and the oak with the acorn, are the most usual. The surface of the wall is often covered with flat foliage, arranged in small squares called diaper-work, which is believed to have originated in an imitation of the rich hangings then in general use, and which bore the same name. These diaper patterns were originally coloured in imitation of the silks from which they were copied, and which at an early period came from the East, though they were afterwards imitated by the European manufacturers in Belgium and France, particularly at Ypres and Rheims. This kind of ornament was used in the Early English style, as in the choir of Westminster Abbey, but it more commonly belongs to the Decorated style. The colouring of the ornaments to make them more effective was far more common in mediæval Gothic work than is generally supposed, because it has been so universally whitewashed over, either by the Puritans, or during the bad taste of the Georgian era. This colouring frequently comes to light during modern restorations, when the whitewash is scraped off, and sometimes good pictures of scriptural subjects have been whitewashed over in the same ignorant manner.
Canterbury Cathedral, c. 1320.
Geddington Cross, Northamptonshire, c. 1295.