Buttresses of Chancel, Stanton St. John, Oxon.
The Buttresses in this style have great variety of forms and of degrees of richness. Sometimes they are quite plain, or merely have the angles chamfered off, and terminated by a slope, either under the cornice, as at Irthlingborough, or independent of it, as at Stanton St. John, Oxon. In other instances the buttress terminates in a pediment or gablet, as at Raunds, either with or without crockets and a finial, according to the richness of the building. Over each buttress there is frequently a gurgoyle, or ornamental water-spout. They usually have pediments, and are frequently enriched on the face with niches for figures (which sometimes, but rarely, are left), and canopies, and often terminate in pinnacles, as at Gadsby, Leicestershire. In large buildings there are fine arch-buttresses spanning over the aisles, as at Howden. There are sometimes also groups of pinnacles round the base of the spire in this style, which have a very rich effect, as at St. Mary’s, Oxford.
DECORATED BUTTRESSES.
| Irthlingborough, Northants, c. A.D. 1220. | Raunds, Northants, A.D. 1250. |
These groups of pinnacles are among the most ornamental features of the style; those at the east end of Howden are among the most celebrated. The buttresses of this style are almost invariably divided into stages with a set-off between each, and sometimes have a succession of niches with crocketed canopies over them. Our eyes are so much accustomed to empty niches in this country that they do not offend us, but an empty niche is in fact an unmeaning thing, a niche was originally intended to contain an image, and the canopy over it was to protect the head of the image.
