Having now traced the gradual development of Gothic architecture, from the rudest Romanesque to its perfection in the Decorated style, it only remains to trace its decline, which, though not equally gradual, was much more so than is commonly supposed. Up to the time of its perfection the progress appears to have been nearly simultaneous throughout the northern part of Europe, with some exceptions; but during the period of its decline, chiefly the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it assumed a different form in each country, so distinct one from the other as to require a different name, and to be fairly considered as a distinct style. To call the Perpendicular style of England by the same name as the Flamboyant style of France, Germany, and the Low Countries, can only cause needless confusion; and the received names for these styles are so expressive of their general character that it would not be easy to improve upon them.
The gradual change from the Decorated to the Perpendicular style has been less generally noticed than the earlier transitions; but though less apparent at first sight, it may be as clearly traced, and examples of it are almost equally numerous: they occur in most parts of the country, though more common in some districts than in others, especially in Norfolk.
Professor Willis has demonstrated that this change began to shew itself, in the choir and transepts of Gloucester Cathedral, before the middle of the fourteenth century. The panelling and the window tracery have so much the appearance of the Perpendicular style that they have been commonly supposed to have been rebuilt or altered at a late period; but the vaulting and the moldings are pure Decorated, and the painted glass of the fourteenth century is evidently made for the places which it occupies in the heads of the windows with Perpendicular tracery: it must therefore be considered as the earliest known example of this great change of style. In this work of alteration the walls and arches of the Norman church were not rebuilt, but cased with panelling over the inner surface, so as to give the effect of the latter style to the interior. This was just the same process as was afterwards followed at Winchester by William of Wykeham, in changing the Norman to the Perpendicular style in appearance without any actual rebuilding. The work was begun as early as 1337, and carried on for a number of years. The funds were procured by offerings at the tomb of King Edward II., who, as is well known, was buried in this church, the body having been removed from Berkeley Castle for that purpose by the Abbot Thokey. It has been ascertained by Archdeacon Freeman, at Exeter, by a careful comparison of the building with the fabric rolls, that the greater part of that fine Cathedral was also altered from the Norman to the Decorated style without rebuilding.
The Dean’s Cloister of Windsor with the buildings surrounding it was built between 1350 and 1356, as appears by the builder’s accounts still extant in the Public Record Office. The style is Perpendicular, but with Decorated moldings, or at least a mixture of them. The vault of the porch under the Ærary or treasury, and the doorway to it, are among the richest pieces of work of this period. It was originally the porch of the chapter-house of the Order of the Garter.
Sir G. G. Scott, in his “Gleanings from Westminster Abbey,” has also shewn that part of the cloisters, and some other work recorded to have been built by Abbot Litlington, 1362-1386, are in a style of transition, belonging rather to the Perpendicular than the Decorated.
Window of the Hall of the Abbot’s House, now the Scholars’ Hall, Westminster, A.D. 1376-1386.
The substructure of all the canonical residences running southward from the Deanery, (itself the Abbot’s house of old,) displays a range of vaulting of simple and elegant character, with here and there a window of the period still remaining to testify that the whole was completed, before the tasteless alterations of subsequent centuries destroyed the workmanship which they were as unable to appreciate as to imitate. Two archways still remain, in the length of this substructure, connecting Great Dean’s Yard with the courts to the eastward of it. They are of the style to which their known date would assign them; though perhaps a close consideration of their details (such as the cavetto and double ogee moldings) would lead to the conclusion that those characteristics, hitherto assigned to the fifteenth century, are here found in one of the earliest examples of their application.
The whole of Abbot Litlington’s work is in a style of transition between the Decorated and Perpendicular period; it is almost impossible to say to which of these received styles the moldings and details can be referred. As the divisions of the styles of Gothic Architecture are entirely arbitrary, arranged for general convenience, and for the use of beginners in the study, it is perfectly natural that this sort of mixture should take place for a certain period between each of the great changes. The latter part of the fourteenth century was the period when the Perpendicular style was coming into general use, but was not fully established: as the distinction is less marked than in the similar period between each of the other styles, it has been commonly overlooked, but the same overlapping of styles occurs at this period as in the similar transition between the others. This is more marked and prominent between the Norman and the Early English styles, and therefore that is commonly called the period of transition; but a similar period exists equally between each, a gradual change was always going on.