A. The tower of St. Michael’s Church, Coventry, the building of which commenced A. D. 1373 and was finished A. D. 1395[140-*], is an early and fine specimen; the beautiful and lofty spire was, however, an after addition, like that at Salisbury Cathedral, and was not commenced till A. D. 1432. Westminster Hall[140-†], the reparation or reconstruction of the greater part of which by King Richard the Second was commenced A. D. 1397 and finished A. D. 1399, has a fine groined porch, the front of which exhibits the square head over the arch of entrance; and the spandrels are filled with quatrefoils, inclosing shields and sunk panel-work. The large window above the porch, and that at the west end, are divided into panel-like compartments by vertical mullions, and a transom divides the principal lights horizontally. The wooden roof is of a more acute pitch than we usually find in buildings of this style, and is remarkable as a specimen of constructive art and display. The spaces between the arches and rafters are filled up to the ridge-piece with open panel-work ornamentally designed; and this is perhaps the earliest specimen we possess of the perpendicular wooden roof.
Q. What complete structures are there in this style of a late date, the periods of the erection of which are ascertained?
A. The design for the rebuilding of the Abbey Church, Bath, was planned and the reconstruction thereof commenced, by Bishop King, A. D. 1500; and after his death the works were carried on by Priors Bird and Hollowaye; but the church was not completed when the surrender of the monastery took place, A. D. 1539. The foundation of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, was laid A. D. 1502, but the chapel was not completed till the reign of Henry the Eighth. It is the richest specimen, on a large scale, of this style of architecture, and is completely covered, both internally and externally, with panel-work, niches, statuary, heraldic devices, cognizances, and other decorative embellishment. The church at St. Neot’s, Huntingdonshire, is a fine large parochial edifice, all built apparently after one regular design, and consists of a tower covered with panel-work and ornament, with crocketed pinnacles at the angles and in front of each side; a nave, north and south aisles and chancel, and two chantry chapels, forming a continuation eastward of each aisle. It has a fine wooden roof, the cornice under which is in different parts curiously carved in relief. This church is said to have been erected A. D. 1507. But one of the most perfect specimens of a late date, on a smaller scale, is the church of Whiston, Northamptonshire, built A. D. 1534, by Anthony Catesby, esquire, lord of the manor, Isabel his wife, and John their son: it consists of a tower encircled with rows of quatrefoils and other decorative embellishment, and finished with crocketed pinnacles at the angles; a nave divided from the north and south aisles by arches within rectangular compartments, the spandrels of which are filled with sunk quatrefoils and foliated panels; these arches spring from piers disposed lozengewise with semicylindrical shafts at the angles; there are no clerestory windows, and the windows of the aisles and chancel have obtusely-pointed four-centred arches. The wooden roof is a good example of the kind.
Q. What district is noted for the number of rich churches in this style?
A. Somersetshire contains a number of fine churches, erected apparently towards the close of the fifteenth or very early in the sixteenth century; and many of these churches have much of carved woodwork in screens, rood-lofts, pulpits, and in pewing. The towers are, in particular, remarkable for their general style of design, and are often divided into stages by bands of quatrefoils; the sides are more or less ornamented with projecting canopied niches for statuary, and in many of these niches the statues have been preserved from the iconoclastic zeal which has elsewhere prevailed. The belfry windows are partly pierced, sometimes in quatrefoils, and partly filled with sunk panel-work. The parapets, whether embattled or straight-sided, are pierced with open work; and at each angle of the tower, at which buttresses are disposed rectangular-wise, is finished with a crocketed pinnacle, which is also often to be met with rising from the middle of the parapet. Towers similar in general design to those which may be said to prevail in Somersetshire are not unfrequently met with in other counties, but do not exhibit that provincialism which is the case in that particular county.
[121-*] Mr. Rickman, from whom this appellation is derived, has been since generally followed in his nomenclature.
[137-*] In Compton Church, Surrey, is, or until recently was, the remains of a wooden screen of late Norman character. Between the chancel and nave of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire, is an early wooden screen in the style of the thirteenth century: the lower division is of plain panel-work, whilst the upper division consists of a series of open-pointed arches, trefoiled in the heads, and supported by slender cylindrical shafts with moulded bases and capitals, and an annulated moulding encircles each shaft midway up. In Northfleet Church, Kent, is a wooden screen which approximates in general design that at Stanton Harcourt, but is in a more advanced stage of art, being of the Early Decorated style: the lower portion of this is of plain panelling, while the open work forming the upper division above consists of a series of pointed arches, with tracery and foliations in and between the heads, supported by slender cylindrical shafts banded round midway with moulded bases and capitals, and these arches support a horizontal cornice. Specimens of decorated screen-work, some much mutilated, others in a more perfect state, are existing in the churches of King’s Sutton, Northamptonshire; Croperdy, Oxfordshire; Beaudesert, Warwickshire; and in St. John’s Church, Winchester. A characteristic distinction between screen-work of an earlier date than the fifteenth century and screen-work of that period will be found to consist in the slender cylindrical shafts, often annulated, sometimes not, with moulded bases and capitals which pertain to early work of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the mullion-like and angular-edged bars, often faced with small buttresses, which form the principal vertical divisions in screen-work of the fifteenth century.
[140-*] This stately monument of private munificence was erected at the sole charges of two brothers, Adam and William Botnor: it was twenty-one years in building, and cost each year 100l.