Perpen­dicular Windows.

The peculiar characteristics of the windows—the perpendicular mullions and horizontal transoms—we have already alluded to. The window heads, instead of being filled with flowing tracery, have slender mullions running from the heads of the lights between each mullion, and these again have smaller transoms, until the whole surface of the window becomes divided into a series of panels, the heads of which being arched, are trefoiled or cinquefoiled. In the later windows the transoms at the top are often furnished with a small ornamental battlement, causing the mullions to present a concave outline.

A Perpendicular Doorway.
Merton College Chapel.
Drawn by E. M. Heath.
Click to [ENLARGE]

The plans of churches in this style differ from all others in that they are more spacious, the columns more slender and wider apart, the windows much larger, and the walls loftier and thinner. Panelling is used most abundantly on walls, both internally and externally, and also on vaulting, while some buildings, as Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, are almost entirely covered with it. Fan tracery vaulting, a feature peculiar to this style, is almost invariably covered with panelling.

The mouldings of this period are essentially different from those which preceded them. As a general rule they are cut on a slanting or chamfer plane, the groups of mouldings being separated by a shallow oval-shaped hollow, entirely different from those of the Decorated period.

Perpen­dicular Doorways.

The doorways of the early portion of this period had two-centred arches, but the characteristic form is the four-centred, enclosed in a square head, formed by the outer mouldings with a hood mould of the same shape, the spandrels being filled with quatrefoils, roses, shields, etc.

Perpen­dicular Capitals.

Perpendicular capitals are either circular or octagonal, but the necking is usually of the former shape, and the upper members of the abacus of the latter form. The bell portion is mostly plain, but is often enriched with foliage of a very conventional character, shallow and formal, without either the freedom or the boldness of the Early English, or the exquisite grace of the Decorated periods. A distinguishing feature in the ornamentation of this period is that called panel-tracery, with which the walls and vaulted ceilings are covered. Fan Vaulting.The patterns are found in a variety of forms, as circles, squares, quatrefoils, etc. The rich vaulting called fan vaulting previously alluded to, is composed of pendant curved semi-cones, covered with foliated panel-work, which bears some resemblance to a fan spread open.

Perpen­dicular Ornament.