Fig. c c.—Early English Piers.
Fig. d d.—Late Decorated and Perpendicular Piers.
Pilaster.—A square column, usually attached to a wall; frequently used in Classic and Renaissance architecture in combination with columns.
Pinnacle (in Gothic architecture).—A small turret, or ornament, usually with a pointed top, employed to mark the summit of gables, buttresses, and other tall features.
Pitch.—The degree of slope given to a roof, gable, or pediment.
Plan.—(1) A map of the floor of a building, showing the piers, if any, and the walls which inclose and divide it, with the openings in them; (2) the actual arrangement and disposition of the floors, piers, and walls of the building itself.
Plane.—The imaginary surface within which a series of mouldings lies, and which coincides with the salient and important points of that series. Mouldings are said to be on an oblique plane when their plane forms an angle less than a right angle with the face of the wall; and in receding planes, when they can be divided into a series of groups of more or less stepped outline, each within and behind the other, and each partly bounded by a plane parallel with the face of the wall.