plete monuments of it I can at prefent recollect are, the church of St. Crofs near Winchester, built by Henry de Bloys, 1130; and the abbey church at Rumsey, in Hampshire: especially the latter, built by the fame princely benefactor. Another evidence of this ftyle, is a circular feries of zig-zag sculpture, applied as a facing to porticos and other arches. The ftyle which fucceeded to this was not the abfolute Gothic, or Gothic fimply so called, but a fort of Gothic SAXON, in which the pure Saxon began to receive fome tincture of the Saracen fashion. In this the massy rotund column became split into a cluster of agglomerated pilafters, preferving a base and capital, as before; and the fhort round-headed window, was lengthened into a narrow oblong form, with a pointed top, in every respect much in the fhape of a lancet; often decorated, in the infide, with. flender pillars. Thefe windows we frequently find, three together, the center one being higher than the two lights on each fide. This ftile commenced about 1200. Another of its marks is a series of fmall, low, and close arch-work, fometimes with a pointed head, placed on outside fronts, for a finishing; as in the weft end of Lincoln and Rochester cathedrals, and in the end of the fouthern tranfept of that of Canterbury. In this ftile, to mention no more, is Salisbury cathedral. Here we find indeed the pointBb 2 ed ed arch, and the angular, though fimple, vaulting; but still we have not in fuch edifices of the improved or SAXON Gothic, the Ramified Window, one diftinguishing characteristic of the abfolute Gothic*. It is difficult to define these gradations; but still harder to explain conjectures of this kind in writing, which require ocular demonftration, and a conversation on the spot, to be clearly proved and illuftrated. The ABSOLUTE GOTHIC, or that which is free from all Saxon mixture, began with ramified windows, of an enlarged dimenfion, divided into several lights, and branched out at the top into a multiplicity of whimfical fhapes and compartments, after the year 1300. The crufades had before dictated the pointed arch, which was here still preserved; but besides the alteration in the windows, fantaftic capitals to the columns, and more ornament in the vaulting and other parts, were introduced. Of this fashion the body of Winchester cathedral, built by that munificent encourager of all public works, William of Wykeham, about the year 1390, will afford the jufteft idea. But a tafte for a more ornamental ftile, had, for fome time before, began to difcover itself. This appears They then feem to have had no idea of a GREAT Eaftern or Western Window. from the choir of St. Mary's church at Warwick, begun*, at least, before Wykeham's improvements at Winchester, and remarkable for a freedom and elegance unknown before. That certain refinements in architecture began to grow fashionable early in the reign of Edward III. perhaps before, we learn from Chaucer's description of the ftructure of his House of Fame. And eke the hall and everie boure, I fawe, and full eke of windowes t. And afterwards, I needeth not you more to tellen, Of thefe yates flourishings, And in an old poem, called Pierce the Plowman's Creede §, written perhaps before Chaucer's, where the author is defcribing an abbey-church. Ibid. fol. verfo. col. 2. * Viz. 1341. finished before 1395. Dugdale's Warwicksh. p. 345. 3. fol. 267. col. 2. edit. Speght. § See more of this below. Than Than I munte me forth the MINSTRE for to knowen. With arches on everich half, and bellyche ycorven Tombes upon tabernacles, tyld opon loft, Of armed alabauftre. These innovations, at length, were most beautifully displayed in the roof of the divinity-school at Oxford, which began to be built, 1427. The univerfity, in their letters to Kempe, Bishop of London, quoted by Wood*, speak of this edifice as of one of the miracles of the age: They mention, particularly, "Ornamenta ad naturalis coeli imaginem variis pic"turis, fubtilique artificio, cælata: valvarum fingu lariffima opera: Turricularum apparatum, &c." Yet even here, there is nothing of that minute finishing which afterwards appeared: there is ftill a maffinefs, though great intricacy and variety. About the fame time the collegiate church of Fotheringay in Northhamptonshire, was defigned; and we learn from the orders of Henry VI. delivered to the architect, how * Hift. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. 2. pag. 22. much much their notions in architecture were improved. The ORNAMENTAL Gothic, at length received its confummation, about 1441*, in the chapel of the fame king's college at Cambridge. Here, ftrength united with ornament, or fubftance with elegance, seems to have ceafed. Afterwards, what I would call the FLORID Gothic arofe, the firft confiderable appearance of which was in the chapel of St. George, at Windfor, begun by Edward IV. about + 1480; and which laftly, was completed in the superb chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster. The FLORID Gothic diftinguishes itself by an exuberance of decoration, by roofs where the moft delicate fretwork is expreffed in ftone; and by a certain lightness of finishing, as in the roof of the choir of Glocefter, where it is thrown, like a web of embroidery, over the old Saxon vaulting. Many monu * It was not finished till some years after: but a description and plan of the intended fabric may be seen in the king's Will. Stowe's Annals, by Howes, 1614. pag. 479. feq. Afhmole's Order of the Garter, fect. 2. ch. 4. pag. 136. About the year 1470. The words of the Infcription on the infide of the arch by which we enter the choir, are remarkable. Hoc quod DIGESTUM fpecularis, opufque POLITUM, Tullii hæc ex onere Seabrooke abbate jubente. The tower was built at the fame time. The lady's chapel soon after, about 1490. mental |