The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed | Page 7

the thirteenth century; after which the lancet arch
appears to have been generally discarded, though the other two
prevailed till a much later period.
Q. What are the different kinds of complex pointed arches?
A. Those commonly called the OGEE, or contrasted arch; and the
TUDOR arch.
Q. How is the ogee, or contrasted arch, formed and described?
A. It is formed of four segments of a circle, and is described from four
centres, two placed within the arch on a level with the spring, and two
placed on the exterior of the arch, and level with the apex or point (fig.
8); each side is composed of a double curve, the lowermost convex and
the uppermost concave.
[Illustration]
Q. When was the ogee arch introduced, and how long did it prevail?
A. It was introduced early in the fourteenth century, and continued till
the close of the fifteenth century.
Q. How is the Tudor arch described?
A. From four centres; two on a level with the spring, and two at a
distance from it, and below. (fig. 9.)
Q. When was the Tudor arch introduced, and why is it so called?
A. It was introduced about the middle of the fifteenth century, or
perhaps earlier, but became most prevalent during the reigns of Henry
the Seventh and Henry the Eighth, under the Tudor dynasty, from
which it derives its name.

[Illustration]
Q. What other kinds of arches are there worthy of notice?
A. Those which are called foiled arches, as the round-headed trefoil (fig.
10), the pointed trefoil (fig. 11), and the square-headed trefoil (fig. 12).
The first prevailed in the latter part of the twelfth and early part of the
thirteenth century, chiefly as a heading for niches or blank arcades; the
second, used for the same purpose, we find to have prevailed in the
thirteenth century; and the latter is found in doorways of the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. In all these the exterior mouldings
follow the same curvatures as the inner mouldings, and are thus
distinguishable from arches the heads of which are only foliated within.
[Illustration: DOORWAY. St. Thomas's, Oxford, circa 1250.]

[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Doorway, Brixworth Church,
Northamptonshire. (7th cent.)]
CHAPTER III.
OF THE ANGLO-SAXON STYLE.
Q. During what period of time did this style prevail?
A. From the close of the sixth century, when the conversion of the
Anglo-Saxons commenced, to the middle of the eleventh century.
Q. Whence does this style appear to have derived its origin?
A. From the later Roman edifices; for in the most ancient of the
Anglo-Saxon remains we find an approximation, more or less, to the
Roman mode of building, with arches formed of brickwork.
Q. What is peculiar in the constructive features of Roman masonry?
A. Walls of Roman masonry in this country were chiefly constructed of

stone or flint, according to the part of the country in which the one
material or other prevailed, embedded in mortar, bonded at certain
intervals throughout with regular horizontal courses or layers of large
flat Roman bricks or tiles, which, from the inequality of thickness and
size, do not appear to have been shaped in any regular mould.
[Illustration: Portion of the Fragment of a Roman Building at
Leicester.]
Q. What vestiges of Roman masonry are now existing in Britain?
A. A fragment, apparently that of a Roman temple or basilica, near the
church of St. Nicholas at Leicester, which contains horizontal courses
of brick at intervals, and arches constructed of brickwork; the curious
portion of a wall of similar construction, with remains of brick arches
on the one side, which indicate it to have formed part of a building, and
not a mere wall as it now appears, at Wroxeter, Salop; and the
polygonal tower at Dover Castle, which, notwithstanding an exterior
casing of flint, and other alterations effected in the fifteenth century,
still retains many visible features of its original construction of tufa
bonded with bricks at intervals. Roman masonry, of the mixed
description of brick and stone, regularly disposed, is found in walls at
York, Lincoln, Silchester, and elsewhere; and sometimes we meet with
bricks or stone arranged herring-bone fashion, as in the vestiges of a
Roman building at Castor, Northamptonshire, and the walls of a Roman
villa discovered at Littleton, Somersetshire.
Q. Have we any remains of the ancient British churches erected in this
country in the third, fourth, or fifth centuries?
A. None such have yet been discovered or noticed; for the ruinous
structure at Perranzabuloe in Cornwall, which some assert to have been
an ancient British church, is probably not of earlier date than the
twelfth century; and the church of St. Martin at Canterbury, built in the
time of the Romans, which Augustine found on his arrival still used for
the worship of