The Lose moulding:_l are set upon a shallow rectangular plinth, amp consist either simply of a quirked ()volt) reversed, or otherwise of some imitation or modification of the classic bases ; the angles of the plinth are often ornamented with leaves or other ornaments, falling over from the base mouldings.
Piers and pillars are very greatly varied even in the same building, and in the same part of it ; and this, too, not only in the minutia of decoration, but also in the entire form of the shaft and capitals, so that two very dissimilar designs are frequently seen in close proximity, forming supports to the same arcade.
Mural or blank arcades are a very common feature in this, as also in the Lombardie style; they sometimes cover the greater portion of both external and internal walls, hut are more common on the exterior, especially on the facades, the clerestories, and the upper stories of towers. The arches are most-ly semicircular, resting upon slender pillars with capitals and bases, which, together with the shafts, bear various degrees of enrichment ; sometimes, however, the arches intersect each other, producing at their intersection arches of the pointed form ; pointed arches are employed alone, but only in late examples. The arcades are for the most part of small dimensions, but they vary in size, as also in proportions, some of them being exceedingly high in com parison to their width. In the interiors of larger churches, the space or width occupied by each arch in the lower story, is frequently divided into two arches, enclosed within a larger one in the triforia, and into throe arches in the clere story, the central one being loftier than the others, and the whole contained within a larger one.
Doorways in this style are to he found in great variety, from the most simple to the most elaborate. The simplest form consists of merely a plain semi•ircular-headed aperture, with a hood-mould springing from plain square-edged jambs ; the arches spring directly front an impost resting on the jambs, which is freqnently a simple plat-band, with the under angle chamfered off. ,bore frequently, however, the door . 2, ways are recessed, having a nook-shaft, in the angle formed by the recession, from the capital of which an archivolt springs, so that the arch in this case presents two soffits and two besides the hood-mould. Sometimes we have a succession of such receding arches, with a nook-shaft in each recess, from which the arches spring alternately with the projecting square-edged jambs. The depth of the door ways is owing mainly to the great thickness of the walls, but in many cases, in addition to this, that portion of the wall in which the entrance is inserted, is made to project forward beyond the general face, the projection being finished above either with a plain lunizontal capping, or with a highly pitdled gable ; at St. Cambridge, the outermost
arch finishes the or rather the arch itself projects from the thee of the wall, hut this is not a common practice. With this additional thickness of walling we sometimes find as ninny as six or eight recessions, so that the aperture of the door occupies a very small proportion of space, when compared with the entire surface taken up by the doorway, including the dressings. In some eases, too, the archivolt mouldings extend on each side considerably beyond the jambs. The soffits and fitces of the arch, as well as those of the jambs, arc sometimes left plain, but more frequently sculptured with the zigzag, or some other ornament peculiar to the stN le, such as those described under mouldings ; and to such au extent is this decoration carried, that sometimes there is not a single surface left uncovered with some orna mentation; even the shafts of the pillars are sometimes decorated in a similar manner, but this is not often the case, they are more frequently plain. and of not inelegant pro portions, with capitals of various degrees of enrichment. Above the capitals is an abacus, which is often continued along the jambs from one capital to the other, but sometimes the mouldings of the archivolt are carried without interrup tion to the ground ; occasionally, also, an enriched band is carried across the shafts and jambs, for the apparent purpose of tying them together. The hood-mould is mostly enriched, and springs from a continuation of the abacus, but if not, is either returned horizontally as a string-course, or terminates on either side in a grotesque head. The aperture often follows the flora of the arch, having a semicircular head, but is very frequently square-headed, having a semicircular tyinpanum of masonry above, which is generally enriched with sculpture, sometimes in a sort of diaper pattern of reticulated or scalloped work, but more usually representing, in low relief, some portion of scriptural or traditionary history. Not unfroptently the head of the aperture is in the form of a square-headed trefoil, and sometimes of a segment of a circle larger than that of the external arch. Over some doorways is to be fi.iund a Anil niche containing a rudely sculptured figure, and sometimes a Vesica Piscis is substituted for the sculptured subject in the tympanum under the arch.