The imposts on which the arches rest are usually nothing more than square-edged projecting blocks of stone, having sometimes the lower arris chamfered ; occasionally they are moulded, the mouldings consisting chiefly of fillets or plat bands varied with bold semi-cylindrical or roll-niouldings ; and sometimes they are enriched with rude attempts at scull). ture. The piers are mostly square, plain, and with no more capital than is formed by the impost.
The doorways are constructed with both kinds of arches ; the semicircular being most prevalent, and in some of the more ancient examples, the archivolt is composed of Roman bricks ; they are mostly, however, of stone, of the description given above, being frequently provided with the projecting hood-mould, which is sometimes stopped on the impost, or a horizontal string-course of strip-work, and at others continued to the ground. The imposts or abaci are of the same descrip tion as above, and the jambs are either composed of the usual long and short work, with the horizontal stone bonding into the wall, or of two long blocks placed upright on their ends with a shorter one between them, which is, however, no wider than the long ones. Triangular-headed doorways are of similar general description to the semicircular ; there is an example in Brigstock church.
The windows are generally of a very rude description ; those in the body of the church, consisting principally of single lights of small size, and having semicircular heads ; they present a marked difference from the Norman windows to the same kind, in being splayed from the middle of the thickness of the wall both ways, that is to say equally both towards the interior and exterior of the building ; whereas the Norman windows splay from the exterior only in one direction, the glazing being inserted near the external surface of the wall. Small windows are sometimes seen with square heads, of a rude oblong form.
The windows, which deserve the greatest attention, and which form a characteristic of the style, are those found in the upper stages of Saxon towers. They generally consist of two semicircular-headed lights, divided by a rude shaft of peculiar description, and termed baluster-shafts, from their appearance, which is that of a baluster with a bold capital and base, both of which are usually composed of cylindrical or roll-mouldings, and the former surmounted with a heavy abacus. This abacus runs nearly through the thickness of the wall, and from it the arch springs, being supported on the other side by an impost of similar description worked up in the wall. The baluster-shaft frequently swells out in the
middle of its height, and is sometimes divided in the middle by a band of roll-mouldings, swelling out above and below midway between the band and capital and the band and base ; it is often plainly cylindrical, without bands or other interruption. At Monk-Wearmouth, the shaft swells in the centre, but has neither capital nor base. Sometimes, such windows of two lights are coupled together by a semicircular hood of strip-work extending over both, and carried down vertically to the bottom of the lights. In the topmost story of the tower of Earls-Barton church, there is a window of the above description, divided by baluster-shafts into six lights. Triangular-headed lights are found in this and other situations.
Respecting Saxon vaulting, the following account of that in the crypt of Repton church, is given by Mr. Bloxam, in his valuable manual :—" The crypt beneath the chancel of Repton church, Derbyshire, is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen existing of a crypt in the Anglo-Saxon style; and of a stone-vaulted roof sustained by four piers of singular character, slender and cylindrical, with a spiral band or moulding round each, and the entasis exhibiting that peculiar swell we find on the baluster-shafts of Anglo-Saxon belfry windows ; the vaulting, which is without diagonal groins, bears a greater similarity to Roman than to Norman vault ing; and the crypt was entered through the church, by means of two winding passages." Amongst the more noted churches in which Saxon remains are supposed to exist, we may mention the followina :— Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire ; St. Benedict's, Cam bridge ; Brigstock, Northamptonshire ; Brixworth, in the same county ; Bosham, Sussex ; Clee, Lincolnshire ; church near Dover-Castle ; Earls-Barton, Northamptonshire; Deer hurst, Gloucestershire ; Ilexham, Durham ; Jarrow, in the same county ; Kingsbury, Middlesex ; Lavendon, Bedford shire ; St. Michael's, St. Alban's, Hems; Monk-Wearmouth, Durham ; Repton, Derbyshire; Sompting, Essex ; Tintagel, Cornwall ; Wing, Bucks ; Worth, Susses; St. Mary, jun., Bishophill, York.
For further information on this subject, we refer the reader to CATHEDRAL, Cnuaen, and other articles of a simi lar character.