The Saxon style is easily recognized by its massive columns and semicircular arches, which usually spring from capi tals without the intervention of the enta blature. In the first Saxon buildings the mouldings were extremely simple, the greater part consisting of fillets and plat bands, at right angles to each other, and to the general facade. The archivolts and imposts were similar to those found in Roman edifices. The general plan and disposition of the latter Saxon churches w ere as follow ; the chief entrance was at the west end into the nave, at the upper end of which was a cross, with the arms of it extending north and south ; the east end, containing the choir, terminated in a semicircular form. A tower was erected over the centre of the cross, and to con tain the bells another was frequently add ed, and sometimes two.
The large churches contained a nave and two side aisles, one on each side of the nave, and were divided into three tiers or stories, the lower consisting of a range of arcades on each side ; the middle, a range of galleries between the roof and the vaulting of the aisles ; and the upper most, a range of windows. The pillars were either square, polygonal, or circular. Such was the thickness of the walls and pillars, that buttresses were not necessa ry, neither were they in use. The aper tures are splayed from the mullions on both sides. The dressings are generally placed on the sides of the splayed jambs and heads of the arches, and but seldom against the face of the walls, and when this is the case, the projectures are not very prominent The dressings of the jambs frequently consist of one, or seve ral, engaged columns upon each side. The imposts, particularly those of the windows, have frequently the appearance of being a part of the wall itself: The doors in general are formed in deep re cession, and a series of equidistant en gaged columns placed upon each jamb, and were such, that two horizontal straight lines would pass through the a.x is of each seriea, and would, if produced, terminate in 'a point. Each column is at tached to a recess formed by two planes, constituting an interior right angle. The angle at the meeting of every two of these recesses formed an exterior right angle, which was sometimes obtunded, and fre quently hollowed. The archivolts rest ing on the capitals of the columns are formed on the soffit shelving, like the jambs below. The ornaments of columns and mouldings are of very simple forms. The rudely sculptured figures which of ten occur in door-cases, when the head of the door itself is square, indicate a Ro man original, and are mostly refemble to an wra immediately preceding- the con quest.
After the Nortnan conquest, the gene ral fortns of the parts remained the same, though the extent and dimensions of the churches were g-reatly enlarged ; the vaultings became much more lofty, the pillars of greater diameter, the ornaments more frequent and elaborately finished ; towers of very large dimensions and great height were placed either in the centre, or at the west end of the cathedral and conventual churches. These were often
ornamented with arcades in tiers of small intersecting arches on the outside. About the end of the reign of Henry I. circular arches, thick walls without prominent buttresses, and massive pillars with a kind of regular base and capital, generally pre vailed ; the capitals of the pillars were often left plain, though there were a few instances of sculptured capitals, foliage, and animals. The shafts of the pillars were usually- plain cylinders, or had se micolumns .attached to them. The first transition of the arch appears to have taken place towards the close of the reign of Stephen, its figure, which had hitherto been circular, becoming slightly pointed, and the heavy single pilLar made into a pilastered cluster, which was at first ill formed, but gradually assumed a more elegant figure and graceful proportion, the archivolts still retaining many of the Saxon ornaments. It may here be ob served, that, antecedent to this period, neither tabernacles nor niches with cano pies, statues in whole relief, pinnacles, pediments, or spires, nor any tracery in the vaultings, were used ; but at this time, or soon after, these began to obtain. To wards the close of the 13th century, the pillars, then supporting sharply pointed arches, were much more slender ; the ceilings were seemingly sustained by grained ribs, resting on the capitals of the pillars, and the windows were lighted by several openings, in place of one.
After the reign of Stephen, the circular and pointed arches were frequently em ployed in the same building ; but the pointed style, gaining more and more up on the circular, prevailed ultimately at the close of the reign of Henry III. and prevented all farther confusion of mi xture. The architecture of this age now exhibit ed uniformity of parts, justness of propor tions, and elegance of decoration; the ar cades and pillars became numerous, the single shafts were divided into a multipli city of equal, slender, distinct shafts, con structed of purbeck marble, and collected under one capital, luxuriantly decorated with leaves of the palm-tree. The east and west windows begun to be widely ex panded; these required a number of mul lions, which, as well as the ribs and tran somes of the vaulting, began to ramify, from tke springing of the arches, into a variety of tracers', which was uniformly ornamented with rosettes or polyfoil, cus pidated figures, forming trefoils, quatre foils, &c. Canopies were introduced over the arches, and in rich work were deco rated with crockets and creeping foliage, and terminated in a flower. The but tresses were made in several diminished stages towards the top, and mostly ter minated with purfled pinnacles.