In the interior of buildings this style exhibits itself more decidedly, owing not only to the perspective effect of a succession of spacious open arches, as in the Naves of Norwich, Durham, Rochester, Chichester, Ely, and Peterborough cathedrals, but also to greater size and massive ness. Although such difference of character may at first appear some what incongruous, it being usual to find more minute and delicate forms employed for the internal parts of a building, the reason for it is evident ; the tiers of pillars and arches on the exterior of Norman structures are merely decorations of the surface, while the arches and piers within are essential parts of the fabric. Instead of anything like lightness, we here meet with extraordinary massiveness arising from the immense bulk of the piers from which arches spring : which character exhibits itself most strikingly when, as is the case with some of those in the nave of Norwich cathedral, the piers are merely short cylinders, with a kind of plain capital, and are not formed by shafts attached to a central mass of masonry. In the building just mentioned some piers of that description are ornamented on their surface by spiral grooves or flutings ; and we may here remark that in that and other examples both cylindrical and clustered piers occur, not only in the same building, but in the very same part of it ; and that great variety of detail and ornament is frequently observed in the mouldings of arches, columns or piers and their capitals, though they are uniform as to size, and compose a single range. Owing to the great diameter required for the supports of larger arches below, the mere pillar-shape was never employed for them, for although pillars of slender propor tions were introduced for such purpose, it was only as pier sh”fts, or when the entire pier was made to consist apparently of a cluster of slender pillars, as some of those in the nave at Durham. Slender detached pillars are indeed of not infrequent occurrence, but it is only to support small arches, as where a window is divided into or composed of two or more such arches, or in the triforia and other gal'eries within the building, where openings corresponding with the larger arches below are divided after the same fashion, and therefore do not form a continued arcade, but coupled or tripled arches at intervals, between the main piers. Sometimes the larger arches below, instead of being connected and resting upon the general capital of the pier, spring from nook-shafts or slender attached pillars, within the re-entering angles of the pier itself, the face of which with either left as a plain space dividing those pillars and the arches from the adjoining ones, or else decorated with another shaft carried quite up to the springing of the vaults, and therefore very appropriately distinguished by Whewell by the term vaulting-shafts. The nave of Chichester, and the Abhaye aux Hommes at Caen, give a combination of both these modes. But although attached pillars and shafts were almost uniformly of exceed ingly tall and slender proportions, we occasionally meet with pillars short and stumpy and with bulky capitals, although the arches are very narrow, and the pillars themselves in situations where more delicate forms would have been sufficient. Of single columns approaching to the proportions of ancient Roman columns, like those which are found in the Romanesque buildings of Italy, Anglo-Norman structures afford no true examples. The only instances are in Semi.
N xman or Transition buildiugs,like that part of Canterbury cathedral called Becket's Crown, (see the cut, col. 973 , where very much of the Corinthian character, though somewhat bolder and more masculine, are employed as piers to support the arches (not round. head, but pointed) ; or they are rather coupled columns united back to back. Within crypts very short detached single columns were employed
to support the arches of the vaulting, but this deviation from the usual Practice would seem to have been occasioned merely by the local peculiarities of such subterraneous apartments, and consequently it can hardly be considered se characteristic of the style itself.
The plan and general arrangement of a Norman church are the Prime as have been followed in subsequent styles. [Cfletten.] The larger Norman churches arc cruciform with a low massive tower rising from the intersection of the arms of the cross. Smaller churches con sist only of a nave and chancel. Choirs and chancels were frequently apeidal, as were also the chapels attached to the larger churches, but many of these apses have been removed. [Arm] Norwich cathedral affords a good example of the Anglo-Norman apse. Sometimes in apses the high altar was attached to a reredos, which was fixed between the piers, and a space left behind for the passage of pro cessions which could thus on solemn occasions make the entire circuit of the church. Numerous examples however occur in which the chancels are rectangular in plan. The aisles were often extremely narrow, and some small churches occur without aisles. Choirs were usually vaulted, but no example we believe occurs of a vaulted nave. Crypts, some of them of fine proportions, considerably enriched, and excellent specimens of masonry, are common under cathedrals and large churches : the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral is one of the finest. [Carry.] Having spoken of the style generally, we shall now briefly describe its 'principal component parts and separate features ; but though not numerous in themselves, it would occupy some space and require a great number of explanatory cuts, to attempt to notice them with much particularity, for few as are the general forms, and unvaried as is the general character, the diversity of detail and minutiae is ex Dooravys, even in small and otherwise plain Norman buildings, and even when small in themselves, seem almost always to have had a great deal of embellishment bestowed upon them ; and many have therefore been preserved in buildings, in every other part of which nearly all traces of the original edifices have been obliterated by sub sequent alterations : instances occur, however, where the doorways have merely a plain dripstone moulding above the arch. In many instances doorways are very deeply recessed, and in proportion to the aperture or door itself the dressings or decorations occupy a great space : this not only allowed great latitude in other respects, but enabled the architect to make what would else have been au insigni cant feature, an important one in the design. In some eases, as at Melmesbury Abbey church, there are no fewer than eight concentric arches recessed one within the other. The tympanum, or stone which in many examples fills the semicircular head of the arch, is usually covered with sculpture. We give a cut of the doorway of Barfreston church, Kent, which, although small, will illustrate the richness and elegance of character of a Norman doorway, and serve as an example of a square-headed door, where the arched space above it is filled up with sculptures. The figure iu the centre of the tympanum, it will be observed. is that of the Saviour, who is seated within an aureole [Nimnes], his right hand raised, and his left resting on a book. This is a very usual decoration on Norman doorways, and is in allusion to the passage " I am the door," &c.; but other scriptural, legendary, or symbolical figures are also frequently represented. Symbolical sculpture is indeed very largely introduced in every part of a Norman church of the better class.