. The English house, how to judge its periods and styles. y, but English builders neverran into the excessive, flame-like ornament instone that produced the Flamboyant style ofFrance and Germany. Window tracery sprang from the stone shaftswith which Norman builders divided windowopenings into lights. Those shafts were turnedinto muUions, and these being too plain andassertive for the fine artistic genius of thethirteenth century, they were made to ramifyinto patterned forms, so that the upper partsof arched windows might be beautiful. Howthis was managed in 1310 is shown very wellby the large
. The English house, how to judge its periods and styles. y, but English builders neverran into the excessive, flame-like ornament instone that produced the Flamboyant style ofFrance and Germany. Window tracery sprang from the stone shaftswith which Norman builders divided windowopenings into lights. Those shafts were turnedinto muUions, and these being too plain andassertive for the fine artistic genius of thethirteenth century, they were made to ramifyinto patterned forms, so that the upper partsof arched windows might be beautiful. Howthis was managed in 1310 is shown very wellby the large window at Markenfield. You will note, also, in our illustration, thatthe walls have no fewer than six buttresses,all with so much strength that they must beaccounted for by some structural were two great roofs of open wood-work, one in the chapel and the other in thehall, and their timbers thrust with great poweragainst the side walls. A modern roof wasput up in the hall in 1853, but some of theancient corbels existed at a later J a,-1 X O ao LATER GOTHIC HOMES 137 One other point must be noted in theexternal architecture at Markenfield—namely,its horizontal character. It is difficult to seethe roof, which is nearly hidden behind a longembattled parapet having merlons crenellatedwith moulded copings. Too much attentioncannot be given to this matter, because it provesthat Gothic house architecture at the beginningof the fourteenth century began to develop ahorizontal air of its own, and to appreciatethis fact we must recall to mind the essentialdifference in spirit between Gothic and Classicbuildings. Gothic architecture has life andhope ; it seems to ascend, to spring up buoy-antly from the ground towards the suns light,like a tree; while a Classic building restsfirmly on its foundation, all its weight press-ing downwards, adequately supported in everypart; it is made symmetrical by means ofhorizontal lines that dominate those which areupright. A Got
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