weed, are all exquisitely carved. The human the early part of the period. The equilateral figure also was never more finely delineated than during this period, as is exemplified by the effigy of Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey, which will bear comparison with the works of any age. The monuments of this period are among the best we possess, and though the prevalence of geometrical forms gives them a certain formality, the minute accuracy with which every detail of costume, of foliage, or other ornament, is executed, renders them of the utmost value. The beautiful crosses erected by Edward I., to the memory of his queen Eleanor, belong to this period. The transition from the GEOMETRICAL to the FLOWING DECORATED was very natural; the junction of two circles suggested the flowing line, and this once commenced, gave such facilities for filling up the large windows which now came into use, and such freedom to the imagination in designing new forms of tracery, that the varieties are innumerable. The following summary of its rise and progress may be sufficient for our present purpose: First. Pure EARLY ENGLISII, in which the windows are merely simple lancets, either single or two or more combined, or included under one moulding, with or without circles or lozenges above. Second. TRANSITION, in which the openings are brought close together, and the spaces between pierced, and an imperfect kind of tracery formed. Third. GEOMETRICAL DECORATED, in which tracery is fully developed but geometrical forms still used. This includes also a kind of tracery called intersecting, made by carrying arches from the mullions to the window head. This includes Fourth. FLOWING DECORATED. an endless variety of forms, the main distinction of which is that the lines of the tracery, instead of being confined to stiff geometrical figures, flow easily one into another. In the earlier examples geometrical forms are mixed with them, but in the later or more fully developed ones they are discarded. This period is what is generally known by the term DECORATED, and nothing can exceed the rich and gorgeous effect of its large windows, especially when filled with stained glass, which was now in its highest perfection. A fine example of this is seen in the west front of York Cathedral. Fifth. Another transition, in which straight lines, horizontal as well as perpendicular, began to be used among the tracery, and which led to the Sixth, or PERPENDICULAR period, which was not fully introduced till after the epoch now under consideration. In the DECORATED style the arches are not so lofty and the pillars not so slender as in the Early English, and the detached shafts are only used in form prevails both for arches and windows, and the vaulting, and consequently the roofs, are not of so high a pitch as in the preceding style. The buttresses are large and projecting, frequently ornamented with canopied niches containing figures of saints, and usually terminated in richly crocketed pinnacles. Canopies, either straight-sided or of the ogee form, are much used over windows, doors, and porches. They often project, and are ornamented with rich and large finials and crockets. The doors and porches are deeply recessed, and very richly ornamented with mouldings and foliage, and have frequently also niches containing figures of saints or subjects from the Scriptures. The doorways in the west front of York Cathedral are the finest examples we have of this kind, and the front itself is considered by Rickman, to be "nearly if not quite the finest west front in the kingdom." The upper part of the towers is Perpendicular, showing the transition from one style to the other during the progress of the building. Among the ornaments used in mouldings in all situations, are two which are very characteristic of this style: these are the ball-flower, and the four-leaved flower, of which examples BALL FLOWER. are here given. The mouldings, too, have under- | unites them into one picturesque whole. Without gone a considerable modification; the deep hol- the round tower of William of Wykeham, Windlows have almost disappeared, and the rounds sor Castle would be a meaningless collection of assume a form known as the roll moulding. unconnected objects. The same boldness of ideas FOUR-LEAVED FLOWER, West Front, York Cathedral. One of the most characteristic features of the Decorated style is the foliage, in which, as has been said before, natural forms were very generally imitated, were drawn with the greatest freedom and elegance, and used in all places. The capitals differ in several important features from those of the Early English. In the latter, the foliage generally rises from the neck moulding, on stiff stems, and curls over under the bell of the capital; but in the Decorated, it is generally carried round in the form of a wreath, making a complete ball of leaves, as in the example from Selby. Such was the Decorated style in its purity-the perfection of ecclesiastical architecture-and such it continued until the latter part of the reign of Edward III., when, for greater strength and facility of construction, the straight line was introduced into the tracery of the window heads, and the mullions carried through the whole length of the window; the flowing lines of the tracery were gradually laid aside, and were superseded by rectangular forms, which also pervaded every part of the design. The prevalence of upright lines naturally suggested to Rickman the name of Perpendicular for the style, and by which it is appropriately known. But though it originated in the reign of Edward III., and that of Richard II. was a period of transition, it was not fully established until the succeeding reign, and it will therefore fall to be discussed under the next period of the history. The castles erected during the period of which we are treating exhibit a remarkable union of picturesque beauty with solidity and strength. The masonry is of the most careful and finished description, but the buildings are not overloaded with ornament, the architects trusting more to the outline of their masses than to lesser decorations. Of this the round tower of Windsor Castle is a well-known example. It is quite plain in its details, but its immense size and its bold outline gives a character to the mass of discordant materials, ancient and modern, of which the castle is composed, and at a distance DECORATED CAPITAL, Selby, Yorkshire. prevailed throughout; and military as well as ecclesiastical architecture seems to have attained its greatest perfection at this time. The Edwardian castles differ from the Norman in many important particulars; the solid keep becomes developed into an open quadrangle, defended at the sides and angles by gatehouses and towers, and containing the hall and state apartments ranged along one side of the court. The term keep is no longer applicable, and around this inner ward or bailey, two or three lines of defence are disposed concentrically. Such castles frequently inclose many acres, and present an imposing appearance. The parts of a perfect Edwardian castle are-the inner bailey; the walls of the enceinte, single, double, or triple; the middle and outer baileys, contained between the walls; the gatehouses and posterns, or small doors in the wall; and the ditch, which was usually filled with water. The inner bailey contained the hall, often of great size, the chapel, the better class of apartments, and an open court. The offices usually were placed in the middle bailey, on the outside of the wall of the hall. The outer bailey contained stabling, sometimes a mill, &c., and often a mound of earth, or cavalier, to carry a large engine. The walls were strengthened by towers, either circular, square, oblong, or multangular, projecting both outwards and inwards Such towers were all capable of being defended independently of the castle, and usually opened into the court and upon the walls by portals, regularly defended by gates and a portcullis. The gatehouses are distinct works, covering the en See an article by G. T. Clarke, Archaological Journal, vol i, from which much of the information in this notice is extracted trance; they contain gates, one or two portcullises, holes for stockades of timber, and loops raking the passage. Overhanging the arch at either end, are funnels for pouring down boiling liquids upon assailants, and above are ovens and flues for heating them; and from the front of these gatehouses, the drawbridge was lowered over the ditch. These gateways had frequently a barbican attached. This was a passage between high walls, in advance of the main gate, and having an outer gate of entrance, which was defended by towers and the parapet, connected with the main gateway. The gates or bars of York have had barbicans, but they are all destroyed except Walmgate. There is a very perfect specimen at Alnwick,and another at Warwick, where the portcullis is still in use. The top of the wall was defended by a battlemented parapet, the opening of which sometimes bears stone figures, as on the bars of York, and as at Alnwick, and Chepstow. These battlements are frequently pierced by cruciform loops or balistraria. In many cases a bold corbel table is thrown out from the wall, and the parapet placed upon it, so as to leave an BALISTRARIA, Micklegate Bar, York. open space between the back of the parapet and the face of the wall. The space is divided by the corbels into holes called machicolations, which overlook the outside of the walls. If the parapet be not advanced by more than its own thickness, of course no hole MACHICOLATIONS, Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex. is formed; this is called a false machicolation: it is used to give breadth to the top of the wall,and is common to all periods. One of the finest examples of a tower of this period is Guy's Tower at Warwick. It is in an almost perfect state, from the dungeon in the rock to the top of the parapet. Its plan is composed of three segments of circles on the outer, and a flat face on the inner side; its different stories are vaulted, and retain their original arrangement, and its machicolations are bold and perfect. Clifford's Tower, York, is another fine example, and offers a beautiful specimen of the masonry of the time. Another peculiar form of tower also occurs at this period; it is one in which a circular tower is set upon a square base, which dies gradually into the circle, producing a very singular effect. Examples occur at Kidwelly and Chepstow. At Caernarvon the towers are octagonal, while at Conway they are circular. Among the castles erected or enlarged during this period in Wales, are Caernarvon, Conway, Pembroke, Kidwelly, Caerphilly, Harlech, Flint, Morlais, &c.; and in England, Windsor, Warwick, Raby, Alnwick, Bolton, Queenborough, Lancaster, &c.1 The Norman and Edwardian, the solid and concentric, may be regarded as the two great types of English castles, of which other military buildings are only modifications. The progress of society in science and literature now remains to be noticed. The strong English mind, already conscious of its strength, was groping in quest of those subjects that were most congenial to its character, and upon which it afterwards laboured with such happy effect. Fortunately, too, instead of expending its first efforts upon the more attractive departments of literature, and thus allowing itself to be allured into a less useful track, it directed its whole ardour towards the substantialities of intellect, and toiled in the quarry of thought. Metaphysical investigation, directed by the rules of Aristotle, was now the chief task of every scholar; and although the direct results were of little worth, the indirect effects were of the highest consequence. It was of much importance not only that men should ascertain at the outset what things cannot be known and what things are not worth knowing, but that the mind should be sharpened and invigorated by such a process for the acquirement of what is really worth having; and considering how effectually this was attained at last, we can forgive the otherwise trivial investigations of the choicest intellects of England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In this incessant pursuit of shadows the physical sciences had little chance. Law and medicine, indeed, could not be dispensed with, and had therefore a competent proportion of students; but astronomy, which was connected with the revelation of future events, and geometry, which was confounded with the legerdemain of figure-casting, were either imperfectly studied, or pursued only with a reference to the miraculous powers with which they were supposed to be connected. In this way, ordinary scholars who ventured upon the study of Euclid at this period seldom got further, we are told, than the "ass's bridge" that is, the fifth proposition of the first book. In the same manner, the study of chemistry, as yet in its infancy, was used merely in the form of alchemy, for the discovery of the elixir 1 For illustrations of castles of this period, see the cuts on pages 410, 439, and 494 of this vol. vita, and the transmutation of metals. These were active preliminary trials, and earnest interested experiments; but a considerable time was still to elapse before the quack-salver became a physician, the star-gazer an astronomer, the goldseeker a chemist, and the mere pedant or pretender a man of true science. Latin still continued to be the common language of the learned; but in England it was no longer cultivated with that especial care which had formerly been bestowed upon it as the first and greatest essential of scholarship. Instead of this, it was merely a vehicle of communication, and as such, was used without reference to elegance or even common grammatical rule. The necessity already existed, and the period was at hand, when England, no longer dependent upon a barbarized Latin, was to create a language of her own sufficient for every intellectual purpose. privileges of students merely that they might be exempt from civic jurisdiction. Even already, therefore, there were town-and-gown riots in the streets of Cambridge and Oxford between the citizens and the collegians, while weapons more formidable than fist or stick were often used in the mêlée. These riots also were sometimes diversified with internal broils, in which the hungry students, on account of the leauness of their commons, broke out against their superiors, and attempted to carry the larders by storm. The early records of these time-honoured universities abound with strange tales of riot and mutiny. Sufficiently lowly and homely also must have been the occasional duties of the poor scholars," when we find two of them, in the "reeve's tale" of Chaucer, sent to the mill, to have the college corn ground during the sickness of the manciple. But even to a much later period, the sizarships of the universities were equally humbling. Two sketches of Chaucer give us a distinct idea of the better classes of students at the close of this period, both as to their charac 66 "As lene was his hors as is a rake, And he was not right fat, I undertake; Amidst this new impulse, as may easily be imagined, the great English schools of learning rapidly rose into existence; and the universities of Bologna and Paris, the oldest in Europe, were followed at no long interval by those of Cam-ter and pursuits. The one is the gentle clerk of bridge and Oxford. In a former chapter we Oxford, in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales:— have had occasion to mention the origin of the university of Cambridge. Its large barn, that was so speedily filled to overflowing, was the infallible promise of a better state of things, and accordingly, between A.D. 1256 and 1351, or less than a century, nine colleges had been erected and endowed. Oxford at the same time went on with nearly equal rapidity, so that between 1249 and 1379, seven colleges were included within its university. It cannot, however, be maintained, that either the stately decorum, the learning, the plenty, or the otium cum dignitate with which these solemn halls are now so fruitful, were to be found in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. An idea, indeed, of their general scholarship, as well as modes of teaching, may be surmised from what has been already stated about the learning of the day; while the inferior grade of their students can be equally conjectured from the different pursuits in which the aristocracy were still employed. Each university is supposed to have had 30,000 scholars; and in a national population of little more than 3,000,000, we wonder that the love of learning could at any time have congregated such a huge proportion of worshippers. But house-room and bread were to be obtained as well as books at these colleges; and, therefore, while the studious repaired to to them in tens, the idle thronged to them in hundreds. So says Anthony à Wood, who informs us, moreover, that they were hal itually guilty of thieving and other enormities; that they had neither tutors nor observance of discipline; and that they thrust themselves into the And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche." Such was the grave student retired from college and waiting for a benefice, but without murmur or impatience. It will be noticed, too, that although a philosopher, he did not, like his brethren, make a trade of his knowledge, by reading the stars, casting nativities, or selling the delusive promises of alchemy. The other sketch introduces us to a different, and yet, in some points, a similar personage: "A poure scoler Had lerned art, but all his fantasie If that men asked him in certain houres, When that men shulde have drought or elles shoures; This student's attention, however, to the stars was mixed up with more terrestrial pursuits; and the following description of his usual routine presents us with a curious medley of play and study adapted to the fashions of the age: "This clerk was cleped hendy Nicholas; Of derne love he coude and of solas; His almageste, and bokes grete and smale, And after that, he song the kinges note; of obeying, he was wont to throw them into the fire, if he found them in any way opposed to the liberties of his country or the rights of the English church. Of alchemists, three or four are mentioned as being of note in England during this period, but their names may well pass away with the science they cultivated. In medicine, the earliest writer was Gilbert Anglicus, who lived in the thirteenth century; and in surgery, John Ardern, who lived in the fourteenth. But with regard to the former science, it was as yet too closely connected with charms and conjurations to be of much avail; while in surgery, the practitioners were still nearly as helpless as their brethren who stood round the bed of the Archduke of Austria (Coeur de Lion's enemy) and knew not how to amputate his gangrened leg, until the cook decided the difficulty by one downright trenchant blow of his cleaver. During this stirring period, there was abundance of subjects as well of inspiration for the historians, and therefore, from the beginning of the thirteenth to the close of the fourteenth century, the writers of this kind were sufficiently numerous, whose collected works form a valuable cyclopedia of English history. This, however, is merely to be understood in reference to historical fulness and accuracy, as these authors were merely chroniclers, while the Latin in which they wrote was sufficiently dry and unclassical. An exception, however, must be made in behalf of Matthew Paris. This author, who, like the Ofehtia ofcula Lactennis tabus impella... Amidst such ample means of study, and acquirement of literary distinction, it is natural that we should expect a plentiful harvest of illustrious names. But still the list is scanty enough, and especially in those departments of learning that were the most diligently cultivated. Thus, in metaphysics, we have only Alexander de Hales, the Irrefragable Doctor, who died at Paris in the middle of the thirteenth century; and William Occum, the Invincible Doctor, who died at Münich in the middle of the fourteenth. Occum, who was the pupil of the celebrated Duns Scotus, became afterwards his antagonist, and in controversy evinced a keenness of intellect scarcely inferior to that of his renowned preceptor. It speaks little, however, for the fostering care of England at this early period, that such men, and even Scotus himself, were fain to accept of charges in foreign universities; but it may be, that the Scotch, and afterwards the French wars, absorbed too much of the wealth and patronage of England, to allow the claims of such persons a full and fair recognition. In mathematical science, one of the most distinguished was Robert Grostête, or Greathead, so called, says the quaint Fuller, from his large stowage of brain. This distinguished prelate, who flourished during others of that class, was an ecclesiastic, belonged the first half of the thirteenth century, was not to the Benedictine order of monks in the monasonly esteemed in his own day for his scientific tery of St. Alban's, and had been much employed attainments, and patronage of learned men, but in the affairs of government by Henry III. His subsequently won a still higher reputation in the mind was no doubt thus freed from the narrowecclesiastical history of England, as a harbinger ness of the convent, and his views enlarged as of Wyckliffe and the Reformation. Such, indeed, well as his knowledge increased and rectified was his independence and hostility to Papal us- upon the great leading events of English history. urpation, that when the rescripts of Rome were His chief work, entitled Historia Major, is a hissent to him to be published and enforced, instead | tory of the country from the Norman conquest MATTHEW PARIS. from the Cambridge MS.-Supposed to have been drawn by himself. |