Norman Style. 123 walls are extremely massive, with no buttresses, but in their place plain shallow piers are used. For decoration, rows of arcades with nothing to support are of frequent occurrence; the chief mouldings are the chevron (i. e. zigzag moulding), the fret (i. e. ornament with one or more fillets — narrow bands or rings — meeting in vertical or horizontal directions), nail-head, billet (i. e. cylindrical pieces two or three inches long in hollow mouldings), cable, lozenge, wave, etc. The large semicircular (torus) and the hollow (cavetto) mouldings occur in bases, and elsewhere. In our Norman buildings the masonry is usually beautifully executed — far more perfectly, indeed, than was the custom in some subsequent periods. In Norman churches transepts are of frequent occur- rence ; the tower, rising from the point of intersection between them and the nave, being loftier than in Saxon buildings. The chief distinction between the two styles is increase of size and richness. The great length of the nave in Norman churches, unbroken by any rood-screen,* gives a sense of vastness to the whole building. We may here remark that the eastern limb of A.nglo-Norman churches was generally square ended, whilst that of conti- nental buildings belonging to the same age was apsidal, that is to say, semicircular, or more rarely polygonal. The earliest specimens of the Anglo-Norman style
- The screen at the entrance of the chancel, so called from its
having been surmounted by a large figure of Christ on the cross. The Anglo-Saxon word rod signifies a cross, and the word rood, derived from it, was applied to the cross on which our Lord was put to death. It also signifies all the relics of the true cross. The word " holy " is generally prefixed in speaking of them, and the Scotch abbey of Holyrood (Holy Rood) received its name from the holy cross or rood in honour of which it was dedicated.
