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Early English Style. 129 The Tower of London contains a fine specimen of a Norman keep, known as the White Tower. The walls of the keep, or donjon, are in parts 16 ft. thick, and of extremely solid masonry; and the chapel in the White Tower is one of the best preserved and most interesting- works of its age extant. The whole enclosure occupies a space of 12 or 13 acres, and most of it is very much modernised. Rochester Castle is a good specimen of a Norman keep, though much dilapidated. 3. — Gothic Architecture in England. First Period. — Early English Architecture. — The period generally known as "Early English," or less commonly as " Early Pointed," lasted from about 1189 — the date of the accession of Richard I. — to 1307 — the date of the death of Henry III. The crusades of the eleventh century, com- bined with other influences, led to a revolution in European architecture, and, in fact, in all the arts. The styles which then sprang up received the comprehensive name of Gothic. England was almost a century behind some of the countries of the continent in adopting the Pointed style, and our earliest examples of it retain much of the massiveness and strength of the Norman. The chief points which distin- guish Early English architecture from the buildings of the preceding age may be briefly enumerated as follows. In large arches the archiuolt (i. e. the arched portion as dis- tinguished from the jambs or sides from which it springs) is heavily moulded, exhibiting a succession of round mouldings alternating with deep hollows ; and the plain faces which were conspicuous in the archivolts of the Norman style have wholly disappeared. The small arches EHA K