Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/348

272 ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF general type as those on the north side, but they have pecuharities of their own rendering them well worthy of examination. The occurrence of a spherical triangle as the centre-piece of a subarcuated ^vindoAv is by no means usual, and it is accompanied by that strange, though much less uncommon, form which I have elsewhere,^ for want of a better name, denominated spiked foliation. Those on the south side have Intersecting tracery, to w^hich the round foils of the piercings in the head give somewhat of the character of Arch and Foil.9 I have already commented on the most remarkable features of this aisle, considered as a part of the general composition and arrangement of the church. Its extent westward is clearly marked, as its west wall still remains perfect ; for when the south aisle of the nave, in its present form, was added to the west of it, the two w^ere not, as usual, connected by an arch, but they were separated by a blank wall, the only approach from one to another being by a small doorway. This strange proceeding was probably occasioned by a ritual consideration ; the very elevated altar-platform just west of this wall might not have been so well introduced, had the two aisles been architecturally continuous ; but a greater a3sthetical blunder can hardly be conceived, than this complete blocking off of one portion of the building from another. The church then, as standing for a while complete at this point, consisted of a nave w^ithout aisles, a choir with an aisle on each side, that to the south of almost unparalleled dimen- sions. We must remember that the choir at this time did not project eastward beyond the aisles, so that the termina- tion of the choir and the two aisles were embraced in one continuous eastern front. In this extensive range were comprised three somewhat heterogeneous elements ; the two large gabled extremities of the choir and its south aisle, of much the same height and breadth — though with the advan- tage in the latter respect somewhat on the side of the aisle ■ — the one with its Decorated windows, the other, we may conceive, with a composition of lancets ; and finall}'^ the small lean-to of the north aisle. Now this last must have looked like a mere insignificant excrescence, and must have given the whole an uri pleasing effect of irregularity. And indeed "■ Essaj on 'J'racery, p. 79. ' Ibid, 55 ; 46, note o.