n successive order; not merely side by
side with each other, but interrupted the one by the other in their own
lines. A recess itself has properly no decoration; but its depth gives
value to the decoration which flanks, encloses, or interrupts it, and
the form which interrupts it best is the roll.

Sec. II. I use the word roll generally for any mouldings which present
to the eye somewhat the appearance of being cylindrical, and look like
round rods. When upright, they are in appearance, if not in fact, small
shafts; and are a kind of bent shaft, even when used in archivolts and
traceries;--when horizontal, they confuse themselves with cornices, and
are, in fact, generally to be considered as the best means of drawing an
architectural line in any direction, the soft curve of their side
obtaining some shadow at nearly all times of the day, and that more
tender and grateful to the eye than can be obtained either by an
incision or by any other form of projection.

Sec. III. Their decorative power is, however, too slight for rich work,
and they frequently require, like the angle and the fillet, to be rendered
interesting by subdivision or minor ornament of their own. When the roll
is small, this is effected, exactly as in the case of the fillet, by
cutting pieces out of it; giving in the simplest results what is called
the Norman billet moulding: and when the cuts are given in couples, and
the pieces rounded into spheres and almonds, we have the ordinary Greek
bead, both of them too well known to require illustration. The Norman
billet we shall not meet with in Venice; the bead constantly occurs in
Byzantine, and of course in Renaissance work. In Plate IX., Fig. 17,
there is a remarkable example of its early treatment, where the cuts in
it are left sharp.

Sec. IV. But the roll, if it be of any size, deserves better treatment.
Its rounded surface is too beautiful to be cut away in notches; and it
is rather to be covered with flat chasing or inlaid patterns. Thus
ornamented, it gradually blends itself with the true shaft, both in the
Romanesque work of the North, and in the Italian connected schools; and
the patterns used for it are those used for shaft decoration in general.

Sec. V. But, as alternating with the recess, it has a decoration peculiar
to itself. We have often, in the preceding chapters, noted the fondness
of the Northern builders for deep shade and hollowness in their
mouldings; and in the second chapter of