ort a horizontal cornice. Specimens of decorated
screen-work, some much mutilated, others in a more perfect state, are
existing in the churches of King's Sutton, Northamptonshire; Croperdy,
Oxfordshire; Beaudesert, Warwickshire; and in St. John's Church,
Winchester. A characteristic distinction between screen-work of an earlier
date than the fifteenth century and screen-work of that period will be
found to consist in the slender cylindrical shafts, often annulated,
sometimes not, with moulded bases and capitals which pertain to early work
of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the mullion-like and
angular-edged bars, often faced with small buttresses, which form the
principal vertical divisions in screen-work of the fifteenth century.

[140-*] This stately monument of private munificence was erected at the
sole charges of two brothers, Adam and William Botnor: it was twenty-one
years in building, and cost each year 100_l._

[140-+] Though not an ecclesiastical structure, it is here noticed as an
example of the style in an early stage.

[Illustration: Window, Duffield Church, Derbyshire.]

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE DEBASED ENGLISH STYLE.

Q. When did this style commence, and how long did it prevail or continue?

A. It may be said to have commenced about the year 1540, and to have
continued to about the middle of the seventeenth century; but it is
difficult to assign a precise date either for its introduction or
discontinuance.

Q. Why is this style called the DEBASED?

A. From the general inferiority of design compared with the style it
succeeded, from the meagre and clumsy execution of sculptured and other
ornamental work, from the intermixture of detail founded on an entirely
different school of art, and the consequent subversion of the purity of
style.

Q. What may be considered as one great cause of this falling off?

A. The devastation of the monasteries, religious houses, and chantries,
which followed their suppression, discouraged the study of ecclesiastical
architecture, (which had been much followed by the members of the
conventual foundations, who were now dispersed, in their seclusion,) and
gave a fatal blow to that spirit of erecting and enriching churches which
this country had for many ages possessed.

Q. How could this be the cause?

A. The expenses of erecting many of our ecclesiastical structures, or
different portions of them, from time to time, in the most costly and
beautifu