epresenting a scene in the story of St. George; and sometimes symbolical,
as the representation of fish, serpents, and chimerae on the north doorway
of Stoneleigh Church, Warwickshire. The figure of our Saviour in a sitting
attitude, holding in his left hand a book, and with his right arm and hand
upheld, in allusion to the saying, _I am the way, and the truth, and the
life_, and circumscribed by that mystical figure the _Vesica piscis_,
appears over Norman doorways at Ely Cathedral; Rochester Cathedral;
Malmesbury Abbey Church; Elstow Church, Bedfordshire; Water Stratford
Church, Buckinghamshire; and Barfreston Church, Kent; and is not
uncommon.

Q. Are there many Norman porches?

A. Norman porches occur at Durham Cathedral; Malmesbury Abbey Church;
Sherbourne Abbey Church; and Witney Church, Oxfordshire; but they are not
very common. The roof of the porch was usually groined with simple cross
springers and moulded ribs; and in some instances a room over has been
added at a later period. Numerous portals of the Norman era appear
constructed within a shallow projecting mass of masonry, similar in
appearance to the broad projecting buttress, and, like that, finished on
the upper edge with a plain slope. This was to give a sufficiency of depth
to the numerous concentric arches successively receding in the thickness
of the wall, which could not otherwise be well attained.

Q. What kind of windows were those belonging to this style?

A. The windows were mostly small and narrow, seldom of more than one
light, except belfry windows, which were usually divided into two
round-headed lights by a shaft, with a capital and abacus. Early in the
style the windows were quite plain; afterwards they were ornamented in a
greater or less degree, sometimes with the chevron or zig-zag, and
sometimes with roll or cylinder mouldings; in many instances, also, shafts
were inserted at the sides, the window jambs were simply splayed in one
direction only, and the space between them increased in width inwardly.

[Illustration: Norman Window, Ryton Church, Warwickshire.]

Q. Do we meet with any circular or wheel-shaped windows of the Norman era?

A. A circular window, with divisions formed by small shafts and
semicircular or trefoiled arches, disposed so as to converge to a common
centre, sometimes occurs in the gable at the east end of a Norman church,
as at Barfreston Church, Kent; and New Shoreham Church, Sussex; and are
not uncommon.