acter, but
are slenderer, and the shafts have often shrunk to nothing more than
reedy mouldings.

The column is often employed in Transitional and E. E. churches as a
substitute for piers carrying arches. In every period small columns
are freely used as ornamental features. They are constantly met with,
for example, in the jambs of doorways and of windows.

Every column is divided naturally into three parts, its base, or foot;
its shaft, which forms the main body; and its capital, or head. Each
of these went through a series of modifications. Part of the base
usually consisted of a flat stone larger than the diameter of the
column, sometimes called a plinth, and upon this stood the moulded
base which gradually diminished to the size of the shaft. This plain
stone was in E. E. often square, and in that case the corner spaces
which were not covered by the mouldings of the base were often
occupied by an elegantly carved leaf. In Dec. and Perp. buildings the
lower part of the base was often polygonal, and frequently moulded so
as to make it into a pedestal.[15]

The proportions of shafts varied extraordinarily; they were, as a
rule, extremely slender when their purpose was purely decorative, and
comparatively sturdy when they really served to carry a weight.

The capital of the column has been perhaps the most conspicuous
feature in the architecture of every age and every country, and it is
one of the features which a student may make use of as an indication
of date and style of buildings, very much as the botanist employs the
flower as an index to the genus and species of plants. The capital
almost invariably starts from a ring, called the neck of the column.
This serves to mark the end of the shaft and the commencement of the
capital. Above this follows what is commonly called the bell,--the
main portion of the capital, which is that part upon which the skill
of the carver and the taste of the designer can be most freely
expended, and on the top of the bell is placed the abacus, a flat
block of stone upon the upper surface of which is built the
superstructure or is laid the beam or block which the column has to
support. The shape and ornaments given to the abacus are often of
considerable importance as indications of the position in
architectural history which the building in which it occurs should
occupy.

The Norman capital differed to some extent from the Romanesque
capitals of other parts of Europe. It was comm