ently intended to stand without spires in the Perp.
period, and are often finished by four effective angle-pinnacles and
a cornice with battlements. Where spires occur in this period they
resemble those of the Dec. period.

Spires end usually in a boss or finial, surmounted by a weathercock.
Ordinary roofs were usually finished by ornamental cresting, and their
summits were marked by finials,[20] frequently of exquisite
workmanship.

_Ornaments._

We now come to ornaments, including mouldings, carving, and colour,
and here we are landed upon a mass of details which it would be
impossible to pursue far. Mouldings play a prominent part in Gothic
architecture, and from the first to the last they varied so constantly
that their profiles and grouping may be constantly made use of as a
kind of architectural calendar, to point out the time, to within a few
years, when the building in which they occur was erected.

A moulding is the architect's means of drawing a line on his building.
If he desires to mark on the exterior the position of an internal
floor, or in any other way to suggest a division into storeys, a
moulded string-course is introduced. If he wishes to add richness and
play of light and shade to the sides of an important arch, he
introduces a series of mouldings, the profile of which has been
designed to form lights and shadows such as will answer his purpose.
If again he desires to throw out a projection and to give the idea of
its being properly supported, he places under his projection a corbel
of mouldings which are of strong as well as pleasing form, so as to
convey to the eye the notion of support. Mouldings, it can be
understood, differ in both size and profile, according to the purpose
which they are required to serve, the distance from the spectator at
which they are fixed, and the material out of which they are formed.
In the Gothic periods they also differed according to the date at
which they were executed.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--EARLY ARCH IN RECEDING PLANES.]

[Illustration: FIG. 27.--ARCH IN RECEDING PLANES MOULDED.]

The first step towards the Gothic system of mouldings was taken by the
Romanesque architects when the idea of building arches in thick walls,
not only one within the others, but also in planes receding back from
the face of the wall one behind as well as within another, was formed
and carried out, and when a corresponding recessed arrangement of the
jamb of the arch wa