d niches, in places of honour; and in the mouldings
and tympanum of the head of a doorway there was often carved a whole
host of figures representing heaven, earth, and hell, with a rude
force and a native eloquence that have not lost their power to the
present day.

In the positions where modest ornamentation was required, as for
example the capitals of shafts, the hollows of groups of mouldings,
and the bosses of vaulting, carving of the most finished execution and
masterly design constantly occurs. Speaking roughly, this was chiefly
conventional in the E. E. period, chiefly natural in the Dec. and
mixed, but with perhaps a preference for the conventional in the Perp.
Examples abound, but both for beauty and accessibility we can refer to
no better example than the carving which enriches the entrance to the
Chapter House of Westminster Abbey (Fig. 30).

[Illustration: _Miserere Seat from Wells Cathedral._]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] For illustrations consult the Glossary under _Jamb_.

[18] For illustrations consult the Glossary under _Arch_.

[19] Address to the Conference of Architects. Reported in the
_Builder_ of 24th June, 1876. Outlines illustrating some of these
varieties of vault will be found in the Glossary under _Vault_.

[20] See Glossary.

[21] For illustrations consult the Glossary.

[22] For further illustrations see the Glossary.

[Illustration: {STAINED GLASS FROM CHARTRES CATHEDRAL.}]

CHAPTER VI.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN WESTERN EUROPE.

FRANCE.--CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH.

The architecture of France during the Middle Ages throws much light
upon the history of the country. The features in which it differs from
the work done in England at the same period can, many of them, be
directly traced to differences in the social, political, or religious
situation of the two nations at the time. For example, we find England
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the hands of the Normans, a
newly-conquered country under uniform administration; and accordingly
few local variations occur in the architecture of our Norman period.
The twelfth-century work, at Durham or Peterborough for instance,
differs but little from that at Gloucester or Winchester. In France
the case is different. That country was divided into a series of
semi-independent provinces, whose inhabitants differed, not only in
the leaders whom they followed, but in speech, race, and customs. As
might be expected, the buildings of eac