h province presented an aspect
different in many respects from those of every other; and we may as
well add that these peculiarities did not die out with the end of the
round-arched period of architecture, but lingered far into the pointed
period.

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--CHURCH AT FONTEVRAULT. (BEGUN 1125.)]

The south of France was occupied by people speaking what are now known
as the Romance dialects, and some writers have adopted the name as
descriptive of the peculiarities of the architecture of these
districts. The Romance provinces clung tenaciously to their early
forms of art, so that pointed architecture was not established in the
south of France till half a century, and in some places nearly a whole
century, later than in the north.

On the other hand, the Frankish part of the country was the cradle of
Gothic. The transition from round to pointed architecture first took
place in the royal domain, of which Paris was the centre, and it may
be assumed that the new style was already existing when in 1140 Abbot
Suger laid the foundations of the choir of the church of St. Denis,
about forty years before the commencement of the eastern arm of our
own Canterbury.

De Caumont, who in his "Abecedaire" did for French architecture
somewhat the same work of analysis and scientific arrangement which
Rickman performed for English, has adopted the following
classification:--

{ Primitive. } 5th to 10th
{ _Primordiale._ } century.
{ }
{ Second. } End of 10th to
Romanesque Architecture. { _Secondaire._ } commencement of
_Architecture Romane._ { } 12th century.
{ }
{ Third or Transition }
{ _Tertiaire ou de_ } 12th century.
{ _Transition._ }

{ First. }
{ _Primitive._ } 13th century.
{ }
Pointed Architecture. { Second. }
_Architecture ogivale._ { _Secondaire._ } 14th century.
{ }
{ Third. }
{ _Tertiaire._ } 15th century.

[Illustr