llest, is by no
means the least interesting. It is attributed to the Hospitallers, an
order founded about the year 1092, and introduced into England in the
reign of Henry I. At Clerkenwell may still be seen the ancient gateway
leading to their hospital. The order was suppressed in 1545. The church
at Little Maplestead was built early in the 12th century, and in 1186
the adjoining manor was given by Juliana Doisnel to this order, which
gift was confirmed by King John and Henry III. This church is thought to
reproduce with more fidelity than the others the original church of the
Holy Sepulchre.

[Illustration: Norman and Early English Doorways.
Showing the transition from one style to another.
Dunstable Priory Church. _Drawn by Worthington G. Smith._]

These famous Norman round-chancelled churches have much in common with
the old basilica form.

It must be pointed out that the arbitrary divisions into which
architecture has been divided--Norman, Gothic, etc., are pure figures of
the imagination, as by a series of easy transitions, one style became
gradually merged into the next without any hard and fast dividing lines
whatever. The periods during which one style became gradually blended
into another are called the periods of transition.

[Side note: The Transition.]

Architecture being progressive, it was only by the gradual development
of one style from another that the art was enabled to advance with
social progress, the literature and other arts of the country. The
transition from the Norman to the Early English style may be ascribed to
a period somewhat earlier than the 12th century, when a great change in
the construction of the arch began to manifest itself. Alone, however,
the form of the arch is no real test, for many pure Norman works have
pointed arches. The square abacus may be taken as the best test. In its
incipient state the pointed arch exhibited a change of form only, whilst
the accessories and details remained the same as before; and although
this change gradually led to the Early Pointed style in a pure state,
with mouldings and features altogether distinct from those of the
Norman, and to the general disuse, in the 13th century, of the
semi-circular arch, it was for a while so intermixed as, from its first
appearance to the close of the 12th century, to constitute that state of
transition called the semi-Norman.

[Illustration: Windows showing the Origin of Tracery.]

CHAPTER IV.