h the new for many years. For example, the eastern end of the choir
of York Minster (1361-99) possesses a window the traceries of which
contain both curvilinear and rectilinear lines, while Shottesbrook
Church in Berkshire (1387), and Wimmington Church, Bedfordshire (1391)
are examples of village churches neither of which has any feature of the
Perpendicular style.

[Illustration: Yeovil Parish Church (A.D. 1376).
Early Perpendicular in style, without a clerestory, and called,
for its large window area, the "Lantern of the West."]

In its earlier stages the Perpendicular style presented an effect at
once good and bold; the mouldings, though not equal to the best of the
Decorated style, were well defined, the enrichments effective, and the
details delicate without extravagant minuteness. Subsequently the
style underwent a gradual debasement; the arches became depressed; the
mouldings impoverished, the details crowded and coarsely executed, and
the whole style became wanting in the chaste and elegant effects for
which the Decorated stands unapproached and unapproachable. The flowing
contours and curved lines of the previous style now gave place in the
windows to mullions running straight up from the bottom to the top, and
crossed by transoms. As the arch became more and more depressed the
mouldings became shallower and less effective. In early buildings of
this period the drop arch is very prevalent, but as the period advanced
a form known as the Tudor arch began to be used. It is an arch in which,
as a rule, the centres of the upper portion lie immediately below those
of the lower, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the whole of
the upper portion uniting the arcs of the ends is struck from one centre,
in which case the arch becomes a three-centred one, being, in fact, half
an ellipse. Towards the close of the style the curvature of the upper
portion is so slight that it can hardly be distinguished from a straight
line, and as the debasement progressed it became really straight. Ogee
arches are also found at this period, and foiled arches are very frequent.
When the Tudor arch was not used, we generally find the low drop arch,
these three last being mostly used for small openings.

[Illustration: A Fine Parish Church showing Rich Perpendicular Work.
Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk. _Photograph Dexter & Son._]

The peculiar characteristics of the windows--the perpendicular
mullions and horizontal transom