. White Tower, London]

[Illustration: Base and Capital of Norman Pillar]

[Illustration: Norman Capital]

[Illustration: Norman Arcading]

[Illustration: Norman Window]

[Illustration: Norman Arcading]

[Illustration: Norman Window]

[Illustration: Norman Window]

The chief characteristics of Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical buildings are a
cruciform plan; the great length in comparison with the breadth of the
nave, which joins the choir without the intervention of a screen, such
screens as are _in situ_ being of much later date than the churches in
which they are found; columns of greater girth and height than the Saxon
type, some circular, others six or eight sided, the circular type
occasionally clustered in groups of six or more, with roughly carved
capitals of which the so-called cushion form is of most frequent
occurrence, upholding arches of wide span, massive walls, those of the
nave with rows of purely ornamental arcading, beautifully proportioned
triforia and clerestories; long, narrow, round-headed windows, two or
three being often grouped together; deeply recessed and finely decorated
doorways; strong external buttresses; twin western towers and a loftier
central one rising from the intersection of nave and transepts. With
certain notable exceptions referred to below, Norman churches have flat
timber roofs, but those of the crypt beneath them are generally of
groined stone with plain or only slightly ornamented ribs.

[Illustration: Norman Window]

[Illustration: Norman Doorway]

Another very distinctive characteristic of the Norman style is the
richness of the surface decoration of the interiors of cathedrals and
churches, the bases, shafts, and capitals of the columns, the arches,
headings of windows, mural arcades, &c. being all enriched with
mouldings of an infinite variety of form, including the so-called cable
resembling a rope, the billet not unlike short bits of rounded wood, the
chevron or zig-zag, the fret or fillet, the lozenge, the trellis, the
cone, the scollop, and wave with the so-called torus, a convex swelling,
and the cavetto, a hollow moulding, the last two used almost exclusively
on the bases of columns.

[Illustration: Norman Buttress]

[Illustration: Cable Moulding]

[Illustration: Billet Moulding]

[Illustration: Chevron or Zig-zag Moulding]

[Illustration: Diamond or Lozenge Moulding]

[Illustration: Trellis Moulding]

[Illustration: Cone Moulding]

[Illustration