A Guide to Gothic Architecture

ich led to the Transition?Its progress in France, Germany and England?Increasing lightness in construction and detail?Influence of the Cistercian Order?The retro-choir of Chichester Cathedral?List of the most remarkable English works of the period. The multitude of great architectural works erected at the junction of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the vast scale on which the majority of them are designed, combined wih the immense solidity of the walls, and the massive character of all structural features, are such as to awaken a feeling of astonishment at the indomitable energy and the command of almost inexhaustible resources such buildings imply, and of admiration for the religious zeal which dictated the devotion of so much labour and treasure and thought to the honour of the Most High, and the sen-ice of His Temple. Nearly every cathedral and great abbey was rebuilt on a stupendous scale, new cathedrals and new abbeyswere founded, and churches of all grades, from these vast temples down to the smallest village church, were erected throughout the length and breadth of the country. In fact, almost every one of our existing cathedrals is, either in its ground-plan or its actual fabric, an outward and visible sign and token of the occupation of England by the Normans, and of the advanced civilisation introduced by them. A hasty survey of our cathedrals will verify the assertion, and serve to bring home the fact, the importance of which is hardly ...