THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN ESSEX. 181
from north to south. The doorway is on the south side, and has on
each side a lancet window. There are two other windows on the
south side towards the east, but their cills are raised in order to give
height for the sedilia and piscina under them. There are four
windows on the north side similar to those on the south. The east
and west windows are triple lancets under one arch. There are no
buttresses. I am glad to say, through the exertions of my friend,
Mr. Beaumont, works necessary to preserve this highly interesting
building have been carried out.
Another very interesting example of Early English work is the
Chapel or Chapter House at Becleigh Abbey, near Maldon. The
building is about 40 feet long by 18 feet wide, with columns in
the centre supporting the groined roof. The double doorway,
separated by shafts, is a feature of this period, and in the jambs of
the doorway is introduced a very elegant example of the dog's tooth
or four-leaved ornament. Other portions of the old buildings,
notably the old refectory, are of the same period, with inserted
windows and chimney piece of later date.
This Priory of the Order of the Premonstratenses, or White
Canons, was founded by Robert de Mantell in 1180, and dedicated
to St. Nicholas ; it was endowed with several lands, and confirmed
by the Charter of Richard I., in the first year of his reign, about
1190. These buildings were probably erected during the first half
of the thirteenth century.
I look upon the development of Gothic Architecture in England
as one of the most interesting periods of architecture in the world.
It seems to me certain that there was during the period extending
from the Norman Conquest down to the reign of Henry VII.,
a kind of intercommunication which ensured the carrying out of the
same kind of architecture throughout England at the same period.
And it is surprising when one contemplates the peculiarities of the
various divisions into which we have divided Gothic Architecture,
that the development should have been exactly similar throughout
the whole of England, even to the details of mouldings, about which
I have somewhat enlarged—and you will find that the mouldings
which were in use in the south of England during the eleventh,
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were used at
the same time in the east, west and north of England.
The Decorated period (which succeeded the Early English),
extending from 1307 to 1377, was perhaps the purest period of