THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN ESSEX. 183
carried out, and English Gothic then began its downward career,
and from this time until the time of Henry VII. it had entered the
period known as the Perpendicular period.
The general peculiarities of this period are as follows :
1. The general adoption of the square head to doorways, with
four centred arches underneath, the spandrils being filled in with
carving.
2. The window mullions run up perpendicularly into the arches,
hence the name.
3. The piers of arches are very much divided, and sometimes
the first shaft of pier is carried up to receive principal of roof.
4. The openings of window lights are wider than heretofore.
5. The whole front of the building is often panelled, and, in fact,
the windows form a series of glazed panels.
6. The introduction of fan-tracery.
No doubt the architects of this period were impressed with the
importance of dealing architecturally with the whole surface of the
external walls of their buildings. Hitherto the Gothic architects had
been content with dealing with the architecture of the windows and
doors as so many distinct features ; but now the idea seems to have
been to make the windows and doors subordinate to the architecture
of the whole building, until, in Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster,
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and St. George's Chapel, Windsor,
we find that the whole surface of the external, and even internal
walls are enriched with panelling and tracery, and the windows really
become pierced openings in the tracery.
Very beautiful is all this work, but not, in my opinion, so chaste
as that of the time of the Edwards.
Of churches of the Perpendicular period we have several
examples. Amongst the most notable are those of—
1. Saffron Walden Church.
2. Thaxted Church.
3. Coggeshall Church.
4. Chelmsford Church.
5. Dedham Church.
Upon and even previous to the death of Henry VIII., Gothic
architecture had been on the decline, and it had lost its hold for a
time upon the English mind. The irruption of Italian artists had
its effect, and Italian details had been mixed up with Gothic
outlines, so that in effect the architecture of the time extending from
the death of Henry VIII. to the time of James I. had been a mix-