[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH PIERS AND CAPITALS (1) Salisbury Cathedral (2) Lincoln Cathedral]
Then arose the Early English style of architecture which flourished from about the year 1175 to 1275, and is characterised by a gradual abandonment of the heavy and massive features of the Norman style, and the adoption of lighter and more elegant forms of construction and decoration. Salisbury Cathedral, erected 1220-1260 A.D., is the most perfect example of this period. The arches are pointed, and the piers supporting them are often composed of an insulated cylindrical column surrounded by slender detached shafts, all uniting together under one capital, and divided into parts by horizontal bands. In small churches plain octagonal or circular piers are frequently used, as in the succeeding style, from which they can only be distinguished by the mouldings. Mouldings are often the surest guides in helping us to ascertain the date of a building. We have already studied the Norman mouldings. In this style they are composed of bold rounds and deep hollows, usually plain, or ornamented with the dog-tooth.
[Illustration: TOOTH OR DOG-TOOTH ORNAMENT]
The lancet window is now introduced, at first of only one light, very narrow and long, and differing from the Norman window in having a pointed arch. At the east end of the chancel there are often three lancet windows, the centre one higher than the rest, with one dripstone over them. The first idea of window-tracery was the introduction of a plain lozenge-shaped opening over a double lancet window, the whole being covered by a single dripstone. From this simple arrangement it was not difficult to develop the beautiful bar-tracery which came into vogue in the subsequent period of English architecture. The capitals of the Early English style are bell-shaped, at first quite plain, but subsequently these are often covered with beautifully sculptured foliage of a very graceful character. Circular windows at this period came into vogue in the gables of churches. They were either plain or quatre-foiled. Norman towers were sometimes capped with spires in the thirteenth century. The walls are not so thick or massive as in the Norman period, and the buttresses are stouter and more numerous, and project further from the wall. Flying buttresses were also introduced at this period. We can generally distinguish Early English work from that of the Norman style by its lightness and elegance, as compared with the roughness and massiveness of the latter; and its plainness and simplicity sufficiently distinguish it from that of the Decorated period.