Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/203

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Bk. VI. Ch. III.
187

Es. VI. Cii, III. DETAILS. 187 any exigency of stone construction; but it displays all that freedom of form and richness of carving that might easily arise from the employment of timber. The same remarks apply, though in a less degree, to the ISTorman gateway at Bristol (Woodcut No. (518) ; Avhich may be regarded as a typical specimen of the style — sober, and constructive, yet rich — without a vestige of animal life, but with such forms as an ivory or wood carver might easily invent, and would certainly adopt. 619. CapiUlb, etc., of Dooiway leading to the Cliou Aisles, Lincoln. (Catli. Hb.) The great defect of such a style of decoration as this was its extreme elaboration. It was almost impossible to carry out a large building, every part of which should be worked up to the same keynote as this; and, if it had been done, it would have been felt that the effect was not commensurate with the labor bestowed upon it. What the architects therefore set to work to invent was some mode of decoration which should be effective with a less expenditure of labor. This they soon discovered in the deep-cut mouldings of the Gothic arch, with the occasional intermixture of the dog-tooth moulding (as in the nave at Lichfield, Woodcut No. 576), Avhich was one of the earliest and most effective discoveries of the 13th century.