Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/174

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144 Architecture in Great Britain. sculpture of the earlier part of the period. The more extensive use of panelling was another characteristic, the walls of Tudor chapels being almost entirely covered with it. Fan- tracery vaulting was extensively employed, and in many cases clusters of pendent ornaments resembling stalactites mark the intersections of the ribbing. The doorways are extremely elaborate, and often form the finest portion of the work. That of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, is an excellent example. The ecclesiastical edifices of this age are not numerous, and it is in the domestic buildings, such as palaces and castles, that the style can be best studied. Large sums were expended by the nobility on their private residences. Henry VII. built a handsome palace at Shene, in Surrey, to which he gave the name of Richmond, retained by the town which grew up round it, although not a trace of the building itself remains. It was in this palace that the bay window (i. e. a projecting window rising from the ground) was first extensively used. In the time of Henry VIII., before the close of the style and the commencement of the Renaissance, the greater number of Tudor palaces were erected. One of the finest existing examples is Hampton Court Palace, built by Cardinal Wolsey. It consists of three quadrangles, and has a square tower at the entrance, flanked by an octagonal turret at each angle. The gateway is pierced through this tower, and is formed by an obtuse arch with oriel windows {%. e. win- dows projecting beyond the front of a building and supported by a corbel from the masonry of the wall). A battlement of open tracery crowns the wall. The buildings on the right and left of the tower have been modernized, but at each end is one of the original gables,