ted, continued
without any striking alteration till about the latter part of the twelfth
century, when a singular change began to take place: this was no other
than the introduction of the pointed arch, the origin of which has never
yet been satisfactorily explained, or the precise period clearly
ascertained in which it first appeared; but as the lightness and
simplicity of design to which the Early Pointed style was found to be
afterwards convertible was in its incipient state unknown, it retained to
the close of the twelfth century the heavy concomitants of the
semicircular arch, with which indeed it was often intermixed: and from
such intermixture it may be designated the SEMI or MIXED NORMAN.

When the original Norman style of building was first broken through, by
the introduction of the pointed arch, which was often formed by the
intersection of semicircular arches, the facing of it, or architrave, was
often ornamented with the zig-zag, billet, and other mouldings, in the
same manner as the Norman semicircular arches: it also rested on round
massive piers, and still retained many other features of Norman
architecture. But from the time of its introduction to the close of the
twelfth century, the pointed arch was gradually struggling with the
semicircular arch for the mastery, and with success; for from the
commencement of the thirteenth century, as nearly as can be ascertained,
the style of building with semicircular arches was, with very few
exceptions, altogether discarded, and superseded by its more elegant
rival.

[Illustration: Canterbury Cathedral.]

The mode of building with semicircular arches, massive piers, and thick
walls with broad pilaster buttresses, was now laid aside; and the pointed
arch, supported by more slender piers, with walls strengthened with
graduating buttresses, of less width but of greater projection, were
universally substituted in their stead. The windows, one of the most
apparent marks of distinction, were at first long, narrow, and
lancet-shaped: the heavy Norman ornaments, the zig-zag and other mouldings
peculiar to the Norman and Semi-Norman styles, were now discarded; yet we
often meet with certain decorative ornaments, as the tooth ornament,
which, though sometimes found in late Norman work, is almost peculiar to
the Early Pointed style; also the ball-flower, prevalent both in this and
the style of the succeeding century. Many church towers were also capped
with spires, which