nd is remarkable for the profusion of sculptured detail
and combination of round and intersecting arches. In the remains of
Malmesbury Abbey Church a Norman triforium with semicircular arches is
supported on pointed arches which are enriched with Norman mouldings, and
spring from massive cylindrical Norman piers. The interior of Rothwell
Church, Northamptonshire, has much of Semi-Norman character: the aisles
are divided from the nave by four lofty, plain, and triple-faced pointed
arches, with square edges, springing from square piers with attached
semicylindrical shafts on each side, and banded round midway between the
bases and capitals; and the latter, which are enriched with sculptured
foliage, are surmounted by square abaci; the west doorway is also of
Semi-Norman character, and pointed, and is set within a projecting mass of
masonry resembling the shallow Norman buttress. The circular part of St.
Sepulchre's Church, Northampton, has early pointed arches, plain in
design, springing from Norman cylindrical piers. In the circular part of
the Temple Church, London, dedicated A. D. 1185, the piers consist of four
clustered columns banded round midway between the bases and capitals, and
approximating the Early English style of the thirteenth century; and these
support pointed arches, over which and continued round the clerestory wall
is an arcade of intersecting semicircular arches, and above these are
round-headed windows.

[Illustration: Semi-Norman Window, Oxford Cathedral.]

Q. What particular specimen of the Semi-Norman style has been noticed by
any cotemporaneous author, and the date of it clearly defined?

A. The eastern part of Canterbury Cathedral, consisting of Trinity Chapel
and the circular adjunct called Becket's Crown. The building of these
commenced the year following the fire which occurred A. D. 1174, and was
carried on without intermission for several successive years. Gervase, a
monk of the cathedral, and an eyewitness of this re-edification, wrote a
long and detailed description of the work in progress, and a comparison
between that and the more ancient structure which was burnt; he does not,
however, notice in any clear and precise terms the general adoption of the
pointed arch and partial disuse of the round arch in the new building,
from which we may perhaps infer they were at that period indifferently
used, or rather that the pointed arch was gradually gaining the
ascendancy[83-*].

Q. How long