the
sides truncated, reducing the upper part to a square; sometimes the
lower part is cut into round mouldings and ornamented, but it is
frequently left plain. The Norman capital in its earliest style was of
short proportions, but afterwards it became longer, with lighter
ornamentation, gradually merging into the Early English.

[Illustration: A Curious Norman Capital. Seaford, Sussex.]

The bishops and abbots of this period appear to have possessed
considerable skill in architecture, for no fewer than fifteen of our
English cathedrals contain some important Norman work, as the older
portions of the cathedrals of Canterbury, Durham, Winchester,
Gloucester, Peterborough, Ely, Norwich, Lincoln and Oxford.

[Side note: Norman Buttresses.]

The Norman buttress, better described by Mr. Sharpe as a pilaster strip,
unlike those of the later period, projects but very little from the
wall, and this is especially so in buildings of the earlier part of the
period. They are usually quite plain and are more used for finish than
actual support; the Norman builder relying principally upon the thickness
and weight of his walls to sustain any roof thrust (_see page 17_).

[Side note: The Round Churches.]

There are in England a few round churches which are thought to have been
built by the Knights Templars, a religious community banded together for
the purpose of wresting the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem from the
Saracens. Their object was to defend the Saviour's tomb and to guard
Palestine, for which purpose they built numerous monasteries throughout
the Holy Land and fortified them like castles.

Another famous order which combined the religious instincts of the
cloister with the military ardour of the warrior was that of the Knights
of S. John Baptist or Knights Hospitallers, who, besides fighting, were
to tend the sick and provide for the welfare of all Christian travellers.
The churches belonging to the Templars were usually built in circular
form in imitation of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. They
were capped with vaulted concave roofs said to be symbolical of the
vast circuit and concave of the heavens. Our best example is the Temple
Church, London, to which was added at a later period, a beautiful Early
English Gothic extension. Other round churches are those of S. Sepulchre,
Cambridge; S. Sepulchre, Northampton; Temple Balsall, Warwickshire, and
of Little Maplestead, Essex, which last, although the sma