Westminster Chapel, in addition to the characteristic fan-tracery roof already referred to, has an exceptionally beautiful chevet with five apsidal chapels, a finely vaulted nave, aisles, and cloisters, in which Decorated and Perpendicular details are harmoniously combined. King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and St. George's, Windsor, are both entirely in the Perpendicular style, whilst the Scotch examples quoted above are specially noticeable for the contrast their massive pillars and arcades present to the airy lightness of their vaulting.
Less important Perpendicular ecclesiastical buildings are the parish churches of Blakeney and Cley in Norfolk, the former with a specially fine east window, the latter unfortunately almost in ruins, but notable on account of the beauty of the decorative carving; the parish church of Fairford, Gloucestershire, the stained glass windows of which are amongst the finest in England; and Christ Church College, Oxford, in which town, by the way, Gothic traditions lingered longer than anywhere else in England.
Notable secular buildings in the latest phase of English Gothic are Westminster Hall, and the earlier portions of Hampton Court Palace, whilst Longleat Palace, Wiltshire, and Christ Church Hall, Oxford, with a fine open timber roof, are good examples of the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance styles, the general plans belonging to the former and the decorative details being Italian in feeling.
The term Renaissance, signifying revival, has been given to the style which succeeded the Gothic. It was, to a great extent, a reversion to classic ideals modified to suit modern requirements. Its leading characteristics are simplicity of plan, symmetry of proportion, and massive grandeur of general effect, a minor peculiarity being the lavish use of plaster, not only for surface decoration, but also in some cases for the actual structure of such details as cornices, &c.
[Illustration: Example of Renaissance Ornament]
The Renaissance style was inaugurated in Italy, where, as already stated, the Gothic never took root, and spread thence to the other countries of Europe, assuming in each country a certain distinctive character of its own in harmony with its environment. In Italian Renaissance ecclesiastical architecture the old basilican plan was revived, the dome became again, as in ancient Rome, the crowning glory of the building, and was combined with horizontal entablatures upheld by columns, with capitals of one or another of the Greek orders, and porticoes with pediments. In secular Italian Renaissance a very notable feature is the central cortile or courtyard surrounded by open arcades, above which are the principal apartments, of style corresponding with that of the arcades, the round-headed windows being divided from each other by slender pilasters, and the spandrels above them filled in with sculptured ornamentation. The principal façade of Italian palaces was especially ornate, richly decorated courses of stone dividing the stories from each other, in which the fenestration or grouping of the windows was peculiarly effective.