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extent to which these distinctive peculiarities ofdetail exist, will perhaps at first scarcely he cre-dited, and proofs of a much more extensive andsatisfactory character than are contained in thefollowing pages, or could be looked for in an ele-mentary work of this nature, will probably berequired before its title to separate classificationwill be universally conceded.

As regards the later of these classes, the samedifficulty does not exist. Mr. Rickman dividedthe whole of the buildings of Pointed Architectureinto three Styles or Classes, which he denominated‘ ‘ Early English , ” “ Decorated, ” “ Perpendicular. ’ ’The titles of the two last he professed to derive fromthe cliai’acterof their windows, conceiving, no doubtjustly, that no part of a Gothic building exhibitspeculiarities of Style in so prominent and charac-teristic a manner as its windows. In strict accord-ance with this rule, which may be assumed to bea correct and valuable one, it has already beenshown,* that had Mr. Rickman gone a step fur-ther and classed the w 7 hole of the buildings ofPointed Architecture according to the forms oftheir Windows under four heads, instead of three,he would have obtained a classification equallysimple, but more intelligible and convenient; hewould have obviated much that is confused andindefinite, and therefore perplexing to the Archi-tectural Student, in his description of buildings

* “ Treatise on the Rise and Progress of Window Tracery,” by E.Sharpe, M.A. Van Voorst, London .