+THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.+ Flowing tracery was, however, a transitional phase of design, and was soon superseded by _Perpendicular_ tracery, in which the mullions were carried through to the top of the arch and intersected by horizontal transoms. This formed a very rigid and mechanically correct system of stone framing, but lacked the grace and charm of the two preceding periods. The earliest examples are seen in the work of Edington and of Wykeham in the reconstructed cathedral of Winchester (1360-1394), where the tracery was thus made to harmonize with the accentuated and multiplied vertical lines of the interior design. It was at this late date that the English seem first to have fully appropriated the Gothic ideas of emphasized vertical elements and wall surfaces reduced to a minimum. The development of fan-vaulting had led to the adoption of a new form of arch, the four-centred or _Tudor arch_ (Fig. 133), to fit under the depressed apex of the vault. The whole design internally and externally was thenceforward controlled by the form of the vaulting and of the openings. The windows were made of enormous size, especially at the east end of the choir, which was square in nearly all English churches, and in the west windows over the entrance. These windows had already reached, in the Decorated Period, an enormous size, as at York; in the Perpendicular Period the two ends of the church were as nearly as possible converted into walls of glass. The East Window of Gloucester reaches the prodigious dimensions of 38 by 72 feet. The most complete examples of the Perpendicular tracery and of the style in general are the three chapels already mentioned (p. 223); those, namely, of +King’s College+ at Cambridge, of +St. George+ at Windsor, and of +Henry VII.+ in Westminster Abbey. +CONSTRUCTIVE DESIGN.+ The most striking peculiarity of English Gothic design was its studious avoidance of temerity or venturesomeness in construction. Both the height and width of the nave were kept within very moderate bounds, and the supports were never reduced to extreme slenderness. While much impressiveness of effect was undoubtedly lost thereby, there was some gain in freedom of design, and there was less obtrusion of constructive elements in the exterior composition. The flying-buttress became a feature of minor importance where the clearstory was kept low, as in most English churches. In many cases the flying arches were hidden under the aisle roofs. The English cathedrals and larger churches are long and low, depending for effect mainly upon the projecting masses of their transepts, the imposing square central towers which commonly crown the crossing, and the grouping of the main structure with chapter-houses, cloisters, and Lady-chapels.