about The Elizabethan, or First Period 1547-1620. The Anglo-Classic, or Second Period 1620-1702. The Anglo-Classic, or Third Period 1702-1800. The Revival of Gothic Architecture in England. 1800. Characteristics ANGLO-SAXON.--Anglo-Saxon may be briefly summed up as an inferior style of Romanesque, more especially the latter part, when it was considered necessary to build in imitation of the Roman way. In the early years of this period the advantages of stone, due to inconvenience of its carriage or lack of skill, were not widely known in England. For the most part the buildings were composed of wood with a thatched roof. Though it is true several buildings were also constructed of stone, and glass was used, yet it was only with advanced knowledge, introduced by Continental workmen, who came over in the seventh century, that architecture approached anything like a definite style. It reached this stage just a few years before the Norman Conquest. The arches were usually plain, and always semi-circular. The columns were cylindrical, hexagonal, or octagonal, and thick in proportion to their height. The towers, as a rule, were square, and not very lofty. They were strongly but crudely worked, strip pilasters, _i. e._, slender columns, being introduced. Circular-headed openings served as upper windows of these towers. They were divided into two lights by rounded balusters, sometimes with caps heavily projected. _Norman_.--The Norman churches were mostly cruciform in plan, with a central tower. The east end was frequently terminated by an apse. Vast columns, either circular, octagonal, or simply clustered, separated the aisles from the naves. The arches were chiefly semi-circular, the round arch being used everywhere for ornament. The Norman towers are also generally square, with a somewhat stunted appearance. Many have no buttresses whatever, whilst others are served with broad, flat, shallow projections, which assert themselves more for show than for utility. The reason for this is that the Normans built their buildings with walls immensely thick with an eye to stability. The heavy appearance of their towers is cleverly relieved by the introduction of arcades around them, as at St. Albans, and occasionally richly ornamented, as shown at Norwich and Winchester. At one of the angles there is frequently a stone staircase. The upper windows of these towers differ little from the Anglo-Saxon, except in that the two lights are separated by a shaft or short column in place of the rounded baluster. The Norman doorways are a great feature. They are generally adorned with a series of columns with enriched arch mouldings spanning from capital to capital.