Towards the end of the Romanesque period very great attention began to be paid to the sections of base mouldings, and in transitional works they are often more beautiful than at any other period. The difference between these bases and the ordinary Attic base is of the same kind which distinguishes Greek from Roman moulding. It is an extreme delicacy of curve, the substitution of elliptical sections for circular, and a wonderfully studious grouping of the hollows, rounds, and arrises, so as to produce a refined and delicate contrast and gradation of light and shade, without destroying the strength necessary to the main supporting feature. In this they showed a high appreciation of what is in all architecture a difficult problem--the uniting the conflicting claims of the lower part of a building, as on the one hand demanding the greatest strength of character as supporting the whole structure, and on the other a delicate finish, as the part open to the closest inspection. The bases have usually one more part than a Classic base, having in most cases a projecting sub-plinth, either chamfered or moulded. In earlier instances the plinth and sub-plinth are both square in plan; and here, again, we obtain a feature of great beauty which antique architecture did not possess. I mean the beautiful leaves or bosses of foliage which spring out of the lower torus to cover the projecting angles of the plinth. [Illustration: Fig. 90.--Veselay.] [Illustration: Fig. 91.--Westminster.] This projection is often reduced by making the torus overhang the square plinth in the centre of its sides, and a little projecting corbel is often put to carry this overhanging, as well as the leaf to cover the angles of the plinth. At a later period the square plinth gave way to the octagonal, and in England and Normandy often to the round form. In early work the bases often faced about diagonally as the caps, to indicate the direction of the arch-ribs to be supported.[37] In France the elliptical section of the lower torus continued much longer than in England, and the upper torus was often converted into a kind of ogee, and both in France and England the scotia was usually very narrow and deep--so much so, indeed, as to hold water. In England another kind of base is frequent, in which a bead is substituted for the scotia. [Illustration: Figs. 92, 93. Westminster Abbey.] In some rich work the plinth is clothed with foliage.