SPLAY The slanting or sloped surface of a window opening in the thickness of the wall, also of doorways, etc.; the term is also applied to bevels and other sloped surfaces. SPRINGER See Voussoir. SQUINT An oblique opening or slit in the wall of a church, for the purpose of enabling persons in the aisles or transepts to see the elevation of the Host at the High Altar. They are mostly found on the sides of the chancel arch, and are frequently called _hagioscopes_. STOUP A vessel for consecrated water, at or near the entrance to a church. STRING or STRING COURSE. A horizontal projecting band of stone in the wall of a building. STRUT See Brace. TOOTH ORNAMENT An ornament used almost exclusively in the E.E. style, resembling a square four-leaved flower, and thought to be based on the dog-tooth violet. TRANSOM A horizontal cross-bar in a panel or window. TRACERY The ornamental stonework in the upper part of a window; when formed by the mullions it is called bar tracery and when the spandrel is pierced, plate tracery. Also used largely on tombs, screens, doorways, etc. TRANSEPTS The projecting arms of a cruciform church, often wrongly called "cross-aisles." TRANSITION A term used to describe the process of change from one style of architecture to another. The three great periods of transition are from the Romanesque and Norman to the Early English; the Early English to the Decorated, and the Decorated to the Perpendicular. TREFOIL An ornamental foliation in the heads of windows, panels, etc., in which the spaces formed by the cusps resemble three leaves. TRIFORIUM or Blind-Storey. An open gallery or arcade without windows immediately above the pier arcade and under the roof of the aisle. TYMPANUM The space between the top of a square-headed door and the arch above it; frequently sculptured. VAULT Roofing of stone constructed on the principle of the arch, the intersections of which are termed groins and are in the pointed styles usually ribbed. VAULTING SHAFTS Small shafts sometimes rising from the floor, sometimes from the capital of a pillar and sometimes from a corbel, and intended as supports for the ribs of a vault. VESICA PISCIS An oval shape or figure formed by two equal circles cutting each other in their centres. Very commonly found on episcopal and monastic seals.