[137-*] In Compton Church, Surrey, is, or until recently was, the remains of a wooden screen of late Norman character. Between the chancel and nave of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire, is an early wooden screen in the style of the thirteenth century: the lower division is of plain panel-work, whilst the upper division consists of a series of open-pointed arches, trefoiled in the heads, and supported by slender cylindrical shafts with moulded bases and capitals, and an annulated moulding encircles each shaft midway up. In Northfleet Church, Kent, is a wooden screen which approximates in general design that at Stanton Harcourt, but is in a more advanced stage of art, being of the Early Decorated style: the lower portion of this is of plain panelling, while the open work forming the upper division above consists of a series of pointed arches, with tracery and foliations in and between the heads, supported by slender cylindrical shafts banded round midway with moulded bases and capitals, and these arches support a horizontal cornice. Specimens of decorated screen-work, some much mutilated, others in a more perfect state, are existing in the churches of King’s Sutton, Northamptonshire; Croperdy, Oxfordshire; Beaudesert, Warwickshire; and in St. John’s Church, Winchester. A characteristic distinction between screen-work of an earlier date than the fifteenth century and screen-work of that period will be found to consist in the slender cylindrical shafts, often annulated, sometimes not, with moulded bases and capitals which pertain to early work of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the mullion-like and angular-edged bars, often faced with small buttresses, which form the principal vertical divisions in screen-work of the fifteenth century. [140-*] This stately monument of private munificence was erected at the sole charges of two brothers, Adam and William Botnor: it was twenty-one years in building, and cost each year 100_l._ [140-†] Though not an ecclesiastical structure, it is here noticed as an example of the style in an early stage. [Illustration: Window, Duffield Church, Derbyshire.] CHAPTER IX. OF THE DEBASED ENGLISH STYLE. Q. When did this style commence, and how long did it prevail or continue? A. It may be said to have commenced about the year 1540, and to have continued to about the middle of the seventeenth century; but it is difficult to assign a precise date either for its introduction or discontinuance. Q. Why is this style called the DEBASED? A. From the general inferiority of design compared with the style it succeeded, from the meagre and clumsy execution of sculptured and other ornamental work, from the intermixture of detail founded on an entirely different school of art, and the consequent subversion of the purity of style. Q. What may be considered as one great cause of this falling off?