In England we may say that there was no ante Norman style whatever; at least all her alleged Saxon remains present nothing which could stand for a moment against a style that might lay claim to the slightest portion of artistic merit. At the beginning of the twelfth century the foreign style had become to a great extent naturalized, and assumed a separate existence. This is well exemplified in what remains of Lanfranc's building at Canterbury, and that of Walkelyn at Winchester. In these, and in the work of Gundulph at Rochester, there is scarcely any difference from the continental Norman except what may be ascribed to the inexperience of the workmen employed. Half a century earlier, the Germans fell under French influence and remained copyists to the end. The English, on the contrary, soon gained sufficient familiarity with the style to enable them to assert their independence, and become inventors of new and original forms of the finest architecture of that or any other age. The pointed arch was introduced at the rebuilding of the cathedral at Canterbury after the fire of 1174, by the architect William of Sens. But for a long time afterward the innovation was resisted by the English, and even down to the year 1200 the round arch was currently employed in conjunction with the pointed. But it then gave way, and for three centuries subsequently was entirely banished from both sacred and civil architecture. The first great cathedral built in the new style throughout was Salisbury, begun in 1220 and finished essentially in 1258. When complete, its internal effect must have been extremely beautiful; far more so than that of its cotemporary and great rival at Amiens. Westminster Abbey was commenced twenty-five years later, and is evidently more imitative of the French style. Lincoln was finished about the year 1282, and is a beautiful specimen of the true Edwardian style of perfected English art. These are chiefly of the earliest period, or _lancet_ style. The great storehouse of the second type, or _decorated_ architecture is Exeter cathedral finished in the year 1330. Of the third period, or _perpendicular_, the nave of Winchester is the source and model of all. It was invented by the archbishop William of Wykeham, who with the vigor and strength of the grandest Norman architecture combined all the elegant symmetry of the purest pointed style. This was consummated in the year 1400. Now what is worthy of special notice is the fact that the three masterpieces of their respective types, the only ones that ever existed, or perhaps ever will, are in the three most western counties of England. From the tenth to the fifteenth century, there was a continuous series of buildings, one succeeding the other in the outgrowth of the same principle, and the last containing not only all the improvements previously introduced, but contributing something new itself toward perfecting a style which occupied the serious attention of all exalted