One Bay of the “Angel Choir,” Interior, Lincoln Cathedraldetails

Gradually—nay, rapidly, in less than a century—the Lancet-Pointed [architectural style] gave way to the full-blown Gothic style, which in England is commonly but not very sensibly called the Decorated style. Window-traceries were now developed, passing through successive stages as “plate” and “geometrical” and “flowing”: and the sculptor went more directly to nature for the more varied patterns of his leafage. Now the scheme of the island [UK] resembled that of his foreign brother. But his peculiar ground-plan persisted, and in certain important respects he was still conspicuously himself. (pp. 13-14)