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   The second period of the pointed architecture commenced and terminated
in  the   fourteenth  century.    It was    at  this  time,  according  to
 the
opinion of the most eminent architects and architectural writers, that the
Gothic received its highest degree of improvement, so that it has been
frequently called the classic age.  The works of this period are distinguished
by a greater richness and exuberance than the style they superseded, without
that profusion of ornament which      characterised the period   that followed.
The decorated English, or according to the classification proposed by Mr.
Britton, the triangular-arched order of pointed architecture, may be distin-
guished generally by the form     of the arch, which "admitted of an
equi-
lateral triangle being precisely inscribed between the crowning point of
the
arch and its points of springing at the imposts."     The buttresses
are deco-
rated, each set-off, as it gradually diminishes in height, being formed with
a
pediment appropriately ornamented, the face being enriched with blank tracery
in panels, or niches.    In the specimens of the earlier style the buttresses
were probably used from a conviction of their necessity; but in this, from
a
consideration of their propriety as elegant ornaments. The parapets were
either embattled or pierced, and the same variety of design was adopted in
the construction of pediments.   All the various features of the style, indeed,
were more light and elegant.      The pillars were made more slender, and
grouped in greater number.      The mouldings of the arches were peculiarly
beautiful; and those which formed the openings of windows and niches
were decorated with crockets.
   The interior of Exeter Cathedral is one of the finest specimens of the
decorated English style, and from the great uniformity of the nave and aisle
cannot fail to strike the attention of the observer as a most elegant and
complete example.    The remains of Elgin Cathedral and Melrose Abbey are
also spoken of as excellent examples.
   "From   the end of the fourteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth
cen-
 tury," says an excellent encyclop~edist," another change took
place in the
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