Early English

(Arch.) The first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England. It succeeded the Norman towards the end of the 12th cent., and gradually merged into the Decorated at the end of the 13th. Retaining much of the strength and solidity of the earlier style, it exhibited the graceful forms (Fig. 287), without the redundancy of ornament which latterly degenerated into a fault in that which followed. [s. 311]