Note 12 — Chapter VIII · CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES OF THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES

This is a very summary way of dismissing the vexed question of French influence upon English architecture. The undeniable fact that wherever a French architect can be identified as the author of an English building—William of Sens at Canterbury, for instance—the work he did differs entirely in character from contemporary English work is enough to refute much of the claim made for France. The principles of Gothic architecture were the common property of the two countries, and by each were developed according to their lights.—Ed.