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ESSAYS 
 
 ON 
 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. T. WARTON, 
 REV. J. BENTHAM, 
 CAPTAIN GROSE, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REV. J. MILNER. 
 
 (TnTH A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER.J 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 
 
 TEN PLATES OF ORNAMENTS, &c. 
 
 •ELECTED FROM 
 
 StncCent BuOtiinp; 
 
 CALCULATED 
 
 To exhibit the various Styles of different Periods. 
 
 •Et nos aliquod nomeaque decufque 
 
 Geffimus— Virgil, ^n. Hi. it. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by S. Gosnell, Little Queen Street, Holborn, 
 
 FOR J. TAYLOR, AT THE ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY, 
 HIGH HOLBORN. 
 
 1800. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 i UBLIC approbation having rendered a Second 
 Edition of thefc ElTays neceflary, the opportu- 
 nity has been embraced of rendering the volume 
 further interefling and ufeful, by the addition of 
 two new plates, and the dimenfions of all the 
 Cathedrals in England. Of the plates, one is 
 an interior view of Durham cathedral, from a 
 drawing by Mr. Turner ; the other, of Well- 
 minfler Abbey, from a drawing by Mr. Barrow. 
 The points of view here fhown are intended to 
 exhibit the difference of chara(5ter and effed:, of 
 
 a the 
 
 79959 
 
*iv ADVERTISEMENT TO 
 
 the circular and of the pointed ilyles of ancient 
 Enghlh architecture. 
 
 Durham cathedral is juftly confidered one of 
 the beft and purefl fpecimens of the early, 
 circular, or Saxon ftyle. This view, taken . 
 from near the weft entrance, looking down the 
 nave towards the eaft, exhibits an interefting 
 fpecimen of circular arches fpringing from maf-^ 
 five round pillars, decorated with appropriate 
 ornaments, the zig-zag, billet, 6cc, 
 
 The view in Weftminfter Abbey is taken from 
 near the principal entrance into the choir, look- 
 ing up the great ifle or nave; and ihows the 
 lightnefs of highly-pointed arches, fpringing 
 from flender cluftered columns, from which 
 iffue mouldings and ribs fancifully fpreading 
 over the adjoining parts and the vault of the 
 roof. A view is alfo given of the elegant tracery 
 and magnificence of the great weftern window, 
 
 An attentive infpecStion and comparifon of 
 thefe prints will give a pretty clear and accurate 
 
 idea 
 
THE SECOND EDITION. *V 
 
 idea of the two ftyles, in which confift the dif- 
 tinguifhing charaders of our ancient architec- 
 ture. 
 
 The meafurements of the Cathedrals, it is 
 prefumed, will be particularly acceptable ; their 
 real or comparative magnitude is very intereft- 
 ing, and is clofely connected with our ideas of 
 the grand and fublime : I know of no book in 
 which the fame can be found entire. For eafe 
 of confulting, they are arranged alphabetically j 
 and every endeavour has been ufed to be accurate 
 in the dimeniions, which have been taken prin- 
 cipally from Vi^illis's Survey of the Cathedrals, 
 and the Mitred Abbies : however, every fub- 
 fequent authority has been examined, and every 
 poflible inquiry amongfl: an extenfive acquaint- 
 ance has been exercifed j fo that it is prefumed 
 the meafurements may be relied upon with con- 
 iiderable certainty, and from which the abfolute 
 or comparative magnitude of any of our Cathe- 
 drals may eafily be known. 
 
 The 
 
*vi ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The regular Cathedrals only of England arc 
 noticed in this lift, with the exception of Weft- 
 minfter Abbey, which, for its elegance and 
 magnitude, it would have been unjuft to have 
 omitted ; if needful, it may be pleaded it was 
 once numbered among our Cathedrals. The 
 dimenfionsof old St. Paul's, London, are added, 
 from Dugdale, as highly curious, and without 
 which the fubjedl would not have been com*» 
 plete. 
 
 PREFACE* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 X HE want of a concife hillorical account of 
 Gothic architedure has been a jufl caufe of 
 complaint : the fubje<fl is peculiarly interefting 
 to every Englifhman, as his country contains 
 the beft fpecimens of a flyle of building not 
 unequal in grace, beauty, and ornament, to 
 the mofl celebrated remains of Greece or 
 Rome. This ftyle of architedure may pro- 
 perly oe called Englifli architedure, for if it 
 had not its origin in this country, it certainly 
 arrived at maturity here ; the fcience and tafte 
 of our forefathers being equally confpicuous 
 with their piety and liberality. On this fub- 
 je6l, England mufl be confidered as a country, 
 for it was under the Saxon dynafty this ftyle of 
 building was introduced, and under the Nor- 
 man dynafty it received its ultimate degree of 
 beauty and perfed:ion. 
 
 To remedy this want of a convenient manual 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 on this interefting fubjed, it appeared beft to 
 collec!!: what had been already faid by feveral 
 authors of celebrity, in detached works, and 
 which had been received as authorities. In 
 this view, the Rev. Mr. Bentham\ EiTay on 
 Saxon and Norman archite(5lure, in his ela- 
 borate Hiflory of Ely Cathedral, ftood foremoft 
 for fele(5tion, arrangement, and accurate dif- 
 crimination of hiftorical fadls : next to this. 
 Captain Grofe^s Preface on Archite(5ture to his 
 Antiquities of England is to be valued ; which, 
 although founded in a great degree on Mr. 
 Bentham*s opinions, yet contains fome new 
 points and authorities ; in particular, his co- 
 pious notes will be found very interefling, and 
 containing nearly all that has been faid by Sir 
 Chrijlopher Wren on the fubjecfl:, which, being 
 difperfed through many pages of the Parentalia, 
 could not be given as a regular narrative. The 
 concife hiflory by ProfefTor Warton^ in his 
 notes on Spenfer's Fairy Queen, has received 
 too much applaufe to be negledled j his words, 
 though few, are important on the fubjedt. To 
 thefe the liberality of the Rev. Mr. Milner has 
 allowed me to add, for the gratification of the 
 
 public. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 public, the Hiftory of the origin andprogrefs of 
 the pointed arch, lately publiflied by that gen- 
 tleman, in his learned work on the Hiftory and 
 Antiquities of Winchefter. He alfo has been 
 pleafed to fuperintend the feledling of the feries 
 of examples on Plates VIII. IX. and X. which 
 tend ftrongly to corroborate the opinions he 
 maintains. 
 
 This gentleman has further been pleafed to 
 addrefs to me an important letter, which is 
 given in this volume, in which the inquiring 
 antiquary will find many hints worthy his de- 
 liberate attention, refpeding an accurate claf- 
 lification of ftyles, characSters, and fads, whereby 
 to afcertain dates, and on which principle only 
 can be accomplifhed that great defideratum, 
 the adopting fuch terms and definitions as fhall 
 be applicable to the feveral charadlers, and 
 which confequently may become of univerfal 
 acceptance and ufage. The anxious inquirer 
 alfo is kindly guarded againfl certain errors 
 which elfe he may be led into, in perufing the 
 productions of the feveral celebrated pens now 
 laid before him. 
 
 Thefe Eflays are arranged according to the 
 
 priority 
 
Vlil PREFACE* 
 
 facred edifices : the more appropriate terms, I 
 conceive, would be, to call that fpecies of it 
 diilinguifhed by the circular arch, Saxon y and 
 that diflinguifhed by the pointed arch, Nor?nan ; 
 for under the guidance of thefe nations did each 
 principally difplay its grandeur and peculiarities. 
 Mr. Milner has endeavoured with fome ikill to 
 afcertain this point. There naturally will be 
 much blending of characters in the period, 
 before one ftyle had completely taken the place 
 of the other. 
 
 Having no defire to fhine in borrowed 
 plumes, it is neceffary to fay the fubjeds of 
 the firft fix plates are chiefly fele(5ted from the 
 delineations by Mr. Wilkins of Cambridge, as 
 given by the learned Society of Antiquaries, in 
 the I2th volume of their Archaeologia : of the 
 accuracy of thefe reprefentations I have no 
 doubt, and being taken from really ancient 
 examples, they appear better calculated to con- 
 vey corred: ideas of the feveral ornaments and 
 parts charadleriflic of the different periods and 
 ftyles, than any inventions pofTibly could bej 
 befides which, they are reprefentations of fo 
 many exifling fpecimens of antiquity, often 
 
 exhibiting 
 
 ^ 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 exhihiring much more than the mere part 
 rC'^erreJ to. The print of Bigod's tower is 
 given to fhow entire a beautiful example of 
 the ancient circular arch, or Saxon ftyle, and 
 that of the tower of York cathedral, to (how, 
 in contraft, a beautiful example of the more 
 modern pointed arch, or Norman flyle. 
 
 It may be of ufe to obferve, that whoever 
 wifhes to fee a large afTortment of both Saxon 
 and Norman ornaments will have much plea- 
 fure in examining the volume of Archaeologia, 
 whence thefe were taken. Many alfo of the 
 buildings referred to as authorities in the fol- 
 lowing EfTays may be found delineated in Mr. 
 Carter's publication on the ancient archite(5lure 
 of England ; a work of great refearch and induf- 
 try, in which the fkill and tafte of our ancient 
 builders will be handed down to pofterity in 
 defiance of the deftroying hands of time, or 
 modern innovators. The elegant plates of the 
 Ornaments of York Cathedral, by Mr. Half- 
 penny, afford a great variety of curious and 
 elegant examples of ornaments in the florid 
 ftyle, accurately difplayed, and fele(5led with 
 tafte. Of the fame kind is the work of Spe- 
 
 b cimens 
 
X PREFACE, 
 
 cimens of Gothic Ornaments, felecfled from 
 the Church of Lavenham in Suffolk. Mr. 
 Murphy's publication of the Plans, Eleva- 
 tions, &c. of the Monaftery of Batalha in 
 Portugal, will afford many accurate and inte- 
 refting examples, and much important informa- 
 tion to the inquiring antiquary. 
 
 The feledtion here prefented, it is hoped, 
 will be found fully fufficient to illuftrate the 
 fubjecSt, and give clear ideas of the parts and 
 their peculiarities, as referred to by the feveral 
 writers. Thus, with an ordinary degree of 
 attention, it is hoped every perfon may obtain 
 clear notions on this fubjed:, who perhaps 
 would not have bought, or even examined, the 
 bulky and coftly works whence this little vo- 
 lume has been extracted ; if ioy it may be 
 hoped the mite of labour will not have been 
 bcflowed in vain. 
 "^ J. T. 
 
 OBSERV- 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 ne Means nccejfary for further illufrati?7g the 
 ecclefiaflical ArchiteBure of the middle Ages ^ 
 
 IN A LETTER FROM THE 
 
 Rev. JOHN MILNER, M.A.F.S.A. to Mr. TAYLOR. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I CONGRATULATE the Public on your at- 
 tempt to elucidate the architedure of the middle 
 ages, by the collection of ElTays which you are 
 about to publifh on this fubjed: ; and 1 cannot 
 refrain from pointing out to thofe antiquaries, 
 who, like myfelf, delight in this branch of their 
 fcience, certain matters, which feem to me par- 
 ticularly deferving of their attention, for pro- 
 moting its progrefs, for fixing it on clear and 
 fure principles, and for furnifhing artifts with 
 rules to go by when conftrucfling and repairing 
 works in the ftyle in queftion. 
 
 The firft requilite for the better illuflration 
 of this fubjecft is, that thofe perfons who treat 
 of it fliould come to a right underftanding, and 
 agree in the ufe of the fame terms for convey- 
 
 b 2 ing 
 
Xii REV. J. MILNER S 
 
 ing the fame ideas relative to it. In proof of 
 the confufion which ftill prevails on this fub- 
 jed: among men who are moft converfant with 
 it, I may refer to thefe EfTays, in one of which 
 the celebrated cathedral of Saliibury is declared 
 to be, not properly a Gothic flrudiure*, while 
 in two others it is as pofitively afferted to be 
 entirely Gothic ^ Again, one of thefe eminent 
 authors teftifies, that *' fome writers call all 
 our ancient architecture, without any diftind:ion 
 of round or pointed arches, Gothic; though 
 of late," he adds, *' the fafliion has been to 
 apply the term folely to the latter ^" The other 
 has much the fame obfervation'^ and they both 
 agree in condemning the opprobrious term Go- 
 thic^ as applied to that *' light, neat, and ele- 
 gant form of building, with arches pointed, 
 and pillars fmall and ilender''," which, in fad:, 
 was not invented until about 600 years after 
 
 " '' The ftyle which fucceeded to this (the Saxon) was 
 not the abfolute Gothic, or Gothic fimply {o called, but a 
 fort of Gothic Saxon, in which the pure Saxon began to re- 
 ceive fome tinfilure of the Saracen fafliion. — In this flyle is 
 Saliflaury cathedral." Warton's Eflay, p. 4, 5. 
 
 ^ '' The cathedral of Salifbury confifts entirely of that 
 Ilyle which is now called (though I think improperly) 
 Gothic." Bentham's ElTay, p. 73. " The prefent cathe- 
 dral of Salifbury is entirely in the Gothic ftyle." Grofe's 
 Effay, p. 116. 
 
 * Bentham's Effay, p. 74, 75. 
 
 ^ Grofe's Effay, p. 95. 
 
 ' Benlham, p. 73, 74. 
 
 the 
 
LETTER. XIU 
 
 the Goths difappeared from the theatre of the 
 world. Finally, they all defcribe the Saxon 
 and the Norman ftyles as agreeing in their form 
 and differing only in their dimenfions^; whereas 
 fome ingenious and refpecflable writers of the 
 prefent day, by way of exploding the term 
 Gothic, make life of the word 'Norma?!, to fig- 
 nify the pointed flyle ; the confequence of which 
 muft be, a certain degree of confufion not only 
 among readers, but among writers alfo, while 
 a term that fo frequently occurs is ufed in a 
 contradiftinguifhed fenfe from that which thefe 
 eminent writers feem to have affixed to it. My 
 prefent objed, Sir, is merely to fuggeft the 
 neceffity of an agreement in the ufe of fci- 
 entific language, and not to dictate the condi- 
 tions. However, I cannot help faying, that 
 when 1 fpeak of the Saxon and Norman man- 
 ner, and when I call the elegant flyle which is 
 improperly named Gothic by the term of the 
 •pointed flyle, and when I fpeak of thefe toge- 
 ther under the generical appellation of the archi- 
 teBure of the middle ages, I flatter myfelf I am 
 clearly underftood by every perfon with whom 
 1 communicate by writing, or by fpeaking, and 
 that the fubjecfls themfelves are characfteriftically 
 denominated. 
 
 * Warton, p. 4. Benlham, p. 61, 62, 63, 64, Grofe, 
 p« 100. 
 
 b 3 The 
 
xiV REV. J. MILNER S 
 
 The next point which, I think, requires to 
 be clearly afcertained amongft architectural an- 
 tiquaries is, the true origin of the pointed 
 ilyle. I have already expofed in part the ab- 
 furdity and contradictions into which thofe 
 perfons fall who derive it from the Goths and 
 Vandals of the North, or from the Saracens of 
 the Eaft, or, finally, from the Moors of the 
 Weft, rather than admit our own anceflors 
 were capable of inventing it. I fhall farther 
 obferve, that whatfoever has been advanced in 
 fupport of any one of thefe fyftems, is the pro- 
 duce of mere conjecflure, without a fhadow of 
 any kind of hiftorical evidence. For example, 
 we no where read of any archited: from Ara- 
 bia, Morocco, or Spain, arriving in England, 
 France, or Italy, to teach the inhabitants how 
 to conftrud: their churches : nor do we hear of 
 any Englifliman, Frenchman, or Italian, that 
 ever travelled into thofe countries in order to 
 learn architecture. But we find, on the other 
 hand, fuch an emulation amongft the prelates 
 and princes of the times in queftion, in our 
 own and the neighbouring countries, but chiefly 
 in our own, to outvie each other in the mag- 
 nificence and beauty of their buildings ; particu- 
 larly of the ecclefi iftical kind ; and fuch en- 
 couragement held out to architedts and artifts 
 of this country, that it would be extraordinary 
 
 if 
 
LETTER. XV 
 
 if thefe were productive of no new inventions 
 or improvements in the various branches of 
 architedure. In a word, Sir, I think it plain, 
 that even Mr. Warton, who follows Sir Chrif- 
 topher Wren's confufed and prejudiced account 
 of this matters, confutes his own fyftem whilft 
 he demon ft rates, as Bentham and Grofe alfo 
 do, the flow and regular degrees by which this 
 fpecies of architedure rofe up and attained to 
 perfedion amongft ourfelves, inftead of being 
 imported in any regular fhape from a foreign 
 country. Laftly, Sir, I flatter myfelf that the 
 EfTay which you have honoured with infertion 
 in the prefent colledlion, taken from my Uijlory 
 
 ' To (how how ill informed this celebrated architeft was 
 in the hiftory of the ftruftures of the middle ages, I may- 
 remind the learned reader of his afcribing the building of 
 St, Crofs and Winchefter cathedral to the Saxons " before 
 the Cunqueft," p. 6o ; likewife of his denying the faid 
 people the ufe of glafs for their windows, ibid. : and af- 
 cribino- the invention of tracery work to the neceffity there 
 was " of difpoiing the mullions for the better fixing in of 
 glafs," which, he fays, then, viz. at the end of the thir- 
 teenth century, '' began to be ufed in windows," p. 105, 
 14. See alfo p. 32. Fmally, to prove the confalion of 
 his ideas on this fnbjecl, I may mention, that he himfelf 
 afcribes the invention of the pointed order to the Arabian 
 Mahometans, when they overturned a great part of the 
 Eaftern empire, and began to build their mofques and cara- 
 vanferies, in the feventh and eighth centuries, p. lotf; and 
 that he neverthelefs cites Mr. Evelyn ni fupport of his fyf- 
 tem, who aiferts, that this fame " fantaftical, light fpecies 
 of building," as he is pleafed to call it, " was introduced 
 by the Goths and Vandals of the North, when they fub- 
 verted the Weftcrn empire two centuries earlier!" p. 106. 
 
 b 4 and 
 
Xvi REV. J. MILNER*S 
 
 and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchejier, 
 places this fadl in a new and ftill clearer light, 
 while it fliows how the fucceffive members and 
 ornaments of this ftyle of archited:ure grew out 
 of others which preceded them, and that the 
 adoption of the pointed arch was, as it were, the 
 parent germ which produced the whole fyftem. 
 A mofl curious and interefling fad:, however, 
 in my opinion, for the inveftigation of archi- 
 tectural antiquaries, is, to afcertain the true prin- 
 ciples of the Sublime and Beautiful, as applied 
 to thofe facred fabrics which are the undoubted 
 mafterpieces and glory of the pointed order. It 
 is in vain that Sir Chriftopher Wren and Mr. 
 Evelyn, who are cited in the notes, page io6, 
 fligmatize thefe ftrudures, as being ** con- 
 geftions of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkiih 
 piles, without any juft proportion, ufe, or 
 beauty." For it is confelTedly true, that every 
 man who has an eye to fee, and a foul to feel, 
 on entering into York minfter and Chapter- 
 houfe, or into King's college or Windfor chapel, 
 or into the cathedrals of Lincoln or Winchefter, 
 is iri'efiftibly ftruck with mingled impreflions 
 of awe and pleafure, which no other buildings 
 are capable of producing j and however he may 
 approve of the Grecian architedure for the pur- 
 pofes of civil and focial life, yet he inflinc- 
 tively experiences in the former a frame of 
 
 mind 
 
LETTER. XVll 
 
 mind that fits him for prayer and contemplation, 
 which all the boafted regularity and magnifi- 
 cence of Sir Chriftopher*s and the nation's 
 pride, I mean St. Paurs cathedral, cannot com- 
 municate, at leaft in the fame degree. 
 
 To explain in detail the principles on which 
 the above-mentioned effe6ls are produced, would 
 be to defcribe the whole ftrudlure of an ancient 
 cathedral ; and, at the fame time, to form the 
 beft panegyric on the architeds who raifed 
 them. This, however, it is not my prefent 
 intention to do, but merely to enumerate a few 
 of thefe principles which are more obvious. In 
 the firft place, then, it is well known that 
 height and length are amongft the primary 
 fources of the Sublime^-, it is equally agreed 
 that thefe are the proportions which our ancient 
 architedls chiefly afFed:ed in their religious 
 fi:rud:ures. But befides the real effecft of thefe 
 proportions, which were generally carried as 
 far as they were capable of, the mind was far- 
 ther imprefled by an artificial height and length, 
 which were the natural produce of the ftylc 
 employed. For the afpiring form of the pointed 
 arches, the lofty pediments, and the tapering 
 pinnacles with which our cathedrals are adorned, 
 contribute perhaps ftill more to give an idea of 
 
 \ See Burke's Trtatife on the Sublime and Beautiful. 
 
 height 
 
xviii REV. J. milker's 
 
 height than their real elevation. In like man- 
 ner, the perfpecHiive of uniform columns, ribs, 
 and arches, repeated at equal diftances, as they 
 are feen in the illes of thofe fabrics, produces 
 an artificial infinite in the mind of the fpedla- 
 tor', when the fame extent of plain furface 
 would perhaps hardly affedt it at all ^ : for a 
 fimilar reafon, I think the effedl of the ancient 
 cathedrals is greatly helped by the variety of 
 their conftituent parts and ornaments, though 
 I fuppofe them all to be executed in one uni- 
 form fiyle. The eye is quickly fatiated by any 
 objed:, however great and magnificent, which it 
 can take in ail at once, as the mind is with what 
 it can completely comprehend; but when the 
 former, having wandered through the intricate 
 and interminable length of a pointed vault in an 
 
 ■ See Burke's Treatije on the Sublime and Beautiful. 
 
 ^ This obfervation on the artificial infinite does not apply- 
 to the modern practice of deftroying the altar-l'creen of ca- 
 thedrals, and taking the Lady chapel into the grand per- 
 fpeftive of them. For, firft, a vifta, by being too long 
 drawn, defl:roys its proper effe6l, as Burke proves. Secondly, 
 it is elTential that the objects of fight, which are repeated 
 for the above-mentioned purpofe, fhould be uniform in 
 their appearance ; otherwife the illufion is defl:royed, and 
 intelleftual diforder and pain enfues, infl:ead of pleafure. 
 Now this inevitably happens in the cafe under confider- 
 ation, where the eye, fliooting down the vifi:a, perceives 
 the great columns and lofty arches of the nave flirink all at 
 once into the {lender fliafts and low vaulting of the faid 
 Lady chapel. See a work on this fubjeft, entitled, A Dif~ 
 Jertcition on the modern Style of altering ancient Cathedrals, 
 Nichols. 
 
 ancient 
 
LETTER. XIX 
 
 ancient cathedral, difcovers two parallel lines of 
 equal length and richnefs with it; then pro- 
 ceeding, it difcovers the tranfepts, the fide 
 chapels, the choir, the fan(fluary, and the Lady 
 chapel, all equally interefting for their delign 
 and execution, and all of them calculated for 
 different purpofes : the eye, I fay, is certainly 
 much more entertained, and the mind more 
 dilated and gratified, than can poflibly be ef- 
 fed:ed by any fingle view, even though our 
 modern architeds fhould fucceed in their at- 
 tempts to make one entire fweep of the contents 
 of a cathedral, to fhow it all at a fingle view, 
 and to make one vaft empty room of the whole. 
 It is not neceflary for me to dwell upon the 
 effecft of that folemn gloom which reigns in 
 thefe venerable ftrucftures, from the ftudied ex- 
 clufion of too glaring a light, or upon that 
 glowing effect produced by appropriate paint- 
 ing and carving in the windows, or other parts 
 of them, or upon the effential beauty and jufl 
 proportions in which they are raifed, where the 
 infinite variety of ribs, arches, boffes, and other 
 ornaments, all grow out of the main columns, 
 with the regularity of Nature in the vegetable 
 kingdom, and alfo with her wife contrivance 
 to combine ftrength with beauty j I fay, it is 
 not neceffary for me to dwell upon thefe points, 
 becaufe, however they may be carped at by in- 
 
 terelted 
 
XX REV. J. MILNER S 
 
 terefled men, they are obvious of themfelves, 
 and admitted by all perfons of candour and fen- 
 timent. There is one circumflance, however, 
 to which thefe venerable flrudlures are indebted 
 for the impreflion they make, that is not fo 
 evident at firft Ught, and which therefore I here 
 mention, namely, the arrangement and difpo- 
 fition of their feveral parts, in due fubordina- 
 tion to that which is their principal member; 
 by which means that unity of delign fo necef* 
 fary in every compofition is maintained in them. 
 This principal member in our cathedral churches 
 is the choir and fand:uary, deflined for the per- 
 formance of the fervice and myfteries of reli- 
 gion : and all the other portions of the facred 
 fabric will be found fubfervient, and as it were 
 converging, to this, as to their centre. On the 
 fame account, the moft exquifite produd:ions 
 of art, and the greatefl: pro fu lion of wealth, were 
 uniformly bellowed on this particular part. We 
 may judge from hence what mull be the effedt 
 of deftroying the altar-fcreen of a cathedral, and 
 removing the altar itfelf, according to a mo- 
 dern inftance, under an idea of improving its 
 appearance. It is like removing the head from 
 the human figure, or placing it on fome other 
 member, for the purpofe of increafing its 
 beauty. 
 
 Laftly, as there are different periods or fa- 
 
 fhions 
 
LETTER. XXI 
 
 fhions in pointed architediure, it is worthy the 
 attention of the curious antiquary, to diilribute 
 thefe fubjedls of his ftudy into their proper 
 clafles, and to determine the refpedtive merits of 
 each clafs or fafliion. The late poet laureat has 
 divided the architediure in queftion into the 
 abfolute Gothic, the ornamental Gothic, and the 
 florid Gothic i. I do not find fault with this 
 divifion, but I am by no means fatisfied with 
 the application of it. For, not to mention 
 other objedions, we have {^ax that this author 
 excludes by name, the beautiful and highly 
 pointed cathedral of Salifbury from holding a 
 place in any of his clalTes. Now, fo far from 
 there being ground for fuch an exclufion, I 
 think it admits of a queftion, whether that fpe- 
 cies of early pointed architedlure in which this 
 cathedral and that of Lincoln, alfo the abbey 
 churches of Weftminfter, Beaulieu, Lettley*", 
 and other facred edifices, were conftrud:ed, 
 from the firft invention of that ftyle down to 
 its enlargement in the reign of Edward I. was, 
 upon the whole, exceeded at any later period. 
 In cafe, however, we admit the tracery work, 
 which was invented about the latter period, 
 and with which the cathedrals of York and 
 Wincheiler are adorned, to be a confiderable 
 
 1 Pages 4, 5. 8. 
 
 » Vulgarly and improperly called Netley Abbey, 
 4 ini- 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 ON 
 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 REV. THOMAS WARTON's ESSAY'. 
 
 -Did arlfe 
 
 On {lately pillours framd afer the Doricke guife. 
 
 Although the Roman or Grecian archi- 
 tecture did not begin to prevail in England till 
 the time of Inigo Jones, yet our communication 
 with the Italians, and our imitation of their 
 manners, produced fome fpecimens of that ftyle 
 much earlier : perhaps the earliefl is Somerfet 
 houfe in the Strand, built about the year 1549, 
 by the duke of Somerfet, uncle to Edward VI. 
 
 • Obfervations on the Fairy Queen of Spenfer^ edit. 
 1762, vol. ii. page 184. 
 
 B The 
 
 D. H. HILL LIBRARY 
 North Carolina State College 
 
REV. T. WARTOn's 
 
 The monument of biiliop Gardiner in Win- 
 chefter cathedral, made in the reign of Mary, 
 about 1555, is decorated with Ionic pillars. 
 Spenfer*s verfes here quoted bear an allufion to 
 fome of thefe fafhionable improvements in 
 building, which, at this time, were growing 
 more and more intoefteem. Thus, alfo, bifhop 
 Hall, who wrote about the fame time, viz. 
 1598; 
 
 There findeft thou fome ftately Doricke frame, 
 Or neat lonicke worke. B. v. f. 2. 
 
 But thefe ornaments were often abfurdly in- 
 troduced into the old Gothic ftyle ; as in the 
 magnificent portico of the Schools at Oxford, 
 cre(5ted about the year 161 '^, where the builder, 
 in a Gothic edifice, has aticdtedly difplayed his 
 univerfal fkill in the modern architedlure by 
 giving us all the five orders together. However, 
 moft of the great buildings of queen Elizabeth's 
 reign have a ftyle peculiar to themfelves, both 
 in form and finifliing; where, though much of 
 the old Gothic is retained, and great part of the 
 new tafte is adopted, yet neither predominates ; 
 while both, thus indiftindly blended, compofe 
 a fantaftic fpecics hardly reducible to any clafs 
 or name. One of its characfteriflics is the af- 
 fe(5lation of large and lofty windows, where, 
 
 fays 
 
ESSAY. 3 
 
 fays Bacon, ** you lliall have fometimes faire 
 houfes fo full of glafs that one cannot tell where 
 to become to be out of the fun, &c.*' k^Jfayes, 
 xii. 
 
 After what has been here incidentally faid on 
 this fubjed:, it may not be amifs to trace it 
 higher, and to give, fome obfervations on the 
 beginning and progreffive ftate of architedure 
 in England, down to the reign of Henry VIII.; 
 a period, in which, or thereabouts, the true 
 Gothic ftyle is fuppofed to have expired. 
 
 The Normans, at the Conqueft, introduced 
 arts and civihty. The churches before this 
 were of timber, or otherwife of very mean 
 conftrudion. The Conqueror imported a 
 more magniiEicent though not a different plan, 
 and ereded feveral ftately churches and caftles ^. 
 He built more than thirty monafteries, amono- 
 which were the noble abbies of Battel and 
 Selby. He granted a charter to Mauritius, 
 bilhop of London, for rebuilding St. Paul's 
 church with ftone brought out of Normandy. 
 He built the White tower in the Tower of Lon- 
 don. The ftyle then ufed confifted of round 
 arches, round-headed windows, and round 
 malTy pillars, with a fort of regular capital and 
 
 *■ " Videas ubique in villis ecclefias, in vicis et urbibus 
 monafteria, novo edificandi genere exfurgere.^' Will. 
 Malmefbur. Rex JVillhelmus, de Geft. Reg. Ang. lib. iii! 
 p- 57. fol. Lond, 1596, ed. Savil, 
 
 B 2 bafe. 
 
2|. REV. T. WARTON S 
 
 bafe, being an adulteration or a rude imitation 
 of the genuine Grecian or Roman manner. 
 This has been named the Saxon ftyle, being 
 the national architedlure of our Saxon anceftors 
 before the Conqueft : for the Normans only 
 extended its proportions and enlarged its fcale. 
 But I fuppofe at that time it was the common 
 architecture of all Europe. Of this ftyle many 
 fpecimens remain : the tranfept of Winchefter 
 cathedral, built 1080 ; the two towers of Exeter 
 cathedral, 11 12; Chrift Church cathedral at 
 Oxford, 1 1 80 ; the nave of Gloceiler cathedral, 
 1 1 00; with many others. The mofl complete 
 monuments of it I can at prefent recoiled: are, 
 the church of St. Crofs near Winchefter, built 
 by Henry de Blois, 1 1 30 ; and the abbey church 
 at Rumfey in Hampfhire : efpecially the latter, 
 built by the fame princely benefactor. Another 
 evidence of this ftyle is a circular feries of zig- 
 zag fculpture applied as a facing to porticos and 
 other arches. The ftyle which fucceeded to this 
 was not the abfolute Gothic^ or Gothic iimply 
 fo called, but a fort of Gothic Saxon, in which 
 the pure Saxo?i began to receive fome tincflurc 
 of the Sarace?! fafhion. In this the mafTy ro- 
 tund column became fplit into a clufler of ag- 
 glomerated pilaflers, preferving a bafe and 
 capital as before; and the fhort round-headed 
 window was lengthened into a narrow oblong 
 
 2 form, 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 form, with a pointed top, in every refped much 
 in the fhape of a lancet ; often decorated in the 
 infide with flender pillars. Thefe windows we 
 frequently find three together, the centre one 
 being higher than the two lights on each fide. 
 This ftyle commenced about 1200. Another of 
 its marks is a feries of fmall, low, and clofe arch- 
 work, fometimes with a pointed head, placed 
 on outfide fronts for a finifhing, as in the weft 
 end of Lincoln and Rochefter cathedrals, and in 
 the end of the fouthern tranfept of that of Can- 
 terbury. In this ftyle, to mention no more, is 
 Salifbury cathedral. Here we find indeed the 
 pointed arch, and the angular though fimple 
 vaulting ; but ftill we have not, in fuch edifices 
 of the improved or Saxon Gothic, the ramified 
 window, one diftinguifhing charaderifiic of the 
 abfolute Gothic^. It is difficult to define thefe 
 gradations j but ftill harder to explain conjec- 
 tures of this kind in writing, which require 
 ocular demonftration and a converfation on the 
 fpot to be clearly proved and illuftrated. 
 
 The ABSOLUTE Gothic, or that which is 
 free from all Saxon mixture, began with rami- 
 fied windows of an enlarged dimenfion, divided 
 into feveral lights, and branched out at the top 
 into a multiplicity of whimfical Ihapes and 
 
 * They then feem to have had no idea of a great eajlem 
 or wejlern window, 
 
 B 3 com- 
 
REV. T. WARTOn's 
 
 compartments, after the year 1300. The cru- 
 fades had before dicflated the pointed arch, which 
 was here flill preferved j but, befides the alter- 
 ation in the windows, fantaftic capitals to the 
 columns, and more ornament in the vaulting 
 and other parts, were introduced. Of this fa- 
 Uiion the body of Winchefter cathedral, built 
 by that munificent encourager of all public 
 works, William of Wykeham, about the year 
 1390, will afford the jufteft idea. But a tafte 
 for a more ornamental ftyle had for fome time 
 before begun to difcover itfelf. This appears 
 from the choir of St. Mary's church at War- 
 wick, begun ^ at leaft, before Wykeham's 
 improvements at Winchefler, and remarkable 
 for a freedom and elegance unknown before. 
 That certain refinements in architecture began 
 to grow fafhionable early in the reign of Ed- 
 ward III. perhaps before, we learn from Chau- 
 cer's defcription of the ftrucSure of his Houfe of 
 Fame : 
 
 ^' And eke the hall and evcrie boure_, 
 
 Without peeces or joynings. 
 
 But many fubtell compaflings 
 
 As habenries and pinnacles. 
 
 Imageries and tabernacles, 
 
 I fawe, and full eke of windowes^." 
 
 * Viz. 1 341 ; finiOied before 1395. Dugdale's War- 
 wjckfhire, p. 345, 
 
 * B. iii. fol. 267. col. 2. edit. Speght. 
 
 And 
 
ESSAY. 7 
 
 And afterwards, 
 
 *' I needeth not you more to tellen, 
 
 ********* 
 
 Of thefe yates flourifliings, 
 Ne of compaces ne of carvings, 
 Ne how the hacking in mafonries. 
 As corbetts and imatreries''." 
 
 And in an old poem, called Pierce the Plow- 
 man's Creede^ written perhaps before Chaucer*s, 
 where the author is defcribing an abbey-church : 
 
 ** Than I munle me forth the minstre for to knowen. 
 
 And awayted a vvoon, wonderly well ybild j 
 
 With arches on everich half, and bellyche ycorven 
 
 With crochetes on corneres, with knottes of gold. 
 
 Wyd windowes ywrought, ywriten full thicke, 
 ************ 
 
 Tombes upon tabernacles, tyld opon loft, 
 
 Houfed in homes, harde fett abouten 
 
 Of armed alabauftre." -. 
 
 Thefe innovations at length were mofl beau- 
 tifully difplayed in the roof of the divinity 
 fchool at Oxford, which began to be built 1427. 
 The univerfity, in their letters to Kempe bifhop 
 of London quoted by Wood', fpeak of this 
 edifice as one of the miracles of the age : they 
 mention particularly, '* Ornamenta ad naturalis 
 coeli imaginem variis pidluris, fubtilique artifi* 
 
 •> B. iii. fol. 267, verfo. col. 2. 
 
 i liill, Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. ii. p. 22* 
 
 B 4 cio. 
 
8 REV. T. WARTON*S 
 
 cio, caelata; valvarum fingulariflima opera: tuu 
 ricularum apparatum, &c." Yet even here 
 there is nothing of that minute finifhing which 
 afterwards appeared ; there is ftill a maffinefs, 
 though great intricacy and variety. About the 
 fame time the collegiate church of Fotheringay 
 in Northamptonfhire was defigned : and ws 
 learn from the orders^ of Henry VI. deHvered 
 to the architecfl, how n>uch their notions in 
 archite<flure were improved. The orna- 
 mental Gothic at length received its confirm- 
 ation about 1 441, in the chapel of the fame 
 King's college at Cambridge ^ Here ilrength 
 united with ornament, or fubftance with ele- 
 gance, feems to have ceafed. Afterwards what 
 I would call the florid Gothic arofe, the firft 
 confiderable appearance of which was in the 
 chapel of St. George at Wind for, begun by 
 Edward IV. about 1480""; and which, laftly, 
 was completed in the fuperb chapel of 
 Henry VII. at Weftminfler. 
 
 The FLORID Gothic diftinguifhes itfelf by 
 an exuberance of decoration, by roofs where 
 the moft delicate fretwork is exprefTed in ftone, 
 and by a certain lightnefs of finifhing, as in the 
 
 * In Dugdale's MonaRicon, vol. iii. p* 163. 
 
 * It was not finifhed till fome years after ; but a defcrip- 
 tion and plan of the intended fabric may be feen in the king's 
 will. Stowe's Annals, by Howes, 1614, p. 479, feq. 
 
 " Aflimole's Order of the Garter, fed. ii. chap. 4. p. 136, 
 
 roof 
 
ESSAY. 9 
 
 roof of the choir of Glocefter^, where it is 
 thrown like a web of embroidery over the old 
 Saxon vaulting. Many monumental flirines, 
 fo well calculated, on account of the fmallnefs 
 of their plan, to admit a multiplicity of delicate 
 ornaments highly finifhed, afford exquifite fpe- 
 cimens of this flyle. The moft remarkable one 
 I can recoiled: is that of bifhop Fox at Win- 
 chefterj which, before it was ftripped of its 
 images and the painted glafs ° which filled part 
 of its prefent open-work, muft have been a mofl 
 beautiful fpedlacle. How quickly tomb-archi- 
 te(5lure improved in this way may be feen by 
 two fumptuous fhrines in the fame church, 
 which fland oppofite each other; thofe of 
 bifhop Waynflete and cardinal Beaufort. The 
 bifhop*s is evidently conflrudlcd in imitation of 
 the cardinal's ; but, being forty years later, is 
 infinitely richer in the variegation of its fretted 
 roof, and the profufion of its ornamented fpire- 
 
 » About the year 1470. The words of the infcription 
 on the inlide of the arch by which we enter the choir are 
 remarkable : 
 
 Hoc quod DiGESTUM fpecularis, opufque politum, 
 Tulhi haec ex onere Seabrooke abbate jubente. 
 
 The tower was built at the fame time. The lady's chapel 
 foon after, about 1490. 
 
 ° It was broke and deftroyed by the Prefby terians 1 643, 
 as appears by a paffage in Mercurius Rufticus, p. 214. It 
 is not commonly known or obferved that this flirine was 
 thus curioufly glazed. 
 
 work. 
 
lO REV. T. WARTOn's 
 
 work P. The fcreen behind the altar in the 
 fame cathedral, built 1535, far fuperior to that 
 at St. Alban's, is aifo a ftriking pattern of this 
 workman (hi p. We have fome epifcopal thrones 
 highly executed in this tafte. Such is that at 
 Wells, built by bifhop Beckington, 1450 ; and 
 that at Exeter, by bifhop Boothe, who fucceeded 
 to the fee, 1466. The iirft is of wood, painted 
 and gilded ; the latter is likewife of wood, but 
 painted in imitation, and has the eflre(^t, of flone. 
 They are both very lofty and light. Mofl of 
 the churches in Somerfetfliire, which are re- 
 markably elegant, are in the ftyle of the flo- 
 RID Gothic. The reafon is this : Somerfetfhire, 
 in the civil wars between York and Lancafter, 
 was ftrongly and entirely attached to the Lan- 
 caftrian party. In reward for this fervice, 
 Henry VII. when he came to the crown, rebuilt 
 their churches. The tower of Glocefler cathe- 
 dral, and the towers of the churches at Taunton 
 and Glaftonbury, and of a parochial church at 
 Wells, are confpicuous examples of this fafhion. 
 Moft of the churches of this reign are known-, 
 
 p Waynflete died i486. How greatly tomb-archite6lure, 
 within 150 years, continued to alter, appears from an ex^ 
 preffion in Berthelette's preface to liis edition of Gower's 
 Confeffio Amantis, 1554 : " Gower prepared for his bones 
 a reftynge place in the monafterie of St. Marie Overee, where, 
 fomewhat after the old fashion, he lieth right fumptuoufl/ 
 buried.'' Gower died 1402. 
 
 A beiides 
 
ESSAY. II 
 
 befides other diftindlions, by latticed battle- 
 ments, and broad open windows. In this ftyle 
 Henry VIII. built the palace of Nonfuch i j 
 and cardinal Wolfey, Hampton Court, White- 
 hall, Chrifl church in Oxford, and the tomb- 
 houfe at Wind for. 
 
 I cannot more clearly recapitulate or illuftrate 
 what has been faid, than by obferving, that the 
 feals of our Englifli monarchs, from the reign 
 of Henry III. difplay the tafte of archited:ure 
 which refped;ively prevailed under feveral fub- 
 fequent reigns ; and confequently convey, as 
 at one comprehenfive view, the feries of its fuc- 
 cefTive revolutions j infomuch that if no real 
 models remained, they would be fufficient to 
 fhow the modes and alterations of building in 
 England \ In thefe each king is reprefented 
 fitting enfhrined amid a fumptuous pile of ar- 
 chitedlure. Henry III. 1259, appears feated 
 amidft an affemblage of arches of the round 
 Saxon form'. So are his fucceffors Edward I. 
 and II. Edward III. 1330, is the firft whofe 
 feal exhibits pointed Saracen arches j but thofe, 
 of his firil: feal at leaft ', are extremely fimple. 
 
 *• See a cut of its front, perhaps the only reprefentation 
 of it extant, in Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great 
 Britaine, 1614, fol. p. 11. Map of Surrey. In the faoiQ 
 is a cut of Richmond palace, built by Henry VII. 
 
 ' See Speed's Hiftory, &c. fol. London^ 1627. 
 
 ' See his fecond feal, Speed, p. 547. 
 
 1 See his fecond feal^ Speed, p. 584, 
 
 In 
 
/ 1.3 REV. T. WARTOn's 
 
 In the feals of Richard II. 1378, and his fuc- 
 ceflbr Henry IV. we find Gothic arches of a 
 more complicated confl:rud:ion. At length the 
 feal of Henry V. 1412, is adorned with a ftill 
 more artificial fabric. And lafily, in the feals 
 of Edward V. Richard III., and Henry VII. 
 we difcern a more open, and lefs pointed Go- 
 thic. 
 
 I fubjoin fome general obfervations. The 
 towers in Saxon cathedrals were not always 
 intended for bells ; they were calculated to pro- 
 duce the effed: of the louvre, or open lantern, 
 in the infide; and, on this account, were ori- 
 ginally continued open almofi: to the covering. 
 It is generally fuppofed that the tower of V/in- 
 chefter cathedral, which is remarkably thick and 
 lliort, was left as the fo\,adation for a projed:ed 
 fpire ; but this idea never entered into the plan 
 of the archited:. Nearly the whole infide of 
 this tower was formerly feen from below ; and 
 for that reafon, its fide arches or windows, of 
 the firft fi:ory at leafi:, are artificially wrought 
 and ornamented. With this fole effe(ft in view, 
 the builder faw no necefiity to carry it higher. 
 An infi:ance of this vifibly fubfifi:s at prefent 
 in the infide of the tower of the neighbouring 
 Saxon church of St. Crofs, built about the fame 
 time. The fame effedt was firft defigned at 
 Salifbury ; where, for the fame purpofc folely, 
 
 was 
 
ESSAY. II 
 
 was a ihort tower, the end of which is eafily 
 difcerned by critical obfervers ; being but little 
 higher than the roof of the church, and of lefs 
 refined workmanfhip than that additional part 
 on which the prefent fpire is conftrudled. Many 
 other examples might be pointed out. This 
 gave the idea for the beautiful lanterns at Peter- 
 borough and Ely. 
 
 Spires were never ufed till the Saracen mode 
 took place. I think we find none before 1200. 
 The fpire of old St. Paul's was finifhed 1221 ". 
 That of Salifbury, as appears from a late fur- 
 vey *, and other proofs, was not included in 
 the plan of the builder, and was raifed many 
 years after the church was completed : the fpire 
 of Norwich cathedral about 1278 ^. Sir Chrif- 
 topher Wren informs us, that the architects 
 of this period ** thought height the greateft 
 magnificence. Few ftones,*' adds he, *' were 
 ufed but what a man might carry up a ladder 
 on his back from fcaffold to fcafFold, though 
 they had pullies and fpoked wheels upon occa- 
 (ion; but having rejeded cornices, they had no 
 need of great engines. Stone upon ftone was 
 €afily piled up to great heights ; therefore the 
 
 « Dugdale's St. Paul's, p. 12. 
 
 " Survey, &c. by Price. 
 
 \ Willis's Mitr. Abb. vol. i'. p. 279. 
 
 pride 
 
14 REV. Tf. WARTOn's 
 
 pride of their work was in pinnacles and flee^ 
 pies. The Gothic way carried all their mould- 
 ings perpendicular ; fo that they had nothing 
 elfe to do but to fpire up all they could." He 
 adds, '* they affed:ed fteeples, though the Sara- 
 ce?ts themfelves ufed cupolas^." But with fub- 
 miHion to fuch an authority, I cannot help being 
 of opinion, that, though the Saracens them- 
 felves ufed cupolas, the very notion of a fpire 
 was brought from the Eaft, where pyramidical 
 flrudiures were common, and fpiral ornaments 
 were the falhionable decorations of their 
 mofques, as may be feen to this day. What 
 the fame celebrated artift immediately fubjoins, 
 that the ufe of glafs introduced mullions into 
 windows, is very probable ; at leafl it contri- 
 buted to multiply the ramifications ; efpecially 
 the ufe of painted glafs ; where the different 
 flainings were by this means fhown to better 
 advantage, and different ftories and figures re- 
 quired feparate compartments. 
 
 Soon after the year 1 200 they began, in Eng- 
 land, to cover the fa9ades, or weft ends of ca- 
 thedrals, with niches and rows of flatues large 
 as the life. The firft example of this kind is, 
 1 think, at Salifbury j for that of Litchfield is 
 
 ' Wren's Parentalia, p. 305. 
 
 too 
 
ESSAY. 15 
 
 too rich to be of equal antiquity ^ The weft 
 end of Wells cathedral was perhaps intended to 
 vie with that of Salifbury, in the fame decora- 
 tions ; being in a bordering county, and ereCled 
 after it, 1402 ^. It is in fine prefervation, and 
 exhibits a curious fpecimen of the ftate of fta- 
 tuary at that time. The weft front of Exeter, 
 adorned in this tafte by bifhop Grandifon, 1 340, 
 is far inferior to any of the other three. That 
 of the abbey church at Bath is light and elegant, 
 but is much more modern than thofe I have 
 mentioned, being begun and finiftied but a few 
 years before the diftblution of the abbey ''. 
 
 Thefe hafty remarks are fubmitted to the can- 
 dour of the curious by one who, befides other 
 defedls which render him difqualified for fuch 
 a difquifition, is but little acquainted with the 
 terms and principles of archited:ure. 
 
 » It was built at lead before 1400. For the fpire of St. 
 Michael's church in Coventr\', finiftied about 1395, is ma- 
 nifeftly a copy of the ftyle of its two fpires. Salifbury church 
 was begun in 1217^ and finiftied in 1256. 
 
 '' This date is on the authority of Willis, Mitr. Abb. 
 vol. ii. p. 375. 
 
 ' The whole church was rebuilt in the time of the two 
 laft: priors, after 1500. Leland, Itin. vol. ii. The abbey 
 was diftTolved 1534. 
 
 REV. 
 
( n ) 
 
 REV. JAMES BENTHAM*s 
 
 mjlorical Remarks on the Saxo?i Churches^ 
 
 AlAVING, in the preceding chapters % taken 
 a fummary view of the firfl reception of the 
 gofpel in Britain, its ftate and decline, to the 
 utter fubverfion of it j and alfo the re-eftablifh- 
 ment of Chriftianity in thefe parts, by the con- 
 verlion of the Saxons j it may not be improper 
 to fay fomething of the places made ufe of by 
 the Saxons for their public worfhip, and to 
 inquire into the ground of a notion that has 
 often prevailed, that their churches were gene- 
 rally timber buildings, or, if of flone, with 
 upright walls only, without any beauty or ele- 
 gance ; and that as to the conftrucfting of arches 
 and vaultings of frone, and fupporting them 
 with columns, they underftood nothing of it. 
 
 » This is the Fifth Section, p. 15, in Mr. Bentham's 
 Hiflory of the Cathedral Church of Ely, 1771. 
 
 That all references to this ElTay may be readily found In 
 this edition, the pages of the original are given in crotche,ts. 
 
 c This 
 
i8 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 This mean opinion of Saxon archited:ure, and 
 want of elegance in their churches, though it 
 be countenanced by feveral paffages in Mr. 
 Somner's book of the Antiquities of Canter- 
 bury^; and his authority for it is frequently 
 cited by modern writers on the fubjedt'^; with- 
 out any marks of difapprobation or cenfure; 
 yet as it appears to me to be without any man- 
 ner of foundation, 1 Ihall beg leave to inquire 
 into the truth of what Mr. Somner has advanced 
 on that fubjedt. His words are thefe : ** In- 
 deed it is obferved, that before the Norman 
 advent moft of our monafteries and church- 
 buildings were of wood : * All the monafteries 
 
 * of my realm,' faith king Edgar, in his char- 
 ter to the abbey of Malmelbury '^y dated in the 
 year of Chrift 974, ' to the fight are nothing 
 
 * but worm-eaten and rotten timber and boards.* 
 And that upon the Norman conquefl fuch tim- 
 ber fabrics grew out of ufe, and gave place to 
 ftone buildings raifed upon arches ; a form of 
 ftrudure introduced by that nation, furniflied 
 with ftone from Caen in Normandy. * In the 
 
 •• P. 8. 86. 93. 
 
 " Stavcley on Churches, p. 103. 146. Ornaments of 
 Churches confidered, p. 88. Remarks on Gothic Archi- 
 tcdiure, by Mr. Warton, in his Obfervations on Spenfer's 
 Fairy Queen, vol. ii. p. 185, 186. 
 
 * Wilkias Concil. vol. i. p. 260. 
 
 * year 
 
ESSAY. 19 
 
 year 1087 (Stow's words of the cathedral of 
 London ") this church of St. Paul was burnt 
 with fire, and therewith moil part of the 
 city : Mauritius then bifliop began, therefore, 
 the new foundation of a new church of St, 
 Paul ; a work that men of that time judged 
 would never have been finiflied, it was to 
 them fo wonderful for length and breadth; 
 [16] as alfo the fame was builded upon arches 
 (or vaults) of flone, for defence of fire; which 
 was a manner of work before that time un- 
 known to the people of this nation, and then 
 brought from the French, and the ftone was 
 fetcht from Caen in Normandy/ — ' St. Mary 
 Bow church in London being built much about 
 the fame time and manner, that is, on arches 
 of ftone, was therefore called (faith the fame 
 author^) New Mary church, or St. Mary-le- 
 Bow ; as Stratford bridge, being the firll: 
 builded with arches of ftone, was therefore 
 called Stratford-le-Bow.* This, doubtlefs, is 
 that new kind of archited:ure the continuer of 
 Bede (whofe words Malmefbury hath taken up) 
 intends, where fpeaking of the Normans* in- 
 come, he faith, * You may obferve every where 
 
 * in villages churches, and in cities and villages, 
 
 * monafteries ereded with a new kind of archi- 
 
 • Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 638. edit. 1754. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 542. 
 
 c 3 • tediure/ 
 
20 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 * tedure'^." And again, fpeaking doubtfully 
 of the age of the eaftern part of the choir of 
 Canterbury, he adds, ** I dare conftantly and 
 confidently deny it to be elder than the Norman 
 conqueft; becaufe of the building it upon 
 arches, a form of architecture, though in ufe 
 with and among the Romans long before, yet 
 after their departure not ufed here in England, 
 till the Normans brought it over with them 
 from France^." — Thus far Mr. Somner, whofe 
 judgment in matters of antiquity has been, and 
 always will be regarded, and is not without 
 fufficient reafon to be called in quelHon; but 
 his opinion concerning Saxon architeclnre ap- 
 pears fo lingular, that it will require fome con- 
 iideration before it can be admitted as true; and 
 what that was, is evident from the feveral paf- 
 fages above cited, viz. that the Saxon churches 
 and monafteries were ufually timber fabrics, or 
 if there were any flone buildings among them, 
 they were with upright walls only, vv^ithout 
 any pillars or arches to fupport them, and their 
 roofs not arched or vaulted with ftone. Indeed 
 if this be admitted as a juft account, it may 
 fairly put an end to all further fearches after the 
 
 ^ *^ Videas ubique in vlllis ecclefias, in vicis et urblbus 
 monalleria, novo sedificandi genere confurgere." Will. 
 Malmefb. de Regibus Angl. p. 102. edit. Fraucof. 1601. 
 
 •^ Somner's Aatiq. of Canterbury, p. 8. 
 
 remains 
 
ESSAY. 21 
 
 remains of Saxon architc(5lure in this kingdom ; 
 for its neceffary confequence will be, that what- 
 ever remains of ancient buildings with pillars 
 and arches of ftone are at this time to be met 
 with among us, muft have been built either 
 fince the Norman conqueft, or at lead: five 
 hundred years earlier, that is, in the time of 
 the Romans ; a pofition that will fcarcely be 
 allowed by any one who is acquainted at all 
 with our hiilory in the time of the Saxons. 
 
 With regard to their churches being generally 
 of wood, the only authority produced for it is 
 a cafual exprellion in one of king Edgar's char- 
 ters concerning the ruinous fiiate of the monaf- 
 teries in his time ' ; meaning no more, as I ap- 
 prehend, than that the churches and monaileries 
 were in general fo much decayed, that the roofs 
 were uncovered, or bare to the timber, and the 
 beams rotted by negledl, and grown over with 
 mofs ; and not that they were made wholly of 
 wood. It is true indeed fome of their fabrics 
 feem to have been totally formed of timber; 
 Bede ^ fpeaks of an oratory or chapel of that 
 kind in the very place where St. Peter's church 
 [17] in York now ftands; it was haflily erecfted 
 
 i C{ 
 
 — Quse velut mufcivis fciudulis carlofifque tabulisj 
 tigno tenus vifibiliter cliruta." Carta Regis Edgari, Wilkins 
 Concil. vol. i. p. 260. 
 ^ Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 14, 
 
 c 3 on 
 
^2 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 on occafion of the converfion of Edwin king of 
 Northumberland, for the purpofe of baptizing 
 that king, which was performed, by Paulinus 
 biiliop of York ^ on Eafter-day A. D. 627. 
 When the king had refolved to become a Chrif- 
 tian on the preaching of Paulinus, he deter- 
 mined to be publicly baptized ; and therefore 
 built this church of wood for that purpofe. He 
 built it in hade for the prefent exigency, and as, 
 a temporary expedient :- — but he likewife in- 
 forms us, that foon after the king was baptized 
 he laid the foundation of a ftately and magnifi- 
 cent fabric of flone, in which that of wood was 
 included, and might probably be u fed for divine 
 fervice whilft the other was in building "\ This 
 work was continued fix years during that king's 
 life, but before it was finifhed he was flain ; 
 and it was carried on and finifhed by Ofwald 
 his fucceflbr. Other inftances of timber fabrics 
 occur in hiftory, and other oratories even of 
 {lighter materials ", erecfted on particular occa- 
 fions. A wooden church is mentioned by 
 
 a 
 
 Baptlzatus eft autem Eburaci in die fanfto Pafchas — 
 in ecclefia Sti. Petri Apoftoli, quam ipfe de ligno citato opere, 
 erexit." Bedae Hill. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 14. 
 
 '" " Cuiavit majorem ipfo in loco et augufliorem de lapide 
 fabricare bafilicam, in cujus medio ipfum quod prius fecerat 
 oratorium includerctur." Ibid. 
 
 " Simeon Dunclm. lib. ii. cap. i. 9. Tngulphi Hift. 
 p. 4. 52. edit. Gale. Hift. Ramefienf. inter XV. Scriptores, 
 per Gale, p. 397. Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 291. lin. 20. 
 
 Malmef- 
 
ESSAY. 23 
 
 Malmefbury, in his life of Aldhelm bifliop of 
 Shircburn, in Dultinge, a village in Somerfet- 
 ihire where Aldhelm died ; it belonged to the 
 abbey of Glaftonbury, and the monks there re- 
 built it of ftone. Bede likevvife tells us, that 
 Finan bifhop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Illand, 
 built there a church for his epifcopal fee, com- 
 pofed wholly of fawn oak, and covered with 
 reed, according to the fafhion of the Scots?; 
 and that Eadberd:, one of his fuccelTors, there 
 took off the reed, and covered the whole, both 
 the roof and fides, with flieets of lead. How- 
 ever, thefe wooden fabrics, 'tis probable, were 
 not very common, even in thofe early times 
 of the Saxons; and, as appears by the inflances 
 produced, fome of them were intended only for 
 temporary ufe ; and the laft-mentioned church 
 at Lindisfarne was built after a manner peculiar 
 to the Scots. This erroneous account of the 
 Saxon churches being generally of wood, or at 
 leaft without any pillars or arches of flone, Mr. 
 Somner was probably led into, by relying on 
 Mr. Stow, whofe authority he vouches and 
 implicitly follows j and then miflaking thefenle 
 of that pafTage in king Edgar's charter, applies 
 it to the entire fabrics, which was indeed ap- 
 plicable only to their roofs : and when he comes 
 
 • Angl. Sacr. vol. li. p. 23. 
 
 p Bedge Hilt. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 25. 
 
 C 4 to 
 
24 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 to Malmelbury's account of the architedlure in- 
 troduced by the Normans, which is there called 
 novum genus cedificandi (the new manner of 
 building), Mr. Somner takes the novelty of it to, 
 confiil in its being compofed with pillars and 
 arches j and therein differed from the Saxon. 
 
 But that the Saxon churches were generally 
 built of flone, and not only fo, but that they 
 had pillars and arches and fome of them vault- 
 ings of flone, there is fufficient teftimony from 
 authentic hiftory, and the undoubted remains 
 of them at this time. 
 
 There is a great probability, that at the time 
 the Saxons were converted, the art of conftrud:- 
 ing arches and vaultings, and fupporting ftone 
 edifices by columns, [ 1 8] was well known among 
 them ; they had many inftances of fuch kind of 
 buildings before them, in the churches and 
 other public edifices erecfled in the times of the 
 Romans. For, notwithftanding the havoc that 
 had been made of the Chriftian churches by the 
 Pi(5ts and Scots, and by the Saxons themfelves, 
 fome of them were then in being. Bede men- 
 tions two in the city of Canterbury ^ ; that de- 
 dicated to St, Martin on the eafl: fide of the city, 
 wherein queen Bertha performed her devotions, 
 and Auguftin and his companions made ufe of 
 
 « Bcdae Hift. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 26 and 33. 
 
 • at 
 
ESSAY. 25 
 
 at their firil coming; and the other, that which 
 the king, after his converfion, gave to Auguf- 
 tin, and which he repaired and dedicated to 
 our blelTed Saviour, and made it his archi- 
 epifcopal fee. Belides thefe two ancient Roman 
 churches, it is hkely there were others of the 
 fame age in different parts of the kingdom, 
 which were then repaired and reftored to their 
 former ufe. 
 
 Among other fabrics of thefe times may be 
 reckoned the many heathen temples ufed by the 
 idolatrous Saxons : that they were built by the 
 Saxons themfelves will probably be allowed ; 
 and that fome of them were good buildings will 
 hardly admit of any doubt, fmce for that very 
 reafon pope Gregory advifed Auguftin ' that the 
 temples ought not to be demolilhed, but only 
 the idols that were in them fhould be removed 
 and deftroyed, and then confecrated to the fer- 
 vice of the true God. The particular form in 
 which thefe Saxon temples were built, and 
 wherein they differed from Chriftian churches 
 in their manner of building, may be difficult 
 to determine with any degree of certainty ; but 
 as many of them were afterwards converted to 
 churches % I fee no reafon to think otherwife 
 of them, but that they might be iimilar in, their 
 
 r Bedae Hift. Eccl, lib. i. cap. 30. 
 • Monaft. Angl. vol, iii. p. 298. 
 
 con- 
 
 O. H. HILL LfBRARY 
 
 North Csfoiina Stata College 
 
26 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 conflrucflion, and differ only in the ufe they were 
 put to. 
 
 On king Ethelbert's converfion, A. D. 561, 
 he with great zeal fet about building of 
 churches ; he laid the foundation of a new one 
 for the monaftery of St. Peter and St. Paul% 
 which Auguftin was then erecting ; and de- 
 iigned it for the burying-place for himfelf and 
 his fucceffors kings of Kent, and for the arch- 
 bifliops of Canterbury. He alfo founded the 
 church of St. Andrew at Rochefler", and en- 
 dowed it for an epifcopal fee : and by his in- 
 fluence and authority, a new bifhopric was 
 ereded in the kingdom of the Eaft Saxons, 
 where Sebert his nephew reigned under him ; 
 the fee of which being fixed at London, he 
 there alfo founded and endowed the cathedral 
 church of St. Paul "". Thefe were the earliefi: 
 churches eredied after the converfion of the 
 Saxons was begun : whether thefe were built by 
 the Saxons themfelves, or whether they procured 
 architeds from other countries to build them, 
 is not of any great moment to determine, iince 
 we are only confidering the general flate of 
 architecfture in thofe times. Now, though the 
 account given us by Bede of thefe three churches 
 founded by king Ethelbert is very concife, and 
 
 • Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 33. 
 " Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 3. ? Ibid, 
 
 nothing 
 
ESSAY. ^7 
 
 nothing is there mentioned in exprefs terms of 
 the particular manner, or of the materials with 
 which they were built; yet feme circumftances 
 that he relates afterwards feem plainly to indi- 
 cate that they were flone buildings, and had both 
 pillars and arches in their compolition. 
 
 To inftance the church of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul : when Auguftin died, that church not 
 being finifhed, he was buried abroad ; but as 
 foon as it was confecrated, Bede [19] tells us, 
 that his body was brought into the church and 
 decently interred i/2 porticu illius aquUotiari >', in 
 the north portico of the ilime. He further 
 fpeaks of another portico in the fame church, in 
 which queen Bertha, king Ethelbert, and other 
 kings of Kent, were buried ; this he calls Por- 
 ticus Sti. Martini % to diftinguifh it from the 
 former, and was probably the oppofite or fouth 
 portico. The word porticus occurs feveral times 
 in Bede, Alcuin, Heddius, and other ancient 
 Saxon writers, and is generally tranflated by the 
 Englifli word porch ; and fo mifleads us to 
 think it fynonymous with atriuin or veftibulum^ 
 denoting a building without-lide the church, at 
 the entrance into it: whereas this can by no 
 means be agreeable to- Bede's meaning ; for in 
 his account of king Ethelbert*s interment, he 
 expreifes himfelf in fuch terms as will not ad- 
 
 ^ Bedje Hift. Eccl. lib, ii. cap. 3. '■ Ibid. cap. 5. 
 
 % mit 
 
28 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 mit of that fenfe: he was burled, fays Bede, 
 in porticu Sti. Martini intra ecclejiam '' ; which 
 lliows that the porticus was within the church : 
 and hkewife in relating the burial of archbiQiop 
 Theodore, A. D. 690, he fays, he was buried 
 /;z ecclefid Sti. Petri, in qua omnium epijcoporum 
 Doruvernenjiiwi funt corpora depojita ^ (in the 
 church of St. Peter, in which all the bodies of 
 the bifliops of Canterbury were interred) ; 
 though he had before faid "" that they were all 
 interred in the north portico except Theodore 
 and Berdiwald, whofe bodies were buried in 
 ipfa ccclejia (in the church itfelf), becaufe that 
 portico could not conveniently hold any more ^» 
 
 To 
 
 * Bedas Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap, 5. 
 
 *> Ibid. lib. V. cap. 8. 
 
 " Ibid, lib. ii. cap. 3. 
 
 '' The better to elucidate the fcnfe of the word porticus, 
 the reader will be pleafed to compare the following paflages 
 from Bede and other ancient writers: — A. D. 721 obiit 
 Johannes Ebor. epifcopus in monafterio fuo Beverlac. et 
 ** fepultus eft in porticu S. Petri." Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. v. 
 cap. 6. — A. D. 726 obiit Tobias Roffenfis epifcopus, et 
 *' fepultus eft in porticu S. Pauli Apoft. quam intro ecclefiam 
 S. Andreee libi in locum fepulchri fecerat." Ibid. cap. 23. 
 — A. D. 977 Sidemannus Creditoniae epifcopus " fepultura3 
 traditur in monafterio Abendonenfi in parte ccclefiae boreali, 
 in porticu S. Pauli." Chron. Saxon. — A. D. 1034 obiit 
 Brithwius Wellenfis epifcopus; " hie jacet in aquilonari 
 porticu ad S. Johannem (Glaftonis). Eritwoldus Wintonien- 
 iis (1. Wiltonienfis) epifcopus, obiit A. D. 1045; hie fepultus 
 fuit cum Brithwio in eadem ecclcfia in parte aquilonari.'* 
 Monaft. Angl, vol. i. p. 9. — " In ambabus porticibus Co- 
 ventrize jacent aedificatores loci prjEcellentiflimi conjuges." 
 (Scil. conies Lcofricus et Godiva comitifla uxor ejus, qui 
 Leofricus obiit A. D. 1057.) Ibid. p. 302. In all the 
 
 above - 
 
ESSAY. 29 
 
 To make thefe leveral paflages in Bede conflfl- 
 ent, we muil: necefTarily allow that the royal 
 family of Kent and the firft eight archbilhops 
 [20] of Canterbury were all buried in this 
 church ; the former in St. Martin's, or the 
 fouth portico or iflej Auguftin and his five 
 immediate fucceiTors in the north portico or 
 iile ; and Theodore and Berd:wald in the body 
 of the church : for when he fays the two latter 
 were depolited i?i ipfa ecclejia he certainly means 
 
 above-cited places a more confiderable part of the church Is 
 certainly intended by porticus than what is commonlv un- 
 derflood by the church-porch, as it is ufually rendered by 
 our ecclefiaftical writers. It was frequently diftlnguiflied by 
 the name of fome faint ; for we read of Porticus Sti. Martini 
 in St. Augultin's church at Canterbury, Porticus Sti. Gre- 
 gorii in St. Peter's at York, Porticus Sti. Petri at Beverlcv, 
 Porticus Sti. Pauli in St. Andrew's at Rochefter; and other 
 diftinftions of that kind in many of our ancient churches. 
 The reafon of which appears to be, that they were dedicated 
 to the honour of thole faints. Thus we find by king Ed- 
 gar's charter to Thorney abbey, that the church there was 
 «Jedicaled, A. D. 972, to St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Be- 
 nedict ; i. e. the eaft part of the choir, where the altar 
 was placed, to St. Mary, the weftern part to St. Peter, 
 tnd the north porticus to St. Benedi6l. Ibid. p. 243. — 
 From all thefe inftances where the word porticus occurs, it 
 appears that the writers meant by it either what is now 
 commonly called the Jide-iJJe of the church, or fometimes 
 it may be a particular divilion of it, confiding of one arch 
 with its recefs ; as in the following pafiage in Bede's ac- 
 count of the relics and ornaments with which the church 
 of Hexham was furniflied by Acca, who fucceeded Wilfred 
 in that bifliopric A. D. 710 : " Acquifitis undecumque re- 
 liquiis B. apollolorum et martyrum Chrift;i in venerationeni 
 illorum altaria di/iin^is porticibus in hoc ipfam intra muros 
 ecclcfiae poluit." Beds Hift, lib. v. cap, 20. 
 
 no 
 
2C> E. E V . J . B E N T II A M S 
 
 no more by that expreiTion than the nave of 
 body, as dillinguilhed from the lide-ifles. It 
 plainly appears then, that this, which was one 
 of the firit-eredied Saxon churches, coniifted of 
 a nave and two fide-iiles ; but how a church of 
 that form could have been fupported without 
 pillars and arches of ftone, is not eafy to con- 
 ceive ; the very terms indeed feem neceflarily to 
 imply it. The fame remark may be extended 
 and applied to St. Peter's church at York ; 
 which was a fpacious and magnificent fabric of 
 llone, founded A. D. 627, by king Edwin, 
 foon after he was baptized ^ For that it had 
 fuch porticos within, appears from Bede*s rela- 
 tion of the death of king Edwin, who was killed 
 in battle A. D. 6^^, " His head,'* fays he, 
 *' was brought to York, and afterwards carried 
 into the church of the blelled apoftle St. Peter, 
 and depofitedin St. Gregory's portico^." 
 
 Other 
 
 « " Mox ut baptifma confecutus eft (iEdwinus) majorem 
 ct auguftiorem dc lapide fabricare curavit baiilicam." Bedce 
 Hill. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 f '' Adlatum eft caput ^Edwini regis Eburacum,et inlatum 
 poftea in ecclefiam B. apoftoli Petri — pofttum eft in porticu 
 S. I'apse Gregorii." Bcdae Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 20. — Mr. 
 Collier cites this paffage from Bedc, and feems to have 
 adopted the common error of taking porticus for a building 
 vvithout-fide the church ; and thence falfely infers, that it 
 was not the cuftom of that age to bury within-fide. ** King 
 Edwin's head (fays he) was depofited in St. Gregory's porch; 
 from whence we may probably conclude, and his childrea 
 
 before 
 
ESSAY. Jl 
 
 Other notices occur in the fame author of 
 churches built in or near his own time, fome of 
 which are expreffly faid to have been built of 
 ftone, as St. Peter's in York laft mentioned, and 
 the church at Lincoln built by Paulinus, after 
 he had converted Blaecca, prefed: or governor 
 of that city, which was a ftone church of ex- 
 cellent workmanfliip s ; and thofe other churches 
 he fpeaks of might have been of ftone, for aught 
 that appears to the contrary. Bede is indeed ra- 
 ther fparing in his defcription of them ; fo that 
 little is to be colleded from him of their manner 
 of building; he fays nothing in dired terms 
 either of pillars or arches in any of his churches, 
 though the word porticus^ which he frequently 
 ufes, may be faid to im.ply both ; as it certainly 
 does in fome inftances, if not in all. He is a 
 little more particular in his account of St. Peter's 
 church in the monaftery of Wermouth in the 
 neighbourhood of Gyrwi, where he had his edu- 
 cation and lived all his days. This was built 
 by the famous Benedid: Bifcopius ^ : in the year 
 675 this abbat went over into France to engage 
 workmen to build his church after the Roman 
 
 before mentioned, who are faid to have been buried in the 
 church, were only buried in the porch, the cuftom of that 
 age going no further." ColUer's Ch. Hift. vol. i. p. 86. 
 
 * ^' In qua civitate et ecclefiam operis egregii de lapide 
 iecit." Bedae Hift. hb. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 * BedaE Hift. Abbatum Wiremuth, et Gyrw. p. 295. 
 
 manner 
 
32 REV. J. BfeNTHAM's 
 
 manner (as it is there called), and brought thenl 
 over with him for that purpofe. He profecuted 
 this work with extraordinary zeal and diligence j 
 infomuch that within the compafs of a year 
 after the foundations were laid, he caufed the 
 roof to be put on, and divine fervice to be per- 
 formed in it. Afterwards, when the building was 
 nearly [21] finillied, he fent over to France for 
 artificers fl-cilled in the myftery of making glafs 
 (an art till that time' unknown to the inhabit- 
 ants of Britain), to glaze the windows both of 
 the porticos and the principal parts of the 
 church ; which work they not only executed ^ 
 but taught the Englifli nation that mofl: ufeful 
 art. 
 
 We have ftill more certain and explicit ac- 
 counts of churches built in the northern parts of 
 the kingdom during this century, in which both 
 
 ' What Bedc here affirms of abbat Benedi6l, that he firft 
 introduced the art of making glafs into this kingdom, is by- 
 no means inconfiftent with Eddius's account of bilhop Wil- 
 frid's glazing the windows of St. Peter's church at York 
 about the year 669, i. e. feven or eight years before this 
 time. For glafs might have been imported from abroad by 
 Wilfrid ; but Benedict firft brought over the artills, who 
 taught the Saxons the art of making glafs. — ^That the win- 
 dows in churches were u<iially glazed in that age abroad, as 
 w-ell as in thefe parts, we learn from Bede; who, fpcaking 
 of the church on mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerufa- 
 1cm, fays, in the weft front of it were eight windows, which 
 on fi;me occafions ufed to be illuminated with lamps, which 
 fhone fo bright through the glafs that the mount feemed in 
 a blaze. Beda; Lib. de Locis fandtis, cap, 6. 
 
 pillars 
 
ESSAY. 33 
 
 pillars and arches are exprefsly mentioned. Ed- 
 diiis, who was contemporary with Bede, wrote 
 the Hfe of Wilfrid bifhop of York, and, among 
 other things, informs us of many religious 
 ftrudlures eredled by that magnificent prelate; 
 feveral of which, as appears by his defcription, 
 were very elegant and fumptuous buildings ; 
 befides which, he thoroughly repaired the 
 church of St. Peter in York^, which had re- 
 ceived great injuries in the wars between Penda 
 king of Mercia and the Northumbrians, a few 
 years after it was finifhed ; he put on a new 
 roof, and covered it with lead, and glazed the 
 windows^, about the year 669. 
 
 The churches founded by Wilfrid, and par- 
 ticularly defcribed by Eddius, are the conventual 
 church of Rippon in Yorkfliire, and the cathe- 
 dral church of Hexham in Northumberland ; of 
 the former he gives this account : He raifed on 
 high and completed the church in Rippon, from 
 the foundations in the ground to its utmofl 
 height, with hewn ftone, and fupported it with 
 various kinds of pillars and porticos"'. — This 
 
 elegant 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ Eddii Stephanl Vita S. Wilfridl, inter XV. Scriptores, 
 cap. xvi. p. 59. edit. Gale. 
 
 * " Primum culmina corrupta tefti renovans, artificiofe 
 plumbo puro tegens, per feneftras introitum avium et im- 
 brium vitro prohibuit, per quod tanien intro lumen radiebat»" 
 Ibid. 
 
 m i( In Hrypis bafilicam polito lapide a fundamentis in 
 
 D terra 
 
34 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 elegant church, foon after it was iinifhed, was 
 with great folemnity confecrated by himfelf, and 
 dedicated to the honour of St. Peter, in the 
 prefence of king Egfrid, and all theabbats and 
 great men of that kingdom. But of all the 
 churches built in that age, that of St. Andrew 
 in Hexham deferves our particular notice. 
 Hexham, with the adjoining territory, was 
 part of the crown-land of the kings of North- 
 umberland, and being fettled in dower by king 
 Egfrid on his queen St. Etheldreda, bifhop 
 Wilfrid, with the king's confent, obtained a 
 grant of it, in order to raife it to an epifcopal 
 fee". In the year 674, Wilfrid begun the 
 foundation of this celebrated church, and Eddius 
 fpeaks with great admiration of it in this man- 
 ner: ** Its deep foundations, [22] and the many 
 fubterraneous rooms there artfully difpofcd, and 
 above ground the great variety of buildings to be 
 feen, all of hewn ftone, and fupported by fun- 
 dry kinds of pillars and many porticos, and {ct 
 off by the furprifing length and height of the 
 walls, furrounded with various mouldings and 
 bands curioufly wrought, and the turnings and 
 
 terra ufque ad fummum eedificatam, varils columnis et por- 
 licibus fufFultam in altum erexit et confummavit.'^ Eddii 
 Vita Wilfridi, ut fupra, cap. xvii. p. 59. 
 
 " Malmefb. de Geftis Pontif. Angl. p. 272. — Rich. Prior 
 Hagulft. de Statu Ecclefiae, 8cc. lib. i. cap. 2, 3. 7. — ^Lib. 
 Elien. MS. fol. ii. 
 
 4 windings 
 
ESSAY. 35 
 
 windings of the pafTages, fometimes afcending 
 or defcending by winding ftairs to the different 
 parts of the building ; all which it is not eafy 
 to exprefs or defcribe by words, &c. neither is 
 there any church of the like fort to be found on 
 this fide the Alpes°." 
 
 Richard prior of Hexham, who flourifhed 
 about A. D. 1 1 80, in whofe time this famous 
 church was flanding, though in a decaying 
 flate, more fully defcribes the manner of its 
 buildingP; ** The foundations of this church," 
 
 fays 
 
 " '* Nam in Haguftaldenfe adepta regione et (1. a) reglna 
 jfEthildrite Domino dedicala, domum Domino in honorera 
 beati Andreae apofloli fabrefa6lam fundavit : cujus profiin- 
 ditatem in terra cum domibus mlrifice politis lapidibus 
 fundatam, et fuper terram multiplicem domum, columnis 
 variis et porticibus multis fufFultam, mirabilique longltudine 
 et altitudine murorum ornatam, et variis linearum anfra£ti- 
 bus, viarum aliquando furfum aliquando deorfum per coch- 
 leas circumdudlam, non eft me^e parvitatis hoc fermone ex- 
 plicare quod fanftus ipfe praeful animarum, a Spiritu Dei 
 doftus, opere facereexcogitavitj nequeullam domum aliam 
 citra Alpes montes talem aedificatam audivimus." Eddii Vita 
 Wilfridi, cap. xxii. p. 62. 
 
 p " Profunditatem ipfius ecclefiae criptis et oratoriis fubter- 
 raneis, et viarum anfraftibus, inferius cum magna induftria 
 fundavit : parietes autem quadratis et variis et bene politis 
 columpnis fufFultos, et tribus tabulatis diftinftos immenfaa 
 longitudinis et altitudinis erexit : ipfos etiam et capitella 
 columpnarum quibus fuftentantur, et arcum fanftuarii hif- 
 toriis et imaginibus et variis celaturarum figuris ex lapide 
 prominentibus et pi(Sturarum et colorum grata varietate 
 mirabilique decore decoravit : ipfum quoque corpus ecclefias 
 appenticiis et porticibus undique circumcinxit, quae miro 
 atque inexplicabili artificio per parietes et cocleas inferius et 
 fuperius diftinxit : in ipfis vero cocleis et fuper ipfas, afcen- 
 
 £> 2 foria 
 
36 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 fays he, ** St. Wilfrid laid deep in the earth for 
 the crypts and oratories, and the paffages lead- 
 ing to them, which were there with great 
 exad:nefs contrived and built under-ground : 
 the walls, which were of great length and 
 raifed to an immenfe height, and divided into 
 three feveral ftories or tiers, he fupported by 
 fquare and various other kinds of well-poliflied 
 columns. Alfo the walls, the capitals of the 
 columns which fupported them, and the arch 
 of the fancSuary, he decorated with hiftorical 
 reprefentations, imagery, and various figures in 
 relief, carved in ftone, and painted with a mofl: 
 agreeable variety of colours. The body of the 
 church he encompaffed about with pentices and 
 porticos, which both above and below he di- 
 vided with great and inexpreffible art, by par- 
 tition-walls and winding flairs. Within the 
 ilaircafes, and above them, he caufed flights of 
 
 foria ex lapide et deambulatoria, et varies viarum am- 
 fradtus modo furfum modo deorfum artificiofiffime ita 
 machinari fecit, ut innumera hominum multitudo ibi 
 exiftere, et ipfum corpus ecclefiae circumdare poffit, cum 
 a nemine tamen infra in ea exiflentium videri queat: 
 oratoria quoque quam plurima fuperius et inferius fecre- 
 tiflima et pulclierrima in ipfis porticibus cum maxima 
 diligentia et cautela conftituit, in quibus altaria in honore 
 B. Dei genitricis femperque virginis Marise et S. Michaelis 
 archangcli fanftique Johannis Bapt. et fan6lorum apoilo- 
 lorum, martyrum, confeflbrum, atque virginvun^ cum eoruni 
 apparitibus honeftiffime proeparari fecit: unde etiam ufque 
 hodie qujedam illorum ut turres et propugnacula fuperemi- 
 nent." Richardi Prioris Haguft. lib. i. cap. 3. 
 
 fleps 
 
ESSAY. 37 
 
 fleps and galleries of ftone, and feveral palTages 
 leading from them, both for afcending and 
 defcending, to be fo artfully difpofed, that 
 multitudes of people might be there, and go 
 quite round the church, without being feen by 
 any one below in the nave : moreover, in the 
 feveral divifions of [23] the porticos or ifles 
 both above and below, he ere(fted many moft 
 beautiful and private oratories of exquifite 
 workmanfhip ; and in them he caufed to be 
 placed altars in honour of the bleffed Virgin 
 Mary, St. Michael, St. John Baptift, and holy 
 apoftles, martyrs, confeflbrs, and virgins, with 
 all decent and proper furniture to each of them ; 
 feme of which remaining at this day, appear 
 like fo many turrets and fortified places." He 
 alfo mentions fome other particulars of this 
 church, and concludes with telling us, ** It 
 appears from ancient hiftory and chronicles, that 
 of all the nine monafteries over which that ve- 
 nerable bifhop prefided, and of all others 
 throughout England, this church of St. Andrew 
 in Hexham was the moll elegant and fumptu- 
 ous, and that its equal was not to be met with 
 on this fide the Alpesi.** The fame hiftorian 
 further informs us, that there were in his time 
 at Hexham two other churches'; one not far 
 
 ' Richard. Prior. Haguftal. lib. i. cap. 3. 
 ! Ibid. cap. 4. 
 
 P 3 from 
 
jS REV. J. bentham's 
 
 from the wall of the mother church, of admi- 
 rable work, built in form of a tower, and almofl 
 circular, having on the four principal points fo 
 many porticos, and was dedicated to the honour 
 of the blefled Virgin Mary ; the other, a little 
 further off, dedicated to St. Peter; befides a third 
 on the other fide of the river Tine, about a mile 
 diftant from the town, dedicated to St. Michael 
 the archangel'; and that the general tradition 
 was, that thefe three churches were founded 
 by bifhop Wilfrid, but finilhed by his fucceffor 
 Acca. 
 
 It may be colleded from Bede', that churches 
 and monafteries were very fcarce in Northum- 
 berland about the middle of this century ; but 
 before the end of it, feveral very elegant ones 
 were eredled in that kingdom, owing chiefly to 
 the noble fpirit of Wilfrid bifhop of York. This 
 prelate was then in high favour with Ofwi and 
 Egfrid kings of Northumberland, and moft of 
 the nobility of that kingdom; by whofe un- 
 bounded liberality in lands, and plate and jewels, 
 and all kind of rich furniture, he rofe to a 
 degree of opulency as to vie with princes in 
 ftate and magnificence; and this enabled him to 
 found feveral rich monafteries, and build fuch 
 ftately edifices in thofe parts as cannot but excite 
 
 ' BedaeHift. lib. v. cap. 2. line 17. 
 
 ! Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 14. and lib. iii, cap. 2. 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 39 
 
 the admiration of pofterity^. To profecute 
 thefe great undertakings, he gave all due en- 
 couragement to the moft fkilful builders and 
 artificers of every kind, eminent in their feveral 
 ways, and by proper rewards always kept them 
 in his fervice, to the great advantage and emo- 
 lument of his country : fome of thefe he pro- 
 cured at Canterbury, when he had prevailed 
 on Eddius and Eona to undertake the inftrudt- 
 ing his choirs in the Roman manner of fing- 
 ing'': other eminent builders and artifls he in- 
 vited, or brought over with him from Rome, 
 Italy, France, and other countries for that pur- 
 pofe'^: and, according to [24] Malmefbury and 
 Eddius, was eminent for his knowledge and fkill 
 in the fcience of architecture, and himfelf the 
 principal diredtor in all thofe works, in concert 
 with thofe excellent mailers whom the hopes of 
 preferment had invited from Rome and other 
 
 " The famous abbat Benedi6l Bifcopius, fometime com- 
 panion of Wilfrid in his travels, was about that time en- 
 gaged in the fame noble defigns, and founded the monafte- 
 ries of St. Peter and St. Paul at Wermouth and Gyrwi. 
 
 ' '' Cum cantoribus ^Edde et Eona, et caementariis, om- 
 nifque pene artis minifterio in regionem fuam revertens, cum 
 regula Benedi6li inftituta eccleliarum Dei bene melioravit." 
 Eddii Vit. S. Wilfridi, cap. xiv. Bedoe Hifl. Eccl. lib. iv. 
 cap. 2. 
 
 " ** De Roma quoque, et Italia, et Francla, et de aliis terrls 
 ubicumqueinvenire poterat, caementarios, et quoflibet alios 
 induftrios artifices fecum retinuerat, et ad opera fua facienda 
 fecum in Angliam adduxerat." Richard. Prior. Hagulft. 
 lib. i. cap. 5. 
 
 D 4 places 
 
40 REV. J. BENTHAM S 
 
 places^ to execute thofe excellent plans which 
 he had formed. But of all his works the 
 church of Hexham was the firft and moft fump- 
 tuous, and, as far as appears, was never equalled 
 by any other in this kingdom whilft the Saxons 
 continued to govern : indeed, there was no 
 period fince the eftablifhment of Chriftianity 
 among them, in which thofe polite and elegant 
 arts that embellifh life and adorn the country 
 feem to have made fo great advances as during 
 the time he continued in favour. Neither was 
 his fame confined to the kingdom of North- 
 umberland ; his great abilities and reputation for 
 learning gained him refped: in the other king- 
 doms of the heptarchy : Wulfere and Ethelred 
 kings of Mercia often invited him thither to 
 perform the epifcopal office among them, and 
 for his advice and inftrudtions in founding feve- 
 ral monafteries. He alfo happily finiflied the 
 converfion of the heptarchy, by preaching the 
 gofpel to the kingdom of the South Saxons, 
 containing what are now the counties of Surry 
 and SufTex, the only one which remained till 
 that time unconverted ; for which end he had 
 
 3t i( 
 
 Ibi (apud Haguftaldhem) a2dificia minaci altitudine mu- 
 rorum ereda, mirabile quantum expolivit, arbitratu quidem 
 multa proprio, fed et casmentariorum, quos ex Roma fpes 
 munificentiae attraxerat, magifterio, &c." Will. Malmefb. 
 de Geftis Pontif. Angl. p. 272. Eddii Vit. S. Wilfvidi, 
 cap. xxii. 
 
 been 
 
ESSAY. 41 
 
 been kindly entertained by king Edilvvalch, who 
 gave him the peninfula of Selefea >' ; where alfo 
 he founded a monaftery, in which the epifcopal 
 fee was at firft placed, but afterwards removed 
 to Chichefter. And that the church and mo- 
 naftery at Ely, founded by St. Etheldreda, were 
 built under his direction feems highly probable, 
 as from many other circumflances, fo in parti- 
 cular from what is related by the Ely hiftorian ^ ; 
 viz. That he fpent a confiderable time with her 
 on her coming to Ely, in fettling the economy 
 of her convent, was entrufted with the whole 
 conducting of her affairs, and (if I rightly un- 
 derftand his meaning) formed the plan of her 
 monaftery j though the neceffary funds for car- 
 
 y BedcE Hill. Eccl. lib. iv. cap. 13. Eddii Vit. S. Wil- 
 fridi, cap. xl. 
 
 ^ " Solus autem Wilfridus pontifex, quern virgo regina 
 prae omnibus in regno dileftum et eleclum habuerat, fuis 
 tunc neceflitalibus proviforem adhibuit, jura illic admini- 
 ftravit epifcopalia ; a quo, licut in Beda legitur, fada eft 
 abbatifla." Lib. Elien. MS. lib, i. cap. 15. 
 
 " Poft modicum fratris fui memorati regis Aldulfi auxillis 
 majore inibi (in Ely) conftrutto monafterio virginum Deo 
 devotarum perplurium, mater virgo et exemplis vitae ccepit 
 efle et monitis, quarum ufibus ex integro infulam confti- 
 tuit." Ibid. 
 
 *^ Santlus Wilfridus — ut earn in Ely defcendifTe cognove- 
 rat, feftinus advolat, de anims commodis, de ftatu mentis, 
 de qualitate converfationis traclatur. Deinde in abbatiflae 
 officio earn gregemque illic adunatum confecravit, locum fua 
 difpofitione conjiituit, feque in omnibus folicitum exhibuit ; 
 ubi vitam non folum fibi, fed cunclis ibidem exiftentibus 
 utilem aliquanto tempore duxit ; a quo ipfa plurimum rc- 
 gendi coniilium et vitoe folatium habuit." Ibid. cap. xvi. 
 
 rym 
 
 <T 
 
j^2, REV. J. BENTHAM S 
 
 rying on the work, he tells us, were fuppHed 
 by her brother Aldulfus king of the Eaft 
 Angles. There are very confiderable ruins of 
 this ancient Saxon monaflery at Ely flill in 
 being, efpecially of the church that belonged to 
 it; — what kind of fabric that was, we flrall be 
 the better able to determine when we come to 
 take a view of thofe venerable remains, and fhall 
 give a more particular defcription of them [25] 
 in the ftate they now are. In the mean time I 
 fhall proceed in fome further obfervations on 
 the ftate of archite(5ture among the Saxons, and 
 fhow not only that the opinion which fome 
 authors have entertained of their churches and 
 monafleries, as if they were ufually wooden 
 fabrics, is erroneous, and has no foundation in 
 true hiftory; but alfo that very elegant ftone 
 buildings fupported by pillars and arches were 
 very common with them. 
 
 In the beginning of the 8th century the fame 
 flyle of architediure that was ufed here in Eng- 
 land by the Saxons was making its way into the 
 more northern parts of this ill and ; for Bede 
 tells us ^, that in the year 710 Naiton king of 
 the Pi(5ls, in a letter he wrote to Ceolfrid abbat 
 ofGyrwi, informed him, among other things, 
 of his intending to build a church of ilone to 
 
 * Bedse Hift, Eccl. lib. v. cap. 21. 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 43 
 
 the honour of St. Peter; requefting, at the fame 
 time, to fend him fome artificers to build it 
 after the Roman manner. Hence it fhould 
 feem that the flyle of architecture generally ufed 
 in that age in England was called the Roman 
 manner, and was the fame that was then ufed 
 at Rome in Italy, and in other parts of the 
 empire. 
 
 About the fame time, A. D. 716, Ethelbald 
 king of Mercia founded the monaflery of Croy- 
 land in Lincolnfhire". The foil was marfhy, 
 and not well able to fupport a fabric of ftone : 
 in which circumfbances a timber building might 
 be thought moft expedient, on account of its 
 lightnefs, had fuch been generally ufed in that 
 age. However, we find the king caufed a vafl 
 number of large oaken piles to be driven into 
 the ground, and more folid earth to be brought 
 in boats nine miles by water, and laid thereon, 
 to make it the more found and commodious for 
 building; and then laid the foundation of the 
 church of Hone, which he finifhed, and alfo 
 all the necefTary offices of that monaftery, on 
 which he beftowed many ornaments and privi- 
 leges, and liberally endowed it. 
 
 But perhaps one of the moft complete Saxon 
 churches that we have any authentic account of, 
 
 ! Jngulphi Hift. Croyland. p. i^. 
 
 is 
 
44 HEY, J, bentham's 
 
 is that of St. Peter in York, as it was rebuilt 
 about the middle of the 8th century. The 
 church founded there by king Edwin, and 
 finifhed by his fucceflor king Ofwald, and af- 
 terwards repaired by bifhop Wilfrid, as men- 
 tioned before, having received great damage by a 
 fire which happened in the year 741 "^y archbifhop 
 Albert, who was promoted to that fee A.D. 767, 
 thought proper to take it wholly down and rebuild 
 it. This Albert was of a noble family, and a 
 native of York; in his younger days he was fent 
 by his parents to a monaftery, where, making a 
 great proficiency in learning, he was ordained 
 a deacon and afterwards a prieft j. being taken 
 into the family of archbifhop Egbert, to whom 
 he was nearly related in blood, he was by him 
 preferred to the mafterfhip of the celebrated 
 fchool at York, where he employed himfelf in 
 educating youth in grammar, rhetoric, and 
 poetry ; and taught alfo aftronomy, natural phi- 
 lofophy, and divinity. He afterwards travelled, 
 and vifited Rome, and the moft eminent feats 
 of learning abroad, and was folicited by feveral 
 foreign princes to ftay, but declined it j and re- 
 turning home, he brought [26] with him a fine 
 collection of books he had met with in his tra- 
 vels, and foon after^ was made archbifhop of 
 
 "* Chron. Mailrof. Simeon Dunelra. & Hoveden ad an- 
 num 741. Tanner's Notit. Monaft. p. 627. 
 
 York. 
 
ESSAY. 45 
 
 York. Finding his church in a ruinous con- 
 dition, occafioned probably by the late fire, and 
 perhaps not lufficiently repaired fince that acci- 
 dent, he determined to take it wholly down, and 
 to rebuild it. The principal architeds he em- 
 ployed in that work were two of his own church, 
 and who had received their education under him, 
 namely, Eanbald (who afterwards fucceeded 
 him in the fee of York) and the famous Alcuin; 
 both of them reckoned among the moft learned 
 men of that age ; who, with great zeal and una- 
 nimity, begun, carried on, and finifhed it in a 
 few years; and, as appears by the defcription, 
 executed the work in a moft fumptuous and 
 magnificent manner. Albert juft lived to fee 
 his church completed : for growing old and 
 infirm, he either r<ffigned his fee, or took Ean- 
 bald, his intended fucceftbr, for his coadjutor 
 in the epifcopal office, for the three or four laft 
 years of his life ; and they both afi^ifted at the 
 confecration of it only ten days before his death, 
 which happened, according to Alcuin, Novem- 
 ber the 8th, 780. His noble collecftion of books 
 he depofited in the library at York, probably 
 the fame which is faid to have been founded by 
 archbifhop Egbert ^ ; but which he greatly aug- 
 mented by the addition of all thofe he had pro- 
 
 * Willielm. Malmefburienf. de Pontificibus Angl. lib.iii. 
 f. 153. 
 
 cured 
 
 < 
 
46 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 cured in his travels abroad ; and committed 
 them to the cuftody of the learned Alcuin, who 
 gratefully celebrates the memory of his pa- 
 tron, and ranks him in the higheft clafs amongfl 
 men of eminence in that age for learning, piety, 
 and munificence ; and has at the fame time left 
 us a defcription of this church, which I (hall 
 give below in his own words ^. 
 
 From the defcription here given, in which 
 the principal members and requifites of a com- 
 plete and finifhed edifice are exprefled, pillars, 
 arches, vaulted roofs, windows, porticos, gal- 
 leries, and variety of altars, with their proper 
 
 * '^ Aft nova bafilicse mirse ftru6lura diebus 
 Prsefulis hujus erat jam coepta, perafta, facrata. 
 Haec nimis alta domus folidis fufFulta columnis, 
 Suppofita quae ftant curvatis arcubus, intus 
 Emicat egregiis laquearibus atque feneftris, 
 Pulchraque porticibus fulget circumdata multis, 
 Plurima diverfis retinens folaria te6lis. 
 Quae triginta tenet variis ornatibus aras. 
 Hoc duo difcipuli templum, do6lore jubente, 
 ^dificarunt Eanbaldus et Alcuinus, ambo 
 Concordes operi devota mente ftudentes. 
 Hoc tamen ipfe pater focio cum prasfule templum 
 Ante die decima quam clauderet ultima vitae 
 Lumina praefentis, Sophias facraverat almae.'* 
 
 This account of archbiftiop Albert, and his rebuilding 
 St. Peter's church in York, is extrafted from Alcuin's poem 
 De Pontificibus et SanSiis Ecchfia Ebor. publifhed by Dr. 
 Gale, A. D. 1691, in which his life is more fully wrote. 
 The name of Albert is barely mentioned by bifhop Godwin, 
 in his catalogue of bifliops ; though his great learning, 
 piety, and munificence, well deferve to have his name 
 tranfmilted to lateft pofterity, 
 
 ornaments 
 
ESSAY* 47 
 
 ornaments and decorations, the reader will in 
 fome meafure be able to form a judgment of the 
 whole, and be apt to conclude that architecflure 
 was carried in that age to fome confiderable de- 
 gree of perfediion. 
 
 Mr. Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting 
 in England, and incidental notes on other Arts, 
 obfervess, ** that as all the other arts w^re for- 
 merly confined to cloifters, fo alfo was archi- 
 ted:ure too ; and that when we read that fuch a 
 bifhop or fuch an abbat built fuch and fuch an 
 edifice, they often gave the plans as ell as 
 furnifhed the necelTary funds." The juftnefs 
 of this obfervation appears in this instance of 
 rebuilding [27] St. Peter's in York, of which 
 Eanbald and Alcuin were the chief architecfts ; 
 in that of the church belonging to Gyrwi mo- 
 naftery, built by abbat Benedid: Bifcopius ; and 
 thofe of the churches of Rippon, Hexham, and 
 Ely, by bifhop Wilfrid ; and in many other 
 inftances that occur in hiflory, fome of which 
 may be taken notice of afterwards. And 
 indeed it is highly probable that the principal 
 architects of many or mofl of our beft churches 
 and monafleries, both in this and fucceed- 
 ing ages, were fome or other of thofe religi- 
 ous focieties themfelves, who, generally fpeak- 
 
 * Vol. i. p. no. 
 
48 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 ing, wanted only inferior artifts and workmen 
 to carry their defigns into execution ; and even 
 of thefe they were in part fupplied out of their 
 own houfes, where the elegant and polite arts, 
 particularly thofe of fculpture and painting, were 
 much cultivated and improved. 
 
 In the 9th century the frequent and almofi: 
 continual invafions of this kingdom by the 
 Danes introduced the greatefl: diforder and con- 
 fufion in the ftate, and brought it almofl to the 
 brink of ruin. War, and its neceffary attend- 
 ants, the defolation and deftrudlion of our 
 churches, monafleries, and other edifices, both 
 public and private, with the (laughter of the 
 inhabitants, take up the greateft part of the 
 annals of thofe times. Meanwhile arts and 
 fciences, which in the lafl century had been in 
 a very flourifhing condition, began to be neg- 
 ledled ; and religion and learning loft their pro- 
 per influence on men*s minds, and were finking 
 apace into difrepute and contempt ^. In the 
 midft of thefe public calamities, however, it 
 pleafed Providence to raife to the throne Alfred, 
 worthily furnamed the Great'. The vigorous 
 meafures he purfued to refcue his country from 
 the hands of thofe barbarous invaders of it, and 
 to reftore it to its former luftre, deferve the 
 
 ^ AflTer. de Rebus Geftis Alfredi, p. 27. 
 ! Floren. Wigorn. A. D. 871. 
 
 higheft 
 
ESgAY. 49 
 
 higheft encomiums. Engaged as he was in 
 continual wars, during his whole reign of near 
 thirty years, he never ceafed to exert his utmoft 
 endeavours to reftore religion and learning, to 
 promote commerce, to cultivate and improve 
 all the fine and elegant arts ''. His court was 
 the refort of learned men of all profeffions, as 
 well his own fubje<5ts as foreigners, invited 
 thither from the neighbouring kingdoms, and 
 retained there by proper rewards \ Among his 
 other accomplifhments, he was fkilful in archi- 
 tecture, and excelled his predecelTors in elegance 
 of building and adorning his palaces '" ; in con- 
 ftrudting large fhips for the fecurity of his 
 coafts ", and eredling caftles in convenient parts 
 of the kingdom o Indeed architecture before 
 this time had been almofl wholly confined to 
 religious ftrudiures; but now was, by Alfred 
 and his two immediate fucceffors, chiefly ap- 
 plied to military purpofes, in ere(5ting fortrefles 
 and towers, and in building and repairing 
 walled towns, become neceflary to curb the 
 infolence and perfidy of the Danes ; and thus 
 by adding to the defence and fecurity, he alfo 
 greatly improved the face of the country °, He 
 
 •^ Matth. Weflm. ad an. 888. 
 * Ingulphi Hill. p. 27. edit. Gale. 
 «> Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 871 8c 887. 
 " MaUh. Weftm. ad an. 897. 
 ° Ingulphi Hift. p. 27. 
 
 £ alfo 
 
5Q REV. J. bentham's 
 
 alfo encouraged the repairing of churches, 
 founded two monafteries, and reftored fome 
 others P: and to all thefe great works he allotted, 
 and conftantly expended, a confiderable part of 
 his revenue 1. But the mifchiefs the kingdom 
 had fuftained were immenfe, and the evils too 
 heavy to be foon removed, and indeed required 
 more than one age to do it; for it is certain 
 that neither the exalted genius nor the ad:ive 
 zeal even of the great Alfred himfelf were [28] 
 ever able effed:ually to remove them. Part of 
 this work, however, was carried on by his fuc- 
 cefTor in the next age. 
 
 Edward his fon, who fucceeded him in the 
 year 900, though inferior to his father in learn- 
 ing, furpalTed him in martial glory '. His ge- 
 nius too was turned to architecfture, but it was 
 chiefly military ; he built fortrefles in different 
 parts of the kingdom, encompaffed cities and 
 great towns with walls and other means of de- 
 fence, to check the fudden incurfions of the 
 Danes ; out of whofe hands he wrefted the 
 kingdoms of the Eall Angles and Northumber- 
 land, and obliged the Scots and Welfh to own 
 
 ' Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 887. 
 ' Ibid.— Matth. Weftm. ad an. 888. 
 ' Matth. Weftm. et Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 901. Ingulphi 
 Hift. p. 28. 
 
 his 
 
ESSAY. 51 
 
 his foverelgnty^ He is fiiid to have repaired 
 the univerlity of Cambridge ', after it had 
 been burnt by the Danes ; though whether is 
 meant of reftoring it as a feat of learning, or 
 only rebuilding the town, is not clear. Some 
 churches and monafteries, indeed, were founded 
 or repaired in his reign, in that of Athelftan^, 
 and his immediate fucceffors ; but the more ge- 
 neral reftoration of them was referved for the 
 peaceable times of king Edgar. 
 
 Edgar is faid to have founded more than 
 forty monafleries '' ; but they were chiefly fuch 
 as had been deilroyed by the Danes, and were 
 either in pofleflion of the fecular clergy, or had 
 lain defo late to that time; and fo may more 
 properly be faid to have been repaired only, and 
 reftored to their former ufe : — however, feveral 
 monafleries were firft founded in his time ; and 
 by the accounts we have of them, it appears that 
 fome new improvements in architecture had 
 lately been made, or were about that time in- 
 troduced. The famous abbey of Ramfey in 
 
 ' Matth. Weftm. ad an. 907. Flor. Wlgorn. ad an. 
 
 921. 
 
 ' Kudborne, Angl. Sacr. vol. i. p. 209. 
 
 " Ingulphi Hift. p. 29. — Matth. Weftm. ad an. 939 — 
 Malmefb. de Pontif. lib. v. p. 362. edit. Gale, inter xv. 
 Scriptores. 
 
 ' Matth. Weftm. et Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 957. — " Non 
 fuit in Anglia monafterium five ecclefia cujus nonemendaret 
 cultum vel sedificia." Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 E 2 Hunt- 
 
^2 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 Huntingdonfliire ^^ was one of thefe j and was 
 founded by Ail win alderman of all England, 
 as he is ftyled, with the affiftance of Ofwald 
 bifhop of Worcefler, afterwards archbifhop of 
 York. All the offices and the church belonging 
 to this monaftery were new built under the di- 
 redlion of Ednoth one of the monks of Wor- 
 cefter, fent thither for that purpofe. This 
 church, which was fix years in building, was 
 finifhed in the year 974, and in the fame year, 
 on the 8th of November, with great folemnity, 
 dedicated by Ofwald, then raifed to the archi- 
 epifcopal fee of York, affifted by Alfnoth bifhop 
 of the diocefe, in the prefence of Ailwin and 
 other great men. By a defcription given of this 
 church in the hiflory of that abbey "", it appears 
 to have had •"' two towers raifed above the roof, 
 one of them at the weft end of the church, af- 
 fording a noble profpedt at a diftance to them 
 that approached the ifland ; the other, which 
 was larger, was fupported by four pillars in the 
 middle of the building, where it divided in four 
 parts, being conned:ed together by arches, which 
 
 '" Hift. Ramefienlis, cap. xx. p. 399. inter xv. Scriptores, 
 edit, per Gale. 
 
 ^ *'Duoequoque turres ipfis tetlorum culminibus emine- 
 bant, quarum minor verfus occidentem in fronte bafilicje 
 pulchrum intrantibus infulam a longe fpedaculum praebe- 
 bat 5 major vero in quadrilida; ilrudlura medio columnas 
 quatuor, porre6lis de alia ad aliam arcubus fibi inviceru 
 connexas, ne laxe defluercnl, deprimcbat." Ibid. 
 
 extended 
 
ESSAY. 5^ 
 
 extended to other adjoining arches, to keep 
 them from giving way.'* From this pafTagc 
 one may eafily colledl, that the plan of this new 
 church was a crofs, with fide-ifles, and was 
 adorned with two [29] towers, one in the weft 
 front, and the other in the interfedlion of the 
 crofs ; a mode of building, I apprehend, which 
 had not then been long in ufe here in England ; 
 for it is obvious to remark, that in the defcrip- 
 tions we have remaining of the more ancient 
 Saxon churches, as particularly thofe of St. 
 Andrew's at Hexham and St. Peter's at York^, 
 fully enough defcribed; not a word occurs, by 
 which it can be inferred that thefe, or indeed any 
 other of them, had either crofs buildings or 
 high towers raifed above the roofs ; but, as far 
 as we can judge, were moftly fquare^, or rather 
 oblong buildings, and generally turned circular 
 at the eaft end""; in form nearly, if not exactly, 
 refembling the bajilicce, or courts of juftice in 
 
 y See p. 34. 45. 
 
 * St. Peter's at York, begun by king Edwin A. D. 627, 
 is particularly reported by Bede to have been of that form ; 
 *' per quadrum coepit aedificare bafilicam." Bedae Hift. 
 Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 " An ancient church at Abbendon, built about the year 
 675, by Heane the firft abbat of that place, was an oblong 
 building, 1 20 feet in length ^ and, what is Angular, was of 
 a circular form on the well as well as on the call. — '^ Habe- 
 bat in longitudine i2o pedes, et erat rotundum tarn in parte 
 occidentaii quam in parte orientali." Monaft. Angl. vol. i, 
 p. 98. 
 
 E 3 great 
 
^4 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 great cities throughout the Roman empire i 
 many of which were in fadl converted into 
 Chriftian churches^, on the firft eftabhfliment of 
 Chriftianity under Conftantine the Great; and 
 new-ered:ed churches were conftrudled on the 
 fame plan, on account of its manifeft utility for 
 the reception of large affemblies. Hence bajilica 
 was commonly ufed in that and feveral fucceed- 
 ing ages for ecclefia or church, and continued 
 fo even after the form of our churches was 
 changed. Now thefe hafilicce differed in their 
 manner of conftrudtion from the templa ; for the 
 pillars of thefe latter were on the outfide of the 
 building, and confequently their porticos ex- 
 pofed to the weather; but the pillars of the 
 former were within, and their porticos open 
 only towards the nave or main body of the 
 building ; their chief entrance alfo was on one 
 end, the other ufually terminating in a femi- 
 circle: and this, I conceive, was the general 
 form of our oldefl Saxon churches. The plan 
 of the old conventual church at Ely, founded 
 in the year 673, conveys a good idea of it; 
 except that the original circular end having been 
 occaiionally taken down, as I find, in the year 
 1102, and another building, ending alfo in a 
 femicircle, erected in its room. The original 
 form is traced out by dotted lines at j, PI. 5. 
 
 * Caxwlen's Britaunia, col. 780. edit. Gibfon, 
 
 It 
 
ESSAY. ^^ 
 
 It is highly probable that the ufe of bells 
 gave occafion to the firft and moil confiderable 
 alteration that was made in the general plan of 
 our churches, by the neceffity it induced of 
 having ftrong and high-raifed edifices for their 
 reception. The sera indeed of the invention of 
 bells is fomewhat obfcures* and it muft be 
 owned that fome traces of them may be difco- 
 vered in our monafteries even in the feventh 
 century*^; yet I believe one may venture to af- 
 fert, that fuch large ones as required diftincft 
 buildings for their fupport, do not appear to 
 have been in ufe among us till the tenth cen- 
 tury ; about the middle of which we find feveral 
 of our churches were furniflied with them, by 
 the munificence of our kings ^ And the ac- 
 count we have of St. Dunftan's gifts to Malmef- 
 bury abbey, by their hiftorian, plainly fliows 
 they were [30] not very common in that age; 
 for he fays^ the liberality of that prelate con- 
 filled 
 
 ' Vid. Spelmanni GlofT. ad Campana. 
 
 * Bedae Hift. lib. iv. cap. 23. 
 
 • " Ethelftanus rex (circa A. D. 935) dcdit quatuor mag- 
 nas campanas Sto. Cuthberto." Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 40. 
 lin. 52. — " Rex Eadredus duo figna non modica ecclelice 
 Eboracenfi doiiavit." Matth. Welim. ad an. 946. — " Rex 
 Edgarus, circa A. D. 974, ecclefiae Ramefienfi dedit — duas 
 campanas, 20 librarum pretio comparatas." Hift. Rame- 
 lien. cap. xxii. edit. Gale. 
 
 ' S. Dunftanus — " in multis loco munlficus, quae tunc in 
 Anglia magni miraculi effent, decufque et ingenium confe- 
 rentis offerre crebro. Inter qute figna fono et mole prteftan- 
 
 E 4 tia^ 
 
^6 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 fifled chiefly in fuch things as were then won- 
 derful and ftrange in England ; among which 
 he reckons the large bells and organs he gave 
 them. But from this period they became more 
 frequent, and in time the common furniture to 
 our churches. 
 
 Bells, no doubt, at firfl: fuggefted the necef- 
 lity of towers : — towers promifed to the imagi- 
 nation fomething noble and extraordinary, in 
 the uncommon effedls they were capable of pro- 
 ducing by their requifite loftinefs and variety of 
 forms. The hint was improved, and towers 
 were built not only for neceflary ufes, but often 
 for fymmetry and ornament, in different parts 
 of the fabric; and particularly when the plan 
 of a crofs was adopted, the ufefulnefs of fuch 
 a building appeared in the interfecftion of the 
 crofs, adding flrength to the whole, by its in- 
 
 tia; et organa," Sec. Will. Malmefb. de Pontif. lib. v. 
 edit. Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. p. 33. — " Dunftanus, cujus in- 
 duftria refloruit ecclefia (Glallon.) — fecit organa et figna duo 
 prascipua, et campanam in refeftorio." Will. Malmefb. 
 de Antiq. Ghfton. Ecclef. p. 324. edit. Galei. — " Athel- 
 woldus abbas monafterii de Abendon, regnante Edgaro rege, 
 fecit duas campanas, quas in domo (Dei) pofuit, cum aliis 
 duabus, quas B. Dunftanus fecifle perhibetur." Mon. 
 Angl. vol. i. p. 104. lin. 42. 
 
 8 The campanile, or that particular tower allotted for the 
 ufe of bells, was fometimes a diftinft feparate building of 
 itfelf ; but more commonly adjoined to the church, fo as 
 to make part of the fabric, ufually at the weft end. — ^Vid. 
 Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 995. lin. 42. 
 
 4 cumbent 
 
ESSAY. 57 
 
 cumbent weight on that part^. This is the 
 fhort hiftory of the origin of towers and ftee- 
 ples; which always have been, and flill are, 
 confidered as the pride and ornament of our 
 churches. Poflibly thefe innovations might be- 
 gin under king Alfred : the encomiums beftowed. 
 on him as an architedt' look that way, and feem 
 to point at fome notable improvements in that 
 art in his time ; perhaps from models imported 
 from abroad by fome of the learned foreigners 
 he ufually entertained in his court. However, 
 there is room enough for panegyric on that head '^, 
 without afcribing to him ** the re-edifying and 
 reftoring almofl every monaftery in his domi- 
 nions, which either the prevailing poverty of 
 the times, or the facrilegious fury of the Danes, 
 had brought to ruin ; his building many and 
 improving more^:'* all which may with great 
 truth and propriety be applied to king Edgar : 
 it is fufficient to fay, there were two monafteries 
 undoubtedly of Alfred's foundation, Athelney 
 and Shaftefbury. Of the former fome account 
 is given by Malmefbury""; it was fituate on a 
 
 »• See this explained by Sir Chriftopher Wren, in his 
 Letter to Bifhop Sprat, in Widmore's Hift. of Weftminfter 
 Abbey, p. 53. 
 
 ' " In arte architeftonica fummus." Malmelb. de Reg. 
 Angl. 
 
 "^ Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 887. 
 Biographia Britan. under Alfred. 
 
 "> Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 202. 
 
 fm^ill 
 
REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 fmall river-ifland in Somerfetfliire, containing 
 only two acres of firm ground, furrounded with 
 an extenfive morafs, which rendered it difficult 
 of accefs : king Alfred founded it there in pur- 
 fuance of a religious vow, as it had once afforded 
 him a fafe retreat in time of his great diftrefs : 
 ** The church, on account of its confined fitu- 
 ation, was not large, but conftruded in a new- 
 mode of building ; for four piers firmly fixed 
 on the ground fupported the whole flrudlure, 
 having four chancels of a circular form in its 
 circumference"." This [31] church was pro- 
 bably one of his firft effays in archited:ure; a 
 model rather than a finifhed piece, a fpecimen 
 of that new form then introduced, in which 
 one may difcover the rudiments of a crofs and 
 of a tower, w^hich we fipd were afterwards 
 brought to greater perfedion, and were the fa- 
 ihionable improvements in the next age ; as ap- 
 pears by Ailwin*s church at Ram fay above 
 mentioned °. 
 
 Had there been more remains of thefe ancient 
 flrudlures now in being, or had our ecclefiaftical 
 
 iC 
 
 Fecit ecclefiam fitu quldem pro anguftia fpacii modi- 
 cam, fed novo sedificandi modo compaftam ; quatuor enim 
 poftes folo infixi totam fufpendimt machinam, quatuor can- 
 cellis opere fpherico in circuitu du6lis." Ibid. — It is not 
 quite clear, from this defcription, whether it was of Hone or 
 timber. The word pojiesj ufed for the pillars or fupporters, 
 does not, I think, determine either way, 
 ° Page 51, 52. 
 
 writers 
 
ESSAY. 59 
 
 writers been more exprefs, we might at this 
 time have been able to fpeak with greater cer- 
 tainty concerning them : but monuments of that 
 kind are very rare?, and what defcriptions we 
 have are moftly exprefled in fuch general terms 
 as give little or no fatisfacftion in the particulars 
 w^e want to know. Sir Chriftopher Wren, 
 fpeaking of the old abbey church of Weftmin- 
 fter, built by king Edgar, gives his opinion of 
 what kind of archited;ure the Saxons iifed^: 
 '* This, 'tis probable, was a good flrong build- 
 ing, after the manner of the age, not much 
 altered from the Roman w^y. We have fome 
 
 ^ The Saxon way of building was, as Sir Chriftopher 
 Wren obferves, very ftrong. There were many cathedral 
 and conventual churches of that kind at the time of the 
 Conqueft, which might therefore probably have continued 
 to this day, had they not been pulled down, or fuffered to 
 run to ruin by negle6l : one principal caufe of which was 
 the removal of the bilhops' fees (fome of which had been 
 placed in villages or fmall towns) to cities and more popu- 
 lous places, by the council of London, A. D. 107 8. This 
 occaiioned the old Saxon cathedrals in the deferted fees to be 
 negle6led and fall to decay ; and in thole places where they 
 were fuffered to continue, they were foon after demolifhed,* 
 to make room for the more ftately fabrics of the Normans ; 
 except in fome few inftances, where perhaps fome parts of 
 the old Saxon fabrics may be found incorporated with the 
 then new works of the Normans. The ruin of the reft is 
 ealily accounted for, conlidering what havoc was made of 
 them at their furrender, and the effectual means ufed by the 
 vilitors appointed by king Henry VIII. to deftroy them. 
 See Willis's Hill, of Abbies, vol. i. p. iSo, 181. and vol. ii. 
 Pref. p. 7. 
 
 ' Letter to the Bifhop of Rochefler, in Wren's Parenta- 
 lia, and in Widmore's Hift. of Weftm. Abbey, p. 44. 
 
 forms 
 
6o REV. J. bentiiam's 
 
 forms of this ancient Saxon way, which was 
 with piers, or round pillars (ftronger than Tuf- 
 can or Doric), round-headed arches, and win- 
 dows. Such was Winchefter cathedral of old, 
 and fuch at this day the royal chapel in the 
 White Tower of London, the chapel of St, 
 Crofs*s, the chapel of Chrift-church in Oxford, 
 formerly an old monaftery, and divers others I 
 need not name, built before the Conquefl ; and 
 fuch was St. Paul's, built inking Rufus*s time. 
 Thefe ancient flru6tures were without buttreifes, 
 only with thicker walls; the windows were very 
 narrow and lattifed'; for king Alfred is praifed 
 for inventing lanterns to keep in the lamps in 
 the churches.'* This eminent archited:, I doubt, 
 could not eafily recolle(ft fuch fpecimens of build- 
 ings, as hewas really fatisfied were built before the 
 Conqueft, which his difcourfe naturally led him 
 to inquire after ; for the inftances he brings 
 were undoubtedly ered:ed after that period ; by 
 this, however, he difcovers his own opinion, that 
 the Saxon and Norman architecture was the 
 fame. 
 
 "^ (The windows narrow and lattlfed.) If the meaning 
 be, that the windows before Alfred's time were not glazed 
 — it is apprehended this is a miftake. See p. 32, note i. 
 
 Improvements 
 
ESSAY. 61 
 
 Improvements in ArchiteBure by the Normans, 
 
 OUR hiftorians [32] exprefsly mention a new 
 mode of archited:ure brought into ufe by the 
 Normans, and particularly apply it to the abbey 
 church at Weftminfter, built by king Edward the 
 Confeffor, circa A. D. 1050, in which he was 
 buried'; and afterwards fpeak of it as the pre- 
 vailing mode throughout the kingdom'. This 
 account has not a little perplexed our modern 
 critical inquirers, who are at a lofs to afcertain 
 the real difference between the Saxon and Nor- 
 man mode of building. 
 
 In order, therefore, to reconcile thefe feem- 
 ingly different accounts, it is proper to obferve, 
 that the general plan and difpofition of all the 
 principal parts in the latter Saxon and earliefl 
 Norman churches was the fame : the chief en- 
 trance was at the wefl end into the nave ; at the 
 upper end of that was a crofs, with the arms 
 of it extending north and fouth, and the head 
 
 ' *^ Sepultus eft (rex Edwardus) Londini in ecclefia^ quam 
 ipfe novo compofitionis genere conftruxerat ; a qua poft 
 multi ecclefias conftruentes^ exemplum adepti, opus illud 
 expenfis semulabantur fumptuofis." Matth. Paris Hift. p. i. 
 *^ Ecclefiam aedificationis genere novo fecit.'* W. Malmelb. 
 de Geft. Reg. 
 
 ' " Videas ubique in villis ecclefias, in vicis et urbibus 
 monafteria, novo aedificandi genere confurgere." Malmefb. 
 ibid. p. 102. 
 
 (in 
 
6l REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 (in which was the choir) towards the eafi:, end- 
 ing ufually in a femicircular form : and in the 
 centre of the crofs was a tower; another was 
 frequently added (and fometimes two, for the 
 fake of ornament or fymmetry), to contain the 
 bells j the nave, and often the whole build- 
 ing, was encompafl'ed with inner porticos; 
 the pillars were round, fquare, or angular, and 
 very ftrong and mailive ; the arches and heads 
 of the doors and windows were all of them 
 circular. In thefe refpecls it may perhaps be 
 difficult to point out any confiderable difference 
 between the Saxon and Norman architecture. 
 In a popular fenfe, however, I apprehend there 
 will appear a fufficient diftindtion to entitle the 
 latter a new mode of building, as our hiilorians 
 call it, in refpedt to the former. 
 
 The Saxons, fome time before the ruin of their 
 flate, as Malmefbury obferves'', had greatly fallen 
 from the virtue of their anceftors in religion and 
 learning ; vice and irreligion had gained the af- 
 cendant, and their moral character was at the 
 loweft ebb ; in their way of living they were luxu- 
 rious and expenfive, though their houfes were at 
 the fame time rather low and mean buildings^. 
 
 The 
 
 " De Reglbus Angllae, p. loi. 
 
 T ii Parvis et abjedis domibus totos fumptus abfumebant : 
 Francis et Normannis abfimiles, qui amplis et fuperbis aedi- 
 ficiis modicasexpenfas agunt. — Norinanni eranttunc et fiuit 
 adhuc veiUbus ad invidiam culti, cibis citra uUaai nimieta- 
 
 2, tern 
 
ESSAY. 6'^ 
 
 The Normans, on the contrary, were moderate 
 and abftemious, and delicate withal in their diet; 
 fond of flately and fumptuous houfes ; afFedted 
 pomp and magnificence in their mien and drefs, 
 and likewife in their buildings, public as well as 
 private. They again introduced civility and the 
 liberal arts, reftored learning, and endeavoured 
 to raife again religion from the languid ftate into 
 which it was fallen : to this end they repaired 
 and enlarged the churches and monafteries, and 
 ere(fted new ones every where, in a more ftately 
 and fumptuous manner than had been known 
 in thefe kingdoms before. This is what our 
 hiftorians take notice of, and call it a new man- 
 ner of building ; we ftyle it now the Norman 
 architecture: the criterion of which is, 1 con- 
 ceive, chiefly its maffivenefs and enlarged di- 
 menfions, in which it far exceeded the Saxon. 
 Some fpecimens of this Norman kind of build- 
 ing had indeed been produced a little time before 
 the Conqueft, owing to our communication 
 with the Normans, whofe cufloms and manners 
 king Edward, who had been educated in that 
 
 tern dellcatl. Doml ingentla aedificia (ut dlxl) moderatos 
 fumptus moliri, paribus invidere fuperiores praetergredi velle, 
 &c, Religionis normam in Anglia ufque quaque emortuam 
 adventu fuo fufcitarunt; videas ubique in villis ecclefias, in 
 vicis et urbibus monafteria novo sdificandi genere confur- 
 gere, recenti ritu patriam florere, ita ut fibi periifTe diem 
 quique opulentus exiftimet, quern non aliqua praeclara mag- 
 nificentia illuftret.'' Ibid. p. 102. 
 
 court, 
 
64 REV. J. BENTHAM's . 
 
 court, was fond of introducing^ j — fuch was 
 the abbey church which he erected at Weftmin- 
 fter, and ** ferved afterwards as a pattern to 
 other builders, being rivalled by many, at a 
 great expenfe''/* fuch alfo was St. Peter's 
 church in Gloucefler, built about the fame time, 
 part of which is ftill remaining : this mode of 
 building, in the language of profeiTed artifts, 
 we find, is reckoned the fame with the Saxon : 
 all the difference, as far as appears to us at this 
 diflance of time, was in the magnitude or fize 
 of their feveral buildings. The Saxon churches 
 were often elegant fabrics, and well conftrud:ed, 
 as has been obferved before ; but generally of a 
 moderate fize, frequently begun and finifhed in 
 five or fix years, or lefs time. The works of 
 the Normans were large, fumptuous, and mag- 
 nificent; of great length and breadth, and car- 
 ried up to a proportionable height, with two 
 and fometimes three ranges of pillars one over 
 another, of different dimenfions, connedled to- 
 
 " *^ Rex Edwardus natus in Anglia, fed nutritus in Nor- 
 mannia, et diutiffime immoratus, pene in Gallicum tranfi- 
 erat, adducens ac attrahens de Normannia plurimos, quos 
 variis dignitatibus promotos in immenfum exaltabat — coepit 
 ergo tola terra fub rege, et fub aliis Normannis introduftis 
 Anglicos ritus dimittere et Francorum mores in multis imi- 
 tari.'' Ingulphi Hift. p. 62. edit. Gale. 
 
 * *' A qua poll multi ecclefias conftruentes, exemplum 
 adepti, opus illud expenfis semulabantur fumptuofis." Matth. 
 Paris Hift, p. I. 
 
 gether 
 
ESSAY. 65 
 
 gether by various arches > (all of them circular); 
 forming thereby a lower and upper portico, and 
 over them a gallery ; and on the outfide three 
 tiers of windows : in the centre was a lofty 
 flrong tower, and fometimes one or two more 
 added at the weft end, the front of which gene- 
 rally extended beyond the lide-ifles of the nave 
 or body of the church. 
 
 The obfervation made on rebuilding St. Paul's 
 in king William Rufus*s time, after the fire of 
 London in 1086, by Mauritius, bifliop of that 
 fee, viz. " That the plan was fo extenlive, and 
 the delign fo great, that moft people who lived 
 at that time cenfured it as a rafh undertaking, 
 and judged that it never would be accomplilli- 
 ed^;'* is in fome meafure applicable to moft 
 of the churches begun by the Normans. — Their 
 plan was indeed great and noble, and they laid 
 out their whole defign at firft; fcarcely, we may 
 imagine, with a view of ever living to fee it 
 
 y '^ Diverfis fultum columnis, ac multiplicibus volutum 
 hinc et inde arcubus :" as Sulcardus, a monk of Weft- 
 minfter, defcribes the abbey church there^ built by Edward 
 the Confeffor ; which was of this kind. Widmore's Hift. 
 of Weftminfter Abbey, p. 10. 
 
 ^ " Nova fecit (Mauritius) fundamenta tarn fpaciofa, ut 
 qui ea tempeftate vixerunt plerique coeptum hoc ejus tan- 
 quam temerarium et audax nimium reprehenderent, nun- 
 quam futurum dicentes, ut mohs tarn ingentis llrudura ali- 
 quando perficeretur." Godwin de Prseful. Angl. p. 175. 
 
 P com- 
 
()6 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 completed in their lifetime : their way there- 
 fore was iifually to begin at the eafl: end, or the 
 choir part; when that was finifhed,and covered 
 in, the church was often confecrated ; and the 
 [34] remainder carried on as far as they were 
 able, and then left to their fuccelTors to be com- 
 pleted : and it is very obfervable, that all our 
 cathedral, and mofl of the abbey churches, be- 
 iides innumerable parochial churches, were ei- 
 ther wholly rebuilt or greatly improved within 
 lefs than a century after the Conquelf, and all 
 of them by Normans introduced into this king- 
 dom ; as will evidently appear on examining 
 the hiftory of their feveral foundations \ It 
 was the policy of the firfl Norman kings to 
 remove the Englifli or Saxons from all places 
 of truft or profit, and admit none but foreign- 
 ers : infomuch that Malmelbury, who lived in 
 the reign of Henry I. obferves, *' That in his 
 time there was not one Englifliman pofTelled 
 of any pofi: of honour or profit under the go- 
 vernment, or of any conliderable office in the 
 
 =* Particular accovmts may be found in Dugdale's Monaf- 
 ticon, Godwin de Prsefulibus Anglige^ Willis's Hiftory of 
 Abbies, Sec. Thus Lanfranc, promoted to the fee of Can- 
 terbury 1070, begun the foundation of a new church there. 
 Thomas I. archbifliop of York 1070 — Walcher bifliop of 
 Durham 107 1 — Walkeline of Winchefter 1070 — Remigius 
 of Lincoln 1076 — all of them foreigners, did the like iu 
 their feveral fees ; and fo of the reft, 
 
 church." 
 
ESSAY. 67 
 
 church^." The bifhoprics and all the bed 
 ecclefiaftical preferments were filled by thofe 
 foreigners, and the eflates of the Saxon nobility- 
 were divided among them. Thus being enriched 
 and furniflied with the means, it miift be 
 owned, they fpared neither pains nor coft ia 
 eredting churches, monafteries, caftles, and 
 other edifices both for public and private ufe, 
 in the moft ftately and fumptuous manner. And 
 I think we may venture to fay, that the circu- 
 lar arch, round-headed doors and windows, 
 maflive pillars, with a kind of regular bafe and 
 capital, and thick walls, without any very pro- 
 minent buttrefies, were univerfally ufed by 
 them to the end of king Henry the Firft's reign, 
 A. D. 1 1 34; and are the chief charaderiftics of 
 their ftyle of building: and among other pe- 
 culiarities that diftinguifh it, w^e may obferve, 
 that the capitals of their pillars were generally 
 left plain, without any manner of fculpture; 
 though infhances occur of foliage and animals 
 on them ; as thofe on the eaft fide of the fouth 
 tranfept at Ely. The body or trunk of their 
 vaft mafTive pillars were ufually plain cylinders, 
 or fet off only with fmall half-columns united 
 
 •• ^^ Anglla fa£i:a eft exterorum habitatio, et alienigena- 
 rum dominatio ; nullus hodie Anglus dux, vel pontifex, vel 
 abbas ; advense quique divitias et vifcera corrodunt Anffliae ; 
 nee fpes ulla eft finiendae mifcriae." Malmefb. de^Reg. 
 Angl. p. 93. 
 
 F 2 with 
 
68 REV. J. EENTHAM S 
 
 with them ; but fometimes to adorn them they 
 
 ufed ih^fpiral groove winding round them, and 
 
 the fiet or lozenge work overfpreading themj 
 
 both of which appear at Durham, and the firfl 
 
 in the undercroft at Canterbury. As to their 
 
 arches, though they were for the moft part 
 
 plain and iimple, yet fome of their principal 
 
 ones, as thofe over the chief entrance at the 
 
 weft end, and others mofl expofed to view, • 
 
 were abundantly charged with fculpture of a 
 
 particular kind; as, the cheveron work or "zig^ 
 
 zag mouldings the mofl: common of any ; and 
 
 various other kinds riling and falling, jetting 
 
 out and receding inward alternately, in a waving 
 
 or undulating manner; — tho. embattled frette^ a 
 
 kind of ornament formed by a fingle round 
 
 moulding, traveriing the face of the arch, mak^ 
 
 ing its returns and croffings always at right 
 
 angles, fo forming the intermediate fpaces into 
 
 fquares alternately open above and below ; fpe- 
 
 cimens of this kind of ornament appear on the 
 
 great arches in the middle of the weft front at 
 
 Lincoln, and within the ruinous part of the 
 
 building adjoining to the great weftern tower at 
 
 Ely; — the triangular jrette^ where the fame kind 
 
 of moulding at every \'^^ return forms the fide of 
 
 an equilateral triangle, and confequently enclofes 
 
 the intermediate. fpaces in that figure; — the naiU 
 
 head, refembling the heads of great nails driven 
 
 in 
 
ESSAY. 69 
 
 in at regular diftances, as in the nave of old 
 St. Paul's, and the great tower at Hereford (all 
 of them found alfo in more ancient Saxon build- 
 ings); — the billeted mouldings as if a cylinder 
 fhould be cut into fmall pieces of equal length, 
 and thefe ftuck on alternately round the face of 
 the arches; as in the choir of Peterboroudi, at 
 St. Crofs, and round the windows of the upper 
 tire on the outfide of the nave at Ely ; this latter 
 ornament was often ufed (as were alfo fome of 
 the others) as 2ifafcia, hand, ox fillet, round the 
 cutfide of their buildings. Then to adorn the 
 infide walls below, they had rows of little pil- 
 lars and arches ; and applied them alfo to deco- 
 rate large vacant fpaces in the walls without : 
 and the corbel table, confifting of a feries of 
 fmall arches without pillars, but with heads of 
 men and animals, ferving inftead of corbels or 
 brackets to fupport them, which they placed 
 below the parapet, projecting over the upper, 
 and fometimcs the middle tire of windows ; — -the 
 hatched f7JGulding^ ufed both on the faces of the 
 arches, or for 2. fafcia on the outfide; as if cut 
 with the point of an ax at regular dillances, and 
 fo left rough j — and the nebule, a projection ter- 
 minating by an undulating line ,^-^_.-^s^^^^, as. 
 under the upper range of windows at Peterbo- 
 rough. To thefe marks that diflino-uifli the 
 Saxon or Norman flyle, we may add that they 
 
 F I had 
 
70 REV. J. BENTHAM*S 
 
 had no tabernacles (or tiiches with canopies), 
 or pinnacles, or fpires ; or indeed any flatiies to 
 adorn their buildings on the outfide, which are 
 the principal grace of what is now called the 
 Gothic ; unlefs thofe fmall figures we fometimes 
 meet with over their door- ways, fuch as is that 
 little figure of bifhop Herebert Lofing over the 
 north tranfept door at Norwich, feemingly of 
 that timcj or another fmall figure of our Sa- 
 viour over one of the fouth doors at Ely, &c, 
 may be called fo : but thefe are rather mezzo- 
 relievos than ilatucs ; and it is known that they 
 ufed reliefs fometimes with profufion ; as in 
 the Saxon or Norman gateway at Bury, and 
 the two fouth doors at Ely. Efcutcheons of 
 arms are hardly, if ever, feen in thefe fa- 
 brics, though frequent enough in after times : 
 neither was there any tracery in their vault- 
 ings. Thefe few particularities in the Saxon 
 and Norman flyle of building, however minute 
 they may be in appearance, yet will be found 
 to have their ufe, as they contribute to afcertain 
 the age of an edifice at firft fight ^. 
 
 " Some curious obfervations on the difference between the 
 Norman ftyle of building ufed in the Conqueror's reign anc' 
 that in ufe under Henry II. may be met with in the account 
 given by Gervafe, a monk of Canterbury, of the fire that 
 happened there A. D. 1174, and burnt the choir, and of 
 the repairing of the fame. X. Scriptores, col. 1302. lin. 43, 
 44, &c. 
 
 It 
 
ESSAY. "l 
 
 It cannot be expe(5lcd we fliould be able to 
 enumerate all the decorations they made ufe of, 
 for they defigned variety in the choice of them ; 
 but a judicious antiquarian who has made the 
 prevailing modes of archited:ure in diftant times 
 his fludy, will be able to form very probable 
 conjediLires concerning the age of moft of thefe 
 ancient flructures; the alterations that have 
 been made in them fince their firft erection will 
 often difcover themfelves to his eye. Perhaps 
 the moft ufual change he will find in them is in 
 the form of the windows j for in m.any of our 
 oldeft churches, I mean fuch as were built 
 within the firft age after the Conqueft, the 
 windows, which were originally round-headed, 
 have fince been altered for others [36] of a more 
 modern date, with pointed arches. . Inftances of 
 this kind are numerous, and may often be dif- 
 covered, by examining the courfes of the ftone- 
 work about them ; imlefs the outward fiice of 
 the building was new-cafed at the time of their 
 infertion, as it fometimes happened: without 
 attending to this, we fliall be at a lofs to ac- 
 count for that mixture of round and pointed 
 arches we often meet with in the fame build- 
 ing. 
 
 There is perhaps hardly any one of our ca-^ 
 thedral churches of this early Norman ftyle (I 
 mean with round arches and large pillars) rcr. 
 
 F 4 maining 
 
'72 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 maining entire, though they were all originally 
 fo built j but fpecimens of it may ftill be feen 
 in mofl of them. The greateft part of the ca- 
 thedrals of Durham, Carlifle, Chefler, Peter- 
 borough, Norwich, Rochefter, Chichefter, 
 Oxford, Worcefter, Wells, and Hereford; the 
 tower and tranfept of Winchefler, the nave of 
 Glocefter, the nave and tranfept of Ely, the 
 two towers of Exeter, fome remains in the 
 middle of the weft front of Lincoln, with the 
 lower parts of the two towers there ; in Canter- 
 bury , great part of the choir, formerly called Con- 
 rade*s choir (more ornamented than ufual), the 
 two towers called St. Gregory's and St. Anfelm's, 
 and the north-weft tower of the fame church ; 
 the collegiate church of Southwell, and part of 
 St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, are all of that 
 ftylcj and fo was the nave and tranfept of old 
 St. Paul's'^, London, before the fire in 1666; 
 York and Lichfield have had all their parts fo 
 entirely rebuilt at feparate times, fince the dif- 
 ufe of round arches, that little or nothing of 
 the old Norman work appears in them at this 
 day. The prefent cathedral church of Salifbury 
 is the only one that never had any mixture of 
 this early Norman ftyle in its compofition : the 
 old cathedral, begun foon after the Conqueft, 
 
 ^ A view of the infide bv Hollar is prcfcrved in Dii2;clalc's 
 Hift. of St. Paul's. 
 
 and 
 
ESSAY. 73 
 
 and finifhed by Roger, that great and powerful 
 bifliop of Salifbury under Henry I. was at Old 
 Sarum, and of the fame kind; it ftood in the 
 north- weft part of the city, and the foundations 
 are ftill vifible : if one may form a judgment 
 of the whole by the ruins that remain, it does 
 not appear indeed to have been fo large as fome 
 other of thofe above mentioned ; but it had a 
 nave and two porticos or lide-ifles, and the caft 
 end of it was femicircular ; its iituation, on a 
 barren chalky hill, expofed to the violence of 
 the winds, and fubjed: to great fcarcity of water, 
 and that within the precincts of the caftle (where- 
 by frequent difputes and quarrels arofe between 
 the members of the church and officers of the 
 caftle), gave occafion to the bifhop and clergy 
 in the reign of Henry II L to defert it, and re- 
 move to a more convenient fituation about a 
 mile diftant towards the fouth-eaft, where Ri- 
 chard Poore^, at that time bifhop, begun the 
 foundation of the prefent church on the fourth 
 pf the calends of May 1 220. It confifts entirely 
 of that ftyle which is now called (though I 
 think improperly) Gothic; a light, neat, and 
 elegant form of building j in which all the 
 arches are (not round but) pointed, the pillars 
 
 ^ Price's Obfervations on the Cathedral Church of Sahf- 
 tury, p. 8. Camden's Britan. col. 107. note^'. 
 
 fmall 
 
^4 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 fmall and flender, and the outward walls com- 
 monly fupported with buttrefTes. 
 
 The term Gothic, applied to architecture, 
 was much ufed by our anceftors in the laft cen- 
 tury, when they were endeav^ouring to recover 
 the ancient Grecian or Roman manner (I call 
 it indifferently by either of thofe names, for the 
 Romans borrowed it from the Greeks) : whe- 
 ther they had then a retrofped; to thofe particu- 
 lar times when the Goths ruled in the empire, 
 or only ufed it as a term of reproach, to ftig- 
 matize the produd:ions [37] of ignorant and 
 barbarous times, is not certain ; but I think 
 they meant it of Roman architecfture; not fuch, 
 certainly, as had been in the age of Auguffus 
 (which they were labouring to reftore), but 
 fuch as prevailed in more degenerate times, 
 when the art itfelf was almofl loft, and parti- 
 cularly after the invaiions of the Goths; in 
 which ftate it continued many ages after without 
 much alteration. Of this kind was our Saxon 
 and earlieft Norman manner of building, with 
 circular arches and ftrong maffive pillars, but 
 really Roman archited:ure, and fo was called 
 by our Saxon anceftors themfelves^. Some 
 writers call all our ancient architecture, without 
 
 ' Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. v. cap. 21. and Hifl. Abb. Wire- 
 muth, et Gyrw. p. 295. line 4, 
 
 diftindtion 
 
ESSAY. 75 
 
 diflindllon of round and pointed arches, Gothic : 
 though I find of late the fafliion is to apply the 
 term folely to the latter ; the reafon for which is 
 not very apparent. The word Gothic no doubt 
 implies a relation fome way or other to the 
 Goths J and if fo, then the old Roman way of 
 buildinp; with round arches above defcribed 
 feems to have the cleareft title to that appella- 
 tion j not that I imagine the Goths invented, or 
 brought it with them ; but that it had its rife in 
 the Gothic age, or about the time the Goths in- 
 vaded Italy. The ftyle of building with pointed 
 arches is modern, and feems not to have been 
 known in the w^orld till the Goths ceafed to 
 make a figure in it. Sir Chriftopher Wren 
 thought this fhould rather be called the Saracen 
 way of building : the firfl appearance of it here 
 was indeed in the time of the Crufades ; and that 
 might induce him to think the archetype was 
 brought hither by fome who had been engaged 
 in thofe expeditions, when they returned from 
 the Holy Land. But the obfervations of feveral 
 learned travellers s who have accurately furveyed 
 the ancient mode of building in thofe parts of 
 the world, do by no means favour that opinion, 
 or difcover the leaft traces of it. Indeed I have 
 not yet met with any fatisfad;ory account of the 
 
 ! Pocockc;, Narden, Shaw, 
 
 orjgm 
 
^6 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 origin of pointed arches, when invented, or 
 where firfl taken notice of : fome have imagined 
 they might poiTibly have taken their rife from 
 thofe arcades we fee in the early Norman or 
 Saxon buildings on walls, where the wide femi- 
 circular arches crofs and interfed: each other,, 
 and form thereby, at their interfe(flion, exactly 
 a narrow and fliarp-pointed arch. In the wall 
 fouth of the choir at St. Crofs is a facing of 
 fuch wide round interlaced arches by way of 
 ornament to a flat vacant fpace ; only fo much 
 of it as lies between the legs of the two neigh-, 
 bouring arches, where they crofs each other, is 
 pierced through the fabric, and forms a little 
 range of (harp-pointed windows : it is of king 
 Stephen's time ; whether they were originally 
 pierced I cannot learn. But whatever gave oc- 
 cafion to the invention, there are fufficient 
 proofs they were ufed here in the reign of 
 Henry II. The weft end of the old Temple 
 church, built in that reign, and dedicated by 
 Heraclius patriarch of the church of the Holy 
 Refurredlion in Jerufalem (as appears by the 
 infcription^^ lately over the door), is now remain- 
 ing; and has, I think, pointed and round 
 arches originally inferted ; they are intermixed i 
 the great arches are pointed, the windows abovQ 
 
 ^ Stow's Survey of London, p, 74.6. edit. 1754* 
 
 are 
 
ESSAY. 77 
 
 are round ; the weft door is a round arch richly 
 ornamented ; and before it a portico or porch 
 of three arches, fupported by two pillars ; that 
 oppofite to the church-door is round, the other 
 two pointed, but thefe have been rebuilt. The 
 great weftern tower of Ely cathedral, built in 
 the fame reign by Geoffry Rydel bilhop there, 
 [38] who died A. D. 11 89, confifts of pointed 
 arches. At York, under the choir, remains 
 much of the old work, built by archbifliop 
 Roger in Henry the Second's reign ; the arches 
 are but juft pointed, and rife on Ihort round pil- 
 lars, whofe capitals are adorned with animals and 
 foliage : many other inftances of the fame age 
 might be recolledled ; and poffibly fome may 
 occur of an earlier date; for this, like moft no- 
 velties, we may fuppofe, was introduced by 
 degrees. 
 
 In Henry the Third's reign the circular arch 
 and maffive column feem wholly to have been 
 laid alide, and the pointed arch and {lender pil- 
 lar being fubftituted in their room, obtained 
 fuch general approbation throughout the king- 
 dom, that feveral parts of thofe ftrong and 
 ftately buildings that had been ere(fted in the 
 preceding age were taken down, and their di- 
 menfions enlarged, in order to make room for 
 this new mode of building. The cathedral 
 
 church 
 
^S REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 church of SaHfbury is wholly of this kind of 
 architecture; it was begun early in that reign i, 
 and finifhed in the year 1258. This church 
 (fays a competent judge '^ of fuch matters J " may 
 be juftly accounted one of the beft patterns of 
 architecture in the age wherein it was built.** 
 To which we may add, that it has this advan- 
 tage of all others, that the whole plan was laid 
 cut at once, and regularly purfued throughout 
 the whole courfe of its building in the fame 
 flyle to its iinifliing ; whence arife that unifor- 
 mity, fymmetry, and regular proportion ob- 
 fervable in all the parts of it, not to be found 
 in any other of our cathedral churches ; which 
 having been all originally built with circular 
 arches and heavy pillars, and moft of them af- 
 terwards renewed, in part or in whole, at dif- 
 ferent times, and under all the changes and va- 
 riety of modes that have prevailed fince the firll: 
 introduction of pointed arches, now want that 
 regularity and famenefs of ftyle fo neceffary to 
 conftitute an entire and perfeCt building. In 
 the fame reign were conliderable additions made 
 to feveral of our cathedral and other churches, 
 cfpecially at their eaft end; fome of which, as 
 they are ftill remaining, may ferve to illuflrate 
 
 ' Godwin de Praefyl. Angllae, p. 345. 
 '^ Sir Chr. Wren, in Parentalia, p. 304. 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 79 
 
 the particular flyle then in life : fuch is that ele- 
 gant ftriKfture at the eaft end of Ely cathedral ', 
 built by Hugh Norvvold bifliop of Ely"\ who, 
 in the year 1234, took down the circular eaft 
 end of the church, and laid the foundation of 
 his new building, now called the Prefbytery, 
 which he finifhed in 1250. King Henry alfo", 
 in the year 1245, ordered the eafl end, tower, 
 and tranfept of the abbey church at Weftmin- 
 fter, built by Edward the Confeflbr, to be taken 
 down, in order to rebuild them at his own ex- 
 penfe in a more elegant form : he did not live, 
 it feems, to complete his whole defign ; but 
 the difference of ffyle in that part of the church 
 from the other, weftward of the crofs, which 
 was alfo rebuilt afterwards, indicates how far 
 the work was carried on in that kino;*s time, or 
 foon after. *' The new work of St. Paul's, fo 
 called, at the eaft end, above the choir, was 
 begun in the year 1 25 1 . Alfo the new work of 
 St. Paul's, to wit, the crofs-ifles, were begun 
 to be new built in the year 1256°.'' Befides 
 thefe, we find there were a great many confi- 
 
 ^ The whole of the building called the Prefbytery confifls 
 of nine arches ; only the fix eafternmoft, with that end, 
 were built by bifhop Norwold ; the other three adjoining to 
 the dome were afterwards rebuilt by bifliop Hotham, in the 
 reigns of Edward 11. and Edward fll. 
 
 °' MS. Bibl. Cotton. Tiberius, B. 2. fol. 246. 
 
 " Matth. Paris Hift. p. 581. 86 r. 
 
 1 Stow's Survey of Lond. vol. i. p. 639. 
 
 derable 
 
So REV. J. BENTHAm's 
 
 derable alterations and additions made to [39 j 
 feveral other cathedral and conventual churches 
 and new buildings carrying on about the fame 
 time in different parts of the kingdom ; fome of 
 which are particularly taken notice of by our 
 hiftorians p. 
 
 During the whole reign of Henry HI. the 
 fafhionable pillars to our churches were of Pur- 
 bec marble, very flender and round, encom- 
 paffed with marble fhafts a little detached, fo as 
 to make them appear of a proportionable thick- 
 nefs : thefe fhafts had each of them a capital 
 richly adorned with foliage, which together in 
 a clufter formed one elegant capital for the whole 
 pillar. This form, though graceful to the eye, 
 was attended with an inconvenience, perhaps 
 not apprehended at firfb ; for the fhafts deligned 
 chiefly for ornament, confifting of long pieces 
 cut out horizontally from the quarry, when 
 placed in a perpendicular iituation were apt to 
 fplit and break ; which probably occafioned this 
 manner to be laid alide in the next century. 
 There was alfo fome variety in the form of the 
 vaultings in the fame reign j thefe they gene- 
 rally chofe to make of chalk, for its lightnefs; 
 but the arches and principal ribs were of free- 
 
 p Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 273. line 44. p. 386. line 40. 
 p. 752. line II. et vol. iii. p. 270. Godwin de Praeful, 
 ■^S^' P- 37I; 372. 461. 503. 505. 678. 742. 
 
 flone. 
 
ESSAY. 8l 
 
 ftone. The vaulting of Salifbury cathedral, 
 one of the earliefl, is high pitched, between 
 arches and crofs-fpringers only, without any 
 further decorations ; but fome that were built 
 foon after are more ornamental, rifing from their 
 impofts with more fpringers, and fp reading 
 themfelves to the middle of the vaulting, are 
 enriched at their interfedlion with carved orbs, 
 foliage, and other devices — as in bifhop Nor- 
 wold's work above mentioned ^i. 
 
 As to the windows of that age, we find they 
 were long, narrow, fharp-pointed, and ufually 
 decorated on the infide and outfide with fmall 
 marble fliafts : the order and difpofition of the 
 windows varied in fome meafure according to 
 the flories of which the building confifted : in 
 one of three ftories, the uppermoft had com- 
 monly three windows within the compafs of 
 every arch, the centre one being higher than 
 thofe on each fide ; the middle tire or ftory had 
 two within the fame fpace ; and the loweft only 
 one window, ufually divided by a pillar or mul- 
 lion, and often ornamented on the top with a 
 trefoil, fingle rofe, or fome fuch fimple deco- 
 ration; which probably gave the hint for 
 branching out the whole head into a variety of 
 tracery and foliage, when the windows came 
 
 ' Page 79. 
 
 G after- 
 
82 REV. J. BENTHAm's 
 
 afterwards to be enlarged. The ufe of painted 
 and flained glafs in our churches is thought to 
 have begun about this time'. This kind of 
 ornament, as it diminifhed the hght, induced 
 the necefTity of making an alteration in the win- 
 dows, either by increaling the number or en- 
 larging their proportions ; for though a gloomi- 
 nefs rather than over- much light feems more 
 proper for fuch facred edifices, and ** better cal- 
 culated for recolled:ing the thoughts, and fixing 
 pious affe(5tions," as the elegant writer lafl cited 
 obferves'j yet without that alteration, our 
 churches had been too dark and gloomy ; as 
 fome of them now, being divefled of that orna- 
 ment, for the fame reafon appear over-light. 
 
 As for fpires and pinnacles, with which our 
 oldefl: churches are fometimes, and more mo- 
 dern ones are frequently decorated, 1 think they 
 are not very ancient. The towers and turrets 
 of churches built by the Normans, in the firfl: 
 century after [40] their coming, w^ere covered, 
 as platforms, with battlements or plain parapet 
 walls i fome of them indeed built within that 
 period we now fee finiflied with pinnacles or 
 fpires ; which were additions fince the modern 
 ftyle of pointed arches prevailed ; for before we 
 meet with none. One of the earlicft fpires we 
 
 ^ Ornaments of Churches confidered, p. 94. 
 i Ibid. 
 
 have 
 
ESSAY. 83 
 
 have any account of is that of old St. Paul's S 
 finiflied in the year 12:22; it was, I think, of 
 timber, covered with lead ; but not long after, 
 they begun to build them of (lone, and to finilh" 
 all their buttreffes in the fame manner. 
 
 Architedlure under Edward I. was fo nearly 
 the fame as in his father Henry the Third's 
 time, that it is no eafy matter to diftinguilh it. 
 Improvements no doubt were then made, but 
 it is difficult to define them accurately. The 
 tranfition from one ftyle to another is ufually 
 effedled by degrees, and therefore not very re- 
 markable at firft, but it becomes fo at fome dif- 
 tance of time : towards the latter part indeed of 
 his reign, and in that of Edward IE. we begin 
 to difcover a manifeft change of the mode as 
 well in the vaulting and make of the columns 
 as the formation of the windows. The vaulting 
 was, I think, more decorated than before; for 
 now the principal ribs arifing from their impofl , 
 being fpread over the inner face of the arch, run 
 into a kmd of tracery ; or rather v. ith tranfoms 
 divided the roof into various angular compart- 
 ments, and were ufually ornamented in the angles 
 with gilded orbs, carved heads or figures, and other 
 emboffed work. The columns retained fomething 
 of their general form already defcribed, that is, 
 as an aflem^blage of fmall pillars or fhafts ; but 
 
 i Stow's Survey of London, p. 639. edit. 1754* 
 
 G 2 " thefe 
 
84 REV. J. BENTHAM S 
 
 thefe decorations were now not detached or fe- 
 parate from the body of the column, but made 
 part of it, and being clofely united and wrought 
 up together, formed one entire, firm, llender, 
 and elesrant column. The windows were now 
 greatly enlarged, and divided into feveral lights 
 by ftone mullions running into various ramifica- 
 tions above, and dividing the head into numerous 
 compartments of different forms, as leaves, open 
 flowers, and other fanciful fhapes ; and more 
 particularly the great eaftern and weflern win- 
 dows (which became fafliionable about this 
 time) took up nearly the whole breadth of the 
 nave, and were carried up almoft as high as 
 the vaulting; and being fet off with painted and 
 ilained glafs of mofl lively colours, with por- 
 traits of kings, faints, martyrs, and confefTors, 
 and other hiftorical reprefentations, made a mofl 
 fplendid and glorious appearance. 
 
 The three firfl arches of the prelbytery ad- 
 joining to the dome and lantern of the cathedral 
 church of Ely, begun the latter part of Edward 
 the Second's reign, A. D. 1322, exhibit elegant 
 fpecimens of thefe fafliionable pillars, vaulting, 
 and windows. St. Mary*s chapel (now Trinity 
 parifli church) at Ely, built about the fame 
 time, is confl:rud:ed on a different plan ; but the 
 vaulting and windows are in the fame fcyle. The 
 plan of this chapel, generally accounted one of 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. S^ 
 
 the moil perfcdl ftrucStiires of that age, is an ob- 
 long fquare; it has no pillars nor fide-ifles, but 
 is fupported by ftrong fpiring buttreffes, and 
 was decorated on the outfide with ftatues over 
 the eaft and weft windows ; and withinfide alfo 
 with ftatues, and a great variety of other fculp- 
 ture well executed ". 
 
 [41] The fame ftyle and manner of building 
 prevailed all the reign of Edward III. and with 
 regard to the principal parts and members, con- 
 tinued in ufe to the reign of Henry VII. and 
 the greater part of Henry VIII. ; only towards 
 the latter part of that period the windows were 
 lefs pointed and more open ; a better tafte for 
 ftatuary began to appear ; and indeed a greater 
 care feems to have been bellowed on all the or- 
 namental parts, to give them a lighter and higher 
 finifhing ; particularly the ribs of the vaulting, 
 which had been large, and feemingly formed 
 for ftrength and fupport, became at length di- 
 vided into fuch an abundance of parts ilTuing 
 from their imports as from a centre, and fpread- 
 ing themfelves over the vaulting, where they 
 were intermixed with fuch delicate fculpture as 
 
 " The fafhion of adorning the weft end of our churches 
 with rows of ftatues in tabernacles or niches, with canopies 
 over them, obtained very foon after the introduction of point- 
 ed arches; as may be feen at Peterborough and Salilbury; 
 and in later times we find them in a more improved tafte, 
 as at Lichfield and Wells. 
 
 G 3 gave 
 
86 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 gave the whole vault the appearance of em- 
 broidery, enriched with cluflers of pendent orna- 
 ments, refembling the works Nature fometimes 
 forms in caves and grottos, hanging down from 
 their roofs. The moft ftriking inftance of this 
 kind is, without exception, the vaulting of that 
 fumptuous chapel of king Henry VII. at Weft- 
 minfter. 
 
 To what height of perfecftion modern archi- 
 te(5lure (I mean that with pointed arches, its 
 chief charadteriftic) was carried on in this king- 
 dom appears by that one complete fpecimen of 
 it*, the chapel founded by king Henry VI. in 
 his college at Cambridge, and finillied by king 
 Henry VIII \ The decorations, harmony, and 
 
 pro- 
 
 * It is formed on the fame plan as St. Mary's chapel at 
 Ely, and indeed the defign is faid to have been thence taken. 
 Kino- Henry VI. laid the foundations of the whole about the 
 year 1441, which were raifed five or fix feet above ground 
 in the well end, but much higher towards the eafl: ; for that 
 end was covered in n.any years before the well end was 
 finidied. How far the work proceeded in the founder's 
 time cannot be faid with certainty : the troubles he met 
 with in the latter part of his reign hindered the profecu- 
 tion of it. Richard HI. a few months before he was 
 llain, had figned a warrant for 300/. out of the temporalities 
 of the bifliopric of Exeter, then in his hands, towards car- 
 rying on the building (MS. Harleian. N° 433. fol, 209, 
 b.) ; but I believe nothing more was done by him. Hen- 
 ry VIT. undertook the work, and carried up the remainder 
 of the battlements, and completed the timber roof: after 
 his dcatli, king Henry VIIT. finillied the whole fabric, as 
 well the towers and finlals as the vaulted roof within, and 
 iilted up the choir in the manner we now fee it, — One con- 
 
 trait 
 
ESSAY. 8*7 
 
 proportions of the feveral parts ot this magni- 
 ficent fabric, its fine painted windows, and 
 richly ornamented fp reading roof, its gloom, 
 and perfped:ive, all concur in affed;ing the ima- 
 gination with pleafiire and delight, at the fame 
 time that they infpire awe and devotion. It is 
 undoubtedly one of the mofl complete, elegant, 
 and magnificent ftruiftures in the kingdom. And 
 if, befides thefe larger works, we take into our 
 view thofe fpecimens of exquifite workman- 
 fhip we meet with in the fmaller kinds of ora- 
 tories, chapels''', and monumental edifices, pro- 
 duced fo late as the reign of Henry VIII. fome 
 of which are ftill in being, or at leaft fo much 
 of them as to give us an idea of their former 
 grace and beauty ; one can hardly help conclud- 
 ing, that architedure arrived at its higheft point 
 of glory in this kingdom but jufi: before its final 
 period, 
 
 tra6t for building the ftone vault, and three of the towers, 
 and twenty-one fynyalls (the upper tinifliing of the but- 
 treifes), dated the 4th of Henry VIII. A. D. 1512; and 
 another for vaulting the two porches and fixteen chapels 
 about the building, dated the following year, are ftill in the 
 archives of the college. 
 
 "" Bifliop Weft's chapel at the eaft end of the fouth ifle 
 of Ely cathedral, built in the reign of Henry VIII. affords 
 an elegant fpecimen of the moft delicate fculpture, and fuch 
 variety of tracery, beautiful colouring, and gilding, as will 
 not eafily be met with in any work produced before that 
 
 reign. 
 
 G 4 At 
 
88 REV. J. BENTHAM*S ' 
 
 [42] At that time no country was better fur- 
 nifhed and adorned with religious edifices, in 
 all the variety of modes that had prevailed for 
 many centuries paft, than our own. The ca- 
 thedral churches in particular were all majeftic 
 and ilately ftrudlures. Next to them the mo- 
 nafteries, which had been ereded in all parts of 
 the kingdom, might juflly claim the pre-emi- 
 nence; they were, for the generality of them, fine 
 buildings; and the churches and chapels be- 
 longing to fome of them equalled the cathedrals 
 in grandeur and magnificence, and many others 
 were admired for their richnefs and elegance; 
 and, whilft they flood, were without doubt the 
 chief ornament to the feveral counties in which 
 they were placed. 
 
 The ftate of thefe religious houfes, on occa- 
 fion of the reformation in religion then carrying 
 on, became the objed: of public deliberation; 
 but however neceffary and expedient the total 
 fupprefTion of them might be judged at that 
 time, yet certainly the means that were made 
 vfe of to fupprefs them were not altogether the 
 mofl juftifiable, and the manner of difpofing of 
 them and their great revenues has been found 
 in fome refpeds detrimental to the true interefls 
 of religion. For had the churches belonging 
 to them been fpared, and made parochial in 
 
 thofe 
 
ESSAY. 89 
 
 thofe places where they were much wanted, 
 and had the lands and impropriated tithes, 
 which the feveral religious orders had unjuftly 
 taken from the fecular clergy, and kept pof- 
 feflion of by papal authority, been referved out 
 of the general fale of their revenues, andreftored 
 to their proper ufe, the maintenance of the 
 clergy, to whom of right they belonged, we at 
 this time fliould have had lefs caufe to regret 
 the general ruin of all thofe religious houfes that 
 enfued, and the prefent fcanty provifion thatre^ 
 mains to the clergy in fome of the largefl cures 
 in the kingdom. 
 
 The havoc and deflrudtion of thofe fumptuous 
 edifices that foon followed their furrender gave 
 a moft fatal turn to the fpirit of building and 
 adorning of churches; architecture in general was 
 thereby difcouraged, and that mode of it in 
 particular which was then in a very flourifhing 
 ftate, and had continued fo for more than three 
 centuries, fupk under the weight, and was bu^ 
 ried in the ruins of thofe numerous ftrucflures 
 which fell at that time. 
 
 Unhappily, the orders and injuncflions given 
 to the feveral commiflioners under king Hen- 
 ry VIII. and in the following reign during the 
 minority of Edward VI. and like wife in queen 
 Elizabeth's time, for removing and taking away 
 ^11 Ihrines and fuperflitious relics, and feizing 
 
 all 
 
90 REV. J. bentham's 
 
 all fuperfluous jewels and plate, were often 
 mifapplied, carried to excefs, and executed in 
 fuch a manner as to have, at leaft in feme in- 
 ftances, the appearance of facrilegious avarice 
 rather than of true zeal for the glory of God 
 and the advancement of religion. 
 
 Be that as it may, certain it is that at this 
 time, when mofl of the churches belonging to 
 the religious orders were utterly ruined and de- 
 ftroyed, our cathedral and parochial churches 
 and chapels fuffered greatly ; for they were di- 
 vefted and fpoiled, not only of their images and 
 fuperftitious relics, but of their neceffary and 
 mofl unexceptionable ornaments ; and after- 
 wards, by the outrages and violence committed 
 on them in the laft century, during the unhappy 
 times of confufion in the great rebellion, they 
 were reduced to a ftill more deplorable ftate and 
 condition, and left [43] naked and deftitute of 
 all manner of juft elegance, and of every mark 
 and charader of external decency. 
 
 It muft be owned, that in feveral intermediate 
 periods a zeal for the honour of God and his 
 holy religion has not been wanting to heal thefe 
 wounds, to repair and fitly readorn thefe facred 
 flrudures ; but it has not been attended with 
 the fuccefs that all wife and good men mufl 
 wifli for and defire. Many of our parochial 
 churches flill carry the marks of violence com- 
 a mitted 
 
ESSAY. 91 
 
 mitted in tliofe days; others through inattention 
 and neglect (befides the defects they are unavoid- 
 ably fubjedt to by age) are become ruinous and 
 hafting to utter decay, unlefs timely fupported : 
 infomuch that very few of them, excepting 
 thofe in large and populous cities and towns, 
 the number of which is fmall in comparifon of 
 the reft, can juftly be confidered as in a proper 
 flate of repair, decent and becoming ftrucltures 
 confecrated to the public fervice of God. The 
 chapels indeed belonging to the feveral colleges 
 in the two univerfities (very few need to be ex- 
 cepted) claim our particular notice for the care 
 and expenfe we find beftowed on them, the 
 decent order in which they are kept, and the 
 jullnefs and elegance of their ornaments. And 
 our cathedral churches, thofe monuments of the 
 pious zeal and magnificence of our forefathers, 
 we doubt not will foon appear again in a ftate 
 becoming their dignity. The care and attention 
 that is paid them by the prefent fet of governors 
 in their refpe(ftive churches '^ deferves the higheft 
 
 enco- 
 
 * To inftance the particular cathedral churches that have 
 been repaired and beautified within the lail thirty or forty 
 years, and the feveral deflgns formed to bring them to a 
 flill more perfect ftate, would carry me beyond my prefent 
 purpofe. It may be fufficient only to intimate what has 
 been done of late at York, Lincoln, Peterborough, Ely, 
 Norwich, Chichefter, Salifbury, &c. But as that particu- 
 lar fcheme for raifing a fufficient fund for thefe purpofes, 
 
 happily 
 
92 REV. J. BENTHAM S 
 
 encomiums j and if we can make a proper and 
 juft eftimate of what may reafonably be expedled 
 will be done, from what has already been done 
 of late, and is flill doing, for the furtherance of 
 that defirable work, there is the fairefl: profpedl, 
 and the moft ample ground of confidence, that the 
 prefent age will ftand diftinguifhed by pofterity 
 for repairing and adorning thofe venerable ftruc- 
 tures, and tranfmitting them with advantage to 
 the moft diftant times. 
 
 I cannot conclude thefe curfory remarks more 
 properly than in the words of the elegant author 
 of Ornaments of Churches conjidered^ : " After 
 the eftablifliment of Chriftianity, the conftitu- 
 
 happily fixed on by the members of the church of Lincoln, 
 provides for the future as well as the prefent exigencies of 
 the church, does honour to thofe who were the promoters 
 of it, and may probably in time to come be adopted by moft 
 other cathedral and collegiate bodies 3 1 cannot here with 
 any propriety omit taking notice, that about fifteen or fixteen 
 years fince, the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Thomas, then bifhop of 
 Lincoln (now of Salifbury), taking into confideration the 
 ruinous flate of that cathedral, and the fmall fund allotted 
 for the repairs, held a general chapter, wherein it was unani- 
 moufly agreed, that, for the time to come, ten per cent, of 
 all fines, as well of the bifliop as dean, dean and chapter, 
 and all the prebendaries, fliould be depofited with the clerk 
 of the works, towards repairing and beautifying the faid 
 cathedral : which has accordingly been paid ever fince; and 
 care taken not only of carrying on the neceflfary repairs in 
 the moft durable and fubflantial manner, but due regard 
 has likevt'ife been paid to the propriety of the ornamental 
 parts reftored, and their conformity with the ftyle of build-^ 
 ing they were intended to adorn, 
 I Page 137. 
 
 tions 
 
ESSAY* 93 
 
 tions ecclefiaftical and civil concurred with the 
 fpirit of piety which then prevailed, in provid- 
 ing ftrudlures for religious worfhip. In fubfe- 
 quent ages this fpirit flill increafed, and occa- 
 fioned an emulation in raifing religious [44] 
 edifices wherever it was neceffary, or in adorning 
 thofe which were already raifed. — The fruits of 
 this ardour we now reap. Since then the pious 
 munificence of our anceftors has raifed thefe 
 facred edifices, appropriated to religious ufes, we 
 are furely under the ftrongeft obligations to re- 
 pair as much as pofTible the injuries of time, 
 and preferve them by every precaution from total 
 ruinanddecay. Where the particular funds appro- 
 priated to this purpofe are infufhcient, it becomes 
 neceffary to apply to the affluent,who cannot furely 
 refufe to prevent by their liberal contributions the 
 fevere reproach of negled:ing thofe flrudtures 
 which in all ages have been held facred. 
 ** Horace tells the Roman people, 
 
 Dii multa negle6li dederunt 
 Hefperiae mala lu^tuofae ; 
 
 and afTures them their misfortunes will not end 
 till they repair the temples of their gods ; 
 
 Deli(Sla majorum immerltus lues, 
 Romane^ donee templa refeceris, 
 ^defque labentes deorum, et 
 
 Foeda nigro fimulacra fumo. 
 
 This 
 
94 REV. J. BENTHAM S ESSAY. 
 
 This may fafely be applied to the Chriftian 
 world j fince the fabrics appropriated to the 
 purpofes of religion can never be entirely neg- 
 led:ed till a total difregard to religion firft pre- 
 vails, and men have loft a fenfe of every thing 
 that is virtuous and decent. Whenever this is 
 the melancholy condition of a nation, it cannot 
 hope for, becaufe it does not deferve, the pro- 
 tection of Heaven ; and it will be difficult to 
 conceive a general reformation can take place 
 till the temples of the Deity are reftored to their 
 proper dignity, and the public worfhip of God 
 is conducted in the beauty of holinefs.'* 
 
 CAPTAIN 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 CAPTAIN GROSE'S ESSAY". 
 
 Jis many of the notes quoted by Captain Grofe from Mr. Bentham 
 are very long, to avoid a repetitioii, fuch notes will be referred 
 tOyftmilarly to that below, mentioning the page where thepaffage 
 is to he found in Mr. Bentham' s Effay. 
 
 IVlOST of the writers who mention our an- 
 cient buildings, particularly the religious ones, 
 notwithflanding the flriking difference in the 
 ftyles of their conftrudion, clafs them all under 
 the common denomination of Gothic ; a general 
 appellation by them applied to all buildings not 
 exactly conformable to fome one of the five orders 
 of architecture. Our modern antiquaries, more 
 accurately, divide them into Saxon, Norman, 
 and Saracenic ; or that fpecies vulgarly, though 
 improperly, called Gothic. 
 
 An opinion has long prevailed, chiefly coun- 
 tenanced by Mr. Somner^, that the Saxon 
 
 • This is Captain Grofe's Preface to the Antiquities of 
 England, on the fubje6l of archite6lure. 
 
 " Indeed, it is to be obferved, that before the Norman 
 advent moft of our monafleries and church buildings were 
 all of wood ; *^ All the monafleries of my realm," faith 
 king Edgar] — ['' till the Normans brought it over with 
 them from France." Somner's Antiq. Canterbury. (See 
 Mr. Bentham's Eflay, p. 18^ 19, 20.) 
 
 churches 
 
96 CAPTAIN GROSE*S 
 
 churches were moflly built with timber j and 
 that the few they had of flone confifted only of 
 upright walls, without pillars or arches j the 
 conftrudlion of which, it is pretended, they 
 were entirely ignorant of. Mr. Somner feems to 
 have founded his opinion on the authority of 
 Stowe, and a difputable interpretation of fome 
 words in king Edgar's charter^: *' Meaning no 
 more, as I apprehend,*' fays Mr. Bentham, in 
 his curious Remarks on Saxon Churches, *' than 
 that the churches and monafteries were in gene- 
 ral fo much decayed, that the roofs were unco- 
 vered or bare to the timber j and the beams 
 rotted by neglecft, and overgrown with mofs." 
 It is true that Bede and others fpeak of churches 
 built with timber; but thefe appear to have 
 been only temporary erecftions, haflily run up 
 for the prefent exigency"; and for the other 
 pofition, that the Saxons had neither arches or 
 pillars in their buildings, it is not only contra- 
 di(fted by the teftimony of feveral cotemporary 
 or very ancient writers, who exprefsly mention 
 them both, but alfo by the remains of fome 
 
 *• " Quae velut mufcivis fcindulis cariofifque tabulis, tigno 
 tenus vifibiliter diruta." 
 
 ' " Baptizatus eft (fc. rex Edwinus, A. D. 627) autem 
 Eboraci in die fan6to Pafchas, in ecclefise St. Petri apoftoli 
 quam ipfe de ligno citato opere erexit." Bedse Hift. Eccl. 
 lib. ii. cap. 14. — " Curavit majorem ipfo in loco et augufti- 
 orem de lapide fabricare bafilicam, in cujus medio ipfum 
 quod prius fecerat oratorium iacluderetur." Ibid. 
 
 4 edifices 
 
ESSAY. 97 
 
 cdinces univerfally allowed to be of Saxon work- 
 manfhip; one of them the ancient conventual 
 church at Ely. 
 
 The writers here alluded to are, Alcuin, an 
 ecclefiaftic who lived in the eighth century ; 
 and, in a poem entitled De Pontificibus Ec- 
 clefiae Ebor. publiflied by Dr. Gale A.D. 1691, 
 defcribes the church of St. Peter at York ; which 
 he himfelf, in conjund;ion with Eanbald, had 
 aflifted archbilhop Albert to rebuild. In this 
 poem he particularizes by name both columns 
 and arches, as may be feen in note"^. 
 
 The author of the Defcription of the Abbey 
 of Ramfay in Huntingdonfliire, which was 
 founded A. D. 974, by Ail wood, ftyled alder- 
 man of all England, affifted therein by Ofvvald 
 bifhop of Worcefter, in that account names both 
 arches and columns, as is fliown in note ^. 
 
 Richard prior of Hexham, who flouriflied 
 about the year 11 80, and left a defcription of 
 that church, part of which was ftanding in his 
 time, though built by Wilfrid, anno 674; he 
 
 ^ ^' Aft nova bafilicce mirae ftruAura dlebus," &c.] 
 (This note is the fame as Mr. Bentham gives, p. 46.) 
 *= " Duue quoque turres ipfis tedorum cuhninibus emine- 
 bant, quarum minor verfus occidentem, in tronte baliUcae 
 pulchram intrantibus infulam a longe fpeclaculum praebebat; 
 major vero inquadrifidae ftru6lurae medio cohmmas quatuor, 
 porrettis de alia ad aham arcubus fibi invicem connexus, 
 ne laxe defluerunt, deprimebat." Hift. Kamefienfis, inter 
 XV. Scriptores, edit, per Gale. 
 
 H likewife 
 
pS CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 likewife fpeaks of arches and columns with their 
 capitals richly ornamented : fee note ^. 
 
 Many more authorities might be cited, was 
 not the matter fufficiently clear. Indeed, it is 
 highly improbable that the Saxons could be ig- 
 norant of fo ufeful a contrivance as the arch ; 
 many of them built by the Romans they mufl 
 have had before their eyes ; fome of which 
 have reached our days ; two particularly are 
 now remaining in Canterbury only ; one in the 
 caftle yard, the other at Riding-gate. And it 
 is not to be believed, that, once knowing them, 
 and their convenience, they would negled: to 
 make ufe of them; or, having ufed, would re- 
 linquifli them. Befides, as it appears from 
 undoubted authorities they procured workmen 
 from the continent § to conflrud: their capital 
 
 buildings 
 
 ^ ^' Profunditatem ipfius ecclefise criptis, et oratoriis fub- 
 terraneis."] This note is the lame as Mr. Bentham quotes, 
 
 P- 35- 
 
 s " Cum cantoribus ^dde etEona, et coementanis,omi.iif- 
 
 que pene artis minillerio in regionem luam revertens, cum 
 ree;ula Benedi6li inftituta eccleliarum Dei bene mehoravit." 
 Eddii Vit. St, Wilfridi, cap. xiv. Bedae Hill. Eccl. Ub. iv. 
 cap. 2. — " De Roma quoque, et Italia, et Francia, et de aliis 
 terris itbicumque iiivenire poterat, caementarios et quod i bet 
 alios induftrios artifices Tecum retinuerat, et ad opera fua 
 facienda feeum in Angliam adduxerat." Rich. Prior. Ha- 
 gulft. lib. i. cap. 5. 
 
 '' St. Peter's church, in the monallery of Weremouth, in 
 the neighbourhood of Gyrwi, was built by the famous Be- 
 nedict Bifcopius, in the year 675. This abbat went over 
 into France to engage workmen to build his church after 
 the Roman manner (as it is called by Bede in his Hiftory of 
 
 Weremouth), 
 
ESSAY. 99 
 
 buildings ** according to the Roman manner," 
 this alone would be fufficient to confute that 
 ill-grounded opinion; and at the fame time 
 proves that what we commonly call Saxon is in 
 reality Roman archited:ure. 
 
 This was the ftyle of building pradlifed all 
 over Europe ; and it continued to be ufed by 
 the Normans, after their arrival here, till the 
 introducftion of what is called the Gothic, 
 which was not till about the end of the reien of 
 
 't3' 
 
 Weremouth), and brought them over for that purpofe : he 
 profecuted this work with extraordinar\- zeal and dihgence, 
 infomuch that, within the compafs of a vear after the found- 
 ations were laid, he caufed the roof to be put on, and di- 
 vine fervice to be performed in it. Afterwards, when the 
 building was near finished, he fent over to France for arti- 
 ficers fkilled in the myftery of making glafs (an art till that 
 time unknown to the inhabitants of Britain), to glaze the 
 windows both of the porticos and principal parts of the 
 church ; which work they not only executed, but taught the 
 Englifh nation that moft ufeful art." Bentham's Hiltory of 
 Ely, p. 31 of this edition. 
 
 What Bede here affirms of the abbat Benedi(?t, that he 
 firft introduced the art of making glafs into this kingdom, is 
 by no means inconfiftent with Eddius's account of bifliop 
 Wilfrid's dazina; the windows of St. Peter's church at York 
 about the year 669, i. e. feven or eight years before this 
 time; for glafs might have been imported from abroad by 
 Wilfrid. But Benedict firft brought over the artifts who 
 tauo-ht the Saxons the art of making;; g-lafs. That ihe win- 
 dows in churches w-ere ufually glazed m that age abroad, 
 as well as in thefe parts, we learn from Bede; who, Ipeaking 
 of the church on Mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerufa- 
 lem. fays, " In the weft front of it were eight windows, 
 which on fome occafions ufed to be illuminated with lamps, 
 which llione fo bright through the glafs, that the mount 
 feemed in a blaze." Bedae Lib. de Locis San6lis, cap. vi. 
 
 H 2, Henry 
 
100 CAPTAIN GROSE*S 
 
 Henry II. ; fo that there feems to be little or no 
 ground for a diftincflion between the Saxon and 
 Norman archite(5ture. Indeed, it is faid the 
 buildings of the latter were of larger dimen- 
 iions, both in height and area ; and they were 
 conftrudled with a Hone brought from Caen in 
 Normandy, of which their workmen were pe- 
 culiarly fond ; but this was limply an alteration 
 in the fcale and materials, and not in the man- 
 ner of the building. The ancient parts of moft 
 of our cathedrals are of this early Norman 
 work. 
 
 The charad:eriftic marks of this flyle are thefe : 
 The walls are very thick, generally without 
 buttrefles ; the arches, both within and without, 
 as well as thofe over the doors and windows, 
 femicircular, and fupported by very folid, or 
 rather clumfy columns, with a kind of regular 
 bafe and capital : in fhort, plainnefs and folidity 
 conftitute the ftriking features of this method 
 of building. Neverthelefs, the architects of 
 thofe days fometimes deviated from this rule : 
 their capitals were adorned with carvings of fo- 
 liage, and even animals ; and their mafTive co- 
 lumns decorated with fmall half-columns united 
 to them, and their fur faces ornamented with 
 fpirals, fquares, lozenge net- work, and other 
 figures, either engraved or in relievo: various 
 inftances of thefe may be feen in the cathedral 
 
 4 of 
 
ESSAY. 101 
 
 of Canterbury, particularly the under-croft, the 
 monaflery at Lindisfarn or Holy Ifland, the ca- 
 thedral at Durham, and the ruined choir at Or- 
 ford in Suffolk. Their arches too, though 
 generally plain, fometimes came in for more 
 than their fliare of ornaments j particularly thofe 
 over the chief doors : fome of thefe were over- 
 loaded with a profufion of carving. 
 
 It would be impoffible to defcribe the differ* 
 ent ornaments there crowded together; which 
 feem to be more the extemporaneous produc^l of 
 a grotefque imagination than the refult of any 
 particular defign. On fome of thefe arches is 
 commonly over the key-ftone, reprefented God 
 the Father, or our Saviour, furrounded with 
 angels ; and below a melange of foliage, ani- 
 mals, often ludicrous, and fometimes even in- 
 decent fubjedis. Partly of this fort is the great 
 door at Barfrefton church in Kent. The frizes 
 round churches were alfo occafionally ornamented 
 with grotefque human heads, monfters, figures 
 playing on different mufical inftruments, and 
 other whimfical devices, of which the church 
 at Barfrefton above mentioned, and that of Ad- 
 derbury in Suffolk, afford ftriking fpecimens. 
 
 The idea of thefe artifts feems to have been, 
 that the o^reater number of fmall and dillimilar 
 fubjedis they could there affemble, the more 
 beautiful they rendered their work. It, is not 
 
 H 3 however 
 
102 CAPTAIN GROSE S 
 
 however to be denied, that the extreme richners 
 of thefe inferior parts ferved, by their ftriking 
 contraft, to fet off the venerable plainnefs of the 
 reft of the building ; a circumftance wanting in 
 the Gothic ftrudtures ; which, being equally 
 ornamented all over, fatigue and diftrad:, rather 
 than gratify the eye. 
 
 I would not here be underftood to alTert that 
 all the Saxon ornamented arches were devoid of 
 beauty and tafte j on the contrary, there are 
 feveral wherein both are difplayed, particularly 
 in fome belonging to the church of Ely. Be- 
 fides the ornaments here mentioned, which feem 
 always to have been left to the fancy of the 
 fculptor, they had others, which were in com- 
 mon ufe, and are more regular. Moft of them 
 are mentioned by Mr. Bentham in his ingenious 
 preface to the Hiftory of Ely^; and fpecimens 
 of them are given in the mifcellaneous plates. 
 
 About the time of Alfred probably, but cer- 
 tainly in the reign of Edgar', high towers and 
 crofs ifles were firft introduced : the Saxon 
 churches till then being only fquare or oblong 
 buildings, generally turned femi circularly at the 
 
 •■ ^^ As to their arches, though they were for the moft 
 part plain and fimple, yet fome of their principal ones"] — 
 If' as they contribute to afcertain the age of an edifice at 
 firft fight." (See Mr, Bentham, p. 68, 69, 70, to the end 
 of the paragraph.) 
 
 i Vide note ' p. 96. 
 
 caft 
 
ESSAY. 103 
 
 caft end. Towers at firft fcarcely rofe higher 
 than the roof j being intended chiefly as a kind 
 of lantern for the admittance of light. An ad- 
 dition to their height was in all likelihood fiig- 
 gefted on the more common ufe of bells ; which, 
 though mentioned in fome of our monafteries in 
 the feventh century, were not in ufe in churches 
 till near the middle of the tenth. 
 
 To what country or people the ftyle of archi- 
 tedlure called Gothic owes its origin is by no 
 means fatisfadtorilj^ determined ^, It is indeed 
 generally conjedured to be of Arabian extrac- 
 tion, and to have been introduced into Europe 
 by fome perfons returning from the crufades in 
 the Holy Land. Sir Chriflopher Wren ^ was 
 
 of 
 
 •" ^^ The (lyle of building with pointed arches Is modern, 
 and feems not to have been known in the world till the 
 Goths ceafed," &c.] — [" it is of king Stephen's time; 
 whether they were originally pierced I cannot learn." (See 
 Mr. Bentham, p. 75, 76.) 
 
 ' " Thefe farveys, and other occafional infpeflions of the 
 mod noted cathedral churches and chapels in England and 
 foreign parts ; a difcernment of no contemptible art, inge- 
 nuity, and geometrical (kill in the defign and execution of 
 fome few, and an afteclation of height and grandeur, though 
 without regularity and good proportion in mod of them, in- 
 duced the furveyor to make fome inquiry into the rife and 
 progrefs of this Gothic mode, and to conlider how the old 
 Greek and Roman ftyle of building, with the feveral regular 
 proportions of columns, entablatures, &c. came within a 
 few centuries to be fo much altered, and almoft univerfally 
 difufed. 
 
 '' He was of opinion (as has been mentioned in another 
 place) that what we now vulgarly call the Gothic ought pro- 
 
 H 4 perly 
 
104 CAPTAIN GROSE*S 
 
 perly and truly to be named the Saracenic architefture, re- 
 fined by the Chriftians ; which fnd of all began in the Eaft, 
 after the fall of the Greek empire, by the prodigious fuccefs 
 of thofe people that adhered to Mahomet's dG6trine ; who, 
 out of zeal to their religion, built mofqvies, caravanferas, 
 and fepulchres wherever they came. 
 
 ^' Thefe they contrived of a round form, becaufe they would 
 not imitate the Chriftian figure of a crofs, nor the old Greek 
 manner, which they thought to be idolatrous ; and tor that 
 reafon all fculpture became ofFenfive to them. 
 
 *' They then fell into a new mode of their own invention, 
 though it might have been expefted with better fenfe, con- 
 fidering the Arabians wanted not geometricians in that age ; 
 nor the Moors, who tranflated many of the moft ufeful old 
 Greek books. As they propagated their religion with great 
 diligence, fo they built mofques in all their conquered cities 
 in hafte. 
 
 **The quarries of great marble, by which the vanquifhed 
 nations of Syria, Egypt, and all the Eaft had been fupplied 
 for columns, architraves, and great ftones, were now de~ 
 ferted ; the Saracens therefore were neceflitated to accom- 
 modate their architecture to fuch materials, whether marble 
 or freeftone, as every country readily afforded. They thought 
 columns and heavy cornices impertinent, and might be 
 omitted ; and affc6ling the round form tor mofques, they 
 elevated cupolas in fome inftances with grace enough. 
 
 *^ The Holy war gave the Chriftians who had been there 
 an idea of the Saracen works ; which were afterwards by 
 them imitated in the Weft : and they refined upon it every 
 day, as they proceeded in building churches. The Ita- 
 lians (among which were yet fome Greek refugees), and 
 with them French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a 
 fraternity of architefts ; procuring papal bulls for their en- 
 couragement, and particular privileges : they ftyled them- 
 felves freemafons, and ranged from one nation to another 
 as they found churches to be built (for very many in thofe 
 ages were every where in building, through piety or emu- 
 lation). 
 
 " Their government was regular, and where they fixed near 
 the building in hand they made a camp of huts. A fur- 
 veyor governed in chief; every tenth man was called a 
 warden, and overlooked each nine : the gentlemen of the 
 neighbourhood, either out of charity or commutation of pe- 
 nance, gave the materials and carriages. Thofe who have 
 
 feen 
 
ESSAY. 105 
 
 fcen the exaS: accounts in records of the charge of the fabrics 
 of fome of our cathedrals, near four hundred years old, 
 cannot but have a great eftcem for their economy, and ad- 
 mire how foon they erected fuch lotty Itructures. Indeed, 
 great height thev thought the greateft magnificence : few 
 ftones were ufed but what a man might carry up a ladder on 
 his back from fcafl'old to fcaflbld, though they had pullies 
 and fpoked wheels upon occafion ; but having rejected 
 cornices, they had no need of great engines : Itone upon 
 ftone was eafily piled up to great heights ; therefore the pride 
 of their works was in pinnacles and fteeples. 
 
 ** In this they elTentially differed from the Roman way, 
 who laid all their mouldings horizontally, which made the 
 beft perfpeciive : the Gothic wav, on the contrary, carried 
 all their mouldings perpendicular; fo that the ground-work 
 being fettled, they had nothing elfe to do but to fpire all up 
 as they could. Thus they made their pillars of a bundle of 
 jittle torus's, which they divided into more when thev came 
 to the roof; and thefe torus's fplit into many fmall ones, 
 and traverfing one another, gave occafion to the tracery 
 work, as they call it, of which the focietv were the invent- 
 ors. They ufed the fliarp-headed arch, which would rife 
 with little centring, required lighter key-llones and lefs 
 buttment, and yet would bear another row of doubled 
 arches, riling from the kev-ftone; by the diverfifying of 
 which they erefted eminent firutlures ; fuch as the fteeples 
 of Vienna, Strafburg, and many others. They affefted 
 fteeples, though the Saracens thcmfelves moft ufed cupolas. 
 The church of St. Mark at Venice is built after the Saracen 
 manner. Glafs began to be ufed in windows, and a great 
 part of the outfide ornaments of churches confifted in the 
 tracery works of difpofing the mullions of the windows for 
 the better fixing in of the glafs. Thus the work required 
 fewer materials, and the workmanfhip was for the moil 
 part performed by flat moulds, in which the wardens could 
 eafily inftru6t hundreds of artificers. It mult be confefled, 
 this was an ingenious compendium of work fuited to thefe 
 northern climates ; and I muft alfo own, that works of the 
 fame height and magnificence in the Roman way would be 
 very much more expenfive than in the other Gothic manner, 
 managed with judgment. But as all modes, when once the 
 old rational ways are defpifed, turn at laft into unbounded 
 fancies, this tracery induced too much mincing of the ftone 
 into open battlements, and fpindling pinnacles, and little 
 
 carvings 
 
io6 CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 carvings without proportion of diftancc; fo the efTential 
 rules of good perfpeftive and duration were forgot. But 
 about two hundred years ago, when ingenious men began 
 to reform the Roman language to the purity which they af- 
 figned and fixed to the time of Auguftus, and that century ; 
 the architects alfo, afliamed of the modern barbarity of 
 building, began to examine carefully the ruins of old Rome 
 and Italy, to fearch into the orders and proportions, and to 
 eftabliih them by inviolable rules; fo to their labours and 
 induftry we owe in a great degree the relloration of archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 ^^ Th-e ingenious Mr. Evelyn makes a general andjadicrous 
 comparifon, in his Account of Architecture, of the ancient 
 and modern ftyles ; with reference to fome of the particular 
 works of Inigo Jones, and the furveyor ; which in a few- 
 words give a right idea of the majeftic fymmetry of the one, 
 and the abfurd iyftem of the other. — * The ancient Greek 
 and Roman architecture anfwer all the perfections required 
 in a faultlefs and accomplithed building; fuch as for fo many 
 ages were fo renowned and reputed by theuniverfal fuffrages 
 of the civilized world ; and would doubtlefs have ftill fub- 
 filled and made good their claim, and what is recorded of 
 them, had not the Goths, Vandals, and other barbarous 
 nations fubverted and demoliflied them, together with that 
 glorious empire where thofe ftately and pompous monu- 
 ments ilood ; introducing in their Head a certain fantaltical 
 and licentious manner of building, which we have fiuce 
 called modern or Gothic : — congeftions of heavy, dark, 
 melancholy, and monkifh piles, without any juft propor- 
 tion, ufe, or beauty, compared with the truly ancient ; fo 
 as when we meet with the grcateil induftry and expenfive 
 carving, full of fret and lamentable imagery, fparing neither 
 of pains nor coft, a judicious fpeCtator is rather dillraCted, 
 or quite confounded, than touched with that admiratioi> 
 which refults from the true and juft fymmetry, regular pro- 
 portion, union, and difpofition; and from the great and 
 noble manner in which the auo;uft and jilorious fabrics of 
 the ancients are executed.' 
 
 " It was after the irruption of fwarms of thofe truculent 
 people from the north, the Moors and Arabs from the fouth 
 and eaft, overrunning the civilized world, that wherever they 
 fixed themfelves they foon began to debauch this noble a)id 
 ufeful art ; when, inftead of thofe beautiful orders, fo majeftical 
 and proper for their ilations, becoming variety, and othcp 
 
 ornamental 
 
ESSAY. 107 
 
 ornamental acccflbrles, they fct up thofe {lender and mif- 
 fhapen pillars, or rather bundles of ftaves, and other incon- 
 gruous props, to fupport incumbent weights and ponderous 
 arched roofs, without entablature 5 and though not without 
 great induftry (as M. d'Aviler well obferves), nor altogether 
 naked of gaudy fculpture, trite and bufy carvings, it is fuch 
 as gluts the eye rather than gratifies and pleafes it with any 
 reafonable fatisfaftion. For proof of this, without travel- 
 ling far abroad, I dare report myfclf to any man of judgment, 
 and that has the leall tafte of order and magniiicence, if, 
 after he has looked a while upon king Henry the Seventh's 
 chapel at We(lmin(ler, gazed on its Iharp angles, jetties, 
 narrow lights, lame llatues, lace, and other cut work and 
 crinkle-crankle, and fhall then turn his eyes on the Ban- 
 queting-houfe built at Whitehall by Inigo Jones, after the 
 ancient manner; or on what his Majefty's furveyor. Sir 
 Chriftopher Wren, has advanced at St. Paul's, and confi- 
 der what a glorious objeft the cupola, porticos, colonnades, 
 and other parts prefent to the beholder; or compare the 
 fchools and library at Oxford with the theatre there; or 
 what he has built at Trinity College in Cambridge; and 
 lince all thefe, at Greenwich and other places, by which 
 time our home traveller will begin to have a jufl idea of the 
 ancient and modern archite6lure ; I fay, let him well con- 
 fider, and compare them judicially, without partiality and 
 prejudice, and then pronounce which of the two manners 
 ftrikes the underftanding as well as the eye with the more 
 majefty and folemn greatnefs ; though in fo much a plainer 
 and fimple drefs, conform to the refpeftive orders and en- 
 tablature : and accordingly determine to whom the prefer- 
 ence is due : not as we faid, that there is not fomething of 
 folid, and oddly artificial too, after a fort. But then the 
 univerfal and unreafonable thicknefs of the walls, clumfy 
 buttreffes, towers, fharp-pointed arches, doors, and other 
 apertures without proportion ; nonfenfical infertions of va- 
 rious marbles impertinently placed ; turrets and pinnacles 
 thick fet w'ith monkies and chimeras, and abundance of 
 bufy work, and other incongruities, diflipate and break the 
 angles of the fight, and fo confound it, that one cannot 
 confider it with any fteadinefs, where to begin or end ; 
 taking off from that noble air and grandeur, bold and grace- 
 ful manner, which the ancients had fo v/ell and judiciouily 
 eftabliihed. But in this fort have they and their followers 
 ever fince filled not Europe alone^ but Afia and Africa be- 
 
 iidesj 
 
io8 CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 of that opinion*''; and it has been fubfcribed 
 to by mofi: writers who have treated on this 
 fubjed:". If the fuppofition is well grounded, 
 
 it 
 
 fides, with mountains of ftone; vaft and gigantic buildings 
 indeed ! but not worthy the name of architedlurej &c," 
 "Wren's ParentaHa, p. 306. 
 
 " *' This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture 
 (fo the Italians called what was not after the Roman ftyle), 
 though the Goths were rather deftroyers than builders : I 
 think it fliould with more reafon be called the Saracen ftylc; 
 for thofe people wanted neither arts nor learning ; and after 
 we in the Weft had loft both, we borrowed again from them, 
 out of their Arabic books, what they with great diligence 
 had tranflated from the Greeks. They were zealots in their 
 religion 5 and wherever they conquered (which was with 
 amazing rapidity) ere£led mofques and caravanferas in hafte, 
 which obliged them to fall into another way of building ; 
 for they built their mofques round, difliking the Chriftian 
 form of a crofs. The old quarries, whence the ancients 
 took their large blocks of marble for whole columns and 
 architraves, were neglefted ; and they thought both imper- 
 tinent. Their carriage was by camels ; therefore their 
 buildings were fitted for fmall ftones, and columns of their 
 own fancy, confifting of many pieces ; and their arches 
 pointed without key-ftones, which they thought too heavy. 
 The reafons were the fame in our northern climates, abound- 
 ing in freeftone, but wanting marble.*' Wren's Parentalia, 
 p. 297. 
 
 " *^ Modern Gothic, as it is called, is deduced from a 
 different quarter ; it is diiiinguiflied by the lighmefs of its 
 work, by the exceflive boldnefs of its elevations, and of its 
 fe6lions ; by the delicacy, profufion, and extravagant fancy 
 of its ornaments. The pillars of this kind are as flendcr as 
 thofe of the ancient Gothic are maflive : fuch productions, 
 fo airy, cannot admit the heavy Goths for their author j 
 how can be attributed to them a ftyle of archileClure which 
 was only introduced in the tenth century of our aera ? fe- 
 veral years after the deftruftion of all thofe kingdoms which 
 the Goths had raifed upon the ruins of the Roman empire, 
 and at a time when the very nanie of Goth was entirely 
 
 forgotten : 
 
ESSAY. 169 
 
 it feems likely that many ancient buildings of 
 this kind, or at leafl their remains, would be 
 found in thofe countries from whence it is faid 
 to have been brought ; parts of which have at 
 
 forgotten : from all the marks of the new architefture it can 
 only be attributed to the Moors; or, what is the fame thing, 
 to the Arabians or Saracens ; who have exprefled in their 
 architecture the fame tafte as in their poetry ; both the one 
 and the other falfely delicate, crowded with fuperfluous or- 
 naments, and often very unnatural ; the imagination is 
 highly worked up in both ; but it is an extravagant imagi- 
 nation ; and this has rendered the edifices of the Arabians 
 (we may include the other orientals) as extraordinary as 
 their thoughts. If any one doubts of this afl'ertion, let us ap- 
 peal to any one who has feen the mofques and palaces of Fez, 
 or fome of the cathedrals in Spain, built by the Moors : one 
 model of this fort is the church at Burgos ; and even in 
 this ifland there are not wanting feveral examples of the 
 fame : fuch buildings have been vulgarly called Modem 
 Gothic, but their true appellation is Arabic, Saracenic, or 
 Morefque. This manner was introduced into Europe through 
 Spain ; learning flouriflied among the Arabians all the time 
 that their dominion was in full power; they ftudied philo- 
 fophy, mathematics, phyfic, and poetry. The love of 
 learning was at once excited ; in all places that were not at 
 too great didance from Spain thefe authors were read ; and 
 fuch of the Greek authors as they had tranflated into Ara- 
 bic, were from thence turned into Latin. The phyfic and 
 philofophy of the Arabians fpread thcmfelves in Europe, and 
 with thefe their architecture : many churches were built 
 after the Saracenic mode; and others with a mixture of 
 heavy and light proportions : the alteration that the difference 
 of the climate might require was little, if at all, confidered. 
 In moft fouthern parts of Europe and in Africa, the windows 
 (before the ufe of glafs), made with narrov/ apertures, and 
 placed very high in the walls of the building, occafioned 
 a fhade and darknefs withinfide, and were all contrived to 
 guard againft the fierce rays of the fun ; yet were ill fuited 
 to thofe latitudes, where that glorious luminary fhades its 
 feebler influences, and is rarely feen but through a watery 
 cloud.'' Rious's Architedure. 
 
 different 
 
liO CAPTAIN GROSE's 
 
 different times been vifited by feveral curious 
 travellers, many of whom have made dcfigns of 
 ■what they thought mofl: remarkable. Whether 
 they overlooked or neglected thefe buildings, as 
 being in fearch of thofe of more remote anti- 
 quity, or whether noneexifted, feems doubtful. 
 Cornelius le Brun, an indefatigable and inqui- 
 litive traveller, has publiilied many views of 
 eaftern buildings, particularly about the Holy 
 Land; in all thefe only one Gothic ruin, the 
 church near Acre, and a few pointed arches, oc- 
 cur ; and thofe built by the Chriftians, when in 
 poiTeffion of the country. Near Ifpahan, in 
 Perfia, he gives feveral buildings with pointed 
 arches; but thefe are bridges and caravanferas, 
 •whofe age cannot be afcertained ; confequently, 
 are as likely to have been built after as before 
 the introdudtion of this ftyle into Europe. 
 
 At Ifpahan itfelf, the Mey Doen, or grand 
 market-place, is furrounded by divers magni- 
 ficent Gothic buildings; particularly the royal 
 mofque, and the Talael Ali-kapie, or theatre. 
 The magnificent bridge of Alla-werdie-chan, 
 over the river Zenderoet, five hundred and forty 
 paces long, and feventeen broad, having thirty- 
 three pointed arches, is alfo a Gothic flrudure : 
 but no mention is made when or by whom thefe 
 were built. The Chiaer Baeg, a royal garden, is 
 decorated with Gothic buildings; but thefe 
 
 were. 
 
ESSAY. lit 
 
 Avere, it is faid, built only in the reign of Scha 
 /\bbas, who died anno 1629. 
 
 One buildincr indeed at firft feems as if it would 
 corroborate this aflertion, and that the time when 
 it was erecfted might be in fome degree fixed; 
 it is the tomb of Abdulla °, one of the apoflles 
 of Mahomet, probably him furnamed Abu Beer. 
 
 ° '■' Le vingt-troifiemede cemois nous allames encore en 
 
 ceretnonie au village de Kaladoen, a une bonne lieue de la 
 
 ville, pour y voir le tombeau d'AbduUa. On dit que ce 
 
 faint avoit autrefois rinfpe6liou des eaux d'Emoen Ofleyn, et 
 
 qu'il etoit un des douze defciples, ou a ce qu'ils pretendent, 
 
 un des apotres de leur prophete. Ce tombeau, qui eft place 
 
 entre quatre murailles, revetues de pelites pierres, eft de 
 
 niarbre gris, orne de cara6leres Arabes, et entoure de lampes 
 
 de cuivre etamees ; on y monte par quinze marches d'un 
 
 pied de havit, et Ton y en trouve quinze autres un peu plus 
 
 elevees, qui conduifent a une platte forme quaree, qui a 
 
 trente-deux pieds de large de cbaque cote, et furle devant de 
 
 la quelle il y a deux colomnes de petites pierres, entre lef- 
 
 quelles il s'en trouve de bleues. La bafe en a cinq pieds de 
 
 large, et une petite porte, avec un efcalier a noyeau qui a 
 
 auffi quinze marches. EUes font fort endommagees par les 
 
 injures du terns, et il paroit qu'elles ont ete une fois plus 
 
 elevees qu'elles ne font a prefent. L'efcalier en eft fi etroit 
 
 qu'il faut qu'un homme de taille ordinaire fe defhabille pour 
 
 y monter, conime je fis, et paffai la moitie du corps au defllis 
 
 de la colomne. Mais ce qu'il y a de plus extraordinaire, eft 
 
 que lors qu'on ebranle une des colomnes en faifant un 
 
 niouvement du corps; I'autre en refluent les fecouffes, et eft 
 
 agitee du meme ; c'eft une chofe dont j'ai faitl'epreuve, fans 
 
 en pouvoir comprendrc, ni apprendre la raifon. Pendant que 
 
 j'etois occupe a defliner cebatiment, qu'on trouve au N° 71, 
 
 un jeune garcon de douze a treize ans, boflu par devant, 
 
 grimpa en dehors, le long de la muraille, jufqu'au haut.de 
 
 la colomne dont il fit le tour, et redefcendit de meme fans fe 
 
 tenir a quoi que ce foit, qu'aux petites pierres de ce bati- 
 
 ment, aux endroits ou la chaux en etoit detachee ; et il ne 
 
 le fit que pour nous devertir," Voyage de Le Brun, toni> i. 
 
 p, 185. 
 
 If 
 
112 CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 If this tomb is fuppofed to have been buih 
 foon after his death, efli mating that event to 
 have happened according to the common coiirfe 
 of nature, it will place its ered:ion about the 
 middle of the feventh century : but this is by 
 far too conje<5tural to be much depended on. It 
 alfo feems as if this was not the common flyle 
 of building at that time, from the temple of 
 Mecca ; where, if any credit is to be given to 
 the print of it, in Sale's Koran, the arches are 
 femicircular. The tomb here mentioned has 
 one evidence to prove its antiquity ; that of be- 
 ing damaged by the injuries ot time and wea- 
 ther. Its general appearance much refcmbles 
 the eafi: end of the chapel belonging to Ely 
 Houfe, London ; except that which is filled up 
 there by the great window : in the tomb is an 
 open pointed arch; where alfo the columns, or 
 pinnacles, on each fide are higher in proportion. 
 Some have fuppofed that this kind of archi- 
 tedure was brought into Spain by the Moors 
 (who pofTefTed themfelves of a great part of 
 that country the beginning of the eighth cen- 
 tury, which they held to the latter end of the 
 fifteenth) ; and that from thence, by way of 
 France p, it was introduced into England. This 
 
 at 
 
 ■" '^' The Saracen mode of building feen in the Eaft foon 
 fpread over Europe, and particularly in France, the fafliions 
 
 of 
 
ESSAY. 113 
 
 at firft Teems plaufible; though the only inftance 
 which feems to corroborate this hypothefis, or 
 
 of which nation we affedled to imitate in all ages, even when 
 we were at enmity with it. Nothino:; was thouorht mao-ni- 
 ficent that was not high bevond meafure, with the flutter 
 of arch buttrelTeSj fo we call the Hoping arches that poife 
 the higher vaultings of the nave. The Romans always con- 
 cealed their hutments, whereas the Normans thought them 
 ornamenlal. Thefe I have obfervcd are the firft things that 
 occafion the ruin of cathedrals, being fo much expofed to 
 the air and weather; the coping, which cannot defend them, 
 firft failing, and if they give way the vault muft fpread. 
 Pinnacles are of no ufe, and as little ornament. The pride 
 of a very high roof, raifed above reafonable pitch, is not for 
 duration, for the lead is apt to flip ; but we are tied to this 
 indifcreet form, and muft be contented with original faults 
 in the firft defiirn. But that which is moft to be lamented, 
 is the unhappy choice of the materials : the ftone is decayed 
 four inches deep, and falls off" perpetually in great fcales. I 
 find after the Conqueft all our artifts were fetched from Nor- 
 mandy ; they loved to w^ork in their own Caen ftone, which 
 is more beautiful than durable. This was found expcnfive 
 to bring hither; fo they thought Ryegate ftone, in Surry, 
 the neareft like their own, being a ftone that would faw and 
 work like wood, but not durable, as is mamfeft : and they 
 ufed this for the aftilar of the whole fabric, which is now 
 disficrured in the hisheft dec^ree. This ftone takes in water, 
 which, being frozen, fcales off; whereas good ftone gathers 
 a cruft and defends itfelf, as many of our Englifli freeftones 
 do. And though we have alfo the beft oak timber in the 
 world ; yet thefe fenfelefs artificers, in Weftminfter hall and 
 other places, would work their chefnuts from Normandy : 
 that timber is not natural to England ; it works finely, but 
 fooner decays than oak. The roof in the abbey is oak, but 
 mixed with chefnut, and wrought after a bad Norman 
 manner, that does not fecure it from ftretching and damag- 
 ing the walls ; and the water of the gutters is ill carried oft'. 
 All this is faid, tlie better, in the next place, to reprefent 
 to your lordfliip what has been done, and is wanting ftill 
 to be carried on ; as time and money is allowed to make a 
 fubftantial and durable repair." Wren's Parentalia, p. 298. 
 
 I at 
 
114 CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 at le.aft the only one proved by authentic draw- 
 ings, is the moique at Cordova in Spain j where, 
 according to the views piibhfhed by Mr. Swin- 
 burne, although moft of the arches are circular, 
 or horfe-flioe fafhion, there are fome pointed 
 arches, formed by the interfe(5lion of two feg^ 
 ments of a circle. This rnofque was, as it is 
 there faid, begun by Abdoulrahman the firft, 
 who laid the foundation two years before his 
 death, and was finifhed by his fon HifTem or If- 
 can about the year 800. If thefe arches were part 
 of the original flrudlure, it would be much in 
 favour of the fuppofition; but, as it is alfo 
 faid, that edifice has been more than once altered 
 and enlarged by the Mahometans, before any 
 well-grounded conclufion can be drawn, it is 
 neceflary to afcertain the date of the prefent 
 building. 
 
 There are alfo feveral pointed arches in the 
 Moorifh palace at Grenada, called the Alhambra; 
 but as that was not built till the year 1273, long 
 after the introduction of pointed arches into 
 Europe, they are as likely to be borrowed by 
 the Moors from the Chriflians, as by the Chrif- 
 tians from the Moors. The greateft peculiarity in 
 the Moorifli architedure is the horfe-fhoe arch'^, 
 
 ' As delineation gives a much clearer idea of forms and 
 figures than the moft laboured defcription, the reader is 
 referred to the plates in Swinburne's Travels, where there are 
 many horfe-lhoe arches, both round and pointed. 
 
 which, 
 
ESSAY. 115 
 
 which, containing more than a femicircle, con- 
 tracfls towards its bafe, by which it is rendered 
 unfit to bear any confiderable weight, being 
 folely calculated for ornament. In Romefy 
 church, Ham.pfhire, there are feveral arches 
 fomewhat of that form. 
 
 In the drawings of the Moorilh buildings given 
 in Les Delices de I'Efpagne, faid to be faithful 
 reprefentations, there are no traces of the ftyle 
 called Gothic archited:ure ; there, as well as in 
 the Moorilh caftle at Gibraltar, the arches are 
 all reprefented circular. Perhaps a more gene- 
 ral knowledge of thefe buildings would throw 
 fome lights on the fubjed:, at prefent almoft en- 
 tirely enveloped in obfcurity : poffibly the Moors 
 may, like us, at different periods, have ufed 
 different manners of building. Having thus in 
 vain attempted to difcover from whence we had 
 this {\iyley let us turn to what is more certainly 
 known, the time of its introdudlion into this 
 kingdom, and the fucceffive improvements and 
 changes it has undergone. 
 
 Its firft appearance here was towards the latter 
 end of the reign of king Henry II. but it was 
 not at once thoroughly adopted ; fome fhort folid 
 columns, and femicircular arches, being re- 
 tained and mixed with the pointed ones. An 
 example of this is feen in the w^efl: end of the 
 
 I 2 old 
 
Il6 CAPTAIN GROSES 
 
 old Temple church ; and at York, where, under 
 the choir, there remains much of the ancient 
 work ; the arches of which are but juft pointed, 
 and rife on Ihort round pillars : both thefe were 
 built in that reign. More inftances might be 
 brought, was not the thing probable in itfelf ; 
 new inventions, even when ufeful, not being 
 readily received. The great weft tower of Ely 
 cathedral was built by bifliop Rydel, about this 
 time : thofe arches were all pointed. 
 
 In the reign of Henry III. this manner of 
 building feems to have gained a complete foot- 
 ing ; the circular giving place to the pointed arch, 
 and the maflive column yielding to the llender 
 pillar. Indeed, like all novelties j when once 
 admitted, the rage of fafhion made it become 
 lo prevalent, that many of the ancient and folid 
 buildings, ered:ed in former ages, were taken 
 down, in order to be re-edified in the new tafte; 
 or had additions patched to them of this mode 
 of archite(fture. The prefent cathedral church 
 of Saliibury was begun early in this reign, and 
 iinifhed in the year 1258. It is entirely in the 
 Gothic ftyle, and, according to Sir Chriftopher 
 Wren, may be juftly accounted one of the befl 
 patterns of archited:ure of the age in which it 
 was built. Its excellency is undoubtedly in a 
 great meafure owing to its being conftruded on 
 
 ona 
 
ESSAY. 117 
 
 one plan; whence arifes that fymmetry and 
 agreement of parts not to be met with in many of 
 our other cathedral churches, which have moftly 
 been built at different times, and in a variety 
 of ftyles. The fafhionable manner of building 
 at this period, and till the reign of Henry VIII. 
 as is defcribed by Mr. Bentham, fee in note^ 
 
 In the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. 
 or rather towards the latter end of that of 
 Henry VII. when brick building became com- 
 mon, a new kind of low pointed arch grew 
 much in ufe : it was defcribed from four cen- 
 tres, was very round at the haunches, and the 
 angle at the top was very obtufe. This fort of 
 arch is to be found in every one of cardinal 
 Wolfey's buildings; alfo at Weft Sheen; an 
 ancient brick gate at Mile End, called King 
 John's Gate ; and in the great gate of the palace 
 of Lambeth. From this time Gothic architec- 
 ture began to decline, and was foon after fup- 
 planted by a mixed ilyle, if one may venture 
 to call it one; wherein the Grecian and Go- 
 thic, however difcordant and irreconcilable, are 
 jumbled together. Concerning this mode of 
 building, Mr. Warton, in his Obfcrvations on 
 
 _ ' ^^ During the whole reign of Henry III, the fafhionable 
 pillars to our churches were"] — [" one can hardly help con- 
 cluding, that architefture arrived at its highefl point of glory 
 in this kingdom but juft before its final period..''' (See Mr» 
 Bentham^ p. 80 — 87.) 
 
 I 3 Spenfer's 
 
ii8 CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 Spenfer*s Fairy Queen, has the following anec- 
 dotes and remarks : 
 
 -Did arlfe 
 
 On (lately pillours, framd afer the Doricke guife. 
 
 " Although the Roman or Grecian architec- 
 ture did not begin to prevail in England till the 
 time of Inigo Jones ; yet our communication 
 with the Italians, and our imitation of their 
 manners, produced fome fpecimens of that flyle 
 much earlier. Perhaps the earlicft is Somerfet 
 houfe in the Strand, built about the year 1549, 
 by the duke of Somerfet, uncle to Edward VI. 
 The monument of bifhop Gardiner, in Win- 
 chefler cathedral, made in the reign of Mary, 
 about 1555, is decorated with Ionic pillars j 
 Spenfer's verfes here quoted bear an allufion 
 to fome of theie fafhionable improvements in 
 building, which at this time were growing 
 more and more into efleem. Thus alfo bifliop 
 Hall, who wrote about the fame time; viz. 
 1598: 
 
 There findell; thou fome ftately Doricke frame^ 
 Or neat lonicke work. 
 
 But thefe ornaments were often abfurdly intro- 
 duced into the old Gothic ftyle ; as in the mag- 
 nificent portico of the Schools at Oxford, ered:ed 
 about the year 1613; where the builder, in a 
 
 Gothic 
 
ESSAY. 119 
 
 Gothic edifice, has afFe(fledly difplayed his uni- 
 verfal (kill in the modern architecture, by giving 
 us all the five orders together. However, moft 
 of the great buildings of queen Elizabeth's 
 reign have a ftyle peculiar to themfclves both 
 in form and finifliing ; where, though much of 
 the old Gothic is retained, and great part of the 
 new tafte is adopted, yet neither predominates ; 
 while both, thus diftindtly blended, compofe a 
 fantaftic fpecies hardly reducible to any clafs or 
 name. One of its chara(5terifi:ics is the affed:a- 
 tion of large and lofty windows ; where, fays 
 Bacon, you fhall have fometimes fair houfes fo 
 full of glafs that one cannot tell where to be- 
 come to be out of the fun.** 
 
 The marks which conftitute the character of 
 Gothic or Saracenical architediure, are, its nu- 
 merous and prominent buttrefles, its lofty fpires 
 and pinnacles, its large and ramified windows, 
 its ornamental niches or canopies, its fculptured 
 faints, the delicate lace- work of its fretted roofs, 
 and the profufion of ornaments laviflied indif- 
 criminately over the whole building : but its 
 peculiar diflinguifhing charadteriftics are, the 
 fmall cluflered pillars and pointed arches, formed 
 by the fegmenus of two interfering circles ; 
 which arches, though laft brought into ufe, are 
 evidently of more fimple and obvious conftruc- 
 tion than the femicircular ones; two flat flones, 
 
 I 4 with 
 
120 CAPTAIN Grose's 
 
 with their tops inclined to each other, and 
 touching, form its rudiments ; a number of 
 boughs ftuck into the ground oppofite each other, 
 and tied together at the top, in order to form a 
 bower, exadly defcribe it : whereas a femicir- 
 cular arch appears the refult of deeper contri- 
 vance, as confifting of more parts ; and it feems 
 lefs probable, chance, from whence all thefe 
 inventions were firft derived, fhould throw fe ve- 
 ra! wedge- like ftones between two fet perpendi- 
 cular, fo as exactly to fit and fill up the interval. 
 Biiliop Warburton, in his notes on Pope's 
 Epiilles, in the octavo edition, has fome inge- 
 nious obfervations on this fubjed:, which are 
 given in the note': to which it may not be im- 
 proper 
 
 ' '' Our Gothic anceftors had jufter and manlier notions 
 
 of niagnillcence, on Greek and Roman ideas, than thefe 
 
 mimics of tafte who profefs to ftudy only claflic elegance : 
 
 and becaufe the thing does honour to the genius of thofe 
 
 barbarians, I fliall endeavour to explain it. All our ancient 
 
 churches are called without diftinftion Gothic, but erro- 
 
 neoufly. They are of two forts ; the one built in the Saxon 
 
 times, the other in the Norman. Several cathedral and 
 
 collegiate churches of the firft fort are yet remaining, either 
 
 in whole or in part; of which this was the original : when 
 
 the Saxon kings became Chriftians, their piety (which was 
 
 the piety of the times) confiiied chiefly in building churches 
 
 at home, and performing pilgrimages abroad, cfpecially to 
 
 the Holy Land : and thefe fpiritual exercifes alfifted and 
 
 fupported one another. For the moft venerable as well as 
 
 moil elegant models of religious edifices were then in Palef- 
 
 tine. From thefe the Saxon builders took the whole of 
 
 their ideas, as may be feen by comparing the drawings 
 
 which travellers have given us of the churches yet ftanding 
 
 in 
 
ESSAY. 121 
 
 proper to add fome particulars relative to Caen 
 
 floTie, 
 
 in that country, with the Saxon remains of what we find 
 at home ; and particularly in that famenefs of ftyle in the 
 latter religious edifices of the knights templars (profefledly 
 built upon the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 at Jerufalem) with the earlier remains of our Saxon edifices. 
 Now the architeeture of the Holy Land was Grecian, but 
 greatly fallen from its ancient elegance. Our Saxon per- 
 formance was indeed a bad copy of it ; and as much infe- 
 rior to the works of St. Helene and Juftinian as theirs were 
 to the Grecian models they had followed : yet ttill the foot- 
 fteps of ancient art appeared in the circular arches, the 
 entire columns, the divifion of the entablature into a fort 
 of architrave, frize, and corniche, and a folidity equally 
 diffufed over the whole mafs. This, by way of diftinftion, 
 I would call the Saxon archite6lure. But our Norman 
 w^orks had a very different original. When the Goths had 
 conquered Spain, and the 2;enial warmth of the climate and 
 the reli2:ion of the old inhabitants had ripened their wits 
 and inflamed their miftaken piety (both kept in exercife by 
 the neighbourhood of the Saracens, throvigh emulation of 
 their fervice and averfion to their fuperftition), they ftnick 
 out a new fpccies of architeefure, unknown to Greece apd 
 Rome ; upon original principle?, and ideas much nobler 
 than what had given birth even to claflical magnificence. For 
 this northern people having been acculliomed, during the 
 gloom of Paganifm, to worfliip the Deity in groves (a prac- 
 tice common to all nations), when their new religion re- 
 quired covered edifices, they ingeniouflv proje6led to make 
 them refemble groves as nearly as the diftance of architec- 
 ture would permit; at once indulging their old prejudices 
 and providing for their prefent conveniences bv a cool re- 
 ceptacle m a fultry climate; and with what fkill and fuccefs 
 they executed the projeft, by the allillance of Saracen ar- 
 chitefts, whofe exotic ftyle of building very luckily fuited 
 their purpofe, appears from hence, that no attentive ob- 
 ferver ever view-ed a regular avenue of well-grown trees, in- 
 termixing their branches over head, but it prefently put 
 him in mind of the long vifto through the Gothic cathedral; 
 or even entered one of the larger and more elegant edifices 
 of this kind, but itprefented to his imagination an avenue of 
 ^rees ; and this alone is what can be truly called the Gothic 
 
 ftyle 
 
122 CAPTAIN GROSE*S 
 
 ilooe, with which many of our ancient cathe- 
 drals are built, as extracfled from fome curious 
 
 ftyle of building. Under this idea of fo extraordinary a 
 fpecies of architefture, all the irregular tranfgreffions againft 
 art, all the monftrous offences againft nature, disappear; 
 every thing has its reafon, every thing is in order, and an 
 hamionious whole arifes from the ftudious application of 
 means proper and proportioned to the end. For could the 
 arches be otherwife than pointed, when the workmen were 
 to imitate that curve which branches of two oppofite trees 
 make by their infertion with one another ; or could the 
 columns be otherways than fplit into diftinft (hafts when 
 they were to rcprefent the ftems of a clump of trees growing 
 dole together ? On the fame principles they formed the 
 fpreading ramification of the ftone-work in the windows, 
 and the llained glafs in the interftices ; the one to reprefent 
 the branches, and the other the leaves, of an opening grove : 
 and both concurred to preferve that gloomy light which in- 
 fpires religious reverence and dread. Laftly, we fee the 
 reafon of their ftudied averfion to apparent folidity in thefe 
 llupendous maffes, deemed fo abfurd by men accuftomed to 
 the apparent as well as real ftrength of Grecian architefture. 
 Had it been only a wanton exercife of the artift's fkill to 
 fliow he could give real ftrength without the appearance of 
 any, we might indeed admire his fuperior fcience j but we 
 muft needs condemn his ill judgment. But when one con- 
 fiders that this furprifing ligHtnefs was neceflary to complete 
 the execution of his idea of a fylvan place of worftiip, one 
 cannot fufficiently admire the ingenuity of the contrivance. 
 This too will account for the contrary qualities in what I 
 call the Saxon architefture. Thefe artifts copied, as has 
 been faid, from the churches in the Holy Land, which were 
 built on the models of the Grecian architefture, but cor- 
 rupted by prevaiHng barbarifm ; and ftill further depraved 
 by a religious idea. The firft places of Chriftian worftiip 
 were fepulchres and fubterranneous caverns, low and heavy 
 from neceftity. When Chriftianity became the religion of 
 the ftate, and fumptuous temples began to be erected, they 
 yet, in regard to the firft pious ages, preferved the maftive 
 ftyle, made ftill more venerable by the church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre ; where this ftyle was^ on a double account, fol- 
 lowed and aggravated. 
 
 records 
 
ESSAY. 123 
 
 records originally given in Dr. DucarrePs Anglo 
 Norman Antiquities ^ 
 
 I fhall clofe this article with recommending 
 it to fuch as defire more knowledge of thefe 
 matters than is communicated in this flight 
 compilation, to perufc Wren*s Parentalia, War- 
 
 ' In page 7 of his preface, it is faid, that the keeps of 
 the ancient caftles were coined, and their arches faced with 
 ftone, brought from Caen in Normandy. A curious gen- 
 tleman has favovired me with the following particulars re- 
 fpe6ling this ftone : formerly vaft quantities of this ftone 
 were brought to England ; London bridge, Weftminfter 
 abbey, and many other edifices, being built therewith. See 
 Stow's Survey of London, edit. 1633, p. 31, 32, &c. See 
 alfo Rot. Liter, patent. Norman, de anno 6 Hen. V, p. i, 
 m. 22. — " De quarreris albae petrae in fuburbio villcE de Caen 
 annexandis dominio regis pro reparatione ecclefiarum, cai- 
 trorum, et fortalitiorum, tarn in Anglia quam in Normannia." 
 See alfo Rot. Normanniae, de anno 9 Hen. V. m. 31, dorf. 
 — " Arreftando naves pro tranfportatione lapidum ct pe- 
 trarum, pro conftru6lione abbatiae fanfti Petri de Weftmin- 
 fter a partibus Cadomi." Ibid. m. 30. — ^' Pro domo Jefu 
 de Betlileem de Shene, de lapidibus in quarreris circa villani 
 de Cadomo capiendis pro conftruftione ecclefice, clauftri, et 
 cellarum domus praediftse " See alfo Rot. Franciae, de 
 anno 35 Hen. VL m. 2. — " Pro falvo conduftu ad fuppli- 
 cationem abbatis et conventus beati Petri Weftmonafterii, 
 pro mercatoribus de Caen in Normannia, veniendis in An- 
 gliam cum lapidibus de Caen pro reparatione monaftcrii 
 praedi^li. lefte rege apud Weftm. 15 die Augufti." See 
 alfo Rot. Francias, de anno 38 Hen. VL m. 23. — " De falvo 
 conduftu pro nave de Caen in regnum Anglic revenienda, 
 cum lapidibus de Caen pro reparatione monafterii de Weft- 
 minfter. Tefte rege apud Weftm. 9 die Maii." — Now, how- 
 ever, the exportation of this ftone out of France is fo ftri6lly 
 prohibited, that when it is to be fent by fea, the owner of 
 the ftone, as well as the mafter of the veflel on board which 
 it is to be fliipped, is obliged to give fecurity that it fliall 
 not be fold to foreigners. 
 
 ton's 
 
124 CAPTAIN GROSE S ESSAY. 
 
 ton's Thoughts on Spenfer's Fairy Queen, and 
 the Ornaments of Churches confidered ; but 
 above all, Mr. Bentham's Diflertation on Saxon 
 and Norman architedlure, prefixed to his Hif- 
 tory of Ely, to which the author of this account 
 elleems himfelf much beholden. 
 
 REV. 
 
( 125 ) 
 
 REV. J. MlLNER*s ESSAY 
 
 On the Rife aud Frogrefs of the Pointed Arcb^. 
 
 1 HE church of St. Crofs, which is regularly 
 built, in the cathedral form, confifls of a nave 
 and fide ifles 150 feet long, a tranfept which 
 meafures 120 feet, and a large fquare tower 
 over the interfe(5lion. It is entirely the work 
 of De Blois, except the front and upper ftory 
 of the weft end, which are of a latter date, and 
 feems to have been an effort of that great encou- 
 rager of the arts ^ to produce a ftyle of architec- 
 ture more excellent, and better adapted to eccle- 
 fiaftical purpofes, than what had hitherto been 
 
 ^ Hiftory and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchefler, 
 vol. ii. p. 148. 
 
 ■" ^' Hie quicquatn in beftiisj quicquam in avibus, quic- 
 quam in monftris terrarum variis peregrinum magis, et prae 
 oculis hominum vehementius obftupendum et admirandum 
 audire vel excogitare potuerat^ tanquam innatse nobilitatis 
 indicia congerebat. Prsterea opera mira, palatia fumptu- 
 ofiffima, ftagna grandia, ductus aquarum difficiles ipogeof- 
 que, varia per loca meatus, denique ea qu® regibus ter- 
 rarum magnis difficillima fatlu vifa funt ha6lenus et quali 
 defperata, effeclui mancipari tanquam facillima^ mira mag- 
 nanimitate procurabat." Girald, Cambrenf, De Hen. 
 Blef, Copula Tergemina. 
 
 known. 
 
126 REV. J. milner's 
 
 known. This flyle accordingly foon after made 
 its appearance in a regular fhape. The building 
 before us feems to be a colledion of architec- 
 tural elTays, with refpe(5t to the difpolition and 
 form both of the eflential parts and of the fub- 
 ordinate ornaments. Here we find the pon- 
 derous Saxon pillar of the fame dimenfions in 
 its circumference as in its length, which, how- 
 ever, fupports an incipient pointed arch. The 
 windows and arches are fome of them fhort, 
 with femicircular heads, and fome of them im- 
 moderately long, and terminating like a lance. 
 Others are in the horfe-fhoe form, of which the 
 entrance into the north porch is the moft curious 
 fpecimen. In one place we have a curious trian- 
 gular arch. The capitals and bafes of the columns 
 alternately vary in their form as well as in their 
 ornaments. The fame circumflance is obfervable 
 in the ribs of the arches, efpecially in the north 
 and fouth iflcs, fome of them being plain, others 
 profufely embelliflied, and in different flyles, 
 even within the fame arch. Here we view almofl 
 every kind of Saxon and Norman ornament, 
 the chevron, the billet, the hatched, the pellet, 
 the fret, the indented, the nebule, the wavey, 
 all fuperiorly executed. But what is chiefly 
 deferving of attention in this ancient church is, 
 what may perhaps be confidered as the firll 
 regular flep to the introdudion of that beau- 
 4 tiful 
 
ESSAY. 127 
 
 tiful flyle of architediure properly called the 
 pointed, and abulively the Gothic, order; con- 
 cerning the origin of which moil of our anti- 
 quaries have run into the moll abfurd fyflems. 
 
 Sir Chriftopher Wren, whofe authority has 
 feduced bifhop Lovvth ^, Warton, and mofl 
 other writers on this fubjedl, obferving that this 
 ftyle of building prevailed during the time that 
 the nobility of this and the neighbouring coun- 
 tries were in the habit of reforting, in quality 
 of crufaders, to the Eaft, then fubjedl to the 
 Saracens, fancied that they learnt it there, and 
 brought it back with them into Europe. Hence 
 they termed it the Saracenic flyle. But it is to 
 be remembered, that the firfl or grand crufade 
 took Dlace at the latter end of the eleventh cen- 
 tury, long before the appearance of the pointed 
 architedture in England, France, or Italy, 
 which, if it had been copied from other build- 
 ings, would have appeared amongfl us all at 
 once, in a regular and perfed: form. But what 
 abfolutely decides this quellion is, the proof 
 brought by Bentham and Grofe, that, through- 
 out all Syria, Arabia, &c. there is not a Go- 
 thic building to be difcovered, except fuch as 
 were raifed by the Latin Chriflians fubfequent 
 to the perfection of that ftyle in Europe. A 
 
 ' Life of William of Wykeham, 
 
 flill 
 
128 Rtv. J; milner's 
 
 flill more extraordinary, or rather extravagant 
 theory, than that which has been confuted, is 
 advanced by bifhop Warburton ^ He fuppofes 
 that the *' Goths who conquered Spain in 470, 
 becoming Chriftians, endeavoured to build their 
 churches in imitation of the fpreading and inter- 
 lacing boughs of the groves in which they had 
 been accuflomed to perform their Pagan rites 
 in their native country of Scandinavia, and that 
 they employed for this purpofe Saracen archi- 
 tects, whofe exotic ftyle fuited their purpofe." 
 The Vifigoths conquered Spain and became 
 Chriftians in the fifth century ; of courfe they 
 began at the fame time to build churches there. 
 The Saracens did not arrive in Spain until the 
 eighth century ; when, inftead of building 
 churches, they deftroyed them or turned them 
 into mofques. In every point of view this 
 theory afcribes to the pointed architedlure too 
 early a date by a great many centuries. But 
 fuppofing even the poffibility of its having lain 
 hidden there for fo long a period, certain it is, 
 that in this cafe, according to our former ob- 
 fervation, it would at laft have burft upon the 
 reft of Europe in a ftate of perfedion, contrary 
 to what every one knows was acflually the cafe. 
 
 "= Notes on Pope's EpiflleS'— See Captain Grofe's Eflay^ 
 p. 120. 
 
 But 
 
ESSAY. 129 
 
 But why need we recur to the caravanfcrics 
 <?f Arabia, or to the forefts of Scandinavia, for 
 a difcovery, the gradations of which we trace 
 at home, in an age of improvement and mag- 
 nificence, namely, the twelfth century, and 
 amongfl: a people who were fuperior in arts as 
 well as arms to all thofe above mentioned, 
 namely, the Normans ? About the time we are 
 ipeaking of, many illuftrious prelates of that 
 'nation, chiefly in our own country, exhaufte'd 
 their talents and wealth in carrying the mag- 
 nificence of their churches and other buildings 
 to the greatefl height pofTible. Amongfl thefe 
 were Roger of Sarum, Alexander of Lincoln, 
 Mauritius of London^ and Roger of York, each 
 of whofe fucceflive improvements were of courfe 
 adopted by the refl; neverthelefs, there is reafon 
 to doubt whether any or all of them contributed 
 fo much as our Henry of Wincheflier did to 
 thofe improvements which gradually changed 
 the Norman into the Gothic archited:ure. 
 
 We have remarked that the Normans, afFecft- 
 ing height in their churches no lefs than length, 
 were accuflomed to pile arches and pillars upon 
 each other, fometimes to the height of three 
 ilories, as we fee in Walkelin's work in our 
 cathedral. They frequently imitated thefe 
 arches and pillars in the mafonry of their plain 
 walls, and, by way of ornament and variety, 
 
 K they 
 
130 REV. J. milker's 
 
 they fometimcs caufcd thefe plain round arches 
 to interfedt each other, as we behold in the faid 
 prelate's work, on the upper part of the fouth 
 tranfept of Winchefler cathedral, being proba- 
 bly the earlicft inflance of this interefting orna- 
 ment to be met with in the kingdom. They 
 were probably not then aware of the happy ef- 
 fed: of this interfection, in forming the pointed 
 arch, until De Blois, having refolved to orna- 
 ment the whole fandluary of the church at 
 prefent under conlideration, with thefe inter- 
 fedting (emicircles, after richly embelli£hing 
 them with mouldings and pellet ornaments, 
 conceived the idea of opening them by way of 
 window^s, to the number of four over the altar, 
 and of eight on each lide of the choir, which at 
 once produced a feries of highly pointed arches. 
 Pleafed with the effect of this firft effay at the 
 eaft end, we may fuppofe that he tried the effedt 
 of that form in various other windows and arches 
 which we find amongii many of the fame date 
 that are circular in various parts of the church 
 and tower. However that matter niay be, and 
 wherever the pointed arch was nrfl: produced, 
 its gradual afcent naturally led to a long and 
 narrow form of window and arch, inftead of 
 the broad circular ones which had hitherto ob- 
 tained ; and thefe required that the pillars 011 
 which they reiled, or which were placed at 
 
 their 
 
ESSAY. 131 
 
 their fides by way of ornament, iliould be pro- 
 iportionably tall and (lender. Hence it became 
 necelTary to choofe a material of firm texture for 
 compofing them, which occafioned the general 
 adoption of Purbeck marble for this purpofe. 
 But even this fubfiance being found too weak 
 to fupport the incumbent weight, occafioned the 
 /hafts to be multiplied, and thus produced the 
 clufi:er column. But to return to the arches 
 and windows ; thefe being in general very nar- 
 row, at the firft difcovery of the pointed arch, 
 as we fee in the ruins of Hyde abbey"*, built 
 within thirty years after St. Crofs ^ ; in the re- 
 fectory of Beaulieu, raifed by king John; and 
 in the infide of the tower before us, built by 
 De Blois himfelf, it became necefifary fometimes 
 to place two of thefe windows clofe to each 
 other, which not unfrequently flood under one 
 common arch, as may be difcovered in different 
 parts of De Lucy's work in our cathedral, ex- 
 ecuted in the reign of king John, and in the 
 lower tire of the windows in the church of Net- 
 ley abbey. This difpofition of two lights oc- 
 cafioning a dead fpace between their heads, a 
 trefoil or quatrefoil, one of the fimplefi: and 
 
 * In the part now ufed as a barn. 
 
 * Namely, when erefted the iecond time, after having 
 been deftroyed in the civil war between king Stephen and 
 the emprefis Maud, 
 
 K % moft 
 
IJi REV. J. MILNER*S 
 
 moft ancient kind of ornaments, was introduced 
 between them, as in the porch of BeauHeu refec- 
 tory, the ornamental work of De Lucy, in the 
 ancient part" of the Lady chapel, Winton, and the 
 weft door of the prefent church of St. Crofs. The 
 happy effed of this iimple ^nament caufed the 
 upper part of it to be introduced into the heads 
 of the arches themfelves, fo that there is hardly 
 a fmall arch or the refemblance of an arch of any 
 kind, from the days of Edward IL down to thofe 
 of Henry VIIL which is not ornamented in this 
 manner. The trefoil, by an eafy addition, became 
 a cinquefoil, and being made ufe of in circles and 
 fquares, produced fans and Catherine's wheels. 
 In like manner, large eaft and weft windows 
 beginning to obtain about the reign of Edward L 
 required that they fliould have numerous diviiions 
 or mullions, which, as well as the ribs and tran- 
 foms of the vaulting, began to ramify into a great 
 variety of tracery, according to the architedl's tafte, 
 being all of them uniformly ornamented with the 
 trefoil or cinquefoil head. The pointed arch 
 on the outfide of a building required a canopy of 
 the fame form, which, in ornamental work, as 
 in the tabernacle of a ftatue, mounted up orna- 
 mented with leaves or crockets, and terminated 
 in a trefoil. In like manner, the buttrefles that 
 were neceflary for the ftrength of thefe buildings 
 could not finilh, conformably to the general ftyJc 
 
 of 
 
ESSAY. 122 
 
 of the building, without tapering up into orna- 
 mented pinnacles. A pinnacle of a larger fize 
 became a fpire; accordingly fuch were raifed 
 upon the fquare towers of former ages, where, 
 as at Salifbury, the funds of the church and 
 other circumflances would permit. Thus we 
 fee how naturally the feveral gradations of the 
 pointed archite^ure arofe one out of another, 
 as we learn from hiftory was adually the cafe, 
 and how the interfering of two circular arches 
 in the church of St. Crofs may perhaps have 
 produced Salisbury fteeple. 
 
 « 3 
 
A 
 
 LIST 
 
 OF THE 
 
 € ^ T H E JD M^ JL S 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLAND ; 
 
 SHEWING 
 
 IHEIR PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS. 
 
 1802. 
 
LIST, 
 
 &c. 
 
 St. ASAPH. 
 
 LFeet. 
 ENGTH from eaft to weft - - - 179 
 
 ^— — from the eafl door to the choir - 119 
 
 of the choir ----- 60 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth 108 
 
 Breadth of the body and iide ifles - - 68 
 
 of the choir - - - - -32 
 
 Height of the body, viz. from the area of the 
 
 pavement to the top of the roof, within - 60 
 of the tower which ftands in the 
 
 middle - - _ . 
 Square of the tower - 
 
 - 93 
 
 - 30 
 
 *L 2 
 
 BANGOR. 
 
1^8 LIST OP 
 
 BANGOR. 
 
 Fert. 
 
 Length from eaft to well: - - - - 214 
 
 of the tower at the weft end - - 19 
 
 ■ — of nave or body - - - - 141 
 
 of the choir, which extends entirely to 
 
 the eaft end, and begins beyond the crofs 
 
 ifle ------- 53 
 
 . — of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 96 
 
 Breadth of the body and lide ifles - - 60 
 
 Height of the body to the top of the roof - 34 
 
 — — of the tower ----- 60 
 
 Square of the tower ----- 24 
 
 BATH. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 210 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 126 
 
 Breadth of body and ifles - - - - 72 
 Height of the tower - - - - -162 
 — — of the roof or vauhing - - - 78 
 
 N. B. Examined by Carter's plan. 
 
 BRISTOL. 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. 1 39 
 
 BRISTOL. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft '- - - - ^75 
 
 Whereof the choir includes i oo. 
 ■ of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 128 
 
 Breadth of the body and lide ifles - - 73 
 
 Height of the tower - - - - - 127 
 Chapter-houfe 46 by 26. 
 The cloifters were 103 feet fquare. 
 
 N. B. This is conlidered an Incomplete 
 or a mutilated ftrudlure. 
 
 CANTERBURY. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 514 
 
 — . from the weft door to the choir - 214 
 
 — of the choir to the high altar - - 150 
 From thence to the eaftern extremity, about 150 
 of the lower crofs ifles from north to 
 
 fouth - - - - - - -124 
 
 And of the upper one _ » _ 1^4 
 
 Breadth of the body and ifles - - - 74 
 ■ of the choir ----- 40 
 
 Height of the fouth-weft tower - - - 130 
 
 of the north- weft fteeple - - 100 
 
 Though when the fpire of lead, taken down in 
 Auguft 1705, was ftanding on the fame, it 
 was ---.---_ 200 
 
 *L 3 Height 
 
*I40 LIST OF 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Height of the lantern _ - - _ 235 
 
 Square of the fame - - - - - 35 
 
 Height of the vaulting from the pavement - 80 
 
 The cloifi:eis are fquare - - - -134 
 
 N. B. Examined by the Guide printed 
 1799. 
 
 CARLISLE. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - -219 
 Has been formerly - - - - 300 
 Length of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 124 
 Breadth of the body and ifles of the choir part 7 1 
 Height of the vaulting or roof - - -71 
 of the tower - - - - - 123 
 
 CHESTER. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft _ - - - 348 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 180 
 
 Breadth of the body and ifles - - - 73 
 
 Height of the tower - - - - -127 
 
 — — of the vaulting or roof - - "73 
 
 The Tranfept part of this Cathedral is very 
 irregular in the plan, that part on the fouth 
 lide being very large, and ufed as a parifh 
 church. 
 
 CHICHESTER, 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. *I4I 
 
 CHICHESTER. 
 
 Feet. 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 410 
 
 . of the porch - - - _ -18 
 
 ■ from the entrance to the eaftern pier 
 
 of the tower - - - - _ -20(r 
 
 from thence to the altar (the choir) - 100 
 
 from thence to the extremity - - 87 
 
 I am inclined to think this is not all as a 
 Lady Chapel, but is divided. 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth ■ 
 
 131 
 
 Breadth of the body and ifles at the weft part, 
 which has four rows of pillars - - 91 
 
 — at the eaft or choir part, which has 
 
 only two rows of pillars - - - _ 62 
 
 of the Lady Chapel - - - 21 
 
 Height of the great fteeple in the middle - 270 
 
 of the tower which ftands on the 
 
 north-weft lide of the church - _ _ 107 
 
 — — — of the towers at the weft end - - 95 
 
 — — — of the roof or vaultincr - _ - 61 
 
 Length of the cloifters from north to fouth - 120 
 
 ■ at the weft end - - 100 
 
 ' : at the eaft end - -128 
 
 N. B. CorretSled by a Iketch from a 
 friend. 
 
 * 
 
 I- 4 St. 
 
*I4a LIST OF 
 
 St. DAVID'S 
 
 Feet. 
 Length from eafl. to weft - - - - 290 
 
 . the weft door to the choir - 1 24 
 
 . • — the choir to the altar - - 80 
 
 — of Bifhop Vaughan's Chapel behind 
 
 the altar - - - - - -16 
 
 • — . of the ides from north to fouth - 120 
 
 From thence to the upper end of St. 
 
 Mary's Chapel - - - - 56 
 
 Breadth of the body and ifles - - - 76 
 
 Height of the roof, interior - - - 46 
 
 — — — of the tower which Hands in the 
 
 middle - - - - - -127 
 
 DURHAM. 
 
 Length from eafl to weft - - - - 420 
 . — of the choir - - - - -117 
 
 . of the crofs ifies from north to fouth - 176 
 
 Breadth of the body and ifles - - - 80 
 ■ — of the choir ----- 33 
 Height of the tower in the middle - -212 
 
 to 
 
 -- at the wefl - - - 14^ 
 
 of the roof or vaulting - - - 7^ 
 
 The gallile at the wefl entrance is 50 by 78. 
 The cloiflers are 145 feet fquare. 
 The chapter houfe 38 by 80, the eafl end 
 circular. 
 
 N. B. Examined by Carter's plans. 
 
 2 ELY. 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. 
 
 * 
 
 143 
 
 ELY. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft 
 — of the porch - 
 
 of the great weft tower - - - 
 
 From thence to the choir - - - 
 
 -— of the choir - ^ - - - 
 
 ■ of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 
 
 Breadth of the body and ifles at the weft end 
 Height of the vauhing in the choir part 
 
 • of the weftern fteeple » _ _ 
 
 • of the lantern over the middle - 
 
 Adjoining on the north fide is another very 
 
 elegant ftruf^lure, now ufed as a parifh 
 
 church, which is 100 feet by 46, having a 
 
 fine vaulted roof 60 feet high. 
 The cloifters appear to have been 100 by 150 
 
 feet. 
 
 This Cathedral having undergone a material 
 alteration in the removal of the choir from 
 under the lantern to the preft)ytery, or eaftern- 
 moft part, fince the time of Willis : the above 
 dimenfions are taken from Bentham. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 40 
 48 
 
 lOI 
 178 
 
 73 
 
 70 
 
 270 
 170 
 
 EXETER. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - 
 
 the weft door to the choir 
 
 ' the choir to the altar 
 
 - 390 
 ' 173 
 
 - 131 
 
 Length 
 
*I44 ^IST OF 
 
 GLOUCESTER. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Length from behind the choir to the Lady 
 
 Chapel --__-_ 25 
 
 of the Lady Chapel - - - 6 1 
 
 -— — ' — of the crofs ifles from north to fouth 1 40 
 
 Breadth of the body and lide ifles - - 74 
 
 Height of the roof or vaulting - - - 69 
 
 — . of the towers, which, different from 
 
 all other cathedrals in England, iland at 
 
 the extremities of the great crofs ifles - 130 
 
 N. B. Examined by Carter's plans. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft, including the Lady 
 
 Chapel ___--- 420 
 
 — — of the crofs ifles from north to fouth 1 44 
 
 — of the Lady Chapel - - - 92 
 
 — — — of the choir ----- 140 
 
 — — of the nave - - |- - - 1 74 
 
 Breadth of the Lady Chapel - - - 24 
 
 — — — of the body and lide ifles - - 84 
 
 Height of the roof of the choir -^ r - 86 
 
 . of the body - - _ 67 
 
 of the tower in the middle - - 225 
 
 The cloiflers about 150 feet fquare. 
 Chapter-houfe 72 by 36. 
 
 N. B. Examined by Bonner's plans. 
 
 c HEREFORD. 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. * ^5 
 
 PIEREFORD. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft (including the walls) 370 
 
 of the body or nave - - - 144 
 
 of the choir - - - - - 105 
 
 •-—■ — from the choir to the Lady Chapel - 20 
 
 ' of the Lady Chapel - - _ 73 
 
 • — of the crofs ifles from north to fouth 140 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 68 
 
 of the Lady Chapel - - _ qq 
 
 Height of ditto - - - _ . 28 
 
 of the vaulting of the nave - - 68 
 
 — ^— — — ' in the choir - - 64 
 
 of the tower, wefl front - - - 130 
 
 of the fieeple in the middle - - 240 
 
 The cloifters 1 1 5 feet fquare. 
 
 Chapter-houfe was o6tagon, 37 feet diameter. 
 
 LANDAFF. 
 
 '50 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - . _ 
 
 from the weft door to the choir - no 
 
 — of the choir > _ _ _ -^ 
 
 St. Mary's Chapel , ~ . 65 
 
 Breadth of tlie body and ftde ifles - - 65 
 
 Height of the roof or vaulting - ~ ^ 6^ 
 
 Here 
 
* 
 
 *14-6 LIST OF 
 
 LICHFIELD. 
 
 LINCOLN. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Here are no crofs ifles, middle tower, or 
 ileeple ; there are two towers in the weft 
 front of unequal height and not uniform : 
 height of one tower is 39 feet, the other - 105 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 41 1 
 
 — — — from the weft door to the choir - 213 
 
 — of the choir - - - -. -no 
 
 from thence to the Lady Chapel - 33 
 
 of the Lady Chapel ' ' ' 55 
 
 — — - — of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 88 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 67 
 
 Height of the fteeple in the middle - - 258 
 
 of the two fteeples in the weft front - 183 
 
 Chapter-houfe 45 by 28, of an oval form. 
 
 N. B. Examined by Shaw's Hift. StafFordfhire, 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 49S 
 of the great crofs ifles from north to 
 
 fouth - - - - . - -227 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 83 
 
 Height of the tower in the middle ^ - 288 
 
 (this heretofore had a fpire on it.) 
 
 — of the weft fteeples - - - 270 
 
 Height 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. *I47 
 
 FeeL 
 Height of the vaulting or roof - - - ^^3 
 
 Thecloiflers are about 120 feet by 100. 
 
 The chapter-houfe, a decagon, near 60 feet 
 
 diameter. 
 
 LONDON. St. PAUL's CATHEDRAL. 
 
 The old church isohlch was hurnt dowti 1666, 
 from Dugdale, 
 
 Length from eaft to weil - - - - 631 
 
 of the portico - - - - 41 
 
 from the weft door to the choir - 0^'^'^ 
 
 ■ of the choir - - - - - 163 
 
 of the Lady Chapel - - - 92 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth 297 
 
 Breadth of the body and lide ifles - - 91 
 
 Height of roof or vaulting to the weft part - 102 
 
 choir - S8 
 
 of the tower fteeple - - 260 
 
 • of the Ipire on the fame - - 274 
 
 In all - - 334 
 The cloifters were 9 1 feet fquare. 
 
 LONDON. St. PAUL's CATHEDRAL. 
 
 The modern church, hu'ilt by Sir C. Wren, 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 500 
 of the body or nave - - - 200 
 
 Length 
 
*I48 LIST o^ 
 
 Ttet 
 
 Length of the dome (diameter) - - - 106 
 
 of the choir - - - - - 165 
 
 of the weft portico - - - 2ci 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 248 
 
 Breadth of the hody and lide ifles - - 107 
 
 of middle ifle of the choir - - 42 
 
 of the weft front - - - - 180 
 
 Height of the vauUing or roof - - - 88 
 
 of the towers, weft front - - 221 
 
 from the pavement to the floor of 
 
 the ftrft interior gallery in the dome 100 
 
 Thence to the floor of 2d gallery 118 
 
 3d gallery, top of the cone 50 
 
 — top of the crols - - 88 
 
 Total - - - 356 
 
 N. B. Examined by Gwyn's plan and 
 fe6lion. 
 
 MAN. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 113 
 
 of crofs ifles from north to fouth - 66 
 
 This has no flde ifles, the breadth of the 
 
 body is _-_-__ 22 
 
 NORWICH. 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. *I49 
 
 NORWICH. 
 
 Feet. 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 411 
 
 from weft door to the choir - - 230 
 
 of the choir ----- 165 
 
 from thence to the entrance into St. 
 
 Mary's Chapel - - - - ~ 3^ 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 191 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 71 
 
 Height of the great fteeple - - - -3^5 
 
 The cloifters are about 170 feet fquare. 
 
 N. B. Corre6led by a friend. 
 
 OXFORD. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 154 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 102 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 54 
 Height of the roof in the weftern part - - 41 
 of the fteeple . - - - - 144 
 
 PETERBOROUGH. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - _ 480 
 
 of the porch ----- ^o 
 
 ^— — of the nave to the choir - - -231 
 
 Length 
 
*I50 LIST OF 
 
 Feet. 
 Length of the choir - - - - -138 
 
 — thence to the end of the new chapel 80 
 
 of the crofs illes from north to fouth - 203 
 
 Breadth of the body and lide ifles - - 78 
 
 of the well front - - - - 156 
 
 Height of the arches to the weft front - - 82 
 
 of the principal fteeple - - - 186 
 
 of the lantern - - - - 150 
 
 of the roof or vaulting - - - 78 
 
 The cloiHers were 138 feet by 131. 
 
 ROCHESTER. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 306 
 
 of the nave to the choir - - - 150 
 
 from thence to the eaft window - 156 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 122 
 
 -1 of the upper crofs ifles - - - 90 
 
 Breadth of the body and ftde ifles - - 65 
 
 Height of the fteeple - - - -1^6 
 
 SALISBURY. 
 
 Length from eaft to weft - - - - 45® 
 
 from the weft door to the choir - 246 
 
 of the choir ----- 140 
 
 from the altar fcreen to the eaftern 
 
 end, about . - ■^ " ^ - 6^ 
 
 Length 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. *I5I 
 
 Feet. 
 Length of the great crofs ifles from north to 
 
 fouth - - - - - -210 
 
 ' — ' of the eaftern or fmaller crofs ifles - 145 
 
 Breadth of the body and lide ifles - - 76 
 
 ' of the tranfept or great crofs ifles - 60 
 
 Height of the vaulting - - - - 84 
 
 of the lleeple, being the highefl in 
 
 England ------ 400 
 
 The cloiflers 160 feet fquare. 
 
 N. B. Examined by Price's Saliibury Cathedral. 
 
 WELLS, 
 
 Length from eafl to we fl - - - - 37^ 
 
 from the wefl door to the choir - 191 
 
 — — of the choir, about - - - 106 
 
 — — of the fpace behind the ohoir to the 
 
 Lady Chapel - - - - - 22 
 
 ■ of the Lady Chapel - - - 47 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth 135 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 67 
 
 of the Lady Chapel - - - 33 
 
 of the weft front - - - - ^3S 
 
 Height of the vaulting - - - , 6y 
 
 of the great tower in the middle - 160 
 
 — of the towers in the wefl front - 130 
 
 ^M WINCHESTER. 
 
*Ij;2 LIST OF 
 
 WINCHESTER. 
 
 Feet, 
 Length from eafl to wefl - = - - 554 
 
 — of the portico - - ^ - 14 
 
 — — from entrance to the choir - - 247 
 
 of the choir - - - - -138 
 
 from altar to Lady Chapel - -^ 93 
 
 of Lady Chapel - - - - 54 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 208 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 86 
 
 of the choir ----- 86 
 
 Height of the vaulting - - - - 78 
 
 — — of the tower, north-wefl corner - 133 
 
 Square of the fame, 50 by 48. 
 
 Cloiflers 179 feet fquare. 
 
 Chapter-houfe was 90 feet fquare, having a 
 
 large pillar in the centre for fupporting the 
 
 vaulted roof. 
 
 N. B. Corre6ted by a Friend. 
 
 WORCESTER. 
 
 Length from eafl to well - - - - 410 
 
 — of the choir - - - - 126 
 
 ■ — of the nave - - - - -21a 
 
 ' of the Lady Chapel - - - 68 
 
 — — of the crofs illes from north to fouth 130 
 
 ■ ■ of the upper crofs ifles - ■- - 120 
 
 a Breadth 
 
THE CATHEDRALS. *^53 
 
 Feet. 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 78 
 
 — • of the choir ----- 74 
 
 Height of the tower to the point of the pin- 
 nacles - - - - - - -196 
 
 Cloifters 120 feet fquare. 
 
 Chapter-houfe, a decagon, 58 feet diameter. 
 
 N. B. Corre<5led from Green's Worcefter. 4to, 
 
 THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF 
 WESTMINSTER. 
 
 Length fromeafl to weft, includingHenry VII.'s 
 Chapel ___--- 489 
 
 of the nave, exclulive of porch - 130 
 
 of the choir - - - - - 15a 
 
 of the Chapel of Edward the ConfelTor 34 
 
 ■ from thence to the level of Hen. VII.'s 
 
 Chapel ----.--40 
 of Henry VII.'s Chapel (breadth 66, 
 
 height 54) - - - - - -100 
 
 of the crofs illes from north to fouth - 189 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide ifles - - 96 
 
 Height of the vaulting or roof - - - 
 Cloifters are 135 hct by 141: 
 
 * 
 
 N. B. Correcfted by Dart's Weftminfler Abbey, 
 
 YORK. 
 
*154 LIST OF THE CATHEDRALS* 
 
 YORK. 
 
 Feeh 
 
 Length from eaft to well - - - - 498 
 
 — — from the weft door to the choir - 264 
 
 of the choir - -^ - - - 136 
 
 of the fpace behind the aUar - - 26 
 
 ■- of the Lady Chapel _ ^ - 69 
 
 of the crofs ifles from north to fouth - 222 
 
 Breadth of the body and fide illes - - 109 
 
 Height of the vauUing in the nave - - 99 
 
 of the two weftern towers -* - 196 
 
 of the lantern _ _ _ _ 213 
 Chapter-houfe an oclagon, 63 feet diameter. 
 
 N. B. Correaed by Drake's York. 
 
 EXPLA- 
 
EXPLANATION of the PLATES. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 1 f IIS curious and very elegant example is given 
 as a fpeciraen of the Saxon or circular Ityle of archi- 
 tefture, and is taken from Mr. VVilkins's accurate 
 print in the 12th volume of the Archaeologia. The 
 following is Mr. Wilkins's account of it. 
 
 " On the call fide of Norwich caftle is a tower 
 projecting 14 feet, by 27 in breadth, of a richer 
 llyle of architecture, which I have ventured to call 
 Bigod's lower ; it is decidedly of the tafle in general 
 ufe fubfequent to the Conquefl:, and continued 
 through great part of king Stephen's reign ; and it 
 was moft probably repaired and finilbed in its pre- 
 fent ftyle by Hugh Bigod, who fucceeded his bro- 
 ther William in the conflablefhip of the caflle early 
 in the twelfth century." Archaeologia, vol. xii. 
 p. 162. 
 
 Mr. King, in a pafTage which Mr. Wilkins with 
 great candour has fubjoined, confiders it as much 
 older. " There is indeed a trace of its having been 
 built in its prefent form by Roger Bigod, about the 
 time of William Rufus, and of its having been 
 finally completed by Thomas de Brotherton, even 
 lb late as the time of Edward II. ; but I cannot help 
 
 K 4 fiifpedting 
 
136 EXPLANATION 
 
 fufpe61:ing all this to be a miflake ; for, though it 
 may be true with regard to the outworks, and the 
 many great buildings enclofed within the limits 
 and outward walls of this caftle, which were for- 
 merly very extenfive and numerous, that a great 
 part of them were built and completed by thofe 
 two powerful lords ; yet as to the keep, or mafter 
 tower (the only conliderable part now remaining), 
 the flyle of its architecture is, in many refpedts, fo 
 different from that of the towers ereded in the 
 reigns of William Rufus, and Henry I. and II, 
 and the ornaments are fo different from thofe which 
 were in ufe in the reign of Edward II. (when 
 pointed arches had long been introduced, and were 
 efteemed the moft elegant of any), that I cannot but 
 think the building of much greater antiquity, and 
 completely Saxon, though it is poffible the flair- 
 cafe might be repaired, or even rebuilt, by Thomas 
 de Brotberton, whofe arms are to be feen on a part 
 of the wall. In fhort, as to the main body of the 
 building, I take it to be the very tower which 
 was ereded about the time of king Canute, who, 
 though himfelf a Dane, yet undoubtedly made ufe 
 of many Saxon architeds, as the far greater number 
 of his iubjeds were Saxons; and I am rather in- 
 duced to form this conclufion, becaufe I can find 
 no authentic account whatever of the deftrudlion of 
 the caflle built in Canute's time, either by war or 
 by accident ; or of its being taken down in order to 
 ere6l the prefent ftru6lure, as is fuppofed by fome." 
 Obfcrvations on Ancient Caflles. Archseologia, 
 
 vol. iv. p. 396, 397. 
 
 Mr. 
 
OF THE PLATES, I37 
 
 Mr. Wllkins further obferves, '* The ceiling of 
 this tower is groined with interfe6ling arches of 
 ftone, and its angles are decorated with a very lin- 
 gular kind of hanging billet moulding, projedting 
 ten inches from the ceiling. The firii floor of Bi- 
 god's tower is a landing from the great ftaircafe, and 
 forms a kind of open portico to the entrance of the 
 building ; and a fuperb entrance it muft have been 
 at that time ! The piers are enriched with groups 
 of fmall columns, fupporting arches ornamented 
 with archi volts of mouldings enriched with billet- 
 
 PLATE ir. 
 
 Specimen of the chevron-work, or zig-za^ orna- 
 ment, in various politions. This is an arched en- 
 trance to the north ifle of the nave of Peterborough 
 cathedral, with the plan applied perfpedively. Here 
 alfo are fpecimens of Saxon capitals. 
 
 PLATE IK. 
 
 VARIOUS ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Fig. I. The embattled frette, taken from an arch 
 within the church at Sandwich, Kent; 
 and to be found in moil of our ancient 
 
 cathedrals. 
 
 Fig. 
 
138 EXPLANATION 
 
 Fig. 2. The nail head, taken from arches at Ely. 
 
 3. The triangular frett^, taken from an arch at 
 
 Ely. 
 
 4. The hiUeted moulding, taken from the ruins 
 
 of Binham priory, Norfolk, built by Peter 
 lord Valoins, nephew to William the Con- 
 queror. 
 
 5. The nehde. This is taken from an orna- 
 
 mented fafcia under the parapet of the 
 north and fouth fides of Binham priory. 
 
 6. ScvStion of the fame. 
 
 PLATE IV. 
 
 VARIOUS ORNAMENTS, 
 
 Fig, I . The hatched moidding, ufed as a ilring courfe. 
 
 a. A column of hatched work, in the upper 
 walk of the north tranfept of Norwich 
 cathedral : the plan is o6lagonal, and nine 
 inches diameter. 
 
 3. Half the delign of a range of curious 
 interfecling arches over the weft en- 
 trance of the church at Caftle Rifing in 
 Norfolk. This elegant fpecimen gives a 
 very good idea of the corhel table, if, in- 
 ftead of the pillars and capitals, are fub- 
 ftituted the heads of men or animals ia 
 the places of the capitals. 
 
 .1 Fig. 
 
OF THE PLATES. I39 
 
 Fig. 4. Saxon hiterfeSllng arches, ufed to adorn infide 
 walls, &c. The circular veftibulc to the 
 Temple church, London, has a curious 
 fpecimen of this kind. 
 
 5. A Ipecimen of zig-zag moulding, with a 
 
 kind of fquare bii/ei moulding, to be found 
 in various old cathedrals. This is taken 
 from a fmall arch which divides the nave 
 from the chancel at Ely. 
 
 6. The billet ornament to a larger fcale. 
 
 7. One of the arches in perfpe6tive in the upper 
 
 walk in the nave of Norwich cathedral. 
 The window is pointed, confequently of 
 modern date. 
 This exhibits an elegant fpecimen of the cir- 
 cular or Saxon ftyle, with the billet 
 moulding ; alfo a fpiral band round one 
 of the columns. 
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 VARIOUS ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Fig. I . Various fpecimens of the nehule. Part of an 
 arch, formerly an entrance on the fouth 
 lide of St. Julian's church in Norwich, 
 probably executed before the Conqueft, 
 as the church was founded before that 
 time. It is four feet lix inches diameter 
 within. 
 
140 EXPLANATION 
 
 Fig. %. This elegant piece reprefents an aflemblage 
 of many ornaments peculiar to the more 
 ancient or Saxon ftyle. In the arch is 
 the cable, the billet, the zig-zag, and 
 again another kind of cable moulding. 
 The capitals are Saxon, and the columns 
 are varioufly ornamented. This is part 
 of the fouth entrance to Wiraboltfham 
 church, in Norfolk. The columns feveu 
 inches diameter. 
 3, 4, 5, 6. Horizontal mouldings with orna- 
 ments, which are to be met with in Her- 
 ringfleet, Gifleham, and fome few other 
 churches in Suffolk. 
 7. Plan of the eaft end of the old conventual 
 church at Ely, built in the time of the Hep- 
 tarchy, A. D. 673, and repaired in king 
 Edgar's reign, A.D. 970. (See page 54.) 
 
 PLATE VI. 
 
 Two of the piers of the ruined chapel at Orford iq 
 Suffolk, with their plans : alfo the arch mouldings. 
 
 " The founder of this chapel and the date of its 
 conflrudVion are both forgotten, but, from the ftyle 
 of the chancel, appears to be of great antiquity ; it 
 has a double row of thick columns fupporting cir- 
 cular arches, their height equal to their circum- 
 
 fercnce* 
 
Ot THE PLATES. I4I 
 
 f6rence, each meafuring about i z feet. Their fur- 
 faces are ornamented in various manners ; and what 
 is extraordinary, the oppollte ones are not alike; 
 fome having a fmall cyHndrical moulding twifling 
 fpirally round them ; fome are crofTed lozenge fa- 
 fhion, being reticulated by an emboffed net-work ; 
 and others, which are fquare, have fmall columns 
 at each of their angles." Grofe. 
 
 All the foregoing examples are taken from the 
 12th volume of the Archaeologia, except fig. i, 
 plate iv. fig. 4, plate v. and fig. 7, plate v. which 
 is taken from Mr. Bentham's plan of the old ca- 
 thedral church at Ely. 
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 The upper part of one of the wefl towers of York 
 cathedral ; which is given as a raofl: elegant ex- 
 ample of the modern Norman or florid fiyle. This 
 is copied from Mr. Mai ton's elegant and accurate 
 print of the weft front of York minfter. 
 
 The following plates, VIII. IX. X. are from 
 drawings made by Mr. Cave of Winchefter, the 
 fubjecls feleded and explained by the Rev. Mr. 
 
 Milner, 
 
142 EXPLANATION 
 
 Milner, and are intended to mark the rife and ptd- 
 grels of the pointed arch. 
 
 References to the Plates illu/lrafing tlie Rife and Prd- 
 grefs of the Pointed Arch, 
 
 PLATE Vlir. 
 
 Fig. T . Saxon piers and arches in the crypts or fub- 
 terraneous chapels under the eaft end of 
 Winchefter cathedraL Thefe are demon- 
 itratively genuine Saxon workmanlhip^ 
 and prior to the Conqueft, having been 
 conftrudled by biihop St. Ethelwold, and 
 iinifned in the year 980. The arches are 
 fegments of a circle, fupporting a plain 
 vauhing, without ribs or other ornaments^ 
 The pilafiers or piers are fquare, with two 
 maffive columns in the middle of the main 
 crypt, ferving as hutments to all the 
 arches, with a circular member under a 
 'fquare abacus. The bafes are fuppofed 
 to be buried feveral feet under the earthy 
 which has been accumulating upon the 
 floor of the crypts during almoft three 
 centuries. There are doorways leading 
 from the centre crypt into thofe of the 
 fide ifles, and others at the eaflern extre- 
 mity. In one of thefe, on the fouth lide, 
 is a well which formerly fupplied all the 
 water that was ufcd in divine fervice. 
 Tig. A is a plan of the crypt. 
 
 Fig, 
 
OF THE PLATES. 1 43 
 
 -Fi^. 2. A double Saxon or Norman arch, which 
 formed the portal of the ancient facrifty, 
 between the eaft cloilter door and the 
 fouth tranfept in Winchcftcr cathedral, 
 being the work of bifhop Walkclin, confin 
 to William the Conaueror, and finitlied 
 by him in the year 1093. The defign and 
 execution of this portal indicate the im- 
 proved ftyle of the Norman archite6!s, in 
 the loftinefs of the arches, the greater re- 
 gularity of the capitals and bafes, together 
 with the ornamental ftyle of the pilafters, 
 which are fluted, and of the arches, which 
 are enriched with the lozenge, the billet, 
 the cheveron, and other plain mould- 
 
 ings. 
 
 3. A fpecimen of a double arch in the fecond 
 
 ftory of the tranfept in the fame cathe- 
 dral. In this manner of open work the 
 corrcfponding fecond (lory of the whole 
 churchj between the lower and the upper 
 range of windows, was conftrucled by the 
 Normans, to avoid the nakednefs of plain 
 walls, carrying up their work to the height 
 of three ftories ; whilfl the churches of 
 the Saxons for the mofl part confifled of 
 a lingle flory. 
 
 4, Interfecting round arches without pillars or 
 
 mouldings, by way of ornament to the 
 upper part of the fouth tranfept of the 
 
 cathedra], 
 
144 EXPLANATION 
 
 cathedral, on the outfide. Thefe being 
 part of the original work, conftruifted 
 before the year 1093^, are prior to the 
 iirfl crufade, and afford perhaps the ear-* 
 lieft authentic fpecimen of the pointed 
 arch to be met with in the kingdom* 
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 Fig, I. Interfe6^ing circular arches, fupported by 
 Saxon pilafters, both richly ornamented, 
 forming pcrfe6l pointed arches. The in- 
 terfe6lions, which are open through the 
 whole thicknefs of the wall, conflitute the 
 windows, to the number of twenty, which 
 enlighten the chancel in the church of St* 
 Crofs, near Winchefler. This being the 
 eaftern end of the facred fabric, where the 
 high altar flood, and of courfe firfl 
 iinifhed, mufl have been conftrudted in 
 the reign of Henry I.s 
 
 ' The cathedral atid adjoining monaftery, which were 
 begun to be rebuilt by Walkelin in 1079, were finiflied by 
 him and folemnly dedicated in the aforefaid year 1093, three 
 years before the firft crufade. (Annalcs Winton.) 
 
 ^ Godwin, de Angl. Prasful. afcribes the conilruAion of 
 St. Crofs, by bifhop Henry de Blois, to the year 1132; 
 Lowth, in his Life of Wykeham from original papers, to 
 1 136. Probably it was begun in thQformeryQ2iX and iinifhed 
 in the latter. Henry I. died in 1135. 
 
 I Fig' 
 
OF THE PLATES. I45 
 
 Fig. 2. Two highly pointed arches, without the 
 appearance of circular interie6lions, orna- 
 mented with zig-zag and other Saxon 
 mouldings, and fupported by Saxon pilaf- 
 ters in the fouth tranfept of the faid church 
 of St. Crois, illuftrating the gradations by 
 which the Saxon ityle was transformed 
 into the pointed or Gothic. This part of 
 the church muft have been built foon after 
 the eaft end. 
 3. Maffive Saxon columns, with capitals and 
 bafes in the fame ftyle, fupporting pointed 
 arches throughout the whole weftern nave 
 of the fame church ; by way of further 
 illuftrating the aforefaid transformation. 
 It appears that this part of the church alfa 
 was ere6led toward the clofe of the reign 
 of Henry I. ^ 
 4. The great weftern portal of the church of 
 St. Crofs, being an elegant fpecimen of 
 the early pointed or Gothic flyle, in a 
 complete ftate, as it prevailed in the reign 
 of king John \ and the early part of that 
 of Henry III. It confifts of a double 
 arch with trefoil heads, and an open 
 
 ^ What is here faid applies only to the lower ftory of the 
 church. The windows of the upper part, together with the 
 groining of the nave, and the weft window and door, bear 
 demonftrative proofs of alterations fubfequent to that period. 
 
 ' Witnefs the cloifters and refe6lory of Beaulieu abbey in 
 the New foreft erefted by that monarch, and bilhop De 
 Lucy's works in Winchefter cathedral. 
 
 L quatrefoil 
 
146 EXPLANATION 
 
 quatrefoil in the centre above them^ 
 forming all together one elegant pointed 
 arch, which refls upon four flender co- 
 lumns, with neat plain capitals and bafes. 
 The arched moulding that refts upon the 
 inward pillars, confifiing of the cup of a 
 flower inverted, in open carved work, is 
 an appropriate ornament of the pointed 
 order, being different from every kind of 
 Saxon moulding. We have here alfo one 
 of the iirft fpecimens of a canopy over a 
 pointed arch, which afterwards became fo 
 important a member in this ilyle of archi- 
 te(?lure. The prefent canopy is a plain 
 weather moulding, of the fame angle 
 with the arch itfelf, and refts, by way of 
 corbels, on two flowers, inftead of human 
 heads, though an ornament of the latter 
 kind is feen in the open fpace, juft above 
 the centre column. It may be looked 
 upon as certain, that this ornamented 
 portal is not coeval with the refl of the 
 lower part of the church ; and from its 
 ftyle we may fafely pronounce that it was 
 altered to its prefent form about the be-^ 
 ginning of the thirteenth century. 
 Fi^. 5. The great weft window of the fame church, 
 being divided by iimple mullions into five 
 principal lights, the wheel above and 
 other intermediate fpaces being filled with 
 ornamental trefoils. This appears to be 
 
 one 
 
OF THE PLATES. 1 47 
 
 one of the earliell fpecimens of a great 
 weft window, before tranfoms and rami- 
 fied mullions were introduced ; and there- 
 fore the weftern end of the church muft 
 have been altered to receive this and the 
 door beneath it about the time above 
 mentioned ; the eaftern extremity of the 
 church being left (as it ftill continues) in 
 its original (late ^, There is a plain ca- 
 nopy, without any appearance of a pedi- 
 ment, over the arch of this window, like 
 that over the portal. The chief improve- 
 ment is, that it refts, in the prefent in- 
 llance, on corbel heads ; namely, thofe 
 of a king and a bifliop. 
 
 PLATE X. 
 
 Fig. I. Clufters of {lender infulated columns of Pur- 
 beck marble, with plain neat capitals and 
 bafes, fupporting long lancet-fafhioned 
 windows ; fuch as began to be in ufe at the 
 latter end of the twelfth century, and occur 
 
 ^ Bentham, whofe authority is unqueftionably thegreateft 
 amongft thofe who have treated of thefe fubjeds, fays, that 
 *' great eaftern and weftern windows became fafliionable 
 about the latter end of the reign of Edward I. and in that 
 of Edward II." (p. 83, 84) : he does not, however, by this 
 deny that fuch comparatively plain weftern windows as this 
 of St. Crofs might have been made in the reign of Henry III. 
 
 L 2 both 
 
I4S EXPLANATION 
 
 both on the outfide and the infide of 
 bifhop De Lucy's work at the caflern end 
 of Winchefter cathedral. 
 Fig. 2. A cinquefail arch, fupported by fhort Pur- 
 beck columns, over an altar tomb in the 
 northern ifle of the church of St. Crofs, 
 which, by different ligns, appears to have 
 been erected about the middle of the 
 thirteenth century. The canopy, though 
 it does not rife to a pediment, is adorned 
 with crockets and a finial. 
 3. The tabernacle containing the flatue of bi- 
 fhop William of Wykeham, in the middle 
 tower of St. Mary's college, Wincheller. 
 The canopy, ornamented with elegant 
 mouldings and crockets, branches out from 
 lide buttreffes, and forms a pediment 
 which terminates in a pinnacle '. Other 
 
 ' The prefent canopy, though of a moderate height, is 
 low compared with thofe which had prevailed during the 
 preceding century, when they proceeded in ftraight lines 
 from the fide buttreffes, until they converged in a lofty pin- 
 nacle of the acuteft angle, fuch as is feen at Weftminfter 
 abbey, in the monuments of Edmund Crouchback, who 
 died in ^296, and of John of Eltham, who died in 1334; 
 alfo in the ftall-work of Wincheller cathedral. During the 
 latter part of the reign of Edward III. the canopies began 
 to be reduced in their height, by being curved towards the 
 arches which they covered, as may be feen on the monu- 
 ments of queen Philippa, who died in 1399, of Edward 
 himfelf, who departed this life in 1377, of Sir Bernard 
 Brocas, executed in 1399, all of which are in Weftminfter 
 abbey ; likewife in the chantry of Wykeham at Wincheller, 
 and generally in all canopies conftru6ted after the period 
 above aflSgned, 
 
 pinnacles 
 
OF THE PLATES. - 149 
 
 pinnacles crown the two buttreffes them- 
 felves. The infide of the canopy Is 
 vaulted with tracery work, which fprings 
 from columns that reft on corbels. This 
 tabernacle was probably conflrudled by 
 the founder himfelf in his lifetime, near 
 the clofe of the fourteenth century. 
 Fig. 4. A portion of the gorgeous fretwork in the 
 upper flory of the altar fcreen of Winchefter 
 cathedral, conlifting of columns, buttrefles, 
 pinnacles, niches, tabernacles, canopies, 
 tracery work, groining, pendents, fafcias, 
 finials, &c. all of the richefl deligns and 
 mofl exquilite workmanfhip, conftituting 
 the lie 'plus ultra of ornaments in minia- 
 turCj belonging to the pointed order. The 
 fcreen was finifhed by bithop Fox in 
 
 FINIS. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Puffe 
 
 ABBEXDON, an ancient Church at Note 53 
 
 Albert, Archbishop of York ; some account of 44' 
 
 • 's description of St. Peter's Church at York 46 
 
 Alcuin, Archbishop and Architect 45 
 
 Alfred, K. Skill of, in Architecture, 49; — founds Athelney 
 and Shaftesbury Monasteries, 58 ; — invented lanterns • • • • 6o 
 
 Alhambra, a Moorish palace at Grenada 114 
 
 Arch, specimens of the Roman 98 
 
 Saxon, sculpture of the O'S 
 
 Circular, used to the end of Henry I. reign, 1134 • • • • 67 
 
 but disappears entirely in the reign of Henry HI. • • 77 
 
 • J7o;\se-5/<Of, a peculiarity in the IMoorish Architecture 114 
 
 Specimens at Rumsey Abbey Church in Hampshire • • 115 
 
 and at St. Cross near Winchester 1'2G 
 
 • Pointed, origin of the, xiv, 76, 103; — tirst of the 
 
 kind exceeding rude, xxii ; — supposed to have originated 
 in the time of the Crusades, 6 ; — its first appearance in 
 England, 115 ; — thought by some to have originated in this 
 country, 129; — improvements of, under Henr}' HI. and the 
 three Edwards, xxii; — Rise and progress of. Plates 8. 9. 
 
 Intersecting, which gave origin to the pointed 130 
 
 Plates 4^ and 9, 159, 1<54 
 Architecture. See Gothic, Grecian, Norman, Roman, 
 and Saxon. 
 
 , similarity of the Saxon and Norman styles 61, 6"2 
 
 , of the middle ages, confusion in the terms 
 
 relating to xii 
 
 — , style of columns, vaultings and v.indows, 
 
 temp. Henry HI. 80, 81 ;— Edward L 83;— Edward H. 
 
 83;— Edward HI. 85 
 
 , the study of, anciently confined to the Monks 47 
 
 Asaph St. Cathedral, measurements .of 137 
 
 Athelney, account of, 57; — church founded by Alfred • • • • 58 
 
 Bangor Cathedral, measurements of 138 
 
 Barfreston Church, Kent, ornaments of its grand door 
 
 described 101 
 
 Basilica, meaning of and construction 53, 54i 
 
 Bath, Abbey Church at, measurements of , . . . . 13S 
 
 Bells, use of, and consequences resulting 5S 
 
 Be^'tham's remarks on Saxon churches 17 
 
 Essay 17 to 94 
 
 Bigod's Tower, Norwich, ix, 155. See Frontispiece. 
 
 Binham Priory, ornamented fascia from Plate 3, 158 
 
 Bristol Cathedral, measurements of 139 
 
 Builders brought from abroad by Bp. Wilfrid • 39 
 
172 . INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cambridge, King's College Chapel at 86, 87 
 
 Canopies Plate 10, 1 6"8 
 
 Canterbury, Saxon Churches at, 24 ; — Roman Arches at • • • • 98 
 
 , St. Austin's foundation at, 26'; — his burial • •• • 27 
 
 — Cathedral, measurements ot 139 
 
 Carlisle Cathedral, measurements of 140 
 
 Castle-Ribing, intersecting arches from 138 
 
 Cathedrals, List of, with their dimensions 137 
 
 , West fronts of those at Wells, Salisbury, Exeter, 
 
 &c. • • • 15, 85 
 
 Chester Cathedral, measurements of 140 
 
 Chichester Cathedral, measurements of 141 
 
 Churches of Wood, in the Saxon times, at York, 21; — at 
 
 Dultinge and Lindisfarne 23 
 
 , Saxon, generally built of stone 24 
 
 -, earliest, erected after the coming of the Saxons- • 26' 
 
 ■ , jjjan and disposition of the Saxon and Norman, 
 
 6"l ; — their difference, 64; — form of the Saxon, 54; — 
 
 introduced Towers 103 
 
 • , necessity of towers to, lirst suggested by Bells • • 56" 
 
 , Towers and Turrets of those witliin a century from 
 
 the Norman Conquest • 82 
 
 wholly rebuilt or greatly improved within that 
 
 cintury • 66 
 
 — : , fashionable pillars in, during the reign of Henry 
 
 III. of Purbeck Marble "' 80 
 
 in England, gt'neral beauty of the, temp. Henry 
 
 VHI. 88 
 
 Columns of Purbeck Marble introduced, 80; — clustered • • 83 
 
 Croyland Monastery, founded by Ethelbald 43 
 
 Danes, disorder and confusion introduced by the 48, 51 
 
 DATES of Buildings and their parts ascertained. 
 
 Bath, Abbey Church at, A. D. 1500 15 
 
 • Cambridge, King's College Chapel at, 1441 • • • 8 
 
 Coventry, St. Michael's Spire at, 1395 Note 15 
 
 Cross St. near W'inchester, 11 30 4 
 
 Exeter Cathedral, Towers of, 1 1 12 4 
 
 — , West front of, 1 340 15 
 
 ^- , Episcopal throne, 1466 10 
 
 Ely Cathedral, Presbytery at east end of, 1250 • • • • 79 
 
 -, Conventual Church at, 673 • » 54 
 
 Glocester Cathedral, Nave, 1100 4 
 
 , Choir, 1470 Note 9 
 
 -, Tower and Lady Chapel, 1490 9 
 
 Norwich Cathedral, Spire, 1278 13 
 
 Oxford, Christ Church Cathedral, 1180 4 
 
 Divinity School, Roof of, 1427 7 
 
 -, Portico of, l6l3 2 
 
 Paul's St. Cathedral, London, Spire of, 1221 13 
 
 Somerset House, London, 1549 1 
 
INDEX. 173 
 
 Page 
 
 Date of Somersetshire Churches, Henry VII. 10 
 
 ■ Wells Cathedral, west end, 1402 15 
 
 • , episcopal throne, 1450 10 
 
 Winchester Cathedral, Transept, 1080 4 
 
 — , Body, 1390 6" 
 
 ■ , Tombs of \Vayn(lele, 1486- • 10 
 
 • ; Screen behind altar, 1525 • • 10 
 
 Windsor, St. George's Chapel at, 1480 8 
 
 David's St. Cathedral, meaaurements of 142 
 
 Durham Cathedral, nieaburements of 142 
 
 Edgar K. founded more than forty monasteries 51 
 
 Edward, son to K. Alfred, gt-nius of, for Architecture 50 
 
 Edwin K. burial of, at York 30 
 
 Elizabeth, style of Building in the reign of • 2 
 
 Ely Church and Monastery built under direction of Wilfrid, 
 
 Bishop of York 41 
 
 ■ , Ruins of the Saxon Monastery at 42 
 
 , plan of the old Conventual Church at 54 
 
 ■ , plan of east end of ditto Plate 5, 16O 
 
 , great western Tower of 77, 1 16 
 
 , South Transept at 67 
 
 ■ , east end 79 
 
 1 , Presbytery at 84 
 
 -■ , St. Mary's Chapel at 84, 86 
 
 , Bishop West's Chapel, temp. Henry VHI. 8/ 
 
 • , Frette from an Arch at Piatt 3, 158 
 
 Cathedral, measurements of 143 
 
 Embattled Frette Plate 3, 157 
 
 Englis/i, substituted for Gothic Architecture iv 
 
 Episcopal Tlirones at Wells, Exeter, ikc. 10 
 
 Exeter Cathedral, Style of two Towers at, 4; — west front of 15 
 
 , measurements of 143 
 
 Facades or West Ends of Cathedrals covered with rows of 
 
 Statues 1-^' 
 
 Fotheringay, Collegiate Ctiurch of 8 
 
 Glass, art of making introduced into England 32, 99 
 
 painted or stained, introduced temp. Henry ill. • • 82 
 
 Glastonbury, Tower of the Church at 10 
 
 Glocester Cathedral, style of 4 
 
 , Choir of • 9 
 
 , Tower at • 10 
 
 , measurements of 144 
 
 Gothic, the term improperly applied to Architecture, iii, xii, 
 
 xiii, 74, 95 
 
 , Beauty of the style xvi 
 
 Architecture, Mr. Warton's classes of xxii, 5, 8 
 
 , on the Origin of 103 
 
 , Gradations of it originated in England 129 
 
 , Marks which constitute the character of 119 
 
 , Commencement of the 5 
 
 , First aixhes of the Order exceeding rude xxii 
 
Irh INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Gothic, absurd mixtures of the 2 
 
 , tree from Saxon mixture 5 
 
 Architecture, decline of 11/ 
 
 Grecian Style not prevalent in England till the time of Inigo 
 
 Jones 1 
 
 , one of the earliest specimens of the •.•..••• 1 
 
 • introduced • 118 
 
 GROSE F. Essay by 95 to 124 
 
 Henry VIII. Style of Building in the reign of 11, 11/ 
 
 Hereford Cathedral, Great Tower at 6"9 
 
 , measurements of 145 
 
 Hexham Church 33, 40, 47, 97 
 
 Hyde Abbey 131 
 
 King's College Chapel, Cambridge 8() 
 
 Landaff Cathedral, measurements of 145 
 
 Lichlield Cathedral, measurements of 146' 
 
 Lincoln Cathedral 5 
 
 , Style of xx! 
 
 ■ — , measurements of 146" 
 
 Church at, built by Paulinus 31 
 
 London, St. Mary Le Bow 19 
 
 • , Old Temple Church, 76; — intersecting arches at • • 139 
 
 , White Tower, Chapel in the 60 
 
 , Old St. Paul's Cathedral 19,65,69,79 
 
 • , Old and New St. Paul's Cathedral, measurements of 147 
 
 Malmesbury Abbey, St. Dunstan's gifts to 55 
 
 Man Cathedral, measurements of 148 
 
 IMilner's Essay on the Pointed Arch 125 to 133 
 
 Letter to the Editor xi 
 
 Moorish Architecture, greatest peculiarity in the 114 
 
 Buildings 115 
 
 Mouldings Saxon 69 
 
 Nebule Moulding Plate 3, 158, Plate 5, 159 
 
 Netley Abbey • • 131 
 
 Style of xxi 
 
 Norman, used to signify the Pointed Style xiii 
 
 Style, 61 ; — instances of the, 3,4; — specimens of 
 
 enumerated, 72 ; — peculiarities of it 129 
 
 Normans, improvements in Architecture introduced by the, iv, 6"l 
 Northumberland, Churches scarce in, according to Bede • • 38 
 
 Norwich Castle, Bigod's Tower at 135 
 
 ■ Cathedral, Spire of, 13; — little figure of Bishop 
 
 Losing over the north transept door 70 
 
 -;— , Specimens of the Architecture of • • 138, 139 
 
 measurements of » 149 
 
 , Arch at St. Julian's Church in 139 
 
 Orford, Suliblk, Piers of the ruined Chapel at Plate 6, 160 
 
 Ornanit-nts, peculiar 6'8 
 
 Oxford, Christ Church Cathedral at, Style of 4 
 
 — ^ measurements of 149 
 
 — ; Divinity School at •••«••«•'••••♦•••• • » • 7 
 
INDEX. 175 
 
 Pagt 
 
 Peterborough Cathedral, Lantern at • • 13 
 
 , measurements of 1 .50 
 
 Porticus, meaning of 27, 3 1 
 
 Kamsey Abbey, Huntingdonshire, particular description of, 51 
 
 52, 97 
 
 Religious Houses, havoc at the surrender of 89 
 
 Rippon, Church at, 47 i — foundation of 33 
 
 Rochester Cathedral, 5; — founded by St. Austin 26 
 
 — , measurements of 150 
 
 Rumsey Abbey Church, Hampshire 4 
 
 Salisbury, Old Cathedral of 72, 73 
 
 Cathedral, \\6; — finished A.D. 1258, 78 ;— Style 
 
 of, xii, xxi, 5 ; — unmixed with the early Norman style, 72, 
 
 78; — vaulting of, 81 ; — Saxon Tower discernable 12 
 
 , Spire of, 12; — origin of the Spire • • • • 133 
 
 • , measurements of » • • 150 
 
 Sandwich, Kent, frette at 157 
 
 Saxon Arches, Sculpture of the 6S 
 
 Architecture, Statues not used among its Ornaments 70 
 
 Cathedrals, Towers of the 1'3 
 
 Churches, Mr. Benthara's Historical Remarks on the 17 
 
 , of Wood, 21, 23, 95% — generally built of 
 
 Stone 24 
 
 Style, 59; — introduced into the Northern parts of 
 
 the island in the 8th century, 42; — prevalent through 
 
 Europe • 99 
 
 , peculiarities, decorations, and distinguishing 
 
 marks of 6'7, 70, 1 00 
 
 • , Sir Christopher Wren's opinion concerning the 59 
 
 "\'aulting, disguised by Gothic additions 9 
 
 and Norman Styles, decorations of the • • 71 
 
 Screens, at Winchester, built 1525; at Wells, 1450; at 
 
 Exeter, 140'6 10 
 
 Seals, Great, display the taste of Architecture which pre- 
 vailed in different reigns 1 1 
 
 ^ Shaftesbury Monastery • 57 
 
 Somerset House, an early specimen of the Grecian style • • 1 
 
 Somersetshire Churches, of the florid Gothic 10 
 
 , Spires 13,133 
 
 ' , one of the earliest at Old St. Paul's, finished A.D. 
 
 1222 83 
 
 , introduction of -13 
 
 Statues, not used among the Ornaments of Saxon Architec- 
 ture ' 70 
 
 St. Cross, near Winchester, 4, 69, 76;— Chapel of, 6O; — 
 
 Tower of Church 12 
 
 , Mr. Milner's account of 125 
 
 Stone, for building, brought from Caen and other places in 
 
 Normandy.. •• ^. 3, 18, 100, 123 
 
 Taunton, Tower of the Church at 10 
 
 Thrones, Episcopal, date of • • • • • 10 
 
17() I>J^DEX. 
 
 Tomb Architocture, improvement of 9? 1^ 
 
 Towers, necessity of, first suggested by Bells 12, 56", 82 
 
 Vaulting of Roofs, decorations of, &c. 80, 83 
 
 Warton's, Rev. T. Essay 1 to 15 
 
 Warwick, Clioir of St. Mary's Church at 6 
 
 \)'ells Episcopal Throne 10 
 
 Cathedral, west end of 15 
 
 , measurements of 151 
 
 \Vermouth Monastery 31 
 
 Westminster Abbey, xxi, ()1; — the Confessor's building 
 
 of, 64; — rebuilt by Henry III. 79', — View of the Nave, 
 
 Plate 12. 
 
 , measurements of 153 
 
 Wilfrid, Bishop of York 38, 44 
 
 "Wimboltsham, Saxon Ornaments at l6"0 
 
 Winchester Cathedral, body of 6' 
 
 , Screen behind the Altar in 10 
 
 , Style of the Transept of 4 
 
 , De Lucy's work in 131 
 
 , Specimens of Architecture at 102 
 
 • , Cardinal Beaufort's shrine- 9 
 
 , Bishop Fox's Chantry xxii, 9 
 
 , Bishop Gardiner's Monument 2 
 
 , Bishop Waynllete's Shrine 9 
 
 , measurements of 152 
 
 College, Tabernacle of the Statue of William of 
 
 Wykeham at l68 
 
 Windows, changes made in the iorm of, 71 ; — enlarged • • • • 84 
 
 of the age of Henry HI. 81 
 
 , two under one arch 131 
 
 , great eastern and western, when iirst fashionable, 84, 132 
 
 Plate 9, 12, l66 
 Wood, early Saxon Churches built of, 20; — at York, 21 ; — 
 
 at Dultinge, 23 ; — -at Lindisfarne • 23 
 
 Worcester Cathedral, measurements of 152 
 
 Wrex, Sir Christopher, ill informed as to the structures of 
 
 the Middle Ages, xv, xvi; — his opinion further canvassed 12/ 
 
 York, St. Peter's' Cathedral at 30, 33, 44, 47, 53 
 
 ■ , Tower of ix, Plate 7, 16T 
 
 -, Library at, A.D. 780 45 
 
 , remains of old work under the 
 
 Choir of 77 
 
 ■ — ^, measurements of 1 54 
 
 Zig-zag, specimen of • ' • • • Plate 2, 157 
 
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