186 



Mr. PETUIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



ever, the roof appears to have been constructed generally of wood, and covered 

 with reeds, straw, or oak shingles ; and hence the notices, in the Annals, of the 

 frequent burnings of the same church, by which we are to understand not the 

 destruction of the walls, for they could not be destroyed by fire, but of the roofs, 

 doors, and other combustible materials, in the interior. There are also instances 

 of the chancel being roofed with stone, while the nave was roofed with lighter 

 materials. 



Of the style of masonry of those buildings I have already spoken generally, 

 and characteristic examples of it have been given in the preceding illustrations. 

 I should add, however, that the stones are most usually laid in horizontal 

 courses, with more or less irregularity, but with their joints not always vertical; 

 and that, except in the doorways and lower courses, the stones rarely extend 

 as bonds through the thickness of the wall, but are placed perpendicularly on 

 their edges both in the inner and outer faces of the walls, the space between 

 them being filled with rubble, or small stones, and thin grouting, while little 

 or no mortar was used in the joints externally, which are admirably fitted to 

 each other. It should be stated, also, that the stones used in three or four of 



dl - ? 1 



JL,--- ; | 



the lower courses, from the foundation upwards, are often of considerably 

 greater size than those above them, as in the preceding example, exhibiting a 

 portion of the masonry of the inner face of the west end of the cathedral church 



