ARCHITECTURAL ESSAY ON THE CHURCH AND 



at one extremity of a large town, remote from its noise, bustle, 

 business, and life. It is rural, retired, and partly shrouded by 

 lofty trees, whilst the " ever-flowing Avon" moves slowly and 

 smoothly past its walls. Contrasted with the streets and " busy 

 hum of men,'* it is admirably adapted for "sweet solitude" and 

 mental serenity. The melancholy and musing Hervey could not 

 have found a scene better adapted for his Meditations among the 

 Twnbs ; and a more philosophical and profound mind may ruminate 

 on the spot with deep and piercing thoughts on man, as he has 

 been, as he is, and as he may be. 



But I must view the building itself, notice its architectu- 

 ral characteristics, and offer a few passing remarks on persons 

 intimately associated with its history. In plan the church com- 

 prises a nave, or rather a choir, with aisles ; a north porch 

 being its chief entrance ; a transept, with a tower and spire rising 

 from its intersection with the eastern and western ends, and 

 a chancel, forming the eastern extremity. In these different parts 

 are exhibited a few varieties of the numerous architectural designs 

 which mark the middle, vulgarly called the dark, ages. The tower, 

 with parts of the transept, are the oldest. Dugdale calls the whole 

 church " of very ancient structure, little less than the Conqueror's 

 time, as I guess, by the fabrick of the steeple ;" but by the windows 

 and mouldings we may safely refer them to the latter part of the 

 twelfth century, during the reign of either King Richard I. or 

 John. It was about that age that the semi-circular, or genuine 

 Norman, style of architecture began to give way to a new species of 

 design, in which columns, mouldings, windows, and doorways, as- 

 sumed lighter and more lofty proportions ; whilst a pointed form of 

 arch was introduced in the place of the semi-circular. It was the 

 era of reform in church architecture, which led to a great and 

 essential revolution in the constitution, laws, and ordinances, of 

 architectural design. 



Thenceforward every succeeding century, almost every succeeding 

 period of twenty years, was distinguished by palpable changes, and 

 generally by striking improvements, in the forms, arrangements, 

 and details, of ecclesiastical buildings. Unshackled by schools, by 

 precedent, by the dogmas of critics, the monastic architects gave 

 full and free latitude to genius ; in every new design they seemed 

 to have been actuated by the laudable ambition of surpassing all 

 former works, and inventing something beautiful, and fascL 

 nating. The church now referred to manifests some of this inven- 

 tive ambition ; for the parts west of the transept are improvements 



