6 Siqjposed Injivenceofthe Eadern Chiirch on English Architecture. 



Churches in Constantinople have colonnades, not solid walls. It 

 might be added, that when Philimonoff turns from Russian to 

 Greek Churches, he finds but little to help him, for, as he says, 

 those which have not suffered in course of restoration are few in 

 number and little known, and the Turks destroyed all the ancient 

 screens in Syria when they turned Christian Churches into Mosques. 



In the case of the famous Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon, 

 which we may safely assume to be the " Ecclesiola " spoken of by 

 William of Malmesbury as having been built by S. Aldhelm, we 

 find a doorway and arch between nave and chancel of primitive 

 Iiomanesque, and extremely narrow. With regard to this unique 

 example of a Saxon Church, Baldwin Brown remarks : 



"As a rule, the openings of Saxon doorways and chancel and tower arches 

 tend to narrowness, and at Bradford-on-Avon the chancel-arch is only 3ft. 6in. 



in width, and one of the principal doorways only a little over 2ft 



In later times, there is a sort of make-shift re-production of this early 

 arrangement in squint-like apertures pierced on each side of a narrow 

 chancel arch. One instance occurs in the fine Saxon Church of Bracebridge 

 by Lincoln. (Traces of such arrangement, I may remark, in passing, were 

 discovered during a restoration at Yatesbury, in this county, in 1854.) It is 

 doubtful, however," continues Baldwin Brown, " whether any of them are 

 really ancient. Some are certainly quite modern." 



With regard to the architectural feature in old Churches known 

 as the apse, i.e., the recess (usually semi-circular) which terminates 

 a Church at the end next which the high altar is placed, although 

 we may possibly trace Eastern influences, we must not forget that 

 this feature existed in the basilicas, or halls of justice, constructed 

 by the Romans, the tribunal for the presiding magistrate being 

 placed in the centre of the arc which formed the apse. Many of 

 these, when Christianity became the religion of the state, were, 

 with some slight alterations, converted into Christian Churches, 

 and new Churches were, almost invariably, constructed on the 

 same model. A well-known instance of great interest is the Church 

 of Brixworth, in Northamptonshire ; while, to come nearer home, 

 an example of a very early Church with an apse, of which Sir 

 Richard Colt Hoare gives a ground plan, existed until comparatively 

 recent times at Bishopstrow, but all trace of the earlier building 

 has now, most unfortunately, been obliterated. 



