386 By Rev. H. J. Dukinfield Astley, M.A., Litt. D., &c. 



the suggestion of this kinship is founded did not, however, come 

 into vogue in Germany before about the tenth century ; and their 

 introduction into English work may be due to the marked activity 

 in Church-building and restoration that signalised the reign or 

 Edgar (959—975 A.D.) 



The most intelligible theory of the architecture of this epoch 

 seems to be that when the new activity began, the English builders 

 of the time found themselves rather at a loss for features which 

 should give an architectural character to their fabrics, and were 

 glad to adopt the pilaster-strips of tlieir neighbours across the 

 North Sea. 



To sum up, we ask: Is it iiow possible to hold, with Sharon Turner 

 and some later writers, that the architecture of the Anglo-Saxons 

 was rude and barbarous ? 



Rather must we say that, to judge by surviving examples, the 

 Saxon village Church of stone, though architecturally plain, was 

 a building not far below the average size and pretension of a 

 village Church of the later mediaeval period. Could we restore in 

 thought the earlier monuments which have perished, our estimate 

 of Saxon buildings might be a still higher one. 



The Saxon builder uses big material whenever he can procure 

 it. He possesses his own stock of forms, and in consequence his 

 work, when any details are present, is as a rule easily recognised 

 by its distinction from the Norman which followed it. Finally, 

 the Saxon designer is, beyond question, a man of some initiative : 

 a seeker — or perhaps only a groper — after architectural effect, and 

 work like the enrichment of the wall-surfaces here at Bradford, 

 or at Earl's Barton, or on the nave at Geddington, is carefully 

 schemed, though in parts quite ungrammatical. 



The architecture thus produced had not consistency and method 

 enough to constitute, in the technical sense, a style, but there were 



" The foreign relations of England during the tenth and eleventh centuries 

 ought to be explored. There is no reason to suppose that the invasion of 

 the Danes interrupted the intercourse with Germany, as maintained by 

 Alfred, Edward, Athelstan, and Edgar."— Stubbs' Introductions to the Bolls 

 Series Hassall, p. 34. 



