ARCHITECTURE. 



disposition of the latter Saxon churches 

 were as follow ; the chief entrance was at 

 the west end into the nave, at the upper 

 end of which was a cross, with the arms 

 of it extending north and south ; the east 

 end, containing the choir, terminated in a 

 semicircular form. A tower was erected 

 over the centre of the cross, and to con- 

 tain the bells another was frequently add- 

 ed, and sometimes two. 



The large churches contained a nave 

 and two side aisles, one on each side of 

 the nave, and were divided into three 

 tiers or stories, the lower consisting of a 

 range of arcades on each side ; the middle, 

 a range of galleries between the roof and 

 the vaulting of the aisles; and the upper- 

 most, a range of windows. The pillars 

 were either square, polygonal, or circular. 

 Such was the thickness of the walls and 

 pillars, that buttresses were not necessa- 

 ry, neither were they in use. The aper- 

 tures are splayed from the mullions on 

 both sides. The dressings are generally 

 placed on the sides of the splayed jambs 

 and heads of the arches, and but seldom 

 against the face of the walls, and when 

 this is the case, the projectures are not 

 very prominent. The dressings of the 

 jambs frequently consist of one, or seve- 

 ral, engaged columns upon each side. 

 The imposts, particularly those of the 

 windows, have frequently the appearance 

 of being a part of the wall itself. The 

 doors in general are formed in deep re- 

 cession, and a series of equidistant en- 

 gaged columns placed upon eacli jamb, 

 and were such, that two horizontal 

 straight lines would pass through the ax- 

 is of each series, and would, if produced, 

 terminate in a point. Each column is at- 

 tached to a recess formed by two planes, 

 constituting an interior right angle. The 

 angle at the meeting of every two of these 

 recesses formed an exterior right angle, 

 which was sometimes obtunded, and fre- 

 quently hollowed. The archivolts rest- 

 ing on the capitals of the columns are 

 formed on the soffit shelving, like the 

 jambs below. The ornaments of columns 

 and mouldings are of very simple forms. 

 The rudely sculptured figures which of- 

 ten occur in door-cases, when the head of 

 the door itself is square, indicate a Ro- 

 man original, and are mostly referable to 

 an zra immediately preceding the con- 

 quest. 



After the Norman conquest, the gene- 

 ral forms of the parts remained the same, 

 though the extent and dimensions of the 

 churches were greatly enlarged ; the 

 vaultings became much more lofty, the 



pillars of greater diameter, the ornaments 

 more frequent and elaborately finished ; 

 towers of very large dimensions and great 

 height were placed either in the centre, 

 or at the west end of the cathedral and 

 conventual churches. These were often 

 ornamented with arcades in tiers of small 

 intersecting arches on the outside. About 

 the end of the reign of Henry I. circular 

 arches, thick walls without prominent 

 buttresses, and massive pillars with a kind 

 of regular base and capital, generally pre- 

 vailed ; the capitals of the pillars were 

 often left plain, though there were a few 

 instances of sculptured capitals, foliage, 

 and animals. The shafts of the pillars 

 were usually plain cylinders, or had se- 

 micolumns .attached to them. The first 

 transition of the arch appears to have 

 taken place towards the close of the reign 

 of Stephen, its figure, which had hitherto 

 been circular, becoming slightly pointed, 

 and the heavy single pillar made into a 

 pilastered cluster, which was at first ill 

 formed, but gradually assumed a more 

 elegant figure and graceful proportion, 

 the archivolts still retaining many of the 

 Saxon ornaments. It may here be ob- 

 served, that, antecedent to this period, 

 neither tabernacles nor niches with cano- 

 pies, statues in whole relief, pinnacles, 

 pediments, or spires, nor any tracery in 

 the vaultings, were used ; but at this time, 

 or soon after, these began to obtain. To- 

 wards the close of the 13th century, the 

 pillars, then supporting sharply pointed 

 arches, were much more slender; the 

 ceilings were seemingly sustained by 

 groined ribs, resting on the capitals of the 

 pillars, and the windows were lighted by 

 several openings, in place of one. 



After the reign of Stephen, the circular 

 and pointed arches were frequently em- 

 ployed in the same building ; but the 

 pointed style, gaining more and more up- 

 on the circular, prevailed ultimately at 

 the close of the reign of Henry III. and 

 prevented all farther confusion of mixture. 

 The architecture of this age now exhibit- 

 ed uniformity of parts, justness of propor- 

 tions, and elegance of decoration ; the ar- 

 cades and pillars became numerous, the 

 single shafts were divided into a multipli- 

 city of equal, slender, distinct shafts, con- 

 structed of purbeck marble, and collected 

 under one capital, luxuriantly decorated 

 with leaves of the palm-tree. The east 

 and west windows began to be widely ex- 

 panded ; these required a number of mul- 

 lions, which, as well as the ribs and tran- 

 sornes of the vaulting, began to ramify, 

 from the springing of the arches, into a 



