

CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



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pitted till 1288. Probably the statue* on the west front, 

 the pavement, od filting-up chapcli, might occupy a 

 coaatdcrable time after the general parti of the building 

 were finished. 



TV archhecti were, 1. Robert Lutarchet. T See An- 

 2. Thomas de Cormont. >lufuil. of 

 S. Reynault. J Amiens. 



The fooodationi of Salnbury cathedral were laid 4th 

 May 1920. The eut part, with the first transept, were 

 completed in four jean, when the three altars were dedi- 

 cated by Bishop Poore. The rest of the building was 

 proceeded with during hit pontificate ; and those of Ro- 

 bert Biogham, and William of York, and the whole was 

 completed in 1258 under Bishop Bridport, when it was 

 dedicated by Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, in pre- 

 tence of the king. The external decorations were not 

 finished till two years afterwards. The chapter-house, 

 cloister*, muniment house, &c. were carrying on for ten 

 years afterwards. 



The following are the points in which Amiens and 

 Salisbury agree. In the highly pointed arches struck 

 from two centers, and including an equilateral triangle 

 between the imposts and crown of the arch. The lan- 

 cet windows, and Purbeck marble pillars, very slender 

 and round, encompased by marble. Shafts a little de- 

 tached, and a profusion of little columns of the same 

 tone in the ornamental parts of the building. The arches 

 or vaultings of the aisles are similar to those of Salisbury 

 and Westminster ; the west part is covered with small 

 columns, and the lancet shaped arch is employed to crown 

 the semicircular colonnade at the east end of the choir. 

 The vaulting is like that at Salisbury, high, pitched 

 between the arches and cross springers, without any fur- 

 ther decoration. 



The following are the points in which Amiens differs 

 from Salisbury. 



1. In the disposition of the aisles with the transepts ; 

 double aisles on each side of the choir, with the fine semi- 

 circular colonnade at the end of it ; in the number of co- 

 lumns presented in every point of view. 



2. In the proportions, especially the loftiness of the 

 pillars belonging to the arches. 



3. In the west front, portal, and display of statuary, 

 in its armies of prophets, martyrs, and angels, which line 

 the doorways, crowd the walls, and swarm round the pin- 

 nacles. If Salisbury has the advantage of lightness, it is 

 to be observed, that not lightness but richness was in- 

 variably the chief object in this part of the edifice. 



4. At Salisbury, Lincoln, and York, the arch buttresses 

 were concealed in the roof of the side aisles, so late as the 

 end of the 12th century. At Amiens, the profusion, of 

 perforations, and decorations, renders them strikingly or- 

 iiamcntaL 



5. But the chief difference is in the size and magni- 

 ficence of the windows. In Salisbury, the long, narrow, 

 sharp-pointed window, generally decorated both inside 

 and outtide with small shafts, often combined together 

 and surmounted by a rose, are every where employed. 

 In Amiens there are two tiers of windows, each divided 

 ity three perpendicular mullions, surmounted by the same 

 umber of roses ; those at the east end have five mullioni, 

 and arc crowned by a pediment, ornamented with a 

 trefoil. Three circular or rose windows enrich the tran- 

 septs and west front. The whole cathedral is so light, 

 that, excepting the west front, scarcely any wall it visible. 

 Internally there is no row of open arcades between the 

 arches of the naves and upper tier of windows, as in our 

 1/athedrali. The whole is much lighter, and more ele- 

 jant than cither Salisbury or Westminster, and provci, 



that France had made earlier progress in various com- 

 binations of Gothic ornaments than England. 



Having given the substance of what Mr Whittington 

 has, with so much ingenuity, observed respecting the 

 Gothic architecture of France, we shall now, in the same 

 cursory manner, introduce the sentiments advanced so 

 ably by Or Milner in favour of England. 



Dr Milner sets out by stating, that he means to prove, 

 1. That the whole style of pointed architecture, with all 

 its members, grew by degrees out of the single pointed 

 arch, between the latter end of the 12th and early part 

 of the 14th century. 2. That the pointed arch was dis- 

 covered from observing intersecting semicircular arches, 

 witli which the architects of the latter end of the 12th 

 century decorated their edifices. And, 8. That both 

 these discoveries were made and perfected by the Anglo- 

 Normans and the English. 



He establishes three orders in the pointed style, quite 

 as distinct as the Grecian architecture in their several 

 members and proportions ; and states, that the essential 

 characteristics consist in the degree of angle of the point- 

 ed arch. 



Thejirtt order, has very sharp-pointed arches, with 

 pillars and mouldings very heavy and nearly Norman, as 

 found in the east end of Canterbury cathedral, where 

 there is also pillars composed of two three quarter co- 

 lumns united ; the plan resembling the figure 8, which is 

 probably the first attempt at clustered columns. Here, as 

 was formerly the general case, the east end was circular, 

 and the bishop's throne and stalls for the clergy, were at 

 the back of the altar, till about the beginning of the 13th 

 century, when the large east windows were introduced in 

 a straight line, and the altars placed under them. Al- 

 though Gervase was a monk of Canterbury, and an eye- 

 witness of the works carried on, yet, in describing what 

 was done, he never intimates that any part of the style 

 was brought from Syria, Arabia, France, Spain, or Italy, 

 but attributes the merit to the architects employed, bath 

 of the name of Williams. 



The second order was employed in York minster. Here 

 the principal columns are divided into clusters, apparently 

 slender, and crowned with historic capitals. From the 

 capitals spring three principal ribs, and two lateral ones, 

 which meet similar ribs from the adjoining columns, and 

 form arches for the magnificent windows of the nave. 

 The mullions continued down to the bottom of their 

 story, form those of the light and uniform triforium 

 gallery ; other shafts of the main cluster sustain springers 

 of arches of the intercolumniations, a:id other springers 

 meeting corresponding ribs from the clusters of the side 

 aisles. The arches are finely shaped, and include equila- 

 teral triangles. 



The third order is exemplified in Henry VII.'s chapel, 

 unrivalled for magnificence, ingenuity, elegance, and de- 

 licacy. The pendant capital is its most striking orna- 

 ment, and the outlines of the arches in intercolumniations 

 are exceedingly obtuse and flat. 



Dr Milner, after describing the churches of Constan- 

 tine as ancient basilicx, either imitated or merely inclosed, 

 sometimes by curtains only, and lighted by small round 

 headed or square windows, states, that such were pro- 

 bably the first constructed at York, Lincoln, Rochester, 

 &c. for the Romans were not so much masters of Britain 

 as to build fine structures before their architecture was 

 vitiated. In the course of the 5th century the Ostrogoths 

 and Huns overran Italy ; the Visigoths and Suevi, 

 Spain ; the Franks and Burgundians, Gaul ; and the 

 Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, South Britain. These bar- 

 barians destroyed innumerable edifices, but erected none. 







three ur- 

 der. 



1st order a) 



I'.tmrr- 



l>ury. 



2d Order 

 at York. 



3i Order ii 

 Henry Se- 

 venth $ 

 chapel. 



Pint 



churclin 

 inclosed b' 

 curtain*. 



