CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



345 



H'ntory. 



Saxon w.is 

 Roman ill 

 executed. 



Roman 

 church at 

 Canter- 

 bury. 



Wattles. 



Woo-!. 



V.'Uifred 



glazed the 



window* 



ofYort; 



lie fre- 

 quently 

 vi.ited 

 Home ; 



hit orna- 

 ment* 

 found in 

 Italy. 



Euendon 

 church 

 doorway 

 Saxon. 



No but- 

 trcisis. 



Salons had 

 U'wer*. 



II.680A.D. 



chei 

 ol the 

 Normani 

 built previ 

 ous to the 

 conquot. 



The Saxon architecture was not introduced by the 

 Saxons, but by missionaries from Rome, when they con- 

 verted the natives at the end of the 6th century ; it was 

 Roman, but very rudely executed. They at first made 

 use of a church their ancestors had spared. St Augus- 

 tine found a church at Canterbury built by the Romans, 

 which was called St Martin's. These missionaries, and the 

 first converts, were at first content to construct them of 

 oaken planks and wattles, and thatch them withreeds. Such 

 a church still exists, or did exist not long ago, at Green- 

 stead in Essex. Paulinus built one at Catarick, which 

 was burnt by the Pagans ; he also built one of wood, the 

 mother church of British Christianity, in place of one of 

 wattles and hurdles, and inclosed the whole building with 

 a covering of lead. Wilifred, in the latter part of the 

 7th century, built Rippon and Hexham, and repaired 

 York, and glazed the windows j but his visits to Rome, 

 his instructions from Archdeacon Boniface, and the Ro- 

 man workmen he engaged, enabled him to proceed BO 

 successfully, and carry his great works to such perfec- 

 tion ; even the minute decorations of the Saxon were 

 brought from Rome, but the logs and anchors, caulicolae 

 and volutes, and all the regular entablatures, had been 

 laid aside before our Saxon ancestors began to build. The 

 incapable workmen rejected all the rich and fine parts ; 

 and in imitating the Corinthian capitals, preserved only 

 the stems of the volutes, and introduced animals, &c. 

 The zig zag billet-cable, embattled fret, lozenge, corbel 

 table, may be found in buildings, medal:*, tesselated pave- 

 ments, and sepulchres in Italy. 



It is difficult to find original Saxon. The doorway of 

 Essendon church, near Stamford, is known to be Saxon. 

 The portah are generally round headed, with rude carv- 

 ings in circular parts, while the door itself is of a square 

 form. Saxon edifices are distinguished by their small 

 dimensions, thick walls without buttresses, small windows 

 with round heads without mullions, low cones which co- 

 ver the towers and flank the corners of the buildings ; and 

 also by the rudeness of the workmanship. Mr Bentham 

 is mistaken in saying, that the Saxons did not build high 

 towers till the 10th century, for Richard, prior of Hex- 

 ham, observes, " that St Mary at Hexham had a tower of a 

 round or cupola form, from which four porticos proceed- 

 ed ; and this resembles Sophia at Constantinople, built 

 about the same time." And Eadmer of Canterbury says, 

 that there were anciently two towers, one over the south 

 and another over the north transepts. So that Mr Ben- 

 tliam was also mistaken in maintaining that the Saxons had 

 no transepts, since botli Hexham and Canterbury were in 

 the form of a cross. He also denies that hells were used till 

 the 10th century ; but it is clear from Bede, that large 

 bells for assembling congregations were used in 680. 



During the 9th and 10th centuries, the Saxons in Bri- 

 tain, and the Franks in Gaul, both then civilized, were 

 as much harassed by new hordes of northern barba- 

 rians, as they had, four centuries before, afflicted others. 

 The Danes and Normans overwhelmed and destroyed 

 every thing before them. France, by giving up Nor- 

 mandy, compounded with them, and restored their ec- 

 clesiastical edifices with incredible expedition. Robert 

 the Pious, who began to reign in the latter end of the 

 10th century, built 14 monasteries, and 7 other churches ; 

 but even he was outdone by the newly converted Nor- 

 mans in what regarded religion and learning. William I. 

 previous to the invasion of England, built two abbeys in 

 Caen, St Stephen and the Holy Trinity ; and his nobles 

 built 38 othirh, besides what were erected by the prelates. 

 The abbeys of Bee and Caen became the most celebrated 



vol.. vi. PART n. 



school in Europe; most of the prelates who rebuilt the 

 English cathedrals in the latter end of the llth and be- 

 ginning of the 12th century, had been educated at one of 

 those places. 



Immediately after the conquest they got possession of 

 the great ecclesiastical benefices. Almost all the Saxon 

 cathedrals were demolished, and rebuilt on a larger scale 

 by Mauricius in London, Lanfranc at Canterbury, Tho- 

 mas at York, Walkelem in Winchester, Gundulph at 

 Rochester,William at Durham, St Wulstan at Worcester, 

 Robert at Hereford, Herbert at Norwich, St Anaelm at 

 Chester, and Roger at Sarum. The abbots were not 

 less zealous, the monasteries, as St Augustine at Canter- 

 bury, St Alban?, Evesham, Glastonbury, Ely, St Ed- 

 mundsbury, were all rebuilt. Hugh Lupus sent for St 

 Anselm, then prior of Bee, to direct the building the 

 church of the monastery of St Werburgh at Chester. 

 The rage for building became excessive, and led to im- 

 provements in an art not confined by rules j the parts 

 mostly remained the same as the Saxon, but the general 

 dimensions were greatly enlarged. The Saxon cathedral 

 of Dunwich was only 120 feet long and 2t wide, (Wil- 

 kin's Arc/iceol. vol. xii. p. 166.) ; the celebrated church of 

 Abingdon only 120 feet long ; but the Nonnan cathedral* 

 of York and Lincoln were each 490 feet long ; Winches- 

 ter 500 ; St Alban's COO ; London old St PauUs 690 

 feet long ; and York minster 99 feet. The height of 

 the latter up to the crown of the vault under the beams 

 of the roof, was 102 feet. The buttresses were at first 

 broad, thin, and shelving upwards, without any ornaments, 

 but the workmanship was superior to that of the Sax- 

 ons. The Norman windows and portals were larger than 

 the Saxon, and supported by pillars at the sides. 



Gundulphus, bishop of Rochester, one of the greatest 

 builders of that age, visited the Holy Land previous to 

 the Crusades ; but in none of his works is there one 

 specimen of the pointed architecture to be found. Po- 

 cock, Norden, Shaw, Le Brim, found only one church, 

 and that was built in the pointed style in the time of 

 Richard I. by an Englishman. The first crusade began in 

 1096 ; Jerusalem was taken in 10{)9j but no feature of the 

 pointed style was brought from that quarter ; neither 

 Exeter, Rochester, or Reading had any in their original 

 works. 



In Persia there were no pointed arches earlier than 

 Gengis Khan, in the 13th century. In India there are 

 mausoleums with cinquefoil, but they are of a late date. 

 The temple of Madura is not ancient. The ancient exca- 

 vations in India, are the same as the primitive style of 

 Egypt, which was also the parent of the Greek. Joseph's 

 Hall in Cairo was built by the rival of Richard I. Sala- 

 dm, whose name was Jusseff, probably by means of 

 Christian captives after the third crusade. St Sophia, the 

 model of the Turkish mosques, has no pointed arch. 



Bishop Warburton says, that the northern Goths in 

 Spain struck out Gothic architecture in imitation of the 

 groves in which they had formerly worshipped, and exe- 

 cuted it by means of Saracenic workmen ; but the Goths and 

 Vandals entered Spain in 4-09 ; the Moorish Saracens not 

 till 712; and the pointed architecture did not appear till 

 400 years after. Instead of England drawing instruction 

 in Gothic from the Peninsula, Batalha wag built by Da- 

 vid Hacket, an Irishman, 200 years after this style had 

 been practised in England. Itis onlya variety of Winches- 

 ter and St Stephen's chapel, and not equal to them in su- 

 blimityoi beauty. The cathedral of Burpos, built in 1221, 

 ia more gorgeous but less elegant than Salisbury, and not 

 BO magnificent as Lincoln. The specimens from Italv 

 3z 



History. 



Saxon ca. 

 thedrals 

 demolished 

 and rebuilt. 



Dimcu- 

 tious. 



Gundul- 

 phus visit- 

 ed the holy 

 Land; 



but he 

 found no 

 pointed 

 arches. 



No point- 

 ed archer iu 

 Persia be- 

 fore the 

 iSth cen- 

 tu 



Batalha 

 built by an 

 Irishman. 



