256 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[August, 



lates. Three great niches leading into the church, the centre one above 

 forty feet wide, were adorned with the statues of the apostles and 

 holy men, who 'marshal us the way we should go;' in front, the ge- 

 nealogy of Christ, the final judgment, the history of the Patriarchs 

 &c." Farther it is said, that " the same want of cultivated judgment, 

 •which is apparent in the asthetical of the arts of the middle ages, is 

 traced also in the imperfection of their statics and stereotomy, in 

 which again solidity is sacrificed to superstition." That as "the figure 

 of the cross" was "indispensable," though "the arches of the nave, 

 formed their abutment abundautly in the western termination, which 

 was commonly fortified by prominent buttresses, no such abutment 

 existed at their eastern termination towards the lofty pillars of the 

 transept." Consequently, that " the smallest failure of foundation or 

 superstructure, threw so much weight against these pillars as to 

 occasion them to bend," and therefore, the weighting of the pillars 

 with a tower or spire being insufficient, " the last disfiguring remedy, 

 the construction of a reversed arch between them, was employed," 

 (vide section of Wells Cathedral.) Further, that we " crudely adopt 

 the niched and canopied architecture of a religion, peopled with 

 images of saints and martyrs, sibyls, angels and holy meD, to a Pro- 

 testant religion, which, admitting none of these, must leave the niches 

 and the canopies tenantUss, like well-gilt frames adorning an apartment, 

 the pictures being omitted ; — the pride and pomp of heraldry, armo- 

 rial shields and crests, to an age in which chivalry is exploded and 

 quarterings have dwindled to insignificance." That "slighting those 

 excellencies of sculpture, which shed such lustre on the palmy days 

 of Italian art, we oblige our artists to ' copy the obscenities and 

 senseless carvings of barbarous times, simply that we may carry out 

 the imitation of a style in all respects;' " and, finally, that the result 

 of our want of unanimity in style will be the imposition of anachro- 

 nisms on posterity, and the falsification of the pages of history in its 

 most interesting and characteristic traits. — Any public expression of 

 opinion is liable to opposition, and I may venture to dissent from these 

 views, which I do for the following reasons. — Because the whole cha- 

 racter and purpose of Gothic architecture is eminently expressive of 

 the aspirations of a Christian faith. The upward tendency of the 

 lines, and the pyramidal outline of the whole structure, culminating in 

 the spire, draws the mind of the beholder from realities of earth to 

 hopes of heaven. So inherent is the perception of this moral beautv, 

 that a veneration for the forms of (iothic architecture, and a feeling 

 of its propriety for Christian churches, has never been extinct. Con- 

 temned by some, as the offspring of a dark and superstitious age — 

 though the same objection would equally obtain against the in- 

 vention of printing, and that of the compass — surrounded v. ith 

 the enrichments of a foreign style, it ttill appeared in those tra- 

 ditional features to which the affections of the nation fondly clung. 

 The inclosure of the altar by a screen or railing, answering to 

 the rood-screen, is found, along with the oblong plan, and other 

 features of the national architecture, even in the churches of Sir 

 Christopher Wren, while, amidst all the contrivances and adaptations 

 of diminishing arcades, and peristyles, and of obelisks, the form 

 of the spire and pinnacle was preserved. The metropolitan cathedral 

 was constructed on the old model of the cross with ailes, central and 

 western towers. The style of architecture, changed in domestic, 

 buildings, was, in its most essential features, unchanged in sacred 

 edifices, whilst the enmity it did receive from the literati of the 

 towns, lessened not its hold upon the people of the country. The 

 early churches, erected at a time when land had nut attained its pre- 

 sent extraordinary value, had sufficient space allotted tbera to afford 

 room for interments, and to allow of the position and form which tra- 

 dition had consecrated. The churches of the city of London, for the 

 most part enclosed on every side, can scarcely be given as examples 

 of the particular furm of plan, most likely to have been adopted, had 

 no trammels presented themselves to their builders. Yet in all of them 

 there has been a recollection of the oblong form, suited to the earlier 

 worship ; whilst in a very large number the proportion of length to 

 breadth is equal to that of Gothic churches. In some of them the 

 foundations of the previous churches were retained; but it is scarcely 



likely such "economy" would have been practised in that age to the pre- 

 sumed disadvantage of the church in other respects. 3 In the smaller 

 Gothic churches, (ri'cfeFig. 1.) the whole length of the nave and chancel 

 is frequently but twice the width of the nave and ailes, so that that part 

 westward of the rood-screen, and in, or immediately adjoining which, 

 all portions of the service, demanding the arrangement of an audi- 

 torium, are performed, is of the dimensions retained in those churches 

 of Sir Christopher Wren, which approach nearest to the square form. 



Fig. 1.— Plan of Haddenham Church, Backs. 



That fine effect of length in the nave of the Gothic cathedral, like all 

 beautiful effects in art, is due to an impression, produced upon the 

 mind by skilful proportion and arrangement, rather than to actual 

 dimensions upon the ground plan. The length of the nave is little 

 more than double the breadth of the nave and ailes; while it does 

 not 'amount to that in some of the finest cathedrals. — So that any 

 opinion that a form, presumed to be better adapted for sight and. 

 hearing, was employed, to the exclusion of the established proportions, 

 is scarcely borne out by a careful comparison of different fabrics. 

 The nave of the earlier church will be found better adapted for 

 hearing, than any of those churches which have not borrowed from 

 the Catholic model : whilst the improvements in the internal arrange- 

 ment of churches now in progress, by altering the size and position of 

 the pulpit, and substituting open benches for pews, 7/ill render even 

 an increased length of chancel less objectionable than the old ar- 

 rangement, in which the cumbrous pulpit and reading-pew prevented 

 all view of the communion. If an auditorium were all that is re- 

 quired for the purposes of religion, the ordinary lecture theatre 

 would present the best form, but one which would excite no emotions 

 of devotion. Were you to transplant one out of the major part of our 

 metropolitan churches to some district " remote from towns," the 

 chances are, that the structure would be called a villa or something 

 else; but if you were to select How Church or St. Bride's, there 

 would probably be some suspicion, that you had intended to erect a 

 church. The truly appropriate character seems to reside in that 

 style, which our forefathers adopted, and which is eminently expres- 

 sive of every Christian's faith. 



Since the close of the seventeenth century, when one, possessing 

 the varied endowments of Wren, could style Gothic edifices, " moun- 



F«. In. 



' All Hallow's, Bread Street 72 



St. Mary, Aldermaubury 72 



St. Michael, Cornhill 87 



St. Mary's Somerset, Thames Street . . 83 



All-Haliow'e the Great, Thames Street .. 87 



St. Andrew, Holborn 106 



St. Michael, Queenhithe .. .. .. 71 



St. Bride, Fleet Street 99 



St. Benet's, Gracechurch Street . . . . (30 



St, Mary, Aldermary 100 



St. Matthew's, Friday Street . . . . 60 



St. Stephen's, Wallbrook 82 6 



St. Edmund the King, Lombard Street . . 60 



St Olave, Jewry 78 



St. Magnus, London Bridge . . . . 90 



St. Mildred, Bread Street 62 



These dimensions are taken from various works of stand: 



vary a few inches from the actual measurement ; they are, 



ciently near for the present purpose. 



