414 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[December, 



similar application in some of tlieir edifices, which they, claiming 

 the originality of the design, called Caryatides. The most eminent 

 writers assert, that this design was derived by the Greeks, from the 

 Carian slaves carrying on their shoulders heavy burthens, and hence 

 the name; but certainly the similarity between these figures, and the 

 more ancipnt ruins of Egypt, could not have been accidental. The 

 capitals of the columns of the Temple of the Winds at Athens, bear 

 a very strong resemblance to those of the temple of Appolonopolis. 

 This strong analogy might be pointed out to a much greater extent, 

 but sufficient has been adduced to establish the existence of the simi- 

 larity. 



In Egypt, then, may be traced the characteristic features of many 

 of those splendid temples, which Athens boasts, and which have 

 justly attracted the admiration of the world. To the Egyptian ruins, 

 we owe many of those ornamental details of Grecian architecture, 

 which the practice of centuries perfected, and which ail the talent of 

 succeeding ages could not improve. But why almost all authors 

 award the palm of originality, and attribute the cultivation of the 

 first principles of architectural knowledge, to Greece, seems a pro- 

 blem exceedingly difficult to be understood. Why, while merit and 

 praise is heaped, and justly too, upon the perfectors of known princi- 

 ples, should we deprive the authors of their well-deserved mead of 

 admiration? and while we, in some measure, and to a certain ex- 

 tent, agree with many writers, that taste and beauty of design are the 

 attributes of the three orders of Grecian architecture, should we go 

 the lengths which they would wish us, and brand those stupendous 

 monuments of the by-gone glory of Egypt, as the very infamy of taste, 

 or as Strabo has pronounced them, "barbarous monuments of painful 

 labour." 



It is not to be wondered at, that during the long period, in which 

 architecture flourished in Egypt, greater progress was not made, and 

 a greater diversity of design observed, when it is remembered, that 

 to the management and supervision of the priesthood these erections 

 were entrusted. This religious scruple and bad selection of superin- 

 tending power altogether tended to curb the talent of the people, as 

 the science was placed in the hands of a body of men, whose profes- 

 sion must have chiefly engaged their attention, and who, if ever pos- 

 sessed of architectural taste, were themselves so restricted by forms, 

 as to render that taste useless. 



F. V. C , A.B., Arc, C.E. 



Diillin, 13M Nov., 1S43. 



ANCIENT STRUCTURES IN WINCHESTER AND ROMSEY. 

 By Mr. George Godwin, F.R.S., &c. 



It would be difficult to name a locality more interesting to the 

 architectural antiquary and the lover of old memories, than Winchester 

 and its neighbourhood. It is connected with some of the earliest 

 events in our history, and with ninny of the most eminent men of past 

 time, who have left there enduring monuments of their own energy 

 and ability, and of the prevailing spirit at particular periods of time. 

 Thanks to steam and engineering skill, which in several respects may 

 bp said to have doubled the length of man's life, 1 Winchester, al- 

 though l>4 miles from London, may be reached in two hours and a half, 

 so that there is now little difficulty in paying it a visit. 



A history of English architecture might be illustrated very satis- 

 factorily from the Cathedral alone, in addition to which there are the 

 College, the city gates, the County Hall, the Market Cross, the re- 

 mains of Hyde Abbey, two or three parish churches, and the Hospital 

 of St. Cross, — which are all full of interest and instruction. As I nave 

 said again and again, architecture has a history more exciting and 

 instructive than half the moral essays and poetical fictions ever 

 penned : it is, in fact, the history of society written in brick and 

 stone. 



The age of some parts of Winchester cathedral has excited con- 

 troversy, nor is the question yet settled. The original foundation of 

 a cathedral here is ascribed to the second century ; the structure then 

 raised was rebuilt at the commencement of the 4th. In the middle of 

 the 7th century it was again renewed by Kenewalch, an intimate 

 friend of Biscop (by whom the arts in England were much advanced), 

 and in the 10th century Bishop Ethelwold rebuilt great part of it. 

 The present cathedral was commenced by Bishop Walkelyn in 10/9, 



1 The magnitude of the cuttings and embankments which form the rai'- 

 ways ut Great Britain, looke.l at as a whole, is enormous, and would seem 

 the work o: aj;es ; yet all this has been effected within a very few years, by 

 single spadefuls ! Continued efforts, however small singly, work wonders. 



and dedicated 14 years afterwards: and according to the generally 

 received opinion the crypt, the tower, transept and font, belong to this 

 era. Mr. Garbett, however, and some others, have thought that por- 

 tions of the structure are of an earlier date than this; nor can I en- 

 tirely refuse to coincide in this opinion. The tower, Rudborne, the 

 Winchester annalist, states repeatedly, is the work of Walkelyn. 

 That part of the north transept which adjoins it is seen, from the 

 execution of the masonry, to be of the same date; but the remainder 

 of the transept more northward has a widely different appearance, and 

 is unquestionably the work of a different period. The mortar joints 

 are considerably larger and the execution altogether ruder; nor is the 

 design exactly the same, or the parts of the same height, so that 

 management was required (and is evident! to bring the two portions 

 satisfactorily together. My excellent friend Mr. Britton,'- in his His- 

 tory of Winchester Cathedral, considers " this might have arisen from 

 different workmen who were employed, even at the same time, and 

 still more from those who were engaged on the church at different 

 periods of its erection, for it cannot be doubted," he continues, " that 

 an edifice of this size must have been some years in progress, and that 

 many masons were unquestionably employed in its construction." 

 With the greatest respect for the opinion of our veteran topographer, 

 and every disposition to look with caution at any assumption of re- 

 mote date, I am unable to think this argument conclusive in the pre- 

 sent instance. If this difference in the workmanship had appeared 

 horizontally throughout the building — if the lower story presented one 

 appearance, the upper part another — this opinion might be tenable; 

 but in the case before us, the difference is perpendicular, it is through- 

 out the height of a particular portion, not the length of the whole; 

 ami before we can admit that the diversity of construction which is 

 apparent, results from the different workmen who were engaged on 

 the church at different periods, we must believe that one half of the 

 north transept was completed before the remainder and the tower 

 were begun. 



The statement of Rudborne, too, which is urged as proving the 

 entire rebuilding of the church by Walkelyn, is not sufficiently con- 

 clusive to destroy an opinion founded on what we see before us. He 

 says that Walkelyn, a/undemcntis ctepit recedijicare ; words which, if 

 I mistake not, have been used by chroniclers in some cases where it 

 was known that much of the previous building had been allowed to 

 remain, although the whole had been reconstructed even from the 

 ground. In fact, that some part of the old cathedral at Winchester 

 was allowed to stand, seems clear, from the continuation ofRudborne's 

 own narrative; for he goes on to say that within a year after the 

 completion of the new building, the Bishop's men destroyed the old 

 monastery, excipto portico uno, et magno altari, or, as Milner words it, 

 " leaving nothing standing at the end of the year except the high altar 

 and one porch, which seems to have been the corresponding part, or 

 eastern end of the cathedral church." The word porticus has a doubt- 

 ful signification, but unquestionably means more than what we should 

 now (-.ill a porch. 



In pursuing this investigation, there is another circumstance re- 

 corded which must not be lost sight of, by which (if other discrepan- 

 cies could be removed) the difference of workmanship in the transept 

 might be explained. The eastern end of the church (which Milner 

 considers was of Saxon work, left by Walkelyn) had become dilapi- 

 dated in Bishop Lucy's time, and that prelate determined to rebuild 

 it, beginning with a tower. In the year 12u0, according to Rudborne, 

 this tower was begun and finished. It does not seem probable that 

 the centre tower was here referred to; it would be inconsistent with 

 other of the annalist's own statements, and moreover the style of the 

 architecture is clearly anterior to that date. Garbett considers it was 

 a tower at the eastern end of the choir. The whole matter, however, 

 is wrapped in doubt, and it would be safer to say that one portion of 

 the transept was early Norman, the other late ; but for my own part, 

 I can hardly avoid considering that the northern extremity of it may 

 be anterior to the conquest. 



The effect of the transept, massive and grand, is very striking, and 

 will well repay attentive study; the arrangement of the aile at the 

 termination north and south, is peculiar. The elegant nave, of a very 

 different period, anil consequently with a very different aspect, is the 

 work of William of Wykeham, commenced about 1393, when he was 

 seventy years old. It affords some excellent examples of "perpen- 

 dicular" Gothic, as, indeed, do many other parts of the cathedral. 

 Recent repairs have served to prove that much of the old work was 

 allowed to remain by Wykeham, and was cased and altered. 



2 Mr. Britton, to whom every student in architecture, and many beside, 

 are deeply indebted, celebrated in July last his 72nd birth-day. Time has in 

 no way diminished his energy or ardour, or lessened that kindness of heart 

 which has led him, llir ughout a long and useful career, to offer a Iriendly 

 hand to all « horn he thought deserving. Honour be to htm '■ 



