166 ENGLISH MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 



ages" occur to them. But architecturally there could not 

 be a greater mistake than to think or speak of these 

 times as dark. For, suppose for a moment that our 

 Cathedral of Lichfield were destroyed ; where would be 

 the glory of this county's architecture ? Or suppose 

 the wondrous piles of Durham, Winchester, Norwich, and 

 Gloucester ; the beauties of Salisbury and Westminster, 

 and the western front of Wells ; the Minsters of Lincoln, 

 Peterborough, and York ; the Royal Chapels at Windsor 

 and Westminster, and King's College Chapel at Cambridge, 

 and the Colleges of Oxford I say, suppose all these 

 mediaeval buildings to be thrown down, would not Eng- 

 land indeed be bereft of her architectural glories and 

 become truly American ? So that architecturally speaking, 

 at least, the times regarding which I am to address you 

 to-night demand our respect and admiration. 



To come nearer to the subject, it will be convenient 

 for me to define at once precisely the period of time over 

 which our observation is to run, namely, from the date 

 of the Conquest by William the Norman, in 1066, to the 

 death of Henry VIII., in the year 1545, embracing very 

 nearly five centuries. 



Of works prior to 1066 there are none in this county 

 that I am acquainted with, unless it be a fragment or 

 two of Roman walls which will not detain us now, and 

 what are known as the Runic monuments in the Church- 

 yards of St. Peter's, Wolverhampton, Chebsey, Checkley, 

 and Leek. The first of these was treated of in detail 

 during the late visit of the British Archaeological 

 Association to Wolverhampton, and after careful examina- 

 tion of those at Checkley and Leek I can come to no 



