16 



Noles on the Churches. 



Churches by contract with a penalty on the contractor if he did not 

 complete it in the given time — say twelve or eighteen months. 

 One of the most rapid large works of the kind on record was the 

 erection of our mother Church of Salisbury. The foundation stones 

 were laid in 1220, and although within five years Bishop Richard 

 Poore saw the building sufficiently advanced to admit of service 

 being celebrated in the Lady Chapel, yet it was left to three of his 

 successors to continue the work, which was not ready for consecration 

 until 1258, nor quite completed until 1266 (the tower and spire 

 being added some sixty years after this) . Thus the Cathedral took 

 forty-six years to build in spite of the enormous efforts which were 

 made to push on the work and so to remove the disadvantages of 

 the Cathedral being, as it was at Old Sarum, within the precincts 

 of the King's castle. 



We know, too, that the Church at Edington was built in nine 

 years, but there also the object was a special one — the formation of 

 a new monastery — and the work was undertaken by a Bishop holding 

 the high civil office of Lord High Chancellor of England. 



To return to Bishop's Lavington. "W e may well believe that in the 

 building of a village Church like this, where perhaps there was 

 much more difficulty in raising the money, the proceedings were 

 much slower, and the style changed during the progress of the 

 work. This will explain the difference in style in different parts of 

 this Church. Thus, the earliest work we have here is the north 

 arcade of the nave : this has vigorously-carved capitals of a distinctly 

 Norman type — there being two patterns of carving on each cap — 

 and was probably erected soon after the middle of the twelfth 

 century ; then, turning to the south arcade, although at first sight 

 its capitals would almost appear to be part o£ a later Church, I am 

 of opinion that this was erected in continuation of that on the north 

 side, and was completed before the end of the twelfth century. 

 These arcades are an interesting study, both have cylindrical columns 

 and arches in two square orders, with labels of a very similar type : 

 the capitals on the north side have the angles notched out so that 

 the abacus follows the line of the arch, and the arches themselves 

 are only slightly pointed — while the capitals on the south side have 



