■ 
 
E S S AYS 
 
 ON 
 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. T. WARTON, 
 REV. J. BENTHAM, 
 CAPTAIN GROSE, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REV. J. MILNER. 
 
 (WITH A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER.) 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 
 
 TEN PLATES OF ORNAMENTS, &c. 
 
 SELECTED FROM 
 
 Stactent 38utTUtnjpi ; 
 
 CALCULATED 
 
 To exhibit the various Styles of different Periods, 
 
 Et nos aliquod nomenque decufque 
 
 Geffitaus — Virgil. Mn. lib. it. 
 
 LONDON: 
 Printed by S. Gosnell, Little Queen Street, Holborn, 
 
 FOR 
 
 J. TAYLOR, AT THE ARCHITECTURAL LIBRART, HOLBORN" » 
 
 I 800. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE want of a concife hiftorical account of 
 Gothic architecture has been a juft caufe of 
 complaint : the fubject is peculiarly interefting 
 to every Englishman, as his country contains 
 the beft fpecimens of a ftyle of building not 
 unequal in grace, beauty, and ornament, to 
 the moll: celebrated remains of Greece or 
 Rome. This ftyle of architecture may pro- 
 perly be called Englifh architecture, for if it 
 had not its origin in this country, it certainly 
 arrived at maturity here ; the fcience and talte 
 of our forefathers being equally confpicuous 
 with their piety and liberality. On this fub- 
 ject, England muft be considered as a country, 
 for it was under the Saxon dynafty this Ityle of 
 building was introduced, and under the Nor- 
 man dynafty it received its ultimate degree of 
 beauty and perfection. 
 
 To remedy this want of a convenient manual 
 a 2 on 
 
iV PREFACE, 
 
 on this interefting fubject, it appeared befl to 
 collect what had been already faid by feveral 
 authors of celebrity, in detached works, and 
 which had been received as authorities. In 
 this view, the Rev. Mr. Bentham's Effay on 
 Saxon and Norman Architecture, in his ela- 
 borate Hiftory of Ely Cathedral, ftood foremoft 
 for felection, arrangement, and accurate dif- 
 crimination of hiftorical tacts : next to this, 
 Captain Grofe's Preface on Architecture to his 
 Antiquities of England is to be valued; which, 
 although founded in a great degree on Mr. 
 Bentham's opinions, yet contains fome new 
 points and authorities ; in particular, his co- 
 pious notes will be found very interefting, and 
 containing nearly all that has been faid by Sir 
 Chriftopher Wren on the fubject, which, being 
 difperfed through many pages of the Parentalia, 
 could not be given as a regular narrative. The 
 concife hiflory by ProfefTor Warton, in his 
 notes on Spenfer's Fairy Queen, has received 
 too much applaufe to be neglected ; his words, 
 though few, are important on the fubject. To 
 thefe the liberality of the Rev. Mr. Milner has 
 allowed me to add, for the gratification of the 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 public, the Hiftory of the origin and progrefs of 
 the pointed arch, lately published by that gen- 
 tleman, in his learned work on the Hi dory and 
 Antiquities of Winchefter. He alfo has been 
 pleafed to fuperintend the felecting of the (eries 
 of examples on Plates VIII. IX. and X. which 
 tend (trongly to corroborate the opinions he 
 maintains. 
 
 This gentleman has further been pleafed to 
 addrefs to me an important letter, which is 
 given in this volume, in which the inquiring 
 antiquary will find many hints worthy his de- 
 liberate attention, refpecting an accurate claf- 
 (ification of ftyles, characters, and facts, whereby 
 to afcertain dates, and on which principle only 
 can be accomplifhed that great defideratum, 
 the adopting fuch terms and definitions as (hall 
 be applicable to the feveral characters, and 
 which confequently may become of univerfal 
 acceptance and ufage. The anxious inquirer 
 alfo is kindly guarded againfr certain errors 
 which elfe he may be led into, in perufing the 
 productions of the feveral celebrated pens now 
 laid before him. 
 
 Thefe ElTays are arranged according to the 
 
 priority 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 priority of their publication, that whoever mall 
 read the whole may receive the arguments in 
 the chronological order wherein they have fallen 
 from the pens of their feveral writers. They 
 are alfo printed without any variation from the 
 original texts : and to render this edition com- 
 pletely ufeful for reference, the pages of Mr. 
 Bentham's quarto volume are retained in the 
 work. 
 
 By rendering the laborious refearches of thefe 
 celebrated antiquaries on the ancient archi- 
 tecture of England eafy of accefs, and at a 
 fmall coll:, it is hoped many perfons who are 
 anxious for information on this interefting fub- 
 ject, will be led to a higher relifh for and more 
 juft ideas of a branch of antiquarian ftudy pecu- 
 liarly interefting to every Englishman, whether 
 confidered hiftorically or nationally; for though 
 many perfons eminent in the ftudy of the arts may 
 differ, as tafte or fancy inclines them, refpecting 
 the inferior or fuperior grace and beauty of the 
 Gothic or Grecian flyles of architecture, yet 
 few, very few, on entering the ftupendous fa- 
 brics of our pious anceflors, but have felt and 
 acknowledged their fuperior Ikill in producing 
 
 on 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 on the human mind thofe religious and fublime 
 ideas fully correfpondent with the intent of the 
 ftructure. 
 
 It may be proper to fay a word or two re- 
 fpecting the title of this volume, EfTays on 
 Gothic Architecture. In this inftance, the word 
 Gothic is ufed, being, as I conceive, at pre- 
 fent more general and better underftood than 
 any other, when applied to our ancient archi- 
 tecture ; and as the motive for this felection is 
 general information, it appeared neceiTary to 
 fpeak in language generally underftood : at the 
 fame time it is much to be wifhed fome term or 
 terms more appropriate, and of general ufe, 
 were adopted ; which mould convey correct 
 ideas of this peculiar fpecies of architecture. 
 The term Gothic architecture does not occur in 
 any of our ancient hiftorians, it muft therefore 
 be of modern introduction ; and it has been 
 well conjectured by feveral eminent antiquaries 
 was applied folely for the purpofe of cafting an 
 opprobrious epithet on it, at the period of in- 
 troducing the Greek or Roman ftyle into this 
 country ; and when the ancient religion was to 
 be exploded, fo alfo was the ancient ftyle of its 
 
 facred 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 facred edifices : the more appropriate terms, I 
 conceive, would be, to call that fpecies of it 
 diltinguimed by the circular arch, Saxon, and 
 that diftinguimed by the pointed arch, Norman; 
 for under the guidance of thefe nations did each 
 principally difplay its grandeur and peculiarities. 
 Mr. Milner has endeavoured with fome {kill to 
 afecrtain this point. There naturally will be 
 much blending of characters in the period, 
 before one flyle had completely taken the place 
 of the other. 
 
 Having no defire to fhine in borrowed 
 plumes, it is neceffary to fay the fubje&s of 
 the firft fix plates are chiefly felected from the 
 delineations by Mr. Wilkins of Cambridge, as 
 given by the learned Society of Antiquaries, in 
 the 1 2th volume of their Archseologia : of the 
 accuracy of thefe reprefentations I have no 
 doubt, and being taken from really ancient 
 examples, they appear better calculated to con- 
 vey correct ideas of the feveral ornaments and 
 parts charadteriftic of the different periods and 
 ftyles, than any inventions poffibly could be; 
 befides which, they are reprefentations of fo 
 many exifting fpecimens of antiquity, often 
 
 exhibiting 
 
PREFACE. iX 
 
 Exhibiting much more than the mere part 
 referred to. The print of BigocTs tower is 
 given to mow entire a beautiful example of 
 the ancient circular arch, or Saxon ftyle, and 
 that of the tower of York cathedral, to lliow, 
 in contrail:, a beautiful example of the more 
 modern pointed arch, or Norman ftyle. 
 
 It may be of ufe to obferve, that whoever 
 wifties to fee a large alfortment of both Saxon 
 and Norman ornaments will have much plea- 
 fure in examining the volume of Archaeologia, 
 whence thefe were taken. Many alfo of the 
 buildings: referred to as authorities in the fol- 
 lowing Eflays may be found delineated in Mr. 
 Carter's publication on the ancient architecture 
 of England ; a work of great refearch and induf- 
 try, in which the (kill and tafte of our ancient 
 builders will be handed down to pofterity in 
 defiance of the deftroying hands of time, or 
 modern innovators. The elegant plates of the 
 Ornaments of York Cathedral, by Mr. Half- 
 penny, afford a great variety of curious and 
 elegant examples of ornaments in the florid 
 ftyle, accurately difplayed, and felected with 
 tafte. Of the fame kind is the work of Spe- 
 
 b cimens 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 cimens of Gothic Ornaments, felecled from 
 the Church of Lavenham in Suffolk. Mr. 
 Murphy's publication of the Plans, Eleva- 
 tions, &c. of the Monaftery of Batalha in 
 Portugal, will afford many accurate and inte- 
 refting examples, and much important informa- 
 tion to the inquiring antiquary. 
 
 The felection here prefented, it is hoped, 
 will be found fully fuflicient to illuftrate the 
 fubjecl:, and give clear ideas of the parts and 
 their peculiarities, as referred to by the feveral 
 writers. Thus, with an ordinary degree of 
 attention, it is hoped every perfon may obtain 
 clear notions on this fubjecl:, who perhaps 
 would not have bought, or even examined, the 
 bulky and coftly works whence this little vo- 
 lume has been extracted ; if fo, it may be 
 hoped the mite of labour will not have been 
 beftowed in vain. 
 
 J. T. 
 
 OBSERV- 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 The Means ?iecejfary for further illujirating the 
 Ecclejiaflical Architecture of the middle Ages, 
 
 IN A LETTER PROM THE 
 
 Rev. JOHN MILNER, M.A.F.S.A. to Mr. TAYLOR, 
 Sir, 
 
 I CONGRATULATE the Public on your at- 
 tempt to elucidate the architecture of the middle 
 ages, by the collection of Ellays which you are 
 about to publifh on this fubject ; and I cannot 
 refrain from pointing out to thofe antiquaries, 
 who, like myfelf, delight in this branch of their 
 fcience, certain matters, which feem to me par- 
 ticularly deferving of their attention, for pro- 
 moting its progrefs, for fixing it on clear and 
 fure principles, and for furnifhing artists with 
 rules to go by when constructing and repairing 
 works in the style in queftion. 
 
 The first requisite for the better illustration 
 of this fubject is, that thofe perfons who treat 
 of it mould come to a right understanding, and 
 agree in the ufe of the fame terms for convey- 
 
 b % ing 
 
Xii REV. J. MILNER*S 
 
 ing the fame ideas relative to it. In proof of 
 the confufion which ftill prevails on this fub- 
 ject among men who are moft converfant with 
 it, I may refer to thefe Effays, in one of which 
 the celebrated cathedral of Salifbury is declared 
 to be, not properly a Gothic ftrudture% while 
 in two others it is as pofitively afferted to be 
 entirely Gothic b . Again, one of thefe eminent 
 authors teftifies, that " fome writers call all 
 our ancient architecture, without any diftinction 
 of round or pointed arches, Gothic; though 
 of late," he adds, " the fafhion has been to 
 apply the term folely to the latter ." The other 
 has much the fame obfervation d ; and they both 
 agree in condemning the opprobrious term Go- 
 thic, as applied to that " light, neat, and ele- 
 gant form of building, with arches pointed, 
 and pillars fmall and (lender %" which, in fad:, 
 was not invented until about 600 years after 
 
 3 " The ftyle which fucceeded to this (the Saxon) was 
 not the abfolute Gothic, or Gothic limply lb called, but a 
 fort of Gothic Saxon, in which the pure Saxon began to re- 
 ceive fome tincture of the Saracen falhion.— In this ftyle is 
 Salifbury cathedral." Warton's EfTay, p. 4, 5. 
 
 b iC The cathedral of Salifbury confifts entirely of that 
 ftyle which is now called (though I think improperly) 
 Gothic." Bentham's EfTay, p. 73. " The prefent cathe- 
 dral of Salifbury is entirely in the Gothic ftyle," Grofe's 
 Effay, p. no. 
 
 c Bentham's EfTay, p. 74, 75, 
 
 d Grofe's EfTay, p. 95. 
 
 ? Bentham, p. 73, 74* 
 
 the 
 
LfiTTER. 
 
 xiii 
 
 the Goths difappeared from the theatre of the 
 world. Finally, they all defcribe the Saxon 
 and the Norman ftyles as agreeing in their form 
 and differing only in their dimenfions f ; whereas 
 fome ingenious and refpectable writers of the 
 prefent day, by way of exploding the term 
 Gothic, make ufe of the word Norman, to fig- 
 nify the pointed ftyle ; the confequence of which 
 muft be, a certain degree of confufion not only 
 among readers, but among writers alfo, while 
 a term that fo frequently occurs is ufed in a 
 contradiftinguifhed fenfe from that which thefe 
 eminent writers feem to have affixed to it. My 
 prefent object, Sir, is merely to fuggeft the 
 neceffity of an agreement in the ufe of fci- 
 entific language, and not to dictate the condi- 
 tions. However, I cannot help faying, that 
 when I fpeak of the Saxon and Norman man- 
 ner, and when I call the elegant ftyle which is 
 improperly named Gothic by the term of the 
 pointed Jlyle, and when I fpeak of thefe toge- 
 ther under the generical appellation of the archi- 
 tecture of the middle ages, I flatter myfelf I am 
 clearly underftood by every perfon with whom 
 I communicate by writing, or by fpeaking, and 
 that the fubjects themfelves are characteriftically 
 denominated. 
 
 . f Warton a p. 4. Benthanij p. 61, 62 , 63, 64. Grofe, 
 p. 100. 
 
 b 3 The 
 
jdv rev. j. milner's 
 
 The next point which, I think, requires to 
 be clearly afcertained amongft architectural an- 
 tiquaries is, the true origin of the pointed 
 ftyle. I have already expofed in part the ab- 
 furdity and contradictions into which thofe 
 perfons fall who derive it from the Goths and 
 Vandals of the North, or from the Saracens of 
 the Eaft, or, finally, from the Moors of the 
 Welt, rather than admit our own anceftors 
 were capable of inventing it. I fhall farther 
 obferve, that whatfoever has been advanced in. 
 fupport of any one of thefe fyftems, is the pro- 
 duce of mere conjecture, without a fhadow of 
 any kind of hiltorical evidence. For example, 
 we no where read of any architect from Ara- 
 bia, Morocco, or Spain, arriving in England, 
 France, or Italy, to 'teach the inhabitants how 
 to conftruct their churches : nor do we hear of 
 any Englifhman, Frenchman, or Italian, that 
 ever travelled into thofe countries in order to 
 learn architecture. But we find, on the other 
 hand, fuch an emulation amongft the prelates 
 and princes of the times in queftion, in our 
 own and the neighbouring countries, but chiefly 
 in our own, to outvie each other in the mag- 
 nificence and beauty of their buildings ; parti- 
 cularly of the ecclefiaftical kind ; and fuch en- 
 couragement held out to architects and artifts 
 of this country, that it would be extraordinary 
 
 a if 
 
LETTER. 
 
 XV 
 
 if thefe were productive of no new inventions 
 or improvements in the various branches of 
 architecture. In a word, Sir, I think it plain, 
 that even Mr. Warton, who follows Sir Chrif- 
 topher Wren's confufed and prejudiced account 
 of this matter s , confutes his own fyftem whilfl 
 he demonftrates, as Bentham and Grofe alfo 
 do, the flow and regular degrees by which this 
 fpecies of architecture rofe up and attained to 
 perfection amongft ourfelves, inftead of being 
 imported in any regular fhape from a foreign 
 country. Laitly, Sir, I flatter myfelf that the 
 EfTay which you have honoured with infertion 
 in the prefent collection, taken from my Hijtory 
 
 s To {how bow ill informed this celebrated architect was 
 in the hiftory erf the ftructures of the middle ages, I may 
 remind the learned reader of his afcribing the building of 
 St. Crofs and \Vinchefter cathedral to the Saxons " before 
 the ConqueuV p. 60 ; likewife of his denying the faid 
 people the ufe of glafs for their windows, ibid. : and af- 
 cribing the invention of tracery work to the neceffity there 
 was " of difpofing the mullions for the better fixing in of 
 glafs," which, he fays, then, viz. at the end of the thir- 
 teenth century, " began to be ufed in windows," p. 105, 
 14. See alfo p. 32. Finally, to prove the confufion of 
 his ideas on this fubjeel:, I may mention, that he himfelf 
 afcribes the invention of the pointed order to the Arabian 
 Mahometans, when they overturned a great part of the 
 Eaftern empire, and began to build their mofques and cara- 
 vanferies, in the feventh and eighth centuries, p. 104 ; and 
 that he neverthelefs cites Mr. Evelyn in fupport of his fyf- 
 tem, who afferts, that this fame " fantaftical, light fpecies 
 of building," as he is pleafed to call it, " was introduced 
 by the Goths and Vandals of the North, when they fub- 
 verted the Weftern empire two centuries earlier !" p. 106. 
 
 b 4 and 
 
xvi REV. j. milner's 
 
 and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchejler, 
 places this fact in a new and ftill clearer light, 
 while it iTiows how the fucceflive members and 
 ornaments of this ftyle of architecture grew out 
 of others which preceded them, and that the 
 adoption of the pointed arch was, as it were, the 
 parent germ which produced the whole fyftem. 
 
 A moil: curious and interefting fact, however, 
 in my opinion, for the inveftigation of archi- 
 tectural antiquaries, is, to afcertain the true prin- 
 ciples of the Sublime and Beautiful, as applied 
 to thofe facred fabrics which are the undoubted 
 mafterpieces and glory of the pointed order. It 
 is in vain that Sir Chriftopher Wren and Mr. 
 Evelyn, who are cited in the notes, page 106, 
 ftigmatize thefe ftructures, as being ** con- 
 gestions of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkifh 
 piles, without any juft proportion, ufe, or 
 beauty." For it is confeffedly true, that every 
 man who has an eye to fee, and a foul to feel, 
 on entering into York minfter and chapter- 
 houfe, or into King's college or Windfor chapel, 
 or into the cathedrals of Lincoln or Winchefter, 
 is irrefutibly Uruck with mingled impreflions 
 of awe and pleafure, which no other buildings 
 are capable of producing ; and however he may 
 approve of the Grecian architecture for the pur- 
 pofes of civil and focial life, yet he inftinc- 
 tively experiences in the former a frame of 
 
 min4 
 
LETTER* 
 
 xvii 
 
 mind that fits him for prayer and contemplation, 
 which all the boafted regularity and magnifi- 
 cence of Sir Chriftopher's and the nation's 
 pride, I mean St. Paul's cathedral, cannot com- 
 municate, at leaft in the fame degree. 
 
 To explain in detail the principles on which 
 the above-mentioned effects are produced, would 
 be to defcribe the whole ftructure of an ancient 
 cathedral ; and, at the fame time, to form the 
 beft panegyric on the architects who raifed 
 them. This, however, it is not my prefent 
 intention to do, but merely to enumerate a few 
 of thefe principles which are more obvious. In 
 the firfr. place, then, it is well known that 
 height and length are amongft the primary 
 fources of the Sublime h : it is equally agreed 
 that thefe are the proportions which our ancient 
 architects chiefly affected in their religious 
 ffructures. But befides the real effect of thefe 
 proportions, which were generally carried as 
 far as they were capable of, the mind was far- 
 ther impreffed by an artificial height and length, 
 which were the natural produce of the flyle 
 employed. For the afpiring form of the pointed 
 arches, the lofty pediments, and the tapering 
 pinnacles with which our cathedrals are adorned, 
 contribute perhaps flill more to give an idea of 
 
 " See Burke'? Treatije on the Sublime and Beautiful. 
 
 height 
 
Xviii rev. j. milner's 
 
 height than their real elevation. In like man- 
 ner, the perfpe&ive of uniform columns, ribs, 
 and arches, repeated at equal diflances, as they 
 are feen in the ifles of thofe fabrics, produces 
 an artificial infinite in the mind of the fpecta- 
 tor 1 , when the fame extent of plain fur face 
 would perhaps hardly affect it at all k : for a 
 fimilar reafon, I think the effect of the ancient 
 cathedrals is greatly helped by the variety of 
 their conftituent parts and ornaments, though 
 I fuppofe them all to be executed in one uni- 
 form flyle. The eye is quickly fatiated by any 
 object, however great and magnificent, which it 
 can take in all at once, as the mind is with what 
 jt can completely comprehend ; but when the 
 former, having wandered through the intricate 
 and interminable length of a pointed vault in an 
 
 i See Burke's Treat if e on the Sublime and Beautiful. 
 
 * This obfervation on the artificial infinite does not apply 
 to the modern practice of deftroying the altar-fcreen of ca- 
 thedrals, and taking the Lady chapel into the grand per- 
 fpective of them. For, firft, a vifta, by being too long 
 drawn, deftroys its proper effect, as Burke proves. Secondly, 
 it is effential that the objects of fight, which are repeated 
 for the above-mentioned purpofe, fhould be uniform in 
 their appearance; otherwife the illufion is destroyed, and 
 intellectual diforder and pain enfues, inftead of pleafure. 
 Now this inevitably happens in the cafe under confider- 
 ation, where the eye, (hooting down the vifta, perceives 
 the great columns and lofty arches of the nave fhrink all at 
 fence into the (lender fhafts and low vaulting of the faid 
 Lady chapel. See a work on this fubject, entitled, A Dif~ 
 fertation on the modern Style of altering ancient Cathedrals, 
 Nichols. 
 
 ancient 
 
LETTER. XIX 
 
 ancient cathedral, difcovers two parallel lines of 
 equal length and richnefs with it; then pro- 
 ceeding, it difcovers the tranfepts, the fide 
 chapels, the choir, the fanctuary, and the Lady- 
 chapel, all equally interefting for their defign 
 and execution, and all of them calculated for 
 different purpofes : the eye, I fay, is certainly 
 much more entertained, and the mind more 
 dilated and gratified, than can poflibly be ef- 
 fected by any fingle view, even though our 
 modern architects mould fucceed in their at- 
 tempts to make one entire fweep of the contents 
 of a cathedral, to mow it all at a fingle view, 
 and to make one vafl empty room of the whole. 
 
 It is not neceffary for me to dwell upon the 
 effect of that folemn gloom which reigns in 
 thefe venerable flructures, from the ftudied ex- 
 clusion of too glaring a light, or upon that 
 glowing effect produced by appropriate paint- 
 ing and carving in the windows, or other parts 
 of them, or upon the effential beauty and jufl 
 proportions in which they are raifed, where the 
 infinite variety of ribs, arches, boffes, and other 
 ornaments, all grow out of the main columns, 
 with the regularity of Nature in the vegetable 
 kingdom, and alfo with her wife contrivance 
 to combine ftrength with beauty j I fay, it is 
 not neceffary for me to dwell upon thefe points, 
 becaufe, however they may be carped at by in- 
 terested 
 
XX REV. J. MILNER's 
 
 terefted men, they are obvious of themfelves, 
 and admitted by all perfons of candour and fen- 
 timent. There is one circumftance, however, 
 to which thefe venerable ftructures are indebted 
 for the imprellion they make, that is not fo 
 evident at firft fight, and which therefore I here 
 mention, namely, the arrangement and difpo- 
 iition of their feveral parts, in due fubordina- 
 tion to that which is their principal member ; 
 by which means that unity of defign fo necef- 
 fary in every compofition is maintained in them. 
 This principal member in our cathedral churches 
 is the choir and fanctuary, deftined for the per- 
 formance of the fervice and myfteries of reli- 
 gion : and all the other portions of the facred 
 fabric will be found fubfervient, and as it were 
 converging, to this, as to their centre. On the 
 fame account, the moft exquifite productions 
 of art, and the greateft profufion of wealth, were 
 uniformly beftowed on this particular part. We 
 may judge from hence what mull: be the effect 
 of deftroying the altar-fcreen of a cathedral, and 
 removing the altar itfelf, according to a. mo- 
 dern inftance, under an idea of improving its 
 appearance. It is like removing the head from 
 the human figure, or placing it on fome other 
 member, for the purpofe of increafing its 
 beauty. 
 
 Laftly, as there are different periods or fa- 
 
 fhions 
 
LETTER* XXt 
 
 fhions in pointed architecture, it is worthy the 
 attention of the curious antiquary, to diftribute 
 thefe fubjects of his ftudy into their proper 
 claries, and to determine the refpective merits of 
 each clafs or fafhion. The late poet laureat has 
 divided the architecture in queftion into the 
 abfolute Gothic, the ornamental Gothic, and the 
 florid Gothic 1 . I do not find fault with this 
 divifion, but I am by no means fatisfied with 
 the application of it. For, not to mention 
 other objections, we have feen that this author 
 excludes by name, the beautiful and highly 
 pointed cathedral of Salifbury from holding a 
 place in any of his clafTes. Now, fo far from 
 there being ground for fuch an exclufion, I 
 think it admits of a queftion, whether that fpe- 
 cies of early pointed architecture in which this 
 cathedral and that of Lincoln, alfo the abbey 
 churches of Weflminfter, Beaulieu, Lettley 111 , 
 and other facred edifices, were confrructed, 
 from the firft invention of that fly le down to 
 its enlargement in the reign of Edward I. was, 
 upon the whole, exceeded at any later period. 
 In cafe, however, we admit the tracery work, 
 which was invented about the latter period, 
 and with which the cathedrals of York and 
 Winchefler are adorned, to be a confiderable 
 
 1 Pages 4, 5. 8. 
 
 * Vulgarly and improperly called Netley Abbey. 
 
 im- 
 
xxii rev. j. milner's 
 
 improvement upon the former chafte and ftmple 
 famion, yet I cannot by any means agree that 
 the gorgeous or florid ftyle, as Warton calls 
 it, which began in the reign of Henry VI. and 
 continued until the explolion of the pointed 
 order under Henry VIII. was, upon a thorough 
 comparifon, more excellent than that kind 
 which had immediately preceded it. I grant, 
 there is a greater profusion of ornament, and 
 generally more exquifite workmanfhip, for 
 example, in the chapels of King's college, of 
 Windfor and of Henry VII. than in the two 
 laft mentioned cathedrals; the fame may be 
 faid of Fox's chantry, compared with that of 
 Wykeham ; but I maintain that what was 
 gained to our ecclefiaftical ftructures after the 
 middle of the fifteenth century in beauty, was 
 loft in fublimity ; which latter quality, I have 
 intimated, forms their proper character. This 
 falling off in facred architecture is principally to 
 be attributed to the lowering of the pointed arch, 
 which then began to prevail. The firft arches 
 of this order in the reigns of Henry I. Stephen, 
 and Henry II. were exceedingly rude and ir- 
 regular, fometimes forming the moll: acute and 
 fometimes the moft obtufe angle that can well 
 be conceived ; but when the ftyle was further 
 improved under Henry III. and the three Ed- 
 wards, it was difcovered that the moft beauti- 
 ful 
 
LETTER. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 ful and perfect kind of pointed arch was that 
 which was formed by fegments of a circle, in- 
 cluding ar^quilateral triangle, from the im- 
 ports to the crown of the arch ; accordingly, 
 this proportion was generally followed down to 
 the aforefaid period ; when the architects and 
 artifts, being more anxious about their own 
 reputation than the proper effect of the ltruc- 
 ture, began to lower the arches as much as pofc- 
 fible, and in fome cafes to invert them, in order 
 to bring the fans, pendents, and other curious 
 or furprifing ornaments, with which they 
 loaded the vaulting, within the compafs of the 
 fpectator's diftinct fight. 
 
 If thefe hafty remarks upon a fubject which, 
 treated as a fcience, may ftill be confidered as 
 almoft new, have the effect of exciting perfons 
 who are better qualified than myfelf for the un- 
 dertaking, to do more complete juftice to it, I 
 fhall at all events think them well beflowed, 
 and fhall be enabled to fay with more truth 
 than Horace did, 
 
 Fungar vice cotis, acutum 
 Reddere qvx ferrum valet, exfors ipfa fecandi. 
 
 De Art. Poeiica, 
 
 I remain, Sir, 
 
 Your faithful fervant, 
 
 Winchejler, 
 
 Feb. i 5 , 1800. JOHN MILNER. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 ON 
 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 REV. THOMAS WARTON's ESSAY'. 
 
 i — Did arife 
 
 On lately pillours framd afer the Dorickc guife. 
 
 Although the Roman or Grecian archi- 
 tecture did not begin to prevail in England till 
 the time of Inigo Jones, yet our communication 
 with the Italians, and our imitation of their 
 manners, produced fome fpecimens of that ftyle 
 much earlier : perhaps the earlieft is Somerfet 
 houfe in the Strand, built about the year 1549, 
 by the duke of Somerfet, uncle to Edward VI. 
 
 * Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenfer, edit. 
 1762, vol. ii. page 184. 
 
 b The 
 
REV. T. WARTON'S 
 
 The monument of bifhop Gardiner in Win- 
 chcfter cathedral made in the reign of Mary, 
 about 1555, is decorated with Ionic pillars. 
 Spenfer's verfes here quoted bear an allufion to 
 fome of thefe fafhionable improvements in 
 building, which, at this time, were growing 
 more and more into efteem. Thus, alfo, bifhop 
 Hall, who wrote about the fame time, viz. 
 
 1598 = 
 
 There findeft thou fome ftately Doricke frame, 
 Or neat Ionicke worke. B. v. f. 2. 
 
 But thefe ornaments were often abfurdly in- 
 troduced into the old Gothic ftyle ; as in the 
 magnificent portico of the Schools at Oxford, 
 erected about the year 161 3, where the builder, 
 in a Gothic edifice, has affectedly difplayed his 
 univerfal Ikill in the modern architecture by 
 giving us all the five orders together. However, 
 moft of the great buildings of queen Elizabeth's 
 reign have a ftyle peculiar to themfelves, both 
 in form and finifhing; where, though much of 
 the old Gothic is retained, and great part of the 
 new tafte is adopted, yet neither predominates; 
 while both, thus indiftinctly blended, compofe 
 a fantaftic fpecies hardly reducible to any clafs 
 or name. One of its characteristics is the af- 
 fectation of large and lofty windows, where, 
 2 _ fays 
 
ESSAY. J 
 
 fays Bacon, " you fhall have fometimes faire 
 houfes fo full of glafs that one cannot tell where 
 to become to be out of the fun, Sec," Effayes, 
 xii. 
 
 After what has been here incidentally faid on 
 this fubject, it may not be amifs to trace it 
 higher, and to give fome obfervations on the 
 beginning and progreiTive ftate of architecture 
 in England, down to the reign of Henry VIII. ; 
 a period, in which, or thereabouts, the true 
 Gothic ftyle is fuppofed to have expired. 
 
 The Normans, at the Conqueft, introduced 
 arts and civility. The churches before this 
 were of timber, or otherwife of very mean 
 conftruction. The Conqueror imported a 
 more magnificent though not a different plan, 
 and erected fe.veral flately churches and caftles d . 
 He built more than thirty monafteries, among 
 which were the noble abbies of Battel and 
 Selby. He granted a charter to Mauritius, 
 bifhop of London, for rebuilding St. Paul's 
 church with ftone brought out of Normandy. 
 He built the White tower in the Tower of Lon- 
 don. The ftyle then ufed confifted of round 
 arches, round-headed windows, and round 
 malfy pillars, with a fort of regular capital and 
 
 A Videas ubique in villis ecclefias, in vicis et urbibus 
 monafteria, novo edificandi genere exfurgere." Will. 
 Malmelbur. Rex Willhelmus, de Geft. Reg. Ang. lib. iii. 
 p. 57. fol. Lond. 1596, ed. Savil. 
 
 b 2 bafe, 
 
4 REV. T. WARTON's 
 
 bafe, being an adulteration or a rude imitation 
 of tbe genuine Grecian or Roman manner. 
 This has been named the Saxon Ityle, being 
 the national architecture of our Saxon anceftors 
 before the Conqueft : for the Normans only 
 extended its proportions and enlarged its fcale. 
 But I fuppofe at that time it was the common 
 architecture of all Europe. Of this Ityle many 
 fpecimens remain : the tranfept of Winchefter 
 cathedral, built 1080; the two towers of Exeter 
 cathedral, 1 1 1 2 ; Chrift Church cathedral at 
 Oxford, 1 180 ; the nave of Glocefter cathedral, 
 1100; with many others. The molt complete 
 monuments of it I can at prefent recoiled: are, 
 the church of St. Crofs near Winchefter, built 
 by Henry de Blois, 1 130 ; and the abbey church 
 at Rumfey in Hampfhire : efpecially the latter, 
 built by the fame princely benefactor. Another 
 evidence of this ftyle is a circular feries of zig- 
 zag fculpture applied as a facing to porticos and 
 other arches. The Ityle which fucceeded to this 
 was not the abfolute Gothic, or Gothic fimply 
 fo called, but a fort of Gothic Saxon, in which 
 the pure Saxon began to receive fome tincture 
 of the Saracen fafhion. In this the mafly ro- 
 tund column became fplit into a clufter of ag- 
 glomerated pilafters, preferving a bafe and 
 capital as before ; and the fhort round-headed 
 window was lengthened into a narrow oblong 
 
 form. 
 
ESSAY. 5 
 
 form, with a pointed top, in every refpect much 
 in the {hape of a lancet ; often decorated in the 
 infide with flender pillars. Thefe windows we 
 frequently find three together, the centre one 
 being higher than the two lights on each fide. 
 This ftyle commenced about 1200. Another of 
 its marks is a feries of fmall, low, and clofe arch- 
 work, fometimes with a pointed head, placed 
 on outfide fronts for a finiihing, as in the weft 
 end of Lincoln and Rochefter cathedrals, and in 
 the end of the fouthern tranfept of that of Can- 
 terbury. In this ftyle, to mention no more, is 
 Salifbury cathedral. Here we find indeed the 
 pointed a.rch, and the angular though fimple 
 vaulting ; but ftill we have not, in fuch edifices 
 of the improved or Saxon Gothic, the ramified 
 window, one diftinguifhing characteriitic of the 
 abfolute Gothic . It is difficult to define thefe 
 gradations ; but ftill harder to explain conjec- 
 tures of this kind in writing, which require 
 ocular demonftration and a converfation on the 
 fpot to be clearly proved and illuftrated. 
 
 The absolute Gothic, or that which is 
 free from all Saxon mixture, began with rami- 
 fied windows of an enlarged dimenfion, divided 
 into feveral lights, and branched out at the top 
 into a multiplicity of whimfical fhapes and 
 
 c They then feem to have had no idea of a great (ajlerti 
 or wejiern window. 
 
 B 3 com- 
 
6 
 
 REV. T. WARTON's 
 
 compartments, after the year 1 300. The era- 
 fades had before dictated the pointed arch, which 
 was here ftill preferved ; but, befides the alter- 
 ation in the windows, fantaftic capitals to the 
 columns, and more ornament in the vaulting 
 and other parts, were introduced. Of this fa- 
 fhion the body of Winchefter cathedral, built 
 by that munificent encourager of all public 
 works, William of Wykeham, about the year 
 1390, will afford the jufteft idea. But a tafte 
 for a more ornamental ftyle had for fome time 
 before begun to difcover itfelf. This appears 
 from the choir of St. Mary's church at War- 
 wick, begun f , at leaf!:, before Wykeham's 
 improvements at Winchefter, and remarkable 
 for a freedom and elegance unknown before." 
 That certain refinements in architecture began 
 to grow fafhionable early in the reign of Ed- 
 ward III. perhaps before, we learn from Chau- 
 cer's defcription of the flru&ure of his Houfe of 
 Fame : 
 
 And eke the hall and everie boure^ 
 Without peeces or joynings, 
 But many fubtell compaffings 
 As habenries and pinnacles, 
 Imageries and tabernacles, 
 I fawe, and full eke of windowes 6 . 
 
 f Viz. 1 341 ; fmimed before 1395. Dugdale's War- 
 wick fh ire, p. 345. 
 
 B. iii. fol. 267. col. 2. edit. Speght. 
 
 And 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 And afterwards, 
 
 7 
 
 I needeth not you more to tellen, 
 
 ********* 
 
 Of thefe yates flourimings, 
 
 Ne of compaces ne of carvings, 
 
 Ne how the hacking in mafonries, 
 
 As corbetts and imageries h . 
 
 And in an old poem, called Pierce the Plow~ 
 man's Creede, written perhaps before Chaucer's, 
 where the author is defcribing an abbey-church : 
 
 Than T munte me forth the minstre for to knowen. 
 And awaytted a woon, wonderly well ybild; 
 With archies on everich half, and bellyche ycorven 
 With crocihetes on corneres, with knottes of gold. 
 Wyd windlowes ywrought, ywriten full thicke. 
 ##*#######*# 
 Tombes upon tabernacles, tyld opon loft, 
 Houfed in homes, harde fett abouten 
 Of armed alabauftre.— — 
 
 Thefe innovations at length were mofl: beau- 
 tifully displayed in the roof of the divinity 
 fchool at Oxford, which began to be built 1427. 
 The univerflty, in their letters to Kempe bifhop 
 of London quoted by Wood 1 , fpeak of this 
 edifice as one of the miracles of the age : they 
 mention particularly, " Ornamenta ad naturalis 
 cceli imaginem variis picturis, fubtilique artifi- 
 
 h B. iii. fol. 267, verfo. col. 2. 
 
 * Hift. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. ii. p. 22. 
 
 b 4 cio, 
 
8 
 
 REV. T. WARTON's 
 
 cio, csclata ; valvarum fingulariflima opera : tur- 
 ricularum apparatum, &c." Yet even here 
 there is nothing of that minute finishing which 
 afterwards appeared ; there is frill a mailinefs, 
 though great intricacy and variety. About the 
 fame time the collegiate church of Fotheringay 
 in Northamptonmire was defigned ; and we 
 learn from the orders k of Henry VI. delivered 
 to the architect, how much their notions in 
 architecture were improved. The orna- 
 mental Gothic at length received its confirm- 
 ation about 1 44 1, in the chapel of the fame 
 King's college at Cambridge 1 . Here ftrength 
 united with ornament, or fubftance with ele- 
 gance, feems to have ceafed. Afterwards what 
 I would call the florid Gothic arofe, the firfl 
 confiderable appearance of which was in the 
 chapel of St. George at Windfor, begun by 
 Edward IV. about 1480 171 ; and which, laftly, 
 was completed in the fuperb chapel of 
 Henry VII. at Weftminfter. 
 
 The florid Gothic diftinguifhes itfelf by 
 an exuberance of decoration, by roofs where 
 the moft delicate fretwork is exprelTed in ftone, 
 and by a certain lightnefs of finifhing, as in the 
 
 * In Dugdale's Monafticon, vol. iii. p. 163. 
 
 » It was not finiflied till fome years after ; but a descrip- 
 tion and plan of the intended fabric may be feen in the king's 
 will . Stowe's Annals, by Howes, 1614, p. 479, feq. 
 
 Afhmole's Order of the Garter, fe£t. ii. chap. 4. p. 136, 
 
 roof 
 
essay. g 
 
 roof of the choir of Glocefter", where it is 
 thrown like a web of embroidery over the old 
 Saxon vaulting. Many monumental fhrines, 
 fo well calculated, on account of the fmallnefs 
 of their plan, to admit a multiplicity of delicate 
 ornaments highly finiflied, afford exquifite fpe- 
 cimens of this flyle. The moll remarkable one 
 I can recollect is that of bifhop Fox at Win- 
 chester ; which, before it was flripped of its 
 images and the painted glafs ° which filled part 
 of its prefent open-work, muft have been a moft 
 beautiful fpectacle. How quickly tomb-archi- 
 tecture improved in this way may be feen by 
 two fumptuous fhrines in the fame church, 
 which Hand oppolite each other; thofe of bi- 
 fhop Waynflete and cardinal Beaufort. The 
 bifhop's is evidently conftructed in imitation of 
 the cardinal's ; but, being forty years later, is 
 infinitely richer in the variegation of its fretted 
 roof, and the profufion of its ornamented fpire- 
 
 " About the year 1470. The words of the infeription 
 on the infide of the arch by which we enter the choir are 
 remarkable : 
 
 Hoc quod digestum fpecularis, opufque politum, 
 Tullii haec ex onere Seabrooke abbate jubente. 
 
 The tower was built at the fame time. The lady's chapel 
 foon after^ about 1490. 
 
 It was broke and deftroyed by the Preibyterians 1643, 
 as appears by a paflage in Mercurius Rufticus, p. 214. It 
 is not commonly known or obferved that this fhrine was 
 thus curioully glazed, 
 
 work. 
 
10 
 
 REV. T. WARTON'S 
 
 work p . The fcreen behind the altar in the 
 fame cathedral, built 1525, far fuperior to that 
 at St. Albans, is alfo a linking pattern of this 
 workmanfhip. We have fome epifcopal thrones 
 highly executed in this tafte. Such is that at 
 Wells, built by bilhop Beckington, 1450; and 
 that at Exeter, by bifhop Boothe, who fucceeded 
 to the fee, 1466. The firlt is of wood, painted 
 and gilded ; the latter is likewife of wood, but 
 painted in imitation, and has the effect, of Hone. 
 They are both very lofty and light. Molt of 
 the churches in Somerfetlhire, which are re- 
 markably elegant, are in the Ityle of the flo- 
 rid Gothic. The reafon is this : Somerfetlliire, 
 in the civil wars between York and Lancalter, 
 was Itrongly and entirely attached to the Lan- 
 caltrian party. In reward for this fervice, 
 Henry VII. when he came to the crown, rebuilt 
 their churches. The tower of Glocelter cathe- 
 dral, and the towers of the churches of Taunton 
 and Glaltonbury, and of a parochial church at 
 Wells, are confpicuous examples of this fafhion. 
 Molt of the churches of this reign are known, 
 
 p Waynflete died i486. How greatly tomb-archite&ure, 
 within 150 years, continued to alter, appears from an ex- 
 preffion in Berthelette's preface to his edition of Gower's 
 Confeffio Amantis, 1554 : Gower prepared for his bones 
 a reftynge place in the monafterie of St. Marie Overee, where, 
 fomewhat after the old fashion, he lieth right fumptuoufly 
 buried." Gower died 1402. 
 
 belides 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 II 
 
 befides other diftindlions, by latticed battle- 
 ments, and broad open windows. In this llyle 
 Henry VIII. built the palace of Nonfuch' 1 ; 
 and cardinal Wolfey, Hampton Court, White- 
 hall, Chrift church in Oxford, and the tomb- 
 houfe at Windfor. 
 
 I cannot more clearly recapitulate or illuftrate 
 what has been faid, than by obferving, that the 
 feals of our Englifh rhonarchs, from the reign 
 of Henry III. difplay the tafte of architecture 
 which refpe&ively prevailed under feveral fub- 
 fequent reigns ; and confequently convey, as 
 at one comprehensive view, the feries of its fuc- 
 ceflive revolutions ; infomuch that if no real 
 models remained, they would be fufficient to 
 fhow the modes and alterations of building in 
 England r , In thefe each king is reprefented 
 fitting enmrined amid a fumptuous pile of ar- 
 chitecture. Henry III. 1259, a PP e ars feated 
 amidfl: an alTemblage of arches of the round 
 Saxon form 5 . So are his fucceflbrs Edward I. 
 and II. Edward III. 1330, is the firft whofe 
 feal exhibits pointed Saracen arches ; but thofe, 
 of his firft feal at leaft are extremely fimple. 
 
 q See a cut of its front, perhaps the only reprefentation 
 of it extant, in Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great 
 Britaine, 1614, fol. p. 11. Map of Surrey. In the fame 
 is a cut of Richmond palace, built by Henry VII. 
 
 r See Speed's Hiftory, &c. fol. London, 1627. 
 
 5 See his fecond feal, Speed, p. 547. 
 
 I See his fecond feal, Speed, p. 584. 
 
 In 
 
1% 
 
 REV. T. WARTON'S 
 
 In the feals of Richard II. 1378, and his fuo 
 ceffor Henry IV. we find Gothic arches of a 
 more complicated conftruction. At length the 
 feal of Henry V. 141 2, is adorned with a ftill 
 more artificial fabric. And laftly, in the feals 
 of Edward V. Richard III. and Henry VII. 
 we difcern a more open, and lefs pointed Go- 
 thic. 
 
 I fubjoin fome general obfervations. The 
 towers in Saxon cathedrals were not always 
 intended for bells ; they were calculated to pro- 
 duce the effect of the louver, or open lantern, 
 in the infide; and, on this account, were ori- 
 ginally continued open almoft to the covering. 
 It is generally fuppofed that the tower of Win- 
 chefler cathedral, which is remarkably thick and 
 fhort, was left as the foundation for a projected 
 fpire; but this idea never entered into the plan 
 of the architect:. Nearly the whole infide of 
 this tower was formerly feen from below ; and 
 for that reafon, its fide arches or windows, of 
 the firfl flory at leaf!:, are artificially wrought 
 and ornamented. With this fole effect in view, 
 the builder faw no neceflity to carry it higher. 
 An inltance of this vifibly fubfifts at prefent 
 in the infide of the tower of the neighbouring 
 Saxon church of St. Crofs, built about the fame 
 time. The fame effect was firft defigned at 
 Salifbury ; where, for the fame purpofe folely, 
 
 was 
 
ESSAY* 13 
 
 was a fhort tower, the end of which is eafily 
 difcerned by critical obfervers ; being but little 
 higher than the roof of the church, and of lefs 
 refined workmanfhip than that additional part 
 on which the prefent fpire is conltructed. Many- 
 other examples might be pointed out. This 
 gave the idea for the beautiful lanterns at Peter- 
 borough and Ely. 
 
 Spires were never ufed till the Saracen mode 
 took place. I think we find none before 1200. 
 The fpire of old St. Paul's was finifhed 1221 \ 
 That of Salifbury, as appears from a late fur- 
 vey x , and other proofs, was not included in 
 the plan of the builder, and was raifed many 
 years after the church was completed : the fpire 
 of Norwich cathedral about 1 278 y . Sir Chrif- 
 topher Wren informs us, that the architects 
 of this period " thought height the greater!: 
 magnificence. Few ftones," adds he, " were 
 ufed but what a man might carry up a ladder 
 on his back from fcafTold to fcafTold, though 
 they had pullies and fpoked wheels upon occa- 
 fion ; but having rejected cornices, they had no 
 need of great engines. Stone upon ftone was 
 eafily piled up to great heights ; therefore the 
 
 « Dugdalc's St. Paul's, p. 12. 
 
 * Survey, &c, by Price. 
 
 y Willis's Mitr. Abb. vol. i. p. 279. 
 
 pride 
 
14 REV. T. WARTON's 
 
 pride of their work was in pinnacles and ftee- 
 ples. The Gothic way carried all their mould- 
 ings perpendicular; fo that they had nothing 
 elfe to do but to fpire up all they could." He 
 adds, <f they affected fteeples, though the Sara- 
 cens themfelves ufed cupolas 2 ." But with fub- 
 miffion to fuch an authority, I cannot help being 
 of opinion, that, though the Saracens them- 
 felves ufed cupolas, the very notion of a fpire 
 was brought from the Eaft, where pyramidical 
 ftructures were common, and fpiral ornaments 
 were the fafhionable decorations of their 
 mofques, as may be feen to this day. What 
 the fame celebrated artift immediately fubjoins, 
 that the ufe of glafs introduced mullions into 
 windows, is very probable ; at leaft it contri- 
 buted to multiply the ramifications ; efpecially 
 the ufe of painted glafs : where the different 
 ftainings were by this means mown to better 
 advantage, and different ftories and figures re- 
 quired feparate compartments. 
 
 Soon after the year 1 200 they began, in Eng- 
 land, to cover the facades, or weft ends of ca- 
 thedrals, with niches and rows of ftatues large 
 as the life. The firft example of this kind is, 
 I think, at Salifbury; for that of Litchfield is 
 
 z Wren's Parentalia, p. 305. 
 
 too 
 
ESSAY. 15 
 
 too rich to be of equal antiquity a . The well: 
 end of Wells cathedral was perhaps intended to 
 vie with that of Saliibury, in the fame decora- 
 tions ; being in a bordering county, and erected 
 after it, i402 b . It is in fine prefervation, and 
 exhibits a curious fpecimen of the Hate of fta- 
 tuary at that time. The weft front of Exeter, 
 adorned in this tafte by bimop Grandifon, 1340, 
 is far inferior to any of the other three. That 
 of the abbey church at Bath is light and elegant, 
 but is much more modern than thofe I have 
 mentioned, being begun and finifhed but a few 
 years before the dilfolution of the abbey c . 
 
 Thefe hafty remarks are fubmitted to the can- 
 dour of the curious by one who, befides other 
 defects which render him difqualified for fuch 
 a difquifition, is but little acquainted with the 
 terms and principles of architecture. 
 
 3 It was built at leaft before 1400. For the fpire of St. 
 Michael's church in Coventry, finifhed about 1395, is ma- 
 nifeftly a copy of the ftyle of its two fpires. Saliibury church 
 was begun in 1217, and finilhed in 1256. 
 
 b This date is on the authority of Willis, Mitr. Abb. 
 vol. ii. p. 375. 
 
 c The whole church was rebuilt in the time? of the two 
 laft priors, after 1500. Leland, Itin. vol. ii. The abbey 
 was diflorved 1534. 
 
 REV. 
 
( i7 ) 
 
 REV. JAMES BENTHAM's 
 
 Hijlorical Remarks on the Saxon Churches. 
 
 IxAVING, in the preceding chapters a , taken 
 a fummary view of the firft reception of the 
 gofpel in Britain, its ftate and decline, to the 
 utter fdbverfion of it ; and alfo the re-eftablifh- 
 ment of Chriftianity in thefe parts, by the con- 
 verfion of the Saxons ; it may not be improper 
 to fay fomething of the places made ufe of by 
 the Saxons for their public worfhip, and to 
 inquire into the ground of a notion that has 
 often prevailed, that their churches were gene- 
 rally timber buildings, or, if of ftone, with 
 upright walls only, without any beauty or ele- 
 gance ; and that -as to the conftructing of arches 
 and vaultings of ftone, and fupporting them 
 with columns, they underftood nothing of it. 
 
 * This is the Fifth Section, page 15, in Mr. Bentham's 
 Hiftory of the Cathedral Church of Ely, 1771. 
 
 That all references to this Eflay may be readily found in 
 this edition, the pages of the original are given in crotchets. 
 
 c This 
 
18 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 This mean opinion of Saxon architecture, and 
 want of elegance in their churches, though it 
 be countenanced by feveral paffages in Mr. 
 Somner's book of the Antiquities of Canter- 
 bury 13 ; and his authority for it is frequently 
 cited by modern writers on that fubjecT: c ; with- 
 out any marks of difapprobation or cenfure; 
 yet as it appears to me to be without any man- 
 ner of foundation, I fhall beg leave to inquire 
 into the truth of what Mr. Somner has advanced 
 on that fubject. His words are thefe : " In- 
 deed it is obferved, that before the Norman 
 advent mofr. of our monafteries and church- 
 buildings were of wood : ' All the monafteries 
 4 of my realm,' faith king Edgar, in his char- 
 ter to the abbey of Malmefbury d , dated in the 
 year of Chrift 974, * to the fight are nothing 
 ' but worm-eaten and rotten timber and boards.' 
 And that upon the Norman conqueir. fuch tim- 
 ber fabrics grew out of ufe, and gave place to 
 ftone buildings raifed upon arches ; a form of 
 ftructure introduced by that nation, furnifhed 
 with ftone from Caen in Normandy. * In the 
 
 " P. 8. 86. 93. 
 
 c Staveley on Churches, p. 103. 146. Ornaments of 
 Churches conlidered, p. 88. Remarks on Gothic Archi- 
 tecture, by Mr. Warton, in his Obfervations on Spenfer's 
 Fairy Queen, vol. ii. p. 185, 186. 
 
 d Wilkins Concil. vol. i. p. 260. 
 
 • year 
 
ESSAY. 19 
 
 * year 1087 (Stow's words of the cathedral of 
 
 * London 6 ) this church of St. Paul was burnt 
 
 * with fire, and therewith moft part of the 
 
 * city : Mauritius then bifhop began, therefore, 
 ' the new foundation of a new church of St. 
 
 * Paul; a work that men of that time judged 
 
 * would never have been flnimed, it was to 
 
 * them fo wonderful for length and breadth ; 
 
 * [1 6] as alfo the fame was builded upon arches 
 
 * (or vaults) of ftone, for defence of fire ; which 
 
 * was a manner of work before that time un- 
 
 * known to the people of this nation, and then 
 
 * brought from the French, and the ftone was 
 
 * fetcht from Caen in Normandy.'— * St. Mary 
 
 * Bow church in London being built much about 
 
 * the fame time and manner, that is, on arches 
 
 * of ftone, was therefore called (faith the fame 
 
 * author f ) New Mary church, or St. Mary-le- 
 ' Bow ; as Stratford bridge, being the firft: 
 ' builded with arches of ftone, was therefore 
 
 * called Stratford-Ie-Bow.' This, doubtlefs, is 
 that new kind of architecture the continuer of 
 Bede (whofe words Malmefbury hath taken up) 
 intends, where fpeaking of the Normans' in- 
 come, he faith, ' You may obferve every where 
 1 in villages churches,, and in cities and villages, 
 
 * monafteries erected with a new kind of archi- 
 
 ♦ 
 
 « Stow's Survey of London, vol. i. p. 638. edit. 1754. 
 f Ibid. p. 542. 
 
 c 2 • * tecture. 5 
 
20 REV. J. BENTHA JSl's 
 
 1 te&ure.'s " And again, fpeaking doubtfully 
 of the age of the eaftern part of the choir of 
 Canterbury, he adds, " I dare conftantly and 
 confidently deny it to be elder than the Norman 
 conqueft; becaufe of the building it upon 
 arches, a form of architecture, though in ufe 
 with and among the Romans long before, yet 
 after their departure not ufed here in England, 
 till the Normans brought it over with them 
 from France 11 ." — Thus far Mr. Somner, whofe 
 judgment in matters of antiquity has been, and 
 always will be regarded, and is not without 
 fufficient reafon to be called in queftion ; but 
 his opinion concerning Saxon architecture ap- 
 pears fo lingular, that it will require fome con- 
 fideration before it can be admitted as true ; and 
 what that was, is evident from the feveral paf- 
 • fages above cited, viz. that the Saxon churches 
 and monafteries were ufually timber fabrics, or 
 if there were any ft one buildings among them, 
 they were with upright walls only, without 
 any pillars or arches to fupport them, and their 
 roofs not arched or vaulted with itone. Indeed 
 if this be admitted as a juft account, it may 
 fairly put an end to all further fearches after the 
 
 6 " Videas ubique in villis ecclefias, in vicis et urbibuS 
 monafteria, novo aedificandi genere confurgere." Will. 
 Malmelb. de Regibus Angl. p. 102. edit. Francof. 1601. 
 
 h Somner's Antiq. of Canterbury, p. 8. 
 
 remains 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 remains of Saxon architecture in this kingdom ; 
 for its neceflary confequence will be, that what- 
 ever remains of ancient buildings with pillars 
 and arches of ftone are at this time to be met 
 with among us, muft have been built either 
 fince the Norman conqueft, or at leaft five 
 hundred years earlier, that is, in the time of 
 the Romans ; a pofition that will fcarcely be 
 allowed by any one who is acquainted at all 
 with our hiftory in the time of the Saxons. 
 
 With regard to their churches being generally 
 of wood, the only authority produced for it is 
 a cafual expreflion in one of king Edgar's char- 
 ters concerning the ruinous ftate of the monas- 
 teries in his time 1 ; meaning no more, as I ap- 
 prehend, than that the churches and monafteries 
 were in general fo much decayed, that the roofs 
 were uncovered, or bare to the timber, and the 
 beams rotted by neglect, and grown over with 
 mofs ; and not that they were made wholly of 
 wood. It is true indeed fome of their fabrics 
 feem to have been totally formed of timber ; 
 Bede k fpeaks of an oratory or chapel of that 
 kind in the very place where St. Peter's church 
 [17] in York now Hands j it was haftily erected 
 
 ; (C Quae velut mufcivis fcindulis cariofifque tabulis, 
 
 tigno tenus vifibiliter diruta." Carta Regis Edgari, Wilkins 
 Concil. vol. i. p. 260. 
 
 k Bed*e Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 c 3 on 
 
sa REV. j. bentham's 
 
 on occafion of the conversion of Edwin king of 
 Northumberland, for the purpofe of baptizing 
 that king, which was performed, by Paulinus 
 bifhop of York 1 , on Eafter-day A. D. 627. 
 When the king had refolved to become a Chrif- 
 tian on the preaching of Paulinus, he deter- 
 mined to be publicly baptized ; and therefore 
 built this church of wood for that purpofe. He 
 built it in hafte for the prefent exigency, and as 
 a temporary expedient : — but he likewife in- 
 forms us, that foon after the king was baptized 
 he laid the foundation of a ftately and magnifi- 
 cent fabric of ftone, in which that of wood was 
 included, and might probably be ufed for divine 
 fervice whilfl: the other was in building m . This 
 work was continued fix years during that king's 
 life, but before it was finifhed he was flain ; 
 and it was carried on and finifhed by Ofwald 
 his fuccefTor. Other inftances of timber fabrics 
 occur in hiflory, and other oratories even of 
 flighter materials", erected on particular occa- 
 fions. A wooden church is mentioned by 
 
 1 (c Baptizatus eft autem Eburaci in die fancto Pafchae — 
 in ecclefia Sti. Petri Apoftoli, quam ipfe de ligno citato opere 
 erexit." Bedse Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 14. 
 
 "' " Curavit majorem ipfo in loco et auguftiorem de lapide 
 fabricare bafilicam, in cujus medio ipfum quod prius fecerat 
 oratorium includeretur." Ibid. 
 
 n Simeon Dunelm. lib. ii. cap. I. 9. Ingulphi Hift. 
 p. 4. 52. edit. Gale. Hift. Ramefienf. inter XV. Scriptores, 
 per Gale, p. 397. Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 291. tin* 20. 
 
 Malmef- 
 
ESSAY. 23 
 
 Malmefbury °, in his life of Aldhelm bifhop of 
 Shireburn, in Dultinge, a village in Somerfet- 
 fhire where Aldhelm died ; it belonged to the 
 abbey of Glaftonbury, and the monks there re- 
 built it of ftone. Bede likewife tells us, that 
 Finan bifhop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Ifland, 
 built there a church for his epifcopal fee, com- 
 pofed wholly of fawn oak, and covered with 
 reed, according to the fafhion of the Scots p ; 
 and that Eadberdt, one of his fucceflbrs, there 
 took off the reed, and covered the whole, both 
 the roof and fides, with meets of lead. How- 
 ever, thefe wooden fabrics, 'tis probable, were 
 not very common, even in thofe early times 
 of the Saxons ; and, as appears by the inftances 
 produced, fome of them were intended only for 
 temporary ufe ; and the laft-mentioned church 
 at Lindisfarne was built after a manner peculiar 
 to the Scots. This erroneous account of the 
 Saxon churches being generally of wood, or at 
 leaf!: without any pillars or arches of ftone, Mr. 
 Somner was probably led into, by relying on 
 Mr. Stow, whofe authority he vouches and 
 implicitly follows ; and then miftaking the fenfe 
 of that paflage in king Edgar's charter, applies 
 it to the entire fabrics, which was indeed ap- 
 plicable only to their roofs : and when he comes 
 
 Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. p, 23. 
 
 » Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 25. 
 
 c 4 to 
 
24 R £ v. J. bentham's 
 
 to Malmelbury's account of the architecture in- 
 troduced by the Normans, which is there called 
 novum genus tedijicandi (the new manner of 
 building), Mr. Somner takes the novelty of it to 
 confift in its being compofed with pillars and 
 arches ; and therein differed from the Saxon. 
 
 But that the Saxon churches were generally 
 built of ftone, and not only fo, but that they 
 had pillars and arches, and fome of them vault- 
 ings of ftone, there is fufficieht teftimony from 
 authentic hiftory, and the undoubted remains 
 of them at this time. 
 
 There is a great probability, that at the time 
 the Saxons were converted, the art of conftruct- 
 ing arches and vaultings, and fupporting ftone 
 edifices by columns, [i 8] was well known among 
 them ; they had many inftances of fuch kind of 
 buildings before them, in the churches and 
 other public edifices erected in the times of the 
 Romans. For, notwithftanding the havoc that 
 had been made of the Chriftian churches by the 
 Picts and Scots, and by the Saxons thcmfelves, 
 fome of them were then in being. Bede men- 
 tions two in the city of Canterbury q ; that de- 
 dicated to St. Martin on the eaft fide of the city, 
 wherein queen Bertha performed her devotions, 
 and Auguftin and his companions made ufe of 
 
 * Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 26 and 33. 
 
 at 
 
ESSAY. 25 
 
 at their firft coming ; and the other, that which 
 the king, after his converfion, gave to Auguf- 
 tin, and which he repaired and dedicated to 
 our blelTed Saviour, and made it his archi- 
 epifcopal fee. Befides thefe two ancient Roman 
 churches, it is likely there were others of the 
 fame age in different parts of the kingdom, 
 which were then repaired and reflored to their 
 former ufe. 
 
 Among other fabrics of thefe times may be 
 reckoned the many heathen temples ufed by the 
 idolatrous Saxons : that they were built by the 
 Saxons themfelves will probably be allowed ; 
 and that fome of them were good buildings will 
 hardly admit of any doubt, fince for that very 
 reafon pope Gregory advifed Auguftin r that the 
 temples ought not to be demolifhed, but only 
 the idols that were in them mould be removed 
 and deftroyed, and then confecrated to the fer- 
 vice of the true God. The particular form in 
 which thefe Saxon temples were built, and 
 wherein they differed from Chriflian churches 
 in their manner of building, may be difficult 
 to determine with any degree of certainty ; but 
 as many of them were afterwards converted to 
 churches 8 , I fee no reafon to think otherwife 
 of them, but that they might be fimilar in their 
 
 r Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 30. 
 I Monaft. Angl. vol. iii. p. 298. 
 
 con- 
 
26 REV. J. BENTHAM'S 
 
 conduction, and differ only in the ufe they were 
 put to. 
 
 On king Ethelbert's converfion, A. D. 561, 
 he with great, zeal fet about building of 
 churches ; he laid the foundation of a new one 
 for the monaftery of St. Peter and St. Paul 1 , 
 which Auguftin was then erecting; and de- 
 figned it for the burying-place for himfelf and 
 his fucceffors kings of Kent, and for the arch- 
 bifhops of Canterbury. He alfo founded the 
 church of St. Andrew at Rochefler 11 , and en- 
 dowed it for an epifcopal fee : and by his in- 
 fluence and authority, a new bifhopric was 
 erected in the kingdom of the Eaft Saxons, 
 where Sebert his nephew reigned under him; 
 the fee of which being fixed at London, he 
 there alfo founded and endowed the cathedral 
 church of St. Paul x . Thefe were the earlieft 
 churches erected after the converfion of the 
 Saxons was begun : whether thefe were built by 
 the Saxons themfelves, or whether they procured 
 architects from other countries to build them, 
 is not of any great moment to determine, fince 
 we are only confidering the general flate of 
 architecture in thofe times. Now, though the 
 account given us by Bede of thefe three churches 
 founded by king Ethelbert is very concife, and 
 
 t Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 33. 
 
 * Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 3. * Ibid. 
 
 nothing 
 
ESSAY. 27 
 
 nothing is there mentioned in exprefs terms of 
 the particular manner, or of the materials with 
 which they were built ; yet fome circumftances 
 that he relates afterwards feem plainly to indi- 
 cate that they were ftone buildings, and had 
 both pillars and arches in their compofition. 
 
 To inftance the church of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul : when Auguftin died, that church not 
 being finifhed, he was buried abroad ; but as 
 foon as it was confecrated, Bede [19] tells us, that 
 his body was brought into the church and de- 
 cently interred in porticu illius aquilonariy , in 
 the north portico of the fame. He further 
 fpeaks of another portico in the fame church, in 
 which queen Bertha, king Ethelbert, and other 
 kings of Kent, were buried ; this he calls Por- 
 ticus Sti. Martini z , to diftinguifti it from the 
 former, and was probably the oppofite or fouth 
 portico. The word porticus occurs feveral times 
 in Bede, Alcuin, Heddius, and other ancient 
 Saxon writers, and is generally tranflated by the 
 Englifh word porch j and fo mifleads us to 
 think it fynonimous with atrium or vejlibulum^ 
 denoting a building without- fide the church, at 
 the entrance into it : whereas this can by no 
 means be agreeable to Bede's meaning ; for in 
 his account of king Ethelbert's interment, he 
 expreffes himfelf in fuch terms as will not ad- 
 
 y BedaeHifL Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 3. * Ibid. cap. 5. 
 
 mit 
 
28 
 
 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 rni't of that fenfe : he was buried, fays Bede, 
 in porticu Sti. Martini intra ecclejiam 3 - ; which 
 fhows that the porticus was within the church : 
 and likewife in relating the burial of archbifliop 
 Theodore, A. D. 690, he fays, he was buried 
 in ecclejid Sti. Petri, in qua omnium epifcoporum 
 Doruvernenjium funt corpora depoJita h (in the 
 church of St. Peter, in which all the bodies of 
 the bifhops of Canterbury were interred) ; 
 though he had before faid c that they were all 
 interred in the north portico except Theodore 
 and Berdtwald, whofe bodies were buried in 
 ipfa ecclefia (in the church itfelf), becaufe that 
 portico could not conveniently hold any more d . 
 
 To 
 
 1 Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 5. 
 b Ibid. lib. v. cap. 8. 
 1 Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 3. 
 
 d The better to elucidate the fenfe of the word porticus, 
 the reader will be pleafed to compare the following paflages- 
 from Bede and other ancient writers :— A. D. 721 obiit 
 Johannes Ebor. epifcopus in monafterio fuo Beverlac. et 
 fS fepultus eft in porticu S. Petri." Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. v. 
 cap. 6. — A. D. 726 obiit Tobias Roffenfis epifcopus, et 
 (s fepultus eft in porticu S. Pauli Apoft. quam intro ecclefiam 
 S. Andreae fibi in locum fepulchri fecerat." Ibid. cap. 23. 
 — A. D. 977 Sidemannus Creditoniae epifcopus "fepulturae 
 traditur in monafterio Abendonenfi in parte ecclefiae boreali, 
 in porticu S. Pauli." Chron. Saxon. — A. D. 1034 obiit 
 Brithwius Wellenfis epifcopus ; " hie jacet in aquilonari 
 porticu ad S.Johannem (Glaftoniae). BritwoldusWintonien- 
 fis (1. Wiltonienfis) epifcopus, obiit A. D. 1045, hie fepultus 
 fuit cum Brithwio in eadem ecclefia in parte aquilonari." 
 Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 9. — e * In ambabus porticibus Co- 
 ventriae jacent aedificatores loci praecellentiffimi conjuges." 
 (Scil. comes Leofricus et Godiva comitifTa xixor ejus, qui 
 Leofricus obiit A. D. 1057.) Ibid. p. 302. In all the 
 
 above- 
 
ESSAY. 29 
 
 To make thefe feveral pafTages in Bede confid- 
 ent, we muft neceflarily allow that the royal 
 family of Kent and the firft eight archbifhops 
 [20] of Canterbury were all buried in this 
 church ; the former in St. Martin's, or the 
 fouth portico or ifle ; Auguftin and his five 
 immediate fucceffors in the north portico or 
 ifle ; and Theodore and Berctwald in the body 
 of the church : for when he fays the two latter 
 were depofited in ipfa ecclejia he certainly means 
 
 above-cited places a more confiderable part of the church is 
 certainly intended by porticus than what is commonly un- 
 derftood by the church-porch, as it is ufually rendered by 
 our eccleliaftical writers. It was frequently diftinguimed by 
 the name of fome faint ; for we read of Porticus Sti. Martini 
 in St. Auguftin's church at Canterbury, Porticus Sti. Gre- 
 gorii in St. Peter's at York, Porticus Sti. Petri at Beverley, 
 Porticus Sti. Pauli in St. Andrew's at Rochefter ; and other 
 diftin&ions of that kind in many of our ancient churches. 
 The reafon of which appears to be, that they were dedicated 
 to the honour of thofe faints. Thus we find by king Ed- 
 gar's charter to Thorney abbey, that the church there was 
 dedicated, A. D. 972, to St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Be- 
 nedict; i. e. the eaft part of the choir, where the altar 
 was placed, to St. Mary, the weftern part to St. Peter, 
 and the north porticus to St. Benedict. Ibid. p. 243. — . 
 From all thefe inftances where the word porticus occurs, it 
 appears that the writers meant by it either what is now 
 commonly called the fide-ijle of the church, or fometimes 
 it may be a particular divifion of it, connfting of one arch 
 with its recefs ; as in the following paflage in Bede's ac- 
 count of the relics and ornaments with which the church 
 of Hexham was furnifhed by Acca, who fucceeded Wilfred 
 in that bifhopric A, D. 710 : " Acquifitis undecumque re- 
 liquiis B. apoftolorum et martyrum Chrifti in venerationem 
 illorum altaria diftinftis porticibus in hoc ipfum intra muros 
 ecclefiae pofuit." Bedae Hift. lib. v. cap. 20. 
 
 no 
 
50 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 no more by that expreffion than the nave or 
 body, as diftinguifhed from the fide-ifles. It 
 plainly appears then, that this, which was one 
 of the firft-erecled Saxon churches, confifled of 
 a nave and two fide-ifl.es ; but how a church of 
 that form could have been fupported without 
 pillars and arches of ftone, is not eafy to con- 
 ceive ; the very terms indeed feem neceffarily to 
 imply it. The fame remark may be extended 
 and applied to St. Peter's church at York ; 
 which was a fpacious and magnificent fabric of 
 ftone, founded A. D. 627, by king Edwin, 
 foon after he was baptized e . For that it had 
 fuch porticos within, appears from Bede's rela- 
 tion of the death of king Edwin, who was killed 
 in battle A. D. 633. " His head," fays he, 
 " was brought to York, and afterwards carried 
 into the church of the bleffed apoftle St. Peter, 
 and deposited in St. Gregory's portico V 
 
 Other 
 
 c Mox ut baptifma confecutus eft (iEdwinus) majorem 
 et auguftiorem de lapide fabricare curavit bafilicam. Bedse 
 Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 f Adlatum eft caput iEdwini regis Eburacum, et inlatum 
 poftea in ecclefiam B. apoftoli Petri — pofitum eft in porticu 
 S. Papae Gregorii. Beda? Hift. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 20. — Mr. 
 Collier cites this paflage from Bede, and feems to have 
 adopted the common error of taking porticus for a building 
 without-fide the church ; and thence falfely infers, that it 
 was not the cuftom of that age to bury within-fide. " King 
 Edwin's head (fays he) was depofited in St. Gregory's porch ; 
 from whence we may probably conclude, that his children 
 4 before 
 
ESSAY. 31 
 
 Other notices occur in the fame author of 
 churches built in or near his own time, fome of 
 which are expreflly faid to have been built of 
 ftone, as St. Peter's in York laft mentioned, and 
 the church at Lincoln built by Paulinus, after 
 he had converted Blaecca, prefect or governor 
 of that city, which was a ftone church of ex- 
 cellent workmanfhip s ; and thofe other churches 
 he fpeaks of might have been of ftone for aught 
 that appears to the contrary. Bede is indeed ra- 
 ther fparing in his defcription of them ; fo that 
 little is to be collected from him of their manner 
 of building j he fays nothing in direct terms 
 either of pillars or arches in any of his churches, 
 though the word forticus, which he frequently 
 ufes, may be faid to imply both ; as it certainly 
 does in fome inftances, if not in all. He is a 
 little more particular in his account of St. Peter's 
 church in the monaftery of Wermouth in the 
 neighbourhood of Gyrwi, where he had his edu- 
 cation, and lived all his days. This was built 
 by the famous Benedict Bifcopius h : in the year 
 675 this abbat went over into France to engage 
 workmen to build his church after the Roman 
 
 before mentioned, who are faid to have been buried in the 
 church, were only buried in the porch, the cuftom of that 
 age going no further." Collier's Ch. Hift. vol. i. p. 86. 
 
 s In qua civitate et ecclefiam operis egregii de lapide fecit. 
 Bedas Hut lib. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 h Bedee Hift. Abbatum Wiremuth. et Gyrw. p. 295. 
 
 manner 
 
32 REV. J. BENTHAM'S 
 
 manner (as it is there called), and brought them 
 over with him for that purpofe. He profecuted 
 this work with extraordinary zeal and diligence; 
 infomuch that within the compafs of a year 
 after the foundations were laid, he caufed the 
 roof to be put on, and divine fervice to be per- 
 formed in it. Afterwards, when the building was 
 nearly [21] finimed, he fent over to France for 
 artificers {killed in the myftery of making glafs 
 (an art till that time 1 unknown to the inhabit- 
 ants of Britain), to glaze the windows both of 
 the porticos and the principal parts of the 
 church ; which work they not only executed, 
 but taught the Englifh nation that moll: ufeful 
 art. 
 
 We have ft ill more certain and explicit ac- 
 counts of churches built in the northern parts of 
 the kingdom during this century, in which both 
 
 i What Bede here affirms of abbat Benedict, that he firft 
 introduced the art of making glafs into this kingdom, is by 
 no means inconfiftent with Eddius's account of Bifhop Wil- 
 frid's glazing the windows of St. Peter's church at York 
 about the year 669, i. e. feven or eight years before this 
 time. For glafs might have been imported from abroad by 
 Wilfrid ; but Benedict firft brought over the artifts, who 
 taught the Saxons the art of making glafs. — That the win- 
 dows in churches were ufually glazed in that age abroad, as 
 well as in thefe parts, we learn from Bede ; who, fpeaking 
 of the church on mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerufa- 
 lem, fays, in the weft front of it were eight windows, which 
 on fome occafions ufed to be illuminated with lamps, which 
 {hone fo bright through the glafs that the mount feemed in 
 a blaze. Bedse Lib. de Locis fan&is, cap. 6. 
 
 pillars 
 
ESSAY. 33 
 
 pillars and arches are expreilly mentioned. Ed- 
 dius, who was contemporary with Bede, wrote 
 the life of Wilfrid bilhop of York, and, among 
 other things, informs us of many religious 
 ftru&ures ereded by that magnificent prelate ; 
 feveral of which, as appears by his defcription, 
 were very elegant and fumptuous buildings ; 
 befides which, he thoroughly repaired the 
 church of St. Peter iri York k , which had re- 
 ceived great injuries in the wars between Penda 
 king of Mercia and the Northumbrians, a few 
 years after it was finimed ; he put on a new 
 roof, and covered it with lead, and glazed the 
 windows *, about the year 669. 
 
 The churches founded by Wilfrid, and par- 
 ticularly defcribed by Eddius, are the conventual 
 church of Rippon in Yorkfhire, and the cathe- 
 dral church of Hexham in Northumberland ; of 
 the former he gives this account : He raifed on 
 high and completed the church in Rippon, from 
 the foundations in the ground to its utmoft 
 height, with hewn ftone, and fupported it with 
 various kinds of pillars and porticos" 1 . — This 
 
 elegant 
 
 k Eddii Stephani Vita S. Wilfridi, inter XV. Scriptores, 
 cap. xvi. p. 59. edit. Gale. 
 
 1 Primum culmina corrupta tecti renovans, artificiofe 
 plumbo puro tegens, per feneftras introitum avium et im- 
 brium vitro prohibuit, per quod tamen intro lumen radiebat. 
 Ibid. 
 
 m In Hrypis bafilicam polito lapide a fundamentis in 
 d terra 
 
34 REV. J. BENTHAM S 
 
 elegant church, foon after it was finiftied, was 
 with great folemnity confecrated by himfelf, and 
 dedicated to the honour of St. Peter, in the 
 prefence of king Egfrid, and all the abbats and 
 great men of that kingdom. But of all the 
 churches built in that age, that of St. Andrew 
 in Hexham deferves our particular notice. 
 Hexham, with the adjoining territory, was 
 part of the crown-land of the kings of North- 
 umberland, and being fettled in dower by king 
 Egfrid on his queen St. Etheldreda, bilhop 
 Wilfrid, with the king's confent, obtained a 
 grant of it, in order to raife it to an epifcopal 
 fee n . In the year 674, Wilfrid begun the 
 foundation of this celebrated church, and Eddius 
 fpeaks with great admiration of it in this man- 
 ner : " Its deep foundations, [22] and the many 
 fubterraneous rooms there atfully difpofed, and 
 above-ground the great variety of buildings to be 
 feen, all of hewn ftone, and fupported by fun- 
 dry kinds of pillars and many porticos, and f<# 
 off by the furprifing length and height of the 
 walls, furrounded with various mouldings and 
 bands curioufly wrought, and the turnings and 
 
 terra ufque ad fummum aedificatam, variis columnis et por- 
 ticibus fuffultam in altum erexit et confummavit. Eddii 
 Vita Wilfridi, ut fupra, cap. xvii. p. 59. 
 
 n Malmefb. de Geftis Pontif. Angl. p. 272. — Rich. Prior 
 Hagulft. de Statu Ecclefiae, 8cc, lib. i. cap. 2, 3. 7. — Lib. 
 Elien. MS. fol. ii. 
 
 4 windings 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 35 
 
 windings of the pafTages, fometimes afcending 
 or defcending by winding ftairs to the different 
 parts of the building ; all which it is not eafy 
 to exprefs or defcribe by words, &c. neither is 
 there any church of the like fort to be found 
 on this fide the Alpes ." 
 
 Richard prior of Hexham, who flourifhed 
 about A. D. 1 1 80, in whofe time this famous 
 church was Handing, though in a decaying 
 ftate, more fully defcribes the manner of its 
 building?: " The foundations of this church, " 
 
 fays 
 
 Nam in Haguftaldenfe adepta regione et (1. a) regina 
 iEthildrite Domino dedicata 3 domum Domino in honoreni 
 beati Andreae apoftoli fabrefa&am fundavit : cujus profun- 
 ditatem in terra cum domibus mirifice politis lapidibus 
 fundatam, et fuper terram multiplicem domum, columnis 
 variis et porticibus miiltis fuffultam, mirabilique longitudine 
 et altitudine murorum ornatam, et variis linearum anfra&i- 
 bus, viarum aliquando furfum aliquando deorfum per coch- 
 leas circumdu&am, non eft meae parvitatis hoc fermone ex- 
 plicare quod fanfitus ipfe praeful animarum, a Spiritu Dei 
 do6tus, opere facere excogitavit ; neque ullam domum aliam 
 citra Alpes montes talem aedificatam audivimus. Eddii Vita 
 Wilfridi, cap. xxii. p. 62. 
 
 p Profunditatem ipfius ecclefiae criptis et oratoriis fubter- 
 raneis, et viarum anfracliibus, inferius cum magna induftria 
 . fundavit : parietes autem quadratis et variis et bene politis 
 columpnis fuffultos, et tribus tabulatis diftin£tos immenfa? 
 longitudinis et altitudinis erexit : ipfos etiam et capitella 
 columpnarum quibus fuftentantur, et arcum fanfituarii hif- 
 toriis et imaginibus et variis celaturarum figuris ex lapide 
 prominentibus et pifturarum et colorum grata varietate 
 mirabilique decore decoravit : ipfum quoque corpus ecclefiae 
 appenticiis et porticibus undique circumcinxit, quae miro 
 atque inexplicabili artificio per parietes et cocleas inferiuS et 
 fuperius diftinxit : in ipfis vero cocleis et fuper ipfas a afcen- 
 
 d % ibria 
 
36 REV. J. BENTHAM'S 
 
 fays he, " St. Wilfrid laid deep in the earth for 
 the crypts and oratories, and the paffages lead- 
 ing to them, which were there with great 
 exactnefs contrived and built under-ground ; 
 the walls, which were of great length and 
 raifed to an immenfe height, and divided into 
 three feveral ftories or tires, he fupported by 
 fquare and various other kinds of well-polifhed 
 columns. Alfo the walls, the capitals of the 
 columns which fupported them, and the arch 
 of the fanctuary, he decorated with hiftorical 
 reprefentations, imagery, and various figures in 
 relief, carved in flone, and painted with a moft 
 agreeable variety of colours. The body of the 
 church he encompafTed about with pentices and 
 porticos, which both above and below he di- 
 vided with great and inexpreflible art, by par- 
 tition-walls and winding flairs. Within the 
 ftaircafes, and above them, he caufed flights of 
 
 foria ex lapide et deambulatoria, et varios viarum am • 
 fraftus modo furfum modo deorfum artificiofiffime ita 
 machinari fecit, ut innumera hominum multitude) ibi 
 exiftere, et ipfum corpus ecclefiae circumdare poffit, cum 
 a nemine tamen infra in ea exiftentium videri queat : 
 oratoria quoque quam plurima fuperius et inferius fecre- 
 tiffima et pulcherrima in ipfis porticibus cum maxima 
 diligentia et cautela conftituit, in quibus altaria in honore 
 B. Dei genitricis femperque virginis Marise et S. Michaelis 
 archangeli fan&ique Johannis Bapt. et fan&orum apofto- 
 lorum, martyrum, confeflbrum, atque virginum, cum eorum 
 apparitibus honefliffime prieparari fecit : unde etiam ufque 
 •hodie quaedam illorum ut turres et propugnacula fuperemi- 
 nent. Richardi Prioris Haguft. lib. i, cap. 3. 
 
 Heps 
 
ESSAY. 37 
 
 fteps and galleries of ftone, and feveral pafTages 
 leading from them, both for afcending and 
 defcending, to be fo artfully difpofed, that 
 multitudes of people might be there, and go 
 quite round the church, without being feen by 
 any one below in the nave : moreover, in the 
 feveral divifions of [23] the porticos or ifles 
 both above and below, he erected many moft 
 beautiful and private oratories of exquifite 
 workmanfhip ; and in them he caufed to be 
 placed altars in honour of the blelfed virgin 
 Mary, St. Michael, St. John Baptift, and holy 
 apoftles, martyrs, confefTors, and virgins, with 
 all decent and proper furniture to each of them; 
 fome of which remaining at this day, appear 
 like fo many turrets and fortified places." He 
 alfo mentions fome other particulars of this 
 church, and concludes with telling us, " It 
 appears from ancient hiftory and chronicles, that 
 of all the nine monafteries over which that ve- 
 nerable bifhop prefided, and of all others 
 throughout England, this church of St. Andrew 
 in Hexham was the moft elegant and fumptu- 
 ous, and that its equal was not to be met with 
 on this fide the Alpes 9." The fame hiftorian 
 further informs us, that there were in his time 
 at Hexham two other churches 1 ; one not far 
 
 * Richard. Prior. Hagultal. lib. i. cap. 3. 
 r Ibid. cap. 4. 
 
 d 3 from 
 
38 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 from the wall of the mother church, of admi- 
 rable work, built in form of a tower, and almoft 
 circular, having on the four principal points fo 
 many porticos, and was dedicated to the honour 
 of the blelTed Virgin Mary ; the other, a little 
 further off, dedicated to St. Peter; befides a third 
 on the other fide of the river Tine, about a mile 
 diftant from the town, dedicated to St. Michael 
 the archangel s ; and that the general tradition 
 was, that thefe three churches were founded bv 
 bifhop Wilfrid, but finifhed by his fucceflbr 
 Acca. 
 
 It may be collected from Bede f , that churches 
 and monafleries were very fcarce in Northum- 
 berland about the middle of this century ; but 
 before the end of it, feveral very elegant ones 
 were erected in that kingdom, owing chiefly to 
 the noble fpirit of Wilfrid bifhop of York. This 
 prelate was then in high favour with Ofwi and 
 Egfrid kings of Northumberland, and moft of 
 the nobility of that kingdom ; by whofe un- 
 bounded liberality in lands, and plate and jewels, 
 and all kind of rich furniture, he rofe to a 
 degree of opulency as to vie with princes in 
 ftate and magnificence ; and this enabled him to 
 found feveral rich monafleries, and build fuch 
 ftately edifices in thofe parts as cannot but excite 
 
 • Bedae Hift. lib. v. cap. 2. line 17. 
 
 t Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 14. and lib. iii. cap. 2. 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 39 
 
 the admiration of pofterity u . To profecute 
 thefe great undertakings, he gave all due en- 
 couragement to the molt, fkilful builders and 
 artificers of every kind, eminent in their feveral 
 ways, and by proper rewards always kept them 
 in his fervice, to the great advantage and emo- 
 lument of his country j fome of thefe he pro- 
 cured at Canterbury, when he had prevailed 
 on Eddius and Eona to undertake the inftruct- 
 ing his choirs in the Roman manner of ring- 
 ing v : other eminent builders and artifts he in- 
 vited, or brought over with him from Rome, 
 Italy, France, and other countries for that pur- 
 pofe w : and, according to [24] Malmefbury and 
 Eddius, was eminent for his knowledge and Ikill 
 in the fcience of architecture, and himfelf the 
 principal director in all thofe works, in concert 
 with thofe excellent mafters whom the hopes of 
 preferment had invited from Rome and other 
 
 u The famous abbat Benedict Bifcopius, fometime com- 
 panion of Wilfrid in his travels, was about that time en- 
 gaged in the fame noble defigns, and founded the monafte- 
 ries of St. Peter and St. Paul at Wermouth and Gyrwi. 
 
 v Cum cantoribus iEdde et Eona, et csementariis, om- 
 nifque pene artis minifterio in regionem fuam revertens, cum 
 regula Benedict inftituta ecclefiarum Dei bene melioravit. 
 Eddii Vit. S. Wilfridi, cap. xiv. Bedse Hift. Eccl. lib. iv. 
 cap. 2. 
 
 w De Roma quoque, et Italia, et Francia, et de aliis terris 
 ubicumque invenire poterat, caementarios, et quoflibet alios 
 induftrios artifices fecum retinuerat, et ad opera fua facienda 
 fecum in Angliam adduxerat. Richard. Prior. Hagulft. lib. i. 
 cap. 5. 
 
 d 4 places 
 
40 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 places x to execute thofe excellent plans which 
 he had formed. But of all his works the 
 church of Hexham was the firft and moft fump- 
 tuous, and, as far as appears, was never equalled 
 by any other in this kingdom whilft the Saxons 
 continued to govern : indeed, there was no 
 period fince the eftablifhment of Chriftianity 
 among them, in which thofe polite and elegant 
 arts that embellifti life and adorn the country 
 feem to have made fo great advances as during 
 the time he continued in favour. Neither was 
 his fame confined to the kingdom of North- 
 umberland ; his great abilities and reputation for 
 learning gained him refped: in the other king^ 
 doms of the heptarchy : Wulfere and Ethelred 
 kings of Mercia often invited him thither to 
 perform the epifcopal office among them, and 
 for his advice and inflructions in founding feve- 
 ral monafteries. He alfo happily finifhed the 
 converfion of the heptarchy, by preaching the 
 gofpel to the kingdom of the South Saxons, 
 containing what are now the counties of Surry 
 and SufTex, the only one which remained till 
 that time unconverted ; for which end he had 
 
 x Ibi (apud Haguftaldem) aedificia minaci altitudine mu- 
 rorum erecla, mirabile quantum expolivit, abitratu quidem 
 multa proprio, fed et caementariorum, quos ex Roma fpes 
 munificentiae attraxerat, magifterio, &x. Will. Malmefb. 
 de Geftis Pontif. Angl. p. 272. Eddii Vit. S. Wilfridi, 
 cap. xxii. 
 
 been 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 41 
 
 been kindly entertained by king Edilwalch, who 
 gave him the peninfula of Selefia^ j where alfo 
 he founded a monaftery, in which the epifcopal 
 fee was at firft placed, but afterwards removed 
 to Chichefter. And that the church and mo- 
 naftery at Ely, founded by St. Etheldreda, were 
 built under his direction feems highly probable, 
 as from many other circumftances, fo in parti- 
 cular from what is related by the Ely hiftorian 2 ; 
 viz. That he fpent a confiderable time with her 
 on her coming to Ely, in fettling the economy 
 of her convent, was entrufted with the whole 
 conducting of her affairs, and (if I rightly un- 
 derftand his meaning) formed the plan of her 
 monaftery ; though the neceffary funds for car- 
 
 y Bedae Hift. Eccl v lib. iv. cap. 13. Eddii Vit. S. Wil- 
 fridi, cap. xl. 
 
 2 Solus autem Wilfridus pontifex, quem virgo regina 
 prae omnibus in regno dile£tum et eleftum habuerat, fuis 
 tunc neceffitatibus proviforem adhibuit, jura illic admini- 
 ftravit epifcopalia ; a quo, ficut in Beda legitur, facia eft 
 abbatifla. Lib. Elien. MS. lib. i. cap. 15. 
 
 Poft modicum fratris fui memorati regis Aldulfi auxiliis 
 majore inibi (in Ely) conftru&o monafterio virginum Deo 
 devotarum perplurium, mater virgo et exemplis vitae coepit 
 efle et monitis, quarum ufibus ex integro infulam conftituit. 
 Ibid. 
 
 Sanftus Wilfridus — ut earn in Ely defcendiffe cognoverat, 
 feftinus advolat, de animae commodis, de ftatu mentis, de 
 qualitate converfationis traftatur. Deinde in abbatifl'ae of- 
 ficio earn gregemque illic adunatum confecravit, locum fua 
 difpofitione conftituit, feque in omnibus folicitum exhibuit; 
 ubi vitam non folum fibi, fed cun&is ibidem exiftentibus 
 utilem aliquanto tempore duxit \ a quo ipfa plurimum re- 
 gendi conlilium et vitae folatium habuit. Ibid. cap. xvi. 
 
 rying 
 
4X rev. j. bentham's 
 
 rying on the work, he tells us, were fupplied 
 by her brother Aldulfus king of the Eaft 
 Angles. There are very confiderable ruins of 
 this ancient Saxon monaftery at Ely ftill in 
 being, efpecially of the church that belonged to 
 it; — what kind of fabric that was, we mall be 
 the better able to determine when we come to 
 take a view of thofe venerable remains, and (hall 
 give a more particular defcription of them [25] 
 in the ftate they now are. In the mean time I 
 fliall proceed in fome further obfervations on 
 the ftate of architecture among the Saxons, and 
 mow not only that the opinion which fome 
 authors have entertained of their churches and 
 monafteries, as if they were ufually wooden 
 fabrics, is erroneous, and has no foundation in 
 true hiftory ; but alfo that very elegant Hone 
 buildings fupported by pillars and arches were 
 very common with them. 
 
 In the beginning of the 8th century the fame 
 flyle of architecture that was ufed here in Eng- 
 land by the Saxons was making its way into the 
 more northern parts of this illand ; for Bede 
 tells us b , that in the year 710 Naiton king of 
 the Picts, in a letter he wrote to Ceolfrid abbat 
 of Girwy, informed him, among other things, 
 of his intending to build a church of ftone to 
 
 * Bedae Hift.Eccl. lib. v cap. 21. 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 43 
 
 the honour of St. Peter ; requefting, at the fame 
 time, to fend him fome artificers to build it 
 after the Roman manner. Hence it mould 
 feem that the ftyle of architecture generally ufed 
 in that age in England was called the Roman 
 manner, and was the fame that was then ufed 
 at Rome in Italy, and in other parts of the 
 empire. 
 
 About the fame time, A. D. 716, Ethelbald 
 king of Mercia founded the monaftery of Croy- 
 land in Lincolnfhire c . The foil was marftiy, 
 and not well able to fupport a fabric of ftone : 
 in which circumftances a timber building might 
 be thought moft expedient, on account of its 
 lightnefs, had fuch been generally ufed in that 
 age. However, we find the king caufed a vaft 
 number of large oaken piles to be driven into 
 the ground, and more folid earth to be brought 
 in boats nine miles by water, and laid thereon, 
 to make it the more found and commodious for 
 building ; and then laid the foundation of the 
 church of ftone, which he finifhed, and alfo 
 all the necefTary offices of that monaftery, on 
 which he beftowed many ornaments and privi- 
 leges, and liberally endowed it. 
 
 But perhaps one of the moft complete Saxon 
 churches that we have any authentic account of, 
 
 « Ingulphi Hi#. Croyland. p. 4. 
 
 is 
 
44 i REV. j-. bentham's 
 
 is that of St. Peter in York, as it was rebuilt 
 about the middle of the 8th century. The 
 church founded there by king Edwin, and 
 flnifhed by his fuccelTor king Ofwald, and af- 
 terwards repaired by bifhop Wilfrid, as men- 
 tioned before, having received great damage by a 
 fire which happened in the year 741 d , archbifhop 
 Albert, who was promoted to that fee A. D. 767, 
 thought proper to take it wholly down and rebuild 
 it. This Albert was of a noble family, and a 
 native of York ; in his younger days he was fent 
 by his parents to a monaftery, where, making a 
 great proficiency in learning, he was ordained 
 a deacon and afterwards a prieft ; being taken 
 into the family of archbifhop Egbert, to whom 
 he was nearly related in blood, he was by him 
 preferred to the maflerfhip of the celebrated 
 fchool at York, where he employed himfelf in 
 educating youth in grammar, rhetoric, and 
 poetry ; and taught alfo agronomy, natural phi- 
 lofophy, and divinity. He afterwards travelled, 
 and vifited Rome, and the molt eminent feats 
 of learning abroad, and was folicited by feveral 
 foreign princes to flay, but declined it ; and re- 
 turning home, he brought [26] with him a fine 
 collection of books he had met with in his tra- 
 vels, and foon after was made archbifhop of 
 
 d Chron. Mailrof. Simeon Dunelm. & Hoveden ad an- 
 num 741. Tanner's Notit. Monaft. p. 627. 
 
 York. 
 
ESSAY. 45 
 
 York. Finding his church in a ruinous con- 
 dition, occafioned probably by the late fire, and 
 perhaps not fufficiently repaired fince that acci- 
 dent, he determined to take it wholly down, and 
 to rebuild it. The principal architects he em- 
 ployed in that work were two of his own church, 
 and who had received their education under him, 
 namely, Eanbald (who afterwards fucceeded 
 him in the fee of York) and the famous Alcuin ; 
 both of them reckoned among the molt learned 
 men of that age ; who, with great zeal and una- 
 nimity, begun, carried on, and finimed it in a 
 few years ; and, as appears by the defcription, 
 executed the work in a mod fumptuous and 
 magnificent manner. Albert juft lived to fee 
 his church completed: for growing old and 
 infirm, he either refigned his fee, or took Ean- 
 bald, his intended fucceffor, for his coadjutor 
 in the epifcopal office, for the three or four laft 
 years of his life ; and they both affifted at the 
 confecration of it only ten days before his death, 
 which happened, according to Alcuin, Novem- 
 ber the 8th, 780. His noble collection of books 
 he depofited in the library at York, probably 
 the fame which is laid to have been founded by 
 archbifhop Egbert e ; but which he greatly aug- 
 mented by the addition of all thofe he had pro- 
 
 e Willielm, Malmefburienf. de Pontificibus Angl. lib. iii. 
 f - 153- 
 
 cured 
 
46 
 
 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 cured in his travels abroad ; and committed 
 them to the cuftody of the learned Alcuin, who 
 gratefully celebrates the memory of his pa- 
 tron, and ranks him in the higheft clafs amongft 
 men of eminence in that age for learning, piety, 
 and munificence ; and has at the fame time left 
 us a defcription of this church, which I fhall 
 give below in his own words f . 
 
 From the defcription here given, in which 
 the principal members and requiiites of a com- 
 plete and finifhed edifice are expreffed, pillars, 
 arches, vaulted roofs, windows, porticos, gal- 
 leries, and variety of altars, with their proper 
 
 1 <c Aft nova bafilicae mirae ftru£tura diebus 
 Praefulis hujus erat jam coepta, pera&a, facrata. 
 Hoec nimis alta domus folidis fufFulta columnis, 
 Suppofita quae ftant curvatis arcubus, intus 
 Emicat egregiis laquearibus atque feneftris, 
 Pulchraque porticibus fulget circumdata multis, 
 Plurima diverlis retinens folaria tefitisj 
 Quae triginta tenet variis ornatibus aras. 
 Hoc duo difcipuli templum, do£tore jubente, 
 TEdificarunt Eanbaldus et Alcuinus, ambo 
 Concordes operi devota mente ltudentes. 
 Hoc tamen ipfe pater focio cum praefule templum 
 Ante die decima quam clauderet ultima vita? 
 Lumina praefentis, Sophias facraverat almse." 
 
 This account of archbifhop Albert, and his rebuilding 
 St. Peter's church in York, is extracted from Alcuin' s poem 
 De Pontificibus et Santtis Eccleftce Ebor. publimed by Dr. 
 Gale, A. D. 1691, in which his life is more fully wrote. 
 The name of Albert is barely mentioned by bifliop Godwin, 
 in his Catalogue of Bilhops ; though his great learning, 
 piety, and munificence, well deferve to have his name trani- 
 mitted to lateft pofterity. 
 
 ornaments 
 
ESSAY. 47 
 
 ornaments and decorations, the reader will in 
 fome meafure be able to form a judgment of the 
 whole, and be apt to conclude that architecture 
 was carried in that age to fome considerable de- 
 gree of perfection. 
 
 Mr. Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting 
 in England, and incidental notes on other Arts, 
 obferves s, " that as all the other arts were for- 
 merly confined to cloifters, fo alfo was archi- 
 tecture too ; and that when we read that fuch a 
 biftiop or fuch an abbat built fuch and fuch an 
 edifice, they often gave the plans as well as 
 furnifhed the neceifary funds." The juftnefs 
 of this obfervation appears in this inftance of 
 rebuilding [27] St. Peter's in York, of which 
 Eanbald and Alcuin were the chief architects ; 
 in that of the church belonging to Gyrwi mo- 
 naftery, built by abbat Benedict Bifcopius ; and 
 thofe of the churches of Rippon, Hexham, and 
 Ely, by bifhop Wilfrid ; and in many other 
 inftances that occur in hiftory, fome of which 
 may be taken notice of afterwards. And 
 indeed it is highly probable that the principal 
 architects of many or molt, of our beft churches 
 and monafteries, both in this and fucceed- 
 ing ages, were fome or other of thofe religi- 
 ous focieties themfelves, who, generally fpeak- 
 
 i Vol. i. p. 110. 
 
48 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 ing, wanted only inferior artifts and workmen 
 to carry their defigns into execution ; and even 
 of thefe they were in part fupplied out of their 
 own houfes, where the elegant and polite arts, 
 particularly thofe of fculpture and painting, were 
 much cultivated and improved. 
 
 In the 9th century the frequent and almoft 
 continual invafions of this kingdom by the 
 Danes introduced the greater!: diforder and con- 
 fufion in the ftate, and brought it almoft to the 
 brink of ruin. War, and its neceffary attend- 
 ants, the defolation and deftruction of our 
 churches, monafteries, and other edifices, both 
 public and private, with the flaughter of the 
 inhabitants, take up the greateft part of the 
 annals of thofe times. Meanwhile arts and 
 fciences, which in the laft century had been in 
 a very flouriftiing condition, began to be neg- 
 lected j and religion and learning loft their pro- 
 per influence on men's minds, and were linking 
 apace into difrepute and contempt 11 . In the 
 midft of thefe public calamities, however, it 
 pleafed Providence to raife to the throne Alfred, 
 worthily furnamed the Great 1 . The vigorous 
 meafures he purfued to refcue his country from 
 the hands of thofe barbarous invaders of it, and 
 to reftore it to its former luftre, deferve the 
 
 h After, de Rebus Geftis Alfredi, p. 27. 
 ' l Floren. Wigorn. A. D. 871. 
 
 higheft 
 
essay* 49 
 
 higheft encomiums. Engaged as he was in 
 continual wars, during his whole reign of near 
 thirty years, he never ceafed to exert his utmoft 
 endeavours to reftore religion and learning, to 
 promote commerce, to cultivate and improve 
 all the fine and elegant arts k . His court was 
 the refort of learned men of all profeffions, as 
 well his own fubjects as foreigners, invited 
 thither from the neighbouring kingdoms, and 
 retained there by proper rewards K Among his 
 other accomplifhments, he was fkilful in archi- 
 tecture, and excelled his predeceflbrs in elegance 
 of building and adorning his palaces m ; in con- 
 ftructing large fhips for the fecurity of his 
 coafts n , and erecting caftles in convenient parts 
 of the kingdom. Indeed architecture before 
 this time had been almoft wholly confined to 
 religious ftructures ; but now was, by Alfred 
 and his two immediate fucceffors, chiefly ap- 
 plied to military purpofes, in erecting fortreffes 
 and towers, aud in building and repairing 
 walled towns, become neceffary to curb the 
 infolence and perfidy of the Danes ; and thus 
 by adding to the defence and fecurity, he alfo 
 greatly improved the face of the country °. He 
 
 k Matth. Weftm. ad an. 888. 
 
 1 Ingulphi Hift. p. 27. edit. Gale. 
 
 ra Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 871 & 887. 
 
 * Matth. Weftm. ad an. 897. 
 
 ♦ Ingulphi Hift. p. 27. 
 
 E alfo 
 
£Q REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 alfo encouraged the repairing of churches, 
 founded two monasteries, and reflored fome 
 others p : and to all thefe great works he allotted, 
 and conftantly expended, a confiderable part of 
 his revenue 11 . But the mifchiefs the kingdom 
 had fuitaired were im.menfe, and the evils too 
 heavy to be foon removed, and indeed required 
 more than one age to do it ; for it is certain 
 that neither the exalted genius nor the active 
 zeal even of the great Alfred himfelf were [28] 
 ever able effectually to remove them. Part of 
 this work, however, was carried on by his fuc- 
 ceilbr in the next age. 
 
 Edward his fon, who fucceeded him in the 
 year 900, though inferior to his father in learn- 
 ing, furpafled him in martial glory r . His ge- 
 nius too was turned to architecture, but it was 
 chiefly military : he built fortreffes in different 
 parts of the kingdom, encompaffed cities and 
 great towns with walls and other means of de- 
 fence, to check the fudden incurfions of the 
 Danes; out of whofe hands he wrefled the 
 kingdoms of the Eaft. Angles and Northumber- 
 land, and obliged the Scots and Welfh to own 
 
 p Flor.Wigorn. ad an. 887. 
 ' Ibid.— Matth. Weftm. ad an. 888. 
 „ r Matth. Weftm. et Flor, Wigorn. ad an. 901. Ingulphi 
 Hift. p. 28. 
 
 his> 
 
ESSA.Y- . £1 
 
 his. fovereignty V He is faid to have repaired 
 the univerfity of Cambridge 1 , after it had 
 been burnt by the Danes ; though whether is 
 meant of reftoring it as a feat of learning, or 
 only rebuilding the town, is not clear. Some 
 churches and monafteries, indeed, were founded 
 or repaired in his reign, in that of Athelftan u , 
 and his immediate fuccelfors ; but the more ge- 
 neral reftoration of them was referved for the 
 peaceable times of king Edgar. 
 
 Edgar is faid to have founded more than 
 forty monafteries v ; but they were chiefly fuch 
 as had been deftroyed by the Danes, and were 
 either in pofTeffion of the fecular clergy, or had 
 lain defolate to that time ; and fo may more 
 properly be faid to have been repaired only, and 
 reftored to their former ufe : — -however, feveral 
 monafteries were firrr. founded in his time ; and 
 by the accounts we have of them, it appears that 
 fome new improvements in architecture had 
 lately been made, or were about that time in- 
 troduced. The famous abbey of Ramfey in 
 
 ' Matth. Weftra. ad an. 907. Flew. Wigorn. ad an. 
 921. 
 
 1 Rudborne, Angl. Sacr. vol. i. p. 209. 
 
 u Ingulphi Hift. p. 29. — Matth. Weftm. ad an. 939.— 
 Malmefb. de Pontif. lib. v. p. 362. edit. Gale, inter xv. 
 Scriptores. 
 
 v Matth. Weftm. et Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 957. — " Non 
 fuit in Anglia rnonafterium five ecclefia cujus non emendaret 
 cultum vel aedificia." Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 E 2 Hunt- 
 
54 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 Huntingdonmire w was one of, thefe; and was 
 founded by Ail win alderman of all England, 
 as he is ftyled, with the afTiftance of Ofwald 
 bimop of Worcefter, afterwards archbifhop of 
 York. All the offices and the church belonging 
 to this monaftery were new built under the di- 
 rection of Ednoth one of the monks of Wor- 
 cefter, fent thither for that purpofe. This 
 church, which was fix years in building, was 
 finiihed in the year 974, and in the fame year, 
 on the 8th of November, with great folemnity, 
 dedicated by Ofwald, then raifed to the archi- 
 epifcopal fee of York, aflifted by Alfnoth bifhop 
 of the dioCefe, in the prefence of Ailwin and 
 other great men. By a defcription given of this 
 church in the hiftory of that abbey x , it appears 
 to have had " two towers raifed above the roof, 
 one of them at the well: end of the church, af- 
 fording a noble profpecl: at a diftance to them 
 that approached the ifland ; the other, which 
 was larger, was fupported by four pillars in the 
 middle of the building, where it divided in four 
 parts, being connected together by arches, which 
 
 w Hift. Ramefienfis, cap. xx. p. 399. inter xv. Scriptores, 
 edit, per Gale. 
 
 x i( Duse quoque turres ipfis tectorum culminibus emine- 
 bant, quarum minor verfus occidentem in fronte bafilicae 
 pulchrum intrantibus infulam a longe fpe&aculum praebe- 
 bat; major vero in quadriiidae ltiutturae medio columnas 
 quatuor, porreclis de alia ad aliam arcubus fibi invicem 
 connexas, ne laxe defluerent, dcprimebat." Ibid. 
 
 extended 
 
ESSAY. £j| 
 
 extended to other adjoining arches, to keep 
 them from giving way." From this palTage 
 one may eafily colled, that the plan of this new 
 church was a crofs, with fide-ifles, and was 
 adorned with two [zg] towers, one in the weft 
 front, and the other in the interfection of the 
 crofs ; a mode of building, I apprehend, which 
 had not then been long in ufe here in England ; 
 for it is obvious to remark, that in the defcrip- 
 tions we have remaining of the more ancient 
 Saxon churches, as particularly thofe of St. 
 Andrew's at Hexham and St. Peter's at Yorkr, 
 fully enough defcribed ; not a word occurs, by 
 which it can be inferred that thefe, or indeed any 
 other of them, had either crofs buildings or 
 high towers raifed above the roofs ; but, as far 
 as we can judge, were moftly fquare 2 , or rather 
 oblong buildings, and generally turned circular 
 at the eaft end a ; in form nearly, if not exactly, 
 refembling the bajilicce, or courts of juftice in 
 
 y Seep. 34. 45. 
 
 z St. Peter's at York, begun by king Edwin A. D. 627, 
 is particularly reported by Bede to have been of that form ; 
 " per quadrum coepit aedificare bafilicam." Bedae Hift. 
 Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 14. 
 
 a An ancient church at Abbendon, built about the year 
 675, by Heane the firft abbat of that place, was an oblong 
 building, 120 feet in length; and, what is Angular, was of 
 a circular form on the weft as well as on the eaft. — ct Habe- 
 bat in longitudine 1 20 pedes, et erat rotundum tarn in parte 
 occidentali quam in parte orientali." Monaft. Angl. vol. i. 
 p. 98. 
 
 e 3 great 
 
54 R EV « J- bentham's 
 
 great cities throughout the Roman empire i 
 many of which were in fact converted into 
 Chriftian churches b , on the firft eftablifhment of 
 Chriftianity under Conftantine the Great ; and 
 new-erected churches were conftructed on the 
 fame plan, on account of its manifeft utility for 
 the reception of large aflemblies. Hence bafilica 
 was commonly ufed in that and feveral fucceed- 
 ing ages for ecclefia or church, and continued 
 fo even after the form of our churches was 
 changed. Now thefe bafilica: differed in their 
 manner of conduction from the lempla ; for the 
 pillars of thefe latter were on the outride of the 
 building, and confequently their porticos ex- 
 pofed to the weather ; but the pillars of the 
 former were within, and their porticos open 
 only towards the nave or main body of the 
 building; their chief entrance alfo was on one 
 end, the other ufually terminating in a femi- 
 circle : and this, I conceive, was the general 
 form of our oldeft Saxon churches. The plan 
 of the old conventual church at Ely, founded 
 in the year 673, conveys a good idea of it ; 
 except that the original circular end having been 
 occasionally taken down, as I find, in the year 
 1 102, and another building, ending alfo in a 
 femircircle, erected in its room. The original 
 form is traced out by dotted lines at a. 
 
 h Camden's Britannia, col. 780. edit. Gibfon. 
 
 It 
 
ESSAY. 55 
 
 • It is highly probable that the ufe of bells 
 gave occafion to the firft and moft confiderable 
 alteration that was made in the general plan of 
 our churches, by the necefTity it induced of 
 having ftrong and high-raifed edifices for their 
 reception. The aera indeed of the invention of 
 bells is fomevvhat obfcufe c ; and it mull be 
 owned that fome traces of them may be difco- 
 vered in our monafteries even in the feventh 
 century d ; yet I believe one may venture to af- 
 fert, that fuch large ones as required diftinct 
 buildings for their fupport, do not appear to 
 have been in ufe among us till the tenth cen- 
 tury ; about the middle of which we find feveral 
 of our churches were furnifhed with them, by 
 the munificence of our kings e . And the ac- 
 count we have of St. Dunftan's gifts to Malmef- 
 bury abbey, by their hiflorian, plainly mows 
 they were [30] not very common in that age ; 
 for he fays f , the liberality of that prelate con- 
 fined 
 
 Vid. Spelmanni GlofT. ad Campana. 
 d Bedae Hift. lib. iv. cap. 23. 
 
 e Ethelftanus rex (circa A. D. 935) dedit quatuor magna* 
 campanas Sto. Cuthberto. Monalt. Angl. vol. i. p. 40. 
 lift. 52. — " Rex Eadredus duo figna non modica ecclefise 
 Eboracenfi donavit." Matth. Weftm. ad an. 946. — Rex 
 "Edgarus, circa A. D. 974, ecclefiae Ramefienfi dedit duas 
 campanas, 20 librarum pretio comparatas." Hift. Rame- 
 fien. cap. xxii. edit. Gale. 
 
 f S. Dunftanus — (t in multis loco munificus, quae tunc in 
 Anglia magni miraculi eflent, decufque et ingenium confe- 
 rentis offerre crebro. Inter quce figna fono et mole prseftan- 
 
 £ 4 ti a ? 
 
56 REV. J. BENTHAM'S 
 
 iifted chiefly in fuch things as were then won- 
 derful and ftrange in England; among which 
 he reckons the large bells and organs he gave 
 them. But from this period they became more 
 frequent, and in time the common furniture to 
 our churches. 
 
 Bells, no doubt, at firft fuggefted the necef- 
 fity of towers : — towers promifed to the imagi- 
 nation fomething noble and extraordinary, in 
 the uncommon effects they were capable of pro- 
 ducing by their requifite loftinefs and variety of 
 forms. The hint was improved, and towers 
 were built not only for neceffary ufe g , but often 
 for fymmetry and ornament, in different parts 
 of the faoric; and particularly when the plan 
 of a crofs was adopted, the ufefulnefs of fuch 
 a building appeared in the interfection of the 
 crofs, adding ffrength to the whole, by its in- 
 
 tia; et organa," &c. Will. Malmefb. de Pontif. lib. v. 
 edit. Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. p. 33. — " Dunftanus, cujus in- 
 duftria refloruit ecclefia (Glafton.) — fecit organa et figna duo 
 prcecipua, et campanam in refeclorio." Will. Malmefb. 
 de Antiq. Glafton. Ecclef. p. 324. edit. Galei. — Athel- 
 woldus abbas monafterii de Abendon, regnante Edgaro rege, 
 (e fecit duas campanas, quas in domo (Dei) pofuit, cum 
 aliis duabus, quas B. Dunftanus fecifle pcrhibetur." Mon. 
 Angl. vol. i. p. 104. lin. 42. 
 
 s The campanile, or that particular tower allotted for the 
 ufe of bells, was fometimes a diftin£t fcparate building of 
 itfelf ; but more commonly adjoined to the church, fo as 
 to make part of the fabric, ufually at the weft end. — Vid. 
 Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 995, lin. 42. 
 
 cumbent 
 
ESSAY. 57 
 
 cumbent weight on that part 11 . This is the 
 fliort hiftory of the origin of towers and ftee- 
 ples ; which always have been, and {till are, 
 confidered as the pride and ornament of our 
 churches. Poffibly thefe innovations might be- 
 gin under king Alfred : the encomiums bellowed 
 on him as an architect 1 look that way, and feem 
 to point at fome notable improvements in that 
 art in his time ; perhaps from models imported 
 from abroad by fome of the learned foreigners 
 he ufually entertained in his court. However, 
 there is room enough for panegyric on that head k , 
 without afcribing to him " the re-edifying and 
 reftoring almoft every monaflery in his domi- 
 nions, which either the prevailing poverty of 
 the times, or the facrilegious fury of the Danes, 
 had brought to ruin ; his building many and 
 improving more 1 :" all which may with great 
 truth and propriety be applied to king Edgar : 
 it is fufficient to fay, there were two monafteries 
 undoubtedly of Alfred's foundation, Athelney 
 and Shaftelbury. Of the former fome account 
 is given by Malmelbury 111 ; it was fituate on a 
 
 h See this explained by Sir Chriftopher Wren, in his 
 Letter to Bifhop Sprat, in Widmore's Hift. of Weftminfter 
 Abbey, p. 53. 
 
 1 " In arte archite&onica fummus." Malmefb. de Reg. 
 Angl. 
 
 k Flor. Wigorn. ad an. 887. 
 
 1 Biographia Britan. under ^Elfred, 
 
 ■ Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 202, 
 
 fmall 
 
$8 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 fmall river-ifland in Somerfetfhire, containing 
 only two acres of firm ground, furrounded with 
 an extenfive morafs, which rendered it difficult 
 of accefs : king Alfred founded it there in pur- 
 fuance of a religious vow, as it had once afforded 
 him a fafe retreat in time of his great diftrefs : 
 V The church, on account of its confined fitu- 
 ation, was not large, but conftructed in a new 
 mode of building ; for four piers firmly fixed 
 on the ground fupported the whole ftructure, 
 having four chancels of a circular form in its 
 circumference n ." This [31] church was pro- 
 bably one of his firft efiays in architecture ; a 
 model rather than a finifhed piece , a fpecimen 
 of that new form then introduced, in which 
 one may difcover the rudiments of a crofs and 
 of a tower, which we find were afterwards 
 brought to greater perfection, and were the fa- 
 fhionable improvements in the next age ; as ap- 
 pears by Ailwin's church at Ramfey above 
 mentioned . 
 
 Had there been more remains of thefe ancient 
 ftructures now in being, or had our ecclefiaftical 
 
 n <c Fecit ecclefiam fitu quidem pro anguftia fpacii modicam, 
 fed novo aedificandi modo compa&am ; quatuor enim poftes 
 folo infixi totam fufpendunt machinam, quatuor cancellis 
 opere fpherico in circuitu duclis." Ibid. — It is not quite 
 clear, from this defcription, whether it was of {lone or tim- 
 ber. The word pojles, ufed for the pillars or fupporters, 
 does not, I think, determine either way, 
 
 • Page 51, 52. 
 
 writers 
 
ESSAY. 59 
 
 writers been more exprefs, we might at this 
 time have been able to fpeak with greater cer- 
 tainty concerning them : but monuments of that 
 kind are very rare p , and what defcriptions we 
 have are moftly expreffed in fuch general terms 
 as give little or no fatisfaction in the particulars 
 we want to know. Sir Chriftopher Wren, 
 fpeaking of the old abbey church of Weftmin- 
 fter, built by king Edgar, gives his opinion of 
 what kind of architecture the Saxons ufedi: 
 " This, 'tis probable, was a good ltrong build- 
 ing, after the manner of the age, not much 
 altered from the Roman way. We have fome 
 
 p The Saxon way of building was, as Sir Chriftopher 
 Wren obferves, very ftrong. There were many cathedral 
 and conventual churches of that kind at the time of the 
 Conqueft, which might therefore probably have continued 
 to this day, had they not been pulled down, or fuffered to 
 run to ruin by neglect : one principal caufe of which was 
 the removal of the bifhops' fees (fome of which had been 
 placed in villages or fmall towns) to cities and more popu-. 
 lous places, by the council of London, A. D. 1078. This 
 occasioned the old Saxon cathedrals in the deferted fees to be 
 neglected and fall to decay ; and in thofe places where they 
 were fuffered to continue, they were foon after demolifhed, 
 to make room for the more ftately fabrics of the Normans ; 
 except in fome few inftances, where perhaps fome parts of 
 the old Saxon fabrics may be found incorporated with the 
 then new works of the Normans. The ruin of the reft is 
 eafily accounted' for, confidering what havoc was made of 
 them at their furrender, and the effectual means ufed by the 
 vilitors appointed by king Henry VIII. to deftroy them. 
 See Willis's Hift. of Abbies, vol. i. p. 180, 181. and vol. ii. 
 Pref. p. 7. 
 
 * Letter to the Bifhop of Rochefter, in Wren's Parenta- 
 lia, and in Widrnore's Hift. of Weftm. Abbey, p. 44. 
 
 forms 
 
60 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 forms of this ancient Saxon way, which was 
 with piers, or round pillars (ftronger than Tuf- 
 can or Doric), round-headed arches, and win- 
 dows. Such was Winchefter cathedral of old, 
 and fuch at this day the royal chapel in the 
 White Tower of London, the chapel of St. 
 Crofs's, the chapel of Chrift-church in Oxford, 
 formerly an old monaftery, and divers others I 
 need not name, built before the Conqueft ; and 
 fuch was St. Paul's, built in king Rufus's time. 
 Thefe ancient ftructures were without buttreffes, 
 only with thicker walls ; the windows were very 
 narrow and lattifed r ; for king Alfred is praifed 
 for inventing lanterns to keep in the lamps in 
 the churches." This eminent architect, I doubt, 
 could not recollect fuch fpecimens of buildings, 
 as he was really fatisfied were built before the 
 Conqueft, which his difcourfe naturally led him 
 to inquire after; for the inftances he brings 
 were undoubtedly erected after that period : by 
 this, however, he difcovers his own opinion, that 
 the Saxon and Norman architecture was the 
 fame. 
 
 r (The windows narrow and lattifed.) If the meaning 
 be, that the windows before Alfred's time were not glazed 
 — it is apprehended this is a miftake. See p. 32, note i. 
 
 Improvements 
 
Improvements in Architecture by the Normans, 
 
 OUR hiftorians [32] expreflly mention a new- 
 mode of architecture brought into ufe by the 
 Normans, and particularly apply it to the abbey 
 church at Weftminfter, built by king Edward the 
 Confeffor, circa A. D. 1050, in which he was 
 buried s ; and afterwards fpeak of it as the pre- 
 vailing mode throughout the kingdom t This 
 account has not a little perplexed our modern 
 critical inquirers, who are at a lofs to afcertain 
 the real difference between the Saxon and Nor- 
 man mode of building. 
 
 In order, therefore, to reconcile thefe feern- 
 ingly different accounts, it is proper to obferve, 
 that the general plan and difpofition of all the 
 principal parts in the latter Saxon and earlieft 
 Norman churches was the fame ; the chief en- 
 trance was at the weft end into the nave ; at the 
 upper end of that was a crofs, with the arms 
 of it extending north and fouth, and the head 
 
 » " Sepultus eft (rex Edwardus) Londini in ecclefia, quam 
 ipfe novo compofitionis genere conftruxerat ; a qua poll 
 multi ecclefias conftruentes, exemplum adepti, opus illud 
 expenfis aemulabantur fumptuofis." Matth. Paris Hift. p. 1. 
 '* Ecclefiam aedificationis genere novo fecit." W. Malmeflb. 
 de Geft. Reg. 
 
 c " Videas ubique in villis ecclefias^ in vicis et urbibus 
 monafteria, novo aedificandi genere confurgere." Malmefb. 
 ibid. p. 102. 
 
 (in 
 
62 REV. ). BENTHAm's 
 
 (in which was the choir) towards the eaft, encU 
 ing ufually in a femicircular form ; and in the 
 centre of the crofs was a tower ; another was 
 frequently added (and fometimes two, for the 
 fake of ornament or fymmetry), to contain the 
 bells ; the nave, and often the whole build- 
 ing, was encompaffed with inner porticos ; 
 the pillars were round, fquare, or angular, and 
 very ftrong and mallive ; the arches and heads 
 of the doors and windows were all of them 
 circular. In thefe refpects it may perhaps be 
 difficult to point out any confiderable difference 
 between the Saxon and Norman architecture. 
 In a popular fenfe, however, I apprehend there 
 will appear a fufficient diftin&ion to entitle the 
 latter a new. mode of building, as our hiftorians 
 call it, in refpect to the former. 
 
 The Saxons, fome time before the ruin of their 
 ftate, as Malmelbury obferves 11 , had greatly fallen 
 from the virtue of their anceftors in religion and 
 learning; vice and irreligion had gained the af- 
 cendant, and their moral character was at the 
 loweff. ebb ; in their way of living they were luxu- 
 rious and expenflve, though their houfes were at 
 the fame time rather low and mean buildings v . 
 
 The 
 
 u De Regibus Angliae, p. 101. 
 
 v te Parvis et abje&is domibus tolos fumptus abfumebant : 
 Francis et Normannis abfimiles, qui amplis et fuperbis aedi- 
 ficiis modicas expenfas agunt. — Normanni erant tunc et funt 
 adhuc veftibus ad invidiam culti, cibis citra ullam nimieta- 
 
 tem 
 
ESSAY. 63 
 
 The Normans, on the contrary, were moderate 
 and abftemious, and delicate withal in their diet ; 
 fond of ftately and fumptuous houfes ; affected 
 pomp and magnificence in their mien and drefs, 
 and likewife in their buildings, public as well as 
 private. They again introduced civility and the 
 liberal arts, restored learning, and endeavoured 
 to raife again religion from the languid ftate into 
 which- it was fallen : to this end they repaired 
 and enlarged the churches and monafteries, and 
 erected new ones every where, in a; more ftately 
 and fumptuous manner than had been known 
 in thefe kingdoms before. This is what our 
 hiftorians take notice of, and call it a new man- 
 ner of building ; we ftyle it now the Norman 
 architecture: the. criterion of which is, I con- 
 ceive, chiefly its mayTivenefs and enlarged di- 
 menfions, , in which it far exceeded the Saxon. 
 Some fpecimens of this Norman kind of build- 
 ing had indeed been produced a little time before 
 the Conqueft, owing to our communication 
 with the Normans, whofe cuftoms and manners 
 king Edward, who had been educated in that 
 
 tern delicati. Domi ingentla sedificia (ut dixi) moderatos 
 fumptus moliri, paribus invidere fuperiores prsetergredi velle, 
 Sec. Religionis normam in Anglia ufque quaque emortuam 
 adventu fuo fufcitarunt ; videas ubique in villis ecclefias, ir\ 
 vicis et urbibus monafteria novo aedificandi genere confur- 
 gere, recenti ritu patriam florere, ita ut fibi periiffe diem 
 quique opulentus exiftimet, quem non aliqua praeclara mag*- 
 nificentia illuftret." Ibid. p. 102. 
 
 4 court, 
 
64 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 court, was fond of introducing w ; — fuch was 
 the abbey church which he erected at Weftmin- 
 fter, and *' ferved afterwards as a pattern to 
 other builders, being rivalled by many, at a 
 great expenfe*;" fuch alfo was St. Peter's 
 church in Gloucefter, built about the fame time, 
 part of which is ftill remaining : this mode of 
 building, in the language of profelfed artifts, 
 we find, is reckoned the fame with the Saxon : 
 all the difference, as far as appears to us at this 
 diftance of time, was in the magnitude or fize 
 of their feveral buildings. The Saxon churches 
 were often elegant fabrics, and well constructed, 
 as has been obferved before ; but generally of a 
 moderate fize, frequently begun and finifhed in 
 five or fix years, or lefs time. The works of 
 the Normans were large, fumptuous, and mag- 
 nificent ; of great length and breadth, and car- 
 ried up to a proportionable height, with two 
 and fometimes three ranges of pillars one over 
 another, of different dimenfions, conned: ed to- 
 
 * " Rex Edwardus natus in Anglia, fed nutritus in Nor- 
 mannia, et diutiffime immoratus, pene in Gallicum tranfi- 
 erat, adducens ac attrahens de Normannia plurimos, quos 
 variis dignitatibus promotos in immenfum exaltabat — coepit 
 ergo tota terra fub rege, et fub aliis Normannis introdu&is 
 Anglicos ritus dimittere et Francorum mores in multis imi- 
 tari." Ingulphi Hi ft. p. 62. edit. Gale. 
 
 x " A qua poft multi ecclefias conftruentes, exemplum 
 adepti, opus illud expenlis aemulabantur fumptuofis. ■ ' Matth. 
 Paris Hift. p. 1, 
 
 gether 
 
ESSAY. 65 
 
 gether by various archesT (all of them circular); 
 forming thereby a lower and upper portico, and 
 over them a gallery ; and on the outride three 
 tiers of windows : in the centre was a lofty 
 ftrong tower, and fometimes one or two more 
 added at the weft end, the front of which gene- 
 rally extended beyond the iide-ifles of the nave 
 or body of the church. 
 
 The obfervation made on rebuilding St. Paul's 
 in king William Rufus's time, after the fire of 
 London in 1086, by Mauritius, bifhop of that 
 fee, viz. " That the plan was fo extenfive, and 
 the defign fo great, that moft people who lived 
 at that time cenfured it as a rafh undertaking, 
 and judged that it never would be accompli Hi- 
 ed 2 ;" is in fome meafure applicable to moft 
 of the churches begun by the Normans. — Their 
 plan was indeed great and noble, and they laid . 
 out their whole defign at firft ; fcarcely, we may 
 imagine, with a view of ever living to fee it 
 
 y se Diverfis fultum columnis, ac multiplicibus volutum 
 hinc et inde arcubus :" as Sulcardus, a monk of Weft- 
 minfter, defcribes the abbey church there 5 built by Edward 
 the ConfefTbr ; which was of this kind. Widmore's Hill, 
 of Weftminller Abbey, p. 10. 
 
 2 " Nova fecit (Mauritius) fundamenta tam fpaciofa, ut 
 qui ea tempellate vixerunt plerique cceptum hoc ejus tan- 
 quam temerarium et audax nimium reprehenderent, nun- 
 quam futurum dicentes, ut molis tam ingentis ftru&ura all- 
 quando pernceretur. ,, Godwin de Praeful. AngL.p. 175. 
 
 f com- 
 
66 
 
 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 completed in their lifetime : their way there^ 
 fore was ufually to begin at the eaft end, or the 
 choir part ; when that was finifhed, and covered 
 in, the church was often confecrated ; and- the 
 [34] remainder carried on as far as they were 
 able, and then left to their fuccefTors to be com- 
 pleted : and it is very obfervable, that all our 
 cathedral, and mod of the abbey churches, be- 
 fides innumerable parochial churches, were ei- 
 ther wholly rebuilt or greatly improved within 
 lefs than a century after the Conqueil:, and all 
 of them by Normans introduced into this king- 
 dom ; as will evidently appear on examining 
 the hiltory of their feveral foundations a . It 
 was the policy of the firft Norman kings to 
 remove the Englifh or Saxons from all places 
 of truft or profit, and admit none but foreign- 
 ers : infomuch that Malmefbury, who lived in 
 the reign of Henry L obferves, " That in his 
 time there was not one Engl ifh man porTeiTed 
 of any poft. of honour or profit under the go- 
 vernment, or of any considerable office in the 
 
 a Particular accounts may be found in Dugdale's Monaf- 
 ticon, Godwin de Prasfulibus Angliae, Willis's Hiftory of 
 AbbieSj &x. Thus Lanfranc, promoted to the fee of Can- 
 terbury 1070, begun the foundation of a new church there. 
 Thomas I. archbilhop of York 1070— Walcher bimop of 
 Durham 107 1 — Walkeline of Winchefter 1070 — Remigius 
 of Lincoln 1076 — all of them foreigners^ did the like in 
 their feveral fees ; and fo of the reft. 
 
 church.'* 
 
ESSAY. 67 
 
 church b ." The bifhoprics and all the beft 
 ecclefiaftical preferments were filled by thofe 
 foreigners, and the eftates of the Saxon nobility 
 were divided among them. Thus being enriched 
 and furnifhed with the means, it muft be 
 owned, they fpared neither pains nor coft in 
 erecting churches, monafteries, caftles, and 
 other edifices both for public and private ufe, 
 in the moft ftately and fumptuous manner. And 
 I think we may venture to fay, that the circu- 
 lar arch, round-headed doors and windows, 
 maffive pillars, with a kind of regular bafe and 
 capital, and thick walls, without any very pro- 
 minent buttreffes, were univer a'ly ufed by 
 them to the end of king Henry the FirfVs reign, 
 A. D. 1 1 34 ; and are the chief characteriftics of 
 their flyle of building : and among other pe- 
 culiarities that diftinguifh it, we may obferve, 
 that the capitals of their pillars were generally 
 left plain, without any manner of fculpture; 
 though inftances occur of foliage and animals 
 on them ; as thofe on the eaft fide of the fouth 
 tranfept at Ely. The body or trunk of their 
 vaft maffive pillars were ufually plain cylinders, 
 or fet off" only with fmall half-columns united 
 
 b " Anglia facta eft exterorum habitatio, et alienigena- 
 rum dominatio ; nullus hodie Anglus dux, vel pontifex, vefc 
 abbas j advent quique divitias et vifcera corrodunt Anglias ; 
 nec fpes ulla eft finiendas miferise.-" Malraefb. de Reg. 
 Angl. p. 93. 
 
 T % with 
 
68 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 with them ; but fometimes to adorn them they 
 ufed the fpiral groove winding round them, and 
 the net or lozenge work overfp reading them ; 
 both of which appear at Durham, and the firft: 
 in the undercroft at Canterbury. As to their 
 arches, though they were for the moft part 
 plain and fimple, yet fome of their principal 
 ones, as thofe over the chief entrance at the 
 well: end, and others moil expofed to view, 
 were abundantly charged with fculpture of a 
 particular kind ; as, the cheveron work or zig- 
 zag moulding, the moft common of any ; and 
 various other kinds riling and falling, jetting 
 out and receding inward alternately, in a waving 
 or undulating manner ; — the embattled frette, a 
 kind of ornament formed by a fingle round 
 moulding, traverfing the face of the arch, mak- 
 ing its returns and crofiings always at right 
 angles, fo forming the intermediate fpaces into 
 fquares alternately open above and below ; fpe- 
 cimens of this kind of ornament appear on the 
 great arches in the middle of the weft front at 
 Lincoln, and within the ruinous part of the 
 building adjoining to the great weftern tower at 
 Ely ; — the triangular frette, where the fame kind 
 of moulding at every [35] return forms the fide of 
 an equilateral triangle, and confequently enclofes 
 the intermediate fpaces in that figure ; — the nail- 
 head, refembling the heads of great nails driven 
 
 in 
 
ESSAY. 69 
 
 in at regular diflances, as in the nave of old 
 St. Paul's, and the great tower at Hereford (all 
 of them found alfo in more ancient Saxon build- 
 ings) j — the billeted moulding, as if a cylinder 
 fhould be cut into fmall pieces of equal length, 
 and thefe Ituck on alternately round the face of 
 the arches ; as in the choir of Peterborough, at 
 St. Crofs, and round the windows of the upper 
 tire on the outride of the nave at Ely : this latter 
 ornament was often ufed fas were alfo fome of 
 the others) as a fafcia, band, or fillet, round the 
 outride of their buildings. Then to adorn the 
 in fide walls below, they had rows of little pil- 
 lars and arches ; and applied them alfo to deco- 
 rate large vacant fpaces in the walls without : 
 and the corbel table, confifting of a feries of 
 fmall arches without pillars, but with heads of 
 men and animals, ferving inftead of corbels or 
 brackets to fupport them, which they placed 
 below the parapet, projecting over the upper, 
 and fometimes the middle tire of windows ; — the 
 hatched moulding, ufed both on the faces of the 
 arches, or for a f of eta on the outfide ; as if cut 
 with the point of an ax at regular diftances, and 
 fo left rough ; — and the nebule, a projection ter- 
 minating by an undulating line r^^^^, as 
 under the upper range of windows at Peterbo- 
 rough. To thefe marks that diltinguifh. the 
 Saxon or Norman ftyle, we may add that they 
 
 F 3 had 
 
70 rev. j. bentham's 
 
 had no tabernacles (or niches with canopies), 
 or pinnacles, or fpires ; or indeed any ftatues to 
 adorn their buildings on the outride, which are 
 the principal grace of what is now called the 
 Gothic ; unlefs thofe fmall figures we fometimes 
 meet with over their door-ways, fuch as is that 
 little figure of bifhop Herebert Lofing over the 
 north tranfept door at Norwich, feemingly of 
 that time ; or another fmall figure of our Sa- 
 viour over one of the fouth doors at Ely, &c. 
 may be called fo : but thefe are rather mezzo- 
 relievos than ftatues ; and it is known that they 
 ufed reliefs fometimes with profufion ; as in 
 Saxon or Norman gateway at Bury, and the 
 the two fouth doors at Ely. Efcutcheons 
 of arms are hardly, if ever, feen in thefe fa- 
 brics, though frequent enough in after-times : 
 neither was there any tracery in their vault- 
 ings. Thefe few particularities in the Saxon 
 and Norman ftyle of building, however minute 
 they may be in appearance, yet will be found 
 to have their ufe, as they contribute to afcertain 
 the age of an edifice at firft fight c . 
 
 • Some curious obfervations on the difference between the 
 Norman ftyle of building ufed in the Conqueror's reign and 
 that in ufe under Henry II. may be met with in the account 
 given by Gervafe, a monk of Canterbury, of the fire that 
 happened there A. D. 1174, and burnt the choir, and of 
 the repairing of the fame. X. Scriptores, col. 1302. lin. 43, 
 44, &c 
 
 It 
 
essay. 7'r 
 
 It cannot be expected we fhould be able to 
 enumerate all the decorations they made ufe of, 
 for they defigned variety in the choice of them ; 
 but a judicious antiquarian who has made the 
 prevailing modes of architecture in diftant times 
 his ftudy, will be able to form very probable 
 conjectures concerning the age of moll of thefe 
 ancient ftructures ; the alterations that have 
 been made in them fince their firft erection will 
 often difcover themfelves to his eye. Perhaps 
 the molt, ufual change he will find in them is in 
 the form of the windows ; for in many of our 
 oldeft churches, I mean fuch as were built 
 within the firft age after the Conqueft, the 
 windows, which were originally round-headed, 
 have fince been altered for others [36] of a more 
 modern date, with pointed arches. Inftances of 
 this kind are numerous, and may often be dis- 
 covered, by examining the courfes of the ftone- 
 work about them ; unlefs the outward face of 
 the building was new-cafed at the time of their 
 infertion, as it fometimes happened : without 
 attending to this, we fhall be at a lofs to ac- 
 count for that mixture of round and pointed 
 arches we often meet with in the fame build- 
 ing. 
 
 There is perhaps hardly any one of our ca- 
 thedral churches of this early Norman ftyle (I 
 mean with round arches and large pillars) re- 
 
 f 4 maining 
 
72 REV. J. BEKTHAM's 
 
 maining entire, though they were all originally 
 fo built ; but fpecimens of it may ftill be feen 
 in molt of them. The greater!: part of the ca- 
 thedrals of Durham, Carlifle, Chefter, Peter- 
 borough, Norwich, Rochefter, Chichefter, 
 Oxford, Worcefter, Wells, and Hereford ; the 
 tower and tranfept of Winchester, the nave of 
 •Glocefter, the nave and tranfept of Ely, the 
 two towers of Exeter, fome remains in the 
 middle of the weft front of Lincoln, with the 
 lower parts of the two towers there ; in Canter- 
 bury, great part of the choir, formerly called 
 Conrade's choir (more ornamented than ufual), 
 the two towers called St. Gregory's and Anfelm's, 
 and the north- weft tower of the fame church ; 
 the collegiate church of Southwell, and part of 
 St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, are all of that 
 -ftyle j and fo was the nave and tranfept of old 
 St. Paul's d , London, before the fire in 1666; 
 York and Lichfield have had all their parts fo 
 entirely rebuilt at feparate times, fince the dif- 
 ufe of round arches, that little or nothing of 
 the old Norman work appears in them at this 
 day. The prefent cathedral church of Salilbury 
 is the only one that never had any mixture of 
 this early Norman ftyle in its compofition : the 
 •pld cathedral, begun foon after the Conqueft 
 
 d A view of the infide by Hollar is preferved in Dugdale's 
 Hift. of St. Paul's. 
 
 and 
 
ESSAY. 73 
 
 and fmifhed by Roger, that great and powerful 
 bifhop of Salifbury under Henry I. was at Old 
 Sarum, and of the fame kind it flood in the 
 north-weft pari of the city, and the foundations 
 are ftill vifible: if one may form a judgment 
 of the whole by the ruins that remain, it does 
 not appear indeed to have been fo large as fome 
 other of thofe above mentioned ; but it had a 
 nave and two porticos or fide-ifles, and the eaft 
 end of it was femicircular ; its fituation, on a 
 .barren chalky hill, expofed to the violence of 
 the winds, and fubject to great fcarcity of water, 
 and that within the precincts of the caftle (where- 
 by frequent difputes and quarrels arofe between 
 the members of the church and officers of the 
 caftle), gave occafion to the bifhop and clergy 
 in the reign of Henry III. to defert it, and re- 
 move to a more convenient fituation about a 
 mile diftant towards the fouth-eaft, where Ri- 
 chard Poore e , at that time bifhop, begun the 
 foundation of the prefent church on the fourth 
 of the calends of May 1220. It confifts entirely 
 of that ftyle which is now called (though I 
 think improperly) Gothic ; a light, neat, and 
 elegant form of building ; in which all the 
 arches are (not round but) pointed, the pillars 
 
 e Price's Obfervations on the Cathedral Church of Salif- 
 bury, p. 8. Camden's Britan. col. 107. notey. 
 
 fmall 
 
74 R^V. J. B E N T H A M *S 
 
 fmall and flender, and the outward walls com- 
 monly fupported with buttrefles. 
 
 The term Gothic, applied to architecture, 
 was much ufed by our anceftors in the laft cen- 
 tury, when they were endeavouring to recover 
 the ancient Grecian or Roman manner (I call 
 it indifferently by either of thofe names, for the 
 Romans borrowed it from the Greeks) : whe- 
 ther they had then a retrofpect to thofe particu- 
 lar times when the Goths ruled in the empire, 
 or only ufed it as a term of reproach, to ftig- 
 matize the productions [37] of ignorant and 
 barbarous times, is not certain ; but I think 
 they meant it of Roman architecture ; not fuch, 
 certainly, as had been in the a*ge of Auguftus 
 (which they were labouring to reftore), but 
 fuch as prevailed in more degenerate times, 
 when the art itfelf was almoft loft, and parti- 
 cularly after the invafions of the Goths ; in 
 which ftate it continued many ages after without 
 much alteration. Of this kind was our Saxon 
 and earlieft Norman manner of building, with 
 circular arches and ftrong maffive pillars, but 
 really Roman architecture, and fo was called 
 by our Saxon anceftors themfelves f . Some 
 writers call all our ancient architecture, without 
 
 ' Bedx Hift. Eccl. lib. v. cap. 21. and Hift. Abb, Wire- 
 inuth. et Gyrw. p. 295, line 4. 
 
 diftinction 
 
ESSAY. 75 
 
 diftinction of round and pointed arches, Gothic : 
 though I find of late the fafhion is to apply the 
 term folely to the latter ; the reafon for which is 
 not very apparent. The word Gothic no doubt 
 implies a relation fome way or other to the 
 Goths j and if fo, then the old Roman way of 
 building with round arches above defcribed 
 feems to have the cleareft title to that appella- 
 tion; not that I imagine the Goths invented, or 
 brought it with them ; but that it had its rife in 
 the Gothic age, or about the time the Goths in- 
 vaded Italy. The ftyle of building with pointed 
 arches is modern, and feems not to have been 
 known in the world till the Goths ceafed to 
 make a figure in it. Sir Chriftopher Wren 
 thought this mould rather be called the Saracen 
 way of building : the firft appearance of it here 
 was indeed in the time of the Cru fades ; and that 
 might induce him to think the archetype was 
 brought hither by fome who had been engaged in 
 thofe expeditions, when they returned' from the 
 Holy Land. But the obfervations of feveral 
 learned travellers g who have accurately furveyed 
 the ancient mode of building in thofe parts of 
 the world do by no means favour that opinion, 
 or difcover the lean 1 traces of it. Indeed I have 
 not yet met with any fatisfactory account of the 
 
 ? Pococke, Norden, Shaw. 
 
 origin 
 
76 REV. J. BENTHAM'S 
 
 origin of pointed arches, when invented, or 
 where firft taken notice of: fome have imagined 
 they might poflibly have taken their rife from 
 thofe arcades we fee in the early Norman or 
 Saxon buildings on walls, where the wide femi- 
 circular arches crofs and interfect each other, 
 and form thereby, at their inter feci: ion, exactly 
 a narrow and fharp-pointed arch. In the wall 
 fouth of the choir at St. Crofs is a facing of 
 fuch wide round interlaced arches by way of 
 ornament to a flat vacant fpace ; only fo much 
 of it as lies between the legs of the two neigh- 
 bouring arches, where they crofs each other, is 
 pierced through the fabric, and forms a little 
 range of fharp-pointed windows : it is of king 
 Stephen's time ; whether they were originally 
 pierced I cannot learn. But whatever gave oc- 
 cafion to the invention, there are fufficient 
 proofs they were ufed here in the reign of 
 Henry II. The weft end of the old Temple 
 church, built in that reign, and dedicated by 
 Heraclius patriarch of the church of the Holy 
 Refurreclion in Jerufalem (as appears by the 
 infcription h lately over the door), is now remain- 
 ing; and has, I think, pointed and round 
 ; arches originally inferted ; they are intermixed ; 
 the great arches are pointed, the windows above 
 
 h Stow's Survey of London, p. 746. edit. 1754* 
 
 are 
 
ESSAY. 77 
 
 are round ; the weft door is a round arch richly 
 ornamented ; and before it a portico or porch 
 of three arches, fupported by two pillars ; that 
 oppofite to the church-door is round, the other 
 two pointed, but thefe have been rebuilt. The 
 great weftern tower of Ely cathedral, built in 
 the fame reign by Geoffry Rydel bimop there, 
 [38] who died A. D. n 89, confifts of pointed 
 arches. At York, under the choir, remains 
 much of the old work, built by archbifhop Ro- 
 ger in Henry the Second's reign ; the arches are 
 but juft pointed, and rife on Ihort round pillars, 
 whofe capitals are adorned with animals and 
 foliage : many other inftances of the fame age 
 might be recollected ; and poflibly fome may 
 occur of an earlier date ; for this, like moft no- 
 velties, we may fuppofe, was introduced by 
 degrees. 
 
 In Henry the Third's reign the circular arch 
 and maiTive column feem wholly to have been 
 laid afide, and the pointed arch and flender pil- 
 lar being fubftituted in their room, obtained 
 fuch general approbation throughout the king- 
 dom, that feveral parts of thofe ftrong and 
 ftately buildings that had been erected in the 
 preceding age were taken down, and their di- 
 mensions enlarged, in order to make room for 
 this new mode of building. The cathedral 
 1 church 
 
78 REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 church of Salilbury is wholly of this kind of 
 architecture ; it was begun early in that reign *, 
 and finilhed in the year 1258. This church 
 (fays a competent judge k of fuch matters) " may 
 be juftly accounted one of the bell: patterns of 
 architecture in the age wherein it was built. " 
 To which we may add, that it has this advan- 
 tage of all others, that the whole plan was laid 
 /ST'Tz . out at once, and regularly purfued throughout 
 the whole courfe of its building in the fame 
 ilyle to its finifhing ; whence arife that unifor- 
 mity, fymmetry, and regular proportion ob- 
 fervable in all the parts of it, not to be found 
 in any other of our cathedral churches ; which 
 having been all originally built with circular 
 arches and heavy pillars, and moll: of them af- 
 terwards renewed, in part or in whole, at dif- 
 ferent times, and under all the changes and va- 
 riety of modes that have prevailed fince the firft 
 introduction of pointed arches, now want that 
 regularity and famenefs of ftyle fo necelTary to 
 conftitute an entire and perfect: building. In 
 the fame reign were conliderable additions made 
 to feveral of our cathedral and other churches, 
 efpecially at their ealt end ; fome of which, as 
 they are ltill remaining, may ferve to illultrate 
 
 1 Godwin de Prasful. Anglias^ p. 345.. 
 *■ Sir Chr. Wren, in Parentalia, p. 304. 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 79 
 
 the particular ftyle then in life : fuch is that ele- 
 gant ftructure at the eaft end of Ely cathedral l , 
 built by Hugh Norwold biftiop of Ely" 1 , who, 
 in the year 1234, took down the circular eaft 
 end of the church, and laid the foundation of 
 his new building, now called the Prefbytery, 
 which he finifhed in 1250. King Henry alfo n , 
 in the year 1245, ordered the eaft end, tower^ 
 and tranfept of the abbey church at Weftmin- 
 fter, built by Edward the ConfelTor, to.be taken 
 down, in order to rebuild them at his own ex- 
 penfe in a more elegant form : he did not live, 
 it feems, to complete his whole defign ; but 
 the difference of ftyle in that part of the church 
 from the other, weft ward of the crofs, which 
 was alfo rebuilt afterwards, indicates how far 
 the work was carried on in that king's time, or 
 foon after. " The new work of St. Paul's, fo 
 called, at the eaft end, above the choir, was 
 begun in the year 1 25 1 . Alfo the new work of 
 St. Paul's, to wit, the crofs-ifles, were begun 
 to be new built in the year 1256 ." Befides 
 thefe, we find there were a great many confi- 
 
 1 The whole of the building called the Prefbytery confifts 
 of nine arches ; only the fix eafternmoft, with that end, 
 were built by bifhop Norwold ; the other three adjoining to 
 the dome were afterwards rebuilt by bifhop Hotham, in the 
 reigns of Edward II. and Edward III. 
 
 m MS. Bibl. Cotton. Tiberius, B. 2. fol. 246. 
 
 » Matth. Paris Hilt. p. 581. 861 
 
 Stow's Survey of Lond» vol, i. p. 639. 
 
 derable 
 
SO REV. J. BENTHAM's 
 
 derable alterations and additions made to [39] 
 feveral other cathedral and conventual churches 
 and new buildings carrying on about the fame 
 time in different parts of the kingdom ; fome of 
 which are particularly taken notice of by our 
 hiftorians p. 
 
 During the whole reign of Henry III. the 
 fafhionable pillars to our churches were of Pur- 
 bec marble, very {lender and round, encom- 
 palfed with marble fhafts a little detached, fo as 
 to make them appear of a proportionable thick- 
 nefs : thefe fhafts had each of them a capital 
 richly adorned with foliage, which together in 
 a clufler formed one elegant capital for the whole 
 pillar. This form, though graceful to the eye, 
 was attended with an inconvenience, perhaps 
 not apprehended at firft ; for the fhafts defigned 
 chiefly for ornament, confining of long pieces 
 cut out horizontally from the quarry, when 
 placed in a perpendicular fituation were apt to 
 fplit and break ; which probably occafioned this 
 manner to be laid afide in the next century. 
 There was alfo fome variety in the form of the 
 vaultings in the fame reign ; thefe they gene- 
 rally chofe to make of chalk, for its lightness ; 
 but the arches and principal ribs were of free- 
 
 p Monaft. Angl. vol. i. p. 273. line 44. p. 386. line 40. 
 p. 752. line 11. et vol. iii. p. 270. Godwin de Praeful. 
 Angl. p. 371, 372. 461. 503- 5°5- 6 7 8 « 742. 
 
 ilone. 
 
ESSAY. 8l 
 
 ftone. The vaulting of Salisbury cathedral, 
 one of the earlieft, is high pitched, between 
 arches and crofs-fpringers only, without any 
 further decorations ; but fome that were built 
 foon after are more ornamental, rifing from their 
 imports with more fpringers, and fpreading 
 themfelves to the middle of the vaulting, are 
 enriched at their interferon with carved orbs, 
 foliage, and other devices — as in bifhop Nor- 
 wold's work above mentioned % 
 
 As to the windows of that age, we find they 
 were long, narrow, fharp-pointed, and ufually 
 decorated on the infide and outfide with fmall 
 •marble fhafts : the order and difpoiition of the 
 windows varied in fome meafure according to 
 the ftories of which the building confifled : in 
 one of three ftories, the uppermost had com- 
 monly three windows within the compafs of 
 every arch, the centre one being higher than 
 thofe on each fide ; the middle tire or ftory had 
 two within the fame fpace ; and the loweff. only 
 one window, ufually divided by a pillar or mul- 
 lion, and often ornamented on the top with a 
 trefoil, fingle rofe, or fome fuch ample deco- 
 ration ; which probably gave the hint for 
 branching out the whole head into a variety of 
 tracery and foliage, when the windows came 
 
 < Page 79, 
 G 
 
 after- 
 
8i REV. J, 13EKTHAM'S 
 
 afterwards to be enlarged. The ufe of painted 
 and ftained glafs in our churches is thought to 
 have begun about this time 1 . This kind of 
 ornament, as it diminifhed the light, induced 
 the neceflity of making an alteration in the win- 
 dows, either by increafing the number or en- 
 larging their proportions ; for though a gloomi- 
 nefs rather than over-much light feems more 
 proper for fuch facred edifices, and " better cal- 
 culated for recollecting the thoughts, and fixing 
 pious affect ions," as the elegant writer laft cited 
 obferves s ; yet without that alteration, our 
 churches had been too dark and gloomy ; as 
 fome of them now, being diverted of that or- 
 nament, for the fame reafon appear over-light. 
 
 As for fpircs and pinnacles, with which our 
 oldeft churches are fometimes, and more mo- 
 dern ones are frequently decorated, I think they 
 are not very ancient. The towers and turrets 
 of churches built by the Normans, in the firfl 
 century after [40] their coming, were covered, 
 as platforms, with battlements or plain parapet 
 walls ; fome of them indeed built within that 
 period we now fee finifhed with pinnacles or 
 fpires ; which were additions fince the modern 
 ftyle of pointed arches prevailed ; for before we 
 meet with none. One of the earlieft fpires wc 
 
 * Ornaments of Churches considered, p. 94. 
 » Ibid. 
 
 have 
 
ESSAY* 8j 
 
 have any account of is that of old St. Paul's f , 
 finifhed in the year 1222; it was, I think, of 
 timber, covered with lead ; but not long after, 
 they begun to build them of ftone, and to finifh 
 all their buttrelTes in the fame manner. 
 
 Architecture under Edward I. was fo nearly 
 the fame as in his father Henry the Third's 
 time, that it is no eafy matter to diftinguifh it. 
 Improvements no doubt were then made, but 
 it is difficult to define them accurately. The 
 tranfition from one ftyle to another is ufually 
 effected by degrees, and therefore not very re- 
 markable at firft, but it becomes fo at fome dis- 
 tance of time : towards the latter part indeed of 
 his reign, and in that of Edward II. we begin 
 to difcover a manifefi change of the mode as 
 well in the vaulting and make of the columns 
 as the formation of the windows. The vaulting 
 was, I think, more decorated than before; for 
 now the principal rib? arifing from their import, 
 being fpread over the inner face of the arch, run 
 into a kind of tracery ; or rather with tranfoms 
 divided the roof into various angular compart- 
 ments, and were ufually ornamented in the angles 
 with gilded orbs, carved heads or figures, and other 
 emboffed work. The columns retained fomething 
 of their general form already defcribed, that is, 
 as an affemblage of fmall pillars or fhafts ; but 
 
 • Stow's Survey of London, p. 639. edit. 1754. 
 
 G 2 thefe 
 
84 REV. j. benthamV 
 
 thefe decorations were now not detached or fe- 
 parate from the body of the column, but made 
 part of it, and being clofely united and wrought 
 up together, formed one entire, firm, flender, 
 and elegant column. The windows were now 
 greatly enlarged, and divided into feveral lights 
 by flone mullions running into various ramifica- 
 tions above, and dividing the head into numerous 
 compartments of different forms, as leaves, open 
 flowers, and other fanciful fliapes; and more 
 particularly the great eaftern and weflern win- 
 dows (which became fafhionable about this 
 time) took up nearly the whole breadth of the 
 nave, and were carried up almoft as high as 
 the vaulting ; and being fet off with painted and 
 ftained glafs of molt lively colours, with por- 
 traits of kings, faints, martyrs, and confeffors, 
 and other hiftorical reprefentafions, made a moll: 
 fplendid and glorious appearance. 
 
 The three firft arches of the prefbytery ad- 
 joining to the dome and lantern of the cathedral 
 church of Ely, begun the latter part of Edward 
 the Second's reign, A. D. 1322, exhibit elegant 
 fpecimens of thefe fafhionable pillars, vaulting, 
 and windows. St. Mary's chapel (now Trinity 
 parifh church) at Ely, built about the fame 
 time, is conftructed on a different plan ; but the 
 vaulting and windows are in the fame ffyle. The 
 plan of this chanel, generally accounted one of 
 
 the 
 
ESSAY. 85 
 
 the moft perfect ftructures of that age, is an ob- 
 long fquare; it has no pillars nor fide-ifles, but 
 is fupported by ftrong fpiring buttreffes, and 
 was decorated on the outride with ftatues over 
 the eaft and weft windows; and withinfide 
 alfo with ftatues, and a great variety of other 
 fculpture well executed a . 
 
 [41] The fame ftyle and manner of building 
 prevailed all the reign of Edward III. and with 
 regard to the principal parts and members, con- 
 tinued in ufe to the reign of Henry VII. and 
 the greater part of Henry VIII. ; only towards 
 the latter part of that period the windows were 
 lefs pointed and more open ; a better tafte for 
 ftatuary began to appear; and indeed a greater 
 care feems to have been bellowed on all the or- 
 namental parts, to give them a lighter and higher 
 finifhing ; particularly the ribs of the vaulting, 
 which had been large, and feemingly formed 
 for ftrength and fupport, became at length di- 
 vided into fuch an abundance of parts ifluing 
 from their imports as from a centre, and fpread- 
 ing themfelves over the vaulting, where they 
 were intermixed with fuch delicate fculpture as 
 
 » The fafhion of adorning the weft end of our churches 
 with rows of ftatues in tabernacles or niches, with canopies 
 over them, obtained very foon after the introduction of pointed 
 arches ; as may be feen at Peterborough and Salifbury ; and 
 in later times we find them in a more improved tafte, as at 
 Lichfield and Wells. 
 
 G 3 gave 
 
86 
 
 REV. J. BENTHAM'S 
 
 gave the whole vault the appearance of em- 
 broidery, enriched with clatters of pendent orna- 
 ments, refembling the works Nature fometimes 
 forms in caves and grottos, hanging down from 
 their roofs. The moft {hiking inftance of this 
 kind is, without exception, the vaulting of that 
 fumptuous chapel of king Henry VII. at Weft- 
 minfter. 
 
 To what height of perfection modern archi- 
 tecture (I mean that with pointed arches, its 
 chief characteriftic) was carried on in this king- 
 dom appears by that one complete fpecimen of 
 it, the chapel founded by king Henry VI. in 
 his college at Cambridge, and finimed by king 
 Henry VIII. v The decorations, harmony, and 
 
 pro- 
 
 v It is formed on the fame plan as St. Mary's chapel at 
 Ely, and indeed the defign is faid to have been thence taken. 
 King Henry VI. laid the foundations of the whole about the 
 year 1441, which were raifed five or fix feet above ground 
 in the welt end, but much higher towards the eaft; for that 
 end was covered in many years before the weft end was 
 iinifhed. How far the work proceeded in the founder's 
 time cannot be faid with certainty : the troubles he met 
 with in the latter part of his reign hindered the profecu- 
 tion of it. Richard II 1 1 a few months before he was 
 flain, had figned a warrant for 300/. out of the temporalities 
 of the bifhopric of Exeter, then in his hands, towards car- 
 rying on the building (MS. Harleian. N° 433. fol. 209. 
 b.) ; but I believe nothing more was done by him. Hen- 
 ry VII. undertook the work, and carried up the remainder 
 to the battlements, and completed the timber roof : after 
 his death, king Henry VIII. finiflied the whole fabric, as 
 well the towers and finials as the vaulted roof within, and 
 $Ued up the choir in the maimer we now fee it. — One con- 
 tract 
 
• ESSAY. ft? 
 
 proportions of the feveral parts of this magni- 
 ficent fabric, its fine painted windows, and 
 richly ornamented fp reading roof, its gloom, 
 and perfpective, all concur in affecting the ima- 
 gination with pleafure and delight, at the fame 
 time that they infpire awe and devotion. It is 
 undoubtedly one of the mofr complete, elegant, 
 and magnificent ftructures in the kingdom. And 
 if, befides thefe larger works, we take into our 
 view thofe fpecimens of exquifite workman- 
 fhip we meet with in the fmaller kinds of Graf- 
 tones, chapels w , and monumental edifices, pro- 
 duced fo late as the reign of Henry VIII. fome 
 of which are frill in being, or at leafr fo much 
 of them as to give us an idea of their former 
 grace and beauty ; one can hardly help conclud- 
 ing, that architecture arrived at its higheft point 
 of glory in this kingdom but juft before its final 
 period. 
 
 tract for building the ftone vault, and three of the towers, 
 and twenty-one fynyalls (the upper finiming of the but- 
 treffes), dated the 4th of Henry VIII. A. D. 15 12; and 
 another for vaulting the two porches and fixteen chapels 
 about the building, dated the following year, are ftill in the 
 archives of the college. 
 
 w Bifhop Weft's chapel at the eaft end of the fouth ifle 
 of Ely cathedral, built in the reign of Henry VIII. affords 
 an elegant fpecimeru of the moft delicate fculpture, and fuch 
 variety of tracery, beautiful colouring, and gilding, as will 
 not eafily be met with in any work produced before that 
 reign. 
 
 G 4 At 
 
S8 rev. j. bentham's 
 
 [42] At that time no country was better fur- 
 nifhed and adorned with religious edifices, in 
 all the variety of modes that had prevailed for 
 many centuries pafi, than our own. The ca- 
 thedral churches in particular were all majeflic 
 and {lately flructures. Next to them the mo- 
 naileries, which had been erected in all parts of 
 the kingdom, might juflly claim the pre-emi- 
 nence; they were, for the generality of them, fine 
 buildings ; and the churches and chapels be- 
 longing to fome of them equalled the cathedrals 
 in grandeur and magnificence, and many others 
 were admired for their richnefs and elegance ; 
 and, whilfl they flood, were without doubt the 
 chief ornament to the feveral counties in which 
 they were placed. 
 
 The flate of thefe religious houfes, on occa- 
 fion of the reformation in religion then carrying 
 on, became the object of public deliberation j 
 but however neceffary and expedient the total 
 fuppreffion of them might be judged at that 
 time, yet certainly the means that were made 
 ufe of to fupprefs them were not altogether the 
 mofl justifiable, and the manner of difpofing of 
 them and their great revenues has been found 
 in fome refpects detrimental to the true interefts 
 of religion. For had the churches belonging 
 to them been fpared, and made parochial in 
 c thofe 
 
ESSAY. 89 
 
 thofe places where they were much wanted, 
 and had the lands and impropriated tithes, 
 which the feveral religious orders had unjuftly 
 taken from the fecular clergy, and kept pof- 
 feffion of by papal authority, ( been referved out 
 of the general fale of their revenues, and reftored 
 to their proper ufe, the maintenance of the 
 clergy, to whom of right they belonged, we at 
 this time mould have had lefs caufe to regret 
 the general ruin of all thofe religious houfes that 
 enfued, and the prefent fcanty provifion that re- 
 mains to the clergy in fome of the larger! cures 
 in the kingdom. 
 
 The havoc and deftruction of thofe fumptuous 
 edifices that foon followed their furrender gave 
 a moft fatal turn to the fpirit of building and 
 adorning of churches; architecture in general was 
 thereby difcouraged, and that mode of it in 
 particular which was then in a very flourifhing 
 ftate, and had continued fo for more than three 
 centuries, funk under the weight, and was bu- 
 ried in the ruins of thofe numerous flructures 
 which fell at that time. 
 
 Unhappily, the orders and injunctions given 
 to the feveral commiffioners under king Hen- 
 ry VIII. and in the following reign during the 
 minority of Edward VI. and like wife in queen 
 Elizabeth's time, for removing and taking away 
 all fhrines and fuperftitious relics, and feizing 
 
 all 
 
90 REV. j. bentham's 
 
 all fuperfluous jewels and plate, were often 
 mifapplied, carried to excefs, and executed in 
 fuch a manner as to have, at lean: in fome in- 
 ftances, the appearance of facrilegious avarice 
 rather than of true zeal for the glory of God 
 and the advancement of religion. 
 
 Be that as it may, certain it is that at this 
 time, when molt, of the churches belonging to 
 the religious orders were utterly ruined and de- 
 flroyed, our cathedral and parochial churches 
 and chapels fuffered greatly ; for they were di- 
 verted and fpoiled, not only of their images and 
 fuperftitious relics, but of their neceffary and 
 moft unexceptionable ornaments ; and after- 
 wards, by the outrages and violence committed 
 on them in the laft century, during the unhappy 
 times of confufion in the great rebellion, they 
 were reduced to a ftill more deplorable ftate and 
 condition, and left [43] naked and deftitute of 
 all manner of juft elegance, and of every mark 
 and character of external decency. 
 
 It muft be owned, that in feveral intermediate 
 periods a zeal for the honour of God and his 
 holy religion has not been wanting to heal thefe 
 wounds, to repair and fitly readorn thefe facred 
 ftrudtures ; but it has not been attended with 
 the fuccefs that all wife and good men muft 
 wifh for and defire. Many of our parochial 
 churches Hill carry the marks of violence com- 
 mitted 
 
ESSAY. 91 
 
 mitted in thofe days ; others through inattention 
 and neglect (befides the defects they are unavoid- 
 ably fubject to by age) are become ruinous and 
 hafting to utter decay, unlefs timely fupported : 
 infomuch that very few of them, excepting 
 thofe in large and populous cities and towns, 
 the number of which is fmall in comparifon of 
 the reft, can juftly be considered as in a proper 
 ftate of repair, decent and becoming ftructures 
 confecrated to the public fervice of God. The 
 chapels indeed belonging to the feveral colleges 
 in the two univerfities (very few need to be ex- 
 cepted) claim our particular notice for the care 
 and expenfe we find beftowed on them, the 
 decent order in which they are kept, and the 
 juftnefs and elegance of their ornaments. And 
 our cathedral churches, thofe monuments of the 
 pious zeal and magnificence of our forefathers, 
 we doubt not will foon appear again in a ftate 
 becoming their dignity. The care and attention 
 that is paid them by the prefent fet of governors 
 in their refpeclive churches x defer ves the higheft 
 
 enco- 
 
 x To inftance the particular cathedral churches that have 
 been repaired and beautified within the laft thirty or forty 
 years, and the feveral defigns formed to bring them to a 
 itill more perfect ftate, would carry me beyond my prefent 
 purpofe. It may be fufficient only to intimate what has 
 been done of late at York, Lincoln, Peterborough, Ely, 
 Norwich, Chichefter, Salifbury, &c. But as that particu- 
 lar fcheme for railing a fufficient fund for thefe purpofes, 
 
 happily 
 
gz REV. j. bentham's 
 
 encomiums ; and if we can make a proper and 
 juft eftimate of what may reafonably be expected 
 will be done, from what has already been done 
 of late, and is frill doing, for the furtherance of 
 that defirable work, there is the faireft profpecl, 
 and the mo ft ample ground of confidence, that the 
 prefent age will ftand diftinguifhed by pofterity 
 for repairing and adorning thofe venerable ftruc- 
 tures, and tranfmitting them with advantage to 
 the moll: diltant times. 
 
 I cannot conclude thefe curfory remarks more 
 properly than in the words of the elegant author 
 of Ornaments of Churches confide red y : " After 
 the eftablifhment of Chriftianity, the conftitu- 
 
 happily fixed on by the members of the church of Lincoln, 
 provides for the future as well as the prefent exigencies of 
 the church, does honour to thofe who were the promoters 
 of it, and may probably in time to come be adopted by moft 
 other cathedral and collegiate bodies ; I cannot here with 
 any propriety omit taking notice, that about fifteen or fixteen 
 years fince, the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Thomas, then bifliop of 
 Lincoln (now of Salisbury), taking into confideration the 
 ruinous ftatc of that cathedral, and the fmall fund allotted 
 for the repairs, held a general chapter, wherein it was unani- 
 mou fly agreed, that, for the time to come, ten per cent, of 
 all fines, as well of the bifhop as dean, dean and chapter, 
 and all the prebendaries, fhould be depofited with the clerk 
 of the works, towards repairing and beautifying the faid 
 cathedral ; which has accordingly been paid ever fince; and 
 care taken not only of carrying on the neceffary repairs in 
 the moft durable and fubftantial manner, but due regard 
 has likewife been paid to the propriety of the ornamental 
 parts reftored, and their conformity with the ftyle of build- 
 ing they were intended to adorn. 
 I Page 137. 
 
 tions 
 
ESSAY. 93 
 
 tions ecclefiaftical and civil concurred with the 
 fpirit of piety which then prevailed, in provid- 
 ing ftruftures for religious worfhip. In fubfe- 
 quent ages this fpirit ftill increafed, and occa- 
 fioned an emulation in raifing religious [44] 
 edifices wherever it was neceffary, or in adorning 
 thofe which were. already raifed. — The fruits of 
 this ardour we now reap. Since then the pious 
 munificence of our anceftors has raifed thefe 
 facred edifices, appropriated to religious ufes, we 
 are furely under the ftrongeft obligations to re- 
 pair as much as pofTible the injuries of time, 
 and preferve them by every precaution from total 
 ruin and decay. Where the particular funds appro- 
 priated to this purpofe are inefficient, it becomes 
 neceffary to apply to the affluent, who cannot furely 
 refufe to prevent by their liberal contributions the 
 fevere reproach of neglecting thofe ftructures 
 which in all ages have been held facred. 
 " Horace tells the Roman people, 
 
 Dii multa negle&i dederunt 
 Hefperias mala luAuofae j 
 
 and allures them their misfortunes will not end 
 till they repair the temples of their gods : 
 
 Delicta majorum immeritus lues, 
 Romane, donee templa refeceris, 
 iEdefque labentes deorum, et 
 Fceda nigro fimujacra fumo. 
 
 This 
 
94 REV. J. BENTHAM's ESSAf. 
 
 This may fafely be applied to the Chriftiaat 
 world ; fince the fabrics appropriated to the 
 purpofes of religion can never be entirely neg- 
 lected till a total difregard to religion firft pre- 
 vails, and men have loft a fenfe of every thing 
 that is virtuous and decent. Whenever this is 
 the melancholy condition of a nation, it cannot 
 hope for, becaufe it does not deferve the pro- 
 tection of Heaven, and it will be difficult to 
 conceive a general reformation can take place 
 till the temples of the Deity are reftored to their 
 proper dignity, and the public worfhip of God 
 is conducted in the beauty of holinefs." 
 
 CAPTAIN 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 CAPTAIN GROSE's ESSAY'. 
 
 As many of the notes quoted by Captain Grofe from Mr. Bentham 
 are very long, to avoid a repetition, fuch notes will be referred 
 lOyfimilarly to that below, mentioning the page where the pajfage 
 is to be found in Mr. Bentham s EJfay. 
 
 Most of the writers who mention our an- 
 cient buildings, particularly the religious ones, 
 notwithftanding the finking difference in the 
 ftyles of their conftru&ion, clafs them all under 
 the common denomination of Gothic : a general 
 appellation by them applied to all buildings not 
 exactly conformable to fome one of the five orders 
 of architecture. Our modern antiquaries, more 
 accurately, divide them into Saxon, Norman, 
 and Saracenic ; or that fpecies vulgarly, though 
 improperly, called Gothic. 
 
 An opinion has long prevailed, chiefly coun- 
 tenanced by Mr. Somner b , that the Saxon 
 
 a This is Captain Grofe's Preface to the Antiquities of 
 England, on the fubjecT: of architecture. 
 
 b Indeed, it is be obferved, that before the Norman 
 advent moil of our monafteries and church buildings were 
 all of wood : " All the monafteries of my realm," faith 
 king Edgar] — [" till the Normans brought it over with 
 them from France." Somner's Antiq. Canterbury. (See 
 Mr. Bentham's Eflay, p. i8, 19, 20.) 
 
 churches 
 
96 CAPTAIN GROSE*S 
 
 churches were moftly built with timber; and 
 that the few they had of ftone confifted only of 
 upright walls, without pillars or arches; the 
 conftruction of which, it is pretended, they 
 were entirely ignorant of. Mr. Somner feems to 
 have founded his opinion on the authority of 
 Stowe, and a difputable interpretation of fome 
 words in king Edgar's charter 15 : " Meaning no 
 more, as I apprehend," fays Mr. Bentham, in 
 his curious Remarks on Saxon Churches, " than 
 that the churches and monafteries were in gene^ 
 ral fo much decayed, that the roofs were unco- 
 vered or bare to the timber ; and the beams 
 rotted by neglect, and overgrown with mofs. ,sl 
 It is true that Bede and others fpeak of churches 
 built with timber ; but thefe appear to have 
 been only temporary erections, haftily run up 
 for the prefent exigency ; and for the other 
 pofition, that the Saxons had neither arches or 
 pillars in their buildings, it is not only contra- 
 dicted by the teftimony of feveral cotemporary 
 or very ancient writers, who expreffly mention 
 them both, but alfo by the remains of fome 
 
 b <( Quae velut mufcivis fcindulis cariolifque tabulis, tigno 
 tenus vifibiliter diruta." 
 
 c Baptizatus eft (fc. rex Edwinus, A. D. 627) autem 
 Eboraci in die fan&o Pafchse, in ecclelia St. Petri apoftoli 
 quam ipfe de ligno citato opere erexit." Bedae Hift. Ecch 
 lib. ii. cap. 14. — " Curavit majorem ipfo in loco et augufti- 
 orem de lapide fabricare bafihcam, in cujus medio ipfum 
 quod prius fecerat oratorium includeretur." Ibid. 
 
 edifices 
 
ESSAY. 97 
 
 edifices univerfally allowed to be of Saxon work- 
 mandiip ; one of them the ancient conventual 
 church at Ely. 
 
 The writers here alluded to are, Alcuin, an 
 ecclefiaitic who lived in the eighth century ; 
 and, in a poem entitled De Pontificibus et Ec- 
 cleflae Ebor. publifhed by Dr. Gale A. D. 1691, 
 describes the church of St. Peter at York ; which 
 he himfelf, in conjunction with Eanbald, had 
 affihxd archbifliop Albert to rebuild. In this 
 poem he particularizes by name both columns 
 and arches, as may be feen in note d . 
 
 The author of the Defcription of the Abbey 
 of Ramfay in Huntingdonfhire, which was 
 founded A. D. 974, by Ailvvood, flyled alder- 
 man of all England, affifted therein by Ofwald 
 bifhop of Worcefter, in that account names 
 both arches and columns, as is mown in note e . 
 
 Richard prior of Hexham, who flourifhed 
 about the year 11 80, and left a defcription of 
 that church, part of which was Handing in his 
 time, though built by Wilfrid, anno 674 j he 
 
 d <c Aft nova bafilicas mirce ftru&ura diebus," &c.^ 
 (This note is the fame as Mr. Bentham gives, p. 46.) 
 e " Duce quoque turres ipfis tectorum culminibus emine- 
 bant, quarum minor verfus oceidentem, in i'ronte bafilicse 
 pnlehram intrantibus infulam a longe fpectaculum praebebat ; 
 major vero in quadrifidse ftruclinrae medio columnas quatuor, 
 porre&is de alia ad aliam arcubus libi invicem eonnexus, 
 ne laxi defluerunt, deprimebat." Hift. Iiamevienfis, inter 
 XV. Scriptores, edit, per Gale. 
 
 h likewife 
 
^8 captain Grose's 
 
 likewife fpcaks of arches and columns with their 
 capitals richly ornamented : iee note f . 
 
 Many more authorities might be cited, was 
 not the matter fufiiciendy clear. Indeed, it is 
 highly improbable that the Saxons could be ig- 
 norant of fo ufeful a contrivance as the arch ; 
 many of them built by the Romans they muft 
 have had before their eyes ; fome of which 
 have reached our days ; two particularly are 
 now remaining in Canterbury only ; one in the 
 caftle yard, the other at Riding-gate. And it 
 is not to be believed, that, once knowing them, 
 and their convenience, they would negledt to 
 make ufe of them ; or, having ufed, would re- 
 linquish them. Befides, as it appears from 
 undoubted authorities they procured workmen 
 from the continent g to conftrudt their capital 
 
 buildings 
 
 f Profunditatem ipfius ecclefite criptis, ct oratoriis fub- 
 ierraneis] This note is the fame as Mr. Bentham quotes, 
 
 p-35- • " , . 
 
 1 Cum ccntoribus iEdde et Eona, et cementarus ommf- 
 que pene artis minifterio in regionem fuam revertens, cum 
 regula Benedicti inftituta ecclefiarum Dei bene melioravit. 
 Eddii Vit. St. Wilfridi, eap. xiv. Bedae Hift. Eccl. lib. iv. 
 cap. 2. — De Roma quoque, et Italia, et Francia, et de aliis 
 terris ubicumque invenire poterat, caementarios et quoflibet 
 alios induftrios artifices lecuni retinuerat, et ad opera fua 
 facienda fecum in Angliam adduxcrat. Rich. Prior. Hagulft. 
 lib. i. cap. 5. 
 
 " St. Peter's church, in the monaftery of Weremouth, in 
 <he neighbourhood of Gyrwi, was built by the famous Be- 
 nedict Bifcopius, in the year 675. This abbat went over 
 into France to engage workmen to build his church after 
 the Rocum number (as it is called by Bede i n his Hiftory of 
 
 £ Weremouth), 
 
ESSAY. 99 
 
 buildings <£ according to the Roman manner," 
 this alone would be iufficient to confute that 
 ill-grounded opinion ; and at the fame time 
 proves that what we commonly call Saxon is in 
 reality Roman architecture. 
 
 This was the ftyle of building practifed all 
 over Europe; and it continued to be ufed by 
 the Normans, after their arrival here, till the 
 introduction of what is called the Gothic, 
 which was not till about the end of the reign of 
 
 Weremouth), and brought them over for that purpofe : he 
 profecuted this work with extraordinary zeal and diligence, 
 infomuch that, within the compafs of a year after the found- 
 ations were laid, he cauied the roof to be put on, and di- 
 vine fervice to be performed in it. Afterwards, when the 
 building was near finifhed, he fent over to France for arti- 
 ficers {killed in the myftery of making glafs (an art till that 
 time unknown to the inhabitants of Britain) to glaze the 
 windows both of the porticos and principal parts of the 
 church ; which work they not only executed, but taught the 
 Englifh nation that mod ufeful art." Bentham's Hiftory of 
 Ely, p. 31 of this edition. 
 
 What Bede here affirms of the abbat Benedict, that he 
 firft introduced the art of making glafs into this kingdom, is 
 by no means inconfiftent with Eddius's account of bifhop 
 Wilfrid's glazing the windows of St. Peter's church at York 
 about the year 669, i. e. feven or eight years before this 
 time; fof glafs might have been imported from abroad by 
 Wilfrid. But Benedict firft brought over the artifts who 
 taught the Saxons the art of making glafs. That the win- 
 dows in churches were ufually glazed in that age abroad, 
 as well as in thefe parts, we learn from Bede ; who, fpeaking 
 of the church on Mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerufa- 
 lem, fays, " In the weft front of it were eight windows, 
 which on fome occafions ufed to be illuminated with lamps, 
 which (hone fo bright through the glafs, that the mount 
 ■kemed in a blaze." Bedae Lib. cJeLo^is Sanctis, cap. vi. 
 
 h 2 Henry 
 
too 
 
 ^APtMN grose's 
 
 Henry II. ; fo that there feems to be little or no 
 ground for a diftinction between the SaxOn and 
 Norman architecture. Indeed, it is faid the 
 buildings of the latter were of larger dimen- 
 fions, both in height and area; and they were 
 conftructed with a ftone brought from Caen in 
 Normandy, of which their workmen were pe- 
 culiarly fond ; but this was limply an alteration 
 in the fcale and materials, and not in the man- 
 ner of the building. The ancient parts of moft 
 of our cathedrals are of this early Norman 
 work. 
 
 The characteriftic marks of this ftyle are thefe : 
 The walls are very thick, generally without 
 buttrefles ; the arches, both within and without, 
 as well as thofe over the doors and windows, 
 femicircular, and fupported by very folid, or 
 rather clumfy columns, with a kind of regular 
 bafe and capital : in lliort, plainnefs and folidity 
 conftitute the finking features of this method 
 of building. Neverthelefs, the architects of 
 thofe days fometimes deviated from this rule : 
 their capitals were adorned with carvings of fo- 
 liage, and even animals ; and their maffive co- 
 lumns decorated with fmall half-columns united 
 to them, and their furfaces ornamented with 
 fpirals, fquares, lozenge net-work, and other 
 figures, either engraved or in relievo : various 
 inftances of thefe may be feen in the cathedral 
 
 of 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 101 
 
 of Canterbury, particularly the under-croft, the 
 monaftery at Lindisfarn or Holy Ifland, the ca- 
 thedral at Durham, and the ruined choir at Or- 
 ford in Suffolk. Their arches too, though 
 generally plain, fometimes came in for more 
 than their (hare of ornaments ; particularly thofe 
 over the chief doors : fome of thefe were over- 
 loaded with a profusion of carving. 
 
 It would be impoffible to defcribe the differ- 
 ent ornaments there crowded together ; which 
 feem to be more the extemporaneous product of 
 a grotefque imagination than the refult of any 
 particular defign. On fome of thefe arches is 
 commonly over the key-ftone, reprefented God 
 the Father, or our Saviour, furrounded with 
 angels ; and below a melange of foliage, ani- 
 mals, often ludicrous, and fometimes even in- 
 decent fuhjects. Partly of this fort is the great 
 door at Barfrefton church in Kent. The frizes 
 round churches were alfo occasionally ornamented 
 with grotefque human heads, monfters, figures 
 playing on different muiical inftruments, and 
 other whimhxal devices, of which the church 
 at Barfrefton above mentioned, and that of Ad- 
 dcrbury in Suffolk, afford linking fpecimens. 
 
 The idea of thefe artifts feems to have been, 
 that the greater number of fmall and diffimilar 
 fubjects they could there affemble, the more 
 beautiful they rendered their work. It is not 
 h 3 however 
 
captain grose's 
 
 however to be denied, that the extreme richnefs 
 of thefe inferior parts ferved, by their ftriking 
 contrail:, to fet off the venerable plainnefs of the 
 reft of the building ; a circumftance wanting in 
 the Gothic ftructures ; which, being equally 
 ornamented all over, fatigue and diftracl:, rather 
 than gratify the eye. 
 
 I would not here be underftood to alTert that 
 all the Saxon ornamented arches were devoid oi 
 beauty and tafte ; on the contrary, there are 
 feveral wherein both are difpbyed, particularly 
 in fome belonging to the church of Ely. Be- 
 iides the ornaments here mentioned, which fecm 
 always to have been left to the fancy of the 
 fculptor, they had others, which were in com- 
 mon ufe, and are more regular. Moil of them 
 are mentioned by Mr. Bentham in his ingenious 
 preface to the Hiltory of Ely h ; and fpccimens 
 of them are given in the mifcellaneous plate. 
 
 About the time of Alfred probably, but cer- 
 tainly In the reign of Edgar 1 , high towers and 
 crofs ifles were firft introduced : the Saxon 
 churches till then being only fquare or oblong 
 buildings, generally turned femicircularly at the 
 
 h cc As to their arches, though they were for the moft 
 jpart plain and fimple, yet fome of their principal ones"] — 
 \« as they contribute to ascertain the age of an edifice at 
 firft- fight/' (See Mr. Bentham, p. 68, 69, 70, to the end 
 f>f the paragraph.) 
 
 I Vide note c p. 96, 
 
 eaft 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 eaft end. Towers at firft. fcarcely rofe higher than 
 the roof ; being intended chiefly as a kind of 
 lantern, for the admittance of light. An addition 
 to their height was in all likelihood fuggefted 
 on the more common ufe of bells ; which, 
 though mentioned in fome of our monafteries in 
 the feventh century, were not in ufe in churches 
 till near the middle of the tenth. 
 
 To what country or people the ftyle of archi- 
 tecture called Gothic owes its origin is by no 
 means fatisfactorily determined 1 ". It is indeed 
 generally conjectured to be of Arabian extrac- 
 tion, and to have been introduced into Europe 
 by fome perfons returning from the crufades in 
 the Holy Land. Sir Chriftopher Wren 1 was 
 
 of 
 
 k ee The ftyle of building with pointed arches is modern, 
 and feems not to have been known in the world till the Goths 
 ceafed," &c.] — [" it is of king Stephen's time; whether 
 they were originally pierced I cannot learn." (See Mr r 
 Bentham, p. 75, 76.) 
 
 1 Thefe furveys, and other occafional infpe&ions of the 
 moft noted cathedral churches and chapels in England and 
 foreign parts; a difcernment of no contemptible art, inge- 
 nuity, and geometrical fkill in the defign and execution of 
 fome few, and an affectation of height and grandeur, though 
 without regularity and good proportion in moft of them, in- 
 duced the furveyor to make fome inquiry into the rife and 
 progrefs of this Gothic mode, and to confider how the old 
 Greek and Roman ftyle of building, with the feveral regular 
 proportions of columns, entablatures, &c. came, within a 
 few centuries, to be fo much altered, and almoft univerfally 
 difufed. 
 
 He was of opinion (as has been mentioned in another 
 place) that what we now vulgarly call the Gothic ought pro- 
 
 h 4 petty 
 
104 
 
 captain Grose's 
 
 perly and truly to be named the Saracenic architecture, re- 
 fined by the Chriftiansj which firft of all began in the Eaft, 
 after the fall of the Greek empire, by the prodigious fuccefs 
 of thofe people that adhered to Mahomet's doctrine ; who, 
 out of zeal to their religion, built mofques, caravanferas, 
 and fepulchres wherever they came. 
 
 Thefe they contrived of a round form, becaufe they would 
 not imitate the Chriftian figure of a crofs, nor the old Greek 
 manner, which they thought to be idolatrous ; and for that 
 reafon all fcujpture became offenfive to them. 
 
 They then full into a new mode of their ow r n invention, 
 though it might have been expected with better fenfe, con- 
 fidering the Arabians wanted not geometricians in that age ; 
 nor the Moors, who tranflated many of the mod ufeful old 
 Greek books. As they propagated their religion with great 
 diligence, fo they built mofques in all their conquered cities 
 in hafte. 
 
 The quarries of great marble, by which the vanquiflied 
 nations of Svria, Egypt, and all the Eaft had been fupplied 
 for columns, architraves, and great, ftones, were now de- 
 ferted ; the Saracens therefore were necelikatcd to accom- 
 modate their architecture to fuch materials, whether marble 
 or freeftone, as every country readily afforded. They thought 
 columns and heavy cornices impertinent, and might be 
 omitted ; and affecting the round form for mofques, they 
 elevated cupolas in fomc inflances with grace enough. 
 
 The Holy war gave the Chriftians who had been there 
 an idea ot the Saracen works ; which were afterwards by 
 them imitated in the Weil : and they refined upon it every 
 day, as they proceeded in building churches. The Ita- 
 lians (among which were yet fume Greek refugees), and 
 with them French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a 
 fraternity of architects; procuring papal bulls for their en- 
 couragement, and particular privileges : they ltvled them- 
 felves Freemafons, and ranged from one nation to another 
 as they found churches to be built (for very many in thole 
 ages were every where in building, through piety or emu- 
 lation) . 
 
 Their government was regular, and where they fixed near 
 the building in hand they made a camp of huts. A fur- 
 veyor governed in chief; every tenth man was called a 
 warden, and overlooked each nine : the gentlemen of the. 
 neighbourhood, either out of charity or commutation of pe- 
 nance, gave the materials and carriages, Thofe who have 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 feen the exact accounts in records of the charge of the fabrics 
 of fome of our cathedrals, near four hundred years old, 
 cannot but have a great efteem for their economy, and ad- 
 mire how foon they erected fuch lofty (fractures. Indeed, 
 great height they thought the greateft magnificence : few 
 (tones were ufed but what a man might carry up a lad- 
 der on his back from fcaffold to fcaffold, though they had 
 pullies and fpoked wheels upon occafion ; but having re- 
 jected cornices, they had no need of great engines : Hone 
 upon Hone was eafily piled up to great heights ; therefore 
 the pride of their works was in pinnacles and (teeples. 
 
 In this they elfentially differed from the Roman way, who 
 bad all their mouldings horizontally, which made the bed 
 perfpective : the Gothic way, on the contrary, carried all 
 their mouldings perpendicular; fo that the ground-work 
 being fettled, they had nothing elfe to do but to fpire all up 
 as they could. Thus they made their pillars of a bundle of 
 little torus's, which they divided into more when they came 
 to the roof ; and thefe torus's fplit into many fmall ones, 
 and traverfing one another, gave occafion to the tracery 
 work, as they call it, of which the fociety were the invent- 
 ors. They ufed the (harp-headed arch, which \vould rife 
 with little centring, required lighter key (tones and lefs 
 buttment, and yet would bear another row of doubled 
 arches, riling from the keyftone; by the diverfifying of 
 which they erected eminent (tructures ; fuch as the (teeples 
 of Vienna, Strafburg, and many others. They affected 
 (teeples, though the Saracens themfelves mod ufed cupolas. 
 The church of St. Mark at Venice is built after the Saracen 
 manner. Glafs began to be ufed in windows, and a great 
 part of the outride ornaments of churches confifted in the 
 tracery works of difpofing the mullions of the windows for 
 the better fixing in of the glafs. Thus the work required 
 fewer materials, and the workmanfhip was for the molt 
 part performed by flat moulds, in which the wardens could 
 eafily inftruct hundreds of artificers. It mutt be confeffe/l, 
 this was an ingenious compendium of work fuited to thefe 
 northern climates ; and I muft alio own, that works of the 
 fame height and magnificence in the Roman way would be 
 very much more expenlive than in the other Gothic manner, 
 managed with judgment. But as all modes, when once the 
 old rational ways are defpifed, turn at laft into unbounded 
 fancies, this tracery induced too much mincing of the (tone 
 into open battlements, and fpindling pinnacles, and little 
 
 carvings 
 
io6 
 
 captain Grose's 
 
 carvings without proportion of diftancc ; fo the efiential 
 rules of good perfpective and duration were forgot. But 
 about two hundred years ago, when ingenious men began 
 to reform the Roman language to the purity which they af- 
 figned and fixed to the time of Auguflus, and that century; 
 the architects alfo, afhamed of the modern barbarity of 
 building, began to examine carefully the ruins of old Rome 
 and Italy, to fearch into the orders and proportions, and to 
 eftablifh them by inviolable rules ; fo to their labours and 
 induftry we owe in a great degree the reftoration of archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 The ingenious Mr. Evelyn makes a general and judicious 
 comparifon, in his Account of Architecture, of the ancient 
 and modern ftyles ; with reference to fome of the particular 
 works of Inigo Jones, and the furveyor ; which in a few 
 words give a right idea of the majeftic fymmetry of the one, 
 and the abfurd fyftem of the other.—" The ancient Greek 
 and Roman architecture anfwer all the perfections required 
 in a faultlefs and accomplimed building ; fuch as for fo many 
 ages were fo renowned and reputed by the univerfal fufltages 
 of the civilized world ; and would doubtlefs have Hill fub- 
 Mcd and made good their claim, and what is* recorded of 
 them, had not the Goths, Vandals, and other barbarous 
 nations fubverted and dcmolifhed them, together with that 
 glorious empire where thofc Irately and pompous monu- 
 ments flood; introducing in their ftead a certain fantaftical 
 and licentious manner of building, which we have fince called 
 modern or Gothic : — congdlions of heavy, dark, melan- 
 choly, and monkifh piles, without any juft proportion, ufc, 
 or beauty, compared with the truly ancient ; fo as when we 
 meet with the greatefl induftry and cxpcnfivc carving, full 
 of fret and lamentable, imagerv, fparing neither of pains nor 
 coil, a judicious fpectator is rather diftracted, or quite con- 
 founded, than touched with that admiration which remits 
 from the true and juft fvmmctry, regular proportion, union, 
 attq difpofTtion ; and from the great and noble manner in 
 which the augufl and glorious fabrics of the ancients are 
 executed." 
 
 Jt was after the irruption of f warms of thofe truculent 
 people from the north, the Moors and Arabs from the fouth 
 and eaft, overrunning the civilized world, that wherever they 
 fixed themfelves they foon began to debauch this noble and 
 uicful art; when, inflcad of thofe beautiful orders, fo majeftical 
 and proper for their flations, becoming variety', and other 
 
 ornamental 
 
ESSAY. 107 
 
 ornamental acceffbries, they fet up thofe flender and mif- 
 ihapen pillars, or rather bundles of {laves, and other Incon- 
 gruous props, to fupport incumbent weights and ponderous 
 arched roofs, without entablature ; and though not without 
 great induftry (as M. d'Aviler well obferves), nor altogether 
 naked of gaudy fculpture, trite and bufy carvings, it is fuch 
 as gluts the eye rather than gratifies and pleafes it with any 
 reafonable fatisfa&ion. For proof of this, without travel- 
 ling far abroad, I dare report myfelf to any man of judgment, 
 and that has the leaft tafte of order and magnificence, if, 
 after he has looked a while upon king Henry the Seventh's 
 chapel at Weftminfter, gazed on its fharp angles, jetties, 
 narrow lights, lame ftatues, lace, and other cut work and 
 crinkle-crankle, and mail then turn his eyes on the Ban- 
 quetting houfe built at Whitehall by Inigo Jones, after the 
 ancient manner ; or on what his Majefty's furveyor, Sir 
 Chriftopher Wren, has advanced at St. Paul's, and confi- 
 der what a glorious obje£l the cupola, porticos, colonnades, 
 and other parts prefent to the beholder ; or compare the 
 ichools and library at Oxford with the theatre there ; or 
 what he has built at Trinity College in Cambridge; and 
 lince all thefe, at Greenwich and other places, by which 
 time our home traveller will begin to have a juft idea of the 
 ancient and modern architecture ; I fay, let him well con- 
 fider, and compare them judicially, without partiality and 
 prejudice, and then pronounce which of the two manners 
 ltrikes the underftanding as well as the eye with the more 
 majefty and folemn greatnefs ; though in fo much a plainer 
 and iimple drefs, conform to the refpeftive orders and en- 
 tablature : and accordingly determine to whom the prefer- 
 ence is due : not as we faid, that there is not fomething of 
 folid, and oddly artificial too, after a fort. But then the 
 univerfal and unreafonable thicknefs of the walls, clumfy 
 buttrelTes, towers, fliarp-pointed arches, doors, and other 
 apertures without proportion ; nonfenfical infertions of va- 
 rious marbles impertinently placed ; turrets and pinnacles 
 thick fet with monkies and chimeras, and abundance of 
 bufy work, and other incongruities, diflipate and break the 
 angles of the fight, and fo confound it, that one cannot 
 confider it with any fteadinefs, where to begin or end; 
 taking off from that noble air and grandeur, bold and grace- 
 ful manner, which the ancients had fo well and judicioufly 
 eftabliftied. But in this fort have they and their followers 
 ever fince filled not Europe alone, but Afia and Africa be- 
 
io8 
 
 captain grose's 
 
 of that opinion m ; and it has been fubfcribed 
 to by moft writers who have treated on this 
 fubjed". If the fuppofition is well grounded, 
 
 it 
 
 fides, with mountains of ftone ; vaft and gigantic buildings 
 indeed ! but not worthy the name of architecture, &c. 
 (Wren's Parentalia, p. 306.) 
 
 m This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture 
 (fo the Italians called what was not after the Roman ftyle), 
 though the Goths were rather deftroyers than builders : I 
 think it mould with more reafon be called the Saracen ftyle ; 
 for thofe people Wanted neither arts nor learning ; and after 
 we in the Weft had loft both, we borrowed again from them, 
 put of their Arabic books, what they with great diligence 
 had tranflateel from the Greeks. They were zealots in their 
 religion ; and wherever they conquered (which was with 
 amazing rapidity) erected mofques and caravanferas in hafte, 
 which obliged them to fall into another way of building ; 
 for they built their mofques round, difliking the Chriftian 
 form of a crofs. The old quarries, whence the ancients 
 took their large blocks of marble for whole columns and 
 architraves, were neglected ; and they thought both imper- 
 tinent. Their carriage was by camels ; therefore their 
 buildings were fitted for fmall ftones, and columns of their 
 own fancy, confifting of many pieces ; and their arches 
 pointed without key-ftones, which they thought too heavy. 
 The reafons were the fame in our northern climates, abound- 
 ing in freeftone, but wanting marble. (Wren's Parentalia, 
 p. 297,) 
 
 . n Modern Gothic, as it is called, is deduced from a 
 different quarter ; it is diftinguifhed by the lightnefs of its 
 work, by the exceffive boldnefs of its elevations, and of its 
 lections; by the delicacy, profufion, and extravagant fancy 
 of its ornaments. The pillars of this kind are as (lender as 
 thofe of the ancient Gothic are maffivc ; fuch productions, 
 fo airy, cannot admit the heavy Goths for their author; 
 how can be attributed to them a ftyle of architecture which 
 was only introduced in the tenth century of our rera ? fe- 
 veral years after the deftruction of all thofe kingdoms which 
 the Goths had raifed upon the ruins of the Roman empire, 
 and at si time when the very name of Goth was entirely 
 
 forgotten ; 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 it feems likely that many ancient buildings of 
 this kind, or at leaft their remains, would be 
 found in thofe countries from whence it is faid 
 to have been brought ; parts of which have at 
 
 forgotten : from all the marks of the new architecture it can 
 only be attributed to the Moors ; or, what is the fame thing, 
 to the Arabians or Saracens ; who have exprefled in their 
 architecture the fame tafte as in their poetry; both the one 
 and the other falfely delicate, crowded with fupertiuous or- 
 naments, and often very unnatural ; the imagination is 
 highly worked up in both ; but it is an extravagant imagi- 
 nation ; and this has rendered the edifices of the Arabians 
 (we may include the other orientals) as extraordinary as 
 their thoughts. If any one doubts of this affertion, let us ap- 
 peal to any one who has feen the mofques and palaces of Fez, 
 or fome of the cathedrals in Spain, built by the Moors : one 
 model of this fort is the church at Burgos ; and even in 
 this illand there are not wanting feveral examples of the 
 fame : fuch buildings have been vulgarly called Modem 
 Gothic, but their true appellation is Arabic, Saracenic, or 
 Morefque. This manner was introduced into Europe through 
 Spain; learning flourifhed among the Arabians all the time 
 that their dominion was in full power; they Mudied philo- 
 fophy, mathematics, phytic, and poetry. The love of 
 learning was at once excited ; in all places that were not at 
 too great diftance from Spain thefe authors were read ; and 
 fuch of the Greek authors as they had tranflated into Ara- 
 bic, were from thence turned into Latin. The phytic' and 
 philofophy of the Arabians fpread themfelves in Europe, and 
 with thefe their architecture : many churches were built 
 after the Saracenic mode ; and others with a mixture of 
 heavy and light proportions : the alteration that the difference 
 of the climate might require was little, if at all, contidercd. 
 In moft fouthern parts of Europe and in Africa the windows 
 (before the ufe of glafs), made with narrow apertures, and 
 placed very high in the walls of the building, occalioned 
 a lhade and darknefs withintide, and were all contrived to 
 guard againll the fierce rays of the fun ; yet were dl-fuited 
 to thofe latitudes, where that glorious luminary (hades its 
 feebler influences, and is rarely feen -but through a watery 
 "cloud. (Rious's Architecture.) 
 
 different 
 
1 10 
 
 captain grose's 
 
 different times been vifited by feveral curious 
 travellers, many of whom have made defigns of 
 what they thought mod remarkable. Whether 
 they overlooked or neglected thefe buildings, as 
 being in fearch of thofe of more remote anti- 
 quity, or whether none exifted, feems doubtful. 
 Cornelius le Brun, an indefatigable and inqui- 
 fitive traveller, has publifhed many views of 
 eaftern buildings, particularly about the Holy 
 Land ; in all thefe only one Gothic ruin, the 
 church near Acre, and a few pointed arches, oc- 
 cur ; and thofe built by the ChrifKans, when in 
 poffeffion of the country. Near Ifpahan, in 
 Perfia, he gives feveral buildings with pointed 
 arches ; but thefe are bridges and caravanferas, 
 whofe age cannot be afcertained ; confequently, 
 are as likely to have been built after as before 
 the introduction of this ffcyle into Europe. 
 
 At Ifpahan itfelf, the Mey Doen, or grand 
 market-place, is furrounded by divers magni- 
 ficent Gothic buildings ; particularly the royal 
 mofque, and the Talael Ali-kapie, or theatre. 
 The magnificent bridge of Alla-werdie-chan, 
 over the river Zenderoet, five hundred and forty 
 paces long, and feventeen broad, having thirty- 
 three pointed arches, is alfo a Gothic ftructure ; 
 but no mention is made when or by whom thefe 
 were built. The Chiaer Baeg, a royal garden, is 
 decorated with Gothic buildings; but thefe 
 
 were, 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 I I I 
 
 were, it is laid, built only in the reign of Scha 
 Abbas, who died anno 1629. 
 
 One building indeed at firft feems as if it would 
 corroborate this affertion, and that the time when 
 it was erected might be in fome degree fixed ; 
 it is the tomb of Abdalla , one of the apoftles 
 of Mahomet, probably him furnamed Abu Beer. 
 
 Le vingt-troifieme de ce mois nous allames encore en 
 cercmonie au village de Kaladoen, a une bonne licue de la 
 ville, pour y voir le tombeau d'Abdulla. On dit que ee 
 faint avoit autrefois l'infpcdtion des eux d'Emoen Ofleyn, et 
 qu'il etoit un des douze defcipies, ou a ce qu'ils pretendent, 
 un des apotres de leur prophete. Ce tombeau, qui eft place 
 entre quatre murailles, revetues de petites pierres, eft de 
 marbre gris, orne de caraeleres Arabcs, et entoure de lampes 
 de cuivre etamees ; on y monte par quinze marches d'un 
 pied de haut, et l'on y en trouve quinze autres un peu plus 
 elevees, qui conduifent a unc platte forrne quaree, qui a 
 irente-deux pieds de large de chaque cote, a fur le devantde 
 la quelle ii y a deux colomnes de petites pierres, entre les 
 quelles il s'en trouve de bleues. La bafe cn a cinq pieds de 
 large, et une petite porte, avec un efcalicr a noyeau qui a 
 auffi quinze marches. El les font fort endommagees par les 
 injures du temps, et il paroit qu'elles ont ete une fois plus 
 elevees qu'elles ne font a prefent. L'cfcalier en eft ft etroit 
 qu'il faut qu'un homme de taillc ordinaire fe deftiabille pour 
 y montcr, comme je fis, et paflai la moitie du corps au deflus 
 de la colomne. Mais ce qu'il y a de plus extraordinaire, ell 
 que lors qu'on ebranle une des colomnes en faifant un 
 mouvement du corps ; 1'autre en reffent les fecouffes, et eft 
 agitee du meme ; e'eft une chofe dont j'ai fait l'epreuve, fans, 
 en pouvoir comprendre, ni apprendre la raifon. Pendant que 
 j'eLois occupe a delflner ce batiment, qu'on trouve au N 7 i, 
 un jeune garcon de douze a treize ans, boilu par devant, 
 grimpa en dehors, le long de la muraille, jufqu'au haut de 
 ia colomne dont il fit le tour, et rcdefcendit de meme fans fe 
 tenir a quoi que ce foit, qu'aux petites pierres, de ce bati- 
 ment, aux endroits ou la chaux en etoit detachee; et'il ne 
 le fit que pour nous devertir. (Voyage de Le Brun P torn. i. 
 p. 186.) 
 
 If 
 
112 
 
 captain grose's 
 
 If this tomb is fuppofed to have been built 
 foon after his death, eftimating that even to 
 have happened according to the common courfe 
 of nature, it will place its erection about the 
 middle of the feventh century : but this is by 
 far too conjectural to be much depended on. It 
 alfo feems as if this was not the common ftyle 
 of building at that time, from the temple of 
 Mecca ; where, if any credit is to be given to 
 the print of it, in Sale's Koran, the arches are 
 femicircular. The tomb here mentioned has 
 one evidence to prove its antiquity ; that of be- 
 ing damaged by the injuries of time and wea- 
 ther. Its general appearance much refembles 
 the eaft end of the chapel belonging to Ely 
 Houfe, London ; except that which is filled up 
 there by the great window : in the tomb is an 
 open pointed arch ; where alfo the columns, or 
 pinnacles, on each fide are higher in proportion. 
 
 Some have fuppofed that this kind of archi- 
 tecture was brought into Spain by the Moors 
 (who poffeffed themfelves of a great part of 
 that country the beginning of the eighth cen- 
 tury, which they held till the latter end of the 
 fifteenth) ; and tbat from thence, by way of 
 France p, it was introduced into England. This 
 
 at 
 
 p The Saracen mode of building feen in the Eaft foon 
 fpread over Europe, and particularly in France, the failiions 
 
 of 
 
ESSAY* 11^ 
 
 at fir ft feems plaufible ; though the only inftance 
 which feems to corroborate this hypothefis, or 
 
 of which nation we affe&ed to imitate in all ages, even when 
 w e were at enmity with it. Nothing was thought magni- 
 ficent that was not high beyond meafure, with the flutter 
 of arch buttrefles, fo we call the doping arches that poife 
 the higher vaultings of the nave. The Romans always con- 
 cealed their butments, whereas the Normans thought them 
 ornamental. Thefe I have obferved are the firft things that 
 occafion the ruin of cathedrals, being fo much expofed to 
 the air and weather ; the coping, which cannot defend them, 
 firft failing, and if they give way the vault muft fpread. 
 Pinnacles are of no ufe, and as little ornament. The pride 
 of a very high roof, raifed above reafonable pitch, is not for 
 duration, for the lead is apt to flip ; but we are tied to this 
 indifcreet form, and muft be contented with original faults 
 in the firft defign. But that which is moft to be lamented, 
 is the unhappy choice of the materials : the ftone is decayed 
 four inches deep, and falls off perpetually in great fcales. I 
 find after the Gonqueft all our artifts were fetched from Nor- 
 mandy j they loved to work in their own Caen ftone, which 
 is more beautiful than durable. This was found expenfive 
 to bring hither ; fo they thought Ryegate ftone, in Surry, 
 the neareft like their own, being a ftone that would faw and 
 work like wood, but not durable, as is manifeft : and they 
 ufed this for the aflilar of the whole fabric, which is, now 
 disfigured in the higheft degree. This ftone takes in water, 
 which, being frozen, fcales off ; whereas good ftone gathers 
 a cruft and defends itfelf, as many of our Englifti freeftones 
 do. And though we have alfo the beft oak timber in the 
 world ; yet thefe fenfelefs artificers, in Weftminfter hall and 
 other places, would work their chefnuts from Normandy : 
 that timber is not natural to England ; it works finely, but 
 fooner decays than oak. The roof in the abbey is oak, but 
 mixed with chefnut, and wrought after a bad Norman 
 manner, that does not fecure it from ftretching and damag- 
 ing the walls ; and the water of the gutters is ill carried off. 
 All this is faid, the better, in the next place, to reprefent 
 to your lordftiip what has been done, and is wanting ftill 
 to be carried on ; as time and money is allowed to make a 
 fubftantial and durable repair, (Wren's Parentalia, p. 298.) 
 
 I at 
 
114 captain grose's 
 
 at leafr. the only one proved by authentic draw- 
 ings, is the mofque at Cordova in Spain ; where, 
 according to the views publifhed by Mr. Swin- 
 burne, although mod of the arches are circular, 
 or horfe-fhoe fafhion, there are fome pointed 
 arches, formed by the interfection of two feg- 
 ments of a circle. This mofque was, as it is 
 there faid, begun by Abdoulrahman the firft, 
 who laid the foundation two years before his 
 death, and was finifhed by his fon HifTem or If- 
 can about the year 800. If thefe arches were part 
 of the original ftructure, it would be much in 
 favour of the fuppofition ; but, as it is alfo 
 faid, that edifice has been more than once altered 
 and enlarged by the Mahometans, before any 
 well-grounded conclufion can be drawn, it is 
 neceffary to afcertain the date of the prefent 
 building. 
 
 There are alfo feveral pointed arches in the 
 Moorifh palace at Grenada, called theAlhambra ; 
 but as that was not built till the year 1273, long 
 after the introduction of pointed arches into 
 Europe, they are as likely to be borrowed by 
 the Moors from the Chriftians, as by the Chrif- 
 tians from the Moors. The greateft peculiarity in 
 the Moorifh architecture is the horfe-fhoe arch q , 
 
 q As delineation gives a much clearer idea of forms and 
 figures than the mod laboured defcription, the reader is 
 referred to the plates in Swinburne's Travels, where there are 
 many horfe-lhoe arches, both rouad aad pointed. 
 
 which, 
 
ESSAY. IT5 
 
 which, containing more than a femicircle, con- 
 tracts towards its bafe, by which it is rendered 
 unfit to bear any confidcrable weight, being 
 folely calculated for ornament. In Romefy 
 church, Hamplhire, there are feveral arches 
 fomewhat of that form. 
 
 In the drawings of the Moorifh buildings given 
 in Les Delices de PEfpagne, faid to be faithful 
 reprefentations, there are no traces of the flyle 
 called Gothic architecture ; there, as well as in 
 the Moorifh caftle at Gibraltar, the arches are 
 all reprefented circular. Perhaps a more gene- 
 ral knowledge of thefe buildings would throw 
 iome lights on the fubjecT:, at pre fetit almoft en- 
 tirely enveloped in obfcurity : poffibly the Moors 
 may, like us, at different periods, have ufed 
 different manners of building. Having thus in 
 vain attempted to difcover from whence we had 
 this flyle, let us turn to what is more certainjy 
 known, the time of its introduction into this 
 kingdom, and the fuccefTive improvements and 
 changes it has undergone. 
 
 Its firft appearance here was towards the latter 
 end of the reign of king Henry II. but it was 
 not at once thoroughly adopted ; fome fliort folid 
 columns, and femicircular arches, being re- 
 tained and mixed with the pointed ones. An 
 example of this • is feen in the weft end of the 
 
 1 a old 
 
n6 captain grose's 
 
 old Temple church ; and at York, where, under 
 the choir, there remains much of the ancient 
 work ; the arches of which are but juft pointed, 
 and rife on Ihort round pillars : both thefe were 
 built in that reign. More inflances might be 
 brought, was not the thing probable in itfelf ; 
 new inventions, even when ufeful, not being 
 readily received. The great weft tower of Ely 
 cathedral was built by bifhop Rydel, about this 
 time : thofe arches were all pointed. 
 
 In the reign of Henry III. this manner of 
 building feems to have gained a complete foot- 
 ing ; the circular giving place to the pointed arch, 
 and the maflive column yielding to the flender 
 pillar. Indeed, like all novelties, when once 
 admitted, the rage of fafhion made it become 
 fo prevalent, that many of the ancient and folid 
 buildings, erected in former ages, were taken 
 down, in order to be re-edified in the new tafte ; 
 or had additions patched to them of this mode 
 of architecture. The prefent cathedral church 
 of Salisbury was begun early in this reign, and 
 finifhed in the year 1258. It is entirely in the 
 Gothic ftyle, and, according to Sir Chriftopher 
 Wren, may be juftly accounted one of the beft 
 patterns of architecture of the age in which it 
 was built. Its excellency is undoubtedly in a 
 great meafure owing to its being conftructed on 
 4 one 
 
ESSAY. Iiy 
 
 one plan ; whence arifes that fymmetry and 
 agreement of parts not to be met with in many of 
 our other cathedral churches, which have moftly 
 been built at different times, and in a variety 
 of ftyles. The fafhionable manner of building 
 at this period, and till the reign of Henry VIII. 
 as is defcribed by Mr. Bentharn, fee in note 1 . 
 
 In the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. 
 or rather towards the latter end of that of 
 Henry VII. when brick building became com- 
 mon, a new kind of low pointed arch grew 
 much in ufe : it was defcribed from four cen- 
 tres, was very round at the haunches, and the 
 angle at the top was very obtufe. This fort of 
 arch is to be found in every one of cardinal 
 Wolfey's buildings ; alfo at Weft Sheen ; an 
 ancient brick gate at Mite End, called King 
 John's Gate ; and in the great gate of the palace 
 of Lambeth. From this time Gothic architec- 
 ture began to decline, and was foon after f up- 
 planted by a mixed flyle, if one may venture 
 to call it one ; wherein the Grecian and Go- 
 thic, however difcordant and irreconcilable, are 
 jumbled together. Concerning this mode of 
 building, Mr. Warton, in his Obfervations on 
 
 r (t During the whole reign of Henry III. the fafhionable 
 pillars to our churches were"] — [" one can hardly help con- 
 cluding, that architecture arrived at its higheft point of glory 
 in this kingdom but juft before its final period." (See Mr. 
 Bentharn, p. 80 — 83.) 
 
 i 7 $penfer's 
 
Tl8 
 
 captain grose's 
 
 Spenfer's Fairy Queen, has the following anec- 
 dotes and remarks : 
 
 Did arife 
 
 On (lately pillours, framd afcr the Doricke guife. 
 
 " Although the Roman or Grecian architec- 
 ture did not begin to prevail in England till the 
 time of Inigo Jones ; yet our communication 
 with the Italians, and our imitation of their 
 manners, produced fome fpecimens of that ftyle 
 much earlier. Perhaps the earlieft is Somerfet 
 houfe in the Strand, built about the year 1549, 
 by the duke of Somerfet, uncle to Edward VI. 
 The monument of. bimop Gardiner, in Whi- 
 chever cathedral, made in the reign of Mary, 
 about 1555, is decorated with Ionic pillars; 
 Spenfcr's verfes here quoted bear an alluiion 
 to fome of thefe falhionable improvements in 
 building, which at this time were growing 
 more and more into cfreem. Thus alio biihop 
 Hall, who wrote about the fame time ; viz, 
 1598: 
 
 There findeft thou fome ftatcly Doricke frame, 
 Or neat Ionicke work. 
 
 But thefe ornaments were often abfurdly intro- 
 duced into the old Gothic ftyle ; as in the mag- 
 nificent portico of the Schools at Oxford, erecled 
 about the year 161 3; where the builder, in a 
 
 Gothic 
 
ESSAY. 119 
 
 Gothic edifice, has affectedly difplayed his uni- 
 versal fkill in the modern architecture, by giving 
 us all the five orders together. However, molt 
 of the great buildings of queen Elizabeth's 
 reign have a ftyle peculiar to themfelves both 
 in form and finifhing ; where, though much of 
 the old Gothic is retained, and great part of the 
 new talte is adopted, yet neither predominates ; 
 while both, thus diltinctly blended, compofe a 
 fantaitic fpecies hardly reducible to any clafs or 
 name. One of its characterises is the affecta- 
 tion of large and lofty windows ; where, fays 
 Bacon, you fhall have fometimes fair houfes fo 
 full of glafs that one cannot tell where to be- 
 come to be out of the fun." . 
 
 The marks which conltitute the character of 
 Gothic or Saracenical architecture, are, its nu- 
 merous and prominent buttreffes, its lofty fpires 
 and pinnacles, its large and ramified windows, 
 its ornamental niches or canopies, its fculptured 
 faints, the delicate lace-work of its fretted roofs, 
 and the profufion of ornaments lavifhed indif- 
 criininately over the whole building : but its 
 peculiar diltinguiming characterises are, the 
 fmall clufhered pillars and pointed arches, formed 
 by the fegments of two interfering circles ; 
 which arches, though Lift brought into ufe, are 
 evidently of more fimple and obvious conltruc- 
 tiori than the femicircular ones £ two flat ltones, 
 
 1 4 with 
 
120 
 
 captain Grose's 
 
 with their tops inclined to each other, and 
 touching, form its rudiments ; a number of 
 boughs ftuck into the ground oppofite each other, 
 and tied together at the top, in order to form a 
 bower, exactly defcribe it : whereas a femicir- 
 cular arch appears the refult of deeper contri- 
 vance, as confifting of more parts ; and it feems 
 lefs probable, chance, from whence all thefe 
 inventions were fir ft derived, fhould throw feve- 
 ral wedge-like ftones between two fet perpendi- 
 cular, fo as exactly to fit and fill up the interval. 
 
 Bifhop Warburton, in his notes on Pope's 
 Epiftles, in the octavo edition, has fome inge- 
 nious obfervations on this fubject, which are 
 given in the note 5 : to which it may not be im- 
 proper 
 
 • Our Gothic anceftors had jufter and manlier notions 
 of magnificence, on Greek and Roman ideas, than thefe 
 mimics of tafte who profefs to fludy only claffic elegance : 
 and becaufe the thing does honour to the genius of thofe 
 barbarians, I fhall endeavour to explain it. All our ancient 
 churches are called without diftin&ion Gothic, but erro- 
 neoufly. They are of two forts ; the one built in the Saxon 
 times, the other in the Norman. Several cathedral and 
 collegiate churches of the fir ft fort are yet remaining, either 
 in whole or in part ; of which this was the original : when 
 the Saxon kings became Chriftians, their piety (which was 
 the piety of the times) connftcd chiefly in building churches 
 at home, and performing pilgrimages abroad, efpecially to 
 the Holy Land : and thefe fpiritual exercifes affifted and 
 fupported one another. For the mod venerable as well as 
 molt elegant models of religious edifices were then in Palef- 
 tine. From thefe the Saxon builders took the whole of 
 their ideas, as may be feen by comparing the drawings 
 which travellers have given us of the churches yet (landing 
 
ESSAY. 
 
 121 
 
 proper to add fome particulars relative to Caen 
 
 ftone, 
 
 in that country, with the Saxon remains of what we find 
 at home ; and particularly in that famenefs of ilyle in the 
 latter religious edifices of the knights templars (profefiedly 
 built upon the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 at Jerusalem) with the earlier remains of our Saxon edifices. 
 Now the architecture of the Holy Land was Grecian, but 
 greatly fallen from its ancient elegance. Our Saxon per- 
 formance was indeed a bad copy of it ; and as much infe- 
 rior to the works of St. Helene and Juflinian as theirs were 
 to the Grecian models they had followed : yet ftill the foot- 
 fteps of ancient art appeared in the circular arches, the 
 entire columns, the divifion of the entablature into a fort 
 of architrave, frize, and corniche, and a folidity equally 
 diffufed over the whole mafs. This, by way of diiHnction, 
 I would call the Saxon architecture. But our Norman 
 works had a very different original. When the Goths had 
 conquered Spain, and the genial warmth of the climate and 
 the religion of the old inhabitants had ripened their wits 
 and inflamed their miftaken piety (both kept in exercife by 
 the neighbourhood of the Saracens, through emulation of 
 their fervice and averflon to their fuperftition), they ftruck 
 out a new fpecies of architecture, unknown to Greece and 
 Rome ; upon original principles, and ideas much nobler 
 than what had given birth even to claflical magnificence. For 
 this northern people having been accuftomed, during the 
 gloom of Paganifm, to worfhip the Deity in groves (a prac- 
 tice common to all nations), when their new religion re- 
 quired covered edifices, they ingenioufly projected to make 
 them refemble groves as nearly as the diftance of architec- 
 ture would permit ; at once indulging their old prejudices 
 and providing for their prefent conveniences by a cool re^ 
 eeptacle in a fultry climate; and with what (kill and fuccefs 
 they executed the project, by the affiftance of Saracen ar- 
 chitects, whofe exotic ftyle of building very luckily fuited 
 their purpofe, appears from hence, that no attentive ob- 
 ferver ever viewed a regular avenue of well-grown trees, in- 
 termixing their branches over head, but it prefently put 
 him in mind of the long vifto through the Gothic cathedral ; 
 or even entered one of the larger and more elegant edifices 
 of this kind, but it prefented to his imagination an avenue of 
 trees j and this alone is what can be truly called the Gothic 
 
122 
 
 captain grose's 
 
 ftone, with which many of our ancient cathe- 
 drals are built, as extracted from fome curious 
 
 ftyle of building. Under this idea of fo extraordinary a 
 fpecies of architecture, all the irregular tranfgreffions again It 
 art, all the monftrous offences againft nature, difappear ; 
 every thing has its reafon, every thing is in order, and an 
 harmonious whole arifes from the ftudious application of 
 means proper and proportioned to the end. For could the 
 arches be otherwife than pointed, when the workmen were 
 to imitate that curve which branches of two oppolite trees 
 make by their infertion with one another ; or could the 
 columns be otherways than fplit into diltinct {hafts when 
 they were to reprefent the ftems of a clump of trees growing 
 clofe together ? On the fame principles they formed the 
 fprcading ramification of the ftone-work in the windows, 
 and the Rained glafs in the interfaces ; the one to reprefent 
 the branches, and the other the leaves, of an opening grove, 
 and both concurred to preferye that gloomy light which in- 
 fpires religious reverence and dread. Lafily, we fee the 
 reafon of their ftudied avernon to apparent folidity in thefe 
 (lupendous manes, deemed fo abfurd by men accuttomcd to 
 the apparent as well as real Itrength of Grecian architecture. 
 Had it been only a wanton exercife of the artift'a {kill to 
 {how he could give real ftrength without the appearance of 
 any, we might indeed admire his fuperior fcience ; but we 
 muft needs condemn his ill judgment. But when one con-r 
 fiders that this furprilmg lightnefs was neceflary to complete, 
 the execution of his idea of a fylvan place of worfhip, one 
 cannot fufficiently admire the ingenuity of the contrivance, 
 This too will account for the contrary qualities in what I 
 call the Saxon architecture. Thefe artitls copiedj as has 
 been faid, from the churches in the Holy Land, which were 
 built on the models of the Grecian architecture, but cor- 
 rupted by prevailing barbarifm ; and {till further depraved 
 by a religious idea. The firft places of Chriftian worlhip 
 were fepulchres and fubterraneous caverns, low and. heavy 
 from ncceffity. When Chriftianity became the religion of 
 the ttate, and fumptuous temples began to be erected, they 
 yet, in regard to the firft pious ages, preferved the maffive 
 {tyle, made ftill more venerable by the church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre ; where this ftyle was, on a double account, fol- 
 lowed and aggravated. 
 
 records 
 
ESSAY. 123 
 
 records originally given in Dr. Ducarrcl's Anglo 
 Norman Antiquities f, 
 
 I mall clofe this article wuh recommending 
 it to fuch as defire more knowledge of thefe 
 matters than is communicated in this flight 
 compilation, to perufe Wren's Parentalia, War-. 
 
 c In page 7 of his preface, it is faid, that the' keeps of 
 the ancient caftles were coined, and their arches faced with 
 ftone, brought from Caen in Normandy. A curious gen- 
 tleman has favoured me with the following particulars re- 
 fpe&ing this ftone : formerly vaft quantities of this ftone 
 were brought to England ; London bridge, Wefiminfter 
 abbey, and many other edifices, being built therewith. Sec 
 Stowc's Survey of London, edit. 1633, p.31, 32, &c. See 
 alfo Rot. Liter, patent.. Norman, de anno 6 Hen. V. p. 1, 
 in. 22. — " De quarreris albas petrse in fuburbio villas de Caen, 
 annexandis dominio regis pro reparatione ecclefiarum, caf- 
 trorum, etfortalitiorum, tarn inAnglia quam in Normannia." 
 See alfo Rot. Normannias, de anno 9 Hen. V. m. 31, dorf. 
 — " Arreftando naves pro tranfportatione lapidum et pe- 
 trarum, pro conftruclione abbatioe fancli Petri de Weftmm- 
 fter a partibus Cadomi." Ibid. m. 30. — " Pro domo Jefu 
 de Bethleem de Shene, de lapidibus in quarreris circa villain 
 de Cadomo capiendis pro conftruclione eccleliai, clauftri, et 
 cellarum domus praedi6tae." See alfo Rot. Francise, de 
 anno 35 Hen. VI. m. 2. — " Pro falvo conduclu ad fuppli- 
 cationeni abbatis ct conventus beati Petri YVeftmonafterii, 
 pro mcrcatoribus de Caen in Normannia, veniendis in An- 
 gliam cuni lapidibus de Caen pro reparatione monafterii 
 pnedi&i. Teite rege apud Weftm. 15 die Augufti." See 
 alfo Rot. Francias, de anno 38 Hen. VI. m. 23. — u De falvo 
 conduclu pro nave de Caen in regnum Anglice- revenienda, 
 cum lapidibus de Caen pro reparatione monafterii de Weft- 
 minfter. Tefte rege apud Weftm. 9 die Maii." — Now, how- 
 ever, the exportation of this ftone out of France is fo ftrictly 
 prohibited, that when it is to be lent by fea, the owner of 
 the ftone, as well as the mafter of the velfel on board which 
 it is to be lliippcd, is obliged to give fecurity that it ftiall 
 not be fold to foreigners. 
 
 ton's 
 
124 captain grose's essay. 
 
 ton's Thoughts on Spenfer's Fairy Queen, and 
 the Ornaments of Churches confidered ; but 
 above all, Mr. Bentham's DifTertation on Saxon 
 and Norman architecture, prefixed to his Hif- 
 tory of Ely, to which the author of this account 
 efteems himfelf much beholden. 
 
 REV. 
 
( i as ) 
 
 REV. J. MILNER's ESSAY 
 
 On the Rife and Progrefs of the Pointed Arch *. 
 
 E church of St. Crofs, which is regularly 
 built, in the cathedral form, confifts of a nave 
 and fide ifles 150 feet long, a tranfept which 
 meafures 120 feet, and a large fquare tower 
 over the inter fection. It is entirely the work 
 of De Blois, except the front and upper ftory 
 of the weft end, which are of a latter date, and 
 feem to have been an effort of that great encou- 
 rager of the arts b to produce a ftyle of architec- 
 ture more excellent, and better adapted to eccle- 
 flaftical purpofes, than what had hitherto been 
 
 1 Hiflory and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchefler, 
 vol. ii. p. 148. 
 
 b <c Hie quicquam in beftiis, quicquam in avibus, quic- 
 quam in monftris terrarum variis peregrinum magis, et prae 
 oculis hominum vehementius obftupendum et admiranduni 
 audire vel excogitare potuerat, tanquam innatae nobilitatis 
 indicia congerebat. Prasterea opera mira, palatia fumptu- 
 ofiflima, ftagna grandia, ductus aquarum difficiles ipogeof- 
 que, varia per loca meatus, denique ea quae regibus ter- 
 rarum magnis dimcillima fa£tu vifa funt ha&enus et quafi 
 defperata, efFe&ui mancipari tanquam facillima, mira mag- 
 nanimitate procurabat." Girald. Cambrenf. De Hen. 
 Blef. Copula Tergemina. 
 
 known. 
 
 \ 
 
126 REV. J. MILNER's 
 
 known. This ftyle accordingly foon after made 
 its appearance in a regular fhape. The building 
 before us feems to be a collection of architec- 
 tural efTays, with refpect to the difpofition and 
 form both of the elTential parts and of the fub- 
 ordinate ornaments. Here we find the pon- 
 derous Saxon pillar of the fame dimenfions in 
 its circumference as in its length, which, how- 
 ever, fupports an incipient pointed arch. The 
 windows and arches are fome of them fhort, 
 with femicircular heads, and fome of them im- 
 moderately long, and terminating like a lance. 
 Others are in the horfe-fhoe form, of which the 
 entrance into the north porch is the moft curious 
 fpecimen. In one place we have a curious trian- 
 gular arch. The capitals and bafes of the columns 
 alternately vary in their form as well as in their 
 ornaments. The fame circumftance is obfervable 
 in the ribs of the arches, efpecially in the north 
 and fouth ifles, fome of them being plain, others 
 profufely embellifhed, and in different ftyles, 
 even within the fame arch. Here we view almoft 
 every kind of Saxon and Norman ornament, 
 the chevron, the billet, the hatched, the pellet, 
 the fret, the indented, the nebule, the wavey, 
 all fuperiorly executed. But what is chiefly 
 deferving of attention in this ancient church is, 
 what may perhaps be confidered as the flrfl 
 regular ftep to the introduction of that beau- 
 ts tiful 
 
ESSAY. ' 127 
 
 tiful flyle of architecture properly called the 
 pointed, and abulively the Gothic, order ; con- 
 cerning the origin of which moft of our anti- 
 quaries have run into the mod abfurd fyftems. 
 
 Sir Chriftopher Wren, whofe authority has 
 feduced bifliop Lovvth b , Warton, and moft 
 other writers on this fubject, obferving that this 
 ftyle of building prevailed during the time that 
 the nobility of this and the neighbouring coun- 
 tries were in the habit of reforting, in quality 
 of crufaders, to the Eaft, then fubject to the 
 Saracens, fancied that they learnt it there, and 
 brought it back with them into Europe. Hence 
 they termed it the Saracenic ftyle. But it is to 
 be remembered, that the firft or grand crufade 
 took place at the latter end of the eleventh cen- 
 tury, long before the appearance of the pointed 
 architecture in England, France, or Italy, 
 which, if it had been copied from other build- 
 ings, would have appeared amongft us all at 
 once, in a regular and perfect form. But what 
 abfolutely decides this queftion is, the proof 
 brought by Bentham and Grofe, that, through- 
 out all Syria, Arabia, &c. there is not a Go- 
 thic building to be difcovered, except fuch as 
 were raifed by the Latin Chriftians liibfequent 
 tQ_ the perfection of that ftyle in Europe. A 
 
 fc Life of William of Wykeham. 
 
 ftill 
 
128 REV. J. MILNER's 
 
 ftill more extraordinary, or rather extravagant 
 theory, than that which has been confuted, is 
 advanced by bifhop Warburton °* He fuppofes 
 that the " Goths who conquered Spain in 470, 
 becoming Christians, endeavoured to build their 
 churches in imitation of the fpreading and inter- 
 lacing boughs of the groves in which they had 
 been accuftomed to perform their Pagan rites 
 in their native country of Scandinavia, and that 
 they employed for this purpofe Saracen archi- 
 tects, whofe exotic ftyle fuited their purpofe. }> 
 The Vifigoths conquered Spain and became 
 Chriftians in the fifth century ; of courfe they 
 began at the fame time to build churches there. 
 The Saracens did not arrive in Spain until the 
 eighth century ; when, inftead of building 
 churches, they deftroyed them or turned them 
 into mofques. In every point of view this 
 theory afcribes to the pointed architecture too 
 early a date by a great many centuries. But 
 fuppofing even the polfibility of its having lain 
 hidden there for fo long a period, certain it is, 
 that in this cafe, according to our former ob- 
 fervation, it would at laft have burft upon the 
 reft of Europe in a ftate of perfection, contrary 
 to what every one knows was actually the cafe. 
 
 c Notes on Pope's Epiftles. — See Captain Grofe's Eflay, 
 p. 120. 
 
 But 
 
ESSAY. 129 
 
 But why need we recur to the caravanferies 
 of Arabia, or to the forefts of Scandinavia, for 
 A difcovery, the gradations of which we trace 
 at home, in an age of improvement and mag- 
 nificence, namely, the twelfth century, and 
 amongff. a people who were fuperior in arts as 
 well as arms to all thofe above mentioned, 
 namely, the Normans ? About the time we are 
 fpeaking of, many illuftrious prelates of that 
 nation, chiefly in our own country, exhaufted 
 their talents and wealth in carrying the mag- 
 nificence of their churches and other buildings 
 to the greateft height poffible. Amongft thefe 
 were Roger of Sarum, Alexander of Lincoln, 
 Mauritius of London, and Roger of York, each 
 of whofe fucceffive improvements were of courfe 
 adopted by the reft ; neverthelefs, there is reafon 
 to doubt whether any or all of them contributed 
 fo much as our Henry of Winchefter did to 
 thofe improvements which gradually changed 
 the Norman into the Gothic architecture. 
 
 We have remarked that the Normans, affect- 
 ing height in their churches nolefs than length, 
 were accuftomed to pile arches and pillars upon 
 each other, fometimes to the height of three 
 ftories, as we fee in Walkelin's work in our 
 cathedral. They frequently imitated thefe 
 arches and pillars in the mafonry of their plain 
 walls, and, by way of ornament and variety, 
 
 K they 1 
 
1$0 REV. J. MILKER'S 
 
 they fometimes caufed thefe plain round arches 
 to interfect each other, as ve behold in the faid 
 prelate's work, on the upper part of the fouth 
 tranfept of Winchefter catledral, being proba- 
 bly the earlieft inftance of ihis interefling orna- 
 ment to be met with in the kingdom. They 
 were probably not then awire of the happy ef- 
 fect of this interfection, in forming the pointed 
 arch, until De Blois, having refolved to orna- 
 ment the whole fanctuary of the church, at 
 prefent under confideration, with thefe inter- 
 fering femicircles, after richly embellifhing 
 them with mouldings and pellet ornaments, 
 conceived the idea of opening them by way of 
 windows, to the number of four over the altar, 
 and of eight on each fide of the choir, which at 
 once produced a feries of highly pointed arches. 
 Pleafed with the effect of this firft efTay at the 
 eaft end, we may fuppofe that he tried the effect 
 of that form in various other windows and arches 
 which we find amongft many of the fame date 
 that are circular in various parts of the church 
 and tower. However that matter may be, and 
 wherever the pointed arch was firft produced, 
 its gradual afcent naturally led to a long and 
 narrow form of window and arch, inflead of 
 the broad circular ones which had hitherto ob- 
 tained ; and thefe required that the pillars on 
 which they refted, or which were placed at 
 
 their 
 
ESSAY. I3I 
 
 their fides by way of ornament, mould be pro- 
 portionably tall and tflender. Hence it became 
 necefTary to choofe a material of firm texture for 
 compofing them, which occafioned the general 
 adoption of Purbeck marble for this purpofe. 
 But even this fubftamce being found too weak 
 to fupport the incumbent weight, occafioned the 
 fhafts to be multiplied, and thus produced the 
 clufter column. But to return to the arches 
 and windows ; thefe being in general very nar- 
 row, at the firft difcovery of the pointed arch, 
 as we fee in the ruins of Hyde abbey d , built 
 within thirty years after St. Crofs e ; in the re- 
 fectory of Beaulieu, raifed by king John ; and 
 in the infide of the tower before us, built by 
 De Blois himfelf, it became necefTary fometimes. 
 to place two of thefe windows clofe to each 
 other, which not unfrequently flood under one 
 common arch, as may be difcovered in different 
 parts of De Lucy's work in our cathedral, ex- 
 ecuted in the reign of king John, and in the 
 lower tire of the windows in the church of Net- 
 ley abbey. This difpofition of two lights oc- 
 casioning a dead fpace between their heads, a 
 trefoil or quatrefoil, one of the fimpleft and 
 
 d In the part now ufed as a barn. 
 
 e Namely, when erected the fecond time, after having 
 been deftroyed in the civil war between king Stephen and 
 the emprefs Maud. 
 
 k % mofl 
 
\yi REV. j. milner's 
 
 moft ancient kind of ornaments, was introduced 
 between them, as in the porch of Beaulieu refec- 
 tory, the ornamental work of De Lucy, in the 
 ancient part of the Lady chapel, Winton, and the 
 well: door of the prefent church of St. Crofs. The 
 happy effecl: of this fimple ornament caufed the 
 upper part of it to be introduced into the heads 
 of the arches themfelves, fo that there is hardly 
 a fmall arch or the refemblance of an arch of any 
 kind, from the days of Edward II. down to thofe 
 of Henry VIII. which is not ornamented in this 
 manner. The trefoil, by an eafy addition, became 
 a cinquefoil, and being made ufe of in circles and 
 fquares, produced fans and Catherine's wheels. 
 In like manner, large eaft and well: windows 
 beginning to obtain about the reign of Edward I. 
 required that they mould have numerous divifions 
 or mullions, which, as well as the ribs and tran- 
 foms of the vaulting, began to ramify into a great 
 variety of tracery, according to the architect 's tafte, 
 being all of them uniformly ornamented with the 
 trefoil or cinquefoil head. The pointed arch 
 on the outride of a building required a canopy of 
 the fame form, which, in ornamental work, as 
 in the tabernacle of a flatue, mounted up orna- 
 mented with leaves or crockets, and terminated 
 in a trefoil. In like manner, the buttrefTes that 
 were neceffary for the jftrength of thefe buildings 
 could not finifh, conformably to the general ftyle 
 
 of 
 
ESSAY. 133 
 
 of the building, without tapering up into orna- 
 mented pinnacles. A pinnacle of a larger fize 
 became a fpire ; accordingly fuch were raifed 
 upon the fquare towers of former ages, where, 
 as at Salisbury, the funds of the church and 
 other circumftances would permit. Thus we 
 fee how naturally the feveral gradations of the 
 pointed architecture arofe one out of another, 
 as we learn from hiftory was actually the cafe, 
 and how the interfering of two circular arches 
 in the church of St. Crofs may perhaps have 
 produced Salifbury fteeple. 
 
EXPLANATION of the PLATES. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 IS curious and very elegant example is given 
 as a fpecimen of the Saxon or circular ftyle of ar- 
 chitecture, and is taken from Mr. Wilkins's accu- 
 rate print in the 12th volume of the Archaeologia. 
 The following is Mr. Wilkins's account of it : 
 
 <c On the eaft fide of Norwich caftle is a. tower 
 projecting 14 feet, by 27 in breadth, of a richer 
 Hyle of architecture, which I have ventured to call 
 Bigod's tower ; it is decidedly of the tafte in general 
 ufe fubfequent to the Conqueft, and continued 
 through great part of king Stephen's reign ; and it 
 was moft probably repaired and finifhed in its pre-- 
 lent flyle by Hugh Bigpd, who fucceeded his bro- 
 ther William in the conftablefhip of the caflle early 
 in the twelfth century." Archaeologia, vol, xiL; 
 p. 162. 
 
 Mr. King, in a pafTage which Mr. Wilkins with 
 great candour has fubjoined, confiders it as much 
 older. " There is indeed a trace of its having been 
 built in its prefent form by Roger Bigod, about the 
 time of William Rufus, and of its having been 
 finally completed by Thomas de Brotherton, even 
 fo late as the time of Edward II. ; but 1 cannot hei] 
 
 k 4 fufpectin^. 
 
EXPLANATION 
 
 fufpec*ling all this to be a miftake ; for, though it . 
 may be true with regard to the outworks, and the 
 many great buildings enclofed within the limits 
 and outward walls of this caflle, which were for- 
 merly very extenlive and numerous, that a great 
 part of them were built and completed by thofe 
 two powerful lords ; yet, as to the keep, or mafter 
 tower (the only confiderable part now remaining), 
 the ftyle of its architecture is, in many refpecls, fo 
 different from that of the towers erected in the 
 reigns of William Rufus, and Henry I. and IT. 
 and the ornaments are fo different from thofe which 
 were in ufe in the reign of Edward II. (when 
 pointed arches had long been introduced, and were 
 efleemed the raoft elegant of any), that I cannot but 
 think the building of much greater antiquity, and 
 completely Saxon, though it is poffible the ftair- 
 cafe might be repaired, or even rebuilt, by Thomas 
 dc Brotherton, whofe arms are to be feen on a part 
 of the wall. In Ihort, as to the main body of the 
 building, I take it to be the very tower which 
 was erected about the time of king Canute, who, 
 though himfelf a Dane, yet undoubtedly made ufe 
 of many Saxon architects, as the far greater number 
 of his fubjecls were Saxons ; and I am rather in- 
 duced *o form this conclulion, becaufe I can find 
 no authentic account whatever of the deftruclion of 
 the cattle built in Canute's time, either by war or 
 by accident ; or of its being taken down in order to 
 erect the prefent ftrudture, as is fuppofed by fome." 
 Obfervations on Ancient Caftles. Archaeologia, 
 vol. iv. p. 396, 397. 
 
 a Mr. 
 
OF THE PLATES. I37 
 
 Mr. Wilkins further obferves, U The ceiling of 
 this tower is groined with interfering arches of 
 Hone, and its angles are decorated with a very lin- 
 gular kind of hanging billet moulding, projecting 
 ten inches from the ceiling. The firfl floor of Bi- 
 god's tower is a landing from the great flaircafe, and 
 forms a kind of open portico to the entrance of the 
 building ; and a fuperb entrance it muft have been 
 at that time ! The piers are enriched with groups 
 of fmall columns, fupporting arches ornamented 
 with archivolts of mouldings enriched with billet- 
 ing." 
 
 PLATE II. 
 
 Specimen of the cheveron-work, or zig-zag orna- 
 ment, in various pofitions. This is an arched en- 
 trance to the north ifle of the nave of Peterborough 
 cathedral, with the plan applied perfpeclively. Here 
 alfo are fpecimens of Saxon capitals. 
 
 PLATE III. 
 
 VARIOUS ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Fig. 1. The embattled frette, taken from an arch 
 within the church at Sandwich, Kent; 
 aW to be found in moll of our ancient 
 cathedrals. 
 
 Fig. 
 
138 explanation 
 
 Fig. 2. The nail head, taken from arches at Ely. 
 
 3. The triangular frette, taken from an arch at 
 
 Ely. 
 
 4. The billeted mouldings taken from the ruins 
 
 of Binham priory, Norfolk, built by Peter 
 lord Valoins, nephew to William the Con- 
 queror. 
 
 5. The nebule. This is taken from an orna- 
 
 mented fafcia under the parapet of the 
 north and fouth fides of Binham priory. 
 
 6. Section of the fame. 
 
 PLATE IV. 
 
 VARIOUS ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Fig. 1. The hatched moulding, ufed as a firing courfe. 
 
 a. A column of hatched work, in the upper 
 walk of the north tranfept of Norwich 
 cathedral : the plan is octagonal, and nine 
 inches diameter. 
 
 3. Half the defign of a range of curious 
 interfering arches over the weft en- 
 trance of the church at Caftle Rifing in 
 Norfolk. This elegant fpecimen gives a 
 very good idea of the corbel table, if, in- 
 ftead of the pillars and capitals, are fub- 
 flituted the heads of men or animals in 
 the places of the capitals. 
 
 Fig. 
 
 t 
 
OF THE PLATES. 1 39 
 
 Fig. 4. Saxon interfering arches, ufed to adorn inlide 
 walls, &c. The circular veftibule to the 
 Temple church, London, has a curious 
 fpecirnen of this kind. 
 
 5. A fpecimen of zig-zag moulding, with a 
 
 kind of fquare billet moulding, to be found 
 in various old cathedrals. This is taken 
 from a fmall arch which divides the nave 
 from the chancel at Ely. 
 
 6. The billet ornament to a larger fcale. 
 
 7. One of the arches in perfpe6tive in the upper 
 
 walk in the nave of Norwich cathedral. 
 The window is pointed, confequently of 
 modern date. 
 This exhibits an elegant fpecimen of the cir- 
 cular or Saxon ftyle, with the billet 
 moulding ; alfo a fpiral band round one 
 of the columns. 
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 VARIOUS ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Fig> I. Various fpecimens of the nebule. Part of an 
 arch, formerly an entrance on the fouth 
 lide of St. Julian's church in Norwich, 
 probably executed before the Conquer!, 
 as the church was founded before that 
 time. It is four feet fix inches diameter 
 within. 
 
14® EXPLANATION 
 
 Fig. 2. This elegant piece reprefents an afTemblage 
 of many ornaments peculiar to the more 
 ancient or Saxon ftyle. In the arch is 
 the cable, the billet, the zig-zag, and 
 again another kind of cable moulding. 
 The capitals are Saxon, and the columns 
 are varioufly ornamented. This is part 
 of the fouth entrance to Wimboltlham 
 church, in Norfolk. The columns feven 
 inches diameter. 
 
 3, 4, 5, 6. Horizontal mouldings with orna- 
 ments, which are to be met with in Her- 
 ringfleet, Ghleham, and fome few other 
 churches in Suffolk. . 
 
 7. The eaft end of the old conventual church 
 at Ely, built in the time of the Hep- 
 tarchy, A. D. 673, and repaired in king 
 Edgar's reign, A. D. 970. (See page 54.) 
 
 PLATE VI. 
 
 Two of the piers of the ruined chapel at Orford in 
 Suffolk, with their plans : alfo the arch mouldings. 
 
 " The founder of this chapel and the date of its 
 conftruclion are both forgotten, but, from the ftylc 
 of the chancel, appears to be of great antiquity ; it 
 has a double row of thick columns fupporting cir- 
 cular arches, their height equal to their circum- 
 ference, 
 
IS! 
 
 OF THE PLATES. r 41 
 
 fcrence, each meafuring about 1 a feet. Their fur- 
 faces are ornamented in various manners ; and what 
 is extraordinary, the oppofite ones are not alike ; 
 fome having a fmall cylindrical moulding twifting 
 fpirally round them ; fome are crofTed lozenge fa- 
 fliion, being reticulated by an embolfed net- work ; 
 and others, which are fquare, have fmall columns 
 at each of their angles." Grofe. 
 
 All the foregoing examples are taken from the 
 12th volume of the Archaeologia, except fig. 1, 
 plate iv. fig. 4, plate v. and fig. 7, plate v. which 
 is taken from Mr. Bentham's plan of the old ca- 
 thedral church at Ely. 
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 The upper part of one of the weft towers of York 
 cathedral ; which is given as a moft elegant ex- 
 ample of the modern Norman or florid ftyle. This 
 is copied from Mr. Malton's elegant and accurate 
 print of the weft front of York minfter. 
 
 The following plates, VIII. IX. X. are from 
 drawings made by Mr. Cave of Winchefter, the 
 fubje&s felected and explained by the Rev. Mr. 
 
 Miln.er, 
 
142 EXPLANATION 
 
 Milner, and are intended to mark the rife and pro- 
 grefs of the pointed arch. 
 
 References to the Plates tlluftraling the Rife and Pro- 
 grefs of the Pointed Arch. 
 
 PLATE VIII. 
 
 Fig. 1. Saxon piers and arches in the crypts or iiib- 
 terraneous chapels under the eaft end of 
 Winchester cathedral. Thcfe are demon- 
 firatively genuine Saxon workmanlhip, 
 and prior to the Conquefl, having been 
 conftrucled by bilhop St. Ethelwold, and 
 finifhed in the year 980. The arches are 
 fegments of a circle, fupporting a plain 
 vaulting, without ribs or other ornaments. 
 The pilafters or piers are fquare, with two 
 maffive columns in the middle of the main 
 crypt, ferving as butments to all the 
 arches, with a circular member under a 
 fquare abacus. The bafes are fuppofed 
 to be buried feveral feet under the earth, 
 which has been accumulating upon the 
 floor of the crypts during almoft three 
 centuries. There are doorways leading 
 from the centre crypt into thofe of the 
 lide ifles, and others at the eaftern extre- 
 mity. In one of thefe, on the fouth lide, 
 is a well which formerly fupplied all' the 
 water that was ufed in divine fervice. 
 Fig. A is a plan of the crypt. 
 
 Fig. 
 
OF THE PLATES. 143 
 
 Fig. 2. A double Saxon or Norman arch, which 
 formed the portal of the ancient facrifty, 
 between the earl cloifter door and the 
 fouth tranfept in Winchefter cathedral, 
 being the work of bifhop Walkelin, coulin 
 to William the Conqueror, and finifhed 
 by him in the year 1093. The delign and 
 execution of this portal indicate the im- 
 proved ftyle of the Norman architects, in 
 the loftinefs of the arches, the greater re- 
 gularity of the capitals and bafes, together 
 with the ornamental ftyle of the pilafters, 
 which are fluted, and of the arches, which 
 are enriched with the lozenge, the billet, 
 the cheveron, and other plain mould- 
 ings. 
 
 3. A fpecimen of a double arch in the fecond 
 
 ftory of the tranfept in the fame cathe- 
 dral. In this manner of open work the 
 correfponding fecond ftory of the whole 
 church, between the lower and the upper 
 range of windows, was conftructed by the 
 Normans, to avoid the nakednefs of plain 
 walls, carrying up their work to the height 
 of three ftories ; whilft the churches of 
 the Saxons for the moft part confifted of 
 a lingle ftory. 
 
 4. Interfering round arches without pillars or 
 
 mouldings, by way of ornament to the 
 upper part of the fouth tranfept of the 
 
 cathedral, 
 
i 4 4 
 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 cathedral, on the outfide. Thefe being 
 part of the original work, conftructed 
 before the year 1093 f , are prior to the 
 firft crufade, and afford perhaps the ear- 
 lier!: authentic fpecimen of the pointed 
 arch to be met with in the kingdom. 
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 Fig. 1. Interfering circular arches, fupported by 
 Saxon pilafters, both richly ornamented, 
 forming perfect pointed arches. The in- 
 terferons, which are open through the 
 whole thicknefs of the wall, conftitute the 
 windows, to the number of twenty, which 
 enlighten the chancel in the church of St. 
 Crofs, near Winchefler. This being the 
 eafrern end of the facred fabric, where the 
 high altar flood, and of courfe firfl 
 finifhed, muft have been conflructed in 
 the reign of Henry 1.5 
 
 1 The cathedral and adjoining monaftery, which were 
 begun to be rebuilt by Walkelin in 1079, were finifhed by 
 him and folemnly dedicated in the aforefaid year 1093, three 
 years before the firft crufade. Annales Winton. 
 
 • Godwin, de Angl. Praeful. afcribes the conftruction of 
 St. Crofs, by bifhop Henry de Blois, to the year 11 32; 
 Lowth, in his Life of Wykeham from original papers, to 
 1 1 36. Probably it was begun in the former year and finifhed 
 in the latter. Henry I. died in 1135. 
 
 Fig. 
 
OF THE PLATES. 145 
 
 Fig. 2. Two highly pointed arches, without the 
 appearance of circular interferons, orna- 
 mented with zig-zag and other Saxon 
 mouldings, and fupported by Saxon pilaf- 
 ters, in the fouth tranfept of the faid church 
 of St. Crofs, illuftrating the gradations by 
 which the Saxon flyle was transformed 
 into the pointed or Gothic. This part of 
 the church muft have been built foon after 
 the eaft end. 
 
 3. Maffive Saxon columns, with capitals and 
 
 bafes in the fame flyle, fupporting pointed 
 arches, throughout the whole weflern nave 
 of the fame church ; by way of further 
 illuftrating the aforefaid transformation. 
 It appears that this part of the church alfo 
 was ere died toward the clofe of the reign 
 of Henry I. h 
 
 4. The great weftern portal of the church of 
 
 St. Crofs, being an elegant fpecimen of 
 the early pointed or Gothic flyle, in a 
 complete ftate, as it prevailed in the reign 
 of king John 1 , and the early part of that 
 of Henry III. It confifts of a double 
 arch with trefoil heads, and an open 
 
 h What is here faid applies only to the lower ftory of the 
 church. The windows of the upper part, together with the 
 groining of the nave, and the weft window and door, bear 
 demonftrative proofs of alterations fubfequent to that period. 
 
 ' l Witnefs the cloifters and refectory of Beaulieu abbey 
 in the New Foreft, erected by that monarch, and bithop 
 De Lucy's works in Winchefter cathedral, 
 
 l quatrefoil 
 
146 EXPLANATION 
 
 quatrefoil in the centre above them, 
 forming all together one elegant pointed 
 arch, which refts upon four flender co- 
 lumns, with neat plain capitals and bafes. 
 The arched moulding that refts upon the 
 inward pillars, confuting of the cup of a 
 flower inverted, in open carved work, is 
 an appropriate ornament of the pointed 
 order, being different from every kind of 
 Saxon moulding. We have here alfo one 
 of the firft fpecimens of a canopy over a 
 pointed arch, which afterwards became fo 
 important a member in this ftyle of archi- 
 tecture. The prefent canopy is a plain 
 weather moulding, of the fame angle 
 with the arch itfelf, and refts, by way of 
 corbels, on two flowers, inftead of human 
 heads, though an ornament of the latter 
 kind is feen in the open fpace, juft above 
 the centre column. It may be looked 
 upon as certain, that this ornamented 
 portal is not coeval with the reft of the 
 lower part of the church, and from its 
 ftyle we may fafely pronounce that it was 
 altered to its prefent form about the be- 
 ginning of the thirteenth century. 
 fig. 5. The great weft window of the fame church, 
 being divided by fimple mullions into five 
 principal lights, the wheel above and 
 other intermediate fpaccs being filled with 
 ornamental trefoils. This appears to be 
 
 one 
 
OF THE PLATES. I47 
 
 one of the earlieft fpecimens of a great 
 weft window, before tranfoms and rami- 
 fied mullions were introduced ; and there- 
 fore the weftern end of the church muft 
 have been altered to receive this and the 
 door beneath it about the time above 
 mentioned ; the eaftern extremity of the 
 church being left (as it flill continues) in 
 its original flate k . There is a plain ca<- 
 nopy, without any appearance of a pedi- 
 ment, over the arch of this window, like 
 that over the portal. The chief improve- 
 ment is, that it refts, in the prefent in- 
 ftance, on corbel heads ; namely, thofe 
 of a king and a biftiop. 
 
 PLATE X. 
 
 Fig. 1. Clufters of flender infulaled columns of Pur- 
 beck marble, with plain neat capitals and 
 bafes, fupporting long lancet-fafhioned 
 windows ; fuch as began to be in ufe at the 
 latter end of the twelfth century, and occur 
 
 k Bentham, whofe authority is unqueftionably the greateft 
 amongft thofe who have treated of thefe fubje6ts, fays, that 
 " great eaftern and weftern windows became faftiionable 
 about the latter end of the reign of Edward I. and in that 
 of Edward If." (p. 83, 84) : he does not, however, by this 
 deny that fuch comparatively plain weftern windows as this 
 of St. Crofs might have been made in the reign of Henry HI. 
 
 L % both 
 
148 
 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 both on the outfi.de and the inflde of 
 bifhop De Lucy's work at the eaftern end 
 of Winchefter cathedral. 
 Fig. 2. A cinquefoil arch, fupported by fhort Pur- 
 beck columns, over an altar tomb in the 
 northern ifle of the church of St. Crofs, 
 which, by different ligns, appears to have 
 been erected about the middle of the 
 thirteenth century. The canopy, though 
 it does not rife to a pediment, is adorned 
 with crockets and a finial. 
 3. The tabernacle containing the ftatue of bi- 
 fhop William of Wykeham, in the middle 
 tower of St. Mary's college, Winchefter. 
 The canopy, ornamented with elegant 
 mouldings and crockets, branches out from 
 lide buttreffes, and forms a pediment 
 which terminates in a pinnacle *. Other 
 
 1 The prefent canopy, though of a moderate height, is 
 low compared with thofe which had prevailed during the 
 preceding century, when they proceeded in ftraight lines 
 from the lide buttreffes, until they converged in a lofty pin- 
 nacle of the acuteft angle, fuch as is feen at Weftminfter 
 abbey, in the monuments of Edmund Crouchback, who 
 died in 1296, and of John of Eltham, who died in 1 334- ; 
 alfo in the ftall-work of Winchefter cathedral. During the 
 latter part of the reign of Edward III. the canopies began 
 to be reduced in their height, by being curved towards the 
 arches which they covered, as may be feen on the monu- 
 ments of queen Philippa, who died in 1399, of Edward 
 himfelf, who departed this life in 1377, of Sir Bernard 
 Brocas, executed in 1399, all of which are in Weftminfter 
 abbey ; likewife in the chantry of Wykeham at Winchefter, 
 and generally in all canopies conftrucied after the period 
 above alftgned. 
 
 1 pinnacles 
 
OF THE PLATES. I49 
 
 pinnacles crown the two buttrefTes them- 
 felves. The infide of the canopy is 
 vaulted with tracery work, which fprings 
 from columns that reft on corbels. This 
 tabernacle was probably conftructed by 
 the founder himfelf in his lifetime, near 
 the clofe of the fourteenth century. 
 Fig. 4. A portion of the gorgeous fretwork in the 
 upper ftory of the altar fcreen of Winchefter 
 cathedral, conlifting of columns, buttrefTes, 
 pinnacles, niches, tabernacles, canopies, 
 tracery work, groining, pendents, fafcias, 
 finials, &c. all of the richer!: deligns and 
 moil exquilite workmanfhip, conftituting 
 the tie plus ultra of ornaments in minia- 
 ture, belonging to the pointed order. The 
 fcreen was finifhed by bifhop Fox in 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 i 
 
RAOha br.tTaykv Bolbor-n. London. 
 
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