Read Ebook: Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 2 by Scott George Gilbert Sir

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He further gives a very clear description of the church, from which it appears that it was built in some degree on the model of the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome. He minutely describes the eastern altar space as greatly raised above the general level of the church, and having beneath it a crypt or confessionary, made in the likeness of that of St. Peter's at Rome. He further describes an oratory and altar to St. Mary at the western end raised on steps, behind which was the pontifical throne. Also two towers, the one on the north and the other on the south side of the nave, projecting beyond the aisles, and containing chapels.

Professor Willis, in his admirable history of the cathedral, gives an able dissertation on its plan at this period, showing how precisely the description of the eastern arrangements agree with those of the Basilica of St. Peter, but that the Chapel of the Virgin at the west end must have been a western apse, like those so common in Germany, and of which we have an earlier instance in the ancient design for the arrangements of the monastery of St. Gall, supposed to be of the eighth century. Eadmer confirms his account by saying that he can answer for its correctness, for he saw the ruins himself when a boy at school.

From the above description we learn, first, that a Roman model was taken; secondly, that the church was of stone or brick; thirdly, that it had aisles; fourthly, that it had both an eastern and western apse; beneath the former of which was an extensive crypt, called a confessionary, as containing the tombs of confessors.

The additional church of St. John was clearly a baptistery; and Professor Willis thinks that Archbishop Odo's addition to the height of the walls was a clerestory.

I am not aware that we have any information as to the cathedrals built by the companions of Augustine at London and Rochester; but it is unlikely that they would be otherwise than of cognate plan and materials; while, curiously enough, there continues to this day at Rochester, and continued to the seventeenth century in our own St. Paul's, equally as at Canterbury, a crypt beneath the elevated sanctuary, no doubt the lineal successor and representative of those erected by these missionary bishops, in imitation of the great basilica at Rome, whence they had been sent to evangelise this distant region.

A few years later Paulinus, another Roman missionary, succeeded, under circumstances very similar, in converting to Christianity Edwin, king of Northumbria, who, while receiving instructions preparatory to his baptism, built a temporary church of timber at York; but subsequently erected, around the same, and under the instructions of Paulinus, a larger and nobler church of stone, which was completed by Oswald, his successor. Here, again, we have still remaining the choir-crypt,--the probable successor of that of the original church, and as some say, containing a relic of its actual structure. Thus, we have the two metropolitan cathedrals distinctly recorded as erected of stone by their first bishops.

Shortly afterwards, however, a church was built, after the monastic rule of Lindisfarne, but of stone, at Lastingham, in Yorkshire; where, again, we find the choir-crypt,--the successor of the original one,--remaining to this day. Still, in the seventh century, we have a more minute account given us by Bede of the works of Benedict Biscop, in the erection of the monastic church of Monk Wearmouth. This church he built of stone, "according to the manner of the Romans, which he had always loved." He built, also, the church at Jarrow of the same material, and the existing remains of both I shall have presently to describe. So much did he consider himself a follower of the Roman manner, that he went, over and over again, to Rome, to procure ornaments wherewith to decorate his two churches. This was about 670 and 680.

The successor of Benedict Biscop is said to have sent architects to Naitan, king of the Picts, to make him a church of stone after the manner of the Romans.

About the same time we find St. Wilfrid thoroughly repairing, glazing, and "washing whiter than snow," Paulinus's Church, at York, and building two of great splendour , at Hexham and Ripon.

The former is described by a contemporary writer in ecstatic language, as "supported by various pillars and porticoes, adorned with a marvellous length and height of walls, and with passages of various turnings; nor was it ever," he adds, "heard that such another church was erected on this side the Alps. He tells us also, of its ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones," and of its altar, clothed with purple and silk hangings. This church remained, though in a damaged state, till the twelfth century, when the Norman prior describes it in very similar words to those used by the old Saxon historian. He speaks of the crypts and subterranean oratories, the walls of great height, "divided into three distinct stories supported by polished columns, some square, and others of various forms," of the "capitals of the columns" ... and "the arch of sanctuary," as "decorated with histories and images and different figures carved in relief in stone and painted, displaying a pleasing variety and wonderful beauty." The body of the church was "surrounded by aisles and porticoes, which with wonderful art were divided above and below by walls and winding stairs." Above he describes "galleries of stone," by which "a vast multitude of persons might be there and pass round the church without being visible to any one in the nave below."

Of the church at Ripon, the contemporary historian says that "he erected and finished at Ripon a basilica of polished stone from its foundations in the earth to the top, supported on high by various columns and porticoes."

This church, founded by Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, was in the tenth century "reduced by wars and hostile incursions to a deserted and ruined solitude."

All the buildings of the erection of which I have briefly enumerated the records, were founded within a century of the arrival of St. Augustine. Within the same century we have reason to believe was erected the church at Brixworth, in Northamptonshire, which still remains in a fragmentary state, but, as I shall presently show, with sufficient proofs of its having been founded on the plan of a Roman basilica, with an aisled nave and an unaisled choir, an apsidal and aisled sanctuary raised high on a vaulted crypt. This church was but a humble dependency of the great monastery of Peterborough.

I would not have fatigued you with these documentary accounts, had I not felt it desirable to prove the importance of these earliest temples of our English Church. Cathedrals, churches, and monasteries were, in fact, built throughout the length and breadth of now Christianised England. The more important buildings were all, no doubt, of stone; many of the humbler ones of timber.

But times of trouble were at hand: "there is a time to break down" as well as "a time to build up;" and what the Christian English had built, the Pagan Northmen too often overthrew. Thus, in Alfred's time , we find Croyland, Peterborough, Ely, and other monasteries ruthlessly destroyed, and in some cases they lay desolate for very long periods of time, though in others they were speedily restored.

At a later period, a new impulse was given to building by the introduction of the Benedictine order, and we find monasteries either founded or reformed on this rule throughout the kingdom.

Two descriptions of such Benedictine churches I will quote, the first being from the history of Ramsey Abbey, in the time of Dunstan.

The other church I will refer to under this head is the Cathedral of Winchester, as rebuilt in the reign of Edgar. It had been founded in the days of St. Birinus, the first missionary to the West Saxons, about 635. Athelwold, made Bishop of Winchester in 963, was a great restorer of churches which had been devastated by the Danes. Among those restored by him may be especially named those of Ely and Peterborough. He renovated and partly rebuilt his own cathedral at Winchester, which was rededicated in 980. It is described by Wolstan, in a poem addressed to the succeeding Bishop, St. Elphege. He speaks of the "lofty walls and solid aisles, and various arches; the many chapels which so distract the attention, that a stranger is at a loss which way to turn, seeing doors open to him on all sides." He mentions also the "fine roofs of intricate structure, and the brilliant variety of the fabric." St. Elphege seems to have added a new apse, with "secret crypts, where secret recesses lay on every side, the structure of which supported the holy altar, and the venerable relics of the saints." "A sparkling tower," also, "that reflects from heaven the first rays of the sun." "It has five compartments pierced by open windows, and on all four sides as many ways are open. The lofty peaks of the tower are capped with pointed roofs, and are adorned with various and sinuous vaults, curved with well-skilled contrivance. Above these stands a rod with golden balls, and at the top a mighty golden cock, which boldly turns its face to every wind that blows."

Again, however, came the ruthless Northman, and destroyed church after church throughout the entire course of his desolating march.

No former incursion probably had been so fatal to architecture as that of Sweyn. Its very success, however, brought its own cure; for his son Canute, being allowed to succeed to the English throne, not only became Christian, but devoted himself with exemplary piety to repairing the devastations which the sacrilege of his father and himself had perpetrated. He not only repented, but brought forth fruits meet for repentance; so that the last half-century of the history of the pre-Norman England, is replete with accounts of the restoration and building of churches.

The foregoing notices are sufficient to show that throughout the continuance of the pre-Norman English Church buildings were constantly being erected of considerable dimensions and sometimes of great intricacy, and even of some degree of splendour of design; and that the more important of these were uniformly of stone, though the humbler ones were often of timber. It further shows that the architectural style of these buildings, as well as the internal arrangement of the churches, was intended to be an imitation of the Roman buildings of the same period.

We will now proceed to inquire into the existence and character of any remains of buildings of this period.

There exist, however, throughout the length and breadth of the land, remnants, and, in a few instances, large portions, of buildings of a wholly exceptional character; not assignable to the Norman or any other of the well-known styles which have prevailed in England; but evidently of earlier date. They are clearly not early Norman; for, with the single exception of the round arch, they have nothing in common with the specimens of that style erected in the reign of the Conqueror, but are clearly of a style quite distinct from them. In one instance, we have a tower known to have been erected in the days of the Conqueror, in juxtaposition with the remains of a church in this more ancient style; and in many other instances we have Norman features in connection with these mysterious remains, and to every eye asserting the entire diversity of their art. In some instances, again, as at Monk Wearmouth, Jarrow, Brixworth, and Deerhurst, the remains of this style are on the sites where churches are recorded to have been built in Anglo-Saxon days. These remains correspond in character with buildings represented in Saxon illuminated books. They evince in many instances evidence of having been built in rude imitation of the Roman works of those periods, though in some instances they seem also to suggest the imitation of timber construction.

The most obvious rules of induction, then, point to the conclusion that these are the remains of buildings of Anglo-Saxon date.

I ought, also, to mention the frequent use of tall, narrow towers, unbroken, or nearly so, in their vertical outline, either simply quoined with the long and short work already mentioned, or with their surfaces diversified by pilaster strips and string-courses, the intervening surfaces being usually built of rubble and plastered. The belfry-windows are often of two lights, separated by a baluster or other form of pillar set in the middle of the wall, and bearing a transverse bracket of stone, to enable it to support the whole thickness of the wall. Such towers are clearly imitations of the Italian campanile, though in a rude form. They occasionally have oblique strips as well as the vertical pillars and horizontal strings, which suggest the idea of an imitation of timber-work; at other times the pilasters are united by arches.

It is not easy to describe the general plans of churches, as the remains we possess are too scanty to be generalised upon. Some had aisles, some transepts without aisles, many had neither. One, at least, has a central tower without transepts; and at least one a central tower with transepts. Some had apsidal chancels, and some had the square end. The towers, in a great majority of instances, are at the west end. The walls are in some cases by no means low, and the naves occasionally of greater width than is usual in village churches of later periods.

I will make special mention of a few pre-Norman churches and fragments of churches as specimens; but to do more in a lecture such as this would be both tedious and unprofitable; for, however interesting the study of the primaeval architecture of our race, it must be confessed that, while in general plan these churches are the progenitors of those we think worthy of imitation, we cannot venture to say so much of their details.

I exhibit a plan and a general view of Brixworth Church, enlarged from drawings kindly lent me by Mr. Roberts, who has given the church the most careful study. We have documentary evidence of the erection of the church by the abbots of Peterborough, about 680. Being near the ruins of a Roman station, it contains much Roman brick.

The chancel, or rather the sanctuary, was apsidal, with a surrounding aisle, and raised high on a crypt of corresponding plan. This sanctuary and aisle open by three arches into a choir of 30 ft. square, and this, I think, by a single arch, into a nave about 30 ft. by 60 ft.

This nave had arcades opening into either aisles, or, as Mr. Roberts thinks, into cubicula or oratories, the foundation of which he has found. The arches are turned in Roman bricks, very strangely used; a steep skewback being formed for their springings to reduce the angle of convergence, and so moderate the thickness of the mortar-joint, which, in arches of such a depth, would have been inconvenient. The nave and choir have had a clerestory, the windows of which have arches of Roman bricks. This is thought by some to be a later addition, from the reduced thickness of the walls; but of this I feel far from certain. Mr. Roberts suggests it as possible that the wide nave was again subdivided by arcades; but I confess I much doubt this.

To this original church a western tower was subsequently added, in which the Roman brick does not take so prominent a place; and later still, though still in Anglo-Saxon days, a very large round stair-turret was added, west of the tower.

The alterations introduced when the tower was added are clearly visible, especially the introduction of a triple window with baluster pillars, looking from the second storey of the tower into the church.

I exhibit also a plan and other drawings of the till lately ruined church on the Castle-hill at Dover. Here, again, Roman bricks have been largely used, both for quoins and arches, and some other parts. The church is cruciform, with a central tower, the transepts being narrower and lower than the nave. Wide and lofty arches open into the tower on the east and west, but those on the sides were, no doubt, low and narrow, and consequently were replaced by larger

ones late in the twelfth century. The chancel is square-ended. The windows are of a very large size, and about equally splayed without and within, and had wood frames for the glass, the grooves for which were quite distinct . The main doorway seems to have been that on the south side. It has stone jambs of long and short work running square through the wall, the door having been hung against the inner surface. The arch is of brick, and a pilaster strip flanked it on either side and ran round the arch. Similar, on a small scale, was a ruined doorway, found in the north transept, and now restored precisely to its original form. Similar, also, are the windows of the tower, which were treated like doorways, with a shutter within. At the west end stands the ancient Roman pharos, from which was a communication to the church, both on the floor-level and also above. The latter had a doorway in a very perfect state , which opened into a western gallery, of which I found the holes for the insertion of the timbers. Beneath this gallery, on either side, was a small window, which, for want of room for an arch, was made square-headed, with splayed wooden lintels, of which the exact impressions of the ends were found, giving its precise form.

The tower arches have the pilaster strips on either side, and continuing round the arches. Each has a stone impost with very abnormal mouldings .

Another nearly complete church is that at Worth, in Sussex . The plan may be said to be that of the Dover Church, omitting the central tower and adding an apse. The transepts, like those at Dover, are small, and their arches low and narrow; while the chancel arch assumes almost majestic proportions. The transept arches had the pilaster strip, both to jambs and arch, with a double square impost of massive proportions . The chancel arch is more artistic in its treatment, having a large demi-column in either jamb, 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter, with a regularly formed, though plain, capital; while instead of the pilaster, a smaller semi-column is placed against the face of the wall on either side, and indirectly carried round the arch in the form of a square projection . The arch itself is square in section, and runs without break, through the thickness of the wall. No doorway nor window of the original date remains. The walls of the nave are about 25 ft. high, and are divided at mid-height by a large string-course, above which the windows were probably placed. The angles have pilaster strips in long and short work, and similar strips are placed at intervals along the walls reaching up to the mid-height string-course, all of them standing on a continuous base of two massive courses of stone. The half-height string-course of the nave is continued round the transepts, as are the eaves courses, and run across their gable ends. The chancel was externally dealt with much as the nave, though a little less in height. This church had no tower, and, as a curious commentary on the fashionable opinion that the Anglo-Saxons nearly always built of timber and their successors in after-times of stone, we find a timber tower of the fifteenth century added to the stone church of Saxon date!

At Bradford, in Wilts, a very complete church has but recently been discovered; having previously been so surrounded by buildings that its character was unnoticed. I give drawings of it, made by my friend Mr. Irvine, a zealous antiquary, who has also sent to the Academy a cast of some uncouth sculpture found there. The church consists of a nave and chancel, and has every characteristic of Anglo-Saxon work strongly developed.

At Jarrow-on-the Tyne the chancel of the Saxon church remains. It has few characteristic features. The windows are of a very pristine form, in this case with no external splay, the jambs of upright stones with horizontal stones for imposts, and arches cut out of single stones. They had been walled up at a very early date to a certain thickness from the exterior with very small perforations,--some circular and some more elongated,--in the filling up wall. This, I fancy, was as a means of defence. There is one doorway, which is a plain arched opening running square through the wall, the door having been hung as usual against its inner face, and the jambs formed of large stones facing the reveal. There are some signs of an apse having existed, but of this I cannot speak with any certainty. A tower was erected between the nave and the chancel--as I am informed by a local antiquary--in the reign of the Conqueror. The nave has long since perished, but in the walls of a modern erection on its site were found, used as building material, about twenty baluster columns, some 2 ft. 3 in. high and a foot in diameter . This was in all probability the very church erected by Benedict Biscop, and in which the Venerable Bede worshipped.

At Monk Wearmouth are the remains of the other church of Benedict Biscop.

This church was burnt, as also was that at Jarrow, by the Danes in 867, and both remained in ruins till about 1074, when both churches were re-roofed and restored to their sacred use. It was at this time that the tower at Jarrow was erected.

The most interesting portion of the church at Wearmouth is its western end. From this projects a tower evidently of Anglo-Saxon date. This tower has arches on three sides of its lower storey, which, till recently, were not only walled up, but almost buried in the accumulated earth.

In September 1866 they were excavated, and the western entrance opened out by the local Archaeological Society, with the help of Mr. Johnson, architect, of Newcastle. The side doorways were found to have monolith jambs, 6 in. wide on the face, which are notched into a continuous cill, and support massive imposts, from which the arch springs, with very bold voussoirs. The western entrance, which is 6 ft. 4 1/2 in.

to the springing and 4 ft. 8 1/2 in. wide, has an arch springing from massive abaci 10 1/2 in. thick, which are supported by baluster-shafts very similar to those found at Jarrow, two of which occupy the width of the wall on either side, and stand upon jambs each of a long and a short stone, the reveal of which is curiously sculptured with entwined serpents. This is decidedly the most remarkable doorway of this kind yet known. Above the doorway runs a band or string sculptured with animals and edged with the cable mould. At the same time, the two lower storeys of the tower were found to have originally formed a gabled porch,--two windows, of construction very similar to the side arches above described, having been stopped up in the end of the church by the conversion of this porch into a tower. Baluster-shafts have been discovered in the internal jambs of these windows.

At Jarrow, amongst many curious fragments discovered, is a stone in which is sculptured, as a continuous ornament, a long row of the balusters represented on a miniature scale, as if they were so established an architectural element as to be imitated just as arcades and windows are in Gothic architecture as a mere ornament.

The church at Stow, in Lincolnshire, contains extensive remains of Anglo-Saxon work, but of doubtful date. The church was founded about the time of Paulinus, as a cathedral for the Bishops of Lindsey, but was burnt by the Danes, as it is believed, in 870. It was re-founded about 1040. The tower arches and transepts are in one style, but of which date is doubtful. I confess I think the preponderance of evidence is in favour of the earlier date. Foundations have been discovered of aisles to the nave, clearly of the same age with the transepts. The older parts show everywhere marks of fire, and the transepts have been heightened in Saxon times; and, as I should think probable, at the time of the second foundation. The present nave and chancel are Norman.

There exist several crypts beneath chancels, which are of this date. Among these, besides the fragmentary remains at Brixworth, I will mention one not generally known, at Wing, in Buckinghamshire. It is of excessive rudeness, being built only of very rough stone; but it is notable for the completeness of its plan, being apsidal, with two ranges of piers, and as having remains of the two doorways through which it was approached by steps from either side of the chancel arch.

The apse in this case is polygonal, with pilaster strips up its angles, and parts of the nave are of pre-Norman date, and show clear evidence of its having had aisles.

The crypt at Repton is famous for the finished and decorative form of its architecture. I give a drawing of it.

The crypt at Lastingham is not of Saxon date, but its Norman successor. The original church was destroyed by the Danes. Its foundation I have already noticed.

The most numerous of the Anglo-Saxon remains are the bell-towers. These have almost always the peculiar characteristics which I have already noticed. Their number is so great that it would be impossible to enter into any enumeration of them. One of the best known, perhaps, is that of St. Benet's, Cambridge. It has pilaster strips up each angle, with long and short work. The string-courses are merely square courses: each storey recedes a little in width. The belfry windows are double, divided by a mid-wall baluster and bracket; and there are plain windows again over their spandrels. The intermediate surfaces were plastered. The tower arch is of strangely rude design. The tower of Trinity Church, Colchester, is peculiar, as being, to a great extent, of Roman brick. .

Earls Barton tower is the most remarkable of its class, uniting the profuse use of pilaster strips, diagonal strips, arched strips, long and short work, baluster columns, and other characteristics of the style . I have noticed here that the majority of the arches are so in form rather than in construction, some being cut out of the solid, some built up with horizontal courses projecting one over the other, and others, again, formed by a number of flat stones set on edge one behind another, and the arched opening cut through them all.

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