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Title: Our Homeland Churches and How to Study Them
Author: Sidney Heath
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_The Homeland Handbooks_--No. 55.
OUR HOMELAND CHURCHES AND HOW TO STUDY THEM.
by
SIDNEY HEATH
(Author of "Some Dorset Manor Houses," etc.)
Illustrated by the Author and Ethel M. Heath
And by Photographs.
Published under the General Editorship
of Prescott Row and Arthur Henry Anderson,
by the Homeland Association for the
Encouragement of Touring in Great Britain.
[Illustration: The Foundations of a Romano-British Church.
Uncovered at Silchester. _Photograph S. Victor White & Co._]
London:
The Homeland Association Ltd.,
22, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
First Edition.
1907.
EDITORIAL NOTE.
With a view to making future Editions of this Handbook as accurate and
comprehensive as possible, suggestions for its improvement are cordially
invited. If sent to THE EDITORS, The Homeland Association, Association
House, 22, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, E.C., they will be gratefully
acknowledged.
COPYRIGHT.
This Book as a whole, with its contents, both Literary and Pictorial, is
Copyrighted in Great Britain.
ADVERTISING.
LOCAL.--Terms for Advertising in future issues of this Handbook
will be forwarded on application to the General Manager of the
Homeland Association, at the above address.
GENERAL.--Contracts for the insertion of Advertisements through
the whole series of Homeland Handbooks, more than fifty volumes,
circulating through the country, can be arranged on application to
the General Manager.
_CONTENTS._
_Author's Preface_ 7
_Dedication_ 8
_Introduction_ 9
_I.--Early British Churches_ 19
_II.--Early Church Architecture_ 26
_III.--The Saxon and Norman Styles_ 31
_IV.--The Early English Style_ 47
_V.--The Decorated Style_ 57
_VI.--The Perpendicular Style_ 64
_VII.--The Renaissance and Later_ 74
_VIII.--Church Furniture and Ornaments_ 80
_IX.--Bells and Belfries_ 95
_X.--The Spire: Its Origin and Development_ 99
_XI.--Stained Glass_ 104
_XII.--Crypts_ 109
_XIII.--How to describe an Old Church_ 111
_Appendix--A Glossary of the Principal Terms
used in Ecclesiastical Architecture_ 115
_Bibliography_ 123
_Index_ 124
_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS._
PLATES.
1 _Foundations of a Romano-British Church_ _Frontispiece_
2 _The Church of St. Margaret, Lynn_ 52
3 _A Fine Perpendicular Tower, St. Mary, Taunton_ 72
4 _Sedilia and Chantry, Luton_ 88
* * * * *
_The Various Forms of Arches_ 10
_Plan of a Typical Gothic Cruciform Parish Church, Luton_ 12
_Examples of Gothic Windows_ 15
_Examples of Buttresses_ 17
_A Rood Screen, with a Restoration of the Rood_ 20
_The Church of S. Martin, Canterbury_ 22
_Window Built with Roman Brick, Swanscombe_ 24
_A Reputed Saxon Doorway, Bishopstone_ 30
_Tower of Earls' Barton Church_ 33
_An Example of Norman Tower, Bishopstone_ 34
_A Norman Pier Arcade, Abbots Langley_ 36
_Examples of Norman Mouldings_ 37
_A Late Norman Parish Church, Castle Rising_ 38
_West Doorway, Rochester Cathedral_ 40
_Tympanum of Norman Doorway, Fordington St. George_ 41
_Examples of Norman Capitals_ 42
_A Curious Norman Capital, Seaford_ 43
_Norman and Early English Doorways, Dunstable Priory Church_ 45
_Windows, Showing the Origin of Tracery_ 47
_An Early English Arch, Rochester Cathedral_ 48
_Wall Arcading, Showing Junction of Norman and Early English
Masonry, Dunstable Priory Church_ 50
_An Early English Doorway, Huntingdon_ 51
_A Group of Thirteenth Century Lancet Windows, Ockham_ 53
_Salisbury Cathedral_ 55
_Examples of Early English Capitals and Ornament_ 56
_A Late Decorated Window in a Parish Church, East Sutton_ 59
_Examples of Decorated Ornament_ 61
_Examples of Perpendicular Ornament_ 64
_Early Perpendicular Parish Church, Yeovil_ 65
_A Fine Parish Church, Showing Rich Perpendicular Work,
Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk_ 67
_A Perpendicular Doorway, Merton College_ 68
_A Perpendicular Porch, King's Lynn_ 71
_An English Renaissance Church, S. Stephen, Walbrook_ 78
_A Typical Cornish Font_ 80
_The Sanctuary Knocker, Durham Cathedral_ 82
_The Baptistery in Luton Church_ 83
_An Example of a Leaden Font of the Late Norman Period_ 85
_A Reputed Saxon Font, Shaldon_ 86
_A Detached Holy-Water Stoup of Unusual Design_ 87
_A Typical Somerset Bench-End, Spaxton_ 89
_A Richly-Carved Pulpit and Canopy, Edlesborough_ 91
_Screen with Rood Loft, Kenton_ 93
_The Carved Oak Balustrade in Compton Church_ 94
_Bell Turret for Three Bells, Radipole_ 98
_The Best Example of a Saxon Spire or Pyramidal Roof, Sompting_ 100
_Leighton Buzzard Church, with Early English Tower and Spire_ 102
_A Parish Church with a Shingle Broach Spire, Edenbridge_ 105
_Interior Elevation of a Bay of a Church_ 114
_STYLES OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE._
The following periods of architectural style may be of use for the
purpose of reference, but it must be borne in mind that they are more or
less approximate, as each style merged by slow degrees into the next.
_Norman._--William I. to Stephen. 1066-1154.
_Transition Norman._--Henry II. 1154-1189.
_Early English Gothic._--Richard I. to Henry III. 1189-1272
_Decorated._--Edward I., II., III. 1272-1377.
_Perpendicular._--Richard II. to Henry VII. 1377-1485.
_Tudor._--Henry VIII. to Elizabeth. 1485-1600.
Mr. Edmund Sharpe gives seven periods of English architecture up to the
time of the Reformation, and dates them as follows:--
_ROMANESQUE._
I. _Saxon_ from ---- to 1066
II. _Norman_ " 1066 " 1145 79 years
III. _Transitional_ " 1145 " 1190 45 "
_GOTHIC._
IV. _Lancet_ from 1190 to 1245 55 years
V. _Geometrical_ " 1245 " 1315 70 "
VI. _Curvilinear_ " 1315 " 1360 45 "
VII. _Rectilinear_ " 1360 " 1550 190 "
PREFACE.
It is a truism that the history of building is the history of the
civilized world, for of all the arts practised by man, there is none
which conveys to us a clearer conception of the religion, history,
manners, customs, ideals and follies of past ages, than the art of
building. This applies in a special sense to cathedrals and churches,
which glorious relics reflect and perpetuate the noble aim, the delicate
thought, the refined and exquisite taste, the patient and painstaking
toil which have been expended upon them by the devout and earnest
craftsmen of the past.
There are very few of our ancient churches in village, town or city
which do not offer some feature of interest to the visitor, and in the
absence of anything more important, there is sure to be some door,
window, font, screen, or other detail which will amply repay him for the
small amount of time spent in seeing it.
The aim of the author of this little volume has been to indicate the
symbolism and meaning attaching to the various portions of our churches
and cathedrals, and to endeavour briefly to describe, in language as
simple as the subject will allow, the various styles of ecclesiastical
architecture with their distinctive characteristics in such a way as
will enable the reader to assign each portion and detail of a church to
its respective period with an approximate degree of accuracy.
He does not claim to be original, but endeavours to be useful and
interesting. The best authorities have been consulted and freely drawn
upon, but with the object in view of writing a book at once thus useful
and interesting, no attempt has been made to deal with the subject in a
strictly architectural, or a purely scientific manner.
Weymouth, 1906.
DEDICATION.
To all those who love old buildings--cathedrals, abbeys, and village
churches, which breathe the spirit of an age with which we have entirely
broken--and who would fain hand down to posterity, unmutilated, the
great building achievements of our forefathers, which we, with all our
science, wealth, and means of curtailing labour, can no more imitate
than we can reproduce the language of a Chaucer or a Shakespeare; this
book is respectfully dedicated.
S. H.
"_Firm was their faith, the ancient bands,
The wise of heart in wood and stone,
Who reared with stern and trusting hands
Those dark grey towers of days unknown;
They filled the aisles with many a thought,
They bade each nook some truth recall
The pillared arch its legend brought,
A doctrine came with roof and wall._"
--HAWKER OF MORWENSTOW.
OUR HOMELAND CHURCHES AND HOW TO STUDY THEM.
INTRODUCTION.
However much we may admire, considered purely as art, the Pagan temples
of the Greeks and Romans, we must confess that they are lacking in those
high ideals and those sustained and inspired motives which seem to
penetrate and permeate the buildings and churches of the Christian era.
Perfect as is Greek art within its somewhat narrow limits, it is,
nevertheless, cold, precise and lifeless. The Gothic buildings on the
contrary are pregnant with the very spirit of life.
Prompted by a deep and fervent faith in their religion, the Gothic
builders and sculptors unconsciously wove into the humblest of their
architectural enrichments some portion of their daily life and
personality. The slave-built temples of the Greeks offered no scope for
the exercise of individual expression--such, in fact, would have been
strongly resented--whereas the early Christian craftsman, revelling in
his freedom, seized every opportunity of expressing in his work his joy,
fear and hope of immortality.
This is made apparent in the study of an old church, whereof every
portion--door, window, bench-end, carving, gargoyle--has hidden about it
some suggestion of beautiful thought, or some distinct and appropriate
symbolism. The fact that symbolism underlies almost every such
indication of mediæval thought is made abundantly manifest in the study
of mediæval literature. Open any 12th century treatise on morals,
science or history, and you become aware of the fact at once. The
main-spring of this symbolism, of all Christian symbolism, turns on the
parabolic meaning in the scheme of Creation. The early writers were far
less concerned with recording the plain objective facts of history, than
in pursuing the allegory and the love of the marvellous, and showing
all those characteristics of what we now term an unscientific attitude
of mind.
[Illustration: The Various Forms of Arches.
Norman. Stilted. Horse Shoe.
Equilateral. Lancet. Drop.
Trefoil. Trefoil. Cinquefoil.
Ogee. Four Centered. Tudor.]
In its widest sense, symbolism means the expression of belief, and if we
would interpret history aright, we must grasp the fact that the key to
the character and disposition of peoples of all ages lies in the
knowledge of their beliefs; for out of the beliefs of one age most
surely grow the beliefs of its successors, and in no work of man's hand
are the beliefs held by various peoples in past ages more clearly
defined than in our cathedrals and churches, which noble buildings in
every civilized country indicate principles as well as facts, influences
as well as results; and while presenting the finest materials for
æsthetic study, are no less useful as indicating the psychological
peculiarities of those builders of old to whose condition they bear
witness.
In our grand specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, we may read the
world's later history, and to-day they breathe the sombre reverential
influence of a faith which sought to satisfy itself with the visible
symbolizing of those half-poetical, half-superstitious conceptions with
which the religion of the Middle Ages was so deeply imbued.
An early development of decorative symbolic art, known as Celtic, of
which we have examples on old Irish crosses, and particularly on
illuminated MSS. was wrought by the Christian monks of the 7th and 8th
centuries, but what is generally understood as Christian symbolic art
had its finest development about the 13th century. Gothic art is
essentially symbolic and in many instances, its individual forms have
specific significance. Thus the common equilateral triangle was used to
symbolize the Holy Trinity, as are the two entwined triangles. Other
symbols employed at this period setting forth the mystery of the Unity
of the Trinity, without beginning and without end, are three interlaced
circles, and a very curious one is that in which three faces are so
combined as to form an ornamental figure. Baptism under the immediate
sanction of the Divine Trinity was represented by three fishes placed
together in the form of a triangle. So numerous, indeed were such
Christian symbols after the 9th century that a mere enumeration of them
would occupy considerable space. Every trefoil symbolized the Holy
Trinity; every quatrefoil the four Evangelists; every cross the
Crucifixion, or the martyrdom of some saint; and in Gothic ornament and
decoration, we find the Chalice, the Crown of Thorns, the Dice, the Sop,
the Hammer and Nails, the Flagellum and other symbols of our Lord's
Passion.
[Illustration: Plan of a Typical Gothic Cruciform Parish Church.
(St. Mary, Luton, fully described in No. 47 of this Series).
_Drawn by Ed. Craven Lee._]
Although presenting the same characteristics in their external design,
our town and village churches are very various. The simplest form, and
the one most commonly found, is that of a nave and chancel, with a tower
at the west end; to which plan may be added aisles and transepts, the
latter often being wrongly called "cross-aisles." When the walls of the
nave above the arcade rise above those of the aisles and are pierced
with windows, the upper portion is called the clerestory, the meaning
of which word is not free from obscurity; it seems probable that it
indicates the clear story--the story which rises clear of the nave and
aisles. In large buildings, they are important both for utility and
beauty, but in small and early churches, they are of less importance.
It is a well-known fact that the chancel and nave of a church generally
stand east and west. This arrangement, called the orientation, is
symbolic of the teaching that to the east we are to look for assistance
and protection against the power of our enemy, and that as we pray we
may look for the day-spring, symbolized to us in the rising sun that
sheds light and warmth all over the earth.
The public entrance to a church is generally at the west end (the priest
usually had a door in the chancel for his own use). Through this door we
enter the house of prayer, for as in the east we see the emblem of the
Lord of Life and Light, so the west represents the seat of darkness and
of the powers of evil.
The earliest porches were those of the early Christian basilica churches;
they were long and arcaded and were called "narthex." In later times,
they assumed two forms, one the projecting erection, covering the
entrance and divided into three or more doorways, and the other a kind
of covered chamber open at the end and having small windows at the
sides. These latter are generally found on the north and south sides
of the nave. Formerly, when church government was more rigorous in
discipline than is now the case, the porch was the appointed place for
those who were under censure. Those also who were unbaptised, or who had
not yet received the sacrament of regeneration, were not allowed beyond
the porch, not quite excluded from the church and yet not permitted
to enter fully. The porch also served as a path of admission for all
Christians into the body of the church, so that they passed through the
assembly of penitents and catechumens, who were wont to ask the prayers
of the more highly privileged for their full restoration or admission to
the communion of the faithful.
With reference to our Lord's word, "I am the Door," we frequently find
the tympana of church doors, particularly those of Norman date, adorned
with representations of events from his life, but they often also depict
the monsters, dragons and devils, that formed so strong an article in
the faith of the early Christians.
A more detailed account of these tympana will be found in a following
chapter.
Passing through the porch we enter the nave, which word is derived from
the Latin _navis_, a ship. Its symbolic teaching is that of the Church
riding triumphantly and buoyantly on the troubled and dark waters of the
world. The first thing noticed on entering the nave is the font, which
was formerly placed outside the church, in a separate building called
the baptistery; a few of our churches have retained these little
buildings which now form part of the churches proper.
The reason in early days for placing the font outside the church was
that the Christian was not admitted into the nave until he had been
baptised and confirmed, the latter rite being administered immediately
after baptism.
From the western door there is a clear passage through the centre of
the nave, called the aisle, signifying the straight and narrow way from
the seat of darkness to immortal life. On each side of this aisle are
seats for the laity, with room for standing and kneeling. The nave was
usually divided from the chancel by an open screen of wood or stone,
signifying that although the Christian might have some insight into the
mysteries of the priest's office, at the same time these were to be
partly concealed from his view. The rood screen was so called from the
fact that the great Rood, or Crucifix, stood above it, not always on the
screen itself, but on a separate beam, to which was often attached a
rood loft or chamber. In early days, the lessons were read from the top
of the rood screen, and in many of our churches the stairways leading
thither have been retained.
[Illustration: Examples of Gothic Windows.
Early English. Decorated. Perpendicular.
See also page 59.]
In churches where the screen has vanished, the division of the nave
from the rest of the church is plainly marked by the chancel arch.
The chancel is emblematic of the Christian perfection, of the Church
triumphant in heaven.
In an old church, a piscina is nearly always found in the chancel, and
here, too, were the sedilia or seats for the officiating clergy, the
prior, sub-prior, and the deacon, the last-named occupying the lowest
seat.
Founders' tombs also nearly always occupy positions in the chancel, and
these tombs differ from all others in that they form an integral part
of the structure, and could not have been added after the church was
completed.
Another thing sometimes to be seen is the ambery, or aumbry, a small
cupboard let into the chancel wall, in which were kept the communion
vessels, the chalice, paten, etc.
The great object of interest, however, in the chancel, is the altar,
which Archbishop Laud directed should be enclosed by rails, so that
although the people may draw near, they cannot touch the holy table, but
must accept from the hands of the priest those gifts of which he is the
minister from God.
Altars are fully described in a following chapter, but we may here note
that the reredos, so universally found in our cathedrals, abbeys, and
in many of our churches, forms no part of the altar, and the Court of
Arches has decided that there are no altars in the Church of England,
but only communion tables.
Prominent among the external enrichments of our churches is the
gargoyle, a word derived from the French, "gargouille," which in its
turn comes from the Latin "gurgulio"--a water-spout. The earliest
gargoyles are merely orifices with a lip to shoot the water well away
from the fabric. The true gargoyle, however, was quickly evolved from
this primitive form, and consists of two parts, the lower one forming
the channel, the upper one being the cover. The full significance of the
skill displayed by the old masons in the rare opportunity the gargoyle
afforded them of representing the dragons, serpents, etc., in which
their fancy revelled, is made apparent when we view the futile attempts
of modern architects to introduce this feature in their churches, for
modern gargoyles are generally grotesque caricatures, and anything but
happy appendages to the buildings to which they are attached.
[Illustration: Examples of Buttresses.
_Norman_ _Decorated_
_Flying Buttress_
_Early English_ _Perpendicular_
_Drawn by E. M. Heath._]
The churchyard, so pleasing an adjunct to the House of God placed within
it, is frequently approached through a lych-gate, which word is derived
from the Saxon _lich_, a corpse. These gates in our country churchyards
are often very picturesque little structures, and under them the corpse
at a funeral awaited the officiating priest before being taken into the
church. The churchyard is commonly regarded as a mere dependency of the
church, and as having a history very inferior in interest to that of the
temple to which it is the court. The truth is that many of our churchyards
have an antiquity far greater than that of the churches, as many of them
constituted the open-air meeting-places of our Saxon forefathers long
before the erection of parish churches. In the common meeting-place a
cross was set up, either of wood or stone, to mark and hallow the spot,
and when a church was subsequently built it was usually in the immediate
vicinity of the cross, which accounts for the fact that many churchyard
crosses are of older date than the churches themselves.
Wells of water are often found in old churchyards, and as the
regulations of the Saxon church required immersion and not sprinkling,
it is possible that these were the Saxon fonts.
Such then is the necessarily brief attempt to describe the main lines on
which our old churches were planned, and the motives and ideals which
animated their builders, who, being impressed with the dignity and
mystery of the works of God, made their churches symbolical of the
portions of the Christian life; the porch signifying baptism, the nave
the life militant on earth, and the chancel the life eternal; while
every little ornament, piece of sculpture and enrichment was designed to
remind the worshippers of their faith, of its hopes, blessed promises
and rewards.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY BRITISH CHURCHES.
In dealing with the introduction of church architecture into our own
land, the task would be much simplified if one could state with
certainty when the first church was built on British soil. Some
historians assert that the Church of England as it is constituted to-day
dates no further back than the moment when S. Augustine and his
followers landed on the shores of Kent in the year 596, yet one is
probably justified in assuming that a church existed in these islands
for centuries previous to the arrival of the Roman missionaries.
Unfortunately we have no records to guide us as to the date of this
earlier settlement, and the name of the first Christian missionary to
heathen Britain has still to be discovered. "We see," says the quaint
old historian, Thomas Fuller, "the light of the word shined here, but
see not who kindled it." The first Christian building of which we have
any record was probably that erected at Glastonbury before the year 300,
but that this was the first Christian settlement cannot be alleged with
certainty.
There are many traditions concerning the introduction of Christianity
into Britain, some of which may probably have some bearing on the truth,
but the whole subject is involved in considerable obscurity. One of
these numerous traditions is to the effect that the British King
Caradoc, after being taken prisoner to Rome, was allowed to return, on
condition that several members of his family remained as hostages; and
whilst serving in this capacity, his mother, son, and daughter are
stated to have become converts to Christianity, the doctrines of which
faith they spread in their native land on their return thereto. Another
tradition is to the effect that S. Paul himself visited Britain and laid
the foundation of the Christian faith. We are also told by eminent
church historians that the father and grandfather of S. Patrick were
Christians, in which case S. Patrick himself would from a very early age
have been brought up in the tenets of their faith. He is said to have
been seized by pirates in the Clyde and taken to the north of Ireland,
and eventually to Gaul. He was subsequently restored to his friends,
whom he wished to convert to the Christian faith, and for this purpose
his father sent him to be taught in the schools of Tours, Auxerre and
Lerins. Eventually he was consecrated Bishop of the Irish and organized
an efficient ecclesiastical system in Ireland.
[Illustration: A Rood Screen with a Restoration of the Rood.
Kenn, Devon. _Photograph by Chapman._]
Before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons the church seems to have
established a firm hold on the people, who held tenaciously to their
possessions, both secular and religious, which were only wrested from
them after a severe struggle. Their enthusiastic love of Christianity
led them to make a heroic defence of the churches, rather than see them
fall into the hands of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. The historian Bede
tells us that all their buildings were destroyed, the priests' blood was
spilt upon the altars, prelates and people were slain with the sword,
and all the cities and churches were burnt to the ground. When all was
lost and there was no longer a church or home to defend, the Britons
retired to the country of their fellow-Christians, the secluded and
almost impenetrable hills and forests of the west. The Anglo-Saxon love
of gold was quickly recognised by the people of West Wales who saved
their property and bought the right of worshipping after the manner of
their fathers by the payment of an annual tribute to their conquerors.
[Side note: Church of S. Piran, Perranporth.]
So ruthlessly indeed did the Anglo-Saxons rase to the ground the early
churches, that, until a few years ago, but few traces of these early
buildings were thought to exist. An accidental discovery, however, in
the year 1835, brought to light an undoubted relic of an early British
church in the west, this being the remains of a little church which had
been until the date above mentioned completely buried in the sand
on the sea coast near Perranporth in Cornwall. They are thought by
ecclesiologists to be the remains of the original church erected to the
memory of S. Piran, a Cornish missionary and a friend of S. Patrick, who
was buried within its walls before the year 500 A.D. On removing the
sand, the accumulated deposit of centuries, the church was found to have
consisted of a nave and chancel containing a stone altar.
[Illustration: The Church of S. Martin, Canterbury.]
The building measured 29 feet in length, 16-1/3 feet in width and 19
feet from the floor to the roof, and probably shares with S. Mary's
Church in Dover Castle, and S. Martin's, Canterbury, the honour of being
one of the earliest links we possess with the ancient British Church. S.
Mary's, Dover, appears to have been built of Roman bricks and cement, a
combination which antiquaries consider is found only in those buildings
which were erected during the Roman occupation.
[Side note: S. Martin's Canterbury.]
S. Martin's Church, Canterbury has many claims to be considered one of
our most interesting churches, no less on account of its associations
than for its structural interest. The date of its building has been a
source of endless controversy, as it contains many features attributable
to either Roman or Saxon architecture. It is thought that it may
possibly have been used for worship by the Christian soldiers of the
Roman army. Be this as it may, it is established beyond doubt that it
was the oratory of Queen Bertha, the first English Christian queen, who
here worshipped, with her chaplain Liudhard, long before the advent of
S. Augustine, who himself in later times preached here; and within the
walls of this cradle of English Christianity, Ethelbert, King of Kent,
the husband of Queen Bertha was baptized. The Venerable Bede, writing
within a hundred years of the death of S. Augustine states that there
was in 597 A.D. in Canterbury, a church "dedicated to the honour of S.
Martin and built while the Romans still occupied Britain." On the
departure of the Romans it is probable that the church was still used by
a small band of Christian worshippers until the heathen Jutes overran
the Isle of Thanet in 449.
Little is known of the progress of Christianity on this island from that
date until the landing of S. Augustine in 597, and the first fruits of
his mission, as we have seen, was the conversion and baptism of King
Ethelbert. As one would naturally expect, the aspect of the structure
to-day, though suggestive of antiquity, is lacking in uniformity of
treatment. The brick courses in the nave are at irregular intervals,
varying from nine to twenty inches apart, the spaces being filled with
Kentish rag-stone and occasional blocks of chalk. The chancel extends
eighteen or twenty feet east of the arch and is composed of Roman
bricks, evenly laid and averaging four bricks to a foot.
[Illustration: An Ancient Window built with Roman Brickwork.
Swanscombe, Kent. _Photograph Mr. G. H. Smith._]
The chancel was lengthened at the beginning of the thirteenth century
and again at a more recent date, so that its architecture to-day is
of three distinct periods. Outside may be seen five flat pilaster
buttresses and one semi-circular one, a square-headed Roman doorway, a
Saxon doorway and two Early English porches; and there is also a nearly
circular panel on the south side of the nave, and a Norman squint at the
west end. There are many other features of interest which bear evidences
of a great antiquity, and the only question which is seriously disputed
is whether the earliest portion of the present nave was built about the
end of the Roman occupation of Britain or during the mission of S.
Augustine. The Rev. Charles F. Routledge, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon of
Canterbury Cathedral, writes: "Whatever may finally be determined to be
the date of the church's foundation, it can never lose its unique
association with S. Augustine, King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha, nor its
undisputed claim to be the oldest existing church in England. From it
flowed the tiny spring of English Christianity, which has since widened
out into a mighty river, and penetrated the remotest parts of the
civilized and uncivilized world."
[Side note: Other Early Churches.]
Among other churches which show signs of having been built during the
Roman occupation are those of Reculver, Richborough and Lyminge, while
the foundations of an undoubted early church have been discovered in
the old Roman city of Silchester, in Hampshire. _See frontispiece._ The
old church at Reculver stood originally within the Roman castrum, the
fortress which guarded the northern mouth of the Wantsume, now a small
stream, but once an arm of the sea dividing the Isle of Thanet from the
mainland. The greater part of this church was pulled down in 1809, but
the western towers, known as "the sisters" were repaired by Trinity
House, as they constitute a useful landmark for mariners, being visible
at a great distance.
Reculver church was built about A.D. 670, and from the existing walls
and foundations it is clear that its plan was basilican. The church
is now a ruin, but some stone pillars which supported the arches are
preserved in the Cathedral Close at Canterbury.
As Reculver guarded the northern mouth of the watercourse, so
Richborough protected the south, and here traces of a chapel in the
form of a cross are plainly discernible amongst ruins known to be of
Roman workmanship. The old church at Lyminge in the same county is thus
described by Canon Jenkyns, in his "_History of Lyminge_":--"The Roman
foundations discoverable at the south-east angle of the chancel, together
with the remarkable half-arch that intervenes, marked the site of the
_aquilonalis porticus_--the title of basilica already given to it in the
seventh century establishes its claim to great antiquity."
We thus see that although remains of the actual buildings in which the
British Christians worshipped are few in number, yet enough are left us
to prove conclusively that there was a very active and zealous Christian
community established in these islands during at least the period
immediately preceding that in which Rome withdrew her legions from
Britain in order to defend Italy against the Goths, and abandoned our
island to the mercy of her foes.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY CHURCH ARCHITECTURE.
In the early years of the Christian Church, when its members became
sufficiently free from persecution to erect buildings for the purpose of
worship, they were naturally anxious to avoid any of the forms peculiar
to either heathen or Jewish temples. Some model, however, was necessary,
and their choice being limited, they appear to have adopted the
simple style of the Roman basilica, or court of justice. There was an
adaptability about the general plan of such a building which rendered
its selection natural and not inappropriate, while the dignified
simplicity of its construction and the object for which it was primarily
founded--the dispensation of justice--commended it no doubt in the first
instance as a model for the primitive Christian church. These basilicæ
were usually enclosures surrounded by a colonnade, sometimes roofed, but
more often open to the air, and designedly built for the purpose of
being accessible to all members of the community at all times of the
day. They appear occasionally to have been used for the transaction of
ordinary business in which they would closely resemble our exchanges. Be
this as it may, this form of architecture has left its impress on many
Christian buildings, and the name of basilica, for a church, is still
used in many parts of Italy.
The Roman basilica was usually in the form of a parallelogram, with a
seat for the judges at one end, and in their adaptation of this form of
building, the early Christians devoted this place to the purposes of an
altar. This, by an easy and natural transition, is thought to have given
rise to the formation of the semi-circular recess at one end of the
building, known as the apse (from the Latin _apsis_, a bow or arch),
which is still to be found in some of our older churches.
Being thus Roman in the nature of their ground plan, it is not
surprising to find that other portions of the early Christian buildings
show decided characteristics of a Roman style. On the destruction of the
Pagan temples by order of the Emperor Constantine about the year 330,
much of their material was built into the earliest Christian churches,
and the Roman character of their design being prevalent, they formed a
style of architecture which has been designated Romanesque, of which the
later styles, known here as Saxon and Norman were largely modifications.
There is no reason to doubt that the earliest Christian churches were
very unpretentious in form and that some time elapsed before there was
anything which could be called a definite church architecture, beyond
that to which we have alluded. Nevertheless, as the Church strengthened
her position and grew in security, more attention was devoted to the
subject of its edifices, and the departure in time from the original
ground plan furnished an opportunity for the introduction of a more
symbolical and appropriate design. The plan of the old basilica was
abandoned for one in the form of the cross, the accepted symbol of the
Christian religion, which departure, however, did not involve any very
great alteration from the old ground plan.
We come then to the time when one or other of the forms known as the
Latin or the Greek cross--whichever was most convenient--was usually
employed in a building designed for Christian worship, and these forms
are universally found in the most elaborate structures of which the
Christian Church can boast.
As time passed, these cruciform churches were surmounted with a dome,
steeple, or tower at the point where the members of the cross
intersected each other. At first the most prominent of these external
adornments was the dome; a characteristic of the architecture of Eastern
Europe, which acquired the name Byzantine, from its having been carried
to great perfection in Byzantium (Constantinople), the capital of the
Eastern Empire.
The church of S. Sophia, which was built, much as it now exists, early
in the sixth century, and was afterwards converted into a mosque, is an
almost perfect example of the Byzantine style. In this building we find
the Roman arch used in a variety of ways, while the dome itself is
formed entirely of this arch used as the crowning work of the edifice.
Eastern churches in this style usually took the form of the Greek cross,
this form being better calculated to support the weight of the cupola.
In Western Europe, however, where the flat squat tower afterwards
developed into the steeple, as we shall see in a later chapter, the
Latin cross was mostly used, and this, with a few notable exceptions, is
the plan of most western churches.
With writers of about fifty years ago, it was a favourite theory that
the Christians converted the old basilicæ into churches, and that the
"Halls of Justice" erected by the Romans in this country were also
converted into Christian churches, and some authorities point to the
walls and arches of Brixworth church in confirmation of this theory. The
late Mr. J. W. Brewer, however, stated that unfortunately for this
theory, no single example of a basilica being converted into a church
has been found in this country and he himself held the theory that the
word basilica was used by the Romans to describe any building which was
supported by internal columns, and in that way the name came to be
applied to Christian churches.
As we have seen, the early Christians, after a short time, became
dissatisfied with these buildings adapted from Pagan types, and the
Byzantine form of church arose, the first people who practised this
style of building being the Greeks. The style spread with rapidity all
over the East, the great church of S. Sophia being its largest example
and the smaller, but more perfect, church of S. Mark at Venice giving us
the best idea of this form of church architecture. Largely modelled on
this style, also, are the circular baptisteries of Italy and the round
churches of England, France and Germany, the modern Russian churches and
all the Mohammedan mosques. The Latin churches did not greatly favour
this style and their use of it was confined, with few exceptions, to
baptisteries, monumental chapels and the like, but for parochial,
cathedral and monastic churches, the oblong plan was retained and
ultimately developed into the Gothic church with its nave, transepts and
chancel.
The changes which the Christian basilica at first underwent were simple,
_viz._, the use of the arch instead of the straight lintel, or the
placing of an entablature between the columns; a little later, about the
tenth century, the old wooden roof of the basilica gave place to the
arched roof or vaulting, so called from its being composed of a series
of vaults. The styles called Romanesque and Lombardic are but
geographical varieties of the same architecture and from these the Saxon
and Norman styles were soon to be developed. The vaulted basilica church
soon became common over the north of Europe, the two most important and
practically unaltered examples being the cathedrals of Speyer and Worms,
in Germany, although our Anglo-Saxon cathedrals of Peterborough, Ely and
Norwich may, so far as regards their naves, be justly regarded as the
offspring of the vaulted basilica style of building.
When the old basilica style of church with its heavy beam roof and its
innumerable columns had ceased to satisfy the lofty aspirations of Latin
Christianity, and when the Greeks had inaugurated a new style of church
architecture, only two courses were left to the Latins, either to adopt
the Greek style in its entirety, or to improve upon the basilica type.
Fortunately, although after considerable hesitation, they chose the
latter alternative, the result being the genesis of our glorious
cathedrals with their long naves and aisles, deep transepts and
beautiful variety of form and outline.
[Illustration: A Reputed Saxon Doorway.
Bishopstone, Sussex. _Photograph Mr. W. Hodgson._]
CHAPTER III.
THE SAXON AND NORMAN STYLES.
As we have seen in the previous chapter, the whole subject of pre-Saxon
church building is still very obscure, and for some considerable time
after the Anglo-Saxon invasion little is known concerning church
architecture, nor has it yet been fully ascertained whether any
buildings of this period exist. By the year 588 the Saxons were in
complete possession of the land. Christianity was to all appearance
wiped out and the Church, to the superficial observer was dead. In his
"_History of English Church Architecture_," Scott expresses the opinion
that the oldest English churches may be divided into three groups.
First, those which preceded the Danish invasion; secondly, those from
the above epoch to the invasion of Sweyn; and thirdly, those onward to
the Norman Conquest.
[Side note: Saxon Architecture.]
What exactly constituted Saxon architecture has long been a
controversial point and one which will probably never be definitely
settled. Parker, in his "_Glossary of Architecture_," says:--
"For a considerable time, after they (the Anglo-Saxons) had
established themselves in this country, their buildings were
of wood, and this appears to have been the prevailing material
employed at the time of the Conquest, although stone had been
occasionally used several centuries earlier.... No timber-work
of Saxon date can be in existence at the present time, but it is
contended by some antiquaries that several of our churches exhibit
specimens of Saxon masonry; the truth of this theory, however, is
not fully established, nor has the subject of Saxon architecture
been yet sufficiently investigated to clear away the obscurity in
which it is involved."
Probably few of our so-called Saxon churches were built earlier than
thirty or forty years before the Norman Conquest, and it seems certain
that for some years after they had settled in England, the Normans
employed Saxon masons to build in the Saxon manner, as is seen by the
tower of S. Michael's Church, Oxford, which, although showing all the
characteristics of reputed Saxon masonry was built many years after the
Battle of Hastings. Certain it is that these pre-Norman buildings in
England were singularly rude and rough and show how much our Saxon
ancestors were, at that period, behind the Italians, French and Germans
in architectural skill.
[Side note: Saxon Churches.]
Our best examples containing Saxon work are possibly the churches at
Sompting and Bishopstone, Sussex; Bradford-on-Avon; Wootton Wawen
(sub-structure of tower); Wing; Brixworth, and Barnack, Northants;
Greenstead in Essex; and S. Martin's at Wareham, Dorset. Of towers of
this date the best are possibly those of S. Mary's and S. Peter's,
Lincoln and S. Benet's, Cambridge. Of crypts, the finest examples are
at Ripon Cathedral, York Minster (part) and S. Mary's Church, York. In
addition to these, many other churches have chancel arches, doorways or
some other less important features which are considered to be of Saxon
origin.
These early buildings generally show the semi-circular arch on the
doorways, but the windows usually have a triangular head; at Sompting
church, however, the windows have the semi-circular arch. It is
necessary to say a few words in detail about the more important churches
of this era.
[Side note: S. Lawrence, Bradford-on-Avon.]
The church of S. Lawrence at Bradford-on-Avon is one of the oldest
unaltered churches in England, and it seems to be beyond question that
it is the actual church built by Ealdhelm at the beginning of the eighth
century and dedicated by him to S. Lawrence. It consists of a chancel,
nave and north porch, and among its remarkable features is its great
height and the extreme narrowness of the round-headed arch between the
nave and the chancel, a feature it has in common with the Saxon church
of S. Martin at Wareham; the ground-plan measurements of both these
churches are identical. At S. Lawrence's church, an incised arcade is
seen outside the walls, and on either side of the west aspect of the
chancel arch are two sculptured figures of angels, which are thought to
represent the earliest extant fragments of church carving in England.
[Side note: Brixworth, Earls' Barton and Barnack.]
Brixworth church is possibly older than S. Lawrence's and it is said to
have been in continuous use for Divine Service ever since it was
erected. The tower appears to be of rather later date than the nave and
rests upon the walls of a "narthex" or portico, which may have extended
along the whole breadth of the front, as is still to be seen in churches
at Rome and Ravenna. The curious pile of masonry built up against the
tower may have been added for defence, as it could hardly have formed
part of the original design.
[Illustration: Tower of Earls' Barton Church.
Generally considered to show characteristics of Saxon masonry.]
Earls' Barton and Barnack churches both have towers so covered with
narrow projecting strips of stonework that the surface of the walls
appears divided into rudely formed panels. The west doorways of both
show primitive imitations of Roman mouldings in the imposts and
architraves. The tower of Earls' Barton consists of four stages, each
of which is slightly smaller than the one below. In that of Barnack
church, the upper stages of the tower represent the period of transition
from Norman to Early English.
[Illustration: An Example of a Norman Tower.
Bishopstone, Sussex. _Homeland Copyright._]
S. Michael's, Oxford, has a massive tower of solid masonry, unpierced in
its lowest stage by either door or window, the second stage shows but
one window and the highest is pierced by several windows of more
elaborate construction.
[Side note: St. Michael's Church, Oxford.]
Although generally consisting of rubble and stone, Saxon churches were
sometimes built of wood as we see from the existing nave of the parish
church of Greenstead, Essex.
[Side note: Greenstead Church, Essex.]
A brick chancel has been added at the east and a timber belfry at the
west end, but the old Saxon portion is composed of large chestnut trees
split asunder and set upright close to each other with the round side
outwards. The ends are roughly hewn so as to fit into a sill at the
bottom, and into a plate at the top, where they are fastened with wooden
pins. There are 16 logs on the south side where are two doorposts, and
on the north side twenty-one logs and two spaces now filled with rubble.
There is a tradition that this church was erected to receive the body of
S. Edmund, on its return from London to Bury, in 1013.
The semi-circular arch has long been considered to be one of the most
distinctive marks of Norman architecture, but Mr. Rickman, who made an
exhaustive study of the early churches of France and England, says:--
"In various churches it has happened that a very plain arch
between nave and chancel has been left as the only Norman feature,
while both nave and chancel have been rebuilt at different times;
but each leaving the chancel arch standing. I am disposed to think
that some of these plain chancel arches, will, on minute
examination, turn out to be of Saxon origin."
It would be tedious to enter into any more minute account of the
Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical remains, and the reader whose enquiries
conduct him to the more elaborate works on the subject will be startled
by the contrary opinions that he will surely encounter.
In concluding these brief remarks on early buildings, we must again
quote from Parker's work to which reference has already been made:--
"The class of buildings referred to as being considered to belong
to this style contain some rather unusual features, and they
require to be particularly described, both because they are in
themselves remarkable, and because there is a probability that
some of them may be Saxon."
[Illustration: A Norman Pier Arcade.
Abbots Langley, Herts. _Photograph Mr. A. W. Anderson._]
The Norman style of church architecture with its varied forms of
columns, moulded and recessed arches and vaulting, may be roughly stated
to have been introduced into England at the time of the Conquest. The
Saxon masons do not appear to have understood vaulting sufficiently well
to have roofed over any large space with stone, and for this reason
alone the Saxon form of building was bound to give way before the
Norman, which of all the earlier styles was the most advanced in this
respect.
[Side note: Norman Architecture.]
Generally speaking, Norman arches were semi-circular, but they were by
no means universally so, for a form frequently found is one in which the
spring of the arch does not take place from the abacus, or upper member
of the capital, but at some distance above it and when it assumes this
form it is called a "stilted" arch, suggested by some authorities to
have been unintentional and the result of imperfect construction or
planning. _See page 10._
[Illustration: Examples of Norman Mouldings.
Chevron or Zig-zag. Star.
Alternate Billet. Square Billet.
Double Cone. Lozenge.
Beak Head. Bird Head.]
The main features in the ornamentation of this period are the sculptured
bands worked round the arches, which, although generally called
"mouldings," are more in the nature of decoration, and in some instances
they appear to be additions carved on the originally unadorned surface
of the masonry.
[Side note: Ornament.]
The earliest and most general ornament is the chevron or zig-zag, which
is frequently found doubled, trebled and quadrupled. The next most
common form is the beak-head, consisting of a hollow and large round.
In the hollow are placed heads of beasts or birds whose tongues or beaks
encircle the round. On the west doorway of Iffley church, Oxford, are
many of these beak-heads extending the whole length of the jamb down to
the base moulding. They also figure prominently among the ornamentations
of the hospital church of S. Cross, near Winchester. The zig-zag
moulding is very common on Norman churches and is so easily recognised
that no further description is needed here. The less prominent decorations
of Norman mouldings include the alternate billet, the double cone, and
the lozenge, together with an immense number of others less commonly
found.
[Side note: Windows.]
The Early Norman window was little better than a narrow slit finished
with a plain semi-circular head, and was generally only a few inches
wide. They were, it is believed, filled with oiled linen and the sides
of the aperture were splayed towards the interior. Later in the period,
the windows were enriched by the zig-zag and other mouldings and at a
still later period an improvement was made by inserting nook-shafts in
the jambs similar to those in doorways.
[Illustration: A Late Norman Parish Church.
Castle Rising, Norfolk. _Drawn by Gordon Home._]
The towers of Norman churches often show windows of two lights separated
by a central shaft, all enclosed under a large semi-circular arch, the
spandrel of which is rarely pierced. Plain circular windows of small
dimensions are sometimes found in other positions and in churches of
later date, and occasionally in gable walls. Larger windows of the same
form, with small shafts radiating from the centre and connected at the
circumference by semi-circular or trefoiled arches, are also found as at
Barfreston church, Kent, where there is a fine example.
[Side note: Doorways.]
Norman doorways are found in great numbers and variety, even in churches
which present no other features in this style. The most usual form
consists of a semi-circular-headed aperture with a hood-mould springing
from plain square-edged jambs. Frequently, however, the doorways are
recessed, having a nook-shaft in the angle formed by a recession from
the capital, in which case it presents two soffits and two faces,
besides the hood-moulds. The depth of these doorways is largely due to
the great thickness of the walls usual in buildings of this period, but
in many cases that portion of the wall in which the entrance is inserted
is made to project forward beyond the general face, which projection is
finished either with plain horizontal capping, or a high-pitched gable.
[Illustration: _West Doorway Rochester Cathedral_
Duncan Moul.]
Norman porches thus have generally but little projection, and are
frequently so flat as to be little more than outer mouldings to the
inner door. They are, however, often richly ornamented and have rooms
above, which rooms are wrongly called "parvises." The shallow aperture
often follows the form of the arch, but is frequently square-headed,
having a semi-circular tympanum of masonry filling the space between the
lintel of the door and the intrados of the arch.
[Illustration: Tympanum of Norman Doorway.
Fordington S. George, Dorset. _Drawn by E. M. Heath._]
These tympana are usually sculptured in low relief with a representation
of some scriptural or traditional event, while the assertion of the
Apostle that "we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom
of God," may account for the fondness of the Norman sculptors in
representing different stages of martyrdom on the tympana of their
doors. A very singular tympanum is that on the door of the church of
Fordington S. George, at Dorchester, whereon is represented some
incident in the life of S. George. The principal figure is on horseback
with a discus round his head. The other figures are in hauberks and
chausses, and generally bear, in point of costume, much resemblance to
the figures on the famous Bayeux tapestry. Barfreston church, Kent, has
an interesting tympanum, as also has Patrixbourne church in the same
county, where the sculpture shows the Saviour with dragons and at his
feet a dog. At Alveston church, Warwickshire, the sculpture shows two
quadrupeds with enormous tails, fighting, with between them a small
bird, possibly intended for a dove. Our best example of a Norman doorway
and tympanum is generally considered to be the west doorway of
Rochester Cathedral, where the sculpture is of a very advanced character
for its date, which is probably about 1130-40.
[Side note: Piers.]
A distinctive feature of the Norman style are the massive pillars,
usually circular, and with capitals either of the same form, or square;
occasionally in plain buildings the pillars themselves are square with
very little or no ornamentation. Towards the end of the period, an
octagonal pillar was often used, having a much lighter appearance than
the earlier forms.
[Illustration: Examples of Capitals.
Norman. Transitional. Norman.
Crypt, Winchester. Christ Church, Oxford. Winchester Cathedral.]
Besides these plain styles, compound or clustered piers are very
numerous, differing considerably in plan; the simplest consists of a
square having one or more rectangular recesses at each corner, but one
more frequently met with has a small circular shaft in each of the
recesses and a larger semi-circular one on each side of the square.
[Side note: Capitals.]
Norman capitals are very varied, having many different forms of
ornamentation; the commonest is one which resembles a bowl with the
sides truncated, reducing the upper part to a square; sometimes the
lower part is cut into round mouldings and ornamented, but it is
frequently left plain. The Norman capital in its earliest style was of
short proportions, but afterwards it became longer, with lighter
ornamentation, gradually merging into the Early English.
[Illustration: A Curious Norman Capital. Seaford, Sussex.]
The bishops and abbots of this period appear to have possessed
considerable skill in architecture, for no fewer than fifteen of our
English cathedrals contain some important Norman work, as the older
portions of the cathedrals of Canterbury, Durham, Winchester,
Gloucester, Peterborough, Ely, Norwich, Lincoln and Oxford.
[Side note: Norman Buttresses.]
The Norman buttress, better described by Mr. Sharpe as a pilaster strip,
unlike those of the later period, projects but very little from the
wall, and this is especially so in buildings of the earlier part of the
period. They are usually quite plain and are more used for finish than
actual support; the Norman builder relying principally upon the thickness
and weight of his walls to sustain any roof thrust (_see page 17_).
[Side note: The Round Churches.]
There are in England a few round churches which are thought to have been
built by the Knights Templars, a religious community banded together for
the purpose of wresting the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem from the
Saracens. Their object was to defend the Saviour's tomb and to guard
Palestine, for which purpose they built numerous monasteries throughout
the Holy Land and fortified them like castles.
Another famous order which combined the religious instincts of the
cloister with the military ardour of the warrior was that of the Knights
of S. John Baptist or Knights Hospitallers, who, besides fighting, were
to tend the sick and provide for the welfare of all Christian travellers.
The churches belonging to the Templars were usually built in circular
form in imitation of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. They
were capped with vaulted concave roofs said to be symbolical of the
vast circuit and concave of the heavens. Our best example is the Temple
Church, London, to which was added at a later period, a beautiful Early
English Gothic extension. Other round churches are those of S. Sepulchre,
Cambridge; S. Sepulchre, Northampton; Temple Balsall, Warwickshire, and
of Little Maplestead, Essex, which last, although the smallest, is by no
means the least interesting. It is attributed to the Hospitallers, an
order founded about the year 1092, and introduced into England in the
reign of Henry I. At Clerkenwell may still be seen the ancient gateway
leading to their hospital. The order was suppressed in 1545. The church
at Little Maplestead was built early in the 12th century, and in 1186
the adjoining manor was given by Juliana Doisnel to this order, which
gift was confirmed by King John and Henry III. This church is thought to
reproduce with more fidelity than the others the original church of the
Holy Sepulchre.
[Illustration: Norman and Early English Doorways.
Showing the transition from one style to another.
Dunstable Priory Church. _Drawn by Worthington G. Smith._]
These famous Norman round-chancelled churches have much in common with
the old basilica form.
It must be pointed out that the arbitrary divisions into which
architecture has been divided--Norman, Gothic, etc., are pure figures of
the imagination, as by a series of easy transitions, one style became
gradually merged into the next without any hard and fast dividing lines
whatever. The periods during which one style became gradually blended
into another are called the periods of transition.
[Side note: The Transition.]
Architecture being progressive, it was only by the gradual development
of one style from another that the art was enabled to advance with
social progress, the literature and other arts of the country. The
transition from the Norman to the Early English style may be ascribed to
a period somewhat earlier than the 12th century, when a great change in
the construction of the arch began to manifest itself. Alone, however,
the form of the arch is no real test, for many pure Norman works have
pointed arches. The square abacus may be taken as the best test. In its
incipient state the pointed arch exhibited a change of form only, whilst
the accessories and details remained the same as before; and although
this change gradually led to the Early Pointed style in a pure state,
with mouldings and features altogether distinct from those of the
Norman, and to the general disuse, in the 13th century, of the
semi-circular arch, it was for a while so intermixed as, from its first
appearance to the close of the 12th century, to constitute that state of
transition called the semi-Norman.
[Illustration: Windows showing the Origin of Tracery.]
CHAPTER IV.
THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE.
The origin of what is loosely called Gothic architecture--which is
generally considered to include the styles, with their transitions, from
Early English to late Perpendicular, or Tudor-Gothic--is not free
from obscurity, but it is certain that it began to be employed in
ecclesiastical edifices about the time that the Goths settled in Italy,
although all the available evidence goes to prove that the style
originated and underwent its earliest developments in the north-west of
Europe, and penetrated by slow degrees to the south and east.
England was somewhat later than France in introducing this style of
architecture, our earliest purely Gothic building being Salisbury
Cathedral, begun in 1220, although the choirs of Rievaulx and Fountains
Abbey were commenced a few years earlier. The Early English style in its
earliest developments is nowhere seen to better advantage than in
Salisbury Cathedral, and in its very latest forms at Westminster Abbey,
the period of time being chronologically measured by the reigns of
Richard I., John and Henry III.
[Illustration: An Early English Arch.
Rochester Cathedral. _Photograph Eastmead._]
Most of our Gothic buildings were carried out under the supervision of a
master-mason, but the most subordinate workman was left plenty of scope
within reasonable limits for whatever artistic individuality he
possessed, and the enrichments and ornaments of the Gothic era point out
the noble aim, the delicate and graceful thought, the refined and
exquisite taste expended upon every portion of their buildings by these
Gothic masons.
[Side note: The Pointed Arch.]
One of the chief differences between pure Gothic and Norman
architecture is in the use of the pointed form of arch, yet in the study
of the early buildings of this date it is curious to notice how evenly
the balance is held between the pointed and the round arch, and how at
one time it was quite an open question whether the Gothic style would be
distinguished by a round or a pointed arch. In Germany and Italy the
round arch held its own and continued to be used right through the
Middle Ages. In England, however, the pointed arch soon gained a decided
victory over its rival. Many theories have been put forward concerning
the introduction of the pointed arch, one amongst them being that it was
the result of the intersection of two circular arches such as is very
commonly found in late Norman work; another theory is the poetical idea
that it was copied from an avenue of trees. Whether or not either of
these theories holds good, it is quite certain that this form of arch
was known in the East for centuries before it reached Europe, being
found in cisterns and tombs in Egypt and Arabia dating from long before
the Christian era.
It has also been suggested that it was introduced from the East by the
Crusaders, in which case we should have found it making its first
appearance in Hungary, Poland, Bohemia and Russia, but it so happens
that these were the very last countries in Europe to adopt the pointed
arch.
[Side note: The Transitional Period.]
The first form of the pointed arch, known as the Early English, was used
from about 1180 to 1300, including part of the reigns of Henry II.,
Richard I., John, Henry III. and Edward I. "Nothing," says the Rev. J.
M. Hutchinson, "could be more striking than the change from Norman to
Early English. The two styles were the complete opposites of each other;
the round arch was replaced by the pointed, often by the acute, lancet;
the massive piers by graceful clustered shafts; the grotesque and
rudely-sculptured capitals by foliage of the most exquisite character;
and the heavy cylindrical mouldings by bands of deeply undercut
members."
[Illustration: Arcading showing the junction of the Norman
and Early English Masonry. Dunstable Priory Church.
_Photograph H. A. Strange._]
Gothic architecture differs from all previous forms in the economical
use of material, and the small size of the stones used. Whereas in both
Roman and Norman buildings the arrangement of the materials depended
upon their strength in masses, the Gothic masons employed stones of
small size in the construction of edifices of equal strength and of far
greater magnificence; while in constructive properties the Gothic style
was a great advance on anything that had gone before, as the buildings
in this style did not depend for their stability on the vertical
pressure of columns, but on the correct adjustment of the bearings and
thrusts of different arches operating in various directions. Owing to
the fact, then, that each portion of a Gothic Church helps to support
something besides itself, it is obvious that such buildings could be
erected with a far smaller quantity of material than was previously
necessary. The various little shafts or columns are so disposed as to
distribute the weight of the superstructure and thus relieve the greater
columns or piers of some portion of the superincumbent weight; the
aisles help to support the nave; the walls of the side chapels act
as abutments against the walls of the aisles, while the towers are
generally placed so as to resist the accumulated thrust of all the
arches along the sides of the nave.
[Illustration: An Early English Doorway. Huntingdon.]
The enrichments and little ornaments attached to mouldings, and
particularly those placed in the hollows, are most characteristic of the
various styles of Gothic architecture. The zig-zag is peculiar to the
Norman, the nail head to the Transitional or semi-Norman, and the dog
tooth to the Early English.
[Side note: Early English Ornament.]
This last ornament represents a flower, looking like four sweet almonds
arranged pyramidically, and there is no other ornament so distinctive of
this period. Early English foliage is known by reason of the stalks
always being shown as growing upwards from the lower ring of the
capital, called the astrigal. These stalks are generally grouped
together and curve forward in a very graceful manner. The plants mostly
represented are the wild parsley, seakale and celery, and this foliage,
called stiff-leaved foliage, is found at no other period than the end of
the 12th century.
[Side note: Early English Mouldings.]
Early English mouldings are very complicated and yet very beautiful, and
consist of beads, keel and scroll patterns, separated by deep hollows
giving a rich effect of light and shade round the arch. These deeply-cut
hollows are also a distinctive mark of the style.
[Side note: Early English Windows.]
The earliest windows of this period are long and narrow, with acutely
pointed heads, the exterior angle being merely chamfered and the
interior widely splayed. Somewhat later the introduction of tracery gave
a highly beautiful appearance to the windows and from the character of
this feature the date of the window can be fairly accurately determined.
Where the tracery is formed by ornamental apertures pierced through a
plate of stone, it is called plate tracery, and is certain to be of not
later date than the earlier part of the 13th century. If it is bar
tracery, with the bars forming plain circles, the work is also Early
English, but if, on the other hand, the bars form other shapes filled in
with patterns, or consisting of a single trefoil or quatrefoil, they are
of later date.
[Illustration: The Church of St. Margaret, Lynn.
West Front showing the Early English work in the base of the Tower.
_Photograph Dexter & Son._]
[Illustration: Example of Group of Thirteenth Century Lancet Windows.
Ockham, Surrey. _Homeland Copyright._]
The traceried window originated from the placing of a two-light narrow
lancet window under one dripstone having a plain head, the introduction
of tracery between the heads of the lancets and the dripstone
becoming necessary for beauty and lightness of the form (_see page 47_).
[Side note: Early English Porches.]
Early English porches project much further from the main walls than
do the Norman doorways, and in large and important buildings they
frequently have a room above. The gables are usually bold and high
pitched, and the interiors quite as rich in design as are the
exteriors.
[Side note: Early English Doorways.]
The doorways of this period are usually pointed, though occasionally
they have a semi-circular head. The mouldings are boldly cut and often
enriched with dog tooth ornament. The jambs frequently contain a shaft
or shafts with plain or foliated capitals (_see page 51_).
[Side note: Early English Capitals and Piers.]
Early English capitals are usually bell-shaped, and are, in the smaller
examples, quite devoid of ornament, with the exception of a necking and
one or two mouldings round the abacus. The bell is generally deeply
undercut, which, as in the mouldings, is a strong characteristic of the
style. The nail head and dog tooth ornaments sometimes appear in the
hollows between the mouldings. In the large examples the bell is covered
with foliage, which, springing direct from the necking, curls over most
gracefully beneath the abacus. In clustered piers the capitals follow
the form of the pier, and they also adopt the same form in the single
shaft, with the exception that multiangular shafts have often circular
capitals. The base consists of a series of mouldings and frequently
stands upon a double or single plinth, which in the earlier examples
is square, but in later examples assumes the form of the base, and is
either circular or polygonal. At Stone church, Kent, is a good example
of an Early English capital, decorated with stiff-leaved foliage, and
the dog tooth ornament, which in this case is seen between the mouldings
of the arch, and is of a perforated character.
[Side note: Early English Buttresses.]
The buttresses (_see page 17_) of this period are, as a rule, simple
in form, and in small churches consist of two or more stages, each
set-off or division being sloped at the top to carry off the rain. In
larger buildings the buttress generally finishes with a triangular head
or gable, and is frequently carried above the parapet, except where
stone vaulting is used, in which case it is covered with a pinnacle
either plain or ornamented. The edges are often chamfered or the
angles ornamented with slender shafts. A niche to contain a statue is
occasionally sunk in the face of the buttress, but this feature is
more common in the next or Decorated period, although the change from
one period to another was so gradual that the exact date of a niched
buttress would be difficult to determine were there no other features to
guide us.
[Illustration: Salisbury Cathedral. Begun in 1220.
The spire was added, 1350. _Drawn by Sidney Heath._]
Flying buttresses were first introduced at this period, and are common
in all large buildings with vaulted roofs. They are generally of simple
design, with a plain capping and archivolt, and they spring from the
wall buttress to the clerestory (_see page 17_).
[Illustration: Examples of Early English Capitals and Ornament.]
CHAPTER V.
THE DECORATED STYLE.
The best examples of Gothic architecture may be said to have been
erected between the years 1180 and 1300, and from the latter year many
writers date the commencement of its decline. In England we owe nearly
the whole of such magnificent buildings as the cathedrals of Lincoln,
Salisbury, Worcester, and the abbey of Westminster to the 13th century,
and there is scarcely a cathedral or abbey that does not owe some
beautiful portion of its structure to the builders of the same period,
the transepts and lady chapel of Hereford Cathedral, the eastern
transepts of Durham, the nave and transepts of Wells, the transepts of
York, the choir presbytery, central and eastern transepts of Rochester,
the eastern portion of the choir of Ely, the west front of Peterborough,
the choir of Southwell, the nave and transepts of Lichfield, and the
choir of S. David's being a few of our most characteristic examples of
this period. The style which followed the Early English is known as the
Geometric or Early Decorated style, and it embraces roughly the end
of the 13th century and the first twenty or thirty years of the 14th
century, and continued in its later or Curvilinear form to near the end
of that century. Perhaps the most perfect example of the Geometric style
in the world is the cathedral church at Amiens, which is usually called
the _mother church_ of this style, and although she has many daughters,
none of them can be said to equal their parent in beauty.
In England the most perfect examples are not to be looked for in
cathedrals and large churches, but in their chapels, and the most superb
specimen we possessed, S. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, has been
destroyed within comparatively recent years. Those left to us include
the chapel of the palace of the bishops of Ely, in Ely Place, Holborn,
now the Roman Catholic Church of S. Etheldreda, a building almost
identical in plan with the vanished chapel of S. Stephen. Trinity
Church, Ely, once Our Lady's Chapel, and Prior Crawden's Chapel,
in the same city, are lovely examples of the latest development of
the Curvilinear style, while the former is considered the most
highly-wrought building in England. Belonging to this period, also,
is the choir of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, and Luton Church.
The Decorated style may be divided as regards its windows into two
classes--Geometric and Curvilinear. The first has tracery evolved
entirely from the circle. The Curvilinear style is distinguished by
traceries formed by curved and flowing lines. _See pages 15 and 59._
[Side note: Decorated Windows.]
Decorated windows are usually large and contain from two to seven
lights, although one sometimes finds a window with a single light, but
of less elongated form than those of the Early English period.
As we have seen in a previous chapter, tracery originated from the
necessity of piercing that portion of the wall which was left vacant
when two lights were gathered under a single arched dripstone, and
therefore elementary tracery consisted merely of apertures in a flat
surface. As the possibilities of this ornamental feature became better
understood, the mullions were recessed from the face of the wall and the
fine effect thus produced was, as the art progressed, much enhanced by
the introduction of various orders of mullions, and by recessing certain
portions of the tracery from the face of the mullions and their
corresponding bars. The geometrical tracery, as we have seen, consists
of various combinations of the circle, as the trefoil, based on the
triangle, the quatrefoil on the square, the cinquefoil on the pentagon,
etc.
[Illustration: A Late Decorated Window in a Parish Church.
East Sutton, Kent. _Photograph Gardner Waterman._]
In Curvilinear windows the tracery, although based on the same forms and
figures, is yet so blended into an intricate pattern that each figure
does not stand out with the same individuality as in the Geometric.
Among our most beautiful Geometric windows are those of the Lady Chapel
at Exeter, Ely Chapel, and Merton Chapel, Oxford, and of the Curvilinear
our best example is probably the east window of Carlisle Cathedral.
It must be noted that beautiful as are Curvilinear windows, yet they
mark a certain decadence in Gothic architecture, in that it is an
irrational treatment of stone, and conveys the idea that the material
was bent and not cut into the required shape, it being a well-established
canon in art that when strength is sacrificed to mere elegance it marks
a decline in that art.
[Side note: Decorated Capitals and Piers.]
Decorated capitals as a rule follow the contour of the pier in clustered
columns, and are either bell-shaped or octagonal. They are frequently
only moulded, thus presenting rounds, ogees and hollows, on which the
prevailing ornaments of the period, the ball and the square flower,
are set. The foliated sculpture is most exquisite, and is gracefully
wreathed around the bell, instead of rising from the astrigal or upper
member of the capital, as in the earlier style.
[Illustration: Examples of Decorated Ornament.
Finial Capital Finial
(Wimborne Minster). (York Minster). (York Minster).
Square Flower.
Ball Flower.
Crocket Cornice Crockets
(Hereford Cathedral). (Grantham). (York Minster).
_Drawn by E. M. Heath._]
Almost every variety of leaf and flower is represented, the oak, the
vine and the rose being perhaps the most common, but the leaves of the
maple, hazel, ivy and strawberry are all so beautifully rendered as to
evidence their having been directly studied from nature. Plucked flowers
too, are not uncommon, and sometimes the little stalks and foliage
are accompanied by birds, lizards, squirrels and other creatures. The
columns of this period are much more elaborate than those of the Early
English style, and in plan have curved profiles with moulded members
between the shafts. These mouldings are very varied, but the hollows not
being so deeply undercut, the general effect is broader and less liney
than in the Early English; while the Decorated arches are less sharply
pointed than in the previous style.
[Side note: Decorated Doorways.]
The doorways of this style possess much the same features as the last,
but the mouldings, jamb shafts, etc., are more slender, and generally of
finer proportions, the hollows being often filled with the ball flower
and square flower instead of the dog tooth. Sometimes the doorways have
no pillars, being entirely composed of mouldings which are continuous
with those in the architrave. The large single doorways of this period
are nearly as large as the double ones of Early English date, and on the
sides small buttresses or niches are sometimes placed, and often one
finds a series of niches carried up like a hollow moulding, and filled
with figures. The figures of this period are not so good as in the
previous style, the heads seem too large for the bodies, and in the
female figures the breasts are represented as quite flat. Where there
are no figures double foliated tracery is often found hanging from one
of the outer mouldings, giving an effect of great richness.
[Side note: Decorated Buttresses.]
The buttresses (_see page 17_) in the Decorated style are nearly always
worked in stages, and a niche frequently figures on the face of the
buttress. Crocketed canopies and other carved decorations are common,
and in large buildings they usually terminate in pinnacles, which are
sometimes of open work.
A Gothic building attains its effect by the combination of numerous
parts, each possessing an individual character of its own. In its
loftiness, graceful outlines, and rich effect of light and shade, it
speaks of noble aspirations, of freedom, of intellectual thought,
of talent and skill, all generously given for a high purpose, the
foundation of which was a strong religious enthusiasm, combined with
an intense love of the work itself.
[Side note: Characteristics of Gothic Architecture.]
Having now arrived at the point where Gothic architecture reached its
climax, we may briefly sum up its leading characteristics. It is
essentially pointed or vertical; its details are mostly geometrical in
its window traceries, clusters of shafts and bases, but this geometric
quality is only one of construction and form and not of its inner spirit
and motive, for plants copied directly from nature were used in
beautiful profusion.
If we compare a large Gothic church with a comparatively small one, we
shall find the columns, windows, ornaments of the former are not so very
much larger than those of the latter, but that there are double or three
times the number of them. This is not the case in a classical building,
where each feature has to be enlarged in proportion to the size of the
building. It is the constant sub-division of a Gothic Church which adds
so to its apparent size.
Ornamentally, the Gothic is the geometrical and pointed elements
repeated to their utmost and afterwards combined with the elaboration of
natural objects, plants, flowers, etc., growing in the neighbourhood of
the work. This is a great feature, but the most striking point in all
good Gothic work is the wonderful elaboration of geometric tracery,
vesicas, trefoils, quatrefoils and an immense variety of other ornament.
In regard to the sizes of our great churches it may be of interest to
note that our longest English cathedral is Winchester. York and Lincoln,
although not so long as Winchester, are in superficial area very much
larger. The largest English church of a non-cathedral rank is
Westminster Abbey, which has, moreover, the distinction of being the
loftiest internally; the nave being 104 ft. in height. The largest
parish church is that of S. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, which exceeds in
superficial area no fewer than eight of our cathedrals.
[Illustration: Examples of Perpendicular Ornament.
Panel. Crocket.
Tudor Rose. Portcullis. Fleur de Lys.]
CHAPTER VI.
THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE.
Towards the close of the XIVth century a great change came over English
Gothic architecture, a change which was to a certain extent a return to
classical ideas. The curvilinear tracery gave place to a rigid vertical
and horizontal form, with the result that windows and panels instead of
being filled with curved bars of stone, were sub-divided by straight
perpendicular bars and transoms or cross-bars.
This style of architecture is popularly known as Perpendicular, but as
the horizontal lines are quite as distinct a feature as are the vertical,
it would perhaps be more correct to speak of it as Rectilinear. This
change in architectural form made its appearance towards the close of
the XIVth century, although it was by no means generally introduced at
that period, for the old methods and styles were carried on side by side
with the new for many years. For example, the eastern end of the choir
of York Minster (1361-99) possesses a window the traceries of which
contain both curvilinear and rectilinear lines, while Shottesbrook
Church in Berkshire (1387), and Wimmington Church, Bedfordshire (1391)
are examples of village churches neither of which has any feature of the
Perpendicular style.
[Illustration: Yeovil Parish Church (A.D. 1376).
Early Perpendicular in style, without a clerestory, and called,
for its large window area, the "Lantern of the West."]
In its earlier stages the Perpendicular style presented an effect at
once good and bold; the mouldings, though not equal to the best of the
Decorated style, were well defined, the enrichments effective, and the
details delicate without extravagant minuteness. Subsequently the
style underwent a gradual debasement; the arches became depressed; the
mouldings impoverished, the details crowded and coarsely executed, and
the whole style became wanting in the chaste and elegant effects for
which the Decorated stands unapproached and unapproachable. The flowing
contours and curved lines of the previous style now gave place in the
windows to mullions running straight up from the bottom to the top, and
crossed by transoms. As the arch became more and more depressed the
mouldings became shallower and less effective. In early buildings of
this period the drop arch is very prevalent, but as the period advanced
a form known as the Tudor arch began to be used. It is an arch in which,
as a rule, the centres of the upper portion lie immediately below those
of the lower, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the whole of
the upper portion uniting the arcs of the ends is struck from one centre,
in which case the arch becomes a three-centred one, being, in fact, half
an ellipse. Towards the close of the style the curvature of the upper
portion is so slight that it can hardly be distinguished from a straight
line, and as the debasement progressed it became really straight. Ogee
arches are also found at this period, and foiled arches are very frequent.
When the Tudor arch was not used, we generally find the low drop arch,
these three last being mostly used for small openings.
[Illustration: A Fine Parish Church showing Rich Perpendicular Work.
Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk. _Photograph Dexter & Son._]
The peculiar characteristics of the windows--the perpendicular
mullions and horizontal transoms--we have already alluded to.
[Side note: Perpendicular Windows.]
The window heads, instead of being filled with flowing tracery, have
slender mullions running from the heads of the lights between each
mullion, and these again have smaller transoms, until the whole surface
of the window becomes divided into a series of panels, the heads of
which being arched, are trefoiled or cinquefoiled. In the later windows
the transoms at the top are often furnished with a small ornamental
battlement, causing the mullions to present a concave outline.
[Illustration: A Perpendicular Doorway.
Merton College Chapel. _Drawn by E. M. Heath._]
The plans of churches in this style differ from all others in that they
are more spacious, the columns more slender and wider apart, the windows
much larger, and the walls loftier and thinner. Panelling is used most
abundantly on walls, both internally and externally, and also on
vaulting, while some buildings, as Henry the Seventh's Chapel at
Westminster, are almost entirely covered with it. Fan tracery vaulting,
a feature peculiar to this style, is almost invariably covered with
panelling.
The mouldings of this period are essentially different from those which
preceded them. As a general rule they are cut on a slanting or chamfer
plane, the groups of mouldings being separated by a shallow oval-shaped
hollow, entirely different from those of the Decorated period.
[Side note: Perpendicular Doorways.]
The doorways of the early portion of this period had two-centred arches,
but the characteristic form is the four-centred, enclosed in a square
head, formed by the outer mouldings with a hood mould of the same shape,
the spandrels being filled with quatrefoils, roses, shields, etc.
[Side note: Perpendicular Capitals.]
Perpendicular capitals are either circular or octagonal, but the necking
is usually of the former shape, and the upper members of the abacus of
the latter form. The bell portion is mostly plain, but is often enriched
with foliage of a very conventional character, shallow and formal,
without either the freedom or the boldness of the Early English, or the
exquisite grace of the Decorated periods. A distinguishing feature in
the ornamentation of this period is that called panel-tracery, with
which the walls and vaulted ceilings are covered. The patterns are found
in a variety of forms, as circles, squares, quatrefoils, etc.
[Side note: Fan Vaulting.]
The rich vaulting called fan vaulting previously alluded to, is composed
of pendant curved semi-cones, covered with foliated panel-work, which
bears some resemblance to a fan spread open.
[Side note: Perpendicular Ornament.]
Another very characteristic ornament is the Tudor flower. It is formed
by a series of flat leaves placed upright against the stalk. It was
much used in late buildings as a crest or ornamental finishing to
cornices, etc., to which it gave an embattled appearance. Cornices and
brackets were frequently ornamented with busts of winged angels called
angel-brackets, and angel-corbels. The portcullis and the Tudor
rose--both badges of the house of Tudor--also figure prominently among
the ornaments of the period. The crockets for the most part partake of
the squareness which pervades all the foliage of this style. _See page
64._
[Side note: Perpendicular Buttresses.]
The buttresses are very similar to those preceding them in their plainer
forms, but, in richer examples the faces are covered with panel work
and are finished with square pinnacles sometimes set diagonally and
terminated with a crocketed spire, or finished with an animal or other
ornament. Parapets with square battlements are very common at this period,
but they too are frequently panelled or pierced with tracery, or with
trefoils or quatrefoils inserted in square, circular or triangular
compartments.
[Side note: Perpendicular Roofs.]
The roofs of this period, both in ecclesiastical and secular buildings,
are very magnificent, and have the whole of the framing exposed to view;
many of them are of high pitch, the spaces between the timbers being
filled with tracery, and the beams arched, moulded and ornamented in
various ways; and frequently pendants, figures of angels, and other
carvings are introduced. The flatter roofs are sometimes lined with
boards and divided into panels by ribs, or have the timbers open, and
all enriched with mouldings and carvings, as at Cirencester church,
Gloucestershire.
The gradual decline of the Gothic style is very evident in late
Perpendicular churches, especially in those erected at the beginning
of the XVIth century. The elements of Gothic architecture became much
degraded and led to that mixture of features called the Debased Gothic
in which every real principle of art and of beauty was lost.
[Illustration: A Perpendicular Porch.
S. Nicholas, King's Lynn. _Photograph Dexter & Son._]
The chief characteristics, then, of the Perpendicular style are the
vertical mullions, and the general flattening of arches, mouldings and
carvings. Should there be no other guide, a Perpendicular church carries
its style and period stamped upon its carvings. The plants represented
are, almost without exception, the vine with or without grapes, and
the oak with or without acorns. The leaves are generally full blown and
crumpled. The earliest building showing the Perpendicular style is the
beautiful little priory church of Edington, in Wilts, erected by William
Edington, Bishop of Winchester. The same style, but more fully developed,
is seen in the nave of Winchester Cathedral, at New College, Oxford, and
at Winchester College.
It is generally admitted that the Perpendicular style was, to a certain
extent, a return to classical ideas, for Gothic architecture in its
aspiring grace and feeling for motion was becoming a little unsteady in
construction, and although the movement was started by Bishop Edington,
it was left to William of Wykeham to save our English Gothic architecture
from developing into the flamboyant[1] style so characteristic of the
late Gothic buildings of France and Germany.
It is little less than astounding that William of Wykeham, at once Prime
Minister, diplomatist, scholar and energetic churchman, should have found
time to introduce such far-reaching reforms into the art of building,
and whatever his fame may be in other directions he will always be
remembered by posterity as one of the most remarkable geniuses of the
Middle Ages, a man of giant mind and immense physical energy, who
carried into all his work a large and dignified character, stamping it
with the unmistakable personality of a master mind.
[Side note: Perpendicular Towers.]
As builders and designers of church towers the masons of the
Perpendicular era have never been approached, and all our finest English
towers are of this style and period.
[Illustration: A Fine Perpendicular Tower.
St. Mary, Taunton. _Photograph H. Montague Cooper._]
Considerations of space will only allow a few of these towers to be
mentioned, but among the finest are those at Boston, Lincolnshire;
Wrexham, Denbighshire; Wymondham, Heigham and S. Clement's in Norfolk;
Southwold Church in Suffolk; Manchester Cathedral, S. Nicholas' Church,
Newcastle, and S. Mary's Church, Taunton. Of Perpendicular date and
style, also, are the great lantern towers of Worcester, Bristol,
Gloucester, York and Durham Cathedrals, in addition to the fine
bell-tower of Evesham Abbey.
[Side note: Perpendicular Spires.]
The spire, although less commonly used than formerly, was by no means
abandoned, and beautiful examples of Perpendicular spires are those at
S. Michael's, Coventry, and Rotherham Church, Yorkshire. Although
nearly all our cathedrals have some portion of their fabric in the
Perpendicular style, chantries, chapels, cloisters, vaulting, screens,
etc., it was in our parochial churches that Perpendicular architecture
reached its highest and finest development. Just as the XIIIth century
was the great age for cathedral building, so the latter end of the XIVth
and earlier half of the XVth centuries was the period to which we owe
some of the most beautiful of our parish churches, as S. Michael's,
Coventry (fin. 1395); S. Nicholas, Lynn (fin. 1400); Manchester
Cathedral (formerly a collegiate church), (1422); Fotheringay Church,
Northants (fin. 1435); Southwold Church, Suffolk (1440), and S. Mary
Redcliffe, Bristol (about 1442). A little later came, among others,
Wakefield Church, Yorkshire (1470), S. Stephen's, Bristol (1470), S.
Mary's, Oxford, and its namesake at Cambridge (both in 1478) and Long
Melford Church, Suffolk (1481).
Apart from the actual buildings the Perpendicular architects, masons and
sculptors have left us some beautiful work in the form of timber roofs,
screens, stalls and seats. Among the more notable roofs of this period
are those at S. Peter's, S. Andrew's and S. Mary's, Norwich, the one at
Morton Church in Somerset, those at Saffron Walden and Thaxted, Essex,
and a particularly fine one at S. David's Cathedral in Wales. Among the
remarkable domestic roofs in this style are those at Westminster Hall
and Eltham Palace.
CHAPTER VII.
THE RENAISSANCE AND LATER.
So far we have been considering Gothic churches, but we now come to the
time when, from a variety of causes, the Italian architects, among them
Palladio and Vitruvius, began to revive classical architecture, a
movement which gradually spread over other parts of Europe.
[Side note: The Classic Revival.]
The various causes which led to this apparently retrograde movement are
still involved in considerable obscurity. The commercial prosperity of
the age produced a class who travelled abroad and cultivated the fine
arts, with the result that they desired to see erected in England
buildings such as they had seen in Rome, Florence, Genoa and Padua. It
is generally admitted that the ramifications of Gothic architecture had
reached their utmost limit, and the style was getting out of hand, as
is seen by the flamboyant buildings on the continent. The revival of
classical literature in western Europe gave an impetus to the movement
which was largely intended to enfold art within the shelter of an
enlightened taste, and protect it from the licence of unordered
enthusiasm. How far it succeeded is not a question that can be discussed
at length here, but, however good their intentions may have been, the
architects used little discrimination in the selection of buildings
which were to serve as models for Christian churches, and although
subsequently considerable improvements were made, yet, most of the
defects in the pagan buildings of the ancients were retained in such as
were intended to be utilized for Christian worship, and even considered
purely as exercises in architecture it was not until the more chaste
remains of antiquity began to be studied that the spirit and harmony of
the good examples were attained. A greater contrast than the methods
employed by the Gothic mason and the Renaissance architect could not
well be imagined. The former shaped his material with his own hands; the
foster mother of his art was tradition and its cradle the craftsman's
bench; whereas the latter, with no builder's training, worked out his
flawless and precise plans in the exotic atmosphere of the office and
the study. The practice of making working drawings for every detail
of the building was the cause of the decline of ornamental sculpture,
with the result that all life and growth in the building ceased. Some
authorities are very severe on the Renaissance movement. Dr. Fergusson,
in his "_Modern Styles of Architecture_," says: "During the Gothic era
the art of building was evolved by the simple exercise of man's reason,
with the result that the work of this period is the instinctive natural
growth of man's mind. The buildings, on the other hand, which were
designed in the imitative styles, and produced on a totally different
principle, present us with an entirely different result, and one
which frequently degrades architecture from its high position of a
quasi-natural production to that of a mere imitative art."
[Side note: Inigo Jones and Wren.]
Be this as it may, the severe classical style introduced into England by
Inigo Jones (who studied in Italy under Palladio), and continued by Sir
Christopher Wren, soon swept everything before it.
Our most remarkable church in this style is S. Paul's Cathedral, which
in style has two very adverse circumstances to struggle against. In the
first place, it bears so great a similarity to the great church of
S. Peter, at Rome, that one cannot help comparing it with that fine
example, and secondly, it is the only English cathedral which is not in
the Gothic style. It must, of course, be acknowledged that S. Paul's
falls far short of S. Peter's, especially in its lighting, but it does
not deserve the condemnation of a great German critic, who said, "It is
a building marked neither by elegance of form nor vigour of style."
Although the interior of its dome and clerestory of the nave and choir
are extremely gloomy when compared with those of S. Peter's, the church
is generally acknowledged to be far superior to the latter in its
architectural details, and few, if any, Italian churches can be said to
surpass it, either in general composition or external effect, although
it must be admitted that everything having been sacrificed to attain the
latter quality, S. Paul's taken as a whole, is neither worthy of its
fine situation nor of its great architect.
Other churches which are excellent examples of this style are S.
Stephen's, Walbrook, and S. Mary Abchurch, London. Both show remarkable
skill. The former is divided into a nave and four aisles, transepts, and
a shallow chancel, by four rows of Corinthian columns, with a small dome
over the intersection. The interior is very beautiful, and this church
is generally considered to be Wren's masterpiece. S. Mary Abchurch, is
nearly square in plan, has no columns and is covered with a domical
ceiling, but so skilfully treated that the effect is singularly
pleasing.
[Side note: Hawkesmore.]
Of the Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings it is necessary to say little,
as at best they are but clumsy imitations of the Flemish, French and
Italian Renaissance, while the style which we now call Queen Anne came
in towards the close of the XVIIth century, and belongs of right to the
reign of Charles II. Hawkesmore, a pupil and follower of Wren, was a
strong architect who has left us Christ Church, Spitalfields, and S.
Mary Woolnoth. He also designed the western towers of Westminster Abbey,
often wrongly ascribed to Wren, and the second quadrangle of All Souls'
College, Oxford. This architect, like the majority of his contemporaries,
misunderstood and despised the Gothic style, with which he had little
real sympathy; he drew out designs, which still exist, for converting
Westminster Abbey into an Italian church, just as Inigo Jones had done
with the exterior of the nave of old S. Paul's, but we cannot be too
thankful that this abominable suggestion was never carried out.
[Illustration: An English Renaissance Church.
S. Stephen's, Walbrook, London. Generally considered to be
Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. _From an Engraving dated 1806._]
With King George III. on the throne our ancestors contented themselves
with dull, but substantial, buildings of which some hard things have
been written, but they were at least respectable and free from sham,
while the churches, although not elegant, were well-built and occasionally
picturesque, as we see by the perfect little building of this date at
Billesley, Warwickshire.
The eighteenth century pseudo-classical abominations and sham Gothic, so
favoured by Horace Walpole and his admirers, can be briefly dismissed.
A more rampant piece of absurdity than that of erecting imitations of
portions of Greek temples and adapting them for Christian worship it
is difficult to imagine, and in the Pavilion at Brighton, Marylebone
Church, and the "Extinguisher" Church in Langham Place we even surpassed
in bad taste and vulgarity all the absurdities of the Continental
architecture produced by the French Revolution.
[Side note: Barry and Pugin.]
Two men now came on the scene who, united, were destined to bring some
kind of order out of this chaos. Barry and Pugin were both scholars and
architects, for while the former rather favoured the classical style he
thoroughly understood the Gothic, while Pugin was a thorough mediævalist,
a true artist, and a bold exponent in his "_Contrasts_" of a complete
return to mediæval architecture as the only possible cure for the evils
which had crept into the art of building.
Barry's idea, which was perhaps the more practical, was to correct by
careful study the errors into which the later exponents of both Classic
and Gothic architecture had fallen, and endeavour by well thought out
modifications to evolve a style more suitable to modern requirements.
Pugin, however, would have none of the evil thing, and although he
supplied his friend with designs for the details and woodwork of the
Houses of Parliament which Barry was rebuilding, they did not collaborate
in any further way, and both died before the Houses of Parliament
were completed, in which, as a matter of fact, Barry's designs were
completely ignored. The Reform Club is considered to be the best of
Barry's classical buildings.
Pugin's earlier works were mostly Roman Catholic churches, and they are
acknowledged to be an immense advance on any Gothic work which had been
seen for centuries. In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of S. Chad, at
Birmingham, there is a dignity, loftiness and simplicity surpassed by
few Gothic buildings when that style was at its zenith, and from the
time Pugin designed this building, architecture--notwithstanding our
exhaustive study of archæology, our immense resources of capital and
labour, our science and labour-saving appliances, and the comparative
accessibility of the finest materials--has neither developed nor advanced.
The most erudite Gothic mason could have possessed but little art
knowledge as compared with the modern architect, and yet with our
learned societies, wonderful libraries, easily obtained photographs and
plans of the best buildings in the world; with writers far superior in
intellectual acquirements to those of the Middle Ages, our vast wealth,
with our tools such as the mediæval craftsman could never have dreamed
of, and with the experience of twenty centuries to guide us we have
made no advance during more than half a century. Our best architects
acknowledge that until we get a new method of building, originality in
architecture is an impossibility, mainly because all the existing styles
of architecture have been worked out to their legitimate conclusion,
and have been perfected under circumstances and conditions with which
we have entirely broken; the originality in detail which pervades and
permeates our Gothic buildings and gives them the greater part of their
charm, must, of necessity, be out of our reach until we blend the spirit
of what we are pleased to call our practical age, with a certain amount
of that spirit of poetry and romance, religious fervour and devoutness,
which animated the builders and craftsmen of the past.
[Illustration: A Typical Cornish Font.
Probably of the late Norman period. Now at Maker, near Plymouth.]
CHAPTER VIII.
CHURCH FURNITURE AND ORNAMENTS.
The most important part of the internal furniture of a church is the
altar, a name derived from the Latin _altare_, a high place. The altar
is a raised structure on which propitiatory offerings are placed. In the
Christian church the altar is a table or slab on which the instruments
of the Eucharist are displayed.
[Side note: The Altar.]
The early Christian altars were portable structures of wood, and the
Church of Rome still allows the use of an altar of this description,
although a consecrated stone, containing an authentic relic and regarded
as the true altar, must be placed upon the wooden table. The slab
forming the altar was sometimes supported on pillars, but more
frequently on solid masonry, and previous to the Reformation it was
marked with five crosses cut into the top, in allusion to the five
wounds of Christ. From the period that stone altars were introduced it
was usual to enclose within them the relics of saints, so that in some
cases they were the actual tombs of saints. In England the altars were
generally taken down about the year 1550, set up again in the beginning
of the reign of Queen Mary, and again removed in the second year of
Queen Elizabeth. In the church of Porlock, Somerset, the original high
altar has been preserved, though not in use, being placed against the
north wall of the chancel. In Dunster Church, in the same county, there
is a solid stone altar, said to have been the original high altar, and
in the ruined church of S. Mary Magdalene at Ripon, the high altar has
escaped destruction. Of chantry altars we have several left, including
those at Abbey Dore, Herefordshire; Grosmont, Monmouthshire; Chipping
Norton, Oxon.; Warmington, Warwick; S. Giles's, Oxford; Lincoln
Cathedral, and many others; and it is rare to find a Gothic church
without some traces of altars in their various chapels, oratories or
chantries.
The altar is, of course, an adoption by the Christian church of a pagan
aid to worship, and at S. Mary's church, Wareham, which is thought to
stand on the site of a Roman temple, are some pieces of stone considered
by antiquaries to be portions of a pagan altar, on which burnt offerings
were placed.
Above many Christian altars was placed a piece of sculpture or a
painting representing some religious subject. These altar pieces
sometimes consist of two pictures, when they are called "diptyches," and
sometimes of three pictures, when they are called "triptyches," and
both forms usually fold up or are provided with shutters. They are often
rare examples of the Flemish and other schools of painting, and of great
value.
At the Reformation the stone altar was displaced by the communion table,
which at first occupied the position vacated by the altar. This gave
umbrage to the Puritan mind, and the communion table was then usually
placed in the centre of the chancel, with seats all round for the
communicants; which arrangement is still in vogue in some of our English
churches and in Jersey, although at the Restoration the communion table
was, as a general rule, replaced at the eastern wall of the Chancel.
[Illustration: _Durham Sanctuary Knocker._]
Long before the Christian era the altar was regarded as a place of
refuge for those fleeing from justice or oppression, and this custom or
privilege of sanctuary was sanctioned by the English bishops and was
retained for many centuries by the Christian Church. Many of our parish
churches claim to possess old sanctuary rings or knockers, but it is
doubtful if any of these were ever used by fugitives, for the reason
that although in early days every parish church had the right to grant
sanctuary, few possessed the means of feeding and housing a refugee,
save in the church itself, which was expressly forbidden. This is why
we find records of fugitives travelling many miles at the risk of their
lives and passing hundreds of parish churches in their endeavour to reach
Bury St. Edmunds, Hexham, Durham or some other of the well-recognised
sanctuaries. The only sanctuary knocker remaining to-day, which is
above suspicion, is that at Durham Cathedral. It is made of bronze and
represents the grotesque head of a dragon, the ring coming from the
mouth.
[Illustration: The Baptistery in Luton Church.
_Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S._]
Above the door is a small room in which attendants watched by
day and night, and when a fugitive was admitted a bell was rung to
announce that someone had taken sanctuary.
[Side note: The Font.]
The font, as we have seen, was originally placed in a separate building
called the baptistery. The only known example of anything of the kind
in England is that in S. Mary's Church, Luton, fully described in The
Homeland Handbook, No. 47. It is in the Decorated style, dates from the
time of Edward III., and is said to have been designed by William of
Wykeham for Queen Philippa. It is composed of white stone with open
panels, pierced by cinquefoils and quatrefoils, while the apex of each
panel terminates in a foliated finial. The font inside is octagonal
in form and of 13th century date, but it has been somewhat restored.
Ancient fonts were always large enough to allow for total immersion,
and our present custom of baptism by affusion, or sprinkling, is only
permitted, not enjoined by the rubric. In early days the sacrament of
baptism was only administered by the bishops at the great festivals of
Pentecost and Easter, for the reason that this afforded the greater
convenience for immediate confirmation, but with the increase in the
number of churches the rite was administered by the priests in every
village. The font was required by the canon to be of stone, but there
are a few Norman fonts made of lead, among them those at S. Mary's
Church, Wareham, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, and at Edburton, Parham,
and Pyecombe, Sussex. A remarkable font is that at Dolton Church, Devon,
made up of fragments of the churchyard cross, and there is also a
somewhat similar one at Melbury Bubb, Dorset. By a constitution of
Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (1236), fonts were required to be
covered and locked, and at first these covers were little more than
plain lids, but they afterwards became highly ornamental and were
enriched with buttresses, pinnacles, crockets, etc. It is doubtful if
any fonts exist which can reasonably be supposed to be Saxon, although
a few, like that at Little Billing, Northants, may possibly be of that
era. Of Norman fonts we have large numbers. They are sometimes plain
hollow cylinders; others are massive squares with a large pillar in
the centre, and small shafts at the corners. These fonts are generally
ornamented with rudely executed carvings, consisting of foliage and
grotesque animals.
[Illustration: An Example of a Leaden Font of the late Norman period.
Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey.]
The one in Winchester Cathedral is a good example, and there are three
other very similar ones in Hampshire. Early English fonts are very often
circular, and sometimes square, and they are often supported in much the
same way as the Norman ones. In the Decorated and Perpendicular styles
they are, with few exceptions, octagonal, and the details generally
partake of the character of those used in the other architectural features
of the period. There are hexagonal fonts of Decorated date at Rolvenden,
Kent, and Heckington, Lincs. The font is usually placed close to a pillar
near the entrance, generally that nearest but one to the tower in the
south arcade, or, in larger buildings, in the middle of the nave.
[Side note: Stoups.]
The holy-water stoups sometimes found in our old churches are generally
small niches with stone basins formed in the wall either in or just
outside the porch, or within the church close to the door, or in one of
the pillars nearest to the door. These niches resemble piscinas, except
that they differ in situation, are smaller and plainer, and rarely have
a drain. A good example of an outside stoup is that at Broadmayne,
Dorset, where there is also one inside the church. They are rarely found
unmutilated, but there is one in perfect condition in the north porch of
Thornham Church, Kent; and a rather elaborate example at Pylle Church,
near Glastonbury.
[Illustration: A Reputed Saxon Font. Shaldon, Devon.]
The piscina is a water-drain formerly placed near the altar and
consisting of a shallow stone basin, or sink, with a drain to carry off
whatever is poured into it.
[Side note: Piscinas.]
It was used to receive the water in which the priest washed his hands,
as well as for that with which the chalice was rinsed at the celebration
of the mass. It was usually placed within a niche, although the basin
often projects from the face of the wall, and is sometimes supported
on a shaft rising from the floor. In the Early English and Decorated
periods there are often two basins and two drains, and occasionally
three. Within the niche a wooden or stone shelf is often found, called
a credence-table, on which the sacred vessels were placed previous to
their being required at the altar.
[Illustration: A Detached Holy-water Stoup of unusual design.
Wooton Courtenay, Som.]
Piscinas are unknown in England of earlier date than the middle of the
12th century, and of that date they are extremely rare. Of thirteenth
and succeeding centuries we have many examples, more or less mutilated.
Their forms and decorations are very various, but the character of their
architectural features will always decide their approximate date.
[Side note: Sedilia.]
The Sedilia, from the Latin _sedile_, a seat, has come to be applied in
modern times to the seats used by the celebrants during the pauses in
the mass. They were sometimes moveable, but more usually in this country
were formed of masonry and recessed in the wall. They are generally three
in number, for the priest, deacon and sub-deacon, while in a few rare
instances they number four seats, as at Rothwell Church, Northants, and
Furness Abbey; or even five, as at Southwell Minster. Sometimes a long
single seat under one arch is found, and when three seats are used the
two western ones are often on the same level and the eastern one raised
above them. Numerous examples remain in our churches, some being as
early as the latter part of the 12th century, but they are mostly later
and extend to the end of the Perpendicular style. Some of them are
separated by shafts, and profusely ornamented with panelling, niches,
statues, pinnacles, tabernacle work, and crowned with canopies all more
or less elaborately enriched.
[Side note: Stalls.]
Stalls are fixed seats in the choir, either wholly or partially enclosed
and used by the clergy. Previous to the Reformation all large and many
small churches had a range of wooden stalls on each side and at the west
end of the choir. In cathedrals they were enclosed at the back with
panelling, and surmounted by overhanging canopies of tabernacle work,
generally of oak, of which those at Winchester, Henry VII.'s Chapel at
Westminster, and Manchester Cathedral are possibly our finest examples.
When the stalls occupied both sides of the choir, return seats were
placed at the ends for the prior, dean, precentor, and other of the
officiating clergy.
[Illustration: Sedilia and Chantry. Luton, Beds.
_Photograph Fredk. Thurston, F.R.P.S._]
Mr. Parker, in his "_Glossary of Architecture_," gives the following
definition of the miserere, patience or pretella. "The projecting bracket
on the underside of the seats of stalls in churches; these, when perfect,
are fixed with hinges so they may be turned up, and when this is done the
projection of the miserere is sufficient, without actually forming a
seat, to afford very considerable rest to anyone leaning upon it. They
were allowed as a relief to the infirm during the long services that
were required to be performed by ecclesiastics in a standing posture."
It is in the carving of these that one is frequently struck by the
curious mixture of the sacred and the profane, the refined and the
vulgar, for which it is difficult to find any adequate explanation. Of
so coarse a nature are some of these carvings that it has been necessary
to entirely remove them from the stalls. They are usually attributed to
the mendicant and wandering monks, and they undoubtedly reflect the
licentiousness which at one time pervaded the monastic and conventual
establishments. Among our best examples are those at Christchurch
Priory, Hants, and in Henry VII.'s Chapel. There is a remarkably
complete set in Exeter Cathedral.
[Illustration: A Typical Somerset Bench-End.
Showing a Fuller at work with the implements of his trade. Spaxton.
_Photograph Mr. Page._]
Of modern pews it is not necessary to say anything here, but previous
to the Reformation the nave of a church was usually fitted with fixed
seats, parted from each other by wainscoting, and partially enclosed at
the ends by framed panelling, but more often by solid pieces of wood,
either panelled or carved on the front. These bench-ends are very common
in the West of England, in Somerset and Devon, and they are often very
beautiful pieces of work and were in all probability executed by local
craftsmen. They embrace a variety of subjects: figures, scrolls, dragons,
serpents, etc., and frequently bear the arms of the family who owned the
pew. Sometimes they terminate at the top with finials either in the form
of heads, bunches of foliage, a chamfered _fleur-de-lys_ and a variety
of other ornaments called Poppy-heads, from the French _Poupée_. No
examples are known to exist earlier than the Decorated style, but of
Perpendicular date specimens are very numerous, especially in our
cathedrals and old abbey churches.
[Side note: Pulpits.]
Pulpits were formerly placed, not only in churches, but in the
refectories and occasionally in the cloisters of monasteries, and there
is one in the outer court of Magdalen College, Oxford, and another at
Shrewsbury. In former times pulpits were placed in the nave attached
to a wall, pillar or screen, usually against the second pier from the
chancel arch. Some are of wood, others of stone; the former are mostly
polygonal, with the panels enriched with foliation or tracery. Few exist
of earlier date than the Perpendicular style, but stone pulpits of
Decorated date are sometimes met with as at Beaulieu, Hants, a very
early specimen. Wooden pulpits are usually hexagonal or octagonal; some
stand on slender wooden stems, others on stone bases. A few have canopies
or sounding boards, and their dates can be fixed by the character of
their ornamentation. At Kenton, Devon, there is an early pulpit which
has retained its original paintings. Jacobean pulpits are very numerous,
and are frequently gilded and painted; the one at S. Saviour's Church,
Dartmouth, being a most elaborate example.
[Illustration: A Richly Carved Pulpit and Canopy.
Edlesborough, Bucks. _Photograph H. A. Strange._]
Open-air preaching is anything but a modern invention, for long before
the erection of parish churches it was the recognised method of addressing
the people. There is a print of some popular bishop preaching in a
pulpit at Paul's Cross in S. Paul's Churchyard, and in mediæval days
open-air pulpits were erected near the roads, on bridges and often on
the steps of the market crosses, which are often still known as
preaching crosses.
[Side note: Squints.]
In some of our churches is to be seen a squint, an opening in an oblique
direction through a wall or pier for the purpose of enabling persons in
the aisles or transepts to see the elevation of the Host at the high
altar. They are of frequent occurrence in our churches and are very
numerous in the neighbourhood of Tenby, South Wales, also in Devon and
the West generally. They are usually without any ornament, but are
sometimes arched and enriched with tracery. They are mostly found on one
or both sides of the chancel arch, but they sometimes occur in rooms
above porches, in side-chapels and the like; in every instance they were
so situated that the altar could be seen. When they occur in porches or
the rooms above they are thought to have been for the use of the acolyte
appointed to ring the sanctus bell, who, viewing the performance of mass,
would be thus able to sound the bell at the proper time. The name
hagioscope has been used to describe these oblique openings.
Cruciform marks are sometimes found on our churches, often on a stone in
the porch; they are usually incised crosses or five dots in the form of
a cross. They were, presumably, cut by the bishop when the building was
consecrated, and are called consecration crosses.
[Side note: Screens.]
The rood-screens, separating the chancel or choir of a church from the
nave, usually supported the great Rood or Crucifix, not actually on the
screen itself, but on a beam called the rood-beam, or by a gallery
called the rood-loft, which last was approached from the inside of the
church, by a small stone staircase in the wall, as can be seen in many
of our churches to-day. Although rood-lofts have been generally destroyed
in England, some beautiful examples remain at Long Sutton, Barnwell,
Dunster and Minehead, Somerset; Kemsing, Kent; Newark, Nottingham;
Uffendon, Collumpton, Dartmouth, Kenton, Plymtree and Hartland, Devon.
The general construction of wooden screens is close panelling below,
from which rise tall slender balusters, or wooden mullions supporting
tracery rich with cornices and crestings, frequently painted and gilded.
The lower panels often depict saints and martyrs. From the top of the
screen certain parts of the services and the lessons were read. They
were occasionally close together and glazed, as we see by a most beautiful
example at Charlton-on-Otmoor, in Oxfordshire. These screens, many of
which have been over-restored, are very common, and in addition to those
above mentioned, are found at S. Mary's, Stamford, Ottery S. Mary,
Chudleigh, Bovey, and in nearly all the Devon parish churches. At
Dunstable a screen of Queen Mary's time separates the vestry from the
chancel.
[Illustration: Screen with Rood Loft.
Kenton, Devon. _Photograph by Chapman._]
Of stone screens space will permit of only the briefest mention. They
were used in various situations, to enclose tombs and to separate
chapels, and occasionally the rood-screen was of stone.
[Illustration: The Carved Oak Balustrade in Compton Church.
Held to be the oldest existing piece of carved woodwork in England.]
The oldest piece of screen work in this country is that at Compton
Church, Surrey; it is of wood and shows the transition from the Norman
to the Early English styles. Stone screens are often massive structures
enriched with niches, statues, tabernacles, pinnacles, crestings, etc.,
as those at Canterbury, York and Gloucester.
[Side note: The Reredos.]
The reredos forms no part of the altar, and is often highly enriched
with niches, buttresses, pinnacles, and other ornaments. Not infrequently
it extends across the whole breadth of the church, and is sometimes
carried nearly up to the roof, as at S. Alban's Abbey, Durham and
Gloucester Cathedrals, S. Saviour's, Southwark and in that remarkably
fine example at Christchurch, Hants. In village churches they are mostly
very simple, and generally have no ornaments formed in the wall, though
niches and corbels are sometimes provided to carry images, and that part
of the wall immediately over the altar is panelled, as at S. Michael's,
Oxford; Solihull, Warwickshire; Euston and Hanwell, Oxfordshire, etc.
It is interesting to note that the open fire-hearth, once used in
domestic halls, was also called a "reredos."
CHAPTER IX.
BELLS AND BELFRIES.
The history of bells is lost in antiquity, and little is known about
them previous to the XVth century. It is probable, however, that they
were used in India and China centuries before they reached Europe.
Bells were used by the Romans for many secular purposes, and although
their use was sanctioned by the Christian Church about 400 A.D., they
were not in general use in England until 650 A.D.
The earliest bells were hand bells, quadrangular in shape, and made of
thin plates of copper or iron riveted together, and their abominable
sound when struck must have been one of their chief merits, as the early
bells were much used for the purpose of frightening the devil and other
evil spirits.
Our oldest bells are hand bells, S. Patrick's bell at Belfast (1091) and
S. Ninian's bell at Edinburgh, which is probably of even earlier date.
From 1550 to 1750 was the golden age of production for bells, more
especially so in Belgium and the Low Countries, where the bells of the
towers and belfries were rung to arouse the country in times of danger
and invasion. It is quite possible that the bells used for secular and
religious purposes were kept distinct. Bells played a very important
part in mediæval life, and next to cannon were regarded as the chief
city guardians, for he who held the bells held the town, and the first
thing done by the invader on taking a town was to melt the bells and
thus destroy the means of communicating an alarm.
In England our old towns, being almost entirely constructed of wood,
were liable to periodic and devastating conflagrations, which fact
suggested to that genius, William the Conqueror, the institution of
Couvre-feu, or in its more popular form, Curfew, which rang at eight
o'clock in the evening, when all lights were to be extinguished. The
ringing of curfew has survived in many of our towns and villages to this
day, but it is doubtful if the custom has been continuous from its first
institution.
The secular use of the bell is, however, only incidental, and it is in
its connection with religious life that we are now concerned, for all
church history, church doctrine and church custom and observances are
set to bell music. Bells in fact may be said to sum up the short span of
our mortal life, for the birthday, the wedding and the funeral, are all
welded to religion by the church bell.
Bells were used for ecclesiastical purposes in England long before the
erection of our parish churches, for Bede, speaking of the death of S.
Hilda, A.D. 680, says that "one of the sisters in the distant monastery
of Hackness, thought she heard as she slept, the sound of the bell which
called them to prayers," and Turketul gave to Croyland Abbey a great
bell called Guthlac, and afterwards six others which he called Bartholomew
and Betelin, Turketul and Tatwin, and Pega and Bega.
S. Dunstan gave bells to many of the churches in Somerset, and he also
seems to have introduced bell ringing into the monasteries.
A few words may be of interest concerning the number and purposes of
these monastic bells, with which the life of the monks must have been
completely bound up. The _Signum_ woke up the whole community at
day-break. The _Squilla_ announced the frugal meal in the refectory; but
for those working in the gardens, the cloister-bell, or _Campanella_,
was rung. The abbot's _Cordon_, or handbell, summoned the brothers and
novices to their Superior; whilst the _Petasius_ was used to call in
those working at a distance from the main building. At bed-time the
_Tiniolum_ was sounded, and the _Noctula_ was rung at intervals throughout
the night to call the monks to watch and pray. The _Corrigiumcula_ was
the scourging bell, while the sweet-toned _Nota_, a choir bell, was rung
at the consecration of the elements.
The use of the bell-tower was recognised in the ancient Saxon law, which
gave the title of thane to anyone who had a church with a bell-tower on
his estate, and two of our most interesting Saxon churches, Brixworth
and Brigstock, both in Northamptonshire, have each a semi-circular tower
rising together with the bell-tower, and forming a staircase to it.
One of the most beautiful campaniles or bell-towers still standing
is that at Evesham, in Worcestershire, which is a good specimen of
Perpendicular architecture. It was built by Abbot Lichfield, the last
abbot but one of the abbey, and took six years in building, and was not
quite completed when the famous abbey, of which it was a final ornament,
was pulled down.
In addition to this example at Evesham, detached bell-towers exist, or
once existed, at Chichester, East Dereham, Glastonbury Abbey, Bruton, in
Somerset, and in several other places.
Markland, in his _Remarks on Churches_, says: "The great bell-tower
which once formed part of the abbey church of S. Edmundsbury was
commenced about 1436. From the year 1441 to 1500 legacies were still
being given towards the building. In 1461 an individual, probably a
benefactor, desired to be buried _in magno ostio novi campanilis_."
In Protestant use church bells have been stripped of much of the former
superstition and symbolism. They are no longer rung to announce the
miracle of transubstantiation; neither are they called upon as of old
for the purpose of scaring devils, demons, and other evil spirits which
formed so prominent a feature in the faith of the early Christian
communities.
[Illustration: Bell Turret for 3 Bells. Radipole, Dorset.]
Closely connected with the subject of bells and belfries are the
bell-gables or bell-turrets, so frequently found at the west ends of
our smaller churches which have no towers. They usually contain but one
bell, but are sometimes found with two, and at Radipole Church, near
Weymouth, the bell-turret was originally designed to carry three bells.
They are generally most picturesque little features of which a few may
be of Norman date, but by far the greater number of them are Early
English, a style in which they are frequently found. In addition to
these bell-turrets at the western ends of our churches one sometimes
finds a similar, but smaller, erection at the eastern end of the roof of
the nave, but used for a very different purpose, for while the bell at
the western end was rung to summon the parishioners to service, that at
the eastern end, known as the Sanctus or Mass-bell, was rung on the
elevation of the Host during the celebration of mass; although usually
placed on the apex of the roof, this bell sometimes occupied a position
in the lantern or tower, or in a turret of larger dimensions. In churches
where no turret existed it was carried in the hand, and such is now the
prevailing practice on the continent. The turret for the Sanctus bell
still exists at Barnstaple, Devon, and St. Peter Port, Guernsey. The
Sanctus bell was generally made of silver, and occasionally a number of
little bells were hung in the middle of the church, and by means of a
wheel they were all made to ring at once.
CHAPTER X.
THE SPIRE; ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT.
Probably the most beautiful feature of a Gothic church is the spire,
raising its tapering form far above the town or village and forming a
prominent landmark, denoting the location of the House of God. Although
found occasionally in other styles, the spire is essentially Gothic, and
one of the most marked characteristics of this period. Spires are
generally of two kinds, those constructed of timber and covered with
slates, lead, tiles or shingles, and those built of stone or brick.
Examples of both kinds are very numerous on the continent and in
England, while shingle spires are especially common in Sussex.
The spire is generally acknowledged to have originated from the small
pyramidal roof so frequently found on Saxon and Norman towers. This
gradually became elongated, and the towers were sometimes gabled on each
side, as is the case with the remarkable Saxon church at Sompting, Sussex.
This shows us very clearly the angles of the spire resting upon the apex
of each gable, so that the spire itself is set obliquely to the square
of the tower.
[Illustration: The best example of a Saxon Spire or Pyramidal Roof.
Sompting, Sussex. _Drawn by George Pearl._]
Saxon and Norman spires are very rare in England, Sompting being our
best example of the former and those on the eastern transepts of
Canterbury Cathedral of the latter.
Of Early English spires we have, fortunately, some good examples, among
which are those at Oxford Cathedral, Wilford and Wansted, in the same
county, and a very graceful one at Leighton Buzzard. These 13th century
spires are very common in France, as at Chartres and S. Pierre, Caen.
[Illustration: Leighton Buzzard Church.
With Early English Tower and Spire. _Photograph H. A. Strange._]
Of fourteenth century, or Decorated, spires, we have many examples, of
which perhaps the best is the beautiful spire of Salisbury Cathedral,
although the equally fine one at S. Mary's, Oxford, runs it close for
premier position. The triple group at Lichfield Cathedral belong to this
period, as do the spires of Ross, Heckington, Grantham, S. Mary's,
Newark, King's Sutton, Bloxham and Snettisham, Norfolk. A peculiarity of
the Salisbury spire is that it never formed part of the original design
of the cathedral, being added seventy years later. It is the loftiest
spire in England--404 feet--about 40 ft. higher than the cross of
S. Paul's. It speaks well for the Gothic builders that such a vast
superstructure as this tower and spire could be imposed upon walls and
piers never intended to bear it. At an early period it was found to have
deflected twenty-three inches from the perpendicular, but there has been
no sign of any further movement. Barnack Church, in Northamptonshire,
has a curious spire showing the transition from Norman to Early English.
It will be noticed that the sides of a church spire are slightly curved,
so that they swell out a little in the centre. This is called the
entasis of the spire, and belongs to the study of optics in architecture.
Where the spire has no entasis the same effect is produced by the
introduction of small projecting gables, bands of carving, or a little
coronal of pinnacles.
One of the most clearly marked differences between English and continental
spires is that the latter are much shorter than the towers which support
them, the towers, as a rule, being twice as high as the spires. In
England, on the contrary, the spire is generally very much loftier
than the tower. At Shottesbrook, Berks, and Ledbury, Herefordshire, the
spires occupy as much as three-fifths of the total elevation, and the
usual rule in England is for the tower to be a little less in height
than the spire.
The masons lavished an extraordinary amount of care and skill on their
spires. So much is this the case that there is hardly a mediæval spire
in the country which can be called ill-designed or displeasing.
Church spires are very common in some counties and very rare in others.
There are, of course, exceptions, but it is in the flat counties that
spires are most frequent, the most beautiful ones being found in
Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire,
Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
The top of the spire is usually capped with a weather vane terminating
in a cock. The custom of using a cock as the flag of the vane is of very
early date, for Wolfstan, in his Life of S. Ethelwold, written towards
the end of the 10th century, speaks of one which surmounted Winchester
Cathedral. In the Bayeux Tapestry one is shown on the gable of Westminster
Abbey, and one of the early Popes ordained that every church under the
papal jurisdiction should be surmounted by a cock as emblematical of the
sovereignty of the church over the whole world.
CHAPTER XI.
STAINED GLASS.
The use of coloured glass in the windows of buildings devoted to
religious purposes appears to have been employed as early as the ninth
century, but no examples remain of anything like so old a date, and we
have only illuminated missals and primitive drawings by members of the
conventual bodies to guide us in determining the earliest styles of
coloured glazing. It appears to have consisted of more or less primitive
representations of the human form, with strong black lines to indicate
the features and folds of the drapery. The backgrounds were generally
masses of deep blue or red, and in the rare instances where landscapes
were introduced positive colours only appear to have been used. Our
oldest specimens in England are those in the choir aisles of Canterbury
Cathedral, which appear to be of the 12th century, and it is thought
that they are the remains of the original glazing that was put in when
this part of the building was rebuilt after a fire in 1174. The general
design is composed of panels of various forms, in which are depicted
subjects from Holy Scripture, with backgrounds of deep blue or red; the
spaces between the panels are filled with mosaic patterns in which blue
and red colours predominate, and the whole design is framed in an
elaborate border of leaves and scroll-work in brilliant colours.
[Illustration: A Parish Church with a Shingle Broach Spire.
(_See page 99_). Edenbridge, Kent. _Homeland Copyright._]
Of thirteenth century windows we have some magnificent examples
--unfortunately few unmutilated--as at York, where is the five-light
lancet window situated in the north end of the transept, known as the
Five Sisters of York. Of this date, also, are the large circular window
of Lincoln Cathedral, and the windows at Chetwode, Bucks; Westwell,
Kent; West Horsley, Surrey; and Beckett's Crown, Canterbury.
A little later, in the Decorated period, we get the great east window
of York Cathedral, 75 ft. high and 32 ft. broad; the east window of
Gloucester Cathedral, 72 ft. high and 38 ft. broad; and other fine
windows at Tewkesbury Abbey; Merton College, Oxford; Wroxhall
Abbey, Warwickshire; and the churches of Chartham, Kent; Stanford,
Leicestershire; Ashchurch, Glous.; Cranley, Surrey; Norbury, Derbyshire,
and others. Salisbury Cathedral has retained portions, but very lovely
portions, of the glazing of its west windows, and enough is left to show
that it was little inferior to the great windows of York and Gloucester.
Carlisle Cathedral, too, has preserved fragments of the original glass
in the tracery of the great east window, but the lower part of the
glazing is modern. Windows in the Decorated style continued to be
arranged in panels, with the spaces between them filled with flowing
patterns of foliage, in which the vine and ivy leaves predominate.
Single figures are more common than in the previous style, and when used
are generally shown beneath a simple pediment or canopy. In the early
examples they only occupy a portion of the window light, but later they
are found occupying nearly the whole of the surface and are surmounted
by large and elaborate canopies. Quarries are much used in this style,
sometimes quite plain, but more often with leaves or rosettes painted on
them in black lines, or painted with the vine and ivy leaves so arranged
that they form a repeating pattern over the whole window. At this
period, too, heraldry began to be employed in the decoration of the
windows to which it is always an appropriate and artistic adjunct, and
many authentic and valuable examples of our national heraldry have thus
been preserved for posterity.
With the advent of the Perpendicular style the glazing became more
uniform in character, the glass was thinner and lighter, the tints
paler, and the whole effect more brilliant and transparent. The
paintings for the most part consist of large figures under elaborate
canopies, frequently occupying an entire light, and in the patterns and
smaller decorations there is a greater freedom of design, and the whole
treatment is more harmonious and artistic than in any other period. The
use of heraldry became very common, and inscriptions on long narrow
scrolls were frequently employed. Among the best examples of this period
are the windows at S. Margaret's Church, Westminster; King's College
Chapel, Cambridge; Fairford Church, Gloucestershire; and Morley Church,
Derbyshire.
The Reformation, with its vast social and political upheaval, was not
conducive to the encouragement of the fine arts, and from this period
the art of glazing in England declined beyond measure, and was not the
only art that received its death-blow in the triumph of Puritanism. The
art has, however, revived greatly during recent years, thanks, among
other artists, to William Morris and Burne-Jones. A few words must
be said about the "Jesse" window found in some of our cathedrals and
churches. Strictly speaking, it is a representation of the genealogy of
Christ, in which the different persons forming the descent are placed on
scrolls of foliage branching out of each other, intended to represent a
tree. It was also wrought into a branched candlestick, thence called a
Jesse, a common piece of furniture in ancient churches. The subject is
found on a window at Llanrhaiadr y Kinmerch, Denbighshire, on the stone
work of one of the chancel windows at Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire,
and in carved stone on the reredos of Christchurch Priory, Hants.
It is not perhaps generally known that the actual colours used in early
stained glass possessed each of them their own specific symbolism.
Underlying the obvious story conveyed by the human figures or decorated
devices, there was an inner story to be read with profit by those who
understood the mystic symbolism concerning colours. Without entering at
length into this interesting subject, it may yet be stated that green
was the symbol of Regeneration, red of Divine Love, white of Divine
Wisdom, yellow of Faith, and grey, or a mixture of black and white, the
emblem of Terrestrial Death and Spiritual Immortality. These colours at
different times or in different countries had other meanings as well,
and ecclesiologists tell us that the colours chosen for depicting the
robes of our Lord differ according to the period of His life which it
was intended to represent.
CHAPTER XII.
CRYPTS.
The crypts so generally found beneath our cathedrals and abbeys, and so
frequently under our churches, rarely extend beyond the choir or chancel
and its aisles, and are sometimes of very small dimensions. They are
often coeval with the upper parts of the building, and although not so
elaborate in ornamentation as the fabric they support, they are almost
without exception well constructed and well finished pieces of building.
In some cases the crypt is of much older date than any portion of
the superstructure, as is the case at York, Worcester and Rochester
cathedrals. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the roofs were
often richly groined, and upheld by cylindrical columns or clustered
piers, and furnished with handsome bases and decorated capitals. There
is abundant evidence that crypts were at one time furnished with altars,
piscinas, and the various fittings requisite for the celebration of the
mass, and they were used as sepulchres, wherein the shrines of relics
and martyrs were carefully preserved. Some authorities claim a purely
Saxon origin for the crypts at Ripon Cathedral, Hexham Abbey, and Repton
Church, Derbyshire. The Ripon example is a plain barrel-vaulted chamber,
about 11 ft. long and 8 ft. wide, with no pillars or ornament of any
kind. It is popularly known as S. Wilfrid's Needle, but the exact origin
of the name is lost in obscurity. The Hexham crypt is very similar in
character, but is somewhat longer, being more than 13 ft. long and 8 ft.
wide. As at Ripon, there are hollows or shallow niches in the walls in
which lamps may possibly have been placed. The third reputed Saxon crypt
is that at Repton, but it has little in common with the other two, its
superficial area being nearly twice as great and the roof is supported
on four columns, with plain square capitals rudely carved, and bearing
much similarity to early Norman work.
The position of the crypt varies. At Beverley Minster it is on the
south side of the south-west tower; in Hereford Cathedral it is under a
side chapel, while at Lastingham, in Yorkshire, the crypt extends under
the whole of the church, including the apse. At Wells the crypt is
beneath the chapter-house, and Durham Cathedral has three crypts, one
under what was the dormitory, another beneath the refectory, and the
third under the prior's chapel. Of crypts of Norman date we have many
examples, of which, perhaps, our best are those at Gloucester, Worcester,
Canterbury and Winchester Cathedrals, while Canterbury is probably the
largest of them all. Good crypts are also found at Wimborne Minster,
Christchurch Priory, and in our smaller churches at Repton and S.
Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford.
The Wimborne crypt is lighted by four windows. The vaulting is supported
by two pairs of pillars which form three aisles, each of three bays. Mr.
Perkins, in his book on Wimborne Minster, says, "On each side of the
place where the altar stood there are two openings into the choir
aisles. The exteriors of these are of the same form and size as the
crypt windows, but they are deeply splayed inside, and probably were
used as hagioscopes or squints, to allow those kneeling in the choir
aisles to see the priest celebrating mass at the crypt altar." The crypt
at Christchurch is of Norman date, and now serves as a vault for the
Malmesbury family. The crypt of Canterbury Cathedral is claimed and
justly claimed, perhaps, as the largest and most beautiful in England.
It is thought to contain fragments of Roman and Saxon work, and much of
it dates from the days of S. Anselm (1096-1100). It was here that the
remains of S. Thomas à Becket lay from 1170 to 1220, and "here that
Henry II., fasting and discrowned, with naked feet, bared back, and
streaming tears, performed on July 12th, 1174, the memorable penance for
his share in the murder of the great Archbishop."
It was here too, in later times that the Walloons were granted, by Queen
Elizabeth, the privilege of carrying on their silk-weaving, and it was
also reserved as a place of worship for French Protestants.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOW TO DESCRIBE AN OLD CHURCH.
Having carefully read the foregoing chapters, it should be possible for
anyone interested in the subject to be able to write a fairly accurate
description of any old church. The record should, if possible, be
amplified with sketches or photographs.
In course of time, decay, neglect and restoration will deprive our
ancient buildings of every visible stone of original work which they
possess, and careful records of this kind, written, photographed and
sketched, may be of the highest possible value to future generations of
historians and architects, long after the objects themselves have ceased
to exist. The work in itself is of absorbing interest, and the more one
studies these works of past ages the stronger becomes the conviction
that our old buildings, whether cathedral, castle or simple village
church, are the landmarks of the nation's history, and a priceless
inheritance of beauty and art the conservation of which is the duty of
all generations.
The principal points to be noted are--1. The name of the church. 2. Its
situation. 3. Its dedication. 4. General plan. 5. The style of
architecture to which each portion belongs. 6. Any peculiarity of the
architecture, blocked up windows, etc. 7. Any ancient furniture,
screens, bench-ends, glass. 8. Any monuments, tablets, or mural
paintings. 9. Church plate, bells, registers. 10. Any local traditions.
The record should be made somewhat in the following manner.
The church of ---- is prettily situated on rising ground some quarter of
a mile north of the village, and on the main road to ---- . It is
approached by a picturesque timber lych-gate, and consists of nave,
aisles and chancel, having a side chapel to the north and a single
transept to the south. At the west end is a Decorated tower and spire.
There are two porches, one on the north side and the other on the west,
which last has a niche for a figure over the doorway and seats on either
side. The nave is Perpendicular, as is the greater part of the rest of
the fabric. Above the nave rises a lofty and noble clerestory, divided
from the aisles by five rather obtusely-pointed arches supported by
richly moulded piers with small moulded capitals. Each bay of the
clerestory contains two three-light windows of late Perpendicular date.
The roof is flat pitched and is of oak, the principals are adorned with
panelled tracery and show vestiges of ancient colour decoration. The
windows of the aisles are late Decorated in style; they are of three
lights, the traceries elegant and richly moulded. The east window is
Perpendicular and is much sub-divided by mullions and transoms; in the
upper portions are some heraldic coats of arms, which appear to have
formed part of a much earlier window. The chancel is divided from the
nave by a fine open oak screen, coeval with the larger part of the
building. It is richly carved and gilded, and in the right-hand side of
the chancel arch are the steps which formerly led up to the top of it.
The chancel, together with its chapel, is vaulted in stone with well
marked ribs and carved bosses. The transept, late Perpendicular, opens
into the south side of the nave by a four-centred arch, and has a
rich flat ceiling. In the chancel is a piscina of Early English date,
together with a sedilia of the same period. On the north side of the
chancel, resting on the floor, is a cross-legged effigy, in chain mail,
surcoat, etc., and bearing on his left arm a shield, but all much
mutilated. There is a local tradition that it represents Sir ----, but
there is no evidence by which he can be identified. Features of the
church are the many highly carved bench ends, all in oak, representing a
great variety of subjects, such as dragons, serpents, etc., while a few
bear the arms of local families who probably bore the cost of the work.
The pulpit is Jacobean, and has no special feature. The font, which
stands in the centre of the nave, is square in form and is supported by
a modern round plinth. It is constructed of marble, the four sides being
carved in low relief with intersecting patterns. It is possibly of
Norman date, and is the only existing feature of a much earlier church.
The tower and spire are Decorated; the latter is of stone with four
pinnacles at the base, and has a little coronal of pinnacles. The belfry
windows are arranged in pairs on each side of the tower. The tower or
western window is of five lights, richly Decorated in style.
Illustration:
KEY TO DIAGRAM OF THE INTERIOR ELEVATION OF A BAY OF A CHURCH.
CLERESTORY.
26 Boss.
25 Vaulting Rib.
24 Vault.
23 Vaulting Rib.
22 Tracery of C. Window.
21 Clerestory Window.
20 Sill of Clerestory Window.
19 Base of Jamb, C. Arch.
18 Jamb of C. Arch.
17 Clerestory String.
BLIND STOREY (TRIFORIUM).
16 Capital of Vaulting Shaft.
15 Tracery of Triforium.
14 Triforium Arch.
13 Capital of T. Pier.
12 Pier of Triforium.
11 Triforium String.
GROUND STOREY.
10 Tracery of Aisle Window.
9 Aisle Window.
8 Sill of Aisle Window.
7 Wall Arcade.
6 Vaulting Shaft.
5 Corbel.
4 Pier Arch.
3 Capital of Pier.
2 Pier.
1 Base of Pier.
FOOTNOTES.
1: So called from its "flame"-like appearance, producing forms which
resemble elongated tongues of flame. There is great beauty in much of
this work, but it is constructionally weak. The finest example is
Chartres Cathedral.
APPENDIX.
A GLOSSARY OF THE PRINCIPAL TERMS USED IN ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE.
ABACUS Derived from the Greek _Abax_--a tray or flat board, an
essential feature of the Grecian and Roman orders, but
now used to describe the slab forming the upper part of
a column, pier, etc.
ABBEY A term for a union of ecclesiastical buildings, for the
housing of those conventual bodies presided over by an
abbot or abbess, supposed to be derived from the Hebrew
_ab_, "father."
ACANTHUS A plant, the leaves of which are represented in the
capitals of the Corinthian orders.
AISLE French _aile_, a wing, the lateral division of a church.
ALMONRY A room where alms were distributed.
ALTAR An elevated table dedicated to the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist, and usually called the Communion Table.
ALMERY, AUMERY,
and AUMBREY A recess or small cupboard in the wall of a church, used
to contain the chalices, patens, etc., for the use of
the priest. They are sometimes near the _piscina_, but
are usually on the opposite side of the chancel.
ANTE-CHAPEL The outer part of a chapel.
APSE The semi-circular or polygonal recess at the east end of
the choir or aisles of a church.
ARCADE A series of arches, open or closed with masonry, and
supported by columns or piers.
ARCH A construction of bricks or stones so placed as by
mutual pressure to support each other and a
superincumbent weight. They may be semi-circular,
segmental, elliptical, stilted, horse-shoe, pointed,
trefoiled, cinquefoiled, or ogee.
ARCHITRAVE In classical architecture, the lowest division of the
entablature resting immediately on the abacus of the
capital. In Gothic buildings the ornamental mouldings
round the openings of doors, windows, etc.
ARCHIVOLT The under surface of the curve of an arch, from impost
to impost.
ASHLAR Shaped or squared stone used in building, as
distinguished from that in the rough.
ASTRAGAL A small semi-circular bead or moulding.
BALL FLOWER An ornament resembling a ball in a circular flower
with three enclosing petals. Dec.
BASE The lower member of a column, pier, or wall.
BASILICA A Roman law-court. Early Christian churches when
built on the same lines were called by the same name.
BILLET An ornament much used in Norman work and formed by
cutting a moulding in notches, so that the remaining
parts resembled wooden billets or pieces of stick.
BLIND STOREY See Triforium.
BOSSES Ornamental projections usually of foliage and placed
at the intersection of the ribs of vaults, ceilings,
etc.
BRACES Timbers which brace or support the main rafters. Also
called _struts_.
BROACH A spire, generally octagonal and springing from the
square top of the tower, without a parapet. (_See
page 105_).
BUTTRESS A projection from a wall, giving it additional strength.
CANOPY In Gothic architecture an ornamental hood or projection
over doors, windows, niches, tombs, etc., and rarely
found except in the Dec. and Perp. styles.
CAPITAL The head of a column or pilaster, found in a great
variety of shapes.
CATHEDRAL A church presided over by a Bishop. The principal
church of a diocese.
CHALICE The cup used for the wine at the celebration of the
Eucharist.
CHAMFER The surface formed by cutting away the rectangular edge
of wood or stone work.
CHANCEL The choir or eastern part of a church, appropriated to
the use of those who officiate in the performance of
the services.
CHANTRY A chapel often containing a tomb of the founder, and
in which masses were said.
CHAPEL A small building attached to cathedrals and large
churches.
CHAPTER-HOUSE The room where the Dean and Prebendaries meet for the
transaction of business.
CHEVRON An ornament characteristic of the Norman period and
divided into several equal portions chevron-wise or
zig-zag.
CHOIR That part of a church to the east of the nave where the
services are celebrated, also called chancel, and
frequently separated from the nave by an open screen of
stone or wood.
CINQUEFOIL An ornamental foliation used in arches, tracery, etc.,
and composed of projecting points or cusps, so arranged
that the opening resembles five leaves.
CLERESTORY Possibly the _clear_ storey. An upper storey standing
above or clear of the adjacent roofs, and pierced by
windows to give increased light.
CLOISTER A covered walk or ambulatory forming part of a
cathedral or college quadrangle.
CLUSTERED
COLUMN A pier made up of several columns or shafts in a cluster.
COLONNADE A row or rows of columns supporting a roof or building.
CORBEL Usually a moulded or carved ornament projecting from the
walls, acting as a bracket and capable of bearing a
super-incumbent weight.
CORNICE The horizontal termination of a building in the form of
a moulded projection.
COURSE A continuous and regular line of stones or bricks in the
wall of a building.
CROCKETS Projecting ornaments in the form of leaves, flowers,
etc., used to embellish the angles of pinnacles,
spires, gables, canopies, etc.
CROSS The accepted symbol of the Christian religion and an
architectural church ornament usually placed upon the
apex of the gable. A large cross called a rood was at one
time always placed over the entrance to the chancel. The
cross was worn as a personal ornament ages before the
Christian era by the Assyrians, and we are told that the
Druids also used this symbol in very early times.
CRYPT Sometimes called the Undercroft, a vaulted chamber,
usually underground and, in churches, rarely extending
beyond the area of the choir or chancel, and often of
less dimensions.
CUSPS Projecting points giving the foliated appearance to
tracery, arches, panels, etc.
DORMER A gabled window pierced through a sloping roof.
DRIPSTONE A projecting ledge or narrow moulding over the heads of
doorways, windows, etc., to carry off the rain.
FAN-TRACERY Tracery in which the ribs form a fan-like appearance and
diverge equally in every direction. (Peculiar to the
late Perp.)
FLAMBOYANT Tracery whereof the curves assume flame-like waves and
shapes.
FLYING
BUTTRESS A buttress in the form of a bridge, usually transferring
the thrust of the main roof from the clerestory walls to
the main or aisle buttresses.
FONT The vessel for holding the consecrated water used in
baptism.
GARGOYLE A projecting spout usually grotesquely carved and used
to throw the water from the roof well away from the
building.
GROIN The line of intersection in vaulted roofs.
IMPOST Horizontal mouldings, capping a column or pier, from
which the arch springs.
JAMB The side of a window or door.
KEYSTONE The central stone at the top of an arch. The bosses
in vaulted ceilings are frequently called keys.
LADY CHAPEL A chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
called "Our Lady."
LANTERN A small structure or erection surmounting a dome or
tower to admit light. These towers are known as Lantern
Towers.
LOZENGE A name given in modern times to Norman mouldings which
partake of a lozenge formation.
LYCH-GATE From the Anglo-Saxon _lich_, a corpse. A small and
often picturesque shelter at the entrance to a
churchyard.
MINSTER The church usually of a monastery or abbey or one to
which such has been an appendant. York and Beverley,
however, are exceptions to this rule.
MISERERE A small bracket on the undersides of the seats of
stalls.
MOULDING A term generally applied to the contours given to angle
projections or hollows of arches, doors, windows, etc.
MULLION The dividing bars of stone or wood between the lights
of windows, or the openings of screens.
MÜNSTER has now lost its simple application.
(MONASTERY)
NAVE From _navis_, a ship, the main body of a church west
of the chancel.
NICHE An alcove or recess in a wall for holding a statue or
ornament.
OGEE A moulding or arch formed of a curve or curves somewhat
like the letter S, the curve of contra-flexure, part
being concave and part convex.
ORDERS In Gothic architecture, the receding mouldings of an
arch.
PARCLOSE The screen or railings protecting a monument or chantry.
PARVISE An open space or porch at the entrance to a church, and
often wrongly applied to the room over a church porch.
PATEN The small plate or salver used to hold the Consecrated
Bread in the celebration of the Eucharist.
PENDANT Ornaments which hang or _depend_ from a ceiling or roof.
PENTHOUSE A covering projecting over a door, window, etc., as a
protection from the weather.
PIER The masses or clusters of masonry between doors, windows,
etc.; the supports from which arches spring.
PILLAR A term frequently confounded with column, but differing
from it in not being subservient to the rules of
classical architecture, and in not of necessity
consisting of a single circular shaft.
PINNACLE A small turreted ornament tapering towards the top,
and used as a termination to many parts of Gothic
architecture.
PISCINA The stone basin or sink in the chancel used for
cleansing the communion vessels.
PLINTH The lower division of the base of a column, pier or wall.
POPPY-HEAD An ornament boldly carved on the tops of bench ends, etc.
PRESBYTERY A term sometimes used to include the whole of the choir,
but more often meant to refer to the eastern end of the
choir from which it is generally raised by several steps.
QUARRIES or
QUARRELS The small diamond, square or other the shaped panes used
in plain glazing.
QUATREFOIL The shape resembling four leaves formed in tracery or
panels by cusps.
QUOIN The external angle of a building, generally of ashlar.
REREDOS The wall or screen at the back of an altar, often
enriched with carving, niches, statues, etc.
ROOD-BEAM or
ROOD-LOFT The loft or beam which, previous to the Reformation,
supported the Great Rood, or Crucifix.
ROSE WINDOW A term often used to denote a circular window of
several lights.
ROTUNDA A term used to describe a church or other building
which is of circular formation both within and without.
SACRISTRY A room used in churches for storing the plate and
valuables.
SANCTUARY See Presbytery.
SEDILIA A seat or seats, generally canopied and situated on the
south side of the chancel and used in pre-Reformation
days by the officiating clergy during the pauses in the
mass.
SHAFT The part of a column or pillar between the capital and
the base.
SHRINE Often called the feretory. The place where relics were
deposited.
SOFFIT The word means literally a ceiling, but is generally
used to describe the flat under-surface of arches,
cornices, stairways, etc.
SPANDRELS The spaces between the arch of a doorway or window and
the rectangular mouldings over it. Early tracery
originated from the piercing of the spandrels of windows.
SPIRE The acutely pointed termination of towers, etc.,
originating by the elongation of the early pyramidal
roofs.
SPLAY The slanting or sloped surface of a window opening in the
thickness of the wall, also of doorways, etc.; the term
is also applied to bevels and other sloped surfaces.
SPRINGER See Voussoir.
SQUINT An oblique opening or slit in the wall of a church, for
the purpose of enabling persons in the aisles or
transepts to see the elevation of the Host at the High
Altar. They are mostly found on the sides of the chancel
arch, and are frequently called _hagioscopes_.
STOUP A vessel for consecrated water, at or near the entrance
to a church.
STRING or
STRING COURSE. A horizontal projecting band of stone in the wall of a
building.
STRUT See Brace.
TOOTH
ORNAMENT An ornament used almost exclusively in the E.E. style,
resembling a square four-leaved flower, and thought to
be based on the dog-tooth violet.
TRANSOM A horizontal cross-bar in a panel or window.
TRACERY The ornamental stonework in the upper part of a window;
when formed by the mullions it is called bar tracery
and when the spandrel is pierced, plate tracery. Also
used largely on tombs, screens, doorways, etc.
TRANSEPTS The projecting arms of a cruciform church, often wrongly
called "cross-aisles."
TRANSITION A term used to describe the process of change from one
style of architecture to another. The three great periods
of transition are from the Romanesque and Norman to the
Early English; the Early English to the Decorated, and
the Decorated to the Perpendicular.
TREFOIL An ornamental foliation in the heads of windows, panels,
etc., in which the spaces formed by the cusps resemble
three leaves.
TRIFORIUM or Blind-Storey. An open gallery or arcade without
windows immediately above the pier arcade and under the
roof of the aisle.
TYMPANUM The space between the top of a square-headed door and the
arch above it; frequently sculptured.
VAULT Roofing of stone constructed on the principle of the
arch, the intersections of which are termed groins and
are in the pointed styles usually ribbed.
VAULTING
SHAFTS Small shafts sometimes rising from the floor, sometimes
from the capital of a pillar and sometimes from a corbel,
and intended as supports for the ribs of a vault.
VESICA PISCIS An oval shape or figure formed by two equal circles
cutting each other in their centres. Very commonly found
on episcopal and monastic seals.
VOUSSOIR The wedge-shaped stones forming an arch, the centre one
of which is the _keystone_ and those at the impost or
starting point of the curve are the _springers_.
ZIG-ZAG See Chevron.
A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE.
Adeline, J. Art Dictionary of Terms.
Bland, W. Arches, Piers, Buttresses, etc.
Blomfield, R. Short History of Renaissance Architecture.
Bond, Francis English Cathedrals Illustrated.
Bond, Francis Gothic Architecture in England.
Bonney, T. G. Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales.
Carter, J. The Ancient Architecture of England.
Colling, J. K. Details of Gothic Architecture.
Corroyer, E. Gothic Architecture.
Cram, R. Adams Church Building.
Davidson, E. A. Gothic Stonework.
Fergusson, J. Handbook of Architecture.
Fergusson, J. History of Architecture.
Fairbairns, A. Portfolio of English Cathedrals.
Garbett, E. L. Principles of Design in Architecture.
Markland, J. H. Remarks on Churches.
Moore, C. H. Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.
Paley, F. A. Manual of Gothic Architecture.
Paley, F. A. Manual of Gothic Mouldings.
Parker, J. H. A.B.C. of Gothic Architecture.
Parker, J. H. Concise Glossary of Architecture.
Parker, J. H. Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture.
Perkins, Rev. T. Handbook of Gothic Architecture.
Prior, Ed. S. History of Gothic Art.
Pugin, A. W. Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts.
Rickman, Thos. Gothic Architecture.
Rickman, Thos. Attempts to discriminate the Styles of Architecture
in England.
Sharpe, Edmund The Seven Periods of English Architecture.
Sharpe, Edmund Treatise on the Rise and Progress of Window Tracery.
Scott, G. History of Church Architecture.
Ruskin, John Seven Lamps of Architecture.
Ruskin, John Stones of Venice.
Ruskin, John Poetry of Architecture.
Ruskin, John Lectures on Architecture.
Wall, J. C. Shrines of British Saints.
Winkle British Cathedrals.
Wilson, S. Romance of our Ancient Churches.
Bell's Cathedral Series.
"The Builder" Portfolio of English Cathedrals.
Murray's Handbooks to the Cathedrals.
S.P.C.K. Illustrated Notes on English Church History.
Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. Notes on the Cathedrals.
"Our English Minsters." Edited by Dean Farrar.
This bibliography does not claim to be complete, but is a selection of
the various books on the subject which should be studied by the student.
Index
All Souls' College, Oxford, 76
Altars, 80
Alveston Church, Warwickshire, 41
Amiens Cathedral, 57
Anne, Queen, 76
Apse, The, 27
Arches--
Saxon, 35
Norman, 37
Early English, 49
Decorated, 62
Perpendicular, 66
Ashchurch, Gloucestershire, 106
Baptistery, The, 84
Barfreston Church, Kent, 39, 41
Barnack Church, Northants 32, 33, 34, 101
Barnstaple, Devon, 98
Barnwell, 92
Barry, Sir C., 78, 79
Basilica, The, 26
Bayeux Tapestry, 41, 103
Beaulieu, Hants, 90
Beckett's Crown, Canterbury, 106
Bede (quoted), 21, 23, 96
Bells and Belfries, 95
Bench Ends, 89
Bertha, Queen, 23
Beverley Minster, 109
Billesley Church, Warwickshire, 78
Bishopstone, Sussex, 32
Bloxham Church, 101
Boston, Lincs, 72
Bovey Church, 92
Bradford-on-Avon, 32
Brewer, J. W. (quoted), 28
Brighton Pavilion, 78
Brigstock Church, Northants, 97
Bristol Cathedral, 70
British Churches, Early, 19
Brixworth Church, 28, 32, 33, 97
Broadmayne Church, 86
Bruton, Som., 97
Burne-Jones, Sir E., 107
Bury St. Edmunds, 82
Buttresses--
Norman, 43
Early English, 84
Decorated, 62
Perpendicular, 70
Byzantium, 27
Canterbury Cathedral, 43, 94, 101, 104, 110
Capitals--
Norman, 42
Early English, 54
Decorated, 60
Perpendicular, 69
Caradoc, King, 19
Carlisle Cathedral, 60, 106
Charles II., 76
Charlton-on-Otmoor, 92
Charlton Church, Kent, 106
Chartres Cathedral, 101
Chetwode, Bucks, 106
Chichester Cathedral, 97
Chipping Norton, Oxford, 81
Christchurch Priory, 88, 94, 107, 110
Christ Church, Spitalfields, 76
Chudleigh Church, Devon, 92
Church Furniture and Ornaments, 80
Cirencester Church, Glos., 70
Classic Reverse, The, 70
Clerkenwell, 44
Collumpton, Devon, 92
Compton Church, 94
Constantine, Emperor, 27
Constantinople, 27
Cranley, Surrey, 106
Crawden's Chapel, 58
Croyland Abbey, 96
Crypts, 109
Curfew, 96
Decorated Style, The, 57
Doisnel, Juliana, 44
Dolton Church, 84
Doorways--
Saxon, 30, 32
Norman, 39
Early English, 54
Decorated, 62
Perpendicular, 69
Dorchester Church, Oxford, 107
Dore Abbey, 81
Dunstable, 92
Dunster Church, 81, 92
Durham Cathedral, 43, 73, 82, 94, 112
Earl's Barton Church, 32, 33
Early English Style, The, 47
East Dereham, 97
Edburton Church, 84
Edington Church, Wilts, 72
Edington, Bp. William, 72
Edmund, Archbp. of Cant., 84
Edward I., 49
Edward III., 84
Elizabeth, Queen, 81, 110
Eltham Palace, 73
Ely Cathedral, 29, 43, 57
Ely Chapel, 60
Ethelbert, King of Kent, 23
Euston, Oxford, 94
Evesham Abbey, 73, 97
Exeter Cathedral, 89
Fairford Church, Glos., 107
Fan Vaulting, 69
Fergusson, Dr. (quoted), 75
Flying Buttresses, 56
Fonts, 84
Fordington S. George, Dorchester, 41
Fotheringay Church, Northants, 73
Fountains Abbey, 47
Fuller, Thos. (quoted), 19
Furness Abbey, 87
Furniture, Church, 80
Glass, Stained, 104
Glastonbury Abbey, 19, 97
Glossary, 115
Gloucester Cathedral, 43, 73, 94, 106, 110
Gothic Architecture, Leading Characteristics, 63
Gothic Styles, The, 47
Grantham, 101
Greenstead Church, Essex, 32, 34, 35
Grosmont, Monmouth, 81
Hackness, 96
Hanwell, Oxford, 94
Hartland Church, 92
Hawkesmore, 76
Heckington, 86, 101
Heigham, 72
Henry I., 44
Henry II., 49
Henry III., 44, 48, 49
Hereford Cathedral, 57, 110
Hexham, 82, 109
Hutchinson, Rev. J. M. (quoted), 49
Iffley Church, Oxford, 39
Jenkyns, Canon (quoted), 25
John, King, 44, 48, 49
Jones, Inigo, 75, 78
Kemsing, Kent, 92
Kenton Church, Devon, 90, 92
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 107
King's Sutton, 101
Knights Hospitallers, 44
Knights Templars, 43
Lady Chapel, Exeter, 60
Langham Place, 78
Lastingham Church, York, 110
Laud, Archbishop, 16
Ledbury, Hereford, 103
Leighton Buzzard, 101
Lichfield, Abbot, 97
Lichfield, Cathedral, 57, 101
Lincoln Cathedral, 43, 52, 57, 63, 81, 106
Little Billing, 84
Little Maplestead, 44
Llanrhaiadr-y-Kinmerch, 107
Luidhard, Bishop, 23
Long Melford Church, Suffolk, 73
Long Sutton, 92
Luton Church, 58
Lyminge, 25
Magdalen College, Oxford, 90
Malmesbury (family), 110
Manchester Cathedral, 73, 88
Markland (quoted), 97
Mary, Queen, 81, 92
Marylebone Church, 78
Melbury Bubb, 84
Merton College, Oxford, 58, 60, 106
Minehead, 92
Morley Church, Derbyshire, 107
Morris, William, 107
Morton Church, Soms., 73
Mouldings--
Norman, 37
Early English, 52
Decorated, 62
Perpendicular, 69
Newark, Notts., 92
New College, Oxford, 72
Norbury, Derbyshire, 106
Norman Architecture, 35
Norwich Cathedral, 29, 43
Ornaments--
Norman, 37
Early English, 52
Decorated, 60, 62
Perpendicular, 68, 69, 70
Ornaments, Church, 80
Oxford Cathedral, 43, 101
Palladio, 74, 75
Parham, 84
Parker (quoted), 31, 35, 88
Parliament, Houses of, 78
Patrixbourne Church, Kent, 41
Perkins, Rev. T. (quoted), 110
Perpendicular Styles, 64
Perpendicular Towers, 72
Perpendicular Spires, 73
Peterborough Cathedral, 29, 43, 57
Philippa, Queen, 84
Piscinas, 87
Piers--
Norman, 42
Early English, 54
Decorated, 60
Perpendicular, 68
Plymtree, 92
Pointed Arch, The, 49
Porches, 53
Porlock Church, Somerset, 81
Pugin, 78, 79
Pulpits, 90
Pyecombe, 84
Pylle Church, 86
Radipole Church, Dorset, 98
Ravenna, 33
Reculver, 25
Reform Club, 79
Renaissance, The, 74
Repton Church, Derby, 109, 110
Reredos, The, 94
Richard I., 48, 49
Richborough, 25
Rickman (quoted), 35
Ripon Cathedral, 32, 109
Rievaulx, 47
Rochester Cathedral, 42, 57, 109
Rolvenden Church, Kent, 86
Romanesque Style, The, 27
Rome, 33
Ross, 101
Rotherham Church, Yorks., 70
Rothwell Church, 87
Round Churches, The, 44
Routledge, Rev. C. F., M.A., F.S.A., 24
Saffron Walden, 73
Saint Alban's Cathedral, 54, 94
Saint Andrew's, Norwich, 73
Saint Anselm, 110
Saint Augustine, 19
Saint Benet's, Cambridge, 32
Saint Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, 79
Saint Clement's, Norfolk, 73
Saint Cross, Winchester, 39
Saint David's, Cathedral, 57, 73
Saint Dunstan, 96
Saint Edmundsbury, 97
Saint Edmund, Martyr, 35
Saint Etheldreda, 58
Saint Ethelwold, 103
Saint Giles', Oxford, 81
Saint Hilda, 96
Saint Lawrence, Bradford-on-Avon, 32, 33
Saint Margaret's, Westminster, 107
Saint Mark's, Venice, 28
Saint Mary Abchurch, 76
Saint Mary Magdalene, Ripon, 81
Saint Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 73
Saint Mary's, Cambridge, 73
Saint Mary's, Dover, 22
Saint Mary's, Lincoln, 32
Saint Mary's, Luton, 84
Saint Mary's, Newark, 101
Saint Mary's, Norwich, 73
Saint Mary's, Ottery, 92
Saint Mary's, Oxford, 73, 101
Saint Mary's, Stamford, 92
Saint Mary's, Taunton, 73
Saint Mary's, Wareham, 81, 84
Saint Mary's, Woolnoth, 76
Saint Mary's, York, 32
Saint Martin's, Canterbury, 22
Saint Martin's, Wareham, 32
Saint Michael's, Coventry, 73
Saint Michael's, Oxford, 32, 34, 94
Saint Nicholas, Lynn, 73
Saint Nicholas, Newcastle, 73
Saint Nicholas, Yarmouth, 63
Saint Paul the Apostle, 19
Saint Paul's Cathedral, 75, 76, 101
Saint Paul's Churchyard, 90
Saint Patrick, 21
Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, 98
Saint Peter's in the East, Oxford 110
Saint Peter's, Lincoln, 32
Saint Peter's, Norwich, 73
Saint Peter's, Rome, 75, 76
Saint Pierre, Caen, 101
Saint Piran's, Perranporth, 21
Saint Saviour's, Dartmouth, 90, 92
Saint Saviour's Southwark, 94
Saint Sepulchre, Cambridge, 44
Saint Sepulchre, Northampton, 44
Saint Sophia, Constantinople, 28
Saint Stephen's, Bristol, 73
Saint Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, 58
Saint Stephen's, Walbrook, 76
Saint Thomas à Becket, 110
Saint Wilfrid's Needle, 109
Saint Wolfstan, 103
Salisbury Cathedral, 47, 57, 101, 106
Sanctuary Knockers, 82
Saxon Architecture, 31
Saxon Churches, 32
Scott (quoted), 31
Screens, 92
Sedilia, 87
Shottesbrook Church, Berks, 66, 103
Shrewsbury, 90
Silchester, 25
Snettisham, Norfolk, 101
Solihull, Warwickshire, 94
Sompting, Sussex, 32, 99
Southwell, 57, 87
Southwold Church, Suffolk, 73
Speyer Cathedral, 29
Spires, 73, 99
Squints, 90
Stalls, 88
Stanford, Leicester, 106
Stone Church, Kent, 54
Stoups, 86
Temple Balsall, 44
Temple Church, London, 44
Tenby, 90
Tewkesbury Abbey, 106
Thaxted Church, Essex, 73
Thornham Church, Kent, 86
Towers, 33, 72
Transom, The, 46, 49
Trinity Church, Ely, 58
Tympana, 41
Uffendon, Devon, 92
Vitruvius, 74
Wakefield Church, Yorkshire, 73
Walpole, Horace, 78
Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, 84
Wansted, Oxford, 101
Wantsume, 25
Warmington, Warwickshire, 81
Wells Cathedral, 53, 57, 110
West Horsley, Surrey, 106
Westminster Abbey, 48, 57, 63, 76, 78, 103
Westminster Hall, 73
Westminster, Henry's VII.'s Chapel, 68, 88, 89
Westwell, Kent, 106
Wilford Church, Oxford, 101
William the Conqueror, 96
Wimborne Minster, 110
Wimmington Church, Bedfordshire, 66
Winchester Cathedral, 43, 63, 72, 85, 88, 103, 110
Winchester College, 72
Windows--
Saxon, 32
Norman, 39
Early English, 52
Decorated, 58
Perpendicular, 68
Wing, 32
Wootton Wawen, 32
Worcester Cathedral, 57, 109, 110
Worms Cathedral, 29
Wren, Sir Christopher, 75, 76
Wrexham Church, 72
Wroxhall Abbey, 106
Wykeham, William of, 72, 84
Wymondham Church, 72
York Minster, 32, 57, 63, 66, 73, 94, 106, 109
THE HOMELAND HANDBOOKS
Copiously Illustrated and provided with Ordnance Maps and Plans.
JANUARY, 1907.
No. Cloth. Paper.
1 TONBRIDGE FOR THE ANGLER, THE HOLIDAY-MAKER, AND THE RESIDENT.
By Stanley Martin and Prescott Row 1/- 6d.
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45 WALTHAM AND CHESHUNT. By Freeman Bunting. Ordnance Map 1/- 6d.
46 DORCHESTER WITH ITS SURROUNDINGS. By F. W. and Sidney
Heath. with a Foreword by Thomas Hardy. Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
47 LUTON CHURCH. By Constance Isherwood. With Plan 1/- 6d.
48 READING AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. By A. H. Anderson.
Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
49 SUTTON AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
By F. Richards. Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
50 WATFORD AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. By Walter Moore.
Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
51 YEOVIL AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. By Frank Heath. Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
52 AYLESBURY AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. By Walter Moore.
Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
53 GRAVESEND AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. By A. J. Philip.
Ordnance Map 2/- 1/-
54 HIGH WYCOMBE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. By Henry Harbour -- --
55 OUR HOMELAND CHURCHES, AND HOW TO STUDY THEM.
By Sidney Heath 2/- --
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