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diff --git a/19737-0.txt b/19737-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75dadbf --- /dev/null +++ b/19737-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5152 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical +Architecture, Elucidated by Question an, by Matthew Holbeche Bloxam + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed. + +Author: Matthew Holbeche Bloxam + +Release Date: November 8, 2006 [EBook #19737] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOTHIC ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Julia Miller and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber’s Note + +A number of typographical errors found in the original text have been +maintained in this version. They are marked in the text with a [TN-#]. +A description of each error is found in the complete list at the end of +the text. + +The following less-common characters were used in the original text. +If they do not display correctly, please change your font. + +m̅n̅ mn with a macron over the two letters +o̅m̅ om with a macron over the two letters +o̅n̅ on with a macron over the two letters +r̅e̅ re with a macron over the two letters + + + + + “Whereby may be discerned that so fervent was the zeal of those + elder times to God’s service and honour, that they freely endowed + the church with some part of their possessions; and that in those + good works even the meaner sort of men, as well as the pious + founders, were not backwards.” + + Dugdale’s Antiq. Warwickshire. + + +[Illustration] + + + + + THE + + PRINCIPLES + + OF + + GOTHIC + + ECCLESIASTICAL + + ARCHITECTURE, + + ELUCIDATED BY QUESTION AND ANSWER. + + + BY + MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM. + + + FOURTH EDITION. + + OXFORD: + JOHN HENRY PARKER. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +In revising this Work for a Fourth Edition several alterations have been +made, especially in the Concluding Chapter; and the whole has been +considerably enlarged. + +M. H. B. + +Rugby, +April 1841. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Page + CHAP. I. + Definition of Gothic Architecture; its Origin, and Division + of it into Styles 17 + + CHAP. II. + Of the different Kinds of Arches 22 + + CHAP. III. + Of the Anglo-Saxon Style 30 + + CHAP. IV. + Of the Norman or Anglo-Norman Style 51 + + CHAP. V. + Of the Semi-Norman Style 74 + + CHAP. VI. + Of the Early English Style 86 + + CHAP. VII. + Of the Decorated English Style 102 + + CHAP. VIII. + Of the Florid or Perpendicular English Style 120 + + CHAP. IX. + Of the Debased English Style 145 + + CONCLUDING CHAPTER. + Of the Internal Arrangement and Decorations of a Church 153 + + + + +CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. + + +Page 41, line 9, _for_ Cambridge, _read_ Lincoln. + +Page 49. In addition to the list of churches containing presumed vestiges +of Anglo-Saxon architecture, Woodstone Church, Huntingdonshire, and +Miserden Church, Gloucestershire, may be enumerated. + +Page 71. The double ogee moulding is here inserted by mistake: it is not +Norman, but of the fifteenth century. + +Page 137. In some copies the wood-cut in this page has been reversed in +its position. + + + + +[Illustration: Two Arches of Roman Masonry, Leicester.] + +INTRODUCTION. + +ON THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND DECLINE OF GOTHIC OR ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL +ARCHITECTURE. + + +Amongst the vestiges of antiquity which abound in this country, are the +visible memorials of those nations which have succeeded one another in the +occupancy of this island. To the age of our Celtic ancestors, the earliest +possessors of its soil, is ascribed the erection of those altars and +temples of all but primeval antiquity, the Cromlechs and Stone Circles +which lie scattered over the land; and these are conceived to have been +derived from the Phœnicians, whose merchants first introduced amongst +the aboriginal Britons the arts of incipient civilization. Of these most +ancient relics the prototypes appear, as described in Holy Writ, in the +pillar raised at Bethel by Jacob, in the altars erected by the Patriarchs, +and in the circles of stone set up by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai, +and by Joshua at Gilgal. Many of these structures, perhaps from their very +rudeness, have survived the vicissitudes of time, whilst there scarce +remains a vestige of the temples erected in this island by the Romans; yet +it is from Roman edifices that we derive, and can trace by a gradual +transition, the progress of that peculiar kind of architecture called +GOTHIC, which presents in its later stages the most striking contrast that +can be imagined to its original precursor. + +The Romans having conquered almost the whole of Britain in the first +century, retained possession of the southern parts for nearly four hundred +years; and during their occupancy they not only instructed the natives in +the arts of civilization, but also with their aid, as we learn from +Tacitus, began at an early period to erect temples and public edifices, +though doubtless much inferior to those at Rome, in their municipal towns +and cities. The Christian religion was also early introduced,[3-*] but for +a time its progress was slow; nor was it till the conversion of +Constantine, in the fourth century, that it was openly tolerated by the +state, and churches were publicly constructed for its worshippers; though +even before that event, as we are led to infer from the testimony of +Gildas, the most ancient of our native historians, particular structures +were appropriated for the performance of its divine mysteries: for that +historian alludes to the British Christians as reconstructing the churches +which had, in the Dioclesian persecution, been levelled to the ground. But +in the fifth century Rome, oppressed on every side by enemies, and +distracted with the vastness of her conquests, which she was no longer +able to maintain, recalled her legions from Britain; and the Romanized +Britons being left without protection, and having, during their subjection +to the Romans, lost their ancient valour and love of liberty, in a short +time fell a prey to the Northern Barbarians; in their extremity they +called over the Saxons to assist them, when the latter perceiving their +defenceless condition, turned round upon them, and made an easy conquest +of this country. In the struggle which then took place, the churches were +again destroyed, the priests were slain at the very altars,[4-*] and +though the British Church was never annihilated, Paganism for a while +became triumphant. + +Towards the end of the sixth century, when Christianity was again +propagated in this country by Augustine, Mellitus, and other zealous +monks, St. Gregory, the head of the Papal church, and the originator of +this mission, wrote to Mellitus not to suffer the Heathen temples to be +destroyed, but only the idols found within them. These, and such churches +built by the Romans as were then, though in a dilapidated state, existing, +may reasonably be supposed to have been the prototypes of the Christian +churches afterwards erected in this country. + +In the early period of the empire the Romans imitated the Grecians in +their buildings of magnitude and beauty, forming, however, a style of +greater richness in detail, though less chaste in effect; and columns of +the different orders, with their entablatures, were used to support and +adorn their public structures: but in the fourth century, when the arts +were declining, the style of architecture became debased, and the +predominant features consisted of massive square piers or columns, without +entablatures, from the imposts of which sprung arches of a semicircular +form; and it was in rude imitation of this latter style that the Saxon +churches were constructed. + +The Roman basilicas, or halls of justice, some of which were subsequently +converted into churches, to which also their names were given, furnished +the plan for the internal arrangement of churches of a large size, being +divided in the interior by rows of columns. From this division the nave +and aisles of a church were derived; and in the semicircular recess at the +one end for the tribune, we perceive the origin of the apsis, or +semicircular east end, which one of the Anglo-Saxon, and many of our +ancient Norman churches still present. + +But independent of examples afforded by some few ancient Roman churches, +and such of the temples and public buildings of the Romans as were then +remaining in Britain, the Saxon converts were directed and assisted in the +science of architecture by those missionaries from Rome who propagated +Christianity amongst them; and during the Saxon dynasty architects and +workmen were frequently procured from abroad, to plan and raise +ecclesiastical structures. The Anglo-Saxon churches were, however, rudely +built, and, as far as can be ascertained, with some few exceptions, were +of no great dimensions and almost entirely devoid of ornamental mouldings, +though in some instances decorative sculpture and mouldings are to be met +with; but in the repeated incursions of the Danes, in the ninth and tenth +centuries, so general was the destruction of the monasteries and churches, +which, when the country became tranquil, were rebuilt by the Normans, that +we have, in fact, comparatively few churches existing which we may +reasonably presume, or really know, to have been erected in an Anglo-Saxon +age. Many of the earlier writers on this subject have, however, caused +much confusion by applying the term ‘SAXON’ to all churches and other +edifices contradistinguished from the pointed style by semicircular-headed +doorways, windows, and arches. But the vestiges of Anglo-Saxon +architecture have been as yet so little studied or known, as to render it +difficult to point out, either generally or in detail, in what their +peculiarities consist: the style may, however, be said to have +approximated in appearance much nearer to the Debased Roman style of +masonry than the Norman, and to have been also much ruder: and in the most +ancient churches, as in that at Dover Castle, and that at Bricksworth, we +find arches constructed of flat bricks or tiles, set edgewise, which was +also a Roman fashion. The masonry was chiefly composed of rubble, with +ashlar or squared blocks of stone at the angles, disposed in courses in a +peculiar manner. + +[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Arches, Bricksworth Church, Northamptonshire +(7th. cent.)] + +The most common characteristic by which the NORMAN style is distinguished, +is the semicircular or segmental arch, though this is to be met with also +in the rare specimens of Anglo-Saxon masonry; but the Norman arches were +more scientifically constructed: in their early state, indeed, quite +plain, but generally concentric, or one arch receding within another, and +in an advanced stage they were frequently ornamented with zig-zag and +other mouldings. A variety of mouldings were also used in the decoration +of the Norman portals or doorways, which were besides often enriched with +a profusion of sculptured ornament. The Norman churches appear to have +much excelled in size the lowly structures of the Saxons, and the +cathedral and conventual churches were frequently carried to the height of +three tiers or rows of arches, one above another; blank arcades were also +used to ornament the walls. + +[Illustration: Norman Arcade, St. Aldgate, Oxford.] + +The Norman style, in which an innumerable number of churches and monastic +edifices were originally built or entirely reconstructed, continued +without any striking alteration till about the latter part of the twelfth +century, when a singular change began to take place: this was no other +than the introduction of the pointed arch, the origin of which has never +yet been satisfactorily explained, or the precise period clearly +ascertained in which it first appeared; but as the lightness and +simplicity of design to which the Early Pointed style was found to be +afterwards convertible was in its incipient state unknown, it retained to +the close of the twelfth century the heavy concomitants of the +semicircular arch, with which indeed it was often intermixed: and from +such intermixture it may be designated the SEMI or MIXED NORMAN. + +When the original Norman style of building was first broken through, by +the introduction of the pointed arch, which was often formed by the +intersection of semicircular arches, the facing of it, or architrave, was +often ornamented with the zig-zag, billet, and other mouldings, in the +same manner as the Norman semicircular arches: it also rested on round +massive piers, and still retained many other features of Norman +architecture. But from the time of its introduction to the close of the +twelfth century, the pointed arch was gradually struggling with the +semicircular arch for the mastery, and with success; for from the +commencement of the thirteenth century, as nearly as can be ascertained, +the style of building with semicircular arches was, with very few +exceptions, altogether discarded, and superseded by its more elegant +rival. + +[Illustration: Canterbury Cathedral.] + +The mode of building with semicircular arches, massive piers, and thick +walls with broad pilaster buttresses, was now laid aside; and the pointed +arch, supported by more slender piers, with walls strengthened with +graduating buttresses, of less width but of greater projection, were +universally substituted in their stead. The windows, one of the most +apparent marks of distinction, were at first long, narrow, and +lancet-shaped: the heavy Norman ornaments, the zig-zag and other mouldings +peculiar to the Norman and Semi-Norman styles, were now discarded; yet we +often meet with certain decorative ornaments, as the tooth ornament, +which, though sometimes found in late Norman work, is almost peculiar to +the Early Pointed style; also the ball-flower, prevalent both in this and +the style of the succeeding century. Many church towers were also capped +with spires, which now first appear. This style prevailed generally +throughout the thirteenth century, and is usually designated as the EARLY +ENGLISH. + +[Illustration: Horsley Ch., Derbyshire.] + +Towards the close of the thirteenth century a perceptible, though gradual, +transition took place to a richer and more ornamental mode of +architecture. This was the style of the fourteenth century, and is known +by the name of the DECORATED ENGLISH; but it chiefly flourished during the +reigns of Edward the Second and Edward the Third, in the latter of which +it attained a degree of perfection unequalled by preceding or subsequent +ages. Some of the most prominent and distinctive marks of this style occur +in the windows, which were greatly enlarged, and divided into many lights +by mullions or tracery-bars running into various ramifications above, and +dividing the heads into numerous compartments, forming either geometrical +or flowing tracery. Triangular or pedimental canopies and pinnacles, more +enriched than before with crockets and finials, yet without redundancy of +ornament, also occur in the churches built during this century. + +[Illustration: Worstead Church, Norfolk.] + +In the latter part of the fourteenth century another transition, or +gradual change of style, began to be effected, in the discrimination of +which an obvious distinction again occurs in the composition of the +windows, some of which are very large: for the mullion-bars, instead of +branching off in the head, in a number of curved lines, are carried up +vertically, so as to form _perpendicular_ divisions between the +window-sill and the head, and do not present that combination of +geometrical and flowing tracery observable in the style immediately +preceding. + +[Illustration: St. Michael’s, Oxford.] + +The frequent occurrence of panelled compartments, and the partial change +of form in the arches, especially of doorways and windows, which in the +latter part of the fifteenth century were often obtusely pointed and +mathematically described from four centres, instead of two, as in the more +simple pointed arch, and which from the period when this arch began to be +prevalent was called the TUDOR arch, together with a great profusion of +minute ornament, mostly of a description not before in use, are the chief +characteristics of the style of the fifteenth century, which by some of +the earlier writers was designated as the FLORID; though it has since +received the more general appellation of the PERPENDICULAR. + +This style prevailed till the Reformation, at which period no country +could vie with our own in the number of religious edifices, which had been +erected in all the varieties of style that had prevailed for many +preceding ages. Next to the magnificent cathedrals, the venerable +monasteries and collegiate establishments, which had been founded and +sumptuously endowed in every part of the kingdom, might most justly claim +the preeminence; and many of the churches belonging to them were +deservedly held in admiration for their grandeur and architectural +elegance of design. + +But the suppression of the monasteries tended in no slight degree to +hasten the decline and fall of our ancient church architecture, to which +other causes, such as the revival of the classic orders in Italy, also +contributed. The churches belonging to the conventual foundations, which +had been built at different periods by the monks or their benefactors, and +the charges of erecting and decorating which from time to time in the most +costly manner, had been defrayed out of the monastic revenues, and from +private donations, being seized by the crown, were reduced to a state of +ruin, and the sites on which they stood granted to dependants of the +court. The former reverential feeling on these matters had greatly +changed; and as the retention of some few of the ministerial habits, the +square cap, the cope, the surplice, and hood, which were deemed expedient +for the decent ministration of public worship, gave great offence to many, +and was one of the most apparent causes which led to that schism amongst +the Reformers, on points of discipline, which afterwards ended in the +subversion, for a time, of the rites and ordinances of the Church of +England, any attempt towards beautifying and adorning (other than with +carved pulpits and communion-tables or altars) the places of divine +worship, which were now stripped of many of their former ornamental +accessories, would have been regarded and inveighed against as a popish +and superstitious innovation; and a charge of this kind was at a later +period preferred against Archbishop Laud. Parochial churches were, +therefore, now repaired when fallen into a state of dilapidation, in a +plain and inelegant mode, in complete variance with the richness and +display observable in the style just preceding this event. + +Details, originating from the designs of classic architecture, which had +been partially revived in Italy, began early in the sixteenth century to +make their appearance in this country, though as yet, except on tombs and +in wood-work, we observe few of those peculiar features introduced as +accessories in church architecture. + +Hence many of our country churches, which were repaired or partly rebuilt +in the century succeeding the Reformation, exhibit the marks of the style +justly denominated DEBASED, to distinguish it from the former purer +styles. Depressed and nearly flat arched doorways, with shallow mouldings, +square-headed windows with perpendicular mullions and obtuse-pointed or +round-headed lights, without foliations, together with a general +clumsiness of construction, as compared with more ancient edifices, form +the predominating features in ecclesiastical buildings of this kind: and +in the reign of Charles the First an indiscriminate mixture of Debased +Gothic and Roman architecture prevailing, we lose sight of every true +feature of our ancient ecclesiastical styles, which were superseded by +that which sprang more immediately from the Antique, the Roman, or Italian +mode. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3-*] Tempore, ut scimus, summo Tiberii Cæsaris, &c.--GILDAS. + +[4-*] Ruebant ædificia publica simul et privata, passim Sacerdotes inter +altaria trucibantur.--BEDE, Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. xv. + + + + +[Illustration: Scutcheon from Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, circa A. D. 1450.] + +CHAPTER I. + +DEFINITION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; ITS ORIGIN, AND THE DIVISION OF IT INTO +STYLES. + + +Q. What is meant by the term “Gothic Architecture”? + +A. Without entering into the derivation of the word “Gothic,” it may +suffice to state that it is an expression sometimes used to denote in one +general term, and distinguish from the Antique, those peculiar modes or +styles in which most of our ecclesiastical and many of our domestic +edifices of the middle ages have been built. In a more confined sense, it +comprehends those styles only in which the pointed arch predominates, and +it is then often used to distinguish such from the more ancient +Anglo-Saxon and Norman styles. + +Q. To what can the origin of this kind of architecture be traced? + +A. To the classic orders in that state of degeneracy into which they had +fallen in the age of Constantine, and afterwards; and as the Romans, on +their voluntary abandonment of Britain in the fifth century, left many of +their temples and public edifices remaining, together with some Christian +churches, it was in rude imitation of the Roman structures of the fourth +century that the most ancient of our Anglo-Saxon churches were +constructed. This is apparent from an examination and comparison of such +with the vestiges of Roman buildings we have existing. + +Q. Into how many different styles may English ecclesiastical architecture +be divided? + +A. No specific regulation has been adopted, with regard to the +denomination or division of the several styles, in which all the writers +on the subject agree: but they may be divided into seven, which, together +with the periods when they flourished, may be generally defined as +follows: + +The SAXON Or ANGLO-SAXON Style, which prevailed from the mission of +Augustine, at the close of the sixth, to the middle of the eleventh +century. + +The NORMAN style, which may be said to have prevailed generally from the +middle of the eleventh to the latter part of the twelfth century. + +The SEMI-NORMAN, Or TRANSITION style, which appears to have prevailed +during the latter part of the twelfth century. + +The EARLY ENGLISH, or general style of the thirteenth century. + +The DECORATED ENGLISH, or general style of the fourteenth century. + +The FLORID Or PERPENDICULAR ENGLISH, the style of the fifteenth, and early +part of the sixteenth century. + +The DEBASED ENGLISH, or general style of the latter part of the sixteenth +and early part of the seventeenth century, towards the middle of which +Gothic architecture, even in its debased state, became entirely discarded. + +Q. What constitutes the difference of these styles? + +A. They may be distinguished partly by the form of the arches, which are +triangular-headed, semicircular or segmental, simple pointed, and complex +pointed; though such forms are by no means an invariable criterion of any +particular style; by the size and shape of the windows, and the manner in +which they are subdivided or not by transoms, mullions, and tracery; but +more especially by certain minute details, ornamental accessories and +mouldings, more or less peculiar to particular styles, and which are +seldom to be met with in any other. + +Q. Are the majority of our ecclesiastical buildings composed only of one +style? + +A. Most of our cathedral and country churches have been built, or had +additions made to them, at different periods, and therefore seldom exhibit +an uniformity of design; and many churches have details about them of +almost every style. There are, however, numerous exceptions, where +churches have been erected in the same style throughout; and this is more +particularly observable in the churches of the fifteenth century. + +Q. Were they constructed on any regular plan? + +A. The general ground plan of cathedral and conventual churches was after +the form of a cross, and the edifice consisted of a central tower, with +transepts running north and south; westward of the tower was the nave or +main body of the structure, with lateral aisles; and the west front +contained the principal entrance, and was often flanked by towers. +Eastward of the central tower was the choir, where the principal service +was performed, with aisles on each side, and beyond this was the lady +chapel. Sometimes the design also comprehended other chapels. On the north +or south side was the chapter house, in early times quadrangular, but +afterwards octagonal in plan; and on the same side, in most instances, +though not always, were the cloisters, which communicated immediately with +the church, and surrounded a quadrangular court. The chapter house and +cloisters we still find remaining as adjuncts to most cathedral churches, +though the conventual buildings of a domestic nature, with which the +cloisters formerly also communicated, have generally been destroyed. Mere +parochial churches have commonly a tower at the west end, a nave with +lateral aisles, and a chancel. Some churches have transepts; and small +side chapels or additional aisles have been annexed to many, erected at +the costs of individuals, to serve for burial and as chantries. The +smallest class of churches have a nave and chancel only, with a small +bell-turret formed of wooden shingles, or an open arch of stonework, +appearing above the roof at the west end. + + + + +[Illustration: SEDILIA, + +St. Martin’s, Leicester, circa A. D. 1250.] + +CHAPTER II. + +OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF ARCHES. + + +Q. Do the distinctions of the different styles, as they differ from each +other, depend at all upon the form of the arch? + +A. To a certain extent the form of the arch may be considered as a +criterion of style; too much dependence, however, must not be placed on +this rule, inasmuch as there are many exceptions. + +Q. How are arches divided generally, as to form? + +A. Into the triangular-headed or straight-lined pointed arch, the +round-headed arch, and the curved-pointed arch; and the latter are again +subdivided. + +Q. How is the triangular-headed or straight-lined pointed arch formed, and +when did it prevail? + +A. It may be described as formed by the two upper sides of a triangle, +more or less obtuse or acute. It is generally considered as one of the +characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon style, where it is often to be met with +of plain and rude construction. But instances of this form of arch, though +they are not frequent, are to be met with in the Norman and subsequent +styles. Arches, however, of this description, of late date, may be +generally known by some moulding or other feature peculiar to the style in +which it is used. + +[Illustration] + +Q. What different kinds of round-headed arches are there? + +A. The semicircular arch (fig. 1), the stilted arch (fig. 2), the +segmental arch (fig. 3), and the horse-shoe arch (fig. 4). + +[Illustration] + +Q. How are they formed or described? + +A. The semicircular arch is described from a centre in the same line with +its spring; the stilted arch in the same manner, but the sides are carried +downwards in a straight line below the spring of the curve till they rest +upon the imposts; the segmental arch is described from a centre lower than +its spring; and the horse-shoe arch from a centre placed above its spring. + +Q. During what period of time do we find these arches generally in use? + +A. The semicircular arch, which is the most common, we find to have +prevailed from the time of the Romans to the close of the twelfth +century, when it became generally discarded; and we seldom meet with it +again, in its simple state, till about the middle of the sixteenth +century. It is in some degree considered as a characteristic of the +Anglo-Saxon and Norman styles. The stilted arch is chiefly found in +conjunction with the semicircular arch in the construction of Norman +vaulting over a space in plan that of a parallelogram. The segmental arch +we meet with in almost all the styles, used as an arch of construction, +and for doorway and window arches; whilst the form of the horse-shoe arch +seems, in many instances, to have been occasioned by the settlement and +inclination of the piers from which it springs. + +Q. Into how many classes may the pointed arch be divided? + +A. Into two, namely, the simple pointed arch described from two centres, +and the complex pointed arch described from four centres. + +Q. What are the different kinds of simple pointed arches? + +A. The LANCET, or acute-pointed arch; the EQUILATERAL pointed arch; and +the OBTUSE-ANGLED pointed arch. + +Q. How is the lancet arch formed and described? + +A. It is formed of two segments of a circle, and its centres have a radius +or line longer than the breadth of the arch, and may be described from an +acute-angled triangle. (fig. 5.).[TN-1] + +Q. How is the equilateral arch formed and described? + +A. From two segments of a circle; the centres of it have a radius or line +equal to the breadth of the arch, and it may be described from an +equilateral triangle. (fig. 6.) + +[Illustration] + +Q. How is the obtuse-angled arch formed and described? + +A. Like the foregoing, it is formed from two segments of a circle, and the +centres of it have a radius shorter than the breadth of the arch; it is +described from an obtuse-angled triangle. (fig. 7.) + +Q. During what period were these pointed arches in use? + +A. They were all gradually introduced in the twelfth century, and +continued during the thirteenth century; after which the lancet arch +appears to have been generally discarded, though the other two prevailed +till a much later period. + +Q. What are the different kinds of complex pointed arches? + +A. Those commonly called the OGEE, or contrasted arch; and the TUDOR arch. + +Q. How is the ogee, or contrasted arch, formed and described? + +A. It is formed of four segments of a circle, and is described from four +centres, two placed within the arch on a level with the spring, and two +placed on the exterior of the arch, and level with the apex or point (fig. +8); each side is composed of a double curve, the lowermost convex and the +uppermost concave. + +[Illustration] + +Q. When was the ogee arch introduced, and how long did it prevail? + +A. It was introduced early in the fourteenth century, and continued till +the close of the fifteenth century. + +Q. How is the Tudor arch described? + +A. From four centres; two on a level with the spring, and two at a +distance from it, and below. (fig. 9.) + +Q. When was the Tudor arch introduced, and why is it so called? + +A. It was introduced about the middle of the fifteenth century, or perhaps +earlier, but became most prevalent during the reigns of Henry the Seventh +and Henry the Eighth, under the Tudor dynasty, from which it derives its +name. + +[Illustration] + +Q. What other kinds of arches are there worthy of notice? + +A. Those which are called foiled arches, as the round-headed trefoil (fig. +10), the pointed trefoil (fig. 11), and the square-headed trefoil (fig. +12). The first prevailed in the latter part of the twelfth and early part +of the thirteenth century, chiefly as a heading for niches or blank +arcades; the second, used for the same purpose, we find to have prevailed +in the thirteenth century; and the latter is found in doorways of the +thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. In all these the +exterior mouldings follow the same curvatures as the inner mouldings, and +are thus distinguishable from arches the heads of which are only foliated +within. + +[Illustration: DOORWAY. St. Thomas’s, Oxford, circa 1250.] + + + + +[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Doorway, Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire. +(7th cent.)] + +CHAPTER III. + +OF THE ANGLO-SAXON STYLE. + + +Q. During what period of time did this style prevail? + +A. From the close of the sixth century, when the conversion of the +Anglo-Saxons commenced, to the middle of the eleventh century. + +Q. Whence does this style appear to have derived its origin? + +A. From the later Roman edifices; for in the most ancient of the +Anglo-Saxon remains we find an approximation, more or less, to the Roman +mode of building, with arches formed of brickwork. + +Q. What is peculiar in the constructive features of Roman masonry? + +A. Walls of Roman masonry in this country were chiefly constructed of +stone or flint, according to the part of the country in which the one +material or other prevailed, embedded in mortar, bonded at certain +intervals throughout with regular horizontal courses or layers of large +flat Roman bricks or tiles, which, from the inequality of thickness and +size, do not appear to have been shaped in any regular mould. + +[Illustration: Portion of the Fragment of a Roman Building at Leicester.] + +Q. What vestiges of Roman masonry are now existing in Britain? + +A. A fragment, apparently that of a Roman temple or basilica, near the +church of St. Nicholas at Leicester, which contains horizontal courses of +brick at intervals, and arches constructed of brickwork; the curious +portion of a wall of similar construction, with remains of brick arches on +the one side, which indicate it to have formed part of a building, and not +a mere wall as it now appears, at Wroxeter, Salop; and the polygonal tower +at Dover Castle, which, notwithstanding an exterior casing of flint, and +other alterations effected in the fifteenth century, still retains many +visible features of its original construction of tufa bonded with bricks +at intervals. Roman masonry, of the mixed description of brick and stone, +regularly disposed, is found in walls at York, Lincoln, Silchester, and +elsewhere; and sometimes we meet with bricks or stone arranged +herring-bone fashion, as in the vestiges of a Roman building at Castor, +Northamptonshire, and the walls of a Roman villa discovered at Littleton, +Somersetshire. + +Q. Have we any remains of the ancient British churches erected in this +country in the third, fourth, or fifth centuries? + +A. None such have yet been discovered or noticed; for the ruinous +structure at Perranzabuloe in Cornwall, which some assert to have been an +ancient British church, is probably not of earlier date than the twelfth +century; and the church of St. Martin at Canterbury, built in the time of +the Romans, which Augustine found on his arrival still used for the +worship of God, was rebuilt in the thirteenth century, but, to all +appearance, with the same materials of which the original church was +constructed. + +Q. Do any of our churches bear a resemblance to Roman buildings? + +A. The church now in ruins within the precincts of the Castle of Dover +presents features of early work approximating Roman, as a portal and +window-arches formed of brickwork, which seem to have been copied from +those in the Roman tower near adjoining; the walls also have much of Roman +brick worked up into them, but have no such regular horizontal layers as +Roman masonry displays. The most ancient portions of this church are +attributed to belong to the middle of the seventh century. The church of +Brixworth, Northamptonshire, is perhaps the most complete specimen we have +existing of an early Anglo-Saxon church: it has had side aisles separated +from the nave by semicircular arches constructed of Roman bricks, with +wide joints; these arches spring from square and plain massive piers. +There is also fair recorded evidence to support the inference that this +church is a structure of the latter part of the seventh century. Roman +bricks are worked up in the walls, in no regular order, however, but +indiscriminately, as in the church at Dover Castle. + +[Illustration: Pilaster Rib-work Arch, Brigstock Church.] + +Q. What peculiarities are observable in masonry of Anglo-Saxon +construction? + +A. From existing vestiges of churches of presumed Anglo-Saxon construction +it appears that the walls were chiefly formed of rubble or rag-stone, +covered on the exterior with stucco or plaster, with long and short blocks +of ashlar or hewn stone, disposed at the angles in alternate courses. We +also find, projecting a few inches from the surface of the wall, and +running up vertically, narrow ribs or square-edged strips of stone, +bearing from their position a rude similarity to pilasters; and these +strips are generally composed of long and short pieces of stone placed +alternately. A plain string course of the same description of square-edged +rib or strip-work often runs horizontally along the walls of Anglo-Saxon +remains, and the vertical ribs are sometimes set upon such as a basement, +and sometimes finish under such. + +Q. What churches exhibit projecting strips of stonework thus disposed? + +A. The towers of the churches of Earls Barton and Barnack, +Northamptonshire, and the tower of one of the churches at +Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, are covered with these narrow projecting +strips of stonework, in such a manner that the surface of the wall appears +divided into rudely formed panels; the like disposition of rib-work +appears, though not to so great extent, on the face of the upper part of +the tower of Stowe Church, Northamptonshire, of St. Benedict’s Church, +Cambridge, on the walls of the church of Worth, in Sussex, on the upper +part of the walls of the chancel of Repton Church, Derbyshire, and on the +walls of the nave and north transept of Stanton Lacey Church, Salop. + +[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Masonry, Long and Short Work. + +Burcombe, Wilts. Wittering, Northamptonshire.] + +Q. Where do we meet with instances where long and short blocks of ashlar +masonry are disposed in alternate courses at the angles of walls? + +A. Such occur at the angles of the chancel of North Burcombe Church, +Wiltshire; at the angles of the nave and chancel of Wittering Church, +Northamptonshire; at the angles of the towers of St. Benedict’s Church, +Cambridge, of Sompting Church, Sussex, and of St. Michael’s Church, +Oxford, and in other Anglo-Saxon remains. The ashlar masonry forming the +angles is not, however, invariably thus disposed. + +Q. How are the doorways of this style distinguished? + +A. They are either semicircular, or triangular-arched headed, but the +former are more common. In those, apparently the most ancient, the +voussoirs or arched heads are faced with large flat bricks or tiles, +closely resembling Roman work. Doorways of this description are to be met +with in the old church, Dover Castle; in the church of Brixworth, +Northamptonshire; and on the south side of Brytford Church, Wiltshire. The +doorway, however, we most frequently meet with in Anglo-Saxon remains, is +of simple yet peculiar construction, semicircular-headed, and formed +entirely of stone, without any admixture of brick; the jambs are +square-edged, and are sometimes but not always composed of two long blocks +placed upright, with a short block between them; the arched head of the +doorway is plain, and springs from square projecting impost blocks, the +under edges of which are sometimes bevelled and sometimes left square. +This doorway is contained within a kind of arch of rib-work, projecting +from the face of the wall, with strips of pilaster rib-work continued down +to the ground; sometimes this arch springs from plain block imposts, or +from strips of square-edged rib-work disposed horizontally, and the jambs +are occasionally constructed of long and short work. + +[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Doorway, St. Peter’s Church, +Barton-upon-Humber.] + +Q. Mention the names of churches in which doorways of this description are +preserved? + +A. The south doorways of the towers of the old church at +Barton-upon-Humber and of Barnack Church, the west doorway of the tower of +Earls Barton Church, the north and south doorways of the tower of Wooten +Wawen Church, Warwickshire, the east doorway of the tower of Stowe Church, +Northamptonshire, the north doorway of the nave of Brytford Church, +Wiltshire, and the north doorway of the nave of Stanton Lacey Church, +Salop, though differing in some respects from each other, bear a general +similarity of design, and come under the foregoing description. + +[Illustration: Belfry Window, north side of the Tower of Wyckham Church, +Berks.] + +Q. How are we able to distinguish the windows of the Anglo-Saxon style? + +A. The belfry windows are generally found to consist of two +semicircular-headed lights, divided by a kind of rude balluster shaft of +peculiar character, the entasis of which is sometimes encircled with rude +annulated mouldings; this shaft supports a plain oblong impost or abacus, +which extends through the whole of the thickness of the wall, or nearly +so, and from this one side of the arch of each light springs. Double +windows thus divided appear in the belfry stories of the church towers of +St. Michael, Oxford; St. Benedict, Cambridge; St. Peter, +Barton-upon-Humber; Wyckham, Berks; Sompting, Sussex; and Northleigh, +Oxfordshire. In the belfry of the tower of Earls Barton Church are windows +of five or six lights, the divisions between which are formed by these +curious balluster shafts. The semicircular-headed single-light window of +this style may be distinguished from those of the Norman style by the +double splay of the jambs, the spaces between which spread or increase in +width outwardly as well as inwardly, the narrowest part of the window +being placed on the centre of the thickness of the wall; whereas the jambs +of windows in the Norman style have only a single splay, and the narrowest +part of the window is set even with the external face of the wall, or +nearly so. Single-light windows splayed externally occur in the west +walls of the towers of Wyckham Church, Berks, and of Stowe Church, +Northamptonshire, Caversfield Church, Oxfordshire, and on the north side +of the chancel of Clapham Church, Bedfordshire; but windows without a +splay occur in the tower of Lavendon Church, Buckinghamshire. Small square +or oblong-shaped apertures are sometimes met with, as in the tower of St. +Benedict’s Church, Cambridge; and also triangular-headed windows, which, +with doorways of the same form, will be presently noticed. + +[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Single-light Window, Tower of Wyckham Church, +Berks.] + +Q. Of what description are the arches which separate the nave from the +chancel and aisles, and sustain the clerestory walls? + +[Illustration: Anglo-Saxon Arches, St. Michael’s Church, St. Alban’s, +A. D. 948.] + +A. They are very plain, and consist of a single sweep or soffit only, +without any sub-arch, as in the Norman style; and they spring from square +piers; with a plain abacus impost on each intervening, which impost has +sometimes the under edge chamfered, and sometimes left quite plain. Arches +of this description occur at Brixworth Church, between the nave and +chancel of Clapham Church, and between the nave and chancel of Wyckham +Church. The arches in St. Michael’s Church, St. Alban’s, which divide the +nave from the aisles, have their edges slightly chamfered. There are also +arches with single soffits, which have over them a kind of hood, similar +to that over doorways of square-edged rib-work, projecting a few inches +from the face of the wall, carried round the arch, and either dying into +the impost or continued straight down to the ground. The chancel arch of +Worth Church, and arches in the churches of Brigstock and Barnack, and of +St. Benedict, Cambridge, and the chancel arch, Barrow Church, Salop, are +of this description. Some arches have round or semicylindrical mouldings +rudely worked on the face, as in the chancel arch, Wittering Church; or +under or attached to the soffit, as at the churches of Sompting and St. +Botulph, Sussex. Rudely sculptured impost blocks also sometimes occur, as +at Sompting and at St. Botulph; and animals sculptured in low relief +appear at the springing of the hood over the arch in the tower of St. +Benedict’s Church, Cambridge. + +[Illustration: Tower Arch, Barnack Church, Northamptonshire.] + +[Illustration: Chancel Arch, Wittering Church, Northamptonshire.] + +Q. How are some of the doorways, windows, arched recesses, and panels of +Anglo-Saxon architecture constructed? + +[Illustration: Doorway in the Tower of Brigstock Church.] + +A. In a very rude manner, of two or more long blocks of stone, placed +slantingly or inclined one towards the other, thus forming a straight +line, or triangular-headed arch; the lower ends of these sometimes rest on +plain projecting imposts, which surmount other blocks composing the +jambs. We find a doorway of this description on the west side of the tower +of Brigstock Church, forming the entrance into the curious circular-shaped +turret attached and designed for a staircase to the belfry; an arched +recess of this description occurs in the tower of Barnack Church, and a +panel on the exterior of the same tower, and in windows in the tower of +the old church, Barton-upon-Humber, and in the tower of Sompting Church, +and St. Michael’s Church, Oxford. The arch thus shaped is not, however, +peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon style, but may occasionally be traced in most +if not all of the subsequent styles, but not of such rude or plain +construction. + +[Illustration: Recess in the Tower of Barnack Church.] + +Q. Were the Anglo-Saxon architects accustomed to construct crypts beneath +their churches? + +A. There are some subterranean vaults, not easily accessible, the presumed +remains of Bishop Wilfrid’s work, at Ripon and Hexham, of the latter part +of the seventh century; but the crypt beneath the chancel of Repton +Church, Derbyshire, the walls of which are constructed of _hewn_ stone, is +perhaps the most perfect specimen existing of a crypt in the Anglo-Saxon +style, and of a stone vaulted roof sustained by piers, which are of +singular character; the vaulting is without diagonal groins, and bears a +greater similarity to Roman than to Norman vaulting. + +[Illustration: Crypt, Repton Church, Derbyshire.] + +Q. Are mouldings, or is any kind of sculptured ornament, to be met with in +Anglo-Saxon work? + +A. Although the remains of this style are for the most part plain and +devoid of ornamental detail, we occasionally meet with mouldings of a +semicylindrical or roll-like form, on the face or under the soffit of an +arch, and these are sometimes continued down the sides of the jambs or +piers. Foliage, knot-work, and other rudely sculptured detail occur on +the tower of Barnack Church, and some rude sculptures appear in St. +Benedict’s Church, Cambridge; and the plain and simple cross of the Greek +form, is represented in relief over a doorway at Stanton Lacey Church, and +over windows in the tower of Earls Barton Church. + +Q. What was the general plan of the Anglo-Saxon churches? + +A. We have now but few instances in which the complete ground plan of an +Anglo-Saxon church can be traced: that of Worth Church, Sussex, is perhaps +the most perfect, as the original foundation walls do not appear to have +been disturbed, although insertions of windows of later date have been +made in the walls of the superstructure. This church is planned in the +form of a cross, and consists of a nave with transepts, and a chancel, +terminating at the east end with a semicircular apsis--a rare instance in +the Anglo-Saxon style, as in general the east end of the chancel is +rectangular in plan. The towers of Anglo-Saxon churches are generally +placed at the west end, though sometimes, as at Wotten Wawen, they occur +between the chancel and nave. No original staircase has yet been found in +the interior of any. The church at Brixworth, an edifice of the seventh +century, and that of St. Michael, at St. Alban’s, of the tenth century, +have aisles. Sometimes the church appears to have consisted of a nave and +chancel only. + +Q. Why have we so few ecclesiastical remains of known or presumed +Anglo-Saxon architecture now existing? + +A. There are probably many examples of this style preserved in churches +which have hitherto escaped observation[49-*]; still they are, +comparatively speaking, rarely to be met with: and this may be accounted +for by the recorded fact, that in the repeated incursions of the Danes in +this island, during the ninth and tenth centuries, almost all the +Anglo-Saxon monasteries and churches were set on fire and destroyed. + +[Illustration: Anglo Saxon Doorway and Window, interior of the tower of +Brigstock Church, north side.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49-*] All the Anglo-Saxon remains noticed in this chapter, except those +alluded to as supposed to exist at Ripon and Hexham, together with the +tower of the church of St. Benedict’s, Lincoln, have been inspected by +the author; and the illustrations of this chapter are, with three +exceptions, from his sketches made on the spot. Of the remaining three +vignettes, two are from drawings made whilst the author was present, and +one only, viz. that of the crypt beneath the chancel of Repton Church, +has been reduced from a larger engraving. Besides the churches which +have been referred to, several others which have not been visited by the +author exhibit vestiges, more or less, of presumed Anglo-Saxon work. Of +such churches the following is a list, and, with those mentioned in the +chapter, constitute all which have yet come under his notice: + +Caversfield, Oxfordshire. Church Stretton, Salop. Trinity Church, +Colchester. Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. Daglinworth, Gloucestershire. +Jarrow, Durham. Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Yorkshire. Kirkdale, Yorkshire. +Monkswearmouth, Durham. Ropsley, Lincolnshire. Stoke D’Abernon, Surrey. +Wittingham, Yorkshire. + +Of these, seven are noticed by Mr. Rickman. + + + + +[Illustration: Norman Chancel, Darent Church, Kent.] + +CHAPTER IV. + +OF THE NORMAN OR ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. + + +Q. To what era may we assign the introduction of the Anglo-Norman style? + +A. To the reign of Edward the Confessor, since that monarch is recorded by +the historians, Matthew Paris and William of Malmesbury, to have rebuilt +(A. D. 1065) the Abbey Church at Westminster in a new style of +architectural design, which furnished an example afterwards followed by +many in the construction of churches.[52-*] + +Q. Is any portion of the structure erected by Edward the Confessor +remaining? + +A. A crypt of early Norman work under the present edifice or buildings +attached to it is supposed to have been part of the church constructed by +that monarch. + +Q. During what period of time did this style prevail? + +A. From about A. D. 1065 to the close of the twelfth century. + +Q. By what means are we to distinguish this style from the styles of a +later period? + +A. It is distinguished without difficulty by its semicircular arches, its +massive piers, which are generally square or cylindrical, though sometimes +multangular in form, and from numerous ornamental details and mouldings +peculiar to the style. + +Q. What part of the original building has generally been preserved in +those churches that were built by the Normans, when all the rest has been +demolished and rebuilt in a later style of architecture? + +[Illustration: Norman Doorway, Wolston Church, Warwickshire.] + +A. There appears to have been a prevalent custom, among those architects +who succeeded the Normans, to preserve the doorways of those churches they +rebuilt or altered; for many such doorways still remain in churches, the +other portions of which were built at a much later period. Thus in the +tower of Kenilworth Church, Warwickshire, is a Norman doorway of singular +design, from the square band or ornamental facia which environs it. This +is a relic of a more ancient edifice than the structure in which it now +appears, and which is of the fourteenth century; and the external masonry +of the doorway is not tied into the walls of more recent construction, but +exhibits a break all round. The church of Stoneleigh, in the same county, +contains in the north wall a fine Norman doorway, which has been left +undisturbed, though the wall on each side of Norman construction, has been +altered, not by demolition, but by the insertion, in the fourteenth +century, of decorated windows in lieu of the original small Norman lights. + +Q. Were the Norman doorways much ornamented? + +A. Many rich doorways were composed of a succession of receding +semicircular arches springing from rectangular-edged jambs, and detached +shafts with capitals in the nooks; which shafts, together with the arches, +were often enriched with the mouldings common to this style. Sometimes the +sweep of mouldings which faced the architrave was continued without +intermission down the jambs or sides of the doorway; and in small country +churches Norman doorways, quite plain in their construction, or with but +few mouldings, are to be met with. There is, perhaps, a greater variety of +design in doorways of this than of any other style; and of the numerous +mouldings with which they in general abound more or less, the chevron, or +zig-zag, appears to have been the most common. + +Q. In what other respect were these doors sometimes ornamented? + +A. The semicircular-shaped stone, which we often find in the tympanum at +the back of the head of the arch, is generally covered with rude sculpture +in basso relievo, sometimes representing a scriptural subject, as the +temptation of our first parents on the tympanum of a Norman doorway at +Thurley Church, Bedfordshire; sometimes a legend, as a curious and very +early sculpture over the south door of Fordington Church, Dorsetshire, +representing a scene in the story of St. George; and sometimes symbolical, +as the representation of fish, serpents, and chimeræ on the north doorway +of Stoneleigh Church, Warwickshire. The figure of our Saviour in a sitting +attitude, holding in his left hand a book, and with his right arm and hand +upheld, in allusion to the saying, _I am the way, and the truth, and the +life_, and circumscribed by that mystical figure the _Vesica piscis_, +appears over Norman doorways at Ely Cathedral; Rochester Cathedral; +Malmesbury Abbey Church; Elstow Church, Bedfordshire; Water Stratford +Church, Buckinghamshire; and Barfreston Church, Kent; and is not +uncommon. + +Q. Are there many Norman porches? + +A. Norman porches occur at Durham Cathedral; Malmesbury Abbey Church; +Sherbourne Abbey Church; and Witney Church, Oxfordshire; but they are not +very common. The roof of the porch was usually groined with simple cross +springers and moulded ribs; and in some instances a room over has been +added at a later period. Numerous portals of the Norman era appear +constructed within a shallow projecting mass of masonry, similar in +appearance to the broad projecting buttress, and, like that, finished on +the upper edge with a plain slope. This was to give a sufficiency of depth +to the numerous concentric arches successively receding in the thickness +of the wall, which could not otherwise be well attained. + +Q. What kind of windows were those belonging to this style? + +A. The windows were mostly small and narrow, seldom of more than one +light, except belfry windows, which were usually divided into two +round-headed lights by a shaft, with a capital and abacus. Early in the +style the windows were quite plain; afterwards they were ornamented in a +greater or less degree, sometimes with the chevron or zig-zag, and +sometimes with roll or cylinder mouldings; in many instances, also, shafts +were inserted at the sides, the window jambs were simply splayed in one +direction only, and the space between them increased in width inwardly. + +[Illustration: Norman Window, Ryton Church, Warwickshire.] + +Q. Do we meet with any circular or wheel-shaped windows of the Norman era? + +A. A circular window, with divisions formed by small shafts and +semicircular or trefoiled arches, disposed so as to converge to a common +centre, sometimes occurs in the gable at the east end of a Norman church, +as at Barfreston Church, Kent; and New Shoreham Church, Sussex; and are +not uncommon. + +[Illustration: Early Norman Window, Darent Church, Kent, with incipient +zig-zag moulding.] + +Q. What kinds of piers were the Norman piers? + +A. Early in the style they were (with some exceptions, as in the crypts +beneath the cathedrals of Canterbury and Worcester) very massive, and the +generality plain and cylindrical; though sometimes they were square, which +was indeed the most ancient shape; sometimes they appear with rectangular +nooks or recesses; and, in large churches, Norman piers had frequently one +or more semicylindrical pier-shafts attached, disposed either in nooks or +on the face of the pier. We sometimes meet with octagonal piers, as in the +cathedrals of Oxford and Peterborough, the conventual church at Ely, and +in the ruined church of Buildwas Abbey, Salop; and also, though rarely, +with piers covered with spiral flutings, as one is in Norwich Cathedral; +with the spiral cable moulding, as one is in the crypt of Canterbury +Cathedral; and encircled with a spiral band, as one appears in the ruined +chapel at Orford, in Suffolk; sometimes, also, they appear covered with +ornamental mouldings. Late in the style the piers assume a greater +lightness in appearance, and are sometimes clustered and banded round with +mouldings, and approximate in design those of a subsequent style. + +Q. How are the capitals distinguished? + +A. The general outline and shape of the Norman capital is that of a square +cubical mass, having the lower part rounded off with a contour resembling +that of an ovolo moulding; the face on each side of the upper part of the +capital is flat, and it is often separated from the lower part by an +escalloped edge; and where such division is formed by more than one +escallop, the lower part is channelled between each, and the spaces below +the escalloped edges are worked or moulded so as to resemble inverted and +truncated semicones. + +[Illustration: Norman Capital, Steetley Church, Derbyshire.] + +Besides the plain capital thus described, of which instances with the +single escalloped edge occur in the crypts beneath the cathedrals of +Canterbury, Winchester, and Worcester, and with a series of escalloped +edges, or what would be heraldically termed _invected_, in many of the +capitals of the Norman piers in Norwich Cathedral, an extreme variety of +design in ornamental accessories prevail, the general form and outline of +the capital being preserved; and some exhibit imitations of the Ionic +volute and Corinthian acanthus, whilst many are covered with rude +sculpture in relief. They are generally finished with a plain square +abacus moulding, with the under edge simply bevelled or chamfered; +sometimes a slight angular moulding occurs between the upper face and +slope of the abacus, and sometimes the abacus alone intervenes between the +pier and the spring of the arch. There are also many round capitals, as, +for instance, those in the nave of Gloucester Cathedral, but they are +mostly late in the style. + +[Illustration: Norman Arcade, St. Augustine’s, Canterbury.] + +Q. What is observable in the bases of the piers? + +A. The common base moulding resembles in form or contour a quirked ovolo +reversed; there are, however, many exceptions. + +[Illustration: Norman Base, Romsey Church, Hants.] + +Q. How are the arches distinguished? + +A. By their semicircular form; they are generally double-faced, or formed +of two concentric divisions, one receding within the other. Early in the +style they are plain and square-edged; late in the style they are often +found enriched with the zig-zag and roll mouldings, or some other +ornament. Sometimes the curvature of the arch does not immediately spring +from the capital or impost, but is raised or stilted. + +Q. What parts of Norman churches do we generally find vaulted? + +A. In cathedral and large conventual churches built in the Norman style we +find the crypts and aisles vaulted with stone, but not the nave or choir; +and over the vaulting of the aisles was the triforium. In small Norman +churches the chancel is generally the only part vaulted; and between the +vaulting and outer roof is, in some instances, a small loft or chamber. +Sometimes we find the original design for vaulting to have been commenced +and left unfinished. + +[Illustration: Norman Arch and Piers, Melbourne Church, Derbyshire.] + +Q. Of what description was the Norman vaulting? + +A. The bays of vaulting were generally either squares or parallelograms, +though sometimes not rectangular in shape, and each was divided into four +concave vaulting cells by diagonal and intersecting groins, thus forming +what is called a quadripartite vault. Early in the style the diagonal +edges of the groins appear without ribs or mouldings; at an advanced stage +they are supported by square-edged ribs of cut stone; and late in the +style the ribs and groins are faced with roll or cylinder mouldings. They +are also sometimes profusely covered with the zig-zag moulding and other +ornamental details. + +Q. What is observable with respect to Norman masonry? + +A. In general the walls are faced on each side with a thin shell of ashlar +or cut stone, whilst the intervening space, which is sometimes +considerable, is filled with grouted rubble. Masses of this grout-work +masonry, from which the facing of cut stone has been removed, we often +find amongst ruined edifices of early date. + +Q. Were there any buttresses used at this period? + +[Illustration: Norman Buttress, Chancel of St. Mary’s, Leicester.] + +A. Yes; but the walls being enormously thick, and requiring little +additional support, those in use are like pilasters, with a broad face +projecting very little from the building; and they seem to have been +derived from the pilaster strips of stonework in Anglo-Saxon masonry. They +are generally of a single stage only, but sometimes of more, and are not +carried up higher than the cornice, under which they often but not always +finish with a slope. They appear as if intended rather to relieve the +plain external surface of the wall than to strengthen it. Norman portals +not unfrequently occur, formed in the thickness of a broad but shallow +pilaster buttress, as at Iffley Church, Oxfordshire, and at Stoneleigh and +Hampton-in-Arden Churches, Warwickshire, and elsewhere. This kind of +buttress was also used in the next, or Semi-Norman style. + +Q. Were there any towers? + +A. Yes; they were generally very low and massive; and the exterior, +especially of the upper story, was often decorated with arcades of blank +semicircular and intersecting arches; the parapet consisted of a plain +projecting blocking-course, supported by the corbel table. + +Q. Do pinnacles appear to have been known to the Normans? + +A. Although some are of opinion that the pinnacle was not introduced till +after the adoption of the pointed style, many Norman buildings have +pinnacles of a conical shape, which are apparently part of the original +design. + +Q. What distinction occurs in the construction of the small country +churches of this style, and the larger buildings of conventual foundation? + +A. Small Norman churches consisted of a single story only; cathedral and +conventual churches were carried up to a great height, and were frequently +divided into three tiers, the lowest of which consisted of single arches, +separating the nave from the aisles: above each of these arches in the +second tier were two smaller arches constructed beneath a larger; +sometimes the same space was occupied by a single arch; and in this tier +was the triforium or gallery. In the third tier or clerestory were +frequently arcades of three arches connected together, the middle one of +which was higher and broader than the others: and all these three occupied +a space only equal to the span of the lowest arch. Blank arcades were also +much used in the exterior walls, as well as in the interior of rich +Norman buildings; and some of the arches which composed them were often +pierced for windows. + +Q. What were the mouldings principally used in the decoration of Norman +churches? + +A. The chevron, or zig-zag, which is not always single, but often +duplicated, triplicated, or quadrupled. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +The reversed zig-zag. + +[Illustration] + +The indented moulding. + +[Illustration] + +The embattled moulding. + +[Illustration] + +The dovetail moulding. + +[Illustration] + +The beak head. + +[Illustration] + +The nebule, chiefly used for the fascia under a parapet. + +[Illustration] + +The billet. + +[Illustration] + +The square billet, or corbel bole, used for supporting a blocking course. + +[Illustration] + +The cable moulding. + +[Illustration] + +The double cone. + +[Illustration] + +The pellet, or stud. + +[Illustration] + +The hatched, or saw tooth. + +[Illustration] + +The nail head. + +[Illustration] + +The lozenge. + +[Illustration] + +The studded trellis. + +[Illustration] + +The diamond fret. + +[Illustration] + +The medallion. + +[Illustration] + +The star. + +[Illustration] + +The scalloped or invected moulding. + +[Illustration] + +A variety of other mouldings and ornamental accessories are also to be met +with, but those above described are the most common. + +Q. What kind of string-course do we usually find carried along the walls +of Norman churches, just below the windows? + +A. A string-course similar in form to the common Norman abacus, with a +plain face and the under part bevelled, is of most frequent occurrence; a +plain semihexagon string-course is also often to be met with. Sometimes +the string-course is ornamented with the zig-zag moulding. + +[Illustration: Norman Mouldings, from Binham Church, Norfolk, and +Peterborough.] + +Q. What difference is there as to their general character and appearance +between the early and late examples of Norman architecture? + +A. The details of those buildings early in the style are characterized by +their massiveness, simplicity, and plain appearance; the single or +double-faced semicircular arches, both of doorways and windows, as well as +the arches supporting the clerestory walls, are generally devoid of +ornament, and the edges of the jambs and arches are square. The undercroft +of Canterbury Cathedral, the work of Archbishop Lanfranc, between A. D. +1073 and A. D. 1080; the crypt and transepts of Winchester Cathedral, built +by Bishop Walkelyn between A. D. 1079 and A. D. 1093; the plain Norman work +of the Abbey Church at St. Alban’s, built by Abbot Paul, between +1077-1093; and the north and south aisles of the choir of Norwich +Cathedral, the work of Bishop Herbert, between A. D. 1096 and A. D. 1101, +not to multiply examples, may be enumerated as instances of plain and +early Norman work. In buildings late in the style we find a profusion of +ornamental detail of a peculiar character, and numerous semi and +tripartite cylindrical mouldings on the faces and edges of arches and +vaulting-ribs. The transepts of Peterborough Cathedral, built by Abbot +Waterville between A. D. 1155 and A. D. 1175, exhibit vaulting-groins faced +with roll mouldings, and other details of an advanced stage; whilst the +Galilee, Durham Cathedral, built by Bishop Pudsey, A. D. 1180, is +remarkable for the lightness and elongation of the piers, which are formed +of clustered columns; and the semicircular arches which spring from these +are enriched both on the face and soffits with the chevron or zig-zag +moulding. There are many intermediate gradations between the extreme plain +and massive work of early date, and the enrichments, mouldings, and +elongated proportions to be found late in the style; and in detail we may +perceive an almost imperceptible merging into that style which succeeded +the Norman. + +[Illustration: Base. Crypt, St. Peter’s, Oxford, c. 1100.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[52-*] Defunctus autem Rex beatissimus in crastino sepultus est Londini, +in Ecclesia, quam ipse novo compositionis genere construxerat, a qua +post, multi Ecclesias construentes, exemplum adepti, opus illud expensis +œmulabantur sumptuosis.--MATT. PARIS. + + + + +[Illustration: Vesica Piscis in the tympan of the south doorway, Ely +Cathedral] + +CHAPTER V. + +OF THE SEMI-NORMAN STYLE. + + +Q. What is the Semi-Norman style? + +A. It is that style of transition which, without superseding the Norman +style, prevailed more or less, in conjunction with it, during the latter +part of the twelfth century, and probably even from an earlier period, and +gradually led to the complete adoption, in the succeeding century, of the +early pointed style in a pure state, and to the general disuse of the +semicircular arch. + +Q. By what is this style chiefly denoted? + +A. By the intersection of semicircular arches, the frequent intermixture +of the pointed arch in its incipient state with the semicircular arch, and +the pointed arch with its accompaniments of features, mouldings, and +ornamental accessories, exactly similar to those of the Norman style, both +in its earlier and later gradations, and from which it appears to have +differed only in the contour or form of the arch. + +[Illustration: Early specimen of intersecting Arches, St. Botolph’s +Priory, Colchester. (12th cent.)] + +Q. Whence are we to derive the origin of the pointed arch? + +A. Many conjectural opinions on this much-contested question have been +entertained, yet it still remains to be satisfactorily elucidated. Some +would derive it from the East and ascribe its introduction to the +Crusaders; some maintain that it was suggested by the intersection of +semicircular arches, which intersection we frequently find in ornamental +arcades; others contend that it originated from the mode of quadripartite +vaulting adopted by the Normans, the segmental groins of which, crossing +diagonally, produce to appearance the pointed arch; whilst some imagine it +may have been derived from that mystical figure of a pointed oval form, +the _Vesica Piscis_[76-*]. But whatever its origin, it appears to have +been imperceptibly brought into partial use towards the middle of the +twelfth century. + +[Illustration: Semi-Norman double Piscina, Jesus College Chapel, +Cambridge.] + +Q. What are the characteristics of this style? + +A. In large buildings massive cylindrical piers support pointed arches, +above which we often find round-headed clerestory windows, as at Buildwas +Abbey Church, Salop; or semicircular arches forming the triforium, as at +Malmesbury Abbey Church, Wilts. Sometimes we meet with successive tiers +of arcades, in which the pointed arch is surmounted both by intersecting +and semicircular arches, as in a portion of the west front of Croyland +Abbey Church, Lincolnshire, now in ruins. The ornamental details and +mouldings of this style generally partake of late Norman character; and +the zig-zag and semicylindrical mouldings on the faces of arches appear to +predominate, though other Norman mouldings are common; but we also +frequently meet with specimens in the Semi-Norman style in which extreme +plainness prevails, and the character is of that nature as to induce us to +ascribe such buildings to rather an early period. Single and double, and +sometimes even triple-faced arches, with the edges left square, +distinguish plain specimens of this style from the plain-pointed +double-faced arches of the succeeding century, the edges of which are +splayed or chamfered. In late instances of this, as of the cotemporaneous +Norman style, we observe in the details a gradual tendency to merge into +those of the style of the thirteenth century, when the pointed arch had +attained maturity, and the peculiar features and decorative mouldings and +sculptures of Norman character had fallen into isuse.[TN-2] + +Q. What specimen of this style is there of apparently early date? + +[Illustration: Semi-Norman Arch, Abbey Church, Malmesbury.] + +A. The church, now in ruins, of Buildwas Abbey, Salop, founded A. D. +1135[79-*], is an early specimen of the Semi-Norman style, in which, with +the incipient pointed arch, Norman features and details are blended. The +nave is divided from the aisles by plain double-faced pointed arches, with +square edges, and hood mouldings over, which spring from massive +cylindrical piers with square bases and capitals; whilst the clerestory +windows above (for there is no triforium) are semicircular-headed. The +general features of early Norman character, the absence of decorative +mouldings, and the plain appearance this church exhibits throughout, are +such as perhaps to warrant the presumption that this church is the same +structure mentioned in the charter of confirmation granted to this abbey +by Stephen, A. D. 1138-9. + +Q. What other noted specimens are there of this style? + +[Illustration: Intersecting Window Arches, St. Cross Church, Winchester.] + +A. The church of the Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, presents an +interesting combination of semicircular, intersecting, and pointed arches, +of cotemporaneous date, enriched with the zig-zag and other Norman +decorative mouldings, and is a structure, in appearance and detail, of +much later date than the church at Buildwas Abbey, though the same early +era has been assigned to each. + +St. Joseph’s Chapel, Glastonbury, now in ruins, supposed to have been +erected in the reigns of Henry the Second and Richard the First, is +perhaps the richest specimen now remaining of the Semi-Norman or +transition style, and is remarkable for the profusion of sculptured detail +and combination of round and intersecting arches. In the remains of +Malmesbury Abbey Church a Norman triforium with semicircular arches is +supported on pointed arches which are enriched with Norman mouldings, and +spring from massive cylindrical Norman piers. The interior of Rothwell +Church, Northamptonshire, has much of Semi-Norman character: the aisles +are divided from the nave by four lofty, plain, and triple-faced pointed +arches, with square edges, springing from square piers with attached +semicylindrical shafts on each side, and banded round midway between the +bases and capitals; and the latter, which are enriched with sculptured +foliage, are surmounted by square abaci; the west doorway is also of +Semi-Norman character, and pointed, and is set within a projecting mass of +masonry resembling the shallow Norman buttress. The circular part of St. +Sepulchre’s Church, Northampton, has early pointed arches, plain in +design, springing from Norman cylindrical piers. In the circular part of +the Temple Church, London, dedicated A. D. 1185, the piers consist of four +clustered columns banded round midway between the bases and capitals, and +approximating the Early English style of the thirteenth century; and these +support pointed arches, over which and continued round the clerestory wall +is an arcade of intersecting semicircular arches, and above these are +round-headed windows. + +[Illustration: Semi-Norman Window, Oxford Cathedral.] + +Q. What particular specimen of the Semi-Norman style has been noticed by +any cotemporaneous author, and the date of it clearly defined? + +A. The eastern part of Canterbury Cathedral, consisting of Trinity Chapel +and the circular adjunct called Becket’s Crown. The building of these +commenced the year following the fire which occurred A. D. 1174, and was +carried on without intermission for several successive years. Gervase, a +monk of the cathedral, and an eyewitness of this re-edification, wrote a +long and detailed description of the work in progress, and a comparison +between that and the more ancient structure which was burnt; he does not, +however, notice in any clear and precise terms the general adoption of the +pointed arch and partial disuse of the round arch in the new building, +from which we may perhaps infer they were at that period indifferently +used, or rather that the pointed arch was gradually gaining the +ascendancy[83-*]. + +Q. How long does the Semi or Mixed Norman style appear to have prevailed? + +[Illustration: Semi-Norman Arch, St. Cross Church, Winchester.] + +A. Though we can neither trace satisfactorily the exact period of its +introduction, or even that of its final extinction, (for it appears to +have merged gradually into the pure and unmixed pointed style of the +thirteenth century,) we have perhaps no remains of this kind to which we +can attribute an earlier date than that included between the years 1130 +and 1140, unless we except the intersecting arches at St. Botulph’s, +Priory Church, Colchester, which may be a few years earlier; and it +appears to have prevailed, in conjunction or intermixed with the Norman +style, from thence to the close of the twelfth century, and probably to a +somewhat later period. + +[Illustration: Arcade, Christ Church, Oxford.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[76-*] The figure of a fish, whence the form _vesica piscis_ originated, +was one of the most ancient of the Christian symbols, emblematically +significant of the word ἴχθυς,[TN-3] which contained the initial letters +of the name and titles of our Saviour. The symbolic representation of a +fish we find sculptured on some of the sarcophagi of the early +Christians discovered in the catacombs at Rome; but the actual figure of +a fish afterwards gave place to an oval-shaped compartment, pointed at +both extremities, bearing the same mystical signification as the fish +itself, and formed by two circles intersecting each other in the centre. +This was the most common symbol used in the middle ages, and thus +delineated it abounds in Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts. Every +where we meet with it during the middle ages, in religious sculptures, +in painted glass, on encaustic tiles, and on seals; and in the latter, +that is, in those of many of the ecclesiastical courts, the form is yet +retained. Even with respect to the origin of the pointed arch, that +_vexata quæstio_ of antiquaries, with what degree of probability may it +not be attributed to this mystical form? It is indeed in this symbolical +figure that we see the outline of the pointed arch plainly developed at +least a century and half before the appearance of it in architectonic +form. And in that age full of mystical significations, the twelfth +century, when every part of a church was symbolized, it appears nothing +strange if this typical form should have had its weight towards +originating and determining the adoption of the pointed arch.--Internal +Decorations of English Churches, British Critic, April, 1839. + +[79-*] The date of the _foundation_ of an abbey or church must not, +however, be confounded with that of its actual _erection_, which was +often many years later, and the only certain guide to which is the date +of the _Consecration_. + +[83-*] In the minute and circumstantial account which Gervase gives of +the partial destruction of this cathedral by fire, A. D. 1174, and its +after restoration, he seems to allude, though in obscure language, to +the altered form of the vaulting in the aisles of the choir (_in +circuitu extra chorum_); and his comparison, with reference to this +building, between early and late Norman architecture is altogether so +curious and exact as to deserve being transcribed:-- + +“Dictum est in superioribus quod post combustionem illam vetera fere +omnia chori diruta sunt, et in quandam augustioris formæ transierunt +novitatem. Nunc autem quæ sit operis utriusque differentia dicendum est. +Pilariorum igitur tam veterum quam novorum una forma est, una et +grossitudo, sed longitudo dissimilis. Elongati sunt enim pilarii novi +longitudine pedum fere duodecim. In capitellis veteribus opus erat +planum, in novis sculptura subtilis. Ibi in chori ambitu pilarii viginti +duo, hic autem viginti octo. Ibi arcus et cætera omnia plana utpote +sculpta secure et non scisello, his in omnibus fere sculptura idonea. +Ibi columpna nulla marmorea, hic innumeræ. Ibi in circuitu extra chorum +fornices planæ, hic arcuatæ sunt et clavatæ. Ibi murus super pilarios +directus cruces a choro sequestrabat, hic vero nullo intersticio cruces +a choro divisæ in unam clavem quæ in medio fornicis magnæ consistit, quæ +quatuor pilariis principalibus innititur, convenire videntur. Ibi cœlum +ligneum egregia pictura decoratum, hic fornix ex lapide et tofo levi +decenter composita est. Ibi triforium unum, hic duo in choro, et in ala +ecclesiæ tercium.”--De Combust. et Repar. Cant. Ecclesiæ. + + + + +[Illustration: Doorway, Paulscray Church, Kent.] + +CHAPTER VI. + +OF THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. + + +Q. During what era did the Early English style prevail? + +A. It may be said to have prevailed generally throughout the thirteenth +century[86-*]. + +Q. How is it distinguished from the Norman and Semi-Norman styles? + +A. The semicircular-headed arch, with its peculiar mouldings, was almost +entirely discarded, and superseded by the pointed arch, with plain +chamfered edges or mouldings of a different character. The segmental arch, +nearly flat, was still however used in doorways, and occasionally the +semicircular also, as in the arches of the Retrochoir, Chichester +Cathedral. + +Q. Of what three kinds were the pointed arches of this era? + +A. The lancet, the equilateral, and the obtuse-angled arch. + +Q. Which of these arches were most in use? + +A. In large buildings the lancet and the equilateral-shaped arch were +prevalent, as appears in Westminster Abbey, where the lancet arch +predominates, and Salisbury Cathedral, where the equilateral arch is +principally used; but in small country churches the obtuse-angled arch is +most frequently found. All these arches are struck from two centres, and +are formed from segments of a circle. In large buildings the architrave +is faced with a succession of roll mouldings and deep hollows, in which +the tooth ornament is sometimes inserted. In small churches the arches, +which are double-faced, have merely plain chamfered edges. + +Q. What was the difference of the piers between this and an earlier era? + +A. Instead of the massive Norman, the Early English piers were, in large +buildings, composed of an insulated column surrounded by slender detached +shafts, all uniting together under one capital; these shafts were divided +into parts by horizontal bands or fillets; but in small churches a plain +octagonal pier, which can, however, scarcely be distinguished from that of +a later style, predominated. + +Q. How are the capitals distinguished? + +A. They are simple in comparison with those of a later style, and are +often bell-shaped, with a bead moulding round the neck, and a capping, +with a series of mouldings, above; a very elegant and beautiful capital is +frequently formed of stiffly sculptured foliage. The capital surmounting +the multangular-shaped pier is also multangular in form, but plain, with a +neck, and cap mouldings, and is difficult to be discerned from that of +the succeeding style; the cap mouldings are, however, in general not so +numerous as those of a later period. + +[Illustration: Capital, Chapter House, Southwell.] + +Q. How are the doorways of this style distinguished? + +A. The small doorways have generally a single detached shaft on each side, +with a plain moulded bell-shaped capital, which is sometimes covered with +foliage; and the architrave mouldings consist of a few simple members, +with a hood moulding or label over, terminated by heads. We also find +richer doorways with two or more detached shafts at the sides, and +architrave mouldings composed of numerous members. Large doorways of the +Early English style were sometimes double, being divided into two arched +openings by a shaft, either single or clustered; and above this a +quatrefoil was generally inserted, but sometimes the head was filled with +sculptured detail. Examples of the double doorway occur in the cathedrals +of Ely, Chichester, Wells, Salisbury, Lincoln, and Lichfield; also at +Christchurch and St. Cross, Hants; Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire; and +in other large churches in this style. + +[Illustration: Doorway, Baginton Church, Warwickshire. (13th cent.)] + +Q. What kind of windows were prevalent? + +[Illustration: Window, Beverley Minster. (13th cent.)] + +[Illustration: St. Giles’s Oxford. Ely cathedral.] + +A. In the early stages of this style the lancet arch-headed window, very +long and narrow, was prevalent; frequently two, three, or more of these +were connected together by hood mouldings, the middle window rising higher +than those at the sides; sometimes they were unconnected, and without +hood mouldings. In the east wall of Early English chancels three lancet +windows, thus arranged, are frequently displayed. At a later period a +broader window, divided into two lights by a plain mullion, finished at +the top with a lozenge or circle, was used; and sometimes a window divided +into three lights, the middle one higher than the others, and comprised +under one hood moulding, was in use; windows of four and even five lancet +lights, thus disposed, are to be met with, but are not common; the sides +of the windows were in general simply splayed, without mouldings, and +increased in width inwardly, but slender shafts were sometimes annexed; +and we also find, in the interior of rich buildings of this style, +detached shafts standing out in front of the stonework forming the window +jambs, and supporting the arch of the window. Towards the close of this +style the windows assumed a more ornamental cast, and became much larger, +being frequently divided into two or four principal lights, with one or +three circles in the heads; both the lights and circles are foliated, and +these evince the transition in progress to the next, or Decorated style. +Beneath the windows a string-course is generally carried horizontally +along the wall; and a roll moulding, similar to the upper members of the +string-course of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is most commonly met with, +as the string-course. + +[Illustration: Interior of Window, St. Giles’s, Oxford.] + +Q. How is the buttress of this age distinguished? + +A. In general by its plain triangular or pedimental head, its projecting +more from the building than the Norman buttress, and from its being less +in breadth. It is also sometimes carried up above the parapet wall. The +edges of the buttresses are sometimes chamfered; and plain buttresses in +stages finished with simple slopes are not uncommon. We very rarely find +buttresses of this style disposed at the angles of buildings, though such +disposition was common in the succeeding style; but two buttresses placed +at right angles with each other, and with the face of the wall, generally +occur at the angles of churches in this style. Flying buttresses were +sometimes used to strengthen the clerestory walls of large buildings, and +have a light and elegant effect. + +[Illustration: String-Course, Merton College Chapel, Oxford.] + +Q. Were the walls differently built? + +A. They were not so thick as those of an earlier period, which occasioned +the want of stronger buttresses to support them. + +[Illustration: Pottern, Wilts.] + +[Illustration: Hartlepool, Durham.] + +Q. Were the Early English roofs of a different construction from those of +a later style? + +[Illustration: Groining Rib, Salisbury Cathedral.] + +A. The Norman and Early English roofs were high and acutely pointed. The +original roofs of most of our old churches, from their exposure to the +weather, have long since fallen to decay, and been replaced by others of a +more obtuse shape; but in general the height and angular form of the +original roof may be ascertained by the weather moulding still remaining +on the side of the tower or steeple. The interior vaulting of stone roofs +was composed of fewer parts and ribs, which were often not more numerous +than those of Norman vaulting, and does not present that complexity of +arrangement which occurs in the vaulting-ribs of subsequent styles. In the +cathedral of Salisbury also in the nave of Wells Cathedral are simple and +good examples of Early English vaulting. A curious groined roof, in which +the ribs are of wood--plain, cut with chamfered edges--and the cells of +the vaulting are covered with boards, is to be met with in the church of +Warmington, Northamptonshire, a very rich, perfect, and interesting +specimen of this style. + +Q. Was not the spire introduced at this period? + +A. Yes, many spires were then built; among which was that of old St. +Paul’s Cathedral, more than five hundred feet high, and which was +destroyed by fire, A. D. 1561. The spire of Oxford Cathedral is also of +this style. Early English spires are generally what are called Broach +spires, and spring at once from the external face of the walls of the +tower, without any intervening parapet. + +Q. Whence did the spire take its origin? + +A. It appears to have been suggested by the Norman pinnacle, which, at +first a conical capping, afterwards became polygonal, and ribbed at the +angles, thus presenting the prototype of the spire. + +[Illustration] + +Q. What ornament is peculiar, or nearly so, to this style? + +A. That called the tooth or dog-tooth ornament, a kind of +pyramidal-shaped flower of four leaves, which is generally inserted in a +hollow moulding, and, when seen in profile, presents a zig-zag or serrated +appearance. The tooth moulding appears to have been introduced towards the +close of the twelfth century; and an early instance where it occurs is on +a late Norman doorway, at Whitwell Church, Rutlandshire: we do not, +however, meet with it in buildings of a later style than that of the +thirteenth century. It is sometimes found used in great profusion in +doorways, windows, and other ornamental details; but many churches of this +style are entirely devoid of this ornament. The ball-flower, though +introduced in the thirteenth century, is not a common ornament until the +fourteenth, to which era it may be said more particularly to belong; we +find it in cornice mouldings, and sometimes on capitals. + +Q. What may be observed of the sculptured foliage of this style? + +A. As applied to capitals, bases, crockets, and other ornamental detail, +we find the general design and appearance of the sculptured foliage of +this style to be stiff and formal compared with that of the succeeding +style, when the arrangement of the foliage more closely approximated +nature, and a greater freedom both in conception and execution was +evinced. + +[Illustration: Boss of Sculptured Foliage, Warmington Church, +Northamptonshire.] + +Q. How are the parapets distinguished? + +A. They are often plain and embattled; but sometimes a simple horizontal +parapet is used, supported by a corbel table, as in the tower of Haddenham +Church, Buckinghamshire, and on that of Brize Norton Church, Oxfordshire. +At Salisbury Cathedral the parapet is relieved by a series of blank +trefoil headed pannels,[TN-4] sunk in the face. + +Q. What may be said in general terms of the style of the thirteenth +century, in comparing it with the styles which immediately preceded and +followed it? + +[Illustration: Parapet, Salisbury Cathedral.] + +A. In comparison with the Norman style, with its heavy concomitants and +enrichments, the style of the thirteenth century is light and simple, and +the details possess much elegance of contour. These, in small buildings, +are generally plain; but in large buildings they exhibit numerous +mouldings, combined with a certain degree of decorative embellishment. +This style is, however, far from presenting that extreme beauty of outline +and tasteful conception, combined with the pure and chaste ornamental +accessories, which prevail in the designs of the fourteenth century. + +Q. What particular structures may be noticed as belonging to this style? + +A. Salisbury Cathedral, built by Bishop Poore between A. D. 1220 and 1260, +is perhaps the most perfect specimen, on a large scale, of this style in +its early state, with narrow lancet windows; the nave and transepts of +Westminster Abbey, commenced in 1245, exhibit this style in a more +advanced stage; whilst Lincoln Cathedral is, for the most part, a rich +specimen of this style in its late or transition state. The west front of +Wells Cathedral, erected by the munificence of Bishop Joceline, between +A. D. 1213 and A. D. 1239, is covered with blank arcades and a number of +trefoil-headed niches, surmounted by plain pedimental canopies, which +contain specimens of statuary remarkable for their extreme beauty and +freedom of design. + +[Illustration: Corbel, Wells Cathedral.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86-*] From the economic principles on which our modern churches are, +with few exceptions, planned, they are mostly designed after and are +intended to resemble in style those of the thirteenth century, in which +more detail can be dispensed with than in any other style. Hence it +follows that the just proportions and adaptation of the different parts +and the minutest details and mouldings in ancient churches of this style +required to be carefully studied, more so perhaps for practical purposes +than in churches of any other style. + + + + +[Illustration: Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire.] + +CHAPTER VII. + +OF THE DECORATED ENGLISH STYLE. + + +Q. When did the Decorated English style commence, and how long did it +prevail? + +A. It may be said to have commenced in the latter part of the thirteenth +century, or reign of Edward the First, and to have prevailed about a +century. The transition from the Early English style to this, and again +from this to the succeeding style, was however so extremely gradual, that +it is difficult to affix any precise date for the termination of one +style, or the introduction of another. + +[Illustration: Bracket, York Cathedral.] + +Q. Whence does it derive its appellation? + +A. From there being a greater redundancy of chaste ornament in this than +in the preceding style; and though it does not exhibit that extreme +multiplicity of decorative detail as the style of the fifteenth century, +the general contours and forms which this style presents, and the +principal lines of composition, which verge pyramidically rather than +vertically or horizontally, are infinitely more pleasing; and it is justly +considered as the most beautiful style of English ecclesiastical +architecture. + +Q. What difference is there between the arches of this style, which +support the clerestory, and those of an earlier period? + +A. The lancet arch is seldom seen; the equilateral arch is generally, +though not always, used. Both this and the obtuse-angled arch are, taken +exclusively, difficult to be distinguished from those of an earlier +period. In small buildings the edges of the pier arches are plain and +chamfered. In large churches a series of quarter-round or roll-mouldings, +which have often a square-edged fillet attached, are applied to the +sub-arch, edges, and facing. + +[Illustration: Section of Piers rom[TN-5] Grendon Church, Warwickshire, +and Austrey Church, Warwickshire.] + +Q. What difference occurs in the piers from which these arches spring? + +A. In large buildings piers of this style were composed of a cluster of +slender cylindrical shafts, not standing detached from each other, as in +the Early English style, but closely united. A common pier of this kind is +formed of four shafts thus united, without bands, with a square-edged +fillet running vertically up the face of each shaft. Sometimes a simple +cylindrical pier is found. The octagonal pier, with plain sides, is very +prevalent in small churches, and does not differ materially from the Early +English pier of the same kind. The capitals are either bell-shaped, +clustered, or octagonal, to correspond with the shape of the piers; but +the cap mouldings are more numerous than in the earlier style. Sometimes +the capitals are sculptured. In the churches of Monkskirby, Warwickshire, +and of Cropredy, Oxfordshire, the arches which support the clerestory +spring at once from the piers, without any intervening capitals, a +practice not uncommon in the style of the fifteenth century, but very rare +in this. + +Q. How are the vaulted roofs of this style distinguished? + +A. Of the large stone vaulted roofs each bay is intersected by +longitudinal, transverse, and diagonal ribs, with shorter ribs springing +from the bearing shafts intervening; thus forming a series of vaulting +cells more numerous than are to be met with in the Early English style, +though not subdivided to the excess observable in the vaulted roofs of the +fifteenth century. Sculptured bosses often occur at the intersections. In +the nave of York Cathedral, finished about A. D. 1330, the groining of the +roof is less complicated than that of the choir of the same cathedral, +constructed between A. D. 1360 and A. D. 1370[106-*]. Small structures are +more simply vaulted. In a chantry chapel adjoining the north side of the +chancel of Willingham Church, Cambridgeshire, is a very acute-pointed +angular-shaped stone roof, the plain surface of the vaulting of which is +supported by two pointed arches springing from corbels projecting from the +walls; and these sustain straight-sided stone vaulting ribs, obliquely +disposed to conform with the angle of the roof, and which act as +principals; and above each arch, and between that and the ridge-line of +the oblique ribs or principals, the space is filled with an open +quatrefoil and other tracery. The north transept of Limington Church, +Somersetshire, has a high pitched stone roof supported by groined ribs. + +Q. Are there many wooden roofs of this style remaining? + +A. We find comparatively few original wooden roofs in structures of the +fourteenth century, for such have generally been superseded by roofs of a +later date and of a more obtuse form. The high and acute pitch of the +original roof is, however, still generally discernible by the weather +moulding on the east wall of the tower. In the nave of Higham Ferrars +Church, Northamptonshire, is a wooden roof which apparently belongs to +this style: the roof is angular-pointed and open to the ridge-line, the +walls are connected by tie-beams, and under each of these is a wooden arch +formed of two ribs or beams springing from stone corbels. + +Q. In what respect do the doors of this style differ? + +[Illustration: Window, Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire.] + +A. Large doorways of this style have lateral shafts, with capitals, and +between the shafts architrave mouldings intervene, which run without stop +into the base tablet: of such the south doorway of St. Martin’s Church, +Leicester, is an instance. Small doorways are generally without shafts, +but have a series of quarter-round, semicylindrical, and tripartite roll +mouldings at the sides, which are continuous with the architrave +mouldings; and these have sometimes a square-edged fillet on the face. The +doorways of this style are frequently enriched with pedimental and +ogee-shaped canopies, ornamented with crockets and finials; of which the +north doorway of Exeter Cathedral and the south doorway of Everdon Church, +Northamptonshire, may be cited as examples. Large doorways have sometimes +a double opening, divided by a clustered shaft, as in the entrance to the +Chapter House, York Cathedral. In some instances the head of the doorway +is foliated, and we observe in detail an approximation to the succeeding +style. The west doorway of Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire, is in this +stage of transition. + +Q. How are the windows of this style known? + +[Illustration: Square-headed Decorated Window, Ashby Folville, +Leicestershire.] + +A. In the later stage of the Early English style the windows became +enlarged, and the heads were filled with foliated circles. To these +succeeded, in the fourteenth century, windows ornamented with geometrical +and flowing tracery, peculiarities which exclusively pertain to this +style, and by which it is most easily known. The windows are of good +proportions, and are divided into two or more principal lights by +mullions, which at the spring of the arch form designs of regular +geometrical construction, or branch out into flowing ramifications +composing flame-like compartments, which are foliated[109-*]. The variety +of tracery in windows of this style is very great, and they frequently +have pedimental and ogee canopies over them, ornamented in the same manner +as those over doors: examples of this kind may be found at York +Cathedral. In the south transept of Chichester, and west front of Exeter +Cathedrals, are two exceeding large and beautiful windows of this style; +the first filled with geometrical, the other with flowing, tracery. In +some windows of this style the mullions simply cross in the head, as in a +later style, but the lights are commonly foliated, and the difference may +in general be discerned by the mouldings: such windows occur in Stoneleigh +Church, Warwickshire. There are also many square-headed windows in this +style, distinguished by the flowing tracery in the heads, and by other +characteristic marks: of such a window in Ashby Folville Church, +Leicestershire, is a rich and good example. Circular windows, filled with +tracery, are not uncommon in large buildings; and we also meet with +triangular spherical-shaped windows, as in the clerestory of Barton +Segrave Church, Northamptonshire[111-*]. + +[Illustration: Window, Barton Segrave Church.] + +Q. Of what description are the mouldings which pertain to this style? + +[Illustration: Moulding, Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire.] + +[Illustration: Roll Moulding, Chacombe Church, Northamptonshire.] + +A. They approximate more nearly, in section and appearance, those of the +thirteenth than those of the fifteenth century, but the members are +generally more numerous than in those of the former style; quarter-round, +half, and tripartite cylinder mouldings, often filleted along the face and +divided by small cavetto mouldings, sometimes deeply cut, are common. The +string-course under the windows frequently consists, as in the preceding +style, of a simple roll moulding, the upper member of which overlaps the +lower. A plain semicylindrical moulding, with a square-edged fillet on the +face, is also common, and occurs at the church of Orton-on-the-Hill, +Leicestershire. The hood moulding over the windows often consists of a +quarter-round or ogee, with a cavetto beneath, and sometimes returns +horizontally along the walls as a string-course; a disposition, however, +more frequently observable in the Early English style than in this: of +such disposition the churches of Harvington, Worcestershire, and of +Sedgeberrow, Gloucestershire, may be cited as affording examples. In +decorative work we often meet with the ball-flower, one of the most +characteristic ornaments of the style, consisting of a ball inclosed +within three or four leaves, and sometimes bearing a resemblance to the +rose-bud, inserted at intervals in a cavetto or hollow moulding, with the +accompaniment, in some instances, of foliage; a four-leaved flower, +inserted in the same manner, is also not uncommon. + +[Illustration: String-Course, Sedgeberrow Church, Gloucestershire.] + +[Illustration: Ball-Flower Ornament, Bloxham Church, Oxfordshire, and York +Cathedral.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: Decorated Buttress, St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford.] + +Q. How may the buttresses of this style be distinguished? + +[Illustration: Flying Buttress, Salisbury Cathedral.] + +A. They were worked in stages, and their set-offs have frequently +triangular heads, sometimes plain but often ornamented with crockets and +finials of a more decorative character than those of the Early English +style. Many buttresses have, however, plain slopes as set-offs, and they +are frequently placed diagonally at the corners of buildings, as at +Dunchurch Church, Warwickshire. The flying buttresses at Salisbury +Cathedral, in which the thrust is partly counterpoised by +pyramidal-headed pinnacles decorated with crockets and finials, are of +this age. + +Q. What parapet is peculiar to this style? + +A. Besides the plain embattled parapet, which is not always easy to be +distinguished from other styles, a horizontal blocking course, pierced +with foliated or wavy, flowing tracery, which has a rich effect, is +common. Of this description specimens occur at St. Mary Magdalen Church, +Oxford, and Brailes Church, Warwickshire. + +Q. What is observable in the niches of this style? + +A. They are very beautiful, and are generally surmounted by triangular or +ogee-shaped canopies, enriched with crockets and finials, while the +interior of the canopies are groined with numerous small rib mouldings. +The crockets and finials of this style, as decorative embellishments, are +peculiarly graceful, chaste, and pleasing in contour. + +Q. Was the transition from this style to the next gradual? + +A. Both the transition from the Early English to the Decorated style, and +from the Decorated to the Florid or Perpendicular, was so gradual, that +though many individual details and ornaments were extremely dissimilar, +and peculiar to each particular style, we are only able to judge from +examples when a change was generally established. + +Q. From what cotemporary writers of the fourteenth century can we collect +any architectural notices, either general or of detail? + +[Illustration: Part of the Altar Screen, Winchester Cathedral.] + +A. In Chaucer we find allusions made to _imageries_, _pinnacles_, +_tabernacles_, (canopied niches for statuary,) and _corbelles_. Lydgate, +in _The Siege of Troy_, in his description of the buildings, adverts to +those of his own age, and uses several architectural terms now obsolete or +little understood, and some which are not so, as _gargoiles_. In Pierce +Ploughman’s Creed we have a concise but faithful description of a large +monastic edifice of the fourteenth century, comprising the church or +minster, cloister, chapter house, and other offices. + +Q. What edifices maybe noticed as constructed in this style? + +A. In Exeter Cathedral this style may be said generally to prevail, +although some portions are of earlier and some of later date. Great part +of Lichfield Cathedral was also built during the fourteenth century. The +beautiful cloisters adjoining Norwich Cathedral, commenced A. D. 1297, but +not finished for upwards of a century, although proceeded with by +different prelates from time to time, rank as the most beautiful of the +kind we have remaining. Several country churches are wholly or principally +erected in this style. Broughton Church, Oxfordshire, may be instanced as +an elegant, pleasing, and complete example of plain decorated work. +Trumpington Church, Cambridgeshire, is also deserving of notice; and +Wimington Church, Bedfordshire, built by John Curteys, lord of the manor, +who died A. D. 1391, is a small but late edifice in the Decorated style. +Annexations were also made during this century to numerous churches of +earlier construction, by the erection of additional aisles or chapels as +chantries. In all these structures we find more or less, in general +appearance, form, and detail, of that extreme beauty and elegance of +design which prevailed, as it were, for about a century, and then +imperceptibly glided away. + +[Illustration: Parapet, Magdalen Church, Oxford.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[106-*] The allusion is made to the vaulted roofs of the nave and choir +of this cathedral as they existed previous to the late unfortunate and +destructive fires. + +[109-*] The Flamboyant window, common in France, is not often met with +in this country. On the north side of Salford Church, Warwickshire, is, +however, a window of this description, filled with flamboyant tracery. + +[111-*] For specimens of Decorated windows with flowing tracery in the +heads, vide cuts, pp. 12 and 13. + + + + +[Illustration: South Porch of Newbold-upon-Avon Church, Warwickshire.] + +CHAPTER VIII. + +OF THE FLORID OR PERPENDICULAR ENGLISH STYLE. + + +Q. When may this style be said to have commenced, and how long did it +prevail? + +A. We find traces of it in buildings erected at the close of the reign of +Edward the Third (circa A. D. 1375); and it prevailed for about a century +and half, or rather more, till late in the reign of Henry the Eighth +(circa A. D. 1539). + +Q. Whence does it derive its appellation? + +A. From the multiplicity, profusion, and minuteness of its ornamental +detail, it has by some received the designation of FLORID; by others, from +the mullions of the windows and the divisions of ornamental panel-work +running in straight or perpendicular lines up to the head, which is not +the case in any earlier style, it has been called and is now better known +by the designation of the PERPENDICULAR[121-*]. + +Q. In what respects did it differ from the style which immediately +preceded it? + +A. The beautiful flowing contour of the lines of tracery characteristic of +the Decorated style was superseded by mullions and transoms, and, in +panel-work, lines of division disposed vertically and horizontally; and in +lieu of the quarter-round, semi and tripartite roll and small hollow +mouldings of the fourteenth century, angular-edged mouldings with bold +cavettos became predominant. + +Q. Of what kind are the arches of this style? + +A. Although, in this style, pointed arches constructed from almost every +radius are to be found, the complex four-centred arch, commonly called +the Tudor arch, was almost peculiar to it; and the cavetto or wide and +rather shallow hollow moulding, a characteristic feature of this style, +often appears in the architrave mouldings of pier arches, doorways, and +windows, and as a cornice moulding under parapets. + +[Illustration: Window, St. Mary’s Church, Oxford.] + +[Illustration: Mullion, Burford Church, Oxfordshire.] + +Q. How are the piers of this style, which support the clerestory arches, +distinguished from those of an earlier period? + +[Illustration: Capital, Piddleton Church, Dorsetshire.] + +A. The section of a pier, which is common in this style, may be described +as formed from a square or parallelogram, with the angles fluted or cut in +a bold hollow, and on the flat face of each side of the pier a +semicylindrical shaft is attached. The flat faces or sides of the pier and +the hollow mouldings at the angles are carried up vertically from the base +moulding to the spring of the arch, and thence, without the interposition +of any capital, in a continuous sweep to the apex of the arch; but the +slender shafts attached to the piers have capitals, the upper members of +which are angular-shaped. The base mouldings are also polygonal. Piers and +arches of this description are numerous, and occur, amongst other +churches, in St. Thomas Church, Salisbury; Cerne Abbas Church, Bradford +Abbas Church, and Piddleton Church, Dorsetshire; Yeovil Church, +Somersetshire; and Burford Church, Oxfordshire. In some churches a very +slender shaft with a capital is attached to each angle of the pier, which +is disposed lozengewise, the main body of the pier presenting continuous +lines of moulding with those of the arch, unbroken by any capital: as in +the piers of Bath Abbey Church, rebuilt early in the sixteenth century. In +small country churches we frequently find the architrave mouldings of the +arch continued down the piers, which are altogether devoid of any +horizontal stop by way of capital. The churches of Brinklow and +Willoughby, in Warwickshire, afford instances of this kind. Piers somewhat +different to those above described are also to be met with, but are not so +common. + +Q. What else may be noted respecting some of the piers and arches in this +style? + +A. The face of the sub-arch or soffit is sometimes enriched with oblong +panelled compartments, arched-headed and foliated; and these are +continued down the inner sides of the piers. The arches of the tower of +Cerne Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, and some of the arches in Sherborne +Church, in the same county, may be instanced as examples. + +[Illustration: Panelled Arch, Sherborne Church, Dorsetshire.] + +Q. How may we distinguish the doorways and doors of this style? + +A. Many doorways of this style, especially during its early progress, were +surmounted by crocketted ogee-shaped hood mouldings, terminating with +finials. In the most common doorway of this style, however, the depressed +four-centred arch appears within a square head, and in general a +rectangular hood moulding over; and the spandrels or spaces between the +spring and apex of the arch and angles of the square head over it are +filled with quatrefoils, panelling, foliage, small shields, or other +sculptured ornaments. Sometimes the depressed four-centred arch appears +without any hood moulding, and we occasionally meet with a simple pointed +arch described from two centres placed within a rectangular compartment. +Doorways in this style are often profusely ornamented; and it is common to +see doors covered with panel-work boldly recessed, the compartments of +which are sometimes filled in the heads with crocketed ogee arches, which +produce a rich effect. + +[Illustration: Doorway, All Souls College, Oxford.] + +Q. Are there many fine porches of this style? + +A. More than in any other style, and they are often profusely enriched, +the front and sides being covered with panel-work, tracery, and niches for +statuary. The interior of the roof is frequently groined, sometimes with +fan tracery, but generally with simple though numerous ribs; and in many +instances a room is constructed over the groined entrance or lower story +of the porch, but so as to be in keeping with and form part of the general +design. The south porch of Gloucester Cathedral, the south-west porch of +Canterbury Cathedral, the south porch of St. John’s Church, Cirencester, +and the south porch of Burford Church, Oxfordshire, may be noticed as +examples of rich porches of this style; many others might also be +enumerated, as they are very numerous and various in detail. Some porches +are comparatively plain, as the south porch of the church of +Newbold-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. + +Q. How are the windows distinguished? + +[Illustration: Window, New College Chapel, Oxford.] + +A. The chief characteristic in the windows of this style, and which +renders them easily distinguished from those of an earlier era, consists +in the vertical bearing of the mullions, which, instead of diverging off +in flowing lines, are carried straight up into the head of the window; +smaller mullions spring from the heads of the principal lights, and thus +the upper portion of the window is filled with panel-like compartments. +The principal as well as the subordinate lights are foliated in the heads; +and in large windows the lights are often divided horizontally by +transoms, which are sometimes embattled. From the continued upright +position of the mullions and tracery-bars is derived the term +PERPENDICULAR, as applied to this style. The forms of the window-arches +vary from the simple pointed to the complex four-centred arch, more or +less depressed. The windows of the clerestory are sometimes arched, but +oftener square-headed; and some large windows of the latter description +nearly cover the sides of the clerestory walls of Chipping Norton Church, +Oxfordshire. + +Q. What do we frequently observe in buildings of this style? + +A. The interior walls of churches are often completely covered with +panel-work tracery, arched headed and foliated, from the clerestory +windows down to the mouldings of the arches below. The walls of Sherborne +Church, Dorsetshire, present in the interior a surface almost entirely +covered with panel-work. Several large churches in this style have also +long ranges of clerestory windows, set so close to each other that the +whole length of the clerestory wall seems perforated: we may enumerate as +examples the churches of St. Michael, Coventry; Stratford-upon-Avon, +Warwickshire; and Lavenham and Melford, Suffolk. Walls covered on the +exterior with panel-work are also far from uncommon: the Abbots’ Tower, +Evesham, the tower of the church of St. Neot’s, Huntingdonshire, and of +Wrexham, Denbighshire, and many other rich towers, (especially those of +the churches in Somersetshire, where rich specimens in this style abound, +more so perhaps than in any other county,) are thus decorated. The +exterior of many rich structures in this style are also covered with +panel-work, as the Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, the west front of Winchester +Cathedral, and Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. + +[Illustration: Parapet, St. Peter’s Church, Oxford.] + +Q. How are the vaulted roofs of this style distinguished? + +A. They are in detail more complicated than those of earlier styles, and +in plain as distinguished from fan-tracery vaulting the groining ribs are +more numerous. The ribs often diverge at different angles, and form +geometrical-shaped panels or compartments; and the design has, in some +instances, been assimilated to net-work. Plain vaulting of this style +occurs in the nave and choir, Norwich Cathedral; the Lady Chapel and +choir, Gloucester Cathedral; the nave, Winchester Cathedral; the Beauchamp +Chapel, Warwick; and a very late specimen in the choir, Oxford Cathedral. +A very rich and peculiar description of vaulting is one composed of +pendant semicones covered with foliated panel-work, and, from the design +resembling a fan spread open, called _fan-tracery_. Of this description of +vaulting an early instance appears in the cloisters, Gloucester Cathedral. +The roofs of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and Henry the Seventh’s +Chapel, Westminster Abbey, are well-known examples; and portions of +several of our cathedrals and many small chantry and sepulchral chapels +are thus vaulted. + +Q. What may be observed of the wooden roofs of this style? + +[Illustration: Wooden Roof, south aisle, St. Mary’s Church, Leicester.] + +A. They are far more numerous than those we meet with in all the previous +styles; and we frequently find churches of early date in which the +original roofs, having perhaps become decayed, have been removed and +replaced by roofs designed in that style prevalent during the fifteenth +century. The slope or pitch of the roof is much lower than before, and the +form altogether more obtuse, and sometimes approaching nearly to flatness. +The exterior is on this account often entirely concealed from view by the +parapet. Many roofs of this style are divided into bays or compartments +by horizontal tie-beams faced with mouldings, and apparently supported by +curved ribs springing from corbels, and forming spandrels filled with open +worked tracery; and the spaces between the tie-beam, the king-post, and +the sloping rafters of the roof, are filled with pierced or open-work +tracery. The sloping bays or compartments of the roof are divided by rib +mouldings into squares or parallelograms of panel-work, which are again +often subdivided into similar-shaped panels by smaller ribs with carved +bosses at the intersections. Some roofs are nearly flat, and simply +panelled. On many roofs traces of painting and gilding may still be +discerned, more especially in that part which was over an altar, and where +the roof often bears indications of having been more ornamented than other +parts. Roofs painted of an azure colour and studded with gilt stars are +not uncommon. Sometimes the roof is coved, and the boards are painted in +imitation of clouds. A great variety of wooden roofs is to be met with in +this style, many of them exceeding rich; whilst the cornice under the roof +is sometimes elaborately carved and enriched. Some roofs are much plainer +in construction than others; and it was, during this era, a part of the +church on the enrichment of which no small expense and attention were +bestowed. + +Q. What may be noted respecting the parapets of this era? + +[Illustration: Parapet, St. Peter’s Church, Dorchester.] + +A. Many embattled parapets are covered with sunk or pierced panelling, and +ornamented with quatrefoils or small trefoil-headed arches; and they have +sometimes triangular-shaped heads, as at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, +and at the east end of Peterborough Cathedral. We also find horizontal or +straight-sided parapets, covered with sunk or pierced quatrefoils in +circles. A plain embattled parapet, with the horizontal coping moulding +continued or carried down the sides of the embrasures, and then again +returning horizontally, as at St. Peter’s Church, Dorchester, Dorsetshire, +is also common. A bold but shallow cavetto or hollow cornice moulding is +frequently carried along the wall just under the parapet. + +Q. Was the panelled or sunk quatrefoil much used in decorative detail? + +A. In rich buildings of this style the base, the parapet, and other +intermediate portions were decorated with rows or bands of sunk +quatrefoils, sometimes inclosed in circles, sometimes in squares, and +sometimes in lozenge-shaped compartments. + +[Illustration: Rose and Foliage, Henry VII.’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey.] + +Q. What other ornamental detail is peculiar to this style? + +A. The rose, which, differing only in colour, was the badge both of the +houses of York and Lancaster, and as such is often to be met with. Rows of +a trefoil or lozenge-shaped leaf, somewhat like an oak or strawberry leaf, +with a smaller trefoil more simple in design intervening between two +larger, was frequently used as a finish to the cornice of rich +screen-work, and is known under the designation of _the Tudor Flower_. It +is also common to find the tendrils, leaves, and fruit of the vine carved +or sculptured in great profusion in the hollow of rich cornice mouldings, +especially on screen-work in the interior of a church. + +[Illustration: Vine Leaves and Fruit, Whitchurch Church, Somersetshire.] + +Q. In what respect do the mouldings of this style differ from those of +earlier styles? + +A. In a greater prevalence of angular forms, which may be observed in +noticing the section of a series of mouldings, and in the bases and +capitals of cylindrical shafts. A large and bold but shallow hollow +moulding or cavetto, in which, when forming part of a horizontal fascia or +cornice, flowers, leaves, and other sculptured details are often inserted +at intervals, is a common feature; and such moulding, without any +insertion, is frequent in doorway and window jambs. A kind of double ogee +moulding with little projection, is, in conjunction with other mouldings, +also of common occurrence. + +[Illustration: Window, St. Peter’s Church, Oxford.] + +Q. Of what particular description of work do we find the existing remains +to be almost entirely designed and executed in this style of +ecclesiastical art? + +A. Of the numerous specimens of rich wooden screens, composed as to the +lower part of sunk panelling, with open work above, which we often find +separating the chancel from the body of the church, supporting the +rood-loft, and inclosing chantry chapels in side aisles, comparatively few +now remaining are of an earlier date than the fifteenth century[137-*]. + +Q. What do we find in large buildings erected late in this style? + +A. Octagonal turrets, plain or covered with sunk panelling, and surmounted +with ogee-headed cupolas, which are adorned with crockets and finials. In +Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster, they are used as buttresses. We +also find them at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; at St. George’s +Chapel, Windsor; and at Winchester Cathedral. + +Q. Have we any coeval documents which contain particulars relating to the +erection of churches? + +A. The contract entered into A. D. 1412, for the building of Catterick +Church, Yorkshire, and the contract entered into A. D. 1435, for +rebuilding, as it now stands, the collegiate church of Fotheringhay in +Northamptonshire, or copies of such, have been preserved; as have +particulars also from the contracts entered into A. D. 1450, for the +fitting up of the Beauchamp Chapel, St. Mary’s Church, Warwick. In the +will of King Henry the Sixth, dated A. D. 1447, we find specific directions +given for the size and arrangement of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; +and no less than five different indentures are preserved, (the earliest +dated A. D. 1513, the latest A. D. 1527,) containing contracts for the +execution of different parts of that celebrated structure. The will of +King Henry the Seventh, dated A. D. 1509, contains several orders and +directions relating to the completion of the splendid chapel adjoining the +abbey church, Westminster. + +Q. Mention some of the earliest buildings of this style, the dates of the +erection of which have been clearly ascertained? + +A. The tower of St. Michael’s Church, Coventry, the building of which +commenced A. D. 1373 and was finished A. D. 1395[140-*], is an early and +fine specimen; the beautiful and lofty spire was, however, an after +addition, like that at Salisbury Cathedral, and was not commenced till +A. D. 1432. Westminster Hall[140-†], the reparation or reconstruction of +the greater part of which by King Richard the Second was commenced A. D. +1397 and finished A. D. 1399, has a fine groined porch, the front of which +exhibits the square head over the arch of entrance; and the spandrels are +filled with quatrefoils, inclosing shields and sunk panel-work. The large +window above the porch, and that at the west end, are divided into +panel-like compartments by vertical mullions, and a transom divides the +principal lights horizontally. The wooden roof is of a more acute pitch +than we usually find in buildings of this style, and is remarkable as a +specimen of constructive art and display. The spaces between the arches +and rafters are filled up to the ridge-piece with open panel-work +ornamentally designed; and this is perhaps the earliest specimen we +possess of the perpendicular wooden roof. + +Q. What complete structures are there in this style of a late date, the +periods of the erection of which are ascertained? + +A. The design for the rebuilding of the Abbey Church, Bath, was planned +and the reconstruction thereof commenced, by Bishop King, A. D. 1500; and +after his death the works were carried on by Priors Bird and Hollowaye; +but the church was not completed when the surrender of the monastery took +place, A. D. 1539. The foundation of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, +Westminster Abbey, was laid A. D. 1502, but the chapel was not completed +till the reign of Henry the Eighth. It is the richest specimen, on a large +scale, of this style of architecture, and is completely covered, both +internally and externally, with panel-work, niches, statuary, heraldic +devices, cognizances, and other decorative embellishment. The church at +St. Neot’s, Huntingdonshire, is a fine large parochial edifice, all built +apparently after one regular design, and consists of a tower covered with +panel-work and ornament, with crocketed pinnacles at the angles and in +front of each side; a nave, north and south aisles and chancel, and two +chantry chapels, forming a continuation eastward of each aisle. It has a +fine wooden roof, the cornice under which is in different parts curiously +carved in relief. This church is said to have been erected A. D. 1507. But +one of the most perfect specimens of a late date, on a smaller scale, is +the church of Whiston, Northamptonshire, built A. D. 1534, by Anthony +Catesby, esquire, lord of the manor, Isabel his wife, and John their son: +it consists of a tower encircled with rows of quatrefoils and other +decorative embellishment, and finished with crocketed pinnacles at the +angles; a nave divided from the north and south aisles by arches within +rectangular compartments, the spandrels of which are filled with sunk +quatrefoils and foliated panels; these arches spring from piers disposed +lozengewise with semicylindrical shafts at the angles; there are no +clerestory windows, and the windows of the aisles and chancel have +obtusely-pointed four-centred arches. The wooden roof is a good example of +the kind. + +Q. What district is noted for the number of rich churches in this style? + +[Illustration: St. Stephen’s Church, Bristol.] + +A. Somersetshire contains a number of fine churches, erected apparently +towards the close of the fifteenth or very early in the sixteenth +century; and many of these churches have much of carved woodwork in +screens, rood-lofts, pulpits, and in pewing. The towers are, in +particular, remarkable for their general style of design, and are often +divided into stages by bands of quatrefoils; the sides are more or less +ornamented with projecting canopied niches for statuary, and in many of +these niches the statues have been preserved from the iconoclastic zeal +which has elsewhere prevailed. The belfry windows are partly pierced, +sometimes in quatrefoils, and partly filled with sunk panel-work. The +parapets, whether embattled or straight-sided, are pierced with open work; +and at each angle of the tower, at which buttresses are disposed +rectangular-wise, is finished with a crocketed pinnacle, which is also +often to be met with rising from the middle of the parapet. Towers similar +in general design to those which may be said to prevail in Somersetshire +are not unfrequently met with in other counties, but do not exhibit that +provincialism which is the case in that particular county. + +[Illustration: King Henry VII.’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[121-*] Mr. Rickman, from whom this appellation is derived, has been +since generally followed in his nomenclature. + +[137-*] In Compton Church, Surrey, is, or until recently was, the +remains of a wooden screen of late Norman character. Between the chancel +and nave of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire, is an early wooden +screen in the style of the thirteenth century: the lower division is of +plain panel-work, whilst the upper division consists of a series of +open-pointed arches, trefoiled in the heads, and supported by slender +cylindrical shafts with moulded bases and capitals, and an annulated +moulding encircles each shaft midway up. In Northfleet Church, Kent, is +a wooden screen which approximates in general design that at Stanton +Harcourt, but is in a more advanced stage of art, being of the Early +Decorated style: the lower portion of this is of plain panelling, while +the open work forming the upper division above consists of a series of +pointed arches, with tracery and foliations in and between the heads, +supported by slender cylindrical shafts banded round midway with moulded +bases and capitals, and these arches support a horizontal cornice. +Specimens of decorated screen-work, some much mutilated, others in a +more perfect state, are existing in the churches of King’s Sutton, +Northamptonshire; Croperdy, Oxfordshire; Beaudesert, Warwickshire; and +in St. John’s Church, Winchester. A characteristic distinction between +screen-work of an earlier date than the fifteenth century and +screen-work of that period will be found to consist in the slender +cylindrical shafts, often annulated, sometimes not, with moulded bases +and capitals which pertain to early work of the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries, and the mullion-like and angular-edged bars, often +faced with small buttresses, which form the principal vertical divisions +in screen-work of the fifteenth century. + +[140-*] This stately monument of private munificence was erected at the +sole charges of two brothers, Adam and William Botnor: it was twenty-one +years in building, and cost each year 100_l._ + +[140-†] Though not an ecclesiastical structure, it is here noticed as an +example of the style in an early stage. + + + + +[Illustration: Window, Duffield Church, Derbyshire.] + +CHAPTER IX. + +OF THE DEBASED ENGLISH STYLE. + + +Q. When did this style commence, and how long did it prevail or continue? + +A. It may be said to have commenced about the year 1540, and to have +continued to about the middle of the seventeenth century; but it is +difficult to assign a precise date either for its introduction or +discontinuance. + +Q. Why is this style called the DEBASED? + +A. From the general inferiority of design compared with the style it +succeeded, from the meagre and clumsy execution of sculptured and other +ornamental work, from the intermixture of detail founded on an entirely +different school of art, and the consequent subversion of the purity of +style. + +Q. What may be considered as one great cause of this falling off? + +A. The devastation of the monasteries, religious houses, and chantries, +which followed their suppression, discouraged the study of ecclesiastical +architecture, (which had been much followed by the members of the +conventual foundations, who were now dispersed, in their seclusion,) and +gave a fatal blow to that spirit of erecting and enriching churches which +this country had for many ages possessed. + +Q. How could this be the cause? + +A. The expenses of erecting many of our ecclesiastical structures, or +different portions of them, from time to time, in the most costly and +beautiful manner, according to the style of the age in which such were +built, were defrayed, some out of the immense revenues of the monasteries, +which at their suppression were granted away by the crown, and others by +the private munificence of individuals who frequently built an aisle, with +a chantry chapel at the east end, partly inclosed by screen-work, or +annexed to a church, a transept, or an additional chapel, endowed as a +chantry, in order that remembrance might be specially and continually made +of them in the offices of the church, according to the then prevailing +usage; which chantries having been abolished, one motive for +church-building was gone. + +Q. What concurrent causes may also be assigned for this change? + +A. The almost imperceptible introduction and advance, about this period, +of a fantastic mode of architectural design and decoration, which is very +apparent in the costly though in many respects inelegant monuments of this +age, and in which details of ancient classic architecture were +incorporated with others of fanciful design peculiar to the latter part of +the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries. + +Q. What are the characteristics of this style? + +A. A general heaviness and inelegance of detail, doorways with +pointed-arched heads exceedingly depressed in form, and also plain +round-headed doorways, with key stones after the Roman or Italian +semi-classic style now beginning to prevail; square-headed windows with +plain vertical mullions, and the heads of the lights either round or +obtusely arched, and generally without foliations; pointed windows +clumsily formed, with plain mullion bars simply intersecting each other in +the head, or filled with tracery miserably designed, and an almost total +absence of ornamental mouldings. Indications of this style may be found in +many country churches which have been repaired or partly rebuilt since the +Reformation. In the interior of churches specimens of the wood-work of +this style are very common, and may be perceived by the shallow and flat +carved panelling, with round arches, arabesques, scroll-work, and other +nondescript ornament peculiar to the age, with which the pews, +reading-desks, and pulpits are often adorned. The screens of this period +are constructed in a semi-classic style of design, with features and +details of English growth, and are often surmounted with scroll-work, +shields, and other accessories. Of this description of work the screen in +the south aisle of Yarnton Church, Oxfordshire, constructed A. D. 1611, may +be instanced as a curious specimen. + +[Illustration: Arabesque.] + +Q. What peculiarity may be noted in the alterations and additions of this +era? + +A. A very common practice prevailed, from about the middle of the +sixteenth century, when any alteration or addition was made in or to a +church, of affixing a stone in the masonry, with the date of such in +figures. Thus over the east window of Hillmorton Church, Warwickshire, +(which is a pointed window of four lights, formed by three plain mullions +curving and intersecting each other in the head, which is filled with +nearly lozenge-shaped lights, but all without foliations,) is a stone +bearing the date of 1640. In the south wall of the tower of the same +church (which is low, heavy, and clumsily built, without any pretension to +architectural design) is a stone to denote the period of its erection, +which bears the date of 1655. Pulpits, communion-tables, church chests, +poor-boxes, and pewing of the latter part of the sixteenth and of the +seventeenth century, also very frequently exhibit, in figures carved on +them, the precise periods of their construction. + +Q. What specimens are there of this style of late or debased and mixed +Gothic? + +A. Annexed to Sunningwell Church, Berkshire, is a singular porch or +building, sexagonal in form, at the angles of which are projecting columns +of the Ionic order supporting an entablature. On each side of this +building, except that by which it communicates with the church, and that +in which the doorway is contained, is a plain window of the Debased Gothic +style, of one light, with a square head and hood moulding over. The +doorway is nondescript, neither Roman or Gothic. This building is supposed +to have been erected by Bishop Jewell. The chapel of St. Peter’s College, +Cambridge, finished in 1632, exhibits in the east wall a large pointed +window, clumsily designed, in the Debased style, and divided by mullions +into five principal lights, round-headed, but trefoiled within; three +series of smaller lights, rising one above the other, all of which are +round-headed and trefoiled, fill the head of the window, the composition +of which, though comparatively rude, is illustrative of the taste of the +age. On each side of the window, on the exterior, is a kind of +semi-classic niche. In Stowe Church, Northamptonshire, are a number of +windows inserted at a general reparation of the church in 1639; these are +square-headed, and have a label or hood moulding over, and are mostly +divided into three obtusely pointed-arched lights, without foliations. +Under the windows of the south aisle is a string-course, more of a +semi-classic contour than Gothic. On the south side is a plain +round-headed doorway, inserted at the same period. The tower and south +aisle of Yarnton Church, Oxfordshire, erected by Sir Thomas Spencer, A. D. +1611, have the same kind of square-headed window, with arched lights +without foliations, as those of Stow. Stanton-Harold Church, +Leicestershire, erected A. D. 1653, is perhaps the latest complete specimen +of the Debased Gothic style. Towards the end of this century Gothic +mouldings appear not to have been understood, as in the attempt to +reconstruct portions of churches in that style we find mouldings of +classic art to prevail. Such is the case with respect to the tower of +Eynesbury Church, St. Neot’s, Huntingdonshire, rebuilt in a kind of +Debased Gothic and mixed Roman style, in 1687. Other instances of the +kind might also be enumerated. At the commencement of the eighteenth +century the Roman or Italian mode appears to have prevailed generally in +the churches then erected, without any admixture even of the Debased +Gothic style. + +[Illustration: Window, Ladbrook Church, Warwickshire.] + + + + +[Illustration: Stoup, South Door, Oakham Church, Rutlandshire.] + +CONCLUDING CHAPTER. + +ON THE INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT AND DECORATIONS OF A CHURCH. + + +The churches of this country were anciently so constructed as to display, +in their internal arrangement, certain appendages designed with +architectonic skill, and adapted purposely for the celebration of mass and +other religious offices. + +At the Reformation, when the ritual was changed and many of the +formularies of the church of Rome were discarded, some of such appendages +were destroyed; whilst others, though suffered to exist, more or less in a +mutilated condition, were no longer appropriated to the particular uses +for which they had been originally designed. + +On entering a church through the porch on the north or south side, or at +the west end, we sometimes perceive on the right hand side of the door, at +a convenient height from the ground, often beneath a niche, and partly +projecting from the wall, a stone basin: this was the _stoup_, or +receptacle for holy water, called also the _aspersorium_, into which each +individual dipped his finger and crossed himself when passing the +threshold of the sacred edifice. The custom of aspersion at the church +door appears to have been derived from an ancient usage of the heathens, +amongst whom, according to Sozomen[154-*], the priest was accustomed to +sprinkle such as entered into a temple with moist branches of olive. The +stoup is sometimes found inside the church, close by the door; but the +stone appendage appears to have been by no means general, and probably in +most cases a movable vessel of metal was provided for the purpose; and in +an inventory of ancient church goods at St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, taken +A. D. 1500, we find mentioned “a stope off lede for the holy wat^r atte +the church dore.” We do not often find the stoup of so ancient a date as +the twelfth century; one much mutilated, but apparently of that era, may +however be met with inside the little Norman church of Beaudesert, +Warwickshire, near to the south door. + +The porch was often of a considerable size, and had frequently a groined +ceiling, with an apartment above; it was anciently used for a variety of +religious rites, for before the Reformation considerable portions of the +marriage and baptismal services, and also much of that relating to the +churching of women, were here performed, being commenced “ante ostium +ecclesiæ,” and concluded in the church; and these are set forth in the +rubric of the Manual or service-book, according to the use of Sarum, +containing those and other occasional offices. + +Having entered the church, the font is generally discovered towards the +west end of the nave, or north or south aisle, and near the principal +door; such, at least, was in most cases its original and appropriate +position: this was for the convenience of the sacramental rite there +administered; part of the baptismal service (that of making the infant a +catechumen) having been performed in the porch or outside the door[156-*], +he was introduced by the priest into the church, with the invitation, +_Ingredere in templum Dei, ut habeas vitam æternam et vivas in sæcula +sæculorum_; and after certain other rites and prayers the infant was +carried to the font and immersed therein thrice by the priest, in the +names of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. By an ancient +ecclesiastical constitution a font of stone or other durable material, +with a fitting cover, was required to be placed in every church in which +baptism could be administered[156-†]; and it was, as Lyndwood informs us, +to be capacious enough for total immersion. Some ancient fonts are of +lead, as that in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire, and that in Childrey +Church, Berkshire; both of these are cylindrical in shape, and of the +Norman era, encircled with figures in relief; those on the font at +Dorchester representing the twelve apostles, whilst those on that of +Childrey are of bishops. Leaden fonts are also to be met with in the +churches of Brookland, Kent; Wareham, Dorsetshire; and Walmsford, +Northamptonshire. Square and cylindrical or truncated cone-like shaped +fonts, of Norman design, supported on a basement by one or more shafts, +and either plain or sculptured, are numerous; we sometimes find on them +figures of the twelve apostles, sculptured in low relief; the baptism of +our Saviour also was no uncommon representation. Fonts subsequent to the +Norman era are not so frequently covered with sculptured figures, though +such sometimes occur; they are sexagonal, septagonal, or octagonal in +shape; and the different styles are easily ascertained by the +architectural decorations, mouldings, tracery, and panel-work, with which +they are more or less covered. On the sides of rich fonts of the fifteenth +century representations of the seven sacraments were not unfrequently +sculptured, as on that in Farningham Church, Kent. The covers to some rich +fonts, especially to some of those of the fifteenth century, were very +splendid, in shape somewhat resembling that of a spire, but the sides +were covered with tabernacle-work, and decorated at the angles with small +buttresses and crockets. Fonts with rich covers of this description are to +be found in the churches of Ewelme, Oxfordshire; of North Walsham and of +Worstead, Norfolk; and of Sudbury and of Ufford, Suffolk.[158-*] + +The general situation of the tower or campanile is at the west end of the +nave; it is sometimes, however, found in a different position, as at the +west end of a side aisle, which is the case with respect to the churches +of Monkskirby and Withybrooke, Warwickshire; or on one side of the church, +as at Eynesbury Church, Huntingdonshire, and Alderbury Church, Salop; and +the tower of the latter church is covered with what is called the +saddle-back roof, having two gables--a peculiarity to be found in some few +other churches. In cross churches the tower was generally, though not +always, erected at the intersection of the transept, and between the nave +and chancel. In the towers the church bells were hung, with the exception +of one; without these no church was accounted complete; they were +anciently consecrated with great ceremony, named and inscribed in honour +of some saint, and the sound issuing from them was supposed to be of +efficacy in averting the influence of evil spirits. Bells appear to have +been introduced into this country in the latter part of the seventh +century, but comparatively few bells are now remaining in our churches of +an earlier date than the seventeenth century, since the commencement of +which century most of our present church bells have been cast. Towers were +also occasionally used, up to the fourteenth century, as parochial +fortresses, to which in time of sudden and unforeseen danger the +inhabitants of the parish resorted for awhile. The tower of Rugby Church, +Warwickshire, a very singular structure built in the reign of Henry the +Third, appears to have been erected for this purpose; it is of a square +form, very lofty, and plain in construction, and is without a single +buttress to support it; the lower windows are very narrow, and at a +considerable distance from the ground; some of them are, in fact, mere +loop-holes; the belfry windows are _square-headed_, of two lights, simply +trefoiled in the head, and divided by a plain mullion; the only entrance +was through the church; it has also a fire-place, the funnel for the +conveyance of smoke being carried up through the thickness of the wall to +a perforated battlement, and it altogether seems well calculated to resist +a sudden attack. Other church towers of early date appear to have been +erected for a double purpose: that of a campanile, as well as to afford +temporary security. The towers of Newton Arlosh Church, of the Church of +Burgh on the Sands, and of Great Salkeld Church, Cumberland, appear to +have been constructed with a view to afford protection to the inhabitants +of those villages upon any sudden invasion from the borders of Scotland, +and for that purpose were strongly fortified[160-*]. Some church towers, +especially in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, are round and batter, +or gradually decrease in diameter as they rise upwards; most of these are +of the Norman, though some are in the Early English, style; that at Little +Saxham Church, Suffolk, may be adduced as a specimen. Spires in some +instances appear to have served as landmarks, to guide travellers through +woody districts and over barren downs. The spire of Astley Church, +Warwickshire, now destroyed, was so conspicuous an object at a distance, +that it was denominated the lantern of Arden. The spires of the churches +of Monkskirby and Clifton, in the same county, now also destroyed, were +formerly noticed as eminent landmarks. + +[Illustration: Little Saxham Church Tower, Suffolk.] + +[Illustration: Open Seat, Culworth Church, Northamptonshire.] + +Anciently the body of the church appears to have contained no other fixed +seats for the congregation than a solid mass of masonry raised against the +wall, and forming a long stone bench or seat. A bench of this description +runs along great part of the north, west, and south sides of the Norman +church of Parranforth, Cornwall. In the Norman conventual church of Romsey +plain stone benches of this description occur; they are likewise to be met +with in Salisbury and other cathedrals; also in some of our ancient +parish churches, as in the south aisle of Kidlington Church, Oxfordshire. +Seats for the use of the congregation are noticed in the synod of Exeter, +held A. D. 1287. Open wooden benches or pew-work are rarely, if at all, met +with of an earlier era than the fifteenth century, when the practice of +pewing the body of the church with open wooden seats, if not then +introduced, began to prevail. In 1458 we meet with a testamentary bequest +of money “to make seats called puying,” and several of our churches still +retain considerable remains of the ancient open seats of the fifteenth +century. At Finedon, in Northamptonshire, the body of the church and +aisles are almost entirely filled with low open seats, with carved tracery +at the ends, disposed in four distinct rows; so that the whole of the +congregation might sit facing the east. Similar seats occur in Culworth +Church, in the same county, and these are likewise of the fifteenth +century. The pulpit was anciently disposed towards the eastern part of the +body of the church, but not in the centre of the aisle. Pulpits are now +rarely to be found of an earlier date than the fifteenth century, when +they appear to have been introduced into many churches, though not to have +become a general appendage. Ancient pulpits of that era, whether of wood +or stone, are covered with panel-work tracery and mouldings; and some +exhibit signs of having been once elaborately painted and gilt. Mention, +however, is made of pulpits at a much earlier period; for in the year 1187 +one was set up in the abbey church, Bury St. Edmund’s, from which, we are +told, the abbot was accustomed to preach to the people in the vulgar +tongue and provincial dialect[164-*]. The most ancient pulpit, perhaps, +existing in this country, is that in the refectory of the abbey (now in +ruins) of Beaulieu, Hampshire: it is of stone, and partly projects from +the wall, and is ornamented with mouldings, sculptured foliage, and a +series of blank trefoiled pointed arches, in the style of the thirteenth +century. The church of the Holy Trinity, at Coventry, contains a fine +specimen of a stone pulpit of the fifteenth century. In Rowington Church, +in the county of Warwick, is a stone pulpit of the same age as that at +Coventry, but much plainer in design. At Long Sutton Church, +Somersetshire, is a splendid wooden pulpit of the fifteenth century, +painted and gilt; and the sides are covered with ogee-headed niches, with +angular-shaped buttresses between; but the pulpits of this era may be +distinguished without difficulty by the peculiar architectural designs +they exhibit. + +We now approach the division between the nave or body of the church and +the chancel or choir: this was formed by a beautiful and highly decorated +screen, sometimes of stone, but generally of wood, panel and open-work +tracery, painted and gilt: above this was a cross-beam, which formed a +main support to the rood-loft, a gallery in which the crucifix or rood and +the accompanying images of the blessed Virgin and St. John were placed so +as to be seen by the parishioners in the body of the church, and also in +accordance with the traditional belief that the position of our Saviour +whilst suspended on the cross was facing the west. The passage to the +rood-loft was generally up a flight of stone steps in the north or south +wall of the nave; but as the rood-loft frequently extended across the +aisles, we sometimes meet with a small turret annexed to the east end of +one of the aisles for the approach. Though the introduction of the +lattice-work division between the chancel and nave may be traced in the +eastern church to the fourth century, we possess in our own churches few +remains of screen-work of earlier date than the fifteenth century; and it +appears probable that wooden screen-work before that period was not +common, and that in most instances a curtain or veil was used for the +purpose of division. The rood-loft generally projected in front, so as to +form a kind of groined cove, the ribs of which sprang or diverged from the +principal uprights of the screen beneath. In Long Sutton Church, +Somersetshire, is a splendid wooden rood-loft, elaborately carved, +painted, and gilt, which extends across the whole breadth of the church, +and is approached by means of a staircase turret on the south side of the +church. In the churches of Great Handborough, Enstone, Great Rollwright, +and Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, are considerable remains of the ancient +rood-loft, and numerous other instances where it is still retained could +be adduced. Sometimes this gallery was so small as to admit of the rood +and two attendant images only, and had no apparent access to it, as that +in Wormleighton Church, Warwickshire. Hardly a rood-loft is, however, +remaining of earlier date than the fifteenth century; prior to that +period, and in many instances even during it, the crucifix or rood and its +attendant images appear to have been affixed to a transverse beam +extending horizontally across the chancel arch; this was sometimes richly +carved, and a beam of this description still exists in the chancel of +Little Malvern Church, Worcestershire. An earlier date than the eleventh +century can hardly be assigned for the introduction of the rood, with the +figures of St. Mary and St. John, into our churches, though in illuminated +manuscripts somewhat before that period we find such figures pourtrayed +with the crucifix[167-*]. In the abbey church, Bury St. Edmund’s, the rood +and the figures of St. Mary and St. John, which were placed over the high +altar, were (as we are informed by Joceline, who wrote his Chronicle in +the twelfth century) the gift of Archbishop Stigand[167-†]. Gervase, in +describing the work of Lanfranc in Canterbury Cathedral, as it appeared +before the fire, A. D. 1174, notices the rood-beam, which sustained a +large crucifix and the images of St. Mary and St. John, as extended across +the church between the nave and central tower[168-*]. + +[Illustration: Rood, Sherborne Church, Dorsetshire.] + +All the carved wooden roods appear to have been destroyed at the +Reformation in compliance with the injunctions issued for that purpose. +We occasionally meet, however, with bas relief sculptures of our Saviour +extended on the cross, with a figure on each side representing the Virgin +and St. John, but in a mutilated condition. On the outside of the west +wall of the south transept of Romsey Church, Hants, and close to the +entrance from the cloisters into the church, is a large stone rood or +crucifix sculptured in relief, with a hand above emerging from a +cloud[169-*]: this is apparently of the twelfth century. Small sculptured +representations of the rood, with the figures of St. Mary and St. John, +still exist on one of the buttresses near the west door of Sherborne +Church, Dorsetshire; over a south doorway of Burford Church, Oxfordshire; +and in the wall of the tower of the church of St. Lawrence, Evesham. + +[Illustration: Sanctus Bell, Long Compton Church, Warwickshire.] + +Outside the roof of some churches, on the apex of the eastern gable of the +nave, is a small open arch or turret, in which formerly a single bell was +suspended: this was the _sanctus_ or _sacringe_ bell, thus placed that, +being near the altar, it might be the more readily rung, when, in +concluding the ordinary of the mass, the priest pronounced the +_Ter-sanctus_, to draw attention to that more solemn office, the canon of +the mass, which he was now about to commence; it was also rung at a +subsequent part of the service, on the elevation and adoration of the host +and chalice, after consecration[171-*]; but though the arch remains on +the gable of the nave of many churches, the bell thus suspended is +retained in few; amongst which may be mentioned those of Long Compton, +Whichford, and Brailes, in Warwickshire, where this bell is still +preserved hung in an arch at the apex of the nave, with the rope hanging +down between the chancel and nave[171-†]. Mention of this bell is thus +made in the Survey of the Priory of Sandwell, in the county of Stafford, +taken at the time of the Reformation: “Itm the belframe standyng betw: the +chauncell and the church, w^t. a litle _sanct_^m bell in the same.” +Generally, however, a small hand-bell was carried and rung at the proper +times in the service, by the acolyte; and in inventories of ancient church +furniture we find it often noticed as “_a sacringe bell_;” but in an +inventory of goods belonging to the chapel of Thorp, Northamptonshire, it +is described as “a litle _sanctus bell_.” A small sacringe bell, of +bell-metal, with the exception of the clapper, which was of iron, was in +1819 discovered on the removal of some rubbish from the ruins of St. +Margaret’s Priory, Barnstable; and within the last few years a small +sanctus bell was found on the site of a religious house at Warwick[172-*]. + +[Illustration: Ancient Sanctus Bell, found at Warwick.] + +Passing under the rood-loft, we enter the chancel: this was so called from +the screen or lattice-work (cancelli) of stone or wood by which it was +separated from the nave, and which succeeded the curtain or veil which +anciently formed this division of the church[173-*]. + +[Illustration: Stalls and Desk, St. Margaret’s Church, Leicester.] + +We often perceive in the choirs of conventual churches, as in our +cathedrals, on either side of the entrance, facing the east, and also on +the north and south sides, a range of wooden stalls divided into single +seats, peculiarly constructed, the _formulæ_ or forms of which were +movable, and carved on the _subselliæ_ or under-sides with grotesque, +satirical, and often irreverend devices: these were appropriated to the +monks or canons of the monastery or college to which the church was +attached. The form of each stall, when turned up so as to exhibit the +carved work on the under-part, furnished a small kind of seat or ledge, +constructed for the purpose of inclining against rather than sitting on; +and this was called the _misericorde_ or _miserere_. The _formulæ_ or +forms when down, and the misericordes when the forms were turned up, were +used as the season required for penitential inclinations[174-*]. In front +of these stalls was a desk, ornamented on the exterior with panelled +tracery; and over the stalls, especially of those of cathedral churches, +canopies of tabernacle work richly carved were sometimes disposed. In +Winchester Cathedral we have perhaps the most early, chaste, and beautiful +example of the canons’ stalls, with canopies over, that are to be met +with, although a greater excess of minute carved ornament may be found in +the canopies which overhang the stalls in other cathedrals. In old +conventual churches, now no longer used as such, the stalls have been +often removed from their original position to other parts of the church, +and they appear to have varied in number according to that of the +fraternity. + +[Illustration: Misericorde, All Souls’ College, Oxford.] + +[Illustration: Brass Reading Desk, Merton College Chapel, Oxford.] + +In the choirs of cathedral and conventual churches, and in the chancels of +some other churches, a movable desk, at which the epistle and gospel were +read, was placed: this was often called the eagle desk, from its being +frequently sustained on a brazen eagle with expanded wings, elevated on a +stand, emblematic of St. John the evangelist. Eagle desks are generally +found either of the fifteenth or seventeenth century; notices of them +occur, however, much earlier. In the Louterell Psalter, written circa A. D. +1300, an eagle desk supported on a cylindrical shaft, banded midway down +by an annulated moulding in the style of the thirteenth century, is +represented; and in an account of ornaments belonging to Salisbury +Cathedral, A. D. 1214, we find mentioned _Tuellia una ad Lectricum Aquilæ_. +Besides the brass eagle desks which still remain in use in several of our +cathedrals, and in the chapels of some of the colleges at Oxford and +Cambridge, fine specimens are preserved in Redcliffe Church, Bristol, of +the date 1638; in Croydon Church, Surrey; and in the church of the Holy +Trinity at Coventry; other instances might also be enumerated. Sometimes +we meet with ancient brass reading-desks which have not the eagle in +front, but both the sides are sloped so as to form a double desk: of +these, examples of the fifteenth century may be found in Yeovil Church, +Somersetshire, and in the chapel of Merton College, Oxford. Ancient wooden +reading-desks, either single or double, are also occasionally found; some +of these are richly carved, others are comparatively plain, but all +partake more or less of the architectonic style of the age in which they +were severally constructed, and from which their probable dates may be +ascertained. In Bury Church, Huntingdonshire, is a wooden desk with a +single slope, and the vertical face presented in front is covered with +arches and other carved ornaments: this perhaps may be referable to the +latter part of the fourteenth century. A rich double desk, of somewhat +later date, with the shaft supported by buttresses of open-work tracery, +is preserved in Ramsey Church, Huntingdonshire. In Aldbury Church, +Hertfordshire, is an ancient double lecturn or reading desk, of wood, of +the fifteenth century, much plainer in design than those at Bury and +Ramsey; the shaft is angular, with small buttresses at the angles, and +with a plain angular-shaped moulded capital and base, which latter is set +on a cross-tree. In Hawstead Church, Suffolk, is a wooden desk with little +ornament, supported on an angular shaft with an embattled capital, and +moulded base with leaves carved in relief: this is apparently of the +latter part of the fourteenth century. The ancient wooden desks found in +some of our churches must not, however, be confounded with a more numerous +class constructed and used subsequent to the Reformation. + +Proceeding up the chancel or choir, we ascend by three steps to the +platform, on which the high altar anciently stood: this was so called to +distinguish it from other altars, of which there were often several, in +the same church; high mass was celebrated at it, whereas the other altars +were chiefly used for the performance of low or private masses. The most +ancient altars were of wood, afterwards they were constructed of stone; +those of the primitive British churches are spoken of by St. Chrysostom. +By a decree of the council of Paris, held A. D. 509, no altar was to be +built but of stone. Amongst the excerptions of Ecgbert, archbishop of York +A. D. 750, was one that no altars should be consecrated with chrism but +such as were made of stone; and by the council of Winchester, held under +Lanfranc A. D. 1076, altars were enjoined to be of stone. The customary +form of such was a mass of stone supporting an altar table or slab, and +resembling the tombs of the martyrs, at which the primitive Christians +held their meetings; from which circumstance it became customary to +enclose in every altar relics of some saint, and without such relics an +altar was esteemed incomplete. + +[Illustration: Ancient Pix, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.] + +Pertaining to the high altar, which was covered with a frontal and cloths, +and anciently enclosed at the sides with curtains suspended on rods of +iron projecting from the wall, was a crucifix, which succeeded to the +simple cross placed on the altars of the Anglo-Saxon churches; a +pair[180-*] of candlesticks, generally with spikes instead of sockets, on +which lights or tapers were fixed; a pix, in which the host was kept +reserved for the sick; a pair of cruets, of metal, in which were contained +the wine and water preparatory to their admixture in the eucharistic cup; +a sacring bell; a pax table, of silver or other metal, for the kiss of +peace, which took place shortly before the host was received in communion; +a stoup or stok, of metal, with a sprinkle for holy water; a censer or +thurible[181-*], and a ship, (a vessel so called,) to hold frankincense; a +chrismatory[181-†], an offering basin, a basin which was used when the +priest washed his hands, and a chalice and paten. Costly specimens of the +ancient pix, containing small patens for the reception of the host, are +preserved amongst the plate belonging to New College and Corpus Christi +College, Oxford. A pix of a much plainer description, but without its +cover, of the metal called latten, was until recently preserved in the +church of Enstone, Oxfordshire: the body of this was of a semi-globular +form, supported on an angular stem, with a knob in the midst, and in +appearance not unlike a chalice. The monstrance, in which the host was +exhibited to the people, and which has been sometimes confounded with the +pix[182-*], does not appear to have been introduced into our churches +before the fifteenth century; on the suppression of the monasteries and +chantries we find it noticed in the inventories then taken of church +furniture, as in that of the Priory of Ely, where it is called “a stonding +monstral for the sacrament;” and in that of St. Augustine’s Monastery, +Canterbury, where it is described as “one monstrance, silver gilt, with +four glasses.” + +[Illustration: Sedilia, Crick Church, Northamptonshire.] + +Near the high altar we frequently find, in the south wall of the chancel, +a series of stone seats, sometimes without but generally beneath plain or +enriched arched canopies, often supported by slender piers which serve to +divide the seats. In most instances these seats are three in number, but +they vary from one to five, and are the _sedilia_ or seats formerly +appropriated during high mass to the use of the officiating priest and his +attendant ministers, the deacon and sub-deacon, who retired thither +during the chanting of the _Gloria in excelsis_, and some other parts of +the service[183-*]. The sedilia sometimes preserve the same level, but +generally they graduate or rise one above another, and that nearest the +altar, being the highest, was occupied by the priest; the other two by the +deacon and sub-deacon in succession[183-†]. We do not often meet with +sedilia of so early an era as the twelfth century; there are, however, +instances of such, as in the church of St. Mary, at Leicester, where is a +fine Norman triple sedile, divided into graduating seats by double +cylindrical piers with sculptured capitals, and the recessed arches they +support are enriched on the face with a profusion of the zigzag moulding. +In the south wall of the choir of Broadwater Church, Sussex, is a stone +bench beneath a large semicircular Norman arch, the face of which is +enriched with the chevron or zigzag moulding. In Avington Church, +Berkshire, is a stone beneath a plain segmental arch. Norman sedilia also +occur in the churches of Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, and of +Wellingore, Lincolnshire. From the commencement of the thirteenth century +up to the Reformation sedilia became a common appendage to a church, and +the styles are easily distinguished by their peculiar architectonic +features. Some are without canopies, and are excessively plain. On the +south side of the chancel of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, is a +stone bench without a canopy or division, and plain stone benches thus +disposed are found in the chancel of Bloxham Church, Oxfordshire, and of +Rowington Church, Warwickshire. In Sedgeberrow Church, Gloucestershire, +are two sedilia without canopies; and in Standlake Church, Oxfordshire, +the sedilia, three in number, are without canopies or ornament. In +Spratten Church, Northamptonshire, is a stone bench for three persons +under a plain recessed pointed arch. In Priors Hardwick Church, +Warwickshire, is a sedile for the priest, and below that one double the +size for the deacon and sub-deacon; both are under recessed arched +canopies. Quadruple sedilia occur in the churches of Turvey and Luton, +Bedfordshire; in the Mayor’s Chapel, Bristol; in Gloucester Cathedral; in +the church of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire; and in Rothwell Church, +Northamptonshire: these are beneath canopies, and most of them are highly +enriched. Quintuple sedilia sometimes occur, but are very rare; in the +conventual church of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, are, however, five +sedilia beneath ogee-headed canopies richly ornamented. A single sedile +for one person only is occasionally met with, but not often. + +[Illustration: Double Piscina, Salisbury Cathedral.] + +Eastward of the sedilia, in the same wall, is a _fenestella_ or niche, +sometimes plain, but often enriched with a crocketed ogee or pedimental +hood moulding in front, over the arch, which is trefoiled or cinquefoiled +in the head. This niche contains a hollow perforated basin or stone drain, +called the _piscina_ or _lavacrum_[186-*], into which it appears that +after the priest had washed his hands, which he was accustomed to do +before the consecration of the elements and again after the communion, +the water was poured, as also that with which the chalice was rinsed. The +usage of washing the hands before the communion is one of very high +antiquity, and is expressly noticed in the Clementine Liturgy, and by St. +Cyril in his mystical Catechesis[187-*]; we do not, however, find the +piscina in our churches of an era earlier than the twelfth century, and +even then it was of uncommon occurrence; but in the thirteenth century the +general introduction is observable. In Romsey Church, Hampshire, is the +shaft and basin (the latter cushion-shaped) of a curious Norman piscina: +this is now lying loose, in a dilapidated state. In the south apsis of the +same church is another Norman piscina, consisting of a quadrangular-shaped +basin projecting from the south wall; and on the south side of the chancel +of Avington Church, Berkshire, is a plain Norman piscina within a simple +semicircular arched recess. The churches of Kilpeck, Herefordshire, +Keelby, Lincolnshire, and Bapchild, Kent, also contain Norman piscinæ. +Those of all the various styles of later date are common; they exhibit, +however, an interesting variety in design and ornamental detail. The drain +of the piscina communicated with a perforated stone shaft, commonly +enclosed in the wall, through which the water was lost in the earth; as in +the case of the piscina with its shaft taken out of the south wall of the +chancel of the now destroyed church of Newnham Regis, Warwickshire. +Sometimes a piscina was a subsequent addition to a structure of early +date, as in the old and now demolished church of Stretton-upon-Dunsmore, +Warwickshire, in the south wall of the Norman chancel of which a piscina +of the latter part of the thirteenth century had been inserted. + +[Illustration: Piscina, Newnham Regis, Warwickshire.] + +The piscina is very common in churches even where the sedilia or stone +seats are wanting, and not only in the chancel, but also in the south +walls at the east end of the north and south aisles, and in mortuary +chapels, as will be presently noticed; it appears, in short, to have been +an indispensable appendage to an altar. + +Sometimes the piscina is double, and contains two basins with drains, the +one for receiving the water in which the hands had been washed, the other +for the reception of the water with which the chalice was rinsed after the +communion[189-*]. In Rothwell Church, Northamptonshire, on the south side +of the chancel, are the vestiges of a triple piscina; the fenestella has +been destroyed, but the three basins with their drains remain. + +Across the _fenestella_, or niche which contains the piscina, a shelf of +stone or wood may be frequently found: this was the _credence_[190-*], or +table on which the chalice, paten, ampullæ, and other things necessary for +the celebration of mass were, before consecration, placed in a state of +readiness on a clean linen cloth; and this originated from the πρόθεσις, +or side table of preparation, used in the early church; a recurrence to +which ancient and primitive custom by some of the divines of the +Anglican church, after the Reformation, occasioned great offence to be +taken by the Puritan seceders. In some instances a side table of stone +or wood was used for this purpose; and a fine credence table of stone, +the sides of which are covered with panelled compartments, is still +remaining on the south side of the choir, St. Cross Church, near +Winchester[190-†]. + +[Illustration: Ambrie or Locker, Chaddesden Church, Derbyshire.] + +The credence table, or shelf above the piscina, must not be confounded +with the _ambrie_ or _locker_, a small square and plain recess usually +contained in the east or north wall, near the altar. In this the chalice, +paten, and other articles pertaining to the altar were kept when not in +use. The wooden doors formerly affixed to these ambries have for the most +part either fallen into decay or been removed, but traces of the hinges +may be frequently perceived; and a locker in the north wall of the chancel +of Aston Church, Northamptonshire, still retains the two-leaved wooden +door. Sometimes shelves are set across the lockers. In the east wall of +Earls Barton Church, Northamptonshire, is a large locker divided into two +unequal parts by a stone shelf inserted in it; and in the north aisle of +Salisbury Cathedral are two large triangular-headed lockers or ambries, +each which[TN-6] contains two shelves. + +Within the north wall of the chancel, near the altar, a large arch, like +that of a tomb, may often be perceived; within this the _holy sepulchre_, +generally a wooden and movable structure, was set up at Easter, when +certain rites commemorative of the burial and resurrection of our Lord +were anciently performed with great solemnity; for on Good Friday the +crucifix and host were here deposited, and watched the following day and +nights; and early on Easter morning they were removed from thence with +great ceremony, and replaced on the altar by the priest. In the accounts +of churchwardens of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century +we meet with frequent notices of payments made for watching the sepulchre +at Easter[192-*]. Sometimes the sepulchre was altogether of stone, and a +fixture, and enriched with architectural and sculptured detail, as in the +well-known specimen at Heckington, Lincolnshire, and the fine specimen of +tabernacle-work in Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire. + +At the back of the high altar was affixed a reredos, or screen of +tabernacle-work, costly specimens of which contained small images set on +brackets under projecting canopies; an alabaster table or sculptured bas +relief, placed just over the altar, was also common. The high altar +reredos is still remaining, though in a mutilated condition, in the Abbey +Church, St. Alban’s; it was erected A. D. 1480, and is perhaps the most +splendid specimen we have; and in Bristol Cathedral a portion of the high +altar reredos is also left. The chantry altar reredos is more frequently +remaining, even where the altar and alabaster table[193-*] above have been +destroyed; rarely, however, in a perfect state. In the seventeenth century +the rich tabernacle-work was sometimes plastered over, probably to +preserve it from iconoclastic violence. In many of our cathedrals, as at +Gloucester, Bristol, Wells, and Worcester, and in some of the chantries +attached to Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, Westminster, specimens of the +chantry reredos screen, which appear to have abounded more or less with +sculptured and architectural detail, are to be met with; and remains of +the painting and gilding with which they were anciently covered may in +some instances be traced. In a Survey of the Priory Church, Bridlington, +taken at the suppression, we find noticed, “The Reredose at the highe +alter representyng Criste at the assumpcyon of our Lady and the XII. +appostells, w^t. dyvers other great imagys, beyng of a great heyght, ys +excellently well wrought, and as well gylted.” Five small chapels are also +mentioned, “w^t. fyve alters and small tables of alleblaster and imag’s.” +Sometimes, however, the space behind the altar was occupied by a painted +altar-piece, on wood or panel; a curious but mutilated specimen of which, +of the latter part of the fifteenth century, is still preserved in the +conventual church, Romsey. + +Over the high altar was the great east window of the church, glazed with +painted glass; other windows in the church were also thus filled. The +subjects pourtrayed on the glass were sometimes scriptural, sometimes +legendary. Single figures of saints, distinguished by their peculiar +symbols, are common; figures of crowned heads, prelates, and warriors also +frequently occur; and on some windows are depicted the arms and sometimes +even the portraits of different benefactors to the church, with scrolls +bearing inscriptions. We have, perhaps, few remains of ancient stained +glass in our churches of a period antecedent to the thirteenth century: of +this era, probably, are those curious circular designs which fill the +greater portion of the lights at the back of the sedilia in Dorchester +Church, Oxfordshire: one representing St. Augustine and St. Birinus, the +first bishop of that ancient see; another, a priest and deacon, the former +with the host, the latter bearing the ampullæ. Of this period also is some +ancient stained glass in Chetwood Church, Bucks, the ground of which is +covered with a kind of mosaic pattern, a usual feature in the more ancient +stained glass, and the borders partake of a tendril foliage; whilst in +pointed oval-shaped compartments, forming the well-known symbol _vesica +piscis_, are single figures of saints and crowned heads, each clad in a +vest and mantle of two different colours. In the fourteenth century single +figures under rich canopies are common, but we begin to lose sight of the +mosaic pattern as a back-ground. The stained glass in the windows of the +choir of Merton College Chapel, Oxford, is either very early in this, or +of a late period in the preceding century, and exhibits single figures +under rich canopies: over the head of one of these, (the kneeling figure +of a monk in his cowl,) is a scroll inscribed “_Magister Henricus de +Mammesfeld me fecit_.” In the windows of Tewkesbury Abbey Church are +several single figures of this period, some of knights in armour. In the +chancel of Stanford Church, Northamptonshire, are single figures of the +apostles in painted glass, each appearing within an ogee-headed canopy, +cinquefoiled within the head and crocketed externally, and the sides of +the canopy are flanked by pinnacled buttresses in stages. Specimens of +stained glass of the fifteenth century are numerous in comparison with +those of an earlier period; we find such in the east window of Langport +Church, Somersetshire, where single figures occur of St. Clemens, St. +Catherine, St. Elizabeth, and of many other saints. Some splendid remains +of painted glass of the fifteenth century are likewise preserved in the +windows of the choir of Ludlow Church, Salop, mostly in single figures; +amongst them is the representation of St. George in armour, of the reign +of Henry the Seventh; the figures of the Virgin and infant Christ may also +be noticed. Towards the close of this century kneeling figures, not +merely disposed single, but also in groups, formally arranged, may be +observed. As a composition, wherein a better display of grouping and +aerial perspective is evinced, the splendid window in St. Margaret’s +Church, Westminster, of the crucifixion between the two thieves, and +numerous figures in the foreground, not grouped formally but with +artistical feeling, with the figures of St. George and St. Catherine on +each side of the principal design, and the portraits of Henry the Seventh +and his consort Elizabeth in separate compartments beneath, each kneeling +before a faldstool, may be noticed. This window, which in some of the +details exhibits an approach to the renaissance style, was presented to +Henry the Seventh by the magistrates of Dort in Holland, to adorn his +chapel at Westminster. The era of the various specimens of ancient stained +glass we meet with in our churches may generally be ascertained by the +costume and disposition of the figures, the form of the shields, the +mosaic pattern or other back-ground, and architectural designs of the +canopies. + +The pavement beneath the high altar was frequently composed of small +square encaustic bricks or tiles, whereon the arms of founders and +benefactors, interspersed with figures, flowers, and emblematic devices, +were impressed, painted, and glazed; other parts of the church were also +paved with these tiles. + +The walls of the church were covered with fresco paintings of the day of +judgment, legendary stories, portraits of saints, and scriptural, +allegorical, and historical subjects, in the conventional styles of the +different ages in which such were executed, the costume and details being +according to the fashion then prevailing. These paintings have in most +churches been obliterated by repeated coats of whitewash, so that few +perfect specimens now remain; traces of such are, however, occasionally +brought to light in the alteration and reparation of our ancient churches. +The subject of the judgment-day was commonly represented on the west wall +of the nave, or over the chancel arch; and in the contract for the +erection of the Lady Chapel, St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, A. D. 1454, is a +covenant “to paint fine and curiously, to make on the west wall the dome +of our Lord God Jesus, and all manner of devises and imagery thereto +belonging.” The west front of the wall over the chancel arch, Trinity +Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, was some years back found to be thus covered; +but this painting, with others in the same chapel, was afterwards again +obliterated[199-*]. A curious fresco painting of the last judgment, +discovered a few years ago on the west face of the wall over the chancel +arch, Trinity Church, Coventry, has, however, been very carefully +preserved, and the coat of whitewash which tended to conceal it probably +ever since the Reformation has been judiciously removed. The legend of St. +Christopher, represented by a colossal figure with a beam-like +walking-staff, carrying the infant Christ on his shoulders through the +water, was generally painted on the north wall of the nave or body of the +church. A fresco painting of this subject, half obliterated, is still +apparent on the north wall of the nave of Burford Church, Oxfordshire; and +other instances might be adduced. The murder of Archbishop Becket was also +a very favourite subject: an early pictorial representation of the +thirteenth century, of this event, is still visible on one of the walls of +Preston Church, Sussex; it formed, likewise, one of the subjects +represented on the walls of Trinity Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon; and a +painting of the same subject on panel, executed in the middle of the +fifteenth century, was formerly suspended over or near the tomb of Henry +the Fourth in Canterbury Cathedral[200-*]. Several vestiges of ancient +fresco wall-paintings, more or less obliterated, are still preserved in +Winchester Cathedral. The walls of our churches were even in the +Anglo-Saxon era embellished with paintings; and such are described as +decorating the walls of the church of Hexham in the seventh century. By +the synod of Calcuith, held A. D. 816, a representation of the saint to +whom a church was dedicated was required to be painted either on the wall +of the church or on a tablet suspended in the church. + +[Illustration: Ancient Stone Reliquary or Shrine, Brixworth Church, +Northamptonshire.] + +In most of the large conventual churches, and also in some of the smaller +parochial churches, shrines containing relics of the patron or other +saints were exhibited; these were either fixed and immovable, of +tabernacle-work, of stone or wood, or partly of both, or were small +movable feretories, which could be carried on festivals in procession. Of +the fixed shrines, that in Hereford Cathedral of Bishop Cantelupe, of the +date A. D. 1287, is a fine and early specimen, in very fair preservation. +In the north aisle of the abbey church, Shrewsbury, are some remains of a +stone shrine, which from the workmanship may be considered as a production +of the early part of the fifteenth century: this is much mutilated: but +the shrine of St. Frideswide, in Oxford Cathedral, the lower part of which +is composed of a stone tomb, the upper part of rich tabernacle-work of +wood, is still tolerably perfect: this is also of the fifteenth century. +Of the small movable feretories, one apparently of the workmanship of the +twelfth century, seven inches long and six high, formed of wood, enamelled +and gilt, with figures on the sides representing the crucifixion, is still +preserved in Shipley Church, Sussex; and a small stone reliquary or shrine +of the fourteenth century was discovered a few years ago, and is now +preserved in the church of Brixworth, Northamptonshire. + +[Illustration: Ancient Organ.] + +The organ, as a solemn musical instrument, may claim a very early origin, +and has been in use in our churches from the Anglo-Saxon era. The ancient +organs were small, and all the pipes were exposed. The phrase “_a pair of +organs_,” so frequently met with in old inventories and church accounts, +may probably have answered to the great and choir organ of a subsequent +period--one instrument in two divisions. The mechanism of the old organs +was rude and simple, compared with the improvements of modern times, and +the cost was small; they were generally placed in the rood-loft. + +The church chest is often an ancient and interesting object: sometimes we +find it rudely formed, or hollowed out of the solid trunk of a tree, with +a plain or barrel-shaped lid of considerable thickness. The churches of +Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; Long Sutton, Somersetshire; and Ensham, +Oxfordshire; contain chests thus rudely constructed. Sometimes they are +strongly banded about with iron. The fronts and sides of these chests are +not unfrequently embellished more or less richly with carved tracery, +panel-work, and other detail in the style prevalent at the period of their +construction. In Clemping Church, Sussex, is an early chest of the +thirteenth century, the front of which exhibits a series of plain pointed +arches trefoiled in the head, and other carved work. In Haconby Church, +Lincolnshire, and in Chevington Church, Suffolk, are very rich chests +covered with tracery and detail in the decorated style of the fourteenth +century. In Brailes Church, Warwickshire, is an ancient chest of the +fifteenth century covered with panel-work compartments, with plain pointed +arches foliated in the heads. Panelled chests of this century are +numerous. In Shanklin Church, Isle of Wight, is a chest bearing the date +of 1519, on which no architectural ornament is displayed, but the initials +T. S. (Thomas Selkstead) are fancifully designed, and are separated by the +lock, and a coat of arms beneath. + +In the south wall of each aisle, near the east end, and also in other +parts of the church, we frequently find the same kind of fenestella or +niche containing a piscina, and sometimes a credence shelf, as that before +described as being in the chancel: this is a plain indication that an +altar has been erected in this part of the church; and this end of the +aisle was generally separated from the rest of the church by a screen, the +lower part of panel, the upper part of open-work tracery, of stone or +wood, similar to that forming the division between the chancel and nave; +and the space thus enclosed was converted into or became a private chapel +or chantry; for it was anciently the custom, especially during the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for lords of manors and persons of +wealth and local importance to build or annex small chapels or side +aisles to their parish churches, and these were endowed by license from +the crown with land sufficient for the maintenance, either wholly or in +part, of one or more priests, who were to celebrate private masses daily +or otherwise, as the endowment expressed, at the altar erected therein, +and dedicated to some saint, for the souls of the founder, his ancestors +and posterity, for whose remains these chantry chapels frequently served +as burial-places. At this service, however, no congregation was required +to be present, but merely the priest, and an acolyte to assist him; and it +was in allusion to the low or private masses thus performed, that Bishop +Jewell, whilst condemning the practice as untenable, observes, “And even +suche be their private masses, for the most part sayde in side iles, +alone, without companye of people, onely with one boye to make answer.” + +The screens by which these chapels were enclosed have in numerous +instances been destroyed; still many have been preserved, and chantry +chapels parted off the church by screen-work of stone may be found in the +churches of Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire; and Aldbury, Hertfordshire; in +which latter church is a very perfect specimen of a mortuary chapel, with +a monument and recumbent effigies in the midst of it. Chantry chapels +enclosed on two of the sides by wooden screen-work are more common. + +Although no ancient high altar of stone is known to exist, some of the +ancient chantry altars have been preserved: these are composed either of a +solid mass of masonry, covered with a thick slab or table of stone, as in +the north aisle of Bengeworth Church, near Evesham, and in the south aisle +of Enstone Church, Oxfordshire; or of a thick stone slab or table, with a +cross at each angle and in the centre, supported merely on brackets or +trusses built into and projecting from the wall, as in a chantry chapel in +Warmington Church, Warwickshire; or partly on brackets and partly +sustained on shafts or slender piers, as in a chantry chapel, +Chipping-Norton Church, Oxfordshire. Sometimes a chamber containing a +fire-place was constructed over a chantry, apparently for the residence, +either occasional or permanent, of a priest: such a chamber occurs over +the chantry chapel containing the altar in Chipping-Norton Church; and +such also, with the exception of the flooring, which has decayed or been +removed, may be seen in the chantry chapel which contains the altar in +Warmington Church. In both of these chambers are windows or apertures in +the walls which divide them from the church, through which the priest was +enabled to observe unseen any thing passing within the church. + +[Illustration: Chantry Altar, Warmington Church, Warwickshire] + +We often find an opening or aperture obliquely disposed, carried through +the thickness of the wall at the north-east angle of the south, and the +south-east angle of the north aisle: this was the _hagioscope_, through +which at high mass the elevation of the host at the high altar, and other +ceremonies, might be viewed from the chantry chapel situate at the east +end of each aisle. In general, these apertures are mere narrow oblong +slits; sometimes, however, they partake of a more ornamental character, as +in a chantry chapel on the south side of Irthlingborough Church, +Northamptonshire, where the head of an aperture of this kind is arched, +cinquefoiled within, and finished above with an embattled moulding. In the +north and south transepts of Minster Lovel Church, Oxfordshire, are +oblique openings, arched-headed and foliated; and in the north aisle of +Chipping-Norton Church, in the same county, is a singular hagioscope, +obliquely disposed, not unlike a square-headed window of three foliated +arched lights, with a quatrefoil beneath each light. + +We sometimes meet with one or more brackets, with plain mouldings or +sculptured, projecting from the east wall of a chancel aisle or chantry +chapel; and on these, lamps or lights were formerly set, and kept +continually burning in honour of the Virgin or of some other saint; and we +also meet with rich projecting canopies or recessed niches, with brackets +beneath, on which images of saints were formerly placed. + +The use of the low side window, common in some districts, near the +south-west angle of the chancel, and sometimes, but not so frequently, +near the north-west angle, and occasionally even in the aisle, has not +been correctly ascertained; it has, however, been conjectured to have +served for the purpose of a confessional; and on minute examination +indications of its formerly having had a wooden shutter, which opened on +the inside, are sometimes visible; and on the south side of Kenilworth +Church, Warwickshire, is an iron-barred window of this description, on +which the wooden shutter is still retained.[209-*] + +The sedilia or stone seats, so frequently found in the south wall of the +chancel, are occasionally, though not often, to be met with in the south +walls of side aisles or chantry chapels: when this is the case it is +presumed the endowment was for more priests than one. + +Such, not to digress into more minute particulars, may suffice to convey a +general idea of the manner in which our churches were internally +decorated, and how they were fitted up, with reference to the ceremonial +rites of the church of Rome, in and before the year 1535. The walls were +covered with fresco paintings, the windows were glazed with stained glass; +the rood-loft and the pulpit, where the latter existed, were richly +carved, painted, and gilt; and the altars were garnished with plate and +sumptuous hangings. Altar-tombs with cumbent effigies were painted so as +to correspond in tone with the colours displayed on the walls; the +pavement of encaustic tiles, of different devices, was interspersed with +sepulchral slabs and inlaid brasses; and screen-work, niches for statuary, +mouldings, and sculpture of different degrees of excellence, abounded. +Suspended from aloft hung the funeral achievement; at a later period, even +more common, the banner, helme, crest, gauntlets, spurs, sword, targe, and +cote armour.[210-*] In addition to these were, in some churches, shrines +and reliquaries, enriched by the lavish donations of devotees, and wooden +images excessively decked out and appareled[211-*]--objects of +superstition, to which pilgrimages and offerings were made. And if in the +review of the conceptions of a prior age, viz. of the fourteenth century, +we find a higher rank of art to be evinced, and the style and combination +of architectural and sculptured detail to be more severe and pure, at no +period were our churches adorned to greater excess than on the eve of that +in which all were about to undergo spoliation, and many of them wanton +destruction. + +For on the suppression of the monasteries and colleges, to the number of +700 and upwards, and of the chantries, in number more than 2300, effected +between the years 1535 and 1540, the abbey churches were not only +despoiled of their costly vestments, altar plate and furniture, and +shrines enriched with silver, gold, and jewels, but many of them were +entirely dismantled, and the sites with the materials granted to +individuals by whom they were soon reduced to a state of ruin. Some were +even, either then or in after-times, converted into dwelling-houses; and +others, or some portion of such, were allowed to be preserved as parochial +churches; but the private chantry altars, though left bare and forsaken, +were not as yet ordered to be destroyed. + +By the royal injunctions exhibited A. D. 1538, such feigned images as were +known to be abused of pilgrimages, or offerings of any kind made +thereunto, were, for the avoiding of idolatry, to be forthwith taken down +without delay, and no candles, tapers, or images of wax were from +thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, “but onelie the light +that commonlie goeth about the crosse of the church by the rood-loft, the +light afore the sacrament of the altar, and the light about the +sepulchre;” which, for the adorning of the church and divine service, were +for the present suffered to remain. By the same injunctions a Bible of the +largest volume, in English, was directed to be set up in some convenient +place in every church, that the parishioners might resort to the same and +read it; and a register-book was ordered to be kept, for the recording of +christenings, marriages, and burials. + +But beyond the suppression of the monasteries and chantries, an act the +effect of secular rather than religious motives, little alteration was +made during the reign of Henry the Eighth in the ceremonies and services +of the church, although the minds of many were becoming prepared for the +change which afterwards ensued. And in the reign of his successor, Edward +the Sixth, a striking difference was effected in the internal appearance +of our churches; for many appendages were, not all at once, but by +degrees, and under the authority of successive injunctions, discarded. +Thus, by the king’s injunctions published in 1547, all images which had +been abused with pilgrimage, or offering of any thing made thereunto, +were, for the avoiding of the detestable offence of idolatry, by +ecclesiastical authority, but not by that of private persons, to be taken +down and destroyed; and no torches or candles, tapers or images of wax, +were to be thenceforth suffered to be set before any image or picture, +“but only two lights upon the high altar before the sacrament, which, for +the signification that Christ is the very true light of the world, they +shall suffer to remain still.” And as to such images which had not been +abused, and which as yet were suffered to remain, the parishioners were to +be admonished by the clergy that they served for no other purpose but to +be a remembrance. The Bible in English, and the Paraphrases of Erasmus +upon the Gospels, also in English, were ordered to be provided and set up +in every church for the use of the parishioners. It was also enjoined that +at every high mass the gospel and epistle should be read in English, and +not in Latin, in the pulpit or in some other convenient place, so that the +people might hear the same. Processions about the church and churchyard +were now ordered to be disused, and the priests and clerks were to kneel +in the midst of the church immediately before high mass, and there sing or +read the Litany in English set forth by the authority of King Henry the +Eighth. By the same injunctions all shrines, covering of shrines, all +tables, candlesticks, trindles or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and +all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and +superstition, were directed to be utterly taken away and destroyed; so +that there should remain no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or +elsewhere within churches; and in every church “a comely and honest +pulpit” was to be provided at the cost of the parishioners, to be set in +a convenient place for the preaching of God’s word; and a strong chest, +having three keys, with a hole in the upper part thereof, was to be set +and fastened near unto the high altar, to the intent the parishioners +should put into it their oblation and alms for their poor +neighbours[215-*]. + +Hence the primary introduction of desks with divinity books, the litany +stool, and the charity box, yet retained in some of our churches. But as +much contention arose respecting the taking down of images, also as to +whether they had been idolatrously abused or not, all images without +exception were shortly afterwards, by royal authority, ordered to be +removed and taken away. + +In the ritual the first formal change appears to have been the order of +the communion set forth in 1547 as a temporary measure only, until other +order should be provided for the true and right manner of administering +the sacrament according to the rule of the scriptures of God, and first +usage of the primitive church. In this the term _altar_ is alone made use +of; but in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, published in 1549, +the altar or table whereupon the Lord’s Supper was ministered is +indifferently called _the altar_, _the Lord’s table_, _God’s board_. +Ridley, bishop of London, by his diocesan injunctions issued in 1550, +after noticing that in divers places some used the Lord’s board after the +form of a table, and some as an altar, exhorted the curates, +churchwardens, and questmen to erect and set up the Lord’s board after the +form of an honest table, decently covered, in such place of the quire or +chancel as should be thought most meet, so that the ministers with the +communicants might have their place separated from the rest of the people; +and to take down and abolish all other by-altars or tables. Soon after +this, orders of council were sent to the bishops, in which, after noticing +that the altars in most churches of the realm had been taken down, but +that there yet remained altars standing in divers other churches, by +occasion whereof much variance and contention arose, they were commanded, +for the avoiding of all matters of further contention and strife about the +standing or taking away of the said altars[216-*], to give substantial +order that all the altars in every church should be taken down, and +instead of them that a table should be set up in some convenient part of +the chancel, to serve for the ministration of the blessed communion; and +reasons were at the same time published why the Lord’s board should rather +be after the form of a table than of an altar, expressing however in what +sense it might be called an altar. In the second Liturgy of King Edward +the Sixth, amongst other important changes both of doctrine and +discipline, the word _altar_, as denoting the communion-table, was +purposely omitted. + +The peculiar formation, frequently observable, of the old +communion-tables, seems to have originated from the diversity of opinion +held by many in the Anglican church, as to whether or not there was in the +sacrament of the Lord’s Supper a memorative sacrifice; for by those who +held the negative they were so constructed, not merely that they might be +moved from one part of the church to another, but the slab, board, or +table, properly so called, was purposely not fastened or fixed to the +frame-work or stand on which it was supported, but left loose, so as to be +set on or taken off; and in 1555, on the accession of Queen Mary, when the +stone altars were restored and the communion-tables taken down, we find it +recorded of one John Austen, at Adesham Church, Kent, that “he with other +tooke up the table, and laid it on a chest in the chancel, and set the +tressels by it[218-*].” + +It appears that texts of scripture were painted on the walls of some +churches in the reign of Edward the Sixth; for Bonner, bishop of London, +by a mandate issued to his diocese in 1554, after noticing that some had +procured certain scriptures wrongly applied to be painted on church walls, +charged that such scriptures should be razed, abolished, and extinguished, +so that in no means they could be either read or heard. + +In the articles set forth by Cardinal Pole in 1557, to be inquired of in +his diocese of Canterbury, were the following: “Whether the churches be +sufficiently garnished and adorned with all ornaments and books +necessary; and whether they have a rood in their church of a decent +stature, with Mary and John, and an image of the patron of the same +church?” Also, “Whether the altars of the church be consecrated or no?” + +But in 1559, the first year of the reign of Elizabeth, many of the +injunctions set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, as to the mode of +saying the Litany without procession, the removal and destruction of +shrines and monuments of superstition, the setting up of a pulpit, and of +the poor-box or chest, which latter was however “to be set and fastened in +a most convenient place,” were re-established. By these injunctions it +appears that in many parts of the realm the altars of the churches had +been removed, and tables placed for the administration of the holy +sacrament; that in some other places the altars had not yet been removed: +in the order whereof, as the injunctions express, save for an uniformity, +there seemed to be no matter of great moment, so that the sacrament was +duly and reverently ministered; and it was so ordered that no altar should +be taken down but by oversight of the curate and churchwardens, or one of +them, and that the holy table in every church should be decently made and +set in the place where the altar stood, and there commonly covered, and so +to stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament was to be +distributed; at which time the same was to be so placed within the chancel +in such manner that the minister might be the more conveniently heard of +the communicants in his prayer and ministration. + +[Illustration: Ancient Communion Table, Sunningwell Church, Berkshire.] + +Many of the old communion-tables set up in the reign of Elizabeth are yet +remaining in our churches, and are sustained by a stand or frame, the +bulging pillar-legs of which are often fantastically carved, with +arabesque scroll-work and other detail according to the taste of the age. +The communion-table in Sunningwell Church, Berkshire, probably set up +during the time Bishop Jewell was pastor of that church, is a rich and +interesting specimen. Communion-tables of the same era, designed in the +same general style, with carved bulging legs, are preserved in the +churches of Lapworth, Rowington, and Knowle, Warwickshire; in St. Thomas’s +Church, Oxford; and in many other churches. Sometimes the bulging +pillar-legs are turned plain, and are not covered with carving: such occur +in Broadwas Church, Worcestershire; in the churches of St. Nicholas and +St. Helen, at Abingdon; and in the north aisle of Dorchester Church, +Oxfordshire. The table or slab of the communion-table in Knowle Church is +not fixed or fastened to the frame or stand on which it is placed, but +lies loose; and this is also the case with an old communion-table of the +sixteenth century, now disused, in Northleigh Church, Oxfordshire. In an +inventory of church goods, taken in 1646, occurs the following: “Item, one +_short table and frame_, commonly called the communion-table.” On +examining the old communion-tables, the movability of the slab from the +frame-work is of such frequent occurrence as to corroborate the +supposition that some esoteric meaning was attached to its unfixed state, +which meaning has been attempted to be explained. + +Under the colour of removing monuments of idolatry and false feigned +images in the churches, much wanton spoliation and needless injury was +effected; and this to such excess that in 1560 a royal proclamation was +issued, commanding all persons to forbear the breaking or defacing of any +monument or tomb, or any image of kings, princes, or nobles, or the +breaking down and defacing of any image in glass windows, in any churches, +without consent of the ordinary. And in the same year, in a letter from +the queen to the commissioners for causes ecclesiastical, occasion is +taken to remark that “in sundry churches and chappells where divine +service, as prayer, preaching, and ministration of the sacraments be used, +there is such negligence and lacke of convenient reverence used towardes +the comelye keeping and order of the said churches, and especially of the +upper parte called the chauncels, that it breedeth no small offence and +slaunder to see and consider on the one part the curiositie and costes +bestowed by all sortes of men upon there private houses, and the other +part, the unclean or negligent order or sparekeeping of the house of +prayer, by permitting open decaies, and ruines of coveringes, walls, and +wyndowes, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables, with fowle +clothes, for the communion of the sacraments, and generally leavynge the +place of prayers desolate of all cleanlynes, and of meet ornaments for +such a place, whereby it might be known a place provided for divine +service.” And the commissioners were required to consider the same, and in +their discretion to determine upon some good and speedy means of +reformation; and, amongst other things, to order that the tables of the +commandments might be comely set or hung up in the east end of the +chancel, to be not only read for edification, but also to give some comely +ornament and demonstration that the same was a place of religion and +prayer[223-*]. + +An ancient table, apparently of this period, of the commandments painted +on panel, but in language somewhat abbreviated, is still hung up against +the east wall of the south transept of Ludlow Church, Salop[224-*]. + +By the articles issued by royal authority in 1564, for administration of +prayer and sacraments, each parish was to provide a decent table, standing +on a frame, for the communion-table; this was to be decently covered with +carpet, silk, or other decent covering, and with a fair linen cloth (at +the time of the ministration); the ten commandments were to be set upon +the east wall, over the table; the font was not to be removed, nor was the +curate to baptize in parish churches in any basins. + +In the Visitation Articles of Archbishop Parker, A. D. 1569, we find +inquiries were to be made whether there was in each parish church a +convenient pulpit well placed, a comely and decent table for the holy +communion, covered decently and set in the place prescribed; and whether +the altars had been taken down; also whether images and all other +monuments of idolatry and superstition were destroyed and abolished; +whether the rood-loft was pulled down, according to the order prescribed; +and if the partition between the chancel and church was kept. + +The latter inquiry is explanatory of the fact why, when the rood-lofts in +many churches were taken down, the screens beneath them, separating the +chancel from the nave, were left undisturbed. + +By the injunctions of Grindal, archbishop of York, A. D. 1571, all altars +were ordered to be pulled down to the ground, and the altar stones to be +defaced and bestowed to some common use. + +Pulpits of the reign of Edward the Sixth are rare, nor are those of the +reign of Elizabeth very common. The pulpit in Fordington Church, +Dorsetshire, of the latter period, is of stone, the upper part worked in +plain oblong panels; and a kind of escutcheon within one of these bears +the date 1592; the lower part or basement of this pulpit is circular in +form. + +The richly embroidered and costly vestments and antependia or frontals, of +a period antecedent to the Reformation, were in some instances converted +into coverings for the altar or communion table, or into hangings for the +pulpit and reading desk. In Little Dean Church, Gloucestershire, the +covering for the reading desk is formed out of an ancient sacerdotal +vestment, probably a cope, of velvet, embroidered with portraits of +saints. The cushion of the pulpit of East Langdon Church, near Dover, is +made out of either an ancient antependium or vestment; the material +consists of very thick crimson silk, embroidered with sprigs, and in the +centre of the hanging are two figures supposed to represent the salutation +of the Virgin, who is kneeling before a faldstool. + +We occasionally, though rarely, meet with ancient charity-boxes of a date +anterior to the Reformation: the churches of Wickmere, Loddon, and +Causton, in Norfolk, still retain such[226-*]. At the Reformation, +however, they were first required to be set up in churches. The ancient +poor-box in Trinity Church, Coventry, is an excellent specimen of the +Elizabethan era, and the shaft which supports it is of stone, covered with +arabesque scroll-work and other detail peculiar to that age; but most of +the old charity-boxes are of the seventeenth century. + +[Illustration: Ancient Charity-box, Trinity Church, Coventry.] + +Towards the close of the sixteenth century the practice of preaching by an +hour-glass, set in an iron frame affixed to the pulpit or projecting from +the wall near it, began to prevail; and in the succeeding century this +practice became quite common. In the churchwardens’ accounts for St. +Mary’s Church, Lambeth, occurs the following: “A. 1579, Payde to Yorke for +the frame on which the hower standeth,--..1..4;” and in the churchwardens’ +accounts of St. Helen’s Church, Abingdon, is an item, “Anno MDXCI. payde +for an houre glass for the pilpit, 4_d._” In the parochial accounts for +St. Mary’s, Shrewsbury, A. D. 1597, is a charge “for removing the desk and +other necessaries about the pulpit, and for makeinge a thing for the hower +glasse, 9_d._” In Shawell Church, Isle of Wight, the old iron stand for +the hour-glass still remains affixed to a pier adjoining the pulpit; it is +composed of two flat circular hoops or rings, one at some distance above +the other, annexed or attached and kept in position by four vertical bars +of iron, and the lower ring has cross-bars to sustain the glass. In +Cassington Church, Oxfordshire, projecting from the wall by the side of +the pulpit, is an iron stand for the hour-glass, consisting of two +circular hoops or rings of iron, connected by four wrought iron bars, +worked in the middle; and across the lower ring or hoop is an iron bar or +stay. In High Laver Church, Essex, the iron stand for the glass still +remains, and is in fashion not unlike a cresset, having only one hoop or +ring encircling the top, and supported on four iron bars, which cross in +curves at the bottom. Many other churches might be enumerated in which the +stand for the hour-glass is still preserved; and the hour-glass itself, +together with its frame, is said to be retained in South Burlingham +Church, Norfolk. An hour-glass within a rich and peculiar frame, supported +on a spiral column, and apparently of the latter part of the seventeenth +century, is yet preserved in St. Alban’s Church, Wood Street, London. + +[Illustration: Hour-glass Frame, Shawell Church, Isle of Wight.] + +To the close of the sixteenth century the mode of pewing with open +low-backed seats continued to prevail; the ends of these seats were not +covered with tracery or arched panel-work, but were plain, though they +sometimes terminated with a finial. In the nave of Stanton St. John +Church, Oxfordshire, are some old open pews or seats, apparently of the +reign of Henry the Eighth, the backs of which are divided diamond-wise, +and form a kind of lattice-work, and the ends terminate in grotesque +heads. In Harrington Church, Worcestershire, are some open seats of plain +workmanship, bearing the date of 1582. The church of Sunningwell, +Berkshire, is fitted up with a range of open seats on each side of the +nave, without any ornament, with the exception of a large carved finial at +the end of each seat. In Cowley Church, near Oxford, are open seats of the +date of 1632, which have at the ends finials carved in the shallow angular +designs of that period. All these seats are appropriately placed, or +disposed facing the east, and none are turned with the backs towards the +altar[230-*]. About the commencement of the seventeenth century our +churches began to be disfigured by the introduction of high pews, an +innovation which did not escape censure; for, as Weaver observes, “Many +monuments of the dead in churches in and about this citie of London, as +also in some places in the countrey, are covered with seates or pewes, +made high and easie for the parishioners to sit or sleepe in; a fashion of +no long continuance, and worthy of reformation[231-*].” The high pews set +up in the early part of this century are easily distinguished by the flat +and shallow carved scroll and arabesque work with which the sides and +doors are covered. In the directions given on the primary visitation of +Wren, bishop of Norwich, A. D. 1636, we find an order “that the chancels +and alleys in the church be not encroached upon by building of seats; and +if any be so built, the same to be removed and taken away; and that no +pews be made over high, so that they which be in them cannot be seen how +they behave themselves, or the prospect of the church or chancel be +hindered; and therefore that all pews which within do much exceed a yard +in height be taken down near to that scantling, unless the bishop by his +own inspection, or by the view of some special commissioner, shall +otherwise allow.” + +From a paper found among secretary Cecil’s MSS.[232-*], it appears that in +1564 some ministers performed divine service and prayers in the chancel, +others in the body of the church, and some _in a seat made in the church_; +and in the parochial accounts of St. Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury, A. D. +1577, is an entry “for coloringe the curate’s pew and dask;” but no public +notice of the modern reading desk, or, as it was called, the “reading +pew,” occurs till 1603, when, in the ecclesiastical canons then framed, it +was enjoined that besides the pulpit a fitting or convenient seat should +be constructed for the minister to read service in; and in allusion to the +reading desk, Bishop Sparrow, in his Rationale of the Book of Common +Prayer, observes, “This was the ancient custom of the church of England, +that the priest who did officiate in all those parts of the service which +were directed to the people turned himself towards them, as in the +absolution; but in those parts of the office which were directed to God +immediately, as prayers, hymns, lauds, confessions of faith or sins, he +turned from the people; and for that purpose, in many parish churches of +late, the reading pew had one desk for the Bible, looking towards the +people to the body of the church, another for the prayer-book, looking +towards the east or upper end of the chancel. And very reasonable was this +usage; for when the people was spoken to it was fit to look towards them, +but when God was spoken to it was fit to turn from the people.” And so he +goes on to explain the custom of turning to the east in public prayer. + +In Bishop Wren’s directions it was enjoined that the minister’s reading +desk should not stand with the back towards the chancel, nor too remote +or far from it. + +The double reading desk is still occasionally met with, as in East Ilsley +Church, Berkshire, where is a kind of double reading desk so that the +minister can turn himself either towards the west or south. In Priors +Salford Church, Warwickshire, is an old carved reading pew bearing the +date of its construction, 1616; and in St. Peter’s Church, Dorchester, +Dorsetshire, and in Sherbourne Church, in the same county, are reading +pews which evidently, from the style and the carved work with which they +are covered, were constructed in the early part of the seventeenth +century. + +The enclosing of the communion table in the church of Stow, in the county +of Norfolk, by rails, about the year 1622, is noticed by Weaver, who +states that the vicar and churchwardens pulled down a tomb to make room +for the rail. + +In Bishop Wren’s diocesan directions it was ordered that the communion +table in every church should always stand close under the east wall of the +chancel, the ends thereof north and south, and that the rail should be +made before it, reaching up from the north wall to the south wall, near +one yard in height, so thick with pillars that dogs might not get in. + +But we find the situation of the altar or communion table, and the reason +of its severance by means of rails, more particularly noticed in the +canons entertained by the convocation held in 1640. In these (after an +allusion to the fact that many had been misled against the rites and +ceremonies of the church of England, and had taken offence at the same +upon an unjust supposal that they were introductive unto popish +superstitions, whereas they had been duly and ordinarily practised by the +whole church during a great part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and that +though since that time they had by subtle practices begun to fall into +disuse, and in place thereof other foreign and unfitting usages by little +and little to creep in, yet in the royal chapels and many other churches +most of them had been ever constantly used and observed) it was declared +that the standing of the communion table sideway under the east window of +every chancel was in its own nature indifferent[235-*]; yet as it had +been ordered by the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth that the holy tables +should stand in the places where the altars stood, it was judged fit and +convenient that all churches should conform themselves in this particular +to the example of the cathedral and mother churches; and it was declared +that this situation of the holy table did not imply that it was or ought +to be esteemed a true and proper altar, whereon Christ was again really +sacrificed; but that it was and might be called an altar, in that sense in +which the primitive church called it an altar, and in no other. And +because experience had shewn how irreverent the behaviour of many people +was in many places, (some leaning, others casting their hats, and some +sitting upon, some standing, and others sitting under the communion table, +in time of divine service,) for the avoiding of which and like abuses it +was thought meet and convenient that the communion tables in all churches +should be decently severed with rails, to preserve them from such or worse +profanations. + +Communion rails carved in the nondescript style, almost peculiar to the +reign of Charles the First, are preserved in St. Giles’s Church, Oxford; +in the Lady Chapel, Winchester Cathedral; in the Church of St. Cross, near +Winchester; in the choir of Worcester Cathedral; and in Andover Church, +Hants: in which last instance the rails are composed of open semicircular +arches, supported on baluster columns, with pendants similar to hip knobs +hanging from the arches; but specimens of altar rails of a period +antecedent to the Restoration are not often to be met with, the reason for +which will be adduced. + +By the canons of 1603 the churchwardens or questmen were to provide in +every church a comely and decent pulpit, to be set in a convenient place +within the same, and there to be seemly kept for the preaching of God’s +word. Carved pulpits set up between the years 1603 and 1640 are numerous, +and the sides are more or less embellished with circular-arched panels, +flat and shallow scroll-work, and other decorative detail in fashion at +that period; and not a few bear the precise date of their construction. + +In the nave of Bristol Cathedral is a stone pulpit, ascended to by means +of a circular flight of steps; the sides are panelled and ornamented with +escutcheons surrounded by scroll-work, and it bears the date of 1624. + +In Ashington Church, Somersetshire, is a pulpit with the date 1627. + +In Bradford Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, is a fine carved wooden pulpit and +sounding-board, and on it appears the date 1632. + +The date of 1625 appears on a fine carved wooden pulpit, the sides of +which are covered with semicircular-headed panels, in Huish Episcopi +Church, Somersetshire. + +In one of the churches at Wells is a fine wooden pulpit, of the date 1636; +at the angles are columns of semi-classic design, fantastically carved; +the panels are curiously ornamented with figures in relief, and it is +supported on a stand composed of a square and four detached columns, above +which are represented a number of birds with large beaks; the +sounding-board over corresponds in design with the pulpit. + +A very fine carved wooden pulpit, the sides of which are embellished with +circular-arched panel and scroll-work, with the date 1640, and a +sounding-board over, is contained in Cerne Abbas Church, Dorsetshire. + +Many carved pulpits of this era have, however, no assigned date; they are +commonly placed at the north or south-east angle of the nave, but never +in the middle of the aisle, so as to obstruct the view of the communion +table. + +The commandments were again, by the canons of 1603, ordered to be set upon +the east end of every church, where the people might best see and read the +same; and other chosen sentences were to be written upon the walls of the +churches in places convenient. + +On the south wall of Rowington Church, Warwickshire, are sentences painted +with a border of scroll-work; the like also occur at Astley Church, in the +same county; and on the walls of Bradford Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, are +sentences of scripture painted in black-lettered characters within panels +surrounded by scroll-work. + +By the same canons the churchwardens were required to provide, if such had +not been already provided, a strong chest, with a hole in the upper part +thereof, having three keys, of which one was to remain in the custody of +the minister, and the other two in the custody of the churchwardens; which +chest was to be set and fastened in the most convenient place, to the +intent the parishioners might put into it their alms for their poor +neighbours. + +In the retro-choir, Sherbourne Church, Dorsetshire, is a poor-box with +three locks; and a carved poor-box, of the early part of the seventeenth +century, is preserved in Harlow Church, Essex. In Elstow Church, +Bedfordshire, are the remains of a poor-box of the same period. In Clapham +Church, in the same county, is an old poor-box, the cover of which is +gone, on which are the initials I. W., and the date 1626: this is fixed on +a plain wooden pillar near the south door; and in the south aisle of +Bletchley Church, Buckinghamshire, is an oak pillar or shaft surmounted by +a poor-box, with an inscription carved on it of “Remember the Pore,” and +the date 1637[240-*]. + +The communion tables of the early part of this century were not so richly +carved as those of the reign of Elizabeth, and in general the pillar-legs +were plain and not so bulging; but the frieze or upper part of the +frame-work, on which the table rested, was often covered with shallow and +flat carved panel and scroll-work, and sometimes with the date of its +construction. + +In the church of St. Lawrence, at Evesham, the communion table bears the +date of 1610; and round the frieze is carved an inscription, stating by +whom it was given. In Cerne Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, is a carved +communion table, bearing the date of 1638. The communion table in Godshill +Church, Isle of Wight, is supported on four carved bulging pillar-legs; +and round the frieze, below the ledge of the table, is the following +inscription: + + “Lancelot Coleman & Edward Britwel, Churchwardens, Anno Dom. 1631.” + +In Whitwell Church, Isle of Wight, the communion table stands on plain +bulging pillar-legs; and on the frieze round the ledge is carved in relief +an arm holding a chalice, with the following inscription: + + “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the + Lord. Psa. 116. v. 53. Anno Dom. 1632.” + +As the rubric of the church enjoined that at the communion the priest +should himself place the elements upon the holy table, the custom of +having a side table, called the credence table, for the elements to be set +on previous to their removal by the priest to the communion table for +consecration, was observed in some churches in the latter part of the +sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century. Such table appears +to have been introduced in the reign of Elizabeth, by Andrews, bishop of +Norwich, whose model Archbishop Laud is said to have followed[242-*]; and +it originated from the πρόθεσις, or side table of preparation, +used in the early church; it was likewise, as we have seen, used at the +sacramentals of the church of Rome, and on that account was strongly +objected to by the Puritans. + +[Illustration: Table, (temp. Charles I.,) Chipping-Warden Church, +Northamptonshire.] + +In the chancel of Chipping-Warden Church, Northamptonshire, on the north +side of the communion table, is a semicircular oak table, apparently of +the reign of Charles the First, standing on a frame supported by three +plain pillar-legs, like those of the communion tables of the same period, +and enriched with carved arched frieze-work similar to the arched +panel-work on pulpits of the same period. + +A plain credence table of black oak, which from the style and make was +evidently set up after the Restoration, still continues to be used as such +in St. Michael’s Church, Oxford, being placed on the north side of the +communion table. + +The objections of the Puritans against many of the usages of the Anglican +church, and their refusal to conform to such under the pretence of their +being superstitious, had no slight effect in altering the internal +appearance of our churches in the middle of the seventeenth century, and +during the period their party had obtained the ascendancy, and had +succeeded for a while in abolishing in this country episcopal church +government; for among the “innovations in discipline,” as they were called +by the Puritan committee of the House of Lords in 1641, we find the +following usages complained of: the turning of the holy table altarwise, +and most commonly calling it an altar; the bowing towards it or towards +the east many times; advancing candlesticks in many churches upon the +altar, so called; the making of canopies over the altar, so called, with +traverses and curtains on each side and before it; the compelling all +communicants to come up to the rails, and there to receive; the advancing +crucifixes and images upon the parafront or altar cloth, so called; the +reading some part of the morning prayer at the holy table, when there was +no communion celebrated; the minister’s turning his back to the west, and +his face to the east, when he pronounced the Creed or read prayers; the +reading the Litany in the midst of the body of the church in many of the +parochial churches; the having a _credentia_ or side table, besides the +Lord’s table, for divers uses in the Lord’s Supper; and the taking down +galleries in churches, or restraining the building of galleries where the +parishes were very populous[244-*]. + +In August, 1643, an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons was published, for +the taking away and demolishing of all altars and tables of stone, and for +the removal of all communion tables from the east end of every church and +chancel; and it was prescribed that such should be placed in some other +fit and convenient place in the body of the church or in the body of the +chancel; and that all rails whatsoever which had been erected near to, +before, or about any altar or communion table, should be likewise taken +away; and that the chancel-ground which had been raised within twenty +years then last past, for any altar or communion table to stand on, should +be laid down and levelled, as the same had formerly been; and that all +tapers, candlesticks, and basins should be removed and taken away from the +communion table, and not again used about the same; and that all +crucifixes, crosses, and all images and pictures of any one or more +Persons of the Trinity, or of the Virgin Mary, and all other images and +pictures of saints, or superstitious inscriptions belonging to any +churches, should be taken away and defaced before the first day of +November, 1643: but it was provided that such ordinances should not extend +to any image, picture, or coat of arms, in glass, stone, or otherwise, set +up or graven only for a monument of any dead person not reputed for a +saint, but that all such might stand and continue. + +By a subsequent ordinance, passed in May, 1644, it was prescribed that no +rood-loft or holy water fonts should be any more used in any church; and +that all organs, and the frames or cases in which they stood, in all +churches, should be taken away and utterly defaced. + +Under colour of these ordinances the beauty of the cathedrals and churches +was injured to an extent hardly credible; the monuments of the dead were +defaced, and brasses torn away, in the iconoclastic fury which then raged; +the very tombs were violated; and the havoc made of church ornaments, and +destruction of the fine painted glass with which most church windows then +abounded, may in some degree be estimated from the account given by one +Dowsing, a parliamentary visitor appointed under a warrant from the Earl +of Manchester for demolishing the so called superstitious pictures and +ornaments of churches within the county of Suffolk, who kept a journal, +with the particulars of his transactions, in the years 1643 and 1644: +these were chiefly comprised in the demolition of numerous windows filled +with painted glass, in the breaking down of altar rails and organ cases, +in levelling the steps in the chancels, in removing crucifixes, in taking +down the stone crosses from the exterior of the churches, in defacing +crosses on the fonts, and in the taking up (under the pretence of their +being superstitious) of numerous sepulchral inscriptions in brass. Nor +did the churches in other parts of the country, with some exceptions, +escape from a like fanatical warfare; and, in this, many of our cathedrals +suffered most. But this was not enough: our sacred edifices were profaned +and polluted in the most irreverent and disgraceful manner; and with the +exception of the destruction which took place on the dissolution of the +monastic establishments in the previous century, more devastation was +committed at this time by the party hostile to the Anglican church than +had ever before been effected since the ravages of the ancient Danish +invaders. + +But as to other alterations at this time effected. In January, 1644, an +ordinance of parliament was published for the taking away of the Book of +Common Prayer, which was forbid to be used any longer in any church, +chapel, or place of public worship. In lieu of this the “Directory for the +Publike Worship of God” was established: this contained no stated forms of +prayer, but general instructions only for extemporaneous praying and +preaching, and for the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the +Lord’s Supper; the former of which was to be administered in the place of +public worship and in the face of the congregation, but “not,” as the +Directory expresses, “in the places where fonts in the time of popery were +unfitly and superstitiously placed.” And at the administration of the +Lord’s Supper the table was to be so placed that the communicants might +sit orderly about it or at it; but all liturgical form was abolished, and +the prayers even at this sacrament were such as the minister might +spontaneously offer. + +At Brill Church, in Buckinghamshire, the communion table, on an elevation +of one step, is inclosed with rails, within an area of eight feet by six +feet and a half, and a bench is fixed to the wall on each side; an +innovation made at this period, in order that the communicants might +receive the sacrament sitting. The communion table in Wooten Wawen Church, +Warwickshire, though perfectly plain in construction, is unusually long +and large, and appears to have been set up by the Puritans at this period, +so that they might sit round or at it. + +To the removal of the communion table from the east end of the chancel may +be attributed the usage which, in the middle of the seventeenth century, +began to prevail of constructing close and high seats or pews, without +regard to that uniformity of arrangement which had hitherto been +observed; and many seats were now so constructed that those who occupied +them necessarily turned their backs on the east during the ministration of +prayer and public service. The erection of unseemly galleries, which have +greatly tended to disfigure our churches, was another consequence of the +innovation on the ancient arrangement of pewing. + +After the Restoration the communion tables were again restored to their +former position at the east end of the chancel; and in Evelyn’s Diary for +1661-2, we find the change of position in his parish church thus noticed: +“6 April. Being of the vestry in the afternoone, we order’d that the +communion table should be set as usual altarwise, with a decent raile in +front, as before the rebellion.” + +The altar rails were now generally restored, and in most instances we find +those in our churches to be of a period subsequent to the Restoration, as +the details in the workmanship evince. In the church accounts of St. +Mary’s, Shrewsbury, for 1662, we find a “memorandum that this year the +rayles about the communion table wer new sett up, and the surplice was +made.” In Wormleighton Church, Warwickshire, the altar rails have on them +the date of 1664; and the communion table, which is quite plain, is of +the same character and era. + +But a return, after the Restoration, to the former usages of the Anglican +church was not made without great opposition; and accordingly we find +objections stated to the bowing to the altar and to the east, to the +preaching by book, to the railing in of the altar, to the candles, +cushion, and book thereon, to the bowing at the name of Jesus, and to the +organs as “popish-like music, and too much superstition[250-*].” + +When the rood was taken down at the Reformation, a custom began to prevail +of fixing up in its stead or place, against the arch leading into the +chancel, the upper part of which was in consequence blocked up by it, and +facing the congregation, so as to be seen by them, the royal arms, with +proper heraldic supporters; but it does not clearly appear that this was +done in consequence of any express law or injunction to that effect, +though it may perhaps have served to denote the king’s supremacy. We +seldom, however, find the royal arms of earlier date than the Restoration, +in the twenty years previous to which they appear to have been generally +taken down. In Brixton Church, Isle of Wight, on some plain wooden +panelling between the tower and a gallery at the west end are the remains +of the royal arms, which, from the style in which they have been painted +with the rose and thistle, appear coeval with the reign of James the +First; they are surmounted by a crown, below which is an open six-barred +helme. These arms appear to have been removed from their original position +against the chancel-arch, and are now much mutilated. In the church +accounts, St. Mary’s, Shrewsbury, for 1651, is a charge of 1_l._ 8_s._ +“for making the states armes.” In Anstey Church, Warwickshire, the arms of +the commonwealth, put up during the inter-regnum, were taken down not many +years back. The little church of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of Wight, still +retains the royal arms put up at the Restoration in 1660. + +Excepting the rood-loft galleries, we have few galleries in our churches +of a period antecedent to the latter part of the seventeenth century. At +the west end of Worstead Church, Norfolk, over the west door, is a gallery +erected in 1550, at the cost of the candle called the Bachelor’s Light. At +the west end of the nave in Leighton Buzzard Church is a gallery erected +in 1634; and at the west end of Piddletown Church, Dorsetshire, is a +gallery with the date of its erection, 1635. + +From about the period of the Revolution, in 1688, we may trace the +commencement of a custom, still partially prevailing, of setting up the +pulpit and reading-pew in the middle aisle, in front of the communion +table; so that during the whole of the service the back of the minister +was turned to the east, and the view of the communion table obstructed; +but we have not found any pulpit thus placed of an earlier period. + +We still retain, in the Anglican church, the usage of placing two +candlesticks and candles upon the communion table, in compliance with the +injunctions of King Edward the Sixth, together also with an offertory +dish; of reading the lessons from the eagle desk, and of saying the Litany +at the litany-stool. These practices are, however, more particularly +observed in our cathedrals and college chapels than in our parochial +churches, in most of which they have fallen into desuetude. + +To conclude, in the language of the synod held in 1640: “Whereas the +church is the house of God, dedicated to his holy worship, and therefore +ought to remind us both of the greatness and goodness of his Divine +Majesty; certain it is that the acknowledgment thereof, not only inwardly +in our hearts, but also outwardly with our bodies, must needs be pious in +itself, profitable unto us, and edifying unto others: we therefore think +it meet and behoveful, and heartily commend it to all good and +well-affected people, members of this church, that they be ready to tender +unto the Lord the said acknowledgment, by doing reverence and obeisance, +both at their coming in and going out of the said churches, chancels, or +chapels, according to the most ancient custom of the primitive church in +the purest times, and of this church also for many years of the reign of +Queen Elizabeth. + +“The reviving, therefore, of this ancient and laudable custom we heartily +recommend to the serious consideration of all good people, not with any +intention to exhibit any religious worship to the communion table, the +east, or church, or any thing therein contained, in so doing; or to +perform the said gesture in the celebration of the holy eucharist, upon +any opinion of a corporal presence of the body of Jesus Christ on the holy +table or in the mystical elements, but only for the advancement of God’s +majesty, and to give him alone that honour and glory that is due unto +him, and no otherwise; and in the practice or omission of this rite we +desire that the rule of charity prescribed by the apostle may be observed, +which is, that they which use this rite despise not them who use it not, +and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it.” + +[Illustration] + + “... a bloodie crosse he bore, + The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, + For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, + And dead, as living, ever him ador’d: + Upon his shield the like was also scor’d.” + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[154-*] Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. c. 6. Durantus, however, assigns a +different origin. “In veteri testamento non nisi lotus templum +ingrediebatur.” De Labro, seu Vase Aquæ Benedictæ, c. 21. + +[156-*] “Ad valvas ecclesiæ,”--Ordo ad Faciendum Catechumenum, Manuale. + +[156-†] Constitutions of Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 1236. +[TN-7]De Baptismo et eius Effectu.” + +[158-*] It is much to be regretted that of late years many ancient fonts +have been cast out of our churches, and earthenware and pewter basins +substituted in their stead for the administration of the holy sacrament +of baptism: a practice not authorized by the Anglican church, but rather +condemned; for in the canons set forth by authority, A. D. 1571, it is +provided that “Curabunt (Œditui) ut in singulis ecclesiis sit sacer +fons, _non pelvis_, in quo baptismus ministretur, isque ut decenter et +munde conservetur.” And in the canons of 1603, after alluding to the +foregoing constitution, and observing that it was too much neglected in +many places, it is appointed “That there shall be a font of stone in +every church and chapel where baptism is to be ministered; the same to +be set in the _ancient usual places_.” In the orders and directions +given by Bishop Wren, A. D. 1636, to be observed in his diocese of +Norwich, we find it enjoined, “That the font at baptism be filled with +clear water, and no dishes, pails, or basins be used in it or instead of +it.” + +[160-*] The 28th decree of a foreign council, that of Wirtzburgh, held +A. D. 1278, prohibits the fortifying of churches in order to make use of +them as castles. + +[164-*] Anglice sermocinari solebat (Abbas Samson) populo, sed secundum +Linguam Norfolchie ... unde et pulpitum jussit fieri in ecclesia et ad +utilitatem audiencium et ad decorem ecclesie.--Cronica Jocelini de +Brakelonda, sub anno 1187. + +[167-*] Cottonian MS. Titus D. xxvii. 10th sæc. + +[167-†] “Crux que erat super magnum altare, et Mariola, et Johannes, +quas imagines Stigandus archiepiscopus magno pondere auri et argenti +ornaverat, et sancto Ædmundo dederat.”--Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, +p. 4. + +[168-*] “Supra pulpitum trabes erat, per tranversum ecclesiæ posita, quæ +crucem grandem et duo cherubin et imagines Sanctæ _Mariæ_ et Sancti +_Johannis_ apostoli sustentabat.”--Gervasius de Combustione, &c. + +[169-*] “Superest exponere, quod manus illa e nubibus erumpens indicet: +Quæ procul dubio omnipotentis Dei dexteram designat.”--Ciampini Vetera +Monimenta, vol. ii. pp. 22, 81. + +[171-*] “In elevatione atque utriusque squilla pulsatur.”--Durandi +Rationale, lib. iv. + +[171-†] In Yeovil Church Accounts, A. D. 1457, is an item, “_In una +cordul empt p le salsyngbelle ijd_.”--Collectanea Topographica, vol. +iii. p. 130. + +[172-*] It is now in the possession of William Staunton, esq., of +Longbridge House, near Warwick. + +[173-*] Durandus, in his description of a church, makes no mention of +screen-work, but observes, “Notandum est quod triplex genus _veli_ +suspenditur in ecclesia videlicet quod sacra operit, quod sanctuarium a +clero dividit, _et quod clerum a populo secernit_;” evidently alluding +in the latter to the curtain extended across the chancel arch. + +[174-*] “Item tunc stent in sedibus suis versa facie ad altare donec ad +_misericordias_ vel super _formulas_ prout tempus postulat +inclinent.”--Monasticon, 1st ed. vol. i. p. 951. + +[180-*] The placing of more than two lights on the altar seems never to +have been practised in the churches of this country; at least I have not +met with any ancient illumination in which more than two are +represented. + +[181-*] The cover of an ancient thurible of latten was lately discovered +in the chest of Ashbury Church, Berkshire: the lower part is of a +semi-globular or domical form, from which issues an embattled turret or +lantern in the form of a pentagon, which is finished by a quadrangular +spire; the sides both of the lantern and spire are partly of open work, +and round the domical part is inscribed _Gloria Tibi Domine_. + +[181-†] A small ampulla of brass or latten, supposed to have been an +ancient chrismatory for the consecrated oil used in the sacrament of +extreme unction, has been within the last few years discovered in the +castle ditch, Pulford, Cheshire: this curious little relic is not more +than two inches high; the body is semi-globular, or bulges in front, +with a plain Greek cross engraved on it, and is flattened at the back; +and at the neck are two bowed handles, by chains attached to which it +appears to have hung suspended from the shoulders. + +[182-*] Harding, in his controversy with Bishop Jewell, mentions “the +monstrance or pixe” as if one and the same article.--Defence of the +Apology, &c., p. 343. + +[183-*] Quo finito sacerdos cum suis ministris in sedibus ad hos paratis +se recipiant et expectent usque ad orationem dicendam vel alio tempore +usque ad _Gloria in excelsis_.--MS. Rituale pen. Auc. + +[183-†] This arrangement was different to that directed by the rubrical +orders of the Roman missals, on their revision after the council of +Trent, by which the celebrant was to be seated between the deacon and +sub-deacon: “In missa item solemni celebrans medius inter diaconum et +sub-diaconum sedere potest a cornu epistolæ juxta altare cum cantatur +_Kyrie eleison, Gloria in excelsis_, et _Credo_.”--Missale Romanum, +Antverpiæ, MDCXXXI.; Rubricæ Generales, &c. One of the queries published +by Le Brun, whilst composing his liturgical work, was, “Si le prêtre +s’assied au dessus du diacre et du soudiacre, ou au milieu d’eux.” + +[186-*] Prope altare collocatur Piscina seu Lavacrum in quo manus +lavantur.--Durandi Rat. de Ecclesia, &c. In ancient church contracts the +term _Lavatorie_ was sometimes used for the Piscina, as in that for +Catterick Church. In the Roman Missal subsequent to the Tridentine +council the word _Sacrarium_ is used. + +[187-*] At Alvechurch, Worcestershire, the custom prevails of the priest +washing his hands in the vestry before the administration of the +sacrament, and napkins are brought to dry his hands. + +[189-*] “Il y avoit pour cet effet en chaque piscine, comme en peut voir +encore à une infinité d’autels, deux conduits, ou canaux, pour faire +écouler l’eau, l’un pour recevoir l’eau qui avoit servi au lavement des +mains, l’autre pour celle qui avoit servi au purification ou perfusion +du chalice.”--De Vert, Explication des Cérémonies de l’Eglise, vol. iii. +p. 193. + +[190-*] In “Le Parfaict Ecclesiastique, par M. Claude de la Croix,” (a +curious work published A. D. 1666, and containing full instructions for +the clergy of the Gallican church, and an exposition of the rites and +ceremonies,) amongst appendages to an altar is enumerated “une credance +ou niche dans le mur a poser les burettes et le bassin,” p. 536. And in +another place, “au costé de l’Autel il y faut une petite niche à poser +les burettes et le bassin, et y faire un trou en facon de piscine a fin +que l’eau se perde en terre.” p. 568. + +[190-†] “In cornu Epistolæ ... ampullæ vitreæ vini et aquæ cum pelvicula +et manutergio mundo in fenestella seu in parva mensa ad hæc +praeparata”--Missale Romanum ex Decreto, &c. 1631. + +“Calix vero et alia necessaria praeparentur in credentia cooperta +linteo, antequam sacerdos veniat ad altare.”--Ibid. + +[192-*] The earliest account of the sepulchre thus set up that I have +yet met with occurs in an inventory of church furniture, A. D. 1214, in +which is mentioned “_velum unum de serico supra sepulchrum_.” + +[193-*] “Table” was a word used to express any sculptured basso relievo, +more especially that inserted in the wall over an altar. + +[199-*] A series of coloured engravings from the paintings on the walls +of this chapel, which were evidently executed at the close of the +fifteenth century, was published in 1807 by the late Mr. Thomas Fisher. + +[200-*] By an injunction set forth by royal authority, A. D. 1539, it was +ordered, “That from henceforth the said Thomas Becket shall not be +esteemed, named, reputed, and called a saint, but Bishop Becket; and +that his images and pictures thorow the whole realme shal be pluckt +downe and avoided out of all churches, chapel, and other places.”--Fox’s +Martyrology. + +[209-*] The locality, character, and construction of the confessional in +our ancient churches are not yet clearly elucidated. Du Cange described +the confessional, “_confessio_,” simply as “cellula in qua presbyteri +fidelium confessiones excipiebant;” whilst according to De la Croix, in +his remarks on those of the Gallican churches in the middle of the +seventeenth century, “Les confessionaux doiuent estre à l’entrée des +Eglises, et non pas auprés des Autels, ny dans le Chœur, ny en lieu +caché, et tousieurs vne ouuerture pour écouter le Penitent, avec vn +treillis de bois ou autre estoffe, et vn volet pour le fermer, quand on +écoute de l’vn des costez ouuert.” + +[210-*] The tabard or heraldic coat worn over the body armour, and still +worn by the heralds on state occasions. + +[211-*] “Our churches stand full of such great puppets, wondrously +decked and adorned; garlands and coronets be set on their heads, +precious pearls hanging about their necks; their fingers shine with +rings set with precious stones; their dead and stiff bodies are clothed +with garments stiff with gold.”--Homily against Peril of Idolatry. + +[215-*] In the injunctions given by Bishop Ridley, in the visitation of +his diocese A. D. 1550, occurs the following: “Item that the minister in +the time of the communion, immediately after the offertory, shall monish +the communicants, saying these words, or such like, ‘Now is the time, if +it please you, to remember the poor men’s chest with your charitable +alms.’” + +[216-*] Dr. Cardwell, in his editorial preface to the reprint of the two +Books of Common Prayer set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, +observes, “The communion service of the first liturgy contained a prayer +for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine, and a +following prayer of oblation, which, together with the form of words +addressed to the communicants, were designed to represent a sacrifice, +and appeared to undiscriminating minds to denote the sacrifice of the +mass. Numerous, therefore, and urgent were the objections against this +portion of the service. Combined with a large class of objectors, whose +theology consisted merely in an undefined dread of Romanism, were all +those, however differing among themselves, who believed the holy +communion to be a feast and not a sacrifice, and that larger class of +persons who, placing the solemn duty upon its proper religious basis, +were contented to worship without waiting to refine.” + +[218-*] Fox’s Martyrology. + +[223-*] In compliance with the queen’s letter, the following directions +were sent by the commissioners to the dean and chapter of Bristol: + +“After our hartie comendaco̅n̅s.--Whereas we are credibly informed that +there are divers tabernacles for Images, as well in the fronture of the +roodeloft of the cath^l church of Bristol, as also in the frontures, +back, and ends of the walles wheare the com̅n̅ table standeth, for +asmoch as the same churche shoulde be a light and good example to th’ +ole citie and dioc. we have thought good to direct these our lr̅e̅s +unto you, and to require youe to cause the said tabernacles to be +defaced & hewen downe, and afterwards to be made a playne walle, w^th +morter, plast^r, or otherways, & some scriptures to be written in the +places, & namely that upon the walle on the east end of the quier wheare +the com̅n̅ table usually doth stande, the table of the co̅m̅and^ts to +be painted in large caracters, with convenient speed, and furniture +according to the orders latly set furthe by vertue of the quenes ma^ts +co̅m̅ission for causes ecclesiasticall, at the coste and chardges of +the said churche; whereof we require you not to faile. And so we bed you +farewell. From London, the xxi. of December, 1561.”--Britton’s Bristol +Cath. p. 52. + +[224-*] In the chancel of Bengeworth Church, Gloucestershire, is a table +of the commandments, with the letters cut in box-wood. This has the date +of 1591 upon it. + +[226-*] These are engraved in vol. xx. of the Archæologia, and, from the +general style and mouldings, appear to have been constructed in the +latter part of the fifteenth century. + +[230-*] The symbolical turning towards the east whilst pronouncing the +Creed is adverted to by St. Cyril. In the Apostolical Constitutions, +book ii. sect. xxviii., the attendants at public worship are enjoined to +pray to God eastward. The custom of turning to the east at prayer is +noticed by many of the early fathers of the church, and among them by +St. Basil, who remarks, “As to the doctrines and preachings which are +preserved in the church, we have some of them from the written doctrine; +others we have received as delivered from the tradition of the apostles +in a mystery. For, to begin with the mention of what is first and most +common, who has taught us by writing that those that hope in the name of +our Lord should be signed with the sign of the cross? what written law +has taught us that we should turn towards the east in our prayers?.... +Is not all this derived from this concealed and mystical tradition?.... +We all, indeed, look towards the east in our prayers.”--Basil, Epist. ad +Amphiloc. de Spiritu S. Whiston’s translation in Essay on the +Apostolical Constitutions. + +[231-*] Funeral Monuments, A. D. 1631, p. 701. + +[232-*] Printed in Strype’s Life of Parker. In the same paper the +communion table is noticed as standing in the body of the church in some +places, in others standing in the chancel; in some places standing +altarwise, distant from the wall a yard, in others in the middle of the +chancel, north and south; in some places _the table was joined, in +others it stood upon tressels_; in some the table had a carpet, in +others none. + +[235-*] “The position of the table had now become the token of a +distinct and solemn belief as to the nature of the eucharist, and was +therefore treated as a question of conscience and an article of +faith.”--Cardwell’s Documentary Annals, vol. ii. p. 186, note. The +extracts given from the injunctions have been principally taken from +this work. + +[240-*] The unostentatious and laudable practice of bestowing alms to +the charity-box has long fallen into disuse in most churches; but within +the last few years charity-boxes have been set up in some of our +churches, and this commendable custom is again gradually reviving. + +[242-*] Neal’s History of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 170. + +[244-*] Cardwell’s Conferences, p. 272. + +[250-*] Hickeringill’s Ceremony-Monger, (pub. 1689,) p. 63. + + +OXFORD: Printed by T. Combe, Printer to the University.--May 10, 1841 + + + + + _Published by J. H. Parker, Oxford._ + + + SECOND EDITION. + + In the Press, with many additional Wood-Cuts, + + A GLIMPSE + AT THE + MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE + AND + SCULPTURE OF GREAT BRITAIN, + + FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + By MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM. + + + + THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED. + 2 Vols. 8vo. 1_l._ 4_s._ + + A GLOSSARY OF TERMS + USED IN + GRECIAN, ROMAN, ITALIAN, + AND + GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. + + Exemplified by Seven Hundred Wood-Cuts. + + + + _Published by J. H. Parker, Oxford._ + + + PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. + + A COMPANION TO THE GLOSSARY + OF + ARCHITECTURE, + + FORTY PLATES ENGRAVED BY JOHN LE KEUX; + + Containing Four Hundred additional Examples, with + descriptive Letter-Press, a Chronological + Table, and Index of Places. + + + + PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION, IN 2 VOLS. 8vo. + + SOME ACCOUNT + OF THE + DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE of ENGLAND + + FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE + REFORMATION. + + BY R. C. HUSSEY, Esq. + + Illustrated by numerous Engravings, from original + drawings, of EXISTING REMAINS. + + + + 3 Vols. 8vo, 2_l._ 18_s._ 3 Vols. 4to, 5_l._ 10_s._ + + MEMORIALS OF OXFORD. + + BY JAMES INGRAM, D.D. + President of Trinity College. + + THE ENGRAVINGS BY JOHN LE KEUX. + + + + +Transcriber’s Note + +The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained. + +Misspelled words and typographical errors: + + Page Error + TN-1 26 (fig. 5.). has an extra . following the ) + TN-2 79 isuse should read disuse + TN-3 76, fn * ἴχθυς should read ἰχθύς + TN-4 104 rom should read from + TN-5 106 pannels should read panels + TN-6 156, fn † 1236. De Baptismo should have an open quote mark + before De + TN-7 192 each which should read each of which. The word “of” did + not print in the original text, although a space is present + for it. + +The following words had inconsistent hyphenation: + + wood-work / woodwork + zig-zag / zigzag + +The following words had inconsistent spelling: + + Botolph / Botulph + Higham Ferrars / Higham Ferrers + Sherbourne / Sherborne + Wooten Wawen / Wotten Wawen + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Principles of Gothic +Ecclesiastical Architect, by Matthew Holbeche Bloxam + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOTHIC ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 19737-0.txt or 19737-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/3/19737/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Julia Miller and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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