GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN
[Illustration: Early English Lancet Window]
[Illustration: Early English Window]
Gothic architecture in England and Scotland followed to some extent the
same lines as in France, with, however, certain notable differences that
were the outcome of the national feeling which had begun to make itself
felt as early as the close of the 11th century. Until then the Normans
had remained a distinct and alien element in what appeared to them a
foreign land, but now they had become fused with the natives of that
land, sharing their aesthetic as well as their political aspirations. The
note of change was first sounded in the architecture of the now united
races in a rebellion against the heavy massiveness of the Norman style,
and a desire for a greater redundancy of what may be called structural
decoration in place of extraneous surface ornamentation. The general
proportions of buildings gradually became slenderer, the walls loftier,
the windows longer, the piers and columns slighter, and the arches more
pointed, these peculiarities becoming more and more accentuated as time
went on, till they culminated in the noble and exquisitely beautiful
cathedrals and churches that vied even with the best of those of
Northern France.
[Illustration: Early English Capital]
It is usual to divide the development of English Gothic architecture
into three periods: the Early English, the Decorated, and the
Perpendicular--the first prevailing from about 1189 to 1307, the second
from the latter date to 1380, and the third from 1380 to 1485, whilst
the name of Tudor has been given to the transitional time between the
last phase of Gothic and the introduction of the Renaissance style,
lasting from 1485 to about 1546. It must, however, be added that hardly
any buildings exist belonging entirely to one period, architects having
in almost every case been compelled to be content with adding to or
modifying the work of their predecessors.
Amongst the characteristics of Early English architecture are groined
vaulting with main diagonal ribs only, long narrow lancet-headed
windows, clustered piers with capitals consisting generally of
delicately carved foliage, pointed arcading, the archivolt or arched
portion enriched with mouldings, in which the ornament known as the
dog-tooth is of frequent occurrence, ornate yet dignified western
facades with deeply recessed doorways decorated with slender columns and
beautiful bas-reliefs, high-pitched roofs with stilted gable ends, lofty
towers and spires, and plain buttresses ranged in pairs at the angles of
buildings.
The Early English lancet window has a unique significance in the
development of Gothic architecture this side of the Channel, for it
inaugurated an important structural change, its constantly increasing
length aiding greatly in the breaking up of the triple division of
walls--supposed by some to have been emblematic of the Holy
Trinity--with arcading, triforium, and clerestory. By slow degrees the
triforium was first reduced to a mere decorative feature, and then
eliminated altogether, whilst the clerestory usurped its place in
addition to its own.
[Illustration: Early English Capital]
[Illustration: Early English Capital]
[Illustration: Base of Early English Pillar]
[Illustration: Capitals of Early English Clustered Pillar]
In Decorated buildings the windows are larger and divided into a greater
number of lights than in Early English, the heads being filled with
tracery of geometrical design; the facades are more complicated and at
the same time less effective, the towers and spires are loftier and
supplemented by many pinnacles and finials, flying buttresses are
multiplied; parapets with pierced openings, canopied niches containing
figures and other purely decorative features give to the exteriors a
great richness of general appearance. In the interiors the simple Early
English vaulting is superseded by roofs divided into a great number of
different compartments, the points of intersection being marked by stone
bosses or masses of carving, whilst increased lavishness of decoration
characterises every portion of the building, mouldings of a great
variety, amongst which the ballflower is of frequent occurrence, being
introduced wherever possible.
[Illustration: Early English Ornaments]
[Illustration: Early English Ornaments]
In Perpendicular Gothic, as its name implies, the vertical tendency
became ever more and more marked; towers, spires, and pinnacles became
more and more numerous, all decreasing in bulk and increasing in height.
Turrets with many airy finials, springing from flying buttresses that
were adorned with figures of lions, dragons, and other symbolic
creatures, rise above equally ornate parapets, the dignified
single-centred arch was replaced by a four-centred form, and rectilinear
lines superseded the beautifully flowing tracery of earlier windows. It
was, however, the complex and exquisitely delicate groined roofing that
chiefly characterised the Perpendicular style, lending to the interior
of the buildings in which it was employed an ethereal charm that has
never been surpassed. In the so-called fan-tracery roof, that was the
culmination of this distinctive form of vaulting, the entire surface of
the roof is covered with radiating ribs resembling the sections of an
outspread fan, connected by bands of trefoil or quatrefoil ornament
known as cusping, and, in some cases--notably in that of Henry VII's
chapel at Westminster--with pendant stalactite ornaments drooping from
the point of intersection of the groins. In some Perpendicular
buildings, as in the Churches of S. Stephen and S. Peter's Mancroft at
Norwich, ornate open timber roofs, enriched with beautiful carving, take
the place of those of stone, and in the final or Tudor phase of the
style such roofs, to which the name of hammer beam has been given, and
of which those of Wolsey's Great Hall at Hampton Court and of
Westminster Hall are good examples, were almost as elaborate as the
fan-tracery variety. Characteristic features of secular Tudor buildings
are the extensive use of panelling, the bow or projecting window rising
direct from the ground, the oriel window or window supported by a corbel
of stone often finely carved, battlements with open tracery work and
richly decorated gables, fine specimens of all of which are to be seen
at Hampton Court Palace.
[Illustration: Early English Dog-tooth Ornament]
[Illustration: Early English Arcading]
[Illustration: Early English Doorway, Westminster Abbey]
One of the earliest Gothic structures in England is the choir of
Canterbury Cathedral, designed by the Burgundian Williams of Sens, which
recalls in general style certain contemporaneous French ecclesiastical
buildings. Foreign influence is also noticeable in the somewhat later
Ripon and Chichester Cathedrals, but by the beginning of the 13th
century English Gothic had freed itself almost entirely from the
trammels of French traditions, and started forward on the path from
which it never deviated, combining a consummate mastery of structural
principles and an unwearying attention to detail with a unity of
expression that makes an English Gothic church or cathedral an ideal
reflection of the spirit of the age which witnessed its erection.
[Illustration: Plan of Salisbury Cathedral]
The Cathedrals of Wells, Lincoln, and Salisbury, the choir of Ely
Cathedral, and the choir, transepts, and part of the cloisters and
other details of Westminster Abbey, are typical examples of the Early
English phase of Gothic. The first named especially is unrivalled in the
symmetry of its general proportions and the richness and appropriateness
of its decorations. Its western facade rivals that of Amiens Cathedral
in the restrained dignity of its general design, the delicacy of its
decorative arcading, and the number and variety of its finely sculptured
figures. The central tower, though its upper portion belongs to the
Decorated period, harmonises well with the rest of the exterior, whilst
the interior is truly a poem in stone, with the long perspective of the
nave flanked by graceful arches, springing from clustered piers with
capitals of exquisitely carved foliage, noble triforia and clerestories,
and a simple arched vaulting of intersecting ribs. The transepts, that
are of earlier date than the nave, serve as a kind of introduction to
it, and in the choir the transition from Early English to Decorated
Gothic can be well studied, the western portion dating from the 12th and
the eastern from the 13th century.
[Illustration: Decorated Window]
[Illustration: Decorated Pinnacle]
[Illustration: Decorated Capital]
Though the exterior of Lincoln Cathedral is of a somewhat hybrid
character, the towers and doorways of the west front being Norman, the
arcading and decorative sculpture Early English, and the central tower
Decorated, the general effect is grand and impressive. The interior,
though not quite so ornate as that of Wells, is almost as beautiful, the
great rose windows being specially noteworthy features. The so-called
Angel Choir, which has a very fine triforium, is a gem of Early English
work, and the three 15th century chapels adjoining it are equally
characteristic of Perpendicular Gothic.
The beautiful Early English choir of Ely Cathedral contrasts forcibly
with the noble Norman nave, and the so-called Galilee Porch is one of
the finest examples of the first phase of Gothic in the country, but the
exterior of the building has been almost entirely rebuilt, the great
central tower, which fell in 1322, having been replaced by the present
one in the Decorated phase of Gothic. The Early English portions of
Westminster Abbey closely resemble the other examples of the style just
quoted, though the bays of the choir are not so well proportioned as
those of Lincoln. Before the 15th century additions to Salisbury
Cathedral and the sweeping away of the statues and other sculptures that
adorned its west front, it must have been almost as typical as that of
Lincoln or of Wells of the Early English style, and it still remains, in
its rectangular plan and square eastern termination, a true
representative of the ideals of native architects.
[Illustration: Decorated Ball Flower Ornament]
The transepts of York Minster, in one of which is the famous window with
lancet-headed lights, known as the Five Sisters, is a good example of
the transition from Early English to Decorated Gothic, and the same may
be said of portions of the ruins of Hexham Abbey, the Saxon crypt of
which has already been referred to, notably of the transepts with
windows resembling those of York Minster, and of the many relics of the
noble monastic buildings of Yorkshire, including those at Ripon,
Jervaulx, Rivaulx, and Whitby. The Cathedral of Glasgow is another
beautiful building in the first phase of Gothic, the choir, beneath
which is a noble crypt of earlier date, being especially fine, and with
it must be named the ruins of the great abbey churches of Kelso,
Jedburgh, and Dryburgh, that have distinctive Norman as well as Early
English details.
The first half of the 14th century was the golden age of English
architecture, during which the Decorated gradually grew out of the Early
English style, the two being in many cases so completely merged in each
other that no break is discernible. The foundations of a truly national
style had been laid in the Cathedrals of Wells and of Lincoln, in which
originality of design was combined with consummate technical skill of
execution, and in the buildings that succeeded them, architect and
craftsmen still worked together in complete harmony. The wealth of
imagination of the latter found its best expression in emphasising the
structural lines of the noble conceptions of the former; niches, with
their figures, cusping, finials and crockets, ball flowers and bosses,
all becoming essential details of one harmonious whole.
The nave and choir of Exeter Cathedral are especially typical of
Decorated architecture at its best. They rise from the foundations of an
earlier church, of which the Norman towers above the transepts are
relics, and are absolutely unsurpassed in the simple dignity of the
arcading spanning the clustered piers, the exquisite beauty of the
groined roofing, the bosses of which are decorated with delicate
carvings of a great variety of subjects, and the fine tracery of the
windows. Unfortunately the general effect of the exterior, in spite of
the fine Norman towers and the beauty of the decorative sculpture of the
west front, is inferior to that of the interior, a 15th century porch
harmonising ill with the earlier work, whilst breadth is too great for
the height of the building.
[Illustration: Decorated Steeple]
Other good examples of Decorated Gothic are the Church of St. Mary,
Oxford, with a very fine spire; the nave and chapter-house of York
Minster, which has a very beautiful window at the western end, the
flowing tracing of which is specially distinctive of the style; the
choir of Lichfield Cathedral, which has, however, certain Early English
details; the choir of Carlisle Cathedral, with an exceptionally
beautiful eastern window of nine lights with elaborate tracery; the Lady
Chapel of Wells Cathedral; the crypt, all that is left of St. Stephen's,
Westminster, now used as a chapel of the Houses of Parliament, the
lantern tower of Ely Cathedral; the ruins of Tintern and Battle Abbeys,
with those of Melrose Abbey, which has also characteristic Perpendicular
features. To the same period as these ecclesiastical buildings belong
the Round Tower at Windsor, the Hall of the Bishop's Palace at Wells,
Conway, Caernarvon, and Chepstow Castles, all recalling Norman domestic
architecture in the general massiveness of their structure, that is
relieved by the comparative lightness of such details as the doors and
windows.
Unfortunately the second half of the 14th century was marked by a
tendency to destroy or obliterate the characteristic details of Early
English and Decorated buildings, a notable example of which is
Gloucester Cathedral, the beautiful eastern apse of which was pulled
down, whilst the piers and walls of the rest of the building were
concealed as much as possible, the barbarism being, it must be owned,
atoned for to some extent by the addition of a noble eastern window in
the Perpendicular style. The nave of Westminster Abbey, on the other
hand, begun just after the restoration of Gloucester Cathedral was
completed, harmonises well with the earlier choir, and may be quoted,
with the choir of York Minster and the naves of Canterbury and
Winchester Cathedrals, as examples of the transition from the Decorated
to the Perpendicular styles. To the final phase of the latter belong
Beverley Minster, the Cathedral of Chester, and the Abbey Church at
Bath, the western facades of all of which are very fine, but it was in
Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, King's College Chapel, Cambridge,
and St. George's Chapel, Windsor, with those of Holyrood and Roslyn in
Scotland, that the style reached its fullest development. That
development was, alas, however, all too soon followed by a decadence
that was ushered in by an employment of too lavish and often meaningless
ornamentation which had nothing to do with structural necessities.
[Illustration: Hammer Beam Roof]
[Illustration: Perpendicular Roofing]
[Illustration: Perpendicular Window]
[Illustration: Perpendicular Niche]
Westminster Chapel, in addition to the characteristic fan-tracery roof
already referred to, has an exceptionally beautiful chevet with five
apsidal chapels, a finely vaulted nave, aisles, and cloisters, in which
Decorated and Perpendicular details are harmoniously combined. King's
College Chapel, Cambridge, and St. George's, Windsor, are both entirely
in the Perpendicular style, whilst the Scotch examples quoted above are
specially noticeable for the contrast their massive pillars and arcades
present to the airy lightness of their vaulting.
Less important Perpendicular ecclesiastical buildings are the parish
churches of Blakeney and Cley in Norfolk, the former with a specially
fine east window, the latter unfortunately almost in ruins, but notable
on account of the beauty of the decorative carving; the parish church of
Fairford, Gloucestershire, the stained glass windows of which are
amongst the finest in England; and Christ Church College, Oxford, in
which town, by the way, Gothic traditions lingered longer than anywhere
else in England.
[Illustration: Corbel]
Notable secular buildings in the latest phase of English Gothic are
Westminster Hall, and the earlier portions of Hampton Court Palace,
whilst Longleat Palace, Wiltshire, and Christ Church Hall, Oxford, with
a fine open timber roof, are good examples of the transition from the
Gothic to the Renaissance styles, the general plans belonging to the
former and the decorative details being Italian in feeling.