[Illustration: Fig. 208.--Plan of Church on the Castle-hill, Dover.]
I exhibit also a plan and other drawings of the till lately ruined
church on the Castle-hill at Dover. Here, again, Roman bricks have been
largely used, both for quoins and arches, and some other parts. The
church is cruciform, with a central tower, the transepts being narrower
and lower than the nave. Wide and lofty arches open into the tower on
the east and west, but those on the sides were, no doubt, low and
narrow, and consequently were replaced by larger
[Illustration: Fig. 209.--View of the Church on the Castle-hill, Dover.]
ones late in the twelfth century. The chancel is square-ended. The
windows are of a very large size, and about equally splayed without and
within, and had wood frames for the glass, the grooves for which were
quite distinct (Fig. 210). The main doorway seems to have been that on
the south side. It has stone jambs of long and short work running square
through the wall, the door having been hung against the inner surface.
The arch is of brick, and a pilaster strip flanked it on either side and
ran round the arch. Similar, on a small scale, was a ruined doorway,
found in the north transept, and now restored precisely to its original
form. Similar, also, are the windows of the tower, which were treated
like doorways, with a shutter within. At the west end stands the
ancient Roman pharos, from which was a communication to the church, both
on the floor-level and also above. The latter had a doorway in a very
perfect state (Fig. 211), which opened into a western gallery, of which
I found the holes for the insertion of the timbers. Beneath this
gallery, on either side, was a small window, which, for want of room for
an arch, was made square-headed, with splayed wooden lintels, of which
the exact impressions of the ends were found, giving its precise
form.[6]
[Illustration: Fig. 210.]
[Illustration: Fig. 211.--Upper Western Door, Castle-hill Church,
Dover.]
The tower arches have the pilaster strips on either side, and continuing
round the arches. Each has a stone impost with very abnormal mouldings
(Fig. 212).
[Illustration: Fig. 212.--Eastern Tower Arch, Castle-hill Church,
Dover.]
[Illustration: Fig. 213. Saxon Balusters.]
Several very curious balusters of Caen stone were found among the ruins
(Fig. 213). They appear from their freshness to have been always
_internal_, and, I fancy, formed parts of a screen under the western
arch of the tower, of which some foundations apparently remain.
Externally, the quoins are partly of Roman brick and partly of long and
short work, with very large stones. This is, perhaps, the most nearly
complete of all our pre-Norman churches. There is no clue to its date.
Some call it a British church: some say that it was built by Eadbald,
the son of Ethelbert, about 640, and others that it is of a much later
period, to which opinion I confess that I incline.[7]
[Illustration: Fig. 214.--Worth Church, Sussex.]
[Illustration: Fig. 215.--Plan, Worth Church.]
[Illustration: Fig. 216. TRANSEPT]
[Illustration: Fig. 217. CHANCEL]
Another nearly complete church is that at Worth, in Sussex (Fig. 214).
The plan may be said to be that of the Dover Church, omitting the
central tower and adding an apse. The transepts, like those at Dover,
are small, and their arches low and narrow; while the chancel arch
assumes almost majestic proportions. The transept arches (now much
mutilated) had the pilaster strip, both to jambs and arch, with a double
square impost of massive proportions (Fig. 216). The chancel arch is
more artistic in its treatment, having a large demi-column in either
jamb, 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter, with a regularly formed, though plain,
capital; while instead of the pilaster, a smaller semi-column is placed
against the face of the wall on either side, and indirectly carried
round the arch in the form of a square projection (Fig. 217). The arch
itself is square in section, and runs without break, through the
thickness of the wall. No doorway nor window of the original date
remains. The walls of the nave are about 25 ft. high, and are divided at
mid-height by a large string-course, above which the windows were
probably placed. The angles have pilaster strips in long and short work,
and similar strips are placed at intervals along the walls reaching up
to the mid-height string-course, all of them standing on a continuous
base of two massive courses of stone. The half-height string-course of
the nave is continued round the transepts, as are the eaves courses, and
run across their gable ends. The chancel was externally dealt with much
as the nave, though a little less in height. This church had no tower,
and, as a curious commentary on the fashionable opinion that the
Anglo-Saxons nearly always built of timber and their successors in
after-times of stone, we find a timber tower of the fifteenth century
added to the stone church of Saxon date![8]
[Illustration: Fig. 218.--Plan, and East End of Church, Bradford,
Wilts.]
[Illustration: Fig. 219.--Church, Bradford, Wilts.]
At Bradford, in Wilts, a very complete church has but recently been
discovered; having previously been so surrounded by buildings that its
character was unnoticed. I give drawings of it, made by my friend Mr.
Irvine, a zealous antiquary, who has also sent to the Academy a cast of
some uncouth sculpture found there.[9] The church consists of a nave and
chancel, and has every characteristic of Anglo-Saxon work strongly
developed.[10]
At Jarrow-on-the Tyne the chancel of the Saxon church remains. It has
few characteristic features. The windows are of a very pristine form, in
this case with no external splay, the jambs of upright stones with
horizontal stones for imposts, and arches cut out of single stones. They
had been walled up at a very early date to a certain thickness from the
exterior with very small perforations,--some circular and some more
elongated,--in the filling up wall. This, I fancy, was as a means of
defence. There is one doorway, which is a plain arched opening running
square through the wall, the door having been hung as usual against its
inner face, and the jambs formed of large stones facing the reveal.
There are some signs of an apse having existed, but of this I cannot
speak with any certainty. A tower was erected between the nave and the
chancel--as I am informed by a local antiquary--in the reign of the
Conqueror. The nave has long since perished, but in the walls of a
modern erection on its site were found, used as building material,
about twenty baluster columns, some 2 ft. 3 in. high and a foot in
diameter (Fig. 220). This was in all probability the very church erected
by Benedict Biscop, and in which the Venerable Bede worshipped.
[Illustration: Fig. 220.--Baluster Columns, Jarrow-on-the-Tyne.]
At Monk Wearmouth are the remains of the other church of Benedict
Biscop.
This church was burnt, as also was that at Jarrow, by the Danes in 867,
and both remained in ruins till about 1074, when (or a few years later)
both churches were re-roofed and restored to their sacred use. It was at
this time that the tower at Jarrow was erected.
The most interesting portion of the church at Wearmouth is its western
end. From this projects a tower evidently of Anglo-Saxon date. This
tower has arches on three sides of its lower storey, which, till
recently, were not only walled up, but almost buried in the accumulated
earth.
In September 1866 they were excavated, and the western entrance opened
out by the local Archæological Society, with the help of Mr. Johnson,
architect, of Newcastle. The side doorways were found to have monolith
jambs, 6 in. wide on the face, which are notched into a continuous cill,
and support massive imposts, from which the arch springs, with very bold
voussoirs. The western entrance, which is 6 ft. 4½ in.
[Illustration: Fig. 221.--Western Entrance. Church at Monk Wearmouth.]
to the springing and 4 ft. 8½ in. wide, has an arch springing from
massive abaci 10½ in. thick, which are supported by baluster-shafts very
similar to those found at Jarrow, two of which occupy the width of the
wall on either side, and stand upon jambs each of a long and a short
stone, the reveal of which is curiously sculptured with entwined
serpents. This is decidedly the most remarkable doorway of this kind yet
known. Above the doorway runs a band or string sculptured with animals
and edged with the cable mould. At the same time, the two lower storeys
of the tower were found to have originally formed a gabled porch,--two
windows, of construction very similar to the side arches above
described, having been stopped up in the end of the church by the
conversion of this porch into a tower. Baluster-shafts have been
discovered in the internal jambs of these windows.
At Jarrow, amongst many curious fragments discovered, is a stone in
which is sculptured, as a continuous ornament, a long row of the
balusters represented on a miniature scale, as if they were so
established an architectural element as to be imitated just as arcades
and windows are in Gothic architecture as a mere ornament.
The church at Stow, in Lincolnshire, contains extensive remains of
Anglo-Saxon work, but of doubtful date. The church was founded about the
time of Paulinus, as a cathedral for the Bishops of Lindsey, but was
burnt by the Danes, as it is believed, in 870. It was re-founded about
1040. The tower arches and transepts are in one style, but of which date
is doubtful. I confess I think the preponderance of evidence is in
favour of the earlier date. Foundations have been discovered of aisles
to the nave, clearly of the same age with the transepts. The older parts
show everywhere marks of fire, and the transepts have been heightened in
Saxon times; and, as I should think probable, at the time of the second
foundation. The present nave and chancel are Norman.
There exist several crypts beneath chancels, which are of this date.
Among these, besides the fragmentary remains at Brixworth, I will
mention one not generally known, at Wing, in Buckinghamshire. It is of
excessive rudeness, being built only of very rough stone; but it is
notable for the completeness of its plan, being apsidal, with two ranges
of piers, and as having remains of the two doorways through which it was
approached by steps from either side of the chancel arch.
[Illustration: Fig. 222.--View of Crypt, Repton Church, Derbyshire.]
The apse in this case is polygonal, with pilaster strips up its angles,
and parts of the nave are of pre-Norman date, and show clear evidence of
its having had aisles.
The crypt at Repton is famous for the finished and decorative form of
its architecture. I give a drawing of it.
[Illustration: Fig. 223.--Plan of Crypt, Repton Church, Derbyshire.]
The crypt at Lastingham is not of Saxon date, but its Norman successor.
The original church was destroyed by the Danes. Its foundation I have
already noticed.
The most numerous of the Anglo-Saxon remains are the bell-towers. These
have almost always the peculiar characteristics which I have already
noticed. Their number is so great that it would be impossible to enter
into any enumeration of them. One of the best known, perhaps, is that of
St. Benet’s, Cambridge. It has pilaster strips up each angle, with long
and short work. The string-courses are merely square courses: each
storey recedes a little in width. The belfry windows are double, divided
by a mid-wall baluster and bracket; and there are plain windows again
over their spandrels. The intermediate surfaces were plastered. The
tower arch is of strangely rude design. The tower of Trinity Church,
Colchester, is peculiar, as being, to a great extent, of Roman
brick.[11] (Fig. 225).
[Illustration: Fig. 224.--St. Benet’s, Cambridge.]
Earls Barton tower is the most remarkable of its class, uniting the
profuse use of pilaster strips, diagonal strips, arched strips, long and
short work, baluster columns, and other characteristics of the style
(Fig. 226). I have noticed here that the majority of the arches are so
in form rather than in construction, some being cut out of the solid,
some built up with horizontal courses projecting one over the other, and
others, again, formed by a number of flat stones set on edge one behind
another, and the arched opening cut through them all.
Barnach Tower is something like it, though with less variety,--a more
Cyclopean look.[12] (Fig. 228).
[Illustration: Fig. 225.--Tower, Trinity Church, Colchester.]
The tower at Barton-upon-Humber bears considerable resemblance to that
of Earls Barton, though with less profusion of the usual characteristics
and less rudeness of construction. This tower is rendered remarkable by
having attached to it a very large and lofty western porch, apparently
of about the same date (Fig. 227).
Among the most remarkable towers, however, is that at Sompting, in
Sussex (Fig. 229). Its most striking characteristic is, that its sides
are each gabled, and it is roofed like the typical steeples on the
Rhine. I am told that an instance of this also existed at Flixton, in
Suffolk. The details at Sompting are somewhat elaborate.
[Illustration: Fig. 226.--Tower, Earls Barton.]
[Illustration: Fig. 227.--Tower and Western Porch, Barton-upon-Humber.]
The tower of Clapham Church, in Bedfordshire, is chiefly remarkable for
its great height and plainness. The chancel arch, of great simplicity,
here remains, as did one window of the chancel (a small bonnet-arched
opening like some in the tower itself) till destroyed recently by a
stupid builder.
One more building, I must notice. It has often been mentioned that our
Anglo-Saxon forefathers built largely of timber; and, strange to say,
after the lapse of more than eight centuries, we have one of their
timber structures remaining!
Edmund, king of East Anglia, who had been slain by the Danes in the
ninth century, had been canonised; and on the invasion by Sweyn, more
than a century later in 1011, his relics were removed from Bury St.
Edmund’s to London for security. On their being
[Illustration: Fig. 228.--Barnach Tower, Northamptonshire.]
carried back in 1013, an old register of Bury informs us, “he was also
sheltered near Aungre, where wooden chapel remains as a memorial unto
this day.”
[Illustration: Fig. 229.--Tower, Sompting, Sussex.]
This chapel still exists at Greensted, near Ongar (Figs. 230, 231). It
consists of cleft oak-trees grooved and tongued together by their edges,
and let into grooves in horizontal cills and heads. The exterior of the
trees was exposed on the outside of the church, the sapwood of which
having long since perished, the furrowed and gnarled heart is now seen,
presenting a most ancient and interesting appearance. It is more than
thirty years since I visited this most venerable relic. Since then it
has been repaired; but I trust that its antiquity has not been
compromised, and that it will long remain as a relic of the royal saint,
and a visible exponent of the old Anglo-Saxon verb _getymbrian_--to
build.
I must not, however, go on enumerating specimens: they will be found in
great numbers in several publications, as Mr. Bloxam’s _Principles of
Gothic Architecture_, Mr. Parker’s _Glossary_, Britton’s _Antiquities_,
and elsewhere; while very interesting articles have been written on
them by Mr. Freeman, Mr. Ayliffe Poole, Mr. Paley, and others. In my own
practice I every now and then fall in with minor specimens not mentioned
in books, and often walled up and hidden from view, to make way for
later work.
[Illustration: Fig. 230.--Chapel at Greensted, Essex.
_Taken from a drawing made in 1748._]
[Illustration: Fig. 231.--Plan of Chapel at Greensted, Essex.]
Fragments of Saxon crosses are frequent. They are usually covered with
that plaited ornament so frequent in the illuminations of the period.
In proof of their early age, we often find them imbedded, as mere
material, in Norman walls. In St. Peter’s, at Northampton, I found the
base of one of the Norman columns to be wrought out of a piece of one of
these crosses; and at Jarrow there are several portions of them built
into the tower, which was itself erected in the reign of the
Conqueror.[13]
Though this form of architecture spread over a period of some 470 years,
we have little or no means of classifying it into distinct divisions of
date. It would seem that the system of rapid change which characterises
the centuries succeeding the tenth had not then commenced, and that much
the same manner of building pervades long spaces of time.
On a conjectural view of the case, one would look, perhaps, for the
following divisions:--
1st. From the arrival of Augustine to the earlier devastations of the
Danes.
2nd. From the time of Alfred to that of Dunstan.
3rd. The period of the general establishment of Benedictine rule up to
that of the devastations of the Northmen under Sweyn.
4th. That from the accession of Canute to the Norman conquest.