In the early years of the fifteenth century he built the gate-house

and crenellated curtain which connects it with the _Merveille_, to

the north of the guard-room, _Bellechaise_ (see Fig. 163, beginning

of this chapter). The gate-house was placed in front of the northern

façade of _Bellechaise_ (D, Fig. 150); an open space between this and

the south wall of the new structure formed a wide _machicoulis_ for

the protection of the north gate (that of _Bellechaise_), which, by

the erection of the new building, had been transformed into a second

interior entrance. The gate-house or _châtelet_ is a square structure,

flanked at the angles of the north front by two turrets, corbelled out

upon buttresses. In general appearance they resemble a pair of huge

mortars standing on their breeches. Between the pedestals of these

turrets was the doorway and the inclined vault over the staircase

leading to the guard-room. This entrance was defended by a portcullis

worked from within on the first story, and by three _machicoulis_

at the top of the curtain, between the battlements of the turrets.

For the further protection of the gate-house Pierre Le Roy built the

barbican which covers it to the east and north, and also commands

the great staircase (_Grand Degré_) on the north. He modified the

ramparts by the addition of the tower known as the _Tour Claudine_ at

the north-east angle of the _Merveille_. In the lower story of this

tower he constructed a guard-room, the postern of which communicated

with the _Grand Degré_, and by a series of ingenious and unique

combinations was so contrived as to command all the approaches.[64]

[64] Ed. Corroyer, _Description de l'Abbaye du Mont St. Michel_, etc.;

Paris, 1877.

[Illustration: 172. MONT ST. MICHEL. SOUTH FRONT (AS IT WAS IN 1875)]

In 1411 the Abbot Robert Jolivet was nominated lord of the abbey by

Pope John XXIII. After his election by the monks he was made captain

of the garrison by the king, but continued to live in Paris. In

1416, however, he hastened to his abbey, which was threatened by the

English, who had possessed themselves of Lower Normandy after the

battle of Agincourt in 1415. Whilst the English were busy fortifying

Tombelaine, Robert Jolivet completed his walls and certain towers

round about the town, which still exist. To meet the expenses of

his undertaking the abbot obtained a grant from the king of fifteen

hundred _livres_ from the revenues of the Viscounty of Avranches,

besides a subsidy from the Master of the Mint at St. Lô.

[Illustration: 173. MONT ST. MICHEL. FORTIFICATIONS OF THE FOURTEENTH

CENTURY (AS RESTORED BY ED. CORROYER)]

At the time when Robert Jolivet was building the new ramparts, from

about 1415 to 1420, the town had greatly increased towards the south,

and even setting aside the dangerous proximity of the English at

Tombelaine, some more extensive system of defence than that afforded

by the fortifications of the fourteenth century was imperatively

needed to secure the place against attack. Robert Jolivet incorporated

his new walls on the east with those of the preceding century, which,

following the escarpments of the cliff, descend to the beach, and

are protected by the northern tower. These walls he flanked with an

additional tower projecting considerably from the surface, which was

destined to command the adjoining curtains and protect the main line

of his defences. He then carried his walls round to the south of the

rock and strengthened them by five other towers. The last of these,

known as the _Tour du Roi_, forms the south-eastern projection of the

place, and commands the western gate of the town.

The walls and their sloping bases are defended by stone machicolations

above, the consoles of which support open crenellated parapets.

Several of the towers were roofed, and afforded shelter for the

defenders of the ramparts. After leaving the _Tour du Roi_ the

walls turn off at a right angle and unite themselves to the abrupt

declivities of the rock by means of a series of steps and covered

ways, commanded by a fortified guard-room. Even the inaccessible peaks

of the rock itself are fortified and connected with the defences of

the abbey on the south.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, and still more notably

towards its close, firearms had been successfully used in various

sieges, and had made such rapid progress that the whole system of

attack and defence was transformed. Towers gave way to bastions, the

terraces of which became batteries, while the battlements of the

earlier mode were replaced by epaulments. Machicolations which were

now merely a traditional decoration at last disappeared altogether,

and military science gradually took the place of architecture, for

which there was henceforth little scope in this particular field.

CHAPTER II

CASTLES AND KEEPS, OR DONJONS

The first French castles of the mediæval period seem to have been

built for the purpose of arresting invasion and affording shelter to

communities decimated by the raids of the Normans. They consisted of

simple intrenchments more or less extensive. Surrounded by a _fossé_

or ditch formed of earthworks, the scarp of which was defended by

a palisade, they had much in common with the camps of the ancient

Romans. In the centre of the enclosure rose the _motte_ (mote or

mound), a conical elevation, either natural to the ground, or

artificially formed on the model of the Roman _prætorium_. This was

surmounted by a building, generally of wood, which served as a post of

observation and a retreat less accessible than the _enceinte_ itself.

In these rudimentary dispositions we recognise the germ of those

feudal keeps and castles which were such important features of

mediæval architecture, notably during the Gothic period.

[Illustration: 174. CASTLE OF ANGERS]

Defensive works of this nature sprang up at various points of the

royal domain which were exposed to the incursions of the Scandinavian

pirates; but the temporary concessions of Charles the Bald were

claimed as definitive by those to whom they had been made. "When,

therefore, that feeble monarch proclaimed the heredity of the feofs

at Quierzy-sur-Oise in 877, he did but sanction that which was

already an accomplished fact.... When the feudal system was firmly

established, the nobles turned their attention to the maintenance

of their usurpations alike against the kings of France, strangers,

and neighbours. To this end they carefully chose the best strategic

positions in their territories, and fortified them in the most durable

fashion at their command. The imposts they levied were considerable,

and their serfs were subject to endless exactions."[65] Stone castles

were accordingly built which, in general arrangement, adhered to

primitive models. In 980 Frotaire had raised no less than five around

Périgueux, his episcopal town.

[65] Anthyme St. Paul, _Histoire Monumentale de la France_.

In 991 Thibault File-Étoupe built a fortress on the hill of Montlhéry,

near the royal residences of Paris and Étampes, which was very

formidable to the first five kings of the house of Capet. Later, when

it became a royal possession, it was one of the chief bulwarks of the

city.

[Illustration: 175. CARCASSONNE; CITADEL. VIEW FROM THE NORTH-EASTERN

ANGLE. (SEE PLAN, FIG. 167)]

In the Middle Ages the castle bore the same relation to the fortified

town as did the keep to the feudal castle, and the history of one is

bound up in that of the other.

In a fortified town the castle was the lodging of the leader and his

soldiers. It was connected with the ramparts of the place, and had one

or more special outlets; it was further provided with defences on the

side of the town itself, so that upon occasion it became an isolated

stronghold.

The Castle of Carcassonne is a famous example of such offensive and

defensive fortification. It was built in the first years of the

twelfth century, and is composed of various lodgings for the chief and

his garrison, defended east and north, on the side towards the city,

by towers and curtains (Fig. 175). At the south-west angle independent

reducts and towers guard the courtyards and approaches. The west front

overlooks the open country, and here was placed the gate, which was

defended by a series of formidable devices so ingenious as to preclude

all possibility of surprise.

[Illustration: 176. LOCHES CASTLE. KEEP]

During the Romanesque and Gothic periods the castle was a miniature

town, with its own fortified _enceinte_, composed of walls reinforced

by towers which served as refuges at various points of the

circumference, and formed so many reducts for the arrest of assailants.

The keep was the citadel of this miniature town, the temporary

lodging of the lord whose vassals lived in the internal offices, and

whose soldiers occupied the gate-house buildings and the towers of

the ramparts. The noble sought to give his special habitation the

most formidable aspect possible, and thereby to strike terror to the

beholder, a very necessary device in those days of conflict when the

friend of night was often the implacable foe of morning. "In times of

peace the keep was the receptacle for the treasure, arms, and archives

of the family; but the lord did not lodge there; he only took up his

quarters in the keep with his wife and children in time of war. As

it was not possible for him to defend the place alone, he surrounded

himself with a band of the most devoted of his followers who shared

his dwelling. From thence he exercised a scrupulous surveillance over

the garrison and its approaches, for the keep was always placed at

the most vulnerable point of the fortress, and he and his bodyguard

held the horde of vassals and retainers in due subservience; as they

were able to pass in and out at all hours by secret and well-guarded

passages, the garrison was kept in ignorance of the exact means of

defence, the lord, as was natural, doing all in his power to make them

appear formidable."[66]

[66] Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire_, vol. v.

Castles and keeps of stone were generally built upon the natural scarp

of some spur commanding two valleys and near the banks of a river; the

primitive mounds of the feudal fortresses were abandoned; as we have

already remarked, these were in many cases artificial, and would have

been quite inadequate to the support of the huge masses of masonry of

the new architecture.

"By the close of the tenth century and the opening years of the

eleventh, Foulques Nerra was raising castles throughout his own

territories in Anjou, and on every available point of vantage he could

wrest from his neighbour, the Count of Blois and Tours; the latter

built fortresses to resist the aggressor and complete the network of

strongholds begun by his father, Thibault the Trickster, one of the

most turbulent nobles of his day."[67]

[67] Anthyme St. Paul, _Histoire Monumentale de la France_.

The keep of Langeais, on a precipitous hill overlooking the Loire,

was founded by Foulques Nerra at the close of the tenth century;

the walls, which are still standing on three sides, show traces of

Gallo-Roman methods of construction; the dressed stones are of small

size, and brick and stone are used conjointly for the voussoirs of the

window arches.

A large number of castles and keeps were built in the eleventh and

twelfth centuries, among others those of Plessy, Grimoult, Le Pin,

and La Pommeraye, the last on a mound surrounded by deep moats

which separate three lines of circumvallation from each other;

Beaugency-sur-Loire, the vast keep of which was four stories high;

and Loches, which is ascribed to Foulques Nerra, but which seems

to belong rather to the twelfth century, at which period military

architecture had made a great advance. The keep of Loches is perhaps

the finest of all such structures in France; in height it is nearly

100 feet; the ramparts seem to date from the thirteenth century; the

form of the towers on plan is a pointed arch, a shape adopted as

offering greater resistance at the part most frequently attacked by

the sapper.

[Illustration: 177. FALAISE CASTLE. KEEP]

At Falaise, where the castle like that of Domfront is built on

a rugged promontory, the ramparts are later than the keep, the

architectural details of which point to the twelfth century. This

hypothesis is supported by a passage in the Chronicle of Robert du

Mont, quoted by M. de Caumont. In 1123 Henry II. rebuilt the keep and

ramparts of Arques, and carried out similar restorations at Gisors,

Falaise, Argentan, Exmes, Domfront, Amboise, and Vernon.

[Illustration: 178. LAVARDIN CASTLE. KEEP]

[Illustration: 179. KEEP OF AIGUES-MORTES. TOUR DE CONSTANCE]

Other keeps of equal interest in point of situation, plan, or details

of construction are:--Ste. Suzanne, Nogent-le-Rotrou, Broue, L'Islot,

Tonnay-Boutonne, Pons, Chamboy, Montbazon, Lavardin, Montrichard,

and Huriet in the Bourbonnais. All these, in common with those first

described, are square or rectangular on plan. From the end of the

twelfth century onwards the cylindrical form predominates in the plan

of keeps and towers. On the whole, it offered the best resistance to

the mediæval assailant. The convex surface was of equal strength all

round, and as we have seen in the preceding chapter, the circular

trace for towers gave the garrison the best chance of defending their

bases from the curtain, and of opposing the work of sappers and miners.

[Illustration: 180. PROVINS CASTLE. KEEP]

The great advance made in architecture by the general adoption

of an expedient so simple and easy of execution as the vault on

intersecting arches manifested itself very strongly in military

structures. The heavy wooden floors of the earlier keeps, which were

so apt to catch fire, were replaced by less ponderous vaults, binding

the circular walls firmly together, and forming a flooring for the

various stories less unsteady and infinitely more durable than the

huge beams and joists of earlier days.

A further improvement was the pointed roof, round on plan, now

generally adopted as better calculated to withstand projectiles or

combustibles which shattered the angles of the roof in the old square

towers, and set fire to the timbers.

The form of keeps, however, varied considerably throughout the

twelfth century. At Houdan the keep is a great tower strengthened by

four turrets; at Étampes it is composed of four clustered towers,

forming a quatrefoil on plan; the vaulted stories are marked by many

curious features, among others a deep well, the opening of which is

in the second floor. Some historians date this building from the

eleventh century; there are indications, however, in the details of

the architecture and sculptures, which point to the early part of the

reign of Philip Augustus.

The keep of Provins, which belongs to the twelfth century, has certain

very original features. It rises from a solid mound of masonry, and

has a circular _enceinte_. The base of the keep itself is square, and

is flanked at each angle by a turret. An octagonal tower surmounts

the square base, and is connected with the flanking turrets by flying

buttresses. The keep of Gisors is also octagonal in form, one of its

octagons being at a tangent to the circular _enceinte_ which crowns

the feudal _motte_ or mound. It was built in the twelfth century, and

was considerably augmented by the line of walls and square towers

which Philip Augustus drew round the mound.

The _Château Gaillard_, built at the close of the twelfth century

on an eminence commanding the Seine at Les Andelys, has several

peculiarities of arrangement. The round keep is first enclosed by a

circular _enceinte_, or rather by a square, the angles of which have

been rounded. This in its turn is surrounded by an elliptic enclosure

connected with the defences of the castle, and consisting of a series

of segmental towers united by very narrow curtains. In this massive

structure the art of the architect manifests itself only in the

robust solidity of the masonry. It is the keep in its purely military

character. No trace of decoration mitigates its austerity.

[Illustration: 181. CASTLE OF CHINON. SOUTH FRONT]

Philip Augustus, having possessed himself of the Château Gaillard,

fortified Gisors on the same formidable scale, and proceeded to build

the castle of Dourdan as well as his own palace fortress of the

Louvre, in Paris. Upon the death of the king, Enguerrand III. began

to build a fortress at Coucy, which he completed in less than ten

years (1223-1230). Its grandiose proportions and formidable system of

defence surpassed everything that had gone before. Coucy was, in fact,

the architectural manifestation of that haughty ambition to which

Enguerrand is said to have given free expression during the minority

of his sovereign.

[Illustration: 182. CASTLE OF CLISSON. KEEP]

Next in importance to the castles and keeps of the thirteenth century,

already enumerated, are the following:--The White Tower of Issoudun;

the Tower of Blandy; the octagonal keep of Châtillon-sur-Loing,

Semur; the royal fortresses of Angers, built by St. Louis;

Montargis, Boulogne, Chinon, and Saumur; the _Tour Constance_ or

keep of Aigues-Mortes, ascribed to St. Louis; the castle of Najac,

built by his brother, Alphonse of Poitiers; the castles of Bourbon

l'Archambault and Chalusset, and the castle of Clisson, rebuilt or

begun by Olivier I., Lord of Clisson, after his return from the Holy

Land, etc.

[Illustration: 183. VILLENEUVE-LES-AVIGNON. CASTLE OF ST. ANDRÉ]

In the fourteenth century military architecture developed chiefly

on reconstructive lines. Ancient fortresses were reorganised in

accordance with the new methods of attack and (consequently) of

defence, and the weak points brought to light by recent sieges

were dealt with. The same process was applied to the construction

of towers which had hitherto been furnished with several rows of

loopholes, an excellent expedient for the defence of curtains and

approaches, but subject to this drawback, that it directed attention

to the most vulnerable points. The first effect of the use of cannon

in warfare was to increase the thickness of the walls; subsequently,

such structural modifications were adopted as were required by the

novel method of massing all the defences at the summit of machicolated

walls. The principal castles of this period were Vincennes, near

Paris, built by Philip of Valois and Charles V., and the vast

fortified palace at Avignon, constructed by the Popes Benedict XII.,

Clement VI., Innocent VI., and Urban V., of which we shall have more

to say in Part IV. Gaston Phœbus, Count of Foix and Béarn, built

square keeps in the _Bastide_ of Béarn, at Montaner, and at Mauvezin,

besides circular keeps at Lourdes and at Foix.

[Illustration: 184. CASTLE OF TARASCON]

Among keeps and castles completed or entirely built in the fourteenth

century, Anthyme St. Paul enumerates those of Roquetaillade,

Bourdeilles, Polignac, Briquebec, Hardelot, Rambures, Lavardin (the

foundations of which were laid in the twelfth century), Montrond,

Turenne, Billy, Murat, and Hérisson, the curious keep of Montbard, the

keeps of Romefort, Pouzauges, Noirmoutier, and many others.

At the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century

Louis of Orleans, son of Charles V., took advantage of the madness

of his brother Charles VI. to fortify various positions on which he

relied for the furtherance of his ambitious schemes. In 1393 and the

years immediately following he acquired various estates in Valois:

Montépilloy, Pierrefonds, and La Ferté-Milon, the castle of which he

rebuilt entirely. He also bought the domain of Coucy in 1400, after

the death of the last male descendant of Enguerrand III.

Coucy, Pierrefonds, and La Ferté-Milon have been so exhaustively

described in special works, notably those of Viollet-le-Duc, that we

need not reproduce them here. We have cited them as characteristic

types of those colossal fortresses and keeps, admirable alike in

grandiose proportion and refinement of detail which are the supreme

expression of feudal power.

[Illustration: 185. VITRÉ CASTLE]

Several other castles were built in Albigeois, Auvergne, Limousin,

Guyenne, La Vendée, and Provence, notably at Tarascon. The keeps of

Trèves in Anjou also date from this period.

Important castles sprang up all over Brittany in the fifteenth

century. Such were Combourg, Fougères, Montauban, St. Malo, Vitré,

Elven, Sucinio, Dinan, Tonquédec, etc.

Many of these buildings which date from the close of the century

were remarkable for their ingenuity of arrangement and richness of

decoration. But though worthy of all attention from the artistic point

of view, they do not come within the scope of our present study--that

of _military_ architecture in the Gothic period.

CHAPTER III

GATES AND BRIDGES

Though confining ourselves to a brief historical abstract of the

so-called Gothic period in architecture, without reference to Roman

examples, we have said enough in the foregoing studies on castles

and keeps, and the circumvallation of towns, to give some idea of

the importance attached by architects to the gates which secured the

_enceintes_, and the bridges which afforded an approach.

_Gates._--Following the example of those Frankish architects whose

works in Syria after the first Crusade seem to have exercised such

far-reaching influence, French builders of the reigns of Philip

Augustus and St. Louis reduced the entrances of fortresses and

fortified _enceintes_ to the smallest number practicable. Their

construction was based upon a system calculated to repulse any

ordinary attempt to carry the place by direct attack; as a rule,

fortresses were taken rather by ruse, surprise, or treason than by

regular siege.

[Illustration: 186. CITY OF CARCASSONNE. GATE-HOUSE OF THE CASTLE]

During the twelfth, and more especially the thirteenth century, the

gates were the points most strongly fortified. They were approached

over a bridge, by raising a movable portion of which, however,

entrance might be barred on the very threshold. The narrow gateway

passage was defended by two projecting towers pierced with loopholes,

and connected by a curtain. The whole structure formed a fortified

gate-house, known as a _châtelet_, which had to be carried before an

assailant could penetrate to the fortress beyond. The passage was

further defended by a single or double portcullis, a grated timber

framework like a harrow, cased with iron, the uprights of which were

spiked at the bottom. The passage was also defended by machicolations

or holes in the roof, through which the garrison could hurl down

missiles on the heads of their enemies, should the latter have forced

the gate.

The castle-gate of Carcassonne which was built about 1120 still

exists, and is a good example of such arrangements.

The minute precautions adopted by architects to guard against surprise

are very manifest in this example. A sudden attempt was often

successful, especially if favoured by traitors among the defenders

themselves.

The difficulties of passage were increased by the multiplication of

portcullises, the windlasses of which were worked from different

stories of the tower, so as to prevent collusion between different

parties of the garrison, which was often composed largely of

mercenaries. In the gate-house of Carcassonne the first portcullis

was raised or lowered by means of chains and counter-weights worked

from a windlass on the second floor; the second portcullis was worked

in like manner from the first floor, in a place entirely cut off from

communication with that above, to which access could only be obtained

by a wooden staircase in the castle courtyard.

In the thirteenth century military architects further provided

against surprises by defensive outworks. The gate of Laon, at Coucy,

so admirably described by Viollet-le-Duc, is a famous example. These

outworks, which were called barbicans, were designed to protect the

great gate and its approaches.

[Illustration: 187. CARCASSONNE. GATEWAY OF THE LISTS, KNOWN AS THE

_PORTE DE L'AUDE_]

Around the walls of the city of Carcassonne a second line of ramparts

had been drawn by St. Louis, in which only a single opening gave

access to the _lists_ (Fig. 187)--that is to say, the space between

the inner and outer enclosures. He afterwards built a huge tower,

known as the _Barbican_, to the west of the castle, with which it

was connected by crenellated walls, and by inner cross-walls, so

arranged in a kind of echelon that the open spaces on one side were

masked by the projections on the other (see plan, Fig. 167). The

tower was destined to cover sorties from the garrison, and to keep

open communication by the bridge across the Aude. It was rather an

outwork than a barbican such as Philip the Bold built before the

_Porte Narbonaise_, on the east of the city, towards the close of the

thirteenth century.

[Illustration: 188. CITY OF CARCASSONNE. GATE KNOWN AS THE _PORTE

NARBONAISE_]

The _Porte Narbonaise_ bears a general resemblance to the main

gate of the castle, subject, however, to the great advance made in

military architecture in the course of a century. The gateway towers

are provided with spurs, an invention directed against the attack of

miners, which had the further advantage of interfering with the action

of a battering-ram, by exposing those who worked it to missiles from

the adjacent parts of the curtain. The gate opened immediately upon

the lists; it was defended by the crenellated semi-circular barbican,

which was united on either side to the embattled parapet of the lists.

Access to the barbican was obtained only by a narrow passage preceded

by a bridge, the latter easily defended by a redan which adjoined the

postern of the barbican.

The gate itself was provided with two portcullises like those of the

castle gate; behind the first were massive folding-doors, and over it

a wide machicolation.

The constructive methods employed in the building of fortified gates

were modified as military architecture progressed on lines already

considered by us in the first chapter of this section, when dealing

with defensive methods generally, which, in the fourteenth century,

seem to have been in advance of those of attack. A steady improvement

in details went on until the invention of gunpowder came in to

profoundly modify the conditions alike of defence and assault.

[Illustration: 189. RAMPARTS OF AIGUES-MORTES. GATE KNOWN AS THE

_PORTE DE LA GARDETTE_. DRAWBRIDGE. (TO THE RIGHT OF THE DRAWING THE

_TOUR CONSTANCE_, BUILT BY ST. LOUIS)]

The gateways of fortified _enceintes_ were modified in the

fourteenth century not only by alterations in the plan of towers,

the substitution of stone machicolations for the wooden _hourds_ or

scaffoldings of parapets, the addition of portcullises, folding-doors,

and the _machicoulis_ of the vaulted passage, but further by the

invention of the drawbridge. A drawbridge, it may be hardly necessary

to say, consisted of a wooden platform suspended by chains to

cross-beams poised on uprights on the principle of a see-saw; when

lowered, the bridge afforded a passage across the moat. It was raised

by depressing the inner ends of the lever-beams which pivoted upon a

fulcrum, and thus brought the platform up vertically against the front

of the building, where it formed an outer door which an attacking

party had either to batter in or to bring down by cutting the chains.

[Illustration: 190. RAMPARTS OF DINAN. GATE KNOWN AS THE _PORTE DE

JERZUAL_]

It will be readily perceived that such a bridge was infinitely more

effectual and more to be depended upon than the portable bridge

mentioned in our description of the castle gate of Carcassonne.

The latter had to be raised piece by piece, a prolonged operation

impossible of execution in case of a sudden surprise.

Aigues-Mortes seems to have been one of the first fortresses to

which the new methods were applied. The gates east, west, and south

are constructed on the twelfth-century system, as exemplified at

Carcassonne. But the northern gate, known as the _Porte de la

Gardette_, which was either made or altered in the fourteenth century,

still shows the grooves for the beams of the drawbridge, and the

pointed arch of the doorway is enframed by a square rebate destined

for the platform when raised.

The use of drawbridges became very general in the fourteenth century,

and gave rise to various ingenious combinations. The gate at Dinan,

known as the _Porte de Jerzual_, which probably dates from the close

of the century, is a curious example. It is not placed between

two towers in the manner then usual, but is pierced through the

actual face of a tower. In this case, the inner prolongation of the

lever-beams formed a solid panel like the platform of the bridge

itself. It was worked through a hole in the roof of the entrance

archway, being raised with the help of a chain, and falling through

its own preponderant weight. The horizontal pivot on which it turned

rested on the brackets shown in Fig. 190; the external sections of the

lever-beams sank in the usual manner into the vertical grooves above

the arch, and when the bridge was up, the solid panel joining the

inner ends of the levers doubled the protection it gave. In case of

alarm, the chain had simply to be let go, and the panel falling by its

own weight, the bridge rose, and the barricade was complete.

[Illustration: 191. VITRÉ CASTLE. GATE-HOUSE]

By the fifteenth century drawbridges were in universal use; an

interesting development was the result. This was the introduction of a

smaller gate or postern in the curtain between the towers, by the side

of the great gateway. Each of the two apertures was furnished with its

own drawbridge. That of the centre, which was reserved for horsemen

and vehicles, was worked by two beams or arms, as we have seen, while

the smaller footbridge of the postern was raised by means of a single

beam, the chain of which was attached to a forked upright.

[Illustration: 192. ENCEINTE OF GUÉRANDE. GATE OF ST. MICHEL]

The castle of Vitré, which was built, or at least completed at the

close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century,

illustrates the system in the gateway of its _châtelet_.

The gate-house, known as the _Porte St. Michel_, at Guérande, which

was built together with the _enceinte_ by John V., Duke of Brittany,

in 1431, still preserves the lateral grooves which indicate the shape

and arrangement of the postern drawbridge.

When raised, the two drawbridges closed the apertures of gateway and

postern, while the open gulf of the great ditch, either empty, or full

of water, cut off the approach to the entrance.

The Abbey of Mont St. Michel, which we have already studied under

various aspects, has further information to give us with regard to the

construction of fortified gateways. In accordance with contemporary

usage, the Abbot Pierre Le Roy built a gate-house or _bastille_

(Fig. 163), the entrance of which was guarded by a portcullis and a

wide _machicoulis_; he masked this gate-house by a barbican, which

was connected north and south with the great stairway leading to

the abbey. The northern staircase is rendered specially interesting

by the ingenious arrangement of its gates, which opened within

the barbican. The apertures were filled by a panel which worked

horizontally, on a system necessitated by the exceptional situation of

the abbey, where the military, as well as the domestic buildings, were

superposed, communicating with each other only by an elaborate series

of staircases and inclines. The doors pivoted upon horizontal axes.

Resting upon salient jambs in the embrasures of the doorways, they

opened in a direction parallel with the slope of the steps, and could

be shut at the least alarm, being carried into place by their own

weight. They were kept fastened by lateral bolts, the slots of which

still exist in the jambs.[68]

[68] Ed. Corroyer, _Description de l'Abbaye du Mont St. Michel et de

ses Abords_; Paris, 1877.

[Illustration: 193. RAMPARTS OF MONT ST. MICHEL. GATEWAY KNOWN AS THE

_PORTE DU ROI_]

The main gate of the ramparts, which was built between 1415 and 1420,

is to the west of the place, in the curtain flanked by the tower

known as the _Tour du Roi_. This gate and the lateral postern gave

access to the town, their drawbridges forming a passage across the

moat when lowered, and when raised, an initial barrier to assailants.

Above the gates was the warder's lodging, beneath which the vaulted

passage and the postern communicated directly with an outer guard-room

in the ground-floor of the _Tour du Roi_. In addition to the first

barrier, formed by the raised platform of the drawbridge, the main

entrance was secured by double doors, and by an iron portcullis, which

still remains in its lateral grooves. The great arch is crowned by a

tympanum, on which the united arms of the king, the abbey, and the

town were carved.

The works designed for the defence of rivers flowing through fortified

towns, or of the inlets of harbours, are closely allied to the

military architecture of gates. At Troyes the river arches in the

town ramparts were guarded by gratings or portcullises of iron. At

Paris the passage of the Seine was barred by chains stretched across

the river from wall to wall, and upheld in the middle of the stream

by piles or firmly anchored boats. At Angers the walls of the town

abutted on two towers known as the _Haute Chaîne_ and the _Basse

Chaîne_ (the Higher and Lower Chains), containing windlasses for the

chains, which at night were stretched across the Maine at its passage

through the _enceinte_.

Seaports were defended at the mouth by towers on either shore,

between which chains, worked from within, could be stretched to bar

the passage. The harbour of La Rochelle is thus protected. According

to some archæologists of authority, the tower known as the _Tour

de la Chaîne_ (to the left of the drawing) is older than that of

St. Nicholas (on the right), which is supposed by them to have been

built in the sixteenth century on the foundations of an earlier tower

contemporary with that on the other side of the Channel. The piles

upon which these towers stand seem to have given way in part, and to

have caused a perceptible inclination of the Tower of St. Nicholas.

[Illustration: 194. ENTRANCE TO THE PORT OF LA ROCHELLE. TOWER OF ST.

NICHOLAS, AND TOWER CALLED _TOUR DE LA CHAÎNE_. BEFORE THE

RESTORATION]

The suggestion made in a very fanciful modern design, that the two

towers were once united by a great arch, is wholly without foundation.

Such a useless structure would have entailed defensive works equally

useless, seeing that a chain stretched from tower to tower at high

tide--at low tide the harbour was inaccessible--would have been

perfectly effectual against any vessels of that period attempting to

force a passage.

_Bridges._--As is the case with all other architectural buildings,

the origin of bridges dates back to the Romans, by whom they were

often decorated with triumphal arches. The bridge of St. Chamas in

Provence, known as the _Pont Flavien_ (Flavian Bridge), is an example

which seems to date from the first centuries of the Christian era.

The triumphal arches were in later times replaced by fortifications;

they became _têtes de pont_, _bastilles_, or crenellated gate-houses,

the function of which was not, like that of the arches, the decoration

of the structure or the glorification of its founder, but the defence

of the passage across the river, and the protection of the fortress

with which it communicated.

[Illustration: 195. BRIDGE AT AVIGNON. RUINS OF THE BRIDGE KNOWN AS

THE PONT DE ST. BÉNÉZET]

Among the bridges constructed by mediæval architects, that of St.

Bénézet, the Bridge of Avignon, seems to be the most ancient. This

bridge, which was begun about 1180, and completed some ten years

later, is equally remarkable for its architectural details, and the

structural problems solved by its builders. It crosses, or rather

used to cross, the Rhone--for though the arm towards the _Rocher des

Doms_ is the narrower, it is the deeper--on nineteen arches, extending

from the foot of the Doms, on the Avignonese bank, to the Tower of

Villeneuve, on the right bank, after a slight deflection southward.

The gate-house on the left bank, some fragments of which still remain,

is said to have been built by the Popes in the fourteenth century, for

the purpose of levying tolls, a perquisite shared by them with the

King of France.

The Bridge of Avignon seems to have been one of the first constructed

by the fraternity of the _Hospitaliers pontifs_, which was founded

in the twelfth century for the double object of building bridges

and succouring travellers. The head of the order at the time of the

building of the Rhone bridge was St. Bénézet. It must have numbered

architects of ability among its members, for the construction of the

Bridge of Avignon is very remarkable. Each of the elliptical arches

is composed of four independent arches in simple juxtaposition one

with another. This device ensures elasticity, and as a consequence

stability. The solidarity of the whole is rendered complete by the

masonry of the spandrils, which recall the architectural portions of

the aqueduct, known as the _Pont du Gard_; its width is about 16 feet.

The arches spring from piers furnished on either face with acute spurs

designed to break the force of the stream and the impact of floating

ice in the winter.

The spandril above each pier is pierced with a round arch, to

give free passage to the water during those floods which at times

completely submerge the piers.

The bridge in its present ruined condition has only four arches. On

the pier nearest to the left bank the ancient chapel, dedicated to

St. Nicholas, is still standing. Access to it is obtained by means

of a flight of corbelled steps rising from the foundation to the

entrance, and by an overhanging landing-stage, resting at one end

against the pier, at the other against the flank of the arch.

[Illustration: 196. BRIDGE OF MONTAUBAN, KNOWN AS THE _PONT DES

CONSULS_]

The old bridge at Carcassonne seems to be contemporary with that of

Avignon, but its arches are semi-circular, their keystones are bound

into the intrados, and their piers are spurred to the level of the

platform, where they form recesses or refuges, which the narrowness of

the bridge rendered very necessary.

Among bridges of the thirteenth century we may mention that at

Béziers, where the arches, both pointed and semi-circular, resemble

those of Carcassonne in construction; but here the piers only rise

above the summers of the arches by the height of two or three courses,

and their spandrils are pierced to give free passage to the current

during floods.

The bridge which spanned the Rhone at St. Savournin du Port, known as

the _Pont St. Esprit_, was the work of a Clunisian abbot about 1265.

It resembled the Bridge of Avignon in the construction of the piers

with their pierced spandrils; the arches, however, were semi-circular.

The platform, which is some 16 feet across, was barred at either end

by toll-gates; that nearest to the little town was connected with

the _tête de pont_, which, in after times, was incorporated with the

fortress commanding the course of the Rhone above the bridge.

[Illustration: 197. BRIDGE OF CAHORS, KNOWN AS THE PONT DE VALENTRÉ]

The question of tolls was an important one in those days, and gave

rise to frequent disputes. The towers and gate-houses of bridges were

toll-bars as well as defensive outworks.

The bridge at Montauban, known as the _Pont des Consuls_, which was

begun at the close of the thirteenth century, remained unfinished

till the beginning of the fourteenth, when Philip the Fair gave such

help as was needed for its completion, on condition that he should

be allowed to raise three towers on the bridge, with a view to the

appropriation of the tolls.

The Bridge of Montauban is built entirely of brick. It consists of

seven pointed arches, resting on spurred piers, which are pierced

with arches, also pointed, and rising to the same height as the main

arches, to provide for the frequent floods of the Tarn.

The Bridge of Cahors is one of the most beautiful of

fourteenth-century examples. It is still of great interest in spite of

the various restorations it has undergone, chiefly of late years.

[Illustration: 198. BRIDGE OF ORTHEZ]

This bridge, which is known as the _Pont de Valentré_, was begun in

1308 by Raymond Panchelli, Bishop of Cahors from 1300-1312, and cannot

have been finished before 1355. It consists of six slightly pointed

arches; the piers, which rise to the level of the parapet, forming

lateral refuges, are triangular above bridge and square below. At each

end the bridge was commanded by a crenellated structure, forming a

gate-house or _tête de pont_ on either bank. In the middle rose a

lofty tower with gates, by means of which passage might be barred and

assailants checked in the event of a surprise of either gate-house.

[Illustration: 199. ABBEY OF MONT ST. MICHEL. FORTIFIED BRIDGE

CONNECTING THE LOWER CHURCH WITH THE ABBEY]

The Bridge of Orthez has strong affinities with that of Cahors. It

must date from about the same period, and there is every reason to

suppose it was defended, not only by the central tower, but by _têtes

de pont_, one of which at least must have been destroyed to make way

for the railroad from Bayonne to Pau.

Bridges were of great importance in the Middle Ages, both as public

highways and military outworks. At certain points, notably at the

confluence of two rivers, they were strongly reinforced by very

considerable defences, as at Sens, Montereau, etc.

At Paris, Orleans, Rouen, Nantes, and a large number of other towns

traversed by rivers, bridges were not only important as military

defences, but of great interest as architecture.

Mont St. Michel shall furnish us with our last example, a bridge

of the fifteenth century. Though it spans no stream, it is none

the less remarkable. In the details of this bridge--its embattled

platform uniting the lower church to the abbey, its machicolated

parapet guarding the inner passages--we recognise an art consummate as

that which stirs our enthusiasm in the vast proportions and perfect

execution of the splendid choir, the whole proclaiming the versatile

genius of those great builders who welded into one noble monument a

triad of masterpieces--religious, monastic, and military.

PART IV

CIVIL ARCHITECTURE

CHAPTER I

BARNS, HOSPITALS, DWELLING-HOUSES, AND "HÔTELS"

OR TOWNHOUSES OF THE NOBILITY

Civil architecture could boast no special characteristics before

the close of the thirteenth century. Its earlier buildings bore the

impress of religious and monastic types, as was natural at a period

when architecture was practised almost exclusively by monks and by the

lay disciples trained in their schools.

It was not until the following century that domestic architecture

threw off the trammels of religious tradition, and took on the

character appropriate to its various functions. Artists began to seek

decorative motives in the scenes and objects of daily life, no longer

borrowing exclusively from sacred themes, and convention in form and

detail was abandoned in some degree for the study of nature.

_Barns._--Throughout the Romanesque and Gothic periods, barns,

hospitals, and houses were constructed in the prevailing style. We

propose, of course, to deal only with buildings possessing real

architectural features.

[Illustration: 200. TOWN-HALL AT ST. ANTONIN (TARN ET GARONNE). THE

UPPER PART OF THE BELFRY WAS REBUILT ABOUT 1860]

The barns or granaries of mediæval times were rural dependencies of

the abbeys, but were built outside the enclosure of the monastery

proper, and formed part of the _priory_ or farm. The entrance of the

barn was a large door, opening upon the yard in the centre of the

front gable end; access was also obtained by means of smaller doors

in the side walls, and often a postern was constructed beside the

main entrance for ordinary use. The great central doors were then

only thrown open for the passage of carts, which, entering at the

front, passed out through a similar door in the opposite gable end, as

at the barn of Perrières, which, though situated in Normandy, was a

dependency of the Abbey of Marmoutier, near Tours.

[Illustration: 201. BARN AT PERRIÈRES (CALVADOS). END OF TWELFTH

CENTURY. (AFTER CAUMONT)]

Such barns were generally large three-aisled buildings, the central

aisle divided from those on either side by an arcade, or pillars of

wood or stone, which supported the pointed timber roof covering the

whole.

[Illustration: 201A. BARN AT PERRIÈRES. SECTION]

In some of these barns it was the practice to pile wheat, barley, or

rye in the centre and in one of the side aisles; in others the central

aisle was kept free for passage, and the grain was stored in the sides.

The façades differ only in unimportant details. They consist of vast

gable ends, following the lines of the roof, and strengthened by

pilasters. A large doorway, with a small postern to the side of it,

occupies the centre of the base, and the apex is pierced with narrow

openings to light, or rather to ventilate, the interior.

[Illustration: 201B. BARN AT PERRIÈRES. PLAN]

Tithe-barns were very generally constructed on this plan. When large

and important they had two stories, as at Provins.

These were not as a rule vaulted, but the granaries, or _greniers

d'abondance_, were often built with three stories, that of the

ground-floor, and even the one above it, being vaulted. The granary of

the Abbey of Vauclair, in the department of Aisne, built towards the

close of the twelfth century, is a very interesting example of such

structures.

[Illustration: 202. TITHE-BARN AT PROVINS]

[Illustration: 203. GRANARY OF THE ABBEY OF VAUCLAIR]

Some idea of the importance of religious establishments at this period

may be gathered from the foregoing details. The great abbeys were

miniature towns, and their dependencies, the priories, consisted of

vast farms, round which large villages soon grew up. The cultivators

of these great holdings combined agricultural labours with their

religious exercises, and the priors in especial were not only priests,

but perhaps even in a greater degree stewards or bailiffs, whose duty

it was to collect payments in kind, such as tithes or other revenues,

to store these, together with the crops of their own raising, and

finally to administer the wealth of every description--lands, woods,

rivers, and ponds--belonging to the abbey.

_Hospitals._--A large number of charitable institutions, called in

the Middle Ages _maisons dieu_, _hôtels dieu_, hospices, hospitals,

and lazar-houses, were founded in the eleventh century, and greatly

developed in the twelfth and thirteenth.

A hospital was attached to most of the large abbeys or their

dependencies. The cities also owned hospitals founded or served by

monks.

Lazar-houses had multiplied throughout Western Europe by the end of

the twelfth century, from Denmark to Spain, from England to Bohemia

and Hungary; but these buildings gave little scope to the architect.

They consisted merely of an enclosure surrounding a few isolated

cells, and a chapel, attached to which were the lodgings of the monks

who tended the lepers.

[Illustration: 204. HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN AT ANGERS (TWELFTH CENTURY).

GREAT HALL, AS RESTORED BY A. VERDIER]

But many of the hospices or hospitals built from the end of the

twelfth to the fourteenth century are magnificent buildings, in

general arrangement much resembling the great halls of the abbeys.

It must be borne in mind that hospitality in the Middle Ages

was obligatory; each monastery, therefore, had its eleemosynary

organisation, which included special buildings for the accommodation

of monks whose business it was to tend the sick and to distribute alms

to them and other travellers and pilgrims.

[Illustration: 205. ABBEY OF OURSCAMPS (OISE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY).

HOSPITAL. AS RESTORED BY A. VERDIER]

We learn from Viollet-le-Duc that so early as the Carlovingian

period taxes were levied in aid of the poor, the sick, and pilgrims.

Charlemagne had enjoined hospitality in his ordinances and

capitularies, and it was forbidden to refuse shelter, fire, and water

to any suppliant.

[Illustration: 206. LAZAR-HOUSE AT TORTOIR (AISNE, FOURTEENTH

CENTURY). FROM DRAWINGS BY A. VERDIER]

The communes vied with kings, nobles, abbots, and citizens in the

discharge of such duties. Hospices and hospitals were founded on

every hand, either in deserted buildings, or in specially constructed

edifices.

Refuges were also built on roads much frequented by pilgrims to

shelter belated travellers, and hospices were constructed outside the

walls and close to the city gates.

Pilgrimages were much in vogue in the Middle Ages, especially

throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The sanctuaries

of St. Michael in Normandy, and of St. James of Compostella in Spain,

were the most frequented. At the beginning of the thirteenth century

a hospice was founded outside Paris, near the Porte St. Denis, which

was dedicated to St. James. This hospice, with its chapel, was served

by the confraternity of _St. Jacques aux Pèlerins_ (St. James of

Pilgrims), and offered gratuitous shelter each night to pilgrims bound

for Paris. Its buildings covered two acres; they included a great hall

of stone, vaulted on intersecting arches, and measuring some 132 feet

by 36, for the accommodation of the sick.

In a file of accounts of the fifteenth century, concluding with

an appeal for funds, it is stated that, for the convenience of

pilgrims--_y a lieu pour ce faire XVIIJ liz qui depuis le premier jour

d'aoust MCCCLXVIIJ jusques au jour de Mons. S. Jacques et Christofle

ensuivant on estés logés et hebergés en l'hospital de céans_ XV^m VI^c

IIII^{xx}X _pèlerins qui aloient et venoient au Mont Saint Michel et

austres pèlerins. Et encore sont logés continuellement chascune nuict

de XXXVI à XL povres pèlerins et austres povres, pourquoy le povre

hospital est moult chargé et en grant nécessité de liz, de couvertures

et de draps._[69]

In the first years of the fourteenth century several hundreds of

_hôtels dieu_, hospitals, and lazar-houses received help from the

King of France. St. Louis founded the _Hospice des Quinze-Vingts_ for

the blind, and in many towns hospitals were erected for the insane,

the old, and the infirm, in addition to the usual lazar-houses.

Special hospitals had already been established for women in labour,

and a chapel was founded for their benefit in the crypt of the _Ste.

Chapelle_ of Paris, dedicated to Our Lady of Travail, of Tombelaine,

in Normandy.[70]

[69] "Eighteen beds have been in use, and from the first day of

August 1368 to the feast of SS. James and Christopher following (July

25, 1369) this hospital has lodged and sheltered 16,690 pilgrims

journeying to or from St. Michael's Mount, besides others. And it

has further given shelter each night to some thirty-six to forty

poor pilgrims and other needy persons, whereby the poor hospital is

heavily burdened and in sore straits for lack of beds, sheets, and

blankets."--Ed. Corroyer, _Description de l'Abbaye du Mont St. Michel

et de ses Abords_; Paris, 1877.

[70] _Idem._

[Illustration: 207. HOSPITAL AT TONNERRE. SECTION OF THE GREAT HALL]

Several hospitals of the Gothic period still exist. That of St. John

at Angers is one of the most remarkable. It comprises a great hall,

divided into three aisles, and vaulted on intersecting arches, and

a chapel dating from the close of the twelfth or beginning of the

thirteenth century. The fine barn at Angers is of the same period;

the plan and details of construction are very curious, and resemble

those of the barns and granaries already described.

The _Hôtel Dieu_ of Chartres dates from about the same period.

The hospital of Ourscamps, near Noyon, is very similar as to the

scheme of construction which seems to have been one generally adopted

by the religious architects of the twelfth, and more notably of the

thirteenth century. The grandiose proportions of the vast building

recall the great vaulted halls of contemporary abbeys, such as those

of St. Jean des Vignes at Soissons, and of the _merveille_ at Mont

St. Michel. Certain individual features characterise it as a hospice

specially designed for the sick, the poor, and pilgrims.

The Hospice of Tonnerre appears to have been rebuilt in the fourteenth

century. The vast design is very impressively carried out. The great

hall, over 60 feet wide by some 300 long, is covered with an open

timber roof, boarded in so as to form a semi-circular vault, which is

singularly effective.

The internal arrangements are very ingenious. A wooden gallery in the

half-story commanded a view into each unceiled cubicle, by means of

which it was possible to keep constant watch over the patients without

disturbing them.

The hospital of Beaune has been so often described as to call for

little comment. The painted timber vault of the great hall seems to

have been imitated from that of Tonnerre. Its distinctive character

has unfortunately been destroyed by the construction of a ceiling,

the joists of which rest on the tie-beams of the original skeleton.

But the inner court is intact, with the arcade and well and wash-house

so familiar from descriptions and illustrations. Another picturesque

and often described feature is the great roof on the south side, with

its double row of dormer windows surmounted by a rich ornamentation of

hammered lead.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the practice of vaulting the

great halls of hospitals with stone was abandoned. It became usual in

France and in Flanders to cover the vast aisles with timber roofs, the

boarded vaults of which were either pointed or barrel-shaped.

The term _maladrerie_ was applied to the small lazar-houses, numbers

of which were built in France in the neighbourhood of abbeys or of

priories remote from towns and great religious centres.

The _Maladrerie du Tortoir_, not far from Laon, on the _Route de la

Fère_, is a type of such rural hospitals. Both in plan and in the

details of construction it recalls the hospital of Tonnerre, more

especially in the ingenious arrangement of the interior.

In the planning of these charitable institutions mediæval architects

exhibited the same skill and ingenuity which distinguished their

treatment of religious monuments. Viollet-le-Duc has pointed out

the strange illogicality of such a theory as that which would make

artists who showed extraordinary subtlety in religious buildings

responsible for so much coarseness in civil structures. We must not

hold them accountable for the destruction of their well-planned

hospitals from the sixteenth century onwards, and the substitution of

buildings, the main preoccupation of whose architects was to provide

accommodation for as many patients as possible. Louis XIV. endowed the

hospitals built in his reign with the revenues of the lazar-houses

and _maladreries_, for which there was no further occasion, leprosy

having disappeared from his dominions. But his hospitals leave much to

be desired from the hygienic point of view; the mediæval hospitals,

on the other hand, have a monumental simplicity of appearance, and

offer a liberal supply of light, air, and space to their patients. We

do not assert the superiority of the cellular system commonly adopted

in hospitals from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, over that of

the open wards of our own times, but we may be permitted to point out

its great moral advantages. And, as our learned authority remarks, the

system owed its adoption to a noble delicacy of charitable feeling in

the mediæval founders and builders of our _maisons dieu_.

_Houses and Hôtels, or Town-Houses of the Nobility._--The history

of human habitations is a subject of such interest that to treat it

adequately a special work would be necessary. Such an undertaking has,

moreover, been admirably carried out by a famous architect.[71]

[71] Ch. Garnier, Member of the Institute, whose picturesque

embodiment of research, in his reconstruction of human habitations

from the lacustrine period to our own times, attracted so much

attention at the Exhibition of 1889.

We must refrain from discussion of prehistoric or Merovingian

dwellings, or of those rural hovels, the typical variations of

which, in different countries and climates, offers so wide a field

for study. To keep within the limits assigned us by the arbitrary

term Gothic Architecture, we must confine our rapid sketch to the

architectural period which dates from the middle of the twelfth to the

close of the fifteenth century.

[Illustration: 208. HOUSE AT CLUNY (TWELFTH CENTURY)]

Nothing remains of habitations constructed in France before the

twelfth century, save the vague and scanty records of ancient texts,

manuscripts, and bas-reliefs. But we may reasonably infer that the

houses of the period were built of wood, as was natural in a country

containing great tracts of forest. We know that most of the important

buildings were timber structures, which explains the fact that numbers

of twelfth-century churches were founded on the sites of earlier

buildings destroyed by fire.

Roman, Gallo-Roman, and Merovingian houses were arranged to suit the

habits of the times; they were lighted by windows opening upon an

inner courtyard, in accordance with the ancient custom of separating

the women's apartments from the rest of the habitation.

[Illustration: 208A. HOUSE AT CLUNY (TWELFTH CENTURY)]

But by the end of the twelfth century the urban dwelling was adapted

to the needs of a family. The doors and windows of the house were made

to overlook the street. The building consisted generally of a hall

or shop, in which a handicraft was carried on, or manufactured goods

were offered for sale. It was lighted by a wide arcade of round or

pointed arches, and was either on a level with the street, or raised

above it by the height of some few steps. A back room, opening upon

a courtyard, served for kitchen and dining-room. To the left of the

façade a little door gave access to a staircase which led to the

first floor, where was a large _solar_ or living-room and an apartment

overlooking the courtyard. Above these were the chambers occupied by

the inmates of the house.

[Illustration: 209, 210. HOUSES AT VITTEAUX (CÔTE D'OR), AND AT ST.

ANTONIN (TARN ET GARONNE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY)]

The architecture of such houses varies according to the climate,

the materials of the country, and the customs of the inhabitants.

The houses had no special individuality as long as the windows were

treated merely as apertures for the admission of light; but directly

these began to take on a certain elaboration, and such features as

mouldings or sculptures were introduced in the façades, a system of

decoration was borrowed from the neighbouring churches or abbeys of

monkish architects, a consequence either of the far-reaching influence

of monastic schools, or of the spirit of imitation and force of habit.

Certain houses at Cluny, which date from the twelfth century,

exemplify the style. They are built almost entirely of stone. The

arcading recalls various details of monastic buildings which the

constructors very naturally took as models.

[Illustration: 211. HOUSE AT PROVINS (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)]

[Illustration: 212. HOUSE AT LAON (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)]

[Illustration: 213. HOUSE AT CORDES. ALBIGEOIS (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)]

The same may be said of the other houses, of which we give drawings

as illustrating the urban type of the thirteenth and fifteenth

centuries. It is easy to trace the successive developments of

religious and monastic architecture in the domestic buildings of the

period.

It is not until the close of the fourteenth century, and more notably

in the fifteenth, that such influences gradually die out, and change,

if not progress, becomes evident in the altered form of the arcades,

which no longer resemble those of cloisters or churches, but have

elliptic or square apertures. These, in the windows, are no longer

subdivided by a stone tracery of ornamental cusps and foliations, but

merely by plain mullions and transoms, forming square compartments

which it was possible to fill with movable glazed sashes of the

simplest construction.

The façades are generally of durable materials, such as stone or

brick, and the use of wood is restricted to the floors and the roofs.

Houses of the fifteenth century in the Northern departments, where

stone is scarce, were built mainly of wood, the more solid material

being used only on the ground-floor. The overhanging upper stories

were of timbers, the interstices being filled in with brick. The

principal members, such as corbel tables, beams, ledges, and

window-frames, were decorated with mouldings and sculptures. The

façade usually terminated in a gable, the projecting pointed arch of

which followed the lines of the timber roof. In other cases it was

crowned by richly decorated dormer windows. In rainy districts the

roof was covered with slates or shingles.

[Illustration: 214. HOUSE AT MONT ST. MICHEL (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]

[Illustration: 215. WOODEN HOUSE AT ROUEN (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]

[Illustration: 216. WOODEN HOUSE AT ANDELYS (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]

It was usual in the North to detach each house at the upper story,

even when it was not practicable to allow a narrow passage or space

between. This was not merely a concession to the vanity of the

citizen, to his desire to make his independent gable a feature of

the street. It was also a precautionary measure against fires, which

were frequent and disastrous in cities built mainly of wood, and

possessing but very rudimentary appliances wherewith to meet such a

catastrophe.

[Illustration: 217. HÔTEL LALLEMAND AT BOURGES (END OF THE FIFTEENTH

CENTURY)]

The fifteenth and notably the sixteenth centuries were marked by

the building of a new class of dwellings, the _maisons nobles_,

or town-houses of the nobles, who, down to this period, had lived

entirely in their fortified castles. These great seignorial mansions

differ essentially from the houses of the citizens. The _hôtel_

occupied a considerable space, in which a courtyard and even gardens

were included. The house of the citizen or merchant was built flush

with the street, whereas the _hôtel_ was placed in an inner court,

often richly decorated, and the street-front was devoted to stables,

coach-houses, servants' lodgings, and the great entrance which gave

access to the court and the main building.

[Illustration: 218. JACQUES CŒUR'S HOUSE AT BOURGES. VIEW FROM THE

PLACE BERRY (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)]

The names at least of some famous Parisian _hôtels_ of the fourteenth

and fifteenth centuries have survived, such as the _hôtels_ des

Tournelles, de St. Pol, de Sens, de Nevers, and de la Trémoille, the

last destroyed in 1840. The Hôtel de Cluny, which dates from 1485, is

a very curious example, and of remarkable interest, as having been

preserved almost intact.

Several great houses of the same period still exist at Bourges. Among

others, the Hôtel Lallemand, built towards the close of the fifteenth

century, the inner court of which is especially noteworthy, and the

still more famous _hôtel_ or _château_ of Jacques Coeur.

This beautiful structure dates from the second half of the fifteenth

century, and is built in part on the ramparts of the town. It is so

well known that it will be unnecessary to describe or illustrate the

famous portals and inner court. But the façade on the Place Berry,

though less sumptuous, is hardly less interesting. Here we have the

two great towers of the fortified _enceinte_, with their Gallo-Roman

bases, and between them the _corps de logis_ or main buildings of the

mansion, which retain many features of the feudal castle, and bear

witness to the wealth and power of Charles VII.'s ill-used favourite,

the famous banker, whose splendid fortunes suffered such undeserved

eclipse.

CHAPTER II

TOWN-HALLS, BELFRIES, PALACES

The social evolution which resulted in the enfranchisement of

the communes had its origin in the eleventh century, though the

consummation of this great political change was of much later date.

Down to the fourteenth century the efforts of the communes to exercise

the rights conferred on them in charters wrung from their feudal lords

received incessant checks. The opposition they encountered is hardly

to be wondered at, seeing that every concession in their favour tended

to diminish the despotic authority of those from whom it had been won.

No sooner, therefore, was a charter rescinded and a commune abolished

than the instant demolition of the town-hall and belfry was demanded.

Hence very few town-halls of earlier date than the fourteenth century

have survived.

_Town-halls._--A few of the great Southern cities owned town-halls so

early as the twelfth century, among them Bordeaux, where the building

was of the Roman type, and Toulouse, whose town-hall was practically a

fortalice.

[Illustration: 219. TOWN-HALL OF PIENZA, ITALY (END OF THE FOURTEENTH

CENTURY)]

But by far the greater number of the infant communes were sunk in

poverty, and so overwhelmed with dues and taxes that they had no

margin for communal buildings.

In the fourteenth century even the commune of Paris could boast only

the most modest of town-halls. In 1357 Étienne Marcel, provost of

the merchants, bought from the collector of the salt-tax a small

two-gabled building which adjoined several private dwellings. We may,

therefore, conclude that down to this period the town-hall was in

nowise distinguished from an ordinary habitation.

At the close of the century Caen possessed a town-hall of four stories.

During the thirteenth century many new towns and communes had been

founded by the Crown, the nobles, and the clergy, the depositaries of

power in the Middle Ages.

In the North, Villeneuve le Roi, Villeneuve le Comte, and Villeneuve

l'Archevêque owed their existence, material and communal, to these

powers respectively.

In the South the war of the Albigenses had devastated and even

destroyed many cities. The authorities recognised the necessity of

repeopling the districts so cruelly decimated. The great nobles,

spiritual and temporal, reconcentrated the scattered population by

grants of lands for the building of new towns, and sought to establish

them permanently by apparently liberal concessions in the form of

communal franchises.

According to Caumont and Anthyme St. Paul, these new towns or

_bastides_ may be identified by their names, or by their regularity of

plan, or by both combined.

Certain names indicate a royal foundation or dependency, as Réalville

or Monréal; others point to privileges conferred on the town, as

Bonneville, La Sauvetat, Sauveterre, Villefranche, or even La Bastide,

and Villeneuve.

[Illustration: 220. TOWN-HALL AND BELFRY AT YPRES (BELGIUM)]

A third class borrow the names of French and occasionally of foreign

provinces or towns. Anthyme St. Paul gives a list of such in the

_Annuaire de l'archéologie française_,--Barcelone or Barcelonnette,

Beauvais, Boulogne, Bruges, Cadix, Cordes (for Cordova), Fleurance

(for Florence), Bretagne, Cologne, Valence, Miélan (for Milan), La

Française and Francescas, Grenade, Libourne (for Leghorn), Modène,

Pampelonne (for Pampeluna), etc.

A new town or _bastide_ is usually rectangular in plan, and measures

some 750 by 580 feet. Sauveterre d'Aveyron is an example. In the

centre is a square, into which a street debouches on each side,

thus dividing the town into four parts. The square is surrounded by

galleries or cloisters, of round or pointed arches, covered with a

timber roof or vault, with or without transverse arches, whence the

term _Place des Couverts_, still common in some Southern towns.

In the centre of the square stood the town-hall, the ground-floor

of which was used as a public market. Montréjeau is one of the

towns in which this regularity of construction is observed, also

Montpazier, the streets of which are lined with wide arcades of

pointed arches. Other examples are to be found at Eymet, Domme, and

Beaumont, Libourne, Ste. Foy, and Sauveterre de Guyenne, Damazan,

and Montflanquin, Rabastens, Mirande, Grenade, Isle d'Albi, and

Réalmont, etc. Several _bastides_ in Guyenne were founded by the

English. Finally, the lower town of Carcassonne, founded in 1247, and

Aigues-Mortes, founded in 1248, also belong to the class of _bastides_

or new towns.[72]

[72] See Part III., "Military Architecture."

"The series of Southern _bastides_, inaugurated in 1222 by the

foundation of Cordes-Albigeois, was brought to a close in 1344 by

a petition of the town-councillors of Toulouse, in answer to which

the king forbade any further settlements. Two hundred at least of

the _bastides_ still exist in Guyenne, Gascony, Languedoc, and the

neighbouring districts. Several of these were unprosperous, and are

still small villages. In some cases their close proximity tended

greatly to their mutual disadvantage."[73]

[73] Anthyme St. Paul, _Histoire Monumentale de la France_.

[Illustration: 221. MARKET AND BELFRY AT BRUGES (BELGIUM)]

[Illustration: 222. TOWN-HALL OF BRUGES (BELGIUM)]

It is worthy of remark that civil architecture had so greatly

developed by the fifteenth century as to react in its turn upon

the religious art to which it owed its birth. It gave to religious

architecture certain new forms, such as the elliptic arch, adopted at

the close of the fifteenth and throughout the following century, at

which period civil architecture reached its apogee.

The Southern communes preserved their franchises till the sixteenth

century, that disastrous era of religious warfare which involved the

destruction of innumerable buildings.

The town-hall of St. Antonin (Tarn et Garonne) is perhaps the only

surviving one of the period. With the exception of the belfry, it

is an almost perfect type of the architecture of this class in the

thirteenth century, to which date it may probably be assigned (Fig.

200).

The little town of St. Antonin, which had obtained its communal

charter in 1136, suffered much for its fidelity to Raymond VI., Count

of Toulouse. During the war of the Albigenses it was twice taken by

Simon de Montfort, whose son, Guy de Montfort, sold it to St. Louis in

1226. It was at this period, no doubt, that the present building was

erected. It has the characteristic feature of the civic monument, the

_belfry_, which, in the Middle Ages, was the architectural expression

of municipal authority and jurisdiction.

The building is a simple rectangular structure, over which the square

tower rises to the right. The ground-floor is a market, communicating

with an adjoining market-place, and with the narrow street which

passes under the belfry. The _grande salle_ or municipal hall

occupies the first story, together with a smaller apartment in the

tower. The second story is divided in the same manner.

[Illustration: 223. TOWN-HALL AT LOUVAIN (BELGIUM)]

We have already called attention to the far-reaching influence of

French art as manifested in religious architecture so early as the

close of the twelfth century. Such influences were no less paramount

in developments of civil architecture, and we find municipal

buildings of the fourteenth century in Italy--at Pienza and other

towns--in which not only analogies but points of identity with the

thirteenth-century example of St. Antonin are distinctly traceable.

The municipal buildings of the North, the most perfect types of which

are those of Germany and Belgium, are nearly uniform in plan. A belfry

rises from the centre of the façade, flanked right and left on the

first story by the great civic halls. The ground-floor is a market for

the sale of merchandise.

The cloth-hall of Ypres (so named since the construction of a new

town-hall in the seventeenth century) is one of the most beautiful of

such examples. The building was begun in 1202, but was not completed

till 1304. The façade measures 440 feet in length, and has a double

row of pointed windows. It terminates at each angle in a very graceful

pinnacle, and the centre is marked by a noble square belfry of vast

size, the oldest portion of the building, the foundation-stone of

which was laid by Baldwin IX. of Flanders in 1200.

The belfry of Bruges, which was begun at the close of the thirteenth

century, and completed some hundred years later, is another most

interesting example of the civic buildings of its period.

The structure consists of a market and the usual municipal halls,

crowned by the lofty belfry, the original height of which was 350 feet.

[Illustration: 224. BELFRY OF TOURNAI (BELGIUM)]

[Illustration: 225. BELFRY OF GHENT (BELGIUM)]

The _hôtel de ville_ or town-hall of Bruges, which replaced an

earlier municipal building in the _Place du Bourg_, dates from

between 1376 to 1387. Its architectural character differs entirely

from that of the belfry. Its elegant design and the richness of its

ornamentation give it the appearance rather of a sumptuously decorated

chapel than of a civic building.

We may close the list of Belgian town-halls of the fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries with that of Louvain. The design and general

scheme of elaborate decoration are akin to those of the hall of

Bruges, and it bears the same ecclesiastical impress.

It was built between 1448 and 1463 by _Mathieu de Layens, master

mason of the town and its outskirts_, and is a rectangular building

of three stories. The gable ends are pierced with three rows of

pointed windows, and adorned with a rich profusion of mouldings,

statues, and sculptured ornament. The steep roof has four tiers of

dormer-windows. The angles are flanked by graceful openwork turrets,

with delicate pinnacles, and similar turrets receive the ridge of the

roof at either end. The lateral façades are adorned with three rows of

statues and allegorical sculptures, covering the whole with a wealth

of exquisite tracery. Its lace-like delicacy has suffered considerably

from the action of weather, and it was found necessary to renovate a

considerable portion of the ornament in 1840.

_Belfries._--In the early days of the enfranchisement of the communes,

it became customary to call the community together by means of bells,

which at that period were confined to the church towers, and which it

was unlawful to ring without the consent of the clergy. It may easily

be conceived to what incessant broils the new order gave rise, the

clergy as a body being strongly opposed to the separatist tendency

of measures which attacked their feudal rights. The municipalities

finally put an end to internecine warfare in this connection by

hanging bells of their own over the town-gates, a custom which was

superseded towards the close of the twelfth and beginning of the

thirteenth century by the erection of towers for the civic bells. Such

was the origin of the _belfry_, the earliest material expression of

communal independence.

The structure usually formed part of the town-hall, but was sometimes

an isolated building. The isolated belfry was a great square tower of

several stories, crowned by a timber roof protected either by slates

or lead. The great bells hung in one story, and above them the little

bells of the carillon.

A lodging, opening upon a surrounding gallery, was constructed in the

upper story for the accommodation of the watchman, whose duty it was

to warn the inhabitants of approaching danger and to give notice of

fires. The bells rang at sunrise and curfew.

The chimes (_carillon_) marked the hours and their subdivisions, and

at festival seasons mingled their joyous notes with the deep and

solemn voice of the great bell.

The custom of tolling the great bell to give notice of a fire still

obtains in many villages of the North, the greater number of which

have preserved their belfries in spite of the modifications they have

undergone at different periods.

The belfry tower usually contained a prison, a hall for the

town-councillors, a muniment room, and a magazine for arms. It was

long the only town-hall of a commune.

[Illustration: 226. BELFRY AT CALAIS (FRANCE)]

We shall find examples of these early municipal buildings among the

isolated belfries of Belgium, such as that at Tournai, founded in

1187, and rebuilt in part at the close of the fourteenth century, and

that of Ghent, the square tower of which dates from the end of the

twelfth century. Its spire is a modern addition.

A few buildings of this particular class still exist in France.

Such is the belfry of Calais, the square tower of which was built

during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is crowned by an

octagonal superstructure, begun at the close of the fifteenth century,

and completed in the early years of the seventeenth. The belfry of

Béthune, which dates from the fourteenth century, is another. It

consists of a square tower reinforced at three of its angles by a

hexagonal turret, corbelled out from the wall. The fourth turret is

of the same shape, but here the projection is carried up from the

ground-floor, and contains the spiral staircase which communicates

with the various stories of the tower, and terminates on the embattled

parapet above. The building is completed by a pyramidal spire of great

elegance, crowned by the watchman's tower. The plan and details of

this superstructure proclaim it the source whence the gable turrets

of Louvain were derived. The great bells hang in the uppermost story,

the smaller ones of the carillon in the story below. On each façade at

the summit of the tower a great dial marks the hours, as was customary

from the fourteenth century onwards, when town-clocks first came into

general use.

The towns of Auxerre, Beaune, Amiens, Évreux, and Avignon still

possess their belfries.

To the belfry of Amiens, which dates from the thirteenth century, a

square dome was added some hundred years ago. But the great bell of

the fourteenth century has been preserved.

[Illustration: 227. BELFRY OF BETHUNE (FRANCE)]

[Illustration: 228. BELFRY OF ÉVREUX]

The belfry of Évreux retains its fifteenth-century character almost

in its entirety. That of Avignon, a monument of the close of the

fifteenth century, was happily spared when the town-hall was replaced

by a modern structure.

[Illustration: 229. BELFRY OF AVIGNON]

The gate-house of the _hôtel de ville_ at Bordeaux, known as the

_grosse cloche_, is an example of the more ancient usage. Here we

find the bell hung over the gateway, as already described. The belfry

of Bordeaux, which appears to date from the fifteenth century, is

very remarkable. It consists of two towers connected by a curtain

through which is an arched passage. A second arch protects the great

bell in the upper story, and the whole is surmounted by a central

roof, flanked right and left by the conical crowns of the lateral

turrets.

[Illustration: 230. BELFRY GATE AT BORDEAUX, KNOWN AS _LA GROSSE

CLOCHE_]

Markets, warehouses, and exchanges were often annexes of the

town-halls. A few examples of such buildings have been preserved, but

those of the third class are extremely rare. A specimen, remarkable

both for construction and decoration, which recall the Spanish

architecture of the fourteenth century, still exists at Perpignan. It

is a house known as _La Loge_, built in 1396, which originally served

as exchange to the cloth merchants of French Catalonia and Roussillon.

_Palaces._--In the Middle Ages the name palace was given to the

dwelling of the sovereign. Its chief feature was the basilica or

judgment-hall.

The great nobles followed the royal example and constructed palaces in

the capitals of their feofs, as at Dijon, Troyes, and Poitiers, which

are the most important of such examples.

The town-houses of archbishops and bishops were also called palaces.

The courts, parliaments, and tribunals of the executive were held

in the palace of the suzerain or the bishop, where certain of the

buildings were open to the public. The important feature, the great

hall (_grand salle_), occupied a vast covered space in which the

plenary courts were held, the vassals assembled, and banquets were

given. It communicated with galleries or ambulatories. A chapel was

always included in the plan of the palace, which consisted of the

lodging of the lord and his followers; offices, often of great extent;

rooms for the storing of archives; magazines, prisons, and innumerable

auxiliary buildings, divided by courtyards, and in some cases by

gardens.

[Illustration: 231. CLOTH HALL AT PERPIGNAN, KNOWN AS _LA LOGE_]

In Paris the palace proper, which was in the Île de la Cité, consisted

of buildings constructed from the time of St. Louis to the reign of

Philip the Fair. From the reign of Charles V. it was specially devoted

to the administration of justice.

The only remains of the buildings of St. Louis are the _Ste.

Chapelle_, the two great towers with their intervening curtain on the

_Quai de l'Horloge_, and the square clock tower at the angle of the

quay.

The best examples of seignorial castles are: Troyes, which was built

by the Counts of Champagne, and inhabited by them till they removed

to Provins in the thirteenth century; and the palace of the Counts of

Poitiers at Poitiers, one of the most interesting of such buildings;

it was burnt by the English in 1346, and repaired or rebuilt at the

close of the fourteenth century by the brother of Charles V., Jean,

Duke of Berry, to whom we owe, among other architectural works, the

curious fireplace of the great vestibule, called the _Salle des Pas

Perdus_, in the _Palais de Justice_.

[Illustration: 232. BISHOP'S PALACE AT LAON]

The bishops' palaces were differently planned. They usually adjoined

the cathedrals, with which they communicated either on the north

or the south, according to the facilities afforded by the site.

The characteristic symbol of episcopal power which, in the earlier

centuries of the Middle Ages, claimed jurisdiction both in spiritual

and temporal matters, was the great hall, in later days the synod

house and the council chamber of the executive. The bishop's palace in

Paris, rebuilt by Maurice de Sully in 1160, preserved this mediæval

feature, which is even more conspicuous at Sens, in the magnificent

annexe known as the _salle synodale_ (synod house).

[Illustration: 233. ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT ALBI. PLAN]

The canons' lodgings were also in close proximity to the cathedral,

but on the side opposite to the bishop's palace. They were surrounded

by an enclosure, the gates of which were fastened at night. It was

the duty of the canons to aid the bishop in his ministrations. They

lived together in annexes which communicated with the cathedral by

means of galleries and cloisters.[74]

[74] See Part II., "Monastic Architecture," the cloisters of

Puy-en-Velay and Elne in Roussillon.

The bishops' palaces were often remarkable for their elaborate

construction. Fragments of the primitive buildings are still preserved

in the palaces of Beauvais, Angers, Bayeux, and Auxerre.

[Illustration: 234. ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT ALBI. GENERAL VIEW]

The ancient episcopal palace of Laon[75] marks a development in

thirteenth-century architecture. It is a good example of that system

of construction by which the palace was connected with the city

ramparts and formed a secondary line of defence.

[75] The episcopate was transferred to Soissons in 1809.

This system was also adopted at Narbonne. At the close of the

thirteenth and during the fourteenth century the palace was

transformed into a fortress, the importance of which bore witness

to the power of its bishops. After Avignon, it is perhaps the most

imposing of episcopal dwellings.

From this time onward the bishops' palaces increased greatly in size,

their dimensions extending proportionately with those of the great

cathedrals of the period. The importance of the episcopal buildings

and their dependencies was on a par with the wealth and power of

their owners. Some idea of their magnificence may be gathered from

the private chapel of the archbishop at Rheims, which dates from the

middle of the thirteenth century.

[Illustration: 235. PALACE OF THE POPES AT AVIGNON. PLAN]

The archbishop's palace at Albi has all the character of a feudal

castle. Its buildings are protected by a keep, and encircled by walls

and towers connected both with the ramparts of the city, and with

that more important fortalice, the cathedral itself, the tower of

which is, in fact, a formidable keep.[76]

[76] See Part I., Cathedral of Albi, Figs. 70-73.

The transformation of church and palace into fortresses by an

elaborate system of defence was necessitated by the wars which ravaged

the district, and from which Albi suffered more cruelly than any other

town.

The palace of the popes at Avignon which Pope Benedict XII. began to

build in the fourteenth century, and the bishop's palace at Narbonne,

are among the finest specimens of ecclesiastical fortification in the

Middle Ages.[77]

[77] For the Palace of the Popes, see Albert Lenoir and Viollet-le-Duc.

The Popes, having established themselves at Avignon in the fourteenth

century, built a huge mansion on the rock known as the _Rocher des

Doms_, which overlooks the Rhone. In 1336 Benedict XII., having

destroyed his predecessor's palace, laid the foundations of the

immense fortified pile now in existence. The plans were the work of

the French architect, Pierre Obrier. The building was added to by

the successors of Benedict XII., Popes Clement VI., Innocent VI.,

and Urban V., and was completed, or at any rate made efficient for

defence, by 1398, when Pedro de Luna, who became pope under the title

of Benedict XIII., sustained a memorable siege therein.

The whole building, which covers a very considerable area, was

completed in less than sixty years. Its formidable mass was further

strengthened by the fortified _enceinte_ of the town, some three

miles in circumference.

In general conception, in the architectural skill of its construction,

and in its tasteful decoration, the Palace of the Popes at Avignon

bears away the palm from all contemporary buildings in Germany and

Italy, where French influences were paramount.

[Illustration: 236. PALACE OF THE POPES AT AVIGNON. GENERAL VIEW]

This noble monument is absolutely and entirely French. No finer

combination of religious, monastic, military, and civil types could

be desired in illustration of the art we have agreed to term _Gothic

Architecture_, but which might be more truly entitled: _Our National

Architecture in the Middle Ages_.

Justice indeed demands this tardy homage. Our vast churches, our

superb cathedrals, our mighty castles and palace fortresses, the

masterpieces that fill our museums--manifestations of artistic

power which should move us, not to servile imitation but to fruitful

study,--all were the creations of _native_ architects.

That expansive force which made our national art the great civilising

medium of the Middle Ages was derived from our own early architects,

civil and religious. The principles and practice of monumental art

were carried by French architects into all countries, though the

results of their teaching are more conspicuous in Italy and Germany

than elsewhere. Native builders and artists established the supremacy

of French art throughout Western Europe, and even in the East. And

though the foreign evolution, which marked the sixteenth century, did

indeed exercise a transient influence in France, it must be remembered

that the way had been prepared for this apparently novel movement by

those French artists who have carried the fame of our beloved country

throughout the civilised world.

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"The charm of the volume is heightened by nine illustrations

of some of the masterpieces of English art, and it would

not be possible to find a more captivating present for any

one beginning to appreciate the characters of the last

century."--_Academy._

MRS. THRALE, AFTERWARDS MRS. PIOZZI. By L. B. SEELEY, M.A.,

late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. With Nine Portraits on

Copper, after Hogarth, Reynolds, Zoffany, and others. Cloth, price 7s.

6d. Large Paper Edition (150 only), 21s.

"Mr. Seeley had excellent material to write upon, and he has

turned it to the best advantage."--_Pall Mall Gazette._

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE. Extracts from her Letters. Edited by

A. R. ROPES, late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. With

Nine Portraits on Copper, after Sir Godfrey Kneller and others. Cloth,

7s. 6d. Large Paper Edition (150 only), 21s.

"Embellished as it is with a number of excellent plates, we

cannot imagine a more welcome or delightful present."--_National

Observer._

LONDON: SEELEY & CO., LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND.

EVENTS OF OUR OWN TIME.

A New Series of Volumes dealing with the more important events of

the last half-century. Published at 5s. With Portraits on Copper or

many Illustrations. Library Edition, with Proofs of the Plates, in

Roxburgh, 10s. 6d.

THE REFOUNDING OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE. By Colonel MALLESON, C.S.I. With

Portraits and Plans, 5s. Large Paper Copies (200 only), 10s. 6d.

THE WAR IN THE CRIMEA. By Sir EDWARD HAMLEY, K.C.B. With Portraits

on Copper, of Lord Raglan, General Todleben, General Pelissier, Omar

Pasha, and the Emperor Nicholas; and with Maps and Plans.

"A well-written historical narrative, written by a competent

critic and well-informed observer of the scenes and events it

describes."--_Times._

THE INDIAN MUTINY OF 1857. By Colonel MALLESON, C.S.I. With

Portraits on Copper, of Sir Colin Campbell, Sir Henry Havelock, Sir

Henry Lawrence, and Sir James Outram; and with Maps and Plans.

"Battles, sieges, and rapid marches are described in a style

spirited and concise."--_Saturday Review._

*ACHIEVEMENTS IN ENGINEERING. By L. F. VERNON HARCOURT. With

many Illustrations.

"We hope this book will find its way into the hands of all

young engineers. All the information has been carefully

gathered from all the best sources, and is therefore perfectly

accurate."--_Engineering Review._

THE AFGHAN WARS OF 1839-1842 AND 1878-1880. By ARCHIBALD

FORBES. With Portraits on Copper, of Sir Frederick Roberts,

Sir George Pollock, Sir Louis Cavagnari and Sirdars, and the Ameer

Abdurrahman; and with Maps and Plans.

"Gives a spirited account both of the earlier and later

campaigns in Afghanistan."--_St. James's Gazette._

*THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAVIES DURING THE LAST HALF-CENTURY. By Captain

EARDLEY WILMOT. With many Illustrations.

"An admirable summary and survey of what is, perhaps, the

greatest series of changes in the methods and instruments of

naval warfare which the world has ever witnessed in a similar

period of time."--_Times._

Of Volumes so * marked there will be no Library Edition.

LONDON: SEELEY & CO., LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND.

Transcriber's Notes:

1. All obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected, also

hyphenation and accentuation.

2. Text in italics is shown as _text_.

3. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r.