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 UeSB LIBRARY
 
 AUNT ELINOR'S LECTURES 
 
 ^rct)itectuie.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GILEF.RT iV RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. johk's square.
 
 FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 \ 1 ^U^»^k^^J_ 
 
 North Transept, 
 "Winchester Cathedral.
 
 AUNT ELINOR'S LECTURES 
 
 ^tct)iUctute, 
 
 DEDICATKI) 
 
 TO THE LADIES OF ENGLAND, 
 
 Fall if ye must, ye Towers and Pinnacles, 
 With what ye symbolize; authentic story 
 Will say, ye disappear'd with England's glory. 
 
 Wo II DS WORTH. 
 
 - 0\DON : 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 SI. TAUL'S CHURCH YARD, 
 AM) WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MA 1. 1.. 
 
 MDCCCXLlir.
 
 C O N T E N T S. 
 
 Lecture Page 
 
 Introductory Letter 1 
 
 I. Architecture In general 8 
 
 II. English Church Architecture 22 
 
 Table showing the duration of the Stj'les of English Archi- 
 tecture 35 
 
 List of Technical Terms ib. 
 
 III. The Anglo-Norman Style, 1065— 1189 40 
 
 Anglo-Norman Churches in Sussex and Hants 51 
 
 IV. The Early- English Style, 1189— 1307 55 
 
 Early English Churches in Sussex 69 
 
 V. The Decorated Style, 1307—1377 75 
 
 Decorated Churches in Sussex 85 
 
 Decorated Churches in Hants 87 
 
 VI. The Perpendicular Style, 1377—1546 88 
 
 Perpendicular Churches in Sussex 99 
 
 Vll. Fonts and Altars 102 
 
 Vlll. Stained Glass 122 
 
 Illuminating Manuscripts 135 
 
 Conclusion 139 
 
 List of Works for Study 143
 
 AUNT ELINOH'S 
 LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Jntrotiuctorj) Eettcr. 
 
 MISS MONTAGUE TO THE REV. AUSTIN MONTAGUE. 
 
 Elminghurst Rectory, May 29, 1842. 
 
 My DEAR Austin, 
 
 1 AM determined to be the first to announce to you 
 that Aunt Elmor is coming before the world as an 
 authoress ! Here is the history of the event. No 
 doubt, you remember my telhng you last January 
 that Aunt had been so kind as to draw up some 
 Lectures on Architecture for the children's winter- 
 evenings' amusement. Our neighbours at the Hall 
 heard of them, and begged to be present at the read- 
 ings. I believe the Hall was imcommonly dull just 
 then. The Irbys were at Brighton, the Lortons at 
 Paris, and the only visitors at Elminghurst Hall were 
 that agreeable trio, Messrs. Harbottle, Hubert, and 
 Tantivy. Mr. Dalton used to hunt all day, and sleep 
 on the sofa after dinner, so the girls were glad of an 
 excuse to spend an evening at the Rectory. The
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 lectures were found so amusing, that Aunt Elinor 
 continued them all through the winter ; and the 
 Daltons were so much delighted with the study — 
 quite a new one to them — that they have had a mania 
 for antiquities ever since, Agatha has made sketches 
 of all the interiors, fonts, &:c. for miles round, and 
 Miss Dalton has nearly succeeded in persuading her 
 father to give up his pew, and consent to the open 
 sittings. Nay, more, as soon as "the Squire" gives 
 in, they mean to go with me to lay siege to the 
 churchwardens and Mr. Oakley, and try whether the 
 united voices of three yomig ladies will be able to 
 talk over the old farmers, and persuade them that 
 they might attend church just as profitably without 
 shutting themselves up in deal boxes. 
 
 But to return to Aunt Elinor and her book. Who 
 should appear at the Rectory-gate last Wednesday 
 but dear old Dr. Spelman ! He took the journey to 
 see the relics of the painted window, which were 
 found in the churchyard. He pronounces them very 
 fine, and says that, with patience and judgment, the 
 fragments may be put together again ; and Aunt 
 Elinor and Agatha Dalton have spent the last three 
 mornings in trying to arrange the pieces, under the 
 old antiquary's superintendence. The doctor asked 
 to see Aunt Elinor's Lectures, and was so much 
 pleased with them, that he insisted on their being 
 published ; and Aunt Elinor has at last consented. 
 She intends devoting the profits to the fund we are 
 trying to raise towards restoring the church ; the 
 parish will grant a rate for the necessary repairs, and
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 3 
 
 we must exert ourselves to treble or quadruple the 
 sum, in order to restore the church to any thing like 
 its pristine beauty. Agatha Dalton proposed a 
 bazaar ; but of course we would not hear of such a 
 thincr. I told you lonjy ajjo that Mr. Dalton had 
 given £20, and the girls £10 each, towards the re- 
 pairs ; but since they have read and thought so 
 much on ecclesiastical architecture and local history, 
 they are beginning to feel how small a sum that is to 
 offer out of their abundance, in comparison with the 
 generous deeds of their ancestors. The girls have 
 both doubled their own donation, and Catharine has 
 told me (in confidence) that she means to give the 
 sum she had intended to spend on a musical work- 
 box in addition. They mean to attack their father 
 on the subject, and to tell him that they will give up 
 the visit to Leamington he promised them this sum- 
 mer, if he will devote the sum it would cost to the 
 church ; and they are sure he will willingly do it, as 
 he detests going to watering-places, and would give a 
 good deal to escape fulfilling his promise. Is not 
 this a change in the Daltons, dear Austin, delightful 
 to witness ? 
 
 I must tell you an anecdote of our little Lucy, 
 which will delight you. She told me, as a great 
 secret, that she wanted to give to the church the £3 
 her godfather sent her, and wished me to tell papa of 
 it for her, and to beg him not to say any thing about 
 it to her, especially before the other children, because 
 it makes her " so red and trembling." 
 
 Long as this letter is growing, I must tell you of 
 
 R 5
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 my triumph in gaining over farmer Bull to our side 
 about the pews. xA-t the vestry meeting last week, 
 papa proposed to demolish the clerk's desk, (you 
 know what an unsightly thing it is,) and substitute 
 for it a stool and letturn. Nobody at first seemed 
 willing to oppose papa's project (though he saw by 
 their faces they thought it nonsensical). At last 
 farmer Bull suddenly rose, and exclaimed in a loud 
 voice, (pronouncing the a in the word change as if 
 there were no final e,) " I don't like change ! I won't 
 have change ! ! and there shan't be change ! ! ! " con- 
 cluding with an energetic thump on the table. Several 
 of the other farmers called him to order ; and Mr. 
 Bull, recollecting himself, apologized to papa for his 
 warmth. I must give it to you verbatim. " I couldn't 
 very well be disrespectful to you. Sir, seeing as there's 
 not a man in the 'varsal world — no, not the duke 
 hisself — I esteems and respects more than the rector 
 of Elminghurst."' After this amende honorable horn. 
 Mr. Bull, the other fanners ventured to say, that 
 though they would not oppose any alteration, if Mr. 
 ^Montague decidedly wished it, nevertheless and not- 
 withstanding, they would not pretend to say, but that 
 they thought it was putting the parish to a useless 
 expense, and that they disliked the new-fangled ways 
 of pulling the churches about, to make them look 
 pretty ! As papa thought a lecture on the sublime 
 and beautiful would be thrown away just then, he 
 resolved not to press the point for the present, and 
 leave Isaac Adams to continue a more prominent 
 object than the altar a little while longer.
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 When papa told us this, we began to be alarmed 
 for our favourite scheme of the open sittings. How- 
 ever, yesterday evening I went to see old Nanny 
 Ray, who, by the way, is better, and charged me to 
 send her duty to Master Austin when I wrote next, 
 and tell him she found the value of the " Bishop 
 Andrewes" he gave her more every day. I stayed 
 longer than I intended, and the sun was setting 
 as I crossed the brook-fields. There I encountered 
 Mr. Bull. He was surprised to see me so far from 
 home at that hour, and insisted on seeing me across 
 Walton Heath at least, though I had no fear myself. 
 I thought I would take the opportunity of trying my 
 eloquence upon him, and soon introduced the Arch- 
 deacon's remarks on the sad state of the interior of 
 our fine old church. Mr. Bull is not wanting in reli- 
 gious feeling, and it was ignorance, not stinginess, 
 which made him so averse to the proposed alterations. 
 I gave him a sketch of the rise and progress of the 
 pew system. I told him the date of the foundation, 
 repairing, and pewing of our church. I proved to him 
 that pews were an innovation, and very unchristian as 
 well as ugly articles. Finally, I described the con- 
 duct of the Puritans as detailed in the history of 
 Elminghurst ; their giving the font for a horse-trough 
 to the " Dalton Arms," from which degrading office 
 I reminded him that papa rescued it in his own 
 memory — their smashing all the beautiful painted 
 windows — tlieir turning the rector out of doors, and 
 putting a blacksmith in his place — their stealing the 
 comnmnion plate — and, finally, their erecting pews!
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 Farmer Bull's face showed he did not hear this tale 
 unmoved. When I came to that tragical part of the 
 history, of the rector's wife dying concealed in a loft 
 at Wood Farm, whilst her husband was in prison, 
 the farmer passed his hand across his eyes, and ex- 
 claimed, " The rascally villains ! hanging was too 
 good for them." As we came in sight of the church, 
 he said, " Thank you, Miss Margaret, for your story, 
 you've changed my notions altogether, and I'm not 
 too proud to own it. I shall never be able to 'bide 
 the sight of a pew again, and you may hurl down 
 mine to-night, if you please, and I'll pay my share 
 willingly towards the expense of the new-old sittings." 
 As Mr. Bull is the most influential farmer in the 
 parish, I think it is a great point gained. I must 
 really bring this letter to an end ; so believe me. 
 Dearest Austin, 
 
 Your affectionate Sister, 
 Margaret. 
 P. S. Will you send Aunt Elinor a sketch of the 
 fine Noi-man doorway you spoke of? She will also 
 be much obliged to you for any information respect- 
 ing the Somersetshire churches you can give her. Dr. 
 Spelman sends fifty kind messages to you. He says 
 he is half inclined to regret that your present curacy 
 suits you so well, as he w^ants to have you near him 
 in Devonshire ; but you, dear Austin, I know, would 
 never consent, for any selfish consideration, to quit a 
 spot where you are permitted to be useful, and where 
 the guiding hand of Divine Providence seems to have 
 led you.
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 2nd P. S. Agatha Dalton wants Aunt Elinor to 
 add two chapters on staining glass, and on embroider- 
 ing altar-cloths, fald-stools, &:c. ; as she thinks there 
 are many ladies who have the ability, time, inclina- 
 tion, and money, to execute such decorations, if they 
 did but know how to set about it. Give us your 
 advice on this point. 
 
 Rev. Austin Montague, 
 Kelvestone, Somerset,
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 " Firm was their faith, the ancient bands, 
 The wise of heart, in wood and stone ; 
 Who rear'd, with stern and tnisting hands, 
 The dark gi'ay towers of days unkno^^■n : 
 They fill'd those aisles with many a thought, 
 
 They bade each nook some truth recall, 
 The pillar'd arch its legend brought, 
 A doctrine came with roof and wall !" 
 
 British Magazine. 
 
 Architecture is the art of erecting edifices, whether 
 for worship, for habitation, for ornament, or for de- 
 fence. In these lectures, I shall confine myself to 
 English Ecclesiastical Architecture, which may 
 be considered as one branch of the style commonly 
 known by the name of Gothic. 
 
 However, for the sake of method, and for the 
 assistance of my juvenile hearers, I will first say a 
 few words on Architecture in general, and give a 
 slight sketch of the Classical Orders. 
 
 That architecture is of the first antiquity, is unde- 
 niable. The necessity of sheltering themselves from
 
 PLATE I. P. 
 
 DRUIDICAL. 
 
 Part cf a TemisV 
 
 ^ n n n f iTrnrrr 
 
 ' •■^ -U ■■g "111 ■ 
 
 £.£rly ■Wooden Temple. 
 
 Jevn-,- V. t... 
 
 Fart ci EriJiA-crt:- CLu.-^i:, 
 liorthamptonshire.
 
 LECTURE I. 9 
 
 the heat of the sun, and the inclemency of the wea- 
 ther, would at once suggest to mankind the idea of 
 architecture ; and in the course of time, that love of 
 order and beauty, which seems implanted by Almighty 
 God in almost every human heart (though circum- 
 stances may either increase or deaden it), would lead 
 them to improve the forms of their rude buildings, 
 and to add such decorations as struck their fancy. 
 But a few strokes of the pencil will say more on 
 this head than pages of description, and I refer you to 
 Plate I. for an idea of the rise and progress of archi- 
 tecture. The study of these engravings, with their 
 accompanying explanations, having given you a clear 
 notion of architecture considered as an art, I will 
 describe the Antique Orders, as they are called. 
 They are five, of which three were invented by the 
 Greeks, and two more were in use amiong the Romans. 
 The Grecian orders are the Doric, Ionic, and Corin- 
 thian ; the Roman orders — the Tuscan and Com- 
 posite. 
 
 The Greek orders may claim the double merit of 
 originality and perfect beauty, the Roman orders 
 being imitated from them, but without improving 
 upon them ; for whilst it is universally admitted, that 
 the Doric and Corinthian orders approach as near 
 perfection as possible, many critics of refined taste 
 object to the Tuscan and Composite. 
 
 Before describing the orders, it is necessary to 
 explain the technical terms which must occur even 
 in the simplest description. There are three grand 
 divisions in a complete order, viz. : —
 
 10 LECTURE I. 
 
 1. The Column. 
 
 2. The Pedestal, which supports the column. 
 
 3. The Entablature, the part immediately sup- 
 ported by the column. 
 
 These are again subdivided into three parts : — 
 
 1. The Pedestal, into base or lower mouldings — 
 dado or die ; the plain central space ; and sur-base, or 
 upper mouldings. 
 
 2. The Column, into base, shaft, and capital. 
 
 3. The Entablature, into architrave, frieze, and 
 cornice. 
 
 These parts are again subdivided ; but I shall, not 
 enter into further detail on this head, wishing to avoid 
 needless technicalities at the outset. 
 
 The five orders of Classical i\.rchitecture then are, 
 the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Com- 
 posite. 
 
 1. The Tuscan is without any ornament, and 
 remarkable for strength and massiveness. 
 
 2. The Doric is an order of peculiar grandeur, 
 uniting simplicity with dignity, and boldness with 
 grace. The Romans made such considerable altera- 
 tion in this order, that it must be divided into Grecian 
 and Roman Doric. 
 
 In Greece, the columns of this order were generally 
 placed on the floor without pedestal or base ; tlie 
 capital had no astragal, a, but a few plain fillets, h, under 
 the ovolo, c, and a small channel under the fillets. 
 On diis ovolo was laid the abacus, which was only a 
 plain tile. The ornaments (in Greece) peculiar to 
 the Doric were, the projecting intervals in the frieze,
 
 LECTURE I. 11 
 
 called triglyphs, with the guttse, or drops, (vide 
 Plate,) and the flutings of the column. The best 
 examples of Grecian Doric are, the Parthenon, or 
 temple of Minerva, at Athens ; the temple of Theseus 
 at Athens ; several other temples in Greece and 
 Sicily ; and the three famous temples at Paestum. 
 The Roman Doric I shall pass by, only remarking 
 that we have but one example of the Doric of an- 
 cient Rome, viz. the theatre of Marcellus, believed 
 to have been erected by Augustus. The style usually 
 called Roman Doric ought to be considered Italian 
 rather than Roman, being really the Doric worked by 
 modern Italian architects. 
 
 3. The distinguishing feature of the Ionic Order 
 is the capital, which has four spiral projections called 
 volutes, the idea of which is said to have been taken 
 from a ram's skull, placed at the top of a post, sup- 
 porting a roof (vide Plate). 
 
 The temple on the llissus at Athens Tnow destroyed) 
 was the most beautiful specimen of this order. The 
 aqueduct of Adrian is Ionic. 
 
 4. The rich and beautiful Corinthian is distin- 
 guished by the height of its capital, and the foliage and 
 volutes with which it is ornamented. The idea of the 
 Corinthian capital is said to have been taken from a 
 basket, with a tile on its top, which had been left in 
 a garden long enough for an acanthus plant to entwine 
 itself round it. The chief examples of Corinthian 
 are a portico, and the arch of Adrian, at Athens ; the 
 celebrated Sibyl's temple, at Tivoli ; and at Rome, 
 the temples of Vesta, Mars, and Antoninus ; the por-
 
 12 LECTURE I. 
 
 tico of Severus, the forum of Nerva, the baths of 
 Dioclesian, part of the Pantheon, and two temples of 
 Jupiter. 
 
 5. The Composite Order was formed from a mixture 
 of the Corinthian and Ionic capitals. The examples 
 of this order are the temple of Bacchus, the arch of 
 Septimius Severus, and the arch of the Goldsmiths, 
 all at Rome. The baths of Dioclesian, and the 
 arch of Titus, are a mixture of Corinthian and 
 Composite. 
 
 In and near Athens are some small edifices which 
 possess great beauty, though they do not belong to 
 any one of the five orders. They are the Choragic 
 monument of Thrasyllus, the temple of the "Winds, 
 the lantern of Demosthenes, and the temple of Pan- 
 drosus. Having finished this slifjht sketch of the 
 Classical Orders, I proceed to the main subject of our 
 inquiries, viz. : — 
 
 (2rn$Ii5l) (l?ftlr5ia^ttfal ^rrljiterture. 
 
 Those architects who endeavour to separate Church 
 architecture from Church principles, make a mistake 
 at the very outset, which does not fail to place an 
 immovable barrier to their attaining any thing like 
 perfection in their art. Bishop Berkeley, comparing 
 a church with the Christian faith, says, " The divine 
 order and economy of the one seems to be emble- 
 matically set forth by the just, plain, and majestic 
 architecture of the other : and, as the one consists of 
 a gi-eat variety of parts united in the same regular
 
 LECTURE I. 13 
 
 design, according to the truest art and most exact 
 proportion, so the other contains a decent subordina- 
 tion of members, various sacred institutions, sublime 
 doctrines, and soHd precepts of morality, digested into 
 the same design, and, with an admirable concurrence, 
 tending to one view, — the happiness and exaltation 
 of human nature." In a church every thing should 
 partake of a sacramental character, i. e. all external 
 things should have a hidden meaning; every part 
 should be a memorial of some great truth ; every 
 object that meets the eye should convey to the mind 
 a doctrine or a lesson. The wood and stone, which 
 the Gentiles rendered accursed by worshipping, may, 
 when blessed and consecrated by faith, be made to 
 speak of their Creator ; inanimate matter, when deli- 
 vered from the curse, which Adam's fall entailed on 
 the very dust of the earth, may join in the great 
 choir of the universe to celebrate the glory of God. 
 
 To those who look on a church as a building 
 raised to enable people to enjoy the eloquence of 
 popular preachers, the view I am taking of church- 
 building will appear fanciful, perhaps childish and 
 ridiculous : but to those who have accustomed them- 
 selves to a higher tone of thought, who can under- 
 stand Milton's 
 
 " Studious cloisters pale ;" 
 
 and Shakspeare's 
 
 " Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing ;" 
 
 whether they have any knowledge of ecclesiastical
 
 14 LECTURE I. 
 
 history or not, whether they possess the blessing of 
 minds trained in sound church principles or not, such 
 persons will not fail to enter into the beauty and 
 reasonableness of making every portion of a sacred 
 edifice emblematical of some point of Christian doc- 
 trine. The Churchman takes higher ground. He 
 does not rest his argument for the duty of construct- 
 ing churches on this principle, solely on the beauty 
 and self-evident propriety of such an idea. He 
 brings forward the example of the most famed ser- 
 vants of God among the chosen nation, and the testi- 
 mony of history to the practice of the Christian 
 Church ; argiunents which cannot be controverted, 
 except by those sects of dissenters who profess to 
 make religion wholly spiritual, and who reject ordi- 
 nances of every kind, even the blessed sacraments 
 instituted by our Redeemer. The examples of Moses, 
 of David, of Solomon, and of Ezra, will not be with- 
 out weight to reflecting minds. True, it may be 
 objected, that the law is not binding on us, and that 
 the saints of the old dispensation are not in every 
 respect models for Christians to imitate. Still we can- 
 not doubt that those parts of their characters, which 
 were peculiarly pleasing in God's sight, may be safely 
 copied to the end of time ; and zeal in offering the 
 most costly and precious of their substance to enrich 
 the sanctuary, is certainly always mentioned in terms 
 of the highest commendation. And, surely, when we 
 recollect that our Creator deigned not only to instruct 
 Moses in the general design of the tabernacle, but 
 even condescended to describe the subordinate details
 
 LECTURE I. 15 
 
 of the decorations, it is not for us to speak of the 
 smallest portion of the arrangement of a church as 
 beneath our attention. But to those who still fall 
 back upon our Christian liberty, and the different 
 spirit of the two dispensations, I would urge the 
 example of the early Christians. As soon as free- 
 dom from persecution allowed the Christians to build 
 churches, they constructed them on the following 
 plan : — 
 
 The church was built from west to east, its length 
 exceeding its breadth, and terminating in a semicircle. 
 This form was adopted to represent a ship, in refer- 
 ence to St. Peter's ship, from which our Saviour 
 taught the people, which was always considered a 
 type of the church. The early churches were divided 
 into three parts. First, the porch for catechumens 
 and penitents, — for those who were receiving the 
 church's teaching, and who might join in a portion of 
 her worship, but who had not yet been instructed in 
 that mysterious part of the Christian faith which 
 was so carefully veiled from the catechumens, viz. the 
 Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and for those who 
 were, whilst in penitence, forbidden to receive the 
 Holy Eucharist, and banished from the neighbour- 
 hood of the altar, till they had made satisfaction for 
 their sin. Next, was the body of the Church, or 
 the nave, for the communicants or perfect Christians, 
 as they were called : and still farther eastward was 
 the Sanctuary, containing the altar, and appropriated 
 to the clergy. 
 
 Each of these portions of the church was separated
 
 16 LECTURE I. 
 
 from the other two by a screen or a veil, to intimate 
 the reality and importance of the distinction which 
 they signified between the different classes of Chris- 
 tians. The altar was not at the extreme east end, 
 the throne of the bishop being behind it, so that he 
 sat facing both the altar and the people. The priests 
 sat on either side of the bishop, in a semi-circle. The 
 deacons stood in the presence of the presbyters. It 
 appears not improbable, that the most ancient of our 
 minsters were constructed with a view to this primi- 
 tive arrangement. 
 
 Bentham, in his " History of Ely," says, "That the 
 apsis (or semi-circle) was a feature of most of the 
 ancient Saxon churches. The eastern ends of Can- 
 terbury, Norwich, Peterborough, and Westminster, 
 are semi-circular or elliptical. At Canterbury the 
 patriarchal chair of stone, now removed into the 
 eastern chapel, called Becket's crown, formerly stood 
 in the space behind the altar. The name of Pres- 
 bytery is still given in some clmrches to the eastern 
 part of the choir, beyond the stalls. In the abbey of 
 St. Denis, in France, the choir still occupies a semi- 
 circle behind the altar. But, after all, it must be 
 acknowledged that we have no positive proof that 
 the apsis ever formed the chancel in England, and it 
 is quite certain that the choirs were arranged as at 
 present, that is, to the west of the altar, from a very 
 early period. Though the plan of the primitive 
 churches was tolerably uniform, there were particular 
 variations arising from peculiar circumstances, of 
 which the most frequent, and in its effects the most
 
 LECTURE 1. 17 
 
 lamentable, was the conversion of heathen temples 
 into churches. These, of course, could only be 
 adapted to their holy use, as they best might ; and 
 would, after all, be wanting in some of the more 
 beautiful features of Christian architecture. In all 
 those temples which were converted into churches, 
 and even in those churches which were erected, 
 though for the purpose of Christian worship, before 
 architecture was christianized, so to speak, there was 
 a struggle between the structure and character of the 
 fabric and its sacred use. A temple erected to the 
 honor of Jupiter, or of Venus, could not be supposed 
 very capable of assuming a Christian character, and 
 the parts and ornaments which had grown out of 
 idolatrous uses would be worse than unmeaning in a 
 Christian church. In proportion as the Pagan and 
 Classical Architecture answered the purposes for 
 which it was intended, it refused a happy adaptation 
 to the wants of the church ; and, of course, it 
 was not all at once that the builders of churches 
 emancipated themselves from the tyranny of hea- 
 then devices. The Byzantine architecture struggled, 
 but ineffectually, against these difficulties. It still 
 retained too much of the character of the orders 
 devoted to heathen usages. But there arose in the 
 west, in the middle ages — the dark ages, as we com- 
 placently call them — a style of architecture, grow- 
 ing in all its parts and chiiracters out of the wants of 
 the Church, and adapting itself to the expression of 
 the very things which the Church desires to express, 
 in all her methods of embodying herself to the eyes 
 
 c
 
 18 LECTURE I. 
 
 of the world, and to the hearts of her sons. And so 
 entirely did this style arise out of the strivings of the 
 Church to give a bodily form to her teaching, that it 
 seems to have clothed her spirit almost as if the 
 invisible things had put forth their energies unseen, 
 but powerful and plastic, and gathered around them 
 on all sides the very foiTns and figures which might 
 best serve to embody them to the eye of sense. A 
 Gothic church, in its perfection, is an exposition of 
 the distinctive doctrines of Christianity, clothed with 
 a material fomi, and is, as Coleridge has more forcibly 
 expressed it, ' the petrifaction of our religion.' The 
 greater mysteries concerning the divine object of our 
 worship are sjTnbolized in the fimdamental design of 
 the structure ; other Christian verities are set forth in 
 the minor arrangement, and in the ornamental details. 
 For instance : the mystery of the Holy and Undi- 
 vided Trinity, and the great doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment, are expressed in the greater elements of the 
 structure, in the ground-plan, and in the more im- 
 portant lines of elevation. Other articles, as the 
 Doctrine of Regeneration in Holy Baptism, and the 
 Commimion of Saints, find their expression in the 
 subordinate arrangements : and the precepts of the 
 moral law, with the promises and threatenings of the 
 Gospel, and some of the more important parts of 
 Ecclesiastical History, afford endless varieties of de- 
 corative details. Such is the Gothic, or, as it may 
 well be termed, the Ecclesiastical style of Architec- 
 ture, wliich is theological, ecclesiastical, and mystical 
 in all its parts and characters."
 
 LECTURE I. 19 
 
 The foregoing eloquent and forcible description of 
 Gothic architecture, and its origin, is, for the most 
 part, extracted from a work which has furnished 
 me with several valuable hints. It is curious and 
 not uninstructive to contrast its touching language 
 with that of the sneering, sceptical Horace Walpole, 
 who has also given us a short sketch of Gothic 
 architecture, and its origin \ The superficial phi- 
 losopher of Strawberry Hill was forced, by his 
 correct eye and refined taste, to bow down before the 
 sublimity of ecclesiastical architecture ; but he saw 
 only the outward sign — the true meaning, discerni- 
 ble only by the eye of faith and devotion, was hidden 
 from the view of the scoffing materialist. This con- 
 trast offers too another additional proof, that poetry 
 and truth are more closely connected than some 
 prosaic people are willing to allow. Horace Walpole, 
 with all his acuteness and his boasted common sense, 
 makes an absurd blunder as to the origin of Gothic 
 architecture. 
 
 "Who that considers the lives and writings of such 
 men as St. Gregory the Great, St. Otto, St. Anselm, 
 St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Richard 
 Bishop of Chichester, Thomas a Kempis, and many 
 more eminent saints of "the dark ages;" besides 
 hosts of less illustrious, but not less holy characters, 
 which one meets with in local histories, as bishops 
 
 ^ He asserts that we owe the awful character peculiar to 
 Gothic work, to the skill of an artful priesthood, who sought 
 by this means to gain power over the minds of men less crafty 
 than themselves. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 LECTURE I. 
 
 and builders of cathedrals, — who, I say, that examines 
 the characters of such men, can for a moment suppose 
 them capable of hypocrisy and artifice — of forming 
 deep-laid schemes of aggrandizing themselves, and 
 enslaving the people through the medium of their 
 senses to a system of religion which they knew to he 
 corrupt ? It would be easier to fancy Horace Wal- 
 pole humble and devout, than to imagine those 
 simple-minded and self-denying Christians ambi- 
 tious and scheming politicians. But we cannot de- 
 scribe what we do not understand. What syjnpathies 
 could the selfish and earth-bound virtuoso have with 
 the lofty natures of those holy men ? Consequently, 
 not being able to enter into the characters of those 
 whose motives he took upon himself to answer for, 
 he falls back upon his own fancy to form a theory, 
 which shall have some show of plausibility, and with 
 all his cant of liberality and love of truth, he displays 
 a mind warped by prejudice, and utterly miable to 
 discern the root of the matter he discourses of so 
 dogmatically. A person must be, himself, a devout 
 son of the Church, having sympathies with our pious 
 forefathers, and with the saints, who were altogether 
 beyond Horace Walpole's sphere, to be enabled to 
 judge and interpret fairly their views and intentions. 
 There can be, I think, no question, that those who 
 enter a fine cathedral without a lively faith, and a 
 reverential tone of mind, will see but a very small 
 portion of the astonishing sublimity and touching 
 beauty of the holy edifice. 
 
 I hope I have in this first Lecture given you a clear
 
 LECTURE 1. 21 
 
 idea of Architecture in general, and of the peculiar 
 character you must expect to find in Ecclesiastical 
 Architecture. In my next Lecture, I shall enter upon 
 the technical details of English Church Architecture.
 
 LECTURE 11. 
 
 " Where'er I I'oam in this fair English land. 
 The vision of a temple meets my eyes : 
 IModest without ; within, all glorious rise 
 Its love-enclustered columns, and expand 
 Their slender ai*ms. Like olive-plants they stand, 
 Each answering each, in home's soft sjTapathies, 
 Sisters and brothers. At the altar sighs 
 Parental fondness, and with anxious hand. 
 Tenders its offering of young vows and prayers. 
 The same and not the same, go where I will, 
 The vision beams ! ten thousand shrines all one. 
 Dear fertile soil ! What foreign culture beai's 
 Such fruit ? And I through distant climes may run 
 My weai"j- round, yet miss thy likeness still." 
 
 Lyra Apostolica. 
 
 I TRUST I have succeeded in giving you a clear idea 
 of architecture in general, and of the tone of feeling 
 with which Ecclesiastical Architecture should be stu- 
 died. Let us now proceed to take a survey of the 
 progress of the art of building in this island from the 
 earliest period. We have no clear account of the 
 architecture of the ancient Britons before the Roman
 
 THE CLASSICAL OF.DERJ 
 
 ■^i — I 
 
 11^-
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 23 
 
 invasion; but Stonehenge alone affords ample proof 
 that the Druids expended art and labour on their 
 stupendous temples. There is, however, no attempt 
 at anything like elegance in the mighty monuments 
 of their mechanical skill which remain to us. They 
 consist merely of huge stones, two standing upright, 
 and another placed horizontally across them, forming 
 an impost, arranged in circles and ovals. The Romans, 
 of course, introduced their own architecture into Bri- 
 tain. Many Roman remains are still to be seen, but 
 Lincoln gate is perhaps the only specimen which is 
 still used for the purpose for which it was originally 
 designed. The greatest part of the Roman work dis- 
 covered in England is rude, and very inferior to the 
 antiquities of Greece and Italy. The age of purity in 
 the Roman architecture reaches down to several of the 
 earlier emperors ; but very soon a profusion of orna- 
 ment was introduced, w^hich led the way to something 
 like debasement of composition. The palace of Dio- 
 cletian, at Spalatro, the date of which may be consi- 
 dered from A. D. 290 to 300, displays, amidst a 
 profusion of ornament, a poverty of composition, and 
 combinations of mouldings in a most barbarous taste, 
 quite wonderful as being the work of architects who 
 had before their eyes such models as remain to tliis 
 day at Rome. This same palace of Diocletian con- 
 tains, it is curious to observe, the ornament so pro- 
 fusely used in Norman buildings, viz. the zig-zag 
 moulding. Constantine the Great (who died a.d. 337) 
 erected the church of St. Paul witliout the walls of 
 Rome, a composition wliich closely resembles a Nor-
 
 24 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 man building, and proves that the heavy early 
 Norman style was merely an imitation of the Roman. 
 When the Romans left the island, it is most likely 
 that the Britons endeavoured to imitate the Roman 
 work without being able to execute it on principle, 
 and thus their architecture became debased into the 
 Saxon and early Norman, intermixed with orna- 
 ments perhaps introduced by the Danes. After the 
 Conquest, the rich Norman barons, erecting magnifi- 
 cent castles and churches, the execution manifestly 
 improved, though the style still resembled the Roman 
 mode debased. 
 
 The introduction of shafts instead of the massive 
 pier first led to an approach to that lighter mode of 
 building which, by the introduction of the pointed 
 arch, and by an increased delicacy of execution and 
 boldness of composition, ripened at the close of the 
 twelfth century into the simple yet beautiful early 
 English style. 
 
 In the course of another century, the early English 
 became the Decorated Style, so called from the 
 general use of flowered ornaments and the increased 
 richness of the windows, which were divided by 
 mullions, and decorated with flowing tracery. This 
 style has been pronounced by some critics to be the 
 perfection of the English mode. The flowing lines in 
 the tracery of the windows were very diflficult to 
 execute, and towards the close of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, we find these flowing lines giving way to per- 
 pendicular and horizontal ones, the use of which 
 continued to increase till the arches were almost
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 lost in a continued series of pannels. In one building, 
 viz. King Henry the Seventh's chapel, thick pan- 
 nelling covered completely both the outside and 
 inside, fatiguing the eye by a constant repetition of 
 small parts, which seeks in vain for the bold gran- 
 deur of design, so nobly conspicuous in the preceding 
 style. This florid mode is called the Perpendicular 
 Style. 
 
 The Reformation seems to have put an end to church 
 building. Conventual churches were rifled ; the funds 
 originally given by the founders for the purpose of 
 keeping these magnificent structures in repair, were 
 bestowed by the king on his favourites, and a ten- 
 dency to despise all external pomp of worship became 
 general. Horace Walpole tells us that " the Gothic 
 taste remained in vogue till towards the end of the 
 reign of Henry VHI." Henry the VHth's chapel is 
 entirely of that style : so is Wolsey's tomb-house at 
 Windsor. But soon after the Grecian style was 
 introduced by the Italians entertained in the king's 
 service. But they either were wanting in pure taste 
 themselves, or were not allowed to introduce so great 
 an innovation all at once. The classical style was 
 jumbled together with the Gothic, in a most barbarous 
 manner. Regular columns with ornaments, neither 
 Grecian nor Gothic, and half embroidered with 
 foliage, were crowded over frontispieces, facades, and 
 chimneys, setting order and purity of style at defiance. 
 This mongrel architecture lasted till late in the reign 
 of James I. The square-pannelled and mullioned 
 windows, with the wooden-pannelled roofs and walls
 
 2G ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of the great houses of the time of queen EHzabeth, 
 seem rather a debased Enghsh than any regular style. 
 It is not, however, without its charms for secular 
 builchngs, and few objects are more delightful to the 
 eye than the interior of a large and well kept up hall, 
 in a fine Elizabethan mansion, with its great mul- 
 lioned windows filled with stained glass ; its gigantic 
 entrance door ; its carved-stone mantelpiece ; its deco- 
 rations of family portraits, armour, swords, armorial 
 bearings, and antlers, carved tables and chairs, and 
 splendid old china ; its spacious and richly-orna- 
 mented staircase, seen partially perhaps at one 
 end ; its venerable and solid-looking stone pave- 
 ment ; and its lofty and rich open roof, the crowning 
 beauty of the whole. In the reign of James I. the 
 Italian style rapidly became popular. The banquet- 
 ing-house at Whitehall seems to mark the complete 
 introduction of Roman workmanship. The tower 
 of the schools at Oxford is a specimen of the debased 
 English mentioned above. We find there the five 
 Classical Orders crowded over each other into a 
 building, with pinnacles and mullioned windows ! 
 
 Some of the works of Inigo Jones are little removed 
 from barbarism. This architect, during his residence 
 at Venice and in other parts of Italy, had acquired a 
 love for the Roman architecture, and during the 
 reign of James I. he built Whitehall and St. Paul's 
 church, Covent Garden, and was employed in making 
 a Grecian front to the old St. Paul's cathedral. 
 Archbishop Laud adorned his own college at Oxford 
 (St. John's) with an additional quadrangle, which
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 was completed after designs by Inigo Jones, in 1635, 
 at a cost of 5000/. The seventeenth century produced 
 a man who ranks as the greatest of our modem archi- 
 tects, Sir Christopher Wren. This remarkable man 
 was the son of the Rev. C. Wren, dean of Windsor, 
 and was bom at Knoyle, in Wilts, in 1632. He stu- 
 died at Wadham College, Oxford, where he took the 
 degree of Master of Arts in 1653, and afterwards 
 became a fellow of All Souls. When very young he 
 showed a genius for mathematics, and had made great 
 progress in that science before he reached the age of 
 sixteen. In 1657 he was made professor of astro- 
 nomy at Gresham College, and his lectures were much 
 admired. One subject of his lectures was the telescope, 
 to the improvement of which he had greatly contri- 
 buted. He also lectured on the atmosphere. About 
 the year 1658 he resolved the problem proposed by 
 Pascal to all the English mathematicians, and re- 
 turned another to the mathematicians in France, to 
 which they never gave any solution. It is recorded 
 of him, that he proposed several methods by which to 
 account for the shadows returning backwards ten 
 degrees on the dial of king Ahaz, by the laws of 
 nature, an attempt which is to be looked at with sus- 
 picion, considering the irreverent spirit of the age in 
 which he lived. In 1661 (having just been created 
 LL.D.) he was sent for from Oxford by order of 
 king Charles the Second, to assist Sir J. Denham, sur- 
 veyor-general of the works, as he was celebrated for 
 possessing considerable skill in architecture. In 
 1665 he went to France, to examine the public build-
 
 28 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 ings and mechanical works of that country : we are 
 told he made many useful observations. It is to be 
 presumed, however, that he paid more attention to 
 the palaces than to the churches of France. Sir 
 Christopher Wren was undoubtedly a man of genius, 
 but he lived in times even more unfavourable than 
 our own to church principles, and, consequently, to 
 poetic feeling and lofty aspirations. It is worthy of 
 remark, that in an age of luxury and irreligion there 
 is always a tendency to admire and imitate Pagan 
 art. We see it in the times of those popes and car- 
 dinals of the middle ages, whose self-indulgence and 
 luxury brought down upon the Catholic church a 
 chastisement, sent, we may hope, as a merciful 
 correction as well as a judgment. We see it in the 
 vicious age of Louis Quatorze, and his predecessor 
 and successor, and in that of his contemporary, our 
 o\\Ti Charles II. The cold and irreverent pohtical 
 religion of the next age was equally unfavourable to 
 Christian art; and I suppose it will be generally 
 allowed, that the money-making, steam-going, self- 
 sufficient nineteenth century has produced an atmo- 
 sphere in which poetry can hardly breathe. 
 
 Of the classical mania of republican France I do 
 not speak. In open and undisguised infidels such a 
 taste is perfectly consistent. But it is difficult to 
 understand the feeling which makes persons, who 
 are, without doubt, sincere believers in Christianity, 
 gaze with more pleasure on a Greek temple than on 
 the noblest Gothic cathedral, make the heathen 
 authors their companions and solace, and leave the
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 29 
 
 holy fathers for ever closed. Will they say that a 
 Gothic church is not a mighty work of art, as well as 
 an appeal to our loftiest and best feelings ? Will they 
 pronounce St. Clement and St. Chrysostom wanting in 
 originality and imagination ? Will they deny to St. 
 Ambrose an exquisite poetic feeling ; and to St. 
 Austin agi-asp of mind, and a metaphysical acuteness, 
 seldom equalled, and never surpassed? But I have 
 wandered from my subject, though not so much as 
 you may fancy, since my object is as much to make 
 you feel the intimate connexion between catholicity 
 and the loftiest works of art, as to make you familiar 
 with the various styles of church building. 
 
 To return to Sir C. Wren. After the great fire of 
 London, he made a design for rebuilding the city on 
 a uniform plan, which was rejected by parliament. 
 After the death of Sir J. Denham, Wren had the 
 direction of the public buildings, to be raised in conse- 
 quence of the fire. He built St. Paul's, the Monu- 
 ment, part of Hampton Court, Chelsea College, one of 
 the wings of Greenwich Hospital, the churches of 
 St. Stephen Walbrook and St. Mary-le-Bow, with 
 upwards of sixty other churches and public works. 
 He also built the theatre at Oxford. In 1674 he 
 was knighted, and in 1680 chosen president of the 
 Royal Society. Sir Christopher sat twice in parlia- 
 ment. He died in 1723, at the age of ninety-one, and 
 was buried with great solemnity in St. Paul's cathe- 
 dral, in the vault under the south wing of the choir 
 It seems scarcely fair to omit all mention of the 
 metropolitan cathedral, in a book professing to treat
 
 30 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of Church Architecture ; yet St. Paul's, not belonging 
 to the style properly called Ecclesiastical, cannot be 
 described in the plan I have adopted. I think, 
 however, it is allowable to give you a slight sketch 
 of our national church in this place, and with it I 
 shall close this lecture. 
 
 St. Paul's cathedral stands in the very centre and 
 most elevated part of the city of London. The edi- 
 fice is built of fine Portland stone, and on the plan of 
 a Latin cross, a form which expands easily to the eye 
 of the spectator, and exhibits its beautiful combina- 
 tions at one view. The whole length of the church 
 with its portico is 500 feet, and the circumference of 
 the building is 2292 feet. At the intersection of the 
 nave and transept rises a magnificent dome, from the 
 top of which springs a lantern, surmounted by a 
 gilded ball and cross. 
 
 The architectural elevation of this grand edifice 
 consists of two orders, the lower one Corinthian, the 
 upper one Composite. Architectural critics object 
 to the body of the church being divided into two 
 equal orders, instead of an attic only being added, as 
 in St. Peter's, at Rome. The surface of the building 
 being crowded with festoons, &:c. is another great 
 defect. The cathedral was not built after Sir Chris- 
 topher Wren's original design, though the great 
 architect himself preferred it to the one afterwards 
 adopted. In the first design the whole fabric con- 
 sisted of one order only. The lower division of 
 the western portico is composed of twelve coupled 
 columns, of the Corinthian order, on a basement,
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 31 
 
 formed by a double flight of steps of black marble, 
 and the upper of only eight columns, supporting an 
 entablature and pediment, the tympan of which is a 
 bas relief, representing the Conversion of St. Paul, 
 the patron saint of the church, sculptured by Bird. 
 On the apex of the pediment is a colossal statue of 
 St. Paul, and at the extremities are figures of St. 
 Peter and St. James. The dome, the most remark- 
 able and magnificent feature in the building, is uni- 
 versally allowed to possess great beauty and dignity. 
 The nave and choir of the cathedral are each flanked 
 by three arches, springing from piers, which are 
 strengthened as well as decorated on their inner 
 faces by Corinthian pilasters, crowned by an entabla- 
 ture. Mr. Gwilt, an architect, who has written a 
 description of St. Paul's, admits that Wren was a 
 consummate mechanician ; but will not allow him to 
 be equally great as an architect. The conical wall 
 between the inner and outer domes, upon which the 
 stone lantern, of enormous weight, is supported, displays 
 great mechanical skill ; but is open to criticism on 
 other accounts. The interior of the cupola is painted 
 in two colours by Sir James Thomhill, representing, 
 in eight compartments, the chief events of St. Paul's 
 life. The dome is pierced, and through it a vista is 
 carried up to the small dome, in which the cone ter- 
 minates. The whole height seen through the opening 
 forms a point of view of singular beauty and fascina- 
 tion. The choir screen is a Corinthian colonnade, 
 supporting a gallery for the organ, and bears the 
 following tribute to the memory of the architect : —
 
 32 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 SUBTUS. CONDITUR. HUJUS. ECCLESI^. ET. URBIS. CONDITOR. 
 CHRISTOPHORUS. WREN. QUI. VIXIT. ANNOS. ULTRA. NONA- 
 GINTA. NON. SIBl. SED. BONO. PUBLICO. LECTOR. SI. MONUMEN- 
 TUM. REQUIRIS. CIRCU3ISPICE. 
 
 " Underneath lies the builder of this church and city, Chris- 
 topher Wren, who lived beyond ninety years, not for himself, 
 but for the public. Reader, if you ask for his monument, look 
 around." 
 
 On each side of the choir is a range of fifteen 
 stalls, exclusive of the bishop's throne on the south 
 side, and a stall for the Lord Mayor on the north. 
 The pulpit was erected about 1802. The letturn 
 is a brass eagle, richly gilt. The apsis or tribune 
 is the semi-circular termination to the choir, and is 
 enriched with pilasters, painted in imitation of lapis 
 lazuli — objectionable, as nothing that is not true and 
 real should be admitted into the decorations of a 
 church. Real marble, of a less costly kind, would 
 be preferable to an ornament which affects to be 
 what it is not. 
 
 In the year 1773 a design was formed for deco- 
 rating the cathedral with the works of our most emi- 
 nent painters and sculptors, when the president and 
 members of the Royal Academy offered to fill some 
 of the compartments with pictures, without charge 
 but the scheme, though approved by the king, was 
 objected to by the Archbishop (Comwallis), and the 
 Bishop of London, as savouring of popery ! It is sur- 
 prising that these prelates did not propose taking down 
 the bas relief of the Conversion of St. Paul, and espe- 
 cially the images of St. Paul, St. James, and St. Peter, 
 on the outside. About the year 1793 (Archbishop
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 33 
 
 Cornwallis having been succeeded by Arclibishop 
 Moore), it was proposed to break the monotony of tlie 
 interior of the cathedral, by the admission of national 
 monuments, in honour of eminent men. Howard, the 
 philanthropist, and Dr. Johnson, were the first to 
 whom monuments were raised in St. Paul's. Sir W. 
 Jones and Sir Joshua Reynolds followed. The 
 expenses attending the erection of the cathedral 
 were defrayed by a tax on sea-coal imported into 
 London, the amiual proceeds of which were some- 
 times less than the yearly charges for materials and 
 labour. The deficiency was supplied by voluntary 
 contributions, and by the sale of the old materials. 
 The whole expense of erecting the edifice, deducting 
 the money spent in attempts to repair the old cathe- 
 dral, was 736,752/. 25. 3d. The foundation-stone of 
 St. Paul's was laid by Sir C. Wren, on the 21st of 
 June, 1675. In ten years the walls of the choir and 
 aisles were finished, together with the northern and 
 southern porticos, and the great piers of the dome 
 were brought to the same height. 
 
 The choir of the church was first opened for divine 
 service on occasion of the thanksgiving for the peace 
 of Ryswick, Dec. 2, 1697. Service was first per- 
 formed in the morning prayer chapel, on the soutli 
 side of the church, Feb. 1, 1699, and in 1710 the 
 highest and last stone on the top of the lantern was 
 laid by Mr. C. Wren, son of the architect, in the 
 presence of Mr. Strong, principal mason, and others 
 who had been employed in the execution of the work. 
 Thus the church of St. Paul's was completed in the 
 
 D
 
 34 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 period of five and thirty years, under the superin- 
 tendence of one architect, under the direction of one 
 principal mason, and during the occupation of the see 
 of London by one bishop : and it has received no 
 alteration or addition since its original erection. In 
 this respect the metropolitan church affords a strong 
 contrast to our ancient cathedrals, as they were gene- 
 rally founded by one man (frequently the Bishop), 
 carried on by another, completed by another, and 
 enlarged, beautified, and adorned by succeeding bene- 
 factors. Yet in most instances we find that unity of 
 feeling and taste enabled these various architects who 
 built at different periods, to carry on the work with 
 due attention to harmony and propriety, and the 
 alterations and improvements in style, which were 
 struck out in the course of time, seem for the most 
 part to have arisen gradually and naturally, and 
 harmonize with the original design instead of shock- 
 ing the eye by gross incongruities, as modem addi- 
 tions to ancient churches generally do. 
 
 My next Lecture will be devoted to a particular 
 description of the Norman style, and I shall leave you 
 in the meantime the subjoined Table, w^hich I advise 
 you to get by heart, and a list of technical terms 
 with explanations, which you must be quite familiar 
 with before our next meeting.
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 35 
 
 TABLE SHOAVING THE DURATION' OF THE STYLES OF 
 
 ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 William I. . . . 
 William II. . . . 
 
 Henry I 
 
 Stephen .... 
 Hem-y II. 1154 to 
 
 Richard I. . . . 
 
 .John 
 
 Henry III. . . . 
 Edward I. 1272 to 
 
 10G5- 
 
 lon: 
 
 1100 
 1135 
 118.9. 
 
 >5-| 
 
 Anglo- 
 Norman 
 
 1189^ 
 
 1199 1 Earlv 
 
 1216 r English 
 
 13071 
 
 Edward II. . . . 
 Edward III. 1325 to 
 
 13071 Decorated 
 1377/ English 
 
 Richard II. 
 Henry IV. 
 Henry V. . 
 Henry V^I. 
 Edward IV. 
 Edward V. 
 Richard III 
 Henrv VII. 
 Henry VIII. 1509 to 
 
 1377> 
 
 1309 
 
 1412 
 
 1422 
 
 1460 
 
 1483 
 
 1483 
 
 1485 
 
 1546y 
 
 Perpendi- 
 ' cular 
 Endish 
 
 Prevailed little more 
 than 124 years, no re- 
 mains REALLY KNOWN 
 
 to be more than a few 
 yeare older than the 
 Conquest. 
 
 /Prevailed about 118 
 \_ years. 
 
 ^Continued perhaps 10 
 J or 15 years later. 
 1 Prevailed little more 
 t than 70 years. 
 
 SFe w, if any Avhole build- 
 ings, executed in this 
 St vie later than Henry 
 VIII. 
 This style used in ad- 
 I ditions and rebuild- 
 I ing, but often much 
 I debased, as late as 
 V 1630 or 1640. 
 
 LIST OF TECHNICAL TERMS. 
 
 Cathedrals and large churches are usually built in 
 the form of a cross. The eastern part of the cross is 
 the Choir. The western part the Nave. The part 
 running north and south, the Cross or Transept. The 
 Lady Chapel is a space beyond the altar. The 
 Screen is a frame-work, generally richly carved, 
 placed at the west-end of the choir. The th visions 
 beyond the piers are Aisles. The Choir is the part 
 immediately in front of the altar, and does not extend 
 beyond the piers, nor include the side aisles leading
 
 36 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 to the Lady Chapel. Chapels are attached to all 
 parts, and are frequently additions. The Font is 
 generally placed at the west-end, and ought never 
 to be placed far from the entrance to the church, 
 that position being emblematical of Baptism being 
 the door to Christ's Church. In some ancient churches 
 the font is placed outside the door, in a sort of chapel 
 erected over it, called the Baptistery. The Porch 
 is a small building attached to the door. In large 
 churches the doors are generally at the west end ; in 
 small ones often at the north and south sides. 
 Cloisters are a covered walk, forming originally the 
 chief means of communication between the various 
 parts of the monastery attached to the church. They 
 generally form a quadrangle, inclosing an open space 
 in the centre. In general one side of the cloisters is 
 joined to the church, the others consist of a series of 
 open arches, through which the central space is 
 visible. The Chapter-House is a room where the 
 ecclesiastics, forming what is called the Chapter 
 in monastic and cathedral institutions, meet on parti- 
 cular occasions. Piers are the walls in the interior 
 between the arches. A Steeple is a building above 
 the roof: if it be square-topped it is a Tower. A 
 Lanternis a short tower of light work. An opening into 
 the tower in the interior above the roof, is also called 
 a Lantern. Turrets are towers of great height, in 
 proportion to their diameter, often containing stair- 
 cases. A Spire is a tall tower, tapering to a point. 
 Buttresses are the projections at the corners of the 
 building, and between the windows. Set-offs are the
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 37 
 
 mouldings and slopes which divide them into stages. 
 A Parapet is the crowning part of the walls when 
 plain ; if indented it is a Battlement. Macchicola- 
 tions are openings in the battlements of castellated 
 work, for the purpose of discharging missiles. Arches 
 are either round, pointed, or mixed. A Semi-circular 
 Arch has its centre in the same line with its spring. 
 A Segmental Arch has its centre lower than the 
 spring. A Horse-shoe Arch has its centre above the 
 spring. Pointed Arches are either Equilateral, or 
 Drop Arches, or Lancet Arches. An Equilateral 
 Arch is described from two centres, the whole breadth 
 of the arch from each other, and form the arch about 
 an equilateral triangle. The Drop Arcli has a radius 
 shorter than the breadth of the arch, and' is described 
 about an obtuse-angled triangle. A Lancet Arch 
 (lias a radius longer than the breadth of the arch, and 
 is described about an acute-angled triangle. All 
 these arches may be of the nature of segmental 
 arches, and have their centres below their springs. 
 Mixed Arches are of three centres, which look nearly 
 like elliptical arches ; or of four centres, commonly 
 called the Tudor Arch ; this is flat for its span, and 
 has two of its centres in or near the spring (or point 
 from which the arch springs), and the other two 
 far below it. The Oyee or Contrasted Arch has four 
 centres. Spandrells are the spaces included between 
 the arch and the square outside it. Mullions are the 
 upright divisions in windows. Transoms are the hori- 
 zontal divisions of windows or pannelling. Tracery is 
 the ornamental divisions at the heads of windows, &c.
 
 38 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 When the lines branch out into leaves, arches, &'C. the 
 tracery is said to be flowing — when the mullions are 
 continued throughout, it is said to be perpendicular. 
 Featherings are small points ornamenting the parts 
 of tracery. Cusps are little arches in the tracery. 
 According to their number they are called Tre- 
 foils, Quatrefoils, Cinquefoils. Double feathering is 
 when the Cusps are feathered again. Tablets are 
 small projecting moiddings, or strings, mostly hori- 
 zontal. Cornice is the tablet at the top under the 
 battlement. Basement is that at the bottom. Drip- 
 stone is the tablet that runs round doors and windows. 
 When ornamented it is called a Canopy. Bands 
 are small strings round shafts, or a horizontal line of 
 square, round, or other paimels, used to ornament 
 towers, spires, &:c. Niches are small arches sunk in 
 walls, often ornamented very richly with canopies, 
 and intended to hold images. A Corbel is an orna- 
 mented projection from the wall, to support an arch, 
 beam, niche, or other weight ; it is generally a figure 
 or head, an angel holding a shield, Sec. Pinnacle is 
 a small spire, generally four-sided and ornamented ; 
 it is placed on the tops of buttresses, both external 
 and internal. Crockets are the small bunches of 
 foliage ornamenting pinnacles and canopies. Finials 
 are the larger bunches on the top. Stalls are seats 
 for the dean, canons, and other dignitaries, in the 
 choirs of collegiate churches. The Throne is a rich 
 seat for the bishop. 
 
 Tabernacle ivork is the ornamented open work 
 at the top of the stalls, and behind the altar, and any
 
 ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 39 
 
 minute fret-work in general. The Rood-loft is a 
 screen, with a large projection on the top to hold 
 images \ placed between the nave and chancel, 
 Sedilia are stone stalls on tlie south side of tlie altar, 
 cut out of the wall, designed for the deacons or 
 priests assisting at the Holy Eucharist. They vary 
 in number from one to five, but three is the usual 
 number. The Piscina is a stone basin (having a 
 small liole at the bottom to carry off water), where 
 the priest washed his hands before he approached the 
 altar. In some old churches it is a rude niche, in 
 others much ornamented with canopy and pinnacles. 
 The Credence or Credentia is a ledge (generally 
 within the same niche as the Piscina), intended as a 
 place for the elements before their consecration. 
 Stoups are small niches with basins, intended for 
 holy water. The Crypt is a vaulted chapel under 
 the church. 
 
 ^ The Crucifix or Rood, with its attendant Images of the 
 Blessed Vii-gin and St. John.
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 1065—1189. 
 
 " Not raised in nice proportions was the pile, 
 But large and massy, for duration built." 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 I SHALL confine myself this evening to describing to 
 you the first of the four styles of English Architec- 
 ture, mentioned in the Table I left with you, viz. 
 the Anglo-Norman. I ought first to remark, that 
 many writers talk of the Saxon style, and describe 
 buildings known to be Norman as specimens of the 
 Saxon architecture. But it is now generally allowed, 
 that the earliest remains we have are not older than 
 the Conquest ; if we except the edifice of stone built 
 by Paulinus, first bishop of York, on the occasion of 
 the conversion of Edwyn, king of Northumbria, early 
 in the seventh century. Paulinus built a wooden 
 oratory over the spring in which he administered the 
 sacrament of Baptism to the royal convert in the
 
 ARCHES. 
 
 PLATE in. i-. 4:. 

 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 41 
 
 year 627 ; but this soon gave place to a more sub- 
 stantial stone fabric, parts of which were discovered 
 beneath the choir of the York Minster during the 
 repairs, rendered necessary by the mad act of the 
 incendiary Martin. In the first number of " Brown's 
 History of the Edifice of the Metropolitan Church of 
 St. Peter, York," in Plate 3, is given a plan of Pau- 
 linus' second edifice, where the probable position of 
 the wooden baptistery inclosing a spring, is pointed 
 out. These are perhaps as well authenticated Saxon 
 remains as any in the kingdom. Mr. Rickman thinks 
 it probable, that in some obscure country churches 
 some real Saxon work, of very early date, may be 
 discovered ; but he appears not to have been able to 
 meet with any himself, and makes no mention of 
 Paulinus' oratory. He mentions, however, two 
 towers, which he thinks may possibly be genuine 
 Saxon. They are the towers of the old church, St. 
 Peter's, Barton, Lincolnshire, and that of Clapham 
 church, Bedfordshire \ 
 
 The Anglo-Norman style is for the most part 
 massive and plain, and is distinguished by the semi- 
 circular arch, and large solid pillars. It has some- 
 times been called the Romanesque style, from its 
 resemblance to the classical mode, from which it 
 
 ^ In the fourth edition of Mr. Rickman 's work, a chapter is 
 added on Saxou buildings, which jjroves that his more recent 
 researches have discovered a great number of remains built 
 before the Conquest ; but there Ls nothing in Saxon architec- 
 ture to entitle it to rank as a distinct style. It is but a variety 
 of the debased Roman.
 
 42 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 undoubtedly was derived. In my last Lecture I 
 remarked to you, that some of the debased composi- 
 tions of the later Roman architects closely resembled 
 the early Norman buildings. 
 
 We find in the latter heavy columns with capitals, 
 always having square abaci, and ranges of semi-cir- 
 cular arches, strikingly like those of the Roman 
 edifices ^. The earliest Anglo-Norman structures are 
 heavy and plain, but those erected towards the close 
 of the twelfth century possess elegance and lightness. 
 The semi-circular arch is the distinctive mark of a 
 Norman building. There are however a few Norman 
 arches of very curious shapes, being more than a 
 semi-circle, or what is called a horseshoe. The 
 pointed arch appears to have arisen naturally from 
 intersecting semi-circular arches. 
 
 The true Norman arch appears to have continued 
 to the latest date of the style, even when other parts 
 of the buildings were quite advanced into the next 
 style. Of this the Temple church is a curious in- 
 stance. We find there several features of the suc- 
 ceeding style, and also pointed arches formed by a 
 range of intersecting arches, and over this the old 
 round-headed Norman window. The ivindows in 
 this style are small, except in very large buildings. 
 There are no mullions ; but a double window, divided 
 by a shaft, is not uncommon. In small rich churches 
 
 2 The Abacus, literally tile, is the uppermost division of the 
 capital. It is an essential part of the column m the classical 
 orders, and is very distinct in the earlier Gothic styles, but 
 gradually becomes less perceptible in the later styles.
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 43 
 
 the exterior is often a series of arches, of which a few 
 are pierced as windows, and the others left blank. 
 The existing Norman windows are generally in build- 
 ings retaining still the entire character of that style ; 
 for in most Norman churches they have been taken 
 out, and others of later styles put in, as at Durham 
 and many other cathedrals. There seems to have 
 been little if any attempt at feathering or foliating 
 the heads of Norman doors and windows. Norman 
 doors are very remarkable, being generally much 
 ornamented, and sometimes possessing great beauty 
 and elegance. 
 
 There seems to have been a desire in the archi- 
 tects who succeeded the Normans, to preserve the 
 doors of their predecessors. Whence we have so many 
 of these noble, though generally rude efforts of skill 
 remaining. In many small churches, where all else has 
 been swept away to make room for alterations, even in 
 the perpendicular style, the Norman door has been suf- 
 fered to remain. The mode of increasing the richness 
 of these doorways was by increasing the number of 
 bands of moulding, and, consequently, the depth of 
 the arch. Shafts are often used, and we often find in 
 the same building one door with shafts, and another 
 without. The mouldings of the arch are very rich. 
 The wave or zigzag ornament is almost universal. 
 A large round moulding, with heads on the outer 
 edge, is common. There are also mouldings with a 
 series of figures inclosed in a running ornament. 
 At one church at York these figures are the zodiacal 
 signs. The exterior moulding often goes down no
 
 44 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 lower tlian the spring of the arch, thus fomiing an 
 apparent dripstone. The door is often square, and 
 the interval between it and the arch filled with carv- 
 ings. Amongst the great variety of these doors in 
 excellent preservation, Iffley church, near Oxford, is 
 perhaps the best specimen, as it contains three doors, 
 all of which are different, and the south-door is nearly 
 unique from the flowers in its interior mouldings. 
 South Ockendon church, Essex, has a door of un- 
 common beauty of desicm, and elegance of execution. 
 The cathedrals of Ely, Durham, Rochester, Wor- 
 cester, and Lincoln, have fine Noniian doors. The 
 western front of Rochester cathedral is one of the 
 most perfect specimens of early Anglo-Norman archi- 
 tecture. The central doorway is fomied by a very 
 beautifully recessed semi-circular arch, composed of 
 enriched mouldings, and supported by four pillars, 
 the capitals of which consist of wreathed foliage, with 
 birds and animals introduced. The pillars are annu- 
 lated, or enriched by ornamental bands, and rise from 
 a plain plinth, which has possibly been constructed 
 in the room of an enriched base, which had become 
 decayed. Two of the pillars take the form of cary- 
 atides (columns in which figures supply the place of 
 shafts), and present statues of king Henry, and his 
 queen Matilda of Scotland, without question two of 
 the most ancient statues remaining in England. All 
 the mouldings of the arch are highly enriched with 
 sculpture, representing arabesques, and medallions of 
 heads and animals, with foliage intermixed. The 
 lintel across the imposts of the doorway bears a
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 45 
 
 representation of tlie twelve Apostles ; and in the tym- 
 pan (or flat space between the top of a door, and the arch 
 over it,) is a bas-relief, of our blessed Saviour holding 
 a book, and in the act of giving the benediction. Such 
 figures were anciently placed on the porch or entrance 
 of the church, as a security against the influence of 
 evil spirits. One of the peculiarities of Anglo-Nor- 
 man architecture is its covering the surface of the 
 wall with projecting ornaments, of great diversity in 
 the detail. Upon this remarkable difference from the 
 antique, Mr. Hope has made some observations. 
 The severity of ancient architecture required that two 
 component sides of an entire edifice, situated right 
 and left of the common central point or line, should 
 correspond not only in the general dimensions, but in 
 the peculiar designs of their ornamental parts. If there 
 had been a thousand columns in a single row, each 
 would have been similar in its capital and minutest 
 embellishment to all the rest. The architects of 
 the middle ages were less strict : bassi relievi, in- 
 serted in different sides of a single front, correspond 
 not even in size, seldom do they in subject ; if one 
 contains figures, that opposite perhaps displays 
 foliage ; the opposite shafts or joints of the same 
 porch are often of a different design ; and as to the 
 capitals, when they are highly wrought, the making 
 two alike would have been considered as poverty of 
 invention. A church which you have all seen in 
 this neighbourhood, will probably occur to your 
 minds as illustrating what 1 have just said. I mean 
 Steyning, which we saw during our last exploring
 
 46 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 expedition in November. You were all struck with 
 die richness of the ornamented arches, supported by 
 massy pillars in the nave, and still more so with 
 observing, that the carved work of each was different. 
 The well-known wavy or zigzag ornament was 
 however predominant throughout the whole of the 
 building. 
 
 It cannot be denied ^ that the early Nomian sculp- 
 ture is i-ude and barbarous, when we consider the 
 design of particular parts separately ; but it is at the 
 same time universally confessed, that its effect as a 
 whole is strikingly beautifid. 
 
 The truth is, that there is a beauty of aggregation 
 as well as a beauty of separate designs, and of the 
 former the architects of the twelfth century were as 
 perfect masters, as they were deficient in the latter. 
 For beauty of form in works of art, and in die sepa- 
 rate decorations, they seem to have had no taste, which 
 is clear from their neglecting entirely the real store- 
 house of beauty, nature ; but of the splendour of 
 effect arising from a vast aggregation of particulars, 
 without reference to the separate beauties of each, 
 those artists were perfect masters — as no one will 
 deny, when standing before the Norman doorway 
 of Malmesbury abbey, or of Rochester cathedral. 
 
 Anglo-Norman pillars are of various kinds. There 
 is the heavy column of enormous diameter, with a 
 capital sometimes round and sometimes square. They 
 are generally plain, but we meet with them oma- 
 
 2 Rex. G. Pooies Ltctures.
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 mented, with channels in various forms, zigzag, net- 
 work, and spiral. Sometimes the Norman cokmins 
 are round, or octagonal ; in other cases square, or 
 hexagonal ; and in a great many instances the pillars 
 are composed of cylindrical shafts attached to each 
 other, and set in square recesses. Examine the plates 
 of Winkle's Cathedrals, and you will find all these 
 varieties. It was a common practice of the Norman 
 builders to enrich the blank surfaces of their walls with 
 a series of arcades, whose sides were formed generally 
 of small shafts, supporting round arches, which often 
 intersected each other. The west-fronts of churches 
 are frequently decorated in this manner, and some of 
 the pannels are often perforated to fonii windows, as 
 at Barfreston in Kent, and St. Peter's, Northampton. 
 The walls, being of considerable thickness, and not 
 usually of great height, did not require the additional 
 strength and support of buttresses, which are some- 
 times omitted altogether, or when introduced are very 
 secondary features, being merely broad, flat, ungra- 
 duated members, with a slight projection that finishes 
 under the cornice or corbel table ; the parapets 
 appear to have been quite plain. Those examples 
 of Norman ])uttresses with small shafts at the angles, 
 as at Glastonbury abbey, are of transition character, 
 and are more generally found in buildings of the early 
 English style. 
 
 Anglo-Noniian porches are generally small and 
 shallow, and in some instances, as at Ifltley, they are 
 merely compartments of the wall, having a slight pro- 
 jection to receive the richly moulded doorway. The
 
 48 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 Norman cornice is frequently only a plain face of 
 parapet, but a row of blocks is often placed under 
 it, sometimes plain, sometimes carved in grotesque 
 heads, and in some instances the grotesque heads sup- 
 port small arches, when it is called a corbel-table. 
 A plain string is also sometimes used as a cornice. 
 The next most important tablet is the di'ipstone, or 
 outer moulding of windows and doors, this is some- 
 times undistinguished, but oftener a square string 
 continued horizontally from one window to another 
 round the buttresses. We often find in Anglo-Nor- 
 man churches niches of various shapes over doors, 
 most of them retaining the figures originally placed 
 in them. 
 
 The ornaments of the Anglo-Nonnan style consist 
 principally of the different kinds of carved moiddings 
 surrounding doors and windows, and used as tablets. 
 The first and most frequent is the zigzag or chevron 
 moulding, generally used in great profusion. The 
 next most common or door-moulding is the beak- 
 head moulding, consisting of heads of beasts or 
 birds, whose tongues or beaks encircle the round. 
 After these come many varieties, a good collection of 
 which may be seen in the second part of Le Keux's 
 Glossary of Architecture. The capitals of piers and 
 shafts are often very rudely carved, in grotesque 
 devices of animals and leaves. The crjq^t of York 
 cathedral offers an example of these rude but rich 
 capitals. There is one moulding, which is to be 
 found very nearly of the same pattern and propor- 
 tions over every part of England, viz. the moulding
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 49 
 
 of the square abacus over the flowered or cut part of 
 the capital. It consists of a broad fillet and hollow, 
 which are separated by a little sunk channel, and it is 
 sometimes continued as a tablet along the walls. 
 The Anglo-Norman towers are generally very short 
 and massive ; but they possess a certain rude gran- 
 deur about them which is imposing. The cathe- 
 drals of Norwich and Winchester, and Tewkesbury 
 church, are fine specimens of Norman towers. They 
 are generally plain, but sometimes ornamented by 
 intersecting arches, and have usually the flat buttress ; 
 that of St. Alban's runs into a round turret at each 
 corner of the upper stage, and at St. Peter's, North- 
 ampton, there is a singidar buttress of three parts 
 of circles, but its date is uncertain. 
 
 The nearest approach to a spire in this style of 
 architecture, which we find in England, are the pyra- 
 midal terminations of the large conical-headed pinna- 
 cles at Rochester cathedral, and at St. Peter's-in- 
 the-East, Oxford, and Cleve, Gloucestershire. The 
 Anglo-Norman wooden roof appears in the most 
 ancient specimens to have been left open to the 
 actual timbers — the inclination of the braces forming 
 a kind of arch, as at Ely cathedral. At Rochester 
 and Winchester we see the open roof to this day ; 
 but at Peterborough is a real flat boarded ceil- 
 ing, in fine preservation, having lately been care- 
 fully repainted from the original. It consists of a 
 sort of rude mosaic, full of stiff lines, and its general 
 division is into lozenges, with flowers of Norman 
 character, the whole according in design with the 
 
 ? 1
 
 50 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. | 
 
 ^1 
 
 i 
 
 ornaments of that style. This kind of roof, particu- j 
 larly when the exterior was covered with shingles, 
 contributed much to spread those destructive fires we 
 so frequently read of in the historj' of early churches. 
 Of the Norman groined roof we have many fine 
 examples. The greater part of the Norman west- 
 fronts have been much changed by the introduction of 
 windows of later date (mostly large perpendicular 
 windows). The ruins of Lindisfarne (Northumber- 
 land) however present us with one nearly perfect. 
 This consists of a large door, with a gallery or tri- 
 forium over it, of which some of the arches have been 
 pierced through for windows, and above, one larger 
 window. Rochester and Lincoln cathedrals. Castle 
 Acre priory, and Tewkesbury church, all show what 
 the Norman west-fronts were, with the exception of 
 the introduction of the large window. There are a 
 few large buildings with apses or semi- circular east 
 ends ; Norwich and Peterborough cathedrals are fine 
 specimens, but in both the windows are altered by the 
 insertion of tracery, and, in parts, of new windows. 
 
 The general appearance of Anglo-Norman build- 
 ings is bold and massive. Very few large buildings 
 remain without much alteration and mixture with 
 other styles. Perhaps the naves of Peterborough and 
 Rochester cathedrals present as little mixture as any, 
 though in these the windows have been altered. Bar- 
 freston in Kent, Stewkley in Bucks, and Adel in 
 Yorkshire, offer smaller churches with very little 
 alteration ; Tickencote, Rutlandshire, till within a few 
 years, was one of the most valuable remains in the
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 51 
 
 kingdom, but it has been rebuilt sufficiently near to 
 its original to deceive many, and so far from it as to 
 render it an imitation instead of a copy. The intenor 
 arrangement of large Norman buildings is varied. 
 Sometimes the large circular pier is used alone, as at 
 Gloucester cathedral ; sometimes mixed with the pier 
 composed of shafts, as at Durham; and sometimes of 
 that pier and shafts only, as at Peterborough, Norwich, 
 &:c. There are two buildings of the Anglo-Norman 
 style worthy of particular attention, one for its sim- 
 plicity and beauty of composition — the other from 
 being unique, and also a fine specimen of ornament. 
 The first is the vestibule or entrance to the Chapter- 
 house, Bristol — the other, the staircase leading to 
 the registry at Canterbury cathedral. 
 
 I will close this Lecture with a list of the Nonnan 
 churches in our own neighbourhood, first observing, 
 that it is singular that in a district so early occupied by 
 the Normans, we should find so few Norman churches, 
 and such a preponderating number of Early English. 
 
 In Sussex we find Chichester cathedral mentioned 
 first, as being the mother church, for it is by no 
 means to be called Anglo-Norman, the chief part of 
 it being Early English. Part of the nave (the lower 
 part of the walls) is Norman, and there is a consider- 
 able mixture of Antjlo-Norman and Earlv English 
 fonns and ornaments in some parts. — The church 
 at Battle contains some Nornian piers, and die font 
 is of mixed Nornian and Early English character. 
 — Boxgrove contains Norman remains, especially a 
 doorway, with three arches, opening into the cloister, 
 E 2
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 which extended to the refectory of the monastery. — 
 Clymping has a Norman tower. — St. Anne's and St. 
 John's at Lewes have portions of Norman. — Rye 
 ditto. — Shipley has a Norman tower, and several 
 other parts of the same style. — New Shoreham has 
 various portions of fine late Norman, running into 
 Early English forms and details. This church is an 
 excellent one for practical study, particularly when 
 compared with its neighbours, Steyning and Old 
 Shoreham. — Old Shoreham is also a cross church, 
 with fine Norman arches to the tower, and various 
 other Norman features ; it has, however, various inser- 
 tions and mutilations. The font is circular and plain, 
 standing on a circular pedestal. — Compting has Early 
 English work, only just clear of Anglo-Norman, and 
 an arch from the tower to the church, like rude 
 Roman work. — Southwick church has a Norman 
 tower, nave, and chancel, with windows of a later 
 date inserted. — Steyning is a very curious Norman 
 church, with a great variety of excellent and elabo- 
 rate detail. — The churches of Alciston, Amberley, 
 Beding, Bishopstone, Bramber, Burpham, Elsted, 
 Jevington, Iping, Newhaven, North Marden, Tels- 
 combe, Treyford, and Wilmington, have all Norman 
 portions. — In Hants we find Winchester cathedral : 
 the Norman parts are of a bold, simple character, 
 and w^ell executed. The tower was built by Bishop 
 Wakelyn, in the reign of William the Conqueror. 
 The transept was also the work of this prelate, and 
 remains yet in a firmer and securer state than any 
 part of the building of later construction. To an
 
 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 53 
 
 architect there are few studies equal in vahie to this 
 transept. It has been remarked, that the architects 
 of the Anglo-Norman period, affecting loftiness in 
 churches as well as length, were accustomed to pile 
 arches and pillars on one another, sometimes to the 
 height of three stories, as seen in Bishop Wakelyn's 
 work, in this cathedral. They also imitated the three 
 arches in the enrichment of plain walls, and by way 
 of ornament and variety in the masonry, sometimes 
 caused three plain round arches to intersect each 
 other, as in the upper part of this southern transept, 
 being probably the earliest instance of this interesting 
 ornament to be met with in the kingdom. — The Hos- 
 pital of St. Cross is a curious structure. The chapel 
 is a cross church, having Norman characters, but sof- 
 tened gradually into Early English, and at the west 
 end even to a decorated character, by such easy steps 
 as to form a valuable study. Some of the piers are 
 circular, some clustered, some have Norman mould- 
 ings, others Early English. The arches are mostly 
 pointed ; but the eastern windows are chiefly Norman, 
 with circular heads and zigzag ornament. There 
 is a water-drain or piscina worth examination. — 
 Christ Church, Twynan, is the priory church, and a 
 magnificent structure. The nave is Norman. — Rom- 
 sey church is large and curious ; its general exterior 
 appearance is Norman ; so are the central portion and 
 the transepts, with the sides of the clianceh Some 
 portions of the Norman part are cnriclied with the zig- 
 zag and otlier ornaments. — Corhampton, East Mcon, 
 Porchester, Southampton, St. iMichael, and Warne-
 
 54 THE ANGLO-NORMAN STYLE. 
 
 ford with Shiilfleet, Whippingham, Wootton, and 
 Yaverland, in the Isle of Wight. Norman fonts are 
 particularly numerous; but as I mean to devote a 
 Lecture to interior decorations^ I shall speak of fonts 
 collectively in that.
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 1189—1307. 
 
 " They dreamt not of a perishable home, 
 Who thus could build." 
 
 The Early English style of architecture is of extreme 
 beauty, its compositions being always distinguished 
 for their chaste simplicity and purity of design, and at 
 the same time uniformly celebrated for the superior 
 excellence of their workmanship ; it is decidedly 
 preferable to the Anglo-Norman mode of building, 
 and it has been well remarked, " that it cannot be 
 justly regarded as inferior to either of the subsequent 
 styles in light and elegant proportion, or in rich and 
 elaborate detail." This style prevailed to the end of 
 Edward the First's reign, and is distinguished by 
 pointed arches, long narrow windows without mul- 
 lions, called lancet, and a peculiar ornament, named, 
 from its resemblance to the teeth of a shark, the
 
 56 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 tooth ornament. As the Norman doorway is distin- 
 guishable by the circular arch, so the Early English 
 may be said to be always pointed. For though 
 we find small interior doors of this style with flat 
 tops, and the sides of the top supported by a quarter 
 circle, yet the exterior ornamented doorways are 
 universally pointed. The large doors of this style 
 are often double, the two being divided by either 
 one shaft, or several clustered, and a quatrefoil or 
 other ornament over them. The recess of these 
 doors is often as deep as the Norman, but the bands 
 and shafts are more numerous, being smaller ; and 
 in the hollow mouldings they are frequently enriched 
 with the peculiar ornament of this style just now men- 
 tioned, a singular toothed projection, which, when well 
 executed, has a fine effect. But there are many doors 
 of this style quite plain ; that of Christ Cliurch, Hants, 
 is a good specimen. In our own neighbourhood we 
 find numerous specimens, as most of the Sussex 
 churches, especially those near us, are Early English. 
 I recommend you to take a walk to-morrow, with a 
 view to finding Early English doors and windows, 
 and you will be sure to find specimens without 
 going out of your usual rounds, whichever road you 
 happen to take. I do not mean that you will find any 
 ornamented doorways, for those about here are plain. 
 At Oving, if you like to drive in that direction, you 
 may find the tooth ornament. If you go a little 
 farther, you will find a church vei*y valuable for 
 study, Boxgrove. It is a part of an ancient priory, 
 founded as early as 1100, by Robert de Haia (Lord
 
 PLATE IV. P. 5e. 
 
 '^:?C 
 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH. 
 
 VTcattt-Li-ster. 
 
 Crosby Eall.
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 5/ 
 
 of Halnaker, in the reign of Henry I.) for three monks 
 of the Benedictine order. Ceciha his daughter, her 
 husband, and her sons, increased the number of the 
 monks to fifteen, and added greatly to the domains of 
 the priory. Henry VHI. frequently sold monastic 
 property to the highest bidders, and many pious per- 
 sons purchased conventual lands and churches, and 
 instead of pulling down the sacred edifices for the 
 sake of the materials, as was too generally done, 
 permitted them to remain, as they were, for the 
 celebration of divine service. Sir Thomas Pope pur- 
 chased the conventual church of St. Alban's, Herts, 
 and gave it to the parishioners ; in the same way 
 Sir Thomas West, Lord La War, who possessed 
 the lordship of Halnaker at the time of the Refor- 
 mation, purchased tlie church of Boxgrove, and the 
 goods and furniture of the priory. This gentle- 
 man must have been anxious to preserve the church 
 from destruction, as he had erected a sacellum or 
 chapel in it in the year 1532. This chapel is wor- 
 thy of examination, and indeed forms too striking 
 an object to be passed over by the most unobservant 
 eye. It is on the right hand, as one stands looking 
 towards the altar, not far from it. It is composed of 
 Caen stone, most elaborately carved, painted, and 
 gilt. It is fourteen feet long and twelve high ; upon 
 the columns you see the following inscription : — 
 
 " Of yf^r charitie pray foi' y^ souls of Thomas La Ware, 
 Sc Elizabeth His Wyf.' Thomas ! La ! War ! Anno Dni ! 
 :mvxxxii. Elizabeth ! La ! War !"
 
 58 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 It does not appear that this beautiful chapel, though 
 often called a monument, was designed for a burial 
 place. No doubt it was what the French call " Autel 
 privilegie," erected to contain an altar, on which 
 masses were to be offered up for the souls of Thomas 
 and Elizabeth La War. 
 
 You will find much at Boxgrove to interest you. 
 There are remains of various eras, which will show 
 you how one style blended into another. There you 
 will see Norman arches, and doorways with pointed 
 arches, and slender columns. There are sedilia on 
 the south side of the altar, and several table tombs 
 and other sepulchral monuments worthy of examina- 
 tion. The present church consists of a nave and 
 chancel, without division. These were anciently the 
 choir. There are two aisles. The south transept is 
 imperfect, and the north was ceiled with a flat timber 
 frame, and otherwise altered in the reign of Henry 
 VII. The roof is painted in the same style as the 
 ante-room leading to the Lady chapel at Chichester 
 cathedral. You will observe the tooth ornament 
 used profusely in the vaulting. The dividing arcade 
 is formed by low pointed arches, resting on circular 
 pillars : above them is an ambulatory or gallery, 
 through which the monks walked in procession. Light 
 is admitted to this by open triforia, differing in point 
 of style from those on the near transept, having an 
 octangular pillar, of Sussex marble, with arches, and 
 in the spandrel an open quatrefoil, under a circular 
 moulding. The east window has three large lights, 
 separated in the interior by tall marble shafts, and
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 59 
 
 flourished capitals. This mixture of ornamental parts 
 is a proof that the structure is of the date of Henry I. 
 Stephen, or Henry H. when the round Norman 
 arch was abandoned, and several novelties intro- 
 duced, which prevailed but a short time, and are to 
 be met witli only in a few instances. I have been 
 thus particular in describing Boxgrove church, to 
 show you what to look for, and also to try whether 
 you are familiar with the technical terms. And now 
 to return to the Early English style. Fine specimens 
 of enriched Early English doorways remain at York, 
 Lincoln, Chichester, and Salisbury, and Beverley 
 Minster has one of great beauty. Lichfield cathedral 
 presents a door curious for its resemblance to some 
 foreign cathedrals : it is placed in a shallow porch, 
 formed in the thickness of the wall, the arch of which 
 is richly feathered, and otherwise ornamented ; the 
 interior aperture is divided into two doorways by a 
 pier of shafts, and this pier, as well as the side piers, 
 has a statue resting on a corbel, and crowned with a 
 canopy. The recess is groined, and the whole is 
 worked with great delicacy, and is full of rich orna- 
 ment. The doors appear original, and are covered 
 with beautiful ramifications of scroll work in iron. 
 
 The Early English windoivs are almost universally 
 long, narrow, and lancet-headed, generally without 
 feathering, but in some instances trefoiled. The 
 pure lancet window is of very graceful proportions, 
 and does not require the aid of enrichment, although, 
 in the later examples, the head is often decorated 
 with a small and delicate trefoil ; the sides also in
 
 60 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 ricli buildings are frequently ornamented with slen- 
 der detached shafts, sometimes divided by projecting 
 bands. The architects of the middle ages never 
 introduced the wide lancet windows, excepting in 
 cathedrals and such vast fabrics, where their great 
 size appears in unison with the bold character of the 
 buttresses, but they are altogether unfit for small paro- 
 chial churches, for which the long narrow windows 
 are admirably adapted, more particularly in the 
 absence of stained glass, since they do not admit too 
 much light, and consequently preserve to the interior 
 of the sacred edifice a quiet and solemn aspect, which 
 is very impressive. Two, three, and five of these 
 windows are occasionally, in large buildings, grouped 
 together, the divisions between them being often so 
 trifling, that the combination has very much the 
 appearance of one window with several bays. 
 
 In the north transept of York cathedral, there is a 
 beautiful window of five lights, called the five sisters, 
 from a tradition that the stained glass with which it is 
 adorned, was the gift of five maiden sisters. Though 
 they are in reality five distinct lancet windows, the 
 slender dimensions of the shafts which separate them 
 give them somewhat the appearance of one large 
 window, divided by mullions ; and one can easily 
 fancy a decorated window suggesting itself to the 
 mind of a designer, whilst looking at the five sis- 
 ters. These windows are nearly fifty feet high, and 
 from six to eight feet wide, and have a very beau- 
 tiful effect. Surely, no lady of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury can look upon this monument of the munificence
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 61 
 
 and taste of the five sisters of York, without confess- 
 ing with shame, that in spite of all our boasted supe- 
 riority of education and refinement, we are far below 
 the ladies of " the dark ages " in some points. 
 Windows formed within the lines of a spherical equi- 
 lateral triangle light the triforium over the vault- 
 ings of the aisles of the north transept of the abbey 
 church of St. Peter, at Westminster. We find them 
 also in the clerestory of Lichfield cathedral, in the 
 Abbot's Barn at Glastonbury, and in the south tran- 
 sept of York Minster. The circular windows of this 
 period are very fine. The examples at York, Lincoln, 
 and Beverley, are most imposing. Those in the 
 gables of the west front of Peterborough cathedral 
 are of smaller dimensions ; but their composition is 
 excellent, and they afford models for imitation, 
 which are particularly applicable for ordinary sized 
 churches. 
 
 The window of two lights under one arch, having 
 an open circle or quatrefoil in the head, was very 
 frequently used in Early English buildings, during the 
 latter part of the thirteenth century : there is a good 
 plain specimen at Cotterstock, Northampton, and there 
 are others of a more ornate character at Westminster 
 abbey, and Stone church, Kent. The stained glass of 
 this period was very elegant. There are two distin- 
 guishing marks of Early English piers ; first, the 
 division by bands of the shafts which compose them, 
 and secondly, the arrangement of these shafts for the 
 most part in a circle. At Salisbury and Westminster 
 we find the surrounding shafts few in number, set
 
 62 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 round a large circular one. At Lincoln and York we 
 find them so numerous as nearly to hide the central 
 shaft; there are a few, as in the choir at Chester, 
 which come very near the appearance of decorated 
 piers. There is an uncommon pier at Beverley 
 Minster, and in a few other churches. It consists of 
 shafts, some of which are plain round, others filleted 
 round, and some whose plan is a spherical triangle, 
 with the edge outwards. At Runcorn church, Che- 
 shire, is a pier, consisting of four of these triangular 
 shafts, with a flowered capital, which has a good 
 effect. The capitals of these shafts are various ; in 
 many they are plain, consisting of a bell, with a 
 moulding under it, and a sort of capping, with more 
 mouldings above. The dividing bands are formed of 
 annulets and fillets, and are often continued under 
 windows, &c. as tablets. A richer capital, with 
 leaves, is sometimes used, as at York and at Lincoln. 
 The plain multangular pier, with a plain capital, of a 
 few simple mouldings, and a plain sloped arch, is 
 sometimes very puzzling, and it requires much dis- 
 crimination to refer such piers to their proper date. 
 In general, the capitals and bases will carry in their 
 character sufficient marks to determine their date, 
 except in the transition from Early English to Deco- 
 rated. The buttress most commonly used in the 
 Early English edifices either had its edges chamfered, 
 or small shafts inserted at the exterior angles. It 
 was often divided into two or more stages, and was 
 finished generally with a triangular head, surmounted 
 by a small cross or flower, which, in the later build-
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. G3 
 
 ings of this style, assumed the form of a plain pin- 
 nacle, as at Westminster abbey. What is called the 
 Flying Buttress arose at this period. Salisbury, Chi- 
 chester, and Exeter, afford examples of the flying 
 buttress. It is so called, because it is arched or 
 detached, and has a suspended appearance. It pos- 
 sesses great lightness. When I first saw Notre Dame 
 de Paris, the flying buttresses of that noble church 
 brought Exeter cathedral strongly to my memory. 
 The Early English cornice is sometim.es rich in mould- 
 ings, and often with an upper slope, making the face 
 of the parapet perpendicular to the wall below. 
 There are cornices of this style still, resembling the 
 Norman parapet, but they consist of several mould- 
 ings. The hollow moulding of the cornice is generally 
 plain, seldom containing flowers or carvings, except 
 the tooth ornament ; but under the m.ouldings there is 
 often a series of small arches resembhng the corbel 
 table. The dripstone of this style is various, some- 
 times of several mouldings. In some buildings the 
 dripstone is returned, and runs as a tablet along the 
 walls. We find bands of trefoils, &c. : in large build- 
 ings, a sort of canopy is used occasionally over some 
 of the niches of this style, but it is not found over 
 doors or windows. In buildings where they are 
 found, they appear to be additions. The most im- 
 portant niches in Early English buildings are the 
 sedilia and piscinae in the southern wall of the chan- 
 cel. Early English steeples are much more lofty than 
 the Norman, and on the tower the architects of this 
 period placed that beautiful addition, the spire.
 
 64 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 Some of our finest spires are of this age. That 
 of Chichester is clearly of this character, and 
 Salisbury spire, though not erected till within the 
 period of the Decorated Style, is yet in its composition 
 completely of Early English character, though its 
 ornaments are more advanced. In beauty of pro- 
 portion it is unrivalled. There is a sentiment about 
 the " heaven-y-pointing spire," which will always 
 render it dear to a Christian. The humblest vil- 
 lage spire possesses grace and beauty. Though I 
 ought to except one spire that T see by your faces is 
 rising to the mind's eye of each. I must confess that 
 the spire you are thinking of is clumsy, and ill-pro- 
 portioned in design, and that the unlucky inclination 
 it has taken to one side, gives it an air of deformity, 
 and makes it irresistibly ludicrous when seen from 
 some points near at hand. Still even that unfortunate 
 spire has a pretty effect, rising from the midst of 
 trees, seen at the distance of a mile from the fields 
 near the bridge. Chichester spire is certainly fine, 
 but I cannot but consider it very inferior to that 
 of Salisbury. Salisbury spire produces a singular 
 effect on the mind ; there is a poetry about it, a har- 
 mony and perfection which seems unearthly ; it rises 
 towards the clouds as if it longed to fly heavenwards, 
 and lifts the soul of the beholder to the unseen world. 
 The towers of this age are usually flanked by octa- 
 gonal turrets, or square buttresses, and in most in- 
 stances the details are particularly excellent. The 
 tower of St. Mary's, Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and 
 that erected over the north-west transept of Peter-
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 65 
 
 borough cathedral, are admirably designed. There 
 is a beautiful bell turret in this style at Glastonbury : 
 it has two arched openings, over which a trefoil- 
 headed niche, inclosing a small figure, is very happily 
 introduced, and the whole composition is charac- 
 terized by much richness and simplicity. There is 
 another at Shipton OUifFe, Gloucestershire. During 
 the whole of this style the Parapet, in many places 
 plain, in others ornamented, continued to be used. 
 Perhaps some of the earliest battlement is that at 
 the west end of Salisbury cathedral. There is a 
 greater variety in the Early English fronts, than in 
 those of any other style. The west front of Salisbury 
 is the finest, but the transept ends of Salisbury, York, 
 and Beverley, are very fine, and all different in com- 
 position. The ruins of Tynemouth priory, Valle 
 Crucis, Byland, and Whitby abbeys, all exhibit the 
 remains of excellent work. Of the smaller works, 
 the east end of the Lady chapel, Salisbury, the ex- 
 treme east end of Hereford cathedral ; and the north 
 transept of Headon church, near Hull, deserve atten- 
 tion ; so does the west front of Lincoln. The old 
 Norman front is encompassed by Early English, and 
 a large feathered circle over the great door possesses 
 singular beauty. The west front of Peterborough is 
 quite different from all the rest. It is enriched with 
 a profusion of the tooth ornament. This ornament, 
 one of the principal characteristics of the st}'le, is not 
 easily described or drawn. It appears to be the 
 regular progression from the Norman zigzag to the 
 delicate four-leaved flowers, so common in decorated
 
 66 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 English buildings. Like the zigzag, it is generally 
 straight-sided, and not round, like the leaves of a 
 flower, though, at a distance in front, it looks some- 
 thing like a small flower. It may be described as a 
 succession of low square pyramids pierced and set 
 on the edges of a hollow moulding. This enrich- 
 ment is difficult to execute, but when well sculptured 
 has an exquisite effect : in the late buildings of this 
 date, the surfaces of the walls of the choir or chancel 
 are often covered with diaper-work, a succession of 
 squares inclosing four-leaved flowers, a most delicate 
 and elegant decoration, admirably adapted for the 
 pannels of an altar-screen. 
 
 Early English foliage may be distinguished by the 
 leaves curling in a peculiarly free and graceful man- 
 ner. Whenever we find crockets and finials, they are 
 bold and plain ; when richly carved, they belong to 
 the two succeeding styles of Gothic architecture. At 
 Beaulieu abbey, Hants, there is a curious and beau- 
 tiful stone pulpit of this era. 
 
 Early English fonts are rarely to be met with, and 
 are only to be distinguished from those of the later 
 Anglo-Norman period by their characteristic mould- 
 ings and other ornaments. The roof of the nave of 
 Salisbury cathedral presents the best specimen of 
 Early English Groined Roof: it has cross springers, 
 and the rib from pier to pier ; but it has no rib 
 running longitudinally or across at the point of the 
 arches. The cloisters at Chester and Lichfield cathe- 
 dral offer very fine specimens of Early English groin- 
 ing. There do not appear to be any Early English
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 wooden roofs wliich can clearly be distinguished to 
 be such. 
 
 Early English Porches are in general larger than 
 Norman ones. The north porch of Salisbury cath- 
 edral, and the south porch at Lincoln, are good 
 specimens. 
 
 The general appearance of Early English building 
 is magnificent and rich, rather from the number of 
 the parts than from its details. In those buildings 
 where very long windows are used, there is a gran- 
 deur arising from the height of the divisions : in 
 smaller buildings there is much simplicity of appear- 
 ance, and there is a remarkable evenness in the value 
 of the workmanship. In the other styles we often 
 find work which is evidently the copy, by an inferior 
 hand, of fine workmanship elsewhere, but in Early 
 English work all appears well designed and carefully 
 executed. AVe liave the advantage of possessing one 
 large building of the Early English style, worked in 
 its best manner, and in excellent preservation. This 
 is Salisbury cadiedral, and it gives a high idea of the 
 great improvement of this style on the Anglo-Nor- 
 man, magnificent yet simple, equally removed from 
 rudeness and meretricious ornament ; it forms a uni- 
 foiTTi whole, full of grace and harmony. The west 
 front is ornamented, but by no means loaded with 
 decoration, and the north side is perhaps equal to the 
 side of any cathedral in England. The west front of 
 Lincoln is fine, but the old Norman front is too 
 visible, not to break it into parts. Peterborough and 
 Ely have perliaps tlie most ornamented fronts of thi: 
 F 2
 
 68 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 Style. As interiors, after Salisbury, the transepts of 
 York may be reckoned the best specimens. In the 
 interior arrangement we find the triforium a very 
 prominent feature ; it is large in proportion to the 
 work above and below it, and is generally the most 
 ornamented part of the work. In small churches the 
 triforium is generally omitted. The triforium is a 
 sort of gallery over the aisles, or a range of arches, 
 resting on the principal arcade, which stands on the 
 ground. Above it we generally find another range 
 with windows, called the clerestory. At Norwich 
 we find the triforium of great height, and composed 
 of arches and pillars nearly as high as those on which 
 they stand. At Exeter, the triforium is very low, 
 and the clerestory above of equally extraordinary 
 height. 
 
 Early English staircases (except round ones in 
 towers) are not common. There is one of rich cha- 
 racter at Beverley ]Minster, leading from the north 
 aisle of the choir to some adjacent building. There 
 is another in the refectory (now a grammar-school) 
 at Chester, leading up to a large niche or sort of 
 pulpit for the reader. It is one of the monastic rules 
 that some edifying book should be read aloud during 
 meals. Nicholas Ferrar, one of the holiest members 
 of our Church, introduced this rule into the monastic 
 institution which he founded at Little Gidding, in 
 H untingdonshi re . 
 
 Whilst speaking of this style, I must not forget to 
 mention the beautiful crosses erected by king Ed- 
 ward I. to the memory of queen Eleanor. One at
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 69 
 
 Geddington, Northamptonshire, is plain; but those 
 of Northampton and Waltham are peculiarly rich, 
 and of elegant composition. There is enough orna- 
 ment to give them a claim to be classed in the 
 Decorated style ; but still there is enough of Early 
 English character to mark their date. 
 
 If the transition from Norman to Early English 
 was gradual, the change of Early English into Deco- 
 rated was still more so. We have several curious 
 examples of this transition on a large scale. West- 
 minster abbey, though carried on for a long time, 
 was carefully continued in the original style, but the 
 cloisters show gradation. Ely cathedral possesses a 
 pure and perfect specimen of each of the three 
 successive styles of Gothic architecture, pure as being 
 free from all transition mixture, and perfect as to the 
 design and execution of the detail. The Galilee and 
 Presbytery were built when the Early English style 
 was settled and perfected ; the octagon, the three 
 arches east of it, and the Lady chapel, when the 
 Decorated English was in its zenith; and Bishop 
 Alcock's chapel, when the Perpendicular style had 
 reached the height of perfection. 
 
 (Sarin fi?ngli&f) Ctiuvcfjcs of Sussex. 
 
 The whole of Chichester cathedral, except the lower 
 part of the walls of the nave, which are Norman, 
 and the two additional naves, which are decorated, 
 having been added early in Edward the Third's reign.
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 Bosham : an Early English church without much 
 mixture ; it has a tower and spire, nave and south aisle, 
 and large chancel, which has double lancets at the 
 sides, and five lancets on the east window. — East- 
 bourne : a large church, with a clerestory, a massive 
 tower, and some insertions of late date. — Boxgrove : 
 the remains of a large cross church, with a low tower; 
 nave nearly destroyed, choir and transepts form the 
 present church. It has bold flying buttresses and 
 some decorated windows. The nave had Norman 
 piers with pointed arches. — Chiddingly has a hand- 
 some tower and spire, partly Early English ; church 
 of later date, and poor composition. — Clymping, a 
 very curious church, with good lancet windows. It 
 has a Norman tower at the end of the south transept. 
 — Finden : mostly Early English, with a Decorated 
 east window. — West Grinstead: partly Early English, 
 partly Decorated, and has a Perpendicular wooden 
 porch. — Heathfield: spire most Early English, Deco- 
 rated east window, and quatrefoils for clerestory win- 
 dows. — West Hoathly : lofty spire. Early English 
 nave, and Decorated chancel. — St. Anne's and aS'^. 
 John's^ at Lewes^ have Early English portions. — 
 Oving church : Early English, with some Decorated 
 and Perpendicular windows inserted. — Rye : large and 
 curious cross church ; part of the choir Early English, 
 and fine lancet windows. — New Shoreham : transi- 
 tion character. — Sompting : very curious tower, cross 
 church, mostly Early English, just clear of Norman. 
 The tower is valuable, as it is clearly one of the early 
 works described as long and short work : it links
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 71 
 
 witli Whittingliam in Northumberland, and Barton- 
 on-the-Humber, but has curious parts different from 
 either. — Sonthease : circular tower, mostly Early 
 English. — Sonthwick has an Early English belfry 
 story on a Norman tower. 
 
 Winchelsea is but the eastern portion of a very 
 fine chvu'ch, principally of Early English and Deco- 
 rated character, with excellent details. On the south 
 side are two monuments, three stalls, and a water- 
 drain or piscina ; and on the north-side, several monu- 
 ments : all of the richest design and execution. — 
 South Bursted : nave and two aisles, cylindrical and 
 multangidar piers, pointed arches of a double order, 
 and lancet windows. The whole body has been badly 
 rebuilt, and the spire is crooked. There is a piscina 
 and something like the vestiges of sedilia. — Felpham : 
 tower square, with some PerpcndicuLar work ; some 
 Decorated windows, the rest Early English ; piscina 
 and credence, a very large old font, very early Nor- 
 man, or perhaps Saxon. The old open oak sittings 
 remain. — Yapton : nave and two aisles divided by a 
 double arcade alternately round and octangular, with 
 capitals in foliage of the style prevalent in Henry 
 the Third's reign. At the west end is a low tower, 
 covered with ivy, and very venerable and picturesque- 
 looking, seen from the road. Chancel rebuilt and 
 modernized. The church was ceiled in 1726. Gal- 
 lery at west end erected in 1730. The additions and 
 improvements of tlie last century are generally of very 
 different character from those of " the dark ages." 
 The font is of black granite, and certainly of great
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 antiquity. — Pagham : a very beautiful cross church, 
 lately restored with great taste and liberality by the 
 rector. The transepts resemble the chancel, with three 
 lancet windows in each. The altar is of black marble, 
 with a white cross inlaid in front. The sanctuary is 
 paved with marble, and the double piscina is care- 
 fully preserved. There is some fine stained glass in 
 the east window, and also in a small window opposite 
 the entrance door, beneath which the font is placed. 
 The subject is the Baptism of our Lord, and nothing 
 can have a finer effect than the curious old Purbeck 
 marble font, certainly a Saxon relic, surmounted by 
 this appropriate and beautiful window. The pews 
 in the nave have been removed, and open sittings 
 substituted for them \ In the vestry are two 
 gigantic brass candlesticks, which we may hope 
 will be one day placed on either side of the altar 
 they are so admirably suited for. — North Mundham : 
 probably built at the expense of the priory of Box- 
 grove, in the reign of Edward III. ; two side aisles, 
 pointed arches, and round pillars. There are some 
 interesting tombs and inscriptions. — Slindon : consist- 
 ing of a nave and two aisles. In the chancel under a 
 niche is the figure of a man, carved in Irish oak, in 
 the armour of Henry the Eighth's time, with his head 
 
 ^ As far as picturesque effect is concerned, the open seats 
 at Pagham are an improvement on the old style of pewing ; 
 but the retention of a certain number of pews, prevents the 
 worst evil of the old system, (viz, making worldly distinctions 
 between rich and poor in the house of God,) from being re- 
 moved by the partial adoption of open seats.
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 73 
 
 bare, and resting on his helmet. — Eastergate : chancel 
 ancient ; two lancets on the south side, and a good 
 Perpendicular window over the altar. Some stained 
 glass in a window in the nave. Part of the well- 
 finished wooden king-post roof remains ; the rest rude. 
 — Selsey, the ancient bishop's see, removed to Chi- 
 chester by Stigand, chaplain to William the First. 
 No remains of the ancient cathedral. The present 
 church is said to have been built by Bishop Reade 
 in the latter part of the fourteenth century. Nave 
 and two aisles. Oak roof in excellent preservation, 
 and the ancient seats. Very ancient font, perhaps 
 the very one from which St. Wilfrid administered the 
 Sacrament of Baptism to our Saxon forefathers. 
 — Oving (described before). — Mertsham : very small, 
 one aisle with pointed arches, with chamfered edges, 
 low cylindrical columns, with bases apparently an- 
 cient, lancet windows, a per])endicular piscina, and 
 an early Norman font. — Aldinghourne : remains of 
 lancets in the tower ; semi-circular arch leading into 
 the south aisle, with perfect Early English mouldings, 
 and the tooth ornament, which also occurs in the 
 aisle, beautifully executed. Large old font. — Apple- 
 drum, Barcombe, Barlavington, Bamham, Bepton, 
 West Bletchington, Bodiham, Bolney, St. Botolph's, 
 Bury, Chailcy, Cliiltington, Chithurst, Coates, Combes, 
 Didling, Donnington, Fairlight, Farnhurst, Ferring, 
 Fishbourn, Fletching, Goreing, Greetham, Hangleton, 
 Hellingly, Hardham, Hove, Hollington, East Hoathly, 
 Horsham, Hunston, Hurstmonceaux, West Itchenor, 
 Icklesham, Iford, Keymcr, Mid Lavant, Linchmere,
 
 THE EARLY ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 Ludgershall, Madehiirst, North Stoke, Ovingdean, 
 Paching, Peacemarsh, Pevensey, Playden, Pidinghoe, 
 Plumpton, Portslade, Preston, Rogate, Rottingdean, 
 Rusper, Ruslington, Sellham, Sidlesham, Selmerton, 
 Stedham, South Stoke, West Stoke, Stoughton, Tang- 
 mere, Tarring Neville, West Tarring, Teswick, West 
 Thorney, Tortington, Udimere, Westfield, Washing- 
 ton, Westmerton, Wisborough Green, West Withing, 
 Wivelsfield, are all Early English churches. I ought 
 to include Netley Abbey among the Early English
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 1307—1377. 
 
 This style prevailed little more than seventy years, 
 and is peculiar to the reigns of our second and third 
 Edwards. It is very rich and beautiful, without 
 being overloaded with ornament, and forms, as it 
 were, a link that connects the simple and severe 
 architecture of Early English fabrics with that florid 
 mode of building which was adopted in the fifteenth 
 century. The equilateral arch was most commonly 
 adopted at this period, and it is of very graceful pro- 
 portions. The doors and porches very much resemble 
 those of the preceding style, the difference mainly 
 consisting in the peculiar form of the mouldings and 
 their enrichments : the ornament, resembling a ball 
 within the leaves of a flower, is often inserted in the 
 hollows, with considerable intervals between, and has 
 an excellent effect. Lichfield cadiedral and tlie Nor- 
 wich school-house have very beautiful examples of 
 doors, covered with iron scroll-work. The shafts,
 
 76 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 instead of standing free, are generally parts of the 
 sweep of the mouldings, and instead of being cut and 
 set up lengthways, all the mouldings and shafts are 
 cut on the arch-stone, thus combining great strength 
 with all the appearance of lightness. The capitals of 
 these shafts differ from the Early English, in being 
 formed of a woven foliage, and not of upright leaves ; 
 this in small shafts has an apparent neck, but in 
 larger ones often appears like a ball of open foliage. 
 There are also plain capitals. — Exeter cathedral and 
 Norwich cloisters afford fine specimens. The doors 
 in general are not so deeply recessed as the Norman 
 and Early English, yet in many large buildings they 
 are very deep. The west doors of York are of the 
 richest execution and of considerable depth. To 
 the open work bands of the last style, succeeds an 
 ornament equally beautiful, and less fragile, viz. the 
 flowered moulding ; and the tooth ornament is ex- 
 changed for an ornament almost as peculiar to the 
 Decorated style, as its predecessor is to the Early 
 English. This is a small round bud of three or four 
 leaves, which open just enough to show a ball in the 
 centre ; this is generally placed in a hollow moulding, 
 and has a beautiful effect. A four-leaved flower 
 also, in a hollow moulding, is used in some buildings, 
 in great profusion. Sometimes heads and figures are 
 introduced in these mouldings. The doors have various 
 canopies. The dripstone is generally supported by a 
 corbel, which is commonly a head. The common 
 canopy is a triangle : the space between it and the 
 dripstone is filled with tracery, and the exterior
 
 THE DECORATED STYLE. t t 
 
 ornamented with crockets, and crowned with a finial. 
 Tlie second canopy is the ogee, which runs about 
 half-way up the dripstone, and then is turned the 
 contrary way, and is finished in a straight line run- 
 ning up into a finial. This has much tracery, and is 
 crocketed. An arch, doubly foliated, running over 
 the door, is sometimes used as a canopy, but is not 
 common. In small churches we often find doors 
 nearly plain. In some doors of this style, a series of 
 niches with statues is carried up, like a hollow 
 moulding ; and in others doubly foliated tracery, 
 standing free from one of the outer mouldings, gives 
 great richness. The south door of Lincoln, and 
 a door in the cloisters of Norwich, are fine speci- 
 mens. The clearest marks of the Decorated style 
 are to be found in the windows. They are usually 
 large and wide, divided into several lights by mul- 
 lions ; but the horizontal bar, or transom, was not often 
 introduced in ecclesiastical buildings previous to the 
 Perpendicular style, excepting in spire-lights, of which 
 there is an example at Witney, Oxon, as early as the 
 middle of the thirteenth century. The tracery of 
 Decorated work is of extreme beauty, and is either 
 composed of circles and other geometrical figures, or of 
 a flowing pattern, which is usual in the later exam- 
 ples. The great east window of Carlisle cathedral is 
 the finest specimen in the kingdom. The great win- 
 dow you have all seen in the south transept of Chi- 
 chester cathedral is Decorated, and possesses great 
 beauty, though it is not equal to the window of the 
 same date at Merton college. In small churches
 
 78 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 windows of two or three lights are common, but in 
 larger edifices we find four or five lights for the aisles 
 and clerestory windows, five or six for transepts and 
 the end of aisles, and in the east and west windows 
 seven, eight, and even nine lights are used. The 
 west window of York contains eight lights, as does 
 the east window of Lincoln : the west window of 
 Exeter, and the splendid east window of Carlisle, 
 have nine. There are two kinds of tracery, (jeome- 
 trical, containing figures, such as circles, trefoils, &c. 
 touching only at points, and Jloiving, where the mould- 
 ings flow into patterns of great delicacy and intricacy. 
 The windows at Exeter, and those of the nave at 
 York, are specimens of the geometrical. York Min- 
 ster, Beverley Minster, Newark church, and many 
 other northern as well as some southern churches, 
 contain beautiful specimens of the flowing style. 
 There is a beautiful modern window at St. Peter's 
 church, Brighton, with flowing tracery ; indeed, the 
 greater part of that fine church offers much consola- 
 tion to the eye of a lover of architecture accustomed 
 to mourn over the unchurch-like and generally un- 
 sightly buildings which usually disfigure our great 
 towns under the name of modern churches. Cer- 
 tainly we can name some bright exceptions, and a 
 better taste is fast springing up among us, and I hope 
 we may add, a better spirit and greater willingness 
 to offer of the best to Him who gave us all. But to 
 return : a new disposition of shafts marks the Deco- 
 rated style in large buildings. They are arranged 
 diagonally, or diamond- wise, often containing as many
 
 THE DECORATED STYLE. 79 
 
 sliafts as will stand close to each other at the capital, 
 and only a fillet or small hollow between them. 
 The shaft, which runs up to support the roof, often 
 springs from a rich corbel between the outer archi- 
 trave mouldings of the arches. Exeter and Ely are 
 fine examples. There are other piers, as that rich 
 one at York, where the centre shaft is larger than 
 those on each side, and the three all run through to 
 the spring of the roof. In small country churches 
 the flat-faced multangular pier was used. Buttresses 
 are various, all more or less worked in stages, and 
 the set-offs ornamented. Of rich buttresses examples 
 may be found in the west front of York Minster, 
 and also in the ruins of Howden church, Yorkshire, 
 and the priory at Walsingham, Norfolk. This last 
 is very late, and it seems doubtful whether it might 
 not be classed as Perpendicular. The equilateral 
 arch is not so distinguishing a mark of the Decorated 
 style, as the arches of the two preceding styles are 
 of theirs. At Ely a drop arch is used. The dis- 
 tinction between the multiplied Early English mould- 
 ings and the bold Decorated ones, may be well 
 observed at Chester, where the arch between the 
 choir and Lady chapel is very good Early English, 
 and the arches of the nave are. good Decorated work; 
 and these two also show the difference of character 
 of the two kinds of pier. Decorated niches fomi 
 one great beauty of the style. They are either pan- 
 nelled, having the fronts of canopies even with the face 
 of the wall or buttress they are set to, or they have 
 projecting canopies. These are of various shapes ;
 
 80 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 some like several triangular canopies joined at the 
 edges, and some with ogee heads. There were also 
 in the latter part of this style some instances of the 
 niche, with a flat-headed canopy, which became so 
 common in the next style. The chancel stalls of 
 this style are often very rich. The most remarkable 
 distinction between the Decorated style and the florid 
 Perpendicular is, that in the former, ornament is used 
 as an accessary ; in the latter, it fonns part of the 
 composition of the building. Though ornament is often 
 profusely used in the earlier style (as its very name of 
 " Decorated " shows), yet these ornaments are like 
 Grecian enrichments, which may be left out without 
 destroying the grand design of the building. In the 
 later style the ornaments are more generally a minute 
 division of parts of the building, as pannels, buttresses, 
 &c. than the mere external ornament of sculpture. 
 In some of the more magnificent Decorated works, a 
 variety of flowered carvings is used all over, and 
 yet the building does not look overloaded, while 
 some of the late Perpendicular buildings, having much 
 less flowered carvings, look burdened with ornament, 
 from the fatiguing recurrence of minute parts, which 
 prevent the comprehension of the general design. 
 But this I shall explain more fully when I define 
 the next style. 
 
 I have already described the ornaments peculiar to 
 the Decorated style. It is seldom safe to judge of 
 date solely by the character of the ornamental carv- 
 ings, yet in many instances there will be very clear 
 distinctions. It is difficult to describe in words the
 
 THE DECORATED STYLE. 81 
 
 different characters of Early English, and Decorated 
 foliage, yet any one who attentively examines a few 
 examples of each style, will be seldom mistaken 
 afterwards, unless in buildings so completely transi- 
 tional as to have almost every mark of both styles. 
 The Early EngUsh foliage is bold and regular in form ; 
 the Decorated leaves have a crumpled appearance 
 more resembhng nature. In the cathedrals of York 
 and Ely, the student may find excellent examples of 
 each style, but for the present moment I must refer 
 you to the plate. 
 
 At the commencement of this style, several fine 
 spires were added to towers then existing, and in 
 after-times many very fine towers and spires were 
 erected. Grantham, Newark, and several other Lin- 
 colnshire spires are very fine. These are generally 
 flanked with buttresses, and crowned with fine pinna- 
 cles. Newark spire deserves particular attention. The 
 lower parts are Early English, but it is the upper 
 story of the tower and spire which are its chief beau- 
 ties. There are many small towers and spires which 
 appear to be Decorated ; but there are so many of them 
 altered, and with appearances so much like the next 
 style, that they require more than common examina- 
 tion before they are pronounced absolutely Decorated; 
 and Mr. Rickman says, he has not been able to 
 find any rich, ornamented tower of large size remain- 
 ing, that is a pure Decorated building. The west 
 towers of York Minster come the nearest to purity, 
 though the tracery of the belfry windows and the 
 battlements are decidedly Perpendicular.
 
 82 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 A parapet continues frequently to be used in the 
 Decorated style, but it is often pierced in various 
 shapes, of which quatrefoils, in circles, or without 
 that inclosure, are very common: but another, less 
 common, possesses great beauty ; this is a waved 
 line, the spaces of wliich are trefoiled. It is well 
 executed at the church of St. Mary Magdalene, 
 at Oxford. There are very few Decorated porches 
 remaining, but under this head I must notice three 
 beautiful gates, which are in some degree assimilated 
 to porches. These are, the gates of the abbey at 
 Bury St. Edmund's, of Thornton abbey, Lincolnshire ; 
 and of St. Augustine's monastery, Canterbury. They 
 have all rich and beautifully ornamented gateways, 
 with rooms over them, and their fronts ornamented 
 with niches, windows, &:c. The general appearance 
 of Decorated buildings is at once simple and magnifi- 
 cent ; simple from the small number of parts, and 
 magnificent from the size of the windows, the easy 
 flow of the lines of tracery, and the elegance of its 
 ornament. In the interior of large buildings we find 
 great breadth, and an enlargement of the clerestory 
 windows, with a corresponding diminution of the 
 triforium, which is now rather a part of the clere- 
 story opening than a distinct member of the division. 
 The roofing, from the increased richness of the groin- 
 ing, becomes an object of attention. The Decorated 
 groined roof is an increase on the last style in the 
 number of ribs ; those of the simplest kind consisted 
 of the longitudinal and crossing rib, at the point of 
 the arches, with the cross-springers and pier rib, and 
 
 &
 
 THE DECORATED STYLE. 83 
 
 an intermediate rib between them and the wall arch. 
 These ribs, increased in number, and adorned with 
 small ribs, forming, by their intersection, stars and 
 other figures, give a variety to the groining almost 
 equal to the tracery of windows. The roof over 
 York Minster is admirably designed, and has an 
 appearance of grandeur and simplicity, on account of 
 the shafts from which the moulded ribs radiate, 
 ascending direct from the floor without any hori- 
 zontal interruption. There remain a few roofs, which 
 appear to be of Decorated character, that are open to 
 the roof framing, and have a sort of pannelled work 
 in ogee quatrefoils in timber, between the principals, 
 which have arched ornamental work. Of this kind is 
 the roof of Eltham palace. The east fronts of Decorated 
 buildings consist so often of one large window for the 
 chancel or choir, and two smaller ones for the aisles, 
 if there be any, that little need be said of their com- 
 position, as its variation depends on the variety of 
 buttresses. Sec. used as finishings. The east ends of 
 Lincoln and Carlisle cathedrals are examples. The 
 east end of Lichfield cathedral is a semi-hexagon, 
 with very fine long windows of rich tracery. This 
 is late in the style, and seems to have been much 
 repaired at a still later period. The west front of 
 York has been called the finest in England. The 
 three doors are splendid specimens of Decorated 
 doors. The east end of Trinity church, Hull, deserves 
 attention ; the windows are very fine, but the centre 
 one has a trace of Perpendicular work in it. Though 
 we have not the advantage of possessing any one
 
 84 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 large building of this style in its pure state, like 
 Salisbury cathedral, which offers so perfect a speci- 
 men of the Early English style, yet we have the 
 advantage of four beautiful models in the highest 
 preservation. These are at Lincoln, Exeter, York, 
 and Ely, and, though differently worked, are all of 
 excellent execution. Of these, Exeter and York are 
 far the largest, and York, from the grandeur and 
 simplicity of the design, is certainly the finest. Orna- 
 ment is lavished on it, yet there is a simplicity that 
 charms. Lincoln is assimilated to the Early English 
 work about it, and Ely has, from the same necessity 
 of considering former work, a larger triforium than 
 common ; though not so bold in its composition as the 
 nave of York, the work at Ely is valuable for the 
 beauty and delicacy of its details. Among the many 
 smaller churches, the church of the Holy Trinity, at 
 Hull, deserves peculiar notice, from its Decorated 
 parts being of a character which could be well imitated 
 in modem work, from the great height of the piers, and 
 the smallness of their size. The remains of Melrose 
 are very rich, and, though in niins, its parts are clearly 
 distinguishable. Li imitations of this style, great 
 care is required to prevent its running into the next, 
 which, from its straight perpendicidar and horizontal 
 lines, is so much more easily worked. There are many 
 good fonts of this style remaining, though they are 
 less numerous than Norman and Perpendicular fonts. 
 At Luton, Bedfordshire, there is a beautiful baptis- 
 tery. As an example of transition from this style to 
 the next, the choir of York may be cited. The
 
 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 piers and arches retain the same form as in the Deco- 
 rated work in the nave ; but the windows, the screens, 
 and above all, the east end, are clearly Perpendicular. 
 In the stained glass of this period, the openings of 
 the windows were generally occupied by one figure 
 only, an effigy of the patron saint or benefactor. 
 Heraldry had made great advances, and the laws by 
 which heraldic colours are contrasted, invariably pro- 
 duce a full and perfect effect on stained glass \ 
 
 Hist of Decoratcti (!Ii)urci^es in Sussex. 
 
 Chichester cathedral contains a splendid Decorated 
 w^indow in the south transept. The windows of the 
 side chapels of the nave, added in the time of Edward 
 III., are of early Decorated work, but very plain ex- 
 amples of the style. — Boxcjrove has some Decorated 
 windows. — St. Nicholas, Brighton, has some Decorated 
 parts. — Etchingham has Decorated work in the tower. 
 — Finden : Decorated east window. — Firle : good De- 
 corated windows, but some later, with modem inser- 
 tions. — West G r instead : partly Decorated. — Heath- 
 field : Decorated east window, and quatrefoils for 
 
 ^ Many persons object to armorial bearings, on the ground 
 that they are of a worldly character ; but as long as they are 
 kept in a subordinate place, I do not see any force in the 
 objection. Even when they are made to usurp the places 
 originally assigned to saints and martyrs, they are far less 
 shocking to many minds, than the general custom of placing 
 the Royal arms where the image of our blessed Redeemer 
 once stood.
 
 86 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 clerestory windows. — West Hoathley: Decorated chan- 
 cel. — Kingston: small plain church of good Decorated 
 character, with some handsome doors and windows. — 
 Oving : Decorated windows inserted. — Sompting : re- 
 mains of a side chapel of the Decorated style. — Wal- 
 tham : windows with trefoiled heads ; but they may be 
 insertions. — Winchehea : parts of early Decorated 
 character. 
 
 The churches in the following list have an admix- 
 ture of Decorated portions, with the Early English ; 
 sometimes merely one or two windows, sometimes 
 with a little Perpendicular work : — 
 
 Arlington, Ashurst, Beckley, Bodingham, Bignor, 
 Broadwater, East Bletchington, Burwash, Buxted, 
 Catsfield, Cocking, Compton, Denton, Ditchling, 
 Earnley, Eartham, Eastergate, Ewhurst, Felpham, 
 Fittleworth, Frampfield, Frant, Graffliam, Hartfield, 
 Harting, Horsted Keynes, I field, Merston, Newick, 
 Northiam, Patcham, Salehurst, Stopham, Street, Sut- 
 ton, Wadhurst, Waldron, Woodmancoat. 
 
 The following churches are of Decorated character, 
 some of them with but little admixture : — 
 
 Ardingley, Ashburnham, Berwick, Chalvington, 
 Ford, Isfield, North Chapel, Nuthurst, Petworth, 
 Seaford, Slaugham, Tillington, Trotton, Cold Wal- 
 tham, Wiston. The churches of Alfriston, Ashing- 
 ton, Crawley, Heyshot, Lindfield, Poynings, and 
 Rype, have an admixture of the Decorated and Per- 
 pendicular styles.
 
 THE DECORATED STYLE. 
 
 The ruins of Mayfield Palace, once the seat of the 
 Archbishops of Canterbury, afford fine specimens of 
 domestic Decorated work. The entrance-gate and 
 some other portions of Battle Ahhey are of Decorated 
 character, with excellent details. 
 
 Decovatctr Cf)uvcf)cs of f^ants. 
 
 Winchester Cathedral : there is not much Decorated 
 work ; the old screen at the back of the space behind 
 the altar-screen is excellent Decorated work. — The 
 Hospital of St. Cross: west end early Decorated. — 
 Rornsey : windows at the east end, evidently inserted, 
 very fine ones, with early Decorated tracery. — Cornp- 
 ton. — Soherton.
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 CJe letjpcntdcular Stele, 
 
 1377—1546. 
 
 " Full many a bard hath sung the solemn gloom 
 Of the long Gothic aisle and stone-ribb'd roof, 
 O'er-canopying shrine and gorgeous tomb, 
 Carved screen, and altar glimmering far aloof, 
 And blending with the shade — a matchless proof 
 Of high devotion, which hath now waxed cold." 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 The Perpendicular Gothic is a style almost peculiar 
 to this country, and in its earlier specimens possesses 
 much of the richness and elegant simplicity of the 
 preceding period ; but in the later examples a lavish 
 display of intricate and minute ornaments was often 
 carried to such an excess, as eventually to be destruc- 
 tive of all the solemn character and beauty of Pointed 
 Architecture. The Perpendicular style prevailed about 
 one hundred and sixty-nine years, beginning in the 
 reign of Richard II. and continuing till the reign of
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 89 
 
 Henry VIII. It is true there are examples of it, used 
 as additions and repairs as late as 1630 or 1640, 
 but the style is then much debased. Few if any 
 whole buildings were executed in this style later 
 than Henry Vlllth's time. The four-centred Tudor 
 arch is almost invariably used in the later structures 
 of this era, but its appearance is inferior to that of 
 the simple pointed form, which was often adopted in 
 the earlier edifices. The massive round Anglo- 
 Norman pier, lessened in size and extended in length, 
 with shafts set round it, became the Early English 
 pier ; the shafts were multiplied, and set into the face 
 of the pier, which became, in its place, lozenge, and 
 formed the Decorated pier. We now find the pier 
 altering in shape again, becoming much thinner be- 
 tween the arches, and larger from the nave to the 
 aisle. This is managed by having those shafts, which 
 run to the roof to support the springings of the 
 groins, added in front, and not forming a part of the 
 miouldings of the arch, but having a bold hollow 
 between them. This is very apparent at King's Col- 
 lege Chapel, Cambridge, St. George's, Windsor, 
 and Henry Vllth's Chapel, the three great models 
 of the enriched Perpendicular style ; but it is observ- 
 able in a less degree in many other buildings. In 
 small churches, the pier mentioned in the last style is 
 much used ; but many small churches have humble 
 imitations of the magnificent arrangement of shafts 
 and mouldings just mentioned. There are still some 
 plain octagonal. Sec. piers in small churches which may 
 belong to this age. The great distinction of Perpen-
 
 90 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 
 
 dicular doors is the almost constant square head 
 over the arch, which is surrounded by the outer 
 moulding of the architrave, and the spandrel filled 
 with some ornament ; and over all a dripstone is gene- 
 rally placed. This ornamented spandrel in a square 
 head occurs in the porch to Westminster Hall, one of 
 the earliest Perpendicular buildings, and is continued 
 to the latest period of good execution, and in a rough 
 way much later. In large very rich doors, this square 
 head includes a canopy, and sometimes niches are 
 added, as at King's College, Cambridge. 
 
 The shafts used in these doors are small, and have 
 mostly plain capitals. But there are still, in the 
 early part of the style, some flowered capitals. The 
 mouldings of the capitals often contain (more parti- 
 cularly in the later dates of the style) a member 
 which is precisely the cyma-recta of Grecian work, 
 which is a compound moulding, having the hollow 
 uppermost and projecting. The architraves of these 
 doors have generally one or more large hollows, 
 sometimes filled with statuary niches, but more plain: 
 this large hollow, in the architraves of both doors and 
 windows, is one of the best marks of this style. 
 
 Perpendicular windows are easily distinguished by 
 their mullions running in perpendicular lines, and the 
 transoms which are now general. The varieties of 
 the last style were in the disposition of the principal 
 lines of the tracery : in this they are rather in the 
 disposition of the minute parts. A window of four or 
 more lights is generally divided into two or three 
 parts, by strong mullions running quite up, and the
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 91 
 
 portion of arch between them doubled from the centre 
 of the side division. The heads of windows, instead 
 of being filled with flowing ramifications, have slender 
 mullions running from the heads of the lights, between 
 each principal mullion, and these have small tran- 
 soms, till the window is divided into a series of small 
 pannels, and the heads, being arched, are trefoiled or 
 cinquefoiled. In the later windows of this style, the 
 transoms are often ornamented with small battle- 
 ments, and sometimes with flowers, which, when well 
 executed, have a very fine effect. 
 
 It is difficult to particularize among the immense 
 number of Perpendicular windows, for half the win- 
 dows in English edifices are of this style. I may, 
 however, mention St. George's, Windsor, for four 
 lights, and the clerestory windows of Henry Vllth's 
 Chapel for five, as among the best executed. For a 
 large window, the east window of York has no equal, 
 and, by taking its parts, a window of any size may 
 be formed. 
 
 It is necessary to mention a window^ which may be 
 mistaken for a Decorated window. This is one of 
 three lights, used in many country churches ; the 
 mullions simply cross each other, and are cinque- 
 foiled in the heads and quatrefoiled in the three upper 
 spaces. To distinguish this from a Decorated win- 
 dow, it will generally be necessary to examine its 
 arch, its mullion mouldings, and its dripstone, as 
 well as its being (as it often is) accompanied by a 
 clearly Perpendicular window at the end, or con- 
 nected with it so as to be evidently of that time. Its
 
 92 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 
 
 arch is very often four-centred, which at once de- 
 cides its date ; its mullion mouldings are often small, 
 and very delicately worked ; its dripstone in many 
 instances has some clear mark ; and when the Deco- 
 rated tracery is become familiar, it will be distin- 
 guished from it by its being a mere foliation of a 
 space, and not a flowing quatrefoil with the mould- 
 ings carried round it. Large circular windows do 
 not appear to have been in use in this style ; but the 
 tracery of the circles in the transepts of Westminster 
 Abbey appear to have been renewed during this 
 period. In Henry Vllth's Chapel, a window is 
 used in the aisles which seems to have led the way 
 to that wretched substitute for fine tracery, the 
 square-headed windows of Queen Elizabeth's and 
 King James Ist's time. When canopies are used, 
 which is not so often as in the last style, they are 
 generally of the ogee character, beautifully crock- 
 eted. 
 
 Perpendicular English arches offer, as I said be- 
 fore, great variety. But the four-centred — also called 
 the Depressed, Henry VHth's, and the Tudor arch — 
 is the one most frequently used in large buildings. 
 The triforium disappears, and its place is supplied by 
 pannels, as at St. George's, Windsor, or statuary 
 niches, as in Henry VHth's Chapel, or it is left 
 without substitute, as at Bath, Manchester old church, 
 &c. The buttresses differ very little from those of 
 the preceding style, and are generally crowned with 
 pinnacles ; the flying buttresses are often pierced 
 with rich and elaborate tracery. Perpendicular
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 93 
 
 porches are very frequently of two stories ; and 
 generally those attached to large churches are elabo- 
 rately ornamented with pannelling, rich canopied 
 niches, armorial bearings, and other sculptured deco- 
 rations. The Perpendicular groined roof was often 
 of a very complicated design, the ribs being disposed 
 in a variety of ways, and generally adorned with 
 richly carved bosses. The roof with /«/? tracery is a roof 
 peculiar to the Perpendicular style. It is the most 
 delicate description of roof, and displays the most 
 elaborate workmanship. One glance at the plate will 
 say more than a laboured description, and will show 
 immediately the propriety of the name — the fan 
 tracery being so very striking. The earliest and 
 most elegant specimen is that of the Cloisters at 
 Gloucester. Next in merit are King's College, Cam- 
 bridge, Henry Vllth's Chapel, and the Abbey Church 
 at Bath : to these I may add the aisles of St. 
 George's Chapel, and the eastern addition at Peter- 
 borough. To some of these roofs are attached 
 pendants, which in Henry VHth's Chapel and the 
 Divinity School, Oxford, come down as low as the 
 springing line of the fans. These pendants are beau- 
 tiful, and have an exquisite effect for refectories, 
 halls, and other l)uildings of a domestic character; 
 but there is a something light and festive about 
 them which renders them less suitable for churches. 
 The common timber church roof of this style is sim- 
 ple and rich, and not difficult of construction ; its 
 design consists of a number of square compartments, 
 which are formed by a moulded rib above each pier,
 
 94 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 
 
 being crossed by another in the centre of the nave. 
 These spaces are again subdivided. At each inter- 
 section a flower, shield, or other ornament, was 
 usually placed; and at this period the ceiling was 
 frequently painted blue, studded with gilt stars, to 
 represent the firmament. In Suffolk and the adjoin- 
 ing counties, the churches generally have open 
 wooden roofs, of extreme beauty, and of a character 
 perfectly distinct from the ordinary roofs over halls, 
 refectories, and other domestic buildings. 
 
 Of Perpendicular English steeples we possess spe- 
 cimens of almost every description, from the plain 
 short tower of a country church, to the elaborate and 
 gorgeous towers of Gloucester and Wrexham. There 
 are various fine spires of this style, but their age may 
 be generally known by their ornaments, or the towers 
 supporting them. Almost every conceivable varia- 
 tion of buttress, battlement, and pinnacle, is used ; 
 and the appearance of many of the towers combines, 
 in a very eminent degree, extraordinary richness of 
 execution and grandeur of design. 
 
 Few counties in England are without some good 
 examples. Besides Gloucester and Wrexham, I may 
 mention Boston in Lincolnshire ; All Saints in Derby, 
 St. Mary's, Taunton, Huish, near Langport, St. 
 George's, Doncaster, are celebrated ; and the plain 
 but excellently proportioned tower of Magdalen Col- 
 lege, Oxford, deserves attention. Among the smaller 
 churches there are many towers of great beauty, but 
 few exceed Gresford, between Chester and Wrex- 
 ham ; indeed, the whole of this church, both exterior
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 95 
 
 and interior, is worth attentive examination. To 
 notice all the magnificent towers of this style would 
 be impossible ; but the cathedrals of Canterbury and 
 York must not be omitted. At Canterbury, the cen- 
 tral tower, which has octagonal turrets at the corners, 
 is a very fine one, and the south-west tower is little 
 inferior. At York, the centre tower is a most mag- 
 nificent lantern. 
 
 The surfaces of the buildings erected at this period 
 are generally more or less covered with pannelling ; 
 and the ornaments most usually introduced are — the 
 rose and portcullis of Henry VII., the Tudor flower, 
 and angels, with expanded wings, holding shields, 
 which are often charged with armorial bearings, or 
 with symbols of a religious and mystical character. 
 Some of the screens, monuments, and chantry chapels, 
 are so overloaded with elaborate and minute enrich- 
 ments, that the skill and perseverance of the sculptor 
 hardly excite our admiration ; and we forcibly per- 
 ceive the truth of the remark of Forsyth, "that 
 mere difficulty surmounted never gives pleasure but 
 to the artist himself; for in the fine arts we never 
 consider the labour bestowed, we consider only the 
 excellence produced." 
 
 In many Perpendicular buildings the ornament 
 takes the foremost place, instead of being merely sub- 
 ordinate to the general design ; and this being con- 
 trary to order and propriety, displeases instead of 
 charming. The interior of King's College, Cam- 
 bridge, is all pannel except the floor ; for the doors 
 and windows are nothing but pierced pannels, in-
 
 96 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 
 
 eluded in the general design, and the very roof is a 
 series of them of different shapes. Another peculiar 
 ornament of this style is the angel cornice used at 
 Windsor, and in Henry Vllth's Chapel ; but though 
 according with the character of those buildings, it is 
 by no means fit for general use. These angels are 
 used as supporters of shields and as corbels to sup- 
 port roof-beams, &c. Plain as the Abbey Church at 
 Bath is in its general execution, it has a variety of 
 angels as corbels for different purposes. Flowers of 
 various kinds continue to ornament cornices, and 
 crotchets were variously formed towards the end of 
 the style ; those of pinnacles were often very much 
 projected, which has a disagreeable effect. There 
 are many of these pinnacles at Oxford, worked in the 
 decline of the style. The cornice in large builchngs 
 is often composed of several small mouldings, and 
 ornamented occasionally with grotesque animals. Of 
 this there are curious examples at Gresford and 
 Mold, Flintshire, where we find a complete chace of 
 cats, rats, mice, dogs, and a variety of imaginary 
 figures, amongst which various grotesque monkeys 
 are very conspicuous. The origin of the grotesque 
 ornaments with which Gothic architecture abounds 
 has never been fully explained. Horace Walpole 
 accounts for it, in his usual positive tone, by speaking 
 slightingly of the Middle Ages. He says, "It may 
 be a satisfaction to antiquarians to know who first 
 invented those grotesque monsters and burlesque 
 faces, with which the spouts and gutters of ancient 
 buildings are decorated. It was one Marchion, of
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 9? 
 
 Arezzo, architect to Pope Innocent III. (1 198 — 1216.) 
 Indeed I speak now critically : Marchion used those 
 grinning animals only to support columns ; but in so 
 fantastic an age they were sure of being copied, and 
 soon arrived at the top." I have lately met with a 
 very poetic and beautiful idea respecting the sym- 
 bolical meaning of the grotesque monsters on the 
 corbel-table and cornice, which has quite reconciled 
 me to the sight of them, but I do not feel sure that 
 there is not more fancy than truth in it. It is, that 
 they are intended to represent evil spirits tormented 
 by the sound of sacred music. 
 
 Perpendicular English niches are very numerous, 
 as among them we must include nearly all the stall, 
 tabernacle, and screen- work in the English churches ; 
 for there appears little wood-work of an older date, 
 and it is probable that much screen-work was de- 
 faced at the Reformation, but restored in Queen 
 Mary's time, and not again destroyed. 
 
 The remains of oak screen-work and tracery are 
 much greater than would be conceived possible, con- 
 sidering the varied destructions of the Reforma- 
 tion and Rebellion. Most of our cathedrals, and 
 very many smaller churches, contain tabernacle and 
 screen-work in excellent condition, and of beautiful 
 execution. The art of carving in wood was prac- 
 tised at a time when all idea of executing good 
 English work in stone seems to have been lost. 
 There is some excellent screen- work at Huyton, 
 Lancashire, in which 1663 is cut in a manner which 
 proves that it must have been done at the time the 
 
 II
 
 98 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 
 
 work was carved. Many niches are simple recesses, 
 with rich ogee canopies, and others have over- 
 hanging square-headed canopies, with many minute 
 buttresses and pinnacles crowned with battlements, 
 or, in the later part of the style, with the Tudor- 
 flower, an ornament often profusely strewed over the 
 roofs, ficc. of late rich buildings. Of these niches 
 the best specimens are those in Henry Vllth's chapel, 
 between the arches and clerestory windows. Of the 
 plain recesses with ogee canopies, there are some spe- 
 cimens at Windsor. The finest Perpendicular west 
 front is that of Beverley Minster. What the west 
 front of York is to the Decorated style, that of 
 Beverley is to the Perpendicular, with this addition, 
 that in the latter one style only is seen — all is har- 
 monious. The west fronts of Winchester, Glou- 
 cester, Chester, Bath, and Windsor, are all of this 
 style. At Bath there is a curious representation of 
 Jacob's dream, the ladders forming buttresses, and 
 angels filling the space about the great window. Of 
 small churches, St. George's, Doncaster, and Trinity, 
 Hull, have good west fronts ; and the east ends of 
 Louth church, Lincolnshire, and Warwick church, 
 as well as its companion, the Beauchamp chapel, are 
 fine examples. 
 
 Of Perpendicular porches there are so many, that 
 it is no easy matter to choose examples. That attached 
 to the south-west tower of Canterbury Cathedral, 
 which is covered with niches, the south porch at 
 Gloucester, and the third north porch at Beverley, 
 are perhaps the finest examples. The last, as a
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 99 
 
 pannelled front, is unequalled. Of small porches, that 
 of King's College chapel, Cambridge, is one of the 
 finest. The monumental chapels of this style are 
 peculiarly deserving attention, and often of the most 
 elaborate workmanship. The one at Boxgrove, 
 erected by Lord La War in 1532, is of course late 
 Perpendicular. In the choir at Arundel are several 
 monuments, one very rich of late Perpendicular. 
 
 Perpenthcular fonts are very numerous, and of all 
 sorts of workmanship, from the roughest description 
 to the most elaborate ; but they are more generally 
 rich than plain. At this period the wooden covers 
 were often very splendid and elaborate compositions ; 
 sometimes of tabernacle- work, sometimes representing 
 a pelican, often painted and gilt. 
 
 And now I close my descriptions of the four 
 styles of English Ecclesiastical Architecture, hoping 
 I have enabled you to fomi some idea, on entering a 
 church, of the period in which it was built. As you 
 seem so much interested in the subject, I intend 
 adding a few more lectures on Stained Glass, Eccle- 
 siastical Furniture, &c. When we meet next, I shall 
 speak of the two most important points of interior 
 decoration (if indeed such a term as decoration can 
 be used for what is indispensable), viz. Fonts and 
 Altars. 
 
 Hist of i;^crpcn"tiiculav C!)!!!^!)^?! in Sussex, 
 
 Chichester cathedral : the Cloisters. 
 Arundel : a very beautiful cross church, built 
 H 2
 
 100 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 
 
 1380. It is exquisitely proportioned, but remark- 
 ably plain. The nave and transepts only are used 
 for divine service, and the chancel was for many 
 years shut up, and left to decay. It is exceedingly 
 beautiful, and adorned with several splendid monu- 
 ments to the memory of members of the noble family 
 of Arundel, ancestors of the present duke of Nor- 
 folk. The choir is at present undergoing repair, 
 which every lover of Gothic architecture must rejoice 
 at. The windows are decidedly Perpendicular. If 
 it were not for that, the first glance gives the idea of 
 an Early English Church. There is an exquisitely 
 beautiful stone pulpit, which it makes one's heart 
 ache to see fitted up as a pew, and a tall ugly 
 wooden one, with reading pew and clerk's desk, 
 erected under the tower. This and the pews of 
 course injure the harmony of the whole, and do as 
 much as any thing can do towards concealing the 
 exquisite proportions of the nave. The cutting off 
 the choir, placing the communion-table in the south 
 transept (the old stone altar remaining in the ruined 
 choir), is of course a most serious defect, and it is much 
 to be wished that this beautiful church, one of the 
 most perfect in Sussex, could be restored in perfectly 
 good taste. Among the monuments in the chancel 
 are, a large sculptured table-tomb in the centre, (of 
 alabaster, formerly painted and gilt,) of Thomas, Earl 
 of Arundel, son of the founder, and Beatrix his wife ; 
 an open bier, with an emaciated figure in a shroud 
 below ; the head supported by two angels, and a 
 large and lofty sacellum, very similar to the one at
 
 THE PERPENDICULAR STYLE. 101 
 
 Boxgrove. By the way, I did not observe that Lord 
 La War's chapel is now fitted up as a pew, with 
 windows let in, &:c. — as melancholy a sight as the 
 pulpit at Arundel. There is a good Perpendicular 
 font, removed a few years ago from the porch to 
 the altar : it is to be hoped it will soon be moved 
 back again. — Battle : the south aisle is Perpendicular. 
 — Etchingham : some parts Perpendicular. — Lewes : 
 St. Thomas a Becket and St. Michael's, portions of 
 Perpendicular ; All Saints tower. — Oviny : some 
 windows inserted. — Rye : east window. 
 
 East Angmering, Billinghurst, West Bourne, 
 Brede, Brightling, St. Andrew's (Chichester), St. 
 Peter-the-Great (ditto), Crowhurst, Cuckfield, Dar- 
 lington, Gestling, Hailsham, Henfield, Hooe, May- 
 field, North Mundham, Ore, Parham, Penhurst, 
 Poking, Pyecombe, Ringmer, Singleton, Ticehurst, 
 Uckfield, Wiggenhall, Westham, Wytham, — all Per- 
 penchcular, but none of them very large or fine 
 examples. 
 
 Chichester Cross is the richest market cross in 
 England ; it is Late Perpendicular. The following 
 churches ought rather to have been mentioned under 
 the head of Early Englisli, but they have Perpen- 
 dicular insertions and additions : Alboume, Bexhill, 
 Chidham, Folkington, Edburton, West Hampnett, 
 Little Hampton, Hanney, Houghton, Kirdford, 
 Laughton, East Lavant, Litthngton, Maresfield, Pul- 
 borough, Rachton, Rodmill, Rotherfield, Sedles- 
 comb, Selsey, SuUington, Thakeham, Walberton, 
 WilHngdon.
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 dFonts anb Altars. 
 
 " There dwells in this deep fount 
 
 Anointing, souls to lave. 
 And from beneath this holy mount 
 
 Goes forth the heahng wave. 
 
 " Here Christ, of His own blood. 
 
 Himself the chalice gives, 
 And feeds His own with angels' food, 
 On which the spirit lives." 
 
 Hymn at the Consecration of a Church. 
 {Parisian Breviary.) 
 
 The first object which should arrest our attention as 
 we enter a church is the Font. It is (or rather ought 
 to be) invariably placed at the west end, near the 
 entrance, to symbolize the great truth, that holy 
 Baptism, of which the font is the instrument, is the 
 sacrament of admission into the Christian church. 
 Before Christianity was established in the land, Bap- 
 tism was administered in fountains and rivers ; but 
 afterwards baptisteries were provided and consecrated,
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 103 
 
 for the sake of order and reverence, and were, with 
 reference to the fountains, called *' fonts." Great 
 varieties of form and arrangement are found in fonts. 
 The earlier ecclesiastics of this kingdom held holy 
 Baptism to be a high mystery and privilege, and 
 therefore lavished on the font the greatest possible 
 care and art. There is no part of the church, or its 
 furniture, which has been so often preserved through 
 all the changes which have taken place in the sur- 
 rounding buildings, as the font. Hence we have 
 more Norman fonts than Norman churches ; and it 
 is probable that several fonts, now existing in build- 
 ings of comparatively recent date, are among the 
 very oldest relics of ancient Ecclesiastical Archi- 
 tecture. Of this our own neighbourhood offers us 
 many striking examples : Pagham, Felpham, Yapton, 
 Selsey, Mertsham, all Early English churches, have 
 fonts of great antiquity. They are of the very ear- 
 liest Norman period, if not Saxon. Indeed, I can 
 never see the rude fonts at Felpham, Pagham, and 
 Selsey, without a feeling of reverence, almost amount- 
 ing to awe, from a lurking belief that from those 
 very fonts St. Wilfred himself administered the life- 
 giving waters of Baptism to our Saxon forefathers. 
 The fonts at Selsey and Pagham resemble each other 
 closely : a square block of marble with circular 
 aperture, now raised on a large shaft, surrounded by 
 four smaller ones, brought from the monastic ruins. 
 
 I cannot help remarking the good taste and right 
 feeling shown in placing the old font at Pagham in so 
 striking and beautiful a situation. It stands just
 
 104 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 under a lancet window, which is filled with stained 
 glass, representing the Baptism of our Lord. There 
 is much quaint beauty in the design of that little 
 window. The font at Felpham is square, with rude 
 arches in low relief, and is raised on a cylindrical 
 column ; the lowest step is let into the ground. All 
 the ancient fonts are large enough to immerse a 
 child, and as immersion is the rule of our church, 
 (though by means of a sort of dispensation or indul- 
 gence, we seldom comply with the rule,) it is highly 
 improper to substitute a small basin or porringer for 
 a large font. The people at large seem scarcely to 
 have an idea that immersion is still ordered by the 
 Rubric, unless the child is delicate. You will not 
 soon forget the clerk, who, when showing us one of 
 the churches in this neighbourhood, informed us that 
 the reason the font was so large was that it was very 
 ancient, and that " it was supposed that in old times 
 they used to dip the children." There are fonts 
 much ruder than those I have mentioned. The fonts 
 at Little Maplestead and Heron Gate, Essex, are 
 little more than large stones, scarcely reduced to any 
 shape, except near the top, and then hollowed to 
 contain the water. We observed a very rude font of 
 this kind, raised on shafts of more modem date, at 
 Steyning. 
 
 The first well-defined form the font assumes 
 is a circular tub-shaped vessel, with little grace 
 of form, except that which arises from the base 
 being somewhat smaller than the rim. Some of 
 these fonts may be Saxon, many of them are cer-
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 105 
 
 tainly Norman ; and when adorned with a series of 
 arches and pillars in relief, and elevated on a step, 
 such a font is not unworthy of the west end of an 
 Anglo-Norman church. Somewhat later came the 
 square stone, hollowed in the centre, and supported 
 by a single massive colunm, as at Felpham, or on one 
 central and four smaller columns, as at Pagham. 
 This arrangement obviously affords room for deco- 
 rating the sides with symbolical figures, and we find 
 the Norman sculptures soon adorning the fonts pro- 
 fusely. At East Meon church, Hants, there is a 
 curious font, on which is described the Fall of man, 
 the part of Scripture history best adapted to the 
 entrance of the church, and admirably placed on the 
 font in which is washed away the stain which thence 
 descends upon all the children of Adam. The font 
 of Winchester cathedral is very like that of East 
 Meon, but the design of the sculpture is more ob- 
 scure. The font of Burnham Deepdale, in Norfolk, 
 represents the labours of the husbandman, probably 
 with reference to the Lord's vineyard. At St. 
 Nicholas church, Brighton, there is a very curious 
 font, which some persons have imagined to be a trick 
 upon antiquaries, i. e. an imitation of an early Nor- 
 man font, carved in modem times. The clearness 
 and freshness of the sculpture is wonderful : the 
 figures are grotesque and ludicrous, yet there is spirit 
 and expression in some of them. One side repre- 
 sents the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; our 
 Saviour is in the act of blessing the bread, and the 
 apostles lift up their hands and eyes in utter amaze-
 
 106 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 ment at the miraculous change. If this font be really 
 ancient, then there is nothing irreverent about it, as 
 the figures carved by a rude people would not be 
 ludicrous in the eyes of those who could make nothing 
 better ; but if it be the work of a modem artist, and 
 executed by way of joke, it is a melancholy specimen 
 of perverted skill — I may say, of shocking profane- 
 ness. 
 
 Fonts afterwards changed in shape : hexagonal 
 and octagonal fonts were introduced. The former is 
 unecclesiastical and unmeaning. The octagon is un- 
 doubtedly the most appropriate form for a font, and 
 the most beautiful, as well as the most ecclesiastical. 
 It is symbolical, according to the ancient method of 
 spiritualizing numbers, of the new birth in baptism ; 
 for the seven days' creation of the natural world are 
 symbolized by the number seven, and the new crea; 
 tion by Christ Jesus by the number eight ; in allusion 
 to the eighth day, on which He rose again from the 
 dead ; and this reason St. Ambrose, more than 
 fourteen centuries ago, assigned for the octagonal 
 form of the baptistery. At Ware, in Hertfordshire, 
 we find an octagonal font charged with whole length 
 figures, in very bold relief, of the Salutation, of St. 
 John the Baptist, of St. James the Less, St. Catherine, 
 St. George, St. Christopher, and of St. Margaret and 
 the dragon. Between the compartments busts of 
 angels hold musical instruments, and the instru- 
 ments of the passion. 
 
 Anglo-Norman fonts are very numerous. Early 
 English fonts are exceedingly rare, and can be dis-
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 107 
 
 tinguished from those of the Anglo-Norman period 
 only by their characteristic mouldings and other or- 
 naments. At Plymstock, Devon, Bainton, North- 
 amptonshire, and St. Giles's, Oxford, there are Early 
 English fonts. Decorated fonts are by no means com- 
 mon. That in the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Ox- 
 ford, is a very elegant example of this style. At Grant- 
 chester, Cambridgeshire, there is a Decorated font, 
 plain enough to be taken at first sight for a Norman one. 
 At Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Yorkshire, there is a very 
 elegant font of the Decorated style. Perpendicular 
 fonts are very numerous, and, as I said before, vary 
 greatly in design and execution. They are almost 
 invariably octagonal, and generally enriched with 
 pannelling and the ornaments of the style, but not 
 always. At Worsted, and at East Dereham, Nor- 
 folk, there are very graceful and rich fonts. 
 
 Towards the end of the fourteenth century, cano- 
 pies were introduced. At Luton there is a stone 
 canopy, supported by eight pillars, about twenty- 
 eight feet high, making a small oratory round the font, 
 capable of holding eight people. This is, perhaps, 
 unique ; but it is only an expansion of the canopy, 
 at one time almost universal. The Puritans were 
 great enemies to these canopies. William Dowsing, 
 one of those wise men who — 
 
 " Call fire, and sword, and desolation, 
 A godly, thorough reformation," 
 
 was terribly scandalized at Sefford, by "a glorious 
 cover over the font, like a Pope's triple crown, witli
 
 108 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 a pelican on the top picking its breast, all gilt over 
 with gold." I mentioned before, that in the ancient 
 church baptisteries were usual : the finest specimens 
 remaining are those of Pisa, Florence, and Parma. 
 In England we have hardly any. At Canterbury 
 there is a building called the baptistery, in which 
 the font is now placed ; but it is very doubtful that 
 the building was originally intended for the purpose. 
 It was by no means uncommon, a few years ago, to 
 see the ancient font removed, and a small basin made 
 to supply its place. You may remember that at 
 
 F a stone trough, which had served for a sink 
 
 under a pump in the rectory garden for many a long 
 year, was discovered by antiquarian eyes to be the 
 upper part of the old font, destroyed, probably, 
 during the great rebellion. Our own font, you know, 
 served for a cattle trough at the public-house from 
 the days of the Puritans to our own. In some 
 churches the old fonts w^ere removed to make room 
 for an additional pew, and a basin or porringer sub- 
 stituted. 
 
 But better times have dawned. Every day we 
 hear of old fonts being rescued from lumber places, 
 or from desecrating purposes, and placed where they 
 ought to be ; or of new fonts, formed on ancient 
 models, being erected in churches. At St. Paul's 
 church, Edinburgh, there is a modern font, unfor- 
 tunately hexagonal and too small, but still possessing 
 much beauty and richness, being ornamented with 
 bas-reliefs of the Baptism of our Lord, and other ap- 
 propriate subjects. At Hedingly church, Yorkshire,
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 109 
 
 there is a modern font of good design, though too 
 small. At St. Peter's, Brighton, there is a modern 
 font, quite on an ecclesiastical model, and, though 
 plain, possessing some grace. 
 
 And now to speak of the holiest part of the church. 
 In cathedrals the space about the altar is called the 
 choir, in parish churches the chancel. If the church 
 be built in the form of a cross, the choir should be 
 the spot where our blessed Redeemer's breast lay 
 when stretched on the cross. 
 
 " Pace we the ground ! our footsteps tread 
 A cross — the builder's holiest form — 
 The awful couch, where once was shed 
 The blood with man's forgiveness warm. 
 And here, just where his mighty breast 
 Throbb'd the last agony away, 
 They bade the voice of worship rest, 
 And white-rob'd Levites pause and pray !" 
 
 There is such exceeding beauty in this idea, that I 
 cannot give the preference to an oblong form for a 
 church over the cruciform, though I am aware that 
 critics of the finest taste, and of truly catholic feeling, 
 have objected to the cruciform plan for small 
 churches^ on the score that, unless the edifice is on a 
 large scale, the cross gives an idea of a miniature 
 or plaything cathedral, and is far less solemn than the 
 long simple parallelogram. But surely being able 
 to take in the whole design of the cross at a glance, 
 which the great size (aided by the numerous screens, 
 partitions, and monuments) of our vast cathedrals 
 prevents the eye from doing, is an advantage which
 
 110 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 may almost compensate for the objection advanced. 
 Pagham church has nothing of the baby-house cha- 
 racter attributed to small crucifonii churches, in spite 
 of its being too light, and having the enormous dis- 
 advantage of a flat plaistered ceiling, enough in itself 
 to banish every thing Hke sublimity from a church. 
 
 In most of the Sussex churches we find the chancel 
 higher than the nave, a great advantage, and one 
 which has been lost sight of too often in modem 
 churches. The steps by which you ascend to the 
 altar at Felpham and South Burstead are the width 
 of the church, and give dignity to the chancel. 
 
 I mentioned before, that on the south side of the 
 altar we frequently find sedilia, a sort of seats hollowed 
 out in the wall, where the deacons, or assistant 
 priests, sat at the celebration of the holy Eucharist ; 
 or, rather, at the sermon, for I do not imagine they 
 sat during the rest of the service. The piscina is a 
 niche, sometimes very plain, and very often of great 
 beauty, according to the style of the church. I men- 
 tioned those in this neighbourhood before. In Chel- 
 tenham church there is one of great beauty, in the 
 Decorated style. There is another, very elegant, at 
 Helmsley, Yorkshire. In the town of Leicester, the 
 churches of St. Margaret, St. Martin, St. Mary, 
 and St. Nicholas, have sedilia and piscinae worthy of 
 examination. 
 
 And now to consider the altar itself The first 
 Christian altars were no doubt of wood, being, in 
 fact, the ordinary tables which were found in the 
 upper chambers in which the Christian assemblies
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. Ill 
 
 were held. The Christians were so anxious to con- 
 secrate to a religious use the vessels and furniture of 
 the sanctuary, that buildings were set apart for divine 
 services, and sacred vessels accounted the property 
 of the church, long before the age of persecution had 
 passed away. Still, even after the time of Constan- 
 tine, altars were made of wood, as we find from the 
 accounts of the sacrilegious outrages of the Donatists 
 (a branch of the African church which in the fourth 
 century seceded from the communion of the church 
 catholic), who set the example of profaning altars, 
 which was followed by the Independents and Pres- 
 byterians in Oliver Cromwell's time. We read 
 of persons being beaten with fragments of broken 
 altars, and of altars being burnt, which proves that 
 they must have been of wood. Mr. Poole says that 
 he remarks this fact more especially, because the 
 Anglican church sanctions wooden altars, while the 
 Roman ritual makes a stone slab, consecrated by a 
 bishop, an essential part of the altar. It is, however, 
 certain that stone altars were used very early, and 
 the custom, after a time, became general. In the 
 earliest ages of the church. Christians, for the sake of 
 concealment, often solemnized the rites of their faith 
 in burial places. The tombs of the martyrs would 
 naturally present themselves as the most commodious, 
 and, what was infinitely more valued, the most sacred 
 spots on which to consecrate the holy Eucharist. 
 The affections of the Christians clung to these recol- 
 lections, and afterwards, when they were able to 
 choose the place and manner of their service, they
 
 112 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 erected altars, as much as might be, resembling those 
 at which they had worshipped in the days of per- 
 secution. They often chose the spot on which some 
 martyr had received his crown, and made his tomb 
 the ahar of a Christian church. The church of St. 
 Alban's is said to have been erected on the very spot 
 where the blood of the first British martyr was shed. 
 But churches soon multiphed beyond the number of 
 martyrs, or, at least, beyond the number of places at 
 which martyrs had suffered ; still a stone altar was 
 raised, and, to supply the deficiency, relics of saints 
 were buried under it. Hence arose the custom, 
 eventually enjoined by the church of Rome, of 
 having none but stone altars, inclosing relics of 
 saints. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation there was a strong 
 connexion in the minds of the common people 
 between stone altars and the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation, which led our reformers to substitute a 
 wooden table for a stone altar. This was a very 
 strong measure, and perhaps not quite a right one. 
 Certainly the scandalous treatment which these 
 modem altars were permitted to receive at the hands 
 of the Puritans, was partly the consequence of their 
 being of wood, and moveable. The first thing that 
 the Puritan reformers did on entering a church to 
 pillage it, was to drag the communion-table from the 
 chancel, and place it in the middle of the church. 
 Very often they sat upon it, and treated it with every 
 possible mark of contempt. In some cases they 
 thrust the communion-tables out of the churches, and
 
 rONTS AKD ALTARS. 113 
 
 used them for the meanest purposes. We read of 
 carpenters using them for planing boards ; and we 
 know that the parliamentary soldiers drank their ale 
 and smoked their tobacco round the altar at West- 
 minster, under the very eyes of the parliament. 
 This is apt to make some persons fear that removing 
 the original altars was not pleasing to Almighty God, 
 and that the desecration of the wooden tables which 
 took their places was permitted as a judgment. Not 
 that we can feel sure of this. It is treading on deli- 
 cate and dangerous ground, to decide on what are 
 judgments and what are not. I merely say, that one 
 cannot help fearing that it might be so. We must not 
 forget that the Reformers were after all but fallible 
 men ; and we are not to make idols of them, and con- 
 sider them in the light of inspired apostles, however 
 grateful we may feel for what benefits we have 
 received through their zeal and courage. At any 
 rate, we conceive ourselves quite free to depart from 
 many things they ordered, as, for instance, that there 
 should be two lights upon the altar (which were 
 ordered by King Edward Vlth, ratified by the Par- 
 liament, and confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, and 
 have never been counter-ordered since). There- 
 fore I conceive we do not consider the Reformers' 
 opinions in such minor matters as binding on us, and 
 that we may consider ourselves at liberty to have 
 stone altars, now that all fear of the common people 
 connecting them with transubstantiation is over. 
 
 At Pagham church there is an altar of black mar- 
 ble, and at the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Ripon,
 
 114 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 there is a modern stone altar. The very interesting 
 little church of Perranzabiiloe, so lately brought to 
 light, has a rude stone altar. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that stone is preferable, 
 both from its superior beauty and durability, and also 
 from its offering more opposition to the profaneness 
 of radical church reformers. The altar should be 
 provided with a covering of velvet or silk, on which 
 the Holy Name, the cross, and various other sacred 
 and mystical emblems may be appropriately em- 
 broidered. 
 
 And here you will expect me to dwell upon a part 
 of the church's furniture, which seems to come more 
 immediately within our own peculiar province than 
 any other part of the interior decorations. Why 
 should not we, like the ladies of the olden time, con- 
 sider it a blessed and lofty privilege to be called on 
 to spend time, money, and talents, in providing a 
 cover for the Lord's table ? Is it not the greatest 
 possible pleasure to bestow thought, and time, and 
 actual labour, on any article of our handywork, 
 which is to be bestowed on a dear friend? What 
 woman is there that has not felt the delight which 
 springs from working for those she loves ? Even 
 they who chslike the needle at other times, find the 
 little glittering piece of steel invested with a magic 
 charm, when it is used in the service of those dear to 
 them ; and shall Christian women deny themselves the 
 hallowed delight of employing their talents and in- 
 dustry in the service of the Lord Jesus ? We cannot, 
 like the zealous and active Martha,
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 115 
 
 " wait with reverence meet" 
 
 on our Lord in the body ; neither can we break the 
 alabaster box, perfume His sacred feet with costly 
 spikenard, and wipe them with our hair. No ; we 
 are placed at a humbler distance from Him ; we see 
 Him only with the eye of faith, and we must be 
 content to offer Him homage of a more shadowy 
 kind. Nevertheless, let us not be discontented with 
 our own lot. Let us consider that we possess ad- 
 vantages unknown to the primitive saints, in the 
 glorious spectacle of fulfilled prophecy. Let us not 
 forget the fiery trial that they had to pass through ; 
 and when we reflect on our own lukewamn zeal, 
 and frames weakened by habits of self-indulgence, 
 let us be thankful that we are not called upon to 
 follow them in the martyrs' fiery road, or the con- 
 fessors' thorny path, and let us redouble our efforts 
 to do our duty in the humbler state marked out for 
 us. Surely, when we think of the sacrifices offered 
 in days long past, we shall blush at our own self- 
 indulgent habits, and try to make some sacrifices, 
 slight though they may be, still something to testify 
 our wisli to offer of His own to Him who gave us all. 
 And let us not be tempted to doubt that He will 
 accept the offering. Holy Scripture abounds with 
 precepts and examples, both in the Old and New 
 Testament, which show that God does not despise 
 such offerings. Let us not say, such things are 
 trifling and puerile. If Almighty God deigned to 
 mention such particulars as the blue fringes, and the 
 I 2
 
 116 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 curtains with their loops, the candlestick with the 
 almond-branches, the knops, and the flowers, surely 
 it ill becomes dust and ashes like ourselves to assume 
 a lofty attitude, and speak of such things as if they 
 were too trifling for our serious attention. And if 
 we really love the Lord Jesus, if our hearts bleed 
 when we look upon the cross, or read the gospel 
 narrative of His sufferings, if we long to behold Him 
 with our eyes, if we envy those blessed women who 
 were permitted to minister to Him, surely it will be 
 our greatest earthly delight to be able to adorn His 
 altar — the sacred place on which the unbloody sacri- 
 fice is still offered up, the table whence we are fed 
 with heavenly manna, the sanctuary where we behold 
 our Redeemer face to face ! 
 
 In the present day it is very common to hear of 
 ladies uniting to present testimonials of respect to 
 clergymen. We find young people, all zeal and 
 energy, entering into schemes of the kind. I do not 
 mean to speak slightingly of this feeling ; it is an 
 amiable one, and doubtless every pastor who receives 
 testimonials of the gratitude of his flock, has reason 
 to thank God for having given him the power of 
 gaining their affections. Still I should like to see 
 this done, and the other not left undone. And 
 more, I should like to see the first place given to the 
 church. I feel sure that there is hardly a clergyman 
 who would not be more gratified at receiving an altar- 
 cloth, fald-stools, or stained glass, for his church, 
 from the hands of the ladies of his flock, than a piece 
 of plate, a gown, or six dozen cambric handkerchiefs.
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 117 
 
 But I must not forget that many individuals among 
 us have already set us a good example. Her most 
 gracious majesty the Queen Dowager has presented 
 more than one altar-cloth to the church, and we have 
 heard the names of several ladies who have followed 
 
 in Queen Adelaide's path. The altar-cloth at 
 
 cathedral is the work of a young lady. The altar- 
 cloth of a recently built church in the parish of 
 
 , near Bristol, was worked by four sisters. 
 
 It may be urged that so costly a gift can be offered 
 by very few. I would suggest that young ladies 
 should unite both their money and their labour, and 
 this plan would have several advantages. The 
 greatest would be the bond of union it would create. 
 Nothing knits hearts closer than a sympathy of feel- 
 ing and sentiment, brought out into a stronger light 
 by opportimity of acting in concert. And, indeed, in 
 these hard selfish days we want a bond of union, and 
 we ought to encourage every thing that would tend 
 to make yoimg people more simple in their tastes, 
 more affectionate, less fond of ridiculing warmth 
 of feeling and lofty aspirations. Many a young 
 woman, whose heart glows with kind feeling, as- 
 sumes a habit of saying sarcastic things, from a 
 dread of being thought romantic or sentimental. 
 Many a girl is accused of heartlessness and frivolity, 
 because she has been trained from childhood to say 
 she despises poetry and heroics. It is the fashion of 
 the day to bring up girls on the principle of looking 
 after the main chance ; and yet people wonder that 
 they meet with young ladies in society, vulgar-
 
 118 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 minded, interested, and mercenary, in spite of accom- 
 plishment and grace. A dread of making a bad 
 match, or of dying an old maid, is instilled into 
 girls ; they look upon the space between their first 
 entering the world and their marriage as a sort of 
 transition state — something too uncertain to be worth 
 thinking of. As long as they do not neglect some 
 of their self-evident duties, as daughters, and sisters, 
 and Christians, (for I am not speaking of girls 
 brought up altogether without religion,) they are 
 satisfied that nothing more will be required of them, 
 and they never imagine it necessary to think of ac- 
 counting for time and money wasted on things that 
 bring no real pleasure, and that end in weariness of 
 spirit. 
 
 We must all have something to fix our energies 
 and minds upon. Men have public life, professions, 
 business : women till they marry (excepting in parti- 
 cular cases), nothing. Why it is I do not imdertake 
 to say ; but it is an admitted fact, that there are more 
 single ladies in the world now than there used to be, 
 and yet nobody seems to believe that they are so 
 from their own choice. And, certainly, the educa- 
 tion so common now-a-days, imfits women for a 
 single life to a remarkable degree. Now if children 
 were brought up to love the Church as something 
 real and tangible, to mingle more poetry and senti- 
 ment with their religion, to consider this life as a 
 mere passage to another, and to behold in the Church 
 the type of the heavenly Jerusalem, their feelings 
 and tastes would insensibly take a loftier tone ; they
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 119 
 
 would think more of God, and less of themselves; 
 that flippancy and love of ridicule, which is so com- 
 mon among girls otherwise amiable, would vanish, 
 they would become more humble, and at the same 
 time more dignified ; that restless craving for atten- 
 tion, that love of display, which we see carried even 
 into religion, would be lessened, if not destroyed, by a 
 real enthusiasm for art, consecrated to the adornment 
 of the church ; in their companions they would see 
 fellow-pilgrims and sisters in Christ, instead of 
 acquaintances to be cherished one day, and cast off 
 for more agreeable friends another. If they married, 
 their path would be self-evident, and their former 
 habits would not interfere with the performance of 
 their new duties ; but if, as the chances seem against 
 their forming new ties, they are destined to a single 
 life, then the full value of the tastes and habits they 
 have acquired will shine forth. The church is indeed 
 a home for the lonely ; a single life enables persons 
 to devote themselves more entirely to heavenly things, 
 without neglecting every day duties. Much as it 
 is the fashion to decry religious celibacy, Holy Scrip- 
 ture certainly warrants our believing the single state 
 to be more conducive to holiness than the married. 
 Who can read St. Paul, and not see this clearly ? 
 Far be it from me to say, that equal holiness is not 
 attainable in the married state ; I merely mean, that 
 the single woman has the easier task. She has not 
 the temptations of making idols of husband and 
 children, of loving the world for their sake, of devot- 
 ing? the whole of her time and thou<;hts to their
 
 120 FONTS AND ALTARS. 
 
 welfare, to the neglect of her religious duties. And 
 I though, no doubt, most women are fitted by nature 
 for wedded life, I am sure that there are more than 
 the despisers of religious celibacy would believe, who 
 are intended to remain single. 
 
 " They kept from earthly fire, 
 That holier love might them inspire ; 
 And when themselves their Lox'd's to be 
 They bound in stern fidelity, 
 He more and more did bind the chain, 
 
 And aye with them remain, 
 
 " Lest worldly image, brought 
 O'er the pui-e mirror of their thought, 
 Should sully the heav-n-openmg soul. 
 Which they to God devoted whole ; 
 Their mind upon itself was driven, 
 
 Theu' eye and ear in heav'n ^" 
 
 Whatever the sceptical may say to this idea, it 
 cannot be denied that there are a great number of 
 single ladies in the world, who seem to lead an aim- 
 less, cheerless existence, because they are not at the 
 head of a household, and because they live in ex- 
 pectation of being ridiculed as "old maids." Surely 
 it would be a great increase of happiness, if women 
 of this class could see the matter in the light I have 
 shown it, and find a centre for their thoughts and 
 affections in the Church, the true ark of refuge to the 
 weary soul, which flies over the waves of this trou- 
 blesome world, seeking a resting-place in vain. 
 
 I have wandered far from architecture to-night ; 
 
 1 Parisian B^e^^arv.
 
 FONTS AND ALTARS. 121 
 
 but I think you will pardon this digression, seeing 
 that it is on a subject that cannot fail of being inte- 
 resting. I have no more to say on the subject of 
 altar-cloths but this — that if twelve young ladies 
 chose to associate themselves to work an altar-cloth 
 for their parish church, they would find that a very 
 moderate share of money and time from each indi- 
 vidual would enable them to get through their under- 
 taking in a year. The material may be velvet, 
 
 rich silk, or cloth. The altar cloth at Hill, 
 
 near Bristol, worked by the four daughters of a cler- 
 gj^man, is of dark cloth, with a rich border of an 
 ecclesiastical pattern, formed of scarlet and bright 
 blue cloth applique, the edges being concealed by 
 gold braid, and short sentences in Latin, such as 
 " Gloria Deo," worked with gold braid in missal 
 characters, within compartments, at stated distances 
 in the border. Designs of a strictly ecclesiastical 
 character may be obtained in London, together with 
 embroider^' materials, and directions for using them.
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 <Stainrt Glass. 
 
 " The pictur'd pane, 
 
 Where ancient samts in light profound, 
 Stand like stei'n witnesses around." 
 
 The Cathedral. 
 " And storied windows richly dight. 
 Casting a dim religious light." 
 
 Il Penseroso. 
 
 There are, I believe, very few persons in the world 
 who are insensible to the wonderful charm of stained 
 glass in churches. Persons of all ages, all classes, 
 and all characters, acknowledge its powerful effect on 
 the mind. There is a something at once elevating 
 and soothing, in that soul-subduing light which enters, 
 mellowed and softened, yet invested with heavenly 
 radiance, through a painted window. From the child 
 which gazes with awe and admiration on the 
 " Emerald and ruby bright,"' 
 
 to the old man, whose pious meditations are aided 
 
 by the 
 
 " Dim religious light ;" 
 
 from the humble villager, who sees in the gorgeous
 
 STAINED GLASS. 123 
 
 hues of a cathedral window a realization of her vision 
 of the heavenly city, with its golden walls like unto 
 glass, to the poet or painter, who stands enraptured 
 with the fascinating flood of coloured light which 
 pours through the pane, all bear witness to the magic 
 of this beautiful invention. Surely a branch of art 
 which appeals so powerfully to the imagination and 
 feelings of all mankind, is worthy of more consideration 
 than is generally bestowed on it in the present day. 
 Nevertheless, though we are forced to own that much 
 of the Puritan spirit still lingers in England, yet I do 
 not believe that a counterpart of William Dowsing, 
 of window-smashing memory, could be found among 
 us now. 
 
 Many people have an idea that the art of staining 
 glass is lost. This is a mistake. There is no doubt 
 that if the modems did not grudge expense and time, 
 stained glass equal to the finest in our old cathedrals 
 might be produced in the present day. The oldest 
 manner of producing a painted window was very 
 simple. It consisted in the mere arrangement of 
 pieces of glass, of different colours, in some sort of 
 symmetry, and constituted what we call mosaic- work. 
 In process of time the ancient artists attempted more 
 regular designs, and also figures heightened with all 
 their shades, yet they proceeded no farther than the 
 contours of the figures in black, with water-colours, 
 and hatching the draperies after the same manner, on 
 glasses of the colour of the object they designed to 
 paint. For the carnation, they used glass of a briglit 
 red colour, and upon this they drew the principal
 
 124 STAINED GLASS. 
 
 lineaments of the face, &:c. with black. At length, 
 they found out means of incorporating the colours 
 in the glass itself, by heating it in the fire to a 
 proper degree, having first laid on the colours. A 
 French painter at Marseilles is said to have given 
 the first notion of this improvement upon going to 
 Rome under the pontificate of Julius the Second ; but 
 Albert Durer and Lucas of Leyden were the first 
 that carried it to perfection. Albert Durer, cele- 
 brated as a painter and an engraver on wood, was 
 born at Nuremberg, 1471. His first work was 
 engraved in 1497. The subject was the Three 
 Graces. The emperor Maximilian conferred on him 
 a patent of nobility. Albert Durer died at Nurem- 
 berg in 1528. Lucas was born at Leyden, in 1494. 
 He painted in oil, distemper colour, and upon glass, 
 and was also eminent for his engravings on wood. 
 He was on very intimate terms with Albert Durer. 
 
 The first painted glass in England was executed in 
 King John's reign. In a record mentioned by Stowe, 
 there is an order from King Henry HL to make three 
 glass windows in a certain chapel, in which were to 
 be represented figures of the blessed Virgin and the 
 Infant Saviour, the Holy Trinity, and St. John. 
 Edward the Black Prince was represented on a 
 window in Westminster abbey. At All Souls' col- 
 lege, Oxford, there was a portrait of John of Gaunt, 
 painted on glass. The fine east window in York 
 cathedral was begun in 1405, the dean and chapter 
 having contracted with John Thornton, glazier, of 
 Coventry, to execute it in the space of three years.
 
 STAINED GLASS. 125 
 
 The contract, which is preserved in the archives of 
 the cathedral, states that he was to have four shilHngs 
 a week, and one hundred shilhngs sterling, each of 
 the three years ; and if he did his work truly and 
 perfectly, he was to receive ten pounds more for his 
 care therein. The number of subjects represented 
 on the glass amounts to at least one hundred and 
 fifteen, chiefly selected from the Old Testament ; but 
 the several pieces are much mutilated and disar- 
 ranged by the unskilful hands employed in the 
 repairs. The figures are beautifully drawn, and in 
 the style of the Early Italian school of painting. 
 " This window,"' says Carter (the antiquary), " may 
 be adduced as an example of the superiority of 
 English art in this branch of painting over all other 
 countries." The five lancet windows, called the Five 
 Sisters, which I mentioned in a former lecture, are of 
 older date, and their design is very different. It runs 
 principally in architectural forms, as square, circular, 
 or diamond-shaped compartments, containing small 
 figures, surrounded by exuberant foliage, on blue, 
 red, yellow, and green grounds. Before the devas- 
 tations of the Puritans, every sacred edifice in Eng- 
 land possessed painted glass of great beauty. 
 
 In the year 1(343, by order of parliament, Richard 
 Culmer, M.A. minister of the Gospel, but commonly 
 called Blue Dick, headed a band of those ruffianly 
 enemies to all harmony, beauty, and propriety, who 
 took upon themselves to purify churches, and set 
 about the good work of cleansing Canterbury cathe- 
 dral from all remains of popery. They went to work
 
 126 STAINED GLASS. 
 
 on the great window of the north transept, which had 
 been presented to the church by King Edward IV. 
 Besides pictures of our Lord, His Apostles, St. 
 George, and many other saints, this window con- 
 tained a figure of Archbishop a Becket, in his pon- 
 tificals. This they demolished with fury, calling the 
 deed, "rattling down proud Becket's glassy bones." 
 But though they took care to destroy all the saints, 
 they spared the' beautiful memorials of King Edward 
 IV. and his family, which still remain in the same 
 window. 
 
 The effect of this very fine specimen of art is 
 admirable, in spite of its dilapidated state. The 
 windows of the Trinity chapel at Canterbury cathe- 
 dral are interesting from their antiquity, and the 
 extreme brilliance of their colours ; but the design is 
 intricate and difficult to make out. It contains a 
 historical subject from the Old Testament, into which 
 is introduced the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Can- 
 terbury. Richly ornamented borders of the most 
 brilliant colours are so interwoven with the historical 
 pieces, that the appearance of the whole, though 
 splendid, is very confused. Perhaps, though, this ought 
 not to be considered a defect. A fine picture and a 
 painted window are totally different things. It is a 
 great mistake to fancy that the nearer the window 
 can be made to approach a picture, the finer will be 
 its effect. The windows at St. George's chapel, 
 Windsor, were designed by West, the great historical 
 painter, and those at Magdalen college, Oxford, were 
 copied from paintings never intended for any such
 
 STAINED GLASS. 127 
 
 pui*pose. The consequence is, that we are struck 
 with the inaptitude of the medium employed to pre- 
 sent the intended design in its proper aspect, and a 
 window^ and picture are spoilt at the same time. 
 There is science as well as art in the arrangement of 
 a painted window, and the science and the art are 
 equally separate from other provinces of the artist's 
 dominion. The poet Warton felt this, though he 
 does not seem to have been able to account for it. 
 He admired Sir Joshua Reynolds's painted window 
 at New College as a picture, yet his naturally fine 
 taste and poetic fancy, as well as his passion for 
 antiquity, made him sensible that the modern window 
 wanted the charm of the ancient stained glass. And 
 Sir Joshua saw plainly that Warton in the depth of 
 his heart preferred the old Gothic windows, with all 
 their defects of detail, to the transparent picture of 
 faultless design and drawing- Sir Joshua says, " I 
 owe you great obligations for the sacrifice which you 
 have made, or pretend to have made, to modern art. 
 Like a true poet, you have feigned marvellously 
 well ; yet I may be allowed to entertain some doubts 
 of the sincerity of your conversion." Warton had 
 said, 
 
 Ah, stay thy treacherous hand, forbear to trace 
 Those faultless forms of elegance and grace ! 
 Ah, cease to spread the bright transparent mass, 
 With Titian's pencil o'er the speaking glass ! 
 Nor steal, by strokes of art with truth combin'd, 
 The fond illusions of my wayward mind ! 
 For, long enamour 'd of a barbarous age,
 
 128 STAINED GLASS. 
 
 A faithless truant to the classic page, 
 Long have I lov'd, .... 
 
 " Where superstition, with capricious hand. 
 In many a maze the wreathed window plann'd ; 
 With hues romantic tmged the gorgeous pane, 
 To fill with holy light the wondrous fane ; 
 To aid the builder's model, richly inide, 
 By no Vitnivian s^-mmetry subdued ; 
 To suit the genius of the mystic pile ; 
 Whilst, as around the far-retiring aisle. 
 And fretted shrines, with hoary trophies hung, 
 Her dai'k illumination wide she flung ; 
 With new solemnity, the nooks profound. 
 The caves of death, and the dim arches fro^sTi'd. 
 From bliss long felt unwillingly we part : 
 Ah, spare the weakness of a lover's heart ! 
 Chase not the phantoms of my faii-y di'eam. 
 Phantoms that slirink at reason's painful gleam ! 
 That softer touch, insidious artist, stay. 
 Nor to new joys my struggling breast betray !" 
 
 Horace Walpole seems to have experienced some- 
 thing of the same feehng, when he says, " It is diffi- 
 cult for the noblest Grecian temple to convey half so 
 many impressions to the mind as a cathedral does of 
 the best Gothic taste, a proof of skill in the architects, 
 and address in the priests who erected them. One 
 must have taste to be sensible of the beauties of 
 Grecian architecture, one only wants passion to feel 
 Gothic." It is evident that Warton and Horace Wal- 
 pole were half ashamed of the very decided prefer- 
 ence they could not help feeling for the works of a 
 class of men so despised as the monks, over the 
 buildmgs of those polished Pagans so much respected
 
 STAINED GLASS. 129 
 
 in the eighteenth century. But to return to our 
 stained glass. 
 
 The quality of the glass of ancient specimens is 
 much coarser than that used by modem glass-stainers. 
 So far from this being a defect, it is one of the prin- 
 cipal means of gaining that fine effect which is the 
 magic charm of the old windows. Modem stained 
 glass looks too clean, too gay, too spruce. There is 
 nothing venerable and solemn-looking in it. Modem 
 stainers are generally very anxious to conceal the 
 leads which join the pieces, in order to make the 
 design more apparent. This is a mistake — the same 
 mistake of the effect intended to be produced by 
 painted glass, which caused Sir Joshua's and Eggin- 
 ton's windows to be failures, in spite of their un- 
 questioned beauty. In restoring old churches, when 
 stained glass is inserted, care should be taken to con- 
 sider the age of the building, and the style of the 
 glass of that period. For instance, in an Anglo- 
 Norman church, the modem imitation, if one cannot 
 get any really ancient, should be of old character. 
 Its design should consist of rich mosaic patterns, 
 and pannels of various forms, relieved by the metal 
 lines of division, which may be used boldly. The 
 pieces may be arranged like the oldest specimens we 
 find at Canterbury, in which the ruby and sapphire 
 tints are the prevailing colours. 
 
 The stained glass of the Early English period pos- 
 sesses much elegance. The ground was often of a 
 white or yellow tint, enriched with a sort of delicate 
 diaper-work, formed of slender branches of the ivy, 
 
 K
 
 130 STAINED GLASS. 
 
 vine, or oak, the glass being disposed in circles, and 
 other geometrical figures ; in some of these compart- 
 ments brilliant colours were inserted in borders round 
 the different lights of the windows. Full-length 
 figures, and richly-emblazoned shields, were also 
 sometimes introdticed. The Five Sisters at York are 
 in this style. 
 
 The stained glass of the Decorated era was of a 
 different character. The openings of the windows 
 were generally occupied by one figure only, an effigy 
 of the patron saint or benefactor, placed on a ground 
 of one entire colour, which was richly diapered by 
 a relieved pattern ; the whole under a canopy. 
 Heraldic devices were much used ; and the laws by 
 which colours are contrasted in Heraldry, always 
 have a fine effect in stained glass. In the stained 
 glass of the fifteenth century, the artist frequently 
 carried his design through the whole extent of the 
 window, his subject embracing a considerable num- 
 ber of figures, arranged with more pictorial effect 
 than before. The several tints of the coloured 
 glasses were more varied, and placed with consider- 
 ation as to the effect of distance ; the shadows were 
 more graduated, and aerial perspective attempted. 
 When figures of the Saints, Apostles, or Martyrs 
 were introduced, they were now generally accom- 
 panied either by the animal considered peculiar to 
 them, or represented as bearing the instrument of 
 their martyrdom. Scrolls, with long inscriptions in 
 black letter, were often thrown with wild profusion 
 across or above the fii^ures.
 
 STAINED GLASS. 131 
 
 York Minster affords a large collection of stained 
 glass, of different eras, to the student, and several 
 churches in York possess fine glass. The foreign 
 windows at Lichfield are of the highest order. Salis- 
 bury cathedral has suffered severely from the handy- 
 work of the Puritans, and is consequently wanting 
 in that sombre and shady effect so congenial to 
 Gothic architecture. Canterbury I have particu- 
 larized before. Lincoln possesses some gorgeous 
 windows, of considerable antiquity, and also some 
 weak modem specimens. The side windows of 
 the choir of Merton College retain much of their 
 original glazing, which is very valuable. Exeter, 
 Bristol, Wells, and in fact most of our cathedrals 
 have stained glass, which produces a fine effect. 
 
 At Chichester, a window has just been inserted 
 in the cathedral, which has an excellent effect, seen 
 from the south transept and the aisle leading from 
 it. This window is a substitute for a monument, 
 the figure of the lady, whose memory it comme- 
 morates, being introduced in the character of a 
 Dorcas. This is an excellent idea, and I trust we 
 shall see the example followed. Modern monu- 
 ments are generally sad disfigurements to churches, 
 and cathedrals are seriously injured by the mural 
 tablets, &c. and the bas reliefs attached to piers and 
 walls. At Pagham, there is some fine old stained 
 glass, and it is most happily introduced. I noticed the 
 little window over the font before. The triple lancet 
 over the altar is a very graceful window, and the 
 stained glass gives the church much beauty. In the
 
 132 STAINED GLASS. 
 
 chancel at Arundel, there are a few scraps of stained 
 glass left in the great east window. Boxgrove once 
 possessed stained glass, but there is not a fragment 
 left. Indeed, all old churches were rich in stained 
 glass once. 
 
 "But alas! 
 Through storied lattices no more 
 In soften'd light the sunbeams pour." 
 
 It certainly requires a strong effort to think with 
 patience of Oliver Cromwell's Vandals smashing 
 window after window, when we see a fine old church 
 full of glaring light, which destroys the whole effect 
 of the original design, and fancy what harmony and 
 beauty would pervade the edifice, if the garish day 
 could enter, subdued and tinged with the hues of 
 emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Remnants of old 
 stained glass are sometimes found in repairing old 
 churches ; if in any quantity, the fragments may be 
 collected and put together. At Messingham, near 
 Brigg, Lincolnshire, there is a beautiful window 
 entirely made up of fragments. The old glass should 
 be cleaned with spirit of salt and water. The exact 
 shape of the light should be drawn on a board, and 
 the darkest and richest fragments be formed into 
 quatrefoils, or patterns after some old model. Coats 
 of arms may be retained as they are. Fragments of 
 figures, &c. may be worked up into any shape 
 found most convenient, of course of an ecclesiastical 
 pattern, and should be placed in the centre of the
 
 STAINED GLASS. 133 
 
 light, and surrounded by a groundwork of the grey 
 and black glass ; a border may be added to use up 
 the remains. If there is not enough to fill the whole 
 hght, a border of plain common glass, about two 
 inches wide, may be left next the stone work. There 
 is at present a great passion for stained glass as a 
 decoration for the interiors of libraries, boudoirs, 
 conservatories, &c. Strawberry Hill was the first 
 example of a domestic building decked with Gothic 
 ornaments, and the fashion for furnishing in that 
 style has gone on increasing ever since the days of 
 Horace Walpole. It is much to be regretted that 
 this custom has led to sacrilege, both in England 
 and on the continent. Stained glass has been pur- 
 chased out of churches, and used for domestic pur- 
 poses, and in fact it has for years formed a regular 
 traffick. 
 
 The churches and convents of the Netherlands 
 and Germany have suffered sadly, and many of our 
 own churches have been despoiled. This is greatly to 
 be deplored. If those who can afford to spend money 
 on such things would encourage modern glass-stainers 
 to devote time and attention to imitating ancient glass, 
 this taste for Gothic decoration would be of great 
 benefit to the art ; but to rob our dilapidated churches 
 of the few remnants of the good taste and piety of 
 our ancestors which have escaped the ravages of the 
 saints and heroes of the great Rebellion, is cruel 
 indeed. It would be useless for me to give you any 
 particulars of the method of staining glass. It is an 
 art which requires much time, attention, money, and
 
 134 STAINED GLASS. 
 
 labour, and is perhaps hardly fit for women. Many 
 ladies paint on glass, but in a slight style, well adapted 
 to ornamental purposes, but not fit for churches. 
 
 I could name more than one mansion where the 
 painted windows are the work of the lady of the 
 house. This style is well adapted for conservatories, 
 summer-houses, boudoirs, &c. as well as for orna- 
 mental cabinets, boxes, &c. ; but it is not the same art 
 as that of burning the colours in, in the solid style. 
 However, if a lady of large fortune, with a decided 
 talent for painting, and opportunity and inclination to 
 make any one branch of art her chief pursuit, were to 
 obtain the assistance of a clever glass-stainer to prevent 
 the occupation being too laborious for her, I do not see 
 why she might not produce specimens of stained glass 
 surpassing any thing yet executed in modern times. 
 Of course, I take it for granted, that the assistant 
 should be a person of experience and talent, and 
 that no expense or time would be spared. I do 
 not see that such a pursuit would be more con- 
 temptible than any of the fashionable hobbies on 
 which so much time and money is spent now-a-days. 
 And no man, who spends thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands on the turf, can have a right to look with con- 
 tempt on an occupation quite as useful as his own, and 
 a great deal more innocent. Neither could any florist, 
 collector of shells or virtu, or any other pet object of 
 study, deny that a passion for stained glass is quite 
 as dignified as any of these fancies ; and a person 
 whose picture gallery is his pride and delight would 
 see no extravagance in spending a fortune in endea-
 
 ILLUMINATING MANUSCRIPTS. 135 
 
 vouring to restore so important a branch of art to its 
 former perfection. 
 
 This last lecture has already swelled to a great 
 length, but I cannot conclude without saying a few 
 words on a branch of art, which is much easier 
 of accomplishment, and much more feminine than 
 painting on glass. I mean the art of Illuminating 
 in the style of the ancient missals. The nuns in 
 foreign convents excel in this art, and it is not 
 more difficult than common miniature painting. In 
 the middle ages, and also in the earlier ages of the 
 church, nuns and ecclesiastical virgins often devoted 
 themselves to the art of transcribing manuscripts, and 
 illuminating them. The more we can turn our amuse- 
 ments and the recreations of our leisure hours into a 
 sacred channel, the happier we shall be. A favourite 
 pursuit, hallowed by being connected, even in a remote 
 degree, with religion, becomes invested with a holy 
 charm, which makes it tenfold dearer than it was 
 before. 
 
 The fine arts, when cultivated with a reference to 
 the glory of Him who is the source of all truth, 
 beauty, harmony, and love, run like threads of silver 
 and gold through the dark web of human life. It 
 was this feeling which sweetened the labour bestowed 
 by the monks on all the arts they cultivated. In 
 retirement they carried on those mighty architectural 
 works, labouring for the honour of God's church, and 
 for the pure love of art consecrated to God's service. 
 What a contrast to the ostentatious display, the desire 
 of fame, the restless vanity, which seems the besetting
 
 136 ILLUMINATING MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 sin of modern artists, and not of artists only ! Horace 
 Walpole records the fact of the names of the archi- 
 tects of our cathedrals being unknown; but instead 
 of feeling the greatness of soul which this silence 
 bespeaks in the much abused ecclesiastics of the mid- 
 dle ages, he takes the opportunity to give a sneer at 
 the monkish historians' care to celebrate bigotry and 
 pass over the arts. That we can know nothing of 
 art, in the height of its perfection, without religious 
 feeling, will be admitted most readily by those who 
 have first cultivated exclusively the secular branch 
 of some much loved art, and afterwards, having 
 (through God's mercy) been made sensible of the 
 vanity of this world, are led to consecrate their 
 talent to the glory of Him who gave it. Such per- 
 sons will instantly call to mind the burst of heavenly 
 light which seemed to invest their cherished pursuit 
 with a supernatural radiance, after the Day-star had 
 arisen in their hearts. 
 
 Does the mere musician, who listens to such 
 music as Mozart's Requiem, or Handel's Messiah, in 
 the spirit of criticism, feel any thing like the rapture 
 which is enjoyed by a soul full of faith and religious 
 fervour, which is borne heavenwards by the power of 
 harmony, and forgets the art in the feeling of divine 
 love it produces ? Does the connoisseur who treads 
 with bold irreverent step within the choir of a cathe- 
 dral, and gazes on every part with unhallowed cu- 
 riosity, feel the thrill of awful joy which shakes the 
 frame of one who says, " How dreadful is this place ! 
 Surely it is the gate of heaven, the house of the
 
 ILLUMINATING MANUSCRIPTS. 137 
 
 living God !" Does the painter who can gaze on a 
 picture of the Crucifixion, or of Christ's agony in the 
 garden, without a sigh for his own sins which nailed 
 his Lord to the tree, feel the intense reality of the 
 scene pourtrayed, like one who is a Christian in 
 something more than name ? Ah, no ! to feel art in 
 its highest and divinest walk, we must possess imagi- 
 nation exalted to faith. Let us then cultivate art as 
 much as we possibly can, with reference to religion. 
 It is the surest way to attain excellence in art, as the 
 examples of the greatest masters abundantly prove. 
 And if we are not gifted with genius or destined to 
 succeed as artists, we shall still have the satisfaction 
 of feeling that no time can be considered wasted 
 which has caused us to think of religion. 
 
 And now to return to mechanical things. In order to 
 succeed in illuminating, the artist must be able to draw 
 the figure, finish faces, hands, drapery, &c. with great 
 nicety, and also have sufficient correctness of eye and 
 hand to introduce architectural subjects, as pedestals, 
 canopies, bosses, and windows. Vermilion, some- 
 times mixed with a little carmine, cobalt, or ultra- 
 marine, and a brilliant but deep green, are the colours 
 most used. The shading may be put in with Indian ink 
 in a metal pen, and the whole finished with gold. In 
 order to burnish the gold, if it look dull, a calf's 
 tooth may be rul)bed over it. The writing is to be in 
 black letter, which must be practised between double 
 lines. At the beginning of the chapter, hymn, prayer, 
 (or whatever the subject to be illuminated may be) 
 you place a very large letter. The form of these
 
 1.38 ILLUMINATING MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 capital letters cannot be described, therefore I refer 
 you to an illuminated manuscript to understand tliem. 
 There is also a letter of moderate size to commence 
 every important word, of a somewhat peculiar form. 
 These letters are outlined witli black, and filled up 
 with gold. The back-ground on which they lie is a 
 little square of scarlet, blue, or green. A chocolate- 
 coloured back-ground has a good effect, in a complete 
 picture, for the decorated border which surrounds 
 the subject. The principal group may be sur- 
 rounded with light clouds, etched in with a pen with 
 cobalt. But the sight of a few missals, or illuminated 
 pictures, will give you more information than the most 
 laboured description ; and though fine old missals are 
 not within every one's reach, yet small illuminated 
 paintings may be purchased, at a very moderate 
 price, at most large print-shops. They are called 
 " illvminat},'' and vary much in merit, both of design 
 and execution. They are executed by nuns for tlie 
 most part. The elegant little wood engravings, form- 
 ing the decorations of many recent popular publica- 
 tions, are admirable subjects for illuminating. A very 
 pretty cadeau for a friend may be made by writing 
 sacred poetry, an essay, devotional meditations, 
 psalms, or any thing the giver chooses, in the illumin- 
 ated style, and having the paper bound in silk or 
 velvet, with clasps, like a missal. Such an under- 
 taking would be found less arduous than at first sight 
 may appear ; though it would certainly take more 
 time tlian drawing a pair of screens or a blotting-book. 
 I recommend this art to those ladies who do not
 
 CONCLUSION. 139 
 
 possess great natural talent for drawing, or the power 
 of composing, and who learn to paint merely as a 
 branch of education, and aim at nothing beyond 
 being good copyists. They would find practising 
 this style very conducive to gaining neatness of exe- 
 cution and correctness of eye. On examining an old 
 missal, one is more astonished at the evenness of the 
 writing, than at the beauty of the illuminations. In 
 the Lady Chapel at Chichester Cathedral, now turned 
 into a library, you may find several manuscripts, 
 whose regularity gives us a high idea of the patience 
 and industry of the monks and their scholars. For 
 young ladies, whose course of study in the present 
 day does not usually exercise the quality of patient 
 perseverance, so much as the education of our female 
 ancestors did, this art, which requires such close atten- 
 tion and habits of neatness and order, would be very 
 useful. 
 
 And here I close my Lectures, thanking you for the 
 patience and attention with which you have heard 
 them, and the warm interest you have shown in my 
 favourite pursuit. The information I have collected 
 for you is quite of an elementary character, and I 
 hope it will lead you to go a little deeper into this 
 very interesting art. If you should do so, I am 
 sure you will find yourselves richly repaid for your 
 trouble. You may study Architecture both as a 
 science and an art (of course I mean theoretically.
 
 140 CONCLUSION. 
 
 not practically), and thereby make it serve as a 
 serious study, and an amusing relaxation for your 
 leisure hours. If the mind is not exercised, it becomes 
 powerless. Therefore, those young ladies, who on leav- 
 ing the school-room give up solid reading, arithmetic, 
 the study of language, and substitute for these things 
 the light literature of the day, must not be surprised if 
 they find their imderstandings nearly as unformed at 
 six and twenty, as they were at sixteen. The preju- 
 dice against solichty of acquirement in women has 
 almost passed away. Experience shows us every 
 day that ignorance, not learning, produces conceit 
 and opiniativeness in young persons. Some of the 
 gentlest and most amiable women in the world have 
 been remarkable for brilliant talents and great learn- 
 ing. Lady Jane Grey read Plato's PliEedon, for her 
 amusement, at the age of seventeen ; Lady Rachel 
 Russel was her husband's secretary at his public 
 trial ; the Countesses of Pembroke and Bedford were 
 as remarkable for their learning as for their grace 
 and amiability ; Bishop Bull wrote his famous " Vin- 
 dication of the x\nglican Church," to satisfy the mind 
 of the Countess of Newburgh ; and Lady Packington, 
 one of the humblest and most retiring of her sex, was 
 the friend and correspondent of Hammond, Fell, and 
 Morley, and the authoress of a series of works, in 
 which we find as much genius and learning as ardent 
 piety. Do not tlien accuse me of pedantry, when I 
 advise all ladies not occupied with duties of paramount 
 importance to have some pursuit, or study, or course of 
 reading, calculated to sharpen the intellect and pre-
 
 CONCLUSION. 141 
 
 vent the mind from vegetating. The mind can feel 
 hunger as well as the body, and, if it be not supplied 
 with wholesome food, will satisfy the cravings of 
 nature with what it can get. If a woman's mind is 
 not fully occupied with better things, she will cer- 
 tainly have recourse to gossip and tittle-tattle, and 
 most probably will soon require the more pungent 
 flavour of censoriousness and scandal. I feel sure none 
 of my audience will fancy I mean any thing personal 
 by these remarks, or I should not have chosen this 
 time to utter them. I am speaking generally, and, in 
 virtue of my privilege as a lecturer, ex cathedra to 
 all the world. No one could accuse the part}- now 
 around me of love of scandal, though I am sometimes 
 tempted to wish that the tongues of certain laughter- 
 loving damsels were as merciful as their hearts. I 
 recommend vou all to studv Architecture, durin^^ the 
 remainder of the long evenings, from books ; and when 
 the voice of spring calls us from firesides and reading 
 to the open air, you will be able to make pilgrimages 
 to all the churches in the neighbourhood, and try the 
 practical strength of the knowledge you have acquired. 
 I shall subjoin a list of works, which will enable you 
 to study Architecture in right earnest. I think I have 
 succeeded in pointing out to you a hidden spring of 
 innocent enjoyment, in a quarter where some among 
 you little expected to find it; and this idea amply 
 repays me for the trifling expenditure of time and 
 trouble I have bestowed on these pages. May we 
 never, in pursuing this interesting study, lose sight of 
 the relijjious tone with which it should be invested :
 
 142 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and may we never enter a church without recollecting, 
 that it is a type of the City which hath foundations^ 
 the Holy Church Invisible ! 
 
 " The holy Jerusalem, 
 
 From highest Heaven descending, 
 And crown'd with a diadem 
 
 Of angel bands attending : 
 The living City built on high. 
 Bright with celestial jewelry. 
 
 " By the hand of the Unknown 
 The living stones are moulded 
 To a glorious shrine, all one, 
 Full soon to be unfolded : 
 The building, wherein God doth dwell. 
 The Holy Church Invisible. 
 
 " Glory be to God, who layed 
 
 In Heaven the foundation ; 
 And to the Spirit, who hath made 
 
 The walls of our salvation : 
 To Christ Himself, the Corner Stone, 
 Be glory ! to the Three in One !"
 
 LIST OF WORKS FOR STUDY. 
 
 Rickman's Architecture. 
 
 Fosbroke's Arcliteologia, 
 
 Milner's Essay on Gothic Architecture. 
 
 Hope's Historical Essay on Architecture. 
 
 Britton's Arcliitcctural Antiquities. 
 
 Winkle's Cathedrals, both English and Foreign. 
 
 Blore's Monumental Remains. 
 
 Willis's Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Pugin's Examples of Gothic Architecture. 
 
 Pugin's Contracts. 
 
 Pugin's Two Lectures on the principles of Pointed or Christian 
 Architecture. 
 
 The Glossary of Architecture. 
 
 Forty Plates, by Le Keux, as a Companion to the Glossary. 
 
 Whewell's Notes on German Churches. 
 
 View and Details of Littlemore Church. 
 
 View and Details of Stanton Harcourt Church. 
 
 A Memoir of Fotheringhay Church. 
 
 A Memoir of Hasely Church. 
 
 Remarks on English Churches, and on the expediency of 
 rendering Sepulchral Memorials subservient to pious and 
 Christian uses. By J. D. Markland, F.R.S. 
 
 Bloxam's Glimpse at the Monumental Architecture and 
 Sculpture of Great Britain. 
 
 Bloxam's Principles of Gothic Architecture. 
 
 Dr. Wells's Rich Man's Duty, as to Building Churches, »S:c. 
 with the Journal of William Dowsing, Parliamentary Visi- 
 tor, for demolishing Superstitious Ornaments of Churches, 
 in the years 164.*}, 1G44. 
 
 Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.
 
 Ingrain's Memorials of Oxford. 
 
 Hussey's Domestic Architecture of England. 
 
 Nash's Mansions of England in the Olden Time. 
 
 Wordsworth's Poems. 
 
 Warton's Poems. 
 
 The Cathedral. 
 
 Nos. 56. 58. 62. of the British Critic. 
 
 > 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GILBERT AXD RIVINGTON, PRINTERS ST. JOHN's SarAEE.
 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 
 Cinque foil, 38. 
 
 
 Classical orders, 9. 12. 
 
 Aeacvs, 10. 42. 
 
 
 Clerestorj-. 68. 82. 
 
 Acanthus, 11. 
 
 
 Cloisters, 66. 
 
 Aisle, 3.5. 
 
 
 Column, 10. 
 
 Albert Durer, 1 24. 
 
 
 Corbel, VG. 
 
 Altar, 15. MO, et seq. 
 
 
 Corbel table, 4.. 97. 
 
 Altar cloths, 114. 117. 121 
 
 
 Cornice, 38. 47. 9fi. 
 
 Angel cornice, 96. 
 
 
 Credence, 39. 
 
 i Anglo-Norman style, 41. 
 
 
 Crockets, 38. 
 
 Apse, apsis, 16. 
 
 
 Cross, 35. 68. 
 
 ' Arch, .-57. 
 
 
 Cruciform plan, 109. 
 
 Archbishop Laud, 26. 
 
 
 Crj-pt, 39. 
 
 i Armorial bearings. 85. 95 
 
 130. 
 
 Cupola, see Dome. 
 
 Art connected with religion, 135. 
 
 Cusps, 38. 
 
 Astragal. 10. 
 
 
 
 B. 
 
 Ball-flower, 76. 
 Bands, 76. 
 Baptistery, 84. 102. 
 Base, 10. 
 Basement, 38. 
 Becket's crown, 16. 
 Bell turret, 65. 
 Boxgrove prior}', 57. 
 
 
 D. 
 
 
 Debased English style, 25. 
 Decorated style, 24. 75. 
 
 
 Desecration of altars. 111, e< scq. 
 Desecration of fonts, 108. 
 Dome, 31. 
 Donatists, 111. 
 Doorway, 42, 43. 59. 
 Dripstone, 38. 48. 63. 
 
 Boss, 93. 
 
 
 
 British architecture, 23. 
 
 
 E. 
 
 Buttress, 62. 
 
 
 Buttress (flying), 63. 
 
 
 Early English style, 24. 55. 
 
 Byzantine style, 17. 
 
 
 Elizabethan houses, 26. 
 Embroidering, 117. 121. 
 
 C. 
 
 
 Entablature, 10. 
 
 Canopy, 77. 92. 
 
 
 F. 
 
 1 Canopy to font, 99 107. 
 
 
 ; Capital, 10, 11.62. 76. 
 
 
 Fan tracery, 93. 
 
 Caryatides, 44. 
 
 
 Feathering, 117. 
 
 Chancel, 16. lo9. 
 
 
 Female education, 117. 140. 
 
 Chapter-house, 36. 
 
 
 Fillet, 10. 
 
 Chichester cathedral, 51. 
 
 
 Finial. 38. 
 
 Choir, 16. 35. 
 
 
 Five sisters of York, 60. 
 
 Christian architecture, 12 
 
 
 Font, 102, el seq. 99. 
 
 Christianized Pagan temp 
 
 es. 17. 
 
 Frieze, 10. 
 
 L
 
 146 INDEX. 
 
 G. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Grotesque heads, &c. 96. 
 
 Quatrefoil, 38. 
 
 H. 
 
 R. 
 
 Henry Vllth's chapel, 25. 89. 96. 98. 
 
 Religious celibacy, 120. 
 
 Horace Walpole, 19. 96. 128. 133. 
 
 Richard Culmer, 125. 
 
 Hospital of St. Cross, 53. 
 
 Reformers, 110. 
 
 
 Roman remains. 23. 
 
 I. 
 
 Romanesque style, 41. 
 
 
 Rood, 39. 85. 
 
 Illuminating, 135. et seq. 
 
 Rood-loft, 39. 85. 
 
 Inigo Jones, 26. 
 
 L. 
 
 Ladies of past times. 61. 140. 
 
 LadyeChapel, 35. 58. 65. 79. 
 
 Lancet window, 55. 59. et seq. 
 
 Lantern, 36. 95. 
 
 Letturn, 4. 32. 
 
 Lights on the altar, 72. 113. 
 
 Roof, 49, 50. 66. 82. 94. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sacellum, 57. 99. 
 Saints of Middle Ages, 19. 
 Salisbur>- cathedral, 84. 
 Saxon style, 40, 41. 
 Screen, 35. 97. 
 Sedilia, 39. 110. 
 
 Lucas of Ley den, 124. 
 
 Shaft, 10. 89, 90. 
 
 M. 
 
 Sir C. Wren, 27, et seq. 
 
 Sir J. Reynolds' painted window. 
 
 Mouldings, 48. 56. 76. 
 
 127. ' 
 
 MuUion, 37. 90. 
 
 SpandreU, 37. 90. 
 
 
 Spire, 36. 64. 81. 
 
 N. 
 
 Stained glass, 61. 122, et seq. 
 
 Nave, 35. 
 
 New \raidow, Chichester cathedral, 
 131. 
 
 Stalls, 38. 
 
 Stoup, 39. 85. 
 
 St. Paul's cathedral, 30. 
 
 Niche, 38. 79. 98. 
 
 T. 
 
 Nicholas Ferrar, 68. 
 
 
 Tabernacle work, 38. 
 
 0. 
 
 Tablet, 38. 
 
 Ogee, 37. 77. 
 
 Origin of Gothic architecture, 17. 
 
 18. 
 Ovolo, 10. 
 
 Temple church, 42. 
 
 Tooth ornament, 56. 65. i 
 Table of styles, 35. 
 
 Throne, 38. 
 Tower, 36. 49. 
 
 P. 
 
 Tracery, 78. 
 
 Transept, 35. 
 
 Palace of Dioclesian, 23. 
 
 Transom, 37. 77. 
 
 Pannelling, 25. 95. 79. 
 
 Trefoil, 38. 
 
 Parapet, 37. 65. 
 
 Triforium. 50. 68. 82. 
 
 Pedestal, 10. 
 
 Tudor arch, 37. 89. 92. 
 
 Perpendicular style, 25. 88, et seq. 
 
 Tudor flower, &c. 95. 98. 
 
 Pews, 72. 101. 
 
 
 Pier, 36. 61. 79. 89. 
 
 W. 
 
 Pillar, 46. 
 
 Pinnacle, 39. 
 
 Water drain, see Piscina. 
 
 Piscina, 39. 
 
 William Dowsing, 123. 
 
 ' Porch, 47. 67. 98. 
 
 
 Presbytery, 16. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Primitive churches, 15. 
 
 Pulpit, 66, 100. 
 
 Zig-zag ornament, 23. 48.
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 
 
 late I. 
 
 to face 
 
 Lecture 
 
 J 
 
 Page 
 
 8. 
 
 .. II. 
 
 
 
 II. 
 
 
 22. 
 
 .. III. 
 
 
 
 III. 
 
 
 40. 
 
 .. IV. 
 
 .. 
 
 .. 
 
 IV. 
 
 .. 
 
 55.
 
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