Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

The galleries, originally built across the ends of the transepts, were removed during later, though still Norman, times; and an arcade of slight projection substituted. The clerestory differs from Winchester in the arches of the three openings springing at equal height, and the plans of the piers differ considerably. Those in the transepts (as before said) are round and clustered, the latter consisting of the customary group of three shafts on its lateral faces, with a single shaft at back and front, for the vaulting and the roof, making together a perfectly uniform group of four larger and four smaller shafts (Fig. 260). The round columns have a shafted pilaster attached to them on the side facing the aisle (Fig. 261).

Transept Piers, Ely Cathedral.]

The nave piers are of alternating forms. The one is founded on the circular column, but has not only the shafted pilaster at the back, as those in the transepts, but two shafts, to carry an extra arch-order, in front, and a group of three running up to the roof (Fig. 262). The other form of pier is like that at Winchester, with the addition of an extra order, and has the triple shaft running up to the roof, as that last described (Fig. 263).

Nave Piers, Ely Cathedral.]

The triforium piers are very similar, though lighter, excepting that the round pillar has lateral shafts to carry the sub-arcuation. All the orders are moulded.

How far the general plan was laid down from the first by Symeon is not known, but it differs from other cathedral and abbey churches in having a magnificent transept at the west end. Whether what we call the foundations of towers at Winchester may have been a foreshadowing of the arrangement, I cannot judge; but from its extraordinary scale (far exceeding that of western towers in general), I think it not unlikely. There was also some distant resemblance to this in the façade at Bury. Though, judging from the number of its bays, one would think the size of Ely and Winchester not very different, there is a disparity in the essential scale, which causes it to fall far short of the dimensions of Walkelyn’s church. The widths of naves from centre to centre of piers are respectively, 42 feet 6 inches and 37 feet 6 inches; and that of the bays, similarly measured, are about 22 feet and 19 feet 9 inches.

The nave is of thirteen bays, besides the western transept. These parts were added in the course of the twelfth century, making the whole length (not measuring the west porch added in another style), about 420 feet, the transept measuring about 190 feet in length.

There was, of course, a central tower as usual, but there was a second tower of great size, and probably of greater height in the middle of the western transept, which transept was flanked at its angles, with vast polygonal stair-turrets, and had large and noble apsidal chapels projecting from its eastern sides. These parts are in the Transitional style, which I do not touch upon during this session; but I may here say that, whether projected from the first or not, a more magnificent addition to the usual features of a great cathedral or abbey church, can hardly be imagined, though what its effect was when the central tower existed, and the western one was crowned by a vast leaded spire, one can hardly now appreciate.

Abbot Symeon’s tower had the same radical weakness with that built by his brother, and though it lasted longer (having no Rufus beneath it), it at length gave way, and was succeeded by the remarkable structure now forming the unique centre of the glorious temple.

Of doorways, windows, etc., I will not now treat, though some of the latter are of great beauty. Were it not that I limit myself during the present lecture to buildings begun during the eleventh century, I should here have noticed Peterborough, whose eastern end was a manifest imitation of that of Abbot Symeon.

Abbot Symeon died at a hundred years of age in 1093. Of what a long course of events had he been a contemporary or an eye-witness! He might have remembered the congratulations called forth by the failure of the prognostications of the world’s coming to an end in the year 1000. A relative of the ducal family of Normandy, he might have witnessed, when in early manhood, the arrival of Ethelred and Emma with the destined king, confessor, and saint, when they fled from the ravages of King Sweyn; and he might have even directed the education of the Confessor-King. In architecture, he might have watched almost from its rise the development of the Norman style, and have assisted, when at early middle age, at the consecration of Duchess Judith’s Abbey Church at Bernay, which is now our earliest specimen of what was then the rising art of Normandy, and long subsequently became that of England, and of which he and his brother,--now in their old age,--had become respectively the founders of two of the noblest examples.

Before describing any other of the remaining works of the period, I will carry you in imagination to one which has long ceased to exist. St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was founded, as we have seen, early in the seventh century, by Mellitus, the missionary bishop, and by Sebert, king of Essex. Having been destroyed by fire, its rebuilding was commenced in 1083 by Bishop Maurice. The structure then commenced was of the most ample dimensions. The elementary scale was larger even than that of Winchester, for the width of the nave from centre to centre of the pillars was 46 ft. 6 in., while that of Winchester was 42 ft. 6 in. The nave was twelve bays in length, and each transept had five bays, exceeding in this respect (so far as I know) any other Norman church, excepting the Abbey at Bury St. Edmund’s. The transepts were doubly aisled. The choir had, probably, four bays, but of its eastern termination I know nothing.

The central tower must have been nearly 60 ft. square, and the length of the transept 300 ft. The choir was raised high on an extensive crypt (the successor, in all probability, of that which I have conjectured Bishop Mellitus had constructed on the model of that of St. Peter’s at Rome). Whether the two western towers, placed beyond the outer walls of the aisles, like those of Abbot Paul at St. Alban’s, were of the original date, I am uncertain.

The architecture of the interior seems to have somewhat resembled that of Winchester, but was more lofty and more ornate. The plan of the pillars seems precisely the same; but the arches both of the main arcade and of the gallery were moulded, and circumscribed apparently by an enriched label. The triforium arches are not shown as subdivided, but I think that this was owing to an alteration of the original work. The clerestory had in each bay three openings. The aisle walls were, internally, arcaded beneath the windows. Whether the circular windows, which in Hollar’s view light the triforium storey, represent original ones, such as those at Waltham, we cannot judge.

Of this stupendous edifice, William of Malmesbury, who saw it in its unaltered state, remarks, that “such is the magnificence of its decorations that it is reckoned worthy to be numbered among the most illustrious edifices; such the extent of the crypt, such the capacity of the temple above, that it seems capable of sufficing to hold any multitude of people.”

Our old London cathedral, through the whole period of its existence, appears to have been the largest in England, and one of the largest in Europe,--its dimensions at a later date being 600 ft. from east to west, 300 ft. from north to south, and 520 ft. in the height of its spire.

One of the great builders of the first race of Anglo-Normans was Gundulph, a monk of the famous Abbey of Bec, and the friend of Lanfranc, who, in 1077, consecrated him as Bishop of Rochester.

He rebuilt his cathedral, originally founded by the missionary Bishop Justus; but it is very doubtful whether any important part of his cathedral now exists.[27] He founded, also, the Castle at Rochester, though he did not build the magnificent keep usually attributed to him. He did, however, build the still more stupendous keep of the Tower of London, including the chapel already described, having been regularly employed by the king as the surveyor of the work.[28] The existing remains of Norman style at Rochester differ so entirely from this in character that I am convinced that the parts of the cathedral which he built were just the eastern portion,--raised high on its crypt,--which were rebuilt again in the thirteenth century.

Though not precisely in order of date, I will take next the great cathedral of East Anglia, which was erected, not on any ancient site, but wholly anew at Norwich; and of which nearly the entire shell of the original fabric has come down to our own day.

It was commenced in 1096 by Bishop Herbert de

Losinga, who (_O tempora! O mores!_) had, among other acts of simony, purchased the see of the sacrilegious Rufus for £1900!--a sum equal in our money to nearly £40,000. His apologist excuses this on the ground that it is lawful for the clergy to purchase the rights of the church if they cannot obtain them otherwise, adding the apostolic words, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The Pope, however, did not take this view, and sentenced him, for his simoniacal practices, to build a number of churches at his own cost, of which this stupendous edifice would appear to have been one, for it is distinctly stated that he built it at his own charges,--a most amazing fact, though he held the see for twenty-eight years; and our surprise is increased when we recollect that the stone of which it is constructed was transported from Northamptonshire.

The plan of the church (Fig. 264) differs from that of St. Alban’s mainly in there being only one apsidal chapel to each transept, the aisle being continuous round the great apse, and in the projection therefrom of three chapels; also in the absence of western towers. Two of the chapels last named remain, and are of remarkable plan, a circle, from the eastern part of which projects an apse. The nave attains the vast number of fourteen bays; each transept has four; and the eastern arm a like number to the commencement of the apse. The length is 420 ft. without the eastern chapel, now lost; that of the transept is 195 ft. Like St. Alban’s, we have here the original central tower rising to its full height of 135 ft. It is richly decorated, both without and within, with ranges of arcading and other ornamental features. Within it rises a lofty lantern, round which are triforium passages on two levels. The angle buttresses without consist of a group of numerous shafts forming an octagon, and ending in turrets now terminated in another style. The upper part of the walls is curiously filled up with two ranges of large circles. The tower is a very noble work, though somewhat eccentric in its design.

We find here the aisle and its gallery, or triforium, of about equal height, and occupying about three-fourths of the height of the wall; the remainder being given to the clerestory. The triforium arches are undivided, and very much resemble those of the main arcade; differing chiefly in being generally uniform, with a slight alternate variety, while those below are subjected to frequent changes.

The usual pier on the triforium level has three shafts in a row in its reveal, carrying a wide and plain soffite, while the angles have alternately one and two recessed shafts, and the piers have alternately single and couple shafts running up their front.

The piers below are in some cases like those above, in others a portion of a vast round pillar is substituted for the row of three-shafts, the rest remaining as before described; and in one instance, on each side is a simple round column with spiral flutings, as at Durham, Waltham, etc. (Fig. 265).

The zigzag and billet appear in the arches, and mouldings are, though sparingly, introduced. The capitals are mostly either of the cushion type, or varieties of the form I have shown you from the Tower of London, Caen, and Lincoln.

The whole internal effect is magnificent and noble in a very high degree.

The transept-fronts are divided here into three bays instead of two, as in the churches hitherto described. The arcades of the eastern arm differ considerably from those of the nave, while those of the apse unite in a very pleasing manner into a continuous range. Beneath the central arch are still remaining the shattered vestiges of the original episcopal throne.

I may mention in passing the remarkable plan of the great East Anglian abbey church at Bury St. Edmund’s. I exhibit a ground-plan, from which its remarkable features and extraordinary magnitude may be judged (Fig. 266). The length was 500 ft, and that of its western façade 250 ft. The latter is of a unique type, being flanked by two vast octagonal towers.

A very different type of the same age is found at Gloucester, the erection of which commenced in 1089. Here, as was so usual where the foundation was of the Anglo-Saxon period, the sanctuary has a vast crypt beneath it (Fig. 267).

The peculiarities of this church are two,--first, the triforium or gallery of the eastern arm is vaulted with a demi-vault, and from it opened repetitions of the apsidal chapels, which are placed somewhat as at Norwich; and second, no such gallery exists to the nave, but the height is there thrown into the aisle; so that we have a very lofty aisle of one storey to the nave, and two ranges of aisle of very low proportions to the eastern arm, the two arrangements coming face to face in the transepts. The piers throughout were vast cylindrical columns, with very plain and uncouth round capitals.

This remarkable type was followed, with minor variations, in the two neighbouring monastic churches of Tewkesbury and Pershore. In all it has been greatly altered; but, by comparing one with another, the same scheme is shown to have prevailed in all three. In none were there aisles to the transepts.

The church at Tewkesbury was built just at the same time with Gloucester, and retains a feature which Gloucester has lost, a magnificent Norman central tower.

This church is of peculiar value from its retaining, like those of St. Alban’s and Norwich, so much of the original Norman outline, and few there are which exceed it in the solemn dignity of its external aspect.

Of the neighbouring cathedral of Worcester, as rebuilt about this time or a little earlier by St. Wolstan,--one of the few English bishops who retained their sees under the Normans,--we have only the crypt,[29] which is wonderfully perfect in its design and preservation, and the arches which led into the eastern chapels of the transepts. We have also the unique and beautiful circular chapter-house of about the same period.[30] Against the south transept, in an arched passage, we find either a reminiscence of the Saxon baluster or some from the older cathedral used again. St. Wolstan would, no doubt, have been glad of any such memento of good old times; remembering which, while watching the progress of his Norman Church, he could not restrain his feelings, and exclaimed, “We wretched people destroy the works of the saints, that we may get praise for ourselves. That age of happy men knew not how to construct pompous edifices, but they knew well how, under such roofs as they had, to sacrifice themselves to God, and to set a good example. We, alas! strive that we may pile up stones, neglecting, the while, the care of souls.”

I will not detain you by describing Hereford, built by the more pious relative and namesake of Losinga, of Norwich;[31] nor Chichester, commenced about 1089, a few years after the removal of the ancient see from Selsey, and which was a very perfect Norman cathedral on a minor scale, with its eastern end arranged much as that of Norwich, but with two western towers. Its original features are excellent specimens of the early period.

Let us now travel far northwards, and visit St. Cuthbert’s glorious shrine; but, after entering upon the great Northern road, let us step aside and pay a passing tribute to the memory of England’s last Saxon king, Harold Infelix, in the church of his own founding, at Waltham.

When the nave, now standing, was erected, let us not too curiously inquire. It is a question on which some of our keenest antiquaries have differed, and let us not dispute over a site so sacred in England’s history. Right goodly is the remaining fragment, by whomsoever erected. I confess to a belief that it was the work of some who still loved the memory of Harold, after living long under Norman sway; and if, in after years, the chieftains of Norman lineage delighted to trace their names in the roll of Battle Abbey, that proud memento

Of Hasting’s fatal field,
Where shiver’d was fair England’s spear,
And broken was her shield,

be it rather for Englishmen to take a mournful pleasure in the spot whither were borne from that fatal field the mangled remains of England’s native but unhappy king.

The two are alike mementos of national humiliation; but let us rejoice that, though the triumphal thank-offering of the Conqueror is now a desolate ruin, the remnant of Harold’s foundation, however reduced, is still a church, and has been in our day rescued from much of its humiliation, and been made the subject of thoughtful and artistic care.

Its architecture has some resemblance to the glorious work which we have next to consider; for, like Durham, its bays are arranged in couplets. In one instance, on either side, the intermediate pier is a round column, pure and simple, with spiral flutings; in the others, the same form but with attached shafts towards the aisles, so that the two buildings which I have thus accidentally taken--the one on our pilgrimage to the other--are so much alike in internal design that one might fairly attribute them to the same architect.

At Durham we have a glorious temple erected by Norman bishops, over the shrine of a British saint. The body of St. Cuthbert, after many journeyings and sojournings, had eventually become domiciled at Durham; for,

“After many wanderings past,
He chose his lordly seat at last,
Where his cathedral, huge and vast,
Looks down upon the Wear;
There, deep in Durham’s Gothic shade,
His reliques are in secret laid.”

The existing cathedral was commenced in 1093, by the Norman Bishop de St. Carileph. Malcomb, king of Scotland, and his true-hearted English queen, Margaret, assisted in laying the first stones.

Sir Francis Palgrave tells us that Bishop de St. Carileph obtained the design abroad during three years’ exile from his see. I know not of any church like it abroad, but this is no refutation of the statement, which seems by no means an unlikely one, and is, I think, founded on ancient authority. However this may be, a design more noble can scarcely be conceived, and I think it must be admitted that, among all the churches erected by the Normans in England, this is the noblest though far from being the first in size.

Its great beauty is internal, and arises from the carrying throughout the principle of alternating clustered piers and vast round columns, the latter having their shafts decorated with spiral, zigzag, intersecting, and vertical flutes.

This principle, in an isolated form, we find elsewhere: as in two bays at Norwich, and a similar number at Selby, and more perfectly at Waltham, and at Lindisfarne; Durham, however, seems to have taken the lead in carrying it throughout the church. But still more remarkable is the stupendous scale and noble proportions in which it is produced.

Though the church was begun by Carileph, he only survived its commencement for three years, and a like interval of vacancy followed his decease. During this time the monks, under their zealous prior, Turgot, carried on the work, which, on the succession of Ralph Flambard to the see, in 1099, is said to have been completed.

It is clear that the general design had been laid down under Carileph, as the choir, transepts, and nave agree in their leading idea; so that, whatever influence the previous building experience of Flambard obtained during his holding the deanery of St. Paul’s or elsewhere may have had upon the details of his nave at Durham, we must award the honour of the scheme, as a whole, to Carileph’s architect, who had supplied him the design during his exile in Normandy. Both bishops were as far as may be from the _beau ideal_ of

an unworldly ecclesiastic, but one would regret to attribute a work so noble to the unscrupulous and wicked agent of the oppressions of Rufus.

In plan (Fig. 269), the church, being arranged in coupled bays, two such couplets are given to its choir and two to either transept (the latter much narrower than the former). The nave consists of three couplets, after which comes a single bay, and then the bay which represents the western façade; or, in other words, it consists of four couplets, the westernmost of which is disturbed by the substitution of a complex pier on either side to carry the towers, in the place of what would have been its round column. This seems an imperfection; for four couplets, clear of the tower bay, would appear a more perfect arrangement.

The transept has only an eastern aisle. The eastern termination of the church is lost. It was apsidal, and probably with a circumscribing aisle. The dimensions of the entire building are not quite equal to some of those which we have reviewed, being probably at first about 430 ft. in length by 200 ft. from north to south of the transept. The width from centre to centre of columns is 40 ft. The bays of nave and choir, similarly measured, vary from 23 ft. to 26 ft.

The piers are of prodigious size, the clusters and round pillars being respectively about 11 ft. and 7 ft. in diameter. The magnificent grandeur of the interior arises as well from the extreme nobleness of the design of these couplets of bays, as from their continuous use throughout the church. Nothing can exceed the noble simplicity and grandeur with which they are treated, nor the happiness of their proportion (Fig. 270).

The main arcade assumes a much more commanding altitude than in most of the churches already described, occupying, what became in after-times its received proportion, of one-half of the height of the wall, the other half being pretty equally divided between the triforium and clerestory.

The great columns are precisely like those at Winchester, excepting that the three-fold group of shafts, which there occupies the lateral portion, is precisely repeated on the front and back faces, making a perfectly uniform group in all directions (Fig. 271). This arrangement produces great grandeur, owing to the noble group of shafts it carries up to the vaulting of the central space. The arches are boldly moulded, with rolls and hollows, and enriched with the chevron. The triforium, piers, and arches are of three orders; the lower one dividing into two arches on a centre shaft. The clerestory is usually of three unequal arches.

The capitals are all of the cushion type; those to the great cylindrical columns being octagonal. The chevron is here freely used, and the doorways are magnificently rich. One most marked feature in this cathedral is, that its central space is everywhere vaulted.

It is known that this was a subsequent work; but, in the nave at least, it appears equally clearly to have

been contemplated from the first, a portion of the transverse ribs having been built with the walls. In the transept, however, the evidence seems to be the other way, though I think the question has been hardly sufficiently investigated. The sister church at Lindisfarne, built almost on the same design, seems, from the views one sees of it, to have been vaulted from the first, or, at least, to have been so designed.

Externally, a peculiarity occurs at Durham in the gabled roofing originally covering the aisles (Fig. 272). This does not now exist, but the evidences of it are indisputable.

The awful grandeur of the interior of this cathedral, and its noble effect from without,--standing, as it does, on a rocky promontory nearly surrounded by the deep ravine of the river, and, as a quaint old writer says--“So envyroned with hilles, that he that hath seen the situation of this city hath seen the mapp of Sion, and may save himself a journey to the Holy Land,”--must ever cause it to rank among the grandest of our Mediæval remains: and its influence seems to have been proportioned to its merits; for, as Sir Francis Palgrave tells us, it “became the normal model of ecclesiastical architecture throughout the ancient diocese of Aidan and Finan, far beyond the Tweed.”

I will only notice one more building in the present lecture, and that in the farthest south; and I make this long stride,--from the Wear to the New Forest,--for the sake of noticing the other great work of the notorious prime minister of Rufus. Mr. Ferrey, who has every right to judge of all that relates to Christchurch, has traced out certain resemblances between Christchurch and Durham. The difficulty in connecting such resemblances with the influence on each of Bishop Flambard, is (as I have before said) that Durham was commenced, and had made great progress before his succession to the see. I am, however, disposed to think that it was Durham that influenced Christchurch,--as it was not while dean, but subsequently, when patron of Christchurch, that Flambard rebuilt that church; and this was contemporaneous with his holding the see of Durham.

Flambard’s Church is extremely bold and simple in its parts, and well studied in its proportions. The clerestory and vaulting are of a later date; but Mr. Ferrey gives reasons for thinking the latter to have been from the first intended. The details are good and well considered; the capitals are of the cushioned form, and of that type noticed in the Tower of London and elsewhere. Some appear to have been subsequently carved with exquisite taste, in a manner which reminds one of Greek foliage. The windows of the triforium gallery, with the corbel tabling over them, still remain, and are of excellent, though simple, design; while the beautifully arcaded stair-turret to the northern transept is one of the choicest relics of the Norman style (Fig. 273).

The buildings I have thus imperfectly described I have selected as having been all commenced within the eleventh century. I trust I may be able during the next session to follow on the style through its subsequent and more ornate stages, and on again through the interesting period of its transition into the Pointed style; and, while doing this, I hope to illustrate my remarks by means of many of the smaller creations of the style, and by some which are other than ecclesiastical.[32]

For the present,--after travelling over an eventful period of nearly seven centuries, and tracing out the rise of British[33] architecture through many phases,--I must bring my course for this session to a close, apologising if I have, in the warmth of patriotism, been induced to lead you out of the beaten and accredited track of art; though at the same time convinced that the architecture we have been considering will be found on close examination to contain germs and principles which have been and may again be made to germinate into styles of art of the highest and noblest character.

LECTURE XIII.

The Practical and Artistic Principles of Early Architecture in Great Britain.

The close of the eleventh century--The “new manner of
building”--Conditions necessary to an _arcuated_, as distinguished
from a _trabeated_, style--First principles of Grecian and Roman
architecture--Rationale of the _arcuated_ style--Its
developments--Cloisters of St. Paul without the Walls and St. John
Lateran, Rome--Doorways--Windows--Vaulting over spaces enclosed by
walls or ranges of piers--Simplest elements
defined--Barrel-vaults--Hemispherical vaults or _domes_--Groined
vaults.

When I delivered my last lectures in this Academy, it was my intention to give a practical sketch of the history and development of architecture in this country from the earliest rise of civilisation among the races of which our nation is composed, down, perhaps, to the period of the revival of Classic architecture. As, however, such continuous history has been disturbed by the omission of my lectures last season, and as few now present heard, and fewer, probably, now remember, those lectures, it is not my intention to continue my former course, but, adopting as my stand-point the stage at which I had then arrived, to digress into an inquiry into some of the practical and artistic principles of the class of architecture of whose development I was then treating.

The chronological point which I had reached was the close of the eleventh century,--a point well fitted to be chosen as one for leaving the beaten track for the purpose of inquiring into principles. It was the very stage at which the great round-arched style, which had just developed itself into a strong and sturdy luxuriance, was in the condition best suited to receive the refinements of art.

It was, too, the very eve of that wonderful politico-religious movement which was to bring the nations of the West into contact with the East;--thus preparing the way for a vast influx of new ideas and of fresh artistic elements; and, so far as our own country was concerned, it was just the moment when the simple and unambitious architecture of the Anglo-Saxon race had given place to the more colossal edifices and the more systematic style of the Norman invaders; and when the newly-imported architecture, having taken firm root in our soil, was ready to become naturalised as our own, and to be pressed forward in all zeal and earnestness by the united races which--now neither Saxon nor Norman--were becoming, to all intents and purposes, _English_.

Nor let it be supposed that the architecture, thus made ready as the nucleus of subsequent developments, was in itself essentially rude, or mean, or barbaric. I admit that it was stern and severe, and lacking the refinements of advanced art; and that its sculpture, though a reflection from that of Byzantium--as that had been from ancient Greece--was nevertheless grim, uncouth, and unrefined; yet in grandeur of conception and in vastness of scale its productions vied with those of almost any period or country; and I shall be able to show you that it contained principles the most profound and accurate, and capable of being carried forward to any degree of refinement.

A single half-century had, in fact, filled the length and breadth of our land with structures of prodigious scale and impressive grandeur, founded on the most reasonable principles, and containing, in a rough and unrefined form, the most prolific and the most artistic elements. So many of these vast edifices have given place to others of more advanced style, or have been recklessly destroyed, that we can now with difficulty realise the architectural status of a country where they were rising or were just completed in every town and (on a reduced scale) in almost every village;--a period when vast fortresses, such as the Tower of London and the stupendous keeps of Rochester, of Norwich, and of Headingham were specimens of the vernacular architecture to be seen all over the land; when the now shattered ruins of Newark and the grim tower of Newcastle were as freshly erected as their names imply; when the awful names of Durham and Gloucester were but specimens of the “new manner of building” then recently introduced, and which pervaded the whole land; and when no city, or hardly a village, could be approached without the lofty scaffoldings heaving first into view which surrounded campaniles which could boast such as those at St. Alban’s and Tewkesbury as their types.

We will, however, quit the track of mere history, to inquire into the intrinsic principles of the architecture thus far attained, and in course of development; and I must beg to be forgiven if, in doing so, I am compelled at times to repeat what I have brought under your notice in former lectures; for, not then intending to go systematically into this inquiry, I have occasionally forestalled my subject by adverting to these principles, as the course of my historical sketch chanced to suggest.

I shall, then, firstly consider the architecture in question,--this “_novum genus ædificandi_,”--from a point of view bearing upon its great structural characteristic as a purely _arcuated_ style, and one whose strivings all took the direction of rendering that structural fact the main source, as well as the main receptacle, of its artistic character and decoration.

Now what, I would ask, are the conditions necessary to an _arcuated_, as distinguished from a _trabeated_, style?

I would thus define them:--Generally, I would say that such a style should be capable of doing all, whether structural or artistic, by means of the _arch_, which other forms of architecture had done through the use of the horizontal _beam_ or lintel.

And to go more into particulars, I would add:--

1st. That, as a rule, openings in walls and between pillars, whether taking the form of doorways, windows, gateways, or intercolumniations, should be bridged over by arches instead of by horizontal lintels or entablatures, though not descending into such purism as to reject the latter when circumstances clearly point to its adoption.

2nd. That areas enclosed by walls, or by ranges of piers or columns, and of any reasonable width, should be capable of being covered over,--and, in buildings of the highest grade, should as a rule be actually covered over,--by _vaulting_; this rule, however, not being pressed so far as to exclude level ceilings or timber roofs,--the one the most natural and economical covering for rooms, and the other for churches, halls, etc.,--where circumstances forbid the use of vaulting.

3rd. That the decorative system of the architecture should harmonise with, and result from, these prevailing structural conditions; the construction and the architectural treatment being, not only in harmony, but in the most intimate alliance the one with the other.

Now, we all know that Grecian architecture almost ignored the arch, carrying the horizontal or trabeated system of covering openings to the highest artistic perfection; doing for that system just everything which the above-stated conditions would demand for an arched style. _Repose_ was the great sentiment which their architecture expressed; _vertical pressure_, the one physical condition it had to provide against; whereas arched architecture (as they say in India) “never sleeps.” It is always exerting pressure in some other direction than the mere vertical line, and the physical conditions it has to meet are the resistance of these, as well as the support of mere weight.

We know, too, that Roman architecture admitted nearly all the constructive conditions we have demanded, and carried them on to a very considerable degree of practical perfection. We believe, moreover, that had not circumstances checked its progress, it would have carried out these conditions to a much greater extent. As it happened, however, it did not go so far as to make these structural conditions a leading artistic element, and the groundwork of a distinctive decorative system; but, being broken up through political convulsion before such an end was attained, it bequeathed the task to the descendants of its despoilers, and long centuries of darkness had to pass by before the work could be accomplished.

In Roman works, the arched construction was in many cases studiously overlaid and concealed by the decorative features of trabeated architecture; and, where an arch was architecturally treated, it was for the most part by bending round it the mouldings of an architrave or _beam_: and, where a vault was rendered ornamental, it was often by repeating on its coved surface the coffered panels which had originated in a horizontal ceiling; while, in purely arcuated works, such as the stupendous aqueducts, architectural decoration was usually ignored, and structural grandeur alone trusted to for beauty. Still, however, enough was done to convince us that these great builders were on the high road to a noble solution of the problem, and were only, by external accidents, stopped short of its attainment.

I am not about to indulge in abstract imaginings as to what an arcuated style of architecture might be if originated without the aid of previous associations or traditions; but I would ask you to follow out, with some reference to the previous Classic styles, and aided by our knowledge of subsequent developments, the _rationale_ of such a style as that whose leading conditions I have stated.

We must begin with the simplest elements of the style.

Firstly, then, let us take a mere opening in a wall, whether intended for a window or for any other use. As in the trabeated system, apart from architecture, such an opening would be covered by a single block of stone (Fig. 274), so in an arched system would it be bridged over by an arch (Fig. 275); and, just in the same manner, if a continuous series of openings were required, equivalent to a colonnade, the same simple idea would be repeated,--in the one system horizontal stones lying upon upright ones (as at Stone House) or upon piers (Fig. 276), and in the other the openings being covered by a series of arches (Fig. 277); the _colonnade_ being the ultimate result in the one case, the _arcade_ in the other.

To architecturalise the arched opening, or the continuous arcade, the simplest expedients seem to be the insertion between the pier and the arch of an impost moulding to mark the springing line (Fig. 278); and, in the arch, either to individualise the arch-stones by chamfering their edges, as the Romans often did, or to relieve their plain surface by moulding, the latter being best suited where the stones made use of are of only moderate size (Fig. 279). The mouldings of the arch may, however, be continued down the jambs without an impost, and in either case a projecting rim or hood-mould may be introduced over the main arch to emphasise the line which separates the arch from the superincumbent wall (Fig. 280).

These simple changes bring our plain arched opening into something like an architectural feature; and, if we apply them to a continuous arcade, the architecturalising process becomes yet more apparent, and it may readily be carried a step farther by adding pilaster capitals to the piers (Fig. 281). Another and yet more important step, inasmuch as it is really the basis of a very marked feature in our arch styles, is the substitution of columns for the piers of an arcade (Fig. 282); which columns, having square abaci, are really as well fitted to support the arch as the square pier itself, and at once give a highly decorative character to our arcade; and the more so if the jambs are converted into pilasters.

The abaci, however, of such bearing-shafts ought to be very different from the delicate finish of the Corinthian capital; for the arch is not the same inert load which the columns in a trabeated style are destined to carry. It exerts diagonal as well as mere vertical pressure, and so demands a firmer base. This led the architects of the early arched styles, while adopting the Corinthian capital, and perhaps re-using those of older buildings, to add to it a strong flat stone as an impost upon which they could safely give the springers of their arches a basis larger in diameter than the sustaining column. This form,--that is to say, the Corinthian capital with an added impost,--became traditional, and we find the imitations of it down to the end of the twelfth century.

We have hitherto supposed our arches to be of moderate depth from extrados, or outer line, to intrados, or inner line, and our walls, perhaps, of moderate thickness. Let us, however, assume it to be necessary to increase the depth of the arch, and that the materials at hand are not of large size. In some of the Byzantine remains in Central Syria, where the stone is of great size, we find that they have architecturalised by mouldings and enrichments only just so much of the arch-stones as was needful for beauty, and left the rest to go as mere wall-face; and where such large stones are not made use of, it is common enough to build the arch in two rims, and only to deal architecturally with the lower one (Fig. 283) or perhaps to leave both plain (Fig. 284).

Now, the first may be unobjectionable where the wall is of moderate thickness and the load great, and the second is well suited to large and massive engineering works; but for ordinary architecture, it is apt to give too bulky and cumbrous an effect. This naturally suggests the idea--while allowing the upper range of arch-stones to occupy the full thickness of the wall--of reducing the lower range to a smaller width, thus breaking the arch section into resalient angles, and thereby both lightening its effect and rendering the piers or jambs which support it lighter and less obstructive to the view (Fig. 285).

Simple as this step may appear, it is one whose importance can scarcely be over-stated; for it is the starting-point of the entire system of Romanesque and Gothic arch-moulding; it is the origin of the clustered columns, and the deeply-recessed and richly-decorated doorways which mark those styles; and to it we owe in great measure even the traceried windows which are such leading characteristics of Gothic architecture. For, as regards arches, we had before but one angle to mould, whereas we may now have as many as the thickness of our walls will permit, thus generating at once the great Mediæval system of receding orders, whether of arches or their jambs; and you will presently see that this gives us also our clustered columns, which are, in fact, the mere decoration of the receding orders of the piers.

Let us now deal with such a pier as is shown in our last figure. It is clear that the plan of that pier is the same as that of the springers of the coupled arches which it supports, and that this plan is of a cross-form. It is not, however, necessary that this plan should be continuous through the pier, if only an impost is provided of a form suited to receive this double springer (Fig. 286). It is quite possible (and is very frequent), to substitute a single column for this cross-formed pier, giving it a capital whose abacus either assumes a like plan with the springer (Fig. 287), or, if either octagonal or round, is suited in size to contain it without either undue projection or much superfluous space.

Let us, however, take another step; and instead of substituting a column for the group of arch-orders, let us substitute either a smaller column for each of the four orders, thus supporting the arches by a group of four columns (Fig. 288); or else let these be united into one complex pillar formed of portions of four columns (Fig. 289); or, thirdly, let us place a colonnette under each order, grouping them, either in the solid or as detached shafts, round a central square pier (Figs. 290, 291). In any of these methods we at once obtain the clustered column.

To the jambs we may apply the same process, either substituting a colonnette for the inner order, and pilasters for the outer ones, or _vice versa_ (Figs. 292, 293), or substituting colonnettes or pilasters for all. I do not know how early this system of using colonnettes to do merely decorative duty was introduced. We have a specimen of it in the remains of the church built by Benedict Biscop, at Monk Wearmouth, in the seventh century, where, as I have stated in a previous lecture, two baluster shafts are placed in either jamb of a doorway to support the impost.[34] To go to the far East, we find the system in use in the Mosque of Touloun, at Cairo, built, I believe, in the ninth century. In one of the doorways of the cathedral at Mayence, built about the end of the tenth century, columns and pilasters, with Corinthian capitals, and crowned by a thick impost moulding, are alternately employed to carry the four receding orders of the arch. The whole has semi-Classic details. In the western portals of St. Mark’s, at Venice (close upon the same period), we find a profusion of detached columns similarly used. They are of marble and other rich materials, and were probably brought to Venice from ancient buildings in the East.

Fig. 291.

Fig. 292.

Fig. 293.]

It may be that the possession of such antique relics, and the long-established practice of re-using them, may have suggested the use of small columns for such purposes; indeed, it is curious that in the case of the Mosque of Touloun, just alluded to, as a very early instance of the use of colonnettes, there is a tradition that the architect, who was a Christian, was imprisoned for refusing to use the columns torn

from desecrated churches, which had been a condition prescribed to him, and only consented to proceed with the work on the withdrawal of this order. Whether or not, this custom originated the feature under consideration, I think that it is one which belongs essentially to a _derivative_ style, and would hardly have come into existence in a style of architecture not aided by traditions of the past. The Romans themselves, as is proved by their mural paintings, seem to have indulged in the use of thin columns (possibly of metal), for buildings not demanding massive dignity; and it is just possible that in their domestic architecture some suggestions of this use of such pillars might have existed; and certainly among Mediæval works, in none are they more charmingly introduced than in the cloisters of St. Paul without the Walls, and St. John Lateran, at Rome, whose details are much more Classic than Gothic (Fig. 294).

In our Norman buildings colonnettes are for the most part built in the solid of the piers, which would suggest that they are not there in the earliest stage of their use.

The principle once adopted, there seems no limit to the variety of which it is capable. Shafts may be substituted for _all_ of the arch-orders, or for such only of them as may be desired.

Where the arch consists of more than two orders, a half-column of larger size may be made to support two or more, and smaller ones may flank them carrying single orders (Fig. 295). Where, again, the lower order is wide in its soffit, it may be carried either by a large semi-column (Fig. 296) or by coupled colonnettes (Fig. 297); and where there are three orders, the same may be applied to the front, bringing the pillars to a uniform design on all of its sides (Figs. 298, 299).

Fig. 296.

Fig. 297.

Fig. 298.

Fig. 299.]

We have already seen that single columns may be used to carry arcades of two or more orders, either by breaking their abaci into receding angles, to fit them to the orders of the arches, or by making round or octagonal abaci large enough to receive them; and such single columns may be alternated with clustered piers. There is, however, another extensive variety of pillar compounded of the two.

Fig. 301.]

Let us suppose a single column supporting arches of a single order (Fig. 300), and that we desire to extend the arches to _three_ orders, retaining the same main bearing-shaft. We may imagine the additional orders to be super-added on all sides of the original square springer and additional colonnettes (attached or detached) added round the original bearing-shaft to receive them (Fig. 301). The same may be applied to an octagon, placed either angularly or in its usual position (Figs. 302, 303).

The process may be carried a step farther, and eight colonnettes be set round the original bearing-shaft (Fig. 304). In St. Mary’s Abbey,[35] at York (towards the end of the twelfth century), we have an instance of sixteen colonnettes thus placed round a bearing-shaft (Fig. 305), but only eight of them carry separate orders; and a little later, in the cathedral at Genoa (the work, apparently, of a northern French architect), we have no less than twenty-four colonnettes similarly ranged round an octagon (Fig. 306); though here, again, only eight are represented in the plan of the abacus or of the base when it rests upon the floor, the others being introduced probably for the relief produced by the varied colours of the marbles of which they are composed.

A little later the colonnettes themselves become grouped in threes and fours, and their edges often filleted, or “keeled,” that is, decorated by an arris or edge projecting from their round surface. Thus, at Lichfield (Fig. 307) in the older portions, groups of three shafts united into one, and carrying a common abacus, were set on each side of an octagonal bearing-shaft. At Wells (Fig. 308) similar triple shafts were set alternately against the faces and in the internal angles of a cross-formed nucleus, with alternately square and octagonal abaci.

My purpose, however, is not to enumerate all possible varieties of clustered pier, but to explain its principle, and at the same time to show how unlimited an artistic element was deducible from an intent thus founded on the natural conditions of arched construction. To go much farther would carry us on prematurely into the succeeding styles, and would be also anticipating another cause, which carried on the principle to a still further development. I allude to groined vaulting, of which I shall have to treat in detail when I reach it.

Before, however, I quit the subject of arches and piers, I must say a few words on the application of their principles to doorways and windows.

Doorways differ in no degree, as to principle, from archways, excepting in having, at some point in the thickness of the wall, more or less recessed at pleasure, what Professor Willis calls the “doorway plane;” that is to say, one of the arch-orders so formed that the door may be hinged to it, and may shut against it. The actual opening of the door may or may not be stopped on this plane to a square heading, the arch over it being filled in with a tympanum, plain or sculptured; or it may be altered from the form of the main arch to some shape having less height. In all other respects the principles already stated apply equally to doorways as to archways. The interior, however, has to be varied if the door fills in the arch-form, with a view to facilitating its free opening; but this is a practical point not needful to be here gone into. The orders of arch-mouldings in a doorway often continue down the jambs, as in one of the magnificent doorways at Malmesbury Abbey: or they may be replaced by colonnettes or pilasters, or these methods may be united in the same doorway,--just as in another door at Malmesbury, continuous mouldings alternate with colonnettes,[36]--and the arches, jambs, and capitals, and even the shafts of the colonnettes, may receive any degree of sculptured enrichment.

The doorway being a point on which much architectural character was concentrated, and great depth being necessary to give the required effect, it was customary to thicken the walls at the doorways by various expedients, so as to obtain depth enough to give several orders of arch-mouldings; this increased thickness was covered over by gables, and by other means.

The width, too, of the jambs of doorways is often increased, and more space gained for enrichment, by giving to each order in the jamb a larger space than would otherwise be necessary of square face between the shafts (Fig. 309).

In some cases, also (as in the doorway in the Castle at Durham), there is a small arch-order which continues down the jambs between the principal orders, and adds much richness to the effect.

In later examples, two ranges of shafts were often introduced; the outer ones carrying the orders, and the inner ones having capitals lost under the main capitals, as if carrying an imaginary order hidden within the visible mass of the arch. These are, in fact, the parallels of the supernumerary shafts I have mentioned as often existing in clustered piers. Thus, in St. Leonard’s Priory, Stamford (a work of the twelfth century), we find two ranges backed by a plain splayed surface (Fig. 312). In the Galilee at Ely (somewhat later), the second range is backed by large hollows between salient mouldings (Fig. 310); and again at Lichfield, the back range is, as at Stamford, placed against a splayed surface, but relieved by ranges of large toothed ornaments running up behind each of the front shafts (Fig. 311).