OBSERVATIONS

ON

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, &c.

Printed by S. GOSNELL, Little Queen Street.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE,

MILITARY, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND CIVlfc,

COMPARED WITH

SIMILAR BUILDINGS ON THE CONTINENT:

INCLUDING A

CRITICAL ITINERARY OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE;

STAINED GLASS, ORNAMENTAL GARDENING, &c.

WITH

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES AND DIMENSIONS

OF

CATHEDRAL AND CONVENTUAL CHURCHES.

y^O-'' ^MM

*BY THE REV. JAMES D ALL, WAY, M.B. F.SA. U'NIVEton Y / \,

ogg:

Ut contra judictorum varietates superesset regressus ad veniam, velut craendaturo quicquid desideretur.— PLIN. inPraef. ad Titum.

LONDON:

PBIUTED FOR 3. TAYLOR, AT THE ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY,

59, HIGH HOLBORtf.

l8Q6.

A/A

PREFACE.

IN the year 1800, were published " Anecdotes of the Arts ;" in which a cursory view was given of the architecture of this country. I have been induced upon that foundation to attempt a su- perstructure, and sedulously to correct the errours which certain criticks were eager to impute to ignorance and partiality. My views and inten- tion were totally mistaken by them, as nothing was so distant from my mind, as to aspire to teach. Solely from the love of architecture, I have been induced to form opinions of the works of architects.

t»

Leaving the professors of this science in un- disturbed possession of their chairs, let me be al- lowed the privilege of a private gentleman to converse as freely on this as on any other subject. If I may be indulged in an architectural phrase, I give this hint at the portico of my building, and proceed to offer some account of rny whole plan,

A3

to:

IV PREFACE.

Of the origin of what is termed Gothick, the hypotheses are so various, and perhaps unsatis- factory, that every writer on the subject has advanced his own opinion. I have conjectured, that upon the decline of Grecian and Roman ar- chitecture, after the building of the Santa Sophia at Constantinople and the San Marco at Venice ; the Baptistery at Pisa, by Dioti Salvi, is the great prototype of arches, pediments, and those or- namental particles which are now confined to the Gothick style. Respecting that branch of it, which has through successive ceras been practised in this country, arid is, in fact, become national, I have attempted a classification ; considering not merely the opposition of the pointed to the round arch, but endeavouring by other discri- minations to fix peculiar styles to their respective dates.

A criticka of high respectability, and who may be said to have called in the aid of rnetaphysicks to generalize the principles of art, has declared, that " if we ask what is meant by pure Gothick, we can receive no satisfactory answer — there are no rules, no proportions — and consequently no

* Knight's Inquiry, p. 159,

PREFACE. Vll

definitions; but we are referred to models of generally acknowledged excellence." I feel my- self incompetent to reply to this objection in all its bearings ; — but if a church should be built in 1 806, purporting to be an exact renovation of one erected in the reign of Henry VI. and the pointed arches should bear an indented moulding, or the roof of the ailes equal that of the nave, we might fairly determine, that the architect had not studied a pure style, or that he had widely deviated from every known instance of the date he pretended to imitate. Although we have " no rules" and " no proportions" handed down to us, such a comparison might be no unsatis- factory criterion. It is indeed the only scale we can apply. Many of the Gothick architects had plans of their own invention, different from those of their predecessors or contemporaries, in the attempt to excite a greater degree of surprise by taller pillars and more elaborate roofs, or of admi- ration, for the superior beauty of their works. So little were they restrained by imitation, that each architect aspired to the title of an inventor. Their genius was not cramped by the fear of incurring expense. The ground-plan of a great

Vlll PREFACE.

church invariabl j described the figure of a cross, and it depended solely on their skill to enrich and vary the structure. Upon the continent, parts of cathedrals are said to have been pur- posely left in an unfinished state, in order to ex* cite the continual contributions of the pious. The Grecian architecture is clear and perspicuous, and puts us into immediate possession of its meaning; while in the Gothick much more is meant than at first meets the eye. Symmetry in the one produced an immediate effect of gran- deur or elegance, while every effort of the other was exerted in edifices, apparently beyond human skill or power to construct.

The more minute description of the cathedral of Gloucester is offered merely as an elucidation of general principles, which have been previously advanced.

Military architecture, likewise, is not without its system ; and its gradation and consequent varieties may be applied to particular aeras. The Anglo-Norman square tower, or keep, is as widely discriminated from the smaller octagon, or polygon, of later date, as the round and pointed arcade in ecclesiastical buildings. I have at-

PREFACE. IX

tempted to mark that progress, and to trace the descent of the castellated house of the reign of the Tudors, from the rude fortification of the feodal day.

In surveying the architecture of the two Uni- versities, all comparison has been avoided, as much as the subject would allow. As great re- positories of the arts, they are most wprthy of selection ; and a chief intention of these essays would be answered, if the students might be so led to a personal investigation of the numerous specimens there offered to them. That intention is to excite an inclination for such pursuits, and by no means to preclude other, and perhaps better, judgments.

Of what is called modern architecture, in con- tradistinction to Gothick, although in fact more ancient, a slight sketch is given. Palladio in Italy, and Inigo Jones in England, are its well- known great restorers. That the English school had deviated, from the pure principles laid down by them, into the French manner, is obvious ; and that we were recalled to greater correctness by the literary works of Wood, Stuart, Adam, and others, will be readily allowed. The archi- 5

X PREFACE.

tects of the present age are respectfully recom- mended to a more cautious adaptation of small ornaments, and to restrain an inordinate love of invention.

Observations, rather historical than critical, are added upon two subjects, which appear to be intimately connected with the two distinct kinds of architecture before treated of. Ornamental Gardening is essential to the beauty of a modern villa; and Stained Glass is no less so, to complete the whole effect of the interior of a Gothick structure.

The scale of the history and mensuration of the English cathedrals, in conclusion, places im- mediately under the eye, information which is scattered in various parts of this work ; and may be found more useful, as offered in series.

I wish to apprise my readers, that I do not pretend to have noticed every instance in the several species of English architecture ; and it may possibly occur, that a few of great merit and curiosity are omitted, and others unskilfully selected. I have treated of those only within the sphere of my own knowledge; or concern- ing which I have been favoured with, what I

PREFACE. XI

conceive to be, an accurate account. Un- willing to give offence, either by praise or cen- sure, I have hazarded few opinions respecting the present state of architecture. How much the fame of an architect has suffered, or may still suffer, from the defalcation of the ornamental parts of his plan and elevation by the calculating spirit of the present age, when the effect of beauty is sacrificed to the dread of incurring expense, is well known. The nature of these essays is too multifarious to admit of illustration by engravings ; they are therefore totally omitted.

As Granger, by his classification, led the way to the collecting of portraits, these observations might be richly elucidated by portfolios, includ- ing every architectural instance mentioned ; as I believe very few examples are cited of which there are not some engravings.

The present age may be congratulated on the rapid proficiency made in the art of drawing and engraving architectural antiquities. To the labo- rious brothers N. and S. Buck, and the ingenious Captain Grose, we owe the first representations of many grand military and ecclesiastical build- ings, now rendered much more perfect and in-

iii PREFACE.

teresting by the superior talents of modern artists.

I dedicate this little work to men of leisure and liberal pursuit, who may not disdain the en- deavour of one, who has been indulged by the favour of his patrons with similar opportunities, and who ventures to open to them his common- place-book, reduced into method.

J.IX

Geralds' College, London, February 1800.

QFTHE" /V\

rvy

OBSERVATIONS

ON

•JEJVGJL1SH ARCHITECTURE.

SECTION I.

The Architecture called Gothick, not to be attri* buted to the Northern Invaders of Europe- Thai Term probably invented In the Schools of PaUadio, Jones, and Wren — Causes of the Dis- use oj Grecian Architecture — Churches at Rome the Prototypes of all others in Christendom-^— Differences of Gothick Architecture — /Era of Charlemagne — Cathedrals in Italy, in Ger- many, and France — Lombard Gothick — Bap- tistery at Pisa — Saracenic — Gothick Architec- ture in France — Comparison of the Gothick with Classical Architecture — JFarhurtoris Idea of Gothick Architecture — Origin of it in Eng- land— Proposed Histories of it — Debased Ro- man or Saxon — Anglo-Norman — Norman Bi~ shops most celebrated Architects — Account of

2 OBSERVATIONS OX

their fForks — Of Anglo-Roman Remains — The Reign of Plenty IL — Intermixture of the An- glo-Saxon icith the Norman — Simple pointed Arch — Reign of Henry III. — The Introduction of the pure Got kick — Criterion of the Gothick or pointed Style — Alan de Walsingham, Sub- prior of Ely — William Rede, Bishop of Chi- Chester, and William of Jfykeham, Bishop of Winton, celebrated Architects — Minute Go- thick, or Shrine-work — Carvings of armorial Ensigns — Market Crosses — Abbey Gatetuays.

THE Goths had no share either in the invention or perfection of that peculiar style of architecture which bears their name. It is not worth the dispute, whether the Gothick power was ever annihilated in Europe, or whether they subsisted in the conquered countries as a separate people. By the Goths, no individual nation is alluded to, but the northern conquerors in general, before they were incorporated with the people they had subdued. Gothick, therefore, should be con- sidered merely as a vituperative term, adopted and applied by those w^ho had introduced the restored Grecian. In Italy it had its origin as appropriated to architecture, in the school of Palladio ; and with us it was unknown in the pre- sent sense, before the days of Jones and Wren. A total decay of the arts had even preceded the dissolution of the Roman empire ; and the esta-

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 3

blishment of Christianity, with its privilege of building churches,, was contemporary with the Gothick incursions. In this coincidence has originated a popular notion, that the barbarians annihilated the Grecian architecture in oilier to introduce a style peculiar to their own country, and that their edifices are called "Gothick" merely because they are as widely discriminated by their proportions and ornaments from the classical monuments of Athens, as the Goths w^ere from the Greeks in their talents and national manners. At the beginning of the eighth cen- tury, all Europe formed but one Gothick king- dom. Is there in any nation a church which can

+/

make a just pretension to so early a date ? In Prance and Italy there are none really Gothick remaining, anterior to 800, the celebrated aera of Charlemagne.

Upon no subject of antiquity have so many discordant opinions been maintained, as upon the origin of what is called Gothick architecture. It has given birth to bold conjecture and wide disquisition; and where so many are ready to teach, few are satisfied with what they learn* Bentham (or rather Gray), and T. Warton, were long held -as the ablest discriminators of this question, and considered as having given the clearest idea of the regular progress of the Gothick, from barbarism to perfection. Many idle cavils have been made about the time wlier*

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4 OBSERVATIONS ON

the Goths ceased, to exist as a nation. They probably introduced their own manner of build- ing into every country of which they had gained the possession ; a circumstance evident in the pecuttar styles of Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and England. In each of these there is an osten- sible analogy without an exact resemblance. Leaving this question undecided, we may find no great difficulty in ascertaining the rera of its first introduction into this country, when the manner of building was changed or improved, when it reached perfection, and when a love of exuberance finally effected its decline.

It is not very improbable that mere novelty led to the invention of the architecture we call Gothick, and that the irregularity so decidedly and universally attributed to the Goths, may have originated in the caprice of the Italians, whp were either really ignorant or fanqifully negligent of pure style a.

The leading causes therefore which have oc- casioned the disuse of Grecian architecture in the first ages of Christianity, may be assigned to .the ignorance and inability into which the artists had fallen, before the Goths had spread themselves over Europe. A knowledge of archi- tectural elements was still preserved. The good

* ft has been suggested, that in the remains of Dioclesian'-s palace at Spalatro, there are certain forms and ornaments which partake much of the Gothick style of architecture.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 5

taste of the ancients, both in decoration and proportion, was indeed lost, but certain prin- ciples of the art were known and practised. They were not unacquainted with the secret of arching a vault ; but of all the complicated forms adopted by the Greeks and Romans, they retained that only which is made upon cross-springers rising from four angles, and intersecting each other at the common centre.

Such a mode was universal in their structures, and is found in the smallest closets, as well as in the most spacious churches b.

Simple combinations — such as to raise a walled inclosure, and to place pillars in the length within, connected by an arcade or architrave serving as a base to a second wall for the support of a roof of timber — wrere known and practised, before ( the Goths had appeared in Italy. The first ) Christian churches built at Rome, particularly that of ^ St% JPaul, by Constantine, have been imitated as archetypes of the* most 'ancient*' f churches through Christendom. In the last

b " Gibbon mentions the palace of Theodosius, as the oldest specimen of Gothick. — -Shrines for reiiques were probably the real prototypes of this fine specimen of architecture. It \vas a most natural transition for piety to render a whole church, as it were, one shrine. The Gothick style seems to bespeak an amplification of the minute, not a diminution of the great. Warburton's groves are nonsense ; it was not a passage from barbarism to art, but from one species of the art to another. The style was first peculiar to shrines, and then became pe- culiar to churches." Lord Orford.

B 3

6* OBSERVATIONS ON

mentioned, we have the earliest instance of arches constructed upon columns, instead of upon piers, which w^as universally the Roman method. The frequent resort of the bishops of different na- tions to the Holy See, afforded them an opportu- nity of obtaining plans, which they adopted upon their return tp their own country. The form of the Latin cross was at first simply followed in the ground-plan; that the distribution of its parts has been infinitely enriched and varied, may be traced through successive zeras, as consonant to the genius of the several nations by w^hom it has been applied. We may discover by com-* parison, differences in Gothick architecture, as strongly marked as those of the Grecian orders, Let me be allowed at least to qualify this asser- tion, by confining it to a certain manner, ana-, logous to the genius of the people, who have used it ; so that the Gothick in Lombardy, iq, Spain, in Germany, in France, but especially in England, may be generically distinguished as decidedly as the Dorick, the lonick, or the Co-

\ rinthian.

Those who have examined the superb edifices

/ in Italy, which are styled Gothick, as the cathe- drals of Pisa, Orvietto, Sienna, &c. will find a bare resemblance of what they may have seen in other parts of Europe. They must doubtless have remarked that circular arcades and porticos are most frequent; which if not composed of

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 7

columns extracted and removed from Roman works, the deficiency was supplied by pillars im- perfectly imitated from them0; and that the exuberance of style, called by them " II Gottico- tedesco," very rarely occurs in Italy. The facciata, or grand western front, was the object of splendour to which all the other parts of the fabric were subordinate. It was in that part only, that the artists strove to surpass each other by elevation and boldness, by the multitude and originality of their sculptures. Cupolasd rise from the centre of the transept, and the campanile is always detached from the main building. In a few instances, as in the exquisitely slender towers of Florence and Venice, there is a certain species of beauty ; whilst those of Bologna are equally astonishing, but positively ugly. The first-men- tioned tower was designed arid built by Giotto in the thirteenth century, in emulation of the stupendous spires which at that zera were erect- ing in Germany and the Low Countries. In Italy not a single spire is now seen.

The eera of Charlemagne gave rise to many \ grand edifices dedicated to Christianity, the ar- chitects of which are not recorded. If we thus

c When surveying the Duomo at, Sienna, I remarked that the capitals of the external pilasters which supported the smaller arches, were composed chiefly of grotesque heads of beasts and monsters, instead of foliage.

d The term " Dome" is improperly used for " Cupola"-— \ it applies merely to a cathedral church, and is not synonymous ( with an hemispherical roof, as at the pantheon.

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S OBSERVATIONS ON

fix the epocha of Gothick architecture, though we ( cannot ascertain the first and most ancient spe- cimen of it, we possess nearly all the rest of its history, when we know that it was adopted with certain variations, all over Europe ; that great cities contended for the honour of having the largest and the richest church ; that the same style of architecture employed in the ecclesiastic, passed to other publick edifices, and to the palaces of kings ; and finally, that till the end of the fifteenth century, the Gothick reigned with a more extensive dominion than the most graceful / or magnificent of the Grecian orders.

The cathedrals in Germany and France, like those in Italy, owe their effect to the fa9ade, which is formed by a portico of pediments richly incrusted with the most minute ornament, an infinity of niches, statues, pedestals, and cano- pies, and one circular window of vast diametef between two towers of very elaborately clustered pinnacles, where not otherwise finished by a re- gular spire. This description applies in particular to St. Stephen's at Vienna, Strasburg, Nuremburg, Rheims, Amiens, Notre Darne and St. Denis near / Paris, Coutances, and Bayeux, not to multiply instances. These exhibit prodigies of sublimity, lightness, and patience of the constructors ; yet, as if the age of piety or wealth were passed, most of them are left in an unfinished state.

Even the sumptuous cathedrals of Florence*

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. g

Sienna, and Bologna, built of brick, are as yet imperfectly incrusted with marble; and one only of the intended spires of St. Stephen's, Vienna, Strasburg, and Antwerp, has been conducted to its symmetrical height.

It is worthy remark, that in Italy the Gothick is most analogous to the Grecian architecture in the early instances I have cited. Yet the bap- tistery at Pisa, built by Dioti Salvi in 1152, ex- hibits a style called by the Italian architects, " II Arabo-tedesco," a mixture of Moorish or lower Greek with the German Gothick. It is a circular building with an arcade, in the second order, composed of pillars with Corinthian capi- tals and plain round arches. Between each, there rises a Gothick pinnacle ; and above, it is finished by sharp pediments, which are enriched with foliage, terminating in a trefoil. — The con- jecture I have hazarded, that some of the mem- bers of Gothick ornament originated with Italian architects, suggested itself at Pisa. There, they were introduced in 1152; and many instances cannot be brought, that they were common in France before 1220, at St. Denis ; or in England in 1256, in the cathedral at Salisbury.

The square at Pisa, which from its extent and scrupulous neatness gives to each edifice its com- plete effect, presents in the same view a most rich groupe of the Lombard-Gothick prevalent in the thirteenth century ; and the warmest ad-

10 OBSERVATIONS ON

mirer of that style, indulging his imagination, could scarcely form such an assemblage in idea as the cathedral, the falling tower, the baptistery, and the cloisters. They are indeed the first and most perfect in their peculiar manner, and, for august effect, unequalled in Europe. In the f northern nations a redundancy of ornament soon \ prevailed, whilst in France a more simple, and consequently a lighter style was observable : but in Spain the Gothick wore a gigantick air of extent and massiveness. From the Moors at the same time they borrowed or correctly imi- tated an excessive delicacy in the minute decora- tion of parts, from whence the term " Ara- besque" is derived, and is nearly synonymous \ with " SARACENice" as usually applied, of which a fine instance occurs in the old porch of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol.

Any farther observations I might make on

c This opinion, however it may in appearance, does not in reality militate against the high authority of sir Christopher Wren, who styles the more ornamental manner immediately consequent on the heavy Saxon, " the Sa^enic." — Mr. Payne Knight, in his <c Enquiry into the Principles of Taste," observes that " the style of architecture, which we call ca- thedral ormonastick Gothick, is manifestly a corruption of the sacred architecture of the Greeks or Romans, by a mixture of the Moorish or Saracenesque, which is formed out of a com- bination of Egyptian, Persian, and Hindoo. It may easily be traced through all its variations from the church of Santa Sophia at Constantinople, and the cathedral of Monte Reale, near Palermo, the one of the sixth, and the other of the eighth century, down to King's College chapel, the last and most perfect of this kind of buildings ; and to trace it accurately would be a most curious and interesting work/' P. 162.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 11

the peculiarities of Gothick architecture in Spain and Portugal, are superseded by Murphy's Ba- talha, a work in which a scientifick investigation is rendered delightful by taste and perspicuity; in which is an anecdote much to the honour of the English school of architecture— that the church of Batalha, erected by John king of Portugal, in 1430, was designed by David Hackett, a native of Ireland. The plan is of the pure Gothick of that aera ; the ornamental parts only are upon the Moorish model.

Of Gothick architecture in France the boast \ is the fa$ade of the cathedral at Rheims, and ( its pretensions are just. Amiens and St. Denis have similar and scarcely inferior claims. The abbot Suggerius, who built the latter in 1 148, and wrote a treatise on its construction, had an apparently capricious idea of proportion; for the nave is 335 French feet long, and only thirty-nine in breadth. There are three tiers of windows, each thirty feet high, and three only distant from each other. By so great a contrast, and such frequent perforation of the walls, the magical effect of the internal perspective is pro- duced. But the architects of cathedrals had a difficulty to counteract, and an indispensable ar- rangement to consult. The narrow roofs of the nave and ailes might be protracted to any given length ; which, if the church had not been di- vided by internal arcades, could not have been

12 OBSERVATIONS ON

stretched from wall to wall, with dny degree of practicability. The numerous ceremonies of the Romish religion, of which processions composed so great a part, required temples of the most extended length, which was capable of being tripled by the division of the whole space into three parts. The disproportion of the height and width to the length will be more frequently found in the churches in France and Flanders, the whole building of which is unmixed with Saxon, upon a due comparison with those in England.

The lovers of Grecian architecture will indeed contend, that the total absence of proportions produces our first surprise, which we gradually lose upon a strict examination. The contrary is the effect of a classical structure, of which St. Peter's is readily adduced as the most memorable instance. It is principally the want of breadth which makes the length appear extraordinary; and which seems to elevate the roof to so extreme an height, in the more stupendous of the Gothick churches.

This comparison does not prove a purer taste in any of the nations which offer it, to the dis- paragement of the rest. If in architecture, taste consist in a just relation of parts in forming a whole, which accords with the idea we give to the orders ; and the choice and distribution of ornament be imitated from the rich or simple

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 13

\

beauties of nature ; it is certain that the Gothick architects, of whatever country they may have been, have shewn much ingenuity and skill, but ^ no taste. For we may observe in the Gothick, how totally the rules of classical architecture are violated or forgotten, notwithstanding there is a character of originality, which, in its general and complete effect, surprises, till we become enchanted with its influence f,

Bishop Warburton, in his notes on Pope, has asserted, that Gothick architecture originated in Spain, where Moorish architects were employed

f To the names of Gray, Bentham, and T. Warton, as classicks in the science of Gothick architecture, may now be added that of Mr. Milnerof Winchester (a bishop in partibus), who, whatever be the acceptance of his new theory of its ©rigin, must be allowed to be intimately conversant with the general subject. It is remarked by. Mr. T. Warton, when comparing the Grecian with the Gothick, that C( truth * and propriety gratify the judgment, but they do not affect the imagination." — Notes on the Minor Poems of Milton, p. 91. It was Mr. T. Warton's intention, had he lived longer, to have published the History of Gothick Architecture, for which no man was more eminently qualified, with perhaps the exception of Mr. Gray. He announced that plan in 1781, in the third volume of the History of English Poetry. Diss. Gest. Rom. p. xxii. The intended work was to consist of " Observations, critical and historical, on castles, churches, monasteries, and other monuments of antiquity, in various parts of England ; to which will be prefixed the history of ar- chitecture in England." Vol. i. Diss. 2, note.

Mr. James Essex of Cambridge purposed to have written the History of Gothick Architecture ; but he did not find leisure or resolution sufficient to more than the commencement of a work, for which his practice had in a great degree qualified him. He published an Essay on " Round Churches" in England. A collection of Essays on Gothick Architecture was published by Taylor, 8vo. 1801.

14 OBSERVATIONS ON

or followed; and that it simply imitates an avenue of lofty trees; the sharply pointed arch being that formed by the intersecting branches ; and that the stems of a clump of trees are re- presented by columns split into distinct shafts. This observation is ingenious, but not wholly applicable ; for the architecture styled Gothick in the northern parts of Italy, had a distinct origin and characteristicks ; and our own Gothick was not brought us from Spain, but from Normandy and France.

From this summary view of architecture in the earlier centuries, since the establishment of Christianity in different parts of Europe, I pro- ceed to that prevalent, at different periods, in England only. Our Saxon progenitors, from their intercourse with Rome upon ecclesiastical concerns, adopted, with however rude an imi- tation, the Roman plan of churches. We have likewise a fair presumption, that many temples and palaces of the Romans remained, at that period, at least undemolished in Britain g.

The western front of their churches had a portico or ambulatory, and the eastern was se- micircular, and resembled the tribune in Roman basilicas. The principal door-case was formed by pilasters with sculptured capitals ; and the head of the round arch contained bas-reliefs, and

* Gyraldus Cambrensis. Bedse Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. v. cap. 21.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 16

was encircled by mouldings of great variety, imi- tated, with imperfect success, from many then existing at Rome, and not without great pro- bability, in England. These mouldings may be more particularly specified and classed, as the indented, the zig-zig like the Etruscan scroll — the small squares, some alternately deeper than others — and the flourished, with small beads, usually on the capitals of pilasters. The latest device which became common just before the Saxon style was abandoned, was a carving round the heads of arches, like trellis placed in broad lo- zenges, and considerably projecting11.

The Saxon style is equally recognised by its seeming want of harmony of parts, as by its massive columns, semicircular arches, and dia- gonal mouldings. The base, mouldings, and capitals, though of exact dimensions and similar forms in the mass, abound in variations in the minuter parts. The arches usually spring from the capitals, without an architrave. Perhaps it would be difficult, at this time, to describe any

b Consult Carter's Ancient Architecture in England. The great ecclesiasticks among the Saxons both studied and practised architecture. Elfric, abbot of Malmsbury, is said by the his- torick monk of that place, to have been " sedificandi gnarus." (Wharton's Angl. Sac. vol. ii. p. 33.) Aldred, bishop of Worcester, and afterward archbishop of York, had completed the nave of the conventual church of Gloucester before the 'Conquest, as it now remains. (Florent. Annales Vigorn. A. D. 1057.) Bentham, in his Ely (sect. v. p. 33), adduces this and the former church at Westminster, as instances of the Norman style, adopted or imitated by the last Saxons.

OBSERVATIONS ON

entire building, which can be referred, with cer~ tainty, to the Saxon aera, but its characteristick ornaments may be frequently traced. The nave of St. Frideswide's (now the cathedral at Ox- ford) is asserted to have been built by king Ethelred, in 1004. Parts of St. Alban's and Durham cathedral claim to be anterior to the Norman conquest, as does the whole of the east end of Tickencote church, near Stamford, in Lincolnshire. Prominent instances of enrich- ment peculiar to this style, are those of door- cases and windows, as at Barfreston, near Can- terbury, Durham cathedral and palace, Tutbury, in Staffordshire, Romsey, Hants, and Rochester, not to mention others. But the doorway of the east end of the church of Kenilworth, in Warwickshire, exhibits the caput bovis, fret moulding and paterae in the spandrils, orna- ments more essentially peculiar to the Roman manner. Indeed, there is scarcely a county in England, in which there will not be found in- dividual churches, still exhibiting Saxon, or, at least, Anglo-Norman, remains. Of the Saxon, Gloucestershire boasts of two very perfect spe- cimens at Elkstone and Quenington, both of which are engraven1. Doorways of the early Norman are not unfrequently discoverable in mo- nastick ruins. Those at Glastonbury, Malmsbury,

• Archaeologia^ vol. x. and Lysons's Gloucestershire Antiq.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. IJ

and Castle Acre priory, Norfolk, are particularly fine.

The rudely carved scriptural figures, which often occur in bas-reliefs, placed under the arches of door-cases, where the head of the door itself is square, indicate a Roman original, and are mostly referable to an aera immediately preced- ing the Conquest ; but the very curious repre- sentation of the deluge, over the great doorway of the cathedral at Lincoln, seems to have been subsequent to it. These sculptures appear like- wise upon fonts. That at Winchester cathedral, which Mr. Milner has discovered to mean the story of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, in Lycia, is cited among the most worthy of remark.

The Saxon large churches .were divided into three tiers or stories, consisting of the arcade, galleries, and windows. Such was the solidity of the walls and bulkiness of the pillars, that but- tresses were neither necessary nor in usage.

After the Norman conquest, that style, called by the monks " Opus Romanum," because aa imitation of the debased architecture Of Italy, was still continued in England. The extent and% dimensions of churches were greatly increased, the ornamental carvings on the circular arches and the capitals of pillars and pilasters became more frequent and elaborately finished. Of the more remarkable specimens of what is con- founded under the general term of Saxon archi-

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tecture, the true aera will be found to be imme- diately subsequent to the Saxons themselves, and to have extended not more than a century and a half below the Norman conquest1. The two churches at Caen in Normandy, built by William 3U d his queen, are the archetypes of many now remaining in England; but the most magni- ficent work of this kind was the nave of old St Paul's, London k. The vaults were void of tracery, and the towers without pinnacles, but ornamented with arcades, in tiers, of small inter- sected arches, on the outside walls.

The Norman sera may be stated to be from 1066 to 1154, that is, from the Conquest to the death of Stephen. In a general comparison with the other nations of Europe, in that dark age, historians consent, that the Normans were

5 DncarcVs Anglo-Norman Antiq. The most satisfactory account of Saxon churches is given in Bentham's Ely, sect. v. A very ingenious investigation of the architecture of the Anglo- Saxons and Normans, by Mr. W. Wiikins, architect, of Cam- bridge, is seen in the twelfth volume of the Archaeologia, p. 132. The valuable information it communicates is beau- tifully illustrated by many engravings, which present a clear view of tbe varieties adopted by the Normans in ornamenting their arcades. Mr. Wilkins has built, for the earl of Moira, at Donnington, a Gothick mansion, in a very correct style. The centre may have been suggested by the gateway of the Augustines at Canterbury.

k Dimensions. — Old St. Paul's cathedral occupied a site of gi acres, j| rood, and 6 perches. The whole length was 690 feet. Breadth of the nave 120, and 102 high. The side wallg were .85 feet high, and 5 thick. The tower 260. and the spire, which was of wood covered with lead, 274 feet more— - Total Height 520. It was more lofty, according to Greaves (PyrataklaJo'g.'p. 69), than the great pyramid in the proportion of 481 10520. — Dugdale.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 1Q

eminent, if not superior, with respect to civi- lization and the arts. In architectural science, as promoted by their religious zeal, they had made a great proficiency, and many grand structures had been raised to embellish their own province, before they had gained an abso- lute establishment in England l.

Many discordant opinions have been advanced, concerning what really constitutes Norman ar- chitecture ; and it has been confounded with the Saxon by several able antiquaries. But a still greater confusion occurs when the pointed style, first practised in this kingdom in the reign of Henry II. is called Norman. The principal dis- crimination between the Saxon and the Norman, appears to be that of much larger dimensions, in every part; plain, but more lofty vaulting; circular pillars of greater diameter ; round arches and capitals having ornamental carvings much more elaborate and various, adapted to them ; but a total absence of pediments or pinnacles, which are decidedly peculiar to the pointed or Gothick style. Among the prelates in the early Norman reigns, were found men of consummate skill in architecture ; which, aided by their mu- nificence, was applied to the rebuilding of their cathedral churches, and those of the greater

1 Stowe says (p. 132) that " Hugh Lupus, earle of Chester, sent into Normandie for Anselme, by his counsaile to build an abbey of St. Werburgh in Chester."

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abbies. No less than fifteen of the twenty-two English cathedrals still retain considerable parts, which are undoubtedly of Norman erection, the several dates of which are ascertained. We have the following enumeration of Norman bishops, who were either architects themselves, or under whose auspices architecture flou- rished: Gundulf of Rochester (1077-1107), whose works are seen at Rochester, Canterbury, and Peterborough. Mauritius of London ( 1 086- 1108) built old St. Paul's cathedral. Roger of Salisbury (1107-1140), the cathedral at Old Sarum. Ernulf of Rochester (l 1 15-1 125) com- pleted bishop Gundulf s work there. They were both monks of Bee in Normandy. Alexander of Lincoln (1123-1147) rebuilt his cathedral. Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (1129- 1169), a most celebrated architect, built the conventual churches of St. Cross and Rumsey in Hampshire ; and lastly, Roger archbishop of York (1154-1181), where none of his work re- mains. By these architects the Norman manner was progressively brought to perfection in Eng- land; and it will be easily supposed, that the improvements made by any of them were adopted in succession.

With equal extent and magnificence many of the churches belonging to the greater abbies were constructed in this aera. Few indeed have escaped their general demolition at the refofma-

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, 21

tion. The Conqueror's abbey, at Battel in Sussex, and those founded by Henry I. at Reading and Cirencester, doubtless very sumptuous edi- fices, have scarcely left " a wreck behind" — t etiam periere ruinae. Some still exhibit their di- lapidated fronts, and excite our admiration. Malmsbury in Wiltshire, Dunstable in Bedford- shire, Castle Acre in Norfolk, Wenlock in Salop, and St. Botolph's, Colchester, are still majestick in decay, and will be mentioned with pride, and visited with veneration, by the lover of Norman antiquities, as conspicuous examples.

The first transition from this Anglo-Norman style appears to have taken place towards the close of the reign of Stephen (1135). It dis- covers itself in the arch, which had hitherto been round, becoming slightly pointed, and the heavy single pillar being formed into a cluster. This decoration had not long been adopted before instances occur, in which we may trace the arch as growing more and more pointed ; and the clusters which were at first clumsy and ill-formed, acquiring a greater lightness and justness of pro- portion. Yet, the facings of the arches still re- tain many of the ornaments peculiar to the earlier aera. This taste gradually prevailing, led, to- wards the close of the thirteenth century, to the formation of the slender pillar supporting the sharply pointed arch,, which, from a certain re- semblance, has been called " the lancet."

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In the reign of Henry III. this beautiful ar- chitecture had gained its perfect completion. Salisbury m and Ely cathedrals, and Westminster abbey, have been generally adduced as the most perfect examples n. It may be supposed, that the two last mentioned were constructed upon the same plan, as there is a singular accordance in their chief proportions. Whether this early Go- thick originated in Palestine, or was borrowed from the Moors in Spain, has given rise to con- jecture ; but a more bold deviation from the established style could have been scarcely made. The Gothick or pointed arch (as it has been well observed) took its rise from the variations attendant upon all scientifick pursuits. The prin- cipal feature of the first style was a combination of the circular with the pointed, an intermixture of ornaments, and a kind of contention between the two styles, which should prevail. To the enormous round pillar succeeded the slender shaft, insulated, or clustered into a single co-

m Dimensions. — Salisbury, nave 217 feet by 34!, and 84 high. Tower 207, spire 180 — Total 387. This cathedral cost in building 42,000 marks, about 28,000^. of present money. Begun in 1217, finished in 1256. There is a deed recited in Dugdale's Baronage, which has encouraged a conjecture, that the spire was not finished before 1429, in which year, sir Walter Hungerford obtained a license to appropriate the manor of Cricklade, in Wiltshire, for its perpetual repair. But the date of the original building is not proved by this cir- cumstance.

" The width of the naves of Ely cathedral and Westminster abbey are each of them 72 feet 9 inches.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 2$

lumn, with narrow lancet windows, and roofs upon simple cross-springers. The arches were now sharply pointed, the window increased to three lights instead of one, and with small co- lumns as mullions ; and all the pillars, when of disproportionate length, broken into parts by fillets placed at certain distances, as observable in Worcester cathedral, the nave of which is very fine.

It will be contended by the French antiquaries, that this new mode was not exclusively our own, but that it appeared, if not earlier, at least in the same century, in the magnificent cathedrals I have noticed, as then recently erected in France. If the buildings in the Holy Land suggested ideas of this novel architecture, the French croisaders had the same opportunities of introducing it into France as ours into England, for they were as- sociated in the same expedition. It has been said, that in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem no pointed arch was seen, but that in Moorish structures equally obvious to those adventurers it is frequent; for which reason it may be more correctly described as " Saraceniek" than as Gothick.

Thi^ particular style, whether allowed to be Saraceniek or Gothick, was the parent of several others, in successive centuries, the progress of which was confirmed by certain discrimination ;

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24 OBSERVATIONS ON

but the Anglo-Norman, having been once relinquished, was never again adopted either simply or with analogy. Until the close of the reign of the first Edward its prevalence was de- cided ; and all previous confusion of the Anglo- Norman and the pointed styles had ceased, and was universally abandoned about this time. With incredible lightness, it exhibited elegance of decoration and beauty of proportions in the multiplicity of the arcades and pillars, the latter being usually of Purbeck marble, each a distinct shaft ; but the whole collected under one capital, composed of the luxuriant leaves of the palm- tree, indigenous in Palestine and Arabia. A very favourable specimen of the manner which distinguishes the early part of the fourteenth century (1320), both as applied to roofs and ar- cades, is seen at Bristol, in the conventual church of St. Augustine, now the cathedral. But pre- viously to another style of known peculiarities, the capitals became more complicated, the vaults were studded with knots of foliage at the inter- lacing of the ribs, the western front was enriched with numerous statues, and the flying buttresses, formed of segments of circles in order to give them lightness, were rendered ornamental by elaborate finials. This exuberance tended to the abolition of the first manner; and at the be- ginning of the reign of Richard II. under the

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 55

auspices of Wykeham °, we have the boldest in- stance of that second manner, which in its even- tual perfection attained to what is now distin- guished as the pure Gothick P.

The equally clustered pillar with a low sharp arch prevailed in the first part of the reign of Edward III. over which was usually placed a row of open galleries, originally introduced in the Saxon churches, and adopted, as far as the idea only, from them. Of the beauties which charac- terize the style of this sera in particular, a com- plete specimen offers itself in the octangular louvre at Ely, which, and the chapel of our Lady attached to the cathedral, were the sole architecture of Alan de Walsingham, a monk, between the years 1322 and I34gq. It is cer- tain, that architecture was both studied and

°The name of Wykeham's superintending architect was William Wynford.

p St. Stephen's chapel, Westminster (now the House of Com- mons) was founded by Edward III. and finished in 1348, Length 90, breadth 30, height 50 feet. In the Remem- brancer's office in the exchequer, a curious account is pre- served of the expenses of the artificers and materials. Amongst other entries is one " To master Richard of Reading for form- ing two images of saints 3^. 6s. 8J." Plans and sections of this fine building have been lately published by the Society of Antiquaries.

^Bentham's Ely— Dimensions. Diameter 71 feet 6 inches, and 1 42 high from the floor. The diameter of the lantern is 30 feet. The whole was finished in 1328 at the expense of 240 3/. 4.5. lid. Having been greatly decayed, it was per- fectly restored by the ingenious James Essex, already men- tioned, 1757-1762,

2(3 OBSERVATIONS OTST

practised by ecclesiasticks of all ranks in that age ; vand it is pleasing to rescue from oblivion the name of a single architect of such extraor- dinary merit. It is not improbable, that Becket's erown, in the cathedral at Canterbury, commu- nicated the original idea to the architects of the louvres, both at Ely and Peterborough. Con- temporary with Wykeham lived Rede bishop of Chichester, an adept in the science and practice ©f architecture : and many others of the prelates and abbots of that time prided themselves in ex- hibiting proofs of their architectural skill in re- building their churches, or very frequently add- ing to them, and giving them a pervading sym- metry of style. The stupendous fabrick of York cathedral, in its nave and choir, is of this aera, and its chief boast. Those of Winchester and Exeter were likewise partly rebuilt or reduced to a sameness of manner by the alteration of arches and windows, in so great a degree, as to obtain an apparently contemporaneous construction, in their relative parts. In the western fronts of Litchfield, York, and Peterborough, but parti- cularly in the additions to that of Lincoln, which was preferred by lord Burlington to any in England, and in the interior of each of these cathedrals, we are so well satisfied with the pro- portions and the propriety of ornament, that we could readily dispense with the luxuriance of the successive aera and manner. To form some cri*

2

ENGLISH ARCHITECTUKlt 57

terion of this pure Gothick, let me observe, that the pillars became more tall and slender, forming a very lofty arch, and that the columns which composed the cluster, were of unequal circum- ference. A more beautiful instance than the nave of the cathedral of Canterbury cannot be adduced. The general form of the arches be- came more open, and those attached to win- dows and niches were universally adorned with crockets tied at the top in a rich knot of flowers., resembling the blossoms of the euphorbium. The windows, especially those at the east and west, were widely expanded, and their heads ramified into infinite intersections with quatre- foils or rosettes, which bear on the points of the arching mullions. The roof hitherto had not exceeded a certain simplicity of ornament, and no tracery was spread over the groins of the vault, which rested on brackets or corbels, carved into grotesque heads of kings and bishops q.

In this and the immediately subsequent reigns, the large and lofty central tower (for the more ancient belfries were usually detached), and the cloisters richly pannelled, having a most de-

i The foliage imitated on the finials and capitals is that of plants which are indigenous in Palestine ; and not of the oak or vine, as it is usually called. When compared with the eu- phorbiunij the resemblance will be found exact.

OBSERVATIONS

licately fretted roof, were added to many of the cathedrals and conventual churches then exist- ing, Withinside, the canopies of tabernacle work over saints or sepulchral effigies, the shrines of exquisite finishing, repeating in miniature the bolder ornaments by which the building was decorated on a large scale, in the high altars and skreens of indescribable richness, continue to fascinate every eye by their richness, beauty, and sublimity. Even on the outside of these magnificent works, as the western fronts of Wells and Litchfield, and on bishop Grandison's skreen so placed at Exeter, there are embellish- ments of equal merit. The facade of the ca- thedral of Salisbury, although of the preceding age, in which the pointed style was frequently mixed with the round, and the ornaments of either indiscriminately used, is one of the most ancient, simple, and regular now remaining. The eye dwells with more satisfaction on a broad surface, relieved only, and not distracted, by or- nament. Abbot Whetehamstede's skreen at St. Alban's, and that by bishop Fox in Winchester cathedral, exceed in richness or correct pro- portions any specimen I could adduce of the first

description-

To the crosses erected by Edward I. in honour of his beloved consort (evidently neither the work of Cavallini nor of abbot Ware) we may

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

attribute the universal, if not the original, intro- duction of the elaborate canopies and minute or- naments used in tombs, sepulchral chapels, and the shrines of saints, commonly called " taber- nacle work."

During the first sera of this style of Gothick, internal grandeur was produced solely by vast proportions contrasted by the multiplication of small parts, such as clustered pilasters and the mullions of windows; but about the period I have described, from the general introduction of this species of architectural refinement, the high altars, shrines, and sepulchral monuments, were combined to increase the richness of the whole interior to an eventual excess. The earliest in- stance of this minute workmanship, which has been termed " filligraine," is the choir of the ca- thedral at York, about the close of the fourteenth century r. From this period no remarkable va- riety occurs. The grander members of the buildings continued their original dimensions and form, and the ornamental parts only became distinguished by greater richness and exuberance.

About the middle of the fifteenth century, an ambition of novelty still invented a multiplicity

* Gothick Ornaments of the Cathedral Church of York, by J. Halfpenny, 410. 106 plates. He assisted Carr in several restorations in York cathedral.

Specimens of Gothick Architecture selected from the Parish Church of Lavenham in Suffolk, 4to,

30 OBSERVATIONS ON

of embellishment, and among many others which were capricious and without specifick im- port, we may observe the perpetual recurrence of the armorial ensigns of honour upon roofs and the spandrils of internal arcades. From this fa- shion the antiquary collects decisive information, and is gratified by the certain appropriation of the building to its founder or restorer.

These ensigns of honour were, more commonly appendant on market- crosses and the great gate- ways of abbies. Of the former the most re- markable, not only in point of the priority of erection, are the three which still remain, at Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham, built by Edward I. in memory of his royal con- sort. In imitation of these, few considerable towns were without a cross, which answered the double purpose of devotion and commerce. The more celebrated were at Abingdon, Coven- try, Gloucester, Bristol, Winchester, and Chi- chester ; the two last mentioned of which only are at this time entire, or uriremoved. Upon all these were lavishly employed the arts of architec- ture, sculpture, and blazonry, after the richest Gothick model.

Of the abbey gates, there are several grand specimens still to be seen. St. Augustine's at Canterbury, Edmondsbury, St. Augustine's at Bristol, Battel abbey, Sussex, and Thornton ab-

EN GUSH ARCHITECTURE* 31

bey in Lincolnshire, are admirable in their seve- ral styles ; and doubtless, many of the dilapidated monasteries could once boast similar appendages, and those of equal magnificence. The escocheoh. of the founder always held a conspicuous place among other architectural embellishments.

32 OBSERVATIONS

SECTION II.

Mra of the complete or florid Gothick — Cliarac- teristicJis of that Style~—In the Vaultings and Roofs — Windows — Cloisters — Towers — Obso- lete Names of the ornamental Particles — Kings College Chapel at Cambridge — St. Georges Chapel at Windsor — Gothick Style in Scotland — Abbey Church at Bath — Destruction of Churches at the Reformation — Contemporary Architecture of cathedral and conventual Churches — Scales of their several Dimensions.

I HAVE already noticed, that in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries such al- terations of the Saxon and Anglo-Norman style, by which it could be reconciled to the Gothick model, were very frequently made by those ec- clesiasticks, whose opulence and taste led them to practise the science of architecture. We have abundant memoirs of bishops and abbots, who cultivated with assiduity and success the ele- ments of geometry and the principles of decora- tion, when applied to the structures for which they furnished plans. In definitions lately given concerning architecture, as practised in England during the early centuries, I have observed a division only into the elder and second Gothick

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE* 3S

styles. It is uncertain, whether this discfimi* nation be simply confined to the round and pointed arch, or to two distinct aeras, in succes* sion. This attempt to generalize a subject, which admits of the most minute distinctions, has not been successful.

The fifteenth century, beginning with the reign of the fourth, and extending nearly to the close of that of the seventh Henry, will be found to include the total progress of that par- ticular manner of building, called, for the sake of distinction, the " Florid Gothick." In the succeeding age, even that style was abandoned for the inventions of Holbein, and John of Padua in England, imperfectly adopted from those of Brunelleschi and Palladio, the great reformers of architecture in Italy.

A late very elegant criticka has considered the fine sculptural sacella of the archbishops in the cathedral of Canterbury, as the genuine arche- types of the " Florid Gothick," to which may be added the tombs of successive prelates, from Wykeham to Fox, at Winchester.

The leading peculiarity of this manner of building is chiefly to be perceived in the vaultings of roofs connected with windows, and the con* Struction and ornaments of cloisters and towers.

In the roofs, the intricacy of figures described

* Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting. Bishop Beaucharap's chapel in Salisbury cathedral was taken (down by Mr. Wyatt,

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34 OBSERVATIONS <XN

by the intersecting of cross-springers, and the .exact adaptation of the groins of the vault to the -heads of the windows, which are more pointed than in the preceding age, together with the Scarcely credible height and thinness of the side walls, fill the eye of the astonished spectator with an instantaneous alarm for his own safety.

• Jam lapsura cedenti

Imminet assimilis. JE$. 1. vi. 503.

After having varied and exhausted the forms of leaves, knots, and roses b, the artists frequently introduced images of angels with musical instru- ments in full choir, over the high altar.

In the windows we remark an expanse beyond all proportion when singly placed ; or otherwise, that they are crowded into a very inadequate space. Circular windows were in usage with the Saxons. The architrave of that at Barfreston is filled with chimeras, masks, and grotesque figures, and the divisions are made by pillars, the capitals of which are formed by human heads. But the Catherine wheel window was certainly- borrowed, in the fourteenth century, from our neighbours on the continent. In the great fchurch of St. Oiien at Rouen are two, one of which is called " La Rose," and is of scarce!/

'

b " Where the tall shafts that mount in massy pride, Their mingling branches shoot from side to side;

Where elfin sculptors with fantastick clue

" "sry t.

O'er the long roof then* wild embroidery drew.

• ; ..'-*. rp rt

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE* 36

credible span. There is one in Winchester ca- thedral, which is exceeded by that at Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire. In most of the great east and west windows of this age,, a circle or ro- sette, beautifully variegated, is introduced into the upper compartment.

Cloisters, which were originally, with few exceptions, unornamented enclosures for the pur- poses of exercise or religious offices, were then found to admit of the full embellishment of the shrines or chapels existing in other parts of the church. This new application of the ornamen- tal particles was assisted in a very striking de- gree by perspective, and the almost infinite re- duplication of a small vault, springing from four semicircular groins at the angles which rest upon pilasters. For this kind of fretted roof upon a diminutive scale, the term, " fan- work" has been used — an idea suggested perhaps by a certain resemblance to that shape, as spreading from tfa$ base.

In beauty and variety of carvings no cloister in England exceeded that attached to St. Ste- phen's chapel, Westminster. In general, from the opportunities which occurred to me of making the observation, this kind of building on the cont- inent is extremely inferior. Almost every con- vent has its cloisters.; and those annexed to th« great churches are probably the best ; but they are chiefly plain unornamented enclosures fpj the

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3(5 OBSERVATIONS QN

purposes of exercise and devotion. The most extensive I saw, those at Pisa, while the con- tiguous buildings are in a style of the highest Lorn bard- Gothick, are in a great measure void of architectural embellishment; which defi- ciency is supplied by the works of Giotto and his scholars. Less frequently, indeed, the walls are covered with fresco paintings ; of which, the more celebrated instances are that at Florence, in the monastery of the Annunciation, where is the Madonna del Sacco, by Andrea del Sarto, and that of the Carthusians at Paris, where Le Suer has so admirably described the life and death of St. Bruno. In the fifteenth century, the windows of cloisters in England and France were generally filled with scriptural stories, in series, in stained glass, and the walls sometimes painted in fresco. The dance of Maccabre (Hol- bein's dance of Death) was painted on the walls of the cloisters of the Innocents at Paris, and in those of old St. Paul's cathedral, London, which were double, one placed above the other.

In the first aera of Norman architecture, towers of very large dimensions and great height were placed, either in the centre or at the west end of the cathedral and conventual churches. Many of these, which now lose the appearance of their real height from their extreme solidity, as at Winchester, St. Alban's, and Tewkesbury, were finished by tall spires of wood covered with lead.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 3?

Old St. Paul's, Lincoln, Tewkesbury, and Malms- bury, had, each of them, a spire of amazing sublimity ; and in monkish annals are found ac^ counts of many others, which have been destroyed by tempests. Salisbury, as it was the earliest, was the most successful attempt to construct them with stone. The towers0 which are known to have been erected in the fifteenth century, espe- cially towards the close of it, have certainly gained little in point of aerial elevation, but are much more beautifully constructed ; as they are usually pannelled with arcades and half-mullions, like those which compose a window, from the base to the summit. Nothing can exceed the boldness of the parapets and pinnacles, which consist of open embattled work in numerous instances; the most remarkable of which are seen in the western counties of England.

It is a singular fact, that during the commo- tions between the houses of York and Lancaster, and their adherents, so prejudicial to the progress of the arts of civilization, architecture in England flourished in a greater degree d. The superior

c The height of most cathedrals is equal to the breadth of the body and side-ailes. Spires and towers are usually as high as the nave is long ; or perhaps more accurately, the transept. The cross or transept extended half the length of the whole fabrick ; and the ailes just half the breadth and height of the nave added together. — See Pref. to Willis's Mil. Abb. p. 8.

d The agreement between the commissioners of Richard duke of York and \V*. Horwood, freemason, for the building of the chapel in the college of Fotheringhay, given by Dugdale

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Ccclesiasticks were confined to their cloisters, as few of them had taken an active part in the dispute ; and some of the fairest structures which iremain, arose in consequence of wealth accumu- lated, by instigating the noble and affluent to Contribute to the general emulation of splendid Ch .relies, built under their own inspection. One of the most beautiful sepulchral chapels is that erected by the executors of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry VI. which adjoins the parish-church at Warwick : lately restored without taste.

The choir at Gloucester, which has no equal, was completed during that turbulent period, by abbot Sebroke, with the arcade which supports the tower.

The meek Henry YI. better suited by his education and habits to have been a priest than a potentate, encouraged this prevailing taste by his own example. King's College chapel at

(Monast. vol. iii.p. 162), details with minuteness the ground" plan and architectmal ornaments of that very beautiful struc- ture. Many terms occur, the original application of which can now be supplied by conjecture only; and in the Itinerary X)f William of Worcester, published by Nasmith, there is an account of the building of two most beautiful churches in Bristol, those of St. Mary Redcliflfe and St. btephen, in which the minute particles of ornamental rnasonry are enumerated in terms too obsolete, and perhaps provincial, to be developed by afty of the glossaries. Leland, whose Itinerary was written ifi the npxt ceniury, is not always intelligible in his details of ar- chitecture. I have consulted Du Cange, without success, for ter.i:. bj Fri'Mcb H< rj ation, which occur in the indenture ton* ceming tne college of Fotheringhay above mentioned.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

Cambridge was begun under his auspices, and at liis expense ; and though he was prevented from carrying on his munificent intentions by his personal distresses and violent death ; and these celebrated walls had risen scarcely twenty feet above the foundations at that time, it is evident that the original plan given by Nicholas Close (afterward bishop of Litchfield) was prin- cipally adhered to by Henry VII. and his son,; in whose reign it was finished.

When Edward IV.f had gained peaceable possession of the crown, he rebuilt the royal chapel at Windsor s, probably from a design of Beauchamp, bishop of Sarum, whom he ap-' pointed surveyor of his works. But the glory of this style and age was the sepulchral chapel erected by Henry VII. at Westminster11. The exterior of the choir at Winchester, was the ad- mired work of his minister, bishop Fox. Al- cocke, bishop of Ely, where he had built an ele- gant chapel, and had given proof of his skill in architecture in several colleges at Cambridge; was appointed surveyer of the works by that monarch, and associated with sir Reginald Bray.

f The exquisite little sepulchral chapel, built by that sove- reign on the bridge of Wake^eld in Yorkshire, to the memory of his father, who fell in that' disastrous 'battle, well deserves particular notice.

g Dimensions.—: -.Windsor 260 feet long, 65 wide— -transept

MS* h It cost I4,ooo/. and was finished 1508.

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These eminent men were equally versed in the theory and practice of architecture, which their joint performance, the conventual church of Malverne in Worcestershire, sufficiently evinces.

In the far-famed edifice at Westminster, the expiring Gothick seems to have been exhausted by every effort. The pendant roof, never before attempted on so large a scale, is indeed a prodigy of art ; yet, upon inspecting it, we are surprised rather than gratified. That '< magick hardiness V* of which Mr. Walpole speaks as characteristick of the last style of Gothick, has in this instance gained its utmost bounds. — -There is an infinity of roses, knots, and diminutive armorial cogni^ zances, clustered without propriety upon every single member of architecture, and we are at length fatigued by the very repetition, which was intended to delight us.

This last manner has deviated into absolute confusion, by which, taste and selection are equally precluded; whence results a littleness, whilst the eye is diverted from any particular object of repose.

Whilst so much admiration is excited by vaults wrought in stone, it will not be withheld from many still remaining, which are composed en- tirely of timber- frame. They occur indeed most

» The terp.i " hardiesse" and " ardilezza," so frequently adopted by French and Italian architects when describing the extreme loftiness of Gothick structures, is so translated by Mr, Walpole in his Anecd. of Painting, vol. i. p. 185.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, 41

frequently in the great halls of castles and pa- laces. Those at Westminster, Christ-church, Oxford, and Hampton Court, are scarcely inferior in beauty and constructive skill to the stone vaults already mentioned.

The fashion of timber-frame roofs originated about the reign of Edward III. as applied to great halls. They are common a1)out 1400, in churches, to which the stone vaulting, prior to that date, appears to have been peculiar. The first Norman castles had arches of stone in their halls, as had all those built by Edwiard I. in North Wales.

Of Gothick architecture in Scotland the most beautiful pieces which remain entire are Melross abbey, the cathedral at Glasgow, Linclouden college near Dumfries, the chapel at Roslin near Edinburgh, and that in the palace of Holy-Rood ; the last mentioned of which was finished about 1440 by king James II. of that realm.— Their sides are flanked by flying buttresses like those at Westminster, but with a happier effect, be- cause in a purer style.

Contemporary with these specimens of " Flo- rid Gothick" is the abbey church at Bath, par- taking in a very small degree of that description of ornament.

It was the last building of equal magnitude purely Gothick, and remains in the same form 3S when finished in 1532. Oliver King, bishop

42 OBSERVATIONS

of Bath and Wells, who died thirty years before that time, may be considered as the founder, and as having furnished the plan.

In an age when ecclesiastical fabricks of the first degree w-ere constructed with a vast pro- fusion of wealth and labour, we are the more pleased to contemplate this work of a prelate, who preferred the admirable simplicity of the earlier school of Gothick, to the overcharged decoration which other architects of his own time were so ambitious to display.

As far as the knowledge of the powers of construction, the Gothick architects maintain a superiority over the moderns. The most able geometrician of that day, the great sir Christo- pher Wren, was proud to confess, from frequent surveys of the roof of King's College chapel, that it exceeded his utmost efforts in construc- tion ; and upon inspecting the churches of Sa- lisbury and Westminster previously to repairs, he declared that the architects of a darker age were equally versed in those principles. M. Sufflot, the most scientiiick architect France ever produced, and an indefatigable investigator of the fine cathedrals which abound in that country, was clearly of this opinion. From such re- searches he collected many useful hints for his exquisite cupola of St. Genevieve at Paris, now the Pantheon.

Had caprice alone directed these architects,,

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 43

they would not in so many instances have me* rited this praise, namely, that the boldness and lightness of their works have been always ac- companied by a correspondent solidity, which their perfect duration amply proves",

We must in candour acknowledge that these efforts of skill defy the successful imitation of the moderns *.

k " The Gothick architects varied the proportions of their columns from four to one hundred and twenty diameters, and contrasted the ornaments and the parts with equal license ; and though a column so slender, employed to support a vaulted roof of stone, may oflfehd the eye of a person who suspects it to be inadequate to its purpose, therefore associates ideas of weakness and danger with it ; yet to those who know it to be sufficient it wili appear extremely light and beautiful, as is proved by the columns in the cathedral of Salisbury, which are of this proportion, and which have been admired for cen- turies. The contrivers of this refined and fantastick Gothick Seem to have aimed at producing grandeur and solemnity, to- gether with lightness of effect ; and incompatible as these qualities may seem by attending to effect only, and considering the means of producing it as wholly subordinate and in their own power, they succeeded to a degree which the Grecian ar- chitects, who worked by rule, never approached/'— Knight's Enquiry, p. 172.

1 The rawness of new stone is totally unfavourable to Gothick buildings of the ecclesiastical kind. So long accustomed to contemplate churches when of harmonizing tints

- •<- " in their old russet coats *f The same they wore some hundred years ago,"- — HEADLRY.

we annex an idea of inferior dimensions and unappropriate trimness to edifices of a most ancient .semblance indeed, but only a few years old. Tnis observation may apply to nu- merous modern imitations of the Gothick style, designed and executed by the village muson at the command of the church- warden.

The great architects have generally foiled. Palladio gave plans, neither Grecian nor Gothick, for the front of the church

44 OBSERVATIONS ON

The plans are irretrievably lost, for T cannot allow, that they never existed, as some have as- serted. In France, there were accurate details of ecclesiastical architecture in MSS. collected from conventual archives, which have been either printed by their antiquaries, or were canefully preserved, before the revolution. In England, at the suppression of monasteries, their MSS. were destroyed with a very limited exception only ; and it is a fair conjecture, that many were written on subjects of geometry, mechanicks, and architecture, elucidated by drawings. The stu- pendous examples of the practice of these sciences will surely vindicate the ancient artists of this kingdom from that partial acquaintance with the theory, which has been imputed to them. It will be surprising to a casual observer, that a church of similar style and equal dimensions should be found in the opposite extremities of England, and so analogous in its whole plan, as to appear to be a repetition or copy. The pro^ vincial architects can hardly be supposed to have

of St. Petronius at Bologna, a very ancient Lombard structure. Inigo Jones placed a Corinthian portico before old St. Paul's. He built the chapel at Lincoln's Inn, and called it Gothick. Sir Christopher Wren's towers at Warwick, and Christ- church, Oxford, are not happy productions. Wyatt is said to be an illustrious exception, in his abbey at Fonthill ; the pro- posed elevation of which was first exhibited at Somerset Place in 1797. He has likewise shewn his talents for castellated Gothick in the new royal palace at Kew; but admirably, in the reducing the eccentricities engrafted upon the architecture of Windsor castle by Charles II.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 45

followed a divulged . system, when the inter- course with each other, or with any school, was almost impracticable. The fact is, that the master-masons were chiefly foreigners, incor- porated by royal authority. When the founda- tion of an abbey was meditated, these artisans removed themselves in great numbers to any spot, in any part of theiingdom. In the earlier ages, at least, they are not to be considered as the inventors, but as the executers of the plans which were proposed to them by ecclesiasticks, the only men of science at that time. The free- masons were blessed by the pope, and were first encouraged in England by Henry III. where they were constantly employed till the close of Gothick architecture.

It has been remarked by a French critick in Gothick architecture, that to compose a church, where every perfection of which that style is capable, should be combined, he would select the portal and western front of Rheims, the nave of Amiens, the choir of Beauvais, and the spires of Chartres m.

** Architecture is said to have been introduced into. France by Charlemagne in the ninth century ; and if the churches, greeted by him, are still perfect, with astonishing success. A school of architecture was then established in France; and it is asserted, that they are not indebted to foreigners for the magnificent works which abound in that country. Rumalde, the architect of Louis le Debonnaire, the son and successor of Charlemagne, , built the cathedral of Rheims in 875. A son buill that of Seez, in Normandy, in 1050,

46 OBSERVATIONS Otf

Upon a similar idea, in England, I would propose—the situation of Durham, the western front of Peterborough, Lincoln, or Wells — GUI' Lady's chapel of Gloucester or Peterborough —

IJilduard, a Benedictine monk, in 1170, planned the church of St. Peter at Cbartres. Hugh Libergier, who died in 1263, vas the architect of the celebrated church of St. Nicaise ajt jRheims His contemporary Stephen de Lusarche began the Cathedral of Amiens, which was completed by Robert de Lu- sarche in 1222. The abbot Suggerius had previously finished the church of St. Denis in 1140, which was considered as 3. model of perfection. The Notre-Dame, at Paris, was built in the reign of Robert the Pious, but probably not the edifice now seen. The churches of Verdun, Laon, Lizeux, and St. Remi at Rheims, are all of the thirteenth century. The architect Momrea,u attended Louis IX. into the Holy Land; and upon his return to France designed several churches, in which he introduced the ornaments and the style of those he had seen at Jerusalem. The Sainte Chapelle at Paris, and the abbey of Poissey, are monuments of his skill. Associated with him was Joscelm de Courvault. At Rouen are two superb speci- mens of Gothick architecture : the cathedral, which is 408 feet long (that of Paris being only 396), and the width with the ailes 78. The nave is 334 by 34, and 100 feet high, and ibe central louvre, or open tower, is 240 feet high from the pavement. Of the abbey church of St. Oiieji, the total length is 416, and the breadth of the transept 234 feet. In the fourteenth century, likewise, the grand cathedrals of Bourges and of Troyes in Champagne were finished. One of the lofty spires of the cathedral at ChartresAvas erected in 1514, by Joha Texier. Dargenville, Vies des Archit. Le Nozr, Musee des Mon. Fra?if.

It is creditable to the architects of our nation, that several of the finest cathedrals in France were built by the English, during their possession of the northern provinces. In the Ne- therlands are some fine churches. Antwerp is 500 feet long by 330, arid the spires 360 feet high.. Malines has a very re- gular and beautiful tower, built in 1452. It is 348 feet higfr \vithoutthe spire, which would have been one third higher.

Ypres — regular, and more in the English style, with a tower and transept resembling York or Lincoln. The abbey church at St. Omers, called St. Bertin, is of vast dimensions and fine

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, 4}

•nave ami transept of Westminster — towers of Lincoln, York, Canterbury, or Gloucester — clois- ters of Westminster or Gloucester.

A positive preference or decision in favour of any single specimen which I have adduced I am unable to make ; each of them being so superior, in the manner and aera to which they belong.

Our reformers demolished nearly as many fine specimens of Gothick as they left entire. We have ample proof in rnonastick ruins, as wdl as in those churches which were spared and applied as cathedrals, or given to parishes, that the greater abbies were possessed of consecrated buildings no less magnificent than those of the episcopal sees, which the following comparative statements may place in a clearer point of view n.

As a certain degree of illustration may accom- pany a more circumstantial detail, I shall add a

scale of contemporary architecture. The ter,m

\

architecture. At Ghelit the tower is light and elegant, par* ticularly in its upper tier. The western front of the cathedral at Brussels nearly resembles that of Wells, but is inferior in point of ornament. I have not learned the name of any cele- brated Flemish architect. A professor of Gothick architecture flourished in France as late as the commencement of the six- teenth century. Jean Texier began in 1506 one of the spires of the cathedral at Chartres 378 feet high, which he completed in 1514. In England, the architects, generally speaking, had relinquished spires, and were at that period engaged in the beautiful towers of Gloucester and Canterbury.

n I am here happy to acknowledge the valuable hints of my friend the Rev. J. Scholefield, fellow of Trin, coll. Oxon, who is particularly conversant with niouastick and architectural antiquities*

48 OBSERVATIONS ON

" English'* would be well substituted for " Go- thick," in this arrangement, were it sufficiently in use. I am well aware of the objection, that the pointed arch is found with the Saxon mould- ings earlier than I have placed it, but a few in- stances do not form a general style. Buildings subsequent to the Conquest are improperly called Saxon. A perfect analysis would be made with difficulty, and exceptions should be very nume- rous to invalidate a rule which generally prevails.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 40

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE OF CATHEDRAL CHURCHES IN ENGLAND.

ANGLO-NORMAN.

Before 1100 to 1170, during the Reigns of King Henry I. and

Stephen.

Rochester: western front and nave. Glou- cester : nave, north aile and the chapels round the choir, with the whole original substruction. Exeter: transept towers. Winton: central tower and transept. Chichester : nave. Ely : north transept. Peterborough: choir. Lin- coln : older part of the western front and central tower. Durham: the entire church, excepting the additional transept to the east. Worcester : many arches.

SEMI OR MIXED NORMAN.

From 1170101220. Henry II. Richard I. John.

Ely: western towers and nave. Bristol: elder Lady chapel and chapter-house. Canter- bury : choir, and the round tower called Becket's crown. Oxford: the nave and chapter-house. Norwich: aave and choir. Hereford: tran- sept, tower, and choir. , Welh : nave and choir begun. Chester: chapter-house.

50 OBSERVATIONS ON

. LANCET ARCH GOTHICK. From 1220 to 1300. Henry Til. Edward.

Lincoln: nave and arches beyond the tran- sept. York: north and south transept. Dur- ham: additional transept. Wells: tower and whole western front. Carlisle: choir. Ely: presbytery and south transept. Worcester: transept. Salisbury : uniformly.

JPUR£ GOTHICK.

From 1300 to 1400. Edward I. II. III. Richard II. Exeter: nave a,nd choir. Litclijield: uni- formly. Lincoln: additions to the central tower. Worcester: nave. York: nave, with the western front. Peterborough : transept. Canterbury: transept. Gloucester: transept. Norwich : spire and tower. Sarum : spire and additions. York: choir. Gloucester: cloisters begun., Bristol : nave and choir. Chichester : spire and choir. Ely : Our Lady's chapel. Hereford: chapter-house and cloisters (now destroyed).

ORNAMENTED GOTHICK.

. /From 1400 to 1460. Henry IV. Y. VI.

Gloucester: choir. Canterbury: nave. Wells : Bishop Beckington's additions. Lincoln: from the upper transept to the great east window.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

FLORID GOTHICK.

From 1460 to the Close. Edward IV. to Henry V Gloucester: Our Lady's Chapel. Oxford: roof of the choir. Chester : choir. Alcocke's chapel at Ely. Exterior of the choir at Win- chester.

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE OF* CON- VENTUAL CHURCHES IN ENGLAND,

Wldch are now applied as parochial, or of which there are Remains or authentick Accounts,

^NGLO-NORMAN. Before noo to 1150.

The destroyed abbies of Abingdon0, Reading?, and Cirencester^. Mailing, Kent. * Teivkesbury* :

"The churches marked * are now used as parochial.

° Is described by Leland to have resembled the cathedral of tVells. The choir was of the early Norman. T. de Salford and R. de Hamme, abbots, 1426-1435, built the nave; which, with the western front and towers, was finished by their suc- cessbr W. de Ashenden.

p The church was dedicated by T. a Beckett, 1 164, and was constructed upon the plan of Durham. Total dimensions 420- 196 feet, nave 215, choir 98-34, transept 196-56, eastern or Lady's chapel 102-55.

i According to t|ie measurement made by W. Wyrcester in 1440, the total length was 280, nave 92 broad with the choir 132-66, cloister 104 square, chapter-house 42*30*

* 300-120 feet, nave and ailes 70, west front 100; a 4u

E2

OBSERVATIONS ON

nave, ailes, transept,, and west front. * Malms- bury" : nave and west front. Build was, Salop. St. Botolph, Colchester. Bolton, Yorkshire. * IFinborn Minster, Dorset l. Castle Acre, Nor- folk. Dunstable, Bedfordshire. * St. Cross, Hants. * Rofnsey, Hants. Furness u, Lancashire : the more ancient parts. Llandisfarnc, Nor- thumberland. Byland, Yorkshire. Lanercost, Cumberland. * Sherbourn, Dorset. Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Kirkstall*' , Yorkshire: nave.

SEMI OR MIXED NORMAX. From 1150 to 1220.

Lanthony*, Monmouth. Fountains y, York- shire : nave and west front. Gla&tonbury z: nave

* 100 by 60 feet,' tower and choir destroyed.

* 1 80 by 60 feet.

u Ruins of the transept and east end, with a few arches of the west; chapter-house, single shaft in the centre, built in 1200; choir in 1460.

w 224-118 feet; transept built by Henry de Laci and Alex- ander, abbots, from 1147-1182. The tower built in the reign of Henry VIII. by W. Marshal and John Ripley, the last abbots.

x 210-100 feet.

y 351-65 feet, nave and ailes ; transept 186. In 1204, John deEbor, abbot, began the fabrick. John Pherd, afterward bishop of Ely, amfjohn de Cancia (who died 1245, 291^ Henry III.), finished the whole structure.

z Nave 220 feet, breadth of the tower 45. St. Joseph's chapel 110-30, nave and ailes 85, transept 220, choir 155, cloisters 220 square ; total 420-220. Built by Ralph Abbot, chamberlain to Henry II. Tower and west front, what now remains, is coeval with Wells cathedral.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. &3

1 * . •

and the chapel of St. Joseph. Scfby*, Yorkshire: west front. * St. Alban^, Herts : many parts. Wenlocky Salop : choir. Cartmell c, Lancashire. Furness : the more modern parts. Byland : west end, with the wheel window, and the south transept. Bolton, Yorkshire: in parts. BrinJtbourn> Northumberland : in part. St. Ed- mundsburyy Suffolk: in part.

LANCET ARCH COTHICK.

From 1 2 20 to 1300.

Rrvtiulx, Yorkshire. ffestminsfer abbey. Fountains: choir and east end. Tinferne*, Monmouthshire. Netky, Hants*. WUtly^ York- shire. Falle Crucis, Denbighshire. Ripvn min- ster, Yorkshire. Beverley minster^ Yorkshire. Milton Abbey 'h, Dorset. St. Albaris*: part of

"267-100 feet, nave and ailes 50, west end built 1180, nave arid transept 1090, choir 1390.

* 550-217 feet, 65 high; nave and aile 72.

c Built 1188, Semi-Norman, as Selby and Fountains.

d 225-150 feet, nave and ailes 40 in breadth, thirteen arches on the south side, with an intercolumniation of 15 feet.

c 200-160 feet, breadth of the nave and choir with ailes 60 feet.

f The choir, north aile, centre tawer, and north transept, re- main. The nave was blown down in ^762".

g 333 by 165, nave and ailes 63 feet wide, western towers 198 high.

h Built by Walter Archer, prior, 1320-1330. 131-107 feet, 55 high, tower 101 high, resembling Merton coll. Oxon.

'The church is 550 feet long by 72, and 65 high, transept 517.

£ 3

54 OBSERVATIONS ON

the nave. Tinemouth, Northumberland. Brink- bourn, Northumberland.

PURE GOTHICK. From 1300 to 1400.

Merton College*, Oxford : chapel. Gisborne priory, Yorkshire. New College1, Oxford: chapel. St. Stephen's chapel"1, Westminster. Kirkstall", Yorkshire: additions to the pedi-

\ V > . x

ments of the choir and north transept. St. Mary's, in York. Kirkham, Yorkshire. Selby0, Yorkshire: choir.

ORNAMENTED GOTHICK.

From 1400 to 1460.

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire : choir?. St. Mary's chapel, Ely cathedral. Fa9ade of Croy- land, Lincolnshire. Beverley minsters, York- shire. Eton College chapelr, Bucks. Chapel

k Built by W. Rede, bishop of Chichester, and T. Rode- borne, warden. 1 Finished 1379; m Built by Edward III. n By W. Marshall, abbot.

0 In 1390.

p Built by the Despencers, earls of Gloucester, during the thirteenth century.

q 333 feet by 165, nave and ailes 63. Western towers 198 feet high. They were the model .of those added by Sir Chris- topher Wren to. Westminster abbey.

1 Begun and finished by Henry VII.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 55

on the bridge, at Wakefield*, Yorkshire. Beau- champ* chapel, Warwick.

FLORID GOTHICK. From 146010 1540.

St. George's chapelu, Windsor. King's Col- lege chapel x, Cambridge. King Henry VII. 's chapel^, Westminster. Great Malvernz, Wor- cestershire. Trinity College chapela, Cambridge. Roof of Christ Church chapelb, Oxford.

PAROCHIAL ,CHURCHES.

SAXON.

Stewkeley, Bucks. Barfreston, Kent.

Many Saxon door-cases have been preserved, when other parts of the churches have been re- built.

ANGLO-NORMAN.

Melton, Suffolk. Sotterton, Lincolnshire. Sherbourn minster, Dorset.

*•'"' ' ' '4

* Built by Edward IV. in memory of his father, Edward duke of York.

* Built by the executors of R. Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, 1430.

11 Begun by Edward IV. and finished by Henry VII. and VIII. under the superintendance of sir Reginald Bray and cardinal Wolsey.

* Founded by Henry VI. upon the plan of Nicholas Cloos, but not completed till'the reign of Henry VIII.

y Designed by N. West, bishop of Ely, and sir R. Bray. 2 Built by sir R. Bray.

* By Henry VIII. at the foundation of the college. b Added by R, King, first bishop of Oxford.

E4

56 OBSERVATIONS ON

SEMI OR MIXED NORMAN.

Jf^inborn minster, Dorset. Stowe, Great Grimsby, and Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

LANCET ARCH GOTHICK.

Christ church, Hants. Dorchester, Oxford- shire. St. Mary Ottery, Devon* How den, Yorkshire. Doncaster, Yorkshire. St. George's, Stamford.

PURE GOTHICK.

Thaxtcd and Saffron- Walden, Essex. Stam- ford, Lincolnshire. Cirencester, Gloucester- shire. St. Michael, Coventry. Truro, Corn- wall. Whitney, Oxfordshire. Stratford-upon- Avon, Warwickshire.

ORNAMENTED GOTHICK.

St. Mary Redcliffe, and St. Stephen, Bristol. St. Mary, Oxford. Campden, Gloucestershire. Taunton, and Chewton-Mendip, Somersetshire. Lavenham, Suffolk. Boston, Kerton, and Grant- ham, Lincolnshire.

FLORID GOTHICK.

This style is principally to be referred to ora- tories, porches, and chapels annexed to, or se- pulchral sacella included in, parochial churches. There is, perhaps, no parish-church which ex- hibits a complete specimen of this style, in all its parts.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 5?

According to this division of ecclesiastical ar- chitecture, individual instances occur in every county in England, and many no less interesting than those already adduced. This list is intended merely to communicate a general idea and clas- sification. To the credit of the laborious piety of our ancestors, it is worthy remark, that in those counties where the materials of architec- ture least abound, the beauty of the churches is the more frequent and conspicuous : and, while the monastick institution is so generally scanda- lized, on account of the useless application of ex- orbitant wealth, it is a known fact,, that by far the greater number of handsome churches have been built from their funds, either totally, or by munificent contributions.

OBSERVATIONS ON

A Scale of the CATHEDRALS in ENGLAND, comparing the Dimensions of their several internal Parts*

Total Internal Length.	Transept.	Internal Breadth.	Choirs.	L. B. H.
London - -	631	London - -	297	London	163 91 88
Old St. Paul's	500	Old St. Paul's	248	Old St. Paul's	165 42 88
Winchester -	545	Lincoln - -	227	Norwich -	*65 .
Ely - - -	5i7	York - - -	222	Rochester	156.
Canterbury -	5'4	Salisbury	210	Westminster	153 - ioi
York - -	498	Pete j borough	203	Canterbury	150 74 80
Lincoln » -	498	Norwich	191	Gloucester	140 - 86
Westminster	489	Westminster	I89	Salisbury -	140 - 84
Peterborough	480	Winchester -	186	Carlisle -	137 7i
Salisbury	452	Ely	178	Winchester	I3B - 78
Durham - -	420	Durham - -	176	Peterborough	138^ - 78
Gloucester -	420	Canterbury -	'54	York - -	131 - 99
Chichester -	401	Gloucester -	144	Exeter - -	131 - 69
Norwich - -	411	Hereford	140	Worcester -	126 - 74
Litchfield *	411	Exeter - -	140	Durham -	"7 33 71
Worcester -	410	Wells - -	'35	Litchfield -	no - 67
Exeter - -	390	Chichester -	131	Wells - -	106 - 67
Wells - -	37i	Worcester -	130	Hereford -	105 - 64
Hereford, anc.	370	Bristol - -	128	Ely - -	ioi 73 70
Chester - -	348	Bath - - -	126	Bristol - -	IOO
Rochester -	306	Rochester -	122	Chichester	IOO
Carlisle - -	213	Oxford - -	IO2	Oxford - -	80-375
Bath - - -	2IO	Litchfield -	88
Bristol - -	175
Oxford - -	154

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

A Scale of CATHEDRALS, 8cc«

Naves and Ailes.	L. B. H.	Spires and Towers.
London «•	335 91 102	London - - >	534
Old St. Paul's	200 107 88	Old St. Paul's cupola	35«
Ely - - -	3*7 73 7o	Salisbury -	387
York -	264 109 99	Norwich -	3i7
Lincoln	- 83 83	Ely - -,.	270
Winchester -	247 86 78	Lincoln, west -	270
Salisbury	246 76 84	Chichester	267
Peterborough	231 78 78	Litchfield -	258 W. 183
Norwich	230, '71	Peterborough	186
Canterbury -	214 74 80	Rochester	'5* \
Litchfield -	213 67	Oxford -	144
Worcester -	212 78
Chichester -	205 91 61	TOWERS.
Wells - -	191 67 67	Lincoln -	260
Gloucester -	174 84 67	Canterbury	235
Exeter	i73 74 69	York - bJ'v'5	234
Rochester -	150 65	Gloucester	"? .:
Hereford	144 68 68	Durham -	214
Bath - -	136 72 78	Ely - '- . -	210
Westminster	130 96 101	Worcester	196 :
Bristol	ioo 75 73	Ely louvre	170
Oxford	74 54 41	Bath	162
Chester	73 73	Wells - - -•	' 160
Carlisle - ' -	- 7i 7i	Peterborough louv.	150
		Exeter	130
		Chester -	127
		Bristol	127

00 OBSERVATIONS ON

This parallel will afford us, at one view, an- thentick information concerning the proportion of one constituent part to another of every cathedral in England, which is worthy the notice of an architect. Such a coincidence of dimensions as that which is found in many of them, can scarcely be supposed to be the effect of chance, especially where the buildings are contemporary, and of an exactly correspondent style. May we not fairly conjecture, in these several instances, that they have been designed by the same archi- tect ? To avoid repetition, I refer my intelligent reader to the tables, where he will find the equality of proportions to be confined to each icra and style of ecclesiastical architecture, in a remarkable degree. The constant rivalry which subsisted between the magnificent prelates, was> excited upon the erection of any part of a cathe- dral of superior beauty, and imitated in those of the same kind which were then undertaken; and the architect, who had once displayed great talents, was invited to repeat the more perfect performance, upon which he had rested his pro- fessional fame.

Of the halls and other large apartments of which the habitable parts of monasteries were composed, the laborious destruction of the re- formers, and the immediate sale and dispersion of their materials, have scarcely left any re- mains. Even of the cathedrals to which

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 6 1

monasteries were annexed, and the conventual churches now become cathedrals, the originally surrounding buildings are most of them demo- lished. Those at Durham and Peterborough, and the conventual halls at Worcester and Chester, must be excepted.

How great must have been the profusion of examples of the English architecture in the ze- nith of the Romish religion, when the cathedrals, or parts of them, which we now admire as so- litary instances,, could be compared to numerous conventual structures, which imitated or rivalled them, in dimensions and beauty ! In the greater abbies, all that was consecrated to holy rites, was in no degree inferior to the cathedral churches, to which they were subject.

C2 OBSERVATIONS ON

SECTION III.

Illustration of the foregoing Remarks, in an Ac- count of the Benedictine Abbey of Gloucester 9 now , the Cathedral-r-Dates and Dimensions of the constituent Parts — -Tower — Statues of tu- telary Saints — Cathedral of Gloucester, a com- plete Sclwol of ancient Architecture in Eng- land— Nave — North Aile^-South Aile— Tran- sept-^-Extracts from a MS. of the Lives of the Abbots of Gloucester, in the Library of r Queen, s College, Oxford — Different Manners ; :&f Building — Choir— Roof and Vaulting — Or- naments applied fo it— Probable Founders-^ Great East Window, audits Dimensions — Our Lady's Chapel — Altar-piece — Injudicious Re- novation of Cathedral Churches in Jhe Reign of Charles II. — Ancient Anglo-Norman Sub- struction— Pavement before the Altar — Clois- ters— Whispering Gallery — The Shreen given by Bishop Benson, designed by Kent — Tomb of Edward II. — Contributions made at it after his Death, and the Application of them to the rebuilding the Fabric}? — Perfection of Gothicfc Architecture at Windsor and Gloucester.

As the object of this essay is to confirm opinion by example, I trust it may be excused, if I at- tempt, as an elucidation of general remarks, the

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 63

architectural history of the cathedral of Glou- cester—a city where I once resided, and which is endeared to me by the experience of the most; cordial and active friendship, and by attachments which will cease only with my life.

The area in which this sumptuous edifice is placed, is singularly spacious and neat. This great advantage it possesses in common with Salisbury, and a few other cathedrals. How much several of our most magnificent fabricks lose/ by being so closely surrounded by common domestick buildings, may be seen at Canterbury and Winchester; and what is taken from the dig- nity of elevation, when they are placed in a parochial churchyard, as at Chichester.

At periods very remote from each other, this church has been made to have an appearance, on the outside, conformable to a prevailing style of pure " Gothick." A few years only before the suppression of the Benedictine abbey, the tower was completed, under the direction of Robert Tulley (one of the monks, and after- wards bishop of St. David's0), to whom that

c Robert Tulley was consecrated bishop of St. David's, 1469; ob. 1482. Over the dividing arch of the nave and choir is written in the Gothick character,

" Hoc quod digestum specularis opusque politum Tullii ex onere Sebroke abbate jubente."

Thomas Sebroke, who was elected abbot in 1453, died ^ 1457 ; and it is a fair conjecture that Tulley was appointed by him to superintend the execution of a plan he had given for the tower. The same R. Tulley laid the foundation-stone of Magd. College, Oxford, in 1473. A* WOOD."

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charge had been devised by abbot Sebroke, who died in 1457. The ornamental members and perforated pinnacles are of the most delicate ta- bernacle work, very full, but preserving an air of chasteness and simplicity.

Its peculiar perfection, which immediately strikes the eye, is an exact symmetry of compo- nent parts, and the judicious distribution of ornaments. The shaft of the tower is equally divided into two stories, correctly repeated in every particle; and the open parapet and pin- nacles so richly clustered, are an example of Gothick, in its most improved state.

The extremely beautiful effect of large masses of architecture by moonlight, may be considered as a kind of optical deception, and nearly the same as that produced by statuary when strongly illuminated. Thus seen, the tower of this ca- thedral acquires a degree of lightness, so su- perior to that which it shows under the me- ridian sun, that it no longer appears to be of human construction.

As to the parts nearer the ground, under the same circumstance, I avow my preference of the Grecian style ; for a portico and colonnade, casting a broad shade from multiplied columns, and catching alternately a striking light from their circular form, become distinct ; and a grand whole results from parts so discrimi- nated. The Gothick, on the contrary, is merely

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 65

solid and impervious, and owes all its effect to its mass and heightd.

The statues of tutelary saints and benefactors, which were dispersed in various parts of the ex- ternal view, have suffered much even in their pedestals and canopies, by the mutilation of fa- natics. It is to be regretted, that some of the English cathedrals which have escaped it, in a certain degree, should have been built with fri- able stone, of which that of Litchfield is a la- mentable specimen. For a collection of statues in a perfect state, the western fronts of the ca- thedrals of Wells, Peterborough, and Lincoln, are the most worthy notice.

At 'Sienna, the exterior of the great church is covered with marble, which retains the minutest ornament, in a complete state. Those who have not visited the continent, can scarcely imagine how much we have lost in our best instances, by the destruction of effigies and carvings, whilst the above-mentioned remain as entire as when first erected.

The vacant niche lessens the luxuriance of the rich Gothick in a degree proportioned to a de- faced entablature of the Corinthian order.

d I could not adduce a more apposite instance to prove the superiority of the Gothick style for towers and spires, over that introduced in London by sir Christopher Wren, than those of the western front of St. Paul's, and that of Gloucester. In- credible as it will appear from inspection, there is only the dif- ference of a single foot in the height of each.

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Few churches in England exhibit a more plete school of Gothick, in its gradations from tlie time of the Conquest, than the cathedra! of Gloucester. I have observed, that the great architects of the Norman sera were as indus- trious as they were skilful, and that, in the course of one century and a half after the Conquest, there were few of the larger churches which were not totally rebuilt. Many parts have, in successive centuries, been superseded, by resto- rations in the Gothick style, but the substructions will still be found to demonstrate the original Norman plan of the whole building. Salisbury is, perhaps, the only exception. Most of the great churches, both in France and England, have been the work of several ages. The dis- parity is, in general, great, as each architect has a plan according with his own time.

* The Anglo-Norman style, consisting of enor^ mouS, circular pillars bearing round arches, with indented mouldings, distinguishes the nave, which is the chief part of the original structure, begun , according to Florence of Worcester, in 1057, by Aldred, bishop ofN that see, but more generally attributed to abbot Serlo, in 1088. The north aile is of contemporary architecture, which is observable in the round arches of the windows, and the pilasters, which have very elaborate ca- pitals. Two centuries later* the opposite aile

ENGLI&H ARCHITECTURE. 6?

was finished by abbot Thokey6, in another man- ner, as the windows bear the nail-head mould- ing, which is repeated on either side, and the heads are of the obtuse lancet form.

At Ely and Peterborough the ailes are divided into two tiers of arcades, one above the other, but both communicatingwith the have. The nail-head moulding was an early deviation from the true Norman, when pointed arches were first inter- mixed. It appears to have had a long usage, as this building was probably erected in the early part of the reign of Edward II. In the western front, and the additional arcade, we must ob- serve a much later style, as the nave was consi- derably lengthened by abbot Horton, at the close of the fourteenth century.

It is scarcely possible to enter the choir of Gloucester, which includes every perfection to which the Go thick had attained during the

e In the library of Queen's College, Oxford, is a very inter- esting MS. of the lives of the abbots of Gloucester, from Serlo, the first abbot, to the death of Walter Frocester, in 1412. A duplicate is in the Cotton library, British Museum, and another has been obligingly presented tome, by W. Bry- ant, esq. of Ryegate, who purchased it at Herbert's sale.

John Thokey was abbot from 1307 to 1329. " Cujus tern- pore constructa est ala australis in navi ecclesiae, expensis inultis," &c. &c.— -His successor was John Wygmore, who died in 1337. " De oblationibus ibidem oblatis infra sex annos prelationis suae alam St. Andreas, lit nunc cermtur, a fundamentis usque ad finem perduxit." Id. MS.

F 2

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fifteenth century, without feeling the influence of veneration. In the nave,

(e the arch'd and ponderous roof

By its own weight made stedfast and immovable, Looking tranquillity," CONGREVE.

immediately engages the attention, and by its heavy simplicity renders the highly wrought or- naments of the choir more conspicuous and admirable.

At the termination of the nave, under the tower, is the approach to the choir; and above the great arch is a window between two vacant niches, richly sculptured.

On the north and south sides are the arches which support the vaulting of the transepts. Both of these are intersected at the springing by a flying arch with open spandrils, each span- ning the space of the tower. The brackets are figures of angels, with escocheons of the abbey, Edward II. and the munificent abbot Sebroke, the founder.

Upon the exact point of these intersecting arches, is a pillar, forming an impost of the great vaulted roof, which is then divided into sharp lancet arcades, and has an air of incredible lightness. From this part there are five more arcades divided by clusters of semi-columns, which reach from the base to the roof; and the ribs are infinitely intersected and variegated with 2

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. DQ

the most elaborate trellis-work, composed of orbs and rosettes, which/ although they are so thickly studded, are not repeated in a single instanced

Over the high altar are angels in full choir, with every instrument of musick practised in the fifteenth century. This is an extremely interest- ing specimen, if it be remembered that we have no more accurate knowledge of the musical instruments of the Greeks and Romans, than that which may be collected from their bas- reliefs and statues. Coins and gems sometimes exhibit them, but little is to be learned respect- ing their form, from the ancient treatises oil musiok. Of the same aera are figures of min- strels, with their different instruments placed over the pillars, on either side of the nave of York ca- thedral ; and others, of ruder workmanship, on the outside of the church of Cirencester, Glou- cestershire.

It is probable, that the whole vaulted ceiling was at first painted of a deep azure colour, with stars of gold, and the ribs or intersectors gilded,

f In Warton's Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser (vol. ii. p. 195} it is said, that " the florid Gothick distin- guishes itself by an exuberance of decoration, as in the roof of the choir of Gloucester, where it is thrown like a web of em- broidery over the old Saxon vaulting." Upon the slightest in- spection of the external elevation of the choir, this circum- stance will be discovered not to be founded in fact ; as it is a superstructure, more than forty feet high, upon the ancient Saxon choir. Mr. Warton's remark is applicable to the nave, excepting that the Gothick roof is of the plainest kind. The date of the first vaulting is 1 242. It was originally of rafters only.

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\

which were condemned at the reformation, and concealed by a thick wash of lime. Such have been restored at Westminster by sir Christopher -Wren.

At Orvietto, Sienna, and many of the Lom- bard churches, roofs, both of the naves and choirs, so ornamented, are still perfect. That the ar- chitecture has been restored to its native sim- plicity of colour, is a circumstance of truer taste: indeed, the incongruous and accumulated deco- rations of churches on the continent, disturb the harmony of the design, by crowding so many adscititious parts, and the repose of it, by masses of raw colours and gilding. The coincidence of the purity of the protestant worship with the chasteness which pervades its temples (more espe- cially in some which have been lately renovated), is a certain criterion of national good sense.

There are thirtv-one stalls of rich tabernacle-

•/

work, carved in oak, on either side, little inferior in point of execution to the episcopal throne at Exeter, or to the stalls at Ely, erected in the reign of Edward III. and allowed to be some of the finest pieces of Gothick carving in wood now re- maining in England of that early dates.

s I observed, when at Rome in 1796, that the high altar of the church of St. John Lateran had a Gothick canopy* coinT posed of rich pediments and fimals, in the florid style of the fourteenth century, exactly like those of that date in England. It is the only specimen of true Gothick now remaining in Rome.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. ?1

This choir was built in the grand an*a of stained glass, when it was more frequent and excellent than at any other period. It was indispensably necessary to architectural effect, according to the prevailing style, w^hich gave to windows a dis- proportionate space. But the soihbre tints re- flected from them modified the light, and con- tributed to blend the whole into one mass of px- quisite richness. For, the general effect was consulted by the Gothick, as well as the Gre- cian artists.

At pr£senth the naked transparent window destroys the intended harmony, and the primary idea is sadly impoverished. How this incredibly light roof was constructed, may puzzle modern imitators, as much as sir Christopher Wren, when he examined the vault of Ring's College chapel. The analogy between these roofs must be con- fined solely to construction, for each has a style of ornament essentially differing from the other. Certain it is, that the cross-springers are of very solid stone, and the vault which they support of a petrifaction, called provincially the

h Milton, who was educated at St. Paul's school, acquired a veneration for the Gothick style by constantly frequent- ing the great cathedral in his early youth. In his " II Penseroso" we have almost as exact a Description of that majestick pile, as that given by sir W. Dugdale. The cloisters, " the high embowed roof of the choir/* the " massy proof pillars of the nave, which was in the Norman style," and " the storied windows, richly dight," are par- ticularized by both.

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toph-stone1, specifically lighter, in a great de- gree, than the other. Chalk was used, where easily procured, as at Chichester.

The two farthest arcades are splayed about a yard from the right line, instead of forming a section of a hexagon, and are connected with the great east window, which is embowed in a slight degree, and occupies the whole space of the end of the choir, almost to the floor. It is said to be of the largest dimensions in England1", for the arch has three chief divisions or mullioris, terminating in pointed arches, the middle of which includes seven tiers of stained glass, now so extremely decayed and mutilated, as to appear like the tissue of a carpet, to any but the eye of an antiquary. Nothing like a regular Scripture history can be discovered, but a long series of portraits, larger than life, of saints, prophets, and Jewish kings. It was put up in Edward III.'s time, when the price of stained glass was one shilling a square foot, so that it originally cost 13Q/. 1 8s.

There is reason to presume, that this very splendid work was prosecuted through many years in succession, not only on account of its

5 See Leland's Itinerary, vol. vii. p^. 2. f. 73, and Harrison's Introduction to Holinshed, p. 14; who both observe, that tliis " toph-stone" is found in great abundance at Dursley, in Gloucestershire.

k The glass occupies a space of 78 feet 10 inches, by 35-6 — 2798 square feet. The great east window at York is of the same kind and jera.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 73

elaborate difficulty, but of the vast expense which was necessary to its completion. During the abbacy of Adam de Staunton, the p]an of im- proving the ancient choir was first suggested, and had probably commenced before his death in 1351. His immediate successor, Thomas de Horton, who died in 1377, was a great con- tributor to the fabrick : but to John Boyfield we may fairly attribute the stupendous vault of the choir, and he lived to see it finished before 1381. That of our Lady's chapel at Ely, though of much inferior dimensions, has a precise resem- blance to it in general form and ornament ; and the date of either is the same. Perhaps, if we may judge by similarity of workmanship, he had projected the cloisters, which were under- taken by Walter Frocester, the next abbot, The arches, and the tower which rises upon them, were the work of abbot Sebroke, 1457.

Our Lady's chapel was originally added to the choir in 12281. It was totally rebuilt, between the years 1457 and 1498, by the abbots R. Stan- ley and William Ferleigh. The interior is pecu~ liarly elegant, though it loses much effect from the concealment of the altar of the finest taber- nacle-work, which was covered over, some years since, by a raw white stucco, resembling a ra- diation. The extreme eastern window of this beautiful chapel, with part of its fretted roof, is now seen in a pleasing perspective, through the

) Whartonj Ang. Sac. vol. i, p. 487.

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alcove of the heavy unsuitable altar-piece of the choir, placed there in the last century. When the reformers, with indiscriminating zeal, de- stroyed so many fine specimens of art, merely as the gaudy appendages of popery, to introduce within plain unembellished walls their own simpler worship, somewhat of ancient ornament still remained for the fanatic adherents of Crom- well to destroy. Soon after the establishment of Charles II. on the throne, the clergy exerted themselves with more piety than taste," to restore their altars and choirs to their former beauty, and, generally speaking, without success. When we know that the rich canopies and shrine-work, instead of being renewed, were partially injured, were chipped away to make room for plain oak wainscot, pilasters, alcoves, and carvings of he- terogeneous shape, we must regret a misappli- cation without remedy. There are too many of our cathedrals to which this observation applies. Originally, and prior to this injudicious inter- ruption, the continuity must have produced a striking idea of space and grandeur, as may be remarked at Ely and Wells. The ancient rere-doss and high altar did not obstruct the view, as they now remain concealed by the wainscot of oafe, and may be examined from the side galleries of the choir. Such a specimen of exuberant foliage anterior to the reign of Henry VII. as these roofs display, is unique ; particularly in contrast with the other parts of the church.. As a certain de-

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 75

gree of confirmation of the opinion, that the roof of the choir is not of a later aera than the close of the fourteenth century1", the pendants, which were so universally introduced afterwards, as the utmost effort of architecture, are totally omitted. It is evident, that bishop Aldred's fabrick con- sisted of dimensions as extensive as the present, of which the vast substructions, still retaining many members of Saxon ornament, afford a suf- ficient proof. The heavy tower11 at the west end, was taken down in the reign of Edward IIL when abbot Horton's addition and accommo- dation of the nave, in its whole roof, to thp Gothick style, were made. He built likewise the north transept, which wre collect from the MS. Lives of the Abbots, cost /Si/, of which

™ " Tempore cujus opere et industria ejusdem magnum altare cum presbiterio cmn stall is ex parte abbatis fuerunt inceptaet consummata. Et ala Scti Pauli quos incepta fuit in monast. B. Petri in crastino Epiphaniae Domini, arffio regis Ed- wardi III. post conquest, xic. (1339) ; et in vigil. Nat. Do- mini, anno regis supradicti XLVII. (1375), cum gratia plenarie est consummata. Cujus operis expensoe cum omnibus suis expensis extendunt se ad DCC.LXXXI. libras et ij den~, quarum clictus abbas solvit CCCC.LXII. prout patct in rotulis supradicti operis." MS. ut sup. Abbot Ilorton presided from

'351 to 1377-

u This western tower was rebuilt during the abbacy of John

de Felda 1250, which had fallen in u 16. Florence, the his- torick monk of Worcester, in his Annals, gives the date of the building of the present nave 1058, and of its dedication nco. The joof was renewed in 1242, as we learn from the MS. of the Lives of the Abbots already referred to. " A. D. 1242, completa est nova volta in navi ecclesias, non auxilio fabrorum ut primo, sed animosa virtute monachorum tune in ipso loco existentium." May we conclude from this passage, that the monks finished it with their own hands ?

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Horton contributed 462/. no inconsiderable sum in those days. The passages and oratories by which the choir is surrounded, are all of Saxon, or, at least, of early Norman architecture. It is constructed within them ; the side-walls and low circular pillars having been reduced, and the whole lined with facings of elegant pannels. These are placed within arcades of semi-mullions, resembling windows, which are open to the choir from the galleries before mentioned. Du- ring the grand ceremonies of the church the la- dies of superior rank, and their attendants, sur- veyed them from above.

In the pavement before the high altar we may notice a singular curiosity ; being entirely composed of painted bricks, which were pre- pared for the kiln by the more ingenious monks0, who have discovered accuracy in the penciling of the armorial bearings, and fancy in the scrolls and rebus, which are the usual subjects. Most of these repeat the devices of Edward II. of the Clares and De Spencers earls of Gloucester, and abbot Sebroke P.

0 Of abbot Wygmore it is recorded in the same MS. " Tabulam ad altare prioris cum ymaginibus politis et deaura- tis sumptibus suis adornavit. Et aliam tabulam, quas mine est in capella abbatis, de eodem opere composuit. Qui in di- versis artibus multum dilectabatur, ut ipse ssepissime operetur et multos diversos operarios in diversis artibus perexcelleret, tarn in opere mechanico, quatn in textura."

P Carter (Ancient Sculpture and Painting, vol. i.) has given a coloured etching of this pavement.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 77

The rich workmanship of the cloisters, which elucidates my former remark on their general construction, is well worthy attention. One side of the square extending 148 feet, with a window of stained glass at the termination, attracts the eye immediately upon entering the cathedral, as the very striking perspective is ad- mitted through an iron grate. It is a happy illustration of the picturesque principle in Go- thick. These cloisters, begun by abbot Horton in 1351, and left incomplete for several years, were finished by abbot Frocester about the year 13901. All the windows were formerly filled with stained glass, which being placed low, was the more easily taken away or destroyed r.

Lord Bacon mentions the whispering gallery as remarkable. It is a narrow passage formed by five parts of an octagon, and is twenty-five yards in extent. On the outside, it appears to have been merely a second thought for the pur- pose of communication.

q MS. Regist. ut sup. The architectural beauties of this cathedral have been lately delineated by the present director of the Society of Antiquaries in a series of etchings in folio, of which the spirit, accuracy, and elegance, are seldom equalled by professional artists.

r The cloisters of Peterborough and Canterbury were long celebrated for the beauty of their painted glass, afterwards broken by the Puritans. See Gunton and Battley. But the more common destination of windows in cloisters was to con- vey moral and religious instruction, in various scrolls, each bearing a scriptural text, or monkish rhymes, with ethical maxims.

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With the variety and magnificence of ancient decorations, as well architectural as sepulchral, the antiquary will be much gratified. But the man of taste must regret, that the gooa bishop Benson, distinguished by Pope for his " manners and candour," should have wasted his munifi- cence upon ill-conceived and unappropriate or- naments, upon works which are neither Gothick nor Chinese5. Kent, who was praised in his day for what he little understood, designed the skreen.

When Edward II. lay murdered at Berkeley castle, abbot Thokey ventured to shew that re- spect for the royal corpse which had been refused to it by other ecclesiasticks. He removed it to Gloucester, and performed the funeral obsequies with the greatest splendour. ^STear the high altar is the monument of that inglorious prince still in the highest preservation, with the figure finely carved u. Rysbrack visited this tomb with professional veneration, and declared the re-

s We may trace to a book on architecture, written by Batty Langley, who invented five new orders of Gothick, all the in- congruities which may be seen in the renovations of parish- churches. This most absurd treatise is unfortunately much approved of by carpenters and stone-masons. Kent sanctioned such gross deviations from taste by his own practice.

u It was well engraven by Bonnor for Bigland's History of Gloucestershire. It will be scarcely credited, in this age, that Kent recommended to the £ood bishop to have the Norman pillars of the nave channelled or fluted ; and that nothing but their being found to be unsolid, prevented this lizarrerie from taking place*

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 7Q

Gurnbent figure to be the best specimen of con- temporary sculpture in England, and certainly the work of an Italian artist. I conjecture that it was executed by some of those who accom- panied or succeeded Piefro Cavallini.

I noticed in Italy three tombs much large** composed of verd antique and various marbles, all of similar form to that of king Edward, and with equally elaborate canopies. They are the tombs of the Scaligeri, lords of Verona in the fourteenth century, where they stand exposed to the open air, at the angle of a street, as entire as when first erected.

Soon after Edward III. was seated on the throne x, he made a progress, attended by his whole court, to pay the customary honours to his deceased father, for whom the convent, in gratitude for the oblations made a_t his tomb,

* Adam de Staunton, elected in 1337, °k- I35l — <f Cnjus tempore constructa est magna volta chori magnis et multis expensis, et sumptuosis cam stallis ibidem ex parte doni et oblationis fidelium ad tumbam regis confluentium, quae ut opinio vulgi dicit, quod si omnes oblationes ibidem collate, super ecclesiam expenderentur, potuisset de novo facillime re- parari." The offerings of Edward III. queen Philippa, Ed- ward prince of Wales, and the nobility, are all distinctly no- ticed in the MS. above cited.

John Boyfield was elected abbot in 1377, and died in 1381 — <c Et in ala Scti Pauli juxta tumbam Thomx Hortoi^ abbatis in australi parte sepelitur ; quia, dum es&et prsecentor hujus loci, supervisor fuerat ejusdem operis." Id. MS. 'I presume, in this and a foregoing quotation, that " ala" means " ala transepti," in distinction to the " ala navis though they are not specified.

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solicited canonization a century afterward, but without success.

So large was the fund of wealth they acquired, that it furnished supplies for the rebuilding of the whole church beyond the nave, under the auspices of succeeding abbots, who did not ma- terially deviate from one plan^.

The following very characteristick descrip- tion, not originally intended for Gloucester, is extracted from a poem of no common merit.

<( Doom'cl to hide her banish'd head

For ever, Gothick architecture fled — Forewarn'd-she left in one most beauteous place Her pendent roof, her windows' branchy grace, Pillars of cluster'd reeds, and tracery of lace."

FOSBROKE'S Economy of Monastic^

Life> P- 73-

Whether the foregoing observations be satis- factory or otherwise, certain it is, that the Gothick churches, whatever be the peculiar man- ner of their aera, present beauties to every eye. We cannot contemplate them without discovering a majestick air, well worthy of their destination, a knowledge of what is most profound in the sci-

y Hearhe has published a poem on the foundation of the abbey of Gloucester, which he has attributed to William Mal- verne, otherwise Parker, the abbot, who survived the disso- lution in 1541. Speaking of Edward II. he observes,

cc By whose oblations the south isle of thys church Edyfied was and build, and also the queere," — STANZA xr.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 81

ence and practice of building, and a boldness of execution, of which classick antiquity furnishes no examples. The Romans gave to their large vaults six or eight feet of thickness ; a Gothick vault, of similar dimensions, would not have one. There is a heaviness to be perceived in all our modern vaults, whilst those of our cathedrals have an air which strikes the most unpractised eye. This lightness is produced by there being no intermediate and projecting body between the pillars and the vault, by which the connexion is cut off, as by the entablature in the Grecian ar- chitecture. The Gothick vault appears to com- mence at the base of the pillars which support it, especially when the pillars are clustered in a sheaf, which, being carried up perpendicularly to a certain height, bends forward to form the arcades, even to their centres ; and stone there seems to possess a flexibility equal to the most ductile metals. In the fine churches of Peter- borough and Ely, this harmonious effect does not exist, as it is broken by raftered or flat painted roofs, of gaudy colours.

To the credit of the present age, the Gothick style has been much more accurately understood than it was in the last. Bentham, and Essex of Cambridge, were the first who exhibited any thing like precision or true taste in the restora- tions which they superintended or made. Straw- berry Hill Was a more happy imitation than any

a

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which had preceded it ; and the literary works of the elegant owner tended much to correct errors, and to establish a criterion of what is pure Gothick.

The numerous publications of the Society of Antiquaries have laid open the sources of inform- ation on that subject, and proposed genuine models for the direction of those architects who are not guided by caprice only.

Mr. James Wyatt first restored the cathedral at Litchfield, and, by incorporating our Lady's chapel with the choir, has 'extended it to a dis- proportionate length, by which means the " ar- tificial infinite," which is considered by Burke as a source of the " sublime," wanting both gradation and variety, is, in a great degree, lost in the same extent of plain surface. At Salis- bury, although he has merited the praise of Mr. Gilpin2, for the propriety and simplicity of his .alterations, he has done the same. He has like- wise rebuilt the nave .of Hereford cathedral, since its complete dilapidation. The restorations of York minster were made by Carr and Halfpenny

Those who contend so much for the pictu- resque, seem willing to sacrifice the character- istick of a great church, which was not originally planned as one vast room, but to consist of de-

2 Western Tour. See a Dissertation on the modern Style of altering ancient Cathedrals, by Milnei* 410^ 1798*

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE; 83

pendent and subordinate parts, conducting us from one to the other, in succession.

Nothing can exceed the neatness with which St. George's chapel has been repaired by the munificence of his present. majesty. Originally one of the most beautiful structures of the sera to which it belongs, it has lately gained every advan- tage, that taste, aided by expense, could give it.

To sir Reginald Bray, already mentioned, the nave owes its original design, although he died before its completion in I508a. The roof is perhaps too much expanded for the height^ and its proportion to the imposts, which are small and light '; but the ailes are exquisite — they have all the magick perspective of the cloisters at Gloucester, even improved by loftiness. A fine effect is given to the elevation by the tran-

8 John Hylmer and William Vertue, freemasons, undertook the vault of the roof of the choir for 700^. in i 506, and to complete it before Christmas 1508. Ashmole's Hist. Garter, p. 136. The executors of -king Henry VII. contracted with JohnWastell and Henry Semark, for i2ool. to complete the roof' of King's College chapel, in Cambridge. MS. Indent. These contracts were drawn up with great strictness, and con- siderable penalties were annexed to the breach of them . In the duke of York's agreement for the building of the chapel at Fotheringhay, Horwood, the freemason, stipulates, " to yeild up hys body to prison at my lord's wyll, and all hys moveable goods, " in case of non performance, and that " he shall ney- ther sett mor nor fewer freemasons, roghsetters ne leys there- upon, but such as shall be ordeigned;'* and that the duke shall find all materials, ff ropes, bolts, scaffolds, gynnes, &c. and all other werke that longyth to such a body, nave, isles, &c." Dugdale.

G 2

§4 OBSERVATIONS OS

sept, \vith its circular termination, equally divid- ing it in the centre*

Contemporary with sir Reginald Bray, and en^ joying the same favour under Henry VII. lived Richard Fox, bishop of Winton, who, adding to a fund established by cardinal Beaufort, deter- mined to give a new exterior structure to the choir of Winchester cathedral. It is one of the most elaborate and beautiful in England, parti- cularly in the flying buttresses and the sculpture, which, from the nature of the stone, is in fine preservation.

The lover of ecclesiastical Gothick, during the middle Centuries after the Conquest, will dwell with admiration and delight on the recollection of the stupendous elevation and interior of York, Lincoln, and Canterbury, in their several parts. In the seemingly magical construction of the louvre at Ely, and the imposing richness of the \vestern front of Peterborough, he wi]\ contem- plate the concentrated efforts of that style. Yet, taken as a wrhole, he will consider Windsor as the " beauty of holiness ;*' and of sublimity, with the exception only of King's College chapel, in Cambridge, will seek no more admirable spe- cimen than the choir at Gloucester.

ENGUSH ARCHITECTURE, 85

SECTION IV.

Of Castles and Forts before tlie Conquest — Nor- man Castles; their Form and Peculiarity— Keeps, their Construction—Military Stratagems — Castle Architecture introduced from the Le- vant by King Edward I. — Caernarvon Castle —Comvay Castle — Various Castles of superior Architecture—Age of Chivalry— Materials iv%t]i which Castles were built, and their vast Di- mensions-— Internal Furniture and Ornaments — Sculpture — Castles built of Brick—Palatial Castles— Domestic^ Architecture — Dawn of the Palladian Architecture in England— -Of Houses built in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James /.

IT has been judiciously observed, that the two principal causes which promoted the art of build- ing in England, were the insecurity of social life in general, and the flourishing and prosperous condition of the church. The former of, these led to the erection of fortresses, and the latter of cathedral and conventual churches*.

* Godwin's Life of Chaucer, voJ. i, p. 135, G 3

§6 OBSERVATIONS ON

Referring generally to the very able inves^ tigations made by general Roy and Mr. King15, Concerning the military erections of the Romans, and in what degree the camps and forts of the Romans may be distinctly considered, what is the description of the Anglo-Saxon tower, or the larger castle, built by Alfred, this review does not respect an earlier period than that of the Norman conquest. As military structures were necessary in all ages and nations, it is certain, that the Romans built many in every province they conquered, which we cqn hardly suppose to have been either destroyed or dilapidated by time, when they quitted Britain; and their Saxon successors probably availed themselves of all the fortifications they found.

The Normans, who brought with them the feodal system in its greatest extent, knew that a castle must be attached to every lordship, and they e jther assimilated what they found of Saxon

b Military Antiq. of the Romans in Britain, fol. 1793. Munimenta Antiqua, 3 vol, fpl. 1804. The origin of the more ancient castles is referred to a higher xra than that men- tioned by historians, by Mr. King. The tower at Rich- Borough, certainly Roman, is round, but unlike any Norman fortress. Many towers were built during the heptarchy, and by king Alfred. The castle at Norwich is asserted to have been erected by Canute, and the high mound of earth at Gas- tie ton, in Derbyshire, is considered as Danish. The castle at Exeter was a. palace of the Saxon kings. In the early chro- jniclers, Stowe and Holinshed, are accounts scarcely credible, in point of number, of castles built and rased to the ground, during the reigns of the Norman kings, from the Conqueror tov Henry III.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE* 8/

work, or constructed castles on new sites, ac- cording to their own peculiar plans of building.

The leading discrimination in a Norman for- tress is a lofty mound of earth, thrown up in the centre of the other works0, and caused by the forming a very deep ditch, moat, or fosse, from the upper ballium or summit of which rose either a square tower, of several stories and great height, or a circular one, much lower, and of consi- derable diameter, and usually approached by ex- tremely steep stone stairs on the outside d. Other material component parts wrere the gateway or tower of entrance, and the barbican or watch- towrer, which had both of them a communica- tion with the keep. Remarkable instances of the square form are those of Norwich, the tower of London, Rochester, Dover castle, Hedingham (Essex), Bamborough (Yorkshire), Porchester, Colchester, Kenilworth, Knaresborough, Caris- broke, and Oxford6, Of the circular, Arundel, Pontefract and Conisburgh (Yorkshire), Lincoln, and Tunbridge in Kentf; and of the irregular

c The base of the mound at Tunbridge covers an acre of ground ; the fosse at Arundel is 1 10 feet deep on one side, and x 80 on the other.

d Diameters of square keeps: Porchester, 168 by 127 feet. Rochester, 75 by 72. Hedingham, 45 by 35. Guildford, 42 by 47. Norwich no by 92.

e Willdns's Account of Norwich, Archaeolog. vol. xii, Hedingham, Mon. Vetust. vol. iii. Oxford, by King, In- troduction to the several volumes of Grose's Antiquities.

f Arundel, 69 by 57 feet. Tunbridge, 64 by 50. Clifford tower, York, 64 by 45.

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88 OBSERVATIONS ON

polygon, or that formed by four segments of cir- cles, Clifford towerg, in York, and Berkeley castle, Gloucestershire, concerning whichlast- mentioned, Leland, in his Itinerary, notices a peculiarity, " sed non stat in mole egestze terras.'* What- ever were the additions or improvements of sub- sequent aeras, these keeps or citadels were reli- giously preserved, and underwent no alteration.

An architect of the greatest celebrity in the reigns immediately succeeding the Conquest, was Gundulphus, bishop of Rochester11, who seems to have considered the lofty artificial mound, originally of Danish usage, as unnecessary. His central towers are so lofty as to contain four several floors : the basement was the dungeon, without light, and the portal, or grand entrance, many feet above the ground. But his great merit consisted in various architectural contri- vances, by which, as much security during a siege was given to his keeps by stratagem, as by real strength. Holinshed records a memorable circumstance of Rochester castle, when besieged for sixty days by W. de Albini, earl pf Arundel, in the reign of king John1.

E Built by W. Conq. Stowe, p. 109.

h He died in 1108; but having completecj the tower of Lon- don, and the castle of Rochester, he may be considered as having invented and left models of that kind of castle archi- tecture.

Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 188, says, that "after all the limmes of the castle had been thrown down, they kept the

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 8()

In the construction of a castle, no ordinary skill was required. The subsistence and com- fort of those who were enclosed within it, were not less to be provided for by the architect than mere defence, or the devices by which the as- sailants might be misled or defeated. Most of the keeps, of which an account is now offered, had four distinct stories, and the walls were not unfrequently from twelve to twenty feet thick, at the base. In the souterrain of vaulted stone, the military engines and stores were deposited. In the thickness of the walls were placed wind- ing staircases, the well for water, the vast oven, enclosed galleries and chimnies, with an aperture open to the sky, and communicating with the dungeon, in which prisoners were confined, and to whom it gave all the light and air they could receive. There was likewise a kind of flue, for conveying sound to every part, not more than eight inches in diameter. The state apartment occupied the whole third story, and the stair- cases leading to it were made much more cc-m- modiously than the others, some of which were even large enough to admit military engines. Ad- joining to the great chamber was an oratory^

master tower till half thereof was overthrown, and after kept the other half, till, through famine, they were constreined to yeild."

k These oratories were lighted by a larger window, embowed withinside, and called an " Oriel." Lydgate, describing a lady, says,

<f In her oryall there she was

Closyd well with royall glas."

90 OBSERVATIONS Ott

In Rochester castle, the chief room was 32 feet high, including the whole space within the walls. Suits of arras were suspended from the circular arch, which supported the roof, to make separate apartments, and attached against the walls as furniture. In the ground-floor there was no light ; loop-holes only were allowed in the se- cond ; but in the third were three large round- arched windows, placed high, so as not to be looked through, and so defended by an internal arcade, that no missile weapon could enter, or fall with effect. Each floor had its communi- cation with the well. The chimnies were very capacious, and projected considerably into the rooms, resting upon small pillars ; and the sinks were so contrived, in an oblique direction, that no weapon could be sent up them.

Gundulph is said to have introduced the ar- chitectural ornaments of the Norman style into castles, both withinside and without.

Gundulph placed a chapel in the tower of London, $$ feet Ian $r, with a nave and ailes ; the former 15 feet broad. A writ for making one in the castle of Hereford, is dated 1234. Rot. Pip. 18 Hen. 111. ; and another, dated 1235, for one in Keuelworth castle.

Amid the ruins of castles, we are frequently shown those of one called the " Maiden Tower," as in lord Surrey's sonnet, at Windsor castle :

ft With eyes cast up into the mayden's tower."

Warton, in a note on this word, very satisfactorily proves that it did not refer to the habitation of the fair sex, or to the towers' having never been taken, but simply a corruption of the old French " magnc," or "maync/' great. Hist. EngK Poet. vol. iii. p* 1 3.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

A large sculptured portal and windows, similar to those used in ecclesiastical buildings, appear in most of them.

Castle-Rising, Norfolk, and Norwich, abound In admirable specimens of Norman arcades and mouldings.

In the circular or oval keeps, which usually occupied the whole area of the mount on which they stood, a richly-carved doorcase is to be dis- covered. They are still remaining at Arundel and Berkeley. The great tower of entrance wTas built at the foot of the artificial mount, from which was a sally-port writh stone stairs leading to the keep. It contained the portcullis and drawbridge affixed to the archway, and several spacious chambers. In point both of the form- ation of the mount and keep, and their con- nexion with the entrance-tower, the remains of Tunbridge, and the more perfect state of Arun- del castle, exhibit a singular resemblance1. The walls w^ere protected by very substantial ribs or buttresses, and the round keeps had a central space left open to admit the light and air. At Arundel, the corbel-stones which supported the beams of timber, and which converged to an open centre, where was a subterraneous room, still easy to be marked out.

1 The o-aleway of Tunbridge castle is of the same form and sera. See the elevation and plan in Carter's Ancient Archi- tecture in Emrlandj pi. LXI. a work to which the candid will allow a considerable degree of merit.

Q2 OBSERVATIONS OJi

In process of time, several improvements, in respect both of military strength and commo- dious habitation, were adopted, even in these Nor- man fortresses. The second ballium was pro- tected by smaller towers, and those of the bar- bican and gate of entrance, admitted of spacious rooms. In these, the feodal baron resided with his family, who were driven to inhabit the keep merely as a place of refuge during a siege. Such castles w^ere frequent in every county in Eng- land, during the reigns of Henry II. and his sons, and continued till the close of that of Henry III.

But the plan which allowed of enlarged di- mensions, and greater regularity and beauty in the architecture of the towers, owes its introduc- tion into England to king Edward I. When en- gaged in the crusade, he surveyed with satis- faction the superior form and strength of the castles in the Levant and the Holy Landm. Every city he saw surrounded by lofty embattled walls, thickly studded with well-shaped towers, and crested with hanging galleries and macchi- colations, which served the double purpose of military defence and great external, beauty9. Of

m The Norman croisaders, during the winter, fortified, in, the manner of their country, every post they had gained. Our Richard I. built the walls of Acre, Porphyra, Joppa, and As- kalon. Fuller's Holy War, lib. iii. ch. 2. from Wilhelmus Tyrensis.

n See an account of the walls of Constantinople, Archaeolog. vol. xiv. p. 231. Procopius, be Edificiis Justinianij mentions, 500 "fysY*»>" or embattled towers.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 93

the four castles which he built in Wales, Caer- narvon, Conway, and Harlech, retain the vestiges of former magnificence ; but Aberystwith has scarcely a ruin which remains at this time.

The castle of Caernarvon consists of two dis- tinct parts, one of which was military, and adapted to receive a garrison, and the other was a pa- lace. The tower of entrance from the town is still perfect, and is the most handsome struc- ture of .the kind in the kingdom. It is at least one

ft The military architecture of the Greeks and Romans con- sisted, from the earliest to the latest times, of walls and towers, capped with battlements. The overhanging battlements, now called Gotbick, were certainly known to the Romans as early as the reign of Titus, as there are, among the paintings of Herculaneum, representations of walls and towers, completely finished in this way (Pitture d'Ercolano, torn. i. tav. XLIX. and torn. iii. tav. XLI.); and it is probable that this fashion continued down to the subversion of the empire, and was then adopted by the conquerors. It is indeed the natural mode of fortification for any people skilled in masonry, and not ac- quainted with artillery, to employ, as it afforded the most ob- vious and effective means of at once guarding the defendants and annoying the assailants, wherefore it might have been used by different nations which had no communication with each other, and which might, with equal justice, claim the inven- tion of it." Knight's Enquiry into the Principles of Taste, p. 160.

Lydgate, in his Troy Boke, describes the fortification of his own times —

" The walls were on height

Two hundred cubits, all of marble grey,

Magecolled without for saultcs^nd essay."

Magecolles or machecoulis, were the openings under the pa- rapet of the gate, or other towers of salient angles* Some of these, of singular curiosity, are at Lumley and Raglan castles, two instances as early and as late, as they were made in Eng- land.

94 OBSERVATIONS OS

hundred feet high ; and the gateway, of very rd-* markable depth, is formed by a succession of ribbed arches, sharply pointed. The grooves for three portcullises may be discovered, and above them are circular perforations, through which missile weapons and molten lead might be dis- charged upon the assailants. In the lower or palatial division of the castle, Stand a large poly- gonal tower, of four stories, which was appro- priated to Q. Elianor, and in which her ill- fated son was born ; and another to the king, of a circular shape externally, but square towards the court. The apartments in the last- mentioned are larger, and lighted by windows, with square heads, and intersected with carved mullions. There is singular contrivance in the battlements, each of which had an excavation for the archers to stand in, pointing their arrows through the slits ; and a curious stratagem, the carved figures of soldiers with helmets, apparently looking over the parapet. This device is repeated at Chep- stow.

Conway has no resemblance to Caernarvon. It is built much more exactly upon the model of the fortresses erected during the last Greek em- perors, or those of the Gothick chieftains in the north of Italy. Here, the macchicolations, which are not seen at Caernarvon, are introduced ; and the hall, capable of containing numerous guests, appears, as a first instance, to have been adopted

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. §5

within castle- walls. The roof was vaulted upon ribbed arches of stone. A peculiarity in the con- struction of the towers, all of which are either circular or polygonal, is, that those containing the royal apartments are finished by small round turrets, rising many feet above that upon which they are placed, as a proud distinction. After the subjugation of Wales, and the partition of it into great lordships, among the followers of the victorious Edward, for their security and the preservation of their power, many castles were erected upon the general plan of those he had built, but varying in dimensions and situation.

Caer Philly, in Glamorganshire, was the strong hold of the De Spencers, in the reign of the se- cond Edward, and so much increased by them, that its vallations and remains are much more extensive than any now discoverable. The hall was an immense room compared with that at Conway. There was another at Chepstow.

In the reign of Edward III. some attempts were made to render castles habitable, and even magnificent. Many of his barons, who had ac- quired wealth by the ransom of prisoners taken in the fields of Poitiers and Cressy, were proud to apply it to the decoration and enlargement of their castles ; and the splendid example the king had shown at Windsor, excited in them a rivalry of imitation. The original destination of pro- tection and defence was never sacrificed to

96 OBSERVATIONS ON

venience, but was consulted by many cautions of a warlike nature.

The aera of this improvement extended itself from this reign to the close of the contention between the houses of York and Lancaster. Within this period we may date the erection or renovation of the grandest castellated structures of which this kingdom could once boast ; and whose venerable ruins are the most characteristick features of the English landscape. About this time, turrets, and hanging galleries, over the salient angles and the gateways, very various in their design, were added to the ruder architec- ture of impregnable strength, and (particularly in the Welsh counties) conical buttresses were applied to round towers, reaching to more than half their height, and spreading at the base like a modern bastion. By these additions the ruins are rendered extremely picturesque.

As the circuit of these castles, with their out- works, frequently encompassed several acres of ground, the base court was proportionably spa- cious, and the halls and other large state cham- bers had the advantage of windows, of equal magnitude and similar form to those in churches. Other apartments and offices were almost un- avoidably incommodious, as defence was the leading idea ; symmetry therefore is very seldom seen in the smaller rooms, which were often without fire-places ; and the eyelet-holes and

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. Q7

narrow windows served only to make dark- ness visible.

An enumeration of all the majestick mansions in which our ancient nobility resided, now totally rased and dilapidated by war and time, and of others whose fate and grandeur we learn only from historians, will not be expected in a slight essay. For excellence or peculiarity of architecture the following may be. selected. Windsor was left a complete castle by Edward III. ° SpofFord, Kenelworth, Ludlow, Alnwick, Arundel, Lum* ley, and Goodrich, had each of them halls of good proportions, like those in the greater ab- bies. Those of Raby and Lumley remain at this day. Warkworth had extraordinary carved de- vices and escocheons, placed in series on the out- side, under the battlements ; while the gateways of Raby, Wingfield (Suffolk), Lancaster, and War- wick, were remarkable, when many, now dila-

c The keep, or round tower, at Windsor, was rebuilt in the i8th of Edward III. before Wykeham was employed. An account of his architecture is given in Stowe's Chron. p. 264. Lowth's Life of Wykeham, p. 19, 21, 24, 39.

The hall in Spofford castle, in Yorkshire, was 75 feet ib in. by 36 feet 9 in. and had large arched windows, of a magnitude and form not introduced within castle walls till after Edward Ill.'s reign. That at Windsor, now modernized, is 108 feet

by 35-

The hall in Kenelworth was very spacious, built by John of

Gaunt. That at Caer Philly, by the Despencers (1320), was 70 feet by 30, and only 17 in height. Alnwick castle is of the same date, erected by Henry de Percie. The beautiful towers of Warwick castle owe their origin to Thomas Beauchamp, carl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry V. John of Gaunt made the grand gateway, still standing, into Lancaster castle,

it

93 OBSERVATIONS ON

pidated, could offer a comparison. Nothing can exceed the lightness and elegance of the polygonal tower, which stands singly, at Warwick, finished with macchicolations and projecting brackets.

The ground-plots of castles were arranged chiefly according to their sites. When placed on a rock above a river, with the foundation rifted and appearing as a continuation of the natural fastness, an idea is communicated of impregnable massiveness, which is peculiarly striking at Dur- ham, Warwick, and Conway. Baronial fortresses, which had not such advantages of situation, were usually oblong squares, with lofty towers at each angle, connected by embattled walls or curtains, pierced only by eyelet-holes. They had open galleries, or corridores, and bay-windows, open- ing to the court-yard, from which the ladies could view the military processions, and award the prize to the successful knight, at jousts and tourneys1'.

When the jealous and fierce spirit of the feodal system prevailed in full force, castles were ne- cessary to repel predatory violence; and, what- ever hospitality and courtesy were practised within their walls, they frowned defiance upon all without them, either uncivilized or hostile.

p This was customary as early as the days of Robert x>f Gloucester, who says,

" Upe the alurs of the castles the laydcs than ystode,

Ai)d beheilde thys noble game and wyche knights were gode."

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. QQ

From reflections on the history of the early Norman warriors, we willingly turn to those of the middle centuries, when chivalry had thrown her rays of refinement over domestick life. Castles then became schools of the hardier vir- tues ; and manners, which were once distorted by emulation and love of power, had acquired from her institutions a mild dignity, which has been since lost in a higher degree of polish.

The materials of which castles were composed varied much, according to the soil, and the na- ture of the country where they stood. Walls of the thickness of twenty feet, were faced only with hewn stone; the intermediate part was composed of pebble, rubble-stone, or flint, im- bedded in a mass of fluid mortar, which acquired by time such an induration as scarcely to be se- parated by any possible means. Upon the sea- coast, squared flints were last of all used for the external wall ; and in counties which produced the better kinds of stone, the neatest and most regular masonry was not spared.

Of the dimensions of these castles, and the in- finity of small rooms in which they abounded, the number of retainers necessary to the state of a nobleman, as constantly resident, will give some idea, exclusively of occasional garrisons, in time of war*.

* See the ancient household books of the nobility, particu- larly that of the earls of Northumberland.

\ IOC OBSERVATIONS ON

During the middle centuries, after the Con- quest, when the plans of mere defence were ren- dered subservient to those of comfortable habi- tation within the walls of a castle, a certain de- gree of splendour in the internal decoration and furniture soon followed. The walls of the state chambers were covered with wainscot, painted in fresco upon the pannels, or hung with arras or tapestry. In the numerous castellated pa- laces of our early sovereigns, were apartments so ornamented, as is clearly shown in ancient evi- dences. At Warwick was a memorable suit of arras, upon which were represented the achieve- ments of the valorous earl of Warwick, sir Guy, whose legend was familiar to our old poetsr. Nor did the halls remain without their share of ornament. Armorial bearings in stained glass were not unfrequent. at least in the great bay-window ; and, at the solemn feasts, moveable tapestry was placed behind the high table. Le- land observed, at Sudley castle, in Gloucester- shire, built early in the reign of Edward IV.

r This tapestry appears to have been hi Warwick castle be- fore the year 1398. It was then so distinguished and valued a piece of furniture, that a special grant was made of it by Richard II. dated in that year, conveying that suit of arras hangings in Warwick castle, which contained the story of the famous Guy earj of Warwick, together with the castle and other possessions, to Thomas Holland, earl of Kent. Dugdale's Baronage, vol. i. p. 237, Warton's Eng. Poet. vol. i. p. 212.

The great halls in the royal palaces at Westminster, and Elt- ham in Kent, were occasionally hung round with arras under ths windows.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 101

windows of beryl, by which it is presumed he intended to describe a superior kind of stained glass3. Sculpture, however rude, was admitted at an earlier period, either over the macchico- lation of the gates, in the grotesque figures used as water-spouts, in escocheons, or effigies of some heroic individual. Over the grand entrance into Caernarvon castle, is the statue of Edward I, standing in the act of drawing his sword, and an attitude of defiance. Carvings, introduced as architectural embellishments, were, in many in- stances, finished with no less perfection than in church-buildings.

The building of castles with brick was intro- duced into England when they were converted into habitable houses, and the civil commotions between the barons and their sovereigns, so fre- quent in the early centuries, had in a great mea- sure ceased.

Barrington* observes, " that the use of brick, so frequent with the Romans in England, was lost till the reign of Richard II." Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, erected a magnificent house in the town of Kingston-upon- Hull, in 1383. Herstmonccux, in Sussex, was built by

8 Jtin, vol. v. p. 26.

" The windowes were of glaSj

Florysed with imagerie,

The halle y painted was,

No rycher never ther was." Gesta Roman.

* Archgol. vol. i. p, 143.

H 3

102 OBSERVATIONS ON

sir Roger Fiennes, in 1423U. In the reigns of Henry V. and VI. Ralph lord Cromwell was the founder of two very remarkable edifices of brick, Wingfield castle, in Derbyshire, and Tattershal castle, in Lincolnshire, in 1440. This last-men- tioned is a very lofty single tower, rectangular, and flanked by four turrets. The macchico- lations are very deep, and the windows well- proportioned, Gateways constructed with brick were frequently attached both to castles and ab- bies, where all the other parts of the building were of stone or flint. The squaring of flints, a practice unknown to the Romans, was first in- troduced into this country in the reign of Henry VII. Parts of Arundel castle, of that date, still retain curious specimens of this mode of mixing flints with indurated chalk, cut into squares and alternated.

Of architecture, which, adopting a military appearance, displayed likewise the magnificence and convenience of a private dwelling, the most remarkable instances during the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. and which may be denominated palatial castles, are Raglan, in Monmouthshire, and Thornbury, in Gloucestershire. The plan and dimensions of both these are very magnifi- cent. Others partaking less of the appearance of fortification, being simply castellated or em- battled houses, were Richmond and Nonsuch;

u Hampton Court, in Herefordshire, is of the same aera and plan, but of different materials.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 103

the latter of which having been left incomplete by Henry VIII. was raised to a great degree of splendour by Henry Fitz-Alan, the last earl of Arundel of that name. Hampton Court and Whitehall, cardinal Wolsey's palaces, were in the same style. Mount Surrey, on St. Leonard's Hill, near Norwich, is said to have been a resi- dence of more taste and elegance than any other of its day. It was designed and built by the gallant and unfortunate Henry earl of Surrey, after his return from the court of theDe' Medici, at Florence. It is therefore probable that it ex- hibited some imitations of the Italian mannerx.

We may contemplate frequent castles, ma- jest ick or picturesque, in decay, and have not lived too late to inspect others, which owe to the taste of their present possessors a well-imitated revival of their former characteristick splendour. I will instance Warwick, Arundel, and Alnwick, and the recent improvements at Windsor and Belvoir castles.

Our domestick architecture has not been in- vestigated in its progress with the attention it deserves. Whilst every effort wa£ confined to ecclesiastical or military structures, external beauty or commodiousness appears to have been very little considered in the private habitations of men.

*In Borde's Dietarie of Health (1547), dedicated to T. duke of Norfolk, are given rules for planning and building a nobleman's house. Warton's Hist. Poet. vol. iii. p. 77.

H 4

104 OBSERVATIONS ON

Chaucer, in his descriptive poem of the " As- semblie of Ladies," gives his idea of the per- fection of domestick architecture, in his imagi- nary palace of " pleasaunt regarde."

et The chamberis and parlers of a sorte,

With bay windows goodlie as may be thought,

The galleries right wele y wrought,

As for dauncinge and otherwise disporte." V. 162.

Without doubt, thi$ is a true picture of many of the houses of the nobility and gentry in the reign of Edward III. when the growing fashion of large entertainments required spacious apart- ments. There are, indeed, few counties in which may not be found some houses of very high tra- ditional antiquity. Others have been dilapidated, or have been lately levelled with the ground. At Little Billing, in Northamptonshire, are re- mains of a house built in the reign of Edward II. by the family of De Longueville. In 1765, a mansion-house belonging to the Montacutes earls of Salisbury, at Great Canford, in Dorset- shire, was taken down, which had remained from the middle of the reign of Edward III. At Lypiate, in Gloucestershire, is a house in good repair, probably built by sir R. Whitting- ton, lord mayor of London, in I46oy. In Le-

y Perhaps some of the most ancient dwelling-houses now in existence are attached to cathedrals, and those, either wholly or in part, belonging to the parochial ckrgy.

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land's Itinerary are notices of many, which have long since disappeared, and of others then re- cently built, which are, after a lapse of three centuries, in a perfect state. West Wickham Court, in Kent, and Southam, in Gloucestershire, are of that description, not to enumerate others. Where the situation allowed, a moat was com- mon. The halls had bay-windows, and there was one large apartment more ; but the cham- bers were small and incommodious like those in castles z.

This kind of architecture wanted the sanction either of the ecclesiastick or military. From the lapse of years, the vicissitudes of property, but father from the caprice of individual possessors, some of the most remarkable of these castellated houses are now sought for in vain. Herstmdn- ceux and Cowdry are now venerable ruins. Penshurst is still perfect. Catledge is entirely taken down. Indeed, a house of the age of the Tudors is now very rarely seen, but in a state of decay a.

z To imitate or restore these residences of our ancestors is a frequent attempt, which, if we may form an opinion from many specimens, is extremely precarious in point of success. The introduction of the advantages of the modern distribution of the apartments under an ancient exterior is, at all events, a task of difficulty.

* Herstmonceux was taken down in part, and reduced to a ruin, under the direction of Mr. Samuel Wyatt, the architect, that a modern house might be built with the materials. Cowdry, the noble residence of the Brownes viscounts Mont- acute,, was destroyed by fire in 1793. 'It is said, that Mr.

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Holbein was established in England under the rctyal patronage, and gained sufficient influence for a partial introduction of the architecture which had begun to revive in Italy. The grand portal of Wilton house, and another, now re- moved, at Westminster, opposite Whitehall, With that of St. James's palace, gave an unques- tionable proof of his knowledge in the ornamental parts of architecture, as it was practised in his time.

John of Padua succeeded him in the mixed Style, anfid built the palace of the protector So- merset (for which purpose the cloisters of St. Pafcl's cathedral were taken down) ; and Longleat for his secretary, sir John Thynne b.

The first house, purely Italian, erected in this

Sydney, the present proprietor of Penshurst, intends to restore that famous seat of his ancestors to its former splendour. Gosfield hall, in Essex, another of these venerable resi- dences, has been very judiciously repaired by the marquis of Buckingham.

b The shell only of Longleat was completed in 1579, and had then cost 8oi6/. 139. 83. It is an oblong of 220 by 180 feet, and is 60 feet high, built entirely of free-stone, and or- namented with pilasters of Dorick, Jonick, and Corinthian, wilfh capitals and cornices, and the whole three fronts sur- rounded by a balustrade.

Wimbledon house was built by sir Thomas Cecil, afterwards carl of Exeter, in 1588. His son, sir Edward Cecil, lord Wmibledony improved it so much, that after his death it be- came a favourite palace of king Charles I. Having been sold by the parliamentary cbmmissioners, it devolved to Sarah duchess of Ivlarlborough, who ordered it to be taken down, ^ne front, wa's extremely magnificent, being approached by se- veral flights of steps, and the floors were, of cedar. See views 6f ll in Lysons'c Environs,

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kingdom, was by sir Horatio Palavicini, at Little Shelford in Essex, which was taken down in 1754.

In the reign of queen Elizabeth many magni- ficent houses were built by the nobility. John Thorpe, Gerard Christmas, Rodolph Symonds, and Thomas Holte, are the most celebrated architects of the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth cen- turies, whose names are preserved to us.

Thorpe indeed was a favourite architect, and appears to have merited his fame. Of his designs the principal is the marquis of Exeter's at Bur- leigh. Audley End, in Essex, once much more sumptuous and extensive, is said by Lloyd, in his State Worthies, to have been designed by H. Howard, earl of Northampton, for his nephew the lord treasurer Suffolk; but Thorpe super- intended the building. AtCharlton, near Malms- bury, is the front of a magnificent house, erected for the second lord Suffolk, by Inigo Jones, which was one of his earliest works, in what has been called his Gothick manner. It was preserved when the mansion was taken down, and rebuilt upon the model of the former. The old gallery is 120 feet long.

Of the prevailing style and characteristicks of the more remarkable houses built at the com- mencement of the seventeenth century, there remain, near the metropolis, Holland house, Campden house, sir T. Wilson's at Charlton,

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Kent, the marquis of Salisbury's,, at Hatfield, and Knowle, the duke of Dorset's, in Kent.

Very complete information of the extent and style of internal decorations, prevalent in palaces of this eera, may be collected from two surveys, made by order of parliament in 1650, of Non- such and Wimbledon, since destroyed0. The vast dimensions of the apartments, the extreme length of the galleries, and the enormous square windows, are the leading characteristicks of the manner of building during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. The ornaments both within and without were cumbrous, and equally void of grace and propriety. Nothing could exceed the heaviness of the cornices and ceilings wrought into compartments, or the awkward intersection of the passages. The hall retained nothing of the Gothick description, excepting its size and bay-window: being very frequently merely a large room, including the whole space of the

c Archaeologia, vol. v. p. 429-439, and vol. x. 399-438. Nonsuch is re-engraven from a scarce print in Lysons's Environs.

Prospects of Audley End were sold at Dr. Mead's sale, in 1754, for 250^. They were probably the original drawings, taken by H. Winstanley. (Walpole's Cat. of Engravers, p. 152, 8vo.) They were valuable, as preserving views of parts of that magnificent building now taken down. Winstanley likewise engraved views of Wimbledon house.

Lord Orford, in his Appendix to Anecd. vol. v. mentions a most curious book of designs by John Thorpe, for various seats of the nobility, as being in the possession of the earl of Warwick.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 10Q

house, from the base to the roof. Instead of battlements and pinnacles, the parapet was broken into numerous pediments, not exactly conical or angular, but of a form too capricious for de- scription.

It has been admirably observed by sir Joshua Reynolds'1, that " architecture certainly pos- sesses many principles in common with poetry and painting. Among those which may be reckoned as the first, is that of affecting the ima- gination by means of association of ideas. Thus, for instance, as wre have naturally a veneration for antiquity, whatever building brings to our remembrance ancient customs and manners, such as the castles of the barons of ancient chivalry, is sure to give us delight. Hence it is, that towers and battlements e are so often selected by the painter and poet to make a part of the com- position of their ideal landscape. For this pur- pose Vanbrugh, who was a poet as well as an architect, appears to have had recourse to some of the principles of the Gothick architecture ; which, though not so ancient as the Grecian, is much more so to our imagination, with which the artist is more concerned than with absolute truth."

4Reynolds's Works, vol. ii. p. 138, 8vo.

e " Towers and battlements it sees Bosom'd high in tufted trees."

Milton, L* Allegro*

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SECTION V.

Prospects of Oxford — Excellence and Variety of its Architecture — Church of St. Peter in the East — Castle — Cathedral or Church of Frideswyde — Chapter-house — The University — Merton College — New College — Restorations by Wyatt — Magdalene and All Souls Colleges— Got hick Statues — Carvings and Bas Reliefs — Publick Library — Divinity School — Spire of St. Mary's Church — Remarks concerning Spires — Tower of Magdalene College — Christ Church — The Hall — Campanile.

X HE architectural beauties of the city of Oxford, as a whole, exceed those of any other in the British empire. With the exception of Rome, Florence, Venice, and Genoa, it will find few rivals, even on the continent. So grand and va- ried a group of towers, turrets, spires, and cu- polas, must strike every intelligent traveller, on his approach, with admiration of a place, where learning rears her head amid surrounding splen- dour. These buildings, singly considered, have sufficient merit to detain the antiquary or the artist, as they are rich in examples both of the Gothick and Palladian styles; and are worthy

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 1 1 1

monuments of the skill and taste of the most eminent architects whom this country has pro- duced. The architectural views of Oxford, in every direction, are singularly interesting. From Botley Hill, on the north-west, the prospect re- sembles that from the hiljs above Cologne. There are various lofty edifices happily grouped, which exhibit the RadclifFe library to the greatest advantage as a central object. We have no dis- gusting monotonous break of the horizontal line, as in the views of Rome from a similar eminence ; where are domes infinitely repeated, from the immensity of St. Peter's, to the diminutive cu- pola of a convent.

From the second hill in Bagley wood, the landscape is fore-shortened ; with Christ Church hall as the principal object, and Magdalene tower, to the east. From Headington Hill, Eiffley, and Nuneham, the great features change their position, without losing their beauty. As most of the grand buildings of Oxford ap- proach nearly to each other, the accidental grouping of them from different points of view, affords surprise and pleasure. The spire of St~ Mary's church rising from the cupola of the Radcliffe library, reminds us of one of sir Chris- topher Wren's plans for that of St. Paul3.

a It is curious to reflect how greatly the horizontal view of Oxford from every point is altered in the course of succeeding centuries. In 1503, and previously to the suppression of mo-*

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The antiquary will investigate with pleasure two specimens which Oxford affords of the ear- liest aera of architecture, in this country, as well Saxon as Norman, ecclesiastical and military. The choir part of the church of St. Peter's in the East, with the subterraneous chapel or crypt, is said to be the most ancient structure, not in ruins, in England, and its pretensions may be allowed, though we reject the legend of St. Grymbald. Of the castle, built by the great Norman baron Robert D'Oiley, which received the empress Maud after her retreat from that of Arundel, one solitary tower has survived the in- juries of war and time. It is a rude mass of great height without battlements, and is ex- tremely curious, both for its antiquity and sin- gular construction13. Few traces remain of Henry I.'s palace of Beaumont, in which Ri- chard I. was born ; but its site is shown in some gardens.

Of the style called Saxon (although Norman in fact, as being of a date subsequent to th,e Con- quest) the cathedral retains the general charac- teristicks, and the ornaments of the arches are

nasteries, there were eight towers — those of Merton, New Col- lege, and Magdalene, and of the monasteries of Osney, Rewley, the Dominican, Augustine, and Franciscan friars. A. Wood. MSS. There is an ancient painting in the staircase leading to the Bodleian library, exhibiting such a view of Oxford, at a later period.

b Dissertations on ancient Castles by Edward King, esq. and the History of Oxford Castle given as a specimen, incorporated the Munimenta Antiqua.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 113

similar to those in the finest examples at South- well in Nottinghamshire ; and at St. Cross and Romsey near Winchester.

The probable date of this structure is that of the introduction of canons regular of St. Au- gustine in 1122, after the dismissal of the nuns, when the convent still acknowledged St. Fride- swyde as their tutelar.

The chapter-house was undoubtedly built by them, in the reign of Henry II. and has some of the richest decorations of that manner imme- (Jiately preceding the deviation into the first Go- thick. With the slightest examination, the ori- ginal structure may be distinguished from cardi- nal Wolsey's repairs and alterations. The pen- dent roof of the choir, built either by him or King, the first bishop of Oxford, is of the latest Gothick inserted under the ancient roof. At the contiguous village of Eiffley is a church contem- porary with the church of St. Frideswyde,

Although in the course of a few centuries the number of students was increased to thirty thousand c, they were almost entirely accommo- dated by the citizens. The halls were then nu- merous in proportion to the students, and fre- quented only for scholastick exercises d. Merton

c Fox's Martyrs — Holinshed, &c.

d In a chamber of the old quadrangle at Merton the following monkish rhyme is painted in a window, as apposite to this as the fourteenth century —

Oxoniam quare Venisti, preqoeditare. —

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coljege can boast the first quadrangle, about the end of the thirteenth centuiy. A curious deli- neation of the university by a sort of bird's-eye view, published by Ralf Aggas in the reign of Elizabeth, proves that the original colleges were low, and void of regularity or beauty; as the front of Lincoln college is now seen e. In this respect, I believe, they were not much inferior to conventual habitations in general ; for not- till a short time before the suppression, were the cells of the monks more spacious, even in the greater monasteries. The church, the refectory, and the abbot's lodgings, engrossed all the splen- dour or convenience of the building. But an asra of more perfect architecture soon succeeded. William Rede, formerly fellow of Merton, and bishop of Chichester, was the most able architect of his age ; and exerted much of his skill for the benefit of his own society. The gateway and library are known to have been erected from his plans ; and from internal evidence, I conjec- ture that the chapel was, at least, designed by him. The industrious Antony & Wood fixes the date of its rededication in 1424. Rede died in

€Loggan's Oxonialllustrata, fol. 1675. — Williams's Oxonia Depicta, fol. 65 plates. — Malton's Views of Oxford. . The series of Oxford Almanacks give many interesting per- spectives from the drawings of M. A. Rooker, Turner, &c. views of the High Street by DC la Motte and Griffiths ; views by Pugin, &c.

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1385, when the plan might have been given, and the foundations laid. The tower was built by Thomas Rodeborne, warden, who was conse- crated bishop of St. David's in the last-men- tioned year. But the style of the small equally clustered pillars round the piers of the tower, and the heads of the windows, all of which form different figures, favour my opinion, as far as an exact resemblance to both, in Exeter cathedral. — The great east window at Merton is perhaps the most perfect instance in that manner of spreading the mullions, now in being, with so rich an effect; and the whole elevation of the northern transept toward the street, with the window and niches, presents a very beautiful Gothick composition. The external pannelling of the tower and the pinnacles are of a later sera than the chapel, and ' were probably added by bishop Rodeborne to that originally rising upon the arcade of the transept. The corbels on the north side of the chapel exhibit sculpture of better design and execution than any of the same kind in Oxford. The timber frame- work within is most curiously constructed. William Rede excelled likewise in military architecture ; as the gateway of his castle of Amberley in Sussex, now remaining, proves with sufficient evidence. It is a singular fact, that William of Wykeham, his successor, and greatly his superior in the

i 2

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profession and practice of architecture, disco- vered his eminent talents in the royal castle of Windsor.

In the year 1 3 79, the munificent founder com- pleted the building of New College, the north side of which, containing the chapel and hall, was an edifice, for extent and grandeur, hitherto unknown in the university. The elevation has all that dignity which results from proportion and harmony of parts, and had even a more noble aspect before the other sides of the qua- drangle wrere altered in iG/5. Symmetry was then sacrificed to convenience ; for the area, though large, appears to be sunk between walls of parallel height. The internal proportions of the chapel f are correct, even so as to emulate those of a Grecian temple; and the lightness of the arcade dividing the ante-chapel, could have originated only in the genius of the immortal Wykeham. I speak of them as they were left by him ; and of the subsequent alterations, those in 1636 and in 1684 had spared the architecture. From the decay of the roof it was found neces- sary in 1789 to renew it totally; and Mr. James Wyatt was intrusted by the society with the re- modelling of their venerable structure. — To dis- parage by petty criticism a work which few

f Dimensions.— Ante-chapel 80 feet by 36. Choir 100 by 32, and 65 high, before the roof was renewed.

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survey without admiration, would be an invi- dious attempt, by which I trust these pages will not be disgraced ; and it is with diffidence, and respect for the eminent talents of Mr.Wyatt, that I venture remarks, dictated solely by a love of truth.

It will be previously inquired, whether it were Mr. Wyatt's intention to restore this chapel to a perfect correspondence with the style of archi- tecture by which Wykeham's age is definitely marked ? — Or was he at liberty to introduce the omaments of subsequent architecture, by his ju- dicious adaptation of w^hich a beautiful whole might be composed ? With no great hazard of probability, we will suppose that these improve- ments had been gradually made during the lapse of the last centuries ; yet it can scarcely be al- lowed, that Wykeham's original plan has been followed with accuracy.

For the restoration of the altar-piece, as a part of his design, Mr. Wyatt has great credit ; and we will not scrutinize too closely, whether the scriptural histories in marble bas-reliefs above the altar, could have been made by any sculptor, of any country, then in existence8.

Considering that the very numerous canopies and pedestals were not to be restored to their

g The late Mr. James Essex restored the altars of King's college, Cambridge, and Ely cathedral, to the just model of the' Gothick originals; and Mr. Wilkins, now resident in that university, has discovered a very correct taste in that style,

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original destination of containing images, would it not have produced a better effect, if the series had been composed of fewer and larger niches ? There is now no bold mass of ornament, and the largest, which is the organ -case, is violated by a conceit, \vhich a very fastidious spectator would call a peep-hole. The whole is so coloured as to convey an idea, that it is constructed with stone ; and candour must acknowledge, that a stone organ-case is, upon every principle, more novel than well adapted. In the restoration of an ancient Gothick chapel we expect to be gi$- tified by ornaments taken from known authority, and applied, as we can suppose they might have been, by the original architect ; nor are we con- tent with mere etibrts of fancy. By candle-light, all the rich shrine- work of the altar is lost, as it is barely distinguishable from a plain wall.

It is the opinion of a considerable critic, that the Gothick roof loses its beauty in every degree, in which it is rendered more flat h ; an effect sufficiently obvious upon a comparison of the great centre arch, and the heads of the win- dows, with the expanse of the new vaulting, with which they have an imperfect accordance, v

In the canopies of the stalls we are brought forward to the luxuriant Gothick of Henry VII. The application of the ancient carved subsellia to the present reading-desks is a new idea. An-

h Mr. Gilpin — Northern Tour, vol. i. p. 17.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 11Q

tiquaries well know, that it is but rarely that the subjects of these carvings will bear light and exposure. In all the old choirs they are fre- quent, and were made the reciprocal vehicle of satire between the regular and the secular clergy. The vices of either, be they wh^t they might, were exhibited in images grossly indecorous. Here then is no adherence to costume. Consi- dering the present chapel, not as a restoration but an imitation of styles subsequent to the founder, where will the archetype of the organ- case be seen ?• — The execution of the whole is exquisite ; and it might have been supposed, that Mr. Wyatt would have recurred, at least, to the tomb of W. Wykeham in Winchester cathedral, built by the bishop himself, for the purest of all authorities in the minuter Gothick or shrine- work. In that church is an unrivalled series of sepulchral sacella including the whole of the fif- teenth century, from Wykeham to Fox1. In the first-mentioned tomb all is simple and har- monious ; — -the progressive richness of the other two, and the exuberant littleness, yet heavy in its effect, which distinguishes the last, appear to have been imitated by Mr. Wyatt, without much discrimination. If, indeed, the question be, whether Mr. Wyatt in this instance has imagined

' These monuments are engraved in the Mon. Vetust. vol. I. excepting that of Wykeham ; but all of them, on a small scale, in Milner's Hist, of Winton.

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or collected what is most beautiful in the style called Gothick, the suffrage in his favour will be universal: but if it be referred to the single point of just combination, those will be found, who will not scruple to avow their dissent upon known principles, and characteristicks of the Gothick manner familiarized to them by nume- rous examples.

Yet, whatever dispositions for censure we may indulge for the moment, no mind, especially a poetical mind, can quit this beautiful and highly decorated scene, without sentiments of the fullest gratification.

The improvements adopted from Mr. Wyatt's plans at Merton and Balliol, would have been more judicious and appropriate, had he conde- scended to consult or follow the Gothick exam- ples existing in both those colleges. Merton has a fine roof of timber frame in its chapel, and Balliol a bay-window of great beauty. The cen- tral points in Mr. Wyatt's new roofs are too flat, and the ramifications too few and plain for the manner he professes to imitate. His plans at Magdalene have undergone the test of public opinion k, but are, as yet, unexecuted.

The great example of regular Gothick which had been given by Wykeham, was followed by Chicheley and Wayneilete with equal correct-

k In the 'exhibition of the Royal Academy 1797.

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ness, but in inferior dimensions and style. The chapels and halls both of All Souls and Magda- lene1 were proofs of the increasing splendour of the university. As particularly worthy of the attention of the lover of the Gothick style, the tower of the quadrangle, which was originally the entrance into Magdalene college, must not be omitted. It is of dimensions sufficient to produce an air of grandeur, still preserving an elegance of elevation.

Few chapels in Oxford show more taste in their present state of embellishment, than that of All Souls college. The windows and wainscot painted in chiaro-scuro, and the peculiar chaste- ness of the ornament, diffuse an air of propriety and beauty over the whole. Under a bright sun the effect is most happy. Most of those who visit Oxford, upon whom the arts have only a tem- porary influence, are observed to remember this chapel with great satisfaction. There is a charm in propriety of style which reaches even the least discriminating mind.

Upon each of the buttresses of the cloister at

1 Merely as a matter of curiosity, I insert the names of the master-masons employed by Chicheley and Wayneflete. John Druel and Roger Keys were the architects of All Souls, and William Orchyarde of Magdalene. Wood's Antiq. Oxon. edit. Gutch. Life of Chicheley, p. 171. Robert Tully, bishop of St. David's, already mentioned as the architect of Glou- cester, laid the first stone, as an inscription imports, given in Wood's Antiq. Oxon. p. 322.

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Magdalene is placed a grotesque figure ; and the design of them being professedly enigmatical, many singular solutions have been given m. They form no part of the original plan, but were added in 150Q. To the investigators of the progress of sculpture in England, Oxford affords several in- teresting specimens. Those of the best execu- tion are Henry VI. and archbishop Chicheley over the gateway at All Souls, which are un- commonly fine ; others against the chapel at Merton, and five under the great west window at Magdalene.

There are likewise curious bas-reliefs at Merton and Balliol, St. Michael at the east end of the chapel of New college, as seen from the garden, and a very elegant frize of vine-leaves under the bay-window of the tower of the Schools, facing Hertford college. So general as the custom of sepulchral effigies had become, but more parti- cularly those for the decoration of shrines, we may suppose that a regular ^school of sculpture was established, which bore some analogy to the master-masons. Cavallini had left disciples who were capable of continuing the art ; and we are surprised at the bold effect sometimes produced in so rude a material as free-stone".

m CEdipus Magdalen, by W. Reeks, 1680.

n See Carter's Ancient Sculpture and Painting, 2 vols. folio, for etchings of these remains. The statues of queen Eleanour placed in the crosses erected to her memory by her husband;,

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Humphrey duke of Gloucester was, at the same time, the avowed and munificent patron of learning and learned men. He built the Divinity School and the Public Library above it, now in- corporated with the Bodleian. The former, both in the fretted roof and the whole interior, is finished in the rich style of 1480, which is the date of its completion, and some years after the demise of the duke.

A more beautiful Gothick room, excepting that it is too low for its length, is now seldom seen. May it not be said, that not only the room is too low for its length, but that the disposal of the ornaments of the ceiling renders this impropriety still more objectionable ?

In the reign of Henry VII. the university church of St. Mary w^as built by John Carpenter, bishop of Worcester, and formerly provost of Oriel college. The choir at least, and the spire, rose in consequence of his benefaction. By richly clustering this steeple at its base, and leaving the shaft plain, the whole elevation is striking and beautiful. From the ground it is 180 feet high, which is exactly the height of the spire only, at Salisbury. The perfection of a

Edward I. are amongst the most early and the finest specimens of sculpture in England. See Mon. Vetust. vol. iii. and many very accurately drawn and engraved in the two volumes of Cough's Sepulchral Monuments.

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spire and a tower is formed upon a directly op- posite principle in appearance, but the same in fact. It is, that the shaft of each should be plain, and the ornaments clustered, forming a capital or base, as inversely applied.

Measurements of other remarkable buildings have the following reference to the height of St. Mary's spire. The inside of the dome of Santa Sophia at Constantinople is exactly as high from the floor ; the Falling Tower at Pisa is more lofty by eight feet ; and the great Obe- lisk, of a single stone beside the base, now placed before the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, is l"l 5 feet high, and in the whole 204. A Gothick spire, windows, and niches, with a Ro- man portico supported by twisted columns, pre- sent a very strange mixture P ; yet the due pro- portion of its several parts reconciles the eye to this incongruity, and we praise the general effect of St. Mary's as an edifice inspiring an appro- priate reverence.

When the early temples of Christianity had gained splendour from the contributions of the pious, the efforts of the architect appear to have

p This portico was built after a design of N. Stone, who had studied under Inigo Jones, and who intended in the twisted co- lumns to imitate those brought from Jerusalem by the empe- ror Titus, which having been then lately discovered, were ap- plied by M. Agnolo to the interior embellishment of the cu- pola of St. Peter's at Rome.

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been chiefly exerted in exciting admiration by works of stupendous skill. The roofs suspended by invisible support, the columns and arcades of incredible lightness, the towers gaining symme- try by their extreme height ; but more than all, the heaven-directed spire, elevated the mind of the devout spectator to the contemplation of the sublime religion he professed.

Upon the continent, the spire is rarely seen ; in no instance, indeed, in Italy; and those of France and Germany have only a general analogy to ours. Those of St. Stephen at Vienna and Strasburg are, in fact, a continuation of the tower gradually diminishing from its base, with attached buttresses, sloping from their founda- tion. Such are likewise at Rouen, Coutances, and Bayeux in France. On the contrary, most spires in England, like that of Salisbury, their great archetype, which has never been equalled, are an addition to the tower, and commence distinctly from the parapet. It may be remarked, that the more beautiful specimens of a species of architecture exclusively our own, are extremely simple, and owe their effect to their fine propor- tions unbroken by ornamental particles. Even that of Salisbury'1 gains nothing by the sculptured

q Mr. Murphy (Introd. to his Batalha) observes, f{ that there is no settled proportion ; which is sometimes four times the diameter of the base; sometimes the height to the breadth of the base, is as eight to one. The spire of Sarum is only seven inches thick; so that if we reasoned of construction

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fillets which surround it, and those of the at Litchfield are frosted over with petty decora- tions. At Inspruck and in the Tyrol, I observed a large globe bulging out in the middle of the spires, which is covered with lead — a deformity not to be described.

The finely proportioned tower at Magdalene college1 was six years in building, and was

from theory, it would be inadequate to sustain its own weight." Old St. Paul's spire of wood and lead, was 520 feet high ; St. Stephen's, Vienna, 465; Strasburg, 4565 Salisbury, 387; Norwich, 317; and Chichester, 290. The singularly beautiful spire of Lowth in Lincolnshire was begun in 1502, and finished in ten years, by John Cole, architect, at the expense of 305^. 75. 5^. It is 134 feet high, exclusively of the tower — total 282. Grantharn 44. The central spire of Litchfield is 258 feet high, and those of the facade 185 each. St. Michael's, Coventry, 300, which was built in imitation, and very probably by the same architect. The last-mentioned are all of stone. The art of erecting spires is not lost in England. About forty years ago, the spire of St. Andrew's, Worcester, which is ex- tremely elegant, was built by Nath. Wilkinson, an uneducated mason. The height, from the parapet of the tower, is 155 feet 6 inches — the thickness of the walls of the spire is 20 inches, and tinder the capital and weathercock, only 6 inches five eighths. From a late survey of Salisbury cathedral, it appears that the spire did not form a part of the original plan, but was added many years after its completion. Price's Survey, "&c. The spire of Chichester cathedral resembles it very nearly on a smaller scale, and was traditionally the work of the same archi- tect. Of the twenty-two cathedrals in England, Salisbury, Chichester, Litchfield, and Norwich, have most beautiful cen- tral spires; those of Oxford and Rochester are not worth no- ticing. The spire of old St. Paul's was finished 1221 ; Sarum, 1256; Chichester, 1270; Norwich, 1278; Litchfield, 1370; St. Michael, Coventry, 1395.

r Dimensions: — Magdalene tower 122 feet high, diameter 26. The cathedral at Gloucester, 224; Lincoln, 288; Canterbury, 2353 Ely, 270; York, '234; Durham, 210; Worcester, 196; Wrexhani, 1325 Doncaster, 1523 Derby, 174. Towers of

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 12 /

finished in 14QS. During no period of English ar- chitecture were so many of these beautiful struc- tures erected, as in the reign of Henry VII. which wras indeed the grand aera of handsome parochial churches. It is traditionally said, that this tower was planned by the aspiring genius of cardinal Wolsey ; and was his first essay in a science which he well understood, and practised with extraordinary magnificence. But of this circum- stance the records of the college afford no posi- tive proof, and another conjecture will be offered. His palace at Hampton Court was a scene of

Beverley 198 each — the prototypes of those of Westminster, St. Stephen's church, Bristol, 124; Taunton, Somersetshire, 153: all of which were built between 1 400 and 1520. Towers of this age in Gloucestershire, and the west of England, are very frequent and beautiful. The tower built by Giotto in 1334, at Florence, is 264 feet high, with a diameter of 46. The Falling Tower at Pisa is 188 feet high.

The tower at Boston in Lincolnshire is finished by an octan- gular louvre, having in the whole an elevation of 282 feet. It was built about the year 1309, probably by the Flemings established there, and is said to resemble that of the great church at Antwerp! At Bruges 1 remarked a similar tower at- tached to the town-house, and another at Brussels. The cen- tral tower of the abbey of St. Often at Rouen, which is octan- gular, and of the same date, is 240 feet high. The lantern tower at Ely is 170, and of a similar construction. Another at Peterborough is 136 feet from the floor. The tower of St. Nicholas in Newcastle-upon-Tyne is 194 feet high, and has a -spire formed upon open arches, as a superstructure supposed to have been added in the reign of Henry VI. This idea was afterwards adopted by sir Christopher Wren, in the tower of St. Dunstan in the East, London.

At Redcliffe, in Bristol, the spire having been blown down, about twenty feet above the base, gives the whole a capricious form, as of a new species of tower, rising above the river in a great degree of picturesque beauty to the height of 148 feej.

128 OBSERVATIONS ON

gorgeous expense; but his intended college at Oxford, uniting public benefit with splendour, would have exceeded any similar institution in Europe. Rome itself would not then have of- fered a retreat of science and learning, so perfect and extensive in all its plans8. Wolsey's great hall and three sides of the quadrangle were nearly finished, when he fell under the king's displea- sure in 1529; the foundation was resumed, and Christ Church established by royal authority in 1545, upon the present dimension. The cardi- nal had intended to build a church on the north side, and the walls had risen some feet above the ground. In 1638 the society designed to re- duce the whole to uniformity ; but the civil war prevented its completion, w hich did not take place before l6§5. Many alterations were then made, but without taste. The cloister being removed, the area was sunk several feet, and a terrace raised round the quadrangle. The parapet of the whole building was surrounded with rails in the Italian style, having globes of stone, at regular distances, by no means corresponding with the architecture of Wolsey. The balls are no longer remaining to increase the heaviness of the" balustrade, which it might have been hoped, in this age of judicious

s A computation may be made of the expense of this great work, from that incurred in the last year only of the cardinal's prosperity, being 7835^. ys. 2d. Wood's Antiq. Oxon. edit. Gutch, p. 425 ; of which I have generally availed myself, as an authority, for dates, &c.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 129

alteration, would have been restored by the open battlement and parapet which was originally a part of the plan, if any credit be due to the deli- neation of the topographer Ralph Aggas1. The quadrangle forms almost an exact square. To form an idea of the vastness of edifices erected by the .ancients, it may be noticed that the interior area of the Flavian Amphitheatre at Rome, is considerably longer than any of these, although not so wide, on account of its oval form.

Every eye will be struck with the magnificence of the hall, with the space and grandeur of pro- portion, and the propriety of ornament, as lately introduced in Mr. Wyatt's restorations. The hall at Trinity college, Cambridge, is inferior in other circumstances, rather than dimensions'1.

In the reign of Charles I. the present approach

*The bird's-eye view and plan of Oxford, by Ralph Aggas, \vaspublishedin 1578.

Dimensions. — The Colosseo 320 feet by 206, and 848 in circumference. Trin. Coll. Cambridge, 334 feet by 325 W. and £, 287 by 256 N. and S. King's Coll. 300 feet "by 296. Christ Church 264 feet by 261.

u Dimensions of Halls. — Christ Church 115 feet by 40, and 50 high. Hampton Court 108 feet by 40. Westminster 228 feet by 66. Eltham 100 by 36, and 55 high. Middle Temple 100 feet by 64. Guild-hall 153 feet by 48, and 55 high. -Windsor io8"jy 35. Richmond palace (now taken down) looby 40. Lambeth 93 feet by 38. Trin. Coll. Cam- bridge, 100 feet by 40, and 50 high. New College, Oxford, 78 feet by 35, and 40 high, before the modern ceiling was placed there. Wadham 72 by 27. Magdalene 64 by 29. Queen's 62 by 31.

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13O OBSERVATIONS ON

to the hall was rebuilt ; but the name of the ar- chitect is not preserved. The vaulted roof is supported by a single pillar in the centre of a scjuare, and by groins at the angles, as in the chapter-house at Llandaff. Such were more commonly octangular. The effect produces in* stantaneous surprise, but little satisfaction.

A judicious alteration claims a general appro- bation, particularly from those who remember the former clumsy and ill-managed approach. The new staircase and lobby were opened in 1801. It is yet to be questioned, whether, if the pillar had been truncated, and made a pendant only, as in roofs of the age of Henry VII. and instead of the two portals (one inaccessible) a single arch had been placed to correspond with the door of the hall, a more simple effect had not been obtained ?

Wolsey had left the great entrance tower about half finished. In lG8l, sir Christopher Wren, gave the present design, a notable proof that Go- thick architecture had never employed his great mind. Nothing like it was ever attached to any Gpthick fabrick of the pure ages ; if it has any analogy, it may be to the ancient louvre at Ely, but te that merely as being an octangular tower.

We may suppose, that, had the first plan been carried into eftect, it might have resembled the, great gateway at Trinity, Cambridge, or others

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 131

of the same asra. This tower contains one of the heaviest bells in England*.

Viewed from the street, the elevation of Christ Church is extremely grand, with an extent of nearly four hundred feet. In the ground-plan there is a very striking resemblance of the front of the palace of Edward Stafford duke of Bucks, now colonel H. Howard's, at Thornbury, in Gloucestershire. The cardinal had effected the ruin of the duke, his rival, about the time that he first meditated his college at Oxford.

x Mr, Coxe's account of the bells in Russia almost exceeds credit. The great bell at Moscow weighs 432,oooib. is 19 feet high, and 63 feet 4 inches in circumference; another in St. Ivan's church is 288,000 Ib. The great bell at St. Peter's, Rome, recast in 1785, is 18,667 Ib. avoirdupois. One, I7,ooolb. weight, is placed in the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, and is 275 feet from the ground. This at Christ Church is 1 7,000 Ib. St. Paul's 8,400 Ib. Gloucester 7000 Ib. Exeter 6120 Ib. Lincoln 9894^. At Rouen is a bell which weighs 36,000 Ib,

Ko **~

OBSERVATIONS

SECTION VI.

Final Mra of Gothick Architecture, — Publick Schools — Bodleian Library — Picture Gallery —*Merton and Wadham Colleges — St, Johns College — Sheldonian Theatre — Painted Ceil- ings— Palladia's Theatre at Vicenza — Trinity College — Chapel of Pembroke College — Ash- molean Museum — New College — Queens Col- lege— Clarendon Printing - house — Peckwater Court, Christ Church — All Saints Church — Dr. Aldrich — Worcester College — Dr. G. Clarke.

v v E are now arrived at the final aera of Gothick architecture, applied to monastick edifices at Ox- ford ; and the introduction of a manner engrafted on it, which, from the heterogeneous mixture of both Grecian and Gothick, retained the general character of neither.

At the close of the reign of Henry VIII. Hol- bein introduced an imitation of Italian architec- ture in publick buildings and the palaces of the nobility*. Still it was confined to the portico,

* Sir Henry Wotton's Elements of Architecture were a fe\y years after his death translated into Latin, and printed at the end of an edition of Vitruvius, with an encomium on ihc author.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 133

as the most ornamental part, while the rest of the structure was thickly perforated with enor- mous square windows having the lights une- qually divided, and the whole parapet finished with battlements and tall pinnacles.

Such is the style of the great quadrangle of the Publick Schools, which were begun in 1613 ; and, as Hearne has discovered, from a design of Thomas Holte of York. The inside of this square has an air of great grandeur resulting from the large dimensions of the relative parts, rather than accuracy of proportion. To the lofty tower is attached a series of double columns, which de- monstrate the five orders from the Tuscan, at the faase, to the Composite. The architect has proved that he knew the discriminations, but not the application, of them. On the opposite side is the library, which rose from the munificence of sir Thomas Bodley ; and is the most extensive and curious in England. It is computed to con- tain 160,000 books, of which 303ooo are manu- scriptsb. The oriental MSS. are the most rare and beautiful to be found in any European col- lection ; and the principes editiones of the clas^ sics lately procured from the Pinelli and Crevenna

b The Arabic MSS. which belonged to Erpenius the lexico- grapher, were purchased in Holland by the duke of Bucks, , and given to this library after his death ; but the greater part were bequeathed by archbishop Laud. Lord Pembroke lu 1630 contributed the Barrocci library to the Bodltian.

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134 OBSERVATIONS ON

libraries rival those at Viennac. The Vatican contains only 80,000 books, at the largest calcu- lation, by far the greater part of which are ma- nuscript. The gallery in which they are placed is concealed from the sight in cases most beauti- fully painted. With the Bodleian, the Ambro- sian at Milan, the Minerva at Rome, and the se- veral libraries at Florence, the royal library at Paris, and that of the British Museum, will ad- vance their peculiar claims of equality, either in point of number or curiosity. Duke Humphrey's collection, consisting of illuminated MSS. and translations of the classics, amounting to six hundred volumes, no despicable collection 'in

c In the Imperial library at Vienna, the origin and progress of printing fill many shelves, as the series of typographical spe- cimens is continued from the invention to the close of the six- teenth century. In the Magliabecchi library at Florence are three thousand volumes printed in the sixteenth century, be- side eight thousand very rare MSS. It has been shrewdly ob- served by an anonymous Italian author, " Una biblioteca per quanto si voglia copiosa, se si voglia istrutiva, non conterra molti libri. I libri sono come gli uomini, non la moltiplicita, ina la scelta fa il loro pregio."— Principi di Archit. Civile, t. ii.

The Royal library, lately transferred to the British Museum, was not originally founded by James I. but very considerably augmented by his purchase of most valuable books and MSS. of the executors of lord Lumley, who had principally received them from his father-in-law Henry Fitz-Alan earl of Arundel, a great collector at the time of the suppression of monasteries. The most elegant compliment, perhaps ever paid on the selec- tion of books in forming a library, was that by Addison to lord Halifax, when he proposes the Spectator to be placed '< in that library where the choice is such, that it wilt hot be a paragement to be the meanest author in it."

-ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 135

those days, is said to have been all sacrificed to the ignorance and zeal of the Reformers in the reign of Edward VI. The room which contained them over the Divinity School was made when the Bodleian Library was founded, to connect two others which were built at either end, and are spacious and well adapted.

A gallery continued round three sides of .the quadrangle in the highest story, is appropriated to receive the portraits of those who have done honour to the university by their learning or in- fluence in the state ; and as it contains likewise many MSS. it may be considered as a continua- tion of the Bodleian Library. In shape there is a certain resemblance to the far-famed gallery at Florence ; but a considerable inferiority with respect to dimensions'1. The ceiling is of painted timber- frame, coarse and grotesque, and round the cornice are represented many heads of emi- nent men. Such a series is likewise in the Flo- rentine gallery6; and though much better exe- cuted, as portraits, they are drawn equally from imagination.

d Dimensions. — Gallery at Florence, E. and W. sides 461 by 21 ; S. side 123-9 by 21 ; but there is a suite of nineteen large apartments behind the gallery, besides the tribune. Gallery at Oxford, N. and S. sides 129-6 by 24-6; E. side 158-6 by 24-6. Vatican at Rome is a single gallery 237-9 by 50-3.

c A most perfect idea of the magnificent interior of the Me- dicean gallery is given in that singular effort of genius by Zof- fanij, lately removed from a station unworthy of it at Kew, to the Queen's lodge at Windsor.

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These form indeed a handsome suite of galle- ries, which were much in fashion in the reign of James I. and the usual appendage to a great house. That at Audley End was 285 feet in length; another at Theobalds was 123 feet by 21 ; and a third at Hardwick in length 180 feet. Of the same age is that at Longleat, wilich ex- tends 160 feet ; and another at Parhain in Sussex, 158.

Before the commencement of the Schools, it is conjectured, from the similarity of the portals, that the same architect had completed the garden quadrangle at Merton in 1610, and the whole structure of Wadham college f, in the third yeaf following. I think the two latter are the pre- ferable buildings, as their plan is more simple and more compatible with the particular manner which prevailed early in the seventeenth century.

Under the patronage of archbishop Laud, Inigo Jones was first employed at Oxford in 1035. He built the arcades and porticos in the inner quadrangle of St. John's college, over which is a gallery of just proportions. They are in his first manner, and copy the faults rather than the excellencies of his great master Palladio. The busts between the arches, and the heavy foliage and wreaths under the alcoves, are exuberant and unclassical. Besides this, the imposts of the

f We may judge of the expense of building, two centuries ago, by that of Wadham college, which amounted only to The observatory at least equalled that sum.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 137

arches rest upon the pillars, which conveys an idea of instability. From so strong a resem- blance to the ambulatory in the Royal Exchange, it is evident, that Jones repeated himself here in miniature, and by the gateway of the Physic Garden, finished from his design, we are re-» minded of York Stairs in the Strand. We may suppose, that in both these instances he was re* strained by his employers, or fettered by the mode of building then fashionable — when his genius was left without control, and supported by the royal treasures, he produced Whitehall.

It does not appear, that the specimens Inigo Jones had given of his talents led to any farther employment in Oxford ; and Cambridge has not a single edifice which claims his name.

Nor were the first approaches he made toward Palladian correctness productive of the least re- form. His work at St. John's was scarcely finished, when Oriel, Jesus, University, and Ex- eter, were nearly rebuilt in a style extremely in- ferior to Wadham, which was manifestly their model as far as accommodation, and the distri- bution of the apartments. The windows arid niches of the south side of the quadrangle of University college have been lately reconciled to Gothick propriety, from the design of Mr. Griffiths, one of the fellows, whose alterations are well worthy of adoption.

The Sheldonian Theatre added new splendour

138 OBSERVATION'S ON

to the university. It was designed by one of its own professors, the great sir Christopher AVren, who, from being the most profound mathema- tician of his age, became the most able architect. This singular structure, which still attracts the admiration of the scientifick, as well as of the common observer, was erected by the sole bene- faction of Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canter- bury, in 166Q. It was the first effort of a genius which afterward imagined and completed St. Paul's.

In the ground-plan the architect has adopted that of the theatre of Marcel lus at Rome, built by Augustus, which was 400 English feet in dia- meter, and could contain 80,000 spectators when sitting. For the magnificent idea of this theatre every praise is due, as nothing can exceed the consummate contrivance and geometrical aiv range inent, by which this room is made to receive 4000 persons without inconvenience.

In imitation of the ancient theatres, the walls of which were too widely expanded to admit of a roof, the ceiling has the appearance of painted canvas strained over gilt cordage. It is geome- trically supported upon the side walls without cross-beams ; an invention which at first en- grossed universal admiration, but is now known and practised by almost every architect".

g The Theatre cost i6,ooc/. Sir Christopher owed the ori- ginal idea of the roof to Sebastian Serlio, and Dr. Wallis, his

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 13Q

Streater, whom king Charles II. made his ser- geant painter, was employed upon this canopy ceiling, which is characterized by lord Orford as " a very mean performance." This censure is nearly as extravagant, as the praise bestowed on Streater by a poetaster of his time:

<e That future ages must confess they owe To Streater more than Michael Angelo."

As an ornamental painting, the various compart- ments cannot be denied a considerable degree of merit. The outline of some of the figures is ele- gant and correct, and the colouring at once solid and lively. There is an assemblage of the arts and sciences.

Some account of those " publick surfaces/' upon which, as lord Orford observes, " the eye never rests long enough to criticise," may not be foreign to my purpose, as they are a part of in- ternal architecture.

Not to mention the cupolas painted by the great Italian artists, which are scarcely less nu- merous than excellent, I will select only the stu-

predecessor in theSavilian chair of geometry. Dr. W.'s plan was given to the museum of the Royal Society. The diameter of the roof is seventy feet by eighty. In 1800 the roof was dis- covered to be in danger of falling. The enormous load was removed, and a roof of excellent construction was judiciously substituted. It is now only to be lamented that the balus- trade was reinstated ; instead of which, had a solid parapet been built round the roof, it would have been more accordant with good taste, and the general appearance improved.

140 OBSERVATIONS ON

pendous works of Michelagnuolo and Pietro di Cortona, in the Sestine chapel in the Vatican, and the grand hall of the Barbarini palace.

In depicting the sublime subject of the " Last Day V the great painter has exerted the vigour of the most fertile imagination, and indulged his love of anatomy, to the utmost extent. He re- presents embodied souls as kissing each other, after a long separation. Pope Paul IV; deter- mined to deface this magnificent work on ac- count of the nudities ; but Daniel de Volterra was found to clothe the exceptionable figures with light draperies, much to his own credit as to the execution, but at the expence of the original.

The Barbarini ceiling represents the Triumph of Glory and the cardinal Virtues, and for com- position and colouring has been esteemed beyond any in Rome. The figures are numerous, with- out confusion. But of Rubens we have the op- portunity of inspecting one of the grandest works in the ceiling of Whitehall*. Excellent as he

h The incongruity, if not the profaneness of such ideas in so sacred a place, is justly reprehended by the abbe Marsy in his poem " Capella Sextina." Michelagnuolo was engaged eight years in this immense work. He is said to have bor- rowed many ideas from the " Inferno" of his favourite Dante ; and it is remarkable, that his condemned souls are finer than those in a state of beatitude, in point of design and expression.

1 At Osterley house, the staircase is ornamented with the apotheosis of William I. prince of Orange, by Rubens, brought from Holland by sir Francis Child. Lysons's Environs of London^ yol. iii. p. 28.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 141

was for his colouring and management of light and shade, he could not preserve this species of painting from contempt.

The subject was certainly sufficient to rack any invention however stored, for it was the apotheosis of such a monarch as king James I. Rubens ac- quired his love of allegorising and personification from his master Otho Vaenius at Leyden ; and the emblems published by Govartius are known to have been of his designing.

Classical correctness he seems to have defied, particularly in the Luxembourg, where he groups Mercury and Hymen with cardinals and the queen- mother. At Whitehall, in the ovals, We have the Virtues represented by deputy. Apollo stands for Prudence, and has a new attri- bute, the horn of plenty in his hand. To express the filial piety, and to display the tastei and mag- nificence of Charles I. in a grand audience-cham- ber k, as this was designed to be, these ornaments were not unsuitable ; but are in their present de- signation a singular decoration of a Protestant church. The great inconvenience of viewing paintings so placed, lessens the satisfaction which

kThe whole expence of what is now called the Banquetting- house was 2o,oooZ. three thousand of which were paid to Ru- bens for this work. It was restored by Cipriani in 1780, who received 2ooo/. This grand room is no feet by 53, and 55 high. One built for the same purpose in the Palazzo Vecchig at Florence is 165 by 67.

142 OBSERVATIONS ON

the most correct composition could possibly af- ford ; and foreshortening is too dissimilar to na~ ture, either to surprise or please1.

The first attempt to foreshorten figures on ceil- ings was by Corregio in his Assumption, in the cu- pola at Parma, and the Ascension, in the abbey of St. John. -Raffaelle, in the little Farnese palace, in his Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, has given the appearance of tapestry attached to the ceiling.

Verrio and La Guerre brought this tasteless fa- shion into England. They were well calculated for it; but Thornhillm and Kneller wasted their time and talents upon such performances.

Verrio set the example in England, as Michel- agnuolo in Italy, of introducing real portraits un- der allegorical semblance, in which his absurdity was only exceeded by his malevolence. Of this circumstance there is a memorable instance at Windsor.

Rubens displayed an ingenious satire in a pic- ture in the Dusseldorff collection. He has re- presented himself as Diogenes searching for an

1 Difficiles fugito aspectus contractaqne visu Membra sub ingrato, motusque actusque coactos.

Du Fresnoy.

Among the Cartoons of RafTaelle, the least pleasing is the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, because it has more fore- shortening.

m Thornhill painted at Oxford the Ascension on the ceiling of Queen's college chapel, and the " Resurrectio vestita" of archbishop Chichcley in pontificalibus.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 143

honest man, amidst a crowd of the portraits of his friends,

Verrio was the only artist to whom Charles II. was liberal; and towards him he was pro- fuse— but Verrio had impudence and witn.

A peculiar excellence of the Sheldonian Thea- tre, as pointed out to those who inspect it, is, that it is formed in the interior, on the precise model of the antique. In this respect its pre- tensions can be but partially allowed. Palladia gave a plan for an Olympic theatre in his native city of Vicenza, which was finished in 158O, and was intended for scenick recitations, like the an- cient Greek plays. The seats are of stone, and enclosed by a beautiful colonnade, with statues on the parapet. The proscenium is a magnifi- cent fa$ade of the Corinthian order; and the scenes are fixed, being composed of wood, re- presenting rich architecture in perspective, which is seen through the arcade, writh an imposing

n Verrio, at Windsor, has introduced a portrait of lord Shaftesbury as the daemon of sedition, and the housekeeper as a fury. Sebastian Ricci's brother dressed as a genileman in the style of Charles II. is made a spectator of one of our Saviour's miracles, at Bulstrode. At Greenwich, sir James Thornhill has habited king William in armour, with silk stockings and a flowing wig. He received 6685/. for the whole work, at 3^. the square yard for the ceiling, and i/. for the side walls; which price was adjudged to him by a committee of artists in 1717. It was stated in his memorial, that Rubens had received io/. a yard at Whitehall, and that Verrio at Windsor and Hampton Court had been paid 3^. 125. a yard, beside many presents from the king. The duke of Portland agreed to give Sebastian Ricci loooLfor three rooms only.

144 OBSERVATIONS ON

effect. It is now used for the publick exhibitions of the " Academia" of the modern Italian poets.

Without doubt, the original purpose of these theatres has little analogy, nor should that at Vicenza have been brought in comparison, but upon the point of resemblance to the antique. The building at Vicenza has no external beauty, as it is surrounded and concealed by houses, and it is much less than this at Oxford.

I could never perceive the perfection which lias been so generally attributed to the elevation of the Theatre. The contour towards the street is certainly beautiful. In the striped pilasters0 Jones is copied in the piers he has made at Covent Garden and the loggia at Wilton. Of Roman architecture, the great, if not the only remaining specimen, of the whole external rustick with striped pilasters, is the amphitheatre at Verona. The front is not happily conceived, but the base is better than the broken pediment, with its de- generate ornaments and petty urns. By the roof, as originally finished, the whole building was ab- solutely depressed, and overloaded with lead and gilding.

The chapel at Trinity college was built on a plan remodelled or amplified by sir Christopher Wren : the proportions are correct, and the ele- vation, as now^ seen from the street, extremely

0 He has likewise introduced them in pilasters at Marlbo- rough house, St. James's Park.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 145

light and elegant. But the tower might have been well spared, for it is by no means a beauti- ful appendage p. At Pembroke college the cha- pel repeats this plan in miniature, and is its rival in the peculiar beauty and neatness of the in- terior.

The Garden court11 at Trinity was built like- wise according to sir Christopher's directions, and was the first Palladian structure seen in Ox- ford. The design is simple and commodious, and by the j}lan lately adopted, it is now rendered uniform.

In the garden view it exhibits a pure style, better suited to the situation and the original building than greater architectural ornament. But for just proportions, the Ashmolean Museum claims a higher place than the buildings before noticed ; as it is in a much better taste, and more in the last style of Inigo Jones. Considering that as the summit of English architecture, I prefer this structure to Wren's other works in Oxford, and regret its unfavourable situation. If the windows were refitted with glass, and the whole decorated as it well deserves to be, we should not so much miss the eastern portico, hid in a narrow

P Dr. Aldrieh is said (in Warton's Life of Dr. Bathnrsr, p. 68-71) to have suggested the first thought. Several letters between sir Christopher and president Bathurst prove how far the greater credit is due to him. Chapel 75 feet by 30, and 40 high.

— 60 feet by 25.

146 OBSERVATIONS ON

passage made by the Theatre. To describe the contents, or give the history of this museum, is not my intention, as many things are deposited there, about which the world has long forgotten to inquire.

I will only observe incidentally, that it was the first publick institution of the kind, and, in the infancy of the study of natural history in England, was a great collection ; and, though far exceeded at this time by several others, is re- spectable for an original plan. In its archives are preserved what antiquaries will value more highly ; the private MSS. and books of sir W. Dugdale and Anthony a Wood.

The library at Queen's college1 is so well de- signed, that it may be fairly attributed to sir Christopher's superintending judgment ; though given to his scholar and assistant, Nicholas Hawksmoor.

As the present quadrangle, which so magni- ficently constitutes apart of the High Street, has a general resemblance to the palace of the Lux-

r Dimensions of Libraries. — Library at Queen's college 114 feet by 31, and 26 high. At All Souls, 198 by 32, and 40 high. Trinity college, Cambridge, 190 by 40, and 38 in height. Blenheim 183-5 by 31-9, and at either end a square of 28 by 20. Heythrop 83 by 20, and 20 high. Oriel col- lege 83 by 28, and 28 high. Worcester college loo feet long. Caen Wood 60 by 21. Shelburne house 105 by 30, and 25 high. Thorndon 95 by 20, and 32 high. Luton is 146 feet in length, divided into three rooms. Arundel, so divided, is 99 feet, in the Gothick style, forming two rooms of 42 each, \vith a transept of 15.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 14?

embotirg at Paris, may it not have been com- posed from some design made by that great master in architecture, during his visit to France ? Every thing that Hawksmoor has done is decid- edly inferior to Queen's college, whether his genius runs riot amongst steeples, as at Limehouse and Bloomsbury, or whether it aims at something re- gular, as at Easton Neston, so that the claim to the whole plan may be rather referred to Wren. The Dorick elevation of the hall and chapel is grand and harmonious, and worthy of him or Aldrich. Though the whole was not finished till the year 1739, the design, at first approved of by the so- ciety, was strictly adhered to. Before that time, the garden court at New college8 appeared, much in imitation of Versailles, without the colonnade, or more probably taken from the palace built by sir Christopher Wren at Winchester ; but with an heterogeneous addition of Gothick battlements, and escocheons encumbering the architraves of the windows. A single effect, as seen from the garden, was intended, and is produced; but it has no other praise. The judicious builder hus- bands his imagination, and reserves something to

s In a poem entitled " Oxonii Dux Poetieus, by M. Aubry, 8vo. 1795," the resemblance of these buildings to Versailles excites the following exclamation :

" Ah mihi Versalias nimis ilia referre videntur

Qu& regis miseri limina parte subis. Sontes Versalias ! quse primae incendia sneva

Accendere, quibus Gallia adusta peril,"

L 2

148 OBSERVATIONS ON

delight the mind, which he can no longer sur- prise.

The Clarendon Printing-office has an advan- tage of situation upon a gentle ascent ; an aid which the nature of Vanbrugh's architecture particularly requires. Yet, as composing the august group of buildings, which are seen so happily at the end of Clarendon Street, where it is clustered \vith the Theatre ; the portico, with- out grace or proportion in every other point of view, gains an accidental dignity and propriety. By the thorough-Jight, the whole architectural mass is relieved, and becomes picturesque* As approached from the Schools, it is all alike, huge, heavy, and magnificently clumsy; and we are no longer tempted to dream of symmetry and arrangement.

Dn Henry Aldrich, the accomplished dean of Christ Church, was one of the most perfect ar- chitects of his time. His Elements of Civil Ar- chitecture l give ample evidence that he was in- timately conversant with the science ; and two beautiful edifices of their kind, are a very ho-

1 This MS. had belonged to Dr. George Clarke, who be- queathed it, with his library, to Worcester college. It was published and very ably translated by P. Smyth, L.L.B. Fellow of New college, large 8vo. 1790. Philips mentions Dr. Aldrich in his^Cyder with just panegyrick:

" the Muses' favour'd seat,

Where Aldrich reigns, and from his endless store Of universal knowledge, still supplies ,;His noble care." B. 1, 1. 617, p. 68, edit. Dunster.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 14Q

nourable proof of his excellence in practice. He built Peckwater Court at Christ Church, in a chaste lonick style, and has made the decoration subordinate to the design. The base is rustick, the three-quarter columns which support the central pediments are correctly formed, the pi- lasters are plain, and the windows dressed with architraves. He has composed the whole from the purest instances of Palladio atVicenza, judi- ciously rejecting a superfluity of ornament, by which the great outline of the Venetian architect was not unfrequently eclipsed. The other build- ing which boasts the design of Dr. Aldrich is the parish-church of All Saints in Oxford u,

It is observed x, with some degree of truth, and censure, that (( modern churches are a vile compound, Italy having furnished the ground- plan, Greece the portico, and France or Germany, the spire.*'

The modern spire is generally composed of a rotunda or spherical temple supporting an obe- lisk. Mr. Walpole calls it " a monster in archi* tecture;" and Mr. Pennant in his " London" speaks very pleasantly of an order called the <f Pepper-box^." If Wren himself could not

u Dimensions. — 72 feet by 4.2, and 40 high* * Murphy's Batalha, Pref. p. 16.

y Dimensions.-- The spire of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, is 234 feet high ; and that of St. Mary le Bow exhibits the five orders

L3

150 OBSERVATIONS Otf

rescue his steeples from such deserved and con- temptuous criticisms, their cause could expect little from Hawksmoor and Gibbs, in their share of the fifty new churches, in which they exhibit a variety of ugliness.

Of the spire of All Saints it may be truly said, that it has fewer objectionable parts than almost all of those alluded to ; and the church with its Corinthian portico, no less than the accuracy of the internal proportions, is uncommonly correct in composition, and elegant in effect.

The University has produced another architect of merit, though not in the profession. Dr. George Clarke2, of All Souls college, where the great luminary of architecture, sir Christopher Wrena, had like wise studied, was associated with Hawksmocr in the plan of the new quadrangle and Codrington's library for that society. The style is original, more like Gothick than Grecian ;

in different parts, and is 225 feet high. At St. Dunstan's in the East, the spire rests upon the intersection of two arches, in imitation of a church at Newcastle-upon Tyne.

ZN. 1660, O. 1736.

aN. 1632, O. 1723. His Designs in three large folio vo- lumes are now preserved in the library of All Souls college. The principal are St. Paul's, an intended palace in St. James's Park, and Greenwich Hospital. Dr. Clarke gave Jones's Pal- lad io, with his MS. notes in Italian, to Worcester college. Lord Burljngton purchased many of Palladio's designs from the Contarini collection at Venice, among which was a Vitruvius so noted. The duke of Devonshire has a Palladio with Jones's Latin notes.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 15 i

and, though capricious and irregular in the ex- treme, the whole effect is far from unpleasing. Ha wksmoor universally mistook whim for genius, and a love of ornament for taste. But Dr. Clarke planned the library which completes the square of Peckwater at Christ Church, already men- tioned, and which is now the superb repository of archbishop Wake's and lord Orrery's books, and of general Guise's pictures. It consists of one order of rich Corinthian columns, of three quar- ters, and considerable height and diameter. The idea of this manner was supplied by Bernini, who filled up with apartments the grand colonnade, which remained of the Basilica of Antoninus at Rome, which is now the Dogana or Custom-house. In Dr. Clarke's first plan, which I have seen, he had placed a turret like that at Queen's college in the centre, the omission of which no one will regret. One great character was intended by the archi- tect, which is that of magnificence ; it was be- yond his talents, and heaviness prevails b.

In the library, hall, and chapel, at Worcester college, which are due both to his munificence and his skill, there is a greater simplicity, and more success. Yet the hall and chapel would

* A poet in the Musae Anglican®, intending a compliment, has told the plain truth :

" solidaeque colufnnae

Apparent, tectique haucl enarralile ro&wr."

ATRIUM PECK.WATER.

Dimensions.— Library 141 feet by 30, and 37 high.

L 4

153 OBSERVATIONS ON

have been more happily connected by a portico, and the present narrow alley occupied by build- ing. As a private gentleman well versed in ar- chitecture he must yield, in all points, to Dr. Aldrich ; but he had more science, if less taste, than his contemporary lord Burlington.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 153

SECTION VII.

Gibbs — Radcliffes Library — The Square — Gibbs' s Works — New Buildings at Corpus and Magdalene Colleges— Observatory — New Gate- way at Christ Church — Library at Oriel Col- lege — At JLxeter College — Magdalene Bridge — The High Street in Oxford — Publick Walks.

CJIBBS and Vanbrugh have discovered nearly equal ponderosity. Gibbs adhered scrupulously to the rules of Palladio, but nature had denied him taste ; and though very much employed in his day, in publick buildings, scarcely one of them can boast any degree of simplicity or elegance. His favourite work was the New Library3 at Oxford, the first application of Dr. Radcliffe's fund. In a most unfavourable situation he has erected a structure which required every advan- tage of space and elevation. The oblong square

? The Radcliflfe Library is 140 feet high, the external dia- meter of the cupola 105 feet, and the internal 100 by 97. Plates of the elevation and sections were published by G. Vertue. It was finished in 1749, eleven years after the first stone was laid; The total expence was 40,000^. The Imperial Library at Vienna was built by John Bernard Fischers, in the centre of which is a cupola supported by columns of scagliola, witfy an ample area. But the skill of the architect is principally shewn in breaking the extreme length by another colonnade in rooms which are continued from the centre. It has the air of a Grecian temple, and is richly painted.

154 OBSERVATIONS ON

in which it stands is only three hundred and ten feet by one hundred and seventy, and so ill adapted to receive a rotunda of one hundred and twenty feet diameter, that it is absolutely shoul- dered by the opposite colleges of Brazenose and All Souls3.

The Schools and St. Mary's church complete a square without the intervention of any private edifice ; a circumstance to which it owes an ef- fect of magnificence which belongs to none of the component buildings, were they detached from the group. I have repeated Mr. Walpole's opinion less happily, and I do not think his judgment severe.

If seen by moon-light, the Radcliffe Library1* loses much of the heavy, depressed appearance, it shews under the meridian sun. I have fre- quently surveyed St. Paul's, London, under a similar point of view, and have been surprised by the fine proportions of the colonnade sur- rounding the dome, which an atmosphere of

a I have seen a very grand design for rebuilding Brazenose college, probably by Hawksmoor. One part fronted the High Street. It was not unlike the royal hospital at Greenwich.

b Gibbs bequeathed his books and drawings to this library. He published a volume of architectural Designs in folio, 1728, and a description of the Radcliffe Library 1747. It contains few others, beside some Oriental MSS. In the area are two candelabra very ingeniously composed of marble fragments after the antique by Piranesi at Rome. They were given by sir R. Newdigate. With them might be placed a few of the best of the Arundel statues, when judiciously re^ stored, till a suite of rooms could be finished for them.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 155

thick smoke had positively obscured in the day- time c.

The cupola of the Radcliffe Library not rest- ing upon the walls of the rotunda, but being propped by conspicuous buttresses, appears to have sunk from its intended elevation. Nor is it in the least relieved by the reduplication of ill-shaped vases, by which it is profusely sur- rounded.

The rustick doors could well have spared their pediments ; and the small square windows under the large ones in the second order, look meanly. This blunder was certainly a beauty in the eyes of the architect, for he first introduced it in St. Martin's church, which he built in London ; and has repeated it here. The double three-quarter Corinthian columns are yet handsome, and if the intermediate space, instead of being so often per- forated, had been occupied by windows, copied from those at Whitehall, some dignity of orna- ment had been introduced, and a littleness avoided, which now strikes every observer. It may be inquired, whether this building had not gained both beauty and grandeur, if whole and insulated pillars had supported the architrave and rotunda.

In the great quadrangle of St. Thomas's Hos- pital, London, we may observe a mixture of his

c The RadclifFe Square is described by Vasi in his account of St. Peter's at Rome, " unisce alia suamagnificenza una estrema bizzaria."

15(3 OBSERVATIONS ON

merits and of his faults. It is one of our publick buildings as completely hid, as if every effort had been made to conceal it. He designed the church at Derby in the Palladian style, attached to a very- beautiful Go thick tower,

Mr, Walpole will not allow that " any man talks of one edifice of Gibbs :" in candour, he should have excepted the portico of St. Martin's. It is octo-style and of large dimensions, but in the worst situation imaginable, as well from the irregularity of the ground, as the narrowness of the street. By no other portico in London, could we be in the smallest degree reminded of the great archetype in the Pantheon at Rorne^ The columns of that before Carltqn House are puny, and tottering under the architrave. That of St. George's, Hanover Square, has only half its proportion of depth. From the same cir^ cumstance, that of the new India House, although rich and highly finished, has the appearance of a corridore. The same defect occurs at the Man- sion House, without a single beauty to counter* balance ite.

Gibbs, aware that he was censured for want of grace, determined, according to his own

d The portico of the Pantheon is 69 feet by 41, and is sup- ported by 1 6 columns of red oriental granite. The church of St. Martin in vthe Fields was finished in five years, and at the ,expence of 32,000^. — Soufflot, in his portico of the church of St. Genevieve (now the Pantheon) has succeeded better than any modern architect, in his imitation of the archetype at Home.

c The Mansion House cost in building 42,638^. 18$. 4d. ! I

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 157

nion, to obviate all objections on that account, in his design for the New Church in the Strand. He aimed at elegance, but could not accomplish even prettiness.

The great art in a building of moderate dimen- sions is to proportion the decorations to the space they are destined to fill, that they may not by their multiplicity encumber, where they should adorn. Unobservant of this rule, Gibbs indulged his love of finery in architecture, and has crowded every inch of surface with petty decorations. The body of the church, not lofty in itself, is broken into two orders, and the spire is tapered like a Chinese pagoda, by a repetition of parts composed of members of Grecian architecture. In such faults, the eye is offended by the affecta- tion of beauty f.

The new buildings of Magdalene and Corpus colleges are now to be considered.

There is both simplicity and beauty in that at Corpus. The pediment is supported by four plain lonick pilasters, the windows are unorna-

f " Attempts at lightness, unless supported by extreme richness either of material or ornament, either of colour or form, almost always produce meagreriess, poverty, or weakness of effect, such as is too manifest in most of the works of Grecian or Roman architecture, lately executed in this country, where spindle columns, bald capitals, wide intercolumniations and scanty entablatures, form a sort of frippery trimming, fit only to adorn a brick-clamp, which is indeed the usual application of them. " — Knight's Enquiry, p. 176.

158 OBSERVATIONS ON

merited, and the base not rustick, which accords better with the whole.

It is said, that the front of the new building at Magdalene college was designed by Mr. E. Holdsworth, a fellow of that society, and the author of Muscipula, a much-admired poem. In a front which extends 30O feet, and is about 5O in height, there are not less than eighty windows, and, what is worse, they are all of the same di- mensions. Inigo Jones, in his model of archi- tecture at Whitehall, in a space of 120 feet in length, and 80 in height, has placed only fourteen windows, which he has made the vehicles of judicious ornament.

Allowing the necessity of rendering so many apartments commodious, and the difficulty of erecting a building of sufficient size without breaking the surface into many parts or perfora- tions of no variety ; here is certainly nothing to praise but the aspect to the paddock; which gives the air of a nobleman's residence. It can- not boast more than many of those great houses, where extent and a multiplicity of rooms make the only amends for the deficiencies of archi- tecture.

Towards the old quadrangle is an arcade or cloister of equal extent with the building, which wras intended in the original plan to surround the spacious area. Mr. Wyatt has determined, that

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 15Q

^

if the whole were gothicized, a better effect would be produced. And Mess, Reptonand Nash have likewise made designs of a rich and picturesque rather than a pure Gothick. There is little to hazard as to its present beauty, every pretension to which is lost in sameness.

For about twenty years, Keen was the architect principally employed. He gave the design, and superintended the new building at Balliol college, which is a handsome piece of street architecture s. The proportions are just, and the ornaments dis- posed with taste.

Dr. Clarke's designs for the quadrangle at Worcester college, with the hall and chapel, were consulted, and in a great degree followed by Keen, with considerable improvement. The provost's lodgings were entirely planned by him, and are singularly commodious.

He built likewise the Radcliffe • Infirmary from the model of that at Gloucester, which owes its very superior plan to Mr. Singleton, a private gentleman of that county.

As the next destination of the Radcliffe fund, the Observatory was designed by him, but had scarcely risen above the foundations at the time of his death in 1/70. The idea was not happy,

g The elevation of this building is particularly striking as con- trasted with the meanness and irregularity of the ancient front of the' college. It may be supposed to exclaim

Prisca juvent alios — ego nunc me denique natum Cratulor. Or ID,

160 OBSERVATIONS ON

and was probably much better in the drawing, than when executed. It was materially altered, and completed by Mr. Wyatt in 1786. No building in Oxford is so advantageously situated, but the wings are long and low, and add nothing, even by contrast, to the lightness and elegance of the centre. The tower finishes in a general re- presentation of the Temple of the Winds at Athens ; but upon consulting Le Roy and Stuart, the model will not be found to have an exact correspondence. I mention this circumstance incidentally, and not as subtracting any thing from the merit of the application* Whatever objections may obtrude themselves on the first view of the elevation, they are completely su- perseded by the grandeur and beauty of the ob- servation-room ; to the singular excellence of which, many foreigners of taste and experience have given an unanimous suffrage s.

An observatory, to answer all astronomical purposes, and to display at the same time the graces of architecture, appears to have been a performance of considerable difficulty. The first, which was erected at Greenwich by sir Jonas ,Moore, master of the ordnance, is so shapeless and capricious, that it might be -easily mistaken for the summer-house of a w^himsical man of wealth, in the vicinity of London. What part

s The whole length 175 feet by 57, in the widest part, and at each wing 24. Parapet 50, and the octangular tower and sta- tue 50 more, which completes an elevation of 100 feet.

ARCHITECTURE. 161

fef it could possibly have been corrected by sir Christopher Wren ? — yet his final correction and approbation are said to have been given*1.

The Observatory in Richmond Park, built at the expense of his present Majesty by sir William Chambers, iri 1/6Q, is an elegant mansion, fully appropriate to its original intention, which is sufficiently pointed out by the light moveable rotunda and cupola on the roof.

At Oxford, it is more characteristick, that the private residence should be a secondary consi- deration.

A building entirely of Mr. Wyatt's architec- ture next merits our attention. By the munifi- cence of Dr. Robinson, primate of Ireland, a beautiful gateway, in a part of Christ Church called Canterbury Court, was finished in 1778. The order isDorick. Nothing in imagination could attain to a more perfect simplicity, nor could we receive an equal satisfaction from the utmost effort of magnificence. In the Dorick column there is an appearance of majesty and firmness, not unappropriate, as far as solidity is implied.

It is probable that the ingenious architect did not purpose a strict adherence to precedent ; but following the example of the great Italian school, has deviated from the antique in search of new beauties, and greater excellence. His Dorick co-

h Parental! a. M

162 OBSERVATIONS ON

lumn is strictly neither Grecian, Roman, nor Italian1.

In the temples of ./Egina, Poestum, and the citadel at Athens k, the most perfect example of Dorick, the guttee retain their position, the flut- ing is continued over the astragal, and the co- lumn invariably rests upon the base, without an intermediate plinth.

The theatre of Marcellus at Rome has plain columns with a fillet, and among the ruins of the baths of Dioclesian it is introduced above the termination of the fluting ; but the latter in- stance is of the decline of Roman architecture. All the Italian architects from Palladio to Viola, have invented a Dorick style of their own ; in one point they agree, in contrariety to the Greek model, their columns have tori and bases like the other orders.

The whole quadrangle rebuilt upon Mr.WyattV plan is a very graceful accompaniment to this portal as the great feature, and combines simpli- city with taste.

The library at Oriel college is among the more perfect pieces of architecture in Oxford, but it has no advantage of situation. The fa9ade with equal grandeur and simplicity exhibits only the lonick

,m *l See Mr. Hope's Letter upon the Plan of Downing College* for an account of Mr, Wyatt's portico of the Pantheon, in Oxford Street, London.

k Ionian Antiquities, vol. ii, Ruins, of Poestum, and Stuart's,. Athens*

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

order. All the parts are great and commanding, the ornaments few, and the whole harmonious. Mr. Wyatt has been less happy in his design of the interior l. It will be allowed, that the inside of this building little corresponds either with the simple elegance or the just proportions of the elevation. The windows internally are not of a height suitable to that of the room ; the conse- quence of which is, that a w^ant of a proper quantity of light is observable immediately on entrance. The scagliola pillars with huge white Corinthian marble capitals appear much too large and elaborately ornamental for the recess, whose plain entablature they support ; and raise in the mind a painful sense of the poverty rather than simplicity of the whole, which consists of an un- adorned portal between two plain walls. Perhaps all that the architect intended has not been done. A series of tablets with slight mouldings on the outside of the structure gives the windows an appearance of proportion, which, on entrance, is lost in & great degree ; and a gallery over them, increases the heavy appearance of the inside wall.

At Exeter college a library of small dimen-, sions was built, a few years since, as I have been informed, from th£ design given by the present Publick Orator; which would have don$ great

f-*-%$ feet by 28, and 28 high vvithin the walls. M 2

164 OBSERVATIONS ON

credit to his taste> had the plan he suggested been more correctly followed.

I close my observations on the architecture of the university of Oxford, with the hope that they may be found to be neither superficial nor unjust. Free and unprejudiced I avow them to be, and I offer them diffidently, as the private opinions of an individual, who has no ambition of forming the taste, or influencing the judgment of others.

The approach to the city of Oxford over Mag- dalene bridge, built by Gwynnm, is unique in point of effect, and the first impression it com- municates of the grandeur of this seat of the Muses. Whether it be a bridge or a causeway, the double columns n are, at least, useless* for they add nothing to its support. I am aware of Mylne's having adopted them at Blackfriars ; and I think not happily, for the original purpose of the pillars is not ornament> but support. The ^architect of Magdalene bridge, it will be allowed, had most impracticable ground to work upon,

m He published London and Westminster improved, with plates, 4to. 1766.

n We are reminded of Spenser's bridge leading to the palace of Venus :

" It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wise

With curious corbs, and pendants graven fayr ;

And arched all with- porches, did arise

On stately pillours, Iram'd after the Doric guise."

Tak of Sir ScudamQret b. ivr c. 10.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

and his bridges at Worcester and at Shrewsbury are very creditable proofs of his skill, where he had a single river only to cross. England is fa- mous for that species of architecture. The bridges over the Thames exceed in extent and magnificence, not only those over the Seine, but in any part of Europe?^ The modern bridges at Rome are not beautiful; and the boasted Rialto at Venice has no merit but the single arch. We have many provincial bridges of .superior light- ness and construction; I will instance those only of Henley, Maidenhead, which has seven arches, and was built by sir Robert Taylor at the expense of ig,ooo/. and Richmond, over the Thames % which last noticed, consisting of five arches, was designed by Paine and Couse, and cost in com- pleting 26,ooo/. built 1774 to 1777. It is 400 feet in length, ' But the most perfect 1 have ever seen, is the Ponte Trinita, over the Arno at Florence, of three arches only, each spanning one hundred feet. Such exquisite proportion and simplicity are the summit of the art,

By its curvature, the High Street gradually ex-

P Westminster bridge was built between the years 1739 and I757> by Charles Labelye, a native of Switzerland, and cost 389,500^ Blackfriars, by John Mylne, 1760 to 1768, at the •expense of 1 52,84O/. 35. icd.

qThe finest Gothick bridge on the continent is that of one arch over the Adige at Verona, which spans 213 Roman palms, about 140 English feet. It was built by Fra. Giocondo in 1468. The Ouse bridge at York, and that at Croyland, have, been most celebrated in England.

M 3

166 OBSERVATIONS ON

pands the scenes of academick splendour. The succession is not too sudden, nor does it suffer from the want of continuity or neatness in the private houses.

For variety and magnificence of publick build- ings no city in Europe can offer a competition. In the " Corso" at Rome, there are large pa- laces, which are proudly distinguished from com- mon habitations, and so frequent, that a resem- blance will strike every English visitant. The palaces of Genoa are placed in streets so ex-, tremeiy narrow, that they are seen with difficulty. At Venice and Florence the niost beautiful and magnificent buildings are seen in the piazzas or squares. Respecting the circumstances of space and commodious pavement, which are so essen- tial to a favourable elevation of the several build- ings, and the number of them seen in the same view, the High Street in Oxford is greatly supe- rior, if not in the individual beauty of the com- ponent structures.

Before commerce had usurped every inch of ground in the busy parts of the capital, the se- ries of noblemen's palaces from Arundel house in the Strand to Northumberland house at Char- ing Cross, as they stood in the reign of Charles I. must have had an air of national grandeur, which is now no more.

Oxford is not only distinguished for beauty as a city, but for the number and pleasantness of its

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

x i

gardens and publick resorts. The " cathedral length of trees" at Christ Church, the bowers of Merton, the happy effect of modern garden- ing at St. John's, and of the style of the last age, in Trinity and New College, with the delightful retreats on the banks of the Cherwell at Magda- lene1", compose environs of infinite amenity. The English Academus enjoys its " studious walks and shades/' which yield to those anciently at Athens, as described to us, only on account of the more frequent revolutions of this climate, when winter deprives them of their charms.

T " Inter sylvas academi quaerere verum." " To hunt for truth in Maud'lin's learned grove.*'

POPE'S Imit. Hor. Ep. l.-'ii.

108 OBSERVATIONS ON

SECTION VIII.

View of the University of Cambridge — Castle — Church of St. Sepulchre — Peter House — Clare Hall — Cains' College — Kings College — The Chapel — Will of King Henry VI. concerning it — Observations on the Construction of the Roof — Plan of Kings College resembling that of Magdalene College, Oxford — Netv Building by Gibbs — St. Johns College — Trinity College — Hall and Chapel-~Library by Sir C. Wren — Jesus -— Emamtel — Downing College — Senate- house by Sir J. Borough~St. Mary's Church —•Publick Library— Publick Walks,

IN pursuing the subject of English architecture, it will be necessary to take a general view of the buildings in the sister university. The chapel of King's college is indisputably the finest specimen of Gothick architecture in England, in its latest period. The library qf Trinity college and the senate-house exhibit very advantageously the airy elegance and the severer beauty of symme- try, which characterize the best aeras of Palladian architecture. In these buildings alone a supe- riority over Oxford can be claimed,

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 169

The university of Cambridge is planted upon the very low eastern bank of the river Cam, surrounded by a country which may vie in flat- ness with any district of England. A distant view is, on that account, scarcely more favour- able, picturesquely considered, than a near one. Lofty trees embosom all the less eminent build- ings, as they appear on every side, and from every distance. There are, in fact, only two great features, King's college chapel and the tower of St. Mary's church; By the extreme length of the former, which separates the four tall pinnacles from each other, it is impossible to connect them in idea, either as the fa9ade of a cathedral, or as belonging to a tower, which their great height nearly equals. The form therefore of this stupendous structure, as seen under the line of the horizon, either laterally or as a solitary .object, is more surprising than beau- tiful, St. Mary's tower is of no great conse- quence, as an accompaniment from any point of view.

At the contiguous village of Grantchester is a much-admired station, where a more interesting prospect is presented ; but Cambridge has not the advantages which many cities possess, that of appearing to rise in the centre of a plain ; a defect which could have been only remedied by many lofty buildings of various outlines, cluster- ing to a pyramidal point.

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Two which boast the highest antiquity in Cambridge are the castle and the Round church. Of the fortress erected by William the Con- queror nothing remains, but a very high mound of earth, probably Danish, upon which the keep might have been formerly placed. The gateway now seen is comparatively modern, and of the middle centuries. This castle received Edward I. in one of his progresses in 12Q3 ; a certain evi- dence of its consequence at that time z.

The church of St. Sepulchre is extremely cu- rious, as being the most ancient of those built by the Knights Templars, after their return from the first croisade, in resemblance of the Holy Sepul- chre at Jerusalem. It was erected in 1 130, only twelve years after their institution ; but fifty-five before the Temple church, London. In its ori- ginal plan, it may be regarded as the archetype of the last-mentioned, being circular, and having internally a peristyle of eight heavy pillars, and a door-case of Norman mouldings3. When the Templars were dissolved in the reign of Ed- ward II. the chancel or choir was added to both, with other heterogeneous parts. A third, less ancient and curious, is at Northampton.

Peter-house is One of the few colleges in Cam- bridge which contribute to the street architec-

z Stowe's Annals, p, 205.

a Archaeolog. vol. v.-— sixteen pages.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

ture. It appears to have been re-erected in the reign of Charles I. as the chapel is of the date of 1632, with pointed windows and battlements; but it has no other pretensions to the Gothick style. Some incongruities may have been added upon the repairs, after the civil wars. Both of the chapel and the central building of the open arcade or cloister, by which the quadrangles are divided, the pediments and pilasters are most capriciously formed, being such as abounded upon great houses, peculiar to the reign of James I. Inigo Jones had, about the same time, designed the cloisters of St. John's in Oxford ; but it is evident that he was not employed here. The casing of brick with stone was first adopted in this college, about sixty years since.

Of Clare hall the characteristicks are unifor- mity and neatness. The whole has been rebuilt with stone, soon after the restoration, and upon a plan originating in the French school of archi- tecture, very fashionable in England during the reign of Charles II. The front is rich in orna- ment, but not magnificent ; for the pilasters, of which there are fifty, approximate so nearly to each other ; and the windows, equal in number, being almost square, the usual effect of a frit- tered surface could not have been avoided. The interior of the quadrangle is lofty and handsome. But to the chapel, very great architectural merit has been universally attributed. Sir James Bo-

172 OBSERVATIONS ON

rough, master of Caius college, after the example of Dr. Aldrich and Dr. Clarke at Oxford, ap- plied himself to the science with a singular pro- ficiency. He was consulted respecting the plans of all the buildings at Cambridge which were erected in his time. .This chapel is said to have been entirely of his own design ; and though ap- parently indebted for the idea of its general form to that, of Trinity college, Oxford ; where he has varied, he has given proof of his taste. He has added a rustick basement, omitted the urns with flames, and substituted an octagon, lighted by a cupola, for the tower. Although disadvan- tageously placed, Cambridge has no equal in- stance of a pure and classical style. The court of Trinity hall offers an example of modernizing to several of the smaller colleges, which, it is much to be wished, so ample a legacy as that bequeathed by Dr. Andrewes in 1747, would enable them to follow. At Caius college, a specimen of the members of Pallaxlian architec- ture in miniature, was first exhibited to the university, in a gateway designed by Theodore Haave, or Clevensis, an architect, sculptor, and painter, of eminence, in the reign of queen Eli- zabeth. It nearly resembles the tombs of that age, which were composed of various marbles formed into columns, entablatures, and alcoves, upon the Italian plan, then newly introduced into England; and it rests upon the door-case, as a. 2

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. lf$

superstructure. Much as it was once admired, it's present claim to notice is merely that of curiosity.

The next subject of examination according to priority of date is King's college chapel, the wonder of its own and of every succeeding age. A minute detail of its history can scarcely be thought uninteresting, if collected from genuine documents, and as tending to throw a light on the state of architecture in that age, and on the manner in which so vast a work was conducted, and brought to final perfection. Hitherto we have had more general praise of its beauty and excellence, than satisfactory accounts of its ori- gin, progress, and completion.

One of the first acts of the ill-fated Henry VI. after he had taken the government into his own hands, was the foundation of two magnificent colleges, at Cambridge, and at Eton. His prin- cipal counsellor, with whom these beneficial plans were concerted, was William of Waynflete, whom he made provost of Eton, and who lived to be himself the founder of Magdalene college, in Oxford b.

In the 22d and the following year of his reign and the same of his age, the king charged the dutchy of Lancaster, which he considered as his paternal estate, at that time amounting to

b Harl. MSS. 7032. iNo. xi. p. 289—302, Nichols's Royal and Noble Wills.

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33Q5/. 1U. ?d. per annum, with an annual pay- ment of 20OO/. toward the erection of his two colleges, and he confirmed his donation in his will (dated March 12, 1447), to be continued for twenty years.

Eton was designed to be " replenished with goodly windowes and vaults, laying apart super- fluities of too great curious workes of entaile and busy mouldinge." A cloister 200 feet by 160, and a tower 20 feet in diameter within the walls, and 14O in height, were described in the plan. Such was the intended magnificence, but it par- took of its founder's fate, and was never com- pleted.

King's college has likewise failed of its original plan, which is recited in the will of Henry VI, and is in itself so curious, that frequent extracts from it may be necessary to elucidate the present subject13. The chapel was to contain "288 feet of assize in length, without any yles, and all of the breadth of 40 feet; the wralls to be in height QO feet, embattled, vaulted, and chare- rofFedc, sufficiently boterassed, and every butterace fined with finials, and betwixt every butterace a win- dow of five bays, and on both sides a closet with an altar therein, containing in length 20 feet,

c Henry VI.'s will, ut sup.

c " Chare-rofted means a space having been left between the vault and the roof. Clerestorial windpws are those above the ailes."

4

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

and in breadth 10, vaulted and finished under the soyle of the yle windowes." The cloister to be 175 feet by 200, a tower 24 feet diameter and 120 to the corbeil table ; and another tower for a gatehouse 3o feet by 22, and 60 in height The whole premises to be surrounded by a wall 14 feet high, embattled and fortified with towers, as many as may be thought convenient thereto, " with a large tower towards the High Street, and another in the middle of the west end of the new bridge4."

King Henry's successors of the house of York appear to have been not inattentive to his great work at Cambridge, which had made but a slow progress during his unfortunate reign. It is said, that the walls of the chapel had not risen many feet above their foundations at the time of his death* Yet, the sums given towards the carry- ing on of the building were either so sparingly or so irregularly bestowed by Edward IV. and Richard III. that the roof, external ornaments, turrets, pinnacles, vaulting the small oratories, and glazing, remained to be finished by Henry VII, e. Although engaged, during the whole of

d A similar high wall embattled and with square towers en- closes the meadows of Magdalene college, Oxfor^, which was built by the founder.

c The building was interrupted for sixteen years. In the four following years ia<)6/. i*. %d. were expended ; to which sum Edward IV. contributed loool. In the reign of Richard III. 746Z. 10$. yd, only were laid out. HarU MSS, No. 433, f, 209.

176 OBSERVATIONS ON

his reign, in magnificent architectural both at Windsor and Westminster, he certainly did not ^neglect King's college, and made an ample provision in his will, by which that highly celebrated structure was completed under the care of his executors, early in the reign of Henry VIII, f.

A more commanding elevation than that of this chapel, seen from the senate-house, will not be found in any other part of the English domi- nions. Being a mass, the height of wrhich is sufficient to relieve its great length, it instantly communicates an idea of Gothick grandeur, al- most without parallel. But it may be questioned, whether the oratories, which have the external appearance of a cloister, do not materially break the general effect of the buttresses and angular turrets, which would have been still more strik- ing, could they have been viewed from the found- ation to the summit, Without any interruption.

From the opposite walks, beyond the river, the elevation of the west end, with its vast win- dow, its portico, and lofty turrets rising from a certain advantage of ground, is indeed more

f The will of Henry VII. published in 410. 1775, by S. Pegge, esq. p. 27 : " And in case the seid VMI (5ooo/.) shall not suffice for the perfourmance of the seid werks, and that they be not perfectly fynished by us in our dayes, we than woll that our ex ers shall, from tyme to tyme, delivre to the seid pro- vost as much money above the seid.VM1 (5ooo/.) as shall suf- fice for the perfyte finishing and performing the said werkes every part of them.,"

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. ' 1/7

richly picturesque. In this point of view, it may be well considered as having no dependance on . the other buildings, which complete so grand a fa9ade, on the banks of the Cam. This whole architectural scene is the just boast of Cam- bridge.

The great cause of our admiration upon the, first eptrance into this chapel is the unity of de- sign ; from which it appears to be smaller than in reality, or . than on frequent examination it would do ; a circumstance invariably happening to those who visit the church of St. Peter at Rome. The grand whole instantly fills the eye, without any abatement or interruption. When we find leisure for the detail, we may admire the infinite parts which compose the roof, and the exquisite finishing of the arms and cognizances of the house of Lancaster ; and regret, that, being so large, they should be stuck against the finely wrought pilasters, like monumental tablets in. a parish church. The stained glass heightens the effect of the stone- work, and gives it a tint, which can never be produced by any wash of lime, with whatever substance it may be com-v bined, when the light passes through diminutive squares of raw white glass. As so much is added to architectural excellence, how great soever it may be, by a sober and uniform tone of colour, . somewhat, if the expression be allowable, be- tween glare and sombre, the modern improvers

178 OBSERVATIONS ON

of our cathedrals have shewn judgment in aban- doning the plain white or yellow, which pervade the cathedrals of Ely and Wells. KingHenry VI. as it is evident from the injunction he makes, in the instance of both his colleges, against superfluous masonry s, never intended a roof so splendidly elaborate as that designed and perfected under the auspices of his successors. His objection was not to the difficulty or impracticability of the work, for several of great extent had been erected prior to and during his reign, but to the enor- mous expense it would require.

Considering therefore the roof of King's col- lege chapel as the utmost effort of constructive skill, and the paragon of architectural beauty, it may not be irrelevant to offer a short view of the works of that nature, of sufficient celebrity, which had been previously finished in England.

The more ancient roofs in those cathedrals where the Norman style prevails, were com- posed of wood in rafters only ; but in the pro- gress of architecture, those were concealed by pannels, and painted in a kind of mosaick of se- veral colours. The surface was even made flat by these means, as in the transept of Peterbo- rough, The naves both of that cathedral and of Ely afford instances of the ancient timber roof.

* Henry VI. 's Will, p. 296, 305. — The foundation-stone of the chapel was laid by the king in person,, on the second of April 1441*

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, 179

Of the vaulting with stone we have many examples of a date as early as the reign of Henry III. It was formed by groined arches, spring- ing from corbels in the side-walls between the windows ; and when first invented was com- posed of plain ribs of stone called cross-springers, with a key-stone in the centre of them, arid the interstices were filled up with some lighter ma- terials. There was always a space of several feet intervening between the vaulting and the roof. As the principle of their construction became better known and practised about the reign of Edward III. by the more frequent and compli- cated intersection of the cross-springers, more ornament was introduced, and delicately carved orbs and rosettes were added, where unnecessary as to any architectural purpose. The arch of the vault was pointed, and that highly embel- lished part of it did not at first extend many feet- on either side the common centre.

This circumstance is remarkable in the choir at Lincoln, Our Lady's chapel at Ely, and many others erected in the early part of the fourteenth century. In the choir at Gloucester this elabo- rate work is spread over the whole with equal profusion. To reach a higher degree of excel- lence, probably because a greater difficulty, the architects of the later aera invented an arch, flat- tened in the centre, and with the groins hemi- spheriqally wrought. That particular species of

N 2

180 OBSERVATIONS O5T

architecture and carving called " fan-work/* / "which from its extreme cost and delicacy had been hitherto confined to cloisters, small chapels, and tombs, was now applied to whole roofs, and, with an equal defiance of expense and labour, made to supersede all the excellence of construc- tion and finishing that had been previously at- tainable. It is a fair conjecture, that this new method was either known to few of the master- masons, or was too expensive for frequent adop- tion upon a large scale. Certain it is, that the vaults of Windsor, the choir of Winton, Henry VII.'s and King's college chapels, were' com- menced and completed within twenty years, and that no farther attempts were subsequently madeV

The tradition, that sir Christopher Wren1 de-

b Vaulted roofs constructed in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. A.D. Feet.

Choir of Lincoln cathedral 1306* 200 — ^40

Our Lady's chapel at Ely J349- ?°° — 4&

Choir of Gloucester cathedral 1360. 140 — 34

Do. of York - 1373. 135—45

Divinity school, Oxford 1480.

Chapel St. George, Windsor 1508. 260 — 65

Do. Henry VII. Westminster 1508. Do. King's college, Cambridge 1516, 291 — 45!

Choir at Winton cathedral 1525. 138 — 86

Chapel of Christ Ch. Oxford 1535. 80

'Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 185. David Logman impaired his sight by taking the view of this cbapej in the Cantab, lljust. Id. p. 151.

The second part of the Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, by J. Britton, now publishing, refers to King's, college chapel, of which plans and picturesque elevations are given in a superior manner to any yet published,.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 181

tkred " that the construction of King's college chapel was beyond his comprehension ; but that if any person would describe to him where the first stone should be placed, he would then be enabled to effect it," is not altogether deserving of implicit credit. Lord Orford took it from the notes of G. Vertue, who might have been told it among other wonders, by the verger who shewed the chapel. The point of difficulty will be solved in a great measure, if, instead of con- templating the roof, as a whole or entire work, we consider the space only which is contained within four buttresses as independent and com- plete in itself, and the connection between each several compartment concealed, for the purpose of producing a very surprising architectural effect of elongation. One proof that the vault con- sists of many such parts, is the agreement with master-masons for each " severeyk .or partition to be engaged for as a distinct undertaking, and to be paid for in that proportion. Each severey" is bonded by two strong arches. Allowing this to be the case, the length ceases to be wonderful, excepting on account of the labour and expense. The hemispherical carved courses of the groins,

k\Valpole. V. Append. An indenture dated 1^13, by which J. Was tell and Henry Severick engage to finish the vaulting in three years, to be paid i2OO/. — loo/, for ea'ch " severey upon its completion, and so from tyme to tyme untill all the said twelve severeys be fully and perfytly made and per- fourmed."

N 3

182 OBSERVATIONS ON

as I am assured by a very able master-mason, might have been worked on the ground, and with the key-stones, though of a ton wreight each, raised to that height by means of an ancient in- strument, now called " a Lewis," of the powers of which a curious account appears in the tenth volume of the Archaeologia, p. 223 ]. My in- formant has frequently elevated stones of nearly twice the weight by the same means in the mag- nificent restorations now making at Arundel castle. The idea, that the carving was excavated from a solid arch as the easier mode, is not worthy attention, nor would it have been very practicable,

Where ancient art her daedal fancies play'd In the quaint mazes of the crisped roof.

T. WARTON.

The great, and probably intentional, coinci- dence between the plan of a college detailed in the will of Henry VI. and that of St. Mary Mag- dalene, afterwards founded by Waynflete at Ox- ford,, encourages a conjecture, that when the royal misfortunes prevented the intended execu- tion of the first plan, the leading features of it

1 Mr. Gibson's Memoir on a machine called " a Lewis." Upon examining several of the key-stones of the roof of the choir of Whitby abbey in Yorkshire, he found holes cut for the reception of a similar instrument to this, pretended to have been invented by a French engineer, who named it after Louis XfV. but he had merely the merit of improving it. The an- cient machine was capable of elevating stones from two to four ons weight.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE* 183

were adopted by the munificent bishop. The dimensions of the great gateway designed for Cambridge, but finished at Oxford, are generally correspondent ; but more worthy notice is the tower, which has been traditionally attributed to Wolsey. If the foundation had been laid by Waynflete previously to his death in 1485, the building might have been protracted by very probable causes till the time of Wolsey 's bursar- ship of the college in 1498, a period of thirteen years. The cloister with " clere stories and butterace," the one placed above, and the other supporting the " deambulatory," are now seen at Magdalene college. The height of either tower, particularly the last mentioned, with *' four small turrets finished with pinnacles, and a dore into the said cloister inward and outward none,'* are circumstances too intimately ac- cordant with king Henry's plan, to have been merely accidental. <

The high honour of being the architect of this superb fabrick has been, perhaps, too hastily at- tributed to a Fleming named Cloos, or to his son Nicholas, who was one of the original fel- lows, and promoted by the royal favour to the sees of Carlisle, Litchfield and Coventry. As the last-mentioned died in 1453, it is not pos- sible that he had any share in the amended plan, which was adopted by Henry VII. Great as the merit is, which is due to the unknown de-

N4

184 OBSERVATIONS ON

signer, the execution deserves a still higher ck> gree of praise ; and the names of John Wool- rich, Henry Severick, and John Wastell, may be handed down to posterity, as the most skilful master-masons of their age and nation1".

The remark may possibly have more novelty than justness ; but I am of opinion, that the admiration which the inspection of the vault of King's college chapel universally excites, is di- rected to an inadequate object, if it be other than of the extreme beauty, and the labour which the formation of such a roof must have exhausted. A traveller, wrho viewrs the pyra- mids, knowing pre\j,ously that their construction was practicable, will rather winder at an ex- pense, in which the powers of calculation would be lost.

The skreen which divides the choir from the ante-chapel is of rich sculpture in \vood, and was

m Indenture dated 17 Aug. 1476. Indent. 4 Hen. 8™, to J. Westell and Harry Severick. " The vaulting to be sett up after the best handlyng and forme of good workmanship, ac- cording to the plat thereof, made and signed with the hands of the lords executors to the will of Hen. VII." Indent. 5 Hen. 8vi, to J. Wastell, for the vaulting of two porches and seven chapels 2o/. each. Bound in 400!. penalty, and to keep forty free-masons " continuallie working on the same." The following item proves the subordination of the masons to their masters in those days : " And in case ony mason, or other labourer, shall be found unprofytable, or ony of such yM de- menouY, tyh eby the werke should tte- hindered or the com- panv misonk-.d, not dooing- their dutyes, &c. then the said surveyor to indeavor himself to perfourm them, by suck as hath byn there used before this tyme."

£

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 185

probably the work of some of those foreign artists who received so great encouragement from Henry VIII. Holbein carved a whole- length small figure of him in wood, and I have seen another in alto-relievo and the same mate- rial. This delicate art was introduced into England by P. Torreggiano and his followers ; and a school was established here, which existed till Grinling Gibbon eclipsed all former fame.

A space of several yards, behind the original high altar at the east end of the chapel, had been left in a rude state. About twenty years since the altar-piece was renewed, and the whole rendered uniform, by the architect James Essex, who was content to adopt an accurate imi- tation".

Parallel with the west end of the chapel is a very handsome building, extending on a terrace above the river 236 feet, which was designed by Gibbs in 1 724. It was one of his earliest works. The diminutive Dorick portico is not a happy per- formance either in the idea or execution. A portico, in a pure style and in classiclc instances, when it had a pediment, was not less lofty than the roof. But this does not reach above the first

n The external dimensions of the chapel are — length from east to west 316 feet; breadth from north to south 84. feet; from the base to the top of the battlements 90 feet ; to the top of the pinnacles 101 feet; to the corner towers 146!.

The internal dimensions are — length from east to west 291 feet; breadth from north to south 45 £ feet; height 78 feet.

186 OBSERVATIONS ON

floor, and has an hemispherical window and testoon placed between it and a larger pediment. Gibbs's love of ornament rendered him blind to such faults.

The gateway and front of Christ's college, which bends to the narrowest part of St. An- drew's Street, has a characteristic elevation ; and if the area it stands in were more spacious, would have a good effect. Every part of the town of Cambridge is so irregularly built, that the few colleges which have fronts towards the streets, have a very small advantage of elevation from that circumstance.

In the same manner, the entrance-tower into St. John's college, though considerable as a building, is nearly concealed. The middle court is very grand, from its having the towers of two gateways placed opposite to each other, and four others in the angles as staircases. The height likewise of the whole college gives it dignity, and leads us to regret that it wants the advantage of being built with stone. Both in the hall and picture-gallery, in point of proportion and di- mensions, there is much to admire.

The principal gateway of Trinity college, since the late repair, has regained its Gothick appear- ance, and is handsome from its dimensions and simple form. Architecturally considered, it has lost nothing by the removal of Newton's obser- vatory from its roof.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 18?

More space is contained in the great qua- drangle than in that of Christ Church, Oxford, and it is more picturesque, as being composed of a greater variety of buildings. In the centre is a curious fountain of high antiquity. These were considered (as by king Henry VI. in his plan for Eton college) as an indispensable part of the ac- commodations necessary to such establishments. The three entrance-towers, the chapel, and the hall, have an air of grandeur and loftiness ; but the habitable parts appear positively low, and the roofs expose a range of garret- windows of a very awkward shape. Publick buildings acquire dignity from the absence of forms common or domestick. Even in the specimen of the archi- tecture in one angle, in which it was intended to rebuild the whole, the height is not sufficient for the space in which it stands.

The chapel was built by queens Mary and Eli- zabeth, at a period when the Gothick was aban- doned, but no new style had succeeded. It re- tains nothing of that manner, but the timber frame-roof painted, and the pointed arch win- dows ; as the whole internal fitting up and the decorations are richly carved in oak, and, with the alcove of the altar-piece, would have been admirable in a Palladian structure. Its propor- tions are veryjustn; but upon entrance all atten-

n 204 feet by 34, and 44 high.

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tion Is engrossed by the finest statue ever finished in England, that of Newton by Roubiliac.

Three magnificent halls were built in the reign of Henry VIIL at Christ Church, Oxford, Hamp- ton Court, and that of Trinity college ; the form and dimensions0 of which are nearly similar; but the elaborately wrought roofs in timber-frame of the two former, are greatly superior. Much of the Gothick appearance is lost by the windows being square- headed in the last.

Neville's court is built in a beautiful style of architecture ; the colonnade arid open parapet give lightness to two sides of it, and the sublime front of the. library completes one of the finest architectural scenes which Cambridge has to display.

This is one of the works of the great sir Chris- topher Wren, with which he is said to have been particularly satisfied. It consists of two orders — a Dorick arcade open to the basement, which, having a flat roof and a plain row of pillars to support it, is more convenient as an ambulatory than beautiful. The principal story is composed of three-quarter lonick pillars of correct propor- tions; the volutes support festoons; and the key- stones of the windows are carved into cherubs and grotesque figures.

0 Dimensions of Halls.

Christ Ohnrch, Oxford, 1 15 by 40 and 50 high. ., Hampton Court, 106 40 45

Trin. coll.' Camb. 100 40 50

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, 189

The elevation which fronts the river has three Porick portals in the basement, and no pilasters between the windows ; yet it acquires grace from the paucity of ornaments.

Whoever has taste for true Palladian architects tare will be gratified by a first view of the inte- rior of the library, which, as a single room, an- swers its destination with propriety and grandeur. There are two libraries p in Oxford, at All Souls and Christ Church colleges ; one of which ex- ceeds, and the other nearly equals, its dimensions. In both these a surrounding gallery fixes the eye upon entrance, and lessens in a great degree the effect of one point of proportion, namely, that of height. The library of Queen's college, Oxford, resembles this nearer, and is indeed a very cre- ditable imitation of it on a smaller scale, by one of sir Christopher's scholars, Nicholas Hawks- moor. Of the embellishment of this admirable room something must be observed. Gibbon's carving contributes much : there are four busts and a statue from the chisel of Rysbrack and Roubiliac, and a painted window at one ter- mination, in which Cipriani has designed a trio pf personages, each in a different costume, with

Dimensions.

All Souls coll. 198 by 32 and 40 high,

Trin. coll. Camb. 190 40 38

Christ Church, Oxford, 141 30 37 Queen's coll. do. 1x4 31 26

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a female genius of little interest; the whole being a forced and unnatural conceit. Peckitt's colouring of black, blue, and yellow, has more rawness than is observable in any of his other works. Stained glass is not very congenial to jnodern stucco and oak-w^ainscot ; but is one of the happiest accompaniments of a Gothick build- ing. The chapel of this college is unfortunately void of it. Sir Christopher Wren either gave or corrected the plan of the chapel of Pembroke hall.

Jesus college is advantageously situated, and in a solid style of architecture, well adapted to ac- commodate the society.

The front of Emanuel towards St. Andrew's Street is very handsome. This, though a mo- dern college with respect to the date of its found- ation, and built in 1584 by Rodolph Symonds, has been nearly re- constructed upon a new plan. In the hall and chapel there is much ornament applied with taste. In the principal front there is no less to admire ; and the central building, by which the wings are connected, has sufficient merit to be attributed to sir James Borough, who is justly esteemed one of the most eminent among those, who have not studied architecture as their sole profession. This additional building forms a very beautiful skreen ; the entrance is made under a pediment supported by four three-quar- ter lonick columns symmetrically designed ; but the whole is not lofty enough, to command any 2

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

great effect. It pleases the more from being simple, and without pretensions.

Of the smaller colleges many are composed of their primaeval buildings, which are irregular, and almost universally of brick. The exposure of slated roofs, broken by innumerable small pe- dimented windows, throws, in repeated instances, an air of inferiority over the whole; which a solitary effort of architecture in a chapel or portal cannot prevent from striking a stranger upon the first view.

The effect of brick is gloomy, although par- tially intermixed with stone ; and so overpower- ing is that gloom, that no correctness of archi- tectural form or distribution of parts can coun- teract it, even in such an instance as the palace at Hampton Court.

Several of these societies have received funds for rebuilding ; and the present state of archi- tecture in England justifies every expectation, that the splendour of the university of Cam- bridge will be greatly increased by their appli- cation. Such an example Downing college will probably offer1*.

A square is formed by St. Mary's church,

* In 1797 Mr. James Wyatt exhibited a design for a new /ront of King's college. Designs for Downing college have been offered by Messrs. Wyatt, W. Wilkins, and G. Byfield. The intended site has been marked out in some fields belonging to Pembroke hall, nearly opposite to Emanuel college, the most eligible spot Cambridge affords, the banks of the river being pre-occupied.

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King's college chapel, the university library, and the senate-house, which has one chief charac- teristick of magnificence, no intervention of pri- vate edifices. So predominating is King's col- lege chapel, that the senate-house appears dimi- nutive by the mere force of comparison, and the library being so in reality, the whole effect is lessened.

Of the original design for the §enat< Gibbs is said to have had the credit* as he cer- tainly had of the erection, although it was sub- mitted to the correcting taste of sir James Bo- rough, It is a very fine structure, but elabo- rately ornamented. The east end fronting the street is more simple, and yet sufficiently rich, as the Corinthian pillars and pilasters are well formed, and the mass is not perforated by a mul- tiplicity of windows. Praise has been univer- sally given to this elevation. That which forms one side of the square is grand, hut less striking, for the reasons above alleged. If the whole had been an exact renewal of the plan of the Maison Carre'e at Nismes, adapted to contain a room of equal dimensions to that now seen, and all its purposes had been answered ; or were that impracticable, had the leading idea of that exquisite structure been applied, greater admira- tion might have been due to it, than for the more strict adherence of its design to the Palladiau school.

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The interior is commanding, from the extent and accuracy of the proportions, and from the rich style of the cornices, carvings, and ceil- ing, in every particular of which, it can boast the highest Degree of finishing1.

St. Mary's, or the university church, was re- built in the reign of Henry VIII. under the au- spices of Alcock bishop of Ely, where his very curious sepulchral chapel still remains. He was a considerable contributor to this church, and the merit of the design may, by a fair conjecture, be given to him. The exterior is of no consider- ation ; the tower is low, and, what is scarcely credible as a restoration of Gothick, the pinnacles are finished with round balls. But the nave is light and beautiful, and all the component parts are of a complete style.

The library is continued over the Schools in three rooms, and a fourth was built in 1775, which fronts the square. The collection of books is sumptuous and almost universal, con- sisting of 90,000 volumes. George I. purchased and contributed the classical library of Dr. Moore, bishop of Ely.

The river Cam is not wide, and therefore would not admit of bridges upon a large scale. Several

r The foundation-stone was laid June 22, 1722. It was built at the expense of the university, a royal contribution of 5OOO/. and other subscribers. It is 101 feet long, 42 broad, and 32 high, and is said to be capable of containing looo persons.

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which cross it, belonging to the colleges, which are ranged so handsomely on its banks, have great merit, either for the taste or geometrical knowledge shewn in their construction. One by J. Essex is deservedly celebrated.

Cambridge is environed on the south-western sidq^by gardens and publick walks of superior pleasantness, which seem to be sacred to the genius of the place, eminently set ^part for sci- ence and literary pursuits.

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SECTION IX.

Grecian Architecture — Roman — Palladian — in Italy — in France — in Germany — in England — Reigns of James and Charles I. — Inigo Jones — His authentic^ Works — Sir Chris* topher Wren — Opinion of Foreigners respect- ing St. Paul's Cathedral — His other Works — Sir John Vdnbrugh — Blenheim and Castle Howard — Lords Pembroke and Burlington — Palladios Rotunda — Lords Orford and Lei- cester — John James — Colin Campbell — Sir William Chambers — Sir Robert Taylor — Athe- nian Stuart — Willey Reveley — German Pa- laces— Street Architecture — Wood of Bath — Observations on the Architecture of that City — James Paine — Carr of York — Francis Hiorne of Warwick — James Wyatt — J. Soane — Casino at Dulwich — Modern State of Ar- chitecture.

THE Greeks are said to have borrowed architec- ture from the Assyrians, who had previously ac- quired it from the Egyptians. Athens, which was the earliest, was likewise the best school of architecture. The orders which are ascribed to Dorus and Ion, have a date at least eight hundre4

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years anterior to the Christian aera, but the Co- rinthian is more modern3.

The Romans were imitators of the Egyptians and Greeks. Simplicity and mere usefulness characterized their national buildings in the rude days of the republick ; — those erected by the emperors were conspicuous for their magnifi- cence. They were most sumptuous and beauti- ful in the reign of Augustus; became evidently inferior in that of Trajan ; and declined far be- low mediocrity, even in the third century of Christianity.

We owe to the Romans the invention of the Tuscan and Composite orders. The first-men- tioned was the original style of Italy formed

* The history of architecture, like that of the other arts, marks out the progression of manners^ Among the Dorians it carried with it the austerity of their national character, which displayed itself in their language and musick. The lonians addecd to its original simplicity an elegance, which has excited the universal admiration of posterity. The Corinthians, a rich and luxurious people, not contented with former improvements, extended the art to the very verge of vicious refinement. And thus (so connected in their origin are the arts, so similar in their progress and revolutions) the same genius produced those three characters of style in architecture, which Dionysius of Halicarnassus, one of the most judicious criticks of Greece, remarked in its language. The Dorians exhibited an order of building like the style of their Pindar — like Eschylus — like Thucydides. The Corinthians gave their architecture that ap- pearance of delicacy and effeminate. .refinement which charac- terizes the language of Isocrates. But the lonians struck out that happy line of beauty, which partaking of the simplicity of the one without its harshness, and of the elegance of the other without its luxuriance, exhibited that perfection of style which is adjudged to Homer, and his best imitators, — Burgess on the Study of -Antiquities. /

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upon the Dorick model, so frequent in Magna Graecia, before the introduction of Attick archi- tecture, but heavy and void of grace in its pro- portions. Of the Composite, first used in the Augustan age, we observe the more frequent in- stances confined to decoration lavishly employed, than in pure and classical architecture.

" Firm Dorick pillars form the manly base,

The fair lonick fills the higher space :

Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace/'

DRYDEN, <c And here and there soft Corinth weaves

Her daedal coronet of leaves." T. WARTON,

The zenith of Roman architecture was under the auspices of Vespasian and his immediate successors, who completed the Temple of Peace and the Colosaeum, or Flavian amphitheatre. Upon the establishment of Christianity, exter- nal magnificence was sacrificed to internal de- coration, and the oblong square, the ground- plan peculiar to the ancient temples, being ex- tremely simple in their interior, but sumptuous to view, was. gradually formed into the Greek and Latin cross, which is much more favourable to superstition than to beauty. THe removal of the imperial throne from Rome to Constanti- nople, involved at the same time, and from the same causes, the decline and fall, not only of the empire, but of pure architecture.

Not earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century, under the auspices of Leo X. and the

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Medici family, architects were encouraged to apply themselves to antique models, and to mea- sure their proportions, that they might design the orders with precision. Bramante, Sangallo, and Michelagnuolo, erected edifices which ex- celled those of the Greeks, both in magnificenceb and regularity, in such a degree as to offer the best examples to other nations. The commence- ment of the church of St. Peter may be regarded as the epocha of the revival of architecture in Europe.

Since that time each country has sent its native artists to Rome to study architecture, who, as it might have been naturally expected, were content to form themselves solely in the schools of their new masters, as it was much more prac- ticable to study after entire works, and those which were constantly before them, than to pur- sue a painful and uncertain investigation of the monuments of antiquity. No better reason can be adduced, I presume, for the slow progress of true taste in every country of Europe during the first century after the death of Leo X.

b Several of the most admired of the ancient temples were not of great dimensions. The temple of Jupiter at Jackly near Mylasa, lonick exastyle, 180 feet by 0,4. Peristyle, n columns on either side. Ionian Antiq. vol. i. p. $8.

Temple of Fortuna Virilisat Rome. lonick tetrastyle, 54: 8 by 28 : 8. Peristyle £ columns, nine on either side. De« godetz' Rome, vol. i. p. 50. — Maison Quaree at Nismes. Ex- astyle, 40 feet by 84. Cell 36 feet by 64. Peristyle | columns, 1 1 on either side, 44 feet high, diameter 2 feet 9 inches^ eight diametres. — Clerisseau, Antiq. de Nismes.

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Italy, in the revival of classical architecture, presented an admirable model in St. Peter's church ; and instances of that style, in sacred edifices which were afterwards erected in Rome, were increased to a great number, but writh a success decidedly inferior to their archetype, and widely discriminated from each other.

The Italian manner was not* early adopted by the French in their churches; for that of St. Louis, de la rue St. Antoine, after a design exe- cuted at Rome by Vignola, which was a signal for revolution in the form and distribution of ecclesiastical architecture in Paris, has no higher date than of the seventeenth century. The cu- pola of the Invalides by Mansart, constructed in rivalship of that of St. Paul, and the whole of the , church of St. Genevievec by Soufflot, are se- lected as the most perfect proofs of their national proficiency.

In the Catholick states of Germany I observed a few, but imperfect, imitations of the Italian style, which deserve little commendation. John Bernard Fischers, even in his boasted work, the church of St, Charles Borromeo at Vienna (a monument of the piety and magnificence of the emperor Charles VI.), has evinced no skill, and

c This church has been desecrated since the revolution, and called the Pantheon. It is reported, that the foundations have failed, and that the cupola is in danger of falling. — " Ele- vations et Coupes de qwelques Edifices de France et d'ltalie, dessinees par le feu M. Soufflot, Architecte du Roy. 1781."

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produced no beauty, either in the oval shape of its cupola, nor in the two arcades, the one vast and the other diminutive, nor in the two histo- rick columns, so placed as they are. In the church of the Imperial convent at Moelk in Austria, he has been more successful.

From this summary view of the prevalence of Greek and Romdn architecture, as restored or varied by Palladio, our attention is naturally di- rected toward its progress, in our own country. A popular treatise by sir H. Wootton had con- tributed to its more general introduction, by ex- plaining its principles, and pointing out its pre- valence over the heavy grotesque manner of building, by which the reigns of Elizabeth and James are distinguished. Of the several houses assigned to Inigo Jones, more were finished from the plans he left in the hands of his scholars, than were built under his own inspection. Stoke Park, in Northamptonshire, was built by him in 1630 for sir Francis Crane, who first established a manufacture of tapestry in England, at Mort- lack, in Surrey. He had previously constructed the east and south sides of Castle Ashby, and Charles I.'s gallery for pictures at Whitehall. The queen's house iri Greenwich Park, Lindsey house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the north and east sides of Covent Garden, with the church, lord Radnor's at Coleshill, Berks, and the Grange, Hants, are still recognised as his genuine works.

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Although he might not have superintended the execution of some of these to their conclusion, yet no doubt can be reasonably entertained, but that his designs were followed with little devia- tion. This happened in the garden front at Wilton, which was built by Solomon de Caus, a Gascon, upon whom lord Pembroke settled a pension, retaining him in his house d.

Inigo Jones will be ever considered as the fa- ther of classical architecture in England, and after the many innovations of his immediate pre^ decessors, the most successful designer, to whom the superior convenience and elegance of modern English houses are to be attributed.

The dawn of Palladian architecture, which had faintly broken upon us in the reign of James I. would have perhaps gained meridian splendour in that of his son, had not publick calamities effec- tually checked its progress. To the genius of Inigo Jones, who had imbibed the true spirit of

d Inigo Jones's designs for the palace of Whitehall were in the possession of Dr. George Clarke, and by him bequeathed to the library of Worcester college, Oxford. See Pope's Works, Warton's edit. vol. vii. p. 322.

Those published by Colin Campbell, in the Vitruvius Bri- tannicus, are not genuine, but a cento made up from Jones's works, with very heterogeneous additions. Kent, assisted by lord Burlington, likewise published them. Inigo Jones, who resided in a house built for himself in St. Martin's in the Fields, was fined 345^. as a composition for his estate. Dring's Catalogue, 8vo. 1655. This persecution is said to have has- tened his death, having been greatly reduced in his cir- cumstances. The elevations of the intended buildings in Co- vent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Square^ originally made for the earl of Arundel, are jiow at Wilton,

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the Palladian school, then flourishing in the Ve- netian states, in which he had studied, we owe the reformation of the national taste. The ban- quetting-house at Whitehall is a proud example of his skill, which cannot be too much admired, though it has been so seldom imitated either in its dignity or correctness. It was begun in 1619, and finished in two years only. The palace he projected there, had it been completed under his own inspection, and the patronage of his royal master, would have rivalled the most magnificent at Genoa, or Vicenza. But of his skill in sacred buildings we have no grand instance, since the portico and front, which attached to the Gothick of old St. Paul's, no longer remain.

The church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, has exquisite simplicity, but no magnificence ; and has been both praised and blamed, with as much prejudice as truth6.

In the opinion of many criticks, the total ab- sence of ornament is not compensated by mere correctness of proportions. The whole square and colonnade, excepting the church, was pro bably imitated by Jones from that at Leghorn, which had been erected by Cosmo de' Medici, previously to his visit to Italy. No traveller,

* Critical Review of publick Buildings in London and West- minster, by Ralph, 8vo. 1736. Walpole's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 275. The church is 125 feet by 50, and compared by Maundrell, in his Travels, to the most perfect of the temples of Balbeck, the dimensions of which are 225 by 120. Cell 135 feet by 85.

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who has seen both, will forget the resem- blance.

The boast and admiration of England is the cathedral church of St. Paulf. We have even ventured to advance its claims to an equality with St. Peter's at Rome, excepting for mag- nitude. That such a competition will be easily maintained, candour cannot allow, if in examin- ing the objections made by foreigners of taste, it find, that they are founded in fact, as well as supported by opinion. Let us attend to their statement of deficiencies in architectural science discoverable in this grand edifice, not to insist on those which are more dependant on taste.

They assert, that the essential and visible want of proportion in some of the principal dimensions is extremely derogatory to the praise which has

fThe peculiar circumstance of St. Paul's is, that it was finished by one architect in thirty-five years, from 1675 to 17 10, under one bishop. St. Peter's was 145 years in building, from 1503 to 1648, under nineteen popes, and by twelve ar- chitects in succession.

Dimensions. — St. Peter's, length 729 feet, breadth 519. Fa- £ade 364 feet. Outside diameter of the cupola 189, inward diameter 108, height 437 feet.

St. Paul's, length 500 feet, breadth 250. Fa9ade 180 feet, height 356 feet; outward diameter of the cupola 145 feet, in- ward diameter 106 feet. — The total expense of the building was 73f>,752/. 25. 6d. and that of the Colosaeum at Rome, as computed by father Jacquier, 3,218,065 scudi Romani, about 8o4,5*6/. 5.?.

The relative proportions of these churches have been admir- ably exemplified by the architect Bonomi, who placed one within the other, in a drawing which he exhibited at Somerset flouse in 1798.

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been given to sir Christopher Wren for his un- derstanding the elegant precision of the antique, or even the excellent modern style, which ex- isted in his time, and which he was fully enabled to cons\ilt and follow. They inquire, why the architrave and frize are omitted above the arcades of the nave and choir, whilst the entablature is complete in every other part of the fabrick ? Why the summit of the arcade is elevated, as in the Temple of Peace at Rome, above the capitals of the pilasters, for the whole height of the archi- trave and half that of the frize ? Why has the enor- mous cupola, which appears to overwhelm the church., a height and exterior circumference so disproportioned to the other dimensions of the edifice ? And lastly, why is the inside surface of the cupola made into an imperfect cone, which throws the pilasters out of their upright, and forces them to lean towards the centre ? They contend that no similar errors can be detected in the rival temple, nor will they allow the great English architect to emulate the fame of Michel- agnuolo, and his successors in that stupendous structure. Acknowledging my incompetence to decide upon the validity of such allegations, I will only express the satisfaction I should feel, were the question agitated by any of the learned architects who support the credit of the English school. As to decoration, wThich must be suggested and

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regulated by taste alone, it may be wished that sir Christopher Wren had not divided the body of the church into two equal orders, instead of' adding an attick only, as at St. Peter's, and that he had been more sparing of festoons, which crowd the surface, already broken into minute rustick, to the very summit. Of the fa9ade, and particularly of the two hemispherical porticos at either termination of the transept, too much cannot be said in praise. The vast cupola, no less than the other parts of the structures in con- nection with it, when inspected from one of the' angular points of the building, acquires a greater harmony of parts, as the extreme length is fore- shortened, and blends more accordantly with the whole.

It is well known, that the first design which he gave for this cathedral was more approved by its great author ; and it has apparently some ad- vantages over that which was finally adopted, after many interferences and deviations, made at the instance of those who directed this sump- tuous work. Among other points of superiority may be noticed, that the whole fabrick consisted of one order only, instead of an equal division into two, and the grand portico projected with a space and elevation not unequal to that of Agrrppa, added to the Pantheon at Rome?.

* Dimensions of the intended church. — Height 300 feet, dia- meter of the cupola 120, length 430, breadth 300. Portico, 2

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But the fame of sir Christopher Wren, as anr architect, who to perfect science has added more than his ordinary taste, is established by the ele- gant church of St. Stephen, Walbroke, to which even foreigners consent to allow an unquestionable praise h. He has not omitted a single beauty of which the design was capable, but has applied them all with infinite grace.

We may conclude from its perfection, that he was not cramped and overruled in his original idea, which he had completed in his own mind previously to the commencement of the struc- ture ; for nothing like an after- thought, or sub- stitution of one part for another, can be disco- vered in the whole. The cupola1 rests upon Co- rinthian columns of the finest proportions.

It has been objected to Greenwich Hospital, that it consists of two palaces exactly repeated, and appearing as wings without a body.

The Ranger's house k is too insignificant as an

octostyle of 8f diameter, length loo, height 45. The cupola was not rising from a rotunda, as at present, but supported hy small buttresses. Plates of the plan and elevation have been published, and the model is still shewn at St. Paul's.

h See Ames's account of the 50 churches built by sir C. Wren, in the Gent. Mag. 1756. St. Clement Danes cost 87867. 175. o%d. St. Mary le Bow 8071^. 185. id. for th« church only ; for the steeple 7388^. 8s. 7^. St. Stephen's, Walbroke, 7652^. 135. 8d. — It is curious, to compare the esti- mates of modern surveyors with these sums.

1 Dimensions. — Ground plan 75 feet by 565 height of the cupola 58, diameter 38.

k It was originally built from a design of Inigo Jones, as a palace for Henrietta the queen consort of Charles I. and re-

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object to terminate so magnificent an area ; and, situated as it is, might perhaps be spared, to in- troduce so grand an idea as that of the colossal statue of Naval Victory 230 feet high, proposed by Flaxman. Bernini's Dorick colonnades at St. Peter's are not greatly superior to those at Green- wich k. That the first mentioned form a circle may be a circumstance of advantage, which is amply compensated by the rich perspective which closes the others.

Preserved in the archives of All Souls college are the plans and elevations of a palace intended to be erected in St. James's Park. From these, it appears to have fewer faults than Hampton Court, Marlborough house, or Winchester pa- lace, but no excellence to cause regret, that it has never been built. The King's house at Win- chester, although never completed, exhibits suf- ficiently the architect's intention. The central front is rendered mean and inadequate by the extraordinary magnitude and projection of the wings. Sir Christopher Wren is said to have imitated Versailles with a view to rival it1.

The Monument m is more lofty than the famous

mains much in the same state, as it is drawn in Hollar's view of Greenwich. In the open corridor, fronting the park, are lonick columns of most classical proportions.

k Each of the colonnades is 20 feet high, and 347 feet long, with double dolumns, as at St. Peter's.

1 See a view of it in Milner's Hist, of Winton.

m The Monument was begun in 1671, and finished in 1677. It is 202 feet high, and contains 28,196 feet of solid Portland

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historical columns of the ancients, but can offer no other point of comparison. Much, indeed, it loses by its unfavourable situation ; had it been raised in the centre of Lincoln's Inn Fields, its elevation would have been uninterrupted, and the event it was intended to commemorate, equally recorded. How often is architecture doomed to suffer from the obstinacy of supersti- tion, or the local prejudices of mankind ? Will it be allowed by the admirers of sir Christo- pher Wren, that in the majority of his designs he has shewn more architectural science than taste ?

By the sarcastick wit of Swift, the censure of Pope, and the elegant criticism of Walpole, Blen- heim wras long condemned to be spoken of, if without contempt, rather as a monument of the gratitude than of the taste of the nation11. But Blenheim, since its environs have been so magnifi- cently embellished, under Browne's direction, has acquired a new character. Its first panegyrist was sir Joshua Reynolds, whose accurate judgment has been confirmed by subsequent observations of other criticks. The numerous turrets rising pyra-

stone. The total expense, including the bas-reliefs, amounted to 8856^. The Antonine column at Rome is 175, the Trajan 147 feet; and that erected by Arcadius at Constantinople of the same height, when perfect. All the ancient pillars stood in the centre of a forum or magnificent square.

n (f Candidis autem animis voluptatem praebuerint in con- spicuo posita, quse cuique magnifica merito contigerunt."

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rnidally lessen the ponderosity without a dimi- nution of the grand effect of extent and solidity, which should be peculiar to a palace, built as a record to ages.

In this observation I beg to be understood, as not confounding architectural merit with the picturesque effect, produced long since by a newly-created landscape. When Vanbrugh imagined and completed Blenheim, it had little advantage of corresponding scenery, but was deeply enveloped in formal plantations, labyrinths, and topiary works of box and yew.

Of Castle Howard, his next considerable work, the points of excellence are few ; and there is an infinite littleness of parts perpetually interrupting the intended effect of a whole so greatly assisted l)y magnificent environs. At Grimsthorp he in- dulged himself in imitating Blenheim. The hall is indeed very noble, being 1 10 feet by 4o, and 40 in height, with a cupola. Seaton Delaval ranks among his best houses, but has a very un- favourable situation near the sea. King's Wes- ton has equal advantages. Vanbrugh had much merit in the plan of chimnies, which he some- times grouped into a resemblance of pinnacles, or connected into an arcade, by which the massive- ness of the house was greatly relieved.

Architecture flourishes only under the pa- tronage of states, or of their most enlightened and opulent individuals. About the cornmence-

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ment of the last century, two noblemen, the earls of Pembroke and Burlington, were not only pa- trons, but eminent professors. The reverence lord Pembroke shewed to the genius of Inigo Jones, and the invention of lord Burlington, had an auspicious influence in correcting the heavy and unclassical manner which frequently dis- graced the structures of the last age, and of im- parting somewhat of Italian grace to English mansions. Lord Burlington's most celebrated work, both for beauty and originality, is the as- sembly-room at York.

In his own casino at Chrswick, he has adopted the general idea of that built by Palladio, near Vicenza, and called the Villa Capra or Rotonda*.

* In April 1796, when at Vicenza, I walked to the Rotonda, a villa of the Marchese Capra, a mile from the city gates, and one of the most celebrated works of the great restorer of archi- tecture. Nothing can exceed both the plan and elevation, in simplicity and commodiousness. There are four porticos, four salas, or large parlours, with as many smaller adjoining, four staircases, all of which communicate with the gallery of the cupola. Above is the same distribution of lodging rooms, and on the ground floor, of offices. Though not an inch of space is unoccupied, convenience is never sacrificed. The ro- tunda is 29 feet in diameter, the salas 24 feet by 15, and the length from one portico to another is 66 feet. As it is situated upon an insulated acclivity, and consequently exposed, the coins of the house ,are very judiciously made to answer to the four cardinal points. Each portico is supported by six lonick columns ; the whole is constructed of brick, but incrusted with ** intonaco" as hard as, marble. The flpors are likewise made of a compost of pounded brick with the best slaked lime and small pieces of marble burned, not so as to dissolve in water, bm to break with ease, and -thickly stuck in either at hazard .,*r in figures. When rolled with a heavy roller the floor be- ' highly polished, so as to rc^mblc porphyry or verd

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Much is sacrificed to external symmetry, 'both in the position of the doors and windows, and in the size and proportion of the rooms.

By the judicious addition of two wings, and the exquisite taste which pervades the improve- ments lately made, Chiswick has acquired that whidi was originally deficient, and commodious- ness is now added to architectural beautyp.

Palladio's rotunda above mentioned, has ex- cited a desire of imitation, and an ambition of improvement, which has failed, from a violation of the simplicity which confers all its excellence on the original. The houses at Mereworth and Footscray in Kent, and at Nuthall in Notting- hamshire, vary from their archetype with im- perfect success. The four porticos, which con- stitute their decoration, are ill adapted to our

antique. The marquis shewed me the whole with the greatest politeness. He said, that his house was originally built for the summer residence of four brothers of his family, with distinct apartments; and directed my attention to four original po#- traits of- the great Italian architects Paliadio, Scamozzi, Delia Valle, and Sansovino ; the first mentioned is by Titian.

p The connoisseur will here contemplate all that is exquisite in the Palladian architecture, and all that is fascinating in the- Gothick style at Strawberry Hill, distant only a -few miles. The noble architect, who pursued the study of English anti- quities with so much science and grace, withheld from his own work the merit of a perfect imitation, attributed to it by his friends less versed in architecture than himself. It appears in his correspondence, that he consulted Mr.. Chute of the Vine, and Essex, the architect, and was decidedly a follower of the hints ; they gave him. Strawberry Hill is yet the happiest at- tempt of the kind, as the numerous Chinese blunders, called *' Gothick" Hpy their inventors, will sufficiently prove.

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climate, and the filling them up with apartments, as in some of these instances, is little less than a .solecism in architecture.

To the earls of Orford and Leicester we owe two edifices, at Houghton and Holkham in Nor- folk, which greatly exceed both in taste and mag- nificence any that were erected in the reign of George II. Ripley, so severely satirized by Pope% and who lost all credit in his portico at the Admiralty, gave the first plan of Houghton, and methodized the frequent alterations which were suggested by lord Orford and his friends. A very splendid pile is the effect of their joint con- sultations. Lord Leicester is said to have ima- gined the whole of his palace at Holkham in his own mind, unassisted by architects. Some credit is yet due in the execution to J3rettingham,but more to Kent, who designed the noble hall terminated by a vast staircase, producing in the whole an imposing effect of grandeur not to be equalled in England* There is, however, much more of the

* " And needs no rod, but Ripley with a rule."

/Vol. iii- Ep. 4. edit. Warton.

" See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall ! While Jones* and Boyle's united labours fall, While Wren \vith sorrow to the grave descends."

Dunciad, b. iii. v. 327.

Alluding to his having been1 superseded by the ministers of George 1. after having been architect to the crown for more than fifty years. — Kent's and Ripley's Plans, Elevations, &c. of Houghton, fol. 1760. — Brt-ttingham's Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Holkham, fol. 1773.

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French than the Palladian style in both these ce- lebrated buildings ; particularly in the corridores and their appendages.

The noble owner was content to allow the praise of designing Burlington house in Picca- dilly, to Kent ; but its chief excellence is due to the accompaniment, which was planned by that classical peer. A more airy and elegant co^ lonnade will be seldom seen, even in Italy.

James, who had gained no great credit in some of the fifty churches voted by Parliament in queen Anne's reign, had been employed by the duke of Chandos to build his house at Cannons, where he set taste and expense equally at defiance. He succeeded much better in that which he designed for sir Gregory Page upon Blackheath. The last mentioned was completed from a plan in which some deviations were made., from that of Hough- ton. It is mortifying to the vanity of architects to reflect, that so few years have ejapsed since the erection of these sumptuous buildings, and the dispersion of their materials by piecemeal.

Waristead house, on Epping Forest, to which foreigners assign more architectural merit than to most others of our noblemen's residences,, was built from a design of Colin Campbell, the com- piler of the Vitruvius Britannicus1, where he is

r Vitruvius Britannicus by Colin Campbell, vol. i. published 1715 ; 2(1, 1717; jd, 1725; 4th, by Wooife and Ganclon, 1767; and vol. v. 1771, in imperial folio. Wooife and Gandon were both classical architects. Wooife built lord Shrewsbury's at

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charged with having assumed to himself the ex- clusive credit of many designs, to which he had slight pretensions.

The present reign has been auspicious to re- finement in architecture; and as we have become more conversant with the antique and Roman models, by means of many splendid publications, a style has been introduced which is formed ra- ther on that of the temples of Athens and Balbec so elucidated, than of Palladio and his school, allowing the French manner to have b^en pre- viously superseded.

The Adams5 may be considered as architects who first adopted this innovation. The house they built for lord Scarsdale, at Reddleston in Derbyshire (although considerably improved by the scientifick Bonomi), abounds in parts coK lected from the finest remains of Palmyra and

rieylhrpp, and Gandon gave a mo§t correct and elegant design fprthe county hall at Nottingham, of the lonick order. He completed some of the beautiful publick buildings at Dublin, the Parliament house, and the Four courts.— -The New Vitruvius Britannicus, fol. 72 plates, by G. Richardson, was published in 1802.

8 The works in architecture of Robert and James Adam, with plates by Bartolozzj, 2 yols. fol. 177$. Luton Park, Caen Wood, &c.

Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian, at Spalatrq in J^almatia, by R. Adam, engraved by Bartolozzi. 1763.

Robert Adam, n. 1728, ob. 170.2.— ^Appointed architect to the king 1762. lie planned the new university buildings at Edinburgh and Glasgow. As a proof of the fertility of his genius, he is said to have designed eight publick works and fwenty-five private buildings in the year preceding his death.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 215

Rome, and is truly a composition of elegance and grandeur.

Shelburne house in Berkeley Square Ijas a de- corated simplicity, yet rich in effect, and several \;ery noble apartments. Of the same description is the house at Luton in Bedfordshire, which, had the whole plan adopted by the late lord Bute been carried into effect, would have been equalled by few of the residences of our nobility, in all that should characterize a splendid mansion. The library is scarcely exceeded jn England. In the front of lord Buckingham's at Stowe, a cer- tain flatness is relieved by an angular point of view where the portico becomes majestick from its great dimensions and elevation. The original house was designed by lord viscount Cobham, and the additions by the first lord Camelford, whose taste for the arts was well known. It is said, that no professional architect contributed any thing to the composition of the noble front, which extends 454 feet, distributed into prin- cipal apartments, of which the circular hall has no equal in this country. Wentworth castle in Yorkshire was designed by the late William earl of Strafford, about thirty years ago. It has been deservedly praised as an effort of genius. Those noblemen, who have practised any of the arts, have been found to be the most valuable patrons of professional artists. It must however be can- didly acknowledged, that their assistance is rarely

P 4

2i6 OBSERVATIONS ON

superseded with success. Nor is it less to be aU lowed, that from the great number and accuracy of plans and elevations already published, or from the inspection of houses completed from them,, it is practicable for a gentleman to become his own architect, leaving the inferior departments to his master-mason.

The Adelphi in the Strand may be classed with our publick works. Many faults have been de- tected by criticfks, as that the petty ornaments have been multiplied to exuberance, and that nq style has been adhered to in particular. Consi- dered as street architecture, the whole want3 so- lidity, and the application of the plaster to imi- tate stone has certainly failed. The entrance into the duke of Northumberland's park, at Sipn^ is truly confectionary.

Palladip, who invented, and so happily adopted intonaco or plaster in the palaces which he built at Vicenza, had the advantage of climate, aqd two, centuries exposure to the air has done it but little detriment. But in England, and in a great city, this substitution had to resist the effects of an atmosphere perpetually charged with damp§ and the smoke of sea-coal.

:

At Roehampton, sir William Chambers1 built a villa for lord Besborough, in, which the portico

* Treatise on the decorative Part of civil Architecture, fol. I7QT. He particularly excelled in the construction of stair- cases. Ob, 1796.

3

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 217

is singularly correct and elegant; a superb man- sion for lord Abercorn at Dudingstone near Edinburgh, and Milton Abbey in Dorsetshire, in a Gothick style, for lord Dorchester. By these lie would have established his fame, had he not designed and undertaken Somerset house, one of the most magnificent of our publick buildings. In the construction and distribution of the subter- raneous rooms he has displayed an admirable skill ; arid as publick accommodation was chiefly to be consulted, few will deny that end to have been completely answered. In point of archi- tectural merit some deficiences may be observed.

Had the front retired from the street, and the antique altars and urns been totally omitted, or, at least, more sparingly placed , above the cor- nices as finishing ornaments, there had been more dignity. Of the grandeur and true effect of the front above the Thames, as it is still un- finished, we can judge only in part. It has long since eclipsed the Adelphi in that uncommonly rich architectural view between the bridges of Blackfriars and Westminster.

Although so high an authority as that of Inigo Jones at Whitehall, and of Wren in St. Paul's, may be adduced in support of covering the whole exterior with the rustick style, usually confined to the basement, the effect of such an application £t Somerset Place is by no means happy either |n the original idea, or the present appearance.

318 OBSERVATIONS OS

Another publick building applied to a different purpose, but of considerable merit in its parti- cular style, was built by Dance. Few prisons in Europe have a more appropriate plan and con- struction than Newgate, where the rustick, as conveying to the eye impregnable strength, is extremely suitable.

At the Bank, much caprice appears to have been indulged. In the original building there is nothing remarkable, but the wings and corridore added by sir Robert Taylor would have better suited a lawn than a street. No foreigner, from the external elevation of the great magazine of national wealth, could possibly guess that such was its destination. Mr. Soane's massive wall with horizontal stripes, instead of rustick work, is a novelty which did not receive much praise upon its first appearance. In fact, there were se- veral deviations made from his plan, which gave rise to objections, many of which are lately rec- tified.— The Accomptant's Office now erected, loo feet long and 4O high and wide, will display a greater correctness with equal fancy.

The new buildings at Lincoln's Inn, as far as they are completed, add little to sir R. Taylor's fame as an architect, if the elevation only be considered. The mechanical distribution of the apartments has greater merit, and of the descrip- tion most due to him.

For truly classical design, in which no orna-

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 21Q

ment is applied, but from an antique example, the chapel of Greenwich hospital, as restored by the Athenian Stuartu, has no rival in England, I might almost add, in Italy. So pure a taste and so characteristick a magnificence should be consulted and adopted in all ecclesiastical struc- tures, that may be hereafter erected upon the Grecian model. Willey Reveley, a pupil of Chambers, and who had followed the steps of Stuart, and visited Athens and the Levant, pub- lished the third volume of his Athens, and died prematurely 17Q9. He built the new church at Southampton, and offered plans for the new baths at Bath, admirable for their rare con- trivance and truly classical elegance of the ele- vation, which were not adopted. Within they were disposed in an original style of accommo- dation^

In external decoration Holland has shewn a richness of fancy, although much less classical than that of Stuart. The embellishments with- inside of Carleton house and those of Drury Lane

" James Stuart travelled over Greece and Asia Minor be- tween the years 1750 and 1755, accompanied by Revett, and passed most of his winters at Athens. He died in 1788, and was more than seventy years of age. In 1762 he published the first volume of the Antiquities of Athens, and the second in 1787. He built Mr. Alison's house in St. James's Square, Mrs. Montagu's in Portman Square, and the church in lord felarcourt's park, atNuneham, near Oxford.

y At his sale in 1801, eighty drawings and a MS. Tour in Egypt and the Levant produced, the first 250^. and the other only

22O OBSERVATIONS OIS

theatre are very creditable proofs of his skill ; but of the colonnade in Pall Mali the effect is puerile ; for, with all its pretensions, it is merely a row of pillars, which are unnecessary to any purpose, as they support nothing.

Without entering into a particular detail of those architects and their works, who constitute the English school, I cannot omit a few names and places, which will not decline a competition with those of other nations of Europe, excepting only Italy. The domestick architecture both of France and Germany, even in the mansions of the higher nobility, is inferior to our own. Most of the German palaces which I have seen, are very large, very white, and very ugly. The Germans have but one idea of magnificence, which is magnitude ; where they have attempted ornament in architecture, it is a mere curling up of small and discordant parts multiplied to ab- solute confusion, and more capricious than the worst examples of Borromini. Such may be ob- served in every capital of the German states, and it is not uncandid to include those of Schdnbrun and Belvidere, near Vienna, in this remark. Candour must allow, that some of the palaces and publick buildings at Paris are more magnifi- cent than those in England. Jules-Hardouin Mansart built the cupola and front of the Invalides about the same time that Wren was engaged at St. Paul's. The south-east front of the old Louvre

'ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 221

exhibits a noble simplicity, built by Claude Per- rault, in which is a colonnade of the Corinthian order, more than four hundred feet in Jength* The observatory in Paris, finished in 1688, is a grand and simple structure, but it is scarcely possible for one to lhave been erected so little calculated for astronomical purposes. Servandoni, about seventy years since, engrossed the praise of his contemporary connoisseurs for his facade of the church of St. Sulpice, but it has since fallen greatly in the publick esteem. A beautiful piece of architecture, independently of the sta- tuary, is the fountain of Crenelle at Paris, by Edrne Bouchardon, in 1739; although its des- tination, like the street view of the Bank of England, would not be guessed from any thing seen. St. Genevieve, by Soufflot, has been men- tioned. The Hotel des Monnaies has great ex- cellence. In the enormous palace at Versailles, by Mansart, there is a monotonous style, and the ornaments are too small and multiplied. A greater degree of merit has been attributed to the chapel. The gallery of the Thuilleries1, which extends to the extreme length of 1 300 feet, is an architectural curiosity, which has no equal in Europe. Of the .vast front towards the gardens, and the angular towers, the roofs occupy much too great a space, and fill the eye more than the material parts of the building. Montagu house, now the British Museum, built expressly on the French model,

222 OBSERVATIONS ON

and to give Englishmen an idea of a palace at Paris, will sufficiently prove this fact.

Those travellers who have seen the new build- ings of Edinburgh and Glasgow will look on the architecture of Bath, as belonging to the mac- caronick order.

The city of Dublin likewise has many splendid edifices of very great architectural merit. An idea of their superior beauty is accurately com* nmnicated by Malton's views*

What has been termed street architecture, is in Germany upon a gigantick scale, which gives a truly noble air to their cities, particularly to the eye of an Englishman, who has been accus- tomed to consider each house as separately in- habited. But our love of individual houses, and comparatively small apartments, impoverishes our street views, by a sameness and repetition of diminutive edifices, so much alike, that it may be siad of them,

-facies non omnibus una

Nee diversa tamen. OVIDZ.

From this censure must be exempted several magnificent houses in the great squares, and the whole design of Fitzroy Square by James Adam ; yet, upon examination of the architectural mem-

2 The windows being usually plain oblong perforations, without a finishing ornament, lose as much of real effect as the. human countenance would do, without eyebrows..

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 223

bers of which others are composed, a deficiency of symmetry will strike the most casual observer. One instance of many, are the three-quarter pillars in Stratford Place.

In most of the provincial towns in England some publick building attracts our notice, and the whole architecture of the city of Bath is sin- gularly beautiful. Wood, wrho built Prior Park for Mr. Allen, the friend of Pope, and Buck- land for sir John Throckmorton, was the original architect of most of those structures which em- bellish that city in so high a degree.

To his designs and to those of his scholars, may be attributed Queen's Square, the Parades, the Circus, the Crescent, and the new assembly- room. We have there dedicated to the publick, edifices of as splendid an appearance as that of the Italian palaces, in which their cities abound.

I have been favoured, among other valuable hints, with a critique on the buildings of Bath, formed upon a late survey of the most remark- able of them, from my friend the ingenious trans- lator of Aldrich's " Elementa Architecture Ci- ^ilis."

" A visitor to this very populous resort of wealth and elegance is disappointed on a close examination of its architecture. The beautiful inequalities of ground, seen from a distance, might lead him to expect specimens peculiarly adapted to please the eye, delight the fancy, and

224 OBSERVATIONS OX

satisfy the judgment of the architectural virtuoso* The first place of publick access is the Pump- room, and the eye is naturally employed in sur- veying the facade in which the principal door is placed. The pediment appears to be dispropor- tionahly small, and the columns and architrave bear no analogy to the ample space contained in the breadth and height of the building, and to its large and lofty windows. The inside is much superior to the external appearance, as the room is very plain and well constructed. The new street, called Pulteney Street, is long and broad ; but being chiefly divided into distinct houses is very far from impressive, and being on a level, the eye feels no relief from a flat uniformity. Upon a near inspection of the individual houses, their structure betrays excessive tameness of de- sign, and a tenuity wilich borders on meanness. The Crescent is grandly situated, and so beauti- fully formed, that the spectator's judgment is for a while suspended ; till on a nearer view, he cannot help regretting that the upper parts of the buildings lose all the elfcct which the lonick pillars would have communicated, by the defec- tive projection and unornamented wall of the basement storj^. The houses which terminate each end exhibit striking fronts. When this has been called the finest modern lonick skreen in Europe, the praise has been exaggerated.

" The Circus forms a dark and heavy area,

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 225

though the individual structures are highly or- namented. Smollett's criticism is nevertheless severe, when he calls it ' an antique amphi- * theatre turned inside outa.'

" Bath, in short, betrays that fallacy to the eye, which all buildings of a theatrick nature are known to do; the visionary pleasure soon va- nishes, when a close inspection shews the little- ness of the component parts, the slimness of the structures, and the imperfect durability of the ma- terials. The new Crescent owes the degree of beauty it possesses, to its lofty situation alone. Milsom Street, from its being built on an ascent, is very striking, and the junction in the middle of several tenements under one design is not without an appearance of grandeur. Yet, the ornaments are merely such as a. builder unin- structed in the Palladian school might capri- ciously have invented. The long fa$ade to the upper rooms is handsome ; but the principal ap- proach is heavy, and deformed by the jutting parts of the. building, which make a dark, narrow, and deep area. The North Parade exhibits a pro- mising front to the stranger who wishes for com- modious lodgings ; the South Parade is inferior. Neatness of appearance in most instances, and in some of splendour, cannot however exempt the architecture of Bath from the general character-

a In the novel of Humphry Clinker. Q

226 OBSERVATIONS ON

istick of flimsiness and apparent want of dura- bility. The elevations of the baths are pretty, and the colonnades in the street leading to Bristol give that part of the city a light and airy view."

Paine3 has been employed at Worksop Manor, Wardour Castle, and Thorndon ; all of which are sumptuous, rather than beautiful.

In the northern counties, Carr has designed several noble residences ; particularly that at Harewood for Mr. Lascelles (now , lord Hare- wood), which has a grand elevation. He has built likewise a mausoleum for the late marquis of Rockingham, in Yorkshire.

Hiorne, who died prematurely13, exhibited much genius in the county sessions-house and prison at Warwick, and was singularly happy in his imi- tation of the Go thick of the fifteenth century, as far as the elevation in the church at Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and in a triangular tower in the duke of Norfolk's park at Arundel.

But to no individual architect will the English school be so much indebted as to James Wyatt, for purity and beauty of style. Mr. Walpole has judiciously deprecated any farther attempts at refinement, and considers the Pantheon as the acme of the art. Perhaps this very able architect

* Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Noblemen's and Gen- tlemen's Houses, Sec. fol. 2 vols. 1783. b At Warwick, Mi. 45.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 227

has not surpassed his first claim to celebrity. Since the alterations in 1790, the former merit of the interior has been lost. His first essay in the Gothick manner was the house at Lee in Kent, designed for Mr. Barret.

Two buildings, lately completed by him, have afforded a wider scope for his genius, than pri- vate houses could have given. They are a mau- soleum for lord Darnley at Cobham in Kent, and another for lord Yarborough at Brocklesby in Lincolnshire.

At Dulwich is a casino, built for Mr. Shaw, in which is introduced a new style of country house, by combining the advantages of an Eng- lish arrangement, with the beauty of a Palladian plan. If so classical an idea should be adopted in other instances, there will be less cause for censuring so many architectural deformities as those which are repeated in the environs of London, where it is seldom considered by the opulent who employ architects, " that taste, and not expense, is the parent of beauty s"

Indeed, the ambition of producing novelty, so conspicuous in the present age, does not promise

c *c In the Gothick churches a profusion of elaborate orna- ment., how licentiously soever designed or disposed, seldom failed to produce a similar effect ; but the modern fashion of making a building neither rich nor massive, producing light- ness of appearance by the deficiency rather than the disposition of parts, is of all tricks of taste the most absurd, and the most certain of counteracting its own end."— Knight's Enquiry, p. 177.

Q 2-

228 OBSERVATIONS ON

well for the national architecture. — A happy imi- tation is of much more value than a defective original; and to copy excellence with spirit and character, is a test of no inferior ability.

In the modern school of architecture in Eng- land, so happy a proficiency has been made du- ring the present reign, that we have now nu- merous professors of the art, whose practice is highly creditable to this country, compared with a similar progress made on the continent. I do not arrogate to myself the power, nor have I the inclination, to select names which I might pos^ sibly commend without giving satisfaction, or overlook from ignorance of their individual ta- lents.

Let their works ensure the praise of a judicious and candid posterity ; and in the present age, may every architect of genius and real science find ample encouragement from Opulence, Li-. berality, and Taste.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 22Q

SECTION X.

Of Country -houses in England — in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. — Charles II. — Schools of Wren and Fanbrugh — Earls of Pembroke, Burlington, Leicester, and Orford, Patrons of English Architecture — Tours and Plans to be consulted — Origin of modern Gardening — Lord Cobham at Stowe—Lord Bathurst at Oakley — Comparison with Country-houses and their Domains in France — Abbe de Lille's Poem on Gardening — Sketch of the Progress of that Art in England — Browne— his Disciples — Repton, &c. — Opinions of Mr. P. Knight and Mr. Uvedale Price — Concise Vieiv of the Question ofiuhat constitutes Beauty in the new Art of Landscape Gardening— German, French, and Italian Gardens considered — Proposal for the Admission of exact Models of the more cele- brated classick Buildings, and the rejecting of Gothick Imitations and Ruins- — illustrated by the Gardens of the Villa Borghese at Rome, designed by Jacob Moor, a celebrated Land- scape Painter.

IN a great degree peculiar to England are the magnificent country-houses of the noble or opu- lent inhabitants. Upon the 'Continent the pa- j

Q 3

23O . OBSERVATIONS ON

/' laces of the nobility are found in great cities ;

\ and they content themselves with inferior houses in the distant provinces for the chase or summer

I retirement. A different practice has prevailed

I with us, and the chief display of wealth or taste occurs in the family residences on their patrimo- nial estates ; to which circumstance our land- scapes owe a richness of cultivation and a variety of objects, never seen in France and Germany, or even in Italy.

After the feodal power had totally declined, and castles fell to decay, the fashion of large mansion-houses became prevalent in every county

\ in England. In the reigns of Elizabeth and ? James the wealth of individuals was in no in- stance more ostentatiously shewn than in erect- ing sumptuous buildings in the style of that age, ! which equalled ancient castles in extent, but

/ could scarcely boast greater internal accommo- dations. Most of them are lost to us, who live in the nineteenth century ; but the investigator of antiquity will find great satisfaction in exa- mining the numerous engravings of family seats,

\which abound in the county histories of early /date. Those by Hollar, Burghers, and Kip, are

| all, at least, curious3, and in general faithful. After the restoration of Charles II. many at-

•

aln Dugdale's Warwickshire, Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, Plott's Staffordshire, Atkyns's Gloucestershire, and the Theatre de Ja Grande Bretagne.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 231

tempts were made to intermix the newly intro- duced French or Palladian architecture, with the Gothick of the preceding age, in several houses of the nobility, but with the usual success of applying principles diametrically opposite to each \ other. Those since erected have borne marks of a less equivocal style, which has become almost j universal, and in a certain degree more pure in its progress. The architects of the schools of Wren and Vanbrugh found ample encourage- ment in the earlier part of the last century, and the ancient provincial houses were successively rebuilt upon their plans, and under their direc- tion. It must be allowed that a great sameness reigns through all these mansions, and that we find a constant monotony of lengthened fronts with pediments, porticos, and .pilasters, on the \ outside, and vast halls with painted ceilings and / gigantick staircases within, usurping, solely for | the sake of a magnificent approach, what is ill / spared from the comfort and symmetry of the \ habitable apartments. Yet, at that period, se- L veral illustrious exceptions must be remarked ; and the noble patrons of architecture, the earls of Pembroke, Burlington, Leicester, and Orford, have rescued the fame of the English school from the general charge of poverty of design, or abso- lute dependance upon foreign: models.

Of the variations in architecture, which have

44

OBSERVATIONS ON

occurred during the present reign, and the de- parture from the regularity of the French and Palladian schools, I have already spoken, and at- tributed the cause to the discovery of Grecian and Roman architecture, which have been made familiar to us by splendid and accurate publi- cations.

To them we are indebted for the application of many classical ornaments, and a combina- tion of beautiful parts selected from the most celebrated antique structures ; the result of which seems to have been a middle style, be- tween the capricious lightness of an Italian villa, and the monotonous correctness of a French palace. In modern instances, particularly of cupolas and porticos, greater care has been taken to complete their resemblance to the originals, which the architects had professed to copy, than by those artists who immediately preceded them. A more difficult, and perhaps a more invi- dious, task could scarcely be undertaken, than to enumerate the mansions of the nobility and gen- try in the several English counties, for the pur- pose of taking a comparative view of them. In tours, which have been made with intelligence and taste, accurate details are given both of their architecture and contents, and series of beautiful engravings have been published, from which those who have not the opportunity of actual in- 2

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

233

spection, may collect a just idea of their merits b. In the volumes of Whateley, Walpole, and Gilpin, few of much consequence are not de- scribed, with critical observations upon each ; and in the New Vitruvius Britannicus and other ar- chitectural designs, more scientifick information is given to those who require it. Whoever, after having traversed the continent of Europe, shall inspect these representations, or, what is prefer- able, survey the scenes for himself, will be proud to recognise a style of building almost peculiar to England, and with which no other country can enter into any competition0,

bSandby's Views, Virtuoso's Museum, Watts's Views ofj Gentlemen's Seats, and theBeauties of England, &c.

'c I beg leave to direct the reader, by way of index, to these descriptions, as they occur in Whateley's Essay on Gardening, Walpole's Anecdotes, and Gilpin's Tours.

WHATELEY.	o i L PI N continued.
Ham Claremount	Derbyshire Surrey	p. 22. p. 48.	Nuneham	Oxfordsh. I	North. Tour, v. i, p. 22.
Esher	Do.	p. e;o.	Warwick		do. p. 38.
Blenheim	Oxfordshire	p. 78. .	Leasowes	Salop	do. p. 58.
Leasowes	Salop	p. 162.	Hagley	Wcrcestersh.	do. p. 64.
Painshill	Surrey	p. 184.	Shuckborow	Staffordshire	do. p. 70.
Hagley	Salop	p. 194..	Studley	Yorkshire	v. 2, p. 175.
Stowe	Bucks	p. 213, 243.	Ham	Derbyshire	do. p. 230.
Persfield	Monmouth.	p. 236.	Keddleston	Do.	do. p. 235.
WALPOLE.	Burleigh	Lincoln <	Scotch Tour, v. i, p. 4.
Stanstead Stourhead Painshill Park Place Rousham	Sussex Wilts Surrey Bucks Oxfordshire	v.5,p. 299. p. 301. p- 303. P- 3 '4- p. 296.	Roch Abbey Trentham Enville Twickenham Strawberry Hill	Yorkshire Staffordshire Do. Middlesex	do. p. 24. V. 2, p. 183. do. p. 185. 4o. p. 192. do. p. 194.
Twickenham	Middlesex	p, 295.	1 1 1 u Norbiary	Surrey <	WesternTour Pf
GILPIN.	Wilton	Wiltshire	• /• p. 9. •
Persfield	Monmouth.	Wye, p. 55.	Font hi 11	Do.	do. p. i.Vft
Hafod	Cardigan.	do. p. 77.	Castlehill	Devonshire	do. p. 174.
Blenheim	Oxfordsh. «f	Not th. Tour, v. i, p. 26.	Mount Edge- cumbe	JDo.	do. p» 217.

234 OBSERVATIONS ON

The sumptuous palace of Blenheim and the truly elegant villa of Nuneham, so often admired and described, are in the vicinity of Oxford. After Gilpin, who possessed unquestionably the happy faculty to paint with words, it would be arrogant to attempt a verbal delineation of scenes which he has examined with so much science of picturesque beauty.

The system of modern gardening has been em- / ployed in no situation with greater advantage, than in the grounds attached to those superb mansions.

Modern gardening, as a science, has had, per- haps, too rapi'd a progress for its eventual per- fection ; and has been imitated with success, no less various than landscape on canvass, by those , painters who rather trust to fancy for design and colouring, than consult nature for original or correct archetypes.

The introduction of what, in a certain degree* may be termed classical architecture into gar- den-scenes, may date its origin from the last century. Vanbrugh gave designs for temples at Eastbury in Dorsetshire, but he could only repeat himself, and they are merely parts of his houses in miniature, as they are given in the Yitruvius Britannicus, but now de- stroyed.

Lord Cobham, who designed Stowe, had a

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 235

contemporary and friend in Allen lord Bathurstd, who planted the groves of Oakley in Gloucester- shire, the shade of which he lived to enjoy with philosophick calmness. There are ten very ample and extensive avenues diverging from a centre, but they do not terminate in every in- stance with objects of importance. They were planted so as to form a radiation to imitate the groves of Chantilli and others in France, so laid out as to produce an extraordinary effect of grandeur, under the auspices of Louis XIV.

England possesses a decided advantage over \ every nation in Europe, with respect to the en- virons of noblemen's houses in the country. The forests and parks in Germany and Italy are I left in their natural state, excepting that avenues are made for the high roads. AVe are not pre- pared, as in England, for the sight of an inha- bited castle or palace, by a display of superior cultivation or cbaracteristick accompaniments.

Their whole expense is confined to the houss itself and the gardens, which in their architec- tural plans are scarcely less sumptuous. But nature embellished only and not restrained, and what has been called landscape gardening, they do not understand, and are too much preju- diced ever to adopt. In France, indeed, the

A ff Who shall adorn, and who improve, the soil ? Who plants like Bathurst ? and who builds like Boyle ?"

POPE.

230 OBSERVATIONS ON

royal country-residences and those of the higher nobility, under the former government, are laid out in a style intended to give an immediate im- pression of the vast extent of the domain which surrounds themd. But these are few and peculiar, and do not authorize a national comparison. In the beginning of the last century, when lord Bathurst first planted Oakley, the subjecting a whole district of country, and making it de- pendent on one grand mansion, occurred but in few instances, and was an example followed by many of the contemporary nobility, whose estates would admit of so novel an embellish- ment. This style required great space, and imme- diately preceded " modern gardening;" which, on the theatre of a comparatively few acres, ex- hibited such magical variety. We have at this tune, an exclusive claim to the art of laying out grounds, unknown to, and unapplied in any great extent, by other nations. The Abbe de Lille, jealous of our invention, ascribes the original idea of an English garden to the practice of the Chi- nese, yet not totally disallowing us a share of

praise :

Mais enfin Angleterre

Nous apprit 1'art d'orner et d'habiller la terre.

LES JARDINS.

d Lord Bathurst was forty years old when he began to plant, and ninety-one when he died. The trees were principally beech and fir.

" Nigra nemus abiete cingunt." • VIJRG.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 237

From the earliest accounts of our style of gardening, it appears that we have been the ser- vile imitators of the French ; and none could be more formal than those in which queen Elizabeth \ delighted, but which lord Bacon would not con-* ( descend to praise6. Of the gardens then in far - shion he observes, they were so split into small parts, and tortured into grotesque forms, that "you may see as good sights often in tarts." Milton's view of Paradise (b. iv. ver. 140) was purely ideal,

, » & .

existing only in his own mind ; and the age in ( which he wrote was unfavourable to taste, which \ had then no fixed principles, but was enslaved / by caprice. So little did he foresee, that his sketch of the garden of Eden would be first exem- plified in his own country, that he took his plea- sure in the trim gardens of that day, in com- mon with the rest of mankind. Milton's creative genius imagined, in the greater part, his Eden, and compressed in others the description of gar- dens given by the poets who preceded him. Ariosto's picture of the garden of Paradise, Tasso's garden of Armida, and Marino's garden of Venus, are composed in a style then prevalent in Italy, in which artificial conceits abounded; and Spenser, Milton's master, has placed an architec- tural fountain in the " Bowre of Bliss." Shake- speare has borrowed none of his beautiful imagery

e Bacon's Essays, xlvi.

238 OBSERVATIONS ON

from scenes of nature so cultivated. He in one instance only mentions what abounded in his days:

" Thy curious knotted garden.1'

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST,, Act i. Sc. i.

Sir William Temple, in his account of a perfect garden, was infected with the formality of the Dutch, among whom he had . so long resided5. Aided by the authority of such an opinion, Le Notre continued even here his triumph over na- ture and propriety, having established his system

f " The best figure of a garden is either a square or an oblong:, and either upon a flat or a descent : they have all their beauties,, but the best [ esteem is an oblong upon a descent. The beauty, the air, the view, makes amends for the expense, which is very great in finishing and supporting the terrace walks, in levelling the parterres, and in the stone stairs, that are necessary from one to the other. The perfectest figure of a garden I ever saw, either at home or abroad, was that of Moor Park in Hertfordshire, when I knew it about thirty years agoV From the reign of Charles II. to the close of that of William III. the nobility and men of wealth vied with each other in gardens, which were scarcely less artificial and expen- sive than those of Semiramis. The hydraulick wonders of Chatsworth, and Dyrham in Gloucestershire, cost many thou- sand pounds. Imitations of these, where practicable, were adopted in the gardens of almost every country gentleman ; and where water was deficient, terraces, flights of stairs, walled en- closures for parterres, and clipped yew-trees, with iron gates and palisadoes in succession at the close of an avenue, were I no less frequent. The faithful records of Kip and Burghers i have preserved the gardens with the country seats of the gentry, l\ in those provinces which they surveyed. By the constant ex - / pense they required, no less than the introduction of the new ( ptyle, they soon fell to decay, and scarcely a trace of such a ( garden is now to be seen.

» Temple's Works.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 23Q

during his visit to the court of Charles II, from which this happy soil was emancipated at length by the judicious satire of Pope, who applied the principles of his new art to his garden at Twic- kenham with enchanting success. Kent must only share his fame with Pope, who was at least jointly an inventor; but as the former executed, he has engrossed the credit. It was fortunate for the art, that the poets, who conceived these beautiful or picturesque scenes, had in several instances the power of creating them.

The Leasowes grew under the hands of Shen- 6 tone into a paradise, new and fascinating ; . and the grounds at Aston, as formed by Mason, ex- hibited, on a small scale, all the amenity which art can contribute to nature, when directed by the precepts given in his didactick poem of the English Garden5. The celebrated grounds of Mr. R. Payne Knight at Downton, and of Mr. i . Price at Foxley, are able commentaries on their ) own system.

For some years LancelotjBrowne reigned with uncontrolled power. He was originally a la- bourer in the gardens of Stowe. His plans were vast, and applicable to the extensive domains and the exhaustless purses of his employers. At Blenheim he found a theatre equal to his genius, where artificial scenery has been carried to the

E Mason's exquisite taste is likewise shewn in the flower- \ garden at lord Harcourt's, Nuneham, in Oxfordshire.

24O OBSERVATIONS ON

summit of grandeur. His management of water / was more worthy admiration than of grounds or plantations, in which he seldom departed from his established system, not consulting, in various instances, the genius of the place. His unifor- mity of clumps and belts (as he styled them), by such frequent repetitions, has lost its claim to our surprise or approbation ; and that claim ori- ginated as much in the novelty, as the beauty of the objects. Unlike the instance of the prophet of old, his mantle has been appropriated to them- selves, by numerous competitors. No one can be said to be his legitimate successor, if the pre- cedence claimed by Mr. Repton be not allowed by the publick.

In this age, certainly favourable to the revival and cultivation of the fine arts, we have to pride ourselves upon a new one, lately denominated " Landscape Gardening." Among the discus- sions to which this subject has given occasion since its introduction, and its being dignified by the name of a science, Mr. Whateley's Trea- tise and lord Orford's Essay retain the estimation in which they were originally held. Gilpin's Tours abound in many original and excellent ob- servations. The commentary added to Mason's poem by Dr. Burgh, is perspicuous, and full of . information.

/ The preceding publications are upon the ge- neral subject ; but the poem aad-essafs of Payne

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 241

Knight and Uvedale Price are more particularly directed against the innovations of Brown and his school, in both which the controversy has been so conducted, as by persons zealous to promulgate a new system.

Mn_Regtoji has vindicated his own practice, and attached partizans who confirm their opi- nion by encouraging his professional labours. He has lately given to the world his theory of beautiful effects, and his practice in producing them. We may now form conclusions from his written sentiments on the subject of picturesque beauty, as well as from the villas ornamented by his hand. His plan of exhibiting a drawing of the unimproved spot, contrasted with his ideas of what would certainly improve it, is new and ingenious, and his proposed amendments be- come more obvious by this species of graphick mechanism1*.

It seems to have been the fate of this, in com- mon with other arts, that its genuine principles can only be confirmed by time and experience; and that when the love of novelty, and the am- bition of singularity or improvement, shall have

h Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape -s Gardening, including some Remarks on Grecian and Gothick ) Architecture, collected from the various Manuscripts in the K Possession of the different Noblemen and Gentlemen, for whose Use they were originally written. The whole intended to establish fixed Principles in the respective Arts. By Humphry Repton, Esq. Illustrated with numerous plates, many of which are coloured. Large 4to, price 5/. 55.— Taylor.

242 OBSERVATIONS ON

yielded to truth, we may hope for eventual per- fection, founded upon rules from which it will be ever dangerous to depart.

If we take a comparative view, it will be found that gardens in France or Germany are seldom equal in point of extent to the pleasure-grounds in England. They are in general contiguous to palaces, and are crowded with statuary, or rather images. These, of very coarse and dispropor- tionate workmanship, are placed in rows in the avenues, which cross each other at right angles; and the trees are clipped into various shapes, with the bark painted white. Such is the gar- den of the elector at Wirtzburgh ; and there are others in Germany upon a similar plan. ; /

The royal gardens i in France are scarcely less ar- tificial, but they abound in the best works of their sculptorsk; and though there may be found many marble and bronze statues and groups of great merit as to their execution, a classical fop- pery may be said to pervade the whole, and no scenes can be farther removed from nature.

1 Versailles, a place chosen by Louis XIV. for his most sumptuous palace and gardens, has no natural advantages. It is situated in a flat valley enclosed by barren mountains and sombrous forests. The wits of his court called it " the fa- vourite without merit." When the total expenses of these gardens and those of Marli were laid before the king, the sum was so enormous, that he burned all the papers, in a rage, that posterity might not blame his folly.

k Dom Guedi, Des Jardins, Leranbert, Coysevox, Van- cleve, Coustou, Adam, and Pigalle.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 243

.Their artists always aiming to produce the " magnificent/' overlook the " beautiful" in their compositions of landscape, whether in orna- mented gardens or on canvass, with the almost solitary exception of Caspar Poussin.

Although the English style of gardening may appear to foreigners to be sufficiently defined, / ^^SJS£jS2-3$^2fife* wJ^khJ^pld out very dif- ferent sjs terns .j_and inculcate different ideas of what c^^ti^^^^Q^t^. The opinions of the professors of either vary extremely.

Knight and Price contend for the magnificent 1 in nature, as being not attainable by the trimness of art. Repjpn favours the artificial, as assisting / tji^atj^ it of its asperities, more

especially in the neighbourhood of capital man- sions. Jtisjortmous, that the extremes of either system would fail of producing a beautiful effect ;

-*tL~- " ««^_^,^..,.JL— — ~— ->--. to

and a critick, sufficiently unprejudiced, would not be readily found, who could draw the exact line of propriety. If a splendid house rose, as it were, at the call of a magician, in a centre of wild forest scenery, without the accompaniments of cultivation and art, it would scarcely be con- sidered as having been properly placed. It might indeed surprise, but would not please. On the other hand, the paring, levelling, and sepentining the ground, with shrubberies, gravel walks, and canals, may be practised with such frequency and to so great an extent, as positively to subdue /

R 2

244 OBSERVATIONS ON

nature, instead of adding a characteristick em- bellishment.

As these extremes are alike liable to censure, the first- mentioned school proposes a system more capable of variety, and favourable to genius. The art is to conceal the art, and it must be ap- plied with more success than we usually see it is, so that repetition and sameness may be cautiously avoided. A ^ 4****

I The question to be decided, with respect toA ( habitations, may be simply this — whether beauty, as composed of cultivation and neatness, is to be | exclusively preferred to the bold inequalities of , nature ? or, whether the extreme affectation of nature's irregularities^ may |iot be as foreign to the perfection ^£ga*ii^»*eg,^s that conspicuous and avowed art which is ambitious of more than natural decoration ?

The grandeur and wildness of Sal vat or Rosa will affect only congenial minds ; while of the milder beauties and the amenity which are pre- sented to us in the landscapes of Claude Loraine, more are qualified to judge, and to admire them. In Italy architecture is always connected with gardening. The villas near Rome are approached by vast flights of steps, decorated with flower- pots placed in order, and surrounded by vistas of formal trees, whilst the water falls into marble basons in succession.

The whole scheme of Roman gardens is arti*

;

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 245

ficial, and has employed their most celebrated"^ architects, and of course a variety and taste are

displayed, the effect of which is grandeur, with-

f 4J2 ***• <>dfct. -fcjfe^ fe '

out heaviness^ Specimens or antique sculpture detain the eye of the stranger, and add to a mag- nificent whole.

Their pride is the frequency of broad shade. ) afforded by porticos or lofty clipped hedges. Thejimbragguma.pines and chesnuts ar£ usiially / excluded from the ornamented garden, and \ abound only in the forest. i

The prejudices of the Italians in favour of their I own style of gardening are yet to be overcome ; and I have heard some of them declare, that the deficiency jof_ coBtiaii^d^shajie.is not to be com- f gensated by ^ restoring^ tlie scene to the more JbejMtksj>f nat ur e .

Detached pieces of architecture are essential in creating a landscape garden : when constructed after classical models, and judiciously and spar- ingly applied, they give a more decided character. It is by the sudden transition from one style to another, by which the illusion is destroyed, that we conceive disgust, as when the pretended ruins of an abbey are shouldered by a perfect temple of Bacchus, If pleasure-grounds were made to ^ exhibit \ anticme buildings of known celebrity ( (waiving the objections against diminished mo-/ dels in stone), the effect might be at least happier j than the imitations of Gothick fragments, which* I

R3

246 OBSERVATIONS ON

to deceive the eye for a moment, must be made of great massiveness and extent1.

In the opinion of Gilpin, even those real mo- nastick remains, which have their sites or envi- rons embellished in a great degree, lose their beauty in proportion.

In some of our extensive domains, dedicated to picturesque beauty, where nature has been most indulgent, I have been disappointed by observing numerous structures of high pretension as to ex- pense, so ill suited to the genius of the place. We abound in ecclesiastical and military ruins, which are truly inimitable, and lose all effect when attempted upon a scale of inferior dimen- sions. Why are we so ambitious of multiplying copies, in which all character is sunk in such specimens ? Why have we such an abundance of grottos and huts in a climate of eternal damps? To place mean and rustick buildings only amid scenes, which are certainly not intended -to con- vey the idea of the absence of art and expense, appears to me to be little less than a solecism in

1 The fate of those sublime structures, which had in a cer- tain degree survived the wreck of time, " or Henry's fiercer rage," is much to be lamented. The ruins of Glastonbury were advertised for sale a few years since to repair the roads. Foun- tains abbey is surrounded by a garden, ridiculously decorated. The venerable fagade of Llantony has lately been Jilted up as a summer-house, and the whole rum patched together with fresh mortar. Netley is an overgrown thicket " horrida dumis," whilst Tinterne is trimmed like a bowling-green. The chapel of our Lady of Walsingham stands in a parterre of flowers, and Wenlock is a fold for cattle.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 247

the modern English taste. Such a love of sim- plicity militates against the existence, rather than the propriety, of ornament.

Instead of these monotonous embellishments, and imperfect imitations of what we already possess, in number and originality, beyond other nations on the continent, let me indulge a faint hope, that taste, in happier times, may select a spot, and opulence offer her stores to enrich it with the genuine models of classick antiquity. The re- mains of Athens, of Rome, of Ionia, Balbec, and Spalatro, are become national treasures, by the ingenious and erudite labours of British artists™. No longer content with accurate delineations upon paper, or diminutive cork-models of them, as seen in libraries of superior elegance, the re- storation of those superb or beautiful edifices should dignify some chosen spot of correspond- ent composition. In the similitude of castles and abbies, extent and massiveness are insepa- rably necessary ; without them, all effect dwin- dles into littleness; but the Grecian fane may be rendered perfect even in a minute representation of it. The exact mode] of the Maison Carree at Nismes, called the Temple of Concord and

m Stuart's Athens, 3 vols. fol. Desgodetz* Rome, by Marshall. Ionian Antiquities, 2 vols. fol. published by the Dilettanti So- ciety. Wood's Balbec and Palmyra. Nismes by Clerisseau, Spalatro by Adam ; and in French, the " Voyages Pitto- resques" into Greece, Sicily, and Dalmatia.

E 4

248 OBSERVATIONS ON

Victory", at Stowe, designed by the first lord Camelford, when viewed as presiding over a noble valley, will prove my assertion, no less than that of Bacchus at Painshill, and the copy of the temple of the Winds at Athens, at Mr. Anson's at Shuckburgh0, though unfortunately placed ; that of the temple of Apollo at Balbec, in the grounds at Stourhead; and a rotunda temple of Venus at Garendon in Leicestershire. In the execution of such a plan for a school of classical architecture, not the slightest deviation from the true model or restoration, formed from actual measurement, should be tolerated. It should be seen in the chasteness of the original, consonant in every part. We might then begin to anticipate our emancipation from the Van- brughs and Borrominis of the present day.

Mr. Knight, who has happily investigated the principles of taste with metaphysical pre- cision, speaks both in verse and prosep of the introduction of these models of ancient architec- ture into improved grounds with great contempt. He contends, that these temples, copied from the originals, upon " barren hills and naked plains,"

11 Whateley on Modem Gardening, p. 225, 8vo. 1770. Walpole's Anecdotes, 8vo. vol. iv. p. 95.

0 The choragick monument of Lysicrates (Stuart's Athens, c. 4, pi. i — 3), the octagon tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, (Stuart's Athens, c. 3, pi. i — 3), and the arch of Hadrian at Athens, are all imitated in the grounds of Shuckburgh.

P The Landscape, b. ii. ver. 276. Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste, p. 166.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 24Q

" mere unmeaning excrescences," when placed in ornamented gardens. With due deference let it be only inquired, whether the majority of those untravelled Englishmen, who visit such scenes, and are highly gratified with these imi- tations, have a true idea of their original sites " upon the barren hills of Agrigentum or Segesta, or the naked plains of Poestum and Athensp?" Or whether it would once occur to them, that because the native scenery be not as exactly co- pied as the architecture, these objects, beautiful in themselves, and communicating to such spec- tators a primary idea of beauty, should, according to the canons of taste, be rather viewed with disgust ? A young student in architecture will surely find as much pleasure and instruction in the contemplation of the temple of Concord and Victory at Stowe, or the Pantheon at Stourhead, as in the detailed and conjectural plans and ele- vations in the Ionian Antiquities or Stuart's Athens. Would the dissimilitude of the scenery, a circumstance with which he would be perhaps unacquainted, destroy his satisfaction in inspect- ing a distinct and isolated object ?— Mr. Whate- \ ley, whose criticism on modern gardening is still ^.

* Is it positively certain that the sites of these temples were originally as Mr. Knight describes them ? That of Apollo Didymseus in Asia Minor, described by Strabo as surrounded by trees, had, when I saw it in 1795, no grove nor large trees within a great distance. How changed is the Campagna of Rome !

25 O OBSERVATIONS ON

held in high estimation, observes i, that " num- berless instances may be adduced to prove the impossibility of restraining particular^) uil dings to particular situations upon any general principles : the variety in their forms is hardly greater than in their application.**

A few years ago, prince Borghese patronized Jacob Moorr, who was the boast of the British nation, and then studying at Rome as a landscape- painter. He not only felt the beauties of Claude Loraine, but rivalled them. His own portrait, with an accompaniment of forest scenery, con- tributed by himself to the chamber of painters in the gallery at Florence, is an honourable testi- mony of uncommon excellence.

Under Moor's direction, the prince determined to remodel the ground adjoining to his incom- parable villa on the Pincian hill. The gardens / of the Medici and Albani villas, and those called x, Boboli, near the grand duke's palace at Florence, f are laid out in a stiff taste, with wralls of ever-

greens, straight alleys, marble fountains, and ( crowds of statues. Yet I am inclined to think, / that this style, now obsolete in England, is best < adapted to Italy ; where a constant and strong ( sun would soon destroy velvet lawns, and the

q Whateley, p. 130.

r He was born at Edinburgh, and died at Rome in 1793, where he had principally resided and studied. He has repre- sented himself with his coat taken off and lying by him, and as resting under a spreading tree in a forest.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 251

broad shade in,a ^treet of clipped trees or covert

*»«, &$••*•'** >'£*-- •*? . . -.

walks is more mmxzv&mt with the idea of local

luxury. Their perfectly harmonizing landscapes ' J are found only in imagination and on canvass ; for ) the art of reducing a district of country to the ? rules of picturesque beauty, practised in Eng- ] land, is unknown to them.

Moor gave the_first specimen ^of_jn^to£ngllsji garden to the Roman artists5, as described in Mason's elegant didactick poem so denominated. The alleys and terraces disappearing, the foun- tains no longer are forced into the air ; and the water, liberated from marble chests, spreads into a lake with irregular shores. Upon a small island in this garden is the temple containing a fine statue of ^Esculapius l ; and another exqui- site morceau of architecture sacred to Diana", in an appropriate situation, each of most correct imitation. Other parts of these ornamented fields exhibit the Roman scenes of old. A hippo- drome, a villa invariably corresponding with the plan and scale given by Pliny and Vitruvius, and a museum destined to receive the statues found

8 When atJRomc I visited these gardens, accompanied by a virtuoso, who,"after coldly listening to my praises, replied, "Ob done gusto

ornata c non imbellata, vi spiega neficenze per render i giardini asili cP un piacere dolce c sereno." — Mem. degli Architetti, t. ii. p. 206. 1 " ASKAEIIEmi IOTHPI." u " NOCTIVAGAE NEMORVM TOTENTI."

252 OBSERVATIONS ON.

in the city of Gabii (deserted even in the days of Horace), realize the idea I have sketched of a classick pleasure-ground. To have had an actual inspection and revival of some of their original plans and embellishments, after a lapse of two thousand years, upon the very site of the gar- dens of Sallust, given to the Roman people, af- forded a satisfaction which no delineation could equal.

I copied the subjoined inscription on the base of a statue of Flora, in proof that the modern Romans are still masters of Latin composition,

VILLAE. BORGHESIAE. PINCIANAE.

CVSTOS HAEC EDICO.

QVISQVIS ES SI LIBER

LEGVM COMPEDES. NE HlC T1MEAS.

JTO tiVO VOLES PETITO QVAE CVP1S.

ABITO QVANDO. VOLES.

EXTERIS. MAGIS. HAEC PARANTVR QVAM HERCX

IN. AVREO SECVLO VBI CVNCTA AVREA

TEMPORVM SECVR1TAS FECIT

BENEMERENTI HOSP1TI. ]

FERREAS LEGES PRAEFIGERE HERVS VET AT. ]

SIT HlC AMICO PRO LEGE •)

HONESTA VOLVNTAS.

VERVM SI QVIS DOLO MALO LVBENS SCIENS AVREAS VRBANITATIS LEGES FREGERIT.

CAVEAT NE SIBI

TESSARAM AMICITIAE SVBIRATVS V1LLICVS ADVORSVM FRANGAT.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 253

SECTION XI.

Invention of stained Glass — Process in making it — Said to have been known and practised by Cimabue — In the Netherlands, Holland, and France — View of the French School of Glass- staining — Names of French Artists — Most an- cient stained Glass in England — Arms and Portraits — Scripture Histories — Great eastern Windows — Enumeration of curious Specimens — Destruction of them by CroniwelFs Soldiers — Restoration at Windsor and Cirencester — — New &ra of stained Glass after the Reform- ation — Artists of Eminence — Bernard Van Linge, 1 f>22 — Abraham Fan Linge, 1 63 ] - 1 64 1 — Baptista Sutton, 1634 — Henri/ Giles, 1687 — William Price the elder, 1 696 — Joshua Price, 1715 — John Oliver, 1 700 — William Price the younger, 1719 — W. Pecleett of York, 1 760 — Thomas Jcrvais, 1 7 70- 1 80 1 — His Works at New College, Oxford, and Windsor — Mo- dern Artists — Neglected State of the Art.

STAINED glass has been so intimately connected with Gothick architecture in the later ages, that a sketch of its history may not be considered as irrelevant to that subject.

254 OBSERVATIONS ON

The Egyptians had vitrified utensils and ena- melled bands bound round their mummies, which have been frequently discovered. We^ know positively of no instance of the use of

»*»«-^^ •»•«.« r WU, i, .11 .aw.* i iMntuC^--

glass among the Greeks. Those fragments the Romans have left us are much more numerous than valuable, in their urns, lachrymatories, and other small vessels. Pliny speaks of coloured glasses made to imitate precious stones and gems, but that the white was the more rare. There is no instance of plain superficial glass used for mirrors or windows ; which latter were some- times composed of thin laminae of alabaster, or leaves of mica. Some small pieces of thick green glass have been found among ruins ; but that circumstance does not prove them ever to have been applied as windows ^jioa^jofjviiich,. with glass, have been discovered at. Herculaneum. Pitiscusa speaks only of alabaster or selenite, as adopted by the Romans, to admit the light, and exclude the air, at the same time.

The application of glass windows is of much

_ _ *.-• A •! •>. -_L...I O ...<«*•»•*

later date than the original invention of that material. There is no mark by which white

«•««**-_•. t/ -— — ^iwa*, -

glass can be fixed to any particular aera ; but when stained, it bears a certain criterion of its true age, such as the costume or dress of the figures represented peculiar to the centuries, Gothick legends, scriptural portraits, or whole

a Lex. Antiq. Roman.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 255

histories, executed with various degrees of per- fection, corresponding with the actual progress of the art.

Stained glass was not only necessary on ac- count of its religious or mystical influence, but to temper the rays of the sun in buildings so full of windows as the Gothick churches, and it highly improved the architectural effect. Of the spe- cimens the smaller are the more ancient. As the art advanced, portraits and groups of the size of nature were attempted. St^er^m^jvvho lived toward the end of the fourt^^ntury, is the earliest author who speaks of glass in windows. Gregory of Tours, in the sixth, mentions like- wise a glazed window of a church which was broken by soldiers. The poet Fortunatus, who lived at the close of the sixth century, in an ac- count of the church of Paris, now N6tr,e-Dame, gives a pompous description of the stained win- dows. St. Bennet, abbot of Wiremouth in Scotland, who died in 690, is stated in his life to have gone into France to procure artists to build his church, and to ornament the windows with painted glass.

The opinion of so able an antiquary as the late Mr. T. Warton deserves to be given at length. " The first notice of painted windows in a church occurs in a chronicle quoted by Muratori. In the year 802, pope Leo built a church at Rome ; ' et fenestris ex vitro diversis coloribus conclusit

3

25(5 OBSERVATIONS ON

' atque decoravit ;' and, in 856, he produces * fe- c nestras vero vitreis coloribus.' This was how- ever a sort of mosaick in glass. To express figures, or what we now call ' painting in glass,' was a very different work ; and I believe I can shew that it was brought from Constantinople11 to Rome in the tenth century, with other ornamental arts, Guicciardini, wiio wrote about the year 1560, in his ' Descrizione de' tutti Paesi bassi,' ascribes the invention of baking colours in glass for church windows to the Netherlander^ ; but he does not mention the period, and I think he must be mistaken. It is certain that this art owed much to the laborious and mechanical genius of the Germans ; and in particular their deep re- searches and experiments in chemistry, which they cultivated in the dark ages wdth the most indefatigable assiduity, must have greatly assisted its operations. I could give very early anecdotes of this art in England. But with the careless haste of a lover, 1 am anticipating what I have to say of it in my ' History of Gothick Archi- ' tecture in England13.' It is much to be lamented, that of this very interesting work he had laid the plan only in his own mind, and never arranged his ample materials.

Some information relative to the process of

* The mosques are still furnished with stained glass set in very small squares. b Hist. Poetry, vol, ii. Diss. Gest. Roman, p. 22.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 25?

staining glass may not be wholly unacceptable ; although we cannot but be aware, that there are secret methods, peculiar to almost every artist, upon which are formed the excellence and variety of execution.

The substances are the same as those used by enamellers, but the tints are required to be much deeper ; and it is always necessary in the shaded parts, such as flowing drapery, hair, beards, &c. to colour the glass on both sides. To execute a great work on glass we must begin by tracing the design from cartoons, of a size equal to that which the picture is intended to be. The car- toon is then squared, and divided into as many pieces as the glass required. A number is then put on the cartoon, which answers to the pane of glass. A piece of white glass, if for the carnations, is then placed on the cartoon, and of coloured glass, if for the drapery, through which is seen that part of the design wrhich it is intended to represent. The out- lines and shadows are then traced with a pencil, as seen through the glass ; and after the colouring is completed, it is put into the furnace till red hot ; the tints are thus incorporated with the whole mass, and become immovable. The materials for staining glass, which are prepared in crucibles, are all taken from the mineral king- dom. Cobalt makes blue. The different shades

258 OBSERVATIONS OX

of red, brown, and chesnut-colour, are made \vitht calx of iron in different degrees of preparation. Crimson is procured from calx of copper when immersed in water, and green from copper dis- solved in vegetable acids, or from other acids precipitated with fixed alcali. Crimson and bright red are made from calx of gold ; one grain of gold will colour four hundred particles of glass of the same weight. Calx of silver makes yellow, which is likewise effected by calx of lead united wvith antimony. Violet colour and purple are pro- cured from manganese. The menstruum is said to be the essential oil of bean-flowers ; and when the glass so prepared receives the design of the artist from the cartoons with its shades and demi- tints, the whole is again placed in the furnace.

The art of staining glass was traditionally known to the first Florentine painter Cimabue, who is said to have introduced it into Italy. In his native city some beautiful windows are still seen ; but I doubt whether they are of so early a date. In 1521, during the sacking of Rome bv the Constable of Bourbon, the windows of the Vatican, painted about fifteen years before by Claude and William de Marseille, were broken in pieces by the French soldiers, that the lead might be cast into musket-balls.

In Germany many artists flourished, whose works are still conspicuous in their cathedral

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 25Q

churches b. In the Netherlands and in Holland this pleasing art has been practised with greater success, and to a much greater extent, particularly in the church at Gouda, between the years I5oo and 164O. But I am inclined to conjecture, that our immediate obligations are due to our Norman neighbours for the introduction of stained glass into this kingdom, as a necessary appendage to their architecture. France had a school of glass- stainers under the auspices of Charles V. in the fourteenth century; and continued in the sub- sequent reigns to abound in the most highly finished specimens, before the pride of her church was eclipsed by the revolution. At that memorable period, the political fanaticks destroyed a greater number of fine windows, than the soldiers of Cromwell had done in our cathedrals. Le Noir, a celebrated modern antiquary, had sufficient in- fluence with the governing powers to remove some of the more beautiful pieces in Paris, to collect the fragments, and to preserve the whole from farther demolition, by placing them in a national museum. Others were bought by dealers to be sent to England. To the lovers of this branch of art I shall offer no apology, for giving extracts from Le Noir's catalogue, and his notices of the French school of glass- staining. Abbot Suggerius placed stained glass in the

b Jacques L'Allemand, born at Ulm in 1611, is said by Le Noir to have been the earliest artist of the German school upon record.

S2

f2(3'O OBSERVATIONS OI\T

church of Notre-Dame about the year 1 150; but the subjects were in general small, and the artists unknown. At the Cordeliers, there were moral subjects taken from domestick life in the thirteenth century. In the church called " La Jussienne" (Egyptienne), was the legend of St. Mary the Egyptian, 1390, and the family of Charles VI. in the Orleans chapel. Herron, 1430, made a window at St. Paul's on the subject of paradise.

Pieces taken from the Temple, 1471. — Life and Death of our Saviour in a large size, by Albert Durer : as the glass was thick, he drilled the eye- balls to give them brilliancy, which method was afterwards adopted with frequency. They once filled twenty windows.

From the Celestines, 1490-1560. — The works of Bernard Van Orlay, born at Brussels, and pa- tronized by the emperor Charles V. Having much drapery of blue semee de lis, he coloured the glass only on one side, he then drilled the figure of the fleurs de lis on the surface, and stained them yellow, and after that operation shaded the whole, and passed it through the fire.

From the Chapel of Vincennes. — The works of Jean Cousin, a scholar of RafFaelle, who has painted the most admired windows in France, so beautiful that they imitate the pictures of Giulio Romano on canvass. Many were lately destroyed, and seven perfect subjects only remain

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 26 1

in the museum. There are portraits of Francis I. and Henry II. as large as life.

From the Minismes de Paissy. — The works of Robert Pinaigrier, who was employed by Francis I. at St. Victoire, chiefly royal portraits. He stained the windows of the cathedral at Chartres, and was much employed at Paris, at St. Jacques la Boueherie and St. Croix, &c. ; but a beautiful collection of his works from St. Etienne du Mont is still preserved.

From the Castle of St. Ecouen. — Story of Psyche, executed from cartoons of Raffaelle in chiaro scuro, by Bernard Palissy, 1545, originally thirty pieces, twenty- two of which are in the museum. They are painted only on the surface, and not stained throughout. Le Noir has pub- lished a series of etchings from them c. Others from the designs of Primaticcio arid Parmegiano are scarcely less beautiful.

Church of St. Gervais. — Works of Perrin, from the designs of Eustace Le Seur, in chiaro scuro. The windows of the choir, in 1587, were done by J. Cousin. The sons of Robert Pinai- grier, John, Nicholas, and Louis, who were very eminent at the commencement of the seven- teenth century, contributed to adorn this church,

Church of the Feuillans. — The JJfe of John de la Barriere the founder, in twelve compartment^ by Benoit Michu, 1 706.

c Musee des Mon. Frar^. t. iv. p. 130. S3

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From these notices it will be readily conceded, that the French, from whom our stained glass was originally purchased, have since been our rivals in that artc, which wre were taught by Flemings d resident in England.

c The most celebrated French artists are subjoined according to the sera in which they flourished.

I Herron and his scholars, who ornamented the great J catnecfrals and conventual churches.

^«J

1500. Albert Durer.

f Robert Pinaigrier. j Bernard Van Orlay. j Valentine Bouch. Angrand Le Prince. D. Monori. Nicholas Le Pot. 1512. Jean Cousin. 1545. Bernard Palissy. 1580 ^

to I John, Nicholas, and Louis Pinaigrier. 1600. J

r Jacques de Parroy. , J Jean Nogare. l63°-lDesangives.

^ William Le Vieil.

(Percher. Benoit Michu. John- Francis Dor. Sempye. F. Perrin.

/•Peter and John Le Vieil, the former of whom wrote 1726 I an historical and very ingenious treatise on the

to < art.

1758. 1 Nicholas Montjoie, and V Peter Regnier.

td The Art of Painting and Annealing on Glass, with the true Receipts of the Colours and ordering the Furnace, and the Secrets thereunto belonging, as practised in 1500, with plates, 4to. 1801.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 263

The most ancient painted glass6 now remain- ing in England is in the cathedral of Canterbury. The windows are of the simple pointed form-, and have small mosaick patterns, squares, and diamonds, in faint colours. Some of the same kind and age were at Salisbury, before the late alterations. At York are histories from the Old and New Testaments, placed there in the reigns of the two first Edwards, and probably those first attempted in this country. Beautiful mosaick patterns are still to be seen at Tewkesbury, and Bristol cathedral. As the windows increased in dimensions the single figures were portrayed as large, or larger, than life. The great east win- dows at Gloucester and Winchester were embel- lished with \vhole-length figures of kings, pro- phets, and bishops. The former is much muti- lated, but in the latter (so late as 1715) there were mostly entire figures to be discerned. The cloisters of the cathedrals and greater abbies were generally adorned with stained glass ; not frequently with figures or histories, but with moral sentences or texts of Scripture, written

* At what period stained glass was first introduced into the houses of kings and nobles of England cannot be precisely ascertained. Are we to consider Chaucer's account of the story of the siege of Troy, as painted on the windows of his own house, to be a proof that such embellishments were usual in the fourteenth century ? or, is it to be considered as the other parts of his " Dreme," and merely imaginary? See ver. 312. — Charles V. of France, Chaucer's contemporary, ornamented not only his chapels, but the apartments of his castles, with stained glass. Le Noir.

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26*4 OBSERVATIONS ON

upon scrolls in the Gothick characters. Such were more appropriate to a part of the sacred structure immediately dedicated to exercise and religious contemplation. A favourite subject was the genealogy of Christ ; called in old de- scriptions of abbey churches a " Jesse/' That patriarch of the house of David is represented as lying on his back, and a large tree taking root in him. It bears each individual of the pedigree, and the Virgin and child as the fruit of the top- most branches. The armorial ensigns of founders and benefactors were first attempted in separate escocheons, before they were imitated upon the tabards or court dress of the times.

When portraits have been stained on glass, al- though many have been demolished, they have had a better chance for preservation than those on pannel or canvass. In several churches a ge- nealogical series of their benefactors was placed, some of which have survived, in an imperfect state, the decays of time and the rage of fana- ticks. Mr. Walpole denominated two crowned heads, which he procured, Henry III. and his queen ; and many with curled hair and forked beards are said to represent the Edwards, Ri- chard II. and Henry IV. from that fashion pre- valent in their reigns, and remarkable on their coins ; which circumstance, on a cursory view, may justify the surmise. Generally speaking, the whole -length figures .with crowns and

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 265

sceptres are imaginary Jewish monarchs, con- nected with some scriptural history; they are universally so when exhibited in profile. Bishops and abbots may be supposed to be portraits by fair conjecture ; they are distinguished by their holding the croisier in their right or left hand, the former only performing the office of bene- diction. It is evident, that stained glass, and probably that of more exquisite design and co- louring, because a much smaller size \vas re- quired, was introduced into the interior of churches. The sepulchral sacella of bishop Fox in Winton, and of prince Arthur in Worcester, cathedrals, were so glazed. Without doubt there were earlier instances of this application.

A difficulty occurs in fixing with satisfaction the true aera of historical subjects on stained glass, which are not absolutely scriptural.

In the Bodleian library are two pieces of a very early date, given by Mr. Fletcher, a late mayor of Oxford. One of them represents a penance performed by Henry II. for the murder of Thomas a Becketf, and the other is merely a royal marriage, which, though the disposition of the figures agrees with that of Henry VI. and

f In the cathedral of Canterbury is a fresco painting of the martyrdom of Becket, and stained on glass in the parish church of Brereton, in Cheshire. Carter's Ancient Sculpture and Painting. Archseolog. vol. x. p. 51. In the north transept of Christ Church is a fragmented subject of T. a Becket. Fitzurse, one of the assassins, bears a shield with his arms.

266 OBSERVATIONS ON

Margaret of Anjou, at Strawberry Hill, cannot positively be said to be that of Edward III. Henry IV. or of his son ; at least there is no- thing appropriate to either of these sovereigns. It was once in the church at Rollright, Ox- fordshire.

Mr. Fletcher was likewise possessed of the portraits of Henry V. and cardinal Beaufort, re- moved, according to tradition, from the prince's chamber, Queen's college, to which society he has generously restored them. Among the se- ries of portraits known to have existed, or still remaining, are those of the Clares s and De- spencers, earls of Gloucester, at Tewkesbury ; the first knights of the garter, at Stamford11, in Lincolnshire; the Fitzalans, at Arundel1; the Beauchampsk, at Warwick ; and the Fieldings, at Newnham Padox, in Warwickshire. These consist of many individuals, each of whom is cha- racterized by an escocheon or surcoat of arms. For such information we are chiefly indebted to Dugdale and other ingenious heralds, who did not omit to delineate all the armorial portraits which they found in the course of their provincial visitations.

In the old church at Greenwich was the like- ness of Humphrey duke of Gloucester, with his

E Engraven in Carter's Ancient Sculpture and Painting.

h In Ashmole's Hist, of the Garter.

1 Visit. Sussex, 1634. Coll. Arms MSS.

* Dugdale's Warwickshire.

4

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 26?

surcoat of armorial distinctions. No other marks can positively ascertain the resemblance of other founders and benefactors, sometimes seen at pa- rochial churches.

At Balliol and Queen's are some of the most ancient figures of ecclesiasticks in Oxford, and at All Souls are some small whole-lengths, wel} executed, and certainly of the aera of the founder, archbishop Chicheley1.

As antiquaries seem to consent, that the por- traits of our sovereigns, prior to the reign of Henry VI. when painted upon pannel, can scarcely be genuine ; a great degree of credit has been attached to others found in illuminated ma- nuscripts. The same will be probably allowed to those in stained glass, as conveying to us as true a resemblance as even the portraits of Hol- bein and his immediate predecessors in the art. In one of the oratories of the chapel of King's college, Cambridge, is a portrait of Henry VI. In the church of the priory of Little Malvern, in Worcestershire, are the portraits of Edward IV. his queen, his daughter Elizabeth of York, and her five sisters, which are likewise seen in a win- dow contributed to the chapel called the Mar- tyrdom, in Canterbury cathedral. Richard III.

1 The portraits originally placed there, were those of Ed- ward III. ; Henry IV. V. and VI. ; John of Gaunt ; John Stratford and Henry Chicheley, archbishops of Canterbury* A. Wood, p. 486, edit. Gutch.

268 OBSERVATIONS ON

and Anne Neville his queen, are said to have been likewise there, but destroyed by a hail- storm"1. At Christ's college, Cambridge, are portraits of Henry VII. and others of the Lan- castrian family. Sir Reginald Bray, a favourite of that monarch, and a connoisseur in architec- ture, who superintended his chapel at West- minster, and built the nave of St. George's at Windsor, erected the church of Great Malvern, where he placed the portraits of his royal master, his queen, prince Arthur, J. Savage, T. Lovel, knight, and his own, all in surcoats of arms, kneeling under canopies, and very richly exe- cuted, as we may judge from those of prince Ar- thur and sir R. Bray, which only have escaped demolition".

The window of St. Margaret's, Westminster, the subject of which is the crucifixion, was in- tended by the magistrates of Dort, in Holland, as a present to Henry VII. whose portrait, and that of his royal consort, are introduced. Of such excellence is this work, that five years, and the talents of their most ingenious artists, were ex- pended in it. Having been first placed in Walt- ham abbey, and removed in 1540 by Henry VIIL

m Lord Orford had them engraved for his Historick Doubts. Few of our cathedrals were more richly decorated with armorial portraits, escocheons, and cognizances, than that of Can- terbury.

n Engraven in Carter's Ancient English Sculpture and Painting.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 2&Q

to the chapel of his palace at New Hall, in Essex, it was restored by William Price, for Mr. Conyers of Copthall, near Epping, and purchased for 400/. in 1758.

In the chapel at Wilton house are preserved portraits of William first earl of Pembroke, with his sons Henry and Edward ; and in another compartment are lady Anne sister of lady Ca- therine Parre, and her daughter Anne, the wife of Francis lord Talbot, son of George sixth ear) of Shrewsbury. In the chapel at Pet worth, Sussex, are portraits of the same kind, represent- ing individuals of the Percy family, Windows, simply armorial, were much in fashion about the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and few of the halls of noble and knightly families were defi- cient in a series of painted escocheons, exhibiting all the alliances of their families. A remark- able one is still in good preservation, at the ancient seat of the family of Fettiplace, at Swin- brook in Oxfordshire. Considerable ingenuity was necessary to delineate the heraldick figures, in all their variety, with sufficient accuracy and neatness.

The most magnificent series of windows in England, now existing in such a state of perfection, is that in King's college chapel at Cambridge. There are twenty-three windows. Each window has six subjects, taken from the Old and New Tes- nnent, exhibiting analogous stories in the richest

2/0 OBSERVATIONS OX

colours. The drawing is correct, and it is pro- bable that they were finished by English artists from Flemish cartoons. The death of Ananias very strikingly resembles the manner in which that subject is treated by Raffaelle11. The same cartoons served both for tapestry and stained glass ; and the mass of colouring in the latter is sometimes so heavy as to appear (if it were possible) like transparent arras. At Balliol college are the martyrdom of St. Catherine (l52g), and the passion, resurrection, and ascen- sion of Christ, by an unknown artist, but of suf- ficient merit to induce the founder of Wadham college to offer 200/. for them. Single figures of saints and ecclesiasticks were introduced into England from Normandy, and executed there, and in the Low Countries. The east window in the chapel at Peter-house, Cambridge, represents the crucifixion ; the principal figures

n These artists, at that time claiming only the humble ap- pellation of glasiers, were furnished with excellent designs, which they procured from the continent. Bernard Flower was the original undertaker of King's college windows, but died before "their completion. Francis Williamson and Simon Symondes finished four of them at sixteen-pence the square superficial foot. Galyon Hoone, Richard Bound, T. Reve, and James Nicholson, undertook eighteen others, on the east and west sides, at eighteen-pencc the square superficial foot, as .agreed by indenture, dated 1527. They are there bound to set these windows up " with good, clcne, sure and perfyte glasse, and oryent coullours and imagery of the story of the old and new lawe, after the forme, maner, goodenes, curiosyte, and clenelynes of the glasse windowes of the kinge's new chapell at Westminster,"

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 271

of which, have a general resemblance to the same subject by Rubens, at Antwerp. There is a tradition, that the groups on either side were copied from the designs of Lambert Lombard, or Suavius of Liege. Heads of the Apostles, and a perfect window with a scriptural subject, were at Catledge, in Cambridgeshire, built by Edward the first lord North in 1530. Stained glass was brought from Rouen in 1317, for Exeter cathedral, the east window of which was put up in 13QO°. The cathedral of Salisbury is said to have been furnished, both with painted? and plain glass, even in the thirteenth century, soon after the erection of that splendid pile, and the windows at New college and Merton are certainly contemporary with Richard II.

The great east window at York was the work of John TJTiornton*1 of Coventry, in the reign of

0 Account of Exeter cathedral, published by the Society of Antiquaries.

P Stained or painted glass was anciently called " royal," a$ in " The Squire of low Degree/'

" In her oryall — wher she was Closyd well with roial glas. Fulfylled it was with ymagery."

Warton, Hist. Poet vol. i. p. 1/5.

q This window contains, in nine chief divisions, the whole history of the Bible, and was begun to be glazed in 1405. Thornton contracted to receive four shillings in each week for his work and superintendance, and to finish the window ia three years, one hundred shillings in each year, and ten pound when the whole was completed. Total $61. 45. The price, at that time, was sixpence a square superficial foot for plain, and one shilling for coloured glass, before it was formed into figures, and put up. The same laborious artist made likewise two

272 OBSERVATIONS ON

Henry IV. when it is probable, that the art- had been successfully practised in England for some time. Glasiers (if they deserve not the name of artists), who composed figures and his- tories, were established in London, South wark, Coventry, Bristol, and York, of whom there are various notices adduced, and agreements with them recited, by Mr. Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting.

I am inclined to think, from the contracts made between benefactors to ecclesiastical build- ings in the middle centuries after the Conquest, that the glasiers furnished the stained glass, which was cut into various shapes, and enclosed with lead as the colours were required. The pattern or design from which the windows were com- posed was first given by the same artists who painted the walls in fresco.

The stained glass in the church of Fairford, in Gloucestershire, has long been the boast of that county. About the year 14Q2, John Tame, a wealthy merchant of London, took a Spanish vessel bound from a Flemish port for Italy, laden with this treasure ; and according to the expen- sive piety of those days, founded a church of very regular Gothick for its reception. There are twenty-five of these highly embellished win-

"\vindows on either si'de the choir, each divided into 108 par- titions, and containing a subject of Scripture history. — Drake's Eborac. p. 27.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 273

dows, the best of which is the third, in the north aile. The subject is the salutation of the Virgin, in which is a fine architectural perspective of the temple. The great windows, both east and west, retain their original perfection : of the first mentioned, the subject is Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, in which the effect of the crimson velvet and gilding is truly surprising ; and the story of the other is the last judgment1. Gothick fancy has been indulged to the extreme in these designs, which are at once horrible and ludicrous. So brilliant are the colours, and so delicate the drapery of the smaller figures in this assemblage, that an equally interesting specimen of ancient art will rarely be found in England, or on the continent5.

We can trace the general usage of stained glass to France, to Germany, and the Low Countries. In Italy, the walls of their churches are adorned with mosaick or paintings in fresco, and the windows are, in general, small, and a minor part

r For a minu e description of the subjects see Bigland's History of Gloucestershire, in the article " Fairford."

3 Dugdale recites the price of stained glass at different pe- riods. In the reigri of Henry VIII. the arms and poesies in Christ church hall cost

£• « '•

Forty-seven arms 15 13 o

Two hundred and forty-six devices 12 60

27 19 8

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only of internal architecture : but in that style which the Italians denominate " il Gottico-te^ desco," they occupy a principal division of the whole structure ; and therefore were made the receptacles of the most splendid ornament. I neglected no opportunity in my tour on the con- tinent of examining Go thick churches as they occurred. At Brussels and Ratisbon, the stained glass is particularly fine. Neither at Rome, nor in other Italian cities, could I discover any decorations5 of this kind, which had a great degree of merit, excepting in the convent of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence, where they nearly resemble those at Fairford, both in design and execution. There is a tradition that the fa-> mous Albert Durer furnished the latter drawings, which will not bear the test of chronology, for he was not twenty years old when these win- dows were put up, nor is it probable that he had then attained to such proficiency.

In the parish-church of Buckland, near Camp- den, in Gloucestershire, are three well-preserved compartments of stained glass, representing as

s There is some stained glass in the Duomo at Florence, and we learn, that the great window in the choir of the Dfoomo at VOrvietto was painted by Francesco di Antonio, a Cistercian monk of that city, in 1377. " Fra Francesco monaco Cister- ciense, per mano del quale dovevano depingersi i vetri del finestrone. del coro." Storia del puom. di Orvietto, p. 126, 4to. 1791.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 2/5

many of the seven sacraments of the Romish re- ligion. The first compartment contains six, the second two, and the third nine figures '.

It will be deplored by the lovers of ecclesias- tick magnificence, that during the civil commo- tions in the reign of Charles I. and to prevent the sacrilegious destruction committed by Crom- well's soldiers, whose rage against painted win- dows was insatiable", that so little opportunity or skill was found by many \vho wished to pre- serve these valuable decorations, after the re- storation. Some care was taken to replace the fractured pieces, or such as had been concealed in a more perfect state, in their original stations, so as to complete their designs. But it must be confessed, that the persons employed either de- spaired of success or were extremely incompe- tent; and therefore fitted "the pieces together in haste, and without arrangement. Fortunately for this venerable art, more taste and more pa- tience have been exerted in our own times, and artists have been found, who, under the direc- tion of connoisseurs, have succeeded admirably in restoring them to their pristine beauty.

Dr. Lockman, in 17/4, made up of fragments

I Lysons's Glouc. Antiq. pi. xxxix.

II The soldiers were particularly scandalized by figures at Magdalene and Trinity colleges, which they broke by jumping on them in their jack-boots.

nee fana rursus, nee fenestram.

Caucasiae hanc maculent volucres !

Mus. ANGLIC.

T 2

2/6 OBSERVATIONS ON .

the great west window at Windsor ; and two of singular effect have been designed and finished at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, by the present ingenious director of the Society of Antiquaries, who has superintended their completion with equal industry and judgment5".

After the reformation in England, we may trace a new cera of stained glass, which may be said to have commenced with the seventeenth century. The prejudices of the first reformers having relaxed in certain points, relative to the internal decoration of churches, the introduction of so splendid a mass of ornament, and of one so congenial with the architecture still remaining, was no longer proscribed by a positive injunc- tion. Our commercial intercourse with the Low Countries, where the arts had begun to flourish and where a school of painting had been esta- blished, facilitated the acquirement of stained glass ; which, emerging from its former rude- ness, now exhibited a certain regularity of de- sign. During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. armorial bearings^ and small portraits2 in circles

x Gloucestershire Antiq. pi. cix.

y The earl of Shrewsbury's house in Broad Street, London, was so ornamented in the reign of queen Elizabeth. Lodge's Illustrations, vol. ii.p. 209.

z There are small portraits of Charles I. and Henrietta (1633) at Magdalene and Waciham colleges ; and those of founders at Brazenose and St. John's. Archbishop Laud in 1634 set up painted windows at Lambeth and Croydon. Rushworth, vol. ii. Pv273*

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 277

were the usual decoration of the bay windows in the great manerial halls : but complete scrip- tural histories, in which the figures were well designed arid grouped, were rarely seen, except- ing in the private chapels in the houses of no- bility11.

About the middle of the reign of James I. Bernard Van Linge, a Fleming, is supposed to have settled in England ; but was at all events the father of glass-painting, in its renewed and improved state, in this kingdom.

Mr. Walpole remarks, that the popular nc- tion, that the art was totally lost to us, was founded in ignorance of the fact ; it was indeed dormant, but never extinct. For there is no great interruption in the chain of its chronological his-

aMr. T. Warton, in his Life of Sir T. Pope, 8vo. p. 16, mentions, that James Nicholson was a glass-stainer, much employed in the sixteenth century ; and Mark Willems, who died in 1561, is recorded in Walpole's Anecdotes, as supply- ing the glass-stainers and arras-makers of that time with de- signs for their several work's. Of that age are windows at Lullingstone, in Kent, of the stones of St. Botolph and St. Amphibalus, set up by sir Percival Hart, knt. the subject of the crucifixion at Greenwich, in Norfolk college chapel, and portraits of the Tudor family at Battersea church. The age of Elizabeth and James I. was by no means unfavourable to the art of staining glass. Archbishops Abbot and Laud were liberal encouragers of it. The former had embellished the parish-church of Croydon, in Surrey, with many windows of stained glass ; and, in the time of the rebellion, there is an account of a man's having been paid half a crown a day for breaking them. He was probably in no hurry to complete their demolition. Many windows are said to have been buried in order to preserve them; which, when taken up again, were replaced without judgment.

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tory to the present day. As the art was fre- quently practised by particular families in suc- cession, certain receipts may have been confined to them.

The most ancient workb of Bernard Van Linge, which I have been able to authenticate by his name, and a date 1622, exhibits the types and history of our Saviour at Wadham college, for which the donor, according to a tradition, per- haps amplified, is said to have given 1500/. There is reason likewise to suppose, that some figures there, dated 1 6l 6, were by the same artist ; and likewise six compartments of the history of Christ, in the east window of a chapel, built in 1621, at Easton Lodge in Essex, by Henry Maynard, esq. Vertue collected no notices of Bernard Van Linge, nor have we proof that he resided in England. Notwithstanding, from in- ternal evidence, I am inclined to believe that the seven windows at Lincoln college, given by archbishop Williams, dated in 1629, 30, and 31,

h In 1785 five windows of ancient stained glass, said to have been once placed in the chapel of Charlemagne, in the ca- thedral of Aix la Chapejle, were brought to London, to be dis- posed of by auction. Three of them were stained in colours; the subjects of which were, " the circumcision," et the na- tivity," " the story of Joseph." The other two in chiaro- scuro were, t( the woman of Samaria" and four small histo- ries. And in 1802 a collection was sold in London, pillaged from different churches in the Low Countries, but principally from the cathedral at Antwerp. Lord Carlisle purchased a window the subject, of which is the Crucifixion., which he gave to York cathedral.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE.

and said to have been brought from Italy, were, in fact, the work of Bernard Van Linge. A good effect of glass windows in the architecture is often repeated. Industrious and accurate as Vertue is in his researches after painters in oil, he is still silent respecting Abraham Van Linge, who was probably the son of the former, whose numerous and extensive works must have re- quired his residence here; and it is a fair con- jecture, that we owe to him the continuation of this most fascinating art, under the auspices of Charles I. who gave a charter to the artists.

At Christ Church he finished the subjects of Jonah, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Christ with the doctors, with the several dates, 16*31, 1634, and 1640; Philip and the Eunuch at Balliol in 1637; twelve compartments of a window at Hatfield, and windows at Wroxton, lord Guild- ford's, in Oxfordshire, in 1632, and at Catledge, in Cambridgeshire, another ancient seat of that nobleman ; the Resurrection at Queen's college 1635, and windows at University college and Lincoln's Inn chapel 1641. In this enumeration, a series of his works is merely attempted : many were probably destroyed soon after they were finished ; and some which still remain and are duly authenticated, may h^ve escaped my notice c.

c The portraits of Robert Kmg, the last prior of Oseney and first bishop of Qxford, with a view of Oseney in ruins, taken, from a print in the Monast,jcon, was probably by the elder Van,

T4

280 OBSERVATIONS ON

Archbishop Abbot was a great encourager of the artists in stained glass, and employed them for several windows at Croydon, and the hospital he founded at Guildford.

Mr. Walpole mentions Baptista Sutton as hav- ing painted two windows in the church of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, London, which are dated 1634. Before the fire in 1666, it is probable that the churches in London retained many spe- cimens of stained glass, contributed by pious and wealthy citizens, which had escaped the rage of the reformers. Howes, in his Continuation of Stowe's Chronicle, page 8Q2, says, that in 1613, " all the decaied windows of the church of St Stephen, Walbroke, were pleasantly repaired with new colloured glasse, made only for that purpose. "

Upon Yan Linge's leaving England, or his death, the art was dormant. Those who were employed to refit the mutilated windows after the restoration, were incapable of any original work ; and the first evidence that occurs of any good artist is of Henry Giles of Yprk, who ap- pears to have established a school of glass-paint- ing there, which continued its reputation for more than a century. He finished a window at University college, dated 1687. William Price the elder was his most able scholar and suc-

Linge. There are saints with very rich canopies, which we.re certainly brought from that abbey when destroyed.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 281

cessor, who first acquired fame by his Nativity, after Thornhill, at Christ Church, in 1 696. He then stained the Life of Christ, in six compart- ments, at Merton, in I702d; which performance loses much of its beauty and effect by having each compartment enclosed in a frame of glaring yellow glass, which was a mere conceit, and cer- tainly an unsuccessful experiment. His brother, Joshua Price, restored, with great success, the windows at Queen's college, originally done by Abraham Van Linge in 1031 ; which had been broken by the puritans. The present date is 1715. The chiaro-scuro figures of apostles and prophets in the chapel at Magdalene are by his hand, which are preferred by Mr. Gilpin to any in Oxford6.

In the cathedral at Christ Church is a singular curiosity ; it is a small window representing St. Peter and the angel, dated 1700 ; and, as the in- scription imports, stained by J. Oliver, when eighty- four years old. As a work of merit it will attract notice, and there are grounds for conjec- ture, that this artist was connected with the in- imitable miniature-painters, who were patronized by lord Arundel, and who gave so much lustre to the age of Charles I. . William Price the younger was employed for

d For this window Price received a6o/. e This mode of glass-staining, called by the French " en grisaille," is most favourable to small subjects.

282 OBSERVATIONS ON

the windows in Westminster abbey, which were voted by parliament, and were put up in l 722 and 1735. Several windows at New college, Oxford, which he had procured from Flanders, originally taken from designs by Rubens and his scholars, were in a great degree made perfect by him. Bishop Benson procured by his hand the subject of the Resurrection, for the window of his private chapel in the palace at Gloucester. At Witley, Worcestershire, lord Foley placed several Scripture histories by him, which are dated 1729. But Price's chief merit was seen in his designs and arrangement of mosaicks, of which there are many skilful examples at Straw- berry Hill. He embellished a window of a ca- binet room at Wilton with equal taste.

Of this school, established at York, was William Peckitt, whose proficiency was inferior to that of his predecessors, and who produced only an extreme brilliancy of colours6. He was first

e JohnHowell of High Wycombe, who died in 1756, prac- tised this art in the style of Price. His principal work was seven windows for the church of Hambledon, Bucks ; but he succeeded most in mosaicks and heraldick devices. It is said, that he discovered a very beautiful red, and that he suffered the secret to be lost at his death. Edward Rowe, glass-stainer, died in London 1763. John Stephen Liotard painted on glass which could be viewed only in a darkened room ; the effect of the light and shade was surprising, but a mere curiosity. Mon. Perrache finished small pieces most beautifully. The late H. Key, esq. practised staining on glass very successfully, at Hatfield house, Yorkshire. He excelled in minute subjects, such as flowers, butterflies, &c. Peckitt obtained a patent for taking off impressions from copper-plates and staining them on

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 2 $3

known by the great west window of Exeter ca- thedral, which he stained in 1764. It consists chiefly of mosaicks and armorial ensigns, which were well suited to his pencil. Between the years 1765 and 1777 he finished the windows on the north side of the chapel at New college, with arbitrary f portraits of the canonized worthies of the church. In 1767 he put up at Oriel college a window of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, from a design of Dr. Wall of Worcester, an eminent physician, who had made a certain proficiency in the art of painting. In the library of Trinity college, Cambridge, he painted a win- dow before mentioned from a design of Cipriani, the subject of which is the British Minerva pre- senting Bacon and Newton to his present ma- jesty. It has 140 square feet of glass, and cost 50ol. He stained likewise the windows of the chapel at Audley End, erected by the late lord Howard of Walden.

In this reign a new style of staining glass has originated, which is the boast and peculiar in- vention of our own artists.

glass; which, with his own collection of his works, his re- ceipts, and utensils, were sold at York in 1802. He died in 1800.

f " Shapes, that with one broad glare the gazer strike — Kings, bishops, nuns, apostles, all alike, &c. Ye colours that th' unwary sight amaze, And only dazzle in the noontide blaze."

T. WARTON.

284 OBSERVATIONS ON

" From the broad window's height

To add new lustre to religious light,

To bid that pomp with purer radiance shine."

T. WAR-TON.

The deviation from the hard outline of the early Florentine or Flemish schools to the correct contour of Michelagnolo, or the gorgeous co- lours of Rubens, is not more decidedly marked, than the design and execution of the yan Linges and Prices, and the masterly performances of Jervais. A striking deficiency in the compo- sition of the early artists, was the necessity .of surrounding the different colours of which the figures consisted with lead, and destroying, by that means, the harmony of the outline. Harsh- ness was the unavoidable effect, which they knew not either how to correct, or obviate.

Thomas Jervais, who died in 1801, was first distinguished for exquisitely finishing small sub- jects. At lord Cremorne's villa, Chelsea, is the most complete collection of his early works, con- sisting of about twenty pieces. The interior of Gothick chapels and castles is exhibited with rays of sunshine, producing the richest effect.

In priority of excellence, if not of time, the first is the great western window of the chapel at New college, Oxford^ His widow in 1802

s The total expense of the west window of New college was : For the figures of the lower compartment 5<D/. each, yd. extraordinary for the group of Charity, and 8/. for the lion's head attached to the figure of Fortitude. Total 428^.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 285

publickly exhibited for sale thirty-seven small pieces, which he had reserved as being of more perfect workmanship. She valued them at 2OCO/.

The design was made by sir Joshua Reynolds, and is divided into two parts. In the lower compartments are placed upon pedestals, in chiaro-scuro, seven female figures, larger than life, representing the Christian graces and the cardinal virtues. It is difficult to determine, which of these may claim the highest merit;. Temperance and Charity are generally preferred ; but sir Joshua himself gave the decided palm to the figure of Hope, reaching forward to heaven.

The middle compartment of the higher divi- sion represents the Nativity, the leading idea of which is evidently taken from the celebrated " Notte" ofCorreggio, originally at Modena, now at Dresden.

For the whole of the upper compartment noo/. paid to Jervais. Sir J. Reynolds received 23 il. for the use of the cartoons. So that the whole amounted to little less than

200O/. <

The cartoons were dispersed among several proprietors. The duke of Rutland has the Nativity, for which he paid 8oo/. ; the duke of Portland some of the accompaniments, bequeathed .to him by sir Joshua; and the marquis of Thomond the others, with the seven figures. Lord Orford was so enamoured of his Flemish histories and rich mosaicks, that he was blind to the perfection of the new school of glass-staining. In one of his letters (vol. v. p. 236), he speaks of sir J. Reynolds's " washy Virtues" at New college, which is too severe a sarcasm. If the colouring be too faint, it was the fault of Jervais ; but was there nothing to be said of the design, expression, and divine grace of the outline ?

286 OBSERVATIONS Otf

Antonio Raffaelle Mengs likewise availed him- self of that matchless composition, in the Nativity which he painted for the king of Spain's collec- tion, in wilich the whole breathes gaiety and cheerfulness, in contrast to the Crucifixion. Sir Joshua has introduced portraits of himself and Jervais, as shepherds, a hint possibly taken from the picture above mentioned, in which Mengs has done the same. On either side of the great centre-piece, are accompaniments formed by beautiful groups of shepherds and boys with flambeaus; and over all, an angel reposing upon clouds, with a scroll bearing a passage from Holy Writ.

Mr. T. Warton's elegant verses to sir Joshua Reynolds11 contain so ample a description and so just a panegyrick, that humbler praise is neces- sarily precluded. A new and peculiar effect first attempted by Jervais, he has marked with pre- cision :

" 'Twixt light and shade the transitory strife ;"

and,

<c Her dark illumination wide she flung With new solemnity 5"

than which nothing can be more poetical and true.

Another fine work of Jervais, associated with his most successful pupil Forest, is the great

h Verses to Sir Joshua Reynolds on the painted Window at New College, 410. 1782.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 287

eastern window in St. George's chapel at Wind- sor. The subject, designed by West, is the Re- surrection, which is disposed in three grand com- partments1.

Beside this, Forest has finished three other windows, which add to the late embellishments of that singularly elegant chapel. They are the Angel's Appearance, the Nativity, and the Wise Men's Offering, all likewise from the pencil of West, which are dated 17Q2, Q4, and 96. The Crucifixion by the same artists, and destined for the same structure, is now advancing towards completion k.

In 1776, Pearson (said to have studied under the younger Price) stained the chapel window of Brazenose college, Oxford, from cartoons by Mortimer, of Christ and the four Evangelists. This is his most considerable work. His wife1, Mrs. Pearson, has discovered an equal genius, and they have jointly executed numerous small pieces, which have been publickly exhibited, and

1 Of this window West was paid 1500^. for the cartoon, and Jervais 3400^. for the workmanship.

k " Proud castle ! to thy banner'd bowers Lo ! Picture bids her glowing powers Their bold historick group impart — She bids th' illuminated pane Along the lofty vaulted fane Shed the dim blaze of radiance richly clear."

WARTON'S ODE, 1788.

1Mrs.Lowry, another female artist, promises considerable eminence in glass-staining, when improved by practice.

288 OBSERVATIONS ON

sold by auction. Among the most correct and beautiful of them, is the Aurora of Guido, now at Arundel castle1". Copies of the seven cartoons of Raffaelle upon the largest scale ever attempted, each upon a single pane of glass, are no less beau- tiful and curious. They were sold by auction in 1805 for 44 iL

Hand, a native of Ireland, had adorned that country with several beautiful specimens of stained glass, before his settling in England. For the earl of jVIoira, at Donnington castle, he has finished windows in a perfect style ; and at Arundel castle are perspective interiors of temples., the colours of which are equally distinct and harmonious.

Among the modern proficients in this exqui- site art Egington held a respectable place, and was established at Handsworth near Birmingham.

His excellence was progressive, and his in- dustry duly encouraged ; for nearly fifty con- siderable works by his hand, are a very cre- ditable proof of both. At Magdalene college, Oxford, he has restored the great west window of the general Resurrection, originally done in chiaro-scuro by Schwartz, from which an en-

m At this time rising under the auspices and by the sole ar- chitecture of his grace Charles duke of Norfolk. To the de- signs, .as much as to the patronage of the earls of Pembroke and Burlington, Britain is proud to owe the introduction of classi- cal architecture, as the Gothick will its restoration in all its va- rieties, to*he noble possessor of Arundel.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 28Q

graving has been taken by Sadeler. Eight other windows have likewise been lately put up by him in the ante- chapel, in which are whole length portraits, in their proper habits, of Wykeham, Wayneflete, Wolsey, and Fox, all bishops of Win- ton. They are in chiaro-scuro of a warm bistre tint. To notice some of the most remarkable for extent and ingenuity, I should select the Re- surrection at Salisbury cathedral, designed by sir Joshua Reynolds ; the same subject at Lit chfield ; the banquet given by king Solomon to the queen of Sheba, from a picture by Hamilton, at Arun- del castle ; the conversion of St. Paul ; and his restoration to sight, in St. Paul's church, Bir- mingham, Christ bearing his cross, from a pic- ture by Moralez, at Magdalene college, Oxford, in the church of Wanstead, Essex ; and one of his latest and most perfect performances, the spirit of a child in the presence of the Almighty, from a design of Peters, in a chapel at Great Barrs, Staffordshire. Francis Egington died in 1805.

Glass is a most pleasing vehicle both of sound and colour. How exquisitely refined are the tones of the harmonica, or musical glasses, when touched with delicacy and skill! And are the most expressive tints of Reynolds and West ren- dered less admirable by their being transfused over the surface of the " storied window ?"

From this opinion, I am -aware, there are

v

2C)0 OBSERVATIONS ON

many dissentients ; and the ingenious Mr. Gilpin has declared the effect of stained glass to be totally tmpicturesque. Let it however be observed, that stained windows are seldom seen to ad- vantage, at least to all the advantage of which they are capable. When placed in Gothick churches, they are usually inspected under a glare of sun, or nearly obscured, and seldom but for a short period. But to have its real effect, a stained window should be occasionally looked at for several hours, when the light is fading away in the evening, and the tints are blended by slow gradation into softness and true har- mony of colouring — formce vcneres captando fugaces. To those who have marked these circumstances I would submit my opinion, or retract my error0.

n This very elegant art, which claimed the admiration of Europe in Gothick days, has fallen into an undeserved disre- pute, and its professors, few as they are, have to lament that they have preferred this to other branches of painting. But this neglect is not peculiar to England. In France, in the year 1768, we learn from Le Vieil's treatise on staining glass : (i Tel est le sort actuel de la peinture sur verre. On aura peine a croire, que dans la capitale dn royaume, au temps ou j'ecris, il se ne trouve qu'un artiste de ce talent ; etque ce seul artiste soit assez peu occupe autour dequelques armoiries, ou de quelques frises, que son artne pourrait suffire a ses besoins." — LeNoir, Musee des Mon. Fran^.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 2QI

SECTION XII.

Measurement of the English Cathedral Churches, and of their component Parts — Dates, of the Foundation or Rebuilding of each, with the Names of the Patron, Bishop or Abbot, who gave the Design, or contributed to the several Structures — Bath, 1-490 — Bristol, 1 160 — Canterbury, 1114 — Carlisle, 1 1 5 o — Chester, 1128 — Chichester, 1097 — Durham, 1093 — Ely, 1109 — Exeter, 1128 — Gloucester, 1189 — Hereford, 1095 — Lincoln, 1147 — Litchjield, 1295— London, Old Si. PauVs,\QS&— New St. Paul's, 1675 — Norwich, 1171 — Oxford, 1120 — Peterborough, 1170 — Rochester, 1180 — Sa- lisbury, 1217 — Wells, 1235 — Winchester, 1070 — Worcester, 1218 — York, 1227 — Correspond- ent Dimensions of several component Parts of Cathedral Churches.

1 HE intention of the following arrangement is to submit to the reader, under one view, a scheme of every cathedral in England, exhibiting the date of each component part now in existence. These have been collected from Leland and Willis ; in which notices are found, not only of dimensions, but of bishops, abbots, and priors, who contributed to the several buildings. Whe-

u J

1 Q2 OBSERVATIONS ON

ther we are to consider them, in every instance, as architects and designers, may admit of doubt ; but some are known to have been skilled in ar- chitecture, and may be ranked as professors in the English school. Many of the great parts of the cathedral churches, which are attributed to one prelate or abbot, may have required more money to complete them than could have been collected in one lifetime ; in which case, the name recorded is frequently his who began or completed the structure, and sometimes that of him who contributed the largest sum of money, or who gave the plan. An attentive investigation of the history of the early English architecture has scarcely been rewarded with more than the discovery of a solitary name, or the confirmation of a dubious date. The art of all others, which flourished most in the dark ages, has been in- volved in the deepest obscurity, not only with respect to its principles, but its history. Gun- dulphus, Henry of Blois, Grostete, W, of Wyke- ham, Alan de Walsingham, and Robert Tulley, shine conspicuously in the Gothick night. It is a well-founded tradition, that these were equally versed in the science and practice of architecture. The master- masons, and the fraternity wrhich accompanied them, and over whom they exer- cised a kind of jurisdiction, executed these stu- pendous works, and not unfrequently designed them. They had many archetypes and plans to 2

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 2Q3

follow, if they wanted skill to invent. It has been questioned, by those who wish to consider the history and principles of English architecture, as involved in more mystery and obscurity than they really are, whether or not these magnificent piles were raised without system or detailed plans. Such a circumstance is scarcely probable, even in the earlier centuries ; but in the fifteenth, there is positive proof from the will of Henry VI. that a plan of his intended college had been laid before him for approbation.

U 3

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Correspondent Dimensions of the several component Parts of Cathedral Churches.

Chiehester

Norwich

Worcester

Durham

Gloucester

TOTAL LENGTH.

- - 410 feet.

- - 411

- - 41O

- - 420

- - 420

HEIGHT OF NAVES. STYLE.

Peterborough - 78 - Norman.

Winton - - - 78 Pure Gothick,

Canterbury - - 8O - Pure Gothick,

Lincoln - - - 83 Norman.

Salisbury - - - 84 Pointed arch.

Durham - - - 71 Norman,

Ely - - 7O - Norman.

Exeter - - - 69 Pointed arch.

Gloucester - - 67 Norman.

Wells - - - - 67 - Pointed arch.

BEEADTH OF NAVES AND AILES.

Norwich 71, Bristol 73, Chester 73, Ely 73, Canterbury 74, Exeter 74, Sarum 76, Peterborough 78, Worcester 78, Durham 80, Lincoln 83, Gloucester 84, Winchester 85.

INDEX.

A ABBEY gates, page 30.— St. Augustine's, Canterbury ; Edmunds*

bury; St. Augustine's, Bristol; Battle abbey, Thornton. Arches. — Round, slightly pointed, facings and ornaments of,

lancet, 21. Architecture.

Saxon remains in part. — Doorcases and windows, 16. In- stances, 17.

Norman. — Examples and aera of, 18, 19. Norman bishops, cele- brated architects, 20. Their works, 21. Gradations of style, 21.

Bishops, Norman, architects. — Gundulf of Rochester, Maurice of London, Roger of Salisbury, Ernulph of Rochester, Alexander of Lincoln, Henry of Blois of Winton, Roger of York, 20.

Gothick, p. i.— Not invented by the Goths. Name first known

in the schools of Palladio and Wren. Architects, Gothick. — Their great skill in construction, 43. The

excellence of their roofs, 8 1 . Their most remarkable works, 84.

Dr. H. Aldrich, 148. Beauchamp bishop of Sarum, 39. Sir James Borough, 172. Sir Reginald Bray, 83. Car, 82. Gerard Christmas, 107. Dr. George Clarke, 148. Nicholas Cloos, 183. James Essex, 81, 185. James Gibbs, 153. Nicholas Hawkes- moor, 147. Holbein, 105. Thomas Holte, 107. Horwood, 83. J. Hylmer, 83. Halfpenny, 82. Bernard Jansen, 107. John of Padua, 1 06. Keen, 159. Thomas Rudborn, 115. W. Rede, 26, 114. Henry Severick, 83. Ralph Symonds, 107. John Thorp, 107. Sir J. Vanbrugh, 148. William Vertue, 83. Alan de Walsingham, 25. John Wastel, 83. James Wyatt, €2. William Wykeham, 26, 114.

Inadequate attempts of modern architects, 44. Perfect combinations of French and English Gothick, 45 and 46. Anecdotes of Go- thick in France, 45 and 46. Contemporary, account of, 48.

3

INDEX.

Architecture, Gothick. — In Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and England, 4.

Lord Orford's criticism upon bishop Warburton's idea, 5. 11 Gottico-Tedesco, 7. Arabo-Tedesco, 9. Lombard Gothick at Pisa, 9. Sarazenesque or Saracenick ; perfection of, in the reign of Henry III. 22. Introduction of, claimed by the French, 23. Not brought from the Holy Land, 23. Pure Gothick under the influence of Wykeham, 25. Characteristicks of, 26. Florid Go- thick, 33, 56. Characteristicks of, 34. Terms in, 38. Instances of, in Scotland, 42. Writers on Gothick architecture most celebrated. — Bentham, Gray,

Warton, Essex, Grose, and Milner, 2, 13. Gothick architecture in France and Flanders, 46, 47, N. Architecture, Greek and Roman. — Of the Orders, 197. Under Leo X. 198. Introduction of, by Palladio and M. Angelo, into Italy, 199. Into France, 199. Into Germany, 199. Into England, by Inigo Jones, 200, 201. His genuine works, 201. Sir Christopher Wren, 202. Sir John Vanbrugh, 207. Lords Pembroke and Bur- lington, 210, 211. Lords Orford and Leicester, 212. J.James, 213. Colin Campbell, 213. The Adams, 215. Lord Camel- ford, 215. Lord Straffbrd, 215. Sir W. Chambers, 216. N. Dance, sen. 2 1 7. Sir Robt. Taylor, 218. J. Soane, 218. Hol- land, 219. Athenian Stuart, 219. Willey Reveiey, 219. View of architecture in France and Germany, 220. Palaces at Paris, 221. Street architecture in England, 221. Observations on the buildings of Bath, 222. J. Paine, 226. Carr of York, 226. F. Hiorne, 226. James Wyatt, 227. English school of architecture, 228.

B

Bas-reliefs upon doorcases and fonts at Lincoln and Winchester, 17.

At Oxford, 122. Batalha built by John king of Portugal, 13, 30, from a design of

David Hackett. Murphy's account of, u. Bath, abbey church at, 42, 294. General view of the buildings at,

224 to 226.

Bathurst, lord, 235, 236. Bells, weight of, 131. Bridges.— Magdalene, at Oxford, 164. Worcester, Shrewsbury,

INDEX.

Blaidenhead, Richmond, and Henley, 165. Westminster and Blackfriars, 165, N. At Cambridge, 194. Browne, Lancelot, 239.

Campanilia, or bell toxvers, at Florence, Venice, Bologna, 7.

Carvings at Lincoln and Winchester cathedrals, 17.

Caen, churches at, 18.

Carter, J. 83, 122.

Casino. — At Chiswick, Vicenza, 210. At Mereworth, Footscray,

and Nuthall, 21 1. At Dulwich, 227. Cathedrals on the continent. — Pisa, Orvietto, Sienna, 6, 65. General

plan of, at St. Stephen's, Vienna, Strasburg, Nuremburg, Rheims,

Amiens, Notre-Dame and St. Penis, at Paris, Coutance and

Bayeux, 8. Built of brick and cased with marble, unfinished at

Sienna and Bologna, 8. Disproportion of the height to the width

in, 12. Scale of their several dimensions, 58, 59. Cathedral Churches.

Bristol, 24, 48, 49, 50, 395.

Canterbury, 20, 33, 48, 50, 296.

Carlisle, 50, 297.

Chester, 51, 298.

Chichester, 48, 49, 50, 299.

Durham, 46, 48, 49, 50, 300.

Ely, 22, 25, 48, 49, 50,51, 301.

Exeter, 28, 49, 50, 302.

Gloucester, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 303.

Hereford, 50, 304.

Lincoln, 20, 37,46, 48, 49, 50, 305.

Litchfield, 50, 305.

Norwich, 50, 307.

Oxford, 51, 307.

Old St. Paul, 1 8, 20, 37, 307.

St. Paul's, London, 154; architectural criticisms upon, 2

307-

Peterborough, 20, 26, 46, 48, 49, 50, 308. Rochester, 20, 48, 49, 308. Salisbury, 9, 20, 22, 37, 50, 309. Wells, 46, 50, 309.

Y

INDEX.

Winchester, 20, 33, 36, 40, 48, 49, 51, 310. Worcester, 23, 48, 50, 310. York, 20, 5©, 311.

Castles*— Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Danish, 86. Norman, 87. Keeps square and round, 87. Architect of Gundulphus bishop of Rochester, 88. Construction and parts of, 89. Mounds and en- trance towers, 91. Gothick, introduced at Caernarvon by Ed- ward I. 9». Description of, 93. His other castles in Wales, 94. Gradual improvement of their architecture, 96, 97, N. Walls of, 99. Furniture of, 100. Sculpture used in, 101. Built of brick, 101, 102. Castellated houses, 103. Alnwick, 97, 103. Arundel, 87, 97, 103. Bamborough, 87. Berkeley, 88. Caer Philly, 95, 97. Carisbroke, 87. Carnarvon, 93,94. Castle Rising, 91. Chepstow, 95. Clifford tower, York, 88. Colchester, 87. Conisburgh, 87. Conway, 93, 94, 98. Dover, 87. Durham, 98. Goodrich, 97. Harlech, 93. Hedingham, 87. Kenel worth, 87,97. Knaresborough, 87. Lincoln, 87. London, 87. Ludlow, 97. Lumley, 97. Norwich, 87. Oxford, 87, ii2. Pontefract, 87. Porchester, 87.

INDEX,

Raby, 97. R?g!an, lot. Rochester, 87. Spoffbrth, 97. Sud ley, 100.

Tattershall, 102.

Thornbury, 102.

Tunbridge, 87.

Warwick, 97, 98, 100, 103.

Windsor, 97, 103.

Wingfield, 102. Ceilings painted, 139. Chapels.

Beauchamp, Warwick, 38, 5$.

Christ church, Oxford, 55.

Clare hall, Cambridge, 172.

Henry VII. Westminster, 55.

King's college, Cambridge, 38, 42, 55, 173.

Wakefield, 55.

Windsor, 40.

Clarendon printing-house, 148. Colleges in Oxford.

All Souls, 121, 150.

Christ church, 128, 129, 130, 131, 140, i6l«

Exeter, 137, 163.

Jesus, 137.

St. John's, 136.

Magdalene, 121, 126, 182, 183.

Merton, 114, 136.

New college, 116, 147.

Oriel, 137, 162.

Queen's, 146, 147.

Trinity, 144, 14$.'

University, 137.

Wadham, 136.

Worcester, 151. Colleges in Cambridge.

View of the University, 168.

Castle and round church, 1 70.

y 2

INDEX,

Caius college, 174.

Christ college, 186.

Clare hall, 171.

Downing college, 191.

Emanuel college, 190.

Jesus college, 1 90.

St. John's college, 186.

King's college, 173, 185.

Neville's court, 188.

Pembroke college, 190.

Peterhouse, 170.

Trinity college, 186.

Senate-house, 192.

Saint Mary's church-, 193.

Publick library, 193.

Bridges andpublick walks, 195. Cobham, lord, 235. Charlemagne, aera of, 2. Epocha of Gothick architecture in Eu*

rope, 7. Conventual Churches,

St. Alban's, 36, 53.

Battle Abbey, 2 1 .

Beverley^ 53.

Bolton, 52, 53.

Brinkborne, 53*

Buildwas, £2.

Byland, 52.

Cartmell, 53.

Castle Acre, 17,21, 52.

Cirencester, 21, 51.

St. Botolph, Colchester, 21, 52.

St. Cross, 52.

Dunstable, 21, 52.

St. Edmundsbury, 53.

Fountains, 52, 53.

Furness, 53.

Glastonbury, 52.

Kirkstall, 52.

Llandisfairne, 52. . . . .

INDEX.

Llanercost, 52.

Llanthony, 52.

Mailing, 51.

Malmsbury, a i, 37, 52.

Malverne, 40.

Netley, 53.

Reading, 21, 51.

Ripon, 53.

Rivaux, 53.

Romsey, 52.

Ryland, 53.

Selby, 53.

Sherborne, 52.

Southwell, 52.

St. Stephen, Westminster, 3$.

Tewkesbury, 36, 51.

Tinterne, 53.

Valle-Crucis, 53.

Wenlock, 21, 53.

Westminster, 22,, 53.

Whitby, 53.

Winborne, 52. Cloisters, 35. Beautiful fretted roofs of foreign cloisters — paintings

in, 35. Celebrated, at Gloucester, 77. Formerly ornamented with

-stained glass, 77. Destroyed at St. Stephen's Westminster and

Peterborough, 35.

Colosseo, or Flavian amphitheatre, dimensions of, 129. Country houses in England, 229, Compared with those in France,

*35-

Cross, Latin, 6. Built by Edward I. 28, 30. Market, 30. Cupola, improperly called dome, 7.

D

Denis, St. cathedral near Paris, 10.

Dioclesian's palace at Spalatro, 4.

Doorways, Saxon. — Elkstone Quenington, 16.

, Norman. — Glastonbury, Malmsbury, and Castle Acre, 17,

INDEX.

F

Fancies, or western fronts, of cathedrals. — Rheims, Amiens, St.

Denis, near Paris, 46. Fasades of abbies in the Anglo-Norman style, 21. — Litchfield, York,

Peterborough, and Lincoln, 26. Wells and Exeter, 28.

G

Galleries, dimensions of, 135, 136.

Gardens, at Oxford, 165. Gardening, modern, 236. Poetical de- scriptions of, 237. Former style of, in England, 238. In Ger- many and France, 242. In Italy, 244.

Glass-staining, the history and art of, 253 to 256. Process in making, 25610258. Schools of, 258. Specimens of, in the Museum, of French antiquities, 259 to 262. French artists, 262. Introduction jnto England, 263. Portraits of English kings, 264. Of noble families in series, 266. Of eminent men, 268.

Glass -stainers of eminence. — Settled at London, South wark, Coventry, Bristol, and York, 271. Scriptural subjects in series, at King's college, Cambridge, 269. At Fairford, 272. Fragmented win* dows restored, 276. New sera of stained glass in England, 278. Egington,288. Forest, 286. H. Giles,. 281. Hand, 287. T. Jer- vais, 285. Ab. Van Linge, 280. J. Oliver, 282. Pearson, 287. W. Peckitt, 284. Josh. Price, 282. W. Price, sen. 282. W. Price, jun. 283. Baptista Sutton, 280.

Gloucester, architectural history of, 62 to 80. MS. lives of abbots, 67-

H

Halls, Gothick, 41, 60.

Halls, dimensions of, 129, 188. — Christ church; Hampton court;

Westminster; Eltham ; Middle Temple; Guildhall; Windsor;

Richmond; Lambeth; Trinity college, Cambridge; New college,

Wadham, Magdalene, Queen's, Oxford*-, Hospital, St. Thomas, London, 135. Houses of the age of the Tudors.

Audley End, 107.

Little Billing, 104.

INDEX.

Burleigh, 107.

Campden house, 107.

Great Cariford, 104.

Catledge, 105.

Charlton, 107.

Charlton, Kent, 107.

Cowdry, 105.

Gosfield, 1 06.

Hampton Court, 102.

Hampton Court, Herefordshire, 102*

Hatfield, 108.

Herstmonceux, 101, 115.

Holland house, 107.

Knowle, 108.

Longleat, 106.

Lypiate, 104.

Mount Surrey, 103.

Nonsuch, 1 02, 1 08.

Penshurst, 105.

Richmond, 102.

Little Shelford, 107.

Somerset-house, 106.

Whitehall, 102.

West Wickham, 105.

Wimbledon, 108.

I

Inscription in the garden of the villa Borghese at Rome, 252.

K Knight, R. P. his essays, 10, 93, 157, 227, 239, 240.

L

Landscape gardening. — Essays on, 240. Repton, 241. Knight and Price, 243.

Libraries, dimensions of, 146. Of Queen's, All Souls, and Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity college, Cambridge, 1 89. Blenheim, Heythrop, Oriel college, Worcester college, Caen Wood, Lansdown

5

INDEX.

house, Thorndon, Luton, Arundel castle, Radcliffe at Oxford, 153, 155. Oriel college, 162. Exeter, 163, 1,89. Louvres, at Canterbury, Ely, and Peterborough, z6.

M Masons, free and master. — Their establishment in England, 45. Hor-

wood, 85. Druet, Keys, and Orchyard, 121. Masonry, technical terms of, 38, N. Monument, London, 207.

Moor, Jacob, his garden in the villa Borghese, at Rome, 250. Museum, Ashmole, 145.

O

Observatories. — Greenwich, 1 60. Richmond, 161. Paris, 222.

Opus Romanum, or Saxon, 1 7.

Orford, Robert, lord, 2, 23.1. Horace, lord, 5, 33, 40, 108, 180, 181.

Oxford. — St. Frydeswide, church of, 15. St. Mary, 56, 123. St. Peter's, 112. All Saints, 149.

Oxford.— Picturesque views of, no, in. First quadrangle, built at Merton college, 114. Views of colleges at, by R. Aggas, 114. Re- storations, by Wyatt, at, 115, 121. Statues and bas-reliefs at, 122. Divinity school, 123. Clarendon printing-house, 148. Theatre, 144. Observatory, 159. High Street at, 165.

Palace of Theodosius, 5. Palermo, Monte Reale, church of, near, 10. Paul's, St. at Rome, built by Constantine, 5. Parochial churches.

Barfreston, 55.

Boston, 56.

St. Mary, Cambridge, 193.

Campdeu, 56.

Cheltenham, 35.

Chewton Mendip, 56.

Christchurch, Hants, 56.

Cirencester, 56.

St. Paul's, Covent Garden, 202.

Coventry, $6.

INDEX.

Derby, 156.

Don caster, 56.

Dorchester, 56.

Grantham, 56.

Great Grimsby, 56.

Howden, 56.

Kerton, 56

Lavenham, $6.

Mellon, 55.

St. Mary Ottery, 56.

St. Mary Redcliff, Bristol, 10, 56.

New church, Strand, London, 157*

Saffron Walden, 56.

Sherborne, 55.

Sleaford, 56.

Sojterton, 55.

Stamford, 56.

Stewkeley, 55.

Stowe, $6.

Stratford upon Avon, 56*

Taunton, 56.

Thaxted, 56.

Tickencote, 16.

Truro, 56.

St. Stephen, Walbroke, 207.

Winborn, 56.

Witney, 56.

Pisa, baptistery of, built by Dioti Salvi, 1 1 52, g. Failing tower, 9. Pisa, magnificent square at, composed of ecclesiastical buildings, 9.

Description of, 10. x.

Porticos. — St. Martin's, London; St. George, Hanover square j

Carlton house; Mansion house; East India house, ^56. Price, Uvedale, 239, 243.

R

Repton, 240.

S

Saxon churches, plan of, 14,- 17. Saxon mouldings specified, 14, Style defined, 15. Examples of, enumerated, 15.

z

Saxon windows. — Barfreston, Durham, Rochester, Romsey, and

Tutbury, 16. Sienna, duomo at, 6. Skreen and high altar, 28. Strasburg, cathedral of, 8. Strawberry Hill, lord Orford's, 81. Senate-house, Cambridge, 192. Schools, at Oxford, 114. At Cambridge, 192. Scotland, Gothick architecture in, 41. Statues, in freestone, at Oxford, 122. Spires, observations on, 125. Modern, 149.

T

Temple, sir William, 238.

Temples in gardens, in imitation of the ancients. — Concord and Vic- tory at Stowe, Bacchus at Painshill, of the Winds at Shuckburgh, Apollo at Stourhead, Venus at Garrendon, 248.

Theatre, Sheldonian, 137, 144. -

— -, Palladian, 144.

of Marcellus, 138.

Towers, Norman-Gothick. — In the centre or western end of cathe- drals, 36. Instances of, 3 7*

V

Vaults, stone, and roofs of timber frame, 41,81, 178, 180. Vanbrugh, his works: — Blenheim, 208. Castle Howard, Grims-

thorp, King's Weston, Seaton Delaval, 209. Vienna, St. Stephen at, 8. St. Charles Borromeo, at, 200.

W

Warburton, bishop, observation on his idea, 14.

Windows, 34. Circular, or Catherine wheel, 35. Whitehall, 201,

Wren, sir Christopher, 137, 188, 206. His works, 205. His plans,

207. Whateley, his Essay, 239, 249.

THE END.

CORRIGENDA.

Page 15, line 6, for zig-zig, read zigzag.

22, line 7, /or plan, rfa</ ground plan.

28, line 22, £f/0rc Abbot Whethamstede's skreen at St. Alban's, read Ralph lord Neville's altar skreen at Durham.

42, line 1 6, for was proud to confess, read is said to have confessed,

58, dtle old, before St. Paul's.

87, note, after Porchester, add. Colchester castle, 140 by 102. 107, line 6, insert after John Thorp — Bernard Jansen. 126, note, for Grantham 44, read 244.. 131, note, for 6i2olb. read i2,5oolb. according to Isaac& 156, line 9, for octostyle, r**<£ exastyle. 194, line i, read and which.

S. GOSNELL, Printer, Little Queen Street.

21-50m-8,-32

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