*+ s > o •S <> ,^. ^ tf ,0o tf A^ ■ .^ •/, i ■ ^ ^ ^ V t/> , N \ V* '-5' $ % V>*< \ c. ••. » * a.' a a -" * \ A A N ^ ( 0o. A .- ■■■' ,\ A*' •^, A' *3> A' N "■ A N >5k ' '<*- .<", -A , ^. v * ^ ,nN N ry !«». I V- k 0q ^. v^ ,* A N .< c* V V % - C <0 &£%. sfj A < v %< o5 "'ok iP°* '. '1 .0 © ^ ^ * s THE IMPERIAL ISLAND ISg 'the same ^utijor : THE HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF FRANCE. One volume royal octavo, pp. xiv, 336, and 27 pages of illustrations, uniform with the present book. Descriptions of the chief Monuments of France, together with Lists of about 2,200 other works of his- torical importance, most of them large, are geographi- cally arranged. Besides the great number which the government classes as Historical Monuments, about four hundred other and similar interesting objects are indicated. TICKNOR AND COMPANY. Boston. 1 IHIISHJW -oris gW IEHTH MA3PIS1L THE Imperial Island CnglanD's Chronicle in ^tone /by A JAMES Fl' HUNNEWELL AUTHOR OF "THE LANDS OF SCOTT," "THE HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF FRANCE," ETC. 'APR 15 1886' ■>F WASH BOSTON TICKNOR AND COMPANY 1886 [the library 1 OF CONGRESS JWA WASHINGTON Copyright, 1886, By Tames F. Hunnewell. All rights reserved. JHnfofrsttrr ^3ress: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. CONTENTS. Page THE IMPERIAL ISLAND : Its physical features 13 Early Britain 15 Stonehenge, 16 ; Avebury, 17 ; other relics, 18. Roman Britain 19 The Ports, 22 ; Rutupiae, 22 ; Regulbium, 26 ; Dubris, 27 ; Portus Lemanis, 27 ; other ports, 28. The Roman Wall, 30 ; Cities, 42 ; Pavements, 42. Town Walls, 43; St. Alban's, 43; Colchester, 44; Silchester, 44 ; Aldborough (mosaics), 46 ; Chichester, 48. Engle and Saxon England 50 The Norman Period 57 The Ports, 60 ; Pevensey Castle, 60 ; Portchester, 62 ; Dover, 64 ; Colchester, 69 ; Norwich, 73. The Royal Castles, 73; Tower of London, 73; Windsor, 85. Close of the civil history of the period, 94. THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND ... 97 Dates, styles, and dimensions of the Cathedrals, 106. The Cathedrals. Southern Cathedrals and Cathedral Towns, 111. Canterbury, 111; Rochester, 117; Chichester, 119; Winchester, 121; Salisbury, 125; Bristol, 130; Wells, 131 ; Bath, 135 ; Exeter, 137. Midland, 139. St. Paul's, London, 139 ; St. Alban's, 145 ; Peterborough, 149 ; Ely, 153 ; Norwich, 159 ; Lincoln, 161 ; Southwell, 168 ; Oxford, 170 ; Gloucester, 171; Hereford, 175; Worcester, 179; Lichfield, 183; Chester, 189 ; Manchester, 198. Northern, 200. York, 200 ; Ripon, 212 ; Carlisle, 214 ; Newcastle, 218 ; Durham, 220. Westminster Abbey 229 The Monasteries 244 Glastonbury, 251; Yorkshire, 254 ; Fountains, 255 ; Bolton, 259 ; Kirkstall, 251 ; Whitby, 263 ; Selby, 265. North- umberland, 267 ; Lindisfarne, 268 ; Tynemouth, 270 ; Hexham, 271. Northwestern, 273; Furness, 273. West- ern, 277. Tintern, 277. Southern, 278. Netley, 279; Malmesbury, 279. Midland and Eastern, 280. Country Seats called Abbeys, 281; Battle, Welbeck, and Eleven others, 282 ; Newstead, 283. 1 IV CONTENTS. Page Collegiate Churches and Minsters 284 Wimborne and Sherborne, 285 ; Beverley, 286. Parish Churches 288 St. Mary Redcliffe, 291 ; Saffron Walden, 292 ; St. Botolph's, Boston, 293 ; St. George, Doncaster, 295 ; St. Michael's, Coventry, and St. Mary, Warwick, 296 ; Stoke Pogis, 296 ; Chalfont St. Giles, 297 ; Stratford-on-Avon, 298. CIVIL HISTORY FROM THE NORMAN TO THE ELIZA- BETHAN PERIOD 301 Conquest op Wales, and Castles on its Border .... 302 Conway, 303 ; Carnarvon, 304; Nine castles on the coast, 306 ; Cardiff, 307; Caerphilly, 308 ; Chepstow, 308; Raglan, 311; Ludlow, 313 ; other castles, 317. The Northern Frontier, 1291-1603 317 Berwick, Norham, etc., 320; Warkworth, 321; Alnwick, 322; minor castles, 324. The Feudal Guards op the Midland Counties 324 In Durham, 326; in Yorkshire, Middleham, 327, Bolton, 328, Scarborough, 330 ; Kenilworth, 330 ; Warwick, 331; Leeds, 333 ; Berkeley, 334 ; Herstmonceaux, 335. The Ancient Colleges 337 Oxford, 337 ; Cambridge, 344 ; Winchester, 348 ; Eton, 348. Medieval England : a Retrospect 349 MODERN ENGLAND. The Age of Elizabeth 353 The Great Residences, before 1600 355 Transittonal : Penshurst, 355 ; Haddon Hall, 357 ; Speke, 359 ; Knole, 360. Renaissance : Burleigh, 364 ; Wollaton, 368 ; Hardwicke, 368. The Age of James 1 371 Audley End, 372; Holland House, 375; Hatfield, 375; Aston Hall, 376. England since 1640 378 The Patrician Palaces 381 Chatsworth, 381; Blenheim, 382; Houghton Hall, 386; Stowe, 388. The Royal Palaces 390 Early Palaces, 391 ; Whitehall, 392 ; Hampton Court, 393 ; Kensington, 399 ; St. James's, 399 ; Buckingham, 400. Civil Buildings, Law, Municipal, and State. Town-Halls : Boston, 402 ; Worcester, 402 ; Birmingham and Leeds, 402. Courts : Liverpool, 403 ; Manchester, 404 ; London, The Temple, 404 ; Lincoln's Inn, 406 ; Law Courts, 406 ; Somerset House, 407 ; Bank of England, 408 ; Post Office, etc., 408; British Museum, 409; Royal Ex- change, 411 ; Houses of Parliament, 412. ILLUSTRATIONS. V MODERN ENGLAND (continued). Page Benevolent Institutions 416 Memorial Monuments 417 London 419 The Simple Homes op England 422 Conclusion. Notes : I. Bibliographical, 431. II. Ancient British Mon- uments, 431. III. Roman Mosaic Pavements, 432. IV. Saxon Work, 434. V. Castles and Residences, 436. VI. Norman Keeps, 436. VII. Notes omitted, 436. Index 437 ILLUSTRATIONS. Titles of works from which illustrations are taken are more fully given in notes on pages referred to in parentheses, as (n. 16). Numbers 12-13, 18-19, 32-3, 36-7, 64-5, are double-page. The sizes of several plates are here necessarily reduced. EARLY BRITISH PERIOD. T p a f ge 6 1. Stonehenge. From Inigo Jones, 1655 (n. 16) 16 2. From Higgins's Celtic Druids, 1829 16 ROMAN PERIOD. 3-6. Richborough (Rutupise). From C R. Smith, 1850 (n. 23) 24 7. The Roman Wall, near Borcovicus. From Hodgson's History of Northumberland 36 8. Peel Crag. From Hodgson's History of Northumberland . . 38 9-11. The Roman Wall, near Walltown. From Hodgson's His- tory of Northumberland 40 12-13. Map op Roman Britain. From Hubner, 1873 (n. 19) . . 48 NORMAN PERIOD. (For Church arch., see Nos. 20, 45, 46, 47, 54.) 14. Colchester. The Keep. From Britton's Architectural Anti- quities, vol. i., 1807-14 70 15. Norwich. The Keep. From Britton's Architectural Anti- quities, vol. vi., 1807-14 73 THE ROYAL CASTLES. 16-17. BeaucHamp Tower (Tower of London), exterior before and after restoration. From Dick, 1853 (n. 73, 79) . . . 79 18-19. The Tower op London. From Vetusta Monumenta (n. 80) 80 20. Interior of the Chapel. From Bayley, 1821 (n. 73) 82 21. " op the Beauchamp Tower. From Bayley, 1821 (n. 73) 83 VI ILLUSTBATIONS. THE ROYAL CASTLES (continued). Toface v ' page 22. Windsor Castle. View from Eton 85 23. South Front, 1824. From Wyatville, 1841 (n. 85) . 88 24. " " after restoration. From Wyatville, 1841 (n. 85) 88 25. Waterloo Gallery 92 26. View from the Long Walk. 22, 25, and 26 are from Ritchie's Windsor, 1848 (n. 85) 94 CATHEDRALS. 27. Canterbury. Southwest view 113 28. Winchester. Chantries. From Britton (n. Ill) .... 123 29. St. Cross, Hospital 124 30. Salisbury. Southwest view. From F. Nash, etched by Geo. Cooke 126 31. Wells. West Front. From Cockerell, xxiv. (n. 131) . . . 132 32-33. London. Interior of the Dome. From Dugdale (n. 139) 141 34. Peterborough. The West Front. According to Gunton . 151 35. The West Front. From D. King, 1656 (n. Ill) . . 151 36-37. Ely. The Octagon. From Bentham, 1812 (n. 153) . . 155 38. Lincoln. The Angel Choir. From Wild (n. 161) .... 165 39. Oxford. The Chapter House. From Britton 171 40. Lichfield. Spires and West Front. From J. C. Buckler . 185 41. York. The West Front. From Buckler, 1822 (n. Ill) . . 206 42. Interior of the Choir. From Britton, (n. Ill) ... 209 43. Southeast view, exterior. " " . . 211 44. Carlisle. East End, exterior. From Billings, 24,1840 (n. 214) 217 45. Durham. General View. From Billings, 1843 (n. 221) . . 220 46. The Nave, interior. " " . . 223 47. The Galilee, " " " . . 224 THE MONASTERIES. 48. Westminster Abbey. Henry VII. Chapel, exterior. From Neale, 1818 (n. 229)' 230 49. Henry V. Chapel. From Neale, 1818 (n. 229) ... 234 50. Poet's Corner. .... 236 51. Henry VII. Chapel, interior. " " (Frontispiece) 52. Fountains Abbey. Plan. From Grose, vi 257 53. The Tower. From Coney. Plates for the new Monas- ticon (n. 244) . . '. 257 54. Kirkstall. Northwest View. From Coney. Plates for the new Monasticon 262 55. Tynemouth Priory. The Choir. From Byrne. Plates for the new Monasticon 270 56. Newstead Abbey. From Coney. Plates for the new Monasticon 284 MIDLAND CASTLES. 57. Middleham. From Britton 326 58. Warwick. From Westall and Radclyffe, 1829 331 ILLUSTRATIONS. yii THE GREAT RESIDENCES. To face page 59. Knole. The front. From Amsinck's Tunbridge, 1810 . 361 60. Wollaton Hall. Corner of the Garden front. From Nash 368 61. Hardwicke Hall. The Gallery. From Robinson .... 370 62. Audley End. View. From Winstanley (n. 372) . . . 373 63. Hatfield House. Centre of the south front 375 64-65. Map of Modern England. From one published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge . . . 431 These illustrations are like references to text made in the only practicable way iu which the writer could open a book beside him and show the reader a plate which is curious, or correct and good as a view, or which can be transferred to an octavo page. It will be found that many of the best English representations of the objects described in this volume are in the older books made in the days when plate engraving flourished, and also that the styles of illustrating have varied. Line, aquatinta, colored, etching, and lithograph, have been in fashion, and now the woodcut, often exquisite as art. After looking at over ten thousand plates (counted for bibliographical purposes) the writer arranges his gleanings to give as best he can on sixty pages a conception of the great variety of monumental edifices which he has described. Where he has several plates of a subject, the most interesting or correct available one is chosen, at times with regret that some of the most effective, of large folio size, or colored, cannot be reproduced. There are a great many plates valuable from rarity, or as the only ones of views or objects which have changed (as, for instance, many in the County Histories), but a remarkably large number of these are of little general interest. Iu others the value is rather as works of art than as representations, and some " original compositions " are more original than their subjects. The examples given show in some degree the older styles, from those of Inigo Jones's work, 1655 (p. 16); King's, with some of the earliest illustrations of the cathedrals (p. 151); Winstanley's large and very rai-e work on Audley End (note, 372); and Ben- tham (p. 155), one of the earlier historians of single cathedrals ; to Britton, Buckler, Wild, Neale, Billings, and the new Monasticon, with plates of ecclesiastical edifices which have never been surpassed, and also from the Monumenta of the Society of Anti- quaries, the Vitruvius Britannicus, the grand atlas folio of Wyatville, and more recent books and single plates. The Norman styles in ecclesiastical works are shown in illustrations numbered 20, 45, 46, 47, and 54 ; in military, by 14 (ruin), 15, and 23 and 24 (restoration). Early English Pointed is shown in 30, 31, 39, 53, and 55 ; Decorated (middle Pointed) in 36-7, 38, 41-3 ; Perpendicular (late Pointed) in 27, 48, 51, and 52 ; and modern in 23 and 24. Residences (Castellated) are shown in 22-6, and 58 ; transition styles in 59 ; Elizabethan in 60-2 ; and Jacobean in 63. Places and objects remain, substantially, as they are shown above, except in 1, 16, 18-19, and 23, intended to represent former conditions. From 46 the organ, and from 62 the screen in front, have been removed. The dates of the original plates, and conse- quently about the time when the views were taken, are given in most cases. The repro- ductions (some of them hard to make) are by the Heliotype Printing Co. of Boston. PREFACE. In this book the history of England is followed, and is read as it is shown in the works of twenty centuries scattered throughout her territory. Seen in their own places, these works, as time and men have made them, are no mere carv- ing and masonry, grand, picturesque, or charming as often are the forms given them, but a complete and attractive record, which we may well call a chronicle in stone. Telling as it does of the growth of a people from the days of small things to un- common power and a great part in settling many countries, we may also well say, that their home set fast in the bounding sea, — first, and more than three hundred years under the eagles of Rome ; last, and almost as long, the throne of wider dominion than hers, — unlike any other, theirs truly, is the Imperial Island, which millions who speak its tongue feel as its people do, is also their old home. The history of America does not really begin with the coloni- zation along the Atlantic coast. One of her Eastern families settling in the far West in one sense indeed begins a history then ; but no small part of what led to it and shapes the new life grew up in the place left behind ; and there are ties still kept unbroken. So we in the New World, — Norse, German, or English, — all one in kindred back in the past, look to an old home over the sea where a part of the race tarried for a long while, where another part has lived longer, and read its stone chronicle. Personal observations made in a dozen tours in as many years are the foundation of what the writer has to tell, to- gether with the Notebooks in which day by day he wrote of what he had seen, and without which he would not have vent- X PREFACE. ured upon these pages. Descriptions of scenery, views, and the condition, material, and color of buildings, and more, are from notes made on the spot. With but few exceptions, he has seen all the structures he has described, and many of them, espe- cially the cathedrals, he has repeatedly visited. 1 In addition, a fair collection of books, plans, and plates relating to every work has helped, and on it, of course, the writer relied in the historical passages. Foot-notes (growing shorter towards the end, as does the available room) show the titles of many books that give far more detail than is possible in a volume such as the present. No full guide into the vast mass of English local literature could be thought of, for that alone would fill a large book, nor could the often abundant traditional and literary asso- ciations be more than mentioned, here and there, while follow- ing a history for which the space was confined. Authority has been found in a good English work for each statement that must be obtained from books ; but numerous references have been omitted, other than the foot-notes just mentioned. 2 The chief English historical monuments have been grouped or indicated so that they can be easily found by others, who 1 The writer has not seen Lymne (p. 27), several of the smaller monastic ruins briefly described, the group of castles in Southwestern Wales, Leeds (p. 333) and Berkeley (p. 334) castles, and Hatfield House (p. 375) and Houghton Hall (p. 386) ; but all of these are parts of the stone chronicle that could not be omitted, and of all he has texts and plates. 2 In addition to the care a stranger must take when writing about a land far from his own, he will find that some of the best books by the natives might at times lead him astray if he chanced to be unwary. For instance, Grose (on large paper, 1797, ii. 63), under a large lettered head, moves Exeter and other places into Dorsetshire ; Dr. Bruce moves Criffell into Dumfriesshire ; the text of Nash's " Mansions," one of the most magnificent English works of its kind (the original imperial folios), says that Hatfield was "probably designed in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth [1558-1603], the date of the building, being 1611 ;" and even Mr. Ruskin in his " Seven Lamps" (second edition, p. 92) speaks of "the pitiful little pigeon-holes which stand for doors in the east front of Salisbury." One unacquainted with the cathedral might suppose that there are doors at the east, although, as Mr. Ruskin of course knows, there are none, as is usually the case with mediaeval cathedrals ; his energy of expression about one of the noblest churches in England has disturbed the points of compass. In the spelling of names, also, a sufficient variety in some words can be found in recent books to meet Mr. Weller's conditions, and figures (like the dimensions on pages 108-9) are as diversely stated. Of course as parts of the books mentioned these are mere slips, although they might mislead ; yet they amount to as much as the basis of some so-called criticism. PEEPACE. Xi will be spared some of the writer's earlier labor. While fol- lowing a definite plan of his own, he finds that he is not design- ing after Mr. Hare or Herr Baedeker, but, rather, is doing in some measure what John Leland began in 1538, just before the great changes that ensued. Although like the great antiquary the writer has had a " Serche for Englandes Antiquitees," his has not been " the laboriouse Journey " of the author of the " Itinerary," but a good share of the pleasant travel possible in our time in order to see for himself the stone chronicle of the mother land, after which he has tried to arrange its very scat- tered chapters in something of the order in which they were composed. This order of time can be followed through the earlier periods, as well as the monastic age, and what might be called the times of the Great Residences, — those very striking monuments of the past three centuries in England ; but it cannot be as well followed through ecclesiastical history. Of the latter since the Conquest, the chief illustrations are the cathedrals, — the noblest of English monuments, — with parts dating throughout eight centuries. They cannot be properly described unless grouped, and each of them is treated by itself, as also must be some other classes of works belonging especially to shorter periods. No fair idea of the relative importance or interest of the historical monuments of a country can be formed without seeing a great number of them, and also many in other countries, often in places little visited, at a cost of labor little understood by persons who have not mapped out and visited a country in this way ; and where one has, a record of the result may properly be made. 1 1 Here it should be stated that the writer's book, the "Historical Monuments of France," was written after similar observation and from his OM'n rather bulky notes, aided by many plates and not a few good books. As he had hoped to turn attention to the immense number of such monuments owned by France, and her efforts to save them, he arranged the text with less regard to chronology than to geography, for the better help to travellers ; but this mode is impracticable in re- gard to England. Founded also on observation and his Notebooks, is the writer's " Lands of Scott," in which the places and objects associated with Scott's life and works are described as the writer found them ; and the outlines of his stories and of sufficient history are given to show their connection. These two books and the present volume, while thus pointing out a great number of places or works, will accordingly stand not as guide-books subject to alteration as changes occur, but as, in nearly all cases, the record of an observer. Xii PREFACE. Travel in England and an explorer's little adventures might form the subject of a chapter or of paragraphs here and there, especially if the means of going around the country and the marked changes during five and twenty years past are de- scribed. It must, however^, be sufficient, in the present limited space, to say that travel in England can be very pleasant, and while not necessarily expensive, that a well-filled pocket-book and robust health will be good friends. Observers may, like some Englishmen, be critical, and think that time, war, neglect, or alterations have left few unharmed or genuine historical monuments ; indeed, that England is a country of wrecks and historical shams. But while plain truth or satire could find quite enough for unflattering comment, the objects, like the people around them, are apt to be better than they are sometimes said to be, and among both there is a great deal that is true and good. Along with persons who seem to be specially endowed to make their country a place to be shunned, and who are as representative as the tailors of Tooley Street, there is more courtesy than is always credited to Eng- lishmen. Two sorts of persons, not exclusively found in Eng- land, do excite aversion, — "those who rob and discredit their country by spoiling rare books or great works of art ; yet even of them, the writer may add, what is said in this book is seldom as strongly expressed as it has been by Englishmen. Eemarks on the importance of the preservation of the inval- uable monuments of England appear in the following pages. Anglomania may affect persons, but there is not much dan- ger that it will too much affect the American people. It is another matter to see and to read the chronicle in stone which England shows us, and some of our pleasantest days can be those spent in drives or walks on her hedge-lined roads, in strolls on charming footpaths or under the ivy-grown walls of her castles and gray cathedral towers — days the writer feels he lives again while his pen moves over these pages ; and a mild, hazy sun- shine seems to light the way as he often has found it brighten- ing the exquisite old island. If the world is losing charms of the past, and we cannot but feel a regret at the loss, it is in the main much improved. PREFACE. Xlii Causes which have estranged great families of the English- speaking races gradually have less, or no, influence. Plain sense, sound political economy, and devotion to progress and freedom among all of them, prompt to good work for the pres- ent and future. What they have to do together to make the world better has been already done well, but their work is as yet little more than begun. We who have no regard for persons who take our ancestors from their true relations of time, place, and thought, and try to show that they were bad or ignoble, but who feel that fairly judged they were in their own day, with' all which belonged to it, never surpassed by the founders of any nation on earth, can in the same spirit read the story of the people on the old island. Like our own people led through trials and triumphs to mar- vellous success in the end, meeting reverses but never actually conquered, comparing well with any others in their successive ages, they now, like us, have an ancestry they can be glad of and proud of, to be treated with justice and held in due honor. The stone chronicle of England cannot be read well by eyes other than those which look with sympathy on the men of the past and the work of their hands. To such eyes the gray text will show the great story it holds, garlanded with the bright daisies, green hawthorn or ivy, and red-berried holly which the old painters loved and drew on the leaves of their books, but which in the monumental record of England spread around the stone letters a beauty given by no mortal hand. J. F. H. Charlestown, Mass., March 10, 1886. THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. ENGLAND, by her position and formation, is peculiarly fitted to become a country where one of the most im- portant of all national histories has been created ; where a modern people, on restricted territory, — as were the ancient Greeks and Romans, — have grown from early obscurity and rudeness to world-wide power and the highest civilization in their times. With bounds that the sea forever sets around her narrow limits, and that the winds and waves have guarded from invasion through eight centuries, since the races that compose her people became established there, she has a unique stronghold. Placed in a latitude far north, she yet has warmth brought by ocean currents from the south, and thus a climate seldom very hot or cold, that seems to impart its equable con- ditions to the people and prevent the disadvantages of frigid temperature or the enervation often incident to too great heat. The soil, if varied and often not the best, has proved sufficient, and beneath it are stored vast amounts of treasure of practical importance ; there is little silver or gold, but an incalculable amount of tin and iron — known for two thousand years, it may be — together with immense beds of coal, reserved to be- come in recent times the sources of enormous wealth. There is little waste room, and the compactness of the country is shown by a few measurements. A straight line drawn obliquely from the North Foreland, east, to Land's End, west, where England is by far the widest, is only three hundred and twenty miles in length; from Lowestoft Ness to the most western point of Shropshire, the widest midland part, is one hundred and fifty-eight miles ; while from Hartlepool southwesterly to 14 THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. Morecombe Bay, the breadth is only seventy-five miles. From the latitude of the Lizard Point, south, to Berwick at the ex- treme north, the distance is not quite four hundred miles. The features of the surface and the coast are sufficiently diversified to have had effects of importance on the history of the country, as well as to adapt it to the needs of a people at once agricultural and commercial, and to afford a pleasant variety of scenery, generally of a charming rural nature. A range of lofty hills marks much of the oblique northern bound- ary, thence reaches southward through the centre, spreading into Durham through Northumberland, branching into the most elevated mountain district of the kingdom in Westmoreland and Cumberland, broadening into a great broken highland tract in the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, and at length concentrating in the High Peak of Derbyshire. Thence it con- tinues, and irregularly marks the backbone of the country, through Derby, Stafford, Warwick, Worcester, and Gloucester shires, and blends with a long and irregular succession of high hills that extend from Land's End to Dover Cliffs. Elsewhere, especially in eastern Yorkshire, are also hilly regions. North- ward from the Thames, except at a few points, the eastern coast and large extents of inland country are quite low, or flat. The rivers are usually small and unnavigable for large vessels, but the sea helps to make the lower Severn, Humber, Thames, and Mersey broad and noble routes for shipping. Harbors are not numerous or large, but Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Southampton are magnificent exceptions. Extensive forests, moors, and swamps covered a great deal of the country, and wild animals were numerous in the earlier historic times ; yet, it appears, there were also considerable tracts of pasture and cultivated land, the extent of which has increased, for a long while slowly, until they now cover a large part of the surface. These forests and swamps had for many centuries important effects upon the grouping and history of the people, especially during the Saxon period. The history of England presents marked divisions, to be suc- cessively reviewed. First was the ancient British period, the EARLY BRITAIN. 15 interest of which has become mainly archaeological, and that will be treated briefly on these pages. Next followed the four centuries of Roman domination, then the long period called the Saxon, when the German races, through a series of inva- sions and conflicts, obtained control of the country, — a period that will -also be briefly reviewed, for, notwithstanding its real importance, there are few monuments of it spared until our times, and it must, in this book, yield space for the more in- teresting and important periods that ensued. These are the Norman and the established English, the last of which may be said to fill the past seven centuries. EAELY BKITAIN. The ancient British period began at an uncertain date, and blended with the Roman during the first century of the Chris- tian era. To a great extent the country retained its primitive wildness, but the population scattered through it was, ap- parently, not small, and although said to have been barbarous, possessed more than the rudiments of civilization. Society had been developed to the early forms of clanship, or of bodies with a chief, that generally were not hostile to each other. Of the arts of peace, the people understood agriculture in some degree, and how to raise flocks and herds ; they had a commerce and a metal coinage ; they built vessels in which they could trav- erse stormy seas ; they mined and worked in tin and iron ; they had towns, but do not seem to have built great works, except for their religion, for which, however, they built like giants. In the arts of war, they knew how to contrive and make arms far superior to those used by modern savages, — among them formidable chariots armed with knives. They were a strong, imperious people, fond of freedom, capable of learning much, and of using circumstances for their own ad- vantage, and, indeed, in certain ways were not unlike some of their modern successors. Their religion, orally transmitted, died with many of its votaries on Anglesea, and has become a myth. It was in some respects a cruel superstition, yet it served as the guardian of 16 EARLY BRITAIN. such learning as existed in the country, and inspired obedience and reverence among the laity. Most of its existing monu- ments are in the middle-southern counties, and they are the chief memorials of the early population spared by time. Stonehenge} the largest relic of the primitive stone works in England, is about eight miles from Salisbury, and is reached from that attractive city by a road that introduces many of the quiet, charming features of old English rural scenery. Along the way are hedgerows and large trees, neat cottages, and some quaint ivy-draped houses, Tudoresque in style, and little gray old country churches set amid green burial-grounds. At length the road leads out across an elevated undulating tract of bare and grassy land, where sheep are pastured. There the attention is arrested by a group of high, dark stones that stand in bold relief against the sky, and as they are approached, show that they belong to a now broken circle of flat mono- liths, six feet in width, three and a half feet thick, rising about twelve and a half feet above the ground. Once they supported a continuous row of thirty covering stones, of which only six remain in place, and surrounded a smaller circle now almost destroyed. A little southwest of the centre is a huge flat altar, measuring three and a half by seventeen feet, and around it, forming a horse-shoe figure, were five vast trilithons, each with two upright stones capped by a horizontal third stone. All the five were similar in form, but different in size, the largest of them, now prostrate, being on the outside about seventeen feet wide and twenty-seven feet long. About half of these stones are standing, and, like the others mentioned, are a hard " ter- tiary sandstone, which is found upon the chalk in the neighbor- hood," and is of a pale-buff or whitish color, but has grown 1 See " Stonehenge. The most notable antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly- called Stone-Heng, on Salisbury Plain, restored by Inigo Jones," etc., folio, London, 1655. See Armstrong, Atjdley, Camden, Sir R. C.FIoare's " Ancient Wilts," vol. i. ; also several works named in " Lowndes's Manual," 2522 (1864), and Stukelet, Wm., " Stonehenge, a Temple restored to the British Druids," folio, London, 1740 ; Wood, J., " Choir Gaur, vulgarly called Stone-henge, on Salisbury Plain, described, restored, and explained," 8°, Oxford, 1747 ; Col. Sir Henry James (Director-General of the Ordnance Survey), " Plans and Photo- graphs of Stonehenge," etc., folio, 1867. A- STONEHENGE. 17 extremely gray on the exposed surfaces. The weather-wear of twenty centuries or more has imparted to them a most impressive hoariness, that has spread through the very lichens and thick mosses with which they are almost covered. A sort of rampart, also circular, about three hundred feet across, sur- rounded the mysterious structure, while scattered thickly for miles around, are tumuli, nearly every one of which contained the cinerary urns, the arms, and other relics of the dead. Stonehenge, 1 indeed, is now the wreck of a once vast West- minster Abbey of the ancient Britons, that imagination only can reanimate. There are no inscriptions, and it dates back into the shadows of conjectured history ; yet we may reasonably think that it was a widely-known and central temple of the Druids, and that around it the ashes of the chiefs and noted personages were interred. The power that held the learning, exercised the leading influence, and maintained the strongest bond of unity, throughout the country, seems to have had here one of its principal establishments. Its priests were the most formidable moral force opposed to the invading Romans, whose conquests could not be completed until Druidism was crushed ; but only the terrible incursions of the Saxons, made four cen- turies and longer afterwards, and not the Roman arms, seem to have overwhelmed the people, and to have left slight traces of their presence in the land. The history of the Britons meanwhile blended with that of the dominion of the masters of the ancient world. Stonehenge, while it may now be ranked as the great repre- sentative memorial of the Britons, is by no means the sole relic of their work. At Avebury, seven miles from Marlborough, is Silbury Hill, the largest Barrow in Great Britain, " 2,027 feet in circumference at the base, and 120 at the summit ; its slop- ing height is 316 feet, its perpendicular 170 feet," its area upwards of five acres. Near by was another huge round temple, badly mutilated in recent times, so that of 189 original stones, 1 Of various engraved views, one in Jones's " Stoneheng Restored" (1655) may be compared with one of the best modern, given by Sir R. C. Hoare in his " Ancient Wilts," i. 153, or Higgins's view here reproduced. The views given by Sir H. James are photographs. 2 18 EARLY BRITAIN. only 76 were left in 1722, and in 1812 only 15, five of which had fallen ; for during the interval, 61 of the stones were used in building roads and cottages. Indeed, so great has been the destruction that although the temple was far larger than that at Stonehenge, the remains are of much less interest. An irregularly circular rampart, measuring 4,442 feet around the top, enclosed an area of more than 28 acres, in which there were two circles of large upright stones. Two avenues defined by upright stones led to it. Dr. Stukeley, who had studied them, thought they were built to represent a serpent. One of them terminates in a third circle, that he thought was the head, about half a mile from Avebury. This avenue suggests the wonderful and mightier alignments at Carnac, in Morbihan, upon the coast of Brittany, and is an evidence of kindred faith and people in the two places. Other evidence is also given by dolmens, the most notable of which in England may be that in central Kent, now called " Kitt's Cotty House," that some have thought to have been built for sacrifices, but like dolmens found in France, it was probably a tomb. Another temple stood at Rollright (Rollerich), near the southern point of Warwickshire, and originally contained sixty (?) stones, from five to seven feet high, placed in a circle 105 feet in diameter. Tumuli, or graves are found in many places, as seems natural. In several places there are also cromlechs, of from one to three stones, or with four that form a sort of table, as at Madron, Cornwall, where the top is 19 feet in length, and 47 in girth, a structure that seems to have been a tomb. At Constantinc there is one with a huge top like a boulder, that must weigh about 750 tons. Its length is 33 feet, and its circumference about 100 ; its origin probably was natural. Another very curious object which Nature, may have placed and the Druids used, is the great Logan Stone, close to Land's End. Its weight is over sixty tons, and it is poised upon a lofty cliff above the sea so accu- rately that it can be made to oscillate. The cliffs are granite, in enormous blocks, fantastically piled, grown dark through age, or hoary with thick byssus moss, and command very strik- ing views upon the sea, and in both directions far along the wild, bold shore. ROMAN BRITAIN. 19 Authentic history, that tells us little of the ancient Britons 1 before they bowed to the supremacy of Rome, presents them during its continuance with more distinctness, yet as subject to the imperial race that determined the character of the suc- ceeding, the second period of Britain. ROMAN BRITAIN. 2 The Romans had subdued the hostile tribes of Gaul, and the victorious legions reached its northern shores, from which they looked across a narrow sea upon an almost unknown land, home of the kinsmen and the allies of the bold Veneti. They desired to know more of the land and its inhabitants. Its mines and pearls may have been tempting ; the ambition of the greatest general of that age, or the expansive Roman spirit, may have stirred the legions to advance. But certainly before them was a country from which hostile forces might make dangerous attacks on Gaul, such as Gaul had made on North- ern Italy. Security for Rome was there obtained by conquest, that, perhaps, must be pressed farther northward. If the pur- pose now seems doubtful, an event is known. In 55 b. c, the Romans, led by Julius Ceesar, entered Britain. They en- countered bold resistance by the natives, but secured them- selves upon the flat land of the coast of eastern Kent. Their expedition was for observation, but involved them in hard fighting and some perils, over all which they, as usual, pre- vailed. They soon returned to Gaul, but in the following spring, a stronger force (2,000 cavalry, and 30,000 foot) was 1 For a condensed account of ancient British or Celtic antiquities see Aker- man, J. Y., " An Archaeological Index," etc., 8°, London, 1847. Also List II. of Monuments (and p. 16 of this vol.). 2 Besides general histories, like Hume's and Camden's, see Hubner's "Inscrip- tiones Britannia Latinse" (vol. vii. of Corpus Ins. Lat., Berlin, 1873); " Monu- menta Hist. Brit. ; " " Archa?ologia of the Roy. Soc. of Antiquaries ; " " Archasologia Cantiana," and publications of other learned societies. Also several chronicles and maps named on p. 50, and other notes herein on Roman Britain ; Thack- eray (F.) "Ecclesiastical and Political State of ancient Britain under the Em- perors," 2 v. 8°, 1843 ; the works of Gildas ; and of Nennius ; Ptolemy, in the editions of 1482 and 1486, the map in which is the first executed on wood ; the " Iter Britanniarum ; " and part of the " Antonine Itinerary " relating to Great Britain, published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. (There are several earlier editions.) 20 THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. landed on the shore explored the previous year. The Romans then marched westward, fought the Britons twice, near Canter- bury it is thought, and elsewhere on their route. They crossed the Thames at Conway Stakes, almost a hundred miles from where they landed, overcame their allied enemy, turned north, and went as far, it may be, as St. Alban's, and completed the defeat of Cassivellaunus, the chief leader of the Britons. Cagsar then retired to Gaul, leaving no armed force or stronghold in the country. An invasion to achieve its conquest was not undertaken until ninety-seven years had passed ; then, a. d. 43, the Emperor Claudius sent Aulus Plautius with more than 50,000 men to undertake the work. They subjugated tribes and states along the Severn, and from the west pushed east and north, but the conquest of all Britain was not completed until nearly forty years more had passed, a result for which much was done by Agricola, one of the greatest of the Roman generals. The country was secured by gradual advances and judicious dispositions of strong works and garrisons ; but success was not easily or rapidly obtained, and was not continuous. When seventeen years had passed in obstinate defences and attacks, the Druids had retired to Anglesea, and from that then remote and well-protected refuge exercised their still great influence in maintaining the resistance by the Britons. Nero, who suc- ceeded Claudius, it has been said, thought seriously of abandon- ing the country, but Suetonius, whom he sent to govern it, obtained a signal victory on Anglesea, where he almost de- stroyed the Druids. This great victory, however, was at first offset by an immense uprising of the Britons in the eastern portions of the country. There the Romans had already founded towns or cities, and had practised the oppression incident to military conquest. They had infamously treated Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, and her wrongs and energy aroused the natives to furious revenge, and a war for freedom that re- sulted in the destruction of Camalodunum, Verulamium, and Londinium, and from three to four score thousand Romans or their subjects, and indeed in obliging the Romans to remain on the defensive during nearly sixteen years. Frontinus then ROMAN BRITAIN. 21 renewed aggressive movements, and Agricola continued them and marched far into Caledonia and established the extreme extent of the Roman dominion there, and throughout Britain, that was permanent. It ended only in 448, when the vast empire, by degrees, became dismembered, when the gloom of a long night that lasted nearly a thousand years spread over what had been, and was to be, the world of civilized mankind. A power that could maintain itself almost four centuries in one of its most distant provinces, and then depart to be pur- sued by the entreaties of the people to return, proved that it had immense vitality and value. When the oldest man in Britain had been born since Plautius entered it, the Romans were to rule there for a longer period than is covered by the history of French and English rule in North America. Four centuries, required for changes that have so marked England since the reign of Richard III. and the union of the Roses, or marked France since Louis XI. was king, or Spain since Fer- dinand was battling with the Moslems, but filled up the measure of the time for Roman rule in Britain. Towards the first of it there were oppressions, towards the last mistakes in the admin- istration, but almost throughout, the rulers must have used great wisdom, and the people must have found advantages in their condition. The scattered fragments of the Roman work that are now known, and scanty histories, show that the conquerors spread their arts and institutions through the country ; that the population was considerable, or was large ; that there was peace, and a prosperity sufficient to support it, and produce degrees of luxury. The native races, wild or slightly civilized, were Romanized, imperfectly it may be, but made not unwilling or unprofitable subjects of the empire. Many of the ruling race were mingled with them, and maintained the Roman usages and manners. Extensive forests and morasses that abounded were diminished, and the fields for crops or herds increased. Good roads for military or for civil uses reached to numerous important points. There were strong forts, large towns, and country seats. As Britain was a province, so in various ways it was provincial. None of the highest art of Italy was practised there, none of the greatest works were built 22 KOMAN BRITAIN. there. The nature of the materials obtainable, if not other limits of resources, in most of the more settled portions of the country, made it difficult or quite impossible to raise such edifices as the enormous amphitheatres that have resisted all assaults in other lands. No valleys seem to have compelled the building of the immense arcades for aqueducts required for large cities. Hence the structures found in Italy, Spain, and France were never needed or attempted in Britain ; but their uses were undoubtedly well known- and were supplied by lesser works. The first great requisite of Roman rule was military strength, especially defensive strength, and that, with its results, has left impressive monuments. The first endeavor was to build, then constantly to hold, strong works to guard the ports through which communication with the continent must be maintained. These were arranged with no great intervals along the eastern and southeastern coast, 1 especially the latter. Regnum (Chi- chester?), southwest of London, was a little inland; Portus Adurni (Aldrington ?) was south near Brighton ; Anderida Portus (Pevensey) was on the Channel where it is contracted to the Straits; and near their narrowest part were Portus Lemanis (Lymne), " one of the keys of Britain," and the well- known Dubris (Dover). Midway on the eastern front of Kent, towards the German Ocean, was Rutupice (Richborough) ; on the north coast was Regidbium (Reculver) ; on the Medway, near the sea, was Durobrivce (Rochester) ; and on the south bank of the Thames Vagniacce (Northfleet ?). Of these nine stations, the five from Pevensey to Reculver were the most important, and of any of them the most impressive relics are at Rutupice. Nowhere else in Britain are there Roman ruins as grand. South of the Alps or Lyons, such as they are might be found or looked for, but here in the lonely fields, once a mere outer edge of the Roman world, they inspire wonder and surprise. Rutupice, supposed to be a few miles only from the spot where Caesar landed, was, not improbably, the chief sea-station 1 See Lewin, T., on the Castra of the Littus Saxonicum (read 1867), " Archaeologia," xli. 421-52. RUTUPI.E. 23 that the Romans had in Britain. 1 Its position shows that great and curious changes have occurred in the coast lines ; for allu- vial deposits have spread an extensive plain between it and the present shore, leaving the castrum, that once looked down on the surf, far inland, but still crowning a bluff that, although of moderate height, is commanding. Eastward it is cut sharply off by excavations for a railway on which the nearest station is at Sandwich, two miles distant. Close beneath the bluff a dirty little stream, the river Stour, winds through the flats. Towards the west and south extends a very level, open coun- try, and towards the north a tract that is even lower, but that northeastward rises, nearly a mile away, into a slightly elevated point. The whole of this wide region shows few houses, trees, or hedges, and is used for farming. On the highest swell stand the amazing walls, three sides of an immense quadrangle, open eastward on the bluff, and measuring, internally, 466 by 482 feet. Even now the average height is twenty feet above the ground, into which the foundations extend five feet ; but the north wall, the most entire, is throughout nearly thirty feet high. True Roman conception of solid work has made the walls, still knit like Nature's conglomerates, eleven feet and a quarter thick for the first six feet above the ground, and higher up only seven inches thinner, while some parts are thirteen feet thick. Dense veils of ivy, such as Nature spreads in England, have covered a great deal of the masonry, yet there are many places where its structure can be studied. Small stones faced and squared, and now deep gray, are laid on the outside in belts separated by much narrower bands of thin, bright-red bricks. From many parts this finish has been stripped, but the exterior of the northern wall retains it, show- ing seven belts of stone, each with seven courses. On the inside the wall is of ruder structure, but is not less strong, composed as it is of split or rounded small flint-stones, arranged with care 1 See King, E., "Munimenta Antiqua " (4 vols.), folio, London, 1799-1805, vol. ii., and Smith, C. R., " Account of Excavations at Riehborough," etc., 4°, London, 1850-52. Among the not numerous views of Richborough, those in King's " Munimenta " are good, but too large for this book ; those by Eairholt in Smith's "Account " are also good, and are reproduced. 24 THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. and thoroughly embedded in good mortar that is lavishly em- ployed. The exterior of the southern wall has not only been robbed of its facing, but excavations have been made in the core, and even parts of the structure throughout, as is the case with the western wall, have been demolished. Greater strength was given the works by a round tower eighteen and a half feet in diameter placed at. each western angle. At present the large area enclosed by the walls is a flat bean- field " of made earth, from three to four feet thick," broken only at a short distance northeast of the centre, where there is a curious and very massive structure that now hardly rises to the surface of the ground. The upper part, about five feet in height, is a rectangle (22 by 46 feet) with long narrow arms (7£ by 32^) that make its shape that of an unusual cross. This rests on an immense foundation (104 to 107£ by 144 to 149) five feet thick, apparently a solid mass of concrete formed " of boulders and coarse mortar." Underneath this platform is a structure (94 by 132) extending more than twenty-two feet downward, to which depth it was explored in 1843, but neither entrance nor interior chamber could be found, and the earth then removed was replaced. Previously the masonry had been supposed to be the foundation of a lighthouse or the temple of the castle, and to have been used for an extremely early Christian chapel. But the requirements of the Roman garri- son, the risks of war, the nature of the ground, and the posi- tion and shape of the vast lower structure are much more suggestive of a granary or arsenal, or rather, as the writer thinks more likely, of a water cistern ; a supposition strength- ened by the fact that in 1843 springs were found towards the bottom. Some hints about the purpose of this massive and important work may be given by the enormous reservoir con- structed for the use of the Roman fleet upon the hill near Baias. A considerable degree of luxury must have existed here, for besides necessary buildings both inside and outside the cas- trum, white marble decorations, shown by fragments, were used, as well as pottery, glass, small bronzes, jewelry, and other articles which have also been discovered. Still more RUTUPI.E. 25 valuable, historically, among the objects found here, are the coins, of which, says Mr. Smith, the number has been estimated at 114,000. Leland wrote above three hundred years ago that there had been, time out of mind, more Roman coins discovered here than anywhere else in the country. They bear dates from before the Christian era to about 423, or the time of the de- parture of the Romans. Rutupiae is briefly mentioned here and there in ancient histories, but its record is imperfect. It may have been founded about a.d. 43, and was enlarged and finished by Severus " about the year 205," and probably was one of the last places that the Romans left. The second legion, of which Vespasian was the commander, entered Britain in the reign of Claudius, and apparently remained there throughout the period of Roman rule, during the latter portion of which it was at Rutupiae. Originally the sea came close to the bluff, as has been shown by excavations that revealed its sandy shore and what appeared to have been a landing-place, but at an early date its action, perhaps helped by the river Stour, gradually formed the flats that now extend far eastward, and meanwhile Sandwich became the port of the neighborhood. Remains of minor buildings, already mentioned, found outside the castrum are chiefly towards the west ; but on the other hand, the well- made walls of what may have been a villa were found beside the bluff in 1846, and were destroyed to make room for the railway. Still more important were the remains of an amphi- theatre such as was used near an established garrison, occupying a site about quarter of a mile southwestward and commanding an extensive view. An ellipse about two hundred feet across from top to top was formed by a ridge a few feet high, and even after the ground had been cultivated for a long time the depth to the arena was still about a dozen feet. In 1849 extensive excavations brought to light the outer wall, that was 566 feet in circumference and three and a half feet thick, built of flint with a facing of chalk and tiles at the angles of the doorways. No remains of seats were, however, found. A large amount of the materials of the structure were perhaps employed in building Sandwich. 26 THE ROMAN PORTS. The great quadrangle of the castrum at Rutupias, more than five acres in extent, as large as many city squares, with walls as high as our two or three storied houses, massive, ivy-clad, or hoary gray, is now almost unique. Its stones are unlettered, yet they form a vast inscription of profound significance. No dates or paragraphs of history can with such vivid power impress upon the mind the fact of the remoteness and long duration of the Roman rule in England. These huge ramparts were made solid for no scheme of temporary occupation, hut for a determined conquest. Peace and sure possession through the lives of many generations were maintained hy the wise and powerful masters of Rutupise, and then irresistible events com- pelled them to withdraw forever. Then, too, the surges of the German sea began to roll its sands, grain by grain, into the forsaken harbor, and to spread inch by inch flat lands far over places it had covered, until the long duration of the slow up- heaval through successive centuries was shown by the broad plain on which the old walls, garlanded with ivy, or gray with dense lichens, and protected only by their loneliness, look down unconquered by the assaults of time, but sadly mutilated by the greed or heedlessness of man. Hegulbium, now called Heculver, was the next great Roman station on the seacoast northward, and stands nearly midway between Whitstable and the well-known town of Margate. Here the shore has been much changed, but in the opposite direction from that near Richborough. The castrum, that covered nearly ten acres, was walled upon four sides, and originally stood on a river or inlet, " neer a mile " from the ocean. Leland wrote, about 1550, that the distance was reduced to almost "a quarter of a myle." In 1G85 the sea was close to the northern wall, and in 1780 had destroyed most of it, while now the waters have invaded a considerable part of the enclosure. Portions, or all, of the Roman works dated, it is thought, from the reign of Severus (194 to 211). Of the castrum, only fragments of the walls remain, about twelve feet thick, built of flint and pebbles, and without towers or the bonding courses of red brick usual in Roman construction. The works were, at an early date, used by the Saxons, when as masters they replaced the Ro- REGULBIUM. — DUBRIS. 27 mans, and Ethelbert, fifth king of Kent, added a castle and palace, and Eadbert, about the year 700, built a college, that was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The church (that of course was also built) was extremely interesting, and remained for ages to be subjected to the wisdom of the early years of the present century, when, with the exception of two large square western towers, it was demolished. The west part of the chancel showed a curious construction, the design and work- manship of which indicated that it must have dated from the later period of the empire. The work was not surpassed in age or interest by any other relic of Roman architecture then left in Great Britain. The wild Saxons, the degraded Middle Ages, and the simple-minded English of old times, preserved it as a portion of God's temple. The English of the nineteenth century, with their faultless wisdom, destroyed it, and made the vicar's house a gin-shop. Their superiority to their super- stitious fathers is evident, and of course we regret to learn that the speculators in the job of demolition came to grief, and something like a curse attended them. (Smith, 201, and Gen- tleman's Magazine, 1808-10.) The materials of history found here have not been numerous ; they include small objects, and considerable numbers of both Roman and Saxon coins, but no inscriptions, so far as the writer learns, have been discovered. Dub?'is, or Dovor, was the next great station southward from Rutupiae. The site crowned by its castle is perhaps unmatched in England, and still bears the Roman pharos, but a description of it will be given (p. 64) in connection with the great mediasval works that made the place the Rutupiae of the Normans, who used, and added much to, the Roman works they found here. Although the quay at Dover is the chief landing-place on the southeastern coast of Britain at the present day, the Romans seem to have made greater use of one that occupied a spot now two miles inland, and about a dozen miles westward. Portus Lemanis, now called Studfall Castle, in Lymne, stands on the south slope of a hill forming a portion of a range that extends inland. At the base there is now a broad flat territory, most of which, in Roman times, it is supposed, was insulated by a wide sound, through which the waters of a 28 ROMAN PORTS. little river, the Limene, found one of two ways to the sea, instead of the single outlet they now have at some distance southward. All the region is secluded, agricultural, and quiet, and very unsuggestive of a military port ; yet in the midst of it there was once a large walled castrum, the relics of which are still prominent, although strangely disarranged. The east and west walls were built parallel ; the north wall was bent boldly forward so that it showed four faces at as many angles ; and all the walls were strengthened by half-elliptical or half- round solid towers. A land-slip, at some very distant date, descending from the northwest and the north, has pushed a great part of the walls, except the western, into curious con- fusion. They lie prostrate, shattered, or reclining, in enormous fragments, that are demonstrations of the binding strength of Roman mortar and the honesty of Roman work. Remains of buildings also have been found in the enclosure. This important camp was built, it seems, in later rather than in earlier Roman times, as is shown by some heavy stones beneath the gate, that were apparently taken from old build- ings, and had been subjected to the action of the sea. Only slight aid to historical knowledge is given here by inscriptions, as unfortunately is the case at other Roman fortresses along the coast : but the ruins form an interesting memorial of the Roman era, and the remarkable changes wrought around them by nature, while clearly shown, add their important part to the scenery that gives the site of the effaced port an impressive setting. The great camps of which remains exist, on the seashore west of Lyinne, at Pevensey in Sussex (Atiderida Portus), and at Porchester (Portus Magnus} in Hampshire, were much altered by the Normans, and will be described among their military works, with which they were incorporated. On the seacoast northward from the Thames, the Roman camps were not as numerous. In Essex, all, or nearly all, the stations or the towns were inland. Camaloclunum was perhaps the most important, and was at Colchester, or some say Mal- don. On the coast of Suffolk, near the southeastern corner of the present county, was Otlwna (Felixstowe), submerged like ROMAN POETS. 29 other places on these low soft shores. By far the largest Roman camp or work of which remains exist in Suffolk, or upon the eastern coast, is Garianonum, now Burgh Castle, four miles westsouthwest of Yarmouth. It is supposed to have been built about a. d. 49, during the reign of Claudius, and stands near the inner end of Breydon Water, that has openings to the sea, and is suggestive of a natural dock five miles in length. The walls of Burgh stand upon slightly rising ground, and form three sides of a square, with an area of nearly five (or four ?) and three quarters acres. The walls upon two of the sides are very well preserved ; on one side they have been injured ; and the fourth, as at Rutupise and Lymne, does not seem to have been protected by them. They show the usual bands of brick, and where least broken, are fourteen feet in height and nine feet thick. The works were strengthened by six or more round and solid towers, almost detached, and nearly fourteen feet diameter. Small objects and a burial- place have been found on' the grounds. In Lincolnshire there were several stations inland, and but few near the sea. The lack of harbors and the nature of the coast did not permit, or possibly require, camps on these shores. Vainona (Wainfleet), two or three miles from the ocean, where the land projects most into it, was the one place for a great distance that afforded shelter, and became at least a seat of the trade in salt. Boston, the chief port, it has been thought by reason of remains that have been found, was once a Roman town defended by a fort near where the river Witham widens at its entrance to the sea. This fort may have been one of many that it is supposed the Romans built along the eastern and the southern coasts of Britain to protect them from attacks of the barbarians when the latter had begun to invade the empire. There was a strong reason for defences at the en- trance of the Witham, for upon it was a city of importance through the period of Roman rule, and subsequently, Lindum, since called Lincoln. On the coast of Yorkshire and of Durham there were even fewer camps. The stations were along the roads, and chiefly on one of them now known as the Ermine Street, that 30 THE ROMAN WALL. stretched through England from the Tyne to Kent, and was the main line of communication with the north, and with the greatest military works, or the greatest of all the works that the Romans built in Britain, — the walls across the island for protection from the wild tribes of the north and from insur- gents southward. The Roman Wall, 1 as it is distinctively called, had its origin with Agricola, who, among the operations of his expedition into Caledonia (in 80 to 84 ?), made a rampart, possibly across the island from Newcastle to west of Carlisle. Some think that this was repaired and a new line, or vallum, formed about a. d. 121 by Hadrian, and that the climate and the devastations by the enemy impaired the works, and about 207, or later, a more formidable barrier was raised or strengthened north of it by Severus. These three works (if not, as some suppose, the parts of one design) not only differed thus in date, but in construction and position ; yet as their purpose was the same, so also was their general direction. They were from almost a mile to only twenty yards apart, generally forty or fifty yards, and formed thus a protected belt of land from sea to sea. The wall said to have been constructed by Severus was of stone, and was from twelve to fifteen feet in height, and had an aver- age thickness of eight feet, above which, on the outer side, was a battlement or parapet. In front of it towards the north, there was a ditch about a dozen feet in depth and thirty-six feet wide. There were 330 turrets (for the sentries ?), it is said, and at various distances, at the best strategic points, 81 strong forts, about a Roman mile apart. Along the inner or the southern side, were roads that gave communication with the leading military way across the country. This last was not 1 See Horsley, John, "Britannia Romana," folio, 1732; " Lapidarium Septentrionale, or a Description of the Monuments of Roman Rule in the North of England," folio, Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon- Tyne, 1875 ; Bruce, Rev. J. C, "The Roman Wall," etc., third and enlarged ed., plates, 4° and folio, 1867 ; also his " Wallet-Book (or Guide) of the Roman Wall," maps, etc., 16°, 1863. Northumberland, The Duke of, his privately printed "The Roman Wall and Other Remains in the North of England," etc., by H. McLauchlan, plates imp. folio, text 8°, 1857-58. Also, Hodgson's Hist. of Northumberland, iii., pt. 2, pp. 149-325. THE ROMAN WALL. 31 used for fifteen hundred years after the Romans left, but was, in 1752, made part of the main road from Carlisle to New- castle. These various works seem indeed to form a single grand design, described by Stukeley as " a camp extending across the kingdom, and consequently fortified both ways," and, as McLauchlan thought, built at three periods, chiefly in the reign of Hadrian, — a supposition for which Dr. Bruce shows solid evidence. Some of the latest work done by the Romans, when they were preparing to leave Britain to its own defence, was the repair of this great bulwark. They alone appear to have had the skill required. Bede says, "They built a strong stone wall from sea to sea, in a straight line," near that of Severus, and of like dimensions; but most probably they only mended it. Some say that it was sixty-eight miles long. They then informed the Britons that they could no longer help them, and advised them to " handle their weapons like men, and undertake themselves the charge of engaging their enemies, who would not prove too powerful for them unless they were deterred by cowardice." (Bede, Ecc. Hist. 20, 21.) The Romans also gave them other valuable help, and then withdrew forever. The inarch southward of the last of all the legions, through the land where for four centuries they had maintained security or peace, and that their countrymen had civilized, was one of the sad, memorable movements in the course of history. The exigencies of the times, as well as Roman policy, had drawn large numbers of the strong young men of Britain into the imperial service on the continent; and the inhabitants, accustomed to rely upon the moral and material strength that Rome supplied, were left to their un- trained resources and efforts. The result was pitiful. The Scots and Picts, as the wild northern hordes were called, poured down upon the feebly guarded wall, broke through it like a pent-up torrent, and swept with remorseless devastation over towns and fields. And then for centuries there was slight peace in Britain, except here and there — and not with- out dire interruptions — in the cloisters of religion. 32 THE EOMAN WALL. The walls, that seem to have required such constant care and mending when in service, naturally fell into decay when they had been abandoned. Dilapidation was increased as naturally by the population ; and as this was larger and more active towards each coast, there the most thorough changes were effected, until miles of the great work have disappeared, or are shown only by low fragments. Poverty, ignorance, and greed have found in it a ready quarry, of which they have made free use. The middle quarter is the most complete, or from the River Tipalt and the station Magna at Carvoran, westward, to Cilurnum or Chesters, near the river North Tyne, nearly eighteen miles eastward. This part rewards a very close attention ; and a visit to it is rendered remarkably attractive by the views obtained, not only of the wonderful work of the Romans, but also of the picturesque, wild, or noble scenes of nature. A description of it may be introduced with some advantage by a list of the chief camps or stations, as they stood from east to west, and of their Roman garrisons, the names of which show noticeably the shrewd manner in which men of various races were distributed for military duties. Britons served the empire on the continent, but very few of them apparently were posted here to guard their own country. The Wall began upon the Tyne, about three miles below New- castle ; and the successive stations and garrisons were as fol- lows, the letter c referring to the cohorts : — 1. Segcdnnum, now Wallsend. c. 4, Lingones (Central Gaul). 2. Pons iElii, now Newcastle. c. 1, Thracians. Cornavii. 3. Contlercum, near Ben well. Astures, ala 1 (N. Spain). 4. Vindobala, near Rntchester. c. 1, Frixagi (Frisians, N. Holland?). 5. Hunnum, near Halton Chesters. Savinian ala. 6. Cilurnum, now Chesters. c. 1, Vangiones. Astures, ala 2. 7. Procolitia, now Carrawburgh. c. 1, Batavians (S.Holland), e. 1, Aqui- tanians. 8. Boreovicus, now Housesteads. c. 1, Tungrians (military, 1,000 men). | Tindolana, now Chesterholm, 3 m. S. W. c. 4, Gauls.] - , 9. iEsica, now Great Chesters. c. 2, Nervii. c. Rhaetians. c. 1, or 2, Astures. 10. Magna, at Carvoran. c. 1, Batavians ? c. 2, Dalmatians, c. 1, Hamians (Syrians). 11. Amboglanna, at Birdoswald. c. 1, Dacians (vElia Dacorum). [The above have been accurately ascertained. No inscriptions, as evidence, have been found west of this. Bruce, 1867, p. 69.] THE EOMAN WALL. 33 12. Petriana. The " Petriana." 13. Concavato, 1 at Rickerby. c. 2, Lergi. 14. Luguvallium, at Carlisle. 15. Advallum, at Carlisle. 16. Axelodunum, 1 near Burgh upon Sands. c. 1, Spaniards. 17. Gabrosentum, 1 near Drumburgh. c. 2, Thraeians. 18. Tunnocelum, 1 near Bowness. c. 1. marine " iElia." The full length of the stone wall, from sea to sea, was sev- enty-three and a half English miles : the southern, or earthen, wall was six miles shorter, ending at Newcastle on the Tyne, and at Dykesfleld on the Solway. The whole number of the garrison along the Wall seems to have been about 12,000 men, sometimes a larger or a smaller number. There were also, north and south of this main line, supporting or outlying camps or stations, all or nearly all of which are now shown by mere fragments. The best plan for a visit to the most interesting portion of the Wall, when only one day can be given for it, is to start early from Newcastle by the train to Chollerford, and take a breakfast there at the neat stone inn, that seems to make almost the whole of the extremely little village, and then drive ten miles due west along or near the wall to Housesteads farm. Thence is a glorious walk of eight miles on the hills, and for a long way on the Wall itself, to Caw Gap, or a little farther, and across the fields to a highway that leads to Haltwhistle, where there is a station on the Carlisle and Newcastle line. Hexham (p. 271) can be visited upon this route back to the latter city. The relics of the Wall are scanty from Wallsend at the eastern end to the North Tyne, or nearly one third of its length. A bridge with two supporting castles crossed the river there, not far south of Chollerford. Upon the western bank are found remains of the large station of Cilurnum, in the 1 These positions are according to Horsley, and the others are according to Rev. J. C. Bruce. In camps near the wall were stationed Germans, Gauls, Span- iards, Moors, and other cohorts of distant origin. Parts or all of the Second, Sixth, and Twentieth Legions served on the wall. The writer may add that he traversed miles of the wall or its site, with map and note-book, and that the latter is freely used in his description. 3 34 THE ROMAN WALL. noble park of Chesters. Its large trees, and others bordering the road, are charming, and remarkably contrasted with the bareness of the country to be traversed. Several interesting stones, inscribed or sculptured, have been found in this vicinity. The road beyond — the turnpike from Newcastle to Carlisle — is interesting as a modern strategic work, although now super- seded by the railway. It is the one built about 1752 to give communication then much needed, and for lack of which the forces under General Wade, assembled at the East in 1745 to stop Prince Charlie, were made useless while the latter marched from Scotland into England through Carlisle. This road, for several miles from the North Tyne, is near the wall, and runs in long, straight reaches up and down the hills that roll in a continuous succession through the country. At Walwick, not far westward, is a fine view south and east across a beautiful and varied rural district with long, broad, but not high, swells of land, on which are green fields, scat- tered trees, or small forests. The road beyond ascends to the wide top of a tall ridge, whence, northward, ruins of the Roman works are seen. Tower Tay, a large hill, succeeds, marked by a curious old stone farm-house, that looks like a chapel, standing on the eastern slope. The view is similar to that at Walwick, but is wider, and sweeps over all the east, from north to south. Its interest is greater (though its extent is less) when one looks westward from the summit. The road is seen dipping far into a hollow ; northward is a long side- prospect; and in front, up a broad, grassy, rounded hill, extends a great reach of the Wall, — the most impressive portion yet presented, although its height has been sadly reduced. A bank of turf, or trees and shrubs, cover the present top, and beneath them are still found four to six courses of the south- ern facing-stones, — gray, squared, and each about a foot deep, and ten to twenty inches long. Across the "upper portions of this hill the wall has been destroyed, but the site is marked by a belt of straggling shrubs. There is again, at this place, a remarkably wide view from north to south, and farther on, a prospect that is not less than immense in every direction, over very broad, bare, undulating pastures on each side of the THE ROMAN WALL. 35 wall. At Limestone Bank this view on all sides is continued, and includes the distant Cheviots. Thence a long dip of the road lies westward ; and beside it is the Vallum, still display- ing works that have been truly called gigantic, stretching through a hollow, and being perhaps the most distinct part spared. A section of the Roman military way once coexten- sive with the wall is here first seen. Here also the fosse of both wall and vallum has been cut through basalt, showing how undeviatingly the energetic ancient builders carried out their design. At Carrawburgh, a small and lonely stone farm-house, are the now low and grass-grown relics of the once large station Procolitia. Its distance from Cilurnum is about three and a half miles, and its area as many acres. The first cohort of Batavians garrisoned it, a. d. 237, and for a long time knew a land here strangely different from their native flats that now form Holland. East of them were Spaniards from Asturia, a people with whom Dutchmen were to have more strange acquaintance some twelve centuries later. West of them were Tungrians from near where now is Tongres in Belgium, a country destined to produce some friendly company for their posterity. The gateways of the station are discernible, but little else is left. Beyond Procolitia, there are four great swells of bare green pasture-land (called "mountain-waves" by a perhaps exaggerating antiquary), from which are wide views, especially towards the south. Relics of the Roman works are scanty through this region nearly all the way to Housesteads, — a place marked by an extremely lonely stone farm-house upon the south slope of a long and broken hill, nearly five miles from Procolitia. 1 The crest, about a third of a mile from the road, is crowned by Borcovicus. The present tense may well be used to state that this great station is here, on its firm, basaltic platform, showing vividly its purposes, and still the most complete 1 The writer adds, for the benefit of travellers in this secluded region, especially for those who go alone as he did, that it is best to be careful when crossing some of the fields, and avoid bulls or bullocks, from one of which he had a narrow escape. Few unprofessional persons will like to be forced to use devices of the Spanish arena. 36 THE ROMAN WALL. — BORCOVICUS. example of the Roman camps that were in use for generations along the Wall. It has been well called the English Tadmor of the Desert. The country far around is even now a vast and striking solitude, but little changed, one may imagine, since the Roman age ; and dominant above it, grass-grown or clad with dark or pale-gray lichens, rise the walls that kept the imperial soldiers safe, — fragmentary, indeed, but clearly show- ing many rooms and the main outlines. The height is from three to six feet, and there are from five to seven courses of stones that are generally small, oblong, or square. Beside and under the great northern gate that boldly opened towards the Scots and Picts, they are much larger (two feet square or more) and nearly half as thick. They have close joints, and form one of the two best specimens of Roman masonry in northern Britain. The guard-chambers, pivot-holes to hold the double gates, and marks of long use of the thresholds are very evident. Still greater helps to history have been found throughout the station, consisting of uncommonly large numbers of inscrip- tions, statues, and small objects. Experience taught the writer that the ancient walls could still give welcome, and no slight protection from a squall of wind and rain that wildly swept across the open heights while he was on them, and realized the nature of the climate that the ancient garrison encountered. When the turmoil passed away, and bright sunshine spread over the wide landscape, all the region that the Tungrians guarded was displayed, — a vast, bare, wavy, grassy country now,- with a few patches only of dark woodland to suggest the distant forests of the early ages. A long reach of the Wall extends from Borcovicus westward to Rapishaw Gap. It follows the uneven cresting of the cliffs that rise with long and moderate slopes towards the south, but drop abruptly towards the north, presenting formidable barriers in that direction ; indeed, the most picturesque scenery found during the walk extends along and beyond this section. To the Gap the writer made the top of the dismantled wall his path. It is broken and uneven, but still the wall is several feet in height, about four feet in thickness, and retains both faces. I M I THE ROMAN WALL. — THE CEAGS. 37 Two furlongs from Housesteads is a mile-castle, the north side of which is formed by the great Wall, and shows, says Mr. Bruce, " the finest specimen remaining on the whole line. It stands 14 courses or 9£ feet high, and is 10 feet thick. The castle itself measures, on the inside, 57 feet 7 inches from west to east and 49 feet 7 inches from north to south." After dipping deep into the Gap, the wall ascends and crosses a long ridge commanding an extensive view that in the fore- ground shows Broomlee, Greenlee, Crag, and Grindon, here called lakes, but really little oblong ponds, more picturesque, however, than some larger sheets of water. Beyond the ridge is Hot Bank, a neat farmhouse with a garden, in a hollow now called Milking Gap. The Wall thence, for a considerable dis- tance, is represented by a thin modern wall in which blocks from the ancient works are scattered. Towards the west is an imposing view. In quick succession rise three hills, with long slopes southward and precipitous dark sides towards the north. The farthest one is Winshields, where the Wall, that winds along the crest of all the three, attains its greatest elevation, — a thousand feet above the level of the sea. Beneath the lofty northern front of the first hill is nestled the small but really grand Crag Lough. Upon the cliffs abreast of it there seem to be no relics of the Wall ; and one might think that here the Romans had relied on the enor- mous natural barriers of the sheer and towering rocks of basalt, and the deep, dark water under them. But we are told they did not ; and no break was made in their great work. The views continue to be vast and lonely, over moorlands stretching far and wide, on grassy rural country southward, and on broad or high hills in the distance. West of Crag Lough is a steep slope into Steel Rig Gap, and here are low but still distinct remains of the old Wall. The steepness may have made it necessary to construct the work as strongly as was possible ; and if the Romans ever thought that it was proper to use greater care in one place than another they may here have done so, for cement is here unusually evident. A core of rubble bedded in it, according to their well-known style, is plainly seen, forming one of the few 38 THE ROMAN WALL. examples that the writer found in good preservation. The next Gap, Castle Nick, is near, and in it are distinct remains of a castellum (uncovered in 1854), with a gate in both the northern and southern side, and an interior area measuring 62 by 50 feet. Close to each of the other two sides there is a rocky knoll, from which the Wall has almost disappeared. On crags westward it is clearly shown, and there crosses a small, sharp, curious nick, beyond which a good bit of it ascends a long, high ridge ; but even there, in such a remote spot, some of it has recently been pulled down. Beneath the. Wall are very steep and broken crags, called " Cat's Stairs," perhaps from the ability to climb that they require. The view of the high cliffs gained from their base rewards a scramble down this way. A walk thence on the plain leads to the next Gap, one of the widest and most marked of all the passes. Peel Crag Gap, on account of its width and depth, was defended by the Romans with especial care, and they made use of good helps supplied by Nature. The slopes on either hand are long ; east they are grassy or rocky, and at an angle of nearly 45° ; west they are moderate. " On both sides of the pass," says Mr. Bruce, " the wall bends sharply to the south ; this has the double effect of narrowing the gorge and exposing an enemy to a flanking fire within half a bow-shot on both sides." The arrangement is still evident, although upon the eastern slope and through the Gap there are now only slight remains of the old wall, but not far up the western slope it becomes quite prominent. The crags and stones in this vicinity are almost black ; it is a Borderland in its formation, for sand- stone here meets the long line of basalt. Farther on there is a great extent of what seems to be the south face of the Wall reaching up the moderate but long eastern slope of Winshields. Over the long ridgy top of this great hill the interest is sup- plied by Nature and historical associations, rather than by remains of ancient military art. A wall extends without a break across it, but the work seems to be modern, although the old site and many old stones have been used. This wall, about five feet in height, is single, and perhaps three hundred feet of its length appear to have been of late relaid. i Si -'"'||M!| ' , : r < .tin; — d 'i*„' „ THE ROMAN WALL. 39 The view from Winshields is extremely wide in all direc- tions. In clear weather vessels on the Solway can be seen, as well as Criffell in Kirkcudbrightshire, almost due west, and more than sixty miles distant. Most of the country seen is open, wavy, grass-land, bounded far south by long ridgy hills, far north by bluish hills, and south of west, and nearer, by great heights that are outlying portions of the mountain group in the Lake District. Prominent above them is Skiddaw. There are no towns in sight, and only scattered houses, none of which are very near. Eastward the view, reaching along the Wall and its vast base of hills, is even more interesting, and the resolute imperial stride of the great work is shown impressively in all its significance. A good stretch of the Wall extends west. Bogle-hole and Caw-gap, the next passes, also show remains ; but farther on the land is lower and more fertile, and the cultivation it has long received has brought destruction to the Roman work, as it has in like places elsewhere. If the explorer is to take the train at Haltwhistle, the line of the Wall is left before this tract is reached. The way lies down long moor-like slopes to the highroad, near which two dark and curious standing stones, now called " The Mare and Foal," are passed ; they were probably set up by the Druids, and formed part of one of the large circles formerly scattered through the country, but not now numerous. Great Chesters, a good farm-house in the open fields beyond the tract already mentioned, occupies the site of JEsica, the tenth permanent camp upon the Wall. About 1725 " some of the walls of the station were standing, twelve or thirteen feet high ; at present all that can be said is, that the ramparts and the fosse are clearly defined," writes Dr. Bruce. " The peculiar feature of this station," he adds, " is the water-course, which is to be found to the north of it, ... a channel three or four feet deep," extending very circuitously six miles on the hill- slopes to Caw-burn, where that, in a straight line, is only about two miles and a quarter distant. The Roman skill that was used to obtain good water is exemplified in even this remote spot. 40 THE ROMAN WALL. iEsica, and portions of the Wall west of it, can be visited with ease in two excursions made from Gilsland Spa. The interesting section reaching from that station almost three miles west to Magna, the next one, can be examined during the first ; and in the other the succeeding section, Amboglanna, and some fine parts of the Wall west of it. Near Great Chesters the depression of the land comes to an end, and the crags again rise high. The Wall, that for some distance has been almost utterly destroyed, once more appears, and some parts of it show several courses of the northern facing. Below it are serrated and towering rocks, that bear the name of the " Nine Nicks of Thirl wall," : the highest of which, Mucklebank-crag, attains an elevation of 860 feet above the level of the sea. The features of the scenery resemble those seen eastward ; long slopes lie towards the south, steep crags face northward, and there are wide views over rural country to distant hills. Low trees, however, give the foregrounds more variety. The long, imposing line of cliffs comes to an end near Magna, two miles and three quarters from Great Chesters. Magna has experienced the fate of other stations built on fertile lowlands, and its remains have almost disappeared, notably within a hun- dred years. There are, however, relics of the Roman works, especially the Valium, extending through the two miles of rich farming country, reaching from the valley of the Tyne to another running westward and watered by the Irthing. Near the next station, Amboglanna, the Wall descended to and crossed the latter river. Amboglanna, at the farm now called Birdoswald, occupies a most commanding site upon an elevated bluff abdve the Irthing, that bounds it on almost three sides. The rampart of the camp and some remains of quite large buildings once within it still appear, but the chief features are a noble southern gate with two guard-chambers, and the lower one of two gates, towards 1 Three views, made on the spot hy Mr. Collard, in 1837, are from Hodgson's History of Northumberland, iii. pt. 2. No. 1 "is from the south side of the murus, a little to the west of Walltown." No. 2 is a north view, looking west. No. 3 is also a north view, from the first gap west of Walltown, near Thirlwall. s& t-^rwfaj '<*%- ■'TZ/ttftW/t /rfsZjSJ. THE ROMAN WALL. 41 the west. Inscriptions, altars, and a statue have been found here. Dr. Bruce informs us that " it is the largest station on the line, having an area of five acres and a half, which is about a quarter of an acre more than Cilurnum, and half an acre more than Borcovicus." He also states that the Wall west- ward " is in an unusually good state of preservation," and is indeed " the finest specimen of the great structure that re- mains." It averages a few feet in height, but is seven and a half feet thick, and, when the writer saw it, showed its facing of small square ashlar blocks resembling some modern pave- ment-stones in size and shape. Time has made them venerably gray, or veiled them with thick mosses, or has garlanded them with abundant wild-flowers. This region is associated with the romantic courtship of Sir Walter Scott, and with one of his most charming novels. These, and Naworth Castle, Lannercost, and Gilsland Spa — all very interesting — are described quite fully by the writer, in a chapter on " Rob Roy " in his " Lands of Scott." The relics of the Wall west of these places are now scanty, but the fosse is here and there distinctly marked. Painstaking antiquaries are perhaps the only persons who will care to fol- low it and note its details through the nearly level country that it traversed to the Solway, but they still will be rewarded for their research, and be also forced to think that the destructive Scots and Picts have, since 1700, had bold imitators. The Roman Wall entire, with its supporting Military-way and Vallum, required for its construction at least as much skill and labor as a modern railway through a wild and distant region. Both masonry and excavation were continuous, and the buildings numerous. The amount of transportation of materials, with the small facilities at command, made the labor relatively, if not actually, greater ; and the work of maintenance was of course much greater, for a far larger force and ceaseless watchfulness were needed, and great and varied, although different skill, was constantly required. The ancient builders seem in justice to deserve no lighter praise. Evidence of their marked ability and achievements may now disappoint a tourist ; storm, war, and sordid violence have 42 ROMAN BRITAIN. visited them through fourteen centuries, and there is less to see than might be hoped ; but an observer will find much for wonder, pleasure, and instruction in these fragments of the outer barrier of a mighty empire, and of the strong, studied handiwork of an imperial people, who long ago departed fj'om the lands they ruled. The Romans, who established such strong guards along the coast and their permanent inland frontier, established also strong posts through the country. They had many towns and cities, not a few of which, and indeed most of the latter, have remained inhabited and growing to our times. Richard of Cirencester, who wrote in the latter portion of the fourteenth century, informs us that the Romans had one hundred and seventy-five stations, of which he gives the names, and " ninety- two cities, of which thirty-three were more celebrated and con- spicuous." Two were municipal, Verulamium (St. Albans), and Eboracum (York), where the inhabitants had nearly all the rights of Roman citizens. Nine were colonial, with rights not now well known, but with successors that bear long fami- liar names, Richborough, London, Bath, and Caerleon, at the south ; Colchester, Lincoln, and Cambridge, at the east ; and Chester and Gloucester at the west. The old monk's chronicle will tell the curious the names of all the others. In numbers of these places there were the usual Roman works, baths, amphitheatres, camps, temples, houses, but the relics of them are now scanty. In the country, here and there, were villas, numerous remains of which have been discovered. The per- sistency of Roman character is shown in their construction ; forms and fashions used in Italy are imitated in so far as means permitted or the relics indicate. As would be supposed, the superstructures have nearly disappeared, but the plans of the buildings can be traced. Tessellated pavements} that were marked features, are not now uncommon, but none of them have been found, says Mr. 1 These are splendidly illustrated in two rare and expensive collected works, the plates of which, on account of their size and coloring, could not be reproduced in a book like the present. They are — Ltsons, S. Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae, 3 vols. ; 1 Roman Antiquities dis- 1 See vol. ill. for Biguor. ROMAN PAVEMENTS. 43 Rich, north of Isurium (Aldborough, less than twenty miles northwest of York), and Newburgh Park (still nearer York). One of the most extensive villas was at Bignor, ten miles northeast of Chichester, and near the southern coast, uncovered 1811-17. Its outer walls measured 277 feet 4 inches on the east side, 385| on the west, 286 on the north, and 322| on the south, says Lysons. An inner court, about 150 by 100 feet, was surrounded by a gallery ten feet wide that had a fine mosaic pavement. The plan of these parts and of about sixty rooms, of which at least ten had similar floors, was determined. One of the latter, 20 feet by 19|, was entire ; another, 19 by 18, was of coarse light-brown tessarae ; a third, 19 by 18|, was of light-red terra cotta ; a fourth, 32 by 19 feet, was of very rich design, but much broken ; and a triclinium, or banqueting room, that had paintings on stuccoed walls, had a very rich pavement with elaborately ornamented bands forming panels that enclosed figures, and was a work worthy of Rome itself. Mosaic pave- ments have been found on sites of several Roman towns, es- pecially in Gloucestershire. The fragments of most of the other parts of buildings are so small or broken that conceptions of the perfect structures must be more or less imperfect. Foundations and some other portions of town-walls built by the Romans still remain incorporated with more recent works, at Chester, York, Chichester (?), Lincoln, and elsewhere, but the exigencies of a large and busy population and of changing times have naturally caused the destruction of nearly all the old defences. A few examples of the Roman town-walls, however, still maintain their individuality, unaltered save by time or vio- lence. At Verulamium (St. Albans) there are the foundations or the base of several hundred feet of its old wall. This reaches through the middle of low land along the foot of a considerable covered at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, 1 vol., and Gloucestershire Antiquities, 2 vols., all atlas folio, 1797-1817. Fowler, Wm. Colored engravings of TJoman Pavements, Stained Glass, etc., in Great Britain, 2 or 3 vols., atlas folio, Winterton, 1798-1829. Mr. Fowler, originally a carpenter, executed the whole of this remarkable work, drawing, engraving, coloring, and paper making, and it is said that not over forty complete copies were made. The above 8 or 9 vols, are now priced at about £130, quite complete. See, also, List III. Roman Pavements, p. 432. 44 ROMAN TOWN-WALLS. hill-slope to the south and west of the famous Abbey, but is very broken, and not much of it is over three feet high. The masonry is rubble and red bricks embedded in extremely strong cement used freely, and very wisely also, for it is the sole pro- tector of this shattered remnant of a once large city, of which it is now almost the only visible memorial. Above it shrubs and trees are growing, and around it spread green pastures ; in neglect and loneliness it crumbles — a mere shred of pagan Rome, it might be thought — while down upon it looks the vast renewed and strengthened fabric that holds much of its mate- rials and preserves through time the name of the heroic soldier who became a Christian, and here gained his glorious title, cut deep in the pavement near his shrine, " Anglorum Protomartyr." But while he is worthily remembered, even thus with no excess of honor, might not also human sympathy preserve this last pathetic relic of his kindred people who in time embraced his faith ? Colchester has the largest and the most complete example of a Roman town-wall to be found in any populous place in Great Britain, or perhaps north of the Alps. The portion spared is several hundred feet in length, embracing a southwestern rounded turn, and in some places there are relics of the an- cient glacis. Towards the east, the base alone remains, but farther on the wall is ten to twenty feet in height, although the former top is wanting and the present upper edge is broken. Coarse rubble, bricks, and the usual tenacious mortar, compose the masonry, the prevailing color of the exposed parts of which is now gray. The care bestowed upon these valuable relics does not seem to have impaired the means of Colchester or of the nation. Silchester l has the largest and the most impressive remains of a Roman town now to be found in Britain. They are in a quiet rural country, that to this time is less settled than is usual in England. Once the place was a centre where roads met, a sort of agricultural capital ; but now it is almost in soli- tude, and half-forgotten nearly midway between two routes of modern travel used by thousands every day, the Southwestern 1 See " Archaeologia," Rev. J. G. Joyce, Excavations (read 1865), map and three plates, xl. 403-16, and his continuation, map and six plates, xlvi. 329-65. SILCHESTER. 45 and Great Western railways, and their stations at Basingstoke and Reading. One of the delightful, simple roads that traverse undisturbed old English country leads to it from Mortimer, a station on a cross-line three miles distant from it. Nowhere out of England are there roads like this, narrow, well-kept, shaded sometimes by large trees, or closely bordered by rough hedges, winding up and down hill through fields of grain or grass, and past low, quaint farm-houses built of red bricks, and, here and there, a homestead of a higher class. This road at length leads to a little church, "with sides of wood or rough- cast, standing near a snug farm-house, beside which is a large barn-yard. The place suggests as little as any could of ancient Rome, or of the need of great defensive works, but when the barn-yard is crossed and a turn is made into a shallow wooded hollow beyond it, the scene is changed. There is nothing else in England like the walk of more than half a mile that can there be taken. On the right is a belt of trees and shrubbery that hides a road extending along some portion of the distance. The ground, overgrown with thick grass and in some places swampy, slopes slightly upward from the belt and shows that it was once the ditch before a very large defensive work ; for all along the left still stretches the impressive, gray and broken, but unmistakable stone wall of the Roman Calleva, the successor of the Caer Seiout of the Britons. Some parts of the walls are low, and others rise twenty feet above the ground, crested with oaks and shrubbery that replace the battlements. The facing has been torn away, and the exposed core is furrowed or covered with moss, and shows the small flint, or flat bonding stones of which it is made, embedded according to the Roman manner in a great deal of firm mortar. One of the least in- jured parts is an original gateway that retains courses of its facing-stones. Along this rude, wide, silent avenue one walks where ancient Britons kept their guard, and where the Romans watched for a longer time than has elapsed since Elizabeth was queen. These mouldering remains of walls were once so strong that they were held by troops who could confer the imperial purple on a favored leader ; for the usurper Constantine was proclaimed here in 407, and here, almost a century later, the 46 SILCHESTER. ferocious Saxons, who are now almost as shadowy as the heroes of the old Walhalla, crossed with fire and sword to devastate a city. While these ramparts, that were dismantled only when they had grown old, have been resisting decay, almost every- thing that makes Old England has passed through its slow growth. The most remarkable vestiges of one of her earliest seats of civilization are here neglected and decaying. Cannot less than one hour of her great revenue be spared from petty distant wars to buy Silchester and Richborough for the nation ? They stand, not quite crushed, with gray heads uncovered, asking for preservation. The walls, on other sides far more imperfect or represented by mounds, enclose an area nearly a mile and a half in circuit and an irregular octagon in shape. The site is the level top of a broad swell of land, from which in some directions there are wide views of fields and wooded tracts, and ranges of low hills blue in the distance. A modern road divides the area, and about midway along it are distinct remains of a square camp, now surrounded by a high and but little broken mound, composed of earth, dark, dull-red Roman bricks, and bits of flint-stones. Excavations have revealed remains of streets, or buildings constructed of large and small stones, — some of the latter squared and two feet on a side, now covered with gray lichens, — but the materials are chiefly bricks and flints. The central part of the area is a square platform, around which is a grainfield. Between the camp and the town- wall that has been described, there are remains of thermce and cold baths, that occupied a building eighty feet in length. The ruins of two heating-places built of bricks, and tessellated pave- ments of red bricks, and white stones about an inch square, are shown. They were uncovered in 1833, and some parts were sheltered by rude sheds, that are now quite unworthy of a hen-coop. Mother earth took better care of them. Aldborough x shows some curious and interesting relics of Isurium, already mentioned, that seems to have been the north- 1 See Wright, Thos., "Wanderings of an Antiquary; chiefly upon the Traces of the Romans in Britain." 12°, London, 1854. See also several other works hy the same author, relating to this period, and Smith, H. E., " Reliquiae Isurianas," 34 plates. Roy. 4°, 1852. ALDBOROUGH. 47 ern limit of the Roman arts of peace or luxury. A pleasant visit can be made to it from Boroughbridge, where there is now a railway-station, reached with ease from York. Borough- bridge is a crooked little town with small, quaint houses, some of them inns, in one of which the writer found a neat, snug coffee-room, and a breakfast, both particularly English. Half a mile beyond, reached by a pleasant shaded country road, is Aldborough. It is a little village, or a hamlet, of small houses, most of which are built of red bricks. Here also there at first is slight suggestion of the mistress of the world ; but in, or back of, some of these plain little houses, will be found scanty but yet even startling proofs of her long control of this part of old England, now so quiet and so simple. Here, upon a moderate swell of land that rises from the generally level tract extending through the central and southeastern parts of Yorkshire, stood a city that once rivalled York in wealth and size. The circuit of its walls, still traceable, was nearly a mile and a half, and it had a strong walled camp. Some think that it is now — mere fragment of its former self although it is — " one of the most important and instructive " Roman stations in the country. Its most curious relics are mosaic pavements, found several years ago, and shown in build- ings near the centre of the place. The first one of them is in a low two-storied dwelling, called " The Old Manor House," and is about a dozen feet square. It serves as the floor of a back room on the first story, and is in fair order. The de- sign consists of geometrical and figured patterns, but contains no animal or human forms. Beyond here the road, turning to the right, ascends a moderate slope, and passes by the little inn, a primitive and simple one. Behind it, in a garden, are two cabins built of stone, in each of which there is a pavement, — neither very large, but both superior to the others here, and to many found elsewhere in England. One has for its centre- piece a panther underneath a tree. The care bestowed upon these works of art by an extremely aged woman who exhibited them was quite touching, and some more prominent proprietors or guardians might imitate her. She kept both of her treasures covered well with sawdust, to preserve the color and the polish, 48 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. and to absorb the dampness ; and she had done so with success, although the cabins are not properly constructed to exclude the moisture in the ground, beneath the surface of which the mosaics have been buried eighteen inches or two feet. Another of these lodgings for the relics covers the remains of a Basilica, so called, where there is a larger pavement, that is oblong, and that once had a semicircular end ; but not one half of the work remains, and the fragments are damp, discolored, in- jured, and decaying. Portions of the sandstone basement of a temple are around it. Near the summit of the hill is a rude tower, beside which is a little narrow, shabby building called the museum, containing some objects, most of which are small, found in the neighborhood, pathetic scraps from the once popu- lous Isurium. The grand collection of such relics in the northern counties is at York, surrounded by the charming grounds adjacent to St. Mary's Abbey. Here are statues, decorations, coffins, glass, fine Samian war and military and domestic articles, that make up a remarkable and an instructive record of the Roman period in Britain. There are objects found in many places ; a large number came from the ground now covered by the new vast railway-station, when that was erected. Another large collection is stored in the Norman keep at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Important objects — altars, sculptures, and inscriptions that are black with dust or smoke — are placed in curious but dark. apartments, where details are made almost invisible. Chichester, near the Channel coast, presents a, notable ex- ample of the Roman town-walls at about their farthest south- ern limit in Great Britain. The ground-plan of the place remains substantially the same as in the Roman times, — a square divided in four parts by two main streets that cross from side to side. A section of the wall extends from Friary Lane to the cast gate (that is no longer standing) ; but the best kept portion is at the north, now blackened-gray in color, about a dozen feet thick, and twenty feet high on the outside, where the facings are small, broken, well-laid flintstones. On . the top is a broad gravelled walk, protected on the outer side ROMAN BRITAIN. 49 by a thin, poor, modern parapet, and shaded by large trees that grow close to the inner side. A great deal of the wall has been destroyed. While the relics of Roman works in England are far infe- rior in number and importance to those in France, and have received less care, and, indeed, have been discreditably neg- lected, they are yet numerous and precious. They include neither temples, aqueducts, or theatres on the imperial scale ; but the military works, the chief of which have been described above, rank high among all the remains of their class. The country was a distant province, and especially provincial one must remember ; yet it contained examples, though not great, of all the distinctive structures of the Romans. That so large a part of them have perished is not strange ; for the vicissi- tudes throughout the Saxon period were terrible, and in the Middle Ages there was strong temptation to re-use the ma- terials. The heedlessness in the last hundred years does not admit of so comparatively satisfactory explanation. If the general study of Roman antiquities can be pursued with less advantage in England than in other regions outside of Italy that were held by the empire, the condition of the country as a Roman province can be fairly estimated. Military strength used constantly was, and must be, the chief characteristic. Numerous towns, with the means, conveniences, and some of the luxuries then usual, existed ; and a fair amount of trade and agriculture supported the population. That there was settled life, with wealth and the tastes of Italy, is evident from the number of rich villas scattered through the country, the original examples of some of its conspicuous existing features. Along with forms of tyranny that must have always marked the imperial rule, there must have been advantages that bal- anced them. The Roman civilization, if it did not animate the life of all the people, affected them ; and if in time it passed utterly away, and is not now apparent in the nation and the England that we see, and consequently has a minor place in her history, it forms an attractive introductory chapter; and the visits to its crumbling monuments are among the most interesting that can be made on the ancient island. 4 50 ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND.* The last of all the Roman legions left the shores of Britain when the forces of the empire were concentrated for the defence of its endangered centre. They left on the island a numerous mixed people, who had gained some advantages from civiliza- tion, and some practice in municipal affairs and freedom, but who were exposed to dangerous attacks from wild and warlike neighbors, and were too accustomed to rely upon the help of others. Representatives of foreign races had become estab- lished in the country, and local chiefs were growing stronger. Interests, ambitions, or antipathies, that would be quiet under one indisputable rule, were roused into activity. Some relics of the Roman government remained in civitates that were inde- pendent, and had a legislature, and a bishop who at times directed temporal as well as spiritual matters. But no long time for internal changes passed. External dangers soon pre- vailed above all others, and supplanted local issues. A new and entirely different era was to begin in Britain, amid storms of war more lurid and destructive than any with which the wildest moods of Nature could assail her often 1 See publications of the Commissioners on Public Records since 1783, now in more than 100 vols., and the English Historical Society's collections. Also Camden's "Britannia"; the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (1-1154), published under the Master of the Rolls, B. Thorpe editor, 2 vols., 1861 ; Richard of Cirencester, " Speculum Historiale de Gestis Regum Angliae" (447-1066), do., Mayor editor, 2 vols., 1863-69 ; and several editions of Bede, " Eccles. Hist, of the English Nation " (to 731) ; William of Malmesbury's " Chronicle of the Kings of England " (449-1142) ; Ethelward's Chronicle (to 975) ; the works of Gildas ; Geoffrey of Monmouth's "British History" (to 688) ; Asser of St. David's "Annals of the Reign of Alfred the Great" (849-887); Pearson's, Weddel's, and Von Spriiner's Historical Maps. Giles, J. A., " History of the Ancient Britons," 2 vols., 8°, London, 1847 ; Kemble, J. M., " The Saxons in England, till the Norman Con- quest," 2 vols., 8°, London, 1849; Geeen, J. R., "The Making of England," 8°, London, 1882 ; Thrupp, John, " The Anglo-Saxon Home, a History of the Domestic Institutions and Customs of England " (5th-llth century), 8°, London, 1862; Turner, Sharon, "The History of the Anglo-Saxons" (to 1066), 3 vols., 8°, 1852, etc. ; Wright, T., " Essays on Literature, etc., of England in the Middle Ages," 2 vols., 8°, London, 1846. ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 51 storm-swept territory. Foes were pressing her on every side, the least of whom may have appeared to be men from the long peninsula of northern Germany. Some of their race already lived upon the eastern coasts, that had been called the litus /Saxonicum, and thus had established a sort of kinship with the natives. For defence, a band of Jutes was employed, and in 449 they with their leaders, Hengist and Horsa, "landed at Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet." They were the precursors of countless bands from the same country, that were in time and by terrible invasions to seize and possess the land, — Jutes, Danes, Saxons, Angles, who were to make the green island Angle-land, the England of the modern world. They appeared first like the little cloud not heeded by the unobservant, but that flies like a dark omen before a coming tempest. "No spot in Britain," continues Dr. Green, " can be so sacred to Englishmen as that which first felt the tread of English feet." It was the low ground north of the place where Caesar disem- barked, and in sight of Richborough. The Jutes in 449, dangerous allies, helped to expel the Scots and Picts, then the most dreaded foes of cultivated Britain, but at the same time learned the tempting wealth and weakness of the people who engaged them, and made their own plans for profiting by opportunity that was too evident. Large bodies of the Saxons reinforced them, and pressed forward a remorseless war of conquest, that became in time not only one of subjuga- tion, but extermination. In 454 Hengist established, from north Essex to the Channel and to Middlesex, the kingdom of Kent. And then a long succession of bold leaders with fresh forces, emulated his example, carrying direful warfare into every part of Britain, and making slaves of the remnants of the people spared from death or not driven to the mountain regions of Wales. The kingdom of Sussex, that is, of the south Saxons, was established in 490 on the southern coast, and in 519, Wessex, the kingdom of the west Saxons, was formed in the southwestern portion of the island. In 530 the east Saxons founded Essex, thus diminishing the area of Kent. Dates of these events are differently stated by authors, but the time and the course of the conquests is closely shown. 52 ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. The Saxons, who had been such active invaders, were mean- while joined by Angles from South Jutland, who in turn secured land for themselves, and, about 575, founded the king- dom of East-Anglia, the modern Norfolk. The name of their territory, Angle-land, then East Engla-land, spread from the small region where it had its origin until, finally, it was applied to all the country, that thus became England. They had previously founded Deira, now Yorkshire and Lancashire, and Benecia, that comprised the present Northumberland, Durham, and the eastern coast of Scotland to the Forth. Not long after- wards the two latter kingdoms were united and formed North- umbria. Their last state, Mercia, was founded about 586, and embraced the area of several of the present midland counties from the German Sea to Wales. These various invasions and conquests were prolonged through many years, and seemed desultory, not only because they were made by numerous bands or tribes not vast in num- bers, but also on account of the nature of the country as it then existed. Certain great features that were marked in the Roman period continued prominent and seemed to have great effect long after it. Fens and forests of remarkable extent formed barriers that withstood or turned the invaders. The Andredsweald spread its dense woods almost from Folkestone to Southampton, and restricted the efforts of the Jutes in Kent, and of the South Saxons west of them. Nearly all Essex was a forest, and barred the incoming East Saxons. Even the Romans had been forced to a circuitous route to pass it on the way between London and Lincoln. From the Peak, in central England, " the wolf," says Dr. Green, " roamed over the long * desert ' that stretched to the Cheviots " in Scotland ; " in- deed," he adds, " the wild bull wandered through forest after forest from Ettrick to Hampstead," — that is, through the mid- lands from southern Scotland to the suburbs of London. A vast fen extended from Cambridge to the mouth of the Humber, and another along the Thames, on the east side of the island, while on the west a lesser but formidable tract that adjoined the Severn penetrated far into the country. These and other features, as they had effect upon the movements of the German ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 53 invaders, are described far more minutely by Dr. Green in his " Making of England " than is possible upon these pages. It is " no slight misfortune," he says in his preface, " that the period of their conquest should remain comparatively unknown, and that its struggles, which were in reality the birth-throes of [the English] national life, should be still to most Englishmen, as they were to Milton, mere battles of kites and crows." Americans will find in the events of this obscure and distant period the subject of both thought and thankfulness, when they observe its horrors while men of the German race became established in the old home-land of the English tongue, and contrast it with the times while a far greater number of the same race, not from a small part, but from all parts of old Germany, and an immeasurably more developed people, are becoming peacefully domesticated in the new world as fellow- citizens, already influential, and to grow more important. The gradual, continuous, and devastating conquests by the invading races, while they resulted in the ruin of the ancient people, met with desperate resistance. Through much of the first half of the sixth century King Arthur in the West became the hero of the war for freedom and existence. But all struggles with the pagan inundation were in vain. The civil- ization of the past, like those who knew it, disappeared beneath the floods of barbarism, and even Christianity, that had become established, seemed to have been swept away amid the universal ruin. A period like an Arctic winter, hopelessly, indefinitely lengthened, settled gloomily on social life in Britain, blighting all of it except some germs that long lay dormant ; and the human figures flitting through its darkness, although they bear names, are yet so indistinct that we might doubt that they had once existed, if the returning light did not show work that they must then have done. Among them there must have been a hero in the long defence ; we call the storied one King Arthur, and remember him together with his brave companions as the poets have transfigured them. The history of the first three or four centuries of Saxon England is so confused, little known, or vague, that even Milton wrote of the affairs of the Heptarchy as has just been men- 54 ALFRED THE GREAT. tioned, and Hume, who so fully describes the events of later times, gives brief attention to it. We know, however, the great fact that a new people, who differed much from the early Britons, a few remnants of whom they kept, was estab- lished after tremendous agitation, and that the small conflicting kingdoms founded by them were at length united in 827, and ruled by Egbert, the first king of all England. Through three quarters of a century that ensued, the Saxons and Angles felt the retribution so often shown in history. Other north Germans, then called Danes, tried in their turn to dispossess them, and the descendants of invaders felt the scourge laid mercilessly by their fathers on the Britons. The dismal chronicle of wreck and carnage was repeated, and the hero in the new defence arose, far more distinct and noble to our view than Arthur. Scathed but triumphant, Alfred the Great emerges from the gloom around the ashes of the fires he quenched, a living power even now, although he has become hardly human in the halo with which poetry and romance have invested him. His victory of Ethandune (now Eddington, in Berks?), gained in 878, seems to have been one of those decisive actions that affect the future even more than the period in which they occur. His important victory at Ashdown, seven years earlier, is, at least by popular tradition, still commemorated in a curious monument that, though of questioned origin, is one of the attractive objects in the southern counties. It is the figure of a running horse, 374 feet long, cut through the turf so as to show the underlying chalk close to the top of a high hill in Berkshire. Mr. Hughes has agreeably described its signifi- cance and preservation in his " Scouring of the White Horse," as a performance that he saw is called. Alfred, the sixth king of all England, was the Charlemagne in the remarkable succession of sovereigns who have ruled through almost eleven hundred years. The day of the glories of their country, since grown so brilliant, was only dawning in his time, and gave slight evidence of its full noontide splendor that we see. The rising sun of England, when he saw it, reddened in the smoke of battle, cast its rays athwart the tree-tops of the forest ; and but slightly warmed to grow- THE SAXON AETS. 55 ing life the land beneath. His fortitude and wisdom opened way to clearer light for peaceful labors there ; and more than thirty generations have been constantly improving by them. Well may the English race look back to him with a loving veneration. The reigns of the sixteen kings who followed Alfred, ex- tending through one hundred and sixty-five years, and filled by the vicissitudes of the slow development of the country, can be but briefly mentioned ; for the future is crowded with interest. At the end of these years a new and peculiarly important period began. The search for visible memorials of six hundred years of British history, from the departure of the Romans to the com- ing of the Normans, will lead now to few unquestioned objects ; and those generally will prove small, or mixed with works of other times, or interesting to few others than the careful archae- ologist. The arts and means, or lack of them, among the Saxons and Angles could leave little that is monumental. Even their most skilful work, the illuminations on their man- uscripts, must often be received with care as evidence of what they were or what they made. Their manners were so rude that they required only the simplest structures for domestic use. They chiefly built of wood, or mud and thatch. Their houses frequently had but one room, and seldom more than two rooms ; and even churches sometimes were almost as fragile. Military architecture also seems to have been simple. Possibly no castle that they built remains ; for Bamborough and Coningsburgh, the two once thought to have been made by them, are now thought to be Norman. In the latter portion of this period they sometimes built with stone, especially when they erected churches ; and in parts of these still spared, found chiefly in retired places, must be sought the small and scattered evi- dence of their imperfect art. Even this shows few objects such as might be looked for as memorials of a population that held England through so many centuries. The tower of EarVs Barton church, Northamptonshire, is usually mentioned as the chief example of what may be called the Saxon style. . Its features are remarkable. The quoins, of cut stone, are alter- 56 ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. nately laid flat and on one end ; and flat strips of stone projecting slightly from the surface of the wall run perpen- dicularly nearly to its top, relieved by angular offsets ; besides which, herring-bone work varies the masonry. The belfry has on each side half a dozen short, stout, baluster-like pillars that might almost have suggested some upon Jacobean cabinets, and the door is low and round-arched. These features do not seem to have been thoroughly developed, and deserve attention in designs for moderately ornamented brick-work. The periods when the Saxons and Angles were predominant in England, and the Danes secured great power there, were not times when the arts could flourish, or that, as has been ob- served, produced enduring material monuments. Like far greater periods that have transformed the structure of the world, they were those of preparation, showing, when ended, that, from the flood and fire and agitation, a superior place for man had been formed. No cathedral, wall, or castle, of im- portance, now dates from them. We grope through their dimness ; but we find that then an English people had been gathered and established in its home, and that the deep founda- tions of their character and power had then been laid. What greater monument could rise from all the struggles of these six centuries ? THE NORMAN PERIOD. 57 THE NORMAN PERIOD. The Normans, though originally a part of the powerful northern race of which tribes had established permanent homes throughout England, had a long training before they came there irresistibly in force, as they did in 1066. From the beginning of the ninth century they had, in independent bodies, invaded the shores of the continent, from northern France to Sicily, and in various places had secured lands and become settled people. In Northwestern France a very power- ful body had obtained possession of extensive territory, and were established for several generations. They increased in 1 Early historians of the Norman Period whose works are published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, and the editors, are : — Bartholomew de Cotton, Monk of Norwich, Historia Anglicana, 449-1298. H. R. Luard, 1859. Giraldus Cambrensis, 7 vols. Brewer and Dimock, 18G1-1877. Eadtner of Canterbury, Hist. Novorum in Anglia. 18S4. Henry of Huntington, Hist, of the English, a. c. 55 to a. d. 1154. 1S79. Roger of Hoveden, to 1201. W. Stubbs, 4 vols., 1868-1871. William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontifieum Anglorum, lib. v., to time of his writing, 1123. From ancient MS., by Hamilton, 1870. Several historians of monasteries also aid : — Chronicle of Evesham, 690-1418. W. D. Macray, 1863. Hist. Mon. St. Petri Gloucestria?, 681-1377, 3 vols. 1863-1867. Annales Monastici (several), 1-1432, 5 vols. Symeon of Durham, Hist. Ecc. Dunhelmensis. Arnold, 1882. See also Benedictus Petroburgensis (Henry II. and Richard I.), Hearne'sed., 1735; William of Newborough, to 1198, Eng. Hist. Soc, 2 vols., 1856; Gesta Stephani Regis Anglorum, etc., Sewell do., 1846 ; Florence of Worcester, Chroni- con ex Chronicis to 1118, and continuation to 1141, do. and Bonn's ed. ; Domesday Book, published by the Com. Public Records, 2 vols., 1783-1816, and under direc- tion of Sir H. James, Ord. Survey, in photozincography, 2 vols., large 4°, 1861- 1863, for £18. Also Hume's Hist. Eng., and Creasy's Battles (used as authorities here, on p. 58, etc.). Modern special works : — Thierry, F. Histoire de la Conquete de l'Angleterre par lesNormands [1066- 1485], 2d ed., 4 vols., 8°, Paris, 1826 (in English, sundry editions) ; Freeman, E. A., History of the Norman Conquest of England, its Causes and Results, 4 vols., 8°, Oxford, 1867-1871 ; Palgrave, F., History of Normandy and England, 4 vols., 8°, London, 1851-1864 (see vols. iii. and iv.) ; Houard, M., Traite's sur les Coutumes Anglo-Normandes, qui ont ete publie'es en Angleterre (llth-14th centuries), 4 vols., 4°, Paris, 1776. 58 THE NOEMAN CONQUEST. numbers, strength, and skill, in arts of peace as well as war •, but meanwhile they retained their character and force, — both terrible when exercised. Their leaders were most formidable dukes ; and their possessions were the Duchy of Normandy, named from them. It contained good lands, a noble river, and long coasts ; and lay beside a region settled in part at least by fugitives from war-scourged Britain, and for this reason called Brittany. In 1060, Duke William ruled not only both of these important parts of France, but as far as Touraine east of them, and was the most powerful noble in that country. His birthplace, the imposing castle at Falaise, has been described by the writer in the chapter on Normandy in " The Historical Monuments of France " (p. 218), where some- thing of his earlier life has been told. At Caen are still more imposing memorials of his marriage and later years, described in the same book (pp. 213-217). The greatest deeds and their results, that render his career and name important, were in England, and are still strikingly illustrated there by some of the noblest works of Norman art. William is said to have claimed the English crown by provision of the will of Edward the Confessor, who died Jan. 5, 1066 ; but very different opin- ions have been held on the fact or validity of this title. Har- old, Duke of East Anglia and Governor of Essex, the second son of Earl Godwin, who ruled Wessex, Kent, and Sussex, was an ambitious nobleman, and had so prepared the way that on the death of Edward he at once obtained the throne. The wrath of the Duke of Normandy was terrible, and he resolved to assert his claim by an invasion of England. His great re- sources in both men and materials, and — not less than these — his own abilities and wide renown enabled him to obtain an unusually powerful fleet and army (3,000 vessels and 60,000 men), with which without loss he reached Pevensey in Sussex, on the shore of the Channel, where he landed on the 29th of September. Harold had just obtained a signal victory over Norwegian invaders near York, and hastened to meet the Normans. His army was inferior, but on the 14th of October he joined battle with them at Hastings, and at night lay dead upon the field lost utterly by the English. It was the most impor- NORMAN MILITARY ART. 59 tant battle ever fought upon the ancient island ; it closed the invasions that had scourged it for a thousand years ; it changed the future of the country, and began another period of Eng- lish history that has continued for eight centuries. The elements that make the English people had then all reached the English ground, and were from that time to mingle and to grow until they spread their influence throughout the world. This blended population — once Danes, Engles, or Saxons — was at the Conquest but moderately civilized, but little educated in letters and the arts, and rude in manners. Their condition might be likened to that of the soil on which they lived, that then was slightly cultivated, but that was capable of bearing precious and abundant crops, and of investing the land with a rich and peaceful beauty. They were insular, and had been separated from the arts and learning of the continent, that, imperfect as these were, had yet grown far more than in England. These the Normans brought, — some compensation for their stern rule and fierce nature. The Anglo-Saxon laws and institutions, while containing elements of much that has proved valuable to the English people, were susceptible of course of much improvement ; and the Normans, while com- mitting grievous wrongs, helped in the process. Keeping at first distinct from the race that they made their subjects, they in time blended with them ; and the union of the two created a new strength in the one race that they eventually formed. The Normans, like the Romans, from the nature of their occupation of the country, needed strong defensive works to hold it. First, they required large castles at the ports through which they must maintain communications with Normandy. They found three places on the southern coast available. At Pevensey (where William landed), at Portchester, and at Dover, vessels could be' sheltered, and large Roman works could be adapted to their purpose. Then the eastern coast, where foes for centuries had made incursions, must be guarded. Colchester, Bamborough, and other marked strong sites were fortified. The whole interior of the country, and especially the cities, must be watched and overawed. Rochester, London, 60 THE NORMAN PERIOD. Windsor, Norwich, Kenilworth, Richmond, and other places, still show how the Normans realized this important fact, and the huge strongholds they constructed. They introduced in England, or they very much developed there, a formidable and imposing style of military architecture, in which the great feature was the keep. They built as had no other people in the country since the Romans ; they indeed surpassed them by the grandeur of these mighty towers. They rivalled their own works in Normandy, and showed their stern determination to maintain a lasting conquest. The enduring monuments of their strong will, marked character, and skill, are also among the most important evidences of the civil his- tory of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Though often worn or broken, yet still huge and strong, these works rise through the land from Pevensey to Bamborough ; and as time goes by, the contrast of their origin and former use with their existing state will only serve to increase their interest. Pevensey Castle, at the ancient Anderida Portus, is a marked example of the manner in which the invading Nor- mans made the Roman works subservient to their purposes, when they in turn were foreign conquerors of England. The remarkably extensive ruins of the castle stand upon a low, broad, rocky, but now grass-grown knoll, that for a long time was close to the sea, above the level of which it has risen, says tradition. The coast-line has receded here, however, as else- where on the shores of Sussex, and has left an intervening plain almost a mile in breadth, containing some of the best pasturage in England. A grass-grown and nearly level, rounded area of more than nine acres is enclosed by the exterior walls of this great fortress. The walls, now from twenty to twenty-five feet high, rest on piles and were defended by about a dozen bas- tions with rounded fronts, — some of them solid, and several of them still almost entire in bulk. The top and faces of the wall are now much broken, and covered with a dense growth of ivy. While the ground-plan is not of the form common with the Romans, the style of the construction shows their handiwork, or an uncommon imitation of it. Flint-stones bedded in strong mortar, and banded by red Roman bricks, are PEVENSEY CASTLE. 61 used as they are at Richborough. In marked contrast are the walls known to have been built by the Normans for their keep and stronghold that they placed on and around slightly rising ground at the southwestern bend of the exterior works. These walls, towards the area (that their builders made an outer ballium), have a facing of smoothed squared stones and less cohesive, cores. A large part of this evidently Norman portion of the castle is very ruinous, more so than even the outer wall. The fact that coins that date through the reigns of six or seven Roman emperors have been found here is significant. The modes of the offensive and defensive warfare of the builders are less shown here than at Portchester, a similar castle that will be described on the next page, but Pcvensey has numerous and interesting historical associations, as well as picturesque features, and good views are obtained from its walls. Northward lies a wide extent of flat, green meadows, bounded by low swells of pleasant-looking land, a walk to which across the level seems to be easy and attractive, for one of the most picturesque and romantic ruins of a late medieval residence in southern England stands in a green vale in that direction. But the writer tried the route and found a labyrinth of ditches, and he advises, or hopes, that no misguided traveller will follow his example. Southward there is an even wider view over the broad Pcvensey Level, and a long reach of the Channel and its low shores. The conqueror, who landed near here and gained his great victory at Hastings eight miles eastward, " gave this town and castle," says Grose, " to Robert, earl of Morton, in Normandy, his brother by his mother's side, and created him earl of Corn- wall." Robert rebelled, and held the castle against William II., but afterwards made peace with the king. His next suc- cessor also rebelled against the next king, Henry I., but lost the town and castle, that were given to Gilbert de Aquila, and, from the new holder's name, were called " the honor of the eagle." Rebellion seems to have been a normal impulse of the lords of Pevensey, and their disloyal acts were sundry times repeated. The third Gilbert de Aquila forfeited the eagle honor, and it was conferred on other lords, until Henry 62 THE NORMAN PERIOD. III., about 1229, gave it to Prince Edward and his heirs. It, however, in time reverted to the crown, and Henry IV. con- ferred it on the brave and loyal Pelhams. In the reign of this king, Queen Joan (his last wife) and the Duke of York were confined here, as also, for eighteen years, was James I. of Scotland. Besides this distinction as a prison, Pevenscy gained another in warfare, for it withstood a siege of six weeks in the reign of William L, and a long one in the reign of Stephen, in both of which cases famine made the garrison surrender. Portchester Castle stands nearly midway between Ports- mouth and Southampton, on low land beside an inlet of the sea. A road about a mile long leads directly from the station to the village, through it, and beneath some large shade trees up to the portal. This is placed between two rounded towers at the northwestern angle of the huge square structure, that, as already said, resembles Pevensey in plan, except in general shape and its far better preservation. A wall six feet thick and fifteen, or more, feet high, according to different accounts, measures four hundred and forty feet on each internal side, or six hundred and ten feet on the exterior, and encloses a flat, grassy area of upwards of eight acres. At three of the corners is a rounded tower or bastion, and on each of two of the sides are three more, all of them open towards the area. In form, style, and construction they are Roman, built of flint-stones, laid with care in courses, and in very strong cement that was made hot when used. There are narrow bonding courses, most of them of thin slate-stones, but here and there of bright red Eoman bricks. The masonry is superior to most of the Norman rubble work, on which here, as usual in England, smoothed squared facing-stones are used. The Norman keep and the mediaeval buildings that have been connected with it are at an inner corner to the left of the main entrance, and form a group that is the important portion of the castle, measuring sixty-five by one hundred and fifteen feet on the ground. In the centre of the group is an irregularly-shaped and grass-grown courtyard, entered at the outer corner towards the very large main court or ballium. PORTCHESTER CASTLE. 63 At the right, according to designations now given, was the Baron's Hall, and at the left the Banqueting Hall, once hand- somely decorated in Pointed style, as also was a smaller apart- ment beyond it that bears the name of Queen Elizabeth's parlor. At the corner opposite the entrance is the lofty, weather-worn, and unmistakable square Norman keep, with walls ninety feet high, seven feet four inches thick, still faced with their squared stones and crowned by battlements. Like many other towers of its class it is divided internally by a cross wall rising from the bottom to the top, and contained halls of considerable size. The floors and roof remain, and modern stairs lead to the latter, from which there is an interesting and extensive view. In the distance southward is seen Gosport, and far to the right and left of it the low land towards the Channel. Northward is a long, grassy, rather elevated ridge, not far off, that extends abreast of Portsmouth, and displays, in striking contrast with the Roman and mediaeval works, an array of large, red-brick and earthen modern forts, that with the floating iron walls of England guard the important naval station. Portchester in its early days protected a valuable port that has moved miles away, and left it to become a quiet place for picnics, and its ballium a pasture, standing on land that rises very little from the level of the sea and extends a few rods on three sides to shallow water. Still, however, the old defences are indicated, although the mediasval fosse and glacis are de- stroyed. No lordly and commanding crags like those that bear the towers of Coucy and Falaise gave their advantages, but water, seemingly, was much relied on, too shallow for a hostile fleet, too much exposed for boats, too deep for opera- tions by foot-soldiers, while numerous bastions provided points from which cross-fires could be directed. The history of the castle reaches back into an age of fable. Rouse and Stowe say that a great stronghold was founded on its site by Gurguntus, 375 b. c, but the importance of the place probably dates from the Roman period. Tradition says that Vespasian landed here. In turn the Saxons used the fortress, and then the Normans, by whom it was largely de- veloped. Domesday Book records that " William Maldvith 64 THE NORMAN PERIOD. holds Porcestre." He was one of its several lords before 1299, when the castle and adjoining lands were, according to Grose, " settled on Queen Margaret as part of her dower." Various owners afterwards held the estate until, at length, the castle was made a prison, in which more than four thou- sand Frenchmen were confined during 1761, and at other dates Dutch and Spaniards, who made breaches in the walls while attempting to escape. One of the most interesting parts of the castle is at the angle farthest from the keep. It is the low, gray, cross-shaped church of St. Mary, surrounded by a burial-ground enclosed by a low wall. Although the exterior is plain, there is a good Norman door, as well as other Norman decorative work at the west end. Still in good order and good use, as it has been for seven and a half centuries, the edifice is supposed to stand upon the site of an earlier church that supplanted a Roman temple. Indeed, the place seems to have been used for worship since Jupiter was supreme, and throughout the many changes that have occurred in England since the cross has been dominant. Dover Castle 1 was another Roman work adapted by the Normans to their own use, and although its lofty site is in striking contrast with that of Portchester, they are pre-eminently the two grandest castles on the southern English coast. The history of Dover is concentrated in the changes undergone by the short word that, in some form, has been its name for two thousand vcars. It was Dwyr with the ancient Britons, Dubris with the Romans, Dofris in Saxon times, Dovere in Domesday Book, and then for a long while known by its present familiar name. It is a long narrow town bent around a little harbor, chiefly artificial, and the Channel shore, and up a valley that runs inland. Closely behind it are high cliffs or bluffs that eastward rise more than three hundred feet above the water, and bear the extensive walls and area of the castle. Small as the harbor is, it is the haven of one of the Cinque Ports, and shares their historic honors with Sandwich, Romncy, Hythe, i See '* The History of Dover Castle," by the Rev. Wm. Darell, chaplain to Queen Elizabeth ; views, etc., folio, London, 1797. Also " History of Kent," by W. H. Ireland, 4 vols., London, 1829 (vol. ii.). DOVER CASTLE. 65 and Hastings, — but, unlike them, has kept and increased its old importance in communication with France. The castle, when seen in the distance, appears like a mediaeval town built on the crest of a long, commanding hill, which towards the south abruptly ends in precipices towards the sea. Among the many travellers who cross the pier, few probably ascend the tower-crowned height, and yet it is one of the noblest sites in England. A road, that of course is good, leads to it, and certainly should be used, if for no other end than the view that can be gained from the hill on a clear day, in itself a full reward to visitors. Looking southward, the broad Channel can be seen extending far to the right and left, and beyond it a long reach of white French cliffs, rising from pale sands or the sea, and backed by large tracts of rural land. Calais is in full sight, as also is a large part of the coast towards Boulogne. Westward, and deep down, is seen the town, beyond and north of which is a high grassy hill, crowned by a battery. In the latter direction is a broken rural country seamed with hedges, blending with a wide extent of wavy uplands where there are scarcely any hedges, lying eastward. In the foreground is the large open area of the castle, bounded by walls and towers, prominent among which is the shattered Pharos of the Romans. Early in their conquests of Britain they fortified this command- ing place, but with works far less extensive than those now seen, for they were only " about 400 feet in length, and 140 feet in the greatest width," says Ireland. The remains of the Pharos are unusually interesting. It is a tower, octagonal out- side and square on the interior, about 14 feet each way, with walls 10 feet thick in the lower part, and now about 40 feet high. According to the same author, the walls are " built with a stalactical concretion " in blocks measuring 12 by 7 inches, every seven courses of which are separated by two courses of tiles. In 1882 the writer found the top broken, and the sides gray and ragged. The Romans made this lighthouse or watch- tower valuable to commercial intercourse as well as to military operations ; the Saxons preserved it ; the Normans fortified it ; but in recent times the authorities disposed of the leaden cover- ing, — " thus," adds Ireland, " leaving one of the first specimens 5 66 DOVER CASTLE. of Roman architecture in this island to moulder away." Yet certain of the English criticise their neighbors who retop and point their ancient works, and modestly talk about the historical shams of France. The present walls of the castle, built chiefly during the cen- turies immediately after the conquest, enclose an area of thirty- five acres, six of which are occupied by old structures. Most of the outer defensive works are now much impaired, and many of the buildings are covered with rough-cast, making them dark, plain, and common-place or ugly. But the Norman keep is grand. In form and color it suggests the White Tower at London, which it resembles in iron strength, with its walls rising nearly a hundred feet, tinted by greenish lichens, or growing gray where sandstone, once a buff, forms quoins or other marked details, but still showing an indomitable body of small stones with seams set thick with flints. As usual the keep contains large oblong rooms with rude walls, the chief of them being a lofty hall covered by a wagon-vault of red bricks, built during the wars with Napoleon I. The interior is now used as an armory, or for storage. Another interesting struc- ture is the very early plain cruciform church, built of gray stone, except where the central tower is capped with red bricks. On the south side the tower is broken, but the rest of the exterior is in good repair, having been recently restored. For- merly the interior was obstructed with rubbish and devoted to storage or other pious uses, but of late it has been cleaned, and also restored. It is plain, rather large, and marked by a curious lack of right angles, long straight lines, or perpendiculars. There are two tall, simple, round-headed arches built of thin bricks, that have a very Roman look ; and a small window, with quoins of sandstone in the western front, is said to be Saxon. The building stands within the lines of the Roman works, but it is difficult to determine how much dates from their time. Lucius, a nominal king, is said to have erected the church towards the end of the second century, but whatever the age may be it is certainly very great. Upon the primitive style, various bits of design in Pointed have been grafted, and changes, as many as three in the form of the roof, have been made. DOVER CASTLE. 67 There are, indeed, sufficient indications that the church is one of the oldest existing in England, older, it may be, than the Basse (Euvre at Beauvais, so notable as an early French church. History and tradition tell so much of Dover Castle, that it has become associated with both throughout the Christian era, and details of them must be sought in special works, while only a slight sketch of them can be given here. About twenty years after the departure of the Romans, King Arthur, it is said, enlarged the castle ; perhaps after Horsa, the brother of Hen- gist, had held it, as stated by Darell. The kings of Kent seem to have used the place to strengthen their hold on the country, while peace and religion were helped by a college con- secrated by St. Augustine. Some of the great names connected with "the making of England" are thus associated with Dover. After it had been important for a long time, Earl Godwin, father of Harold, the last of the Saxon kings, was the commandant, and was succeeded by his son Toston. William the Conqueror promptly marched hither from the field of Hastings, and the castle was soon surrendered to him. He strengthened it, and made use of it for two necessary purposes, — a hospital, and a post of communication, while he advanced to London. After his coronation and a subsequent return to France, he was obliged to remove Odo, whom he had put in command at Dover, and give the place to John de Fiennes, a relative, who built a wall to connect the towers of the castle, that seem to have been previously separated. Various works, of which many have been destroyed, or are represented by names, were built by several officers under William I. Clopton Tower and the Constable's were built by Fiennes ; Gatton and Peverell's by William Peverell ; Magminot's, Crevequer's, Ar- sick's, Hirst's, and Porth's, were so called from the knights who built them. Other towers, Fitzwilliam's, Averanche's, Veville's, and the Ashford group on the east side, were also Norman. The whole number of towers along the outer line of fortifications is about twenty, and there are several more upon the inner line. The keep, erected by Henry II., stands in an area enclosed by the latter, and was reached by a circuitous route that was defensible at many points. Among other works 68 THE NORMAN PERIOD. that were important were two sally-ports under ground, and several wells, one of which, in the keep, was 250 feet deep. The mighty castle thus associated with great names of the Normans, and with the firm establishment of their power in England, continued for centuries to be a stronghold, and was also an independent seat of judicature. Sovereigns often visited it, but it underwent no sieges. In the night of August 1, 1642, it was, however, taken by surprise, by Drake and a dozen strong partisans of the Parliament, who scaled the cliff towards the sea, secured the sentinel, and opened the gates to a force that soon held the place. As early as 1406 the works required much restoration, says Grose, that was then made, and that was repeated in the reigns of Edward IV. and Queen Elizabeth. According to the practice in the last century, the castle was allowed to become ruinous ; but during the wars with Napoleon I. it was again made defensible, chiefly to become a military prison, where many thousand men, most of whom were French, were at different times confined. Although, when seen from a distance, it is an unusually imposing medi- aeval work, and really embraces a great deal of illustrative value, both in history and military art, and stands on a very noble site, its condition is still a subject for national attention. It is now too much a monument of inappreciative neglect, and possibly the saving care that has been, in the main, well shown at Blois and Carcassonne may yet be given to the gray, regal walls of Dover. Upon the north side of the Thames an extensive marsh formed a defence from invasion on a portion of the coast of Essex, the shores of which for some distance farther had no good points for landing. But at length a large inlet of the German Ocean penetrated the country and presented a tempt- ing place, commanded at its inner end, however, by elevated ground of strategic importance, seen and well used probably by the Romans, and certainly by the Normans. The Britons built there a large town, Caer Colun, replaced, it is thought, by the Roman Camalodmium, the walls of which are described on page 44. The Saxons in turn occupied the place, and called COLCHESTER CASTLE. 69 it Colne-ceaster, and after severe vicissitudes the Normans took it and built the remarkable castle now known as that of Colchester. Colchester Castle ! is now a ruin that consists chiefly of the lower portion of a keep 2 not only the largest in England, but among the works of Norman military art. It was twice as large as the more widely-known White Tower at London, and three times as large as the donjon at Falaise, where William I. was born, one of the grandest of the few Norman castles spared in France. It dates, very probably, from between 1080 and 1085, and was the chief feature of a royal castle in a royal town. Measuring more than 160 by 126 feet on the ground, and once of proportionate height, at least 100 feet, it still rises high and strong, although probably deprived of two upper stories. The enormous walls near their base slope boldly out- ward to increase their strength, which in the upper parts is secured by flat buttresses, common features of a Norman keep, here more than eight feet wide. At each northern angle is a square tower ; at the southwestern there is one larger, and flattened, containing a broad winding stair ; and at the south- eastern, an immense semi-circular projection that forms the apse of the chapel, which, it will be noticed, is thus placed east and west according to ancient usage. The walls, of enormous thickness, are composed of miscellaneous materials. Sundry 1 See " The History and Antiquities of Colchester Castle," Colchester, 1882. 2 Comparative sizes of square Norman keeps : — Castle. Authority. Area in feet. Square feet. Built. Colchester . . Britton 166 by 126 1080-85 w Jenkins 168 " 126 21,168 u Buckler 1521 " 111J 17,005 Dover Ireland 123 " 103 London . Bayley 116 " 96 11,136 1080-81 Norwich . 100 " 93 9,300 Kenilworth Britton 105 " 80 Canterbury 90 " 83 7,470 Rochester 75 " 72 5,400 12th cent. Castle Rising Britton 75 " 64 4,800 Bamborough King 64 " 58 fc( do. plan 73 " 65 Wind sor (round), irregular diameter about 100 feet. Norman Keeps in France. Coucy (N ■ E. France), round, diameter 108, height 189 feet. F xla ise , Normandy ; Hurel, 87 by 68 ; area, 5916 feet 70 THE NORMAN PERIOD. kinds of hard stones are used for most of the facings, and are now weather-marked, and like parts from which they have been stripped, suggest worn, grayish cliffs of coarse conglomerate. There are also what are called cement-stones, brought from Harwich, and red tiles, made by the Romans or their more immediate successors, that are laid not only in the usual style of Roman bonding courses, but also in small masses. Of course the mortar, which is good, is Norman. A large round-headed arch with toothed and moulded deco- ration opens to the vast interior. The northern two thirds of this was occupied by three oblong apartments, the western one of which was 94 by 39 feet, the central 85 by 16 feet, and the eastern 88 by 22 feet. A single little door led from one to the other. On the floor above there were similar apartments about 16 feet in height, used for the garrison, and along the southern side was a large chamber communicating with the great wind- ing stair, and abutting on the west end of a cavernous and massive crypt, now a museum but originally the support of the chapel that has disappeared. The crypt is vaulted, and has windows placed in deep recesses, but no ornaments. It is dis- tinctly Norman in form and orientation ; if the Romans had built its arches they would have turned them with more accuracy. There has been some animated writing on the origin of this remarkable stronghold, and it has been claimed that it was once a Roman temple. But all parts at Colchester, especially the crypt, so strikingly resemble corresponding parts in the great keeps at London and Falaise, the most distinguished works of Norman military art and power combined in England and in France, that the mute stones are evidences of their origin. Interpretations of the early chronicles do not agree, but it seems to be determined that this keep, defended by extensive outworks, that have disappeared, was built before the thirtieth year that followed the invasion of the Normans, and was made to be a seat of royal power. Feudalism produced for the maintenance of its rule no other tower of so enormous size. The mighty keep at Coucy, unsurpassed in France, although of twice the height, had hardly half the area. It had grander outworks, and a more imposing site, and must be seen COLCHESTER CASTLE. 71 by every one who would obtain a full conception of the strength and magnificence of mediaeval military art, but that conception will not be completely realized until one has also seen the giant of the Middle Ages, bowed by war, and worn by time, but still predominant, in this plain, quiet, town of Essex. The history of the castle represents the fortunes of an ancient English stronghold that has long since ceased to be of strategic importance. While the Normans ruled, it was in various ways distinguished. Keepers, or constables, held it many years for the king. Some, at least, of them oppressed the people, and, as was said to have been done in other places, filled the castle " with devils and evil men." In 1215, Stephen Harengoot, who seems to have been a German mercenary, was the royal constable. He made great preparations for a siege by the associated barons who opposed the king, and who on June 15 obtained the Magna Charta, signed near the still more famous keep at Windsor. They had sought and ob- tained French help in their resistance, and were enabled in November to establish in Colchester Castle a detachment from a large force that reached Suffolk. Thus the baronial party soon changed here from the offensive to defensive ; for John, as soon as possible, tried to retake his stronghold. It was a strange sight when an English fortress was held under a French flag by Frenchmen, in defence of English liberties. But these allies did not prove good substitutes for trusty natives, as they made their terms with John, March 24, 1216, and left their English hosts to feel his vengeance. In the changes of this troubled period, once more however, — yet only for a brief time — " the lilies of France floated from the towers of the ancient citadel, quivering like stars on the azure banner, as it melted into the azure sky." When finally they departed, very different masters came, and William, Bishop of London, held Colchester for King Henry III., then ten years old. " The long catalogue of constables," says an historian of the castle, " becomes invested with a very real meaning when we discover that these changes reflect in miniature those struggles which convulsed the realm from the days of Stephen [1135- 1154] to those of the second Charles " (1660). Such civil 72 COLCHESTER. discord was frequent in the thirteenth century, and the castle was associated with it, but towards the latter portion of the time became of less military importance, when the necessities for guarding conquered territory were succeeded by more politi- cal considerations. At length, in Mary's reign, Colchester, that was stoutly Protestant, became a scene of martyrdom. Dungeons we may explore confined the victims ; and the walls that now glow in the peaceful sunshine reddened with the glare of fires that burned them. When Elizabeth was queen, more quiet times ensued, varied in 1596, however, by a rebellion of a few supporters of the Roman Church that caused some dis- turbance. About 1629 the castle became alienated from the crown, and when the civil war was waged, the Parliament made the old keep one of its prisons. The people of the town had " generally espoused its cause," but " finding that they needed to restrain its inordinate power, they formed an alliance with the royalists," and thus, in 1648, incurred a siege conducted by General Fairfax. " After a close blockade for eleven weeks, during which period " the town was " gallantly defended, . . . the garrison, reduced to the extremity of want and suffering, surrendered to " him. Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, commanders, who had been " condemned but not convicted," were shot beneath the walls that they had held with valor, — " in cold blood barbarovsly mvrdered " (as their tombstone states) " for the Laws and Liberties of England." The castle soon became " a mere county jail," where Episcopalians and Quakers learned how some people held the teaching of peace and good-will to men. In 1683, John Wheely bought the castle, and agreed to demolish it and sell its materials. He added serious destruction to previous dilapidation ; but the strong masonry still seen resisted him so stoutly that he happily de- sisted. In the succeeding century Mr. Charles Gray for more than fifty years owned and protected the grand ruin, and its preservation is due to his efforts. It continues to be private property, now held " through a descent of seven generations ; " and since 1855 the crypt, or chapel, has been used for a mu- seum, and the " record room " for a collection of important documents. Oh w W td x H < U £> u O ':"-i ' ;, ., : 1; - ■■ , ■ *I~, : «. THE TOWER OF LONDON. 73 Norwich, east of north of Colchester, and an important in- land place in the territory of the old kingdom of East Anglia, was at an early date secured and fortified by the Normans. The enormous keep that they built still overlooks the city, environing the hill on which it stands. It is perhaps more decorated than any other in the country, and is well preserved, for it has been in some degree restored. It is one of the old- est large historical monuments of England that has received this attention, and the first restored work described upon these pages. Early outworks of walls and ditches, " that enclosed an area of twenty-three acres," have almost disappeared ; but the keep has been spared, — for everyday uses quite as much, possibly, as for its value in art or history. Royal keepers, prominent among whom were the Bigods, held the castle for a long time, and made it a stronghold of the Norman govern- ment. It was, however, plundered by the barons in 1266, and soon after the beginning of the next century was made a prison. This use of it, after an interval, was many years ago resumed, and is still continued. The interest of the keep is now chiefly on the exterior, which is very imposing; but to realize what these mighty structures really were in England, it is necessary to examine the famous symbol and proof of Norman power erected by the Norman kings at the sea-en- trance to their capital. THE EOYAL CASTLES. The Tower op London, 1 the huge keep that by its vastness and predominance gives name to the extensive fortress on the Thames, is not only an example of the most ancient strong- holds of the realm, but also of the changes in the times and military arts by which a Norman donjon became surrounded by successive works. In character and history it is unique, and its preservation is exceptional. Associations with the trag- edies and triumphs of the country, like the flint-stones of its 1 See Bayley, J., History and Antiquities of the Tower, with Memoirs, etc., plates, 2 vols., 4°, London, 1821 ; Wm. R. Dick, Inscriptions and Devices [about 100] in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London, plates, 4°, 1853; Vetusta Monumenta, vol. iv. text, and plates 39-52. 74 THE TOWER OP LONDON. walls, have been built enduringly into its vast recording form, until it has become a monumental chronicle of England since the Conquest, — not only telling of the times of Norman and Angevine kings, but clearly connecting them with our own, and opening the historic vista through the long intervening ages. Its site, near the head of the navigable part of the river, is one that the Romans may naturally have used. In the Saxon period it may not have been important ; but William I. saw its value, and some time during the last nine ^iears of his reign (1078-1087) co'mmanded that the keep called the White Tower should be built. For that purpose a great architect was needed and employed ; and he was found occupying an office in which military genius would not now be sought, but which in mediaeval times could furnish it. He was Gundulph, who had been " a monk in the abbey of Bee, in Normandy," and then was Bishop of Rochester. His work was very thorough. Not only did the Tower guard the approach to London from the sea, but it also kept watch over that sometimes free-minded city, and in a few years became a place of confinement for prisoners of state. Stephen, in 1140, made it, perhaps for the first time, a royal residence : but the former use has always much more characterized it. Although in the troubles of the following centuries it was often a scene of warlike stir, the Tower has suffered less in military operations than might be supposed from its position. Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, who ruled Eng- land after Richard I. departed for the Holy Land, was besieged here by Prince John and the confederate barons who opposed the chancellor's tyranny, and was compelled to give it up. When John was king, he often kept his court here. Before the signing of the Magna Charta, in 1215, the barons tried in vain to take the royal stronghold ; but after that event, the Archbishop of Canterbury held it two months as security for the fulfilment of the compact. At the time the French came over to help the barons, they held the Tower, and " did many excessive outrages in spoiling and robbing the people of the country, without pity or mercy." The next king, Henry III., repaired, enlarged, and decorated the castle, and often lived in THE TOWER OF LONDON. 75 it. He even attempted, in 1236, to hold Parliament here, and twenty-three years later narrowly escaped from being besieged here by the barons when he was deemed incapable of reigning. The barons held the Tower for some time afterwards, until 1265, when Henry was restored to his full rank. The next king, Edward I., enlarged the fortress, and among other uses, made it, in 1278, the prison of six hundred Jews seized on the charge of clipping coin. His wars with Wales and Scotland also furnished many other captives ; but in his reign and the next, that of Edward II., the royal occupation was not frequent. In 1330, towards the close of the rebellion that resulted in the murder of the latter, Mortimer the traitor was hung at the Tower. The victories in France and in Scotland gained by Edward III. made it much more noted for the number and importance of the prisoners it contained. In 1317, King David Bruce of Scotland began his captivity of eleven years. King John of France and his son Philip were committed in 1359, but were freed in the next year. The troubled reign of Rich- ard II. (1377-1399) was intimately associated with the place, from his coronation until his body lay here on the way to burial at Langley. During the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V., or until 1422, the Tower was chiefly used and noted as a prison. Later, in 1450, during the insurrection of Jack Cade, it was a refuge of some persons of distinction. Greater- interest was associated with it during the long conflict of the house of York and that of Lancaster. Upon the day when Edward, leader of the former party, was crowned Edward IV., in 1461, he here " made thirty-two new knights of the Bath." This brilliant scene was soon succeeded by the imprisonment, the arbitrary trial, and the execution of the Earl of Oxford and other great Lancastrians. Henry VI., their head, was kept a captive in the Tower from 1465 to 1471, when he died here by causes still uncertain. He was at liberty a short time meanwhile, and appeared as king, but soon returned to his imprisonment when the Earl of Warwick (the " king-maker "), his supporter, was, with many of his party, killed at Barnet. This important battle, followed by the victory at Tewkesbury, established Edward on the throne and crushed the house of 76 THE TOWER OF LONDON. Lancaster. The brother of the king, the Duke of Clarence, who had taken part against him, was, in 1478, committed to the Tower, and there, as we are told, on being allowed to choose a mode of execution, was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. In 1483 is said to have occurred one of the most memorable of the many tragedies of which the ancient prison has been the scene. King Edward V., who on April 9 became king, when only fourteen years old, was made a prisoner, Avith his brother the Duke of York. On the following 26th of June, Richard, brother of Edward IV., — " Protector" of the children and of England, — seized the throne ; and soon afterwards the myste- rious death of the princes occurred. The chronicles of the tower throughout this period can be read on the pages of Stow and Grafton, Holinshed and Hall, and many other writers, but we turn instinctively to an imagi- native yet most graphic author, who, as no one else could, recreated the departed past and makes it live before us; for while we try to recall history wo find that we are apt to have more in mind the drama pf old England told by poetic genius ; we think chiefly of William Shakspeare. The long succession of remarkable events in national and personal history associated with the Tower increased in interest and variety during the ensuing years, presenting all the wide diversities of human life. Jane Shore was held a captive and was then discharged to live " begging of many that but for her would have been beggars." Henry VII., in 1487, received with great state his queen, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and " kept open household and frank resort for all the court." Seven years later he sacrificed one of his strongest friends when Sir William Stanley came to trial and death. Another prisoner was Perkin Warbeck, the pretender, held here before his execution at Tyburn. The king often lived here, and his queen died here in 1503. His son, Henry VIII., made the Tower the scene of many events in his unique matrimonial career. Catherine of Arragon was surrounded with courtly splendor, and went through the gray gates in a gorgeous pageant to their coronation at Westminster. In May, 1533, before her death, the king, with still greater pomp, led her THE TOWER OF LONDON. 77 successor, Anne Boleyn, to the same ceremony at the Abbey ; and only three years later this second queen was a captive, was tried by the royal will, and then executed near the chapel. Three more years passed by and Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a great advocate of the suppression of the monasteries, felt the royal vengeance and ingratitude, that styled him a heretic and traitor, and sent him to the block upon Tower Hill. In less than six years after Anne Boleyn was executed, Henry's fourth queen, Catherine Howard, at the age of twenty met the same fate in the same place. The bereaved and saintly head of the church had other trials. His position was not fully acknowl- edged by all men, and his conclusive logic was used to dis- cipline them. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, at the age of eighty was made a prisoner, as also for thirteen months was the illustrious Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who was condemned without due evidence, and beheaded on Tower Hill, June 6, 1535. His parting with his daughter Margaret was one of the most touching well-known events that have saddened and ennobled the old walls. The changes in religious thought before the Reformation occasioned the imprisonment and sufferings of many persons in the Tower, but the return to the old order of things that followed the accession of Queen Mary, in 1553, sent numerous victims to it, among whom were several of the most distin- guished English martyrs. The long list of those in England who, through the sixteenth century, were tormented, beggared, or executed, is appalling, not only because it is long, but even more because it is familiar. Yet when the record of the country is judged by the character, beliefs, and acts of the age, and the extreme official violence that prevailed, especially upon the continent, both the English laws and people should not, in justice, receive a harsh verdict. Mary's title to the throne was disputed, and the beautiful great-granddaughter of Henry VII., the almost venerated Lady Jane Grey, was made a rival by partisans, and became a victim of their ambition as well as of Mary's vengeance or necessi- ties. She was executed on the Green ; and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, was beheaded on Tower Hill. The queen's 78 THE TOWER OF LONDON. marriage to Philip II. of Spain was thought to be so dangerous to the country that Sir Thomas Wyatt led a rebellion, that resulted in leaving many of his adherents captives in the Tower. The most illustrious political prisoner during this reign was, however, the Princess Elizabeth. Devotion to re- ligious principles soon afterwards filled the grim dungeons with martyrs of the Reformation, among whom were Bishops Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, immediately before their death by fire at Oxford. Yet Mary from time to time held court here, notwithstanding the dismal experiences of many of her subjects around her. At length her reign of terror ended, and the night was past. The sunshine of November 17, 1558, shone on the accession of Elizabeth, and ushered in one of the most glorious reigns of modern times. She naturally never made her former prison a residence, and with Mary's departure it had ceased to be a royal home, for the Stuarts seldom occupied it. Charles II., in accordance with the ancient custom then for the last time observed, went in unusual splendor from it to be crowned at Westminster. With him, on that day, the twenty-third of April, 1661, the pomp of royalty left the Tower. It was, however, used meanwhile for distinguished prisoners. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, a victim of enemies ; Sir Walter Raleigh, famous in early American history ; the great Earl of Strafford, and the aged Archbishop Laud were captives, and all of them were beheaded here. Cromwell filled the place with royalists, and to it Charles II. in his turn consigned regicides. The immortal seven bishops were committed by James II., and the Duke of Monmouth was the last eminent unfortunate who forfeited life here for claiming the crown. The prison that had held victims of all the rebellions, civil wars, and persecutions since the days of William I., at length held among its latest captives one who well deserved a dun- geon, and whose committal made the tower, at least then, a place of justice. He was Judge Jeffries. The last executions on Tower Hill were in 1746, when Lord Balmerino and Lord Lovat were beheaded for aiding the last pretender to the crown. Prince Charles Edward. BEAUCHAMP TOWER, EAST VIEW ■■•" V— ' *' " '■ " "' K — ! "< itS ■ '' u ■■■(S9" |PfT i 5 v /.'.".\ ■V#4R%V' W ' : • » ; ; . " '"V BEAUCHAMP TOWfcR ■'■I AS RE.? I THE TOWER OP LONDON. 79 The Tower, while it has been a citadel of the monarchy for eight centuries, has happily been the scene of few great active military operations. It has been rather a reserve of strength, a proof of the royal will and power, a monument of the vicissi- tudes of sovereigns as well as of subjects, and of the vast changes and improvements in social and political life since the terrible rule of the Normans. As an example of mediaeval military art it has few rivals ; as a memorial of a nation's growth and history it may perhaps truly be called unique among the works of modern civic architecture. Yet it was for a long time valued only as a storehouse, if we may judge by the treatment it received. Portions of it of great interest in art as well as in associations with distinguished English men and women were mutilated. Incongruous buildings and excres- cences were added, and the noble effect of the grand structure dismally impaired. Intelligent appreciation of it has, however, in recent years, caused the removal of some of the deformities, and extensive restorations have been made, but scars enough remain. The Beauchamp Tower, 1 one of the best known and most interesting parts, for instance, had been shamefully abused. A work that should have stood, like one of England's barons of the Magna Charta, venerable, yet still strong, telling how her liberties have been secured, was made to look like a degraded ruffian with a bad hat tilted over his black eye. Purists may call restoration on the exterior historic sham, but others can well think that it was only tardy, needed justice. The neces- sary work goes on, and will in time make the east sides of the fortress and its river-front seen as they should be. More care has been bestowed upon the other sides, and they will now much more reward attention. Visitors who come down the gentle open slope of Tower Hill, or from the busy streets along the river, see the pale gray, vast, but low-looking fortress rising near the river, and girt 1 The views given of this tower before and after restoration are from Mr. Dick's quarto, which, dedicated as it is to Lord Combermere, Constable of the Tower, is good authority. A reference to the illustrations of the greatest changes at Carcassonne, given at page 24 of the writer's "Historical Monuments of France," will show that at least as great change has been made in this important English monument. 80 THE TOWER OF LONDON. with a deep dry moat. The extent is so great that the height is not at first realized. A great five-sided area is enclosed by walls of often blackened broken flints relieved by lighter- colored quoins and battlements, and* varied in outline by rounded towers. Trees grow in some places, and, with their cheerful green, soften the grim austerity of the masonry. Above all other objects, near the centre, rises a square keep, with turrets at each corner, dark and severe, like an immortal giant in repose, the famous White Tower. In the following description, references are made by letters to an annexed illustration, and to the note. 1 After passing the outer works at the landward entrance (A), now altered, a stone bridge is reached, leading to a deep archway (through B), from the inner side of which a street extends eastward. On the left of the latter are the main southern walls of the fortress, dating from near 1087, and along it on the right is an embat- tled structure pierced by a much larger archway, into which boats could come from the river. This is the Traitors' Gate (II), named thus because prisoners of state were usually brought through it. Opposite to it is the largest tower except the keep, the huge Record Tower (W), more than fifty feet in diameter, in which the archives of the kingdom were kept dur- ing several centuries, and from which they were removed to the new Record Office. Adjoining it is the Bloody Tower (X), " 34 feet long and 15 feet wide," covering the main portal, and said to date from the reign of Edward III. (1327-77), when many changes were made in the castle. A portcullis and an extremely heavy door, studded with iron, show some of the details of the early defensive work. Ornament would hardly 1 A drawing made in 1681-89 by order of Lord Dartmouth, engraved in the " Vetusta Monumenta " (Soc. of Ant. London ; imp. folio), iv. pi. 39, and here repro- duced in smaller size, not only shows the tower at that date, but serves as a map and view of many prominent features still in existence. A is Martin's, or outer entrance-tower, B is By-Ward, or second entrance-tower. X is Bloody Tower, with portal to the inner court. H is Traitors' Tower and Gate, witli channel to the river. L (at left side) is Beauchamp Tower, a (in centre) is the White Tower. T (right corner), Salt Tower. These parts, the broad ditch, and most of the outer walls and towers shown, now remain. Most of the gabled buildings on the court have been altered, removed, or replaced. Tower Hill is at the left upper corner. PjLAK toxt. I Ifraw BruLyt •. DJBnuv Mount. ItJUU- ToHtr. E I>welli*ff Tbwcr . L Heeiuehamp Tower. I Will Terwer . __ ILOertrauc Tontr . TSfO/tf Toner O&owj-ers Timer. Y Pride /iwer Q Jewell lower . T\. Constable Timer. SSrvatLdnvw lower. T ■Soit lower. VCoju&orn lower. Wlfcwt/ Tower. Xfif'xtl* Timer. YTtr OUipel. Z fit Mun toutt 1 HEM. OF LOlTlMKy. , (fader of £? DarfrmruiA. 3f a.' Gen J of the 0?'drt^^tee. &The Whitt Tower f\»£ieutenaru\r Zodoin*?s . cXoteer 0vl Stprr hotter . d Upper c?ld Jtvre-heuec. e7ne 6'nat A r e*v Jt&ne-Ae>ure. STne Office of Ae Ortlntince . % Con-fiaMtLr £odguu/.r «tn (heme* on Ike Wham . \\.Mbrtar fieer Jtere-noure- olhtitori JSrid&e iThearurr Hbuee. p -Banbury -Jaede . t. little Sore Mouse in (oU /iariour . <\Bn»erie Quay \ .Vint Janet - * Kyvon kousr OLfliK /*r Ac Jjionr. THE TOWER OF LONDON. 81 be looked for, and there is scarcely any of it except in the ribs of a low vaulting over the entrance. The tradition of the murder of the two young princes, in 1483, lays the scene in an apartment of this tower, but the ill-omened name was given to it some time later. The large irregular area enclosed by the walls is overlooked by portiion of them, or their towers, and by the not very beau- tiful church of St. Peters (Y), by incongruous, long, high barracks, built in modern " Gothic," and above all by the gigantic keep (a). The latter has the chief features of the Norman donjons found in France, and also in England ; but as a royal stronghold it is naturally on a larger scale than the ducal tower at Falaise, and, indeed, surpasses the keep at Lochcs. Since the exterior has been mutilated by additions, incongruous roofs upon the turrets, and large round-headed windows, the original effect must be, to a considerable degree, imagined. The interior has, however, by far the greatest interest. The White Tower (a), 92 feet high, has walls fifteen feet thick above the base, where they are much more massive, and covers an area measuring 96 feet by 116 feet from cast to west. There are three lofty stories, besides the basement, through which a wall seven feet thick reaches to the roof, and divides the interior into two nearly equal portions. At the northeast angle is a large projecting rounded turret containing the main stair, of vise or turnpike form. At the east end of the north- ern side the semicircular apse of the chapel stands out boldly. Against and outside of the southern wall, upon the ground floor, is the Horse Armory (about 150 feet by 34 feet), finished in 1826, in what was called " Gothic " style, and containing a magnificent collection of old arms and armor, the British counterpart of the collections at Vienna, Paris, Madrid, and Turin. Another part of this museum is in the tower itself. The interest and value of the illustrations of past modes of warfare is evident. Greek, Etruscan, ancient British, Celtic, and Saxon weapons are shown here, besides a great variety of mediaeval armor. Some of the oldest of the latter is on a mounted figure representing Edward I. (1272-1307), sugges- 6 82 THE TOWER OF LONDON. tive of the early wars against the Scots, and Bannockburn (1314.) There are several suits that date from the times of the wars with France, and those of York and Lancaster ; in- deed, the series is well shown from early chain-mail, through the varied suits of full-plate armor, to the helmet and cuirass of Charles II.'s time, the most recent articles preserved. Besides English and other European armor, Asiatic is also abundant. Among the numerous curiosities or relics are the axe and block said to have been used at the execution of prisoners of state, and thumbkins and other instruments of torture, most of which, they say, were found in the Spanish Armada in 1588 ; but the collection of the latter sort of articles is insignificant compared with that at Hanover or at Munich. The second floor has greater architectural importance, and contains the chapel, considered the noblest of its kind built by the Normans, but it may be smaller than one that was in the upper or destroyed part of the keep at Colchester. It is a nave, with aisles, and an apse, about 57 feet long, and reaches to the roof. All parts are very massive, and the style is simple to austerity. Divine service was discontinued at a date not now certain, and public records were stored here at least as early as the reign of Charles II. The original character of the place was of course lost, in aspect as well as use. In 1240, Henry III. had repaired and decorated the chapel, and at some period, probably much later, it had been covered with a coat of plaster, recently removed. At present something like the original freshness and effect are apparent, and the massive features and cold gloom are in keeping with the old sternness of the fortress. The arrangement of the upper floor is like that of the one beneath it, but the rooms are larger (for the walls are thinner), and the height is greater. The bare, plain, heavy wooden frame- work, that is fully shown, as in the " Council Chamber," seems to be more appropriate to a garrison than to a court. " In- deed," says Mr. Bayley, " throughout the whole of this majestic edifice, not the slightest appearance remains of there having been any fireplace or well ; nor does there exist any vestige of arras or tapestry, with which, we may presume, that the State J- fv £ k ZKJ-.PEL, TOWEB OF LONDON. . mm& „T; irfi-i H^ilWl» ■.-'"":': " - • F-« Hf . MF «. taa \\ THE TOWER OF LONDON. 83 apartments at least were formerly decorated." The changes that have occurred through several centuries will account for the existing bareness and the lack of furniture, but the more permanent details described by the historian, indicate that comfort was subordinate to strength and durability in the keep. There is none of the magnificence shown in some of the French and German mediaeval castles that have been restored, nor is there any hall with the peculiar grandeur that the upper one at Coucy must have had when it was entire. The Beauchamp Tower (L), already mentioned, is one of the most interesting parts of the fortress. It was built, like a large part of the outer works, at the beginning of the thirteenth cen- tury, and stands nearly midway along the western wall, from the exterior of which its side projects in a semicircle, a form common with the other towers. Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, was probably confined here in 1397, and hence the name. Extensive restorations, outside and inside, have given the tower more of its early character than it had had for a long time. The most remarkable portion of it is a room, on the main floor, of moderate height, and about twenty feet square, from which the two outer corners are cut off. The old embrasures have been filled, and there is now a window on each side. A winding stair leads to the door shown in the illustration, and another door opposite to it communicates with two small cells. This room, with bare stone walls, and once with scanty light, is famous by reason of the number, rank, or character of the prisoners of state who have been kept in it, and for the many curious inscriptions carved by them, chiefly near the middle of the sixteenth century, and still to be seen. The attempt to place Lady Jane Grey upon the throne resulted in the confinement of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and Lord Guildford Dudley, both of whom seem to have left mementos. The supporters of Mary Queen of Scots were more numerous here. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, Arthur and Edmund Pole, Egremond Radclyffe, only son of the Earl of Sussex, and Charles Bailly, a messenger, left their names or other carvings. Near the entrance are the arms of the Peverels, and the name of Marmaduke Nevile, supposed to have been made by mem- "84 THE TOWER OF LONDON. bers of two well-known families. Mr. Bayley tells the long and touching story of these captives, and gives large engravings of their works. Defensive military art of the Middle Ages can be studied at the Tower, although with less advantage than at Carcassonne and other French places. When more excrescences are cleared away and farther restorations have been made, the opportunity will be of course much better, and some of the English can more fairly realize the difficulties encountered by their neigh- bors in similar attempts. While restoration or reconstruction have given parts (the Beauchamp Tower for instance) some of their early aspect, much more is needed and proposed. A wise change, said to have been much desired by Prince Albert, is by degrees now being made, and the use of the buildings for hospitals, barracks, and arsenals, with the attendant incongrui- ties, will be discontinued. Even now, however, there are few other great mediaeval fortresses so complete and clearly illus- trative of the past in peace and war ; none can rival the Tower of London in size or in historical associations, and great praise is due to the wise patriotism that preserves this priceless monument of the English nation. There is another castle that also is so representative of English history, at and since the Conquest, and so national in character that it, like the Tower, should not be described in any limited class of monuments, but as it is, a tout ensemble of almost every feature of the arts and institutions of the country for eight centuries, so far as any structure could express them, and to the details of which it is a noble intro- duction. While the sterner power and the defensive skill of the government are chiefly and clearly shown at the Tower, the stateliest life of peace, guarded indeed, is shown with as much distinctness at Windsor, and on a far grander scale and with incomparably more magnificence and beauty. The ex- treme change in the architecture of the country from that of the Norman keep to that of the modern palace, with all that the change significantly shows, is revealed. The countless stones, each of them in its place, do not need to bear lettered lines to present their record, obvious to all, that England, once WINDSOR CASTLE. 85 the prize of foreign adventurers, has, by wise conservative improvement, grown to be the mistress of an empire owned by millions, even to the gorgeous East whose almost countless people, estimating power as it is shown by the amazing splendor of the art of India, look here to be impressed by the magnifi- cence and dignity of their crowned sovereign. Plain, calm, English strength, and charming English rural beauty everywhere surround the castle, and the times of discord and of terror that caused its huge keep to rise have passed away from it, while a far truer, nobler empress than ever Rome gave Britain lives there secure in the affection and respect of myriads who follow Brahma or Mahomet, as well as the Cross. Windsor Castle ] stands on a commanding ridge above the Thames, twenty-four miles westward from the Tower of London, and, with its three wards or courts, forms an oblong area measuring nearly fifteen hundred feet from east to west, and covering more than twelve acres. Tradition shows, in dreamy indistinctness on this site, poetic visions of the court of Arthur and the early age of chivalry, and history tells us that the spot pleased William I., and that he built and fortified a hunting-seat upon it, " where he held his court in 1070." He also increased the area of the surrounding forest and arranged the parks. The hunting-seat was afterwards made a palace, and Henry I. enlarged it in 1110, and Henry II. held a council in it in 1170. Edward III. was fond of Windsor, where he was born, and rebuilt most of the castle, near the middle of the fourteenth century, leaving " the chief part of the present structure " except as it was changed by the remodelling under Wyatville in the reign of George IV. William of Wickham, the famous architect, and several hundred workmen were employed by Edward. The most beautiful and sumptuous part then built was the collegiate chapel of St. George. 1 Hakewill, Jas., The History of Windsor and its Neighborhood, 4°, plates London, 1813. Ritchie, L., Windsor Castle and its Environs, 2d ed., 8°, plates, London, 1848. Nash, J., Windsor Castle, Views, imp. folio, London, 1852. Wyatville, Sir J. (R. A.), Illustrations of Windsor Castle, text and large plates, atlas folio, London, 1841. Also, Pyne, W. H., Royal Residences, etc., 3 vols., imp. 4°, London, 1819. 86 THE ROYAL CASTLES. Other sovereigns successively made alterations or additions, and, in varying degree of time, resided at the castle. It was strengthened by Charles I., but was seized by the Parliament and held throughout the Civil War. In 104:2 Prince Rupert made an ineffectual attack on it, one of the very few warlike events of which it has been the scene. Charles I., in 1648, l> kept his sorrowful and last Christmas at Windsor," where he was then confined. During the interregnum, and conse- quent disuse of the castle as a palace, it became a prison. The captives held here, if less numerous than those kept in the Tower, were of unusual distinction. The first known was in William II.'s reign, — the Earl of Northumberland, who was confined for thirty years. In 1849, King David II. of Scotland, and several French lords then prisoners were ad- mitted to the tournament and feast given when the Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III. Seven years later the victor at Poitiers took John of France thence to the castle and kept him two years, and in 1357 gave in his honor the most magnificent tournament of the Edwardian period. Richard II. secured here the lord mayor of London, while he put the alder- men in less stately places. James I. of Scotland, captured in 1405. when only eleven years old, was kept much of the time at Windsor until 14:23. He was the " royal poet" of whom Irving wrote, and was treated with deference and was well instructed. " Perhaps in this respect," says Irving, " his imprisonment was an advantage." The pomp and courtesy of chivalry, or the events of courtly life, have for eight centuries shaped the associations that have given a character to Windsor in marked contrast to that of the Tower. It is like a brilliant civil or domestic drama that dis- plays great features of the nation's life, compared with historic counterparts in tragedy. Much of its oldest existing scenery shows the power and genius that could be directed by King Edward III., who arranged some of the most splendid of the early scenes. The institution of the Order of the Garter, the installation of the knights, and pageants that ensued, had a significance and stateliness that made them ceremonies worthy to be ideals of the age of chivalry, and to inaugurate the palace WINDSOR CASTLE. 87 destined to be through the coming centuries the home of British royalty. Edward III. was not only a victorious general and powerful king, but also a magnanimous and courteous knight. His bold, strong spirit was expressed in the two lines on his device — a white swan gorged, or — used in a tournament, " Hay, hay, the white swan ! By God's soul, I am thy man." In 1416, Henry V. magnificently entertained Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, at Windsor, and in St. George's Chapel " put about his neck the royal sign " of knighthood that he afterwards wore " on all public occasions. This compliment to the English nation was the cause of great offence to the French," says Pyne. The Court was frequently at Windsor in the reign of Henry VII., who " greatly improved the castle " and erected many parts of St. George's Chapel, one of the most picturesque buildings, that remains until the present time. Among his guests was Philip of Castile, in 1506. The Emperor Charles V. of Germany was some years later installed a knight of the Garter by Henry YIIL, who, it should be added, continued the improvement of the castle. Possibly the earliest minute account of it extant was written in his reign by Hentzner. Queen Elizabeth was fond of Windsor, where she spent much of her time. She built the unrivalled northern terrace, and is said to have walked on it an hour every day. The liter- ature of the nation, that grew and flourished so remarkably throughout her reign, began to add the charms of its associa- tions to the old historic palace and the adjacent country. Her Majesty herself translated here " Boethius de Consolatione Philosophise," in twelve working days of two hours each. She was the first sovereign who established a stage in the castle for what is now called the legitimate drama, the plays on which were performed by the children of Windsor, St. Paul's, Westminster, and the Chapel Royal. It is thought that Shakspeare, at the queen's command, wrote " The Merry Wives of Windsor," the scenes of which, we know, are laid in the old town and park. When Christian IV. of Denmark was in England, he was entertained by James I. with royal hospitality at the castle. 88 THE ROYAL CASTLES. Charles I., who, like his predecessors, often occupied it, was chiefly distinguished as a captive in his ancestral home, where Cromwell, Ireton, and others " sought the Lord," and called on Parliament to seize him. After the death of Charles I., the patriots in power disposed not only of the furniture and ornaments, but also of the precious works of art that had been gathered in the palaces; and Spain, Sweden, Germany, and France were enabled to acquire great treasures, that the nation with even its subsequent vast wealth has not been able to replace. During the interregnum the castle was much injured, and among other attentions bestowed on it, the political interpreters of Christianity who then ruled defaced St. George's Chapel, and made it a stable. Charles II. repaired and re-embellished the castle, employ- ing Sir John Denhani, and then Sir Christopher Wren, as masters of the works. He also was the patron of Verrio, the Neapolitan, who painted such vast areas of ceilings here and elsewhere in the country, and of Grinling Gibbons, the extraordinary master of wood-carving. " No other sovereign since the illustrious Edward III.," says Mr. Pyne, "had ex- pended so much upon the castle as Charles II." Few changes were subsequently made in it for nearly one hundred and fifty years, and many of the state apartments remain nearly in the style in which they were redecorated during this reign. James II. caused the designs to be completed, but he seldom lived in the castle. It was the scene of one of the memorable events in his time, when, in 1687, he received the Pope's nuncio, with great state, and of another when William III. here " struck the blow which removed him from the throne." William also did not often live at Windsor, but, like his two predecessors, helped to increase the valuable collection of paintings. During the eighteenth century, says Hakewill, "Hampton Court and Kensington were the favorite royal residences." In 1824, George IV. began the restoration, or remodelling, of the castle, " on a scale of magnificence far exceeding its former grandeur," says Mr. Poynter. Jeffry Wyatt, knighted ■". — — 1 -— ;:- ^~J? * " 1 r ■ WINDSOR CASTLE. 89 Sir Jeffry Wyatville, was the architect under whose direction, in the course of a few years, it was given its present form and aspect. The extent and thoroughness of the restoration, or rebuilding, the largest work of the sort in England, is indicated by the amount spent during three years, £388,000, and by the many illustrations in the sumptuous atlas folio l published for the executors of Sir Jeffry. The edifice does not show repro- duction of former designs or imitation of old forms so much as it does a new work in an ancient national style modified ; for it is not a mediaeval castle, but a modern palace built in castellated and civil varieties of the Pointed style, with the old spirit that adapted them to new uses to be served. The result is one of the most appropriate, majestic, and picturesque palaces in the world. It crowns a height with an enormous diadem of battle- mented walls and towers, strong with their pale gray stone, but cheerful with their traceried windows, and rising from a garland of fresh oaks and elms that add their grace to its imperial dignity. Created by the Middle Ages, and with marked features of its origin, it has grown to a stately form that nothing sprung from them and fashioned only by them could have equalled. The castle has at least six chief and peculiar features, — the wards, tho keep, the chapels, the state apartments, the north terrace, and the entrance by the Long Walk. The lower ward, towards the west, the one first entered from the town, has a long irregular area. Across the upper end is a huge mound, upon which rises the circular stone keep, the ground plan of which shows an irregular bent circle about a hundred feet in diameter, increased by a bastion to 125 feet. It is much changed since the Middle Ages. The old rooms have been altered to suit modern uses, and in the reign of George IV. the walls were raised 33 feet, so that the height above the roadway at the base is now 128 feet to the top of the bold battlements. A flag-tower rises 25 feet higher, and a staff, that bears the royal ensign, makes a total height of 203 feet. 2 Parts of two plates from this volume are given here, showing the south iront ot the castle before and after the restoration, or the changes made, the extent of winch is indicated. Other parts had been more disfigured and were more altered. A view of the same front from the farther end of the Long Walk is given at page 94. 90 THE ROYAL CASTLES. The view commanded from the roof of this huge tower is worthy of the regal castle of the nation, reaching as it docs over parts, or all, of twelve counties, from Essex and Oxford into Kent and Wilts. The fair diversity of English dale and hill, green fields and dark luxuriant forests, quiet hamlets, noble seats, the graceful, winding river, the great dome of St. Paul's, and stately Eton, all are seen. Beneath the low roofs near by and the old oaks farther off, the " Merry Wives " whom Shakspeare made talked with John Falstaff. On the other side is the still churchyard of Stoke Pogis, scene of Gray's un- dying " Elegy," and some way beyond, Chalfont St. Giles, where Milton sat in his quaint house composing " Paradise Regained." Towards the east is Richmond Hill, to tell of Thomson's " Seasons." In the vale below is Runnymede, where Magna Charta was obtained. The wide park spread around has seen the four and thirty sovereigns since the day at Hastings, and the castle close below has been their home. Two miles away is where the Saxon kings held court before them. From the prosperous present, thought and fancy lead one through the past, filled with its stirring stories, to the dim and stormy early periods, grown poetic in the vista of the ages, when King Arthur, and the Romans, and mysterious Druids, also knew this same broad scene. The associations of two thousand years of British history and romance are crowded here. The power and beauty of the literature, faith, and art of England make the landscape charming and inspiring. It was not fashioned by the decree of a " Grand Monarch ; " its growth and exquisite completeness mark the increase and the character of a great people animated by a spirit that has kept fresh, and, like the green leaves on their oaks, has renewed itself as the years roll around. St. George's Chapel stands along the northern side of the outer ward. Although it bears the name of chapel, it is larger and much richer than arc several of the cathedrals in Great Britain and in France. It replaces chapels built successively by Henry L, and Henry III., about the middle of the thirteenth century, the last of which was enlarged by Edward III. The present structure was begun by Edward IV. and finished in the WINDSOR CASTLE. 91 reign of Henry VIII., and consequently is in later Pointed style. Repairs and changes were occasionally made before a general restoration in this century. The exterior, brownish in color, and somewhat worn and venerable, is moderately orna- mented, but depends for much of its effect upon the numerous tracericd windows. When seen at a distance, the commanding site makes it imposing. The interior, built throughout of pale, buff-brownish stone, in perfect order, is cruciform, and has an effect of great length, but not of great height. There are elaborate mouldings on the clustered shafts and Tudor arches, and the vaults are intricately ribbed, as they are only in Eng- land, and profusely ornamented with bosses, enriched with gold and vermilion. While all the windows are large and filled with fine Perpendicular tracery, one of them at the west end is exceptionally splendid with ancient colored glass, and has few rivals in the kingdom. The choir, as usual in this country, is enclosed by stalls, that here are very high and of dark oak superbly carved. On staffs placed far above them are the many gorgeous banners of the Knights of the Garter. The contrast between this elegant, resplendent, spacious chapel of the Tudors and the massive, sombre Norman chapel in the Tower of London, is indeed impressive ; for the wide changes in the arts, resources, and condition of the nation in four hundred years, could hardly be made more manifest. The upper ward, or great quadrangle, is the grandest of its kind the world can show. It does not, like the French chateaux at Blois and Fontainebleau, present designs left by its several builders, and thus become a monument of national styles ; it is a stately and harmonious modern composition in the later Pointed, used in civil buildings of the country, kept in perfect order. Elegance, simplicity, and massiveness are its chief features. The material is stone, iron-gray in color, laid in small blocks in the walls, and larger in the window-casings, traceries, and other prominent details. Upon the northern side of the quadrangle is the state entrance, an arched porch, and at the southeastern corner is the private royal entrance. The number of rooms in the castle is, of course, immense. Those that the sovereign occupies in daily life are numerous 92 THE ROYAL CASTLES. and elegant, commanding charming views, and furnished with a vast amount of splendid bric-a-brac and works of art. The state apartments form a vast and noble suite that shows a great diversity of styles. Some of the older rooms retain much of the decoration given them in the reign of Charles II., — dark oak casings to the doors and windows, that might be called classic, carvings done by Gibbons, and ceilings painted by Verrio. The pictures, particularly portraits, are very numerous ; one room, indeed, on this account is named the Zuccarclli, another the Rubens, and another the Vandyke. Sir Peter Lely's Beauties are displayed in really overwhelming number. There are also the white, green, and crimson draw- ing-rooms, so called from the prevailing color. The most magnificent of the apartments is the ball-room, in the style of Louis XIV., with walls of peach-tint color, panelled, and much covered with elaborate raised scroll-work superbly gilt. It has a single window, immense and traceried, opening towards the north, and a wide and noble view. The Waterloo Gallery, occupying an area formerly a court, and lighted from the top, contains a large collection of portraits of distinguished persons • — sovereigns, generals, and statesmen — who were prominent at the time of the great battle. There is a high oak wainscot, above which is a richly-figured wall, tinted green. (Many years ago it was a sort of chocolate tint.) The ceiling, by its form, suggests that of a mammoth steamboat cabin, colored an olive drab. St. George's Hall, used for state dinners, is impos- ing by its size, but is finished in questionable modern Gothic. On one side is a range of portraits, along the other are windows opening on the great quadrangle, and at the upper end a throne, opposite which is a gallery. The wainscoting, that is compar- atively low, and the beams of the ceiling, are of oak. The portrait of the founder, Edward III., may be seen in the Note. — The size of some of the apartments is given by Ritchie, London, 1848: — Guard-Chamber 78 feet long, 31 feet wide, 31 feet high. Ball-Koom 90 " 34 " 33 Queen's Presence Chamber . . 49£ " 23^ " — " Waterloo Gallery 98 "47 " 45 St. George's Gallery .... 200 " 34 " 30 -— if/f WINDSOR CASTLE. 93 chapter-house of St. George's Chapel, together with his sword of state, six feet nine inches long. Adjoining the hall is the guard-room, with a flattened vaulted ceiling, light drab-brown in color. Its outer end is over the state entrance. Arms of different periods are arranged upon the walls, and many other curious objects are exhibited, among them a portion of the mast of Nelson's ship, the " Victory." The most superbly decorated portion of the castle is, how- ever, less intended for the living than the dead. It is the tomb-house that adjoins the east end of St. George's Chapel, begun by Henry VII., and continued by Cardinal Wolsey. Charles I. proposed to make it a royal burial-place, but was prevented by the Civil War, during which, in 1646, it was de- faced. James II., about forty years later, had it fitted for the ceremonials of the Roman church, and Verrio added some of his painting. During the next century the edifice grew much decayed, but when the castle was remodelled it was put in order, and recently has been most superbly decorated, and re-named from Prince Albert, to whom her Majesty has made it a memorial. England contains no place more sumptuous and beautiful than this chapel, that covers his form with its elabo- rately ribbed and richly-painted vaulting. Traceried windows, filling all the upper portion of the walls, admit light toned by gorgeous colored glass, and rise above a solid base entirely covered with large marble panels, on which Scripture scenes are sculptured or incised, and with elaborate bands of inlaid polished stones, relieved by squares of sculptures done in pure white marble. Even the mirror-like mosaic pavement is fit for the table-cover of a drawing-room. At the three-sided eastern end is the altar, and before that the Prince's tomb, bearing his recumbent figure, with the head supported by two angels. The whole body of the monument is covered with elaborate sculp- tures, all in pure white marble, backed or banded by dark mottled marble. With noble appropriateness the historic Pointed style of England, her wealth and best modern taste and training have here been tributary to affection, that has laid, amid all this refinement of elaborate beauty, the statue of one of the noblest princes of her thousand years of greatness, one 94 THE ROYAL CASTLES. who so well exemplified the grace of Christian culture, and deserved the title, Albert the Good. The views of the exterior of the castle are so numerous and good that they cannot be fully comprehended in a single visit, or a single illustration or allusion. One of them is not only grand but superior to any other of its kind. It is that obtained from the Long Walk, an avenue of elms three miles in length, extending from the chief or south front of the castle into the Great Park. Along this stately vista the prospect between the great trees to the regal group of towers is an ideal one of feudal grandeur combined with modern power and culture, and is worthily matched by the view from the terrace on the other or north side of the castle, where the vast edifice is seen rising closely on one hand, while opposite to it a vast extent of charm- ing scenery, intensely English, is displayed. The history, art, and literature of England, and her institu- tions for eight centuries, can indeed have no more impressive monument than that grown with their growth, and crowning with its stately picturesqueness the familiar heights of Windsor. Enough has already been said to show the style of castles built by the Normans to hold their communications with France and their possessions in England, to guard the chief city, and to protect royalty. At the same time a conception has been given of the stern ponderous strength of their earliest work, and of the long future, tragic or brilliant, through which it was to endure, to be crowned by lasting power and final glory. Looking from many a keep, from the high shattered walls at Rochester, or the far-distant battlements at Richmond, from lofty Dover, royal Windsor, or dismantled Norham, we can realize, as from no printed page, the wildness of the country and its social forces, when toiling hands and lordly power built such enormous guards of conquest. We who watch the peaceful coming and the quiet blending of far larger multi- tudes among the people of the " Greater England," can look at the time-worn stones with thankfulness that we live in a happier age, and be glad that the ancient island, for its own THE NORMAN PERIOD. 95 sake and the world, for which, with all its failings, it has done so much and yet will do much more, has grown so fair and prosperous. The advent and establishment of the Normans in England was in many ways a most decisive conquest. They thoroughly secured and firmly held the country, and imposed their laws, while through great trials much good was effected. Yet one hesitates to say that the native English people were then — or ever — really conquered. They survived the shock and wear, and in time, to no slight degree, were blended with the new race. Traces, often not small, of Jute and Angle, as well as of Norman, have marked portions of the inhabitants even to our time, but centuries ago all were as one in general character, as one in nationality. The English people bowed for generations, but arose the stronger from the struggle and the union. In the Norman period the historic features are almost as marked as was its opening. William I. was one of those rare men of enormous inherent power, with great opportunity, who used both to their full extent, and, as is still rarer, one who seems to have impressed his own personality upon a nation. Even his huge stature, iron will, deep wisdom, and tremendous strength, seem to prefigure the enduring sovereignty that he established. He had ambition to impel and genius to perform, a readiness to seize, and yet some sense of justice to administer. He could impose submission and keep order when both were much needed. Avaricious, ruthless, and odious to his English subjects, he had withal the qualities of strength that were, it may be, indispensable in his rude age for laying the foundations of an empire. After his death (Sept. 9, 1087), and that of his successor, William II. (1100), Henry I. reigned thirty-five years, through two thirds of which peace prevailed in England, and gave some rest and gain. The feudal system, modified, had been estab- lished, the Crusades begun, and wars in France waged. While the accounts of the condition of the country through this reign are conflicting, they seem to agree that in the next, Stephen's 96 THE NORMAN PERIOD. (1135-1154), it was deplorable. To civil wars regarding the succession to the throne, and struggles with the Scotch and Welsh, were added baronial strife and tyranny and the worst possibilities of feudalism. Well might John Rastell, the old chronicler, say (1529) that Stephen " was in warre and trouble, and great vexacyon, all the terme of his lyfe." In 1154 the Plantagenets came to the throne on the accession of Henry II., under whom the future United Kingdom of Great Britain was first shaped. As Rastell has quaintly condensed the history, Henry " put vnder his owne dominyon the Kyng- dome of Wales, and there let fall downe many great woddis, and made hye wayes. He wanne Irelande by strength. He subdued Wyllyam Kynge of Scotlande, whiche at that tyme hylde a great parte of Northumberlade vnto Newe Castell vpon Tyne, and ioyned Scotlande to his owne Kyngdome, from the southe occean to the northe yles of Orkeys, and made all these landes as vnder one pryncipate." The Norman period in turn was blending with a greater, continuous to our time, that may properly be called the English, that during which the consolidated elements of the nation have worked out its grand career. Memorials of the former period remain in castles and cathedrals that will be described here- after. It is time, however, now to turn from civil or military subjects to those of faith and action long growing in the land, the monuments of which are proofs, as well as symbols and illustrations, of a power stronger than any which raised the massive keeps, and which has done far more to make England. THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. CHRISTIANITY in Britain, although it was established at an early date and exerted a strong and active influence for many following centuries, produced few monumental works to mark its history before the Norman period. The numerous earlier buildings for its services have nearly disappeared. Their insubstantial nature, the effects of time, and, chiefly, the needs or purposes of later generations, have caused them to be sup- planted by the greater edifices, now grown venerable, around which gather the associations with the work of faith. In writ- ten compositions and in the deep lines of character, the earlier history lives. Its few memorials in art are sought by the pains- taking antiquary for their lessons, but in the array of things visible and influential or of general interest now, they have so much less importance than more recent works that only a mere allusion to them can be made here, as a preface to descriptions of the great monuments of the Church built by the Normans. A list of Saxon fragments given on page 434 helps to show both their nature and their number and position. A represen- tative example, and perhaps the chief, illustrates the simplicity, or even rudeness, of English art before 1066. The parish church at Earl's Barton in Northamptonshire has a stout tower, on the exterior of which is what might be called elementary tracery. There are suggestions of the Rhenish Romanesque, but there is an individuality that makes it English and expres- sive of the race that built it ; and its curious and sturdy self, worn by a thousand years, should long continue to show how securely, even if in simple style, the Saxons shaped and kept God's house in England. When the Normans came, with their peculiar Romanesque, 7 98 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. so marked that it has for a long time borne their name, they found the churches and cathedrals of the country far too hum- ble to be suited to their grander tastes and larger knowledge. Their power enabled them to make these qualities efficient, and to produce the noblest works of Norman art, still eminent among the monuments of many ages gathered in the land whose history they changed. They found the institutions of the Church established ; it was their part to develop them and to surround them with far greater dignity and beauty. While they were erecting castles and the massive keeps that were to make their power secure, they also were enlarging or rebuilding parish churches, monasteries, and cathedrals. An account of what is called the Norman style permits, or needs, a treatment different from that suited to descriptions of its more important monuments. These last are scattered, and combined with work of other schools and ages that supplies an even more material portion of the subject followed on these pages. It would not be easy to unite particulars of date, posi- tion, and detail of each succeeding style, and at the same time give a sketch of each cathedral, each an individual monument with marked peculiarities, yet one of a group unrivalled in importance. Accordingly, the writer has prepared a table that will show at once the growth of each of these great structures, represen- tatives of both the art and history of centuries, and the styles or work accomplished and existing, from the Norman period to current restorations or rebuilding. In a second table, the dimensions of. each are arranged. After these, and general observations on religious art in England, a brief monograph on each cathedral will follow, with especial reference to its associations, chief peculiar features, and existing aspect. The Romanesque styles that sprang from the fragments of the Roman arts left in the Middle Ages were as varied as the races that developed them. They spread from Sicily far north- ward to the lower Rhine and westward to the ocean shores of Normandy, whose bold, inventive people, gathering suggestions elsewhere and exerting their own genius, formed a school that has left noble works at Caen, Falaise, and other places. The NORMAN INFLUENCE. 99 Normans built very massive walls with flattened buttresses, small windows, and low, deeply recessed doorways, and they used ponderous round arches. Mouldings, often strong and simple, were, in more developed work, set off by curious zig- zag, toothed, and twisted figures that were frequently concen- trated around the doorways. Pillars, usually short and stout, bore quaint and generally simple capitals, and were, at the openings in the walls, made small, but in the great arcades of churches were of a prodigious bulk. The plain stone that these builders found and used of course had influence, and imposed some limits on their work. They did not have Italian marbles, the dark lavas of Auvergne, or the red bricks of northern Ger- many. They had pale, cold, stern stone, and that well suited them and their designs. The Normans quickly gained full control of England, and, as already stated, soon began to improve the churches through the country. Four years after their victory at Hastings, they began a crypt and two great towers at Canterbury, the re- nowned scene of the early triumphs of their faith in England. Seven years later, at Rochester, about half way upon the road to London, they began a new cathedral in place of one built by the Saxons, and its nave is said to be the oldest now in Eng- land. Almost contemporaneous with it is much of the east part of the vast abbey-church at St. Albans (recently made a cathedral), and also the existing crypts at York and Ripon. Within a period of thirty years ensuing, the Normans also built a cathedral at Chichester, and another at Winchester, of which important parts remain. At Exeter, in the far West, they built another, shown now by two curious transept towers. At Worcester and Hereford are portions of two more cathe- drals, dating from 1079 and later. At Gloucester they re- erected the monastic church of St. Peter, parts of the nave of which (changed in the eleventh century) are now important features of the cathedral, into which the structure was con- verted in 1541. In the eastern counties they raised the mag- nificent nave (and other parts) at Ely ; and at Norwich, all the lower portions of an edifice of great length, that is thought to show the most perfect Norman ground-plan in existence. On 100 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. the north road, dating from 1118 to 1200, is their cathedral at Peterborough, Norman in almost every part. In the North, at York and Ripon, under later structures, are their crypts ; at Carlisle, relics of their nave ; and at Durham, the grand master- piece of Norman art, still theirs in its chief parts, a demonstra- tion that their power was none the less near the remotest border of their kingdom than it was in Dover or in London. After the middle of the twelfth century, a new and very dif- ferent style that had been growing in the north of France was introduced in England, — at first by slow degrees, and then rapidly, until, as in France, it completely displaced the old Romanesque. The Pointed style, appropriately named from the form of its arch and from the acuteness of its gables, pinnacles, and spires, in time spread from the Atlantic into eastern Germany, and from the Orkney isles and central Sweden far south into Italy. In these different regions, it developed into schools as widely different. The Italian, German, French, Flamboyant, and latest English were peculiar to the countries where they flourished. The features of the style were, at first, in England, blended with the round-arched style, but they quickly asserted their fresh power and everywhere prevailed. The first period of the Pointed style there, called the Early English, is distinguished by tall, narrow windows, without tracery, and generally grouped in twos or threes, and some- times fives (as in the most magnificent example in the north transept at York). The pillars showed extreme reaction from the ponderous Norman, and were very slender, but were clus- tered where great strength was required. The capitals were richly wrought, and vase-like curved to wreaths of foliage con- ventional in form, that grew out from them. Mouldings were contrived to give a great effect of light and shade. The buttresses were deeper, and the true spire first appeared. The ceilings, although groined, were simply ribbed, and roofs were made very high and steep, thus adding grandeur to the building, and serving well to turn away the abundant rains. "Westminster Abbey, the east part of Lincoln, and the whole of Salisbury are the chief examples of this style. THE POINTED STYLES. 101 Towards the end of the next century, the thirteenth, changing tastes and greater means and skill developed what is called the Decorated Pointed. It was coeval with the first three Edwards, and hence sometimes called Edwardian. As its most known name implies, the ornament was generally more profuse, but this fact in itself does not express the most important charac- teristics of this period or school. It was " the most complete and perfect " that has grown or flourished in the country, dis- tinguished for its gracefulness, its gabled niches, crockets, complex and effective mouldings, and especially by its much larger windows filled with tracery. These last, in their head- ings, had at first set forms, like circles and the four-foiled openings that have since become so common, and at length, curved flowing lines that blended into shapes of charming beauty, — master-pieces of design, in which geometry grew to be poetry, while it retained its prose precision. Nearly all of the cathedrals in the country had been built, much as we see them now, before this period, but portions of each one date from it. The spire at Salisbury, the noblest in England, almost the entire interior at Exeter, the nave and chapter-house at York, and the east end and matchless window at Carlisle are mag- nificent examples of the Decorated English Pointed. The third form of the Pointed style developed in the country was coeval with the Tudor kings, and consequently has been called the Henrican or Tudor, and, from its peculiarly abun- dant upright lines, the Perpendicular. The mullion, main and minor, is the striking feature of the window traceries. The walls are panelled in a similar design, the roofs are low, and arches are low and four-centred. The central tower at Canterbury, the Presbytery at "Winchester, many parts at Man- chester, and, surpassing every other, Henry VII.'s surprising chapel at Westminster, are imposing representatives of this, the last school of the Pointed style in England. There, as upon the Continent, the Renaissance displaced it, and for three centuries the truly national styles were neglected. Their re- vival, that began about a hundred years ago, has marked a brilliant recent era in the arts of Britain. Sculpture grew, and fairly flourished, with these schools of 102 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. Pointed. Painting as applied to architecture was, to some extent, employed, but never had the prominence in England that it had in France, and more especially in Italy. The use of colored glass, while it had influence in enlarging windows, as it did in France, was not as general as it was there ; nor are, or were there such superb examples. England, notwithstanding the havoc that occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contains in her cathedrals numerous precious and often richly decorated tombs, objects now so sadly missed in France, that are an offset to the latter's great superiority in ancient painted glass. An unrivalled charm is given the English cathedrals by grounds with exquisite green grass, flowers, or noble trees, that in some form now encircle each of them by a zone of beauty, keeping them apart from common things, to stand calm and venerable in majestic love- liness, while constantly offering invitation to their hallowed shrines. The world has never had a fairer region near God's house than many a close by a cathedral in old England. Con- ventual or Episcopal buildings grouped around form also, in some places, most effective settings to the grander structure, and have an uncommon picturesqueness. The English cathedrals, while showing the general styles and forms common to others built in western and northern Europe during the Middle Ages, have their own marked char- acteristics. In ground-plan they were made cruciform, thus constantly suggesting the faith that reared them, and the high altar was at the east end, while at the west was the main front, with the chief entrances and towers to hold bells. The Lady Chapel was placed at the farthest east ; around the choir and on the east side of the transept were minor chapels for saints, and along the choir and nave were aisles. The edifice, although always in a city or large town, was never built directly on the streets, but, unlike most cathedrals on the Continent, stood in its own grounds. The peculiarly English features of a plan common in France, Spain, Germany, and Scandinavia, are great length, especially compared with the height, unusual extension of the transept, marked development of a central tower or spire, small western portals, a north porch oftener much finer, CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CATHEDRALS. 103 a very large upright west or east window, or both, and less sculpture than would generally be used in France or Spain. The Romanesque, many-sided, or round east end — the pre- vailing form in France, and retained there through the periods when the Pointed style was dominant — was used in England by the Normans, and is shown in their work at Canterbury and Norwich, but in native forms of Pointed a square end was built, as in notable examples at Gloucester, Lincoln, and York. Westminster shows a grand exception to the rule. Bell-towers, detached from the main building, often found in Italy and as far west as Bordeaux, were not adopted in Eng- land, where the one example is at Chichester. The Italian Baptistry, mosaic, and mural painting were also almost un- known, as also were the French chevet and vast and richly- sculptured portals. Yet at Peterborough is a unique west front, with three enormous arches covering the entrances. The ranks of saints and heroes and great groups of ancient worthies and angelic hosts that look upon all who approach the glorious doors of Amiens, or Reims, or Chartres, presenting the whole Bible and the truths of faith, so that the most un- learned would know them, are not seen in England. But at Salisbury, Wells, and Exeter, across the western fronts were line on line of kings, nobles, and ecclesiastics, showing all the people who came near the great confessors and maintainers of the word in their own -land. The cloisters common in southern Europe had counterparts throughout England, less stately than some in Spain, less decorated than others in Italy, but nowhere more charmingly picturesque than at Salisbury, Lincoln, or Gloucester, and very seldom elsewhere now so well kept. A second and smaller transept is also, to some extent, English. The vicissitudes through which the cathedrals in England have stood have been great ; few others have endured more. Most of those in Spain are not as old, and there the faith of the founders has not been changed by revolution, nor have politics and war in Italy with all their frequent marked results had, until recently, effects like those of the Civil War and Reformation. France has, indeed, passed through " religious " wars and the fury of the "Age of Reason" with deplorable 104 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. results that are more comparable, and something less of this remark may be applied to Germany. In England the cathe- drals show the changes in the tastes and styles that have pre- vailed there through eight centuries, the transformation of the Reformation, violence to ancient institutions, and the spoliation in the reign of Henry VIII., the melancholy iconoclasticism of the great Civil War, and then the destructive and even more dismal church-wardenism of the eighteenth century. The havoc at the Reformation may have been unavoidable ; that of the Civil War was done in hot, but far too unfeeling, blood. It is more than unfortunate that the grand qualities and precious services of Puritanism were then dishonored by the treatment that befell God's house in its stateliest form, full of the nation's memories of worth and piety. But for the cold blood of the church's guardians, as shown afterwards at Salisbury, Here- ford, and Durham, there is less apology. The feeling and the thought, as well as acts, of five and twenty generations have been registered upon the stones and wood of these cathedrals of old England. Norman strength and sometimes weakness, rude yet stately, and the later medi- aeval piety that lavished all it could apply upon the shrine in which it worshipped, war and passion, spiritual deadness, fervent love with exquisite refinement, and brutality in deed and char- acter, are all recorded, and so also is the fresh vitality and spirit in our time, precursors, we may hope, of a far longer, grander future. When Milton's verses prove that he was ignorant and irre- ligious, and Watt's engine shows he had not heard of steam, the grace and glory of the Pointed style will cease to demon- strate that men with genius, skill, and pure and noble thoughts lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the resto- rations or rebuildings that have been of late so general will fail to also demonstrate that they have now worthy successors, who can use well the wealth and refinement of the present. The brutality that far too much marked English character a hundred years or more ago, revealed in so-called discipline at sea, in public institutions, in the treatment of miners and of children in factories, with all the exasperating and disgusting detail, is IMPORTANCE OP THE CATHEDRALS. 105 revealed in different but as striking ways by the excrescences inflicted on cathedrals, and such outrages as those perpetrated on the chapter-house at Durham or the ancient glass at Salisbury. On the other hand the immense improvement and far truer Chris- tian spirit growing in our time and replacing former evil, as they are removing architectural deformity or mending past damage, bring opportunity, now seldom unimproved, for leaving due and unmistakable record on the nation's monuments, as well as evidence in its character that gives confidence for the future. No mere dull antiquarianism leads us through these edifices, but warm sympathy with men whose genius and devotion, shown in many periods, have left works wrought by their hearts and souls as well as hands, and so expressive of their character that we can through these hold intercourse with the builders. One who does not feel a sympathy with them, with what they felt, and what they tried to do, will lose much of the pleasure to be gained in their churches ; one who disbelieves, or only cares to gaze coldly, will find that the town outside is pleasanter. As features of the human face are few, yet endless in variety, so are those of cathedrals. One can never see all their diver- sity and expression. Every moulding, corbel, cusp, and capital, is full of meaning of some sort, and still more are the sculp- tured altars, telling of immortal life, and the carved tombs and lettered stones around them telling how mortality blends with it when the glories that the splendid shrine prefigures will no longer be unseen. Around these venerable cathedrals, the history, character, and sense of beauty of the people, with the power and grace of the deep faith of England, appear in forms that are visible, making all they embody real to us, and the land fairer and more lovable and precious. The hearts of the builders have been English, and they have built each throb in with the stones wrought to make shrines that have long kept, and we may hope will save for all time, the unique record of the steadfast piety and wise endurance that have made the small wild island become the throne of world-wide empire, telling its people of this every day, and that the nation's strength and glory will endure while they, like what they signify, remain secure. 106 DATES AND STYLES OF MEDIAEVAL CATHEDRALS IN ENGLAND. GO H < 0«qr-l ■a = ^ E t- e a II B E *"§ a j 5, £ ~ o § "0 i .= § to i f. Is 5 ^ -S ° co>>. ** CN'S - to - .co o-~; i a8 IS c"-> - .a •<*>*".# >- oi "g ;* s a •a Is." fl 9 z O co co •; S.J3 s ° s° .5 P " B -io? ~: §< S* S 3 3 fa a 5 Cl fci to ' £Q ^ CO "* tS^H CO ■ — ' Q C7i §3*3 co <; co — ' C5 ■O , O c5 ~ ~ II ■3 CM ._.' CO |S .C —I rt U> o -f JO is sofeS co"^ ""* _-T u £ 8.0 •a S\a — s, o ^Sco ■-"3 3 .5 .B<» ° c - J 30 " S 5 "Eg ■r. — co ,a o =3 03 li a w 03 _s " S Wco" a = a s ^g c- 3 C cj B a u Pot ci >d O o -HO :a o CO Zj o S-O S3 £ Q — g I Q S | \< » ^53 55 a <« "^ s^-3 ** ^w" t-' % ~ s t3 5> cot— ^ J, ' ^x co »o ,S l-H >o -II 5,o3 fc. 00 00 J3 §"8 « a . B ;-.0 K O 1-4 " -a S -3 "g ci t^^co 3^ §S .-I H II CSo era P. i *s 00 „ » Pteoo i) J; o co „ «i-lO .00 w fi ^ 9te* s Si -s oj3 ' !5°, »s ♦3 -« g 3 s DIN" CjCO . &a •CO •C' r -° ~ 5 -J H S O Q.O .Ci— ( r-l I ■« « ij * ^-"r-r, 3 s le b'Sl'S 3q!h m 3 m 3 b C-l O _0J b o .S'o •as "Si n — " m co a,Hfl p .S S = 0) ■U .is g -3 SO S 3 g . a, ^- rf t- CO Ss ago M^ - ill u O osas po oo CO » »> o . -™ eS X •*". oo 4;^ - B tie Zt3 03 ftj r-< iO ^ •B-e'g gco 03 03 * "-J .b g> e --2 ^ 3 z. •- ^2 en Dt» O . M . — o3 a 3.| J Oi-C s som a ,e Co- ^ ceo H 108 DIMENSIONS OF THE ENGLISH CATHEDEALS. co .J < (A Q W a H ... .2-S "^ COCO m CI CO 10 r-< . cico ~co • g^'cM a Oh 00 . iginall}' 155; E 164 (S.) tea: &g» Is H .-g S -3 —GO'S 1 j3 S "^ iS aS"l eg | m ^1 CO -* 2 5 3 £ 1CMCM tH COCM go! JB2* # © * oo'SP * « t- O CM CO a a 404 340 CO CM 10 »o a . S3 * * OOP (s 5 CO a a a a CMrtlN cm cm cm CMCMCN .fcfc', cd!>cd face So CO CO ■# CD * 8 . g .g * * M ?? te en CM CO COO • CKOOl- i-H CO CM Sh CO t- I- o to PQ P 02 * 2 * O O r— CM O Q CO~j CO • I- GO COCO CO OS 1 t— 1- i-It-it ■ICOOOOCM "• C$ . — ' .CO 1O1OO CM Poo eo 00 02' -h* •* e-i co 1-1 CM CJ C1C-1 CO s a . 0.3 « co* * © a> a co in o g a g "»t-i< 2 a ^ 1— irH a a CO CO CD OO O CM CM CM CM CO CM CM rH rl CM CM CMrH 00* * OM O COCO CO s*s . ■<* rtOCOM OO I-H coo CM CM CM CM * * oopa tO O CDCC *cj in r* oScc > a * CO 100 -5- CO 1O1O in 00 00 ■*-* lO^ L' CO tJI CO CO CM CO . ooppa 00 * ,t3 00 O O «H 3 CO Ol OA s 600 m lOt-CO CO DIMENSIONS OF THE ENGLISH CATHEDEALS. 109 s^X Sod A CO m ^ CO P- CO co *a — cr> ""CC ft'"' c s I* a o p o OICO ■a ai •go, CO _O0 us?9 oo ."- = g =■}§ -: ■u^5 I- •a co 1 "* J Ct-l C ■a? ■3 B a a 6- o CO a a CO a CO E a £3" CO M fc- a H K CM o o o o o ^ 25 T~> pi r-l a a a a a rH ^ g CO r •a £ d 9 •S DO B . c o. - a i x£2 CM CM XJ3 o to II a od to ^ s a i c c C 00 b0 CO^ 03(0 a c a - _2 5jf"goa ."to crco C •S* ~ u O0"3,"3 ~ CO ■-*""" *P< a o o 3 o C ;0 ■3 "5 a o to E .£ g 5 -o '5. o o :- a g" ^co CM Cd 5 to J 5 0. 3,„-co = COCO =M — to o fc, "S o"" s§ CO - o a o O O *-H c I— 'S ■a o ■d a a O * c- cc a ;-; It oo od C8 v: od« aii BQOQ -1- * # !/J # r'i * oo * CO * od *" * * CO CO C CO CM -* lO O'* coco COCO c CCCO O t- ." rr CO m O' IO CO -r CM -rJH -r* o o lO lO 01 CCr-l c . lO CO CO CM H CM i-HCM CO CI B i-l OO * BO DO oo' oo 01 is * cr • DO S CO to cc* t-. * * * * * 00 ~^ CO * co»q 03 oco t^ p CO o CC' CM ~. -h" CO U5 • o- o to ooco -j-f CO CO CO O C. 03 00 l^ CDt- >o «- * xti 2 t- ■*3 u ft oo »0 oo * c^ — i od DO I-IOO * * CO a c ' CO-* * * ■H 03 C cr oco TK tK co'^n <# CO CO Tjim CO t~ r-l • c ■ - coco tfOiO C/_ X L- CD - oo ooco t— OO* 03 a £ a SodsJ * CO * fe* co fe «* 00 CM-*0 ci CO CO Cl c CI ■*-*CO ■* oo CO CM CO ■a CO oo aj oo CO ^ i - # a •f-OO DC * * * * * oo" "? a oo" o OCO -t •* o O >o lOiO HtH E C ; o ^H ,—1 t- CD 00 I- « '-Z CO CO ' CD § CM CM 1— CM CM E CM * Cf a" . co _; ■rij* o 9 o a # CO CO a CO 9 CO u U3_S CO I ©cod l-ct en a CO ■— g c a 1 E c CTc'ci a o a c c c o a coo C) a a c a c 5 o Cl 00 ft DQ oo V. 2 # # * * * * > ,cood * c i * 03 CM CMO CM Cl CM CM c s o CO CM o o CI rH CM o 1 c £ C0C1 Cl Cl CM CM CM CO c i • - 1 eo o CM oo DO od 'J ; odft # * * CO C * * c" Ol- IOCM CM CM t- U5 t- 30 o o Cl C E OO -* UO CM CM c : wj DO * rj ■V&* * oo" # * # # '• * lO * * K CD M O 00 O CO >o ■<* O o ' CD CD i- c MM O0 I - 33 OO 01 OS t— o CO CO c i \ o -*Ttl CO CO CO CO T* CM tf 5 10 lO r/ "3 odfe ft OO DO 09 oo £ .O * * * * oo e * od C/ J x th cc ■*o r 01 CO 01 CO o Cl c ' lO-* c > • o CO c NM Cl o Ol o n HOI c 5 : "* e lOlO "" rH M< CO ^J< ■"3* CO c OlO "' ft ft fc pi PH f* b ci o o o o c i CO t- O 'X' CO CO c us 03 o_ C33_ CO 1 o~ to" CO eo" cm" »r i rn CO CO t^ u CO g »-* 6 I s. 1 c E •t i c ) u co C3 o s T3 ,o g CO CO CO u o ft 2 "3 3 u a J c c ce E * a o a. < D c J2 | 1 E i X e a I I 6ft eta cod co'£ §§a [£oo o . |t 110 THE CHUECH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. The Church, episcopal in organization from the earliest to the present time, almost from the beginning a great and active power, strong in resources, and one of the chief patrons of architectural art, produced an immense number of monumental structures. Under allegiance to Rome for over a thousand years, thoroughly developed, concentrating means, and nearly supreme in influence, her ministrations for the whole people were as great and pervading. She then built all the cathedrals (except parts of a few and St. Paul's, which replaces one lost by fire), all the numerous and often vast monastic edifices, and nearly countless parish churches. Of the Reformation, when the ecclesiastical government became exclusively English, free and progressive modern England herself, with her enormous energy, her matchless prayer-book and literature, and her unrivalled colonization, is the great monument. Its details are the ruined monasteries, the cathedrals in strength and grandeur and much of their beauty, — deprived of ancient shrines, but crowned by altars of renewed faith, — and, like them, the thousands of parish and other churches. Of differing beliefs and polities that followed the Reformation, the chief monument has really been raised in important elements of the history and character of New England, great as may be their like in the elder country. In doing good, the Ancient Church, not unlikely, exceeded our means of estimating; and if her discipline was severe to cruelty, — tyrannical and bloody we may now think it, when judged by itself alone, — it came of long prevalent belief that toleration was participation in error or sin. If English acts under this belief are judged by those of their own time, English men do not suffer. The Ancient Church planted Christianity and its civilization in the land, and there maintained both through more than twelve centuries, — good reason why her monuments still spared are precious. The living Church now there, in brighter light of better days, pursues the work of faith with a devotion never yet surpassed, from which it seems as if no generous heart can keep its sym- pathy, and which Old England well may favor, for it seeks to establish her salvation through the long hereafter, both for finite time and the immeasurable. THE CATHEDRALS. 1 SOUTHERN" CATHEDRALS AND CATHEDRAL CITIES. CANTERBURY 2 is a thoroughly old English city, altered until it suits the wants of the people who now live in it. Some relics of the mediaeval works built to protect it are found in a few, gray, deep-arched gateways flanked by towers. Imposing and suggestive, although scanty fragments of its famous ancient monastery still remain, as well as the old narrow crooked streets, lined by low, quaint houses, that recall the Stuarts or the Tudors and their times. The neat shops and sturdy thrift of an active living people are every- where apparent, completing the vista from to-day far back 1 General works on the Cathedrals : — King, D., Cathedrall and Conventuall Churches of England and Wales, 61 views, ob. folio, 1656 (chiefly interesting as an early work on the subject) ; Willis, Browne, A Survey of the Cathedrals of England and Wales, with their entire history, 32 large plates, 3 vols., 4°, London, 1742. In the earlier part of the present century far better and adequate illustrations were published, as follows : — Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of England, fully illustrated, 4°, separate vols., London, 1816-36. (The writer's copy has about a thousand extra plates.) Rochester, London, Ely, Chester, Manchester, Lincoln, Ripon, Durham, Carlisle, and the recently made cathedrals are not comprised. Storer, Jas., History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of Great Britain, 254 plates of 28 cathedrals, 8° (and 4° large paper, proofs), London, 1814-19; Buckler, J. C, Views of the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales, with Descriptions, royal 4°, London, 1822; Winkle, B., Architectural and Picturesque Illustrations of the Cathedral Churches of Eng- land and Wales, text by T. Moule, 180 plates, 3 vols., 4°, London, 1835 ; Murray, John, Handbook to the Cathedrals of England and Wales, 362 woodcuts, 7 vols., post 8°, London, 1861-74 (Southwell, Newcastle, etc., are not comprised; St. Albans, 1 vol., 1877) ; Wild, Chas., English Cathedrals, colored plates, imp. folio, London, 1831. Special works on single cathedrals are named inhere they belong. 2 Dart, J., History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, 70 plates, folio, London, 1726 ; Woolnoth, W., A Graphical Illustration of the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Canterbury, royal 4°, London, 1816 ; Robert- son, W. A. S. (Dean of Canterbury), The Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, its Architecture, History, and Frescos, plates, 8°, London, 1880; Willis, Rev. R., The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, cuts and plans, 8°, 1845. 112 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. into the distant period when their Norman and mediaeval an- cestors were as stirring in a different manner. Concentrating associations with all these periods, and surrounded by the town while yet secluded in its own calm precincts, stands the vast cathedral, not only by far the grandest object yet built in the city, but one of the glories of the kingdom. The Cathedral of the Primate of all England is made worthy of its rank by the variety and grandeur of its design, as well as by its associations with the history of religion in the country since about the year 600, when its site was consecrated by St. Augustine. Christianity had flourished in a large part of Roman Britain, it is thought, but had nearly disappeared there during the in- vasions of the northern pagan races, many generations of whom held the country. The great Benedictine Prior of the Coelian Hill at Rome, whose piety inspired him to attempt to Christian- ize the then wild people on the distant island, came with forty monks, and Ethelbert, the Saxon king, was baptized June 2, 597. Numerous conversions quickly followed, and an episcopal establishment of a broad compass was designed, that, in the sequel, left the primacy at Canterbury. Closely outside its walls, St. Augustine founded the extensive monastery that has borne his name. The king gave him a royal palace in the town, and an old church near by, upon ground now covered by the cathedral. While the distracted, sombre, earlier Middle Ages felt the influences of the Church, and had their part in her long history, they left little here of general interest beside the great fact that they kept her institutions, as a long night of gloom and storm might preserve them for coming light. St. Augustine's ancient edifice was restored in the tenth century, but in the latter part of the eleventh was a ruin, and since then its fragments have disappeared. Lanfranc, of Pavia, a monk of Bee, then famous as a seat of learning, who became the first Norman archbishop in 1070, reconstructed the cathe- dral. Anselm, his successor, re-erected the east part of his church, — a work finished some years later by Conrad. In 1174 a fire caused a second re-erection of this part, that was completed in 1184. Between 1378 and 1410 a new transept ^BURf CA^H^%l|g CANTERBURY. 113 and nave were built, and a great central tower was added near the end of the fifteenth century. The variety of styles is' con- sequently great, for all the works from that of Lanfranc are now represented, and compose the existing church — "a worthy shrine for the memorials of almost every reign in English history with which it is thronged." Westminster Abbey is the only other spot more " closely connected with the history of the country." The cathedral yard, or close, is entered at the southwest through a richly ornamented but now worn and blackened gateway. As soon as it is passed the exterior of the great church is seen, built of smoothed stone now a dark earthy gray, except the newer western tower that has a brownish tint. All parts are in good order and repair. The front and side, revealed thus at an angle, show late Pointed work, a lofty aisle and roof, and three tall towers, broad and square, accented at each angle by a huge pinnacle. Beside the nearest is a deep- arched porch, built about 1400, placed where the Saxons, and all the people after them, have entered. The interior, as often is the case, at first imposing in effect, grows more impressive as it becomes more familiar. The ma- terial used throughout is fine-grained stone, a whitish-buff in color, relieved by slender, dark-green Purbeck marble pillars in the choir, and gilt and colored bosses on the vaulted ceilings. Every part is in good order. There is, besides, some of the old, rich, colored glass ; but there is a great deal more that is new, distributed in the west front, in some bays of the aisles and clerestory of the nave (where there are figures of prelates, saints, and kings), and most of the same parts of the choir, at the four ends of the transepts, and in two windows at the eastern end. The grandest view of the interior is perhaps obtained beneath the central tower, the vaulting of which rises 130 feet above the pavement. The late Pointed nave, with lofty aisles, has a ma- jestic and superb effect from its elaboration, height, and ele- gance ; it rivals that at York, and is, perhaps, more sumptuous. The choir, upon the other hand, raised for the crypt below it and reached by steps, has a depressed effect, and seems too 8 114 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. low ; yet when it is examined it is rich and beautiful, and filled with objects of great interest. Each of the arms of the main transept is only one bay long, and has a double-bayed chapel eastward, — a form of plan unusual in England, as also is that of the east end of the choir. An English end is generally square, and filled by one large window ; but the French archi- tect of this part gave it the French form of a semi-circle, pierced by several arches. All of the eastern part of the edifice, indeed, is curiously irregular. The coloring of the choir shows great contrasts, for the walls are very light, the ceiling white, and the many Early English slender pillars banded to the walls or piers are dark-green Purbeck marble. The body of the choir, as usual in the larger mediaeval churches, is separated from the aisles by a high screen. Here, on each side, it is formed by a row of noble monuments and by stalls, above which rise high, glazed traceries of white stone. Midway, stands the arch- bishop's throne, a new work, finely carved in the same kind of stone. At the east is the altar, on a pavement raised about twenty steps above the main floor of the choir, and behind it is a reredos with very high and open Pointed tracery. On this upper level is another choir, or a retro-choir, that occupies the eastern apse, and is called Trinity Chapel. The pillars of its great arcade are coupled, and have massive, graceful, foliated capitals, much resembling early French Pointed work. East of the apse and its encircling aisle is a still more peculiar feature, BeckeVs Crown, a round chapel with a high arcade and windows, a triforium, clerestory, and vaulted ceil- ing. The architect was " English William," who succeeded the French William, builder of the apse. Its history is, like its design, unique. It is the chief existing feature of the edifice, associated with the famed archbishop who was mur- dered in the north transept, about five o'clock in the afternoon of Dec. 29, 1170, by knights who acted with mistaken zeal for Henry II. The site, but not the actual scene, of the event remains. Thomas a Becket, thought to be a martyr, was soon made a saint, and for his death the king performed a strange and rigorous penance, prolonged throughout the church. A gorgeous shrine placed in Trinity Chapel, was dedicated to the CANTERBURY. 115 murdered ecclesiastic, and even the cathedral, for a period, bore his name. Pilgrims, in great numbers, came to it from near and far. Among them, in 1177, was Philip, Earl of Flanders; next the archbishop of Reims, and, two years later, Louis VII. of France, all with large retinues. The shrine, almost incredi- bly rich, was despoiled in Henry VIII.'s time. An elaborate, tesselated marble pavement, once before it, still remains aston- ishingly fresh, the chief relic of its splendor. The monuments form one of those collections that are among the chief glories of the English cathedrals, and that help to make them pre-eminent in northern Europe. Most of the works are of mediaeval date and design, and are placed in the eastern parts of the edifice. In the chapel of the great south transept (that was built about 1370, in Perpendicular style), where a glance at the memorials may begin, is a large monument, placed in the centre and bearing three recumbent figures, — Margaret Holland (1437), having at her left her first husband, the Earl of Somerset (1409), and at her right her second (1421), who was the second son of Henry IV. In the east wall is seen the head of the stone coffin of Archbishop Stephen Langton, who did much to gain the Magna Charta, and who divided the Bible into chapters. At the side of the choir are monuments to Archbishops Sudbury (1341), Stratford (1348), Chichele (1443), Kempe (1454), Bourchier (1486), and others. The first named is of a characteristic English form, — long, with a high canopy, and open on both sides. Another form is shown at the north end of the main transept, in the monument to Archbishop Peckham (1292), a noble single-arched, and gabled recess in the wall, and another to Archbishop Warham (1532), with a very elaborate three- arched canopy, also above a recess. Around the sides and apse of Trinity Chapel, from north to south, are monuments to Henry IV. (1413), Dean Wotton (1567 ?), Cardinal Chatillon the Huguenot, Archbishop Courteney (1396), and the Black Prince (1376). The royal monuments are of an altar form ; each of them has upon it a recumbent figure, high above which is a large flat canopy. Dean Wotton's is a Renaissance sar- cophagus, on which he kneels before a desk. These works 116 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. should be carefully examined, for they are worthy representa- tives of several early periods of English art, and are parts of a collection such as can rarely be found. The vast crypt stretched beneath the choir has few, if any, rivals. It is groined throughout, and in the western part — built between 1070 and 1109 — has low arches, borne by short, small Norman pillars ; and in the eastern part — that dates from 1178 to 1184 — is higher, more massive, and has ribs across the vaults. A dim light comes through small windows, and reveals long vistas of round shafts and blended arches. Here in the sombre shades the Huguenots escaped from Prance, and Flemings from the Duke of Alva, shielded by Elizabeth, held for years their own services amid the silk-looms with which they earned their subsistence. Still more remarkable, at least in art, is the small Chapel of St. Gabriel, long walled up and forgotten, where there are frescos of the twelfth century, with coloring still good, and showing a large number of curious figures in Biblical subjects. They were engraved for Dart in 1726, and have been recently produced in chromolithography for the Kent Archaeological Association. The minor parts of the cathedral are remarkable both for their number and their character. The cloisters are late Perpendicular, but show fragments of the Norman it replaces. They give a pleasant introduction to those quiet, venerable walks that still remain attached to several cathedrals in the country, charming places for day- dreams, and for something better. Still retaining and making us realize the repose of earlier times, and of the studious or thoughtful churchmen who have paced the worn stones of their pavement, we may well feel that our feet, like those of John Milton, should not fail to tread them. The now busy world is full of L' Allegro, but in these small, secluded, gray arcades from which it is shut off, II Penseroso lives and tells us of her pleasures. On the east side is a door that opens to the chapter-house, another of the stately, picturesque creations of old institutions scattered through the country, and connected with almost every one of its cathedrals. The world has never had else- ROCHESTER. 117 where fairer and nobler rooms for business, and they are properly made worthy of a business that has care of souls. There are about twenty large or ancient English chapter-houses, of which twelve are oblong, and eight are polygonal, — this at Canterbury being of the former shape, and very large. It is surrounded by a rich arcade, above which are large windows filled with Perpendicular tracery. The roof, of Irish oak, is a peculiar arch, filled with geometrical tracery, arranged on seven flat faces, giving a peculiar form to the outside that is four- pitched, and an early model of the gambrel roofs so common in New England more than half a century ago. The minor parts — the Deanery, a Norman staircase, thought to be unique, the library, school, and ruins of the dormitory of the abbey — can be only mentioned here, to indicate how much more there once was, and how much still remains to interest a visitor. Rochester is a small city, built upon a point of land around which winds the river Medway. On a low hill at one side, and near the water, are the ruins of the castle, dating from the Norman period and later. The outer walls, of which parts still exist, enclose an area of about four acres, now a lawn and garden, where the chief object is the keep, begun about 1078 and finished in the reign of Henry I. Its walls, like those of the outworks, are gray, and ivy-clad. They are a hundred feet in height, and eight to thirteen feet in thickness, and are built of Kentish ragstone, with quoins and various casings of Caen stone, laid in very strong cement that is mixed with small shells. The interior, now open from the ground-floor upward, had three large and two minor stories, the second of which former was 22 feet and the third 32 feet high. There is, as usual, a dividing wall across the centre. On the upper main floor were magnificent apartments (46 by 21 feet), connected by four noble, decorated arches. In the wall, entirely around the upper part, extends a gallery with twenty-five small win- dows, some in pairs, and all with an effect far more appropriate than Wren's openings in the White Tower at London. In one of the four turrets at the corners of the keep (each one of 118 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. which is really a large tower) is a turnpike stair of rubble, leading to the top. The view commanded from it is extensive. Northward is the river and its shipping, Chatham, with its dockyard, and, west of that, a low ridge. Southeastward is an open rural country. Westward, beyond the castle, town, and river, are low hills with fields and woodlands. Southward is the best part of the view, extending far up the valley of the winding Medway that is bordered by the same sort of low hills. The old defensive details of the castle are impaired, but the ruins show well how the works once guarded the town and river, and especially the cathedral that rises eastward, almost under them, simple and iron-gray, and one of the oldest large English churches. Rochester Cathedral is unusually low and seems more so because it is placed on low ground, and is more crowded by surrounding buildings than is common in England. It is exceptionally plain outside, built chiefly of small broken stones, and blackened by exposure, or patched with new work done in light earth-brown stone, with which the central tower is refaced, as also are the low west gable and the large win- dow under it. Throughout the interior the walls have a very pale color, resembling that of Caen stone. The ground-plan shows a cross, of which the choir or head, as sometimes is the- case in England, is the longest part ; but the main arcade and triforium of the nave are more peculiar, or remark- able, for they are considered to be the oldest in the country. They are Norman and much ornamented, especially the trifo- rium, a very high one ; but are injured in effect by a clerestory in poor Perpendicular. Above them is a new low-pitched roof of oak, simply designed and showing a frame with horizontal tie-beams, in contrast with groins of block chalk in the north transept, and of new dark oak in the southern. Both the tran- sept and the choir are Early English, and have a great deal of dark, slender shafting, giving a spotty effect. On each side of the choir is a solid wall, the lower part of which is painted in an ancient pattern, since extended, chiefly of a deep dull- red color. Above the painting are arcades in slight relief. There is a second shorter transept that, together with the CHICHESTER. 119 Lady Chapel, makes a cross-shaped choir, beneath a large part of which is a dark and good, though unpaved, crypt. One of the notable features of a cathedral is apt to be its colored glass. Here this is chiefly new, and in memorial windows in the choir and the main transept. There are few monuments. Among the details peculiar to Rochester is an elaborate and well-kept doorway to the chapter-room, cut in fine drab stone. The eastern portion of the edifice is complicated, presenting a massive and picturesque exterior, irregular, and simple almost to rudeness, but a veil that Nature, throughout England, spreads upon old walls, imparts its grace, and green, dense ivy drapes the hard gray stones and makes the east end beautiful. Chichester 1 is situated in a flat and fairly wooded country, and by its plan as well as its name, shows clearly that it has grown from a Roman camp ; for the great square figure of the castrum crossed by two main intersecting streets remains. On page 48 the outer walls have been described, and little needs to be added about the streets, that have few unusual features. At the centre of the city is, however, a remarkably large cross, said to be now the best in England, — one of the sort that in the Middle Ages stood in some conspicuous part of a town. It was built by the bishop, in 1501, in late Pointed style, and is octagonal, having an open lower story entered through arches. Over this is a closed story surmounted by pinnacles and tall ogee flying buttresses that form a crown, tipped by a little belfry rising fifty feet above the pavement. The Cathedral, near the cross, and bordered on the north side by a burial-ground, with grass and trees extending along the west main street, is, in its general style, early Pointed, and is built of stone that has grown dark gray ; and even the new central spire, built since the old one fell in 1861, is brown- ish gray. The chief peculiarities of the exterior are an eastern end with an unusually long, low, Decorated Lady Chapel, and a tall pointed choir gable, a prominent transept, and, at the 1 See Stephens, Rev. W. R. W., Memorials of the South Saxon See and Cathedral Cli. of C, photographs, 8°, London, 1876. — Willis, Rev. Prof., Arch. Hist, of C. Cathedral, 4°, Chichester, 1861 (Arch. Institute of Grt. B., 22). 120 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. west end, a detached bell-tower, unique in England, bulky, pale-gray, and crumbling. The interior is small, but has a good effect of length, and is built throughout of pale-buff stone, some parts of which are whitewashed. There is now a moderate amount of colored glass, all of which is new since 1842, and much since 1875, as also are a handsome pulpit, a small but rich reredos, and a fine pavement of enamelled tiles. A more interesting feature is, perhaps, the central spire supported on new massive piers, replacing those of Norman construction that, after the old spire fell directly on the floor beneath, were found to be mere shells of stone enclosing a wretched core of rubble, not unlike a similar piece of work found in 1883 at Peterborough (p. 152). Another feature, of which there are few examples in England, is the arrangement of the nave with two aisles on each side. As already stated, the Lady Chapel is unusually long and narrow. It is vaulted, and is lighted at the end and on both sides by traceried windows filled with richly colored glass, forming part of a restoration made within the last few years. The cloisters have three aisles, with rounded, timber roofs, and good although worn tracery. Near by is the bishop's palace, some parts of which are extremely old. The see was, during a great portion of the Saxon period, at Selsey, a far less convenient and healthy place, and was trans- lated to Chichester in 1057. Thirteen years later a Norman bishop was consecrated, whose successor, Roger, finished a cathedral in 1108, but, says Storer, as usual with churches of that age, it was destroyed by fire, — in May, 1114. It has consequently been inferred that these early buildings were of wood, then very plenty ; but the wooden roofs used by the Gothic builders, that have caused bad fires even in the present century, afford an explanation of what would be probable in a less careful age. Again, in 1185, or 1187, a part, at least, of the cathedral and much of the city were consumed. These two disasters have been a cause of some uncertainty about the date of interesting Norman work that forms the inside of the choir as far up as the clerestory. Few changes in the building were occasioned by the Reformation, but during the Civil War, WINCHESTER. 121 when Chichester was loyal, there was a disastrous siege, in which it received damages not yet repaired. Winchester : stands upon a plain and a gently sloping hill- side. It is a very ancient place and was important in the British and Roman periods, and continued to be in the Middle Ages, but in the time of Queen Elizabeth had become decayed. Its present aspect is that of a busy rural city, with few objects that suggest antiquity. The cross, an open-work pinnacle, dark-gray in color, and in good order, dates, perhaps, from the reign of Henry VI. The Cathedral stands upon low ground, and for this reason and a lack of lofty towers or parts, its vast proportions are, at first, not fully realized. It is nearly surrounded by a green churchyard through which it is approached by a noble avenue of trees extending towards the northwest corner. The west front, bold but not lofty, is, like the other parts of the exterior, venerably gray. There are no towers, and the three doorways are remarkable for their small size ; those at the sides seem to be more fitted for a private building, and are in striking contrast with the mighty western portals built at about the same time in France. But the repose and beauty of the fresh green English close are also very different from the bare rough ground or pavement of the street or place that would form a French approach. Although the front has simple outlines and no towers or statuary, it shows how much elegance and even richness can be had by the skilful use of a few buttresses, and the design of one great window, when the architect is a master of geometry and of the late Pointed style. The interior, one of the longest built in the Middle Ages, is throughout of very pale-brown or buff stone, relieved in the choir by many emblazoned bosses in the vaulting. Its general effect is that of an ancient church kept in admirable order but not restored, and in which there are several remarkable features 1 See Picturesque Memorials of Winchester, 18 plates, 4°, W., 1830. — Milner, J. (D.D.), Historical Account of W. Cath., 12°, W. 1840. Do. of W. College, 12°, W., n. d. Do. of St. Cross, do., do: Also his History, etc., 2 v. 4°, 1798. — Carter, 0. B., The Ancient Painted Glass of W. Cath., 29 plates, 4°, London, 1845. 122 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. of construction or design. The nave impresses one by its great Length and massiveness combined with elegance. While really Norman it is an example of acutely arched, majestic Perpen- dicular, a robing of which was placed on the original piers and clerestory walls between L845 and L486. They bear a vaulting made peculiar by the arrangement of the groins that are raised along the sides and fitted to the windows of the clerestory, the effect of combined strength and elegance in which is increased by very bold ribs in the vaults and tracery of tho windows. Some relief in color, it may be added, is given by old painted -Mass that (ills the large window at the west end already men- tioned. In great contrast with the nave, and still more with claborato work in the choir, are (be rude, ponderous, Norman arches and wooden roof (1070-1107) thai remain in the transept. Tho choir is unusually long and subdivided. Services arc chiefly held in a part that formed the old choir of the monks, and is enclosed by stalls and elevated several steps. It reaches, as is unusual in England, beneath the central tower to the west side of tho transept. East of this are, successively, the pres- bj bery for the clergy, with two bays, the sanctuary for the altar, with one bay (making three bays (lanked by a stone screen of open tracery glazed with plate-glass), and then a lofty and elaborate solid screen of whitish stone crossing the choir and containing many niches in which there formerly were statues. Beyond this are a capitular chapel, of one bay, the less elevated so-called chantry aisles, with three bays, and the two bays of the Lady Chapel. The styles are chiefly early Pointed (1189- 1 -0 ' ) and Perpendicular, and the color pale-buff relieved by richly painted bosses in the main vaulting (that is of wood), and by fragments of the ancient glass in the clerestory and eastern chapels. A very open, lofty, and elaborate oak screen, put up in L875, separates the nave from tbi* service-choir and its stalls erected about 1296, also of oak, but that has grown almost black with age. They are thought to be the finest of their date and style in England. No parts of the interior are, however, more remarkable than tho astonishingly rich white stone chantries of tho bishops. WINCHESTER. 123 On the south side of the nave are those of Edington (1345-66) and Wykham (1367-1404) ; along, the chantry aisles those of Beaufort (1406-47) and Waynflete (1447-86); and on the outer sides of the capitular chapel those of Fox (1509-28) at the south, and Gardiner (1531-55) at the north. They show the most refined taste in England during two centuries applied to the Pointed style and producing work that compares well with the Gothic and Renaissance flourishing at the same time in France and Italy ; they also show a mastery of geometry suggestive of an age when men made mathematics help them to discover continents, as well as to beautify the House of God. These chantries are small, narrow chapels placed between two piers, endowed for masses to be said for persons of whom they are memorials. The sides have glazed or closed tracery below, and lofty open arches above it bearing tracery, that, in the later works, is wonderfully rich and intricate, and crowned by numerous crocketed pinnacles. Originally they were orna- mented with bright gilding and fine color, traces of which still remain. The other monuments are very interesting. One of them, in the south transept, is new, in memory of Bishop Wilberforce, and is an example of the arts to-day well worthy of a place near the great mediaeval masterpieces. It is large, canopied, and made of stone like that of Caen, except the pillars, that are of dark marble. Figures of angels in the interior bear a tablet of red marble that sustains a recumbent figure of the bishop. Near it is a plain black slab in memory of quaint old Isaac Walton, whose " Lives " and " Angler " have so often been reprinted during the last two centuries. The font, of black marble curiously carved, should be observed. It has been called the " crux antiquariorum" for its age and story are a puzzle. Britton, who has given a full description of it, thought it " of Walkelyn's time," the bishop from 1070 to 1097, and he is probably correct. In the northeastern chapel is an antique-shaped arm-chair, in which Queen Mary sat when she was married to Philip II. It is an easy chair. The crypt is chiefly Norman, of the same age as the transept, and shows the French round apse of the choir, and of the Lady 124 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. Chapel, now beneath the chantry aisles, together with plain and massive work that has a sombre and impressive effect. William of Wykeharn, illustrious for piety and genius, not only built important parts of his cathedral, still a glory and a joy, and his New College, that grand work at Oxford, but also founded at Winchester (1387-93) another college, " as a nursery " for the former ; for he knew the value of a learned, pious, and cultivated ministry. The venerable and impressive buildings here surround two courts, and are entered beneath a noble arch. There is a chapel with four fine windows on each side, and one at the end, thought to be the richest in all England. The fan-traceried (and now gilded) ceiling was designed, they say, by the great bishop. There are also clois- ters (132 feet square), built early in the fifteenth century, with arched roofs made of Spanish chestnut. In the centre is a chapel dating from 1430, used as a library since 1627, and of late restored. Another indispensable part of an old English college is the Hall, here 63 feet long, 33 feet wide, and having a richly ornamented ceiling. At the Reformation the institution narrowly escaped a dissolution, as was again the case in the Civil War ; but happily, it is still flourishing at the ripe age of five centuries, the alma mater of many bishops, noted clergymen, and men of letters. Another institution cherished by the Church, and even older than the college, is established only about a mile from the cathedral, and should be mentioned in connection with it. The Hospital of St. Cross was founded by a brother of King Stephen, Bishop De Blois, " between the years 1132 and 1136, for the subsistence of thirteen resident poor men, in every nec- essary of life, and for affording one ample meal in each day to one hundred other indigent out-boarders," and also for the support of twenty-six assistants. It was, indeed, a mediasval "Old Men's Home," — no new invention, — and on a scale that makes some modern institutions appear very humble, especially in buildings, for those of St. Cross are noble. The distribution of beverages was also on a» great scale, for " each poor man " had daily " a gallon and a half of good small beer." A delightful walk across green meadows, amid scenery of per- SALISBURY. 125 feet English beauty, takes one to the Hospital. It is a quad- rangle of low gray buildings, simple but very picturesque, with a beautiful mantle of native ivy, to which a fig-tree has been added and trained over the porch of the hall. An old man in a long black gown, perhaps, as once the writer found him, eighty-seven years old, will show the place ; and ale in a horn, and white bread on a wooden plate will be served at the lodge- door, as they have been for eight hundred years to wayfarers. In the centre of the old and curious eating-hall is a hearth of bricks, on which a charcoal fire was built " six times a year," he told us, " that the old men might assemble and enjoy them- selves an afternoon." The church shows the prominence of religious character in these old institutions, for it is a noble cruciform edifice, measuring 150 feet by 120 feet, built chiefly by De Blois. The style is good and massive Norman, and the color inside pale-buff, excepting in the choir and central tower, where there is recent colored painting, that may be according to old precedents, but that might be much better. On each side of the choir there is an oblong chapel of clean stone, and in the northern transept some rich work, all of which is Norman. Salisbury 1 is a quiet, rural city, built on level ground, from which at various distances, low, broad hills rise, and is a pleas- ant centre from which several excursions can be made. Within an easy drive is Stonehenge (page 16), one of the oldest monu- ments in England. Two miles north is forsaken but still well- known Old Sarum, an important medieval place, where the old Sees of Wiltshire, Wilton, Sherborn, and Ramsbury were gathered in 1078, and whence the bishops moved to Salisbury about 1217. The site is a large hill, now marked by a few trees 1 See History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, etc., 8°, London, 1719, 1723, 1728. — A Description, etc., 4°, 1774. — Do. also of the Chapels, Inscriptions, etc., 4°, Salisbury, 1787. — Dodsworth, Wm., An historical account of the Episcopal See and Cathedral Church of Sarum or Salisbury, royal 4°, Salisbury, 1814. — Hall, Rev. P., Picturesque Memorials of Salisbury, and Old and New Sarum, 4°, Salisbury, 1834. — Milner, J. (D.D.), A Dissertation on the modern style of altering ancient cathedrals as exemplified at Salisbury, 4°, London, 1798. 126 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. and curious earthworks on the summit. In other directions are large, noble residences, — Wilton House (James I.'s time), famed for its marbles; Longleat (1567-79), a grand Eliza- bethan mansion; Wardour Castle (1770-76), in modern style, with a valuable gallery of paintings, and Longford, a peculiar castle (1591), triangular in form, with a round tower placed at each angle. The chief interest of Salisbury is, however, con- centrated around the close and its cathedral. The Cathedral, built almost entirely between 1220 and 1258, is not only the chief work in Early English, but also one of the few great mediaeval churches built in one design and style. It has great length, two transepts, no west towers, and the most lofty spire in England. The exterior is venerably gray, un- marred by restorations, and shown admirably from the north and west across green lawns that stretch in those directions, and are studded by old vigorous trees. Throughout the edi- fice buff Chilmark freestone, that breaks easily, is used. A deep gray given it by long exposure is made still more sombre by a profusion of lichens. While ornament is fairly distributed over all parts, it is most abundant on the west front, which, although it has small portals and has not the effect obtained by towers, is made rich and impressive by sculpture. Its archi- tectural work has been restored, but moderately ; the statuary, placed in four rows of canopied niches across the" front, except where windows intervene, shows possibly a dozen of the ancient figures, carefully repaired. The numerous other statues are new, and fresh light-brown in contrast with the iron-gray walls. Christ seated in Judgment occupies the highest niche in the great gable ; over the main door are saints, — George, Margaret, Barbara, Bartholomew, and Catharine of Alexandria. Immense groups, like those on some of the French cathedrals, are lacking, yet ranks of the great confessors of the faith stand here arrayed, like the advancing leaders of the church militant, to meet and welcome coming worshippers. The interior has undergone great changes for the better in the last five and twenty years. When the writer first saw it, it looked bare and cold, and was made almost dismal by a coat of dingy, monotonous whitewash given it in the dark ages, a hun- Ill If J SALISBURY. 127 dred years ago, when light was sought by such devices. At that period England had grown stupid, cold, and wicked. She overworked her children, bought slaves, and tried to tax Amer- ica. Then judgments were sent on her, and among them was a man named James Wyatt. He smashed tombs and altars, flung the rich old glass by cart-loads into the town ditch, bedaubed the walls with his mean monochrome, and in other ways committed outrages upon this glorious church. He also tried his hand at Hereford and elsewhere. An age with men of living faith is now removing traces of his presence, and in five visits in as many years, the writer has enjoyed and watched the transfor- mation they have wrought throughout the whole interior, from the Lady Chapel to the western front and great north porch. The great north porch, an English feature, near the western front, is here one of the best in England. It is a deep, high, gabled archway, bordered inside by arcades of tracery, all of which had become much decayed, but have just been restored, and forms an approach to a large portal opening to the nave. The whole interior at once gives an impression of space and lightness, of the wide sweep of its arches, the smallness of its piers, and the great area of the windows, all in most marked contrast with the features of the preceding Norman style. This reaction in design, already mentioned (page 100), is suggestive of the striking change that has at times occurred in other mat- ters, as for instance, in the seventeenth century in England, and in the appreciation of the mediseval arts during our age, com- pared with the utter lack of it a century ago. In place of the dead coldness then, the ancient love of truth and color is revived. The effect of age has, indeed, almost disappeared, but an in- terior much like what it was in the thirteenth century is now shown, as if preserved with unfaded freshness. In the nave, the arches, the walls of the aisles, and the ribs of the vaulting, are pale gray ; the faces of the groins are white ; the main pillars are dark, varied, gray, clean stone ; and the slender Early Eng- lish shafts, shown through the whole triforium, are very dark green Purbeck marble. There is colored glass now at the west end only, for the ravages of Wyatt have left ugly com- mon glass elsewhere. The restoration of the nave has been 128 SOUTHERN CATHEDEALS. accomplished in about six years, from 1878 to 1883 ; that of the choir was half a dozen years earlier, and of the chapter-house, between 1855 and 18G0. Among other features it will be no- ticed that the ends of the main or western transept correspond in their design, as they very rarely do, and that the southern end has simple colored glass (1881). At the northeastern pier of the great central tower is a new and very handsome pulpit of pale drab stone with Purbeck shafts. The Rood- screen (at the west end of the choir) is a new one, made of metal richly wrought and gilded, and is very open and superb. In the choir there is the same effect of airiness and lightness that gives character to the nave, but there is much more color, that has been recently applied according to designs or sugges- tions in the old work, thus giving prominence to this important portion of the edifice, as well as to the various features of the design. Upon the mouldings of the arches in the main arcade and the triforium, and on the ribs of the main vault, are red and bluish green, while gilding emphasizes the bosses of the latter and the capitals of the pillars in the clerestory. In con- trast, the faces of the vaulting are white, relieved by many round medallions with pale blue grounds, on which are painted figures ; and some of the spandrels of the main arcade are filled with scroll-work in pale colors. Set in this framing are the in- tenser hues of new stained glass, brightening all the lower east- ern windows ; and adding to the polychrome is that of a rich and beautiful pavement, which shows what can be done with modern English tiles, that help, it may be said, to distinguish the choir from the nave, which is paved with smoothed dark and whitish stones laid in no set pattern. The Lady Chapel and the ad- jacent parts have a very light and rich effect, although there the amount of color is not great. Pale -buff stones form the walls, the seams in which, as well as in the vaults, are painted red, and the mouldings on the latter dark, dull-red and green, offset by scroll-work where they intersect. A great number of slender polished Purbeck shafts give their usual strong con- trast of color, and also of form, compared with the rude, heavy Norman piers common only a short time before they were designed. SALISBURY. 129 The cloisters (1263-84), unusually large and good, have not been extensively restored, and were not hurt by Wyatt, so that they retain the venerable aspect given them by their great age, with something of the beauty of their youth. The chapter-house, of the same date, is octagonal and is one of the largest in the coun- try. Its vaulting is concentrated and supported by a central clus- ter of very slender shafts of polished Purbeck marble. Reaction from the Norman massiveness is here perhaps too great, and there is thought to be a lack of boldness. Polychrome is here again prominent in the decoration, for the white faces of the groins are relieved by red lines in the seams between the stones, and by colored stripes and gilding in the ribs, by gilding on the foliated bosses, and by radiating painted scrolls. In the large four-light windows is tracery also painted with* designs in color, and stained glass increases the richness, as also do the hues of glazed tiles that form the pavement. An elaborately painted arcade around the lower portion of the wall is, however, one of the chief features. Along its spandrels are primitive designs cut in relief, and recolored and regilded about 1860, when the paint seems to have been laid on too thick, or else it has been affected by dampness in the walls, from which it is now peeling. The subjects of the work form a curious series of scenes in Bible history, from the Creation to the overthrow of Pharaoh and the giving of the Law by God to Moses ; a style of work unusual in England, and while small and rude compared with similar com- positions in France and Italy, yet of great interest. For a long time these sculptures were left neglected and much broken, and the building itself was in a dangerous condition before the re- storation that was done in memory of Bishop Denison, under the charge of Mr. Clutton. The best view of the exterior, and one of the most charming of all views of a mediaeval cathedral, is from the northeast, where the unusual picturesqueness of its outlines can be fully seen. Both of the transepts, the Lady Chapel, the north porch, and, over all, the graceful spire four hundred feet in height — a worthy mate to the great masterpiece at Chartres — are grouped as Gothic art has never elsewhere united its impres- sive dignity and beauty. The grander size and wonderful 9 130 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. elaboration at Milan and at Cologne have their pre-eminence, and so have the unrivalled front at Reims, the spire in " Mech- lin lace " at Antwerp, and that " miracle " in dark red stone at Strasbourg. Each in its own peculiar glory is unrivalled, and so, also, is this view of Salisbury Cathedral ; it shows us one of the wide world's treasures, one of the triumphs of mediaeval art and piety. Bristol is an irregular and not excessively clean city, built in a valley and upon both banks of the Avon, and although it is inland, the river makes it chiefly noted as the largest and busiest port in the west of England. The Cathedral stands on a hill, beside a little park called the College Green, and although the see it represents dates only from 1542, parts of the edifice are very early. Originally it was the church of an Augustinian monastery, and is now by preservation or rebuilding almost complete, showing, to an unusual extent, examples of the work of many periods and also several peculiar features. The oldest of the more impor- tant parts remaining is the chapter-house (1142-1170), nearly a double square in area, with two bays of vaulting that are crossed by heavy ribs with zigzag ornaments. On the sides are two tiers of arcades, above which are cut elaborate inter- laced bands or mouldings. It is, altogether, one of the best large examples of late Norman work in England, and its effect is uncommonly impressive. A portion of the cloister that remains has a "lean-to" roof of wood, and large flying but- tresses like timbers. The next oldest portion of the building is the Lady Chapel (1196-1215), of an oblong shape, placed, as it seldom is in England, on the north side of the choir, which is Decorated and about a century later. Although the nave is in the same style and design, it was not built until between 1867 and 1878. There is no clerestory or triforium. The vaultings spring directly from the main arcade of clustered pillars, many of which are dark lias; and the aisle on each side is nearly as high as the central part, more in the German than the English manner. In the vaulting; of the aisles there is another feature BRISTOL. — WELLS. 131 that is quite unique. A bridge or horizontal buttress runs across at the top of each pier and is supported by a pointed arch with open spandrels, — thus forming a brace against the thrust of the main vault. There are some very rich sedilia on the south side of the choir close to the altar, and in several places, a considerable number of good monuments. Eight of these latter are, perhaps, unique in design. Square recesses in the walls are bordered by rich mouldings, turned to form a three-sided head from which large foliated cusps extend upon the wall, and smaller open ones point down in bold relief against the shade of the recess. Along the bottom lies the figure of the person commemorated. A new nave of a cathedral in the Pointed style is a novelty ; certainly it is in England. This at Bristol, begun in 1867, well advanced in 1871, and completed in 1878, is, as already stated, a continuation of the design in the choir, and was built under the direction of Mr. G. S. Street. Buff stone, dark lias for shafts on the piers, and traceried windows of remarkable height in the aisles (as is the case in the choir), are prominent characteristics. Although the west front, the only new one in the country except that at St. Albans, still lacks its proposed two towers, it already shows a very large, low, central portal, and what is very rare, especially in such a place in England, a rose-window, an excellent one filled with colored glass. Ex- ternally the nave has a brownish-yellow general color, contrast- ing it with the older parts, that are now dark gray, varied by an intermixture of dingy red sandstone. Wells 1 is a small city in a pleasant region. The Cathedral is not only by far the most important object in it, but, with many antique buildings near by, makes a distinguished part of one of the most charming groups of mediseval works in England. As often is the case, the existing church stands upon ground where others have been from an early date. Begun probably 1 See Cockerell, C. E., Iconography of the West Front of Wells Cathedral, 9 plates, 4°, Oxford, 1851. — Reynolds, II. E., Wells Cathedral, Its Foundation, Constitutional History and Statutes, 28 ills., folio, 1881. — See also Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, Carter, 1785; and Lectures on Sculpture, etc., J. Flaxman, 8°, London, 1829 and 1838. 132 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. about 1214, the nave and transept were finished and conse- crated in 1239, the crypt, chapter-house, and central tower then successively built, and, in 1326, the choir and Lady Chapel completed ; consequently showing throughout the edi- fice very early Pointed or Decorated style. West of the third outer pier of the aisle in the choir the walls are almost Nor- man in their thickness and in the slight projection of the buttresses, and the windows, although of moderate size, seem to have been enlarged. The eastern part is much lighter and more open, in effect and reality. The glory — and peculiarity — of the cathedral is its western front, finished in 1242. No other in the country is so rich in sculpture. Salisbury and Exeter show something like it, but not such effects of light and shade, and such a profusion of figures. On the Continent few walls surpass it ; for the decora- tion is mural, and there is little on the doorways, that are very small and cannot be at all compared with the great foreign portals. The character and early date of the design make it still more remarkable. It was completed " forty-six years before the cathedral of Amiens, and thirty-six years before the cathedral of Orvieto was begun ; and it seems to be the first specimen of such magnificent and varied sculpture, united in a series of sacred history, that is to be found in Western Europe." l The workmanship is probably English, and of a local school, "fraught at once with the gravest and most impor- tant interests of religion, history, and archaeology," says a dis- tinguished architect. 2 The figures, he adds, " were designed to illustrate, in the most ample and striking manner, the great and fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith, its happy advent to this country, and its subsequent protection under the several dynasties to the date of their execution in 1214." There are here, says Britton, one hundred and fifty-three statues of life size, or larger, and double that number of smaller figures. They are arranged in half a dozen, or more, tiers across the front (that is 235 feet wide 3 ). Names have been given by Mr. 1 Flaxman on Sculpture, in Winkle, i., 84. 2 Chas. R. Cockerell, Iconography of Wells, ii. 8 The west front of Amiens is 116 feet, of Notre Dame, 136 feet, of Bourges, about 180 feet. WELLS. 133 Cockerell to each of the important figures, but Mr. Planche has shown that they cannot be identified. The general design appears to have been to place in the lowest tier the early Chris- tian missionaries in the country ; then angels holding crowns and chanting Glorias ; next, personages of the Bible (those of the Old Testament on the south side, and of the New upon the north) ; then lords, ecclesiastics, saints, and martyrs, who did service for the English Church, and also sovereigns and their allies. In the sixth tier the subject is the Resurrection, shown in compositions " startling in significance, pathos, and expres- sion." The central gable, higher still, is filled with the celes- tial hierarchy and the twelve apostles. Christ in majesty, the Virgin, and St. John, were placed above and crowned the mar- vellous design, a glorious rendering in stone, as Mr. Cockerell suggests, of the Te Deum of St. Ambrose. Here, before the people, were presented both the Bible and the Church — the heroes and the heroines of the Faith, to teach, delight, and bless all who approached God's house. The storms of centuries, and the wild passion of iconoclasts, have left this almost match- less work of mediaeval genius worn or broken, and stripped of its rich blue, red, and gold, but recently the whole front has been carefully repaired (1871). Long may the sculptured stones reveal the piety and love of beauty in the men and period that created them, and the perennial majesty of the most an- cient and sublime hymn that the church on earth has sung! The thirteenth century, here in a country town, conceived and carved this broad and lofty front, and made it hardly less a poem than the words of the Italian Saint. We may well ask, Where have wiser, richer men and times built its superior or equal ? The exterior of the Cathedral is dark, sober gray, with here and there a tint of olive. A long, broad lawn extends towards the town from the west front, and forms an admirable ap- proach. Upon the right is the extremely ancient-looking, moated, Bishop's palace ; at the left, reached by a quaint and handsome old stone-covered bridge, is the as curious Vicar's Close, in which there is a long and pleasant court. At every point around the church there is a picturesque view, and that 134 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. commanded from the towers is a pleasant one, reaching over the old town and peaceful rural land around, to a not distant amphitheatre of low hills. The interior has throughout a very pale, or almost whitish, buff tint. There is a moderate amount of colored glass, the chief part of which is in five fine windows in the Lady Chapel. One of the features, that immediately arrests attention, is formed by heavy extra arches placed beneath the central tower, and supporting it by pointed inverted arches that they bear. They are perhaps unique, and although curious, do not tempt repetition, for they show that sometimes, as Professor Willis says, the mediaeval builders " were unskilful, unscien- tific persons, who went on packing their buildings mass on mass, and when the edifice began to settle, they had recourse to all sorts of means and expedients to uphold it." The tower was finished to the roof in 1242, and completed between 1318 and 1321. In 1337-1338, when it had begun to settle badly, these arches were inserted, and they have since kept it secure. Throughout the nave and transept the capitals are remarkable for bold and lavish carving, forming a marked feature there, as also does the triforium, which is unglazed and open, by tall lancets to the roof above the aisles. The choir is a very beautiful example of Decorated. It has a pale-buff color, relieved by bright gold on the bosses in the vaulting, and dark, polished marble shafts supporting richly sculptured canopies (of light stone) ranged above the stalls. In place of a triforium are traceries of elegant design in bold relief. The Lady Chapel and the adjoining retro-choir (1326) have even greater beauty. One of their peculiarities is the in- terlacing of the ribs in an unusually intricate vaulting, in which the mouldings are set off by blue and red lines, and the bosses by rich gilding on grounds of these colors. The carving in the capitals and bosses is also remarkable. The chapter-house is still another peculiarity of this Cathe- dral. It occupies a second story, and is approached by a quaint and stately staircase, for it is placed on a crypt built above ground. The floor is octagonal, and in the centre stands a pillar supporting the vaulting. On the lower portion of the BATH. 135 walls is a rich canopied arcade, above which are large windows filled with geometrical tracery. The crypt is damp, although the sunshine enters it and lights its ponderous walls and vaults, that look as if they could endure until the day of doom. Be- sides these rare features, there are brown-gray and extensive cloisters that are now somewhat broken, but still interesting. This admirable cathedral is very freely shown, and the writer is glad to acknowledge the pleasure he has had while examining every part of it, from the crypt to the top of the central tower. Bath, one of the best known of all the English Spas, or watering places, is very ancient, but its pervading aspect is that of a large and handsome modern city, with neat streets, fine shops, and solid private buildings that are often imposing. For a long time it was much resorted to, and it shows that it was relatively greater and more fashionable in the times of George III. and George IV., although it has maintained the reputation that it then secured. The assembly-rooms and large pump-room, both in semi-classic style, are on a great scale. Their classicism extends to an inscription over the main door of the latter, " API2TON MEN 'TAnP," that does not seem particularly happy to a novice who is drinking the warm water of the spring. One of the largest monuments of social life in Bath, or England, of a hundred years ago, is an extensive Circus, or a stately circle of three-storied houses showing the chief classic orders, coupled pillars, and a bold entablature, all well designed and built of stone, that is now blackened or somewhat disintegrated. The city is large, solid, and sedate rather than cheerful, and is unusually gray-looking from the material used. Without the ever-present smut it would be elegant in an old-fashioned way, and more attractive, for it stands upon a long high slope towards the south that gives it an agreeable exposure. In the lower portion of the city, and environed by it, is the cruciform Abbey Church, that dates from 1500, and was almost entirely the work of Bishop King, carried out in late Perpen- dicular. The monastery was suppressed in 1539, and during 136 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. the next thirty years the church was seriously injured. It has recently, however, been thoroughly repaired, without depriving it of the effect of age, and the upper parts of the exterior re- main an earthy gray, while the lower parts show an almost uni- form expanse of black. Like many of the minor western fronts in England, this one has no towers and only closes in the nave and aisles, thus presenting two low parts and a high centre, at each corner of which is a buttress. On the face of both of the latter is a curious decoration, a " Jacob's Ladder," with sub- stantial rounds bearing numerous ascending angels carved in a stone now become worn and crumbling. Other damaged figures fill the gable. The interior — throughout of a pale whitish-gray color, on which here and there a stain appears — is characterized by height, the smallness of the transept, the width of the aisles, the great size of the four end windows, the elaborate fan traceries in the ceilings of the choir, and the great number of small mural monuments and tablets. Of the latter, says Mr. Britton (p. 66), there were in his time " at least 450," thought to be the largest number in any edifice in the country. Not less notable is the elliptical ceiling of the nave, with a span of thirty feet nine inches and a rise of only three feet, that, says Carter, " may be justly deemed a master-piece of ma- sonry." The tracery covering it is, however, the only solid stone work. Pews, with which the nave is filled, give it, to some extent, the appearance of a large parish church, but a peculiar aspect and consequent name belong to the church, for, from the number and great area of the windows, and general lightness, it has been styled " The Lantern of England." Not- withstanding the opportunities, there is not much colored glass. In the western window, thought from its design to be suggestive of the Trinity, is a small amount, and the clerestory has a little that is tinted. In the great window nearly filling the south end of the transept there is some that is old and good, although not very bright. At the east end is a huge window, similar in size, 50 feet high and 20 feet wide, noticeable for its square head (unusual for a window of these dimensions), and for being one of the largest containing ancient colored glass in England. EXETER. 137 Mr. Britton has mentioned (p. 53) some curious particulars about the measurements of this edifice. Both the nave (211 by 35 feet) and the transept (120 by 20 feet), he says, have the proportions of Noah's Ark, six times as long as wide ; the whole church (225 by 80 feet) occupies about the area of Sol- omon's Temple, a triple square ; and the choir, with an area of two squares and a half, has that given by Moses to the Tabernacle. The Episcopal see was transferred from Wells to Bath about 1091 or 1092, and the name of " Bath and Wells " given it about 1135, since which date it has retained this title, except from 1192 to 1242, when it was styled " of Bath and Glastonbury." Exeter is a large city, standing in a pleasant, moderately hilly region. It has been successively inhabited by Britons, Ro- mans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, and, since these last were a separate people, by substantial west-country English. Its pre- vailing aspect is suggestive of the recent generations of the latter. There are some new buildings that are picturesque, but the streets chiefly show the plain, or to be more correct, the ugly style of English domestic architecture that existed from fifty to a hundred years ago. The Cathedral, although not a small one, is comparatively low, and is made to seem more so from the effect of its posi- tion ; for the chief open ground adjoining, a grassy area of moderate size on which large trees are scattered, slopes to- wards its northern side. Two square Norman towers, placed perhaps uniquely midway of the length, give it the cross shape, and form the transept. Almost as great a rarity is the low western front marked by an imposing screen with statuary, three small doors, a wide elaborate window, and a broad gable. The screen, dating from the fourteenth century, and a worthy companion for the sculptured marvel at Wells, has three tiers of statues, richly canopied. In the first row are angels, in the next are knights and kings, and in the third are saints, apos- tles, and the great heroes of the Bible. Throughout the exterior the color is a varied gray, where a dull black has not over* 138 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. spread the surface, as it has done more perhaps, than on any- other large English church, with the possible exception of Westminster Abbey. The interior is remarkable for its main vaulting, uniform throughout, for its rich details, and for the thorough restora- tion or redecoration, lately finished at a cost of £ 50,000, and making a change that has been great and gratifying. When the writer first saw the interior it was nearly covered by a coat of dirty whitewash, and the stalls and other minor parts were poor. The dirt and meanness, not the dignity, of years were there ; and much of the mediaeval beauty was obscured, or was destroyed. Now reverent study, wealth, and skill, have done a work particularly, characteristic of our times, a large example of which has been first described upon these pages in the ac- count of Salisbury. Things that disfigured have been banished, and the grace of modern art in ancient styles has been brought in by lavish hands, with the spirit of the mediaeval builders, who, we should remember, did not hesitate to make still greater transformations. The interior, like the exterior, is chiefly Decorated of the fourteenth century. Its unbroken vault, a rarity, is low, — too low for justice to its excellence, but otherwise the general effect is admirable. Color, more varied than is usual in England, is chiefly that of the stones employed. Clustered pillars compos- ing the piers, both in the choir and nave, are of unpolished Purbeck, a dark earthy brown, contrasted with a lighter tint upon the walls. In the nave, the faces of the groins are simi- lar in color, and are contrasted strongly with ribs that are much lighter. The vaulted ceiling of the transept is unusually dark, but in the choir the ground is smooth and buff, the ribs are decorated with pale blue, bright red, and gold, and the large bosses have rich gilding heightened by red in the under- cutting. Most of the windows in the nave now have some colored glass ; the western windows are filled with it. At the entrance to the choir is a rood-screen with Purbeck shafts un- polished, panels with dark, ancient painting, and above, pale, whitish stone that is well carved. TJie choir, containing the most magnificent new work, has EXETER. 139 coloring similar to that already mentioned, but increased in amount by stained glass, filling all the windows at the east end and parts of those elsewhere. Rich new tiles, and marbles now form the pavement. The old, ordinary stalls have been replaced by new, of oak, elaborate and beautiful, with lofty canopies borne upon slender pillars. Behind them, and along the four eastern bays, is a tall open-traceried screen made of a light-colored stone. At one side is the Bishop's throne, an old work now black from age, fifty-three feet in height, and one of the most stately in the country, superb with carving that includes a great deal of vine-work in high relief. Among the new objects is the pulpit of exquisite veined alabaster, standing on a reddish mar- ble base, and also the reredos of the same material, studded with gem-like stones and varied by high reliefs cut in white marble. At the eastern end the chapels contain several monu- ments that bear recumbent figures, richly canopied, all now re- stored and gorgeous in red, blue, and gold. Besides these rich works, the Lady Chapel has a reredos with nine painted panels, in which there are figures on gold grounds, and over which are traceried gables. The corner chapels, each of one bay, have groins with light-blue grounds, on which are small white cres- cents and gilt stars, somewhat in the French style. Exeter with its restorations, shows an interior, like many an- other in England, worth a long journey to see, and proving, by its magnificence and the skill it exemplifies, that ancient and modern English ecclesiastical art are worthy of each other. THE MIDLAND CATHEDEALS. St. Paul's, 1 London, the largest and most modern of the English Cathedrals, and the only one in Roman style, of which 1 See Dugdale, Sir Win., Knt. The History of St. Paul's Cathedral, from its first Foundation until these times, etc., folio, London, 1658. Second ed., pub- lished by Dr. E. Maynard, London, 1716. Also by Henry Ellis, 69 plates, Lon- don, 1818. See, also, Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London, by Britton and Pcgin, 2d ed., by W. H. Leeds (vol. i.), 2 vols. 8°, London, 1838. — Milman, H. H. (D. D.), Annals of St. Paul's Cathedral, 8°, London, 1868. Also (substantially) 140 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. it also is one of the most magnificent examples, was erected under the supervision of one architect, one master mason, and one bishop, who lived to see it built, between 1675 and 1710. It is the grand successor to one of the largest mediaeval churches, burned in 166G, which has not been surpassed in great length, 690 feet, and the height of the spire, 520 or 534 feet, and which occupied about the site of the existing structure, but extended farther towards the west, east, and north. 1 The nave of old St. Paul's, built near the end of the eleventh cen- tury, was Norman, and is said to have been the most mag- nificent example of that style in England; the transept was transitional, and finished about 1200 ; and the choir, that dated from twenty to forty years later, was Early English. A long wall enclosed not only the cathedral, chapter-house, and clois- ters, but also the bishop's palace, and the churchyard, in which stood Paul's Cross, with a pulpit, where there was preaching in the open air, and where public meetings were held before the Civil War. In the Great Fire the church was almost destroyed, but efforts were made to repair it, which, however, proved use- less, and the ruins were removed. After much deliberation by many persons, Sir Christopher Wren laid the foundation of the existing building on June 21, 1675. His trials in various ways were great, and in some the same, Handbook by him, published by J. Murray, 1879. The same wood- cuts are used in both books. — Longman, Wm., A History of the Three Cathe- drals dedicated to St. Paul in London, etc., 8 P , London, 1873. The woodcuts are much better than in the above. 1 The comparative size of the great modern domed churches is as follows in English feet : — Area, Sup- Pro- Len. B , dth portion, in. Dome, Diam- High, sq. ft. ports. high. eter. in. St. Peter's, Rome, 227,069 59,308 0,261 669 442 432 139 146 St. Mary's, Florence, 84,802 17,030 0,201 310 139 St. Paul's, London, 84,025 14,311 0,170 500 223 330 112 110 St. Genevieve, Paris, 60.287 9,269 0,154 190 67 St. Isaacs, St. Petersburg, 68,845 18,301 305 166 71 98 Mediaeval (not domed) N. Dame, Paris, 64,108 Dome , Baths of Caracalla, 116 112 Reims, 67,475 Pantheon, Rome, 143 142 Chartres, 68,260 St. Sophia, Constantinople, 201 115 Amiens, 71,208 St. Mark, Venice, 190 75 Cologne, 81,464 Baptistry, Florence, 110 86 Milan, 107,782 Mad. della Salute, Venice, 133 70 Superga, Turin, 128 64 Invalides, Paris, 173 80 o Q X D < W ST. PAUL'S. 141 things he erred, yet he proved to be, as a man and an architect, one of the noblest produced by his country, and his triumph after long struggles was deservedly such as few men secure. On February 25, 1723, his wonderfully busy, well-spent life closed peacefully at the great age of ninety-one, and with splendid ceremonies he was laid beneath the mighty dome created by his genius, — "non sibi, sed bono publico," as the truth is inscribed upon his work. The long familiar words that afterwards were placed on a memorial stone, express the thought of him that will occur*to visitors while the grand tem- ple stands : " Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." The position of St. Paul's is noble and appropriate, and has sufficient elevation to give due prominence to the chief church of a mighty city, from the very heart of which the vast form rises amid the people in their daily life ; not their " fool's cap," as Byron styled the dome, but the crown of their glory, towering from " busy London's central roar " into the silence of the sky, where God often shows how his sunshine can dispel the darkest clouds that earth helps to create. The exterior shows, throughout, two orders in two lofty stories, two high western towers or cupolas, and the immense mass of the dome, the drum of which is girded by a colonnade. While the upper parts, or those exposed to the west wind, have grown bleached-gray, the lower parts and those where smoke and dampness can collect have been blackened. No light like that of Athens, Italy, and Andalusia, can ever penetrate this northern air and make the Portland stone glow with the hues that the warmer southern atmosphere imparts to more suscep- tible material ; but human industry might substitute with great advantage the effect of a thorough washing, for dirt is not venerable, and gray, even if cold, has a quiet dignity. There also cannot be in such a crowded neighborhood the broad turf or views through trees seen in the lesser cities ; but still, room has been found for some of these characteristic English beau- ties, and for beds of flowers around St. Paul's ; and even if the structures required by London's busy life must stand in place of the picturesque old buildings that often environ retired cathedrals, the activity of the great city is as appropriately 142 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. represented, and quaintness is not altogether lost amid the pressure of 'modern business. A great deal that is curious and interesting, especially to lovers of books, will be found near by in Ave Maria and Paternoster Lanes. The interior shows the effect as well as the reality of space, of strong masses, and of broad plain surfaces divided by elabo- rate architectural ornament. The style is Roman Renaissance, similar to that of St. Peter's, but the coloring is not Italian. As the deep blue sky and gorgeous radiance of the sunsets that light Rome, and seem to irradiate her art, are never here, so the pale, colder air of London colors the interior of her great church. It is a whitish-gray throughout, relieved by lavish gilding on rich, raised work in the high-arched ceiling, and beneath the dome, and by a hardly visible, gigantic frescoing on the soaring curve of that majestic vault. Although, espe- cially on dull days, the effect is apt to seem too bare and cold, the architect did not intend, we are informed, that this should be the permanent effect. To form this, several designs for polychromatic decoration have been prepared, and much dis- cussion has ensued in regard to them and consequent changes in the expression of the whole interior. The present mono- chrome is hardly disagreeable, and has a certain dignity, that might be lessened by a varied coloring which would ob- scure the solid stonework now presented in grand repose, a trait of the best English character as well as of the native styles of architecture. These styles indeed depend on form, or light and shade, more than they do on color for effect. Yet as the style is not native but Italian, it may justly be consid- ered that the features of the latter should be preserved here and polychrome be used. At the same time it remains a ques- tion whether many hues, especially in small divisions, might not impair the simple greatness of the general design. A vest of spangles and a coat of many colors may be fine, but some persons do not think that they are becoming on a solid English- man. The arrangement so effective in St. Peter's might be made here with advantage. By it the great arcade in simple tints would stand out in clear relief against the slightly darker and more richly colored aisles, and with some judicious manage- ST. PAUL'S. 143 ment this interior might be made second only to St. Peter's in effect, as it is now in size. About thirty years ago St. Paul's had a whited, shabby aspect. Ten years later it was being slowly decorated, with gold used somewhat profusely on the ceiling, and meanwhile the dome had been repainted and re- gilded. But the London atmosphere is trying, and this work has faded, and of late has grown dingy. There is not much colored glass, and it might be well to consider whether an abundance of it would not give a large part of the polychrome needed. Two of the pendentives of the dome have large and good mosaic figures on gold grounds, and also form a good kind of colored decoration. Among other features are two organ- cases, the stalls in the choir, and lesser objects, — all richly carved in oak, that has grown very dark, and all interesting examples of English workmanship. The monuments erected in the aisles and chapels of the nave and transept form a large collection, — a worthy rival of those in San Antonio at Padua and Santa Croce at Florence. In St. Paul's the memorials are chiefly those of the military and naval heroes of the country during the last hundred years, but several of the famous English painters, engineers, and scientific men are also commemorated. If many of the designs exhib- ited are interesting works of art, some native criticisms on others, quoted by an American, might seem to be unamiable. White marble is the material chiefly used, now in better con- dition than formerly, for of late it has been kept cleaner. Not- withstanding the great number of the memorials, it was not until 1796, say Pugin and Britton, that " the first public monu- ment was erected in this cathedral," — one to " John Howard, placed under the southeast recess of the cupola," and forming a worthy pioneer of its distinguished companions. On three other sides of the dome, in corresponding niches, are monu- ments to Dr. Johnson, Sir William Jones, and Sir Joshua Rey- nolds (by Flaxman). Appropriately, the two most distinguished commanders on the sea and in the field have two of the most prominent monuments ; one of them to Lord Nelson and the other, in the southwest chapel of the nave, to the Duke of Wel- lington, constructed of dark bronze and light marble, and hardly 144 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. rivalled in magnificence by any other ever raised to a subject in Great Britain. The vast size and strength of the cathedral can be fully real- ized only by an ascent to the ball beneath the cross, and a care- ful look at many things that can be seen along the way. At a great height above the pavement imposing views of the interior are gained from galleries surrounding the inside of the upright part of the dome, one of which, called the Whispering Gallery because whispers throughout the great circuit can be distinctly heard there, is among the popular curiosities of the cathedral. Farther up, dark stairs in half circles lead to the space between the ceiling and the roof ; for, as often is the case, there are two coverings to the dome as well as to other parts, the inner one of which is of brick and the outer of timber. Among the in- tricacies of the ponderous frame made of the latter are half- visible wooden stairs that reach as far as the cupola, above which the final ascent is by a tall perpendicular and precarious looking ladder, of wood in the lower part and of iron in the upper part. Very little can of course be seen by any one who has squeezed into the ball ; but the sensation of being in the highest attainable place can be felt ; and if the day is windy the vibration and humming of the huge metal bubble in the air, like the trembling of the larger ball on St. Peters, will give a greater sensation. The view presented from the Golden Gallery, a broad stone walk around the outside of the base of the cupola, is unique, extending as it does across the most enormous stretch of human habitations to be seen on earth. In ordinary weather no end can be discovered to the array of buildings ; for they fill the prospect and recede and disappear in the dim air. At times, however, when the smoke and fog are gone, the distant hills or parks and fields are seen. Few of the streets are clearly marked, but the winding river, narrow and turbid, shows itself distinctly, and the dusky towers at Westminster, as well as the pale turrets of the keep of William I. towards the east, are prominent among the many spires or lofty objects that rise in great numbers from the mass of lower structures. Only these broad characteristics of the view can be noted here, for the ST. ALBAN'S. 145 details and suggestions of the whole view must be omitted ; they would form a sketch of the development of England. The services, held daily and three times on Sunday are im- pressive, and, especially the latter, are very well attended, by a congregation of all sorts and conditions of the people, which is in itself remarkable. Special services on notable occasions are now, perhaps, nowhere else surpassed in stateliness and in- terest. One of the most striking of them, held in June, is the annual meeting of the Charity Children of London, who, to the number of thirty-five hundred, in quaint dresses, are arranged on seats that rise in long slopes from the pavement to the arches above the aisles. Combined with the effect given by the grandeur of the edifice and the immensity and character of the congregation, is a very picturesque one of color ; for while the boys are chiefly dressed in black, and nearly all the girls, with their large capes and aprons, have noticeable white caps, the members of each one of the many schools assembled wear a ribbon, apron, or rosette of a color peculiar to it, light or dark blue, purple, green, or cherry. Besides these, here and there a whole school is arrayed in dresses of scarlet or dark purple, or other distinctive colors, all of which are well grouped. Fash- ions centuries old are also shown, dating from the various times when the schools were founded, together with their ban- ners raised above their highest seats. Impressive as are the great features of the unique scene, its spirit and significance are not realized until, with magnificent effect, the many thousand persons who fill the floor unite with the children in a full cathedral service, and add volume to their youthful voices. One can seldom feel such a thrill as is given by the simplicity and yet power of the children's singing, with its wonderful precision, tone, and freshness, joined with that of the great congregation, in a service and a scene produced only by ages of English art, benevolence, and steadfast faith. At St. Alban's, 1 one of the oldest, largest, and most inter- esting churches in the country, has become the seat of one of 1 See Neale, Jas., The Abbey Church of St. Alban, text and 60 plates, atlas folio, London, 1877. — Handbook, published by J. Murray, 1877. — Also, 10 / 146 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. the newest bishoprics, placed in this ancient city, and giving some measure of due honor to the protomartyr of England. Albanus, a Roman soldier under Diocletian, was converted to Christianity by a priest whom he protected and enabled to escape from persecution. For this conduct he was executed 1 at Verulamium, and became the first martyr to the faith in Britain. On the spot where he received his crown, the King of Mercia, Offa II. , in 793, established a Benedictine monastery, and in 1077, the Conqueror made Paul of Caen its abbot. Paul had been a monk of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, when the great church of St. Stephen was erected. He rebuilt the church here, but on an even far grander scale than that at Caen, for instead of eleven bays in the nave and choir, he built eighteen. The materials used were various, and included a great quantity of stones and bricks from ruins of the Roman town adjacent, and of course the style was Norman. When the Pointed style displaced the round-arched Romanesque in France and England, its ascendency appeared here as it did elsewhere. William de Trumpyngtone, the twenty-second abbot (1214-1235), pulled down the west part of the church and built the four west bays in Early English, and at successive later dates the eastern por- tions were changed, one of the latest parts being the reredos of the high altar in Perpendicular. After passing through the usual vicissitudes, the daily life, the grandeur, and prosperity, of a great English abbey, that of St. Alban's became associated with events of special interest. King Richard II. visited it for eight days in 1381, when he sup- pressed the insurrection of Jack Straw, who put the Abbey in great peril. The wars of York and Lancaster swept over the adjacent region, until, on the twenty-third of May, 1455, King Henry VI. joined battle at St. Alban's with the Duke of York, and suffered a severe defeat from which he went a prisoner to London. Six years later, Margaret, his queen, encountered here the forces of the House of York led by the Earl of War- Nicholson, H. J. B. (D.D.), The Abbey of St. Alban. — Buckler, I. C. and A. C, History of the Architecture of. — Chappie, J., Account of the Restoration, to 1874. 1 The date is variously given, 305, 284, 293. ST. ALBAN'S. 147 wick, and obtained a victory. A quiet, but most memorable event occurred in 1480, when the third printing-press in England was established in the Abbey, and the first book it produced appeared, — a quarto, entitled the Rhetorica nova Laurencii G-uilelmi de Saona, of which only three copies are said to exist. Six or seven other books were printed here in the six years en- suing, after which work seems to have ceased. On the fifth of December, 1539, the forty-first abbot surrendered the Abbey to Henry VIII., and subsequently the extensive buildings were from time to time demolished, until the great gateway and the church alone remained, and these became dilapidated. Within the last twenty-five years, however, important and much needed restorations have been made. St. Alban's stands beside and on a hill, along the crest of which the church extends, imposing in simplicity and vast dimensions. It is twenty miles (N. W. by N.) from London, from which it is reached with ease by three railways, and in the summer, by a four-horse coach. Few excursions from the city are as interesting ; for besides the great church, and St. Michael's with Lord Bacon's tomb, the Roman walls (p. 43), are worth visiting. The Cathedral is cruciform in ground plan, having a body with aisles, a square east end from which a long Lady Chapel projects, and a bold transept without aisles. At the centre stands a high, plain, massive tower. Twenty years ago the roofs were flat and hidden by battlements or parapets ; the tower was plastered and dark sombre gray in color ; the Lady Chapel, formerly one of the most beautiful in England, was de- faced ; a public passage-way was cut through the fine ante- chapel ; and the piers beneath the tower were insecure. Two lofty and elaborate screens at the ends of the choir were muti- lated, and the eastern part of the interior for a hundred feet in length was ruinous. Outside, the walls were ragged and showed soft gray sandstone, flint work, red bricks with thick seams, and patches of dirty plaster. Now the dilapidated western front has been rebuilt in Decorated style from designs of Sir E. Beckett, at a cost of £20,000, provided by his munificence; a long, steep, and dark-slated roof surmounts the nave and gives 148 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. it a due effect of height ; the ancient surface of the tower is shown, with its construction of red Roman bricks (that also, here and there, appear both on the inside and outside of the edifice) ; the piers are made secure ; the noble chapels are al- most restored, and order, beauty, and propriety again prevail. The interior, peculiarly imposing from the vast length and massive features of the nave, shows, as is always the case, several peculiarities that should be noticed. The choir for service has the unusual form of a Greek cross, consisting as it does of three bays of the nave, the whole of the transept, and a portion of the east end of the church. The arches of the central tower, the transept, and nine bays of the north side of the nave, as well as three upon the south, show the original plain, heavy Norman, while four bays on the north side of the latter and ten on the south, are elegant, yet massive Early Eng- lish. Chestnut wood forms the ceilings of the nave, the central tower, and transept, which are flat and covered with square panels that some years ago were painted dull, crude colors ; now they show medallions and ornaments in the style, or work, of the fourteenth century. Contrasted with these designs is vaulting in the choir, where the faces of the groins have pat- terns of scroll-work, and shields charged with the arms of kings and princes, or emblems of many saints. On the ground of all these ceilings is a pale sage-green tint, relieving the monochrome of the walls which are almost throughout of a pale, buff color. In 1862 and later, several mediaeval paintings of Stations of the Cross were found beneath the whitewash on the side of the Nor- man piers, and four huge figures in the clerestory of the choir. A lofty and elaborate reredos or screen (one of the two al- ready mentioned), east of the altar, filled with canopies and niches, separates the sanctuary of the choir from the Saints' chapel, that occupies the east end of the body of the church. A fine monument to " Good Duke Humphrey " is on the south side, and on the other is a curious " watching-loft," both of which works were once very beautiful. In the centre stood the shrine erected about 1302 to 1308 (or twenty years later?), in memory of St. Alban. It was in Early Decorated style, but so thoroughly lost its identity after mutilation, that not until 1872 PETERBOROUGH. 149 were its remains found, in nearly two thousand pieces, after they had served a long time for walls blocking archways, and were then put together with shellac, says Mr. Neale, (p. 31.) Purbeck marble forms the body of the work and is faced with canopies of clunch, the length being eight feet seven inches, the width three feet two inches, and the height eight feet and three or four inches, (p. 31.) There are traces of a former decoration with red, blue, and gold. Remains have also been discovered of the Shrine of St. Amphibalus, the fellow martyr of St. Alban, that stood eastward in the ante-chapel, thus giv- ing a unique distinction ; for, says Mr. Neale, this " is the only English church which has remains of two ancient shrines." Both the ante-chapel and the Lady Chapel are restored to good condition on the outside, but on the inside they still show some of the mutilations inflicted during the last three hundred years, although they have been wonderfully altered and improved since 1870. The restorations have been chiefly under the direction of the late Sir Gilbert Scott, whose name is a proof of the learning, skill, and care that have been used ; and notwithstanding some animated differences of opinion expressed in speech and print, great praise is not only due the architect, but also those per- sons of the county, especially several noble ladies, by whose help the work — of unusual value to religion, art, and history — has been accomplished. Peterborough. — When Peada, prince of Mercia, wished to marry Alfleda, daughter of the Christian king of Northumber- land, he gained her by renouncing paganism and accepting baptism. He then labored to convert the Mercians, and two years later, in 655, when he ruled them, founded the Abbey of Medhamsted. The region where it stood was lonely, and sur- rounded by wide fens and forests, — as dismal and obscure, in- deed, as were the times ; but civilization was begun there and the Abbey grew. In 871 or 870, the heathen Danes swept like a tempest through the wilderness, and destroyed the buildings and the archives. From the' ruins the establishment arose after 966, and once more grew, but again the Danes came soon after 150 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. William I. was crowned, and perpetrated their customary rav- ages. Of course, the Normans soon took possession of the place, and gradually re-erected the already venerable Abbey ; but about 1116 one of the usual mediaeval conflagrations de- stroyed the church. Then, for the fourth time, work upon it was commenced, and was continued at intervals for about four hundred years, creating the existing cathedral, that thus shows the extremes, and several of the changes, in what are called the Gothic styles. The Norman abbots, John of Se'es and Martin of Bee, between 1117 and 1155, built the choir and east aisle of the transept in Early Norman ; William de Waterville, between 1155 and 1177, completed the transept in middle Norman ; and Benedict, from the latter year to 1193, erected the grand nave in late Norman. The west front was added in Early English, and a " new building," or Lady Chapel, across the eastern end, was built, chiefly from 1496 to 1528, in Perpendicular. The Abbey became the most important of the Benedictine order north of the Thames, and so pre-eminent that " if any Briton had a desire to visit Rome, and could not by reason of its distance, ... he might repair to St. Peter's in this mon- astery, there offer up his vows and receive absolution and the apostolical benediction." When monastic institutions were suppressed in England, John Chambers was the abbot. About eight years after his accession, Catharine of Arragon, first queen of Henry VIII., had been buried in the south aisle of the choir. A short time later it was suggested to the king that he should build " a fair monument for her," and he an- swered, " Yes, he would leave her one of the goodliest in the kingdom," — a promise that he kept in some sense by ordering that the church, soon after the dissolution of the abbey, should be converted into the Cathedral of Peterborough. Abbot Cham- bers, who seems to have been prudent and averse to martyr- dom, desired to preserve this noble edifice that had been placed in his charge, and was so successful that in 1511 he was created the first bishop of the See, on which, furthermore, two-thirds of the monastic property were settled. Henry took the bal- ance. In the Civil War disgraceful ravages were committed. The stained windows, curious altar-piece, and cloisters, for y.Sr <&),#„ Lcciefoa CailiecLrali* PeixoLur gen&s faciei OccioeaiaLLS. Tlie We^ ProfpeA oi jte , CAeiral CHxrech at Peterborough- PETERBOROUGH. 151 which the Cathedral had been famous, were destroyed, with " sottish folly, and illiterate barbarity ; " indeed, the Cathedral, it is thought, was injured more than any other in the country at this period. In later years repairs were made, and recently extensive restorations and rebuilding are in progress, but all traces of the outrages in 1643 have not yet been removed. The Cathedral stands at one side of the quiet city, near the market-place, from which a gray, monastic gateway opens to the close, — a charming spot surrounded by quaint ancient build- ings. A green lawn extends some distance to the western front, one of the grayest in the country, and unique in design, pre- senting three pointed, richly decorated archways, eighty-one feet high, capped by curiously niched gables bearing statuary, and flanked by small towers on which are spires. Within each arch is a deep, dim recess, and at the bottom of the central one is a two-storied porch. The sides and east end of the edifice show remarkably the calm lapse of centuries, in which a light-brown or buff stone, so hard that it retains its surfaces and angles, has grown a hoary or iron gray, that is almost uniform, and undis- turbed by changes. Great simplicity, a lack of pinnacles, the length of the nave, the shortness of the choir, and the French apse (a very small one), are conspicuous. A churchyard, with fine turf and scattered trees, extends along the northern side and eastern end, forming an admirable setting to the venerable edifice, and helping to preserve its beautiful and dignified repose, that is seldom disturbed, except as flocks of sparrows come and go and twitter on the grass, among the branches, or around the ancient walls. Seven hundred years of English life seem to be calmly sleeping there among works wrought in many a day by its best inspirations. Inside the doors, the expression of the church is that of the long, vigorous life, awake and full of noble activity. The interior, when entered as usual at the west, at once im- presses the visitor by the extreme length of the nave, with its three tiers of massive Norman piers and arches, and a grand repose that is sometimes wanting in the lighter, Pointed edifices. It has a general resemblance to the naves at Norwich and Ely, but the details and their grouping, as well as the ceilings, are 152 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. dissimilar. The color is a uniform and very pale buff, except on the ceilings. These are wooden, nearly flat, and panelled lozenge-wise, with borders defined by black or slaty lines, and grounds of deep dull red or blue, relieved by various figures. The central tower was not high, but was large and interesting. When the writer last walked under it, large but old cracks were apparent in the bearing arches, one of which in the north- eastern spandrel was four inches wide, and one of the eastern piers was held in place by iron bands. A few months later it was found that any day the tower might fall, and on January 2, 1883, the work of removal was begun. It was proposed to rebuild the parts taken down, and accordingly, the stones were numbered when laid aside. On his next visit, the writer found that one entire bay of the choir, and one of the clerestory in the transept had been thus taken down, along with the tower ; and that during the operation the construction of the piers was shown. Originally Norman, they had proved that they were not strong enough to bear the tower, then higher than of late, and in the fourteenth century they were altered, and Pointed arches of that date were built above them. Until taken down they seemed to be as massive as they were immense ; but on re- moval they were shown to be mere shells of thin, faced stones, filled with loose sand and rubble. Castle walls built for the Norman barons had cores as cohesive, as conglomerate, that Nature packs, but some of the monks seem to have been far less careful, and accepted cores that only added weight and weakness. There is a curious dissimilarity in the work of the earlier mediaeval builders, and often treatment that would now be called unscientific. Masses for mere effect were built in structures meant for use, and walls like these piers were loaded with worse than useless filling ; but where such piers as those here have for several centuries sustained a heavy, constant weight, some caution, at least, is needed in order to form just opinion^ That these builders soon learned to carry lofty and enormous walls and vaults upon comparatively slender pillars is shown at Salisbury. That the stone they chose was good is shown at Peterborough, where they used the close-grained Barneck freestone, from quarries exhausted before 1400. The ELY. 153 tough English oak also used here proves its quality. A beam, shown to the writer, that for five centuries or more had spanned the choir, was sound, and bark clung to it as when it was grow- ing ; and some of the thin wood used in the original (?) Norman ceiling was found to be sound, although other pieces had become lifeless. In the year 2500 how will the work of to-day appear ? The interior of the transept shows clean surfaces of stone, in marked contrast with an ugly wash on the nave, and with mod- ern coloring of gold and polychrome upon the ceiling of the choir. A very noticeable feature is the semi-circular apse, French in character, although the ceiling is flat and does not have the French style or design. Upon the latter is a large painted decoration by Sir Gilbert Scott, containing a figure of Christ, around which are the words, " I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing." Among other features are good stalls, some colored glass, and a finely colored arcade that extends behind the altar. The Lady Chapel, or " new building," in Perpendicular style and in fine order, has a low-arched, groined ceiling covered with elab-; orate fan tracery. Several altars that were here have disap- peared, and the oldest remaining object is said to be a small, dark monument to Abbot Hedda (?) 870, made of Purbeck marble, with mutilated sculptures, thought to represent Christ with the twelve apostles, and to date more probably from about 1100. The richest modern work is a stone pulpit (that was placed beneath the tower), made of fine-grained Scottish sand- stone, of a deep dull-red color, well relieved by shafts of dark green, and a cornice of variegated reddish marble. There are few monuments, and nothing remains of those to Catharine of Arragon and Mary Queen of Scots, both of whom were buried in the south aisle of the choir, although the portrait of the verger who interred them is preserved. Ely. 1 Eighteen years after the great Benedictine Abbey was begun at Peterborough, another was founded at Ely by 1 See Bentham, J., History and Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Ely, 673-1771, 2 vols., roy. 4°, Cambridge, 1771. Supplement by 154 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. St. Ethcldreda. Although unlike the former, it was built on rising ground, it also was surrounded by the swamps and forests that then covered large tracts in Eastern England, and it also was subjected to similar ravages by the Danes in 870. A cen- tury later it was re-established, and in 1109 became the seat of a new bishopric. The Cathedral, the successor of the earlier church, like that at Peterborough and that at Norwich, although chiefly Norman, shows the successive changes in the mediaeval styles to late Perpendicular. Its nave and transept are dignified and simple Norman ; the west porch and east part of the choir and the great central tower, or octagon, are thought to be the noblest examples of Decorated in the country. Among its most dis- tinguished features are its length, its unique and splendid octa- gon, and the thorough restoration of the interior, a work not surpassed by any other of the kind in Europe. The exterior of the edifice, built of strong Barneck stone, has grown a venerable evenly-tinted gray, varied by whitish lichens and by light-brownish color on the refaced north end of the transept. Except in the western front, the general effect and style are simple. This front presents also an unusual lofty central tower from which extend high wings, the southern one of them flanked by an octagonal tower, — a completing feature now lacking on the northern. All of these parts are covered with rich niches, traceries, or windows of but moderate size. Beneath the tower there is a boldly projecting porch, that has been restored and shows a great deal of carving, and fine colored marble shafts. The centre of the cross formed by the plan is marked by the broad octagon, that is crowned by a smaller one covered with dark metal. These, and the transept, choir, and apse, have many pinnacles, but the nave has none. Varied and pleasant grounds surround the edifice. Along the north- ern side there is a churchyard ; a long, green, shaded public place extends westward from the front ; a grassy area lies east- ward, and southward is a collection of curious old buildings, among which are several remarkable objects. Moonlight, as W. Stevenson, imp. 4°, Norwich, 1817. — History of Ely, 2d ed., edited by W. Stevenson, imp. 4°, London, 1812, and his Supplement, Norwich, 1817. ELY. 155 the writer found, increases peculiarly the impressiveness of this exterior, developing the salient points and deepening the recesses. The interior is, however, the great glory of Ely. Few travel- lers along the route northward give themselves the pleasure of examining it, and seeing what is of its kind among the world's wonders. Entered at the west, the vast nave shows three tiers of simple, massive, Norman arches, bearing a triforium that is still more important, for it is almost as large as the main ar- cade, and much larger than the clerestory. The ceiling is of wood, turned with five faces to adapt it to the pointed arch that opens to the octagon, which was probably built at the same time. These faces bear a painted decoration in compartments, representing the tree of Jesse, with twelve subjects, from the Creation to Christ, at the east, supported on each side by figures of the prophets and other Bible personages. Thirty- six panels are connected with the tree. In smaller panels next the wall, are " busts exhibiting the generations of our Lord up to Adam, according to the Gospel of St. Luke." The colors are not strong, and the effect is pleasing and subdued, and not in too great contrast with the walls, that are, as usual, pale buff. The whole work, forming the largest pictorial decoration in an English church, was begun in 1858, by Le Strange, and continued after his death, in 1862, by Mr. Parry. A brilliant and appropriate addition to the coloring is gradually made by filling the windows of the nave with painted glass, by which it will be much improved as well as enriched. The octagon resembles in design and form a dome more closely than any other work attempted in the Pointed style. From a tall arch on each of its sides, groins spring forward to the central lantern, and support it, having on their faces gold and light tints, and on their returns to the arches, blue and gold. The vaulting of the lantern has blue and gold upon the faces, and red and gold on the returns. Around the drum, in upright panels, stand finely designed and painted angels with aureoles, harmonizing with gorgeous glass that fills the win- doAvs. The space, the graceful lines, the beauty of the whole design and detail, and the richness of the varied color, form 156 MIDLAND CATHEDKALS. together an effect that is as splendid as it is unique. The original conception seems to have been occasioned by an acci- dent. A large, square, central tower fell eastward in 1321, or 1322, ruining three bays of the choir, and Alande Wolsing- ham, then sacrist, planned the existing octagon, which was completed in 1342. He used eight piers instead of the usual four, piled a lesser load upon them, gained abundant light, and proved that the Pointed style was capable of an imposing ar- rangement, — that was used two centuries later in the Renais- sance. He left, indeed, a work of genius. Alone " of all the architects of Northern Europe," he shaped " the only Gothic dome in existence," says Mr. Fergusson. His death occurred about 1364, and it is not known where he was interred. His master-piece was built in what always has been a small country town, that owes existence and distinction to the ancient church which still forms its great feature, beside which all else in it is obscured ; but he and his dome and church are famous wher- ever the realm of art extends. The transept shows ranges of round-headed Norman arches, but in the upper part of each end there are tall Perpendicular windows. Wood forms the ceilings, which show the sloping framework of the roof, all painted with light patterns on dark grounds. The choir, in Decorated style, is even more superb, and its architectural richness is made still more effective by abundant color, especially in the windows, nearly all of which are filled witli new and splendid glass. The elaborately ribbed groins of the ceiling show light tints on the ribs and bright color in the bosses, that gives prominence to gilded sculpture. In the east- ern part are many slender shafts of polished Purbeck marble, that are very dark, and present perhaps too great a contrast with the pale stone walls. This marble, used extensively in England in the earlier Pointed buildings, does not wear well, and splits like wood or loses its surface. Here it has been repaired by covering broken places with hot shellac and pow- dered marble, and by rubbing down the mixture to a uniform and polished face. The triforium in the choir is remarkable, and even finer than that at Cologne. Particularly noticeable ELY. 157 are corbels along it of unusual depth and richness, supporting the vaulting shafts. Even finer than the structure are the de- tails of the choir. Elaborately wrought iron gates open to the aisles, and brass gates beneath a beautiful carved-oak rood- screen open at the centre. Beyond the later, on each side, are stalls of wood, also very elaborate and ornamented with high reliefs, cut at Louvain, representing many Biblical subjects, and added about 1860. The treasure of the choir, however, is the elaborate alabaster rercdos, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and erected by Mr. Gardner, of Chatteris, in memory of his wife. Its panelled base is covered with carved leaves and flowers, and bears twelve twisted pillars, decorated with agate, in Italian fashion, and placed beside eleven upright compartments filled with sculptures covered by sharply gabled canopies. Still larger and much higher gables rise above them with a profusion of exquisitely cut finials, crockets, traceries, and statuettes. The altar-cloth, a recent work, is admirable, and the very pavement, with five steps reaching to the altar, is of the best encaustic tiles and finely polished black marble, made worthy of the beautiful memorial. An open screen of elegant design con- nects this modern master-piece with the old work in the main arcade. The east end of the church is another rich and beauti- ful design. It has three tall lancet windows filled with glass, that is a modern triumph, representing the descent of Christ and the chief events of his life. On each side of this group of windows is a surprisingly elaborate chapel, one in florid style, the other in late Perpendicular. Both were much injured dur- ing the Civil War, but the former has been restored, and, it is likely, is as magnificent as ever. The stone used is white clunch, resembling chalk, so soft that it can be cut with ease, but which is durable when kept dry and not rubbed. The mon- uments in the cathedral, it should be added, are numerous, and are chiefly in memory of ecclesiastics. The Lady Chapel, now the chapter-house, adjoining the north end of the transept, is a double cube in shape, and a remark- able example of early Decorated. Its ceiling, of five bays, is vaulted and elaborately ribbed. The upper portion of the walls is pierced by lofty windows, with intricately traceried 158 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. heads, but the glazing is common and unworthy of them, for the colored glass once in them was destroyed by the icono- clasts. Around the lower portion of the walls is an arcade profusely ornamented in carved clunch, that has been seriously injured and defaced by some ugly modern monuments, but that still retains traces of red, blue, and other coloring. Restora- tion here would be so exceptionally costly that it has not been attempted. Ely is one of the smallest and most peaceful of cathedral towns, and even the public houses show its influence in their names, — the " Lamb " and the " Angel." The immense gray church that stands so grandly, far above the low, small buildings clustered near it, and the wide flat country stretching to the dis- tance, is not less impressive when seen close at hand. The east- ern end, in Early English, rising from the grass-ground under it, is charming. The west front is noble when viewed from the long lawn that extends before it, where the old trees lend their grace and freshness to its venerable towers. But the impressive view of all is that gained when one enters the great church, — a surprising contrast with the quiet town and rural country far around it ; and much more than this, a scene that has pre- eminent distinction in the art of England, and in the revival of the mediaeval styles. It is a shrine of these as well as of Ethel- dreda, the saint and queen, and of the faith for which she labored, the good works of which have followed her own through nearly forty generations. She, as her dower, received this ground, then hemmed in by the fens, and called the Isle of Ely ; for according to a legend, the sea at one time quite surrounded it. During six years (673 to 679) she was the abbess here, until her death, but the twelve centuries of active Christian service since her time upon this spot have given it greater consecration. Devoted genius, piety, and wealth in re- cent times have made the shrine well worthy of these long associations and the grander present England. The artist's skill, the churchman's zeal, the layman's treasure, have com- bined to make the great cathedral of to-day a representative of the strong, prosperous, cultured nation that succeeds the petty Saxon kingdom, with its bogs and forests, poverty and NORWICH. 159 turmoil. Turton, Peacock, Gardner, Scott, and many more, should be remembered with the lady who in dismal times made Ely like a beacon in the darkness, to grow even brighter through the day that came, and light the name of Etheldreda. Norwich. The history of this See dates from the early part of the seventh century, when its seat was at Dummoc, a Ro- man station on the coast of Suffolk, now called Dunwich. A new See was established about forty years later, at Elmham in Norfolk, and was removed by the Normans to Thetford, whence Bishop Losinga, in 1094, transferred it to Norwich. There, in 1096, he founded the existing cathedral and a Benedictine Ab- bey. Five years later the eastern parts were occupied by sixty monks, although the nave was not begun for twenty years, or finished until about 1145. In 1171 and 1272 the edifice was seriously damaged by fire, but was subsequently restored. Soon after the middle of the fourteenth century the spire was built upon a Norman tower, of which, says Winkle, no other one in England " can boast above half its height, and not half its decoration." The west front was altered in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, in the last half of which the nave was vaulted, and the clerestory of the choir, with its stone roof, was added. Between 1501 and 1536 the transept received its vault- ing. Thus the edifice shows workmanship and styles of several periods, besides important recent restorations. Norwich is a large and busy place, especially on market days, for it is the chief town of a wide agricultural and grazing region. The most important structure it contains, besides the cathedral, is the imposing keep of the old Norman castle, described upon page 73. In and around the town are hills of moderate height. Quaint, narrow streets wind over the uneven surfaces, and some of them lead aside to a tract of low ground. Tlie Cathedral, a long, gray edifice, stands here, exposed towards the north and west, and on the south enclosed by private gardens. Its exterior shows restorations made many years ago upon the nave and north arm of the transept. Chief among its features are a central spire, a very long nave, and a heavy rounded apse. Like all of the design outside, the western front 160 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. is simple, presenting, as it does, little more than a lofty gable, three small doorways, and a large pointed window, the tracery of which is Perpendicular. The interior is far grander than the exterior, and its English features of great length, small breadth, and moderate height, are evident. A French apse, simplified, a triforium like a second aisle, enormous piers, and the three tiers of noble arches, plainer and more open than those at Ely and at Peter- borough, show a grand unchanged example of the Norman plan and style. In the sides, the windows are later, and too many of them are of inferior design, but the Decorated pointed vaulting is magnificent, and according to the English manner, is intricately ribbed and studded with rich bosses. Coats of yellow wash and other relics of bad taste, or of none at all, have been removed, and the imposing stone-work is left " in native truth and honor clad." It is of a soft material, that on the exterior wears badly, but that under shelter keeps its sur- face. At an early date it was enriched by color, many frag- ments of which were found when the yellow wash was taken off. This color has been, at least to some extent, renewed, to- gether with the gilding on the bosses. The stately choir shows in a much more striking manner rich late Pointed work rising above Norman, the latter of which is shown by the two lower great arcades. The lofty clerestory, entirely in the former style, and very elegant, is 83 feet high, or fourteen more than in the nave, a difference unusual in England. In the central tower, which is formed like a lantern, the ceiling is much higher. Sixty-two tall, graceful stalls, above four centuries old, deserve especial notice. They have misereres, or shallow tilting rests, not seats, contrived to teach the monks due vigi- lance while leaning on them. Under each rest is a curious carving of quaint figures, many of which are particularly secular and suggestive of a living world not distant. The Lady Chapel and the chapter-house were destroyed long ago, and a curious and almost oval chapel on the south side of the choir, of late restored, has been used for the latter. Among the minor features are several interesting monuments ; and of objects more peculiar, one is an elaborately traceried open LINCOLN. 161 screen between the south end of the transept and the choir aisle. It fills the whole of the high Norman arch, except the lower portion, which is occupied by a wall and doorway. An- other door, between the cloister and the south aisle of the nave, bears, in an unusual way, athwart the mouldings of its pointed arch, seven statues richly canopied. The cloisters, remarkably entire, extensive, and imposing, have grown black with age, and showed, a few years since, some crumbling mouldings on the inside, and much scaled or disintegrated stone on the outside ; yet they are very fine and among the best in England. There are four walks or aisles, that date from widely separated times since 1297, but " a gene- ral uniformity of style " prevails, says Britton. All these aisles have vaults, with bosses, that form a real museum of mediseval carving, and traceried archways towards the court, which were formerly glazed. In the west walk are exquisitely designed lavatories made for the monks, who showed practically that cleanliness is near to godliness, and that great beauty should surround attention paid to it. Few of the ancient edifices, such as are sometimes gathered around a cathedral, now remain at Norwich, but there are still two of the old monastic gateways, differing in design, and both beautiful. The church is now, of course, well cared for, and the effects of the assaults of time, as well as of the mutilations that it suffered in the seventeenth century from imitators of the heathen Danes, are disappearing, while ancient dignity is revived. Lincoln, 1 an ancient and important city, is the centre of a wide and generally level, rural country, over which it rises, crowning a commanding ridge. On this, and down a steep long slope towards the south, it has grown until its size is consider- able. The Romans realized the advantages of such a site, and built a military station on it, around which a large busy town sprang up, and for a long while flourished. Lindum Colonice, as it was then called, was square, or nearly so, surrounded by 1 See History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, by Chas. Wild, 2d edition by John Britton, royal 4°, and folio, London, 1837. 11 162 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. strong walls, supplied with baths, and one of the chief seats of Roman power in eastern Britain. During the Saxon period the place became the capital of Mercia, and endured the trials of the times, among which was an assault by the Danes, in 786, by whom it was much injured. About 627, Paulinus converted many persons in this region to Christianity, and built an excel- lent stone church at Lincoln. So good were the results of his labors that in about fifty years two bishoprics were formed, those of Lindsay and of Leicester. The latter, in 870, was re- moved to Dorchester, and probably in 1072, to Lincoln. Until the middle of the sixteenth century this See was far larger than any other in the country, extending as it then did from the Humber to the Thames, and including eight counties, — a size much reduced by Henry VIII., who set off from it the Sees of Peterborough (1541) and Oxford (1542). Remigius, or Remi, of Fecamp, the first Norman bishop (1067-1092), began at once the erection of a cathedral, which was consecrated by his successor, but, in 1124, was much injured by a fire, and it was said, was, in 1185, "cleft from top to bottom" by an earth- quake. The first thousand years of history in Lincoln are now illus- trated by few monuments, but they are very interesting. A Roman double arch remains in tolerable order, plainly built of larger stones than those in the cathedral, and showing much more solid workmanship than the mediaeval. One arch spans a street, a smaller one the sidewalk, and an end is incorporated in a modern private house. A structure like an ice-house, in the area of the cloister, covers a mosaic pavement, — probably that of the dressing-room connected with a Roman bath, and discovered when a well was dug. On a commanding point a little distance west of the cathedral rises the Norman castle, still with high, although reduced, stone towers, and walls kept in fair order for its recent use, that of the county gaol. Among the minor mediaeval objects are -the " Jew's House," the Guild- hall, with a venerable arch across the street, and, in the Temple Gardens, the ruins of the palace of the bishops and the vicars. In 1186, St. Hugh of Lincoln, Hugh of Avalon, became the bishop. He had one of those strong characters that swayed LINCOLN. 163 the Middle Ages, and abilities and piety that have left their mark through the ages to our time. Born about 1140, some three miles from Grenoble, at eighteen he was made a deacon ; at twenty-four a prior ; at twenty-seven he was a monk in the still spared Carthusian " Grande Chartreuse." In ten years more he probably would have become the head of that monas- tery, then one of the most distinguished institutions in the Christian world. But Henry II. obtained him to be prior of the first Carthusian convent in his kingdom, founded by the king at Witham in Somersetshire about 1175. St. Hugh was bishop of Lincoln for only fourteen years, but, as says Rev. J. F. Dimock, a more zealous prelate " seldom, if ever, presided over a See of " England, " or any other Christian land." He con- ceived the existing cathedral, and built nearly all the eastern parts, and as long as they stand, he cannot be forgotten, — " the upright, honest, fearless man," the " earnest, holy, Christian bishop." Two kings, three archbishops, nine bishops, " populus abbatum, turba priorum," in those days of difficult communi- cation, attended his burial. The nave was probably erected under Hugh of Wells (1209-1235), and the upper part of the west front was built upon the lower Norman part that was pre- served. Within the next twenty years the western transept and the lower story of the central tower were probably com- pleted. The latter tower, the " Angel-choir," and cloisters, were entirely finished by the end of the same century ; but the tops of the west towers, the latest prominent parts of the edi- fice, date only from about 1450. The Cathedral, the third in size in England, has inside and out, one of the most intricate and elaborate designs, and a more commanding site than any other, except Durham. The ap- proach to it is by a straight street more than half a mile in length, and thence by an abrupt and narrow way that bears the appropriate name of " Steep Hill," from which an ancient gate- way opens to the close. Due justice to the grandeur of the site, and the imposing form and aspect of the church when seen from a distance, is hardly clone by the immediately sur- rounding buildings, which are rather poor ; but every part of the exterior of the mighty edifice itself deserves a study, for 164 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. the variety and effect throughout are wonderful. An oolite stone found in the neighborhood is used. It grows extremely hard on exposure and now has a general coloring of sombre gray, that on the summits of the towers has become hoary. The west front, chiefly Early English, is an oblong square mass, of huge dimensions, flanked by turrets which are octagonal and pinnacled, accented in the centre by a traceried gable, crossed by six arcades, and varied by three lofty arches at the middle, under and beside which are five low Norman arches, parts of the original cathedral. Some five and twenty years ago it was repaired, and now its color is a deep iron-rust brown that blends with gray upon the upper portion of the towers, and black along the base, except where there are patches of new light-gray stone in which are yellow touches. On the south side of the edifice, where there have been extensive restorations, a yellowish tint prevails. Among the numerous interesting details is the main door, an example of unusually ornamented Norman, while at the southeast is a very rich and beautiful Decorated porch flanked by Perpendicular chapels, some of the latest parts erected. The interior of the nave is at first disappointing. It is dingy, bare, and cold, and lacks solidity and height. In the departed age of white and yellow wash it was entirely covered with a mean coat that in time grew shabby, showing what the nave at Salisbury once was, as that now shows what this hereafter may be made. The piers of the arcade are slight, and are made to seem less substantial since around each one of them are gathered eight small shafts, detached or cut like mouldings. Each bay is extremely wide, and has in the triforium two large bearing arches under which are six small arches, and in a low clerestory a group of three lancet windows, above which rises an elegantly ribbed vaulting. All of these arches are supported by grouped slender Purbeck pillars with unusually elaborate capitals. Along the lower portion of the walls are elegant arcades, and above them are tall lancet windows. But the " abominable wash " remorselessly disfigures everything, and the coloring is made worse by dampness that stains the lower parts of the walls, and a pale dirty brown with which c! $ >i 1 if g| Jj jri 1 If ( 1 1 feiil it s>f tbe Prtffijlejpj. LINCOLN. 165 the Purbeck shafts are bedaubed. Besides this, the latter frequently have decaying surfaces, and the vaults of rough stone-work that seem meant for plaster, have a bad coating now cracked and stained. Towards the east the prospect brightens. The interior of the central tower, open to an unusual height, is very noble. At each end of the transept is a window filled with old colored glass collected after ravages by the iconoclasts ; the southern one is a rose window, of uncommon magnificence, with flowing tracery, and the northern, of smaller size, presents an elabor- ately ornamented geometrical design. A great deal of new colored glass has been placed in the aisles of the nave at the east end, and in the clerestory of the choir and transept. The choir, in general outline of design, resembles the nave, but it is even far richer in details. Its three east bays that form the retro or " Angel-choir," or presbytery, are wonder- fully beautiful, and the whole east end is filled and made radi- ant and stately by an immense window with geometrical tracery. One bay of the uncommonly elaborate triforium has been " re- stored," and that, of its kind, is quite enough. This "Angel- choir," so called from angels sculptured in the spandrels of the triforium, is Decorated and is thoroughly English, and apart from its great beauty is of significant importance. Even more so is the choir itself. St. Hugh, its builder, although a French- man, was " the first effectual promoter, if not the actual inven- tor of [the] national and most excellent Early English style," says Mr. Dimock. Geoffrey de Noiers, his architect, was prob- ably a native Englishman. M. Yiollet-le-Duc, a very competent authority, declared upon examination, that French influence is not shown at Lincoln, but that " the construction is English ; the profiles of the mouldings are English ; the ornaments are English ; the execution of the work belongs to the English school of workmen of the beginning of the thirteenth century." It should be remembered that the main choir was probably built between 1186 and 1200, and the " Angel-choir " between 1270 and 1282. The sculptures, cut in Lincoln oolite, Mr. Cockerell says, show " vigor, freshness, and originality," and a " complete 166 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. emancipation from any known prototype or prevailing manner. . . . Giotto was but an infant when these works were exe- cuted." The exquisitely foliated capitals and striking figures, masterpieces as they are, are more than ornaments, they are full proofs that when the artist formed them, there was a re- finement and a sense of grace and beauty in that ancient Eng- land not unworthy of her splendid present, that the churchmen and the laity could then interpret and embody many an exqui- site perception of more than human origin. No superstition could produce such work ; an inspiration from the heavens alone could guide the hands of these old sculptors. A com- parison of what they wrought, with certain objects in the choir that date about a hundred years or less ago, shows manifest superiority in the work of the thirteenth century. There is at Lincoln little of the admirable and sumptuous recent work now found in several other cathedrals in the country, but the inter- est is concentrated on the ancient work of the magnificent ex- terior, and in the beautiful and noble choir. Besides their general effect and composition, and their sculptures, special parts also are remarkable. There arc sixty-two lofty oak stalls showing admirable workmanship, elaborate canopies and misereres. Rich ornament also abounds in the Perpendicular chapels at the southeast end, that have been well restored in grayish stone, and the number and variety of the other chapels is unusual. If the monuments arc not numerous, they are in- teresting. Noticeable among them is an Easter Sepulchre, in the best Decorated style, placed on the north side of the choir, enriched with very elegant canopies and carvings ; but St. Hugh's golden shrine that stood in the "Angel-choir" long ago disappeared. The chapter-house has ten sides and a vaulting, supported in the centre by a pillar. A large four-bayed vestibule extends from one of the sides, and tall lancet windows, placed in pairs, occupy the others, except so far as they are filled by an arcade around the base. St. Hugh probably began the work, but it is chiefly of later date than his time, and yet earlier than the chapter-house at Salisbury or that at Wells. It is probably also the first of its peculiar form in England, and its exterior LINCOLN. 167 has an individuality given it by huge, isolated piers at each angle, from which spring flying buttresses. Unfortunately, the interior is disfigured by whitewash on the vaulting and yellow- wash on the walls, contrasted with dingy drab on the ribs, rendering the effect bare, cold, and unworthy ; and, to add to the mutilation, several elegantly decorated canopies have been chopped off to give room to a paltry wooden screen. Yet, although the desolations of a dreary age have dismally obscured, they have not destroyed the ancient dignity and beauty. It is a venerable figure, stripped by heartless relatives and shivering in a wrap, but it retains its honor, and some day will be fitly clad. The cloisters are of moderate size. Three of tlie aisles remain, with vaultings made of oak, but the fourth aisle was demolished to make way for an Italianish and ugly library- erected by Sir Christopher Wren. In this incongruous struc- ture is a valuable collection of books formed by Dean Honey- wood to replace a former one destroyed by fire. The best near view of the cathedral, and it is uncommonly imposing, is from the northwest corner of the cloisters, whence the nave and transept are seen grouped with the central tower, — a pecu- liarly English feature, which is shown to grand advantage, as is the equally English central spire from the cloisters at Salisbury. An impressive addition is often made to the effect of the scene by a sound that can be heard far as well as near, when the profoundly deep, sonorous boom of " Big Tom," l the great bell, in a tremendous voice rolls out the number of the hours. The central tower should be ascended by one of the small, winding stairs that it contains, in order to get views down into the great church, or under the tall roof, or among the bells, especially when " Big Tom " speaks. The roof is 270 feet in height from the ridge on which the cathedral rises so far above the surrounding country, and thus commands a very- wide and pleasant view across an almost level, grazing, agri- cultural region, seamed with hedges, fairly wooded, and green 1 "Big Tom" was cast in the minster yard in 1610. The weight is 9,894 pounds, and the circumference at the moutli is 22 feet 8 inches. 168 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. and fertile. There is little rising ground in sight except far westward, and nearly all the wide area visible is comprised in Lincolnshire. Southwell, one of the newest Sees in England, or rather a See revived upon a very ancient site of Christian labors, will have one of the oldest churches in the country created its cathedral. Paulinus, the great missionary of north Lincoln- shire in 627, about the time he built a church at Lincoln, founded another at Southwell, and a town grew up around it. At the Conquest it became collegiate, and was well endowed ; that is, it had a number of ecclesiastics large enough to form a college or chapter, but without a bishop. Until the Refor- mation, from ten to sixteen prebends were maintained here, and in 1543 a bishop was appointed to a See established on this foundation, but it did not long exist. Queen Mary restored the chapter, Queen Elizabeth confirmed it, and at length the new See of Notts, formed in 1883, finds a cathedral already built, and very happily makes use of the grand parish and collegiate church. Southwell is one of the pleasantest and quietest, as well as smallest, cathedral towns in England. It stands, says Mr. Lewis, " on a gentle eminence richly clothed with wood, and surrounded by hills of various elevation," in the midst of a rural country. There is hardly more than a single street, a winding one, and towards its end are the inn and church, both of which are of a really charming sort, peculiar to the oldest parts of rural England. The "Saracen's Head" has a plain, quaint front, two stories high, and although new paint gives it a fresh look, it was an old house in the time of Charles I., who sometimes held his court in it when it was the " King's Arms." In a snug wainscoted apartment on the lower floor, now a coffee-room where a traveller can be very comfortable, His Majesty, on May 6, 1646, gave himself up to the Scotch com- missioners, and thus led to an important change in his own history and that of his country. The church is large and noble, cruciform, and very gray. It has a central and two western towers, the latter crowned SOUTHWELL. 169 by new but antique-looking, tall, square roofs, cone-shaped and darkly-slated, so that they give the front a French effect. At the northeast a prominent cone-roofed chapter-house increases the picturesqueness of the edifice, while around it a broad, walled churchyard, grass-grown, and shaded here and there by trees, preserves its calm repose. The venerable gray of the church walls is undisturbed, except by the renewal of a curious Norman gable on the north end of the transept. The interior of the nave has, however, undergone a full restoration, and there the stone-work is a pale, warm buff. Very low and massive arcades, said to be as early as the reign of Harold, support a semi-circular ceiling, which shows heavy wooden rafters that retain their native color, and are about half a yard apart. Like the nave, the simply-designed transept is Norman, in marked contrast with the choir, which is Early English in style, and very light in color. While the stalls and some other details are plain, there is a rich case for the organ, and the entrance is through an elaborate and elegant screen. Forming a worthy companion to the venerable and very early nave, the octagonal chapter-house shows the development of mediaeval styles in an elegant Decorated design. Around the base is an arcade, with capitals and corbels carved with a marvellous variety of natural foliage and small animals, all showing careful workmanship, and remarkable for drawing as well as undercutting. In the coupled arches of the doorway there is an even more surprising maze of delicate sculpture, with similar subjects, surpassing that in the arcades, and thought to be unrivalled in the country. During the Civil War the church and large adjacent ecclesi- astical buildings were barbarously mutilated, and the former was made a stable. Some of the iron rings then used for the horses remained there as late as 1793. In 1711 still further damage was done by lightning ; but in 1804 the edifice, that had "long been in a state of almost absolute ruin," was thor- oughly repaired. The recent restorations will complete this work, and help to preserve one of the oldest and most curious and precious of all English churches. 170 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. Oxford Cathedral, although very small, and placed in con- trast with the numerous and varied buildings of a unique city, shows examples of the national styles, from late Norman to Perpendicular, or between 1150 and 1550, and is an interest- ing structure. If considered by itself, apart from the great group of which it forms a member, it also is important. Al- though it may be called pre-eminent in a great centre of the arts and learning, it shows curiously how the early history of even such an object may become uncertain, or debatable, for both the date of the erection of some of its parts, and the names of the builders, have been differently stated by various authors. The existing edifice was, however, the church of the priory of St. Frideswide. She is said to have been a zealous Saxon lady, born at Oxford early in the eighth century, who became devoted to a monastic life, and whose father built for her a convent, where, according to Leland, she died October 19, 740. In such esteem was she held that she was made the patroness of the city. Her church was burned in 1002, and it was not, apparently, until the middle of the twelfth century that the rebuilding was begun, it is thought, by Prior Guimond. He was succeeded by twenty-five priors who ruled until the Reformation, but the history of the priory is not important. In 1523, Cardinal Wolsey converted it into a college with pro- vision for 186 members, and after various changes, Henry VIII., in 1545, translated an Episcopal See from Oseney, established three years before, and, November 4, 1546, made the existing edifice " the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford." The exterior is nearly hidden by surrounding buildings, and the best or only view of it is from a canon's garden on the north side. Its chief feature is the central spire, said to be the earliest in the country. The interior shows a nave now only about one half of its for- mer length, built in a peculiar style of Norman, with round, heavy pillars, bearing arches that enclose a low triforium and support a curious clerestory and a flat wooden roof. Origi- nally the central tower was open to the spire. The choir is similar to the nave, except in the ceiling, which is a curious low vault elaborately ribbed and panelled, and ornamented with GLOUCESTER. 171 late Pointed pendants. In general color the interior is quite light, varied, however, by several windows with old glass, which improve its effect and also increase its interest, as do a few ob- jects among the simple fittings. Of the latter the richest thing- is a lofty and elaborate screen with three rows of niches that dates from the thirteenth century and belonged to the shrine of St. Frideswide, or more probably, to the watching chamber for the protection of its treasures. The monuments, if not numerous, are valuable, and these and elaborate bosses in the Latin chapel should be examined. Among recent changes have been the removal of some curious but incongruous wood- work introduced in 1630, and the repair of the interior about twenty years ago. Usually the chapter-house is a very interest- ing part of a cathedral, and here it is one of the best parts, a double square in shape, Early English in style, and charming. in effect. Gloucester. Caer Glow upon the Severn is said to have been built before the Romans entered Britain, and to have be- come the site of an important castrum, or station (as remains have shown), which they called Glevum, a name changed by the Saxons to Glowecester. Tradition says that Christianity was planted there in 189, while it is more positively stated that towards the end of the seventh century a nunnery was estab- lished, which, after changes, became in 1022, a Benedictine Abbey. This remained until the Reformation, when it was one of the richest monastic institutions in the country. After the Dissolution, in 1541, the church was made the cathedral of a See erected in that year, and still continued, — an impressive proof of the magnificence of the old abbey ; for it far surpasses any modern building in the city, and in several features is re- markable among edifices of the same rank. The town, it may be added, although evidently no new one, does not in appear- ance suggest antiquity, and may not unjustly be considered less interesting than some others in England. The Cathedral probably shows work and styles from near the end of the eleventh century to that of the fifteenth, as well as the results of recent extensive restorations or renewals. 172 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. It is comparatively short, and has a small, short transept and a rounded eastern end, from which extends a very long, large Lady Chapel with a small unusual chapel on each side. Along the north side of the nave are extensive and extremely rich cloisters, and upon the south there is a very fine example of the English porch. The eastern window and the cloisters are the most magnificent in England, and in keeping with them is the choir, that although short, is superb, and contrasted strongly with the original, low, elliptically-arched Norman crypt beneath it. Four times in the twelfth century the usual mediaeval fires did damage to the Norman church then already built, while the nave, that was completed in 1100, was probably affected by the same cause, and was repaired. In 1239 the church was rededicated, and three years later the roof of the nave, with a Pointed vaulting, was finished. Be- tween 1420 and 1437 the whole of the west front and two bays of the nave were pulled down and replaced by others in Decor- ated style, used also for the beautiful south porch. Between 1329 and 1377 the Norman work of both the transept and the choir was cased with Decorated of elaborate design, and the great east window (1345-1350) was built. During the next sixty years the cloisters were added, and the series of styles was ended and completed by the Lady Chapel in late Perpen- dicular (1472-1498). The marked peculiarities or beauties of the church will well reward examination. The exterior is in good order, but as much of it has never been " restored," it is not fresh. An ex- ceptional part is the elaborately decorated southern porch, that had grown much decayed, but now has new work, designed by Mr. Waller, that includes the statuary which the weather had destroyed. On many parts outside a clayey gray to iron-gray color prevails, contrasted with a yellowish sandy tint on the west front, which has been restored, and a deep, venerable gray on the central tower. This tower is very bold in form and richly ornamented, and is thought to be the stateliest in the country. At each of the angles at its top is an unusually large open-work pinnacle, large enough to be the tower of a small church, and a study in design. From the roof an extensive GLOUCESTER. 173 prospect is commanded, which, if not wonderful, is attractive, as also are views from the grounds around the edifice, admi- rably laid out as they are with lawns and beds of flowers. The interior, showing examples of almost every style, from Norman in the nave to Perpendicular at the east, is built of stone brought from a quarry six miles distant, and still retain- ing its native pale-buff color. Each end of the edifice is filled with the elaborate tracery and splendid glazing of an enor- mous window, — the western one new and brilliant, with ar- morial bearings, and the eastern presenting an immense expanse of precious mediaeval glass. There are said to be 3,500 pounds weight of the latter, which was reloaded in 1862 at a cost of <£G00, and £1,400 were spent at the same time on the tracery. Figures, shields, and ornaments upon pale grounds form the design, and have a rather dim effect in color. The end of the choir is curiously widened to make room for the window, the height of which is 87 feet. A char- acter of its own is also given the nave by a unique arcade, with huge round pillars thirty feet in height and six feet in diame- ter, or about twice as high as are the piers at Norwich, Peter- borough, and Ely. At both the latter places the three ranges are of nearly the same height, while here the triforium and clerestory are dwarfed, but great apparent height is given the main arcade, although at too great cost. Yet it is well that such a design as this at Gloucester was carried out, not merely for variety, but to show what could be done with the Norman style. At Durham there is a third variety, and all the three are interesting when compared. The choir here is marked by very upright lines that run into a vaulting much divided by un- usually complicated ribs, more simple in arrangement than they seem, but giving a very rich effect peculiarly English, and fully developed of late in a thorough restoration by Sir G. G. Scott. While the general color is quite pale, the ribs show pea-green backed by red lines, and on the numerous bosses is burnished gilding that makes the vaulting seem to be half golden. One of those noble works that have of late been placed in several of the English cathedrals is prominent here, — the new and magnifi- cent reredos designed by Sir G. G. Scott, who has given it less 174 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. color and more detached sculptured figures than appear in al- most any other similar work. It presents four narrow niches containing statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, Moses and David, between which are three much larger niches, with groups of the Nativity, Entombment, and Ascension, all crowned by tall open canopies that cover angels bearing emblems. Other admirable works have also been added. The sedilia have been rebuilt, with elaborate canopies ; the stalls have been repaired ; the pavement has been reconstructed of tiles and marbles, but less successfully, it has been thought, and a large amount of new, rich glass has been placed in the windows. The Lady Chapel is unusually light, as well as large, and shows upon all sides and over its groined ceiling a continuous web of panelling formed by Perpendicular tracery and compli- cated ribs. About three quarters of the wall is filled by lofty windows, the design of which is prolonged down the entire face of solid wall beneath them. Besides other decoration on the ceiling there are finely carved bosses. The side chapels, that have been already mentioned, it should be added, are extremely picturesque. The monuments, if not particularly numerous, are very in- teresting. One of them is to the reputed founder of the Abbey, Osric of Mercia, who died in 681, and dates from the first half of the sixteenth century. Another, still more distinguished, was built about 1330 to Edward II. It is an altar-tomb, above which rises an extraordinary group of canopies and pinnacles in three combined divisions, covering the King's effigy, made of alabaster. Another monument shows the recumbent figure of Robert Courtehouse, the oldest son of William I., and a great benefactor of the Abbey. " Cromwell's soldiers " broke it up in 1641, and Sir Humphrey Tracy bought the pieces, which were restored to their proper position after 1660. Among other remarkable restorations is the chapel of St. Paul, at the north end of the transept, — a brilliant work, which is a memorial of early and modern art as well as of the Earl of Ellenborough. The cloisters show throughout a vaulting and sides covered with remarkably rich tracery, the divisions of which towards the open area are glazed, and form a series of memorial HEREFORD. 175 windows. Along the north aisle, on the outer side, there is a range of curious recesses, and upon the south a rare and beau- tiful example of the monkish lavatories. The fan tracery upon the vaulting is peculiarly English, and is thought to be the earliest of its kind, and to have been the work of local masons. A soft, poor stone, almost like rotten " Bristol brick " in texture and in color, has unfortunately been used, and is now patched, or crumbling in premature decay, but the work is in as good order as perhaps is possible. Notwithstanding all defects, however, these cloisters have few rivals among any that have been built in the Pointed style. Hereford. The history of Hereford recedes into the dim- ness of the Middle Ages, and some persons think that they can trace it a greater distance than others can, but the city proba- bly dates from the early Saxon times. Christianity may have been introduced during the sixth century, and the line of bishops may be said to have begun, in 676, with Putta. The place was not then important, but became so when it was an English military post on the frontier of Wales, and a formida- ble castle was erected south of the cathedral. Little is recorded of the bishopric until 1055, when, it is said, Earl Algar and the Welsh burned Hereford, and its large minster, that had been built by Bishop iEthelstan, after 1012, in place of an old church. The ruins stood for nearly quarter of a century, or through the troubles of the Conquest ; then Eobert de Losing, the first Norman bishop, founded the existing edifice, modelled, says William of Malmesbury, from one at Aix-la-Chapelle in Bel- gium (but quite unlike the Romanesque cathedral that still stands there), and it was dedicated in 1110. The portions that remain are the piers of the nave, the choir up to the clerestory, and the south end of the transept. Between 1190 and 1260, or about that time, the Lady Chapel and the clere- story of the choir were added in Early English, and afterwards several other parts, in various styles, until the north porch was finished about 1535, in Perpendicular. The middle styles are chiefly shown. A bad stone was used, bad at least for exteriors, as it crumbles easily, and flakes peel from the surfaces. It is a 176 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. different material from any that has yet been mentioned in the accounts of the cathedrals, for it is taken from local quarries, and this building stands, like those at Worcester, Litchfield, and Chester, in a region of red sandstone, with which yellow also is mixed. So fragile is it that the exterior of the Lady Chapel, only a few years after being almost rebuilt, showed ugly breaks. In 1786 (April 17), a great disaster had an even more unfortunate effect upon the edifice. The western front, of late Norman work, including a large tower, fell, and took with it one bay of the nave ; yet this disaster hardly was the worst, for James Wyatt was employed to re-erect the front. He threw away the Norman stones, and set up his own ignorant devices ; but he did attempt to use a more durable material, unsuccessfully, however, as that also has badly peeled. The bare, blank front that he erected, in no style but his own, is said to have cost more than would have been required for real and careful restoration of the old design. The exterior of the cathedral, apart from the west front, shows in the dusky weather-worn, or fresh, red sandstone, pic- turesque and very varied outlines, boldly marked by a large, rich north porch, two transepts, a long Lady Chapel, and a broad and elaborately decorated central tower, with three pin- nacles grouped at each corner at the battlemented top. This tower, now in good order, gives a dignity and beauty to the edifice that almost overpowers the badness of the western front. Less than the usual effect is added by trees and grounds, as the area about the edifice is smaller and less carefully attended to than similar spots in some other cities. The interior throughout has been restored, and very well, since Sir G. G. Scott had charge of it. In the nave, the walls show clean stone of a pale-reddish color, the ceiling is groined and covered with elaborate ornament in polychrome, and there is little painted glass. The great arcade presents a low and massive but rich Norman design, with round pillars seven feet in diameter. Although the original harmonious triforium and clerestory (shown in plates by Hearne and Wathen) were but little injured by the fall of the west tower, Wyatt altered them according to his own sweet fancy. On the vaulting of the nave HEREFORD. 177 and of its aisles there is an unusual amount of color ; the ribs are buff, but have figures of other tints upon them ; the grounds are darker buff, and are much covered with elaborate scroll- work in dark brown, and in each division is a small medallion with aground of red or blue. New and indispensable piers have been built under the central tower, and its very lofty flat ceil- ing has been gorgeously colored. There is a marked difference in the styles of the arms of the transept. At the south, the de- sign is an irregular one in Norman, with a very pale, reddish- brown tint and no colored glass. At the north the style is a transition from Early English to Decorated, dating between 1260 and 1268, and the material seems to be different, and has a pale, clayey color. The arches of the main arcade and the triforium are peculiar, having acute angles, slightly curved sides, and heavy toothed ornaments set in deep mouldings. Greater variety is given the coloring by stained glass in the windows, a pavement of red and green tiles bordered by gray sandstone, and an almost white ground upon the vaulting, divided into blocks by lines and relieved by richer hues in the bosses. Two remarkable works are found in this part of the church. One is the base of the ancient shrine of Bishop Cantilupe, who died near Rome in 1282, and is said to have been the last Eng- lishman canonized before the Reformation. The other is a new and splendid Rood-screen, designed by Scott, made at Coven- try, and one of the earliest of a class of modern master-pieces that are peculiarly English in design and execution. Metals are the chief material, fashioned into five large arches and a central gable, all very open, and, when the western sunlight touches them, resplendent with the bright hues of brass and copper. The choir is very short, presenting walls and vaults of cleaned stone that has a pleasant, pale, reddish-brown color, and a pavement of tiles with dull red, green, and yellow fig- ures. Stalls of dark oak line the vista towards the reredos, that although not large is fine and very effectively placed. It is made of very pale drab stone, and is elaborately sculptured in relief. Six groups of short, dark marble shafts bear five 12 178 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. arches and five decorated gables, above which rise six statues, standing white and prominent against deep shadows of arches in the background. The Lad}- Chapel is an unusually elegant example of the Early English style much ornamented, and is now one of the most interesting parts of the cathedral. It is built of the same pale, reddish brownstone used elsewhere in the interior, that gives a solemn, dignified effect, and is enriched by coloring in the vaults and glass, all of which now is stained. The pave- ment is composed of dark marbles, and black, red, and yellow figured tiles. Among the more remarkable features is a south- ern chapel, built in 1502, with a traceried screen colored and gilded. Opposite to it is a rich tomb, said to be that of the Earl of Hereford in armor. There is a second, or eastern transept, that has been well repaired under the direction of Sir G. G. Scott, but it does not show much new work or res- toration. An uncommon and beautiful piece of design is a double arch facing down the choir, transitional in style, and with a richly carved spandrel. The library, above the north end of the transept, is a curi- ous room, restored by Scott, containing about 2,000 volumes. Many of them are still, as of old, chained to the shelves. Here are found manuscripts and Caxtons, as they should be in such a place. Here also is a famous map of the world that dates from about 1314, and shows the curious conception of geogra- phy that then existed. England is surprisingly bent, narrow, and near Germany ; dragons look out from the west towards it; and Wales is almost another island. The map embraces the Garden of Eden, classic wonders, and the prodigies sup- plied by mediaeval fancy, even suggesting that monkeys lived in Norway, and dire monsters in the sea. The great, or Bishop's cloister, now represented by two aisles, is much dilapidated, and the tracery is badly worn, ex- cept, of course, where it has been repaired. As this was always a cathedral and was not a monastery, the cloister never was complete, but " was little more than an ornamented walk, con- nected with the Bishop's Palace," but it was a very handsome one, in Perpendicular style, and is well worth seeing. The one WOECESTER. 179 aisle of the lesser cloister also is of interest. A large and fine north porch, two stories high, completed in 1530, is notable among these often elegant, peculiarly English works. It has the curious acute-angled Pointed arches shown in the transept, the two extremely tall windows of which are seen at its left. The monuments at Hereford, if not now very numerous, are interesting, and several are large and fine. Before the Civil War there was an immense collection, of a kind peculiarly Eng- lish, — brasses set in the walls or pavement. It is stated that in 1645, during an invasion of barbarians, " no less that one hun- dred and seventy brasses were taken away." " Several " others were displaced after the disaster in 1786, when " no less than two tons weight were sold to a brazier." Ignorant fanaticism stirred by the hot blood of war was rivalled by as ignorant conceit, existing in cold blood among the Wyatts and church- wardens of the real Dark Ages of ecclesiastical art. Both of these dismal influences left their mark at Hereford, but of late there is happily something better. The ability and genius of the thirteenth century, so nobly shown in this cathedral, have been rivalled by the work that wealth and piety have wrought while guided by the taste and learning of Sir George Gilbert Scott. Worcester. 1 Among the hills of the old county of Wor- cestershire is a quaint and rather large ancient city, the Caer Guorangon of the Britons, probably afterwards a station of the Komans, and Wigorna-ceastre of the Saxons, from which designation comes its name of Worcester. It was in Mercia, and when that kingdom was divided about 680, it became the seat of an episcopal establishment. Through the four follow- ing centuries it bore its share of the vicissitudes which marked them, and numbered among its bishops St. Dunstan and St. Oswald, the latter of whom became a patron saint of the city. Wulfstan II., an even greater saint and local patron, founded the existing cathedral in 1084, so that in 1092, the crypt was 1 See "Wild, C, Illustrations of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, 12 plates, atlas 4°, London, 1823. — Willis, Rev. Prof., Arch. Hist, of do., 8°, No. 23 Arch. Institute of Great Britain, July, 1862. 180 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. finished, and was dedicated to St. Mary. Above it a Norman church was built, which suffered from the apparently inevitable mediaeval fires and fall, for in 1175 the central tower gave way, and in 1113, 1189, and 1202, there were conflagrations, in the last of which the edifice, except the crypt, was ruined. The present church was then begun, and in 1218 was dedicated with great pomp, and St. Wulfstan's body was enshrined near the high altar. In 1221, two " lesser towers " fell and did much damage ; it may have been to the choir, for two years later the existing choir and Lady Chapel were begun. So slowly was the work continued, and extended to the western end, that only in 1374 was the central tower finished, and in 1377 the nave, which had been for almost three-quarters of a century in progress. Between 1857 and 1877 extensive restorations and repairs were made, that in several places amounted to rebuild- ing, required by the condition of the edifice. The exterior, upon the northern side, is shown throughout its whole extent, from the end of the High-street, the chief approach, presenting a long plain body with two transepts, all the ends of which are gabled and accented by the only pinna- cles except those on a rich central tower. The eastern parts are Early English, the western are Decorated, and all are built of smooth sandstone, with a rather dark red color. So exten- sive have been the restorations that the building looks like one recently finished. On the north porch there are new fine statues, and in the west front is a beautiful and noble window ( 1865), with double traceries in the heading. Grace and rich- ness are also given the tower by slender, elegant buttresses, and canopies. The interior, however, shows an even more thorough resto- ration, and surprises one by the completeness and richness of the renewals. It seems like a fresh mediasval church, with some refinements that might not have existed in the early ages, and rivals Ely as a restoration, although it has less ornament and less variety of style. As that is to the cathedrals of the first class, so is this to the second. The Decorated nave retains the slightly sombre tint of the brown-red and drab-gray stone, but it is relieved by a moderate amount of color on the ribs of WORCESTER. 181 the groined ceiling, and by gilding over red on the bosses. The triforium, as it is elsewhere in the edifice, is an arcade with a plain wall at the back, and spandrels, with sculptured figures rising from richly-foliated capitals. Although the tran- sept is narrow (for it has a width of only 32 feet), the effect of its real height (66 feet) is increased. Its Norman walls have been refinished in an early Pointed style, and show cleaned surfaces of the irregularly-placed, pale-yellow or green-tinted stone of which they are constructed. Both the transept and the central tower have vaultings of the same height, — an arrangement that is not common in England. Among the most remarkable new objects west of the choir is a magnificent stone pulpit. From its dark marble base rise columns with shafts of green serpentine, and rich capitals that bear arches from which spring angels towards an elaborate cornice. The body of the pulpit standing on these is a mass of canopied sculptures in white, and of architectural features carved in reddish-veined alabaster. A new organ of great size and power stands in the south part of the transept. The choir is richer and more beautiful than the west portion of the edifice, and is not less remarkable for the renewal of its old glories. It is Early English in style, and good in color, for it is built of pale-buff stone, on which scrolls and medallions are painted in low tints, so that while there is richness there is no undue glare. Adding to this good effect, the many dark Purbeck shafts, peculiar to the style, which often give a too spotted look, here in a pleasing way accent the prominent features ; and a large amount of brilliant colored glass imparts its beauty, as it does also to other parts of the edifice. The rood-screen at the entrance, dark in color and relieved by decoration of bright metal, is very lofty, and so open that it does not hide the choir, or interfere with the long vista through- out the interior. On each side of it, just within the choir, are fine canopies of wood, and in keeping with everything else, are the floors, which are good. Among the new works will be found a lectern and altar candelabra, made of polished brass, that are very large and handsome, and a reredos of a veined, reddish alabaster. It has five gabled niches flanked by clustered 182 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. pillars, and filled by five sitting statues in pare white, around all which is profuse carving, set off by inlaid gem-like stones and abundant gilding. The eastern transept and the Lady Chapel together make the choir a large cross-shaped church in itself ; and although they are not used for the services, they are finely restored and fin- ished. Double tiers of lancet windows on three sides of the end light this transept in an effective and unusual manner. Previous to the general restoration of the edifice the con- dition of the stone-work had become extremely bad, — quite harmonious, indeed, with the architectural excrescences ; and a recollection of this fact helps to an appreciation of the labors of Mr. Perkins, who directed the restoration east of the central tower, and of those of Sir G. G. Scott, who made the designs for a large part of the new details and decorations. The monuments scattered throughout the edifice are numer- ous. One of the most distinguished is an altar-like tomb of King John, in the east part of the choir, bearing the king's recumbent figure, and dating from the sixteenth century. Another notable memorial is the chantry of Prince Arthur, the oldest son of Henry VII., standing at the south side of the altar, and erected in the early part of the same century. It contains an altar-like monument, and is a room with open traceried sides, a low arched ceiling covered with elaborate tracery and a maze of carving, all of which form one of those superbly picturesque nooks characteristic of the English Pointed style. Time and the iconoclast have laid their cruel hands upon it, but it is still beautiful. Besides these pre-eminent works the cathedral still contains more than twenty monu- ments that bear the effigies of persons they commemorate. The chapter-house, in simple Norman style, with a vaulted ceiling supported by a central pillar, has the peculiarity of being nearly circular. Around the lower portion of the walls is an arcade in low relief, built of pale-buff and olive-brown stone in stripes. Above this are broad, low, Perpendicular windows, or traceries in the same form. The apartment was the library until after 1865, when the books were placed in rooms above the south aisle of the nave. The cloisters have LICHFIELD. 183 four aisles, but are of moderate size, and arc built of red sand- stone, varied by buff bosses, upon many of which are angels bearing shields. These cloisters form, says Mr. King, " one of the best illustrations remaining in England of the manner in which the chief monastic buildings were grouped about them." Besides the chapter-house on the east side, a dormi- tory, now destroyed, was opposite, and on the south side is the refectory, 120 feet in length, built over a Norman crypt, and at present used for the " King's school," founded by Henry VIII. Between the chapter-house and eastern transept stood the Guesten Hall, begun in 1320, and intended for the enter- tainment of distinguished guests or pilgrims. This large and noble structure which had been allowed to become ruinous and was taken down in 1860, showed, says Mr. Parker, " the splendid hospitality of the clergy, and illustrated in a remarka- ble manner the manners and customs of the time of Edward III. It was the last of these structures remaining, and with it we have erased a chapter out of the history of England." " The See of Worcester," says Mr. Britton, " has certainly enrolled, on its list of prelates, many names of high historic celebrity. It presents one pope, four saints in the Catholic calendar, six lords chancellors of England, three lords treas- urers, one king's chancellor, eleven archbishops of Canterbury and of York, one Roman cardinal, and many men of general learning and of literary merit." The cathedral is an honor to the ancient city where they labored, and to the piety, and love of national religious art, so evident in its re-edified magnificence. Lichfield, 1 another of the venerable monuments of the devotion and sense of beauty in the Middle Ages, and of recent taste, munificence, and piety, stands in the region of the red sandstone, looking over the green undulating fields of Staffordshire. The town around it, quaint and old fash- ioned, is now quiet, except on market days or at the races ; 1 See Stone, J. B., A History of Lichfield Cathedral, photographs, small 4°, London, 1870. — Wild, C, An Illustration of the Architecture of, etc., imp. 4°, 10 plates, London, 1813. 184 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. for the place is a rural capital without much trade. Its build- ings are generally upon a smaller scale than those in cathedral towns in France, but the streets are neater, although made more sober by a prevailing color given by dark-red bricks. But the associations gathered here have greater interest. Not only do they reach into the early British times, and cluster around the old cathedral, but they bring to mind a group of persons who once lived near it, and names that will live long in the literature of England. Dr. Johnson was born here, and here he and Addison and Garrick went to school ; and in the neighborhood lived the author of " Sandford and Merton," Avhoin Maria Edgeworth visited. Here also are the monuments of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and of Miss Seward. The name of Lichfield, meaning " the field of the dead," comes by tradition from a story told of the reign of Diocletian, when the Christians are said to have been so numerous in this region that a thousand of them were killed here during the emperor's great persecution. Utocetum, the Roman station, was less than two miles distant. In the seventh century, St. Chad, a hermit, some say, had a cell near by the spot marked by a church now dedicated to him. He was a missionary, and efficient in convert- ing the inhabitants, who formed one of the last groups of Saxon subjects to continue in the relapse from Christianity that pre- vailed after the invasion of the Northmen. St. Chad became the great patron saint of Lichfield as well as its first bishop, or the successor of four Mercian bishops. His See was very large, but soon was subdivided ; the See of Hereford was formed in 676 ; that of Worcester in 680, and about the same time those of Leicester and Lindsey. The last two were afterwards merged in that of Lincoln, and in 1075, when the episcopal seats were moved from small to larger places, this of Lichfield was trans- ferred to Chester. About a dozen years later it was moved to Coventry, and the title became " Coventry and Lichfield," and the reverse after the restoration (1660). In earlier times there were severe dissensions between two chapters of these places in regard to the election of the bishops, and some violent proceedings with the monks, especially at Coventry. The dates of the erection of the Cathedral are uncertain, LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. LICHFIELD. 185 for its archives were destroyed in 1642 by certain imitators of the Mohammedans at Alexandria. Its ground plan shows the form of a cross, the east end of which is longer than the west- ern. According to Prof. Willis the existing edifice was prob- ably began about 1200 at the west end of the choir. About 1240 the transept and the chapter-house at the north end were finished, as were the nave in 1250, the west front in 1275, the Lady Chapel in 1300, — all of them in Early English or Decorated. The exterior is oftentimes first seen from the south-east, and there presents some of its most striking features, in one of the most picturesque views of any English cathedral. Its central and two western spires, a group found nowhere else in England, form with the transept a triple pyramid, that rises from a little lake reflecting them on its calm surface. When they are approached, and are seen from the south, the long form of the edifice presents itself, — the Lady Chapel and the clerestory of the choir, with elaborately worked battlements borne on a screen of closely placed and richly traceried win- dows, a bold, plain, and heavy transept, the three sharp spires, and a simple nave, all of a deep-red stone, set off by an expanse of turf and by lime-trees of deep English green. The western front has at each corner a low tower crowned by a lofty spire, a central gable rising over a large traceried window, three com- paratively low doors, the middle one of which is larger and un- usually rich, and no marked buttresses. But there are five arcades or rows of arches of various heights across the front, that were occupied by nearly a hundred statues, less than half of which remain. Many of them, that were years ago restored in plaster, will, it is said, be replaced by new stone figures. Re- cent much-needed restorations are shown, chiefly on the towers and gable just mentioned, and the south side of the nave, all of which, consequently, have an effect of newness. The interior at once shows that it is in charming order, and almost as fresh as in the fourteenth century. It has a solemn and subdued, but rich effect, imparted by the deep red-brown stone of which it is constructed, and by a large amount of colored glass ; and the English characteristics of great length 186 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. and lowness are unusually evident. Between the writer's first and latest visits an extraordinary change in the whole aspect has been wrought. The age of whitewash, with its meanness, emptiness, and coldness, has disappeared with all its works, and the refinement, study, beautiful designs, and careful keep- ing of the Victorian age have entered. Prominent features of the design are a main arcade that throughout is low but elegant, a triforium in the nave, of unusual prominence and beauty and finely ornamented, and a clerestory that is very subordinate to it, and only fills the wall above the springing of the arches of the vault. In the choir there is no defined triforium, but a lofty clerestory with spacious windows, filled with geometrical tracery. Between the spandrels of its main arcade are statues, covered by tall canopies of a sort common in Belgium, but rare in England. Throughout the edifice the style of the vaultings is quite uniform. The minor features, that do much to make the whole effect superb, are numerous and rich. Among them is an elaborate and open metal rood-screen, designed by Scott, with an artistic excellence and delicacy that are remarkable, especially as it is the first great work of the sort wrought in modern times in England. Near it is a metal pulpit of harmonious design. An eagle-shaped lectern is another example of the richness of the new furnishings, as also is the Bible of vellum with gold clasps and bosses. In the choir and eastern parts the pavements are marbles and encaustic tiles by Minton, that, while in the style of mediaeval work, surpass it in fineness of color and finish. The stalls of oak, designed by Scott, are exquisitely carved, and certainly are not inferior to the best English mediaeval work. Another of these modern master-pieces that add glory to so many of the English cathedrals, is the reredos, begun in 1863, also designed by Scott, and made chiefly of alabaster, re- lieved by rich stones and shafts of dark marble. Its central part shows five tall gabled canopies, the middle one of which is much the largest, and supports a lofty spire crowned by a conspicuous cross. These stand against a solid back, much ornamented, but with far less sculpture than there is upon some other like works. On either hand a wall, of the height of the LICHFIELD. 187 altar, extends to the sides of the choir, and bears an open screen or arcade similar in general outlines to that behind the altar. There are sixteen statues of angels, and as many medallions with heads, in the composition, besides an Ascension in relief beneath the central canopy. The font, placed near the west end of the north aisle of the nave, is another fine design. Four long sides of the body, that is made of Caen stone, show groups illustrating Scriptural subjects, cut in high relief, and four short sides have appropriate statues placed in niches, that are flanked by pairs of pillars with dark marble shafts. Five other pillars with like shafts and richer capitals stand on a basement and support the body. The Lady Chapel, of unusual size, of the full height and width of the choir, is three bays long, besides a unique three- sided apse. Along the lower portion of the walls is a canopied arcade of great magnificence, above which are nine very lofty windows, with tall mullions and heads of geometrical tracery rising into the arches of an elegant vaulting. Seven of the windows are filled with superb stained glass dating from 1530 to 1540, and brought in 1802 from the important abbey of Herckenrode near Liege, when that was suppressed by the French invaders. Although its value is at least £10,000, the whole cost of placing it in this appropriate chapel was about £1,000, — a great bargain and a fortunate preservation, the honor of which is due to Sir Brooke Boothby and Dean Proby. Lambert Lombard, a master of his art, probably executed the marvellous paintings on the glass, portraying personages connected with the abbey, or representing impor- tant events in the history of Christ. The chapter-house also has unique features, prominent among which is the approach through a vestibule extending from the north side of the choir, and like a stately and pecu- liar vaulted aisle lined by high and bold arcades. From this, a fine doorway with deep sides and exquisitely modelled pillars opens to the grand apartment, an elongated octagon in plan, surrounded by a richly arcaded base, beneath windows rising into the vaults, which spring from corbels on the piers and a cluster of slender columns in the centre. 188 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. Here, as at Salisbury, there is no crypt, and there also are no cloisters. In place of the north porch that is so common, there is a large portal at the north end of the transept, which in beauty and elaborate carving has few rivals in the country. The monuments, except a few of recent date, do not show the magnificence found in some other churches. Of the many that were here before the Civil War, the fragments of only four exist. Of those erected since that period, are one to Dean Lancelot Addison (1703), the father of Joseph Addison, and one to Anna Seward (1809), in the nave ; and in the two aisles of the choir, one to Bishop Hacket (1670) who restored the cathedral after the siege, two recumbent figures by Chan- trey, of the daughters of Rev. Wm. Robinson (1812), another figure of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a kneeling statue of Bishop Ryder, also by Chantrey, and two large, recent works. One of the last, a sarcophagus of Caen stone and colored mar- bles, commemorates Major Hodson, killed at Lucknow in 1858, and bears around its sides many detached figures illustrative of his campaigns. The other is for his father, Archdeacon Hodson, and contains four groups of sculpture cut in high re- lief and set behind an arcade in the wall. Both are noble monuments to noble men, and were designed by Mr. George Street. Numerous other recent memorials appear in the glass of the windows, and of those that are earlier, one of peculiar interest to the English-speaking world will be found in the east aisle of the south end of the transept ; it is a bust of Dr. Johnson. The library, in a room above the chapter-house, contains treasures gathered after the destruction during the Civil War, — among them Caxton's " Lyfe of King Arthur," and what is more precious, a manuscript of very early date, known as the « Gospels of St. Chad." Lichfield Cathedral, in addition to the general associations that it shares with other buildings of its class, is now notable on four accounts, — for its unique three spires, as well as its examples of the Decorated style ; for the disastrous siege it un- derwent in 1642-3, when it was fortified, defended, lost, and left almost a ruin, and for the heroic restoration that ensued from CHESTER. 189 1661 to 1669 ; thirdly, for being one of the three prominent scenes of Wyatt's antics (in 1788) ; and lastly, in marked contrast with the latter, for the noble work since 1860, under the direction of Sir G G. Scott, that adds another glory to Old England. Chester a Cathedral is the first or last that Americans are apt to see. It was the first of very many churches in the Old World, which the writer has examined during several tours, and he has, with constant interest, watched the changes it has un- dergone since he first saw it ; for few cathedrals in the country have had greater. Years ago the deep-red sandstone of its outer walls was worn and furrowed by the wear of centuries ; its ornaments were crumbling into shapelessness, and its vener- able, indeed its almost shabby, form only suggested the times of its fairer youth. Even the interior was mutilated or un- finished. But the old place had a charm about it, that it not only never lost, but that has grown while pious justice has been slowly recreating the ancient shrine. Again made strong, and robed in its quaint beauty, it stands fitted for the enjoyment, use, and honor of many future generations. Chester was a Roman station of such great importance that it was called simply The Camp, — "Castrum" from which its familiar English name is derived. Remains of baths, pave- ments, public buildings, graves, and other works, besides coins, pottery, and bronzes, have been found on the site. The walls that represent the imperial rampart, and that stand on its foun- dations and show some of its masonry, still remain unbroken in their circuit of the well-known Roman square. The two streets, also Roman, crossing it at right angles, and dividing the enclosed area into four nearly equal parts, are now just as distinctly marked as when the Csesars ruled in Britain, although they are lined by the variety of buildings that a thrifty ancient city would require. Besides this suggestiveness they have an interest and quaintness unrivalled in the country and equalled 1 See Wild, C, An Illustration of the Architecture of the Cathedral Church of Chester, 6 plates, 6 pp. text, etc., imp. 4°, London, 1813. The city has been more fully illustrated than the Cathedral. 190 MIDLAND CATHEDEALS. in few places elsewhere ; and if the older domestic structures may not date earlier than the sixteenth or the seventeenth centuries, they yet are of great age for buildings of their class. An unusual number of them is preserved, and the local style is also happily illustrated by several modern buildings. The city was, according to tradition, founded by the Britons, but its civil history dates from the occupation by the Romans, which continued for four centuries (46 to 446). It was then British, with some interruption, until 828, when Egbert made it a part of England. Later it had its share of the ravages committed by the Danes, and of the fortunes of the Saxons until the Conquest, at which time it " contained 431 rateable houses." During the two ensuing centuries it was an important military border station, and a bulwark of offence and defence against the Welsh. In 1264, while the barons were opposing Henry III., the city was captured and held for him. Continuing to be involved in the successive conflicts in the country, it was again injured during the great Wars of the Roses, and twice during the Civil War was besieged, — in 1645, when, after dire privations and a stout resistance, it surrendered honorably to the Parliament (February 3, 1646), and in 1659, when it was retaken and once more surrendered. Again, at the Revolution in 1688, it was seized and was then held for James II., and finally, in 1745, was fortified to resist his representative, the last Pretender. All of these important periods left their mark on Chester. The religious history of the city extends far back into the Middle Ages, but its prominence may be said to date from 875. The monks of Hanbury then fled from the devastating Danes, and brought the shrine and relics of St. Werburgh or Werberga, to Chester, where the latter remained. She was one of the princely nuns of the seventh century, towards the end of which she died, and became the patron of the city that protected her remains in a Benedictine monastery. In 1075 the seat of the See of Lichfield was removed to this place, where it re- mained a few years ; but it was only in 1541, on the suppression of the monasteries, when Henry VIII. created six new Sees, that the abbatial church became a cathedral. The persecution CHESTER. 191 under Mary visited the city, and there was trouble with the Puritans, but not much of general interest occurred until the Civil War, when the See, like others in the country, was abol- ished. Bishop Walton, famous for his Polyglot Bible, suc- ceeded in 1661, and was followed by Bishop Wilkins (1668- 1672), one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop Pearson (1673-1686), who, according to Burnet, was " in all respects the greatest divine of the age," and by others was considered " the most learned and distinguished bishop of the See, at any time," the honor of which has been well maintained by recent ecclesiastics. The walls of Chester, that, in changing substance, height, or detail, have remained until our time, invite us to a walk along the rare old promenade, almost two miles in length, upon their battlemented crest. It is reached by stone steps found at all the four gates of the city, one of which is placed midway on each side, and all of which are modern. Although of vari- ous dates since the Roman period, the masonry of the wall is chiefly of the Edwardian, and much of the top is modern. The southeastern range of wall extends between closely built houses, among or over which views are soon gained. Long ago the city outgrew its ancient limits, expanding into a large suburb that reaches half a mile eastward until the huge rail- way station has been included, together with extensive con- nected works occupying ground that was a kitchen garden some forty years since. One of the most notable objects, seen for centuries towards the east, was the large dark-red tower of St. John, the greater part of which fell several years ago, but the ancient body of the church as well as a grand north porch are still standing. At the southeast the wall descends from higher ground and bends towards the river Dee, and farther on is pierced by the South, or Bridge gate, standing near the water and the mills, which have, in changing form, been there almost since the Conquest. The bridge, of seven irregular stone arches, dates from 1280, but has of course undergone alter- ations. It replaces a much earlier wooden structure, that was often injured by floods and mediaeval Welshmen during their lively visits. West of the bridge the walk is carried upon 192 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. heavy brackets around the ancient castle, — ancient, however, only in its history, site, and Norman keep, for nearly all of its extensive buildings are of modern date and style. A fine view is gained of the Grosvenor Bridge, completed in 1832, and consisting of a grand stone arch with a span of two hundred feet, said to have few rivals in the world. The west line of the wall, the longest and least winding reach of it, commands a wide outward view, and looks much more like an antique de- fensive work ; for a great deal of it rises directly from grassy banks and grounds, suggestive of a glacis and an area for mili- tary operations. On the other hand, first are seen the classic front of the Shire Hall, and over it the keep, or Caesar's Tower ; then, north of them and near by, other large modern buildings which are in castellated style, beyond which crowd streets and houses of the town. Between the wall and river is a broad, green, level field, laid out as a race-course (with a circuit of one mile and fifty yards), over which the open country and the Welsh hills become much more apparent. At the northwestern corner a spur of the wall extends down the bank to the large " Water Tower," one of the most picturesque parts of the works, where the dark, brown-red, crumbling sandstone is pro- fusely draped by deep-green luxuriant ivy. Across this corner the railway passes through an excavation spanned by two bridges carrying the walk ; but even such a necessity of modern life, incongruous as it seems, is not allowed to be a serious blem- ish, and the iron tracks with the swift trains on them really combine in the whole effect, and show that Roman, mediaeval, and existing Chester stands for no one period, but for all civilized time. The north range of the wall ascends to higher ground, and is more curious. Two quaint little, tower-like structures, " Pemberton's Parlor " and " Morgan's Mount," with their sheltered nooks and crumbling ornament are on it, and deep and closely below is a canal ; while at Northgatc, look- ing backward, is a fine view of the hills of Wales, seen down a long stretch of the wall itself. Still farther on, the " Abbey Green " shows a pleasant, open space along the inside of the wall, outside of which, in a deep cut, the canal continues its course. At the northeastern corner is one of the largest CHESTEK. 193 towers, the Phoenix, where Charles I., on the 24th of Septem- ber, 1645, looked upon the battle that he lost at Rowton Moor. From this tower to the Eastgate the Roman masonry is par- ticularly noticeable near the base of the wall, although it is crowded by buildings of the suburb. From a quiet grass-ground and amid trees at the right, rise the simple massive walls and heavy central tower of St. Werberga's church, built of the red sandstone of their own Cheshire, pale or embrowned as sunshine or wet weather touches them, and showing by their worn or freshened lines that ancient piety has a perennial life in England. Tlie Cathedral is reached by a small street on the south, and by a wider opening at the west. Within a few years, old and shabby buildings on the north of the latter have been well replaced by others quite in harmony with the west front they adjoin. This front shows only a low, blackened gable, under which is a large window of eight days with an elaborate head, and a small door flanked by niches, all in Perpendicular, and, at the side, the base of a southwestern tower. In ground-plan the edifice is cruciform, but the north end of the transept is extremely small. Along this side there are cloisters, and very interesting relics of the conventual buildings, while the whole south side is bordered by open grass-ground and is in full view. A large part of the exterior shows fresh work in Runcorn stone, that is more durable than the old stone ; indeed, as the verger said, it may be good for two centuries. Except in a few places here and there, the surfaces and carvings are now smooth, but already on exposed parts they are tinted with lichens. The interior, it is safe to say, is now in better order than it has been since the Middle Ages, for its once cheerless whitewashed or unfinished space has been converted into a noble church. Its history begins with that of a Norman edi- fice which stood on the spot, as is shown by foundations of a rounded apse near the middle of the present choir, but almost every part existing above ground is later. In the lower por- tions of the nave, and south end of the transept, the style is Decorated ; the upper portions with the central tower are Per- pendicular, and the whole of the east part is Early English. 13 194 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. All the surfaces of the walls are cleaned, and show the sombre but effective color of the brown-red sandstone of which they are built, as also are the vaults of the aisles. The walls of the nave may not have proved strong enough for a stone ceiling, a part of the original design, and a barn-like timber roof took its place for many years, but recently has given way to an elabo- rately ribbed vaulting, made of oak and harmonious with fresh tints and good design. There is no triforium, but the windows of the clerestory are high. They have greenish glass, while in the windows of the aisles, nave, and choir, those of the east end, and the great west window, there is new good colored glass, most of which is ornamented with figures. Another of the marked changes has been the removal of the organ and screen that formerly almost blocked the view into the choir. A handsome open screen has been substituted for the old one, which has been placed beneath the north arch of the central tower and supports the organ, so that the two now nearly fill the space. The old screen is Renaissance, as is unusual in Eng- land, and is made of fine red stone, with large dark marble pillars, and solidly massed carved foliage. The south end of the transept, wider than the nave and nearly as long, was formerly separated from the body of the cathedral by a wall, and was used as a parish church. It was much injured, and daubed with the dingy wash of the eighteenth century, and is the last part to be cleaned. On Sunday afternoon, June 15, 1873, the writer heard Dean Howson preach an excellent sermon in the choir. On the next day the restoration was begun there. Work had been done in 1844 and later, and something in 1855 upon the Lady Chapel, but more extensive operations, that included refinishing a great deal of the exterior, were then directed by Sir G. G. Scott, and have resulted in making the choir, even now, the best part of the edifice. Its vaulting has been colored in harmony with the reddish-brown walls, and stained glass gives richness to an effect made more imposing by the lofty and elaborately carved bishop's throne and numerous stalls. The Lady Chapel is three bays long, but projects only one bay beyond the present eastern end of the cathedral. Two of CHESTER. 195 the bays opened to an extension of the choir-aisles, but the arches of one of the bays have been partly closed. Twenty years ago the chapel was redeemed from degradations of the whitewash age ; a pavement of marbles with encaustic tiles in panels has been laid ; a remarkable reredos of glass mosaic erected ; five lancet windows at the eastern end have been filled with painted glass designed by Scott ; and all the surfaces are toned, or glowing, with polychrome. Time has already touched the whole composition and given it a subdued effect. The monuments are not important, except one finished in 1863 to Bishop Pearson (1686), who has been already men- tioned. It is a very elaborate work in Early Pointed style and of great beauty, shaped like an altar, on which lies a full-length figure of the bishop, and is made of Caen-stone, relieved by shafts of spar. Above the statue is a sumptuous canopy of brass and colored iron inlaid with agates, crystals, jaspers, and carnelians, and around the base beneath it are grouped heads of the twelve apostles, and angels bearing emblems. The whole composition forms a magnificent example of recent monumental art in England. The cloisters, consisting of four aisles in late Perpendicular style, were black and ruinous about twenty-five years ago. In 1872-1873, the south aisle was rebuilt, and the manner in which bits of the almost perished mouldings were then made guides in replacing work destroyed is very curious and creditable. Time and dampness have preyed on the soft stone of the other aisles, that are still worn and aged-looking, but they are in better order than they were in former years. The chapter-house is entered from the eastern aisle through a fine doorway and an unusual square vestibule (30.4 by 27.4), that has three aisles, and a vaulting borne by six short pillars, all of which, as well as the chapter-house itself, are Early Eng- lish. Style and form indicate their otherwise uncertain date, for of the latter, says Mr. King, " no record of the construction has been discovered." Almost a double square in shape, and with three bays of vaulting, and triple lancet windows, the apart- ment has a charming picturesqueness, and a domestic snugness with its cheerful fire of coals, that well fit it to be the library, 196 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. as it has been for many years. At the eastern end there is a group of five lancets filled with new, fine, yet sober glass, cov- ered with figures, or compositions, showing the history of the cathedral. Colored glass is, or will be, also placed in the other windows, harmonizing with the brown-red stone of the walls, and adding much to the attractive effect of this quiet, yet stately ideal home of Christian scholarship. Formerly two objects interesting to Americans were kept here ; but for safety, they have been hung high up beside the west window of the nave. They are two old, torn, faded flags, one with a large union on a blue ground, the other with a small union, on what seems to have been white, both of which are said to have been carried by the Cheshire regiment at Que- bec, and to have witnessed the death of General Wolfe before that city in 1750. Visitors were also once told that they were carried by these troops under the same, evidently undying hero at Bunker Hill (in 1775). Relics of the monastic buildings adjoin the cloisters, and are still very interesting. One of the most important portions spared is the refectory upon the northern side, now used for the King's Grammar School. Its size (originally 90 by 34 feet) has been reduced, and parts have been much altered, but the style, Early English, with Perpendicular applied, is well shown. A very rare feature (said to be one of the two line examples in the country) is the pulpit, a half square projecting at an angle from the wall, and having a rich corbel, pillars, and a canopy. In the wall is a stairway leading to it, and faced by a hand- some arcade that opens to the hall. Along the western side of the cloisters will be found an apartment like a crypt, that prob- ably formed a portion of the building used for storage and for entertainment. Over it there was formerly a story, that probably, from its position, was the dormitory of the monks. Towards the east, beside the chapter-house, a quaint and well- vaulted passage that led to parts destroyed, and also another curious room, arc still preserved. One of the strangest nooks about the whole cathedral was, or is, the way to the triforium, a gallery above it, the leads, and central tower. An odd, dark, turnpike-stair and passages con- CHESTER. 197 nected with it might have delighted Mrs. Radcliffe, and the views outside of course are interesting. The domestic architecture of the city, already mentioned, is in its older styles and reproductions of them, almost as attrac- tive as are the military works. Giving a peculiar distinction to Chester, and yet of undetermined origin, are " The Rows," built along the four streets that radiate from the cross or cen- tre, and near it, — structures rare in England, and very curi- ous, — placed, as Albert Smith says, " so that the sidewalk lies right through the first-floor fronts of the houses," sometimes with a basement shop beneath, and always with the upper por- tion of the building covering them, supported upon posts, and thus forming a covered walk. In some degree they suggest much more imposing and extensive Italian arcades, found at Padua, for instance, or under more modern buildings at Turin. At Berne in Switzerland, are walks more like them, although of greater solidity and extent. But there is a quaintness, irregu- larity, and style in these old " Rows " that makes them Eng- lish. While some mediaeval traveller may have helped to intro- duce them, they probably owe their origin rather to the climate and the native fancy. Examples of the early domestic style of Cheshire are shown in some of the oldest houses, with their gabled fronts, projecting stories, carved frames filled in with plaster, and broad-shafted windows, of which the " Old Palace " of the Stanleys is thought to be the best, as well as the most ancient, — its date, carved upon the front, being 1591. The in- terior, although defaced, still shows some of the stateliness of its young days. Another house, called " Bishop Lloyd's," upon the " Rows," is very striking, and has a curiously carved front, of an earlier date than the 1615 placed on it. A smaller gabled house bearing the inscription, " God's Providence Is Mine Inheritance," 1652, is said to be the only one that escaped the plague in the seventeenth century. Of the new buildings in old style, the most prominent is the Grosvenor Hotel, which replaces the plain " Royal " known to those who visited the place many years ago. It is pleasant to congratulate the ancient city on evident thrift, and manifested regard for old monuments which show 198 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. so much of the various national architectural styles, from Ro- man times to our own. Long, and even more conspicuously, may the patriotism that influences the citizens rule in good old charming Chester. Manchester. In this very large and busy city, and veiled in its smoke, close by the even busier railway station, stands one of the least ancient minor English cathedrals, styled in Murray " a very fine parish church." If in size and general design it does suggest one, it can, with fairness, be called a superb example. Originally collegiate, built wholly since the fifteenth century began, and recently restored or decorated, it was as late as 1848 made the cathedral of the great See of Lancashire. One of its chief peculiarities is that it is the only English cathedral wholly in Perpendicular ; but it is not of sufficient size to show the capabilities of that style as the Early English is shown at Salisbury, or the Norman at Durham. TJie exterior, long and low, with a large tower at one end, rises from a gravelly churchyard of rather forlorn aspect, pre- senting elaborately battlemented and pinnacled walls built of a hard millstone grit of a light, yellowish color. All the work is in fine order, and shows much new facing, for it was com- pletely renovated not many years ago. A former tower was thought to have grown insecure, and was replaced by the fine existing, but differing tower, 137 feet high, designed by Mr. Holden. Of especial note also are the parapets above the clerestory, and the new exterior of the Jesus Chapel. TJie interior is irregularly square, presenting a nave with two aisles on each side, and a choir with a single aisle flanked by large chapels, but no transept. While the size is great, there is no effect of space, for the area is much encumbered by screens, galleries and pews, and as has already been said, a very large and splendid parish church is suggested. In the deco- ration there is the sumptuousness that would be looked for in such a wealthy city, and in arrangements for a congregation in the nave, and galleries built along the inner aisles, all the pro- vision that a wise piety would make amid a crowded population. Of architectural features there is a general design extending MANCHESTER. 199 through both the nave and choir and showing a beautiful main arcade, a tall clerestory, an almost flat wooden roof, and no triforium. When the writer last saw the interior its coloring was more sober than it once was ; on the walls it was light, and on the double-pitched, ribbed ceiling of the nave there was a bluish tint relieved by dark hues on the timbers, in place of former polychrome and gilding that were almost excessive in amount. On minor parts of the edifice the ceilings arc flat, or have one pitch, and are ribbed, and decorated with elaborate bosses. A profusely gilded oaken rood-screen stands before the choir and harmonizes with it, for although its walls and roof are pale, its whole effect is quite gorgeous. Its stalls and screens, unusually fine, are delicately and elaborately carved, and the large organ and tiled pavement are rich. Less notable is the simple Lady Chapel, but the larger St. John's, or Derby, Chapel, that extends along the whole length of the north aisle of the choir is a fine example of Perpendicular, although it was not long ago restored, and both it and the Jesus Chapel on the other side should be examined. There is a small yet elegant octagonal chapter-house, but there are no cloisters. Among the monuments is a seated statue of Humphrey Chetham, placed in the north aisle of the choir. He was a manufacturer, who lived between 1580 and 1653, and founded the Chetham Hospital for training boys to business, and the Chetham Library, " now one of the best provincial libraries in England." Also of note is the monument to Bishop Stanley, who belonged to the great family so prominent in the world as well as in Lancashire, and who died in 1515. When the writer first attended service in this church, on a Sunday, an attractive part of the large congregation was a group of children from one of those English institutions, well recalled by the name of Chetham. The girls were dressed in blue set off by long white aprons, and the boys in long blue surtouts with silvery buttons. Old customs were also shown after service, when several ancient women were called up by list, and each of them received a loaf of bread. Manchester itself is chiefly an enormous demonstration of the growth of English wealth and manufacturing industry during 200 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. the last hundred years, and its public buildings are as modern, — commensurate, however, with the importance of the city, and probably destined to become, centuries hence, representative monuments of our age. Unfortunately, they share with other objects around them the injury, at least in effect, done by ex- cessive smoke, which may thus give them full expression of a characteristic of the present time in England. Among these buildings there is one certainly to be mentioned, and to be seen by travellers, — the new Town Hall in Pointed style, that shows great variety in design and outline, and is one of the noblest modern civil structures of its kind and style, and an honor to Mr. Waterhouse, its architect, as well as to Manchester. THE NORTHEEN CATHEDEALS. York 1 has been important in church and state through many centuries, and is one of the most attractive cities in the country to persons of nearly every taste. Its walls, monastic ruins, grand cathedral, and quaint streets, illustrate the mili- tary, ecclesiastical, and domestic life of the nation in an un- rivalled manner ; its modern elegance and comfort are evident, yet not obtrusive ; and its central position among places or ob- jects of interest is convenient and notable. In the shades of the primeval British times, York seems to have been called Caer Ebranc, or Effioc, but in the clearer period of the Roman rule it was known as Eboracum, the im- portant station of the sixth and ninth legions, and a metropolis for three centuries after 124. Relics of the imperial occupation, 1 Besides accounts in general works mentioned on page 111, see Browne, J., History of the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter's, York, with Plans, Engrav- ings, etc., royal 4°, London, 1847. — Poole, Rev. G. A., and J. W. Hcgall, Guide to York Cathedral, and its Antiquities, illustrated, small folio, York, 1850. — Wild, C, Twelve Perspective views, two ichnographic plates, and Historical Account, imp. 4°, London, 1809. — Halfpenny, J., Gothic Ornaments in Cathe- dral Church of York, 105 plates, imp. 4°, York, 1795. — St. Mary's Abbey, by Kev. C. Wellbeloved, plates, imp. folio, in Yetusta Monumenta (R. S. A.) vol. v., plates li.-lx. (1829). — For accounts of the city, etc., see Cave, H., Antiquities of, imp. 4°, London, 1818. — Drake F., Eboracum, folio, London, 1736. — Gent, T., Ancient and Modern History of, 8°, 1730. — Hargrove, W., History of, 3 vols., 8°, York, 1818. — Torr, J., Antiquities of, 8°, York, 1719. YORK. 201 unusually numerous, and though generally of small size, of great value, have been found from time to time until the pres- ent day, and include specimens of almost every kind of minor- Roman works or objects. It is thought that Eboracum had an octangular shape, measuring about 650 by 550 yards, and oc- cupied the higher ground east of the river Ouse, or the chief old part of the present city. Notable events of the Roman period distinguished it. Twice within its first ninety years the tribes of the North brought havoc to its gates. Severus, after his campaign against them, made it his home, where he died in 210 or 211. In 288 it is said to have witnessed the proclama- tion of the admiral Carausius, as emperor, and from 304 to 307 to have been the residence of Constantius Chlorus, em- peror of the West. At his death in the latter year, his son, the famous Constantine the Great, was in the city, and thus gave it associations with the presence of perhaps the most dis- tinguished Christian sovereign of ancient Rome. Well might the importance of the place where three of the emperors had lived, where one had died, and where a rival had been crowned, earn for Eboracum the title that it bore, of "Altera Roma." In 420, the Romans and the " Legio Sexta Victrix " were obliged, and forever, to leave York, to be followed by barba- rians, by Saxons, and a period like chaos, during which Christ- ianity, that had existed and had spread through northern Britain in the imperial times, struggled for existence. As early as 314, a bishop from a See established here was at a council held at Aries, but the succession in which he was placed seems un- certain. In 524 royalty is said to have given its influence to the recognition of church days, when King Arthur kept at York the first Christmas observed in England. As the history of the See continued, a notable event occurred on Easter, 627, when Paulinus, the distinguished missionary sent by Gregory the Great, converted and baptized King Edwin of Northumbria, and the same day was made bishop. It is stated (but not con- firmed by Wiltsch) that he was also made metropolitan, but this high dignity does not seem to have been confirmed in his successors until a little more than a century later. As formed in 678, the diocese extended from the Humber northward even 202 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. into Scotland. Entering into a long rivalry with Canterbury, it was at length, in 1072, made subject, or second, to that dis- tinguished centre of ecclesiastical government. During the four and a half centuries then ended there were twenty-four bishops, the most famous of whom was St. John of Beverly (705-718). Archbishop Egbert (731-767) founded the library of the Minster, and gave books to Boniface, the great apostle to the Germans ; and the learned Alcuin made York during many years " one of the lights of Europe." Incursions by the Danes in the two ensuing centuries spread devastation through the city and the diocese, and the invasion of the Normans in 1068 inflicted great calamities. These events, and the con- stant losses by time and war, are quite sufficient reasons for the almost utter disappearance of monumental relics of the whole period between the departure of the Romans and the Conquest. Inadequate as is an attempt to sketch on a single page the history of York through the past eight centuries, some of the notable events of which it has been the scene within that time may at least be mentioned. In 1082 it had so far recovered from disasters, that it contained 1,711 private houses, and Thomas of Bayeus (1070-1100), the first Norman archbishop, had repaired the cathedral, which he had found in ruins, and which, at a later date, he rebuilt. About 1090, one of those mediaeval episodes, an atrocious massacre of Jews, occurred, when nearly two thousand perished ; and forty-eight years afterward came another as characteristic, when the city was besieged by the Scots, and when the archbishop, Thurstan, al- though ill in bed, raised forces that completely routed them. Within two or three decades York became distinguished as the place where one of the first meetings of what could be called a Parliament assembled, and where also, in the cathedral, the king of Scotland with his lords and prelates owned the su- premacy of Henry II. and his successors, of whom several, from John to Richard II. resided frequently at York, or there met with Parliaments. The armies of the Edwards, in the great campaigns against the Scots, were also often in the city, and there was a great stir in 1328, when Edward III. was married to Philippa of Hainault. Festivities ensued for three weeks, YORK. 203 and included an incident that showed the combative spirit of the times ; for a fight occurred between the English and the foreign escort of the bride, in which 242 of the former and 527 of the latter are said to have been killed. York, led by its archbishop, rebelled against Henry IV. ; but little trouble then ensued, especially compared with what followed in the Wars of the Roses, when York, as the very garden of the white rose, was repeatedly the scene of various tribulations. In 1509 there was a peaceful act of note ; the printing press was set up near the Minster Yard. Five years later Thomas Wolsey was made the archbishop, but it is said that this famous cardinal was never here officially. At the Reformation, among some momentous changes, Robert Holgate, nominee of Henry VIII., for instance, it is said, in one morning surrendered sixty- seven manors to the king, all of them the property of the See, a portion of which, however, was recovered by Archbishop Heath, who followed him, and to whom York is much in- debted. So serious was the injury inflicted on the city by the suppression of the wealthy monasteries, that a revolt was cre- ated. No small damage to the cathedral was wrought by the Civil War, but since that time the history of the See as well as of the prelates is chiefly noted, according to Britton, for the noiseless tenor of its way along the quiet path of duty. During the last three centuries the civil history has been mainly that of an increasing, prosperous English city, not too much disturbed by trade, and usually a scene of peaceful inci- dents. Some of the chief of an opposite nature were so remote as to be connected with the campaign in and near York in 1644 and 1645 between the Parliamentary and Royal forces. At that time the city was twice besieged, and finally was taken by the former, July 16, 1644, a fortnight after the battle at Long Marston Moor had been lost by the latter. Great damage done the walls was substantially repaired awhile after the Restora- tion, an event that gave much satisfaction in York, where the proclamation of Charles II. caused a brilliant demonstration. The city, itself a group of monuments illustrative of all this history, stands in the midst of a flat, agricultural, moder- ately wooded region, and is built on both banks of the small 204 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. river Ouse, that is crossed by two bridges. Of the two divisions the more important, containing the most interesting buildings, is on the east side ; in the other is the immense new railway station, one of the best in the country out of London, and a true monument of the requirements and activity characteristic of the last half of this century. The ivalls extend around the city, interrupted only at two or three minor points, and at the river near the castle on the east side, where a canal, the Foss, makes a part of the line, along a great part of which there is a walk behind the battle- ments. Although the walls are not continuous, as at Chester, they have one decided superiority, in the preservation of their ancient gateways. Work is shown dating from the Norman period to that of the Tudors, together with renewals made after the two sieges and in recent times ; yet, notwithstanding the consequent changes, valuable evidence is left of mediaeval modes of defence. Magnesian limestone is the chief material used for the masonry, which has a pale, gray color, and is laid in blocks of medium size. At the east is the Red Tower, con- structed of bricks, from the hue of which its name is derived. The south division of the walls is remarkably complete and in- teresting, and probably shows their chief characteristics. Por- tions outside have buttresses and rounded bastions, and on the face inside arched recesses about two feet deep. From most of the exterior base slopes a steep bank, while on the top of the wall are broad blocks of stone laid to form a public walk four or five feet wide, along the inner side of which there is no rail, but the outer has a not very massive embrasured para- pet, low enough to allow a good view to persons who use the promenade. The works are far less formidable than those of the great French example at Carcassonne, and are, indeed, suggestive of police more than of military service ; but the Yorkshire men themselves were stalwart supplementary bul- warks when the old town had need of them. The eastern divi- sion of the walls is inspected better from the ground, but all the picturesque and curious ancient gates, about half a dozen in number, should be seen from every point, for collectively they are unrivalled in the country. YORK. 205 The streets, although they show the inevitable changes of a growing city, are generally narrow or crooked, in the genuine mediaeval fashion, and are almost everywhere quaint. Stone- gate, leading southwest from the minster, is a good example, where thrift, cleanliness, and picturesqueness are combined. At the south end of the city is the large castle, dating from 1068, and a distinguished place in history, but now chiefly marked by the modern county courts and prison it contains. Clifford's Tower, or the Keep, injured in the sieges, and in 1684, when the interior was destroyed by the explosion of the powder magazine, is, however, now one of its oldest and most picturesque parts. The Abbey of St. Mary, represented by a ruin in a garden of great beauty, was magnificent and very large. Its church, 371 feet long, and a beautiful example of Decorated, was fit to rival the cathedral, but from the suppression in 1540 to 1827, it was, with its connected buildings, shamefully treated. In the latter year the Yorkshire Philosophical Society took it in charge, and has deserved for many years the thanks of all who comprehend the value of such labor. Only the bases of the columns, the lower part of the west front, and the north aisle of the nave, remain. Besides these fragments are the gate- house, two or three early archways that gave entrance to the Abbey, and fragments of its other buildings, as well as of the strong wall by which they were enclosed. The Cathedral, the glory of this ancient city, and incom- parably the noblest object in it, is surrounded by streets, except upon the northern side, where there is a large area called the Deanery Gardens. From the usual approach an imposing view of the west front is gained, and on a tour around the edifice it soon shows, especially from the northeast, the dignity, majesty, and beauty of a church with no superior in Britain. An immense cross form, bold transept ends, two noble West- ern towers, a grander lantern at the centre, an east end with a window scarcely matched in the world, and, at one side, a chapter-house well worthy of it, — these are the features, ex- pressed in Early English, Decorated, and late Perpendicular combined, like differing notes of a grand chord, in one rich 206 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. harmony. A neutral and varied coloring is given by the stones used, which were obtained in sundry places, and have here and there yellowish and brownish tints, but a not very dark-gray prevails. There is no other mediaeval western front in Eng- land that is as imposing and complete, and the characteristic English features are appropriately prominent in it, — three comparatively small portals, an immense, lofty, Pointed win- dow in the gabled centre, and, at the sides, square towers, with pinnacles crowning bold buttresses. All parts are covered with elaborate traceries or niches canopied, and the carvings are profuse and fine, but there are now few sculptured figures. Fragments of several exist, but most of the niches, says Brit- ton, were never occupied. The four great buttresses, so promi- nent on the French facades in Pointed style, are used here, and are designed with beauty and marked power and boldness. This grand church was created by the labors of four cen- turies, and the care of four that have succeeded them has kept it admirably preserved. A former edifice, rebuilt before 1100, and of course in the Norman style, formed a nucleus from which grew the vast and magnificent cathedral that we now see. Between 1154 and 1181 its choir and crypts were recon- structed on a larger scale, and the latter form the oldest por- tion of the existing edifice. Between 1215 and 1256, the Early English transept was erected, and the present nave, in Decor- ated, was substituted for the Norman between 1291 and 1345 (the wooden vaulting dates since 1840). The choir was con- sequently rendered incongruous, and the existing noble one, in Perpendicular, was built between 1373 and 1400, except the extreme eastern portions, which are a little earlier. Still later (1405-1470), the three towers were added, and the grand design was, in the main, completed. The south end of the transept shows one of the most im- posing fronts ever built in the Early English style, with the tall lancet windows, arcades, and toothed ornaments peculiar to it, varied by a rarity in England, a rose window in the gable. Thorough repairs have been made on the stone-work, but so quickly is the mellowing touch of time shown on the new pieces needed that none of them look like patches. In 1882 they YORK CATHEDRAL, WEST FRONT, YORK. 207 were conspicuous, and had a dark-yellowish brown or bronze tint, imparted by a process used to preserve them, — in which they had been " biled in ile," as an old verger told the writer. A year later their color was much toned down, and already blended with the tints of the old work. The north end, while in the same style, but of simpler design, is distinguished for the most gigantic group of lancet windows built in Early English, five in number, all 54 feet high, and as noble as they are im- mense. The east end of the edifice, containing the glorious window that will be described hereafter, is worthy of the west- ern front, and the exterior of the chapter-house at the northeast presents an unusually grand composition of its kind, the effect of which is increased when it is seen grouped with the choir and central tower. Light and shade strikingly change the as- pect of the whole exterior while the rays of the sun and clouds pursue each other over it, or when the moon is shining, or it is enveloped in dim night light. Imagination could hardly create a more exquisite ideal than a view the writer had one after- noon, when, athwart dark clouds, the lofty pale-gray pinnacled towers, and the roof of the transept, black at the south end and pale vivid green at the north, rose clear and bright with mar- vellous distinctness. Like the unearthly beauty of a vision the great minster glowed in the level rays of the western sun, and stood as if revealing to the eyes a symbol of that church not made by hands, eternal in the heavens. The interior is built throughout of a smooth, handsome, pale-buff stone of even tint and texture, and is brightened by abundant ancient colored glass. Its airiness and spaciousness are instantly impressive, for it has the effect as well as the re- ality of great length, breadth, and height ; the last of which is greater than usual in England, although less than it would be in France. Every arch has a broad sweeping span, and the uncommon width of the aisles gives breadth that makes good any that might have been added by chapels, of which there are none along the sides. Picturesqueness and some other features may be less marked than in others of the chief cathedrals ; but comparisons are hardly satisfactory, — York is itself and glorious. 208 NORTHEEN CATHEDRALS. The whole of this cathedral is in plan and in design charac- teristically English, and is associated with the grandest part of the national history, of which, as well as of its art, it is a glori- ous monument. Its details are so numerous that they can be learned only by observation on the spot or by study of long monographs, but some of the chief features will be here noted. Several of them are shown in views taken from the centre of the edifice. At the end of the nave, and terminating the long vista of the striding arches of the main arcade, is seen the im- mense west window, with tall mullions and a lofty heading wreathed with mazy, flowing tracery. Between the stones that form them (every one of which is new, but of the ancient form), is rich glass, dating from about 1850, and in the walls upon each side are niches that are deep and elegant. This window and the eastern one at Carlisle are the two chief masterpieces of their kind in English art. All of the other windows in the nave are worthy companions, and all except those at the west end of the aisles have also colored glass, a great deal of which is ancient. Both the rich bosses and enlaced ribs of the vault- ing are also fine examples of English style. The view up into the unusually high central tower is admirable. There the vaults have even more complex ribs, in strong contrast with those generally found on the Continent. Towards the north are seen the " Five Sisters," as they call the lancets there, — lofty, grace- ful, and radiant with glass lightly colored. Towards the south another peculiar feature of the Early English is, perhaps, too evident ; the piers and the sides of the arches are striped by numerous polished Purbeck shafts, the dark lines of which are strongly marked against the pale-brown walls. Except in nar- row lancets in the clerestory, the windows throughout the tran- sept contain colored glass. At the south end the vaulting is of new dark oak, with grayish ribs darker than the grounds, and foliated bosses gilt upon vermilion. A few years ago the clere- story was rebuilt, for it had become badly cracked ; the walls had spread so that the roof was off of them in places, and they were unsafe. The great weight of the central tower has pushed the tops of the arcades towards the south, as they are now seen, but they are secure. Elsewhere throughout the church, it should Ib-tttiiTu Xittmrj he. rf' Tir* Ciakr+rvU- . (CATIHLIEIOIEAIL ©fflinBCIHU CHOU, LOOKING EAST. YORK. 209 be added, the lines are plumb, or true. Beneath the tower and across the end of the vast choir is a magnificent stone screen, said to hare been built between 1475 and 1505. It is a solid wall pierced in the centre by one large portal, and elsewhere covered with profuse and exquisitely carved architectural work, and the statues of fifteen kings of England, down to Henry VI., placed in niches of as many compartments, into which the screen is divided. In the canopies above them are more than fifty smaller statues, and still higher are half-length figures of over forty angels. It would be difficult to find an ancient rood-screen, or jube*, that is superior. The choir, majestic and immense, is one of the great monu- ments of English mediaeval genius, piety, and art. It dates from 1380 to 1405, but there is much new work that reproduces the antique designs, and that was rendered necessary by the well known fire in 1829, by which the roof was burned and the walls were injured. The rood-screen and lofty, sumptuous stalls of dark oak enclose the western part, and a tall screen with a new reredos and elaborate open tracery and battlements divides it from a retro-choir, before which the presbytery is raised fif- teen steps above the floor of the rest of the choir. Almost the whole of the east end, 102 feet high and about 40 feet wide, is filled by the great window, which is 32 feet wide and 76 feet high. Its size is second only to the corresponding one at Glou- cester, which is 87 feet high, and makes it harmonize with the west window, already mentioned, which measures 30 by 54 feet. The glass, like most of that throughout the choir, dates from the fifteenth century, but some of it may be a little earlier. White glass made in England is used for grounds occupied by colored figures, of which in the tracery in the head, above the spring of the great arch, there are, as the writer counted, about a hundred, rising in rank from saints and Bible personages to the angels, and Christ throned in Judgment. Between the mullions are seventy -two square com- partments, containing subjects from the Creation to the death of Absalom, and below a gallery that crosses the window there are thirty-six other subjects from the Apocalypse, besides nine at the base representing kings and ecclesiastics. There is a 14 210 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. narrow eastern or second transept placed about midway along the choir, and having at each end a window of enormous height. All of the choir is vaulted, the aisles with stone, and the great span in the clerestory with wood, as is sometimes the mode in England, and as is usual the ribs are enlaced, but here with more than common intricacy. The monuments are interesting, although many of the older were demolished during the Civil War. A detached and cano- pied work in Early English commemorates Archbishop Gray (1255), another in a recess is for Archbishop Savage (1507), and another similar one for Archbishop Greenfield (1315), all of which are still fine. Besides these works there are several new memorial windows, and among the most recent objects is a rich canopied tomb. The chapter-house, with a stately aisle that leads to it, is not surpassed in England, and both are fine examples of the Decor- ated style. The aisle, that turns at a right angle towards the east, was, twenty years ago (and is now, the writer thinks), in its original condition, so far as can be, — stripped of the dirty wash of the last century, and showing the remains of poly- chrome upon the walls, while ancient glass in the tall windows imparts a sombre effect to the delightful architecture. The chapter-house itself, octagonal and groined, but without a cen- tral pillar, is designed with an arcade around the base and lofty windows filling the sides and giving an airy, light, and charm- ing effect. All the windows have stained glass, the rich tints of which relieve the solemnity of the other coloring. Clean, smooth stone with a light buff-brownish surface forms the walls, but is varied by Purbeck marble in slender shafts bear- ing carved canopies on the arcades, and making stripes of too much prominence. Enamelled tiles, chiefly yellow or deep- brown (the former prevailing), make the pavement in keeping with the coloring on the graceful vaults, on which numerous small figures are painted on a background of pale-bluish gray, relieved by similar but darker tints on the ribs, and red and blue lines in their hollows. The crypt, as already stated, is the oldest part of the cathe- dral, and although dark and damp, and not as imposing as the YORK. 211 crypts at Canterbury or Glasgow, is very interesting and exten- sive ; for it is almost as long as the choir, and contains curious work, the earliest of which is a piece of masonry laid in the herring-bone manner, thought to be a part of the side of the early Saxon church. Otherwise the structure is Norman, hav- ing a vault supported by round, varied pillars, only five and a half feet high (four of which are particularly curious), and by semi-circular arches. Strange as it seems, important portions of the crypt were filled with earth and were forgotten for seve- ral centuries, and even now the place is so dark that it must be visited by artificial light. The central tower commands a wide and very pleasant view from its top, gained after traversing a turnpike stair at the southwestern corner of the transept, and thence a path along the parapet to the tower. On that the low-pitched, leaded roof is bordered by ashy-gray battlements, and although the stone composing them looks pale and worn, it is kept in good order. The city, seen in all directions, reaches chiefly towards the south and west. Beyond it stretches a green rural country, slightly undulating, bounded east and west by ranges of low- looking hills, and north and south by a low horizon. The cathedral church of York is not only a glorious monu- ment of history and art, and a museum of archaeology, but also, like the other great seats of the Church of England, is still more imposing as the home of a strong, living faith. Its services, as the writer has repeatedly found, show that people of all sorts make up the congregation, and, in contrast with the usual fact in France, there are many men, both young and middle-aged. Hope for the future, as well as present good, was evident. The poetry and glory of religion gave its earnest prose a radiant beauty such as seldom elsewhere can invest it. Souls that would not feel the charm and meaning of the scene beneath those stately arches would lose one of the most stir- ring, exquisite effects, even as mere art, that the wide world has known. When on a Sunday evening the majestic music of the organ sounds like voices of archangels through the mighty minster, and the noblest notes of praise that man can offer the Creator of all beauty, ring from vault to vault, the ecstatic tones 212 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. indeed come like a revelation of those harmonies that shall be heard among the heavenly choirs when mortal ears are closed forever. Ripon, a quaint old town in Yorkshire, contains one of the minor cathedrals, but one, like all others, with a general and special interest. The establishment of Christianity here dates from at least the middle of the seventh century, when a monas- tery had been founded by the monks of Melrose. This insti- tution grew, and had a life of about three centuries, at the end of which the church was burned in one of the forays of that dreary period. It was then rebuilt, and was made collegiate, and thus continued until 1836, when it became a cathedral. Of nearly all this long time the existing cross-shaped structure with three low towers, is a representative. Its crypt is Saxon, portions of the chapter-house are Norman, the transept and portions of the choir and nave are Transition (1154-1181), the west front is Early English, scattered parts are Perpendicular, and since 1862 there has been an extensive restoration directed by Sir G. G. Scott. The exterior is simple, massive, and not very high. Form- erly its three towers had tall wooden spires, the largest of which fell, and the others were removed, so that the towers, now without their intended finish, seem too low. The west front is a large example of the Early English style, showing the three small English doors, a central gable 103 feet high, and two square towers with pinnacles but seven feet higher. Shallow buttresses, four rows of arcades, and two groups of windows, each consisting of five lancets, form its other chief features, with which also might be included much new stone-work found here, as it is on all parts of the edifice. The interior presents a nave, restored of late, with a tall clerestory, but no triforium (except at the west end), and flat, oaken-timbered roofs. Its width, 87 feet, is greater in propor- tion to its length than it is in any other nave in England. Two Norman and two Pointed arches bear the central tower, and, together with the choir, show the mixed styles in the building. Some early work, panelled wooden roofs, and a good deal of RIPON. 213 restoration, are noticeable in the transept ; while in the choir, entered through a screen nineteen feet high, — a rich exam- ple of Perpendicular dating from about 1460, — will be found a low triforium and clerestory, and a recent wooden vault of sharply-pointed arches in Decorated, ornamented with gold and colors. Lofty and elaborate canopies rise above the stalls, that date from the last decades of the fifteenth century, and geomet- rical tracery fills the great east window, which, in the Eng- lish manner, is nearly as large as the end of the choir. Although the chapter-house is small, it is not unimportant, as it contains interesting early work. The crypt, however, is far superior in this respect, for if one of the rudest, it is one of the oldest and most curious in the country. " It is," says Mr. R. J. King, " the most perfect ex- isting relic of the first age of Christianity in Yorkshire, and as such cannot but be regarded with the utmost interest and veneration." This peculiar crypt, and one similar at Hexham, he adds, belong " to a period so remote, and are connected with local rituals and observances so little known to us, that it is impossible to ascertain their original purpose with certainty." Utterly unlike the usual form of crypt, it does not reveal long aisles with ponderous vaults and piers, but dark and narrow passages, stone-walled and arched, and a small chapel of a similar construction, all now dim and strange enough to well illustrate the obscure age of St. Wilfrid. Tradition says that he was born near Ripon, that in 652 he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and subsequently was a missionary in Northumbria, and a bishop there at Hexham. The chief passage in this crypt, about forty-five feet long, leads to the chapel, that was dedicated to the " Holy and Undivided Trinity," says Winkle. When the saint examined Rome he must have learned something of the Christian catacombs that are so wonderful in character as well as history ; and it seems as if he, amid the dismal tur- moil of the British wilds in his time, sought a refuge like those that the persecuted early saints and martyrs found. There is no tufa here in which to build the galleries and chapel, and make them like the Roman, but the resemblance is yet strik- ing. A curious funnel-like aperture on the left of the chapel 214 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. called St. Wilfrid's Needle, has occasioned various conjectures. Another portion of the crypt, extremely early, and constructed in the usual form, was, until 1866, an ossuary, of a kind still found in various places on the continent, where human bones were ranged upon the walls. Since this date the bones hero have been buried. Among minor objects the monuments are not of special note, and are not numerous. Some colored glass of the four- teenth century is, however, preserved, and will be found to be interesting. ' Carlisle. 1 Caer-Luil, " the city of Luil," was an ancient British place, named, it is said, from its founder. The Ro- mans called it Luguvallum, and near it had a station on the wall across the island, where articles that prove their presence have from time to time been found. From its foundation, it was an important border-town, and bore the brunt of warfare that this fact occasioned. Ruined by the Scots, and probably again destroyed soon after the departure of the Romans, it was demolished by the Danes about 875, and was not rebuilt until near 1092, when William II. garrisoned a castle that he had constructed here. David, king of Scotland, held it several years in the next century, and then vicissitudes and several sieges followed, until at length, in 1217, the English obtained posses- sion of it. Henry II. gave the city its earliest charter, and civil affairs became more prominent, while military events con- tinued to be often stirring. Even the sweeping mediaeval fires were not escaped, — one of them, in 1292, destroying the records and a large part of the buildings. During the next four cen- turies the history of Carlisle abounded in recitals of trials by war or pestilence, and only on the union of the kingdoms was there a respite. In 1644, 1645, and 1648, the city was as- sailed by the rigors of the Civil War, and two years later a famine added other horrors. Again, in 1745, the Rebellion 1 See Billings, R. W., Architectural Illustrations, History and Description of Carlisle Cathedral, and Illustrations of Geometrical Tracery from the panelling belonging to do., 2 vols., 65 plates, London, 1840-42. The writer's copy is extended by extra illustrations. CAKLISLE. 215 occasioned a siege, followed on November 15 by surrender to the young Pretender, and soon afterwards recapture by the Royal forces. The castle, which has been a scene of a great deal of this change and turmoil, stands on a slightly elevated mound of earth and rock at the north end of the town. Its walls, — built of different sorts of stones, of which the larger part are red, so that they have a motley look, — are extensive, and show large embrasures and flat buttresses. The entrance is across a nar- row bridge and through a low and gloomy archway that retains its old portcullis, and opens to a large courtyard surrounded by modern barracks and the buildings needed for a garrison. Another archway opens to an inner court, where stands the square, red-sandstone keep, thought to date from the time of William Rufus. Associations with events from his reign to that of Victoria gather around the place, and to some extent are vividly illustrated by the variety of works combined in the old fortress. 1 The religious history of the city and surrounding region dates from the early centuries, and is connected with that of the Sees of Durham, Lindisfarne, or Chester-le-Street, in the jurisdiction of which they were comprised until 1133, when a new See was formed, with its seat at Carlisle. Since that date it has retained the honor, and if the daily services of centuries have been attended by few unusual incidents, they have ac- complished much of their intent. The Cathedral still retains some work of the early part of the twelfth century, but dates of the changes throughout the edifice have been rendered uncertain, owing to the destruction of records in the numerous sieges. Accordingly, it may be sufficient to describe the building as it stands. It is a portion only, but a large one, and " the wonder is," says Mr. Billings, " that exposed as it was so often to the ravages of war, so much remains." The original Norman church stood until 1292, when the north transept and the choir were burned, but they were rebuilt some decades later, and remain. The narrow 1 The writer has also described this castle in his " Lands of Scott" (p. 146), and the cathedral (p. 174). 216 NOETHERN CATHEDRALS. nave, except two bays, stood until 1645, when Carlisle was surrendered to the Parliamentary army, and it observed one of the terms of capitulation — " that no church should be de- faced " — by pulling down a large part of the nave, besides destroying the cloisters, chapter-house, and other buildings. Afterwards the materials were used for military purposes, or, as Sir Walter Scott says in his Border Antiquities, " to con- struct a receptacle for the sanguinary agents of civil strife and discord." The exterior of the cathedral is built chiefly of red sand- stone. When the writer first saw it, some parts were crumb- ling and decayed, but an extensive and much-needed restoration was then being made. Six years later nearly all the surfaces and carvings were fresh, and of a light ashen reddish tint, while a dozen years afterwards the soft stone showed wear by the weather. The interior is decidedly superior, but its interest, or beauty, is chiefly in the choir. In the two remaining bays of the nave, and in the short and narrow south end of the transept, are ex- amples of the simple, heavy Norman style of the early edifice, chiefly remarkable, perhaps, for showing how the weight of the central tower, not a high one, has caused its piers to sink so much that the aisle arches joined to it are crushed in a curious manner. The choir, a fine and peculiar one, dates from the last half of the fourteenth century, but was injured and restored a few years after its completion, and the central tower above the roof was then rebuilt. All parts, however, had to bear a heavy share of mutilation in the age of cold blood at the middle of the eighteenth century, when misguided zeal, though of a fash- ion different from that which wrecked the nave, did no small damage to the ancient work. Between 1853 and 1857 exten- sive restorations were made under the direction of Mr. Ewan Christian, that give due effect to the design, in which the walls and windows of the aisles are Early English, and portions of the arcade are early, and the other parts late, Decorated. Of notable features, the most peculiar is the round barrel vault of wood, a reproduction of an ancient one " improved " almost to CAP LISLE -EAST END OF THE CATHEDRAL. CARLISLE. 217 death in 1764. It is spanned by ribs, and is crossed at a right angle by others that form squares. But the feature of the greatest beauty, — one that has perhaps no rival elsewhere, — is the immense east window, shown in the plate annexed. It is, says Rickman, " one of the finest, if not the finest, Decorated window in the kingdom," and is of nearly the same date as the superb west window in York Minster (1291-1380), adds Mr. Billings. Mr. King thinks it is later (1363-1395). While, however, the fourteenth century design is shown, the actual fabric is new, for the stone-work is a recent and careful repro- duction. The upper part, says Mr. Fergusson, exhibits " the most beautiful design for window tracery in the world," which is filled with glass dating " from the reign of Richard IT., and representing the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, and the New Jerusalem." In the lower lights, the glass, with subjects from the life of our Lord, is a memorial of Bishop Percy (1856), placed there in 1861. TJie general view of the choir, if the one great view of this fragmentary cathedral, is one worthy to compare with any other in the country. Differing from all, it gives marked evidence that no church of its class can be unseen by those who wish to know the wonderful variety that the Pointed styles can form and show. There is more color than is usual in England, but the dignity of the interior is not thus im- paired. Against the stone-work of light ashen red, suggest- ing that at Worcester toned down, is contrasted the surface of the lofty arch of the great vault, blue, profusely studded with gold stars relieved by light tints and gilding on the ribs. Extremely dark oak in the lofty stalls, superb with elaborate open-work and carving, forms an effective base ; and the organ case, filling the arch beneath the tower, and gorgeous with new polychrome, makes a due counterpart in brilliancy to the east window. Yet, rich as are these hues, they form but minor tones of setting for that great masterpiece, radiant with color, and beautiful with the transcendent grace of its vast maze of tracery. Travellers and architects will do well, indeed, to visit Carlisle. 218 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. Newcastle. The church of St. Nicholas, which is to be the seat of one of the newest Sees in England, is a cruciform build- ing with four bays in both nave and choir, and two bays in each end of the transept. It dates, some say, from 1359, and stands on ground sloping towards the castle, close by the enormous viaduct that strides across the Tyne into the busy, smoky, modern, and yet ancient town. On two sides of it is a burial ground, and before the west front is a wide and much travelled street. Few of such flowers, shrubs, and trees as elsewhere in the country spread a grace around cathedrals, are found here, and yet they are not wholly absent. The exterior of the edifice, the smallest and simplest of English cathedrals, is low and plain, and of course is dingy. Its chief feature is a large square tower that bears the com- mon English group of pinnacles; but they are very tall, and from those at the corners, in a manner rarely seen, spring flying buttresses, that bear a little tower and spire above the centre, and thus form a sort of crown. A good story is told of its preservation during the siege sustained by Newcastle in 1644, when the Scottish general outside demanded the im- mediate surrender of the city keys, and said that if they were not sent he would destroy the tower. The mayor put the chief Scotch prisoners in the crown and answered, " our ene- mies shall either preserve it, or be buried in its ruins," — logic that was conclusive. The interior -shows two ranges of low arches and small pil- lars widely spaced, supporting a low clerestory, with windows that have almost flat heads, and roofs of timber, dark and double-pitched. There is no triforium. A large pointed win- dow containing colored glass fills the east end of the choir, and there is also colored glass at the east end of the aisles, in a pointed window at the south end of the transept, and in a smaller and simpler one at the other end. While there is no great architectural display, there is good evidence of a desire to provide for a large congregation, by arranging pews through- out the building. The monuments, more numerous than is usual, are chiefly mural, and some of them are elaborate, but all are dirty. In 1783, when one of the " improvements " of NEWCASTLE. 219 that age occurred, great havoc was committed, and several interesting old memorials were destroyed. TJie castle 1 is superior to the cathedral, as an important monument of the long history of the town, the growth of which has effaced the most ancient works. The Romans oc- cupied the place and called it Pons (Elii, from a bridge built by the Emperor Hadrian, foundations of the piers of which were found in 1775, when the existing bridge was undertaken. Near the church of St. Nicholas stood the second station on the great Wall (p. 32), represented by a tower as late as 1796, but which has now disappeared, like all traces of the rampart, leaving among the scanty relics of this once impor- tant place, two statues and sundry small objects that are stored in the museum. Newcastle, as a border city, has frequently, until recent times, been visited by war. In 1068 it tried to withstand William the Conqueror, but he took it, and almost utterly destroyed it. His son Robert, a dozen years afterwards, built a stronghold, called, to distinguish it from the perhaps existing castmm, the New Castle. In the reign of Edward I. the town was strongly fortified, and the castle, covering more than three acres, had walls that averaged fully three yards in thickness. At length, after much hard military service, it was made a prison, and still later a large portion was pulled down, and replaced by public buildings. One of the few parts spared is the now very shabby, blackened, ancient gateway that opens to a nest of dirty houses, and near these, but exposed on at least two sides, is another structure, the most important portion of the mediaeval works, the great Norman keep, still defiant of war, change, and the elements. Its broad and high square form is strengthened at the corrfcrs by wide but shallow projections like turrets. Few windows pierce the extremely massive walls, which are built of flat stones, now much worn, laid in courses and crowned by restored battlements and a nearly level modern roof made of stones that are carefully cemented. On all parts a pall of black coal soot is spread. The entrance is by a long, straight, external stair, that leads to a renewed Norman portal, and thence to the Great Hall, on 1 See Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v., text, and plates 10-18. 220 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. the main floor, a square apartment with a very high-arched top. Built in the walls are narrow rooms and passages, and in two corners there are turnpike-stairs, about six feet in width, that lead from base to roof. Of the minor rooms, one contains a Norman fireplace, and another has an opening to the well. Below the Great Hall is a low apartment, used as a library and a place for meetings by the Newcastle Antiquarian Society, by which the Keep, the property of the Corporation, is maintained. Still lower, reached by an odd, crooked stair, is a dark, smutty hall, with vaults supported by a central pillar. In all these rooms are placed a large collection of antiquities, most of them Roman altars, carvings, minor objects, and inscriptions, chiefly found in Northumberland, and which now repose where the light is insufficient and the smut excessive. From the roof there is a wide and good view around the extensive town and on the river ; and it also includes a great deal of dark smoke. Durham presents from the railway station the noblest view of its kind in England. From high land there the ground slopes steeply in the foreground to the river Wear, the valley of which is filled with the houses of the city. Beyond, and over them, precipitously rise high, rocky, or tree-clad banks, and, along their extended crest, the vast and wonderfully pic- turesque walls of the embattled castle, and the tower-crowned cathedral ; while behind these gray and venerable monuments, and far into the hazy distance of the background, stretch the verdant Northumbrian hills. In all the world there are few such majestic groups of mediaeval works so nobly placed. Bun-Holme, a hill and river island, took this Saxon name, it has been thought, from the peninsula it occupies. The Nor- mans called it Duresme, and changes made the word Durham. Its celebrity began about 995, when the monks of the Holy Island, Lindisfarne, were fleeing from the Danes and seeking a secure place for themselves and the remains of their great patron, St. Cuthbert. He had been, from 685 to 688. the bishop of the See founded in 635 at that remote and curious place, and his rigorous monastic life, and active missionary labors among a people then half heathen, had shown a character DURHAM. 221 that had caused him to be canonized. His body was laid near the altar of the church on the island, and legends, of the early mediaeval sort, describe the manner in which it was afterwards carried thence and enshrined at Durham. In 10G9, William the Conqueror came with terrible destruction, laying waste the country from York to the Tyne. All the inhabitants of Dur- ham fled at his approach, and four months later returned, but to endure an awful famine. Meanwhile the body of St. Cuth- bert was once more laid in the church at Lindisfarne, again to be brought back when peace was restored. In 1072 the castle was begun, where the Prince-Bishop was to dwell upon the northern border of the realm — a " priest who bore alike the sword and the pastoral staff," who, " looked down from his fortified height on a flock which he had to guard no less against worldly than against ghostly foes " (King). On August 2, 1093, William of St. Carileph, the second Norman bishop, laid the foundation of the cathedral. The two great edifices were to stand beside each other for eight centuries, and at the end of that long period to be as strong as ever, and more beau- tiful, and to be homes of thought and faith more precious, and with elements of more vitality, than were known when the Normans founded them upon the enduring rock. The Cathedral 1 seems to have been built as rapidly as its immense extent, the means available, or the industry of the monks established around it, would permit, and their labors were important and efficient. Construction was carried on from eastward. In two years it had reached the transept ; in four years more the nave ; between 1099 and 1128 the nave was built, and then the western towers. By 1143 the chapter- house and a part of the cloisters were completed, and in the last half of the century the Galilee at the west end, one of the most remarkable parts of the edifice, used as a Lady Chapel in a very unusual position. The Norman church, thus finished, was, however, changed or received additions. In the thirteenth 1 See Billings, R. W., Architectural Illustrations and Description of the Cathedral Church at Durham, 4°, 75 plates, London, 1843. The writer's copy has many extra illustrations. He has also described the Cathedral in a chapter on " Harold the Dauntless," in his " Lands of Scott," pp. 126-128. 222 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. century an eastern transept, or end, called the chapel of "Nine Altars," was built in Early English, forming one of the great peculiarities at Durham, and although much larger, suggesting in some ways the " New Building " at Peterborough. In the same century the central tower was altered, and early in the next, the cloisters were completed, as also was the dormitory for the monks, — now used for the library, and one of the most interesting of these great apartments still preserved. A large part of the cathedral is in Norman style, of which it is an unsurpassed example. With little injury, it stood amid the turmoil of the Middle Ages, and the dangers of the Civil War, to be the victim of James Wyatt and the ignorance of the churchwardens in the last two decades of the eighteenth century. Thirty thousand pounds were squandered in mutila- tions that might have rejoiced the ghosts of all the meanest zealots in the whole north country, and that roused John Car- ter and the friends of art and England to stop the barbarians. The character of much old work on the exterior, and half of the extraordinary chapter-house had been destroyed, but much of the interior, and the Galilee were saved.- Afterwards some minor work was done at various dates, and then, in 1859, and later, Sir G. G. Scott directed repairs and restorations, during which many rich objects were added, and great changes were made throughout the interior, leaving it not only unimpaired but wonderfully improved. Certainly with this interior, a masterpiece of early English art, with the unique Galilee, the " Nine Altars," the minor or monastic buildings, and the grand site, there are peculiarities unusual in number and character, as well as distinction and interest, grouped in the cathedral of St. Cuthbert. The exterior, as well as the interior, is built of a sandstone that is neither strong nor close-grained, and is everywhere dis- tinctly marked by wavy lines that mix light yellowish-brown, the chief tint, with a plain, pale-gray. Where the exposure has been longer, russet-brown and a dull-yellow are mixed with an earthy gray, and the coloring is still further varied by a great deal of yellow on the south part of the transept. All the central tower, the upper parts of the two western towers, and DURHAM CATHEDRAL-THE NAVE. DURHAM. 223 several window-casings in the nave, show new work, but this has already gained a grayish tone, so that, in this respect, it is not too much contrasted with the old stone, which in mam- other places has worn surfaces. Long and lofty in form, austere and massive in its Norman style, crowned by three great towers, the venerable church stands in calm strength and majesty on its high base of rock, above a zone of fresh and graceful tree-tops, that with their bright waving green relieve its sombre tints, and show by their marked contrast its bold and immovable grand walls. Far in the sky the traceried towers rise like the symbols of a faith eternal, toned and warmed by light that comes out from the clouds or the serenity above them. The wild, stern, early ages with their ponderous art, the long succeeding centuries with their established order, and the present, with its consecrated labor and perennial faith, are all shown clearly by the varied stones of this great monument, of the material and spiritual growth of England, that looks from its cliff-like throne far over the green hills of Northumberland. The interior is now opened so that the whole length, except the Galilee, (411 feet), is shown at once, with an effect not only of grandeur, and of a strength that seems eternal, but also of refinement and magnificence. All parts are in perfect order, so that the power and Dorian simplicity of Norman times and art, appear, as they indeed are, inseparable, though remote, from present life with its peculiar qualities and greater resources. In 1871 the writer had the pleasure of seeing a beginning made in the removal of a brownish mud tint put on early in this century, a good work since completed, leaving the surface of clean stone. Some of it is worn, and none of it is very smooth, yet its unevenness is well adapted to the archi- tecture, as also is its color, light ashy-gray, or reddish-brown, and darker than is usual in cathedrals. In 1883 new colored glass had been put in the great west window, and in the win- dows of the aisles, giving much richness to the light and effect. The nave, one of the most ancient in the country, hardly rivalled there in impressiveness, indeed with a sublimity found 224 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. in itself alone, presents a ponderous arcade, rising from a pave- ment of common stones to an uncommon height. Beyond the west end its piers are giants ; first, one of them clustered, cover- ing 116 square feet, then one round, covering 64 feet, and fur- rowed with deeply cut curious flutings or zigzag ornament. They bear a high triforium, a very low clerestory crowded far up between the groins, and a vault with huge ribs, which, with the arch-mouldings, have an unusual amount of ornament. Effect in the design is chiefly given by these features, for none of the windows are large, and their heads, some of which are slightly pointed, have simple tracery. The Galilee, or Lady Chapel, should be visited before the eastern portions of the church. It is unique and very curious, oblong in shape, (48 by 76.6), and built across the western front, with a near view of which, indeed, it interferes. Three rows of clustered pillars, four in each, stretch north and south, and bear rich arches, plain walls, and low-pitched modern roofs. In the design, — except in the windows, which are later, — the Norman style, affected by the reaction characterizing Early English, is shown, and its lightness is remarkably contrasted with the cyclopean massiveness of the older work. Bare, brown- ish stone now gives a prevailing hue to the chapel, but in medi- aeval times the coloring was brighter, as is shown by remains of ancient painting in the mouldings. While all the pomp and altars of the ancient worship have long since disappeared, one object appropriately keeps its place, a very large slab of plain gray slate covering a flat tomb, on which in large letters are the words, " Hac Sunt in Fossa Bedse Venerabilis Ossa." Here, in one of the oldest, calmest ecclesiastical nooks in the coun- try, sleeps its primitive monkish chronicler. The transept, while in the same style as the nave, has a more varied or irregular design. Besides Norman features, there are tall, Pointed windows at each end containing colored glass, and in the central tower, which is open to a height of 155 feet, there is a sharply acute vault above four other lofty traceried Perpendicular windows. The choir has many of the general features of the nave, but is less ornamented, with the exception of the vaulting, which is DURHAM, THE uALILEE. DURHAM. 225 Decorated (1289-1307), and of course has Pointed arches, on which the ribs are bold, and are enriched with carvings. The minor features, that, however, are of great importance as com- bined, are of unusual beauty and elaboration. A new and splendid screen (1877) at the west end, designed by Sir G. G. Scott, is of bold and rich design, and does not interfere with the view from west to east. It has three large trifoiled open arches and a central gable of polished, veined, reddish alabas- ter, borne on clustered pillars of dark-greenish native marble, also polished. Another, much higher and still more elaborate screen, dating from about 1380, and forming the reredos, is of Caen stone, and was made in London or Paris. Mr. Billings says that it is " perhaps the most remarkable in the kingdom, either as regards magnitude or richness of detail." Above a base, it shows a range of lofty niches crowned by still loftier and richer canopies, in which the soaring lines of the Pointed style are wonderfully shown ; but coloring and gilding, statues once numerous, and other fine decorations, have been stripped from it, leaving it now almost white. At the foot of the steps to the altar is found an important, although less prominent object, — an immense incised stone, from which a monumental brass has been torn, said to have been the largest in England. Hardly less notable than the work in stone is that in wood, which in- cludes a bishop's throne, — also said to be the largest (and the highest) in the country, — and stalls dating from 1660 to 1672. Among new objects remarkable for beauty and elaborate de- sign, is a pulpit, at the southwest corner of the central tower, made of alabaster and enriched with fine mosaic and colored marbles. A lectern, of dull brass, richly worked and set with brilliants, stands near it, and on the altar is a sumptuous embroidered carving (1877) in red and gold, above which is a sculptured copy (1849) of Leonardo da Vinci's " Last Supper." The " Nine Altars " is an immense chapel, measuring 129 by 38i feet, built about 1230, and named from the shrines which were in it, but which were long ago removed. They were dedi- cated to St. Michael, the Archangel ; St. Aidan and St. Helena, St. Peter and St, Paul ; St. Martin; St. Cuthbert, and St. Bede ; St. Lawrence ; St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Catharine ; 15 226 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. St. Jonn Baptist and St. Margaret ; and St. Andrew and St. Mary Magdalen. Besides these there was a shrine especially for St. Cuthbert, who, with other native patrons, was duly honored. It is, however, as a splendid example of Early Eng- lish, as well as for coloring, that the chapel is now remarkable. In form it is an aisle, built of stone, with a neutral tint which is relieved by a local greenish marble, stronger than Purbeck, and filled with large fossils, used for slender clustered pillars on the piers. Between these, on the east side, is a row of nine tall lancet windows ; above them are six smaller ; and, in the centre, a large rose conspicuous at the end of the choir. All of these openings, and others at the north and south, have been filled since 1873 with gorgeous glass, covered with ornament or numerous figures. Of the latter, and especially notable, are groups in the great north window representing the story of Joseph, whose name had been given to the window itself. Before the Dissolution, the shrine of St. Cuthbert stood here, magnificently built of green marble, gold, and enamels, and overhung by his banner. Here, or near here, his remains rested during almost six centuries, and then were removed, but were buried near by in a grave that was opened in 1827, when several rich or curious articles were taken from his coffin, and his bones were reinterred. According to tradition, the body of the saint was buried by the monks beneath the bell-tower, but in 1867 a careful search entirely disproved the story. Amid the changes in the world his remains and his insignia were venerated by fully twenty generations, and for a longer time were preserved in the peace in which they had been laid, to become at length a source of supply of curiosities for a museum. TJie cloisters have four aisles of nearly equal length, with flat ceilings of dark oak, divided by ribs into square panels, and with exterior arches filled with plain, heavy tracery, nearly uni- form in design. At the south corner, and partly below ground, is a large, dry, oblong crypt, one of three remaining in the ex- tensive group of buildings. It is in early style, and suggested to the writer, by its size at least, the crypt under the Salle Svnodale at Sens. DURHAM. 227 The chapter-house, dating from the first half of the twelfth century, was almost destroyed, in cold-blood, by the barbarians in 1796-1797. " It was," says Mr. King, " unquestionably the finest example of a Norman chapter-house remaining in Eng- land. Within, it was about 80 feet long by 37 broad. Its eastern end was circular." A person named Morpeth (the " chapter architect ") and Dean Cornwallis (a name already associated with so much benefit for England in America) " improved " the venerable monument by knocking out the key- stones of the arches and achieving general wreck, in order to make a " comfortable room," — an object in which they were unsuccessful. The monastic buildings, surrounding and extending beyond the cloisters, were extensive, and many parts are well pre- served ; indeed, says Mr. Billings, they are perhaps more com- plete than elsewhere in the country. In addition to the church, chapter-house, and crypt, parts of the extraordinary group al- ready described, is the Dormitory, dating from 1404, and now covered by a wooden roof in plain Perpendicular. Originally it was a grand Decorated apartment, 193 feet 7 inches long, 38 feet 11 inches wide, and 31 feet high. Beneath it is a crypt of the same size on the ground, but of only half the height. Both of them, after they had been subdivided and used for several purposes, were restored between 1849 and 1853, and the Dormitory together with another hall along the south side of the cloisters were appropriated, and are now used, for the library, which, says Mr. Billings, is " certainly superior to any ecclesiastical library in the country." Mr. King supports the statement, considering the collection " one of the most inter- esting and important in England." There are several thousand printed books, and about seven hundred manuscripts, including many of great value, " descended from the monastery to the chapter." Placed with them are seals, copes, and other objects, and the relics of St. Cuthbert, all of hardly less importance or inferior interest. Among other remaining parts of the ancient buildings are a large and simple gateway with a lofty vaulted archway, and the Dean's kitchen (1368-1370), octagonal, 36 feet in diameter, and covered by a peculiar groining. 228 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. The view from the central tower should be enjoyed, as well as another obtained in a walk beneath the trees along the steep banks of the river. From the former position is seen a pros- pect extending in all directions over high, large rounded hills made green and fair by prosperous rural or pastoral life, and traversed by deep valleys, in which nestle smoky iron-works that add much to the wealth of the region, and that, if not beautiful, are in their way as illustrative of the present age as the buildings beneath are of the ages of faith. Tlie castle, separated from the cathedral by an open area, is thoroughly English, and both interesting and important. Its irregular exterior towards the north and west, standing boldly on wooded heights that rise above the Tyne, is the most pict- uresque. Towards the south the frontage is less imposing; yet even there will be found a quaint courtyard with a very old-world look, to which an arched gateway gives access from the area. At the east is the Keep, perched on a mound, and still large and good, although altered. Steps from the west side of the courtyard lead to the hall, a hundred feet long, very high, and the largest room in the castle. From its plain walls rises a ceiling, with a low double-pitch, showing dark timber, and at the north is a large window containing colored glass. Quainter and more snug are rooms along the north side of the court, although they have been more changed. They occupy two stories, and show English fitting and furnishing from the sixteenth century, combining antique comfort with some state- liness. A large square staircase, made of blackened wood and much carved in the Jacobean style, leads to them and to a long narrow connecting corridor hung with old tapestry and lined with antique furniture. In the basement at the farther end is the most ancient portion of the castle, still containing the un- altered oblong Norman chapel, now cold and damp, for the floor is several feet below the surface of the ground. By the dim light that alone reaches it are seen two tiers of tall round pillars, three in each row, with carved capitals, supporting a vaulting. Throughout the castle there is little of the brilliant restoration, or mediaeval or resplendent modern work sometimes found in Continental castles similarly placed, — the bishops' WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 229 palaces at Angiers and Salzburg, for instance ; but a charm of old days lingers there amid the quaintness, and the place is not less worth seeing from the fact that, like the rock beneath it, all of it is thoroughly English. WESTMINSTEB ABBEY. 1 This illustrious edifice, with its inestimable and endeared associations, ranks as a cathedral by its magnitude, by its great importance in the art and history of England, and by the fact that it was for a few years (1540-1550) the seat of a bishop- ric. For centuries, however, it was the church of one of the most prominent monastic establishments, and consequently it may properly be ranked between two great classes of ecclesias- tical structures, and connect the cathedrals with the abbeys. An outline of its history and chief features and of the im- mense array of monuments in it can be filled by the abundant details given upon the pages of Cottingham, Neale, and Bray- ley, Ackerman and Stanley, as well as by the help of many hundreds of engravings. Like its deep foundations, the early history of the Abbey is hidden in an obscurity we cannot penetrate. Imagination must now lead us, in a district made noble by some of the most famous edifices of a great empire, to conceive a wild region filled with thickets, such as the place was in the seventh century, that had then given it the name of 1 See Ackerman, R., Westminster Abbey : its History, Antiquities, and Monu- ments, 70 colored plates, 2 vols, royal 4°, London, 1812. — Bratley, E. W., Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London, 2 vols. 8°, 1838, i. 210-248, with 6 plates. — Camden, W., Reges, Reginae, Nobiles, etc., sepulti usque 1600, Lon- don, small 4°, 1600 (Epitaphs). — Cottingham, L. N., Plans, Elevations, Sections, Details, and Views of the Magnificent Chapel of King Henry VII., etc., 72 plates, 2 vols., atlas folio, London, 1822-1829. — Dart, J., Westmonasterium ; or, the His- tory and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, etc., 2 vols, folio, 147 plates, London (1723?). —Neale, J. P., The History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, with Lives of the Abbots and Deans ; text by E. W. Brayley, 2 vols, royal 4°, London, 1818-1823. (The writer's copy has over three hundred extra plates.) The same, with additions to date, royal 4°, London, 1856. — Stanley, A. P. (D.D.), Historical Memorials of West- minster Abbe3 r , 8°, London, 1868. Besides the descriptions of the edifice and the account of its condition, the monumental inscriptions are taken from the writer's note book, in which he has also copied many others. 230 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Thorn ey Island. Here, a legend says, the Romans built a tem- ple, but no relic of it seems to have been found as proof ; and here also some of the earliest Christians in the country are said to have erected a church. A more authentic statement, that seems like a fact, looms in the dimness now spread over the years immediately after 600, and indicates that Sebert, king of the East Saxons at that time, actually built a church here, in loco terrihili, as the spot was then and later called, — a germ from which grew an abbey dedicated to God and St. Peter. After the rigorous vicissitudes of the succeeding cen- turies, including devastations by the Danes, Edward the Con- fessor, about 1050, began the reconstruction of this church, and finished it in twelve or fifteen years. His work was des- tined to yield in turn to greater achievements, for nearly every part of the majestic edifice that stands to-day, dates from a later period. On May 16, 1220, Henry III. laid its foundation at the east end (under the present chapel of Henry VII.) , and help was given both by the clergy and the laity. If what is now called " superstition " aided, so too did private offerings like the gifts to good objects in our enlightened time. The rebuilding of the church had been actively continued for about sixteen years " before the Sunday after Michaelmas, 1261," says Mr. Brayley, when the total expenditure had been about .£29,606. Between 1245 and 1269 the choir and transept were erected, and the east part of the nave between the latter year and 1307 ; but the west part dates only from 1340 to 1483, and the west front, except the upper portion of the towers, was not built until during the succeeding twenty-six years. It was as late as from 1715 to 1735 that the existing form of the west front was given, chiefly by Sir Christopher Wren. Of other parts of the building it may be briefly said that several, including the cloisters, are of the fourteenth century, and that between 1502 and 1520 the unrivalled chapel at the east end was built by Henry VII. In the reign of his successor the Abbey was in more danger than at any other time, and narrowly escaped de- struction, — a fate never threatened in the Civil War, says Dean Stanley. Extensive restorations and repairs were made in the half century that followed the accession of King William and WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 231 Queen Mary, as well as at several later dates, and have been recently continued. Notwithstanding all these efforts, very large repairs are now imperatively needed on the clerestory of the nave and on the north end, for the climate has proved a bitter foe, to which the material seems to be too easily a victim. The style of the church itself is Early English of the later period in its most graceful and magnificent development. In unity the design is second only to that so remarkably shown at Salisbury ; but the richness and the grandeur here are greater, while at the same time the intricacies of the church and of the structures connected with it are such that they can be under- stood only from a plan, or, better still, from repeated visits. TJie exterior is impressive from its length and height, the boldness of the buttresses, and its grand simplicity, except at the east end, where the elaboration is very remarkable. Gray is the prevailing color, bleached to an almost spectral white- ness on exposed parts, and shaded to grim black in many places. While the general effect is noble, there are deficiencies in the design that we could wish did not exist. A lack of spires and the comparatively small size of the western towers give an effect that is at least unlike that of some of the noblest mediaeval churches. Few of the English cathedrals have so low a central tower, — one of their great characteristics ; and the west front, although imposing from its outlines and dimensions, lacks the boldness and the grace of York, and shows but little of the poetic imagery of Wells or Salisbury. The unfortunate details designed by Wren are every year more deeply veiled, or worn away by London smoke and dampness, and should be remembered as the work of one who, towards the close of a long life of grand achievement, made here his possibly single great public error. The interior shows the characteristic English length, com- bined with the French height, form of apse, and polygonal chapels. To these foreign peculiarities are added large and splendid rose windows in the ends of the transept, also in the French manner, and a suggestion of the Spanish sombreness. All the chief parts, — the great arcade, the clerestory, and the triforium, — are developed nobly and symmetrically; the latter 232 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. being of uncommon excellence. While there is not the immense space of Cologne, Milan, or Seville, the design is unsurpassed in purity and beauty, and with these and other admirable quali- ties, forms one of the most perfect interiors in the Pointed style. The height and sharpness of the arches give the effect of soaring lines shown in the best examples. The length is great enough to give a grandeur that some larger churches need. The light is solemn, and the stone-work, of deep-gray or brown, is venerable ; but neither light nor stone are too sombre. The west window fills the end of the nave, and admirably closes the long vista in that direction ; while the lines of the build- ing, the rich minor details, and the profusion of memorials concentrate with superb effect around the east end of the choir. Although the monuments are much more numerous than in any other church, there is no disagreeable suggestion of mere storage. Nearly everything is in good order, and comparatively few things are inharmonious. Never has a nation had a more majestic shrine for its religious thought and for the memory of its history and its heroes. All classes of the people crowd the interior during every service on Sunday ; and while this remains true, old England is safe. A double beauty and impressiveness, attended by the charms of music, poetry, and the three sister arts, are also there ; and with the refinements accumulated by wealth and civilization come the power and grace of Christianity expressed amid unique surroundings. Indeed, while the terse Latin on the monument to Sir Isaac Newton, in the nave, describes him, it also in three words expresses the character of Westminster Abbey, — Hvmani Generis Decvs. The views obtained in four directions from beneath the central tower are very impressive and magnificent, present- ing as they do the great features and many of the details of the vast interior. Directly overhead, the vaulted ceiling of the tower recedes into dimness ; and from this meeting place the soaring arches of the transept, choir, and nave stretch far, their elegant, yet massive ribs, tipped with pale gold and closely set, interlaced on grounds of light gray banded with darker tints of the same color. From the pavement rise tall round pillars with slender shafts engaged upon them, parts of the WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 233 lofty main arcade, bearing a beautifully designed triforium and a high clerestory that rises into the graceful vaulting. All the face of the walls above the arches of the great arcade and in the triforium is covered with elaborate foiled ornament that gives a peculiar richness ; and the magnificence of coloring is imparted to the dark and simple tints of the stone-work by su- perb painted glass, most of it of recent date, that fills many of the less seen windows as well as every one that is prominent. Age seems to have only slightly touched the masonry ; but in the nave, at least, the original smooth surface along the joints has been disintegrating, and a coating like oil has been added to preserve*the stones. Almost as noticeable as the great archi- tectural features, and of no slight significance in the long views from the centre of the edifice, are the pews and seats, in the nave and transept, arranged for the large congregations that are there frequently assembled. The choir, defined as the east arm of the cross, is much shorter than it usually is in England ; but as the part of the church commonly used for services, it is much longer. Like a Spanish choir, it extends far down the nave, and is well fitted for the requirements of the English ritual. The choir proper has only three bays, besides a pentagonal apse. Two of these bays towards the west form a square area, called the sacrarium, entered through a richly worked metal railing beneath the cen- tral tower. Among the superb details here are a large square mosaic pavement in Early Italian style, much worn, but very interesting, and a superb and lofty reredos (1867-1870) well worthy of the abbey. It is made of alabaster and is entirely of English workmanship, except a large oblong mosaic, by Salviati, of Venice, placed above the altar. White marble statues stand along the front, among them Christ and St. Peter at the right and left of the mosaic. On the sides of the altar there are rich panels of copper-colored bronze and gilt brass pillars. The east part of the choir is enclosed, and forms the chapel of St. Edivard the Confessor, the most venerable portion of the edifice, containing the shrine of the royal saint (1066). This stands in the centre, and has three heights of arcades, all in Italian style, the chief and lowest being of stone, with twisted 234 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. pillars and mosaics now much broken. Around the sides of the chapel, between the pillars and beneath canopies, are large altar- shaped royal tombs, all of great interest. The tomb of Henry III. (1272) is a rich semi-Gothic Italian design, and bears his recumbent effigy. That of Edward I. (1307) is very plain, and made of five large slabs of Purbeck marble. Eleanor, his queen (1290), lies in an altar tomb bearing a statue of her, and is covered on the sides with armorial bearings and rich Pointed tracery, all executed in gray Petworth marble. A remarkable procession bore her remains from Lincoln to their final resting-place, as is well known ; and at each of the ten places where they rested on the route, the king built a mag- nificent cross. The last one was at Charing, since called Char- ing Cross, one of the busiest and most familiar spots in London, where the elaborate monument of Edward's piety and love has been of late nobly restored. The tomb of Edward III. (1377), beneath a fine canopy, was extremely elegant ; but it is now badly worn. That of Richard I. (1400) is high and of altar form, and bears an effigy beneath a simple canopy. One of the most curious and richly sculptured monuments is that of Henry V. (1422). It consists in part of a peculiar chapel midway over the apsidal aisle, approached through two octagonal towers that are covered with statuary and fine tracery, and are connected by a canopy of the most delicate elaboration. On each side of the chapel there is a similar design, and on the east wall, and forming another part of it, is a lofty and still richer screen. When entire, the composition was of great value in history as well as in art ; but it has been unpardon- ably injured or neglected. All the monuments of the sover- eigns at Westminster have, indeed, been seriously damaged. Compared with many in St. Peter's at Rome, or in St. Denis, near Paris, they lack size and splendor, and they have not been as well kept as those at La Superga and the Escorial ; yet the English group is not surpassed in age or interest by any other in Europe. In this part of the Abbey, it should be added here, many other distinguished personages besides royalty lie buried. No other object in the choir will probably attract more at- tention than the coronation chair. It is made of dark wood, and ■ ! WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 235 is very large, and, also, is remarkably shabby. Beneath the seat is placed the stone of Scone, that was brought from Scot- land with the Scottish regalia by Edward I., since whose time all the sovereigns have been crowned while seated on it. Ac- cording to the story, it is a part of Jacob's pillar ; but far more probably it was the pillow on which rested the head of the dying St. Columba, a relic of the minster where, says Dr. Stanley, " the first authentic coronation in western Christendom " oc- curred, — at Iona. It is a flat piece of slightly reddish-gray sandstone, about two feet long, a foot and a half wide, and nine inches thick, and, says a modern observer, very like the stone of which Dunstaffnage Castle is built. Tlie monuments that crowd the other portions of the Abbey were neglected and were very dusty as late as 1871. In the next year a thorough cleaning had improved them wonderfully, and they are now well kept. Most of the older works are less mutilated than might be supposed ; but nearly every one of them has suffered injury. In number and in variety of style the vast collection far surpasses any other ; while in associations with position, character, and genius, it presents its own indis- putable, peerless record. The north transept is devoted chiefly to the statesmen ; the chapels of the choir contain the monu- ments of others, of ecclesiastics, and persons of high rank ; and the south end of the transept is filled chiefly with me- morials of men of letters, occupying a space that has long borne the well-known name of " Poet's Corner." But many years ago it ceased to be a corner, it is a great arm of the church. T/ie Poefs Corner shows appropriately, at the end towards the choir, the monument (1556) to Chaucer (1400), — a gray, oblong recess in the wall, with a carved canopy in Gothic style. On the inner parts the surfaces are somewhat roughened and disintegrated, but at the back is an inscription painted yellow and easily read, although formerly it was almost illegible. Close to the left of the usual entrance, at the southeastern cor- ner, is a small white marble tablet with the simple words, " Rare Ben Jonson ! " Next it, in quaint Roman letters, is the solemn and affectionate inscription, "Here lies (expecting the 236 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. second coming of our Saviour Christ Jesus) the body of Ed- mond Spencer, the Prince of Poets in his time, whose divine spirit needs no other witness than the works which he left be- hind him. He was born in London" in 1553, and died in 1598. Next is the monument of Samuel Butler (1680), inscribed in Latin. Close to it the eyes are at once attracted by the features of a bust made of white marble (1737), and by the name below it, Milton (1674). Directly underneath, and near the pave- ment, is the figure of a Lyric Muse holding a bas-relief medal- lion with a bust, on which is cut the name of Thomas Gray (1771). The poet's body lies at Stoke Pogis. On a plain base below the Muse, in capital italics, are the lines, — " No more the Grecian Muse unrivalled reigns, To Britain let the nations homage pay ; She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray." Latin inscriptions to Shadwell and Mason follow, and the me- morials to Prior, Sharp, and Anstey ; then a corner of a pro- jecting wall is turned, and on the other side appears a fresh round pedestal of white marble that bears the letters " T. C." and several lines. It is the monument to Thomas Campbell (1844). Near it is the bust of Southey. Then a large full- length and familiar form looks down, while leaning on a shaft and pointing to the lines from his own " Tempest," that are so suggestive here, — " The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a wrack behind." There stands William Shakspeare (1616). Next him is the bust (1762) of James Thomson (1748), with the words, " Tutored by thee, sweet Poetry exalts her voice to ages, and informs the page with music, image, sentiment, and thought, never to die ! " Beyond, are monuments to Rowe, to Gay, and to Goldsmith (1774), the last, as the inscription says, " Qui nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit, nullum quod tetigit w k Z~ ***" '■ SratSS? m , WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 237 non ornavit." A very large monument to John, the great Duke of Argyle (1743), by Roubiliac, follows, and then me- morials of others less distinguished, until one pauses and looks far up to the statue of Handel (1759), and reads from a scroll beside him, " I know that my Redeemer liveth," with the notes he set to that sublime text. Almost below him, and standing on a round base on the pavement, is a statue. An admirable, long, but none too long, inscription attracts at once the eye and thought, for it begins, " Quisquis es, qui hoc marmor in- tueris, | Venerare memoriam Iosephi Addison | Quern Fides Christiana | Quern Virtus, bonique mores, | Assiduum sibi vin- dicant patronum." Beyond, are other names less known ; among which are, however, those of Garrick (1779), and Cam- den, the antiquary (1623). Even the plain pavement is nearly filled with these memorials of departed men of genius. A portion of it next the wall that bears some of the works just mentioned, shows its interest by the inscriptions cut on large slate-like stones, — HANDEL'S STATUE UPON THE WALL ; ADDISON'S ON THE FLOOR ; AND IN THE PAVEMENT [RICHARD CUMBERLAND " CHARLES DICKENS, [LORD MACAULAY (1811) LIES HERE.] BORN 7TH FEBRUARY, 1812, (1859).] DIED 9TH JUNE, 1870." [DR. JOHNSON [RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN [THOMAS CAMPBELL (1784).] (1816) LIES NEXT.] (1811) LIES HERE.] Close to the right of the entrance is the bust of "Michael Draiton, Esq r ," who, the inscription tells us quaintly, was " A memorable poet of this age," who " exchanged his Lavrell for a Crowne of Glorye, An . 1631." A little farther on is Chaucer's monument, already mentioned; then one to the poet Cowley; then a bust on a round conical base that is inscribed " J. Dry- den— born 1632 — died May 1, 1700. John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, erected this monument 1720. Scheemakers, sculptor." One of the latest memorials erected in this con- secrated place is that of a poet who was buried where he had lived, three thousand miles away, yet whose name has become 238 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. inseparable from both the Englands. A morning star of poesy in the new world shines beside the' elder constellation, and its rays touch the bust of Longfellow. The north transept contains an even greater number of monu- ments. They are chiefly to men who have been distinguished on the bench, in the field, or on the deck, or in other public life. Of those eminent in law commemorated here is William, Earl of Mansfield (1793) ; of the great commanders are Sir Peter Warren (1752), Admiral Vernon (1757), and Sir John Mal- colm (1833) ; of others who helped to spread British rule in India are Admiral Watson (1757), Sir Eyre Coote (1783), and Warren Hastings (1818) ; of statesmen are the Dukes of New- castle, William Cavendish (1676), and John Holies (1711), the first Earl of Chatham, William Pitt (1778), and also George Canning (1827), and Sir Robert Peel (1850). The north aisle contains the monuments of other warriors and statesmen, and also those of philanthropists, musicians, and men of distinction in science (to whom there are also important monuments in the choir chapels). William Wil- berforce (1833) and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1845), the immortal emancipators, are here. Purcell (1695), Blow (1708), Croft (1727), and Arnold (1802) are commemorated by stones as well as by their harmonics, that now at times re-echo through the church. In this aisle there are also monu- ments to Dr. Burney and to Sir Godfrey Kneller, the artist (1723). Towards the nave, and flanking the west entrance to the choir, are monuments to the Earls of Stanhope (1720-1746) and Sir Isaac Newton (1727), he, "qui animi vi prope divina Planetarum motus, . . . cometarum semitas, Oceanique iEstus, . . . Primus demonstravit." Above the great door in the west front, facing him, is a statue of William Pitt (1806), son of the Earl of Chatham, and near by are Charles James Fox (1806) and Sir James Mackintosh (1832). In the south aisle is a memorial of Lord Viscount Howe, erected by " the Prov- ince of Massachuset's Bay in New England, by an order of the Great and General Court, bearing date February 1, 1759." Still farther on, and on the same side, is another monument on which Americans will look with interest. It is a carved WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 239 sarcophagus, beneath which lie the remains of Major John Andre (1780). On the wall, and blocking some of the windows, are testimonials to various persons and naval heroes, some of which, with their white marble clouds and other wonders, may be called remarkable ; there is perhaps nothing else like them in Europe. Throughout the body of the nave there are me- morials of statesmen and of many public or well-known men. The chapels of the choir and the side of its aisle are crowded with works showing a great diversity of age and style, as well as of persons whose names they bear. One of the oldest monu- ments, and one of four in a line erected to members of the same family, is that of Aymer de Valence (1323), an altar- tomb, bearing his recumbent figure covered by a lofty but now broken canopy, once richly colored, gilt, and carved. Tombs of an altar form are numerous, as also are the lofty architectural compositions in the Renaissance styles of the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I. An immense and elaborate work in memory of Lord Hunsdon (1596) is the largest of the latter, and is, indeed, said to be the largest in the country. All the designs in Renaissance display a great amount of variegated marbles, coloring, gilding, and fantastic carving, together with sculptured figures. Works generally of interest in history or art are erected to many of the old nobility and to several ecclesi- astics, scattered among which are also memorials of persons eminent in society or science. In the chapel of St. Paul is a colossal pedestal bearing a statue of James Watt (1819), who, as the inscription tells us, by his " improvement of the steam engine, enlarged the resources of his country, increased the power of man, and rose to an eminent place among the most illustrious followers of science and the real benefactors of the world." In St. John's chapel are monuments to Thomas Telford (1834), the great engineer, and to Sir Humphry Davy (1829), who died and was buried at Geneva. Near them is one of the most celebrated sculptured groups in the Abbey, which was cut by Roubiliac and erected by Washington Gascoigne Nightin- gale in memory of his father and mother. Death issuing from a grave is shown aiming a dart at her, that the husband, with intense expression, tries to avert. 240 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. The Chapel of Henry VIZ, one of the most sumptuous ever built, and the most remarkable example of elaborate masonry and carving in the Pointed, as well as Perpendicular, style, is at the east end of the Abbey, where the Lady Chapel usually stands. In plan, it is a nave 103| feet long and 35| feet wide, with an aisle on each side and a rounded apse, bordered by five chapels between huge buttresses. The vaulting, 60 feet in height, is an amazing lacework of cusped ribs and intricate foiled tracery. Hardly less remarkable are other features; among the chief of which are a low arcade, a high and open clerestory, and a range of elaborately canopied niches with stat- ues that occupies the place of a triforium. All the walls and vaults are stone of an even tint, lighter than that in the body of the church. Painted glass in a very large fifteen-dayed win- dow filling the west end above the entrance, and the banners of the Knights of the Bath hung high above their stalls along both sides of the chapel, add color and increase the richness of the effect. Since 1812, when the last installation of the Knights occurred here, the chapel has been less used for ser- vices, and has become more monumental. Nowhere else is more superbly shown the old characteristic English use of elaborated form instead of color for decoration and expression of the native conceptions of beauty. None of the rich poly- chrome of Italy or France is seen upon these walls. The painted glories of the Sistine Chapel, or at Orvieto and Assisi, the rich marbles used in Naples, and the sumptuous mosaics of the Medici at Florence, as well as such gorgeous coloring as covers the interior of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, are in character, as well as fact, entirely foreign to this amazing masterpiece of English style and workmanship. No lettered lines could tell much more than do these delicately wrought stones in their simple native hue, unveiled like Truth as they are, and like her shaped with a beauty that needs no rich cloak to make it greater. While Henry VII., like an English king, built a chapel in a native form of Pointed, the Renaissance was growing strong in favor through the world of art, and showed its in- fluence in the design of one of the last parts, the founder's WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 241 tomb, that is, as Lord Bacon truly said, " one of the stateliest and daintiest in Europe." Pietro Torrigiano (whose latter his- tory after he left England became a tragedy) was the artist of the work. It has a lofty altar-shaped body of black marble, bearing figures of the king and queen, and is enriched with numerous pilasters, roses, and alti-rilievi that, like the statues, are of gilt copper. An immense dark, greenish-bronze screen of English workmanship surrounds the tomb; and although now somewhat broken, it has at least been recently cleaned, for some twenty years ago it was very dirty. Numerous other memorials of royal personages placed in the chapel were erected in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Queen Elizabeth (1603), in the north aisle, and Mary Queen of Scots (1587), in the south aisle, lie beneath canopied monuments composed chiefly of white marble and in Renaissance style, forming the best English examples of it thus applied. The chapter-house is an octagon of great size, with a central pillar that supports the vaulting. It is entered from the clois- ters by a quaint and curious passage, and a portal that with its central pillar and admirable sculptures is worthy of the noble room. For a long time the latter was mutilated and in de- plorable condition ; but its restoration was begun in 1866, and in 1872 it was opened to the public. It is now in excellent order, showing strength to last for a long time, and some due justice to its ancient dignity. Pale brown stone is used for the walls, and white bricks or lighter stone, in courses alternately lighter and darker, for the vaulting. The central pillar is a cluster of polished Purbeck marble shafts, and others smaller are used in an arcade around the lower portion of the walls. Still richer decoration was given to the arcade by existing carved diaper- work and foliage, and, at an early date, upon its background by paintings said to have been executed by a monk, John of Northampton, in the reign of Edward IV. A few heads that remain near the abbot's stall are as fine as the Italian work of their date. Above the arcade, as usual, rise very large win- dows, that are here filled with geometrical tracery and tinted or colored glass, the design of which, as is apt to be the case, has given rise to very different opinions. Before the restora- 16 242 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. tion a library or records were kept in the room ; but there is now little in it except tables bearing cases in which curious documents are displayed. Dean Stanley, who is the authority used here on the history of this grand old place, says (p. 387) the approach was unlike that of any other chapter-house. This one, he adds, " is, ex- cept Salisbury, the largest in the kingdom. It is, except Wells, the only one which has the advantage of a spacious Crypt under- neath, to keep it dry and warm. It is, except Worcester, the only instance of a round or octagonal chapter-house, in place of the rectangular or longitudinal buildings usually attached to Benedictine monasteries." Besides associations with religious affairs, the chapter-house has others of great interest. It witnessed assemblies of the Commons in 1256, during the reign of Henry III. ; and there, says Dean Stanley, they found " their first home," — indeed, he thought the fact unquestionable " that, from the time of the separation of the Commons from the Lords, it became their habitual meeting-place," except as they also met in the Refectory, mentioned below. The Cloisters are three in number, as is very unusual, — the Great Cloisters with four aisles, measuring about 150 by 135 feet ; the Little Cloisters, also with four aisles, about 70 feet square ; and the Dark Cloisters, that are long aisles connecting the two former. The first named are spacious, vaulted in irregu- lar designs, and ornamented with very varied Geometrical tra- cery upon the inner walls and in the arches towards the open central area. Distributed through them is a large number of monuments and grave-stones, many bearing the names of dis- tinguished persons ; and adding to the interest are admirable views of the exterior of the church, and also several important parts of the monastic buildings, — most of which, however, are not open to the public. The once vast and magnificent Refectory, " a chamber only inferior in beauty and size to Westminster Hall," no longer shows the stateliness with which the monks or the earlier Com- mons of the Realm were surrounded when they assembled. Of corresponding importance was the Dormitory, that " still WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 243 exists, divided between the Chapter Library and the Great School." Dean Stanley's minute and valuable accounts of the Pyx, the Treasury, and other interesting parts of the monas tery that can only be mentioned here, should be read. Perhaps no one of these places will be longer remembered, or bears a value more worthy to close this long list of famous spots in the famous group enclosed by the ancient walls, than the Almonry, where, or near where, for several years succeeding 1477, or earlier, William Caxton did his work as the first printer in England. The Abbey, as already indicated, is not only associated with the entire religious history of London, and indeed of the whole country, but also with a great variety of personal and public history, culminating in the presence of the impersoned majesty of the nation at the coronations of the sovereigns during six centuries, and the preservation of their mortal remains for a period almost as prolonged. It has by degrees, since the close of the fourteenth century, become the last resting-place or shel- ter of the memorials of a long series of departed worthies who in their time helped, in their own way, to build the might- ier fabric of their country's character and greatness. Diversi- fied and immense as is the array of monuments giving the Abbey such distinction, and gathering associations which en- dear it to the nation and the world, it is yet no mere gallery of art, although it is an invaluable collection of the work of centuries. For here the imperial island "keeps its mighty dead," or its memorials of them, and throughout the consecrated edifice helps to preserve for all its people and for all mankind the names and the examples of those who have by their labors aided to create its imperishable glory. Beneath the arches here no one good class can be spared, and no one is supreme. In the far vaster structure of the empire every variety of true genius, learning, service, and devotion are needed, and here the memory and lesson of them all is gathered. Life is not vanity, rank is not paltry, genius and learning alone are not pre-eminent, in the lesson of the Abbey. Even the poets and authors whom some rate the superiors of all men, and to whom England owes 244 THE MONASTERIES. so many of her noblest charms, could never, like the various conditions of her people, have had the fostering home that she has been for them without her lords in patriotism, ability, and public service, and her sterling men of business. Vines and flowers cover walls with loveliness, spread beauty on the stones, and bear rich fruit, upheld by the strength in the sunny front, but they are not the walls. Filled with the inspiration of a great brotherhood of men, each one of whom has done his part in making his country stronger, happier, or better, the whole Abbey is a vast and glorious monument of the union forming a great nation, eloquent in its sublime silence, as well as when the choir gives it a rhapsody of voice re-echoing through its aisles and soaring arches. Here, in a shrine of faith and doctrine, vital spirits of modern civilization no less than of religion, England guards the mortal remains of the sons who have crowned her, laid with the hope of that faith in the peace of Westminster. THE MONASTERIES. 1 In the organization of the Church, monastic institutions had an important part for a long time in the Middle Ages, — a part second only to that of the bishoprics ; and in England they flourished about as long before the Reformation, and attained about as great relative power and wealth as they did where the Roman Church prevailed in the rest of Europe. The history of monasticism in the country stretches far back into the dim ages, earlier than when Augustine and Pau- linus and their associates or followers introduced the oldest of the great established Orders. In many places there were then communities of the religious, — notably at Glastonbury, where, 1 See Dugdale, Sir W., Monasticon Anglicanum, 3 vols, folio, plates, London, 1655, etc., and new enlarged edition by Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel, 6 vols, folio, 1817-1830, and 1846. —Tanner, R. (Bp. St. Asaph), account of all the Abbeys, etc., in England, also Colleges and Hospitals, before 1540; folio, London, 1744; and new edition by J. Nasmitb, Cambridge, 1787. Also, Fosbroke, Rev. T. D., British Monachism, 8°, 1843 ; Hallam's Middle Ages ; Jameson's Legends of the Monastic Orders, 1852 ; and E. Edwards's Founders of Libraries, 1865. THE MONASTERIES. 245 tradition says, Joseph of Arimathea came as a missionary. But the most ancient of the chief organizations, as it was the first in coming, continued to be first in power and good works until the end. St. Benedict, born about 480, founded one of the most en- during and illustrious societies the world has known. An enthusiast, a meditative, but an active man, he " dwelt with himself " at Subiaco, and made it a point of light near Rome, to become in time the cradle of the press in Italy. A few years later he went to Monte Cassino, where there still were heathen, whom he converted, and where he founded the illustrious mon- astery of the Order he created, — a monastery famous for thir- teen hundred years. The date of the introduction of this Order into England, and the history of its earlier development there, like that of all monasticism, are variously stated ; but its institutions had become important in the country during the Saxon period, although their great growth was after the Con- quest. The Benedictines had, finally, almost one half of the monastic revenues and most of the cathedral priories and great abbeys. At the Dissolution they are said to have had a hundred and thirteen establishments for men, and seventy- three for nuns, the total income of which was £65,877,14.0. Of the Orders sprung from the Benedictines and connec- tions with a different discipline, the Carthusians were founded in 1084 by St. Bruno at the Grande Chartreuse, 1 and the Cister- cians in 1114 by St. Bernard of Citeaux 2 at Clairvaux 2 (hence also called Bernardines), who were introduced from Normandy in 1128, and who had seventy-five abbeys (thirty-six of which were among the greater) and twenty-six nunneries, with an aggregate income at the Dissolution of £18,691,12.6. The Augustines, said to have been founded by the saint whose name they bear, were introduced into England about 1250. At the Dissolution they had about forty houses or establish- ments. Of Orders in some way derived from them or follow- ing them, the Black, or Dominican, Friars came in 1221, and 1 Described by the author in his " Historical Monuments of France," pp. 53-56. 2 See the same, pp. 304 and 305. 246 THE MONASTERIES. finally bad fifty-eight houses ; the Crossed, or Crutched, Friars (1244) had six or seven houses ; and the Friars of the Holy Trinity (1224) had eleven houses. The Gray, or Franciscan, Friars, founded by St. Francis of Assisi, came between 1219 and 1224, and had sixty-six houses ; and the Nuns of the Order of St. Clare, who came about 1293, and were also Franciscan, had four houses. In 1240 the Car- melites, or White Friars, came from Palestine to England, and there and in Wales had forty houses. Each of the minor orders of Bethlemite Friars (1257), Friars de Pica and Friars de Aveno, had but one house in the country. The Foreign Orders, that might be called colonies from two of the French, were subject and tributary to their chief estab- lishments upon the Continent. About 1078 the Cluniacs, Bene- dictines from the great Burgundian abbey or its branches, were introduced, and by 1222 had forty-two establishments. Both the superiors and a majority of the monks were Frenchmen, who sent large sums to their masters and associates in France, — a subjection to a foreign rule that did not entirely cease until 1457. The Premonstratensians, Augustines reformed by St. Norbert, instituted about 1120 at Premontre in Picardy, on a place shown by the Virgin (and hence named Pratum Monstratum, or Pre-montrc), were also called White Canons, from their long white cloaks and white caps. About 1140 they were introduced into England, where they were tribu- tary to the parent houses until 1307, and subject otherwise until 1512. At the Dissolution they had about thirty-five houses. The influence of these numerous establishments of active and wealthy Orders, governed by men of genius, piety, or learn- ing*, or of all combined, and flourishing conspicuously through more than three centuries, was very great, and is still evident. As Mrs. Jameson says, the introduction of the Benedictines into England was a memorable era in the history of the coun- try — " of far more importance than the advent of a king or the change of a dynasty." They were among its notable hu- manizers and civilizers. Mr. Hallam, on the other hand, writes of monastic vices, and Mr. Fosbroke says much more THE MONASTERIES. 247 upon the subject. But while human nature was the same, and beliefs and circumstances differed widely from our own, the monks carried to new, and often wild or needy, regions Chris- tianity as it was known, and meditative life as it was possible, along with a knowledge of the useful arts of husbandry and of the finer arts of building. Besides practising all these as few other men then did or could, they to the same extent maintained charities, guest-houses, and infirmaries. Meanwhile, both nu- merous and rich, and with the weaknesses of mortality, it is not strange that cases of decline or fall occurred, or that they did not thoroughly adapt their practices to changing life and con- ditions. But still they left their centuries of history to show how they had lived and worked through a long and awful period of turmoil, through the wild passions and peculiar vices of a far less educated age than ours. They had been first in carrying cultivation and fine arts to many a part of England ; they built God's house as few wise moderns ever have ; and within the precincts of their establishments were the first printing-presses in the land. If they were not reformers of a certain sort, they gathered libraries which persons of another sort stole or destroyed. " To whatever extent," says Mr. Edwards, " these collections may have suffered dilapidation and loss when they had the misfortune to belong to unfaithful and ignorant communities, there is entire concurrence as to their great aggregate value even at the time of the Dissolution. Ardent Reformers agree with sturdy Romanists in lamenting the gross neglect which suffered them, for the most part, to perish." Read the cata- logues of some of these collections ; read the testimony of John Bale himself ; find what these gathered treasures were ; hear the apologists of barbarism, — and then feel a righteous indig- nation at one of the most disgraceful passages in English history. " I judge," says Bale, who had his part in the Dis- solution, " I judge this to be true, and utter it with heaviness, — that neither the Britons under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English people under the Danes and Normans, had ever such damage of their learned monuments as we have seen in our time." 248 THE MONASTERIES. Proofs almost numberless remain in volumes scattered from the Continental monasteries in recent years to show how both before and a long while after the Reformation the monks saved early books ; and while such relics of the English treasures are more rare, there is strong evidence that the same good care was shown in Britain. As preservers of manuscripts and printed works, no less than as teachers of agriculture and as masters of exquisite mediaeval art, the monks deserve both thanks and praise. They share with the clergy in the glory of founding Christian institutions in the country, and of main- taining them there during many centuries. To what extent both they and the clergy taught from the Bible, — the founda- tion of their faith, — may not be clearly known. In Britain the arts did not produce such texts and commentaries as the marvellous groups of sculptured figures or intricate reliefs in which France put full in sight before the people the great story of the Book and its doctrines. While, indeed, there were Eng- lish mural paintings, as at Westminster (p. 241), there was nothing to compare with the precious works at Florence, Padua, and Assisi, and no mosaics like those of St. Mark's glorified the country while they taught the people. Furthermore, the sacred Word was not printed in England until long after it was common in several languages on the Continent. 1 How, indeed, the Bible was shown to other than learned Englishmen before 1530, is a subject for inquiry. The dissolution of the monasteries was effected by com- plex causes, first among which, it is likely, were the passions and policy of Henry VIII., supported by the rapacity of court- iers and subjects tempted by an immense amount of property 1 The Testament of Tyndale dates from Antwerp in 1534, and the Cover- dale Bible probably from the same place one year later, and not from South- wark, on English ground, until 1536. The first German Bible dates from about 1466, the Italian (part at least) from 1471, the Dutch Old Testament and the French New Testament from 1477, and the Bohemian Bible from 1488. The number of Latin Bibles printed on the Continent in the fifteenth century was very large. Caxton printed a great part of the Pentateuch and Gospels in England in the Golden Legend, 1483, half a century before the vernacular Bible appeared ; and it has been thought that he thus provided important aid to the Information. See Stevens, H., The Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, London, 1877, 8°, 1878. THE MONASTERIES. 249 belonging to institutions that had lived beyond their earlier usefulness and had not met all the needs of an altered period. Abuses had arisen and were found that gave an appearance of reason for extermination, and cupidity could be gratified ; consequently less of actual reformation followed than of sup- pression, seizure, and almost general pillage. While the Church maintained the most precious possession of the monasteries, — the religious spirit, — she providentially preserved much of in- calculable value in the arts, and some part of material things important for her just maintenance. But rapine and neglect fell with cruel hands upon the many wonderful old monuments of former Christian life. Not only were the results deplorable for art, history, and literature, but far more for the waste of opportunities to reform magnificent foundations and adapt them to other needs of the changed and reformed establish- ment. Yet English wisdom, through the storm, saved much. The country was not swept, like Scotland, by well-nigh utter destruction of buildings that could ill be spared, or despoiled, as was France at a later period. Some of the noblest monas- tic churches were made cathedrals, — already described on these pages, — and others, in part or entire, were kept in repair and use by parishes, while important buildings of different sorts were retained, and are still kept, connected with episcopal seats, as at Wells and Durham ; but no ancient abbey is left com- plete. In most cases the venerable memorials of Christianity, for nearly a thousand years in the land, forsaken and stripped, began to change and fade from their once superb estate into a quick or slow disintegration, that leaves them, as too often they now are, the crumbling wrecks and passing shadows, lovely even in decay and final dissolution, scattered in the an- cient towns and fairest vales of England. When the monasteries were most opulent and flourishing in England, the Pointed styles prevailed, and were almost exclusively used in the buildings, which were not only very numerous, but often of great size and beauty. One of their chief characteristics, indeed, was beauty, remarkable even if compared with what is found in many similar works on the Continent. Splendors as wonderful as those at Pavia, or 250 THE MONASTERIES. Monte Cassino, or the vastness of Cluny, or marvellous clois- ters like some in Spain and Italy, were not shown; but often stateliness, and very frequently an exquisite picturcsqucness. While the cities and towns contained a large number of mo- nastic establishments, there were many scattered throughout the rural parts of the country, and not a few of these were among the most important, and so far as we can now judge, the most beautiful. While also the quiet features of English scenery could not help to form such grand effects as may be found in views of Italian monasteries, there are groups with a calm loveliness seldom seen, nestled in. peaceful, charming vales, especially of Yorkshire and the southwestern counties. In the arrangement of the several parts needed to complete an establishment, there was a similarity of plan in the large monasteries, adopted also in the smaller as circumstances per- mitted, that can be better understood by reference to the plan of Fountains Abbey (p. 257). In a large walled enclosure, entered through a gateway beside a porter's lodge, was an ex- tensive group of buildings, covering several acres, surrounding a square cloister, north of which was the church ; east the chapter-house and abbot's house ; south, the kitchen, dining- room, and parlor for the monks ; west, their dormitories (and at Fountains, an unusual covered cloister), and farther on, a hospital and refuge for the poor. Many as were the parts, and great as was the size of such a group, it was even more remarkable for the graceful art and learned skill shown in its construction. To the chief relics of these ancient marvels, now broken, mouldering, yet still beautiful, we turn for sug- gestions, not dimly given, of the history of generations of de- voted men who, when these slowly disintegrating edifices were fresh and strong, served God by such light as their times sup- plied. We can find, whatever their errors, how severely these were expiated, and render something of justice to the memories of thousands who lie defenceless, mingled with the green turf in their loved but now lonely cloisters. First, we turn to one of the most ancient abbeys, that of Glastonbury. 1 1 See Vetusta Monumenta, vol. iv., text, and plates 28-38. GLASTONBUKY ABBEY. 251 " O three times famous isle, where is that place that might Be with thyself compar'd for glory and delight, Whilst Glastonbury stood, exalted to that pride, Whose Monastery seem'd all others to deride ? O, who thy ruin sees, whom wonder doth not fill With our great fathers' pomp, devotion, and their skill? . . . . . . not Great Arthur's tomb, nor Holy Joseph's grave, From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save. . . . What! did so many kings do honour to that place For avarice, at last, so vilely to deface? " Dkayton, Poly-olbion. " The ancient isle of Avalon," like Thorney and Ely, was originally a spot surrounded by woods, marshes, and wild coun- try. Tradition tells us that the Druids lived in its shadowy groves, and that Joseph of Arimathea visited it as a mission- ary ; hut with much more certainty we know that his name and acts were particularly venerated there throughout the Middle Ages. Christianity was not known in Britain until after the accession of the Emperor Claudius (a. d. 41) ; yet its earliest preachers probably came during the first century, and some of them we may suppose visited Avalon. In 415, monks had established themselves there, so that St. Patrick is said to have been made the first abbot of a monastery, already founded, which was maintained during the following 1114 years under the rule of his fifty-nine successors. While its history was one of the most extended of any of the kind in the country, its buildings were repeatedly changed. The earlier were re- placed by others in the Norman style between 1116 and 1120 ; but in 1184 a large part of them were burned, and a new church, at once begun and completed by the end of the century, was much injured by an earthquake in 1276. It was not until the last half of the fourteenth century that the final and most prom- inent church was completed, a cross-shaped edifice, about 540 feet long, in Early English. Earlier in the same century the hall and chapter-house appear to have been begun, and to have been finished later, as also were the dormitory and the clois- ters, which were about 140 feet square. Continuously, and almost to the Dissolution, there were repairs and various ad- ditions. An end to all saving care came when the last abbot, 252 THE MONASTERIES. Richard Whyting (1524-1539), " a man of irreproachable life and fervent piety," refused to surrender his great trust, and was hanged, and then quartered on Tor Hill, and " his head was placed over the Abbey gate at Glastonbury." When the Abbey was suppressed, it covered nearly forty acres, and its revenue was £3,508. Its monks were dispersed, and their " possessions were scattered with lavish injustice," says a local historian. Among its treasures was the library which the learned John Leland saw in its glory, and of which he thought " such a spectacle could scarcely be seen elsewhere in Britain" (Edwards, Memoirs, 113). It contained a great number of Bibles, expositions, ancient classic works, volumes of Patristic literature, and chronicles, of all which there are now few vestiges. The Abbey stood at the side of a small quaint rural town, from which its grounds reached southward, blending with farming lands, pastures, and hills extending far through the surrounding country. Peacefully secluded in this simple neigh- borhood, the old home of the monks must have been peculiarly imposing, for it would have been grand anywhere. Scattered in fields and faintly showing what it once was, are its frag- ments, — a little of the east end of the church, with the south wall of the choir aisle, the east arch of the central tower and the adjoining bays of the transept, four bays of the south wall of the nave, and the west door. Beyond the door are parts of a structure that reached to the oldest of the buildings, the oblong chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, four bays in length, and designed in beautiful Norman Transition. Although the vaults are broken, the walls are still so uninjured that not long ago it could have been put in condition for services. Now, almost the whole of its crypt is open to the sky, and luxuriant ivy drapes it and tries to hide what the wrath of man has done to the noble work of his ancient piety ; but the strong, though coarse stone that formed the chapel is, where unmutilated by human violence, well preserved, and shows what the venerable shrine once was and should have remained. The chanted hymn and prayer are hushed upon the spot for centuries venerated as the site of the first Christian church in GLASTONBURY ABBEY. 253 Britain, and storms sweep like requiems through the broken arches around it, or the swallows, when the sunshine comes, seem to try with their simple notes to fill the place with melody. Henry VIII. has answered which is the better music. The least injured portion of the Abbey, standing like a grim satire, is the Abbot's Kitchen, built, in the first half of the fif- teenth century, at a considerable distance west of the church, on ground now a pasture, where it still rises, dark and solid, among fragments of structures once connected with it. On the outside the lower part is square, and the upper part octag- onal, and capped by a tall conical roof, all of good masonry, in which small squared blocks are used for facings, and little broken stones, or rubble, for the filling, both of them laid in strong cement. An impressive idea of the wants of the institution is given by the great size of the interior, and by four fireplaces, at as many angles, each of them large enough to hold an ox for roasting. High overhead is a vaulting, cen- tring in a double lantern, and grand enough for a modern state-house. One of the most ancient buildings spared at Glastonbury is also one of the most curious public-houses in England, the George Inn, built by Abbot Selwood in 1475. Its front, still kept in good repair, is constructed of gray stone in Perpendicu- lar style, tall panels, several of which form days of windows, covering the walls, and battlements and turrets screening the roof. Although the old courtyard, common to early inns, is retained, the interior of the house has been remodelled ; and the writer found accommodations there that are undoubtedly better than were those obtained by mediaeval pilgrims. Tor Hill, a large isolated height more than a mile from the town, is notable for associations with religious and other his- tory, and for the view it commands. It is crowned by the gray stone tower of a church dedicated to St. Michael, but destroyed as long ago as 1276 by the earthquake which then damaged the Abbey. There seems to have been a very early camp on it, and a place of worship by primitive Christians, as well as by others through the monkish period ; and on it was enacted the 254 THE MONASTERIES. judicial murder of the last of the abbots. Few wide views in southwestern England surpass that commanded from the crest, a prospect of great beauty and extent sweeping far around a horizon consisting mostly of broad, yet not high, verdant hills, seen over a middle distance of green, peaceful farming country, marked by few large towns, none of them more prominent than Wells. In the wide stretch of the West of England visible are regions from northern Somerset to Dorset and perhaps to Devon, and from the confines of Wilts to the sea off the mouth of the Severn. Yorkshire 1 contained exceptionally numerous and interesting monastic institutions, — indeed it might be called the Burgundy of England, the part of the country where there was an un- usual number of these edifices, often of great magnificence and beauty. Severe as has been the devastation in the Ridings, they have suffered less than did the French duchy. There yet stands Fountains, the largest and least-injured abbey in Eng- land ; Bolton is well cared for in its peaceful vale ; while Kirk- stall, similarly placed, re-echoes the loud rattle and shrill shriek of passing trains ; Whitby looks out on the broad blue Ger- man Ocean ; Selby is ennobled by its vast grand church, entire and useful, — a monument of a true reformation ; St. Mary's at York, already mentioned, is in the town, where its carefully preserved fragments demonstrate how wild was the hate and soulless the greed of former generations ; in pleasant Wensley Dale are the remains of the once fine Cistercian Jorvaulx, that recently showed clearly its old plan and walls, harmed by few other hands than those of Time. Scattered, indeed, through- out the three Ridings are crumbling relics of works of ancient piety and art, many of which can hardly be more than men- tioned in these pages. The historian, traveller, or artist will 1 The Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire, from drawings by Wm. Richardson, architect, with Historical Descriptions by Rev. Edward Churton, atlas folio, 2 vols., York, 1843, — one of the most magnificent English books of local illustration, picturesque as well as architectural. Some copies are illumi- nated, of which the writer has one. — See also Vetusta Monumenta, i., plates 9-12 ; Grainge's Castles and Abbeys of Yorkshire, 8°, 1855 ; and Lefroy's Etch- ings of do., folio, 1882. YORKSHIRE. — FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 255 probably go first to the delightful and majestic ruin guarded faithfully by the Marquis of Ripon. Fountains Abbey. In October, 1132, the prior, sub-prior, and about a dozen monks of St. Mary's Abbey, York, with- drew from the Benedictine Order to follow a rule that they believed was stricter and better. A few months later, in mid- winter, the archbishop assigned to them a tract of wild land in Skell Dale, three miles west of Ripon, a spot that " was fit- ter for the retreat of wild beasts than the habitation of men," for " it was surrounded on all sides with rocks, wood, and bram- bles, and had never been either cultivated or inhabited," says Grose. But there a great Cistercian abbey was to rise. At first the monks found shelter only under several yew-trees, where, in poverty and great privation, they lived for two years, subsisting sometimes on wild herbs boiled with a little salt ; and yet, meanwhile, their number was doubled. Sym- pathy for them was roused in Hugh, Dean of York, and then in Serlo and Tosti, canons who gave them much property, which was increased by sundry barons. In 1204 the church was founded, and, with the cloisters, infirmary, and hospital, was finished within forty years ; but towards the end of the century the monks again became poor, and later suffered from the inroads of the Scots. A second great increase of their pos- sessions, however, followed, so that at the Dissolution they had revenues amounting to .£1,125. Closing their long history was the fate of Thirsk, the last real abbot, who was hanged in January, 1537, making way for a successor apparently a mere agent of the king, who surrendered Fountains, November 26, 1540, and received a pension of £100. The drive from Ripon to the Abbey is a pleasant one, across a broad rise of ground, and for a mile through the park of Studley Royal. There what is called the " long walk " leads through two miles of beauty, the latter part of the way beside an artificial lake and up the steep and thickly wooded banks that border it, to a small building on the brow of a hill, whence is an outlook named truthfully, The Surprise. Two doors towards the west are suddenly thrown open, and one of the 256 THE MONASTERIES. loveliest views in England is disclosed. Far down the vista of the heights, the forests, and the placid water of the charming vale, is seen a light-green lawn, upon the left of which is the small brown rippling Swale. Out of this exquisite setting, like an antique relic in its shrine, rises the long, gray, vener- able eastern front of Fountains Abbey, at its right a great tower on the north end of the transept, in the centre the immense arch of the shattered chancel window, wooded banks close on each side, and lofty trees in the background. All the grace that many years of culture can impart to na- tive beauty is shown there, intensifying a conception of the labors of the monks who in this vale found and subdued a wilderness. The Abbey, says Mr. Bigland, 1 occupied ten or twelve acres of ground, " of which about two acres are covered by the pres- ent ruins. . . . No depredation has been wantonly committed on the sacred pile ; time alone has brought it to its present state : it has fallen by a gentle decay." Notwithstanding this statement, that contains much truth, there seems to be evi- dence that the decay was long ago hastened by work of human hands. A great deal of the Abbey, however, remains, and at no other place in England can we more clearly understand the arrangement and administration of a great monastic institu- tion, shown, so far as can be, by the accompanying plan (from Grose's Antiquities, vi., 1797). The approach should be from the west through an opening in the wall, that once enclosed about a hundred acres ; and the extensive ancient courtyard will then be entered over the site of the great gateway that was destroyed long ago. An im- pressive realization of a grand English monastery is at once obtained. Towards the east, and opposite the gate, is seen the west front of the church, across which was a beautiful Norman porch and arcade. Extending to the right for three hundred feet is a two-storied structure that contained the dormitory, 1 The dimensions given by him are as follows, — the church is 351 feet long, and the transept 186 feet; the refectory, 108x45; the dormitory and cloister, 300x42; the chapter-house, 84X42; the cloister garden, 120 feet square; the great tower, 166 feet 6 inches high and 24 feet square. fXJ^i FOUNTAINS, THE TOWER. YOEKSHIEE. — FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 257 built above a peculiar cloister ; still farther at the right, the little river Skell flows with a pleasant murmur, and near it are two large buildings admirably constructed of stone, in excel- lent Pointed style, with vaulted rooms. These, and another similar edifice adjoining, and built over the river, were the hospital and almonry, or chapel for the poor, who could be ad- mitted without entering the parts of the Abbey devoted wholly to the monks. All this array of ruins has grown gray, but has a varied coloring given by whitish lichens on some parts (especially the east end of the transept), and by shrubbery that crests the walls, or by thick veils of ivy, some of the most luxuriant of which, however, has been removed of late, as it was injuring the walls. The interior of the church presents a nave with eleven bays of low round massive pillars, bearing transitional Pointed arches and a plain clerestory with one-dayed round-arched windows. These parts are less injured than usual, although the walls of the latter lean inward, but not so much as to en- danger their security. Mere fragments of the pillars that sup- ported the great central tower remain. The transept, much like the nave in style, has an uncommon distinction in an ele- gant but massive tower at the north end, a noble Perpendicu- lar design, completed only a few years before the Dissolution. It is roofless, and the ascent is said to be unsafe ; yet all of the walls and decorations are still little injured. Finer than some of the cathedral towers were five and twenty years ago, it re- quires less restoration. Both the choir and a second transept (that forms the east end) are Early English, with sharp, lancet windows, and single or clustered Purbeck shafts, but few of which are left. The ends of this transept are separated from the choir by pairs of very lofty and unusual arches, and at the east end of the choir is the arch of a vast window still stand- ing, but deprived of its once elaborate tracery. More impor- tant losses are those of the arcade of the choir and all the roofs. If, however, the latter could be replaced, even by a light wooden covering, and the minor windows could be glazed, it seems as if little more would be required to make the nave fit for service. 17 258 THE MONASTERIES. The Dormitory, of which the walls are standing, was reached by a stone stairway at the west end of the church, where also a door gives access to the Cloister, still entire, on the ground floor. It is a vast hall, through the centre of which is a range of seventeen low clustered pillars, bearing a groined-ribbed ceiling, and forming a double aisle, lighted at the side, and presenting a noble and picturesque effect. Here many a gene- ration of the monks walked, talked, or labored; in the spacious hall above, they slept, and by the worn stone stair went to the nightly services held in the choir. The chapter-house, a large oblong room, in the usual position, close to the south end of the transept, was vaulted ; but the roof, as well as many other parts, is now an utter ruin. Originally there was a second story, containing the Scriptorium, or library. Along the south side of an area like that commonly used for cloisters are the Kitchen, one of the least injured rooms in the Abbey, the Re- fectory, a large hall with pillars in the centre, and the Locu- torium, or parlor for the monks. When silence was required elsewhere, a room like this would be provided, and guests had still another room for conversation. The Abbot's Rouse, which was very large, is represented by its outlines or foundations, uncovered a considerable time ago, showing that it had a vast hall bordered by an aisle and a peristyle of round pillars en- closing a large space in the centre, where a great dinner could be given. There was another hall, appropriated to guests, and various apartments were arranged much as they would be in an extensive country mansion. Fountains Hall stands near the Abbey, with the history, as well as the stones, of which it is connected, for it is constructed of the latter. Henry VIII. sold the estate to Sir Richard Gresh- am, who in turn sold it to Sir Stephen Procter, and he built the already ancient-looking Hall. Although a picturesque Eliza- bethan edifice, it is a poor substitute for the more interesting structures of the Abbey, pulled down to furnish its materials. The most ancient monuments at Fountains, however, are works of Nature, — a group of enormous yew-trees that the writer saw. They looked upon the Hall when it was built, upon the Abbey when that was despoiled, suppressed, and in YORKSHIRE. — BOLTON PRIORY. 259 its glory ; they saw its four centuries of life from maturity back to birth, and under their then already ample branches, more than seven hundred years ago, they sheltered the few monks who came in poverty and suffering to establish Christ- ian institutions in a wilderness that has grown, in no slight degree by their help, to a garden full of beauty. While the Cistercians here were men, and had their sins, they as certainly were builders and improvers, not iconoclasts ; and we may well feel how much is due them for the glory as well as the les- sons in devotion gathered in the lovely vale around the moss- grown stones of Fountains. Bolton Priory and the scenery around it are celebrated among the beauties of England, and are reached by drives almost as interesting, whether the route is up the valley of the Wharfe from Ilkley, or across an open hilly country from Skipton. Although little else than portions of the once exten- sive and imposing walls of the monastic enclosure and parts of the church remain, the latter is well worth seeing. Its nave, in use, and choir and transept, now in ruin, stand on a little promontory close above the river and in the midst of a pleas- ant vale that, if less lovely than the vale at Fountains or that at Tintern, is yet of great beauty. Broad wooded Yorkshire hills enclose it, and the old monastic quiet lingers in the peaceful scene that they seem to be guarding from the busy world beyond them. The Priory belonged to the Augustines, and was founded in 1220 by Cecilia de Romelli, baroness of Skipton, and William de Mechines, her husband, whose only son, according to report, was drowned in The Strid, a fissure at no great distance, through which the Wharfe rushes. In 1151 the Priory, which had been begun near Skipton, was removed to Bolton, and there flour- ished until the Dissolution, when the net income was £212. The estate, maintained in admirable order, belongs to the Dukes of Devonshire, who inherited it from the Earl of Cumberland, to whom it was granted after the suppression. The church was cruciform and not lofty, and consists now, as already stated, of a ruined choir and transept, and a nave 260 THE MONASTERIES. that is in excellent condition, and is used for parish services. Its west front, dating from 1290, is Early English, and has a portal and three equal lancet windows. Placed in a peculiar way directly before it, is a huge tower in Perpendicular style that, although it is said to be the result of twenty years' labor under the last prior, was built only about as high as the gable of the nave. If it had been completed, it would have shown a grand and beautiful design with few rivals in the country. Internally the nave, covered by a modern roof of very dark timber, shows an aisle on the north side and a low arcade of four bays ; but on the south side there is only a wall, blank below and pierced in the upper part by six tall windows that are filled with new rich-colored glass. The east end is a mere wall, relieved by tracery, on the grounds of which are flowers finely designed and painted by a lady in the ducal family. East of the nave the writer found that of the transept (two- bayed at each end), the western walls and the north gable, with the eastern arcade and triforium attached to it, were standing. All the east side and end of the southern arm have been de- stroyed. A large part of the five-bayed choir, where there were no aisles, is also preserved, including the east gable, that con- tains the arch of a huge pointed window, from which all the tracery is broken. Along the base of the sides is an arcade, above which are tall windows that have also lost their tracery. There was a central tower ; but nothing is left of it above the keystones of the four pointed arches on which it rested. Amid the pleasant ground around the church is a grass-grown burial- place close to the north side of the choir, containing many monuments, most of which are very modern. Bolton Hall — built of buff sandstone in a sort of castellated Gothic style, it may be added — is near the west front of the Priory. The natural features of the neighborhood are cele- brated, especially the charming vale of the Wharfe. Gentle slopes, on which are grouped or scattered trees, dense ferns, or shrubbery, extend back from the stream that dashes musically over stones. Two miles beyond the Priory it traverses a ledge of rock much broken on the surface or covered with thick, very dark, and even blackish mosses. There, for some distance, YORKSHIRE. — KIRKSTALL ABBEY. 261 the water has worn a way in a fissure two to six feet wide, below the edge of which the surface of the stream recedes from two to ten feet in the summer. During freshets, or the spring, the water fills the fissure and extends across the ledge. This is The Strid ; and though exaggeration by some writers makes one disappointed at its size, it is unusually romantic. About two miles beyond is Barden Tower, half castle and half manor- house, built in domestic Tudor Gothic. A large part of its gray heavy walls remain, but nearly all the roofs and floors are gone. Standing on a hill-side fronting towards the vale, and surrounded by remains of a wall, the views of it, as well as from it, are extremely pleasing, including, as the latter do, a long reach down the vale through scenery that, although wild for England, is quiet and on a small scale, blending with culti- vation close around, and yet in the old English way, exquisitely picturesque. Associations with well-known poetry invest it with charms, so that the trees seem to be hardly less apparent than the creations of the poets. Kirkstall Abbey stands, a few miles west of Leeds, in a broad vale, still grass-grown, and here and there shaded by old trees. At one side rises its large group of ruins, deep sober gray in color, overlooked by a tall shattered tower. Around them linger some of the pleasantest associations with the Middle Ages ; but east of them a larger group of ugly earth- brown factories is growing nearer, and on each side the frequent railway trains, with their loud shriek and rattle, hurry by, sug- gesting a very different present. While the busy modern world requires the ground of the monks, it still spares the fragments of their beautiful and stately home, that it leaves surrounded by green fields, large trees, and a pretty garden. Kirkstall — church place — appears, says Mr. Churton, " to have been so named by the hermits, probably of Saxon race, who were found dwelling in this retired valley of the Aire, with their cells surrounding their low-roofed chapel, before the monks from Fountains . . . brought hither a colony," in May, 1152 or 1153, as some say. At first the monks endured extreme privations ; but before the close of the twelfth century 262 THE MONASTERIES. the church and the chief buildings of the Abbey were completed in the style of that time, Transition Norman. The history of the institution seems to have been one of quiet tenor. In 1301 the monks had so far prospered that they owned 216 oxen, 160 cows, 242 other cattle, and 4000 sheep and lambs, while they had debts of only ,£160 ; and at the suppression (November, 1540) they had a revenue stated to have been £329, or £512. Since that time the estate has been held by a variety of persons. The buildings of the Abbey are among the least injured that remain in Yorkshire, and the area they cover is large, for it is said to measure 340 feet from north to south, and 445 feet from east to west. Although the walls are thick and have shown great endurance, they do not seem to have been well bonded, and the filling was rubble laid in a mortar, that grows powdery where it is uncovered. They are faced with small squared blocks of a coarse yellowish sandstone that grows hard, or here and there disintegrates upon the surf ace, which has ac- quired a deep sober gray color, varied with sandy yellow or a rusty black, according to exposure to the weather. The church is still comparatively entire ; yet while the gene- ral preservation is good, the east end has been of late marked " dangerous." A large part of the western front, the outer walls, both ends of the transept, the chancel, six western bays on the north side of the nave and all on the south side, are standing, as also is the south side of the central tower, the other parts of which fell in January, 1779. In plan, the choir has no aisles, and in each arm of the transept, in place of them, are three eastern chapels ; while in design it is noticed that nearly all the windows are small, single dayed, and round arched, and that the very large east window, as well as the main arcade and the arches of the central tower, are pointed. A great deal of the stone-work is still smooth ; but the color, like that on the exterior, has become sombre. Around the area of the cloisters, the vaulted chapter-house is standing, as are the outer walls of the square, now little broken ; but the arcade has disappeared. There was also a hall-like cloister similar to that at Fountains, which, like several buildings at the south, is much injured. Nearly all parts of the Abbey show a design of simple dignity, YORKSHIRE. — WHITBY ABBEY. 263 with details, as for instance on the north and west doors of the church, that are worthy of careful observation. Mr. Churton well says that perhaps no other church in such a situation is " so capable of restoration, . . . and one may be allowed to entertain the hope that the wealth which has grown up around the site of the old religious home may one day find its exercise in a work that would give to the surrounding district a church capable of receiving a greater multitude of spiritual worship- pers than monk or hermit ever pictured in their dreams." Whitby Abbey. An agreeable excursion can be made from York to the old town of Whitby, on the sea-shore, where the shattered fragments of its once noble and imposing Abbey look from a high bluff upon the inland hills and far across the broad blue waters. In 658 St. Hilda, niece of Edwin, " the first Christian king of Northumbria," began to build here one of the earliest monastic institutions in the north of England. She taught justice, piety, and charity, opposed the extension of the papal power in the country, and was renowned for learning and discretion in an age of rudeness and warfare. Her fame, great in her life, continued many centuries, and even now has not lost all its brightness. Literature as well as religion flour- ished near her, and Csedmon, the pious Saxon bard, lived in her Abbey, and died in the same year with her, 680. In time the church became " the Westminster of the Northumbrians," — a place for the burial of the most distinguished ; yet it suf- fered, like many other places, from the fury of the heathen Danes. Little else of its history for a long time seems to be known, until at length the Benedictines, in the latter part of the eleventh century, began to restore it from the utter ruin into which it had then fallen. About 1130 the work had been accomplished " in a humble way, such as the time allowed, but scarcely presented a slight vestige of its old magnificence." Yet such as it was, we are glad to find that some of it still remains. Again the monks were reduced to " abject poverty " by Nor- wegians, who came many years later, and again reconstruction was begun. Abbot Roger de Scarborough (1222 to 1244) 264 THE MONASTEEIES. appears to have then built a large part of the church in Early English, the style that was prevailing. To this several win- dows and the western front were added in Decorated, dating, it is thought, from the last half of the fourteenth century. For a long period the history of the Abbey was uneventful, and closed with its suppression in 1539, since which time all the monastic buildings and a large part of the church have been destroyed. The church stands on a long bare ridge, the East Cliff, between the German Ocean and the Eske, where the river curves quickly around the northern end of the height, and close at its base forms a small harbor. Few abbeys in the country have such a commanding site. Standing boldly on it, and seen far and wide, the pale-gray walls, although reduced in height and badly shattered, rise prominent above everything else in the town, and show how mediaeval piety built as no other human agency has done in that vicinity. A path, ascending about two hundred steps, leads to the summit of the ridge, passing on the way the parish church, a low and dark-gray building that was Norman and Perpendicular, but that is now hideous with modern alterations, and in dismal contrast with the exquisite design of the wasted abbatial church. Of the ample and noble home for worship created by the monks, and left by them to become a grand opportunity lost by suc- ceeding owners, the east end, the clerestory of the seven- bayed choir and its northeastern aisle, and the north end of the transept, are the chief parts spared. These are superb examples of Early English, mixed, especially in the clerestory, with late Norman. On the exterior of the two standing gables the design is unusually elegant. Although so small a portion of the structure has been saved from utter ruin, no unimpor- tant part of what is left, the northern outer wall of the choir, seems to be now in a precarious condition. It was as late as June, 1830, when the central tower fell, and made a high mound of broken masonry, overgrown with grass and weeds, that marks its site. Some fragments of the north side of the nave, to- gether with the west front, remain ; but the latter is badly worn. So strong was the masonry that large masses, like conglomer- ate, have still clung together, although they have fallen from a YORKSHIRE. — SELBY. 265 great height. On the outside of the church, the stones, squared and similar in size to those used in York Minster, are laid in courses of irregular thickness, and the seams, are large, while the filling of the walls is formed of pebbles and strong mortar. When entire, the church had the dimensions as well as grandeur and beauty of a cathedral, — certainly one of the second class, for it was 300 feet long, the nave was 69 feet wide and 60 feet high, and the length of the transept, 150 feet, was the same as the height of the central tower. With a beauty worthy of its grand seat above the sea and the broad Yorkshire hills, and in sculptured grace and lordly site fit for its consecration, its crumbling fragments, bleached and pale gray in the sunshine, necked with dark lichens fed by the damp wind, and motley with soft, russet-brown stones furrowed by time or the ele- ments, and threatening every part, all are vanishing from the wide landscape over which they looked for centuries in benediction. Far on every side from the ruin spreads the view, unchanged alone upon the sea throughout the east, but showing modern England evident elsewhere. Southward over long swells of land are green pastures or yellow crops. Northward the bold Yorkshire coast meets the distant horizon of the ocean, while inland extends more of the farming country. Closely below the broad crest of the grassy ridge nestles the quaint old town crowded deep in the valley where the Eske winds into the har- bor, a pool like a dock, amid small plain buildings dingy with red bricks and smoke. From this thrifty little hive of com- merce the Middle Ages have not passed farther and more cer- tainly away than they have passed — even if they seem to linger as they go — from this mount of vision consecrated to the memory of the Christian lady who was as a light in dark- ness, if no longer here is owned her sainted name of Hilda. Selby shows how wisdom and real piety can preserve a grand monastic church for the delight and use of many generations after the Dissolution. The town, about a half hour's ride by rail from York, stands in a flat agricultural country that, with manufactures, fairs, and a weekly market, makes it a centre of 266 THE MONASTERIES. some trade, and gives it a considerable population needing no small provision for religious services. At the east end, near the railway, stood the Abbey ; and although only fragments of the monastic buildings remain, the church is entire, and supplies a magnificent as well as useful spiritual home for the people, as it has done for centuries, and with pious care, like that now shown, will do through a long future. Selby is supposed to have been the ancient Salebeia and the site of a Roman station ; but it became well-known only in 1069, when William I. established the important Benedictine Abbey, for five centuries its chief glory, and said to have ranked in wealth and privileges with St. Peter's church, at York, while with St. Mary's at York it had " the only mitred abbots north of the Trent." At the Dissolution (1539) the revenue was estimated to have been from .£729 to £819. The church presents a remarkably long body, measuring 267 feet by 50 feet, chiefly in later Pointed style, covered by a dark leaden roof and surrounded by a green burial ground. A nave and choir of equal length are separated by a transept, of which only the very short north end remains, the southern having been destroyed in March, 1690, by the fall of the upper forty- two feet of a central tower which was soon afterwards rebuilt in the bad taste of the time, and continues to be an evidence of it, as well as the only large blemish on the edifice. On the outside the walls are built of light-gray stone spotted with dingy buff, blackened towards the ground, and to some extent at the eastern end combed by the weather. Norman work is shown in a fine door, covered by a good north porch, and in the single portal at the west front, which, although worn and blackened, still proves the richness of its original design. Early English and Perpendicular appear in simple forms along the sides of the nave, and much more ornamented, but rather heavy, on the choir. They are also used in the upper part of the west front, the whole of which forms a square mass, battlemented, accented by four buttresses and pinnacles and a renewed central gable. The interior has the effect as well as the reality of great length, and shows a variety of styles and work executed in NORTHUMBERLAND. 267 stone of a light earthy brown color. About 1871 the nave, with eight bays in Norman and Transition, was restored, at a cost of <£ 7,000, obtained, the writer was told, with some labor in a community of no great wealth, except some aid received from London, Leeds, and other places. Among the features of the nave, it will be seen that the triforium has very large low arches, each of which covers a pair of smaller arches, and that the west piers of the central tower have settled and pressed the adjoining bays curiously out of line and bent their arches, proving, although in an undesirable way, that the masonry must have been very good to endure the strain. Colored glasses not abundant, but it fills a large pointed win- dow at the west end. All of the ceiling is of wood, except over the aisles, where there are low pointed vaults. Over the nave the roof has a low double pitch, and shows oblong panels bearing figures on blue grounds and ornamented beams. The choir, of seven bays, is in Decorated style, and has no triforium, but a tall clerestory having windows filled with tinted glass. In the aisles the arches of the windows are remarkably sharp. At the east end the usual large window is very large, and has a rich heading glazed with colored glass. In 1618 the church was made parochial, — a dedication still continued, for which it is well provided with oak pews and plain stalls in the choir, furnishing a good number of sittings, more prominent than ancient objects. Across the end of the choir, however, and along a bay on each side, is a notable old traceried stone screen, and throughout the aisles is a curious pavement composed chiefly of large tombstones. Still by far the noblest object in the town, the Abbey church seems to be able to prolong indefinitely its seven centuries of history and usefulness, and remain a blessing and an honor to the people of Selby. The Abbeys op Northumberland include three of partic- ular interest for their history, of which two are also remark- able for the nature and position of their ruins on the sea- shore, and one, in a town, for the gratifying preservation of its church. 268 THE MONASTERIES. Lindisparne, the Holy Island, about 637 became the seat of Scottish monks who had been introduced as missionaries into Northumbria. Their superior, " a prudent as well as a pious man," says Grose, was Aidane, the first bishop of a See estab- lished there in the scene of his labors, continued for four- teen years until his death. According to Wiltsh (i. 362), he founded " a seminary for all England." His sixth successor, Cuthbert, who became the most distinguished saint of this part of the country, was for a dozen years the bishop or prior, and was famous for his virtues and devotion, as well as for some legendary associations ; but his name and memory are chiefly known in their connection with the heights of Durham (p. 220), to which his body was carried to rest for many centuries. Of the seventeen or eighteen bishops said to have ministered upon the Holy Island, nine successors, between 882 and 995, made their seat Chester-le-Street, in the north part of the county pala- tine, whence it was removed to the cathedral city, where it has remained. The early church of Lindisfarne was destroyed in June, 793, by pagan invaders ; and although with the monastery it was restored, it was abandoned by the monks, and was again destroyed a century later by another party of marauders. In 1069 the relics of St. Cuthbert were brought back to Lindis- farne while William I. was ravaging the mainland ; but after three months were replaced in Durham, and a cell, or colony, of the great monastery at the latter was established on the Holy Island. Its church, as the style shows, was erected chiefly in the Norman period ; but there were later additions. Through its long life the community seems to have been more celebrated than rich, for at the Dissolution the income is said to have been only from X48 to .£60. An excursion to this old historic spot 1 can be agreeably made from Belford by a road, in some places shaded, and in others open, leading to the broad sands along the shore. At low tide they can be crossed in a carriage ; at high tide a boat must be taken : for Lindisfarne is by turns mainland or a long, 1 The writer has given an account of the island and described its associations with " Marmion " in his " Lands of Scott," ch. vi. pp. 41-48. See also Scott's "Border Antiquities," 4° (1814), ii. 136. NORTHUMBERLAND. — HOLY ISLAND. 269 narrow island, the northern part of which is rather low, and the southern end a peak crowned by a small but picturesque castle built in the reign of Elizabeth. On reaching the shore, travellers must pick their way over stones and seaweed and up steep rocky banks, and thence go to a straggling village oc- cupied by fishermen. Near this stands the Abbey, surrounded by low walls, and presenting few remains except those of the church, although the buildings once covered nearly four acres. Of the church, about 138 feet long, with a nave 18 feet, and aisles 9 feet in width, built of red sandstone in Norman style, and much decorated, there remain the choir, a portion of the transept, part of the west end, and one aisle of the nave, all still in tolerable preservation. One massive, richly ornamented rib diagonally spans, or spanned, the intersection of the arms, and shows to some extent the style of the vaulting that has dis- appeared. Solidity was everywhere a characteristic, — as, for instance, the pillars in the nave, that, while richly ornamented, and only about 12 feet high, are 5 feet in diameter. Both the early history of the church, indeed, and its exposure to the storms of land and sea, have proved the value of the ponderous constructions well understood by the Normans. As Scott wrote, — " Needful was such strength to these, Exposed to the tempestuous seas, Scourged by the winds' eternal sway, Open to rovers fierce as they." A ridge between the Abbey and the shore of the island towards the mainland commands a wide view in every direc- tion. Northward are seen high coasts stretching far away, and beyond them the broad masses of the Kyloe Hills. South- westerly, above a waste of sands, rises the towering form of Bamborough Castle ; and seaward from it are the low rocky Fearn Isles, where many fearful shipwrecks have occurred, and where Grace Darling earned deserved fame. More to the south is a long reach of the low green island that extends to the castellated peak, quite worthy to be called St. Michael's, far around which, towards the east, rolls the wild, storied German Ocean. Seamanship, from the exploits of the Norse rovers to 270 THE MONASTEEIES. the voyage of the steamship, sometimes quite as perilous, is everywhere suggested by the scene and its associations. Yet while life on these waters — always exciting or important since the story of man began there — is as active as ever, the old monastic life, once so pre-eminent upon the Holy Island, has not only ceased, but even man's recollection of it is fading, and the firm stones that formed its home are crumbling, and are hurried by the tempests, grain by grain, to mingle with the sands along the shore, and in their shapeless wastes to be rolled by the sea into oblivion. Tynemouth Priory stood on a rocky and commanding head- land that projects into the sea by the north side of the river Tyne. Long reaches of the coast extend in sight both north and south. Uneven heights rise inland, and seaward many a mile of the German Ocean can be seen. The site is indeed the most prominent for a great distance along the coast. Upon it the benighted Middle Ages built a monastery, with a church where monks said daily prayers beneath a cross that rose as a hope and a guide above the stormy sea, far over which the music of bells in gloom or sunshine told the sacred hours. Our nineteenth century maintains a fort, with guns and piles of balls, around the ruins of the ancient shrine. But good care is kept, it should be said, of the worn fragments of the church ; its walls are freshly " pointed," and a large, very useful, if less picturesque lighthouse stands near the site of the altar of the Holy Virgin. Early in the seventh century, according to report, the king of Northumberland built a small wooden chapel here, and not long afterwards a monastic institution was established. Through the next few centuries the usual history of the abbeys on the eastern coast was here repeated. The ma- rauding Danes, with fire and sword, came more than once, and the ruin that they caused was painfully repaired. At length the Norman rule enforced some quiet, and the priory became a cell of Durham. In 1090 the Black Benedictine Canons were installed. Twenty years later the buildings were however again destroyed ; but they arose once more, and in much greater beauty, and in time the wealth of the community increased TYNEMGU'TH, THE CHOIR. NOKTHUMBERLAND. — HEXHAM. 271 until, among other property, it held twenty-seven villas in Northumberland ; and although the Scotch ravaged the place, the revenue of the priory at the Dissolution was estimated at from £397 to £511. Tynemouth is a neat, rather large, and modern-looking town, with bathing places and a very handsome new aquarium. At its farthest seaward end is the bold rocky point, girt with defensive works of various ages. Near the centre of the area they en- close stand the ruins of the priory, built of squared blocks of a veined yellowish sandstone, now grown yellowish-brown, dark- gray, or black. Only the lower parts of the west front and end remain, but they are badly worn, and all of the nave is gone. A peculiar wall that closed it from the transept is still standing, pierced by two small round-arched doors, between which, on the eastern side, is the wreck of an arcade with dog-toothed ornaments around the arches. The chief part of the church existing, and by far the largest fragment of the priory, is com- posed of the east end and three south bays of the choir, all nearly entire, but worn by the weather ; indeed, on the south- eastern outside corner the stones are so worn that they suggest a deep, irregular rustication. While the style is transitional, the chief features are Early English, showing a design that once was rich and elegant. Among the incongruities that now surround the ruins, there is, towards the south and east, the fit and seemingly inseparable English burial-ground, with many tombstones, some of which are recent, proving that the ground has not lost its ancient consecration. In the church several distinguished personages were buried, among them King Mal- colm and Prince Edward of Scotland (both 1094), and the biographer, John de Tynemouth, who lived in the fourteenth century. Hexham, a quaint market town of Roman, or more prob- ably of Saxon origin, contained a monastery founded about 673. In 678 it became the seat of a bishopric that was con- tinued more than a hundred years, and finally was joined to the See of Durham. In the ninth century the Danes, accord- ing to their practice, ruined the monastery ; but in 1112 it was restored, under the Augustine rule. In 1138 and 1296 the 272 THE MONASTERIES. Scots robbed or destroyed it, and the nave, burned in the latter year, was never rebuilt ; but the remainder of the church has become parochial. It is an edifice standing on a little hill around which the irregular old town is built. There are no great remains of the monastic buildings, but more than in some other abbeys. At the northwest are two large round arches of a minor gateway, and eastward, across the market- place, is the tall, plain, castle-like main gateway with a low arch through it. Little of its ancient aspect now remains, for the exterior is blackened and the interior has been altered to make two dwelling-houses. Of other of the lesser parts of the Abbey there are fragments of the chapter-house, the walls of the cloister area, with some blackened and mouldering but once rich tracery on the western side, and the walls of the refectory ; but its interior is modern, and arranged for the uses of a court. The church, in Early English, is another good example of the usefulness and value of wise preservation. Its exterior, extremely worn, and grown a yellowish-gray or black, shows a choir of six bays, and each end of a transept with four bays. At the intersection of the two parts is a low, heavy tower, covered by a depressed, dark, pyramidal roof. Of late the east end and east bay of the choir have been rebuilt in smooth gray-buff stone, with which some of the windows also have been mended. Only one bay of the nave remains, closed by a blank wall that forms the west end, the chief feature of which is a very large patch of new light-bumsh stone. The interior, far nobler than the exterior suggests, is cleaned to the surface of the dark brown-buff stone of which all of it is built, and has an effect of loftiness, solemnity, and quaint stateliness that is impressive, and is all the greater since it may be unexpected. Six lancets in the north end of the transept, and some smaller windows in the aisle of the choir, have new colored glass that makes the interior rich by offsetting the sombre hue of the 1 stone-work. One of the most curious features of the church is a very unusual monastic stair of stone, built at the south end of the transept and leading in a straight line to a broad gallery, also of stone, that reaches across the end. A door NORTHWESTERN COUNTIES. — FURNESS ABBEY. 273 from the latter opened to the dormitories, and by this way the monks came nightly in procession to the church. Beneath the gallery is a corridor that forms the present entrance, and in it are several well-preserved tombstones of the monks, among which is a more aged antique, a tall stone with a bas-relief of a Roman soldier riding over a Pict. It was found on the spot, protected by a coating of cement, and is in far better condition than are the smutty objects at Newcastle. At the east end of the choir, beside the altar, is an even more curious carved sanctuary seat of stone, low and extremely old, and said to be one of the only two now left in England. In Northwestern England monastic institutions, although hardly as numerous and important as in other parts of the country, were represented by several of interest, and by one especially celebrated, even by its slowly falling ruins. Lanner- cost Priory has been already described by the writer. 1 Cartmel Priory is shown by its large cross-shaped church, judiciously and piously bought by the parish, at a later date repaired, and for a long time used, a treatment of which Hold Cultram and St. Bees are minor examples. Ulverstone Priory has perished, and Calder is a ruin. One great Abbey, however, in the fasci- nating picturesqueness that the kind touch of Nature has im- parted to the wreck caused by the elements and the ruthless hands of man, stands in the charming vale of Furness, and may be properly considered the representative of the north- western monasteries. Furness Abbey, 2 dedicated to St. Mary, was founded in July, 1127, for the Benedictine Order, but soon afterwards submitted to the Cistercian rule. The site of the Abbey, originally wild and solitary, called the vale of the Deadly Nightshade, from a plant that grew there in abundance, was such a spot as the Cis- tercians generally chose, but that eventually, under their in- •dustry and skill, became a garden. Happily the community established there was far less troubled by the Scots and other enemies than was usual in the north and east of England ; 1 In " The Lands of Scott," chapter xxi., " Rob Roy," pp. 170-171. 2 See West, T., The Antiquities of Furness, etc., 4°, London, 1774. 18 274 THE MONASTEEIES. consequently the improvements that they made were greater, and their history was more peaceful. Their possessions, always considerable, were increased, until at one time, in the four- teenth century, their rents are said to have been about X 1,600, — indeed the Abbey had such resources that it became the mother monastery of nine other houses, and at the Dissolution its revenue was estimated to have been from £805 to £966. A good view of the region chosen by the monks can be gained from the Beacon Hill, about half a mile southward. Amid a wide prospect from it over Morecambe Bay and Bar- row, and an undulating, hilly, agricultural country, open and now thoroughly cultivated, curves a deep narrow valley, in which is nestled the Abbey, almost unseen, close beside a little stream. On entering this secluded retreat it is found to be green and charming from the care of ages, begun by the monks who, while concentrating their skilled labor here, spread it also far over the surrounding lands seen from the hill. Besides the gray and still extensive relics of their old home, made a ruin by more recent generations, there is scarcely more than one prominent evidence of our time. Where the walls of the mon- astery once stood, the railway trains rush shrieking near the church where grand old Latin hymns were chanted. But the inevitable modern convenience is well managed. Travellers are left beside the abbot's house, now converted into a neat small hotel, and then the train dives considerately into a hill and disappears in a tunnel. Turning to the ruin, we find that between the wooded heights upon each side there is a narrow tract of turf once covered by the Abbey, over which its ruins are now scattered. Well might the historian of Furncss write beneath the view he gives, " Heu Lapidum Veneranda Strues ! " while he gazed upon the extensive group of venerable buildings, 1 once entire in grandeur and in beauty, fitting their great pur- 1 The dimensions of the various parts (as given by West) show the great size and importance of the Abbey. The church was 318J feet long externally, and 287£ feet internally ; the transept was 130 feet long and 27J feet wide. The choir (that had no aisles) was 38 feet wide ; the nave was 70 feet wide inside, and 78 feet outside. The chapter-house was 60 by 45^ feet; the cloisters, 31.6 feet wide, enclosed a court 334i by 102£ feet. The refectory and locutorium together were 225 feet long and 34 feet wide. NORTHWESTERN COUNTIES. — FURNESS ABBEY. 275 poses and long history, but, after the suppression, left a prey to the wild elements or even more remorseless greed of men, until they now stand in pathetic fragments. Storms that beat upon the unprotected fabrics were outrivallcd by devastating hands that made them a quarry. Only three centuries and a half ago the seat of one of the largest, oldest, and most powerful religious institutions in the country stood here as it was shaped by royal, noble, and pious men of many generations ; yet after the lapse of this comparatively brief time, in more utter dissolution than was decreed by Henry VIII., it is fast crumbling into final decay, and so hopelessly dissolving that no long while hence it will leave scarce " a wrack behind." The styles of the buildings — late Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular — show the great difference in their age. A soft red sandstone, quarried in the neighbor- hood, used in the construction, was well laid in small blocks, placed judiciously as in their native strata, and bound by good cement ; but its color has been much changed on many parts, particularly those with an exposure easterly or northerly, where the surface has grown grayish, or is covered with a whitish mildew. Years ago the church was nearly in the fragments found at present. A western tower, still fifty feet in height, stands open by a tall arch to the nave, which is represented only by foundations, and the south wall, twenty feet high, it may be. Of the transept, the north end is badly broken, and its west wall, out of plumb, has been held up by iron rods ; the south end is in much better preservation, as also is a long, narrow, curious vestry opening from it. By far the most entire part is the choir, the walls of which are of nearly their original height, fifty feet, and retain some interesting stone sedilia. At the south of the church, adjoining the site of the cloisters which have disappeared, and the end of the transept, are frag- ments of the chapter-house, originally covered by a vaulting supported by two rows of pillars ; but nearly all of it about a century ago was " suffered (proh dolor !) to fall in," says West. It was an apartment of great size, with traceried walls, said to have been the most elegant in the Abbey, and was entered through one of three deep, round-arched recesses opening from 276 THE MONASTERIES. the cloister, and still showing very picturesque Norman work, with richly moulded stones of dark red color, draped by vivid green. South of the chapter-house extend the remains of the refectory and locutorium, which had two aisles ; but little more than their mere outline now exists, as also is the case with the dormitory in a second story above them, reached by a large stone stair, part of which is standing in the corner of the transept. At the extreme end is the best- preserved portion of the Abbey, when the writer last saw it a fine group of buildings, although they are unroofed. One grand room here might cer- tainly have been kept for continual use, and some of the en- dowments stolen from the monks might have been, with great propriety and benefit, devoted to its maintenance ; for it is said to have been the school-house, — a good subject for true reforma- tion or conservatism. It was in condition to be repaired, and if in good order, there is some doubt whether a better school- house would then be found in many a mile of the north coun- try. West of this group, and joining it, are slight remains of what apparently was a large hall of great beauty. It is said that little of the ruin has fallen within the past century ; but at the writer's last visit, several parts seemed to be very insecure. The north end of the transept, the northeast angle of the chapter-house, and portions of the east side of the refectory were leaning in a manner that suggested speedy fall. A service, even of the most simple sort, is impressive in one of these " solemn temples," that for centuries resounded with the matins and the vespers sung in the old language of the Church, but that now only echo back the cawing of the passing rooks or twitter of the sparrows when the busy world does not intrude. While the writer, on a Sunday morning, sat alone beneath the shattered arches and read from his Latin Bible, or listened to the music of the birds, he felt his slight observance only like a preface to a silent sermon coming from the gray ancient stones, and telling that if human greed and passion help Time to make noble " things earthly disappear," benefi- cence, perpetual in its kindness, will gild the poor fragments with a blessed light ; and that if saddening ruin spreads around WESTERN COUNTIES. — TINTERN ABBEY. 277 the spot that held the ancient altar, the bright sunshine of a glorious day shines on the bettered land. The Western Counties south of Lancashire, if they con- tained less numerous and splendid monastic institutions than there were in Yorkshire, were well furnished. In Cheshire, St. Werberga's church at Chester (p. 189) ; in Worcester, the great priory church (p. 179) ; in Gloucestershire, the Benedic- tine church at Gloucester (p. 171) ; in Somerset, the Augus- tinian church at Bristol (p. 130), and the Abbey church at Bath (p. 135), have happily been made cathedrals. In Shrop- shire, the nave of Shrewsbury Abbey church remains, and is in use, while Wenlock, Buildwas, Haghmon, and Hales-Owen show various amounts of picturesque ruins. In Worcestershire, the noble priory church at Great Malvern and part of that at Pershore are in due use, and Evesham shows some noble por- tions. In Gloucester shire, the great abbey church at Tewkes- bury, 1 and the lesser but picturesque one at Cirencester, are preserved, while Lanthony Priory shows scanty ruins. In Devon are remains of Tavistock Priory In Monmouthshire, Lantony shows mere fragments, and Tintern, one of the most charming relics of the monkish period in England, may well be ranked second after Glastonbury (p. 251) as a represen- tative monastic ruin in the western counties. Tintern Abbey, standing in a singularly picturesque part of the charming valley of the Wye, not far from Chepstow, is an extremely gray ruin, partly draped with incomparable ivy, placed on a grassy meadow, around which sweeps the river. Hills rise on nearly every side, and forest-like thickets cover those to the north and east. Down the stream, beside a curve, the banks are lofty and well wooded, and on those towards the east, gray cliffs tower high among the trees. The vale, indeed, for miles, is one of the most charming in the country, and one of those places that the monks knew so well how to choose and make a scene of exquisite beauty. From 1131, when they founded the Abbey here and dedicated it to St. Mary, the Cis- tercians held Tintern to the Dissolution, at which time its 1 See Vetusta Monumenta, v., text, and plates 33-46. 278 THE MONASTERIES. revenue, according to different estimates, was between £192 and £256. The most important part of the buildings remaining is the cruciform and unusually well-preserved church 1 in Decorated style. Little except the roof and glazing has disappeared ; all the four great gables are entire, and in the west front a large and beautiful window of seven bays retains its mullions and a head of rich Geometrical tracery still unbroken, although worn. Except along the northern side of the nave, the walls are nearly entire, as well as is the tracery in the windows of the clere- story ; but that of the lower windows has been destroyed. Sev- eral of the monastic buildings are, or lately were, in tolerable preservation, and while smaller than corresponding parts at Glastonbury and Fountains, are of hardly inferior interest. Among them, beside a court, stood the hospitium for strangers and the monks' refectory, the latter having on its western side a recess for the usual pulpit, where a brother read from the Bible during meals. On the crest of the higher walls there is an uncommon and attractive walk, commanding an admirable view over the valley and the ruins and into the church. Ex- quisitely picturesque as are the remains of Tintern, there is a sadness about their condition, good as that is for a ruin, so changed is the Abbey from all for which the work of the builders had fitted it to last for centuries. It is a beautiful desolation, as Cunningham says, — " Where rev'rend shrines in Gothic grandeur stood, The nettle or the noxious night-shade spreads ; And ashlings, wafted from the neighb'ring wood, Through the worn turrets wave their trembling heads." The Southern Abbeys, — those in the counties south of the Thames, — are represented by several interesting churches in part or entirely preserved ; but some of the important abbeys are shown only by ruins. In Kent, at Canterbury, the chief ancient part of St. Augustine's once great monastery is its tall turreted gateway ; but much work has in late years been 1 According to Grose (iii. 164) 225 feet long, 41 feet wide ; each aisle 18 feet ; transept 150 feet long; cloisters 111 by 99 feet; and chapter-house 54 by 27 feet. SOUTHERN ABBEYS. 279 added. In Sussex, Battle, commemorating the victory of Wil- liam I. at Hastings (1066), shows only parts that have been changed. A portion of the church of Boxgrove Priory is used, while that of Bayham is a very broken ruin. In Hampshire, the large church of Rumsey Nunnery, in Norman and Early English, has been well kept ; a part of the small church of Beaulieu is used ; and Christ Church Priory is represented by its fine cruciform church, 302 feet long, in styles from Norman to Perpendicular. Netley Abbey, the best-known monastic relic in . Hamp- shire, was Cistercian, and founded about 1239. Far more im- posing than its revenue of £100 to ,£160, was its site, on rising ground above Southampton Water, where, in well-kept grounds, stand its very broken but picturesque ruins. All the pillars, the north end of the transept, and the east gable of the church have disappeared, leaving the south end of the transept almost entire. Over a few rooms in the minor buildings the stone vaults remain ; but the other parts are much broken, and the cloisters have disappeared. It is said that the peculiarly shat- tered appearance of the ruin was caused by the operations of a speculative carpenter in the last century who bought the materials, pulled down a portion of them, and was killed by the fall of the last lot with which he meddled. So it seems that retributive justice, as well as sermons, may be found in stones. In Wiltshire, Malmesbury Abbey J has been prominent since the beginning of the seventh century. It became Benedictine, and was well endowed and privileged, so that its income at the Dissolution was £303. Leland wrote that "the abbey-church is a right magnificent thing." Grose thought that it was " a most goodly structure, and equal if not superior to most of our cathedrals in England." A variety of styles showed through how long an early period its construction was continued, and a large tower at the centre and another at the west end were among its chief features. After the suppression, " one Stump, an exceeding rich clothier," made it a factory ; yet he is said to have been the chief agent in causing the church to be made 1 See Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v., text, and plates 1-9. 280 THE MONASTERIES. parochial, and thus in preserving the only part left, — about one third of the edifice. It stands in the town upon a hill, and consists of the nave, substantially repaired, and fragments of adjoining parts. At the west the style is Norman, well shown in an unusually rich doorway in the south porch; Transition appears in the arcade, and Decorated above it and in the win- dows. Remaining work, while showing the devotion, skill, and power of the builders, is one more proof of the barbarity of the iconoclasts and the wisdom of their successors. The Midland and Eastern Abbeys, if more widely separ- ated than those in Yorkshire, were by no means few, and seve- ral of them were important. Westminster, already described (p. 229), may alone represent those in London. In Essex, at Colchester, St. Botolph's Priory and the Abbey of St. John are ruins. Tiltey Abbey furnished a chapel, and Chiche an impos- ing front with a fine gateway. " The remains of Waltham Abbey Church," says Mr. Burdon, " belong to one of the most noble works of antiquity which the ravages of the modern Goths have left us." Founded by Earl Harold in the eleventh century, the Abbey became very extensive, and at the Dissolu- tion had an estimated income of £1,079 ; but of all its build- ings only the nave of the church is spared. This, externally altered, consists of seven bays with an arcade, a large triforium and a clerestory, in massive, enriched Norman style of uncer- tain date. Some good writers have thought that the work is earlier than the Conquest ; if it is, a wonderful example of the style is shown, introduced before the Normans brought it to the country. In Hertfordshire, St. Alban's glorious church has been pre- served, and is described (p. 145) among the cathedrals. In Bedfordshire, Dunstable Priory still presents its quaint irregu- lar west front, that with the nave still forms a church. In Bucks are the dilapidated relics of Burnham Abbey, founded in 1265 " by Richard, king of the Romans." In Oxford, Christ Church is a cathedral (p. 170), as also in Northamptonshire is Peter- borough (p. 149), and in Cambridgeshire is Ely (p. 153). In the latter county the west front and nave of Thorny Abbey form a COUNTRY SEATS. 281 church. In Suffolk are the quaint remains of Butley Priory and those of the once grand Abbey at Bury St. Edmund. The lat- ter was held by the Benedictines for 519 years, and its income finally was <£ 2,336. A bridge, parts of the walls, and the great Norman tower pierced by the entrance arch, are the chief relics. In Norfolk are the remains of the Priories of Binham, Wals- ingham, and Castle-Acre. The last shows a broken but still interesting western front with rich and elegant Norman work. The Abbeys of the White, Gray, Black, and Augustine Friars at King's Lynn, and of the Black Monks at Wymondham, are marked by fragments. In Leicestershire are ruins of the Priory of Ulverscroft and of the Abbey at Leicester. In Lincolnshire, small parts of Bourne Abbey and Sempringham Priory form parish churches, and Barling's and Thornham Abbeys are represented by fragments. The chief monastic relic in the county is that of the once magnificent Benedictine Abbey at Croyland, founded in 716, eight miles east of north from Peter- borough, on low ground that was originally a marsh. Of the buildings, which were burned at three different times, those dating from the end of the twelfth to the fifteenth century form the existing ruins. After the Dissolution they were aban- doned to decay, followed by dismemberment and ruin in the Civil War. A fragment of the church is used ; but nearly every part of the once immense monastery has been utterly destroyed, and scanty remains are found of its buildings, which were con- structed of fine Barneck stone in Norman and early or later Pointed. As a seat of education, Croyland was long renowned, and its library, burned in 1091, was justly famous. Country Seats called Abbeys, in considerable number, occupy the sites of monastic institutions, retaining their names or portions of their buildings, and representing them in a way quite different from the ruins, the churches in use, and relics such as those at Durham, Wells, and Westminster. Some of these residences are, or were, abbeys chiefly in name ; as, for instance, in Kent, Lee Priory, a house of the time of James I., remodelled in 1782 and later in the " Gothic " of James Wyatt, became the seat of Sir Egerton Brydges and his well- 282 THE MONASTERIES. known press; in Wilts, Fonthill Abbey, the famous and im- mense residence of Mr. Beckford, was built between 1796 and 1807, but was many years ago demolished ; in Staffordshire, Alton Abbey, or Towers, for four centuries the seat of the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury, is modern Gothic. Several distinguished mansions, on the other hand, as re- marked, are not only on the sites of monastic establishments, but some of them retain portions of the buildings. In Bed- fordshire is Wobum Abbey, a square modern edifice on a Cister- cian foundation, dating from 1145. In Dorsetshire is Milton Abbas, on an estate once pertaining to a Saxon abbey that was pulled down to give place to a large edifice in modern Gothic (1737, etc.). In Northamptonshire, Abington Abbey is a plain modern edifice. Belapre, in the style of the seventeenth cen- tury, is on the ground of a Cluniac nunnery ; and Milton Abbey, for many centuries the seat of the Fitzwilliams, is a long, pic- turesque structure, with several oriels built in the reign of Henry VIII. In Sussex, Battle Abbey, built in commemora- tion of the victory at Hastings, and situated about seven miles from that place, was Benedictine, and had thirty-one abbots. After the suppression, large parts of the buildings were de- stroyed ; but some fragments were joined to new structures, and upon three sides of a quadrangle a large residence was formed, for which a portion of the cloister walls, the hall or refectory, a crypt, and the great gateway of the Abbey were retained. In Warwickshire are Whitley, a seat built in the reign of Elizabeth, and Wroxall Abbey, that was a Benedictine nunnery, a quadrangle, built in the reign of Henry VIII., which became the seat of Sir Christopher Wren and his descendants. In Wiltshire, at Lacoch Abbey, a nunnery founded in 1233, it is said that the monastic buildings were preserved to an extent almost unrivalled in the domestic structures in the country. It was proved here that the ancient buildings could be made to serve well the requirements of social life, for little modern work was added, and the cloister and important portions were retained. In Nottinghamshire, Welbech Abbey, a seat of the Duke of Portland and one of a group of splendid mansions, represents COUNTRY SEATS. 283 a Premonstratensian establishment, founded in 1153 and pos- sessing an income of <£298 at the Dissolution. Fragments of its buildings were preserved in connection with a large resi- dence, not remarkable for beauty, built in the seventeenth cen- tury. On it the late Duke spent enormous sums, making it of immense size and extraordinary character, and creating one of the marvels of the country, which as a successor showed a surprising contrast with a monastery. In this respect, although properly classed among modern residences, there is additional wonder in the unique tunnels and subterranean rooms with which it is provided. Among its apartments was a riding-school, in its time thought to be unrivalled, which has been converted into a picture-gallery, 182 feet long, and far surpassed by a new structure, said to be 379 feet long, 106 feet wide, and 50 feet high, and to be lighted by eight thousand gas-jets. Yet size is only one expression of the great magnificence of this example of ducal grandeur. In Nottinghamshire is also Newstead Abbey, another resi- dence, remarkable in a different way, where large parts of a Priory of Black Canons, founded in 1170, are preserved. At the Dissolution the estate was granted to Sir John Byron, and until 1818 was held by his descendants, the last of whom, after making the Abbey one of the most widely known in England, sold it to Colonel Wildman. This gallant officer, a man of fortune and a school-friend and an admirer of the poet, found the house and grounds in very bad condition, caused by nearly half a century of occupation by the "wicked lord," the poet's father, and by a tenant, Lord Grey de Ruthen. Slight repairs had been made when the great Lord Byron succeeded, on com- ing of age ; but Colonel Wildman lavished taste and treasure in elaborate restoration, costing, it is said, more than eighty thousand pounds. The writer saw the place in his time, and can realize the affection that inspired the work and the just satisfaction that the recreator of the charms of Newstead could feel in his great success. If the park is not one of the most lordly, it has many pretty spots, although the " wicked lord " made it a dismal waste. Long ago, however, the trees had grown again, the lawns and shrubbery were fair, and among 284 COLLEGIATE CHURCHES AND MINSTERS. the crowded ferns the rabbits in great numbers played. Abbots- ford is even less picturesque than the irregular house ; incorpo- rated with which, and forming a very striking feature, is the west front of the ancient church, dark varied gray or draped by luxuriant ivy, and retaining many details — although not the tracery, in a large central window — of its Early English and Decorated design. Parts of the interior show grandeur, snugness, or picturesqueness, and much elegance in finishing and furnishing. No portion is more interesting than the poet's bedroom, lighted by the upper windows in a tall oriel, the one nearest the church of three oriels on the main front. It is, or was, very quaint, and kept as he left it. Even quainter was the chamber used by Washington Irving, who, as is well known, described it, together with the house, a conception of the size of which he gave when telling us of the dimensions of the largest apartment, the drawing-room, 70 feet long and 23 feet wide. With all the interest of Irving's account, its prose must yield in charm to the verses of the poet, who wrote of his own home, and who has made Newstead one of the most attractive shrines of genius in England. COLLEGIATE CHUECHES AND MINSTERS. These rank between Cathedrals and Parish churches. The former while not episcopal seats had colleges or chapters of canons and other officers, not less than three in number, sub- ject to a bishop, a form of services like a cathedral, and gen- erally, also, an endowment that supported an establishment of more importance than is maintained for parochial work. At Southwell, Nottinghamshire, is one of the most notable colle- giate churches, an admirable representative of its class, and now ranking with the Cathedrals, among which it has been described on page 168. At Bromyard in Herefordshire, Higham Ferrars and Irthlingborough in Northamptonshire, and Bosham in Sussex, are smaller and less important, but yet interesting examples. SHERBORNE MINSTER; WIMBORNE MINSTER. 285 Minsters, large or notable churches, — hence as the cathe- drals at York and Canterbury are sometimes called, — now more commonly and specifically designate the churches of great monasteries ; as, for instance, the renowned example in Lon- don already described (pp. 229-244). Three others, long used by Parishes, are so prominent in beauty, size, and interest that they may well be regarded as the great representatives of the class in which they belong. Sherborne Minster, in Dorsetshire, is a venerable monument that marks one of the oldest sites associated with Christianity in England, on which a monastery was established as early as 670. In 702 or 704 the seat of a bishopric that reached to Land's End was placed there, and remained until the eleventh century ; but the monastery survived until the Dissolution, when its revenue was .£682. Fragments of its minor edifices still exist. The church, that probably stands on the site of the cathedral, is cruciform, and shows work and styles from the Norman period to that of the Perpendicular. Of the former are parts of a central tower, 154 feet high, the south end of the transept, and a fine north porch. Of the latter are the traceries of most of the windows, while in the choir there is Early English. Few features, however, are as notable as the nu- merous and interesting monuments of various early dates to as great a variety of persons ; for among those buried at Sher- borne were two Saxon kings and many nobles and ecclesiastics. Wimborne Minster, also in Dorsetshire, is a simpler and smaller cruciform church. It stands in a long, irregularly built market-town, the quiet centre of a well-cultivated farming country, and traversed by a winding street bordered by red- brick houses, or others old and thatched. Through the Roman and Saxon periods the place was important. A nunnery founded in it about 700 was destroyed by the Danes two cen- turies later, and was succeeded by a monastery for secular can- ons, the church of which became collegiate. The Minster, its representative, is surrounded by green, open grounds, and is quaint, low, not very large, and built of squared stones of irregular sizes that are now of a checkered pale gray and dark- yellowish or reddish-brown color. At the west end there is a 286 COLLEGIATE CHURCHES AND MINSTERS. low square tower with pinnacles, and another like it stands at the centre, and shows good ornamented Norman work. Upon the lower parts of the walls the work is Pointed. Steep roofs help to give more effect of bulk and height that without them would be needed for the edifice. Between 1855 and 1857 both the outside and the inside were restored, yet without serious effect to the ancient look of the church. The walls of the interior are light, and are relieved by some good colored glass and by the dark hue of the timber roofs. In the nave, the arcade has Pointed arches, with toothed ornament in Norman, — a style shown more decidedly in the central tower, which is open to its top. Beneath it is a very rich new pulpit in Gothic style, placed there in 1868, and also a brass lectern that dates from 1623. A resemblance that the building has, in some ways, to a Parish church, appears much less in the eastern parts, where the floor is raised to cover a small crypt. On each side of the choir is a large chapel, and at the south there is a vestry almost like a chapter-house, besides which the choir contains some unusually rich Early English work, the east window being particularly good, and several valuable monu- ments. The most interesting part, however, is the library, above the vestry, approached by a small turnpike stair of stone. It is a quaint room of moderate size, with small windows and a nearly flat roof, showing dark small beams. On all sides are the books, generally set in old monastic style, with their front edges outward, and many of them bound to the shelves by long iron chains. The sexton whom the writer found here was an admirable one for such a place. He was a little gray-haired man, half a century in office, who had found the books — left long ago to be a Parish library — dirty, dusty, torn, and in dis- order, and had mended them, arranged them in due order by a catalogue, and kept them clean. Peace be with the good sexton of Wimborne ! Beverley Minster, one of the most exquisite and noble churches in the country, and less known than it well deserves to be, is the imposing monument of a collegiate and monastic institution, with a rich endowment, dating from about the year 700. In the Saxon times the place where it stands received the name BEVEELEY MINSTER. 287 of Beverlega, then Beverlac, from the beavers abounding there, and a town grew up around the ecclesiastical buildings, which experienced the usual vicissitudes of Danish ravages and of rebuilding, but, later, became a centre of prosperity. By far the greatest personage associated with the place in all the earlier ages was the fifth archbishop of York, a great bene- factor, who died in 721, and was canonized and known as St. John of Beverley. Early in the tenth century the church and town received the privilege of sanctuary from Athelstan, who founded a college possessing at the Dissolution a revenue of £597, a portion of which is retained. The minster was rebuilt in 1060 ; but much of the existing edifice dates from the reign of Henry III., and is in the Pointed style. It stands in open grounds that are surrounded by a wall, streets, and small yet neat houses, at the south end of a large, long, quiet town, with considerable quaintness but slight pic- turesqueness. There are few such pure and charming churches throughout England ; and in size and richness it is worthy to be ranked with the cathedrals, — indeed, it is a delight to those who know it, and a surprise to strangers. In plan it is a double cross, for it has an enriched and narrow east or second transept. On the outside, gray of a fine tone is the prevailing color, the west front having a deeper shading than the other parts, while portions of the choir are somewhat browned. There are two lofty, noble western towers, suggesting those at York, and a low central tower deformed with some pitiful late work, — the only blemish in a beautiful design. On the west front are four bold buttresses, extending to the pinnacles that crown the towers ; and these, the windows, and the walls are covered with elaborate Decorated and Perpendicular tracery. In keep- ing with this rich and stately front are the sides of the church ; both parts are worthy of each other. The interior is very light in color, the walls being a pale buff, and the ceiling almost white ; but there is much decora- tion and relief, notably on the vaults of the choir, where the ribs have deep red in the hollows and gilding on the bosses. Throughout the choir and transept, and in the first bay and the clerestory of the nave, the coloring is conspicuously varied by 288 PARISH CHURCHES. a profusion of Purbeck shafts, re-polished about ten years ago, but already in some places discolored by whitish mould. A simple but handsome setting for the varied superstructure is supplied by pavements of black and white marble laid in large patterns, as at York. Happily the only loss — yet no slight one — suffered by the edifice has been the destruction of a large portion of the ancient colored glass, broken, they say, in the Civil War. One of the most noticeable original and pre- served features of the general design is the profuse use, both outside and inside, of very bold and graceful arcades. Through- out the interior at the base of the walls extends a border of them, with shafts of dark Purbeck, and in the triforium of the choir there are two with similar shafts, placed one before the other with a very rich and novel effect. Other useful as well as decorative objects found in this part of a fine church are prominent here. Placed at one side is the organ, in a case of dark wood, carved indeed in the exuberant impropriety of the last century, but subordinate to a fine lighter screen and elab- orate stalls of dark oak, which are exceptionally interesting. Although monuments are not numerous here, there is at least one that is remarkable, as is almost invariably the case in an English church ; it is the Percy shrine, which, if it has lost memorial work once under the exquisite stone canopy it retains, is still important. Beverley, indeed, we may feel, deserves congratulations on the beauty, stateliness, and admirable preservation of its min- ster, and travellers will be rewarded well if they will visit its delightful church of St. John the Evangelist. PAPJSH CHURCHES. In every part of England, humble, plain or ugly, beautiful or stately, stand some of the most expressive monuments, not merely of her arts and history, but of her most vital, although often quiet power. Through the past and present, wherever groups of people could be gathered in secluded rural nooks, in hamlets, towns, or crowded cities, there the Parish churches PARISH CHURCHES. 289 provided ministrations that have shaped her life. These edi- fices have great interest from their many varying designs, from the ancient work that they retain, or, to a degree that does not exist in other countries, from their associations with men who have given glory to the country, and whose mortal remains lie peacefully beneath their tombs or pavements. Each succeeding generation has pursued its labors, passed its life, or quickened its faith amid ancestral memorials and the inspiration of the example of many an age, uniting it in a fellowship of associa- tions that have had constant and potent influence on the national character, and from which the future, that comes day by day, receives its guidance. Only a very large book, wholly devoted to the subject — one hardly yet written — could contain adequate and classified accounts of all these churches. About sixty may be men- tioned as examples of more prominent or interesting features, and several included in this number will be more fully de- scribed. Of the styles shown, Norman appears in parts of many churches, but of course it can be seen or studied to much more advantage in the cathedrals ; a far larger number date wholly from the periods of the middle or the later Pointed, while many were built when the classic or the Gothic revivals pre- vailed. Of the main features, a tall square single tower with a low roof and high pinnacles raised at the angles, sometimes central, but much oftener at the west end, — is very frequent in English designs. This square west single tower, with pinnacles, that dates from the period of the Perpendicular, or earlier, is shown prominently in the West of England. Notable examples are found in Cornwall, in St. Probus, at Probus ; in Somersetshire there are St. Cuthbert's, Wells, St. Mary Magdalene at Chew- ton Mendip and at Taunton, St. Mary's at North Petherton, and St. John's, Glastonbury ; in Gloucestershire is St. Stephen's at Bristol ; in the centre of the country are All Saints, Derby, and St. Mary's at St. Neots, Huntingdonshire ; and in the east, St. Botolph's at Boston, Lincolnshire. The central tower, of similar design, is shown well in St. George's at Doncaster, and St. Augustine's at Hedon, in Yorkshire. 19 290 PARISH CHURCHES. The west tower, of similar form, but crowned by a lofty spire, is more peculiarly used in the eastern or central portion of the country. Lincolnshire has many good examples ; as, for instance, St. Mary's, at Stamford (fine Early English), St. Wul- fran's, at Grantham, and St. James, at Louth (Decorated). In Nottinghamshire, is St. Mary Magdalene, at Newark. In War- wickshire, St. Michael's, at Coventry, has a remarkably tall, graceful spire, as also has St. Mary Redcliffe's, Bristol. Three fine Perpendicular churches may be mentioned, — Lavenham and Melford in Suffolk, and Cirencester in Glouces- tershire, the latter one of the most magnificent in England. The classic revival was shown chiefly in London ; and its earlier period might be named from its master-spirit, Wren, none of whose churches are without originality or excellence. St. Bride's, in Fleet Street, and St. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, with their noble spires and arched interiors, and St. Clement Danes, in the middle of the Strand, with its rich work and ele- gance, are memorials of his genius. Architects who followed him in time and style left also notable works. James Gibbs designed St. Martin' s-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, the deco- ration of which is profuse, especially in the interior. The latest and perhaps the most marked period of the classic revival extended into the present century, and has, happily, left few examples of its character, if we may judge this by the curious and expensive Greek composition of St. Pancras, one of its chief productions, which by its acknowledged failure helped to bring on the Gothic revival. Although the classic revival was preva- lent or active for more than a century and a half, — a period when some very ugly work was done and in too many places, — the national style was not displaced ; but, on the other hand, the foreign style made the excellence of the native evident, and the few noble churches in the former only added variety amid the great number in the latter. The Gothic revival, that in ecclesiastical art really began since 1820, has produced many good edifices in varieties of the styles dominant before the age of the Renaissance. It arose and grew, notwithstanding unfavorable influences which it had to oppose, until the change of taste in church-building PARISH CHUKCHES. 291 within a hundred years is as marked, in its way, as any contrast between the England of to-day and of a century ago ; and indeed a resumption of the slave-trade would be little more imminent than general use of some of the Georgian fashions. Interesting and precious as is the art in many of these build- ings of different ages, it yields in attractiveness and impress- iveness to their associations with the faith and lives of more than a score of generations that make the old churches shrines of the best of England's history and spirit. While the morn- ing-stars of the great Reformation shone with living light the liturgy was chanted and the prayers were said in ancient seats of worship where the words with slight change now are heard. The social as well as spiritual history of all these centuries dwells also beneath their arches, and the chiselled stones bear records of the private names the neighborhood has known well, and often of those which the world has learned, and will not per- mit to be forgotten. In the chancel by the quiet Avon, Strat- ford cherishes the name and mortal remains of Shakespeare, and St. Michael's at St. Alban's keeps like guard of Bacon. Far away from both, at Hucknall, sleeps Lord Byron. In the charming Lake District, watched by huge Skiddaw, at Cros- thwaite, lies Southey, and near Rydal Mount is the grave of Wordsworth. If the sad " boy-poet " Chatterton does not lie, as he ought to, in exquisite St. Mary Redcliffe's, yet the north porch and his muniment-room are there. In the church of Great Hampden lies John Hampden. Few, indeed, are the older Parish churches in which some one of distinction does not lie, and fewer still are those without memorials of the worthies of their neighborhood. In London alone so numerous are objects of interest that they can be enumerated only on pages like those furnished by Murray and by Dickens. Of the churches that can be described here, half a dozen justly distinguished for size and design are first sketched, and then two others even more widely renowned. Amid the smoke of Bristol, pointing to its often clouded sky, is a tall, handsome spire that rises at the west end of a minia- ture cathedral, the church of St. Mary Redcliffe. It stands 292 PARISH CHURCHES. — SAFPRON-WALDEN. upon rising ground surrounded by a large churchyard, and farther off by streets and common houses. On each side at the west end is a porch, the one towards the north of marvel- lous elaboration, and containing a quaint chamber in a second story, the old muniment-room associated with Thomas Chat- terton, whose short, sad, brilliant life was so suggestive. The edifice is cruciform, with two aisles throughout and a tower at the northwest corner, — both of the latter rare peculiarities in English Parish churches. On the site of an earlier edifice, the existing one was begun in 1292 by Simon de Burton ; and about three quarters of a century later William Canynge, mayor, completed the body, to which not a little was subsequently added. The style, consequently, is Decorated and Perpen- dicular, the tracery of the windows being chiefly of the latter. In 1842 the church was in a bad condition, and Mr. John Britton, distinguished for his works on English mediaeval art, was prominent in efforts to restore it, which were so successful that in 1860, as the writer saw, the whole exterior, with its beautiful pale-buff stonework, was fresh and renewed. Twenty years later he saw it already so dingy on the outside that ad- mirers might regret that so much elegance should be exposed in such a devastating climate. The interior is very beautiful. A remarkably airy, light, and open clerestory and a narrow transept with an effect of height unusual in an English church, a vaulting continuous throughout and enlaced with complicated ribs, abundant fine details, and numerous traceried windows, are combined in the magnificent design. To the effect of form is added that of color. An extremely pale tint that prevails upon the stone work is relieved by polychrome upon the ribs of the vaulting, and contrasted well with a large amount of bril- liant painted glass. Both the Lady Chapel, that was for a long time used as a schoolroom, and the interior of the great porch, are also very richly colored. None of the new fine objects that follow a great recent English restoration seem to be wanting, including an elegant reredos and appropriate furniture, all of which are worthy of this charming church. At Saffron-Walden, Essex, the church is not only in itself one of the most charming in any of the smaller towns of PARISH CHURCHES. — ST. BOTOLPH'S, BOSTON. 293 England, but is also made more effective by its position on a hill at one side of a town that is of the good old English kind and is surrounded by a delightful country. Standing about a mile from Audley End (described on p. 372), and environed by the usual burial-ground, even more green, fresh, and peaceful than is common, the edifice dates from the reigns of Henry VI. and Henry VII., and consequently is throughout Perpen- dicular, of which style it is a very good example. It has ten bays, each of them nearly filled at the sides by large windows set between the buttresses, and at the west end a single tower crowned by a restored spire and belfry. Except on portions of the walls built of tiny rubble stones and grown mixed gray or dark brown, the exterior has a buff-gray or buff color. On the other hand, a great deal of the interior is almost white ; but relief and contrast are given by dark timber roofs, low and of double pitch, with which nearly every part is covered, and increased lightness is supplied by a good clerestory, one of the prominent features of the design. St. Botolph's, Boston, Lincolnshire, is rivalled in stateliness by very few other Parish churches in the kingdom ; indeed its tower is pre-eminent, and a work the peer of great Belgian structures, by which its design seems to have been suggested. While, like St. Mary's at Saffron-Walden, it stands in a town, its position and outlook are very dissimilar. For miles around, the country is extremely low and flat, and through this the river Witham slowly winds, flowing close to the west front of the church in passing through the town, which, after various changes, is now busy, large, and quaint. Although the Ro- mans are said to have built a fort near the sea at a short dis- tance from the place, its importance is much more recent, and dates from about 650, when Botolph, a Saxon subsequently canonized, made it the site of a monastery. From his name is derived that of the town, which during the Middle Ages became a seat of considerable commerce and prosperity. These afterwards declined when the navigation of the river was impeded, and when other ports grew more important in the last century ; yet Boston is still busy, interesting, and by no means decayed. 294 PARISH CHURCHES. — ST. BOTOLPH'S, BOSTON. The existing church of St. Botolph 1 was founded, it is said, in 1309, or at the period when Boston was " the principal of the ten shipping ports of the kingdom," says Thompson (p. 161). A time of depression followed ; and a large portion of the body of the edifice seems to have been built as late as from 1327 to 1377, and the tower not to have been added until a century later. Although the construction was prolonged through more than two hundred years, some parts of the de- sign were even then incomplete. Some conception of the mag- nitude of the undertaking is conveyed by the statement of the dimensions, the whole length being 282 feet 6 inches, or 245 feet on the inside ; the breadth is 98 feet ; the height of the vaulting in the nave is 61 feet, and in the tower 156 feet, the full height of the latter being 292 feet 9 inches. Extensive restorations in 1845 or 1846, and in 1851 and 1852 directed by Mr. G. G. Place, put the church in fine order, and it was re-opened May 12, 1853. Still later, a fine chapel was restored, as a memorial of the Rev. John Cotton, vicar from 1612 to 1633, and afterwards the minister of the First Church, Boston, New England. The style of St. Botolph's, as indicated by the dates of the construction, is Pointed, showing various phases. On the dark gray exterior the design is better than on the interior, which presents a long, spacious nave, with an aisle on each side, and arcades of rather slender and widely-spaced pillars supporting a small clerestory, but no triforium. There is a very long chancel or choir, at the eastern end of which is a new and brilliant window, corresponding with one placed in the tower. All of the interior is vaulted ; but, except in the tower, the arches are flattened, and the design, not of the best, is hardly improved by a drab tint that is the general color. Stones stained by wear and time, or new encaustic tiles and marbles, form the pavement, on which a large number of pews are arranged. Decidedly the noblest and most interesting part is the tower, well worth examining throughout. An ascent is, or was, a bit of adventure, up a stone turnpike-stair, growing 1 See Thompson, P., History and Antiquities of Boston, woodcuts, sm. folio, Boston (Eng.), 1856. Account of Ke-opening of the church, 8°, do., 1853. PARISH CHURCHES. — ST. GEORGE'S, DONCASTER. 295 very small towards the top, where the writer found the steps so much worn that they were like a steep rugged inclined plane, up which one had to twist like a human corkscrew. When the battlements of the lantern are reached, a wide view is obtained that extends far over the grain or vegetable fields and the beautiful green pasture-lands of Lincolnshire, well stocked with large cattle. Hedgerows and lines of trees, not too precise or angular, and here and there canals, or ditches for drainage, divide the country. Church spires rise athwart the sky ; but there are no hills seen, except a long, low ridge towards the west. The view can be surpassed in Boston of the new world ; but larger and richer as is the city there, it has no church to outrival Lincolnshire's St. Botolph. St. George's, at Doncaster in Yorkshire, cruciform, and crowned by a noble central tower 172 feet high, is hardly sur- passed in size and elegance by any other Parish church in the country. It replaces an original structure of various and indeed uncertain dates that was almost destroyed by fire in February, 1853. Immediately afterwards £30,000 were ob- tained by subscription, and the church as it now appears was built under the direction of Mr. G. G-. Scott. Its length is 168 feet, the breadth 65 feet, the height of the nave 75 feet, and the length of the transept 92 feet. Although the chief feat- ures of the old design were reproduced, incongruities in it were properly avoided. A light drab-brown stone was used, quite different from that in most of the cathedrals, several characteristics of which are shown, such as a lofty clerestory, rich Perpendicular tracery in the windows, and numerous pin- nacles. The general arrangement of the cathedrals is also imi- tated in the interior; but the dark oak-framed roof common in the English Parish church, here richly decorated, covers the various parts. Among the details are foliage and a great many carved animals, monsters, and angels, the last of which are beautiful, together with medallion heads of saints in the spandrels of the main arcade. In minor arcades there are pol- ished red and green marble shafts, and these, the tile pave- ments, and the ornamentation near the altar, are superb. Two parts of the church are uncommon, — a Baptistery of three 296 PARISH CHURCHES. — COVENTRY ; WARWICK. bays, with a groined stone ceiling, at its southeastern corner, and a curious little library over a fine south porch. The town, it should be added, has the deserved reputation of being one of the prettiest in England. St. Michael's Church at Coventry in Warwickshire is a re- markable and grand edifice, in the later Pointed style, present- ing a nave with aisles and a great western tower and spire 803 feet high, or equal to the length of the church. The tower was begun in 1373, and the spire was finished in 1395. A soft red sandstone, common in the western and central parts of England, is used, that, on the exterior, became seriously weatherworn, as it was when the writer first saw it. Between 1849 and 1851 the interior was disrobed of whitewash and refitted, and a much more thorough restoration of all parts is now proposed. St. Mary's Church at Warwick, once collegiate, is large, and remarkable as an example of a Pointed church rebuilt early in the last century. A fire in 1704 that badly damaged the old structure is accordingly much to be regretted. One of the chief features of the exterior is a square pinnacled tower, 130 feet high ; but it is far less worthy of attention than the choir, which is of exceptional interest, and the Lady Chapel, " erected in pursuance of the will of Richard de Beau- champ, Earl of Warwick." The latter, one of the most not- able chapels in the country, was built between 1443 and 1463, and is an example of the richest and most graceful Pointed of its date. Placed near the centre of it is a monument to the founder, made of gray marble, in altar form, elaborately carved, and surmounted by a screen of gilded brass. There is also an imposing monument of the Earl of Leicester who was so famous in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and besides it there are other important memorials of members of the illustrious house of Warwick. Stoke Pogis has a slight display of architectural glories ; yet the world knows it, not by the numerous visits paid it, but because it stands in the churchyard of Gray's " Elegy." One of the earlier pilgrimages that the writer made to English shrines was to this quiet, charming place. It is about two miles and a half from Slough, a station near Windsor, whence the way is by STOKE POGIS; CHALFONT ST. GILES. 297 a pleasant road that in some parts is lined with elms, and then by a pretty path across green meadows to Stoke Park. A monu- ment to Gray stands there in sight of places associated with his writings. It is a moderately ugly sarcophagus on a square base, and has four inscriptions on the sides, three of which are selections from his poem. At a short distance, across level grass-ground, is the little square churchyard, filled with the graves of people who have lived near by it, and bordered and shaded by trees. Close to one corner is the simple, pict- uresque church, composed of three or four small steep-roofed buildings set together, on one side of which is a low tower bearing. a whitish spire, and on the other a low rustic porch. The walls, pierced by square or pointed windows, are of bricks plastered ; but the tower is built of small flint-stones. All these parts are simple, yet picturesque, and a profusion of graceful ivy draping them seems wreathed with the associa- tions gathered there by the poet, and to make the plain building beautiful. The writer's pilgrimage to haunts of the poets led him to another church, at Chalfont St. Giles, an ancient, simple, plas- tered building, near a shrine of another sort that attracts one to its neighborhood. Some misdirection made his way there from Windsor very long and roundabout; but he was well repaid by finding not only how wild a country there could be no farther from London, but how pleasant it could be for a walk. A deal of turnpike and green lane are traversed, and then a path leads far across the fields into the churchyard. On the long street of the village, among its- variously pat- terned brick dwellings, was a small, old, English-looking house, with a timbered and plastered front surmounted by a little gable and ornamented with a pretty vine. The rooms were low and very plain, but neat, and in one of them, they tell us, John Milton wrote his " Paradise Regained." " This simple dwelling has been sacredly preserved," says William Howitt ; and honor to its owners and all England for the fact ! The blind old hero of " immortal verse " has glorified it, and the busy English-speaking world should not forget it, or that it can be reached by a good drive or walk from the station at 298 PARISH CHURCHES. Slough. The writer may add that he found a shorter, and yet a long enough, way back by Eton to Windsor, where a dinner at the " White Hart " had a relish after a walk of four and twenty miles. Stratford-on-Avon guards a shaded churchyard placed be- tween its quaint old streets and houses and the little river and surrounding its gray Parish church, a shrine of so much of the spirit by which England has grown great that the venerable edifice is a charming representative of all its class and of the centuries of life by which it has been maintained. The church, standing on ground consecrated perhaps before the Conquest, is built chiefly in the Perpendicular and earlier Pointed styles, and is said to retain some remains of Norman work. In plan, design, and position it is above the common rank, and on these accounts important ; it is cruciform, with a tower and spire raised at the centre, a north porch, and a large chancel or Lady Chapel. For a long time it was endowed with a colle- giate establishment ; but that was suppressed by Henry VIII. In recent years, while extensive restorations have changed, and also improved, the interior, the outside still shows its old smoothed stones that have grown venerably gray by long expo- sure, not to dreary artificial smoke, but to the native weather. A pleasant avenue of lime-trees leads to the deep, richly moulded porch from which the nave is entered. There the evidence of age, the antique elegance, the work of modern wealth and study, constant piety, and careful regard for all that should be kept through the centuries, make the sacred place delightful and impressive, apart from the pre-eminent associations that have made this one of the most widely known of English churches. A look through the interior at its chief features as a church is thus quickened by desire to see some- thing there which attracts the world, and these features are soon viewed and described, — a nave with a lofty clerestory, a large western window filled with new colored glass, a fresh but dark, very low, double-pitched oaken roof, good simple pews, an organ that a while ago occupied the north end of the tran- sept, and, in the south end, a vestry. For a long while the chancel had a flat, plain ceiling, which has very properly of STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 299 late been replaced by an appropriate roof. Along the sides and end, above a high base of plain wall, are lofty traceried windows, one of which, filling the east end, is particularly resplendent with new colored glass replacing a former com- mon glazing. But attention turns from everything else to the pavement, between an altar beneath this window and steps in front that are guarded by a fine brass railing. There lie two large, flat, dark stones, one of them, now slightly worn, bear- ing an inscription, copied on the spot by the writer in his Notebook, — Good p^e/vd for )es\s sak'z fo^b^akb j To JDiGC* THE VvST &NCLtfA5ED }£ ARE. IH_U £STE ^E WjYCAM "5 S"FAR E^ K^S STOTTB^ ANJJ OVR5T-^e- HE Y M OVE-S -3Y£Y &0 H &£. The whole world knows who sleeps there in the most peace- ful and sacred spot in his native town ; yet the other stone, as we are glad, tells more fully the personal story. Separated from the first by a rude, narrow stone is the second, a great slab, bearing upon its scaled, worn surface a small brass plate, inscribed, — HERE LYETH INTERRED THE BODY OF ANNE WIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WHO DEPTED THIS LIFE THE 6th DAY OF AUGV 1623 BEING OF THE AGE OF 67 YEARES. Vbera, tu mater, tu hac, vitamq, dedifti Vae mihi : pro tanto munere saxa dabo Quam malletn amoueat lapidem bonus ang e/' ^ e Exeat chrifti corpus imago tua Sed nil vota valent venias cito Chrifte refurget Clavfa licet tumulo mater et aura petet. Beside this stone, and several feet above it, is a mural monu- ment erected not a great while after Shakespeare died, and bearing a bust of him that probably is a good portrait. The architectural part is of white marble, relieved by shafts and panels of black marble and by gilded bases, lines, and capi- tals. For a long time the bust wore a coat of whitewash given it by Malone in the Age of that neat and lovely article ; but it was removed about 1855, and probably the original coloring is 300 TARISH CHURCHES. now shown. The flesh tints are a little ruddy on the hands, face, and high forehead ; the hair is black ; the cuffs and col- lar arc a dingy white ; the coat is dull red ; and the over- dress, or drapery, is black. On a black panel underneath the bust is an inscription that the writer also reproduces from his Notebook, — ) vP I C-f O "TV Ul V/vO, GENIO 5oORATEM ARTE M/^Ro N £ /v» ~~n r KR/\--rECnT / ?c7vi.Vi M/tfkET, Oi_Y/viPV,5 HABET, STAY P/>»S.y£MGE« W /+Y aOpSTTHov BY 5o FAiTJ RE-/AD IP "F+frV CA-N5T yvHo/v) E/v^iouS De^Ti WATH "PLA-ST AyiC/< /VAT"V*E 3?IJ)E \fr»o3E /VA/vE. X30~Fi Pec/BE ^VVR MORE TI&H COST : SlJr* ALLv-3-ter HATH WRiTr, -Leaves <-'v/n<;aat, FWTPAG^To^E^yf: W'>rp(//rr, Z^jTATiS fj £31 C Zj AP In the great variety and number of English monumental structures it would be hard to find one more suggestive and expressive of the spirit that has given the country some of its chief strength and attractiveness, than this quiet chancel by the Avon. Beautiful, although invested with the simpler forms of mediaeval art ; surrounded by charms of nature such as Eng- land cherishes ; kept by the pious care of centuries, and ani- mated by their constant faith ; a shrine of these, and of a peerless genius in a native literature such as no country has surpassed, — we well may, if we select one building, look on this church at Stratford as the monument of England. While the numerous edifices raised by the Church not only reveal a great deal of the character and condition of mediaeval England, and also its connection with later times to the pres- ent, and while civil structures show other phases through the Norman period, there are yet many important works to be seen before a full comprehension is gained of the England of the Middle Ages and its existing monuments. Attention is accordingly turned to these, and reverts to the civil history of the country. CIVIL HISTORY, FROM THE NORMAN TO THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD. THE period distinctly Norman gradually changed, while the native sons of foreigners and their successors were farther separated from the times and influences of the Conquest, and by degrees blended with the more ancient inhabitants. Mean- while the institutions of the country became less those imposed by invaders, and more those of a united people growing in strength and resources. Strong Norman castles changed from fastnesses of a victorious and oppressive foreign soldiery to be more like stations of a national police in military form, such as has always since been maintained in the country. As cir- cumstances directed, the older castles were kept, enlarged, or disused, until by the last half of the thirteenth century another class of military structures for different needs and purposes arose. Notwithstanding wars in France caused by royal claims to parts of that country, the strongholds along the sea became of less comparative importance. Degrees of domestic peace created opportunities and wishes for more commodious resi- dences of the rulers. At the time just mentioned, says Mr. Turner, the keeps had been abandoned for halls and chambers, and were " in a ruinous condition, and generally roofless," while " manor-houses appear to have increased in number." Former differing or conflicting elements of population were consoli- dated into a fresh, strong English nation, with new ambitions or necessities. It had less to fear from over-seas, but it had two frontiers on land towards neighbors who were never very quiet or friendly, and these must be guarded. Not only must it meet inroads on its own territory and repel them, but its superior strength, as well as a policy of stopping danger at the source, would impel it to military adventures beyond the borders. 302 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. Consequently the inevitable struggle between three nationalities confined within a territory no larger than that of Great Britain, lasted through centuries. It had probably been waged before the Romans invaded distant parts of the island, and more actively from time to time in the Saxon and Norman periods, and did not cease until unity — a manifest benefit and an equally inevitable necessity — was attained. CONQUEST OF WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BOEDER. Wales, notwithstanding hostilities with England were con- tinued through a long period, maintained a certain independ- ence, giving and receiving injuries, but unable to wage war in England far beyond the frontier. At length Edward I., in 1276, determined to stop the conflicts by conquering the coun- try, and, as usual in such cases, a reason for the act was found. In 1237 Lewellyn, prince of Wales, who had domestic troubles, sought assistance from Henry III., and in return became his vassal. The son and successor of Lewellyn, of the same name, renewed this homage, but afterwards took part against the Crown during the Barons' War in England, and, with his asso- ciates, was defeated at Evesham in 1265. Prince Edward, who became king in 1270, after an absence in the Eighth Crusade, required the obedience of Lewellyn, and took such means to enforce it that in 1277 the Welsh, who had made a stand among the hills of Snowdon, in the northwest corner of the country, were surrounded by the royal forces and obliged to surrender. A rebellion not unnaturally followed, during which Lewellyn was killed in battle ; and David, who succeeded him, was made prisoner and hanged as a traitor. The conquest of 1 See Grose, F., Antiquities of England and Wales, 8 vols, folio, London, 1797 (and other editions). — King, E., Munimenta Antiqua, etc., 4 vols, folio, London, 1799-1805. — Turner, T. H., Some Account of Domestic Architecture, etc. (1066-1509), 4 vols. 8°, Oxford, 1851-1859. 2 See, for views and some description, Woolnoth, W., The Ancient Castles of England and Wales, 2 vols, royal 8°, London, 1825. — Roscoe, Thos., Wan- derings, etc., in North and South Wales, 2 vols, imperial 8°, London, 1836. CONWAY CASTLE. 303 Wales was effected, castles were built to maintain it, and two centuries of misrule and misery ensued before the principality shared in the modern order and prosperity of England. These castles, placed at strong points, surrounded the Welsh territory and were garrisoned to hold it. Several of them are on it, and in one sense should not be described among English castles ; but they are so intimately related to them, and were such remarkable English works in their time, that they should be at least briefly described along with those on English ground, with which they were links in a chain of extraordinary works of military architecture, stretched through regions often charm- ingly picturesque. Conway Castle, first on the line in northern Wales, midway along the coast of which it stands, was built by Edward I. in 1283 and 1284, on a site, at the mouth of the river of the same name, so commanding that the Romans are said to have had a station (Conovium) near it. Such were its advantages that a monastery, founded in 1185, was moved from it to give place to the fortress, which, with the adjoining town, became an Eng- lish Carcassonne. While the works were almost of the same size as those in France, and form a stately example of a mediae- val stronghold, the defences were simpler and smaller, and are now in far inferior condition. The town was surrounded by a wall twelve feet in thickness, a mile and a quarter in circuit, pierced by six chief gates, and strengthened by twenty-four towers. At one side, on a rocky knoll close to the river, stands the castle, in shape a square, joined to a pentagon, each of which contains a court. Eight grand towers, all once furnished with watch-turrets, flank the outer walls, and these in some places are fifteen feet thick. An idea of the size of the castle is given by the dimensions of the great hall, now in ruins, an oblong apartment curiously bent, measuring 130 by 32 feet, with a roof 30 feet high, supported by nine stone arches. Gray- stone and some slate were used in the masonry, the excellence of which is proved not only by its endurance in all parts, but especially in one of the towers, where the base on one side was removed many years ago, and where the ponderous overhang- ing body still stands, little broken, although for a long time 304 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. subjected to the frequent jar of railway traffic close beneath it. A great deal of dignity and even elegance is shown in the gen- eral design, and the details, especially the traceried windows, give it an unusual architectural character and value. The history of the castle is less notable than its structure. Yet it was here that Richard II., in 1399, agreed "to sur- render his crown to the Duke of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry IV.," — an act that resulted in the devastating Wars of the Roses. Although the castle was held for Charles I., and was surrendered to the parliamentary forces in 1645, it was honorably preserved by them ; indeed " it was given up to Charles II. as the only perfect fortified place which had escaped their violence." He granted it to the Earl of Conway, by whom, in 1665, notwithstanding strong remonstrances, it was dismantled. Beaumaris Castle, finished by Edward T. in 1296, was of irregular shape, surrounded by a large fosse, and still shows interesting remains. For nearly a century and a half before the Civil War it had no garrison ; but, as was usual with castles at that time, it was held for the king and surrendered to the parliament. Carnarvon Castle, the grandest in Wales and one of the most remarkable in Great Britain, stands on a ledge of rock close to the harbor. Begun by Edward I. in 1283, and finished, according to report, in a single year, it remains not only a magnificent example of the military architecture of its date, but also the chief historical monument of northwestern Wales, and, indeed, of the English conquest and the cordial union that in time ensued. Here the king, it is said, used a bold expedient to confirm his victories. In the depth of winter he summoned his queen, Eleanor, to the castle, where, April 25, 1284, their son was born, who soon afterwards was created Prince of Wales, and presented by the king to the Welsh chieftains with the words, " Eich Dyn," — " this is your man" says Lewis. His Majesty's policy was far more successful in the end than at first ; for in ten years after this proclamation the Welsh rebelled, surprised the castle, burned the town, and killed many English, and eight years later attempted another CARNAEVON CASTLE. 305 siege. In the Civil War the castle was held for the king, taken by his opponents, recovered by the royalists, and finally surrendered to the parliament. After the war the property was for a long time held by various Welsh families, and sub- sequently by the Crown. Although the castle cannot be compared with Windsor, is less imposing than Warwick, and on a smaller scale than are the chateaux at Angiers, Nantes, and Loches in France, it has a dignity and interest of its own, and is a grand and not seri- ously injured work. If the defences were less calculated to withstand large armies with military machines, they were formidable before local enemies, against whom chiefly they were raised. The very massive outer walls, of great height and defended by nine towers, besides smaller turrets, are built of an earthy gray sandstone, tolerably strong, and laid in blocks of moderate size. They enclose an irregular oblong area fully seven hundred feet in length ; and although the mass they form is large, its surfaces and sky-lines are so varied that the effect is noble and picturesque. A massive archway cover- ing the main entrance opens to a spacious courtyard in the centre of the area, which is entirely surrounded by the lofty old works. These contained no very large apartments, but numerous small rooms, many of them being in the middle of the towers (nearly all of which were built on one plan) and surrounded by narrow galleries formed in the walls. Several turnpike stairs, still in unusually good preservation, together with these guarded rooms and other peculiar nooks and passages, form a labyrinth well worth exploring, not merely because it is so curious and romantic, but because it shows so well how a great medieval border fortress was arranged, and how its lords and men-at- arms both lived and labored. On the west and south coasts of Wales are the remains of several once famous castles. Harlech, about twenty-five miles south of Carnarvon, was built by Edward I. upon the ruins of a fortress said to have been founded in 530. The structure, a large quadrangle crowning a high rock, is an imposing ruin, from which there is a wide view of Cardigan Bay. Aberyst- with, now a ruin, was several times destroyed and rebuilt before 20 306 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. 1277, when Edward I. made it one of his strongholds. It was seized by the Welsh in 1404, and in 1408 was retaken by the English, who afterwards held it for the king until 1647, when it was captured by the parliamentary forces and dismantled. Two ancient Welsh castles stand next in geographical order. Cardigan, of which the remains are now small, was gained and strengthened by the English in 1240, and afterwards held by them. Some of the hardest fighting around it was, however, during the latter part of its existence as a fortress, at the time of the Civil War. Newport, long held by Welsh princes after the conquest, is a ruin. In the extreme southwestern part of Wales there is a group of imposing castles. Pembroke, which dates from slight works in the eleventh century, became important in the succeeding century, and was made a seat of viceregal jurisdiction that continued until suppressed by Henry VIII. During the Civil War the parliamentary forces held it from the beginning until 1647, when it was gained for the king ; but it was soon taken by Cromwell and dismantled. The ruins, some of the largest and grandest in the country, bound two courts, and stand on a bold rock above the harbor, a branch of Milford Haven. Carew, a few miles east and on a similar site, is a lofty and imposing ruin, showing the stern towers of the earlier warlike ages and the large shafted windows of a later period of peace and stateliness. It dates from the reign of Henry I., and was held by the family of Carews for many generations. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who obtained it, made it more splendid and the scene of prodigal hospitality. The Carews again held it, and the Civil War left it a wreck ; yet some of the apartments, that were of unusual size and magnificence, were half a century ago " in a great measure entire," says Mr. Roscoe. Manorbeer, south of Carew and on the sea-coast, dates probably from the Norman period, and was held by the De Barris until 1400, after which date it passed through various ownerships. The castle is so very large, and its ruins are so imposing, that they recall the words of Dr. Johnson, that " one of the castles in Wales would con- tain all he had seen in Scotland." Tenby, about five miles LLANSTEPHAN CASTLE; CARDIFF CASTLE. 307 eastward and also on the sea-coast, is represented by scanty relics. Its date is anterior to the reign of Edward I., and its vicissitudes and overthrow were similar to those of its compan- ions. The last four castles mentioned, although not built like those in the North at the time of the conquest by Edward I., were earlier strongholds that formed links in the chain which 'he drew close around the principality. Llanstephcm Castle, now a ruin, standing on a bold head- land beside the river Towy, near its mouth, is said to date from 1138, and had its share of early trials, but less connection with the conquest than had some other places. Cardiff Castle has maintained an interest from a very early period to the present time. Already grown to importance when the Normans invaded and held the neighboring region, its fortunes in war and peace have given it a history too long to be told here. As a seat of the Marquis of Bute it has been restored, so that it now has a completeness, picturesqueness, and grandeur almost unique in Wales, and suggestive of the great French restorations of me- diaeval civil edifices. Both its position and effect are unusual, for it stands on flat ground between a street of the town and green open land, presenting towards the former its chief en- trance and front, — a long, large mass accented by towers and crested by bold peculiar battlements. The upper part of the extended curtain wall on this front is pierced by many large square ports, closed by red shutters hung from the upper edge on stout hinges in a manner not uncommon in France and shown in a few places on the Welsh border. At the west corner is a tall square tower, the highest story of which is carried on machicolations, and the roof doubled in a French manner, while another tower bears a dark ornamented spire. Difference in size, height, and design of still other towers gives additional variety to the sky-lines and general effect, increased, even, in some degree by curious figures of warriors placed along the battlements. Small roughish stones form a great deal of the material of the structure, but larger smoothed stones are used in some parts, giving them a gray color, with which olive and light yellow-brown tints are mingled. The interior of the castle has been refitted for modern social uses, and is at least of equal interest. 308 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. Caerphilly Castle, seven miles north of Cardiff, has a pe- culiar site, close to the bottom of a large basin or valley encompassed by high, broad rounded hills, of which some are forest clad and some covered by fields and marked by hedges. Adjoining it is a long straggling dismal village, with few good houses. The castle, now a ruin of immense extent, originated from a smaller one built probably since the year 1000, but is the result of work at many dates ; and although long held by powerful subjects, is more remarkable for its size than for its history. Built of flat, slaty-gray stones, it has a peculiarly shaggy look, increased by its lack of roofs and a cresting of turf or small shrubs along the shattered walls. Once extensive outworks have almost disappeared, and the main structure is so dilapidated that the style of portions of the defences is no longer evident. Still there are several courts, the chief of which, where the state apartments were, is 210 feet long and 120 feet wide ; and connected with it is an extensive suite of rooms, partly preserved. As an example of defensive archi- tecture the castle is of less interest than Conway or Carnarvon, and it has less architectural character ; yet as an immense and wonderful relic of English mediaeval life, we can almost accept the statement of Grose, who calls it " probably the noblest ruin of ancient architecture now remaining in Great Britain, . . . exceeding the most noted castles of England in bigness, except that of Windsor." Along the southeastern frontier, on English ground, there are three castles, now in ruins, yet gems in the chain of Wales remarkable for their history, great size, and picturesqueness. All of them were important in their relation to the affairs of the principality and as strongholds in the Civil War, when all were besieged and dismantled. Chepstow Castle, 1 on the Wye, near where it flows into the Severn, has an unusual and commanding site, and to a visitor 1 See Annals of Chepstow Castle, etc., by J. F. Marsh, edited by Sir John Maclean, 4°, Exeter, 1883. — Heath's Chepstow Castle, 8°, 1803. — See also Beattie, W., The Castles of England, etc., 2 vols, imperial 8°, n. d., for an account. CHEPSTOW CASTLE. 309 is an uncommonly attractive ruin. It occupies the crest of a long, narrow ridge that rises from low ground to a consider- able height, presenting a sheer precipice directly on the river, and a low craggy slope inland along a little valley, or huge fosse, whichever one may call it. Close beyond it is the irregu- lar, long town, built on the slopes of a large swell of land, and within half a mile, in almost every direction, are heights far more elevated. The main entrance is at the lower end of the castle, beside a grassy area. Nearly all the masonry is found to be laid in mortar mingled with fine gravel, and to consist of small squared stones in the inside walls and towards the river, and of larger, square, cut blocks on the landward side, where greater strength was needed ; and for additional defensive pro- vision along the latter there are, near the top of the walls, large square openings similar to those in Cardiff Castle. For pur- poses more architectural, around the doors and windows and on buttresses and quoins still larger blocks of cut sandstone are used, showing red, olive-brown, or yellowish tints irregularly mixed. There are four courts, arranged in succession. The first of them, which is the largest, measures 180 by 60 feet. Here the ground is now grassy, and the walls, guarded by five towers, are, as in many other places, draped with luxuriant ivy. At one corner is the keep, a very high one, that, with an adjoining turret, contained fine rooms, in the upper of which are win- dows handsomely ornamented with roses carved in stone. On the battlements still stand half-length human figures cut in light-brown sandstone. Plastering, that formed the chief finish of the rooms, was laid directly on the walls. At two other corners of the court are the main entrance to the castle and the portal to the second court, and along the side towards the river are curious, broken, vaulted rooms. The second court is not unlike the first. Between it and the third is the loftiest part of the castle, separated from the wall that skirts the preci- pice along the river by a sloping walk upon the bare rock. In this highest part there were three stories, all now open from the turf that coats the ledge to the sky above them. A turn- pike stair of sandstone led to the Great Hall on the second 310 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. floor, once a grand room spanned by large, well-moulded stone arches, and lighted by windows bordered by pillars with hand- somely carved capitals. In the face of the wall towards the town is some noticeable masonry, consisting of four courses of long, flat, light-red bricks forming a band that is Roman in style and appearance. There are also in the walls remains of work actually Norman, — some say Saxon. The fourth court is small, shaded by large trees, and now partly open to the cliff, whence there is a striking view down on the earthy-brown river and over curved hills closely beyond. A lofty tower still rises above an outer portal that, like the landward walls, is high and crested with shrubs and ivy. Nearly every portion of the castle is now roofless ; but the tops of a large part of the walls and towers are tolerably preserved, and can still be traversed. It would have been difficult to bring military engines to bear upon the castle when entire, nor could mining have been practised, and abundant guarded openings were provided, through which missiles could be thrown on sapping or storming parties ; but the surrounding higher ground would seem to afford advan- tageous positions for even the light early artillery. The castle, after long and important service as a great stronghold on the frontier, from the days when it was part of the Strigulia of the Romans, was besieged and taken by the parliamentary forces in 1645. The royalists afterwards sur- prised and held it, and its military history, of perhaps fourteen hundred years, was closed in 1648 by its surrender, after a long and close investment, to Colonel Ewer, of the parliamentary army. Cannon were then used with severe effect, from which the castle not only never recovered, but subsequently, by degrees, became even more ruinous. Yet in the last century several of the great apartments were sufficiently entire to be hired and used by a trader, under whose auspices sails were made in the kitchen and glass was blown in the hall. It was as late as 1799 when the roof of the keep fell. Still the structure is in a better condition for judicious restoration than were Pierre- fonds and some other French chateaux, or than are most of the great English military ruins. RAGLAN CASTLE. 311 Raglan Castle 1 justly has the reputation of being surpassed in interest and picturesqueness by no other structure of its class in England. From Chepstow there is a delightful way to it leading up the winding valley of the Wye, past Tintern Abbey (p. 277), and thence between sloping ridges not very high, but overgrown with shrubs and trees. Beyond these lies a narrower valley, where there are slight rapids in the little dark- brown river. Farther on, near Monmouth, the vale opens to a wide meadowy tract bounded by low broad hills and resembling a New England " intervale," where the road turns westward to Raglan, half a dozen miles distant. Near its little railway station there is scarcely a house, and even the ruin is not in sight; but beside a hedgerow by the road is placed a sign marked, " Footpath to Raglan Castle," and to a pleasant one it points. The path leads half a mile across an open undulating country, divided by hedges into large hay or grazing fields, in which oak- trees are scattered, until at length the castle is seen standing on a swell of land behind a screen of great old oaks. If it does not at first seem high, it really is. It covers a large area, surrounded by a great fosse, and presents an irregular form, varied by machicolated towers, some of them bare, and some crested by shrubs or veiled with ivy. Good-sized stones, smoothed, squared, and very hard, that have grown reddish or earthy-gray, face a large part of the walls; but in some places smaller or flat stones are used. As there is no quarry in the neighborhood, these materials must have been brought a long, and indeed unknown, distance. Of course the simple features of the mediaeval military style are prominent, for por- tions of the castle date from the reign of Henry V. (1413- 1422) ; but there was also no little architectural state and beauty, chiefly in late Pointed, the so-called Tudor style, for other portions date from the reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509). Two towers that flank the main entrance, and another at a neighboring corner, still present their battlements, reared upon bold machicolations through which missiles could be thrown. There are two courts, now grass-grown, both of them large and irregular and surrounded by buildings that in many places are 1 See Beattie and Roscoe (last note), and Heath's Raglan, 8°, 1823. 312 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. of their original height. At the front, near the entrance, on the first and second stories are a few plain, vaulted, irregular rooms, now complete, showing what the minor rooms once were ; but all the others are roofless. The style of many of the win- dows, their tracery or shafting, and remains of chimney-pieces (some of them are nearly entire), show that the chief apart- ments were elegantly finished. Few of the other details have been spared, but there are indications that the plastering was laid directly on the walls. Two of the most important rooms, placed side by side between the courts, were the chapel and great hall, the latter 60 feet long and 27 feet wide. One of the most remarkable parts of the castle is, however, the vast hexagonal detached keep, or citadel, boldly placed before the front, that is turned inward so as to form a broad obtuse angle, towards which a corner of the tower points. A part of the moat, still filled with water, lies between the keep and the body of the castle, and between them is one of the most pic- turesque views in any ruined English castle. The outer side of the keep has been destroyed ; but a good turnpike stair of hard, well-cut red freestone, leads to the top, the highest part of the ruins, where there is still room for a promenade, and where a wide, pleasant view is gained across the undulating fields to long, broad, rather high hills that, at some distance, rise on every side. Raglan Castle, it is thought, was held by the Clares in the thirteenth century, and in the reign of Henry V. by Sir William ap Thomas, who built the citadel and some other remaining parts. His eldest son became the first Earl of Pembroke, whose successors held Raglan until 1506, when, by marriage, it passed to the earls of Worcester. In 1642 the fourth earl was created a marquis. He had the reputation of being the richest subject in England, and maintained extraordinary feudal state in this then splendid castle, that was shown conspicuously during two visits of Charles I., for whom, subsequently, this was the last fortress held. In June, 1646, the inevitable siege to it was laid by the parliamentary forces. Their heaviest guns were eighteen and twenty pounders, that had no effect on the body of the keep ; but six mortars, carrying twelve-inch shells, were used LUDLOW CASTLE. 313 with more effect. Earthworks were thrown up around the castle by the garrison, within two hundred feet of which the besiegers ultimately pushed intrenchments. A breach had by this time been made in the walls, aritl mines were contrived. In the course of a month and a half, fifteen letters passed between the opposing commanders, relating to a surrender, that finally was accomplished on the nineteenth of August. " Raglan and Pendennis," says Dr. Beattie, " endured the longest sieges, and held out the last of any forts or castles in England " kept for Charles I. The Marquis of Worcester, aged eighty-four, marched out of his once splendid castle, and left the seat of his stately hospitality and of the royal power a wreck, soon made an utter ruin by the ravages of the victori- ous soldiers, aided by the neighboring peasantry. Time and the elements have since their day continued, but more slowly, their effective work. Still, however, the glories and graces of the rural feudal regime in England are impressively shown by the stones of its last noble stronghold, where kind Nature has spread her gray lichens and green veil of ivy over the shattered but still lordly walls and towers of Raglan. "Stranger ! ponder here awhile; Pause in Raglan's ruined pile; All that wealth and power, combined, With skill to plan and taste refined, To rear a structure fit to be The home of England's chivalry, Was lavished here." Ludlow Castle 1 represents the history of the western fron- tier of England since the Norman conquest. It stands in the southern part of Shropshire at the edge of a high rocky bank beside the rivers Teme and Corve, and at a corner of a large town, a place important even in the British period, when it was called Dinam, or " the palace of princes." The Saxons called 1 See Historical Account of, and of the Supreme Court at, etc., by W. Hodges, 8°, Ludlow, 1794. — Documents connected with the History of, by R. H. C, plates, 8°, 1841. — Guide to Ludlow, and Castle, by T. Price, 8°, Ludlow, 1801. — New Guide to Ludlow, n. d. (Felton). — Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Ludlow Castle, by Thos. Wright, 8°, Ludlow, 182G, and also 1854. 314 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. it Leadlowe, and maintained its importance, which was increased by the Normans. Roger de Montgomery, related to William I., built a large part of the castle, and occupied it until he died, in 1094. His son forfeited it by rebellion, and Henry I. enlarged it and made it a royal residence ; but many vicissitudes followed. It was held against Stephen, who besieged it in 1139 ; and after- wards the possession changed repeatedly from Crown to subject. In 1264, during the conflicts between Henry II. and the barons, Simon de Montfort took it ; and later, in the Wars of the Roses, it was seriously injured. But the chief importance of the stronghold was occasioned by its nearness to the frontier of Wales, and the size and strength consequent on this position ; hence it was provided with a strong garrison, and became a residence of several of the Princes of Wales, where they kept their courts. King Henry VIII. made it the seat of the " Council in the Marches of Wales," with a lord president, four justices, and several other officers, having an extended jurisdiction and forming a court, continued until 1688. No small degree of stateliness was maintained, and this period of a century and a half was the most brilliant in the history of Ludlow. During the Civil War but little serious injury was done, to the castle, which was given up to parliament June 9, 1646. After the Restoration, associations with the names and works of two great English poets became inseparably connected with the place and with the royal government, of which it for many years continued to be the seat. The Earl of Bridgewater, while lord president, heard the story of a journey made by his daughter and two sons towards the castle, when they were, for a night, lost in Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire. The music- teacher at the castle, Henry Lawes, a friend of Milton, asked him for a poem on the subject, and he wrote " Comus," that was set to music by Lawes ; and one of the most graceful English classics was performed for the first time before an audience such as the great earl could gather in the council- chamber. During the reign of Charles II., when the Earl of Carbery was lord president, Samuel Butler was his secretary, and in one of the towers wrote a part of "Hudibras." After LUDLOW CASTLE. 315 the Council was dissolved, not only was no care taken of the castle, but plunder and spoliation ensued. As late as 1774, however, many of the great apartments were entire ; but since that date decay and ruin have sadly increased. Yet, notwith- standing barbarous neglect, the roofless and disintegrating fabric offers opportunities for restoration superior to those at Pierrefonds before it was rescued by Napoleon III. and Viollet-le-Duc. Ludlow still offers the rich West of England an opportunity to build and well fill an admirable museum of local antiquities, and at the same time preserve a noble historical monument. It is worth while to look with some care at this seat of vice- regal state and watch over Wales, at this home of warfare, law, high society, and creations of the great poets. On going aside from the streets of the town, one soon sees on rising ground a very long but not high curtain wall, curved, and half hidden behind many far taller trees. In this wall a low arch- way, with a rough wooden door, antique and heavy, opens to a spacious outer court, with a flat, grass-grown area. At the left of it is a long range of minor buildings, two stories high, con- structed of reddish-gray stone, and now roofless and dilapi- dated. At the right there is a house, still occupied, connected with a large garden enclosed by a wall reaching to the main structure of the castle, which curves out towards one and ex- tends across both the court and garden. Another wall, a blank one of no great height, bordered on each side by tall old trees, extends from it to the ruined buildings at the left. The castle itself, much the most prominent of all these objects, is now ivy- clad or overgrown with lichens, and extremely gray. Its front, rising midway along the outer court, presents a lofty keep built of red, and some buff, sandstone, in blocks of good size that were cut smooth. Towards the garden, at the right, stand gabled buildings constructed of flat broken stones (that are extensively used throughout the castle), and pierced, high up, by stone-shafted windows. Offsetting them, at the other side of the front, stand a wall and tower veiled with a dense mantle of ivy. Crossing a moat by a causeway, and passing through a low, pointed arch, one reaches an irregular inner court. Along 316 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. its farther side is seen the Residence of the lords, now open from earth to sky. Near the centre was the great hall, with tall pointed windows, and at each end structures or wings of two stories, and a basement which contained rooms of good size. The part at the right is noticeably large and has several divisions, in one of them carved corbels, parts of chimney- pieces, and other details still showing how well the rooms were finished. Here, as at Chepstow, remains of the plas- tering indicate that it was laid directly upon the inside of the walls. Windows open towards the court, and in some of the apartments towards the country, and in the outer wall of the castle, where it rose to a great height above the bank fronting the rivers, over which the views are wide and delight- ful. Near the centre of the court is one of the most ancient and curious parts of the castle, the chapel, a large, round, detached tower now roofless, but still crowned by battlements. On one side is a low decorated Norman door, opposite it is a large high arch in the same style, and around the lower part of the interior wall is an arcade. Originally the surfaces higher up, now rough, were finished smooth with plaster, of which there are yet remains. At the left, or west, side of the court are ruins of low minor buildings, and close to the entrance, beside a small walled court, is the keep, with an arched basement, above which are three stories, now open to the sky, but originally lighted in each direction by windows of good size. If a worn red-freestone turnpike stair is ascended to a watch-tower at one corner of the top, a very good view can be gained. Towards the west it is confined by a high ridge, on which are grain-fields, pastures, and some trees rising from a foreground, prettily varied by a little shaded river. Southward, and reaching much farther, are seen wooded ridges. Eastward lies the town, backed by large ridgy heights several miles distant. But the best part is towards the north, far over a rather flat but beautiful agricultural country, which at length rises into long swells of land. The views gained at the base of the castle, while of course very different from those gained at the top, are quite as interesting. From a shaded walk around the outside, and a narrow but stately avenue, the imposing THE NORTHERN FRONTIER. 317 walls that rise directly above them are well seen, as also is a pleasant neighborhood. Ludlow Castle is indeed worth visiting, for it is more com- plete, and in some ways more imposing, than even Kenilworth ; and although its keep is small compared with that at Roches- ter, the other parts are far more entire. In addition, the town is of the quaint old English sort, and of more than a common interest, still containing old, gabled houses with dark timber frames and light plastered walls, not now too plenty ; and there is a noble Parish church in Perpendicular style, 228 feet long. Although the streets are narrow, they are kept clean, and along them are good shops. A thoroughly old English institution will be found at " The Feathers," a timbered and plastered house three stories high, with gables and large bay windows, dating probably from the time of James I. It is an ideal old English inn, with the coffee-room lighted by the bays and enriched by a lofty black-oak chimney-piece and an ancient decorated stuccoed ceiling, making quarters for a traveller as uncommon as they are charming. Castles were erected on the western English borders at Oswestry, Shrewsbury, and Chester (p. 192). In the " Lands of Scott" (p. 378), in the chapter on "The Betrothed," the writer has described a notable castle at a little distance across the line, Dinas Bran, a ruin perched on the summit of a steep hill, that may not only be considered a scene in that admirable novel, but also a representative of the strongholds along the frontier of Wales and of their stirring history. THE NORTHERN FRONTIER (1291-1603). » During many centuries the inhabitants of England were frequently in conflict with the Scotch, as they were also with the Welsh. The first barrier built to withstand attacks from 1 See Scott, Walter, Esq., The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland, comprising specimens of Architecture, etc., 96 plates, 2 vols. 4°, London, 1814. Also King, and Woolnoth, already mentioned ; and Gibson's Northumbrian Castles, 3 vols. 8°, 1848-1854. 318 THE NORTHERN FRONTIER. the north was the great Roman wall (pp. 30-42), which was effective through more than three hundred years. Through many more succeeding them the defences were imperfect, until the increasing and consolidated power of England, moved by ambition or desire to make her territory more secure, promoted invasions of Scotland and raised fortresses for the protection of her borders. In 1291, when the succession to the Scottish crown was in dispute between Robert Bruce and John Balliol, Edward I. of England claimed to be arbitrator ; and the Scot- tish nobles acknowledged his authority. He decided in favor of Balliol, — who, however, in 1296, was in arms against him. The Scotch were defeated, and Sir William Wallace then en- deavored to expel the English, — - an effort resulting in a war of six years and in the subjugation of Scotland by Edward in 1303. Three years later Bruce was proclaimed king and warfare was renewed. Edward I. died soon afterward while beginning an invasion, and Edward II., in 1314, carried out the project, but was defeated at Bannockburn, and the Scots, in their turn, crossed the Border and advanced even into Yorkshire. A truce of a dozen years followed these opera- tions, and then hostile inroads from both sides were continued. Meanwhile, in 1327, the independence of Scotland was acknowl- edged ; yet although it lasted until 1603, — when the two crowns were united, at the accession of James VI. of Scotland, great grandson of Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., as James I. of England, — there were between these dates repeated, indeed almost constant, conflicts. Even a condensed account of them would form a long narrative, including a great deal of the his- tory of the two countries. Poetry and romance have to an unusual degree added their inventions or attractiveness. Great Border families, with their hosts of retainers, emerge from an uncertainty of date and fact, shadowy as the creations of the mists that drift over the broad moorland hills, rifted by fitful winds and sombre or flashing as cloud or sunshine chase each other across the weird scene. Percies and Douglasses in cease- less, relentless feud struggle at Otterbourne and Chevy Chase, subjects of fine old ballads bearing these names and showing the life on the Border in the last dozen years of the fourteenth BERWICK. 319 century. Sir Walter Scott also has given to many a place in the region the charms that his genius could invent. Back and forth across the frontier the people of both countries carried warfare, the Scots if not going as far south as the English went north, yet going far enough. While Edwarpl III. was vic- torious in France, in the very year of Cressy (1346), King David invaded northern England. With French help, in 1384 the Scots again made an invasion, and twenty-one years later their prince, James, was made captive. Taking advantage of Eng- land when Henry V. had been winning victory in France at Agincourt and elsewhere, they helped the French ; and in 1459 they poured into the country when it was distracted by the Wars of the Roses. At length, in 1503, the marriage of James IV. of Scotland and Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., formed a union that was to be followed a century later by that of the two kingdoms under their descendants. Meanwhile the Border feuds continued, and in 1522 a large army of the Scotch once more invaded England ; but their ill-success checked further like operations. Forty-six years afterward (1568) Queen Mary fled to England, and the brief rebellion of the great Northern lords in her behalf ensued, with such fatal consequences that subsequent hostilities along the Border were chiefly those of the local chiefs and people. Castles, it is evident, would be built on and near the northern frontier ; and examples (usually smaller than the Welsh) are found in almost every condition in which a medieeval English castle can remain, placed at favorable points and short dis- tances south of the old boundary line, reaching southwest from Berwick-on-Tweed to Solway Firth. This line was distinctly formed by the Tweed for about twenty miles ; thence it was drawn southward to and along the high and lonely Cheviot Hills ; and finally, in open country, by the rivers Liddel and Sark. Berwick, first and most important in the number, was stormed and taken by Edward I. in 1296, and for a long time afterward, as the foremost Border town, felt the brunt of war, and was several times besieged and taken by both 320 THE NOETHERN FRONTIER. parties; but the old town walls and castle, built and rebuilt, and through centuries bulwarks of England, are now only shown by fragments, some of which are close by the railway station. Norham, 1 seven miles southwestward, was a strong castle on the Tweed, and is now one of the most interesting ruins on the Border. It was erected in 1121, but was almost destroyed by the Scotch in 1138. In 1154 the Bishop of Dur- ham built the keep, still the chief feature, for it has outlasted extensive outworks of a later date which remained until near the end of the last century, but are now only marked by fragments. Norham was besieged in 1215, 1322, 1327, and 1497, and saw a great deal of other active service ; yet after all its historical distinction, it is probably more widely known as the opening scene of Scott's " Marmion." 2 Twizell Castle, a few miles westward, and of less age, size, and importance, has been converted into a residence. In Cumberland were Bewcastle, Rockcliff, and Drumburgh, and south of them, on the Irthing, were Naworth and Carlisle (see p. 215), both of them large and important. Naworth, an ideal Border and feudal castle, is mentioned on p. 41, and fully described in the "Lands of Scott" as an original of Osbaldistone Hall in " Rob Roy." Carlisle is an example of a mediaeval cas- tle altered and maintained for public use, and Naworth of one kept or restored by a great family for modern domestic life. It is a " romance in stone," as well as a monument of history. Less than twenty miles southeast of Berwick is the seaside castle of Bamborouc/h, whose Norman keep is mentioned on p. 59. This castle shows an imposing military structure that did service for centuries, with many of its ancient features pre- served, while adapted for use as a charitable institution. About midway along the coast of Northumberland and near the mouth of the Coquet is Warkworth, a castle of the Percies, partly in ruin, partly restored. It was dismantled early and late in the seventeenth century, but still shows its outer court — measuring 1 Besides works mentioned (p. 302), see Jerningham's Norham Castle, 8°, 1883. 2 Already fully described by the writer in the " Lands of Scott," chapter 18. ALNWICK CASTLE. 321 255 feet by 198 feet, or about an acre in area — and a portion of the walls, still 35 feet high. At one end is a very large and peculiar keep, partly restored, the plan of which shows a square with the corners cut off and a bold five-sided projection on each face, thus making the rooms unusual in shape, as they also were in number. The view from the top of the keep is very extensive, and includes a long reach of sea-coast and farming country. A few miles northwestward, on the Aln, is Alnwick 1 Castle, the chief seat of the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland . It is a grand example of a Border and feudal stronghold pre- served by a powerful family and adapted to modern uses, with an exterior which is an ideal of the old warlike creations, and an interior which is the most sumptuous to be found in any similar structure in England. So ancient is the castle that the keep has been thought to be Saxon ; but it is known to have been strong and important in the Norman period. Additions have been made from time to time, so that Alnwick is a representa- tive of the four classes of castles described in these pages, — the Norman, the Border, feudal, and modern residence. It has been continuously the scene of stirring and notable events, — indeed its long history is that of the extreme North of England and the relations which that has had with the country. The oastle, says Grose, " contains about five acres of ground within its outer walls, which are flanked with sixteen towers and turrets." To the effect of great size is added that of very irregular and pict- uresque forms, with a befitting earth-brown color. A curious, if not good, feature, that for a long time was very evident, was an array of quaint stone figures of warriors along the battle- ments. There are three courts, the inner one of which, bor- dered by the residence, is entered by a grand gateway that dates from about 1350. During the last half of the eighteenth century the chief apartments 2 were remodelled in the " Gothic " i See History of, 12°, 1813, and Tate's Alnwick, 2 vols. 1868. 2 The dimensions of the chief apartments, according to Neale and *Grose are, in feet : *Great Staircase, 46 by 35, and 43 feet high ; Saloon, 42 by 39, by 19, 10 inches ; Drawing-room, 46, 7 inches by 35, 4 inches, by 22 ; Dining-room, 54 by 21, by 27 ; Chapel 50 by 21, 4 inches, by 22 ; *Library, 64 feet long, 16 high; two State Bed-chambers, each 30 long. 21 322 THE NORTHERN FRONTIER. of that time ; but it has been replaced by sumptuous finish in Italian style, on which thirty wood-carvers, it is said, were employed for twelve years. The old form of feudal hall is represented by another, also large, but very different, making a stately vestibule and containing the chief staircase, which extends only to the main floor, while the ceiling of the hall itself is very lofty. Rich marbles in panels cover k the lower parts of the walls, and on the upper parts is a simple light- drab tint around four frescos representing the hunt and battle of Chevy Chase. Although the apartments, in their order from the left of the great stair, are not in a line, they are connected. Each of them has its distinctive design and feature. The Chapel, in Pointed, has a groined ceiling with gold and dark- blue grounds crossed by brown ribs, and walls with a high panelling of rich marbles inlaid in " Byzantine " style, or rather in early mediaeval Italian. Very different is the Library, now 72 feet long, finished in light oak, inlaid with a lighter in fine scroll-work, all highly polished, and provided with three white- marble chimney-pieces. Around it are sixteen thousand useful, valuable, and handsomely bound volumes. The Reception- room, or Saloon, magnificently furnished, is richly finished in dark walnut, and the walls, like those of the other great apartments, are covered with silk damask and hung with pict- ures, many of which are Italian. Still more splendid is the Drawing-room, with a deep bay-window that increases the rich effect. In the Dining-room, which is said to be now 68 feet long and 28 feet high, the woodwork, including the ceiling, is oak, delicately and yet boldly carved. All the other ceilings are also of wood, panelled, superbly carved, colored, and gilded. Even more sumptuous are the doors, that, with their frames, have wonderful carvings, set off by polished surfaces. All this elaborate and delicate enrichment, as well as the plain early work, belongs to the monumental character of the castle ; for the rough strength of the earlier periods of warfare, and their ruder manners, as well as the changed condition of the coun- try to an age of wealth and refinement, are clearly shown by this vast, picturesque, and splendid seat of the Dukes of Northumberland. FEUDAL GUARDS OP THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 323 There was a second great natural northern barrier across England, that of the Tyne, south of the Tweed and Cheviots. Along it or near it stretched the oldest line of fortifications, the Roman Wall (pp. 30-42), and scattered at favorable points were mediaeval strongholds, beginning on the east coast with the castle at Tynemouth (p. 271) and the Norman keep at Newcastle (p. 219). Farther up the Tyne there were ten cas- tles, all now in ruins, that might be called posts along this line of defence. On the south side were Prudhoe and Langley; on the North Tyne were Houghton and Wark. Between it and the South Tyne were Shewing-Shields and Simonburn ; and in a group near and west of Haltwhistle were Bellister, Blen- kinsop, Featherstonehaugh, and Thirl wall. This line was con- tinued in Cumberland by Naworth and other castles already mentioned, that were placed at the west end of the frontier. THE FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. The castles that have been described, while in some degree the results of feudalism, were more distinctly associated with the Norman period, or the conquests of Wales and Scotland, than even with the powerful system that for several centuries had great influence in England, as it had in France, Germany, and Italy. This system, with a consequent structure of society, and a government of the country affected by both, brought about the erection of another class of castles, scattered through- out the interior of the country, or the enlargement of Norman works as well as their disuse, and hence their dilapidation. Many of these castles of the mediaeval English period are not only monuments of it, but also of two great wars, chiefly in- ternal, that had great effect on the country and formed marked eras in its history, yet were not the causes of the erection of the structures. The Wars of the Roses (1453-1485), although decided, as they were chiefly fought, in the open field, occa- sioned sieges or other operations around castles, — sometimes to their serious damage. The Civil War (1642-1646) was noted 324 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. not only for many battles, but also for numerous investments of the old strongholds and for the great number of them it caused to be dismantled or destroyed. The Feudal System was effectively established in England by William I., although it seems to have existed there in rudi- mentary form among the Saxons. M. Houard thought that practically it was introduced by the Normans. It is not necessary to describe here the laws and observances of the system. The result produced was* that the national power, represented and controlled largely by the sovereign, of course requiring support, received it from lords owing allegiance, distributed through the country and concentrating in their keeping the local social force and dignity and much of the resources. It has been thought, indeed, that the system was stronger and more developed in England than in France, whence it came. Made up as the latter kingdom for a long time was of the possessions of lords who had gained dominant authority, they could give, at least in many cases, a mere nominal feudal allegiance to the sovereign. In England the lords derived their position from him ; and in the Norman period their domains were so divided that none of them singly could well concentrate their resources against him, as some of their peers might, and did, in France. Even the wars of the barons with the king in the thirteenth century only modified allegiance. Like their sovereign, the Norman lords were oppressive, and the condition of the country under them was dismal, especially in the reign of Stephen. While the great public need of main- taining the Conquest required the erection of castles, already described, their private needs or purposes led them to build others scattered through their possessions in nearly all parts of the country. Their successors, for reasons already men- tioned, here and there made the number less or greater. Included in it are many of the most important and interesting civil structures of mediaeval England, as well as many which, if minor works, deserve attention, even if this is here abbrevi- ated by necessity. In ruin, altered and still used as residences, and in some cases retaining their primitive exterior, they will be found to DURHAM AND YORKSHIRE. 325 differ in plan and aspect as much as in dimensions, and to occupy three kinds of sites. These are a bluff above a river which protected one side or more ; a hill, almost invariably low in England ; or open land, where a moat was used for defence. Usually there was a large outer court and an inner one much smaller. In Durham, the next county south of the Border lands just described, is Durham Castle, on the Wear (p. 228), and, south- west of it, Barnard Castle, 1 on the Tees, built by Barnard Balliol towards the end of the eleventh century ; both of them occupying bold bluffs. Raby, six miles northeast of the latter, is one of the grandest and most perfect castles in all the north- ern counties. It is founded upon rock, but is in a compara- tively level country, and was surrounded by a fosse, a part of which remains. The famous Nevilles, who built it near the end of the fourteenth century, occupied it for nearly two hundred years. In 1648 the parliamentary forces besieged it, and subsequently it has been adapted to use as a modern residence ; but yet it retains much of its ancient character. Its outward form is noble and picturesque, its plan is irregular, and its interior effects are imposing. Three conditions in which mediaeval castles are now found is shown by these three, — that at Durham is an ancient one preserved, but changed for collegiate use ; that of Barnard is a ruin ; and Raby is, as it has been for five centuries, a seat of a great noble family. Yorkshire was perhaps as noted for the number of its castles as of its monasteries ; like them scattered throughout its ex- tensive territory, and like them nearly all for a long time in ruin. Both the great Norman keep and stronghold at Rich- mond, in the northern part, and the even older keep of Conis- borough, in the southern part, have been described by the writer. 2 There is a drive from Richmond to Leylurn worth taking. At first the road leads along the Swale, — a stream which some- times pours great freshets down the narrow valley between 1 Described in the " Lands of Scott " in the chapter on " Rokeby." 2 See the " Lands of Scott," chap. 38, " Ivanhoe," pp. 354-355. 320 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. the high hills bordering it. At length the way turns south- ward through an open country of pasturage or fields of hay or oats, divided by stone walls suggestive of New England. Solitary in this region, and so conspicuous that it arrests attention, is a good example of the latest and simplest form of a domestic fortified establishment rendered desirable or necessary by far less settled life than that at present. It is a stone manor-house, in simple yet picturesque late Tudor style, with most of its windows opening on two sides of a courtyard, the other two sides of which are formed by a high wall, topped by a walk protected by battlements. This court- yard, entered by an arched gateway, clearly shows the former need of defence, as also does a second court, for cattle, where they could be guarded from even armed parties. Altogether it is an illustration of the earlier insecurity of this now peaceful region as rare as it is striking. A few miles farther on, a quaint, good hotel will be reached at Leyburn, a small town on a hillside north of the Ure. Two miles and a half southward, at some distance up rising ground on the other side of the river, is Midclleham, a quiet little town adjoining the large ruins of the castle, always the most important structure in the neighborhood, since its keep was built in 1190. In the next century the Nevilles inherited and enlarged the works, and in the fifteenth extensive buildings were erected around the keep, which still remain, although in ruins, except on the east side, where they have been destroyed. They are about 240 feet long from north to south, and 175 feet from east to west, and are constructed chiefly of flat stones that, where exposed, have grown dark gray. The keep was faced with cut stones. Remarkably good masonry has helped to save the walls from the effects of weather and the operations of the modern vandal, — indeed the walls are so thick and their core so strong that masses weighing several tons have fallen, and yet hold together; and the bodies of two turrets on the keep that have been undermined still stand, supported only by the strength of the mortar. At each of the four corners of the outer buildings is a huge square tower, now a mere broken shell. These buildings, large as they are, enclose the enormous MIDDLEHAM CASTLE; BOLTON CASTLE. 327 keep so closely that the intervening space is less like a court than a passage. As usual, the keep was divided by a central wall — which here runs north and south — and was pierced by arches, and in each part were two stories of lofty vaulted halls. There was a third story on the eastern side ; but the other is so broken towards the top that its plan is uncertain. In the lower story the windows were small, but in the upper they were large. A turnpike-stair — fragmentary enough to be suggestive of a steep, risky mountain path — leads to a watch-turret, from which a wide, fine view is gained. It reaches down the broad vale, eastward, over long but gentle slopes of grass-land that are dotted with trees or varied by pleasant groves, and west of north to Leyburn on a sunny hillside, and to the distant towers of Bolton. Towards the south there is a broad green pasture, level near the castle, but less than half a mile off rising to a height commanding it, and crested with large earthworks of an oval form, now grass grown, from which the view in every direction is much more extensive. Middleham was not only of importance in the earlier feudal period and a scene of its pomps and strength, but was also notable in the Wars of the Roses. Edward IV. was brought here by the Earl of Warwick from Warwick Castle, and con- fined ; but he effected his escape by means not now entirely known, and took the field for the White Rose of York, soon to rise high in the ascendant. During the long period of domes- tic peace that followed, the castle ceased to be remarkable ; and at length, in the reign of Charles II., was visited by an unhappy fate, for it was sold to a family that seems to have bought it as a speculation in stone, lead, and timber. Its roofs were stripped, and the walls were for a long time used as a quarry. Another of the great English baronial monuments was thus dismantled ; and its shattered but still noble fragments are an example, not of the havoc of a civil war, but of the plunder of avarice. Bolton Castle, seven miles northwest of Middleham, is larger, higher, more imposing, and far less injured. It was built by Lord Scrope, Chancellor of England in the reign of 328 FEUDAL GUARDS OP THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. Richard II., and was held by his family until the time of Charles I. ; consequently the Scropes shaped two centuries and a half of baronial history associated with their grand seat, until November, 1645, when the parliamentary forces, after a long siege, took possession. On a long, but not steep, grassy slope, stretching from high moorland hills into the plain of Wensleydale, it rises a bold square mass, the sides of which measure 184, 131, 187, and 125 feet. At each corner except one is a lofty square tower (that at the northeast hav- ing fallen in November, 1761), all connected by tall buildings, now roofless. Flat stones strengthened by quoins of large faced blocks form the walls, and where exposed have grown dark-gray, a little varied on the upper parts by orange-brown lichens, or relieved by a few vines of ivy. Defensive strength was chiefly gained by the ponderous masonry, as the slope of the land did not allow a moat to be made. No rooms are now habitable except a few in the southwestern tower and parts adjoining ; but these must have been snug and comfortable, and although whitewash conceals or replaces the original finish on the walls and ceilings, the always charming views are still commanded from the windows. In the third story there is happily spared a very attractive room, said to have been one of the many prisons of Mary Queen of Scots, and to have been occupied by her for six months (1568-1569). From it she is also said to have made a romantic but difficult escape, by being let down from a narrow window, below which she was met by friends with horses. 1 Mr. Mackie says that the Queen was really brought from Carlisle to Bolton, and was removed thence to the ancient castle of Tutbury, in Staffordshire. The stone roof of the southwestern tower, about a hundred feet above the ground, commands a pleasant view stretching far up and down Wensleydale, where broad lowlands present a great area of fine green fields dotted with trees and divided by hedges. South of them are high, long, ridgy hills varied by moorlands and forests, and east, north, and west are bare elevated past- ures. Close beneath the castle is the little hamlet of Bolton, 1 See Mackie, C, Castles, Palaces, and Prisons of Mary of Scotland (p. 411), 8°, London, 1850. SCARBOROUGH. 329 with its line of small stone houses ; but noticeably few villages are seen throughout the wide landscape. In northern Yorkshire there thus were before the Civil War, within an area of twenty miles in length and half a dozen in width, five important castles, of which large parts still exist, — Barnard (p. 325), Mortham, 1 Richmond (p. 59), Middleham, and Bolton, and larger than any other, there was Ravensworth, near Richmond. All of them were maintained in feudal times, and their extent required large resources used by several generations that had very little of the personal property by which estates in the country may now be sup- ported. No modern buildings in the regions where they stand can rival them in size or strength. The land was not more fertile centuries ago, nor was the farmer's skill superior, nor were the markets better. Evidently the great families own- ing these castles, and the institutions that made both possible, had for generations some hold on this Yorkshire ground and people not explained by theories of force or of submission, and that is worth some study. The extensive coasts of the North and East Ridings have few harbors that would require defences, or sites that seem to have been desired by niediasval castle-builders. On the former, at Scarborough, are, however, the remains of a great strong- hold by the seaside that rewards a visit, although less by what it is than by what surrounds it. While the name suggests the Saxon Scear Burgh, a rock fortified, it well describes the place, — a large town built on a long slope reaching to the sandy shores of a semicircular bay, at the southwest of which are high, ridgy hills, and at the north an elevated promontory joined to the mainland by a narrow lower isthmus. This last formerly was fortified with great care by walls still shown, although in fragments, and by a steep, long glacis towards the town. Above the seaward termination of the isthmus stands the keep, now lacking its northwestern side. An extensive area at the top of the promontory was well guarded by these works and by the height and steepness of 1 Although this was small, it has a history of some importance, and great interest as a scene in " Rokeby." See the writer's " Lands of Scott," p. 82. 330 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. the slopes and cliffs that front the ocean. On the exterior of the main part of the castle the walls are of stone, and are now much broken and have grown a bleached gray color, or have been displaced by ugly modern buildings. Far more attractive and very noble is the view from the grassy heights outside of them, inland over a hilly region covered with good fields, and seaward far along the coast to the south and across the seldom quiet German Ocean. Scarborough, while reputed to have been founded and held by the Saxons for maintenance of their conquests, became his- torical in the twelfth century, and has continued to have vary- ing importance even to the present time. Although it was besieged for twelve months and surrendered to the parliament in 1645, and again taken in 1648 and subsequently dismantled, it was used during the rebellion of 1745 and has of late, fur- nished barracks for a small force. The chief importance of the place now, however, is that of a modern-watering place, with sea-baths and mineral springs. It is the Northern Brighton ; and its handsome streets and great hotels make it as much an illustration of results in English history as are the gray and disjointed walls still standing on the cliffs that boldly front the German Ocean, across which came the early English to obtain and hold the fields that reach far inland. One of the most celebrated castles that has stood in the midland counties for the last three hundred years is Kenil- worth. 1 It was of vast size, furnished with a very large outer court, defended chiefly by a moat and artificial lake, and built at different periods, so that it showed the styles used in the seat of a great noble, from the huge stern Xorrnan keep to the latest Tudor with its shafted oriels. The writer has already given a description of it in a chapter on Scott's splendid romance, and extracts from a survey of the period. There are few other scenes in England where the contrast is so great between present desolation and the strength of feudal power 1 See Kenilworth illustrated, or a History of the Castle, etc. ; also Lane- ham's Letter and Gascoigne's Princelye Pleasures (1575) ; plates, royal 4°, Chiswick, 1821. WAEWICK CASTLE. 331 and brilliancy of courtly life told by the ivy-bound broken stones. Few pageants in the ancient realm have been more picturesque and superb than the reception here of Queen Eliza- beth by Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Few of the great castles that exist in any form have been so shattered. The Civil War, or rather greedy plundering then permitted, left one of the stateliest domestic monuments of England a mere wreck. Warwick Castle, a few miles southward, has as great historic interest, a more imposing site, and hardly less architectural variety ; yet it is in marked contrast with Kenilworth, for it is one of the most carefully preserved as well as picturesque mediaeval castles of the nobility in Europe. With Alnwick, Raby, Leeds, and Berkeley, it is prominent among the examples of old defensive work and feudal pomp left in Great Britain. The gray walls are shaped by the requirements of ancient usages into forms that make them ideals of the Ages of Romance and Chivalry, and strong as the bold rock on which they rise above the Avon. While the soft sunshine of to- day lights clearly the unbroken battlements, and dark ivy many a year old garlands the mossy walls, and ancient yews shade their broad base, their foundations are impenetrably hidden, not less by the earth around them than by the veil with which time has obscured their earliest history. From the clearness of the brilliant present, the thought of the visi- tor is led far back into the dim Saxon period when the castle first arose in simple form, and then throughout the thousand years in which it has been constantly the scene of varying phases of the social life of England, and gathering and pre- serving pictures of its changing character. William the Con- queror caused the small structure to be enlarged ; the Earl of Warwick, in 1372, rebuilt the walls and raised the prominent Guy's Tower, 128 feet high, with walls 10 feet in thickness ; and George Plantagenet, earl in the reign of Edward IV., increased its strength and beauty. 'Grown vast and strong as well as stately, the inevitable siege of the castle occurred in the Civil War, and it was held for the parliament ; but it seems to have escaped great injury. Since that time it has been well kept, and the chief changes have been in the reign 332 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. of Charles II., when Robert, Earl of Brooke, refinished the State Apartments, and recently, after a fire that destroyed the great Hall. The entrance to the castle is through an impressive arch- way penetrating a group of ivy-mantled turrets and opening to a shaded road that is cut through the solid rock and leads to a spacious and romantic court. Here stately trees give greater beauty, and add to the imposing aspect of the noble architectural features. Everything is in admirable order. Portcullis, machicolations, covered ways, and other defences are " so perfect that they might be used at any time." The main building of the castle is about 300 feet in length and from 25 to 80 feet in breadth, the broader portion, at the centre, containing the entrance, dining-room, and chapel. In the last, the style is poor modern " Gothic," and in the second there is a suggestion of the Georgian era ; but the room is large and cheerful. In the great Hall, however, the old baronial grandeur of style is found, although the work is since the recent fire; and in respect to style, this fire resulted in im- provements. A great and sad loss of old armor nevertheless occurred. The floor, of polished red and white marble, was reproduced, fresh stone, with a tint like that of Caen, refaced the walls, and a low arched roof of massive timbers was laid on large plain brackets. Connected with the foot of the Hall are pleasant private rooms, and placed in a line extending from the head are the State Apartments, five in number, that were finished in the reign of Charles II. All are in similar style, by no means mediaeval, and all are panelled ; but the coloring is varied. In one it is gold and crimson ; in another red cedar is used ; a third is in white and gold ; and one is in pale green and gold. Splendor combined with comfort is additionally given by an abundance of rich and curious furniture and numerous paintings of great interest and value, among which Rembrandt, Vandyck, and Rubens are nobly represented. From the windows, placed seventy-two feet above the river, there is a lordly view across the Avon and the park. Beneath these chief apartments there are minor rooms retaining much more of the ancient character. LEEDS CASTLE. 333 Although the castle is not as large and rich as Pierrefonds, 1 it is more venerable, and has charms that are wanting in the great French restoration. Warwick is not a modern master's reproduction of the pomp and spirit of the Middle Ages ; a large part of it is the living reality. Two other castles remarkable for age, history, and archi- tectural character, and also now residences, are likewise remarkable representative monuments of English life and institutions. Leeds Castle? five miles from Maidstone, in Kent, is of great size, and, in contrast with Warwick, is surrounded by a lake-like reach of river converted into a moat. Its site has been fortified since the Saxon period ; but the existing structure, enclosing three acres and standing on three islands, dates from various times since the Norman Conquest, and has been restored or re- newed since 1822, chiefly in the style of the reign of Henry VIII. , the time when much of it was built. Placed in a noble park, surrounded by eleven acres of water, and constructed of gray stone, with picturesque and varied walls and towers, it presents one of the most striking illustrations of the freshness as well as age of the established forms of English domestic life that can be found in the country. Only a plan can show the arrange- ment of so spacious and curious a structure. It has the ad- vanced works, the large outer court, the main building, and a detached " old castle," or " Gloriette," approached by a bridge with two draws, unusual in England, that suggest a great mediaeval French chateau. Two barbicans and another draw- bridge protect while they give access to the entrance. Grouped around it are the stables and a lodge with two stories, and beyond it is the extensive Inner Bailey, with ground nearly twenty feet above the water, bounded on each side by bastioned walls. Across the farther end stands the main building, meas- uring about 80 by 150 feet, two stories high, and dating prac- tically since 1822, although originally Elizabethan. Built with shafted windows, battlements, and turrets, it shows far less of 1 See the writer's " Historical Monuments of France," pp. 119-122. 2 See " The History and Description of Leeds Castle, Kent," by Charles Wykeham Martin, F.S.A., folio, illustrated, Westminster, 1869. 334 FEUDAL GUAEDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. the old defensive arrangements than do the bastioned walls. These latter, together with the five drawbridges and a sally- port in the " old castle," are unusually interesting evidences of the provisions made against attack, while the main building is an example of the new style of domestic edifices that replaced those of an earlier and far more warlike period. The Gloriette has experienced various changes, the more recent of which have been to restore to it its mediaeval or Tudor forms and aspect. Leeds castle has been chiefly a stronghold or residence of dif- ferent families, but at times has been occupied by royalty ; yet, as Mr. Martin says, " in its highest and palmiest days it was far inferior to our conception of a royal residence." It isj however, a noble monument of the old baronial life. Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, is in several respects one of the most extraordinary private residences in Great Britain, or, it might be safely said, in Europe. It dates from the Norman period ; and as early as 1150 was enlarged by Robert Fitzhardinge, grandson of Sueno, king of Denmark, to whom it was granted by Henry II., and whose descendants have held it for five and twenty generations. Since it had " some repairs in the reign of Henry VII.," it has been little changed, says Neale ; who adds that " the chapel, the oldest private chapel known, the great Hall, the Kitchen, of curious workmanship, the great Dining Chamber, etc., have remained more than seven centuries in use for the purposes for which they were originally constructed." Although the castle was held for the king in the Civil War, and was besieged for nine days and surrendered to the parliament, it was remarkably preserved. According to Mr. Hall, it was the last of the strongholds that held out for Charles I. It stands near the village, a place of " half mari- time character," he adds, in a neighborhood retaining so much of its old aspect that " one may imagine the peasants and farmers, whose quaint homesteads environ the strong castle, the dependents and retainers of four centuries ago." Sim- plicity and massiveness characterize the structure, the plan of which is made up of walls, rooms, and passages of great irreg- ularity surrounding an inner court and bordering a large part of an outer one. Beside the former is the Great Hall, the BEEKELEY AND HERSTMONCEAUX CASTLES. 335 width and height of which is 32J feet, and the length 61 feet. Some of the ancient features have disappeared here, and many of the other apartments are adapted to the wants of modern life ; but they are still very antique, and are well furnished with old objects. In the minor rooms and pas- sages the curious arrangements and designs of early ages are apparent. Like all ancient castles, Berkeley has its grim tra- dition, and the room is shown where Edward II. is said to have been murdered. " It is a dismal chamber," Walpole wrote, " almost at the top of the house, quite detached, and to be approached only by a kind of foot-bridge." But the lords of the castle are exonerated from the crime, particularly as it may not have been perpetrated on their premises. Berke- ley, as Dallaway has said, is a place where. " the very Genius of Chivalry seems to present himself with a sternness and majesty of air . . . amidst such a scene " as calls to remem- brance " the generous virtues which were nursed in those schools of fortitude, honor, courtesy, and wit, the mansions of the ancient nobility." Herstmonceaux Castle, Sussex, four miles north of Pevensey (60-61), is not only an example of the mediaeval castle in its latest development, when the defensive forms were used as much for stateliness as for security, and when windows were freely introduced, but it is also the first large building in Eng- land since the time of the Romans made entirely of bricks, a material that has become peculiarly English. Roger de Fiennes, or Fynes, Treasurer of the Household to Henry VI., is said to have built the castle in 1448. He placed it on a quiet and sheltered, but not impressive, site at the bot- tom of a shallow valley near where that opens towards low lands reaching to the sea. It was thus easy to make the large moat which formerly surrounded the structure and is still plainly shown by its outlines. The north and south fronts, says Grose, are 206^ feet long, those east and west are 214£ feet, and tur- rets flanking the main entrance are 84 feet high. In the latter part of the last century the estate, after passing by descent for three centuries from Sir Roger through the lords Dacre, was bought by Mr. Naylor, and in 1777 a person who received it 336 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. from him by inheritance dismantled and almost destroyed the castle. Until that date, says Brayley, it was " the most perfect and regular castellated house in the kingdom." The fanatics who were heated by the passions of the French Revolution fifteen years later had a lesson taught them by a cold-blooded English " gentleman," whose intelligence seems to have been worthy of the variety which in his day was attempting to coerce America. The way to the castle from the church (that stands on ele- vated land) is by a long and gentle slope of grass-ground, from which there is a view of the main front and of the retired, well wooded pastoral country in the neighborhood. Ivy envel- ops a large part of the walls of the castle ; but where they can be seen they show the brickwork, now dull red, with courses separated by large lines of white mortar, and sur- faces flecked, or partly covered, with pale-grayish lichens. The great entrance-arch, the battlements, and window cas- ings are of gray stone ; but the amount of this material used makes but a slight appearance on the expanse of bricks. Around the west side of the castle the moat, though dry, is still distinct, and on the outer border is lined by a brick wall and shaded by a row of enormous walnut-trees. Around the east side the moat was a broad but oblong pond, the former bottom of which is now like a meadow, over which one of the best views of the outside of the castle is obtained. The exterior walls, about a yard thick, especially those of the main front, are still tolerably entire ; but all within them is a wreck. Originally they enclosed a large court like that of an ancient college and two small courts, reached by a narrow bridge and through a once grand entrance, now closed by a very shabby door (an admittance through which is at a charge of two and sixpence, as the writer found). A few vaultings and one small brick turnpike-stair, all near the entrance, are the only unde- stroyed parts of the interior, the area of which is grass-grown, encumbered by fragments, or shaded by a large tree. Enough remains to prove that the design of the buildings must have shown picturesque windows and other features. In a line with the first bridge there is another leading to a large oblong THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. 337 garden at the north, now a sort of orchard, enclosed by the old brick wall and crossed at the farther end by a terrace, in the centre of which are the remains of a round basin of a fountain. These few features and a long hedge of box, four feet in height and a yard thick, are the only representatives of former beauty. THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. Intimately associated with the domestic, civil, and religious life of mediaeval and modern England, and an important and visible connection between the long period of which the monu- ments have been described on the preceding pages and that yet to be reviewed, are the great ancient colleges. Oxford and Cambridge, the two pre-eminent collegiate cities, are unique. They have together shaped the higher education and helped in no small degree to mould the thought of a nation for well nigh a thousand years. Their w*ork for centuries has been wrought, where their spirit is enshrined, in two such groups of curious, picturesque, or stately buildings as are no- where else found, and that never elsewhere will be possible. The life and strength of Christian and enlightened England have received immeasurable inspiration in their quaint or noble halls and courts, where the arts as well as history of the faith and civilization of one of the world's greatest peoples are charm- ingly illustrated. While a sketch of them — necessarily very condensed — is given here, the number forming the two universities is so great (twenty colleges, besides five halls, the Galleries, the Bodleian and Radcliffe Libraries, and the Divinity School, at Oxford, and fourteen colleges and three halls at Cambridge) that a full description, or the details, must be sought for in handbooks and histories. At Oxfoed 1 Alfred the Great founded University College ; but the oldest institutions there date chiefly from the thirteenth 1 See Ackerman, E., History of the University of Oxford, etc., 113 colored plates, 2 vols., imp. 4°, London, 1814-15. — Delamotte, W. A., Views of Edifices, 22 338 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES : OXFORD. century, as is also the case at Cambridge. University College was re-established by William of Durham in 1249 ; Balliol was founded by the father of the Scottish king about 1203 ; and Merton by Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester, in 12G4. Exeter dates from 1314, and derives its name from Walter de Staplcdon, Bishop of Exeter, its founder ; Oriel was begun in 1326 by Edward II., who carried out a project of his almo- ner ; Queen's in 1340 by the chaplain of the consort of Edward III. ; and New in 1380 by William of Wykeham, the great Bishop of Winchester, the noble buildings of which, finished in 1386, have been but little changed. In the next century the number of establishments was increased successively by Lincoln in 1427, All Souls in 1437, St. Mary Magdalen in 1458, the Schools in 1439, and the Divinity School, built between 1445 and 1480. Before the Reformation, Brasenose in 1509, Corpus Christ! 1516, and Christ Church 1525, were added. Of these thirteen colleges ecclesiastics were founders of eleven. The Pointed style that prevailed in their time was used, and examples of its variations are shown from the Early Decorated, in the treasury and choir at Merton, dating about 1280, to the debased so-called Gothic of the seventeenth cen- tury, the latest of which is the Tom tower at Christ Church by Wren in 1682. A monastic plan, modified, was adopted naturally by the ecclesiastic founders, and certain features were also common in their structures. A chapel, a large hall, and minor rooms for the use of undergraduates and others, were grouped around a quadrangle, and to most of the colleges gardens were joined. This general arrangement became an established one, and was continued in the buildings of the col- leges founded after the Reformation even to Keble, begun in 1868. All the styles prevalent from time to time since the long period of the Pointed were used, — mixed styles, the English Renaissance, treatment of Roman, and finally the designs of etc. at. imp. folio, London, 1843. — Oxford Delineated, plates by J. Whissell and T. Bartlett, 4°, Oxford, 1831. — Parker, J. H. and J., Handbook for Visitors, fine plates, 8°, do. 1858. — University Statutes, translated by G. K. M. Ward and Jas. Hey wood, 2 vols. 8°, London, 1845-51. (Latin editions, 1634, 1638, 1708, 1768) — There is a very large number of general and special works on Oxford. OXFORD : NEW COLLEGE. 339 the Gothic Revival, both according to ancient native models and the eclectic taste that introduced some Continental features. A unique collection of peculiar buildings showing great archi- tectural variety was thus formed, occupying a large district of an important city in the interior of the country which has grown around them, chiefly on account of their existence. Details of the administration of these institutions cannot be given here, and it may be enough to state that the students were originally gathered in societies occupying rented houses, called Inns or Halls, and then Colleges, when they were begun in the thirteenth century. The Halls are not, like the Colleges, incorporated, but have the same privileges. All have a head officer, with different titles in the different institutions, and minor officers, who are presided over by a Chancellor and a Vice-Chancellor, and who meet in convocation to form laws for the University, the federation of the various bodies, which, furthermore, is represented in Parliament by two members. While the edifices occupied by the many parts of the Uni- versity are very numerous, and all have their peculiar features and attractions, a fair conception of the group can be formed by a view or sketch of several which are representative or more important. New College, now more than five hundred years old, is a magnificent memorial of one of the noblest ancient English prelates, and contains some of the best work in the medieval Pointed styles at Oxford, dating from 1380 to 1386. William of Wykeham's foundation, it is said, marked a new era, when the Aularian system was abandoned ; and his exam- ple became the model of nearly all subsequent foundations at Oxford, and also at Cambridge. Externally, the college is far less imposing than are many others, for on the approach little else is seen than a simple monastic gateway at the end of a lane ; but this gives access to a quadrangle and to cloisters earlier than any others at Oxford, and worthy of a great abbey. They measure 130 by 85 feet, and have aisles with a pointed roof of closely set rafters of Spanish chestnut, said to be the original wood, and thus shown to be far more durable than some of the stone used in the city. Still better is the chapel, one of the glories of the University, 100 feet long, 35 feet wide, 340 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES ! OXFORD. and 65 feet high. Across the lower end is an ante-chapel, 80 by 35 feet, that like the chapel itself has a high groined ceiling and lofty traceried windows set above a deep belt of wall faced with oak stalls covered by high canopies. Effectively con- trasted with a pale stone used is the admirable colored glass, much of it as old as the building, and a trophy of very ingeni- ous preservation from threatened ruin at the Reformation. In addition, some of it, on the south side, is Flemish of the seven- teenth century; some dates from 1765 and 1774; and a large window at the west end, put up in 1777, was designed by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Extensive repairs were made on the roof and elsewhere in 1789, and an original reredos with fifty niches (one of the richest in Britain) which had been mutilated and plastered, was partially restored, — a saving work much more thoroughly done, at a cost of £25,000, in 1879. Worthy as a companion of this majestic and beautiful design of the fourteenth century is the chapel of Exeter, considered the finest in Oxford, built under the direction of Sir G-. G. Scott in 1857-1858. Its form suggests the upper part of the Sainte-Chapelle at Paris, and the design, chiefly executed in a pale Bath stone, although marked by simplicity and dignity, includes elaborate details. There is a vaulted roof borne by clustered shafts, some of which are of polished serpentine, rising from corbels of great beauty. A screen at the entrance is superb, as also is an arcade around the apse that has a background of mosaics on gold grounds by Salviati of Venice. In 1858 a chapel, the fourth in succession, was built for Balliol from designs by Mr. Butterfield, in which the then growing fondness for striking features of the Continental Pointed styles are shown. Bands of alternate red and buff are prominent on the exterior, and abundant polychrome and some good metal work on the interior. At Keble, by the same architect, is a still more remarkable chapel, which was dedicated in 1876, and cost £ 30,000. It is 124 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 70 feet high, and is profusely ornamented with color, carvings, and mosaic. The most im- portant ecclesiastical edifice of any of the colleges is, however, at Christ Church, described on page 170, with the Cathedrals, MERTON, MAGDALEN, CHRIST CHURCH. 341 among which it ranks. Another of the noblest works in the Pointed style at Oxford, which may be classed with the chapels, is the hall of the Divinity School, built between 1445 and 1480, in graceful and elaborate Perpendicular. Its low arched, boldly ribbed, and richly traceried ceiling, and its sides also filled with tracery, closed, or in windows, make it one of the most remark- able designs of its date. Other notable examples of the ancient native styles are found at Merton, the chapel of which deserves high rank. It has a nave, transept, and central tower, and Decorated windows of unusual beauty, built between 1275 and 1424. The treasury, dating from near 1280, is one of the old- est civil buildings in the city. At Magdalen are some of the few collegiate cloisters ; a tall tower, unrivalled at Oxford, built between 1492 and 1498 ; some of the most picturesque build- ings in the city ; and grounds as remarkable, measuring about one hundred acres, eleven of which are covered by the courts and buildings. TJie halls of the colleges are of scarcely less interest than the chapels. New contains the oldest of them ; but while its diapered panelling and Pointed windows remain, its character is, or long was, much injured by a flat whitewashed ceiling, of Georgian " neatness," bad enough to rouse the avenging shade of William of Wykeham himself. The largest and grandest hall is that of Christ Church, in Perpendicular style, dating from 1529, — a noble monument of the munificence and taste of its founder, Cardinal Wolsey. Its high wainscot, hung with about a hundred and twenty portraits of great value, reaches to a wall pierced by tall traceried windows, above which rises a Note. — The dimensions of some of the more important parts of several colleges, in feet, will give an idea of their importance : — Quadrangles. —Christ, 264 X 261 ; Keble, 243 X 220 ; All Souls (two) 172 X 155, and 124X72; Wadham, 130X130; Merton (2d of two), 110X110; Corpus Christi, 101 X 80 ; University, 100 X 100 ; Jesus (two), 100 X 90, and 90 X 70 ; Lincoln (two), 80 X 80, and 70 X 70. Halls. — Christ* 115X40, and 50 high; Wadham* 82X35, and 37 high; Oriel, 50X20; Queen's, 60X30; New, 78X35; Lincoln, 42X25; Corpus,* 50 X 25. Libraries.— Christ, 161 X 30; All Souls, 200 X 39; Wadham, 53X20; Queen's, 120 X 30 ; Worcester, 120 long. Front of Christ's, 400 long. Total area of Queen's, 300 X 220. Exeter, front 200 long. Magdalen has three courts. * Timber roofe. 342 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES : OXFORD. superb oak timber roof, with tracery and carving of true Eng- lish character. Undoubtedly the society gathered at the long dining-tables spread here daily is quite worthy of the archi- tecture ; and if the dinners also are, it would indeed be difficult to name a rival of this glorious refectory, approached also by a befitting staircase of noble proportions, covered by a rich fan- traceried ceiling. This sort of hall, although on a smaller scale, is found in the older colleges, and has been used in recent times where halls have been rebuilt, as at Pembroke. Balliol has another good example, measuring 90 by 36 feet, designed by Mr. Waterhouse and opened in 1877. While the styles based on Italian prevailed, they were used, as in the hall and new chapel of Queen's. The most strik- ing example is perhaps the chapel at Worcester, a work of the last century, formerly showing its bare " classic " sort of design, but not long ago transformed to elegant and gorgeous cinque-cento, with abundant color and gilding. The floor is inlaid, and the stalls have rich intarsiatura decoration. More marked designs in modified Roman are shown by buildings of greater size and importance. The Theatre, 80 by 70 feet, where the great University meetings and ceremonies are held, was erected under the care of Sir Christopher Wren between 1664 and 1669. Sir John Vanbrugh, in 1713, finished the Clarendon Building, close by, in characteristic adaptation of classic forms. This edifice for a long time contained the celebrated Press known by its name, given because a portion of its cost was derived from the sale of copies of Lord Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. The Radcliff Library is a detached dome, like an enormous baptistery, surrounded by an engaged Corinthian colonnade on a high basement. Planned and designed by Gibbs, and executed between 1737 and 1749, it is original, and unlike anything else at Oxford. In 1840 the large and expensive Taylor Institution and University Galleries were begun, from designs by C. R. Cockerell. They are the latest as well as larg- est examples of classic styles in modern treatment in the great collegiate group, appropriate, it may be, for a seat of classic learning rather than in a place so intensely English among so many admirable works in the native and national styles. NEW MUSEUM; MARTYRS' MEMORIAL. 343 The Gothic Revival is represented by many notable designs at Oxford. Besides chapels already mentioned, several fronts and various parts of colleges and the whole of Keble, two prominent examples of works for other purposes well deserve attention. The New Museum, connected with the study of the modern sciences, was begun in 1855, and has been subsequently continued at intervals. Its buildings, forming a quadrangle, show an English picturesqueness of outline, Italian treatment of some of the windows, and sharp roofs suggestive of French designs. A roof of glass and iron covers the central area, and is treated in a mediaeval manner. On the four sides of the area are cloister-like arcades with polished shafts, statuary, voussoirs of light and dark stone, and capitals carved so that they form a large exhibition of the botany of various periods and places. One of the chief features of the exterior is the chemical laboratory, that in a general way resembles the kitchen of Glastonbury Abbey, among the few parts of that once vast establishment that still exist. At the end of the broad St. Giles Street stands another important modern work in the Pointed style, the Martyrs' Memorial, built in 1841. It is an elaborate limestone Cross in Decorated style, 73 feet high, designed from the Eleanor Cross at Waltham, but more beautiful and richer. Statues of the three great martyrs, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, look down from its exquisitely canopied niches. One of the peculiar and most graceful forms of English mediaeval design is thus reproduced with new and greater charms to help keep in memory the ex- amples of devoted piety and patriotism in which these bishops were true, even to the death by fire that they met close by in Broad Street, near a spot now marked by a stone cross set into the pavement. There, in October, 1555, the flames that burned them, answering their prayer, gave forth a light which by God's blessing has continued shining, and which never will go out in England. Well might the best of ancient taste and modern skill in the arts of the country be united as they are here in this memorial. The gardens, lawns, and shaded walks belonging to the col- leges, especially along the borders of the city, are some of the 344 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. most delightful of its many attractive places, and as uncommon as the varied picturesque structures with which they are admi- rably grouped. Christ Church Meadow, of fifty acres, on the Tsis, is surrounded by a walk a mile in length, and has on one side a magnificent avenue of elms, called the Broad Walk. Adjoin- ing it are Morton Fields, including a part of the old town walls, a terrace walk, and charming gardens. Magdalen Water Walk, towards the Cherwell, although narrower than that at Christ Church, is longer, winding, and even more beautiful. Of course the city has commercial parts and houses of a common English character ; but the collegiate buildings are so numerous and extensive that they give to a large division, as has been said already, an effect as rare as it is imposing. Many of these buildings may seem low, and their appearance in some places is much injured by the badness of the stone used in them, for the surface is disintegrated and has peeled off so that it suggests a ragged coat of very thick and ugly paper-hanging ; but the general aspect of Broad, High, and several lesser streets is noble and imposing, and the college grounds, in monastic courts, or spacious gardens, or beneath grand trees, abound in fresh and exquisite beauty that makes the wide, varied group of the antique and modern academic seats charming, while venerable and perpetually attractive. Cambridge 1 is only less wonderful than Oxford for the rea- son that it has fewer colleges placed in a smaller city, which, although it is an ancient place, and has the business of a broad level agricultural country extending around it, also owes its chief importance to the University. Like Oxford, it has its commercial or town part, and although its colleges are more scattered, there is a long group that makes Trumpington Street a rival of " the High." The establishment of a school here may date from the sixth century ; but the early history 1 See Ackerman, R., History of the University, etc., 94 colored plates, 2 vols, imp. 4°, London, 1814. — Le Keux's Memorials of Cambridge ; text by T. Wright and H. L. Jones, 76 plates, 8° and 4°, London, 1845. -- Storer, A. J. et H. S., Collegiorum Portae, Cambridge, n. d. — Hartshorne, Rev. C. H., Book Rarities in the University, 8°, London, 1829. — Early Statutes, 13-16 cent., collected by Jas. Heywood, 2 vols. 8°, London, 1855. CAMBKIDGE. 345 of the University is obscure. St. Peter's College, the oldest, was founded in 1257. Two Halls and four colleges were added in the fourteenth century, one Hall and four colleges in the fifteenth, and three more colleges in the sixteenth, before the University was incorporated, in the 13th of Eliza- beth, as the " Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the Uni- versity of Cambridge." Before the Reformation the number of ecclesiastics among the founders was less than at Oxford, but similar monastic plans and designs were used. Both Renaissance and Classic styles were adopted when they were prevalent, and the effect of the Gothic Revival also appears. Lawns, gardens, deep green ivy, and majestic trees spread grace and beauty almost everywhere among or near the aca- demic buildings, and the quiet, narrow Cam that winds close to some of the oldest, and is spanned by quaint bridges, adds to the charming picturesqueness. If the monuments of Eng- lish art and history here are fewer than at Oxford, there are some that are of great interest, or that are unrivalled. King's College Chapel is the largest and stateliest in Eng- land, and indeed may fairly be considered the most noble structure of its kind in the world. It is detached, and stands on the north side of a great collegiate quadrangle. Henry VI. laid the corner-stone July 25, 1446, and work was continued Note. — The Colleges and Halls were founded at the dates given below, and the dimensions of chapels, quadrangles, and halls are in feet, according to Acker- man, Parker, and others : — 1257, St. Peter's, two quads., largest, 144 X 84 ; hall, 48 X 24. 1326, Clare Hall, quad., 150 X 111; hall, 69 X 21, and 25 high. — 1343, Pem- broke, chap. 54 X 24, and 30 high ; hall, 42 X 27. — 1347, Cuius, hall, 39 X 21. — Trinity Hall, hall, 36 X 24, and 24 high. — 1351, Corpus Christi, quad., 158 X 129 ; chap., 75 X 25, and 33 high ; hall, 62 X 27, and 35 high ; library, 87 X 22, and 25 high. 1441, King's, chap., 316 X 84. — 1446, Queen's, two quads., largest, 96 X 84.— 1456, Christ, quad., 140 X 120 ; chap., 80 X 27, and 30 high ; hall, 45 X 27, and 30 high. — 1475, Catharine Hall, quad., 180 X 120 ; chap., 75 X 30, and 36 high. — 1496, Jesus, quad., 140x120. 1511, St. John's, three quads.; hall 60x30. — 1519, Magdalen, two quads.; chap. 48 X 18 ; hall, 45 X 18, and 21 high. — 1546, Trinity (founded on Michael House, 1324, and King's Hall, 1337), quad., S. 287, N. 257^ E. 325, W. 344 ; chap., 204 X 33, and 44 high ; hall, 102 X 40, and 56 high ; library, 200 X 40, and 38 high. — 1584, Emanuel, chap., 84 X 30, and 27 high. — 1598, Sidney, two quads. ; chap., 57 X 24 ; hall, 60 X 27. 1807, Downing, one very large quad. 346 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. for a hundred years, or towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII. The plan shows an immense nave with chap- els at the sides, but without aisles, lighted by twelve windows, nearly fifty feet high, on each side, and covered by a marvel- lous stone roof — a masterpiece of English masonry — with elaborate ribbing and tracery. So rich and noble is the Per- pendicular here used, that it is quite worthy of companionship with contemporaneous French Flamboyant. Externally the chapel is 816 feet long, and has on each side between the win- dows a range of large pinnacle-crowned buttresses connected by an open parapet, rising to a height of 90 feet. Each cor- ner of the building is accented by a slender octagonal tower with a spire-like top 146 feet high. Throughout, the masonry is of stone, in some places worn, in others mended ; the pre- vailing color being a light gray. Mr. Fergusson, in his " Modern Architecture" (pp. 11-16), has compared King's Chapel 1 with the contemporary Sistine at Rome, — a magnificent example of a very different Italian style, — and has shown the contrast. In the English design the chief decoration is given by the forms and materials of the construction, and in the Roman almost entirely by paintings on the surfaces of the walls and ceiling. Both chapels have a great amount of color, that in the English design is concentrated in gorgeous windows filled with grouped figures interfered with by the tracery, but contrasted with a uniform pale-buff of the stone used throughout in construction and in most of the decoration ; while the Italian walls are covered with an almost unbroken painting. Although this shows higher art, the English shows more truth and inven- tive power in architecture. Stripped of color, the English is the nobler work. Its vast size, its proportions, its superb glass, toned by time, and, above all, its magnificent and richly wrought or sculptured masonry, make King's Chapel both a glorious place of Christian worship and a most imposing monument of the earlier half of the Tudor period. At Cambridge, examples of the Pointed styles are less numerous than those of others subsequently prevalent. A 1 King's is, internally, 290 by 45 feet, 78 feet high, and has twelve bays. The Sistine is, internally, 140 by 45 to 50 feet, 60 feet high, and has six bays. CAMBRIDGE. 347 picturesque design in English Renaissance is shown in the front of the library at Magdalen, and another in the Hall of Trinity, one of the noblest buildings of its kind, that has two grand oriels, a panelled wainscot, a lofty screen, and high pitched roof of timber, in the peculiar English manner, Gothic in form, but Renaissance in detail. Semi-classic is shown in the chief parts of Emanuel and on the exterior and interior of Trinity, the latter of which is light and noble. In more distinctly Roman style are the Public Library, the Chapel of Pembroke by Sir Christopher Wren, Clare Hall, the Senate House, finished in 1730, and the New Buildings at King's by the same architect, Gibbs. The most classic building of the University, which may fairly be thought to surpass any example in its style at Oxford, is the Fitzwilliam Museum, designed by Basevi, and begun in 1837. An imposing portico, of the Corin- thian order, extends along the front, flanked by large piers with pilasters, and varied by a rich advanced pediment in the centre rising to a height of seventy-five feet. A suite of five large rooms contains a great collection of fine books, engravings, drawings, music, and pictures, that represent well the Italian and Dutch schools. The grounds and gardens at Cambridge, if of less extent than those at Oxford, are extremely beautiful, especially the College Walks across the Cam, extending opposite the river fronts of several of the colleges, and covering many acres. From the path beneath a long and noble avenue of trees upon the farther side, or from the spacious lawns between it and the stream, are exquisite views of King's College Chapel, the new buildings of St. John's, especially of the central tower and entrance to the cloisters, and up the stately although nar- row avenue from the gates of Trinity. Among the countless picturesque scenes found in England there are few like this ideal of her peculiar beauty, full of suggestions of her history, where so many of her noblest sons have walked and gained, insensibly, perhaps, an inspiration to invaluable labor in her service. The Libraries of the two Universities might properly be described in one chapter, and only a long one would do justice 348 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. to them. So numerous are they, and so great is the variety of the styles of the many rooms and halls used for them, that they are like symbols of the greater diversity of literature with which they are crowded. No less interesting is the story of the ways by which the aggregate immense amount of books and manuscripts has been collected on the shelves ; yet mere mention of it can be made here, and it must be sought for in Mr. Edwards's excellent narrative. 1 Not only are these libraries rich in classic and other foreign literature, but also in illus- trations of the history of the country and of the men by whom it has been shaped or preserved. The other ancient colleges and prominent Public Schools 2 of England, also sources of her greatness, are also among her noblest monuments, and are well represented by her art. Wil- liam of Wykeham, a prince and pioneer in good works, obtained the charter, dated November 26, 1379, for the college that he founded at Winchester, the buildings of which were erected between 1380 and 1386, and have already been described on p. 124. Henry VI., in 1440, founded the College at Eton; and Henry VIII. another at Westminster. Five of the great Public Schools date from the sixteenth century, three of which were founded by civilians. In 1512 Dean Colet established St. Paul's ; Christ's Hospital was begun in 1553 by Edward VI. ; the Merchant Taylors' about 1560 ; Rugby a few years later by the munificence of Lawrence Sheriff, a grocer of London, who died in 1567 ; Harrow was founded by John Lyon, yeoman, in 1590 ; and the Charterhouse by Thomas Sutton in 1613. While all these colleges and schools are prominent and inter- esting, and have buildings well worth visits and description, Eton may be mentioned as a great representative. Its build- ings, standing on the meadows near the Thames, a mile away from the majestic towers of Windsor and with a full view of them, form two quadrangles, the front of which is on a quaint 1 Memoirs of Libraries, etc., by Edward Edwards, 2 vols. 8°, Triibner & Co., London, 1859. Vol. i., 535-622 (and several times quoted or referred to elsewhere). 2 Ackerman, K., The History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, and West- minster ; the Schools of Harrow, Eugby, etc., 48 plates, imp. 4°, London, 1816. MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 349 shady street suggestive of Cambridge or Oxford. Their pre- vailing style is picturesque domestic Pointed of the Tudor period, showing its characteristic dark-red brickwork and light- colored stone quoins and window-cases. Pre-eminent, and of course ecclesiastical in design, is the chapel, a noble one, built of gray stone and resembling in general external effect King's College Chapel at Cambridge ; but it is plainer and shorter, for it is 175 feet long, and has only eight bays. Internally it shows, or showed, a low-pitched wooden roof supported by arched trusses instead of a superb vault, and too much incon- gruous work intruded in the last century. Any scholar of that time would have been smartly treated if he had blundered in Latin grammar as the officers then did about the native style of this noble collegiate monument. Similar bad design appeared in the hall, which is, or was, chiefly distinguished by size. Cloisters add variety to the buildings, but they are of minor interest. Large and pleasant rooms contain the valu- able library, and are fair examples of classic style modified. But of all which makes Eton a distinguished English monu- ment, nothing has surpassed the part played by the Eton boys of a dozen generations. MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: A KETKOSPECT. Mediaeval England, as shown by the works already described on these pages, is still represented by very numerous and strik- ing monuments. Notwithstanding the wear of time and weather, the wreck by wars and revolutions, the neglect or worse abuse in time of peace, and the inevitable changes wrought by an active, growing population, the chronicle in stone and brick re- mains distinct and full, and unsurpassed in interest. Ruined, altered, or carefully preserved, nearly all the structures de- scribed, and many more less prominent, are standing ; and in turning from them we may well look back on the chapters of the nation's history which they illustrate, and linger, at least briefly, in a retrospect of the England they vividly show as it was at the close of the Middle Ages in the reign of Henry VIII. 350 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND. At the eve of the Reformation, England differed strangely in appearance and condition from the England of to-day. Even the people, although ancestors of the living, showed possibly a greater contrast, so dissimilar were they in thought, in dress, and manners. Yet the moulded, carved, or printed pages of her record give observation and imagination means to realize what that England was. Along the shores of the country the ports known to-day were resorts of commerce, but on a scale that would now seem insignificant; and the towns scattered through the country showed like small proportions. Castles at strategic points were truly strongholds kept prepared for use in war, and not as bar- racks, store-rooms, picnic grounds, or relics for the archaeolo- gist. Sea-shore and inland places were strengthened by them, and a cordon of them reached along the northern border and around the skirts of Wales. Some of the Norman keeps were not maintained, but there were few of the castles that were not in good order. Clustered by them, scattered through the land or gathered in the towns, were the homes of the people, quaint and usually small. Fens and forests covered many a mile of now smooth grass-land or carefully cultivated field. It was indeed in many ways still a new, simple country, where quiet life prevailed and few men travelled or thought often of far distant places. Modern wants and politics were little dreamed about, and already had the hearty although rude life of the commons, with the graces and the stories of the poets, made the country the now half mythic Merrie England. Prom- inent above others were royal personages and the nobles, bril- liant in costume as in rank, and in as marked a contrast with the commons. Still more numerous were the sober, varied, yet conspicuous dresses of the ecclesiastics and the monks. All the grades of rank were strongly marked, and by differ- ences in dress incomparably greater than at present. Feudal- ism, although established in the country through nearly five hundred years, had declined from its once great influence, yet still affected the relations of the population, and continued to give distinctive characteristics to the aspect of at least the rural districts. MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 351 But no more notable contrast between the England of 1530 and to-day was shown than in things often seen and in institutions connected with the service of the Church and its monastic establishments. In cathedrals and in scores of ab- batial and hundreds of minor churches stood the altars of the ancient faith, in every form, from the gorgeous masterpiece beside the bishop to the simple stone by the humble country priest. Shrines of the saints, superb with gold and gems, rich reliquaries, colored glass, and mural paintings, thoroughly expressive of the already venerable power still held to be the only true Church, the one guide to heaven, stood unbroken and magnificent, invested with their own peculiar meaning and the strength of associations with the beliefs of generations. No structures in town and country are more conspicuously the products of our times than were the monastic buildings peculiarly creations of the Middle Ages. In the larger towns, where the corporation hall, the station, or hotel now rivals the old Parish church in prominence, the priory or abbey was then the most notable structure ; and in the vales aside from noise of business there often were larger establishments of the Monas- tic Orders. Far more conspicuous than is now the great family seat, with its rich grounds, was the home of the monks ; for the seat is only a finer part of the prevalent cultivation : the monastery was much more. In a region where stretched wild districts or rudely tilled country, it was, in marked contrast, one of the gardens of the land. Fields with full crops, and pastures with large flocks and herds, gained from a wilderness by monkish labor, spread pleasantly around grouped buildings often extensive and stately, and always picturesque. Within their ample walls, along with the monks, were gathered pilgrims, travellers, the poor for aid, the sick for healing. There vows, the needs of strangers, calls for help to soul or body, were all answered. Church, inn, charitable institute, and hospital, not elsewhere found, were there. Five, ten, or even more generations of the monks had there chanted psalms and anthems in the choir, and gathered manuscripts, and saved them in the library, where also for three quarters of a cen- tury they had gathered the early products of the press, the 352 MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. first of which in Britain, 1 as in Italy, 2 appeared within monastic walls. In England, as on the Continent, the Age of the cathedral- builders — the most distinguished in the Middle Ages — extend- ing from the latter part of the eleventh through the fourteenth century, was characterized by a spirit as marked as any of a different sort dominant in our own times. Whatever may now be thought of the wisdom of their outlay, vast, especially if the resources of the country are considered, we may well pause in harsh judgment when we observe some of the heavier modern expenditures. Whether or not their devotion was un- mixed with worldly motives or ambition, or the policy of eccle- siastics, or local rivalry, it must have been directed by one grand idea, — the honor and glory of God's service, which claimed and received the noblest tribute possible. Their churches, superb with mediseval pomp to the eve of the Reformation, are still preserved in scarcely less beauty ; but the monasteries are fading from sight, and even almost from memory. The great change that came over Europe between 1520 and 1550 swept through England ; and the Church, dominant since Christianity had been a power in the country, yielded to a changed faith which has since held the Cathedrals and Parish churches ; but a storm of ruin devastated the monastic institu- tions. Abbot, monk, and nun, who had been as familiar to the sight of the people as were the features of the land itself, all disappeared. Great monasteries, which had been the outposts and the bulwarks of Christianity and civilization in the wilder- ness, and their strongholds in the better land which they had done much to make, fell or bowed in the towns and quiet vales. We can recall their stateliness when held by Orders centuries old, all busy with their labors and their services, and then look on their mouldering ruins and realize as nowhere else the ancient England which in the reign of Henry VIII. passed utterly away. i Westminster (p. 243), 1477. 2 Subiaco, 1465. MODEEN ENGLAND. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. AFTER the accession of Elizabeth (1558), the new era of modern life and history which had opened in England during the reign of Henry VIII. , as it had at the same time on the Continent, fairly began its growth, although this was not great until many years had passed, and even until the times of James I., her successor. The long period of border conflicts at the west and north had passed, as well as extensive civil commotions like the "Wars of the Roses ; and although England kept a hold on French territory until 1558, the effects of her wars there through cen- turies had, like most of her possessions there, become matters of a far receding past. Henry VIIL, in 1539-1540, had pro- vided against an invasion then expected by erecting the last old line of coast-defences ; 1 but these were on a much smaller scale than the corresponding works of the Romans and Normans. Foreign affairs, while delicate or serious, and requiring con- stant care, were not attended by commensurate wars. Yet, particularly in the grand providence of 1588 and the brave and triumphant conflict with Spain, England was growing important abroad, even as she hardly was when she held many a province of France. Internal peace and broadening prosperity (small though this would seem now) were prevail- ing. The sovereign was pre-eminent ; the great lords power- ful ; the gentry, if not rich, fairly established ; the mass of the people plain, sturdy, it may be rough, yet encouragingly 1 These castles, as placed from east to west, were Tilbury, in Essex ; Deal, Sandown, and Walmer, in Kent; Winchelsea, in Sussex ; Calshot, Hurst, West Cowes, and Southsea, in Hampshire; Portland and Sandford, in Dorset; and Fowey, in Devon. 23 354 MODERN ENGLAND. thrifty. Comforts, as we know them, were scanty ; and lux- uries, not countless, confined to a few. There were strange contrasts between the gorgeous court dresses and the pomps of the nobles at home and some close surroundings ; for rich silks and velvets might brush the rush-covered floors, or in huge apartments, really magnificent, things that we think necessities would be lacking. But the distinction of the renowned queen's reign, certainly not in these minor affairs, was less in matters material which add to the chronicle formed by carved stone, than in what was done and was gained by great statesmen, by bold and far-sail- ing seamen, by men who were thinking and acting on new religious convictions, and by poets and authors making the garden of English literature blossom afresh and flourish as never before. Yet meanwhile there were rising some of the stateliest and most charming structures ever erected in England, of a kind intensely characteristic of her social organization, as they were of the change from mediaeval distraction, and life always on guard, to the new era that was beginning the peace and good order of prosperous modern times. These were the great man- sions. — the vast country-houses, possible only with great lords living in such a land and in such a new era, — which during the past three or four centuries have been as characteristic features of it as were the monasteries during the three preceding cen- turies. Indeed they have become even more peculiar to it, for while monasteries were common to all European countries, in none are, or were, similar residences so numerous and varied. Yet many as they have grown to be, — for they are found in almost every part of the land, — and large and magnificent as they often are, they are even more notable as sources of influ- ence, which although of a different sort from that of the cloisters, has been hardly inferior in strength. They have been, as a class or a rule, examples and seats of refinement both of manners and society, where many precious collections of works of art and literature have been preserved. When feudal life among the nobility and gentry became less warlike, or, so far as it was spent in England, altogether THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 355 peaceful, most of the castles ceased to be used as residences, and new means and tastes, as well as new opportunities, made as great change in building as had occurred in the country's condition. The great hall, a part of every house of the higher class, ceased to be a gloomy although grand apartment high up in the keep, and was placed near the ground, was larger, and lighted by tall shafted windows. Here at first, as of old, the huge public room of the feudal establishment, it in time was used only for occasional gatherings, or as a way to the living-rooms farther within, and at length alone as a stately approach. These living rooms were by degrees made more numerous, commodious, and elegant, and picturesqueness in various forms was in almost every case given to all parts of the residence. The windows, many and large, looked out on gardens and lawns. The towers, once needed for strength and defence, and then badges of power, became in Elizabeth's time full of shaftings and glazing, and were a grand decora- tion. Indeed, until the latter half of the sixteenth century some of the latest forms of the Pointed style continued to be used with their peculiar native or national features, and then were superseded by the scarcely less English forms given the imported Renaissance. In turning attention to the great residences so peculiarly creations of modern English life, two noble seats, among a considerable number of remaining examples, transitional in date, style, and plan, are uncommonly attractive. THE GEEAT RESIDENCES, BEFORE 1600. 1 Penshurst, Kent, said to have been founded before the Con- quest, and fortified in the reign of Richard II., was held by several knights or families, or was at times Crown property, 1 See Dollman (and Jobbins), An Analysis of Ancient Domestic Archi- tecture, etc., 4°, 164 plates, 2 vols. London, 1861. — Hall, S. C, The Baronial Halls, etc., of England, 72 plates, 2 vols. 4°, London, 1858. — Kerr, R-, The Gentleman's House, etc., 8°, plates, 2d ed., London, 1865. — Nash, J., The Man- sions of England in the Olden Time, 4 vols. imp. folio, 100 plates ; text 8°, Lon- don, 1839-1849; (a re-issue in 4°, with small plates). — Ne ale, J. P., Views of 356 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. until about the middle of the sixteenth century, when it was granted by Edward VI. to Sir William Sidney and his heirs. An imperishable distinction was given the ancient seat by his grandchildren, Sir Philip (1554-1586) and Mary, Countess of Pembroke. Well may Sir Philip have been regarded as " the Bayard of England, the mirror of knighthood, and the flower of chivalry ; " for his grace and nobleness gave the charms of romance to the picturesque and distinguished social life of which he was one of the great ornaments and exponents, and his Poems and " Defence of Poesy " helped to brighten the full morning which followed the long dawning of English litera- ture. In the next century he and the countess had worthy successors in Algernon Sidney and Lady Dorothy, who was Waller's beautiful Sacharissa. It is seven miles from Tunbridge Wells to Penshurst, by a very pleasant road abounding in old English scenery. Parts of the way are between green fields and hedges of holly or hawthorn ; parts are over high ground commanding noble and delightful views along the vale of the Medway — here a small stream hidden by its banks — and over the hills of Surrey. The village of Penshurst, built in a little valley, is made up of pict- uresque old houses on a quaint street, at the end of which an iron gate opens to the " Place," as the seat is called. Com- monly it is approached through the grounds attached to the church, an edifice in Perpendicular style, with a square tower that has a look of mouldering dignity. Near it and in the midst of an open lawn is the irregular, great house, long and not very high, evidently much repaired, and yet ancient in gen- eral effect. It is built chiefly of smoothed blocks of sandstone once pale brown, but now grown gray, a hoary gray in some places, with here and there stains like those from iron-rust. A the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen, 2 series, 11 vols. 792 plates, London, 1818-1829. — Richardson, C, Studies from Old English Mansions, 4 vols. imp. folio, 1841-48. — Turner, T. H., Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, 1066-1300, 8°, plates and cuts. J. H. Parker, Oxford, 1851. — Some Account, continued, 14th century, do., 1853, 15th century, 2 vols. 1859. — Vitrc- vius Britannicus, by Campbell, Gandon, Woolfe, and Richardson, 7 vols. imp. folio, 638 plates, London, 1715-1808. For accounts of paintings, etc., see Waagen, Dr., Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols. ; and his Galleries and Cabinets of Art, 1 vol. 8°, London, 1854-1857. penshurst; haddon hall. 357 low park-wall, enclosing an area of turf, extends along one side and the front of the house, which is two stories high, except in a tower at the centre and in another at a corner, where there is a third story. As would be expected from the date of the work, the style is late Pointed, and, as often was the case in domes- tic buildings, bricks, now grown a dull dusky-red, were used for a portion of the simple but picturesque design. There is a courtyard reached through a large door, badly worn when the writer last saw it, and opposite to it another opening to the hall. On the outside this shows walls crowned by battlements and pierced by Pointed windows with heads filled by Geometri- cal tracery, of all of which Nash gives a good view. Internally the hall is 64 feet long and high, and 40 feet wide, and covered by a time and weather stained timber roof in the old English fashion. Not many years ago the state-rooms were comfort- less looking ; but they have been much improved, and the pict- uresqueness of their antique style has been renewed. One of the most attractive of them is the great Gallery with the pecu- liar form of a f? having windows at the upper side towards the church and at the right towards the park. On the wainscot are hung several good and interesting portraits, some of the numerous souvenirs of old days collected here in one of the most charming houses of its age in England. As Ben Jonson has told us, the simplicity of earlier dignity gives it a character, for as he says, — " Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show Of touch or marble; " yet, as Southey has added, — " Are days of old familiar to thy mind, O reader, . . . thou wilt tread As with a pilgrim's reverential thoughts The groves of Penshurst." Haddon Hall, 1 Derbyshire, is not only a romance grown into reality, but also an unrivalled monument of the England of 1 See Rayner, S., History and Antiquities of Haddon Hall, 37 plates, 8 parts, atlas 4°, Derby, 1836-1837. Also described in the writer's " Lands of Scott," pp. 367-369, in the chapter on " Peveril of the Peak." 358 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. the Tudors and earlier Stuarts. Some parts of it are said to be as early as the Saxon period ; but the chief features date be- tween the thirteenth century and the reign of Elizabeth. The ground on which it stands slopes gently to the river Wye, and all around it is the quiet but lovely setting of the genuine old English landscape. Gray, simple, and yet very picturesque, the embattled walls and towers of its immense irregular quad- rangle rise in a lordly style above the green fields and the fresh old trees of the ' peaceful vale. On the outside, the edifice is from 125 to 160 feet in width, and from 360 to 390 feet in length. There are two courts surrounded by the various parts of the quaint structure, and supplying light and access to each side of the hall that is placed between them. Although a great deal of the furniture has been removed and the house has been uninhabited for a long time, much of its old character is shown. The hall has its dais, minstrels' gallery, and pon- derous table, overspread by a rude, lofty timbered roof. Con- nected with the lower end of the apartment are the ample kitchens, larders, and other rooms, all of a semi-barbarous plainness, where the stores of provisions for a lavish hospitality were kept or prepared. At the upper end are steps that lead to the quaint wainscoted parlor and family dining-room (1545), from which shafted oriels give a view of the romantic garden. Beside these is the Gallery, one hundred and ten feet long, sixteen feet ten inches wide (exclusive of three oriels), and fifteen feet high, with an exterior, of stone, in the style of Henry VIII.'s time, or earlier, and an interior in that of Elizabeth. The wainscoting is of oak, now faded or worn, but elaborately carved and panelled, rivalling in richness a fan- tastically decorated ceiling covered with stucco-work arranged in a complicated net of ribs that form variously shaped divi- sions. At the left of the upper end of the Gallery are the state bed-chamber and other rooms, from the first one of which a door and outside stair lead to the garden and to Dorothy Vernon's walk. It was on the latter that this fascinating lady, heiress of Haddon, had a tite-a-tete with Sir John Manners, son of the Earl of Rutland, and by the door and stair that she eloped with him in 1567, they say, and thus transferred the SPEKE HALL. 359 estate, long held by the Vernons, to the distinguished family which has since owned it, and deserves great praise for the admirable preservation of one of the most interesting historical monuments of England. While the Pointed style continued to be used in buildings of brick or stone where these materials could be obtained, at an age when transportation was difficult, another style as dis- tinctively native as the Tudor was used in Lancashire, and especially in Cheshire, of which the features were picturesquely arranged oak frames filled with shafted windows or plaster, as these were needed in the structure. Although seemingly of less strength, the latter materials have proved remarkably durable. Both styles, especially in the finish of interiors, blended with English Renaissance when that became the fashion, and the country-houses, partly wooden, which were usually set low and were full of windows, and often were placed in gardens or open land, were more notably proofs of the civil security than were the more solid buildings. Houses of both sorts, some of them very large, might be said to be of the picturesque or romantic school which preceded the stately one dominant at a later date ; yet all showed that they were planned with one thought, — for enjoyment of the comforts, pleasures, or the arts of peace as fully as those were then known. Of numerous remaining examples of timber and plaster houses there is an unusually fine one near the Mersey, a few miles east of Liverpool. Speke Hall, Lancashire, finished in 1589, though parts are considerably earlier, stands in a fiat country, but is environed by grounds admirably laid out as a setting to its picturesque form. A lawn with beds of flowers and scattered trees extends between groves and the grass-covered outlines of the long dis- used moat, above which rises the gabled house, a quadrangle with a small court, where there are two huge yew-trees. On the outer walls the framework is a dull black, but on the inner it is bright jet, as if newly painted. Contrasted with it is the pale cream-colored plaster forming the filling between the beams, and a local red sandstone used in the foundations, as well as another tint in the stone of a great entrance arch and of a bridge over 360 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. the moat. On the roofs there are slates of irregular shape and so large and thick that they are really slabs of stone. Fifty years ago the Hall was a mere shooting-box, so much abused that potatoes grew in the Drawing-room ; now it is in admi- rable order, not a " show-place," but an exquisite home. On the south side of the courtyard, or that farthest from the main entrance, is a door opening to the Great Hall, a dimly lighted but charming room. Its high flat ceiling, crossed by beams, is of dark oak, and its wainscot, also high and of the same wood, is even darker. At one side, and towards a corner where there is a large shafted window looking on the court, is an enormous fireplace still retaining the antique seats along its sides ; but the broad chimney is closed, and a very large grate with a modern flue is placed for the fire. All the furniture is of the age or style of the apartment, and is quite as quaint. Not- able among it is a sideboard, elaborately carved, with a back covered by figures, showing the story of Esther. Everything, indeed, is picturesque, even to the window glass, which here, as elsewhere in the house, is set in diamond-shaped panes, and although plain, is relieved by arms in color in the upper days. No less picturesque, but lighter and richer, is the Drawing- room, finished with wainscot full of square panels and a broad, elaborately carved chimney-piece, all of dark oak, reaching to a flat ceiling covered with an intricate design in stucco nearly white, and divided into large square panels by great beam-like projections. While the windows of the house are mullioned in the old English style, most of the interior decoration is Renais- sance, showing the earlier English treatment. In nearly all the rooms the antique character has been preserved, and mod- ern refinement has made them exquisite. A parlor containing furniture in the style of Louis XV. and a more private room have recent papering of the so-called sesthetic sort ; but the effect throughout the house is like a revelation of a seat of the gentry in the times of Elizabeth, preserved and made even more charming by worthy successors. Knole House, near Seven-Oaks, Kent, is one of the largest existing mansions of the Elizabethan age, from which a great KNOLE HOUSE. 361 deal of it dates, although externally the style is chiefly modified Tudor, and internally it is English Renaissance. Its gabled or embattled stone walls, gray and venerable, enclose an area of five acres which includes two main courts, five or six of smaller size, and buildings containing more than three hundred rooms. For an effect of picturcsqueness on a grand scale it is perhaps unsurpassed, and scarcely rivalled, by any other domestic structure of its antiquity in England. " Knole," says Neale, " has been a remarkable Mansion from the time of the Conquest." It had been held by many illustri- ous families when, in 1456, it was bought by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who rebuilt it and left it to be an official palace ; but it became Crown property near the middle of the next century. The illustrious titles of Cardinal Pole, of Warwick, Northumberland, and Leicester, were afterwards associated with it, until Queen Elizabeth, about 1566, granted it to Thomas Sackville, who became Earl of Dorset, by whose descendants it has since been held and admirably kept. Between 1603 and 1608 the Earl constantly employed two hundred workmen on the edifice ; yet much required by its extent and nature has, from time to time, since been done. Still the work, as seen at present, was completed, substantially, in 1605, and, except repairs, nothing prominent is more modern. Near the Parish church — a long, low, and good building, in Perpendicular style — a gate opens to a pleasant avenue reaching into an extensive park. Descending between shaded banks, the path leads to an open, grassy, narrow valley, and thence to a hill covered with trees, beyond which is a lawn on elevated ground where the huge mansion stands. Its long front, with ten curved and stepped gables and two battlementcd towers that flank the entrance at the centre, is, like most of the other parts, constructed of small blocks of stone now grown a rusty, blackish gray, a coloring also given by age to the sloping red-tiled roofs. On nearer view the blocks of stone are seen to be often laid with large joints, in which small chips are set, like herring-bone work. At the centre of the edifice and at the chief entrance is the Great Hall, which shows what might be called the third degree 362 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. in the development of this apartment, succeeding the halls in the keeps, and others like those at Penshurst and Haddon, two forms belonging to feudal life. This at Knole is of a kind built for stately effect, and is almost entirely in Renais- sance style. Only in large dimensions is it like the old native hall (74 feet 10 inches long, 27 feet wide, and 26 feet 8 inches high). From its floor of stone a wainscot with square panels rises to a third of the height of the walls, which above it are pierced by shafted windows filled with stained glass, or are plainly plastered, tinted a dull Indian red, and hung with armor and full-length portraits. A wooden arcade like shallow tracery forms a sort of cornice beneath a flat ceiling covered with ribs, so that they make a net of angular divisions, in which the ground has a lilac tint, while the ribs are white. Across the lower end of the apartment, and nearly as high, is an oak screen of a rich English Renaissance design, bearing heraldic devices in bright colors, but elsewhere painted a poor imitation of its own material. Behind it are doors to two courts and also to numerous rooms of service. At the upper end of the hall is the dais, and at the left side is a door to the main stair- case. In the latter the Renaissance style is more marked, and gives an appropriate introduction to remarkable apartments on the main floor. The first of these is the Ball-room, or White Gallery, as it is called, from its color. A crimson Drawing- room, with a white network ceiling, extends to the right and adjoins the Cartoon Gallery, one of the noblest and most picturesque rooms in the house. Its lofty wainscot is dark, and has superbly carved pilasters and square panels contrasted with a chimney-piece of alabaster reaching to a white ceiling of stucco, richly ornamented and marked by a wavy pattern. Light comes through tall shafted windows, the chief one of which is a broad bay where there are groups of statuary on the floor, and a Venus and a Dancing Faun in niches. Even this room is surpassed by one connected with it, a large Bedroom fitted up for James I. at a cost of .£12,000, as we are told. All the furniture and decorations, like the style of the apartment, still remain as they were in his time, including tapestry with which the walls are hung, bed coverings and KNOLE HOUSE. 363 curtains of cloth of gold, now very faded, and the table, articles for the toilet, lustres for candles, and mirror-frames of silver richly worked. A superb chimney-piece reaches to the ceiling, which is white and covered by the usual panelling. Beyond the Ball-room and towards the gardens is the Tapestried-room, so called from its old hangings. Here there are picturesque bay-windows and a ribbed wooden ceiling, slightly sloped up to its centre, all in the Tudor style. Behind the tapestry, at one end, are two doors opening to a pew used by the family in the chapel, — which is not a remarkable one, it may be added. Next to the upper end of the chapel are two very quaint cham- bers, called Lady Betty Germaine's, with windows opening on a delightful garden, laid out with shaded walks and exquisite shrubbery, backed by dense masses of trees and surrounded by a high, old stone wall. Another room of a kind peculiar to the old mansions is the Brown Gallery, extending from this front to the main staircase. It has a plain white plas- tered ceiling, slightly coved, divided by oak mouldings, and solid panelling upon the walls, on which are hung many pictures. The collection of paintings distributed throughout the house is indeed of great interest and value, and includes many works by Holbein, Yandyck, Salvator Rosa, Titian, and Lely. On every side of the house stretches an extensive and charming park, abounding in quiet walks and open glades. Across it there is an avenue more than a hundred feet in width and a mile in length, lined by great oaks and beeches, beyond which lies wild woodland where the deer run in the shade. Through Hall and park the internal peace and wise established institutions kept by many generations have spread a suggestive quiet, well worth knowing in our bustling present. Like the constitution of the country, this grand house has been the work of ages, with their various requirements, and of them all it is a noble monument, still keeping fresh its antique charms, and yet delightfully habitable. England of the later Tudors and the earliest Stuart lingers, as if spellbound, with a grace and dignity which Time increases, in the picturesque apartments and the wide domain of Knole. 364 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. In the latter part of the sixteenth century the Renaissance — that badge of modern Europe — had displaced the Pointed and native styles for domestic purposes, and was used exclu- sively in the design of exteriors as well as of interiors. Yet even then marked features of the old and long-established styles remained, clad in the new costume which was fashioned according to English taste, for while borrowed from Italy, it received characteristic native treatment as the same original did when used in France. There were towers, but they were pierced by very large windows, and instead of battlements they had decorated parapets, and the windows here, as in the walls, were often shafted. At the same time both towers and walls were finished with pilasters and cornices, the details of which were of Italian origin. Increased wealth and refine- ment and growing power at home and abroad helped to create and satisfy desires for increased grandeur ; and the homes of the ruling classes, royalty, nobility, and gentry, became sump- tuous to a degree not hitherto reached, so that the chief resi- dences were striking evidences of the character of the country in art, politics, and social organization. The glories of the great queen's reign, its stately higher life, its opening of the age of modern England, — brilliant as the sunrise of the brightest day, — give a magnificence of illus- tration of that time to these enormous houses, and make them as expressive as were the keeps or abbeys in their day, and certainly no less attractive. Although the form of Renaissance thus modelled and used was almost as distinctly English as was the Tudor Pointed, and although it was for many years a dominant style (yielding in time, of course, to another, as styles are apt to yield), and is associated with one of the grandest ages of England, it has not been revived to any extent like the earlier native styles. It therefore remains the comparatively unique expression of an exceptional period, and full of associations with the splendid and charming morning of modern English history. There is a grand example of the monumental old residences of the stately class found near Stamford. Burleigh House, Northamptonshire, is not only a noble BURLEIGH HOUSE. 365 representative of the great ancient mansions of the country, but also a precious and imposing monument of the immense development of England in power at home, in influence abroad, and in arts and literature, that made the reign of Queen Eliza- beth illustrious. The builder of the house was William Cecil, Baron Burleigh, the first member of the council sworn in her reign, and for nearly half a century, until his death, the Sec- retary of State. His history, meanwhile, was that of Eng- land, whose affairs he directed with pre-eminent ability, integrity, and patriotism. He employed John Thorpe, or John of Padua, as architect, and between 1577 and 1585 erected this house. For half a century the Church had nearly ceased to be the chief patron of the arts of building in England, and they were almost exclusively practised in the construction of mansions for royalty and the nobility. The remarkable disappearance of the earlier palaces for the former, that will be elsewhere noted, renders one of the best Elizabethan seats for the latter peculiarly interesting. Utter changes, not only from the feu- dal castle, but from residences like Penshurst, and still more from the magnificent retreats of abbots and their monks, are shown conspicuously in the immense and stately country-house, especially by this, fit, as it is, to stand as one of the most noble and expressive monuments of the long reign of internal peace that glorified and strengthened England. The House stands in a large park three quarters of a mile from Stamford, one of the neatest and prettiest of ancient English country towns, and in its way as monumental as the grand mansion to which it gives an appropriate introduction. It is by no means a dismal feudal village beside a lordly seat, such as may be seen here and there on the Continent, but a thrifty, pleasant place such as many generations of rural Eng- lish people would make. Along its streets, that wind over small hills, there are many neat old houses and modern ones in quaint old styles. A pale-buff or gray stone used in their construc- tion makes them more cheerful, and three prominent churches add suggestive dignity. St. Mary's stands foremost on rising ground at a turn of the main street, and presents a noble gray 366 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. tower and spire in Early English ; St. Martin's also has a tower ; and the third church, placed in a burial-ground, has a good spire. Another indispensable part of a town in this country, even a very old one, is the inn, here the " George," which, although freshly painted a light color, is a bit of genuine Old England, with its sign extended quite across the street. A path to Burleigh House starts near it, and leads across open grass-ground in the park, and thence along a noble avenue of aged elms, beside which sheep or deer will probably be seen grazing. In a spacious open area at the end of the avenue rises the House, imposing from its size and a multitude of cupolas and turrets, and forming a quadrangle about two hundred feet long on each of its outer sides. It is built throughout of close- grained freestone, now grown gray, except where brownish stains appear upon the main front, and whitish on the side to the right. Long ago the quarries were worked out, and recently old neighboring milestones made of their products were used for repairs on the House, while iron tablets were placed beside the roads. Towers stand at the angles and along the fronts of the edifice, which in most of the other parts has three stories, marked on the exterior by lines of mouldings. Over the second story of the main front these have a curious drop of perhaps two feet from the central to the corner tower to make the lines continuous. It was apparently an original device, for the two towers are not upon a level, and the win- dows fit the slope. Inside the quadrangle there is a court, 110 by 70 feet, showing a design more thoroughly Renaissance in character. Far less of the original finish appears through the interior, where an extensive suite of state apartments fills more than the chief story, most of which was remodelled in the last century, and now suggests the parts of Hampton Court deco- rated by Verrio, Laguerre, and Gibbons. On the ceilings there are highly colored frescos abounding in allegorical figures, and upon the walls are dark oak cornices, panels, or dados, and in some rooms damask hangings. Generally the cases of the doors and windows are of oak, on some of which, as well as some of the cornices, there is gilding. The style might be BURLEIGH HOUSE. 367 called Early Georgian, one in noticeable contrast with the con- temporaneous style of Louis XV. in' France. The English is solid, angular, dark, and rich ; the French is light in form and color, and throughout is marked by scrolls. A pale, buff-gray stair of stone, well shown by Nash, is one of the few Eliza- bethan parts of the interior that is unchanged. Another is the Great Hall, one of the grandest rooms to be found in any private house. The stateliness of the great queen's reign has never left it, but seems to have been growing there in dignity and beauty while the years have passed ; and at the same time the apartment is as comfortable as it is huge and superb. At one end a very large shafted window gives a fine view of the park, and on one side a spacious oriel opens upon a garden. As the glass is plain, except where it is charged with armorial crests in colors, it does not interrupt the charming prospects. Around the walls is a lofty wainscot, fronted by detached large pillars with brown twisted shafts ; above is pale-grayish stone, the material also used for the enormous chimney-piece. The ceiling is of dark oak, shining as if freshly varnished, and contrasted with the subdued tone of the Turkey carpet. Overlooking all, and placed on the sideboard at the end of the room, is a portrait of the present Marquis of Exeter, the lord of his glorious ancestral Burleigh. Distributed throughout the apartments is a very large and interesting collection of paintings, in which Italian, Spanish, Flemish, English, and other artists are well represented. Carlo Dolci's " Christ blessing bread," the favorite work, is hung in the Jewel Closet, a small but astonishingly rich room, where the rosary of Mary Queen of Scots and a gold basin, said to have been used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, are also kept. Besides pictures, the brie-d-brac in the various rooms is wonderfully fine and abundant. All these objects, together with the architectural designs, give the interior an effect of spaciousness, and yet snugness and comfort, combined with an old-time style of elegance and richness. At the same time it is gratifying to observe, since several of the old mansions have been destroyed by fires arising from new modes used for heating, that though all the rooms here have fireplaces, they 368 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. are now warmed by hot water, — thus adding the important ele- ment of safety ; for the destruction of the House, in any way, would be more than a national misfortune. Theobalds, where the great statesman found some of his scanty recreation ; Buckhurst, in Sussex, designed by Thorpe ; Ingestrie ; royal Nonsuch ; all the ten palaces of Henry VIII., excepting Hampton Court; and many lesser mansions of the Tudor age, — have been destroyed; and if by the survival of the fittest, Lord Cecil's home is spared, then still more precious is stately Burleigh. The English Renaissance was given far greater prominence on the exterior of other palatial mansions, as at Wollaton Hall, the ancestral seat of the Willoughbys, in Nottinghamshire, designed by John of Padua and Robert Smithson, and built between 1580 and 1588. Its outer walls are covered with pilasters and entablatures in classic forms eccentrically treated ; yet even here, at the angles, are the Tudor towers clad in the new costume. At the centre of the quadrangle a huge donjon, in the same guise, rises high above all other parts, and the windows with their shafts and transoms are still almost Tudor. There is also, in the central tower, a hall, measuring seventy feet in length and height, covered by an open timber roof of the mediaeval English form, but finished with Renaissance details. Light comes very effectively through windows placed far up in the walls. Although size and magnificence are the chief char- acteristics of this immense room, it is extremely comfortable. Other parts of the house, as at Burleigh, show alterations made in the time of Laguerre, and his productions, as well as the dec- oration which usually accompanied them. Mr. Nash well says that " in grandeur and unity of design, though not in extent, this noble edifice, in respect of its external beauty, may be con- sidered the most striking of the numerous magnificent mansions of the Elizabethan era." Hardwicke Hall, 1 Derbyshire, another prominent work of this period, while magnificently illustrating it, is also a per- 1 See Robinson, P. F., History of Hardwicke Hall, plates, atlas folio, London, 1835 ; also Nash, Hall, Neale, etc. WOLLATON, PART OF THE bARDEN FRONT HARDWICKE HALL. 369 sonal monument of one of its strong characters. Elizabeth of Hardwicke, four times married, had at last a widowhood of seventeen years. Her single object was the establishment of her children in splendid opulence ; and in this she was wonder- fully successful, for her six children, all by Sir William Caven- dish, attained high rank and fortune. William was the first Earl of Devonshire, ancestor of the Dukes of that title ; Charles was the father of the Duke of Newcastle ; from Frances de- scended the Duke of Kingston ; from Elizabeth came " that incomparable Lady Arabella" Stuart, related to the Crown; and Mary was the wife of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The family of De Hardwicke had held this estate more than two centuries, and had built and occupied a mansion in native style, now standing, although dilapidated, contrasted with the impos- ing Renaissance edifice near it begun by Elizabeth when Coun- tess of Shrewsbury, in 1590, and completed seven years later. It is oblong, and has on each side a very broad bay window and two towers, and on each end a single tower. These towers, like the walls, present a great expanse of windows, with mul- lions and transoms. A basement, two stories, and a fourth story in each tower, are marked by strong mouldings, and a mere suggestion of the ancient battlement is given by balus- trades, at prominent points of which are the initials of the Countess, E. S., in scroll-work. The chief entrance is through an arched gateway and a garden, which is bordered on three sides by a stone wall about eight feet in height, and on the fourth side by the main front of the Hall. While stateliness and regularity rather than picturesqueness characterize the ex- terior, the interior has the charm of a romance as well as of real history. Not only are the original architectural features care- fully preserved, but nearly all the furniture is antique, so that the home of the great countess seems unchanged, and the life of the reign of the Virgin Queen never to have left it. The entrance-hall, the height of the two lower stories, finished with a tall wainscot, a gallery for the minstrels, and tapestry upon the walls, is an admirable introduction to the state apartments on the third floor, reached by a broad quaint staircase, also lined with tapestry. First in order is the Drawing-room, 24 370 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 26 feet high, 65 feet long, and 31 feet wide, besides a bay-win- dow in a tower 18 feet deep and 21 feet broad, finished with oak wainscoting elaborately ornamented with carved panels and pilasters, now grown almost black with age. Above it is a frieze in stucco, eleven feet deep, covered with reliefs intended to show Venus and Cupid, forests, a hunting scene, and Diana with her nymphs, accompanied by nearly animals enough for Noah's ark, all colored as the artist thought they would be if alive. As is seldom the case in such a house, the ceiling is plain ; but the enormous chimney-piece has the usual display of pillars, scrolls, and heraldry, and, like the furniture, is quaint and rich. There is but one thing not Elizabethan ; on the floor, that was originally bare, is spread a carpet. Through the diamond-shaped panes of glass in the tall shafted windows a wide view of a lovely rural landscape is presented ; but within the walls the rude antique magnificence wrought by the example that the great queen set and by the imperfect taste in art of her time, seems to be secluded from the modern world in a domain of poetry and dreamy beauty. Its romance is height- ened by the story told of the next room, a small one in the same style, but much richer and with a panelled ceiling. Here the furniture and needlework of Mary Queen of Scots are kept just as she used them, — not, however, here, as has some- times been said, but in the older Hall, or elsewhere, for she died years before this room was finished. Still more imposing is the chief apartment, — one of those enormous galleries that delighted the age of Queen Elizabeth and James L, and that are found in nearly all the larger mansions erected in their time. The gallery at Hardwicke is 166 feet long and 22 feet 5 inches wide, exclusive of three large bay-windows. Its quaintly panelled ceiling, tapestried walls hung with a great number of valuable family portraits, immense stone-shafted windows, huge decorated chimney-pieces, and antique furni- ture, grouped in such a grand room and as they were in the days of Elizabeth, form one of the most striking pictures of a domestic life then possible, and still preserved in England. Horace Walpole wrote that then " space and vastness seem to have made their whole ideas of grandeur," and that " a HARDWICKE HALL. PICTURE GALLERY. THE AGE OF JAMES I. 371 want of taste predominates ; " but while Strawberry Hill exists to show his comprehension of old English architecture, and some modern prodigies arise, or better, while the Elizabethan age is studied and respected, English-speaking people will rejoice in the preservation of Hardwicke Hall. THE AGE OF JAMES I. James I., while learned, was not the ideal of a wise man, and while prominent among the rulers in his time, was not an im- personation of the spirit of his age. Yet his name designates the period when England, an insular, but already influential kingdom, began to develop into the greatest of modern colo- nizing powers. In 1609 the first representative of the East India Company arrived in the distant land destined to become a vast accession to an enormous empire she was to rule, and seven years later he was followed by an ambassador from James I. Many a strong, established power there, native and even Dutch, was to be met, and through extraordinary events to be, in time, overcome. While these beginnings were made in the far East, others were made in the West. Early in the reign of James, royal charters were given for colonies in Vir- ginia and New England, and in 1607 Jamestown in the former was begun. A year later Quebec was founded by the French, destined to be a century and a half afterwards the scene of a victory that gave England an immense domain on the new continent. In 1602, the year before James came to the throne, Gosnold had left Falmouth 1 and had made the first attempt to colonize New England. 2 During the next year, Pring from Milford Haven, and in 1605 Waymouth from the Thames, 3 made more extended explorations on the coasts of the same region ; and in 1607 a settlement was attempted at the mouth of the Kennebec, 4 to be followed, five years before the death of James, by the successful planting at Plymouth (1620). Great lords, enterprising merchants, and bold sailors made these efforts, unconscious of, or faintly conceiving the far- i See Palfrey's History of N. E. (1865), i. 71. 2 Do., 73. » Do., 76. * Do., 83-84. 372 THE AGE OP JAMES I. reaching empire they were then founding ; but it was the brave, earnest Puritan, humble and almost an outcast, whc was to rival them all. Amid the then much more engrossing and prominent politics both abroad and at home, attended by what, small as it looked at the time, was the beginning of England's astonishing change from a minor kingdom to imperial might and proportion such as the world has never known to be matched, — amid all the vast deal of record and of result, we yet find most prominent on the chronicle in stone of the England of that age the same class of monuments as was most notable in the time of Elizabeth. The Church was indeed very strong, but the period of its pre-eminence in the national arts, as well as in politics, had long passed. Lords temporal, and not the ecclesiastics, sup- ported the arts and were the constructors, as also they were the dominant powers. Accordingly, the great residences con- tinue to claim the attention. Peace at home was prolonged, and wealth still increasing, so that landed estates grew more valuable, and there was the old way of the lords and the com- mons living good neighbors together. Thus the great house was possible, significant, and more than an ornament. The English Renaissance, well established during the reign of Elizabeth — and as distinctly characteristic of the early manhood of modern England, so to express it, as were the spirit and history of the age itselt — continued, although modified, to be the prevalent style until the Civil War. In a charming country about an hour by rail north of London there is an extraordinary residence which shows this form of Renaissance. Audley End, 1 Essex, was not only the largest mansion erected in the Jacobean period, but also was apparently intended to be the grandest that had then been built in England. It stands on the estate of Walden Abbey, a 1 See Lord Bratbrooke's History of Audley End and Saffron Walden, Essex. Engravings and cuts, Roy. 4°, 1836. — Winstanlet, H., Plans, Eleva- tions, and particular Prospects of Audley End. Ob. folio, 24 plates. This is one of the earliest and rarest works illustrating a great English residence, as well as one of the most expensive. The view here given (part of a plate ll£ by 20 inches) is taken from the dedication copy to James II. which bears his arms, and belonged to him It is now owned by the writer. AUDLEY END. 373 house of the Benedictines founded in 1136 and granted by Henry VIII. in 1537 to Sir Thomas Audley. His daughter's son was distinguished in the fight with the Spanish Armada and in other ways, and on the accession of King James, in 1603, was made Earl of Suffolk and Lord Treasurer. In the same year the Earl began this house, and probably superintended the work, assisted, it is thought, by John Thorpe and Bernard Jansen. Thirteen years afterwards the house was finished, at a cost of £190,000. There were two large quadrangles, of which only three fourths of the chief one remains. When the tenth and last Earl of Suffolk died, in 1745, the estate at length passed into the possession of Lord Braybrooke. "By the inju- dicious advice of Sir John Vanbrugh," the architect, three sides of the first quadrangle had already been destroyed, and in 1750 the great gallery, 226 feet long, was also taken down ; yet the best part of the edifice was spared, and is now in admi- rable preservation and condition. Audley End is one of those peaceful, lovely, and secluded old-world places found only in rural England. A well-shaded and extremely pretty road leads about a mile from a station on the Great Eastern line to the house, which from the first to the latest view is charming. Beyond a sleepy little river lies a broad meadowy tract studded with large scattered maples, oaks, elms, and horse-chestnuts, and almost surrounded by a background of park like a forest. At some distance on one side are picturesque old stables of brick and stone, liberally supplied with gables, and near the centre of the view is the great house itself, built of smoothed yellow-buff stone, well filled with many wide, tall, shafted windows, and crowned by quaint cupolas with curved roofs of green-tinted copper. Much of the exterior masonry is soon found to have been renewed, and now looks fresh ; but where its old surfaces remain they have grown gray. A porch with worn and faded marble pillars covers the main entrance. This opens to the Great Hall, 1 a grand oblong apartment with a floor of black and white marbles, a flat ceiling with a ground of white crossed by oak beams, and 1 The Hall is 90 by 27 feet, and 29 feet high ; the Gallery was 226 feet long ; and the Saloon is 60 by 27 i feet and 20| feet high (Hall). 374 THE AGE OF JAMES I. a high wainscot and huge screen of the same wood, not very- dark in color, and richly carved. A noble staircase leads to the Saloon, one of the most elaborate and striking rooms of its date in England. On the. walls is a superb wainscot, twelve feet in height, with a rich cornice, panelled base, pilasters, and large arched openings filled with full-length portraits. All the woodwork is painted a slightly grayish white relieved by gild- ing, and there is a similar tint, with the addition of a little blue, on a magnificent and lofty chimney-piece. Above the wainscot the walls are also white, as is the ceiling, which is covered by an unusual design of squares with deep and richly wrought pendants at the angles, and on other parts a profusion of fanciful ornament in stucco. Only on the great scale of these apartments can the stately picturesqueness of their style have full effect, as it does ; and their lightness adds to their cheerfulness without impairing their antique character. In the Drawing-room, where the design is less striking, there is a simi- lar coloring, except upon the walls, which are covered with large figured red damask. Several other rooms show the same general features, varied by emblazoned arms upon the chimney- pieces, or uncolored oak used for them, or by various minor details. There are two Libraries in Jacobean style, with white and gilt finish and open shelves containing a well-kept and noble collection of books, among which English history is strongly represented. The one poor apartment is the chapel, in a pseudo Pointed style, combined with what might be called modern finish, which is used elsewhere appropriately enough, chiefly in the Billiard-room and other parts for common use in the basement. Some of the main features of the house show the last traces of the mediaeval forms. Slight suggestions of the earlier towers, once the most important objects in the seat of a lord, are given by square cupolas at the angles, and the great hall appears in its latest use as a stately vestibule, with a hint of the old national timber roof conveyed by beams across its flat Renaissance ceil- ing. Plainness characterizes the exterior, and effect is given by disposition of the parts, while decoration is chiefly shown on the interior, — a wise arrangement in the English climate. Modern HOLLAND HOUSE; HATFIELD. 375 life has made the chief apartments light and comfortable, while they still retain their antique style and stately picturesqueness. If Sir Thomas Audley was an incarnation of the greedy plun- derers of the Church in Henry VIII.'s time, and this house in some degree was a memorial of his success, its near approach to ruin only a century after its erection was suggestive of the wear of an ill-gotten wealth. But the complete and costly restoration or repair by the family now worthily holding it preserves for the country a grand monument of English art at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a home of antique beauty that we may hope will long be held by the noble owners. The writer certainly could not soon forget the old-world charms, bright with soft sunshine, which he has found in the park and superb old rooms of Audley End. Within the first dozen years of the seventeenth century two other famous mansions were built in English Renaissance, Holland House, Kensington, and Hatfield, Herts, about twenty miles northerly from London. Both of these edifices, con- structed of brick 'and stone, are noble examples of the do- mestic architecture prevalent in the reign of James I., and numerous cuts or plates, as well as ample text, relating to them can be found in general works less difficult to obtain than some books on single structures mentioned in these pages. Both houses have always had great social distinction. Holland House? once a country-seat, but of late surrounded by the surging tide of population London has been spreading far and wide, is notably associated with Addison, who, by marriage with the Countess of Warwick, came to occupy it in 1716, and died near the centre of the building in 1719. Henry Fox, after- wards Baron Holland, lived here for many years following 1746, as also have several of his descendants. Among the remarkable apartments are the Library, or Long Gallery (102 by VJ\ feet) and the " Gilt Room," an unusually rich example of Jacobean decoration. Hatfield? designed by John Thorpe and built between 1605 and 1611, was erected by Robert, first Earl of 1 See The History of Holland House, by the Princess Marie Liechtenstein, 2 vols. 4°. — Also, Hall (II.), Neale (X.). 2 See Hall (I.) ; Nash (III.) ; Robinson's Vitruvius, imp. folio, London. 376 THE AGE OP JAMES I. Salisbury, youngest son of the great William, Lord Treasurer, whose seat, Burleigh, has been described on pages 365-368. The house, measuring 300 by 100 feet, has a very picturesque although not elaborately ornamented exterior, and internally is both convenient and sumptuous. King James's Room and the Gallery (160 by 20) are superbly decorated by the ex- uberant fancy of the mature English Renaissance and the wealth and taste of recent times, solid, brilliant, and enduring, like the lords who have continuously held Hatfield, and like them visibly connecting the times of Elizabeth with those of Victoria, and making both periods seem, as they are, living realities in the history of England. Aston Hall, 1 Warwickshire, two miles from Birmingham, was begun in 1618 (two years after Audley End was finished) and completed by 1635. A baronial mansion had for centuries occupied the site when Sir Thomas Holte, the sheriff of the county, and " emphatically a good man and a loyal subject," laid out the grounds and built the house. His family retained the estate until the latter part of the last century, completing a period of nearly four hundred years of possession. Sub- sequently James Watt, son of the great inventor, leased and occupied it. In 1864 the Hall with forty-three acres of the grounds that had not yet been used for building were saved from further encroachments of the suburbs and were bought by the Corporation of Birmingham, aided by <£ 16, 000 received from private sources, and were made a public park and museum. The Hall stands on a low broad hill, around the slopes of which are pleasant open grounds, including a fine lawn and garden at the front. Important changes in planning great houses are shown, indicating equally great changes in the con- dition of the country and in domestic life. The quadrangular form, with a central court used for the edifices hitherto built and described, had disappeared, and the ground shape was that of a large E •> thought by some to suggest Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign it was adopted. This shape was common in many 1 See Davidson, A., History of the Holtes of Aston, and Description of Aston Hall. Plates, folio. Birmingham, 1854. ASTON HALL. 377 larger and smaller mansions, of which Aston is a fine example. Although there is a large hall, 1 it is only a stately vestibule, here placed along the inner side of the E , or the main front, and entered from a porch forming the projecting part. At the inner angles are staircases, in the arms are large rooms ; and minor rooms, en suite, here modernized, fill the outer side, or garden front. Less change has been made at Aston in the second story, where the body of the E is occupied by the Great Gallery, a noble room retaining its antique style that is ex- tremely picturesque, even if of questionable excellence. A dark oak wainscot, reaching to a very rich white stucco ceiling, is pierced by shafted windows towards the garden and varied by an enormous white stone chimney-piece, on which are raised panels of black marble ; but ordinary pictures hung upon the walls and a crowd of objects that belong to the incongruous museum injure the effect. The Drawing-room, or Queen's Room, has windows with mullions and transoms at one end towards the grounds, and a similar large window overlooking the area in front. Around its sides is a wainscot of imitation oak, with large panels that have faded dark red grounds, rising to a deep white frieze of stone in which are cut standing figures showing military costumes from the Roman period to that of Elizabeth. As usual, the chimney-piece is very tall and rich, and here is made of white stone carved with many ornamental details, among which are the arms of the Holtes and their con- nections. The floor, like nearly all the floors in the house, is of plain boards, and is now dirty. While a valuable exhibition has been opened daily to- the public, and the house of one of the chief ancient families of the town is shown, with its important illustration of the art and life of England in the seventeenth century, the charm of an occupied and well-kept home is lost, and the old rooms undergo a wear that must in no long time have a most serious result. They are, indeed, already injured and dirty, and the air is apt to be bad. A compari- son of their condition with that of the HQtel de Cluny is not 1 The dimensions of the Hall are 47 by 24 feet, of the Gallery 136 by 18 (and 16 feet high), and of the Drawing-room 39 by 23 feet. The number of rooms shown is twenty -four. 378 .ENGLAND SINCE 1640. favorable to Aston. The grounds, that can be continually reno- vated, are not injured, and supply a delightful and beneficent retreat for thousands from the smoke and crowded streets of Birmingham. ENGLAND SINCE 1640. The policy pursued by Charles I. in government, and the growth of Puritanism in religion, resulted in a decade of changes as great as any ever known in England, both in immediate and remote consequences, and an era as remark- able in its way as were the Conquest, the Wars of the Roses, or the Reformation. Marked as it was, it, from its nature, was very unfavorable to the erection of monumental works of art. Its creations were political and social ; in art work almost ceased, while instead of this, destruction for years prevailed. At the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, England, although not much changed in some ways since the Reformation, a cent- ury earlier, was in others very different, and hardly less in contrast with our own times. Remote as that period now seems, the country then had an even older look than at pres- ent. If the Roman pavements and most of the lesser objects now known lay buried or unheeded, the great fortifications and the immense northern Wall were far less injured. Saxon works were scarcely fewer than the Roman, and the Norman were more numerous. Cathedrals and Parish churches, strong, imposing, and unrestored, wore the full mantle of gray anti- quity. Abbeys were disappearing, but their remains were larger than at present. Some of the keeps and castles were ruinous, but many more than at present were in repair. Few were indefensible, and few were not put to hard use when the great struggle came between the king and parliament ; and although noble churches were made stables, the enormous waste and wreck of war swept with severer fury over the embattled seats of lords and gentlemen, and left many of the grandest or most curious edifices in final ruin. At the same time most of the great mansions, quite unsuited for ENGLAND SINCE 1640. 379 defence, were comparatively unharmed, and throughout the country still less disturbed stood thousands of buildings of a class not yet described, but mentioned later in these pages. The homes of the common people, if of humble rank as monuments, stood through the turmoil as they had stood through long years of uneventful peace. Great numbers of them, then old and quaint, have been, in the changes brought by time, replaced by others ; and yet many last to our days to show the simplicity or homely comfort, often clothed in quaint- ness or picturesqueness, that surrounded the mass of the inhab- itants, at least in country towns and rural districts. Though when judged by modern wants, the houses of the people lacked a great deal, they would probably compare well with those for the same classes at the same time on the Continent ; and the dreary rows or miles of dingy dwellings found in modern manufacturing towns had not yet risen, — perhaps to show that the England of the Stuarts had fewer cheerless tenements than the England of the nineteenth century. Roads were fewer and far poorer ; uncultivated tracts much larger and more frequent ; towns, if then almost as numerous, were often too small to suggest their present size. Commerce and manufactures ex- isted, but, especially the latter, on a small scale. Busy enter- prise to some degree was active in the seaports, germs of colonies were planted ; yet the immense industrial activity and wealth of the nation was still passing through a period of child- hood. Population, except at a few points, was comparatively small and scattered, and internal communication so infrequent or imperfect that most of the communities or districts were as if isolated. It was indeed still the England of the early ages and the early poets, rural and partly feudal, changed by the Reformation, and bounded by a few commercial ports. It was plain, simple, pastoral, and agricultural, with here and there the lordly country-house set in its park and gardens, making, throughout the land, local centres with such refinements as the times afforded, and exerting no slight influence. The Civil War was fought and ended, leaving numerous evi- dences of its passage, now seen chiefly in the castles, now felt in the thoughts and institutions of the people. Violent changes 380 ENGLAND SINCE 1640. of ancient usages occurred. " The government," says Lord Macaulay (Hist. Eng. ch. I.), " though in form a republic, was in truth a despotism, moderated only by the wisdom, the sobri- ety, and the magnanimity of the despot." Art was not favored, and the exigencies of the times would hardly have permitted its practice. The Restoration, with intense reaction in all things, came, and the subsequent period was marked by monu- ments still to be seen in imposing forms, the most important of which are in London. Native English styles and the Renais- sance of the Tudor and earlier Stuart times were replaced by designs with classic forms or details, a taste for which was simultaneously so marked in Italy, Spain, and France. Sir Christopher Wren, one of the greatest of English architects, gave his important influence and example in favor of the for- eign style, and recommended it by his masterly treatment. Although the advent of this style in England occurred when the country, or the king, became in an unusual degree subject to France, the use of the style is hardly more than fancifully a suggestion of foreign influence. The Revolution of 1688, like Puritanism, produced immense effect upon the country, but also left its chief mark on the institutions, politics, and character of the people ; and the reign of William III., while its most prominent results were similar, left its chief existing memorials at Kensington and Hampton Court, which will be described hereafter along with the palaces. In his reign and in that of Queen Anne, Eng- land took a very important part in European history, which will be mentioned in a description of its great monument at Blenheim. The chief monuments of the history of the country for more than a century following the Revolution were still the great mansions of the higher classes of society ; for they were then the dominant power, as royalty and the ancient Church had formerly been, and naturally they have left the most con- spicuous memorials. It was the age of great governing fami- lies, stronger even than the old nobles, and in the main more beneficent. They had practically succeeded to much of the old royal power, and theirs may be called the patrician age, THE PATRICIAN PALACES. 381 marked by some grave errors, yet distinguished for great advancement and glory for England, chiefly under their rule made Imperial. Their memorials in stone are embodied, not inappropriately, in a style borrowed from the dominant empire of the classic world, and we may properly call them — THE PATKICIAN PALACES. Chatsworth, Derbyshire, one of the earliest and most mag- nificent examples of these residences, was built, between 1687 and 1706, by the first Duke of Devonshire to replace an old edifice in which Mary Queen of Scots was long confined, and which was unsuccessfully besieged in 1645 by forces of the parliament. The main structure is a quadrangle a hundred feet long on each side, with a basement supporting two stories that are faced with Ionic pilasters. A buff, water-marked sand- stone, smooth and durable, and with few weather-stains, is used for the masonry, the rich effect of which is increased by bright gilding on the window-sashes in the chief, or southern, front. During recent years a large and handsome wing has been added. The interior is somewhat varied in style, classic pre- vailing in the numerous state apartments, and the Vanbrugh variety distinguishing the chapel, but offset by an altar-piece of Derbyshire alabaster and marbles that would be superb even in Spain. Some of the rooms are finished in reddish oak that has grown dark, and is overlaid with carved foliage and other elaborate decoration in pale boxwood, — a favorite style, for many years used also at Burleigh, Hampton Court Palace, and other great residences. In contrast, the sculpture gallery, a long, handsome hall, is in what might be called modern style, with drab or olive-brown walls, against which the abundant and finely mounted statuary is admirably shown. The impression of elegance, comfort, and magnificence combined in this seat which was given the writer when the old world was a novelty to him, was not diminished, he found, in another visit made after he had seen many splendid palaces. 382 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. All the glories of the rich interior are, however, rivalled by the gardens, which have few equals in the world, and show French and Italian, as well as English, styles in exuberant elaboration. An immense conservatory, numerous greenhouses, surprising waterworks, and the great " Emperor " fountain add to the variety. During the winter the cold here is intense, and more than sixty fires, burning above three hundred tons of coal each year, and seven miles of pipe for carrying heat, are used beneath the glass in the grounds. An ideal of a beautiful and gorgeous country-house, such as is possible only in England, is, indeed, admirably shown at Ducal Chatsworth. "William III. did much to prepare the way for the events that caused the erection of one of the most monumental of all English mansions, in which the new style of foreign origin was used on the memorial of the victory of England, and of Europe, over France, and of the renewed importance, and, indeed, the pre-eminence of England in the civilized world. Blenheim, 1 eight miles north of Oxford, was founded by Queen Anne in 1705, in the fourth year of her reign, as an inscription (Neale, iii.) on a Column in the park, said to have been written by Lord Bolingbroke, informs us, to be, — " A Monument designed to perpetuate the Memory of the Signal Victory Obtained over the French and Bavarians, Near the village of Blenheim, On the banks of the Danube, By John Duke of Marlborough, The Hero not only of his Nation, but of his Age ; Whose Glory was equal in the Council and in the Field . . . Who by military Knowledge, and irresistible Valour, In a long Series of uninterrupted Triumphs Broke the Power of France," " Asserted, and Confirmed the Liberties of Europe." The Revolution of 1688 and the accession of William III. had confirmed the constitutional rights and freedom of the 1 See Radcltffe, C. W., Views of, imp. folio, Oxford, 1842. (The writer's copy is from the library at Blenheim, where it belonged until 1882.) — Gem- BLENHEIM. 383 country, and had ended the discreditable and dangerous sub- serviency of the Stuarts to the Grand Monarch, whose ambition sought to reduce Europe to his will, in some degree at least, as he had reduced France. The sovereign of England not only ceased to be his dependant, but became his antagonist. William found a Lieutenant-General, Baron John Churchill, who had risen by marked ability, and advanced him ■ in the public service. In 1701 the king formed what was called the " Grand Alliance " of the German Empire, Austria, the United Provinces, and England to oppose the designs of France. At his death in the next year, Queen Anne, his successor, realized the importance of his policy and plans, and followed them. While France had steadily been growing to predominance in Europe none of her opponents singly could arrest her prog- ress. She had practical control of Spain, and added the resources of a great part of the empire of Charles V. to her own. England had been made subservient, Germany was disunited, " the imperial eagle," wrote Lord Bolingbroke, " was not only fallen, b,ut her wings were clipped," and Hol- land, the most steadfast adversary of France, fought like an heroic dwarf against a giant, but she might be like another David from whom stones were snatched. Absolutism and the rule of the Inquisition then impended over Europe with the possibilities that might be consequent. The freedom of the na- tions, for which the Alliance stood, demanded not the impos- sible, a perfect man, but one in whom consummate powers of statesmanship and military genius were combined. Some serious charges could be made against the character of Church- ill ; but he had phenomenal abilities, that he could use, and did use, with immense effect for the salvation of all Europe. Queen Anne promptly placed him in command; and thus gave the Alliance what was far more than the gain of many armies, for maeum Antiquarum Delectus, etc. (the Marlborough Gems), 100 plates by Bar- tolozzi, 2 vols, folio, 1781 (also 1845). The original ed. has sold at from £70 to £100, complete. The collection was sold in June, 1875, for £35,750. — There are early catalogues of the library (1728, etc.), but the one found with the least difficulty is Bibliotheca Sunderlandiana, Sale Cat., 5 parts, and Sup., Dec, 1881, to June, 1883, 8°, London. The amount of the sales was £56,581,6. — See also, Coxe, W. (Archd.), Memoirs of John, Duke of M., etc., 3 vols. 4°, London, 1818-19. 38-4 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. she " gave them Marlborough " as their captain-general. Only he could reconcile and join the inharmonious forces, only he could plan and execute with them the marvellous campaign of 1704, when, August 13th, he attacked at disadvantage and then utterly defeated the French veterans near Blenheim in a battle that " at once destroyed," wrote Alison, " the vast fabric of power which it had taken Louis XIV., aided by the talents of Turenne and the genius of Vauban, so long to construct." It shaped the course of the history of civilization. The country resolved to build a fitting monument " Of Marl- borough's Glory, and of Britain's Gratitude." The royal Manor of Woodstock was granted. It had been the site of a Roman villa, a home of King Alfred, and through centuries a hunting- seat of the royal family and court. A Saxon parliament had met there ; the Fair Rosamond had hidden in its bowers ; Elizabeth had been confined by Mary in its palace ; and the Civil "War had left its mark on the domain. Associations with the literature as well as history of the country gathered around it. Alfred the Great had the/e translated Boethius ; the old ballads told the tale of Rosamond ; Elizabeth wrote verses there in 1555 ; and some events in 1649 supplied the subject of the entertaining " Good Devil of Woodstock," that Sir Walter Scott developed in his charming novel, " Woodstock." * The ancient palace, after it had been much injured, was taken down in the earlier part of the last century. The grant of the manor to the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs was confirmed by parliament in 1705, and half a million pounds were voted for the erection of the great memorial palace. Sir John Van- brugh, a dramatist and architect who had just built Castle Howard, the superb seat of the Earl of Carlisle and still one of the famous edifices of Yorkshire, made the designs, that were completely executed in ten years. The wealth and good taste of the Duke and his successors, and the many testimonials to his services, magnificently furnished the immense and splendid structure. Its Great Court, covering about three acres, has on each side a quadrangle, one for the offices and kitchen, and the other for the stables, connected by a double colonnade with 1 See the writer's " Lands of Scott," chapter xlii., " Woodstock." BLENHEIM. 385 almost a hundred pillars. At the upper end is the vast and imposing house itself. The whole length of this group is 850 feet, and the depth is 600 feet. Stateliness with the Palla- dian regularity and balance is the chief effect, that far surpasses in palatial character all residences of the English sovereigns except the great example of the native Pointed style at Wind- sor. Some persons think that the design is heavy ; but it has great variety, and groups finely in both near and distant views. " The plan," says Mr. Kerr, " makes comfort and convenience subordinate to pictorial magnificence ; " but Blenheim, it should be remembered, is a monument as well as an enormous country- seat. Its exterior is built wholly of hewn stone that has grown yellowish or tawny brown or flecked with black lichens. Stone is also used in the Great Hall, one worthy of the edifice, built of a white variety relieved by pale buff. A tour through the State apartments — for a walk through them is a tour — leads first to the Saloon, a very large and lofty room with a base and window-cases of marble, and a coved ceiling, that, like the walls, is decorated with elaborate frescos by Laguerre. On each side of it, en suite, are three other rooms. Those to the right, in white and gold, have Flemish tapestries upon the walls that represent the great duke's battles, and all the windows on this side are towards a wide and beautiful lawn. At the end, and at right angles, is the Grand Gallery, that for a long period held the famous library of 17,000 volumes collected by the third Earl of Sunderland, which were dispersed in 1882-83. The apartment is 183 feet long, and has five divisions, each with three windows set between Doric pilasters of white marble. The much-ornamented stucco ceiling is either white or has pale neutral tints, as also have the elaborately carved cases for the books. A corridor from the Great Hall leads to the chief entrance, an imposing classic doorway built of variously colored polished marbles. On the same side of the palace is the chapel, large enough for the many persons, guests or household, by whom it would at times be occupied. The style is semi-classic. There is an elaborate flat stucco ceiling with white or neutral tints, and on the sides are imitation marbles. Handsome seats of oak, and a richly carved alabaster pulpit inlaid with vitreous 25 386 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. mosaics, are of recent date. By far the most imposing object is, however, the gigantic monument, executed by Rysbrach, in mem- ory of the great duke, who died in 1722, at the age of seventy-two, — a general who planned and fought many difficult campaigns, and yet, says Prof. Creasy, " who never fought a battle that he did not win, and never besieged a place that he did not take." On the opposite, or eastern, side of the palace are apart- ments with ceilings of white and gold, walls covered with green or crimson, small, elegant chimney-pieces of white marble, and windows opening on the beautiful lawn and gardens. In this suite are hung several very valuable paintings. The Cabinet, a corner room, contains a fine Madonna by Carlo Dolci and several works by Rubens, one of which was presented to the duke by the city of Antwerp. In the next room is perhaps the best Raphael in England, a Madonna and Child enthroned be- tween two Saints ; it was brought from Perugia in 1768. A Fornarina and a Holy Family attributed to him, four Canalettis, and two fine Titians are also here. The Vandycks are fine, and include a large portrait of Charles I. on horseback. The gardens, covering 300 acres, are as wonderful as is the house; and the great park, eight times as large, almost sur- passes them in interest. Not only does the scenery of its forests, glades, and lawns abound in sylvan beauty, but many of the trees are still survivors of the periods of the Tudor, York, or even the Lancastrian sovereigns. They stand as mute witnesses of the conservative endurance of old England. They alone of living things bore their part in the pageantry of royal hunts in centuries long past, and Englishmen walked in their shade when the New World was still unknown to Europe. The enormous oaks, gnarled, bowed, and wreathed with aged but luxuriant ivy, worn and shattered by the storms of many hun- dred years, are yet green, strong, and noble. Dense growths of large ferns spread gracefully beneath them, and the deer and sheep and cattle, thousands of them, stray and feed among the thickets or along the winding grassy glades. Houghton Hall, 1 Norfolk, also has distinguished personal and historical associations connected with its erection. It was 1 See Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. iii. HOUGHTON HALL ; HOLKHAM. 387 built by one who has been called the first peace prime minister of England, who has been judged with severity for some charac- teristics, and who has been credited with a successful policy of trying to avoid the hitherto costly warfare in which the country often was engaged, and by pacific means to develop prosperity. Sir Robert Walpole's wealth and power for many years in the reign of George I. were great, and in 1722 he began this splen- did seat, which was finished in 1735. The architects were Colin Campbell and Thomas Ripley ; the design is Roman treated in the manner of the school of the period, the chief order being the Ionic. A quadrangle, three stories high and 166 feet long upon each side, forms the main building and the centre, from which wings of a single story are extended that make the whole front 450 feet long. The apartments, of im- posing size and richness, held until 1779 a wonderfully large and valuable collection of paintings, that were then sold to the Empress of Russia for .£45,500, and now form part of the grand gallery of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, — a precious gain there, and an irreparable loss to England. The Palladian regularity of plan and semi-classic style were even more fully shown at Holkham, 1 Norfolk, built between 1734 and 1760. It has two fronts, both of which are 344 feet in length and constructed of white bricks. A great number of large and small mansions, erected in the eighteenth century, exhibited modifications of the same general style. In the latter part of the period the study of Greek art, then a favorite one, brought into fashion designs more or less strictly classic ; but the Gothic Revival soon followed, and not many of them were executed. Mansions or castles supposed to conform to the styles used by mediaeval architects were much more numerous; but they are of such recent date that they can hardly yet be called monumental, and a description of them can be properly omitted here, and reference made to Mr. Eastlake's interesting history. 2 A better taste has grown in later years, that, with the still increasing wealth of the nation, continues to add to the 1 See Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. v. plates 64-69. 2 Eastlake, C. L. A History of the Gothic Revival. Fine cuts. Imp. 8°. London, 1872. 388 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. number of the great mansions while guarding well the memorials of history and art which abound among those most distinctive treasures of the country, " The Stately Homes of England." Stowe l in Buckinghamshire, by successive changes made through the eighteenth century, became one of the largest and most magnificent examples of the taste and wealth of the landed nobility in Great Britain. It is the chief seat of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, descended in the former line from Leofric, Earl of Chester, who died in 1057, and in the latter from the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. Stowe, meaning an eminence, is an ancient manor, with a history extending to Saxon times, that in 1592 became the property of the present family of Temple. A comparatively plain, angular mansion, dating from 1560, was replaced by a vast palatial edifice in Roman style, with a Corinthian portico in the centre and pavilions at the ends, finished in 1775. In- cluding wings, that contain offices, the whole length of the main front is 916 feet, all of which was designed by Lords Cobham and Camelford. The apartments, 2 not completed until within the present century, are on a corresponding scale of size and magnificence. One of the most remarkable is the Saloon, decorated at a cost of X 12,000, and surrounded by sixteen rich columns bearing an attic covered with an alto-relievo in which there are more than three hundred figures about four feet high. An extraordinary collection of paintings, marbles, china, and superb bric-a-brac, formed by generations of the family and distributed throughout the house, was dispersed in 1848 at a sale 3 that occupied forty days, and was one of several 1 See " Stowe, A Description of the House and Gardens of the Most Noble and Puissant Prince, Richard Grenville Nugent Chandos Temple, Duke of Buck- ingham and Chandos, etc. Only Twenty-five Copies." Large 4°. Buckingham, 1827. The numerous plates in the writer's copy are on India paper. 2 The dimensions in feet of some of the chief apartments, etc., are copied from this work : — Long. Wide. High. Drawing-room 50. 32. 22. State Dining-room 76. 25. 22. State Dressing-room 30. 24.8 19.4 State Bedroom 50.8 35.10 19.4 8 See The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated. By H. R. Forster, 4°, London, 1848. (The total amount realized at the sale was £75,562, 4, 6.) Long. Wide. High. Portico 58. 28.6 43. Saloon 60. 43. 56.7 Chapel 37. 20.10 26. Library 76. 25. 19.4 L0WTHER CASTLE; ALTON TOWERS; EATON HALL. 389 recent events full of opportunities for persons who gather rare objects, but nevertheless very sad and much to be regretted. Years must pass and age must come before the numerous modern residences erected during the late Classic and Gothic revivals, and in recent times, attain the historical position of the great mansions which have been described. Many of them, however, are of such importance that in this place a few of them must be mentioned. Lowther Castle, Westmoreland, seat of the ancient family of the Earl of Lonsdale, was begun in 1808 and built from designs by Robert Smirke, jr., in English style of the fourteenth century. As the north front is 420 feet long, the great Terrace nearly a mile long, and the surrounding park of immense ex- tent, abounding in old trees and fine scenery, some conception can be formed of this early revival of the national style ap- plied to domestic edifices. Alton Towers, seat of the Earl of Shrewsbury, was another imposing work of the Gothic revival, less castellated in form ; and Eaton Hall, Cheshire, seat of the Marquis, now Duke, of Westminster, finished about 1814, was a marvel of elegance in its time. It has, however, already been replaced by the new Hall, that is among the wonders of England. On page 288 a brief account has been given of perhaps the most extraordinary residence of modern times in the country, the Duke of Portland's seat. The great residences during the last three centuries have been prominent monuments of English social life and insti- tutions, with a marked effect upon the aspect of the country, although relatively less than that given by the monastic es- tablishments, which, frequently as they were found, were far less numerous. If the influence of the mansions and their occupants has been less than was exerted by the ecclesiastics, who through more than the preceding three centuries had spread the refinement or the learning of their times, it has been great. Some conception of the better life and of the material surroundings of the old priories and abbeys can be formed from the culture and refinement found around the coun- try-seats. Still, useful fields and pastures blend with lands set 390 THE ROYAL PALACES. apart from common things, to be enjoyed by the peasant as well as the lord, and teach that all of life is not for mere utility of the most common sort, but that the charms of Nature graced by art are in a due proportion also quite as much needed. The mansions built in England since the Revolution of 1688 are, however, not alone monuments of the current social life of the country, but peculiarly, and even more distinctly, of the oligarchical control that has existed there through a great part of the period. Besides political and social power, hospitality, good society, fox-hunting, or acquisition of rare books and works of art, have made these houses celebrated. Marvellous collections of books, works of art, and bric-a-brac have graced them ; many retained, and not a few of late dispersed. But happily the world is better off in some ways than when the monkish treasures were scattered. The ancestral home often yet can keep its precious things ; but when the separation must come, no reckless spoilers now await it. In their stead are eager buyers with a readier desire to take good care of every valued object, so that if partings occur, the world of new col- lectors is enriched, regret for the inevitable is mitigated, and something of the charm of the old home seems to go with the treasures even to distant homes across the sea. THE EOYAL PALACES. 1 While the residences of the nobility and gentry of England are very numerous and illustrate in a remarkable manner her history for centuries, the memorials of the still more promi- nent life and part of royalty are, aside from Windsor Cas- tle, peculiarly few, and less striking, especially if the relative importance of the sovereigns is considered, or comparison is made with the palaces of other European nations France has St. Germain, Blois, Fontainebleau, and Versailles, to show the changes of the national taste or abilities in art, and the course of the royal power that shaped her destiny. In Italy the Vati- 1 See Ptne, W. H., History of the Royal Residences, etc. 100 plates, finely colored by hand, 3 vols. imp. 4°, London, 1819. (Published at £25, 4.) THE EOYAL PALACES. 391 can and Quirinal illustrate the long history of the papacy ; the Ducal Palace stands a unique memorial of the marvel- lous Venetian state ; the Pitti of the Tuscan Dukes ; the vast Caserta of the Bourbons once at Naples ; the array of edifices grouped at Mantua of the Gonzagas ; and thus many others of the many powers now represented by the Crown of Italia Una. Russia has the immense and curious Kremlin, and the Her- mitage full of gems of art. Spain has the Alhambra and Escorial. But royal power that once was predominant in Eng- land has few adequate material memorials of its former impor- tance, around which have crystallized associations with a long period of her history. The oldest large existing palace, Hamp- ton Court, dates only from the reign of Henry VIII., and a great part of that is over a century and a half more modern. Fragments of others even earlier may be found, as of Eltham in Kent, frequented by the kings of the Houses of Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, and Tudor, which was forsaken for Green- wich and subsequently almost completely destroyed. It was of great size and surrounded by a very broad moat, some traces of which, and nearly the whole of the great hall (100 by 36 feet), remain ; but the latter was for a long time used as a barn. Greenwich, where Henry VIII., Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were born, is represented by the splendid Hospital, which dates chiefly from the reign of William III. Richmond, a royal residence from the end of the reign of Edward I. until about the middle of the seventeenth century, when, with the exception of a gateway, it was pulled down, was very large. Its size can be conceived from that of the great hall (100 by 40 feet), of the chapel (96 by 40 feet), "with stalls as in a cathedral," and of the gallery 200 feet in length. Nonsuch in Surrey, built by Henry VIII., was one of the marvels of his time, " rivalling the monuments of ancient Rome itself," wrote Camden. It had two courts, one 150 feet by 132, and the other 137 by 116. Queen Elizabeth, who liked it very much, Anne, Queen of James I., and Queen Henrietta Maria, were its chief occupants. Charles II. granted it in trust for Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland and Baroness of Nonsuch. She pulled it down, and thus showed the degradation to which the home 392 THE ROYAL PALACES. of the Virgin Queen, and the England Elizabeth had glorified, were then reduced. Of the early metropolitan palaces, there are few relics. One of the most curious and picturesque was in the Tower, but its destruction has been " entire and com- plete," says Mr. Brewer, who also says of that at " Westmin- ster, the Hall alone remains, ... of Baynard's Castle nothing whatever ; of Whitehall, the doubtful foundations of a wall ; of the Savoy, the chapel (a small one) ; and of St. James's, the gateway " and a few parts. Of Kennington, he adds, " even the site is doubtful," and of the Bridewell not one stone re- mains. Even the several revolutions and the utter change of government in Paris have been less destructive than events in London. Conceptions of the palaces in the latter associated with any great length or remoteness of time must, indeed, be formed from printed pages, drawings, or engravings, rather than from architectural monuments. The chief palace of the sovereigns in London from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of James I. was Whitehall. It had belonged to the See of York and had been enlarged until it was a vast " aggregation of irregular buildings " that lacked convenience and dignity. James I. resolved to replace it by a worthy structure, and proved that he had good taste by adopting a design by Inigo Jones. Although the foreign Renais- sance was to be used, the architect was an English, and a Lon- don, man, born there in 1572, and educated by years of study in Italy. He was the Michael Angelo of the new style in Eng- land, her great representative in it, and perhaps the man who did most both to change and mark the taste of the country in the transition from the old Pointed to the Renaissance. As Walpole wrote, " Vitruvius drew up his grammar ; Palladio showed him the practice ; Rome displayed a theatre worthy of his emulation ; and King Charles was ready to encourage, employ, and reward his talents. This is the history of Inigo Jones as a genius." (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. ii., 402, ed. 1849.) His plan was of a palace 874 feet long on the east and west sides towards the Thames and the park, and 1152 feet long on the sides towards the Abbey and Charing Cross. Within this area there were to be seven courts. WHITEHALL ; HAMPTON COURT. 393 Only a fragment of the immense design was ever executed ; yet that alone is one of the noblest civil buildings in Great Britain. It is the Banqueting House, showing two stories externally, but internally consisting of a hall, 111 feet long, and 55^ feet in both length and height, for many years used as a chapel. Even more remarkable than its admirable side towards the street is its ceiling, painted by Rubens in 1635. Had James I. and Charles I. been as enthusiastic devotees of art (and both of them liked it) as they were of conceptions of the royal prerogative, the history of England might have been different in their century, the mighty plan have been real- ized in an accomplished fact, the regal gallery of their paint- ings saved to England, and, if Whitehall grew too vast for even English royalty, a shrine of the three sister arts might have been raised, nobler than Versailles, the Caserta, Hermitage, or Escorial, to which the English-speaking people scattered throughout the earth, two centuries later, would have made more than willing pilgrimages. But the two kings, or a higher power, shaped differently the affairs of England, and the glorious opportunity was lost. Even the design of the great architect, presented by him to James I. in 1618, 1 was for a long time not publicly known. It is now appropriately kept among the drawings in the Royal collection at Windsor Castle. Hampton Court owes its existence,, and a great deal of its interest, to the distinguished minister of Henry VIII., the last of the magnificent mediaeval ecclesiastics who held such a posi- tion in England. Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York and Lord High Chancellor, began the palace in 1516, designing it to be his country-seat near London, fourteen miles distant. In 1526 he gave it to his jealous sovereign, who completed it ac- cording to the original plans. Enough remains to give one a conception of the stateliness maintained by the great Cardinal, whose suite consisted of eight hundred persons. The edifice has three quadrangles, of which one towards the west, 169 by 141 feet, is unchanged, the central one, 133 by 134 feet, is partly 1 See two lithographs in The Building News, Dec. 19, 1884. 394 THE ROYAL PALACES. so, and the third, 110 hy 117 feet, was built by Wren, in 1690, in modified classic style. A large part of the buildings erected by the Cardinal are two stories high. All are in Tudor style, and are constructed of bricks, now dull-red, laid in black ce- ment, relieved by light stone dressings, varied by turrets and the imposing height of the great hall, and crowned by battlements. The hall, built by Henry VIII., and restored in 1820, is pecu- liarly English, and one of the most magnificent examples of its kind in the ancient style and plan. It is 106 feet in length, 40 feet wide, and 60 feet in height. The roof, with a high double pitch, shows its timber frame, complex in plan, elaborately carved, and richly colored and gilded. The lower portion of the walls is covered with German or Flemish tapestry that represents, on a large scale, eight scenes described in the Old Testament. Tall traceried windows occupy the upper por- tion, and are filled with stained glass placed there in 1846, and exhibiting a brilliant array of the heraldic insignia of the Plan- tagenet, Lancastrian, and Tudor royal families and their con- nections. The usual features of the screen and the dais with its large oriel are also seen, the latter of rare size and mag- nificence. Beyond the hall is the Presence Chamber, a very large room of the same period, hung with tapestry, now faded. Here the windows are mullioned, in the late Pointed style, but the flat ceiling is Elizabethan or Jacobean, and divided into many panels by ribs forming a geometrical design. These two large apartments form the chief portion of the interior of the early buildings, showing the former stateliness, for a great deal is now taken up with small rooms, occupied by several hundred private persons to whom they have been assigned. The banquets, masques, and hospitality at Hampton Court when the great Cardinal lived there were of unusual magnifi- cence ; indeed in gorgeous picturesqueness they, perhaps, have never been surpassed in England. There was a policy in all this pageantry, says Mr. Pyne, who gives a full account of it, for reports of it would be given by ambassadors to foreign courts, " and their sovereigns would naturally infer, that the riches and power of a monarch must be great indeed, whose minister could entertain strangers in so princely a style." HAMPTON COURT. 395 After the fall of Wolsey, in 1529, the king was frequently at Hampton Court, and, for more than two centuries that followed, it became associated with the presence and history of royalty. Here Edward VI. was born in October, 1537, and was baptized in the chapel. His mother, Jane Seymour, married the king the day after Anne Boleyn was executed, May 20th, 1536, and died a few days after the birth of the prince. On the 8th of August, 1540, her successor, Katharine Howard, appeared pub- licly here, the royal husband she had ventured to take having in the same year had his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, from whom he was divorced upon the 9th of June. In the eight- eenth month of her marriage t Katharine died on the scaffold in the Tower of London. July 12th, 1543, Henry married, at Hampton Court, Katharine Parr, who here became the first Protestant queen of England, and who happily survived him, — not, however, without narrowly escaping the fate of her prede- cessor. It is through this truly English queen that royalty in her time is associated nobly with the ancient palace. Katharos, meaning " pure as a limpid stream," says Miss Strickland (III. 175), well describes " the learned and virtuous matron who directed the studies of Lady Jane Gray, Edward VI., and Queen Elizabeth, and who may, with truth, be called the nurs- ing-mother of the Reformation." Of Henry VIII. it may be well said, as the authoress quotes from Raleigh, " If all the patterns of a merciless tyrant had been lost to the world, they might have been found in this prince." Edward VI. held court sometimes at Hampton, and on one occasion the town, that adjoins the palace, was armed to protect him, and for safety he withdrew to Windsor Castle. Queen Mary and Philip of Spain spent their not over festive honeymoon here, — a less interesting incident in the history of the place than was the visit made a little later by the Princess Elizabeth, whose freedom from the close confinement in which she had been held was owing, it is said, to Philip. The old revels and stately Christmas feasts were maintained ; and while Eliza- beth was queen the latter were repeated by her in 1572 and 1593, thus making the Great Hall one of the few grand rooms still standing associated with her presence. 396 THE ROYAL PALACES. The Stuarts continued the royal use of Hampton. In Jan- uary, 1603-1604, James I. made it the scene of the well-known conference between the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, one result of which was the immortal version of the Bible that has borne the name of the king. For fourteen days in 1606, he entertained here the Prince of Vaudemois and a large French party, and here his queen, Anne of Denmark, died in 1618. Hither came Charles I. and Queen Henrietta to escape the plague in 1625, when the king in his full power received the ambassadors of France, Transylvania, and Denmark. Six- teen years later, for far different reasons, and in far different circumstances, their Majesties sought refuge at Hampton from dangerous turmoil in London, and in 1647 also at Hampton, occurred, one of the scenes in the utterly changed condition of Charles I. when he made " the last external appearances of being yet a king." The Lord Protector lived here in the pomp of royalty, and here his daughter Elizabeth was married in 1657, and another, Mrs. Claypole, died in the next year. During the Civil War, the palace was stripped of many works of art, to the gain of foreign nations and the great loss of England. In 1651, the estate was sold by Parliament for £ 10,765 19s. 9d., but was acquired by Cromwell in 1656. Charles II. and James II. seldom used Hampton as a residence ; William III., however, made it one of his favorite seats, and within two years from his accession Wren erected for him, on the site of parts of the old palace, the quadrangle called the Fountain Court, and the extensive suite of state apartments. The new palace has little of the grace and splendor of the vast edifice that Louis XIV. of France had built, and had begun to occupy, a few years before William III. reconstructed Hampton, influenced perhaps by the example of his exalted royal neighbor. Its design, of a much modified classic sort and somewhat heavy, shows an exterior of red bricks varied by abundant light stone dressings toned by age, part of which have the advantage of a setting made by formal but attractive gardens. Throughout the interior the walls are finished chiefly with solid oak that has grown very sombre, and gives an effect of rather gloomy stateliness, or imposing quaintness. " The HAMPTON COURT. 397 sprawling Gods and Goddesses of Verrio and Laguerre " appear on several ceilings ; others present bare plaster. Plain boards form the floors, and furniture is not abundant. But there is a vast collection of historic portraits of unusual value in the many rooms, besides a great number of paintings by English, Dutch, and Italian artists. The chief entrance to the state apartments is by a large staircase, in a hall, the upper parts and ceiling of which are elaborately painted to represent a con- cert attended by the Deities of Olympus, and allegories com- plimentary to William III. The first room in the suite is the Guard Chamber, 60 feet in length, 37 feet wide, and 30 feet high, decorated with groups of superseded arms and armor sufficient for a thousand men. Beyond it are two Presence Chambers, the audience chamber containing the damask canopy beneath which James II. received the Papal Nuncio, the king's Drawing-room, Writing Closet, and Dressing-room, and the Bed- room of William III. The details of the latter are exception- ally fine, and the bed is covered with very rich and well-kept embroidery. A picture filling the ceiling, representing Night and Morning, is one of the freshest existing works df Verrio. Gibbons's elaborate carving in box, that ornaments many of the rooms, especially the chimney-pieces, is abundant here, and fills the frieze with marvellous scrolls and flowers. His crea- tions — for such they may well be called — are among the most distinguished productions of the minor fine arts in England during the period in which he lived. The rooms just named are brightened by exposure to the south, and from their win- dows command a pleasant view of the private gardens and the country far beyond them. In this room of William III. there are, but somewhat strangely associated with him, several of the well-known Beauties of the Court of Charles II., 1 as Sir Peter Lely has shown them. Queen Catharine appears in a light steel-brown dress ; the Duchess of Richmond in light brown ; Nell Gwynne in a dark-yellow waist and very dark-red skirt, attended by a very dark lamb ; the Countess of Rochester 1 See Jameson, Mrs. A., Memoirs of the Beauties of the Court of Charles II. ; portraits, imp. 8°, London, 1851. The colors mentioned, like many other de- tails of description, are according to the writer's Notebook. 398 THE ROYAL PALACES. in light-blue over white ; the Countess of Northumberland in dark, dull russet-brown ; Lady Whitmore in dull slaty-purple ; the Countess of Ossory in light-blue and white drapery be- neath it ; Lady Dunham in dull yellow ; and the Countess de Grammont in dull-red drapery. Upon another side of the palace is the Queen's Gallery, a very large room containing a great number of curious portraits of personages of the family or period of the later Tudors, and including many works by Holbein and artists of the Low Countries as well as Italy. The next apartment, Queen Anne's Bedroom, associated chiefly with her, has a coved ceiling, painted by Sir James Thornhill, in good order, although slightly cracked ; its subject is Aurora rising from the sea. Some of the old furniture remains here, and among it is the bed, with rich velvet hangings that are even now little faded. Adjoining this chamber is the Queen's Draw- ing-room, with a ceiling by Verrio representing Queen Anne as Justice. The painting has lost some of its freshness and is seamed with cracks, and the coverings of the richly gilt furni- ture are faded. Among nearly twenty pictures by West hung in the room, is the well-known " Death of General "Wolfe," placed opposite the central window, from which is seen the long vista of the canal and avenue that are prominent features in the grounds of the palace. Many of the numerous other rooms are finished in similar, although simpler, style ; but as all the apartments have long been unoccupied by royalty, they have of course a less pleasing effect than if they were completely furnished : yet they are valuable monuments of the arts two centuries ago, and the associations lingering in them give them interest. The life of the sovereign who did much to establish the modern renown and power of England was intimately associ- ated with the palace, and the queen of the Augustan age of English literature occasionally lived in it. George I. and George II., who perhaps did not invest it with great glory, were also occupants. The former, in 1718, fitted up the Great Hall as a theatre, — a use made of it by Elizabeth and James I., before whom there, according to tradition, some of the plays of Shakspeare were first acted. George II. and Queen Caro- KENSINGTON PALACE ; ST. JAMES'S PALACE. 399 line were the last sovereigns who made Hampton Court a residence. Beyond the gardens — imposing examples of the old for- mal style — is Bushy Park, containing one of the noblest Eng- lish avenues, one mile and forty yards long, lined by rows of horse-chestnut and lime trees, varied about mid- way by a large circle. There is nothing of the sort more beautiful and mag- nificent than the array of the horse-chestnuts here in June when they are filled with flowers. Kensington Palace, at the west end of Kensington Gar- dens and Hyde Park, London, is externally a large, plain, red- brick building, dating chiefly from the time of William III., who bought the house of the Earl of Nottingham, and recon- structed it according to designs by Wren. Queen Anne and George I. made alterations, carried out by Hawksmoor, Wren's scholar. The apartments are far richer than is the exterior, and show the taste that prevailed at the close of the seven- teenth century and through the thirty years following. Wil- liam III., Queen Mary, Queen Anne, her husband, George I. and George II., spent much time here, and all of them except George I. died here ; indeed there may be no other place associ- ated with more of the incidents of their lives. After the death of George II., Oct. 25, 1760, Kensington was seldom a resi- dence of royalty ; the Duke of Sussex, son of George III., however lived and died in the palace, where, also, he collected his large and noble library. Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, was born there in 1819, and there held her first council. The apart- ments contain many good paintings, and are more varied and cheerful in style than those at Hampton Court, and some of them are rich and stately. St. James's Palace, also in London, dates from the reign of Henry VIII. ; but little of the existing building is as early as his time. Its importance as the town residence of royalty began in the reign of William III., and it was the sole town palace until the reign of Victoria, during which it has con- tinued to be used upon state occasions. Many notable incidents 400 THE ROYAL PALACES. in the history of the royal families have occurred here, and the long and especial use made of the unimposing but convenient structure has given its familiar name to the court. The apart- ments are numerous and well fitted for great ceremonies, but the exterior is low and simple. One of the most ancient and curious parts is the well-known gateway on Pall Mall, in late Tudor style, flanked by modern work that shows how a plain and even shabby specimen of the former surpasses some things made in later times. The palaces in London have, however, little of the relative importance of those in large Continental cities. Kew Palace, an old structure occupied by George III., about six miles west of London, was to have been replaced by one that he began, intended to be in the early national style ; but it was never finished, and was taken down in 1828. Kew is now chiefly distinguished for its Botanic Gardens, that have few rivals in size, value, and beauty. Buckingham Palace * shows even more distinctly the lack of antiquity in the English residences of royalty ; indeed it has so recently attained its rank that it can hardly be called a historical building. It is, however, a representative, and the latest, of the first estate in the realm, and it is constantly out- living any deficiencies supposed to arise from youth. While by no means an ideal of imperial dignity and splendor, it has, like some good people, been harshly judged for what it is not, rather than for what it is. It has an advantageous position at the head of the noble avenue in St. James's Park, and a long- front in simple, modified Italian style that at least is better than the fronts of some other palaces. Color is not given by any of the materials used except paint, and this from time to time varies. Yet, far inferior to the old front of the Tuileries, to the Pitti, the Caserta, or the palace at Madrid, plastered and done up occasionally like a common house, not a fine house, — it does justify some English talk about its peculiarities. 1 See Gruner, L., Decorations of the Garden-Pavilion, Buckingham Palace, 15 plates, text by Mrs. Jameson, royal folio, London, 1846; an elegant book, showing examples of some of the modern decoration of this palace. CIVIL BUILDINGS. — THE TOWN HALL. 401 Buckingham House, that occupied the site, has left its name for the existing edifice, designed by John Nash, built in the reigns of George IV. and William IV., and extensively changed during the present reign, to which its history as a royal resi- dence is confined. The interior, if preserved for generations like the rooms at Hampton Court, would show the elegances known to the highest life of England in the nineteenth cent- ury ; and certainly no palace would be its superior in associa- tions with a home life that has done much to make England strong and great, and that adds a distinction even to the glories of the sovereign lady whose virtues will- be honored long after the remotest possible existence of Buckingham. CIVIL BUILDINGS, LAW, MUNICIPAL, AND STATE. The edifices of any country built for the transaction of its civil business are among its most important monuments, less interesting than some others, it may be, in personal associa- tions, but prominent in evidences of the taste and art of the nation, and the importance and character of its institutions. Law is so pre-eminent and necessary in civilized communities that the chief structures connected with its administration are peculiarly suggestive. While the limits of these pages and the subject treated on them will of course admit no essay on the constitution and the general and local forms of government, or any full account of the numerous buildings that stand where the fountain-heads or springs of social order rise and flow, some representative examples will be found to be full of significance. The Town Hall, a material monument of local civil power of great importance in the country, hardly has obtained, until quite recent times, the grandeur, richness, or importance that is shown in Belgium, or that it is obtaining lately in America ; for the largest, and in some ways most remarkable, of local civil buildings is now rising there, in Philadelphia. The number of Town Halls in England built in the last century is noticeable. 26 402 CIVIL BUILDINGS. Of those that are older, one at Boston, Lincolnshire, has pecu- liar interest, especially to Americans. It was the Guildhall of St. Mary, 1 and was granted to the Corporation by Philip and Mary, and has been subsequently used by that body. Its size is small, and the design is simple, chiefly shown in a narrow gabled front built of bricks with stone dressings, the chief feat- ure of which is a large sharply pointed traceried window in late Perpendicular. But little of the ancient style remains in the interior to show its aspect when, probably, some of the Pil- grim Fathers of New England were examined there previous to their escape to Holland. The courts of the county are often held in the building used by the municipal authorities of one of its large towns. There is an example in the Guildhall at Worcester, an important dark brick building with abundant light stone dressings, finished in 1723 from designs of White, a native of the place and a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. Besides the apartments for the courts and other bodies, it contains a hall 110 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 20 feet high. The immense growth of the important English towns during the present century, while evident in many ways, has a peculiar expression in several of the Town Halls and edifices for the courts. An admiration of classic models and style that has continued to be marked is shown in the designs of many of these buildings. Birmingham between 1828 and 1834 erected a Town Hall from a design by Harris, based on that of the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. A rusticated basement 23 feet high supports a portico of fluted Corinthian columns 45 feet high surrounding the body of the building, and at the pedi- ment reaching a height of 83 feet. A large part of the interior is filled by a hall 140 feet long, 65 feet wide, and 65 feet high, one of the uses of which is for musical festivals, that form another new and marked English characteristic. Leeds, between 1853 and 1858, at a cost of about <£120,000, built another large Town Hall in classic style, but less suggest- ive of a temple. A lofty vestibule opens to the main room, 1 See History of Boston, etc., P. Thompson, Boston, 1856, pp. 234-236. LIVERPOOL. 403 162 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 75 feet high, lined by Corin- thian pillars with red marble (?) shafts that are set in pairs and support a high barrel vault. There is a great deal of gild- ing and color in the decoration, and an imposing effect is obtained. Liverpool has within a few years erected a large Town Hall in Renaissance style for municipal offices. The courts and great hall for meetings and festivals fill an edifice in classic style, more Greek than Roman, finished in 1854 from designs by Lonsdale Elmes, at a cost of £400,000. St. George's Hall is one of the largest, noblest, and most perfect works of modern times based on antique models ; its mere dimensions, indeed, are in themselves impressive. Along the chief front, which extends 420 feet, is a very broad portico with sixteen Corin- thian columns, 46 or 50 (?) feet high, and at the east end there is another of eight columns with a depth of two intercolum- niations. Every detail is of the best Greek, although the varied grouping is far more complicated than that of antique designs. In the centre of the building is a hall 169 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 85 feet high, the design of which is suggested by some of the halls in the great baths at Rome. Magnificent elaboration, grand proportions, rich materials, color, and lavish gilding, make it probably the most superb work of its kind in modern times, a worthy civic companion of the Madeleine. The one regret caused by a sight of this beautiful and grand edifice is that it is exposed in the mud and dismal atmosphere of Liverpool. It sadly needs around it the cleanliness and usual sunshine in which the French church stands ; but it has the advantage of a site on the crest of a slope of ground ; yet even this lacks, of course, the appropriate majestic isolation and commanding place, as well as the serene air, of the third great modern example of classic style, the Walhalla. Victor Emanuel's monument at Rome will probably surpass all the three in position and magnificence. But Liverpool did not cre- ate its climate ; its skill is shown in miles of amazing docks, and its taste, as well as wealth, in glorious St. George's Hall. The Gothic Revival has characteristically marked other buildings of this class. A very notable example appears in 404 CIVIL BUILDINGS. the Assize Courts at Manchester, designed by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, in Pointed of the thirteenth century eclecti- cally treated, and begun in 1869. They occupy a block measuring 373, 306, and 336 feet on the various sides, and are crowned by a tower 260 feet high. A very convenient plan has been proved to have been provided ; and, says Mr. East- lake, " with regard to the artistic merits of the work, it will be time enough to criticise when any better modern structure of its size and style has been raised in this country." London of course contains pre-eminent examples of civic buildings. The Guildhall, although dating from the earlier part of the fifteenth century and in Pointed style, is chiefly, so far as it is now seen, a work of the Gothic Revival. The old buildings were seriously damaged in the Great Fire, and only a crypt and some of the original walls remain. In 1789 a front was built that was as poor as anything ever intended to be in a mediaeval style. Immeasurably better is the Great Hall, 153 feet long, 50 feet wide (48, says Pennant, p. 285), and 55 feet high, — a grand room in the old national form and style, re- cently decorated, but possessing few notable monuments or works of art except the exquisite colored statues of Gog and Magog. The Council Chamber, also in Pointed style, was opened in October, 1884. It is twelve-sided, 54 feet in diame- ter, with a domical roof from which, and near w r hich, it is lighted, and contains seats for 206 Councilmen. The room for the Aldermen is of course smaller, and is richly ornamented. Law and its representatives, the lawyers, are established in several groups of buildings, known as Inns of Court, that are spread midway across London from the Thames to some distance beyond Holborn. The most southern, as well as the largest of them, is The Temple, divided into the Outer, Middle, and Inner, built on the site of the establishment of the Knights Templars, occupied by them between 1184 and 1313. Their successors to the place, the Knights of St. John, leased a por- tion to the students of the Common Law ; but it was not until 1608 that the Temple was granted by the Crown to the Bench- ers, by whom it is held under that tenure. With a few excep- tions, the most ancient structures have given way to a variety LONDON: THE TEMPLE. 405 of red-brick buildings, generally ugly and altogether dingy, but some of the chief parts have been in a measure preserved. The oldest and most interesting of them is the Church, dedi- cated to St. Mary} consisting of a round body in Norman and Transition styles, consecrated in 1185, but probably rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1240, with a choir, or chancel, in Early Eng- lish. Beneath the latter are foundations of an earlier struc- ture. Internally the present length is 140 feet, the breadth 58 feet, and the diameter of the round part also 58 feet. Repairs were made in 1682 ; the southwestern part was rebuilt in 1695 ; other work was done in 1811 ; and far more important changes were effected between 1839 and 1842, when the choir was almost reconstructed, at a cost of £ 70,000, under the direction of Sidney Smirke, F. S. A., and the round part has also been " restored." A considerable amount of color is used in scrolls and medallions on the vaults and walls of the choir, and in more elaborate forms, heightened by gilding, on the reredos ; while in the round part, dark polished shafts relieve prevailing neutral tints given by the stone of which the walls are com- posed, and stained glass brightens the effect of the whole inte- rior. Of course it is evident that the edifice is chiefly a repro- duction. The Rail of the Middle Temple, 100 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 47 feet high, was built in 1572, and has a timber roof, said to be the best specimen of Elizabethan work in Lon- don. In 1757 the exterior was recased, and showed how a style could then be executed. One of the most picturesque buildings is the Library of the Middle Temple, opened in 1861, and costing £14,000. It stands by itself, crowned with a high steep roof, beneath which is the chief room, 85 by 42 feet, and 63! f ee t high? lighted by fourteen windows filled with stained glass. There are few more interesting and effective views along the Thames in its course through London than are presented by the Temple Gardens, where such of the hardier flowers as can endure the usual murky air are scattered along the grass-plots, and among shrubbery and trees, with which the buildings are 1 Essex, W. R. H., Illustrations, etc., of the Temple Church, 40 plates, folio, London, 1845. 406 CIVIL BUILDINGS. pleasingly grouped. Heartily indeed may the Benchers, and London, be congratulated for the Temple. Lincoln's Inn, north of the Strand, although dating from the fourteenth century, is said to show nothing older than the ear- lier part of the sixteenth, and is chiefly distinguished archi- tecturally by a notable work executed when the Gothic Revival was gaining strength. Mr. Hard wick, in 1843, built, in the Tudor style, the blocks containing the Hall, Library, Council- room, and various minor rooms. Red-brick walls checkered with black, dressings of pale stone, turrets, battlements, and gables form a picturesque design grouping well with the trees and shrubs of the grounds, and showing well how a form of Pointed peculiar to the country could be revived appropriately for the use of men who had much to do with the daily business of the present. Both the Hall, 120 by 45 feet and 62 feet high, and the Library, 80 by 40 feet and 44 feet high, have open timber roofs, also in a peculiar English style, and are among the most prominent features of this Inn. The new Law Courts, between the Temple and Lincoln's Inn, form, however, by far the most important group of build- ings in England devoted to the business of the law. After a notable competition for designs, the vast and complicated structure on the Strand, near the site of Temple Bar, has been recently erected. With towers, gables, battlements, traceried windows, and many another feature of the mediaeval styles, it has perhaps nothing more impressive than the superb vaulted stone hall, worthy as an approach to the legal wisdom and the justice of England. The edifices used in the administration of the civil affairs of the government or for the legislative bodies of a country have been at all times and in all lands important monuments, not only of the taste and resources of a nation, but also of its condition and the prominence of certain features in its institutions. The rapid, great, and recent development of the modern nations is significantly shown by the newness of most of these structures ; and in England the fact is very noticeable. It seems strange indeed that in so old a country the chief SOMEESET HOUSE. 407 edifice for the legislative bodies should be, with the exception of a few parts, younger than much of the corresponding edifices in the new United States, and that the buildings for the business of the War and Navy will be, for the future, newer, or at least when done, contemporaneous. Of course the chief edifices of this class in England are at the seat of government in London, and they are most significant of the increasing power and wide rule of the Imperial Island. If certain English criticisms are trusted, it is proved that all these buildings are in some way architectural failures ; yet their great importance as represen- tative works is not lessened. Somerset House, Strand, in the main the oldest edifice of this class, according to an English opinion is the chief archi- tectural work of the reign of George III. Its name is derived from the house of the Lord Protector previously upon the site, and its use is chiefly for the offices of Audit and Internal Revenue. Sir William Chambers designed the building, begun in 1776, finished during the next ten years, and forming a quadrangle with a court 277 by 224 feet. On the Strand there is a front extending 132 feet, and another towards the river is about 600 feet long, and has a total height of 100 feet. Wings have been subsequently added. The style is a modified classic, with many good details and a grouping that is English. While the street-front is the best part, the opposite front towards the Thames is, notwithstanding critical objections, on a greater scale, and is still the most imposing on the long and often stately northern bank of the river. A suggestion of the size of the building is given by the number of the windows, restricted as that is by the style ; there are 3,600. Adaptations of classic features characterized the chief build- ings erected in England through the eighteenth century. Seve- ral of the numerous — perhaps two hundred — great mansions that make these forms so prominent in the country, have already been described. They are architectural monuments rather than comfortable homes, and even their main expres- sion is by no means always characterized by grace and palatial stateliness. A similar taste is shown, as has been observed, in contemporary buildings for courts and municipalities. The 408 CIVIL BUILDINGS. study of ruins of classic works in Greece and Italy, produced later in England a classic Renaissance also to some extent mentioned in descriptions of Oxford, Cambridge, and the Town Halls. Of course this taste was distinctly shown at the capital. At the close of the last century the Bank of England, that might not improperly be called a government building, received much of its present form, extensive, low, marked by a cornice and not very useful pillars, and strong walls that enclose an area of four acres. There are few other financial institutions to be compared with it ; indeed it seems to be an expression of the solid strength and the activity of the great empire. Between 1825 and 1829 another large edifice, with still more distinctive classic features, was built. It also is a monument of the modern business and development of the empire, and is a government building, the General Post Office, near St. Paul's. A few years later, continuing the marked use of the style, arose the building of the London University, that, like the Post Office, has a classic portico as its most noticeable feature. In 1832 the National G-allery was begun, and was finished six years afterwards, with the exception of some of its best rooms that are of recent date. Its position, facing Whitehall and Trafal- gar Square, is the most commanding one in the country ; but although the edifice is large and has some good details, the effect is hardly worthy of the place and the dignity of the British lions at the base of Nelson's Column immediately in front. Conditions that imposed great difficulties were, how- ever, required of the architect, Mr. Wilkins. The chief feature of the fagade is a portico taken from Carlton House, the palace of George IV., when it was demolished. While regrets are unavailing that the nation has not now the large and invalu- able collection of works of art formed by Charles I., and that Russia has the Houghton Gallery, there is good cause for con- gratulation that so many and such varied and precious examples of the English and Continental schools of Painting have been gathered here. The Gallery, although inferior in different for- eign departments to several galleries in other countries, is, as a whole, a remarkably good one for illustration of all the great schools, and in this respect it is entitled to high rank. THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 409 The British Museum, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, was begun in 1823 ; and although much of it was finished in a few years, it has undergone alterations at various dates. The front presents an Ionic portico more than 600 feet in length, doubled at the centre, returned around a wing that projects nearly a hundred feet forward at each end, and consisting of forty-four pillars. Ranges of building, each nearly four hundred feet long, enclose an area originally a court, but now filled by a vast rotunda used as the Reading-room, one of the most remark- able structures in the world. This room and about two thirds of the galleries contain the famous library of books and manu- scripts ; the other third contains the immense collection of Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian, and other antiquities. The style of the interior is Roman, sufficiently elaborate for dignity and beauty, appropriately colored by art, and unfortunately dis- colored by the murky atmosphere. Superior to the size and the architecture, distinguished as these are, is the monumental expression here of the national appreciation of literature and ancient art. It was no earlier than 1753 that Parliament, by act, lottery, and appropriation, began the collections, since by gift and purchase grown so enormous. Sir Hans Sloane's museum, the extremely numerous manuscripts gathered by Harley, Earl of Oxford, and the library of Sir Robert Cotton, were soon afterwards bought by the nation. The history of politics and war is more exciting, and records events perhaps of greater import to the nation, than accounts of the zealous labors by which individuals became benefactors of their country in securing the most notable of the many collections forming the renowned Museum ; but there are few passages of history, apart from those that tell of principles asserted and of rights secured, that are more interesting or really more important than those telling us of the formation of the galleries and libraries here united. The sovereigns from Henry VII., when Caxton introduced the press to England, gathered books, and a royal library was formed that passed through various vicissitudes, but did not, however, attain due dignity and character until both were given by Prince Henry, son of James I. From his time the 410 CIVIL BUILDINGS. collection : grew, until it was incorporated 2 with the Sloane and Cotton collections, or was represented by the noble library chiefly formed by George III., through whose representatives after his death it became the property of the nation. It is now seen in the truly regal hall of the Museum called the King's Library. But no small part of the incalculable literary riches of the institution were, like many of its other treasures, gathered by private men. In 1799, Mr. C. M. Cracherode of London, a collector for forty years, 3 died and bequeathed the precious result of his labors. Lord Lansdowne's manuscripts were bought, 4 and so, in 1818, were Dr. Burney's classics. Other acquisitions from like sources came, pre-eminent among which was the glorious library of Thomas Grenville, who died in 1846. 5 He had for many years held the forestal Chief-Justiceship ; and while doing good service in it, bought a library with the profits of the office. Only a man with great learning, wealth, and industry combined could have formed such a library as he formed and gave to the nation. 6 One of the romances of col- lecting was the gathering of the matchless " King's Tracts," obtained with extraordinary labor by George Thomason, and given by George III. They included more than 83,000 publi- cations, chiefly pamphlets, issued between 1640 and 1662, giv- ing a unique account of one of the most interesting periods of English history. 7 For that they are priceless ; for cost to the enthusiast who gathered them, they represented several thou- sand pounds, great risks and great toil, together with com- mercial loss, but treasure to his country such as only the real bibliomaniac can secure. In 1762, they were sold for a com- paratively small sum to George III. Meanwhile there were equally devoted men collecting the remains of classic art, some of which were exposed to utter ruin if not saved by some one, and they saved them. Lord Elgin rescued (1800 to 1816) from the fires of Turkish lime- 1 See Edwards, E., Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, with notices of its chief Augraentors and other Benefactors, 1570-1870, 8°, London, 1870. The writer is much indebted to the full and interesting accounts in this book. 2 See Edwards, 170. 8 Do., 421. * Do., 435 5 Do., 680. 6 Do., 678. 7 Do., 332. THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 411 kilns Grecian sculptures that the world could not replace. They were removed from the Athenian sunshine ^to the damp and smoky air of London ; but if they had fared like other stones which genius had made precious, critics of Lord Elgin might have been appeased, no dingy fog be near them now, and earth no longer know the metopes of the Parthenon. The new Greece was not born at the time of his active acquisition. Sir William Hamilton, ambassador to Naples, had earlier (1764 to 1800) collected vases and other objects immense in number and in value. In 1801, the English arms secured many of the treasures gathered by the French in Egypt during Napoleon's campaign, and three years later Parliament by grant acquired the large and valuable collection of ancient marbles, the life- work of Charles Towneley. The results of all these efforts and of many more are guarded and shown well in the Museum. It is the Paradise in which the great collectors live, and from which light shines far from out the smoky city, for it irradiates the empire with some of the brightest rays of England's glory. The last four buildings mentioned represent the importance of the nation in finance, its vast means for public intercourse, and its devotion to ancient and modern literature and art; all, like what they stand for, of comparatively recent date. Another class of structures, less public, are striking expressions of the immense development of commercial power, grown with the imperial growth, and one of the chief sources of its strength. In Liverpool, Manchester, and various centres of trade, the Exchange is a large, elaborate building ; but the representative one may properly be considered The Royal Exchange, across the street by the Bank in London. Not only is it distinguished as a centre of the business activity of the empire, but also for its age and history. The site was occupied for its existing uses through the enterprise of Sir Thomas Gresham, and the first Royal, or Gresham's, Exchange was opened by Queen Eliza- beth in 1570. His building was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, and a successor, designed by Edward Jerman, was fin- ished three years later. The third and existing building, designed by Sir William Tite, was opened in 1844 by Queen Victoria. It is quadrangular, and has an imposing court sur- 412 CIVIL BUILDINGS. rounded by a massive yet elegant arcade for the convenience of the merchants. Towards an open area at the west, it presents a portico of eight very large Corinthian columns with a pedi- ment containing appropriate sculpture by Westmacott. • Designs in classic styles, or based on them, have not only been favorites with the business world, especially in England, but also with the English political authority, as may be seen on the way from that notable group, the Bank, Exchange, and Mansion House, to the most important civic building in the empire, the representative of its fullest and latest expansion and power. This way leads through Whitehall, a broad, grand street, along which stand several imposing governmental build- ings. There is the noble Banqueting-House (p. 393), — sole evi- dence of what the great palace designed by Inigo Jones would have been. There are the simpler Horse-Guards ; the Treasury, refronted by Sir Charles Barry in 1846-1847, long and impos- ing, but far less so than the Treasury at Washington ; the new India Offices, far richer than their neighbor ; and, soon to be added to this array, the even more elaborate and varied New Admiralty and War Offices. These structures, all in what might be called modern style, based upon Roman or Renais- sance details, form a perhaps unique vista, grand enough for the approach to the throne of the empire, contrasted with them by a very different style throughout, and by pre-eminent position. The Houses of Parliament, or the New Palace at Westmin- ster, designed by Sir Charles Barry, were begun in 1840 on the site of the old palace burned in 1834 ; and although they have been occupied for many years, they can hardly be said to be yet finished. It was thought best that a native form of the Pointed style should be used for an edifice so national in character, and the Tudor variety was adopted. The largest Note. — The dimensions in feet are, — St. Stephen's Hall, 95 by 30, and 56 high ; House of Lords, 97 by 45, and 45 high ; Commons, 62 by 45, and 45 high ; Royal Gallery, 110 by 45, and 45 high; Westminster Hall, 270 by 68, and 110 high (Knight says, 239 by 68, and 90 high) ; the Clock Tower, 40 square, and 314 high ; the Central, 60 diameter, 70 externally, and 266 high ; Victoria, 75 square (62 except with turrets), and 325 high. THE HOUSES OP PARLIAMENT. 413 building of the world in the Pointed style is the result. Its chief front is towards the Thames and 900 feet long, with two stories except in a central block, and in six towers or pavil- ions that vary the elevation but increase the uniformity. Three very lofty towers of different sizes and forms irregularly rise above the mass. All parts of the exterior are of a pale-buff stone, already growing brown, or here and there crumbling on the surface, and all are elaborately ornamented with buttresses, mouldings, and carvings. The most richly decorated portion of the front- ages is on the Peers' side, towards the Abbey, where, at the western end, is the enormous and superb Victoria Tower, the largest structure of its kind in the world. The chief public entrance is eastward by Westminster Hall, the most ancient large feature of the Palace, the most interesting part histori- cally and even architecturally, and, indeed, the grandest hall in the empire. It dates as far back as the reign of William II. (Rufus, 1087-1100) ; but it was much altered in that of Rich- ard II., between 1397 and 1399, and subsequent changes have been made to adapt it to the new buildings for which it now forms an immense and impressive vestibule. At present the exterior on the west side has been opened to view, after having been hidden for a long time by incongruous excrescences, and is to be restored. We then can judge how far superior the English are to the French in such problems. One of the chief mistakes already made in the exterior of the Palace is the lavish use of ornament covering the whole surface, overpowering itself by profusion, and intensifying the attacks of the damp and acrid smoky air. The national style used was, however, well chosen, and, notwithstanding adverse criticisms, the mighty structure is imposing and magnificent. Of the interior, the first and the pre-eminent feature is the glorious Hall through which the public enters, — a matchless example of mediaeval English forms, with walls blank below and pierced by traceried windows in the upper part, bearing a wonderful timber roof, a masterpiece of constructive art and of appropriate and great elaboration. The cold brown stones and darker oak and chestnut wood above them have looked 414 CIVIL BUILDINGS. down often on scenes of the majesty or tragedy of English history, and imagination summons there the long succession moving on in stately pageantry, — the early parliaments, the high courts of the realm, the trials and the condemnation of Sir William Wallace (1303), Sir Thomas More (1535), Pro- tector Somerset (1551-1552), Lord Strafford (1641), and at length Charles I. (1649). Here hung the banners of the Civil War, here Cromwell was inaugurated Lord Protector (1653), here the seven bishops were acquitted (1688), the three lords condemned (1746), and the great spectacle of Warren Hast- ings's trial was enacted (1778). Indeed, State trials through six centuries, all of historical significance ; royal banquets ending with George IV. 's (1820) ; maintenance of the government and most momentous changes in it ; business, pleasure, misery, injustice, and victorious right, — have filled the grand old Hall with impressive scenes and imperishable associations. Beyond it, southward, and reached by broad steps, is St. Stephen's Hall, a huge vestibule replacing the chapel of the ancient palace dedicated to the saint, and burned in 1834. Tall tracericd windows nearly fill the upper portion of the walls, along the lower part of which are ranged twelve statues of men eminent for ability and eloquence shown in the House of Commons. A high groined ceiling gives the Hall a grand effect. Beneath it is a crypt suggestive of that in the Sainte Cha- pelle 1 at Paris, and, like that, restored ; or, rather, this has been refinished or rebuilt, for the existing splendor of the place perhaps surpasses any of the original decoration. Dark shafts of polished Purbeck and other marble, with elaborate capitals of like material, bear a low vaulted ceiling that has carefully painted ribs, large sculptured bosses, and richly colored scrolls on grounds of bright gold. In harmony with the brilliancy above, are the pavements of enamelled tiles, and the altar and reredos of fine stones and alabaster elaborately carved. The Baptismal chapel and its font are examples of the jewelry of restoration. At the upper end of St. Stephen's Hall is the Central Hall, a magnificent octagonal dome, with a lofty ceiling that is a grand 1 Described in the writer's " Historical Monuments of France," pp. 72, 73. THE HOUSES OP PAELIAMENT. 415 example of the peculiarly rich English groining — it contains more than 250 elaborately carved bosses — and that also is a demonstration of the adaptability of the Pointed style to a form often thought to be only classic or Renaissance. The House of Commons, northward, is built more for business than for architectural effect, yet it has various good architectural details, on which its ornamentation depends, rather than on works of art. A noble corridor that extends southward to the House of Lords, however, is lined with mural paintings of historical sub- jects. The House of Lords is the stateliest or most gorgeous room in the Palace. Foreign critics have said hard things about it ; yet it is in several w T ays the most sumptuous legisla- tive hall of at least modern times. It has the great merit of being national in style, material, design, and use ; it is pecu- liarly English, even to the native oak which is almost the sole material. The ceiling is flat, pannelled, crossed by heavy beams, and rich in carving and in color. Lofty traceried win- dows, filled with painted glass and occupying the upper part of the side walls, admit abundant light. The Peers' seats and the galleries are of due elegance, and the throne, English in every way, makes a fitting focus to the decoration and signifi- cance of everything by its especial 'splendor. At the upper end is the Princes' Chamber, and beyond that the Royal Gal- lery, a superb hall with historical paintings on the walls, not too well lighted or preserved. The display of heraldry in this splendid apartment is remarkable. A great number of rooms of various sizes are of course provided for the many uses of Parliament, some of the most notable of which are the libraries along the river front. The ancient palace at Westminster, 1 it has been thought, existed during the reigns of the later Saxon kings, and was en- larged by their earlier Norman successors, chiefly by the great Hall of William Rufus, already described, the noblest mediasval civil monument existing in England. After many changes, no- tably the founding of the chapel, by King Stephen, it is said, and the rebuilding by the first three Edwards, parliaments, 1 See Britton, J. (and E. W. Brayley), The History of the Ancient Palace and late Houses of Parliament at Westminster, 48 plates, 4°, London, 1833. 416 THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. that had already met here under Henry III., had, finally, an established place of meeting in the palace. Since the middle of the fifteenth century, all the sittings of Parliament, except five at Oxford, have been at Westminster. The Commons occu- pied various chambers and St. Stephen's Chapel from 1548 until it was burned in 1834. The loss of the chapel was the most serious then sustained ; that of the room used by the Lords was a blessing. The legislation of the country thus associated with this site for many hundred years continues in the new palace, which has already grown historical, and probably is destined to be the scene of many important national events. THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. No class of the many buildings representative of English history and character is more expressive of a marked phase of the latter than that formed by the numerous and varied edifices devoted to the help or improvement of those in need. These pages will allow mere mention of a subject that might well fill many more, yet brief as this chapter of the English chronicle must be here, it should certainly not be omitted. While these buildings show less art, less that is outwardly im- posing, and are less associated with the stir of public events than others already described, the history of the Hospitals for the sick, the needy, or the aged, reaches back for many a cent- ury, and buildings large or small, ancient or new, for their use are scattered through the land, in which they are an honorable feature. St. Cross, at Winchester, many centuries old, has been described on p. 124. In Coventry there are two examples of the ancient Hospital, Bond's, founded in 1506, for old men, and Ford's, founded in 1529, originally for aged married couples, but subsequently used only for women. The latter is an unusually well preserved building, of the sixteenth century, surrounding a narrow court and constructed with plaster and timber walls, having the woodwork quaintly carved and moulded. As "the editor of the Glossary of Architecture " well says (Some Ac- count, II. 194), dismissing the subject with a paragraph, the edi- fices of this class " would alone afford materials enough for a MEMORIAL MONUMENTS. 417 separate work." They illustrate not only the nature of the in- stitutions, but also the Domestic styles of the country " from the ' God's House ' at Southampton, of the twelfth century," to the time of James I., " including such establishments as the hospital at Ewelme, Oxfordshire, and Cheetham's Hospital, Manchester." The former was founded about 1446 for old men, and the latter (p. 199) in 1653, as a free school for boys. In London the Hospitals are, of course, numerous and on a great scale. The Middle Ages were well represented in these forms of beneficence. St. Bartholomew's, for the sick, dates from 1102, but was refounded by Henry VIII. St. Thomas's, for alms, originated in 1213-1215, and Bethlehem, for the insane, in 1246. Christ's, founded in 1553, is now a school that occupies large buildings, chiefly modern. Guy's, for the sick and lame, was established early in the eighteenth century. Of national Hospitals, Chelsea, for old soldiers, dated from 1681, and Greenwich, for disabled sailors, was opened in 1705. One of the sights of London is the Foundling Hospital (1739) " for exposed and deserted children," who sing in the chapel on Sun- days, and afterwards dine in a hall. But the stern manners of the officers, the amount of preliminary " grace," the meagre- ness of the fare, and the solemnity of the children, make the re- past a dismal one, and its frequent repetition must require much grace of another sort in the young people. In contrast is the interesting and impressive scene when the many beneficiaries of these institutions, and of the old schools, appear at the ser- vice in St. Paul's, in June, described on p. 145. Nowhere else can the world present anything just like that noble spectacle of the grandeur, beauty, and long life of English benevolence. MEMOKIAL MONUMENTS. 1 If written in full, one of the longest chapters of England's chronicle in stone would be that relating to the personal memo- rials which illustrate so much of the people and history of a country, and of which an immense number is scattered through 1 See Camden's Reges, and Dart's Westminster (note, p. 229).— Blore, E., Monumental Remains, text and 30 plates, imp. 8°, 1826. — Pettigrew, T. J., 27 418 MEMORIAL MONUMENTS. her churches, halls, and public grounds. Notwithstanding revo- lutions, wars, and changes, she has kept countless works to show her arts through centuries, and to tell the story of all sorts and conditions of her children. To these she has added a moderate number to commemorate events. Perhaps no other country, Italy excepted, has a greater store of personal memo- rials, especially in cathedrals, where they are impressively numerous ; especially if contrasted with the few left in France ; and furthermore hardly a church, even in the rural hamlets, is without its notable example. In the towns statues of promi- nent men are numerous ; but in these works France is a rival. Some conception of the monuments in each cathedral, especi- ally St. Paul's, and at Westminster Abbey, has already been given. Of the immense number in churches and other places only a mention of the fact of their existence is possible on these pages. Of single works in the open air, one in Hyde Park is pre-eminent, rivalled by few in surprising elaboration, and dedicated to one of the nation's rarest princes. The lofty and splendid Albert Memorial? designed by Sir G. G. Scott, is a spire-crowned canopy in Pointed style, more Italian than English, profusely decorated with fine colored stones, rich gilding and carving, and placed on a broad granite base girt with sculpture in white marble, — a work too elabor- ate and delicate for exposure in the London air, that has already done it much damage. In general outlines the designs sug- gest the famous monument of Can Signorio at Verona, and the recent one of the Duke of Brunswick at Geneva ; but the Memorial is on a far greater scale and much more superb. Of course the statue of the Prince, raised high beneath the canopy, is the chief and central figure. Only a long description, elab- orate colored plates, or, better still, a sight of the monument, Collection of Epitaphs in England, 8°, 1864. — Stothard, C. A., the Monumen- tal Effigies of Great Britain, 144 plates, imp. folio. Also, Britton, Dart, Murray, and others (note p. 112). 1 See The National Memorial to His Royal Highness The Prince Consort, cuts and 24 plates, atlas folio ; J. Murray, London, 1873. (Published at £12,12.) The contract, dated April 18, 1864, with John Kelk, was for £85,508 (p. 25), but the whole cost is said to have been £120,000. On July 3, 1872, the work was first shown to the public. LONDON. 419 can give an adequate conception of its details ; England with her wealth and art has honored herself in dedicating both to the memory of one who ennobled an exalted station and de- served the title given him by acclamation, — Albert the Good. The Nelson Column, in Trafalgar Square, placed even more commandingly, is in its style and size worthy of imperial Rome. While it well shows the admiration and appreciation that the country had, and has, of one of its victorious heroes, a peculiar effect is given by an English statement, 1 that in defraying the cost, the Emperor of Russia was the largest sub- scriber. The York Column, the Crimean monument, and the renewed Eleanor, or Charing, Cross, all near by, and in differ- ing styles, although smaller, have their various interest and significance. Statues of the sovereigns and of great men are scattered, not too profusely, through the enormous city, as they also are throughout the country. Of memorials of events, the most notable is The Monument, near London Bridge, a Doric column upon a base with a total height of 202 feet, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and fin- ished in 1677. It stands .202 feet from the site of the house where the Great Fire began, September 2, 1666. LONDON. 2 The world of London is, after all, the most significant monu- ment of England ; for the mighty city is the world concen- trated, where something of the forces and products of the wide 1 London, by Peter Cunningham, F. S. A., p. 256. 2 Only an index of what is in itself a library could give a full reference to the books, maps, and plates illustrative of London. In Lowndes's Manual (1864), pp. 1385-94, is a list of 205 works (nearly 300 volumes), and references to a great number of maps and engravings. For general purposes in history, see Knight, C, London (649 cuts), 6 vols. roy. 8°, 1841-44; Maitland, W. (128 pi.), 2 vols, folio, 1775; Malcolm, J. P., Customs, 5 vols. 8°, 1810-11; Pen- nant, T., Account, 1790, etc. ; Partington, C. F., 8°, 1837 ; Wilkinson, R., Londina Illustrata, 207 pi. old buildings, 2 vols, folio, 1819; Low, S., Jr., Charities, 16°, 1862 ; Bkitton, J., Churches, 8°, 1839 ; Ltsons, D., Environs, 5 vols. roy. 4°, 1811 ; Timbs, J., Club Life, 1866, Curiosities, 1868, Romance, 1865, in all 7 vols. 8° ; Cunningham, P., Past and Present, 8° (also his Handbook) ; Dickens, C, Dictionary, 1878 (yearly since), — see notes, p. 73, Tower; p. 139, St. Paul's ; p. 229, Abbey. 420 LONDON. earth and of a hundred generations of its people can be found ; and the enormous group to which the familiar name is given is the most impressive evidence of the growth of every form of the national power. While not even a general sketch of the metropolis can be attempted here, descriptions of its chief his- toric structures are placed in their order in these pages. Roman London with its civilization can be conceived, and not imperfectly, by the help of nothing more than the mosaic pavements mentioned on p. 432. The Norman Conquest, the military life of the Middle Ages, and a great deal that has fol- lowed them are strikingly illustrated in the Tower (pp. 73-84). At Westminster Abbey (pp. 229-244) it is shown how religion and the best mediaeval art were cherished near the capital, and how a national epic in stone has been, and is, growing on there through the ages, with a stately and fitting companion in the newer St. Paul's (pp. 139-145). With these grander shrines of faith are associated its parochial seats, like the churches designed by Wren (p. 290), and St. Mary's in the Temple (p. 405). If royalty has few adequate memorials in this king- dom of a thousand years, its chief monuments — two of which are very remarkable — are practically in London, so near in time are they at Windsor (pp. 84-94) and Hampton Court (p. 393), where the arts and associations of centuries are gathered. In London, also, are the chief modern palaces already mentioned (pp. 399-401), as well as many residences of the nobility, few of which can be called old, and to which only allusion can be made here. Travelling ' is now so easy that several of the ancient castles and seats can be visited from London, as is also the case with four of the cathedrals. 2 The insatiable requirements of a rapidly increasing popula- tion, for a long while enormous, have swept away so many objects great and small that the ancient metropolis now seems to be modern ; but even a limited amount of search will still lead 1 At a little over an hour's ride by rail are Colchester Castle (p. 69), by the Great Eastern line ; Rochester (p. 117) by the Southeastern ; Knole (p. 360) and Penshurst (p. 355, from Tunbridge Wells) by the same line; Audley End (p. 372) and Hatfield (p. 375) by the Great Northern. 2 Rochester (p. 117) ; St. Albans (p. 145) ; Peterborough (p. 149) ; and Ely (p. 153). LONDON. 421 to a great deal of interesting annotation or illustration of the chronicle in stone, or in brick as London is apt to vary it. Comparatively little there may be relating to any one class, even of the literary, for which London has been peculiarly a home ; but in the aggregate incalculably much about the whole English people, their growth or change, their present, and indi- cations of their future. While the past has perpetually yielded to the ever-coming present, leaving scarcely more than frag- ments of its visible works, even of mediaeval churches, 1 apt in Europe to be the most permanent, modern times, as they sur- pass all others in results, are, as naturally, most abundantly illustrated. The fresh, full, active power of the living people of the Imperial Island marks London of to-day. Besides the miles of its streets, busy or crowded, quiet or sleepy, noble or squalid, — for the variety of the world is in them, from greatest and best to meanest and worst, — the public life and thought of the empire is concentrated there, and with striking expres- siveness. Modern art, of many schools as well as English, is represented by the National Gallery (p. 408) ; Literature and Ancient art at the British Museum (p. 409) ; Business power such as imperial Rome never dreamed of, by the Bank (p. 408) and the Royal Exchange (p. 411) ; Benevolence in many a grand institution (p. 416) ; recognition of public services and high stations nobly filled in Memorials (p. 417) ; and the three estates of the realm at Westminster (p. 412). These condensed descriptions of the most marked historic features of the imperial metropolis are all that these pages can contain. Prominent in the earlier ages, pre-eminent in the later, centre of influence through all, the mere mention of the enormous fact of London must be here sufficient, — a fact which with all its meaning is the condensation of a chapter like a volume. Only acquaintance made in busy weeks of 1 The Great Fire (1666) is by no means wholly the cause, for it must be owned that, with the exception of the Abbey and Westminster Hall, London has not distinguished itself by preservation of early works which it contained. St. Bartholomew the Great, for instance, " one of the finest among the very few Mediaeval churches remaining in the city," says The Builder (March 28, 1885), " has had for centuries, and still has, a fringe manufactory overhanging the sanct- uary and occupying the actual walls of the Lady- Chapel ; a boys' school occupying the north triforium ; and a blacksmith' s forge the site of the north transept." 422 THE SIMPLE HOMES OF ENGLAND. several visits can enable any one to realize how, and to what, this creation of the English ages has grown. All the history of the country leads to it, and through it, so that this short chapter, brief suggestion as it is, in a word makes a fitting con- clusion, with one exception, to this chronicle of England. THE SIMPLE HOMES OF ENGLAND. Growing and existing at the same time with the castles, palaces, and great residences, often less enduring, often as permanent, were the houses of the people, the homes of the mass of the nation. Commonly less notable in the arts and in history, they are yet full of attractive illustration of the popular life changing in fashion with the times, but far less than at the great houses, and through many generations almost as unvarying in its domestic feeling as is human nature itself. In countless thousands over the land stand these homes, springs from which the broad current of national force and progress has drawn its supply ; or likened in another way, moulds in which a great deal of the English character has been shaped. The older houses are very apt to be quaint or picturesque. Materials at hand and limited means have of course had much influence on the form and style ; but an inborn sense of what is pretty and effective seems to have guided the hands of the builders through many generations. In the northwest and in Derbyshire and Cornwall, as in Wales, the abundance of gray stone readily broken is a reason why the walls there were strong, but usually rude and sombre. In Lancashire, Cheshire, and the neighboring regions, oak, once plenty, suggested a style, and supplied ready material for frames, between the timbers of which bricks plastered were used, making some of the most picturesque old houses for the commons as well as the gentry. Nowhere were t^iere any of the buildings entirely wooden, so frequently seen in Norway and America. In Lon- don and in the large towns, and also in some rural parts of the country, red or dull-grayish bricks were used in profusion. The smaller buildings constructed of them are often very plain, CONCLUSION. 423 but the older were seldom without at least quaintness. More recent domestic buildings, on the other hand, are apt to be so plain that some persons might call them ugly. Thatched roofs were formerly very common; but now, in most places, serviceable and less picturesque slates are substituted. Flower- ing-plants and vines are favorites, as they have been for a long while, giving grace or color, the more noticeable by contrast with surrounding things, and seldom wanting even in very modest dwellings. In the crowded rows of tenements filling the new suburbs of large towns they help to preserve a feature of the genuine old English cottage, which, like the old rural lane or footpath, is so characteristic of the country, and often charming, although simple. Out of these homes of the commons has come many a man who has helped to make England good, strong, or famous, and only a chapter long as a book could tell of the houses where they have lived. It will be in the training found in these homes, quite as much as in that gained in the churches and schools, that the future of England will be determined. CONCLUSION. Outlines of chapters, like the last three, made such by the limits of these pages, help to suggest the crowded fulness of England in works illustrating the history of her people, and that although more and more of them, old and new, claim the attention, we must somewhere turn from her stone chronicle. Thoughts in abundance present themselves when we leave it ; few, however, of the writer's will be given, yet one or two must be expressed. First of all is the importance of the preservation of these works. They are priceless to England, and precious to the people spread around the world and speaking her language. Changes throughout the country are growing more positive and evident. The real or supposed needs of increasing trade and population crowd upon the rural districts and transform the towns, so that the temptation to injure or destroy the old land- 424 CONCLUSION. marks is constant. But once lost to the country, no power can ever replace them. Hedges and daisies, fine turf and old trees, are not fresh again where the cinders and smoke of the mill or the colliery have taken their places ; and even far more im- probable would be the regaining of any part, however humble, of the long stone chronicle of the English people. They, of all ranks, have made it, have paid for it also with their best thoughts, their treasure, their heart-throbs, and even their blood. No reproduction can ever give ages to come a hint of that record when once it is lost ; and if this thought needs help, surely, wise men are apt to take care of what they have earned and still hold ; and a great cost is not got back by de- stroying the property. It may seem as if one who lives far away need not urge that a people spend means and labor to save their old stones ; but England with all she is has grown to exist not for herself alone. If care and expense be her lot with her treasures, she holds the old homestead, and with a fair for- tune. Hers is the roof-tree, the hearthstone, the hall with the portraits ; and from the wide world the cousins, sometimes much removed it may be, do turn as only a touch of kindred can make them, glad, and perhaps a bit proud, that the old line has still the old place. They would be sorry to see it ill kept ; they like to see it so fine, as it is. In all lands there is a symbol to gather the people as never did any fiery cross in the grand misty Highlands of the wild North, and England has one now ten centuries old. When the flag that means all the immense deal that the country is stands in danger or need, we have known how all men who own it, for- getting everything about which they differ, will rally to save or defend it. Peer or ploughman, Tory or Whig, has one thought in common, and not very mildly asserted. More important by far than some calls have been to stand by that flag, is the call to the earnest defence of the beauty and treasures of the Eng- lish-speaking world's fair old home. Dislikes or beliefs, faiths or politics, well may stay back at times while a work for the honor of the grand ancient realm is taken in hand, and a good cause in common makes all sorts of people feel they are one large family after all, feel glad they have met in one common CONCLUSION. 425 cause, and for the work that they then do, for it adds to the glory, and more than that, to the moral power of Old England. 1 Some work like this has been tried by the nation, although little enough ; much more has been done by the Church, and by those who hold Castles and Halls ; and towns are here and there adding their efforts. But after saying this much, strangers should perhaps not be too forward in pointing out ways of action, and simply offer good wishes along with their earnest appeal. Yet a stop to further needless destruction, and an effort for more systematic and general preservation, may be pardonably mentioned and urged. Plans and methods are properly left to the living owners of the treasures to be saved, who are fully able, as the world knows, to manage their own affairs ; and certainly a person whose country can teach little by example should be modest in offering advice. For these reasons the writer has had little to say except in praise about late restorations, many of which have been described on 1 Ari3 T one who will give time, labor, and something more, can find work to do, or can help to save what is worth saving. In the writer's native town there is not a building that can be called ancient, and little art except in a few private hands. But there was the unprinted record kept by the ministers, liable to perish. Two hundred years of this he copied with his own hand, and of about three quarters of the matter he has carefully read the proof, the result appearing in the N. E. Historic-Genealogical Register, vols. xxiv. to xxxiii., and, with a con- siderable addition, in a large quarto volume (63 copies), — "Records of the First Church, Charlestown, 10-32-1789," — which he prepared for distribution to his- torical libraries. A portion never yet printed may some time follow the latter. Another undertaking has been to collect the titles of every book and pamphlet related to the town and its natives or residents, resulting in his " Bibliography of Charlestown and Bunker Hill." As no bibliography was ever born, like Minerva, but must grow like most things on earth, so more remains to be done here, and more material is accumulating. Any one who attempts a local work of this sort will probably be surprised by the amount of labor it involves, by the number of articles found, and by the obscurity into which most of them have fallen. Not even the early works described in this book impress one more with the changes in human things than do the hundreds of literary works, often small indeed, which will thus be examined and recorded. But to some extent a chart of the intellectual history of the place is formed, and not an article should be allowed to escape attention. When the products of two centuries and a half of time are explored, as in this case, a result of some value is attained. In every old place it would be well that some one should make a similar list ; and if such a one attempts to gather copies of the articles, he will find the pursuit near enough impossible to be interesting, and another result that proves how much can be done by patient labor, which is none the less worth doing since it is the unpaid, and perhaps obscure, labor of love of a literary Old Mortality. 426 CONCLUSION. the foregoing pages. A great deal of discussion and difference of opinion, along with some not exactly sweet and amiable dis- course, have arisen on the subject, about which it is perhaps enough to say here that some admirable work has been done, and plenty of opportunity for more is left, and also, as is the case in France, much more good than evil has resulted. 1 Affairs of the present, and those that seem possible in the future, and that might transform the country itself, and not merely buildings, tempt one to write as well as to think about their effect on the preservation of the stone chronicle ; but, like the subject of restoration, they belong to the people who hold the land and who must solve the problems it produces. With the prudent wisdom of former times working under a constant providence " that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will," there is more room for hope than for fear. In this railway age the train gives a plain hint of what is needed for safety. While modern progress cannot be stopped by old charms and usages, and must have engineers to keep up its onward speed, there must also be the guard at the break, although he is a man who has taken his father's place, for his care will surely some time save the train from harm or wreck. If he does not supply the moving power, he is not the less needed, and it will be a day of peril when he is thrown from the train. While we turn from the chronicle, another thought is sug- gested by changes which have occurred in the last twenty or thirty years, and which may be followed by greater. It is that 1 Religious opinion or training, as well as politics, need not, or should not, keep one from enjoyment and admiration of the stone chronicle, or hearty desire for its preservation, especially its noblest parts, the cathedrals. The writer, with cordial admiration for those priceless monuments, and earnest hope for their security, is not an Episcopalian, but, it may be added, has spent a good deal of time and labor, and given other help, towards the maintenance of one of the oldest Puritan churches in America, which has not changed its faith, and of which some of his ancestors, in unbroken line, have been members from the be- ginning. It is the oldest institution in his native town, and intimately connected with the planting of Christianity and civilization, not only there, but on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. He is glad that he has done what he has, and cordially sympathizes with like efforts, on a much greater scale, that have similar and far earlier associations both for Englishmen and for all English-speaking people. conclusion. 427 we can be glad that we live when we have seen, or can see, so much of the unaltered Old England. From the clear light of the brilliant present, far back along the vista of the dimming past till lost in the shades of the Druid's forests, we still find her long line of monuments, reaching through the peaceful vale or the smoke of conflicts, yet always true and attractive, forming a record that, again be it said, can never be reproduced ; and as we follow its stone pages where they lie opened to us, we find every line, like every chapter, still distinct. The gray giants unbowed by time at Stonehenge hold their own deep mysteries, but all else dis- closes, as nothing else can, part by part the story of England, of her people, and of all those who speak her tongue. With hoary heads uncovered to the storms, and bodies bruised yet strongly knit as crags that front the sea, the Roman forts stand on the shore, or where slow time has left them far from it ; and on the mist-swept crests of the distant northern heights the wrecked outer wall of ancient empire stretches, all bulwarks for four centuries of law and art and power as best the world then knew them, and as first the Imperial Island learned them. Scattered throughout the land and hiding in nooks are the rude fragments of six centuries more of the unskilled handiwork of the ancestors of men who were to out- rival those of the Eternal city, — scraps and relics of many a year of what seemed small things and a direful, hopeless dis- order, but of a period when a new earth was forming for a new race that was growing, almost every scrap and relic part of Something made to serve the faith that was to spread the Sermon on the Mount around the world and drive forever from it the pantheon of Olympus. Boldly defiant — on rocky ledges strong as their base, or moated on plains, and seemingly made as lasting as the un- dying turf spread around them — rise the huge Norman keeps, still looking out in their own lordly way far over the land their builders won and long held. Signs they are of a tyranny such as can be now only dreamed of (for it is harmless enough now in its old guise, dead if the demon could not sleep and change), and proofs like no others we can now see of what England was 428 CONCLUSION. and of what she has grown to be. No horsemen in hauberks of chain-mail ride with their lances out from the portals to harry the land ; they are almost undreamed of phantoms now ; but in their place there is, very likely, a picnic party with knives, forks, and lunch. Strong means of stern times helped to finish and join the people fused, welded, and knit through the fires and struggles of nearly seven hundred years. The race was formed; the kingdom of England was made. Then all the island was to become the seat of one power. The tower-studded chain was drawn around the craggy shores and the mountain-heights of Wales ; the castles were set on the wild northern border, and in time, after great trials, the land was the home of one strong nation ; and every part of its growth is shown by the stone chronicle. Wars of dynasties also came, also to be followed by in- creased strength and security, and more assured peace. Mean- while, as for a thousand years, the ancient Church watched the people, and from humble shelter had grown to princely estate, spreading exquisite art through the land along with its doc- trine, so that from scarcely a spot with a wide view anywhere south of the Scottish border cannot be seen a spire, roof, or tower telling of her presence. Though Hilda's noble abbey is crumbling in ruin, 1 Etheldreda's 2 church stands in full beauty ; the shrine of England's first martyr, 3 the crypt of St. Wilfrid, 4 and the gravestone of Bede, 5 are sacredly kept, and the Martyrs' Memorial 6 rises with its great lesson at Oxford. Chaucer, 7 Spenser, 7 Shakespeare, 8 Bacon, 9 and many another one who has helped to make English literature immortal, lie near her altars, as do Hampden, 10 Wilberforce, 11 and those who made her free, along with her sovereigns, 12 statesmen, 13 and warriors. 14 Strange indeed would be the English heart that could endanger the last earthly resting-places of all these in her churches ! The Reformation came, deeply marked on the noblest struc- tures in the country as well as by its great changes, and the i See p. 263. 2 p. 158. 8 pp. 44, 148. * p. 213. 5 p . 224. « p.. 343. 7 p . 235. 8 p . 299. 9 p . 147. 10 p . 291. u p. 238. u pp. 93, 233-35, 241. 1 3 p. 238. w pp. 143, 238. CONCLUSION. 429 modern England, its still greater monument. Splendid as the light and color that glow in the east, is the halo imagination, and fact, spread around the morning of that long era which we know in noonday. A queen who understood well, at least, how to summon the able, the trusty, or brilliant, to serve her and her country, held her stately court forty years. Heaven added its blessing, and showed how it helps stout hearts ready to help themselves. Still grand old galleries stand where in silks, velvet, and jewels, the lords and the ladies talked joyfully over the rout of the great Armada ; still green are the oaks and the turf where the commons did like them ; still used are the churches where God was thanked for England's defence. If the later morning was not as splendid, it was the time 1 of labors by which the English-speaking race began to spread world-wide, when men like those at Scrooby, or the Earl of Southampton and others, laid the foundations of the " Greater England " over the sea, and the graves of those of them laid in the old island must remain unharmed while real civilization lasts there. Halls of the statesmen, from their time to this, who have shaped the vast fabric of the existing empire, cer- tainly also should be kept safe as long. In their homes or haunts the great work was thought out ; and these halls re-echoed applause when it was first heard for Blenheim, for Plassey, Quebec, Trafalgar, and Waterloo. While faithfulness also is held a virtue in England, should the ivy-draped walls of Col- chester 2 and Raglan 3 be saved. Every phase of the national history is, indeed, still shown by visible works ; stately as those of Elizabeth's age ; simple as those of the country churchyard (p. 297) ; imposing as those where yet linger the echoes of the old courtly life and its most joyful hours ; stern and pathetic as is the room in the Tower (p. 82) where some of England's best hearts were wrung in the struggles that have made her strong and free. The home-land of the great race has all these to guard and to cherish ; and we who live far away from it, as we turn to leave it, can at least offer cordial good wishes, and express earnest hope, while we speak our last word in parting. » See p. 371. a p. 72. 8 p. 313. 430 CONCLUSION. One word older than the time when civilized men first came into England shows, by the use made of it, how her people have changed, tells the best they have gained, and, it may be, the height of her glory. It sounded the earliest triumph of Rome on her shores ; it stands for her thousand years of majesty ; it will never die in the countless years of the future. Great works of her arts will long bear it, yet far longer will it last to mean the sum of all she has reached to our time, and no word is fitter to be the last one we read on her stone chronicle. When on conquered fields, in pageants that followed, or sports of the vast amphitheatre, the cry of triumph resounded from Latin tongues, that word re-echoed ; it was the best word the Roman world knew. Fresh as in the earliest days, and spoken by millions then never dreamed of ; familiar, yet held in cordial respect, that word now follows the drum-beat heard round the earth through the empire on which the sun never sets, and, better by far, goes with the prayer at thousands of altars of the faith that shall conquer all things. The flag of a thousand years means not more glory. No longer now a mere shout after conflict and bloodshed, it is the name of the wife, mother, sovereign lady, pattern of old English virtues, in per- son all England's majesty, strong with the loyal regard of the vast empire that has its throne on the Imperial Island, winning hearts through respect for her where even her armies cannot conquer. Men will hold her name in honor through finite time ; and when the prayer that has risen from every part of our earth is answered, when the saint at the gate shall open the way, and the voices beyond sing their welcome, in harmonies none of us can conceive, still will ring on that word Victoria ! ti/lijh JIi/,:t dP.J-t .-_ onetkyne NOTES. I. — BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. The necessity for abridgment, which has limited notes in the latter part of this book, makes the writer omit a long list of County Histories which he has prepared for his own use. These works, most of them scarce, contain a vast amount of information and might be classed as greater and minor. A full and good collection, including the former and some of the latter, would consist of about 165 volumes, dating from 1656 (Dugdale's Warwick), to the present time, containing many hundreds of plates (see note to list of Illustrations), and costing now from £820 to £870. The Boston Public Library, through the wisdom and generosity of the late Joshua Bates of London, has such a collection, said to be the best in America. Another even longer list of local works must also be omitted for the same reason, and for one given in the Introduction. II. — ANCIENT BRITISH MONUMENTS. This is taken (in full) from the " Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882 [45 & 46 Vict. ch. 73] . The Schedule. List of Ancient Monuments to which the Act applies. England and Wales." Anglesea. The tumulus and dolmen, Plas Newydd, Llandedwen Parish. Berkshire. The tumulus known as Wayland Smith's Forge, Ashbury ; and Uffington Castle, Uffington. Cumberland. The stone circle known as Long Meg and her Daughters, near Penrith, Addingham; The stone circle on Castle Rigg, near Keswick, Crosthwaite; The stone circles on Burn Moor, St. Bees. Derbyshire. The stone circle known as The Nine Ladies, Stanton Moor; The tumulus known as Arborlow; Hob Hurst's House and Hut, Bastow Moor [all in], Bakewell; Minning Low, Brassington. Glamorgan. Arthur's Quoit, Gower, Llanridian Parish. Gloucester. The tumulus at Uley, Uley. Kent. Kits Coty House, Aylesford. Northampton. Danes Camp, Hardingstone; Castle Dykes, Farthingston. Oxford. The Rollrich Stones, Little Rollright. Pembroke. The Pentre Evan Cromlech, Nevern. Somerset. The ancient stones at Stanton Drew ; The chambered tumulus at Stoney Littleton, Wellow; Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury. Westmoreland. Mayborough, near Penrith ; Arthur's Round Table, Penrith [both in] Barton Parish. Wiltshire. The group of stones known as Stonehenge, and Old Sarum, Amesbury; The vallum at Abury, the Sarcen stones within the same, those along the Kennet Road, and the group between Abury and Beck- hampton, and Silbury Hill, Abury; The long barrow at West Kennet, near Marlborough ; The dolmen (Devil's Den), near Marlborough, Fyfield Parish ; Barbury Castle, Ogbourne, St. Andrews, and Swindon. 432 NOTES. [See also. Smith, Rev. A. C-, The British and Roman Antiquities on the N. Wiltshire Downs (100 sq. miles around Abury), 4°, maps and cuts, new ed.. 1885. Warne. C Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, fciio,lS66. Higgins, G., The Celtic Druids, 4°, London, 1S27. Also notes in this book, pp. 16, 17, 19.] m. — ROMAN MOSAIC PAVEMENTS. Some of the best works of Roman art found in England are those mentioned below, discovered, most of them accidentally, in the places and years named. Some of the mosaics were damaged when found, and many have been sub- sequently injured or destroyed, as we are informed by dismal accounts in numerous English books. Sizes are given in feet, and authorities with accounts or plates are added in parentheses. Lysons refers to his great folios (note, pp. 42-43); Arch., to the Arehseologia of the Soc. of Antiquaries, London; and Vet. Mon., to their " Vetusta Monumenta," Imp. folio, about 400 large plates, 1747 to the present time. Berks. Basildon. Two found injured and then broken up (Arch., xxviii. 447). Bucks. High Wycombe. One figured; in Lord Shelbourne's grounds, 1722 ; destroyed (Langley's Hist. Desboro', 29). One 9x9, in 1774 (Lewis, iv. 657). Cheshire. Chester. One 5x5, coarse, 1803, in Xun's garden, near the castle. Except in Chester, few remains in this Co. (Lysons, Mag. Brit.). Dorset. Dorchester, part of one 10 X 4i, simple, about 1S09, but part is covered by the gaol (Arch., xvii. 330). A fragment of a large one, 1725 (engraved in Hutchins' Dorset, i. 383). Frampton, 20 X 30, very rich, 1704-6 (Lysons). (27 X 20, one third destroyed when found. Britton's Dorset.) Essex. Aldersbrool: 16 X 20, with figure of a man, 1735 (P. B., v. 468). Colchester. A corner of a square, about 6 X 9, in 1763 (Morant's Essex, i. 1S1). Two. about 1769 (one was about 9 X 16). (Arch., ii. 286.) One, 22x17. in 1793 (Vet. Mon., iii. pi. 39). Ipsicich. 1S54, now in the museum there. Mersey Island. Several described by Dr. C. Mortimer (P. B.. v. 324). Pddgwell. Found nearly entire. 9 X 60, in 1794. Gloucester. Barton Farm, Cirencester. Orpheus taming brutes (Aker- man). Cirencester. A fine one, 1723. One 16 or 18 sq., checkered. 1777, soon destroyed (P. B., v. 595. 599). Rodmarton. One, 1636 (P. B., v. 592). Woodchester. One 48 ft. 10 in. sq., with figures and a very elaborate and fine design in geometrical patterns, thought by Lysons superior to any other found in England. It was in a very large building which contained about 70 rooms or galleries, and 9 or 10 other mosaic pavements (Lysons). Hampshire. Bramdean, two very fine with figures, covered by a build- in2r. Crondall one. square, ornamented, inferior to last. Silchester (p. 46), chiefly since 1860; one of tiles 16 sq., one mosaic, with an urn and geomet- rical ornaments, removed to Stratfieldsaye House (Arch., xl. 403, xlvi. 329- 65). Truxton, 1S23, a small one. circle in a square with a Bacchus, etc.; covered with a building by the owner, Mr. Noyea (Arch., xxii. 49). Hereford. Bishopstone, 1829 or before, near the Roman Magna Castra, or Kenchester (Arch., xxxiii. 417). NOTES. 433 Herts. Box Moor. In relics of a villa {Arch., xxxiv. 396). Kent. Canterbury. 1739, one carelessly broken up (P. B., viii. 755). 1868, one tessellated, and one of tiles (Arch., xliii. 155). Lullingstane, part of one. Reculver, fragments (both P. B., viii.). Lancashire. Ocerborough. Remains. Leicester. Leicester. 1675, one with animals and "two human fig- ures;" 1754, pieces of three others; 1782, another fragment; 1832(?) one very elegant, owned by the town. Rothley, 1722, one (P. B., ix.). Lincoln. Denton. 1727, one geometrical, and part of another 8 sq., both engraved by Fowler (note p. 43). Horkstow, 1796, three very rich, one 23 sq., another larger and partly preserved (Lysons). Lincoln. One in the area of the cloisters (p. 162). Littleborough. Fragments. Scampton. In a villa 13; the only one perfect engraved by Fowler. Roxby, one; and Winterton, three, rich, in 1747 (Vet. Mon., ii. pi. 9). Middlesex. Roman works are found in London from 8 to 19 ft. below the present surface over an area from Northumberland Alley and Fen- church St., E., to Paternoster Row, W. (by St. Paul's), but very few of them have been made known, or not destroyed (List by W. Tite, Arch., 1863, v. 39, 491). In 1681, a mosaic was found in Holborn, near St. Andrew's Church, and another in Canning St.. near Bush Lane. — 1707, a pavement of brick, 10 ft. wide and over 60 ft. long, in Bishopsgate St. Within. — 1785-6, one of brick, of uncertain length, but 20 ft. E. to ^Y., in Lom- bard St. — 1787, a fragment in Crutched Friars. — 1792, a circular one in Old Broad St. — 1803, in Leadenhall St., one injured, more than 20 ft. sq., figures and ornaments, engraved by Fisher, afterwards most of it was destroyed. — 1S05, at the S. W. angle of the Bank, one about 11 ft. sq., 12 ft. below the street, preserved in the British Museum. — 1836, part of one that had been about 5 X 40 ft., at Crosby Sq. , Bishopsgate St. — 1841, two in Threadneedle St., under French Protestant Church, one was 6x5 ft., the other about 13+ ft. sq. (see xxxix. 400) ; both are in the British Mu- seum. — 1854, under the Excise Office, near Bishopsgate St., 28 ft. sq., geometrical design badly broken (see xxxvi. 203), preserved at Svdenham. — 1S58, in Fenchurch St., remains of a fine narrow pavement now in British Museum. — 1863, a coarse pavement in Leadenhall St., and 1864, a part of an ornamented one, now in British Museum. — See J. E. Price, 4°, 1870, account of one found in Bucklersbury. MoxMOLin. Caerleon. 1755, one perfect ; 1692, a fine one with figures (destroyed?). Most of the Roman objects found in this once large city have been removed. At St. Julians and Penros, near by, were found pave- ments. Caerwent, one in 1777, measuring 21| X 18£, with ornaments and circles. It was covered with a stone building by the owner, Mr. Lewis (Arch., vii. 410; plate, do. xxxvi. 428), and was one of the best of seven found to Dec, 1855, most of which were fragments (Arch., xxxvi. 425). Northampton. Chester, Fragments. Cotterstock, one near, found 1736 (Vet. Mon., i. 48). Weldon, 1738, four of geometrical design, one of them 97 X 10 (Lysons). Notts. Pleasley (near), 1786, one, elegant, in a villa, covered by a house for it (Arch., viii.). Oxford. North Leigh, one 35 X 20 ft. with figures, 1713, but soon 28 434 NOTES. destroyed. In 1780, and 1813-16, there were other discoveries; in 1815 (Lewis) a large villa with one gallery 170 X 10, and another 1S4 X 10, also baths, coins, and (1815) a pavement, 22 X 28 (Arch., xxxvii. 434). Stunsfield (2 m. N. W. of Woodstock), 1712, one 35x20 engraved in Leland's Itinerary, viii. Watlington, Beaconsfield farm, eng. in Beesley's Oxfordshire. Somerset. Combe St. Nicholas, 1800, one geometrical (Lysons). Pitney, villa with good pavements (Murray). Wellow, 1737, three (Vet. Mon.. i. 50-52). Surrey. Worplesdon, 1829, broken, of a building 62x23; removed (Arch., xxiii. 39S). Sussex. Bignor (p. 43), several (Arch., xviii. 203; xix. 176; Lysons; and Dallaway's Sussex, ii. pt. 1). Wilts. Bromham, 1810, or earlier, one, square; Pitt Mead, near War- minster, 1785-1800, four (of which two were soon broken) ; Budge, near Froxfield, one, square, destroyed; Littlecote, 1730, two, one was 41 X 28, and was the largest and finest that had yet been found in Great Britain, but both were destroyed. (These eight are illustrated and described in Hoare's Ancient Wilts.) Those at Littlecote had figures and geometrical patterns (Lysons). Steeple Ashton, one? (Plot's Oxfordshire). West Dean, 1741, part of one. York. Aldborough, several (pp. 46-48). IV. — SAXON WORK. This list of churches of which parts are thought to show Saxon work is from the Glossary of Architecture, 3 vols. 8°, 5th ed., Parker, Oxford, 1850, vol. i. p. 410, rearranged geographically, with notes added in brackets. Churches marked with a star (*) are described by Hickman. Nor. = Norman. E. E. = Early English Pointed. D. = Decorated. P. = Perpendicular. Southern Part of England (east to west). — Kent. Dover, the ruined chh. in the Castle [see p. 66]. — Sicanscombe, tower [chh. E. E.]. Surrey. Albury, church [E. E. Two pillars are supposed to be Roman.] — * Stoke d'Abernon, some portions. Berkshire. Cholsey, tower [part of chh. Nor.] — Wickham, tower. Hampshire. Boarhunt [E. E.]— Corhampton, church [very early and curious]. — Headbourne Worthy. — Hinton Ampner. — Little Sombourn. — Kil- meston, church. — Tichborne. Wiltshire. *North Burcombe, east end. — *Brytford, north and south doors (now stopped). — Bremhill, west end [very early tower.] — Somer/ord Keynes, church. Somersetshire. Cranmore, a triangular door-head, with rude imposts and jambs. — Milborne Port [cruciform, chiefly Nor.]. Cornwall. Tintagel. Eastern Counties. — Essex. Boreham, church [fine]. — *Colchester, Trinity, part of the tower, etc. [much Roman material; chiefly 1349]. — Felstead. — Great Maplestead, north door. NOTES. 435 Suffolk. Barham, part of church [chiefly D.]. — Clay don, do. [fine view]. — Debenham [fine Nor., E. E., and P.]. — Flixton [ruin?]. — Gos- beck, part of church. — Hemingston [late Pointed]. — Ilketshall [Nor., E. E., and P.]. — Leiston. Norfolk. Norwich, St. Julian's. — Beestone, S. Lawrence. — Dunham Magna, church [part Early Nor.]. — Elmham, ruins of bishop's palace. — Howe. — Newton, tower. Cambridgeshire. Cambridge, *S. Benet's tower, and S. Giles's. Lincolnshire. Aukborough. — *Barton on the Humber, S. Peter's [chiefly D.]. This is the most eastern example. — Branston. — Cabourn [very old and massive]. — Clee, tower [chh. dedicated, 1192]. — Holton le clay, tower and chancel arch. — Heapham. — Lincoln, S. Peter's at Gowts, and S. Mary le Wigford. — Nettleton. — *Ropsley, part of the west end. — Rothwell. — Scartho. — Skellingthorpe. — Skillington, part of the church [E. E., and D.]. — Springthorpe [dilapidated? Nor.]. — Stow, transepts [chiefly Nor.]. — Swallow. — Syston [late Nor.] tower [Nor. and E. E.]. — Waith, tower. — Winterton. Central England. — Hertfordshire. S. Michael's at S. Alban's. Bedfordshire. *Clapham, tower [all of chh. very old]. — Knotting. Buckinghamshire. Caversfield, tower. — Iver. — Lavendon, tower. — Wing, nave and chancel, with polygonal apse, and crypt [a fine chh.]. Oxfordshire. Oxford, *S. Michael's, tower. — Northleigh, do. Northamptonshire. *Barnack, tower [remarkable chh., Nor. and E. E.] — *Brigslock, church [partly Nor., rude tower]. — *Brixworth, church [large and remarkable; Nave thought to show Roman work; Nor. aisles, etc.] — Earl's Barton, tower [see p. 55]. — Green's Norton, west end. — Pattishall. — Stow-nine- churches [partly Nor.]. — * Wittering, chancel. Gloucestershire. Daglingworth, church, except tower [late Nor.?]. — Deerhurst, tower. — Miserden, church. — Stretton, north doorway. — Up- leadon, chancel arch [a small chh.]. Warwickshire. Wooton Wawen, substructure of tower [E. E. to P.]. Worcestershire. Wyre Piddle, chancel arch. Leicestershire. Barrow on Soar. — Tugby. Shropshire. Barrow, chancel arch. — Church Stretton. — Clee [partly Nor.]. — Stanton Lacey, nave and transept. — Stottesdon. Derbyshire. *Repton, east end and crypt. Northern England. — Durham. Monk's Wearmouth, tower. — Jarrow, walls of church and chancel, and ruins near it: the tower is Nor. [Original chh., 685. Nave rebuilt 1783.] Northumberland. Bolam, tower. — Bywell, S. Andrew, and S. Peter. — Corbridge [Roman materials]. — Hexham, crypt. — Ovingham [E. E.]. — * Whittingham, church. The most northern example on this list. Yorkshire. Bardsey [Nor. and fine]. — *Kirkdale, west end and chancel arch [part Nor.]. — Kirk Hammerton. — Laughton en le Morthen, north doorway [fine, Early and D.]. — Maltby [E. E.]. — Ripon, minster, crypt called Wilfred's Needle [see p. 213] . — York, S. Mary, Bishop-hill Junior. 436 NOTES. V. — CASTLES AND RESIDENCES. The writer has made for his own use lists of several hundred (such as he has not elsewhere found), arranged geographically and chronologically by styles, with brief descriptions added; but the present volume has already grown so large that they are omitted. Very full lists prepared by him and printed in his "Historical Monuments of France" (pp. 257-325), were corrected and enlarged by the lists of the Commission on these works; the omitted lists relating to England, while the result of much labor, could not be similarly revised and given the same high authority. VI. NORMAN KEEPS. See Beattie, Domestic Architecture, Grose, Lewis, Murray, Woolnoth, and local works. Descriptions are given on pages shown in pai'entheses. Southern Coast. Kent. Chilham, Cowling, Canterbury, Dover (p. 64), Leeds (p. 333), Saltwood, and Rochester (p. 117). — Sussex. Lewes and Pevensey (p. 60). — Hants. Portchester (p. 62). — Dorset. Corfe, and Sherbourne. — Devon. Okehampton, and Plympton (round), both ruined. — Cornwall. Launceston. Eastern Coast. Essex. Colchester (p. 69), and Hedingham, two of the grandest in England. — Suffolk. Orford. — Norfolk. Castle Rising, and Norwich (p. 73). — York. Scarborough (p. 329). — Northumberland. Bamborough (p. 320). Scottish Border. Northumberland. Newcastle (p. 219), and Norham. Welsh Border. Cheshire. Chester (p. 192). — Shrops. Ludlow (p. 313). On the Severn. Gloucester. Berkeley (p. 334). On the Thames. Surrey. Guildford. — Berks. Windsor (p. 85). — Middlesex. London (p. 73). Midland. Warwick. Kenilworth (p. 330), and Warwick (p. 331). — York. (N. R.) Bowes, Middleham (p. 326), Richmond, and (W. R.) Conisborough. — Durham. Durham (p. 228). — Westmoreland. Brough, and Brougham, both injured. VII. NOTES OMITTED. On Parish Churches (see pp. 288-300). Parish Churches are described and illustrated to some extent by Neale (J. P., 2 vols. 98 pi., 1824-25) ; in Wickes', C, Spires and Towers (imp. folio, 3 vols., 1853-59); in County and very many local histories; in a few County collections like Essex Churches (Buckler, 8°, 1856), Cambridgeshire (Camden Soc, 8°, 1845), and Warwickshire (14 pts., 8°, 1844-58) ; and in a great number of monographs. On the homes of poets and authors (see p. 423). For an instance, see Howitt, Wm. and Mary, " Homes and Haunts of the British Poets," 8° (4th ed., 1858). Also the former's "Rural Life of England," 8° (3d ed., 1844). On the " Simple Homes " (see pp. 422-3). Some idea of the more humble can be formed from " Domestic Architecture ; Views of Cottages and Farm Houses, chiefly of the 17th century ; Drawings by Prout, Pugin, and others, 54 etchings by F. Stevens," roy. 4°, 1815. INDEX. Figures in italics denote the more important references or descriptions, are directions to places or objects in them, described. Under shires ABBEYS. See Monasteries; as Country Seats, 281-4. Abbots hanged, 252, 253-4, 255. Aberystwith, 305-6. Ackerman, R., 229, 337, 344, 348. Addison, J., 184, 188, 237, 375. Agricola, 20, 21, 30. Albert (Prince), 84, 93-4, 418, 419. Aldborough, 43, 46-8, 434. Alfred (King), 50, 54-5, 384. Alison, Sir A., 384. Alnwick Castle, 321-2, 331. Alton, 282, 389. America, colonization in, ix, 371. Angles, The, 51; 52, 54, 55, 56, 59, 95. Anglesea, 15, 20, 431. Anne (Queen), 380, 382, 383, 398, 399. Antiquaries, Royal Soc. of, 19 ; their Ve- tusta Monumenta, v, vii, 73, 80, 200, 219, 250, 254, 277, 279, 432-4; Archteologia, 19, 22, 44, 432-4. Armada, Spanish, 82, 353, 373, 429. Arragon, Catharine of, 76, 150, 153. Art, Christian, 97-105; Saxon, 97; Nor- man, 97-100; Dispersion of works of, 88, 390. See Paintings. Arthur (King), 53, 54, 67, 85, 90, 201. Aston Hall, 376-8. Audley End, vii, 293, 372-5, 376, 420. Augustine (St.), 67, 112, 278. Augustines. See Monasteries. Author's works. See Notebooks, France, Scott, and 425. BACON (Lord), 147, 291, 428. Bale, J. (Bp.), 247. Bamborough, 55, 59, 69, 269, 320. Barden Tower, 261. Barnard Castle, 325, 329. Barneck stone, 152, 154, 281, 366; church, 435. Barry, Sir C, 412. Bath, 42, 106, 108, 135-7, 277; Knights of, 75, 240. Battle Abbey, 279, 282. Bayley, J., 69, 73, 82, 84. Beattie, W., 308, 311, 313. Beckett, Sir E., 147. Bede (Ven.), 31, 50, 224, 428. Bedfordshire, 280, 282. Benedict (St.), 245. Benedictines, The. See Monasteries. Bentham, J., vii, 153. Berkeley Castle, 331, 334-5. Berkshire, 54, 85, 280, 431, 432, 434. Berwick, 14, 319-20. Beverley, 286-8; St. John of. 202, 287. Bible, The, 115, 137, 191, 248, 276, 278, 396. Bignor, 43, 434. Billings, R. W., vii, 214, 215, 217, 221, 225, 227. Birmingham, 376, 378, 402. Blenheim, 380, 382-6, 429. Blois, 68, 91, 390. Boleyn, Anne, 77, 395. Boliiigbroke (Lord), 382, 383. Bolton: Abbey, 254, 259-60; Hall, 260; Castle, 327-9. Borcovicus, 32, 35-6, 41. Boston, 29, 289, 293-5, 402 ; (N. E.), 294. Braybrooke (Lord), 372, 373. Brayley, E. W., 229, 230, 336. Bristol, 106, 108, 130-1, 277, 289, 290, 291-3. Britain, Early, 15-19; Roman, 19-49, 112; condition then, 21; Romans leave, 31; summary, 49. Britons, Early, 15, 17, 19, 20; ancient mon- uments, 431. 438 INDEX. Britton, J., vii, 69, 111, 123, 132, 136, 137, 139, 143, 161, 183, 292, 415, 419, 432. Bruce, D. (Scotland), 75; Rev. J. C, 30, 31, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41; R., 318. Brydges, Sir E., 281. Buckingham Palace, 400-1; shire, 280, 296, 297, 388, 432, 435; Dukes of, 388. Buckler, J. C, vii, 111, 146, 292. Bunker Hill, 196, 425. Burgh Castle, 29. Burleigh, 364-8, 368, 381 ; Baron, 365. Butler, S., 236, 314. Bury St. Edmund, 281. Byron (Lord), 141, 283-4, 291. CAEDMON, 263. Caen, 58, 146. Caerphilly, 308. Caesar, J., 19, 20, 22, 51. Camalodunum, 20, 28, 44, 68. Cambridge, 42, 52, 339, 349, 435 ; shire, 52, 153, 280, 344, 435. Camden, W., 16, 19, 50, 229, 237, 391, 417. Campbell, T., 236. Canterbury, 20, 74, 99, 101, 103, 106, 108, 111-17, 202, 278, 285, 433. Carcassonne, 68, 79, 84, 204, 303. Cardiff, 307, 309. Carew Castle, 306. Carlisle, 30, 31, 33, 34, 100, 101, 107, 109, 214-17, 320, 328 ; Earl of, 384. Carnarvon, 304-5, 308. Carter, J., 222; O. B., 121. Castles, 436 ; Midland, 323-37; Norman, 60-72; Northern, 317-23. See Roman, Royal, 73-94. Welsh, 302-8; do. com- pared with French, 305, 307, 310; with Scotch, 306, 319; Western, 308-17; books on, 69, 73, 85, 302, 308, 311, 313, 317. Cathedrals, iii (list of), xi, 56, 111-228; chief features, 100-5 ; builders of, 105, 352; books on, 111, 119, 121, 125, 131, 139-40, 145-6, 153-4, 161, 179, 183, 189, 200, 214, 221; contrasts with French, 103, 121, 126, 130, 132, 207, 234, 240; with Spanish, 232, 233; French features, 114, 123, 151, 160, 169, 231; east end, form of, 114; injury to, 103^1, 150-1, 169; Jacob's ladder, 136; new nave, 131; new west fronts, 131, 147; oldest naves, 99, 169; Noah's Ark, 137; size of Continental, 140 ; watching loft, 148. See Cloisters; Glass; Monuments; Pointed; Porches; Pul- pits ; Reredos ; Screens ; Stones ; Vaulting. Caxton, W., 178, 243, 409. Chalfont, 90, 297-8. Channel, The, 22, 48, 51, 58, 61, 63, 64, 65. Chantries, 122. Charity Children, services, 145, 199. Charle's I., 86, 88, 93, 168, 193, 304, 312, 313, 334, 378, 393, 396, 408, 414; II., 71, 78, 82, 88, 92, 203, 304, 314, 327, 332, 391, 396; V. (Germany), 87, 383; Edward (Prince), 34, 190, 215. Chatsworth, 381-2. Chatterton, T., 291, 292. Chaucer, G., 235, 237, 428. Chepstow, 277, 308-10, 311, 316. Cheshire, 189, 277, 389, 422, 432. Chester, 42, 43, 107, 109, 176, 184, 189-98, 204, 277, 317, 432. Chetham, H., 199. Cheviots, The, 35, 52, 319, 323. Chevy Chase, 318, 822. Chichester, 22, 43, 48-9, 99, 103, 106, 108, 119-21. Christianity, introduction of, 44, 53, 97, 110, 112, 146," 149, 159, 162, 163, 175, 179, 184, 201, 212, 213, 247-8, 251, 258, 261-2, 263, 268, 285, 352. Christmas, 86, 201, 395. Churton, E., 254, 261, 263. Cinque Ports, 64. Civil War, The. 68, 72, 86, 93, 103, 104, 120, 150-1, 157, 169, 179, 185, 190, 203, 214, 216, 218, 230, 281, 288, 304, 305, 306, 310, 312-13, 323, 325, 328, 329, 330, 331, 334, 372, 378-9, 384, 396, 414. Claudius (Emp.), 20, 25, 251. Cloisters, 103, 116, 124, 129, 161, 167, 172, 174-5, 178, 182-3, 195-6, 226, 242, 258, 339, 341, 349. Coast-defences, Roman, 22-9; Norman, 59- 72; Henry VIII.'s, 353. Cockerell, C. R., 131, 132, 133, 165, 342. Colchester, 28, 42. 44, 59, 69-72, 280, 420, 429, 432, 434. Colleges, 124, 337-49. Coningsburgh, 55, 325. Conquest (Norman), 58-60, 74, 84, 324, 378, 420. Constantine, 45, 201. Conway, 303-4, 308. Cornwall, 13, 14, 18, 61, 289, 422, 434. Coronations, 235 ; chair, 234-5 ; stone, 235. Cottingham, L. N., 229. Cotton, Rev. J., 294. Coucy, 63, 69, 70, 83. Coventry, 184, 290, 296, 416. Creasy, E. S., 386. Cromwell, O., 78, 88, 174, 396, 414. Crosses, 119, 121, 234. Crovland, 281. Crvpts, 116, 123, 210, 213-14, 227, 242, 414. Cumberland, 14, 40, 214, 273, 431. INDEX. 439 DANES, The, 51, 54, 56, 59, 137, 149, 154, 161, 162, 190, 202, 214, 230, 247, 263, 271, 285, 287. Dan-ell, W., 64, 67. Dart, J., Ill, 229, 417. David (Scots), 86, 319. Derbyshire, 14, 52, 289, 357, 368, 381, 422, 431, 435. Destruction of Antiquities, 18, 27, 32, 72, 104, 127, 222, 279. Devon, shire, 14, 137; Dukes of, 259, 369; 381 ; monastery, 277. Dick, W. R., 73, 79. Dickens, C, 237, 251 ; (son), 291, 491. Dodsworth, W., 125. Domed churches, size of, 140. Domesday Book, 57, 63. Domestic architecture (old), 197, 326, 359, 417, 422-3. Doncaster, 289, 295. Dorset, Earls of, 361; shire, 14, 282, 285, 432. Dover, 22, 27, 59, 64-8, 69, 94, 100, 434. Drayton, M., 237, 251. Druids, The, 17, 18, 20, 39, 90, 427, 432. Dry den, J., 237. Dugdale, Sir W., 139, 244, 431. Durham, 57, 100, 107, 109, 173, 198, 215, 220-9, 248, 270, 271, 284, 325; shire, 14, 29, 52, 325, 435. EARL'S BARTON, 55, 97, 435. Earthquakes (mediasval), 162, 251, 253. Eastlake, C. L., 387, 404. Eaton Hall, 389. Edward (Confessor), 58, 230,233-4; I., 75, 81, 219, 234, 235, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 318; II., 75, 174, 318, 335, 338; III., 75, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 92, 183, 202, 234, 319, 338; IV., 68, 75, 76, 90, 327, 331; V., 76; VI., 350, 395. Edwards, E., 244, 252, 348, 410. Egbert, 54, 190. Eleanor (Queen), 234, 304. EJgin (Lord), 411. Elizabeth (Queen), 45, 64, 68, 72, 76, 78, 87, 121, 168, 239, 241, 269, 282, 296, 331, 353-5, 358, 360, 361, 364, 365, 367, 368, 369, 370, 372, 376, 377, 384, 391, 392, 395, 398, 411. 429. Elizabethan style, vii, 126, 239, 258, 282, 358, 359, 360", 362, 364-70, 405. Ely, 74, 99, 106, 108, 153-9, 160, 173, 180, 280, 420. England, Geography, 13; historical divi- sions, 14; early, 15-19; Roman, 19-49; condition then, 21, 49; Engle and Saxon, 50-6; condition then, 55-6 ; name, 51, 52; united, 54; memorials of, 55-6; Norman, 57-74, 95-6; "Greater," 94, 429; the Church in, 97-300; Civil, Norman to Eliz., 301-52; Mediaeval, 324-5, 349-52; Elizabethan, 353-55; age of James I., 371-2 ; colonizing, 371 ; since 1640, 378- 81; New, 238, 371, 402. English, people, 56, 59, 95, 301, 350, 353-4, 424 ; rural scenery, 16, 45, 47, 85, 124-5, 252, 277, 325-6," 356, 386. See, also, Views. Essex, 28, 44, 51, 52, 58, 68, 69, 71, 90, 280, 292, 353, 372. 432, 434. Ethelbert, 27, 112. Etheldreda (St.), 106, 154, 158, 159, 428. Eton, 298, 348-9. Exeter, 99, 101, 106, 108, 137-9; College, 338 ; Marquis of, 367. FALAISE, 58, 63, 69, 70, 81, 98. Fall of spires, 119, 212; towers, 156, 176, 180. Fergusson, J., 156, 217. Feudal: Guards, 323-37; system, 323, 324. Fires (medieval), 120, 150, 159, 162, 172, 180. Flaxman, J., 131, 132. Fontainebleau, 91, 390. Fonthill, 282. Fonts, 123, 414. Fountains Abbey, 250, 254, 255-9, 262, 278 ; Hall, 258. Fowler, W., 43, 433. Fox, H., 375. France, 57-8, 383 ; " Historical Monuments " of, xi, 58, 79, 245, 333, 414, 436. Freeman, E. A., 57. Frideswide (St.), 170. Fumess, 273-77. GALLERIES (long rooms), 357, 358, 362, 363, 370, 376, 377, 385 ; (of art, see Paint- ings.) Garrick, D., 184, 237. Garter, Order of, 86, 91. Geometry, remarkable, 123, 217. George I., 387, 398, 399 ; II., 398, 399 ; III., 399, 400, 407, 410; IV., 401, 408, 414. German races, viii, 15, 51, 52, 53, 54; Ocean, 22, 26, 52, 68, 263-5, 269-70, 330. Gibbons, G., 88, 92, 366, 397. Gibbs, J., 290. Gilsland Spa, 39, 41. Glass, colored, 102, 138, 139, 196, 267; Flemish, 187, 340; new, 119, 128, 157, 440 INDEX. 226, 260; old, 113, 122, 127, 171, 173, 187, 208, 209, 214, 217, 240, 340. Glastonbury, 251-4, 277, 278, 289, 343. Gloucester," 42, 99, 103, 107, 109, 171-5, 277; shire, 14, 43, 130, 171, 277, 289, 290, 291, 334, 431, 432, 435. Goldsmith, 0., 236. Gothic Revival, 290-1, 339, 342, 387, 389, 403-4, 406. Gray, C, 72; Thos., 90, 236, 296-7; Lady J., 395. Green, J. R., 50, 51, 52, 53. Greenwich, 391. Grey, Lady J., 77, 83. Grose, F., x, 61, 64, 68, 256, 268, 278, 279, 302, 308, 321, 335. Guesten Hall, 183. HADDON HALL, 357-9, 362. Hadrian (Emp.), 30, 31, 219. Hall, S. C, 334, 355, 368, 375. Hallam, H., 246. Halls : mediaeval, 63, 66, 70, 82, 303, 309- 10, 312, 322, 332, 334, 357, 358, 394, 404, 413-14; collegiate, 341-2; modern, 360, 361-2, 367, 368, 369, 373-4, 377, 397, 405, 406, 414-15: Town, 401-3; changes in form, etc., 301, 322, 355, 361-2, 374. Haltwhistle, 33, 323. Hampden, J., 291, 428. Hampshire, 14, 28, 44, 52, 62, 121, 279, 353, 432, 434. Hampton Court, 88, 366, 368, 380, 381, 391, 393-9, 401, 420. Handel, 237. Hardwicke: Hall, 368-70; Eliz. of, 369. Harlech, 305. Harold, 58, 67, 169. Hastings, 58, 67, 90, 99, 279; W., 238, 414. Hatfield, x, 375-6, 420. Hengist, 51, 67. Henry I., 61, 85, 90, 117, 306, 314; II., 67, 85," 96, 163, 202, 214, 314, 334; III., 62, 71, 74, 82, 90, 190, 230, 234, 242, 287, 302, 416 ; IV., 62, 75, 115, 203, 304 ; V., 75, 87, 234, 311, 319; VI., 75, 146, 209, 293, 335, 345, 348; VII., 76, 77, 93, 101, 182. 230, 240-1, 293, 311, 318, 319. 334, 388, 409; Vni., 76, 77, 87, 91, 104, 147, 150, 162, 170, 183, 190, 203, 248, 253, 258, 275, 282, 298, 306, 314, 333, 346, 348, 349, 353, 358, 368, 373, 375, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 399. Hereford, 99, 107. 109, 175-9, 184. Herstmonceaux, 335-7. Hertfordshire, 20, 43, 280, 375, 433. See St. Alban's. Hexham, 33, 213, 271-3, 435. Hilda (St.), 263, 265, 428. Hoare, Sir R. C, 16, 17, 434. Holbein, 303, 398. Holland House, 375. Horsley, J., 30, 33. Hospitals, 124, 199, 416-17. Houard, M., 57, 324. Houghton Hall, x, 386-7. Howard, Cath., 77, 395; John, 143. Howitt, W., 297, 436. Hiibner's Inscriptiones, 19; map from, 48. Hughes, T., 54. Humber, The, 14, 52. Hume, D., 19, 54, 57. Huntingdon, 289. INNS (old), 168, 253, 317, 366. Ireland, 96; W. H., 64, 65, 69. Irving. W., 86, 284. Isurium, 46-8. JAMES I., 87, 126, 239, 317, 318, 353, 362, 370, 376, 391, 392, 393, 398, 409, 417; age of, 371-8; style of, vii, 362-3, 373-7 ; II., 78, 88, 93, 190, 396, 397; I. (Scotland), 62, 86; IV., 319; VI., 318. James, Sir H., 16, 57. Jameson, Mrs. A., 244, 246, 397, 400. Jews, treatment of, 75, 202 ; house, 162. John (King), 71, 74, 182, 202. Johnson, Dr. S., 143, 184, 306. Jones, Inigo, vii, 16, 17, 392, 412. Jonson, Ben, 235, 357. Jorvaulx, 254. Jutes, 51. 52, 95. KENILWORTH, 60, 69, 317, 330-31. Kensington, 88, 375, 380, 399. Kent, 14, 18, 19, 20, 22, 30, 51, 52, 58, 64, 67, 90, 111, 117, 278, 281, 333, 353, 355, 360, 391, 431, 432, 433, 434. Kerr, 355, 385. King, D., vii, 111; E., 23, 69, 302, 317; R. J., 183, 213, 217, 227. Kits Coty House, 18, 431. Kirkstall, 254, 261-3. Knole, 360-3, 420. LACOCK ABBEY, 282. Lancashire, 52, 198, 273, 359, 422, 433. Lannercost, 41, 273. Laud (Arehb.), 78. Leeds, 261, 267, 402; Castle, x, 331, 333-4. Lee Priory, 281-2. INDEX. 441 Leicester: shire, 281, 43.3, 435; Earl of, 331. Leland, J., xi, 25, 26, 170, 252, 279, 434. Lely, Sir P., 92, 363, 397-8. Le welly n, 302. Lewis," S., 168, 304, 436. Ley burn, 325, 326, 327. Libraries: Blenheim, 383, 385; Br. Museum, 409-10; cathedral, 167, 178, 188, 195-6, 202, 227; church, 286, 296; college (Cam- bridge), 345, 347-8, (Oxford), 341, 347-8; Eton, 349; monastic, 247-8, 281; others, 199, 242, 415; Temple, 405. Lichfield, 107, 109, 176, 183-9, 190. Lincoln, 29, 42, 43, 100, 103, 107, 109, 161-8, 168, 184, 234, 433, 435; St. Hugh of, 162-3, 105 ; shire, 29, 161, 168, 281, 289, 290, 293, 295, 433, 435. Lindisfarne, 220, 268-70. Liverpool, 359, 403, 411. Llanstephan, 307. Logan Stone, 18. London, 20, 22, 42, 52, 59, 66, 67, 86, 99, 100, 146, 147, 204, 243, 267, 280, 291, 372, 393, 396, 419-22; atmosphere, 143, 144; books on, 73, 139, 229, 419 ; churches, 290, 405, 420, 421 ; Great Fire, 140, 411, 419, 421; Houses of Parliament, 412-16 ; hos- pitals, 417 ; palaces, 392, 399^01 ; public buildings, 404-12, 421; Roman, 420, 433 ; St. Paul's, 90, 139^5; schools, 348; Tower, 66, 69, 70, 73-84, 86, 91, 117. -See Westminster. Longfellow, H. W., 237-8. Longford and Longleat, 126. Louis XL, 21 ; XIV., 90, 92, 383, 384, 396. Lowther Castle, 389. Ludlow, 313-17. Lymne, x, 22, 27-8, 29. Lysons, S., 42-3, 432-4; D., 419. MACAULAY (Lord), 380. Mackie, C, 328. Magna Charta, 71, 74, 79, 90, 115. Malmesbury, 279-80; Wm. of, 57, 175. Manchester, 101, 107, 109, 198-200, 404, 411, 417. Manorbeer, 306. Marlborough, Duke of, 382, 383-4. Martin, C. W.. 333, 334. Martyrs (English), 72, 77, 78, 114, 343. Mary (Queen), 72, 77, 78, 123, 153, 168, 191, 384; (Q. of Scots), 83, 241, 319, 328, 367, 370, 381; (Q. of Wm. III.), 231. Massachusetts Bay, 238, 426. Middleham, 326-7, 329. Middlesex, 73, 375, 391, 393, 433. See London, Westminster. Milman, H. H., 139. Milner, J., 121, 125. Milton: Abbas, 282; Abbey, 282; John, 53, 90, 104, 116, 236, 297, 314. Monasteries, 205, 244-84, 351-2, 378 ; Midland and Eastern, 280-1; Northum- brian, 267-73; Northwestern, 273-7; Southern, 278-80; Western, 277-8; York- shire, 254-67. Buildings saved, 147, 150, 159, 196, 282-4; plan used in colleges, 338; pulpits, 196, 278 ; stair, unusual, 272. Augustine, 130, 245-6, 259, 271, 277, 281; Benedictine, 112, 146, 150, 153, 159, 171, 242, 245, 255, 266, 270, 273, 277, 279, 281,282, 373; Carthusian, 163, 245 ; Cistercian, 255, 259, 273, 277, 279, 282; Cluniac, 246, 282 ; Franciscan, 246 ; Pre- monstratensian, 246, 283. Monasticon Anglicanum, vi, vii, 244. Monmouthshire, 277, 308, 311. Montagu, Lady M., 184. Monuments : brasses, 179, 225, 232 ; in cathedrals, 115, 123, 136, 141, 143-4, 153, 174, 182, 188, 194, 209, 218-19, 418; in churches, 288, 291, 418 ; memorial, 417-9; London, 419; sundry, 271; Westminster, 233-41. More, Sir T., 77, 414. Morecambe Bay, 14, 274. NAPOLEON I., 66, 68, 411; III., 315. Nash, J., x, 85, 355, 357, 367, 368, 375, 401. Naworth, 41, 320, 323. Neale, J., vii, 145, 149; J. P., 229, 292, 334, 355, 361, 368, 436. Nelson (Lord), 93, 143, 408, 419. Netley Abbey, 279. Newark, 290. Newcastle, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 48, 96, 218-20, 323; Soc. of Antiq., 30, 220. Newstead Abbey, 283-4. Newton, Sir I., 232, 238. Nonsuch, 391-2. Norfolk, 52, 73, 159, 281, 386, 387, 435. Norham, 94, 320. Norman: Art, 58; castles, 60-73, 301, 323; size of keeps, 69; churches, 64; grand- est, 100; best plan, 99; best tower, 159; Conquest, 58-60, 74, 84, 324, 378, 420; historv, 57-74, 95-6, 301 ; books on, 56-7 ; masonry, 61, 62, 66, 69-70, 117, 120, 152, 262; st3'le (examples of), v, vii, 58, 64, 116, 117, 122, 125, 127, 130, 137, 140, 146, 148, 151, 152, 154, 155, 156, 160, 164, 169, 170, 172, 173, 176, 177, 182, 183, 192, 212, 216, 219, 221-4, 251, 252, 262, 264, 269, 442 INDEX. 275, 276, 279, 280, 281, 285, 286, 298, 316, 405, 434-5. Normandy, 58, 61. Northamptonshire, 55, 97, 149, 280, 282, 364, 431, 433, 435. Northumberland, 14, 30, 48, 52, 96, ' 149, 218, 267-73, 319-23, 435; Countess of, 398; earls of, 86, 361; dukes of, 30, 321, 322. Norwich, 60, 99, 103, 151, 173, 434; castle, 69, 73 ; cathedral, 106, 109, 159-61. Notebooks, the author's, ix, xi, 33, 229, 299, 300, 397. Nottinghamshire, 168, 282, 283, 290, 368, 433. OLD MEN'S HOME, 124. Othona, 28. Oxford, 124, 162, 280, 382, 428, 435; cathe- dral, 107, 109, 170-1, 416 ; colleges, 337- 44; shire, 90, 280, 337, 382, 417, 431, 433, 435; Earl of, 409. PAINTINGS : collections of, 92, 126, 283, 322, 332, 341, 342, 347, 354, 357, 363, 366, 367, 387, 388, 393, 397-8, 408, 415 ; medi- aeval, 102, 148, 241, 248; largest do. in an Eng. church, 155. Palaces : Bishops', 120, 133 ; patrician, 381- 90; royal, 368, 390-401. Parker, J. H., 183, 338, 356. Parliaments: held, 75, 202, 242, 384, 414; forces, 68, 72, 190, 203, 216, 310, 325, 328, 330, 416 ; Houses of, 412-16. Parr, Katharine, 395. Paulinus, 162, 168, 201. Penshurst, 355-7, 420. Peterborough, 57, 100, 106, 108, 149-53, 160, 162, 173, 222, 280, 281, 420. Pevensey, 22, 28, 58, 59, 60-2, 335. Peverells, 67, 83. Picts, 31, 36, 41, 51, 273. Pierrefonds, 310, 315, 333. Plantagenets, The, 96, 391. Plautius, 20, 21. Pointed Styles, Examples of : Early Eng- lish, vii, 100; in cathedrals, 118, 119, 122, 126, 146, 158, 164, 165, 169, 175, 177, 178, 180, 181, 185, 193, 205, 206, 207, 212, 216, 222, 226; in abbeys, etc., 231, 251, 260, 264, 266, 270, 272, 275, 279, 284; in churches, 285, 366, 405. Decorated, vii, 101; in cathedrals, 119, 130, 132-4, 148, 154, 156, 157, 160, 164, 169, 172, 177, 180, 185, 188, 193, 205, 206, 213, 216, 217, 224, 227; in abbeys, etc., 242, 264, 267, 275. 278, 280, 284; in churches, 287, 290, 292, 338, 341. Perpendicular, vii, 91, 93, 101; in cath- edrals, 113, 116, 118, 122, 135-6, 157, 160, 164, 166, 170, 172, 173, 175, 178, 182, 193, 195, 198, 199, 205, 206, 213, 224, 227 ; in abbeys, etc., 240, 257, 260, 264, 266, 275, 279; in churches, 285, 287, 292, 293, 295, 298, 311, 317, 333, 341, 346, 356, 361, 363, 394, 400, 402. Modern, 81, 89, 92, 281, 282, 295, 296, 322, 332, 338, 340, 342, 343, 347, 406, 412- 15. Continental used, 339, 340. Porches, 127, 113. Portchester, 28, 59, 62-4. Portland, Duke of, 282-3, 389. Portus, Adurni, 22; Anderida, 22, 28, 60-2; Lemanis, 22, 27-8; Magnus, 28, 62-4. Preservation, appeal for, 46, 423-5; exam- ples of, 47, 72, 174, 187, 279, 340. Printing, early, 147, 203, 351-2. Pulpits, monastic, 196, 278 ; new, 139, 153, 181, 186, 225, 286. • Purbeck marble used, 113, 114, 127, 128, 138, 149, 153, 156, 164, 181, 208, 210, 226, 234. 257, 288, 414. Puritanism, 104, 378, 380; Puritans, 191, 426. Pvne, W. H , 85, 87, 88, 390, 394. RABY CASTLE, 325. Raglan, 311-13, 429. Raleigh, Sir W., 78, 395. Rasteil, J., 96. Rayner, S., 357. Rebellion (1745), 34, 190, 215, 330. Records, the Public, 50, 57, 80. Reculver, 22, 26-7, 432. Red Sandstone, 176, 180, 183, 185, 189, 275, 296. Reformation, The, 77, 78, 103, 104, 110, 120, 168, 170, 171, 177, 203, 244, 291, 338, 350, 352, 378, 395, 428-9. Renaissance, 101, 115, 156, 194, 239, 290, 338, 345, 347, 355, 361, 362, 364, 368, 369, 372, 375, 376, 380, 392, 412, 415. Reredos: old, 148, 340; new, 157, 173-4, 177, 181, 186-7, 195, 233, 414. Residences, vii, xi, 281-4, 354, 378-9, 380, 436; before 1600, 355-71; changes in, 365 ; age of James I., 371-8 ; 17th cent- ury, 381-90; remarks, 390. See Gal- leries; Halls; Roofs; Towers. Restorations, 65, 79, 84, 89, 104, 127-8, 138-9, 147, 152-3, 165, 169, 174, 180, 182, 183, 189, 194, 216, 222, 223, 267, 286, 307, 315, 333, 405, 413, 414, 425-6. Revolution (1688), 190, 380, 382. INDEX. 443 Reynolds, Sir J., 143. Richard I., 74, 234; II., 75, 86, 146, 202, 217, 304, 328, 355, 413; III., 21; Protector, 76 ; of Cirencester, 42. Richardson, W., 254. Richborough, 22-26, 27, 29, 42, 46, 51, 61. Richmond, 59, 60, 94, 325, 329; Hill, 90; palace, 391. Ripon, 99, 100, 107, 109, 212-14, 255; Mar- quis of, 255. Ritchie, L., 85, 92. Robertson (Dean), 111. Rochester, 22, 59, 69, 74, 77, 94, 99, 106, 108, 117-19, 317, 420, 436. Roman : amphitheatres, 25 ; baths, 46 ; bricks, 23, 26, 29, 44, 46, 60, 62, 66(?), 70; do. used in mediaeval works, 147, 148, 310; castra, 22-29, 119 ; coins, 25, 27, 61 ; gar- risons, 25, 32, 33, 35, 200, 201; masonry, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 34, 36, 37, 41, 44, 45, 48, 60, 62, 65, 66, 70, 193, 310; minor anti- quities, 24, 27, 29, 36, 42, 48, 61, 162, 189, 201, 214, 219, 220, 273; pavements, 42, 43, 46, 47-8, 378, 432-4; period, see Britain, England, and 121 ; stvle, modern use, 342, 347, 388, 402, 403, *407-9, 412 ; towns, 20, 42, 161 ; town walls, 42-5, 48, 147, 190; Wall, 30-42, 219, 318, 322, 378; villas, 25, 43; works, destruction of, 26, 27, 28, 32; general, 21, 22, 427, 434; works used by the Normans, 27, 28, 59, 60, 65, 66, 68, 148. Romans, The, 59. Roofs (timber or wood, Eng. style), ecclesi- astic examples, 118, 120, 124, 148, 152, 155, 167, 169, 194, 199, 212, 216-17, 218, 267, 286; civil, 332, 342, 357, 358, 360, 367, 368, 374, 394, 405, 406, 413. Rosamond (Fair), 384. Roscoe, T., 302, 306, 311. Roses, Wars of the, 21, 75, 82, 146, 190, 203, 304, 314, 319, 323, 327, 353, 378. Rubens, Sir P. P., 92, 332, 393. Rugby, 348. Rutland, Earls of, 358-9. SAFFRON-WALDEN, 292-3. Salisbury, 16, 100, 101, 103, 164, 188, 198, 231, 242; cathedral, 106, 108, 125-30. Sandwich, 23, 64. Saxons, The, 17, 27, 45, 46, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 59, 63, 65, 68, 74, 99 ; kings, 55, 90; Vitus, 51; period, 49, 50-6, 74, 120, 137, 162, 171, 175, 179, 184, 190, 230, 245, 247, 285, 286, 302, 313; work, 55, 66, 97, 107, 211, 212, 280, 310, 321, 378, 434-5. Scarborough, 329-30. Scenery, see English. Scotland, 52, 96, 318, 323. Scots, The, 31, 36, 41, 51, 202, 214, 272, 319, 320. Scott, Sir G. G., 153, 173, 176, 177, 178, 179, 182, 186, 189, 222, 225, 295, 340, 418. Scott, Sir W., xi, 41, 268, 269, 317, 319, 320, 330, 384; "Lands of Scott," xi, 41, 215, 221, 268, 273, 317, 319, 325, 329, 330, 384. Scropes, The, 327, 328. Screens, new, 122, 128, 157, 177, 186, 225, 340. Sculpture, mediaeval, 101-2, 103, 126, 129, 132-3, 137, 153, 165-6, 185. Sees, early, 120, 125, 137, 159, 268, 285. Selby, 254, 265-7. Services (church), 145, 199, 211, 232; other, 276-7. Severus (Emp.), 25, 26, 30, 31. Shakespeare, W., 76, 87, 90, 236, 291, 299- 300, 398, 428. Sherborne, 285. Shrewsbury, 277, 317. Shrines (mediaeval), 115, 148-9, 166, 171, 177, 180, 226, 288. Shropshire, 277, 313, 435. Sidneys, The, 356. Silbury Hill, 17, 431. Silchester, 44-6, 432. Sistine Chapel, 346. Smith, Albert, 197; A. C, 432; C. R., 23, 25, 27 ; H. E., 46. Solway, The, 33, 39, 41, 319. Somerset: shire, 131, 135, 251, 277, 289, 431, 434; House, 407; Protector, 407, 414. Southampton, 14, 52, 62,279, 417; shire, 14, 28, 44, 52, 62, 121, 279 ; Earl of, 429. Southey, R., 236, 291, 357. Southwell, 107, 109, 168-9, 284. Speke Hall, 259-60. Spencer, Ed., 236. Spires, 119, 129, 151, 170, 185, 212,218; fall of, 119, 212. St. Alban, 44, 146, 428. St. Alban's, 20, 42, 43-4, 99, 106, 108, 131, 145-9, 280, 291, 420, 435. Staffordshire, 13, 14, 183, 282. Stamford, 290, 364, 365. Stanley (Dean), 229, 230, 235, 242, 243. Stephen (King), 71, 74, 95-6, 124, 314, 324, 415. Stoke Pogis, 90, 236, 296-7. Stonehenge, 16-18, 125, 431. Stones (building, etc.), see Barneck; bad (Oxford), 344; basalt, 38; cement, 70; Chilmark, 126; clunch, 157; flint, 26, 45, 48, 60, 62, 147; lime, 204; millstone grit, 198; Oolite, 165; see Purbeck, and Red Sandstone; Runcorn, 193; Sandstone, 38, 356. 444 INDEX. Storer, J., Ill, 120; A. J., 344. Stowe, 63, 76 ; House, 388-9. St. Peter's (Rome), 142, 143. Strafford, Earl of, 78, 414. Stratford-on-Avon, 291, 298-300. Street, G. S., 131. Strid, The, 259, 260-1. Strickland, A., 395. Stukeley, W., 16, 18, 31. Styles: classic, 135, 290, 345, 389, 402, 403; domestic (old), 197, 326, 359; Greek, 387; see Elizabethan; Georgian, 332; Italian, 322, 342, 346, 347, 364, 400; Jacobean, 56, 228, 239, 262-3, 373-7; Louis XIV., 92; XV., 360, 367. See Norman. Palladian, 385, 387. See Pointed, Renaissance; see Roman, and 139, 142; Romanesque, 97- 100, 103, 146, 175; see Saxon, and 55-6. Suffolk, 28, 29, 71, 281, 290, 435, 436. Surrey, 391, 434, 436. Sussex, 28, 48, 51, 58, 60, 119, 253, 279, 282, 335, 434, 436. TADMOR (an English), 36. Tanner, R. (Bp.), 244. Tenby, 306-7. Tewkesburv, 277. Thames, The, 14, 20, 22, 28, 52, 68, 74, 85, 150, 162, 278, 348, 371, 392. Thierry, F., 57. Thirlwall, 40, 323. Thomson, J., 236. Thorpe, J., 365, 373, 375. Tintern, 259, 277-8, 311. Towers: Cathedral (central), 99, 106-9, 113, 118, 122, 134, 147 and 148, 152, 155-6, 165 and 167, 168, 17D, 176, 180 and 181, 185, 194, 205 and 207, 212. 216, 222 and 224 ; (western), 99, 102, 106-9, 113, 131, 151, 154, 164, 168, 185, 193, 198, 205, 7, 8, and 11, 212, 218, 221-23. Church, 55, 260, 266, 285-6, 287, 289, 290, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298; monastic, 230-2, 252, 257, 260, 262, 266, 272, 275. Norman (keeps), 60, 61. 63, 66, 69, 80, 81, 89-90, 320, 326-7, 329, 427; other keeps, 309, 312, 316, 321; Roman, 65. See Castles. Changes in character of towers, 355, 364, 368, 369, 374; strong masonry in, 303-4, 326. Beauchamp, 79, 83 ; Magdalen, 341 ; Victoria, 413. Towers, fall of, 156, 176, 180. Town Halls, 200, 401-3. Turner, S., 50 ; T. H., 302. Tvne, The, 30, 32, 33, 34, 96, 218, 323. Tynemouth, 270-1, 323. ULVERSTONE, 273. VANBRUGH, Sir J., 342, 373, 381, 384. Vandyke, 92, 332, 363, 386. Vaulting (remarkable), 91, 122, 130, 134, 136, 138, 142, 160, 210, 346, 414-15. Verrio, 88, 92, 93, 366, 397, 398. Vespasian (Emp.), 25, 63. Victoria (Queen), 85, 93, 376, 399, 401, 411, 430 ; Tower, 413. Views: Audley End, 373; Blenheim Park, 386; Bolton Castle, 328-9; Cambridge, 347; Chester, 191-3 ; Dover, 65; Furness, 274 ; Hampton Court, 397 ; Herstmon- ceaux, 335; Lindisfarne, 269-70; Middle- ham, 327; Pevensey, 61; Richborough, 23 ; Roman Wall, 34-9 ; Scarborough, 330; St. Paul's, 144; The Strid, 261; The Surprise, 255-6; Tor Hill, 252-3; Tyne- mouth, 270; Warwick, 331; Wells, "l34; Whitby, 261-3; Windsor, 90, 94; York, 207, 21*1. See English. Vinconum, 45. Viollet-le-Duc, M., 165, 315. Vitruvius (Brit.), vii, 356, 375, 386, 387. WAAGEN, Dr , 356. Wales, 51, 52, 96, 175, 323, 350, 422; borders of, 302-17; princes of, 304, 314; castles of, compared with French, 305, 307, 310; with Scotch, 306. Wallace, Sir W., 318, 414. Walpole, H., 335, 370-1, 392; Sir R., 387. Waltham, 280. Walton, I., 123. Wardour Castle, 126. Warkworth, 320-1. Wars, see Civil, Roses. Warwick: Castle, 305,327,332-3; Church, 296; Countess of, 375; earls of, 75, 83, 146-7, 296, 327, 331, 361; shire, 14, 18, 282, 290, 296, 298, 330, 331, 376, 435, 436. Watt, J., 104, 239, 376. Welbeck Abbey, 282-3. Wellington, Duke of, 143. Wells, ~i06, 108, 131-5, 137, 231, 242, 248, 254, 284, 289; Hugh of, 163. Welsh, The, 190, 191. Wessex, 51, 58. West, T., 273, 274, 275. Westminster: Abbey, 17, 76, 78,100, 101, 103, 113, 138, 144, 229-44, 263, 280, 284, 392, 418, 420; Duke of, 389; Hall, 413-14; Palace, 412-16 ; School, 348. Westmoreland, 14, 389, 431, 436. Whitby, 254, 263-6. INDEX. 445 Whitehall, 392-3. White Horse, The, 54. Wicke, C, 292, 436. Wilberforce (Bp.), 123; Wm.. 238, 428. Wild, C, vii, 111, 161, 179, 183, 189, 200. Wildman (Col.), 283. William I., 58, 59, 61, 67, 69, 74, 78, 85, 95, 150, 174, 219, 221, 2G6, 268, 279, 314, 331; II., 61, 86, 95, 214, 215, 413 ; III., 88, 230, 380, 382, 383, 396, 397, 398, 399; IV., 401; (Scots), 96. Willis, B., Ill; Rev. R., Ill, 119, 134, 179, 185. Wilton House, 126. Wiltsch (Hist. Chh.), 201, 268. Wiltshire, 16, 90, 125, 279, 282, 432, 434. Winchester, 99, 101, 106, 108, 121-5, 348, 416. Windsor: Castle, 60, 69, 71, 84-94, 305, 308, 390, 393, 395, 420 ; size of rooms, 92 ; town, . 296, 297, 298, 348. Winkle, B., Ill, 159, 213. Winshields, 37, 38, 39. Winstanley, H., vii, 372. Wolfe (Gen.), 398. Wollaton Hall, 368. Wolsey (Card.), 93, 170, 203, 341, 393, 395. Woodstock, 384. Woolnoth, W., Ill, 302, 317, 436. Worcester, 57, 99, 107, 109, 176, 179-83, 184, 217, 277, 402; Marquis of, 312, 313; shire, 14, 179, 277. Wordsworth, W., 291. Wren, Sir C, 88, 117, 140, 141, 167, 230, 282, 290, 342, 347, 380, 394, 396, 399, 402, 419, 420. Wright, T., 46, 50, 313, 344. Wroxall Abbey, 282. Wyatt, Jas., 127, 176, 189, 222, 281; Jef., 88. Wvatville, Sir J., vii, 85, 89. Wye, The, 277, 308, 311. Wykeham, Wm. of, 85, 123, 124, 338, 339, 341, 348. YORK, 42, 43, 47, 48, 58, 99, 100, 101, 103, 107, 109, 200-12, 217, 221, 231, 254, 255, 265, 266, 285, 288, 392, 435 ; Column, 419; Duke of, 62; house of, 391; shire, 14, 29, 43, 46-8, 52, 200, 212, 213, 250, 254-67, 280, 286, 289, 295, 318, 325-30, 384, 434, 435. University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. +% ' > * \ ■J '/ X 00 . * g I \ " \ V 5> "V ^ V? t/' \» >. c- ^ X X | v * + ' ■S- ,>* %. 3,0 ^ °* *U V* ^ x ^ •v. % .1.. V \* '<*■ A* % ** A ■ A v -/■ V, ■Vi ee. V* c V* s • • , ^ % • " A ' ^ y* - *A «\ X s' ^ ^ V -^o A^ %v **-*. ■Ca A^ A vN \°<^ A Y>'% : *>*