that he can trace it, by successive steps, from Byzantium through the south of France. Mr. Skidmore of Coventry, an ingenious and clever worker in metal, has endeavoured to prove that it is derived and copied from metal ornament, chiefly of gold, which was used at an earlier period, as is recorded at Glastonbury, built by St. Dunstan in 942, when the fabric was of wood plated with gold: this wooden church is mentioned again in King Cnut's charter in 1032; and it probably existed until it was destroyed by fire near the end of the twelfth century. It is certain that no vestige of early Norman masonry or stone sculpture has been found there-nothing earlier than 1185, the date of the fire; after which St. Joseph's Chapel was commenced, and this is of the transitional style of that period. Early Norman masonry is in general so massive and substantial that it is difficult to destroy all traces of it. If it could be proved that the wooden church at Glastonbury, with its gold ornaments, and probably other similar examples of rich shrines of the saints, existed as late as the time of St. Hugh of Lincoln, it would give considerable plausibility to Mr. Skidmore's theory. It should be observed that those people who were particularly skilful in working the precious metals, as the Anglo-Saxons and the Spaniards, made no use of sculpture in stone at the same period. In Spain, the rich ornamental work in stone of the sixteenth century is called Pluteresque, or metallic, the forms of the stone-carving being evidently imitated from the ornamental work in metal which was in common use at that period, and of which specimens are frequently met with in modern collections of articles of vertù. In pure Early English work the ABACUS is circular, and consists, in the earlier examples, simply of two rounds, the upper one the largest, with a hollow The general use of this feature is peculiar to England and Normandy, even in the best early French work, of the Royal Domain, the abacus is generally square; and as there can be no doubt that the round abacus is more consistent with pure Gothic work, the square one belonging more properly to the Classic styles, this circumstance is a strong argument in favour of the greater purity of English Gothic. Generally, also, the MOULDINGS are much more numerous and much richer in English work than in foreign work of the same period. between them (79); but in later examples the mouldings are frequently increased in number, and filleted. 79. Lincoln Cathedral, A.D. 1200. Abacus with round and hollow moulding. THE BASES generally consist of two rounds, the lower one the largest, both frequently filleted, with a Base, with a double set of mouldings, shewing the deep hollow which holds water, peculiar to this style, and a clustered pillar of round and pear-shaped shafts. deep hollow between placed horizontally (80); but in later examples this hollow is not found, its place being filled up with another round moulding. THE PILLARS are of various forms -round or octagonal in small and plain churches, and these not unfrequently alternate; in richer work they are usually clustered: but the pillar most characteristic of the style is the one with detached shafts (81), which are generally of Purbeck marble, frequently very long and slender, and only connected with the central shaft by the capital and base, and one or two bands at intervals. These bands are sometimes rings of copper gilt, as in the choir of Worcester Cathedral, and were almost necessary for holding together the slender shafts of Purbeck marble. THE ARCHES are frequently, but not always, acutely pointed, and in A.D. 1220-1237. Clustered pillar with detached shafts. arches at York the more important buildings are 81. Salisbury Cathedral, generally richly moulded, as in Westminster Abbey (82), either with or without the tooth-ornament, as the Minster (71). It has been already observed that the form of the arch is never a safe guide to the date or style of a building-it depended much more on convenience than anything else; the mouldings are the only safe guide: for instance, the arches of the nave of Westminster Abbey are of the same form as those of the choir and transepts, yet they were built by Sir Richard Whittington h, (better known by the story of his cat,) in the fifteenth century, and their mouldings belong dis tinctly to that period. In plain parish. churches the arches are frequently without mouldings, merely recessed and chamfered; the only cha racter being in the capitals and bases, or perhaps in the hoodmoulds, though these also are sometimes wanting. THE WINDOWS in the earlier examples are plain, lancetshaped, and generally narrow; sometimes they are richly moulded within and without (83), but frequently OSF WITT.SC 82. Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1245. have nothing but a plain chamfer outside and a wide splay within: by means of this splay two or three win h Pat. 1 Hen. V., pp. 4 and 5. The royal commission of Henry V. to Sir Richard Whittington to rebuild the nave, is printed by Mr. Lysons in the Appendix to "The Model Merchant of the Middle Ages," 8vo., Gloucester, 1860. Whittington appears to have advanced the money on the royal bonds, which he is said to have afterwards burnt, as a proof of his great wealth and generosity. |