posed to be Saxon, but the imposts of the window-arches are quite of Norman character, and it was probably built after the Conquest. The tower of Oxford Castle was built in the time of William Rufus, but it has much of the appearance of the supposed Saxon buildings. The late Dr. Raine, of Dur

ham, has shewn by his very careful investigations that the churches of Monk's Wearmouth and Jarrow were rebuilt by the monks of Durham after 1075. The chief authority for this is the Chronicle of Symeon of Durham . The church of Monk's Wearmouth could not have been built on the old site, for in the accounts of the House at Wearmouth for the year 1360, the old church is mentioned incidentally as used for a barn or storehoused. The date of the present church must therefore be shortly after 1075, when the monk Aldwin and his two associates were placed there by Walcher, bishop of Durham : and "when the bishop saw the monks wishful to rebuild the church itself and the ruined monastic dwelling-places, he gave to them the vill of Jarrow with its appendages, viz. Pres

ton," &c. The rebuilding of 19. Tower of the supposed Saxon character,

Jarrow was subsequent to that

of Wearmouth, and if we assign

Monk's Wearmouth, Durham, A.D. 1075.

the date of 1085 to it, we cannot be far wrong.

Ed. Bedford, p. 201.

d"In veteri ecclesia est j tassa ordei decimalis villarum de Weremuth et Fulwell." Inventories of Jarrow and Monk's Wearmouth, published by the Surtees Society, vol. xxix., 1854, p. 159.

The abbey church of St. Alban's, built in the time of William the Conqueror and William Rufus, as distinctly recorded by contemporary historians, partakes of the Saxon character in many parts: we find baluster shafts in abundance, quantities of Roman tiles, and other features usually considered Saxon, but there is not the slightest doubt that the church was built from the foundations after 1077, when the work was commenced by Abbot Paul of Caen.

The church of Wotton-Wawen, Warwickshire, is of the style called Anglo-Saxon: a cell to the Benedictine abbey of Conches, in Normandy, was founded here about 1080, by Robert de Tonei, standard-bearer to the Conqueror.

The church of Daglingworth, Gloucestershire, has nearly all the Saxon characteristics, excepting that the masonry and workmanship are better than any early Norman work, and it cannot, in fact, have been built before the time of Henry I.

The old church at Bradford, Wiltshire, is one of the most perfect examples of the class called Anglo-Saxon: the impost mouldings and other features correspond exactly with them, and the exterior is ornamented with shallow arcading of very unusual character, being only incised in the surface of the stone, and not regularly built as arches, nor projecting, so that this ornament might have been cut at any subsequent time after the church was built, but it is itself of rude and early character. The masonry is fine-jointed and much better than is usual in buildings of this class; this may be partly accounted for by the excellent quality of the material, and the situation, in the midst of quarries of excellent stone, of the quality usually known as Bath stone, an oolite very similar to the Caen stone; but this is not sufficient to account for the absence of wide joints of mortar, which are an invariable characteristic of all early masonry. Fine-jointed masonry was not introduced before the end of the eleventh century, as is proved by the examination of every building whose date can be ascertained to belong to an earlier period.

It is customary to date the introduction of the Norman style into England from the Norman Conquest, in 1066, although perhaps the remainder of the eleventh century may be considered as a period of transition, just as the last quarter of each of the three following centuries was a period of transition from one style to an

other; and it may be well to observe, that in all such periods, not only were buildings of a mixed character erected, but some buildings were almost entirely in the old style, others altogether in the new one: this has been called by Professor Willis an overlapping of the styles, and generally lasts from twenty to thirty years. In treating of the Norman period we must bear in mind that Normandy was then a province of the same kingdom, and that the intercourse between Kent and Normandy was at least as frequent and as easy as between Yorkshire and Devonshire; so that although there are certain marked provincialisms, there is no real difference or priority of style in one province over the other, after the Norman power was fully established in England. It is customary to point to the two great abbey churches at Caen, founded and endowed by William and Matilda, as models to be referred to, and as proving the great advance of Normandy over England; but this is, in a great degree, a mistake, arising from the common error of confusing the date of the foundation of a monastery with that of the erection of the existing church: a small part only of the church of St. Stephen at Caen is of the time of the Conqueror, and a still smaller part of that of the Holy Trinity, which is considerably later than the other.

In the church of St. Stephen there is work in the Norman style of three distinct periods. The first, c. 1060, is almost entirely concealed by the later additions and alterations, and can only be seen by diligent search; it is wide-jointed, and these wide joints of mortar are finished with care, projecting and overlapping the stones slightly, even in parts where they never could have been intended to be seen, thus shewing the custom of the age when it was built. It agrees exactly with the work of the time of Edward the Con

fessor at Westminster. All those parts of the church usually known by engravings belong to the second and third periods, although a large part of the fabric probably belongs to the first. The aisles appear to have been originally covered by wooden roofs only, and the triforium gallery separated from the aisles below by a wooden floor. At the second period, c. 1090, the aisles were vaulted with simple groined vaults without ribs: to this period also belong the two western towers and the present west front, which are built up against the original west front still existing behind them, separated by a straight joint quite through the whole building; each of the present towers consisting, in fact, of three sides only, the fourth being a part of the original west front. The work of the second period is of fine-jointed masonry, but very plain and early looking.

At the third period, c. 1160, the large vault over the central space was introduced, cutting across the old clear-story windows, the heads of which appear above the vault; at this period also the whole of the ornamentation of the interior was changed, the inner face of the wall being faced with a thin coat of fresh ashlar, as may be distinctly seen in the clear-story gallery. The triforium arcade is also quite different from that of the second period, as is seen by comparing it with the one bay of that work which exists in each of the western towers. The cause of the great vault being sexpartite, and the clear-story windows so irregular, probably is, that each alternate pier of the original work was much more massive than the intermediate ones, in order to carry transverse arches across the nave to support the heavy timbers of the early roof, as in several of the Basilicas at Rome, in the church of Cérisy, near Bayeux, founded by the father of the Conqueror, and in many buildings of later date, such as the halls at Conway and Carnarvon, and at Mayfield. At the abbaie aux dames, or church of the Holy Trinity, at Caen, there is work corresponding to that of the second and third periods at the abbaie aux hommes, or St. Stephen's, but none that is visible belonging to the first period; the masonry is all fine-jointed, and the ornaments agree with the later parts of St. Stephen's. This church was originally consecrated in the same year that it was founded, which makes it probable that the original structure was of wood only.

The church of St. Nicholas at Caen is usually cited as an example of very early Norman work, but its history is very doubtful, and the work does not agree with other early work in the same town: it is probably not earlier than 1100.

That portion of St. Stephen's which really belongs to this time agrees exactly with the work of the early Norman bishops in England, and we find the same throughout the Norman period. The abbey church at Cluny was the model most extensively followed, both here and in Normandy, for a considerable period. Unfortu nately, this model church has been destroyed.

The abbey church at Jumièges deserves to be particularly noticed, as it is a most interesting ruin, and was consecrated the year after the Conquest; it is of extremely plain and early Norman character, and the capitals were ornamented with painted foliage instead of sculpture; some of these still remain.

The most important buildings of the time of the Conqueror and of William Rufus are the Norman castles or keep-towers, and although many of these were rebuilt in the following century, there are still many of this period remaining, as London, Dover and Rochester in Kent, Newcastle in Northumberland, Appleby and Carlisle in Cumberland, Brougham in Westmoreland, Richmond and Conisborough in Yorkshire, Porchester in Hampshire, Guildford in Surrey, Goodrich in Herefordshire, Norwich and Castle Rising in Norfolk, Hedingham and Colchester in Essex. Some of these are probably later than this date, and belong to the twelfth century, as Rochester and Hedingham, but most of them, if not all, were founded at this early period. Rochester is said to have been entirely rebuilt. But from the uniformity of plan-a massive square tower, with a square turret at each angle of small projection, and a flat buttress up the centre of each face-and the general plainness of the work, it requires a careful examination of each of these buildings to ascertain to which period it belongs. The only parts where any ornament is to be found are usually the entrance-doorway and staircase, and the chapel, and these are commonly