choir is still later, and in a later style. This agrees with the recorded history of the building, and therefore leaves no doubt of the genuineness of the work ascribed to St. Hugh. Nothing can well exceed the freedom, delicacy, and beauty of this work; indeed, there is an exuberance of fancy which leads us almost to think that the workmen ran wild with delight, and it became necessary to sober them down and chasten the character of the work afterwards: for instance, in the double arcade which covers the lower part of the walls there is a waste of labour, which is avoided in the subsequent work of the nave, without material in'ury to the effect. In the early work there is not only a double arcade, one in front of the other, but in some parts there are actually three shafts in a line, one in front of the other, so as only to be seen sideways and with difficulty: this arises from the vaulting-shafts being brought in front of the double arcade. The foliage of the capitals is exquisitely beautiful, and though distinguished O.TEWITT 46 & 7. technically by the name of stiff-leaf 66. Lincoln Cathedral, A.D. 1190— foliage, because there are stiff stalks to the leaves rising from the ring of 1200. Pillar of Choir. the capital, the leaves themselves curl over in the most graceful manner, with a freedom and elegance not exceeded at any subsequent period. The mouldings are also as bold and as deep as possible, and there is scarcely a vestige of Norman character remaining in any part of the work. The crockets arranged vertically one over the other behind the detached marble shafts of the pillars (66), are a remarkable and an uncommon feature, which seems to have been in use for a very few years, and to be almost confined to a few buildings: it occurs also in the west front of Wells Cathedral, the work of Bishop Joceline, a few years after this at Lincoln. The cathedral of Grenoble is poor and low, and has nothing whatever to correspond with the work of St. Hugh at Lincoln; the cathedral of Vienne, the ancient capital city of the province of Dauphiny, in which Grenoble is situated, has some very fine work, but quite of a different character from Lincoln; the cathedral of Lyons, now the chief city of the province, has also some fine work, and a remarkable series of windows exhibiting progressive changes in plate-tracery; and the fluted pilasters in imitation of Roman work which are used in that cathedral and many other churches of that district, as at Cluny, at the end of the twelfth century, are supposed by some persons to have given the idea of the clustered shafts at Lincoln; but if so, the progress was wonderfully rapid: the exact date of the work at Lyons has not been ascertained. At Dijon, the capital of the French duchy of Burgundy at a later period, there is work very like Lincoln, especially in the church of Notre Dame; but the date of this is thirty years later than the corresponding work at Lincoln, and there was no connection between Dijon and the kingdom of Burgundy, a fief of the German empire, in which Grenoble was situated. St. Hugh has long had the reputation of having been a great builder of churches, and it is recorded that he assisted in the work of his cathedral with his own hands, probably in order to excite the enthusiasm of the people; but it appears that he was not the architect of his cathedral. The name of the architect, "constructor ecclesiæ," was Geoffrey de Noyers; he was probably a monk of the abbey of Noyers, in Touraine, then one of the English provinces it is on the border of the royal domain of France, and within a few miles of Blois. The west window of the church of S. Nicholas at Blois is very similar to the large circular window with plate-tracery at the end of the north transept of Lincoln, the earliest and most remarkable window of its kind in England (61). Simultaneously with this glorious work of St. Hugh of Lincoln, we have the presbytery at Winchester, the work of Bishop Godfrey de Lucy, 1195-1205. This work, though perhaps not quite so b See the "Metrical Life of St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln," written about 1230, and published at Lincoln in 1860, very carefully edited by the Rev. J. F. Dimock. See also the "Gentleman's Magazine" for November and December, 1860. The MS. of the Magna Vita, in the Bodleian Library, contains the passage relating to the architect, "Gaufridus de Noyers." exuberant as that of St. Hugh, is scarcely inferior to it. A part of Beverley Minster is also of very similar character (68). At the same period, but continuing later, we have Glasgow Cathedral, the work commenced by Bishop Joceline in 1195: he was buried in the crypt, which proves the completion of that part of the work, one of the finest crypts in existence. The beautiful galilee, or large western porch, of Ely is also of this period, commenced in 1198, and finished in 1215, by Bishop Eustace. Nothing can exceed the richness, freedom, and beauty of that work; it is one of the finest porches in the world. Here, also, the work is distinguished by the double arcades which we have noticed at Lincoln. Salisbury Cathedral is usually considered as the type of the Early English style, from the circumstance of its being less mixed than any other building of the same importance. It was commenced in 1220 on a new site, by Bishop Richard Poore, who died in 1237, and was buried in the choir, which was therefore completed at that time. The church was finished by Bishop Giles de Bridport, and consecrated in 1258. The nave and the glorious west front of Wells Cathedral belong also to this period, 1225-1239, as recorded by contemporary authorities, thus translated by Bishop Godwin:-" Moreover in building he (Bishop Joceline de Welles) bestowed inestimable sums of money. He built a stately chappell in his palace at Welles, and another at Owky, as also many other edifices in the same houses; and lastly, the church of Welles itselfe being now ready to fall to the ground, notwithstanding the great cost bestowed upon it by Bishop Robert, he pulled downe the greater part of it, to witte, all the west ende, built it anew from the very foundation, and hallowed or dedicated it October 23, 1239." Notwithstanding the enormous sums which must have been expended on this work, and the quantity of beautiful sculpture with which it is adorned, we do not find the same waste of labour and expense which we observed in the earlier work of St. Hugh at Lincoln; there is no expense spared, but there is none wasted. It is scarcely possible to overrate the value and importance of the extraordinary series of sculptures with which the west front is enriched; they are superior to any others known of the same period in any part of Europe c. The chapter-house at Christ Church, Oxford, the choir of Worcester Cathedral, a considerable part of Fountain's Abbey, the choir of Rochester, the south transept of York, the presbytery of Ely, the nine altars of Durham at the east end, and the same part of Fountain's Abbey, the choir of the Temple Church, London, and the nave of Lincoln, are amongst the well-known examples of this period, the first half of the thirteenth century. In the year 1245, King Henry the Third, "being mindful of the devotion which he had towards St. Edward the Confessor, ordered the church of St. Peter at Westminster to be enlarged, and the eastern part of the walls, with the tower and transepts, being pulled down, he began to rebuild them in a more elegant style, having first collected at his own charges the most subtle artificers, both English and foreign." The portions of the church built by Henry the Third are the choir and apse, the transepts, the first bay only of the nave, and part of the cloister. This work is of the richest character, but still pure Early English. covered with diaper-work, the triforium foliated circles of bar-tracery in the head. The points of the cusps are flowered, and the outer moulding of the arch is enriched with foliage resembling crockets (69). The surface of the wall is arcade is double, and has • See Cockerell's "Sculptures of Wells Cathedral," 4to., 1851. |