4. Plan of Roman and Saxon Cathedral of Canterbury, according to Prof. Willis. A. The first altar, enclosing the relics of St. Wilfrid: this was the original high altar, and was built of rough stones and cement, according to Edmerd, which marks its antiquity; it was afterwards considered too sacred for ordinary use, and

B. The second altar was constructed in front of it for daily use.
CC. Steps descending from the Presbytery to the Choir.

Edm. Vit. S. Wilfridi; Mabillon, t. iii. p. 227; MS. C.C.C., p. 77; ap. Willis's Cant., p. 4.

the foundation of the cathedral. Archbishop Cuthbert added a baptistery about A.D. 750. Archbishop Odo raised the walls and rebuilt the roof about A.D. 950. This fabric was entirely destroyed by fire in A.D. 1067, and Archbishop Lanfrane removed the ruins and laid the foundations of an entirely new church. But Professor Willis considers that we have sufficient data to shew what the plan of the ancient church was. (See woodcut, No. 4.)

When the Saxons were converted to Christianity they were not masons; they dwelt in wooden houses, and there can be no doubt that their churches were

also usually of wood. This is confirmed by numerous passages in contemporary historians, and the frequent mention of the destruction of churches by fire.

The Roman remains in Britain may be said to be dated by history, and by the principle of comparison with the buildings that are datod in Rome itself, or in the Roman provinces. The Romans loft Britain early in the fifth century, and tho gront wall across, from Carlisle to Newcastle, to keep out the Picts, was one of their last works in Britain (c. A.D. 416), and the cha racter of the existing remains agrees with this; but in some parts there is evidently construction of two periods. The substructure of at least one fort, or castle, is of the time of Hadrian, with later work built upon it. The other remains of Roman walls in Britain seem, from the construction, to be almost entirely of the third century.

At Uriconium, and at Silchester, the foundations of the basilica have been found; at Brixworth, the present church appears to have been a Roman basilica; the walls are Roman, with the arches filled up with rubble-work; the arches are formed of Roman tiles, and are double, one over the other, for additional strength: it has been much altered at different

e Beds Hist., lib. i. c. 12.

times, and has a tower of the eleventh century at the west end, built upon the Roman walls either of a porch or a western tribune, with a newel staircase to give access to the belfry story, which was built at the same time with it.

A church is recorded to have been founded in Dover Castle, in A.D. 526, with twenty-two secular canons attached to it, who were appointed and ordained by Adelbald. The establishment was removed into the town in 686, but the old church that remains in the castle seems to be the one then founded.

The existing church in the castle is partly of Roman work, altered in the eleventh century, and again almost rebuilt in the thirteenth. The tower at the west end, which has been a Roman Pharos, has an original Roman arch opening towards the church, but seems to have been always half detached from it, connected by a porch only. The tower of the church in the port at Ravenna is connected with the church in a similar manner, forming what may be called a semi-detached tower, and this was also probably used as a Pharos, or lighthouse. It is of the sixth century, rather later than the one at Dover,

The church of St. Martin at Canterbury was also Roman, but has been so frequently altered, and partly rebuilt, that small portions only of the Roman walls remain. Roman bricks are used as old materials in the parts rebuilt.

In Rome itself the upper stories of the palaces of the Cusars were of wood, and in the Roman villas in England the upper stories were also of wood. "Half-timber houses," as they are called, that is, houses of which the foundations and the groundfloors only are of stone, and the upper part of wood, have been found convenient, and therefore have been common in all ages; but wood was more used in early times than afterwards. The frequent fires shewed the evil of so much wooden building, and after the revival in the eleventh century, churches were generally built of stone, but these were exceptions at all early periods. In districts where stone could not be obtained without great difficulty and expense, wood was still used, as in Cheshire. In some districts brick was used largely, as in some parts of the low countries in the east of England; but on the banks of rivers where stone could be brought by water-carriage, as in Lincolnshire, it was freely used, and some of our finest churches are in those districts. The building materials had

necessarily great influence in the construction of walls at all periods, but wide-jointed masonry is a usual characteristic of the eleventh century in England and Normandy, and the north of France, and in other countries also.

The charter granted by King Edgar to Malmesbury Abbey, lato in the tenth century (974), mentions that tho churchos were visibly ruinated, with mouldering shingles and wormeaten boards, even to the rafters ';" and King Canute's charter to Glastonbury Abbey, in 1032, is dated from the wooden church there; yet Glastonbury was one of the most wealthy abbeys, even at that time. The walls were covered inside with plates of gold and silver, and outside with lead, but the material of construction was woods. There is, however, no doubt that the Saxons had some stone churches; but the building of a stone church was an event of importance, recorded with much pomp by the historians of the period; they were therefore not common, and it is not until the eleventh century that we can expect to find many remains of stone buildings ↳

Ordinary dwelling-houses continued to be usually of wood throughout the Middle Ages, and in some parts of the country wooden houses are to this day more common than any others. Wooden palisades were also much used in fortification at all periods.

Soon after the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, Bede records the building of stone churches at Wearmouth and Jarrow, in the county of Durham, about 680. As this has been considered the starting-point of the history of architecture in England, it

"When St. Aidan was sick, they set up a tent for him close to the wall at the west end of the church, by which means it happened that he gave up the ghost leaning against a post that was on the outside to strengthen the wall." The church was twice destroyed by fire, but "it would not touch that post, although in a most miraculous manner the fire broke through the very holes in it, wherewith it was fixed to the building, and destroyed the church."-Bede, Hist. Eccles., lib. iii. c. 17.

See Chron. Petriburg., p. 3.

h In A.D. 652 St. Finan built a church in the island of Lindisfarne : "Nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, (a name which at that period included the Irish,) he made it not of stone, but of hewn oak, and covered it with reeds." Eadbert afterwards took off the thatch, and covered it, both roof and walls, with lead. (Bede, lib. iii. c. 25.)

will be better to give the substance of his words:-" A year after the monastery of Wearmouth had been built, Benedict crossed the sea into Gaul, and no sooner asked than he obtained and carried back with him masons to build him a stone church in the Roman manner, which he had always admired'." The present churches at these two places still retain considerable parts of the original structure, although they have been partially rebuilt towards the end of the eleventh century. As we see from the account given by Beda, that the church at Jarrow was built in one year, it must have been small (see p. 37). There are also a few other churches in the valley of the Tyne, which retain features of very rude and early character, especially doorways, very much resembling that at Monk-Wearmouth, the top of the doorway being formed of one stone; but this evidently depends a good deal on the quarries from which the stone is taken *.

Before the end of the seventh century stone churches were built by St. Wilfrid at York, Ripon, and Hexham. At York there are no remains of this period, the church having been several times rebuilt, and the earliest portions now remaining are the foundations of the early Norman one. But at Ripon and Hexham are crypts closely resembling each other in plan, dimensions, and character: they are evidently very early; and at Hexham, bits of Roman ornamented mouldings are built into the walls, which is generally an indication of early work. (See woodcut, No. 5.) The plan of these crypts is a small oblong cell, with very massive walls, and a passage in the thickness of the walls round three sides of the cell: these passages are not level, but ascending and descending, and there are small openings at intervals, as if for persons to look into the cell, or possibly for confession. They are popularly called confessionals, but this name is so commonly given to any part of a church of which the use is not obvious, that no importance can be attached to it.

The ascending and descending passages coincide exactly with the description given by Eddius, in his life of Wilfrid ',

1 Bedæ, Vitæ de SS. Benedict, Abb. Wiramuth et Gyrum, &c., s. 1 and 5. A full account of these will be found in the Proceedings of the Durham and Newcastle Archæological Society.

1 See Observations on the Crypt of Hexham Church, Northumberland, by T. Hudson Turner, in the Archæological Journal, vol. ii. p. 239.