window is inserted in the old wall. The exterior is ornamented with shallow arcading of very unusual character, being only 7. View and Plan of the Anglo-Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, A.D. 705. 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. This curious building is probably the small original church of the abbey founded by St. Aldhelm in the eighth century, A.D. 705. It is mentioned by William of Malmesbury, as existing in his time". It stood originally in the same churchyard with the present large church, part of which is of the time of Henry II. This good construction may be partly accounted for by the excellent quality of the material, and the situation, in the midst of, or under 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 buildings of the eleventh century. Fine-jointed masonry was not introduced before the beginning of the twelfth century, as is proved by the examination of every building whose date can be ascertained to belong to the earlier period ". St. Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, founded three monasteries in Wiltshire, at Malmesbury, Frome, and Bradford, at the beginning of the eighth century: the charter was confirmed by King Ina in 705°. He also built or rebuilt his cathedral at Sherborne, and William of Malmesbury says he had seen this church; we have no other remains of that period at any of those places; but the old church at Bradford may fairly be assigned to that date. In the year 710 Bede records that Naitan, king of the Picts, sent messengers to Ceolfrid, Abbot of Jarrow, and prayed to have architects sent him to build a church in his nation after the Roman manner [that is, of stone, not of wood], promising to dedicate the same in honour of St. Peter, "and Ceolfrid sent the architects as he desired." This probably records the first introduction of stone churches into Scotland. In the ninth century many churches were destroyed in the incursions of the Danes, and although Alfred exerted himself m Wilhelmus Malmesburiensis de Vita Aldhelmi, ap. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 22. This observation is intended to apply to buildings with mortar in the joints, not to the early buildings of natural construction. Some of the later examples of that class have very fine joints, too fine indeed to admit mortar or cement of any kind; but these belong to a much earlier period. After the revival of building in cut stone, subsequent to the year 1000, the construction was at first very rude, and the joints wide. • Wilhelmus Malmesburiensis de Vita Aldhelmi, ap. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 22. greatly after the restoration of peace, and employed a sixth part of his income "in the erection of new edifices [of stone] in a manner admirable and hitherto unknown to the English," no buildings of his age are known to exist. In the tenth century we are told by William of Malmesbury, that "King Athelstan and Archbishop Odo built and repaired many monasteries:" the word monasterium (or minster) at this period, and long afterwards, frequently means only a church, with three or four priests attached to it. In Osborne's Life of St. Dunstan mention is made of the building, or rebuilding, of many churches and monasteries by King Edred and King Edgar. The Saxon Chronicle and the Peterborough Chronicle both record the building or restoring of many churches and monasteries by St. Athelwold, and Ordericus Vitalis mentions that St. Dunstan, St. Oswald, and St. Athelwold built twentysix abbeys or nunneries. The large number of them, and the rapidity with which they were built, shew that they were of wood. In these wooden churches all the ornamentation was of metal-work, either bronze or more precious metals; these have all been melted down, and the wood burnt or decayed. As late as A.D. 962, William of Malmesbury also tells us that St. Dunstan, as Archbishop of Canterbury, "built, or rebuilt, many monasteries in all parts of he island, and accumulated precious metals for the ornamentation of the altars and of the buildings." It is evident that these buildings were of wood for the most part, but others may have been of stone, as some were standing at the time that William of Malmesbury wrote, about A.D. 1140. The great abbey churches and cathedrals built at that time were certainly of stone (as Ely, Peterborough, Thorney, Winchester, and Ramsey); but a century afterwards these were, either on account of the bad construction, or because they were thought too small, entirely rebuilt by the Normans. In the illuminations of the celebrated Benedictional of St. Athelwold, engraved in Archæologia, vol. xxiv., A.D. 1832, the capitals and other architectural ornamentation have very much the appearance of being partly of metal and part of wood, rather than of stone. We know that bronze was used for architectural P Wilhelm. Malmesb, de Gest. Pontif., p. 202. с ornaments from the earliest period. In the temple of Solomon "all the ornamentation was of cedar-wood and bronze." A curious poetical description of the rebuilding of Winchester Cathedral by St. Athelwold, A.D, 980, written by his disciple Wolstan, has been preserved; it is very magniloquent, but leaves no doubt that the material was stone, that it had a crypt, and was considered one of the most magnificent works of that age in England; yet within a century afterwards this church was so much out of repair, or then considered so small, that Bishop Walkelyn found it necessary to build an entirely new one on another site. At the end of this century many churches were again destroyed by the Danes, who overran sixteen counties, and besieged London. It is most probable also that at this period the Christians in England partook of the general belief of Christendom, that the world was to come to an end in the year 1000, and of the lethargy which accompanied that belief. q MS. Reg. 85, c. vii. in the British Museum, printed in the Monasticum Anglicanum, and frequently reprinted. The most important parts are extracted in the Companion to the Glossary of Architecture, 8vo., Oxford, 1846, at the date A.D. 980, p. 19. "Istius antiqui reparavit et atria templi CHAPTER II. Division of Styles. THE architecture of the Middle Ages, from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, is usually divided into certain periods, or styles, for the convenience of classification and to assist the memory. These styles are by no means arbitrary; they are strictly historical periods, during which certain characters prevailed, succeeding each other in a regular, natural, and well-ascertained order. The change from one style to another was not immediate; it generally took nearly half a century to effect the transition; and the last half of each of the five centuries, from the eleventh to the fifteenth, was such a period of change or transition. Buildings of the last ten years of a century generally belong in style rather to that which follows. 1. To the eleventh century belong the greater part of the buildings of the Anglo-Saxon style. In the last half of the century the Norman style was gradually introduced. 2. In the twelfth century the buildings belong chiefly to the Norman style. In the last half of it, the transition from the Romanesque, or Norman, to the Early English, or first Gothic style, took place. 3. In the thirteenth century the buildings belong chiefly to the style which is usually called Early English; the last half of it is the period of transition to the Decorated style, which became established before the end of that century. 4. In the fourteenth century the general character |