multangular tower at Dover called the Pharos, be an exception, and the only encouragement to call this a church, or part of a church, is that we know not what else it may have been. But though so little is to be said of the ecclesiastical architecture of the Romans in England, there can be no doubt that a very considerable advance was made during the continuance of the Roman sway, in the churches erected by the earliest converts: for Tacitus tells us, that Agricola encouraged the British to cultivate building, with the other arts of peace; and when the Emperor Constantine rebuilt the city of Autun, about the end of the third century, he brought the workmen chiefly from Britain, which very much abounded with the best artificers; and it cannot be doubted, that the skill thus acquired and approved would be employed in the erection of their sacred edifices. Still we must confess that the authority of imperial Rome was brought to a close, without having directly added much to the history of our ecclesiastical architecture. The indirect influence of the Roman sway was, however, very great. It was under the Empire, that the British people first learned certain mechanical arts, which were afterwards employed in religious edifices; and if they had not been forced to assist in the erection of Verulam or Richborough, the churches of S. Alban's and of Canterbury might have been very different from what they are now. Even the use of mortar was, so far as we can discover, introduced by the Romans and the making of brick is certainly one of the arts which they left behind them. The latter affords an instance of the extensive secondary influence on architecture which a single invention may exert. At first sight it would appear that the introduction of brick would only be followed by the use of that material instead of stone;2 but, in fact, it seems to have greatly influenced the decorative forms of the Saxon and Norman architects. The Roman bricks were of a very different form 1 There are no traces of "the use of lime in a calcined state mixed with water and sand, or any other substance, so as to form an adhesive cement, by which stone could be joined to stone," in any relics of the aboriginal architecture of our island. See a paper on ancient mixed masonry of brick and stone, by Mr. Bloxam, in No. IV. of the Archæological Journal. 2 Roman stations were sometimes quarries, out of which Saxon and Nor. man architects collected materials, chiefly brick, for their churches. Brixworth, Colchester, and S. Alban's are among the most remarkable examples. from that so long imposed on our bricks by the excise laws.1 They were long, broad, and flat 2 this shape was for a long time retained by the Saxon builders. Now, bricks of this form fall very naturally into what is called "herring-bone" masonry; and from this way of laying the materials, the zigzag-one of the most effective of the Norman decorations-seems to have taken its rise; while other ornaments, as the billet and serrated mouldings, and the various arrangements of masonry, by which large surfaces are sometimes relieved, are derived from brick in its native application to ornamental building. A still less direct, but far more important, influence the Romans exercised by their treatment of the Christians. The persecutions inflicted by Pagan masters stirred up another class of feelings, attaching the brethren to their holy faith, and giving them martyrs, whose memorials employed the successive labours of Christian artists of all kinds, for many generations. The history of the Abbey of S. Alban,3 which is, in fact, a martyrium, would be a fair epitome of the history of ecclesiastical art in England; and it is needless to say how much that church owes to the sword, which dismissed the soul of our protomartyr to a better kingdom. These and the window tax have had a very remarkable effect on our architecture, domestic, in the first instance, but, by consequence, ecclesiastical also, if we can be said to have had until lately, any ecclesiastical architecture, since the imposition of these taxes. The influence of both has been injurious, and sadly destructive of picturesque character in our buildings. ? They were not always of one size, but about 16 x 12 x 12 inches, was an ordinary shape and size. 3 Since this passage was written, a very careful" History of the Architecture of the Abbey-church of S. Alban, with especial reference to the Norman structure," has been published by J. C. Buckler, and C. A. Buckler. 14 CHAPTER II. THE MYTHICAL PERIOD. DESERTION OF BRITAIN BY THE ROMANS.-DESTRUCTION OF CHURCHES BY THE BARBARIANS.-AMBROSIUS AURELIANUS RESTORES CHURCHES. In the year 430 the Romans left England, after having long afforded a doubtful defence against the repeated invasions of the Picts and Scots. The ravages of these barbarians extended over the greater part of the country which they were afterwards to colonize, and were as frequent as they were extensive. Gildas and Bede relate especially how the battle of Wippedsflede was followed by a furious irruption, which they compare with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. Churches were burnt, and the priests slain upon the altars, and once again the words of the Psalmist were fulfilled, "They have set fire upon Thy holy places, and have defiled the dwelling place of Thy name, even to the ground; thus have they burnt up all the houses of GOD in the land." Gildas proceeds: "All the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood."2 There were, however, many fluctuations in the fortunes of war, and wherever the British succeeded in driving the barba2 Gildas, 24. 1 Psalm lxxiv. 8, 9. rians away from any district, there they probably restored the churches. In particular we are told that Ambrosius Aurelianus, a native of this island, but of imperial extraction, having been chosen to lead the Britons, achieved a great victory over the Saxons, who had been called in by Vortigern to assist in repelling the Picts and Scots, and became in their turn formidable enemies, at Bannesdown, (A.D. 489) near Bath, and afterwards, by his influence, the churches were generally restored, and Divine worship was brought back to its former decent solemnity. From the utter disproportion between events and records in times of imperfect civilization, and frequent revolutions, when battles were numerous and historians few, this is far more than the ages which preceded or followed it, an age of myths and legends; and few names are more connected with legendary lore than that of Ambrosius Aurelianus. I have already, in speaking of King Lucius, and of the martyrdom of S. Alban, mentioned part of the grounds on which the legendary stories of such times, in the very form in which they were first told and believed, are among the materials of the philosophy of history; and I will now add, as an introduction to the wildest stories of the kind that I shall have to relate, that they convey a truth, or a fact in the way of allegory, of which perhaps we find no other contemporary recognition. And even if, perchance, we should in any instance find a meaning, true in itself, but not intended by the relaters of the legend, we should be like the student in the introduction to Gil Blas, who found the soul of the licentiate Peter Garcias in the form of a well filled purse, accompanied with a warning to make a better use of it than Peter himself had made. The history of Merlin, in the fifth century, is but a record of the triumph of art over brute force, in which it is exactly parallel with that of Dunstan in the tenth century; the one having received a monkish, the other a bardic dress: and we may add that the very existence of Stonehenge and the like structures, in the absence of all authentic history of their erection, would enforce the belief that great mechanical skill was applied by the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles, whether Pagan, Druidical, or Christian, in the erection of their temples. The story of Merlin, as related by Geoffry of Monmouth, whose history is given in the form of a communication by word of mouth, to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, in the twelfth century, is first introduced in connection with Vortigern, a British prince, on whom rests the stigma of having first called in the Saxons to repel the invasions of the Picts, (A.D. 447). This policy had its usual fatal effect, and Vortigern, a prisoner to the Saxons, purchased his liberty at the expense of his country, and retired in despair to the mountains of Wales. His magicians advised him to build a strong tower for his own safety, since he had lost all his fortified places. Accordingly he made a progress about the country, to find out a convenient situation, and came at last to Mount Erir, where he assembled workmen from several countries, and ordered them to build a tower. The builders began to lay the foundation, but whatever they did one day the earth swallowed up the next. Vortigern being informed of this, again consulted with his magicians, who told him that he must find a youth that never had a father, and kill him, and then sprinkle the stones and cement with his blood; for by those means, they said, he would have a firm foundation. We pass over the accident and its results by which Vortigern became acquainted with the birth of Merlin, whose mother, daughter of the king of Demetia, and a nun in S. Peter's Church, protested that none but an incubus had been the father of the child; and the rest of the story we give almost wholly in the words of Geoffry. While the examination proceeded which led to this announcement, "Merlin was attentive to all that had passed, and then approached the king and said to him, 'For what reason am I and my mother introduced into your presence?' 'My magicians,' answered Vortigern, advised me to seek out a man that had no father, with whose blood my building is to be sprinkled, in order to make it stand.' 'Order your magicians,' said Merlin, to come before me, and I will convict them of a lie.' The king was surprised at his words, and presently ordered the magicians to come, and sit down before Merlin, who spoke to them after this manner: 'Because you are ignorant what it is that hinders the foundation of the tower, 1 This seems to be an ancient superstition among the British. Fitzstephen in his description of London, says that the town was built with mortar tempered with the blood of beasts. Habet ab oriente arcem Palatinam, maximam et fortissimam, cujus et area et muri a fundamento profundissimo exurgunt; cœmento cum sanguine animalium temperato. The writer evidently attributes the strength of the citadel as much to the blood as to the depth of the foundation. |