402
SAX
"Wilfrid ; he erected a great altar or shrine over the placewhere Edwin had been baptized. This shrine was adornedwith gold, silver, and precious stones, and above it was sus-pended by a chain from the roof, a large chandelier or coronalucis, with nine rows of lights, three in each row, to light itup by night. A large cross was raised at the back of thisaltar, of equally precious workmanship.
In Alfred’s reign, Grimbald erected the ancient church ofSt. Peter at Oxford, and also the cathedral church at Win-chester, at both which places, remains of his work are stillsupposed to exist. It is not improbable that some portionsof Oxford cathedral are his work. It has been supposedthat Grimbald was the first architect in this country whoraised an arched roof, such as is to be seen at St. Peter’s,Oxford, and at Winchester, in the crypts of those churches.But it is plain from Alcuin ’s account of the church built byhim and Eanbald at York, one hundred years earlier, thatthat church had an arched roof.
The cathedral at Durham was erected by Aldham, a.d. 998,and here also, as at York and other places, a temporary churchof timber was first erected, in which service was performedduring the erection of the larger stone edifice. St. Dunstan was a great builder and restorer of churches and monasteries,and it is related, that during his episcopate, no less than fortymonasteries were built or restored, amongst which may bementioned the restoration of Ely, Peterborough, Tewkesbury ,Malmsbury, Glastonbury, Evesham, Bath, and Abingdon;as also the foundation of the new abbeys of Ramsey, Hunts ;Tavistock and Milton Abbas, Devon ; and Cerne Abbas ,Dorset .
Some idea of the number of churches erected during theSaxon period, will be formed, when we learn that, at the timeof the Conquest, there were in Northamptonshire , where theforests were very extensive, and consequently but a smallproportion of inhabitants, upwards of sixty village-churches,while the county-town contained eight or nine. In Derby-shire, there were not less than fifty, and five at least in thecounty-town, and these are exclusive of monasteries andthe churches belonging to them ; of which there were threeor four in Northamptonshire , without reckoning Peter-borough. In the town of Newark and the manor round it,including twelve or fourteen villages, were ten churches. InLincolnshire, which was one of the most populous countiesat this period, there were more than two hundred village-churches, without reckoning those of Lincoln and Stamford,or the monastic establishments.
Having established this fact, we have next to ascertain asto the character and appearance of such buildings, and also asto the material and method of construction. An opinion hasbeen entertained by many, and still obtains amongst somepersons, that the Saxon churches were very mean buildings,of a temporary character, and mostly constructed only oftimber. To a certain extent this is true; many of theirchurches were certainly erected of timber, and were alsomean in character when compared with those of a much laterdate; yet at the same time there can be no doubt, but thatmany, if not the majority, especially in the later part of theSaxon era, were constructed in a durable manner of stone,and were by no means so insignificant as some would haveus to suppose. Many of the accounts left us by Saxon his-torians, and some of those above quoted, would lead us toform a much higher opinion of such structures; and althoughwe must receive the panegyrics of these men not withoutsome modification, considering that they spoke of things asbeautiful only in a comparative sense, and that the standardof their comparison was fixed only by their own churches ;still, we must not cast them aside as utterly groundless, or
wilfully exaggerated. If we may believe, as there^ g aX „nevidence for believing, that some remains of these o j ar geffoundations still exist in the crypts of some of t0 thechurches, we shall be induced to give more ere 1 yjel^Saxon accounts, than many persons are incline ucte dthem. That churches were at this period cons r ^ tb emasonry, we suppose few would question, after , rea pe ciaH/above accounts ; for in many instances the fact lS ..,» t0mentioned, and in one or two instances such but u
at
spoken of, and contrasted with those of timber, a ” ur j ia cO)cathedral at York, built by king Edwin, and that at 1 , 0 th
erected at a considerably later period by Aldhanbwhich cases, the stone structure is especially men otbeing a substitute for the original or temporary tra ng e »timber. It may strike the reader as perhaps somewba ^ j #te athat timber churches should still be constructed a ^ ^ ee nperiod, when the method of building in masonry exp'*'known and practised for three centuries. A sufli , j„ th> 3nation of this apparent difficulty, is readily aff°f ® „ peia.?particular instance, in the fact of the timber buterected only for a temporary purpose, until the Pj )0VV eV®r[edifice was ready for use. This inconsistency does, _ ^ didreally exist in other cases, the one method of g ' ta piisl ied ’not cease, when the improved system had become e ^ ga in®but both were adopted in churches erected a ^ oU eII t u9 e *period ; both being equally intended for peimathe explanation is thus given :— i t j ia j j n er er I
It is not indeed altogether to be wondered at,
of the
age, when society was thinly scattered over 1 *. e t j ca l ard^country, and the resources upon which ecclesn 0 f jjid ^tecture depended, proceeded chiefly from the 0 ,, r y p urviduals, many churches not designed for a te ,,P r y and 9
pose, would be constructed of materials s0 . re® 8 '
dinarr^s
cheap ; but we have other and more satisfactory ^ r jter 9given by Saxon historians for this fact. ■*. > e t er® sdistinguish the two methods of building under t y er ,.j ng
opus Scoticum, and opus Homanum, the former ^ ^ s p]ithe more fragile structures, which were comp 0 ® gtoI) e-
oak, and the latter to the more durable erection 9 t j, e fir®
“ that Adrian- ik ger t
bishop of Un°d^L Inel l >0d ’ " Bede sa ys, -_
an d ordained bv the c' aVIn £ de Parfed this life, riu .“',' nor ic,where he built 1 ^ Cots > succeeded him in the b>sl‘° r PIsland, S i nce „,, n ‘, C ' 1 . urch in the isle of Lindisfarn,
°er of the Scoh ^rr b ’ sh °pric of Durham , after the-This he made not of stone, batand the same 1
- —stle, h f
finan-
after t'-^vedot ' ftet'
wa®_ 8 t j, e
h°P
oak, and covered it with reeds — gt
wards dedicated in honour of St- Peter , \ be ^ ven i\i j tvenerable Bishop Meadows,of that place, afterwards taking off the
I^l^btheseve^ered
thatch
ot tnat place, anerwaras taxing ™ -*•“ , .| ie 'waH 3, , 0( j
with plates of lead, that is, both the roof an ^jg ® e eaIt is probable, then, that the Saxons leam had „from their northern neighbours, against who pad a ,
brought over by the Britons, but witli whom et o-
wards allied themselves, and by whose ,5 establislL>been enabled to drive out the British, a j i, a d 0I ,® va s 9selves in their country. Whether ^the Biet '^j ie tlie r ! 0r 'J a ili f
cert'
d 9
been brought from Ireland by the Scotsmen n0 t - ar ,method common to both them and the 11® S ’ g | ]a ll af ter 'J 0 yedbut it would seem, from an incident w * d a wa s ef0 ^ e l> otallude to, that a similar mode of buildiUo W efby both people; or, at any rate, that ^ r eft
acquainted with the method of buildi ducted of
ict
to
These timber buildings were constiuct^ c j oge c 0 ® j, ea d®
JL iJCflC 11U1UU uuuum^o
timbers, stood on their ends, and placed ,n a nd d‘ e tr nC 'each other. The ends were laid on an •Tehri-P'-Jframed together m a sort of lintel • s . nthe walls; and the roof con 9 i ste ,
, all P r '
tion were