File:An essay on the history of English church architecture prior to the separation of England from the Roman obedience (1881) (14781188304).jpg

Identifier: essayonhistoryof00scot (find matches)
Title: An essay on the history of English church architecture prior to the separation of England from the Roman obedience
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Scott, G. Gilbert (George Gilbert), 1839-1897
Subjects: Church architecture Church architecture
Publisher: London, Simpkin, Marshall and co.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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hout the country, and is only atlast surpassed by the more recent invention, therailway. It is certainly a remarkable fact, and one whichexhibits in a striking manner the essential barbarityof our pagan saxon forefathers, that while at theperiod of their arrival in Britain the country wasfull of architectural works, both secular and religious,of a high degree of refinement; while there werebasilicas and villas, emulating those of Italy, erectedindeed under the direction of the roman colonists,but by the labour of native artificers, yet sodisastrous was their triumph to the civilization ofthe country, that upon their conversion it becamenecessary to import from abroad the very rudimentsof the architectural art. Erom the point of view ofartistic progress, our country was much in the samecondition at the beginning of the sixth centurywhich it had occupied in the first; and methodshad then to be adopted by the roman missionariesto re-introduce the arts, similar to those which had PLATE X.
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FIG. I. SAXON CHURCH AT BRADFORD-ON-AVON : VIEW FROM THE NORTH-EAST.FIG. II. PLAN OF THE CHURCH AT WING, IN THE VALE OF AYLESBURY.FIG. III. PLAN OF THE CONFESSIONARY CRYPT AT WING. THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 45 been necessary for their first establishment by theroman colonists of five centuries earlier.^ In spite, however, of these efforts, the saxonsnever attained to any real skill in architecture. Theirbuildings, however interesting in many points ofview, are but copies, often so rude as to be well-nigh unintelligible, of contemporary foreign build-ings, and with details which exhibit a curiousignorance of the meaning of the features whichthey caricature. It is fair, however, to recollectthat the remains of saxon building which existto us, are those of small and mostly (though notalways) unimportant churches. In point of style,they no doubt agree with the larger and moredignified churches, which are known to us only bydescription, but we may fairly suppose that thew

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