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Besides thegebursandsocmenthere were thecottiers, who had small allotments of about five acres, kept no oxen, and were required to work for the thane some days in each week. Below them were thetheows, serfs, or slaves, who could be bought and sold in the market, and were compelled to work on the lord’s farm.
Listen to the sad lament of one of this class, recorded in a dialogue of AElfric of the tenth century:—
“What sayest thou, ploughman? How dost thou do thy work?”
“Oh, my lord, hard do I work. I go out at daybreak, driving the oxen to field, and I yoke them to the plough. Nor is it ever so hard winter that I dare loiter at home, for fear of my lord, but the oxen yoked, and the ploughshare and the coulter fastened to the plough, every day must I plough a full acre, or more.”
“Hast thou any comrade?”
“I have a boy driving the oxen with an iron goad, who also is hoarse with cold and shouting.”
“What more dost thou in the day?”
“Verily then I do more. I must fill the bin of the oxen with hay, and water them, and carry out the dung. Ha! Ha! hard work it is, hard work it is! becauseI am not free.”
Evidently the ploughman’s want of freedom was his great hardship; his work in ploughing, feeding, and watering his cattle, and in cleansing their stable, was not harder than that of an ordinary carter in the present day; but servitude galled his spirit, and made the work intolerable. Let us hope that his lord was a kind-hearted man, and gave him some cattle for his own, as well as some land to cultivate, and then he would not feel the work so hard, or the winter so cold.
Frequently men were thus released from slavery; sometimes also freemen sold themselves into slavery under the pressure of extreme want. A man so reduced was required to lay aside his sword and lance, the symbols of the free, and to take up the bill and the goad, the implements of slavery, to fall on his knees and place his head, in token of submission, under the hands of his master.
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Each trade was represented in the village community. There were thefaber, or smith, and the carpenter, who repaired the ironwork and woodwork of the ploughs and other agricultural implements, and in return for their work had small holdings among the tenants free from ordinary services. There was thepunder, or pound-man, who looked after the repair of the fences and impounded stray cattle; thecementarius, or stonemason; thecustos apium, or bee-keeper, an important person, as much honey was needed to make the sweetened ale, or mead, which the villagers and their chiefs loved to imbibe; and the steward, orprepositus, who acted on behalf of the lord, looked after the interests of the tenants, and took care that they rendered their legal services. The surnames Smith, Baker, Butcher, Carter, and many others, preserve the remembrance of the various trades which were carried on in every village, and of the complete self-dependence of the community.
We have inherited many customs and institutions from our Saxon forefathers, which connect our own age with theirs. In recent years we have established parish councils in our villages. Formerly the pet theory of politicians was centralisation; everything had to be done at one centre, at one central office, and London became the head and centre of all government. But recently politicians thought that they had discovered a new plan for carrying on the internal affairs of the country, and the idea was to leave each district to manage its own affairs. This is only a return to the original Saxon plan. In every village there was a moot-hill, or sacred tree, where the freemen met to make their own laws and arrange their agricultural affairs. Here disputes were settled, plough lands and meadow lands shared in due lot among the villagers, and everything arranged according to the custom of the village.
Our county maps show that the shires are divided into hundreds. This we have inherited from our Saxon forefathers. In order to protect themselves from their neighbours, the Saxon colonists arranged themselves in hundreds of warriors. This little army was composed of picked champions, the representatives of a hundred families; men who were ready in case of war to uphold the honour of their house, and to fight for their hearths and homes. These hundred families recognised a bond of union with each other and a common inheritance, and ranged themselves under one name for general purposes, whether for defence, administration of justice, or other objects.
On a fixed day, three times a year, in some place where they were accustomed to assemble—under a particular tree,[1] or near some river-bank—these hundred champions used to meet their chieftain, and gather around him when he dismounted from his horse. He then placed his spear in the ground, and each warrior touched it with his own spear in token of their compact, and pledged himself to mutual support. At this assembly criminals were tried, disputes settled, bargains of sale concluded; and in later times many of these transactions were inserted in the chartularies of abbeys or the registers of bishops, which thus became a kind of register too sacred to be falsified. A large number of the hundreds bear the name of some chieftain who once used to call together his band of bearded, light-haired warriors and administer rude justice beneath a broad oak’s shade.[2] Others are named after some particular spot, some tree, or ford, or stone, or tumulus, where the hundred court met.
Our counties or shires were not formed, as is popularly supposed, by King Alfred or other royal person by the dividing up of the country into portions, but were the areas occupied by the original Saxon tribes or kingdoms. Most of our counties retain to this day the boundaries which were originally formed by the early Saxon settlers. Some of our counties were old Saxon kingdoms—such as Sussex, Essex, Middlesex—the kingdoms of the South, East, and Middle Saxons. Surrey is the Sothe-reye, or south realm; Kent is the land of the Cantii, a Belgic tribe; Devon is the land of the Damnonii, a Celtic tribe; Cornwall, or Corn-wales, is the land of the Welsh of the Horn; Worcestershire is the shire of the Huiccii; Cumberland is the land of the Cymry; Northumberland is the land north of the Humber, and therefore, as its name implies, used to extend over all the North of England. Evidently the southern tribes and kingdoms by conquest reduced the size of this large county and confined it to its present smaller dimensions. In several cases the name of the county is derived from that of its chief town,e.g.Oxfordshire, Warwickshire; these were districts which were conquered by some powerful earl or chieftain, who held his court in the town, and called his newly acquired property after its name.
We have seen the picture of an ordinary English village in early Saxon times, the villeins and slaves working in the fields and driving their oxen, and the thane dressed in his linen tunic and short cloak, his hose bandaged to the knee with strips of cloth, superintending the farming operations. We have seen the freemen and thanes taking an active part in public life, attending the courts of the hundred and shire, as well as the folk moot or parish council of those times, and the slave mourning over his lack of freedom. But many other relics of Saxon times remain, and these will require another chapter for their examination.
[1] Until the eighteenth century there stood a pollard oak in the parish of Shelford, Berks, where the hundred court used to be held.
[2] Other theories with regard to the origin of the hundred have been suggested. Some writers maintain that the hundred was a district whence the hundred warriors were derived, or a group of townships. But the Bishop of Oxford in hisConstitutional Historystates: “It is very probable that the colonists of Britain arranged themselves in hundreds of warriors; it is not probable that the country was carved into equal districts. The only conclusion that seems reasonable is that under the name of geographical hundreds we have the variously sizedpagi, or districts, in which the hundred warriors settled, the boundaries of these being determined by other causes.”
Peculiarities of Saxon barrows—Their contents—Weapons—Articles of personal adornment—Cremation—Saxon Cemeteries—Jutes—Saxons— Angles—Religion of Saxons—British Church in Wales—Conversion of Saxons—Saxon crosses—Whalley—St. Wilfrid—Ruthwell cross— Bewcastle cross—Eyam cross—Ilkley cross—Hexham cross—Cross at St. Andrew’s, Bishop Auckland—Cheeping crosses—Pilgrim crosses.
The earth has preserved a vast store of relics of the Saxons, and for these we must search in the barrows which contain their dead. There are certain peculiarities which characterise these memorials of the race. The larger tumuli, whether belonging to Celt or Roman, usually stand alone, or in groups of not more than two or three, and were the monuments of distinguished people; whereas the Saxon barrows form a regular cemetery, each group being the common burying-place of the people in the district. Another characteristic is the large number of articles which they contain. Moreover it was the practice of the other races to lay the body on the ground, and build up the chamber and mound above it. The Saxons on the other hand laid the body in a deep grave before they began to construct the barrow.
The body was usually stretched out on its back, but is sometimes found in a sitting position, as in graves recently discovered on Lord Wantage’s estate, Berks. Coffins of hollowed trunks of trees were occasionally used, but these were not common. If the dead man was a warrior, his weapons were buried with him, and we find the head and spike of his spear, heads of javelins, a long iron broad-sword, a long knife, occasionally an axe, and over his breast the iron boss of his shield, the wooden part of which has of course decayed away.
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The articles of personal adornment are very numerous. Fibulae, or brooches, and buckles, made of bronze, are very beautifully ornamented. Gold fibulae of circular form are found in the Kentish barrows, frequently ornamented with real or fictitious gems. Rings, bracelets, necklaces of beads, pendants for the neck and ears, are very common. The beads are of glass, or amber, or variegated clay. Hairpins with which the Saxon ladies bound up their tresses, chatelaines with tweezers for removing superfluous hairs, toothpicks, scissors, and small knives, are very frequent, and combs made of bone.
When cremation was used the ashes were deposited in an urn made of rude earthenware without the help of a lathe. Drinking-vessels of glass of fine and delicate workmanship, pointed or rounded at the bottom, are common. From the construction of these cups it is evident that the Saxon allowed no “heel-taps.” Bronze bowls, dishes, and basins are found in Saxon barrows, and occasionally buckets.
A pair of dice was found in a grave at Kingston Down, which indicates a favourite pastime of the Saxons. The presence of a large number of Roman coins shows that they used Roman money long after the legions had left our shores. Sceattas, or Saxon silver coins, are also frequently discovered.
Many Saxon cemeteries have been discovered in various parts of England, but a vast number have never been examined; and the careful inspection of the contents of barrows must throw much light upon Saxon settlements in England. Bede tells us that there were three different branches of this race. The Jutes settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight. The Saxons settled in Essex, the country of the East Saxons, Sussex, that of the South Saxons, and Wessex, of the West Saxons. The Angles settled in East Anglia. Now an examination of barrows shows that the Angles practised cremation and urn burial, which was not so common amongst the Jutes and Saxons, and the fibulae found in the tombs of these tribes differ considerably in shape and size. The contents of these graves throw much light on the history of the people, their customs and habits. The action of the plough has often obliterated the traces of ancient barrows. It is advisable that the position of all such mounds should be carefully noted and recorded, and where possible excavations made which may help in settling many vexed questions, and enable us to understand more fully the condition of the pagan Saxon, ere the light of Christianity had dawned upon him.
Our names for the days of the week tell us of the gods of our Saxon forefathers, whom they worshipped in their pagan and unregenerate state. Sun-day, Moon-day, Tuisco’s-day, Woden’s-day, Thor’s-day, Frya’s-day, Saeter’s-day, link us on to the times when these “whelps from the kennels of barbarism,” as the Britons loved to call their conquerors, swept away the old British Church, and established their heathen rites and customs. Their religion resembled that of their Scandinavian neighbours. Each village had its sacred spot, some clearing in the forest, a tree, or well, whither the people resorted to pray to their gods, and practise superstitious rites and customs which lingered long after the introduction of Christianity, and even still survive. They had also a few temples whither the freemen came three times a year.
Driven out of England the ancient British Church found a refuge in the wilds of Wales and Cornwall, where it lived on and flourished vigorously, allied to the Churches of Ireland and Scotland, sending out missionaries to the Continent of Europe, having schools and colleges, monasteries, and numerous churches. Llancarvan, in Glamorganshire, was a celebrated seat of learning; and all places named Bangor, such as Bangor-Iscaed, St. Asaph, and many others, possessed schools and colleges. The village names of numerous places in Wales and Cornwall record the labours of many earnest, saintly men, who brought Christianity to the savage folk in these wild regions. There are nearly five hundred names of these holy men in Wales alone, whose memory is retained by this simple record; and Cornwall is dotted over with churches dedicated to men and women whose names are strange, and of whom we know nothing. History tells us of some of these early saints and martyrs, of St. Alban, the first British martyr, who was slain 303 A.D. during the Diocletian persecution in the city which bears his name; of St. David, a Welsh prince, who followed the active life of John the Baptist, and preached like him. The memory of early saints is enshrined in the names, St. Ives, St. Neots, St. Bees, and in St. Edmund’s Bury, named after St. Edmund, who was taken prisoner by Ingvar the Viking, and having been bound to a tree, was scourged, and served as a target for the arrows of the Danes, being afterwards beheaded. All these record the bravery and zeal of the holy men of old who loved their God, and for His sake feared not to die.
Nothing need be said of the conversion of the English. That is a story which has been often told. The scene is again changed. The temples of Woden and Thor at Canterbury and Godmundingham and elsewhere, with their heathen altars and shrines and idols, have been changed into Christian churches, and other houses of God have been raised in the various kingdoms; while Paulinus, Berinus, Aidan, Winfrid, and other preachers, travelled through the country, exhorting the people to accept the Christian faith.
Memorials of these early Christian missionaries remain in many a village churchyard. Often there stands near the village church an old stone cross, its steps worn away by the rains and frosts of thirteen centuries; its head has doubtless gone, broken off by the force of the gales, or by the wild rage of human passion and Puritanical iconoclastic zeal; but it preserves the memory of the first conversion of the Saxon villagers to Christianity, and was erected to mark the spot where the people assembled to hear the new preacher, and to consecrate it for this purpose.
In the life of St. Willibald we read that it was the custom of the Saxon nation, on the estates of some of their nobles or great men, to erect, not a church, but the sign of the Holy Cross, dedicated to God, beautifully and honourably adorned, and exalted on high for the common use of daily prayer. It is recorded also that St. Kentigern used to erect a cross in any place where he had converted the people, and where he had been staying for some time. Very probably the Saxon preacher would make use of the old open-air meeting-place, where the pagan villagers used to worship Woden; and thus the spots still used for public worship are in many cases the same which used to echo with the songs of Thor and the prayers of pagan Saxons.
These crosses were the rallying-points for Christian congregations before churches arose, and the bells in their turrets summoned the people to the service of God. In Somersetshire alone there are two hundred relics of the piety of our forefathers; and the North of England and Scotland are especially rich in crosses. No two are ever quite similar. Some are of simple design or character; but many have such beautiful carving and scrollwork that we are astonished at the skill of the workmen who, with very simple and rude tools, could produce such wonderful specimens of art.
The pagan Saxons worshipped stone pillars; so in order to wean them from their ignorant superstition, the Christian missionaries, such as St. Wilfrid, erected these stone crosses, and carved upon them the figures of the Saviour and His Apostles, displaying before the eyes of their hearers the story of the cross written in stone.
The North of England has very many examples of the zeal of these early preachers of the faith, and probably most of them were fashioned by the monks and followers of St. Wilfrid, who was Archbishop of York at the beginning of the eighth century.
When he travelled about his diocese a large body of monks and workmen attended him; and amongst these were the cutters in stone who made the crosses and erected them on the spots which Wilfrid consecrated to the worship of God.
The Whalley cross is earlier than the time of Wilfrid. It is one of the crosses of Paulinus, who was one of the priests sent by Pope Gregory to help Augustine in the work of converting the Saxons, and who became Archbishop of York. Under the shadow of this very cross Paulinus, who came to England in 601 A.D., preached nearly thirteen hundred years ago. Indeed an old monkish writer wished to represent that Augustine himself came to Whalley and erected the cross, which he calls “St. Augustine’s Cross”; but there is little doubt that Paulinus was the founder. In Puritan times this and other relics of early faith suffered badly, and was removed with two others from the churchyard, and used as a gatepost; but the spoiler repented, and restored it once more to its old resting-place.
But how did the founders learn to make such beautiful patterns and designs? St. Wilfrid had travelled much; he had been to Rome and seen the wonderful examples of Roman skill in the great city. The Romans had left behind them in England their beautiful pavements, rich in designs, with splendid borders of fine workmanship. These, doubtless, the monks copied on parchment in the writing-rooms of their monasteries, and gave their drawings to the monks in the stone-shed, who reproduced them in stone. The only tool they had to produce all this fine and delicate work was the pick, and this increases our wonder at the marvels they were able to accomplish.
There is a famous cross at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, which for a short time formed part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Scenes from early Christian history are portrayed, and these are surrounded by bands with sentences in Latin describing them. The lowest panel is too defaced for us to determine the subjects; on the second we see the flight into Egypt; on the third figures of Paul, the first hermit, and Anthony, the first monk, are carved; on the fourth is a representation of our Lord treading under foot the heads of swine; and on the highest there is the figure of John the Baptist with the Lamb. On the opposite side are the Annunciation, the Salutation, and other scenes of gospel history. On the side of the cross is some beautiful scrollwork, which shows a wonderful development of skill and art.
In addition to the Latin sentences there are five stanzas of an Anglo-Saxon poem of singular beauty. It is the story of the crucifixion told in touching words by the cross itself, which narrates its own sad tale from the time when it was a growing tree by the woodside, until at length, after the body of the Lord had been taken down—
“The warriors left me there,Standing defiled with blood.”
On the head of the cross are inscribed the words, “Caedmon made me.” This Caedmon was the holy monk, on whom the gift of writing verses was bestowed by Heaven, who in the year 680 A.D. began to pour forth his songs in praise of Almighty God, and told in Anglo-Saxon poetry the story of the creation and the life of our Lord. The Bewcastle cross is somewhat similar to that at Ruthwell. We see again the figure of our Lord standing on the heads of swine, but the lower figure is represented with a hawk, the sign of nobility, and is probably that of a person to whom the cross is a memorial. The ornamentation on this cross is very perfect and beautifully executed. The very beautiful cross at Eyam, in Derbyshire, differs both in style and workmanship from almost any other. The shaft has evidently been broken. In the panels of the head of the cross are figures of angels.
Sometimes we find some very strange beasts carved on the old crosses. On the cross at Ilkley we observe some of these curious animals with their long tails interlacing. Sometimes the tail is wound round the creature’s body, and the idea of the artist was to represent the animal reduced to a state of powerlessness. One forepaw is held up in sign of submission. Above is a figure of our Lord triumphing over the powers of evil, and these animals represent probably man’s lower nature owning the supremacy of the King of Heaven. On the other side of the cross are figures of the four evangelists. The upper half of the figures alone appears dressed in flowing garments; each is carrying a book; circles of glory surround their heads, which are the symbols of the evangelists. St. Matthew has a man’s head; St. Mark a leopard’s; St. Luke’s a calf’s; and St. John an eagle’s head.
The crosses at Hexham, where Archbishop Wilfrid founded a monastery, are very ancient. We are able to tell the date of these stones, for they were placed at the head and feet of the grave of Bishop Acca, who was a follower of St. Wilfrid, and accompanied him on his missionary journeys. Acca succeeded Wilfrid as Bishop of Hexham, and according to the old chronicler Bede, “being a most active man and great in the sight of God and man, he much adorned and added to his church.” Acca died in 738 A.D., and as the monastery of Hexham was soon destroyed, these crosses must have been erected eleven hundred and sixty-three years ago.
The cross at St. Andrew’s, Bishop Auckland, is of much later date, and the workmanship is not nearly so fine and delicate as in the earlier crosses. The Saxons had deteriorated as a race just before the Normans came, and although the cross still appears on the flat stone, the design on the shaft of the cross merely represents a hunting scene; and a Saxon bowman is shown shooting at some animals. The religious conceptions of an earlier and purer time have disappeared. The moustache of the sportsman also shows that the stone belonged to a period very near the Norman Conquest, when that fashion of wearing the hair was in vogue.
England is remarkable for these specimens of ancient art. On the Continent there are very few of these elaborately carved crosses; but it is noteworthy that wherever the English or Irish missionaries went, they erected these memorials of their faith. In Switzerland, where they founded some monasteries, there are some very similar to those in England.
There are several other kinds of crosses besides those in churchyards. There are market crosses, called “cheeping” crosses after the Anglo-Saxoncheap, to buy, from which Cheapside, in London, Chippenham and Chipping Norton derive their names. Some crosses are “pilgrim” crosses, and were erected along the roads leading to shrines where pilgrimages were wont to be made, such as the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury, Glastonbury, Our Lady of Walsingham. Sometimes they were erected at the places where the corpse rested on its way to burial, as the Eleanor crosses at Waltham and Charing, in order that people might pray for the soul of the deceased. Monks also erected crosses to mark the boundaries of the property of their monastery.
ENLARGE
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OLD MARKET CROSS
Time has dealt hardly with the old crosses of England. Many of them were destroyed by the Puritans, who by the Parliamentary decree of 1643, ordered that all altars and tables of stones, all crucifixes, images and pictures of God and the saints, with all superstitious inscriptions, should be obliterated and destroyed. In London, St. Paul’s Cross, Charing Cross, and that in Cheapside, were levelled with the ground, and throughout the country many a beautiful work of art which had existed hundreds of years shared the same fate. Place-names sometimes preserve their memory, such as Gerard’s Cross, in Buckinghamshire, Crosby, Crossens, Cross Inn, Croston; these and many others record the existence in ancient times of a cross, and probably beneath its shade the first preachers of the gospel stood, when they turned the hearts of our heathen ancestors, and taught them the holy lessons of the Cross.
Saxon monasteries—Parish churches—Benedict Biscop—Aldhelm—St. Andrew’s, Hexham—Brixworth Church—Saxon architecture—Norman architecture—Characteristics of the style—Transition Norman— Early English style—Decorated style—Perpendicular style.
The early Saxon clergy lived in monasteries, where they had a church and a school for the education of the sons of thanes. Monastic houses, centres of piety and evangelistic zeal, sprang up, the abodes of religion, civilisation, peace, and learning. They were the schools of culture, sacred and profane, of industry and agriculture; the monks were the architects, the painters, the sculptors, the goldsmiths of their time. They formed the first libraries; they taught the young; they educated women in convents, and by degrees dispersed the shades of ignorance, idolatry, and barbarism, and reformed England.
To record the number of these monastic houses which were erected in the seventh and eighth centuries would require much space; and as our chief concern is with the vestiges that remain in our English villages, and as most of these Saxon monasteries were plundered and destroyed by the Danes, or rebuilt on a grander scale by the Normans, we will not now enumerate them.
After the country had been evangelised by the itinerant monks and preachers, the next process was to establish a church in every village, and to provide a pastor to minister therein. Archbishop Theodore encouraged the thanes to build and endow churches on their estates, and introduced to this country the parochial system, by means of which all villages could have the services of a resident pastor.
Then the thane’s house was not considered complete without its chapel; and in the scattered hamlets and village communities churches arose, rudely built of wood and roofed with thatch, wherein the Saxonceorlsandcottiersloved to worship.
The great Churchmen of the day were not content with such humble structures. They had travelled to Rome, and seen there some of the fine buildings dedicated for divine service; so they determined to have the like in their own country. One of these noble builders was Benedict Biscop, founder of the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. When he built the former, he imported foreign artists from Gaul, who constructed the monastery after the Roman style, and amongst other things introduced glazed windows, which had never been seen in England before. Nor was his new house bare and unadorned. He brought from Rome vast stores of church furniture, many books, and the “arch-chanter” John, to teach his monks the music and ritual of Rome.
Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, and first Bishop of Sherborne, was one of the foremost church-builders of the time, and the beautiful churches at Malmesbury, Sherborne, Bradford-on-Avon, Frome, and Wareham, owe their erection to his instrumentality. Wilfrid also was one of the saintly architects of the period. Here is a description of the church of St. Andrew, at Hexham, taken from the writings of Richard, prior of the monastery there:—
“The foundations of this church St. Wilfrid laid deep in the earth for the crypts and oratories, and the passages leading to them, which were then with great exactness contrived and built under ground. The walls, which were of great length, and raised to an immense height, and divided into three several stones or tiers, he supported by square and other kinds of well-polished columns. Also, the walls, the capitals of the columns which supported them, and the arch of the sanctuary, he decorated with historical representations, imagery, and various figures of relief, carved in stone, and painted with a most agreeable variety of colour. The body of the church he compassed about with pentices and porticoes, which, both above and below, he divided with great and inexpressible art, by partition walls and winding stairs. Within the staircases, and above them, he caused flights of steps and galleries of stone, and several passages leading from them both ascending and descending, to be so artfully disposed, that multitudes of people might be there, and go quite round the church, without being seen by anyone below in the nave. Moreover in the several divisions of the porticoes or aisles, he erected many most beautiful and private oratories of exquisite workmanship; and in them he caused to be placed altars in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael, St. John the Baptist, and the holy Apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, with all decent and proper furniture to each of them, some of which, remaining at this day, appear like so many turrets and fortified places.”
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The Danish wars had a disastrous effect on such noble structures raised by these monastic architects, as well as on many a rustic village church, which fell a prey to the ruthless invading bands of pagan warriors. But frequently, as we study the history written in the stonework of our churches, we find amid the massive Norman walls traces of the work of Saxon builders, an arch here, a column there, which link our own times with the distant past when England was divided into eight kingdoms, or when Danegeld was levied to buy off the marauding strangers.
Roman buildings served as a model for our Saxon architects, and Roman bricks were much used by them. Brixworth Church is perhaps the finest specimen of our early Saxon churches. It has semicircular arches, made of Roman bricks, springing from square massive piers with single abaci.
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We will try to point out the distinguishing features of Saxon work, in order that you may be able to detect the evidence of its existence in your own village and neighbourhood. The walls are chiefly formed of rubble or rag stone, having “long and short work,”i.e.long block of cut stone laid alternately horizontally and vertically, at the corners of the building and in the jambs of the doors. Often narrow ribs of masonry run vertically up the walls, and a string-course runs horizontally. The churches of Barnack and Wittering in Northamptonshire, St. Michael’s, Oxford, and the towers of Earl’s Barton are good examples of this.
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Saxon doorways have semicircular arches, and sometimes the head is shaped in the form of a triangle. The jambs are square-edged, the stone of the arch is plain, and a hood or arch of ribwork projecting from the surface of the wall surrounds the doorway. Belfry windows have two semicircular-headed lights divided by abalustershaft,i.e.a column resembling a turned-wood pillar. This feature is quite peculiar to Saxon architecture.
Anglo-Saxon single-light windows have two splays, increasing in width from the centre of the wall in which the window is placed. Norman windows have only one splay on the internal side of the building. Saxon arches separating the nave from the aisles and chancel are plain. There is no sub-arch as in Norman buildings. They are often very small, sometimes only five or six feet wide, and stand on square piers.
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Some Saxon churches have crypts, but few of them remain. The crypt made by St. Wilfrid at Hexham, mentioned above, still exists, and also one at Ripon Cathedral, in which there is a small window called “Wilfrid’s needle.” There is a legend about this which states that if a maid goes through the “needle,” she will be married within the year. Repton Church has a very perfect specimen of Saxon crypt.
The ground plan of Saxon churches differed. Many were cruciform, and consisted of nave, transepts, and chancel. The east wall of the chancel was often semicircular or polygonal, sometimes rectangular. The church of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, mentioned by William of Malmesbury, is a fine specimen of a Saxon church, and also the little church at Escombe, Durham, and that of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, recently rescued from being used as a farmstead.
After the close of the thousandth year after the birth of Christ a new impulse was given to church-building. People imagined that with that year the millennium would arrive and the Second Advent take place. It would be vain to build beautiful churches, if they were so soon to perish in the general destruction of the world, as vain as to heap up treasure by means of trade. Hence people’s minds were unsettled, and the churches left in ruins. But when the millenary had safely passed away, they began to restore the fallen shrines, and build new churches, and the late Saxon or early Norman style came into vogue. Canute was a great church-builder, and Edward the Confessor rebuilt Westminster Abbey after the new fashion. Then came William the Conqueror with his Norman builders, and soon nearly every village had its church, which was constructed, according to William of Malmesbury,novo aedificandi genere.
We will now notice the characteristics of early Norman work, traces of which you may be able to recognise in your own church. The doorways are very remarkable, profusely adorned with richly carved ornamental mouldings and sculpture. The archways are round, and are composed of a succession of receding arches, all elaborately carved. The doorway of Malmesbury Church has eight arches, recessed one within the other. These arches are supported by one or more shafts, which are sometimes carved. Above the door and below the arch is the tympanum, covered with sculpture, representing scriptural subjects, such as the figure of the Saviour in allusion to His saying, “I am the door,” or theAgnus Dei, or Adam and Eve, or such legendary or symbolical subjects as St. George and the Dragon, or the Tree of Life.
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Porches are not very common in early Norman structures, but several still exist, notably at Malmesbury, Balderton, and Brixworth. The windows are usually small and narrow, the jambs being splayed only on the inside of the church. Three such windows placed together usually give light over the altar. The walls of Norman buildings are thick and massive, and are often faced with cut stone. String-courses or mouldings projecting from the walls, run horizontally along them, and are often adorned with the zigzag or other Norman patterns of ornament. The tower often stands between the nave and the chancel, and is usually low and massive. In the eastern counties are found many round towers made of flint masonry. Flat buttresses are a sure sign of Norman work, as they were not used in any of the subsequent styles of architecture.
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The arches of the Norman builders are easily recognised. The piers in country churches are nearly always cylindrical; but there are several examples of massive square or octagonal piers, and also a number of round columns attached, so as to form one pier. Thecushioncapital is the most common form used in the Norman style. It is easily recognisable, but difficult to be described; and perhaps the accompanying sketch will enable the reader to discover a cushion capital when he sees it. The early Norman builders loved to bestow much labour on their capitals; and while preserving the usual cushion form, enriched them with much elaboration. Thescallopfrequently occurs, and also thevolute, which was copied from the work of Roman builders, who themselves imitated the Greek sculptures. Sometimes the capitals are elaborately carved with figures of men, or animals, or foliage.
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Norman arches resemble the doorways in having sub-arches recessed within an outer arch, the intrados often being decorated with mouldings such as the zigzag or the lozenge. The chancel arch is usually very elaborately ornamented with various mouldings, which are very numerous and peculiar. Those illustrated on the previous page are the most common.
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The Normans were also much skilled in vaulting with stone, as the crypts in our churches testify. Over the vaulted roof of the aisles was thetriforium, a kind of gallery between this roof and the external roof of the church. Very few of the wooden roofs of Norman churches remain. The fonts are large, square or cylindrical in shape, and are decorated with mouldings or sculpture, often very elaborate but rudely executed. At Winchester Cathedral the font is carved with a representation of the baptism of King Cynigils at Dorchester. Other favourite subjects were the creation of man, the formation of Eve, the expulsion from Paradise, Christ upon the cross, the Four Evangelists, the baptism of our Lord, and legendary or symbolical representations.
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This style of architecture prevailed until about the middle of the twelfth century, when theTransition Normanbecame in vogue. It is characterised by the introduction of the pointed arch. Many conjectures as regards its origin have been made. Some suppose that the idea of making the arch pointed was suggested by the intersection of semicircular arches in ornamental arcades. Others say that the Crusaders introduced it on their return from the East, or that it was suggested by the Norman vaulting, or from the form of thevesica piscis, the most ancient of Christian symbols. The Cistercian monks were the first to introduce it to this country, and the Cistercian abbeys of Fountains, Kirkstall, Furness, and Tintern are noble specimens of Transition Norman work. Religious zeal and enthusiasm are often reflected in the improved condition of our churches, and the grand buildings of this period are outward and visible signs of a great religious revival. Semicircular arches, however, continued to be used for windows and for the triforium; the capitals of the piers were decorated with foliage somewhat similar to that used in a subsequent period.
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Then arose the Early English style of architecture which flourished from about the year 1175 to 1275, and is characterised by a gradual abandonment of the heavy and massive features of the Norman style, and the adoption of lighter and more elegant forms of construction and decoration. Salisbury Cathedral, erected 1220-1260 A.D., is the most perfect example of this period. The arches are pointed, and the piers supporting them are often composed of an insulated cylindrical column surrounded by slender detached shafts, all uniting together under one capital, and divided into parts by horizontal bands. In small churches plain octagonal or circular piers are frequently used, as in the succeeding style, from which they can only be distinguished by the mouldings. Mouldings are often the surest guides in helping us to ascertain the date of a building. We have already studied the Norman mouldings. In this style they are composed of bold rounds and deep hollows, usually plain, or ornamented with the dog-tooth.