The Early English Style. — Richard I. John. Henry III. a.d. 1189-1272
The great rapidity with which a decided change in the style and character of the work was taking place at this period, would appear almost incredible if it were not proved by so many instances, and especially by the well-authenticated account of Canterbury. After carefully noticing the great change which took place there during the ten years that the work was in progress, as recorded by Gervase, an eye-witness, and confirmed by Professor Willis, we shall not be much surprised to find some examples of pure Gothic work in the following ten years.
Canterbury was completed in 1184, and in 1185 St. Hugh of Grenoble, also called St. Hugh of Burgundy, was appointed bishop of Lincoln, and immediately began to rebuild his cathedral. It is therefore plain that this portion of the building was completed before 1200, and a careful examination enables us to distinguish clearly the work completed in the time of Bishop Hugh, which comprises his choir and the eastern transept, with its chapels. The present vaults of St. Hugh’s choir, and of both the transepts, were introduced subsequent to the fall of the tower, which occurred in 1240.
The architecture in the north of Lincolnshire, and the south of Yorkshire, appears to have been a little in advance of any other in Europe at that period. St. Hugh’s choir at Lincoln is the earliest building of the pure Gothic style, free from any mixture of the Romanesque, that has been hitherto found in Europe or in the world. The Oriental styles are not Gothic, though they helped to lead to it. The French Gothic has a strong mixture of the Romanesque with it down to a later period than the choir of Lincoln. St. Hugh of Lincoln certainly did not bring the Gothic style with him from his own country, Dauphiny, or from the Grande Chartreuse where he was educated, for nothing of the kind existed there at that period. Grenoble (the place from which St. Hugh was brought to England) and its neighbourhood was quite half-a-century behind England in the character of its buildings, in the time of Henry II. of England and of Anjou, in whose time this style was developed.
Nothing can well exceed the freedom, delicacy, and beauty of this work; the original arcade, of the time of St. Hugh, is of the same free and beautiful style as the additions of his successors. The foliage of the capitals is exquisitely beautiful, and though distinguished technically by the name of stiff-leaf foliage, because there are stiff stalks to the leaves, rising from the ring of the capital, the leaves themselves curl over in the most graceful manner, with a freedom and elegance not exceeded at any period. The moldings are also as bold and as deep as possible, and there is not a vestige of Norman character remaining in any part of the work. The crockets arranged vertically one over the other behind the detached marble shafts of the pillars, are a remarkable and not a common feature, which seems to have been in use for a few years only; it occurs also in the west front of Wells Cathedral, the work of Bishop Jocelyn, a few years after this at Lincoln; or perhaps under him, of Hugh de Wells.
Possibly the double arcade at Beverley (page 86) originated in the same manner as that at Lincoln, in St. Hugh’s choir, from the necessity for thickening the wall to make it carry a stone vault, and at the same time, a reluctance to hide the arcade in the original wall. At Lincoln they are clearly of two periods, though still in the same style. At Glasgow Cathedral, which has one of the finest crypts in existence, the work was commenced by Bishop Joceline in 1195.
The choir and transepts of Rochester Cathedral were also building soon after this time, and are a very beautiful and remarkable example of Early English. The architect was William de Hoo, first sacristan, then prior, and there is some reason to believe that he is the same person as William the young Englishman, who assisted William of Sens after his fall from the scaffold at Canterbury, and completed the work there. A young man at Canterbury in 1185, able to carry on and complete such a work, may very well have become the architect on his own account of the daughter church of Rochester in 1201-1227, and there is great resemblance in style between Rochester and the later work at Canterbury.
The Doorways are generally pointed or trefoiled, but sometimes round-headed, and in small doorways frequently flat-headed, with the angles corbelled in the form called the square-headed trefoil, or the shouldered arch. This form of opening is frequently called the Carnarvon arch, from its being so generally used in that castle; but it is often of earlier date, though it also continued in use for a long period. The rather happy name of the ‘shouldered arch’ was given to it; strictly speaking, it is not an arch at all, and the shouldered lintel, or the corbelled lintel, would perhaps be more correct.
The round-arched doorways may readily be distinguished by their moldings; they are commonly early in the style, but by no means always so: segmental arches also occur. Trefoil-arches are characteristic of this style.
The chapel of the Bishop’s Palace at Wells is altogether a remarkable example of the latter part of this style; it was originally built by Bishop Jocelyn in the early part of the thirteenth century, but much altered and partly rebuilt towards the end of it. The west doorway is a very remarkable one, the arch itself being cinquefoiled, with a semicircular dripstone.
The Porches are frequently shallow, as in the example from Wells, p. 91, but there are many fine porches of the usual projection; these have sometimes very lofty gables, as at Barnack, Northamptonshire. The outer doorways are often much enriched with moldings and shafts of great depth, and the walls are ornamented on the inside with arcades and tracery.
“Early English Buildings are readily distinguished from those of the Norman period by their comparative lightness, their long, narrow, lancet-shaped, pointed windows, their boldly projecting buttresses and pinnacles, and the acute pitch of the roof. Internally, we have pointed arches supported on slender and lofty pillars, which are frequently formed of a number of shafts connected at intervals by bands. One of these shafts is frequently carried up to the springing of the roof, where it ramifies in various directions to form the ribs of the vaulting, which have now lost the heaviness of the Norman period and are become light and elegant. The whole character of the building is changed, and instead of the heavy masses and horizontal lines of the Norman style, we have light and graceful forms and vertical lines.”
The rapidity with which the change of style took place has been pointed out, and the complete character of the change, which was developed as fully in some of the earliest buildings of the new style as in the latest. New ideas and a new life seem to have been given to architecture, and the builders appear to have revelled in it even to exuberance and excess, and it was necessary afterwards, in some degree, to soften down and subdue it. At no period has “the principle of verticality” been so completely carried out as in the Early English style, and even in some of the earliest examples of it.
The characteristic of lancet-windows applies only to the early part of the style, from A.D. 1190 to about A.D. 1220 or 1230, after that time circles in the head of the windows of two or more lights came in, and the circles became foliated by about A.D. 1230, and from that time to 1260 or 1270, when the Decorated style began to come into fashion.
The Windows in the earlier examples are plain, lancet-shaped, and generally narrow, as at Stanwick and Bakewell; sometimes they are richly molded within and without, but frequently have nothing but a plain chamfer outside and a wide splay within.
Square-headed windows are not at all uncommon in this style, more especially in houses; they frequently occur also in churches, as in the small church of Cowley, near Oxford. Sometimes, when the central opening is square-headed, there is an arch or a dripstone in the form of an arch over it, with the space or tympanum filled up with ornament, as at Ringstead, Northants. But this arch over the square head is frequently wanting, and these simple square-headed windows of the thirteenth century, which are very common, especially in castles, are often mistaken for Perpendicular work of the fifteenth.
In the Early English style we have, in the later examples, tracery in the heads of the windows, but it is almost invariably in the form of circles, either plain or foliated, and is constructed in a different manner from genuine Decorated tracery. At first the windows have merely openings pierced through the solid masonry of the head, the solid portions thus left gradually becoming smaller and the openings larger, until the solid parts are reduced to nearly the same thickness as the mullions; but they are not molded, and do not form continuations of the mullions until we arrive at real Decorated tracery. This kind of tracery was called by Professor Willis plate tracery; being, in fact, a plate of stone pierced with holes: it is extensively used in Early French work. The more usual kind of tracery, as at Winchester and Romsey, is called by Professor Willis bar tracery, to distinguish it from the earlier kind. These terms are so expressive and convenient that they are now generally adopted.
The Arches are frequently, but not always, acutely pointed, and in the more important buildings are generally richly molded, as in Westminster Abbey, either with or without the tooth-ornament, as the arches at York Minster. It has been already observed that the form of the arch is never a safe guide to the date or style of a building—it depended much more on convenience than anything else; the moldings are the most safe guide: for instance, the arches of the nave of Westminster Abbey are of the same form as those of the choir and transepts, yet they were built by Sir Richard Whittington, (better known by the story of his cat), in the fifteenth century, and their moldings belong distinctly to that period. In plain parish churches the arches are frequently without moldings, merely recessed and chamfered; the only character being in the capitals and bases, or perhaps in the hoodmolds, though these also are sometimes wanting.
Very acute arches are generally the earliest, but this cannot be relied upon as a rule; an Early English arch is sometimes very flat, being made within an existing Norman one, which was semicircular, owing to some change of plan, as in the Lady Chapel of Oxford Cathedral; and similar examples are not uncommon, when the convenience of the construction calls for flat arches.
The Pillars are of various forms—round or octagonal in small and plain churches, and these not unfrequently alternate; in richer work they are usually clustered; but the pillar most characteristic of the style is the one with detached shafts, which are generally of Purbeck marble, frequently very long and slender, and only connected with the central shaft by the capital and base, with or without one or two bands at intervals. These bands are sometimes rings of copper gilt, as in the choir of Worcester Cathedral, and were sometimes necessary for holding together the slender shafts of Purbeck marble.
Another peculiarity consists of the Foliage, which differs considerably from the Norman: in the latter it has more or less the appearance of being imitated from that of the Classic orders, while in this it is entirely original. Its essential form seems to be that of a trefoil leaf, but this is varied in such a number of ways that the greatest variety is produced. It is used in cornices, the bosses of groining, the moldings of windows and doorways, and various other places, but particularly in capitals, to which it gives a peculiar and distinctive character. The foliage of these capitals is technically called “Stiff-leaf foliage,” but this alludes only to the stiff stem or stalk of the leaf, which rises from the ring of the capital; the foliage itself is frequently as far removed from stiffness as any can be, as for instance in the capitals of Lincoln. The stiff stalk is, however, a ready mark to distinguish the Early English capital from that of the succeeding style.
We must bear in mind, however, that foliage is by no means an essential feature of the Early English style; many of our finest buildings, such as Westminster Abbey, have their capitals formed of a plain bell reversed, with moldings round the abacus, like rings put upon it, and round the neck.
The Bases generally consist of two rounds, the lower one the largest, both frequently filleted, with a deep hollow between placed horizontally, as at Canterbury; but in later examples this hollow is not found, its place being filled up with another round molding, as at Selby, p. 103. They frequently approach in contour to the Grecian attic base, and the ogee is sometimes employed, as Rickman observed with his usual accuracy.
The deeply-cut moldings in bases of this style will frequently hold water, and this is sometimes called one of the characteristics of the style; but it is not a good one, because it is not easy to decide whether a particular base will hold water or not. These bases are frequently stilted, that is, the principal molding is raised a foot or two from the floor, and the space is sometimes plain; in some instances an additional molding is introduced; again, in other instances some foliage, or wavy-line molding, as in the choir at Canterbury, which is the earliest example of the style, and chiefly transitional. This stilted part, or plinth, is sometimes square; this is generally in the earlier examples: in other cases it is polygonal, or round, with an ornamental molding upon it, going round the whole pier, in addition to the base-moldings of the separate shafts of the cluster of four, five, or six, that form the piers, as at Beverley, Canterbury, and Selby.
In pure Early English work, the upper member of the capital, called the Abacus, is circular, and consists, in the earlier examples, simply of two rounds, the upper one the largest, with a hollow between them; but in later examples the moldings are frequently increased in number and filleted. The general use of the circular abacus is peculiar to England and Normandy; even in the best early French work, of the Royal Domain, the abacus is generally square; and as there can be no doubt that the round abacus is more consistent with pure Gothic work, the square one belonging more properly to the Classic styles, this circumstance is a strong argument in favour of the greater purity of English Gothic. Generally, also, the MOLDINGS are much more numerous and much richer in English work than in foreign work of the same period, as has been said.
One of the chief characteristics of the Early English style consists in the Moldings, which differ essentially from these of the Norman; for while those consisted chiefly of squares with round moldings on the angles, or with the angles chamfered off, in the Early English they are chiefly bold rounds, with equally bold and deeply cut hollows, which produce a strong effect of light and shade. In many of the earlier examples the square profile of the recessed Norman arch is retained, and the moldings are cut chiefly on the angles; but as the style advances this squareness is lost, and the moldings appear to be cut on a chamfer, or sloping surface, as at Little Addington and Denford, Northants, and none of the plain square masonry remains, the whole being worked up into rich suites of moldings, separated only by deep hollows. In the later examples a peculiar molding called the roll D molding, is used; and it was still more used in the succeeding, or Decorated style, and is often considered one of the marks of that style. The fillet was now used profusely on the rounds; one, two, or sometimes three fillets being cut on a single molding, as in the choir of the Temple Church, London, thus giving a very different though still beautiful character to them; but this always shews a tendency of transition to the next style.
Throughout the Early English period there is an ornament used in the hollow moldings which is as characteristic of this style as the zigzag is of the Norman; this consists of a small pyramid, more or less acute, cut into four leaves or petals meeting in the point, but separate below, as in Chester Cathedral. When very acute, and seen in profile, it may be imagined to have somewhat the appearance of a row of dog’s-teeth, and from this it has been called the “dog-tooth ornament,” or by some the shark’s-tooth ornament, more commonly the “TOOTH-ORNAMENT.” It is used with the greatest profusion on arches, between clustered shafts, on the architraves and jambs of doors, windows, piscinas, and indeed in every place where such ornament can be introduced. It is very characteristic of this style, and begins quite at the commencement of the style, as in St. Hugh’s work at Lincoln; for though in the Norman we find an approach to it, in the Decorated various modifications of it occur; still the genuine tooth-ornament may be considered to belong exclusively to the Early English.
The natural use and the profusion of moldings in the English buildings of the thirteenth century is considered as one of the proofs of the English origin of the Gothic style. The French imitated it rapidly, but in a cheaper manner, and their buildings are, on the whole, not quite equal to ours, that is, taking into account both exterior and interior. The profuse suites of moldings so common in English doorways and arches, are almost unknown in France: some things they developed more rapidly than we did, but in the moldings they were behind us.
The Vaults are distinguished from the Norman by their greater boldness, and from succeeding styles by their greater simplicity, as at Salisbury. In the earlier examples there are ribs on the angles of the groins only; at a later period the vaulting becomes more complicated, as at Westminster. There is a longitudinal rib, and a cross rib along the ridge of the cross vaults, and frequently also an intermediate rib on the surface of the vault. The bosses are rare at first, more abundant afterwards: they are generally well worked and enriched with foliage.
Early English vaults are sometimes of wood only, as in York Minster, and at Warmington, Northamptonshire, and the cloisters at Lincoln. A vault is, in fact, a ceiling, having always an outer roof over it; and there is no necessity for its being of stone, although it is obviously better that it should usually be so, as a security against fire, which was the chief motive for the introduction of stone vaults. It generally is so; the chapel of St. Blaise, or the old revestry, in Westminster Abbey, is an excellent example little known. The rather incorrect use of the word ‘roof’ by Mr. Rickman, as applied to vaults, has led to some confusion of ideas on this subject.
There is a marked distinction in the construction of Gothic vaults in England and France. In England, from the earliest period, each stone is cut to fit its place, in France the stones are cut square or rather oblong, as in the walls, and only wedged out by the thickness of the mortar at the back in the joints. The English system is far more scientific, but also far more costly; the French system is infinitely more economical of labour, and consequently of expense. From this cause stone vaults are far more common in France than in England. From this cause also fan-tracery vaulting is peculiar to England, and it begins, in principle, as early as in the cloister of Lincoln, c. A.D. 1220, where the vault is of wood, but the springings are of stone, and cut to fit the ribs of the wooden vault.
The beautiful vaulted chambers in the Bishop’s Palace at Wells are part of the original work, begun in the time of St. Hugh, and finished under his immediate successor, Jocelyn. Grand chambers as these now appear to us, they were originally cider-cellars under the great hall, which was very lofty, and had a wooden roof only, which still exists, though in a very neglected state, and too much dilapidated by alterations of various periods to be left visible. It was concealed by a beautiful plaster-ceiling by Bishop Bagot in 1850; the fine vaulted chambers of these cellars [see p. 113] are now used as the dining-room of the bishop’s family and their guest-chamber, and part of them, separated by a wall, is the entrance-hall. This latter feature is an original arrangement, not a modern alteration, as some have supposed; it served as a passage to the bishop’s chapel from the other part of the house, and from the offices also.
The ornaments so well known by the name of Crockets were first introduced in this style. The name is taken from the shepherd’s crook, adopted by the bishops as emblematical of their office. They occur at Lincoln, in St. Hugh’s work, the earliest example of this style, and are there used in the unusual position of being in a vertical line between the detached shafts. They are found in the same position also in the beautiful work of the west front of Wells. Afterwards they were used entirely on the outside of pediments, or in similar situations, projecting from the face of the work or the outer surface of the molding, as in the very beautiful tomb of Archbishop Walter Grey, in York Cathedral; and they continued in use in the subsequent styles, although their form and character gradually change with the style.
The Buttresses, instead of being, as in the last style, mere strips of masonry slightly projecting from the wall, have now a very bold projection, and generally diminish upwards by stages, terminating either in a pedimental head, or gable, as at Wrington, Northants, or in a plain sloping set-off, as in the lower part of those at Higham Ferrars. The angles are frequently broadly chamfered, and sometimes ornamented with shafts, either solid or detached. On towers the buttresses are frequently carried up to the second storey, as at Ravensthorpe, p. 123.
The pinnacles terminating the buttresses are at first sometimes square, as at Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire, which is of transitional Norman character: they are not very numerous in the Early English style, and often consist merely of an octagonal shaft with a pyramidal capping; afterwards, particularly in large buildings, they are either round or octagonal, with shafts at the angles, sometimes supporting small arches, and terminating in a plain conical capping ending in a bunch of foliage or other ornament as a finial, as at Peterborough.
The Flying Buttress now becomes a prominent feature in large buildings. It is often found in Norman work, but concealed under the roof of the triforium, as at Durham, Winchester, and many other fine Norman buildings; but in this style it is carried up higher, and is altogether external, spanning over the roof of the aisle, and carrying the weight and consequent thrust of the vault over the central space obliquely down to the external buttresses, and so to the ground, as in St. Hugh’s choir at Lincoln, beforementioned as the earliest example of this style. There is a very fine example of a compound flying buttress at Westminster Abbey, which supports the vaults of the choir, the triforium, and the aisles, and carries the thrust of the whole over the cloister to the ground. But they did not become common until after this period. There is a marked difference between the flying buttresses of English buildings and those of French work of the same time; the English are far more elegant; large French buildings often appear as if they were surrounded by a scaffolding of stone.
The Fronts of Early English buildings before the introduction of tracery, and consequently before the use of large windows, have a very peculiar appearance, very different from those of the preceding or succeeding styles. In small churches a common arrangement is to have either three lancet windows in the west front, as at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon, p. 92, or two with a buttress between them at the west end, as at Elsfield, Oxon; but in both cases there is frequently over them a quatrefoil or small circular window foliated, or sunk panels of the same form, but not pierced as windows. In large buildings there are frequently two or three tiers of lancet windows, and a rich circular window in the gable above.
Early English Towers are in general more lofty than the Norman, and are readily distinguished by their buttresses, which have a greater projection. In the earlier examples an arcade is frequently carried round the upper storey, some of the arches of which are pierced for windows, as at Middleton Stoney, Oxon: but in later buildings the windows are more often double, and are frequently very fine compositions, as at Ravensthorpe, Northants. The tower generally terminates in a Spire, which in some districts, especially in Northamptonshire, does not rise from within a parapet, but is of the form usually called a broach spire, of which there are several varieties. In other districts the towers are terminated by original parapets; these probably had wooden spires rising within the parapet, which occasionally but rarely remain, and are a good feature, as at Ilton, Somerset. Pinnacles are sometimes inserted at the angles, and produce a very good effect.
The spire is generally a very fine feature of an Early English church; some great architects have gone so far as to say that a tower is never complete without one, but that is going too far. There may have been wooden spires on such towers as those of Middleton Stoney and Ravensthorpe, but we have no evidence of it; there are no squinches to carry a spire.
The East End is almost invariably square in Early English work, as at Cowley, Oxon, p. 94, although we have a few examples of the apsidal termination, generally a half-octagon, or half-hexagon, as in Westminster Abbey, and several other large churches. In the small parish churches this form is very rare: an example occurs at Tidmarsh, near Pangbourne, Berks, an elegant little structure, the roof of which has been carefully restored.
The Corbel-Tables sometimes consist, as in the earlier period, merely of blocks supporting a straight, projecting course of stone which carries the front of the parapet; but more commonly, especially as the style advanced, small trefoil arches are introduced between the corbels, and these become more enriched and less bold, until, in the succeeding style, this feature is altogether merged in the cornice moldings.
In the latter part of this style great liberty was allowed to the carvers, and much ingenuity displayed in the variety of ornament that was introduced; although always conventional. For instance, in the description of ornament which goes by the general name of “tooth-ornament,” for want of a better, there is a singular variety; even in the church of Binham alone, there are three varieties of what is called the tooth-ornament, not bearing much resemblance to each other, though all elegant. One has the knobs on the foliage (2) characteristic of the early part of the style, another is entirely without them, and approaches very closely to the Decorated (3).
The general appearance of Early English buildings is magnificent and rich, rather from the number of parts than from the details. In those buildings where very long windows are used there is a grandeur arising from the height of the divisions; in the smaller buildings there is much simplicity of appearance, but the work all appears well designed and carefully executed. It was usual to build the west front immediately after the choir, and leave the nave to be filled in afterwards.
Salisbury Cathedral is usually considered as THE TYPE of the Early English style, from the circumstance of its being less mixed than any other building of the same importance. It was commenced in 1220 on a new site, by Bishop Richard Poore, who died in 1237, and was buried in the choir, which was therefore completed at that time. The church was finished by Bishop Giles de Bridport, and consecrated in 1258.
The chapter-house at Christ Church, Oxford, the choir of Worcester Cathedral, a considerable part of Fountains Abbey, the choir of Rochester, the south transept of York, the presbytery of Ely, the nine altars of Durham at the east end, and the same part of Fountains Abbey, the choir of the Temple Church, London, and the nave of Lincoln, are well-known examples of this period, the first half of the thirteenth century.
In the year 1245, King Henry the Third, “being mindful of the devotion which he had towards St. Edward the Confessor, ordered the church of St. Peter at Westminster to be enlarged, and the eastern part of the walls, with the tower and transepts, being pulled down, he began to rebuild them in a more elegant style, having first collected at his own charges the most subtle artificers, both English and foreign.” These portions of the church are the choir and apse; the work is of the richest character, but still pure Early English.
The north transept of York Minster was built between 1250 and 1260, by John the Roman, treasurer of the church, who afterwards became Archbishop of York. The records of this cathedral clearly prove that it was the regular practice of the chapter to keep a gang of workmen in their pay as part of the establishment; the number varied from twenty to fifty, and the same families were usually continued generation after generation: to their continued labour, always doing something every year, we are indebted for the whole of that glorious fabric. This practice was by no means peculiar to York, but appears to have been the usual custom.
This completes an outline of the Architectural history of the principal known buildings of the Early English style.