George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted PapersStreet, George Edmund
History
George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic; Church architecture -- Europe; Europe -- Description and travel; Street, George Edmund, 1824-1881
It is not a long walk from Rouen to S. Georges de Boscherville, and
the view from the hill at Chanteleu is one of the best near Rouen. The
church is but of slight interest, though its flamboyant tower, with
a grand open western arch, forms a fine sort of porch, and indicates
a variety which might sometimes be introduced among ourselves with
advantage. S. Georges de Boscherville is too well known to require
description but if others have formed the same conception of it that
I had, they will thank me for saying that the chapter-house is an
exquisite example of the earliest pointed work, full of delicate and
beautiful detail. The three western arches are circular, but not
Romanesque in their character; some of their capitals have foliage,
some sculpture of figures, and the thickness of the wall is supported
by a miniature sexpartite vault. The vaulting of the chapter-house
is also sexpartite, with additional cells at the east and west end
to accommodate similar triplets. As I have before said, there is
much in the detail of parts of this building, which indicates the
same school as the early-pointed work at Rouen. The chapter-house
is a parallelogram, fifty-four feet in length by twenty-four feet
nine inches in width, and groined in three bays. Some of the western
entrance shafts are elaborately carved. The vault inside is coloured
buff, and diapered with red lines in a small regular pattern all over.
Between Rouen and Mantes, a pause of a few hours at Pont de l’Arche
enabled me to see the interesting remains of the abbey of Bonport.
The refectory is nearly perfect, and there is a great deal of simple
quadripartite vaulting remaining throughout the modern-looking
farm-house. But of the church, the bases of one or two columns, and
one respond alone remain, and these of an excellence of design which
make it very much to be regretted that it should have been destroyed.
The groined refectory, of five bays in length, is well worthy of a
visit. The side windows are of two lancet lights, with a circle above,
and at the north end is a window of four equal lancets, with small
cusped openings above. The south end and entrance from the cloister
are modernized. The pulpit staircase is perfect, and very ingeniously
contrived; but the pulpit itself is destroyed. Among the buildings,
which are of considerable extent, are some admirable examples of
domestic windows; and, to conclude, the whole is of the very best early
thirteenth-century style.
The church at Pont de l’Arche is one of those ambitious but very
picturesque buildings, of which we have no counterpart. It is
flamboyant in style, very lofty, and intended for groining throughout.
This, however, was never completed, and there is a coved wooden ceiling
in its place. A good deal of late stained glass, of _very_ poor detail,
exists in the windows, the subject of one of them being the Tree of
Jesse.
Of the ancient bridge over the Seine, at Pont de l’Arche, not a
vestige, I think, now remains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account