Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 2Scott, George Gilbert, Sir
History
Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture; vol. 2
Scott, George Gilbert, Sir
Architecture, Gothic; Architecture, Medieval
Another nearly complete church is that at Worth, in Sussex (Fig. 214).
The plan may be said to be that of the Dover Church, omitting the
central tower and adding an apse. The transepts, like those at Dover,
are small, and their arches low and narrow; while the chancel arch
assumes almost majestic proportions. The transept arches (now much
mutilated) had the pilaster strip, both to jambs and arch, with a double
square impost of massive proportions (Fig. 216). The chancel arch is
more artistic in its treatment, having a large demi-column in either
jamb, 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter, with a regularly formed, though plain,
capital; while instead of the pilaster, a smaller semi-column is placed
against the face of the wall on either side, and indirectly carried
round the arch in the form of a square projection (Fig. 217). The arch
itself is square in section, and runs without break, through the
thickness of the wall. No doorway nor window of the original date
remains. The walls of the nave are about 25 ft. high, and are divided at
mid-height by a large string-course, above which the windows were
probably placed. The angles have pilaster strips in long and short work,
and similar strips are placed at intervals along the walls reaching up
to the mid-height string-course, all of them standing on a continuous
base of two massive courses of stone. The half-height string-course of
the nave is continued round the transepts, as are the eaves courses, and
run across their gable ends. The chancel was externally dealt with much
as the nave, though a little less in height. This church had no tower,
and, as a curious commentary on the fashionable opinion that the
Anglo-Saxons nearly always built of timber and their successors in
after-times of stone, we find a timber tower of the fifteenth century
added to the stone church of Saxon date![8]
[Illustration: Fig. 218.--Plan, and East End of Church, Bradford,
Wilts.]
[Illustration: Fig. 219.--Church, Bradford, Wilts.]
At Bradford, in Wilts, a very complete church has but recently been
discovered; having previously been so surrounded by buildings that its
character was unnoticed. I give drawings of it, made by my friend Mr.
Irvine, a zealous antiquary, who has also sent to the Academy a cast of
some uncouth sculpture found there.[9] The church consists of a nave and
chancel, and has every characteristic of Anglo-Saxon work strongly
developed.[10]
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