DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6910#0015
A
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
some Roman edifices,* and being very dissimilar to any other ancient structure in
this country, we are anxious to ascertain the time and mode of its construction, and
also to examine and compare its collective and component parts. By the accom-
panying Views and Plan, the reader, who has not seen the present remains, may, it is
hoped, instantly understand their characteristic peculiarities. Of its ground-plan and
size, when perfect, I cannot meet with any drawing or description. Whether it had
transepts, eastward of the present ruins, like most cathedrals and abbey churches,
or terminated at that end semi-circularly, like the early Saxon churches, and the
Roman basilica;, I am, therefore, unable to determine. According to the best
historical testimony, it was founded by Eynulph, or Ernulph,f a monk, in the be-
ginning of Henry the First's reign,\ circ. ann. 1103, as a bull from Pope Pascal the
Second,§ is addressed, in 1 116, to Ernulph and his brethren, investing them with
peculiar powers and privileges, and constituting them the first canons regular of the
order of St. Augustine in England. About this period, it was fashionable to erect
large and grand churches, which was encouraged and promoted by Henry the First,
who thus craftily ingratiated himself into the esteem of the clergy.]) Gundulph,
Bishop of Rochester, had introduced so much novelty and beauty into ecclesiastical
building, that it acquired the appellation of " Gundulph's Architecture." Yet his
buildings at Rochester, &c. display a manifest difference to this of St. Botolph ;
whence we are induced to conclude that it claims a more early origin, and is an
imitation of some anterior structure. Deprived of authentic document, we must
content ourselves at present with reasonings deduced from analogy, and not hastily
draw conclusions until fully warranted by the evidence of facts.
Whatever may be the precise era of the present building, I am induced to refer
its erection previous to the reign of Henry the First; the buildings of his time, and
* The shape and proportion of the aiches in the western front, as also the disposition of the bricks, veiy nearly
resemble those in the Jewry Wall, at Leicester, which is acknowledged to be Roman. See Carter's Ancient Arch,
pi. VI. The materials of this are Roman tiles, bricks, and stones.
f Ernulph was a native of France, and soon after the death of Bishop Gundulph, in 11 )7, wa3 promoted to the
abbacy of Peterborough. He became a proficient in " the Saxon style of building, and various specimens of his
taste are to be seen at Rochester, Canterbury, and Peterborough," &c.—Wilkins' Essay in Archoeologia, XII. 157.
} Before the death of Maurice, Bishop of London, and the foundation of Trinity Priory, London, both in the
year 1107, as appears from the Monasti. Angli. II. 44, 46. See the Preface, p. xviii. of Tanner's Notitia.
§ Monasticon Anglicanum. II. 45.
|| This monarch, besides confirming the privileges already granted to the Monks of St. Botolph, augmented their
revenues on this singular condition :—That they should furnish him and his heirs, whenever either made war
against the Welsh, " with one horse of five shillings price, a sack, and a spur, for forty days."
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
some Roman edifices,* and being very dissimilar to any other ancient structure in
this country, we are anxious to ascertain the time and mode of its construction, and
also to examine and compare its collective and component parts. By the accom-
panying Views and Plan, the reader, who has not seen the present remains, may, it is
hoped, instantly understand their characteristic peculiarities. Of its ground-plan and
size, when perfect, I cannot meet with any drawing or description. Whether it had
transepts, eastward of the present ruins, like most cathedrals and abbey churches,
or terminated at that end semi-circularly, like the early Saxon churches, and the
Roman basilica;, I am, therefore, unable to determine. According to the best
historical testimony, it was founded by Eynulph, or Ernulph,f a monk, in the be-
ginning of Henry the First's reign,\ circ. ann. 1103, as a bull from Pope Pascal the
Second,§ is addressed, in 1 116, to Ernulph and his brethren, investing them with
peculiar powers and privileges, and constituting them the first canons regular of the
order of St. Augustine in England. About this period, it was fashionable to erect
large and grand churches, which was encouraged and promoted by Henry the First,
who thus craftily ingratiated himself into the esteem of the clergy.]) Gundulph,
Bishop of Rochester, had introduced so much novelty and beauty into ecclesiastical
building, that it acquired the appellation of " Gundulph's Architecture." Yet his
buildings at Rochester, &c. display a manifest difference to this of St. Botolph ;
whence we are induced to conclude that it claims a more early origin, and is an
imitation of some anterior structure. Deprived of authentic document, we must
content ourselves at present with reasonings deduced from analogy, and not hastily
draw conclusions until fully warranted by the evidence of facts.
Whatever may be the precise era of the present building, I am induced to refer
its erection previous to the reign of Henry the First; the buildings of his time, and
* The shape and proportion of the aiches in the western front, as also the disposition of the bricks, veiy nearly
resemble those in the Jewry Wall, at Leicester, which is acknowledged to be Roman. See Carter's Ancient Arch,
pi. VI. The materials of this are Roman tiles, bricks, and stones.
f Ernulph was a native of France, and soon after the death of Bishop Gundulph, in 11 )7, wa3 promoted to the
abbacy of Peterborough. He became a proficient in " the Saxon style of building, and various specimens of his
taste are to be seen at Rochester, Canterbury, and Peterborough," &c.—Wilkins' Essay in Archoeologia, XII. 157.
} Before the death of Maurice, Bishop of London, and the foundation of Trinity Priory, London, both in the
year 1107, as appears from the Monasti. Angli. II. 44, 46. See the Preface, p. xviii. of Tanner's Notitia.
§ Monasticon Anglicanum. II. 45.
|| This monarch, besides confirming the privileges already granted to the Monks of St. Botolph, augmented their
revenues on this singular condition :—That they should furnish him and his heirs, whenever either made war
against the Welsh, " with one horse of five shillings price, a sack, and a spur, for forty days."