DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6911#0112
80
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
other foreign cities for the purpose of collecting books, pictures, statues, &c.
and engaging masons, builders, and other artisans, to visit England. William of
Malmsbury states that they brought some glaziers, painters, and other artificers
from Rome, for the purpose of building their churches in the Roman manner.
Soon afterwards we find that slates were used for covering the religious edifices.
Leaden roofs were next employed: and various other useful and ornamental im-
provements were successively introduced into the churches and monastic build-
ings. From the best accounts, indeed, it appears that the abbots and petty
monarchs, among the Anglo-Saxons, were the only persons accommodated with
private dwellings, and public buildings of any importance : and of these we must
judge rather by inference, and slight notices, than from specific particulars,*
" By the help of the Saxon delineations, joined with the slight hints left us by
some few authors, we may conclude that the frames of their houses" (Anglo-
Saxons) " were of wood, and the walls plastered. Those of the better sort
were faced at the corners with stones, or bricks, with which the arches of their
windows were also ornamented. They had bricks which were by no means
used in common, but as ornaments only to the better sort of buildings. The
forms of the houses were, without doubt, varied according to the fancy of the
builder, or desire of the employer."| Mr. Strutt has given a view, or slight
" delineation of a Saxon house," from a MS. in the British Museum ; Cotton.
Library, marked Cleopatra C. viii. In the view of this building there is no
representation of chimneys : the door-way is in one of the gables, and nearly
reaches to the top of the house ; above it are some small square windows, which
indicate the appearance of an upper room, or rooms: on one side is a low shed,
or wing, apparently constructed with squared stones, or large bricks, and co-
vered, like the house, with tiles of a semicircular shape.
Under the wise and civilized government of Alfred, the people began to eman-
cipate from general ignorance, and to perceive a gleam of intellectual light break-
ing in upon them. This gradually, but very slowly, extended its benign influence :
and from the demise of that truly magnanimous prince to the settlement of the
Normans, the annals of the country became more intelligent, more probable, and
more entitled to credence. The constant wars between the English and Danes,
* The styles and peculiarities of churches will be more carefully investigated in another part of this work,
when treating of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical architecture,
t Strutt's Horda Angel-Cynnan, Vol. I. p. 37-
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
other foreign cities for the purpose of collecting books, pictures, statues, &c.
and engaging masons, builders, and other artisans, to visit England. William of
Malmsbury states that they brought some glaziers, painters, and other artificers
from Rome, for the purpose of building their churches in the Roman manner.
Soon afterwards we find that slates were used for covering the religious edifices.
Leaden roofs were next employed: and various other useful and ornamental im-
provements were successively introduced into the churches and monastic build-
ings. From the best accounts, indeed, it appears that the abbots and petty
monarchs, among the Anglo-Saxons, were the only persons accommodated with
private dwellings, and public buildings of any importance : and of these we must
judge rather by inference, and slight notices, than from specific particulars,*
" By the help of the Saxon delineations, joined with the slight hints left us by
some few authors, we may conclude that the frames of their houses" (Anglo-
Saxons) " were of wood, and the walls plastered. Those of the better sort
were faced at the corners with stones, or bricks, with which the arches of their
windows were also ornamented. They had bricks which were by no means
used in common, but as ornaments only to the better sort of buildings. The
forms of the houses were, without doubt, varied according to the fancy of the
builder, or desire of the employer."| Mr. Strutt has given a view, or slight
" delineation of a Saxon house," from a MS. in the British Museum ; Cotton.
Library, marked Cleopatra C. viii. In the view of this building there is no
representation of chimneys : the door-way is in one of the gables, and nearly
reaches to the top of the house ; above it are some small square windows, which
indicate the appearance of an upper room, or rooms: on one side is a low shed,
or wing, apparently constructed with squared stones, or large bricks, and co-
vered, like the house, with tiles of a semicircular shape.
Under the wise and civilized government of Alfred, the people began to eman-
cipate from general ignorance, and to perceive a gleam of intellectual light break-
ing in upon them. This gradually, but very slowly, extended its benign influence :
and from the demise of that truly magnanimous prince to the settlement of the
Normans, the annals of the country became more intelligent, more probable, and
more entitled to credence. The constant wars between the English and Danes,
* The styles and peculiarities of churches will be more carefully investigated in another part of this work,
when treating of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical architecture,
t Strutt's Horda Angel-Cynnan, Vol. I. p. 37-