DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0359
Bk. YII. Cn. I.
HISTORY.
393
The French wars and the wars of the Roses seem to have altered
the original state of affairs to a very considerable extent. The Norman
nobiiity were decimated—almost, indeed, destroyed—and another stra-
tum of society came gradually to the surface, but this time certainly
not Celtic. On the walis of the churches of the Lancastrian period we
read—faintly, it must be confessed—the great Saxon motto, “ The
greatest possible amount of accommodation at the least possible
expenditure of money and thought.” During this period, too, the
cathedral and conventual hierarchies were yielding before the develop-
ment of the parochial system. It may be wrong to assert that the
Reformation began as early as 1400, but it is true that the seeds were
then sown, which afterwards ripened into the explosion of the
Commonwealth. Some very grand churches were no doubt erected
during the Lancastrian period, and some beautiful additions made to
existing edifices ; but they were hard and mechanical as compared with
that which preceded them. They were the work of accomplished masons,
not wrought out with the feelings of educated gentlemen ; and, though
we may admire, we cannot quite adore even the best and noblest pro-
ductions of their age.
Under the Tudors the style went out in a blaze of glory. ISTothing
can be more gorgeous and fascinating than the three Royal Chapels, and
the other contemporary fan-roofed buildings ; but they are like the
fabled dying hues of the dolphin—bright and brilliant, but unnatural
and fleeting. It was the last spasmodic effort of an expiring style, and
soon passed away.
After the reformation was complete there was no longer any want
of new churches, and the great incentive of making a house worthy of
the service of God was taken away ; so that during Elizabeth’s reign,
architecture was almost wholly occupied in providing new and more
extensive mansions for the nobility and landed gentry. Spacious rooms,
well-lighted galleries, comfortable chambers, and good accommodation
for servants were the demands of the time, with sufficient stateliness,
but at the least possible outlay. Comfort and economy are the inherent
antitheses of architectural effect ; and then, as now, brought the art
down from its exalted pedestal almost to the level of a mere useful
art. But the Bodleian Library and other buildings in our Universities
show that the art lingered even in the 17th century, and that men
still looked upon mullions and pinnacles as objects on which a little
money might be advantageously spent. But it was no longer the old
art : of course there are exceptions, but that was struck down on the
battlefield of Towton in 1461, only to be partially galvanised into life
at Bosworth, twenty-four years afterwards.
Although Gothic architecture continued to be employed in the
Universities and in remote corners of the land long aftyr it had ceased
to be practised abroad, it must not thercfore be assumed that the
z 2
HISTORY.
393
The French wars and the wars of the Roses seem to have altered
the original state of affairs to a very considerable extent. The Norman
nobiiity were decimated—almost, indeed, destroyed—and another stra-
tum of society came gradually to the surface, but this time certainly
not Celtic. On the walis of the churches of the Lancastrian period we
read—faintly, it must be confessed—the great Saxon motto, “ The
greatest possible amount of accommodation at the least possible
expenditure of money and thought.” During this period, too, the
cathedral and conventual hierarchies were yielding before the develop-
ment of the parochial system. It may be wrong to assert that the
Reformation began as early as 1400, but it is true that the seeds were
then sown, which afterwards ripened into the explosion of the
Commonwealth. Some very grand churches were no doubt erected
during the Lancastrian period, and some beautiful additions made to
existing edifices ; but they were hard and mechanical as compared with
that which preceded them. They were the work of accomplished masons,
not wrought out with the feelings of educated gentlemen ; and, though
we may admire, we cannot quite adore even the best and noblest pro-
ductions of their age.
Under the Tudors the style went out in a blaze of glory. ISTothing
can be more gorgeous and fascinating than the three Royal Chapels, and
the other contemporary fan-roofed buildings ; but they are like the
fabled dying hues of the dolphin—bright and brilliant, but unnatural
and fleeting. It was the last spasmodic effort of an expiring style, and
soon passed away.
After the reformation was complete there was no longer any want
of new churches, and the great incentive of making a house worthy of
the service of God was taken away ; so that during Elizabeth’s reign,
architecture was almost wholly occupied in providing new and more
extensive mansions for the nobility and landed gentry. Spacious rooms,
well-lighted galleries, comfortable chambers, and good accommodation
for servants were the demands of the time, with sufficient stateliness,
but at the least possible outlay. Comfort and economy are the inherent
antitheses of architectural effect ; and then, as now, brought the art
down from its exalted pedestal almost to the level of a mere useful
art. But the Bodleian Library and other buildings in our Universities
show that the art lingered even in the 17th century, and that men
still looked upon mullions and pinnacles as objects on which a little
money might be advantageously spent. But it was no longer the old
art : of course there are exceptions, but that was struck down on the
battlefield of Towton in 1461, only to be partially galvanised into life
at Bosworth, twenty-four years afterwards.
Although Gothic architecture continued to be employed in the
Universities and in remote corners of the land long aftyr it had ceased
to be practised abroad, it must not thercfore be assumed that the
z 2