Warton, Thomas [Hrsg.]: Essays on gothic architecture: twelve plates of ornaments, &c. selected from ancient buildings (London, 1808)

, REV. JAMES BENTIIAM'S

HISTORICAL REMARKS OS THE SAXON
CHURCHES.

llAVING, in the preceding chaptersa,
taken a summary view of the first reception
of the Gospel in Britain, its state and decline,
to the utter subversion of it; and also the re-
establishment of Christianity in these parts,
by the conversion of the Saxons; it may not
be improper to say something of the places
made use of by the Saxons for their public
worship, and to inquire into the ground of a
notion that has often prevailed, that their
churches were generally timber buildings, or,
if of stone, with upright walls only, without
any beauty or elegance; and that as to the
constructing of arches and vaultings of stone,
and supporting them with columns, the}' un-
derstood nothing of it.
This mean opinion of Saxon architecture,

a This is the Fifth Section, p. 15, in Mr. Bentham's His-
tory of the Cathedral Church of Ely, 1771-

■i hat ail references to this Essay may be readily found in
11 edlt!on, the pages of the original are given in crotchets.