DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0124
tjG C apt a in grose's
thai, the few they had of stone consisted only
of upright walls, without pillars or arches;
the construction of which, it is pretended, they
were entirely ignorant of. Mr. Somner seems
to have founded his opinion on the authority
of Stowe, and a disputable interpretation of
some words in king Edgar's charterb: " Mean-
ing no more, as I apprehend," sa}rs Mr.
Bentham, in his curious Remarks on Saxon
Churches, " than that the churches and mo-
nasteries were in general so much decayed,
that the roofs were uncovered or bare to the
timber; and the beams rotted by neglect, and
overgrown with moss." It is true that Bedc
and others speak of churches built with tim-
ber; but these'appear to have been only tem-
porary erections, hastily run up for the present
exigencyc; and for the other position, that
the Saxons had neither arches or pillars in
their buildings, it is not only contradicted by
the testimony of several cotemporary or very
ancient writers, who expressly mention them
both, but also by the remains of some edifices
0 " Quae velut muscivis scindulis cariosisque tabulis, tigno
terms visibiiiter diruta,"
c " Baptizatus est (sc. rex Edwinus, A. D. 627) auteffl _
Eboraci in die sancto Paschas, in ecclesiae St. Petri apostoji
quam ipse de Ugno citato opere erexit." Bedas Hist. Ecc.'
lib. ii. cap. 14.—" Curavit majorem ipso in loco ct augusti-
orem de lapide fabricare basilicam., in cuius medio ipsiun quoi
pri-us fecerat oratoiium includeretur." Ibid.
thai, the few they had of stone consisted only
of upright walls, without pillars or arches;
the construction of which, it is pretended, they
were entirely ignorant of. Mr. Somner seems
to have founded his opinion on the authority
of Stowe, and a disputable interpretation of
some words in king Edgar's charterb: " Mean-
ing no more, as I apprehend," sa}rs Mr.
Bentham, in his curious Remarks on Saxon
Churches, " than that the churches and mo-
nasteries were in general so much decayed,
that the roofs were uncovered or bare to the
timber; and the beams rotted by neglect, and
overgrown with moss." It is true that Bedc
and others speak of churches built with tim-
ber; but these'appear to have been only tem-
porary erections, hastily run up for the present
exigencyc; and for the other position, that
the Saxons had neither arches or pillars in
their buildings, it is not only contradicted by
the testimony of several cotemporary or very
ancient writers, who expressly mention them
both, but also by the remains of some edifices
0 " Quae velut muscivis scindulis cariosisque tabulis, tigno
terms visibiiiter diruta,"
c " Baptizatus est (sc. rex Edwinus, A. D. 627) auteffl _
Eboraci in die sancto Paschas, in ecclesiae St. Petri apostoji
quam ipse de Ugno citato opere erexit." Bedas Hist. Ecc.'
lib. ii. cap. 14.—" Curavit majorem ipso in loco ct augusti-
orem de lapide fabricare basilicam., in cuius medio ipsiun quoi
pri-us fecerat oratoiium includeretur." Ibid.