BUCKLER'S CHURCHES OF ESSEX & Tars unassuming work is creditable to the taste of the author and artist, and to the spint of the proprietor. Such contributions to the stock of our topographical literature are deserving of all encouragement. Essex is not a rich country for churches, and those selected are not remarkable for their size, their beauty, or their antiquity; but they have nearly all some peculiarity of plan or arrangement, which makes them interesting to the architectural antiquary. Several have the round east end, or apse, which is not generally a common feature in England; others are remarkable for their materials, and several for good woodwork. The drawings are for the most part carefully executed, and neatly transferred by the engraver-in outline only-either on stone, as pen-and-ink sketches, or on wood,-still in outline; so that no needless expense is incurred in elaborate engravings. The carefully measured ground-plans are a valuable feature in the work. Altogether it is a useful companion to the more expensive works on the Churches of Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, &c.: and by degrees we may hope to obtain a tolerably complete series of illustrations of the architectural topography of England. The historical portion of the work is also carefully compiled, though not from any very recondite sources. The historical notices of Colchester afford a favourable specimen of the work: "The churches of Colchester present more or less a ruined appearance: upon a cessation of the disturbances, and the disastroms siege of the Parliamentarians in 1618, some were plainly repaired, and others hastily patched up for the renewal of worship. Roman bricks' appear in most of them. In the original composition of the walls, and their reparation in the seventeenth century, such various materials were used as to render them worthy of interest in this respect. The Roman bricks with which the locality must have abounded from their size and shape presented suitable materials to sustain the angles of the rubble walls, and formed an admirable substitute for stone. Brick is found in the construction of most of the churches of Essex, but fow towns furnish so many examples of ancient buildings where it is so extensively used as Colchester. This may be owing probably to the great antiquity of its founda tion, and its magnitude as a Roman station. Here was the accumulation of an immense mass of building materials, made mostly, perhaps, in time of war, when it was more desirable to depend upon the natural resources of the soil, rather than incur the extraordinary difficulties of procuring stone from a distance."---(p. 131.) "The Normans proved themselves as perfect masters of the art of building as the Romans had been before them, and at Colchester availed themselves of the Roman work and materials with as much freedom and ability as their countrymen did simultaneously at St. Alban's. In process of time the Norman buildings them. selves were altered, to keep pace with the ever-varying taste, or to meet the increasing wants, of succeeding generations; the same materials were again remodelled, and in like manner, so long as the stone and the brick endure, they will be capable of similar re-adaptation.❤ "Dr. Duncan made a careful survey of the Roman remains at Colchester, and communicated the result of his interesting investigations to the Essex Archæological Society. The Colchester bricks, according to this authority, vary considerably in size and thickness; while at Verulam they were mostly of one size, namely, 16 + 12 +1 inches. They vary in shape and durability in proportion to their exposure to the fire in the process of burning. Many are vitrified and warped by excessive heat few have yielded to the action of the weather. Their texture is close and fine, and the hardness such that they seem as durable as the flint with which "Twenty two of the Churches of Essex architecturally Described and Illustrated. By George Buckler." (London: Bell & Daldy. Royal Svo.) they have been so admirably combined in the walls they are mostly of a deep red colour.' "Thin bricks were manufactured for several centuries, and from very early periods, in districts where there is no stone and the subsoil is tough clay. Those in the staircase at Fyfield Church are Norman, and shaped for the purpose: many other examples, apart from Roman remains, may have been made in like manner. Indeed, it is difficult to draw a line between the different dates and fashions of bricks, until a marked distinction in their size was established in the fifteenth century. I am not aware,' writes An Architectural Antiquary to the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, September, 1833, 'that brick, as an essential material in the composition of buildings, was in common use in England till the fifteenth century, and I am far from thinking that the art of manufacturing it was entirely laid aside at any period. It enters partially into the composition of some Norman churches remote from Roman roads and stations, and is frequently seen in the buildings of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. . . . The art of shaping bricks after any pattern was frequently practised, and might have been invented in the fif teenth century, but Roman bricks did not admit of many forms, nor does it appear that the arches of Roman architecture were of another or better construction than those in the Norman abbey of St. Alban's.'"-(pp. 132-134.) Mr. Buckler seems to have overlooked Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, built entirely of brick, of the Flemish form, in the thirteenth century, of which he will find engravings in Turner's "Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages." ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, COLCHESTER. "This church, between two streets, north of the middle row, and west of the Castle, has a large proportion of Roman brick' in its construction, and although no part of the present edifice dates farther back than the beginning of the fourteenth century, it is highly probable that it occupies the site of an earlier structure. "In support of this opinion are,—1. An early English ridged grave-stone, with a cross and trefoil terminations, brought to light a few years since, while excavating a grave in the chancel. 2. The remains of several Purbeck grave-stones, now in the floor of the porch. 3. The miscellaneous materials of which the walls are composed." (p. 121.) "In the fifteenth century the chancel assumed, perhaps, a more ornamental character; the arch was rebuilt in the Perpendicular' style, windows of that age were inserted in the walls, and a magnificent wooden roof added, which in its turn was shut out by a lath and plaster ceiling. Some idea of the grandeur of this roof may be formed by what remains: the central portion of its length is carried upon a noble truss or principal, with king-posts and struts."-(p. 122.) "The tie-beam and the wall-plates are richly moulded and embattled; the former is a naturally curved piece of timber, of large dimensions, and supported by a bold arch. This arch is carried from the ground upon solid wooden jambs against the walls; they measure fourteen inches by seven, and are moulded like the arch: the plinths of these jambs are defaced, the lower part to the height of two feet six is boxed in. Six feet eight inches from the floor are the remains of a beam which has been carefully cut off; it may have been the roodbeam. The spandrels of the arch are large, and filled with open tracery of fine design. The rafters (visible here and there through the ceiling) appear to be arched and moulded ribs, twenty-one inches apart: they spring from moulded corbels which overhang the wall-plate, but are thirtytwo inches above it; and corresponding with the corbels, at the top of each rib, is a carved boss. The altar-rail, under this arch, marks to this day an ancient division of the sanctuary from the choir. "Particular allusion is made to this arrangement in the History of St. Alban's Abbey.' 'In every great church served by a quire a screen of lighter construction parted off the sanctuary at the extremity of the stalls. A solitary instance of the kind has been allowed to remain in perfect preservation in St. David's Cathedral. The fragments of screens in a similar position are occasionally to be seen in the larger parish churches; and it will not fail to be observed that the subdivision referred to, without the distinction of a sereen, is faintly indicated in the chancels of the smaller churches, the sanctuary in these instances being eastward of that portion occupied by the chancel seats."" 123, 4.) (p. PRINCIPAL OF ROOF FORMING THE INNER CHANCEL-ARCH. These instances afford a valuable confirmation of the view recently taken by Mr. Parker at the Society of Antiquaries, that the sanctuary, or holy place, in ancient times comprised only the space round the altar, or the altar-platform, corresponding exactly with the space enclosed within the altar-rails in the English Church, and did not include the whole of the chancel, as some modern writers have assumed. Essex was rather a stronghold of the Puritans, and we have, accordingly, several vestiges of their handiwork, amongst the most interesting of which are perhaps their favourite hour-glass-stands: some of these appear to be of earlier date, but their use was much increased at that period. In South Ockenden Church "Much that is interesting of this late period is in this church; for example, the boldly executed open spandrels and carved trusses supporting the four tie-beams of the roof, and the elaborately moulded and mitred pulpit and sounding-board, with grotesque panels and figures familiar in Elizabethan designs; the merchants' mark,' and the initials W B 1660, on the latter, suggest that it was the gift of a wealthy merchant of that period. On the left hand of the preacher is fixed an ornamental iron stand, made to hold the hour glass used in Puritan times. When the pulpit was erected, it was found necessary to shut out the entrance to the ancient and carefully built stone staircase in the south buttress; the stairs, two feet in width, led to the rood-loft and to the parapets of the roof. It being expedient Ockenden Churcb. BOUR-GLASS-STANDS. Ingatestone Church, to retain this way for workmen to gain access to the gutters, a panel at one end of the reading-desk is used as an entrance: the old door at the foot of the stairs remains upon its plain hinges; and on the right hand, recessed in the south wall, is a small piscina, fifteen inches by eight, and three feet three from the floor."(pp. 42, 43.) "Willingale is the only instance in this county in which there are two churches in the same yard; an irregular piece of ground, but nearly equally divided between the parishes. An ancient foot-path across the yard was generally supposed to be the division, but no other marks of boundary remaining, a row of trees has lately been planted to define the line. The west walls of the two churches are on a line with each other: the buildings are one hundred and fifty feet apart. Other examples of two churches in the same yard occur at Coventry, in Warwick shire; Evesham, Worcestershire; Great Melton, Snoring, and Reepham, in Norfolk; Swaffham Prior in Cambridgeshire; Bury St. Edmund's and Trimley in Suffolk."-(p. 146.) "Willingale Spain is the southern and more ancient of the two churches. It comprises nave and chancel in the 'Early English' lancet style of the reign of Henry the Third: it has undergone extensive alterations, but the original fabric still remains. The walls are built with rubble materials, some of which it is possible may be Roman bricks,' and supposed to have been brought from a ruin in the neighbourhood, but no Roman building nearer than Writtle is quoted. This opinion may have arisen from the kind of bricks that are visible on the north side of the nave." (p. 151.) "Willingale Doe is a structure in the 'Decorated' style of architecture of Edward the Third's period, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and west tower. Some of its ancient features remain, but it has undergone such considerable alterations as almost to deprive it of its antiquarian interest.”—(p. 155.) |