The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-04-27 00:00:00

THE PROGRESS OF ARCHITECTURE

IN ENGLAND.

[From Eikehaw(' &linkuplk Magazine.]

MIL EDITOR—It is a curious ci
although the Romans held for several ages posses.
slots of the g►eatest part of this island. there is tot
among all the British antiquities a single monis-
meld of the fine arts which can be regarded as the
work of that magnificent people*. We have many
traces of their military stations ; a few fragments of
Mosaic pavement.' belonging to baths; bat templet
or portico, idol or altar, not one has ever been
found ; and yet Tacit... says, that during the ad.
ministration of Agricola, It'll distinguished com-
mander excited among the Britons a taste for the
Roman arts and customs : their towns were adorn-
ed with irately temples and porticos, and their
youth imitated the fashions of Rome. What ren-
ders the circumstance the more wonderfol is, that
there a►e several British remains, which are consi.
I lered of an anterior date to the invasion of the
Romany. The Ars [Nabob at Csatlrtnu, its Der-
byshire, was a ruin in their time, and it. origin
unknown.

i het,

Nor should it be forgotten, that Adrian, who
adorned so many remote parts of the empire with
the most sumptuous edifices, resided some time
in this island ; but no relic of his visit, or of the
architecture of his age, remains. In a word, the
historian of the arts, who undertakes to relate their
rise and progress in this country. must commence
his narrative at a period subsequent to the rectal of
the Roman legions.
In reflecting on this matter, it has sometimes
occurred to me, that what our old chronicles say
respecting the very early establishment of Chris-
tianity in Britain, is deserving of more deference
than is commonly paid to it, and tlist it helps to
throw some light on a question in itself extremely
curious. You are swore, Sir, that 'among the'first
effects which flowed from the establishment of Chris-
tianity in other parts of the Roman empire, was the
awakening of a spirit in the public, adverse alike
to the belief, ritual. and pageantry, of idolatry ; that
it tendril to bring the sinueements of the theatre
into disrepute. and to banish from the stage all dra-
matic performances in honour of the mythologic
deities, without substituting any other exhibitions;
so that the theatres became deserted, and in the end
totally ruined.
About the time that the preaching of the Gospel
began to affect the public mind throughout the
eastern provinces of the empire, the Romans ac-
quired their first firm footing on the shores of this
Wand. When they had established themselves in
the interior, Christianity was so generally diffused,
that it is not probable they attempted to iutroduce
dramatic represenistiova among the Britous, in any
such way as to require the use of large buildings.
This will account for the total extinction. if the
term may be applied to what I conceive never had
any existence, of all theatric monuments of the
Romans in the list of our national antiquities. Mr.
Curwee, in his letters from Ireland, describes the
models of two aucieut theatres in the museum of
Dublin, said to have bees* recently discovered. still
existing io that island ; but moth* of the kind,
*sighing in reality, which iudicates say effects'sl
cull/ domiciliation of the Roossais in Britain has
yet been found.
With regard to temple...nil idols, the question is
susceptible of a satisfactory explanation, if we ad.
mit the authority of the chroniclers ; and I know
not why, in many things, and this istoonre others,
they are not deemed as deserving of credit as the
Roman historians, or those of any other ancieut
people. It appears by them. that Lucius, who
succeeded his father in the British throne in the
year 165, was with his courtiers and nobles convert-
ed to Christianity. and that he not only abolished
Paganism, bat in the steed of three srch-flativins
and 28 &mins. as they are called, procured from
Cleutherioa, then Bishop of Rome, the appoint-
ment of as many Christian Archbishops a.td Bishops
' to instruct Ins people iu the divine religion ; thus
becoming the first monarch who gave • national
establishment to Christianity. It is also related of
Lucius, that he converted the Pagan temples iutu
churches. and built several uew ones; among
others. one where St. Peter's, Curnhill, London.
now *Lauds. Now, Sir, if we admit that the esta-
blishing of Christianity was followed in Britain by
the same immediate effects dust sahariaptently took
place elsewhere, namely, the costing down of the
idols, and breaking them and their altars to pieces.
we need not be perplexed to account for the ex-
tinction of all Roman remains of this kihd.

I am not satisfied that much light has yet /Well
thrown on the origin of whet is celled the. Saxon
style of architecture ; but it is matter of historical
fact, that with the Siginis a new species of idolatry
was introduced. and. perhaps, some of the old
aboriginal paganism revived. in so much. that a
second public couversion to Ch►utiauity subse-
quently took place in the person and courtiers of
Ethelbert. King of Keut, at which epoch the
Bishop of Rome was grown item the Pope. The
Ch►istianity of this latter period was accordingly
infected with the corruptions of the church. N-
aomi of the simple preaching of that meek and
lowly religion. which woo the affections of Lucius
from the gods of his fathers. the gorgeous harlot
came with her blandishments, arrayed tu the abomi-
nations of crimson and fine hues.. attended by a
trails of friars, " black, white, and grey, with all
their trumpery."
By the conversion of Ethelbert, Christianity, as
the Roman Catholic religion is still called, was
established, and idolatry filially abolished in Bri-
tain. It is therefore nut assuming too much, to
say. that if we consider the first suppression of pa-.
gannet by Lucius. the re►toration of idolatry in
the time of the Saxons, and the re-conversion during
the Heptarchy, it is not difficult to conceive how it
has happened that there are no remains of the sa-
cred architecture of the Romans now existing in
this island, especially when we reflect that the tem-
ples erected by them probably were never nu-
merous.
But still there is something very unaccountable
in this matter; for, in a period comparatively short.
we find the art of architecture. Nod of course the

• Tlsa small bridge in Dumbartoeshire, lately repaired at
t►e aspen. of lord Slamlyre, is leo rode a work 14. be
placed in Ibe elms of rehired art.
t Arthur's Ores was in all probability a bath.

art of drawing, riccesiery to form architectural de-
signs. 60 for advanced, that in less their 500 years
from the accession of Ethelhert•the cathedral of
Durham was built, and it is still one of the greatest
1111111 noblest piles in the islood. Within the lest
five bemired years, with the single exception of St.
Pawl's, no temple of equal magnitude of design
and grandeur of architecture has beeu attempted in
England.
But to consider the subject more generally, I
would ask if tt ever has been investigated, whether
any of those churches which are esteemed the
earliest specimens of Sam, architecture. do not
contain within them portions and (monists of
Roman temples ? The sacred architecture of the
Greeks and Romans was exterior in its object and
composition. Their religious ceremmoies consisted
of processions and of rites, which their climate per-
mitted them to perform in the open air ; their tem-
ples were iu conseqoence small. and the °motorists
arranged on the outside of the building. In this
island, we are obliged to adopt another method ;
our ritual is constrained by the uncertainty of the
weather to be performed under cover; our temple!.
have accordingly been erected of vast properties to
accommodate a great number of worshipper., and
our chief ornaments have been displayed in the in-
terior of the pile. The distincti.ro, although irn-
portent, requires no particular elucidation.
Upon the supposition, then. that some of the
temples built in the Roman taste introduced by
Agricola (allowing what •Tecitus has said to be
true), have been, in the course of lime, enlarged
to cathedrals, or other distinguished churches, the
process of their convention would be simple and
obvious. The parallelogram of that taste would
easily admit of bring changed into such a build-
ing, for example, as that of Durham-Minster.
By removing the roof, and flinging arches from
column to column, and raising on those arches a
superstructure with windows in it, to support
the new roof, the middle aisle of the church. with
its lateral insulated colonnades would be formed,
and by merely building round the original edifice
a wall with windows in it, and carrying o roof from
the top of that wall to the base of the superstruc-
ture raised on the arches, a perfect specimen of a
church iu the Saxon style would be obtained ; for
the cell of the classic temple would stand for
the choir. It is not however probable, that such
■n alteration as I have described would be effected
at once. I have only adverted to the likelihood of
the thing, in coeivertisig a temple into a church ;
and would only iufer from it, that if Agricola and
the Romans did introduce into this island the taste
and arts of Rome, it is probable that what is called
the Swami architecture took its rise from endeavours
on the out of the inhabitants to adapt the exterior
style of the Roraima to those interior purposes,
witch were rendered twcenary by the uncertainty
of the weather in the climate of Britain.

To the Saxon soceeded the Gothic, or pointed-
arch style. It is the dotage of antiquarianism to affect
to trace the origin of this style to ally particular era
or country ; and it i . at best, but an amusing in-
grimily which tndeaiuers to discover in it the imi-
tation of a gross of trees. The history of it, as
connected with Art of the arts in this country, ad-
mits of being divided. into two epoch.. The first
terminries issjthe&git ups liderard 114 ~when the
style of the acute-pointed arch was brought to the
greatest perfection, and of which the relics about
the House of Commons are the finest specimens
extant. The second, dating from the same reign.
is closed in that of Henry Viii. when the obtuse-
pointed arch was brought to the greatest perfec-
tion, roil of which the finest specimen is she mau-
soleum completed by that Monarch for his father,
and known as Henry Vll.'s Chapel, attached to
Westminster Abbey. The Chapel of King's Col-
lege, at Cambridge, is also a very noble example of
this .41e; but owing to the foundation having been
laid by Henry VI.. it is commonly ascribed to his
time. It was not however finished till late in the
reign of Henry VIII., and ought properly to be
classed among the great edifices of that age.
From the reign of Henry VIII. architecture, for
many years, declined. A barbarous attempt to in-
grate the classic orders upon edifices in the Go-
thic taste commenced ; nor was it confined to ibis
country, but extended over all Europe. It pro-
bably originated in the revival of the ancient
Rommel stale of building, which took place in the
pontificates of Julius 11. and Leo X.. and perhaps
derived encouragement from the views of classic
edifices with which it was common at that period
to ornament books. We find the earliest indica.
buns of it iii a multitude of pillars and pilasters
on tombs, constructed somewhat in the style of the
triumphal arches of the Burnable. But, although
the taste deserves condemnation, yet it was not in-
compatible with beauty of effect, a very imposiug
example of which we have in Burleigh House,
near Stamford.

This mixture of the Classic ■nd Gothic styles,
with a gradual tendency to more simplicity, pre-
vailed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and
James I. of Great Britain. lu Charles l.'s time
the Classic architticturi was decidedly in fashion ;
and the fragenent of the palace intended fur him by
lnigo Jones, although fir from being hoe, cannot
be contemplated without pleasure.
The change in the public taste was still more ge•
nerally expressed when Sir Christopher Wren came
forward as au architect. In his buildings there are
some 6oe instances of the proper adaptations of
the style of the building to its uses, but the great-
est of all his works, and, indeed, the protest
pile of the fine arts, in some respects, ever raised
by ooe man, St. Paul's Cathedral, is in its details
lamentably defective. The main body of the build-
ing is, in its principle, taken from the deWgei of
lingo Jones for Whitehall, 2iid the dome, the best
part of the whole, is not in 1/111.011 with the rest of
the building. It is a superb edifice of itself, set
on the top of another; taken as a whole, the Ca-
thedral of St. Paul's dues not certainly harmonise
in its purls. and it possesses the radical defect of
being unedeptell to the climate; the ratting bring
covered with ornament, while the interior is mean,
aud•unworthy of the grandeur without.
Of Sir John Vanbrugh's style it is impossible
to speak too contemptuously or too highly. lie
was a man of magnificent ideas, and the pictu-
re►que forms in which the ottilines of his build•
Inge cut against the sky are so extremely beau-
tiful, that they may be said to be full of poetry, en
singular and superb are the associations which they

awaken in the minds of those who Dee them for the
first time. Illesiheim is considered Ins ;fleetest
work ; but, foe myself. I prefer Castle-Horsuld.
The neat great pile erected in this country, after
Bleubeim, was Somerset Motor ; but although, in
the grammar of the art, it is more correct than
either St. Paul's or the great work of Sir John
Vanbrugts. • littleness of conception pervades it
throughout, that most ever prevent it from being
higlile eaterined as a work of art, and the architect,
Sir Chambers, from being considered as a
great artist.
It is impossible to notice the number of fine
buililisigs in the classic style raised in the lung
course sit his late Majesty's reign. For the most
part, however, they have not been conceived in •
good taste, and consist of abortive attempts to unite
the grandeur of the temple with the elegance of the
villa. Hence the origin of those vast and ponder-
ous porticos, which give to the houses of the Nu-
bility the air of capitol* rather than of 'habitations.
Our architect* still seem to think, that there are
pot only beauties in architecture, indeperident of
but even that orstainetits may be stuck on,
without any Nonarent utility either to the plan, ur
in illustration of the purposes of the building. One
of the most remarkable esamplos of this is in the
mansion of the late Sir Francis Baring, hear South-
ampton; and it is the snore deserving of notice, as
some of your correspondents base been urging that
the Parthenon of Athens ought to be takers as the
model of the proposed National Munuttleort of Scot-
land. It is no less titan an exact copy, inch fur
hid', of one of the porticos of that celebrated struc-
ture. Nothing cats be finer of its kind, or more
absurd than it* application.
It was my intention to have taken some notice of
the architectural taste which prevails in Scotland at
this time ; but I have already occupied too much
of your paper, and the subject, iu itself, deserver to
he treated muse in detail than the matter which
forms die substance of the cursory observations of
this letter. D. B.