The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-01 00:00:00

GOTHIC ARC HITECTISAE

We mentioned in our last, that Mr. Rimmer lad deli-
vered a very interesting lecture on this subject at the
meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society, the
previous evening. Mr. Rimmer said, there were at pre-
sent in England only two or three buildings which could
be proved to have been constructed during the time of the
Saxons, and Saxon architeeture was in fact nothing but
debased Roman. Under the Normans, architecture flou-
rished, and the four styles prevalent were the Norman,
the lancet, the decorated, and the florid. There are
Norman remains in nearly every county in England.
The little church of Bebington, Cheshire, contains some
good work of this period. St. John's, Cheshire, is a fine
example. The noble west front of Lincoln, the nave and
aisles of Norwich, and the interior and transepts of Dur-
ham Cathedral, are all beautiful specimens. The pointed
arch appeared earlier in England than in France, and the
various varieties of style were the growth of English im-
provement, and not of foreign importation. Since the
time of Henry the Eighth, there was scarcely a truly
Gothic edifice built ; the Elizabethan style was a mixture
of Italian, French, and indeed nearly every other kind of
architecture. After some elaborate remarks on each of
these styles, Mr. Rimmer noticed some of the ecclesias-
tical structures of this town, and his remarks on these
buildings we give in erlenso :
" Liverpool is very short of good Gothic buildings, far
more so than of classical. St. Luke's Church, which,
from its size and cost, stands first, is by no means without
faults. The details (excepting perhaps the windows) are
very beautiful ; the railing and piers of the gateways are
also good, but suitable to a building on a much larger and
grander scale ; the outline also from the top of Leece-
street is very pleasing. But the proportion of its side-
elevation is very inferior, its appearance from Bold-street
extremely meagre, and the porches on each side of the
tower ill correspond in size and character with any part of
the building. There are several periods in the style of
its architecture ; one rather singular error would make the
upper story of the tower, which contains a window of the
fourteenth century, built 100 years before the lower, which
contains one of the fifteenth, and we could point oat se-
veral more faults.
" There are in Liverpool many churches with even much
less beauty to recommend them than St. Luke's ; but we
must except one or two recently erected, and now in pro-
gress of erection. The most beautiful and pure Gothic'
building in Liverpool, perhaps, is a small incomplete
chapel in Canning-street. It is of the Decorated or 14th,
century architecture, with a large variety of beautiful
windows, and a graceful doorway ornamented with flowered
mouldings. The stained glass on most of the windows is
very well arranged, and the colours finely harmonised.
" There is also a Roman Catholic chapel in Edmund-
street, by A. W. Pugin, which contains a very beautiful
altar-piece and two elegant stained windows ; though,
from its position, the front is necessarily flat and without
buttresses: the two doorways are well.composed.
" Another large chapel in Salisbury-street is good
Early English.' St. Martin's-in-the-Fields is not a bad
piece of composition. But with all these exceptions, Li-
verpool is short of anything approaching a fine Gothic
edifice.

" We may remark, in conclusion, how strange it appears
that while we have so immensely surpassed the middle
ages in arts and sciences, we should remain so far behind
them in architecture. One reason is mentioned by Alison
in his beautiful essay upon taste :--` If, besides the cost-
liness of the subject, it is also permanent or durable, this
character is still further increased. Those productions of
which the materials are perishable and must often be re-
newed, are, from their nature, subjected to variety ; but
buildings may last, and are intended to last, for centuries.
The life of man is very inadequate to the duration of such
productions; and the present period of the world, though
old with respect to those arts which are employed upon
perishable subjects, is yet young in relation to an art
which is employed upon so durable materials as those of
architecture. Instead of a few years, therefore, centuries
must probably pass before such productions demand to
be renewed; and long before that period is elapsed, the
sacredness of antiquity is acquired by the subject itself,
and a new motive given for the preservation of similar
forms.'
" We are thus mere copyists, and no one who follows
the steps of another can ever pass him. Again, Gothic
architecture for a period of two hundred years fell into
disuse, its beauties were unkn iwn, and its principles for-
gotten ; but we are beginning now to be justly proud of
the national monuments with which England abounds,
and to confess at last that there is beauty in the pointed
arch, and that a cathedral is not as 'Sir C. Wren has de-
scribed, ' A huge monkish pile, unworthy of the name of
architecture.' Such prejudices are fast losing ground ;
and we may hope before long to see Gothic buildings
erected with some portion of their former excellence."