The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-21


Danish wars were experimenting In thu
history of English towns. We have seel
that 1t is an open question to what extern
the municipal life of any Roman town
continued after the Saxon conquest. II
any case. however, this life was either re-
vived or recreated on pretty large scale
in the Danish period. and the restoration
of Roman towns went hand in hand with
the founding, or, at any rate. the organizing
and terrifying, of new ones. Extensive
military works were carried out in thi'
period. chiefly by the energetic pair I'd
ward the Elder and his sister .fthelfada
Lady of the Mercans. Towns were then
fortified and citadels constructed As part
| Of a scheme for the systematic reconquest
! of England from the Danes. The repair
| OF Notifications on some of the old Roman
sites came first. This was done at Worces
ter London, Chester. Towcester. Coz
! chester. Exeter and other Roman towns.
| From this restoration dates the continuous
medieval history of these places. for the
| restored walls had to be manned by the
| burghera. "those men that held the burghs,
| to use phrase of the time of Alfred. and
this meant the organization OF municipal
life
Besides the Roman towns, Others OF
Teiltonic origin were fortified with SINH
lar view. and their citizens put in charge Of
the defences, Tamworth, Stafford, War
wick, Witham. Maldon, Huntingdon, Not
tingham, with many Others were so treated
by .Ethelfeda or Edward. These fortifca-
tions were not erected on unoccupied sites,
but the population which had been gathered
together, perhaps for market purposes.
was now constituted body of burghers,
charged with the maintenance of works
Of national military importance. IN deal
ing with the obscure question Of the rise OF
the English boroughs, Prof. Maitland has
suggested that in the set Of circumstances
just described may be found the explanation
of the county town of the Midland Districts.
which is Homogeneous, with it's shire, like
Stafford. Warwick. Huntingdon, some one
town central to its county being selected
and fortified as the military foyer of its
district
With such towns the King. as the head of
the national defence entered into particu-
arly close relations. After the same fashion
Taunton at an earlier, Shrewsbury and Car
Isle Ia Roman Site at a later date, were
armed As bulwarks against Britons. Welsh
and men Of Strathclyde; but. though these
towns, like the head-towns of the midland
shires, may have been official creations
with a military object. we shall be safe in
assuming that the germ of urban life was
already in existence. In all cases the town
had been started before generally from
commercial impulse. Towns might be-
gin to form themselves for some business
Of a specially local kind, "a Yarmouth is
said to have sprung up around the herring
fair and as seaports generally have grown
Much interest attaches to towns that began
with the settlement of nucleus of popula-
ton around the gates Of castle Of abbey
Edinburgh and Sterling, Windsor and
Ludlow, are good examples of the former,
st. Edmundsbury, Eveshan and West
minister, of the latter. One of the most
interesting examples which England affords
OF a town which owed it's existence to great
Institution is to be found at Durham. Here
the institution was at once ecclesiastical
and military, and comprised monastery
with a cathedral church. and Bishops
palace and castle. all forming single great
oomplexus OF buildings.
".
The authors second volume deals, as we
have said. with ecclesiastical architecture
in EN- gland from the conversion of the Sax
ons to the Norman Conquest. The book
does not profess to be a thorough history
of conquest architecture for the reason
that before the history Of particular sylc
can he written there must be some agree
ment as to the chron ology of it's monuments.
Such chronology of Saxon buildings has
vet to be established. Even IL the dates
Of the existing monuments OF the Angie
Saxon period were fixed, at reatment in the
true sense historical would still lie hardly
possible. A history implies development,
and in Saxon architecture as in Saxon civili
cation generally. there Is no continuous
progress or evolution. In many respects
the earlier periods Of Saxon Christianity,
in the Northumbria of Ecgirid, or the
Merca of Ola, present pictures more at
tractive than do any Of the later epochS.
Owing partly to the desolation wrought
by the Danes, and partly to tendency of
the Saxon temperament to sink into inertia,
there was in Saxon England no continuous
advance, but rather alterations of bril-
liant periods. and times Of stagnation or
decline. In architecture some of the
structures of the pre-Danish epoch seem
to have been more ambitious than anything
attempted at later dates.
Judging by surviving examples, Prof.
Brown would say that the Saxon village
church of stone. though architecturally
plain, was a building not far below the
average size and pretensons Of a village
church of the later medieval period The
dimensions Of the naves of about a score
of the best preserved Saxon examples both
large and small, give an average not very |
different from that of the naves Of twenty |
Norman examples. The nave which suf-
fccd for the congregation of the eleventh !
century received afterward at Norman |
hands in most cases. but not in all the
addition Of a north, and il may DC also n |
south side aisle, while the chancel was
enlarged eastward to suit "A more elaborate |
ritual. These additions, however, cOrre- |
spond nearly 10 the gradual increase in |
population. which went on till the vista
ton of the Black Death in the middle of |
the fourteenth century. They were of |
the same grade Of architectural proten- !
sion ~ the rest Of the fabric. the general !
character OF which remained unaltered,
The Saxon village church, in word. !
was fairly up to the general medieval
standard for structures OF the kind. Can |
the same be said Of the more imposing |
edifces? Did the Saxon cathcdrals and |