The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed

The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical?by Question and Answer, 4th ed., by Mattthew Holbeche Bloxam

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Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed., by Mattthew Holbeche Bloxam This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed.
Author: Mattthew Holbeche Bloxam
Release Date: November 8, 2006 [EBook #19737]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's Note
A number of typographical errors found in the original text have been maintained in this version. They are marked in the text with a [TN-#]. A description of each error is found in the complete list at the end of the text.
The oe ligatures used in the original text have been expanded to "oe" in this version.
The following codes are used for characters which cannot be represented in the character set used for this version of the book.
[=mn] mn with a macron over the two letters [=om] om with a macron over the two letters [=on] on with a macron over the two letters [=re] re with a macron over the two letters
Some footnotes in the original were marked with a dagger. The dagger is represented by a + in this version of the text.

"Whereby may be discerned that so fervent was the zeal of those elder times to God's service and honour, that they freely endowed the church with some part of their possessions; and that in those good works even the meaner sort of men, as well as the pious founders, were not backwards."
Dugdale's Antiq. Warwickshire.
[Illustration]

THE
PRINCIPLES
OF
GOTHIC
ECCLESIASTICAL
ARCHITECTURE,
ELUCIDATED BY QUESTION AND ANSWER.
BY MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM.
FOURTH EDITION.
OXFORD: JOHN HENRY PARKER.

PREFACE.
In revising this Work for a Fourth Edition several alterations have been made, especially in the Concluding Chapter; and the whole has been considerably enlarged.
M. H. B.
Rugby, April 1841.

CONTENTS.
Page CHAP. I. Definition of Gothic Architecture; its Origin, and Division of it into Styles 17
CHAP. II. Of the different Kinds of Arches 22
CHAP. III. Of the Anglo-Saxon Style 30
CHAP. IV. Of the Norman or Anglo-Norman Style 51
CHAP. V. Of the Semi-Norman Style 74
CHAP. VI. Of the Early English Style 86
CHAP. VII. Of the Decorated English Style 102
CHAP. VIII. Of the Florid or Perpendicular English Style 120
CHAP. IX. Of the Debased English Style 145
CONCLUDING CHAPTER. Of the Internal Arrangement and Decorations of a Church 153

CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.
Page 41, line 9, for Cambridge, read Lincoln.
Page 49. In addition to the list of churches containing presumed vestiges of Anglo-Saxon architecture, Woodstone Church, Huntingdonshire, and Miserden Church, Gloucestershire, may be enumerated.
Page 71. The double ogee moulding is here inserted by mistake: it is not Norman, but of the fifteenth century.
Page 137. In some copies the wood-cut in this page has been reversed in its position.

[Illustration: Two Arches of Roman Masonry, Leicester.]
INTRODUCTION.
ON THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND DECLINE OF GOTHIC OR ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE.
Amongst the vestiges of antiquity which abound in this country, are the visible memorials of those nations which have succeeded one another in the occupancy of this island. To the age of our Celtic ancestors, the earliest possessors of its soil, is ascribed the erection of those altars and temples of all but primeval antiquity, the Cromlechs and Stone Circles which lie scattered over the land; and these are conceived to have been derived from the Phoenicians, whose merchants first introduced amongst the aboriginal Britons the arts of incipient civilization. Of these most ancient relics the prototypes appear, as described in Holy Writ, in the pillar raised at Bethel by Jacob, in the altars erected by the Patriarchs, and in the circles of stone set up by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai, and by Joshua at Gilgal. Many of these structures, perhaps from their very rudeness, have survived the vicissitudes of time, whilst there scarce remains a vestige of the temples erected in this island by the Romans; yet it is from Roman edifices that we derive, and can trace by a gradual transition, the progress of that peculiar kind of architecture called GOTHIC, which presents in its later stages the most striking contrast that can be imagined to its original precursor.
The Romans having conquered almost the whole of Britain in the first century, retained possession of the southern parts for nearly four hundred years; and during their occupancy they not only instructed the natives in the arts of civilization, but also with their aid, as we learn from Tacitus, began at an early period to erect temples and public edifices, though doubtless much inferior to those