" Richard, prior of Ilcxham, (Ricardus IIagust) who flou rished about a century after the Conquest, when the original building was still in existence, though in a decaying state, has also left us a description of it, and both mentions the crypts and oratories, subterraneous, with winding passages to them, and relates that the walls were of immense length and height, supported on columns of squared, varied, well-polished stone, divided into three stories, adding, that the walls themselves, with the capitals of those columns by which the walls were supported, as also the coved ceiling of the sanctuary, Wilfrid decorated with histories, statues, and various figures project ing in sculpture from the stone, with the grateful variety of pictures, and with the wonderful beauty of colours. IIe also surrounded the very body of the church with lateral and subterraneous chapels on every side, which with wonderful and inexplicable artifice he separated by walls and spiral stairs above and below. In the very stairs, and upon them, he caused to be made of stone, ways of ascent, places of landing, and a variety of windings, some up, some down, yet so artificially, that innumerable multitudes of men might be there, and stand all about the very body of the church, yet not be visible to any that were below it." Benedict Biscop was another builder, who erected the monasteries of Monk-Wearmouth and Jarrow ; he seems to have brought masons and other artificers from France. He was a cotemporary with Wilfrid, and lived at the close of the seventh century. Adhelm, at a somewhat later period, was the founder of the abbey of Malmsbury, and two churches in the same town, one within the abbey and the other with out, for the villagers or townspeople ; he also built churches at Dorchester. The church of St. Peter at York, was re built about the middle of the eighth century, in con-sequence of having suffered from fire in 741: it is described by Alcium in his poem de Pontilicibus et Sinctis Eccles. Ebor. ; who makes particular mention of its pillars, arches, vaulted roofs, windows, porticos, galleries, &c., which are the characteristics of a finished building. Under the article CAThEDRAL, will be found a curious description of the church at Ramsey, which, together with those already adduced, will, we think, afford some notion of the number of churches erected during the Saxon dynasty, or rather during that part of it when the Saxons had been converted to Christianity.
Acca, bishop of Hexham, was the builder of a noble church at that place, and is said to have adorned the side-walls with little tabernacles or shrines, arching over altars in honour of apostles and martyrs ; at which the people often knelt in prayer, and on which were placed caskets, containing sacred relics. A new church erected at York in A.D. 780, by Albert, is said to have contained no fewer than thirty altars ; it was several years in building, and was a very handsome structure, of lofty proportions, with an arched root' supported on massive columns and having several porches, which, with their different projections, caused an agreeable variety of light and shade when the sun shone upon them. This same bishop added considerably to the embellishments of the old church at York, which was built by king Edwin, and repaired by Wilfrid ; he erected a great altar or shrine over the place where Edwin had been baptized. This shrine was adorned with gold, silver, and precious stones, and above it was sus pended by a chain from the roof, a large chandelier or corona lads, with nine rows of lights, three in each row, to light it up by night. A large cross was raised at the back of this altar, of equally precious workmanship.
• In Alfred's reign, Grimbald erected the ancient church of St. Peter at Oxford, and also the cathedral church at Win chester, at both which places, remains of his work are still supposed to exist. It is not improbable that some portions of Oxford cathedral are his work. It has been supposed that Grimbald was the first architect in this country who raised an arched roof, such as is to be seen at St. Peter's, Oxford, and at Winchester, in the crypts of those churches. But it is plain from Aleuin's account of the church built by him and Eanbald at York, one hundred years earlier, that that church had an arched roof The cathedral at Durham was erected by Aldham, A.D. 995, and here also, as at York and other places, a temporary church of timber was first erected, in which service was performed during the erection of the larger stone edifice. St. Dunstan was a great builder and restorer of churches and monasteries, and it is related, that during his episcopate, no less than forty monasteries were built or restored, amongst which may be mentioned the restoration of Ely, Peterborough, Tewkesbury, Malmesbury, Glastonbury, Evesham, Bath, and Abingdon ; as also the foundation of the new abbeys of Ramsey, Hunts; Tavistock and Milton Abbas, Devon ; and Cerne Abbas, Dorset.
Some idea of the number of churches erected during the Saxon period, will be formed, when we learn that, at the time of the Conquest, there were in Northamptonshire, where the forests were very extensive, and consequently but a small proportion of inhabitants, upwards of sixty village-churches, while the county-town contained eight or nine. In Derby shire, there were not less than fifty, and five at least in the county-town, and these are exclusive of monasteries and the churches belonging to them ; of which there were three or four in Northamptonshire, without reckoning Peter borough. In the town of Newark and the manor round it, including twelve or fourteen villages, were ten churches. In Lincolnshire, which was one of the most populous counties at this period, there were more than two hundred village churches, without reckoning those of Lincoln and Stamford, or the monastic establishments.
Having established this filet, we have next to ascertain as to the character and appearance of such buildings, and also as to the material and method of construction. An opinion has been entertained by many, and still obtains amongst some persons, that the Saxon churches were very mean buildings, of a temporary character, and mostly constructed only of timber. To a certain extent this is true ; many of their churches were certainly erected of timber, and were also mean in character when compared with those of a much later date; yet at the same time there can be no doubt, but that many, if not the majority, especially in the later part of the Saxon era, were constructed in a durable manner of stone, and were by no means so insignificant as some would have us to suppose. Many of the accounts left us by Saxon his torians, and some of those above quoted, would lead us to form a much higher opinion of such structures; and although we must receive the panegyrics of these 111C11 not without some modification, considering that they spoke of things as beautiful only in a comparative sense, and that the standard of their comparison was fixed only by their own churches; still, we must not cast them aside as utterly groundless, or wilfully exaggerated. If we may believe, as there is good evidence for believing, that some remains of these old Saxon foundations still exist in the crypts of some of our larger churches, we shall be induced to give more credit to the Saxon accounts, than many persons are inclined to yield them. That churches were at this period constructed of masonry, we suppose few would question, after reading the above accounts; for in many instances the fact is especially mentioned, and in one or two instances such buildings are spoken of, and contrasted with those of timber, as at the cathedral at York, built by king Edwin, and that at Durham, erected at a considerably later period by Aldham, in both which cases, the stone structure is especially mentioned as being a substitute for the original or temporary building of timber. It may strike the reader as perhaps somewhat strange, that timber churches should still be constructed at so late a period, when the method of building in masonry had been known and practised for three centuries. A sufficient expla nation of this apparent difficulty, is readily affordod in this particular instance, in the fact of the timber building being erected only for a temporary purpose, until the permanent edifice was ready for use. This inconsistency does, however, really exist in other cases, the one method of building did not cease, when the improved system had become established, but both were adopted in churches erected about the same period ; both being equally intended for permanent use: the explanation is thus given :— It is not indeed altogether to be wondered at, that in every age when society was thinly scattered over the fitee of the country, and the resources upon which ecclesiastical archi tecture depended, proceeded chiefly from the bounty of indi viduals, many churches not designed for a temporary pur pose, would be constructed of materials so ordinary and so cheap ; but we have other and more satisfactory reasons given by Saxon historians for this fact. These writers distinguish the two methods of building under the two terms opus Scoticum, and opus Romanum, the former referring to the more fragile structures, which were composed of split oak, and the latter to the more durable erections of stone.