That the church at Brixworth, in Northamptonshire— which is one of the most perfect specimens of this kind of building—is of an age anterior to the Conquest, we have many proofs. Mr. Britton judges it to be a building of the time when the Romans were in possession of the island, after the Britons were converted. It is evident, from Dooms day book, that it was in existence at that time ; and in Le land's Colleetanea we may trace it to the time of Cuthhald, the second abbot of Medeshamsted, afterwards called Peter borough, who was contemporary with Wulphere, king of Mercia, who died in 60. The building is almost entirely formed of Roman bricks; it has, at its western end, in addition to the square tower, a round one, containing a newell staircase. In its original form, it appears to have consisted of a spacious nave and narrow aisles, a large chan cel, and a western tower, with a clerestory to the nave, and the chancel divided from it by a large arch. The construc tion of this church is particularly curious, the walls being mostly built with rough red-stone rag, in pieces not much larger than common bricks ; and all the arches turned, and most of them covered with courses of bricks, or tiles, as they may be called. The original doors and windows have all round arches ; but many additions have been made in more recent ages.
Further proof in favour of such work belonging to the Saxon age, is to be observed in the similarity which exists between the details of such buildings and those found in the illuminated Saxon manuscripts, where representations of buildings are introduced. In the illuminations in the para phrase of Gedmon, of which the date is supposed to be about A. D. 1000, are various representations of architectural details ; and amongst these are specimens of long and short work, semicircular and triangular arches, graduated imposts or capitals, low pyramidal roofs to towers, and the well-known balutter-shafts.
Putting all this evidence together, we think there can re main little doubt but that the particular style in which many of our existing churches, or portions of churches, have been erected, is nothing else than decided Saxon.
It is now time that we give some description of the archi tectural peculiarities of this style; such description will be necessarily short and imperfect, on account of the compara tive paucity of the remains, and the uncertainty respecting them. Time general character is extreme rudeness of con struction, and almost total absence of ornament ; the work manship, at the same time, being rough and unfinished.
The masonry consists of rubble or rag•stone, rudely piled together, and often rendered on the exterior with a coating of plaster. The angles are bonded together with quoins of ashlar-work, arranged in a peculiar manner, and termed long and short work. They are composed of stones of two dif ferent lengths, placed alternately one above another—first a short one, then a long one, and so on; or, in other words, of stones laid alternately flat and upright on the edge, the flat ones exceeding in horizontal dimensions, the upright in vertical ; the latter, however, are usually of greater dimen sions in the height than the former in width. We frequently
find, also, projecting a little from the general face of the ma sonry, narrow square-edged strips of ashlar, carried up ver tically from bottom to top of the walls, and consisting gene rally of long and short pieces of stone placed alternately. Not unfrequently strips of stone of a precisely similar cha racter were carried horizontally along the walls, after the manner of a string-course, especially in towers, where they arc employed to divide the height into different stories; they also serve for the upright strips to terminate against both at top and bottom. The vertical strips bear some resemblance to pilasters. By some persons this arrangement is said to be in imitation of timber-construction ; but, for our own part, we think it bears a much closer likeness to the pilaster strip work so common in the Lombardia structures of the con tinent. So remarkable, indeed, is this resemblance, that we consider it almost sufficient evidence of itself; to prove that such buildings have been erected in imitation of the conti nental ones. See LOMBARDI C ARCHITECTURE. In many cases, the walls are so covered with this strip-work as to be divided by them into a number of panels. Sometimes, as in the tower of Earls Barton church, we have them arranged after a kind of ornamental design, in diamonds, semicirefes, &c. Occasionally, in all probability, work of this kind is hidden from view by the rendering of plaster on the walls.
Roman bricks are frequently fiund worked up in walls of Saxon masonry, but, as we have sail bethre. without any regularity or arrangement. Herring-bone masonry, which consists of stones or bricks laid at opdosite inclinations in alternate courses, is also to be found in Saxon-work ; but it is not peculiar to it, being also found in both Roman and Norman walls.
The arches in this style were either semicircular or trian gular, it' the latter can be properly styled arches, which consist merely of two long stones resting on imposts, and inclined towards each other till they meet, and abut against each other at the apex. The semicircular form is, however, by far the more common of the two; it is usually quite plain, having only a single soffit, without any recess or sub-arch : not unf•equently arches of this kind receive somewhat of a finish by the addition of a hood-mould, corn posed of square edged strip-work, projecting a few inches from the surface of the wall : it follows the shape of the arch, and is either termi nated by the impost, or continued down to the ground. Occa sionally we find arches recessed, or having a sub-arch, as at Bishophill, York ; but this is probably of late date, although truly Saxon, as is evident from the square-edged strip forming a hood-mould, as just described : rarely, also, the arch is enriched with bold roll-niouldings on the face or soffit, or on both, as at Wittering church, Northamptonshire ; and these are sometimes continued down the impost to the ground.