The foundations of Salisbury cathedral were laid 4th May 1220. The cast part, with the first transept, were completed in four years, when the three altars were dedi cated by Bishop Poore. The rest of the building was proceeded with during his pontificate ; and those of Ro bert Bingham, and William of York, and the whole was completed in 1258 under Bishop Bridport, when it was dedicated by Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, in pre sence of the king. The external decorations were not finished till two years afterwards. The chapter-house, cloisters, muniment house, &c. were carrying on for ten years afterwards.
The following are the points in which Amiens and Salisbury agree. In the highly pointed arches struck from two centres, and including an equilateral triangle between the imposts and crown of the arch. The lan cet windows, and Purbeck marble pillars, very slender and round, encompassed by marble. Shafts a little de tached, and a profusion of little columns of the same stone in the ornamental parts of the building. The arches or vaultings of the aisles are similar to those of Salisbury and Westminster ; the west part is covered with small columns, and the lancet-shaped arch is employed to crown the semicircular colonnade at the east end of the choir. The vaulting is like that at Salisbury, high, pitched between the arches and cross springers, without any fur ther decoration.
The following are the points in which Amiens differs from Salisbury.
1. In the disposition of the aisles with the transepts ; double aisles on each side of the choir, with the fine semi circular colonnade at the end of it ; in the number of co lumns presented in every point of view.
2. In the proportions, especially the loftiness of the pillars belonging to the arches.
3. In the west front, portal, and display of statuary, in its armies of prophets, martyrs, and angels, which line the doorways, crowd the walls, and swarm round the pin nacles. If Salisbury has the advantage of lightness, it is to be observed, that not lightness, but richness, was in variably the chief object in this part of the edifice.
4. At Salisbury, Lincoln, and York, the arch buttress es were concealed in the roof of the side aisles, so late as the end of the 12th century. At Amiens, the profusion of perforations and decorations renders them strikingly ornamental.
5. But the chief difference is in the size and magni ficence of the windows. In Salisbury, the long, narrow, sharp-pointed window, generally decorated both inside and outside with small shafts, often combined together and surmounted by a rose, are every where employed. In Amiens there are two tiers of windows, each divided by three perpendicular mullions, surmounted by the same number of roses; those at the cast end have five mullions, and arc crowned by a pediment, ornamented with a tre foil. Three circular or rose windows enrich the tran
septs and west front. The whole cathedral is so light, that, excepting the west front, scarcely any wall is visible. Internally there is no row of open arcades between the arches of the naves and upper tier of windows, as in our cathedrals. The whole is much lighter, and more ele gant than either Salisbury or Westminster, and proves, that France had made earlier progress in various com binations of Gothic ornaments than England.
Having given the substance of what Mr Whittington has, with so much ingenuity, observed respecting the Gothic architecture of France, we shall now, in the same cursory manner, introduce the sentiments advanced so ably by Dr Milner in favour of England.
Dr Milner sets out by stating, that he means to prove, 1. That the whole style of pointed architecture, with all its members, grew by degrees out of the single pointed arch, between the latter end of the 12th and early part of the 14th century. 2. That the pointed arch was dis covered from observing intersecting semicircular arches, with which the architects of the latter end of the 12th century decorated their edifices. And, '3. That both these discoveries were made and perfLted by the Anglo Normans and the English.
He establishes three orders in the pointed style, quite as distinct as the Grecian architecture in their several members and proportions ; and states, that the essential characteristics consist in the degree of angle of the point ed arch.
The first order, has very sharp-pointed arches, with pillars and mouldings very heavy and nearly Norman, as found in the cast end of Canterbury cathedral, where there are also pillars composed of quarter co lumns united ; the plan resembling the figure 8, which is probably the first attempt at clustered columns. Here, as was formerly the general case, the east end was circular, and the bishop's throne and stalls for the clergy, were at the hack of the altar, till about the beginning of the century, when the large east windows were introduced in a straight line, and the altars plaCed tinder them. Al though Gervasc was a monk of Canterbury, and an eye witness of the works carried on, yet, in describing what was done, he never intimates that any part of the style was brought from Syria, Arabia, France, Spain, or Italy, but attributes the merit to the architects employed, both of the name of Williams.