HISTORICAL NOTICES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF CHRISTIAN Second Class.-ANGLO-SAXON SPECIMENS. EARL'S-BARTON AND BARTON-UPON-HUMBER.—NO. iv. To the Editor of the British Magazine. SIR,-The preceding accounts and illustrations of the churches of Brixworth, Leicester, and Dover, are calculated to shew that the Anglo-Romans, or the Romanized-Britons, professed and practised the Christian religion, and raised temples for its disciples in this country. After the Romans left the British Islands, we may conclude that many of the native inhabitants remained, and that they continued in the same occupations, and pursued the same religious rites which had been taught them by their conquerors. Instead of advancing in civilization and the arts of life, we are induced to believe, that from the secession of the Romans, about A.D. 440, to the time of the Norman Conquest, A.D. 1066, more than six hundred years, the whole population of Britain were distracted and barbarized by domestic and foreign warfare, and consequently became deteriorated in manners, customs, and national character. During this period, however, St. Augustine and other Christian missionaries from the apostolic See of Rome settled in this country, formed congregations, and built churches. Respecting the architectural characteristics of these, antiquaries differ in opinion; some contending that the Anglo-Saxons raised large and ornamented buildings, while others assert that all their churches were small, plain, and rude. Mr. Turner, in his valuable "History of the AngloSaxons," says, "that they had some sort of architecture in use before they invaded Britain, cannot be doubted, if we recollect that every other circumstance about them attests that they were by no means in the state of absolute barbarism. They lived in edifices, and worshipped in temples, raised by their own skill. The temple which Charlemagne destroyed at Eresberg in the eighth century, is described in terms which imply at least greatness." It may be fairly inferred from the authority of Bede, Eddius, &c., that they had some churches of magnitude in England in the eighth and ninth centuries; but they were few in number. Small churches, and those of rude workmanship and fragile materials, seem rather to belong to the period and people alluded to. Cressy ("Church History of Britanny") says, that a church of "wicker-work" was formed at Glastonbury at a very early period; and Fuller describes it as being sixty feet in length by twenty-six in breadth, and made of rods wattled or interwoven." Spelman ("Concilia") and Sammes ("Britannia Antiqua”) have given views (imaginary) of it. The Saxon Chronicle apprizes us that King Edwin ordered a church to be built of VOL. V-March, 1834. 2 N 270 HISTORICAL NOTICES ETC. OF CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE. timber at York, in the year 626, which it is further related was afterwards newly built with stone. (Bede's Eccles. Hist. b. ii. ch. xiv.) In 669 King Egbert gave Reculver, in Kent, to Bass, a mass-priest, to build a minster upon. (See Ingram's "Saxon Chronicle.") A church of timber was constructed about the year 635 in the island of Lindisfarne, by Bishop Finan, and it is described as being formed of oak planks, and thatched with reeds, "according to the custom of the Scots." (See Bede, ut supra.) William of Malmsbury mentions a church or chapel of wood as standing in his time in the village of Doultinge, in Somersetshire, and says that the monks of Glastonbury rebuilt it with stone. Spelman (" Posthumous Works," fol., 1747, p. 189) notices wooden churches at Sharnham and Elmham, in Norfolk. Somner, Daniel, Warton, and others generally represent the Saxon churches as having been originally made of timber, and being "otherwise of very mean construction." Bentham, on the contrary, asserts, that they were "generally built of stone, and not only so, but that they had pillars and arches, and some of them vaultings of stone, there is sufficient testimony from authentic history, and the undoubted remains of them at this time" (Hist. of Ely, ed. 1812, p. 17). This is bold and peremptory language, and such as does not appear to be justified by the researches and conclusions of antiquaries, since the historian of Ely Cathedral produced his valuable work. It would be interesting to pursue the inquiry into the forms, sizes, and peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon churches; but as it would necessarily extend to a length, perhaps, beyond the usual space allotted to essays of this kind in the present Magazine, I must confine myself to a brief account of the two singular towers, represented in the accompanying engraving. * The Church Towers of Earl's-Barton, Northamptonshire, and Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, are evidently the workmanship of unskilful men, who, we may also presume, were the architects. They seem to bear such affinity to each other in design and details, that we may fairly refer them to the same age, the same class of people, and even to the same builder. The names of the parishes seem to imply some connexion; although Barton is a common Saxon word, for farm, or a portion of a farm. The disposition and arrangement of the larger blocks of stones in both these towers appear to justify the opinion that they are imitative of timber buildings, and that they were constructed by carpenters, rather than by masons. Long thin pieces of stone, placed in perpendicular, oblique, and horizontal positions-arched apertures, formed by two stones, placed at angles to, and resting against Those readers who may be desirous of further information on the subject of the first churches of England, and on the progress of Christian Architecture, are referred to the fifth volume of "The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain,” p. 117, et seq. each other, and others formed by a single stone laid on two uprights, and cut through in the form of an arch. In the jambs of the door-way, formed by large pieces of upright stones, are some of the peculiar features and parts of these towers. The pillars of the belfry windows of Earl's-Barton are as wholly unlike any columns of the classical orders of architecture, as they are of any genuine examples of the Norman, and first-pointed classes. Their lower and upper parts are small, whilst the centre extends even wider than the base or the capital. Near the centre is a band, or fillet, as if intended to compress the swollen part. In the belfry of the Abbey Church of St. Alban's are several varieties of columns, some of which resemble those of Earl's-Barton. Wanting documentary evidence on such subjects, we must seek for that of another kind, and shall derive some clue and assistance from drawings of architectural members in certain manuscripts of acknowledged Saxon origin. In the British Museum, and in the library of Salisbury Cathedral, are manuscripts, with pen drawings, by Anglo-Saxon scribes, in which the triangular arch, and columns resembling balusters, with two or three bands, are represented, and seem to be rude delineations of architectural members, very similar to those in the towers here delineated. These towers have every appearance of being much older than the churches to which they are attached, and some parts of the latter are undoubtedly the designs of Norman architects. Comparing the western door-way of Earls-Barton tower, with the door-way within the south porch, we instantly see the rudeness and very remote age of the former, and the symmetry and enriched execution of the latter. One appears to be the workmanship of an uneducated carpenter-the other of an artist and an artisan. February 17, 1834. J. B. DEVOTIONAL. PRAYERS FROM HENRY VIII's PRIMER, PRINTED 1546. A Prayer against Pride and Unchasteness. THOU, Lord, Father, and God of my life, let me not use proudly to look, but turn away from me all filthy desires. Take from me the lusts of the body, let not the desires of uncleanliness take hold upon me, and give me not over to an unshamefast and obstinate mind. Amen. A General Confession of Sins unto God. O most merciful Lord God, and most tender and dear Father, vouchsafe, I heartily beseech thee, to look down with thy fatherly eyes of |