Architecture And Archæology.

present clay ; for that place surpasses the monasteries in England " ( B . ii . c . 11 ) . This relates to Bury Sfc . Edmunds , in Suffolk , of ivhich I shall have more to say when ifc was rebuilt , about lift } ' years afterwards . A . D . 1041 , the church of Stow , in Lincolnshire , was founded by Leofric , Earl of Hereford , and his wife Grodiva . There are considerable remains of the church of this period ,

consisting of the lower parfc of the walls of the transepts , and of the arches of the central tower . The walls have been raised and the arches rebuilt . Tho church has been much altered at different times . The nave is early Norman , only a few years later than the earliest part , ancl ivas probably executed about 1091 , when fche establishment had been changed from secular priests or canons to regular monks of

the Benedictine order , and ivas richly endowed . This monastic establishment was removed to Ensham , in Oxfordshire , in 1109 , and the estate of Stow was annexed to tho soe of Lincoln . A . D . 1056 , a church or chapel was built at Deerhurst , hi Gloucestershire , by Earl Odda . In the year 1675 , a stone was dug up in an orchard near

fche present church , on the sits ofthe church which has long been destroyed , with an inscription commemorative of fche dedication . It is now preserved among the Arundel marbles at Oxford , viz : —

" Odda dnx jussit hanc regism anlam construi atque declicari in honore- Sanctis Trinitatis pro aninia germani sui Elfrici , que de hoc loco asuiiipfca , Ealdredus vero epis copus qui eandeni dedicavit iij . Idibus Aprilis , xiiii autem anno S . regni Eadivardi regis Aiiglorum . ' From the forms of the letters , ancl also from the letter S , indicating sancti , placed before regni , which ivould not have been saicl had King Edward the Confessor boon alive , it is

evident thafc this inscription is of a later date than the event to which it refers ; but as all the circumstances therein mentioned aro correct , its authority cannofc bo doubted , and tho inscription is not later than the end of fche eleventh century . Odda who AA-as also named Agelwin , according to the Saxon Chronicle ( ed . Dr . Ingrain , p . 232 ) , " was . appointed Earl over Devonshire , and over Somerset , and over Dorsetand

, over tho Welsh , " in 1051 . The Prioiy of Deerhurst was given by Edward tho Confessor to the Abbey of St . Denis , at Paris , and the grant was confirmed by William the Conqueror in 1069 . The same authority ( p . 247 ) , informs us that , " in 1056 , died Odda the carl , and his "bod y lies at Pershore , and he was ordained a monk before his end : and a good man he was

, and pure , and right noble . And ho died on the second of the Kalends of September " ( i . e ., the 31 st of August ) . Florence of "Worcester , who gives a high character of Odda , says thafc " ho was a loi'cr of churches , " and adds thafc " he died afc Deerhurst , and that ho received the monastic habit

at the hands of Bishop Ealdred a short time before his death ; " so thafc ifc was probably on that occasion that the church was built . We learn also from the same writer , that Alfric , Odda ' s brother , died afc Deerhursfc on the 22 nd of December , 1053 , so that this place was probably the residence of the family . All the details of this tower agree with the stylo called

Anglo-Saxon ; the proportions are loftj-and comparatively slender ; the door-ivays are small and plain , with the usual clumsy imposts ; tho lower AidndoAV is of tAvo lights with the triangular heads , divided by a strip of wall , on the face of which is a fluted pilaster . The upper part has been altered , and a spire AA-as bloAvn doAvn in 1666 . We are told bIngnlhus that tho village of Barnacle

y p , Northants , was ravaged ancl laid waste , ivith tho ivholc of the neighbourhood , lay the Danes in 1013 , and that ifc lay desolate until 104-8 , when , after a long laiv-snifc , ifc was recovered by SiAvard , Earl of Northumberland , and by his son Waltheof , Earl of Northampton , it Avas given to tlie Abbej * of Croyland . Ifc appears to mo to have been rebuilt at that time ; the work appears of the middle of the eleventh

century , corresponding Avith Deerhursfc , and others . The sculpture is of tho thirteenth century ; part of the same work is the spire which is builfc upon tho old toAver . About 1060 Avas rebuilt the church of Kirkdalc , in Eyehole , Yorkshire , as wo learn from the curious Danish inscription still preserved over the south door , Avhich may be translated

— " Orm , son of G-amal , bought St . Gregory ' s Church , when it ivas all ruined and fallen down , and he caused ifc to be made new from the ground to Christ and St . Gregory , in Edward ' s clay ' s , fche King , and in Tosti's days , fche Earl . Tosti Avas Earl of Northumberland from 1055 to 1065 . Orm ivas murdered by Earl Tosti ' s order in 1064 " "As this inscrition has been removed from its original place

p , is now no evidence of itself as to what parfc of the church is Saxon hufc as the western door , now otopped , and the arch to the chancel , are both of them very rude , though in some degree resembling . Norman , they may on a careful examination of them be considered portions of the old building , " according to Mr . Kiokman .

In Oxford , the only building supposed to be Saxon is the tower of St . Michael ' s Church , in the corn-market : this has many of the features considered as characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon style , balusters in the belfry windows , a rudo doorivay with clumsy imposts , on the Avest side , blocked upeffectively on the outside , but distinctly visible within , and a rude single-light windoiv over it , placed in the middle of

the very thick rubble Avail . Still this toAver is so nearly of the same character as the toiver of Oxford Castle , which Ave knoiv to have been builfc by Robert D'Oiley , in the time of William Eufus , that I cannot believe Sfc . Michael ' s Toiver to be any earlier than the time of the Conqueror . Both are built of rubble , and both of these towers batter considerably ; that isthey arc larger at the base than at the top , and fche

, walls slope gently upAvards . St . Michael's Toiver ivas close to the North gate of the city , and probably formed part of the fortifications of tho time of the Conqueror . Ifc is mentioned in tho Domesday survey , but that , we are all aivare , was not made until late in tho reign of the Conqueror , being finished only in the year before bis death . Having now supplied all tho historical particulars that I

have been able to collect respecting buildings in England before the period of the Norman Conquest , something remains to bo said respecting the other buildings closely resembling those whose dates Ave have ascertained by historical evidence . Wo know that , from that time to the present , a particular fashion of building seldom lasted more than half a century ,

if so long ; a continual change of style AVas going on . Each noiv generation seems to have required a new style , and to haA'e considered tho buildings of their fathers as oldfashioned and ugly . This seems to be a rule of human nature , and there is no reason to suppose that it did not

apply before tho Conquest as well as after . Wherever we find the same mode of construction , and tho same style of ornament used , we may be protty certain that the buildings aro of the same age , or that there are nofc many years between them . We havo noiv ascertained that some of the best examples * of this style belong to the eleventh century . The celebrated

manuscript of Coedman , in the Bodleian library , tho illuminations of Avhich afford rudo drawings of buildings of this ; class , and have been much relied on as an authority , is alsoa MS . of the llth century , probably of about 1020 , accordiug to Mr . Coxe , whoso opinion is high authority . AVith a few exceptions of very rude work , ive have not boon able to fix an earlier date on any of these buildings .

About a hundred churches or towers of this character have been observed , and described in various parts of the country , and nearly the whole of them may fairly be ascribed to the llth century . The next question is Avhether all of them are before the ( Norman Conquest , and whether that Conquest produced any immediate change of style . I am inclined to think not . Architecture in general is little influenced b y

the political circumstances of the country . An enlightened ruler may have assisted in setting the fashion , or introducing improvements , but in general the intercourse of the people with others , tho opportunities that they had of seeing the changes and improvements ivhich were going on elsewhere , had much more to clo wifch the progress of architecture than the Avill of tho nil ing poiver .

The intercourseAvithNormandy began before the Conquest . Ifc is distinctly recorded that Edward the Confessor built Westminster Abbey in the Norman st yle , and the existing remains bear out the fact . But it is very rude and early Norman , ancl only one stop in advance of such Anglo-Saxon buildings as Deerhurst ; and , although after the Conquest ,