GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

LES. IV.-CASTLES AND ABBEYS OF FEUDAL TIMES.

1. Double semicircular Saxon-Norman arch, from window of St. Alban's Abbey, A.D. 1100. 2. Double lancet-pointed arch, from window of Salisbury Cathedral, A.D. 1260. 3. Window of Exeter Cathedral, compound ogee arch, with compound-curve tracery, A.D. 1400. The figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, show the gradual advance from the simple to the more elaborate forms exhibited in the spires of Gothic edifices.

1.

ENRAPTURED have I loved to roam,

A lingering votary, 'neath vaulted dome,

Where the tall shafts, that mount in massy pride,
Their mingling branches shoot from side to side;
Where elfin' sculptors, with fantastic clew,2
O'er the long roof their wild embroidery drew;
Where superstition, with capricious hand,
In many a maze the wreathed window plann'd,
With hues romantic tinged the gorgeous pane,
To fill with holy light the wondrous fane. 3
Long have I loved to catch the simple chime
Of minstrel harps, and spell the fabling rhyme;
To view the festive rites, the knightly play,
That deck'd heroic Albion's elder day;
To mark the mouldering halls of barons bold,
And the rough castles, cast in giant mould;
With Gothic manners Gothic arts explore,

And muse on the magnificence of yore.-WARTON.

3. The castles and abbeys of feudal times, which were chiefly of Gothic architecture, with either rounded or pointed arches, pointed spires, and massive walls, enter so much into the

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modern history and literature of Europe, that every student must have connected with them, through his varied reading, associations of lively interest. It is true that their graver history-in the times "when might made right"-when turbulence and faction were in the ascendant-presents frequent scenes of tyranny and injustice; but with these, as a glad relief, are associated a thousand pleasing and faithful pictures of social life.

4. It was in the Gothic palaces, castles, abbeys, halls, and manor-houses of England especially, our mother country, that both religious festivals and feats of chivalry were celebrated in all their splendor. It was there that the noble host collected around him his friends and retainers; that the walls were hung with banners; that steel-clad warders paced the battlements; that the sound of the horn summoned the guests from the "joust" or the chase; and that the "wandering harper" sang those romantic and heroic ballads at which the young caught fire, and the old threw aside the weight of years. An English writer, who has prepared a richly-illustrated work on "The Castles and Abbeys of England," thus speaks of these "fixed landmarks in England's history:"

5. "We linger in the feudal court, and muse in the deserted sanctuary, with emotions which we can hardly define: in the one our patriotism gathers strength and decision; in the other, that piety, of which it is the outward evidence, sheds a warmer influence on the heart. We traverse the apartments that once contained the noble founders of our national freedom, the venerable and intrepid champions of our faith, the revered fathers of our literature, with a feeling which amounts to almost devotion. We turn aside to the mouldering gates of our ancestors as a pilgrim turns to some favorite shrine; to those ruins which were the cradles of liberty, the residence of men illustrious for their deeds, the strong-hold and sanctuary of their domestic virtues and affections.

6. "The mutilated altars of our religion, the crumbling sepulchres of our forefathers, are pregnant with an interest which no other source can afford. In these venerable remains, the visible stamp of sanctity still clings to the threshold; we tread the ground with a soft, silent step, overawed by the solemnity of the scene; we feel that although the sacred fire is extinguished on the altar, the hallelujahs hushed in the choir, the priest and penitent gone forever-we feel that the presence of a divinity still hallows the spot; that the wings of the presiding cherubim are still extended over the altar.

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7. "But, turning from the cloistered abbey to the castellated fortress of antiquity, a new train of associations springs up. The vaulted gateway, the rudely sculptured shield, the heavy portcullis, and massive towers, all contrast forcibly with the scenes we have just left, but present to the mind's eye a no less faithful picture of feudal times. It was from these towers that the flower of English chivalry went forth under the banner of the Crosscarried the terror of their arms to the gates of Jerusalem, and earned those

glorious 'badges' which are now the proud distinction of their respective houses.

8. "In a survey of these primitive strong-holds, these rude citadels of our national faith and honor, every feature is invested with traditionary interest. They are intimately associated with our native literature, civil and sacred; with history, poetry, painting, and the drama; with local tradition, and legendary and antiquarian lore."-WILLIAM BEATTIE, M.D.

9. Gothic architecture in England has passed through several gradations or stages, which very truly mark the successive historical eras. Thus, in the Abbey of St. Alban's may still be seen remains of the ancient Saxon, with its ponderous columns and broad semicircular arches.

In Saxon strength that abbey frown'd,
With massive arches, broad and round,
That rose alternate, row on row,

On ponderous columns short and low.-SCOTT.

10. Yet in this very same structure the Norman style— which gives to the arch its first slight tendency toward a pointed appearance, introducing a rudely foliated capital and a moulded base, and clustered and lighter columns, but still rejecting the pointed spires of the later Gothic-is introduced upon a Saxon basis, new and lighter arches having been thrown in, and the massive clustered pillars having been evidently chiseled, at vast labor and expense, out of the original Saxon, thus ingrafting the new style upon the primitive stock. Thus the old Saxon abbey becomes a fine specimen of the more modern Norman-Gothic.

11.

"Bold is the abbey's front, and plain;
The walls no shrinèd saint sustain,
Nor tower nor airy pinnet8 crown;

But broadly sweeps the Norman arch
Where once in brighten'd shadow shone
King Offa9 on his pilgrim-march,
And proudly points the moulder'd stone
Of the high vaulted porch beneath,
Where Norman beauty hangs a wreath
Of simple elegance and grace:

Where slender columns guard the space
On every side, in cluster'd row,

The triple arch through arch disclose,
And lightly o'er the vaulting throw

The thwart-rib and the fretted rose."

12. The great western entrance of this celebreted abbey, which consists of a projecting porch elaborately ornamented, niched, and pillared, and subdivided into numerous compartments, shows a varied mingling of the styles of different ages.

"Beside this porch, on either hand,
Giant buttresses darkly stand,
And still their silent vanguard hold
For bleeding knights laid here of old;
And Mercian Offa and his queen
The portals guard and grace are seen.
This western front shows various style,
Less ancient than the central pile.

It seems some shade of parted years
Left watching o'er the mouldering dead,
Who here for pious Henry bled,

And here, beneath the wide-stretch'd ground
Of nave,10 of choir, 11 of chapels round,
Forever-ever rest the head." 12

13. In the engraving at the head of this lesson are represented the different eras of Gothic architecture in England, by references to the windows of Gothic edifices of different periods exhibiting a gradual progress from the broad and plain semicircular Saxon-Norman style to the pointed and ogee13 arches, compound curves, and beautiful flowing tracery of later times. It is to this latter style of tracery that Scott so beautifully refers, in his description of Melrose Abbey:

14.

"The moon on the east oriel 14 shone

Through slender shafts of shapely stone

By foliaged tracery combined;

Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand
'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand

In many a freakish knot had twined;

Then framed a spell when the work was done,
And turn'd the willow wreaths to stone."

15. It is pleasant to linger over these monumental relics, with which is associated so much of the history, literature, and religion of modern times. But, while they speak of the past, they also convey, in their broken arches and mouldering columns, the same lesson that is taught by older ruins of a pagan age-that this is a "fleeting world," and that the proudest monuments which man can raise are doomed to crumble beneath the touch of time.

16.

When yonder broken arch was whole,
'Twas there was dealt the weekly dole: 15
And where yon mouldering columns nod,
The abbey sent the hymn to God.

So fleets the world's uncertain span;
Nor zeal for God, nor love to man,
Gives mortal monuments a date

Beyond the power of time and fate.

The towers must share the builder's doom;
Ruin is theirs, and his a tomb:

But better boon benignant heaven

To faith and charity has given,

And bids the Christian hope sublime

Transcend the bounds of fate and time.--SCOTT.

1 ELF-IN, pertaining to elves or fairies.

2 CLEW, thread used in the embroidery.

3 FANE, a temple; a church.

4 AL-BI-ON, here used for England. JOUST (just), a tilt; a tournament.

6 PORT-CUL'-LIS, a frame armed with iron over a gateway, to be let down for defense.

7 FO'-LI-A-TED, in the form of leaves. PIN-NET, for pinnacle.

110 NAVE, the middle of a church.

11 CHOIR (kwire), the part of a church appropriated to the singers. In most modern churches the singers are placed in certain seats in the galleries.

12 The bones of the British martyr, St. Albanus, are said to have been deposited in a gorgeous shrine within the walls of the abbey.

13 O-GEE', a moulding somewhat like the letter S.

9 The Saxon Offa, king of the Mercians, the supposed founder of the Abbey of St. Al-14 ban's, lived near the close of the eighth century.

O'-RI-EL, a bay-window, or curved window projecting outward.

15 DOLE, a gift; a pittance.

1. THE senses make the first demand in almost every path in human life. The necessity of shelter from the cold and heat, from sun and shower, leads man at first to build a habitation.

2. What this habitation shall be depends partly on the habits of the man, partly on the climate in which he lives. If he is a shepherd, and leads a wandering life, he pitches a tent. If he is a hunter, he builds a rude hut of logs or skins. If he is a tiller of the soil, he constructs a dwelling of timber or stones, or lodges in the caverns of the rocky hill sides.

3. As a mere animal, man's first necessity is to provide a shelter; and, as he is not governed by the constructive instinct of other animals, the clumsiest form which secures him against the inclemency of the seasons often appears sufficient; there is scarcely any design apparent in its arrangement, and the smallest amount of convenience is found in its interior. This is the first primitive or savage idea of building.

4. Let us look a step higher in the scale of improvement. On the eastern borders of Europe is a tribe or nation called the Croats, who may be said to be only upon the verge of civilization. They lead a rude forest and agricultural life.