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Removal of the Screen at York Minster.

1831.]

masterly production, written with gentlemanly feeling, and polished with the finest taste. The inaccuracies, the contradictions, the omissions, and all the various blunderings of the ardent Innovator, are enforced with peculiar felicity. We give the following specimens. We are told that "the pillars of the tower were immured about one hundred years after they were built in a cross wall 15 feet in thickness" (including, therefore, the porch,) which forms the western screen of the choir;" and next,

are

that the porch and staircases were of later erection than the western wall" (the part now remaining), "which is only about three feet thick." Again (p. 9 and 49), it is said, by way of apology for the artist who erected the screen, that he placed it where he did, to enlarge the capacity of the organ loft; which clearly implies that the western wall, the staircases, and the internal masonry, are coeval. But in p. 13, we told that "one hundred years after the choir was built, a new screen is put up on the west, and some time afterwards swells to a thickness of 15 feet!" Davus sum, non Edipus.' I believe no workman who examines the screen, will find any difficulty in accounting for the ashlar tooling or the square holes; or hesitate to pronounce the porch, which is bonded into the front wall, and all the internal masonry, to have been built at the same time with the ornamental façade.

"That the consent of the subscribers to the proposed removal of the organ-screen may be the more readily obtained, they are told that the original screen belonging to the choir, said to have been built by Archbishop Thoresby, did not stand where the present screen is placed; that the present screen, the work of no other artist than a statuary and a mason,' was set up a hundred years after the choir was furnished, to enlarge the capacity of the organ loft, by some Dean and Chapter, more solicitous for the accommodation of the choir than the architectural appearance of the church;' that it was thus foisted in between two of the finest pillars in the world, burying their bases, and one-third of their height, and covering what was originally designed to remain clear.'* The original screen is said to have been a wall, somewhat more than two feet in thickness, supporting a wooden screen; or a frame of enriched wood-work, covering the back of the western line of stalls, and about fifteen feet eastward of the front of the screen now standing. You will naturally ask what evidence there is of all this? and you may be surprised to learn that none has been produced. There is, indeed, a part of a wall still remaining, thirteen feet from

* Letter to Lord Milton, p. 7; 2d letter, pp. 8, 9, 59.

+ Letter to Lord Milton, p. 10.

131

the front of the present screen, originally covering the backs of the western line of the stalls; and which I have fully described in my former letter ; but not a single moulding appears on its surface, to indicate that it ever was an interior wall; not a vestige of its having been intended to support any carved wood-work. That this may have been designed, not only to support the stalls, but to serve as a temporary separation of the choir, I have already allowed; but, until documentary testimony be given, I cannot allow that this separation was meant to be permanent, or that any other line of separation than that formed by the present ill-treated screen, was in the view of the original architects of the choir. And of this I can produce something like proof. Among the very interesting discoveries which have been made by the removal of the inner work of the screen, and by the excavations of the choir, a wall more than five feet wide has been brought to light, extending east and west within the pillars on each side of the choir, composed of grit-stone, and indicating a structure probably anterior to the conquest. This wall reaches westward, on each side of the porch, to the back, at least, of that portion of the screen which is still remaining, and rises seven inches above the level of the present floor of the nave, or eleven inches above the level of the old pavement of the church. To make room for the moulded bases of the interior shafts of the eastern pillars of the tower, above eight inches of this ancient grit wall on both sides of the choir, have been cut away, and the spaces left between the wall, and the bases of the shafts of both pillars, as far as to the present screen, have been filled up, or as the workmen term it, grouted; so that not only have the moulded bases of a large portion of the pillars been buried, from the very period of their being erected, to the depth of about fifteen inches; but there never could have been a time when the space between the eastern pillars of the tower, in front of the supposed original screen, was on a level with the pavement of the tower. This space, therefore, must have been throughout elevated into steps, as within the present porch; (of which, however, not the slightest traces appeared under the rubbish' that has been removed;) or a temporary rood-loft was erected, occupying the whole area lately covered by the screen, so as to conceal the rude remains of this ancient wall.

"It requires only an inspection of the great pillars as they now stand, delivered from the rubbish in which they were buried,' in order to be fully satisfied that the burial of these fine bases was coeval with their formation; the barbarous act' of the original architect, and not of any tasteless Dean and Chapter, or any mere statuary or

"

Letter to the Subscribers, p. 25.

132

Removal of the Screen at York Minster.

mason of a subsequent age: and they cannot be exhumed by modern innovators, without destroying the uniform level of the floor of the church. We contemplate such bases with admiration and delight; but the choir of York Minster exhibits at this moment sufficient proof that the ancient architects did not scruple, when it served their purpose, to conceal those results of ingenuity and labour; since there is not a pillar, from the entrance to the choir to the eastern end of the crypt, the moulded bases of which have not been buried either by the walls of the prebendal stalls, or in the work of the more ancient church, on the remains of which the present church has been erected.

"The advocates for the removal of the organ-screen appear to fix their attention, and to direct the attention of the subscribers, exclusively upon one point, the effect to be produced upon the noble pillars of the tower. The effect on the choir does not seem to be considered as worthy of notice or inquiry. I cannot but suspect that the advocates for the removal have not themselves yet ventured to look attentively beyond this first step; and if so, no wonder that they do not invite or encourage the subscribers to look further. The Innovator tells Lord Milton he does not know whether the whole of the screen can be retained, or whether it must be retrenched;' and that he believes

he may safely assure him that the ancient crypt need not be disturbed;' in his second letter he barely promises the 'Subscriber' a still more admirable improvement' than the removal of the wooden altar by Kent. And Mr. Smirke, in his last report, declares he cannot, after the most attentive investigation, perceive what other changes in the fabric could be occasioned by such a removal, to justify the strong objections made by those who are opposed to the proposition. How much more satisfactory, how much more likely to disarm opposition, would it have been, if, instead of such vague and unmeaning assertions or opinions, the future plan of operations respecting the disposition of the choir had been distinctly and plainly stated."

Our knowledge of ancient architecture would enable us to give some information on the subject of the original Lady Chapel, which is supposed to have stood at one period on the north side of the nave; but we shall not now enter with the "Subscriber" on this question. It is sufficient to know that the existing Lady Chapel was fixed by Thoresby in the eastern part of his building, and it is to preserve this arrangement entire, and the position of the screen, that we and all the advocates for antiquity have both written and spoken.

Could Thoresby behold the struggle now
forward for tearing away and destroy-

[Feb.

ing the veil of his sanctuary, would he not call it an innovation, an heresy in Let the reecclesiastical architecture?

movers of the screen plead that it has been "foisted" in between the pillars of the lantern; that it formed no part of the Archbishop's plan; let them say that it wants just proportion, that its beauties are too florid and gorgeous, and that it was produced by the skill of a mere mason; let them insinuate even more; the prelate would reply that he could pardon all this, but to remove the Screen for the purpose of infringing upon the choir of his Church-this indeed would be a violation of principle he never could forgive. We should be glad to see the altar in its original position, and who would not rejoice to view in the space behind it, a noble cenotaph inscribed with the honoured names of MORRITT, MARKHAM, WELLBELOVED, STRICKLAND- and a still loftier cenotaph enriched with the names of those who, questioning their own judgment, nobly relinquished their object in deference to the general appeal to the integrity of antiquity?

We have heard that the zeal of the Innovator for the accomplishment of his fell purpose, for which he has laboured with industry (which, in a worthy cause, would have secured him fame and admiration), at length begins to abate; or rather that it has been checked by those influential persons who have hitherto seconded his destructive plans, solely in deference to the formidable host which their own pernicious schemes for the improvement of perfection has raised against them. We hope for the truth of this report, as an earnest that the admirable Screen will be suffered to remain where it is, and where it was posited by those who were far better judges than ourselves of the situation proper for it. We despise Mr. Rickman's half measure no less than Mr. Vernon's bold innovation: he is "willing to Let Mr. wound, but yet afraid to fight." Rickman do what he pleases in a church of his own creation, but he must learn to respect those great and grand works of antiquity, of which York Minster is the chief, from which he has acquired all that he knows of what he deems" Gothic" architecture. If we may sometimes question (which we may not do with respect to the arrangement of the choir screen at York) the taste of the ancient architects, we can claim no right to destroy any part of the plans of their churches, on the bare pretence of giving to the building the full effect, as it is modestly termed, which the original architect intended, but failed, to produce. Mr. Vernon will merit the thanks of the public if he henceforth direct his attention to the "perfect restoration" of the choir, and be satisfied with the internal beauty of the Minster, which he may injure, but which he cannot improve.

1831.]

[133]

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Antiquarian Investigations in the Forest of Dartmoor, Devon. By Samuel Rowe, B.A. Member of the Plymouth Institution. 8vo. pp. 36.

DARTMOOR exhibits a very copious collection of British remains. These are here placed under one view by Mr. Rowe; and amidst very much to commend, we have only to regret that explanation has in one or two respects been sought by Major Smith from Helio-arkite and Welch works. All the antiquities in question occur both in Asia and America. If the Welch was the language of either of these quarters of the globe; if the Celts had been a Welch colony; if the cromlechs of Malabar, and the stone circles all over the earth, had been borrowed from Welch exemplars; if Bryant and his coadjutors could reconcile his Noachian theory with the worship of a cow's tail in Africa, indeed of any thing whatever, in the South Sea Islands and other savage countries, there might be some foundation for the mass of fable and silliness by which the Helio-arkites and Cambrians have spoiled British history. Druids still exist at Ceylon, Druidesses at Mount Caucasus, stone circles, rocking stones, avenues, &c. in North America,-the tolmen, as a cure for disease, is still resorted to upon the shores of the Red Sea. The Galla, who inhabit the interior of Abyssinia, treat a tree [the Wansey tree] as a god; venerate particular stones, and worship the Moon and some of the stars; the Hindoos have numerous Druidical customs. Other conformities might be adduced; and it is only from ignorance of ancient oriental superstitions and customs, that the Welch nursery trash has met with a different fate from that which it deserves. The truth is, that Druidism, if analysed, is nothing more than Sabaanism intermixed, in substantials, with other superstitions of different periods; it is the Baalism of Scripture; and the Phenicians not only communicated their customs, but also their very local appellations to the British language, e. g. crug or careg, a hill, is from the Phenician carac or crac; corn or kern, a horn, from koran;

caer, a city, from whence Carthago; Penn, the cliff of a hill, from Pinnah; and many others: of which see Sammes, p. 60. This author says (p. 59), that there are many places in these two counties, Cornwall and Devonshire, which retain exact footsteps of the Phenicians, that cannot be found any where else; and the number of places (to say nothing of the tin trade) beginning with the prefixes of Pen or Tre (from the Phenician tira, by contraction tra, a fort, to secure the tin trade,) sufficiently attests his hypothesis. As to the application of this passage to Dartmoor, we shall copy from Sammes, for the information of Mr. Rowe, preceding paragraphs in p. 59, because the local situation of Dartmoor is favourable to Phenician intercourse, and because the remains are only such as occur in other parts of the kingdom, and teach us from the locality to look for the primary introduction to that peninsula, to which spot, and not to Wales, the Greek and Roman geographers, from Herodotus to Ptolemy (through the tin trade), lead us :

"I will only (says Sammes) mention one thing in this peninsula, (Cornwall, &c.) which seems to me exactly to preserve its Phenician name, and this is a fortification of stones only, without any cement or mortar, lying as upon the Lake Leopole, a fortification after the manner of the Britains, as Tacitus describes them, 'Rudes et in

formes Saxorum compages,' which was the way of the eastern nations, as the Scriptures themselves inform us.

"This rude heap of stones the inhabitants call to this day Erth, without giving any reason for so ancient a rampier, and of so great a compass as it is, so that none can induce me to believe but that it took its name from the lake on which it lies, for the Phenicians called all lakes Arith, so that this military fence, called, as I have said, Erth, I believe from thence received its name."

The stone circles, logan-stones, cromlechs, cairns, and other common antiquities at Dartmoor, we shall not notice, because it would lead us into too wide a field of discussion. shall confine ourselves to the remains of British houses and trackways, which are rare subjects.

We

134 REVIEW.-Rowe's Antiquarian Investigations in Dartmoor. [Feb.

"The huts or dwellings of the ancient inhabitants are to be found in every part of Dartmoor, in a state generally very imperfect; the foundation stones and those forming the door-jambs being all that remain of these dwellings, with few exceptions. The huts are circular in the plan, but are at once distinguished from the sacred circle, as consisting of larger stones, placed with considerable intervals, so as in these the stones are set on their edge, and placed closely together, so as to form a secure foundation for the superstructure, whether that they were wattle (the junctæ cortice virge of Ovid), turf, stone, or other material. These vestiges strikingly illustrate the descriptions which Diodorus and Strabo give of the habitations of the Britons of their times. The former describes them as 'poor cottages constructed of wood, and covered with straw;' the latter, as wooden houses, circular in form, with lofty conical roofs.'"-p. 17.

The mischievous Sammes (to use a very homely figure) has attached a Phenician tin kettle to the tail of Welch archæology; and there has been more cry than wool about this school-boy trick,-than wool we say, for it is evident that the Greek and Roman geographers, and through them ourselves, have acquired an early knowledge of this island, only through the Phenician and Greek intercourse, ́on account of a metal necessary to attemper bronze. Our worthy countrymen are not aware that in their zeal for ances

try, they claim descent from the aboriginal Indians of Great Britain, many, perhaps all, of whom originally were naked and tattooed. Whatever pretensions such persons had to civilization must have been imported; and it is as ridiculous to suppose that the science and learning of the Druids were derived from our primary savages, as that the Australians and Otaheiteans have invented and used fire-arms and the mariner's compass.

To proceed with our extracts:

"The foundation slabs above-mentioned generally stand from eighteen to thirty inches above the surface. The door-jambs in most cases higher, placed nearly at right angles to the outline of the circle; in a very considerable proportion of examples the door faces the south. These hut circles measure from twelve to thirty feet in diameter; the most usual size being about twenty-six feet, though some are found much larger. The single foundation is most common, but some have a double circle.One very perfect specimen is found in the corner of a very remarkable inclosure, which

is divided by irregular lines of upright stones. The hut is in a state comparatively perfect, the upper part only having fallen in. It appears to have been shaped like a beehive, the walls being formed of large stones and turf, so placed as to terminate in a point. These huts have their counterparts still extant in the shealings of the Orkneys, some of which, composed of stone and turf, have the form of ovens or beehives; and others with a base or stone, consisting of two circles within each other, have a superstructure of fir or pine poles converging to a point, and covered with branches and heather. Both these kinds appear to have existed in Dartmoor. All these huts approach with greater or less accuracy to the circular form.

"With very few exceptions, these ancient dwellings are found in groups, either surrounded by rude inclosures, or unprovided with this protection. On the banks of the Walkham near Merivale bridge is a very extensive village, containing huts of various dimensions, built on a hill sloping towards the south-west. This village or town appears to have been of considerable importance, as there are found in it the avenue,

the cromlech, maen, aud sacred circle. In this, as in many other villages on the moor, regard seems to have been had to a supply of water in the immediate vicinity; and, generally speaking, preference appears to have been given to a south or south-western aspect."-p. 18.

It is noted by Capt. Head in his Life of Bruce (p. 229), concerning the houses of Abyssinia, that when they begin to appear with conical roofs, it is a sign that the rains of the country are violent. Climate is indeed the obvious cause of such roofs. It might too be shown that the Cyclopes of the Greeks, the Celts, and the Canaanites or Phenicians, expelled by Joshua, were one and the same race. The Treasury of Atreus at Mycenæ is of the beehive form, and there are other circular foundations. From this, however, we do not mean to infer more than the antiquity of the pattern. We think that it even occurs in the South Sea Islands.

The ancient British fashion, as to public fortresses, was an Acropolis; but there might have been inferior fortlets. The earliest mention which we possess of the use of "fenced cities" (as fortified towns are called in the Bible), is that of the book of Numbers (xxxi. 16, 17,) where the Israelites say that they will build "fenced cities for their little ones, because of the inhabitants of the land." Now to these

1831.] REVIEW.-Rowe's Antiquarian Investigations in Dartmoor. 135

cities and their districts a great stone was an appendage, for in 1 Sam. vi. 18, we find that there were "cities belonging to the five lords both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day."-This stone might have been a cromlech. As, however, Poly bius says that there were no walled towns among the Britons before the Roman conquest, we doubt the correctness of the appropriation, especially as we hear of no foss, and if such there are, whether they be within or without the mound. If within, a fortification could not be the object. We think that they were residences of chieftains; for Strutt says, from classical authority, that "British houses were not built in streets, but generally on the banks of a river, for the convenience of water, or in the woods and forests, where abundance of forage might be found for the cattle. The most convenient of these places was chosen by the Prince for his residence, and his followers and dependents made their habitations as near as they could conveniently to that of their Sovereign, and also erected stalls for their cattle, within the same limits. A ditch and mound of earth or rampart ran all round." Now the area of Grimspound being only about four acres, and of Manaton only about a hundred yards in circumference, and no vestiges of Druidical relics to be found, we think that these specimens denote the residences which we have described far more than fortresses. They should, however, have been tried by the spade, which from discoveries might settle the question. But to the extract.

"Cyclopean inclosures or pounds, as they are called by the Moormen, frequently surround these ancient towns. They are either low walls of stones, piled rudely together in ridge-like form, or belts of larger stones placed erect in the ground. Their general form is circular, but some examples are elliptical. Remains of habitations are in most cases found in these inclosures, so that we may justly conclude that they were originally constructed for purposes of security and defence.

"Grimspound is by far the finest and most extraordinary of all the relics of this class. The wall or mound is formed of moorstone blocks, rudely piled together, but so large as not to be easily displaced. Chron. of Engl. i. 254.-Rev.

The base of this mound extends in some parts to twenty feet, but the average height of any section would not exceed six feet. With the exception of openings for ingress and egress, the wall is perfect, inclosing an area of about four acres. The vestiges of

ancient habitations within this primitive fence are numerous, and occupy the whole inclosure, leaving only one vacant spot at the upper end, which might have been a place of public resort for the inhabitants of the town. A spring rising on the eastern side supplies the inclosure with water.

"Many similar inclosures on a less extensive scale are found in every district of the moor. One, however, is so essentially different in construction from all the others, that it merits a particular description.

"In a small pasture field, about a furlong S.E. of Manaton Church adjoining a parish road, is an inclosure of an elliptical form, in an exceedingly perfect condition. The stones of which the fence is composed, are from four to six feet high, placed in a double row and set close together. One stone, however, is so large, that it fills the whole breadth of the fence, being five feet wide, and five feet thick. The diameters of the area are one hundred and thirty-eight feet; and there are no vestiges of any Druidical relic within the precincts. It will be instantly distinguished from the sacred circles of Gidleigh and the Grey Wethers, by the positions of the stones, which are without lateral intervals."—p. 19.

Mr. Rowe mentions another Cyclopean inclosure or pound (p. 24), which differs essentially from Grimspound and others,

"in the construction of the fence; this consisting chiefly though not entirely of upright stones, while at Grimspound they are rudely piled together."

We come now to the Trackways or general roads, and Track-lines, as Mr. Rowe designates the mere communications with inclosures or huts, which commence and terminate within the bounds of each village. One trackway is formed of pebble stones, irregularly placed together, and forming a rude causeway, with its crest slightly raised above the level of the country. (p. 20.) This track way is in mean breadth from five to six feet, another is full 15 feet, a third has a few stones placed erect at long intervals. The tracklines are of irregular forms, intersecting each other at right angles in great numbers (as if marking alleys, lanes, and courts,) and sometimes winding with the ave nues or parallel lines of erect stones. The Welch mythology (see p. 18) has, when near streams, determined these to

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