Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/138

122 races escheated to the Conqueror, and in the division of the spoil the clergy seem to have been even more fortunate than the laity. But, however that may have been, it will be easily understood that a French hierarchy vowed to celibacy would be able to find no better way of employing their easily acquired wealth than in the display of arcliitectui-al magnificence. During the century which succeeded tlie Conquest, the Saxon cathedrals, with scarcely an exception, were swept away to make room for nobler buildings designed by foreign archi- tects, and all the larger abbey churches were likewise rebuilt. All this was done with such grandeur of conception, and so just an appreciation of the true principles of architectural effect, that even now the Norman nave, in spite of its rudeness, is frequently a more impressive specimen of art than the more polished productions of the succeeding centuries. The impulse once so nobly given, the good work proceeded steadily but rapidly. During the three centuries which succeeded the Con- quest, all the artistic intellect of the nation seems to have been con- centrated on this one art. Poetry hardly existed, and painting and sculpture were only employed as the liandmaids of architecture. But year by year new and improved forms of construction were invented and universally adopted. New mouldings, and new applications of carvings and foliage were introduced ; and painting on opaque sab- stances and even on glass was cari'ied to an astonishing degree of per- fection. All this Avas done without borrowing and without extraneous aid, but by steadily progressing to a well-understood object with a definite aim. It is true that occasionally, as at Westminster Abbey, we detect the influence of P^-ench arrangements ; but even there the design is carried on in so essentially English a manner, with details so purely English, as to make us feel even more strongly how essentially native the style had become. The Ethnic combination, which led to the marvellous perfection of Gothic art during the Edwardian period, was as fortunate as can well be conceived. It was a Celtic hierarchy and aristocracy steadied by a Saxon people ; with the substratum of an earlier Celtic race, held in absolute subjection by the Saxons, but rising again, at least partially, to the surface, under the Norman domination. It was something like what happened in Athens when a Dorian race was superimposed on one of Pelasgic origin ; and, although the conditions were here reversed, and the field far more limited, the result was still most successful. Within the limits of a century, the French had jumped from the ten- tative example of St. Denis (1144) to the perfection of the Sainte Chapelle (1244). Our St. Stephen's Chapel was not finished till a century afterwards ; but while the French hardly ever went beyond their great 13th century effort, in the IGth century we were building the Royal Chapels at Windsor, Westminster, and Cambridge.