Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/188

172 172 ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. subordinated, never too crowded nor too widely spaced, and always allowing, Avhen possible, for a considerable admixture of natural objects. Too frequently in modern times — even in England — this has been neglected ; but it is one of the most important functions of the architect, and the means by which in many instances most agreeable effects have been produced. Chapter-Houses. The chapter-house is too important and too beautiful an adjunct to be passed over in any sketch, however slight, of English architecture. It also is almost exclusively national. There are, it is true, some " Salles Capitulaires " attached to Continental cathedrals or conventual establishments, but they are little more than large vestry-rooms, with none of that dignity or special ordinance that belongs to the English examples. One cause of the small importance attached to this feature on the Continent was that, in the original basilica, the apse was the assemVjly-place, where the bishop sat in the centre of his clergy and regulated the affairs of the church. In Italy this arrangement con- tinued till late in the Middle Ages. In France it never seems to have had any real existence, though figuratively it always prevailed. In England we find the Bishop's throne still existing in the choir at Norwich ; and at Canterbury, and doubtless in all the apsidal Norman cathedrals, this form of consistory originally existed. Such an arrange- ment was well suited for the delivery of an allocution or j^astoral address by the bishop to his clergy, and was all that was required in a despotic hierarchy like the French church ; but it was by no means in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon idea of a deliberative assembly, which should discuss every question as a necessary preliminary to its being promulgated as a law. In consequence of this, we find in England chapter-houses attached to cathedrals even in eai-ly Norman times. These were generally rec- tangular rooms, 25 or 3U ft. wide by about twice that extent in length. We can still trace their form at Canterbury and Winchester. They exist at Gloucester and Bristol and elsewhere. So convenient and appropriate does this original form appear, that it is difficult to under- stand why it was abandoned, unless it was that the resonance was intolerable. The earliest innovation seems to have been at Durham, where, in 1133, a chapter-house was commenced with its inner end semi-circular; but shortly after this, at Worcester, a circular chamber with a central pillar was erected, and the design was so much approved of that it became the typical form of the English chapter- house ever afterwards. Next, apparently, in date came Lincoln, and shortly afterwards the two beautiful edifices at Westminster and Salis- bury. The former, commenced about the year 1250, became, witiiout