Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/364

 300 Mr. Wilkins's Defcription of It is extraordinary,, however, that this did not appear more obvious to Mr.Bentham, for in p. 39, fpeaking again of the form of the plans of thefe buildings, he fays, " as far as we can judge they were " moftly fquare ['], or rather oblong buildings, and generally turn- " ed circular at the eaft end[ x ], in form nearly, if not exactly, re- " fembling the Bajitica, or Courts of Juftice, in great cities " throughout the Roman empire ; many of which were, in fact, " converted into Chrtfttan churches, on the firft eftablimment of " chriflianity under Coiiftantine the Great ; and new erected " churches were conftructed on the fame plan, on account of its " manifeft utility for the reception of large aflemblies. Hence Ba- " Jilica was commonly ufed in that, and leveral fucceeding ages, " for Ecde/ia, or church, and continued fo even after the form of " our churches was changed. Now thefe. Ba/itictz differed in their " manner of conftruction from the Temp/a ; for the pillars of thefe " latter were on the outfide of the building, and confequently their " Porticos expofcd to the weather ; but the pillars of the former " were. within, and their Porticos open only towards the nave, or " main body of the building ; their chief entrance alfo was on. one " end, the other ulually terminating in a femicircle : and this, I " conceive, was the general form of our oldeft Saxon Churches." Thefe paffages very cleary fix the entrance into the churches at one end, and of courfe the endoppofite to the chancel; and as dif- ['] " St. Peter's at Tork> begun by K. Edwin, A. D. 627, is particularly reported " by Bcdc to have been of that form ; per quadrum caepit aedificare bafllicam. " Bedae. Hift. Ecclef. lib. ii. cap. 14. [*] " An ancient church at dbbcndon, built about the year 675, by Heane, the " rlrll abbot of that place, was an oblong building, 120 feet in length; and what is '* fingular, was of a circular form on the weft, as well as on the eaft ; habebat in lon- "-entali." Monaft. Angl. Vol. I. p. 98. ^ tinctly
 * ' gitudine 120 pedes, et erat rotundum tarn in parte occidentali, quam in parte ori-