Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/466

 344 NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. volumes of the Institute, more especially to Professor Willis's valuable contributions, which may be regarded as chapters of the learned Professor's proposed work, which he has been induced from time to time to print by the solicitation of his friends, it being generally understood that he has been for several years engaged in preparing a History of Architecture. It is to be regretted that Mr. Poole should apparently admit as genuine authorities the questionable evidence known by the name of Ingulphus, (p. 83,) and the theories of Mr. Hope respecting the Freemasons, (p. 116.) Since the publication of so many builders' contracts of the middle ages, and the accounts of the expenses of the Eleanor crosses, of St. Stephen's chapel and of York Minster, the romantic fiction of whole troops of free- masons assembling to build a cathedral, " building temporary huts for their habitation around the spot where the work was to be carried on," and so forth, ought to be altogether exploded and refused admission into any work professing the character of authentic history. The fact is clear that with rare exceptions the artisans employed were natives of the spot, or the immediate neighbourhood, that very small numbers were employed at any one time, and that they succeeded from father to son, generation after generation, in carrying on the great work. The accounts of York Minster published by Mr. Brown are conclusive on this point ; the number of work- men employed on that magnificent structure varied from twenty to fifty ac- cording to the state of the funds of the Chapter, a corps of masons and their labourers being a regular part of the establishment, and the same families being employed for centuries. Of these masons a few of the head men were free masons, or free carpenters, the rest were serfs. Occasionally, but very rarely, the master mason was a foreigner, and quite as often an Englishman in France, as a Frenchman in England. The first five chapters of Mr. Poole's work treat of the history of archi- tecture before the Norman Conquest ; in the sixth chapter, — of the Norman period, we must question the statement that " the style now called Noi'- man was fully established on the continent long before the twelfth cen- tury." p. 90. We believe on the contrary that the Norman style was not established any where until towards the close of the eleventh century ; we are aware that a debased imitation of Roman work continued in use, but the" masonry of the ninth and tenth centuries was so bad that very little work of that period remains, or was in fact of long duration ; the improved style of masonry introduced by the Normans, and to which the durability of their structures is to be attributed, formed a new era in the history of the art of building, and the characteristic ornaments by which it was ac- companied entitle it to the rank of a distinct style. It is a branch of the Romanesque style, but is not therefore to be confounded with, other branches, more especially with the earlier structures which are very distinct from it. The seventh chapter is a continuation of the Norman period, and contains useful information well put together. The argument about the use of brick might be considerably strengthened by additional and earlier examples with