Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/20

x than the three counties comprised in the present work; but they may, not unreasonably, be deemed to indicate the general state of architectural knowledge throughout the country. Sussex, consisting in great measure of forest, was probably in a backward condition: not merely however was Kent (as will be noticed in the Introduction to that county) superior in civilization, so as to be in some respects a model, to other dioceses, but Bede informs us, that Benedict Biscop travelled from Rome to England with Archbp. Theodore, when the latter came to take possession of the see of Canterbury, and remained two years in that city, before, after another journey to Rome, he founded the monastery of Wearmouth. (Ut sup. 318.) Theodore was archbishop twenty years; his diocese therefore had abundant opportunities of profiting by his acquaintance, which no doubt was considerable, with foreign arts, even if those arts had not previously been imported.

Our Saxon ancestors undoubtedly were far less skilled in architecture, than those of succeeding ages; but it would be a mistake to suppose, that their churches, even after the general adoption of stone and lime masonry, were mere rude, unadorned structures. Those specimens of their workmanship, which remain to the present day, evince, that they certainly paid some attention, not only to ornament in general, but even to sculpture; witness the tower of Barnack church, Northamptonshire, and Sompting church, Sussex. We can scarcely imagine, that, while much intercourse was maintained with the Continent, which assuredly was the case, art, as then known and practised there, was less cultivated in this country, than at the same period in Ireland; and the researches of Mr. George Petrie (see his very interesting work on the Round Towers of Ireland,) have sufficiently established the fact, that many of the ruins remaining in his country date much earlier than the Norman invasion of England; those edifices even now exhibiting much constructive skill, and in many instances proving the care and labour employed upon their adornment. But, in addition to any inferences we may draw, ancient writers actually bear testimony both to the opinion, formed in their day, of the early ecclesiastical edifices, and also to the attention and expense bestowed upon supplying them with