The White City and the English Cathedrals

The White City and the English CathedralsAuthor(s): Charles TurnerSource: The Monthly Illustrator, Vol. 3, No. 10 (Feb., 1895), pp. 145-152Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25581952 .

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THE WHITE CITY AND THE ENGLISH CATHEDRALS

BY CHARLES TURNE.R.

Illustrated fromt recent photographs of Eng,_lish Cathedrals.

WHY did the White City by the Lakes burst UpOIl the American public like a

rev elation ? The answer is Because, for the first time in the history of the

THE CATHEDRAL OF CANTERBURY.

nation, American architects had the same opportunities of site and setting, of

groupina and surroundings, as those with which the architects of old created their

masterpieces. For onice the modern and the ancient conditions weere brought to

gether; for once the American arclhitect had the chance to stage his effects, to

gr-Olup his masses, to marshal his ouLtlines, to blend the play of light and shade, to

select environment, to secure the softening grace of perspective; and, for onice, the

spectator could take in flro iti anyi pJoin/s and fi-on'J afar, these proportionis, these

contours, these masses anld these blenldings, witlh all tlhe advanitage of atmospheric

play and the subtle charms of intervening water and foliage.

It was the architect's opportuniity to showv that the artistic capacity which, con



146 TI he White City and the English Cathedrals

~~~~~~ ~~~~ ...t....

_ | ~~I# :i i _P -b

ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL, IN' LONTDON.

ditions being favorabDle, has never failed the h1uman race in any land or clime, had hitherto, in America, lacked only the opportunity to lay under its spell the material

INTERIOR OF CA\'TFRBUR\ CA1'HEDR,\I,



TIhe WVhite City and the Eniglish Cathedr^als I47 instincts ot a material age, ancd to stamp them with the indelible impression that

art never fails to leave, in whatever one of its many forms it is presented. And the

architect rose to his op)ortunity. TFhe WNThite City by the Lake has gone, maybe niever to be replaced, and ve are the poorer by the missed opportunity to drink in,

througlh the senises of the eye, its pristine beauty and its priceless lessons. AVe

111muSt turiin to foreigni lands, to our regret be it said, if wre of this generation would

gauge the artistic possibilities which architecture in its best surroundinggs opelns to

sympathetic souls; and niowhere to greater afcvantage in this respect can we turnl

thani to the catlhedrals of England; for there we can study at leisure the problems

of situation, of massinog, of perspective, anid of landscape environment, as wNrell as

t.he minor questions of style, formia of decoration, andl richness of cletail.

* - - - , . . . .. . . . -. . . .: ..: . : . , , - : :: . : .:: ..: -: ::S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.. .. . .. ..

I:..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..

.. . . - . . .. .. - . .. , ,. ... ,..., .. . ., .. . ,, -, .. ,, *-.--.. g~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.. ... . .. .. . . .. ..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ... .. ... .....I._ - : .~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. ... _..R_

THE FACADE OF LIN'COLN CATHEDRAL.

" The E-noiisn Cathedrals" is a term which has no significance fiom the bioadei

architec.ural pOinlt of x-iexv; thley are not a class, they cannot bDe grouped; e-tch is

the iesult of centuiies of cn.cumstanlces-artistic, ceooiaphictl, ielig~ious, and his

torical. Yet, inl thle mainl, thleir situations and exnternal formls hav e been regulated

audi inlfluenced by twvo historical ev ents, centuries apart, anld both of comparativJely

anlcienlt diate: Firstly, by thle evTacuation of England by the Romans inl thle seventhl

cenltur-y, anld secondlyr, b)y thle conqulest of it by WNilliam of Normandly in thle elev

*enlth cenlturyT. Thle influenlce of thle religrious Reformationl in thle sixteenthl cen

tury, slglr, logl canl scr xb rcd, andl thlat of the seventeenlth cen

turv h1as left its markS only ulpon the most trivial dletails, whlere thle iconoclastic

zeal of thle fulrious Pur-itanls dlemolishledl some fair tracery, or scullpturedl s^;int.



148 The White City and the Eng-lish Cathedrals

DURHAM CATHEDRAL AND THE MITLL WEIR.

The cathedral architecture of Enolanid, indeed owes more to Pagani Rome of

the first five cenituries than it does to tie Reformationi, and this is but natural, for

4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .

INTEIRIOR (NAVE) OF DURIIA.M CATliEDRAL.



The White City and the English Cathedrals I49 Rome, during its lengthened and luxurious occupation, had covered the island with

a network of colonies whose buildings, private, military, and religious, were the only fabrics possessing architectural features, and these mainly of the archaic simplicity of tlhe first two centuries.

Whlat more natural than that the early artificers should turn to the Roman

buildings, theni derelict and abandoned, for the material, and consequently, to some extent, for the design of their first Christialn churches ?

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.

That it was so in many cases wve know, anid investigation w-ould doubtless dis

close more instances. It was thus that the semi-circular Romanesque arch became

inicorporated into the Eng-lish ecclesiastical archiitecture. I knowN thiat, almost ex

clusively, this arch is ascribed to the Normianis of the eleventh century ; buit it ex

isted in English churches from Roman ruinS utilized in their structure, centuries before the Normani coniquest-long before the Normiani inifluenices were felt.

Examiples of thiis, vrery initerestingo in history anid detail, migiht be shown in the

twNo anicient churchies within anid just across the river fromi Cambridge. A thiird

examiple will be founid in the ruins of the chiurchi of Ethielberta, at Ely, the prede cessor of the preseiit cathiedlral. WVe have in this case a gTlimmier of hiistorical light,

too, for onie of the Saxoni chrioniicles recordls that the pious m-lonks of Ely, seekingo a fitting- tombl for their foundclress, went by water to Cambridlge, and there found a fair white sarcophagus, in. A whicha they enishrin-ed hier remains. Th'ley found a grieat

dleal miore thian that-they dliscovered a quarry of readly-hewn Romiani masonrY,

from- which \vas erectedl the miaini part of their mioniaStiC bu.ildingy oni the Isle.



1 50 The White City and the English Cathedrals

7.5

ELY CATHEDRAL, FRO.M THE RIVF.R.

Under the Normans east, west, north, and south, arose cloister and chancel,

shrine and sanctuary,-founidations upon which has beeni liniked and rivetted every

century of architecture from the eleventh to the sevrenteenth, with a perfection of

hiarmony that is as astonishing as it is rich, varied, and successful. To them we owve

the sombre grandeur and stable magiificence of the early portions of Durham, Ely,

Winchester, Lincoln, Peterborough, and a host of others too great even to be

inentioned a style so simple, so abiding, so rich, and y et so Titanic as to suggest

the massiveness of Carnac and the most antique Orient.

Few, very few, of the cathedrals escaped the inifluenice of the sombre, solid,

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAI. ANI) CHURCH-YARD.



The White City and the English Cathedrals I 5I

Norman builder, and few, or none, escaped the progressive and lighter touch of the architects of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Of those which show no evidence of the heavier hand of the early Norman, we give two instances-St. Mary's, York, now, happily perhaps for its preservation, in ruins ; and the Cathedral of Salisbury, the builders of which, by the oddest of accidental circumstances-the want of water-left their old home on the eyrie heights of Sarum, and built themselves a new shrine on the borders of the AVilt shire Avon. This gave a free hand to the contemporary architect, and no cathe dral in England, or perlhaps in the world, can compare with it for purity and unity of design, or for situationi. Chancel anid choir, nave and transept, r-ise like a fairv

_3 3

THE FACADE OF YORK MINSTER.

structure from circumambient green sward ; and, quiverino with feathery details anid gathering force and grace, it tapers away into the very heaven it symbolizes.

Only one other English cathedral can be compared with Salisbury for unity of design, and that is St. Paul's of Loncdon, but that is the only point of comparison in every other circumstance they differ as widely as the poles. The one on the

plain, sward-girt, tree-marged, free and open to every ray of sunlight from dawn to dusk, fr-om lowest plinth to highest fane; the other, crowded into the ver-y heart of a commercial metropolis, which seems to grudge even its foothold and hides from every point of view not only its base, but the greater part of its bulk. It is only from the vantage ground of the smoke-stacks of adjacent city roofs that its cross-tipped cupola and its classic upper stories can be seen. WVhat inspiration but a Pagan one could have found lodgemenit in the imagination of an arclhitect doomed to designl a Christiani temple on such a Mammon's site ?



152 3The WVhite City and the English Cathedr-als

How different were the circumiistances that gave birtlh to the seconid cathedral

church of Ely, wlhiclh in the eleventh century first crowned the silent fenl-isle withl

glory to God. No town marred its perfect symmetry, Io tlhoughlt of the world,

and they have left a -ery sanctuar)y of purity and an artistic monument of the cen

turies which still seeimis to float in ani aerial sea. Thllen look at old Durham,

whliclh crowns the beetling crags ancd has, these eiglht centuries past, lifted its sacred

fronit like a very fortress over tlhe rude border lands; a warniilg to the lawless

raidlers of the marches and a sanctuary of the powver that was mig,lhtier than the

sword, before w-hich even the mailed arm quailed. It stood there almllost be

fore manl turned the silent hills and dales of the north iInto the debatable battle

grouLnd of lawless chieftains and in more modern times into a beehive of commercial

niciustries.

Canterbury stands midway betwixt fen(rirt Ely and crag-crowning Durham. Its .....~~~~~~. . . . . . .. . ....,,.- ---.....,-v

ST. MARY S ABBEY.

history, truie, is coinicident and coeval with the re-introduction of Christianity into

Enigland by St. ALugustine, and of that mission it is the mother-church ; but the

structure which nowV stanicds is, externally, rather atn examl)le of the later Gothic, the

perp)endicular, tlhani of the styles prevailing at its histor-ic birtlh. The sturdy strength and massive sinmplicity of the Norman and early Enclislh had become enicrusted witlh

the endless detail of tiers upon tiers of unnecessary buttresses and finials, and the

graceful arch had given way to the graceless linies of a debased style before its nave

andcl towers received their im-press. Thllese be but a few of the object-lessons left to the studenit, the artist, and the

seeker after tlin os of beauty; anid I have but touclhedl, in. a fragmnientai-y and re

strictecl way, upon olc of the aspects of that beauty " Sittlation anld environment

-with just so muclh of origini as al)ppeared nieedful to elucidate that feature.



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The White City and the English Cathedrals