Mr. W.D. Watson read a paper on “The Rise and Development of Gothic Architecture in Britain.”

After remarking that he should base his observations on churches, as being the structures most suitable to the purpose, because in them we could most reasonably expect to find the best works of the age which saw their erection, and those least likely to be materially altered in the portions which remained, he took up the subject at the time of the Roman occupation, explaining that the basilicas were used alike for religious, legal, and business purposes.

They were rectangular shaped buildings, divided down the length by two rows of pillars, forming a nave and aisles. At one end usually there was a semi-circular recess or tribune, this was the origin of the later apse, where the alter was placed or the judges sat. A diagram plan of the one at Canterbury was exhibited, in order to illustrate these points.

Though the Saxons, when they took possession of the country, almost completely destroyed the greater number of Roman buildings, some few still remained in various parts, chiefly of England. Few of the Roman buildings in England were much ornamented. Being an out-of-the-way portion of the empire, it was to number of them merely a temporary sojourning place, which they quitted as their individual interest dictated. On the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, about A.D. 597, many of the basilicas which remained were put into repair and adapted to their use as churches, that at Canterbury being one of the numbers. Soon, after this the see of Rochester was founded, and London re-founded.

It is believed that timber was the chief building material until the close of the tenth century. The number of abbeys, etc., which were founded by Saints Dunstan, Oswald, and Athelwold support this view, and Canute, when he granted his charter to Glastonbury Abbey, which was the oldest, as well as one of the richest abbeys, dated it from the wooden church there. They were, however, ornamented on the inside with plates of gold and silver, with lead on the outside as a weathering. Though the greater number of churches built prior to the eleventh century were of timber, some were stone, those at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow – built in A.D. 680 – being the earliest of which there is any mention, not only fragments of the present structure are of this date.

Early in the eight century the interesting little church at Bradford-on-Avon was built. It is remarkable because of the way in which the walls are ornamented, that is by sinking some portions to form panels and arches. None of the numerous works on which King Alfred, towards the close of the ninth century, spent one-sixth of his income, can be identified. In the following century most of the small churches were built of timber, but the larger, as Ely, Peterborough, Winchester, etc., were of stone. The approaching millennium, however, which was expected to be the end of the world, caused considerable apathy to prevail in building, but after the year went One Thousand had passed building became general, and rapid strides were made. The Saxons style is remarkable as illustrating how the previous long use of timber influenced their design in stone. The walls have an appearance of being framed in timber with panels and turned stone.

At the angles a very common feature was to use long stones, placed alternately flat and on end. This is called long and short work. After the Norman Conquest there was no immediate change in style; but it developed in due course, and this is to be attributed to a general improvement in taste and skill, rather than to the accession of a better informed people. This essayist contrasted the contemporary work at Oxford and Lincoln, with that at Malling, Rochester, and London, as showing some parts of the country were in advance of others, and especially by the Malling example that we were before Normandy itself.

He then described in detail an Anglo-Norman building, illustrating the plans of a cathedral and a typical parish church, explaining the different parts and features, with their varieties, by the aid of lantern views, remarking on the infrequency of the apsidal termination of the chancel in England, the massiveness of Early Norman work, the little altitude of their towers in proportion to their size, the repeated pattern nature of many of the mouldings, in contrast to the continuous hollows and rounds of varying section in later styles, which are dependent upon the play of light and shade for their effect, and the general plainness of their earlier buildings as a mass, but the elaboration of individual features.

The essayist concluded by briefly pointing out some features of the Transition into the Early English Style, which he will take up in his next paper, concluding the subject at the commencement of the decline of the Gothic with the Perpendicular period.

The paper was illustrated by a series of slides, exhibited by means of the oxy-hydrogen lantern. Many of these had been specially prepared for the occasion, while others were lent by Mr. Stiles.