Architecture In France.*

defy him . Then , again , in England , ours was the architecture , mainly , of one race . The Roman work was well-nigh destroyed before our architecture , as we find it , arose ; and exercised no influence whatever upon it . But iu France , the Roman work remained bodily before the eyes of the Medievalists . Even now , you enter Rheimsor Autunor Bordeaux , by

, , or near the old Roman gateway ; you may still see bull-fights in the amphitheatre at Nismes , and may worship the arts there in the temple where the Roman bowed down to his gods . In fact , the Romans themselves , like their architecture , seem never to have quite died out , but to have amalgamated , in the south

especially , with the conquering races . Many proofs of this will be found , directly stated , in history Then , again , there came down streams of emigration from the Rhine and down the Rhone , the Rhenish arts and architecture coming down with the streams , as we English carry them to our colonies . Then

, again , there came up from the sea , through the southern ports , whatever the Venetians could bring from Byzantine Yenice , and whatever the Easterns could send from Saracenic Syria and the Nile ; not mere goods and merchandise , but arts and the men who practised them , and who formed goodly colonies

at Marseilles , and Narbonne , and Limoges , much as we English do now wherever the doing is worth it . Then , too , in the north , were the Normans working art in their own province , Normandy , their own peculiar style , —the only one , so far as I know , of Mediawal times clearly belonging to the name , and to be traced wherever the Normans went , in their own land , in England , iu Sicily , distinctly , to them and to

no one else . So that , with all these facts together , we may well hesitate at tracing French history in a part of an hour or so . Yet I "willingly have dwelt , at some little length , upon this beginning , because it really forms the basis upon which all knowledge of such history must be

founded ; and because , too , it shows how little an architect can expect really to know , if he venture beyond mere bricks and mortar , without being well grounded in history . Not only the history of France , but we must know something of what was practised at the time in Germany , Venice , Constantinople , and

the East , before we can enter very deeply into the matter . Without , however , detaining you more as to this , I may state broadly , as au introduction to French architecture , that between architecture as practised by the Romans and as revived in France , in later timesthere was a cleardeep gap of some six

, , centuries . For the latest time assigned to any Soman work of note is the third century , whereas the earliest Mediasval work that we know of , as worth earing for , bears date about the tenth . That is a long stride , that same six centuries ; Goths , Franks , Saracens , had overrun the country then ; Charlemagne , the

great emperor , had ruled and died , and his enormous kingdom had been scattered to the winds ; and , as we come upon France at the awakening of art in the tenth century , we find its king governing no more than one of its large provinces . Now in all this great space of 600 years there is

Scarcely anything , from one end of France to the other , of importance enough to have attained celebrity . A few remains of some little interest may , indeed ,

be cited , and they are scattered widely over the count 2 y , from the Basse ( Euvre at Beauvais , in Pieardy , to St . Jean , at Poitiers , and Coustonges , in the Pyrenees . * But the dates of these buildings are very doubtful , and the remains too scanty for successful theorising , and all that we know beyond the Roman character of the detail isthat the nave and

, aisle arrangement with clerestory above was clearly , though rudely , even then iu use ; so , too , apparently was the dome ; and that the masonry most in use was that of small stones , carefully bonded , and often arched with courses of Eoman tiles . It will assist us in our estimate of the arts in

France at that time , if we call to mind that in England we had Brixworth , Wearmouth and Jarrow ; that in Germany there were Aix la Chapelle , and the portico of Lorsch ; in Italy , St . Vitale , St . Prassede , and one , at least , of the flue brick towers ; and at ConstantinopleSt . Sophia ' s . So that our art then in France

, was sadly in arrear , and that is about the sum total of our knowledge both of the character of existing works and of their dates . We get in the tenth century on somewhat surer ground , for we have then , as examples , Tournus , St . Etienue , at Nevers , the Abbey of l'Ainay at Lyonsand Notre Dame de la Couture

, at Mans . As to the latter , however , I have very strong doubts / and as the presumed age of the oldest part is almost the end of the tenth century , we may , I thiuk , safely refer the building , generally , to a later date , and so remove it from our present consideration . The rest

of these churches are more particularly within reach of Germany influences . At Lyons there is a dome , together with a singular arrangement of sculpture over the aisle columns ; and at Tournus an almost unique example of vaults , arranged crossways , over the nave . This occurs in several places to the aisles , but I remember no other to nave . St .

Etienneat-, Vignory , I have not seen , hut Viollet-le-Duc assigns to it the tenth century . There is , however , a very good monograph of it in the Institute Library , by M . Girault de Prangey , who gives good reason for supposing that the church is not earlier than the beginning of the eleventh century . Even at this date ,

however , we have the first , so far as I am aware , of the chevet arrangement , and without any trace of its being copied , to my knowledge , from any existing building . The main works of similar date in Italy are parts of S . Ciriacco Ancona ( a cross church ) S . Foscain

, Torcello ( also a domed church ) , and S . Ambrogio , at Milan ; whilst in G ermany there is little beyond parts of S . Pantaleone , at Cologne , and , perhaps , parts of Mayence . I sayperliaps , for when we come to investigate these early-dated buildings—to go through the history of their repeated rebuildings and

reconstructions , we become painfully aware that nothing but an examination , stone by stone , on the spot , such as Professor Willis and others have given to our own buildings , can , with certainty , clear up their history . We may , however , so far as our knowledge goes ,