far occupied our notice, and impatient as we may well be to approach the stately group of ruins beyond, it must interest us to remember that this was the industrial court, in which was developed that great branch of the Cistercian rule which, improving on the mere bodily labour of agriculture imposed by the Benedictines, enlisted in the same cause systematic industry and skill, and called for the practical application of the science of those days. Not only are we apt to underrate the available scientific knowledge of the period, which was almost wholly in the keeping of the monasteries, but we are so accustomed to regard the monastic system in the state of decay, relaxation, and corruption which followed on the completion of its work, and its access of superfluous wealth, that we overlook the work accomplished, and forget that it must have been a great want practically felt and acknowledged by men of the world, which brought into existence, within one hundred years from the foundation of the Cistercian order, upwards of two thousand monasteries under its rule. We have not yet quite done with mounds and banks; for, unfortunately, the first of the purely abbatial buildings which should come in our way has disappeared, leaving but a few traces, which, however, just suffice to determine its position and dimensions. It is marked m on the plan to which we have been referring, but will be found at A A on Plan, Plate VII, on which we shall now continue to mark our course. A part of the foundation of its western wall has been dug out near the north end of the west side, and the bare commencement of its south end wall remains attached to the buttress at 1 on the west end of the church, the traces exhibit the jamb and sill of a window close to the church, and the commencement of an arch beneath. Through this building, it may have been through this arch, or at another part presently to be pointed out, was the way leading to the interior of the convent; in one part was the hospitium or guest house, and probably also in the early period of the abbey the residence of the abbot, who presided in the guest hall, and took his meals with the strangers who were not admitted further. In the largest abbeys the hospitium formed a separate building near the outer gate, but such a plan was not adopted in the smaller class to which Buildwas belongs. In another part of the building, A A, were store halls on the ground floor, and dormitories over for the lay brethren or convert brothers, as they were called. These persons were such as desired to partake of the advantages of monastic life without being subject to its more solemn vows, and were the bailiffs of the farms and foremen of the artizans of the monastery. It is probable that an excavation of the ground in the area of this range. would bring to light a central row of columns, which carried a vault and floor. The altitude and general character of the building will be more apparent after our consideration of those on the opposite side of the great cloister court. The entrance to the great cloister was by an elaborately wrought archway,1 which was blown down in a storm in 1823, the only pieces of it now to be found are two carved capitals built into the garden wall on the south side of the church. It was a pointed archway with chevron ornaments; the entrance through the building may have been at 2 2, opposite this archway. Between the archway and the building A A was an open passage2 by which the lay brethren and guests entered the church, or communication was afforded for them with the kitchen and domestic offices of the convent. Passing over the site of the great cloister, of which scarcely a trace exists, we enter the church by its north side; the outer wall of the aisle has wholly disappeared on both sides of the church, so that we have at once a view of the massive arcades which enclose the nave and carry the clerestory, still in a nearly perfect condition. We may now decide upon the date of the buildings from a consideration of their architectural features. The massive proportions of the arcades, and the scalloped ornament of their capitals, indicate the prevalence of the Norman style of architecture; whilst the pointed form of the arches shews an approach towards the style which early in the thirteenth century superseded the Norman, forming the transition style which began about 1150. To the examples already adduced as to date it will be only necessary to add Boyle and Dunbrodie Abbeys, both in Ireland. The first, because in the plan and proportions of its church it is almost identical with Buildwas; and the last, because it happens to have been one of the three abbeys which sprung from Buildwas, and therefore of course, like Boyle, belonged to the Cistercian order. At Boyle the east and west windows are pointed, and there is a general tendency in its character to a more decided adherence to the pointed style than at Buildwas. The monks who settled at Boyle in 1161 had formed a community since 1148. Boyle Abbey church was not consecrated till 1218. Dunbrodie is of purely pointed architecture; it was founded, perhaps, a little before 1178, the church was consecrated in 1216. Analogy seems to point to about the year 1155 for the commencement of the chief part of the buildings at Buildwas, and to their completion before so great an advance was made as we find at Boyle, perhaps about 1165. Buildwas Abbey church is rather remarkable for the absence of a western door. The 'For reliable information respecting the position of this archway, and the date of its fall, as well as for other ready aid in furtherance of the archæological inquiry, I am indebted to the kindness of the proprietor, Walter Moseley, Esq. The plan drawn by Aikin in Britton's Antiquities, when tested by its scale, is inaccurate. It is wrong, in the dimensions of the cloister (and consequently in the position of the archway), and in this respect does not agree with the description which accompanies it, which was drawn up by W. M. Moseley, Esq., the grandfather of the present proprietor. The dimensions of the cloister given in the Monasticon are wrong. They appear to have been taken by scale from Aikin's plan. 2 This arrangement is found at Pontigny, Clairvaux, and Citeaux. See Viollet le Duc. 3 See Plate VIII. 4 Boyle. See Ecclesiologist, 1859, p. 217. Plan, etc. |