Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T09:42:10.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Our Ancient Architecture’: Contesting Cathedrals in Late Georgian England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Philip Aspin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recent research has transformed our understanding of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a phase in the wider process of the Gothic Revival. While historical writing on the Gothic Revival had previously tended to see the significance of the period between 1790 and 1820 largely in terms of its academic contribution to the later development of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, emphasizing especially the role of antiquarian scholarship in providing a basis of archaeological accuracy upon which subsequent architects could draw, more diverse angles have been opened up within the last couple of decades. Research by Simon Bradley, Chris Brooks and others has illuminated debates on the origins of the Gothic style itself and the patriotic language underpinning them, and has added greatly to our understanding of the associations between Gothic and ‘Englishness’. Rosemary Hill has investigated the ambiguous and problematic religious connotations of Gothic. Simon Bradley has authoritatively anatomized the increasingly enthusiastic take-up of Gothic by the Anglican Church in the first few decades of the nineteenth century, and has uncovered a rich prehistory of ecclesiological principles before the foundation of the Camden Society and all its powerfully misleading retrospective propaganda.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 54 , 2011 , pp. 213 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 For example Mordaunt Crook, J., ‘John Britton and the Genesis of the Gothic Revival’, in Concerning Architecture, ed. Summerson, John (London, 1968), pp. 98–119 Google Scholar; Clark, Kenneth, The Gothic Revival (London, 1964)Google Scholar.

2 Crook, ‘John Britton’, p. 98; Mordaunt Crook, J., John Carter and the Mind of the Gothic Revival (London, 1995), p. 26 Google Scholar; Buchanan, Alexandrina, ‘Architectural Antiquarianism in the Early Nineteenth Century’, in Producing the Past, ed. Myrone, Martin and Peltz, Lucy (Aldershot, 1999), pp. 169–80 Google Scholar (p. 170); Frew, J. M., ‘The Transformation of Medievalist Research’, Journal of the Courtauld and Warburg Institutes, 43 (1980), pp. 174–85 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 174); Roberts, Marion, ‘Thomas Gray’s Contribution to the Study of Medieval Architecture’, Architectural History, 36 (1993), pp. 49–68 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Bradley, Simon, ‘The Englishness of Gothic’, Architectural History, 45 (2002), pp. 325–41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Crook, John Carter, pp. 1, 43; Frew, J. M., ‘John Carter and the Revival of the Gothic as England’s National Style’, Art Bulletin, 64/2 (1982), pp. 315–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (pp. 315–17); Brooks, Chris, The Gothic Revival (London, 1999), pp. 99 Google Scholar,134.

4 Hill, Rosemary, ‘Catholics, Romantics and Late Georgian Gothic’, in Gothic Architecture and its Meanings, ed. Hall, Michael (Reading, 2002), pp. 164–65 Google Scholar.

5 Bradley, Simon, ‘The Roots of Ecclesiology’, in ‘A Church as it should be’: The Cambridge Camden Society and its Influence, ed. Elliott, John and Webster, Christopher (Stamford, 2000), pp. 22–43 Google Scholar.

6 For example, the most recent and comprehensive treatment of the subject, Bradley, Simon, ‘The Gothic Revival and the Church of England, 1790-1840’ (doctoral thesis, University of London, 1996 Google Scholar) has relatively little to say about cathedrals in the pre-1820 period.

7 For example, Bradley, ‘Roots of Ecclesiology’, pp. 24, 28, 43; Bradley, ‘Englishness of Gothic’, p. 326.

8 The classic work on ideas of national identity in this period is Colley, Linda, Britons: Shaping the Nation (New Haven, 1992)Google Scholar.

9 Sweet, Rosemary, Antiquaries (London, 2004), pp. xiv–xv Google Scholar.

10 Arthur Burns, R., The Diocesan Revival in the Church of England (Oxford, 1999), p. 2 Google Scholar.

11 Nockles, Peter, The Oxford Movement in Context (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 153 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 165–66.

12 See, for example, Stanford Lehmberg, E., The Reformation of Cathedrals (New Jersey, 1988)Google Scholar and Cathedrals Under Siege (Exeter, 1996); Spraggon, Julie, Puritan Iconoclasm During the English Civil War (Woodbridge, 2003)Google Scholar, ch. 6. Also, for one of the richest and most important medieval great churches in England which, though not technically a cathedral, exercised many of the symbolic and liturgical functions of one in the century following the Reformation, Meritt, Julia F., ‘The Cradle of Laudianism? Westminster Abbey, 1558–1630’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 52/4 (2001), pp. 623–46 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Burns, Diocesan Revival, pp. 143–61; Faith and Fabric, ed. Yates, Nigel and Welsby, Paul (Woodbridge, 1996), p. 144 Google Scholar; Barrett, Philip, Barchester (London, 1993), pp. 12–14 Google Scholar.

14 Burns, Diocesan Revival, p. 143.

15 Barrett, Barchester, pp. 1, 3, 137; Chichester Cathedral, ed. Hobbs, Mary (Chichester, 1994), p. 120 Google Scholar; A History of Lincoln Minster, ed. Owen, Dorothy (Cambridge, 1994), p. 218 Google Scholar.

16 See Andrews, M., The Search for the Picturesque (Stanford, 1989)Google Scholar.

17 Bradley, ‘Roots of Ecclesiology’, pp. 25–26.

18 Hampshire Repository, II (1801), p. 119; Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of Salisbury (orig. London, 1814, republ. Glossop, 1999), p. 51 Google Scholar; Bentham, James, The History and Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Ely (Cambridge, 1771), p. 41 Google Scholar; Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of the Metropolitical Church of York (London, 1819), pp. 36–37 Google Scholar, 56.

19 Wilton, Andrew, Turner and the Sublime (London, 1980), pp. 12 Google Scholar, 66,113–14.

20 Burke, Edmund, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, ed. Phillips, Adam (Oxford, 1990), p. 64 Google Scholar.

21 Britton, John, An Historical and Architectural Essay relating to Redcliffe Church, Bristol (London, 1813), p. 29 Google Scholar.

22 The Sublime: A Reader in 18th Century British Aesthetic Theory, ed. Ashfield, Andrew and de Bolla, Peter (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 276–77 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Dodsworth, William, A Guide to the Cathedral Church of Salisbury (London, 1798), p. 34 Google Scholar.

24 Milner, John, The History Civil and Ecclesiastical, and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester, 2 vols (London, 1798), I, pp. 48–30 Google Scholar.

25 Dodsworth, William, An Historical Account of the Episcopal See and Cathedral of Sarum (London, 1814), p. 223 Google Scholar.

26 The Journeys of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, ed. Thompson, M. W. (Gloucester, 1983), p. 143 Google Scholar.

27 Morgan, Mary, A Tour to Milford Haven in the Year 1791 (London, 1795), p. 17 Google Scholar.

28 Manners, John Henry, Journal of a Tour to the Northern Parts of Great Britain (London, 1813), p. 113 Google Scholar.

29 Bradley, ‘Roots of Ecclesiology’, pp. 22, 25–26.

30 Britton, Salisbury, p. 1.

31 Gentleman’s Magazine, 85 (1815), p. 153 Google Scholar.

32 British Critic, 39 (1812), p. 161 Google Scholar.

33 Essays on Gothic Architecture, ed. Warton, T. (London, 1800), pp. xvi–xvii Google Scholar; Critical Review, 5th ser., 5 (1817), p. 236; Bradley, ‘Roots of Ecclesiology’, p. 24.

34 British Critic, new ser., 3 (1815), p. 489.

35 Millers, George, A Description of the Cathedral Church of Ely (London, 1807), p. 10 Google Scholar; Storer, J., History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of Great Britain, 4 vols (London, 1817), IV, p. 22 Google Scholar; Gentleman’s Magazine, 73 (1803), p. 24 Google Scholar; Milner, John, A Dissertation on the Modern Art of Altering Ancient Cathedrals (London, 1811), p. vii Google Scholar.

36 Newcombe, P., The History of the Royal and Ancient Foundation Called the Abbey of St Alban (London, 1795), p. 97 Google Scholar.

37 Milner, John, A Treatise on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of England During the Middle Ages (London, 1811), pp. xvii–xviii Google Scholar; Gentleman’s Magazine, 81 (1811), p. 111 Google Scholar.

38 Milner, Dissertation, pp. 48–49; Ackermann, J., The History of the Abbey Church of St Peter’s Westminster, 2 vols (London, 1812), II, pp. 9–10 Google Scholar.

39 Gentleman’s Magazine, 90 (1820), p. 128 Google Scholar; Gentleman’s Magazine, 87 (1817), p. 367 Google Scholar.

40 Millers, Ely, p. 2.

41 Gentleman’s Magazine, 72 (1802), p. 623 Google Scholar.

42 Bradley, ‘Roots of Ecclesiology’, pp. 23, 43; Sweet, Rosemary, The Writing of Urban Histories in Eighteenth Century England (Oxford, 1997), p. 40 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Millers, Ely, p. 3.

44 Milner, John, Letters to a Prebendary (Cork, 1802), p. ix Google Scholar.

45 Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of the See and Cathedral Church of Lichfield (London, 1820), p. 9 Google Scholar.

46 Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of the See and Cathedral Church of Winchester (London, 1817), p. 107 Google Scholar.

47 British Critic, 19 (1802), p. 332 Google Scholar.

48 Anti-Jacobin Review, 2 (1799), pp. 248–49 Google Scholar.

49 Britton, John, The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, 5 vols (London, 1807–26), II, p. 54 Google Scholar.

50 Britton, , Architectural Antiquities, IV, p. 189 Google Scholar.

51 Anti-Jacobin Review, 26 (1807), pp. 382–84 Google Scholar.

52 Britton, Salisbury, p. 6.

53 Ibid., p. 2.

54 Britton, Lichfield, pp. 8–9.

55 Gunn, William, An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture (London, 1819), pp. 71–72 Google Scholar; Rickman, Thomas, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture (London, 1817), pp. 4–5 Google Scholar.

56 Newcombe, St Albans, pp. x–xi.

57 Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of the See and Cathedral Church of Norwich (London, 1816), p. 5 Google Scholar.

58 Sweet, Urban Histories, pp. 125–26,152,155–56.

59 Storer, Cathedral Churches, I (St Asaph, d); (Bath, b-e, i); (Canterbury, t). [Note that Storer’s volumes do not contain numbered pages; instead the text is divided into a series of discrete sections, each corresponding to an individual cathedral. Pages within each section are identified alphabetically by letter rather than number.]

60 Storer, Cathedral Churches, I (Canterbury, cc).

61 Ibid., I, pp. vii–viii.

62 Gentleman’s Magazine, 86 (1816), p. 423 Google Scholar.

63 Anti-Jacobin Review, 27 (1807), p. 82 Google Scholar.

64 Gentleman’s Magazine, 85 (1815), pp. 521 Google Scholar, 524.

65 Britton, Winchester, p. 9.

66 Gentleman’s Magazine, 68 (1798), pp. 1108 Google Scholar, 764–65.

67 Ibid., p. 926.

68 Gentleman’s Magazine, 69 (1799), pp. 94 Google Scholar, 190.

69 Ibid., pp. 392–93.

70 Ibid., pp. 392–93.

71 For example, Britton, Norwich, p. 5.

72 Sweet, Urban Histories, p. 279.

73 Storer, Cathedral Churches, II (Ely, a).

74 Britton, York, p. 7.

75 For example, Britton, Salisbury, pp. 20–48.

76 Archaeologia, 17 (1814), pp. 136–37.

77 Storer, Cathedral Churches, III (Salisbury, q).

78 Storer, Cathedral Churches, IV (Worcester, p).

79 Ibid. (Wells, d).

80 Storer, Cathedral Churches, III (Salisbury, q).

81 Ibid. (Salisbury, q).

82 Milner, Letters to a Prebendary, p. 6.

83 Milner, Dissertation, plate facing title page.

84 Dodsworth, Sarum, pp. 164–65.

85 See Simon Bradley’s authoritative survey in ‘Englishness of Gothic’.

86 Milner, Treatise, p. ii; Bradley, ‘Englishness of Gothic’, pp. 327–28.

87 Carter, John, Some Account of the Cathedral Church of Durham (London, 1801), p. 3 Google Scholar.

88 Warton, Essays, p. iii.

89 British Critic, 19 (1802), p. 330 Google Scholar.

90 Bradley, ‘Englishness of Gothic’, p. 331.

91 Storer, , Cathedral Churches, IV, pp. 22 Google Scholar, 34.

92 Millers, Ely, p. 16.

93 On which, see Bradley, ‘Englishness of Gothic’, pp. 33–36.

94 Dodsworth, Sarum, p. 227.

95 Ibid., p. 122.

96 Storer, Cathedral Churches, II (Exeter, i-k).

97 Critical Review, 28 (1800), p. 331 Google Scholar.

98 Storer, , Cathedral Churches, I, pp. vii–viii Google Scholar; Gentlemen’s Magazine, 59 (1789), p. 214 Google Scholar.

99 Gentleman’s Magazine, 85 (1815), p. 36 Google Scholar.

100 Britton, Salisbury, p. ii.

101 British Critic, new ser., 9 (1818), p. 331.

102 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 701 Google Scholar.

103 Gentleman’s Magazine, 77 (1807), pp. 1126–27 Google Scholar.

104 Britton, Winchester, p. 78.

105 Gentleman’s Magazine, 78 (1808), pp. 22–23 Google Scholar.

106 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 311 Google Scholar.

107 Yates and Welsby, Faith and Fabric, pp. 115–16; Barrett, Barchester, pp. 1, 6, 11–12; Burns, Diocesan Revival, pp. 4, 144.

108 Gentleman’s Magazine, 72 (1802), p. 327 Google Scholar.

109 Gentleman’s Magazine, 77 (1807), p. 1205 Google Scholar.

110 Britton, , Architectural Antiquities, IV, p. 82 Google Scholar.

111 Britton, Exeter, p. iv.

112 Gentleman’s Magazine, 59 (1789), pp. 1194–95 Google Scholar.

113 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 311 Google Scholar.

114 Gentleman’s Magazine, 65 (1795), pp. 924–25 Google Scholar; Barrett, Barchester, p. 1; Burns, Diocesan Revival, p. 144.

115 Burns, Diocesan Revival, p. 149.

116 Yates and Welsby, Faith and Fabric, p. 144.

117 Carter, Durham, p. 5.

118 Dodsworth, William, A Guide to the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, with a Particular Account of the Great Improvements made therein, under the Direction of James Wyatt Esq. (London, 1798), pp. 28 Google Scholar, 34, 37, 39; Gentleman’s Magazine, 73 (1803), p. 1122 Google Scholar.

119 Gentleman’s Magazine, 77 (1807), p. 322 Google Scholar.

120 Crook, John Carter, p. 35.

121 Frew, J. M., ‘James Wyatt’s Choir Screen at Salisbury Cathedral Reconsidered’, Architectural History, 27 (1984), pp. 481–87 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 483).

122 Crook, John Carter, p. 48; Macaulay, J., The Gothic Revival (Edinburgh, 1975), pp. 135–36 Google Scholar.

123 Macaulay, Gothic Revival, p. 177; Andrews, Search for the Picturesque, p. 98.

124 Critical Review, 30 (1800), p. 210 Google Scholar.

125 Dodsworth, Guide [1798], p. 34.

126 Miele, Chris, ‘Professionalism and the Restoration of Medieval Churches’, in The Victorian Church, ed. Brooks, Chris and Saint, Andrew (Manchester, 1995), pp. 151–72 Google Scholar (pp. 152–54).

127 Critical Review, 28 (1800), pp. 332–33 Google Scholar.

128 Dodsworth, Sarum, p. 178.

129 Gentleman’s Magazine, 59 (1789), pp. 1064–66 Google Scholar; Dodsworth, Guide, p. 28; Critical Review, 28 (1800), pp. 331–33 Google Scholar.

130 Gentleman’s Magazine, 61 (1791), pp. 137–38 Google Scholar.

131 Dodsworth, Sarum, p. 167.

132 Britton, Salisbury, p. 60.

133 Storer, Cathedral Churches, III (Salisbury, m–n).

134 Gentleman’s Magazine, 65 (1795), pp. 998–99 Google Scholar.

135 Gentleman’s Magazine, 59 (1789), pp. 1064–66 Google Scholar.

136 Gentleman’s Magazine, 61 (1791), pp. 137–38 Google Scholar.

137 Britton, Salisbury, p. 60.

138 Gentleman’s Magazine, 59 (1789), pp. 1194–95 Google Scholar.

139 Gentleman’s Magazine, 65 (1795), p. 1074 Google Scholar.

140 Gentleman’s Magazine, 73 (1803), p. 1021 Google Scholar.

141 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 310 Google Scholar.

142 Gentleman’s Magazine, 68 (1798), p. 1108 Google Scholar.

143 Milner, Dissertation, pp. 32, 51.

144 Gentleman’s Magazine, 69 (1799), p. 190 Google Scholar.

145 Carter, Durham, pp. 3, 8.

146 Gentleman’s Magazine, 70 (1800), p. 839 Google Scholar.

147 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 1005 Google Scholar.

148 Frew, ‘Carter and the Revival of the Gothic’, p. 317.

149 Hole, R., ‘English Sermons and Tracts as Media of Debate on the French Revolution’, in The French Revolution and British Popular Politics, ed. Philp, Mark (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 18–37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 34).

150 Watkin, David , ‘George III and the Shift to Gothic’, in New Offerings, Ancient Treasures: Studies in Medieval Art for George Henderson, ed. Binski, Paul (Stroud, 2001), pp. 519–30 Google Scholar; Girouard, Mark, Return to Camelot (New Haven, 1981), pp. 24–27 Google Scholar.

151 Carter, Ancient Architecture of England, preface.

152 Carter, Durham, p. 12.

153 Brooks, Gothic Revival, p. 134.

154 Gentleman’s Magazine, 86 (1816), p. 423 Google Scholar.

155 Gentleman’s Magazine, 60 (1790), p. 908 Google Scholar.

156 Milner, Letters to a Prebendary, p. 58.

157 Gentleman’s Magazine, 69 (1799), pp. 92–94 Google Scholar.

158 Ibid., pp. 392–93.

159 Clark, Gothic Revival, pp. 74–75.

160 Vincent, Emma, ‘John Bowles and the French Revolutionary Wars’, History, 78 (1993), pp. 393–420 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 419); Schofield, Thomas, ‘Conservative Political Thought in Britain in Response to the French Revolution’, Historical Journal, 29/3 (1986), pp. 601–22 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nockles, Oxford Movement in Context, pp. 48–49, 63.

161 Eastwood, David, ‘Patriotism and the English State in the 1790s’, in French Revolution, ed. Philp, , pp. 146–68 Google Scholar (pp. 152–53).

162 Gentleman’s Magazine, 69 (1799), p. 27 Google Scholar.

163 Milner, Dissertation, pp. 37–38.

164 Warton, Essays, p. xx.

165 Gentleman’s Magazine, 73 (1803), p. 1021 Google Scholar; 77 (1807), p. 322.

166 Gentleman’s Magazine, 69 (1799), p. 946 Google Scholar.

167 Gentleman’s Magazine, 77 (1807), p. 629 Google Scholar.

168 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 312 Google Scholar.

169 Gentleman’s Magazine, 71 (1801), p. 1093 Google Scholar.

170 Thompson, Journeys of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, p. 144.

171 Gentleman’s Magazine, 72 (1802), p. 495 Google Scholar.

172 Gentleman’s Magazine, 75 (1805), pp. 24–25 Google Scholar; 70 (1800), p. 1052.

173 Gentleman’s Magazine, 69 (1799), p. 27 Google Scholar; 72 (1802), pp. 134–35.

174 Nockles, Oxford Movement in Context, pp. 210–11; Bradley, ‘Gothic Revival and the Church of England’, pp. 61–63, 67.

175 Milner, Dissertation, p. 37–38.

176 Mather, F. C., ‘Georgian Churchmanship Reconsidered’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 36/2 (1985), pp. 255–83 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (PP. 263, 258).

177 Nockles, Oxford Movement in Context, pp. 210–11; British Critic, new ser., 3 (1815), pp. 488–89.

178 Gentleman’s Magazine, 65 (1795), pp. 924–25 Google Scholar.

179 Gentleman’s Magazine, 59 (1789), pp. 1194–95 Google Scholar.

180 Gentleman’s Magazine, 67 (1797), p. 638 Google Scholar.

181 Hill, ‘Late Georgian Gothic’, pp. 164–65.

182 Milner, Letters to a Prebendary, p. 55.

183 Vincent, ‘John Bowles’, p. 419; Nockles, Oxford Movement in Context, pp. 62, 169.

184 Anti-Jacobin Review, 21 (1805), pp. 71–73 Google Scholar; 27 (1807), pp. 214–15.

185 Anti-Jacobin Review, 25 (1806), p. 140 Google Scholar.

186 British Critic, 15 (1800), p. 157 Google Scholar.

187 Critical Review, 2nd ser., 28 (1800), p. 371.

188 Gentleman’s Magazine, 78 (1808), p. 110 Google Scholar.

189 Ibid., p. 300; Gentleman’s Magazine, 74 (1804), p. 28 Google Scholar; 75 (1805), p. 1014.

190 Gentleman’s Magazine, 76 (1806), p. 925 Google Scholar.

191 Carter, Durham, p. 12; Gentleman’s Magazine, 72 (1802), pp. 134–35 Google Scholar.

192 Gentleman’s Magazine, 72 (1802), p. 622 Google Scholar.

193 British Critic, 13 (1799), p. 203 Google Scholar.

194 Storer, III (Winchester, m–n).

195 Hampshire Repository, II (1801), p. 149 Google Scholar.

196 Ibid., p. 149.

197 Bradley, ‘Englishness of Gothic’, p. 326; Bradley, ‘Gothic Revival and the Church of England’, p. 120.