CHAP. time the monastery of Ely was founded, and

I.

the abbeys of Abingdon, Chertsey, and Barking, were builded'. The monastery of Gloucester was also established. But before this time, Tona, upon the western coast of Scotland, was a seat of letters: the writings of Adamnanus, its abbot, have been often cited in these Travels. There can be no doubt, therefore, but that an abbey church existed in that island prior to the foundation of the monastery at Ely. Adamnanus was born, in the beginning of the seventh century', at Rathboth, now called Raphoe, in the County of Donegal, in Ireland; which country he left when he became abbot of Iona*. As at that time the model of every Christian sanctuary was derived from the Holy Land, and generally from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre', where the pointed style may yet be discerned in the

(1) Stow's Summary of the Chronicles of England, pp. 27, 28. Lond. 1598.

(2) Ibid.

(3) A. D. 626.

(4) Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. IX. p. 308. Edin. 1799.

(5) Witness the interesting though almost unnoticed model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, called "the Round Church," in Cambridge, built by the Knights of Jerusalem, and shewing precisely the form of the building as it existed in the seventh century. See the Plan given by Adamnanus, apud Mabillon. Acta Sanctor. Ordin. Benedicti, Sec. 3. Par. 2. p. 505. L. Par. 1672.

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superstructure covering the Sepulchre itself, CHAP. it is surely probable that Iona, whose abbot drew up so accurate an account of all the holy places, would preserve something in imitation of its most sacred edifices. The author of these Travels once visited Iona; and in the numerous vestiges of ecclesiatical splendour which he there observed, in the rude bas-reliefs of its sepulchral monuments, in granite coffins, but, above all, in the remains of the pointed Gothic style exhibited in the ruins upon that island', a traveller there might rather imagine himself viewing the antiquities of the Holy Land,

.

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(6) See Pococke's Travels, and the Engravings already given in this work. The curious work of Bernardino, Trattato delle Piante et Immagini de sacri Edifizi de Terra Santa," published at Florence, in 1620, gives the rules and exact dimensions for the construction of sanctuaries after the model of the Holy Sepulchre, which, at the time of Bernardino's visit to Jerusalem, was entirely surrounded with pointed arches. The pointed arches of the Mikias, in the Isle of Rhouda, near Caïro, are of the ninth century, as will be proved in a subsequent Note. Many other instances might be adduced to prove that the pointed style in architecture existed in all the oldest Saracenic structures; but the Eastern origin of the pointed arch has been so satisfactorily demonstrated by WHITTINGTON, (Hist. Surv. of Eccles. Antiq. &c.) by HAGGITT, (Lett. on Gothic Architect.) by KERRICH, (Observ. on the Churches of Italy, Archæcl. Vol. XVI.) and by HAWKINS, (Hist. of the Orig. &c. of Gothic Architecture,) that an obstinate denial of the fact is merely the struggle of ignorance against the acknowledgment of error.

(7) See Pennant's Hebrides, Plates xxII and xx. p. 253. Chester, 1774.

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The

CHAP. and of edifices erected by the mother of Constantine, than of an ecclesiastical establishment upon a small island in the Hebrides; and upon an island, too, which was already thus distinguished, before the inhabitants of England could be said to be converted to Christianity; at an æra when the king of the East Angles was actually sending into Burgundy for missionaries to preach the Christian faith'. state of Iona, indeed, at that period, can only be accounted for by the intercourse which was then maintained with the Holy Land by all parts of the Christian world. As a seat of learning, Iona was so renowned, that its abbot was appointed to act as ambassador from Ireland to an English monarch'; and it is well known that Bede borrowed his account of the Holy Land from Arculfe's testimony, as afforded by Adamnanus. We may therefore with justice ask, "Has it been proved, that, prior to the introduction of the Saxon arch in the southern

1) Stow's Summary, &c. p. 27. Lond. 1598.

(2) Bede, as cited by Mabillon, mentions the embassy of Adamnanus to Ealdfrith called Aldfrid by Bede), king of the Northumbrians, a short time before the abbot's death, in 705. Adamnanum mortuum esse paullo post suam legationem ad Aldfridum, anno DCCV defunctum, teste Beda in lib. v. cap. 19. anno regni sui vigesimo necdum impleto." (Vide Mabillon. Acta Ord. S. Bened. Sæc. 3. Par. 2. p. 500. L. Par. 1672.)

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provinces of our island, no instance of the pointed CHAP. style adorned those ecclesiastical establishments in the north, which, having no connexion with the Saxons, were erected at an earlier period, and after a different model? It is conceived that this question cannot be answered, by urging that the pointed style originated in our country from the intersection of circular arches. The fact of the existence of pointed arches, before the period assigned for their invention in England, is a plain document, which cannot be superseded': it rests upon the evidence of pointed arches situate

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(3) See the very recent but most satisfactory elucidation of this subject, by the Rev. T. Kerrich, read before the Society of Antiquaries, May 11, 18, and June 1, 1809, and since published in the XVIth volume of their Archæologia. Speaking of the supposed English origin of Gothic architecture, Mr. Kerrich says, The late Mr. Gilpin, I believe, first broached this notion, (See Gilpin's Northern Tour, vol. I.) at least he first delivered it to the world in print: he had never been out of England: he was therefore excusable: but how people who had travelled, and had visited the other countries of Europe, could patronize such a notion, is really surprising: they must know, unless they voluntarily shut their eyes, that, throughout the Low Countries, from ST. OMER'S to COLOGNE, the old churches are all Gothic; and many of them immense structures, and wonderfully beautiful; such as the cathedrals of Antwerp and Mechlin, St. Gudule's at Brussels, and St. Bavon's at Ghent, and numberless others. The whole of France is covered with them, from Calais to Lyons, and quite to the banks of the Rhine, where the cathedral of Strasburg is eminently light and beautiful. The cathedral and church of St. Nicaise at Rheims, the cathedrals of Amiens, Rouen, and Evreux, are also well known as buildings of extraordinary dimensions and elegance in this style of architecture. According to Ponz's Voyage de España, and

the

CHAP. in countries then unknown to Englishmen; as in

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the Tombs of Oriental Tartary; also of pointed

arches in Egypt and in the Holy Land, in the examples already alluded to; and there are others which have not been adduced. The roof of a chamber in one of the pyramids of Saccára, in Egypt, is so constructed, that the section of it would exhibit a lancet form; the sides being inclined at an angle of about sixty degrees1. But even with reference to buildings erected in the twelfth century, and especially to the mosque and sepulchre of Sultan Zahir, near the eastern gate of Caïro2, will the assumption be deemed sufficient to account for the pointed arches they

the writings of other travellers, the case is the very same in every kingdom of SPAIN." Mr. Kerrich then proves its existence, and describes its remains, over all GERMANY and ITALY. See Observations on Gothic Buildings and Architecture, by the Rev. T. Kerrich, Principal Librarian of the University of Cambridge, M. A. F. S. A. Archaologia, vol. XVI. p. 299, et seq. Lond. 1811.

(1) The author himself saw this roof, in his subsequent visit to those Pyramids; but having neglected to notice it in his Journal, and preserving only a doubtful recollection of the fact, he consulted his friend Burckhürdt, now travelling in Egypt, upon the subject of its existence. The following is an Extract from a Letter, dated Cairo, July 10, 1815, containing Mr. Burckhärdt's answer. "There is a large room in one of the Pyramids to the south of those which are commonly called Pyramids of Saccára,' the roof of which is formed by the inclination of the two sides; which meet above, at an angle of about sixty or sixty-five degrees." Burckhärdt's MS. Letter.

(2) Vid. Museum Worsleyanum, p. 87. Lond. 1794. Caliph Zahir lived in the twelfth century.