WEST DOOR, HOLY TRINITY, COLCHESTER.

In the earliest English churches the entrance was of a very simple nature; for the artistic skill of the people was small, and their ideals were unambitious. The buildings consisted of a nave without clerestory, and a chancel; the door being placed in the centre of the western wall. A curious example of such a door meets us at Holy Trinity, Colchester, although in this case it gives admittance not into the nave directly, but through the ancient tower. This tower, the oldest part of the church, has been constructed of the fragments of buildings older still; the Roman bricks of the ruined city of Camulodunum having been used to form it. In the western side is a narrow doorway, contained by two square shafts with very simple capitals, and having a triangular head with an equally simple moulding by way of drip-stone. The date is supposed to be between 800 and 1000 A.D. A church perhaps yet older is that of S. Lawrence at Bradford-on-Avon, which has a good claim to be the veritable structure reared by S. Aldhelm in the first years of the eighth century. Here there is a northern porch of unusual size in proportion to the rest of [p 8] the building; the entrance to which is by means of an arched doorway, tall and narrow. The narrowness of some of these ancient doorways is remarkable. At Sowerford-Keynes is one, now built up, which, though nearly nine feet high, is but 1 foot 9 inches wide at the springing of the arch, widening towards the base to 2 feet 5½ inches. The jambs are of “short and long” work, and the abacus has a very simple zig-zag moulding. The arch itself is not built up, but carved out of one stone, which is cut square on the upper side and scooped into a parabolic curve on the lower. A double row of cable moulding decorates it. This, which has been called “one of the most characteristic specimens of Saxon architecture in England,” was the northern entrance to the church. Another instance of a western door of simple design is supplied by Crowle, or Croule, in north Lincolnshire. Here we meet with a rectangular doorway, the top of which is formed of one long stone, on which is some antique carving and a fragment of a runic inscription.[1] Above this is a tympanum filled with diamond-shaped stones of small size.

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With the rise of the so-called Norman style of architecture the doors of our churches took a handsomer form; and as the churches themselves were now formed on a larger and nobler plan, more than one entrance was often required. The usual door for the people was now commonly placed at the south side, except in churches connected (as were so many of our cathedrals) with monastic foundations. In this latter case the south side was generally occupied by the cloisters and other conventual buildings, and the people’s door was therefore placed upon the north side. At this period, too, the church-porch begins its development; for, although porches in a strict sense were at any rate not usual, the door-way deeply sunk in the massive wall and protected by three, four, or even more concentric arches, suggests the more fully developed shelter of the porch. Of doors of this kind any of our older abbey-churches will supply adequate, and often splendid, examples. The great north door of Durham Cathedral, and the smaller, but not less beautiful doors into the cloisters there, are fine instances. The west and north doors of the little cathedral of Llandaff supply examples in another class of building; and even small and [p 10] obscure parish churches are sometimes dignified with the possession of an entrance full of the massive solemnity of this Norman work. The village church of Heysham, on Morecambe Bay, has a south door well worthy of mention in this connection; and the Lincolnshire church already cited, Crowle, has an interesting doorway of this kind.

As art progressed in Christendom, and exhibited its growing force especially in the churches, the entrances thereto shared in the increasing splendour of the whole. The mouldings of the arches and the pillars, the elaboration of capitals and bases, all showed the evidence of devotion guided by taste and skill. And often something more than mere decoration was attempted; the opportunity was seized to add instruction, and figures of saints and angels, or complete scenes from scriptural or ecclesiastical story, filled the expanse of the tympanum or the niches of the columns. About the twelfth century, also, it became customary to divide the main entrance into two by means of a pillar, or a group of pillars; the two-leaved door being thus made symbolical of the two natures of Christ, of Whom, as Durandus tells us, it is itself [p 11] the emblem, “according to that saying in the Gospel, ‘I am the Door!’”

The Continent presents some splendid examples of these decorated porticoes. The cathedral of Strasburg, preserved as by a series of miracles in spite of every danger that can assail a building, fire, lightning, earthquake, and cannonade, has a very grand west entrance; its tall doors set within a number of receding arches, and the sharply-pointed gable which crowns them flanked and crested with tapering pinnacles. The French artists of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were unrivalled in the beauty and wealth of statuary with which they adorned their churches, and not least their doors. “The glory and the beauty” of the great porch at Amiens has been set forth fully by Ruskin, who has woven into one wonderful whole the meaning of the statues, which, like “a cloud of witnesses,” throng the western front. But Amiens is not alone; S. Denis, Paris, Sens, Angouléme, Poictiers,

Autun, Chartres, Laon, Rheims, Vezelay, Auxerre, and other cathedrals are all magnificent in this respect. The principal entrance to Seville cathedral is flanked by columns upholding niches filled with figures of [p 12] saints and angels, while the tympanum contains a carving of the entrance of the Saviour into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. In the island of Majorca, the south door-way of the cathedral of Palma is exceptionally beautiful. The statue of the Blessed Virgin crowns the centre column, and above is the Last Supper. A record of the architect of this splendid piece of work is preserved in an old account book of the cathedral: “On January 29th, 1394, Master Pedro Morey, sculptor, master artificer of the south door, which was begun by him, passed from this life. Anima ejus requiescat in pace. Amen.” The entrance in the west front is also a fine one, and is inscribed, “Non est factum tale opus in universis regnis.”

WEST DOOR, HIGHAM FERRERS CHURCH.

Although in England we cannot match the gorgeousness of detail exhibited by the flamboyant architecture of some of the examples above noticed, yet we too have instances of which we may well be proud. The western front of Peterborough cathedral, over the partial renovation of which there has recently been so much controversy between architects and antiquaries, has been pronounced to be “the grandest portico in Europe;” but this has reference to the whole [p 13] façade rather than to the door-way in itself. If our subject allowed of our taking so wide a view, the splendid west fronts of Exeter, York, and others of our minsters, would demand a place of honour in the list. Gloucester cathedral has a dignified porch over the south door, in which are the figures of a number of saints. The west door [p 14] of Rochester is also interesting; its decorated Norman arches are richly carved, and enclose a tympanum covered with characteristic sculpture. Of a different type is the graceful west door at Ely, whose pointed arches are upheld by delicately cut shafts, the tympanum over the twin doorways being pierced by a double trefoil within a vesica. The parish church of Higham Ferrers has double western doors, separated by a bold shaft, above which is a niche (now unoccupied) for a statue. The tympanum, anciently divided by this figure, has five medallions on each side filled with sculptured scenes from the New Testament, round which runs a scroll of conventional foliage. The neighbouring churches of Rushden and Raunds have also good double-leaved doors. To take one instance from the Northern Kingdom, S. Giles’s, Edinburgh, has a dignified west entrance. Many of the better examples of our modern churches have admirable porticoes, of which one example must suffice. All Saints’ Church, Cheltenham, has double doors within receding arches; the tympanum has the figure of Our Lord enthroned in glory surrounded by the saints, and the central shaft and the side pillars contain other statues.

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There is occasionally found in a cathedral, or other large church, a porch of unusual depth, known as a Galilee. Here, during Lent, those assembled who were bidden to do public penance; the coming of Maundy Thursday being the signal for their admission once more into the church itself. Ely has a western Galilee entered by an arch, divided by a central pillar, and filled in the upper part with tracery. Lincoln has a Galilee, deep and dignified in plan, with a vaulted roof. Another English cathedral so provided is that of Chichester; and among parish churches the Galilee is found at Boxley, Llantwit, Chertsey, and S. Woolos.