st. Traces exist also of an
influence which the rapid advance that had been made by the art of
building as practised in Normandy was exerting in our island. The
buildings at Westminster Abbey raised by Edward the Confessor, though
they have been almost all rebuilt, have left just sufficient traces
behind to enable us to recognise that they were of bold design. The
plan of the Confessor's church was laid out upon a scale almost as
large as that of the present structure. The monastic buildings were
extensive. The details of the work were, some of them, refined and
delicate, and resembled closely those employed in Norman buildings at
that time. Thus it appears that, even had the Conquest not taken
place, no small influence would have been exerted upon buildings in
England by the advance then being made in France; but instead of a
gradual improvement being so produced, a sudden and rapid revolution
was effected by the complete conquest of the country and its
occupation by nobles and ecclesiastics from Normandy, who, enriched by
the plunder of the conquered country, were eager to establish
themselves in permanent buildings.

Shortly after the Conquest distinctive features began to show
themselves. Norman architecture in England soon became essentially
different from what it was in Normandy, and we possess in this country
a large series of fine works showing the growth of this imported
style, from the early simplicity of the chapel in the Tower of London
to such elaboration as that of the later parts of Durham Cathedral.

The number of churches founded or rebuilt soon after the Norman
Conquest must have been enormous, for in examining churches of every
date and in every part of England it is common to find some fragment
of Norman work remaining from a former church: this is very frequently
a doorway left standing or built into walls of later date: and, in
addition to these fragments, no small number of churches, and more
than one cathedral, together with numerous castles, remain in whole or
in part as they were erected by the original builders.

Norman architecture is considered to have prevailed in England for
more than a century; that is to say, from the Conquest (1066) to the
accession of Richard I. (1189). For some details of the marks by which
Norman work can be recognised the reader is referred to the companion
volume;[36] we propose here to give an account of the broader
characteristics of the buildings erected duri