nse of space are the chief characteristics of all three
buildings, massive columns upholding the arcading flanking the naves,
whilst the walls of the aisles are unbroken by triforia, the piers at
Speier and Worms being carried right up to the clerestory windows,
whilst at Mainz two arches are placed one above the other, the vaulting
of the nave springing from the upper tier.

CHAPTER VII

ANGLO-SAXON AND ANGLO-NORMAN ARCHITECTURE

In Great Britain, even more than on the Continent, the architecture of
the past reflects national character, its distinctive peculiarities
having been the outcome of local conditions differing widely from those
that obtained elsewhere, which largely modified the styles introduced
from without. On the arrival of the Romans in the first century of the
Christian era, there were, with the exception of the monoliths on
Salisbury plain known as Stonehenge and other prehistoric relics, the
origin of which has never yet been discovered, no buildings of greater
pretension than mud huts or circular stone or wooden houses with a hole
in the tapering roof through which air was admitted and smoke dispersed.
The houses, palaces, and churches erected by the invaders were, as
proved by the remains at Silchester, Wroxeter, and elsewhere, of the
type of those of Imperial Rome, and on them many British masons were
employed, who thus acquired a knowledge of the principles of
construction that stood their successors in good stead. Those
successors, however, showed no desire to perpetuate the style introduced
by the conquerors, and when the latter withdrew in the 5th century the
buildings they left behind them were allowed to fall into rapid decay.

[Illustration: Example of Saxon Arcading]

[Illustration: Example of Saxon Arcading]

Very quickly too did most of the converts to Christianity relapse into
heathenism, and although the lamp of faith was long kept burning in
Ireland and in Scotland, no trace exists of the churches in which the
little remnant of the followers of the Redeemer met for worship. Of
those built later under the auspices of Saints Augustine, Paulinus, and
other early bishops, not one escaped destruction, but there is strong
evidence to prove that they were of the basilican apsidal plan, that
never took very deep root in England, but was in many cases ousted by
the sanctuary with a square-shaped eastern extension.

It is usual to give the term Anglo-Saxon to all relics of building