there is manifest a curious mingling of foreign[1] and Anglo-Norman characteristics.[2] It is, in the main, an Anglo-Norman modification of that portion of Canterbury which was designed by William of Sens. Bishop Hugh, during whose episcopate the work was executed, was a Frenchman by birth and early training; and his architect, Geoffrey de Noyers, though perhaps, as has been affirmed, born on English soil, was in all probability, as the name indicates, of French or Norman extraction. However this may be, the plan of the edifice—especially that of the original east end—is distinctly French; and French characteristics, modified by Anglo-Norman taste, prevail throughout. In general, the foreign influence governs the construction, while the Anglo-Norman influence appears in the decorative details. Structurally, there is no other building in England that exhibits so much of Gothic character except Westminster Abbey, which is rather a French than an English design.
The original eastern termination of this choir was destroyed to make room for the existing Presbytery. It was apsidal, with an apsidal aisle and three apsidal chapels.[3] Each arm of the transept had two apsidal chapels on its eastern side, three of which remain unaltered, and the fourth, the north chapel of the north arm, has recently been
- ↑ Parker, in his book entitled An Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture, and some other English writers have advanced the utterly untenable theory that the choir of Lincoln is purely English work, showing no trace of foreign influence. Such a theory is not worth serious consideration in view of the facts regarding the state of England and of native English arts at this time.
- ↑ I say Anglo-Norman rather than English. For whatever part native Englishmen may, at this time, have taken in architectural works, there can be no doubt that all such works, when not, like the choir of Canterbury, wholly conducted by Frenchmen, were mainly directed by Normans, or by men of chiefly Norman descent. The architecture itself makes this clear enough. Substantially, everything in it which is not distinctly French may be traced to the early and contemporaneous Norman work both in Normandy and in England. There are, indeed, certain minor peculiarities of design which may be attributed to native influence. Native workmen were doubtless largely employed, though certainly for the most part in subordinate capacities. Moreover, the fusion between the two races, which by this time had made considerable progress, would naturally tend to produce men of mingled genius, whose work would partake of both Norman and English characteristics. And such work we actually find in the choir of Lincoln and in other early pointed buildings in England.
- ↑ The plan of this apse was recovered during the last century when the pavement of the Presbytery was taken up for repairs. A partial excavation made in December 1886 in the south aisle of the Presbytery again laid bare a portion of the old foundation.
