The antiquities of England and Wales . this to be true, and utter it with heavinefs, that neither theBritons under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the Englifh people, under the Danes and Normans,had ever fuch damage of their learned monuments, as we have feen in our time. Our poflerity maywell curfe this wicked faiSl of our age ; this unreafonable fpoil of Englands moll noble antiquities. Vol. I. P . To io6 PREFACE. To conclude, their {lately buildings and magnificent churchesweie ilnking ornaments to the country ; the furious zeal withwhich thefe were demolifhed, their fine carvings deftroyed,
The antiquities of England and Wales . this to be true, and utter it with heavinefs, that neither theBritons under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the Englifh people, under the Danes and Normans,had ever fuch damage of their learned monuments, as we have feen in our time. Our poflerity maywell curfe this wicked faiSl of our age ; this unreafonable fpoil of Englands moll noble antiquities. Vol. I. P . To io6 PREFACE. To conclude, their {lately buildings and magnificent churchesweie ilnking ornaments to the country ; the furious zeal withwhich thefe were demolifhed, their fine carvings deftroyed, andtheir beautiful painted windows broken, would almoft tempt oneto imagine, that the perfons who diredted thefe depredations,were aftuated with an enmity to the fine arts, inftead of a hatredto the popifli fuperftition, ^ An alphabetical lift of all the religious houfes in England andWales, to whom dedicated, when founded, with their valua-tion at the time of the diflblution, will be added in the Index,at the conclufion of the ARCHI- PREFACE. 107 ARCHITECTURE. JVIOST of the writers who mention our ancient buildings, par-ticularly the religious ones, notwithftanding the fl-riking differencein the flyles of their conftruclion, clafs them all under the com-mon denomination of Gothic : a general appellation by them ap-plied to all buildings not exadliy conformable to fome one of thefive orders of architedure. Our. modern antiquaries, more accu-rately, divide them into Saxon, Norman and Saracenic ; or thatfpecies vulgarly, though improperly, called Gothic. An opinion has long prevailed, chiefly countenanced by , (a) that the Saxon churches were moftly built with tim-ber ; and that the few they had of ftone, confifted only of uprightwalls, without pillars or arches; the confi:ru6lion of which, it ispretended, they were entirely ignorant of. Mr. Somner feems tohave founded his opinion on the authority of Stowe, and a dif- (a) Indeed, it is to be obferved, that before
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