broken
arches," and "shafted oriel," the "imagery," and "the scrolls that teach
thee to live and die," speak of another century, when the Norman
architecture, like the Norman character, was losing its distinctive
features and becoming "Early English." We dwell a little upon these
Norman foundations, to show how completely the Church was spreading
itself over the land, and asserting its influence in places where man
had seldom trod, as well as in populous towns, where the great cathedral
was crowded with earnest votaries, and the lessons of peace were
proclaimed amid the distractions of unsettled government and the
oppressions of lordly despotism. Whatever was the misery of the country,
the ordinary family ties still bound the people to the universal
Christian church, whether the priest were Norman or English. The
new-born infant was dipped in the great Norman font, as the children of
the Confessor's time had been dipped in the ruder Saxon. The same Latin
office, unintelligible in words, but significant in its import, was said
and sung when the bride stood at the altar and the father was laid in
his grave. The vernacular tongue gradually melted into one dialect; and
the penitent and the confessor were the first to lay aside the great
distinction of race and country--that of language.

The Norman prelates were men of learning and ability, of taste and
magnificence; and, whatever might have been the luxury and even vices of
some among them, the vast revenues of the great sees were not wholly
devoted to worldly pomp, but were applied to noble uses. After the lapse
of seven centuries we still tread with reverence those portions of our
cathedrals in which the early Norman architecture is manifest. There is
no English cathedral in which we are so completely impressed with the
massive grandeur of the round-arched style as by Durham. Durham
Cathedral was commenced in the middle of the reign of Rufus, and the
building went on through the reign of Henry I. Canterbury was commenced
by Archbishop Lanfranc, soon after the Conquest, and was enlarged and
altered in various details, till it was burned in 1174. Some portions of
the original building remain. Rochester was commenced eleven years after
the Conquest; and its present nave is an unaltered part of the original
building. Chichester has nearly the same date of its commencement; and
the building of this church was continued till its dedication in 1148.
Norwich was founded in 1094,