York, Lincoln, Silchester, and
elsewhere; and sometimes we meet with bricks or stone arranged
herring-bone fashion, as in the vestiges of a Roman building at Castor,
Northamptonshire, and the walls of a Roman villa discovered at Littleton,
Somersetshire.

Q. Have we any remains of the ancient British churches erected in this
country in the third, fourth, or fifth centuries?

A. None such have yet been discovered or noticed; for the ruinous
structure at Perranzabuloe in Cornwall, which some assert to have been an
ancient British church, is probably not of earlier date than the twelfth
century; and the church of St. Martin at Canterbury, built in the time of
the Romans, which Augustine found on his arrival still used for the
worship of God, was rebuilt in the thirteenth century, but, to all
appearance, with the same materials of which the original church was
constructed.

Q. Do any of our churches bear a resemblance to Roman buildings?

A. The church now in ruins within the precincts of the Castle of Dover
presents features of early work approximating Roman, as a portal and
window-arches formed of brickwork, which seem to have been copied from
those in the Roman tower near adjoining; the walls also have much of Roman
brick worked up into them, but have no such regular horizontal layers as
Roman masonry displays. The most ancient portions of this church are
attributed to belong to the middle of the seventh century. The church of
Brixworth, Northamptonshire, is perhaps the most complete specimen we have
existing of an early Anglo-Saxon church: it has had side aisles separated
from the nave by semicircular arches constructed of Roman bricks, with
wide joints; these arches spring from square and plain massive piers.
There is also fair recorded evidence to support the inference that this
church is a structure of the latter part of the seventh century. Roman
bricks are worked up in the walls, in no regular order, however, but
indiscriminately, as in the church at Dover Castle.

[Illustration: Pilaster Rib-work Arch, Brigstock Church.]

Q. What peculiarities are observable in masonry of Anglo-Saxon
construction?

A. From existing vestiges of churches of presumed Anglo-Saxon construction
it appears that the walls were chiefly formed of rubble or rag-stone,
covered on the exterior with stucco or plaster, with long and short blocks
of ashlar or hewn stone, disposed at the angles in alternate courses. We
also find, projectin