IN THE EAllLIER STYLES OF ENGLISH ARCHTTECTURE. 293

could be obtained for tlic purpose, or as the masons could proceed with tlieir undertaking, frecpiently conuiienced by one person and tiiiished by his successor, or built by one, and improved and decorated by another. An instance in proof of this occurs in tlie church of Stratford in Sufiblk ; tlie lower pai't of the north aisle shewing in the flint-work the nanje of the builder and the date of 1430, whilst the porch where the inscri})tion terminates is marked 1432. This will at once explain why incongruities so frequently exist, why we see such perpetual modifications aiul adaptations, and it will su})])ly the reasons for those transitional appearances that exist at Rom- sey, at St. Alban's, and at many other of our most important edifices. Nor is it undeserving consideration, when chronolo- gical difficulties arise, that many of our parish churches were built Ijy country workmen, by men who had little creative genius, and few opportunities of examining the purest ecclesi- astical models, and who therefore were constrained to co})y the best things near them, (which I think will at once help to account for local styles,) and whilst they were necessarily to a certain extent imitators, they would often, through negligence or through a w^ant of fully appreciating the merits of the original, disfigure their own W'Orks by introducing into them some of its defects, probably reducing the depth of the mouldings, or disregarding the relative proportions on which much of its beauty might depend, or depriving it of those decomtions which enchanted the eye, and caused it to dwell with admira- tion on the harmony that prevailed throughout the whole structure. There is also another reason why we should be cautious in drawing direct and positive conclusions respecting the age of village churches, namely, that the styles were always in advance in cathedral or collegiate, whilst they were retrograde in parochial buildings. It was with architectural taste as Avith modern fashions, the rural population were the latest in catch- ing the new mode. It has, indeed, often excited astonishment, that so many ])eautiful fabrics should have been erected in the middle ages, when the difficulty of finding resources to l)uild a church at the present day is so well known that the fact only needs stating. But the surprise will be diminished upon considering the altered circumstances of each period. AVhen monastic buildings and parish churches were erected, the ecclesiastics VOL. III. Q (^