Bygone Essex Author:William Andrews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: (Breenstefc Cburcb. By Edward Lamplough. THE settler in the wilderness, in his first attempt to house his family, resorts to the most accessible and easily... more »-worked material, and the wattled cabin or log-hut springs into existence. It is not uninteresting to find traces of a similar evolution in the church architecture of England ; but the resort to wood must not be regarded as any indication that stone and brick were not in use, but simply that a temporary building was urgently required, that the means of the builder were circumscribed, and that, therefore, the most accessible and easily-worked material was resorted to. Glastonbury, that once princely pile, had such a beginning, and according to William of Malmesbury, was founded by Joseph of Ariniathea, and consisted of a chapel, the walls of which were constructed of twisted osiers. This primitive building was undoubtedly the first Christian church erected in Britain, and upparently was preserved with religious veneration, being in existence in the eleventh century. In 1032, Canute's Charter of Glastonbury was written at that place, in the ivooden church, in His Majesty's presence, although the humble chapel had developed into a magnificent abbey, and covered with its sacred soil the bones of the heroic Arthur, and the wise and pacific Edgar. No doubt the original building was preserved by the monks, and in the midst of more pretentious and enduring buildings, was regarded with that peculiar love for holy things which rested with refining grace in the hearts of many of the shaven fathers, maugre the gluttony, pride, and narrow superstition of the many. The darkness of paganism closed like midnight over the war-smitten land after the departure of the Roman legions, but the work of regeneration commenced when Augustine ...« less