ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xxvn] ENGLAND NORMAN PERIOD 223of those noticed in preceding chaptersat Tournai in Norwichr i i TVT i T*I icathedralBelgium, and m Normandy. The same stern simplicityreigns here as at Winchester and :Ely the capitals areof the plain cushion form, and the arches are little morethan square-cut openings through the walls,which seemsa survival of the Saxon method. The wide soffits thusformed give space for several attached shafts with cushioncapitals set side by side, both below in the arcade andabove in the triforium.The exterior of DURHAM, with its three massive towers,its enormous bulk, and itssuperb position on a rockypromontory round which the river Wear sweeps in agrand wooded defile, makes perhaps the most impressivepicture of any cathedral in Europe (Plate CXLVI).Terror of the Danes drove away the monks in 875from Lindisfarne, where S, Aidan had been established byKing Oswald, and where S. Cuthbert in 684 had built amonastery of rude huts of timber and earth, within anenclosure of stone and turf 1 . For eight years theywandered, carrying with them the precious body ofS. Cuthbert, before they found a temporary resting placeat Chester-le-Street ;and it was not till995 that theyfinally settled on the impregnablesite of Durham, In999 Bishop Aldhun built the first stone church there.This was destroyed by William of S. Carilef, the secondNorman bishop, who laid the first stone of a new minster Thein 1093. Before his death he had completed the easternpart as far as the crossing, including the east side of thetransepts ;and the monks continued the work afterwards,and thecompleting the transepts and central crossing,firstbay of the nave. The western side of the transept,Durham1Bede, Vita 5. Cutkberti, v. mp. p. 183.