Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of SarumWhite, Gleeson
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum
White, Gleeson
Salisbury Cathedral
Much of the carved work in both these chantries was employed elsewhere
in the buildings. The plea put forward for their removal was founded
on a report by Francis Price thirty-six years before, wherein he
considered them unsafe. When the Hungerford Chantry was added one of
the outside buttresses of the Lady Chapel aisle was removed to make
room for it; the opening pierced through the main walls of the
cathedral into both the chapels were also sources of weakness. Wyatt
seized upon these facts, and with the precedent of Price's report,
declared the chapels unsafe, and also, which was no doubt his real
motive for action, that "their lack of uniformity" injured the
appearance of the buildings. Wyatt's ideal virtues were of the lowest
order, to obtain neatness and tidiness he was prepared to sacrifice
any and every thing, and the two chapels were obviously not in the
style of the cathedral, nor, unluckily (for had they been they might
yet be standing), precisely symmetrical in effect, so they were swept
away. These actions at Salisbury, and similar destruction at Lincoln,
Hereford, and elsewhere, have made Wyatt's name odious; but deserving
though he be of all blame, it must not be forgotten that restorers of
to-day, even at Salisbury, have effaced much interesting work of past
time on the same pretext: that it failed to accord with the rest of
the work to which it was obviously a late addition. This plea,
specious and even excellent in theory, has probably done more
irreparable injury to our ancient buildings than even the iconoclasts
of the Reformation. A shattered ruin may convey a clear idea of its
original state, while a smooth, pedantic restoration will obliterate
it entirely.
=The Stained Glass= throughout the whole building survives but in a
few instances, and these, with two exceptions, not in their original
places. Of its wholesale destruction we have sad evidence extant in a
letter, dated 1788, from John Berry, glazier, of Salisbury, to Mr.
Lloyd, of Conduit Street, London. It may be transcribed in full, to
show how reckless the custodians of the fabric were at that
time:--"Sir. This day I have sent you a Box full of old Stained &
Painted glass, as you desired me to due, which I hope will sute your
Purpos, it his the best that I can get at Present. But I expect to
Beate to Peceais a a great deal very sune, as it his of now use to
me, and we do it for the lead. If you want more of the same sorts you
may have what thear is, if it will pay for taking out, as it is a Deal
of Truble to what Beating it to Peceais his; you will send me a line
as soon as Possoble, for we are goain to move our glasing shop to a
Nother plase, and thin we hope to save a great deal more of the like
sort, which I ham your most Omble servant--John Berry."
[Illustration: PORTIONS OF THE OLD STAINED GLASS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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