DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0178
146 HISTORY OF
When Henry VIII. dissolved the abbey, the cloister was completed*. The consistory,
which is no common fabric, appears to have been erected in the reign of Edward I. \; and
in order to join it to the church, the eastern side of the cloister was, by a very
injudicious contrivance, taken out of the western side of the cross of the church.
The abbot lent it to the king for the use of the House of Commons, on con-
dition that the crown should repair it, which, though it is now used for records,
has been lately done__The Saracen way of building seen in the East, soon spread
over Europe, and particularly in France, the fashions of which nation we imitated
in all ages, even when we defied them. Nothing was magnificent that was not
high beyond measure, with the flutter of arch-buttresses (so we call the sloping
arches that poise the higher vaulting of the nave); whereas the Romans always
concealed the butments, while the Normans thought them ornamental.
These, I have observed, are the first things that occasion the ruin of cathedrals,
being so exposed to the air and weather, the coping, which cannot defend them,
first failing; and if they give way, the vault must spread. Pinnacles are of no
use and as little ornament: the pride of a very high roof, raised above a reason-
able pitch, is not for duration; for the lead is apt to slip : but we are tied to this
form, and must be content with original faults in the first design. But that which
is most to be lamented, is the unhappy choice of the materials: the stone is de-
cayed four inches deep, and falls perpetually off' in scales.
this church. In consequence of this grant, and of other public monies given since the application of
that fund to different uses, and by the care and attention of the deans of Westminster, the two towers
at the west end were finished by Sir Christopher Wren, in a very beautiful and stately manner, and
the repairs of the body of the church in a great measure completed.
* It appears by the accounts still remaining, that the cloister was finished in the year 1366 and
the 39th of Edward III.
+ This is called the chapter-house. Matthew of Westminster mentions it, in the year 1250, in
the following manner:—" Edificavit dominus rex capitulum incomparabile."
When Henry VIII. dissolved the abbey, the cloister was completed*. The consistory,
which is no common fabric, appears to have been erected in the reign of Edward I. \; and
in order to join it to the church, the eastern side of the cloister was, by a very
injudicious contrivance, taken out of the western side of the cross of the church.
The abbot lent it to the king for the use of the House of Commons, on con-
dition that the crown should repair it, which, though it is now used for records,
has been lately done__The Saracen way of building seen in the East, soon spread
over Europe, and particularly in France, the fashions of which nation we imitated
in all ages, even when we defied them. Nothing was magnificent that was not
high beyond measure, with the flutter of arch-buttresses (so we call the sloping
arches that poise the higher vaulting of the nave); whereas the Romans always
concealed the butments, while the Normans thought them ornamental.
These, I have observed, are the first things that occasion the ruin of cathedrals,
being so exposed to the air and weather, the coping, which cannot defend them,
first failing; and if they give way, the vault must spread. Pinnacles are of no
use and as little ornament: the pride of a very high roof, raised above a reason-
able pitch, is not for duration; for the lead is apt to slip : but we are tied to this
form, and must be content with original faults in the first design. But that which
is most to be lamented, is the unhappy choice of the materials: the stone is de-
cayed four inches deep, and falls perpetually off' in scales.
this church. In consequence of this grant, and of other public monies given since the application of
that fund to different uses, and by the care and attention of the deans of Westminster, the two towers
at the west end were finished by Sir Christopher Wren, in a very beautiful and stately manner, and
the repairs of the body of the church in a great measure completed.
* It appears by the accounts still remaining, that the cloister was finished in the year 1366 and
the 39th of Edward III.
+ This is called the chapter-house. Matthew of Westminster mentions it, in the year 1250, in
the following manner:—" Edificavit dominus rex capitulum incomparabile."