Studio: international art (14.1898)

Evesham as a Sketching Ground

on the banks of the river. The earliest mention ot
them to be found is in the Abbey “ Institutes ” com-
piled by Abbot Randulph in the year 1223. The
church of St. Lawrence was almost entirely rebuilt
by Abbot Lichfield early in the sixteenth century,
and it has since been restored on more than one
occasion, so that little of the original building is left.
The early English tower and spire remain, however.
I he tower is square, with its angles bevelled off
between slight buttresses in an unusual way. Some
old and interesting decoration is still to be found
at the east end. Here are beautifully carved
buttresses on each side of the east window: above
these project the busts of four angels, with small
pinnacles, from each of which a flying buttress is
thrown. There is also the chantry of St. Clement,
erected and endowed by Abbot Lichfield, so that
after his death daily mass might be said in it for the
repose of his soul. This chapel is a fine example of
church architecture in the Tudor style. It is richly
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decorated, with a roof of ornamented fan tracery
surrounding a beautifully carved pendant, similar to
that in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge.

All Saints is in many ways the more interesting
church of the two, and it has not to the same
extent been damaged by the restorer. It has
unfortunately been robbed of its ancient memorial
brasses, and its once fine decorations have suffered
sadly at the hands of time and of the iconoclast.
On the south side is the mortuary chapel of the
good Abbot Lichfield, who was buried here in the
year 1546. This chapel the Abbot himself built.
The oldest portions of the church are the north
aisle and chancel, built early in the thirteenth
century. The west porch is Tudor in style, and
may have been added by Abbot Lichfield, who
spent so much thought and money on the monas-
terial buildings. The many distinct styles of
architecture in the church are due to repairs and
additions executed at various times.