Ambrose Poynter

“ With so formidable an undertaking to contend with, it is cause less of surprise than of regret that the late repairs should have been restricted to the more accessible portions of the building, and that there should be no measures in prospect for its permanent security. ”

“ The well itself is a star-shaped basin, ten feet in diameter, canopied by a most graceful stellar vault, and originally inclosed by stone traceried screens, filling up the spaces between the supports. Round the basin is an ambulatory, similarly vaulted. These arrangements, and the form and decoration of the building, are better explained by the engravings. The water rises from a bed of shingle with great impetuosity. ”

“ There is evidently a great mass of masonry in the substructions, and it is quite consistent with what is known of the constructive skill of the architects of the thirteenth century, when they thought it worth while to exert it, to suppose that stones of such large size may have been laid down, that they may continue to support the superstructure in the manner of corbels, but it is not easy either to ascertain the fact, or to apply the operation of underpinning, should it prove to be requisite. ”