John Louis Petit

“ Westward of the tower, and engaged in the northern wall of the nave, is a buttress, the masonry of which projects a little beyond the face of the wall, and its base also appears in the interior, as if a portion of the nave wall had been destroyed for its insertion, with the view of giving the central tower a more certain support. The support indeed of the tower is in no place trusted entirely to the walls in which the pilaster strips appear, there being a buttress on each side of the transept, which is much narrower than the tower. ”

“ This debasement also appears on the outside of the Golden Chapel, where the crockets, instead of adding lightness and elegance to the pinnacles, as is the case in the tower and porch, give them a very cumbrous appearance.
It is hardly to be supposed that so beautiful a church will long escape the process of restoration. Nor indeed is it to be altogether wished, though I should earnestly deprecate one on a very comprehensive scale. Externally, some of the pinnacles are broken or displaced, and others have lost their finials ”

“ During a recent visit to the city of Rouen, and a fresh examination of the varied architectural remains existing in that part of Normandy, my attention was attracted to a little building of unusual character. It appeared to present a subject which might prove acceptable to those readers of the Archaeological Journal who take an interest in the adaptation of fictile work, as a means of producing architectural decorations ”

“ Of the painted glass enough only remains to shew what must have been its value, and to make us regret its destruction. It appears to have had a great proportion of white glass, with some fine pencilling and staining; from which I conclude that all the windows were filled with it. A good deal of rich colour is however introduced. Besides the specimen I have noticed in the west window, there are some quarries in the chancel window of a pattern not unfrequent in Perpendicular work; and in the head of the east window are a few figures which I think have kept their place. ”

“ Each face is divided into two stages, the upper is panelled in brickwork; the lower has a plain surface. Both exhibit much variety in the colours of the bricks, and the patterns in which they are disposed ”

“ In these days far less is to be feared from neglect than from injudicious restoration, or from the necessities of a parish forced to enlarge, repair, or rebuild, but unsupplied with funds sufficient for any thing beyond the least expensive mode of providing for the exigency. ”

“ Though church architecture is generally allowed to have reached its highest perfection during the prevalence of the Decorated style, it cannot be said to shew any symptoms of decline at the first appearance of the Perpendicular ”

“ In fact the chancel windows of Shiffnal, which are of a somewhat early Decorated, have a moulding of much the same character. Its effect, as regards light and shade, is excellent, and it is probably more durable than a moulding comprising the large hollow so common in the Perpendicular style. This kind of moulding appears in the tower-arches, the pier-arches on the northern side, all the doors, and some of the windows of the north aisle ”

“ Some of the poppy-heads that have slightly suffered from decay, might be preserved in their present state, others might be restored, and the barbarous work with which a few of them have been repaired, I suppose during the last or preceding century, might be replaced with work of a better character. ”

“ The aisles themselves have no parapets, and their coping at the end is finished in the usual manner, viz., by a plain slope corresponding with the roof; but there has been a large pinnacle at each of the western angles. ”

“ As it is really no easy matter to design a good west front comprising a bell-gable, and the width required in our new churches much increases the difficulty, by placing the belfry over the chancel-arch, according to some of Mr. ”

“ Leigh Delamere. addition of shafts renders these sufficiently large to meet all the angles of an equilateral spire, its cardinal faces being supported by their corresponding imposts, and its diagonal ones resting between them, like the entablature of a colonnade. The cardinal sides have round pinnacles. This belfry, which stands over the chancel-arch, is of an Early English character. ”