The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-27 00:00:00

N The restoration of this most beautiful adjunct to
the grand old Abbey of St. Peter's may more pro-
perly be called a resuscitation than a restoration.
It is not being rebuilt, or even, in the strict sense
of the term, being renovated—a word which is
_dreaded by all true antiquarians and archaeologists ;
it is simply being restored to the condition in which
it existed more than five centuries ago, but without
any modern necessary alteration or improvement
whatever. It is only being cleaned, strengthened,
and revealed in all its beauty, and the Vandalisms
which have hitherto, in the way of stairs and
shelves and blocked-up windows, desecrated its
exquisite proportions, are being removed for
good and all. The cost of what may be called
literally cleaning and strengthening it will be
in all about £30,000, and there are few even
of the most economical members of Parliament or
their constituents who will grudge this sum. The
great mass of the rents of the old Abbots of
Westminster goes now to the Crown—that is to say,
to the country, and it is not unfair that the country
generally should hear the expense of maintaining
in all its ancient integrity even the smallest vestige
of the great Abbey, which is without its equal,
either for antiquity or historical associations, in the
world. The Chapter-house was once one of its most
beautiful accessories. It is larger, but on almost
the same plan and style as the celebrated
Chapter-houses of Wells and Salisbury. The latter
is known among all architects here and abroad for
its beauty ; but that at Westminster, though finer,
had been little seen and still less known. In fact,
till now it has never been much regarded, and it
was not till it threatened to crumble into ruins
that efforts were made to keep it from literally
falling in a heap. Yet there was much even in its
associations, apart from its rare architectural
• beauty, to justify its preservation. It was, at the
latest, built in the reign of Henry 111., and in it
the House of Commons used to meet in 1377, and
continued to meet till they were moved over the
way to St. Stephen's Chapel, now St. Stephen's
Hall, in the crypt under which, at its building,
Chaucer was clerk of the works. In the Chapter-
house, also, was kept the Doomsday Book, with the
original wills of Richard 11., Henry V., Henry VII.,
Henry VIII., the Golden Bull of Clement VII.,
giving the title of Defender of the Faith to Henry
VIII. for his treatise against Luther and the
Reformation, and the treaty of perpetual peace
signed on the Field of the Cloth of Gold between
Henry VIII. and Francis 1., the exquisite gold seal
to which, six inches in diameter, is said to be the
work of Cellini. But " Tempts edax rerum," and
the old historic Chapter-house came to be disused,
and in process of time to be dismantled and almost
destroyed. It was and still is octagon in shape, with
eight large and lofty traceried windows in the
richest Gothic style. The thrust of its light roof
was held by a peculiar bracing of three stout
wrought-iron rods, each nearly two inches in dia-
meter, passing round the walls above the tapering
windows, and being joined in a most peculiar man-
ner by iron rings. These were removed during
some ill-advised and most antique improvements,
and at once the roof began to thrust the walls out-
wards, and flying buttresses had to be built to re-
tain them. There is no record as to the time when
these buttresses were built, and all differ much as
to periods, and vary in strength from 9ft. to 18ft.
thick, the last having apparently been built up as
• late as 200 years ago. After this, in spite of its
exquisite tempera paintings and carvings, its rich
tracery, and brilliant windows, it sank into neglect,
and became at last a mere storehouse for Govern-
ment records, and this was almost the ruin of one
of the noblest structures connected with the Abbey.
The Westminster Chapter-house, like that at
Salisbury, may be described as a gigantic octagon
lantern, about 64ft. in diameter and 64ft. high,
with a rich groined roof, meeting in the centre, as
at Salisbury and Wells, on a clustered pillar of
black Purbeck marble. Such a building, of course,
did not suit the requirements of a great Record-
office, so the windows were broken out and bricked
up, an upper story was made by a common deal
floor let into the walls, and the paintings and carved
groined arches were hidden in by presses to hold the
books. Only one good came of this change, which is
that the encaustic pavement was boarded over, and
thus there remains to us one of the finest examples
of mediaeval tiling that exists in England. That
this is the original pavement is evident from the
recurrence of the arms of Henry 111. Its colouring
is superb, and its flowing patterns are burnt in with
a delicacy and brightness which would do credit to
Minton even now. Among the patterns are little
figures of kings and queens, saints, ecclesiastics,
and minstrels. This preservation, however, is all
we have to thank the Record-office of those times
for, and we should perhaps have not had even that
but for the fact that boarding was warmer to the
feet than tiles. In all other matters it was mis-
used with neglect, which one would hardly think
even the most untaught clowns would have been
guilty of. For the sake of gaining a few inches
for the wooden shelves, all the exquisite carving
of the capitals of the black marble columns was
hacked away—even the groining of the arches
above them, all gilded, coloured, and beautifully
carved like the " diaper" patterns of the Alhambra
Palace, was, in most cases, chiselled out to
make room for a beam or a wooden shelf.
Some good, however, was effected even by this,
for the shelves protected the paintings on the
walls, though not entirely, for a doorway
was cut through one of the best, just as in Italy a
doorway was cut in ono of Domenichino's great
frescoes of the Last Supper. The paintings in the
Chapter-house are evidently the work of an Italian
artist, and are in a tolerable state of preservation,
thanks to the shelves which wero in front of them.
In some parts the colours are wonderfully brilliant,
and the heads are painted with great force and cha-
racter. In one bay, evidently reserved as a seat
for the Abbot, the groinings of the arches are beau-
tifully coloured and gilded, but these, like the
others, have been hacked and hewn and chiselled and

defaced to make room for shelves. Here, and on other
portions of the carvings and walls, are ample re-
mains of colour and gilding. Some of the caps of
the columns, both here and elsewhere, are simply
moulded, but all are graceful. It will be very

easy to restore these columns and groined arches
to their original condition. Art critics are pro-
verbially hard to please, however, and it is con-
tended that to restore these mutilated walls is to

falsify history and sophisticate art. As well might
one complain of mending a rare old Wedgwood
vase, or repairing a rent in a painting of one of the
old masters. Much interest attaches to the once
double portal at the top of the steps of the vesti-
bule which connects the Chapter-house with the
Cloisters. The pillar dividing this portal has dis-
appeared, as also its head, which once enclosed in
a large centre quatrefoil a figure of Our Saviour.
A confirmation of this last fact is furnished by
an antique record, which directs the monks
on entering the Chapter-house to bow to such a

statue. In the wall space to the right and left of
this door head are figures of saints and angels,
which, strange to say, have escaped both the Puri-

tans and the keepers of the records. The bronze

wings of the angel Gabriel, however, have been
carried off, though the removal of a vast mass of
whitewash has brought to light many figures which
it at once concealed while it protected them. After
all these devastations the Chapter-house soon began
to yield to what might have been its fate. The but-
tresses gave way, and the side wall sank to the
south. The outer walls bowed out in an alarming
manner, some as much as nearly ten inches from
the perpendicular, while the central column, of black
Purbeck marble, with its clustered shafts, was not
only bent aside, but even twisted. The place too
became too small for the records of which it was
full, and they were at last removed. Still, even
lightened of this weight on its walls, the structure
continued to yield, and at last, to save it from
ultimate ruin, Mr. Gilbert Scott was called in.
Mr. Scott is about the most conservative architect
in his profession. He neither renovates nor re-

stores, in the architectural sense of the words,
dut only replaces, and even that only as far as
is possible consistent with the strength and durAbi-