The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-30
ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE.
Important Discoveries at Cam
bridge College, England.
Great Interest Aroused by tho Cnearth.
Ing of Remnants of Walls Erected
in tho Thirteenth
Century.

Nowadays, in England. if old build
| ings are touched at all, it is too often
with a view to their restoration-a
word which in this case is synonym
| for destruction. Therefore, when de-
liberate effort is made, not to give d
| new version of old work, but to free
I that old work from every modern en-
croachment, the event is one of no
small interest to all who are concerned
with the history of the past, of no
small Importance to all who have made
a study of architecture. And this is
exactly what is happening just now at
Jesus college, Cambridge, says the New
York Nation.
The college, it will be remembered,
was not an independent foundation,
but sprang from the old nunnery of st.
Radegunde. The chief portion of the
earlier buildings still remaining is the
chapel. It's attraction to the modern
tourist, no doubt, is found in the
Burne-Jones windows, which, it may
be noted in passing, are quite the
finest examples of stained glass that
artist has yet given us. But, to the
architect and arch8ologist, it is the
church itself, with it's nave and tri-
angle and its beautiful early English
piers and arches and arcades. Of
course. Kings stands alone as the
great architectural marvel of Cam
bridge; but Jesus chapel, in its own
way, is only less fine if at first glance
it must seem less imposing, while in
historical associations and significance
it is supreme.
Recently an aged fellow of the col
lege, remembering that when masons
were putting a new coat of plaster on
the inner cloister forty years ago he
had fancied he distinguished the
spring of an arch partially concealed
in the old stone work, determined to
have the plaster pulled off. What he
has found proves to DE one of the most
important architectural discoveries
made in England for many years. The
arch, which had been just indicated in
the stonework, has turned out to be
Just one of three, and these have been
almost entirely set free from the wall
during long centuries gradually built
up about them. They belong to the
purest period of the thirteenth century,
good authorities affirming that they
date back to 1890, or Whereabouts. The
reasons for this belief are the capitals,
which still show some suggestion of
Norman influence, and the beautiful
detached shafts, which later architects
never introduced, having learned that
greater strength, if less charm, was
secured by connecting them to the
central shaft with bands.
The holdings and the carved foliage
of the capitals are in the most wonder
full state of preservation, and the stone
is of almost dazzling whiteness-a
whiteness to be attributed, perhaps,
partly to whitewash and destined not
long to survive exposure to the foggy
English atmosphere and the smoke of
Cambridge. Thanks to their chance
burial, the arches have escaped the re-
storer; indeed, they have been brought
to light at the best moment, now that
few men, at least, begin to under
stand the folly of tampering with the
none too many relics and monuments
of the past still left. Not SO far re-
moved is the time when the old piscina
was discovered in the chapel; then the
one idea was TO restore it: now college
dignitaries are of another way of
thinking. The arches form the door
way and near windows of the nuns
chapter house Its floor evidently was
much below the level of the present
cloister, but the necessary excavations
have been made 10 the very base of the
central door, so as to show the proper
tions of shafts and arches in their
original grace and purity.
Nor will the floor be filed in again.
The cloister here is, in term time, one
of the very busy thoroughfares of
Jesus; but for little space it will be
narrowed. in order that the effect of
this beautiful bit of the old monastic
building may be seen in all its lowell
ness and perfection. In the course of
digging, the worllmen came upon a
fine stone coffin with sculptured top
the coffin of an early prioress-and this
probably will be left lying exactly
where it was found, turned to east and
west, even though part of it must re-
main hidden under so much of the
pavement as utility refuses to sacrifice
to archaeology. This discovery rightly
has aroused great interest in Cam
bridge.