Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-10-02

Church, F. r. s., President of the
Mincralogical Society, one of the
most famous chemists in England,
and the chief authority on the con-
dition of Westminster Abbey, re-
ported to the dean and chapter re-
Gently, after careful investigation
made at their request, that the Lon
don smoke, and especially the fumes
of the potteries over in Lambeth,
across the river from the Abbey,
wore acting most injuriously on the
stone work, and that, to quote the
distinguished professors own words,
"either they must be stopped or in
the course of not many years the
Abbey will be ruin" Prof. Church
did not make this startling statement
off his own bat, 80 to speak, but as
the chairman of committee of ex-
perts.
You might fancy that steps were
taken at once to stop the Lambeth
potteries from pouring forth acid
laden smoke from their chimneys,
but no; the potteries said they were
sure their smoke did not do any
damage to anybody. "Look at our
chimneys," they said; "they have
not been hurt bit by the fumes.
To be sure" they admitted, "the
chimneys are made of terra Gotta,
which doesn't yield so readily to
acid, whereas Westminster Abbey is
built of very cheap soft stone" Of
course, it wasn't the potters' fault if
the most precious monument in Eng
land was built of every cheap soft
stone," and furthermore they added
what can't be denied, that the pot
terry smoke was little if any more
harmful than the black cloud that
pours perpetually in winter from
every domestic chimney in London,
making every public building that
was originally white or gray, jet
black for the first story, a brownish
yellow for the next section, shading
off gradually into more or less
dirty gray up where the air is clearer.
INTERIOR CRUMBLING, TOO.
The interior of Westminster is in
almost as bad condition, however, as
the exterior. a considerable portion
of masonry in st. Johns Chapel came
down with crash few months ago
and smashed corner of the pictur-
esque and historic tomb of Sir, Henry
Norris. 1t was five feet of an ornate
window shaft that fell, and the rest
of tho shaft, about twelve feet, had
to be removed to prevent its tumb-
ling on the heads of the workmen.
"Wo were called in just in the
nick Of time," said Prof. Church in
an interview after the publication of
his report. "The stone work under
meath the surface has evidently been
rotting for years. At last the crisis
has arrived. White patches have
appeared, which, when touched,
crumblc away to a fine powder, OBJ
literating a fine piece of carving. 1t
is the chapter house with it's crypt,
which we have particularly exam
ined, but / fear the Abbey proper,
especially at the eastern end, is in
great peril, too"
The noble front of the Abbey has
been decorated for many months
with the primitive form of scaffold-
ing built up from the ground on
poles, which is still used in London
building operations. In lcisurely
manner, with due stoppage of work
for a bite in the middle of the fore
noon, and for luncheon at noon, and
for B o'clock tea, and for proper di-
gcstion thereafter, number OF work
men perched upon this scaffold when
ever it was not one of the oft-recur-
ring holidays, or the day after holi-
day, have been engaged in replacing
the richly carved stone work that has
crumbled in places into shapeless-
ness. The patches of clean cut
white stone so far put in are in start
ling contrast to the worn and grimy
masonry around them.
ABEEY TURNING INTO EPSON SALTS.
1t is not believed that the chief
pillars nnon which the weight Of the
supcrstructure rests are badly rottcd,
but in view of the tremendous
crush that will be inevitable at the
coronation next June there is a good
deal of uncasincss about tho general
condition of the Abbey, and it is
likely that the venerable cdiiice will
be closed for two or three months be-
fore the ceremony in order to give
an opportunity to provide means for
protecting it.
a queer feature of the decay of
Westminster Abbey and some of the
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