138 
in a style so cumbrous that the enormous stone pinnacles or 
pyramids, raised to an undue and useless height, entirely destroy 
the proportions of the south side of the church, whether the point 
of view be taken near or far. In fact, what we see now positively 
makes us regret the loss of the former simple and unpretending 
design which was erected some years before Sir Christopher Wren 
was the Abbey surveyor, and which was only quaint and not 
positively ugly. The interior alterations are of about the same 
average artistic value. The new altar screen, with its four lanky, lean, _ 
staring statues, and ill-proportioned cedar altar table in Roman- 
esque detail, are decidedly inferior in design to its predecessor ; 
but the maximum of absurdity has been attained in Henry VII. 
Chapel, where, on the site of the old high altar, a new altar table 
has been set up, resting upon legs formed of gilt wood pilasters, 
which are copies of the metal’ pilasters in Torrigiano’s tomb of 
Henry VII., but which, when applied to a purpose other than their 
legitimate use, are, as a matter of course, ridiculous. 
Last, but not least, in this Catalogue of Westminster mishaps, 
comes the restoration of the historical Jerusalem Chamber, the 
ancient parlour of the? abbots of Westminster, where the upper 
walls and ceilings are covered with childish painting and tawdry 
decoration, and the apartment heated by a flaunting and glaring -_ 
pseudo-Gothic apparatus, which would disgrace any Pimlico 
lodging-house. Moreover, at the time of his death Sir Gilbert 
Scott was combining and confederating with the Dean of Canter- 
bury to get rid of the well-known choir stalls of Canterbury 
Cathedral, attributed, and I believe truly, to Grinling Gibbons. 
The Dean, who is but little skilled in architecture, considered 
these stalls not Gothic enough for his taste, so he threw over the 
Cathedral surveyor and some of his capitular colleagues who 
wanted to leave well alone, and"summoned Sir Gilbert Scott ; but 
Sir Gilbert, instead of protesting against the ‘Decanal act of 
Vandalism, became, notwithstanding all his sentimental writings, 
an accomplice before the fact, and induced the Dean and Chapter 
to adopt an extravagant scheme of his own, whereby he proposed 
to let loose a barbarian horde of painters, glaziers, and scrubbers, 
eee 
ee 
eit Annie Tinea 
