309 



On the 2nd of the following month, August, the Club assembled at Pontrilas 

 Station for its Third Meeting, and the members walked, by Ewyas Harold Common, 

 as far as the beautiful vestige of the ancient border Abbey of Dore ; of which the 

 historical account (if such it can be called) that we have, is so defective that the 

 detruncated relic (for the nave is gone) remains a perfect mystery of architectural 

 beauty and labour, affording a school of transitional work, of that choice period 

 when the Norman treatment had not disappeared from Early English work, and 

 the latter had not begun to ^-ield to the temptations of the Decorated style : a 

 period, to my mind, the most attractively beautiful, and the most permanently 

 interesting of all that come under the general title of Gothic Architecture. The 

 plain and shallow work of the exterior enhances the surprising beauty of the chisel- 

 work in the groining of the Lady Chapel or Ambulatory which encloses the 

 Chancel, almost the only portion which remains quite entire. Even through 

 the stubborn coat of whitewash, which is half an inch thick, the deep yet 

 delicate work of the artist may be appreciated in all its rich and never self 

 repeating profusion. Scarcely any of the capitals or corbelled projections are 

 alike : indeed, the execution of the groin work of the Ambulatory on the north 

 side is unsurpassed by any work of the kind I have ever seen. To examine it is 

 to wonder more and more, after approaching it over so many miles of bad road, 

 and in so wild a district. To the traveller from the Abbey of Dore to that of 

 Llanthony the world would not appear to have advanced much during the last 

 five centuries. The thanks of all admirers of Architecture are due to the present 

 Vicar, Mr. James, for the labour of love which he has expended, at his own unaided 

 cost, in clearing a considerable portion of the plaster away, and revealing the 

 exquisite work beneath. 



The portion of the building now used for worship is disfigured by the wooden 

 fittings of the Transept, which bear the stamp of James the First's time : amongst 

 which is to be classed a curious old Altar monument in the Choir to Serjeant 

 Hoskyns, covered with latin verses by Bonham of Essex, Daniel, Dr. Donne, and 

 others, in the extravagantly laudatory fashion of the day. I trust the time may 

 not be far distant in this Church-restoring day, when this gem-like relic may be 

 wholly relieved of its mask of white-wash, and the unsightly intrusion of its 

 Jacobite wood fittings and pews. After inspecting Dore Abbey and Ewyas Harold 

 Church with its curious Tower, the members dined under canvas, and were joined 

 by the present High Sheriff, and separated after a most interesting day's excursion. 



The last meeting of the year, which was a joint assemblage of the Malvern, 

 Worcester, and Cotteswold Clubs with our own, at Malvern, on the 7th of Sep- 

 tember, I have to express my great regret to have been prevented attending. 

 The Excursion was to the Worcestershire Beacon, where Mr. S>Tnonds, President 

 of the Cotteswold Club, lectiured on the Geology of the surrounding cotmtry. 

 Dr. Bull has promised to make this meeting the subject of a separate paper to be 

 presently read to you. 



I can hardly conclude my address without some reference to a subject which 

 appears to have lately revived much of the same feeling between Science and 



