By the Rev. Succentor Armfield, M.A., F.8.A. 131 
that the pigments were really in the form of dust; so that the mere 
action of the brush in gently removing the buff-wash would at the 
same time have made a clean sweep of the pictures also, and thus 
have obliterated them altogether. 
It is on record in the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries 
of London, upon the occasion of a paper by the Dean of Westminster, 
that Mr. George Richmond, R.A., not long ago described before the 
society a most ingenious method by which he succeeded in fixing 
the pulverised colours on King Richard’s tomb, at Westminster. 
His plan was to throw upon the paintings an excessively gentle 
spray of viscous fluid, leaving it to dry, and then to repeat the 
operation many times, with a gradual increase, both in the density 
of his fluid, and in the force with which he applied it. The issue of 
his process was that his pulverised colours became permanently 
fixed and could then be handled at his pleasure. It might perhaps 
be thought that the exercise of a similar capacity might still have 
saved the paintings at Salisbury. There is however this difference 
between the two cases: that at Salisbury the colours could not be 
reached without encountering the wash with which they were covered. 
Whether it was possible to have surmounted even ¢his difficulty, I 
must leave it to others to judge. Messrs. Clayton and Bell assure 
me that it was not possible to do so; and they give as the reason of 
their opinion, that, while the ancient pictures were in a state of dust, 
the superimposed wash, being so much more recent, was excessively 
tenacious.! 
Some connoisseurs, however, are still disposed to think that, by 
the skilled and tender use of an acid the lime-wash might be re- 
moved, even under such unpromising conditions. There can indeed 
be no doubt that the task would be one of extreme delicacy and 
difficulty. But it is the part of genius to execute the seemingly 
impossible. There are still some paintings of the early date left in 
the medallions over the transepts; the hand of the “restorer” has 
been arrested: and I feel sure it would be the decision of this and 
of every other learned society, that every conceivable process should 
———-— WY 
1 See Price’s remarks on the pictures. 
K2 
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