By the Rev. Succentor Armfield, M.A., F.8.A. 135 © 
sacred decoration, and in immediate connexion with the scantier 
colouring of the months. I should not indeed venture to hold any 
opinion on such subjects in opposition to so eminent an architect as 
Sir G. Scott, were it not that I had the support of other authorities 
in ecclesiology, not less distinguished than himself. In his own 
profession one of the leading authorities of the Continent, Viollet 
le Duc has.described and given us a picture of what was the arrange- 
ment of a non-monastic Cathedral in Northern France at the date 
when Salisbury was built. (Dictionnaire Raisonné s. v: Choeur.) 
That arrangement looks nothing like what Salisbury looks now, but 
it fits precisely the ancient scheme of decoration which was left us 
on the roof. 
It would be too long to state here the collateral arguments from 
the ritual of Sarum or from the analogy of Churches in Northern 
France, by which our opinion is supported. But the claims of the 
decoration seem to be paramount. In our restoration those claims 
have been ignored, and the result is that we have an anomaly for 
which I know of no precedent in medieval art—the principal altar 
erected in one of the less decorated parts of the Church.‘ 
1Itis observed that the colours (specially the reds) employed in the recent 
restoration are rapidly fading. It is now ascertained that the modern artist 
has not employed the same lasting material which the ancient painter used. 
It is further ascertained that the (so-called) arabesques of the spandrels were 
not painted as they are now upon a white ground, but upon a rich red ground, 
This would obviously make all the difference in the solemn effect of the Church. 
