66 SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 
whole line of the breadth of the portal of Wells is oecupied 
by a grotesque representation of the resurrection in small 
figures, wherein are expressed all the various attitudes of 
the resuscitated bodies emerging from their earthly man- 
sions.” * 
Gilpin who, half a century ago, was regarded as an 
oracle in matters of taste, displays great ignorance, as well 
as a want of due appreciation of the sublime and beautiful, 
when speaking of our cathedral. He tells us that “the 
cathedral of Wells is a beautiful pile notwithstanding it 
is of Saxon architecture”! he speaks also of “the Saxon 
heaviness which prevails still more in the inside ”! not one 
word of praise is passed on the sculpture. 
In such days can we be surprised that deeds were com- 
mitted which may almost vie with the sacrilegious acts of 
Dowsing and his iconoclastic brethren. The adjoining 
church of St. Cuthbert affords pregnant instances of this 
fact. 
Mr. Markland knew that the members of these Societies 
were still the subject of unfriendly comment, but he 
could answer for his brother members of this Society, as 
for himself, that one feeling actuated them in their labours. 
So far as regarded the building and restoration of churches, 
it was their hope and endeavour to render them less un- 
worthy of the Great Being to whom they were dedicated, 
and to promote those feelings of reverence which had too 
long slumbered. He would say to those, who had doubted 
as to the propriety and usefulness of their proceedings, let 
them look to men lıke George Herbert, who could find 
sermons in stones, and who, it had been well observed, saw 
a purpose and learned a lesson, even in the minutest portion 
* History of Somersetshire, vol, iii. p. 398. 
