Efview of Revieice, IfilOO. 



Leading Articles. 



THE ROMANCE OF CHURCH RESTORA= 

 TION. 



Divers at Work under a Cathedral. 



There is a very interesting article on the Romance 

 of Church Restoration in the Trcasurv lor June. 

 JMr. Percy Collins reviews the climatic and other 

 reasons which necessitate a ceaseless and intelligent 

 supervision of the fabrics of our cathedrals and 

 churches, and points out that " much of the labour 

 called forth when dilapidated churches are under 

 repair is of such an unusual character, while the con- 

 ditions under which the work must be performed are 

 often so extraordinary, that the whole subject be- 

 comes illuminated with the glamour of romance." 



There is, for example, the awesome work of the 

 steeplejack. " Few persons are aware that in a high 

 wind towers and steeples sway perceptiblv. In some 

 cases this oscillation amounts to several feet : and 

 although the ' give and take ' ttaus secured is really a 

 safeguard against the dead weight of the wind, the 

 movement is terrif) ing to the novice, who clings to 

 his ladder, convinced that the next moment will be 

 his last. But your old hand feels without fear the 

 fabric sway and grind beneath him. Cool and col- 

 lected he clambers upward, his keen eve taking in at 

 a glance each defect, his brain planning the while a 

 speedy remedy." 



An instanc* of tlie rapidity with which expert steeple- 

 jacks accomplish their work may be cited. Not long ago 

 the vane surmountins; Truro Catiiedral required greasin^r. 

 Mr. W. Larkin. of Bow, a steeplejack who has lioth re- 

 paired and decorated the Nelson column in Trafalgar 

 Square, was cuniniuMicated with. In his own words, he 

 "travelled 300 miles on the level, and then 300 feet into 

 the air." But lie erected his ladders, greased the vane, and 

 removed his ladders from the building all within the well- 

 nigh incredibly short space of two hours. 



But wh;en some historic pile like Winchester 

 Cathedral needs to be saved from total collapse the 

 most elaborate schemes have to be carried into 

 effect: — 



■When the east end of Winchester Cathedral came into 

 the contractor's hands, the work to be accomplished was 

 of such a nature— no less, in tact, than the underpinning 

 of the foundations — that it was deemed necessary to sup- 

 port the superstructure by means of an elaborate system 

 of scafTolding and struts, both within an! without. Briellv. 

 the east end of the building may be said to be upheld in 

 a vast cradle of complex brickwork. This cradle cost not 

 less than £1000 to erect. 



The fabric having sunk to an alarming extent, it 

 was decii.led that if this portion of the building was 

 to escape destruction the peat beneath must be re- 

 moved, and the space which it occupied between the 

 b.i.se of the foundations and the solid gravel below 

 tilled in with a rock of concrete and bags of cement. 



I'.ut the workers discovered that they had to deal with 

 an unconquerable intiux of water, and although pump- 

 ing was attempted, it was found to be totally inadequate. 

 The surface of the water remained fifteen feet or there- 

 abouts above the solid gravel floor to which the under- 

 pinning must extend. 



Thus Winchester Cathedral came to be probably the only 

 ecclesiastical structure which has been dealt with b.v diverfi. 

 Two of the best in the kingdom were procured, .and they 



are now working in four-hour shifts, on their backs and 

 sides, in filteeu feet of murky water, beneath the founda- 

 tions. 



Prom outside to inside, the base of the foundation mea- 

 sures about twelve feet. Duly four feet run o\ excavation 

 can be attempted at one s)iot : so the reader may imaelne 

 a trench being scooped out l>eneatli the foundation, measur- 

 ing s.ome twelve feet by four, and extending downwards to 

 the solid gravel some twenty-seven feet below the base of 

 the wall. Owing to the difficulties attending labQur in the 

 cramped darkness, three weeks nuist elapse before each 

 four feet run of excavation is completed. The divers then 

 require a week to fill in the space with concrete and 

 cement. Thus a whole month passes ere four feet of the 

 foundation can he successfully underpinned. 



CAMPING WITH PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 



Bv Mr. John Burroughs. 



At last Mr. John Burroughs has completed his 

 account of his trip with President Roosevelt to 

 Yellowstone Park in 1903, and it appears in the Ma\ 

 number of the Atlantic Monthly. The President 

 wrote his account of the trip nearly two years ago. 



a pen-pictube of the pkesident. 



Mr. Burroughs gives us his picture of the Presi- 

 dent : — 



I do not think that in any emergency he has to deb.ite 

 with liiraseLt long as to the right course to be pursued; 

 he divines it by a kind of infallible instinct. His motives 

 are so simple and direct that he finds a straight and easy 

 course where another man, whose eye is less single, would 

 flounder and hesitate. 



The President unites in himself powers and qualities that 

 rarely go together. Ihus, he has both physical and moral 

 courage in a degree rare in history. 



-He unites the qualities of the man of action witli those 

 of the scholar and writer— another very rare combination. 

 He unites the instincts and accomplishments of the best 

 breeding and culture with the broadest democratic sym- 

 pathies and affiliations. 



He unites great austeritv with great good nature- He 

 unites great sensibility with great force and will power. 

 He loves solitude, and he loves to be in the thick of the 

 fight. His love of nature is only equalled by his love of 

 the ways and marts of men. 



He is many-sided, and every side throbs with his tre- 

 mendous life and energy; the pressure is equal all around. 

 His interest is as keen in natural history as in economics, 

 in literature as in statecraft, in the young poet as in tlie 

 old soldier, in preserving peace as in preparing for war. 

 jVnd he can turn all his great power into the new channel 

 on the instant. His interest in the whole of life, and in tlie 

 whole lite of the nation, never flags for a moment. His 

 activity is tireless. All the relaxation lie needs or craves 

 is a change of work. He is like the farmer's fields, that 

 only need a rotation of crops. I once heard him say that 

 all he cared about being President was just "the big 

 ivork." 



THE MAN OP ACTION. 



.A.iid the President adds a brief note on himself :-- 



At some point in the Dakotas we picked up the former 

 foreman of his ranch, and another cowboy friend of the 

 old days, and they rode with the President in his private 

 car for several hours. He was as happy with them as a 

 sclioolboy ever was in meeting old chums. He beamed with 

 delight all over. The life which those men represented and 

 ot which he had himself once formed a part, meant so 

 niuch to him; it had entered into the very jnarrow of hia 

 Ijeing. and I could see the joy of it all shininir in his fac<s 

 as he sat and lived par;s of it over again with those men 

 that day. 



He said afterwards that his ranch life had been the 

 making of him. It had built him up and hardened him 

 physicallv. and it had opened his eves to the wealth of 

 manly character among the plain.smeii and cattlemen 



Had he not gone West, he said, he never would have 

 raised the Bough Faders' Eegiment : and had he not raised 

 that regiment and gone to the Cuban War. ht- would not 

 have been made Governor of New York; and had not this 

 happened, the politicians would not unwittinglv have made 

 his rise to the Presidency so inevit.'ible. 



