I8o0.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



225 



STJXIO-V CIURCH, NORTH AMPTCNilJIRE. 



FONT, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



Among the various improvements made in the Abbey by the 

 Dean and the architect, Mr. G. G. Scott, that of opening up a view 

 of the west window of the south aisle and the font by the removal 

 i)f the modern monument standing under the side arch of the 

 south-west tower, although not the greatest, is by no means the 

 least effective,— the long perspective view down this most exposed 

 iiisle being now seen in its full extent. A fine screen, of Perpen- 

 dicular date, was found behind, and totally obscured by the monu- 

 ment now removed. In the space under this tower the fent was 

 placed, and seems to have been, from its out-of-the-way position, 

 quite overlooked, — this being, as far as we are aware, the only 

 representation of it ever published. The base to the neck mould 

 is modern, and may have been a poor copy of what the original 

 was. The shields have been painted, small particles of which yet 

 remain; and the quatrefoils probably also. In the same place is a 

 seat, of about the date of 16 to, bearing a remarkable resemblance 

 in the ornaments of the panelling on the back of the pulpits to be 

 seen at Wensingtnn and Aveley, Essex. On the bottom of the 

 plinth stones to screen remains the working drawing of the section 

 of the niullions above it: how they managed to work from it is 

 rather difficult to say. If those men who think that Gothic 

 architects only copied each other in any one style, were to compare 

 this screen with those of Abbot Islyps Chapel, that behind the 

 altar, Henry V. Chantry, and Henry VII. Chapel together, and see 

 the spirit of each designer self-evident in his own work, they would 

 learn a lesson which might do a little towards preventing their 

 setting themselves up as critics on things which they are supremely 

 -ignorant of: rendered so fi-07n the want of energy enough to 

 make themselves acquainted with the subject on which they would 

 treat; and so, like tall chimneys, can do nothing more than make a 

 great smoke. 



FONT, WESTMINSTER ABBEV. 



31 



