88 oii MlttON AbBEY CiltJRClt. 



beautiful building would be worse than incomplete did it not, at 

 least in some brief degree, describe the restoration it has under- 

 gone, through the liberality of its recent owner, the late Baron 

 Hambro. I have reason to believe that the idea entered his 

 mind the very first time he saw the building, on Saturday, May 

 29th, 1852, when he came down to inspect the property prior to 

 the sale ; and it was his purpose not merely to restore the build- 

 ing as far as might be possible to its original beauty, and to 

 complete all substantial repair that was required, but moreover 

 to give it up again to the destination for which it was originally 

 built — the service and worship of Almighty God. It was Baron 

 Hambro's way to do things in the best possible manner, in the 

 spirit of Wordsworth's lines — 



" High Heaven disdains the lore 

 Of nicely calculated less or more," 



and so he not only employed the most eminent architect of his day, 

 Mr. Scott, as he was then, and afterwards Sir Gilbert, but gave 

 him also carte llanche in carrying out his plans, so that he was 

 never hampered by want of means. He came down to see it for 

 the first time in March, 1862, prepared his plans, and in the 

 following August the work commenced in earnest, and, when 

 the walls had been scraped thoroughly, and every trace of 

 plaster and successive coats removed, then it became only too 

 apparent that the good work had not begun a moment too soon. 

 The greatest damage, however, was found to exist in the two 

 massive piers which support the tower on the eastern side, and 

 each was found in a most dangerous condition, the stones of 

 which they were composed being cracked, splintered, and 

 shattered to an alarming extent, while, strangely enough, the 

 corresponding pillars to the westward did not exhibit a single 

 flaw, although they had been equally exposed to the same dis- 

 astrous agency — viz., a most daring excavation for a burial vault 

 which had been made close to the foundation of the pier, by 

 which many tons of earth had been removed, without any ade- 

 quate provisions for the support of those piers by buttresses, or 



