JACOB'S LADDEK. 



J'ohiHOJiiian cwruJiH))/, 



"VE (if the most iiiterestiDg of 

 the avehitectural adornments of 

 tlie alilx'y eluii-eh at Bath is least 

 ( l)serve(l or looked for by visitors, 

 foi tlie g-ood reason that it is 

 hidden away on the west side, 

 which is in a kind of close, and 

 hemniod in by houses. But this 

 «est side is pierced by a magjnifi- 

 ceut window of seven lights, sup- 

 ported hj turrets, on whielr are 

 sculptured the details of Jacob's 

 dieam : there are the ladders, 

 and the angels ascending' and 

 descending. It is a hard, realistic, 

 and very stony rendering of a 

 story that is generally and 

 pioperly regarded as subjective 

 and spiritual and prophetic. The architect might have 

 adorned those turrets with the ladder-like leaves of the 

 polemonium, and he might have presented the angels in 

 a less cumbrous manner, and, by means of a little architec- 

 tural ingenuity, have avoided the ludicrous expedient of 

 placing some of them on the ladders head downwards. 



