You can best ornament a chancel by
placing colossal figures of Moses and Aaron supporting the altar, huge
tables of the commandments, and clusters of grapes and pomegranates in
festoons and clusters of monuments. Vases upon pillars, the
commandments in sky-blue, clouds carved out of wood supporting angels,
are some of the ideas recommended. Instead of a Norman font you can
substitute one resembling a punch-bowl,[30] with the pedestal and legs
of a round claw table; and it would be well to rear a massive pulpit
in the centre of the chancel arch, hung with crimson and gold lace,
with gilt chandeliers, large sounding-board with a vase at the top. A
stove is always necessary. It can be placed in the centre of the
chancel, and the stove-pipe can be carried through the upper part of
the east window, and then by an elbow conveyed to the crest of the
roof over the window, the cross being taken down to make room for the
chimney. Such are some of the recommendations of this ingenious
writer, which are ably illustrated by effective drawings. They are not
all imaginative. Many old churches tell the tragic story of their
mutilation at the hands of a rector who has discovered Parker's
_Glossary_, knows nothing about art, but "does know what he likes,"
advised by his wife who has visited some of the cathedrals, and by an
architect who has been elaborately educated in the principles of Roman
Renaissance, but who knows no more of Lombard, Byzantine, or Gothic
art than he does of the dynasties of ancient Egypt.
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