I'll give 'em a new
winder now I am about it, and make a good job of it, howsomever.'
A caricature in new stone of the old window had taken its place.
In the same church was an old oak rood-screen in the Perpendicular
style with some gilding and colouring still remaining. Some
repairs had been specified, but I beheld in its place a new screen
of varnished deal. 'Well,' replied the builder, more genial than
ever, 'please God, now I am about it, I'll do the thing well, cost
what it will.' The old screen had been used up to boil the
work-men's kettles, though 'a were not much at that.'"
Such is the terrible report of this amazing iconoclasm.
Some wiseacres, the vicar and churchwardens, once determined to pull
down their old church and build a new one. So they met in solemn
conclave and passed the following sagacious resolutions:--
1. That a new church should be built.
2. That the materials of the old church should be used in the
construction of the new.
3. That the old church should not be pulled down until the new
one be built.
How they contrived to combine the second and third resolutions history
recordeth not.
Even when the church was spared the "restorers" were guilty of strange
enormities in the embellishment and decoration of the sacred building.
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