Whitewash was vigorously applied to the walls and pews, carvings,
pulpit, and font. If curious mural paintings adorned the walls, the
hideous whitewash soon obliterated every trace and produced "those
modest hues which the native appearance of the stone so pleasingly
bestows." But whitewash has one redeeming virtue, it preserves and
saves for future generations treasures which otherwise might have been
destroyed. Happily all decoration of churches has not been carried out
in the reckless fashion thus described by a friend of the writer. An
old Cambridgeshire incumbent, who had done nothing to his church for
many years, was bidden by the archdeacon to "brighten matters up a
little." The whole of the woodwork wanted repainting and varnishing, a
serious matter for a poor man. His wife, a very capable lady, took the
matter in hand. She went to the local carpenter and wheelwright and
bought up the whole of his stock of that particular paint with which
farm carts and wagons are painted, coarse but serviceable, and of the
brightest possible red, blue, green, and yellow hues. With her own
hands she painted the whole of the interior--pulpit, pews, doors,
etc., and probably the wooden altar, using the colours as her fancy
dictated, or as the various colours held out.
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