All civilized persons
would be ashamed to mutilate the statues of Greece and Rome in our
museums. Let them realize that these monuments in our cathedrals and
churches are just as valuable, as they are the best of English art,
and then no sacrilegious hand would dare to injure them or deface them
by scratching names upon them or by carrying away broken chips as
souvenirs. Playful boys in churchyards sometimes do much mischief. In
Shrivenham churchyard there is an ancient full-sized effigy, and two
village urchins were recently seen amusing themselves by sliding the
whole length of the figure. This must be a common practice of the boys
of the village, as the effigy is worn almost to an inclined plane. A
tradition exists that the figure represents a man who was building the
tower and fell and was killed. Both tower and effigy are of the same
period--Early English--and it is quite possible that the figure may be
that of the founder of the tower, but its head-dress seems to show
that it represents a lady. Whipping-posts and stocks are too light a
punishment for such vandalism.
The story of our vanished and vanishing churches, and of their
vanished and vanishing contents, is indeed a sorry one. Many efforts
are made in these days to educate the public taste, to instil into the
minds of their custodians a due appreciation of their beauties and of
the principles of English art and architecture, and to save and
protect the treasures that remain.
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