Note 58 — Chapter IV · ToC

Mr. Longman seems to think that the cathedral rests on the loam. The following shows that the strata are irregular, and that in some places the loam is very thin. Edward Strong the younger "also repaired all the blemishes and fractures in the several legs and arches of the dome, occasioned by the great weight of the said dome pressing upon the foundation; the earth under the same being of an unequal temper the loamy part thereof gave more way to the great weights than that which was of gravel; so that the south-west quarter of the dome, and the six smaller legs of the other quarters of the dome, having less superficies, sunk into the thinner part of the loamy ground, an inch in some places, in others two inches, and in other places something more; and the other quarters of the dome, being on the thicker part of the loamy ground and gravel, it did not give so much way to the great weights as the other did, which occasioned the fractures and blemishes in the several arches and legs of the dome." (Clutterbuck, "History of Hertfordshire," vol. i., pp. 167-168; quoted in Dugdale, note, p. 173) Clutterbuck has a great deal to say about the Strongs, father and son, and their family.