Note 63 — PART I.

On this subject it may be well to quote the remarks of Professor Willis:—

“In criticizing these repairs and restorations, it is necessary to recollect that the crumbling material of the cathedral had decayed to such an extent on the exterior as to destroy the whole of the decorative features; and that, in the interior, settlements of the piers and arches in the Early English work had attained so alarming a magnitude as to threaten the stability of the structure. Attempts had been made to mitigate these settlements by the introduction of walls and arches in 1712; but these, beside disfiguring and obstructing the interior, were themselves giving way, having served rather to change the direction of the settlements than to stop them.

“The outside of the cathedral had been also overloaded and disfigured by additional buttresses to prop up its falling walls. Most of these have been removed or repaired, and the walls themselves thoroughly and skilfully restored to soundness by renewing the whole of the exterior ashlar, and pointing the interior, resetting it when required. This process has necessarily destroyed all appearance of antiquity in the exterior of the choir and Lady-chapel; but it must be remembered that all the decorative features of the original had vanished long since, and given place to the mean and uninteresting botchings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and that we have now a reproduction of its original aspect, as far as that can be determined.”—Archit. Hist. of Worcester Cathedral, p. 123.