File:Vanishing England (1911) (14791383183).jpg

Identifier: vanishingengland00ditc (find matches)
Title: Vanishing England
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson), 1854-1930
Subjects: England -- Description and travel England -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Methuen
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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in 1552. The chapel is Decorated. Thegatehouse, with its drawbridge, moat, and fortifications,was constructed by Bishop Ralph, of Shrewsbury, whoruled from 1329 to 1363. The deanery was built by DeanGunthorpe in 1475, who was chaplain to Edward IV.On the north is the beautiful vicars close, which hasforty-two houses, constructed mainly by Bishop Becking-ton (1443-64), with a common hall erected by BishopRalph in 1340 and a chapel by Budwith (1407-64), butaltered a century later. You can see the old fireplace,the pulpit from which one of the brethren read aloudduring meals, and an ancient painting representingBishop Ralph making his grant to the kneeling figures,and some additional figures painted in the time of QueenElizabeth. When we study the cathedrals of England and try totrace the causes which led to the destruction of so muchthat was beautiful, so much of English art that hasvanished, we find that there were three great .eras oficonoclasm. First there were the changes wrought at
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2i8 VANISHING ENGLAND the time of the Reformation, when a rapacious king andhis greedy ministers set themselves to wring from thetreasures of the Church as much gain and spoil as theywere able. These men were guilty of the most daringacts of shameless sacrilege, the grossest robbery. Withthem nothing was sacred. Buildings consecrated to God,holy vessels used in His service, all the works of sacredart, the offerings of countless pious benefactors weredeemed as mere profane things to be seized and pollutedby their sacrilegious hands. The land was full of themost beautiful gems of architectural art, the monasticchurches. We can tell something of their glories fromthose which were happily spared and converted intocathderals or parish churches. Ely, Peterborough thepride of the Fenlands, Chester, Gloucester, Bristol, West-minster, St. Albans, Beverley, and some others proclaimthe grandeur of hundreds of other magnificent structureswhich have been shorn of their leaden roofs, used asquarrie

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