Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ...works both of art and colour: then they were carefully restored and the whole re-coloured by 1862: now the new colour has all peeled off, leaving a complete series of sculptures; but who can tell what is old and what is new? It is the same at St. Mary's. Of the general renovation of the steeple, it may be said that this and that bit are each in the Decorated style. The new north window in the lower story of the tower has even become liable to be first mistaken for an original design, and then abused as an argument to prove the lower story considerably earlier than the rest of the steeple. The statues again, " carefully repaired, or replaced with exact copies of their originals, executed by Mr. Dunbar, Sculptor, Edinburgh," have become a hard problem. Thus was the original design obscured; and with it the history of the structure obliterated. Was there a late clock against the parapet? It must be removed. Was there an independent pinnacle on each spire-buttress, Debased in character and construction? It must be decked up in Decorated dress. The consequence is that the original design is better studied in Loggan's Engraving than in the present structure of the steeple. There at all events we can say distinctly--this is 14th, that is 17th century. In the present structure we see a confusion of 14th, 17th, and 19th centuries. This renovation of part by part in the Decorated style is not restoration. Restoration is rebuilding the original design. Was then the renovation of 1848-52 a rebuilding of the original design of St. Mary's steeple? The answer is, No, because it contained too many unproved hypotheses and improbabilities. The renovation of 1848-52 made the unproved hypothesis that the double panels of each face of the...
