WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1938, Page 9

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

BEAUTIFUL CARVINGS REVEALED. Interesting and important renovations now in progress at Westminster Abbey will, it is expected, be completed during the summer, says the “Sunday Times.” The upper half of the east end of the building, including the vault above the chapel of St Edward, has been carefully cleaned from the top down to the triforium. . ’. . The accumulations of dust have been skilfully removed from the masonry, which now looks as fair and bright as when erected. The lofty vault is decorated with painting of the time of Sir Christopher Wren, which replaces the original ornament. The Dean and Chapter still possess the accounts for this work. Between the triforium arches the wall spaces are carved with floral designs, but because of their covering of dust and the general gloom due to the dirty state of the stonework, they were scarcely noticeable from below. Since cleaning this beautiful work is clearly to be, seen. It is in remarkable contrast with that adjoining, which has yet to be treated. The glass in the east clerestory window has also been renovated and contains a number of shields of the thirteenth century, as well as two fifteenth century figures of the Confessor and the pilgrim. The latter refer to the legend of the Confessor’s gift of a ring to St John in the disguise of a poor pilgrim. The shields belong to the original glazing, which was done by Master Laurence in the time of Henry 111. They are all that is left, except for a few small fragments of patterned glass now in a window of the north transept. The chapel of St Edmund, which opens out of the south ambulatory, has also been renovated, and its ancient monuments have been thoroughly cleaned. Among them is the tomb of John of Eltham, younger son of Edward 11., which has an alabaster effigy carrying a shield. The latter is blazoned with the three leopards of England and a border of fleur-de-lys. It is one of the noblest examples of heraldic carving in existence. Another noble monument on which cleaning has revealed much of the original gold and colour is that of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury. This is one of the finest Jacobean memorials in England. Its two effigies are wrought and painted in the pre-Refor-mation tradition. In the middle of the chapel is the Abbey’s finest brass, which commemorates Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, who died in 1399. She is portrayed beneath a pinnacled canopy and is wearing a widow’s veil.