to the present time; and the principle that has guided the restorer
has been, when any stonework has been removed to put in its place as
exact a copy of the old as possible,--a principle that cannot be
approved of, as it will lead, when the newness of the modern work has
been toned down by time, to confusion between the genuine old work and
the modern imitation of it. It is far better, when there is no question
of stability but only of appearance, to leave the old stonework, even
though much decayed, as it is, unscraped, untouched by the chisel, and
where strength is needed to put in frankly nineteenth-century work,
which could never by any possibility be mistaken for part of the
original building.

One of the most glaring instances of injudicious restoration is to be
met with in the apsidal chapel attached to the eastern side of the south
transept. This work was carried out by the Hon. C. Harris, late Bishop
of Gibraltar. The arcading is a nineteenth-century imitation of Norman
work; the pavement is glaringly modern. Of what interest, it may well be
asked, is such work? Who would care to visit Christchurch to see it? The
nineteenth-century carver cannot possibly produce work similar to that
of the carver who lived in the twelfth century,--the conditions of his
life are altogether different, his training bears no resemblance to that
of the old artist, his work is a forgery, and a most clumsy one too. In
this chapel we see this reprehensible practice carried to its fullest
extent, but there are many other parts of the building which have
suffered. Most of the arcading on the exterior of the transept is modern
imitation, and the tracery of the windows of the south choir aisle has
been entirely renewed; no old stones, though many might have been used,
have been reset in their original position. The arcading of the south
aisle of the nave has been terribly tampered with. Possibly under the
influence of time many of the shafts had partially crumbled, and the
surface of the carved capitals had perished, so that the original design
could not be made out; but that was no reason for cutting away the
ornamental work to make way for modern decoration which may or may not
bear some slight resemblance to what was there before. Some of the piers
of the nave arcading have also been partially renewed. By an act of
much-to-be-condemned vandalism the sub-arches of the two eastern bays
of the south triforium of the nave were cut away to ma