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128
Annual Register

tomb, as there was before, was also place over him. Lanfranc, as I said above, was taken out of his coffin in the sheet of lead in which he had lain untouched from the day he was first buried to that hour, namely, sixty-nine years; on which account, even 'his bones much decayed were almost all reduced to duft: for the length of time, the moisture of the cloaths, the natural coldness of the lead, and, above all, the trans fitory condition of mortality, had occasioned this decay. However, the larger bones, collected with the other duft, were reinterred, in a leaden coffin, at the altar of St. Martin. The two archbishops also, who lay in the undercroft, on the right and left of St. Thomas, were taken up, and were placed for a time in leaden coffins, under the altar of St. Mary, in the undercroft, was pulled down to the ground: St. Thomas alone reserved his translation till his chapel was finished*. In the meantime, a wooden chapel, proper enough for the time and place, was prepared over and round his tomb; without whose walls, the foundation being laid of stone and mortar, eight pillars of the new undercroft, with their capitals, were finished. The architect prudently opened an entrance from the old undercroft into the new one. With these works the sixth year ended, the feventh began; but, before I pursue the bufinefs of this seventh year,I think it not improper to enlarge upon fome things that have been mentioned, and to add others, which through negligence were forgotten, or for the fake brevity omitted, It was faid above, that, after the fire, almost all the old choir was taken down, and that it was changed into a new and more magnificent form. I will now relate what was the difference. The form of the pillars, both old and new, is the fame, and the thickness the fame, but the heighth different; for the new pillars are lengthened almost twelve feet. In the old capitals the workmanship was plain, in the new the sculpture is excellent. There was no marble column, here are many. There, the wall ranged on pillars, separated the crosses from the choir; but here, without any interval, the crosses, dived from the choir, seem to meet in onekey, fixed in the midst of the great arcj, which rests on the four principal pillars. There, was a wooden ceiling, adorned with excellent painting; here, an arch neatly formed of light sandstone. There, was one ballustrade; here are two in the choir, and one in the ayle of the church. All which will be much more easily understood by seeing than by hearing. But it should be known, that the new building is as much higher than the old, as the upper windows both of the body of the choir and of its side, exceed in - *end of page 128 text dialogue*

end of page paragraph transcription *This was in 1220, when this pretended faint was translated from the undercroft to his shrine, with great pomp, the king, archbishop, &c. attending, The offerings that were made at his shrine enabled the monks to rebuild their church with such magnificence.
heighth


129
For the YEAR 1772
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heighth the marble arcade. But, left it should hereafter be asked, why the great breadth of the choir near the tower is so much reduced at the top of the church, I think it no improper to mention the reasons. One of which is, that the two towers, namely, St. Anfelm's and St. Andrew's, formerly placed in a circle on each side of the church, prevented the breadth of the choir from proceeding in a straight line. Another reason is, that it was judicious and useful, to place the chapel of St. Thomas at the head of the church, where was the chapel of the Holy Trinity, which was much narrower than the choir. The architect, therefore not willing to lose these towers, but not able to remove them entire, formed that breadth of the choir, as far as the confines of those towers, in a strait line. Afterwards, by degrees, avoiding the towers on both sides and yet preserving the breadth of that passage which is without the choir as much as possible, on account of the processions which were frequently to be made there, he narrowed his work with a gradual obliquity, so as neatly to contract it over again the altar, and, from thence, as far as the third pillar, to reduce it to the breadth of the chapel of the Holy Trinity. After that, four pillars of the fame diameter, but of a different form, were placed on both sides. After them, four others were placed circularly, at which the new work met. This is the situation of the pillars, But the outer circuit of the wall, proceeding from the above-mentioned towers, first goes in a right line, then bends in a curve, and thus both walls meet at the round tower, and there are finished. All these things may much more clearly and more agreeable be seen by the eye, than explained by speaking or writing. But they are mentioned, that the difference of the new work and the old may be distinguished. Let us now observe more attentively what or how much work our masons completed in this seventh year after the fire. To be brief, in the seventh year the new undercroft, elegant enough, was finished, and, upon it, the outer walls of the ayles, as high as the marble capitals; but the architect neither could nor would turn the windows, on account of the approaching rains, nor place the inner pillars. With this seventh year ended, and the eighth began. In this eighth year the architect placed the eight inner pillars, and turned the arches and the vault, with the windows circularly. He raised also the tower as high as the basis of the upper windows under the arch. The ninth year, the work was suspended for want of money. In the tenth year, the upper windows of the tower were finished with the arch: upon the pillars also the upper and lower ballustrade, with the windows and the larger achL the upper roof too, where the cross is raised, and the roof of the ayles, as far as to the laying of the lead. The tower also was all covered in, and many other things were done this year. - In this year also (1184), Baldwin, Bishop of Worcester, was translated to the fee of Canterbury, Dec. 18.

Vol. XV.
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