From the general inferiority of design compared with the style it
succeeded, from the meagre and clumsy execution of sculptured and other
ornamental work, from the intermixture of detail founded on an entirely
different school of art, and the consequent subversion of the purity of
style.
Q. What may be considered as one great cause of this falling off?
A. The devastation of the monasteries, religious houses, and chantries,
which followed their suppression, discouraged the study of ecclesiastical
architecture, (which had been much followed by the members of the
conventual foundations, who were now dispersed, in their seclusion,) and
gave a fatal blow to that spirit of erecting and enriching churches which
this country had for many ages possessed.
Q. How could this be the cause?
A. The expenses of erecting many of our ecclesiastical structures, or
different portions of them, from time to time, in the most costly and
beautiful manner, according to the style of the age in which such were
built, were defrayed, some out of the immense revenues of the monasteries,
which at their suppression were granted away by the crown, and others by
the private munificence of individuals who frequently built an aisle, with
a chantry chapel at the east end, partly inclosed by screen-work, or
annexed to a church, a transept, or an additional chapel, endowed as a
chantry, in order that remembrance might be specially and continually made
of them in the offices of the church, according to the then prevailing
usage; which chantries having been abolished, one motive for
church-building was gone.
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