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Benham, William, 1831-1910

"Old St. Paul's Cathedral"

The only example now remaining of his attempts in
this style is the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn. St. Katharine Cree in the
City has been attributed to him, but with little probability. And if
he had essayed to work in Gothic at St. Paul's, it would not have been
in accordance with precedent. Nearly all our great cathedrals display
endless varieties of style, because it was the universal practice of
our forefathers to work in the style current in their own time. We
rejoice to see Norman and Perpendicular under one roof, though they
represent periods 400 years apart. In the case before us Gothic
architecture had died out for the time being. Not only our Reformers,
who did not require aisles for processions nor rich choirs, but
the Jesuits also, who had sprung suddenly into mighty power on the
Continent, repudiated mediaeval art, and strove to adapt the classical
reaction in Europe to their own tenets. Nearly all the Jesuit churches
abroad are classical.
It was, no doubt, fortunate that Inigo Jones confined his work at St.
Paul's to some very poor additions to the transepts, and to a portico,
very magnificent in its way, at the west end.


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