"The ancient church of Corhampton, near Bishops Waltham, in Hampshire, is an instance. This Saxon church, 1300 years old, was in a sadly dilapidated condition. In the west gable there were large cracks, one from the ridge to the ground, another nearer the side wall, both wide enough for a man's arm to enter; whilst at the north-west angle the Saxon work threatened to fall bodily off. The mortar of the walls had perished through age, and the ivy had penetrated into the interior of the church in every direction. It would have been unsafe to attempt any examination of the foundations for fear of bringing down the whole fabric; consequently the grouting machine was applied all over the building. The grout escaped at every point, and it occupied the attention of the masons both inside and outside to stop it promptly by plastering clay on to the openings from which it was running.
"After the operation had been completed and the clay was removed, the interior was found to be completely filled with cement set very hard; and sufficient depth having been left for fixing the flint work outside and tiling inside, the result was that no trace of the crack was visible, and the walls were stronger and better than they had ever been before. Subsequent steps were then taken to examine and, where necessary, to underpin the walls, and the church is saved, as the vicar, the Rev. H. Churton, said, 'all without moving one of the Saxon "long and short" stones.'"
In our chapter on the delightful and picturesque old bridges that form such beautiful features of our English landscapes, we deplored the destruction now going on owing to the heavy traction-engines which some of them have to bear and the rush and vibration of motor-cars which cause the decay of the mortar and injure their stability. Many of these old bridges, once only wide enough for pack-horses to cross, then widened for the accommodation of coaches, beautiful and graceful in every way, across which Cavaliers rode to fight the Roundheads, and were alive with traffic in the old coaching days, have been pulled down and replaced by the hideous iron-girder arrangements which now disfigure so many of our streams and rivers. In future, owing to this wonderful invention of the grouting machine, these old bridges can be saved and made strong enough to last another five hundred years. Mr. Fox tells us that an old Westmoreland bridge in a very bad condition has been so preserved, and that the celebrated "Auld Brig o' Ayr" has been saved from destruction by this means. A wider knowledge of the beneficial effects of this wonderful machine would be of invaluable service to the country, and prevent the passing away of much that in these pages we have mourned. By this means we may be able to preserve our old and decaying buildings for many centuries, and hand down to posterity what Ruskin called the great entail of beauty bequeathed to us.
Vanishing England has a sad and melancholy sound. Nevertheless, the examples we have given of the historic buildings, and the beauties of our towns and villages, prove that all has not yet disappeared which appeals to the heart and intellect of the educated Englishman. And oftentimes the poor and unlearned appreciate the relics that remain with quite as much keenness as their richer neighbours. A world without beauty is a world without hope. To check vandalism, to stay the hand of the iconoclast and destroyer, to prevent the invasion and conquest of the beauties bequeathed to us by our forefathers by the reckless and ever-engrossing commercial and utilitarian spirit of the age, are some of the objects of our book, which may be useful in helping to preserve some of the links that connect our own times with the England of the past, and in increasing the appreciation of the treasures that remain by the Englishmen of to-day.
INDEX
Abbey towns,[210-29]
Abbot's Ann, [381]
---- Hospital, Guildford, [343]
Abingdon, [278]
---- bridge, [320]
---- hospital, [344]
---- archives of, [365]
Age, a progressive, [2]
Albans, St., Abbey, [212]
---- inn at, [254]
Aldeburgh, [18]
Aldermaston, [196], [381]
Alfriston, [256]
Allington Castle, [124]
Alnwick, [31]
Almshouses, [333-48]
Almsmen's liveries, [346]
American rapacity, [6-7], [164], [183]
Ancient Monuments Commission, [392]
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle on Castles, [116]
Armour, [184]
Art treasures dispersed, [5]
Ashbury camp, [208]
Atleburgh, Norfolk, [147]
Avebury, stone circle at, [207]
---- manor-house, [180]
Aylesbury, Vale of, [86], [91]
---- inn at, [256]
Bainbridge, inn at, [254]
Banbury, [83]
Barkham, [148]
Barnard Castle, [119]
Barrington Court, [189]
Bartholomew's, St., Priory, [351-9]
Bath, city of, [220]
Beauty of English scenery vanishing, [383-91]
Berkeley Castle, [118]
Berwick-on-Tweed, [29], [31]
Beverley, [303], [310]
Bewcastle Cross, [288]
Bledlow Crosses, [303]
Bodiam Castle, [125]
Bonfires of old deeds, [366]
Bosham, [16]
Bournemouth, [17]
Bowthorpe, [139]
Boxford, [145]
Bradford-on-Avon, [142], [328]
Branks, [315]
Bray, Jesus Hospital at, [340]
Bridges, destruction of, [10]
---- old, [318-32]
Bridgwater Bay, [17]
Bridlington, [17]
Bristol Cathedral, [220]
Burford, [94]
Burgh-next-Walton, [17]
Burgh Castle, [112]
Caister Castle, [126]
Canals, [389]
Canterbury Cathedral, [211]
---- inns at, [248]
Capel, Surrey, [82]
Castles, old, [111-32]
Cathedral cities, [210-29]
Caversham bridge, [322]
Chalfont St. Giles, [88]
Charms of villages, [67]
Chester, [50]
Chests, church, [159]
Chests in houses, [196]
Chichester, [164]
---- hospital at, [335]
Chingford, Essex, [141]
Chipping Campden, [345]
Chipping monuments, [164]
Church, a painted, [158]
---- furniture, [158]
---- plate, [160]
Churches, Vanishing or Vanished, [133-65]
Churchwarden's account-books, [366]
Cinque Ports, [23]
Cirencester, [270]
Clipping churches, [378]
Clock at Wells, [214]
Cloth Fair, Smithfield, [356]
Coast erosion, [15-27]
Coastguards, their uses, [27]
Cobham, [336]
Coleshill bridge, [326]
Colston Bassett, [139]
Commonwealth, spoliation during the, [148], [220]
Compton Wynyates, [174]
Conway, [31]
Corhampton church, [397]
Cornwall, prehistoric remains in, [204]
Corsham, [345]
Cottages, beauties of old, [68], [108]
Covehithe, [17]
Coventry, [58], [255], [345]
Cowper at Weston, [170]
Cranbrook registers, [372]
Crane bridge, Salisbury, [327]
Cromer, [17]
Crosses, [283-305]
---- wayside, [293]
---- market, [293]
---- boundary, [300]
---- at Cross-roads and Holy Wells, [300]
---- sanctuary, [303]
---- as guide-posts, [303]
Crowhurst, [181]
Croyland bridge, [324]
Cucking stool, [314]
Curious entries in registers, [373]
Customs that are vanishing, [375-82]
Deal, [86]
Derby, West, stocks restored, [312]
Devizes, inn at, [260]
Dickens, C., and inns, [242]
Disappearance of England, [15-27]
Documents, disappearance of old, [364-74]
Dover Castle, [117]
Dowsing, W., spoliator, [148]
Dunwich, [22]
Eashing bridge, [327]
Eastbourne, [17]
Easter customs, [379]
Easton Bavent, [17]
Edwardian castles, [123]
Elizabethan house, an, [104], [178]
Ely fair, [363]
---- registry plundered, [369]
England, disappearance of, [15-27]
Essex, [100]
Estate agents, [10]
Evesham, [223]
Ewelme, [345]
Exeter town hall, [280]
Experience, a weird, [171]