Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/254

 200 THE SHEINE OF ST. ALBAX. detached buttresses had been Yorkcd in the same pieces as the adjacent parts of the cornice; for those are found in all cases to be worked in separate stones, the main stones of the cornice being notched to receive them. The clumsiness with which these pieces are fitted contrasts curiously Nvith remarkably careful and elaborate carving upon them. The carved foliage is throughout most excellent. It is a good deal varied both in choice of subject and manner of treatment ; most of it is ])urely natural, but in |)laces, notably at the east end, there appears that conventional curling of the leaves which is characteristic of the " Earl}' perpendicular," rather than of the " decorated " style, whilst the top brattishing and the smaller one on the transoms of the buttresses are treated in a way which, so far as I am aware, is peculiar to themselves. Although the disposition of the upright leaves is late, they have at first sight a curiously " Early English ' look, and some have imagined them to be paits of the thirteenth-century shrine re-used in the fourteenth. Ikit a close examination leaves no doubt that they are of the same date as the rest of the work. Had they been found with early work, their singularity would have been as remarkable as it now is. A UDticable feature in the upper brattishing is the great use which has been made of the drill in its production. The f]<iure carving is not so uniformly good. The king at the east end is a beautiful figure, and the seated figures between the gables at the sides are, though not so good, still quite up to the average of fourteenth-century statuary. The censing angels at the corners are not all of equal merit, but none of them are very good, and the side ones are unplea- santly out of scale with the seatetl liguros, wiih which they range. The placing of subjects in tlic end gables was one of those bhmder.s not uncommon in media;val works, but which are almost imaccountable in men of such taste and judgment as the designers of this shrine nnist have been. Tiie figures are necessarily small and in constrained attitudes, and they are either the work of an inferior han<l, or the sculptor has worked .'IS if he felt all along that undi-r th(.' circumstances it was hopeless to expect a good result. The chalk work, that is to say the interiors of ihe niches above the springing line, is painteil. The ribs of th(i groin- ing are of variotis colours, and (he cells an- hll white, and