Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/175

Rh twenty steps from the street. The well itself is a star-shaped basin, ten feet in diameter, canopied by a most graceful stellar vault, and originally inclosed by stone traceried screens, filling up the spaces between the supports. Round the basin is an ambulatory, similarly vaulted. These arrangements, and the form and decoration of the building, are better explained by the engravings.

The water rises from a bed of shingle with great impetuosity. From the main basin it flows over into a smaller one in front, to which access is obtained by steps on both sides, for the purpose of dipping out the water, and from thence into a large reservoir outside the building. From the latter the water passes by a sluice into the service of a paper mill, and, after putting in motion the machinery of several manufactories, falls into the Dee at a distance of about nine furlongs from its source.

The neglected state of this beautiful edifice having forced itself upon the notice of the inhabitants of Holywell, a subscription was entered into, and the proceeds, about £400, have been expended in disengaging the chapel from some unsightly erections built against it, in restoring the windows, and in some general repairs necessary to maintain it for the purpose of a school-room, to which it is now put; but nothing hag been expended on the crypt, which is, nevertheless, independently of the mutilation of the screens and decorations, in a state to excite the apprehension of all lovers of antiquity. Nor are the gentlemen to whom the expenditure of the fund has been entrusted open to blame on this account. The difficulties of effecting any substantial repair, when it is most likely to be wanted, are great and peculiar, so much so, that it is not easy even to speak with certainty on the actual condition of the substructure.

The water, as already stated, rises with great force from a bed of shingle, on which the inclosure of the basin and the supports of the vaulting have been founded without any excavation; and in order to prevent the effects of the shingle washing away, the overflow of the basin is raised about four feet (the depth is unequal) from the bottom, and the sluices of the mill raise the surface of the water about two feet higher. This depth of water, in violent agitation, even when the sluices are opened, and the water above the overflow let off, effectually prevents the possibility of seeing the bottom of