Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/424

 330 ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF the result has been twofold. The whole building fell into a general state of decay, and the necessity, real or supposed, of blocking off only a part of so extensive a building for purposes of divine service, has led to those strange internal divisions and partitions, which at a first visit altogether baffle the inquirer in his endeavours to make out the original arrangements, singular enough, as we have seen, in themselves. The part of the church now in use consists of the choir and aisles, and a small part of the nave, completely blocked off to the west and south from the remainder. And within the choir itself, its two eastern bays are again screened off to form a secondary chancel. The effect of these cross- purposes, till one gets thoroughly familiar with the building, is extremely puzzling. But besides all this, some extreme cases of barbarism had taken place at Dorchester. These chiefly concerned the roofs. In the south aisle of the nave a most unaccountable freak had been practised ; the single high-pitched roof had been in 1633 exchanged for one with a double ridge, which, while singularly ugly, is, I should imagine, weaker than the usual form ; it could not have been any saving in actual quantity of materials, though it may possibly have allowed the old ones to be more extensively employed in the recon- struction. This seems also to have been the cause of the blocking of the west window. The original gable, which must have existed between the nave and choir aisles, was also lowered, as may be clearly seen inside. Then, throughout the choir and its south aisle, and through nearly the whole extent of the nave, the roofs had been completely lowered, leaving only a small piece at the west end of the nave, which still remains, and has a very odd effect. The two eastern gables had been destroyed with the roofs ; this, in the south aisle, had involved the destruction of nearly everything above the contemplated vaulting ; while in the choir the loss was still more serious, the upper part of the great east windoAV being completely destroyed. These were the chief portions which called for repair, besides numerous smaller mutilations in every part of the building. In the autumn of 1844 an estimate was first made of the cost of the several portions requiring restoration, and in the spring of 1845 the energies of the Society began to be practically directed to its accomplishment. Some delays