199
DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS
IN ESSEX.
"TIME DOTH CONSECRATE,
AND WHAT IS GREY WITH AGE BECOMES RELIGION."
Although ours is not professedly an Antiquarian Society, or at least
is not concerned with the study of mediaeval antiquities, still we hope
that the members of the Essex Field Club would do their utmost to
preserve all and every vestige of antiquity still existing in the county,
from the camps and earthworks of the pre-Roman eras, to the build-
ings, churches, and monuments of possibly but a few centuries past.
No apology is necessary, therefore, in directing attention to recent corre-
spondence in the "Standard," in which grave charges are made against
those who have the care of churches, or who have been engaged in
certain modem "restorations," concerning their neglect or even actual
destruction of interesting monuments, or priceless brasses, unfortu-
nately entrusted to their iconoclastic hands. In the letters referred
to are given many instances of deplorable want of care, or even
wilful destruction, of brasses in Essex churches, several of which are
quoted below. We do not, of course, vouch for the literal correct-
ness of all the details given, but in the main, we fear they are but too
true. A leader writer in the "Standard" says :—
" From all parts of the country we hear of these mute memorials of the dead
having been removed in the 'agony of restoration,' and never replaced, and of
others buried out of sight, or affixed to the wall, or to the floor, without any
regard to their original position. The slender amount of intelligence too
unfrequently bestowed on what is euphemistically known as 'restoration,' has
already more than once formed the theme of indignant complaints on the part of
antiquaries, who did well to be angry. The choicest works of all of the ancient
architects has been replaced by tawdry shams of the Italian stucco school. Roads
have been mended with the monuments of the great, who charged the Church
with the preservation of their names, and brasses of priceless value, not only as
works of art, but as genealogical documents, have been wrenched out of their
settings, left in the vestry, or, to save the cost of refixing in position, allowed to
hang loose at the mercy of any sacrilegious thief. One of the worst cases was
that in which the workmen in South Weald Church were allowed to take up the
brasses in order to use them as pans in which to fry bacon for their dinner. In
this case we are told that most of the brasses were replaced—somewhat damaged,
no doubt, but still decipherable. Unfortunately however, a great many in
various parts of the country have altogether disappeared, the inevitable inference
being that they were stolen."
In corroboration of the above statements, with which anyone who
in his country rambles, stays always (as good pedestrians should do)