ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL.
Tite doom of the renowned Chapel of St. Stephen's, it would appear, is sealed, if the mandate for its utter demolition is not already gone forth ; for the Herald—who dotes on old buildings with the reverence of his namesake of the tabard for the barbarous hieroglyphics of escutcheons—lifts up the voice of lamentation, and bewails its sad fate. Our contemporary, whose zeal in these matters eats up his common sense, would preserve old buildings by making them new. He gravely suggests the restoration of St. Stephen's Chapel to its ancient eccle- siastical splendour, because of the beauty of its carved ornaments, which, since it has been calcined by the tire, crumble to the touch. lie doubtless sees in the drops of molten lead that hang on its tottering walls, the tears with which they weep their ruined condition. Ile would have them cased in new stones, and the mouldiegs tuid string- courses replaced by fresh carvings ; and such a rebuilding would be facetiously called " restoring." We need not waste an argument upon a proposition so absurd ; but it does strike us a strange hallucination of those antiquarian sentimentalists who venerate old buildings, to wish to preserve them at the expense of every trace of their antiquity. From such crotchety brains might emsnate a project for " restoring" every ruin in the kingdom. They would strip the ivy that adorns so pic- turesquely the walls of Tintern Abbey, roof in the old foundations of Kenilworth Castle, and, for aught we know, square and whiten the weedier-beaten masses of Stonehenge. They would obliterate every trace of the touch of Time, and make " old things become new." For our own parts, were we given to the indulgence of mock senti- ment, we should rather regret the new face that is being given to the blackened walls of Westminster Abbey ; and with more reason, for we should at least mourn the loss of something that was old. But an old building that is useful is to be preserved, even at the expense of the appearance of antiquity. One that is no longer needed, or that is too dilapidated to keep in repair, if it be ornamental, may be suffered to remain as a monument of past ages, so long as Time's lease lasts, if it is not in the way. Such are the venerable and picturesque ruins which are scattered over the face of the country, and which heighten its beauty and interest. But if one of these time-hallowed ruins ob- struct the hand of improvement, sentiment must yield to utility. If St. Stephen's Chapel, in all its pristine beauty, stood in the way of erecting a new Hot.se of Commons, it should come down. But now that it is literally burnt to a sheli, the sooner it is. removed the better. Great stress is laid upon the "old cloisters" and the "beautiful oratory." The oratory, undoubtedly, is a very rich and curious speci- men of carved Gothic stone-work ; arid, if worth preserving, its orna- ments might be detached to deck some more homely shrine in the Abbey opposite. But as for the cloisters, a great part of them is mo- dern stucco wrought to correspond with the ancient portion, in order to form a convenient and sightly appendage to the Speaker's house.
Mr. Errv, the painter, also raises his voice in behalf of St. Ste- phen's. His zeal and activity in promoting the restoration of York Minster were praiseworthy; but St. Stephen's Chapel is not Westmin- ster Abbey : and even if York Minster or Westminster Abbey had been reduced to the state in which St. Stephen's is now, the expediency of rebuilding either, so as to make it appear like what it was before, would be very questionable. One job has been perpetrated on this spot already. Some resurrec- tionist architect scents another. " Where the carcass is, there will the ravens be gathered together."
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