Stephen's at Caen, it would have
been far more impressive.
There is another point in which the church as it exists differs from the
church as it might have been seen soon after Abbot Paul had built it.
Then its walls were covered without as well as within with plaster,
within richly decorated with colour, and without whitewashed. How
different it must have looked with its vast mass seen from a distance
rising above the wooded slopes, white as a solid block of Carara marble
gleaming in the sun, and the lead-covered roofs of nave, transept,
choir, and towers shining with a silvery lustre. Many modern restoring
architects strongly object to plaster, and many a rough wall both
external and internal, which the builder never intended to be seen, has
been scraped and pointed under the idea that plaster is a sham, which it
is not, unless indented lines are drawn on it to make it appear like
blocks of ashlar. The rich red of the Roman brick in St. Albans walls
and towers is so delightful, that perhaps we may think Scott did well in
abandoning his idea of replastering them; yet nothing could have so
entirely altered the general appearance of the building as this scraping
away of the plaster.
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