The English cannot do that; they patch and make do, and what
must be new they cannot love until it is old; their buildings are not
so much works of art as growths, and there is much to be said for
them. Only here at Canterbury their prejudice has been a misfortune.
Not even the most convinced Englishman can look upon the twisted and
constricted choir of Canterbury and rejoice.
William of Sens, however, hampered though he was, is responsible for
the work we see. It is true he died after some four years of work at
Canterbury, falling one day from a scaffold, but William the
Englishman who followed him only completed what was really already
finished. The design, the idea, and the genius of Canterbury choir are
French, spoiled by English prejudice, but undoubtedly French for all
that.
As it appeared when that great Transitional choir was finished,
Canterbury Cathedral remained till 1379. It is true that the north
wall of the cloister and the lovely doorway in the north-east corner
were built in the Early English time. It is equally true that the
lower part of the Chapter House and the screens north and south of the
choir and a glorious window in St Anselm's Chapel are Decorated work,
but the Cathedral itself knows nothing of the Early English or of the
Decorated styles.
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