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CHARLES G. ADDISON, ESQ.
The history of the Knights Templars, Temple Church, and the Temple
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CHARLES G. ADDISON, ESQ.
The history of the Knights Templars, Temple Church, and the Temple
page 309
TUK TBMPLE CHURCH.
each of a different pattern, bnt correspond in the general outline, and display great character and beauty. These shafts are connected together by bands at their centres; and the bases and capitals run into each other, so as to form the -whole into one column. Immediately above the arches resting on these columns, is a small band or cornice, which extends around the interior of the tower, and supports a most elegant arcade of interlaced arches. This arcade is formed of numerous small Purbeck marble columns, enriched with ornamented bases and capitals, from whence spring a series of arches which intersect one another, and produce a most pleasing and striking combination of the round and pointed arch. Above this elegant arcade is another cornice surmounted by six circular-headed windows pierced at equal intervals through the thick walls of the tower. These M indows are ornamented at the angles with small columns, and in the time of the Knights Templars they were filled with stained glass. Between each window is a long slender circular shaft of Purbeck marble, which springs from the clustered columns, and
terminates in a bold foliated capital, whereon rest the groined ribs of the ceiling of the tower.
J'rom the tower, with its marble columns, interlaced arches, and elegant decorations, the attention will speedily be drawn to the innumerable small columns, pointed arches, and grotesque human countenances which extend around the lower portion of the external aisle or cloister encircling the Round. The more these human countenances are scrutinised, the more astonishing and extraordinary do they appear. They 6eem for the most part distorted and agonised with pain, and have been supposed, not without reason, to represent the writhings and grimaces of the damned. Unclean beasts may be'observed gnawing the ears and tearing with their claws the bald heads of some of them, whose firmly-compressed teeth and quivering lips plainly denote intense
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