Architectural Antiquities of the City of Wells e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Lord Auckland, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who wished to have the real history of his Palace made out for the Somer setshire Society: the substance of it was delivered at their meeting in 1861. Mr. Parker was then requested by the Com mittee to complete the subject by adding the Deanery and the other medieval domestic buildings of the city, which form so complete and interesting a series; this was done for the follow ing meeting, and Mr. Parker was then requested to publish his two lectures. He pointed out the large number of subjects of which representations would be required to make the his tory intelligible to persons who have not the opportunity of seeing the originals, and that engravings of these would make the work too expensive for its object. The leading members of the Society undertook to subscribe a sufficient sum to pay for them; so that the work is now published at about the same price as if there were no engravings in it, whilst there is, in fact, as complete a set as is necessary. There is no other city in Europe which has preserved the Mediaeval houses of all its oflicers, from the bishop to the singing men; and these are here illustrated by plans and diagrams. Notwithstanding the liberal assistance afforded, it was impossible to give satisfactory views of the whole series of engravings without increasing too much the bulk and expense of the work; but a set of Photographs has been prepared, under Mr. Parker's directions, for those who wish to have mere full and accurate details. For the student of Mediaeval Domestic architecture there is no such field of observation to be found anywhere else.