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Alexander Keiller's Avebury
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Re: Alexander Keiller's Avebury/The Sanctuary
Jan 24, 2013, 10:30
Mustard wrote:
VBB wrote:
‘Do not let us talk then of restoration. The thing is a Lie from beginning to end. You may make a model of a building as you may of a corpse, and your model may have the shell of the old walls within it as your cast might have the skeleton, with what advantage I neither see nor care: but the old building is destroyed, and that more totally and mercilessly than if it had sunk into a heap of dust, or melted into a mass of clay: more has been gleaned out of desolated Nineveh than ever will be out of re-built Milan. But, it is said, there may come a necessity for restoration! Granted. Look the necessity full in the face, and understand it on its own terms. It is a necessity for destruction. Accept it as such, pull the building down, throw its stones into neglected corners, make ballast of them, or mortar, if you will; but do it honestly, and do not set up a Lie in their place.’

This is true in some regards - rebuilding a ruined abbey, replacing missing stones with approximations - but it wouldn't be so relevant to re-erecting fallen or buried stones in their original positions, if those positions can be reliably identified.

I don't think it's a black and white issue. Every situation is different and needs assessing on its merits, and everyone will have different feelings depending on the circumstance. The key is to respect that while we all hold different views, we all hold those views because we love these sites.



I think we should sit back and enjoy these few civil exchanges, this being tma it won't be long now...
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