Bath Abbey.
"The chief interest of Bath Abbey, as we see it to-day, is that
the whole of the building is of so late a date that we may
regard it as the last complete ecclesiastical building erected
before the dissolution of the monasteries. Henry VII's Chapel
at Westminster, which, though attached to the abbey, may in
a certain sense be considered complete in itself, is its only
contemporary rival. Nothing of importance in Gothic art was
done in England after the Reformation; and as Bath Abbey
Church was not actually finished, though it was nearing completion,
when it was surrendered to Henry VIII. in 1539, we
may consider it the last expression of Gothic, and, comparing
it with the work of preceding centuries, we shall come to the
conclusion that Gothic, even had there been no Reformation
to put an end to church building, was rapidly approaching the
hour of its death." Extract from "The Abbey churches of Bath and Malmesbury" (Open Library).
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