Leicester.
Mr. Hudson Turner says:
"We are not to consider the practice of whitewashing stonework as a
vice peculiar to modern times. Our ancestors had as great an objection
to the natural surface of stone, whether in churches or other
buildings, as any church wardens or bricklayers of the nineteenth
century. Several writs of Henry III. are extant, directing the Norman
Chapel in the Tower to be whitewashed. Westminster Hall was whitewashed
for the coronation of Edward I.; and many other ancient examples might
be cited. In fact it seems to have been the rule to plaster ordinary
stonework."--_Domestic Architecture in England_, p. xxvi.
A far earlier instance of the practice appears in Deuteronomy xxvii. 2.
K's question, however, is scarcely answered by the above, as it cannot be
supposed that delicate sculpture was clogged with whitewash until it became
obnoxious on religious grounds.