now lost. Hard as it must seem to these good Bretons to have the series of their labours interrupted, and to find their men. tal efforts weakened by isolation, it is doubly

galling at a moment when it involves the cancelling of an extensive plan, and the withdrawal of hospitalities widely and bountifully proffered.-Guardian.

A COMMITTEE has been formed for promoting the excavations on the site of the Roman city of Uriconium, at Wroxeter near Shrewsbury, consisting of—

Earl Stanhope, P.R.S.A.

Viscount Hill, Lord-lieutenant of Shropshire. Lord Londesborough.

Lord Braybrooke.

Lord Talbot de Malahide.

Lord Lindsay.

Beriah Botfield, Esq., M.P.

The Hon. R. Windsor Clive, M.P.
R. Monckton Milnes, Esq., M.P.
H. Danby Seymour, Esq., M.P.
W. Tite, Esq., M.P.

C. C. Babington, Esq.

Sir John P. Boileau, Bart., V.P.S.A.
Rev. Dr. Bosworth, F.R.S., F.S.A.
Rev. Dr. J. Collingwood Bruce, F.S.A.
Talbot Bury, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., A.I.C.E.
Robert Chambers, Esq., F.S.A. Scot.
Sir James Clark, Bart., F.R.S.
C. Wentworth Dilke, Esq.

John Forster, Esq.

S. Carter Hall, E-q., F.S.A.

J. O. Halliwell, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.S.

Rev. T. Hugo, F.S.A.

Dr. Henry Johnson.

Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A.

Sir Roderick I. Murchison, F.R.S.

Frederic Ouvry, Esq., F.S.A.

Charles Roach Smitu, Esq., F.S.A.

Vice-Admiral W. H. Smyth, F.R.S., F.S.A.
W. S. W. Vaux, Esq., F.S.A.

Albert Way, Esq., F.S.A.

Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A.

Frederick Hindmarsh, Esq., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., Honorary Secretary.

These excavations have been carried on by the zeal and activity of a few individuals, and have been supported hitherto chiefly by local subscription; but the time has now arrived when, as the historical interest of the excavations can no longer be doubtful, it becomes necessary to seek the means of carrying them on upon a more extensive scale, by making an appeal to the public; and with this view the above noblemen and gentlemen, who have formed themselves into a committee, invite all those who take an interest in the history and antiquities of their country, to give their assistance in promoting an undertaking of so much national importance.

Contributions may be sent to the Honorary Secretary, 17, Bucklersbury, City, E. C.

A good beginning has already been made by the Society of Antiquaries, who have contributed £50 towards the excavations, which shews the estimate that body has formed of their value. We may mention that the workmen are steadily proceeding to uncover a large Roman mansion, of which, and other portions, we shall give a full account in the August Magazine.

The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture. By MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM. Tenth edition. (Kent & Co.)Few books have done better service in their day than this useful compendium, and we hail the appearance of a tenth edition with much satisfaction. It has grown in bulk very considerably since its first appearance thirty years ago! and has kept pace with the times, changing its character by degrees from the milk for babes to the meat for strong men. A tenth edition would hardly have called for notice from us, but that the two new chapters now added, and which occupy nearly half of the present bulky volume, are in themselves an important work, full of learning, and exhibiting the results of the researches of a life devoted to the study

"Notwithstanding the spoliation of our English churches, especially of those of conventual foundation, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and the changes effected in the ritual and ceremonies of the Church in the reign of Edward the Sixth, and the destructive violence occasioned by the Puritans in the middle of the seventeenth century, our ancient churches still retain relics of the past, not as yet swept entirely away. These point to usages in religious worship with which our ancestors were familiar, but which, some having been abrogated, and

others differing in many respects from the Liturgical rites of the Reformed Church, cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of the former discipline of the Church, and of the services connected with it. As historic reminiscences, however, the vestiges thus left are not without their interest and value."-(pp. 352, 353.)

He then briefly recapitulates the history of Liturgies, and the concurrent use and arrangement of churches from the time of the apostles to the Reformation:

"From Justin Martyr's account of the celebration of the Lord's Supper, it is evident that there was in his time a set form of public worship. His first Apology was written within half-a-century of the death of the Apostle St. John."-(p. 353, note.)

as

But he omits to mention the churches, or chapels, in the Catacombs at Rome used by the early Christians for the first three centuries, though these would considerably strengthen his argument. We are glad to see that he takes a sound Anglican view throughout, and perhaps the recent works of Cardinal Wiseman and Mr. Northcote had rather alarmed him, and made him think it more safe not to touch on this ground. But the English Church has always distinctly referred to the Primitive Church her model, and we need not fear to meet the Romanists on this ground; the artful sophistry and ingenious misrepresentations of those works have been fairly met and exposed by the plain statements of fact of the American Bishop Kip from personal observation, and we are enabled to guarantee his general accuracy. On all the points in dispute between the Roman and the Anglican Churches, the testimony of the Catacombs, so far as it goes, is distinctly in favour of the Anglican view, though it is decidedly against the ultraProtestant view. These small early churches, or chapels, are of the highest interest and importance. They support entirely the decent and comely perform ance of divine worship from the earliest period, but they do not support the abuses and superstitions of Rome, and Mr. Bloxam might have availed himself of their testimony with advantage. They were ornamented as far as the means of the poor early converts would allow; the walls and vaults are covered with paintings, but the subjects are entirely Scriptural, there are no legendary stories, and the figure of the Blessed Virgin occurs only once, we believe, and then evidently not as an object of worship, or "an aid to devotion," but merely historically with other figures; there is not a single crucifix

or representation of our Lord, excepting in the allegorical character of the Good Shepherd. The inscriptions have all been so carefully removed, and so ingeniously arranged in the galleries of Rome, that considerable caution is necessary in trusting them, lest we should mistake an inscription of the sixth or seventh century, or later, for one of the second or third, but we believe it is certain that not one inscription before the fourth century is really in favour of Roman doctrine as distinct from Anglican.

Mr. Bloxam proceeds rapidly to the Saxon period, and mentions that

"Prior to the arrival of Augustine towards the close of the sixth century, the ancient Liturgy of the British Church is supposed to have been the same as, or derived from, that of the Gallican Church. From the time of Augustine to the Reformation the liturgies of the English Church were derived from that of Gregory, probably at first with little or no alteration. Subsequently in different districts a variety of offices prevailed."-(pp. 356, 357.)

He might have added that the Gallican Liturgy itself was of Oriental origin, and not Roman, and that both the Gallican and the British Churches observed Easter according to theOriental reckoning, and long refused to adopt the Roman custom,— a proof of their Oriental origin. Mr. Bloxam then proceeds to describe the various customs of the Roman Church in England, of which traces are to be found in our ancient churches, and gives much curious antiquarian information, though not much that is new to us. More stress might have been laid on the worship of relics, and their exhibition on particular occasions: these had considerable influence on the form and arrangement of our churches; the Saxon crypts at Hexham and Ripon, which he describes, with the passages round the central vault, were evidently contrived for this purpose. In describing the altar he omits to mention that it was frequently of wood, and moveable, from the earliest period. Cardinal Wiseman himself mentions the wooden altar of St. Peter as still preserved among the relics at Rome, and as having probably been used in the Catacombs. One of the churches has the seat for the bishop or priest cut out of the rock, with its back against the east wall, so that the altar or table must have been placed in front of it; and in the present church of St. Peter, the Pope or the officiating priest stands behind the altar, looking across it towards the people when he consecrates the elements; this is probably according to ancient usage.

The credence-table, about which so much has been said, was clearly used in the Catacombs, a shelf or corbel being cut out of the rock on the side of the chapel evidently for that purpose.

Mr. Bloxam gives some curious information respecting portable shrines and reliquaries, and mentions that "Relics were sometimes deposited in the walls of churches, with a sculptured stone in front," apparently in memory of the tombs in the Catacombs, where the bodies were all interred in that manner; this is new to us in English churches, but Mr. Bloxam proves his point, as he always does, in an unanswerable manner, by examples. The account of the Domus inclusum is so valuable, that we extract it entire :

:

"The Vestiarium, or vestry, was generally placed on the north side of the chancel, and in many instances was a subse quent adjunct. Sometimes, however, we find it at the east and behind the altar, as at Langport, and Kingsbury Episcopi, Somersetshire; and occasionally, though very rarely, we meet with it on the south side of the chancel. In some instances the vestry contains an altar, with its accompanying piscina, and in the thickness of the wall or at one angle, is a flight of steps leading to a chamber above. This chamber contained a fireplace, and sometimes a closet or jakes. This arrangement is also to be met with in other parts of the church, as over a chantry chapel at the east end of an aisle. These chambers, as well as the small rooms over porches, are, with much probability, conjectured to have served as the habitations of anchorites, or recluses, a numerous body previous to the Reformation; and this kind of cell or dwelling was denominated a RECLUSORIUM, or Domus Inclusi. It was also called an Anchorage, or Anker hold. This class of religious devotees may be traced up to the sixth century. Grimlaic, an anchorite priest of the ninth century, wrote a rule on the subject of recluses. Strictly the recluse was shut up in his or her cell, and the door blocked up with masonry, the only means of communication being through a window. The office for the inclusion of anchorites, Reclusio Anachoritarium, we find in the Pontifical of Lacy, Bishop of Exeter, in the fourteenth century. In this service the sacrament of Extreme Unction was administered, and the prayer of commendation for the soul of the recluse was offered, lest being prevented by death, he should stand in need of those rites of the Church. Part of the funeral service was also performed, and the domus reclusorium, or anchorage, is represented as a sepulchre, into which the recluse entered, being, as it were, thenceforth dead to the world. Blomefield, in his History of Norwich,' has preserved many particulars respecting ankers' and 'ankresses,' who dwelt in, or adjoining to, churches in that city. In La Mort d'Arthur, composed

in the reign of Edward the Fourth, occurs a notice of a recluse in a relation of the adventures of Sir Launcelot :-Then he rode that way he saw a chapel, where was armed him, and took his horse; and as he a recluse, which had a window, that she might look up to the altar; and all aloud she called Sir Launcelot, because he seemed a knight errant; and then he came, and she asked him what he was, and of what place, and what he seeked."""

"Adjoining the little mountain Church of St. Patricio, South Wales, is an attached building or cell answering to that of the recluse described in La Mort d'Arthur. It contains on the east side a stone altar, above which is a small window, now blocked up, which looked towards the high altar; but there was no other internal communication between this cell and the church, to the west end of which it is annexed. It appears as if destined for a recluse, who was also a priest. On the north side of the chancel of Chipping Norton Church, Oxfordshire, is a revestry, which still contains an ancient stone altar; in the south wall is a piscina, and projecting from the east wall is an image bracket. Over this revestry is a loft or chamber, to which access is obtained by means of a staircase in the north-west angle. Apertures in the wall enabled the recluse to overlook the chancel and north aisle of the church. Adjoining the north side of the chancel of Warmington Church, Warwickshire, is a revestry entered through an ogee-headed doorway, in the north wall of the chancel, down a descent of three steps. This revestry contains an ancient stone altar, projecting from a square-headed window in the east wall, and near the altar in the same wall is a piscina. In the south-west angle of this revestry is a flight of stone steps, leading up to a chamber or loft. This chamber contains in the west wall a fire-place, in the northwest angle a retiring closet or jakes, and in the south wall a small pointed window, through which the high altar in the chancel might be viewed. This is a most interesting and complete specimen of the domus inclusi. The north transept of Clifton Campville Church, Staffordshire, contains a loft or chamber. In the tower of Boyton Church, Wilts., is a chamber with a fireplace, and a similar arrangement occurs in the tower of Upton Church, Nottinghamshire. Other instances of such a chamber or loft might readily be instanced. Becon, in his 'Reliques of Rome,' published A.D. 1563, treats of the monastical sect of recluses,' and seems to allude to the low side grated window. For who knoweth not that our recluses have grates of yron in theyr spelunckes and dennes, out of which they looke.' I have entered somewhat at length on this subject in a paper on the Domus Inclusi, read by me, A.D. 1853, at a meeting of the Lincolnshire Architectural Society, and printed in the Transactions of that Society."(pp. 431-434.)

We must protest against this practice, which has been gradually creeping in for

some time, of men like Mr. Bloxam, who are public property, giving valuable papers upon subjects of general interest to the antiquarian world to the journal of some local society never heard of out of its own district, so that they are as much buried alive as the hermits themselves. What chance is there for an antiquary who happens to reside in Cornwall or in Ireland ever seeing or hearing of the Journal of the Lincolnshire Society, of the existence of which we ourselves were hardly aware. Local journals should be confined to local subjects, and valuable papers on general subjects should be sent to some central organ, where all may see them, such as the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

"The Capella Carnaria, or charnel vault, is found within or near to some of our churches, but examples of such are not very numerous. Beneath the Churches of Folkestone, Hythe, Ripon, Tamworth, and Waltham, a crypt contains the bones dug up from time to time from the surrounding burial-grounds. A charnel-house, adjoining the choir of the Church of Stratford-uponAvon, was demolished at the commencement of the present century. The vault under the chancel of St. Gregory's Church, Norwich, was a charnel. The charnel-vault beneath the Church of Rothwell, Northamptonshire, is filled with exhumed bones from the cemetery surrounding the church. Beneath the south transeptal Chapel of Norborough Church, Northamptonshire, is a very singular charnel-vault, lighted by two sloping and grated openings in the east wall. The floor of this vault is covered with human sculls and bones. Sometimes the capella carnaria was in the cemetery, as at Worcester Cathedral, Old St. Paul's Churchyard, London, at Bury St. Edmund's, at Norwich Cathedral, and at Durham. Of the latter the author of the Rites of Durham' thus spake: Att the easte end of the said chapter house there is a garth called the centrie garth, where all the Priors and monckes was buried. In the said garth there was a vaulte all sett within either syde, with maison worke of stone, and likewise at eyther end, and over the myddes of the said vaut, ther dyd ly a faire through stone, and at either syde of the stone was open, so that when any of the mounckes was buryed, looke what bones was in his grave, they were taiken when he was buryed and throwne in the said vaulte, which vaut was made for the same purpose to be a charnell to cast dead men's bones in." "-(pp. 434, 435.)

Such vaults for the reception of the skulls and other human bones dug up in the churchyard were formerly more numer ous than is commonly supposed, and their use might be revived with advantage in all burial-grounds. The custom is ancient and reverent, and is preserved in foreign

countries far more than in England: for instance, in Brittany, where old customs have lingered more than in most other countries, they are almost universal, and form a conspicious object in every churchyard from the small detached buildings or chapels over them. In England such vaults have been very frequently destroyed and filled up within the last few years in order to level the floors, during the recent mania for innovations, mis-called restorations. These small crypts, or vaults, were commonly under the raised platform of a side altar: that in the Abbey Church of Dorchester, Oxfordshire, still exists, as the south aisle of that noble church has not yet been restored; those under the south aisles of St. Michael's and St. Mary Magdalene Churches in Oxford have been destroyed within the last few years among the modern improvements, and most of our readers will call to mind similar inst inces.

"The use of the small low side window, common in some districts, especially in churches erected in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, is as yet a vexata quastio. It is generally found in the south wall of the chancel, near the south-west angle, but sometimes on the opposite side, and occasionally even in one of the aisles, at no great distance from the ground, and frequently beneath a large window. These low side windows, or the lower portions of them, we commonly find closed up with masonry, and on examination they appear not to have been glazed, but externally covered with an iron grating, with a wooden shutter opening inwardly, the hinges of which are frequently left imbedded in the masonry, though the wooden shutter seldom remains. In the south aisle of Kenilworth Church, Warwickshire, is one of these windows, where the wooden shutter still remains. On the south-west side of the chancel, which is Decorated, of Lyddington Church, Rutlandshire, is a low side window of one light, divided by a transom; of this the lower division is covered with an iron grating. Under the south-west window of the chancel of Cortlinstock Church, Nottinghamshire, is a small square low side window, guarded by two upright and two transverse iron bars. Adjoining this, in the interior, we sometimes find a stone seat and desk. In the north aisle of Doddington Church, Kent, is a lancet-arched window, cinquefoiled in the head; the upper part of this window is protected with an iron grating, the lower part has been blocked up with masonry, but hinges of a wooden shutter are apparent: eastward of this, in the thickness of the wall, is a recess and bracket for jecting from the wall, is a stone desk. In an image or lamp, and beneath this, prothe opposite wall is an ambrie or locker, the door of which is gone, though the staples remain. Amongst the purposes for which

these windows are conjectured to have been 1ermed, one is, that they were confessional windows, and this idea is strengthened by the following passage in a letter from Bedyll, one of the Commissioners, to Cromwell, at the visitation made on the suppression of religious houses and chantries:- We think it best that the place wher thes freres have been wont to here outward confession of all commers at certen times of the yere be walled up, and that use to be for doen for ever.' Another purpose for which these windows may have been used, was in con. nection with the anchorites or recluses.' (pp. 423-431.)

It is evident that these low side windows were used for several different purposes, in different places. In some instances, as in Conway Church, North Wales, and in Quiy Church, Cambridgeshire, they were merely to give light under the roodloft, which often spread out on each side of the chancel-arch over one whole bay of the nave and chancel; this accounts for the low side windows being sometimes at the east end of the nave, though usually at the west end of the chancel. Another use of these openings is believed to have been for the giving the Host to lepers at the end of a cleft stick, to avoid contagion, for which instructions are given in the rubrics of some ancient liturgies. In the Church of St. Ives, Cornwall, there is an opening of this kind at the west end of the north aisle, which was near to a lazarhouse. The places where the friars were accustomed to receive outward confession of all comers are not likely to have been in ordinary parish churches, but only in the churches attached to monasteries, whereas these openings are commonly found in parish churches.

The chapter on "The Internal Arrangement of Churches after the Reformation" is even more curious than the other, being almost entirely the result of personal observation during a long series of years and in many distant parts of the country. It affords singular evidence of the conservative tendency of the English character, and the pertinacity with which old customs are adhered to in spite of all orders and injunctions to change them. Notwithstanding the Act of Uniformity, many singular variations of different periods are shewn to remain in various churches:

"By the royal injunctions exhibited A.D. 1538, such feigned images as were known to be abused of pilgrimages, or offerings of any kind made thereunto, were, for the avoiding of idolatry, to be forthwith taken down without delay, and no candles, tapers, or images of wax were from thenceforth to be set before any image or picture, but onelie the light that commonlie goeth about the

away.

"In the ritual the first formal change appears to have been the order of the Communion set forth in 1547 as a temporary measure only, until other order should be provided. In the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, published in 1549, the altar or table whereupon the Lord's Supper was ministered is, in the rubric, generally called the altar, but in one place, God's board. The altar-cross, or crucifix, and the two lights, were, however, still retained. Ridley, Bishop of London, by his diocesan injunctions issued in 1550, after noticing that in divers places some used the Lord's board after the form of a table, and some as an altar, exhorted the curates, churchwardens, and questmen to erect and set up the Lord's board after the form of an honest table, decently covered, in such place of the quire or chancel as should be thought most meet, so that the ministers with the communicants might have their place separated from the rest of the people; and to take down and abolish all other by-altars or tables."-(pp. 443, 444.)

"The peculiar formation, frequently observable, of the old Communion-tables, seems to have originated from the diversity of opinion held by many in the Anglican Church as to whether or not there was in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper a com memorative sacrifice; for by those who held the negative they were so constructed, not merely that they might be moved from one part of the church to another, but the slab, board, or table, properly so called, was purposely not fastened or fixed to the frame-work or stand on which it was supported, but left loose, so as to be set on or taken off; and in 1553, on the accession of Queen Mary, when the stone altars were restored and the Communion-tables taken

down, we find it recorded of one John Austen, at Adesham Church, Kent, that 'he with other tooke up the table, and laid it on a chest in the chancel, and set the tressels by it.'"-(p. 446.)

This mention of the tressels for the table or slab to rest upon is remarkable, as shewing that the present custom of the Island of Jersey was once common in England:

"Many of the old Communion-tables set up in the reign of Elizabeth are yet remain