S. Mary, Kidderminster.-This fine church has undergone considerable improvement, and we are not without hopes of seeing still more effected by the removal of the pews which it has hitherto not been possible to abolish. The western gallery has been destroyed, but the lateral ones still remain. The hideous flat plaister cieling has given place to a panelled one, and the spacious chancel has been fitted with stalls, and received the addition of a south aisle corresponding with it, of good Middle-Pointed character, and divided from it by an arcade of three arches, with clustered piers. Several windows have been filled with stained glass by Mr. O'Connor, especially those at the east and west; the former, a fine new Middle-Pointed window of six lights; the latter, a very large Third-Pointed one of eight lights. The organ is now placed in the south aisle of the chancel, and a fair new pulpit of carved woodwork has lately been erected in the nave. An uninterrupted view from east to west is now obtained, and the improvement must appear surprising to those who remember the former state of this church, even though the pews and some of the galleries still remain. The nave and chancel are both very spacious; the former is rather late Third-Pointed, having channelled octagonal piers, with stilted bases, but a fine massive tower occupying the western bay of the south aisle. The chancel is altogether of good plain MiddlePointed work, and contains three pretty good sedilia. Eastward of the chancel is a Third-Pointed chapel, connected with it by a low vestibule, now a vestry. With this addition the exterior of the church has a very grand appearance, and an unusual length. The chapel is at present used as a singing school for the choir. The fine brass in the middle of the chancel is sadly worn by being so constantly walked upon, and ought to be protected from further injury.

One

S. Mary, Hadley, Middlesex.-This church has lately been effectively restored by Mr. Street. It was in a miserable condition, with galleries nearly all round; the aisles of brick, with wooden windows, &c. And there were unusual difficulties, we understand, in the way of a proper re-arrangement, which, however, have been all surmounted. curious fact should be mentioned: when at last it was agreed to dispense with pew-doors to the open-seats, it was found that the money they alone would have cost sufficed to pay for a new west window glazed with Powell's quarries. The new arrangement has quasi-stalls, a low screen without doors, and a kind of reading-pew within the chancel; a lettern outside the chancel, and a pulpit, of stone, with statues of the Evangelists, in the right place. This, we suppose and trust, is a transitional stage. The substantial parts of the restoration are well carried out, the new woodwork being entirely of oak. The chancel is paved with encaustic tiles, and the roofs have some good and appropriate carving. The whole building is of poor Third-Pointed, which makes this very deserving restoration of less interest than usual in an architectural point of view; but the works seem to have been consistently and spiritedly carried out.

NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

OUR correspondent G. G. may communicate with Mr. G. Aubrey Bezzi, at 14, Pall Mall East, London. The annual subscription to

the Arundel Society is one guinea.

We cannot answer the question of H. M. P. (of Exeter.)

The restoration of Wavendon Church is too interesting a us to speak about on any authority but our own.

one for

Observer has mistaken us, we think, as well as the writer whom he defends. Had the word " 'exclusively," which Observer supplies to make his meaning clear, been used by the writer whom we criticized, we should not have said precisely what we did say.

We have no manner of doubt that candlesticks on the altar are a lawful "ornament:" but nothing but the Court of Arches, we should think, could enforce their use on a reluctant clergyman.

Received:-H. E. D.:~ J. F. P. :-E. W. E. :—E. I. W.:— F. C. H.-Mr. Nash :-Silas Appleyard :- Catholicus:-The Manchester Chapel.

Want of space has obliged us to defer the reports of Societies and many other matters, and replies to correspondents.

M. Didron has just opened a manufacture of Painted Glass. We look with great interest to the results of an undertaking conducted under such auspices.

It is quite impossible to answer with any accuracy our correspondent from Shrewsbury, as to the cost of a church under the conditions he mentions. He should ask an architect. It is possible to form a new ecclesiastical district-a Perpetual Curacy—in the case he proposes; not a Rectory, which exists only where the great tithes are received by the incumbent. But were impropriated tithes restored to a vicarage, the benefice would then, we conceive, become a rectory.

B. S. H. ought to have been answered in our last number. We think he is perfectly right in his scheme of commemorating the sites of ruined chapelries in his parish-which it is impossible to rebuild— by stone crosses, with appropriate inscriptions. We heartily hope he may carry this proposition into effect, and that the example may be followed by others.

We are exceedingly obliged to G. F. B. for his account of a church restoration; and we quite sympathize with all his criticisms. Unfortunately there has been a somewhat angry controversy about that particular restoration, which makes us unwilling to express our opinion, without personal examination of the case. We hope to hear often from our correspondent.

THE

ECCLESIOLOGIST.

Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum."

No. LXXV.—NOVEMBER, 1849.

(NEW SERIES, NO. XXXIX.)

THE CHURCHES OF TOURS.

FEW cities in France could formerly boast so many and such interesting churches as the capital of the Touraine. It was, in truth, a city of churches and monasteries, which had gradually grown up around the sacred grotto dug by S. Gatian in the rocks of Marmoutier. Some of these had been unaccountably suffered to fall into decay long before the Revolution, but it was some years after that event that the destruction of the glorious church of S. Martin, the resort of countless pilgrims from all parts of Christendom for eight hundred years, took place. A few years later the church and other parts of the convent of Marmoutier, which had escaped the fury of the Revolution, were bought and rased to the ground by a private individual, who openly avowed his act as springing from hatred to Christianity. Thus the shrine which had awed the lawless mob into fear and moderation, fell a victim to the hate and malice of one man.

Of the numerous churches which Tours once possessed, four besides the cathedral are all that remain open for worship. The abbey of S. Julian will, it is hoped, be in course of time added to the number, although the work of restoration proceeds but slowly. The large church of the Cordeliers is the present theatre of the town. The interior has of course been completely destroyed, the stage occupying the site of the altar. The church of the Cordeliers, now used as a foragestore for the cavalry, is a fine large Flamboyant church, consisting of nave and choir, with single aisles to the former and double to the latter. The interior is unchanged, and the tracery in the windows not much injured, so that we may hope that the government, to whom it belongs, may one day be induced to restore it to its former purpose. The Corn Market is held in the church of S. Clement. This church

dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is in a perfectly sound and complete state, with the exception of the tracery in the windows, and the south porch, which, though much disfigured, is a very elegant specimen of its kind, having been richly canopied and filled with statuettes. The church consists of chancel and nave, both with aisles, and a north chantry. Being, when the writer saw it, almost entirely free from all signs of its degrading use, the free sweep of the nave, chancel, and aisles showed forth the fairest proportions and the most provoking capability of immediate restitution.

Last in the list of desecrated churches is the church of the Minims, attached to a large mass of conventual buildings, now divided into private houses. It dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and never having been dismantled, presents many traces of past magnificence, and but few of desecration. It is kept up with some spirit of pride by its present owner, who looks upon it with the eye of a virtuoso, and considers it decidedly worth preserving, in spite of some annual expense to which he is put in keeping out the weather. Any hope in a higher motive is destroyed by a glance into the side chapels, where broken crucifixes and images of saints are piled amidst dust and lumber. The plan of this church is an oblong, about a hundred and fifty feet in length, by thirty-five in breadth. There are several chapels on the north side, which have separate conical roofs. The altar, which stands under a magnificent baldachin,* is at about onethird the length of the church from the east wall, and is divided from the body of the church by a very elegant screen in wrought iron. This screen stands below the last altar step, and is constructed with panels, which can be lowered so as to admit of the congregation communicating when the Holy Eucharist is administered. Two rows of miserere-stalls occupy the walls at the eastern extremity of the church. These are divided in the centre by a large processional door. The pulpit is on the south side, and is entered by a corridor in the wall, communicating with the interior of the convent. The roof is in coved planking, and has a remarkably good effect. The walls are of considerable thickness, and contain the confessionals. The fronts of these, and the woodwork generally, are richly carved. The west front is a rich, though somewhat motley, combination of Italian ornament. The regret arising from a survey of this fine collegiate church, which stands silent and deserted amidst a population of nearly thirty thousand souls, is much increased by remembering how very inadequate the churches actually open for service are for what should be the wants of the town. The present generation of the French are not sufficiently church-going to make it probable that they will traverse several quarters of the city in search of a parish-church to which they can repair for daily mass. Here is a church of fair proportions which the owner appears not unwilling to restore to divine service, if funds were provided for its maintenance.

This baldachin is a gorgeous illustration of the style of the Renaissance. Its superb spiral columns, supporting a highly enriched canopy, excited the desire of an Englishman to possess it and convert it into a bed. He actually made an offer to the present owner with this view.

We have now to consider the remaining churches in Tours, and we shall naturally begin with the metropolitical church of S. Gatian.

The present cathedral has peculiar claims to the interest of Englishmen, having been commenced by Henry the Second of England. It was built almost immediately after the destruction by fire of the former cathedral, which appears to have been a Romanesque church on an unusually large scale. It seems to have occupied about the same extent of ground as its successor, considerable remains being observable in the north-west tower and in the choir. The destruction of this church is said to have arisen from a contest between the Sovereign and archbishop Joscion, relative to a treasure which had been collected in aid of the crusades. The king claimed the guardianship of it, and the archbishop resisting his authority, a regular battle ensued between the king's forces and the townsmen, in the course of which the pious work of S. Gregory, which for five centuries had been the pride of Tours, fell a victim to the flames.

The present cathedral, though inferior in size and importance to the vast edifices of the north of France, yields to none in solemnity of effect and beauty of detail. It is also one of the very few cathedrals in that country which are perfect in all their parts, and show no trace of an incomplete plan. The plan consists of an apsidal choir, with surrounding aisles and fifteen chapels, north and south transepts, and nave, with north and south aisles terminating in a magnificent west front. This indication of the plan follows the succession in the construction of the various portions of the building.

The choir and surrounding parts, with the first and second bays of the nave, were begun and finished in the first half of the thirteenth century, and must be considered one of the finest choirs of that period. The arches at the head of the apse are stilted. A most striking effect of lightness and elegance is produced by the arrangement of the triforium-windows, which are set immediately over the mouldings of the arcading, and are only divided by the light vaulting shafts, which spring from the capitals of the piers. These are filled with very fine glass of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The tracery is of three lights, with geometrical tracery in the heads. Immediately above the triforium are set the clerestory windows, all of which are also filled with magnificent glass. Their tracery is an arrangement of four lights, divided into two principal lights, with quatrefoiled circles in the heads, and a sexfoiled circle in the head of the window. This glass, as well as that in the retrochoir, is the glory of the cathedral, and has been recently illustrated in a series of finely executed coloured lithographed drawings, with descriptive letter-press by the Canon Bourassé. This work includes the seventeen windows of the clerestory. The subjects consist of the legends of various saints, and a series of bishops of the diocese. They are set in medallions of very elegant design and of great variety of form. The glass in the Ladychapel in the retro-choir was taken some years ago from the abbey of S. Julian, and appears to have been collected from several windows. No further progress was made towards the completion of the cathedral till nearly the middle of the fifteenth century, when the nave from the