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construction been coeval with the rest of the fabric, but, at least, a great improvement upon the previous unfinished state of the west front. The style adopted in the new work is early Middle-Pointed, in correspondence with that of the choir rather than that of the nave, which is of the succeeding style. The propriety of this selection is questionable. The towers are symmetrical; the lower story in each supports an open octagonal lantern, with groined stone cieling, and this again rises into a tapering spire. The spires are pierced at two or three levels; the lowest openings are in fact goodsized windows foliated at the top, but unfortunately not furnished with dormer canopies: from this defect an unpleasant appearance of bareness and insolidity is produced. Indeed, when taken in comparison with the dimensions of the original structure, the new portions, as a whole, seem wanting in grandeur; the apices of the western spires are barely higher than the central lantern, while the towers upon which they rest, in mass and dignity, cannot stand the contrast with it. In accordance with the custom of the French masons, the upper parts of the new buildings, (to the level of the porch pediments,) are completed, and the scaffolding is removed, while the masonry of the lower stages is still in block, and under the hands of the workmen. The original portion of the west front, together with the buttresses and open parapet on the south side of the nave, have been restored.

The west front of S. Maclou, in the same city, has likewise undergone recent restoration.

NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received a letter from an esteemed correspondent, complaining of the refusal which he recently met with at Canterbury, when desirous of studying the magnificent painted glass in that cathedral. It seems that the rules of that church allow the dean to give that limited permission which is accorded; but that while the dean is absent, the vice-dean can only exercise the privilege of being very sorry, "but quite impossible." Such was unhappily the reply which our friend obtained; and such was likewise the case, a few years back, with the late M. Gérente, when he first visited Canterbury with M. Didron, to their equal astonishment and disappointment. Some time after, a well known glass-painter, a friend of our correspondent, desirous of making an artistic study of the glass for an important practical purpose, only succeeded with difficulty in obtaining a permission which we must in fairness state we think he misunderstood. Such things should not be so, either in Canterbury or elsewhere; for we know that this is not the only cathedral in which such regulations exist. The whole world feels that they should not be allowed to exist for a moment longer, only the cathedral bodies remain spell-bound, as if they studied to draw down those attacks upon themselves which their enemies know so well how to direct.

We are no champions of irreverence; we do not wish to see an irruption of camera lucidas and daguerrotypic instruments into the church. We should absolutely forbid sketching during service-time. But all the abuses, which could possibly be conceived, can be no argument whatever against the use of our cathedral churches, unless indeed the rule be pushed to a consistent limit, and the public debarred from the service also, without a particular order; because it is an acknowledged fact, that if many of those who are in choir during service-time at York and Lincoln, (if nowhere else,) do pray, they show a most wonderful humility in concealing the fact from their neighbours' ken. Circumstances have for a very long time reduced that portion of our cathedrals, which is at all used for any act of worship, to a very small remnant. The remainder has been absolutely turned out of doors; and if it be not, for artistic purposes, invested with that property which the outsides of all buildings possess, that of capacity for being studied for scientific purposes-it is reduced to a condition of simple uselessness and degradation; converted into a show for the benefit of the verger; not allowed to form the school in which the architect and the church-artist may resort to learn their lessons; left a specimen, not of resources undeveloped, but of antecedents, of existences, thrown away and squandered-of riches locked up, for the moth and the rust to revel upon. No doubt this is the easiest way for the dignitaries to prevent those irreverences which, as we began by saying, might possibly occur from an opposite course of action; but it accomplishes this end by that most suicidal policy,

"Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas."

Because abuses are inherent in the use of cathedrals, as of all other human things; therefore they are to be barred and bolted to all Christians who look upon them with higher feelings than they would on the Lord Mayor's Show, or Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors.

We are here to complain of things as they are: the precise form of remedy is the concern of the cathedral body. Whether the permission is to be absolute and unlimited, or whether some slight form, for police' sake, but such as shall be a bar to none but the undeserving -should still be gone through, we leave to them to decide. All we are concerned to establish is, that the present state of things is one which ought never to be permitted to go on, any more than that of charging at all for admission into the church.

We are loth to believe, knowing as we do how generous they are in other things, that this illiberal exclusion can be morally charged upon the chapter. They are of course the authors of the order; but we presume they have given it upon some information or other; information most likely tendered by parties to whom the custody of the building may have been confided. There is, we need not say, a great risk of corporate bodies acting very blindly in such matters; for if ever assumption and ignorance might happen to characterise an individual to whom the care of any such fabric was confided, it would be a not unnatural subject of apprehension to a bystander, that every engine would be brought to bear to prevent the exposure of any incompetency. We most sincerely trust that neither Canterbury nor any other cathe

dral may ever suffer from such a contingency. The only way effectually to guard against it, is to adopt a more liberal system, and afford greater facilities to architects and artists to use and study the treasures contained in them.

A correspondent from Carlisle gives the following valuable communication on the state of Cumbrian ecclesiology. "As a very sincere but humble admirer of the study of ecclesiology, I am desirous of giving you some account of the state of the churches in this neighbourhood from my own personal knowledge. The churches hereabouts are generally of a very poor description, but there are some exceptions, and I regret to say the light of ecclesiology has scarcely yet penetrated into these northern regions to preserve what we have left worthy of notice. About four miles from this city stands the most ancient parish-church in the county, S. Leonard's, Warwick. I am almost ashamed to own it as belonging to my native county, so much has it been defaced, and in many parts utterly destroyed, by improvements made in 1807. It is of Romanesque origin, erected probably rather before the Conquest, and has an apse in addition to the chancel. On the exterior of this semicircular termination are thirteen narrow niches, 10 feet 8 inches high, and 1 foot 5 inches broad, reaching almost to the ground. Three of them have small windows inserted. These were, perhaps, intended to represent our Blessed LORD and His apostles. The whole structure is about 72 feet long the tower, which extended 21 feet further west, is entirely demolished. The windows in the nave have been totally removed, and larger ones, approaching to the Italian style, inserted. The interior is pewed to the best wishes of the improvers of 1807. The bason of a font, dated 1666, lies tumbling beneath the altar-table, a wretched piece of furniture which would not be tolerated in the home of the meanest peasant. An Italian pedestal serves the purpose of a font, (with a bason on it.)

“I will further trouble you with the account of another church, which ought to be a pattern to all the rest, as it is the rectory connected with the archdeaconry, though the archdeacon has never lived at Great Salkeld, as he has another living in Lincolnshire. The church is a very ancient Pointed structure, lately re-pewed, but with oak. A tomb of a knight recumbent within the wall had been boarded over to make the wainscoting at the side uniform. The poor knight (whose history is known), was removed to the tower as lumber, (his helmet and sword lay there rusting before.) An ancient brass was loose in the piscina ; the font with its pillar and base, and a noble font it is, lay outside the church, whilst a basin on a pedestal near the altar serves its purpose now. The tower, perhaps the finest of any country church in the county, is cracked from top to bottom.

Many of the ancient cemetery crosses remain in the churchyards here, and this brings me to Arthuret, a very large and in many respects fine country church (Pointed) built (strange to say) in the seventeenth century, and of which a brother of Sir James Graham is rector. this churchyard is a very handsome cross, almost perfect, but in such a state of repair that in all probability it will not long remain at all,—the

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cross being loose, and easily moveable from the upright. A little mortar would remedy this. In most of the country churches, and until recently in the towns, in this county, the sexes are separated; but, alas, whenever a church is rebuilt where such has been the practice before, it is in the new building entirely disregarded."

We are unwillingly obliged to defer Mr. Sperling's interesting communication, as well as a paper, from a valued contributor, on the Middle-Pointed of Cornwall.

Clericus Sarisburiensis.-The subject of his letter is under earnest consideration.

P. P. C.-We will endeavour to make use of his communications : but an examination of our late numbers will show, that we have been obliged (more than we could wish) to abandon such subjects in favour of the more pressing topics of present interest. A new church,' or a restoration' must at present almost always claim a precedence over the ecclesiological account of an old one. We shall be disappointed if our correspondent does not enrich our pages with accounts of what is doing in his own neighbourhood.

A. H. should favour us with his name-in confidence. Even in purely architectural questions, such as that of which he treats, we cannot admit anonymous communications.

Received W. C. P.-W. W.-J.-A Subscriber from the first.

Under consideration, W. G. T.

Received the moment before going to press-A Subscriber from the beginning, and A Member of the Arch. Soc. Oxon.

Erratum.-We were much annoyed at finding, that by the omission of "do not," in the 25th line of page 200, in our last number, we apparently sanctioned instead of condemning the substitution of gilding for leading in the font of Grace Church, New York.

THE

ECCLESIOLOGIST.

·Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum.”

No. LXXVII.-APRIL, 1850.

(NEW SERIES, NO. XLI.)

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN MARCH, 1850.

Ir would be vain for us to attempt to conceal from our readers that we feel that our present number is appearing in troublous times for the English Church. A superficial view of our position might lead to the belief, that in alluding to what has recently passed in the Privy Council Chamber, we were somewhat travelling beyond the record, that our work had to do with the external manifestation of the Christian Church, and with that alone. In less eventful days we might be tempted to acquiesce in the entire truth of this assertion, but these are not the times for nice distinctions, and we are bound to prove ourselves in reality Ecclesiologists-men, that is, who care for churches and all that belongs to them, not like artists, only because they are pretty-not like architecturalists, only because they are majestic in form and exquisite in detail-not like archæologists, only because they are old-but for all these reasons in their due place, and still more so for a higher and better motive which overhangs all, and colours our every thought-because we are members of the Catholic Church, and we love the temples of the Catholic worship of THE MOST HIGH-the seats of His Sacraments, of the One Baptism for the Remission of sins, as well as of the Holy Eucharist.

For the vindication of the eternal Truth as it affects one of the Sacraments, English Churchmen are now called upon to contend-and this battle for the Faith must necessarily occupy the time and thought of every earnest man. But while so contending, and while not allowing any secondary occupation to blunt the edge of their enterprise, it is surely, in the next place, a great duty not to let the cause of the Church suffer in other respects. If she is to go forth conquering and to conquer, she must show along with the preparation of an accomplished

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