considered entitled to his privileges as a member whose subscription is in arrear.

SECT. V.-OF PUBLICATIONS.

XXIX. The Committee shall annually issue a Report of the Society's Proceedings during the year, together with a statement of accounts approved by the Auditors. No other works shall be published without the sanction of the Society, to be signified by the vote of a General Meeting; but the superintendence of all publications authorized by the Society shall be under the exclusive control and direction of the Committee.

SECT. VI.-OF THE LIBRARY.

XXX. All Books, Engravings, Models, &c., that may come into possession of the Society, shall be kept in the Society's Room, under the sole charge of the Curator, for the use and study of the Members in general. The Curator shall have power to put forth, from time to time, such regulations for the management of the Collection as he shall think fit, provided always that such regulations be approved by the Committee.

SECT. VII.-OF CHANGES IN THE RULES.

XXXI. It shall be lawful for any Member to suggest alterations in the existing Rules, or the enactment of new Rules, in writing, to the Committee. The Committee, if they think fit, shall propose such alterations or enactments to the Society, at the next General Meeting. The alterations or enactments so proposed shall be accepted or rejected by the Society without amendment.

REVIEWS.

Somersetshire Archæological and Natural History Society. Proceedings at the General, Quarterly, and Annual Meetings of 1849, 1850, &c. Taunton May. London: G. Bell. 1850.

:

We welcome these first fruits of the Somersetshire Society: a portly illustrated volume, very well got up. The combination of papers on ecclesiological subjects, "Birds' Eggs found in Somersetshire," and "Somersetshire Fauna," is unusual enough, but if the various sciences work well together, we see no harm in their employing a common machinery. There is a good deal of interesting matter in the volume. We noticed a curious thing in the account of the first quarterly meeting. "The Rev. F. B. Portman exhibited a rubbing of an inscription on one of the bells in the church of Staple Fitzpaine. He had forwarded it to the British Museum, but no one there had been able to decipher the second word in the line, a fac-simile of which is here given. The inscription runs thus: est *** collatum ihc istvd nomen amatum.'' p. 31. The word is plain enough in the fac-simile. It is michi, the common form for mihi, but it is upside down in the page, and perhaps so in the bell, whence the rubbing was taken. We wonder no Somersetshire archæologist could read it.

Among the ecclesiological papers are a communication by Mr. Cockerell, on the sculptures of Wells Cathedral; a church scheme, framed on the model of our own; a paper on Uphill old church, by the Rev. F. Warre; on the sculptures in Wellington church, by Mr. C. E. Giles (illustrated by a successful chromo-lithograph of a portion, and quoting at length our own descriptive account). Mr. Baker contributes papers on the market-cross and bridge of Bridgwater, both illustrated; and the Rev. D. M. Clerk one on Wells Cathedral, which has a large ground plan, of the kind so happily brought into fashion by Professor Willis, with the various dates shown by different shading. Other papers by Mr. C. E. Giles describe some sculptures in S. Mary's, Taunton, and an old doorway at Frome, and Nunney Abbey; and one by the Rev. F. Warre, Glastonbury Abbey. Our readers will see that there is here much more matter than is usually collected by so young a society. There is a good field open before it, and we wish it all

success.

1850.

Hints on the Arrangement of Colours in Ancient Decorative Art; with some Observations on the Theory of complementary Colours. By G. J. FRENCH. Second Edition. Manchester: Simms and Co. THIS is a modest, but thoughtful and very sensible little essay. Mr. French, perceiving the inferiority of modern decorative artists to their predecessors in respect of the contrast of colours, proceeded to examine ancient authorities, and especially illuminations for the sake of discovering the cause. From his inquiries he deduced four principles:

"I. To separate the prominent colours, red, blue, green, purple, ruby, violet, &c., from each other, by spaces or lines of yellow, white, or black.

"II. To paint with brilliant colours on grounds of yellow, (frequently gold) white, or black; or on a ground of any other colour, to use yellow, white, or black, only for the ornamentation.

"III. To combine two or more shades of red, or of blue, green, purple, &c., without the intervention of yellow, white, or black.

IV. To place yellow, white, or black together, or upon each other, without reference to the law which appears to have regulated the arrangement of all other colours."

Upon further investigation these rules appeared to be of universal application, in all ages and lands, and in all kinds of art. Next Mr. French found in the treatise of the monk Theophilus, rules for such combinations of colour.

Again he sees the same principles pervading the colouring of nature; the few exceptions, such as in the juxta-position of bright blues and reds in the bodies of certain baboons, being such as, in their effect "greatly increase one's disgust and horror of the hideous animals."P. 23.

Mr. French upon comparing French manufactures, as silks, ribbons, and the like, with English, finds that the former are almost always designed on these laws, which are equally disregarded by British artizans.

The remarks on the complementary colours, in a section at the end of the pamphlet, are interesting and valuable. Mr. French has done good service in bringing these important, but neglected, subjects under public notice.

Choice Examples of Art Workmanship, selected from the Exhibition of Ancient and Medieval Art at the Society of Arts. Drawn and engraved under the superintendence of PHILIP DE LA MOTTE. London: Cundall and Addey, 1851.

THE publishers of this beautiful book have themselves furnished us in this volume with another choice example of art workmanship. There are sixty-one engravings on wood, of the most finished and delicate kind, drawn by M. de la Motte, and engraved under his superintendence by Messrs. Thompson, Dalziel, Mason, Williams, Jewitt, and Bolton. The subjects chosen for representation are of all dates and styles. The mediæval period is, we are glad to see, copiously illustrated, and those examples, which fall within our own more proper limits, we shall enumerate. First comes the "poison cup," of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in glass and silver, of the latter part of the sixteenth century. Next, a most elaborately carved wooden casket, assigned to the fourteenth century (we should have thought it a little later), covered with minute tracery. The celebrated "salt," of Christ College, Cambridge, of the date of the royal foundress, as we should imagine from the Tudor rose and portcullis with which it is ornamented. A most interesting coffer, in steel, of the fifteenth century; very remarkable for the truthful treatment of the material, with the single exception, perhaps, of the forms of buttresses being imitated in it from architecture. The founder's cup, from Pembroke College, Cambridge, is more remarkable for its contrast, particularly as to the base, to chalices of the same date. A steel enamelled head to a pastoral staff, called here a crozier, of a Bishop of Laon, of the twelfth century, is a great treasure. An elegant "chrismatory," in silver, with no date assigned. Is it a chrismatory? A lock and key, of wrought steel, of the sixteenth century, will cost Mr. Chubb some trouble to rival as to workmanship, in the approaching Exhibition. Dr. Rock's "superaltar (is this rightly named ?), of jasper and silver, assigned to the thirteenth century, is very curious. The well known King John's cup, at Lynn, more correctly here dated as of the fourteenth century, is admirably engraved. A statuette of the Blessed Virgin and Child, of the fifteenth century, is pure and graceful. The list concludes with a beautiful silver monstrance, of the fifteenth century. At the end of the volume are reprinted the descriptions of the works of art of the Society of Arts' Exhibition, together with the brief descriptions of the various branches of art which gave to that catalogue more than a temporary value.

We hope the enterprising publishers of this work may have no reason to complain of inadequate support.

150

S.

NEW CHURCHES.

Eastbury, Lambourne, Berkshire.-Mr. Street is about to build a small new church here, under remarkably interesting circumstances. There was formerly a church here, which was suffered to fall into entire ruin some two hundred years ago, and a cross still remains in the hamlet. It is believed, too, that the old site has been procured for the new building. The plan comprises a chancel and a nave, of nearly equal breadth, and a small chapel, or incipient aisle, at the east part of the south side of the latter. The style is Middle-Pointed, with windows of great variety of shape, size, and character, disposed very informally. The east window is a particularly good example of geometrical tracery, of five lights, with three sexfoiled circles, and other figures, in the head. In the head of one of the south windows of the nave, the tracery between four trefoils, which fill a circle, is disposed so as to form a cross, an idea found in Continental Pointed, but in examples of larger scale than the one before us. A broad chancelarch without capitals separates nave from chancel, with the least possible obstruction of view; there is a dwarf solid screen, intended, we imagine, for metal gates. The west façade shows a central buttress between two tall single trefoiled lights. We hope Mr. Street will not look with too favourable an eye on this idea of a western end. A stone bell-cote, for two bells, marks the separation of nave and chancel. Considering the unpretending character of the design, (which is only to cost about £1000) we should have preferred a wooden belfry here, particularly as a stone bell-cote is one of the most difficult details to design satisfactorily. The present is a fair average example. We are not quite sure that we approve of the southern aisle, which is to be used, at first, as a sacristy, and afterwards, if required, for the accommodation of the children. But upon the whole, we think the design marked by much character, and very satisfactory in most respects.

S., Zeals, Wiltshire.-This church, which is one built by Scott and Moffat, consists of nave and south porch and chancel, with vestry attached on the north side, and west tower, the latter intended to bear a spire; but from the insecure foundations it can never be built. The roof is of good pitch, and is of stained fir. The interior is effective, but we think the tracery in the windows rather too large, and that in the east window rather too much approaching Third-Pointed for the style, which is Geometrical Middle-Pointed. The tower is very ugly, the second stage being hexagonal, a clumsy pinnacle being placed at each of the four corners. We much regretted to observe, that in consequence of the badness of the foundations, the walls are splitting from side to side, as also is an important buttress to the tower. The ritual arrangements are not satisfactory, including as they do those anomalies, a reading and clerk's desk. The altar is a poor and ugly table.

S. John Baptist, Hobart Town.-The site obtained for this church (of which we have spoken elsewhere) is a very awkward piece of

ground, in the shape of a nearly right-angled triangle. Mr. Street has managed it very successfully, by making the north façade of the building range very nearly parallel to the north side of the triangle ; and, the chancel being made apsidal, the line of the hypothenuse of the site is allowed to cut off the north angle of the chancel, and so permits a larger area to be gained, consistent with proper arrangement and orientation, than by any other disposition of the ground plan. Other considerations too, such as the levels of the site, justify the departure from ordinary rules which is involved in building an apsidal east for so small a parish church. The plan consists of a rather broad nave with narrow aisles, separated by arcades of three arches ;-a small choir beneath the tower, and an ample but apsidal sanctuary beyond; an irregular chancel-aisle and vestry north of the chancel, and a dwarf north-west porch, curtailed by the restrictions of the site. The arrangements are correct throughout. Two steps rise to the choir, which, enclosed by a low stone panelled screen with metal gates, has returned stalls, besides longitudinal seats and subsellæ for the choir (in which there is however, it seems to us, scarcely enough accommodation provided,) and four more steps besides the footpace reach the sanctuary. Here, as at Etchingham, the steps are not continuous across the chancel; the sedilia are on the upper level of the sanctuary, on a platform by the side of the rise of steps. The piscina is on the slope of the apse. The north chancel-aisle and sacristy are very irregular, as dictated by the site, and are separated by a massy spiral staircase leading to the tower over the chancel. A large hagioscope is pierced from the aisle to the chancel, as the dimensions are not sufficient for an arch. Mr. Street has had the good taste to abstain from any attempt at dignifying this abnormal kind of aisle by a quasi-chancel-arch: it is roofed continuously with the north aisle. The detail is of the very simplest character throughout, but especially in the interior, and it is of a broad and characteristic Middle- Pointed stamp. Thus the aisle windows are composed of three broad, unequal, cinq-foliated lights in an obtusely pointed head: and the clerestory windows are rather large, of two trefoliated lights with a foliated figure above. The chancel-arch, and the sanctuary arch (the latter forming the support of the eastern wall of the tower) are both without capitals. The effect of the apse, which has in each of its three sides a lofty two-light window with a pierced quatrefoil and square above is unusual but far from unsatisfactory. Great height is obtained in the nave, where there are tie-beams, with tall moulded kingposts supporting collars, and with arched braces. Externally, the effect of a town-church is secured by plain, but good and remarkably unpretending, parapets to the nave and aisle roofs, by a very unusual and more questionable treatment of the dwarf-porch which has open tracery in the head of the doorways, and by connecting the clerestory windows into something of an arcade by strings and labels. And the combination of the north-chancel aisle and low sacristy, with the spiral staircase turret rising from between them and dying off against the tower; together with the apse, with its lofty windows, and continental steep-eaved roofs, surmounted by a high metal cresting, form a very picturesque, and by no means unpleasing archi