some fine legendary glass in the north aisle, which was brought from Dale Abbey, and was restored a few years since by Warrington. There are also four piscinas, a hagioscope, a lychnoscope, and almery, all of which are in excellent preservation. We cannot conclude our notice of the restoration of this church without again expressing our approbation of the manner in which it has been conducted, and adding a hope that funds will speedily be supplied to complete what remains to be done.

NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist.

SIR,-Instead of sending a query to "Notes and Queries," I prefer to put one or two to you or to your readers as to one or two points on which I much want information.

1st. Why do we so often find in First-Pointed, and even in early Middle-Pointed, the east window of an even instead of uneven number of lights? In First-Pointed it is not uncommon; but in early Middle-Pointed it seems really so frequent as to be almost a rule.

Navenby, Lincolnshire, is a very rare example of a six-light east window with flowing tracery.

Query. Was there any symbolism in this even number of lights in vogue in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and not later? Or was it only that by such an arrangement a larger circle was obtained in the head, by which such a subject, as e.g., the Crucifixion, might be well treated? This seems to me the probable reason, as it was just the time at which it would have been considered wrong to spread such a subject through two lights; whilst it was considered necessary to make it more prominent than in early glass it was.

My next query is on English altars; where were the relics placed? I never saw an old altar stone in England with any receptacle for them. And it is not likely, I presume, that they were built into the solid masonry, which generally formed the support of the altar.

Is it then possible that openings in the walls of the chancel, with doors were sometimes used for this purpose? If so, perhaps the opening just over the altar at Upper Hardres, Kent; in the north wall of the chancel of SS. Probus and Grace, Probus; and over the piscina at S. Denis, Stanford, were for this purpose.

Query 3. For what purpose are the corbels which one sees so often against east walls of chancels generally, I think, rather to the south than north of the altar. Blomfield, the historian of Norfolk, often mentions a figure of the Patron Saint as having existed on the north side of the altar. What authority is there for attributing either side in particular to the Patron Saint?

Query 4. Were altars ever erected in rood-lofts? Against roodscreens I know that there were many; but I have not heard of any in the loft. And yet on the east side of the tower of S. Michael, Lambourne, in this county, is a piscina, (which seems clearly coeval with the tower, and therefore semi-Romanesque,) at a height of almost twelve feet from the ground, and just at a proper height from the ancient level of the rood-loft. It is additionally curious, if in its original place, (as it appears to be,) as proving the existence of a rood-loft of a very early date.

I shall be glad of an answer to any or all of these queries, to which I must own myself quite unable to form satisfactory replies. I remain, yours faithfully,

Wantage, Berks.

To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist.

G. E. S.

Sir,-In printing my suggestion respecting the symbolism of the vane, inserted in the last number of the Ecclesiologist (page 244), an unlucky typographical error has occurred, which makes the whole communication incoherent, and represents me as unfairly asserting what Durandus had not said upon the subject, before I had examined what he had. The two paragraphs printed next to the stanzas I ventured to propose, ought to have followed that containing the quotation from Durandus; to which latter, of course, the reference in the first of these misplaced paragraphs is made. May I beg the favour of your inserting this explanatory note ?

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

Φ.

The Plain Chant of Matins, Evensong, Litany, and Holy Communion, with the Chants or Tones (Rivingtons and Darling), is from the same quarter as the Practical Remarks on the Reformation of Cathedral Music, which we have before favourably referred to. It is delightful to see in this publication, as in so many others, a proof that the absurd outcry lately raised throughout England against the choral service, will not easily prevail against the rights and convictions of the thousands of better instructed Churchmen who value the beauty and decency of public worship. Any of our readers who may wish to see the law of the case as regards choral service, and the proof that there is no inherent difference between, what one sometimes hears contrasted" cathe

dral" and "parochial" service, should refer to a celebrated judgment of Sir William Scott (Lord Stowell) in the case of Hutchins versus Denziloe and Loveland, reported in Haggard's Consistory Reports, I., 170, and reprinted in the pages of the Guardian for January 15th, 1851. We hope to recur to the publication which has given occasion to this paragraph.

Parts X. and XI. of Messrs. Bowman and Crowther's Churches of the Middle Ages have made their appearance. There are three more plates of details, from S. Andrew, Heckington, illustrating the marvellous ornamentation of the sedilia and piscina. One plate gives two beautiful foliated doors from S. John, Cley, Norfolk. Of S. Peter's, Threckingham, Lincolnshire, a very beautiful late First-Pointed example-there are two elevations; of the west end, with the tower and spire, and of the south side. Six plates are devoted to S. Stephen's, Etton, Northamptonshire; a church of the same period, but rather earlier. They comprise a ground plan, west elevation, transverse section, looking west, and three plates of details.

We have read with interest an Address to the Parishioners of S, James's Parish, Toronto, by the Bishop, on the subject of rebuilding their parish church, which is also the cathedral, destroyed not long since by fire. Appended to this is a paper of sensible, and generally sound, "Recommendations by the Church-building Committee of the • Church Society,' in regard to churches and their precincts." These documents appeared in the Toronto Church newspaper, and the Recommendations cannot fail of being practically useful to Canadian churchbuilders.

We are glad to hear that the Somersetshire Architectural Society contemplate publishing, in lithochromatic drawing, a sheet of the very remarkable coloured sculptures discovered in Wellington church, and described by us in a previous volume.

We are informed, on good authority, that the desirable improvements in Holy Trinity, Manchester, mentioned as being in contemplation in our last number, are not at all likely to be carried out.

At S. Clement's, near Truro, some very singular mural paintings were discovered a short time ago in the north wall. The whole extent of wall, from the tower to the north transept, (opposite to the three bays of the south side,) is blank, having no windows. The paintings were discovered in the middle of this space, but they were all whitewashed over again at once.

A correspondent asks us to print the following extract from "Blakeway's History of Shrewsbury" :-"The mode of ringing the bells of the several churches of Shrewsbury for divine service, until within these fifty years, [the work from which this extract is made was published in 1825,] was very different from the present. The sextons began at nine in the morning, and having chimed a full hour, two small bells were rung for half an hour, till service commenced. For daily prayers and holidays, the chiming and ringing of the two bells

took up an hour. On fast days the chiming was omitted, and the great bell was tolled for two full hours. It was probably a continuation of the manner of performing their duty before the Reformation."

We shall be exceedingly glad to receive the sketches promised by our Teignmouth correspondent. Would he oblige us by writing, in future, on one side only of his paper?

The dimensions of an altar for a small church might be from 6 to 8 feet long, 3 feet broad, and 3 feet 3 inches high.

Part IV. of the Instrumenta Ecclesiastica has appeared, and the next part will very shortly be ready.

A correspondent writes: "I accidentally found out, a few days since, that the late Mr. Stowly, of Kenbury House, near Exeter, erected many buildings of that peculiar cob, styled in the Ecclesiologist 'pisé.' One is still in existence at the village of Exminster."

We must refer our correspondent, A. Z., to the Hierurgia Anglicana, for a vast collection of precedents, examples, and references with respect to the full meaning of the rubric about "the ornaments of the church, and of the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration." We believe it is the Act 31 Henry VIII., cap. 8, to which our correspondent wishes to be referred.

W. C. P. would oblige us by procuring us a sight of the paper to which he makes allusion. In the ordinary way, we have no means of seeing such things. Our pages would be open to any such essays which might seem to deserve publication.

We cannot refrain from giving the following sensible remarks from our contemporary, The Builder, (which we may add has begun the new year with a considerable increase of matter-not of price.) Such a warning is only too much needed; and, from this quarter, will not be suspected. More notes on gas: Our provincial authorities appear to be busier in trimming their lamps these dark nights, than in setting their churches, &c. in order; doubtless, they fear that in the dark the Pope may slip in. We earnestly hope, however, that his Holiness will not now be allowed to steal all our church decoration from us as he did before, leaving little else than mere bare walls and whitewash as good enough for Protestant worship. Seriously, we should not be surprised to find some now again indiscriminately attempting to check the endeavour, of late, to render Protestant places of worship worthy of the name, as a reflex and exponent of the honour and glory felt to be due to Him whose palatial dwellings they ought, even outwardly, and to the best of poor human ability and grandeur, to show themselves, in the eyes of men, to be. It was a false step, as well as a gross absur dity, to give up such a reflex of the honour and glory due to the King of Kings and LORD of Lords, whose 'glory' even the starry firmament above and the flowery earth beneath display, in outward show, to mortal eyes, and that too for no real reason but because Popes and Papists had the reverence, ay, and the good taste too, to encourage the display of decorative art in ecclesiastic architecture."

ECCLESIOLOGIST.

"Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum."

No. LXXXIII.-APRIL, 1851.

(NEW SERIES, NO. XLVII.)

THE PRESENT STATE OF THE RUBRICAL QUESTION.

THE great conflict between the Puritan element in our Church and the externals of religion-that is, Ecclesiology-which has so long been imminent, is still delayed. The Bishop of Manchester has discreetly ceased to imitate Will Dowsing, and has had enough to do seemingly in making a weak defence of himself in a local newspaper against the stinging assault of the anonymous "D. C. L." of the Morning Chronicle, There have been plenty of threats, plenty of fears,-in some cases bullying, in some cases weak concession, in some places scandals, sacrilege, and even riots,—but the real, the only satisfactory decision of these moot points, viz., the judgment of an ecclesiastical court, has not yet (so far as we know) been appealed to. Of course, there is a very good reason for this in the tedious delay, the unsatisfactory legal processes, the inordinate expensiveness of a suit in the Court of Arches. Even a wealthy bishop thinks twice before he "exhibits articles," and much more does an ill-paid parish-priest dread the bare idea of costs. There is certainly every possible impediment to this kind of litigation: the bishop must stake (say) £2000,-the priest, whose resources are probably nil,-must look forward to the most wearing anxiety, perhaps to jail, to a collection among his friends, and the contributions of his brethren scarcely better off than himself. In the distance, moreover, looms the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, only too likely to reverse, on appeal, a favourable judgment of the Church court below. The consequence has been, in some cases that have come under our notice, the most discreditable manœuvres in high places: the bishop threatening his subordinate with legal proceedings which he had no intention of commencing; playing with the fears of his victim; endeavouring to extort in this way concessions which he had no power to enforce, and which he had never condescended to recommend with the mildness or gentle authority of a spiritual ruler. We have heard even of the ruse of palming sham legal documents on the unwary clergyman, in order to delude him into compliance. Meantime we are not aware of any thing more decided having been done than the obtaining

VOL. XII.