THE main portions of the Church at Rowlstone appear to belong to the period of 1130 and 1150. Its twelfth century work, although possessing some peculiarities which I shall have to point out, is generally consistent with the Norman type and free from ornament of the Celtic class. Yet there is a piece of foliage on the south doorway similar to some that I have pointed out at Kilpeck, and exactly like that which is used in a similar position at Shobdon. The sculpture in the tympanum of this door, which represents our Lord in an aureole supported by four angels, is also like that at Shobdon, except as to the position of two of the four angels. This carving has been said to have reference to the text, "I am the door." But it is really and solely that most favourite subject with all mediæval artists which is known in England, France, and Italy alike as a "Majesty." We find it as early as the 4th century in the catacombs of Rome, where Christ is represented blessing, with His right hand open, and having a roll in His left. It was used profusely, and with many varieties-in sculpture, painting, stained glass, and MSS., and of course over doorways also. Sometimes, in large churches, an attempt was made to represent, in some measure, the striking scene described in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Revelation. There is the Lord sitting on the throne surrounded by the rainbow like unto an emerald. At the four angles of the subject are the four beasts, which in process of time were considered to be symbolical of the four Evangelists, and on the arch above and the lintel below, encircling all, are the four-and-twenty elders. Here we have simply the Lord in an aureole supported by four angels. The sculptor, for the sake of increasing the size of the tympanum, has brought it down below the upper line of the capitals, and has also adopted the heavy roll-moulding of the arch, of the same thickness as the column below. These were local peculiarities, of which other instances may be given, as that of Bredwardine; and they were also adopted in Ireland and in Wales in the 12th century. Two remarkable pieces of sculpture exist at the sides of the chancel-arch. In each of them is the figure of a saint with an attendant angel, in the traditional flowing costume used in early sculpture, and with bare head and feet, and the flat nimbus behind the head. Those on the north side carry each a cross and book. The practice of placing the attributes of the Apostles in their hands, as the keys in that of St. Peter, was of recent introduction at the time these figures were cut; and it would not be easy to identify them if those on the south side were not placed with their heads downwards-a plan indicating that the figure on this side, if not on the other also, is intended for St. Peter, to whom the Church is dedicated. This was a very favourite subject with the medieval artists, Peter having been, by tradition, supposed to be crucified in that position by his own desire. Samuel Downing, who was authorized to go through Suffolk in 1643, breaking all the pictures and figures which he could find, makes this entry in his journal with reference to the

Church of Allington: "In the chancel was Peter pictured, and crucified with his heels upwards; and there was John the Baptist and ten more superstitious pictures." The best known instance of this subject is the remarkable altar-piece painted by Rubens for the Church of St. Peter at Cologne. In the reversed figure at Rowlstone the saint carries in one hand a long label, in allusion to the tradition which attributed to each of the Apostles one sentence of the Creed. The cocks, which are finely sculptured on the adjacent capitals, doubtless refer to Peter's denial of our Lord. The birds carved on the string courses are of the same kind as those already seen at Kilpeck. They are set amongst tufts of herbage, and are excellent specimens of 12th century carving. The two iron brackets fixed to the walls of the chancel seem to be of the 14th or 15th century, and they are hinged so as to fold against the wall, and have each five prickets for holding the ends of long candles which would go through the rings above. Alternate ornaments of cocks and fleur-de-lis, cut out of thin iron, are fixed on both sides. The two brackets differ both in size and in design, and were probably not the work of the same hand. They are the only examples of this kind in England.* The chancel is ceiled with an oak-ribbed and panelled ceiling of the ordinary type, though there are not many specimens in Herefordshire Churches. The old porch of this Church had a similar one much decayed. The other day, when the Congress visited Leominster, I had the opportunity of showing that carvings of almost precisely the same pattern, and certainly of the same workmanship, as those on the doorway at Rowlstone, exist on the side of the west window of Leominster Church. Now beneath this window is the large west doorway, which has a pointed arch. The existence of this feature, which indicates late Norman work, in conjunction with work similar in all respects to that which forms the subject of this paper, tells strongly against the views which some hold as to its extraordinary antiquity. To the archæologist this district possesses unique attractions. In the Church of Kilpeck we have the very last struggle of the decaying style of Celtic ornament. In Rowlstone we see the Norman work of the 12th century, with perhaps Byzantine influences. In the neighbouring Church of Garway, built by order of the Knights Templar, the sub-arch of the chancel opening is of a pattern which, if not Saracenic, is at least quite foreign to the native Norman style. Besides these, few village Churches are without substantial remains of the later or transitional Norman; and in the remains of Abbey Dore we see how the native English architects, although greatly under the influence of foreign orders of monks, knew how to throw aside the influences which then prevailed in France, and to work out for themselves a beautiful style of architecture, which, as the Early English, in its own way rivals the choicest specimens of Continental art."

The inspection of the Church having been completed, it became necessary for the members, who had been thus led astray from the science of mycology, to resume their search for funguses on their return to Pontrilas Court, where their hostess, Mrs. St. John Attwood-Mathews, the wife of one of our members, High Sheriff of the county this year, had prepared for them a banquet upon a table

*For a pen and ink sketch of these iron brackets, see page 108 Nooks and Corners of Herefordshire, by H. T. Timmins, published in 1892, since our visit to the Church.

artistically and beautifully laid out. Amongst the table decorations were observed eight brilliant-hued funguses on mossy beds, rivalling nature in their gorgeous colours; so correctly had these wooden specimens been painted in imitation of nature that many a remark was heard, "Is that a natural or is it an artificial fungus?" Sir Herbert Croft, President of the Club, in the absence, through indisposition, of the Rev. Sir George Cornewall, in returning thanks for the hospitable reception, was only obliged to desist from expatiating upon the charming surroundings with which the High Sheriff was blessed, by being reminded that trains, no less than tides, wait not even for members of the Woolhope Club. None of the members had to-day, in their devotion to the cause of science, tasted any of the suspicious funguses, and it is comforting to have to relate that a similar bewilderment did not influence their brains as occurred on the occasion of the previous visit of the mycologists to the same house in 1885, when the members, leaving to catch the train, took their neighbours' hats and coats for their own, nay, even went so far as to carry away the hat of a visitor in the house who was bound for a directly contrary part of the kingdom. Such amenities of science will occur occasionally.

Upon the return to Hereford the Annual Meeting was held in the Woolhope Club Room, when the Officers were elected for the ensuing session of 1892. There was no change in the Official Committee. Mr. Wm. Henry Barneby, of Bredenbury Court, was elected President; the Rev. Sir George H. Cornewall one of the Vice-Presidents. Mr. William Broome Giles, of Newport House, Almeley, was elected a member of the Club, and four names were submitted for election at a future meeting.

The Honorary Secretaries of the Archæological Section laid before the meeting a prospectus detailing the general scheme of their proposed Archæological Map of the county. A copy of this prospectus had been forwarded to every member of the Woolhope Club, and to 380 landowners and clergy, including any one whom they consider able and likely to further the progress of the undertaking. The following attended the Fungus Foray Meeting :-Sir Herbert Croft, Bart. (acting as President), Mr. T. B. Acton, Rev. J. O. Bevan, Mr. C. P. Bird, Captain Campbell, Mr. George Cresswell, Mr. R. Clarke, Dr. A. H. Crespi, Captain de Winton, Rev. C. S. Hagreen, Rev. E. J. Holloway, Mr. W. J. Humfrys, Rev. A. G. Jones, Rev. W. H. Lambert, Rev. H. North, Mr. T. C. Paris, Deputy-Surgeon-General William Perry, Mr. J. F. Symonds, Mr. Walter Pilley, Mr. H. G. Sugden, Rev. F. Stooke-Vaughan, Dr. J. H. Wood, Rev. R. H. Warner, Mr. Alfred Watkins, Mr. H. C. Moore (Honorary Secretary), and Mr. James B. Pilley (Assistant Secretary); with the following visitors: Mr. Hugh Croft, Mr. W. H. Jones, Rev. D. C. Moore, Mr. J. P. Sugden, Mr. S. E. Watkins, to whom the Club is indebted for conducting the Club over the ground.

Dinner took place in the Green Dragon Hotel, when a paper on "The Welsh Names of some Birds of Prey," was read by Mr. E. Cambridge Phillips, in which he pointed out an extraordinarily close analogy in some instances with Russian, Persian, and Turkish names. This was followed by a very elaborate, carefully prepared, and highly interesting paper by Dr. J. H. Wood on

"The Nepticulæ of the Woolhope District."

Mounted specimens of these beautiful moths, the most diminutive amongst our British moths, were exhibited by him. The paper displayed a highly creditable amount of original observation in the minutest details of entomological research.

On the following evening, Friday, October 9th, a lecture was given voluntarily by Mr. Cecil Carus-Wilson, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Oxford University Extension Lecturer, on "Sands and Sandstones," with especial reference to Musical Sands. His lecture embraced an enumeration of the rocks, not even omitting the ice of the glacial regions, which form the "Crust" of the earth, the formation of sands by the disintegration of rocks, by the decay of the harder portions of organisms, and by the growth of crystals, the description of aqueous rock, of sands organic and inorganic, the causes of the colours of sands and sandstones, the properties of the various cementing materials which bind their grains together, the mechanical action of drifting sand upon rock-surfaces, the burial of towns and the encroachment upon the land by the formation and "march" of the dunes; the lecture being illustrated by diagrams, and numerous specimens. He exhibited the wonders of the sand-blast process by engravings upon glass, upon wood, and, more marvellous of all, by its capabilities of employment for the process of boring through so hard a rock as granite. Having most lucidly, fluently, and in language easily to be understood, and as free as possible from scientific long technical names, grounded his audience in the nature and properties of sands, he experimentally produced musical sands from the compression of sand-grains, and artificially produced musical sounds from non-musical sand-grains. Under six or seven microscopes on an adjoining table were exhibited foraminiferous sands from Dog's Bay, west coast of Ireland; millet-seed sands of the "Bunter" age, with rounded grains, a characteristic desert sand; sands from Bournemouth containing microscopic gems separated by Mr. Carus-Wilson's process; "Bagshot" sands; iron sand from Compton Bay, Isle of Wight, from which Mr. Carus-Wilson made the musical sand (see Nature for August 6th, 1891), Natural Musical Sand from the Island of Eigg in the Hebrides (see Cruise of the Betsy, by Hugh Miller, chapter iv.) In the latter work reference is also made to the hill of Reg Rawan, or the moving sand, about forty miles north of Cabul, described by Sir Alexander Burnes in 1837, and the Jabel Nakous, or the Mountain of the Bell, in Arabia, described by Lieutenant Welsted, of the Indian Navy, a few years earlier, as producing such strange music when walked upon, such a combination of tones, that it has, by various listeners been likened to the sound of a convent bell, a humming-top, the striking of a clock, the faint strains of an Æolian harp, or that produced by drawing the moistened finger over glass, whilst the warlike Zahor Ed-Din Muhammed Baber likens the sound from Reg-Rawan to that of drums and nagarets.

The attendance was open to ladies and visitors. Many members of the Woolhope Club and their families attended. Sir Herbert Croft, who presided, thanked the lecturer, and a very general approbation of his style and method of teaching was expressed, inasmuch as that, (as he was engaged for a course of

twelve lectures on the Elements of Geology at Malvern, Brecon, and probably Leominster), it was hoped that his services would be secured for a course in Hereford, commencing in the following January. The privilege of listening to lectures delivered in so simple and masterly a manner should not be lost when close within our grasp; they would produce that stimulus to the study of Geology for which so many members of the Woolhope Club have long been pining.

A few weeks before the above meeting, and about the date of September 14th, a discovery was made in the Brickyard at Pontrilas, at the depth of 8 feet below the ground-level, of a small enamelled gilt ornament, which has since been pronounced by the authorities of the British Museum to be a Book-boss or Shrineboss of early medieval date. It has been placed where it ought to be, namely, in our County Museum, having been presented by the Rev. M. G. Watkins.