CHURCH RESTORATION.

S. Andrew, Banwell, Somersetshire.-We are glad to learn that something in the way of restoration is doing in this church. The stained glass, chiefly heraldick, is taken from the rood-screen, where it was most ridiculously fixed some years back, and replaced in the windows. So fine a church deserves a thorough restoration.

S. Mary, Morpeth.-From the chancel have been ejected the high pues and the gallery, which usurped the place of the rood-loft; and double rows of benches erected for the choir. The walls have been freed from whitewash and plaster, preparatory we hope to the introduction of distemper painting. A new roof has peen put up, of the original pitch, covered with lead, and terminating in a gable cross. The floor of the sacrarium is laid with encaustick tiles with good effect. In the nave open sittings are substituted for about one half of the close pues. Lettern and litany desks (from the Instrumenta Ecclesiastica) are used. The font is removed to its proper place. The church-yard cross, we are glad to say, is restored. We wish the energetick rector GoD speed in his labours.

S.

Ulgham, Northumberland.-We hear good accounts of the chancel of this chapel, which has been rebuilt. A new nave is also to be erected at the joint charge of the Earl of Carlisle and Earl Grey.

S., Mitford, Durham, has been altered for the worse. Doors and blue cushions decked with scarlet tape, make the pues more offensive than before. However, the old font has been brought back to the church from the squire's flower-garden, where we trust the font lately used has not taken its place. This church affords an example of the monstrousness of the monument system. The greater part of the south transept is railed off for a tomb.

S. Mary, Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, has been adorned by the erection of new roof, and by other commendable repairs.

S. Edmund, Newbiggin, Cumberland, is now being restored, we hope, in accordance with correct principles.

S. Mary, Woodhorn, Northumberland has been all but rebuilt, with many faults, but in a good spirit.

S. Andrew's Cathedral, Wells.-Commendable vigour is displayed in the works, which when completed we hope to describe in detail. The scraping is carried on with zeal throughout the nave, while the westend and the roof are being painted. The tablets are all removed into the cloisters. We cannot sufficiently praise the complete, the faithful character which marks the attempt to restore this glorious cathedral; nevertheless we watch with extreme anxiety the proposed alteration of the stalls. Funds are said to be wanting; but we will never believe that the men of Somersetshire, where church restoration has made as great advances as in any part of the kingdom, will withhold their con

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tributions now, when it is in their power to make their mother-church the glory of the land. Why are not collections made in every church in the diocese towards the restoration of the cathedral? Why should the poor be debarred the privilege of offering out of their little for the honour of GoD's House?

S. Mary, West Lydford, Somersetshire.-A small Perpendicular church has lately been taken down, and built again upon the old foundations and after the original design. Such a plan, if not ingenious, is at least safe. The architect employed was Mr. Ferrey. How many cathedrals, churches, chapels, we wonder, would satiate a first-rate London architect? or is his willingness to undertake jobs absolutely illimitable? There is need here of reform.

S. Mary, Wymeswold, Leicestershire.-We have received a very gratifying account of the restoration of this church, from its energetick incumbent, which we shall abridge, and make a few remarks on some of its statements.-"It was intended to retain the old nave roof: not from any excellency which it possessed, for it was a poor one, but from dread of the expense. However, in opportune time, the roof pleaded its own cause, by giving way. The result was, that a new roof is now nearly covered in. The chancel arch (a very bad and late one) is so much out of the centre of the wall, (the nave and chancel themselves being accurately in a straight line,) as to occasion the middle alley and the rood-screen doors literally to "quarter" with one another. The effect of this, now that the low seats in the nave will, by their lines of square ends, direct the eye to the fault, is bad beyond description: so much so that the church has been presented with a new chancel arch, at considerable cost. The chancel is nearly completed. It will be fitted with a single row of stall-seats, with sloping book-board and tracery fronts, and a seat attached to the fronts below, with elbows finished with poppy heads. In a small recess or chapel built out on the north side, stands the organ, with a break in the stalls leading to it, correspondent with a break leading to the priest's door on the south side." This arrangement is very objectionable: but we need not here repeat the arguments against it, which we brought forward in the beginning of our third volume. "The stalls are returned behind the rood screen. The rails (which are required by our Archdeacon,) are of the same tracery as the front of the stalls." To this, again, we object. Why ornament an eyesore, which, under an Archdeacon acquainted with ecclesiology, may be removed? even if it be allowed, that he has any right to require them, where there is a rood-screen. "The whole space within is to be paved with encaustick tiles, which are also to be intermixed with plain tiles in the alley. The bay of the roof over the altar will be painted in colour : its four corbels being carved into the four Evangelistick symbols. The other two bays of the roof are stained. The organ front, which was loaded with mistaken tracery, will be divided by beadings into panels, which will be diapered or bear inscriptions. The great east window, a new one entirely, is being stained. The north and south windows, within the rails, are being done in Powell's quarries, to prevent

transparency, but with the hope of one day exchanging them for something more costly. The other two windows, (these four are high sixlight perpendicular windows with transoms; the east window a tenlight ditto,) have plain glass with stained heads, bearing emblems of the Passion. So much for the chancel. In the nave, every window head, and three entire windows, will be stained glass. A two-light window commemorates a departed child—the west window in the north aisle; the subjects being S. Clement (his name) and S. John the Baptist; the window is immediately over the font. In the head is the Holy Lamb. This window is very rich. Another two-light window has been given: subject, S. Stephen and S. Philip, deacons. The great west window in the tower was given in on the contract by the architect and builder. The ground, figured quarries with the Holy Lamb in the centre in the vesica, and the four Evangelistick symbols in the side lights. A very chaste and beautiful window, and on a summer's evening, when the light streams up the nave, perfectly glorious. The corbels of the nave roof are angels bearing shields, twelve in number, over the piers and responds. It is intended to place the names of the twelve Apostles on scrolls below them, over each pier, and emblazon the shields with their appropriate emblems. (Apoc. xxi., 14.) The only thing now wanting is to replace our once noble spire, which was struck by lightning and taken down in 1782. In order to this, the tower which was shaken also would have to come down as far as the cill of the belfry windows, which must, however, be almost done to restore the gablets and crockets with which the buttresses are enriched, and the tracery and jambs of the belfry windows, which are decayed and cut out. We have some hope that the spire may be done. I omitted to state that the whole of our wood-work below is solid oak: the roofs are pine. The nave will be lighted by two corona of brass, and the aisles and chancel by sconces which are very beautiful. We shall use Price's candles, which have been tried in this neighbourhood, and have most of the benefits of wax, in decency of management, and brilliancy of light." We have not, we think, alluded before to the subject of candles. They should most decidedly be of wax: composition is nearly as bad when used for wax as is cement in imitation of stone.

S. Francesco, Bologna.-We have before mentioned the repairs of this church. Our readers will be glad to learn that the works are proceeding steadily, though slowly. The church is of great size, built almost entirely of brick, even to the piers. The nave is of surprising height, vaulted in octopartite bays. The clerestory windows are blunt lancet headed. There is no triforium, but an arcade of broad-pointed arches spring in from octagonal brick piers, with caps and bases of a boldness and spirit very unusual in Italian pointed. Without any intervention of screen, or even diminished breadth, the choir exhibits a seven-sided apse, all the sides having circular lights and lofty lancets above the acute arches which separate it from the retro-choir. According to the original design, the transepts did not extend beyond the breadth of the aisles; but chapels had been added at their extremities in the classical style, and a modern Lady-chapel had been built at the east end. Along the aisles, chapels have been built of various dates and

designs, making the exterior very varied, and having quite spoilt the original pointed character of the interior. The church is further remarkable for its noble flying buttresses round the choir and on the sides of the nave; for an extremely beautiful and lofty square tower, of moulded brick, elaborately panelled in various stages, at the south-east part of the plan; and for a very imposing west front. Unfortunately, however, the latter is, in a great degree, a sham front-the common fault of Italian façades. The repairs, at present completed, are as follows. The large western circular window and the two lancet-headed lights below it have been restored; the choir has been cleared and repaired; its stalls are now nearly finished. The stone reredos has been quite renewed and set up over a new altar. The design of the reredos comprehends a broad central niche, filled with a sculpture of the Coronation, and supported by four niches on each side, each containing the figure of a saint. Above the canopies of this lower range are nine smaller niches with half-figures in them. The central compartment rises higher, with another niche containing figures of the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Infant, the spiry canopy of which terminates in a beautifully wrought rood, with our Lady and S. John the Evangelist standing by it. The eight subsidiary compartments terminate in lower pinnacles, and the design is flanked by buttressed pinnacles ending in figures of angels blowing trumpets. The whole is of most delicate workmanship, and in white Carrara marble. The whole of this is a restoration from existing fragments. The more difficult task remained, how to adapt it to a new altar. In this we cannot think the architect successful. The new altar is a large slab of white marble, supported in front by four carved spiral columns of the same material. Behind the columns, is a front carved in very low relief in arabesque patterns. The reredos is placed on a high marble structure, which rises above the altar. This substructure appears to us much too large. It has the effect of raising the reredos far too much, so that the effect of its own delicate work and its relation to the church are both spoilt. And the substructure itself is, although meant to be pointed, very classical in character, horizontal lines prevailing, and the panelling being very shallow. There are multifoils with reliefs of angels singing, which want severity of expression. We can only account for the exaggeration of this substructure (the bad effect of which is recognised by the very workmen in the church,) by supposing that Professor Antolini was not bold enough to set an example of reducing altar pieces to a more moderate size than the later continental taste has allowed. At the same time, great credit is due to all concerned for this attempt. great importance, being, perhaps, the first movement in Italy towards a revival of the Pointed style. The whole restoration is to be conducted in this style. The transepts will be altered, and the Lady-chapel, as well as the aisles and their chapels. We hope the Franciscan order will revive it sold love for Christian architecture. The architect is Professor Filippo Antolini.

It is one of

S. Peter, Evercreech, Somersetshire.—It is most annoying to learn, that in a church where so much has of late years been done, and well done, as in Evercreech, the authorities should shew themselves so desti

tute of taste as to put up in the newly erected south aisle, a gallery to match the one constructed in the north aisle, in 1825. Save in these galleries, there are no pues in the church. The font and the pulpit were carved by the hand of a former incumbent. The chancel roof is painted or, azure, and gules. This parish is fortunate in retaining a fair village cross. We would suggest to the parishioners the wisdom of setting the fine old church of S. Peter free from the disfigurement of galleries, and erecting a chapel-of-ease in a convenient situation, for the accommodation of the large population. In such a case, perhaps, as the mother church is S. Peter's, the chapel might be consecrated under the invocation of S. Paul.

S. Giles, Little Malvern, Worcestershire.—We are glad to find that steps are being taken for the restoration of this beautiful church. We are informed, by a circular, that—“The nave has altogether disappeared, the transepts and side chapels are in a ruined and dismantled state, while the tower and chancel, which are alone available for Divine worship, although comparatively in a sound and good condition, are most lamentably disfigured by injudicious repairs, mutilations, and neglect. As a step towards the complete restoration of this church, it is proposed to put the substantial part of the fabrick into a perfect state of repair, to remove the soil which has accumulated around the walls, to re-open the original windows, to thoroughly scrape and cleanse the walls of the interior, to substitute open oak sittings for the present irregular pues, and, as far as possible, to restore this part of the church to its former beauty, and render it more becoming the worship of God."

S. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.-This church is one of the largest parochial edifices in the kingdom. It consists of a chancel with north and south aisles, a nave with north and south aisles, and a transept, over the intersection of which and the nave is erected the tower and spire. Its great peculiarity is, that the nave is considerably smaller than the aisles, both as regards height and breadth. The church of Cheux, in Normandy, is somewhat similar It has suffered dreadfully. Among other things, the east wall has been taken down, with about nine feet of the side walls, by which means one of the three windows on each side has been totally destroyed, and the east wall re-built in the most ordinary manner, with an offensive carpenter's window. Some other noble windows have been partially blocked up, and the remaining space filled by a barbarous imitation in wood of Gothick tracery. The spire has been considerably shortened; tasteless battlements have been substituted for the ancient parapet; and the whole of the south side and west front (as well as the tower,) covered with most unseemly plaster. It is now proposed thoroughly to restore this church, and to rescue the poor remains of the priory (which adjoins it,) from its present use as a stable. The architect is Mr. Hakewill: the estimate is £5000. It looks well for the feeling of the College of Arms, that Rouge Dragon should be one of the secretaries for the restoration,

We have received the following account of S. Michael's, Clifton, Oxon, from a correspondent. The only thing which we find to object against this restoration, is the panelling, &c., of the altar and the character of the