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the angle of a pilaster, not affected by this operation, with those of the central cupola, I think I can perceive that such an effect has taken place. Nor has the movement entirely ceased, since a dovetailed piece of marble, inserted to ascertain the fact in 1810, was found broken in 1825. Perhaps there never was any just ground of alarm; yet, as one of the iron circles, intended to contain the thrust had given way, there probably had been a considerable settlement, but not more than might have been expected, from the different periods in which the work had been carried up, and the repeated strengthenings which the solids had received. Nevertheless it was determined to insert five bands of iron, which were all let into the masonry, and made tight and sound under the direction of Vanvitelli. The broken chain was restored; but the other chain had been originally inserted in the thickness of the wall; this there was no opportunity for examining: in order to be perfectly secure, a sixth band was inserted in its neighbourhood, so that, in all probability, the dome and its drum are now secured by eight iron bands, five of which are in the drum, one at the springing of the arch, and two on the surface of the dome itself. It is doubted among the Italian architects whether the insertion of all these bands did not do more harm than any strength they could afford to the building can compensate." Dr. Burton says that the cupola of the Duomo, at Florence, has cracked even worse than that of St. Peter's; yet no iron bands have been inserted into that.

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The ascent to the roof of St. Peter's is very easy. "You will stare," says a modern writer, when I tell you that a broad paved road leads up to the top of St. Peter's, not, perhaps, practicable for carriages from its winding nature, but so excellent a bridle-road, that there is a continual passage of horses and mules upon it, which go up laden with stone and lime; and the ascent is so gentle, and the road so good, that any body might ride up and down with perfect safety." When the visiter reaches the leads on the roof, the immensity of the building appears very striking; "small houses and ranges of workshops for the labourers employed in the never ending repairs are built here, and are lost upon this immense leaden plain, as well as the eighteen cupolas of the side chapels which are not distinguishable from below." From this roof staircases lead to the ball, which is twenty-four feet in circumference, and is said to be capable of containing eighteen persons. From the balustrade on the outside of the ball, the adventurous sometimes mount to the bottom of the cross by an iron ladder, which is in part quite perpendicular.

ILLUMINATIONS OF ST. PETER'S.

Ir is the custom upon some occasions, and particularly on the eve of the festival of St. Peter, in the month of June, to light up the exterior of this enormous edifice. Simond gives a lively description of the scene and the preparations. "Soon after sunset the whole outside of St. Peter's was occupied, I might say, hung, with workmen, who were seen climbing in all directions, along the ribs of the dome, the lantern above it, the gilt globe, and the very cross at the top of all. The pediment in front, the architecture, the colossal statues, the very acanthus-leaves of the Corinthian capitals, swarmed with adventurous men, carrying lights, who, by means of ropes, slided and swung with great rapidity and ease from one point to another of the edifice, forcibly recalling to my mind the fireflies of America, on a hot Summer's evening. We understood that these men hear mass, confess, and receive the absolution before they begin, on account of the great risk they run of breaking their necks. The business being weil organized, the whole surface of St. Peter's and the colonnade before it, soon shone with the mild effulgence of fifty thousand paper lanterns; but in less than an hour, and at a particular signal, a great change of scene took place; the whole edifice burst at once, as by magic, into absolute flames. This is done by means of pans full of pitch and pine shavings set on fire, and simultaneously thrust out from all parts of the edifice: the effect is quite wonderful, but of short duration. It was scarcely over before the crowd moved off towards the river, crossing the bridge, in order to occupy a situation in front of the castle of St. Angelo, and we did not without difficulty, reach the house on the top of which we had provided places. I certainly never saw fire-works at all comparable with these, for their inexhaustible variety,their force, loudness, and duration. The huge mass of the castle seemed a volcano, pouring its ceaseless deluge of fire above, below, and all around; and the Tiber in front seemed itself a sheet of fire. Long after all this had ended, St. Peter's (forgotten

for a while) continued to shed its mild lustre over the dark ness of a cloudy night. The next day Rome appeared a desert, and the universal silence was only disturbed by the distant rattling of travelling carriages posting away to the north and to the south."

CHURCHES OF MODERN ROME.

Ir would far exceed our limits to describe even the principal of the many magnificent churches which, besides St. Peter's, are to be found in Rome; the whole number is said to be 365. We shall content ourselves with some remarks on their general style and appearance. One of the most remarkable of their characteristics is of a negative kind,-the almost total absence of the Gothic or pointed style of architecture; with the exception of a few fragments and a few ornaments in this style, nothing of it is to be seen. "The Roman architects," says Dr. Burton, "have invariably studied the Grecian models, and whatever fault may be found in separate parts, it must be allowed that the churches of this city present some of the most splendid specimens of architecture which can be found in modern

times."

Forsyth says that they are admirable only in detail. "Their materials are rich, the workmanship exquisite, the orders all Greek. Every entablature is adjusted to the axis of each column, with a mathematical scrupulosity which is lost to the eye. One visionary line runs upward, bisecting, superstitiously, every shaft, triglyph, ovolo bead denticle, mutile modillon, or lion's mouth, that lies in its way. But how are those orders employed? In false fronts which, rising into two stages of columns, promise two stories within-in pediments under pediments, and in segments of pediments-in cornices, for ever broken by projections projecting from projections-in columns, and pilasters, and fractions of pilasters, grouped round one pillar. Thus Grecian beauties are clustered by Goths: thus capitals and bases are coupled, or crushed, or confounded, on each other; and shafts rise from the same level to different heights, some to the architrave, and some only to the imposts. Ornaments for ever interrupt or conceal ornaments: accessories are multiplied till they absorb the principal: the universal fault is the too many and the too much. Few churches in the city show more than their fronts externally. Their rude sides are generally screened by contiguous buildings, and their tiled roof by a false pediment, which, rising to an immoderate height above the ridge, leads you to certain disappointment when you enter. Every front should be true to the interior. Such was the front of the ancient temples, a pediment resting on a peristyle and forming a fine pentagon: but such a figure would be too flat for those vaulted churches, and incompatible with their aisles................ The Romans seem fondest of those fronts where most columns can be stuck and most angles projected. Some, as Santa Maria in Portico, the Propaganda Fide, &c., are bent out and in like brackets. Quadrangular fronts, like those of St. Peter's, the Lateran, &c., are fitter for a palace than for a church. How specifically truer is the old Gothic front, which admits but one large window, similar in form to the front itself!"

"The principal churches of Rome," says the same writer, "however different their style of building and ornament may be, are distributed in the same manner. Their aisles are generally formed by arcades: over these are sometimes grated recesses, but never open galleries. The choir terminates in a curve, which is the grand field of decoration, and loaded with curiosities and glories in brass and marble. The high altar stands in the middle of the cross. The chapels of the Holy Sacrament and of the Virgin are usually in the transepts. Those of the saints are ranged on the sides; and each being raised by a different family, has an architecture of its own, at variance with the church, which thus loses its unity amid nests of polytheism."

Among the churches of modern Rome there are seven which are called basilicas, and are supposed to possess a peculiar sanctity. The name basilica is derived from the circumstance of their being generally formed out of the basilica of ancient Rome, which have been already mentioned. These seven are St. Peter's, Sta. Maria Maggiore, St. John Lateran, and Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme,which are within the walls,-and St. Paul's, S. Lorenzo, and St. Sebastian's, which are without them. The reason assigned for the preference is the following. Upon a certain occasion the four patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, came to Rome; and four principal churches were assigned to them during their

residence. These were St. Paul's, Sta. Maria Maggiore, S. Lorenzo, and St. Peter's. The pope, who was superior to them all, reserved for himself St. John Lateran, which was then, and is still, higher in rank than St. Peter's, being in fact, the metropolitan church of Rome, and "the principal temple of the Catholic world," as Vasi says. This circumstance imparted a peculiar sanctity to the five churches, and the people frequented them more than any others. St. Sebastian and Sta. Croce were subsequently added to the number, because in going from St. Paul's to the Lateran, it was necessary to pass by St. Sebastian, and in continuing the visitation from the Lateran to S. Lorenzo, Sta. Croce had the like good fortune to be in the way. "Such," says Dr. Burton, "is the reason assigned by an antiquary and dignitary of the Romish church, which, perhaps will not seem very satisfactory."

RELICS OF PAGANISM IN MODERN ROME.

MIDDLETON, in his celebrated Letter from Rome, after expressing the resolution which he had taken to employ himself, during his stay in the capital, chiefly in observing its antiquities, and to lose as little time as possible in taking notice of the fopperies and ridiculous ceremonies of the present religion of the place, goes on to say, "But I soon found myself mistaken; for the whole form and outward dress of their worship seemed so grossly idolatrous and extravagant oeyond what I had imagined, and made so strong an impression on me, that I could not help considering it with a particular regard; especially when the very reason which I thought would have hindered me from taking any notice of it at all, was the chief cause which engaged me to pay so much attention to it: for nothing, I found, concurred so much with my original intention of conversing with the ancients; or so much helped my imagination, to fancy myself wandering about in old heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious worship; all whose ceremonies appeared plainly to have been copied from the rituals of primitive paganism; as if handed down by an uninterrupted succession from the priests of old to the priests of new Rome; whilst each of them readily explained and called to my mind some passage of a classic author, where the same ceremony was described as transacted in the same form and manner, and in the same place where I now saw it executed before my eyes: so that as oft as I was present at any religious exercise in their churches, it was more natural to fancy myself looking on at some solemn act of idolatry in old Rome, than assisting at a worship instituted on the principles and framed upon the plan of Christianity."

"Many of our divines," he adds, "have, I know, with much learning and solid reasoning charged and effectually proved the Crime of Idolatry on the Church of Rome; but their controversies, (in which there is still something plausible to be said on the other side, and when the charge is constantly denied, and with much subtilty evaded,) are not capable of giving that conviction which I immediately received from my senses; the surest witnesses of fact in all cases; and which no man can fail to be furnished with who sees popery as it is exercised in Italy, in the full pomp and display of its pageantry; and practising all its arts and powers without caution or reserve. The similitude of the popish and pagan religion seemed so evident and clear, and struck my imagination so forcibly, that I soon resolved to give myself the trouble of searching to the bottom; and to explain and demonstrate the certainty of it, by comparing together the principal and most obvious parts of each worship." He then expresses an opinion that he shall have matter enough to tire both himself and his correspondent, "in showing the source and origin of the popish ceremonies, and the exact conformity of them with those of their pagan ancestors." We select his remarks on the use of incense:

"The very first thing that a stranger must necessarily take notice of, as soon as he enters their churches, is the use of incense or perfumes in their religious offices; the first step which he takes within the door will be sure to make him sensible of it, by the offence that he will immediately receive from the smell as well as smoke of this incense, with which the whole church continues to be filled for some time after every solemn service,-a custom received directly from paganism; and which presently called to my mind the old descriptions of the heathen temples and altars which are seldom or never mentioned by the antients without the epithet of perfumed or incensed.

"In some of the principal churches, where you have before you in one view, a great number of altars, and all of them smoking at once with steams of incense, how natural is it to imagine oneself transported into the temple of some heathen divinity, or that of the Paphian Venus described by Virgil?

Her hundred altars there with garlands crown'd,

And richest incense smoking, breathe around
Sweet odours," &c.

Under the pagan emperors, the use of incense for the purpose of religion was thought so contrary to the obligations of Christianity, that in their persecutions the very method of trying and convicting a Christian was by requiring him only to throw the least grain of it into the censer, or on the altar.

Under the Christian emperors, on the other hand, it was looked upon as a rite so peculiarly heathenish, that the very places or houses where it could be proved to have been done, were by a law of Theodosius confiscated to the government.

The Rev. Mr. Blunt, in his Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, &c., points out several marks of resem blance between the ancient and the modern superstition. Not the least curious is the analogy which may be observed between the names of the pagan temples of Ancient Rome, and the Catholic churches of Modern Rome. Of temples, there are said to have been formerly in Rome four hundred and twenty sacred to the pagan gods; of churches there are now in the modern city and its suburbs, upwards of a hundred and fifty sacred to Christian saints." And as heretofore many temples," to use the words of Mr. Blunt, "were consecrated to the same deity under different titles, so now are there many churches devoted to the same saint, or to the Madonna, distinguished only by a diversity of epithets." Thus in Ancient Rome, there was a temple of Jupiter Castor, of Jupiter Feretrius, of Jupiter Sponsor, of Jupiter Stator, of Jupiter Tonans, of Jupiter Victor, &c., of Venus Calva, Venus Capitolina, Venus Erycina, Venus Cloacina, Venus Victrix. So in Modern Rome we find a church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Santa Maria di Araceli, Santa Maria Imperatrice, Santa Maria Liberatrice, Santa Maria della Consolazione, Santa Maria Egyptiaca, Santa Maria dell' Anima, &c.; S. Pietro in Vaticano, S. Pietro in Montorio, S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Pietro in Carcere, &c. Again, the heathen temples were often dedicated to two divinities, as to Castor and Pollux, to Venus and Cupid, to Venus and Rome, to Honour and Virtue, to Isis and Serapis, &c. In like manner, there are now churches to SS. Marcellinus and Peter, to Jesus and Maria, to Dominicus and Sistus, to Celsus and Julianus, to SS. Vincentius and Anastasius. Upon this same point we refer the reader to the remarks which we quoted from Middleton's Letter, in our description of the Pantheon, which from being formerly dedicated to all the gods of pagan Rome, is now dedicated to all the saints of Catholic Rome.

Mr. Matthews remarks, that some traces of the old heathen superstitions are constantly peeping out from under their Catholic disguises. "What is the modern worshipping of saints and images but a revival of the old adoration paid to heroes and demi-gods;-or what the nuns, with their vows of celibacy, but a new edition of the vestal virgins? Wherever we turn, indeed, all is old, and nothing new. Instead of tutelary gods, we find patron saints and guardian angels, and the canonization of a saint, is but another term for the apotheosis of a hero...... The very same piece of brass which the old Romans adored, now with a new head on its shoulders,-like an old friend with a new face,-is worshipped with equal devotion by the modern Italian.

"It is really surprising to see with what apparent fervour of devotion, all ranks, and ages, and sexes, kneel to, and kiss, the toe of this brazen image. They rub it against their foreheads, and press it against their lips, with the most reverential piety. I have sat by the hour to see the crowds of people who flock in to perform this ceremony,-waiting for their turn to kiss;-and yet the Catholic would laugh at the pious Mussulman who performs a pilgrimage to Mecca to wash the holy pavement, and kiss the black stone of the Caaba;-which, like his own St. Peter, is also a relic of heathenism."

LONDON

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE.

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About the year of our Redemption, 1094, when, as in a devout and religious emulation, princes strove that cathedral churches and minsters should be erected in a more decent and seemly form; and when Christendom roused, as it were, herself, and casting away her old habiliments, did put on everywhere the bright and white robe of the churches, Hugh, the first of the Norman blood that was Earl of Chester, repaired the church which Earl Leofric had formerly founded in honour of the Virgin, St. Werburga; and, by the advice of Anselm, whom he had procured to come out of Normandy, granted the same unto monks. And now it is notorious for the tomb of Henry the Fourth, emperor of Almaine", who, as they say, gave over his empire, and lived here an eremite's life, and for the Bishop's See therein established; which See, immediately after the Norman Conquest, Peter, Bishop of Lichfield, translated from Lichfield hither; but when it was brought to Coventry, and from thence into the ancient seat again, West Chester lay a long time bereft of this episcopal dignity, until, in our father's days, King Henry the Eighth, having thrust out the monks, ordained prebendaries and restored a bishop again, under whom, for his diocese, he appointed this county, Lancashire, Richmond, &c., and appointed the same to be within the province of York. At its first foundation it was in the province of Canterbury.

Camden having supplied us with this concise history of the See of Chester, we may proceed to give some description of the fabric. The Cathedral consists of the following parts; a nave and choir, separated from their respective aisles by clustered columns; a central tower, resting on four massive piers; transepts; and a lady-chapel to the east. The western entrance is by a pointed doorway, from which two descents by steps lead into the nave. On one side is the Bishop's consistory court, on the other an entrance to the Bishop's palace. These were intended to have formed the bases of two western towers, and the foundation of them was laid with much ceremony by Abbot Birchenshaw in 1508. The south porch of the church is in the style of the same period. The transepts are of very unequal proportions, being uniform neither in size nor appearance. The north transept has an ornamented oak roof, supported by angels, bearing emblems of the crucifixion. At the south-east angle of this transept is an ancient vestry. The south transept, which is by far the larger of the two, is used as the parish-church of St. Oswald. In the Choir, opposite to the pulpit, is the stone case which formerly surrounded the shrine of St. Werburgh, now shortened, and used as the bishop's throne. It exhibits a rich specimen of Gothic architecture, in the style of the early part of the fourteenth century. Under the east window of the Choir is an arch, opening to the Lady-chapel.

The Cloisters, the general style of which is that of the fifteenth century, are situated on the north side of the nave, and form a quadrangle of about 110 feet square; the centre formerly contained a cistern for water, which was brought in pipes from Christleton. These cloisters originally consisted of four vaulted walks, of which the south walk is destroyed. In the church-wall, in the south walk, are six semicircular arches, resting on short pillars; the three eastern ones have ornamented pillars; these mark the places of burial of the Norman abbots. The west walk opens to the nave by an early Norman

Germany. + Hermit's, from a Greek word signifying a desert. Chester received its name from Castra, the Latin word for a camp; the Roman legions having frequently encamped in this neighbourhood, and particularly the famous twentieth legion, called the victorious, which was placed here by Galba. Chester was often called West Chester, from its western situation in the county.

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arch at the south end; and by another, now closed, it formerly opened to a passage leading to the great square of conventual buildings. Another doorway, opposite to the south walk, closed by a pillar placed before it to support the present vaulting, led to an arched passage, forming the abbot's way to the church. Along the rest of this walk extends a kind of crypt, consisting of a double row of circular arches. The north walk contained the chief entrance into the refectory of the convent, under a rich semicircular arch; and at the east end was a doorway leading to the kitchen and its offices, and to the staircase of the dormitory. Along the greater part of the north side ran the refectory, a noble apartment, ninety-eight feet in length and thirty-four in height, with a roof of oak, resting on brackets, which was removed in 1804. The Chapter-house, the entrance to which is from the east side of the cloister, extends eastward, parallel with the choir of the church. Some portions of this interesting cathedral are assigned to the eleventh century. The north aisle of the choir, the chapterhouse, and the ancient refectory, are said to belong to the early part of the thirteenth century. The central tower is stated to have been finished in 1210.

The length of the Cathedral from east to west, is three hundred and forty-eight feet; the width of the Choir and Nave is seventy-four feet six inches.

Chester Cathedral suffered great injury during the civil wars, and continued in a very dilapidated state till 1656. At the time the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth was in the city, the mob forced the doors, and destroyed most of the painted glass: they also injured the font, and some of the monuments, and committed several other outrages.

Before the Reformation this church was governed by abbots, of whom John Clarke, elected about 1537, may be reckoned the twenty-seventh abbot. Little more is known of him, than that he readily complied with the wishes of King Henry the Eighth in surrendering the monastery at the dissolution, in consideration of which he was suffered to retain the government of the dissolved abbey, under the character of dean of the new cathedral.

The diocese of Chester is of great extent; but, in pursuance of the regulations recommended by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, it will be relieved of a large portion of territory. The deaneries of Richmond, Catterick, and Boroughbridge, and part of the deanery of Kirkby Lonsdale, have been taken out of it, to constitute the greater part of the see of Ripon. It is also to lose the whole of the county of Lancaster, which, with the exception of the deanery of Furness, will go to form the see of Manchester; this latter deanery being assigned to the diocese of Carlisle. The archdeaconry of Salop, from the diocese of Lichfield, is, however, to be added to Chester.

Among the most eminent of the bishops of Chester, since the foundation of the episcopate by King Henry the Eighth, may be mentioned the following.

BRIAN WALTON, D.D., Cambridge, the editor of the great Polyglott Bible, was born at Cleveland, in Yorkshire, in 1600. He became rector of St. Martin Orgars, in the city of London, and in 1635 was appointed to the living of St. Giles'-in-the-Fields. He was a learned divine and an excellent lawyer; but, being true to the church and king, he was obliged, on the breaking out of the civil war, to quit his preferment for fear of being murdered. Having fled to Oxford, he was incorporated of that University, and soon formed his noble project of proparing the Polyglott Bible, which, however, was finished during the Commonwealth, at the house of Dr. Fuller, his father-in-law, in London. This

splendid work, which, while it reflected honour upon its learned editor and his coadjutors, was also a credit to the English press, was published in 1657, in six volumes folio, the sacred text being printed in the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Samaritan, Arabic, Ethiopic, Persian, Greek, and Latin languages. The preface, which was originally intended for Cromwell, and con. tained allusions to the Protector, was altered to suit the new reign. The republican copies are far more scarce than the royal; but the possessor of either edition may be proud of owning such a treasure. In September, 1661, Walton was presented to the bishopric of Chester, and on the 11th of that month was installed with great ceremony; "A day," says Wood, "not to be forgotten by all the true sons of the Church of England." But his honours were short-lived; he died in Aldersgate-street, London, in the November following, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. JOHN WILKINS, D.D., Oxford, was the son of a goldsmith, and was born in 1614, at Fawsley, near Daventry. Having taken orders, he became chaplain to Lord Say, and then to Charles, Count Palatine of the Rhine. Upon the breaking out of the civil war he joined the parliament, and took the oath of the solemn League and Covenant. The committee of parliament for reforming the University made him warden of Wadham. He afterwards married Mrs. French, a widow, sister of Oliver Cromwell; and though ejected at the Restoration from the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge, to which he had been appointed in 1659 by Richard Cromwell, he soon became preacher at Gray's Inn, and rector of St. Lawrence, Jewry. About this time he was chosen one of the council of the Royal Society, and, in consequence of his great mathematical and scientific attainments, proved a highly valuable member of that distinguished body. He soon rose to be Dean of Ripon, and subsequently Bishop of Chester, the latter elevation being secured for him by the interest of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whose patronage was not considered creditable to him. He died at the house of Dr. Tillotson, in Chancerylane, London, in 1672. Wilkins's works are very ingenious, and some of them more entertaining than useful. When twenty-five years of age he published a whimsical little book, entitled "The Discovery of a New World; or a discourse tending to prove, that there may be another habitable world in the moon, with a discourse concerning the possibility of a passage thither." He was the inventor of the Perambulator, or MeasuringWheel. Of his theological works the principal was his Discourse on Natural Religion, published after his death by Tillotson.

JOHN PEARSON, D.D., Cambridge," in all respects the greatest divine of his day*," celebrated for his admirable Exposition of the Creed, was born at Snoring, in Norfolk, in 1612. From Eton school, he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge, and took orders in 1639. Having been chaplain to Finch, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, he was presented to the living of Torrington, Suffolk. In 1650 he was made minister of St. Clement's, Eastcheap, London, where he preached the substance of his Exposition of the Creed. This noble work has gone through many editions: it is in itself a body of divinity, deep, clear, and accurate, and may well be consulted by the general reader, as well as by the student of theology; to the latter it is indispensable. Having passed through various stages of preferment, Pearson succeeded Dr. Wilkins in the see of Chester in 1673. He died at Chester in 1686. Dr. Bentley, the famous scholar and critic, used to say, that Bishop Pearson's "very dross was gold." * Bishop Burnet,

SIR WILLIAM DAWES, Bart., D.D., Oxford and Cambridge, a most excellent person, was born in 1671, and received his early instruction at Merchant Tailors' School, from whence he obtained a Scholarship, and afterwards a Fellowship, at St. John's College, Oxford. But his father's title and estate descending to him, he settled at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, of which college, after taking orders, and obtaining his Doctor's Degree, he was appointed Master. Through his interest with Queen Anne, he obtained an act of parliament for annexing a Prebend of Norwich to the Mastership of Catherine Hall for ever. As Rector and Dean of Bocking he discharged his duties in a very exemplary manner. He was afterwards appointed Bishop of Chester, and translated to the Archbishopric of York. He died in 1724, at the age of 53, respected and beloved by persons of all parties. addition to more sterling qualities, he is described as having been a man of peculiarly fine person, and mild, agreeable manners, to whom honour came, as it were, naturally, and on whom it sat admirably well.

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FRANCIS GASTRELL, D.D., Oxford, was born in Northamptonshire, about 1662, and having been brought up at Westminster school, was elected on the foundation of Christchurch, Oxford. In 1694 he became preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and on being chosen to preach the Boyle's lecture in 1697, powerfully maintained the truths of Christianity against the cavils of the deists. In 1707 he preached an admirable sermon in the church of St. Sepulchre, on the occasion of the grand Anniversary Meeting of the Charity Schools, before the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; and in the same year, he put forth his excellent work, entitled "The Christian Institutes, or the sincere word of God digested under proper heads, and delivered in the words of Scripture." On his promotion to the Bishopric of Chester, he resigned the preachership of Lincoln's Inn. Bishop Gastrell died in 1725, and was buried in the Cathedral of Christchurch, Oxford.

BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D., Cambridge, may be cited as another ornament of the see of Chester. He was one of nineteen children, and born at York, in 1731, of American parents, who had settled in this country. He was placed at a school at Ripon, and entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, at an early age. Having distinguished himself by his degree, and other academical honours, he became fellow of his college, and, for a short time, held the office of esquire Bedell. He was twenty-six years old on taking orders, and thirty-one when he was appointed domestic Chaplain to Archbishop Secker. The posts which he successively occupied in the church were well and ably filled by him. These were, the rectory of Lambeth, the bishopric of Chester, and, lastly, the bishopric of London. He was a persuasive and energetic preacher, his sermons being so attractive as to occasion great crowds of persons of all classes to attend the church where it was understood he would preach. He died in 1809, in the 79th year of his age, and was buried in a vault in the churchyard of Sundridge, Kent, where a neat monument has been erected to his memory.

We may justly insert in this distinguished list the name of Dr. C. J. BLOMFIELD, Cambridge, who, after having been for some years the rector of an important parish in the metropolis, succeeded to the laborious charge of the diocese of Chester, and is now Bishop of London.

The see of Chester is at present filled by Dr. J. B. SUMNER, also of Cambridge, a prelate, whose high character entitles him to a respectful mention in this

short notice.

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