the church being sufficiently spacious, other objects have suggested themselves, and it is therefore proposed : "1st. That as the broken slab might with difficulty be removed, it should remain where it is, and that a simple and appropriate tomb should be raised over the Archbishop's grave, protected by a cloister, or open enclosure, occupying the site of the ancient chapel, so as to protect the tomb and place of burial from disturbance hereafter. "2nd. That low and uniform open sittings be substituted for the present inconvenient high pews. Far better accommodation for the school children, whose present position in the church is both inconvenient and objectionable, will thus be provided, and one great object with Archbishop Leighton may also be attained. 'Let us study (he recommends) to reform that extreme irreverence that hath prevailed in people's deportment in time of public prayer; and that they be reduced to such a gesture as may signify that we are acknowledging and adoring the great Majesty of GOD.' On the bench-ends, and various portions of these restorations, the Archbishop's monogram might be introduced, and also his arms, impaled with the two Sees of Glasgow and Dunblane. "3rd. It is also proposed to have the eastern window of the chancel lengthened, and otherwise improved by the admission of some stained glass; and that a communion table, with suitable appendages, shall be provided,—the present one being of a very mean description. "4th. If there should be any surplus, it is proposed to devote the same to the endowment of the schools at Horsted-Keynes. Adequate funds for the maintenance of a daily school in this parish cannot be obtained: a difficulty which, unless some assistance be afforded, is likely to be increased rather than diminished. 66 5th. It is proposed, finally, that an inscription in brass, recording the circumstances attending this memorial, be placed within the chancel; and that in all that is done, the greatest simplicity be preserved." The Oxford Architectural Society has published an interesting collection of the reports of its meetings, with abstracts of the papers read before the Society,-extending from the beginning of 1851 to the annual meeting in June, 1853. The preface contains an allusion to the loss sustained by the Society in the unexpected decease of Dr. Harington, the Principal of Brazenose. It is scarcely necessary for us to congratulate our readers on the defeat in the House of Commons of a bill for rebuilding, in a most objectionable way, and with the legalized burthen of pew-rents, the parish-church of Stoke Newington. The plan, thus defeated, met its first exposure (unless we are much mistaken) in a communication made by a parishioner to our own pages. There is every reason also to hope that the Bishop of London's bill for legalizing pew-rents in certain London parishes will come to nothing. We wish we could say the same of the ill-omened proposal to remove or destroy so many of the City churches. Received the Rev. Charles Robins, (with whom we have no intention of entering into a controversy); W. G. T.; H. D.; J. H. C.; W. G. T.; M. T. O. S. The paper by Prof. Homeyer is in type, and will appear in our next number. In our last number, by a curious error, we announced the publication of the Third Part of the History of Llandaff Cathedral, by Messrs. Freeman and Jones, instead of S. David's Cathedral, ECCLESIOLOGIST. 66 Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum.” No. CII.-JUNE, 1854. (NEW SERIES, NO. LXVI.) S. LUKE, SHEEN, STAFFORDSHIRE. THIS little church, cast into its present shape by one of our fellowlabourers in the Ecclesiologist and served by another, and claiming by its general completeness of fittings, to rank in the same class as that of which Kemerton, Eastnor, Highnam, and Benefield (to mention no others) are examples, deserved an earlier notice in our pages, since it was consecrated in August, 1852. We are now enabled to make good our omission. Sheen church is not simply to be criticised from a mere consideration of its actually existing excellencies or defects. Rebuilt in the present century, it was put into the hands of Mr. Burleigh, of Leeds, to be remodelled; the entire old structure, an oblong of not bad proportions, to be converted into a Pointed nave without aisles, and a chancel to be thrown out, accommodated to the fittings placed in Margaret Street Chapel, London, in 1847. Mr. Burleigh having resigned the commission shortly before the period of consecration, the works were completed by Mr. Butterfield. The situation is very remarkable. In a very wild part of the Staffordshire Moorlands (the continuation of the Derbyshire "Peak"), the Dove forming at once the boundary of the parish and separating the county from Derbyshire, on a high plateau, diversified into every form of ridge, knoll, and peak, S. Luke's, and the adjacent schools and clergyhouses, cluster together on the edge of a hill bank, and look down into a narrow valley, from which on the other side, rises a steep bold down. The general effect is that of an ecclesiastical colony in the wilds of Australia. The church, consisting simply of chancel, nave, western tower, south porch, and northern sacristy, is, in itself, not remarkable. The ribbed vaulting of the chancel, however, borrowed from the side chapels at Scarborough, is very effective: over the sanctuary the interstices are painted in excellent quatrefoils, green, red, and white. The east window, well raised from the altar, and thus giving an effect of dignity greater than its scale would otherwise have : allowed, has, in its three lights, S. Luke, S. Chad, and S. Etheldreda: in the tracery is an adaptation of the celebrated Lincoln Majesty—a half length; and this glass, and especially the grisaille, executed (as are all the windows in the church) by Mr. O'Connor, deserves much commendation. The east end of the sanctuary has fringed hangings: the reredos is a plain polished mass of alabaster, inlaid, however, with a cross of the Duke of Devonshire's dark red marble, set off with four spots of black marble around it. This is very striking. The south window of the chancel has, in its two lights, SS. Stephen and Alban; the sill forms the sedilia, which with their carved stone elbows, we like well enough but in the eastern angle of the window chamfer the first architect had placed a piscina, ogee and trefoiled-not bad in itself, but set so high as to be useless. The altar rails are of brass, and occupy only about the two exterior thirds of the whole space. This is an excellent arrangement; as affording sufficient room for the support of those who need it, and yet not interfering with the access to the altar. The candlesticks,-very elegant, and enriched with crystals on the knops, and with niello quatrefoils on the bases,—are very good specimens of Mr. Skidmore's work, and the credence table is fitted into the south-eastern extremity of the sanctuary. The encaustic tiles are well laid, and we observed a happy use of triangular black ones: they compose a bold chevronnée band above the altar steps. The fittings of the choir are, as we have said, those which formerly stood in Margaret Street Chapel: the low screen under so broad a chancelarch sadly wants a metal cresting or metal tracery. The chancelarch is remarkable for the elegant foliations of, or rather from, the capital. Much genius has been shown in the carving-from natural models, the flowers and foliage of the neighbourhood-of the (perhaps) too numerous corbels and label terminations introduced both externally and internally into the design. The side windows of the nave, of two lights, are filled with grisaille. The nave fittings are also, with certain alterations, from Margaret Street. The organ stands at the south-east angle of the nave; there is a Litany stool;-and we notice, without expressing any opinion upon it, that the seats at the east end of the nave are made smaller than the rest, for the accommodation of children. The paving of the middle passage is jejune from the want of more colour; large squares of white stone being banded with red, and a sprinkling of black tiles. The font is very striking: octagonal, on a square base, very massy, of polished grey Derbyshire marble, inlaid with a band of quatrefoils of "Duke's Red." The wooden cover seemed to us poor and awkward: it swings off however on an excellently wrought iron crane. The west window, of two lights, has SS. Peter and Paul. The sacristy, which is Mr. Butterfield's, is the most striking thing about the church; it is gabled north and south from necessity of situation. The roof is of the same kind with that of the chancel, but much more boldly treated: the roof is of stone slabs, very solid and real: the exterior entrance is from the north-east. This sacristy is double; the exterior for choristers, the interior for the priests. · All the fittings are most complete, and the window sill contains a piscina: the most suitable situation, in the present state of things, for this necessary appendage to the altar. We need not notice the tower, at present pyramidally capped, because we believe it is in contemplation to add a spire. The latter would be a most striking feature from all the moors round. We must not forget to add that the village cross, which stands very prettily south-west of the church, on a small square green, has been restored. The school and parsonage close to the church forms a pretty group of Pointed buildings, espcially when seen from the opposite bank across the valley. The school, which was designed by Mr. Burleigh, is a high-roofed single room, of picturesque outline, with a good bell-turret rising from the middle, with a class-room, porch, and house attached. The parsonage is due to Mr. Butterfield, and is a most effective specimen of design suited to the inclement climate of the moorlands. It is very solid and massive, looking as if intended to brave the winds and snows to which it is exposed. On the south-eastern side it is very boldly terraced up, on the bank on which it stands, overlooking the valley formed by a brook which is tributary to the river Manifold. Very little external detail is attempted; the string courses are very solid, and the masonry makes due course of the large blocks of stone quarried on the spot, and which form a distinctive feature of the local style. The chimneys are very large masses of masonry; and on one side the whole side of the house is buttressed into a vast chimney, with two windows boldly inserted in it. Only one part of the house has attics; the gables are all hipped; the staircase is in a very picturesque semioctagonal attached turret, with conical roof. In conclusion, if any one doubts as to the suitability of Gregorian Tones or Melodies for an uneducated congregation, and to a choir of mere rude country boys, we advise him to pay a visit to S. Luke's, Sheen. Never, either at home or abroad,-have we seen a choir which does its work in a more workmanlike manner. HOUSE AND HOMESTEAD MARKS. To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist. SIR,-The following is a rough translation of a paper printed and distributed by Professor Homeyer at the commencement of last year, which being unnecessarily diffuse, has been somewhat curtailed at the latter part. Perhaps some of your readers may be enabled to throw light upon the subject in question. Any information thereupon will prove to be very acceptable. Should you feel disposed to insert the paper in the next issue of the Ecclesiologist, the kindness will greatly oblige, Sir, your obedient servant, O. S. THE names Hausmarke, Hofmarke, Bolmaerke, Bomaerke, are applied in Northern Germany and Scandinavia to certain figures used as marks of identification for churches, houses, homesteads, &c., with their ap- ♪ + X A * £ ð b One of their peculiarities is, that they are either cast, engraved, or burnt in, without any regard to art, whether in colour or form. In this respect they differ both from armorial bearings and the ornamental devices seen on buildings. They partake more of the character of those signs, which, without being attached to property or tenement, are yet recognised as the "born marks" of families, or belong in the same way to guilds or mercantile firms. Through this relationship they branch off into the personal or adopted marks of artists, merchants, mint-masters, stone-masons, &c. With regard to date, they are found as marks of the Bol (i.e., Prædium, Villa,) in the Swedish codes of the 13th century (Uplandslagh, Corp. jur. Sveo-Goth. iii. 254,) distinct from the personal maerke;— also in Lübeck, at the end of the 13th century, in the seals of the Burghers. As to locality, they can be traced from Sweden, where there are also village marks (bymaerke,) to Norway, Iceland, (as fängamark,) and Denmark, and further, through Schleswig and Holstein to Hamburg, Lübeck, Stralsund, the peninsula and adjoining island of Rügen, (Mönchgut and Hiddensee), Dantzig and its environs, to Riga. In southern Germany all that has yet been ascertained on the subject is that the different towers of the town wall of Nüremberg have each their distinct mark; and a challenge from a Strasburg apothecary named Merckwiller, in 1521, bears a mark of this description in addition to the arms and signature. As relics of ancient usage these marks may yet be found on buildings -on the cross-beams of house doors or court-yard gates, on gables, weather cocks, or on the stone coping of porches or arcades; but within the memory of man these traces have perceptibly worn away. They are somewhat more common on grave stones and epitaphs in churches, |