design is that of a Third-Pointed church, somewhat imitative, as mountain churches often are, of earlier forms, consisting of western tower crowned by a spire, clerestoried nave with aisles, and chancel with a large northern chantry. The fittings, it is hardly necessary to state, exhibit correct ritualism, and in their design are indicative of the boldness which is the peculiar characteristic of the very able architect who drew them. Unfortunately, however, the woodwork also mani. fests the tendency to heaviness which is found in Mr. Butterfield's later designs in that material, and which we have already had occasion to point out. Mr. Butterfield is an artist of real and eminent talents, a fact which from our early association with him, it was our privilege first to proclaim, and which we sedulously upheld till we have found, to our great gratification, the general judgment of the architectural world accepting our foregone conclusion. We have therefore the greatest right, as it is the foremost duty for us, to criticise truly and impartially the works of this architect. In his reprobation of frippery and effeminate prettiness in wood carving, we entirely sympa. thise. But it is not surely necessary to become heavy and stiff in order to avoid these faults; and yet in the pulpit, the lettern, the stalls, the sanctuary-rails, the font cover, &c., of Hathersage, which exhibit the forms and the massiveness of stonework, the tendency towards these defects is very manifest. "Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile." We should dread copyists of Mr. Butterfield's style as there exhibited without Mr. Butterfield's abilities. The screen and stalls of S. Augustine's College Chapel were not so designed, and they are accordingly very beautiful. We should earnestly entreat Mr. Butterfield to return to his earliest style, in which he there showed himself such a proficient. The levels of the chancel proper and the sanctuary are well adjusted, and the flooring of encaustic tiles and stone is very felicitous. Mr. Butterfield always succeeds remarkably with his flooring. We wish we could approve the reredos, but honesty compels us to say that it is far from being a successful design. In the panel above the altar, tracery in relief is introduced of a flamboyant character, with no peculiar beauty or symbolism in its own design, and of course quite precluding the future introduction of any more suitable reredos in painting or carving. The whole is coloured,-rather coarse gilding, and heavy green, being the principal features. The panels right and left of the altar up to the window sill are inlaid with a tile pattern, consisting on either side of two square panels superimposed upon each other, having a S. Andrew's cross of green tiles, with a buff central one, in each; all four just alike. The design is heavy and the colour inharmonious, and the motif in no way accords either with the tracery above the altar or with the remaining church. The fact is that Mr. Butterfield's talent in floors crosses his way when he designs wall patterns. The panels in question would have looked very well as portions of a floor; where they are they are quite out of place. On the north of the sanctuary is a high tomb which has been very prettily restored, the original brasses being set into a new slab of black marble. Facing it are the sedilia which have been, as they should be, restored for use; and yet within the last year they have been masked by two arm

chairs, frightful and enormous, in a sort of upholstery renaissance, which, as we heard, were occupied by royalty at Liverpool, and are therefore to be introduced into the chancel of a parish church, which neither in scale nor character is suited for them. We entirely sympathise with the annoyance which the architect must feel at the scale of his work being so seriously injured by such an incongruity, introduced so soon after it was completed. The ritual arrangements comprise a solid sanctuary screen of wood, while there is no division between the chancel and nave. We wish there had rather been a low chancel screen according to the accepted traditional use of the English and remaining Western Church. The stalls stand on stone platforms. Ought not these to be of wood both for acoustic reasons, which to a choir are of importance, and also because they form a portion of the stalling, and ought therefore to be constructed in its material rather than in that of the entire building? The east windows of the chancel and south aisle are filled with painted glass by Mr. Wailes, who has also put armorial glass into the south chancel window. We understand that two additional painted windows will shortly be added; the one the result of a local subscription, the other the munificent gift of Mr. Butterfield.

S., Sompting, Sussex.-Our readers will remember the fears we expressed some months since lest this most interesting, and in some respects unique, church, should be injudiciously restored by a nonprofessional architect. It is with unusual pleasure that we have now to announce that the works have been entrusted to the able hands of Mr. Carpenter, who will treat the building with all the care and tenderness that it deserves. We are unable in this number to detail the works that are contemplated.

S. Moren, Lamorran, Cornwall.-This small church, which when rebuilt some years ago comprised a chancel and nave of equal height and breadth, and a south transept, with a south porch adjoining the western wall of the latter, is about to be re-cast and enlarged by Mr. White. He proposes to add a north transept, matching that on the south side, and to build a small vestry between the new transept and the north side of the chancel. As the existing chancel is not larger than a sanctuary, and the building cannot be extended eastwards, Mr. White treats the present chancel as a sanctuary, inserting a sanctuary arch which will spring from detached circular shafts, and forming an ample chorus cantorum in the eastern part of the nave. We do not know that this arrangement could be improved. The new chancel will be guarded on three sides by low screens, and will be properly fitted. The pulpit will stand against the south pier of the sanctuary arch—an unusual position-but one very fit for a church of this plan. The seats, in the two transepts as well as in the nave, all face the east. Mr. White has raised the roofs to a good pitch, and has altered the windows into good Pointed ones of early tracery. The vestry is a mere lean-to, opening into the north transept, and not-as would surely have been betterinto the chancel.

King's College, Cambridge,-The ancient brass lectern belonging to the chapel of this college is now being repaired by Mr. Skidmore, of

Coventry, at the expense of one of the members of that society, and will shortly be restored to its place in the choir. This lectern, which has a small statue of the founder on the top, was given to the college by Dr. Robert Hacomblane, who was provost from 1509 to 1528; he lies buried in one of the small side chapels on the south side, where there is an effigy of him in brass. The lectern, which stood in the choir on a raised platform, was removed by a vote of the college in the latter part of the last century. Some time since, the paint was removed from one or two panels of the doors of this chapel, and the panels varnished, as an experiment. It has now, however, been resolved to repaint them. It is much to be wished that the paint could be removed from the doors of the side chapels, some of which are very good specimens of Third-Pointed wood-work.

S. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.—We are glad to see that the Lady Chapel is now again roofed in, and has therefore again become externally a component feature of the cathedral. Inside it is still a mere shell, the arcades that ought to divide it into choir and aisles not having yet been commenced. The desk front and subsellæ in the choir are completed. The re-establishment of the daily service ought therefore to be ere long looked for. At present there is only Sunday worship. We hear a well-founded and general regret that the Dean persists in carrying on the works without the assistance of a competent architect.

S., Grange, Armagh, Ireland.—This church was built some years since as a chapelry of the parish church of Armagh, from which it is distant about two miles. The design is a sort of conventional style intended for Third-Pointed, supplied we believe by the Irish Ecclesiastical Commission, which exercises that monopoly of architecture which the kindred body in England was compelled some years since to desist from. The structure is cruciform, the chancel being very shallow, the transepts longer, and all the limbs broad and low, with a flat cieling, the tower and spire standing at the west end. The side galleries were such that, as we heard it expressed, one might almost shake hands across. Now, thanks to the exertions and liberality of its zealous clergy, the incumbent and curate, many gratifying ameliorations have been made; the side galleries have all been cleared away, that only at the west end being unavoidably left; the sanctuary has been neatly fitted with seats sedile-wise, and a gilt reredcs bearing a text; the prayer-desk is low and open; the lessons are read on an oak lettern; the pulpit stands at the north-west angle of the chancelarch. The seats are all open, of a very commodious design; the font, by Mr. Hardwick, to the left of the west door, is octagonal, richly carved, of Caen stone, with serpentine shafts round the base. The lighting is effected by a remarkably pretty corona of brass with coloured ironwork in the chancel, and rods bearing brass standards with the sockets for three candles on each throughout the body of the church. Mr. Skidmore has supplied these. The plate is by Mr. Keith. The churchyard has been very nicely planted. This church is, we understand, referred to by the venerable diocesan as a model church for his diocese.

NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist.

SIR,-Can you or any of your correspondents give any explanation of a word that has lately become popular in the Ecclesiastical Gazette and elsewhere-for what we used to know as the "first" or corner stone of a church—I mean “pillar stone." We all know what reference "corner stone" carries with it; why it should be discarded for this new compound it were difficult to say. Is it a mere blunder of some one who confounded the old term with an indistinct recollection of Jacob's pillar?

Yours truly,

QUERIST.

To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist.

SIR,-In looking over some old numbers of the Ecclesiologist, I find it stated, in a communication On the Romanesque Style in Cornwall," (Vol. IX., p. 202,) that the tower of S. Nicholas, Saltash, "is of early Norman, if not ante-Norman architecture." I do not wonder at the mistake, for at the first glance it strongly resembles the Norman style; but so far from giving it the antiquity ascribed by your correspondent, I do not consider it a day older than late Third-Pointed. Round-headed windows are very common in late Third-Pointed towers in Devon and Cornwall; besides which, the masonry is not of a Norman character, being much too slight. Amongst the documents of the borough of Saltash, there are some relating to the foundation of this church; and though I cannot remember the exact date, I think it would be found to tally with the style of the west end of the building, which is MiddlePointed. A paper in the Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, by the Rev. H. M. Rice, on "Certain Cornish Churches," will, if I remember rightly, be found to confirm my state

ment.

Your correspondent is also mistaken in giving S. German's church credit for so many Norman remains. The south tower is of late Third-Pointed date, but stands on its original Norman piers and arches, and has some of the Norman windows rebuilt into it. There are only two genuine Norman columns, (and not five, as he states,) and those which he mistook for such are granite imitations of about 1592. The octagon of the north tower is First-Pointed.

He further says, in a note, that the south aisle is Middle-Pointed, and Mr. Street, in his paper on Middle-Pointed Cornish Churches," says the same; whereas three-fifths of the aisle, measuring from the west end, are late Third-Pointed. Mr. Street adverts to the peculiar arrangement of the windows at the east end of this aisle, (viz., two below and a third above them,) as if he considered them in their

original position. As the lower two have internal shafts, while the upper one is plain, I should like to have his opinion, should he again visit the church, as to whether the latter is not an insertion. A paper in the Exeter Transactions, by Mr. Furneaux, is accompanied by a coloured ground-plan, showing different styles from Norman to Debased. The sedilia, or rather sedile, (for its companions are concealed behind an immense Pagan monument,) is a beautiful specimen of Middle-Pointed work, and well worthy of being repeated in some new church. AN ECCLESIOLOGIST.

To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist.

Bury S. Edmund's, August 12, 1854.

SIR, Will you allow me to correct one or two little errors in your correspondent's account of the excursion of the Archæological Institute from Cambridge to Bury S. Edmund's?

"This piece of folly," as your correspondent designates it, was not "owing to an inconsiderate, however kindly meant invitation from a local society in that town." The Suffolk Society addressed, in the usual way, an invitation to the Institute to hold one of its annual meetings in Bury S. Edmund's. This was, however, declined; but an intimation was subsequently given that, during the Cambridge meeting, a day would be devoted to Bury S. Edmund's. The Suffolk society did not hesitate, on this, to assure the visitors of a most cordial welcome.

Your correspondent is also in error as to the collation. There were no "reserved seats," except for the presidents of the two Institutes, and a few others whom their guests while at Cambridge had delighted to honour, not exceeding half-a-dozen in all; and instead of the “unknown quantities" who "played the epicurean deity" being "local grandees," the company were nearly all excursionists. Out of the

one hundred and eighty persons who partook of the collation, less than thirty were connected with the local society; many of that body having cheerfully given up their tickets to accommodate, as far as possible, the unexpectedly large party of guests. I say unexpectedly, for it is incorrect to say that our hosts, having issued tickets, might have known how many were coming." Only one hundred and twenty-five persons had intimated their intention to join the party at the expiration of the limited time (Wednesday night), but no fewer than one hundred and eighty-six persons did us the honour to come by the train; and notwithstanding some little discomfort was necessarily occasioned by such a friendly and gratifying irruption, I am happy to say that few indeed concur with your correspondent in remembering their visit to Bury as a "senseless expedition."

I have the honour to be, sir,

Your obedient servant,
SAMUEL TYMMS,

Hon. Sec. to the Suffolk Architectural Institute.