siderable trial, and is found to answer in most respects; and the effect of it may be seen in the newly-restored window of our Cathedral, by Mr. Bell. At the same time your Committee are aware that still further exertions are necessary to procure a glass identical in substance and tone with the depth and richness of the old glass.

Your Committee have also been occupied with serious. deliberations during the past year, as well as the preceding one, as to the possibility of circulating information on local subjects connected with the Society's operations, and thus rendering themselves useful to all Members of the Society, as well as advancing the cause of Ecclesiology in general. They have come to the conclusion that this may be done in connection with the Annual Report, and a resolution to that effect which will afford ample opportunity for discussion, will be proposed to the Meeting this evening.

Ten new Members were added to the Society during the past year, and it is with satisfaction that your Committee have also to report that the present Mayor of Bristol has permitted himself to be elected a Vice-Patron.

Your Committee cannot close their Report without mentioning the extreme difficulty and annoyance which is caused in the management of the Society's affairs, from Members not paying up their Subscriptions when due, in consequence of which the Treasurers' Accounts now to be presented will wear a less favourable aspect than they otherwise would.

At the Annual General Meeting held March 6th, 1848, IT WAS RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY,

That the account of the Church of St. Michael, Othery, and the Drawings of the Frontal now exhibited to the Meeting, be printed and appended to the Report.

NOTES ON ST. MICHAEL'S, OTHERY.

THE Church of St. Michael, in the Parish of Othery, and Deanery of Glastonbury, and Diocese of Bath and Wells, and Hundred of Witleigh, is situated on one of those mounds which rise out of the extensive moor between Langport and Bridgewater, called Sedgemoor.

The Chancellor of the Diocese of Bath and Wells acts as Ordinary. It was originally in the jurisdiction of Glastonbury, being then attached to Weston (now Weston Zoyland) and Andelsowey (now Middlezoy). The whole being designated by the general term, Sowey, meaning the sea.

In Pope Nicholas' Taxation (cir. 1290), Sowey is valued at £33. 3s. 8d.

By a document of the Abbot and Couvent of the Blessed Virgin at Glastonbury, bearing date the 1st day of October, 1515, it was established a perpetual and separate vicarage.

The Advowson and impropriation are now vested in the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose duty it consequently is to keep the Chancel in repair.

Alfred the Great is reported to have granted this Parish to the Abbey of Glastonbury.

King Edwy confirmed a grant of five hides in Othery, to Glastonbury.

In the Leiger Book of Glastonbury is mentioned a grant of a small piece of land to some individual in Otheri, made by King Edgar, which gift is concluded in the following manner,- "If any one will increase my gift let him do so-if he shall take from it I consign him to the devil."

The Church consists of a Chancel, North and South Transepts, Nave, and South Porch, with Tower at the Intersection of the Chan

Cross of Tower at Intersection, 16 feet square.

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12 10 × 10 3

South Porch The East Window is third pointed of three lights with transom, the lights being cinquefoiled. In the upper compartments are left some fragments of stained glass, consisting of heads of the early Christian Fathers. The names of St. Gregory, and St. Jerome, and St. Augustine still remain.

On the North side are two windows, both of them now blocked up. The first middle pointed, of two lights with a quatrefoil in head, and a Lap moulding drip on the exterior. The second, two lights trefoiled, square headed, with third pointed drip on exterior.

On the South side are also two windows; the first, two lights with pointed arches, and sixfoiled circle in head. All these windows are under semicircular arches inside. Second, a late two light third pointed window, blocked up, the eastern light with ashlar, the western with bricks. At the bottom of the western light of this window is one of those mysterious openings, designated Lychnoscopes, Confession Windows, Low side Windows, &c. It consists of a wooden shutter in a stone frame, the upper part of which forms a transom across the light. It opens inwards, and to the west against the splay of the window jamb. On the outside of this window is a buttress, placed diagonally against the tower, and stretching about half way across the window; and in this buttress is an opening at right lines with the shutter, and the base of it nearly on a level with the bottom of the shutter, paved as it were with a flat stone.

Now it is not easy to understand how any person who has examined this opening and buttress, should fancy that there is not room for any

one to stand or kneel between the buttress and the window, though it is certain they must kneel with their backs to the east; and if they did so their heads would then be in a position to communicate with any person inside the window; and had it been for the purpose of private confession, the buttress, without the opening, would form an effectual screen from the observation of persons passing through the churchyard. If, however, the party confessing was to be on the outside of the buttress, the distance to the inside of the window is too great to admit of private or secret confession. The opening, therefore, in the buttress seems at once to disprove what it has been asserted that this window is an evidence of, viz., that it was a confessional window. To any person standing at the outside of the buttress, the idea at once presents itself, that the opening in the window and buttress was for the purpose of distributing alms of some sort, or at any rate, for placing something on the bottom of the opening on the buttress, from the inside of the window, or vice versa, something that should have been taken in at the window, and the opening in the buttress can be accounted for in no other way. At the same time it must be remembered that the iron bars which cross the opening in the window would prevent any thing passing through them that was much larger than the hand,—each opening being 8 inches by 74.

The Altar is elevated on three steps.

There is a Piscina in the cill of the first window on the south side -a plain circular basin with orifice.

There is also an Aumbrye in the south corner of the east wall, with a trefoiled arch, one of the hinges still remains.

There is a Priests' door on the south side.

The Arches of construction which carry the tower, are of third pointed date, but bold and lofty, and form the finest feature in the Church.

The North Transept has a window in the north end of three lights, trefoiled, with square head; it has an external drip with quaint terminations, the one being an owl and the other a monkey, inclined inwards.