either hand, and six range against the rood-screen; threethe prior's, sub-prior's, and reader's-seats are canopied the latter is on the south-east side; they have misereres, restored by Prior Eyre, in the reign of Henry VII., with quaint sculptures, and a vignette pattern on the cornice. The style of the wainscot, which is later, verges on cinque-cento. The stalls were repaired in 1820. The vaulting is simple fantracery, with coloured pendants and bosses. They carry the arms of William Earl of Salisbury, who died 1397, and, probably, built the choir and Lady Chapel. The enclosed walls naturally direct the eye eastward. A grand high pace, with a broad flight of four stairs, flanked by the Salisbury chapel on the north, spreads before a matchless reredos, which the screens of Winchester, St. Mary Overy, and St. Albans, cannot rival. It is of three stories, with five compartments in each tier, and represents the tree of the genealogy of our Lord. On one hand is David with his harp, on the other Solomon in meditation; between them sleeps Jesse; above are the Epiphany and Nativity; while the shepherds gaze towards a heavenly host gathered about the Holy Spirit. Thirty-two smaller niched figures cover the six buttresses, and nine larger niches once held effigies of saints. The oak altar was the gift of A. W. Pugin, 1851; the Glastonbury chairs were presented by Mrs. Walcott, of Winkton, 1858. In the south aisle are mutilated sculptures of the death, assumption, and coronation of the Virgin. The Lady Chapel, of the time of Henry IV., contemporaneous with the choir, has a rich fan-traceried roof, sedilia, a superb screen, of the date of Henry VI., and its original altar, with a slab of Purbeck marble, 11 ft. by 3 ft. 10 inches. Over the entrance hang the flags of the Christchurch Volunteer Artillery, renewed by Admiral Walcott, of Winkton, M.P. The Chapter-house, or St. Michael's Loft, built between the Reformation and the Rebellion, with a quatrefoiled parapet in the story above, has been used as a school since 1662. There is a Norman crypt under each transept; that on the north is 30 ft. by 12 ft. and 9 ft. high: it was used as the carnary.

The principal monuments are the following:

and

Choir, South Side.-Harriet Viscountess Fitzharris (died Sept. 1815), statue by Flaxman.

North Side.-Margaret Countess of Salisbury, mother of Cardinal Pole (beheaded May 27, 1541), a beautiful chantry of Caen stone, with stripes of arabesque moulding, the gem of the church-mutilated by order of King Henry VIII.; Baldwin de Redvers, fourth Earl of Devon (died 1216), a slab on the steps.

South Side.-John Draper, prior and bishop (died 1552), a chantry and screen of Caen stone; Robert Harys (died 1525), a chantry and open

stone screen.

North Aisle.-John Barnes, Perpendicular chantry and stone screen, with the red and white roses; Robert White (died 1619), table-tomb and panelled arch; Sir John Chidioke and Dame (the knight was slain, 1449, in the wars of the Roses; his helmet is preserved in the revestry), altar-tomb and effigies of alabaster, removed from the north transept: there is a Decorated water-drain in the south wall. Tower.-Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet, by Weeks.

Lady Chapel, North Side.-Sir Thomas West (died 1405), an altartomb, recessed, behind a screen.

South Side.-Lady Alice, his mother (died 1395), a similar monument. Nave, South Aisle.-A memorial window to Mr. Ferrey, 1847.

A subscription list has been opened for the restoration of this noble structure, and we heartily commend it to the notice of the county, and, indeed, to all archeologists. Some walls of the conventual buildings remain. On the south-east is the convent garden. In an adjoining field are vestiges of the stew-ponds; and the Paradise-a shaded walk along the stream—retains its name. The miller of the priory mill lives in the lodge, built in the early part of the 16th century.

In 901, Ethelwold reduced the Saxon castle: the Norman keep of a later building—a mound, with the massive ruins of a square tower-looks over the remains of the baronial hall of De Redvers, 71 ft. by 24 ft.; the south gable, with a circular window, a round chimney remarkable as a very early specimen of such an addition, and the walls, are all covered with rich masses of ivy. On the south-east side is a tower, under which the stream flows. Edward VI. was here August 22,

1522.

38

ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S, CIRENCESTER-COVENTRY.

St. John Baptist's, Cirencester.

CIRENCESTER was the Corinum of the Romans; the Fosseway, Icknield, and Ermine ways formerly met here. Remains of great extent and variety were found here, urns and tesselated pavements, in 1849. The chantry of St. Laurence is a hospital, that of St. Cecilia a private dwelling. The fine parish church of St. John is approached under a magnificent gate-house of three stories, with a parvise of the time of Henry VIII. The nave, 77 ft. by 74 ft., aisles, and north chapel, are Perpendicular, and, like the tower, of very fine character. The nave pillars are light and lofty: the ceiling is flat, and of wood. The south pillars of the chancel, 50 ft. by 24 ft., are Early English; those in the north Early Decorated; the south chapel is of the same date: there are two chapels on the north of the chancel. The chapels bear the following dedications:—Jesus, east end, south aisle, 12 ft. by 9 ft.; St. John's, 34 ft. by 24 ft.; St. Katharine's, north side, choir, 54 ft. by 13 ft., having a groined fan roof, founded by Bishop Ruthal; St. Mary's, north-east side, 47 ft. by 21 ft.; and the Holy Trinity. At the west end of the north aisle is an arch of the 14th century. The rood loft stairs are perfect; the wood-work of the parcloses is very fine, and there is some good glass in the east and west windows. The pulpit is octagonal, with tracery on a single pillar. The mitred abbey of Austin Canons was founded here by Henry I. in 1117; of the conventual buildings two gate-houses and the abbey barn remain.

Coventry.

THE Cathedral church of St. Mary, which resembled Lichfield, was barbarously destroyed at the Reformation. A portion of one of the Early English western towers remains, with some doorways to a crypt, 25 ft. by 15 ft. In 1102 the see was

removed from Chester to Coventry and united with Lichfield; the former name took precedence till the time of Charles II. but fell into abeyance in 1836.

St. Michael's has a magnificent Early Perpendicular tower of four stories, niched and panelled, 136 ft. high; the twobanded spire, 130 ft. high, springs from an embattled lantern 32 ft. high within the parapet, and was built 1434 by Anne and Mary Botone. The tower was erected 1373-95 by William and Adam Botone, mayors, at an annual cost of £100. The church measures 293 ft. 9 in. by 127 ft.; the nave, of seven bays, and 50 ft. high, was built 1434: the chancel is of six bays, and ends in an hexagonal apse. The aisles are of great breadth, the pillars light. The clerestory is panelled down to the arches, and has windows so closely set together as to make the wall appear luminous. The stallwork of the seats is very fine. There is a Perpendicular chest, and a cinque-cento monument to Wade, died 1556.

Holy Trinity Church was rebuilt, and the spire 237 ft. high, built 1395, repaired in 1832. The brass lectern is good, and the battlemented and panelled pulpit of stone bears date 1500. The east windows received stained glass by the gift of the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1834. The east end was rebuilt in 1786. The font was set up in 1394. There are ten bells by Pack, 1774.

St. John's Church has a good clerestory and long squareheaded panelling down to the arches. Ford Hospital in Grey Friar's-lane, founded by W. Ford, 1529, is a perfect example of a half-timbered house of the period, inclosing a court-yard.

The Grey Friars' Steeple is good Early Decorated, and formed the central part of the Franciscan church; the tower is short and octagonal above, and crowned with a spire. It is attached to Christ Church, built by Rickman, 1834.

The White Friars' is now the House of Industry. There are remains of a gate and Early Perpendicular cloisters, and of the refectory and dormitory.

St. Mary Magdalen, or Spon Hospital, for lepers, was founded by Hugh Earl of Chester; the chapel with some rich wood-work, and gateway remain. The hall of Bond's Hospital has a good timber roof.

St. Mary's Hall, 63 ft. by 30 ft. and 34 ft. high, south of St. Michael's Church, built 1394-1414, has a good timber roof, minstrels' gallery, side-board, an ancient oak chair, and a semi-octagonal bay window. The kitchen is very large. Three stained windows on each side and a suit of tapestry, 30 ft. by 10 ft., in six compartments, made 1450, represent Henry VI. and Queen Margaret and Saints, in all eighty figures. Coventry is famous for its mysteries and miracle plays, and for the meeting of the Duke of Norfolk and Henry Bolingbroke. Parliaments were held at Coventry in 1404 and 1459. The town has been a residence of the Black Prince, and visited by Henry VI. and Margaret 1450, 1455; Richard II. 1483, Henry VII. 1485, 1492, 1495; King Edward IV.1474, 1477; Mary, 1525; Elizabeth; Princess Anne, 1688; William of Orange, 1699; Louis XVIII., 1808. Queen Mary of Scots was a prisoner at the Bull Inn in 1569. On the Friday after Corpus Christi day occurs the obnoxious procession of Peeping Tom.

St. Guthlac's, Crowland.

"GIVE these monks," said Giraldus, " a naked moor or wild wood, and within a few years you will see not only beautiful churches, but dwellings reared around." Of such character was Crowland-"crude or muddy land." The old rhyme

ran

There the wine so so you'll own,

Fodder there like sword-grass view,
There a bed is like a stone,

Thence depart without adieu.

Croyland was in ancient times an island in the tract of the east marsh-lands. On it, in the 7th century, St. Guthlac, a noble Thane, laying aside his sword at the age of twentyfive years, became a hermit. Ethelbald, driven from Mercia by King Ceolred his cousin, fled to this lonely spot, where the saint promised him victory and a kingdom. Whereon he vowed, if the prophecy proved true, to build a church there.