work, as is usually done in modern build. ings, the rafters themselves subserve ornamental purposes, by which means considerable expense is avoided, and beauty is combined with utility. The roof is supported by two rows of fluted stone pillars, consisting of eight in each row. The pillars are 18 feet in height, and will be finished by capitals elaborately wrought in fine stone, carved in rich foliage, and connected one with another by small intercolumniations, in the form of arches, rising from the capitals to the rafters. The floor of the nave and aisles will be covered with red and blue Staffordshire tiles, each tile measuring six inches in the square. The chancel and side chapels are to be paved with encaustic tiles cast in different shapes, and of various colours. At the south-west corner of the south aisle will be placed the large and richly ornamented baptismal font carved in Caen stone. The interior of the church is not obstructed by galleries; the only projections are the organloft and two small galleries for the choir over the two side doorways at the east end. No pews or closed seats will be allowed; but open benches will be placed down the aisles, constructed with low backs, so as to afford an unobstructed view of the interior. The seats will yield ample accommodation for 5,000 persons. The bare cost of erecting the church will be 40,000l.; but it is expected that a sum of 100,000l. will be necessary to complete. all the contemplated embellishments and improvements. At the east end of the church is a large sacristy, and adjoining the north-east corner are cloisters, which connect the edifice with a presbytery, containing a spacious dining-room, and affording accommodation for several priests. Abutting on this is a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, and a school for 300 children. The convent is fitted up with kitchens, refectory, dormitories, a small chapel with a belfry, and will furnish an abode for thirteen Sisters of Mercy, whose charity and kind offices will be distributed among the members of all religious denominations who may need assistance. The convent, with its accompanying buildings, will cost 7,000l. The architecture displayed in its construction is of a similar style to that used in the building of the church, only more subdued, and of a less expensive description. Several little turrets and spires are erected in various parts, which give it a very pleasing effect. The church and nunnery together stand upon an area of ground measuring forty-two thousand square feet. The entire edifice is built from the design of Mr. Pugin, who, during the last ten years, has been engaged in the construction of thirty-seven

churches. It will be consecrated and opened for public worship in the autumn of the present year; but a considerable time must necessarily elapse before the great tower and spire shall be completed. The subscriptions towards this gigantic undertaking have, for the most part, been raised in the provinces through the exertions of the Rev. Mr. Doyle, who is the principal officiating priest. The Earl of Shrewsbury and the late Mr. Benjamin George Hodges have been the principal contributors. A considerable sum has also been subscribed by the poorer classes inhabiting the parish of St. George. The names of the King of Sardinia, the King of Bohemia, and other foreign potentates, also appear in the list of contributors. The Roman Catholic chapel in the London-road, as soon as the new church is finished, will be converted into an hospital for the cure of cancer.

RESTORATION OF ST. MARY REDCLIFFE CHURCH, BRISTOL.

A meeting of the subscribers of 101. and upwards towards the fund for the restoration and repair of St. Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, was held on the 25th Jan. the Mayor, William Lewton Clarke, esq. in the chair, when the committee submitted a report of their proceedings since Jan. 1843. The result of their endeavours has been the receipt of names of subscribers to the amount of 4,7081. 13s. 6d. including the vote of vestry of 2,000%. Expenses have been incurred amounting to about 4901. The committee observed, that the very limited number of subscriptions at present announced, must, in a great degree, be attributed to their own reluctance to urge more strongly their claims under the unparalleled depression in the commercial world during the past year, which they felt must prevent many in their great mercantile city, and elsewhere, from rendering their assistance. They cannot believe that their fellow-citizens are careless or indifferent towards the preservation of the noble fabric, so deservedly the pride of their city, or unmindful of the great and advantageous effect on the public feeling which would be produced by a general and liberal subscription in Bristol, and, as the committee trust that brighter prospects are opening upon us, they recommended the meeting to consider the propriety of extending, for a period not exceeding twelve months, the time for procuring subscriptions under the provision of the 5th resolution. Resolutions in accordance with this report were carried unanimously.

STAINED GLASS AT LITTLEBOROUGH, CO. LANCASTER.

The church of this picturesque village has just been embellished by the erection of a magnificent east window of painted glass. The window is an indifferent specimen of the perpendicular style of architecture, and consists of five compartments, with a middle transom, and some head tracery in the turnings of the arches. The glass of the upper compartments is brilliantly rich, and consists of an exuberance of geometrical design and decoration. In the centre division is a large full-length figure of the Apostle St. Peter, crowned with an open screen of richlytabernacled niches. The drapery is singularly beautiful, and the character of the whole figure dignified and expressive. The sacred monogram IHS is appropriately placed above this painting. These, with some other pieces, are the gift of the ladies in the neighbourhood. Below the transom, in the five lights, are various intersecting lines of great beauty and ingenuity of design, consisting principally of glass of a ruby and green hue, tastefully relieved by the insertion of seventeen shields, bearing the heraldic arms of some of the most ancient and opulent families of the parish, many of which, however, are now extinct in the male line. middle division contains the arms of the Bishop of the diocese, the Vicar of Rochdale (who is the patron of the living), and those of the Incumbent. The simplicity of the design in this compartment, strikingly contrasts with the rich, varied, and elaborate workmanship above it, whilst the intersecting circles, lozenges, and other sacred emblems in the lateral windows of the church have produced a soft and subdued light, as well as having greatly improved the appearance of the interior. It is gratifying to state, that this good work was designed, undertaken, and completed by Mrs. Robert Newall, a lady residing in the village of Littleborough, near Rochdale, who has been fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Christopher Barker, an ingenious and talented young artist in Rochdale.

RIPON CATHEDRAL.

The

The venerable cathedral of Ripon has, during the last two years, undergone several repairs. The south-west tower has had its bands, mouldings, window-heads, and pilasters restored, and the walls tied together with large iron bars, thus rendering it more fit to sustain the peal of bells which hang therein. The apex of the middle compartment of the west front down to the string course under the top

NEW COUNTY GAOL AT READING.

The new gaol for the county of Berks, at Reading, which is now in the course of erection at an expense of very nearly 33,000l. is fast approaching towards completion. The east wing is finished, including the kitchens and all the necessary offices, and contains between 70 and 80 cells. The whole cost of the erection will be as follows:-The building, 28,2267.; the internal fittings, 3,2731.; and the fees to the architect, and the salary to the clerk of the works, 1,4607. Total, 32,9597.

ST. PETER'S CHAPEL, NEWCASTLE. Another obituary window of stained glass has been added to this beautiful chapel. It is in memory of the late Miss Gothard, of St. Andrew's parish, and has been presented by Sanderson Ilderton, esq. and his wife and family. Mr. Wailes of Newcastle is the artist. Being commemorative of a departed female, the three lights of the window are, with great propriety, filled with three female saints. The Blessed Virgin occupies the centre, with the Holy Child in her arms; and on her right is St. Anne, her mother, and on her left St. Elizabeth, her cousin. The artist has admirably succeeded in giving a subdued and mellow tone to the composition; and the window, both in design and execution, is a great ornament to the chapel.

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.

Jan. 11. Henry Hallam, esq. V.P. Albert Way, esq. Director, exhibited a rubbing from a very fine foreign sepulchral brass, now in the hands of Mr. Pratt of Bond-street. It came from a family chapel in Germany or Flanders, and represents Ludovic Corteville and his lady.

Mr. Doubleday, of the British Museum, exhibited a small oval seal (in sulphur) inscribed s. MAG'RI SIMONIS LANGETON, and bearing a finely-executed head, which may be supposed to be the portrait of its owner, Simon Langeton, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and brother to the Archbishop, Stephen Langton. He founded a hospital for poor priests at Canterbury circ. 1243.

Mr. Doubleday also exhibited plaster casts of the seal of King Charles the Second for the counties of Carmarthen, Cardigan, and Pembroke. The obverse has the King's effigy on horseback, and the legend CAROLUS II DEI GRACIA MAG.

BRITTANIE FRANCIE ET HIBERNIE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR. The obverse has the arms of France and England quarterly, quartering Scotland and Ireland; supporters, the dragon and the spotted panther. Above the shield a crown, and below a plume of three ostrich feathers, and the motto ICH DIEN. Legend, SIG. PRO CAN

CELLARIA PRO COMITATIBUS CARMARTHEN CARDIGAN ET PENBROCK.

Two coloured drawings were exhibited by Mr. W. Beak, of Roman tesselated pavements, the one preserved in the park of Earl Bathurst, the other in the garden of Mr. Brewin of Cirencester.

J. Y. Akerman, esq. F.S.A. communicated a note in illustration of a representation of the head of St. John the Baptist on a leaden ouche or ornament found at Abbeville; he noticed the analogy between the figure of the head and that on the coins of King John, and gave instances of the veneration in which the head of the saint was held in the middle ages.

Sir Henry Ellis read a very interesting report of the seizure and examination of a Jesuit under the disguise of a Puritan in the reign of Elizabeth, singularly illustrative of the Machiavellic doctrines and practices of that order, and the activity of the Jesuit missionaries in England at that time.

He then concluded the reading of the translation, by George Stephens, esq. (author of the Translation of Frithiof's Saga from the Swedish,) of "The King of Birds, or the Lay of the Phoenix; an Anglo-Saxon song of the Tenth or Eleventh century, translated into the metre and alliteration of the original;" followed by a description, by the same gentleman, of an English medical manuscript, apparently of the end of the fourteenth century, preserved at Stockholm.

remain in the pavement. They are rendered more interesting by bearing a date, the 26th Henry VI.

W. R. Hamilton, esq. V.P. made a communication relative to various ancient weapons, found in the bed of the Thames, immediately above Kingston, seven feet below a bed of gravel. They were chiefly of brass metal and cast, and therefore supposed to be Roman.

Mr. Way contributed some further observations on the leaden ornament bearing the head of John the Baptist, exhibited at the previous meeting of the society. It appears that the head of John the Baptist was preserved among the relics at Amiens, and that it was a favourite object of pilgrimage; and Mr. Way gave strong reasons for believing that these leaden ouches, which rudely represent the feretrary, or keeper of the shrine, exhibiting the head, attended by his two acolytes, were given to pilgrims, who carried them about their persons as amulets to preserve them from the disease of epilepsy, or the falling evil (le mal de Saint Jean, or morbus Sancti Johannis), which that saint was believed to have the power of curing.

Thomas Wright, esq. F.S.A. communicated a medieval list of engraved gems, with descriptions of the magical virtues they were believed to possess; and an introductory essay on the excavations and researches for antiquities by the monks in the middle ages. The Anglo-Saxons appear to have been assiduous in opening ancient tombs, and digging among ruins, and in this manner they collected together great numbers of Roman articles. The ancient Christian rituals contain forms for blessing vases and other vessels dug up from the earth, in order to render them fit for Christian use. A curious account is given in the early lives of the abbots of St. Alban's of the extensive excavations made by two abbots in the tenth century among the ruins of Verulamium, and of the numerous curiosities they found. Among these curiosities there were many engraved stones.

There

were numerous collections of engraved gems in the middle ages, and many instances were cited. The virtues attributed to these articles are strange enough. One is stated to have the quality of rendering the bearer liable to be frequently invited out to dinner, and to be much feasted; another to make the bearer invisible; and so on with the rest.

Jan. 25. Henry Hallam, esq. V.P.

Mons. Edouard Frere, of Rouen, and Mons. Léchaudé d'Anisy, of Caen (the associate of the late Marquis de Ste. Marie in "Recherches sur le Domesday d'Angle

terre,") were elected Foreign Members of the Society.

The Director exhibited a large plate, printed in chromo-lithography for Mons. Dusommerard's Histoire des Arts du Moyen Age, of the enamelled tablet of Geoffrey le Bel (Plantagenet), at Mans (which was engraved in a smaller scale by the late C. A. Stothard.)

Mr. Rogers exhibited an Etruscan instrument of bronze in the form of a small pair of fire-tongs, fitted with two little wheels.

Albert Way, esq. Director, exhibited a deed now in the possession of Richard Almack, esq. of Long Melford, being a lease of the Earl of Bedford in the year 1570 to Sir William Cecill, afterwards Lord Burghley, of a pasture at the east end of Covent Garden, on the site of which Lord Burghley afterwards erected his town mansion. Mr. Way made some remarks upon the description of the boundaries of the land, in which mud walls and" stulps, or rails," are mentioned.

Sir Henry Ellis, Secretary, communicated three historical documents: 1. A note of the good uses to which the Companies of London applied their grants of Chantry Lands, which it appears they purchased of the Crown to the extent of 18,714. 2. A letter written in 1588 by William Benett, priest, to the Earl of Arundel, begging his forgiveness for the "false charge" against the Earl which had been extorted from him, to the effect that the Earl had ordered a mass of the Holy Ghost for the good success of the Spanish fleet, and offering to deny the same at all hazards. 3. A statement of Affairs Ecclesiastical in Guernsey and Jersey in the time of James the First, describing the innovation of the Book of Common Prayer which had taken place upon the influx of French Protestants who came to the channel islands after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and substituted a Book of Discipline of their own. The memoir proceeded to recommend a restoration of the liturgy, and the appointment of a Dean of Jersey, both which prayers were shortly after granted.

NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.

Dec. 28. Professor Wilson, V.P. in the chair.

Mr. Rhodes exhibited a steel die for the reverse of the shilling of James I., found a few years since in London Wall, near Finsbury Circus.

The Rev. E. Gibbs Walford exhibited some Roman coins recently found at the Black Grounds, Chippen Warden.

The Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Master of the Mint, presented to the So

ciety a complete set of proof specimens of the coins of her present Majesty, including the five-sovereign piece.

Mr. Birch exhibited a Chinese medal of merit, being a specimen of those bestowed by the Emperor upon every soldier who could prove that he had killed a barbarian during the late war. It appears to have been struck by wooden blocks, and more resembles a badge than a medal.

Read, a paper by the Rev. E. G. Walford on a coin of Juba the Second, some time since brought before the notice of the Society by Mr. Birch. The chief interest excited by the coin arises from an inscription in Phoenician characters on the reverse, beneath the figure of a horse, unbridled, and running at full speed, and which had drawn the attention of the late learned Professor Gesenius. By the aid of Hebrew, which he quotes St. Augustine and other writers to show came from the same source as the Phoenician language, Mr. Walford explains the inscription to read "By the decree of King Juba." The reading of the paper excited an interesting conversation between Mr. Birch, Professor Wilson, and Mr. Akerman, on the Phoenician inscriptions on coins, and on the bilingual ones of the Bactrian series.

Jan. 26. Professor Wilson in the chair. Mr. Joseph Clark, of Saffron Walden, reported a discovery of an urn filled with small brass Roman coins at Wootton, near Northampton. There were, it is supposed, nearly a thousand in the urn, but the number was reduced to 615 before Mr. Clark could secure them for examination. They are of Gallienus, Salonina, Victorinus, Tetricus, Marius, Quintillus, Probus, Claudius II. and Numerianus.

Mr. Smith gave the result of an examination of some Anglo-Saxon coins found by Mr. Charles Ade at Alfriston, in Sussex. They are of Canute, Harold, Harthacnut, and Edward the Confessor, and present the names of new places of mintage, new moneyers' names, and new readings of the names of some towns.

Mr. Fitch forwarded for exhibition an aureus of Vespasian, rev. the Emperor crowned by Victory, found recently at Helmingham, co. Suffolk.

Mr. Smith exhibited a cast from a gold coin of Libius Severus, lately found near Carisbrooke, and forwarded by Mr. John Barton. Mr. Smith remarked that the Isle of Wight had hitherto been singularly barren of Roman antiquities. The present coin, another in gold of Valentinian, lately found at Brixton, and at Cliff an urn filled with the small brass coins of Theodoricus, Arcadius, and Honorius, being, he believed, almost all the discovery of which in the island could be authenticated. GENT. MAG. VOL. XXI.

Mr. Smith also made some remarks on a rare coin of Nerva, in second brass, found at Colchester, and sent by Mr. Wire of that town. It reads NEPTVNO' CIRCENS CONSTITVT-Neptuno Circensium Constitutori, and is evidently similar to that found at Colchester, and published by Ashby in vol. vi. Archæologia.

The Rev. H. Christmas made some remarks on the Burmese coins exhibited at the last meeting, and showed in illustration an illuminated Siamese MS. Mr. Dickinson concluded that the stag-like animals on the coins, with branching horns, were probably intended to represent the sol- lunar character of Mahadeva. Mr. Birch thought that the parts where these coins were current were too far from any part were Brahminism was prevalent to expect the coins should bear allusion to Brahminical legends. In the illuminated parts of the MS. (from the collection of the Rev. Bathurst Deane) the history of Gaudma is depicted, and that deity is always accompanied by the sacred hind, an animal which makes a considerable figure in Burmese tradition.

Read, a paper by John Field, esq. on the ancient dies, or coining irons, for the hammered money, as used in England from the earliest period, accompanied by coins struck from dies of Edward the Third, still preserved, sketches of the dies, &c.

ROMAN REMAINS AT PRESTON, NEAR WEYMOUTH.

The dry summer of 1842 having shewn in the then growing crops of corn in a field at Preston indications of extensive buildings, excavations were in the spring of the past year made, which soon brought to view the foundations of a massive wall 5 feet in thickness, and forming a square of about 280 feet; within this quadrangle was the foundation of another building 35 feet square: the soil within this inner building was removed; and the few coins and fragments of pottery which were turned up clearly proved it to be of Roman origin. But the most singular discovery made was that of a shaft sunk in the south-east corner, which was about 4 feet by 2 feet in diameter, and nearly 15 feet deep. The contents of this pit were of a very peculiar character; the sides had thin flat stones placed round, which, from holes in many of them, appeared to have been previously used for the covering (as at the present day) of a roof. On penetrating into the shaft a layer of charcoal and ashes was met with; then a double layer of the same description of flat stones covered the whole area of the shaft; between these stones was deposited a 2 B