teenth century, a great portion of the Church was under the necessity of being rebuilt. This work was undertaken by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, 1205 to 1238, and is thus noticed in an ancient Chronicle: :"John' anno x° (1208) Seynt Marie Overie was that yere begonne." *

The portion of the Church which was built at this period could have been no other than the Choir and Lady Chapel, as the nave is of an earlier date, and the transepts and tower of a later one. In the choir and Lady Chapel, then, we view the work of Bishop de Rupibus; and, if no date had been assigned to the commencement of the work, the antiquary would have had little trouble in deducing from the architectural features of the building the date at which it was erected. In the solid pillars and acute arches, in the lancet windows and simple groined roof, may be viewed an unaltered building of the thirteenth century.+

The commencement of the structure having been thus fixed, let us endeavour to trace its completion; and we will first seek for information in the evidence which the building itself possesses. In surveying the Lady Chapel, it will be seen that the east front displays the triple lancet win dows and acute gables which mark the works erected about the date of the commencement of the structure; but in the south flank of the Chapel

there is a window in which the mullions and tracery which subsequently formed so attractive an embellishment in pointed architecture, are shown in their infancy. These windows the late Mr. Carter, perhaps the most zealous and indefatigable writer on our national architecture that ever existed, and who surveyed this Church in 1808, styles "the architectural three in one." Now, as this window assumes a different form to the lancet windows of the east front, being com

posed of a large arch divided into portions by subarches and circles, it is manifestly the work of a more recent period in the history of architecture, than the simple lancet windows of the east front; but at the same time the form of the principal arch and the arrangement of the smaller ones will not allow it to be assigned to a period long subsequent to the commencement of the Chapel. If we

seek for a date in the history of the structure, we shall find that in 1273, Walter Archbishop of York granted thirty days indulgence to all who should contribute to the fabric of this Church, which fact proves that the Church was not finished at that period: here then this window comes in aid of history. Westminster Abbey, built between 1245 and 1280, contains windows resembling in their detail the one under consideration. Thus the completion of the Lady Chapel may, from the evidence afforded by its architecture, be fixed at the same period, the indulgence of Archbishop Walter having been the means of accomplishing the completion of the

structure.

There are few buildings of ancient date, in which the actual state of the building agrees so entirely with its history; the antiquary commonly finds dates to reconcile with appearances, which set all his study and his research at defiance.

How valuable

then is this structure, resting on evi

dence so well established, of which an act of brutal vandalism would have been the destruction.

The Lady Chapel, viewed in comparison with other edifices in the Metropolis, assimilates in its architecture with the choir of the Temple Church, A.D. 1240; parts of the north transept of Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1250; the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, erected after 1210, and the Crypt of Gisor's or Gerard's Hall, A.D. 1245. The style in which each of these structures is built is popularly designated the "lancet architecture," from the similitude of the points of the windows to scription of architecture St. Saviour's a surgeon's lancet; and of this deChurch affords the largest specimen in London. The few ancient buildings in the Metropolis which have escaped the hand of time and accident, or have been spared from violence, are still sufficient to enable the student to

Interior of the Lady Chapel, St Saviours, Southwark.