from the melting-pot, to which it had been condemned. Miss Peacock will be obliged to any of our readers who may know of other ornamental, inscribed, or dated metal mortars, if they will kindly communicate with her. Miss Peacock is, we believe, preparing a book on the subject.

We are very sorry to learn that the finances of the Surrey Archæological Society are not in a satisfactory condition, and that the society will be compelled to curtail its work unless it speedily receives a considerable accession of new members. An important county like Surrey ought not to fall behind in such a matter; but it no doubt lacks a centre, and the life and interests of the residents in the suburban portion of the county are wholly diverse from those of people who live further from London. There is, unfortunately, no big county town, and the London element predominates, and swamps that of the county at large. Still, the society has overcome this difficulty before now, and it ought to surmount it again. The work done in the past is excellent, and it will be a great pity if it is not continued in the future.

The Glasgow Herald has recently printed some papers entitled "The Ecclesiastical Remains of Ness, Lewis," written by Mr. William Mackenzie. These papers contain information of more than ordinary interest and importance, and we venture therefore to draw attention to them, and also to quote the following from the first of the papers in question.

After describing the records of ancient churches formerly standing, and calling attention to the lamentable manner in which these very ancient structures have been ruthlessly destroyed, Mr. Mackenzie proceeds:

"The visitor to Ness at the present day will find no trace of St. Clement's Temple, nor does the Ordnance Survey Map show where it stood. The ruins of St. Peter's are in a corner of the district churchyard (locally known as Cladh Pheadair) on the right bank of the Swanibost River; but of the 'considerable remains' found by Muir only the east gable and a small portion of the north elevation have escaped the hand of the Goth. A small eminence overlooking the Atlantic, and about 200 yards to the northwest of St. Peter's, is pointed out as the place

where the Church or Temple of St. Thomas stood. The local name is Teampull Tomais, not Teampull Thomais, as shown on the Ordnance Survey Maps, and as the ordinary rules of Gaelic grammar would demand. The walls of this temple have entirely disappeared, but it is obvious that local builders still find the site of some service as a quarry. Fragments of craggans may be seen among the débris. The site of St. Ronan's Temple in Eoropie is clearly seen, but it has long since ceased to be a quarry.

"While these five churches have suffered the fate now described, the hoary walls of St. Mulvay still stand, and the veneration referred to by the parish minister, upwards of a century ago, has not yet entirely passed into the region of tradition. Further, the belief in the efficacy of certain superstitious usages in connection with this shrine still lurks among the Lewis peasantry. From an architectural point of view there are no noteworthy features about the ruin. It is a plain oblong, about 45 feet in length and 18 feet in breadth. The side-walls and the two gables are in good preservation. The ruins. of a lean-to sacristy on the one side and of a chapel on the other still stand, but they are crumbling away. Taking it all in all, it appears to be in nearly the same state of preservation to-day as it was forty or fifty

years ago.

"Martin gives a minute account of the veneration and superstitious usages above referred to. He was informed by John Morrison, of Bragar, presumably one of the old Brehons of Lewis, that he had seen natives kneel and repeat the Pater Noster at four miles distance from the church. At Hallowtide there was a sacrifice to a sea-god named Shony. Concerning it Martin says:

"The inhabitants round the island came to the church of St. Mulvay, having each man his provision along with him. Every family furnished a peck of malt, and this was brewed into ale. One of their number was picked out to wade into the sea up to the middle, and, carrying a cup of ale in his hand, standing still in that posture, cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Shony, I give you this cup of ale hoping that you'll be so kind as to send us plenty of sea-ware for enriching our ground for the ensuing year," and so threw the cup of ale into the sea.

This was performed in the night-time. At his return to land they all went to church, where there was a candle burning upon the altar, and then, standing silent for a little time, one of them gave a signal, at which the candle was put out, and immediately all of them went to the fields, where they fell a-drinking their ale, and spent the remainder of the night in dancing and singing, etc. The next morning they all returned home, being well satisfied that they had punctually observed this solemn anniversary, which they believed to be a powerful means to procure a plentiful crop. . . .

"Martin states that through the influence of the local clergy the sacrifice to Shony had been abolished these thirty-two years past'that is, about 1660. This may be correct as regards the celebration in the church, but there are indications that the offering to Shony was continued long after Martin's time.

"No one now living remembers this sacrifice, but old men speak of it as a ceremony of which they heard traditions in their youth. According to them the offering to Shony was made at Port-a'-Stoth, near the Butt of Lewis. At Hallowtide, in presence of the assembled multitude, a man, specially chosen for the purpose, and carrying a bottle of ale (Buideal leanna) in his hand, waded into the sea until the waves surged about his waist. He then poured the ale into the sea, saying, 'A Dheonaidh! a Dheonaidh! cuir Thusa pailteas feamuinn air tir thugainne 'm bliadhna, is bheir sinne dhutsa leann gu leor an ath-bhliadhna'-'O Shony! O Shony! send Thou abundance of drift-ware to us this year, and we will give Thee ale in abundance next year.'

"After the ceremony at Port-a'-Stoth the people repaired to the neighbourhood of the temple, where fires were lit, and food and drink liberally partaken of. Dancing to the strains of the bagpipe was then commenced, and carried on with great spirit till the following morning, when all repaired to their homes, after conforming to a custom that had obtained in the district from remote antiquity." de

Some remarkable prices were realized during the sale of the second portion of the famous Ashburnham collection. The keenest competition was on December 9, for A Booke of the Hoole Lyf of Jason, translated out of the

French by William Caxton, and printed by him in 1477- For this book the bidding started at £500, and it was knocked down to Mr. Pickering for £2,100. Another Caxton, The Recueill of the Historyes of Troye, fetched £950, and a copy of the same work printed abroad by Caxton was bought by Mr. Pickering for £600.

Mr. W. J. Kaye, F.S.A., has very kindly sent us sketches of two collection-boxes preserved at Newchurch, Lancashire, which, as will be seen from the illustration, are both dated 1663. They are similar to undated collection-boxes formerly common in churches in

A very notable discovery of between thirty and forty Roman pewter vessels has been made at Appleshaw near Andover, by the vicar, the Rev. G. L. Engleheart, while excavating the site of the Roman villa alluded to by Mr. Haverfield in the Antiquary for December. The discovery comprised large circular dishes, bowls of various forms and sizes, cups, jugs, platters, etc. Most of the dishes have incised central ornaments, which are strongly suggestive of the designs of late mosaic pavements. The whole find was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries at their meeting on November 25, and all the objects have since then been acquired, we understand, by the British Museum.

Under the appropriate heading of "How did they get there?" Mr. Harry Hems, of Exeter, writes to us as follows: "At a sale held at Walton, near Peterborough, on November 25, 1897, Lot 232 is described as Four very curious old Miserere Seats, with carved figures from Little Gidding Church, Lincolnshire.' They were knocked down to a Mr. Jebb for £6 IOS. How was it they ever got out of the church at all ?" Little Gidding is in Huntingdonshire (not Lincolnshire), and from inquiries which have been made it seems quite certain that the misericords did not come from that church at all.

At the recent annual business meeting of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, the chairman (Mr. R. Murray) brought forward a proposal to carry out excavations at what is believed to be a Roman station at Raeburnfoot, in Eskdalemuir. The funds of the society do not permit of any draft being made upon them. Mr. Murray undertook to inaugurate a special Fund for the purpose, and suggested that they should proceed at once with the work, in view of the favourable weather. A motion to this effect was made and adopted. Mr. Barbour (who is undertaking the work) mentioned that some little digging had already been done, and some pieces of pottery and stonework had been found.

ఆ
Church Notes.

BY THE LATE SIR STEPHEN GLYNNE, BART.

DARLINGTON.

"

HERE have been handed to us by Mr. William Brown, of Arncliffe Hall, Yorkshire, the hon. secretary of the Yorkshire Archæological Society, certain portions of the manuscript "Church Notes by the late Sir Stephen Glynne, Bart., which are in course of publication in the Journal of that society. The portions which Mr. Brown has sent for publication in the Antiquary are unsuitable to the Yorkshire Society's Journal, as they do not relate to places in that county. It is, however, felt that the Notes are so valuable in themselves that it would be a great loss were they not all to appear in print, and we have been very

glad to accept the offer which has been made to us to print those portions of Sir Stephen Glynne's Notes in the Antiquary which are not suitable for the Journal of the Yorkshire Archæological Society.

Sir Stephen Glynne appears to have made his original inspection of Darlington Church in 1825. In the autumn of the previous year the Gentleman's Magazine published a picture of the exterior of the church seen from the south-west. As this view shows the church just as Sir Stephen Glynne must have seen it, we have thought it of interest to reproduce the picture (on a somewhat smaller scale) in these pages.

There is also an almost contemporary note on Darlington Church in the carefully-written History, Directory, and Gazetteer of the Counties of Durham and Northumberland, etc., by W. Parson and W. White (vol. i., p. 238), which was published in 1827. This, too, we have thought well to reproduce side by side with Sir Stephen Glynne's Notes. It is not, however, our intention to annotate the Notes generally in this manner.

Sir Stephen Glynne writes:

From

"On Feb: 27th [1825] set off per coach for Durham, passed through York, from thence through frightful flat country to Easingwold-a small town-thence to Thirsk, the country improving to the right from the view of the Wolds, which was tolerably fine. Thirsk a large town, with a large Church of very late Perpend Architecture. thence to North Allerton, a handsome town consisting of a very broad street of great length. The Church in the form of a cross, with a lofty tower in the centre, and very sad modern innovations. The view of the Wolds continued for some time, but the actual face of the country very ugly the whole way to Darlington.

"Two miles from Darlington is the village of Croft, where there is a very handsome bridge over the Tees. Darlington is a large town, and has a very handsome Market place. On the East side of the Market place is the Church, which we hastened to examine instead of partaking of the dinner prepared at the Inn.

"The Church is a beautiful structure in the form of a cross, and is perhaps one of the most pure and unmixed specimens of Early English in the country. The nave, chancel, and transepts are nearly of equal length, and

"DARLINGTON CHURCH.

"The whole is of uniform E.E. design. The extremities of each side of the cross very handsome-especially the West Front, which has the gable flanked by square turrets crowned with pyramids. The doorway is large and handsome, and having shafts with bell capitals. The arch of W. doorway crowned by a triangular pediment. Above it is tier of 5 E.E. arches, some of them pierced for windows; the shafts are some with foliated capitals, some with bell capitals. In ye pediment of ye gable are 3 niches of the same sort-between the stages are string courses of toothed ornament. The South Transept has two tiers of lancet windows2 windows in each stage, and a circular one in ye gable. The string course is continued round ye buttresses. The North Transept has windows arranged as in ye South Tr: only that they are without shafts. The nave has a Clerestory, exhibiting a range of E.E. arches, some of them pierced for windows. The whole Church, save the Tower, has a plain E. E. parapet. The nave has a South door with shafts having bell capitals and a similar one on the north side. The Tower rises from the centre, and has on each side a triple belfry window of Cr* design. It is surmounted by a battlement, and lofty wellproportioned spire of stone. The East end of the Chancel is flanked by square turrets, and has 2 tiers of lancet windows without shafts.

"The Interior is tolerably neatly fitted up, though the elegance and symmetry of the building is cruelly destroyed by the irregularity of the galleries which entirely surround the nave and transepts. The windows of the aisles are Cr* with square heads. The nave has on each side 4 pointed arches, of which the Western ones have octagonal and circular pillars-the other piers are of clustered shafts with square capitals. The Transepts are enriched internally as well as without by a double tier of E.E. niches of very elegant appearance. They have shafts with varied capitals, and architrave mouldings filled with rich toothed ornament (especially those in ye lower tier), and between the heads of the niches are circles filled with foliage and flowers Query, "curvilinear.”

and Transept is a very rich and deeply moulded lancet arch springing from clustered shafts with capitals foliated and resembling fleurs de lys. The great arches under the Tower are fine and deeply moulded-having in the mouldings some ball flowers. The Chancel has a double tier of E.E. lancet arches, in which the shaft is alternately with bell and foliated capitals. Of those in the lower tier one has some of ye toothed moulding, another is enriched with ye chevron and lozenge ornament. On the North side of the Altar is a tomb with contracted Rectilin arch, crowned with an embattled parapet. There are also 3 stone stalls of Rectilin work ascending eastward - having ogee canopies. Some of ye ancient wood carved stalls remain. The Font stands in the Western part of the nave, which is left open and free from pews, forming a kind of porch or vestibule. The Font is a plain octagon on a circular shaft. Its canopy of wooden tabernacle work is lofty and fine, yet with some mixture of Italian features. There is also a mutilated effigy of a priest."

According to Turgot, prior of Durham, and other monastic writers, it appears that when Bishop Carilepho removed the seculars from the cathedral church, Darlington was one of the receptacles appointed for the reception of that body; but we are not told who first erected a church here, or where the original edifice stood. The present church owes its origin to the great and powerful prelate, Hugh Pudsey, which he proposed to make collegiate. The expense of the fabric was immense, for the stone with which it was built was brought about twelve miles, from the quarries of Cockfield fell. This prelate also, about the year 1164, erected a mansionhouse near the church, and instituted a deanery, with three secular canons or prebendaries. Some writers have asserted that there were six prebendaries here; an error which probably arose from the chantry priests and the chaplain of Badlifelde free chapel not being distinguished from them. The foundation charter being lost, the early history of this church is involved in great obscurity, but it is certain that it had four prebends, as