will no doubt recollect is much hidden by the huge quasi-classic reredos.

The north chapel is being cleaned, and is full of scaffolding.

In a little chapel out of the north transept, and also in one in the northern of the two west towers there is a modern reredos, very beautifully painted in the early style.

The exterior of the cathedral is as much disfigured as ever by the sacristies and other buildings against it; one, along the north side, has just been rebuilt in bright red brick, in the tea-garden style, but unpretending. In the interior, the imperial pew, forming a glazed gallery over the roofs of the stalls, still furnishes a good example of an old-fashioned conservatory.

Constantinople. In the Embassy Chapel the germ of a vocal choir has been collected, and is at work.

Athens. The new cathedral, of course in the form of a Greek cross domed at the intersection, is lofty and handsome; it has been many years in progress, and though long since opened for service, is still incomplete. The little Byzantine cathedral standing beside it is an ecclesiological gem.

The English church is unaltered, and consequently thirty years behind the present age, but it is clean and cool; the style of service is equally ancient and cold.

Patras. The great church on the hill overlooking the town is being partially rebuilt after an earthquake, which destroyed a third of the dome and the west towers.

January, 1864.

I am, &c.,

A. H.

THE MECHLIN CONGRESS ON CHRISTIAN ART.

In an account of the Congress at Mechlin, held from August 18 to 20 (as reported in the Beffroi), it seems that Mr. Bourdon, a goldsmith of Ghent, exhibited a collection of church plate, which was much praised both for design and execution. An interesting discussion took place in the section of Christian Art-Painting, and Architecture. Several speakers having enlarged on the necessity of a religious artist being a man of personal piety, and on the exclusive claim of the art of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to be considered Christian art, these positions were combated by the Rev. Mr. Cartuyvels, Professor of Archæology at Liége. This gentleman not only defended Renaissance, but asserted the superiority of the primitive basilicas over the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Among other respondents, one Canon Lambert, of Fréjus, proposed the establishment of a studio of Christian art in every diocese, the said school to be under the direction of a priest responsible to the Bishop. He continued, "Le directeur devrait approuver tous les modèles, et chaque œuvre sortant de l'atelier serait marqué d'une estampille. Tous les curés seraient heureux de trouver dans l'atelier Chrétien le moyen de se procurer à bon marché des orne

ments d'un style pur et vraiment religieux." No vote was taken on the subject, and the best of the argument seems to us to have remained with Professor Cartuyvels, owing not so much to his own strength as to the weakness of his opponents. In a subsequent debate as to the expediency of founding a chair of Christian Archæology in the University of Louvain, M. Bethune remarked, "C'est par les sociétés archéologiques qui ont été créées à Cambridge et à Oxford, que l'art a été régénéré en Angleterre." Afterwards the following resolutions were, after some discussion, adopted.

"1° Il y a lieu de recommander aux personnes que la chose concerne, de n'aliéner ou de ne détruire aucun objet ancien appartenant aux églises et aux établissements religieux en général, avant d'avoir constaté que l'aliénation, la destruction ou même le déplacement de cet objet ne présente aucun inconvénient.

"Cette recommandation a spécialement pour but d'appeler l'attention sur la conservation des pierres tombales, des broderies, des ciselures, des statues et autres détails de sculpture et de construction, dont tout le monde ne peut pas généralement apprécier la valeur."

"2° Sans se prononcer, du moins quant à présent, sur le style le plus convenable pour les édifices religieux, question des plus importantes qui pourra être traitée spécialement dans une prochaine session, la section exprime le vœu qu'il plaise à NN. SS. les évêques d'instituer des comités diocésains chargés d'émettre leur avis sur les travaux de construction, de restauration ou d'ornementation projetés, préalablement à l'approbation ecclésiastique."

"Il y a lieu de veiller, avec plus de soin qu'on ne le fait en général, à l'entretien et à la décoration des cimetières existant encore presque partout, suivant l'ancien usage Catholique, autour des églises.

"Ces efforts auront pour résultat d'inspirer aux fidèles et spécialement à la jeunesse une grande dévotion pour les âmes du purgatoire, et, en même temps, un légitime respect pour ces ancêtres et ces amis dont les vertus ont édifié leurs contemporains et servi l'Eglise, et dont les âmes sont déjà reçues dans le sein de Dieu."

"Considérant que les décors, ornements et tableaux placés dans les églises ne peuvent avoir d'autre but que de concourir à la splendeur du culte et à l'édification des fidèles;

"Que c'est un abus de les dérober à la vue du public; qu'il n'est ni juste, ni convenable que les objets d'art, destinés à nourrir la piété des fidèles, ne servent plus qu'à satisfaire la curiosité des touristes et deviennent un objet d'exploitation:

"L'Assemblée émet le vœu que les monuments et les chefs-d'œuvre des grands maîtres placés dans les églises, ne soient plus désormais soustraits à la vue des fidèles, et soient exposés de manière à répondre à leur destination primitive."

S. NICHOLAS' CHURCH, GREAT YARMOUTH, NORFOLK.

THIS church is, in many respects, a very singular and extraordinary structure, possessing unusual interest from the curious successive architectural transformations it has undergone. It is one of the largest, if it be not the largest, of the parochial churches in England—

being 230 ft. in length by 108 ft. in breadth, exclusive of the transepts; and the few which can be ranked as its peers in point of size, such as those of S. Botolph, Boston, S. Michael, Coventry, Holy Trinity, Hull, and S. Mary, Nottingham, being of comparatively much later date, must yield to it the pre-eminence, if excellence and variety of detail be taken into account.

This church, which was dedicated to S. Nicholas, dates from the year of our LORD 1101, and was finished in the year 1119. An earlier church had existed previously at Yarmouth, and was standing in the time of Edward the Confessor; but that was dedicated to S. Bennet. The foundation of the present one (originally that of the Benedictine monastery founded by Bishop Herbert), as was that of the cathedral of Norwich and of S. Margaret's at Lynn, is said to have been an obligation laid upon that Bishop of Norwich, who was surnamed Robert Losinga (the glosing tongue), as a penance for simony, by the Pope. Losinga, who had previously been Prior of the monastery of Fécamp, in Normandy, and Abbot of Ramsey, was made Abbot of Thetford by King Rufus, through "flattery and fat payment," as it was said by some. He afterwards obtained the Pope's sanction to transfer the see of Thetford to Norwich. He was the William of Wykeham of his age, and the county of Norfolk is indebted to him for many of its noblest ecclesiastical buildings, among which the church of S. Nicholas at Yarmouth was the latest he undertook.

All that now remains of the church of Losinga is a portion of the central tower; and this, being surmounted by a belfry-stage of the Early English style, and underpinned by casings around the piers in the Decorated period, is scarcely visible from the usual points of view either within or without the church; (on the plan this Norman work is represented only by the central core of the piers of the crux, which is tinted dark;) nevertheless this original Norman tower has ruled and modified the entire form of the church throughout all the changes it has undergone.

The church to which it belonged originally was, with this sole exception, taken down, and another constructed upon a larger scale about the year of our LORD 1190. This had a nave of eight bays (considerably longer than the Norman one), with lean-to aisles of moderate width, transepts necessarily of the width of the tower which was retained, and chancel with aisles as to the nave. These formed a complete cross church of very simple Early English work-almost Transitional-of very considerable length, but moderate in width. It seems to have had no clerestory. The stringcourses which received the plates of the lean-to roofs of the aisles, and the corbelled eavescourses of the nave above, still remain to attest to this previous arrangement, and it is said that the foundations of these aisles still exist.

This church could hardly have been completed, when it was resolved still further to enlarge its area, in order to accommodate the numerous side mortuary chapels or chantries which had come into fashion, and were supported by the guilds and families of the town.

It is said that foundations of apsidal eastern ends to the chancel aisles exist beneath the pavement of the present chancel aisles: an opportunity of searching for and recording such, if they exist, will be afforded by the present works of restoration.

The same process seems to have taken place very generally in this part of the country, if one may so judge by the number of churches,1 the proportions and character of which have been spoiled by the addition of later aisles, of far greater width than those which were originally designed for them. I say spoiled, for few of these additions were made at the same early date, or with the same care for their effect, as in this case; and even here the result cannot be considered as at all thoroughly satisfactory.

This enlargement is said by William of Worcester to have been dedicated in 1251; and as the church was reconsecrated by Middleton, Bishop of Norwich, in 1286, I imagine that it was after the conclusion of these aisles. The aisles to the nave were reconstructed with a clear width of 40 ft. each-that of the nave being 24 ft. only: the style was the more fully developed Early English. The details of the southern aisle show that its erection preceded that of the northern one by some years. The jamb adjoining the tower, and the half of the narrower arch which communicated between the south aisle and the transept, were preserved, and a wide semicircular arch was turned, in order to accommodate these; and it is probable that the arches of two bays next the tower were thrown into one on either side of the chancel, and that narrow arches gave place to wider ones at subsequent dates in the three other cases of communication between the aisles and the transepts.

The next step in this successive enlargement of the church was the extension eastwards of the chancel, and the erection of aisles on either side of it equal in width to those of the nave. The details which remain belong to the period of the Geometrical Decorated style of the early part of the fourteenth century. A stately vaulted southern porch was also erected to the south aisle of the nave.

The transepts still retained at that time the lesser height as well as the narrow width of the first Early English church, as is evidenced by the large windows, the remains of which exist in the gables of the several aisles which then overlooked the transept roofs. At a later period, however, the transepts were raised to the same height as that of the aisles; the details of these parts which remain belong to the Flowing Decorated style, later in the fourteenth century. The windows in the gables above named, and the lower windows of the tower, being covered by the transept roofs, were then blocked up.

The church then assumed the character of a complete and stately cross church, the aisles and transepts of which were all of equal height, and at every angle of the building rose a lofty pinnacle, with a stone staircase therein leading to the gutters and parapets. The tower also then bore a spire covered with lead, rising to the height of 186 feet, and also four pinnacles, at the angles, as may be seen by old prints of the view of the town. The proportions of the tower and of the nave were, it is true, somewhat obscured by the greater height of these later parts. Still both externally and internally the church must have formed a very dignified and striking building. The church was rich also in furniture and accessories; a rood-loft of elaborate

The church in the adjoining parish of Gorleston, S. Margaret's, Lynn, and the church at West Walton, are examples.

workmanship was erected by Roger de Haddiscoe, Prior of S. Olave's, who also constructed at the east end of the church a chapel dedicated to "our Lady of Arneburg." In the north aisle of the chancel there was we are told a "fair pair of organs." In and about this church nineteen separate chapels are enumerated, each with its altar, and lights burning before the statue of its patron saint. Sacred dramas and miracle plays were represented in the spacious aisles of the chancel, of the stage properties of which some curious records exist; the walls were decorated with rich hangings of arras and with paintings, of which some fragments remain, particularly an interesting portion of one in the north chancel aisle, from the subject of the murder of S. Thomas à Becket; the sedilia were richly carved and painted; faint traces of figures of angels of very exquisite character are still visible upon those in the south chancel aisle; from the roof a ship was suspended as a type of the church. All the roofs were waggon-shaped, and had panelled boarded ceilings with moulded ribs and carved bosses, on which armorial bearings and other designs were painted; in fact, the whole of its immense interior was most profusely and sumptuously enriched. Yet even the unusually large area within the church was insufficient to afford the desired accommodation for chapels, for which there appears to have been a considerable rivalry, and in the year A.D. 1330 it was determined by the young men of the town to erect an entirely new building 107 feet long and 47 feet wide, at the west end of the church, to be called the Bachelors' aisle. The foundation of this was laid, but the structure proceeded slowly, and was ultimately abandoned in consequence of the ravages of the plague in 1348. I am indebted for the plan of this1" work," as it was called by the townspeople, to whom it served as a quarry for many years, to Mr. Alfred W. Morant, F.S.A., Architect, of Great Yarmouth, who with the consent of the churchwardens some time since, excavated and examined the foundations of it, and placed stone posts at its several angles to mark its position.

new

There is unfortunately no evidence to show what was the intended design of this very extraordinary work, which was never attached to the main building. The irregularity and want of symmetry in the plan are very peculiar; its scale is great, the width of the entrance doorway being about 40 feet; octagonal towers were apparently proposed to flank the several angles, as turrets did all those of the church. It is I think not a matter to be regretted that this scheme proved a failure, as it must have marred the simplicity and unity of the general design of the building.

From this period the works undertaken have mostly tended to the detriment and disfigurement of the church. One other extensive series of alterations is however referable to a later date in the historic age of Gothic architecture. It is said that considerable works were executed about the year 1400. Very possibly these were to the roofs, and probably the waggon-shaped form of them and their ceilings are due to this date. Indeed, this is proved to be the case as regards the ceiling

1 I have to thank Mr. Morant also for much valuable information with regard to the history of the church, and for able assistance in the carrying out of the work of restoration now in progress.