1829.] St. Paul's Church, Ball's Pond, Islington. which forms the horizontal member of the central letter, rises a cross flory. The three letters and cross are handsomely painted in an ethereal blue, relieved with red, edged with gold, and ornamented with flowers in white. The recess above the altar is lighted by the eastern window, and adds to the effect of the screen below it by the depth of its shadow, and the whole is heightened by the arms of his present Majesty in stained glass, so admirably executed, as to be in perfect keeping with the Church. The arms in the garter, surmounted by the crown, fill the centre compartment; the side one contains the lion and the unicorn, holding banners; that of the first supporter being charged with a rose, and that of the second with a thistle. The rest of the glass is lozenge shaped panes diapered. The splendour of the decorations of the altar of this Church are sufficient to acquit the architect of the charge of wilful neglect in this particular. The whole forms so appropriate, and in modern churches so unusual, a finish to the interior, as to leave a hope that it will draw the attention of the higher authorities to the consideration of the expediency of more appropriately ornamenting this portion of the Church. The same impropriety occurs in this Church, in regard to the pulpits, as pointed out in the other; in the present, the designs are not so elegant as in the other; they exhibit an open frame of four arches, sustaining a square pulpit, each face occupied by a haudsome quatrefoil panel highly enriched; with this exception, the wood-work is in general of a more correct character than at the other church, and more attention appears to have been paid to the keeping of the design in the present Church. The font is a counterpart of the one in the church last described. It is situated in a pew beneath the lower western gallery, and divided from the Church by a Pointed arch, which with two others forms a kind of triple entrance. The first stone of this Church was laid on the 15th Sept. 1826, and it was consecrated by the present Bishop of London, ou the 23d of Oct. 1828. It will accommodate 1793 persons, and the estimate, like the last church, is equally low, being 11,205l. 14s. 7d. 13 The site was given by the Marquis of Northampton. Having now concluded our survey of Mr. Barry's Churches, it only remains to observe, that they present very correct, specimens of the style of architecture which prevailed in the beginning and middle of the fifteenth century. Among modern specimens they deserve to stand in the highest rank; and, when the smallness of the estimates is considered, the superiority of the Pointed style above modern or Grecian architecture, as it is usually termed, both for cheapness and effect, must be apparent to all. If the estimates of the numerous modern churches already described in our pages be compared with the present, it will be seen how much more is given for the money in the present class of buildings. On the Sunday after the consecration, the Church was opened for the public services, and on that occasion the Vicar of the parish, the Rev. Daniel Wilson, preached an excellent sermon from 2 Cor. ch. vi. ver. 16, 17, 18. In concluding his discourse, after noticing individually the various persons who had been engaged in the building of the Church, and adverting in the most feeling terms to the advantages which the erection of a new Church would bring upon the district, in the regular administration of the Sacraments and Services of the Church of England, and the residence of a Minister-the preacher stated a fact, that, to every well-wisher to the Establishment was a most agreeable piece of intelligence, viz. that the three Churches had proceeded from the commencement of the undertaking to the completion without the least opposition from the parishioners, without any of those unhappy dissentions which have in too many instances followed the proposition for increasing the Church accommodation. If this desirable unanimity was brought about by the exertions of the excellent Vicar, as no doubt was the case, it argues well both for the parishioners and their pastor; and much it is to be regretted that a similar good understanding does not everywhere exist between beneficed clergymen and their flocks. The rev. gentleman embraced the opportunity of urgently pleading for the Incorporated Society for enlarging Churches, &c. The important work in which it Dublin, Dec. 22. MERE Triton of the Min reached it after a protracted voyage of ten hours. Our business being more with ancient than modern affairs, we flew off at a tangent to what are usually denominated the 'Laxey-cloven stones,' a large cairn surmounted by three perpendicular stones, and encircled at the base by an arrangement of smaller ones. Some distance onward, looking towards Ramsey, the road divides a more extensive enclosure, with some tall pillars protruding through the area of the circle. The Age of hillocks' has many memorials in this island. From Ramsey the road takes a westernly direction to Kirkmichael, near A nows in archaiological study which is the Bishop's palace. At the lays his mite for acceptation at Mr. Urban's feet, in the hope that he will permit his widely diffused Miscellany to be the medium of introducing to the public a recent discovery of a Round Tower,' one of the Turres ecclesiasticæ quæ, more patrio, arctæ sunt et altæ, necnon et rotunda' of Giraldus Cambrensis, in the Isle of Man, unnoticed hitherto as such by any writer, not even by those celebrated men who made similar objects in Ireland and Scotland their peculiar study, and laboured with ardent and inveterate industry to ascertain their number, origin, and use. Mr. Urban, whose antiquarian enthusiasm has been often awakened, during a long and eventful life, in like pursuits, can well appreciate the pleasurable sensations with which the first unexpected glance of my (I could almost say) countryman inspired me. Having conquered the shock my sensibilities received, and sobered down its consequent excitement to plain and rational fact, I venture to put forth my claim to the discovery, and the reason why so remarkable a remain should have, for eight or ten centuries, eluded the eye of the casual visitor, and the more curious one of the Archaiologist; and that the aforesaid Triton' is the first person who seeing, knew its proper station in antiquity, and, with Mr. Urban's fostering aid, gives it a local habitation and a · entrance to the churchyard stands the celebrated monumental stone, the inscription on which my countryman Beauford rendered For the sins of Ivalfir, the son of Dural, this Cross was erected by his mother Aflride.' On its western side are the Ionic characters deeply and clearly engraven. From hence to the Tynwald,' a Druidical hill, illustrative at the present day of the ancient destinations and use of similar mounds in Great Britain and Ireland. The town of Peel lies about three miles onward, the ultima Thule' of my discovery. About 160 yards from the town, and separated from the main land by a narrow arm of the sea, is the Holm,' or, as the Manx more usually call it, the Peel,' a rocky island of two or three acres surface, on which are the ruins of some ecclesiastical buildings; among others, the Cathedral, built in the 13th century, and dedicated to St. Germain the first Bishop of Man, the architecture of which is a mixture of the Saxon and Gothic. West of it is St. Patrick's Church, of ruder style, and evidently of greater antiquity. St. Patrick is said to have converted the Manx in 445, but at what period the dedication took place is not recorded. About 50 yards westward of this latter building stands the Round Tower,' like the Dioclesian pillar of Alexandria, in lonely and contemplative solemnity. It is built in regular courses of red grit stone, in common with the other erections on the island, to the height of nearly 55 feet. The door, like its numerous brethren in Ireland, is placed several feet from the ground, and is at present approached by a flight of steps of comparatively late structure. On 1829.] Round Tower in the Isle of Man. looking up the cylinder the remains of joists, which, in Grose's time supported the different floors, spring from the side; but whether they are the original or not, cannot now be ascertained. In Ireland corresponding indications of their interior economy frequently occur. The outside, particularly the west, presents the most remarkable phenomenon of decay that I have ever observed in any standing ruin; it suggests to the mind the section of a vast honeycomb bereaved of its contents. To a considerable depth the stones in many places have absolately been washed out of their beds, leaving nothing but the pure white cement which once enclosed them, to describe their original outline and projection, as the wax preserves the edge and form of the emptied cell. The spectator stands amazed that the war of elements' has not long since laid it in the dust, and fears that, whilst the eye is surveying its tottering bulk, the venerable pile may become his monument. Immediately under its tall overhanging battlemented cap are four 15 over battlemented buildings; but to the experienced eye, on a closer inspection, the illusion vanishes. It would, I fear, encroach too much on the columns of your invaluable Miscellany, to detail the various opinions of the learned on the origin and purpose of those unique structures. If the curious reader can consult Giraldus Cambrensis (secretary to John), Ware, Pococke, Vallancey, Ledwich, and lastly that great antiquary Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. they will assist him in forming a rational theory on the subject. The conclusion I have arrived at is, that they were built at various periods between the sixth and twelfth centuries, for belfries attached to religious buildings. And it is a well known fact, that some of them are used as such in this country, and one at Brechin in Scotland. These circumstances, added to their Irish cog. nomen Clogachd,' the house of the bell, to my mind, unlock the mystery. Yours, &c. J. S. windows placed opposite the cardinal ALTHOUGH your worthy Repoints; however, much stress is not to be laid on this latter circumstance, notwithstanding what many writers assert on the subject, as in many of them in Ireland both the number and the direc tion vary. I shall now as briefly as possible state my opinion why the subject under investigation has not hitherto been classed with the Turres ecclesiastica' of Ireland and Scotland. The first genuine antiquary who made a tour of the island, was the justly celebrated Grose, whose visit took place in 1775. At that time he had not been in Ireland, where they are almost native,' and he despatches the matter in the following words: The small tower seen a little to the west (of St. Patrick's Church), is a watch-tower or look-out;' and these words are repeated by nearly all succeeding writers. The secret is, that those persons only who have made the 'Turres ecclesiasticæ' familiar to their eyes and understanding, will unhesitatingly pronounce the genus of that in Man, whilst all others account it' a part and parcel' of the other buildings on the island. Viewing it from the main land, such a conclusion may not excite surprise, as the appearance from thence is a battlemented tower rising viewer has, in p. 430 of the Magazine for November last, duly exposed the arrogant ignorance of the celebrated Danish Professor, I am not without hopes that he will receive a further wholesome castigation at the hands of my learned and excellent friend. Mr. Hamper, should that gentleman condescend to incur the risque of defiling them by meddling with so much dirt and illiberality. So far as regards the entire acquiescence on my part in Mr. Hamper's explanation of the inscription, it was founded partly in the confidence I felt in the acknowledged skill of Mr. Hamper in the Saxon language, and partly in the singular coincidence of Professor Magnusen's application of the characters on the ring with that of Mr. Hamper. The celebrated Professor has triumphed in his wonderful but accidental discovery of the Welsh meaning of the word ERYRI, which in another part of his graceful epistle he most consistently splits into two words. Supposing it, however, to be only one, may we not conceive, without any great stretch of imagination, that Professor Magnusen, who had already admitted that two of the lines were DanoSaxon, would tumble into an apoplexy at the sound of the tremendous Welsh 16 Runic Inscription on Mr. Cumberland's Ring.—Hist. of Bucks. [Jan. word? It was, however, very fortunate for M. Magnusen, that no more Welsh words could be conjured up by the hocus-pocus incantation of the celebrated professor, and it is no less unfortunate for the latter that the stone of the ring in question is not a Welsh or any other tites, but Jasper, pure Jasper. As to my useless dissertation on the Runic ring, the object of which has been most ignorantly misconceived by the celebrated Professor, it certainly may be useless to those who do not understand it; not that I am vain enough to suppose that it may be very useful to those who do. It has little connexion with the ring, the Runic inscription on which suggested that a few remarks on the various uses to which Runes were anciently applied, might be acceptable to some of those readers who are not celebrated Professors, and to whom they were more immediately addressed; or perhaps the Professor may have been misled by the title of the paper, which was not the author's. As to Welsh inscriptions in Runic letters, I am persuaded that many persons would feel highly gratified in being informed by any profound Welsh Antiquary, such as that gentleman who has been so justly complimented by your Reviewer, where they are to be met with, and how and when they were adopted. It is not enough that we should be told that these letters were used by the ancient Britons, or mysteriously by the Druids: we want something like substantial, and not shadowy evidence on the occasion. I am aware that at the modern Bardic meetings, certain tesseræ carved on wood in Runic, or similar characters, are made use of; concerning which any satisfactory information would be truly acceptable. I shall beg leave to conclude with an anecdote concerning foreign professors, and of the estimation in which they are sometimes to be held. About two years ago a person called on me, who stated himself to be a professor of Archæology. He was delegated by another professor to obtain leave to transcribe a French manuscript, the contents of which the other was desirous of introducing into some work that he had in hand. The manuscript, which was of the fourteenth century, and very neatly and legibly written, was accordingly entrusted to the Archæologist, who returned it in a day or two, admitting, that being wholly unable to read it, he could make no use of it. Now whether my visitor was the celebrated Professor who has given rise to this communication, I am not able to state; but as he has taken upon him to criticize our Archæologia with such exceeding liberality, it is not unfair to presume that he may likewise be a Professor of Archæology. There is one professor at Copenhagen well known to me, by whom archæology and urbanity are equally professed and practised; but it is impossible that he can be the DANVs of the letter to the Foreign Review. F. D. Mr. URBAN, Shere, Dec. 20. YOUR Magazine is so generally resorted to by all lovers of Topography, that they will with pleasure see your announcement of a History of Buckinghamshire, and when they know that it is in the hands of a very respectable gentleman, resident in the county, indefatigable in his researches, and who has been favoured with access to many important MSS. in hands of gentlemen of the county. The liberality in the keepers of public records has been so very generally felt and acknowledged by all authors or compilers of such works, that there can be no reason to doubt it on this occasion. The very moderate price of two guineas for a 4to. vol. containing many engravings, will not be an unpleasant, though not always a concomitant of such a work. A. S. Will Mr. Hamper favour us with the much desired completion of Mr. Shaw's Staffordshire? AN OLD SUBSCRIBER remarks,-Playfair, vol. ix. p. 90, strangely confuses Johu Rider, who died Bishop of Killaloe, in 1633, (having been appointed to that see in 1612,) with John Ryder, appointed Bishop of Killaloe in 1742, nearly a century after, and who died Archbishop of Tuam in 1775. The latter prelate was first cousin to Sir Dudley Ryder, father of the first Baron Harrowby. There is something of mystery in the way Playfair alludes to the relationship of Thomas Smith (ancestor of Lord Carrington), with the old Lords Carrington: -he states the said Thomas to be related to the last Lord, and to have become possessed of some of his Lordship's estate in that Peer's lifetime? S. T. will feel obliged for any information as to the existence of an original portrait of Bishop Thirleby, the only Bishop of Westminster. |