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NOTICE. SYLVANUS URBAN requests his Friends to observe that Reports, Correspondence, Books for Review, announcements of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, &c., received after the 20th instant, cannot be attended to until the following Month.

CHAPEL OF THE HOLY GHOST,

BASINGSTOKE.

MR. URBAN,-The following extracts from documents in the Public Record Office relate to the Holy Ghost Chapel, the ruins of which form a cause for inquiry with all intelligent travellers on the South-Western Railway. They tell the story of the little chapel, which the inhabitants would have done well to have restored for their new cemetery. Sir W. Sands, of the Vine, Hants., was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Sands 15 Hen. VIII., and died 1542. (Brydges' Collins' Peerage, ix. 418.) Dugdale gives the date of his creation April 27, 1523, but there is no patent on record. (Hist. Peerage of England, 420.) The bishop was Richard Fox, 1500-1528:

"The brotherhood of the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, Basingstoke, founded of the devotion of the inhabitants at the beginning there to find a priest, and sithence employed to the intent to find a school-master to teach children grammar, which hath been so continually kept this 10 years last past unto this day, whereunto belong lands and tenements in Basingstoke to the yearly value of £6 14s., whereof resolut. 15s. 4d. et

rem. £5 178. 8d. which is yearly paid

to the said schoolmaster. Ornaments and plate belonging to the same brotherhood delivered by inventory indented by the Commissioners to the Churchwardens of the said brotherhood valued at 28s. then. The said Chapel of the Holy Ghost and the yard environing the same is the common burying place for all the said parish, and the vicar there findeth a curate, and the same vicarage is of the value of £26 2s. 94. Houseling people there 801."-Certific. of Chantries, 2 Edw. II., lii.

"The Chantry of the Holy Ghost.The late Bishop of Winchester and the lord Sands, by the licence of the King's Majesty, which now is under the great seal of England, to have one alderman,

two wardens, and certain brothers, and one priest, which priest hath no perpetuity, but removeable at the will and pleasure of the said alderman and wardens; and for that cause the said priest is discharged of paying tenths, by judg ment of the Exchequer, as appeareth by the exemplification thereof dated the 35 year of the King's Majesty's reign that now is. The said guild is erected and situated within the said parish church of Basingstoke, the value of the said chapel by year £6 14s., whereof for rents resolut. 15s. 4d., for the priest 117s. 8d. There is one free chapel called Easthrope within the parish of Basingstoke, obtained and dissolved sith the 4 Feb., in the 37th of the King's Majesty's reign, by Mr. John Leffe, Clerk, Doctor, etc."-MSS., Court of Augment., li. 19. I am, &c.

MACKENZIE E. C. WALCOTT, M.A., F.S.A.

OLD GLASS..

MR. URBAN,-A kinswoman of mine has in her possession an ancient glass goblet, of about ten inches in height, and having a removable lid. It is of about the quality of bad window glass, with a decided greenish tint. It has been in the family, ascertainably, for centuries, and has on it the date, cut 1310. Is there any reason for doubting roughly (with a diamond, apparently), that such a goblet belonged to such a date ?-I am, &c.

W. M. H. C.

[We would advise our correspondent to forward the goblet, if at his disposal, to the Society of Antiquaries for inspection.]

ERRATA.

P. 612, col. 1, line 7 from end, for "Roelan" read "Roelan."

P. 622, line 5 from end, for "movement" read "monument."

P. 651 (Oct. 15), for "R.N." read "R.E."

The Gentleman's Magazine

AND

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

ON THE IRON-WORK OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
BY W. BURGES, ESQ.

THERE are two common errors into which would-be church restorers are particularly liable to fall; these are to imagine, firstly, that churches and cathedrals are better for being isolated; and secondly, that tombs and works of art are improved by the removal of their railings. With regard to the former, a moment's reflection ought to teach them that the aim of the original architect, after making a convenient building with all its necessary appendages, such as cloisters, canons' houses, &c., was so to group these latter with the main edifice as to obtain a number of ever-varying and picturesque views. As to the tombs, the said architect well knew that man in every station and of every period is pre-eminently a destructive animal, he therefore took very good care to surround the tomb and its elaborate imagery with stout iron railings, so as to disappoint the fingers of the idle and maliciously disposed.

Very often these railings were simple affairs, such as that which protects the tomb of Archbishop Langham in St. Benedict's Chapel; but sometimes they were exceedingly elaborate works of art, and displayed wondrous workmanship, such as we still see at Westminster and at Windsor. Unfortunately, up to the present period it has been the fashion to get rid of the more simple of these railings, the result but too often being to the detriment of the monument: where, however, the richness of the workmanship has caused them to be preserved, the tombs as a general rule have suffered but very little. Witness that of Henry VII., which is nearly as perfect as on the day it was finished. Anciently the feeling for the preservation of the tomb was sometimes carried so far that the iron-work must nearly have hidden the work it was made to protect. Thus the tomb of the Duke of Berry, in the Sainte Chapelle at Bourges, was

surrounded by an exceedingly plain and close grille of iron, which must have greatly hindered any very distinct view of the imagery within.

If we look over the plates in Ackerman's or Neale's History of the Abbey, we shall find that nearly every tomb was in some measure protected by a railing; and if we push our enquiries a little further, we shall discover that they were mostly removed in 1822, when the Dean and Chapter took the exhibition of the Abbey into their own hands. Of course they were actuated by the best of motives, and were guided by the opinion of the day; and indeed we are now only just beginning to suspect that they were in the wrong; but so strong then was the feeling on the point, that even the beautiful iron-work of Queen Eleanor's tomb, after having been spared in this first razzia, was removed under the inspiration of (I believe) no less a person than the late Sir Francis Chantrey; that sculptor doubtless thinking that it interfered with the beautiful profile of Torel's masterpiece, and forgetting that the iron-work was as much a portion of the general composition as the statue itself, and that they should never have been divided. Its subsequent restoration to its right place is, I believe, due to Mr. Scott.

At present, therefore, the iron-work of the Abbey may be divided into three classes. Of these one has been sold or lost, in fact, has disappeared; the second has been removed, and still remains in the Abbey, but not in its original place, being stowed away in the triforium, and in the slip commonly called the Chapel of St. Blaise; while the third division still remains in its place: luckily it happens to be by far more valuable and sumptuous than all the rest, and we may well console ourselves for the loss of the remainder by the thought that few churches in Europe can shew more beautiful and sumptuous works in iron and brass than those we are about to examine.

At present these examples are reduced to five only, but they all differ in construction and ornament, and moreover are most excellent examples of their several kinds. They are, 1. The grille at the top of the tomb of Queen Eleanor; 2. The railing round Archbishop Langham's effigy; 3. That at the west end of the chantry of Henry V.; 4. The brass or copper gates of Henry the Seventh's Chapel; and 5. The beautiful brass grille round the tomb of the latter King.

The famous grille made by Master Thomas de Leghtone for

the tomb of Queen Eleanor does not appear to have been designed so much for the protection of the tomb as to prevent ill-disposed persons from getting into the Confessor's Chapel by climbing over the effigy; in fact, it only commences at the top of the altar-tomb, and then, curving outwards, finishes at a comparatively small height above its springing.

It is easy to conceive why this arrangement obtained, for we must remember that the Confessor's Chapel contained not only the golden shrine of that saint, but in all probability an altar of reliques, which would be placed where Henry the Fifth's chantry now stands. The altar of reliques would of course contain many rich and costly reliquaries, and thus afford an additional reason for making the place secure. This object was doubtless effected in the first instance by high and close grilles, which went all round between the pillars of the chapel, and the whole effect most probably resembled the altar of reliques at Arras, as shewn in the sixth volume of Didron's Annales Archéologiques. Now when Henry III. and Queen Eleanor's tombs were erected", these high grilles were necessarily removed, and the tombs being very lofty, at least from the ambulatory side, the only precaution necessary was to devise some means of preventing the evilly disposed from climbing over. This was most effectually done by means of a curved grille, such as we see on Queen Eleanor's tomb (see p. 662). Whether that of her father-in-law had a similar one is a doubtful point; all we know is that there certainly was an account sent in for iron-work for it. Again, we are equally in the dark as to whether the fronts of the tombs themselves had a grille to protect them; it is very true that there are sundry holes in the basement, and in the pillars on either side of these tombs, but somehow or other they do not correspond, and it would be a most hazardous thing to build up any theory upon them. We only know that the tomb of Queen Philippa, which was very rich, had such a protection; as also the tomb of Edward I., which was very plain, or at all events is at the

It is not very clear when Henry the Third's tomb was erected. What little evidence there is rather goes to prove that it was in hand between 1280 and 1290; the two effigies, however, were made at the same time.

b A view of Edward the First's tomb is given by Dart, in which the railing is distinctly shewn. It consisted of bars crossing each other at right angles, the upright bars at either end finished with a little bust, those between them with fleurs-de-lys.

GENT. MAG. VOL. CCXIII.

4 K

present day, although in all probability it was covered with a richly embroidered pall (as tombs now are in Turkey), or by some painted decoration either on linen or on wood; for there is a certain mysterious account year after year for wax used "circum corpus" of Edward I., which some think may refer to the candles burnt round the tomb, and others to the wax cloths with which the body was enveloped, but which might possibly have been used in the shape of a varnish to certain painting either on cloth or on board c.

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But to return to the grille of Queen Eleanor, which affords an excellent illustration of how the most beautiful art may be united to the most commonplace purposes and materials. Its construction is as follows:- There are two horizontal bars, the lower one 14 in. by 2 in. in section, and the upper one 1 in. by in. The former is made the stronger because it has to support most of the weight of the rest; while the latter (the in. being the top dimension) is situated higher up and considerably more forward. These two bars are connected together

e Upon a careful inspection of the pillars on either side of the royal tombs in Edward the Confessor's Chapel, I am very much inclined to believe that overhanging grilles, somewhat similar to that on the tomb of Queen Eleanor, were attached to the tombs of Queen Philippa, Edward III., and Richard II.

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