The architect was Mr. Burn. Its form is oblong, with a tower at the west end 120 feet in height. The length of the chapel is 113 feet, the breadth 62. Around the building is a terrace, under which, on the south side, is a range of arched vaults. The sides of the chapel are divided into compartments by buttresses, between which, with the exception of the two in the eastmost division, are handsome gothic windows; above which, the walls terminate with a cornice and battlements. The tracery-mote future was to compensate for all immediate work of the niches, which occupy the vacant spaces, is minutely executed. The principal entrance is by a gothic western door over which is a window similar to the others. The great eastern window is 30 feet high, containing stained glass, by Mr. Egginton, of Birmingham. The upper windows are also fitted with stained glass. There is no gallery, and two rows of light gothic columns support the roof. There is at the east end a walled-in cemetery. but the beginning of labours: "I will pull down my barns," said he, "and build greater." All past perplexities and toils were now to be repeated, only upon a more extended scale, before this rich man could secure his property, or feel that it was his own. As to present enjoyment, the semblance or shadow of it does not seem to have entered into his mind: nothing yet had been reaped but apprehension, care, and trouble. Well, but the relosses. When the wearisome process has been gone through, "I will then," says this blinded mortal, "sit down and rest, and breathe from all my toils; and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Alas, what gratulations are these to offer to an immortal soul! What trifling with the wants and woes and miseries it feels, while, deprived of its own connatural food, it thirsts for the streams of living The constitution, if it may be so termed, is water, and hungers for the bread which came that of the great majority of episcopal chapels in down from heaven! If to a spiritual essence it Scotland. In things temporal, the lay-vestry is seem like derision to say, in the sense here prosupreme; and how far the influence of such a lay posed, "Eat and drink," still more keenly must body to the chapels is a benefit, or the contrary-it, while enslaved to sin, feel the mockery which how far it tends to strengthen the hands of the invites it to "take its ease, and be merry." Alas, minister, or to shackle him in his aim to do good-"there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." is not fit matter for inquiry here. One thing may be advanced, however-that, by the confession of many of the most eminent nonconformists in the south, such lay bodies have a direct tendency to reduce the minister to a mere nonentity. It may be as well to remark that the object of this series will not be so much to enter on the spiritual condition of the Scottish episcopal church, as on the means provided for its members in the way of schools, institutions, and other subjects bearing upon its outworks. 0. SHORT READINGS FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. No. XX. BY THE REV. HENRY WOODWARD, M.A., ON THE RICA FOOL.-2. "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"-LUKE xii. 18-21. But the demolition of his former buildings was The soul was formed for God, and it cannot rest until it rest in him. The immortal spirit in her captivity finds heaviness in the midst of all that mirth in which her earthly companion riots and rejoices. "By the rivers of the mystical Babylon she sits down and weeps when she remembers Zion. They that waste her may require of her mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." But how can she be happy in uncongenial climes, or "sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Such, nevertheless, was the delusion of the individual whose character here is drawn. His mind was filled with dreams of joys to come: his whole soul was divided between calculations and schemes of business, and anticipations of ease and honour, of an abundant harvest after all his toils, a rich reward for that self-denial which had risen above the mere pleasures of the moment, and, with a long look out, "laid up his goods for many years." With a mind thus occupied and absorbed, did he, as the passage leads us to suppose, lie upon his bed at night. The world, in full possession of his soul, the thoughts of eternity quite shut out, no ray of light entering through the crevices of those barriers of flesh and blood, erected to exclude the everlasting day-all secure, as if this earth were every thing, as if there were no heaven above, no hell beneath, no God that sees, or hears, or reads the language of the heart-when suddenly, without warning, without any thing to break the fall, the soul is hurried down the precipice of death. The floods of eternity rush in at once upon the vessel, and sink her to rise no more. Barns, and stores, and fruits, and goods, projects for the future and dreams of bliss to come, all are scattered by the breath of God, all flee before that voice which says, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" One thing at least was certain, that they and their present possessor must part for ever: "so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. ANCIENT MONUMENTS IN COUNTRY CHURCHES. No. II. the face in long flowing locks (Norton, Durham). The rest of the body is defended by chain or other armour, with a surcoat, confined by a belt round the waist, and descending to the knees, or, in some I Now proceed to the second grand divi- cases, even lower (St. Nicholas, Newcastle-uponsion of tombs, namely, those with stone effigies. in prayer, though sometimes the figure is repreTyne). The hands are almost universally clasped As far as imposing appearance goes, these most decidedly have the preference, when compared sented as drawing his sword (Temple church, Lonwith stones inlaid with brass. By far the greater don)*. The sword is very often richly ornamented, proportion of them appear to have been erected in as also the belt by which it hangs. The shield is the decorated age of English architecture; and, al- nearly always found at the left side of the body, though a general similarity exists in the disposi-sometimes plain, at other times charged with the tion of their members, yet their ornaments display arms; and, in one instance (Norton), the arms innumerable differences. They are usually found have evidently been added at a date much posteeither in private chapels or chantries, or in the rior to that of the figure, so that the name of the chancel of churches; and their feet are turned to- individual represented cannot be satisfactorily wards the east. Some are laid upon a large, flat ascertained: there are two shields of arms, also, stone on the floor; others on altar tombs, or behind the head in this example. The knees are brackets; and a great number are deposited in a also usually ornamented by small blank shields at capacious niche in the wall, with a plain, trefoiled, each side. The legs are either laid exactly paralor cinquefoiled arch above, terminated by a pedi-lel with each other, or they are crossed. In this ment, as described before, in the notice of blank monuments. The feet of these effigies almost invariably rest upon some animal, sometimes of most grotesque form: the lion, however, seems to have been the most favourite device, especially in the monuments of knights: the dragon also was frequently used. In the case of ladies, their feet usually rest on a dog or hare. A very fine effigy of a crusader, in Norton church (Durham), has the feet resting upon two lions, struggling with each other, and executed with great spirit and delicacy of sculpture. By far the majority of stone effigies consist of knights and their ladies; as ecclesiastical personages are seldom found commemorated in this manner in churches, although they occur very frequently in cathedrals and abbeys (see engraving of tomb of bishop Hacket, in Lichfield cathedral, erected to his memory by his son, sir Andrew, some time one of the masters in chancery). Let us now run over the principal features of these warriors grim, whose monuments preserve in death the semblance of the accoutrements their owners prided themselves on in life. The head Tests on a cushion, and is also occasionally surmounted by a canopy of decorated gothic, or supported by angels and other figures. It is mostly enclosed in a headpiece formed of chain armour, although frequently found without any covering: in the latter case the hair runs down the sides of latter case the figures are termed crusaders; but the mere vow to serve under the banners of the cross, without the actual performance, appears to have given them a right to be represented in this posturet. The spurs of knighthood often adorn the feet. and the meaning is supposed to denote performance of a cru +"The origin of our cross-legged monuments is not known; sade. It is certain that the emperor Frederic Barbarossa is so represented in a sitting position, upon a basso relievo, on the Porta Romana, at Milan. Strutt, in his Dresses (pl. vii.), gives us an illustration of the eighth century, where a personage of dis tinction is seated in a similar cross-legged position; and Montfaucon gives us a figure of Dagobert, who reigned ann. 628 644, and has his feet resting upon dogs. We shall make no other observation upon the subject, than this, viz., that the fashion with sitting figures is antecedent to the crusades" (Gent. Mag., vol. ci. part 1, p. 614). It is utterly out of the question to give any thing like a catalogue of extraordinary monuments, which would fill volumes. Interspersed, however, in the various ecclesiastical buildings, hereafter to be described in the magazine, many will come under notice for particular description. There is, one which at this moment suggests itself to the writer of this note, erected to the memory of Nicholas Raynton, lord mayor of London, who died A.D. 1646, in the vestry-room of Enfield, Middlesex. "Under a canopy of two pillars of black marble of the Corinthian order is the figure of a man in armour, his right hand and a cushion, wearing the robe of a lord mayor, with a close black cap or coif, and a ruff, his head resting on There are sometimes other figures observable near these effigies amongst others, I have noticed small monk-like personages, holding an open book on their knees; near the feet of the effigy (Norton, Durham) small lions and other devices. Inscriptions on or below them on the slab are rare, but they are nevertheless occasionally presented. On the left side of the effigy at Norton church, alluded to above, there is the letter "I" and three links of a chain, or perhaps three O's interlaced: this may be the monogram or device of the sculptor. Sometimes the slab on which the figure rests is inlaid with a brass inscription (see the monument of William de Wykeham). At Joscelines church, in France, there is a black-letter inscription disposed in this manner, which I give as an example of a French inscription : "Chi gist noble et puissant seigneur, monsigneur Olivier de Clisson, jadis connestable de France, seigneur de Clisson, de Porthorvet, de Belleville et de Lagernache, qui teepassa en Apuril le jour saint Jorge lan MCCC. et VII. Pries Dieux pour Amen." son ame. The ladies, whose effigies frequently accompany those of their lords, are clothed in long flowing robes, generally with a kind of hood descending to their arms on each side; and, like the knights, their hands are clasped in prayer. The head rests on a cushion, and angels frequently support it. Other effigies occasionally occur, beside those of knights. For instance, in the church of Birkin*, Yorkshire, there is a cross-legged figure, apparently in a penitential robe†. T. Q. J. V. a collar of SS., and a portcullis with badge appendants; in his left hand the handle of a sword, the blade of which is gone; over the feet hi crest. Below the man the figure of a lady, habited as a lady mayoress, with ruff and chain: her right hand comes out from under her: her left hand holds a book. Below these two large figures are smaller figures, of a man and woman kneeling at a desk, with books before them, Behind the man are two sous kneeling behind the woman are three daughters, also kneeling; and an infant in a cradle at the foot of the desk between the man and woman; and over the desk is an inscrip tion in Roman capitals. When alderman Raynton was lord mayor of London, he was committed to the marshalsea, and several noblemen were committed to other prisons, for neglect ing to procure the king the loan of £2,000 in the city, and the attorney-general was ordered to prosecute them" (Robinson's History of Enfield, Gent. Mag. xciil,, part 2, p. 209). There is a house in this parish which used to be the residence of a knight templar. "We are astonished that families do not have drawings made of the sepulchral memorials of their progenitors, and have them entered in their bibles, with copies of the inscriptions. We also think that vellum registers might be kept by officiating ministers, and epitaphs be copied for a suitable fee" (Gent. Mag., vol. xciii. part 1, p. 622). This remark is not without value. Unquestionably in very many cases the destruction or mutilation of such monuments has led to important mistakes, not merely in historical researches and family lineage, but in the appropriation of valuable property. Cases innumerable might be adduced, where suits long pending might have been briefly brought to a close, had some monumental inscription been found entire, which might have served as a clue of escape from the labyrinths of genealogy. It frequently happens, however, that no shadow of a record remains of who they were whose effigies bear testimony that they were of exalted rank; and that some absurd tale is currently handed down from sexton to sexton, of persons who never could have been honoured with a nonument because they registers of burials be inserted for the purpose of noting never existed. Might not an additional column in our parochial down the apparent cause of the person's decease, or some interesting circumstance connected with it? Notes of this character are often appended in old registers. At all events, it is in the power of every minister to keep a private book in which such remarks might be made, and which, though of no official authority, would yet be interesting and useful, if handed down from one to another. The death of an old clerk or sexton is often the obliteration of any memorial of the mansions of the dead, "An exact portraiture of life was not indispensable; the effigy sometimes fell below the natural figure, and was some times made to exceed it. The former, however, seldom occurred in statuary, and the latter was still more rare in engraved brasses. Several recumbent effigies of warriors are above seven feet in length; but this, of course, affords no just ground A MONTH AT THE ENGLISH LAKES. No. III. GRASMERE. "Tranquil, and shut out From all the strife that shakes a jarring world.” THE vale of Grasmere is beautifully described by the poet Gray:-"Its margin is hollowed into small bays, with eminences, some of rock, some of soft turf, that half conceal and vary the figure of the little lake they command. From the shore a low promontory pushes itself far into the water; and on it stands a white village, with a parish church rising in the midst of it: hanging enclosures, corn fields, and meadows, green as an emerald, with their trees and hedges and cattle, fill up the whole space from the edge of the water; and just opposite to you is a large farm-house, at the bottom of a steep, smooth lawn, embosomed in old woods, which climb half-way up the mountain-sides, and discover above a broken line of crags that crown the scene. Not a single red tile, no staring, gentleman's house, breaks in upon the repose of this unsuspected paradise; but all is peace, rusticity, and happy "It was well for the undisturbed pleasure of the poverty, in its sweetest, most becoming attire." poet," writes a more recent pen, "that he had no forebodings of the change that was so soon to take place; and it might have been hoped that these words, indicating how much the charm of what was depended not upon what was not, would of themselves have preserved the ancient franchises of this and other kindred mountain retirements from trespass or (shall I dare to say?) from profanation. The lakes had now become celebrated: visitors flocked here from all parts of England: the fancies of some were smitten so deeply, that they became settlers; and the islands of Derwent water and Windermere, as they offered the strongest temptation, were the first places seized upon, and were instantly defaced by the intrusion*." Wordsworth has also sketched Grasmere in the following lines: "Upon a rising ground a grey church tower, Whose battlements were screen'd by tufted trees, EXCURSION. The custom of rush-bearing (to be adverted to hereafter) is here kept up as at Ambleside; the church being annually strewn with rushes. for believing that the men so far surpassed the common stature, Others, again, are of very small stature. On the slab for instance, of a piscina in Wittenham church, Berks, reposes the figure of a cross-legged warrior, which, though only twentysix inches long, is completely armed, supporting a shield on the right arm, and holding a sword on the breast with the right hand his head rests on a pillow, and his feet on an animal, and it is not a little remarkable that the figure lies with the head towards the east" (See Gent. Mag., Ap., 1833, p. 308). "Guide to the Lakes, with Mr. Wordsworth's Description of Scenery, and Three Letters on the Geology of the Lake district;" by the rev professor Sedgwick, Second edition. Kendal: J. Hudson. 1843. 8vo, pp. 159. "The view from the road near the head of the lake, looking forward, is extremely fine. Silver How is seen over the south-west angle of the water right onward is Helm Crag, the summit of which is strewn with large blocks of stone, presenting many eccentric forms. Green thought he saw a likeness to a lion and a lamb; West, to a mass of antediluvian remains; and Otley says, that, viewed from Dunmail-raise, a mortar elevated for throwing shells into the valley, is no unapt comparison. The road is seen to pass over Dunmail-raise, a depression between two hills: that on the left is Steel Fell, the other Seat Sandal" (Black's Tour). On the celebrated pass, "Dunmail-raise" (or Dumbnail), 720 feet above the level of the sea, and about three miles on the road proceeding from Grasmere onwards, which divides the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, is a rude cairn or monument, consisting of a monstrous pile of stones, heaped on each side of an earthen mound, and appears to be little known. Gilpin says it marked a division between the kingdoms of England and Scotland, in the old time, when the Scottish border extended beyond its present bounds. It is said, this division was made by the Anglo-Saxon king, Edmund, on the death of Dunmail, the last king of Cumberland, who was here slain in battle, A.D. 945, and whose two sons were deprived of their eyes; the territory being given to Malcolm, king of Scotland. But, for whatever purpose the rude pile was fabricated, it has suffered little change in its dimensions, and is one of those monuments of antiquity which may be best characterized by the scriptural phrase of "remaining to this very day." "They now have reach'd that pile of stones, WORDSWORTH. The following description of the valley of Easedale, the only access to which is from Grasmere, gives a far more graphic sketch of the lone wildness of that secluded vale than the writer of this paper could possibly lay before the reader: it is from the pen of Mr. De Quincey, who formerly resided at the Knab, and appeared in "Tait's Edinburgh Magazine," for September, 1839: "The little valley of Easedale is one of the most impressive solitudes amongst the mountains of the lake district. It is impressive, first, as a solitude; for the depth of the seclusion is brought out and forced more pointedly upon the feelings by the thin scattering of houses over its sides and the surface of what may be called its floor. These are not above five or six at the most. Secondly, it is impressive from the excessive loveliness which adorns its little area. This is broken up into small fields and miniature meadows, separated not-as too often happens, with sad injury to the beauty of the lake country-by stone walls, but sometimes by little hedge-rows; sometimes by a little sparkling, pebbly "beck," lustrous to the very bottom, and not too broad for a child's flying leap; and sometimes by wild self-sown woodlands of birch, alder, holly, mountain ash, and hazel, that meander through the valley, intervening the different estates with natural sylvan marches, and giving cheerfulness in winter by the bright scarlet of their barrier. It is the character of all the northern English valleys-and it is a character first noticed by Wordsworth-that they assume, in their bottom areas, the level floor-like shape, making everywhere a direct angle with the surrounding hills, and definitively marking out the margin of their outlines; whereas the Welsh valleys have too often the glaring imperfection of the basin shape, which allows no sense of any absolute valley surface: the hills are already commencing at the very centre of what is called the level area. The little valley of Easedale is, in this respect, as highly finished as in every other; and in the Westmoreland spring, which may be considered May and the earlier half of June, whilst the grass in the meadows is yet short from the habit of keeping the sheep on it until a much later period than elsewhere (viz., until the mountains are so far cleared of snow and the probability of storms, as to make it safe to send them out on their summer migration), the little fields in Easedale have the most lawny appearance, and, from the humidity of the Westmoreland climate, the most verdant that it is possible to imagine; and on a gentle vernal day-when vegetation has been far enough advanced to bring out the leaves, an April sun gleaming coyly through the clouds, and, genial April rain gently pencilling the light spray of the woods with tiny pearl drops-I have often thought, whilst looking with silent admiration upon this expuisite composition of landscape, with its miniature fields running up like forest glades into miniature woods, its little columns of smoke breathing up like incense to the household gods from the hearths of two or three picturesque cottages-abodes of simple primitive manners, and what, from personal knowledge, I will call humble virtue whilst my eyes rested on this charming combination of lawns and shrubberies, I have thought that, if a scene on this earth could deserve to be sealed up, like the valley of Rasselas, against the intrusions of the world, if there were one to which a man would willingly surrender himself a prisoner for the years of a long life, this it is-this Easedale-which would justify the choice and recompense the sacrifice. But there is a third advantage possessed by this Easedale, above other rival valleys, in the sublimity of its mountain barriers. In one of its many rocky recesses is seen a "force" (such is the local name for a cataract), white with foam, descending at all seasons with respectable strength, and, after the melting of snows, with an Alpine violence. Follow the leading of this "force" for three-quarters of a mile, and you come to a little mountain lake, locally termed a "tarn," the very finest and most gloomily sublime of its class. And, far beyond this 66 enormous barrier" that thus imprisons the very winds, tower upwards the aspiring heads (usually enveloped in cloud and mist) of Glaramara, Bow Fell, and the other fells of Langdale Head and Borrowdale. Finally, superadded to the other circumstances of solitude, arising out of the rarity of human life and of the signs which mark the goings on of human life, two other accidents there are of Easedale, which sequester it from the world, and intensify its depth of solitude beyond what could well be looked for or thought possible in any vale within a district so beaten by modern tourists. One is, that it is a chamber within a chamber, or rather a closet within a chamber, a defences of little sylvan Easedale. There is one door into it from the Grasmere side; but that door is hidden, and on every other quarter there is no door at all, nor any the roughest access but what would demand a day's walking." OF GOD: A Sermon, BY THE REV. WILLIAM PITT M'FArquhar, B.A., Incumbent Minister of St. Mary's Episcopal Chapel, GEN. vi.3. "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man." chapel within a cathedral, a little private oratory | within a chapel. For Easedale is, in fact, a dependency of Grasmere-a little recess lying within the same general basin of mountains-but partitioned off by a screen of rock and swelling uplands, so inconsiderable in height, that, when surveyed from the commanding summits of Fairfield or Seat Sandal, they seem to subside into the level THE DANGER OF RESISTING THE SPIRIT area, and melt into the general surface. But, viewed from below, these petty heights form a sufficient partition; which is pierced, however, in two points-once by the little murmuring brook, threading its silvery line onwards to the lake of Grasmere; and again by a little rough lane, barely capable (and I think not capable in all points) of receiving a post-chaise. This little lane keeps ascending amongst wooded steeps for a quarter of a mile; and then, by a downward course of a hundred yards or so, brings you to a point at which the little valley suddenly bursts upon you with as full a revelation of its tiny proportions as the traversing of the wooded back-grounds will permit. The lane carries you at last to a little wooden bridge, practicable for pedestrians; but, for carriages, even the doubtful road already mentioned ceases altogether. And this fact, coupled with the difficulty of suspecting such a lurking paradise from the high road through Grasmere, at every point of which the little hilly partition crowds up into one mass, with the capital barriers in the rear, seeming, in fact, not so much to blend with them as to be a part of them, may account for the fortunate neglect of Easedale in the tourist's route; and also because there is no one separate object, such as a lake or a splendid cataract, to bribe the interest of those who are hunting after sights; for the "force" is comparatively small, and the tarn is beyond the limits of the vale, as well as difficult of approach. One other circumstance there is about Easedale which completes its demarcation, and makes it as entirely a landlocked little park, within a ring fence of mountains, as ever human art, it rendered capable of dealing with mountains and their arrangement, could have contrived. The sole approach, as I have mentioned, is from Grasmere; and some one outlet there must inevitably be in every vale that can be interesting to a human occupant, since without water it would not be habitable; and running water must force an exit for itself, and, consequently, an inlet for the world. But, properly speaking, there is no other; for, when you explore the remoter end of the vale, at which you suspect some communication with the world outside, you find before you a most formidable amount of climbing, the extent of which can hardly be measured, where there is no solitary object of human workmanship or vestige of animal life, not a sheep-track even, not a shepherd's hovel; but rock and heath, heath and rock, tossed about in monotonous confusion. And, after the ascent is mastered, you descend into a second vale-long, narrow, sterile known by the name of "Far Easedale:" from which point, if you could drive a tunnel below the everlasting hills, perhaps six or seven miles might bring you to the nearest habitation of man, in Borrowdale; but, crossing the mountains, the road cannot be less than twelve or fourteen, and, in point of fatigue, at the least twenty. This long valley, which is really terrific at noon-day, from its utter loneliness and desolation, completes the THE occasion of these words being uttered by the Almighty was the desperate wickedness of the inhabitants of the old world. To such a height had this arisen, that, as it is stated in the sixth verse of the chapter, it repented the Lord, that he had made man The Lord determined, in consequence, to on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Noah and his family, by the waters of a great sweep them all away, with the exception of flood; although, with that long-suffering, kindness, and tender compassion which make him not willing that any should perish, but rather that all should repent and be saved, he delayed the threatened judgment against that rebellious race, to give them the opportunity of turning from their evil ways. It was in reference to the determination which the Almighty had thus formed, or was, in human language, about to form, of destroying mankind, that he said, "My Spirit shall not His Spirit had always strive with man.' been long striving with them, in order to bring them to repentance. His Spirit, by an endless variety of means and agents which he is able to employ for influencing the hopes, fears, wishes, and volitions of the human heart, had striven for long to reclaim them from their ungodliness and disobedience. But it was all to no purpose. The patience of the Almighty was now, in consequence, about to be exhausted. And he intimates in our text the certainty that it would be so, if those rebellious individuals continued to provoke him to wrath: "My Spirit shall not always strive with man ;" which is as much as to say, that, if sinners persevere in resisting the Spirit of God, up to a certain point, his forbearance will come to an end, and his unmitigated and dreadful justice will then take its course against them. trine of our text; but, lest it should be thought Such, my brethren, is the important docthat it was intended to refer exclusively to the men of former times, I shall endeavour, |
