"The Annunciation, on a western spandrel, on a golden ground, is an exquisite design. The legend :

Angelus inquit Ave: quo mundus solvitur a Væ.

"On the side facing the altar are SS. Nebridius and (?) "On the Epistle side, SS. Maurus and Eleutherius.

"On the Gospel side, a sainted Bishop and Acolyth.”—Pp. 80, 81.

Before reaching Pola, our travellers land on the little island of S. Catherine. We borrow the illustrations of the ground plan and west elevation of its curious church, a building probably of the sixth century.

CHURCH IN THE ISLAND OF 8. CATHERINE, IN THE ADRIATIC.

CHURCH IN THE ISLAND OF 8. CATHERINE, NEAR POLA.

The very ancient cathedral of Pola, remarkable for its square-ended choir, is thus described by the aid of a ground plan, which we also borrow :

:

"The ascent to the choir is by nine steps. The soleas is of three, the nave proper of seven bays-in all ten. The triumphal arch is very broad: its piers are circular, on square base, and with square flowered caps. The easternmost three piers, that is those in the soleas, have square stilted base, circular shaft, square flowered cap. The easternmost arch is, on both sides, pointed. The piers in the nave proper are the same, except that the bases are not stilted. The material is of coarse grey Istrian marble. The aisle windows, three on each side, seem to have been recast to their present form, trefoiled lancets, in the thirteenth century. The clerestory consists of semi-circular windows. There is a detached western tower, but it is modernised."-P. 87.

But the desecrated Franciscan church at Pola is the purest Gothic building in the city, and perhaps in all Istria. It is a great pity that this church has never been drawn.

"The east side contains one of the most elegant First-Pointed doors, between two windows, that I ever saw. The mouldings of the door are very elaborate. The windows of two trefoiled lights, divided by a lovely shaft, daintily pierced with a little trefoil on its head. You enter the church towards the south end of the western side of the cloister. It consists chiefly of chancel and nave, and must have been very solemn. Chancel of one bay; simple cross vaulting; the vaulting shafts massy and gloomy. At the east end are two adjacent trefoiled lights, clearly by the same hand as those in the cathedral. The nave, if ever it were vaulted, which I doubt, is now open to the roof. There is a small north chapel to choir. At the south end of the building, which commands a glorious view over the bay, is a most delicious Middle-Pointed door, of eight orders, twisted and twined in every conceivable form, a most remarkable example of the poetry of stone. Over this is an eightfoiled rose. I would advise any architect who finds himself with an hour or two in Pola (some of the steamers only stop that time), to make the Franciscan convent, rather than anything else, and in that convent, this door and window, his object."-P. 89.

The island of Veglia was the first place in which our author found the service said in Illyrian: every church in it except the cathedral being of the Glagolita rite. The said cathedral was built in 1133, as a thanksgiving for a great victory over corsairs, and dedicated to S. Mark in remembrance of the aid given by Venice. It is curious to read that the pamphlet, Le Pape et l'Empereur, was lying on the table in the Franciscan convent in this remote island. "While ex

ecrating Victor Emmanuel, and still more Cavour, the good fathers were not ultramontane. They did not like the novelty of the Month of Mary; and from the way in which they declined, when I alluded to it, the subject of the Immaculate Conception, I gathered that they belonged to that minority-in Austria a large minority-which was opposed to the promulgation of the new dogma." Nearly wrecked by a Bora on a boat voyage to Zengh, our travellers at last reach by steamer the island of Ossero. Here is a scrap about the steamships of the Austrian Lloyd's.

"I have not yet mentioned the printed regulations for the behaviour of passengers, which read well enough in the stilted solemnity of the Greek. They are appealed to, ὡς ἄνθρωποι καλῶς ἀνατεθράμμενοι to behave well εἰς τὸ φῦλον (yévos) an odd double expression; either phrase to be translated—the sex. And in the saloon it is forbidden να καπνίζῃ τις καπνόν and especially for gentlemen εἰσέρχεσθαι εἰς τὰς καμέρας τῶν Κυρίων (δεσποίνων).”

Zara cathedral is more familiar to ecclesiologists than most Dalmatian churches, having been frequently engraved. Its crypt, however, which is here fully described, has escaped the notice of many earlier travellers. Of the state of the Greek Church in Dalmatia, Mr. Neale speaks very highly. As to morality, in Sebenico, a seaport town, the illegitimate births were but three against two hundred and forty-two that were legitimate; and the clergy are becoming better educated. The church of S. Simeon in Zara retains a shrine given by Elizabeth of Hungary in 1380. Unfortunately this fine work of art is so fenced and guarded that it is impossible to describe it. Sebenico cathedral is a curious example of a mixed style between Flamboyant and Renaissance. Mr. Neale considers it, architecturally, the most interesting church in Dalmatia. We must borrow its description.

"The apse, which is circular, has five sets of double trefoiled windows, with very elaborate tracery. The sacristy consists of one bay, ascended by seven steps, and fenced in by a low stone screen, the shafts, volute-wise, with Corinthianising caps. Now comes the choir, under a very lofty dome, and flanked on each side by a wide open space, rather than aisles. The stalls, which are of stone, are not divided. A very singular effect is given by the passages which run behind and above the stalls to the ambones; the latter, as well as the passages themselves, have rails like those that inclose the sanctuary. The choir is ascended by six steps. The nave has six bays: the piers circular, caps square, and quasi-Romanesque, pointed arches. The triforium is a squareheaded, semi-classical arcade, the clerestory also renaissance; under the former a very rich flower moulding. The vaulting is lofty, of plain barrel: exceedingly bold. Some of the stones which compose it are twelve feet by three feet six. The west end has an elaborate rose of twenty-four leaves; above that, a smaller one of twelve. The aisle-vaulting is simply cross: some of the ribs voluted. The west door is exceedingly rich, but a very curious mixture of cinquecento and Flamboyant. The crypt at the south of the choir is the baptistery. It is a circle so to speak, inserted in a square; each side of the square formed by a very rich arch: circular shafts, flowered caps. A classical shell conceals each of the four junctions. Above each of these is some of the noblest Flamboyant work I ever saw. The font, merely classical, and supported by boys. The strangeness of this work culminates undoubtedly in the baptistery."-Pp. 131, 132.