this liberality pervades all classes may fairly be doubted, when, at the opening service of a church which is said to hold eight hundred and fifty worshippers, in a fashionable district, the collection for the organ (not provided by the founder,) amounted to the munificent sum of £15! The church consists of nave, chancel, north and south transepts, south aisle to nave, and a smaller south transept opening into the larger transept and into the south aisle. A corresponding projection west of the north transept forms a porch. There is also a south porch at the west end of the south aisle; besides which, a steeple occupies the angle between the chancel and north transept, and is balanced by a quasichancel-aisle on the south, which is, we imagine, in fact, the vestry. Internally the seats are open, and the chancel (which is short) has no fittings beyond the altar. In front of the chancel-arch a pulpit and reading-pew, both facing west, rear their unsightly heads high above the people. The walls are built of very dark limestone, with quoins and dressings of very white stone. Nothing can be in worse taste than the way in which these materials are used; and that their use had been one of choice, not of necessity, is proved by the fact that a white walling-stone is used for some new chapels in the same district, either now building or just completed. The steeple is of three stages in height the lower plain, the next badly arcaded, and the third a belfry-stage of three foliated lancets, and rather better in character than the rest of the work. The steeple is roofed with a steep roof, covered with red and black tiles in alternate courses, in a very coarse fashion. The west end has two two-light windows, and a depraved kind of circular window in the gable; the east end three windows, the central of two lights, the other of one, than which it is difficult to conceive anything altogether more odious. The details throughout are most contemptible attempts at Early Middle-Pointed; and the detail of cusping and tracery of windows, of columns, arch-moulds, and buttresses, down to their plinths, of a kind which betrays the most complete ignorance of every detail of the style. Perhaps the ludicrous seat ends are the ne plus ultra of the architects' inventive powers, and at least we are safe in the knowledge that they can never be surpassed, and that in short we know the worst! The roof is very wide, supported by arched principals resting on very clumsy corbels, and gathered together in an ingenious manner at the crossing. This is, we think, the least bad part of the whole work; and it has the merit of being honestly tied together with iron straps, and is stronger in its construction than are some of our own new open timber roofs. There is not a single cross anywhere throughout the building. All the materials throughout the church are of the cheapest kind; the seats and roofs of deal, the walls plastered, the doors painted and grained oak, and hung with cast-iron hinges. Finally, there is a deep and offensive western gallery. The cost of the work has been so great, that it is impossible to account for such poverty of effect; and from the beginning to the end of our examination we were reminded of the costly but miserable attempts at church building which preluded the revival of church architecture in our own country. May the wretched work which is given to the Irish Church by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners be the prelude only to really good works in time to come, and we shall in time no doubt forget both Zion Church, Rathgar, and its official architects. But we cannot flinch from our duty in denouncing the badness of their work; and we entreat Irish Churchmen to take some steps to save themselves from such an architectural rule as that to which at present they submit. S. George's, Lilleshall, Staffordshire. This new church, which is being built from the designs of Mr. Street, is (we believe) a kind of memorial from the county to the late Duke of Sutherland. But as we understand that the Church Building Societies have been called upon to make grants towards the cost, we presume that the memorial fund has been insufficient. We congratulate all parties on the admirable design which Mr. Street has prepared for this church, and which we proceed to describe. The plan comprises a clerestoried nave, 85 ft. long by 30 ft. broad, two aisles, a south-western porch (forming the basement of a tower), a chancel 40 ft. long by 20ft. broad, and a sacristy on the middle of the north side of the chancel. The internal arrangements are, as it is unnecessary to say in a design of Mr. Street's, thoroughly correct and satisfactory. The style is Early-Pointed, with lancet windows and plate tracery. The nave is separated from its aisles by arcades of four. The piers are comparatively low, alternately quatrefoil and cylindrical in section, with capitals of stiff foliage. The arches are broad, with voussoirs of alternate colours, and an arch-mould of red brick. The piers are also constructed of stone of two colours. The clerestory windows are alternately single plain lancets, and compositions of two low plain lights with quatrefoiled circles in the head; all combined into a continuous internal arcade of red brick. The roof is open, with arched braces under a collar and kingpost. The chancel arch is lofty and unmoulded, without shafts or imposts. The chancel is covered with a Pointed arched vault in stone, its length being broken into six divisions by arched ribs rising from bracketed imposts, which die off at the wall-plate. The east window is a composition of five lights, the middle one being both higher and broader than the rest. In the head are three bold quatrefoiled circles. The west elevation shows a west door, rather plain in its detail, and a lofty triplet of plain lancets, with three small trefoiled circles above them, all embraced by a common hood. The west ends of the aisles are pierced with sex-foiled circles contained within a pointed arch of construction. The lateral aisle windows are lancets; those at the east ends are of two lights with sexfoiled circles above them. The chancel windows, not yet described, are, on the south side, one of two wide apart trefoil-headed lancets under a common hood, the sill of which is lowered so as to form sedilia, and a trefoil-headed lancet farther west, with two quatrefoiled circles (near the top of the wall) between them. We were at a loss to comprehend the use of this last feature, until we perceived that, on the outside of the chancel in its south wall a niched mural tablet (doubtless intended to commemorate the late Duke of Sutherland) makes the insertion of any other form of window impossible. The aisles are spanned by internal arched-buttresses of brick. The sacristy (which has an external door) has a lean-to roof. We fear that this necessary adjunct of a church is rather too small for convenience in this example. The tower and spire present some unusual features. The tower rises to a height of 80 feet, in three stages, perfectly plain, with the exception of some ably treated buttresses in the lowest stage, and two set-offs. The chief door, on the south side, is ingeniously pierced within a central buttress-reminding us of the curious example at Brasted, in Kent. The middle stage is pierced with a contiguous couplet of very narrow lancets. The belfry stage has two large plain lights, with a circle in the head, and a stone transom. These lights have picturesque large louvre boards. There are carved circles of foliage inserted near the upper angles of the tower. The spire, which rises another 75 feet up to the top of the weathercock, is at first four-sided, but about half way up (after being pierced with very plain and simple pedimented spire lights) it is broached into an octagon. In the perspective this, though not very elegant, gives an unusual and picturesque individuality of contour to the steeple. The principal features in this excellent design are the great height and breadth of the interior; and the severe purity of the detail. The east windows of the aisles are the points which we least approve in the whole. Here the forms seem to us unnecessarily wanting in grace and beauty. Christ Church, Shield Field, Newcastle-on-Tyne.—This new church, designed by Mr. Higham, (whose name was accidentally omitted in our notice of his church at Whitfield, Northumberland, in our number for October, 1860) has just been consecrated. The courtesy of the architect has allowed us to examine the designs. The groundplan has some peculiarities, in consequence of the awkward arrangement of the site, a street cutting off (as it were) the northwestern angle of the rectangular plot on which the church is built. Accordingly, the tower projects, at the south-west angle, from the west façade, while again the west end of the north aisle is set back very considerably. The groundplan contains a nave (about 64 ft. long, by 24 ft. wide,) with two aisles, and a chancel (29 ft. by 18 ft. 3 in.) also with two aisles, the eastern part of the northern one being treated as a sacristy. A porch is inserted in the angle, between the west end of the north aisle and the nave: and there is also a western door. We are glad to observe that the arrangements are generally good. The interior, indeed, is seated almost too closely; but the benches all face eastwards, with the exception of those in the chancel-aisle. There is an ample sanctuary, and stalls occupy the right places in the choir. But there is no chancel screen. The pulpit stands at the north side of the nave, and (unfortunately) a prayer-desk, facing west, at the opposite side, though placed on the chancel steps. The style is geometrical Middle-Pointed. The west façade has a five-light window, with tracery (chiefly composed of trefoiled circles) in the head. Below, the west door has a pedimental canopy, which is extended on both sides to a surface-arcade. The west end of the north aisle has a sphericalquadrangular window filled with plain circles. The skew-porch in the angle is ornate, but rather unnecessarily repeats the motif of the west door. The aisle windows are of three trefoiled lights, with varied tracery above. Those in the chancel-aisles have two lights; and the east window has four lights with a circle (filled with three trefoils) in the head. The tower, which is 66 ft. high, with a spire of equal height above it, is of four stages. The lowest stage is the highest of the three, and has a single light in the west face. The middle stage is the smallest. Here there is one small two-light window, in the west face, (which would have been better put on the south side), and the belfrystage has two-light windows, which seem to us scarcely large enough. Buttresses, of slight projection, flank each corner at right angles, and end in crocketed pedimental heads below the topmost cornice. The stringcourse of the belfry-stage, when it passes round the buttresses, is injudiciously embattled. The spire is of stone, plain, octagonal, and broached, with no spire-lights or piercing. The broach itself, combined as it is with a rather heavy projecting cornice to the tower, is not very pleasing in outline. Going inside, we find a lofty chancel-arch, carried on shafted imposts. The arcade is of four arches on the north side, and five on the south. The piers are clustered of four; the arches, which are exactly equilateral, being of two orders. There is no clerestory, though the nave and its aisles have separate gables. Broad arches open from the chancel into its aisles. The roofs are open, of good construction, and the principals of the chancel roof rest upon carved brackets. There is a good parclose-screen between the chancel and its south aisle. Open benches, woodwork of good design, of deal in the nave, but of oak in the chancel, and encaustic tiling must also be mentioned. The pulpit is of Caen stone, carved by Mr. Patterson, of Newcastle. The design of this seems to us to be injured by the introduction of later detail than is authorized by the motif. The windows are filled with diaper glass, and borders of rich colours and patterns. No reredos has yet been provided. The lighting is by gasstandards, one between each pair of piers in the nave, and a corona of four feet diameter in the chancel. This church, which has been built mainly (we believe) by the bequest of one munificent founder, is extremely interesting, as showing how steadily the advance of good architecture, and still more of right principles of church arrangement, is making way. We have not here, indeed, to chronicle any development of high art in sculpture, or glass, or colouring: nor any novelty or conspicuous display of architectural skill. But the church is a highly satisfactory specimen of what may be produced, under ordinary circumstances, by a local architect: and it is most gratifying in every way to consider it as a test of the rising standard of ecclesiological fitness and propriety. 419 CHURCH RESTORATIONS. York Minster.-We hear with great satisfaction that the lighting of the choir is very successful. Instead of the gas standards, which are now so hackneyed, a horizontal line of burners is carried along the walls of the choir, at the height of the stringcourse which caps the arcades below the clerestory. Eight bays on each side of the choir are so lighted; but it is sufficient for the daily services to light up the four westernmost bays. The light thus obtained is described as quite sufficient, and as very pleasantly diffused; besides being extraordinarily well adapted for displaying the architectural features of the interior. Gas standards, on the other hand, are generally trying to the eye, and they are seldom effectual for lighting up the whole building. Southwell Minster.-We have had our attention called to the works of restoration which have been generally carried on at this noble minster for the last twelve or thirteen years past by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, but under the direction of the residentiary, the Archdeacon of Notts. They comprise the replacing of the repairs formerly executed in cement with stonework, the removal of the whitewash, the opening of the lantern and of all the clerestories which were formerly plastered flush with the walls, and the substitution of Romanesque windows for some sham Gothic insertions. Twelve painted windows have also been inserted. Roslin Chapel.-We are glad to be able to report that the work of accommodating this beautiful sanctuary to worship is being carried out with exemplary moderation and care for the fabric, as well as with great ritual correctness. The fittings will be very simple. The altar is to be of wood solid and panelled. NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. To the Editor of the Ecclesiologist. Kingston on Thames, SIR, I see in the last Number of the Ecclesiologist, you state that a correspondent has informed you that the roodscreen in Kingston church, Surrey, has been partially removed, and is soon to be wholly taken away. Will you kindly correct this mis-statement? The roodscreen has perished long since. What has been removed is a glazed screen of modern erection, placed by a gentleman still living behind his pew, to guard him from the cold air. It was unsightly and not required; and, moreover, an obstacle to making any use of the chancel |