position and arrangement of the jars oppose such explanations. The other reasons advanced are so absurd that they cannot for one moment occupy serious attention. Another theory remained, and, as it now appears, the true one; that such jars were inserted for acoustic purposes. This, however, received but little credence, from the doubtful effect of such an arrangement, and the absence of any historical testimony to such a practice in the middle ages. Thanks to the intelligence of our French brethren, and especially to M. Didron, the editor of Annales Archéologiques, this testimony is now no longer wanting.

The question first received the attention of French archaologians, upon the discovery at Arles, and was a second time brought under their notice in 1861 by a Swedish architect, M. Mandelgren, and two Russian architects, MM. Stassoff and Gornostaeff, who made inquiry of the Parisian sarants, whether "cornets," or pots of baked earth, were found in the interior walls, or in vaults of French churches, as was frequently the case in the churches of Sweden and Denmark. M. Didron replied in the Journal which he directs, citing the discovery in the church of St. Blaise, at Arles, as a French instance of the practice, and brought forward a passage from a manuscript of the fifteenth century, which has thrown so much light on this subject, that whatever doubt may have justly been entertained as to the effect, there can now no longer be any as to the purpose of such jars, when found incorporated into the fabric of ecclesiastical edifices.

This passage, of so much value, occurs in a Chronicle of the Celestins of Metz, and is quoted by M. Bouteillier in his notice of that order, and their establishment in the ancient Austrasia or Rhenish France. Under the date 1432, the chronicler writes as follows: "In the month of August in

7 Annales Archéologiques, vol. xxii. p. 294--97.

this year, on the vigil of the Assumption, after brother Odo le Roy, the prior, had returned from the before-mentioned general chapter, it was ordered that pots should be put into the choir of the church of this place, he stating that he had seen such in a church elsewhere; thinking that they made the singing better, and resound more, they were put up there in one day by taking as many workmen as were necessary." The chronicler goes on, and pleasantly ridicules Prior Odo le Roy, who caused these appliances to be placed in the walls of his church for the feast of the Assumption, expressing his disbelief that they sang any the better for what was done. A later hand has written on the margin of the manuscript, "ecce risu digna," and thereby shows his scepticism and ridicule also.

The learned Abbé Cochet, in a communication to the Academy of Rouen, has given the result of his observations on the subject of acoustic pottery, and reports several occasions upon which he has met with vases of this character. At Montivilliers, jars with a simple neck moulding and a conical base were found at the four angles of the vault of the choir which was under the tower of the abbey church. Again at Fry, canton Argueil, four jars of ordinary domestic shape were found, having handles, and resembling those at

8 "En cest année dessus dit au mois daoust, le vigile de 1 assumption de Nostre Dame, aprèz ceu que frère Ode le Roy, priour de seans, fuit retournez du chapitre gral de dessus dit, il fit et ordonnoit de mettre les pots au cuer de leglise de seans, portant qu'il avait vu altepart en aucune église et pensant qu'il y fesoit milleur chanter et que il ly resonneroit plusfort. Et y furent mis tuis en ung jour on pont tant douvriers quil suffisoit. Mais ie ne seay si on chante miez que on ne faisoit. Et cest une chose à croire que lez murs en furet grandement crolley, et deshochiet et becop de gens qui viennent seans sont bien merveillez que y soie fait. Et dixent aucune foix qui valeoit mieux qui furet aprésen dehors, portant que bon pensoyt il seroit là mis pour en prendre et jouyr à plaisir aux foulx."-Notice sur le Couvent de Célestins de Metz, par M. Ed. Bouteiller. Metz, 1862.

9 "Précis Analytique des Travaux de l'Académie Impériale de Rouen."1863-64. Rouen, Boissel.

St. Peter per Mountergate, Norwich. The third and most interesting example, cited by the Abbé, is from St. Laurent en Caux, where the workmen engaged in pulling down the old church discovered a large earthen vessel placed in one of the angles of the choir and entirely enveloped in mortar. Its form is a cone closed at each end, having no opening, but a neck issuing from the shoulders

and appearing on the face of the wall. The exterior is furrowed with horizontal lines of thirteenth-century character: from its form it appears well adapted for acoustic purposes and entirely unsuited for any other. With these examples, he furnishes an additional and singular historical proof of their purpose from a diatribe of the seventeenth century, entitled "L'Apocalypse de Meliton," written against the religious orders, and attributed to the Abbé Saint Leger. "Of fifty choristers, that

the public maintain in such a house," says the writer, "there are sometimes not more than six present at the office; the choirs are so fitted with jars in the vaults and in the walls that six voices make as much noise as forty elsewhere."1

In our own county, and within the province of our Society, notwithstanding the number of church restorations, there have been brought under our notice but two discoveries of acoustic pottery. In both cases the pots or jars were found, not as in France in the upper walls, but beneath the floor of the choir, where they were placed to give sonority to

1 "De cinquante choristers que le public entretient dedans telle maison, quelquefois ils ne seront pas six à l'office; les choeurs sont accomodez avec des pots dans la voûte, et dans les murailles, de sorte que six voix y feront autant de bruit que quarante ailleurs."-L' Apocalypse de Meliton, p. 34, edit. 1665. [VOL. VII.]

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that part of the building. The first of these discoveries was made in the church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, during the restorations of 1850; where beneath the wooden floor and joists of the old pews, and immediately under that part of the church formerly occupied by the choir stalls, were found two trenches, running eastward as far as the stalls probably extended, being returned towards the west where the screen stood, and discontinued for the space of four feet at the entrance of the choir: in fact, lying like two letters, placed face to face. The arrangement can be better understood by reference to the accompanying plate, fig. 1. Each trench measured thirty inches wide, about three feet deep, paved at the bottom with yellow glazed tiles about eight inches square, and lined or bounded on either side by a low rubble wall one foot in thickness, into which wall were built numerous red earthen jars, having their mouths directed towards each other, within the trench, and presenting the appearance of guns projecting from a ship's side. These jars were all of the same character. Of the two here

engraved, one is preserved in the Norwich Museum, the other, with fragments of mortar attached, is in the possession of our Secretary, Mr. Fitch, who was present at the discovery, and has most obligingly, upon the spot, described the cir

cumstances under which they were found. He assures us that the jars themselves were entirely free from ashes, or any substance which could warrant the supposition that they were of funereal character.

Ten years later, during the restorations at St. Peter per Mountergate in 1860, a second discovery of acoustic pottery was made in Norwich. In this church, the choir stalls, of which the panelling at the back remains, were confined to the chancel. Immediately under the floor upon which they stood, on either side the choir, was found a trench three feet in depth, bounded by a single low brick wall, running parallel with, and at about four feet from, the north and south walls, and returned on the eastern side of the screen, (fig. 2) exactly in the same manner as at St. Peter Mancroft. About midway in this low wall, were inserted jars, less numerous than at Mancroft, (this church being much smaller) and differing from those, having ears or handles, and being, like those found at Fry in France, of a domestic character.

The two here given have been secured for the Norwich Museum: they are of a dark ash colour and partially glazed.

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