St. George at Le Puy that some of the remains of the Saint had been left behind there, consisting of the left humerus and parts of the skull blackened by fire, and these he recovered for the Chapter. From time to time inventories were made of these and other relics, together with the various and numerons treasures of the Chapter; and these were kept together in a volume known as the "Book of the Chain," because it was secured by that means in the Treasury. It disappeared, however, soon after the Revolution, but fortunately not before it had been transcribed.

We have left to the last the architectural description of the great church around which the life of this community centred. Of the earliest buildings, erected or destroyed before the tenth century, there are no remains, except some portions of mosaic pavements figured

ST. HILARY THE GREAT: SKETCH-PLAN OF THE EAST END.

in De Caumont, and some very interesting tombs. Of these latter there is still in the church the cover of a sarcophagus, which tradition assigns to St. Abre, the daughter of Hilary, of a debased classic character, illustrated by Viollet-le-Duc; and there are remains, in the museum, of another sarcophagus of perhaps the same date, covered with figures and vine-leaves in low relief, brought, it is said, from the East about the year 900. It appears to have been lost under the ruins of the church in the sixteenth century, and rediscovered of late years, when

VOL. V.

as

it was found standing on four columns. It is of greyish marble, and is known by the unpleasant name of "pierre que pue,' when it is rubbed it exhales a very fœtid odour, due to the sulphuretted hydrogen which forms a component part of the stone.

The eastern end of the church and the transepts as we now see them belong to the church consecrated in 1049, while the nave and western parts are a rebuilding, more or less correct, carried out during the last century. The east end consists of an apsidal choir, with a surrounding aisle, from which radiate four chapels, an unusual number, and from the eastern face of each transept there is a similar chapel projecting. The chapels are covered with a waggon-shaped vault ending in a semi-dome, and they have inside an arcade of three round arches on single columns, the centre arch pierced with an unmoulded window. The roof of the apsidal aisle is four-ceiled, groining without ribs in the Roman fashion, and the rest of the aisle roof between the apse and the transepts, and the transepts themselves, have a waggon vault, and the transept vaults have square-edged transverse ribs springing from a corbelled cornice. The piers of the crossing, which are about 31 feet 6 inches from centre to centre, are square, with a half pillar on each face, and carry square-edged semicircular arches, above which rises an octagonal cupola, set on the square by means of conical pendentives. The transepts terminate in flat walls with obtuse gables and a horizontal cornice on corbels, below which is a large circular window, which seems to be a later insertion. As the east end of a church is generally the first part to be erected, it is here, if anywhere, we might expect to find traces of the work of Walter Coorland, the Saxon architect; but although Professor Freeman, in speaking of the transepts, suggests that they show evidence of some early alterations in the plan of the building, he does not consider that anything can be found distinctly due to Saxon influence.

The original chapel and tomb of St. Hilary no doubt occupied a position about central to the present choir, so that when the nave was extended westward in the tenth and eleventh centuries two things happened

2 A

which render this church peculiar. In consequence of the rapid fall of the ground towards the west, the nave floor had to be dropped so much below the level of that in the choir that three flights of stairs are needed in the aisles and transepts to get from one to the other; moreover, the extension brought the gable of the west front on to the edge of the ravine through which runs the Boivre, so that it was impossible to make a road before it, and any desiring to pass between the houses standing on the north and south sides of the church had to make a considerable détour through the Rue de la Tranchée at the east end, or, as they used to do at Durham, which is similarly circumstanced, they had to walk across the

nave.

The nave was covered by a series of domes in the usual Aquitanian fashion, but it had on each side three aisles, low and dark, making seven in all—an arrangement perfectly unique in French churches. One or more of these aisles may have been additions to the nave of a slightly subsequent period; and there were hereabouts some alterations in the original plan, which may have been due to a desire to connect and incorporate with the building a more ancient tower. This tower, or what is left of it, stands on the higher level of the transepts attached to their north-west angle, and may retain portions of the identical tower from which the miraculous fire arose to light Clovis on to victory. It is not improbable that it was originally built, like the Roman campanili and early church towers generally, mainly for the purposes of defence and as a refuge for the priests and their treasures, when, before the walls of the bourg were built, the church stood in the open country. The tower had no doubt been ruined in the Norman devastations, and its rebuilding and refacing would be the first work of restoration; and it is possible that in this tower, many of the details of which are of a very archaic and debased classic character, we have some of the work of the Saxon architect to the Princess Adela of England. Before the tower fell in 1590 it was the highest in Poitiers, and stood on the highest ground, and from its parapets could be seen four of the most famous battlefields in French history. Towards the south

lies the high plain of Champagné-Saint-Hilaire, where Clovis defeated Alaric; to the north, on the low hills of Moussais-la-Bataille, Charles Martel defeated the Saracens ; on the east lie the fields of Mauperthuis, where Edward the Black Prince defeated the French in what we call the Battle of Poitiers ; and to the west Montcontour, where the Duke of Anjou defeated the Huguenots under Coligny.

There are considerable traces left on the walls or preserved in the museum of the paintings with which the interior was covered; but their completeness must have been destroyed when the church was wrecked by the Calvinists, or in the subsequent repairs and alterations, which were very considerable. For example, in 1621 the Chapter set up a new reredos, in the peculiar taste of the period, of which we have a description in the contract made for 8,000 francs with the sculptor, François Bergeron. There were to be sixteen Corinthian and eight Composite columns, 7 feet high, surmounted by three pediments, the centre one bearing the name of Jesus Christ, and the side ones the arms of the Pope and the King of France, with two ranges of niches filled in with gilt statues. Again in 1761 some attempt was made to raise the level of the nave and lower that of the choir, which, with many minor alterations, involved the destruction of the stalls and the ancient jubé.

Such was the magnificent pile of buildings which went down before the Revolution so completely that, for what was left of it, site and ruins together, a bid of 1,900 francs was all that could be obtained, and the bargain was never completed. During the last century much was done in its re-edification; it was made a parish church; and, such as it is, it remains the sole memorial of the once noble Abbey of St. Hilary the Great.

At the Sign of the Dwl.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, as everyone knows, was an extraordinarily "all-round" genius. In the letter which he wrote to the Duke of Milan, offering his services, he first set forth his abilities as an engineer and as a maker of weapons of war, and then proceeded to say: "In time of peace I believe that I could equal any other as regards works in architecture, both public and private. I can likewise conduct water from one place to another. Furthermore, I can works in sculpture, marble, bronze, or terracotta. In painting also I can do what can be done as well as any other, be he who he may. Moreover, I can undertake the making of the bronze horse, which is a monument that will be to the perpetual glory and immortal honour of my lord your father, of happy memory, and the illustrious house of Sforza." I quote from the version in the translation of Dr. Georg Gronau's Leonardo

execute

da Vinci, published in the "Popular Library

of Art."

The drawings and the paintings of Leonardo are familiar to students; but few know anything of his engineering work. In the library of Lord Leicester at Holkham Hall is a manuscript by the artist, less fragmentary

in its contents than other Leonardo manu

scripts, which contains a treatise on hydraulics, with some added theorizings on questions of cosmography, and of what we now call geology, including a theory of the origin of fossils. The manuscript is of special interest as the work of Leonardo, but is also of some importance in its bearing upon the condition of engineering science in Italy 400 years ago.

The entire manuscript is about to be issued in facsimile in a folio volume containing seventy-two heliotype plates. The numerous quaintly drawn diagrams and illustrations will also be reproduced. A full Italian transcript of the text, with an introduction and analytical index, will be added, and the whole

work will be produced under the supervision of Dr. G. Calvi, of 1 Via Clerici, Milan. The publisher is L. F. Cogliati, 17 Corso di Porta Romana, Milan. Only 160 copies are to be issued, the first 100 being offered at the net price of £3 4s., foreign subscribers having to pay a further 4s. for postage and packing. packing. The remaining copies will be offered at £4 net. Subscribers' names should be sent to either the editor or the publisher at the addresses given.

The Clarendon Press will shortly issue the first volume of Scripta Minoa: the Written Documents of Minoan Crete, by Arthur J. Evans.

The first volume deals specially with the earlier pictographic and hieroglyphic script, but the first part is of an introductory character, giving a general view of the progress of the discoveries, successive types of script, and their relation to one another. The chronological limits of each class, and its respective place in the history of Minoan civilization, are indicated, and, by means of numerous tables, comparisons are instituted with the early scripts of Cyprus, Anatolia, and Phoenicia. The Phoenician and Greek

alphabets are here shown to be in all probability of the Minoan group.

In the second part of the volume the evolution of the hieroglyphic system of Crete is traced from the more primitive pictographs. Pictographic plates and copies are given of all the documents of this class, and a catalogue raisonné of all the characters as yet discovered. The various formulæ are critically examined, with the result that the canting badges and official titles of various Minoan princes are elucidated. The system of enumeration and other characteristic features of this branch of script are also explained. Thanks to the courtesy of the Italian Mission, it has been possible further to add a special section on the newlydiscovered hieroglyphic disc from Phæstos, a monument of unique interest, which is shown to represent a system parallel to the Minoan, perhaps in use among some kindred population on the west coast of Asia Minor. The second and third volumes will be devoted to the Advanced Linear script.

built in 1656, and the great window at the end of the street forms a part of Paulet or Winchester House, built in the reign of Henry VIII. by William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, Lord Treasurer of England, upon the site of the house, cloister, and gardens of the Augustine Friars (Austin Friars). Winchester House was sold by the fourth marquis to a city merchant, and was pulled down in 1839."

There is an account of Winchester House, I may add, with an engraving, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1839, part i., pp. 372, 373. The writer, chronicling the gradual degradation and stripping of the mansion, before its final demolition, as it became transformed into warehouses, says: "The greater part of the remaining ornamental woodwork [of the interior] has been purchased by Thomas Baylis, Esq., F.S.A., who is fitting up with it the kitchen and some of the new rooms of his house, Prior's Bank, Fulham."

The International Journal of Apocrypha, April, contains "Cosmogonies in the Apocrypha and in Genesis," by Professor W. M. Patton, of Montreal; "The Book of Wisdom," by the Rev. D. C. Simpson; "The Didaché," by Dr. J. W. Thirtle; a verse translation by Dr. Douglas Hyde of an Irish folkpoem on "The Resurrection of Jesus," taken down from the recitation of an old man in Galway; and a variety of other short articles and notes. I may add in this connection that the Apocrypha, treated devotionally, and edited by the Rev. Herbert Pentin, is in the press, and will shortly be added to Messrs. Methuen's "Library of Devotion."

The Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of Holy Scripture, which Messrs. T. H. Darlow and H. F. Moule have been engaged for nearly ten years in compiling for the Bible Society, is now approaching completion. Vol. i., containing the English section, was published at the close of 1903. Vol. ii. will embrace (a) polyglots, and (b) editions in all languages other than English, arranged in alphabetical order. The languages and dialects included in this second volume

exceed 500. It will contain over 1,400 pages, and may be expected at the beginning of next year. Only 450 sets of the Catalogue are printed for sale in England and America ; 250 have already been subscribed for, and the price of the remainder has been raised.

Mr. Francis Bond, whose volumes on the screens and the fonts in English churches have been so widely welcomed, has written an illustrated guide to Westminster Abbey, and at the same time a larger work on the same subject, both of which will be fully illustrated.

The Gentleman's Society at Spalding was founded in 1710 by Maurice Johnson, F.S.A. For 200 years it has flourished and done much good literary and antiquarian work. During the last two decades especially the Society has been actively engaged in the discussion of papers, and in placing on record all kinds of antiquarian and local history discoveries, manners, customs, and

The

superstitions, and accumulating local manuscripts and much literature which would otherwise have been forgotten and lost. natural result is that the Society has outgrown its old quarters, and it is now proposed to build new premises which, besides providing a permanent, much-needed home for the purposes of the Society, shall also serve as a memorial to the founder. An appeal to the members of this most long-lived of provincial societies has already met with a generous response, and outsiders are now asked to help. A brown-wrappered pamphlet has been issued which contains a brief history of the Society, written by the late Rev. W. Moore, D.D., and adorned by a reproduction of the Society's book plate, as designed by the founder, Maurice Johnson, and engraved by George Vertue, F.S.A. The president is Dr. Marten Percy, and the honorary treasurer Mr. H. Stanley Maples, The Sycamores, Spalding.

BIBLIOTHECARY.