looked at alone, a handsome object, but regarded as a part of the building, is singularly-to our thinking grotesquely-incongruous. But there is a point of detail which, with all deference to the ecclesiologists, of whom Mr. Scott is so important a member, we think is questionable on the score of propriety as well as taste. The church itself is essentially a Protestant one, without an atom of mediæval sculpture about it; yet Mr. Scott has placed on the gable of the porch a large medallion in high-relief of the Saviour, not as man, but as glorified, with his hand raised and two fingers held up in the act of benediction according to the most approved form of the Latin church. In the magnificent parish church at Doncaster, however, he has gone further; a memorial window (designed by Mr. Holland, of Warwick) is described as having sculptured, in the upper part of the tracery, "The Holy Father," which, in a Continental description, we might take to mean the Pope, but here, we suppose, can intend nothing else than God the Father. Surely this is too sharp a touch of "mediævalism in details" for a Protestant parish church erecting in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

We continue our list of church restorations: Wantage, Berkshire, by Mr. G. E. Street; Edgbaston, by Mr. Fiddian; at Roade, the chancel; St. Lawrence, Exeter; Broxbourne; Tedstone Delamere (by Mr. Scott); East Peckham, Kent; Greenstead, near Colchester; Braintree, Essex; Warminster; St. Margaret's, Chilmark, Wiltshire; Newbourne, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Caversham, Oxfordshire; Felmersham; Kirkburne, East Riding of Yorkshire; Trelystan Long Mountain, Monmouthshire, &c. One church restoration deserves a word of special notice on account of the peculiar circumstances attending it. The first pastor, and one of the chief founders of Boston, Massachusetts, was the puritan minister, John Cotton, who, from 1612 to 1633, was vicar of Boston in Lincolnshire, when he, with several Boston families, fled from the persecution which awaited them here to America, where they gave to their new town the name of that they had unwillingly left. The Bostonians of the new country have always looked with something like veneration to the Boston of their forefathers, and the church in which Cotton so long preached has usually been one of the places visited by them when visiting England. The south-western chapel of the old church having fallen into a ruinous condition, some New Bostonians undertook to restore it. A sufficient sum was soon raised, and, under the direction of Mr. Scott, the chapel, which is in future to be called the Cotton chapel, has been perfectly restored. Its completion was, in July last, celebrated by a festival at which the American ambassador, the Bishop of Lincoln, and other notables of both countries took part. What would the old puritan and pilgrim fathers have said if such a gathering for such a purpose had been foretold?

The Roman Catholics have during the year completed several churches and chapels of considerable architectural pretensions. The church of St. Mary and St. Michael, Commercial-road East, London, is a Decorated building, 155 feet long, by Mr. Wardell, and will form an imposing structure when the tower and spire are completed. St. Gregory the Great, at Cheltenham, is a cruciform church, with

the chancel at the south end, and is a highly-enriched example of the Decorated style; but, as is very commonly the case with Roman Catholic churches, the tower and spire are left for erection at a future time: the architect is Mr. C. Hansom, of Clifton. At Parklane, Liverpool, a church, dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul, 150 feet long, and very lofty, with extensive confessionals, priests' houses, and other buildings attached, has recently been completed from the designs of Mr. E. W. Pugin. At Leeds, the Church of the Immaculate Conception is an imposing structure, which has already cost 12,000l., though only enough has been finished to allow the building to be opened for worship. Other Roman Catholic churches have been erected at Alston, near Preston; at Cliff Bank, by Messrs. Hansom, of Clifton; at Ryehill; at Scarborough; at Shotley; and at Ugthorpe. In Ireland, Roman Catholic cathedrals are in course of erection at Limerick (by Mr. Hardwick), and at Ossory; and chapels have been completed or are in progress at several places.

The Congregationalists are treading close upon the heels of the Establishment in the size, costliness, and character of some of their new churches indeed, it would be almost impossible to tell one from the other externally-inside there is commonly difference enough. At Halifax, for instance, a new congregational church has just been erected in the most ornate Decorated style, by Mr. J, James, at a cost of above 15,000. It is cruciform, consisting of nave, cloisters, and transepts, with a tower and spire at the intersection of the nave with the south transept. The spire, which is elaborately crocketed, rises to a height of 235 feet, and, with the tower, cost 2,5007., which was defrayed by Messrs. Crossley. The great east window of seven lights is thirty-six feet high, and, like all the other windows, is filled with stained glass. Carving is everywhere freely -some critics say profusely-employed, and in the interior there is a considerable quantity of colour and emblazoning. Altogether it is a steeple-house " such as the "fathers of dissent" would have looked upon with utter amazement. At Higher Broughton, Manchester, a congregational church has been built by Mr. Oliver, jun., of Sunderland, also in the Decorated style, and also cruciform, with a lofty spire; but the Gothic is impure, and the pretension, unlike that at Halifax, is not compensated by real richness. Mr. Oliver, who appears to be much engaged on the congregational churches of the north, and to be by no means devoted to a particular style, has completed a chapel at Middleborough-on-Tees, which is a curious eighteenth-century sample of "Italian," and he is completing another at Scarborough which is described as "Venetian-Gothic," having alternate bands of coloured brickwork, with terra-cotta dressings and enrichments. Other churches and chapels have been erected at Cheshunt (Decorated, by Lander and Bedells); at Batley (Decorated, by Mr. Sheard, of Batley); at Buckingham (Decorated, by Foster and Wood, of Bristol); at East Bergholt, Suffolk (Early English, by Mr. C. F. Hayward).

The Wesleyan Methodists have completed, or nearly so, chapels, among other places, at Highbury (Gothic, by Mr. C. Laws, to cost 4,000l., of which 1,0007. is subscribed by Mr. Lycet); at Bayswater

(by Mr. W. W. Pocock); at Leek (Early English, by Mr. Sugden, of Leek, at a cost of about 4,0007., defrayed entirely by Mr. Wardle); at Haslingden (Perpendicular, by Mr. Wilson, of Bath, at a cost of above 3,0007.); at Wednesbury (Romanesque, by Messrs. Horton, of that town); at Chesterton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Gothic, by Mr. R. Edgar, of Stoke); and at Bangor one is building, which, by the description quoted in the Builder,' would appear to be a curiosity in ecclesiastical architecture. It is to be on a large scale, Elizabethan in style, and have a "spiral steeple" placed at its

centre !

·

New churches and chapels are also reported as completed by the Baptists at Newport, in the Byzantine style; by the Wesleyan Reformers at Tipton; the New Connexion at North Shields; Unitarians at Hackney; Moravians at Bristol; Friends at Birmingham; Catholic Apostolic at Liverpool; and the Scoteh Church in the Harrow-road (Venetian, red and yellow brick in alternate bands). The Jews have erected two synagogues (orthodox and dissenting) at Manchester; and places of worship of all kinds have risen or are rising all over the country, far beyond the possibility of accurately chronicling-but we believe we have noticed most of those which are of importance architecturally.

4. BUILDINGS FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES.

The New Palace at Westminster is making steady progress. Much of the interior has since our last advanced towards completion, and several statues and paintings have been inserted in their respective places. In the exterior, the Victoria and Clock towers are nearly finished, and fairly display their noble proportions. On the clock tower gilding has been somewhat freely expended, with what general effect will be best seen when the clock-face is uncovered and, through the most unfortunate accident to "Big Ben," this will probably be for some time delayed. Exaggerated statements have been put forth respecting the oxidation of the metal roofs, but Sir C. Barry (contrary to whose wish metal roofs were employed in connection with Dr. Reid's ventilating experiments) is of opinion that he has discovered an almost imperishable composition for covering them, which will effectually resist all further oxidation. He also hopes that the decomposition observable in portions of the plain surface of the stone will be successfully arrested.

Mr. Pennethorne has completed the large range of offices of the Duchy of Cornwall, at Pimlico, in a very satisfactory manner. The building is Italian in style, with well-disposed but not excessive ornament, and the peculiarities of the site have been turned to good account. Dance's much-lauded prison of Newgate is being entirely reconstructed internally, under the care of Mr. Bunning, the City architect: the exterior, we are glad to say, is to be carefully preserved. New barracks of considerable pretension for the London Militia have been erected on the Artillery Ground, City-road, by Mr. Jennings, in the style of the early castellated mansion.

Two of the buildings in the vicinity of London, the result of the interest aroused on behalf of the families of our soldiers by the

events of the Crimean war, claim notice here. The first is the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum at Wandsworth-common, "for the orphan daughters of the soldiers, seamen, and marines of the realm," the first stone of which was laid by Her Majesty in July. The building, which is to contain 300 children, and the cost of which is to be defrayed out of the Patriotic Fund, is to be erected from a design by Mr. Hawkins, founded on that of Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh. The other, which is nearly completed, is the Soldiers' Daughters' School and Home at Hampstead, an offshoot from the admirable Central Association for the Relief of the Wives and Families of Soldiers on Active Service in the Crimea. The building occupies an excellent site, the Committee having purchased the wellknown Roslyn House and grounds for their purpose-Roslyn House serving as a temporary home till their new one is habitable. The new building, of which we give an engraving, and of which Mr. W. Munt is the architect, is intended to accommodate 150 children; but the committee are already listening to proposals to enlarge it, in connexion with additional claims arising out of the Indian mutiny. At Limehouse, a neat Strangers' Home for Asiatics and Africans— the coloured sailors who now in considerable numbers navigate our ships from the East-has been erected from the designs of Mr. E. L. Bracebridge: it is Italian in character, and arranged with every attention to the peculiarities and the requirements of the class for whom it is intended: it will accommodate 250 inmates.

In the provinces, numerous buildings of a public character, as well for business as for benevolent purposes, have been erected. Passing by as merely in progress the much-discussed Netley Military Hospital, and the Cambridge Barracks at Portsmouth; and the Public Buildings at Manchester, the Town Hall at Halifax, and many others, as only contemplated; we may record the completion of Town Halls at Alfreston (by Mr. Wilson); at Eye, Suffolk (with some eccentricities and some originality, a picturesque building in coloured brickwork by Mr. E. B. Lamb); and at Whittlesey (Italian, by Mr. Rowe of Cambridge). At Chatham, a Public Hall; and at Edgbaston a Vestry Hall (of rather superior character, by Mr. Fiddian), have been erected. Market Halls have been erected at West Hartlepool; at Ashby-de-la-Zouch; at Leeds, one of large size and costing about 14,000l.; at Chesterfield; at South Shields; and at Winchester. Corn Exchanges have been built at Chelmsford (an elegant Italian structure, by Mr. Chancellor); at Banbury (two by rival private companies); at Didcot; at Gloucester (a work of considerable size and pretension, of the Corinthian order, by Messrs. Medland and Maberly of Gloucester); at Grimsby (Elizabethan, by Messrs. Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln); at Hemel Hempstead; and at St. Alban's. New Court Houses have been erected at Liverpool by Mr. Shelmardine; and at Dudley by Mr. C. Reeves. Post Offices have been erected at Birkenhead, a building of some size and of the Corinthian order, by Mr. Brattan; and at Cardaff, in the Byzantine style, by Mr. J. Seddon. A New General Hospital has been completed at Bristol.