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architectural design out of doors. To ourselves this is, just at the moment, a convenience, since it excuses us from pretending to notice a class of new buildings which are so very numerous that even a mere list of them, were it in our power to give one, would be of considerable length; and which are, besides, for the most part, so much like one another, at least in all that admits of being described, that description itself would prove most wearisomely monotonous, and would be little more than ringing the changes upon so many items and terms. We therefore proceed to the twenty-ninth annual report of the commissioners for building new churches, although the churches included in it do not form even a majority of those actually erected, or else either restored or greatly altered. Since the last return 29 more churches have been completed, providing accommodation for 19,265 persons, out of which number of sittings, 13,309 are free seats for the use of the poor. Thus under the church commission alone there have been erected altogether 449 churches, affording accommodation for 483,273 persons, including 281,076 free seats. Twenty-one other churches, towards which the commissioners have contributed pecuniary aid, are in course of building at the following places:-Aston-juxta-Birmingham, Warwick (Gothic of 15th century, 724 sittings, 582 free, began Oct. 24, 1848); Bethnal Green, St. Matthew (Early English of 12th century, 890 sittings, all free, began May 28, 1849); Bradford, Bankfoot, Yorkshire, (Decorated of 14th century, 490 sittings, 350 free, began Sept. 13, 1848); Bradford-Clayton, ditto (Gothic of 14th century, 802 sittings, 592 free, began May 29, 1849); Bradford, Oxenhope, ditto (Norman of 11th century, 437 sittings, all free, began Feb. 14, 1849); Bristol, St. Philip and Jacob (Gothic of 14th century, 549 sittings, all free, began August 17, 1848); Bury, Lancaster (Gothic, 832 sittings, 365 free, began December, 1844); Glossop, Derby (Early English, 500 sittings, 250 free, began October, 1848); Halifax, district of Shelf (Gothic of 14th century, 493 sittings, 345 free, began Feb. 27, 1849); Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush (Gothic of 14th century, 632 sittings, 338 free, began April 3, 1849); Kingswinford, Stafford (Gothic, with tower, 936 sittings, all free, began March, 1846); Lanchester, Durham (Early English, 394 sittings, 281 free); Manchester, Heaton Mersey (Gothic, 497 sittings, 248 free, began November, 1846); Mottram, Cheshire (Gothic, 803 sittings, 417 free, began March 12, 1849); Rochdale, district of Healey, Lancaster (Decorated of 14th century, 600 sittings, 350 free, began July 4, 1849); Tipton, district of Ocker Hill, Stafford (Early English, 645 sittings, 537 free, began April 10, 1849); Westminster, St. Margaret, Ennismore Gardens (Italian of 14th and 15th century, 1308 sittings, 480 free, began September 19, 1848); Whalley, Lancashire (Gothic of 15th century, 527 sittings, 377 free, began August, 1846); Whitby, Baxter Gate, York (Gothic of 13th century, 1220 sittings, 840 free, began October 12, 1848); Wolverhampton, district of St. Matthew, Stafford (Gothic of 13th century, 712 sittings, 616 free, began August 28, 1848). Plans have been approved of for 22 other churches, intended to be erected at the following places:-In the parishes of All Saints and St. John's, New

castle; Totworth, Somerset ; Great Peter-street, Westminster; Coxhoe, Durham; St. Austell, Cornwall; St. Breage, ditto; Wendron, ditto; in the districts of St. Paul and of St. James's, Devonport; Stoke Damerell, Devon; West Ham, Essex; Chadderton, Lancashire; Burnley, ditto; Pendleton, ditto; Chorley, ditto; Llanelly, Carmarthen; Bingley, York; Portwood, Cheshire; Kingsley, ditto; Cadoxton, Glamorgan; St. Thomas, Woolwich. Plans for the following are under consideration:-Willenhall, Stafford; Brompton, Middlesex; Gravesend, Kent; Leeds, York; Kennington, Surrey. The commissioners' reports are invariably quite silent with regard to what would be exceedingly acceptable information, viz., the names of the respective architects. We do, indeed, get the names of the styles severally adopted; yet that information is of a very negative kind, since it is not the mere name of any style that is of importance in comparison with the manner in which the style itself is treated. Experience convinces us that it is possible, because it is very common, for a very poor and dull affair to be produced out of an excellent style, and vice versa, although the latter process is one of great rarity. One thing which strikes us as rather remarkable in the present report is, that only one church is spoken of as having a tower, and not a single one as having a spire.

Among the churches erected under the auspices of the Church Commissioners, few seem to be remarkable as buildings, at least few obtain notice or excite interest as such, the reason for which may be that in their choice of plans the Commissioners are obliged to consult actual accommodation and economy, rather than architectural design, which last can be with them only a secondary consideration; whereas when a building of the kind is erected under the direction of individuals who take immediate and special interest in it, greater attention to design and decoration may be looked for. There are individuals, too, who not only take a warm interest in, but contribute liberally towards, either the building, or the restoration, improvement, and adornment, of churches; and some who take upon themselves the entire cost. It is not, indeed, every one-perhaps hardly any one-who can afford to display munificence upon the same scale as Miss Burdett Coutts has done by building and endowing St. Stephen's Church and Schools in Rochester-row, Westminster; but there are others who have followed in the same course in proportion to their means. Healey Church, Yorkshire, testifies to the liberality of Captain and Mrs. Vernon Harcourt; Thirkleby Church in the same county to that of Lady Frankland Russell, the widow of the late Sir Robert F. Russell, Bart. ; and the new chapel of the Hospital for Consumption at Brompton, to that of the Rev. Sir Henry Foulis, Bart.; each of those structures having been erected at the sole expense of the respective persons just named. If the chapel at Brompton deserves honourable mention as a work of munificent charity, it is also entitled to notice on account of its architectural merit. For a chapel of its kind it may be called large, being upwards of 80 feet in length, and moreover shows to be larger than it actually is; whereas many of our modern Gothic churches look smaller than they are, which undesirable effect may

in a great measure be attributed, in many instances, to a too ambitious and disproportionately lofty spire, which causes the body of the structure to appear both short and low, not to say insignificant, in comparison with it. It not unfrequently happens, too, that in order to provide such an appendage to it, all the rest of the fabric is deprived not merely of decoration, which can be dispensed with, but of suitable finish in its features and details, so that, besides looking sinall, the body of the church looks poor and mean also-sometimes hardly better than an appendage to its spire.

What contributes not a little to give comparative size to this chapel at Brompton, and otherwise enhance architectural effect, and produce an unusually picturesque composition, is an appendage of a quite different and quite novel kind, namely, the long range of lower building which connects the Hospital with the Chapel, forming internally a corridor of communication between them, besides comprising some rooms for the accommodation of attendants. Another circumstance that gives importance to the chapel is its being raised a few feet above the general level of the ground upon a turfed terrace or mound,—a small matter, it is true, in itself, yet by no means an inconsiderable one as regards artistic effect; for it gives pose to the structure, causing it to look firmly planted on a general spreading-out base; and although they are hardly to be called "flights," the two small ascents of steps at each end of the terrace aid greatly in defining it to the eye and increasing the expression of "spreading-out." The Hospital itself, which was begun three or four years ago from the designs of Mr. Francis, is a red brick and stone building in a very plain and tame Tudor style; but little more than half of the plan is as yet completed, the east wing and a considerable part of the central building remaining to be executed. The chapel is behind or on the north side of the Hospital; standing parallel to it, and the connecting range of building, or corridor, is in a line with what will be the central entrance hall when the Hospital shall have been finished. It is cruciform in plan, and the ends of the transeptal portion show externally five sides of an octagon, the middle one of which contains a window of three lights with a traceried head of exceedingly handsome form; the other windows on the north and south sides are of similar character, although they consist of only two lights, and the patterns of their tracery is varied. The north and south windows of the chancel, however, being narrower than the others, consist each of only a single light, with tracery above it. The large east and west windows are both excellent, though different compositions, and their being placed immediately between buttresses contributes not a little to enhance their effect externally. The former of these windows, or that at the end of the chancel, is the one shown in the cut; which view is given in parallel perspective in order the better to show a part of the range which connects the Hospital with the Chapel, and which, simple and unpretending as it is in each feature, is fraught with picturesque combination and effect. In fact the chapel exhibits itself so well from every point of view, as to render it difficult to select any single one in preference to the rest. The walls are of Kentish rag; the

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dressings and various architectural members of Caen stone; and all the details are as carefully executed as they are ably designed, in which latter respect the architect (Mr. E. B. Lamb) has manifested that true artistic economy which makes every touch bestowed upon his work tell, and which produces completeness and consistency of ensemble.

At Thirkleby, in Yorkshire, the same architect has, by rebuilding it, substituted for an exceedingly poor and insipid modern structure by Wyatt, in his sort of classical style, a singularly picturesque and strikingly characteristic village church, with a tower and spire on its north side, near the west end, at which end, in an angle, is the entrance porch. Altogether different in design from the chapel at Brompton, this church has similar merits, not the least among which is truthfulness to the real spirit of the style adopted, the result of thorough artist-like study of it.

At Meanwood, near Leeds, a new church has just been opened, which, though of no particular architectural interest, affords another instance of private munificence, it having been erected at the sole expense of the Misses Beckett, of Meanwood Park. The best feature of the building, which was designed by Mr. Railton, and is in the Lancet or First-pointed style, is its broach spire placed on a low tower at the junction of the nave and chancel, where there are also two small transeptal projections in the plan.

Wavendon Church, Bucks, chiefly through the liberal contributions of private individuals, has been restored by Mr. Butterfield, and has further had a more than usual degree of embellishment bestowed upon its interior. The windows of the chancel, and those at the east end of the north and south aisles, have been filled with subjects in stained glass, and all the others with quarries of flowered glass. The chancel is decorated even sumptuously: it is divided from the nave by a low screen whose mouldings and panels are coloured green and red on a white ground, and it has gates of solid brass, ornamented with enamel work, and supported by standards of the same metal, which terminate in richly tufted finials. The roof of this part of the church is of oak, with panels containing a profusion of gilded stars upon a ground of ultra-marine. Around the hood of the great east window is an illuminated scroll with a legend inscribed upon it. On the south side of the chancel are three sedilia, which, together with the piscina and credence table, form an arcade of canopied niches, relieved within by ultra-marine and gilding. The altar table has a magnificent pall of green and crimson velvet embroidered with gold-coloured silk. The pavement of the chancel is of buff and red encaustic tiles, but immediately around the altar, of a rich blue colour; while that of the nave consists of red and black tiles arranged in patterns, and jointed with Keene's white cement.

The Unitarian Church, Hope-street, Liverpool-which has been very recently opened for the congregation the Rev. James Martineau-is a remarkable structure, in which some of the most elaborate features of our Early Ecclesiastical architecture are re-produced. The architects are Messrs. Barry and Brown. The church consists

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