Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/176

158 adduced for the propriety of removal; for, firstly, a large party of the council (though of course not the majority) were averse to it; secondly, its removal would create a blank in the street which would have to be replaced with some other erection; in fact, in the same breath which ordered its destruction, the council considered of the necessity of erecting on its very site modern buildings; thirdly, the street at present possesses its proper breadth, even at the side of the building; fourthly, the present filthy appearance of the building, say they, makes it a nuisance or an eye-sore: in this they forget both who has been instrumental in making it so, and that these excrescences are easily removed; fifthly, the council, even if they had wished it, reported the building unfit for repair from its ruinous condition, but now that workmen are engaged in removing it, even these opposers of its preservation confess that it is in good condition, and are surprised at the beauty of its details, now that they are being cleared from the filthy incumbrances which have so long defiled them; and sixthly, it is not the wish of the inhabitants that it should be removed, on the contrary, there exists among them a deep sense of the injustice of the measure, and many appealing letters have appeared on the subject in the local newspapers. My conclusions then are, that the council were actuated by bad, or a total absence of, taste; and secondly, by a mania for what is most incorrectly called improvement. Mr. Dobson, an architect of this town, has designed and made plans for its restoration as a chapel in connection with the Church of England, for church accommodation is wanted; and yet we find those who willingly and wilfully remove that which already exists, or at least that which, with a small expense, might be made available. Beside this infinitely important claim, it has others: it is a sacred structure, good men have worshipped within its walls, and little did the founder think that his pious work would be cast to the ground by man, after the storms and tempests of four or five hundred long years had passed over its venerable walls and left it unscathed. It is indelibly associated with all that is honourable and worthy in the town, from it have emanated some of our most remarkable men, and for this alone, even if it had none other claims upon the corporate body, as a public monument it has this."

Mr. C. R. Smith read a letter from Mr. Edmund Tyrell Artis, of Castor, in Northamptonshire, stating that paintings had recently been discovered on the walls of five of the churches in that neighbourhood, namely, in those of Castor, Etton, Orton, Peakirk, and Yaxley. The subjects, which are accompanied with inscriptions, are scriptural, and differ from each other, but the colours are the same in all, and the great similarity in style leads Mr. Artis to believe that they were executed by the same artists.

Mr. Thomas Bateman, jun., exhibited a drawing of a pewter chalice, found with a patina, and one or two coins of Edward II., in a stone coffin in the churchyard of Bakewell, Derbyshire.

Mr. Thomas Clarkson Neale exhibited a richly-ornamented jug of Flemish ware, of a greyish white colour and of elegant shape. It was found at Butley Priory, Norfolk, and is now preserved in the Chelmsford and Essex museum. Its date is of the close of the sixteenth century. A drawing of the jug by Mr. John Adey Repton accompanied the exhibition.

Mr. C. R. Smith read the following communication from Mr. Joseph Clarke of Saffron Walden, and exhibited the various objects therein described.

At the most northerly extremity of the parish of Saffron Walden in Essex, about three miles directly south from Chesterford, (supposed by some to be the Camboricum