Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/54



As no part of ancient Ecclesiastical edifices has of late years been left unstudied, and no class of their details, however minute, has remained without attracting the careful attention of a particular band of especial admirers, the subject of Tiles amongst others has been found a very interesting study to many. I trust, therefore, that a short notice of some French paving slabs, of a character totally unknown in England, may possibly meet with the approbation of readers of the Journal. The pavement I am about to describe originally adorned the ancient church of St. Nicaise, in the city of Rheims, but has lately, after various transportations, been placed in St. Remi, another church in the same city, second only in interest to the cathedral itself. The quarries of which it is composed are of a hard quality of stone resembling that of Yorkshire. They are all of one uniform size, viz., twenty feet Square, and were always intended to be laid down diagonally as they are at present, the disposition of the subjects on their surfaces plainly denoting this arrangement. A narrow border surrounds each, enclosing a curvilinear compartment, which together form a sort of frame to the subject engraved in the centre. These borders and compartments are not all of a similar pattern, four varieties being observable in the former, and three in the latter. Within them is a series of designs, once probably forming a complete illustrated history of the Old Testament, but now exhibiting the sad losses they have sustained in the long breaks observable in the series. The whole design on each quarry, after having first been carefully incised, has then been filled in with melted lead, even with the surface of the stone, a process which while it enhanced the appearance of the subjects represented, seems to have added to the durability of the workmanship, these slabs still remaining in a most perfect state notwithstanding all the vicissitudes they have encountered, to which I will more particularly allude presently. Their present number amounts to forty-eight,