Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/295

 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. 225 " In another part of the same floor, but not forming any part of the armo- rial pattern, some tiles with a rich and very fine green glaze were found. " The roof was constructed of oak with ornamental cross beams, and finely carved bosses at the points of junction. These were brouglit to light on removing a flat plastered ceiling, placed there apparently when the room had been divided and converted into secondary offices. The bosses are of extremely bold and excellent workmanship, one is formed by the figure of a bishop with the mitre, amice, and chasuble ; another by that of a female in a hood, both being surrounded by foliage. Two adjoining cross beams bore the arms of Grandisson and Montacute, on separate shields. As Bishop Grandisson's mother was of the Montacute family, it seems most probable that the two heads are portraits of Bishop Grandisson and his mother. There is red, black, and white paint, and gilding still remaining on these bosses, a third of which is formed by a crouching hound, and three others present masses of foliage only. The bosses are between 18 in. and 2 ft. in diameter, formed of fine solid oak, and 12 in. thick, in admirable preserva- tion. Bishop Grandisson was promoted to the see of Exeter in 1327, and died in 1369. He had been a great contributor to the works of his cathe- dral, and erected the west facade ; he doubtless contributed also to the decoration of the adjoining palace." Amongst the various places visited by the Archfeologists during their late meeting at Lincoln, was the ancient church of Stow-in-Lindsey, the mother church (according to local tradition) of the Minster of Lincoln. The restoration of this highly interesting and decayed structure has subse- quently been proposed, and we feel assured that many who shared in the gratification derived from their recent visit to the spot, when the most sceptical agreed in admitting the notion of its Saxon date, or to whom it is known as a remarkable example of early architecture, will be desirous of aiding so laudable an object. "We have been favoured by Sir Charles An- derson, Bart., with the following brief notices of this very curious church. " It is a large cruciform structure, without side aisles, its total length up- wards of a hundi-ed feet, its transept eighty, and its width twenty-five t. " The nave is early Xorman, with one tier of small windows, and, ex- cepting the doorwa3-s and the western window, which are insertions, agrees very accurately with the work of Kemigius the Norman (A.U. 1070 — 1092) at Lincoln, who is said to have re-edified Stow. The more enriched choir, with the exception of the east window, is the work of Bishop Alexander, A.D. 1123-1147. " The transepts and piers of the original tower (for the present tower is built upon late pointed arches springing within the circular ones) lay claim to be for the most part of Saxon date. It is remarkable that the transept walls are based on a singularly solid foundation, three feet at least below the foundation of the nave ; as the original floor of the transept is three feet below the floor of the nave, and the present floor of the transept, k An interesting memoir on this church, clesiastical Architecture, by whose influ- by the Rev. G.Atkinson, has been pub- cnce and efforts the extension of an intelli- lished in the third Report of the Lincoln- gent taste has materially been promoted in shire Society for the encouragement of Ec- that county.