Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/527

 9 th S. I. JUNE 25, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

519

Piper, of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, representing the most famous of the Somersetshire church towers, drawn and etched especially for the work, with descriptive articles upon each edifice by Mr. Warden Page, a well-known and able Somer- setshire author and archaeologist. The work is limited to one hundred and seventy-five copies, issued to subscribers only, in twenty-five parts, each part containing two etchings, the plates to be destroyed on the completion of the work. To add to the value of the production, the late Prof. Free- man's papers on ' The Perpendicular Architecture as exhibited in the Churches of Somersetshire,' delivered before the Somersetshire Archaeological Society in Bath, in 1851-2, will, by permission, be reprinted in the work. In early ecclesiastical edifices Somersetshire is deficient. In spite of the early foundation of Glastonbury and its traditional associations, Somersetshire can claim no British and no Saxon ecclesiastical edifices. A few ribs and arches, a fragment of stone let into a porch and containing an alleged Saxon carving, are all to which the antiquary can point. In Norman work, even, it is not specially rich. The Norman work in the beautiful so-called Chapel of St. Joseph is of late execution, and partakes, as Mr. Warden Page says, "of the Transitional character." Christon Church, near Axbridge, has fine Norman arches in the chancel and porch. St. Andrew's Church, Clevedon, with its memorials of the Hallams, is an interesting building. The church of St. George, Dunster, has Roman, and even, it is said, Early English remains; and the restored church of St. Catherine, Montacute, has one or more Roman arches. Other churches may be mentioned. To make amends for shortcomings in this respect, Somersetshire is very rich in churches of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it can point, in the Cathedral of Wells, to perhaps the most dreamlike and inspired edifice among all our lovely English cathedrals, a building which, with the unequalled beauty and repose of its surround- ings, rests in the memory with a supremacy all but unchallenged. With an admirably executed etching of this cathedral the work opens. It is when we come to the Perpendicular style that we find the architectural glory of Somersetshire. To the noble towers not seldom in Somersetshire so superior to the rest of the church as almost to convey a sense of want of proportion the work is specially devoted. That the towers in the northern portion of the county are better than those in the southern, and that the fine towers of St. Mary Magdalene and St. James's, Taunton, may not in general effect compare with those of churches about the skirts of the Mendips, is ascribed to the higher quality of the stone in the north. To the general quality of the Somersetshire stone, the most beau- tiful that can be found in the country, is attributed the general superiority of the church towers. To the exquisite natural setting of many of them a portion of their influence over the spectator is justly ascribed. In the first part are also given etch- ings of St. John the Baptist, Axbridge, and St. James's, Winscombe, the tower of the former with its pierced parapet, as seen over the surrounding buildings, constituting very beautiful object. Wins- combe tower, which is but three miles from that of Axbridge, situated like it among the Mendips, bears a strong resemblance to its neighbour. It is visible in the etching in all its fine proportions, being ninety- five feet in height. By the side of the towers before

mentioned that of Long Ashton looks almost squat. It is seen from the churchyard. Next in order comes St. Luke's, Brislington, near Bristol, which again rises to a height of ninety feet and is particularly graceful and symmetrical. It is noteworthy for its canopied niches sheltering dilapidated figures. The tower of St. Mary the Virgin, Portbury, a church the interior of which is more remarkable than the exterior, possessing arcades with Norman bases, is of very mixed architecture, and has in recent times been more than once restored. Last, so far as the work has at present gone, comes the church of SS. Quiricus and Julietta, Tickenham, with its figures, "placed on canopies in each face, high up in the very battlements, telling the story of the martyrs to whom the edifice is dedicated. Most styles of architecture, from the Roman to the Perpendicular, are here illustrated. The chancel has a Norman arch plain to rudeness, while the arch to the porch is Early English. The work is in all respects an Edition de luxe, and will be dear to all interested in our church architecture. Its production reflects great credit upon the publishers, and the book will, on its completion, occupy a conspicuous place among illustrations of ecclesiastical archaeology.

The Lives of the Saints. By the Rev. S. Baring- Gould, M. A. Vols. XIII. and XIV. (Nimmo.) MR. NIMMO'S new and illustrated edition of the valuable ' Lives of the Saints ' of the Rev. S. Baring- Gould is rapidly approaching completion, and one more important instalment of two volumes will finish his task. To reap the full advantage of the work the student is compelled to wait for the last volume, which will contain a full index, and so greatly facilitate reference. The saints celebrated under November are numerous it may, indeed, be said all-inclusive, since the first day of the month is assigned to the festival of All Saints, and it may be permitted to say that an unedifying criminal, who escaped from a dungeon on that day, declared the prediction to be true which fixed his evasion on the day of his patron saint, since, if he had one, the saint in question must have been commemorated on this day. The following day is the commemora- tion of All Souls, a festival of which a grotesque mediaeval illustration is supplied from the Vienna Missal. A second design from the same source de- picts the raising of the dead. St. Hubert, the patron of huntsmen, is shown, after Cahier, with the stag bearing between its horns the crucifix which was the means of effecting his conversion. A long life of St. Charles Borromeo deals, of course, to a great ex- tent with facts instead of legends, as does, to a less extent, the life of St. Martin of Tours, to which no fewer than six illustrations are affixed, including an engraving of the saint dividing his cloak with the beggar, from the picture by Rubens in the

Eossession of Her Majesty. St. Edmund, Arch- ishop of Canterbury, is shown in the act of prayer in a design by A. Welby Pugin. The frontispiece to vol. xiv. consists of a procession of saints, from a fresco. A second similar procession, from a kindred piece, is given subsequently. St. Hugh of Lincoln is after Cahier. Among the illustrations to St. Elizabeth of Hungary is one after the famous painting by the elder Hans Holbein. The careers of St. Cecilia and St. Catherine are fully illustrated, a design presenting the wholly imaginary martyr- dom of the latter. Mr. Baring-Gould speaks of the records of her acts as a "wonderful rigmarole." One of the longest and most important lives is that