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size are spread open from the shoulders; and above the head two smaller wings are waving. The eyes are admirably depicted, with eyelids and eyebrows, like human eyes; not like the eyes of a peacock's tail-feathers. Seven eyes are seen on the seraph's right side, below the chin, and seven on the left side. On the topmost wings, above the head, are four others. As usual in these frescoes, the wing-feathers are in three layers of different colours; white in the middle, between layers of black, and dark brown streaked with a lighter shade. Small portions of a white tunica talaris appear at the ankles. The seraphs have each a golden nimbus, eight inches in diameter, and their dark ruddy hair is dressed in tight round curls, which form a continuous line, like a coronet, around the head.

It is believed that, in method of treatment, these figures are unique. Four-winged cherubim are not uncommon; but seraphs, with six wings full of eyes, standing on winged wheels, and having men's heads, feet, and hands, are not easily to be found.*

The soffits of the two arches, by which the apse was originally entered, are painted with geometrical patterns, and medallions. Domes and buildings, palm-trees and foliage, appear on small irregular spaces, and corners, of the walls and roof of the apse.

It is matter for congratulation, that while the colours of the chief frescoes are still well-preserved, the Kent Archæological Society has been able, on the one hand, to obtain the services of an artist (Mr. James Neale) fully competent to copy these early frescoes, in facsimile; and, on the other hand, to defray his charge of more than two hundred guineas for his work.

W. A. SCOTT ROBERTSON.

*The Sion Cope (of the thirteenth century) now in South Kensington Museum has, on it, six-winged seraphs standing each on a wheel; but the eyes on their wings are like those of a peacock's tail. In the Brit. Mus. Arundel MS. 83, folios 5b, 131, we find six-winged "cherubim" on wheels, but their wings lack eyes; and the wheels lack wings; the MS. is of the fourteenth century. A Greek mosaic at Monreale Cathedral shews seraphs somewhat like ours, but they lack the wheel. At Orvieto, on the Duomo's façade, a six-winged angel expels Adam and Eve from Paradise. At Forest Hill Church, Oxon, a pulpit cloth is embroidered with a seraph much like these at Canterbury; but yet they differ considerably.

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THE FRIAR-PREACHERS, OR BLACK
FRIARS, OF CANTERBURY.

BY THE REV. C. F. R. PALMER.

THE Order of Friar-Preachers, or Black Friars, known in later times as Dominicans, entered England in the year 1221. A band of thirteen religious, sent from the General Chapter held in May, at Bologna, passing through Canterbury, reached London Aug. 10th, and thence went on to Oxford. At Canterbury, by the command of Stephen Langton the Archbishop, Gilbert de Fresnoy, their head or prior, delivered the first sermon amongst the English, in a church, where the Archbishop had himself purposed to preach. The excellence of this discourse, and the religious bearing of the Friars, secured for them Langton's lasting friendship. Not until fifteen years later, however, did they obtain a settlement in Canterbury. In the meantime, they had fixed themselves in many other parts of England, and had even advanced into Ireland and Scotland. At last, by the favour of the king, and co-operation of Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, afterwards canonized, they were admitted into the great metropolitan city. A troop of some twenty Friars settled there in the year 1236, having acquired a dwelling, with some land, on the banks of the river Stour. Here, according to custom, they fitted up an oratory, for mass and the divine office, whilst they preached in the neighbouring country. They soon set about building their church and dwelling in due conventual form, Henry III being their patron and founder. The church was nineteen years in progress, and the other buildings were not finished until four or five years later. The Friars relied entirely on the free-will gifts of the people for the maintenance of their foundation.

1 Nic. Trivet, Annales.

VOL. XIII.

G

Henry III, on March the 10th, 1236-7, for the weal of his soul and the souls of his ancestors and heirs, granted to the Friar-Preachers of Canterbury an island, in the river, lying between land which had been Master Richard de Mepham's and that which had been Eleanor Fitz Joldwin's on the east, and other land which had been William de Burry's and the stone-house that had been John Slure's on the west to be held of the crown in free, pure, and perpetual almoign.1 It is probable that these bounding lands, and the house, had already passed into the possession of the Friars, and that they had been granted to them at a low rent by Archbishop Edmund, being part of the Church possessions. Queen Eleanor of Provence made the first royal gift, on record, towards the convent-buildings. On June 17th, 1237, she gave the Friars thirty marks (£20) for the work of their church.2 Henry III defrayed the greater part of their building expenses, out of the royal exchequer, as the following mandates for payments bear witness:

In 1237, Dec. 1st, thirty marks were paid to the twenty-two Friars for their works.3 In 1238, about May 11th, forty marks were borrowed out of the queen's purse for the occasion. In 1239, May 21st, twenty marks for the work of the church;5 and June 30th, £20 in aid of constructing the houses.6 In 1240, Jan. 10th, thirty marks; Jan. 17th, thirty marks; June 7th, thirty marks; and July 18th, twenty marks; all four sums for the work of the church. In 1241, May 5th, thirty marks, in aid of the works. In 1242, Jan. 21st, £20 for the works; April 25th, twenty marks for the fabric of the church; and May 1st, thirty marks, also for the works of the church, of which twenty marks were paid to the Friars on the same day.10 In 1243, Nov. 30th, £20 for completing the works of the church. In 1244, Jan. 23rd, £10 for making two spiral staircases in the church; and May 7th, thirty marks, for buying and preparing timber for the church.12 In 1245, Dec. 19th, forty marks for necessary works.13 In 1246, May 12th, for the fabric of

1 Cart. 21 Hen. III, m. 6.
3 Ibid., 22 Hen. III, m. 2.
5 lbid., 23 Hen. III, m. 14.
7 Ibid., 24 Hen. III, m. 8, 11, 24.
9 Ibid., 26 Hen. III, p. 1 m. 4, 11.
11 Rot. Liberat. 28 Hen. III, m. 18.
13 Rot. Liberat. 30 Hen. III, m. 21.

2 Rot. Liberat. 21 Hen. III, m. 8.

4 Ibid., 22 Hen. III, m. 10.

6 Ibid., 23 Hen. III, m. 10.

8 Ibid., 25 Hen. III, m. 10.

10 Erit. Scac. Pasch. 26 Hen. III, m. 1. 12 Ibid., m. 11, 16.

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