Lancastrians prior to the battle of Mortimer's Cross. At a later period, according to 'Price's History of Leominster,' a severe encounter took place between the forces of Lady Jane Grey, and those of Queen Mary, the latter receiving considerable aid from the inhabitants of Leominster and the immediate vicinity. Success attended Mary's cause, and the queen being so satisfied with the gallant behaviour of her Leominster friends, granted them a fresh charter and many additional municipal privileges. During the contests between Charles I. and the Parliament, Cursneh-hill was the scene of many fights. The views from the summit are very extensive and varied. There to the north is Croft Ambery, another British camp of elliptical form, with double ditch and rampart; to the north-west Wapley Camp; to the south-west the dark ranges of the Black Mountains, with a peep of the Brecon Beacons when the day is clear; Ivington Camp to the south; and away to the south-east Risbury and Black-caer-dun Camps. On descending the hill to the west, we see in front what is now called Corner Cop or Cornhill Cop, thought to be a corruption of Caer-ne-cop, a sepulchral eminence. To our immediate right is Cholstrey. Price gives the old name as Cerlestren. Williams in his Leominster Guide asserts that Cholstrey was a Roman settlement. It is close to the Waltons. The name is evidently derived from Cester, Chester, or Casterley, a camp field, from the Latin Castra, a camp. There are traces of a road leading from Cholstrey in the direction of Stagbatch and Wall-end, and possibly forming a means of communication between the colony at Cholstrey and the military road of Watling-street, running from the south through Stretford, Monkland, Street, Mortimer's Cross, and Wigmore, to the north."

The height of the mowing grass prevented the members ascending to the summit of Cursneh hill, 354 feet high, so, keeping to the footpath, they were met by the carriages which had made the circuit of the camp by the main road, and resuming their drive the party proceeded by Cholstrey to Kingsland, where, at the Church, they were met by the Rev. Joseph Barker. After an inspection of its Early Decorated architecture of the 13th century, the high pitched old timber roof of the nave, the chancel with its decorated barrel roof, the embattled tower with buttresses, its porch on both the north and south, with the small building at the east end of the north porch, which is called in Murray's "Hand Guide to Herefordshire" a Volka's Chamber, the members had the pleasure of listening to the following :—

NOTES ON KINGSLAND CHURCH.

[By the Rev. JOSEPH BARKER, M.A.]

THE notes I have made to read to you on this beautiful Church of St. Michael, and the Sepulchre Chamber (to which special attention is invited), are culled mostly from a most interesting article in an old number of the Gentleman's Magazine, November, 1826, by S. R. Meyrick, who begins it with some words which must leave a sweet sound in the ears of all who live in Herefordshire.

"I have lately," he says "been passing some time in that 'Garden of England,' or rather Paradise of the World, the County of Hereford, and in some parts of it not very much frequented."

There was no Kingsland Railway Station and no Woolhope Club in those days, and this visit must have been paid, I fancy, at such a season as this, in the bright days perhaps of

apples.

Speaking of a paradise, too, Mr. Meyrick must have been thinking of our

In the prosecution of his inquiries relative to Kingsland he was assisted by much information from his friend Edward Evans, Esq., of Eyton, and with Mr. Meyrick's article to the Gentleman's Magazine was forwarded a pencil sketch of the south-east view of the Church, by Mr. Evans' talented daughter, of which a print is given.

son,

"The Church of Kingsland," he goes on, "struck me as particularly curious, retaining, as it does, the only existing specimen in this county of a chamber for the Holy Sepulchre." The present Church of Kingsland was built in the reign of Edward I., by Edward, Lord Mortimer, who made his younger Walter, rector thereof, giving him full right to all the tithes, and dedicating it to St. Michael, the Archangel. It consists of a nave and side aisles separated by octagonal columns, supporting ten pointed arches, 79ft. by 44ft. 9in.; a chancel 38ft. by 19ft.; what is now used as a vestry, 11ft. by 14ft.; a porch 8ft. 10in. by 10ft. 2in.; the chamber of the Holy Sepulchre, 9ft. 4in. by 4ft. 9in.; and a tower at the west end. The architecture is all of one period, the leading feature being a square inscribed in a quatrefoil, or a triangle on a trefoil.

The greatest curiosity in Kingsland Church is what is termed the Volkre's Chamber, which, though I will not go so far as to say it is a corruption of Sepulchre's Chamber, was, I have no doubt, for that purpose. This is a small building by the side of the porch, from which is an entrance to it, and it receives light from unglazed windows on its east and north sides. Within, out of the thickness of the church wall, has been formed an arch, such as all monumental arches of the time, and within, a kind of altar; at the back, another open window,

consisting of four lights for the convenience of those within the church. The great arch is elegantly ornamented.

In Plates xxi. and xxxii. of the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. iii., are representations of the Holy Sepulchre in the churches of North Wold, in Norfolk, and Heckington, in the county of Lincoln, with a paper, well worthy of being read, by the late Mr. Gough. The latter one is of the time of Edward I. or II., and, therefore, approximates to the date which I have assigned to the curious chamber at Kingsland. Besides the remains of a holy Sepulchre in Lincoln Cathedral also of this period, and absurdly called the tomb of S. Remigius, this gentleman enumerates no less than fifty in different parish churches. In all these cases the position of the sepulchre was in the north wall, but in one only in that of the Church (i.e. the nave) as at Kingsland, the others being in that of the chancel. Mr. Polwhele, in his history of Devon, vol. ii., p. 82, speaking of Holcombe Burnell Church, says, "On the north wall of the chancel, near the altar, is a curious piece of imagery in alto relievo, representing the Resurrection of our Saviour, and the terror of the Roman soldiers who guarded the Sepulchre; in the wall is an opening through which the people in the north aisle of the nave might see the elevation of the Host." So here, at Kingsland, above the tomb and within the arch is a square aperture, divided into four compartments by mullions and pointed arches for the same purpose.

Such is Mr. Meyrick's account of this Kingsland Volkre Chamber; and when our visit is made to Eardisland Church, the second on to-day's list, there will be seen another tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, though not by any means so large and ornamental as this one, but a canopied arched niche in the wall on the south-east side of the present nave which formerly was the chancel. And on the front of that arch there is a triangular stone, now plain, on which were represented, when Dingley visited the Church in the reign of Charles II., upon a shield, all the instruments of the Crucifixion.

I may be allowed, too, to mention a circumstance in which I have personally felt great interest, that in the chapel of Christ's College, Cambridge, where, years ago, I spent happy days, has lately been brought to light a sepulchre or cupboard-like receptacle ornamented with figures representing Christ's Resurrection, with attendant angels and sleeping soldiers who guarded the tomb. These are mentioned in the College accounts as "Th' ymage of Christe's ressurrection... with the iiii. knyghtes and the sepulchre." The four knights were the sleeping soldiers.

The use of the sepulchre in olden times was this: On Maundy Thursday the celebrant consecrated two reserved hosts, one of which was consumed on Good Friday, and the other deposited, together with a crucifix, in the Holy Sepulchre on that day, on which occasion a solemn office was performed, called "Tenebræ." There they remained till the morning of Easter Sunday, when both were taken out at a solemn and elaborate service, which typified Christ's Resurrection, the removal being made on a sudden during a very loud chorus of voices and instruments, to represent the rending of the tomb. The Host being then elevated, the Priest exclaimed, Surrexit, non cst hic!

It was usual for watchers to guard the sepulchre during the whole time from Good Friday to Easter morn. And in many places a sort of sacred drama was performed at the sepulchre by priests and others dressed to represent the two angels, the three Marys, and other actors in the sacred story. Some circumstances in these ceremonials might require the sepulchre to be made large enough to admit the officiating priests to go into and out of it, which may account for this chamber at Kingsland, and the apertures on all sides that the people might witness the ceremonies.

In some notes which our Honorary Secretary (Mr. Moore) kindly sent me there is mention of an extract from "Testamenta Vetera," to the effect that one Thomas Lord Dacre, 1531, left certain sums for his tomb to be built and employed for such like use, &c.-e.g.: "The tomb to be used as the Easter sepulchre to rejoice at the uprising of our Lord and Saviour from the grave, and the hope through Him for a joyful Resurrection.' Again, it is recorded in the negotiations of Cardinal Wolsey by Cavendish, that in Peterborough, in the last Holy Week of his life, he rose early on Easter Day to the Resurrection, and on that day went in procession in his Cardinal's hat and vestments.

Time will not permit ine to give further particulars of the dramatic services, or "Passion Plays," which were years ago performed at these sepulchres. Any one who may care to know more respecting them will find a very interesting account of them and of other old Easter customs in the first volume of Hone's Everyday Book, pp. 431 to 435, and in the article I have named in the Gentleman's Magazine, and the other books referred to.

One might wish to linger over many other historical places and names in Kingsland, for there is no parish in the county of greater interest. There is its battle plain at Westfield, and Battle or Gospel Oak still living and bearing acorns. There is the Manor of Street on the Roman road, where formerly stood a chapel, from which a brass plate with a black letter inscription was taken and preserved in Meyrick's time at Eyton Hall. With regard also to the place we have next to visit, tradition says there was once a castle at Kingsland, and the remains of the large tumulus and earthworks, you will see, give some countenance to the assertion. This said castle, however, must have been on a very confined scale. Again, it is supposed that in the mound was buried the body of Merwald, King of Mercia, who founded a nunnery at Leominster in the year of Christ 658.

But, leaving suppositions, let me just bring to notice a former worthy of Kingsland (rector at the beginning of the century,) Dr. Sneyd Davies, an elegant scholar and poet, worthy of remembrance. In memoirs of him, written by his friend, the Lord Justice Harding, are literary gleanings and letters containing curious and most interesting notices of places and people hereabout in that day. Thus about the Presteign roads, the Judge, speaking of Dr. Davies and Dr. T. Thomas, then rector of Presteign, says; "They met occasionally in the alternate character of host and of guest; but, notwithstanding their vicinity, the roads, which are now desperate enough to rival antiquity were, I should think, in those days, what a celebrated wit in our profession called, "The feathered way', because none but the birds of the air could pass over it."

Again, he is generally facetious upon these roads, and in one of his early banters upon them, he calls the rocks on one side "Comb lane" and on the other, "Scylla and Charybdis."

On the conclusion of Mr. Barker's paper, Mr. Moore remarked that we must be careful to dissociate the dramatic Passion Plays referred to from the "Sepulchre" and the "Resurrection" as ceremonials conducted in accordance with the rites of the Roman missal; that is to say, the "Resurrection " ceremony is a religious function, and in no sense a mystery play acted in the Sepulchre. This religious ceremony is referred to in the following extract from page 96 of Vol. iii., of "The Church of our Fathers," 1852, by Daniel Rock, D.D. "From the early part of Maundy Thursday till Easter morning the Blessed Eucharist was kept in what was called the 'Sepulchre,' and night and day crowds thronged to watch and worship there."

In the history of Kingsland Church, as just given us by Mr. Barker, there is an absence of association with any particular branch or order of the Roman Church; had any evidence of such existed some light might have been thrown upon the connection of any processional from this chamber, at the east end of the north porch, a very unusual, perhaps unknown, position for the "Sepulchre," with the ceremony of the Resurrection upon Easter day.

:

In the present day the representation of the Dead Christ is still conducted; and even in our own country there is one branch (viz. the Carmelites from Mount Carmel), who in their one church in London retain this holy ceremony, and who upon Easter Sunday morning form a procession for conveying the Holy Eucharist to the altar for the ceremony of the Resurrection.

Easter chambers in the chancels of churches are more common than is generally supposed. In our own county, besides Eardisland, mentioned by Mr. Barker, there is one in Foy Church. One was discovered a few years ago walled up in Letton Church. But perhaps the most beautiful Sepulchre Chamber in our kingdom is to be seen at Heckington, in Lincolnshire, of which a detailed description with a plate is to be found in a book by the Venerable Edward Trollope, F.S.A., entitled "Sleaford and the Wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardburn, in the County of Lincoln," price 10s., published by William Fawcett, Sleaford, 1872 (W. Kent & Co., 23, Paternoster Row). As the exact character of the mediæval office of the Sepulchre is but little known, a translation from the original, which is in Latin, will be found in that book. The original constituted a MS. ordinary of the Church of Rouen, whence it was extracted by Du Fresne, and is contained in the "Vetusta Monumenta," Vol. III.

Now a few words as to the meaning of the word, which being pronounced Volker, is spelled in so many ways. In Murray's handbook to Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire, 3rd edition, page 301, we are told that "on the east side of the porch is one of those curious places built for the residence of a recluse, known as the Volka's Chamber." In Black's Guide we are informed that it is "a retired place formerly occupied by penitents;" but, probably being in the same difficulty as ourselves, the author prudently refrains from venturing to