Ecclesiastical personages are generally represented in full pontificals, their hands clasped, often with a scroll proceeding from their hands, and sometimes with the word "Jesus" inscribed on their breasts (Sessay, Yorkshire). The border of their robe is frequently highly decorated, and the folds well executed. As to other ornaments on these tombs, they generally consist of shields of arms above the heads of the effigies, and often the motto also. The owners of tombstones are also frequently decorated (especially those with effigies) with small pieces of brass, containing crests, flowers, foliated designs, agnus-deis, &c.

With respect to inscriptions on brasses, there is such an innumerable variety in them, that I am constrained to be very brief in my remarks, and only to make a few very general observations. They are nearly universally in the black-letter character, and engraved into the plate; although sometimes, especially where the legend runs round an effigy, they are raised in relief (Topcliffe, Yorkshire). The Latin inscriptions, containing the name, date of death, &c., of the deceased, are much in the same style. The following will serve as examples:

From Fountains abbey, Yorkshire—

"Hic requiescit dominus Johannes, X abbas de Fontibus, qui

obiit viii. die Decembris."

The next two are from Billingham church, Durham

I Now arrive at the last division of my subject, namely, those monuments which are inlaid with brass plates alone. The innumerable varieties which these subdivide themselves into compel me to pass over those more rarely seen, and to confine ourselves to the leading forms. The plates are either fastened to the wall, let into altar tombs, or, as is usually the case, inserted in large flagstones in the floor. The position, however, makes but little difference in the features of the plates themselves; and it will be convenient to consider ecclia pochiale de Norton ac vicari ecclie pochialis de bilinghm them as divided into-1st, Effigies and ornaments; and, 2nd, Inscriptions.

"Orate pro aia dni Johis Necehm capelli ac vicarii qndm istius ecclie qui obiit in festo sci Nicholai Epi Anno dni millmo ccccg lvi. Cuius anime ppicietur deus. Amen."

to

"Hic iacet dns Robert Brerly nup......... prebndarius i

dunelm dioc qui obiit xii. die......A dni ms cccc? Ixxx. cui aie ppicietur deus amen.

From Coxwold church, Yorkshire

Orate pro aiabz Johis manston armig qui obiit vi° die mensis Octobris anno dni mo ccccs lxiiij et Elizabeth vxoris ei que die mensi A dni m9 cccc qu aiabz ppiciet

de am."

In this example the vacancies have been left blank, to be filled up at the death of the wife; but were neglected to be done so.

The effigies differ from the stone ones in the circumstance that, in this division, there are as many ecclesiastical ones as military and civil. The effigies of knights and their ladies resemble much, in general features, those executed in stone; but they are usually of a somewhat later date. Half-length figures occur among them: they are usually clad in long robes; and when in armour, it is generally plated. The animals under the feet obijt are not so universally found, though they nevertheless nearly always appear in those of large size. The large sort have often the inscription running round them, and the vacant spaces in the brass are filled with splendid foliated tracery, with a gothic canopy engraven over the heads (Topcliffe church, Yorkshire). In the smaller specimens the figures are plainer. It very frequently happens that a scroll proceeds from the hands, containing an inscription: either some motto, or a request that the passer-by would pray for the souls of the deceased. Groups of figures often occur in brass. In Kirby Moorside church, Yorkshire, for example, there is a group, consisting of a lady Brooke and her six sons and five daughters, all kneeling. The dresses of ladies are often highly decorated. We ought here also to remark, that all varieties of position are allowed in this class; the figures not being always represented as lying on their backs, as in the other class, although even in this division that posture seems to have been preferred.

The last I shall at present give is from Topcliffe church, Yorkshire. The reader will observe the ungrammatical quorum before anima (ame in the original), when relating to only one person. The error is repeated at the end of the inscription.

"Hic iacet venerabilis............topclyff qui obijt. ann.

........m ccc. lxv. quoru ame............quondam uxor eius que obijt. anno Domini m° ccc xii. quoru ame propicietur deus."

Two of these, it will be noticed, are imperfect. But the tyro will find that the majority of the brasses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

It should, perhaps, be remarked, that few inscriptions are found without a great many abbreviations; but, as these occur in the different examples much in the same form, they are soon committed to memory. For instance, ame. for anima (a is nearly always written e); aiabus for animabus; Dns. for Dominus; ppicietur. for propicietur; Ds. for Deus; ecclia for ecclesia; kl. for kalendris; xpe. for Christe; pces. for preces; nup. for nuper; epi. for episcopi; &c., &c. The black-letter characters are often of very peculiar form, especially the capitals; and also compounded, that is to say, one stroke will serve as a portion of two letters."

SPEECHLESS THOVGH YET HE WERE, SAY ALL WE CAN
THAT SAW, HE PROMISE DID A HOPEFVL MAN;

ARGVED HIM WRITTEN IN THE LONG-LIVD ROVLE;
BVT NOW WEE SEE BY SVCH AN INFANT'S LOSSE,

The same observations will also apply to the SVCH FRAME OF BODY SVCH A LIVELY SOVLE, English inscriptions (generally of the 16th century), with respect to abbreviations and compounded letters. Thus pson. stands for person or parson; pdon. for pardon; p. for pray; sutime for sometime; depted. for departed; Jhu. for Jesu; &c., &c.

I subjoin one or two examples of English monumental inscriptions:

From Sessay church, Yorkshire

"Here lyethe master Thomas Magnus, archideacon of thest Rydyng in the metropolitan chyrche of Yorke and pson of this chyrche whiche dyed the xxviii. day of August anno Dni ms ccccc 1, whose soule God pdn."

In Hartlepool church, Durham-

"Here vnder this stone lyeth byried the bodie of the vertvovs gentellwoman Jane Bell, who dep'ted this lyfe the vi. daye of Janvarte, 1593, being the dowghter of Laverance Thornell of Darlington, gent, and late wyfe to Parsavel Bell, nowe maire of this towen of Hartinpooell, marchant.

Whos vertues if thou wilt beholde

Peruse this label hanging bye,
Which will the same to thee unfolde;
By her good lyfe learne thou die.
Etatis suæ, 40."

From Leake church, Yorkshire

ALL ARE BVT INFANT HOPES, WHICH DEATH MAY CROSSE.
T. Q. J. V.

Poetry.

THE PLANT OF PEACE.

(For the Church of England Magazine.)

Henry Martyn, grieved at the little success of his missionary labours, and mourning over the corrupt heart of man, one day, in climbing a ravine, observed a peculiarly lustrous plant shining amid the rugged scenery, which so reminded him of the glorious "plant of renown" that peace was imparted mightily to his soul.

WEARY, and sinking 'neath the blaze

Of India's burning sun,
The holy man, beneath its rays,

The rocky summit won.
A herald of the cross was he,
From Britain's favoured isle,
Bringing salvation's offers free
To sinner's poor and vile.
Lonely and sad he ponder'd o'er
The little he had done:

A mighty work seem'd him before-
His strength was almost gone.
His heart within was dark and drear;
No ray of comfort nigh,

Nor did one star of hope appear

Amid his darken'd sky.

Gleaming beneath the sunny glow,

There glittered fair and bright,
Above the streamlets murmuring flow,
A sparkling gem of light.
This plant of beauty sweetly bloom'd,
Gladdening the lonely wild;

And though around rude nature gloom'd,
Its dazzling radiance smil'd.

The mourning pilgrim's eye it caught;
His night was turned to day:
With heavenly joy that heart was fraught-
His grief soon passed away.

EVILS OF DISSENT IN THE COLONIES.-The village of Huntingdon (Canada) is one among many examples of the deplorable effects of schism in a new country. There, in a spot scarcely reclaimed from the woods, is a little collection of houses, a good mill, a tavern or two, some few tradesmen, and some commencing indications of business. One good spacious church might contain all the worshippers; one faithful pastor might tend them all; and their resources for the support of religion, if combined, might provide for all the decencies of worship in a reverent manner, and for the comfort of the minister and his family. They might, in laying their foundations for the future, exhibit in the article of religion, which should be their all in all, the picture of a little Christian brotherhood; and the village not drawing, or drawing comparatively little, upon the bounty of the colonial cities or societies at home, the aid derivable from those sources might the more largely supply the unprovided tracts of country in the wilderness. But here are four protestant places of worship-altar against altar-all ill-appointed, all ill-supported; and, while discordant preaching is going on, or unholy leagues are made of two or three irregular sects against the church, and violent excitements are resorted to, like the getting up of the steam, to force on a particular interest at a particular conjuncture, many a ruder and more remote settlement is supplied only at wide intervals by the extraordinary efforts of this or that minister; and then, again, marked often by a mutual jealousy, heightened, when the church is the object of it, to an acrimonious and unscrupulous hostility. In these instances, the forbearance and dignity of the church have, I think I may say without prejudice, stood in most advantageous contrast with the proceedings of other parties. But what cause have we to imitate the prayer of the Lord himself, that they all may be one, even as he and his Father are one; to pray and long for a nearer approach to that happy consummation described by the apostle, that there may be no divisions among them, and that they may be all perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same spirit!

ANTIOCH.-Antioch, the seat of many kings, the chief patriarchate of the east, whose walls and bulwarks were ranked amongst the strongest, and its numerous churches were the finest in the world, often shattered and destroyed by earthquakes, more than

by all the fiercest ravages of war, has still some tokens to show with what facility, were the days of its restoration come, it would be a great city again, but not a proud city as before, the seat of despotic and priestly domination. The capital of a province or tribedom in Israel shall not be like the capital of a Roman province, or a patriarchal see, where sin reigned and ruin followed. A single sentence, and the view of a single gate as drawn by Las Casas, towards the close of last century, may show that a city without walls, as those of Israel shall be, might be built from those which anciently were raised for its defence. The ancient walls (as now to be seen), which appear to have enclosed a space of nearly four miles in circuit, are "generally from thirty to fifty feet in height in their extremes, and fifteen feet thick throughout, having also square towers, from fifty to eighty feet high, at intervals of from fifty to eighty yards apart. The stones of which these walls are constructed are not large; but the masoury is solid and good. In the S.W. quarter, the walls and towers (of hewn stone) are in one portion perfect, and in another close by much destroyed, until they disappear altogether, leaving a wide space between their last fragment here and the portion that continues along the banks of the river." Pliny states that it was divided by the Orontes; but now the present town, which is a miserable one, does not occupy one-eighth part of the space included by the old walls, which are all on its southern side. The northern portion within the an

cient walls is now filled with one extensive wood of

gardens, chiefly olive, mulberry, and fig-trees. Of the many elegant churches of Antioch, the remains of only three or four, a century ago, were to be scen. Pococke saw some pieces of marble of a mosaic pavement, which he supposed might indicate the site of the patriarchal church; and he conjectured that the patriarchal palace stood on the top of a hill in its vicinity. Such is the end of the apostolic see! A vague conjecture is the only homage that can now be paid to the departed glory of the throne which exercised supremacy over two hundred and forty bishoprics. It is but a glory of this world that can thus pass away, and such is the inheritance which the highest of hierarchies can bequeath. Vain-glory stimulated Syrian kings and Roman governors to erect splendid cities; and superstition in later ages prompted Roman Catholic devotees to raise stately edifices that could cope with magnificent heathen temples: each sharing a like fate in their ruins, may be turned to a like use in their end. If the multitude of churches could have saved a city or a country, Antioch, with its hundreds, would yet have stood; and the hill between it and the sea (Benkiliseh), with its reputed thousand churches, as the name imports, would yet have been covered with the dwellings of men. At the top of it are the remains of a very noble convent, called "St. Simon Stylites;" the whole of which was compassed by a wall built of hewn stone, about ninety paces in front, and two hundred and thirty in length.—Dr. Keith's Land of Israel.

London Published for the Proprietors, by EDWARDS and HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; J. BURNS, 17, Portman Street; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

JOSEPH ROGERSON, 24, NORFOLK-STREET, STRAND, LONDON.