1831.]

tecture, ecclesiastical as well as civil, he has taken an odd method of effecting his intention: he commences with the latest, he continues with an early specimen, to which he adds another still earlier, and crowns the whole by reverting back to the period he set out with; he begins with the style in its dotage, and ends with it in its infancy, forming an association as unfortunate as many other ill-starred unions in this world-as an aged bridegroom and a youthful bride; and in the contrast of the richness of the Tudor decorations with the plainness of the spire, as ridiculous as the affected finery of the said old beau by the side of the unadorned beauty of his consort.

The flanks of the Church are not visible in a front view; they are built of brick, and each has two series of windows, the lower square, with a mullion in the alms-house style; the upper pointed and divided by a mullion into two lights, with a large quatrefoil in the head of the arch, a common introduction in windows of the 14th century.

The east end has no windows; the flanks of the chancel have each a single light, with cinquefoil head, and the eastern elevation is finished with a gable and cross.

THE INTERIOR

Is approached from the lobbies behind the western façade. The internal openings are lintelled, and in the towers are winding stairs communicating with the galleries. The body of the Church is not divided into nave and aisles; it is covered with an horizontal ceiling pannelled by mouldings into square compartments, the principal mouldings drop down the side walls, and end in corbels. The whole is coloured in imitation of stone, though it would be a bold step to construct such a ceiling of that material. A gallery with oak front occupies the west end and the two sides of the Church, and a smaller gallery is also constructed above it at the west end, with seats for charity children, and intended, we presume, to contain an organ.

299

The altar screen is an imitation of stone; it is formed of six arched compartments, surmounted with angular canopies; it is not inscribed with the Decalogue or any other subject.*

The pulpit and reading desk are alike; they are situated on each side of the Church at a short distance from the chancel, and are obtrusive and inelegant.

The font, in a pew near the west entrance, is an octagon basin, ornamented with quatrefoil panels, on a pillar of the same form.

It has been our lot on more than one occasion to deprecate the anomalies which modern architects introduce into buildings which deservedly enough bear the appellation of Gothic, but never in our experience did we witness a structure containing such a series of essays against propriety as the present displays. Of Mr. Savage we augured better things from the parish church; but, as if determined to show how completely he could disappoint his admirers, he has here set up a structure without any uniformity in its parts, and possessing no resemblance to any style of decoration which prevailed in this country in any one period. It is unnecessary to repeat that the Pointed style, according to the æras of its existence, exhibits various and different forms in the construction of its arches, in the arrangement of its parts, and in the nature of its decorations; it is also unnecessary to add that the domestic architecture of the Tudor period, though alike in detail, differed in arrangement from ecclesiastical buildings. Dr. Milner enumerates three distinct orders of pointed architecture. To blend them together in one building, is an evidence not only of bad taste, but of defective information. We may be answered, that if the building is an elegant object, it matters not of what parts it is composed. To so futile an argument we reply that it would have been equally beautiful, if the eye of the critic and man of taste had not been insulted by its discrepancies. Suppose an architect was possessed with a fancy to add the

300

capital of the Corinthian order to a Tuscan column, and crown the whole with the Doric entablature; if, with a view to novelty, he was moreover to make the Doric triglyphs give way to cartouches, and the mutules to a dentil band, his professional brethren would unanimously laugh at him; he would be cried down as an ignorant blunderer, and it would avail him nothing to say, that if his building looked well as a whole, he cared not for the harmony of the parts.

We shall be told that such a combination as we have instanced, is too absurd to have a moment's existence. We believe so, as far as classical architecture is concerned; yet quite as inconsistent is the combination which we have shown to exist in the structure now under consideration. To account for the erection on the reason assigned for the sometimes discordant parts of genuine ancient building, viz. that the whole is not the work of one period, it will be necessary to suppose that Mr. Savage first constructed his spires in the 13th century, and left them suspended in the air for four hundred years, when he tardily added an oriel window to support them; but as this did not reach to the spire, a lantern of a period between both, is wedged in to fill up the gap; and to keep the taper finish in its place, a heavy finial, of a date coeval with the basement, is added to the top. The architect then turns his attention to his principal window, which, contrasted with his spires, hangs like Mahomet's coffin in the air for at least two centuries, when a porch and a gable are built, both differing from the earlier work, and equally at variance with the accompanying spires and oriel windows.

We have treated this building at great length, because we wish to expose such fallacies, to show them in their proper light, to prove that they are the spurious creations of the pencil of a fantastic designer, and not fair specimens of the truly beautiful Pointed style, and by so doing to warn architects from following (what they are very prone to do) the flimsy productions of each other, instead of recurring to original examples and genuine models; and we feel the more interested, as we are convinced that the present advanced state of knowledge of the national architecture of

[April,

our country, may in a great measure be attributed to the essays and the criticisms which have appeared in our pages, and to the exertions of no one individual more than the late J. Carter.

This Church will accommodate 752 persons in pews, and 650 in free seats, making a total of 1402. The architect's estimate was 70251. It was commenced in May, 1828, and consecrated May 8, 1830. E.I.C.

Mr. URBAN,

THE village of Saint Bees is situated on the coast of Cumberland, in that quintuple division of the county called Allerdale Ward* above Derwent. Its position is remarkable. From Saint Bees to Whitehaven, a distance of about four miles, there is a narrow vale entirely separating the high lands on the coast from the interior. From the general appearance of the soil, and the discovery of an anchor some years since, about the centre of this vale, it is probable that it was formerly an arm of the sea. This opinion is corroborated by the descent of the ground each way, which is evinced by the small rivulet Poe, or Poe-beck, rising about the middle of the vale, and flowing with an easy current into the sea at Whitehaven, while the other part of it, rising nearly at the same spot, falls into the ocean at Saint Bees. In fact, the hilly ground supposed to be thus formerly isolated; is distinguished in ancient deeds by the appellation of Preston Isle. Proceeding along the summit of Preston Isle, or, as it is now called, Preston Quarter, a distant view of the Isle of Man, with its northern bicephalous mountain, may be obtained with the naked eye. Here too is the disjointed rock standing at some distance from the rest, separated by a tremendous chasm called "Lawson's Leap," some adventurous Nimrod of that name having formerly cleared it in the excitation of the chase. Nature has been here exerting herself in the formation of the rocks into the rude semblance of the ruins of a church, called Kelsoe Kirk. As

When England was divided in 878, the subdivisions in Cumbria were called wards, and not hundreds as in most other counties, from the watching and warding necessary against the incursions of the Scots and Irish.

1831.]

1821.

ing Keswick Bay (where the lapidary may find pebbles of every hue, susceptible of a beautiful polish, and suitable for snuff-boxes, brooches, &c.), Saint Bees head, the ancient Barugh, presents itself 220 feet above the level of the sea. On this height the new light-house, with nine reflectors, was erected in January 1822. The parish of Saint Bees is large, as will be evident from the number of inhabitants at the following periods, especially when it is considered that in this remote part of England, the habitations are generally far apart :1688. 1801. 1811. 3,345. 13,246. 16,520. 19,169. It was part of the kingdom of Cumbria or Strath Cluyd Britons, which was first inhabited, says Mr. Carte, by a Celtic race about 2000 years before the Christian æra. That the genuine ancient Britons posted themselves here, we have the authority of Marianus himself,* not to mention that there are many names purely British. Although every part of it, where liable to aggression, was fortified by the Romans, as appears from the ancient ruins, it was frequently the scene of bloody contention. Speed, speaking of Cumberland, says that it was strengthened with twenty-five castles, and preserved by the prayers of six religious houses, in which latter enumeration that of Saint Bees is mentioned. The village was formerly known by the names BEGOCK, BEgoth, or BeghES, and the Church is styled in ancient evidences Kirkby Begog. The derivation of Begoth seems to be, from two ancient British words BEG OG; by our interpretation, little, young, like the Gaelic oig, little. The name is supposed to have originated from the Holy Bega, a pious woman from Ireland, who is said to have founded a small monastery here about the year 650. Respecting this holy woman, tradition is not entirely silent. It is said, that on her voyage from Ireland she was in imminent danger of being wrecked upon the

See Camden, p. 1002. Tanner's Notitia, No. 73.

801

rocks below the mountain called Tomlyne, on the coast of Saint Bees, and, according to the custom of those days, vowed to build a religious house, should she be fortunate enough to escape. To her vow and escape the origin of the ancient monastery of Saint Bees is attributed. The mists of revolving centuries dwell upon her memory, and many are the romantic stories attached to her name, fit subjects for the novelist and the poet. This religious house was destroyed by the Danes most probably about the year 873, for at that time history mentions a very formidable irruption of them. It was restored by William de Meschines, brother of Ranulph, first Earl of Cumberland, a family then lately brought over from the continent by William I. by whose grant they became possessed of the earldom of Cumbria. Saint Bees now became the cell of a prior and six Benedictine monks, to the abbey of St. Mary at York. Bishop Tanner mentions that under this cell there was a small nunnery situate at Rottington, about a mile from Saint Bees. This is confirmed by the ancient names of places still retained there, but few other vestiges are now to be found.

Ranulph de Meschines, the son of William, by his charter,§ confirmed his father's grants to the prior and monks, and still further increased them. William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle, who married a descendant of William de Meschines, by his charter confirmed and still further increased his ancestor's grants. Amongst other distinguished names, that of the prior of Saint Bees appears as a witness to "the rules and orders for the burghers of Egremont," by Richard de Lacy, about the reign of King John. In the reign of Henry IV. a Richard Hunte was appointed to Saint Bees, as a free chapelry in the gift of the Crown, but the abbot of Saint Mary's remonstrated with the King, and the grant was revoked. After the dissolution of monasteries, 7 Edward VI. Sir Thomas Chaloner became possessed of the monastic property, paying to the Crown yearly the fee farm rent of 1431. 168. 24d. This yearly rent was afterwards granted (4 and 5 William

Notitia, No. 72.

§ Dugd. Mon. 395. 1 Dugd. Mon. 397.

1831.]

the year 1587, by Edmund Grindall, Archbishop of Canterbury. Over the door of the school is the date 1583, as there is likewise on the battlement of the bridge leading to the school, with the arms, so that it is probable that the school house was built in that year, though the school was not fully established till afterwards. The benevolent founder obtained letters patent from Queen Elizabeth, dated 24 April, 1583; and on the 3d of July, he solemnly delivered and published the Statutes for the regulation of the school, in the presence of eight witnesses. During the life of the founder, certain lands called Palmer's Fields, at Croydon in the County of Surrey, of the value of 50l. per annum, were purchased in the names of the Governors. This estate was afterwards improperly leased for 1000 years, without fine or premium to the school! King James considerably increased the revenues of the school, and several patents were granted and Acts of Parliament passed in its favour, so that the present annual value of its lands is supposed to be at least 8000l. while the income arising from them to the school is stated to be less than 1001. The royalty of Saint Bees still belongs to the school, and a court is yearly held at the school house. To the school is attached a good library, which has been greatly improved at various periods by Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State to Charles II., Dr. Lamplugh, Archbishop of York, Bishop Barlow, Bishop Smith, the Earl of Lonsdale, &c.-By the Statutes only the inhabitants of Cumberland and Westmoreland are eligible for instruction here, but custom has rendered it the same as if free to every county in England; every scholar making a yearly offering to the master, according to his ability, which is termed Cock-Penny." The master is to be a native of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Yorkshire, or Lancashire, and is nominated by the provost

* It may not be improper to mention that Archbishop Grindall is the Algrind of Spenser, by transposition of the letters of his name. He was born at Hensingham near Saint Bees in 1519, died in 1583, and was buried in the chancel of Croydon Church in the county of Surrey, where there is a monument to his memory.-See Biog. Brit.

+ See Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, vol. I.

303

of Queen's, or in default by the master of Pembroke-hall. There have been between 150 and 200 scholars at one time. The present Governors are the Earl of Lonsdale, John Fox, D.D. Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, ex officio, the Rev. Mr. Scott, Rector of Egremont, ex officio, and four others.

The School has been long in a declining state, and probably at the present time has a smaller number of scholars than ever it had. Time will best show the cause of this, when under other care it may again attain its pristine celebrity. Its present condition, however, must be lamented by every friend of literature, but especially by those who knew it as the scene of their youthful days,-by those now occupying situations of rank and affluence, for which they were fitted within its walls. ‡

GEORGE C. TOMLINSON.

LETTER OF SAMUEL HARTLIB ON THE

DEATH OF DES CARTES, &c.

WE publish the following Letter by favour of William Hamper, esq. F.S.A. in whose collection the original is preserved. It gives an amusing, not to say ridiculous, picture of the opinions of the famous philosopher Des Cartes, on the duration of human life, and his somewhat Jewish conduct, in consequence, to provide for his future support by means of a life annuity.

This singular feature of Des Cartes' philosophy is thus noticed in the Biographical Dictionary:

sible to prolong life very considerably be"Des Cartes, it is said, imagined it posyond the common period, and thought he had discovered the method of doing it. In conversation with Sir Kenelm Digby, Des Cartes assured him that, having already considered that matter, he would not venture to promise to render a man immortal; but that he was very sure it was possible to lengthen out his life to the period of the patriarchs. It seems evident to me, says he, in a letter written to M. de Zylichem from Egmond, in 1638, when he had attained the age of forty-two years, that if we only guarded against certain errors, which we are accustomed to commit in the course of our diet, we might, without any other invention, at

Since the above was written, a new Master has been appointed to the School, in the person of Rev. John Fox, M.A. of Queen's College, Oxford, the nephew of the worthy Provost.