CENTRAL FRANCE. Its ex After spending a few days in Paris we journeyed due South, and one long day's travelling brought us to the ancient city of Bourges, which stands in the very centre of France. As formerly remarked, every variety of scenery is to be found in France, only you must go longer distances than in England to pass from one to another. The truth of this is perceived in such a journey as that from Paris to Bourges. The whole distance is 144 miles; yet along this course there are broadly speaking but two varieties; first a very wide and rather deep valley, the sides covered with much wood and dotted with houses, some of them rather large country houses; altogether a more thickly populated district than is usually seen in France. This valley gradually expands into a more open, flatter, and less interesting country, through which flows the Loire, and southwards of this again extends the higher level of the vast woodland region of Nivernais in which Bourges is situated. Orleans is 75 miles from Paris, or roughly speaking, the half-way house on the road to Bourges. Here I first saw the Loire, and instantly felt it to be the great river of a great country; a mighty impetuous river when it rages and swells with the force of autumn and winter rains, but in dry sunny September when we saw it, looking gentle and innocent. tremely broad bed was not nearly filled with water, but streaked with many rippling streams, which threaded their course amidst green islets and through dry shoals of shingle and sand. They seemed as if a child might have waded across them; though I fancy they are really far too rapid and deep for that. But well did Barrere, the French democrat say, "what a revolutionary river is this Loire"! for quick and terrific are the changes of its mood. In the late Autumn or Spring, that great channel, broad as it is, often cannot contain the mighty volume of water which rushes down, and pours over the plain on either side. In the terrible flood of 1856 many hundreds of square miles were inundated; crops, of course, which grow abundantly in that fertile sunny plain, ruined, and whole villages swept away. A relative of mine who visited that region some time afterwards saw scraps of rubbish left by the water in the trees at a height of fifteen feet, and this you must remember not in a narrow pent up valley, but open plain. Soon after crossing the broad bed and valley of the Loire, we entered the high, level, forest region of Nivernais, the most central part of France. Here you travel miles and miles without seeing a human habitation; as far as the eye can reach, it sees nothing but heathy sandy soil, trees and brushwood not thickly planted, but scattered all round in irregular profusion. The whole place breathes an air of loneliness and remoteness. A brother and sister named de Guerin, natives of the South of France, both writers of genius, have described this district in few words, but with great beauty: "I have been along the banks of the Loire where nature is puissant and gay : . . . and from these I passed back into the interior of the country as far as Bourges and Nevers, a region of vast woodlands in which murmurs of an immense range and fulness prevail and never cease." So writes Maurice the brother, and thus Eugenie the sister in her own graceful way: "It does me good to be going about in the midst of this enchanting nature with flowers, birds, and verdure all round me, under this large and blue sky of the Nivernais. How I love the gracious form of it and those little white clouds here and there like cushions of cotton hung aloft to rest the eye in this immensity." In the heart of this region, on rising ground, stands Bourges, one of the most central cities of France; one of the few which the English did not take at the time of their greatest conquests, when Charles VII retained so little except this city, and its immediate neighbourhood, that he was derisively called king of Bourges. Having already made a few remarks on the general characteristics of French Cathedrals, and attempted a more particular description of Amiens, I shall not enter into any detailed account of the Cathedral of Bourges. It will be enough to say that all who desire to see one of the most superb specimens of French Gothic should visit Bourges. The Cathedral stands on high ground and when you reach the end of the long narrow winding street which leads to it, the West front looks down upon you with an overpowering solemnity and grandeur, for there are five deep and sculptured arched portals approached by a broad flight of steps, and there are two massive towers. The peculiar feature of the Cathedral is that there are no transepts; it is not in the form of a cross, but is one long building of five aisles. The precincts are charming. Hard by, on the South side stands the palace of the Archbishop, and when he comes to celebrate High-mass in the Cathedral, as he did the morning we were there, he walks across to the South Porch. We were standing in the Nave, and through the open door we saw the gilt cross which was borne aloft before him waving and glittering in the sun outside; preceded by this, and followed by his train-bearer and chaplains, the Cardinal Archbishop passed in; the Cathedral Canons and Clergy who stood waiting for him drawn up in two rows just inside the doorway closed in after him when he had entered, and then after making the circuit of the Apse behind the altar and stalls, the whole procession entered the choir itself. At the close of the service all passed out again in the same order, the Cathedral Clergy breaking off at the doorway and retiring within the building, the Archbishop and his little company going out and waving his hand in token of benediction over the people, who thronged round him to receive it. Also on the South side of the Cathedral, on a kind of broad terrace, are public gardens, flanked on one side by the Archbishop's palace and Canons' houses. Here we sat for some time on that hot sunny morning, surveying the glorious fabric of the Cathedral, and enjoying that most perfect recreation, that delightful sense of freedom which comes over you in a distant foreign city where you know no one and no one knows you, where you can stay as long or as short a time as you please, and you say to your companions, "this has indeed been a day of enjoyment, the eye has been feasted with beauty, and the mind with interest; we will sojourn here one evening more and 'tomorrow to fresh fields and pastures new.' W. R. S. S. ANDREW'S CHURCH, SONNING. IV. The most remarkable feature in the interior of the Church, is the richly sculptured stone arch on the North side of the Sacrarium. Of the history or purpose of this beautiful work of medieval art we know absolutely nothing. There is no notice of it in Ashmole's account of the Church, and in Lyson's Magna Britannia it is only spoken of as "an elegant pointed arch, very richly ornamented with figures of saints." There have been many conjectures as to its original purpose. It may possibly have been raised over what was called an Easter Sepulchre, that is, a place for the performance of certain solemn rites commemorative of the Resurrection of our Lord; or, it may have stood over the shrine of a saint; or, it may have been erected over the tomb of some benefactor of the Church. It may seem presumptious in me to hazard a conjecture, but I cannot help thinking that the arch is not now in its original situation. My reasons for thinking so are, first, that there were no remains of masonry below, or anything to indicate that a tomb or shrine had ever been there; the short broken pillars of the arch were not supported, as now, on a stone slab, but ended abruptly against the wall, and the oak panelling, which formerly ran all round the Sacrarium, was carried across the base. Secondly, and chiefly, that the roof of the Chancel is not lofty enough for the height of the arch, in consequence of which, before the restoration of the Church, the carved finial was not fixed, as now, on the top of the arch where it belongs, but was inserted by itself, as if it formed no part of the work, in the face of the wall. Now it is almost inconceivable that the roof should not have been made high enough for so remarkable a structure as this, if it had stood from the first in that place; but it is quite possible that the repairers of the fabric in some of the later alterations should not have thought it necessary to raise the roof on purpose to admit the arch, when it was transferred from some other site; and I think it not improbable that such an arch as this might have been connected with the chapel and shrine of S. Sarac, and have been spared in consideration of the beauty of its workmanship, when the chapel itself was removed at the time of the Reformation.* As we were unable to raise the Chancel roof, (though it was much to be desired), Mr. Woodyer made a plan for carrying up the arch to its full height, with its finial restored on the top, by breaking through the wall plate of the roof, and making a little arched recess to receive the whole structure. When we first determined to restore this beautiful arch, we had no idea that it would be necessary to take it down, but a careful inspection showed there was so much to be done, that no other course was practicable. Most of the heads of the statues were gone, and the NOTE. It is a slight confirmation of this view, that in repairing the wall, (found to be in a most dilapidated state), between this arch and the East end of the Church, we came upon the twisted Norman column, which had been used as material for filling up the middle of the wall; a proof that this part of the Church had been re-constructed at some late period. canopies and bosses were choked up with coats of whitewash, so that we could not tell whether the material was stone or chalk. The repair of the sculpture was committed into the hands of Mr. Philip, (who has since been distinguished as a sculptor, in the restoration of several our cathedrals), and the arch was taken down, stone by stone, and carefully re-worked, as far as could be ascertained according to its original design, in the Vicarage. The front to the Chancel represents Christ blessing the twelve Apostles. The figure of our Lord, with the hands raised in the act of benediction, occupies the key-stone. There are seven figures on each hand; the first on either side from the top being angels. On the front towards the vestry, the key-stone contains the Virgin and Child, and in this we have perhaps the nearest clue to anything like the history of the arch. For the Virgin and Child are represented exactly as they appear in the arms of the See of Salisbury, and it would seem therefore that we may connect the arch with some of the Bishops of Salisbury, who, as we know, had a manor house at Sonning, and constantly resided there until the Reformation. On either side of the Virgin and Child, are two upturned faces, partially veiled, in the act of adoration; next to them are two singularly beautiful figures of angels swinging censers, and below them, as we conjecture, Kings and Queens under canopies. Mr. Philip was very careful to preserve as much as was possible of the old sculpture, but it was sadly defaced, and in some cases it was difficult to make out the attitudes and drapery. I am afraid there are not more than two of the old heads; the rest were probably destroyed in the civil wars of the Great Rebellion, when so much more wanton injury was done to all our ecclesiastical edifices, than at the period of the Reformation. Mr. Woodyer placed a slab of stone underneath the arch, which now serves the purpose of a Credence table, or place for the elements before consecration. The arch, as it now appears, is certainly a great adornment to the Church, and it is an object of much interest to all archæologians. There was even a proposal that a model of it should be sent to the Great Exhibition. One cannot help being struck with the amount of thought and labour, and money lavished on such a work as this, bearing in mind too that it is not found in a magnificent Cathedral, but in one of the ordinary parish churches of the land. With the pious builders of ancient days, no expense was deemed too costly, no work too laborious, and no skill wasted, in adorning the houses raised for the worship of God. There were no remains of stone work at the east end of the Church, and no traces of a reredos (or ornamental screen), at the back of the Communion Table. The Sedilia, which were no doubt as usual, on the south side, must have been removed when the south Chancel Aisle was built. Mr. Woodyer designed a stone reredos of diaper work, and faced the whole of the lower part of the wall within the Sacrarium with ashlar stone, having an ornamental arcade at the top. The reredos itself is not perhaps so imposing in design, or so elaborate in ornament, as might be expected, but it must be remembered that when our Church was restored sixteen years ago, the revival of architectural taste had not reached its present development, and also that the expenses of the building being very heavy, we were not able to indulge in any costly work that was not absolutely necessary. Before turning to another part of our subject, it may be well to notice here the other relics of ancient carving which the Church possesses. Every one remarks the little niche on the chalk pillar in front of the North door, as you enter. The image is gone, but the carved work on the pedestal of the niche remains, sharp and clear, and is well worth noticing. On another pillar on the opposite side of the Church, are the remains of what must have been a stoup or bason, for holy water. This is also elaborately and richly carved in chalk. The beautiful little Norman twisted pillar, on which the alms box is placed, was mentioned in a previous paper. There was formerly, over the outer door of the North Porch, a very rude and almost totally defaced statue of S. Andrew, the patron saint of the Church. It was of quite late date, and without any merit. This therefore was removed, and a new niche erected for a new statue of S. Andrew, which was carved by Mr. Philip, and is a very successful work. One other relic may be mentioned, the Piscina, which is now in the vestry in the North Chancel Aisle. It was discovered some little time before we began the restoration, on removing the high boarding of a pew, at the east end of the south wall of the Church, and its position indicated in the inside what the buttress does on the outside, that this was the original end of the Church, and that no Chancel Aisle extended beyond. The Piscina was always placed near an altar, for the purpose of cleansing the vessels used in the Sacramental Service and no doubt a side altar stood in this South Aisle. The Piscina was removed to its present place in order to be used in rinsing the chalice after the Communion Service. It is of stone, of a simple and excellent design, and belongs, like the aisle in which it was found, to the best period of Decorated Architecture. H. P. To be continued. HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN. The following letter addressed to Miss Righton, in acknowledgment of the box sent from this Parish, has been forwarded to us : "Madam, "The Hospital for Sick Children, "Great Ormond Street, Bloomsbury, "The parcel of articles kindly given for the use of our little patients has been received and already placed to good use. I beg you to present our best thanks to the kind friends who contributed the articles. "Our work here is not unknown to you, but I am sure that you will be pleased to hear that we contemplate an immediate enlargement of our Hospital, by the formation of a country home for the convalescent children. We have secured a long lease of an old mansion, Cromwell House, Highgate, which is capable of receiving perhaps sixty children who are recovering from sickness, or who may |