of the fabric might be so restored as to be one of the most remarkable ones of the district. The tower is of flint, with a lofty shingle spire, and is the great sea-mark in these parts. Few seem aware how very beautiful shingles are. Formerly they were much in vogue in this island, and appear to have been peculiar to northern climes. In the first instance they were used, no doubt, as most handy (to use a Sussex expression,) and likewise as weather-boards, but afterwards were continued as picturesque. Pliny informs us that they were used at Rome till the war with Pyrrhus-ad Pyrrhi usque bellum—and from Vitruvius we learn that necessity was mother of the invention. Ad hunc diem, are his words, nationibus exteris ex his rebus ædificia constituuntur, ut in Gallia, Hispania, Lusitania, Aquitania, scandulis robusteis, aut stramentis. As the name implies, they are split pieces of wood, and usually about a foot long. It will be observed that the spire here is crooked, as many wooden spires are-Horsham, for example. This is to be attributed to the timber having been originally green. Common report says, Tarring spire was struck by lightning, and has ever since been awry. Likely enough it has been struck by lightning, but this was not the cause of its being crooked. Tenterden steeple was equally the cause of the Goodwin Sands, and of the shelf that stopped up Sandwich Haven. You will remember the racy story as told by Latimer, in his last sermon before Edward VI. Tarring Church, is, I believe, what is called a twelve-apostlearch Church. There are five arches on each side, separating the nave from the north and south aisles, which, with the tower and the chancel arch complete the number. The latter is sadly disfigured and broken. This desecration is supposed to have been 8 The passage in Pliny is in lib. xvi. c. x. : "Scandulæ è robore aptissimæ, mox è glandiferis aliis, fagoque; facillimè ex omnibus quæ resinam ferunt, sed minimè durant, præterquam è pino. Scandulâ contectam fuisse Romam ad Pyrrhi usque bellum annis quadringentis lxx Cornelius Nepos auctor est." For Vitruvius, cf. lib. ii. c. i. So in German Schindel. Wachter in v. Du Cange, v. Schindulæ, quotes the following from the Chron. Mellicense: Schindula quasi 400, iliceœ seu quercina de vasis vetustibus vinorum, aliis Schindulis deficientibus. The French name is Bardeau. The Greek Scholiast on Aristoph. Nub. 131, says, Exivdaλμovs καλοῦμεν τὰ λεπτότατα τῶν ξύλων. The fullest explanation of the word will be found in Martinii Lexicon, v. Scandala. 9 Latimer's Serm. ut suprà, p. 110. Many of our old divines use this illustration. R effected when the rood-loft was destroyed 1o. The royde or rood lyght is mentioned in the parish accounts as late as 1546, but it is not stated when the rood-loft was pulled down. Most likely it was in conformity to the order issued 1st of Edward VI., in the year 1547. Few survived the Reformation, comparatively speaking, but the antiquarian will still find some. The finest relics are in Somersetshire, especially Long Sutton and Kingsbury Episcopi. In our Cathedrals the modern organ-loft was the site of the Holy-rood. The account in Staveley's "History of Churches in England" is plain and simple. The book is a compilation, and many of the extracts are not marked off, but it is useful enough. He ends by observing, "The festival of the exaltation of the Cross was, and till this time is known by the name of Holy-RoodDay; in the Saxon language, the word Rode, or Rood, signifying a Cross and as it was an usual oath to swear by the Mass, so also by the Rood, as a very sacred thing 1. The font is quite out of place. It was most probably put where it now is when the gallery was erected. When that is taken down it should resume its ancient position, which was near the arch of the tower, leading to the western door. It is a plain octagonal one, but like the chancel arch, has been much battered. What could be done to repair it has been recently done. The cross on the oaken cover is a Maltese one. A St. Andrew's cross had been more appropriate, the Church being dedicated to that Apostle. ALETHES. Excuse me interrupting you once more, but I have forgot what the St. Andrew's Cross is. EUBULUS. It is called a cross decussate, and is composed of two pieces of timber crossing each other obliquely in the middle,-in fact, the letter X. I have an extract here from Butler's "Life of St. Andrew," which I will read you, as it is somewhat curious: "It is mentioned in the Records of the Duchy of Burgundy, that 10 The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England ignore the repairs of the arch, and throw them on the poverty of the parish : "Dii meliora piis, erroremque hostibus illum !" 1 See c. xiii. 2nd Ed. 8vo. 1773. the Cross of St. Andrew was brought out of Achaia, and placed in the nunnery of Weaune, near Marseilles. It was thence removed into the Abbey of St. Victor in Marseilles, before the year 1250, and is now shown there. A part thereof inclosed in a silver case, was carried to Brussels by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, who in honour of it, instituted the Knights of the Golden Fleece, who, for the badge of their Order, wear a figure of this Cross, called St. Andrew's Cross, or the Cross of Burgundy"." The Russians also claim him as their saint, and assert that he carried the Gospel as far as the mouths of the Borysthenes, and it was in acquiescence with the national superstition that Peter the Great "instituted under his name the First and Most Noble Order of Knighthood, or of the Blue Ribbon." St. Andrews, in Scotland, as is well known, is called after his name likewise. I have only to add as regards the Church, that the tower is well proportioned and has battlements. The bells unhappily are broken and out of order, but something we may hope will be done by and by. We ought surely to keep up what our ancestors spared no expense in procuring! Till lately the west window was filled up with ill-squared glass and a wooden casement. Such was the way the old stone mullions were replaced! This is now restored exactly as it was, and in Caen stone. It was put in after the fashion of a mortuary window, in memory of the lamented Southey. It is perfectly simple, and has no inscription. Inside the tower is one of those curious old chests which were formerly very common. There is a remarkable one in the Church at Aldenham, near Watford. The one here was formerly used for keeping the registers, churchwarden's accounts, and other parochial documents. These-the few that is which have escaped the damps of centuries-have been now removed to the iron chest. Cartwright, in his "History of the Rape of Bramber," has preserved some extracts from these papers3. In a few years more 2 See under Nov. 30th. He was put to death at Patræ, in Achaia, and crucified, as the Pseudo-Hippolytus relates, on an olive-tree. For his supposititious remains, see Fabricius Codex Apocryphus N. T. In p. 512, note. The shape of the cross is questioned ; and it is stated that the one shown at Marseilles, non decussata est sed erecta. 3 See p. 13, &c. they will quite have perished. Even now they fall to dust when touched. And thus, Alethes, end my rough notes. ALETHES. I thank you heartily for your details. Were every thing set down in like manner throughout the several parishes in this land, a most invaluable history might be drawn up. EUBULUS. I admit it-if after the fashion of White Kennett's "Parochial Antiquities." Much that he wrote of Ambrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent parts would with difficulty be obtained now. |