16 Wardmotes in Churches.-Hexham Abbey Church. nological order, allow me to call your A portion of the church and burying-ground of St. Anne, Aldersgate, is threatened, and that for the purpose of making an unnecessary road to the new Post Office, merely for show and effect, to display a building which had far better have been hidden. The approaches to London bridge, and the new streets consequent thereon, will, if made, interfere with more than one church. St. Michael's, Crooked-lane, is in danger, and the burying-ground of St. Olaves, Southwark, is not likely to escape. Join me, Mr. Urban, therefore, and add your protest against any future destruction, and let me hope that it will not be unheard in that quarter where the appeal can be attended to. I intended to have closed my letter here, but almost while writing it, another and more common desecration of existing churches has occurred to my observation; this is occasioned by the annual election of Common Coun cilmen for the wards of the city of parish and one ward the evil has been prevented, but apparently more out of regard to the damage the pews sustained than to any respect for the violated sanctity of the building. If a rule is made, why is it not a general rule? is the church of St. Bride or St. Andrew more holy than St. Botolph or any other? If such a rule is made for one parish and one ward, why is it not extended to the entire city. The evil is likely in future to increase rather than to diminish, inasmuch as many Halls (the Salters', for instance), in which such meetings have been for merly held, having been rebuilt or repaired, have been refused to the electors. A building dedicated to the purposes of feasting and excess is deemed [Jan. too good to hold such assemblies in, yet Mr. UREAN, E. I. C. Stone Bridge, Durham, Jan. 4. No building has suffered more from being "churchwardenized,” than the fine old Church of Hexham ; and it is allowed that no building in the kingdom presents so fine a specimen of the latter Norman style. The good taste and liberality with which the present impropriator is restoring the great eastern window, induces me, through the medium of your valuable publication, to suggest an improvement, and, as far as possible, to restore those parts to their pristine state which have been altered, or added, by the bad taste or ignorance of those who had the direction. I allude more particularly to the altar: this is formed by wooden pauels, in the centre of which are two incongruous pillars of the Composite order; on each side of these, the Decalogue is painted, and between, a fanciful wreath of flowers, which ill accords with the solemnity of the place, and the whole with the grandeur of the building. Behind this screen, and supporting the base of the great window, are some fine Pointed arches; and I beg to suggest to those who have the direction, to remove the wood work, and leave the arches to form the altar,-it would then be in harmony with the original building, and they would elicit the thanks of every antiquary. It was stated by a writer in the Quarterly Review, that it was to be regretted there were no funds set aside by Government, for the restoration of our national edifices, when there was no church property for that purpose, or the parish was too much oppressed by poor rates to do it; and he particnlarized Hexham. To expect the Government to do it, under the depressed state of the country, would be too much, and to expect it from individuals whose taste or pursuits are at variance, is equally so; but, if the time come when the means can be accom plished, I hope this venerable pile will not be forgotten. The late lecturer, * See a view of Hexham Church, in vol. LXXVII. p. 1097; and an account of it, in vol. xxv. p. 297. 1830.] Hexham Church.-Roman Villa at Pitney. the Rev. Robert Clarke, did much to this building, and, had he not been "cut off in the midst of his days," much more would have been done,his inclination and his means were in unison, and not only the church, but the poor, lost in him a friend and benefactor. The church suffered much in the 13th century, from the incursions of the Scots, when the west wing or nave was destroyed; but it has suffered more by the barbarism of the inhabitants! The north transept was made the entrance; a door has been placed in it, in humble imitation of the Doric! Galleries are placed without uniformity, between the pillars of the choir; the capitals of the pillars, and the fine old oaken stalls, are cut to suit the convenience of those who erected them; buildings have been surreptitiously placed against the church, so as to hide it from public view, and the only entrance from the market place is through a passage which would disgrace a common manufactory! About the year 1727, a bond was raised by a “brief,” to build two abutments, &c. to support the tower to the west; could not the same be adopted at present, to restore what the parish is unable to do? We venerate the character of those who added to our national buildings in the middle ages, -is the present generation, who have the ability, indifferent to the praises of posterity? I am fearful, Mr. Urban, I trespass on your valuable pages, or much might be said on the subject. Yours, &c. HEXHAMENSIS. Mr. URBAN, SOME Stourhead, Dec. 10, 1829. OME time ago (see Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1827,) I communicated to you an account of a Roman mosaic pavement at Littleton, near Somerton, co. Somerset, discovered by Mr. Hasell, on his own grounds, of which you engraved the ground-plan; and I now send you an account of another villa, more worthy of notice, at Pitney, in From the dangerous state of the east end of the quire, it has been taken down, and a fine window placed in it by Mrs. Beaumont, the lady of the manor of Hexham. It is after the design of the late window, which was not older than the Reformation; but its ornaments correspond more with the style of the original building. GENT. MAG. January, 1830. 17 the same neighbourhood, of which a very imperfect account appeared some time ago in the public papers. This fine villa extends above 300 feet in length. Its form is an oblong square, surrounded by buildings, offices, baths, &c. the principal apartments facing the west, and having an exten. sive area within. Five adjoining rooms are decorated with mosaic floors, in very good preservation, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The same subject is continued in 1, 3, and 4; and that subject is so unlike any other that has been chosen, that it deserves our particular attention. In almost all the mosaic pavements hitherto discovered in Britain, we generally find figures alluding to the heathen mythology, with arabesques of birds, fish, beasts, and foliage. The figures of Bacchus and Medusa are the most frequent, as in the fine pavements at Bramdean, in Hants, and at Thruxton, at the latter of which is an inscription.* But in the pavement at Pitney we have a British story, alluding to the mines, smelting, and coining. It is generally supposed that the Romans, after the conquest of Britain, were very diligent in exploring the minerals of our island; and, although we know not of any mines in the immediate neighbourhood of Pitney, yet they are found in great abundance in the adjoining hills of Mendip. In the small room, No. 1, we see a young man striking with fury at the hydra (vw), as we all know that water is the greatest enemy to mines. No. 2, contains an elegant arabesque pattern. No. 3, is the grand apartment, and I may safely pronounce it unique, for it contains within a square nine wholelength figures (in compartments), of about four feet in height.. I imagine that the central figure is the owner of the villa, holding a cup of coin in his hand to pay his dependants. The figures are male and female alternate, holding in their hands the different instruments still in use for smelting ore, such as rakes, forks, pincers, and long iron rods, crooked and straight; also canisters, or smelting pots, from which coin is dropping. Adjoining to this apartment is an * See vol. xc. ii. p. 230. 18 Rise and Progress of Stage-Coach Travelling. other, No. 4, of smaller proportions, and differing in design though not in subject; for the four square compartments (one of which has been destroyed), represent winged boys dancing and carrying along the canisters of coin, suspended on crooked iron rods, rake, pincers, &c. There is another small apartment adjoining No. 4, which has only a simple mosaic pavement. The tessellæ of those pavements are composed of white, buff, blue lias stone, and brick. The village of Pitney adjoins that of Littleton, near Somerton, where numerous remains of the Roman æra have been found, and is situated at a short distance from the Roman road leading from Iscalis (Ilchester) to Street and Glastonbury; and the whole of these important discoveries, and their preservation, are due to the zeal of Samuel Hasell, Esq. of Littleton, by whose means I have had very correct drawings made of all these fine mosaic pavements. R. C. H. Staffordshire Moorlands, MR. URBAN, December 28. J. H. Markland, Esq. on the early use of carriages in England, which traces the vehicular mode of conveyance, very clearly and circumstantially, from its origin. One branch of the inquiry, however, as it did not form part of his object to examine into it minutely, he has touched upon but slightly: viz. the rise and progress of those public conveyances commonly called Stagecoaches: and the following materials may, therefore, not be without their use towards a further illustration of the subject. Stage-coaches (in the present sense of the term) seem to have been first used about the middle of the seventeenth century; for the earliest mention of them adduced by Mr. Markland (and I have met with none of remoter date) occurs in an extract from "Dugdale's Diary," communicated by Mr. Hamper, in which he mentions his travelling to London by the Coventry coach, in 1659, and his daughter by the Coventry waggon, in 1660. At this period indeed, and long after, the use of coaches was confined to people of the higher class, those of a meaner sort being content to travel more slowly by the caravans or stage-waggons, spo " [Jan. ken of by Stowe as a common mode of conveyance circa 1560, and which carried twenty or thirty persons. In the fragment of Dr. Johnson's AutoBiography, published by Wright, of Lichfield, he tells us, that "when taken to London by his mother, in 1711, to be touched for the evil, they travelled thither by the coach; but, from considerations of economy, returned home in a waggon." This cumbrous vehicle, the appearance of which has been perpetuated by Hogarth (in his "Harlot's Progress," Plate 1), continued to be generally resorted to, till towards the close of the last century, by the lower orders of country people who visited London; but I believe the stage-coaches, by their number and cheapness, have now almost completely superseded it. How long after their introduction coaches remained without the luxury of springs, does not exactly appear; but that this addition was somewhat of a novelty in 1703, may be inferred from a passage in Baker's Comedy, called "Tunbridge Walks," published in that year, wherein Maiden, an effeminate fellow, observes," Some what pleasure there is in jumbling wth mee The "boote" here mentioned, which must not be confounded with the appendage so called at present, was a projection on either side of the vehicle, in which a passenger sat on a stool, with his face to the window, if, indeed, windows were known in our early coaches. It is depicted in one of the plates accompanying Mr. Markland's Essay, and something of the kind seems to be still retained in the state-coaches used by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord |