leges, the embattled houses were uniformly constructed round a quadrangle with a tur reted gate-house of entrance, though not fortified with the massive round towers and portcullis of the castle gate. The principal partments were the hall, the great chamber, kitchen, and chapel. The hall was a copy of those in colleges, which in their turn were of comventual origin. Here the master, with his family and superior guests, dined every day at a long oak table, elevated on two or three steps, called the highdees, at the upper end, whilst the tenants and those of inferior rank, were seated at a table below, at right angles with the former. The hall was lighted by one or more gothic windows and a long bow window, forming a recess, near the high table. It had no fire-place, but was warmed by a brazier of live coals in the middle, the smoke escaping from a hole at the top, this apartment being anciently always open to the roof, the timbers of which were formed into a pointed arch, carved and adorned with armis, rebusses, and quaterfoils. At the lower end was a wooden screen of latticed work, which supported a gallery for the minstrelsy, on great days. Under it ran a narrow lobby with a passage through, which communicated with a buttery hatch, where the butler attended to administer ale to the numerous applicants at all times of the day; and beyond these were the offices. The great chamber adjoined the hall at the upper end. In this apartment was the luxury of a fire-place, if the wide open chimney-pieces of our ancestors deserve to be called luxuries, and it was the usual resort of the family when not at their meals: it is conceived also, that, as in the combination room of colleges, and the locutorium or parlour of monasteries, the master with his chief guests often retired soon after dinner, from the cold atmosphere of the hall, to the social comfort of its hearth; while the inferior visitors were left to carouse by the dying embers of the brazier they had left.

The chapel was a small room often over the gate way, and sometimes adjoining it, and was rather an oratory for private devotion than for the assembling of a congregation. Our town does not now possess que perfect mansion of this early kind, but the ruins of Charlton I will give some idea of them.*

To these ancient fortified houses, succeeded the embauled mansion of Queen Elizabeth or Janies 1. This was of two kinds, the greater and the less; one an improvement upon the ride quadrangle, the other an expansion of the ancient castlet; one luminous inagnificent, with deep projecting bow, win

Stoke castle near Ludlow, improperly called a castle, is a very curious and entire pecimen of the castellated mansion of early 4)6,

dows, and the other lofty, square, and comipact. Of the great square windows in such houses, it is a well-known complaint of Lord Bacon, "that one knows not where to become to be out of the sun." The characteristic accompaniments of these houses within, were huge arol id fire-places in their balls, and kitchens; chimney-pieces in their chambers of state, richly carved and adorned with armorial bearings mixed with grotesque figures in wood, stone, or alabaster; raised hearths, long and massy tables of oak, from their bulk calculate i to last for centuries. One apartment seldom omitted in houses of this rank and date, but never found in those of higher antiquity, was a long gallery for music and dancing, sometimes 150 feet long, a proof that the hall was now beginning to be deserted; at all events, the practice of dining in these great apartments at different tables, according to the rank of the guests was scarcely continued below the restoration.

The unembattled gentleman's house in towns partook of the general features of the above but was of smaller dimensions, and without any fortifications. These were in general retired from the street, by a small court two or three sides of which were inclosed by the house and offices, the rest with walls, and shut up with a gate, usually without any lodge or apartment over it. The most ancient of such houses consisted of a thorough lobby with a parlour beyond it on one side, with a stone floor, the kitchens and offices, on the other. The partitions were of rude oak, the chimnics wide and open, and the rooms, except the hall and great parlour, low and small. Vaughan's Place was originally a fine house of this sort. These comfortless habitations were succeeded by the houses of Queen Elizabeth's days. In them the original form was retained, though with considerable improvement. The entrance was by an inclosed projecting porch, which led to the hall. This was lighted generally by one great square window with cross mullions, a massy oak table beneath, at the lower end a. gallery for music, or to connect the apartments above, and a fire-place embracing in its ample space almost all the width of the room, the Christmas scene of rule and boisterous festivity; beyond was uniformly a parlour, and on the other side, the great chamber, or withdrawing room, sometimes up three or four steps. In the windows of such houses and those of a rank above them, are found the remains of painted glass in a style which seems to have been fashionable in the seventeenth century; they consist of arms, cyphers, figures of animals, and scripture histories, or others, in small round and. oval pieces. Of these the drawing is extremely correct, but the colours feint and dingy, very unlike the deep and glowing tints of the foregoing cen

The tradesman's house was one or sometimes two long ranges united, terminating with gables in the street. The shop occupied the whole breadth next the street, and was entirely without glass, like our present unsightly butchers' shops. Behind was a kitch-cise en, and beyond a small open yard round which were the warehouses and offices. The pride of the owners were their signs, which denoted the trade or craft by some animal or device: these either projected far into the street from the house, or were stuck upon high timbers opposite the door. In former days cur towns must have exhibited the appearance of the streets of Pekin, rather than of the open and lively air of a modern European city. The barber's solitary pole, and here and there a heavy gilt sign projecting from an inn in an old town, are the only remains of these clumsy and inconvenient ornaments. Messrs. Stanier and Meire's house in the market-place, and some of the butcher's houses, are good specimens of these ancient dwellings.

When we consider the state of the large parishes in the western part of the metropolis, I have no hesitation in pronouncing, that great and important benefits would followif better accommodation could be provided, We understand that the author is the the middle and lower classes of the inhaand more effectual encouragement given, to Rev. Hugh Owen, of Shrewsbury. His bitants to frequent the worship of the estatownsmen are obliged to him for his blished church, by the erection of free Jabours; and the public for his illustra-churches, or by allotting to them a larger tions of various interesting particulars in our national manners and history.

done, or how can he answer for the fidelity of this record, unless the entries are correctly and faithfully made with his own hand, and the books preserved in bis own custody? Such personal attention is the only sure method effectually to secure them from that disorder and confusion which has sometimes been severely animadverted upon in the courts of law, when unsuccessfully resorted to for the establishment of doubtful and litigated claims. Instances of this, I am reluctantly compelled to remark, have recently occurred within this archdeaconry; and my late examination of the register-books obliges me, in truth, to acknowledge, that if further proofs of similar neglect are not brought to light, it would be more owing to good fortune than to the care of some of the clergy, who appear to leave the performance of this duty to their parish clerk.

Duplicates should be regularly transmitted to the bishop's registry. Many excellent parsonage houses have been recently built, while others have undergone extensive repairs and improvements.

Means are taking for rearing such a growth of timber upon the glebes [in some instances] as cannot fail to prove a valuable appendage to the benefice, and an acceptable legacy to successors.

Mr. E. considers the

W place these articles together, because we learn, from an account prefixed to the latter, that Mr. Littleter being In the course of my parochial visits more struck with Mr. Evans's explanation of than one or two instances occurred of applica- the seventy weeks of Daniel, in the first tions from the parish clerk for my inter- of these discourses, requested an interference to obtain an augmentation of his sa- view with the author, and after sundry tary. The very small pittance they now in conversations, publicly professed his general receive from the parish was probably faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and sufficient, when it was first granted, to engage the service of persons in respectable was baptized. situations, and of competent abilities; but "doctrine of the Divine Unity," as havfrom the alteration in the value of money ing produced the most beneficial effects the profits of the appointment are so much on this occasion. As we fully agree with reduced as to be hardly worth the acceptance this converted Jew that "the unity of of a day labourer; whilst the additional fees God is as much a doctrine of the New, which he receives as the sexton, being fixed as it is of the Old Testament," we aban at a time when the price of labour was so don to his censure all who explain the much lower than it is at present, are but a doctrine of three distinctions, (of some bare equivalent for the interruption of his ordinary occupation. It would be attended kind) in the Deity, in such a manner as to with very beneficial effects, if the respect impeach his unity. They are "workdue to this very useful, though subordinate men who need to be ashamed of their office, were maintained beyond what it is, work." Whether the principal impedi at present, by the appointment of men of ments to the conversion of the Jews do rather a superior description to those who not arise from the doctrine of the resurnow generally fill it; and that their accept-rection, deserves Mr. E.'s further conside'ance of the office were insured by a liberal ration. In former days, the Jews certainaddition to the salary, which the parish ly were" grieved that the resurrection would not fail to find their account in grant- from the dead was taught in the instance ing to persons of worthy characters and suitable attainments; whilst the parochial of Jesus:" and when the gentiles heard minister, with whom the appointment ab- of the resurrection," some mocked," solutely rests, would receive much accom- and others deferred the investigation modation; and even the solemnity of divine of the matter. It may be said with worship be materially promoted by having great truth, the assertion of the

truth for themselves. Let us avoid all rash judging, and leave their future state to God."

The text of the address is Rom, xi. i. The same inadvertencies as in the former discourse mark the same want of time

Resurrection always has been, and always
will be, an insurmountable obstacle to
the general conversion of the Jews:
it does not, therefore, follow, that we are to
abandon the doctrine of the resurrection.
Mr. E. is a gentleman of well known
abilities, and arduous professional duties;
that these discourses were composed in
haste is evident, as we think, from seve-
ral trips of the pen. The Jewish phylac-
teries were not " large pieces of parch-ried
ment sewed on the borders of their gar-
ments:" they were square entelopes worn
on the forehead, and the left arm.

"The Essenes were a kind of hermits, renouncing the common enjoyments of life, and dwelling in the caves and desarts of the earth." No: they dwelt in communities, or convents.

Every thing that Jesus did possessed publicity." No: the Evangelists describe some things he did as private.

Mr. E.'s remarks on the importance of public worship are just; and he censures the late Mr. Wakefield for his attack of 10 beneficial an institution. In our opinion that attack did a great deal of good; as it startled a number of half-unsettled well-intending minds.

In the pretace to his second discourse Mr. E. speaking of the transactions of the Grand Sanhedrim at Paris,* observes "that the sacrifices made by the Jews on the continent, for the extension of their civil rights, ill accord with the unbending strictness of the Mosiac ritual, and have given considerable offence to their brethren in this country." His pre-face closes with sentiments which every rational mind will approve, whoever be their author.

"Let us avoid putting stumbling blocks in the way of the Jews. Let us propose Christianity to them as Jesus proposed it to them. Instead of the modern magic of scholastic divinity, let us lay before them their own prophecies. Let us shew them their accomplishment in Jesus. Let us appland their hatred of idolatry. Let us show them the morality of Jesus in our lives and tempers. Let us never abridge their civil liberty, nor ever try to force their consciences. Let us remind them, that as Jews they are bound to make the law of Moses the rule of their actions. Let us try to inspire them with suspicion of rabbinical and received traditions, and a generous love of investigating religious

Compare Panorama, Vol. II. p. 913.

for revision. The writer describes the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus as the casting away intended by the Apostle, p. 19, yet says, in p. 20, the Jews were cast away at the time of their being caraway captive by the heathen nations, though they were afterwards restored." He has ill expressed his meaning,

We give no opinion on the question whether the Jews shall return to their own land, though our private feeling inclines

to the affirmative. Neither do we so much as attempt a calculation as to the time when. The following remarks are judicious.

If the dispersion of the Jews was thought Jong in the time of Julian [about 300 years after the destruction of the temple], and means were taken for their restoration, what must now be the opinion of all thinking persons, when nearly fifteen hundred years [additional] have elapsed, and these people are still in a state of ignominy and depression? We may be assured, that some valuable purpose is to be answered. The Jews are the depositaries of the Old Testament records, and these records describe the Messiah with every token of triumph and glory! Received by them, and read in their synagogues, they are perinanent and energetic attestations of the truth of Christianity. Besides, their existence as a distinct people, in every nation under heaven, is an irrefragable proof of the authenticity of the sacred records. It is a species of protracted miracle. Go where you will, into Europe. Asia, Africa, or America, you meet the descendants of Abraham; you instantly recognize them by their features, and find them scrupulously attached to the religion of their forefathers! They are, notwithstanding the lapse of eighteen centuries, the same as they were in the time of our Saviour tenacious and superstitious-perverse and obstinate to a proverb. All this is an argument for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are reserved to the glorious æra, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and ALL ISRAEL shall be saved.

The Jews are now so scattered and divided on the earth, that the most powerful potentate, however outrageous and intent on their destruction, could not destroy the whole nation. Nor could even the coalescing of several governments insure the complete execution of such a design. In some place there would still be Jaws,

As the subject is of great importance, we could have wished that some profes sional man of eminence had favoured this Yet we have not the choice of postpon-writer with assistance, on that part of his ing this subject; as we conjecture, from the rapid movements of the bricklayers and their labourers, that the new theatre will be roofed in before our next is put to press, unless our printer bestir himself quick! quick! In this dilemma, the writer shall tell his own tale: nobody is bound to suppose that we believe it.