remarkable painted glass, of which a considerable portion still remains in the windows of Great Malvern church; of few churches, indeed, have such minutely detailed accounts been preserved, noted down long since, at a time when the decorations had sustained little injury. The full descriptions, which were taken by Habingdon, are for the most part accurate and satisfactory, and afford a valuable source of information; a mere wreck now remains of much which attracted his attention, and has been preserved from utter oblivion in the notes compiled by him during the reign of Charles I*. It is however very singular that he wholly overlooked, as it would appear, the remarkable commemorative window, to which the present notice relates; and Thomas, Nash, and other subsequent writers, have contented themselves with giving a transcript or abstract of Habingdon's notes, without any comparison with the original painted glass still existing. They have in consequence neglected the most curious portion of the whole, and it will now be my endeavour to set before our readers this feature of the ancient decorations of this interesting church, as a singular example of the commemorative intention of such decorations, and, in default of direct historical or documentary evidences, an addition to the information which we possess, respecting the progressive establishment of Christian worship in our island, in early times.

"Leland, who appears to have visited Great Malvern, in the course of the tour of investigation pursued by him during six years, and who had the opportunity of consulting the muniments,

"Thomas Habingdon or Habington, of Hindlip, Worcestershire, was condemned to die for concealing some of the agents concerned in the gunpowder plot. He was pardoned on condition that he should never quit the county, to the history and antiquities of which he subsequently devoted his time. There existed formerly a MS. of these collections in Jesus College library, Oxford. In the library of the Society of Antiquaries there is a transcript made by Dr. Hopkins, in the reign of Queen Anne, with additions by Dr. Thomas. The notes on the Malvern windows have been printed in the Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, and Malvern Priory,' Svo., 1728; Nash's History of Worcestershire,' ii., 129; and in the new edition of the Monasticon.' Dr. Thomas gave a Latin version in his An

tiquities of Malvern Priory.'"

to which the commission of inquiry, granted to him under the Great Seal, in the year 1533, afforded him freedom of access, has noted down that nigh to the priory stood the chapel of St. John the Baptist, where St. Werstan suffered martyrdom*. He had, perhaps, examined the singular subjects in the northern window of the choir, a memorial replete with interest to a person zealously engaged on such a mission of historical inquiry, and had listened in the refectory to the oral tradition of the legendary history to which these representations relate, or perused the relation which was then preserved in the muniment chamber of the priory. Leland is the only writer who names the martyr St. Werstan, or makes any allusion to the connection which appears to exist between his history and the foundation of the religious establishment at Great Malvern. It is, however, certain, from the place assigned to the four subjects illustrative of the incidents of his life, in the window destined to commemorate the principal facts of that foundation, that in the fifteenth century, when this painted glass was designed, the monks of Great Malvern accounted the certain hermitage,' according to the statement of the prior, in the year 1319, as above related, to have been the germ of that important and flourishing establishment, which at a later time had taken a prominent place amongst the religious institutions situated on the western shore of the Severn.

"The remarkable painted glass, to which I would call attention, is to be found in the upper division or story of the clerestory window, nearest to the Jesus chapel, or northern transept. In the elevated position occupied by these representations, they appear scarcely to have attracted notice, the figures being mostly of small dimension; and to these circumstances it is perhaps to be attributed that Habingdon and the writers of later times have wholly neglected so singular a series. The painted glass, which is preserved in the choir of this church, appears to have been executed towards the year 1460; some changes have, in recent times, been made, and the windows on the southern side have been filled with portions collected from the clerestory of the "Leland, Coll. de rebus Britann., i., f. 62."

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nave, which was of somewhat later date than the choir. The construction of the church, as augmented and renovated in the Perpendicular style, appears to have commenced towards the middle of the fifteenth century; and it is to prior John Malverne, who is first named in the register of Bishop Bourchier, in 1435, that the commencement of this new work may be attributed. Habingdon has recorded that in the window of the clerestory of the choir, on the northern side, nearest to the east end, the kneeling figure of that prior was to be seen, with an inscription commemorative of his benefaction. It no longer remains, as described by Habingdon, but it is possible that the fragment which may still be noticed in the lower part of that window, being the head and upper part of a figure of a Benedictine monk, may be the portraiture of prior Malverne, the founder of the new choir and it may readily be distinguished by the inscribed scroll over the head, felix anna pro me ad xp'm ex ora. The following inscription formerly recorded his benefaction, Orate pro anima Johannis Malverne, qui istam fenestram fieri fecit, and although it is not certain that such requests for prayers on behalf of the soul of the benefactor were not, in some instances, thus inscribed during his life-time, some persons will probably take the pious phrase as an evidence that the window was not completed until after the decease of the prior, which occurred about the year 1449. But some further circumstances, in regard to the painted glass which is preserved in the windows of the choir, will be hereafter noticed, in the endeavour to ascertain its date; I will now proceed to describe the four subjects which comprise the legendary history, as I am led to suppose, of St. Werstan, exhibited in the upper story of the window nearest to the northern transept. In the first pane is to be observed a representation apparently composed of two pictures, forming one subject; in the upper part are seen four angels, with golden-coloured wings, vested in amices and albs, the apparels of the former being conspicuous, and presenting the appearance of a standing collar. Each of these angels has the right hand elevated in the Latin gesture of benediction; and they rest their left hands on the boundary stones placed at

the four angles of a square verdant plot, which appears in that manner to be set out and defined, being a more green and flowery spot than the adjacent ground, which seems to represent a part of the Malvern hills. In the centre of this piece of ground, thus marked out by the angels, appears a large white key. In the lower division of the same pane appears a figure kneeling, and looking towards heaven; a hill, formed of several banks or terraces one above another, appears as the background, and over his head is a scroll thus inscribed, Sanctus Werstanus Martir. He is not clad in the Benedictine habit, like other figures in the adjoining windows, but in the russet coloured cappa, or full sleeveless mantle, with a round caputium, or mozzetta, to which is attached a hood. Under the mantle may be distinguished the scapulary: the head is bare, and the hands are raised in adoration. There can, I think, be little question, that this first subject was intended to represent a celestial vision which indicated to the hermit, who had fled from troubles or temptations to the wilds of the Malvern hills, the spot where he should construct an oratory, which would ultimately lead to the foundation of an important Christian institution in those dreary wastes. The import of the silver key at present remains unknown, for the legend of St. Werstan is lost, and even his name has not been handed down in any calendar of British Saints, but the signification of this interesting representation can scarcely be mistaken; the heavenly guidance, which fixed the wanderings of the pious recluse in the woodland waste of this hill country of Worcestershire, and pointed out the site of the primitive Christian foundation in that district, appears undeniably to be here set forth and commemorated.

"In the next pane may be noticed a similar twofold disposition of the subject represented. In the lower part appears the same hermit, clad in russet as before, the epithet Martír being, perhaps accidentally, omitted in the inscription. In the superior division are again seen the four angels vested in like manner in albs, which have apparels on the sleeves, over the wrists; and these celestial messengers are engaged in the dedication of the oratory, which, as it may be supposed, had been raised by