mounted by a gilded eagle. The present screen, which separates the choir from the nave, and on which the organ stands, was erected during the same period, and displays a heterogeneous mixture of styles, belonging to no distinct species of architecture. There are two figures, one placed on each side the entrance to the choir, intended to represent St. John and king Athelstan. The model from which they were cast in lead was executed by a clever artist of the name of Collings, and they are very excellent figures of their kind. The funds permitting the church to be new pewed, the side aisles of the nave were selected for their situation, and galleries were erected, supported, strange as it may appear, by Doric pillars, placed between the clustered shafts, and ornamented with Doric triglyphs. The pulpit, reading desk, and cover for the font, were made at the same time, and all executed in the same taste. At the time the floor was taken up and relaid, the relics of St. John were again disinterred, and an arched vault of brick erected for their reception. The following addition was made to the former inscription.' 1 "In the Norman centuries," says Mr. Fosbrooke, "there is abundant proof that mosaic work was an embellishment of the high altar, and before shrines, painted upon bricks and tiles of an irregular shape, fitted together as the colour suited." As an improvement of succeeding ages, the tiles were made equilateral, and about four inches square, which, when arranged and connected, produced an effect somewhat resembling Roman designs, wreaths, circles, and single compartments; the arms of founders and benefactors made part of their plan. Exquisite variety and delicacy, though seldom consisting of more than four or five colours, as red, yellow, green, and dark chocolate brown, and sometimes perhaps blue, are particularly discernable in those of a date when this branch of encaustic painting had reached its highest perfection. Among those of a later date, arms impaled and quartered, as well as scrolls, rebuses, and devices, inter spersed with single figures of knights and ecclesiastics, gyphrons, spread eagles, roses, &c. were very frequent. The tiles were baked almost to vitrification, and wonderfully resisted the damp. Tesselated pavements, after the Roman manner, with small dies, once existed in English churches, and a specimen may be seen before the high altar in Westminster abbey. There are great remains of painted tiles in the beautiful collegiate church of St. Mary Ottery, Devon. The ingenious Mr. Fowler, of Winterton, has published beautiful coloured drawings of several, especially of a very curious one at Ely. There is little doubt that much of the old floor of Beverley minster was paved with similar tiles, many having been discovered at different times. Mr. Edward Ashley, of Molescroft, has a summer-house paved with them: they were dug out of a field not far from his own residence. Reliquæ eadem effossæ et ibidem recompositæ fornice lateritio dignabuntur xxv die mensis Martii anno domini MDCCXXXVI quando et tesselatum ecclesiæ hujus pavimentum primo fuit instratum. The same relics having been taken up and replaced in the same situation, were honored with an arched brick vault the 25th day of the month of March, 1736, when the chequered pavement of this church was first laid. Before the late repairs the place of his interment was shewn by an inscription on the roof over it, on labels held by birds: Reliquas beati Johannis It is to be regretted that the memorial of the early fate of the church, deposited in the vault beneath, is no longer preserved on or near the spot, which is the fifth centre square slab of black marble from the tower westward.' No material alterations or repairs were made in the minster, subsequently to those just described, until about sixteen years since, when a different order of things took place. The mayor and corporation of Beverley, as trustees of the minster fund, determined at that period to engage a competent person at a permanent salary to take charge of the repairs. Mr. Comins, who had been bred up in the cathedral works at York, and educated under Mr. Shute, was engaged; and since that period a systematic course of restoration and repairs have been regularly pursued. The whole of the exterior of the building has undergone a thorough repair. The pinnacles, buttresses and canopies, particularly the north porch, are so exquisitely restored, and in so superior a manner, that the church may be said to have regained its pristine beauty and splendour.' These several alterations were effected between 1716 and 1740. 2 There are still some incongruities left: the screen which separates the nave and choir, and the centre tower. It is to be hoped that these will experience the fate of the galleries. The restored Altar Screen.-The upper part of the wooden altarpiece was removed some years since; the great east window thus became once more an object of interest. Mr. Comins, who carefully examined the mutilated work of the original, took casts of the ornaments and mouldings, and carved an entirely new pinnacle of exquisite beauty. He was then convinced that it might be restored in all its details, and this it was ultimately decided should be done. The first stone of the new screen was laid in March, 1825, and the work was completed in February, 1826. It certainly exhibits a specimen of the most elaborate carving, and a proof of the superior talent of Mr. Comins in his profession. It consists of a double series of twenty-four niches, with canopies and separating buttresses; every part of which is filled with tracery, rich flowers and lozenges, grotesque heads with wings and arms. It is so full of ornament and so minute, that few modern chimney pieces would require equal delicacy of execution. On the top is an open battlement, which forms an appropriate finish to the whole. A range of stone altar rails, quite in character with the screen, has since been added. In the year 1822, during the mayoralty of Dr. Hull, the trustees attempted the removal of the pews and galleries' in the nave, and suggested the propriety of the choir being fitted up for divine service; by which plan the body of the church would be cleared from the incumbrance of such unsightly introductions, extremely good of their kind, but strangely out of character where 1 The churches before the dissolution were not disfigured with pews, that being a peculiarity of the reformed church. How a practice unknown to any church on the continent, except for the magistracy and lords of manors, found admission into that of England, has never perhaps been ascertained. Before the reformation there was little occasion for seats; kneeling was the posture chiefly requisite, and at the few sermons that were preached the hardy English of the times stood, as they are represented in the cut prefixed to Latimer's sermons; or if they were tired, sat on the floor, as they are represented in the curious limning of the archbishop of Canterbury's sermons, 1399.-Archeologia, xx. p. 53. |