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that they would have been less substantially built than those in Britain but if we seek their remains we should have to wander far and wide in doubt and perplexity. M. de Caumont must have felt the want of satisfactory information on this point when he drew the attention of the French antiquaries to the subject. M. Boilleau's discovery seems as yet to have attracted but little notice in France; and that notice, as you observe, has been antagonistic. It does not, however, in any way, tend to overthrow or weaken the arguments on which he has based his opinion that the ruins at Larçay are those of a Gallo-Roman fortress.

The village of Larçay is situated about six or seven miles to the S. W. of Tours. The road from that city runs in a straight line for about a mile and a half, when it is crossed by the Bordeaux railway. Just beyond this junction you turn to the left, upon a road which leads along under a high and wooded ground, which has been well quarried for stone, and the quarries converted into wine-cellars. When I walked from Tours to Larçay the weather was hot and sultry. The thermometer stood much higher than ever I knew it in England, and the heat was oppressive even for a lover of warmth and a veteran pedestrian but the dense foliage of the overhanging trees afforded shade, and the cool air of the wine cellars, impregnated with the delicate odour of their vinous stores, modified the effect of the heated atmosphere, and contributed, with the charming scenery, to render the walk highly agreeable. On approaching Larçay, on the slope of the hill or high bank may be no

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ticed the remains of a Roman watercourse, called the aqueduct of Fontenay. It is from two to three feet square, cemented; and was covered with flag stones. Similar aqueducts are not at all uncommon in France.

Larçay is a small, straggling, picturesque village, which any person would pass through without dreaming of the Roman fortress, which is upon the heights entirely concealed by trees from view from the lower ground. It is approached by a winding path leading up the hill at the back of the auberge d'Ascension. The Roman castrum occupies, on a sloping site, about three or four acres by computation. It is therefore of small size in comparison with our Richborough, Lymne, and other similar works. But the construction of the walls is precisely similar; and it is also flanked with semicircular projecting and solid towers. On the southern side, where the chief, if not the only, gateway stood, the wall is almost entirely enveloped in cottages, and its N. W. tower seems to have been partially excavated to help form the rooms of the dwelling of the tenant or proprietor of the area of the castrum, which is converted into a vineyard and orchard. On the north side, which is on the brink of a descent almost precipitous, no traces of a wall are to be discerned. In this respect, also, the castrum at Larçay accords with our Richborough, Lymne, Burgh, and Reculver. The facing stones of the walls above the present level have all been taken away for building materials; but where M. Boilleau has directed excavations to be made they are disclosed, firm and compact, square and in regular layers, as is

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field of investigation, which we may expect will be entered upon by M. Boilleau in connection with the local Archæological Society, of which he is a leading member. In the evening of the same day I paid a second visit to this interesting spot in company with M. Boilleau himself, the Abbé Bourassé, President of the Archæological Society of Touraine, and Mr. C. Warne, who accompanied me throughout the excursion.

The programme of this visit to France, comprised, among other places, Tésée, situated on the Roman road from Tours to Bourges. It is the site of the Tasciaca of the Peutingerian Tables, and it retains not merely the name, slightly modified, but very considerable remains of the buildings of the Roman station. We were accompanied as far as Amboise to the residence of his collaborateur in the editorship of the Révue Numismatique, M. Cartier, by M. de la Saussaye of Blois, at present engaged in the publication, in parts, of an excellent work, entitled "Mémoires sur les antiquités de la Sologne Blésoise,"* containing the most elaborate account of the remains of Tésée and the district yet published. From Amboise we took the diligence to the interesting little town of Montrichard, making it our head-quarters for a visit to Tésée, which is about four or five miles beyond, on the high road to Bourges. This road runs through some very fine scenery. On the left is high rocky ground, pierced in all directions with wine-cellars and houses, the chimneys of the latter emerging from above through orchards and vineyards. On the right runs the Cher, through a broad and fertile valley, variegated with meadows, cornfields, and vineyards.

Approaching the village of Tésée the eye is arrested by a long, high building, flanked by two square rooms, standing about 100 yards distant from the high road. Nearer the road, a little in advance, are some ruins, less perfect, which were formerly connected with the great building; and the traces of the inclosing wall which united them can yet, with some difficulty, be discerned. The long edifice, which strikes the eye from its total discordance with modern and medieval buildings, consists of a large hall and a smaller one formed by a cross wall, united by the same external walls, so that from the outside the building seems one long apartment. These two rooms communicate within by a door and a small window. The walls are from 30 to 40 feet high and from 40 to 50 yards in length; in thickness they are about three feet. Along the up

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widening inwards very much after the fashion of the windows of the middle ages. The walls are faced with small squared stones and rows of tiles; the arches of the doors and the windows are also turned with tiles. Two smaller rooms, constructed in the same manner, flank the larger apartments; the entrance to one of these is perfect. The semicircular portion is turned with larger stones and tiles, and filled up with long stones and tiles so as to form a flat roof to the doorway. In the wall of the apartment the usual small squared facing stones are partially supplied by zigzag or herring-bone courses. The external entrance to the long hall is not quite in the centre, and its exact dimensions are not to be traced without excavating, as it has been at some remote period much injured. As before observed, the buildings now standing are not all of the original structures. From the traces of walls there would seem to have been a large inclosure in front, reaching almost down to the present road, which is on the line of the Roman via.

In these remarkable remains we may survey one of the intermediate Roman stations called mansiones, adapted not merely for quartering the troops on their marches, but destined also for the relay of horses for public and private service, and for the accommodation of travellers. I am not aware of any other example in the north and west of France, and certainly we have nothing in this country remaining at all resembling it. The notion of its having been a castrum, or a castellum, which some have suggested, must be wholly rejected, for of such fortifications we have many examples, and with them in no respect does it correspond. Coins, handmills, and other Roman remains are often found in the vicinity of the mansio, and there are foundations of houses, M. de la Saussaye states, on the opposite bank of the Cher.

Another monument in the neighbourhood of Tours is equally deserving attention with those of Larçay and Tésée. It is the lofty quadrangular pile called the

*Dumoulin, Quai des Augustins, Paris.

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how far any departure from them has been attended with good effect or otherwise.

In the first place as to its colour. The prevalence of a light blue-entirely without precedent in the Perpendicular style appears to me extremely injurious to the general effect, approximating much too nearly to an atmospheric illusion, and converting the picture into a transparency, a result the medieval artists adopted multifarious devices to avoid. The weakness of this tint causes the yellows and reds to glare forth with such force that it is impossible to examine it except on a gloomy day. When we see how very successful the artist has been in producing brilliant colours, rivalling, if not surpassing, the old masters in that respect, it is the more to be regretted there should be a want of harmony in the arrangement of them.

In the next place as to the choice of subjects. The extraordinary jumble of them in this window would almost lead to the conclusion that they had been determined upon by lot; there is an entire want of connexion and harmony between them, completely at variance with the practice of the old masters, and which leads to no result to compensate for such variance. It begins with the Nativity and ends with Moses and the Tables of the Law. The lifting of the Brazen Serpent was introduced in the lower central division, because the Crucifixion was originally intended to occupy the upper centre; but when the Ascension was substituted for the latter it is hard to understand why the former was retained. Moses with the Tables of the Law was no doubt intended to have had the Sermon on the Mount above it, and would then have been an harmonious subject.

One subject I would particularly call attention to, because the plea for its introduction is, I conceive, a very improper one, and one that if established as a principle to govern future memorials may lead to results which every good Christian would deplore. I allude to "Christ blessing little Children," and it was pressed upon the Committee upon the ground that our late excellent diocesan entertained a great affection for children, and exercised a most anxious care and watchfulness over

the schools of the city. Most certainly he did, and the presence of the numerous schools at his funeral was an appropriate and grateful testimony of their regard and affection for him. But there is a limit for such demonstrations, and, had the late Bishop been asked his opinion upon such a subject being selected as a memorial for him he would have protested against it far more strongly than I do. I should have avoided saying anything upon the matter at all; but good taste and feeling had already been violated to a still greater extent in the east window. Two subjects are there inserted, a memorial for a deceased canon of the Cathedral, and those subjects are, Old Simeon and the Good Samaritan," subjects well chosen" (say the Cathedral Guide Books) "for a testimonial in memory of a venerable and charitable clergyman." If this be the principle which is to govern the selection of subject, the sooner memorial windows cease to be the better. Far better to have the monumental Fames and Deaths and Victories of Westminster Abbey than to have Holy Writ ransacked for parallels to magnify the merits of those whose hopes were based upon far higher grounds.

And lastly, with reference to the Arrangement and Details, the unnatural size of the human figure in the principal subjects dwarfs everything in the neighbourhood, and produces a most unpleasing effect. The introduction of two disproportioned figures, supposed to be intended for Angels in the Ascension picture (for it is difficult to make out what they are intended for), although possibly not without precedent in Early Glass, is just one of those points on which precedent should be set at nought.

The embellishment of the upper tracery of the window is without any precedent at all, and as wretched in effect as it is unprecedented. We are told in an apology sent to all the county newspapers, accompanied by an intimation that it was by "no mean critic," that "the general idea of the window is that of a screen placed behind the stone framework of the window, and terminating in three spires of tabernacle-work shooting up high into the tracery of the window;" and he makes

*The six subjects are arranged as follows: 1. The Adoration of the 3. The Ascension, after Ra- 5. Christ Blessing little ChilMagi, after Raphael.

phael.

after Le Brun.

2. The Finding of Moses, 4. The Brazen Serpent,

after Raphael.

On the principle of audi alteram partem, we give the length :-(EDIT.)

6.

dren, after West. Moses with the Tables of the Law, after Raphael. description alluded to at

"The beautiful painted window recently placed in the nave of Norwich Cathedral, in memory of the late excellent Bishop Stanley, has been designed, as well as executed, by Mr. George Hedgeland, of London. The original slight sketch, made by his pre

this remarkable assertion, "the design is justified archæologically by the architecture of the window, the style of which the Committee rightly decided should govern the style of painted glass!"

Now the stonework was erected by Bishop Alnwick's executors in 1450, and I assert, without fear of contradiction, that no specimen of glass at all resembling that now in this window can be produced of an earlier date than 1500,-fifty years later. As far as it has any character at all, it is Cinque-cento. But even the artists

of that period paid some attention to the tracery, and made their floral and architectural embellishments combine and harmonise with the stonework. Here, on the contrary, scarcely a line falls in with the tracery; and quite as good and appropriate a composition might have been made by an artist who had never seen the tracery at all. If the committee, therefore, came to the resolution stated, they have not attended to its being carried out, and, so far from a pleasing effect having resulted from the neglect of it, a more discordant

decessor in the undertaking, having been virtually superseded by an entirely new design.

"The general idea conveyed by the glass painting is that of a screen of gothic work, placed immediately behind the stone framework of the window, with whose principal divisions it generally corresponds in design, being pierced with six open arches, through, or under which, the more important subjects are represented as seen, and terminating in three spires of tabernacle-work, shooting up high into the tracery of the window. "These subjects were, by desire of the Committee, adapted by Mr. Hedgeland, from certain well-known pictures (as already specified), immediately beneath which is placed this inscription:

IN MEMORY OF A BELOVED, FAITHFVL, AND ZEALOUS PASTOR, EDWARD STANLEY, TWELVE YEARS BISHOP OF THIS DIOCESE. 1854. G. Hedgeland fecit.

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"In the tabernacle-work of the two outer spires, are introduced figures of Patriarchs, and in that of the central spire, figures of Prophets and Evangelists.' Above, An Angel flying in the Firmament,' which serves as a ground to the spires of the screen. "A design of this kind is justified, archæologically, by the architecture of the window, the style of which the Committee rightly decided should govern the style of the painted glass, and offers peculiar facilities to the artist, who, by means of the is enabled to combine in one composition subjects having no very close relation to one another. In the present instance there is, for those who look for such things, an apparent incongruity in representing two landscapes, one above the other, and backing the spires of tabernacle-work with the same azure ground as that which represents the sky in the pictures. But it will not do to examine into these things too closely. The general effect is of more importance than rigid propriety of design. Had the spires been put on a red or deep blue ground, as in many ancient examples, the effect would have been simply to draw down the head of the window, and to reduce the apparent height of the nave; and the omission of the landscape back-ground from the pictures, with its concomitant sky, would have deprived them of a charm which the original designers had relied on. The prevalence of blue, and the introduction of any distant effect in this window, are especially advantageous, on account of the tendency to prevent an apparent curtailment of the nave,-a consideration too often overlooked in the employment of painted windows.

"The execution of the figures is bold, artistical, and vigorous, and the texture of the shadows is of that open kind, which experience shows is most favourable to the transparency of painted glass. The colouring of the window is well arranged, and its tone is rich, and remarkably harmonious. In no part does a coarse tint obtrude itself, though the glass, contrary to the modern practice, has not been besmeared with enamel colour to give it tone. The harmony of the colouring in the present instance, since the window is altogether executed with white and coloured glass, without any other aid from enamelling than that afforded by the brown paint used for the shadows and outlines, is entirely owing to the use throughout the window, with the exception of the red, and one or two pieces of purple-coloured glass in the background, of a new sort of glass, manufactured by Messrs. Powell, of Whitefriars, from analyses of ancient glass, furnished them by Mr. Winston, Mr. Clarke, and others; and it is hoped that the excellence of the window, as a piece of colouring, will excuse the delay which having to wait for this new material has, amongst other circumstances, occasioned in its completion.

"On the whole, it cannot be doubted that the window is one of the finest that has ever been executed, and shows, what might have been reasonably doubted, that England is not inferior to the Continent in glass-painting."

GENT. MAG. VOL. XLII.

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