their sacred duties. Laws and enactments may deprive the church of many important political privileges; but these can never affect that glorious building, of which its divine Protector and Saviour is "the foundation and chief-corner stone.'

(To be continued.)

How like those sudden and incoherent transitions through which the agitated and confused dreamer is whirled, are the awful changes of public opinion within the last two or three years. Before that time the church was the theme of admiration at home and abroad, her institutions were revered, her moderation extolled, her blessings acknowledged.

The fame of Hooker was built upon the services he had performed in her defence; and even yet, as in the days of Walton, "his books, and the innocency and sanctity of his life, were so remarkable, that many turned out of the road, and others (scholars especially) went purposely to see (the dwelling and the church of) the man whose life and learning were so much admired."* But now, so strange a revolution of sentiment has taken place, that this very ministry and church establishment, of which he so ably vindicated the apostolical and sound foundation, as well as its practical and rational polity, seems to be considered as one universal blot, as a very pest-house, "full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores." To maintain its excellence is peremptorily set down as a mark of ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and bigotry. My very confidence is shaken in the attraction which the view of Bishopsbourne Church and Parsonage will present to my readers, when I am compelled to state that its architecture is not remarkable; and that its principal, if not only, claim to interest them is its having been the scene of the last ministrations,-of the last moments of the " JUDICIOUS" Hooker. Evil surely are the days in which these remarks are extensively applicable among members of the established church. May they not be ominous of times and troubles like those which followed in a few years after this good man had been taken from such calamitous trials, and which, with almost prophetic spirit, he seems to have contemplated in his last moments. I cannot resist laying before my readers, and I wish I could im

• Walton's Life of Hooker.

BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH & RECTORY.

The Laving of the Celebrated Hookeras seen from Sir Mucasters l'ark

Printed is Cumanari

press upon the hearts of many hasty accusers, and many officious remodellers of our church,-that lesson of wisdom, so adapted to the present times, which issued from the dying lips of this learned, judicious, and pious divine. Doctor Saravia, his intimate friend, had, as Walton relates, administered to him "the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus; which being performed, the Doctor thought he saw a reverend gaiety and joy in his face; but it lasted not long; for his bodily infirmities did return suddenly, and became more visible, insomuch, that the Doctor apprehended death ready to seize him; yet, after some amendment, left him at night, with a promise to return early the day following, which he did, and there found him better in appearance, deep in contemplation, and not inclinable to discourse; which gave the Doctor occasion to inquire his present thoughts. To which he replied, "That he was meditating the number and nature of angels, and their blessed OBEDIENCE and ORDER, without which peace could not be in heaven; and, Oh! that it might be so on earth!"

May this nation not draw down, by its crimes, or its madness, a judicial blindness to these great and important truths; and may it never find (as those did for whose safety anxious forebodings troubled the dying meditations of the "judicious Hooker") that in the pursuit of visionary perfection, they have sacrificed practical usefulness, and opened the door to anarchy and confusion!

But I have been drawn far from my immediate subject by the interesting nature of those circumstances to which my observations relate. I must turn to the less animating task of describing the church represented in the sketch at the head of this number. Though the Parsonage is commodious, it contains nothing worthy of description, nor any known memorial of the venerated divine whose residence in it constitutes its only claim to public notice. The garden, indeed, is bounded on the south and east sides by a remarkably thick and flourishing yew hedge, about nine feet high, which may be considered as at least coeval with the time of Hooker. But there is no tradition which attributes to it the honour of being planted by his hand; and, in truth, there is nothing either in his habits, or in his character, which can lead us even to the fond imagination that he troubled himself about the improvements of his habitation, or took any interest in horticultural or other country pursuits. In fact, the reverse is the case. And however happy I should be if I could honestly minister to the enthusiasm of any admirer of the excellent and able scholar, I must not deviate from historical truth. Instead of having it in my power to point to this or that feature of either house or garden, and to say, "I conjecture this to have been planned or planted by Hooker," I must own that I cannot, even in imagination, dissociate him from his studies, his parochial duties, or from

his devotions, unless I fancy him absently rocking the cradle, or otherwise reluctantly employed by the imperious and violent wife to whom his meek and quiet spirit was ill united through his own extreme bashfulness and ignorance of the world.

The parsonage is within a very short distance from the church, which is situated in a pleasing valley about four miles to the south-east of Canterbury. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.*

There are no brasses or ancient monuments in the church; but this deficiency is amply compensated, at least in my estimation,— and I would fain hope (notwithstanding the gloomy aspect of the times) in the estimation of many of my readers,-by that which has been erected to the memory of Hooker. It is attached to the wall on the north side of the chancel, near the pulpit, where, whether so intended or not, it stands as a goodly memento for those who are engaged in exhorting and instructing the flock of Christ there assembled. I do not give my readers a representation of it, as it is shewn in a very good engraving in the title-page of the folio edition of Hooker's works.+ Sir W. Cooper, the person at whose charge it was put up, speaks with pious affection of Hooker, as "his spiritual father."

Walton, in the Appendix to his Life of Hooker, takes notice of an error in the inscription upon this monument, and also another in Camden, relative to the date of Hooker's death:"And for the year of his death, Mr. Camden, who, in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth, 1589, mentions him with a high commendation of his life and learning, declares him to die in the year 1599; and yet in that inscription of his monument set up at the

It consists of a body and side aisles, and, according to Hasted, contained three chancels. Of these, two are used as the pew for Bourne House, and for the vestry. The tower is plain, square, and low, containing four small bells. The chancel is a continuation of the nave. The appearance of the interior is light, and has been greatly improved by the removal of a wooden screen, by which, through a lofty pointed arch, the space of the lower part of the tower has been added to the nave. Another well judged improvement, which we recommend to imitation, is the scraping off the whitewash, with which churchwardens, with more zeal than taste, are so fond of shrouding the architecture of our churches, and the stone work of their arches and pillars.

The large pew on the south side, belonging to Bourne House, contains a neat perpendicular window, filled with stained glass, representing various scripture subjects, and several coats of arms. It is of Dutch manufacture, the colours in perfect preservation, and some of the subjects portrayed with great spirit. Some bear the date 1615, others 1550. On the former is the name of the artist "Eælkins."

Over the space between the last arch of the south aisle, and that opening to this pew, is a small arched opening, in which Hasted says "stood once the image of the Virgin Mary, (the patron saint of this church,) to which William Hante, Esq., by his will, anno 1462, amongst the rest of his relics, gave a piece of the stone on which the archangel Gabriel descended, when he saluted her, for this image to rest its feet upon." (Hasted, vol. iii. p. 747, note, fol. edit.)

+ I observe, however, an error in the inscription, which states the monument to have been erected 1535; but 1533 is the date on the monument itself.