is still extant in Cyprus. In the Report of H.M. High Commissioner for the year 1879, p. 39 (Commons' Papers, No. 2543, 1880), it is stated:-"The titles by which land was, and is, held in Cyprus are exceedingly vague in the definition of the boundaries, and although the number of scalas and denums is invariably mentioned, yet this latter particular is never held to be binding. The words 'bounded by a hill' allows an extension to a mile in that direction; the words 'bounded by uncultivated land' allows extension to within a yard of the nearest neighbour."

Primitive Cheese Press. "A cheese press is still used in the upper part of the dale, which consists of two uprights fixed in the ground, and joined at the top by a cross-bar. One-third of the way up is a shelf on which the cheese to be pressed is placed. Above this there is an arrangement of handles for raising a heavy stone, or lowering the same, so as to A is a press the cheese, as shown in the figure. wooden peg for holding down the handle, so as to raise the stone weight, when the cheese is being put in or taken out."-Studies in Nidderdale, by Joseph Lucas, p. 29.

PRIMITIVE CHEESE PRESS.

Ancient Rush Stand.-"There was formerly in use in Nidderdale a Rush Stand, originally made by splitting a stick, and in fact this sort of rush-stand was in use down to the time when the farmers gave up making their own candles. An important kind was made of iron, with a spring to compress the holder upon the candle. Of this kind I give a sketch, which I made of one belonging to Mrs. Ryder, of Middlesmoor. The seaves were gathered at certain places on the

moors by parties of gatherers, who went out to get them in the autumn, or late in the summer. They chose the largest and strongest, from which they stripped off the outer skin, so as to enable the tissues to imbibe the melted fat into which they were dipped. (The gipsies strip off two opposite sides, leaving the alternate ones to support the pith.) As the same places were visited year after year, they were known by names such as Fleet Seaves, Seavy Hill,' 'Seavy Whan,' 'Seaves,' &c."-Studies in Nidderdale, by Joseph Lucas, pp. 27-28.

ANCIENT RUSH STAND.

Antiquarian News.

On casually examining the earth excavated from the foundation for the new Wesleyan Chapel at Clevedon, Mr. Geo. A. Hobson, Government Surveyor, found a quantity of broken Roman pottery. There are several types, including the common dark clay, the common red, blue-black or Durobrivian, and a few pieces of Samian. He also found a number of pieces of bones and teeth (animal) which had been in the fire, and a small copper coin, seemingly of Constantine or Vespasian. The above came from a stratum of earth full of unctuous animal matter, about three feet from the surface and resting on the bed rock. Mr. Hobson gives it as his opinion that the ridge adjacent, Highdale Hill, and the eminence on which Christ Church stands, had been in the occupation of the early Roman settlers, and that this accumulation of matter mixed with animal bones, Roman pottery, &c., had been the débris from the camp thrown over the low outer Vallum.

Messrs. Frederic S. Nichols & Co. announce that they have made arrangements with Mr. Percy Thomas to etch the White Hart Inn, Southwark. The Inn dates back for some five centuries; is often mentioned by Shakespeare; was the headquarters, in 1450, of the Kentish rebel, Jack Cade; and in our own times has been inimitably described by Charles Dickens as a scene in the elopement of Alfred Jingle with Rachel Wardle, and the meeting place of Mr. Pickwick with Sam Weller.

It is proposed to publish by subscription, "Brams. hill its History and Architecture," by Sir William H. Cope, Bart. The history will be traced from the eleventh century down to recent times, with notices of its successive owners and occupants; the architecture, external and internal, of the present mansion, and some account of a more ancient edifice which preceded it; the traditions and legends of the place; notices of the venerable trees which stand in the park; and of the tapestries, pictures, &c. The work will be illustrated by photographic views, plans, and architectural details.

The re-opening, after thorough internal restoration, of the ancient church of Gillamoor, near Kirbymoorside, took place recently. The old church stands on an eminence commanding an extensive and lovely prospect over the wide moorlands. The foundation is very ancient, as betokened by the fine old Norman font and the inscription on the two bells, which are dedicated to the Virgin and St. John. The church was last restored in 1802, when some very commonplace windows were inserted. The present restoration has been carried out under the superintendence of Mr. Temple Moore. The chief features of the work done comprise the removal of the old and unsightly square pews and the re-seating of the church; the panelling and decorating of the ceiling and body of the church; restoration of the chancel screen, and the replacing of the dangerous old tower by a new and handsome spire of oak, covered with lead. The windows inserted 80 years ago have also been considerably improved by the introduction of stone mullions.

One of the buildings destroyed at Alexandria was, says a writer in the Architect, the castle of the Pharos, which was practically the only specimen of Arab medieval architecture in the city. It stood on the site of the celebrated lighthouse, by the ancient name of which it was still commonly known. Mr. H. G. Kay says that being at Alexandria in the spring of last year, he visited the building. Mr. Kay's inspection was necessarily a very superficial one, but as far as it could go it confirmed him in the belief that some indications of an old foundation are to be detected, and he noticed a spot, near one of the corners of the building, where the wall could be perceived to run in a direction not widely but distinctly different from that of the presumably original foundation, with which it formed a gradually divergent angle. The Pharos was still in existence in A.D. 1326. It became a complete ruin between that date and A.D. 1349. The present building was erected by the Egyptian Sultan Kait-Bay, who reigned from A.D. 1468 to 1496. It may readily be presumed that, according to the uniform practice of the East, the ground continued until that time encumbered with the ruins of

to be newly decorated, the date 1760 was found in the east end, this being, no doubt, the date of its erection.

An important painting has been found at Pompeii, and placed in the Naples Museum among the Pompeian frescoes. It represents the judgment of Solomon, and is the first picture on a sacred subject, the first fragment either of Judaism or Christianity, that has been discovered in the buried cities. The picture is five and a half feet long, and nineteen inches in height, and is surrounded by a black line about an inch in width. The scene is laid upon a terrace in front of a house adorned with creeping plants, and shaded with a white awning. On a daïs (represented as being about four feet high) sits the king, holding a sceptre, and robed in white. On each side of him sits a councillor, and behind them six soldiers under arms. The king is represented as leaning over the front of the daïs towards a woman in a green robe, who kneels before him with dishevelled hair and out. stretched hands. In the centre of the court is a three-legged table, like a butcher's block, upon which lies an infant, who is held in a recumbent position, in spite of his struggles, by a woman wearing a turban. A soldier in armour, and wearing a helmet with a long red plume, holds the legs of the infant, and is about to cleave it in two with his falchion. A group of spectators completes the picture, which contains in all nineteen figures. The drawing is poor, but the colours are particularly bright, and the preservation is excellent. As a work of art, it is below the average Pompeian standard, but it is full of spirit and drawn with great freedom. The bodies of the figures are dwarfed, and their heads (out of all proportion) large, which gives colour to the assertion that it was intended for a caricature directed against the Jews and their religion. There is nothing of the caricature about it in other respects-the agony of the kneeling mother, the attention of the listening king, and the triumph of the second woman, who gloats over the division of the child, are all manifest, and altogether there does not appear to be any attempt, intentionally, to burlesque the incident.

Messrs. Reeves and Turner have published a second edition of Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt's Proverbs. The new edition is unfortunately arranged in precisely the same manner as the first, but it contains many additional proverbs derived principally from Mr. Hazlitt's extensive reading among old plays and other literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The discovery of an egg in the decayed vegetation on the border of the great Roman bath at Bath has led to some curious investigation. Mr. Charles E. Davies took it to the British Museum, to consult the best authorities now in town, who confirmed him in his opinion that it is the egg of a teal, if it is not that of an eared grebe, a bird now almost, if not quite, extinct in the British Isles. Unfortunately, or rather in an antiquarian point of view fortunately, the egg did not arrive at its destination quite perfect, a portion at one end being broken The egg was partly full of a colourless liquid, not the least resembling albumen, but is apparently water, which it was the opinion of those consulted had gradually percolated through the shell of the egg during the many years it had been subjected to pressure. The fracture exposed

to view a very curious mass of translucent crystal, filling one end of the egg, and which proved beyond a doubt its antiquity, as being the petrified yolk. In the British Museum is a Greek Kylix, from Rhodes, dating 200 B.C., containing five hens' eggs. They are much fractured, and with a sandy deposit form a solid mass. The egg now found, says Mr. Davies, in a letter to the Bath Herald, is the property of the Corporation, and is most valuable and unique. It is now being mounted, and secured with glass at the British Museum, when it will be returned to the Grand Pump Room.

manner.

The wife of Dr. Schlieman has just described in a letter, addressed in Greek, to the Athens journal, Hestia, some of the results of that explorer's latest excavations on the site of ancient Troy. The writer says, "Close to the spot which we consider to be the site of Troy there are the remains of two buildings, which, in the opinion of our two architects, Dr. Dörpfeld and Herr Ofler, represent two temples. The appearance of the two buildings is so different that they cannot be said to resemble any of the well-known ancient temples with the exception of that of Hera at Olympia. This, according to Pausanias, was erected probably about 1100 B.C. The first of our two temples at Troy is 30 mètres in length and 13 mètres in width, while the walls are 14 mètres in thickness. The other temple is 20 mètres long and 7 mètres broad, the walls being 12 mètres in thickness. It is noticeable that the walls are built in a different In the first there are no joinings of clay, but in the second there are large commissures filled with clay, which is also slightly burnt. The inference is that the two temples were built at different periods, and that that first described is older than the second. It is scarcely credible that the roof of the first temple could be solid and without any supports, though of the latter, at any rate, there is nothing now to be found. Throughout the entire Iliad of Homer we find no mention of such supports; while in the Odyssey where they are spoken of they are described as being of wood. Assuming now that there had been wooden supports in the first temple, they could not have stood on a floor of clay. There must have been a stone foundation beneath them; yet nothing of the kind is now to be discovered on the spot. The internal arrangements of these temples is very interesting. They both have a forecourt on the southwest side. In the first temple this is 13 mètres long and 10 mètres wide. It is separated from the sacred part by two high walls, forming a majestic entrance. In the middle of this sanctuary there is a circular layer of clay 4 mètres in diameter and o6 in thickness, upon which, probably, a seated image was placed. Close to the two temples, in the north-east, there is a third temple which, so far as concerns the style of its construction, is like the two others. It has a forecourt, and it seems was surrounded by a corridor. Our two well-informed architects think that these three buildings were temples; but my husband thinks, since they present great similarity to the houses mentioned in the Iliad (VI. 316), that they really were only houses, and that they were perhaps built, by command of Paris, by the best architects of the Troas. In this city, destroyed by

fire, we see Pergamos with its splendid edifices, that being, according to Homer's description, the same as sacred Ilios. Of gold articles we have here found but few, among them being a very thin diadem and a set of earrings, which are of the same sort as those we dug up some years ago. The nails we have here met with appear to be of quite a different description. They cannot possibly be taken for keys. We have also found some vertebræ, bolts, and spindles, as well as vessels with owls' heads. None of these objects, however, have any great value. The most valuable of all our discoveries is to be found in the three temples or houses themselves, which are quite novel in their style of construction. It is perfectly established that the Troas of Homer was situated at the spot now called Hissarlik, as my husband contended some years ago. Through the kind intercession of the German embassy, at Constantinople, we also received permission to conduct a series of excavations at Bunabarsi, which some philologists still think was the site of the Homeric Ilios. This place is three hours' walk from the Hellespont. At that place, too, we found bolts and Greek vessels as in Hissarlik. We believe that that place was the site of the ancient Gergi, which at one time is said to have had 2000 inhabitants."

Important excavations are now proceeding at Lewes Priory. The Priory of St. Pancras, founded by William de Warrene and Gundrada, is one of the most ancient specimens of Norman architecture in this kingdom. The church is, moreover, of special interest as having belonged to the Cluniac Order, whose great church in Burgundy was not only one of the largest in Europe, but was built on an unusual plan, with eastern as well as central transepts, and a great porch at the west end, beyond the actual front of the church. At Lewes, the same plan of double transepts has evidently been followed, and it remains to be seen whether the western porch also existed. The foundations of the eastern portion of the great church, and also part of the chapter-house, were laid bare in the year 1847, at the time of the construction of the Brighton and Hastings Railway. The bones of the noble founders were also discovered. It is, however, sufficiently evident, from an examination of the remains, and a comparison with others of a somewhat similar nature, that beneath the surface must lie a large por tion of the nave and choir of the church, together with the bases of the western towers; also the substructures of the dormitory and refectory. The investigation has been already commenced, under the direction of Mr. Somers Clarke and Mr W. H. St. John Hope. Mr. Hope writes to Mr. John Willis Clark:-We have already investigated all that the railway spared of the refectory, and are now hard at work on the substruc. ture of the dormitory. We have uncovered some fine walls five feet thick; also two portions of the great watercourse, with a sluice gate. Our researches are as yet too young to enable me to say more; but a few days will make all the difference.' When the conventual buildings are finished they will attack the church. Meanwhile it is desirable to make an appeal for funds, without which the work cannot proceed. Subscriptions should be sent to Mr. Somers Clarke, 15, Dean's Yard, Westminster.

Correspondence,

DATES AND STYLES OF CHURCHES. May I protest against the meagre information given with regard to the list of parish churches published in your last issue. Not only are dates omitted in the examples there enumerated, but the information as to style is vague in the extreme. In a list of this kind it seems to me, as doubtless to many others, that the information should be as exact, and at the same time as concise, as possible. When the date is known, it should be distinctly stated; when not known, the approximate date might be given, which would perhaps afford one a better idea of the church in question as regards style than the ordinary description in the received nomenclature of the medieval periods; for, from a careful examination, the date can usually be set down with tolerable accuracy-say within twenty or thirty years at the furthest.

All will agree that the information with regard to the registers is most valuable and handy for reference. But there is one source of information that seems to me wanting, and which has never, as far as I know, received serious attention, but which, in a complete list of English churches, would be of the greatest interestthe names of the builders, architects, or founders, for the exact functions of these, as we all know, have ever been confused. Not only would such a list be valuable solely as information in itself, but the comparison of the different works that might be collected under the name of the same architect, for we must suppose each architect to have stamped his work with some amount of individuality, would at least give some basis for the theories as to whom the merit of the design of our medieval churches is due, whether to freemasons or ecclesiastics. I am well aware that your space is too valuable to be taken up with superfluous notices, especially in such a well-worn subject as this; but a complete list of churches, correctly and carefully dated, with the founder's or builder's name, as the case may be, attached; and, if built under the auspices of reli. gious foundations, the head of that foundation at the date given might be noted. This, with the list of registers, would form a most valuable and unique catalogue of our English ecclesiastical works, and a catalogue moreover that, as it appeared from time to time in your columns, would ever be subject to the strictest criticism. My letter may have extended to a greater length than your pages can admit, but I believe there are many to whom information such as I have suggested would be very acceptable, and in such exact and concise accounts as this under consideration. CHARLES L. BELL.

Chesterton Road, Cambridge. [We quite agree with our correspondent, and one of our objects in instituting the present lists was to elicit and get together the scattered information he

speaks of, but we must begin at the beginning.—ED.]

THE TRENCHARD FAMILY.
(vi. 38.)

The name of Trenchard is one of the most ancient in the Isle of Wight, and is chiefly associated with the parish of Shalfleet, where the name of Walleran