THE STANLEY MEMORIAL WINDOW IN NORWICH CATHEDRAL. MR. URBAN,-The criticisms of Mr. Harrod upon the new west window of Norwich Cathedral, to which you gave insertion in your Magazine for December, were put forth with considerable confidence and positiveness of assertion, but they are not unanswerable. On their perusal some obvious remarks occurred to me, which I might have been tempted to communicate, but from an unwillingness to enter upon controversy, and in the hope that the subject would have been entertained by Mr. Winston or some other gentleman whose authority would have had weight with the public. I will now, however, only request you to give insertion to the few following observations, which are founded upon a reply to Mr. Harrod that appeared in the Norwich papers shortly after his essay was read before the Archæological Society. Mr. Harrod asserted that "no specimen of glass at all resembling that now in the window can be produced of an earlier date than 1500," the date of the window itself being 1450. But those who have made any extended observations of painted glass on the Continent know well that there are indisputable authorities for the spreading style" before 1450. As a general rule it may be preferable to make the subject conform to the mullions and tracery, but there are exceptions, and the matter was very deliberately considered at Norwich. And I must add that I think the success of the window in this case is owing to such deviation from the older practice. No one, however, intended to assert that the style of ornament was not as late as 1500, or even later; but only that the principle of carrying the design across the window, irrespective of the mullions, was justified archæologically by the architecture of the window; which is indisputable, the principle having been introduced long before 1450, dating, indeed, with the introduction of the mullioned window in the 13th century. Again, Mr. Harrod asserted that in old glass the size of the human figure was never permitted to exceed that of an ordinary man, a statement utterly at variance with the fact. In this respect, the mediavals considered where the glass was to be placed, as they did with their architectural statuary. If it was to be seen from a distance, as the windows in the clerestory of St. Omer, the figures were proportionably gigantic. The dimensions of the figures in the Norwich window are six feet three inches. Mr. Harrod next declares, that the subjects chosen are a complete jumble, "the window beginning with the Nativity, and ending with the Presentation of the Law by Moses ;" and informs us that "whether an old window had five pictures or fifty, they all had some relation to each other." It would sorely try the ingenuity of Mr. Harrod or any one else to show the relative connection between the subjects in some old windows that could be named; but, passing this by, I cannot accede to Mr. Harrod's reading of the subjects in heraldic order, or to the notion that no scriptural allusion is tolerable which is not directly taken from some mediæval precedent. It must not be supposed that the criticisms of Mr. Harrod, who is deservedly esteemed as an useful local antiquary, and a zealous officer of the Norwich Archæological Society, are to be received as the opinion of that body. Those persons whose judgment best deserves consideration express their approval of the power of design and harmonious colouring shewn in this great production of art, which is immeasurably superior to any glass previously placed in the cathedral. The window has sufficiently high qualities to stand on its own merits; and its execution, whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the design, must be allowed to reflect high credit on the artistic abilities of Mr. Hedgeland. Yours, &c. A. T. NOTES OF THE MONTH. Union of the Irish Archæological and Celtic Societies-Sales of Mr. Bernal's Collections-Mr. C. Roach Smith's Museum-Mr. Birch's Pictures-Royal Scottish Academy-Society of Arts-The Art Union -Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel-Palace of the Uffizi at Florence-Sepulchral Monument of Sir Robert Peel-The late Dr. Routh-Sir Samuel Morton Peto-Preferments connected with Literature and the Arts-Commemoration of English Martyrs-Changes in the London Clubs-The new Cathedral of Lille-French Archæological Congress of 1855. A union has been effected between two useful Societies in Dublin, to which we are indebted for the publication of about twenty volumes of historical illustrationthe Irish Archæological Society and the Celtic Society. The principal object of 5. the united Society will be to print, with accurate English translations and annotations, unpublished documents illustrative of Irish history, especially those in the ancient Irish language. It will also endeavour to protect the monumental and architectural remains of Ireland, by directing public attention to their preservation from the destruction with which they frequently are threatened. Among the works in preparation are,-1. Hymns of the Ancient Irish Church, selected from the Liber Hymnorum, a MS. of the ninth century, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, by Dr. J. H. Todd. 2. The Wars of the Irish and Danes, from MSS. in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Burgundian Library at Brussels, to be edited by Dr. Todd and Dr. John O'Donovan. 3. The Martyrology of Donegal. 4. Cormac's Glossary, edited by Dr. J. H. Todd, with a translation and notes by Dr. J. O'Donovan and Mr. Eugene Curry. The Annals of Ulster, with a translation and notes, from a MS. in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, collated with the translation made for Sir James Ware by Dudley or Dual Mac Firbis, by Drs. Todd and O'Donovan. 6. The Annals of Innisfallen, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by Dr. O'Donovan. 7. The Liber Hymnorum, from Trinity College, Dublin, by Drs. Todd and Reeves. 8. The Genealogy and History of the Saints of Ireland, from the Book of Lecan, by Drs. O'Donovan and Todd. 9. An Account of the Firbolgs and Danes of Ireland, by Dual Mac Firbis, from the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, by Dr. O'Donovan. 10. The Origin and History of the Boromean Tribute, from Trinity College, Dublin, by Mr. Eugene Curry. 11. The Topographical Poems of O'Heerin ond O'Dugan, by Dr. O'Donovan. 12. The History of the Invasions of Ireland, by the Four Masters. 13. History of Ireland, by Dr. Geoffrey, Keating. 14. History of the Noted Places in Ireland. And 15. The Works of Giraldus Cambrensis relating to Ireland. The various sales of the large collections formed by the late Ralph Bernal, esq. are now in progress, and attract very considerable attention. His Library and collection of Prints have been already dispersed by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson; and his very extensive collections of Pictures and works of Mediæval Art and Virtu are in the charge of Messrs. Christie and Man horæ, illustrations of the different branches of natural history, Polar and other voyages and travels, poetry and the drama, bibliography, literary history, county histories, heraldry, books of fancy and imagination, and some autograph letters of royal and literary personages, including holograph specimens by Charles the First, Alexander Pope, and Samuel Richardson. The amount of the whole sale was 5,2731.-Mr. Bernal's collection of Prints was rich in portraits, particulary in a curious series relating to Henry the Fourth of France. He had also collected all the most interesting Old Prints which illustrate English history; specimens of the works of F. Hogenberg, Drevet, De Leu, Hollar, Gaultier, Faithorne, Nanteuil, Logan, Edelinck, Smith; a few old German masters; a choice selection of the works of Hogarth; fine proofs to Cook's Voyages; a few of the best Swiss landscape prints; andsome modern portraits. A portrait of the Great Condé, for which he had given 10s. 6d. realized 197. The works of Hogarth were especially remarkable from the late owner having refined them by repeated exchanges. A set of the Rake's Progress, in its first state, sold for 131.an ordinary set producing just as many shillings. The single print of the March to Finchley, 4l. 88. The Strolling Actresses, 51. The Industrious and Idle Apprentices, twelve prints in first state, 51. 5s. Beer Street and Gin Lane, two plates, 31. 88. The four Election Pieces, 41. The Bruiser Churchill, "with the white lines," 51. 12s. 6d. Paul before Felix, with the receipt, signature, and seal of Hogarth, 137. But the most extraordinary result of the sale was in lot 78: the Midnight Modern Conversation, in a unique state, the word MODDERN being engraved with two DD, and only four lines of verse instead of six. It appeared that the British Museum had sent an unlimited commission for this print, and it was run up to the exorbitant sum of seventy-eight guineas! A pencil-mark at the back showed that Mr. Bernal had given for it only one guinea and a half. We cannot pass wholly without censure such a disposition of the resources placed at the disposal of the officers of the Museum: for we do not recognise the condition that they are commissioned to purchase what is merely rare or unique, but that which may be best calculated to inform the public mind and instruct the national taste. The orthographical error of a printer or engraver does not fall under these conditions. To give so large a sum for a unique coin or print is simple folly in itself; and only justifiable on the part of an individual because the chance is that when he or his repre sentatives require to part with the article, the same or a higher sum will probably be given for it by some other ambitious person. The national trustees, who are not contemplating any such future sale, are deprived of this excuse for their folly; and we must say that they ought to confine their resources, of the narrow limits of which they are in the constant habit of complaining, to objects more usefully instructive either to the mind or to the eye. The whole of Mr. Bernal's collection of Prints, amounting to 560 lots, realised 1313. His collection of Works of Art, which will be sold at his own house in Eaton-square, will occupy thirty-two days, from the 5th to the 29th of March, and from the 5th to the 30th of April. It consists of upwards of four thousand specimens of Oriental, Dresden, Sèvres, German, and Capo di Monte porcelain; of historical portraits and miniatures; of mediæval metal-work, ecclesiastical plate, and jewellery; Limoges, Dresden and Oriental enamels, carvings in ivory, Faenza and Palissy ware, armour and arms, stained glass, Venetian and German glass and gris de Flandres, an extraordinary assemblage of clocks and watches, and a variety of ancient furniture. The Council of the Society of Arts have presented a petition to the House of Commons, praying that this collection may be purchased entire for the nation, which it is supposed might be done for "about 50,0001., a sum which would not amount to a halfpenny on every 1001. sterling worth of manufactures produced for export and home consumption in the year 1854." It is perhaps unlikely that this demand will be listened to, in the present crisis of public affairs; though a piece of extravagance proportionately very much less than many we have heretofore committed in the matter of pictures, and one far more worthy of a great nation than such profusion in petty details as we have noticed in respect to the unique print of Hogarth. We understand that another offer has recently been submitted to the consideration of the trustees of the British Museum, to which we should earnestly desire a favourable result. Mr. C. Roach Smith is anxious to place in secure and permanent custody his extraordinary collection of Antiquities formed from excavations in subterranean London; of which he recently printed the very interesting Descriptive Catalogue reviewed by us in Augnst last; and he has offered it to the nation at the price it has cost him. This would be a most desirable accession to the nascent department of our national antiquities, which has hitherto been so strangely neglected, but which is now making so useful a progress; and we trust that no financial scruples may stand in its way. The sentiments of Dr. Collingwood Bruce, which we give in our report of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, ought to have some weight in this matter. Should, however, such a disappointment occur, Mr. Roach Smith's museum ought not to leave the City to which it belongs, but would be most properly placed in the charge of the Corporation, and united to that which they already boast,* which is composed of matters of a kindred character, though far inferior in richness or abundance to that of Mr. Roach Smith. A sale of twenty choice pictures, chiefly by English artists, from the collection of Charles Birch, esq. of Westfield House, Edgbaston, attracted an immense crowd on Thursday, Feb. 15, to the gallery of Messrs. Foster and Son, Pall Mall. The buyers were limited to a few spirited individuals, and the prices obtained were not extravagant, but good. The most remarkable were 780 guineas for a small picture by Sir Edwin Landseer, Waiting for the Deer to Rise, size only 27 inches by 20; and 700 guineas for a small circular picture only 18 inches in diameter, by Etty, The Fleur de Lys. A fine Turner, The Lock, in his best style, engraved in the "Liber Studiorum," size 4 4 feet by 3 feet, fetched only 600 guineas. The Lock, by Constable, painted as a companion to The Corn Field in the National Gallery, was knocked down at 860 guineas. Mr. Maclise's large picture, Alfred in the Tent of Guthrum the Dane, exhibited three years since in the Royal Academy, sold for 690 guineas; Spezzia Bay, by Calcott, 500 guineas; an effective picture by Stanfield, Affray in the Pyrenees with Contrabandisti, exhibited in the Royal Academy the year before last, 435 guineas; and a charming landscape by Linnell, The Road through the Wood, 415 guineas; Frith's little gem, Dolly Varden, 200 guineas; and a brilliant little picture by Poole, Mountain Peasants descending the Rugged Path, 240 guineas; Beating for Recruits, size 18 inches by 16, by * It may not be known to all our readers that a Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities found on the site of the Royal Exchange, which are now preserved in the Civic museum, was printed for the use of the members of the Corporation (but not published) in the year 1848. It is accompanied by an account of their discovery, and " some particulars and suggestions relating to Roman London," written by Mr. Tite, the architect of the New Exchangea work very honourable to that gentleman's antiquarian zeal and erudition. Webster, 355 guineas; Wilkie's First Earring, size 18 inches by 141, 295 guineas; Returning from the Haunt of the Sea Fowl, by Collins, 185 guineas; A Classical Landscape, by F. Danby, 115 guineas; Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter of Babylon, by Herbert, 190 guineas; The Saviour of the World, a fine head, size 24 inches by 19, by Paul De la Roche, 265 guineas; The Tambourine Player, by Uwins, 120 guineas; The Slave Market, by W. Muller, 195 guineas; Rydal Water, by J. B. Pyne, 92 guineas; and a circular picture, 2 feet diameter, The Hall Fruit Table, by Lance, 76 guineas. Total for the twenty pictures, 7,6731. 88. The twenty-seventh annual report of the Royal Scottish Academy, recently pub. lished, refers to the loss sustained during the past year of several distinguished men connected with the Academy-Lord Cockburn, Professors Jameson, Wilson, and Edward Forbes, who had shortly before his death been appointed the Honorary Professor of Literature, in the room of Professor Wilson. The office is thus again vacant. The professorship of Antiquities was during the year bestowed on Mr. David Laing, of the Library of the Writers to the Signet. The new art-galleries on the Mound are expected to be ready for the annual exhibition. To the collection of pictures and works of art, and to the library of the Academy, various important and valuable additions have recently been made. A silver medal has been executed by Mr. Wyon, from designs by Mr. Noel Paton, for the members, and for artists whose services or merits the Academy may wish to recognise by an honorary distinction. "A Water Party," and also a quarto volume of 30 wood engravings, illustrating Lord Byron's Childe Harold. An admirable copy of Michael Angelo's Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has been cxecuted in coloured lithography by Herr Winkelmann, of Berlin, at the expense of Mr. Harford, of Blaise Castle, near Bristol, who has assigned the profits arising from its sale to the Artists' General Benevolent Institution. The print is about three feet long, and displays more careful colouring than fine drawing, but all the effects of composition, and even the sombre tone of the original, are conveyed with great fidelity. The famous portico of the Palace of the Uffizi at Florence has, after a lapse of nearly two hundred years, been supplied with statues of all the celebrated men of Tuscany and Florence, in compliance with the original plan of Vasari the architect, and of his patron the Duke Cosmo de' Medici. Poetry and literature are represented by statues of Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, and Redi; science, jurisprudence, politics, physics, and medicine by those of Accurso, Macchiavelli, Guicciardini, Galileo, Cesalpino, Micheli, and Morgagni; the fine arts by statues of Giotto, Arnolfo, Orcagna, Donatello, Alberte, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo Buonarotti, Benvenuto Cellini, and Guido d'Arrezo. There are also statues of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci, the archbishop Antoninus, Cosmo the elder, and Laurent de' Medici; and of four eminent citizens of Florence Farinata degli Uberte, who protected the city in a great emergency; Capponi, who defended it against the French; Giovanni delle Bande Nere, the general of the Medici faction; and Ferruccio, the last general of the republic, who perished with it. Mr. Oliveira, M.P., having placed at the disposal of the Society of Arts two gold medals of the value of 251. each, or money to the same amount, for special premiums, the Council has determined to award them: 1. For the best and finest flax thread, spun by machinery, suitable for Lace-making; 2. For the best essay on the means of preventing the nuisance of Smoke. Mr. S. M. Hubert, through the Society, has offered the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart. 51. for a composition for the feeding rollers used in printing paper hangings by cylinder machinery, to which the Council has added the Society's medal. The Society's medal is offered for a school microscope, to be sold to the public at a price not exceeding 108. 6d., and also for a teacher's or student's microscope, at a price not exceeding 31. 38. The Committee of the Art Union of London have arranged that every subscriber of the present year shall receive an engraving by J. T. Willmore, A.R.A., from the picture by the late J. J. Chalon, R.A., A monumental tablet to the late Sir Robert Peel has been erected by his sons in the parish church of Drayton-Basset. The following is the inscription :In memory of to whom the people have raised monuments in many places, his children erect this in the place where his body has been buried. He was born 5th February, 1788, and died 2nd July, 1850. This is placed within a canopied niche, elaborately carved in the Tudor style, from a design by Mr. Sidney Smirke, A.R.A.; but we always think that such a niche, which is properly suited for a statue, looks particularly bald when filled only with an inscription. For the latter a mere frame is preferable. Our meaning will be understood from a woodcut in the Illustrated London News. The late Dr. Routh, though the pattern of regularity, the perfect man of business, and one the most punctual in the discharge of every duty in which the interest of others could in any way be affected, died without a will. His library, probably in intrinsic worth one of the most valuable in England, (although to a superficial observer of but small account, from the little care expended on its outward condition,) he bestowed upon the University of Durham by a deed of gift executed some two years since, and at the same time, we believe, he made provision for his faithful domestics; but his entire property now devolves upon his representatives, the children of his late brother. This would not be a matter of regret, if he had not already been most liberal to his relatives, settling upon them during his life the sums he deemed necessary to ensure their welfare; but it is unfortunate that his own particular wishes cannot now be carried out, since, had he completed his testamentary intentions, there is reason to believe that they would have connected his name with some of the most valuable institutions in the country, as well as have proved the nobleness of his spirit and the soundness of his judgment; his generosity, and his sagacity. But for an unhappy procrastination which must ever be deplored, all this would have been accomplished, and the last act of his life have redounded as much to his own credit as the many years so peacefully and so profitably passed had contributed to the instruction and benefit of his fellow creatures by his learning and benevolence. Dr. Routh had recently (in 1853) added to the number of his literary works by printing, for private circulation, some extracts from the early Fathers, antagonistic to the pretensions of the Church of Rome, and intended as supplemental sheets to his Reliquiæ. The President was happy in inscriptions, and the first of the following attracted the critical admiration of Sheridan :— An Epitaph on Dr. Oliver, Lord Clarendon's Tutor, the deprived President of Magdalen College in 1648. (Restored in 1660.) Corpus hic situm est Joannis Olivarii, S. T. P., Præsidis optimi et doctissimi, suâ sponte pauperis. Vixit annos LXI. Qui cum ad domum fortunasque suas Caroli causâ amissas rediisset, post paulo hominibus exemptus est. Ava anima egregia, forsitan et huic seculo exemplo futura! Epitaph on Sir Francis Burdett. Francisco Burdett, Baronetto, Patriæ Amantissimo, Instituta Majorum Legesque Reverito, et Vera Libertatis Vindici, Viro Excellenti Virtute, Angelica Georgiana Filia Parenti. Inscription for a Bust of the Duke of Wellington. Cum victa Europa sub jugum missa esset, Liberavit eam, victo victore, Wellintonus, Britanniæ suæ, non sibi, laudem quærens. The dignity of a Baronet has been conferred upon Mr. Peto, the eminent Contractor, more especially as a mark of her Majesty's appreciation of his recent disinterested and patriotic conduct in retiring from the representation of Norwich, in order to carry out the construction of the railway from Balaklava to the British lines before Sebastopol. Dr. Lyon Playfair, C.B., and Mr. Henry Cole, C.B., instead of being Joint Secretaries, will henceforward be-the former sole Secretary, and the latter InspectorGeneral, at the department of Science and Art, Marlborough House. Mr. Samuel Cousins has been elected a Royal Academician, being the first instance of an Engraver having been raised to that honour; and the Rev. Henry Christmas, F.R.S., has been appointed to the Professorship of British History and Archæology, newly established by the Royal Society of Literature. Some of those who most deeply feel the blessings conferred upon this country by the Almighty in accomplishing the Protestant Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, have recently commemorated the Tricentenary of the sufferings of the most distinguished English martyrs. A sermon was preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday, the 4th Feb. by the Rev. Canon Dale, on the Fires of Smithfield, on the occasion of the Tricentenary of the martyrdom of Rogers and other Protestant confessors. On the 9th the Tricentenary of the martyrdom of Richard Taylor was commemorated at Hadleigh in Suffolk, and it resulted in a proposition for the restoration of the Church in which he faithfully preached the Gospel at the cost of his life. After the market has been finally removed from Smithfield, it is intended to erect a monument there to the memory of the martyrs of the Reforma.tion. Everything, in this world, is subject to change; and the Clubs of London, like other human institutions, are destined to rise and fall, to flourish and decay. The last process is commonly effected by the absorption of one into another. Thus the Erectheum, which occupied a mansion in St. James's square, which once belonged to the Earl of Romney, and afterwards was the warehouse of the famous Wedgewood Ware, (it now accommodates the Charity Commission,) was a short time since absorbed into the Parthenon, which |