Gothic one. Such fittings in stone, alabaster, or oak add much to the dignity and richness of the chancel.

It may be remarked that the number of persons possessing a knowledge of the principles of ecclesiastical art is very limited, and a steadily diminishing quantity. For one person who studies this subject effectually nowadays, there were forty half a century ago, in the heyday of the Revival,

One very rich and dignified feature in the chancel is, as a rule, missing in modern Irish churches, that is the use of textile hangings or embroideries, which were very common in the churches of the Middle Ages, in the form of riddels, dossals, and ante-pendium or altar frontals. These often corresponded with the vestments and varied with the seasons. Very rich and beautiful colours and designs of ecclesiastical pattern of modern manufacture could be obtained before the war, and were not very costly, but of course embroidery in gold thread and rich colour would be far better. Embroidery of good designs, or good textiles, add enormously to the beauty of the chancel. I have seen some very fine ecclesiastical embroideries done by the Dun Emer Guild, Dublin. In conjunction with hangings, one naturally thinks of carpets. Poverty frequently compels the use of ordinary Brussels carpet of tawdry colouring and design. Carpets are a very important item, and receive too little consideration. Nothing could be better than specially designed Irish hand-tufted carpets, such as are made by the Dun Emer Guild and the other Irish carpet factories, but they are fairly expensive. Persian and other oriental rugs, of old design, are delightful in colouring and texture and most suitable, but, since the war, have become almost prohibitive in price. Indian rugs of good colour and design may, occasionally, be picked up and are not expensive, but these need discrimination in their selection. Failing these, the next best thing is a good Axminster or Wilton carpet, of self colour, with little or no pattern. They may be had in soft reds, blues and greens, and occasionally in quite good reproductions of oriental patterns. Wherever these cannot be afforded, plain felts can be had in self colours, and are quite cheap and effective, but show foot marks. I have dwelt at what may be deemed undue length upon carpets and hangings, but I think they are very important for their decorative effect.

I may mention, too, that in the artistic design and

colouring of church vestments great improvements have lately been effected by pioneers in the revival of this great art of the Middle Ages, upon which Pugin wrote so fully in his day. The Right Rev. Monsignore le Vicomte de la Villarmois, Protonotary Apostolic, who is an authority on the subject, visited Ireland last year, when I had the privilege of meeting him and seeing some of the vestments, exquisite in design and colouring, which he had with him. A convent in Co. Wexford, and the Dun Emer Guild, have made some very fine vestments under Monsignore's directions.

The floor of the chancel may be of marble, tiles, mosaic, or wood. A real marble pavement is perhaps the best of all. Black and white or grey, with coloured marbles, make a combination which is hard to beat for dignity, solidity and durability. Encaustic and glazed tiles of good medieval pattern in combination are very suitable; exceedingly fine and rich effects can be produced. There are many remains of beautiful old Irish tiles still extant. In the restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, or the Abbey of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, George Edmund Street, R.A., who was in charge of it, collected these old tiles and reconstructed the pavements. Some of the Staffordshire tilemakers still have the patterns of these old Irish tiles.

Some rigid purists consider a marble or mosaic floor out of keeping with Gothic traditions, with which encaustic tiles are most in consonance. There are, however, exceptions. Mosaic was used in Henry VII Chapel, Westminster, and elsewhere.

Mosaic floors as usually designed and supplied to modern churches by commercial firms are inartistic, though showy in colour. Good mosaic is very costly. The modern mosaic is only a cheap imitation as a rule. A good example of a modern mosaic floor is that at St. Finn Barr, Cork, designed by the architect, William Burges. Mosaic is of several kinds : Vitrerous mosaic, made from small particles of tile; glass mosaic, and Venetian mosaic, made from fragments of real marble. The floor of the chancel should always be designed by the architect, or by a real artist, not by the tilemaker's draftsman, as is usually the case. Woodblock or parquet floors of quite good design can be had. They are warm to the feet and noiseless to the tread, but are not effective except as a background to rugs.

The pulpit in most modern churches is too low, and often placed too near the chancel for effective hearing; of course,

it should never be placed inside the communion rails, as is sometimes seen in Irish churches. The traditional position of the pulpit is in the nave on the Gospel side, and it should be placed as far down as accoustic consideration may dictate.

In Ireland the pulpit is usually of marble or stone, and the same remarks apply as to the Altar. When of marble the material is frequently misused and a soft stone or timber form of design adopted with most illogical results. An oak canopy or sounding board, carved or moulded, and enriched with bright colours and gold adds much to the dignity and interest of the interior of the church. Carved oak pulpits are not common in Ireland, but would be a very suitable material, if well designed, in a manner adapted to the material.

A special Baptistery was not common in English or Irish churches in the Middle Ages, it is a more or less foreign feature, but it is perhaps convenient to put the font in a special place where it can be easily fenced off, and this view has been adopted in most modern Irish churches of any size; in some cases, however, the space is rather cramped for baptisms. The old traditional place for the font was in a prominent position at the west end of the church. Rubrically, the Baptistery should be sunk one or two steps down, but where this is not possible it adds importance to elevate the font a step above the church floor. The font itself should be of stone or other impervious material: marble is suitable and clean. It should always be covered. The cover affords opportunity for the exercise of any amount of skill and taste in design. Many of the old carved oak font covers were marvels of grace and beauty, towering high in the air with tier on tier of richly fretted tracery and crocketting, often coloured and gilded.

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Such efforts are beyond the scope of most modern church builders, but the cover should be dignified and as important looking as circumstances permit. The font like the piscina, should always have a special drain discharging, not into a sewer, but into some clean place outside the church. tuary chapels are quite a recent innovation, and not much study has so far been given to them. In a new church their position and design should be carefully considered, with due regard to their purpose and use.

Stations of the Cross, from their nature, are best treated as pictures, unless first-class sculpture is possible. In Irish

churches they are frequently unsatisfactory from an artistic point of view. They are generally either oil paintings, or sculptured panels, occasionally they are done in mosaic or opus sectile, and in terra-cotta or modelled plaster. If stone or marble panels, of architectural character and a part of the general design, can be provided in the church, and the funds permit of a sculptor being employed, then this is probably the most satisfactory solution. Terra-cotta, and even plaster, if well modelled on conventional rather than naturalistic lines, and brightly coloured and gilded, are unobjectionable. Next to good sculpture, however, I should say reasonably well-executed oil paintings were best. The subjects should be more or less conventionally treated. Naturalistic pictorialism is out of place. The manner of the pre-Raphaelite school, and the decorative methods of that great French artist, Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), afford suggestions for dignified treatment. If oil paintings be used, the surround or frame should be frankly a picture frame of suitable character, preferably rich and gilded, but a simple frame might be substituted. The pitch pine varnished constructions with finials and crockets, and other attempts at architectural features that one often sees, are very ugly. Frescoes in tempera done on the walls afford a further suggestion, but in Ireland the climate would render them perishable, besides which there would be the difficulty of getting artists able to do them. In many foreign churches the Stations are oil paintings in gilded frames, hung on the columns of the nave arcade-it is perhaps as satisfactory a solution as any other. The particular medium of expression employed should be governed by the amount of money and the artistic skill available.

In modern Irish churches the organ is placed on a gallery at the west end of the church and, from the point of sound, it is about the best position, and is otherwise unobjectionable, provided the gallery be designed as an integral part of the church or its furnishing. The gallery added as an afterthought is seldom satisfactory. Where at all practicable the gallery ought to be of stone, or of oak treated after the manner of the old chancel screens, and may be made quite harmonious and effective. Galleries are frequently too large for the church, and detract from its dignity.

In Irish churches the organ case is seldom designed by the architect, and is usually constructed by the organ builder of pine or deal varnished, with unhappy architectural results,

which is a great pity, the organ being a very prominent, feature in the church. In many of the older churches the organ case was a magnificent affair of traceried and enriched oakwork. The pipes were gilded and coloured as early as A.D. 709, according to St. Aldhelm, who is supposed to have erected the first organ at Malmesbury, where he was Abbot A.D. 680 to 705. In the medieval churches the organ was often put on the rood loft. Organ cases do not appear to have come into use till about the close of the fourteenth century, and of these none have survived. The oldest known in these countries, according to Mr. Bond, is at Old Radnor in Wales, where it stands on the north side of the chancel.

Howsoever simple the organ case may be, it should be designed in architectural keeping with the church, and not left to the will of the organ builder, who is not an architect, and devotes little or no attention to this part of the work. The organ itself should be built according to the specification, and subject to the approval of a musical expert.

I shall now come to the very important subject of stained glass and colour decoration, which of late have attracted much attention, and occasioned some discussion in various periodicals. As to some extent they hang together, they may be considered on this basis. Stained glass, from a very early period, was of importance, and in time came to be one of the chief glories of the medieval church. It was essentially an art of the Middle Ages. It flourished from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, when it was on the wane. After the Reformation it became a lost art, which, in the truer sense, was not revived until within comparatively recent years. When the Gothic revival took place, Pugin and others endeavoured to revive the art, with but scant success. Some of the glass of Clayton and Bell has a merit of its own, and was in many respects preferable to that of the phase that followed, but it was crude in colouring and missed the spirit of the old glass. The glass that followed the early Gothic revival was bad in almost every respect. The Munich school and other cheap Continental glass set the fashion. The designs were poor, the colouring bad, and the whole treatment, in its striving after naturalistic pictorialism, vulgar.

Not only was the whole medieval spirit lost, but the very technique was at variance with the true principles of this beautiful art. Instead of the small slabs of pot-metal glass of rich and glowing colour, disposed together to form a

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