THE ADAMS MONUMENT.

THIS is an elegant monument of pure white marble, situated on Spruce Avenue, and erected by Alvin Adams.

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SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

(COMPILED.)

THE earliest tombs found in Great Britain, which can be considered as at all of an architectural character, are the stone coffins of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The covers of these were at first simply coped; afterwards frequently ornamented with crosses of various kinds, and other devices, and sometimes with inscriptions. Subsequently, they were sculptured with recumbent figures in high relief; but still generally diminishing in width from the head to the feet, to fit the coffins, of which they formed the lids. Many of the figures of this period represent knights in armor, with their legs crossed. These are supposed to have been either Templars, or such as had joined, or vowed to join, in a crusade to the Holy Land. These figures usually had canopies, which were often richly carved over the heads, supported on small shafts, which ran along each side of the effigy, the whole worked in the same block of stone. This kind of tomb was sometimes placed beneath low arches or recesses, formed within the substance of the church wall, usually about seven feet in length, and not more than three high above the coffin, even in the centre; these arches were at first semicircular or segmental at the top, afterwards obtusely pointed. They often remain when the figure, or brass, and perhaps the coffin itself, has long disappeared and been forgotten. On many tombs of the thirteenth century, there are plain pediment-shaped canopies over the heads of the recumbent effigies, the earliest of which contain a pointed, trefoliated arched recess. Towards the end of the century, these canopies became. gradually enriched with crockets, finials, and other architectural ornaments.

The most of the monuments of the middle ages were erected soon after the death of the persons whom they commemorate; but in some instances, the parties buried in them, prepared them during their lifetime. These were frequently the wealthy ecclesiastics. There are but few existing monuments which are earlier than the twelfth century. In the reign of Edward I., the tombs of persons of rank began to be ornamented on the sides with armorial bearings, and small sculptured statues, within pedimental canopied recesses; and from these we may progressively trace the peculiar minutiæ and enrichments of every style of ecclesiastical architecture, up to the Reformation.

Altar, or table tombs, called by Leland "high tombs," with recumbent effigies, were common during the whole of the fourteenth century. These sometimes appear beneath splendid pyramidal canopies, and sometimes beneath flat testoons. In the early part of the same century, the custom prevailed of inlaying flat stones with brasses, and monumental inscriptions frequently occur. The sides of these tombs are sometimes relieved with niches, surmounted with decorated pediments, each containing a small sculptured figure; sometimes with arched panels filled with tracery. Other tombs, about the same period, but more frequently in the fifteenth century, were decorated along the sides with large, square, panelled compartments, richly foliated or quatrefoiled, and containing shields.

Many of the tombs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries appear beneath arched recesses, fixed in, or projecting from the wall, and inclosing the tomb on three sides; these were constructed so as to form canopies, which are often of the most elaborate and costly workmanship. These canopies were sometimes of elaborately carved