answers are returned; neither, as we have been informed by the registrar, are they at present to be found. The incumbents, from the visitation of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. until the junction of the chapelry with that of All-saints are so far as we have been able to discover-the following:

EDWARD FYLD is returned in 1535 as chaplain and curate here for the term of life, by indenture from the abbot and convent.397 WILLIAM SWETON.-His name appears on the pension roll, cited at the foot of page 142, as incumbent here in 1553.

PHILIP HADDOCK.-His signature is affixed to the terrier, lately noticed, in the year 1585.

JOHN WOOD.-His signature occurs in the parochial register, in June, 1599.

JOHN BALAM.-The date of his appointment, as intimated in the register, was in the month of December, 1610.

THOMAS TWITTY, B.D. Master of Evesham School, was appointed upon Mr. Balam's decease; having been instituted in November, 1639, as appears from the register in the Consistorial Court, at Worcester. He ultimately became minister of Kingston-uponThames, where also he was buried.

THOMAS MATTHEW.-His signature first appears in the register, in 1647. The excellence of his christian character, and the sterling nature of his principles, are sufficiently indicated by his refusing to submit to articles of religious conformity, which he regarded as unscriptural. Preferring, therefore, the approval of his conscience, to the retention of preferment upon other terms, he was ejected for nonconformity, about the year 1655; as from an entry in the corporation books he appears to have retained his curacy until that period.398

It has usually been considered, that since Mr. Matthew's induction, presentation to this preferment has, on account of its trifling value, been uniformly appended to that of All-saints; and that while the church of St. Lawrence continued in repair, service was performed alternately in each edifice, by the incumbent of both parishes. But

397 Valor Ecclesiasticus, temp. Henry VIII. vol. iii. p. 255.

398 A brief notice respecting him occurs in Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, vol. iii. p. 392, ed. 1803.

from the register in the Consistory Court, it is evident that the two were not then constantly united; though they were afterward thus conjoined. For on the 4th of July, 1735, as appears from the official copy made by the deputy registrar

JOHN PRICE, M. A. was instituted to the chapel and chapelry of St. Lawrence; and William Burkinshaw, M. A. to that of All-saints, upon the same day. No separate institution to St. Lawrence appears, however, after the above entry.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPEL OF ALL-SAINTS, IN THE DEANERY AND WITHIN THE PRECINCTS OF THE MONASTERY.

THE parochial chapel of All-saints adjoins that of St. Lawrence; and stands but a few feet further northward from the site of the monastery. Though presenting little in point of architectural beauty to attract attention, yet the antiquity of the fabric may be regarded as nearly coeval with the oldest portions of the adjacent church. The building comprises a nave and aisles; two chapels, in the situation of a transept; a chancel eastward; and at the west a tower and spire, in front of which a porch has since been added; while a chantry of the same period forms a like addition to the southern aisle. Mr. Tindal in his conjecture as to the origin of this structure has, because of its proximity to the gateway of the abbey precincts, singularly confounded it with a distinct chapel erected by abbot De Bois, which we have already described as having been situated near the great gate of the monastery.3 399

We have no earlier intimation concerning this church than that already cited in the former chapter respecting the corredy furnished to its chaplain in the thirteenth century from the convent.400 Its appearance presents an almost heterogeneous aggregation of aisles and angles of various dates and styles, massed together as it were by chance or just as temporary requirement called for. The space it occupies, is ample for parochial use; being about one hundred and thirty feet long, and averaging fifty feet wide. But to augment the early evil of its level being sunk below the soil, the earth,

* See Tindal's Evesham, page 221; also page 62 in the present volume. 400 See page 168, ante.

now saturated by interments, is banked against the southern wall almost to the sills of its windows. The damp and dirt and mustiness thus caused within, are more befitting to a charnel-house than to a christian temple and persistance on the part of the parishioners in crowding their dead into this limited portion of the ground, apparently only because it adjoins the church, is, to say the least, reprehensible. Formerly some cause might be supposed for this, when an Ave or a Credo was besought from every passenger toward the purgatorial liberation of the imprisoned soul,-but that graves of modern date which can merely

"Implore the passing tribute of a sigh,"

The

should be heaped up in such a situation, is without excuse. general confusion is augmented by an unsightly zig-zag wall protruded across the burial-ground, from the chantry of abbot Lichfield to the base of the bell-tower. This, though an old encroachment, calls loudly for removal; and a proper representation to this effect would, we doubt not, be satisfactorily responded to by the incumbent when a line of palisades from the bell-tower to the porch would effectually exclude loiterers from among the gravestones during the hours of service. Such a compliance might then be met, on the part of the parishioners, by a removal of the unsightly tenements thrust against the vicarage, near the ancient gateway that once admitted to the abbey precincts. At the same time we would suggest the propriety of trenching the soil, against the walls of the church, to a level of at least six inches below the pavement; thus providing a water-table into which the spouts might be discharged; instead of, as at present, saturating the walls through the sodden ground, and leaving the stagnant moisture to be imbibed by the wainscot and furniture of the pews. This method we have seen generally adopted within the diocese of Bath and Wells, attended with a satisfactory result.

The northern aisle and chancel are evidently the oldest portions of the building. This is sufficiently indicated by the formation of the windows, the rudeness of their tracery, and the extraordinary declension of the walls. From the style, there can be little hesitation in appropriating these divisions to an early period in the thirteenth century. In the pediment of the aisle just noticed a seated

figure in a small contemporary niche above the window, has escaped destruction. The southern aisle is lighted by more capacious windows, which are filled with more fluent tracery; and an embattled parapet here is added above. This aisle we may consider as erected in the fourteenth century by some pious benefactor-most probably an inmate of the monastery, or mayhap some wealthy burgher of the town. And at about the same time, the tower would seem to have been added; or at least its parapet and spire.

By a descent of steps we enter the western porch; a simple addition of the Tudor age. It is comparatively plain within. The horizontal ceiling presents at the intersection of its transoms the emblems of the Saviour's passion, in relief, grouped with the crown of thorns; and above the pointed arch that opens to the navethere stands a niche, now vacant, surmounted with a mutilated canopy, beneath which the figure of some sacred personage was anciently enshrined. Behind this archway, on the northern side, is the mural recess that formerly contained the holy-water stoup from whence the worshippers affused themselves on entering and departing from the church. There are three spacious pointed arches at the north of the nave, and three of wholly different dimensions and appearance at the south. The arch communicating with the chancel is also pointed; but a rude and unstudied execution seems to characterize the work. The ceiling is in general coved and plaistered; but is in the southern aisle and transept horizontal and timber-groined. The floor throughout is paved with relics of humanity as though a structure appropriated to the worship of the Most Holy required, as parcel of its consecration, to be gorged with corruption and decay. Upon such a subject-where not only decency, but health, and even life are staked,—we cannot but speak emphatically. For, in many of our churches, "earth and walls have at length become so saturated with putrefaction, that, turn where we may, the air we breathe is cadaverous; and a man often feels that sublimated particles, perhaps of his next door neighbour or nearest relative, enter his lungs at every respiration. Thus, in truth,—though in a different sense from that of the apostle-'in the midst of life we are in death." "401 Space, order, and convenience are

401 Westminster Review, vol. xl. pp. 149-50.