The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-11 00:00:00

St, Stephen's Crypt.

It is some years now since the late Sir Charles
Barry began the restoration of this beautiful crypt,
the only relic that remains to us of the once un-
equalled St. Stephen's Chapel, unless Westminster.
hall and the cloisters on the east side are to be
considered parts of the famous Palace, What the
crypt was 600 years ago, now that it has been per-
fectly restored to the splendour of its original
decoration, we can judge for ourselves ; but the
glories of the chapel which once rose above it can
only he guessed at from comparison with the crypt,
or dimly admired through the traditions of anti-
quaries. Long before the fire which finally destroyed
it, the gradual, but necessary, process of accommo-
dating its interior to the wants of the lluuse
of
Commons, had totally changed th
'al once superbly
decorated edifice. Mr. Ih.,rgusson, in his "Hand-
book of Architecf says of Sc. Stephen's :—" As
might be ex ,acted a priori, the gem of Eoglish art
was the chapel in the Royal Palace at Westminster.
011 this was lavished all that the metropolis could
then produce most exquisite in the arts of design,
and this not in architecture only, but the best
works of sculpture and the highest class of painting
were pat in requisition for its adornments. The
dimensions were not large, being only 90ft. by 33ft.
internally, and its root Was of wood, but so elaborate
were its decorations that it must have cost more
than many edifices three or four times its size.
There can be no doubt that it was designed to sur-
pass everything of the sort in England,"and being
erected wholly within the reigns of the three first
Edwards, it embraced the very best period of
English art, answering to the Sainte Chapelle
at Paris, which belongs to the great architec-
tural age of St. Louis." But, as we have
said, very little of this grandeur beyond its
traditions remained till 1834, when, after having
been partly burnt about a dozen times, the
old building finally succumbed to the great confla-
gration known as " the burning of the Houses of
Parliament," In traditions of other kind, however,
St. Stephen's, as the arena in which were fought
out the great battles for England's Constitution was
not inferior in historic interest to any building fire
has yet destroyed. A building in which the Confes-
sor died, which was not new when the first Norman
councils were held in England, and whioh witnessed
and survived every reformation but the reformation
of Parliament, must have possessed such historic
associations as would leave it without an equal in
this respect in Europe. But, endless as are the
traditions about St. Stephen's Chapel, about the
crypt beneath, with which we have now to do,
there is almost none. Some of the early Edwards
gave banquets in it, which must, one would think,
have been genial feasts, for there is a legend that
ono of their Queens indulged to such intemperate
extent at a banquet there as to enable her to ebeifls
off this mortal coil much earlier than she or her
friends anticipated. .4fcer this period it was merily,
a crypt—a dull sort of ecclesiastical lember-room,
about which there are no recot6 save the doubtful
rumours which assign it as a place of meeting for
Cromwell, Pym, ballet! Hollee, and others of the
Liberal party 7'aen the debates which preceded the
C'lnir-enwealth were drawing to a violent close.
atom this time forth it seems to have been a lumber-
room, which was left alone in its dusty silence till
used to prepare the coronation banquet of one of the
early Georges—a mode of turning it to account
which seems to have suggested the idea which after-
wards was carried out by many successive Speakers
of giving their Parliamentary banquets in it. After
the fire which destroyed St. Stephen's Chapel above
it, but did not much injure the crypt, the gas meters
used to be kept in it, and in the New Palace the site
of St. Stephen's above the crypt was used in order
to obtain an entrance to the present structure
through Westminster-hall. All who have visited
the Ne w Palace will, we are sure, have a vivid re-
collection of St Stephen's-hall, leading from West-
minsterehall to the great octagon central hall, and
containing the marble effigies of Pitt, Somers,
Hampden, Fox, Eldon, Clarendon, and others of
our greatest and most renowned orators and states-
men. This hall is exactly over the crypt, which
was spared by the fire, and which has now been
completely restored under the care of the present
architect to the New Palace—Mr E. M. Barry.
The late Sir Charles Barry, while, in common
with ell other architects, he lamented the destruc-
tion of St Stephen's Chapel, always held as his
most cherished idea the restoration of the crypt,
and its re-dedication to religious uses as the pri-
vate chapel of the New Palace at Westminster,
whose inmates are some hundreds, now that the
Speaker, Black Rod, Sergeant-at-Arms, librarian,
and other officials possess regular family residences
within the building, and which, we believe, being
necessarily extra-parochial, give no legal claim for
vats in the neighbouring churches. It is some years
since this restoration was commenced, and it has
fallen to the lot of Sir Charles Barry's son to carry
out his father's views by completely restoring and
decorating the crypt, and nothing now remains to
be added except the fittings to reader it a chapel
worthy of the moat important Gothic edifice of
modern times.

In the progress of this restoration the workmen
came upon the embalmed body of an ecclesiastic,
without any coffin, and buried under one of the
window seats. The body lay with its feet towards
the east—an unusual position for an ecclesiastic. It
was wrapped in several folds of waxed cloth, sewn
with twine. Its right hand was on the breast, and
on the left arm lay the pastoral staff, a crook
of oak, beautifully carved, while on the feet
were sandals, with leathern soles sharply pointed.
The face was perfect in its preservation, with
the hair still on the chin and upper lip. This
was supposed to be the body of William Lyndwood,
Bishop of St David's, the only person, it is bee.
Bayed, who was buried in the crypt—at all events,
the only one found during the course of the repairs,
which were most extensive. As it appears row,
the crypt is restored to all the pristine splendour
of its early erection. Every tone of its rich gold
and colour decorations have been, wherever they
could be traced, most diligently reproduced, and
the result is a chapel which, in its general richness
of effect, will bear comparison with any in Europe,
with the Sainte Chapelle, with the Chapter house
of Salisbury Cathedral itself.

The date of the erection of St. Stephen's Chapel
and crypt is supposed to be from about A.D. 1290
to A,D. 1345, and, though the upper chapel was
roofed with wood, the crypt always possessed a
groyned ceiling of atone, with massive ribs and
bosses, which have been carefully reinstated and
restored. The bosses are in most cases original, as
their fragments have been collected and put together
again with great care. Some of the largest bosses
are really medallion groups of historical sculpture,
and contain representations of the martyrdoms of
St. Stephen, St. John, St. Catherine, St. Lawrence,
and also a representation of St. George and the
Dragon. Some of these bosses are most quaint, ea-
pecially the chief one, which represents the martyr-
dom of St. Stephen, who is clad in gorgeous robes,
and being stoned by Hebrews dressed in the curious
costume and long pointed shoes of the time of
Chaucer, who, by the way, was himself clerk of the
works during the erection of part of the crypt and
chapel. Another boss, which represents the mar-
tyrdom of St. Catherine, is equally grotesque in
its manner of telling the tale of suffering. Weird
and monstrous, too, are the Gothic dragons which
peer from the roof and vary these bosses, and give
such appearance of originality to the whole ceiling.
The crypt is of nearly the same dimensions as the
original chapel above it—namely 90ft. long by 28ft.
wide, and 20fr. high. It contains five elaborate
groins, all richly decorated in gold and colours.
Attached to each of the aide walls are groups of
clustered columns which support the groins. Each
cluster contains five columns, which, with their
capitals and bases, are all of Purbeck marble
polished. The side and end walls, as well as the
private entrance from the Palace, are all painted
and ornamented in a manner to correspond with,the
decoration of the groins, and as from the situation
of the crypt there is necessarily a deficiency of
light, Mr Barry has thought it necessary to make a
liberal use of gold grounds, as a field on which the
various decorations have beau executed. The floor
is paved with Minton's tilts, with an admixture of
marble, the designs increasing in richness and ela-
boration towards tile east end. Tile windows are ail

filled with stained glass by Hardman, and are il-
lustrative of the life and death of St. Stephen, who
is depicted in the discharge of his various diaconal
duties, and meeting in the end a martyr's death.
The east end probably contained windows origin-
ally, as the chapel above undoubtedly did ; but, as
the Palace now adjoins the east end of the crypt,
no windows can now be obtained there. The panel-
ling is therefore occupied with full length figures
on gold grounds representing St. Peter and St.
Stephen, St. Oswald, St. Ethelreda, St. Edmund,
St. Edward the Confessor, St. Margaret of Scot-
land, and St. Edward the Martyr.
It is to be, hoped that no time may be lost in fit.
tin: -up the crypt and making use of it as the
private chapel of the New Palace at Westminster.
No permanent seats are contemplated, but the
chapel is proposed to be furnished with chairs to
accommodate 250 or 300 persons.—Times.

The itoj al Horticultural Society.
Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P., ins addressed the fol-
lowing letter to the Assistant-Secretary :-
7, Pall-mall East, London, July 20.
Sir,—Having been requested to give my opinion as to
the nature and character of exhibitions which the Royal
Horticultural Society should encourage far the true ad-
vancement of horticulture and its accompanying sciences, I
have draughted out this letter, in orJer to form a founda-
tion or data on which this matter can be discussed, and I
trust with a good result.
I. No doubt the result of the society's exhibitions has in
many respects been very advantageons to the cause of hor-
ticulture, particularly the earlier ones. They have en-
couraged great improvements in the culture and manage-
ment of plants, particularly such plants as can be pro-
duced in flowerat what may be called the London fashionable
season ; but they have by no means been productive of
unmixed good. They have brought into existence an un-
natural and artificial condition of things, which is not only
objected to in the interests of gardeners themselves, but is
also opposed to the interests of the public, by causing what
may be termed a spasmodic Elba and exertion, which at
other Reasons of the year le unemployed and to a great de-
gree unproductive. I may illustrate this by stating that a
good many years ago (and the same state of things now
exists to a certain erent) I called to see a first-class London
garden—forgetting that it was one of the exhibition days--
and I found only about six or eight plants in the garden,
and others haying all been trained—like a horse for racing
and had been taken to the show to win the stakes. In the
same season, some time after thia, I called again, and found

the plants having been their round of racing, all flowerless,
and beginning to be placed under training for the next
season for the same purpose; and this training was effected
by keeping some plants back and forcing others, so that
they might all flower together, and such plants as would
not bear this treatment were not cultivated.
2. Everyone, of course, says he has a right to do what
he likes with his own plants, which I do not deny; and if
a gentleman does not mind being 10 months in the year
without flowers in order to make a great display, I have no
fault to find with him ; all.l contend for is, that should not
be the main aim and scope of the exhibitors of the Horti-
cultural Society. In one respect the exhibitions of the pre-
sent day have produced a good result by giving prizes for
corections of beautiful foliage plants, as the culture of these
plants (which look beautiful all the year round) is thus
stimulated, and they are a great improvement in the
garden.
But in other respects those great show cultivators grow
very few plants which do not flower at the show season,
and therefore leave the flowers which might be cultivated
with great effect for other seasons of the year without much
attention.

4. The true object of horticulture should be, in my
opinion, to increase the enjoyment derivable from it, and to
diffuse it as widely as possible ; to enable the owners of gar-
dens to get the greatest amount of pleasure and satisfaction
from their possessions, and to enable the general public to
procure the greatest number of fruit flowers and vegetables
in the greatest quantity, of the best kinds, and at the
cheapest prices,
5. In order to carry out this, there should be something
like a continuous exhibition, so that a gardener would have
no interest in forcing his plants unnaturally into flower;
but if he had a beau iful specimen at any time, he would
know he could exhibit it where it would be seen and appre-
ciated and its merits rewarded. When the Horticultural
Society was in its palmy days, ono of its great sources of
benefit and attraction was the fortnightlyshows at their great
room in R-gent-street. It was then the practice for any
gentleman in the country, if he had a new plant or a new
fruit, to send to one of these exhibitions at any time in the
year, and the nurseryman brought every new plant there
from their respective establishments. Dr Lindley explained
the nature and properties of everything as it appeareu in each
exhibition with his lucid and agreeable manner, in which on
this subject he has no rival, and these meetings were in-
tensely fashionable, and often densely crowded.
6. When the Horticultural gardens at Chiswick were the
leading gardens in the country for new plants many gardens
were supplied thence, and so they were never without great
interest. They could not trust altogether to country gen-
tlemen and nurserymen for plants fur exhibition, and when
the entries were deficient the shows were made up of beau-
tiful plants from the Horticultural Gardens. Though then a
Certificate of Merit from the Society meant something and
was prized at a high rate, it insured the sale of any plant
which received it, and often practically represented a prize
of some hundreds of pounds sterling—as many nursery •
men had orders before the exhibition closed for very large
amounts. It therefore appears to me that these fortnightly
exhibitions should be renewed at once, and every attraction
given to theta. And considering the increase of commercial
transactions relating to horticulture, the facility of carrying
anything from a distance, and the great influx of visitors
into London in the season for a temporary sojourn, for the
spring and summer months, it would be well to try a weekly
exhibition without the descriptions, which, in point of fact,
would almost amount to a con,inual show. And they
should be held in a place suitable for plants, where many
nurserymen would not mind allowing then to remain all
the time they were in full flower. One or two of the great
shows might be still held in the gardens, where the fashion-
ables could attend to show themselves and look at each
other; which they do on these occasions quite as much as
at the flowers.

7. It would be too much in a letter of this sort to go into
details as to how many branches of horticulture have re-
mained stagnant for many years-past ; though it would not
be irrelevant, it would occupy more space and time than I
can now afford to give to it. But there is one subject that
has pressed upon me so long, and I am so convinced of its
damaging effects upon the commercial part of the supply of
the finer fruits in the public market, that I cannot help re-
verting to it in this letter, and that is—the growth of fruits
for sale by private establishments, in competition with
the market gardeners. Many gentlemen keep gat dens,
partly for their own use, and partly for the sale of the pro-
duce, which they sell to cover part of the gardening ex-
penses ; and this is done to a very large extent and bp some
of the highest private garden establishments in the country.
The result is that fruit, with all the facilities of cheap glass
and cheap coal all over the country (compared with 40 years
ago), is absolutely dearer than it was 40 years since; while
the produce of real market gardens is perhaps 50 per cent.
cheaper and 100 per cent. better, the forced fruits in which
the private establishments compete have made very little
progress in goodness. If you went to Covent-garden market
between 30 and 40 years ago and looked at the fruit, you
would find the grapes were grown by Mr Andrews, the
great market gardener at Vauxhall, Mr William Wilmot,
of Isleworth, or some other good market gardener of the
day, whereas, if you go there now, the same kind of fruit is
from some private garden ; and supposing a large quantity
of fruit is wanted for a big party, none of the great fruiterers
will undertake to supply you until they have written or
telegraphed to some private establishments to know what
they can get.
8. The first question that naturally strikes you is—
How is the public worse off for this change ? I can answer
this, I think, to everybody's conviction in a few words. A
private establiehment will very often sell is the early season
llb of grapes or a dozen peaches, regardless of cost, at a
price which it would ruin a market gardener to attempt.
This price will content a private gentleman who does not
know the cost of growing them, but competition at these
prices would ruin any market gardener, who is nearly de-
terred from growing them at all ; and therefore the regu-
lation of the supply of the market is left in the hands of
these limited private establishments. If the market gar-
deners were not met there they would try to excel each other
in the cheapness and goodness of the fruit, as they do in all
other things, and in a short time the market would have a
regular supply at half the present cost of spring fruit, which
is not attempted now on a scale large enough to compete
with the great number of private establishments who send
the best of their things, and pocket their losses, and the
public have in consequence a very limited supply. I dare-
say it answers the purpose of the fruiterers very well, but
it is very detrimental to the public.
9. And now, sir, before I close my letter allow me to say
a word or two about what is done in the sale way by the
Royal Horticultural Society. It is quite legitimate and
right to propagate and distribute any new plants (which it
has brought into the country) to Fello vs, but I object
in tole to buying new plants, cultivating them, and ballot-
ing far them ; this is (allow me to say) an infringement of
the legitimate business of the nurserymen, who can do it
much better and cheaper than the society can.—l am, Eze-r
JOSEPH PAXTON,

THE MAIL BOBDERY.—Cash, the engine driver,
was tried at the Chester assizes, on Tuesday, for the rob-
bery of a mail bag from Chelford station, near Macclesfield.
The prisoner was sentenced to ten years' pen,ll servitude.

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