The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-16 00:00:00

FRANCE

[REUTER'S TELEGRAM.]

PARIS, DEC. 16.

It is asserted that the amount of bullion held by
,he Bank of France was this morning 204 millions.

The impression prevails here that the Au silica
provinces on the Adriatic littoral will probably be-
come the theatre of important events next spring.

ST. NAZ AIRE, DEC. 15.
The steamer Florida has arrived from Vera Cruz.
The sanitary condition of the troops Was satis-

'actory.

GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL.

St. Peter's Abbey at Gloucester,
Church (according to a very
----
account ot it g:ven
as follows by one of the Saturday
gthe
:Reviewers), was it very
foundation,3e.aeralry6Bl.
But,
mostb egi n beginning
dating as far back as the
many
ve. early fouudations, the
tc,issitudes, and was tie-
objects.w ith very different
establisment went through
lost its succession
stroyed and refounded more than O
Originally a house of nuns,e:c
el Abbesses in 767. King Eegbei ht is said to have refounded
it as a college of secular priests, whichlasted
when the first Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester till
"92'
it into a Benedictine monastery. The account, cha'lged
history reads as if he did not, as was in the
many other places, turn out the Canons whore found
h in se
there, but compelled them to take the Benedictine vows
" Hie Wolstanns clericos, qui ecclesiam Sancti Petri :.---
rexerant [er] custodierant, sub protectione Dei et Apoet Itea
e
rum Petri et Pauli, et regula Beati Benedicti, in eadeel
e"
ecclesiaregulariter collocavit, et Edrieum quendam in abbe_
tem et custodem monastery illius consecravir, qui menus-
rium bind xxxvii. annis custodivit."
In estimating this change, we must always remember one
light in which it was likely to appear to a reformer of those
days. When a church was served by monks, any general
non-residence was impossible, and divine service could
hardly be intermitted or grossly neglected. But the secular
Canons, before the institution of Vicars and Residen-
tiaries, constantly neglected their churches in the most
scandalous way. Their non-residence, in fact, is one ot the
great complaints of ecclesiastical writers long after this
time.
The first mention of the church is in 1058, when Ealdred,
Bishop of Worcester, afterwards Archbishop of York—the
prelate who crowned Harold and 'William within one year
--rebuilt and consecrated it.' But, as usual, the small size
of the native English fabric—for the size seems really to
Norman
haee been the main point of difference—dissatisfied the
aoccupants of the house after the Conquest. and a
rebuilding took place while Ealdred'a church was still
almost new.
choir, was consecrated _,. Ins 1089, the first stone of anew church was
laid by Abbot
way on. our erlo, and the building, possibly only the
notices
in 1100. From this time, for a long
in the exaggerated sonsist mainly of fires, some of which,
have destroyea ehurch
were fires in 1102, 112 r;
language of the chroniclers, are said to
nastery, town, everything. There
most of these more or less damage 1214, 1222, and 1223. In
intrllage was done to the build-
theeccieo2, it is distinctly said that
sia igne cremate est." But,
ings of the Abbey ; and,
c:intstrue these words very
church was burned—'n
pannfelling which has
as usual, it is not necessary to
0 Suppose that the Nor-
rigidly, and it seems most natural
may still be seen under
proportions of a
man work of the presbytery,
ychunracvhe of
the lacework of perpendicular
been thrown over it, is part
Serlo. The nave, so like the contenopptrhore„
Tewkesbury, so unlike the common
Norman design, probably followed the firee 1102. It
constantly
spoken curious, however, that, though the church is onstantlv
spoken of incidentally as standing and in use—as, for , -
stance, at the burial of Hobert Duke of Normandy, beforen
"
the high altar in 1134, and at the coronation of Henry
111., in 1216—still there is no direct mention of any
building till 1222, when the " great eastern tower" -
" magna turns Gloucestrensis ecclesiaa orientalis"—was
built. This no doubt means the central tower—in a church
of the old Norman ground plan, more truly eastern than
central—over the choir, The tower then built has, of
course, made way for the Perpendicular structure. In 1239
the church was consecrated, doubtless in pursuance of the
general orders then given by Papal authority for the con-
secration of all churches which remained unconsecrated,
which one is surprised to learn was the case with several
cathedrals and great abbeys. Three years after, in 1242,
the present vault of the nave was added—the Norman
church doubtless had only a timber roof—and we are dis-
tinctly told, in one of the most interesting notices on re-
cord, that it was actually built by the monks with their
own hands :
Et anno Domini millesimo ducentesimo quadragesimo
secundo complete est nova volta in nevi ecclesite, non
auxilio fabrorum ut promo, sad aniniosa virtute monadic.-
rum item in ipso loco existentium.
In the same year the south-western tower was began by
Prior Walter St. John. This no longer exists. The archi-
tects of the great Perpendicular central tower seem to have
thought that their work would have greater dignity if it

ced, and the present west front utterly unworth r of
fistood absolutely alone—so the western towers were sacri-
such a church, is the result. In 1300 we heat? of
another fire, which burned the " parvuro campanile, et
magna camera et claustrum." It is not, however, clear
whether they were absolutely destroyed, nor do we know
exactly what is meant by " parvum campanile." It
could not be the newly-built south-west tower,
which stands quite away from the cloister; but it
may well have been the north-western tower, which doubt-
less deserved to have been called " parvutu campanile," as
compared with either of the two latter ones.
John Thoky, who was Abbot from 1306 to 1329,
was a
memorable man in the history of the convent. The south
aisle of the nava was built in his time ; this is well known
as one of the moat beautiful examples of decorated work in
England, and which probably set the fashion for similar
rich windows at Ledbury, Leominster, and elsewhere. In
his days, also, the deposed King Edward 11. was murdered
at Berkeley. Three other monasteries, Bristol, Kings-
wood, and Malmesbury refused to receive his body for
fear of Roger Morthrier and Queen Isabella. The Abbot
of Gloucester was of another mood, and braved all hazards
in what we may suppose he thought was the cause of
loyalty— honorifice ornate cum anDia
late tamen abbas sue curru a castello
ejusdem ecclesite depictis, cum de Berkeley ad,
duxit, et ad znonasterium Gloucestrize est delatuß, abb,,
t a process'e
r o lae ,
cum toto conventu solenniter revestais, cu
totius civitatis est honorific° susceptus, et in seems
ibidem in parte boreali justa magnum altare traditur ti, aa
-um.
landus.
Strange to say, the despicable King, when
bound-
" once mur-
dered, dered, became a local saint. Multitudes of
pilgrims flocked
have
Sancti Andrea," a
to his grave, no less than to those of W al the. ,
or of Simon at Evesham. Their offerings were so
ful that, during the reign of the next Abbot, John . .
mor (1329-37), the south transept_,‘ eta of Wig-
',founded with the
phrase which Mr. Hart seems hardly too
was rebuilt. Tnis has been often c ve understood—
building of the south aisle of the nave, but the dates is
Chronicle are quite distinct and perf n the
sept, as Professor Willis show ecfly clear. This &
ed in 1860, is distinctly per-
pendicular work. It is early, indeed, and has much of
earlier detail hanging about
mistakeable impress et the it, but it still bears the un-
fairly count as the first perpendicular style, and it nzsY
lar recasting of the instalmentwhole
of the great perpeadicu-
this date is one le east part of the minter. Now
of th
tural history. 'w e e moat important facts in architec-
tural
its most distinct' thus have the perpendicular style, in.
than anybody had we features, a good half century earlier
Chester to be th thought. The claim, therefore, of Win-
Wykehem to b e first example, and of either Edington or
e the inventor, of that style at once halls to
the ground.
This is the last iongine• to the church.
re-
The entry strictly be t.
e central tower, the present Lady chapel' and the re-
"sting of the presbytery all of which may be looked on as
carrying on the work begun by Thoky in the south tran-
sept) belong to a later date than the present chronicle
takes in. But in the time of Abbot Frocester, who suc-
ceeded in 1381, and who was living when the chronicle
ends, we get the completion of the splendid cloister, cer-
tainly the gem of work of its kind and style.
' ';rday.

......,.—_
of the Exchange—Yeste:

11 18
i 2
12 Ot
25 75
25 75
13 Si
25 35
25 77}
25 77i
119 k
12 35
12 35

,--____
Short. 11 17i
Amsterdam
RoDttietrdwam
............ 3 31°nth2'
.: 2 0
252 7001
Antwerp .•••••' • • _ 25 70
Brussels ...... 13
81
.
Hamburgh Short. 25 25
ran5tt0.........
* 3 Months, 22,55 77221
Di
i‘iarseilles .. •._ . in•ei . ..... 119±
Frankfort on Ida —
12 25
Vienna •••••""
Trieste z 1232 r
Petershurgh _
4'71
48
:Meaarddiarid.................................. . —__
481
kieigianhorn.. _..—
22 55 4 7
,4
20 i
25 u
25 li
6 enoa ........ , — 25 9,3
aples -25 90 25 15
Palermo 25 97
9 z -
1 . '. iji:
I re';l:b6rBoitignna (hold in Bars (Stax7—darl), 1.2)e.55r1i2099:00.... £3''°l7(ii'li.79i
~, „,
..o 1) , i
52i
Mexican Dollars ........
sSoiluvtehr ilmßearricsa(Standard) : ...
, .................... On 5 1 ; 1
...... .... -

-
The Warsaw official organ declares that the in-
telligence published in the French journals of fre-
quent engagements in various parts of Poland is
altogether unfounded. While these efforts are
made to mislead the West, similar means are
em-
ployed to deceive the Poles as to the disp"it:-iew Q'l
the West with regard to them. With that
len
pretended letter of the Emperor NaP° i
es being
-
circulated in Poland, encouraging
gents, and promising them aid. the Poiish