The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-14 00:00:00

NAVAL AND MILITARY _INTELLIGENCE

There was a general full dress parade of the
whole of the officers and men of the Royal Engineers
at head-quarters, Chatham, in the square at Bronap-
ton barracks on Saturday morning for the purpose
of witnessing the interesting ceremony of decorat-
ing those non-commissioned officers and sappers of
the Royal Engineers to whom has been awarded
silver medals, in accordance with clause 765 of the
amended Queen's Regulations " for distinguished
conduct in the field " with the Abyssinian troops.
Nlajor-General J. L. A. Simmons, C. 8., read the
orders from the Horse Guarth directing the pre-
sentation, and, after a brief address, presented the
medals to each of the following non-commissioned
officers :-2,808, Sergeant John Deans ; 4,037,
Sergeant John Harrold ; 7,313, Second Corporal
William Chamberlain; 4,389, Second Corporal
Hugh M‘Donagli ; and, 7,386, Lance-Corporal
Henry Bailey, A. Trop), Royal Engineer Train.
Each of the non-commissioned officers decorated
distinguished himself in a prominent manner at the
capture of Magdalu, Sergeant Deans, Corporal
N.l.‘Donagh, and Corporal Bailey being the first to
enter that stronghold by scaling the walls, Corporal
Bailey making the discovery of the lifeless body of
Theodore almost immediately after his death. At
the close of the presentation of the medals• the
battalion of Royal Engineers marched past, and
executed some other manoeuvres on the parade-

ground.
Her Majesty's iron screw troopship Simoom, 4,
400 horse power, Capt. T. B. Lethbridge, which
arrived at Gravesend from Dublin with the depot of
the 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment on board,
disembarked her troops at Tilbury on Saturday,
when the officers and men were forwarded by railway
to Colchester, where the 48th depot is to be sta-
tioned. The Simoom afterwards received orders to
proceed to Shoeburyness, where she will embark two
batteries of the 6th Brigade Royal Artillery for
conveyance to Portsmouth.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—•Lieut. Cecil G. S. Fol-
jambe, to the Malabar ; Lieut. Philip 11. Worgan,
to the Canopus ; Lieut. G. J. Hanmer, to the Satel-
lite ; and Charles G. W. Aylen, to the Galatea.

Some months since Mr. J. T. Bottle, of Great
Yarmouth, having heard that in the con-
struction of a ventilator in the south wall of the
nave of West Somerton church traces of colour had
been detected, at once obtained permission from the
churchwarden to clear off the numerous coats of
whitewash. His exertions were rewarded by finding
that the whole space between two of the early Eng-
lish windows of the nave, in length about 12 feet, was
occupied by a very fine, large, and early painting re-
presenting " the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory." Unfortunately
the central portion of the upper part of the ptinting
is irretrievably lost, the wall there having been re-
built some considerable time since, and the plaster
at the lower right-hand corner is in a decayed
state. The excellence of what remains makes this
all the more to be regretted. Our Lord was evi-
dently represented seated, with the globe beneath
his feet, upon a rainbow, the lower part of
which is still left, but of the figure nothing but the
bare feet, marked with the point of the nail, re-
main. On either side of our Lord are depicted a
seraphim, presenting to Him a kneeling female.
The one on his right baud, evidently his Virgin
Mother, bares her bosom, and holds her right breast
in her hand, as if pleading her maternity. The
other figure cannot. be appropriated. Lower down
are two angels, habited in albs, and wearing the
usual type of angelic crowns, summoning with
the great sound of the trumpet the dead
to judgment. The angel on the right-hand side
of the painting is more perfect than his fellow, and
his trumpet with its cross-ensigned banner is very
distinct. At the bottom of the painting are eleven
nude figures, rising in various attitudes and with
varied expressions of countenance from the earth.
Amongst them are representel a King and Queen,
mitred and tonsured ecclesiastics, and two knights,
whose acutely- p,,inted is issinets, together with the
broad bold style of drawing, indicate the reign of
Edward 111. as the date of the execution of the
plintiug. The treatment or the subject corresponds
with that of other fined Leval representations of our
Lord's second coming, but the kneeling female
figures presented by angels to our Lord is to us a
novel feature. On the north wall of the nave opposite
the painting just, noticed, enclosed within a border of
&cot ated character is a smaller paintingof our Lord's
resurrection. 1 his is considerably faded, but the
figure of our Lord habited in a green ve-tore step-
ping cut cf the sepulchre holding in his left hand
the cross banner of the resurrection, and with his
right hand giving the benediction, is tolerably dis-
tinct. One of the soldier's bills lies on the ground.
There are indications that the whole of the walls
were originally covered with paintings; and although
for the present operations arc suspended, it is. to be
hoped that these paintings also may be uncovered,
and like those we now see carefully preserved.