tables, behind which they had lain concealed for centuries. They possess no merits as pictures, and are only valuable for their great antiquity; the figures are stiff, ungainly, and ill-proportioned, and from their peculiar style are evidently of Norman origin-they put one much in mind of the figures in the Bayeux tapestry.

The picture on the left hand represents the murder of Thomas à Becket, but the figure of the unfortunate saint is now totally defaced; the knights wear the long-toed boots of the period, and one lifts a sword whose blade is well nigh as broad as his own body. The other picture displays an angel in the act of weighing souls in the balance. In one scale is a white soul, in the other a black one; or rather, perhaps, the white and black forms personify the good and bad parts of one soul, in which case the little figure standing by the scale which contains the white part may be the owner of the qualities thus tested the doctrine of which would be, to say the least, questionable.

It is not, however, my intention to give any critical description of these frescoes,* nor to write a treatise on the art of fresco-painting in England during the dark ages, or the light ages, or indeed any ages; but to relate, as faithfully as my memory will permit me, a conversation which ensued during our return home, on the question whether the general effect of religious pictures in churches on the minds of the worshippers be good or bad, and what would be the consequences of their introduction. On leaving the church, the discussion was thus commenced by Tryphosa:

Tryphosa. I think you said, Philemon, that the King of Bavaria has collected many of the best pictures out of the churches into the Pinakothek at Munich.

Philemon. Such was the report I heard.

For further information, consult "Winchester, and a few other compositions in Prose and Verse." By the Rev. Charles Townsend. Also his letter in "The Archæologia," Vol. xxiii, No. xvii.

Tryphosa. Do you not think it a great pity that he should have done so?

Philemon. Nay, surely not; the pictures are exhibited under much more favorable circumstances than they were; the traveller can now find them at once, and see them easily and without loss of time, instead of having to hunt for them in out-of-the-way churches, and being obliged to make long journeys to reach them. Moreover, the pictures themselves are now much better cared for, and more skilfully preserved.

Tryphosa. Oh! you speak as a connoisseurI do not mean that; but do you not think it was a kind of sacrilege to move them from the sacred walls?

Philemon. Sacrilege! Why?

Tryphosa. Ah, I see you are determined not to understand me. Plainly, then, do you not think that it was robbing the worshippers in those churches of what might have been of great assistance to their devotions?

Philemon. Assistance to their devotions! Why

you do not mean to say that you think true devotion is really assisted by a picture? a stupid staring picture of some dreadful old saint, or one of those eternal daubs of the Virg

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Tryphosa. Nay, stop, stop; you are making a bad plaster of Paris argument for me, and then throwing stones at it. Strip your statement of all those eloquent expletives which put it in so fair and impartial a light; leave out all that about the picture being “a stupid staring one of some dreadful old saint," or "one of those eternal daubs,” and call it simply a picture, or rather style it a holy picture, on some sacred subject— the work of genius dedicated to God—a picture expressive of sublime imaginings or pious sentiments, and exciting in the breast of those who gaze on it greater love of holy things.

Philemon. Why, verily, this is heresy-rank heresy. Thou art a self-confessed papist.

Tryphosa. No, believe me-I am in earnest. I cannot but think, and I fancy my opinion is founded on experience, that such a picture as I

have described has a good effect on the mindthat it acts on the heart, purifying and exalting it; that it is a visible representation of our best and holiest aspirations, giving them a reality— assigning them "a local habitation and a name,” creating them in those who have them not, and strengthening and increasing them in those who already possess them.

Gaius. Doubtless, Tryphosa, your remarks are just, and to a certain extent your view of the subject is a right one; but, allowing a picture to have this efficacy and virtue, is a church after all the proper sphere of its action? there are many other things in the world which excite or assist holy thoughts, but which it would be inappropriate or impossible to introduce within the walls of a church.

Tryphosa. Yes, but surely pictures are not amongst these they can be placed in the church without difficulty; and, so far from being out of keeping with the rest of the building, or destroying the general effect, many persons, whose taste