there were roads, and rivers, and fields, and woods, and towns, and cities, and streets, and houses filled with people who might, perhaps, talk some other language, and dress in some other fashion from mine, but who had evidently much the same notions as to the necessaries of life, and the substantials of society; and, without losing all my pride, or patriotism, or prejudice, I got a new idea of the unity of nature. I felt that He had "made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth"-it brought with it a kind of home-feeling -a sense that, wherever I wandered, I was but moving in the hollow of His hand among my own brethren. Well, and these old folks of the middle ages were our grandfathers and grandmothers; and, in a good many points, vastly like ourselves, though we may not at first see the resemblance in the few smoky old family pictures which have come down to us; but had they "not eyes"? had they "not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions-fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer" as we are? Yes; but they knew nothing." Well, then, it is strange to think how they could do and say so much as they did without knowledge. But you do not mean quite nothing-you will allow that they knew the Pater-noster and Credo, and that is something-nay, a good deal, in itself, and the pledge of a great deal more.

PARISH CHURCHES.-NO. XXII.

ST. BEES.

THE parish of St. Bees is situated at the western extremity of the county of Cumberland, extending to a considerable distance along the coast, both in a northern and southern direction, from the promontory called St. Bees-heads. The large and flourishing town of Whitehaven, with many other less populous hamlets and chapelries, are contained within its boundaries.

The parish church, which is situated in a valley near the sea to the south of the head, and at a distance of more than four miles from Whitehaven, is itself an object of no great architectural beauty, though far more spacious and complete than most of the Cumberland churches. It is, however, chiefly remarkable as being the seat of a collegiate establishment, in which a large portion of the northern clergy have received their education. The church itself lays claim to a degree of antiquity which almost baffles research. The legendary account refers its foundation to the exertions and piety of an Irish saint and virgin, named Begoh, or Beghoh, who, arriving in these parts

about the year 650, was desirous of founding a conventual establishment in this spot, for the purpose of spreading among the then barbarous natives the knowledge of the Christian faith. The account proceeds to state that, soliciting a grant of land for this pious purpose from the lord of the soil, she at first met with a stern and decided refusal, but that, persevering in her request, the lord, wearied with her importunity, and hoping to escape further solicitation, consented at length to the erection of the proposed establishment, adding, with a sneer, that he would also bestow as an endowment, all the land within his domains which should be covered with snow at the Midsummer-day next ensuing. To this proposal the virgin-saint yielded a ready acquiescence, and according, on the day appointed, a large portion of land, in the neighbourhood of the proposed site, was actually found covered with snow, and was consequently claimed as the special gift of Heaven. In confirmation of this account, the form and situation of the parish is appealed to, consisting of narrow slips and portions of land, intersected by other parishes, and lying scattered in fragments over the mountains and around the lakes which form so remarkable a feature of this county, comprising, it must be allowed, just those spots upon which (if any where) snow might be expected to lie on the day in question. Whether, however, the parish is indebted for its singular form to the legend, or the legend took its rise from the form of the parish, is a question we will leave to those more learned in such matters, and proceed to matters of greater certainty. The establishment thus formed. continued to flourish till the incursion of the Danes, by whom the lands were ravaged and the building destroyed. In the reign of Henry the First, William de Merchiens, then Lord of Copland, renewed the former grant, but changed the establishment from a nunnery to a convent for a prior and six Benedictine monks, annexing it as a cell to the abbey of St. Mary at York. In this state it continued till the sacrilegious confiscation of church property in the sixteenth century, after which, passing through various lay hands, it at length became, in 1663, the property of the Lowther family, and has continued to be held by the same family till the present time.

The present structure is undoubtedly of great antiquity, and, though sadly mutilated and deformed by modern repairs, yet bears marks of having been originally a fine and noble structure. The building consists of a nave, with side aisles, a choir, two transepts, and a central tower of no great elevation. The nave is now used as a parish church; it is entered from the west by a fine arched door-way of Anglo-Norman architecture, in the style of the twelfth century. The arches and massive columns in the nave seem to belong to a rather later period, when the

pointed arch was just beginning to take place of the circular one. These are almost the only relics which the modernizers have suffered to remain, and these no doubt were preserved rather from necessity than choice. A dull, flat, whitewashed ceiling has been substituted for the lofty arched roof of the original building, and the aisles are enlightened by square windows of the most inelegant construction.

The choir, which is by far the finest part of the building, was for many years in a very dilapidated condition, being without roof, and thus exposed to all the injuries of the weather, but when the establishment of a clerical college was determined upon, it was repaired, to meet the wants of that institution. Here the repairs have been executed with good taste, and, notwithstanding the flat ceiling, it is really a fine room; its length has been also diminished by partitioning off the western end, for the purpose of a library and lecture-room. There is no aisle on the northern side, which is lighted by narrow lancet windows, but on the south side appears originally to have been open, by means of spacious arches, supported by columns of more elegant structure than those in the nave, to an aisle or cloister of which no vestige is now remaining. The east end is terminated by a cluster of three long narrow windows, beneath which there are two niches of elegant workmanship standing over the spot originally occupied by the high altar. All these are in good preservation. The windows throughout are without mullions, and the whole building evidently the erection of an early date. The choir is now used as a chapel (the church service being read every morning), and, at certain periods, as an examination-room. The north transept forms a spacious lecture-room. The south transept, once a place of burial, is not at present appropriated to any specific purpose. No monuments of any interest remain in any part of the building.

We now come to notice the modern appropriation of a portion of this ancient edifice to the purpose of a college for the preparation of candidates for orders in the northern dioceses of the kingdom. The small value of the cures in this district, and the distance from either of the universities, had for, many years, operated very unfavourably upon this portion of the county. In Cumberland particularly there are many churches and chapels which, situated among the lakes and mountains in which that county abounds, are so sequestered from all intercourse with society, and so miserably provided for, in respect to emolument, that to procure the services of a regularly educated clergyman was oftentimes a matter of no small difficulty; in fact, so difficult was it to provide for the religious instruction of these remote parishes, that it was customary (and that at no very distant time either) for persons not in orders, and even lads from