Mr. URBAN,

SEVE

EVERAL Communications having lately appeared in your Miscellany*, regarding the present deplorable condition, and descriptive of the interest connected with, Quarendon Chapel, near Aylesbury, Bucks, I presume that external and internal representations of this curious building (See Plates I. and II.), as it appeared in 1815, may not be unacceptable to some of your Readers, who derive pleasure and amusement from the study of these mouldering works of former ages. It will be unnecessary to enter into a particular description of the Chapel, or its handsome monuments; or, after what has been said, to offer any comments upon the neglect it has experienced, which is proving so fatal to every part of the building. It is now the common ingress to every passer by, from the Antiquary and man of feeling, to the rustic who whistles as he gazes around him within the once-hallowed inclosure, and thoughtlessly deprives the elegant memorials of those distinguished dead, whose ashes rest beneath, of the enrichments which the inclemency of the weather, so long suffered to intrude through various apertures, has left.

The construction of Quarendon Chapel throughout is indeed excellent; the masonry regular, and the windows and South door well finished; its plan is uniform, having a centre and side ailes, which are opened to each other through elegant pointed arches resting upon octagonal capi

tals and columns. The roof is handsome, having at its main beams flat arches, which combine numerous mouldings, and stretch across between the windows, resting upon stone brackets, sculptured with buman beads, grotesque animals, leaves, &c. the intermediate spaces are filled with purlings and rafters; but, though the whole is constructed of excellent and substantial Irish oak, the neglect of the external roof has dilapidated some portions of them towards the West end, which is rapidly increasing, and will ere long, unless some means of preservation are adopted, demolish the whole. The pews, pulpit, &c. have been wholly removed, and very little of the regular stone pavement remains.

A plain arch connects the body of the Chapel with the Chancel, the latter being very small, and nearly filled with the Monuments described by your Correspondent, p. 114; which gives it more the character of a Sepulchral Chapel, than the service part of the building. It is a remarkable instance of the preference which appears to have been always given by the founders and benefactors for these situations of interment; except a few instances in some larger edifices, but the greater number are otherwise; and the unadorned arched recess, to be seen in the Chancel walls of many old Churches, doubtless, once contained the plain uninscribed gravestone, the ornamented cross, the statue of the founder, or the brass figure. Yours, &c. B.

British Inhabitants, Coritani.

Burrow-hill.

Saxon Heptarchy, Mercia.

Anti

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