DESCRIPTION OF THE CHAPEL AT POSTLIP.

Within thirty yards of the Old Hall at Postlip, on the summit of a ground rising from it at once so abruptly, as to give the idea that the Hall had been built in a niche hewn out of the declivity, are the remains of a small building, which at first sight, as the pedestrian passes in front of the house, appears to claim no higher place than an outbuilding adapted to the agricultural uses of the inhabitants; but let him turn aside and view it with a more critical eye, it will then be found to be the ruins of what was once a small temple devoted to the worship of the One Living and True God. It is not by any means in such a dilapidated condition as we are wont to understand when ruins are spoken of, but retains both its external and internal proportions so unmutilated by the hand of time, or man, that very little labour bestowed would render it again a place befitting religious exercises. Much of this may no doubt be owing to the good taste of the present proprietor of the Postlip property, for although used as an outhouse for storing away implements of husbandry, it is not done in that ruthless way which would soon tend to destroy the interest of the place; but there appears to be a care exercised that the internal parts of the building shall lose as little of their pristine character as possible.

My attention was first directed to the Chapel, as on a summer evening I was examining the external walls to gather if possible whether it had ever been used as a place of refuge for those who were engaged in the civil wars, and well was my search rewarded by discovering not only un

mistakable evidence which was borne by marks of bullets on the mullions of the east and west windows, and the walls in which they were placed; but also a bullet which was so imbedded in the angle of a soft stone near the east window as that only a portion about the size of a pin's head protruded. A few minutes work with a penknife brought it to lightflattened as if it had been cut out of sheet-lead, and had never known a spherical form. It still remains in the possession of a gentleman who values it for its antiquity. The bullet marks, from their position, show as plainly as if the event had been chronicled that the Chapel had been held by a party while their antagonists, occupying the rising grounds at either end, had raked the chapel through the two windows, the only ones through which musketry would have been of any avail. And there is small doubt but that the belligerents outside belonged to the Parliamentary forces, for amongst them little respect was paid to ecclesiastical edifices, if we may at all judge from the following record concerning their leader. "It was advertised from Peterborough, that Colonel Cromwell had bestowed a visit on that little city, and in pursuance of the Reformation he did most miserably deface the cathedral, break downe the organs, and destroye the glasse windowes, committing many other outrages on the house of God, which were not acted by the Gothes, at the sack of Rome, and are most commonly forborne by the Turks when they possesse themselves by force of a Christian city." The Chapel consists merely of a nave about twenty feet long by ten or twelve feet wide, and a choir about twelve feet long by ten wide, separated from the nave by a single arch which,

as well as the rest of the building, is of the Anglo Norman style of architecture, a fact which is sufficiently intelligible from the toothed arch and the small loopholes which on the inside widen out to good sized windows, and the very great thickness of the external walls. The receptacle in which formerly the holy water, used in the Roman Catholic worship, was held, remains in nearly as good a state of preservation as when it first emanated from the hands of the sculptor. On the roof immediately over the east window is a small turret, from which the sound of the matins and vespers bell appealed to the devotional feelings of the wayfarer.

Far, far o'er hill, and dell, on the winds stealing,

List to the convent bell, mournfully pealing;

Hark! hark! it seems to say, as melt the sounds away,
So life's best joys decay, whilst now the're fleeting.

As thro' the charm'd air slowly ascending,

List to the chaunted prayer, solemnly blending;

Hark! hark! it seems to say, turn from such joys away,
To those which ne'er decay, tho' life is ending.

Postlip, anciently called Poteslip, is noticed in the earliest English records as one of the most valuable domains in this part of Gloucestershire; it derived additional importance from its being in such close proximity to the Abbeys of Winchcomb and Hales. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Goderic, a powerful Thane or English gentleman, held Postlip in Gretestan hundred, in whose family it remained until the time of William the Conqueror, when it passed into the hands of Ansfred de Corneille, a follower of the victorious monarch. There were upon it two water-mills, and a wood one mile long and one mile broad, but of which there

is no vestige, unless the trees which at present surround the house can be supposed to be a remnant. The descendants of Ansford de Cormeille flourished upon the domain of Postlip till the reign of Edward I. when it became the property of William de Postlip. This William de Postlip, however, detracted from the dignity of his family by committing felony, of which he was convicted in the 27th year of Edward I. but it is not stated whether he suffered the penalty of his fault. It is probable that he forfeited his lands to the Church, as we find William de Chesterton and others seized and possessed of the manor of Postlip, which they held in trust for the Abbey of Tewkesbury, in the 7th year of Richard II. This supposition is strengthened further by the circumstance of an ancient Chapel having been built within a short distance by William de Jolly, the proprietor of Postlip, in the reign of Stephen, who intended it as a sanctuary for his tenants during the sanguinary civil wars which desolated the kingdom during that monarch's sway; and as well to afford a more convenient and safe place of worship than the Abbeys at Hales or Winchbomb, the country being then, and long after, infested with robbers. Prior to the estate belonging to the Abbey of Tewkesbury the tithes were enjoyed by the neighbouring Abbey of Winchcomb, and, in the Doomsday-book, Postlip is referred to as paying £4. per annum in William the Conqueror's reign-the Abbey of Winchcomb was at that time one of the most splendid and opulent monastic establishments in England. After the Reformation the estate was given to Sir Thomas Seymour, in the 1st year of Edward VI. About the time of Charles,

James, and the Commonwealth, it belonged to an opulent family named Broadway; and the arms of Giles Broadway, carved in oak and stone, still form some of the most interesting ornaments which to this day decorate the walls. The present mansion was built about three hundred years since, by a member of the Broadway family. In the reign of Anne or George I. Postlip became the property of the Earl of Coventry, at which time the ancient Chapel was in good repair. Worship was formerly celebrated within its walls by the members of a neighbouring cell of Cistercian monks. The Postlip property is now in the possession of O. L. Evans, Esq. Mr. Lewis, of Prestbury, assisted materially in collecting the foregoing historical facts, and to him I hold myself much indebted for his kindness.

SOUTHAM.

The village of Southam has so often been referred to in these sketches that it would seem invidious-or would warrant the supposition that nothing of interest was to be found there were I to pass over it in silence. Far be it from me to treat so lightly a spot which claims our attention, not only as having been the stage of moving events, but as containing a relic of antiquity second to very few in the kingdom. Were it not that the mansion of Southam renders itself conspicuous by its intrinsic merits, still the position which its noble owner has and did occupy in the political