bells. This was quite an English feature, and more effective than the Continental plan of a flèche at the crossing. The eight flying buttresses, thonghi.probably not originally designed for the tower, form an integral part of the composition, and must have had a very striking appearance.

The transepts in Old St. Paul's were made important features, owing to their great projection. They also had aisles on either side, whereas many of our larger cathedrals have only eastern aisles. In the time of Hollar, these latter aisles seem to have been walled up. There can be little doubt the eastern aisles of the transepts were used for chapels, as was customary.

The cloisters were small, as compared with those of Westminster Abbey or Gloucester; the fact is that St. Paul's was not a monastery, and therefore it did not require large cloisters. Dugdale nowhere mentions the position of the sacristy; but this, I should imagine, may very likely have been in the inner angle of the north transept, next the choir: it was probably a low building covered with a flat lead-covered roof.

About the choir stalls there is little to say, as those represented by Hollar were not original, but of the Jacobean period.

The Treasury, so important an appurtenance in the Middle Ages, probably stood between the buttresses of the north choir aisle. At Norwich Cathedral it formed a choir chapel, as is still the case in some of the French cathedrals. If it stood in this position, it would have been carried on an arch, like the chantry chapels, between the buttresses on the south side of the choir. The cause for this treatment is obviously that the windows of St. Faith's Church being underneath, the space between the buttresses had to be bridged over so as not to obscure the light. The effect must have been pretty, as a deep line of shadow would have been formed under the chapels. There are several instances of chantry chapels between buttresses, as at St. Albans, Exeter, and Chichester cathedrals.

I will not dilate on the recent interesting discoveries made by Mr. Penrose, as that gentleman has already fully described them elsewhere; but he has proved with scarcely a shadow of doubt, that the axis of the choir inclined to the north. I would only remark

that at Whitby Abbey and at Lichfield Cathedral, the axis of the choir also inclined to the same direction.

The Lady Chapel occupied the very usual place at the easternmost end of the building, but, as was not usual, formed an extension of the constructional part of the choir, under the main roof, instead of a semi-detached structure further eastwards. One of the chief glories of Old St. Paul's must have been its splendid Eastern rose-window, the resemblance of which to the south transept window of Notre Dame, Paris, was kindly pointed out to me some years since by Mr. James Fergusson. Underneath this was a seven-light window, forming a part of the composition of the rose above. Notwithstanding the rarity of a circular window at the east end of our churches and cathedrals, it must be remembered that at Old St. Paul's there was still the characteristic English square end, and no Continental The central portion of the "Nine Altars" at Durham Cathedral has a rose window. Westminster Abbey with its chevet is far more French in the character of its eastern termination.

apse.

The number of chapels and altars mentioned by Dugdale is very large; and these, together with the numerous tombs and brasses, the retables and shrines, screens and other furniture, must have given a most gorgeous effect to the interior, and taken off the chilling appearance of the mere architectural framework, however beautiful the latter may have been.

The choir did not comprise a monotonous repetition of the same design in the triforium and the windows, as there was in it evidence of the work of no less than three distinct dates. The window tracery seems to have been of a very beautiful description.

Their

It is rather curious that no wall-passages are shown in any of Hollar's views. absence in a medieval church of such importance would be very unusual; and I have no doubt that they really existed, but were acci dentally omitted in Hollar's valuable engravings.

After observing the splendid proportions of the exterior of Old St. Paul's with its lofty spire, the spectator on entering must have seen the severe twelve-bayed nave, then the dignified transept treated in a rather more

ornate style and, passing on, the rich choir, approached from the nave by a grand flight of steps, and last the beautiful traceried rosewindow at the east end.

One cannot but admire the consummate skill of the mediæval men, as a rule, in their choice of sites for the great churches. The position of St. Paul's was chosen most wisely, on one of the highest parts of the City, and with a sharp fall towards the Thames, so that the Cathedral might be well seen from that direction. The Cistercian Abbeys of Yorkshire were equally well placed for their purposes. Englishmen cannot be too thankful that St. Paul's was not built in such a situation as that great basilica with which it is so often compared-St. Peter's at Rome. It is most difficult to realize the immense scale of this latter building, a defect caused to a great extent by the want of elevation in its position.

A Chapter on Gloves.

HE use of gloves ascends to a remote antiquity, though only to one which must have already attained a certain measure of civilization. As the covering of the head, whether hat, helmet, or crown, has derived importance from its association with the most distinctive part of the human being, so the glove has borrowed a lustre not its own. The hand, and especially the right hand, had a larger significance for an age which wielded the sword than it has for one which has replaced warlike weapons by others. "Manus" was "power," and the hand which tipped the sceptre of Dagobert was a symbol of that philological fact. In the same spirit the ancient Roman law held the property in an object to have passed upon the literal transfer of it, or of part of it, into the hand of the purchaser. It was an advance in conveyancing, or, more accurately, a substitution of a contract for an absolute conveyance, when this transfer ceased to be literal and became symbolical. This legal differentiation shows itself in the infancy of all law, and in the East the symbol of transfer very commonly adopted was the glove. Commenta

tors have disputed as to the passage in the Psalms (lx. 8): "Over Edom will I cast out my shoe," as it appears in our version, some translating not "shoe" but "glove," in reference to this custom. The controversy at any rate cannot fail to remind us of the German "handschuh."

In this way the glove became among Oriental peoples an ensign of dignity-very much as the "cap of honour" in Europe. It was also a luxury; but in neither character did it commend itself to the Greeks and Romans. Among the former it remained a distinctive mark of the barbarians: sculptures. discovered at Thebes represent Asiatic ambassadors apparently offering gloves, probably as signs of submission. They were essentially "Persici apparatus," despised, just as umbrellas were when first introduced into England, as being womanish. A passage in Xenophon (Cyr. viii. 8), in which these two useful luxuries are coupled as examples of effeminacy, shows that he would have sympathized with the robust conservatives of this country. Casaubon has a learned note upon the Deipnosophiste of Athenæus, xii. 10, which quotes in part the above passage from Xenophon. He remarks, "Neque Græci neque Romani habuere in usu manuum tegumenta; quibus etiam rustici hodie utuntur;" an observation on which we shall have more to say presently. After a reference to the passage in the Cyropædia, he continues: "Chaldæi jam olim, ut videtur, iis usi; nam in Lexico Talmudico, 'magubh' exponitur manuum indumentum." He adds that the use of gloves was unknown to the ancient Greeks until the discipline of early ages had become impaired. Casaubon then goes on to quote the well-known passage in Pliny's Epistles (v. 3), in which Pliny describes his uncle as travelling with a secretary by his side wearing gloves to protect his diligent fingers from the numbing cold.

These passages remind us of the conclusion which has lately been arrived at by au American man of science, that civilization is marked by demand for increased temperature. The austerity of ancient sentiment, however, though it frequently remained sentiment and nothing more, was, one must suppose, strong enough to check the spread of the fashion of wearing gloves. It is at least certain that

the glove never attained such a character of dignity as it enjoyed in the Middle Ages. This change appears first about the eleventh century, at which period the practice of enfeoffing by the symbol of a glove, the precise parallel of the Oriental use already mentioned, seems to have made its appearance. Among the passages illustrative of this in Du Cange is one which shows it to have been a custom of the Chapter of Bremen at that time. One of Du Cange's citations specially mentions that a left-hand glove was given, which indicates that, as might have been expected, the right hand, the hand of honour, was usually employed.

From this use the glove came to enjoy a derivative and slightly different meaning. The sentiment of personal honour, which the Middle Ages developed, came in time to be represented by a personal gage. The first example of this in Du Cange occurs in 1499, when its significance is made matter of especial note: "Fidem suam et in illius signum manum suam dextram et chirothecam ejusdem reddiderat." It was at a later date still, when parchment conveyances had superseded all contractual symbolisms, that the transfer of gloves was converted into a payment of glove-money by a purchaser to the steward of the manor: as an ancient form adds, after fixing the price of the land to be paid to the lord, "Avec les gants de son sergeant estimetz 20 sols." Thus also gloves are constantly enumerated among the incidental payments of feudal tenants.

The clerical glove of modern days is often one of rusty black cotton, with holes in the finger tips. But, in the Middle Ages, the glove was the privilege of dignified and opulent churchmen. It was embroidered, and adorned at the back with precious stones. Nor were these mere useless ornament, for we read that on the occasion of an act of sacrilege, the gloves of S. Martialis, in horror thereat, "ornamenta gemmarum in lucem coram testibus vomuerunt." At one time the Roman See exercised the prerogative of granting permission to wear gloves. In some "uses," gloves were specially ordered to be put on before the consecration of the Sacrament. The association of gloves with ecclesiastical dignity survived the Reformation in England; for although they ceased to be worn in the

services of the Church, yet as late as the reign of Charles II. bishops upon their consecration were accustomed to present gloves to the archbishop and to all who came to their consecration banquet. By an order in council, dated Oct. 23rd, 1678, bishops were directed to pay, in lieu of gloves, 50l. to the Archbishop of Canterbury upon their consecration, the money to be devoted to St. Paul's Cathedral. But the lavender gloves with golden fringe which so often adorn their portraits, may still remind our modern prelates of the ancient glories of their predecessors.

Besides the dignified clergy, gloves were worn by the nobles or, at least, by those of exalted rank. Among the emblems of Imperial dignity were purple gloves ornamented with pearls and precious stones. The Doge of Venice wore scarlet gloves, as has not been forgotten by our theatrical managers, in reproducing the "Merchant of Venice " at the Lyceum and elsewhere. According to one story the identity of Richard I. in Austria was discovered by his gloves. As may be supposed, ladies were not backward in adopting the luxury; and a lady's glove became, like a lady's garter, a fashionable ornament for the helmet. There are allusions to this custom in Shakespeare; and Drayton mentions it as having been in vogue at the battle of Agincourt

"The nobler youth, the common rank above,

On their courveting coursers mounted fair, One wore his mistress' garter, one her glove, And he her colours whom he most did love :

There was not one but did some favour wear; And each one took it on his happy speed To make it famous by some knightly deed." Walpole, in his "Royal and Noble Authors," says that Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, first brought embroidered gloves over to England in Queen Elizabeth's time. The queen was so well pleased with the gloves presented by him that she ordered them to be reproduced in one of her portraits. traits. But the statement that De Vere first introduced this luxury is of more than doubtful accuracy, for Warton, in his "Life of Sir Thomas Pope," tells us that when the founder of Trinity visited his college at Oxford, "the Bursars offered him a present of embroidered gloves," and this was in 1556. The Univer

sity also accompanied a complimentary letter to him with a present of rich gloves. These gloves, it is mentioned, cost 6s. 8d. a pair. Lady Pope was presented with another pair. Indeed the Oxford dons seem to have regarded gloves as Lady Pope's special weakness, and to have set themselves to humour her ladyship accordingly; for when after the death of Sir Thomas Pope she married Sir Hugh Powlett, the University sent her another pair of gloves for a wedding present, costing this time sixteen shillings. Trinity College, not ungrateful to its founder and his spouse, has many entries after the date of 1556 in the Bursar's books, "pro fumigatis chirothecis," for perfumed gloves. Perfume was an essential, and to preserve it special boxes were used. "These gloves the count sent me; they are an excellent perfume," says Hero in "Much Ado about Nothing."

At Court

there was an officer-subordinate, it may be supposed, to the mistress of the robes-called "mistress of the sweet coffers."

It is easy to see why a pair of gloves should be given as a present, but less intelligible why one should be the sign of defiance. Possibly it was a symbolical staking of the prowess of the hand to which the glove belonged. The custom does not appear to have been much older than the thirteenth century, at least in England, for Matthew Paris, in writing of the year 1245, speaks of it expressly as French. To hang up a glove in a church was a public challenge, very much as a notice affixed to a church door is a public notice. The challenge by the Queen's champion, who throws down a glove, still remains among our Coronation ceremonies.

Mention has been made of embroidered gloves. These were made of skin sewn with silk. The embroidery was sometimes very elaborate, representing scenes from the chase and the like. As gloves became an article of every-day use, canons were promulgated to restrain the clergy from wearing coloured ones, "rubris seu viridibus seu virgatis." Silk gloves came early into fashion, especially in the South of France, and were much worn by ladies. There is a passage in Du Cange from which it would seem that whaleskin, not a very supple material, was sometimes employed. This was probably the precursor of the military gauntlet, and, like the gloves

of the ancient archers, simply a bag for the hand. Gloves with separate fingers and covering the wrist were first worn in France in the time of St. Louis (1215-1270). The gauntlet was a later invention. If we may trust a MS. Chronicle of Bertrand Guesclin, it was known at the end of the fourteenth century:

"Et riche bacinet li fist-on apporter

Gans à broches de fer qui sont au redouter." Skins with the hair on were frequently used in the Middle Ages as, according to the passage of Musonias quoted by Casaubon, they had been by the ancients. They are frequently mentioned as having been worn by husbandmen in England. Casaubon notes the circumstance that the rustics of our day made use of gloves. There is nothing in that passage to show that he was speaking of this country, and he may very possibly have seen it in France. In England, at any rate, "the monastery of Bury allowed its servants two-pence a piece for glove silver in autumn" (Pegge Misc. Cur.); and at a later date, in Laneham's account of the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle, in 1575, the rural bridegroom had "a payr of harvest gloves on his hand as a sign of good husbandry." Upon the coronation of Petrarch at Rome in 1340 as the "prince of poets," gloves of otters' skins were put on his hands, the satirical explanation being given that the poet, like the otter, lives by rapine.

The modern ladies' glove of four and twenty buttons has had its prototype; for in the fourteenth century the nobility of France began to wear gloves reaching to the elbow. These gloves were, at times, like the more familiar stocking which they must have much resembled, used as purses. Notwithstanding their length, it was always looked upon as decorous for the laity to take off their gloves in Church, where ecclesiastics alone might wear them. The custom still obtains in the Church of England at the Sacrament, though it is plain that it had not. arisen in this connection in the first instance, since in the Roman ritual the communicant does not handle the consecrated wafer. It was perhaps regarded as a proof and symbol of clean hands, for to this day persons sworn in our law courts are compelled to remove

their gloves. There is probably, too, some relation between this feeling and a curious Saxon law, which forbade the judges to wear gloves whilst sitting on the Bench.

The gloves of the judges were, like those of the bishops, a mark of their rank. The portraits of the judges painted by order of the Corporation of London in the reign of Charles II., and hanging in the courts at Guildhall, represent them with fringed and embroidered gloves. It was probably not in reference to the judges that a cant term for a bribe was a "pair of gloves." When Sir Thomas More was Chancellor, he happened to determine a cause in favour of a lady named Croaker, who displayed her gratitude by sending him a New Year's gift of a pair of gloves with forty angels in them. Sir Thomas returned the money with the following letter: "Mistress,-Since it were against good manners to refuse your New Year's gift, I am content to take your gloves, but as for the lining I utterly refuse it."

It was a mark of respect in the Middle Ages, and even down to our fathers' days, though now fast disappearing, to remove the glove in greeting. At several towns in England it has been the custom from time immemorial to announce a fair by hoisting a huge glove upon a prominent place. Writers in Notes and Queries have mentioned Macclesfield, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Chester, as places where this practice exists. Hone mentions it at Exeter :

Exeter Lammas Fair.-The Charter for this Fair is perpetuated by a glove of immense size, stuffed and carried through the city on a very long pole, decorated with ribbons, flowers, &c., and attended with music, parish beadles and the nobility. It is afterwards placed on the top of the Guildhall and then the Fair commences on the taking down of the glove the fair terminates.

The explanation has been offered, especially in the case of Chester, that the glove was selected as the sign of the fair because it was a principal article of trade. This is, however, scarcely satisfactory when extended to the other places where the usage is observed. But a passage in the "Speculum Saxonicum" (Lib. ii. Art. 26, § 6) throws a curious light upon the question: "No one is allowed to set up a market or a mint, without the consent of the ordinary or judge of that place, the king also ought to

HE Right Rev. Dr. Mackarness, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, writes as follows with reference to the subject of "Book-Plates":"As another collector of these silent librarians, so interesting to the scholar, the herald, and the genealogist, I would ask permission to supplement the articles which have already appeared in THE ANTIQUARY (see vol. i. pp. 75, 117, and 256), with a few particulars from my own collection. Mr. Hamilton says that 'unfortunately dates are of rare occurrence on book plates' of course he means on those of the last century, or earlier. The earliest I possess is (1) that of Gilbert Nicholson, of Balrath, in the county of Meath, Esq., 1669. Among later ones (2), that of Mr. Ambrose Holbech, of Mollington, in the county of Warwick, 1702 (of this I have a duplicate). (3) Several very early plates from Cambridge libraries-e.g., 'Collegium sive aula S. St. Trinitatis in Academiâ Cantabrigiensi, 1700'; 'Collegium, sive aula Mariæ de Valentia, communiter nuncupata Pembroke Hall in Academia Cantabrigiensi, 17-.'

"Three curious plates from the library of the distinguished antiquary, Bishop White Kennett, illustrating stages of his life. The first being simply the name White Kennett, and the device 'jucunda oblivia vitæ'-the second, Wh. Kennett, D.D., Decan, Petrib.(4) and the third, W. H: De Burgo St. Petri, with the mitre, and the date MD.CCXX. (5) John Percival, Earl of Egmont, 1736; (6) a quaint foreign plate of Franciscus Præpositus Cann. Reg.: in Polling, anno 1744above 'Juventa levetur-in the centre around