church possesses various sets of hangings, I think a large chest will be found the best thing to contain those not in use. Banners should be removed from their staves, and hung one behind another in a shallow cupboard against the wall; those with costly embroidery being put into linen cases before being hung up. The either stand in a corner, or be laid on hooked brackets projecting from the wall, high enough up to be out of the way.

staves may

All this enumeration of drawers and closets sounds very complicated and elaborate; but, in practice, with good management the whole may be packed together into a surprisingly small space; and the few pounds which it will cost, will, I am sure, be money well spent.

The objects preserved in the sacristy have also to be prepared for use there. Cleaning is a very dirty process, which it is desirable as much as possible to keep outside, but this cannot be done entirely. Where it can be managed, there may be a sort of back sacristy, or closet opening out of the sacristy, in which all dirty work can be done; in other cases a table should be placed in the most out-of-the-way corner, and provided with a flap or lid, like an old-fashioned wash-hand stand, which, being shut down, would cover up all dusters, candle-chippings, &c., and prevent them from being trodden about all over the place. There should be a piscina or drain in the wall for pouring away water used in washing altar linen and the like. In order to provide embers for the censer, there should be an iron bracket, projecting from

the wall, holding a small wire basket over a gas-jet; it should be surmounted by a hood with a metal flue, connected with the chimney, if there is one near, or, if not, carried to the outside of the building. The box in which the charcoal is kept should be near, and the chance of pieces being dropped upon the floor reduced as much as may be.

The requirements of the sacristy as a vestry are few and simple. The first is a long table, upon which the vestments may be laid out in proper order, ready for the clergy when preparing for services. The vestment-case itself may be so arranged that its top will form this table. Next, there should be a lavatory at which the priest may wash before and after celebrating. Where it can be done, water ought to be laid on, and a tap placed over the lavatory; and near it there must be a provision for suspending a towel. In some continental sacristies I have seen two towels inscribed above, respectively, "Ante Missam," and "Post Missam;" this seems to be worthy of imitation.

No sacristy ought to be without a time-piece, by which the clergy may learn the exact moment at which they ought to enter the church; for it is not well that they should be late; or that, having entered the church too early, they should either begin before the prescribed time, or pause awkwardly until it has arrived. There should also be at least one chair in a sacristy-not a "church" chair, but a good, substantial piece of furniture, which looks as if it were meant to be sat upon.

Besides the sacristy, the larger churches should be

provided with some place in which chairs and other bulky articles may be stowed away when not wanted. This may be a chamber in the tower, or even in the roof of the church, or it may be a vault below it; all that is necessary is, that it should be free from damp, and moderately well lighted. If it be above or below the floor of the church, there should be a trap-door, by which objects may be raised or lowered, without the necessity of carrying them up or down staircases.

SECTION XXII.

OF THE BELFRY AND BELLS.

I AM not going to write an essay either on bell-founding, bell-hanging, bell-ringing, or the history and antiquity of bells. Those who wish for information on those subjects, may find abundance of it in Ellacombe's and Denison's books, and in Mr Fowler's paper in the Sacristy.1 But although others, far more competent than myself, have treated of them, bells form too important a part of the furniture of a parish church for me to pass them over without notice, and there are still, I think, a few points to which it is worth while to call attention.

Every church must have one bell, and it is better that there should be more, because bells have to be sounded with different meanings, and where there is but one, it is difficult, and indeed almost impossible, to make a distinction between them. But peals of bells have no ecclesiastical use, and whether they are desirable additions to churches, I think, depends very much upon circumstances. In a village, or small town, where a comparatively small bell can be heard for a considerable distance, a peal of them, which can be rung out merrily on suitable occasions in testimony of the general rejoicing, is certainly a very good thing. But in a large and busy town such a peal

1 See Preface.

has no chance, and its feeble struggles to be heard sound anything but merry. In London, for instance, a bell of thirty hundredweight-a very good average weight for a tenor goes for very little, and I think that, instead of adding to it a peal of still smaller bells, it would be better to put the whole weight of metal into two or three good bells. These would serve all practical purposes better, and be audible further than the small ones, and would make less noise in their own immediate neighbourhood.I And, when rung together, their sound if not merry, would at least be dignified, whilst that of the others is neither. There is of course no reason why a church should not have a peal of heavy bells, but I think no town peal should have its tenor under two tons at the least.

For their ecclesiastical uses the bell-ropes ought to be brought down into the church itself, but where peal ringing is practised, there ought to be a separate chamber. This chamber, however, ought only to be accessible through the church, in order that proper command may be kept over it; and it should be kept decent, and well ordered, and the idea of its being a part of the church carefully kept up.

It is best for all bells, and particularly for large ones, not to hang, as is now usual in England, in separate cages placed on a strong floor, level with the sills of the belfry windows, but in one large frame standing on corbels as

1 When the bells are worked with a machine, as they often are in London, they are very noisy and very offensive, but they cannot be heard far. Machines should not be allowed, where there is only one man, let him toll one bell. Machine ringing is as bad as organ grinding.