manor in 7 Edward II. 1315, was written Cristseigh, being then the property of John de Lacy. It for ages subsequently belonged to the family of the Newports, Earls of Bradford, and afterwards passed with Harley to the Duke of Cleveland.

In reference to this village the following translation of an extract from the Hundred Rolls of the county is curious, as showing the oppression exercised towards the lower orders of society in the first year of Edward I. "And the jurors say, that on the Sunday after St. Matthew's Day, Richard Russur, constable of Salop, gave a page named William de Somersete four pence to cry Wekare, Wekare, as he went through Cristesech, to the reviling of the men and women there and as the page cried out in this manner, a woman came and said, 'Thou speakest ill,' and the page struck her with his sword; and then came one William Madoc, and said, 'Why did you smite the woman?" and the page struck him and cutt off. and he fell as if he was dead. Then the page fled out of the road, and the woman raised a cry, and William Wolfrich came following after him, and shot him with an arrow that he died: and having done this he fled towards the wood, and the township followed him with the suit of the sheriff to the wood; and on this pretence the sheriff compelled the lord of Cristech and the township to pay him sixty-six marks and a half."

On the road leading from Shrewsbury to Cressage stands a large venerable tree, known of late years as "The Lady Oak." The trunk is hollow, and well bleached from the tempests and changes of probably more than a millenium period. It has been supposed that the adjacent village, in Domesday Cristesache (" Christ's Oak," now, by corruption, Cressage), took its name from this oak. It may also, from the circumstance of the manor courts being held under its spreading branches, have derived an attached veneration that might have been continued to it from those remote times, when documents were confirmed by the sign or mark of the cross. It is on the verge of the manors of Cound and Cressage.

The girth of this interesting relic is 41 feet 6 inches, and in the middle 24 feet. The height in 1814 was 42 feet. The effects of time and other causes have, however, now reduced it. The upper por

tion received considerable damage about thirty-four years ago, in consequence of a party of gypsies having kindled a fire so close to it that the flame, communicating with the hollow and decayed parts, ascended to the boughs, and destroyed most of them; after which it was found necessary to cramp the sturdy trunk with iron to prevent its falling. Within the hollow of the trunk a young oak has been planted, which has so far flourished as to exceed in height its ancient predecessor, some of the remaining arms of which even still shoot forth leaves. The situation of this tree on the public footpath has likewise exposed it to the wanton injury of mischievous persons, and probably modern improvement, in the desirability of widening the road at this point, may, before the close of the present year, require its total demolition.*

At the intersection of two roads in the village formerly stood a wooden building, which inclosed an ancient stone cross; this was removed about forty years ago by direction of the then incumbent of the church, on the plea of its being used as a place for gossiping. Near this, and contiguous to the road leading to a ford through the Severn (over which there is now a bridge), is a conical mound about fifteen feet high.

The old church stood adjoining the north entrance to the village, in a piece of meadow ground about one acre in extent, no portion of which had ever been consecrated for burials. The edifice was possibly the third erected here since the introduction of Christianity; a timber edifice of the Saxons being probably replaced about the time of the Conquest by a stone building. The late structure was decayed and ruinous, and consisted of a nave and chancel, with a bell-turret rising from the roof at the western end. The outer walls, probably built about the period of Edward I. were composed of rubble masonry, the interstices being filled (as was discovered on pulling down the church) with stones apparently taken from the bed of the adjacent river Severn, which in the time of floods occasionally inundated the building. On the south side, near the entrance, a modern pointed window had been opened; adjoining this was a more ancient one, divided by mullions into three lights, and containing fragments of stained glass.

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The interior was approached by an early pointed doorway, and the nave separated from the chancel by a semicircular arch of great thickness, evidently of Norman workmanship. On each side of this arch was a square aperture forming a hagioscope,' through which to witness the elevation of the host. The rood-screen remained until late years. The seats were of oak, open and primitive, with carved finials at the end, the floor of the aisle being laid with curious small figured tiles. The pulpit, octagonal and panelled in carved oak, is removed to the new church; along its base is inscribed "Hovmfry Dalle the elder made this for James Dalle: which I pray God to bles vnto his end. Amen 1635." The old Norman font is also preserved; the bason is large and round, and encompassed with a series of eight semicircular arches, springing from piers with regular bases and indented capitals.

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The dilapidated edifice being taken down, another was commenced at the southern end of the village on an elevated spot of land presented by the Duke of Cleveland. The situation commands a bold view of picturesque scenery, and,-not the least remarkable feature of the landscape, affords one of the best prospects of the famed Shropshire Wrekin.

The new structure dedicated as "Christ's Church," received consecration Oct. 19th, 1841. It is composed of stone found in

the vicinity and designed in the Early English style of architecture, having a tower, nave, and small chancel. The interior is finished in a manner corresponding as far as possible with the style adopted. A pointed arch divides the nave and chancel, the three lancet lights of which are filled with ten scriptural subjects delineated in stained glass, and comprising principal events in the life of Christ. This was the gift of the late Rev. R. Scott, B.D. of Shrewsbury, and executed by Mr. Evans of that town. The roof is open, with ornamental principals resting on corbels, and the seats are fixed forms with backs. The estimated cost of the fabric was 1,2007. raised by subscription. Architect, E. Haycock, Esq.

Sir Thomas Lodge, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1563, when (according to his epitaph in St. Mary's Aldermary) "God did visit this Citie (of London) with a great plague for our sins, was the son of William Lodge of Cressage. He was a member of the Grocers' Company, and married the daughter and heir of Sir William Laxton, Lord Mayor in 1544, the founder of the grammar-school at Oundle in Northamptonshire. Other particulars respecting him will be found in the Diary of Henry Machyn, edited by Mr. J. G. Nichols for the Camden Society. Yours, &c. HENRY PIDGEON.

In the report of the proceedings of the SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, given in our last number at p. 604, we described the measures of financial reform which, at the suggestion of the Treasurer, were carried at a meeting on the 27th of May. It is with regret we have to state that the decision then taken is not acquiesced in by the minority: but whilst we regret the existence of such difference of opinion, we cannot affect to view it with any surprise. It would be as unreasonable to expect a sudden cure in the human frame, immediately upon the prescription of a course of sanative treatment which in its nature requires time, as to look for immediate health in this corporation at the first visit of the physician. The disorders and decrepitude of the Society of Antiquaries

are facts now so generally admitted on all hands, that it would be vain to attempt to deny or conceal them. At the same time so much are some people inclined to fancy they see further than their fellows that they not only flatter themselves that they detect the extent of the disease with supe.. rior penetration, but fondly imagine that others who differ from them in details are perfectly blind. The patient is consequently in danger of exhaustion from the multitude of her advisers, and their personal dissensions. That one of the administrative body, even though an unpaid officer, should recommend Reform,-that the recommendation should be seconded, and even advocated, by the President himself,-seems to some minds so anomalous a course, that it is viewed with distrust,

-we

consider his scheme justified, there are already on the boards for election know not how many, but we believe more than twenty candidates.

There is a passage in the Report made by the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society at their recent anniversary which is very re-assuring on this head. We are told that "the improved financial prospects of the Society formed the opening subject, as exemplified in the accession of thirty-three new resident members, the consequence of recent alterations in the terms of admission. This number, together with that of nine non-resident members, formed the largest addition that had taken place in any year since the commencement of the Society in 1823-4."

Such, but on a much more extended scale, will doubtless be the result at Somerset House, if the arrangements recently made are allowed to have fair play and a fair trial. It is in vain to whisper into the angry ears of faction: but to those impartial members of the Society who have not yet perused Mr. Bruce's pamphlet we would urge an earnest request to do so it is distributed to them gratuitously at the Society's library; and to those who have read it, and are still biassed by contrary impressions, we would add, read it again, more dispassionately, before the reassembling of the Society in November.

At the ROYAL SOCIETY, as is well known, the exclusive system is now dominant. An institution formed for the promotion of science in its largest extent, has been converted into a species of oligarchic Heralds' Office, for the distribution of a limited number of honorary diplomas according to the weight of personal influence. The introduction of novices is limited as if the cells at Somerset House could not receive beyond their stinted number. Had this contracted scheme been carried into effect in the adjoining meeting-room of the Antiquaries, we should have had no end of sneers at the monkish and old-world exclusiveness of the venerable fraternity. And how does it operate in the Royal Society? It is admitted even by the advocates and maintainers of the system that among the men annually rejectedfor there is now an election of new Fellows only once a year-some are always excluded whose claims are at least equal to those which are successful. We cannot think that such a system can be long continued. Without some safety-valve the high-pressure will surely occasion an explosion. The formal election of Fellows to the Royal Society took place on the 3rd June, but they were virtually selected from the candidates by the Council, and announced on the 6th of May. Their names are as

follow-Arthur Kett Barclay, esq.; Rev. Jonathan Cape; Arthur Cayley, esq.; Henry Gray, esq.; Wyndham Harding, esq.; Arthur Henfrey, esq.; John Higginbottom, esq.; John Mercer, esq.; Hugh Lee Pattinson, esq.; Rev. B. Price; William Simms, esq. Hugh E. Strickland, esq.; John Tyndall, esq.; Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, esq.; Captain Younghusband, R.A. There were thirty-four candidates; but, as the present rules of the Society only allow of fifteen being elected, nineteen were rejected! It is justly remarked by a contemporary journal that the mode of election appears to be now as unnecessarily strict as it was formerly lax and open to abuse.

The

The Report of the ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, to which we have already adverted, proceeds to give a sketch of the continued progress of Cuneiform investigation during the past year, especially noticing on the Continent a memoir published by Oppert in the "Journal Asiatique ;" and, at home, the Commentary on the Assyrian and Babylonian Inscriptions by Col. Rawlinson, published in the Journal of the Society. Mention was also made of the valuable additions made by the labours of the Rev. Dr. Hincks. so-called Median inscription of Behistun is in the hands of the lithographer; and it will be accompanied by a memoir on its language and character by Mr. Norris. The introduction of evening lectures during the past season, as a means of communicating the information possessed by the Society to a larger range of auditors than those who are generally able to attend the morning meetings of the Society, has been completely successful. The opening lecture was delivered by Professor Wilson, the director of the Society, on the present state of the cultivation of Oriental literature. He was followed by Dr. Royle, who gave a lucid account of such of the raw products of India as had attracted most attention at the Exhibition of 1851. Dr. Bird, in a lecture on the best method of studying ethnology, gave an interesting review of the various divisions of mankind in Europe and Asia; and showed that language, palæography, and architecture, were better tests of the affinity of races than the physiological character. Fergusson in a dissertation on Buddhist architecture, after a sketch of the rise and progress of the Buddhist religion in India, from the sixth century B.c. to its expulsion fifteen centuries afterwards, pointed out the various changes which dagopas, topes, chetyas, and viharas had undergone during that time; showed how they had been modified in those countries of the East which still follow the Buddhist faith, and briefly hinted at some of their simi

Mr.

larities to the so-called Druidical remains of Britain, particularly Stonehenge. General Briggs had commenced a lecture on the aboriginal race of India, which was to be resumed at the next meeting.

From the Report of the Committee of the ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND it appeared that its resources during the past year have been principally devoted to the completion of the great Bibliographical Dictionary of Haji Khalfa, edited and translated by Professor Flügel. The printing of the sixth volume is nearly completed, and the seventh and last will be published, it is hoped, before the close of 1853. The Earl of Ellesmere has been elected chairman of the committee, in the place of the late Earl of Clare. The operations of the Committee for the publication of Oriental Texts had, like those of the Translation Committee, been much restricted from want of pecuniary means. It has, however, proposed to print the Mantic ut Tair, of which an edition had been prepared for the press by M. Garcia de Tassy. Considerable progress has been made by Mr. Morley in preparing an edition of Baiheki's History from a collation of several rare MSS. of the work.

At the Anniversary of the ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, held on the 24th of May, the founder's gold medal was presented to Dr. John Rae, of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the patrons' or Victoria gold medal to Captain Henry Strachey, of the Hon. East India Company's service.

The Geographical Society of Paris has awarded two large silver medals to the Revs. Dr. Krapf and J. Rebmann, missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, for the discovery of a snowy mountain in Eastern Africa, about three degrees south of the line, named Mount Killimandjaro. Dr. Krapf has since visited another range about two degrees northward, where he has announced the discovery of another mountain still loftier -Mount Kenia, which appears to be the Mount Arangos of Hoking, otherwise named the Mountain of the Moon.

At the first half-yearly meeting of the CHRONOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF LONDON, held at 37, Great Queen-street, on the 21st of June, Dr. John Lee, the Treasurer, in the chair, the following papers were read: 1. On the Bibliography of Chronological Literature, by the Secretary, Mr. W. H. Black. 2. On the time of the Foundation of Babylon, by Sir William Betham, Registrar. 3. On the Fifteenth Year of the Emperor Tiberius, by Mr. Turnbull. 4. On the Chronology of the Ministry of Jesus Christ, by Mr. Mardon; &c.

The OXFORD COMMEMORATION of Be

nefactors has been celebrated with the fuller series of festivities which distinguishes every fourth year. The honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law was conferred on Don Domenico Lofaso di Pietra Santa, Duke of Serra di falco and Prince of San Pietro, in Sicily; the Right Rev. Samuel Allen M'Cosky, D.D. Bishop of Michigan in the United States; the Right Rev. William Heathcote de Lancy, D.D. Bishop of Western New York; the Hon. Sir John Taylor Coleridge, one of the Justices of the Queen's Bench, late Fellow of the Exeter college; Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Knt. F.R.S., M.R.S.L., F.R.G.S. author of several valuable works on Egyptian antiquities; the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, D.D., Secretary of the House of Bishops in the United States; Wm. Pulteney Alison, M.D. Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and one of the Physicians in ordinary to her Majesty in Scotland; and Richard Owen, esq. Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, and Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The Creweian oration was admirably delivered by the Professor of Poetry, the Rev. T. L. Claughton, of Trinity college, and Rector of Kidderminster.

The prize compositions were then recited by their authors,

Latin Verse-" Avium Migrationes; Robert George Wyndham Herbert, Scholar of Balliol (Hertford Scholar, 1851).

English Essay" Centralization, its benefits and disadvantages;" Hans William Sotheby, B.A. Fellow of Exeter.

Latin Essay-"Quænam ingenii virtutes ad historias scribendas potissimum conducunt;' Henry Parker, B.A. Fellow of Oriel.

English Verse (The Newdigate)-"The Feast of Belshazzar; Edwin Arnold, University.

Besides the two American bishops, there were present on this occasion six others, namely the Bishops of London, Exeter, Chichester, Oxford, Glasgow, and Argyll and the Isles. Some members of the university presented to the American bishops, by the hands of the Rev. Dr. Jacobson, Regius Professor of Divinity, an elegant alms-dish of silver gilt. It represents the Magi offering their gifts, and is inscribed "Ecclesiæ Americanæ dilectæ in Christo Oxonienses.'

The Theological Prize Essay at Oxford for the present year have been thus adjudged :

Ellerton Essay." The Effects of the Captivity on the Jewish People." Daniel Trinder, Student in Civil Law, Exeter College.