of the churches belonging to the preceptories of the Templars. It was dedicated in the reign of Henry ., by Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, A.D. 1185. The present building was repaired and enlarged a few years since, at an expense of between sixty and seventy thousand pounds sterling, exhibiting in the interior a combination of architectural beauty and ornament the most exquisite conceivable. The

porch before the western doorway, which formerly communicated with an ancient cloister, is at the end of a long alley in Fleet Street, opposite to Chancery Lane-the transition from the outside to the inside serving not a little to heighten the emotion of surprise and pleasure in the mind of the visitor. You enter a spacious rotunda-the most ancient part of the sacred edifice. The dome is supported by six quarternion columns of Purbeck marble, the cap of each differing in its embellishments from the rest. Columns, also, of the same material sustain and adorn the walls. Adjoining this portion of the church, and laid open to it, is another pile of building, consecrated A.D. 1240, in the form of an oblong, with arched and fresco painted roof. At the end is a magnificent window of stained glass, presenting a dazzling combination of the richest colours. This building is fitted up with pews, and here Divine service is performed. The organ, standing in a recess in the northern wall, was built by Father Schnudt, and is considered one of the finest in the world.

Another subject of deep interest in this beautiful edifice, is the tesselated pavement, which covers the whole area. When the recent repairs and enlargement were commenced, the columns and walls of the ancient church were found thickly coated with paint and white-wash, which had been accumulating for generations. On this being scraped away, the original pillars appeared too much decayed to endure the weight of the dome, which was accordingly supported by a temporary scaffolding, considered a masterpiece of architectural skill, while one by one they were removed, and the present columns, made after the exact model of the original, were substituted. But around the basement of the original columns, and buried under hundreds of cartloads of earth and rubbish, tiles were discovered bearing the arms of John, Henry, Richard, and other royal Crusaders. These have been accurately copied, and the arms of the two societies of the inner and middle temple having been added, the entire church has been paved with them, giving an effect to the building, the finished beauty of which cannot be easily described.

But the chief objects of interest are the recumbent figures of the Knights Templars, many of whom were buried in it. Of these figures there are nine. Two groups, of four each, are arranged under the dome; one figure, also, being placed under the south wall, correspond ing to which on the north side is a monument, in the form of a stone coffin, of one of the grand

masters, said to be the most ancient of the whole. The figures all represent a knight in complete armour, most of them being crosslegged, as was customary in monuments of all persons who engaged in the Crusades. Some of them are crossed above the knee, which is considered to have been a mark of honour and distinction. Only two of these figures can now be identified; those of the earl of Pembroke and his son.

Mars

Time and circumstances have somewhat changed the appearance of all of them, and have occasioned their removal from their original positions. In the days of Camden, they seem each to have been laid on a separate tomb. Thus he speaks of having read an inscription on one of them, in letters almost effaced, "Comes Pembrochic," ("Earl of Pembroke,") and at the sides, "Miles eram Martis. multos vicerat armis."* ("I was a soldier of Mars. Mars conquered many by arms.") This is now entirely effaced. But there the figures themselves still lie, the sleeping memorials of an age characterized by romantic folly and grovelling superstition, a large portion of the history of which reads much more like a dream of fiction than a reality. Besides these is another figure, which was only discovered on the removal of the high pews and wainscotting, which concealed the ancient walls. It is an effigy of a bishop, recumbent, like the others, and of marble, supposed to be *Camden's Britannia, vol. ii. pp. 6, 19.

intended for Heraclius, by whom the church was consecrated.

The Hospitallers, also, had extensive establishments in England. A house was built for them on the north side of Holborn, which is said to have "increased to the size of a palace, and had a beautiful church, with a tower carried up to such a height as to be, while it stood, a singular ornament to the city." The wealth and opulence of the Hospitallers opened their way to the highest honours. Their prior ranked as the first baron in England, and lived in the greatest opulence and dignity till Henry VIII. seized on their possessions, and appropriated them to his own use.

Camden's Britannia, vol. ii. p. 9

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL REVIEW.

THE reader is now in possession of a short historical sketch of one of the most extraordinary movements which ever convulsed the world. The wars of the cross furnish a subject of deep interest for the study of the historian. Many are the inquiries which naturally arise in relation to them; the means by which the crusading spirit was kept alive-the causes of its decline the effects of the Crusades-and the moral estimate which it behoves us to form of these expeditions-these are all questions claiming a separate consideration.

Of these inquiries, the first-namely, The means by which the crusading spirit was kept alive-is not the least interesting. The origin of the crusading spirit is hardly so extraordinary as the continuance of the passion, through so lengthened a period.

1. The love of glory-of glory sought in the defence of religion, by the force of armsthis was the principle in which the Crusades originated, and this, from one period to another, continued with more or less potency to influence men to engage in them. To this passion