Saturday, October 30, 1858. OPENING OF THE NEW CHAPEL-OF-EASE, AT BLACKFORDBY. While we rejoice at the revival of a love of Churchbuilding, so widely and deeply spread as we have seen it to be during the last quarter of a century, we must be allowed to regret the frequently unavoidable destruction of many of those sacred and venerable structures, which give a charm to our country villages, and carry us back in thought to our forefathers in the Church. "Movemur enim nescio quo pacto," said the heathen orator and philosopher, "in his locis, quibus eorum quos admiramur ad sunt vestigia." "Within these walls," said the pious Cecil a few years ago, "have been resounded for centuries, prayers and praises the very damp that trickles down the walls, and the unsightly green upon the pillars, are far more pleasing to me from their associations, than the trim, finished, heathen piles of the present day." Such was the old Chapel-of-ease at Blackfordby. Built in the thirteenth century, it possessed, in its measure, those associations which a Cicero could feel, but the Christian only can understand. These are now all swept away; and the Church of the present and of the future alone stands for the contemplation of the thoughtful. It The new Chapel is much to be admired. It is from a design of Mr. H. I. Stevens, of Derby. Compare it with his first essay in church-building at Coalville, as it was twenty years ago, and we see at once not merely a proof of that gentleman's advance in professional skill and good taste, but also of the result of the study of ecclesiastical architecture in England. consists of a chancel, nave, and broach-spire attached to the south side. The style of architecture, generally, is of the early decorated period. The stone walls are pitch-faced. The lower part of the spire forms a spacious porch, with two windows, stone seats by the wall sides, and the entrance to the newel staircase leading to the ringing-loft. Within the arch of the external doorway is a trefoiled head, the mouldings of the arch springing from the foliated capitals of circular shafts. On the left hand, when you enter the chapel, is a new font of Chelaston alabaster: the material is the gift of H. E. Smith, Esq., late of Norris Hill; the workmanship of Mr. Elliott, of Ashby; the oak cover of Mr. Nicholas Joyce. The seats are all open with square ends; but these are by no means so handsome as the old bench-ends of the former chapel were, and which might have been copied. We calculated that there is plenty of room for 180 adults, and 84 children, exclusive of 16 (singers, we hope,) in the chancel, the organist, and the officiating clergyman,-in all 282. The roof is a very good one, formed of hammer-beams, braces, and struts. The west window, comprising two lancet lights, with trefoiled heads, and a circular sex-foiled opening above between them, is not such as we should have recommended. Some more windows will be wanted in the north wall, for which there are spaces, when the others are filled with stained glass. Two steps lead into the chancel. On the upper one, against the south side of the chancel arch, is the lectern, and against the north the pulpit. This is perhaps the only objectionable arrangement in the building. It blocks up the entrance to the chancel, and cuts off a view of the altar from a large portion of the congregation. We venture to hope that Mr. Stevens will amend this his oversight upon future occasions. The roof of the chancel is inferior to that of the nave indeed, this remark applies to the chancel generally. What may be called a small aisle on the north side of the chancel forms a vestry and a place for the seraphine. In the south wall is the priest's door, with trefoiled head, and two windows, in one of which is replaced the head of S. Margaret in stained glass, an accurate copy by Warrington of a fragment probably of the fifteenth century, which was accidentally broken ten years ago. The east window is not satisfactory. There are two steps at the altarrailing, which is low and open. The altar itself is of oak, covered by a cloth of crimson, on the front of which is a cross with the sacred monogram, designed by the Rev. J. Denton, and worked in silk by Messrs. Joues and Willis, of Birmingham. The space within the altar rails will be found inconveniently narrow. We are glad to observe that the only two monuments in the old chapel have been preserved in the new. One is to the memory of Mr. John Chamberlain and Katherine his widow, which last increased the minister's stipend from forty shillings per annum to fifty, provided he preach an annual sermon on the 5th of November in memory of the day on which she was buried. This has been replaced in the pavement on about the same spot where it lay before. The other, a mural monument to various members of the Newcomen family, has found an asylum against the west wall of the chancel aisle. Externally the chapel is very successful. Standing on the brow of a hill which commands a view of the country from Bardon to Beaudesert, it forms a con spicuous and beautiful object. One mistake, however, is apparent when we view it more nearly,—the absence of a handsome west window. The estimated cost of the building was £1,315, but probably £200 more will scarcely cover all the expenses. On Wednesday, the 27th instant, the Chapel was opened by the performance of Divine Service. It was attended by the Earl and Countess Howe, the Lady Edith and C. F. Abney Hastings, Esq., Sir G. H. and |