The Interior Of A Gothic Minster.

At Christ Church the crypt below the north wing of the transept was recently found to be full of bones . At Hereford , the crypt under the lady chapel was appropriated as a enamel in the fifteenth centurv .

Our minsters form a history of the country , of the progress of art and science , the varieties of costume of every class , and galleries of national worthies in the effigies which they contain . The spandrels of the aisle of Lichfield , the angel choir of Lincoln , the corbels of Manchester , and the

minstrel gallery of Exeter , illustrate musical instruments ; the window framing of Canterbury , and the screens of Salisbury , Canterbury , and Westminster , metal works ; the copes of Ely , Durham , Carlisle , Romsey , aud Westminster exhibit , the embroiderer ' s art , once known

throughout Europe as English work . The weapons at Canterbury of the Black Prince , at Westminster of Edward III . ; the portions of armour at Carlisle , York , and Chichester ; the clocks of Exeter and Wells ; the bishop's rings at Winchester , ChichesterYorkand Hereford ; the rotables of Exeter

, , , Norwich , Westminster , and Ripon ; the cope and . record chests of Chester , Westminster , and York ; the dyptych of Gloucester ; the money trunks at Chichester and York ; the horns of York aud

Carlisle ; the font covers of Beverley , Selby , and Durham ; the mappa muncli and portable shrine of Hereford ; panel paintings at Llandaff , Ripon , and Romsey ; the glass of Dorchester , Lincoln , Lichfield , Bristol , Exeter , York , Wells , Canterbury , Salisbury ; relics of St . Cufchbert at Durham ; the

staffs of York and Winchester ; the chalices and maze bowl of York ; the old chairs of York , Winchester , Lincoln , and . Hereford , are all precious memorials of tho past , invaluable to the artist , the architect , aud the archaeologist , as the true models for imitation . The development of monuments

would form a chapter in itself ; ranging from the sepulchral cross of Ovin , the . incised slab , the coped tomb , to the stellated canopies of Bristol , St . David ' s and Tewkesbury ; the high tomb with its weepers , the screened tomb , the chantry , the complete chapel and double oratory ; and

embracing the cadaver , the low relief , the semi-effigies of Lichfield and Worcester , the brasses of Carlisle , St . Albau ' s , Ely , Dorchester , Manchester , Hereford , Salisbury , and Westminster .

Time will not- admit , and deference to the professional architect would forbid any details with respect to the marvellous transformation of a Norman into a perpendicular nave at Winchester ; to the curious method by which the Norman walls of Gloucester were hung with later work ; the

remarkable proofs of a permanent body of local masons offered at Wells ; the identity between the skeleton vaultings seem in Bristol and St . David ' s ; or the parallel arrangements in the eastern portion of the latter cathedral and Sherborne . An interesting inquiry might be prosecuted into the determination of the names of the actual

designers of our minsters . We can point , indeed , to Wykeham at Winchester , to Elias de Dereham at Salisbury , to Richard of Saxmundham , and Alan de Walsingham at Ely ; we are enabled to recover the names of * "' Walket , " custos and procurator fabricaj , in the thirteenth century , at

Chichester ; and of Horton at Gloucestei-, as supervisor operis . It is , however , an unpractical study at this period : we can no longer expect the clergy , as the monks of Gloucester , to construct vaulting with their own hands ; and it will be our wisest course to delco-ate our future works of

restoration or construction to those eminent men who , by deep study and careful inquiry , and long experience , are no followers of the destructive Wyatt of the last century , or his more recent and less excusable and far less able imitators , but the true and earnest conservators of the sacred trust

confided to them . I am quite sure that these are the A ery persons who would be the first to desire the co-operation , advice , and supervision of the clerical guardians of the fabric as those most familiar with the suitable aiTangements . According to a Parliamentary return recently

issued , £ 500 was granted for the restoration of York Minster in 1841 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners , and £ 2 , 938 18 s . 10 c ? . for Ripon Cathedral in 1842 . Under the authority of orders in council of several dates given below , the followingchapters transferred to the Ecclesiastical

Commissioners their corporate estates in consideration of the annexed sums- *—Bristol , June 7 , 1862 , £ 6 , 000 ; Canterbury , August 6 , 1862 , £ 20 , 000 ; Carlisle , November 10 , 1852 , £ 15 , 000 ; Salisbury , Oct . 11 1861 , £ 10 , 000 ; Winchester , April 16 , 1861 , £ 5 , 000 ; and Worcester , November 29 , 1859 ,

£ 15 , 300 : total , £ 71 , 300 . With respect to the chapter of Worcester , it is noted that " the commissioners , being possessed of a lease for lives under the chapter , agreed to pay to the chapter for the addition of two lives , iu the place of two that had died , a fine of £ 5 , 160 , the cha ]} ter

undertaking that the whole of it should be appropriated towards the repair of the fabric . " Rochester , St . David ' s , St . Asaph ' s , and Norwich are the only cathedrals still left neglected . Every accessory is now carefully studied ; the recumbent effigy , the inscribed brass , the

memorial window , are revivals of the last few years . Still it is to be feared , with too much reason , that very many of our so-called restorations have been merciless reconstructions , and not , what they ought to have been , repairs when indispensable without disturbance of that which could have been and ought to have been reverentially retained .

For the prevention of similar outrages , Ave must look , I believe , not , as has been supposed , to the appointment of a Government inspector of public monuments , but to the force of popular opinion aud the education of every class in all that relates to art—an office signally belonging to the designs of this museum .