178 The Thirty-eighth General Meeting. 
They first visited the ancient Hospital of St. John the Baptist, 
of which the Chapel and a portion of the hospital buildings of the 
fourteenth century still remain; Mr. Ponttne here, as elsewhere 
throughout the three days’ Meeting, excellently discharging his 
office of architectural mentor and guide to the Society. 
The famous and costly modern Lombard Church, erected 1841-5 
was next visited, the Rector, the Rev. Canon Olivier, conducting 
the party round, and pointing out the various objects of interest that 
it contains. The mosaic of thirteenth century ‘‘ opus Alerandrinum ” 
in the porch, and the various portions in the pulpit and elsewhere 
of what was once a rich thirteenth century shrine in S. Maria 
Maggiore at Rome, with twisted white marble columns inlaid with 
“© Cosmati”’ ribbon mosaic so characteristic of Italian work of that 
period, are specimens of a kind of work rarely seen in England— 
the best known example being that of Edward the Confessor’s tomb 
in Westminster Abbey. The rich thirteenth and fourteenth century 
glass, probably French, in the windows of the apse, and the later 
glass of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in some of the 
windows of the nave—especially that which came from Wilton 
House and bears the portraits of the first Earl of Pembroke and 
his wife and son—were examined with much interest, as well as 
the fine columns of black Porto Venere marble, which carry the 
chancel arch. 
From here the party proceeded to the ruins of the old Parish 
Church, where Mr. Pontine pointed out the remains of good Per- 
pendicular work, and expressed a hope that somebody would be able 
to solve the conundrum in stone which the top of the Renaissance 
cross just outside the churchyard is apparently intended to present. 
Query, was it ever a sundial? 
The carpet factory of Messrs. Yates & Co. was next visited, and 
great interest was shown in the manufacture of the Axminster, 
Turkey, Wilton and Brussels carpets for which the establishment is 
so famous. THe PresipENT pointed out that the finest and most 
expensive Axminster carpets were being made by hand under the 
eyes of the visitors in precisely the same manner and with the same. 
primitive instruments as those employed in the earliest days—and 
_— ee rer eet 
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