EEASMUS DARWIN. 265 



All men have not the same cast of mind. What may appear 

 essential to one may seem impertinent to the question to another. 

 Erasmus Darwin, though in his day branded with the name of atheist, 

 and consigned to the infernal shades in the pages of the " Methodists' 

 Magazine," &c., was eminently the reverse, and must be ranked 

 with the teleologists ; he certainly was not without the mistakes which are 

 sometimes attributed to the school. Had he hved now he might have 

 appeared in another phase ; but whether so or not, we believe that he 

 would have been a bright luminary in biology ; that he would have been 

 a popular poet may not be so certain. 



KEMPLEY CHUKCH, GLOUCESTEESHIEE. 



BY J. HENKY MIDDLETON, ESQ. 



The Church at Kempley, in Gloucestershire, consists of a Norman 

 nave and chancel, built probably at the end of the eleventh century : 

 their sizes are roughly — nave, 34 feet by 19 feet ; chancel, 18 feet 

 by 14 feet, internal measurement. All the walls of this early part 

 remain, with the west and south doors, the nari'ow chancel arch, and four 

 of the original windows. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a 

 western tower was added, a wooden porch built on to the south door, and 

 two perpendicular two-light windows were inserted in the nave, probably 

 in the place of older Norman ones. 



The dedication of this church is not quite certain, but tradition 

 ascribes it to the Blessed Virgin, and this view is supported by the legend 

 on one of the bells, which is Dilige Virgo Pia qiios congrego Virgo Maria, 

 Another bell has the following legend: — Jesu carnpanam tihi semper protege 

 sanam. Both these bells date fi-om the reign of Edward LEI. 



The chancel, where the best presei-ved paintings remain, is 

 covered by a plain, circular ban-el vault, built in rubble. This vault 

 has nearly been the destruction of the chancel, by spreading and so 

 pushing out the walls,, which were without buttresses, as is usual in 

 Norman work. It has, however, been lately shored up and made secure 

 from outside. Such vaults as these are common in military and monastic 

 buildings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; but, except the White 

 Chapel in the Tower of London, I do not remember another EngUsh 

 instance of a church being so roofed. 



The chancel arch, as well as the vault, is much injured and distorted 

 by settlement, and a crack along the crown of the latter has seriously 

 injured the paintings. 



The whole wall surface of the chancel, in addition to the soffit of 

 the vault, has been richly decorated with painting, and most of it stiU 

 remains in a remarkably perfect condition, considering its great age. 

 The comparative freshness of the colouring is owing to the whole surface 

 having been thoroughly covered with repeated coats of whitewash, and 



* Eead before the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, on May 28th, 1878, on the 

 occasion of their vieit to Kempley Church. 



