54 BEKE REGIS. 



subjects, come here by yourselves some quiet day and listen to 

 their silent story ; they will speak to you in tones of greater 

 beauty and more moving power than even the preacher's living 

 word. And I think that you will not regret to spend a quiet half- 

 hour in God's House amid memorials of those who in past and 

 present centuries have lived up to the words, " Lord, I have 

 loved the habitation of Thy house and the place where Thine 

 honour dwelleth." I had best conclude with a quotation from a 

 sketch by Canon Venables, to whom I am indebted for much that 

 I have said to-day " It would be a happy thing if every 

 restoration of a church had been as conscientious and as well 

 considered as that of Bere. No antient feature has been 

 sacrificed, no new work needlessly introduced. It may be called 

 a model restoration, reflecting the greatest credit on the architect 

 who drew the plans, the late much lamented Mr. George E. Street, 

 R.A., on the builder, and still more on the late vicar, the Rev. 

 Francis Warre, now vicar of Melksham, by whose energy and 

 refined taste the undertaking was set on foot and brought to a 

 successful issue, and to whose liberality the completeness and 

 beauty of the work is in no small degree due." 



