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indent Cjjajjels, Set, m Cc. Wilis. 



By the Rev. Canon Jackson, F.S.A. 



K^^jOOD imitations may sometimes deceive even experienced 

 S|||pJ judges. The late Rt. Rev. Dr. G. H. Law, Bishop of Bath 

 and YVells, being fond of exercise on horseback at a very early 

 hour, used sometimes to astonish the clergyman and parish clerk, at 

 places so far distant as 15 miles from the Palace at Wells, by calling 

 to see their church at 7 o'clock in the morning. Upon one occasion, 

 whilst staying at a friend's, a few miles from Bath, his Lordship 

 went off alone upon one of these early excursions, and passing in 

 front of a gentleman's house in a very pretty park, he saw quite 

 close to it, a gabled building with a large Perpendicular window 

 surmounted by a little crocheted spire. Naturally supposing this 

 ■ to be the church of the Manor, he turned off the road into the park, 

 and rode up to make a closer inspection. The door being open 

 exhibited a row of horses, under the hands of grooms and helpers, 

 whose surprise at such a visitor at such an hour was not less than 

 his own. The history of the matter is of course simply this. In 

 order to match a house built in ecclesiastical style, the owner had 

 given the, same style (though much too strongly) to his stable. 

 In this instance the whole was modern, built in imitation of old. 

 ' But the imitation was consistently carried out. This modern 

 ! country gentleman, as a copyist, truly copied what the old ecclesi- 

 i astic had done before him ; i.e. he made his stables and offices 

 . match his house. 



In retired villages and at solitary old houses, we often 

 i find a fragment of venerable church- like building, some gable, 

 arch, window or doorway. History it has none, beyond the 

 usual tradition " that it was said to have been once a chapel or a 

 Nunnery, or something of that sort." Now many of these ancient 

 relics may be accounted for in the way above alluded to. The 



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