deepest sorrow, should warn us also of the uncertainty of all things here, and teach us how frail is that tenure by which we hold even our lives.

I think that I may fairly congratulate this learned body, on the establishment of a "School of Design" in this city. Such an institution cannot but be productive of good effects. It is at present so much in its infancy, that I will not enter into its details, but I would invite all who may be able, to co-operate in the undertaking, not only as tending to elevate the art-education of the rising generation, but as a useful branch of that general instruction, which should be placed within the reach of every ordinary intelligence in this mighty nation.

Amongst the various monuments which have been adopted in various ages as records of the dead, there are none which call for our attention, for many reasons, more than those which are usually termed Sepulchral Brasses. Considerably more than two centuries have elapsed since any memorials of this kind have been executed till within these few years, when a taste for mediæval art, more especially in ecclesiastical matters, has greatly revived, and it is for this reason that I thought it would be interesting to you to see the rubbing of a brass, which I have recently placed in Yazor Church, as a memorial of the late Mr. Uvedale Price, to whose piety and munificence we owe the erection of that building. Its character is that of the middle of the fourteenth century; in the centre of the cross is an elevation of the exterior of the Church: beneath, the inscription, together with the armorial bearings of the deceased. You will acknowledge, from an inspection of it, that neither the art nor the feeling are lost. It was executed by Mr. Hardman, of Birmingham, to whose skill the beautiful brass work in the new Houses of Parliament are

to be attributed. It was designed, or at least approved of, by that eminent authority in matters of mediæval art, Mr. Pugin. Had a portraiture of the individual been thought desirable, there would have been no difficulty in effecting it; the folds of the academic costume being arranged to conceal the modern dress, which might appear at variance with the style of monument adopted. With regard to females, the difficulty would not at all exist, the costume of the present day harmonizing, without any alteration, with everything that the eye would require. As to the male figures, the unsightliness of modern habits would render an effigy of the description I am speaking of, ludicrous in its effect; but it is observed by Mr. Pugin scarcely possible to find any person sufficiently dignified in station to warrant such an effigy, who does not hold some official situation, either ecclesiastical, civil, or military: the robes and insignia of these, if properly and severely represented, would produce effigies little inferior in solemn effect to the ancient ones. While upon the subject of sepulchral brasses, I cannot refrain from alluding to our own Cathedral, which must at one time have been peculiarly rich in these beautiful specimens of ancient art. That eminent antiquary, Dr. Rawlinson, in his "History and Antiquities of the City and Cathedral Church of Hereford," published in 1717 (a book by no means common to be met with, as there were only two hundred copies printed), says that there have been several brasses stolen from many monuments in this Church, of which take the following account:-In the body of the Church have been visibly lost eighty-five; in the choir, one; in the south aisle, eight; in the south cross aisle, seven; in the south aisle near the choir, four; in the south-west aisle, ten; in the aisle facing the library, seven; in the north-east aisle, ten; in the north aisle near the choir, twelve; in the

north cross aisle, twenty;. in the north-west aisle, six. In another account, we are told that when the Parliamentary soldiers occupied the city in 1645, no less than 170 brasses were taken away. Several brasses were likewise displaced when the Cathedral underwent its extensive repairs subsequent to the fall of the west end in 1786, and no less than two tons weight sold to a brazier. Gough mentions that "at the beginning of the fourteenth century, brass figures were so common that in 1308, a Canon of Hereford could afford a very handsome one, though it is the oldest sepulchral brass now entire, and well preserved, that I have seen." There is also one of great beauty of design and execution now lying in the north transept, to the memory of Richard Rudhall, Archdeacon of Hereford, and Canon Residentiary. It represents the figure of a Priest under a canopy with upraised hands, while in niches of rich tabernacle work, supporting the canopy, are figures of St. Thomas of Hereford, St. Catherine, St. George, St. David, St. Ethelbert, St. Thomas of Canterbury, the Blessed Virgin, and St. John. I only mention this as one out of very many, all worthy of attention; for I am not now about to occupy your time with a disquisition upon sepulchral brasses, however interesting such a subject might be in the hands of a well-skilled archæologist; but I would observe that the number of these monumental memorials still abounding in almost every part of England, the facility with which fac-simile impressions can be produced, and the accuracy and durability of the impressions themselves, form a strong inducement to a pursuit which never fails to repay us with diversified, but always valuable, always attractive and interesting information.

I should remark that the brass from which the present rubbing has been taken, has been placed for additional

preservation against the wall,—not altogether in conformity with ancient practice; their position for the most part was on the floor, which they richly adorned; and it was also the best that could be adopted for commemorating the departed, and also at the same time bringing practically before the minds of the living, the stern lesson

Memento homo qui pelvis es, et in pulverem reverteres.

ADDRESS TO THE HEREFORD LITERARY, PHILOSOPHICAL,
AND ANTIQUARIAN INSTITUTION.
November, 1853.

Ladies and Gentlemen,-Upon me devolves again the honour and the pleasure of opening the Session of our Institution. I had at one time almost flattered myself that I might have had the satisfaction of welcoming you to a new home, a home which would really be your own, a home of Science, of Literature, and Art, more worthy of yourselves, and more worthy of this ancient city.

Hereford is not always, I trust, to have a name alone for its antiquity, or be for ever associated in our ideas with dust and cobwebs, rust and mouldings. Antiquity is venerable, and, as one of the titles of our Institution, we are bound to show it respect. But to the honourable prestige of antiquity may be superadded the glories of still increasing prosperity and ripe maturity; the age of our foundations, if indeed they are securely laid, only gives us cause to have faith in their steadiness, to uphold the structure we intrust to them; but the base without a superstructure is useless, and cities which speak of the past alone, whose honours have faded with the centuries which have gone by, and have left neither honour nor stability

behind them, though objects of interest to the antiquary, call for the commiseration, if not the sneer, of the utilitarian age in which we have the happiness to live.

"Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void,

O'er the dim_fragments cast a lunar light,

And say Here was, or is,' where all is doubly night?"

CHILDE HAROLD.

Let us fervently hope-and do more than hope,-let us use our utmost exertions that the coming years may be those of renovated youth; nay, years of more than pristine vigour to our ancient city;-may all that is beautiful, and venerated, and holy be restored, and new buildings and accommodations, suited to the requirements of the age, spring up around us, to receive and welcome the operations of commerce, and the traffic of the busy world from which we have been so long excluded, but which now approaches us on every side; and may we be ready to receive with open arms the fair attendant handmaids on successful commerce, Science and Art.

I am not about to enter upon a discussion on the merits of the scheme which has been proposed for the erection of a building dedicated to the purposes of our Institution, because I conceive my doing so would be an infringement upon our rules; but I may venture to express (taking somewhat more liberty as a President whom you have honoured with the election of second year), I may venture to express my warmest wishes for its success, and my sanguine hopes that the inhabitants of Hereford, even if unsupported where they expected co-operation, will with united efforts carry through this undertaking, which, after all, is not of a very gigantic size, and which if only fairly apportioned and discreetly executed by themselves, cannot fail of being, even in a pecuniary view, remunerative.