has been approached, and the officials of the above societies have tried to persuade him to repair it himself or to allow them to do so.  But these negotiations have hitherto failed.  It is very deplorable when the owners of historic buildings should act in this “dog-in-the-manger” fashion, and surely the time has come when the Government should have power to compulsorily acquire such historic monuments when their natural protectors prove themselves to be incapable or unwilling to preserve and save them from destruction.

We turn from this sorry page of wilful neglect to one that records the grand achievement of modern antiquaries, the rescue and restoration of the beautiful specimen of Saxon architecture, the little chapel of St. Lawrence at Bradford-on-Avon.  Until 1856 its existence was entirely unknown, and the credit of its discovery was due to the Rev. Canon Jones, Vicar of Bradford.  At the Reformation with the dissolution of the abbey at Shaftesbury it had passed into lay hands.  The chancel was used as a cottage.  Round its walls other cottages arose.  Perhaps part of the building was at one time used as a charnel-house, as in an old deed it is called the Skull House.  In 1715 the nave and porch were given to the vicar to be used as a school.  But no one suspected the presence of this exquisite gem of Anglo-Saxon architecture, until Canon Jones when surveying the town from the height of a neighbouring hill recognized the peculiarity of the roof and thought that it might indicate the existence of a church.  Thirty-seven years ago the Wiltshire antiquaries succeeded in purchasing the building.  They cleared away the buildings, chimney-stacks, and outhouses that had grown up around it, and revealed the whole beauties of this lovely shrine.  Archaeologists have fought many battles over it as to its date.  Some contend that it is the identical church which William of Malmesbury tells us St. Aldhelm built at Bradford-on-Avon about 700 A.D., others assert that it cannot be earlier than the tenth century.  It was a monastic cell attached to the Abbey of Malmesbury, but Ethelred II gave it to the Abbess of Shaftesbury in 1001 as a secure retreat for her nuns if Shaftesbury should be threatened by the ravaging Danes.  We need not describe the building, as it is well known.  Our artist has furnished us with an admirable illustration of it.  Its great height, its characteristic narrow Saxon doorways, heavy plain imposts, the string-courses surrounding the building, the arcades of pilasters, the carved figures of angels are some of its most important features.  It is cheering to find that amid so much that has vanished we have here at Bradford a complete Saxon church that differs very little from what it was when it was first erected.

[Illustration:  Saxon Doorway in St. Lawrence’s Church, Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.]