there had been any funds, or the least inclination on the part of the church-wardens to restore them. No authority could of course be officially exerted for any such expenditure: and the frescoes, in their present condition, though highly curious and interesting to the antiquary, are not to common eyes, it must be admitted, ornamental or attractive. Neither the archdeacon of Rochester, who had also visited them, nor the vicar of the parish, I ought to add, had testified the least wish for their preservation. As far as I was informed also, the parishioners were quite indifferent about them. We must therefore rest satisfied with the nice and careful drawings which Mr. Wollaston has executed. The Association also may rejoice in having done their duty, however unsuccessfully, in drawing the attention of the competent ecclesiastical authorities to these relics of ancient art."
Read a letter from Mr. Daniel Henry Haigh, of Leeds, giving an account of an examination of several churches in the county of York. Mr. Haigh writes:
"On the 30th October, I made a short excursion to the southern border of this county, and visited on that and the following day, the parish church of Laughton-en-le-Morthen, the neighbouring chapel of St. John's, and the churches of Anstan and Thorpe Salom. A passage in Mr. Hunter's Deanery of Doncaster, which slates that the 'lid of a Saxon cistus,' resembling in its ornaments that at Coningsborough, is preserved in the church-yard of St. John's, and Mr. Rickman's notice of the remains of Anglo-Saxon architecture in the parish church of Laughton, led my steps in this direction. There is no mention in the Domesday Survey of any church in this parish, but its importance in the times of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers is proved by the fact there recorded, of its having been the residence of Earl Edwin; 'Ibi ten. comes Eduin aulam.' Westward from the church, about fifty yards distant, are the remains (as I believe them to be) of Edwin's hall, consisting of a high circular mound, standing between the extremities of a crescent-shaped rampart of earth. The Anglo-Saxon portion of the church is small. It consists of the west wall of the north aisle, and the western bay of the north wall. It is easily distinguished from the rest of the church by its masonry, and the dark red sand-stone with which it is built; the magnesian limestone being employed in the Norman chancel, as well as in the Perpendicular nave. Mr. Rickman has given a good representation of the doorway in the north wall, in his communication on Anglo-Saxon architecture, printed in Archæologia, vol. xxvi., but an erroneous impression may be conveyed, by his having given the same dark tint to the hood-moulding of the original doorway, and to the low segmental arch which now forms the doorway, which is of much later date; and to make room for which the under sides of the original imposts have been cut away. Since Mr. Rickman's time, much of the rough-cast which covered this portion of the walls has been removed, and disclosed long and short quoins east of the door and close to the second buttress of the north wall; proving that here there was an angle in the wall, and leading to the supposition that this was a porch of the Saxon edifice. In digging graves on the south side of the church, the foundations of a wall have been met with; this seems to prove that the Saxon church was of greater extent than its Norman successor. Of the latter, the chancel walls, and the piers on the north side of the nave remain. The rest of the church is of early and good Perpendicular work, or rather transition from Decorated to that style. The capitals of the Norman piers on the north side of the nave have abaci placed upon them, corresponding with those of the piers on the opposite side, so as to make them of
