Between the two north windows was The Descent into Hell. Our Lord, holding a cross with banner attached, preaches to "the spirits in prison," who are standing in the jaws of death. He tramples on a monster, whose head is bent down to the ground, with one paw chained and the other holding a triple hook. One of the pieces of sculpture in the choir of Mont St. Michel has a little demon in a similar position to the one winding a horn above the open jaw.
The accompanying sketches, by Mr. Philip De la Motte, will convey a more accurate notion of these decorations than my words. The drawings are defective only in one point, in not giving the colours.
It is much to be regretted that these interesting specimens of medieval art were not spared from destruction, that when others are laid bare we might come to satisfactory conclusions as to the mode in which churches were decorated, and our fathers instructed when books were scarce and learning almost confined to the cloister and the palace. Several churches in Oxfordshire were similarly enriched, of which considerable portions remain at Cassington, and the colours are seen through the whitewash at Cuddesden, Great Milton, and Dorchester.
ON THE TORC OF THE CELTS.
In investigating the history of our Celtic ancestors, we can place but little reliance on the traditions which have descended to us respecting them, traditions enveloped in doubt, which mere philological inquiry cannot satisfactorily resolve, and in the absence of better evidence, their remains are the chief tests of their social condition, and the place to which they are entitled among the past races of mankind. Thus the question arises, whether the art-remains of the Celts are sufficient to enable us to fix the position which that people occupied in the scale of nations?
It should always be borne in mind, that there is an art-history co-existent with the traditional or written history of every country, and that there is a relation subtle and philosophical, but not less certain, between all the products
