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Monumental Effigies of the Temple Church, London, with an account of their restoration in the year 1842. By Edward Richardson, Sculptor. Longman, Imp. 4to.

Illustrations of the ancient stone and leaden coffins and encaustic tiles, discovered in the Temple Church. By Edward Richardson. Imp. 4to.

Amongst various branches of Antiquarian research few have in recent times been more generally followed than sepulchral antiquities. Replete with curious and interesting information, the monumental memorials of our ancestors arrest our attention, even in their most mutilated and unsightly condition, by a certain noble simplicity of design, rarely however united with perfect artistic skill. They derive perhaps their greatest charm from this cause, that they were, to the full extent of the sculptor's ability, portraitures; and the faithful reproduction of all accessory details enables us by means of these defaced effigies to convert into a brilliant pageant historical scenes which the tedious chronicler may have failed to invest with any charm. There are scarcely any of the remarkable early memorials of this kind which possess a higher degree of interest than the figures in the Temple Church, generally, but as Mr. Richardson appears to conclude, erroneously supposed to be memorials of Knights of the Order of the Temple. It is not even satisfactorily ascertained that the cross-legged effigies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were portraitures exclusively of Knights "of the Holy Voyage," and if in truth this attitude had been chosen as a distinctive mark of the crusader, it is hardly to be supposed that it would have been exclusively adopted in our own country; it is remarkable that no cross-legged monumental figure has hitherto been noticed in any other part of Europe. Much valuable information has been collected by Mr. Richardson, and the investigator of sepulchral antiquities will find a mass of curious evidences in the two works to which we desire to call the attention of our readers. They are especially valuable as comprising the results of careful personal observation: it was to Mr. Richardson that the task of restoring these much defaced effigies was assigned, and although many may regret the depreciation of their value as authentic and original examples, preferring the undeniable evidence afforded by the broken sculpture, to the more sightly aspect which it now presents, every one must commend the perfect skill of the restorer, and the conscientious manner in which he has recorded the process and circumstances of renovation. With his works in our hands we are enabled satisfactorily to discern what portions are of undeniable authority, and to distinguish those which have been, by means of a most ingenious process of his invention, admirably supplied. The recent discoveries on the site of the Chapter House at Lewes will possibly lead many to consult the curious statements published by Mr. Richardson in his notice of the leaden coffins discovered in the Temple Church. They