1830.] St. James's Church, Bermondsey. NEW CHURCHES.-No. XXVII. Architect, Savage. HE Church which forms the subTHE ject of the present engraving, is one of the handsomest erected under the Commission. The architecture is Grecian; but the mode of arrangement, and the style of the building, are after the old school of Wren and his followers, and, therefore, far more worthy of admiration than the fashionable meagre imitations of Grecian temples. It stands in the Spa road, in an extensive burial ground, inclosed with an iron railing. The plan of the building shows a nave and side ailes, with a chancel and vestries at the eastern end, and a portico and lobbies at the opposite extremity; the whole being erected on a vaulted basement, occupied as catacombs. The superstructure is built with brick and stone, and is set on a plinth of granite. The west front, shown in the view, is made into a centre and lateral divisions: the first is fronted by the portico, which is composed of four unfluted Ionic columns, raised on a platform of granite, approached by steps in the front and flanks, and sustaining an architrave, frieze, and bold dentil cornice, surmounted by a pediment. The ceiling is pannelled with caissons, and the roof is covered with lead. In the wall at the back of the portico is a doorway of magnificent proportions, bounded by an architrave, and crowned with a frieze and cornice. The elevation of this part of the church is continued above the portico, and forms a pedestal somewhat higher than the pediment; at the front angles of which are altars applied as pinnacles. These altars are square, with ranis' heads at the angles, from the horns of which depend festoons; above the centre of the pedestal rises the tower, which is divided in elevation into four stories. The first, which is square in plan, consists of a pedestal and superstructure; the latter is guarded at the angles with antæ, and has circular arched windows on each face, accompanied with antæ: this story is finished with an entablature, and on the angles of the cornice are pedestals surmounted with acroteria, each composed of a beautiful group of honeysuckles. The second story is smaller, and commences with a pedestal, having a dial GENT. MAG. October, 1830. 297 in each face; on this is a small temple of a square form, open at the sides, and composed of 12 Ionic columns, three being situated at each angle; the whole is surmounted with an entablature and blocking course, having cinerary urns at the angles. In this story hangs the clock bell. The third story is more plain: it is square, and has a circular headed window in each face; it is crowned with an entablature, surmounted by vases at the angles. The fourth story commences with a square pedestal, pierced with a bull's eye in each face, and crowned with a cornice and blocking course, on which is set a square block with a spherical head, sustaining a balluster, enriched with leaves, and crowned with a vane in forin of a dragon; the parishioners having attempted a rivalry with the farfamed Bow steeple. The lateral divisions of this front have smaller doorways of a corresponding character with the centre: at the angles are antæ, and the elevation is crowned with an entablature, architrave, and frieze of brick-work, and a blocking course. The flanks are uniform; the southern, shown in the engraving, has eight windows in the aisle, in form of a truncated pyramid, and inclosed within architraves; the elevation is finished with the entablature continued from the west front; the clerestory has six slightly arched windows, and is finished with a parapet, having on the whole a less handsome appearance than the other portions. The east front consists of a centre with projecting wings; the former has no window, but in lieu thereof, the wall is broken into the form of an arch; the wings have entrances, and are finished as the flanks. The roofs of the nave and ailes are slated. The INTERIOR is approached by a spacious lobby of equal breadth with the west front, into which the three entrances lead. In the lobby are stairs to the galleries, and other entrances to the main building. In the body of the Church the division between the nave and ailes is made by a colonnade on each side, which is composed of five square piers with moulded caps, sustaining an architrave and cornice, above which is a like number of Ionic columns, which are 998 St. James's Church, Bermondsey. in their turn surmounted by an entablature, above which is an attic. The attic pilasters are disposed in pairs over each column, and between them are the windows of the clerestory, which, though arched in their exterior lines, are internally lintelled, and bounded by architraves. The ceiling is horizontal, and made by duplicated flying cornices into divisions corresponding with the intercolumniations, and pannelled with deeply sunk caissons, each division containing three rows in depth, and seven in width; in each caisson is a flower. The ailes have galleries resting on iron supports, sustained by the side walls and the piers. The fronts of the galleries are plastered, and are concaved in a quadrant, by which means they interfere in a very trifling degree with the bases of the colonnade. The side walls are finished with an architrave, and the ceilings are pannelled with flying cornices into divisions, equal in size with the intercolumniation; in each pannel is a flower. In the construction of the windows considerable ingenuity is displayed in the mode by which the sills and lintels of the windows are worked, to prevent them from interfering with the free admission of light. At the eastern end of the centre division is the chancel, which is a recess of less breadth than the whole design. The uprights of the walls are finished with the entablature continued from the colonnade; and the recess is crowned with an arched ceiling, the soffit of which is pannelled. The altar is raised on a platform, and separated from the Church by a splendid bronze foliated railing. The end wall of the chancel consists of a stylobate composed of a plinth and dado, painted in imitation of Sienna marble, having a dove in an irradiation in the centre, between the decalogue, paternoster, and creed, on four pannels. The cornice resembles veined marble. Above this appears a blank window, round the arch of which is a series of pannels inclosing flowers; the absence of an appropriate painting deteriorates greatly from the beauty of the chancel. At the opposite extremity of the nave is a similar recess, in which is a gallery containing the organ; it is fronted by another gallery, extending to the depth of one intercolumniation. In the front is a clock inscribed "THE GIFT OF JOHN THOMAS MARTIN OF QUY [Oct. HALL, CAMBRIDGE, ESQ. 1829." At each end of the ailes are galleries for the charity children, which are placed over the lobby at one end, and the vestries at the other. The pulpit and reading-desk are alike in design; the former is only distinguished by a superior elevation. The form is octagonal, of satin wood, sustained on a stone pedestal of the same make, with a swelling cap composed of ogee and quarter round mouldings, being exactly the same as are used in pointed architecture! There is no font in the Church. The internal colonnades are formed of stone, except the capitals of the columns; and the whole building shows a higher finish, and more substantial. workmanship than a great majority of the new Churches. The side walls are appropriately coloured to imitate masonry, far preferable to the tints of red or blue, so commonly applied to the interior walls of modern ecclesiastical buildings. This edifice is upon the whole an excellent as well as a very pleasing specimen of the old school of church building; its arrangement is consistent with established rules; it has no fea tures borrowed from either the theatre or the meeting-house, and in the division of nave and ailes, the architect has shown a better taste than many of his brethren who have deemed an assembly room a fit model to copy.ga The foundations were completed, and laid for a long time without a brick of the superstructure being added, but on the 21st Feb. 1827, the first stone was laid, and on the 7th May, 1829, the Church was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester.sa The contract was 21,4121. 19s. 5d. the Church being built by the Commissioners, with a liberal grant on the part of the parishioners, who to their honour came forward with energy and unanimity, thereby affording ing contrast to the factious proceedings which disgraced a neighbouring parish on a like occasion. The building is calculated to hold 2000 persons, of whom 1200 are accommodated in free seats. 1830.] Of the Nobility and Golden Book of Genoa. was in use for many centuries, but was changed in the 16th for "Illustrissimo" and that again for "Eccellenza," which last was by a public decree, in 1579, altered to "Serenissima." The title of Doge, or Duke of the Republic, was only assumed by concession of the Emperor in 1395. On the expiration of his sovereignty, the Doge relinquished his titles, and latterly took that of Excellency, which belonged to all Senators. In 1528 the great Council consisted of 400 nobles, and this number was continued till the destruction of the Republic in 1798. There were sumptuary laws to prevent the nobles ruining themselves, and they were accordingly only allowed to dress in black, with a small mantle of taffety. The Nobility of Genoa had not originally any titles by virtue of such nobility, since it would have been an anomaly for a Republic to have allowed or granted tiles of hereditary rank; and to bear or use any such was under the penalty of losing all share in the Government; but when the Emperor Charles V. went to Genoa, he was so pleased with his reception, that addressing the Genoese Nobles, he conferred upon them the title of Marquisses by the following verbal edict; Vos omnes Marchiones facio;" and it was afterwards settled by treaty between the Genoese and Sovereigns of Europe, that all the Nobles whose names were in the Golden Book, should be entitled to the rank of Marquesses when they quitted the Genoese states. After the Republic had acquired the Sovereignty of the Marquisate of Finale, all the Genoese Nobles used the title of Marquesses of Finale, when they were out of the Genoese territory. The Nobles of Genoa hardly ever used coronets, as they claimed to bear royal crowns, on account of their royal dominion over Cyprus and Corsica; and many Genoese still use them on all occasions, but all the Genoese Nobles use them sometimes, particularly on their seals. When they wore the Marquesses coronets, it was as Marquesses of Finale, or on account of some fief they possessed; but ways used the ro seals, &c. and ha oyal mantles to t Moreri (articl stus Pallavicin 299 first who used a royal crown, which he did in 1637. As it was only by actual inscription in the Libro d'Oro, that each member of the noble families acquired his nobility and right of taking a share in the government, it followed that the destruction of this volume prevented the creation of any new Noble. In this respect the nobility of Genoa differed from all others, as the nobility itself was not hereditary, but the right of inscription, by which the nobility was acquired, was hereditary. Thus after the Libro d'Oro was destroyed, as the Nobles were no longer able to avail themselves of the right of subscribing, their children were not Genoese Nobles, and therefore could not take rank as such. To remedy this anomaly of the existence of a class of persons who had claims to nobility without being Nobles, the late King of Sardinia, not wishing to restore the Libro d'Oro, issued Letters Patent, granting to all members of the inscribed families the title and rank of Marquesses, without distinction of elder or younger sons, thus dispensing with inscription in the Libro d'Oro. The King, moreover, decreed that they should have the "Grandes Entrées" at court, with exemption from degrading punishment. The nobility of Genoa suffered much Although the succession of all the 300 Of the Nobility and Golden Book of Genoa. as the extinction of Patrician families in all countries seems much more rapid than that of Plebeian houses; and in Genoa, no less than 255 noble families had become extinct between the years 1528 and 1634; nor has the ravage of time been discontinued since that period. The D'Oria name is now reduced to few persons, and those not in Genoa; and the Grimaldi name waits only for the decease of the present Marquess Luigi Grimaldi, to become extinct in Genoa. Indeed the rapid extinction of our own noble families in England (the number having been above 100 in the reign of George III.), shows that the majority of them are not destined to have a descent, either numerous or of long duration. These remarks must not be construed to extend to that feudal nobility who derive titles from possession of land; since it is evident there can be no extinction of such dignities, and for want of proper officers to investigate and record such titles, it often happens that families continue the use of them after they have sold the fief conferring the title, and after it has been assumed by the new purchaser;* and the purchase of a fief, even with the clause of redemption, confers the title appendant to such fief. But the old noble families of France, Italy, and Germany, do not consider the owners of titles derived from feuds or land fiefs, or even new creations of personal nobility, as entitled (generally speaking) to a rank or consideration in any degree similar to what is claimed by the old nobility; and the public opinion coincides in this estimate, by treating the one with deference, and the other with indif ference. At Vienna, Rome, and Turin (the seats of the Courts), the old Nobility hold little (if any) intercourse with the new Nobles. It has been already remarked that the four great families of Genoa are the D'Orias, the Grimaldis, the Spinolas, and the Fieschi. It is remarkable that the last of these families should have sought refuge long since in France, and that branches of the Since writing this sentence, the newspapers have mentioned that the Roman nobility, after the fall of Prince Polignac, desired the Book of Fiefs of the Church of Rome to be searched, to see by what right he used the title of Prince, though his right was never questioned during his prosperity. [Oct. first three should have sought an asylum in England. Of the D'Orias,-D'Oria Marquess of Spineto has for some years resided at Cambridge, and has two sons at that University; Andrew Adair D'Oria, of Trinity Hall, and Samuel D'Oria, of St. John's College. As to the Grimaldis-on the death of the present Marquess Luigi Grimaldi of Genoa, the only members of that family will be the descendants of Alexander Grimaldi, who was baptized at St. Luke's, Genoa, June 1659, son of Joseph, inscribed in the Golden Book in 1662, and who settled in London, soon after the destruction of his native city by Louis XIV. in 1685. He was buried at St. Pancras, Middlesex, June 2, 1732, and left two sons and two daughters, from the eldest of which sons, Alexander, born in England (London?), Nov. 2, 1714, and married at the Fleet, March 12, 1745-6, to Miss Mary Barton, there are descendants, of whom a short account appeared in this Magazine for June 1830. And lastly, as to the Spinolas: Paul Baptist Spinola, having been created Knight of the Garter (see Gent. Mag. for April 1829), settled in England, leaving among his heirs Edmond, Dean of Winton, who suffered death for his religion under Queen Elizabeth; and Emanuel Spinola, son of Nicholas, who became so celebrated a Canon of the Church of Chichester, that Benedict XII. created him Archbishop of Monreale in Sicily, at the age of 28 years. It may be added, that the Pallavicini, another of the twenty-eight Alberghi, also settled in England, and intermarried frequently with the Protector Cromwell's family. Sir Horatio Pallavicini was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1587. Sir Henry his son married Jane Cromwell, and died in 1615; another son married Catherine Cromwell. Sir Horatio's daughter was married to Henry Cromwell, Esq. son of Sir Oliver; and Sir Peter Pallavicini was knighted by James II. at Windsor, in 1687. The antiquity of the existing Nobility of the Genoese has no parallel in this country. In the earliest of the public records of the Republic, and which cominence about the year 1100 (a few years after our matchless record + Istoria Spinola, lib. viii. p. 274, Piacenza, 1694; but no such Dean appears in the English lists. |