St. Nicholas' Church,

BULWICK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE;

RECTOR,

REV. JOHN THOMAS TRYON.

BULWICK, or as it was sometimes spelt Bolewyke, is in the Hundred of Corby, ten miles from Stamford, on the road to Kettering, and is situated in Weldon Deanery. The Church, of which we present a south view, is a very fine specimen of that peculiarity in architecture for which this county is one of the most celebrated in the kingdom. The Tower and stone Spire are models of their kind; simply elegant in their general appearance, they combine the most just proportions with a tasteful distribution of ornament. Four plain graduated buttresses at the angles support the Tower; its basement, fourteen feet by ten, as high as the body of the Church, is plain; but the lofty story which rises above, is ornamented on each face with two united, and very elegantly proportioned pointed windows, filled with tracery in the upper part, and divided by a transom in the middle; above, is a rich band or fascia filled with quatrefoils, &c., and grotesque heads, forming water-spouts at the angles; the Tower is finished with an embattled parapet. The Spire, of stone, which rises to a considerable height, is octagonal, pierced with two tier of tabernacled openings, on alternate sides, and is terminated by a vane; the Church standing on an eminence above the village, the spire is a most pleasing object for many miles. The structure consists of a body, north and south aisles, and a chancel; its total length is ninety feet six inches; breadth, including the aisles, forty-nine feet six inches. The entrance is by a porch on the south side; the body of the Church is divided from the chancel by a screen, and, on the south side the altar, is the triple sedilia of stone, and a piscina. Bridges, in his history of this county, mentions the following memorials; but, from alterations, during the various repairs the Church has undergone, some of them no longer exist. In the chancel is a stone to the memory of the Rev. John Nobles, who had been Rector of this parish forty-two years, ob. 1692, æt. 69, and, on the east wall, a tablet to the Rev. Charles Nettleton, twenty-six years Rector of the parish, ob. 1719, æt. 57; there is also now remaining another stone in the north wall of the Chancel to the

memory of the Rev. Francis Jackson, who was forty-nine years Rector of this parish, ob. 1770, æt. 75.

Near the screen, in the body of the Church, is a brass, with this inscription:

"Hic jacent Will'mus Etgos et Margareta uror ejus qui quidem Will'm XIX° die mensis Ap'lis A’no D'ni Mill'imo cccc. LXXXII. quor' a'ï'abus propi.—-”

Against the south wall, a mural monument, with the figures of an elderly man and woman kneeling on opposite sides of a prie dieu inscribed below, nobis vita solus Christus est; beneath the figures are represented six children, Elizabetha, Johannes, Gulielmus, Ricardus, Carolus, and Josias. Arms, vert, a fleur de lis, argent. Crest, a goat's head proper. Above the figures this inscription, "Hic jacet Henricus Fowkes Miles uxorque ejus fidissima domina Jana, Roberti Denys Equitis de Brickton, comitatu Devon, filia, adjacet tumulata quæ postquam a prædicto conjuge cum unica gnata undecim filios peperit una cum decimo tertio, Augusti 23, anno domini, 1609, in partu obiit, itidem Henricus Miles letho solvit debitum die anno Domini " On a board against the south-west pillar, "John Brown, confectioner, citizen and salter, of London, eldest son to William Brown, late of Bulwick town, gave, in the year 1662, when corne was deare, to the poor of this town of Bulwick, being the place of his nativity, the somme of three pounds ten shillings."

In this parish was formerly a Guild to the honor of St. Anne; by the commissioners' return, the second year of the reign of Edward VI., it was certified to be possessed of a stock money gathered of men's devotions bestowed on lights and drinking in gange week, amounting to eight pounds, six shillings, and eight pence.

In the Church-yard here was also founded a chantry to the honor of St. Anne and our Lady, by Geoffry Cappe; Henry, Duke of Lancaster, John of Ghent, and Lord William Zouche, for two priests.

The Church is at present undergoing a repair at the expense of the parish, when new pews, and a new pulpit and reading-desk of oak, are to be erected.

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul,

KETTERING, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE;

RECTOR,

THE REV. B. W. FLETCHER.

THE pride and ornament of our Parish Churches are, no doubt, the lofty spires which, it may be observed, are generally found to be more prevalent in the flat than in the hilly counties. Northamptonshire abounds with them, and the example we have here selected may rank with the most elegant. Mr. Dallaway, in his Observations on English Architecture, has justly remarked," that the more beautiful specimens of a species of architecture exclusively our own, (for upon the Continent the spire is rarely seen,) are extremely simple, and owe their effect to their fine proportions, unbroken by ornamental particles." This observation strikes us particularly with regard to the spires of this county, in which the several openings, surmounted by tabernacled canopies, break the beautiful outline of the principal object, and although they may give a richness of effect, deprive the spire of the chaste simplicity of its original design.

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At the west end of this Church, which is dedicated both to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is the embattled Tower, represented in our plate, three stories in height, graceful in its ornaments, and just in its proportions, having at each angle a small hexangular turret; from hence rises the spire, enriched with crockets, and terminating in a vane; on opposite sides of the spire are the small windows or openings above mentioned. Besides the body of the Church, which is really handsome, and is very generally admired, there is a North and South Aisle, separated from it by remarkably fine pillars, and a Chancel. In some of the windows of the Aisles are still remaining fragments of the painted glass, with which they were formerly filled, consisting chiefly of mutilated portraits of Ecclesiastics, and Saints of the Church.

During the late repairs, it became necessary to clear the walls of the whitewash, when a curious painting, apparently of the period of Henry VII., was discovered on the north wall of the Church. It represents a pilgrim with a greyhound, &c. This interesting relique is preserved to public view, principally through the praiseworthy exertions of a respectable antiquary residing in the town.