ated the buildings
which his genius devised for us? Eighteen of his beautiful buildings
have already been destroyed, and fourteen of these since the passing
of the Union of City Benefices Act in 1860 have succumbed. With the
utmost difficulty vehement attacks on others have been warded off, and
no one can tell how long they will remain. Here is a very sad and
deplorable instance of the vanishing of English architectural
treasures. While we deplore the destructive tendencies of our
ancestors we have need to be ashamed of our own.

We will glance at some of these deserted shrines on the sites where
formerly they stood. The Rev. Gilbert Twenlow Royds, Rector of
Haughton and Rural Dean of Stafford, records three of these in his
neighbourhood, and shall describe them in his own words:--

"On the main road to Stafford, in a field at the top of Billington
Hill, a little to the left of the road, there once stood a chapel.
The field is still known as Chapel Hill; but not a vestige of the
building survives; no doubt the foundations were grubbed up for
ploughing purposes. In a State paper, describing 'The State of the
Church in Staffs, in 1586,' we find the following entry:
'Billington Chappell; reader, a husbandman; pension 16 groats; no
preacher.' This is under the heading of Bradeley, in which parish
it stood. I have made a wide search for information as to the
dates of the building and destruction of this chapel. Only one
solitary note has come to my knowledge. In Mazzinghi's _History of
Castle Church_ he writes: 'Mention is made of Thomas Salt the son
of Richard Salt and C(lem)ance his wife as Christened at
Billington Chapel in 1600.' Local tradition says that within the
memory of the last generation stones were carted from this site to
build the churchyard wall of Bradley Church. I have noticed
several re-used stones; but perhaps if that wall were to be more
closely examined or pulled down, some further history might
disclose itself. Knowing that some of the stones were said to be
in a garden on the opposite side of the road, I asked permission
to investigate. This was most kindly granted, and I was told that
there was a stone 'with some writing on it' in a wall. No doubt we
had the fragment of a gravestone! and such it proved to be. With
some difficulty we got the stone out of the wall; and, being an
expert in palaeography, I was able to decipher the inscription. It
ran