Boston.]

THE NEW OLD SOUTH CHURCH.

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queen (William and Mary) gave the communion-plate and other presents, including a huge tablet on which were painted the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' Creed. In the Great Fire of 1872 this building was destroyed, and five years later the new church was finished, at a cost of £160,000, and consecrated, free of debt, when a procession of three bishops and 104 surpliced clergy entered the main portal. It is 160 feet long, 120 feet wide at the transepts, and 63 feet high in the nave; and has an elevated chancel nearly 60 feet square, adorned with brass lecterns and a costly marble font. The walls are of reddish granite ashlar, trimmed with vari-coloured sandstone masonry; and double cloisters connect the main building with a dainty little chapel. The architecture is the old French Romanesque, as seen in the pyramidal-towered churches of Auvergne and Aquitaine, whose grandeur and repose are here exemplified on a distant strand. The main external feature is an enormous square tower, flanked by round turrets, and covered with a pyramidal roof of red tiles, visible from far down the harbour. The construction of such a mass of masonry upon land reclaimed from the sea was a task of great difficulty, and the first step consisted in driving 2,000 piles in the space to be occupied by the tower, and binding them together by a layer of concrete, two feet deep. On this floor arose four pyramids of huge blocks of stone, 35 feet square at their bases, and on their truncated tops sustaining the granite piers which bear the tower. The interior is richly furnished and decorated, the chief features being the many memorial windows of stained glass, imported from Europe at great cost. The frescoes of Scriptural scenes and characters, which adorn the dome and the nave, are fine examples of encaustic painting, mainly executed by John La Farge, a master in this art. Five of the rectors of Trinity have been made bishops of the American Church; and its present rector (whose voice has been heard in Westminster Abbey, and St. George's Chapel at Windsor) is the most popular preacher in the Episcopal denomination. During the decline of Unitarianism, which has for some years been going on in Boston, many of the more religiously inclined of the failing sect have become communicants of Trinity Church.

The New Old South Church, erected by the ancient Independent society, stands on the made lands of the Back Bay, near Art Square, and was erected at a cost of nearly £100,000. The architecture is the North Italian Gothic, decorated with alternating bands of light and dark stone, surrounded by a broad course of sandstone, delicately carved to represent vines and fruit, among which animals and birds are seen, and illuminated by panels of Venetian mosaic on gold ground. The great bell-tower is an imposing structure of rubble and parti-coloured masonry, 248 feet high, with Gothic windows and spires; and a short cloister runs thence to the south transept, sheltering memorial tablets. The vestibule, paved with red, white, and green marbles, is separated from the nave by a high carved screen of Caen stone, supported on columns of Lisbon marble, and crowned by gables and finials. At the intersection of the arms of the cross, the roof opens up into a lantern formed by a painted dome of copper, gilded in bands. The great stained window in the chancel represents the announcement of Christ's birth by the angels of Bethlehem; that in the south transept shows forth the five parables; that in the north transept, the five miracles; and the windows of the nave illustrate the prophets and apostles. These brilliant windows were made in England. The organ is famous for its melody, and has 55 stops and 3,240 pipes.

The South End extends from the Common to the foot of the Roxbury Highlands-a broad and level region, densely populated, and diversified by broad avenues and public

1, New Old South Church; 2, Central Church; 3, Trinity Church.

suites, on the system so generally in vogue in Paris. This region was formerly covered with salt water, except along a narrow isthmus where batteries and a fortified gate were established.

The Masonic Temple is a very lofty and imposing granite building, fronting on the Common, built in a semi-feudal Gothic style, and containing rich Corinthian, Egyptian, and Gothic halls, banqueting-rooms, and other mysteries. Farther south on the same

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Boston.]

ODD-FELLOWS' HALL.

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street is Odd-Fellows' Hall, a great Gothic building with three façades, in white granite, and enshrining a variety of occult symbolry, large and handsome halls, and lodge-rooms. The passion of Americans for singular secret societies is manifested in Boston by hundreds of lodges, tents, encampments, and groves (so-called) of Templars, Harugari, Foresters, Druids, Alfredians, Knights of Pythias, Red Men, Elks, Knights of Honor, and other strange orders, whose homespun citizen-officers bear titles magniloquent enough to overawe even a Neapolitan noble or a German princeling.

Near the Masonic Temple there are two institutions whose philanthropies wear no medieval masks. The Young Men's Christian Union owns a new and beautiful Gothic building of Ohio sandstone, centrally located, and adorned with a high clock-tower.

Within are halls, parlours, a library of 6,000 volumes, a museum, a gymnasium, a coffeeroom, chess-rooms, and other comforts. The Young Men's Christian Association owns and occupies a large four-storey building close by, and its 3,000 members have the use of rooms similar in purpose to those of the Union. It is the oldest society of the kind in the United States; and during the Civil War, when 500 of its members were in the army, the army relief - committee raised £66,647 to be applied

for the comfort of the troops in the field. Both these buildings are for the provision of attractive resorts and Christian influences for young men coming to the city as strangers; for whom they also prepare a great variety of free lectures and concerts, dramatic entertainments, talks on science and art, evening classes in practical studies, suburban excursions, social receptions, and other delightful pastimes. There are employment committees, to secure work for deserving applicants; and boarding-house committees, to find good homes for strangers. The Association is composed of Evangelical men alone; the Union includes also many Unitarians, Universalists, and others outside the ancient pale.

The station of the Providence Railway, the route to Providence, in Rhode Island