tuneful chimes were rung for the first time for seventy years, by a company of ringers from Coggeshall. The services of the day were conducted by the vicar, the Rev. C. T. Bromwich, and marked by special sermons, preached in the afternoon by the Rev. T. L. Papillon, vicar of Writtle, and the Master of the Essex Association of Change Ringers, and in the evening by the Rev. T. Myers, rector of Twinstead. Four of the bells were made by Miles Graye, and bear the date 1658. The treble bell was given by "Master Peter Ellison and Judith his wife, 1659." All the inscriptions have been previously given (E.R., vol. iii., p. 116) by Rev. Cecil Deedes and E. J. Wells, who stated in 1894 that the fifth bell, cast by Stephen Tonni and William Land, 1581, was broken and screwed up with staples passed through holes bored in the crown. Messrs. George Day and Son, church bell-hangers of Eye, reported in October, 1900, that about two cwt. of metal was missing from this bell, while the four smaller bells which were of very fine tone and had been rung for 300 years, were so deeply indented by the striking of the clapper as to be in danger of cracking. They have now been quarter turned. The cost of recasting and rehanging the fifth and sixth bells has been borne by Mrs. Oates, of Gestingthorpe Hall. Upon the fifth bell she has had placed the following inscription:

GRATES DEO: REFERENS: PRO: LAURENTIO : E: GOATES: FILIO: DILECTO: SOSPITE : CUM : HONORE : E : BELLI : AFRICANI : PERICULIS : RECEPTO: HANC : ET : SEXTAM: CAMPANAS: DIU FRACTAS: ET: INUTILES: REFUNDENDAS: CURAVIT : C: A: OATES: M.C.M.I.

"In gratitude to God for the her beloved son, Lawrence E. G.

safe return with honour of Oates, from the dangers of

the war in Africa*, C. A. Oates has caused this and the sixth

bell, for a long time cracked and useless, to be recast, 1901.”

The sixth bell has been concordes resonent campana. Buriensi olim inscripta erat

newly inscribed as follows:-Christo Hæc sexta campana refusa ex antiqua Sancta Maria ora pro nobis.'

The work of recasting has been carried out by Messrs. John Warner and Sons, of London.

*Lieut. Oates is now again at the front with his Regiment, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.

ST. PAUL'S, WOODFORD BRIDGE.-A handsome alabaster reredos containing six panels, with figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, has been erected to the memory of the late Rev. C. B. Waller, for forty-five years vicar of the Parish, and first incumbent of this living. At the dedication service performed by the Bishop of St. Albans, who also preached the sermon, prayers were intoned by the Rev. C. E. Waller.

GREAT BADDOW.-READING ROOM.-A commodious new reading room was opened in the village of Great Baddow by Mr. M. Barnard, on 28 October, in the presence of a crowded audience. It has been erected by public subscription to take the place of a small room that has been in use for sixteen years, which in its turn was the substitute for an older room situated in the churchyard. The building is of corrugated iron with plaster walls on expanded metal. It consists of a large room 36 feet by 20 for games, etc., and a smaller room for a library and reading room. It is invested in three trustees, one of whom, Mr. C. R. Finch, is also treasurer. Each member is to be at liberty to introduce a friend. The library is to be newly stocked with books.

Obituary.

By the very sudden death on 27 November, 1901, of the Rev. William Henry Beckett, of Stebbing, one of the most unassuming, but nevertheless distinct, among the few literary men of the county, was removed. A member of the Church of England, born at Greenwich in 1847, Mr. Beckett early lost both his parents, and was brought up by two single aunts at Dorking. His desire to qualify for the Congregational ministry, led him to enter as a student at Cheshunt College, where he passed several diligent years. His literary ability was early recognised by the principal, Dr. Reynolds, who was indebted to him for much assistance in the compilation and correction of his Commentary of St. John, as well as in other of his historical writings. Mr. Beckett's literary labours were by no means abandoned when in 1873 he left college to settle at Stebbingthat finely-situated and picturesque little village boasting three large places of worship, each of which would now suffice to contain the entire and rapidly diminishing population. Mr. Beckett more than upheld the traditions of the Stebbing pastorate, where in the early years of the nineteenth century, an earlier pastor, Joseph Morison, had written books, edited a Congregational

Magazine, contributed to periodicals, and laid up stores of manuscript which were destined to afford the future historian of Essex Nonconformity much valuable information. Mr. Beckett's modest little volume Sketches of Free Church Life in Stebbing (1893) reviewed in these pages (E.R. iii., 127) takes account of ejected churchmen, Quakers, and all other Protestant dissenters. It shows how the Chapel at Stebbing was constantly in need of

THE REV. WILLIAM HENRY BECKETT.

enlargement, and how, assisted by the liberality of Mr. Robert Dixon, and Mr. William Ridley, a chapel was built in 1832 at Felsted, the offshoot soon becoming as important as the parent. Better known than this conscientiously written local history, is The English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (London, 1890), which by its good scholarship and excellent English, had gained for Mr. *See David's Annals of Evangelical Nonconformity in Essex (1863), the Blackburn and

Morrison MSS.

Beckett an earlier reputation. He also contributed a series of articles on Hymns to the Christian World Magazine, prepared several text-books of Church History for the Religious Tract Society, was a sub-editor of Dr. Murray's great English Dictionary, and conducted "The Stebbing Messenger," an excellent little monthly periodical where he never failed to make mention of the Essex Review. His comments in the last issue may be quoted here, and will probably be endorsed by many readers.

"The Essex Review is improving. It is not so severely archæological as it used to be, when contributions were appearing in its pages more suited for the Essex Archæological Society Transactions than for those of a magazine of more general interest in connection with the county."

The writer then goes on to speak in praise of particular articles in our last number. He was a member of the Essex Archæological Society, and his interest in the county resulted in his acquiring for his well-stocked library many Essex books and prints. These will now probably be disposed of.

Mr. Beckett was a useful member of the Stebbing School Board and of the Dunmow Board of Guardians; his quiet gentle manner and apt choice of words were often of great value in smoothing over any difference of opinion that might arise. He was an examiner under the Sunday School Union for the Braintree and Bocking, and Epping Districts, and in hundreds of humble homes his signature upon the pictorial certificates testifies to the proficiency gained by the children in Scriptural knowledge. But it was after all to his congregation that he dedicated the best of his talents, and although his intellectual attainments would have secured him a higher and more conspicuous position, he was content to remain among the people to whom he had endeared himself, and for whose best welfare he steadily laboured.

Whilst returning from the Conference of the Congregational Union at Manchester in September, Mr. Beckett had his first warning of illness; it was repeated in his pulpit not long after his return home. He died peacefully, but with alarming suddenness, of the third attack of angina pectoris while distributing gifts at the annual Dorcas Meeting in the Chapel Schoolroom, Mrs. Beckett, the vicar, the Rev. E. Clapton, his wife, and many other friends being present. Mr. Beckett was 54 years

of

age.

PILGRIM

Y the couriesy of the Editor of The Westminster B give a reduced illustration of Mr. W. Gurney E design for the recent Oyster Feast, given at Colcheste Mayor (Mr. Claude E. Egerton-Green), on Oct. 2. Thirty-seven portraits are introduced in this design, whi imitation of Stothard's well-known picture of "The Car Pilgrims." The Colchester Pilgrims are seen arriving New Town Hall, where the Mayor and Mayoress (who to be representing Claudius and Helena) await them, w Town Clerk (Mr. H. C. Wanklyn), in classic attire. Th Sergeant is saluting the coming guests. In the front ra the Bishop of St. Albans, Mr. Round, M.P., Sir W Pearson, M.P., Mr. Hanbury (Minister of Agriculture), a Lord Mayor. General Gatacre is just behind them, whilst F. C. Rasch, M.P., pulls up a restive steed in front of Sir Cu Quilter. The Portreeve (Alderman Wilson Marriage), w symbolic raven on his shoulder, comes next, followed Claude de Crespigny, Mr. John Corlett, "The Master' Sporting Times (on his renowned, though unfortunate "William the Silent "), and Mr. F. Carruthers Gould. Ne latter are Sir John Robinson, Mr. F. W. Wilson, M.P. John Belcher, A.R.A. (Architect of the New Town Hall R. K. Causton, M.P., Sir William Abdy, and in the rear Ca Sycamore (though the "Shamrock" Captain was unfortun not able to keep his appointment). The four clerical pilg behind "The Master" are Canon Corbett (Rural Dean), C Irvine, the Rev. C. C. Naters, and the Rev. T. Batty. In of them ride the Bishops of Colchester and Southwark, b must be noted that the Bishop of Colchester was at the moment obliged to excuse himself for non-attendance. other figures (in front of the two Bishops) are the Dep Mayor (Mr. Thompson Smith) and Aldermen Sanders, Goe Butcher, Elwes, H. G. Egerton Green, James Wicks, Henry Laver.