There are not many specimens of ornamental plaster ceilings to be found in churches, but at Axbridge, in Somerset, there is such an instance in the nave, where the ceiling is in the form of a pointed barrel vault, with plaster ribs springing from a cornice adorned with strap-work. The ribs form a simple pattern consisting mostly of squares of different sizes, and there are large Jacobean pendants and bosses at intervals; but out of deference to ecclesiastical tradition, the square panels are ornamented with cusps, which give to the whole design a rather feeble flavour of Gothic; of its kind, however, it is an interesting ceiling, and is one among many indications of the attention bestowed upon churches during the early years of the Reformation. Another indication is the frequent presence of texts upon the walls. They are generally surrounded with an ornamental strap-work border, such as roused the admiration of the narrator of an entertainment at Antwerp in honour of the Duke of Anjou in 1581, when he commended the "compartments of Phrygian work, very artificially handled." These texts seem to have had their origin from a singular circumstance. Queen Elizabeth attended service at St. Paul's on New Year's Day, 1561, and the Dean, thinking to present her with an acceptable New Year's gift, caused a number of beautiful pictures representing the stories of the saints and martyrs to be handsomely bound in a Book of Common Prayer, which he laid upon the Queen's cushion. On opening it, however, she frowned and blushed, and calling the verger to her, caused him to bring the old prayer-book which she had been accustomed to use. At the close of the service she gave the Dean a very uncomfortable quarter of an hour, for having thus gone counter to her proclamation against "images, pictures, and Romish reliques." He excused himself, according to the account, like a lectured schoolboy, and promised that nothing of the kind should occur again. In consequence of this incident there was a general searching of all the churches in and about London, and the clergy and churchwardens "washed out of the walls all paintings that seemed to be Romish and idolatrous," and wrote up "in lieu thereof, suitable texts taken out of the Holy Scriptures." CHAPTER XI. SIXTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE-PLANNING AS ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN THORPE'S DRAWINGS.