THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. NO. 329.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1828. [PRICE 2d. NEW CHURCH, BUILDING AT STAINES. [Illustration: NEW CHURCH, BUILDING AT STAINES.] Who has journeyed on the Exeter road without noticing the town of STAINES, with its host of antiquarian associations--as the _Stana_ (Saxon) or London Stone,[1] its ancient bridge, for the repair of which three oaks out of Windsor Forest were granted by the crown in the year 1262, besides _pontage_ or temporary tolls previous to the year 1600.--Dr. Stukeley's conjectures respecting the _Via Trinobantica_ passing here--and the _old_ parish church, the situation of which appeared to denote the site of the more ancient town of Staines. It is here too, that the tourist begins to imagine himself _in rure_, after he has been whirled through the brick and mortar avenues of _Kensington_, and _Hammersmith_, and the unsightly lane-street of _Brentford_,[2] with all its cockney reminiscences of equestrianism and election squabbles; _Hounslow_ and its by-gone days of highway notoriety and powder-mill and posting celebrity, and _Bedfont_, with its yew trees tortured into peacock shapes, and the date 1704. Then, who does not recollect and venerate the convivial celebrity of this route, its luxurious inns, and their "thrones of human felicity;" along which Quin, Dr. Johnson or Shenstone could scarcely have accomplished a stage a day! In our days, hundreds of London tourists breakfast at the _Bush_, although, after sixteen miles' ride, their appetites do not require this stimulant any more than do the glories of the _Bush_ cellars after dinner. But we must pass on to the church. The _old_ building was in the Gothic or pointed style, with lancet windows, &c., but much disfigured by churchwardens' repairs, although the great Inigo Jones is said to have built its square, brick tower. At length, a considerable portion of this ancient structure fell in one Sunday morning, during the service, but, as the newspapers say, "fortunately no lives were lost." The inhabitants then resolved to rebuild nearly the whole, and the design of Mr. J.B. Watson was adopted. The foundation stone was laid March 31, in the present year, and the building is to be completed by Christmas next. The church is intended to contain 1,100 persons. The length of the interior, 65 feet; width, 47 feet; height to ceiling, 25 feet. The chancel is to be rebuilt at the expense of the impropriators. The lower part of Inigo Jones's tower is to remain, and the whole is to be raised 23 feet. These repairs, with the enclosure of the churchyard, will not exceed 4,000_l_.; and the progress of the undertaking is highly creditable to the taste and execution of all the parties concerned.