better quality—­had contained fewer flaws and been more closely jointed—­it would have merited one of our best architectural bows.  The chapel and school, and the land upon which they are erected, cost 7,000 pounds, and about 1,000 pounds of that sum remains to be paid.  This is not bad.  Considering the brevity of their existence and the severe times they have had to pass through, the Lancaster-road Congregationalists must have worked hard and put a very vigorous Christian screw into operation to reduce their debt so rapidly.

The inside of the chapel is plain, very neat, and quite genteel.  We have seen no Congregational place of worship in this part equal to it in ease and elegance of design.  It is amphi-theatrical, is galleried three quarters round, and derives the bulk of its beauty—­ not from ornament, not from rich artistic hues, nor rare mouldings, nor exquisite carvings, but from its quiet harmony of arrangement, its simple gracefulness of form, its close adherence in outline and detail to the laws of symmetry and proportion.  The circular style prevails most in it, and how to make everything round or half-round seems to have been the supreme job of the designer.  The gallery above, the seats below, the platform, the pulpit on which it stands, the chairs behind, the orchestra and its canopy, the window-heads, the surmountings of the entrance screen, the gas pendants, and scores of other things, have all a strong fondness for circularity; and the same predilection is manifested outside; the large lamps there being quite round and fixed upon circular columns.  The pews in the chapel are very strong, have receding backs, and make sitting in them rather a pleasing, easy, contented affair.  The highest price for a single seat is 3s. 6d. per quarter; the lowest 1s.  There are a few free sittings in the place, and although they may seem a long way back—­being at the rear of the gallery—­their position is not to be despised.  They are not so far distant as to render hearing difficult; and they obviate that unseemly publicity which is given to poor people in some places of worship.  How to give the poorest and hungriest folk a very good seat in a very prominent place—­how to herd them together and piously pen them up in some particular place where everybody can see them—­appears to be an object in many religious edifices.  But that is a piece of benevolent shabbiness which must come to grief some day.  In the meantime, and until the period arrives when honest poverty will be considered no crime, and when a seat next to a poor man will be thought nothing vulgar, or contaminating, whilst worshipping before Him who cares for souls not lucre, hearts not wealth, let the poor be put in some place where they can hear fairly without being unduly exhibited.  The chapel we are noticing has a spacious appearance within, and has none of that depressing dulness which makes some people very sad long before they have been ministerially operated upon.  From side windows there comes a good light; and from the roof, which has a central transparency, additional clearness is obtained.  The light from the ceiling would be improved if the glass it were kept a little cleaner.