In the North Riding of Yorkshire, celebrated for its monasteries, &c., were many chantry chapels, both in the hamlets, and in the rural situations apart from them. Gill's Vallis Eboracensis contains an account of several; among the rest may be noticed one at Newton Grange. This chapel, which is now used for agricultural purposes, is preserved, by request of its noble owner Lord Feversham, in its primitive form. It stands in a meadow field, at some distance from the ruins of the ancient seat of the Cholmeleys, and was used as a burial chantry, but not exclusively so. In 1820 a vault was discovered beneath the floor; and five coffins were removed to Oswald Kirk churchyard, and re-interred there. In order to preserve the chapel from ruin, Lady Cholmeley bequeathed one pound per annum to the Rector of Ampleforth for preaching a sermon annually therein; but the ruinous state of the building at that time caused the removal of the pulpit, and the sermon is preached in the church at Oswald Kirk.
The Valor Ecclesiasticus contains the records of dissolved chantries.
J. E. G.
PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.
The Collodion Process.—I have been much pleased with the directions given by Dr. Diamond in your columns for the production of collodion positives; but they have been hitherto unaccompanied by any reference to the causes of those numerous failures that occur in this delicate process, and which are so disheartening to
beginners. I will just enumerate a few of the appearances with which I have been troubled, and trust that they may elicit from other operators an account of some of their instructive failures. I will premise, as an answer to a former Query respecting the cost and description of lenses, that I obtained mine of Mr. Goddard, now of Jesse Cottage, Witton, Middlesex. They are combination-lenses, two inches and a quarter in diameter (achromatic); the front lens can be used singly for views, producing a picture nearly seven inches square, but when combined covering four inches. For these, with brass mounting, I paid less than 3l.: a single lens, the same diameter, would be about 1l. They work to focus, cover flat, and define well, producing pictures equal to the most expensive.
I have usually preferred Mr. Archer's collodion, as the most certain and cleanest. The silver bath is composed of thirty grains nitrate of silver and two drops of nitric acid to each ounce of distilled water. An even film may be obtained by the following means:—Represent the plate of glass by the following figure:
|
13 24 |
Hold the plate with the left hand at 1, pour a body of collodion in the centre: tilt towards 1 (being careful not to let it touch the thumb), incline towards 2, run into 3, and pour off at 4: then hold the plate vertically (resting the corner 4 on the neck of the collodion bottle) to drain: incline it first to the right and then to the left, repeating this several times until the ridges are removed. By these means an even film may be produced, without a thick ridge, from 2 to 4. The time it may be left before plunging into the silver bath will depend on the temperature (about half a minute). Dip evenly into the bath, lifting up and down to allow of the evaporation of the ether: the film will also saturate more rapidly. When the greasy appearance is gone, it is ready for the camera. Sometimes the film is nearly transparent and bluish, not having sufficient iodide of silver; or it may contain too much iodide, the greater part flaking off in the bath, leaving the collodion with very little, and that patchy; or from being placed in the bath too quick, the lower corner still present a reticulated appearance, which of course renders it useless.