_Open Seats or Pews in Churches._--Mr. Barr (_Anglican Church
Architecture_: Oxford, Parker, 1846) gives measurements, as by experience,
found most convenient for many parts of this description of church fitting;
but he gives not the length of each sitting, or, in other words, the space,
measured along the length of the bench, that should be allowed for each
person. Neither does he give the height nor the breadth of the flat board
to rest the elbows on when kneeling, or to place the books upon, which he
proposes to substitute for the common sloping bookboard. Neither does he
appear to have paid any attention to the disposal of the hats with which
every male worshipper must, I fear, continue to be encumbered, and which I
like not to see impaled on the poppy-heads, nor plied on the font, nor to
feel against my knees when I sit down, nor against my feet when I kneel. If
any of your correspondents could name a church in the open seats of which
these things have been attended to, and well done, I should be much
disposed to go and study it as a model for imitation; and if satisfied with
it, I should want little persuasion for commencing the destruction of my
old manor pew, and the fixing of open seats on its site.