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diff --git a/11403-h/11403-h.htm b/11403-h/11403-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac4ceb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/11403-h/11403-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4051 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bell's Cathedrals: The Churches of Coventry, by Frederic W. Woodhouse. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */ + div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */ + ul {list-style-type: none} /* no bullets on lists */ + ul.nest {margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -1.5em;} /* spacing for nested list */ + li {margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em;} /* spacing for list */ + + .cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ + .sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} /* small caps, normal size */ + .fakesc {font-size: 80%;} /* fake small caps, all caps small font */ + .noin {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */ + .block {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; font-size: 95%;} /* block indent */ + .block2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 95%;} /* block indent */ + .hang {text-indent: -2em;} /* hanging indents */ + .right {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* Table of contents anchor */ + .totoi {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* to Table of Illustrations link */ + .img {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */ + .imgl {float: left; padding: 1em; text-align: center;} /* floating image to the left of the paragraph */ + .imgr {float: right; padding: 1em; text-align: center;} /* floating image to the right of the paragraph */ + .tdr {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} /* right align cell */ + .tdc {text-align: center;} /* center align cell */ + .tdl {text-align: left;} /* left align cell */ + .tdlsc {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdrsc {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%; padding-right: .5em;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdcsc {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tr {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */ + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: 75%; + color: gray; + background-color: inherit; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers */ + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: text-top; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.pn { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; right: 2%; + font-size: 75%; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0em; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + color: silver; background-color: inherit; + font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers in poems */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11403 ***</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="85%" alt="COVENTRY, THE THREE SPIRES." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">COVENTRY, THE THREE SPIRES.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h1>THE CHURCHES OF<br /> +<big>COVENTRY</big></h1> + +<h3>A SHORT HISTORY OF THE<br /> +CITY & ITS MEDIEVAL<br /> +REMAINS</h3> + +<h4 style="margin-bottom: -1px;">BY</h4> +<h3 style="margin-top: -1px;">FREDERIC W. WOODHOUSE</h3> + +<h5>WITH XL ILLUSTRATIONS</h5> + +<div class="img"><a name="arms" id="arms"></a> +<a href="images/arms.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/arms.jpg" width="12%" alt="ARMS OF COVENTRY." /></a><br /> +<h5 style="margin-top: .2em;">ARMS OF COVENTRY</h5> +</div> + +<h5>LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1909</h5> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br /> +TOOK COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span><br /> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The principal authorities for the history of Coventry and its churches +have been Dugdale's "Antiquities of Warwickshire" and the "Illustrated +Papers and the History and Antiquities of the City of Coventry," by +Thomas Sharp, edited by W.G. Fretton (1871). Besides these the many +papers by Mr. Fretton in the Transactions of the Birmingham and +Midland Institute and other Societies, and the "History and +Antiquities of Coventry" by Benjamin Poole (1870) have been the main +sources of historical information. The Author is, however, responsible +for the architectural opinions and descriptions, which are mainly the +outcome of a lifelong acquaintance with the city and its buildings, +fortified by several weeks of study and investigation recently +undertaken.</p> + +<p>He desires to acknowledge his deep obligations to the Vicars of the +several churches for leave to examine, measure and photograph the +buildings in their charge; to Mr. J. Oldrid Scott for the loan of +drawings of St. Michael's; to Mr. A. Brown, Librarian of the Coventry +Public Library for advice and help in making use of the store of +topographical material under his care; to Mr. Owen, Verger of St. +Michael's and Mr. Chapman, Verger of Holy Trinity, for help in various +directions, and to Mr. Wilfred Sims for his energy and care in taking +most of the photographs required for illustration.</p> + +<p>The other illustrations are reproduced from drawings made by the +author.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">viii</a></span><br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="65%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td width="20%"> </td> + <td width="65%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="15%"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#MONASTERY_AND_CITY">Monastery and City</a></td> + <td class="tdr">3</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#THE_RUINS_OF_THE_PRIORY">The Ruins of the Priory and Cathedral Church</a></td> + <td class="tdr">16</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#ST_MICHAELS_CHURCH">St. Michael's Church:</a></td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Chapter I.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">History of the Church</td> + <td class="tdr">21</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapter II.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Exterior</td> + <td class="tdr">29</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter III.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Interior</td> + <td class="tdr">41</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#HOLY_TRINITY_CHURCH">Holy Trinity Church:</a></td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_HT">Chapter I.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">History of the Church</td> + <td class="tdr">61</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_HT">Chapter II.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Exterior</td> + <td class="tdr">65</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_HT">Chapter III.</a></td> + <td class="tdlsc">The Interior</td> + <td class="tdr">69</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#ST_JOHN_BAPTISTS_CHURCH">St. John Baptist's Church</a></td> + <td class="tdr">79</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#THE_GREY_FRIARS">The Grey Friars' Convent (Christ Church)</a></td> + <td class="tdr">91</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#THE_WHITE_FRIARS">The White Friars</a></td> + <td class="tdr">94</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#ST_MARY_HALL">St. Mary Hall</a></td> + <td class="tdr">96</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc" colspan="2"><a href="#THE_CARTHUSIAN_MONASTERY">The Carthusian Monastery</a></td> + <td class="tdr">99</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">x</a></span><br /> +<a name="toi" id="toi"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">xi</a></span><br /> + +<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="65%" summary="List of Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td width="80%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="20%"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#frontis">Coventry, the Three Spires</a></td> + <td class="tdr"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#arms">Arms of the Town</a></td> + <td class="tdr"><i>Title-page</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep002">View from the Top of Bishop Street</a></td> + <td class="tdr">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep007">Cook Street Gate</a></td> + <td class="tdr">7</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep015">Seal of the Priory</a></td> + <td class="tdr">15</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep016">West End of the Priory Church</a></td> + <td class="tdr">16</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep017">Remains of the North-West Tower in the Eighteenth Century</a></td> + <td class="tdr">17</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep020">St. Michael's from the North</a></td> + <td class="tdr">20</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep028">St. Michael's from the North-West</a></td> + <td class="tdr">28</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep031">Interior of the Tower from Below</a></td> + <td class="tdr">31</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep033">The West Porch</a></td> + <td class="tdr">33</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep034">South Porch from St. Mary Hall</a></td> + <td class="tdr">34</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep035">South-West Doorway</a></td> + <td class="tdr">35</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep040">Interior of St. Michael's from the West</a></td> + <td class="tdr">40</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep042">Tower Arch</a></td> + <td class="tdr">42</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep043">Bay of Nave, North Side</a></td> + <td class="tdr">43</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep045">Interior from the South Door</a></td> + <td class="tdr">45</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep046">The Choir from St. Lawrence's Chapel</a></td> + <td class="tdr">46</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep048a">Poppy Head, Lady Chapel</a></td> + <td class="tdr">48</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep048b">Miserere, Lady Chapel</a></td> + <td class="tdr">48</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep050">Chest in North Aisle</a></td> + <td class="tdr">50</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep051">The Nethermyl Tomb</a></td> + <td class="tdr">51</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep054">The Swillington Tomb</a></td> + <td class="tdr">54</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep056">Alms-Box</a></td> + <td class="tdr">56</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep060">Holy Trinity from the North (about 1850)</a></td> + <td class="tdr">60</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep066">Plan of Trinity Church</a></td> + <td class="tdr">66<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">xii</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep068">Interior of Holy Trinity, from the West</a></td> + <td class="tdr">68</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep071">North Side of Nave—Eastern Bays</a></td> + <td class="tdr">71</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep073">Pulpit</a></td> + <td class="tdr">73</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep074">Archway between the North Porch and St. Thomas's Chapel</a></td> + <td class="tdr">74</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep077">Alms-Box</a></td> + <td class="tdr">77</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep080">Church of St. John Baptist</a></td> + <td class="tdr">80</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep085">Plan</a></td> + <td class="tdr">85</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep087">Interior</a></td> + <td class="tdr">87</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep088">Clearstory Windows</a></td> + <td class="tdr">88</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep092">The Spire of Christ Church</a></td> + <td class="tdr">92</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep093">Grey Friars' Church (Plan of Crossing)</a></td> + <td class="tdr">93</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep096">St. Mary Hall</a></td> + <td class="tdr">96</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep098">Plan</a></td> + <td class="tdr">98</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep103">Plan of St. Michael's Church</a></td> + <td class="tdr"><i>At End</i></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span><br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep002" id="imagep002"></a> +<a href="images/imagep002.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep002.jpg" width="50%" alt="VIEW FROM THE TOP OF BISHOP STREET." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">VIEW FROM THE TOP OF BISHOP STREET.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="MONASTERY_AND_CITY" id="MONASTERY_AND_CITY"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span><br /> + +<h1>CHURCHES OF COVENTRY</h1> + +<br /> + +<h3>MONASTERY AND CITY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The opening words of Sir William Dugdale's account of Coventry assert +that it is a city "remarkable for antiquity, charters, rights and +privileges, and favours shown by monarchs." Though this handbook is +primarily concerned with a feature of the city he does not here +mention—its magnificent buildings—the history of these is bound up +with that of the city. The connection of its great parish churches +with the everyday life of the people, though commonly on a narrower +stage, is more intimate than is that of a cathedral or an abbey +church, but it is to be remembered that without its Monastery Coventry +might never have been more than a village or small market town.</p> + +<p>We cannot expect the records of a parish church to be as full and +complete as those of a cathedral, always in touch through its bishops +with the political life of the country and enjoying the services of +numerous officials; or as those of a monastery, with its leisured +chroniclers ever patiently recording the annals of their house, the +doings of its abbots, the dealings of their house with mother church +and the outside world, and all its internal life and affairs. In the +case of Coventry, the unusual fulness of its city archives, the +accounts and records of its guilds and companies, and the close +connection of these with the church supplies us with a larger body of +information than is often at the disposal of the historian of a parish +church. As therefore, in narrating the story of a cathedral some +account of the Diocese and its Bishops has been given, so, before +describing the churches of Coventry, we shall give in outline the +history of the city which for 700 years gave its name to a bishop and +of the great monastery whose church was for 400 years his seat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span>Though Dugdale says that it is remarkable for antiquity, Coventry as +a city has no early history comparable with that of such places as +York, Canterbury, Exeter, or Colchester, while its modern history is +mainly a record of fluctuating trade and the rise and decline of new +industries. But through all its Mediæval period, from the eleventh +century down to the Reformation, with an expiring flicker of energy in +the seventeenth, there is no lack of life and colour, and its story +touches every side of the national life, political, religious, and +domestic. The only evidence of extreme antiquity produced by Dugdale +is the suffix of its name, for "<i>tre</i> is British, and signifieth the +same that <i>villa</i> in Latin doth;" while the first part may be derived +from the convent or from a supposed ancient name, Cune, for the +Sherborne brook.</p> + +<p>The first date we have is 1016, when Canute invaded Mercia, burning +and laying waste its towns and settlements, including a house of nuns +at Coventry founded by the Virgin St. Osburg in 670, and ruled over by +her.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>But there is no sure starting-point until the foundation of the +monastery by Earl Leofric and the Countess Godiva, the church being +dedicated by Edsi, Archbishop of Canterbury, in honour of God, the +Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. Osburg, and All Saints on 4th October, +1043. Leofwin, who was first abbot with twenty-four monks under his +rule, ten years after became Bishop of Lichfield. The original +endowment by Leofric, consisted of a half of Coventry<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> with fifteen +lordships in Warwickshire and nine in other counties, making it (says +Roger de Hoveden) the wealthiest monastery of the period. Besides this +the pious Godiva gave all the gold and silver which she had to make +crosses, images, and other adornments for the church and its services. +The well-known legend of her ride through Coventry first appears in +the pages of Matthew of Westminster in the early fourteenth century. +The Charter of Exemption from Tolls is not in existence, and the story +of Peeping Tom is the embroidery of the prurient age (1678), in which +the pageant was instituted. In a window of Trinity Church figures of +Leofric <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span>and Godiva were set up about the time of Richard II, the Earl +holding in his right hand a Charter with these words written thereon:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I Luriche for the Love of thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doe make Coventre Toll-free.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Abbot Leofwin was succeeded in 1053 by Leofric, nephew of the great +earl; and he by a second Leofwin, who died in 1095. The first Norman +bishop of Lichfield had, in compliance with the decision of a Synod +(1075) in London fixing bishops' seats in large towns, removed his to +St. John's, Chester. But his successor, Robert de Lymesey—whose greed +appears to have been notable in a greedy age—having the king's +permission to farm the monastic revenues until the appointment of a +new abbot, held it for seven years, and then, in 1102, removed his +stool to Coventry. Five of his successors were bishops of Coventry +only, then the style changed to Coventry and Lichfield, and so +remained till 1661, when (in consequence of the disloyalty of Coventry +and the sufferings of Lichfield in the royal cause) the order was +reversed!</p> + +<p>In 1836 the archdeaconry of Coventry was annexed to Worcester and its +name disappeared from the title, and now it is probable that Coventry +will soon again give her name to a See without dividing the honour. +For the joint episcopal history the reader must be referred to the +handbook in this series on Lichfield Cathedral. In this place will +only be given that of the Monastery as such, and specially in +connection with its "appropriated" parish churches and the City in +which it stood. That history is not essentially different from that of +other monasteries. Though its connection with the See and the rival +claims and antagonisms of the respective Chapters produced a plentiful +crop of serious quarrels, its relations with the townsfolk were free +from such violent episodes as occurred at Bury St. Edmunds or St. +Albans. The Chapter of Lichfield consisted of secular priests (Lymesey +and his next successor were married men), while the Monastery, though +freed by pope and king from any episcopal or justiciary power and with +the right of electing its own abbot, was, like all monastic bodies, +always jealous of the encroachments of bishops, and regarded secular +priests as inferior in every respect. The opinion of the laity who saw +both sides may be gathered from Chaucer's picture of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span>a "poore Persoun +of a toun." He knew well enough how the revenue, which should have +gone to the parish, its parson and its poor, went to fill the coffers +of rich abbeys, to build enormous churches and furnish them +sumptuously, to provide retinues of lazy knights for the train of +abbot or bishop, and to prosecute lawsuits in the papal courts.</p> + +<p>But when bishop and abbot were one and the same, the monks still +claimed the right of election, and so for generations the history of +the diocese is a tale of strife and bickering, and how it was that +pope, king or archbishop did not perceive that it was a case of +hopeless incompatibility of temper, or, perceiving it, did not +dissolve the union or get it dissolved is difficult to see. Probably +the injury done to religion weighed but lightly against vested +interests and the power of the purse. The Monastery was, however, as +Dugdale says, "the chief occasion of all the succeeding wealth and +honour that accrued to Coventry"; for though the original Nunnery may +have been planted in an existing settlement, or have attracted one +about it, the greater wealth of the Abbey, its right to hold markets, +and all its own varied requirements would quickly increase and bring +prosperity to such a township, as it did at Bury St. Edmunds, +Burton-on-Trent and many another.</p> + +<p>In the thirteenth century the priory was in financial straits, through +being fined by Henry III for disobedience. Later, however, he granted +further privileges to the monks, among them that of embodying the +merchants in a Gild. In 1340 Edward III granted this privilege to the +City. From an early period the manufacture of cloth and caps and +bonnets was the principal trade of Coventry, and though Leland says, +"the town rose by making of cloth and caps, which now decaying, the +glory of the City also decayeth," it was only destroyed by the French +wars of the seventeenth century. But in 1377, when only eighteen towns +in the kingdom had more than 3,000 inhabitants, and York, the second +city, had only 11,000, Coventry was fourth with 7,000. Just one +hundred years later 3,000 died here of the plague, one of many +visitations of that terrible scourge. At the Suppression it had risen +to 15,000, and soon after fell to 3,000, through loss of trade for +"want of such concourse of people that numerously resorted thither +before that fatal Dissolution."</p> + +<p>But if the town grew apace so did the Monastery. Thus, when in 1244 +Earl Hugh died childless his sisters divided his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span>estates and Coventry +fell to Cecily, wife of Roger de Montalt. Six years later the +Monastery lent him a large sum to take him to the Holy Land, and +received from him the lordship of Coventry (excepting the Manor House +and Park of Cheylesmore) and the advowson of St. Michael's and its +dependent chapels, thus becoming the landlords of nearly the whole of +Coventry.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep007" id="imagep007"></a> +<a href="images/imagep007.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep007.jpg" width="53%" alt="COOK STREET GATE." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">COOK STREET GATE.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Civic powers grew with the growth of trade. Before 1218 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span>a fair of +eight days had been granted to the Priory, and later another of six +days, to be held in the earl's half of the town about the Feast of +Holy Trinity. In 1285 a patent from the king is addressed to the +burgesses and true men to levy tolls for paving the town; one in 1328 +for tolls for inclosing the city with walls and gates, while in 1344 +the city was given a corporation, with mayor, bailiffs, a common seal, +and a prison. As the municipal importance and the dignity of the city +increased, the desire for their visible signs strengthened, and so, in +1355, work was begun on the walls, Newgate (on the London Road) being +the first gate to be built. Such undertakings proceeded slowly, and +nine years later the royal permission was obtained to levy a tax for +their construction, "the lands and goods of all ecclesiastical persons +excepted."</p> + +<p>Twice afterwards we hear of licence being granted by Richard II to dig +stone in Cheylesmore Park, first for Grey Friars Gate, and later for +Spon Gate, "near his Chapel of Babelake." The walls so built were of +imposing extent and dimensions, being three yards in breadth, two and +a quarter miles in circumference, and having thirty-two towers and +twelve gates.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Nehemiah Wharton, a Parliamentary officer in 1642, +reports of the city that it is:</p> + +<div class="block"><p class="noin">Environed with a wall co-equal, if not exceedinge, that of +London, for breadth and height; and with gates and battlements, +magnificent churches and stately streets and abundant fountains +of water; altogether a place very sweetly situate and where there +is no stint of venison.</p></div> + +<p>To return to the monastic history. We have seen how, in the +mid-thirteenth century the Monastery had become the landlord of the +city; shortly before this it had been so impoverished with ceaseless +quarrels with the King and the Lichfield Chapter, involving costly +appeals to Rome, that the Prior was reduced to asking the hospitality +of the monks of Derley for some of the brethren. A period of +prosperity followed and many benefactions flowed in, including the +gift of various churches by the king. It was after twenty-six years of +quarrelling that the Pope, in 1224, had appointed to the bishopric +Walter de Stavenby, an able and learned man. During his episcopacy the +friars <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span>made their appearance in England, and by him the Franciscans +were introduced at Lichfield, while at Coventry Ranulph, Earl of +Chester, gave them land in Cheylesmore on which to build their oratory +and house.</p> + +<p>They were not generally welcomed by the monks. A Benedictine laments +their first appearance thus "Oh shame! oh worse than shame! oh +barbarous pestilence! the Minor Brethren are come into England!" and +at Bury they were obliged to build outside a mile radius from the +Abbey. The parish priests also soon found out that they were undersold +in the exercise of their spiritual offices and although no doubt many +badly needed awakening they were not, on that account, the more likely +to welcome the intruders.</p> + +<p>Another innovation, affecting the fortunes of the parish priest, had +its beginning under the rule of Bishop Stavenby though its greatest +development occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This +was the foundation of Chantries designed primarily for the maintenance +of a priest or priests to say mass daily or otherwise for the soul's +health of the founder, his family and forbears. The earliest we hear +of are one at Lincoln, and one at Hatherton in Coventry Archdeaconry +while the Bishop himself endowed one in Lichfield Cathedral. Many were +perpetual endowments (£5 per annum being the average stipend), others +were temporary, according to the means of those who paid for the +masses—for a term of years or for a fixed number of masses. Although +chantry priests were often required to give regular help in the church +services or taught such scholars as came to them or served outlying +chapelries, the system permitted a great number to live on occasional +engagements and was doubtless productive of abuses. Chaucer tells us +that his poor parson was not such an one as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">... left his sheep encumbered in the mire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ran unto London, unto Saint Poul's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To seekë him a chantery for souls.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The number of chantries in the different cathedrals varied very +greatly, Lichfield had eighty-seven, St. Paul's thirty-seven, York +only three. Monks' churches had few or none while in town churches +they were numerous, London having one hundred and eighty, York +forty-two, Coventry at least fifteen besides the twelve gild priests +of the chapel of Babelake. Most were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>founded in connection with an +existing altar, some had a special altar, at Winchester, Tewkesbury +and elsewhere they were enclosed in screens between the pillars of the +nave, or a special chapel was added to the church.</p> + +<p>It was in the thirteenth century also (1267) that the monastery +obtained the grant of a Merchants' Gild; with all the privileges +thereto belonging, the earliest of those which contributed so much to +the renown of Coventry. These were Benefit Societies, insuring help to +the "Brethren and sistren" in old age, sickness or poverty, securing +to them the services of the church after death and in all cases +established on a strictly religious basis and placed under the +protection of a Saint, or of the Holy Trinity. The regulation and +protection of trade interests, generally aiming at monopoly and the +exclusion of outsiders, were later developments. But without doubt +they were public-spirited bodies according to their lights, +maintaining schools (as at Stratford-on-Avon) hospitals and +almshouses, and giving freely on all occasions of public importance. +By pageants too, they contributed to the happiness and amusement of +the people as well as by the presentation of Mysteries and Moralities, +to their instruction and edification. But in the eyes of the +Reformers, or of grasping courtiers, all this went for nothing when +weighed against the heinous offence of supporting chaplains to pray +for deceased members and so (6 Edward VI) they were suppressed along +with the chantries, and their property confiscated, "the very meanest +and most inexcusable of the plunderings which threw discredit on the +Reformation."</p> + +<p>Here, the city bought back everything which had belonged to the +Trinity and Corpus Christi Gilds, with various almshouses and the +possessions of the majority of the Chantries; while previously at the +Dissolution it had bought the abbey-orchard, and mill, and the house +and church of the Grey Friars.</p> + +<p>In 1340 Edward III granted Licence to the Coventry men to form a +Merchants' Gild with leave "to make chantries, bestow alms, do other +works of piety and constitute ordinances touching the same." This was +St. Mary's Gild. Two years later that of St. John Baptist was formed +and a year later that of St. Katherine, the three being united into +the Trinity Gild before 1359. Of the chapel (now St. John's church) +begun in 1344 by the St. John's Gild and the "fair and stately +structure for their feasts and meetings called St Mary Hall" built in +1394 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>by the united Gilds more will be said later (p. 81 and p. 97). +The end of the fourteenth century and the fifteenth brought to +Coventry a full share in the events and movements of the time. In 1396 +the duel between Hereford and Norfolk was to have taken place on +Gosford Green (adjoining the city) and Richard II made the fatal +mistake of banishing both combatants. At the Priory in 1404 Henry IV +held his Parliament known, from the fact that no lawyers were summoned +to it, as the "Parliamentum Indoctorum." Setting itself in opposition +to ecclesiastics, it proposed to supply the King's needs by taxing +church-property. As in the matter of the city walls, the church +contrived to avoid bearing its share of the public burdens and the +chronicler ends thus: "Much ado there was; but to conclude, the worthy +Archbishop (viz. Tho. Arundell) standing stoutly for the good of the +Church, preserved it at that time from the storm impending." One +branch of his argument is noteworthy, that as the confiscation of the +alien priories had not enriched the King by half a mark (courtiers +having extorted or begged them out of his hands), so it would be were +he to confiscate the temporalities of the monasteries. Henry VIII had +reason to acknowledge the fulfilment of the prophecy.</p> + +<p>Soon after this, in 1423, Coventry showed its sympathy for Lollardry +when John Grace an anchorite friar came out of his cell and preached +for five days in the "lyttell parke." He was opposed by the prior of +St. Mary's and by a Grey Friar who however were attacked and nearly +killed by the mob.</p> + +<p>The royal visits which earned for Coventry the title which it still +bears as its motto 'Camera principis' were frequent in this century. +In 1436 we hear of Henry VI being there, and in 1450 he was the guest +of the monastery and after hearing mass at St. Michael's Church +presented to it for an altar-hanging the robe of gold tissue he was +wearing. The record in the Corporation Leet book is interesting enough +to quote:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>The King, then abydeng stille in the seide Priory, upon Mich'as +even sent the clerke of his closet to the Churche of Sent Michel +to make redy ther hys clossette, seying that the Kynge on Mich'as +day wolde go on p'cession and also her ther hygh masse. The Meyre +and his counsell, remembreng him in this mater, specially avysed +hem to pray the Byshoppe of Wynchester to say hygh masse afore +the Kynge. The Byshoppe so to do agreed withe alle hys herte; +and, agayne the Kynges comeng to Sent Michel Churche, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span>Meyre +and his Peres, cladde in skarlet gowns, wenton unto the Kynges +Chambar durre, ther abydeng the Kynges comeng. The Meyre then and +his peres, doeng to the Kyng due obeysaunse ... toke his mase and +bere it afore the Kynge all his said bredurn goeng afore the +Meyre til he com to Sent Michels and brought the Kynge to his +closette. Then the seyde Byshoppe, in his pontificals arayde, +with all the prestes and clerkes of the seyde Churche and of +Bablake, withe copes apareld, wenton in p'cession abowte the +churchyarde; the Kynge devowtely, with many odur lordes, followed +the seyd p'cession bare-hedded, cladde in a gowne of gold tissu, +furred with a furre of marturn sabull; the Meyre bereng the mase +afore the Kynge as he didde afore, tille he com agayne to his +closette. Att the whyche masse when the Kyng had offered and his +lordes also, he sende the lorde Bemond, his chamburlen, to the +Meyre, seying to him, "hit is the Kynges wille that ye and your +bredurn com and offer;" and so they didde; and when masse was +don, the Meyre and his peres brought on the Kynge to his chambur +in lyke wyse as they fet hym, save only that the Meyre with his +mase went afore the Kynge till he com withe in his chambur, his +seyd bredurn abydeng atte the chambur durre till the Meyre cam +ageyne. And at evensong tyme the same day, the Kyng, ... sende +the seyde gowne and furre that he were when he went in p'cession, +and gaf hit frely to God and to Sent Michell, insomuch that non +of the that broughte the gowne wolde take no reward in no wyse.</p></div> + +<p>In 1451 he made the city with the villages and hamlets within its +liberties into a county "distinct and altogether separate from the +county of Warwick for ever," and in 1453 the King and Queen again +visited the Priory. Perhaps out of gratitude for all this royal +favour, Coventry adhered to the Lancastrian cause and in 1459 was +chosen as the meeting place for the "Parliamentum Diabolicum," so +called from the number of attainders passed against the Yorkists. The +year 1467 however saw Edward IV and his Queen keeping their Christmas +here, while less than two years later her father and brother were +beheaded on Gosford Green (Aug. 1469).</p> + +<p>After the king's landing at Holderness in 1471 the king-maker, +declining a contest, occupied the town for the Lancastrians, and +Edward passing on to London soon after turned and defeated the earl at +Barnet. After Tewkesbury Edward paid the city another visit, and in +return for its disloyalty seized its liberties and franchises, and +only restored them for a fine of 500 marks. Royal visits still +continued. Richard III came in 1483 to see the plays at the Feast of +Corpus Christi; in 1485 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>Henry VII stayed at the mayor's house after +his victory at Bosworth Field; and in 1487 kept St. George's Day at +the Monastery, when the Prior at the service cursed, by "bell, book, +and candle," all who should question the king's right to the throne. +The importance of the Gilds is shown by the king and queen being made +a brother and sister of the Trinity Gild; and the part that pageantry +played in the lives of all men is seen in the many occasions on which +kings and princes came hither to be entertained, not only with the +plays "acted by the Grey Friars" but those in which the "hard-handed +men" of, for instance, the Gild of the Sheremen and Tailors, "toil'd +their unbreathed memories" in setting forth such subjects as the Birth +of Christ and the Murder of the Innocents. But although Henry VIII +himself was received in 1511 with pageantry and stayed at the Priory, +royal favours and monastic hospitality availed neither men nor +buildings when the Dissolution came. On 15th January, 1539, Thomas +Camswell, the last Prior of St. Mary's, surrendered. "The Prior," +reported Dr. London, the king's commissioner, "is a sad, honest priest +as his neighbours do report him, and is a Bachelor of Divinity. He +gave his house unto the king's grace willingly and so in like manner +did all his brethren." The Doctor asks for good pensions for the +dispossessed, not on the plea of justice but so that "others +perceiving that these men be liberally handled will with better will +not only surrender their houses, but also leave the same in the better +state to the King's use."</p> + +<p>The yearly revenue had been certified in the valuation at £731 19<i>s.</i> +5<i>d.</i> Deducting a Fee-Ferme rent to the Crown, reserved by Roger de +Montalt, and other annual payments, the clear remainder was £499 7<i>s.</i> +4<i>d.</i> Bishop Rowland Lee, writing to "my singular good Lord Cromwell," +implies that he had a promise from him to spare the church. "My good +Lord," he says, "help me and the City both in this and that the church +may stand, whereby I may keep my name, and the City have commodity and +ease to their desire, which shall follow if by your goodness it might +be brought to a collegiate church, as Lichfield, and so that fair City +shall have a perpetual comfort of the same, as knoweth the Holy +Trinity, who preserve your Lordship in honour to your heart's +comfort."</p> + +<p>But his entreaties, and those of the mayor and corporation, were all +in vain, the church and monastic buildings were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>dismantled and +destroyed piecemeal, and like so many other magnificent structures +became a mere quarry for mean buildings and the mending of roads.</p> + +<p>The site having been granted by Henry VIII to two gentlemen named +Combes and Stansfield, passed soon into the hands of John Hales, the +founder of the Free School, and in Elizabeth's reign was purchased by +the Corporation.</p> + +<p>The changes in religious opinion of the successive sovereigns were +felt here by many poor victims. Seven persons were burnt in 1519 for +having in their possession the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, +and the Creed in English, and for refusing to obey the Pope or his +agents, opinions and acts that would have been counted meritorious +twenty years later. In 1555 Queen Mary burnt three Protestants in the +old quarry in Little Park—Laurence Saunders, a well-known preacher, +Robert Glover, M.A., and Cornelius Bongey.</p> + +<p>Ten years after this Queen Elizabeth's visit was the occasion of much +pageantry and performing of plays by the Tanners', Drapers', Smiths', +and Weavers' Companies, and in 1575 the men of Coventry gave their +play of "Hock Tuesday" before her at Kenilworth Castle. In 1566 Queen +Mary of Scots was in ward here, in the mayoress' parlour, and in 1569 +at the Bull Inn.</p> + +<p>Coming down to the opening of the Civil War we find that a few days +before the raising of his standard at Nottingham Charles summoned the +city to admit him with three hundred cavaliers, and received for +answer that it was quite ready to receive his Majesty with no more +than two hundred. Whereupon he retired in displeasure, and reappeared +some days later with the threat to lay the city in ruins if it should +persist in its disloyalty. The townsfolk being in no mind to receive a +garrison, the King planted cannon against Newgate and broke down the +gates but was met with a fierce musquetry fire from the walls, +followed up by a vigorous sally, in which the citizens did much +execution and took two cannon.</p> + +<p>To prevent the like happening again, the walls were in 1662 breached +in many places and made incapable of defence. Just one hundred years +later New-gate was taken down, and others followed from time to time, +until now there are left only the remains of two of the lesser +ones—Cook Street Gate, a crumbling shell (p. 7), and the adjacent +Swanswell or Priory Gate, blocked up and used as a dwelling.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>In 1771 was finally destroyed the famous Cross which had been built, +1541-3, by Sir William Hollis, once Lord Mayor of London, who came of +a Coventry family. It was described by Dugdale as "one of the chief +things wherein this City most glories, which for workmanship and +beauty is inferior to none in England." A few relics of it exist in +St. Mary Hall, a statue of Henry VI, and, in the oriel, two smaller +figures. So too does the very interesting contract for its building, +which shows how much was left to the craftsman's pride in his work and +how little he was trammelled by conditions, save that the work was to +be "finished in all points, as well in imagery work, pictures, and +finials, according to the due form and proportion of the Cross at +Abingdon."</p> + +<p>Another building, which was destroyed in 1820, was the Pilgrims' Rest, +a fine timbered house of three storeys, "supposed," as the inscription +upon it records, "to have been the hostel or inn for the maintenance +and entertainment of the palmers and other visitors to the Priory." +Some pieces of carved work were patched together in the windows of the +inn built on its site and there remain.</p> + +<p>The modern history of Coventry, consisting of the ordinary events and +vicissitudes of civic life and the changes and fluctuations in its +trades, apart from that of its parish churches which is elsewhere +given, does not come within the scope of this handbook.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep015" id="imagep015"></a> +<a href="images/imagep015.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep015.jpg" width="25%" alt="SEAL OF THE PRIORY." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SEAL OF THE PRIORY.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> St. Osburg's name is not found in the Calendar. As at the +Dissolution the Cathedral possessed relics of St. Osborne, including +his head in copper and gilt, these saints may be identical.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Earl Street and Bishop Street are still principal streets +in either half of the town.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The walls of London were about three and a quarter miles +long (including the river front), with ten or eleven gates; those of +York three miles, of Chester hardly two.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="THE_RUINS_OF_THE_PRIORY" id="THE_RUINS_OF_THE_PRIORY"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span><br /> + + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep016" id="imagep016"></a> +<a href="images/imagep016.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep016.jpg" width="85%" alt="INTERIOR OF THE WEST END OF THE PRIORY CHURCH." /></a> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INTERIOR OF THE WEST END OF THE PRIORY CHURCH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h3>THE RUINS OF THE PRIORY AND CATHEDRAL CHURCH<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Priory buildings and grounds covered a large area to the North of +the two parish churches on the gentle slope descending to the little +river Sherbourne, Priory Row forming its southern boundary.</p> + +<p>The church occupied the South-West portion of this site, extending +about 400 feet from the excavated west end to a point a little beyond +the narrow lane called Hill Top. The excavation shows that the church +stood on a sloping site, the floor level being some ten feet lower +than that of Trinity Church. It was cruciform, with two western towers +and a central one, and is believed to have had three spires similar to +those of Lichfield but probably earlier in point of date. On the +substructure of the North-West Tower now stands the house of the +<i>mistress</i> of the Girls' Blue Coat School. The interior of the West +end to a height of 5 to 8 feet, with the responds of the nave arcades +and of the tower arches, is visible and in good condition. The +beginning of the turret stair in the South-West tower is exposed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span>but +the basement of the house unfortunately occupies the lower part of the +northern one. The exterior of this is however easily accessible from +an enclosure known as the Wood Yard, the much decayed spreading plinth +and a few feet of walling above <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>it not having been destroyed. Above +this, grievous damage has been perpetrated by the casing and complete +obliteration of the mouldings and arcading which remained. The towers +were placed outside the line of the aisles as at Wells, the total +width of the West front, 145 feet, being nearly the same in both +cases. There are still indications of the position of the great west +door, but the height of the inner plinth shows that there was always a +descent of several steps into the church. At the south transept where +was "the Minster durra that openeth to the Trinite Churchyarde," the +descent must have been considerable. The remains show that the nave +dated from the first half of the thirteenth century, while fragments +of wall near the site of the transept with indications of lancet +window openings are probably a little earlier than the west end.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep017" id="imagep017"></a> +<a href="images/imagep017.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep017.jpg" width="48%" alt="REMAINS OF THE N.W. TOWER (IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY)." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">REMAINS OF THE N.W. TOWER (IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY).<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Whether the church of Leofric and Godiva, dedicated in 1043, had +survived wholly or in part until this time cannot be known, but, +judging from the history of most other great monastic churches and +from the known wealth of the monastery, it may almost be taken for +granted that the Norman bishops and priors rebuilt much if not all. +Some relics of Norman work have been found but the covering of the +site with roads, graves and houses precludes the systematic +exploration and survey which alone could solve this question and make +clear the outlines of the plan of the whole establishment.</p> + +<p>The entrance to some wine-cellars in Priory Row gives access to the +old pavement level of part of the choir and transept. From the fact +that a brick vault forms the roof the cellars have often been looked +upon as the crypt of the church but this is erroneous; the vault is a +later insertion and if any crypt exists it lies below this level. To +the east of the cathedral was the Bishop's Palace, the gardens of it +extending over the detached burial ground of St. Michael's to the east +of Priory Street. The grandeur of this assemblage of buildings +grouping, with the spires of the churches behind and rising so +magnificently above the houses of the city can best be realized by +going to the top of Bishop Street whence may be obtained the finest +view of the two spires that remain (<a href="#imagep002">see p. 2</a>).</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="ST_MICHAELS_CHURCH" id="ST_MICHAELS_CHURCH"></a><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep020" id="imagep020"></a> +<a href="images/imagep020.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep020.jpg" width="85%" alt="ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE NORTH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE NORTH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span><br /> + +<h2>ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH</h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>HISTORY OF THE CHURCH</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The early history of St. Michael's Church is very obscure. The fact +that Domesday mentions no parish churches proves nothing. There can be +little doubt that one at least existed. Though we have an earlier +record of St. Michael's it is commonly held that Trinity is the elder +foundation.</p> + +<p>Of St. Michael's the first notice we have is when Ranulph, Earl of +Chester, in the days of Stephen, about 1150, granted the "Chapel" of +St. Michael to Laurence, Prior, and the Convent of St. Mary, "being +satisfied by the testimony of divers persons, as well Clergy as Laity, +that it was their right." Fourteen dependent chapels in the +neighbourhood or within a few miles went with it and the number of +these dependencies is held to show that it was "a primitive Saxon +parish and of considerable importance." In 1192 Ranulph Blundeville, +grandson of the former Ranulph, gave tithe of his lands and rents in +Coventry and bound his officers under pain of a grievous curse to make +due payment.</p> + +<p>In the early thirteenth century a dispute arose between Bishop +Geoffrey de Muschamp and the Priory as to the right of presentation, +the Bishop claiming on the ground of being Abbot as well as Bishop. +This was settled in 1241 by the Priory renouncing its claim in +consideration of receiving a share of the income but in 1248 an +exchange was effected, the Priory giving the advowsons of Ryton and +Bubbenhall<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> (not far from Coventry) for St. Michael and its chapels +and engaging to provide proper secular priests with competent support. +In 1260 the church was appropriated to the monastery together with +Holy Trinity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>and its chapels and although in the arrangement of 1248 +twenty-four marks (£16) had been assigned to the vicarage, in 1291 we +find the priory receiving fifty marks and paying the vicar eight and a +half.</p> + +<p>Since 1537 the patronage has with that of Trinity, been exercised by +the Crown.</p> + +<p>The internal evidence of the date of the building is given in the +description of the fabric. Of external evidence in the shape of +records or deeds we have very little. Tradition says that there was +once a brass tablet in the church bearing the following lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">William and Adam built the Tower,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ann and Mary built the Spire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">William and Adam built the Church,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ann and Mary built the Choir.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now we know that William and Adam Botoner, who were each Mayor thrice +between 1358 and 1385, built the tower, spending upon it £100 a year +for twenty-two years, but what foundation there is for the other +statements cannot now be determined. The tower was in building from +1373 to 1394, and the choir is contemporary with it, the nave was in +building from 1432 to 1450, and the spire was begun in 1430. As +William was Mayor in 1358 it can hardly have been less than one +hundred years after his birth that both nave and spire were begun. It +is however, likely that other members of the family (if not he, by +bequest) contributed largely to the general building fund.</p> + +<p>Much of the history of a parish church is concerned with its internal +economy but even the records of this are not quite trivial for they +enlighten us on many points wherein we are rightly curious. We are, +for instance, constantly reminded, as Dr. Gasquet points out in +"Mediaeval Parish Life," that "religious life permeated society in the +Middle Ages, particularly in the fifteenth century, through the minor +confraternities" or gilds.</p> + +<p>Thus the Drapers' Gild made itself responsible not only for the upkeep +of the Lady Chapel but also for the lights always burning on the +Rood-loft, every Master paying four pence for each "prentys" and every +"Jurneman" four pence. The cost of lights formed a serious item in +church expenditure, needing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>the rent of houses and lands for their +maintenance. Guy de Tyllbrooke, vicar in the late thirteenth century, +gave all his lands and buildings on the south side of the church to +maintain a light before the high altar, day and night, for ever, "and +all persons who shall convert this gift to any other use directly or +indirectly shall incur the malediction of Almighty God, the Blessed +Virgin, St. Michael and All Saints."</p> + +<p>Royal visits to the church have been noticed in the history of the +priory and city, especially that in 1450 which was apparently intended +to mark the completion of the church. Reference has also been made to +the plays and pageants with which such visitors were entertained. The +site for the performance of the cycle of Corpus Christi plays was the +churchyard on the north of St. Michael's. Queen Margaret, whose visits +were so frequent that the city acquired the fanciful title of "the +Queen's Bower" came over from Kenilworth on the Eve of the Feast in +1456, "at which time she would not be met, but privily to see the play +there on the morrow and she saw then all the pageants played save +Doomsday, which might not be played for lack of day and she was lodged +at Richard Wood's the Grocer."</p> + +<p>There is evident reference to the dedication of the church in the +pageant of the "Nine Orders of Angels" shown before Henry VIII and +Queen Catherine in 1510 (p. 47).</p> + +<p>The history of the church since the Reformation has been not unlike +that of a vast number of others. Fanatic destruction, followed by +tasteless and incongruous innovations, and these again by +"restorations" sometimes as destructive, sometimes as tasteless, and +nearly always feeble; such is their common history. In 1569 even the +Register books were destroyed because they contained marks of popery, +while from 1576 onward a want of repair is plainly suggested by +frequent items of expenditure for catching the stares (starlings) in +the church, at one time for a net, at another for "a bowe and bolts +and lyme." In 1611 James I addressed a strongly worded letter to the +Mayor and Corporation and the Vicar requiring them to reform the +practice of receiving the Holy Sacrament standing or sitting instead +of kneeling, "As we our Self in our person do carefully perform it." +Whereupon the Bishop wrote that he "felt persuaded that there were not +above seven of any note who did not conform themselves" to the church +ordinances; while the Vicar said he "did not know of <i>half seven</i> of +any note but do the like."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span>A Puritanical writer in 1635 thus mentions the changed position of +the Communion Table, which had formerly stood away from the east wall: +"The Communion Table was altered which cost a great deal of money; and +that which is worst of all, three stepps made to go to the Comm'n +Table altar fashion—God grant it continueth not long." Even the font, +given by John Cross, mayor, in 1394, had to give place in 1645 to +something less offensive to Puritan feeling, and in the same year the +brass eagle, given in 1359 by William Botoner, was "sold by order of +vestry for 5<i>d.</i> the lb., 8<i>l.</i> 13<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>" The rehanging of the bells +in 1674 led to the destruction of the beautiful groined vault within +the tower, and the year 1764 saw the completion of a series of +galleries all round the church. Throughout all this destruction and +desecration the citizens happily retained their pride in the great +steeple, and by constant attention and rebuildings contrived to +preserve it when negligence might have caused its ruin. The scrupulous +care given to such work is well shown by items in an account for +repairs, of date 1580:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="Account of Repairs"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="80%">Payed to George Aster for poyntynge ye steple</td> + <td class="tdr" width="20%" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">£ 7 2 8</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payed for 3 quarter and a halfe of lyme</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">13 4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payed for egges</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">8 4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payed for glovers pecis, woode & tallowe, abowte + the lyme</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">5 6</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payed for a load sand</td> + <td class="tdr" style="white-space: nowrap;">7½</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payed for 4 stryke of mawlte and gryndyng</td> + <td class="tdr" style="white-space: nowrap;">7 8½</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payd for 6 gallons of worte more</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">2 0</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payd for gatherynge of slates & oyster shelles</td> + <td class="tdr" style="white-space: nowrap;">3¼</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payd to Cookson for the cradle and 3 other pullesses</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">5 8</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>The glovers' snippings were for making size, which, with the eggs, +malt and wort were used in place of water for tempering the mortar. +Lightning seriously damaged the spire in 1655 and 1694, in the former +case causing much injury to the nave roof by falling stone. In 1793 +Wyatt, the architect responsible for so much destruction of Mediæval +work in various cathedrals, advised that a timber framework to carry +the bells should be built up within the tower from the ground and that +the tower arch should be bricked up. All this has been changed since +1885, the bells now hang (but are not pealed) in the octagon, the +chimes and clock are in the chamber below, the arch is opened and the +groining restored.</p> + +<p>All galleries had been taken down in 1849 and the present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span>seats, +giving room for near 2,500 persons, introduced, while the incongruous +wall-arcading in the apse was soon after added. At the same period +many important sepulchral monuments, probably stigmatized as +"excrescences," were taken down and removed to other parts of the +church.</p> + +<p>Five years after this the exterior of the aisle walls was recased with +the same friable sandstone. In 1860 the reredos was erected, the +subjects of the panels being the sacrifices of Abel, Noah, +Melchisedec, and Abraham, and the Last Supper. To the latest +restoration, which included entire recasing of tower and spire, +clearstories and chancel, the new sacristy at the south east, and +other work, Mr. George Woodcock, a Coventry citizen, gave £10,500, and +the sum of £39,500 was raised and expended, the re-opening taking +place on 22nd April, 1890.</p> + +<p>In 1850 a dispute of considerable public interest with regard to the +levying of the church rate between the vicar and the wardens and +overseers was decided in the Court of Queen's Bench. An Act of +Parliament of 1780 had empowered the wardens to levy a rate in lieu of +tithe for the stipend of the vicar, to produce not less than £280 nor +more than £300. The wardens having ever since allowed their powers to +remain in abeyance, the vicar claimed the right to make the rate as +his predecessors had done. Lord Campbell and three other judges were +however unanimous in giving judgement against him.</p> + +<p>The latest event in the history of the church is probably the most +important. It has now been constituted a pro-cathedral for the +proposed Diocese of Warwickshire, and a Capitular body has been +formed. The statutes were promulgated by the Bishop of Worcester on +the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, 1908. The Chapter now +consists of twenty-four members:—the Bishop, the Vicar of St. +Michael's (Rev. Prof. J.H.B. Masterman), the Archdeacon of Coventry, +the Chancellor of the Diocese, ten priest canons and ten lay canons, +with provision for the admission of a future second archdeacon. There +are resemblances here to the constitution of the Southwark Chapter, +consisting of four clerical and four lay canons, but at Coventry some +of the lay canons are elective and for fixed periods. Doubtless the +immense increase of population in the county, especially in this part +(Birmingham is already a separate diocese), demands further oversight +and much strenuous church work, and doubtless, too, the same religious +enthusiasm which brought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>into existence the beautiful structures of +Coventry's golden age will be able to meet the demand and cope with +the new problems and aspirations of the present day. But the +archaeologist trembles to think what may be done should the attempt be +made to transform a building planned on the simplest parish-church +lines into the semblance of a cathedral. It cannot be successful, and +the original character of the church is but too likely to be +sacrificed in the attempt.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> These have ever since remained prebends of Lichfield.</p></div> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span><br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep028" id="imagep028"></a><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a> +<a href="images/imagep028.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep028.jpg" width="52%" alt="ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE EXTERIOR OF THE CHURCH</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The church is built on a site descending towards the east, so that the +chancel floor is more than twelve feet above the present street level. +The narrow street on the south, Bayley Lane, gives us a succession of +picturesque partial views but no general one, while on the north the +rather formal avenue dividing the churchyard obscures much of the +structure. On the whole, the most comprehensive prospect is to be had +from the north-east, at the lower end of Priory Row. But no general +point of view is needed, external or internal, to enable us to +understand the plan or arrangement, which is almost as simple in form +as a village church.</p> + +<p>The typical English church plan consists of a nave with aisles, a long +unaisled chancel with square east end, porches or doors on north and +south, and a western tower, and this, save for its apsidal east end, +but amplified by accretions in the form of chapels belonging to the +many Gilds of the city, is the plan of St. Michael's.</p> + +<p>In no part, however, do we find the chapels so set as to produce a +pseudo-cruciform plan.</p> + +<p>Before the latest restoration the walls were entirely of the local red +sandstone, very similar in quality and appearance to that of which +Chester Cathedral was built, and the extent of its decay, especially +on the tower, was as grievous. Hardly a piece of external moulding or +carving preserved its original profile or form, and some of the tower +buttresses had lost so large a proportion of their substance not far +above ground that they appeared to hang to the walls rather than +support them. All save the aisles, which were refaced in the sixties, +have now been cased with Runcorn Stone nearly the same in colour and +much harder in texture.</p> + +<p>The special glory of the church is its <b>steeple</b>. No doubt +intentionally its height of 300 feet is practically equal to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>length of the church. Only one other parish church, Louth in +Lincolnshire, has a steeple as high as this, and those of only two +English cathedrals, Salisbury and Norwich, exceed it.</p> + +<p>There is, however, an essential difference to be noted in the position +of these spires, those of the cathedrals at the centre, the crowning +point in the composition, those of the parish churches at the west +end, springing sheer from the ground. While the former have a more +intimate relation to the building the latter have an almost +independent existence in keeping with the theory which regards them +more as symbols of municipal pride and power than as expressions of +spiritual aspiration.</p> + +<p>But however mixed the motives for their erection, religious forms and +symbolism governed the design. Thus we have here three principal +divisions—tower, octagon, spire, and nine stories or stages in all, +six belonging to the tower and octagon, and three to the spire. Then +in its dimensions we find that the total height is 300 feet,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> the +plan (exclusive of buttresses) is 30 feet square, while in its +proportions the number 30 is interwoven, so to speak, with a simple +arithmetical progression of heights in each story. Thus it is 30 feet +from the ground to the spring of the lowest five-light windows, 30 +feet again to the spring of the single-light windows, 27 feet more to +the spring of the grouped windows above, and another 30 to the spring +of the belfry windows. Thence it is 15 feet to the cornice below the +battlements. The remainder is divided into a series of 20 feet +heights, two twenties from cornice to top of parapet of octagon, 20 in +each of the two decorated stages of the spire, 20 to centre of the +upper spire-lights, three twenties to the finial. If we look at the +stories as marked by the string-courses below the windows we find 50 +feet given to the door and great window and then 20, 30, and 40 feet +stages, reaching to the top of the parapet. The reader will have +noticed the interposition of a 27 feet space among the thirties, and +the reason for this is worth explaining.</p> + +<p>It is now known that the tower could not be built in line with the +centre of the proposed new nave because of the existence of a +filled-in pit or quarry at its north-west angle. But the builder was +rash enough to build the north-west buttresses beyond the edge of the +old excavation and resting on the looser material. The consequences +might have been foreseen. By the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>time the building had reached the +grouped windows the settlement or sinking was considerable and an +effort was made to remedy it, first by reducing the height of this +(the weakest story), by one yard and next by starting the courses +level once more. Five hundred years later and we find that whereas the +sinking is 7½ inches near the ground level it is only 4 inches at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span>the +windows, plainly showing that it had sunk 3½ inches before the remedy +was applied and four inches since. The writer is informed by the +architect (Mr. J. Oldrid Scott) that all this angle was so full of +rents and cracks that (coupled with the decay of the stone, especially +in the buttresses) it was surprising that the whole had not fallen. A +curious disregard of what we look on as a natural sentiment is to be +noted in this connection, for the builders used a quantity of fine +sepulchral slabs from the churchyard as filling for the foundations.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep031" id="imagep031"></a> +<a href="images/imagep031.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep031.jpg" width="57%" alt="INTERIOR OF THE TOWER FROM BELOW." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INTERIOR OF THE TOWER FROM BELOW.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>In magnificence of design the tower exceeds that of any other parish +church in England, the uppermost story being the richest in detail. +The variety of treatment and gradual increase in elaboration of the +upper stories is admirable, the larger expanses of wall in the lower +giving the necessary effect of stability to the whole. The <b>west door</b> +is very insignificant, and might perhaps, with advantage to the +composition, have been left out. It has the only four-centred arch in +the whole. On each side of the great windows are niches with +(restored) figures of saints and benefactors, twelve in all, including +Earl Leofric and his famous wife, the Botoners and several kings. +Sculpture appears again on the belfry stage. On the west and north +sides the niches are in three tiers of three on either hand of the +tall louvred windows, but on the south and east sides one tier is +absorbed by the stair turret. All these have been renewed, but the +remains of some of those which were taken down can now be seen in the +crypt, and the one which is best preserved, by a happy coincidence the +patron saint, is now placed within the church.</p> + +<p>The octagon, which connects so finely the tower and spire, has four +two-light windows on the cardinal sides, the other sides having blank +panelling of similar design. Its parapet has square pinnacles, +intended to carry seated figures. From each of the great tower +pinnacles two ogee-shaped flying buttresses spring to the near angles +of the octagon. A recent writer criticizes these as too flimsy in +effect, but the fact that they are in pairs obviates this defect from +most points of view. The walls of the octagon are 2½ feet thick at the +base, but, as the inner slope of the spire begins at the level of the +window transoms, the thickness at its parapet is more than 3 feet. The +greater weight in this part corrects any tendency in the spire to push +outwards the upright walls of the octagon; so well has it done this +that no artificial helps, such as iron stays or bands, have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>been +found necessary to add to its stability. Though so slender in +appearance, its stonework is thicker than that of many later spires, +for whereas Kettering is 14 inches thick for the first 10 feet and +only 6 inches above, while Louth decreases from 10 to 5, St. Michael's +diminishes from 17 to 11. The inclination from the upright of its +sides is very slight, less than that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>of most others; Chichester +having an angle of 7½°, Kettering 6°, Louth 5°, St. Michael's 4½°.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep033" id="imagep033"></a> +<a href="images/imagep033.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep033.jpg" width="57%" alt="THE WEST PORCH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE WEST PORCH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The decoration of the spire is admirably designed in relation to the +slenderness of the tower, and its own height above the eye. The first +stage is panelled so as not to present too great a contrast to the +octagon, and the next is also panelled and has narrow canopied slits +on alternate sides, with four thin buttress-like projections on each +face. These provide the slight entasis to the outline which is found +in so many spires, as it is in classic columns, and is designed to +correct the appearance of hollowness which would occur in so long a +straight line. The upper two-thirds of the spire has triple angle +rolls, and, just halfway in the total height, are eight canopied +panels of which four are pierced. The beauty of the steeple and its +pre-eminence among those belonging to parish churches (even if such a +reservation be necessary) sufficiently justifies the length of this +description.</p> + +<a name="imagep034" id="imagep034"></a> +<div class="imgl" style="width: 40%;"> +<a href="images/imagep034.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep034.jpg" width="100%" alt="SOUTH PORCH, FROM ST. MARY HALL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SOUTH PORCH, FROM ST. MARY HALL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The oldest existing part of the church is the large <b>south porch</b>, +almost facing the entrance to St. Mary Hall. The date of this is not +later than 1300. Each jamb of the outside arch has four external and +two internal attached shafts; the pointed arch is deeply moulded, +while the arch rising from the fourth shaft is of round-headed trefoil +form. The ceiling is vaulted with diagonal and intermediate ribs, and +has the appearance of having been added rather later.</p> + +<p>A doorway on its east side led to the Cappers' Chapel and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span>there is a +chamber over the porch for centuries appropriated to the meetings of +the Cappers' Company. The present chapel and chamber are contemporary +with the nave.</p> + +<p>The external wall of the Dyers' Chapel (now the Baptistery) is canted +so as not to block the Lane, St. Mary Hall having been already built. +Passing east, the road dips gradually and gives this end of the church +a more imposing elevation. After the Cappers' Chapel, there is only a +single aisle forming the Mercers' Chapel and extending as far as the +Presbytery. A door here, made in 1750, is opposite to the Drapers' +Hall. The apse is now encircled with a series of sacristies divided +into five chambers and spanned by flying buttresses. The first two +bays on the south were built at the last restoration the vestry then +removed not being part of the original design. Beneath them on the +ground level is the engine-room pertaining to the organ. Though +sometimes spoken of as an Ambulatory its position on a lower level, +its original <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>want of connection with the south side and above all the +need for sacristies in so large a church dispose of the idea.</p> + +<p>Some have thought that the apsidal Lady Chapel of Lichfield Cathedral +built about fifty years earlier suggested an apsidal termination in +the design of Coventry, but a certain difficulty in the way of the +designer may have led him to adopt this solution. The normal +Perpendicular east end had one large window, but owing to the great +width of this chancel the proportions of such a one would have been +nearly square, and the spring of the arch have been very low. A few +years later and the depressed four-centred arch might have been +adopted but, fortunately, its time was not yet.</p> + +<p>The plans of the apses of Lichfield and Coventry differ in the angle +at which the sides are inclined to the chord of the apse, the former +having the usual angle of 45°, the latter one of more than 60°. +Externally this is not so pleasant as the more "commonplace" form, the +great dissimilarity of the several angles being unsatisfactory and the +third side too quickly lost to view, but within the church these +points are not noticed.</p> + +<a name="imagep035" id="imagep035"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="clear: both; width: 40%;"> +<a href="images/imagep035.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep035.jpg" width="100%" alt="SOUTH-WEST DOORWAY." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SOUTH-WEST DOORWAY.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>So little time elapsed between the building of the choir and nave that +we find no marked difference of style as we proceed westward along +either flank of the church. The <b>Lady Chapel</b>, known as the Drapers' +Chapel, from its use and maintenance by that Gild, occupies the three +bays of the North chancel aisle. From its elevation above the ground +it was often spoken of as the "Chapel on the Mount," Capella Beatæ +Mariæ de Monte. All the four windows are of seven lights, the three +northern having a somewhat unusual transom band of fourteen +quatrefoils, at the spring of the arch. The two windows of St. +Lawrence's Chapel have a transom across the lights and a band of seven +quatrefoils at the spring.</p> + +<p>The buttresses of the Lady Chapel are rather richer in design than +those of St. Lawrence's Chapel. The lower level of its parapet +indicates some difference of date. The plan of this part of the church +presents problems which bear on those connected with the rest of the +church (p. 44). Beneath St. Lawrence's Chapel and extending under the +north aisle westward are two crypts, entrance to them being by two +doors from the churchyard, their position is shown on the general +plan. It will be seen that the western one is of two aisles, each of +three bays, while the eastern is only one bay in length. The entrance +to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>western was at first in the middle bay but this was blocked +when the Girdlers' Chapel was built. That the eastern crypt was added +later, and the present Lady Chapel later still is shown by the +presence of windows in the east wall of both parts and other +indications. But while the history of the church shows that the +original Lady Chapel and crypt or charnel-house, were built soon after +1300, the present superstructures belong to a time about one hundred +years later. Now as the western crypt may be safely assigned to the +earlier date the Lady Chapel doubtless stood over it and flanked the +old chancel of the church, in its normal position in fact as the +existing one is now. But a point which remains to be explained is that +the walls of the crypt are parallel to the line of the new chancel and +not to the line of the old or new naves. It seems certain therefore +that the inclination of the new chancel is a simple perpetuation of +the old arrangement, and if not, the position of the crypt is hard to +account for.</p> + +<p>It is generally supposed that these crypts were used as Mortuary +Chapels and the eastern one has in fact a piscina and aumbry, showing +that there was once an altar. But for some centuries they served as a +charnel-house, and are so called in a papal grant of Indulgences. In +1640 there is an entry in the church accounts of five shillings for +"cleansinge the charnel-house and laying the bones and sculles in +order."</p> + +<p>They now contain fragments that have been removed or discovered in the +course of various restorations. A small Norman scalloped capital, +another of Early English workmanship and a voussoir showing the Norman +zig-zag or chevron are interesting relics of structures earlier than +anything now existing, while a number of the decayed statues from the +tower find here a dark and damp repose very different from the airy +outlook enjoyed by them for five centuries. It will be seen that they +are near life size and are executed in a gray sandstone which has +stood the weather much better than the red. The outer north aisle +containing the Girdlers' Chapel on the east and the Smiths' or St. +Andrew's Chapel on the west of the porch, is plainly of later date. +The windows have depressed, distinctly four-centred arches, and in +1730 their five lights had simply cusped heads, the mullions running +up to the architrave.</p> + +<p>The <b>north porch</b> has only a slight projection. Above the four-centred +arch are two two-light canopied windows <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span>opening into the church. The +soffit of the doorway is panelled. On the west side where is now a +canopied niche was formerly an external pulpit reached from within by +the staircase which leads to the roof. It is shown in the 1730 view. +On the east side are two odd little flying buttresses, intended +apparently to repeat the inclined surface of the other side. The two +north aisles are fortunately not carried westward so far as the nave, +which projects a half bay beyond them and so prevents the otherwise +unrelieved flatness of this part. The most effective of the porches is +that on the west front, just north of the tower. It appears to have +been built after the nave was finished, and may have been added +expressly to provide a more dignified entrance to the church when +Henry VI came in state in 1451, for it faces directly up the nave. The +groining with cusped panels and numerous bosses has escaped +restoration. The five niches above the porch are statueless, and so +are those on the porch front. May they long continue so! The doors are +largely original and are finely panelled and carved.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> At the last restoration the height was reduced to 298 +feet.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep040" id="imagep040"></a><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a> +<a href="images/imagep040.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep040.jpg" width="52%" alt="INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE WEST." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S FROM THE WEST.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH</h4> +<br /> + +<p>From within the door by which the church is usually entered, that near +the south-west angle, we obtain an overpowering impression of the +special characteristic of the interior, its spaciousness, for it is +here more than 100 feet wide and the east window is nearly 240 feet +distant.</p> + +<a name="imagep042" id="imagep042"></a> +<div class="imgl" style="width: 30%;"> +<a href="images/imagep042.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep042.jpg" width="100%" alt="TOWER ARCH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">TOWER ARCH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The <b>nave</b>, which is 37 feet 6 inches wide in the clear, is wider than +that of many cathedrals, and much exceeds that of most parish +churches, the widest (Worstead) given in Brandon's "Parish Churches" +being 29 feet. Boston alone exceeds it by about 3 feet. While the +ordinary aisle width ranges from 10 to 14 feet, the north aisle here +is 23 feet, the outer north and the south being each 17 feet. The +total internal length is 265 feet, exclusive of the sacristy; Boston, +the only larger one, being 284 feet, while very few exceed 200 feet, +and most are far smaller. The greatest internal width is 120 feet; +Manchester, a double-aisled collegiate church, is about the same, and +York Minster is 106 feet. Finally, the area is about 22,800 square +feet, probably greater than that of any other English parish church, +indeed, St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, is the only one which pretends to +rivalry in this respect. Size is, of course, only one element in the +impressiveness of a building, and may even be neutralized by the +treatment (as, for instance, in the Duomo of Florence and St. Peter's, +Rome, by increasing the size of its parts rather than multiplying +them), but these few comparisons will help the visitor to judge how +far this element colours his appreciation of the whole. As an +illustration of mediæval methods of church building, it is interesting +to trace the growth of the structure with the help of the few +historical notices already given and the evidence of the building +itself. The subject is full of difficulties, and the writer does not +hope to solve them conclusively, but to put before the reader the main +points which have to be considered before forming a judgement.</p> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> + +<p>Both historic and structural evidence agree that there was an existing +smaller church when the tower was built in the last quarter of the +fourteenth century, that the choir and apse were either contemporary, +or begun a few years earlier, and that the nave was built between 1434 +and 1450. The south porch and the west crypt (beneath the original +Lady Chapel) are almost contemporary (p. 34), belonging to the +beginning of the fourteenth century. Now the axis of the tower is +parallel to the axis and walls of the nave, while the centre line of +the choir is deflected towards the north about 7°. Notwithstanding +this, however, owing to the tower not being central with the nave, the +axis of the choir, if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>prolonged, runs directly to the centre of the +tower arch, as may easily be seen by anyone who stands there and looks +along the ridge of the choir roof. (<i>See</i> dotted line on Plan.)</p> + +<p>Next we see above the <b>tower arch</b> the mark of the old nave roof and +the old north wall of the nave. These show that the south wall stood +where the present one does, and the low-pitched fourteenth century +roof-line suggests incidentally this alternative: <i>either</i> a +clearstory had been added to the nave before the building of the new +chancel or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>tower was in contemplation, <i>or</i>, when the huge tower was +built it was felt necessary to raise the nave roof so as to lessen the +disproportion. But, if we adopt the latter alternative we must accept +too the improbability that this expense should have been incurred when +the inadequacy of the old narrow nave of 15½ feet compared with a +chancel of 33 feet must have been so obvious. This is one of the +difficult questions.</p> + +<a name="imagep043" id="imagep043"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 32%;"> +<a href="images/imagep043.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep043.jpg" width="100%" alt="BAY OF NAVE, NORTH SIDE." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">BAY OF NAVE, NORTH SIDE.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Then it is held by some that the axis of the old nave and chancel was +in line with that of the present choir; but the south porch, built +more than one hundred years before the new nave, is at right angles +with it which would hardly have been the case had the two naves not +been on the same lines.</p> + +<p>Needless to say the old east end could scarcely have extended beyond +the present nave, so that the new chancel was probably built without +disturbing the old church. The position of the older Lady Chapel +supports this view, while its bearing towards the north, as already +pointed out, indicates that the deflection of the new chancel is +simply copied from the older one.</p> + +<p>The position of the south porch proves also that the south aisle was +as wide as the present one, while the fact that it was wider than the +nave shows that it was almost certainly not designed at the same time.</p> + +<p>The nave is of six bays and is 54 feet high at the centre, while each +arch is 20 feet wide in the clear. The piers are slender, but, owing +to the depth of the panelling above the arches and the large size of +the windows, the weight upon them is reduced to a minimum. Shafts +carried up from the ground support the roof brackets, and there are +intermediate ones over the centre of each arch. The clearstory windows +of four lights each are in pairs, and the mullions are carried down to +form panelling and finish on the backs of the arches, which recede in +two sloping faces and form a somewhat unusual feature in the treatment +of the wall surface. The detail of the piers and arches is rather +weak, even for Perpendicular work.</p> + +<p>The <b>chancel</b> is about 93 feet long, and in height and width is 4 or 5 +feet less than the corresponding nave measurements. Its width further +diminishes by about 3½ feet in the length of the three bays. The +omission of a chancel arch is a step towards the ideal simplicity of +the late Perpendicular churches (<i>e.g.</i>, St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich), +running from east to west without break, but the large rood piers and +reduced width and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span>height of chancel make the pause demanded in so +long a church. The step at this point is of oak, and is probably the +original sill of the rood screen. The large figures of SS. Peter and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>Paul were placed on the piers in 1861. Of the three arches which open +on either hand the centre one is widest, having four-light windows, +instead of three-light, over it. The panelling beneath the clearstory +is richer than that in the nave. The five four-light windows of the +apse are lofty and divided by two transoms, but the design is somewhat +commonplace. The glass of the middle three is a memorial to Queen +Adelaide, dated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>1853. The other two are filled with fragments of the +ancient stained glass of the church (p. 56).</p> + +<div class="img" style="clear: both;"><a name="imagep045" id="imagep045"></a> +<a href="images/imagep045.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep045.jpg" width="50%" alt="INTERIOR FROM THE SOUTH DOOR." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INTERIOR FROM THE SOUTH DOOR.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep046" id="imagep046"></a> +<a href="images/imagep046.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep046.jpg" width="60%" alt="THE CHOIR FROM ST. LAWRENCE'S CHAPEL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE CHOIR FROM ST. LAWRENCE'S CHAPEL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The roof is very similar to that of the nave. Both are of very low +pitch, with tie-beams supported by curved brackets. There are two +longitudinal beams (purlins) on each side, and each division of the +roof made by these main timbers is sub-divided by mouldings into +panels, all the intersections and angles being decorated by carved +bosses or pateræ, with angels upon the tie-beams. Where the roofs of +nave and chancel join there is a cove to connect the two levels; and +on the tie-beam above this was found a Latin inscription, giving the +attributes and powers of the nine choirs of angels forming the +hierarchy of Heaven. Translated it is as follows:</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 10em;"><span class="sc">SERAPHIMS</span> burn in love of God.<br /> +<span class="sc">CHERUBIMS</span> possess all knowledge.<br /> +<span class="sc">THRONES</span>, of them is judgement.<br /> +<span class="sc">DOMINIONS</span> preside over angelic spirits.<br /> +<span class="sc">VIRTUES</span> effect miracles.<br /> +<span class="sc">POWERS</span> have rule over demons.<br /> +<span class="sc">PRINCIPALITIES</span> protect good men.<br /> +<span class="sc">ARCHANGELS</span> are set over states.<br /> +<span class="sc">ANGELS</span> are the messengers of the Lord. +</p> + +<p>Bare and shorn as it is of its ancient magnificence, St. Michael's is +in its structure a monument of the importance and wealth of the Gilds. +Many of them built or maintained chapels and altars, adding largely to +the already spacious proportions given to the main structure by the +munificence of a few rich citizens. That in 1491 there were eleven +altars we know from the will of Thomas Bradmedow, directing that +eleven torches, price 2<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>, be given every Good Friday, one to +every altar. Besides the High Altar there were those of Our Lady, +Jesus, Holy Trinity, St. John, St. Anne, St. Katherine, St. Thomas, +St. Andrew, St. Lawrence, All Saints.</p> + +<a name="imagep048a" id="imagep048a"></a> +<div class="imgl" style="width: 25%;"> +<a href="images/imagep048a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep048a.jpg" width="100%" alt="POPPY HEAD, LADY CHAPEL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">POPPY HEAD, LADY CHAPEL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<a name="imagep048b" id="imagep048b"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 35%;"> +<a href="images/imagep048b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep048b.jpg" width="100%" alt="A MISERERE, LADY CHAPEL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A MISERERE, LADY CHAPEL.</p> +</div> + +<p>The application to the <b>Lady Chapel</b> of the present name, the +"Drapers' Chapel," is probably subsequent to 1518, when John Haddon, a +draper, provided by will for the support of a priest, "to singe in the +Chapell of our Ladye in the Church of Saint Mychell." But long ere +this, by an instrument dated from St. John Lateran, <span class="fakesc">A.D.</span> +1300, eighth year of Pope Boniface, Indulgences for forty days were +granted for all persons coming to confess before her altar in St. +Michael's Church on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>Nativity, Conception, Annunciation and +Assumption of the glorious Virgin Mary. Also 700 Indulgences for 720 +days were granted for building "the Chapple and Charnell house of St. +Michaell, Coventry." The Drapers' Company was responsible for other +things than the priest's stipend as this extract from their Rules +shows: "1534. Ev'y mastur shall pay toward ye makyng clene of oure +Lady Chapell in saynt Mychell's churche and strawyng ye setus [seats] +wt rusches in somer and pease strawe in wyntur, everyone yerely 2<i>d.</i>"</p> + +<p>The piers at the chancel entrance contain the staircases leading to +the roofs and formerly to the rood loft. The screen on the west side +of the chapel was put together from fragments brought together from +various parts of the church. Against it, and on the south side, are +fifteen of the ancient stalls. Several admirable ends and elbows +remain, and some of the twelve ancient Misereres are of special +interest. Three represent scenes from the popular mediæval allegory of +"the Dance of Death."</p> + +<p>The centre groups are: (1) a death bed, (2) a kneeling man being +deprived of his shirt and a cripple waiting to receive it (?), and (3) +a very well-expressed burial scene. The side groups in each show Death +leading by the hand personages of various ranks, including a pope. Of +the others, Satan in chains, the General Resurrection, and a +delicately executed Tree of Jesse are the best.</p> + +<p>Several monuments formerly in this chapel are now elsewhere in the +church. A memorial to the Hon. F.W. Hood, killed in battle in 1814, is +by Chantrey. On the north wall is a brass plate bearing the following +inscription:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>Here lyeth M<span style="vertical-align: super;">r</span> Thomas Bond, Draper, sometime Mayor of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> +Cittie and founder of the Hospitall of Bablake, who gave divers +lands and tenements for the maintenance of ten poore men so long +as the world shall endure and a woman to looke to them with many +other good guifts; and died the <span class="sc">XVIII</span> day of March in +the yeare of our Lord God <span class="sc">MDVI</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>The <b>Communion Table</b> is a fine example of early seventeenth century +work, and outside the screen is a very beautiful oak chest, believed +to date from the time of Henry VII. From the Lady Chapel we pass into +that of St. Laurence. Its two windows are filled with glass to the +memory of past mayors. The dates, 1860 and 1862, sufficiently suggest +their artistic merit. Several old monuments are upon the north wall, +one of 1648 with an extravagant inscription to Thomas Purefoy, a boy +of nine; another to Mrs. Bathona Frodsham, a daughter of the John +Hales who bought so much monastic property, and founded the Grammar +School. The tomb of his first wife, Frideswede, near which he was +buried, may be seen in the Dugdale view near the north porch.</p> + +<p>The outer north aisle contained the Girdlers' Chapel. The arcade which +divides the aisles shows the consummation of the process which +converted columns into piers by the omission of capitals and bases and +the continuation of the mouldings from pier into arch.</p> + +<p>The altar was below the eastern window, the piscina (restored) stands +on the south side.</p> + +<p>The Company has been long extinct and no documents exist. We know, +however, that Haye's Chantry was founded by a Girdler in 1390, for a +Mass to be sung daily at All Saints' altar, and may therefore conclude +that it was in this chapel.</p> + +<p>In the two western bays of the same aisle was St. Andrew's Chapel, +supported and probably founded by the Smiths' Company. The first +notice of its existence occurs in 1449, but as this part was not built +until 1500 it was perhaps originally in the adjoining aisle. The +window tracery is modern. The panelling within the internal arches and +between the windows should be noted. The floor near the wall is partly +paved with much worn ancient tiles.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep050" id="imagep050"></a> +<a href="images/imagep050.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep050.jpg" width="85%" alt="CHEST IN NORTH AISLE." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">CHEST IN NORTH AISLE.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Several large monuments have been brought hither from the Drapers' +Chapel. An altar tomb of black marble is to the memory of Sir Thomas +Berkeley, only son of Henry, Lord <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>Berkeley, who died in 1611; another +of 1640, to William Stanley, Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company +of London and a benefactor of St. Bartholomew's Hospital and of his +native city, Coventry. While these are ponderous and unlovely that of +Julian Nethermyl, at the west end of the principal north aisle, is a +work of interest and much beauty. It is an altar tomb with a +sculptured panel on one end and one side, the other end and side +having been next to walls. It is of interest as an early example of +the Italian style then finding its way into England, and an example so +free from Gothic influence that there can be little doubt that a +foreign craftsman was employed upon it. On the centre of the long +panel is a mutilated crucifix, and a brief inscription with a shield +of arms beneath. On either hand kneel Julian Nethermyl and his wife, +with five sons behind him and five daughters behind her. A cherub at +each end pushes aside a curtain. The group of sons is well treated, +the variations in pose and dress show the hand of one who was +accustomed to study composition, and the result is very different from +the formal repetition of equal or lessening figures usual on mediæval +brasses and Elizabethan tombs. The Latin inscription is partly +illegible, translated it runs:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>Here lies Julian Nethermyl, Draper, formerly Mayor of this City, +who died the 11th day of the month of April in the year of our +Lord 1539 and also Joan his wife, to whose souls God be +propitious. Amen.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>A small brass on the wall to the memory of Mary Hinton, wife of a +vicar, who died in 1594, represents her kneeling at a faldstool, and +facing a row of four swaddled infants laid upon the floor.</p> + +<p>Near by is the old Purbeck marble font, said to have been given by +John Cross, Mayor, in 1394.</p> + +<p>As, however, the form, material, and shallow decoration are all quite +consistent with a thirteenth-century date there can be little doubt +that this one is the predecessor of that given by John Cross, which +was condemned and removed by the Puritans as superstitious. A small +brass, bearing a shield with four crosses, the ancient merchant mark, +is fixed upon it.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep051" id="imagep051"></a> +<a href="images/imagep051.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep051.jpg" width="85%" alt="THE NETHERMYL TOMB." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE NETHERMYL TOMB.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Beyond the west door is the north-east buttress of the tower, +strengthened by a mass of masonry, part of which formed part of the +old nave wall. The tower arch is high and very narrow, owing to the +narrowness of the old nave. The interior of the tower is very +effective, both from the height, which is almost 100 feet to the crown +of the vault, and the beautiful lighting of the upper stages. Each of +the large windows of the ground story is set <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>in a recessed arch, and +between the two lantern stages is a range of panelling. The vertical +lines of the various stages are not continuous, a want of regularity, +which would probably not have occurred had it been built a century +later. Upon the floor of the tower are two small brasses, which mark +respectively the centre of the tower and the point below the apex of +the spire, showing that the spire has an inclination of 3 feet 6 +inches towards the north-west. On the walls of the tower two very +large brasses record the names of the Vicars of the church since 1242, +and of the Bishops in whose Dioceses Coventry has been included from +the earliest times. Of the latter, four were Bishops of Mercia, +twenty-seven of Lichfield, six of Coventry, thirty-three of Coventry +and Lichfield, thirteen of Lichfield and Coventry, four of Worcester, +and two Bishops-Suffragan of Coventry.</p> + +<p>The south aisle is 6 feet narrower than the north at the west end, but +its want of parallelism adds 7 feet to its width at its far eastern +end.</p> + +<p>The south-west doorway has its original doors, though these have been +subjected to restoration. The first chapel on the south side belonged +to the Dyers' Company. When the principal trade of Coventry was the +manufacture of woollen and worsted stuffs and the production of a +special blue thread, so excellent that it gave rise to a proverbial +expression, "he is true Coventry Blue", the Dyers were an important +Company.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> A chantry known as Tale's was probably attached to this +chapel, as the salary of the priest, £5 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>, was paid by the +Dyers' Company of London. An upper chamber for the priest existed as +late as 1607; the floor corbels still remain. A large marble monument +(removed hither from the chancel) has medallion portraits of two +ladies—Dame Mary Bridgeman and Mrs. Eliza Samwell. The former with +her husband, Sir Orlando (Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Charles +II), both died in 1701. The latter, dying in 1724, "ordered this +monument to be erected as a remembrance of their great and loving +friendship."</p> + +<p>The Chapel is now the <b>Baptistery</b>. A large eighteenth-century marble +font was removed to the Lady Chapel and a new Gothic one put in its +place, so that there are now three in the church.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>The south porch (1300) is the earliest part of the existing church. +The inner doors appear to be of the early sixteenth century, the +outer, though old, are of much later date and are not part of the +original scheme. On the wall on each side of the inner doors are +brasses of some interest. That on the right hand has a curious epitaph +which runs thus:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>Here lies the body of Capt<span style="vertical-align: super;">n</span> Gervase Scrope, of the family of +Scropes, of Bolton in the County of York, who departed this life +the 26 of August, Anno Dni 1705, aged 66.</p> + +<p>An Epitaph, written by himself, in the agony and dolorous paines +of the gout and dyed soon after.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here lyes an old toss'd Tennis Ball<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was racketted, from spring to fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With so much heat and so much hast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time's arm for shame grew tyred at last.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Four kings in camps he truly served.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from his loyalty ne'er swerved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father ruin'd and son slighted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the Crown ne'er requited.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loss of estate, relations, blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was too well known, but did no good;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With long Campaigns and paines oth' gout<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He cou'd no longer hold it out.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Always a restless life he led,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never at quiet till quite dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He marry'd in his later days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One who exceeds the common praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But wanting breath still to make known<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her true affection and his own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Death kindly came, all wants supplied<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By giving rest—which life deny'd.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +</div> + +<p>The other brass, of 1609, has a portrait of Ann Sewell in Jacobean +costume, kneeling, with an epitaph in which she is described as "a +worthy stirrer up of others to all holy virtues."</p> + +<p>A doorway leads to a priest's chamber over the porch, sometimes +incorrectly spoken of as the Cappers' Chapel. It is still used for the +annual meeting of the Company, but is inaccessible to the public.</p> + +<p>The next chapel eastwards is St. Thomas', belonging until 1629 to the +Cappers' and Feltmakers' Company. In 1531 they were associated in its +maintenance with the Woollen Cardmakers who had founded it in 1467 and +had after declined in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>importance. Leland, as we have seen records +also the decay of the Cappers' industry. A large eighteenth-century +monument conceals the original doorway from the porch. The eastern +part of the south aisle as far as the screen formed another chapel as +the dilapidated piscina in the south wall shows. The organ is now +placed in the first bay of the chancel aisle, the whole aisle having +once formed the Mercers' Chapel.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep054" id="imagep054"></a> +<a href="images/imagep054.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep054.jpg" width="85%" alt="THE SWILLINGTON TOMB." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE SWILLINGTON TOMB.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Where the altar once stood are now steps descending to the sacristies. +On the right of the window is the statue of St. Michael brought hither +from the tower (p. 32). The finely carved corbel on which it stands +was discovered among rubbish in the recess below. Three altar tombs +now stand against the south wall. The eastern has the recumbent +effigies of Elizabeth Swillington and her two husbands. The +inscription (translated) runs: "Pray for the soul of Elizabeth +Swillington, widow, late the wife of Ralph Swillington, Attorney +General of our Lord King Henry VIII, Recorder of the city of Coventry, +formerly the wife of Thomas Essex Esq: which said Elizabeth died +<span class="fakesc">A.D.</span> 15..." She died after 1543. The side and ends have +arcaded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>panelling containing shields of arms. At the west end is a +realistic representation of the Five Wounds. The effigy of Thomas +Essex is in armour, that of the Recorder in official robe and chain. +The head of each rests on a helmet, and the lady wears the +"pedimental" headdress of Tudor fashion. The arcading is purely +Renaissance in detail though the general treatment is mediæval. The +figures are in dignified repose, wholly free from the later +affectations of the Elizabethan school yet evidently individual +portraits. The second tomb dates from 1640. The top is far too heavy +for the little Ionic pilasters below.</p> + +<p>The third, traditionally called Wade's tomb, probably belongs to John +Wayd, a Mercer, who lived in Coventry in 1557, but no inscription +remains.</p> + +<p>There are seven shields of arms on the side, nearly all defaced, a +motto "Ryen saunce travayle," and nine images in low relief which +present quaint studies of early sixteenth-century costume.</p> + +<p>The matrices of brasses are still visible in several parts of the +church. Sir James Harrington, writing in the reign of James I, tells a +curious story of their loss:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>The pavement of Coventry church is almost all tombstones, and +some very ancient, but there came in a zealous fellow with a +counterfeit commission, that for avoiding superstition, hath not +left one pennyworth nor penny breadth of brass upon all the +tombs, of all the inscriptions, which had been many and costly.</p></div> + +<p>The last monument that need be mentioned is upon the wall over "Wade's +tomb." Twenty-six verses of eulogy follow these opening lines:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>An Elegicall epitaph, made upon the death of that mirror of women +Ann Newdigate; Lady Skeffington, wife of that true moaneing +turtle Sir Richard Skeffington, Kt., and consecrated to her +eternal memorie by the unfeigned lover of her vertues, Willm. +Bulstrode, Knight. (She died in 1637, aged 29).</p></div> + +<a name="imagep056" id="imagep056"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 18%;"> +<a href="images/imagep056.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep056.jpg" width="100%" alt="ALMS-BOX." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ALMS-BOX.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The present organ was built by Henry Willis and erected in 1887. It is +a four-manual and pedal instrument and has fifty-three stops.</p> + +<p>The old organ on which Handel played more than once, stood on a raised +platform at the west end. It was the work of Thomas Swarbrick of +Warwick, a German by birth, in 1733. He also built those of Trinity +Church, St. Mary, Warwick, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span>Lichfield, St. Saviour Southwark, +Stratford-on-Avon, and Amsterdam.</p> + +<p>The best of the ancient glass now remaining has been collected into +two windows, one on either side of the apse. Much was brought from the +clearstory where six windows on the south and all save one on the +north side still have panels made up of a mosaic of fragments with +portions here and there of which the subject is intelligible. From +what remains in the tracery we may gather that there was a row of +eight angel figures filling the spaces immediately over the lights. +Some of these or similar ones, are now in the apse. They are +represented as covered with feathers and standing on wheels and each +holds a scroll over the head with inscriptions in very contracted +Latin. A few less fragmentary pieces may be found, <i>e.g.</i>, in the +north window, Judas giving the traitor's kiss, in the north clearstory +the arms of Trenton and Stafford, mentioned and figured by Dugdale, in +the south, the figure of a man in a red gown kneeling with a scroll +inscribed "deo gracias" and over his head "groc(er) de +london"—doubtless a donor. Of modern glass there is a great amount +but little worth mentioning save on account of the persons +commemorated. One window in the Lady Chapel is a memorial of the +Prince Consort and one in the Mercers' Chapel is of interest as a +deserved memorial to Thomas Sharp the Antiquary to whose labours all +later historians of the city are so deeply indebted. He died in 1841.</p> + +<p>The pulpit is of brass and wrought iron, the work of Frank Skidmore a +native of Coventry who made also the choir screen of Hereford +Cathedral and the metal work of the Albert Memorial at Kensington. It +was placed here in 1869. The bells, ten in number, now hang in the +octagon. They were cast in 1774 and weigh nearly seven tons. The first +peal was hung in 1429 and a clock existed in 1467. In 1496 an Order of +Leet ordained that "all manner of persons that will have the bells to +ring after the decease of any of their friends, shall pay for a peal +ringing with all the bells, 2<i>s.</i> and with four bells, 16<i>d.</i>, and +three bells 4<i>d.</i>"</p> + +<p style="clear: both;"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>The six bells were cast into eight in 1674 and the present tenth has +the same inscription as the heaviest of the old peal:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I am and have been call'd the common bell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To ring, when fire breaks out, to tell.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The chimes, which existed as early as 1465, were restored in 1895, +after a silence of ten years, in memory of Lieut.-Col. Francis William +Newdigate. Electric lighting has been introduced throughout the +church.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>See</i> Fuller's "Worthies of England." In 1428 an Act of +Leet ordered that no person should dye any wool or cloth with "a +deceitful colour called Masters or Medleys brought into Coventry by a +Frenchman."</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span><br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep060" id="imagep060"></a><a name="HOLY_TRINITY_CHURCH" id="HOLY_TRINITY_CHURCH"></a><a name="CHAPTER_I_HT" id="CHAPTER_I_HT"></a> +<a href="images/imagep060.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep060.jpg" width="52%" alt="HOLY TRINITY FROM THE NORTH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">HOLY TRINITY FROM THE NORTH.<br /><i>From a lithograph—about 1850</i>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span><br /> + +<h2>HOLY TRINITY CHURCH</h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>HISTORY OF THE CHURCH</h4> +<br /> + +<p>Although the first mention of this church which the indefatigable +Dugdale could find was its appropriation to the priory in 1259-1260, +it is tolerably certain that its foundation was much earlier. As +before said, it is reputed to be older than St. Michael's and its +position close to the monastery suggests that it had been built, as +often happened, for the parishioners by the monks who disliked their +intrusion within the priory church. The appropriation at this time may +have been rather of the nature of a confirmation of the rights of the +priory than the institution of a new condition of things. As, in 1391, +the chancel had to be rebuilt being "ruinated and decayed" we may +conclude that it was probably older than the present north porch which +is certainly not later than 1259. It was at the same time lengthened +by twenty-four feet, the convent giving one hundred shillings per +annum for eight years and six trees, the parishioners finding all +other material and workmanship. The convent and parish also agreed to +support and keep it in repair at their joint charges.</p> + +<p>From 1298, when Henry de Harenhale was appointed, the list of vicars +is complete, but in a cartulary of the priory mention is made of Ralph +de Sowe, vicar of Trinity, as giving a tenement in Well Street, for +the celebration of his anniversary.</p> + +<p>There are but few landmarks in its history, and dates affecting the +structure can generally be assigned by internal evidence alone. The +nave arcades had already been rebuilt before the chancel was touched, +and a piece of work of the same period is to be seen in the five-light +Decorated window, in the Consistory Court which now opens into the +large chamber over the porch. We have no record of the building of the +clearstory <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span>and roof of the nave. The resemblances between this +clearstory, and that of St. John's chancel, raise the question of +priority. The fuller development at St. John's of the peculiar +treatment of the angles points to its being a little later but +probably both fall within the second and third quarters of the +fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>For a church of this size the chapels, altars and chantries were very +numerous, there being probably fifteen altars in all. In 1522 the +establishment of clergy consisted of a vicar, eleven parochial priests +and two chantry priests. Dugdale enumerates six chantries so that it +is evident that here as often elsewhere some of the parochial priests +derived the whole or a part of their support from their performance of +the duties of chantry priests.</p> + +<p>Many chantry priests on the other hand had other duties and took part +in other services than the daily mass for which the chantry was +founded.</p> + +<p>So much that is of interest in the religious life of the period is +connected with the chantries that it is worth while recording some of +the scattered notices that have come down to us.</p> + +<p>To begin with the Chapel of Our Lady, the earliest mention we have of +it is in 1364 while in 1392 the Corpus Christi Gild endowed a priest +there to sing mass for the good estate of Richard II, Anne his queen, +and the whole realm of England, to be called St. Mary's priest. The +indenture sets forth that "he is to be at Divine service on Sundays +and double Feasts in the chancel and at Matins, Hours, Masses, +Evensong, Compline and other offices used in the said church and also +daily at <i>Salve</i> in our Lady's Chapel unless hindered by reasonable +cause." The records of the Dissolution of the Chantries show how much +town property must have been held by them, while from these and other +sources we learn the extent of their belongings in tenements, +messuages, rent charges and the like. Thus in 1454 Emot Dowte gave +several tenements to this altar and in 1492 Richard Clyff "late parson +of St. George in London," left a house in Well St. to the church "to +the intent that the mass of Our Lady may be observed the better." In +1558 (the year of Elizabeth's accession) William Hyndeman, alderman +and butcher, directs that his body be buried in the Lady Chapel "as +aldermen are wont to be buried, towards the charges whereof I give +twenty nobles to be levied of my quick cattle and if it be too little +then I will that Sybil my wife shall lay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span>down 20<i>s.</i> more." He also +orders an obit to be kept after the death of his wife "yearly for +ever;" a form of words that must surely have sounded unreal after the +changes of the last two reigns.</p> + +<p>Perceye's chantry again, which Dugdale considered the oldest (though +he does not give the date) was endowed in 1350 with six messuages, one +shop, six acres of land and 40s. rent, all lying in Coventry, to which +in 1407 William Botoner and others, added a messuage and twenty-four +acres of land in the city for another priest.</p> + +<p>Then the chantry of the Holy Cross (1357) founded for two priests to +sing daily a mass for the good estate before death and for the souls +after of the royal family, and for the founders and the members of the +Fraternity of the Holy Cross, was endowed with seven messuages, +fourteen shops and sixteen acres of land in the city.</p> + +<p>Dugdale enumerates also four others, Cellet's, Corpus Christi, +Lodynton's and Allesley's, to which should probably be added Marler's, +assigned by him to St. Michael's. The first two are doubtless the same +foundation, for in 1329 land and tenements were granted to the priest +of Corpus Christi Chapel for the health of the soul of William Celet +and others.</p> + +<p>It was almost certainly situated in the south transept, on the upper +level over the vaulted passage. The position of Lodynton's chantry +(1393) is not known; Allesley's, founded in the reign of Edward I, was +sung at St. Thomas's altar.</p> + +<p>Richard Marler stipulates in his will that his priest is to have the +"stypend or wagis of nyne marks by yere so long as he shall be of good +and prestly conversacyon and demeanor, wt' a p'vyso that yf the seyde +prest be ffounde otherwyse, after monyc'on and reasonable warnyng to +hym geven, he to be removed."</p> + +<p>Much of the later history of the church relates to the destruction of +its fittings and furniture or to restorations almost as grievous. In +1560 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> was paid for taking down the carving about the high +altar, while the Mayor bought the panelling of the altar for <i>33s. +4d.</i>, the vail for 5<i>s.</i>, the "thing that the sacrament was in over +the altar 1<i>s.</i>," the "peyre [pair of candlesticks?] that was upon the +altar 5<i>d.</i>" Perhaps he thought that all these things would be wanted +again ere long. In 1547 a quantity of costly vestments and banners had +been sold and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>we find in the accounts a number of such items as +these: "Sold the 6 day of Jennery 5 copps of red teyssew to Mr. +Roghers, now mayre (and 4 other persons) pryce of the sayd copps, +<i>10l.</i> To Bawden Desseld one cope of red velvet, <i>5l.</i> Mr. Schewyll a +grene velvet cope, 30<i>s.</i>"</p> + +<p>But before Mary's death we have a lengthy inventory of copes, +vestments, albs, banners and the like, some of which may have come +back to the church from the buyers at the sale eleven years before.</p> + +<p>The church must have looked like a builder's yard in 1643 when the +Committee and Council of War pulled down divers houses outside +Bishop's and Spon Gates and stacked the materials here, while the +changes of government are indicated by the payment in 1647 of <i>3s. +6d.</i> "to Hopes for defacing the King's Arms" and in 1660 of 6<i>s.</i> to +"Hope for the King's Arms."</p> + +<p>Five years after this the spire, which had caused much anxiety and +expense for many years, was blown down in a gale, falling across the +chancel and causing much destruction. All was restored and the spire +rebuilt in three years. Reference has been made to the existence of a +vaulted passage through the south transept. This was made necessary by +the position of an ancient building known as Jesus Hall which adjoined +the transept and thus blocked the way from "the Butchery" in this +direction. The Hall had probably been long used as the residence of +the priests attached to the church but nothing is known of its origin. +It was destroyed in 1742. Only in 1834, when the exterior of the +church was recased was the passage blocked and the floor of the upper +chapel removed.</p> + +<p>The Register records the marriage of Sarah Kemble with William Siddons +on 25th November, 1773.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II_HT" id="CHAPTER_II_HT"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE EXTERIOR OF THE CHURCH</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The church of Holy Trinity loses much, in popular estimation at least, +by its nearness to St. Michael's. It invites comparison of the most +obvious sort. It is not nearly so large and its spire is not so high, +these facts alone are sufficient to account for the popular view. +Fuller, in his "Worthies" says of the two churches, "How clearly would +they have shined if set at competent distance! Whereas now, such their +Vicinity, that the Archangel eclipseth the Trinity."</p> + +<p>The plan is quite unlike that of its neighbour, being cruciform, with +a central tower, a short nave, and a chancel distinctly longer than +the nave. On the south both nave and chancel have a single aisle, the +transept projecting beyond it and there is a vestry at the east end. +On the north there is a similar aisle with a Lady Chapel at the east +corresponding to the Vestry, but a large porch and several chapels +fill up the spaces so that the transept does not in plan project.</p> + +<p>Looking at the exterior as a whole it may be said that the more +moderate length (194 feet), the central spire, 230 feet high, and the +transepts unite in forming a more satisfactory composition than the +long body and immense western steeple of St. Michael's. There however, +the superiority ceases for the frequent "recasings" and restorations +have left hardly a stone of the exterior that has not been renewed +again and again, and the dates of these operations, 1786, 1826, 1843, +sufficiently suggest the degree of knowledge and feeling likely to be +manifested in the work.</p> + +<p>Probably most of the structure was first built of the same friable red +sandstone as its greater neighbour. Much of the recasing has been +executed in a rather harder gray sandstone, but the tower and spire +are still red.</p> + +<p>The tower above the roofs, is of two stages, the upper, or bell +chamber, and the lower or lantern opening into the church. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>Below this +are small windows with the lines of the old high-pitched roof visible +above the present transept roofs, but in the nave and chancel the +lines of the old roofs are now within the church, the clearstory +having since been added. Each face of the tower is divided, apart from +the narrow angle buttresses, into six vertical divisions separated by +thin projections of buttress form. On the south and west the stair +turret absorbs one of the outer divisions. Each division is curved in +plan in a curious way, which may be the perpetuation of a feature of +the original design, but was more probably introduced or modified by +the person who recased the tower in 1826. That there was sculpture we +know, for in 1709 ten shillings was paid for taking the images down +from the steeple. The smallness of the sum indicates that they were +few in number, and if they occupied similar positions to those on the +belfry stage of St. Michael's, and the structure was as decayed as was +the tower of that church it is probable that the cutting away of the +niches may have suggested the curving of the surfaces especially as +the tower would be thereby lightened. As it is we cannot be certain of +much else than that there were vertical divisions serving to emphasize +the impression of height and that the openings were in the same +positions as now.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep066" id="imagep066"></a> +<a href="images/imagep066.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep066.jpg" width="85%" alt="PLAN OF TRINITY CHURCH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">PLAN OF TRINITY CHURCH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>The spire blown down in 1665 had been in the previous ninety years +five times repaired and repointed. We cannot now say whether the +original design was at all closely followed in the rebuilding, but its +present likeness to St. Michael's suggests doubts. The lowest stage +which takes the place of the octagon and may be an intentional +imitation of it, has almost upright sides with two-light windows on +the cardinal faces and panelled ones on the oblique sides, while the +remaining stages correspond in number and partly in design with those +of St. Michael's.</p> + +<p>In 1855 it was considered that the bells endangered the safety of the +tower, and after recasting by Mears of London they were rehung in a +timber campanile in the north churchyard. Even now they cannot be +pealed.</p> + +<p>The deplorable refacings have left few features of interest on the +outside. Were Gothic architecture still a living and not merely +imitative and academic art, one would welcome a complete renewal of +all outside work—not an imagined harking back to the work of the +fifteenth century but showing the lapse of the centuries from the +fifteenth to the twentieth as clearly as does the north porch the +change from the thirteenth to the fifteenth.</p> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep068" id="imagep068"></a><a name="CHAPTER_III_HT" id="CHAPTER_III_HT"></a> +<a href="images/imagep068.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep068.jpg" width="45%" alt="INTERIOR OF HOLY TRINITY, FROM THE WEST." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INTERIOR OF HOLY TRINITY, FROM THE WEST.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE INTERIOR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>It is with a feeling of expectation followed by one of relief that we +pass within the church, for restoration has there rarely the same +excuse for its devastations as the action of wind and weather on the +exterior too generously gives it, and this church is no exception to +the general rule.</p> + +<p>The clearing away of galleries, the provision of new seating and the +renewal of much window tracery have been the principal changes, the +greatest loss being the destruction of the Corpus Christi Chapel. The +nave is of moderate width and consists of only four bays, the eastern +arches being narrower and made to abut against the tower after the +manner of flying buttresses. The columns are clusters of four large +filleted shafts separated by small ones while the bases are high and +evidently meant to be seen above the benches. The caps are shallow and +very simple, while the shafts of each pier reappear as part of the +arch moulding.</p> + +<p>The arcade as a whole is remarkably strong and dignified, it would +perhaps have gained by the addition of a bay in length. In the absence +of precise records it may be assigned to the second quarter of the +fourteenth century or a little later. Above the tower arch can still +be seen, beneath the painting and plaster, the marks of the older +steep roof. The nave of Stratford-on-Avon Church has points of +resemblance to this. There too we have a fourteenth-century arcade +(but much simpler) with a fifteenth-century panelled wall and +clearstory above, and the panelling comes down on to the backs of the +arches in a similar though somewhat simpler manner.</p> + +<p>Owing to the inequality of the eastern arches there is, in the +position of the windows and roof principals a curious disregard of the +lines of the piers and the centres of arches. There are eight equal +bays in the roof and each corresponds to two two-light windows. It is +interesting to compare the design of this clearstory with that of St. +Michael's. It has more solidity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span>to accord with the more vigorous +arcade though the treatment of the panelling is similar. The height +from the arch to the roof is much less in proportion, but the sills of +the windows are kept lower and the heads are square. The form of the +windows is perhaps determined in part by the desire for more space for +stained glass, but it is also the logical outcome of the space +afforded by the level lines of a wooden roof just as the use of the +pointed window follows from the use of pointed vaulting. The treatment +of the angles after the manner of the thirteenth century "shouldered" +lintel in order to take off the harshness of the rectangular form and +to give a better bearing for the lintels is noteworthy and should be +compared with the more developed forms at St. John's Church.</p> + +<p>Above the tower arch is a painting of the Last Judgement, discovered +in 1831. It is now so much darkened that very little can be made out. +The following is a description of its appearance before 1860: In the +centre is the Saviour clothed in crimson and seated on a rainbow. +Below are the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist with the twelve +Apostles arranged on each hand. Two angels sound the summons to +Judgement, and on the right of our Saviour, steps lead to a portico +over which three angels look down on the scene and others welcome a +pope who has just passed St. Peter. On the Saviour's left are doomed +spirits being conveyed by devils in various ways and in ludicrous +attitudes to the place of torment, represented in the usual manner by +the gaping mouth of a monster, vomiting flames of fire. A large +painting of a crucifix, with a priest kneeling beside it and angels +flying above, was discovered at the same time on the north side of the +Chancel but was too much mutilated to be thought worthy of +preservation.</p> + +<p>The <b>roofs</b> throughout are of low pitch, and almost all resemble one +another in design. Those of the nave, chancel, archdeacon's chapel (on +the west of the north porch) and transepts are divided by their +principal timbers into large panels, which are again subdivided by +mouldings upon the boarded ceiling. At all angles and intersections +there are carved leaves, and stars in relief adorn each panel. All +these roofs are painted in accordance, it is said, with existing +indications of the original colouring. The ground is blue, the +mouldings red and white, the stars and carving are gilt. The nave roof +spandrels, above the tie-beams, have large painted figures of angels, +supporting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>between them shields emblazoned with the instruments of +the Passion. These are also said to be reproductions, but it appears +likely that time had left much to the imagination of their restorer.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep071" id="imagep071"></a> +<a href="images/imagep071.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep071.jpg" width="50%" alt="NORTH SIDE OF NAVE, EASTERN BAYS." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">NORTH SIDE OF NAVE, EASTERN BAYS.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>Nevertheless, the whole effect of the roofs is harmonious, a result +apparently obtained by the use of a blue far removed from the +ultramarine tint too often employed.</p> + +<p>Since the removal of the ringing floor, in 1855, the lantern stage of +the tower has been once more visible from the church. A wooden vaulted +ceiling was at the same time inserted where a stone one had originally +been built or intended.</p> + +<p>The <b>chancel</b> is dark owing to the small clearstory windows, the low +outer north aisle, and the concealment of a south window by the organ. +At the first pier east of the tower came the rood-screen, and on the +south side (in the aisle) the door to it may be seen at a height above +the floor. Access must have been by steep steps against the wall, or +from the top of another screen across the aisle. The church accounts +of the year 1560 tell us what it cost to remove:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="Church Accounts 1560"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="80%">Payd for taking down ye rode and Marie and John</td> + <td class="tdr" width="20%" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">4<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Payd to ye carpenter for pullyng down ye rode lofft</td> + <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">4<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<a name="imagep073" id="imagep073"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 30%;"> +<a href="images/imagep073.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep073.jpg" width="100%" alt="PULPIT." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">PULPIT.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>On the east side of the tower wall can be seen the line of the +original roof, showing the height before the rebuilding in 1391. +Although there is space for larger windows the aisle roof prevented +their sills being brought lower. The west arch of the south arcade has +been forced out of shape by the pressure of the tower piers and +arches; certainly the piers, which are little more than 4 feet square, +seem slender enough for the support of so lofty a steeple.</p> + +<p>Attached to this south-east tower pier is the stone pulpit, one of the +two special glories of the church, the other being the brass eagle. +The pulpit is either contemporary with the pier or nearly so. There is +apparently some difference in the texture and colour of the stone, but +as it is probable that a finer-grained stone would be chosen for work +of this character, this need not imply a difference of date. It was, +however, probably added at the same time as the nave clearstory. The +authors of "English Church Furniture" assign it to 1470.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Before +1833 (when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span>restored by Rickman) it had been hidden from sight by +wood-work and a clerk's desk at a lower level. The lower part is +boldly corbelled out and the junction of the octagon with the pier +shafts is well managed, but the upper open-panelled part is rather too +definitely cut off from the lower by the battlemented cornice. Very +few examples of this class of pulpit exist in England, and none equal +in importance.</p> + +<p>The eagle <b>lectern</b> is a magnificent example of brass casting. It is +generally attributed to the late fifteenth century. This eagle +narrowly escaped being sold by the Puritans for old brass, as happened +to that of St. Michael's. It closely resembles one belonging to St. +Nicholas' Chapel, Lynn, save that the latter is not equal in +refinement of detail and proportion, and the bird is less vigorous in +pose and modelling. In 1560 there was "paid for skowring ye Egle and +candell styckes, 10<i>d.</i>," and "for mending of ye Egle's tayle, 16<i>d.</i>"</p> + +<p>At least nine chapels and fifteen altars are known to have existed in +the church. The present choir vestry on the north side was the Lady +Chapel. A simple piscina on the south side, about a foot above the +present floor, shows that the old floor level was much lower.</p> + +<p>The <b>north aisle</b> is lofty and has a clearstory of three windows over +the arcade. In the outer aisle was located Marler's, or the Mercers', +Chapel, founded in 1537, and beneath it is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>crypt or charnel house, +now closed save for small ventilating openings.</p> + +<p style="clear: both;">The black oak roof of low pitch has the panels of the western bay only +richly carved with vine leaves and grapes. Its date is, perhaps, as +late as the foundation of the chantry. The piscina is in the north +wall.</p> + +<a name="imagep074" id="imagep074"></a> +<div class="imgl" style="width: 40%;"> +<a href="images/imagep074.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep074.jpg" width="100%" alt="ARCHWAY BETWEEN THE NORTH PORCH AND ST. THOMAS'S CHAPEL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ARCHWAY BETWEEN THE NORTH PORCH AND ST. THOMAS'S +CHAPEL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>West of the north transept is <b>St. Thomas's Chapel</b>. Dugdale says that +Allesley's chantry was founded in the time of Edward I, at the altar +of St. Thomas the Martyr, "in a chapel near adjoining to the church +porch." The chapel is certainly older, for the beautiful double +doorway from the porch is not later than mid-thirteenth century. The +outer doorway of the porch was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The +inner one, with a finely moulded arch with angle shafts and the vault +with simple diagonal ribs carried <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>on shafts, is of the early +thirteenth century. It is to be regretted that this fine porch is not +better seen. Signs of the puzzling reconstructions that have occurred +in this part are visible in the aisle wall. Two lancet windows high up +are of the same date as the porch, and are blocked by the chamber +since constructed above St. Thomas's Chapel, and parts of other window +jambs are seen at different levels.</p> + +<p>The Archdeacon's Chapel or consistory court, to the west of the porch, +is now one of the most interesting parts of the church.</p> + +<p>It is divided from the north aisle by two lofty arches with an +octagonal column. The original dedication is not known, but in 1588 it +was already used as an Ecclesiastical Court, and the next year a +bishop's seat was made for use in it. In the south-west angle is a +tall, narrow recess, once closed by a door. Lockers of this +description were constructed for the safe keeping of the shaft of the +processional cross, and for the staves of banners. On the east side +the roof now cuts across the head of a window of reticulated tracery +of the early fourteenth century. Most of the monuments have been +brought hither from various parts of the church; only two or three are +of general interest. A late Perpendicular canopied tomb, rudely carved +and badly fitted together, stands against the north wall, but there is +nothing to show whom it commemorates. On the east wall is the monument +of Dr. Philemon Holland, with a long Latin epitaph. Fuller says of +him: "he was the translator general in his age, so that those books +alone of his turning into English will make a country gentleman a +competent library for historians." Born at Chelmsford in 1551 he +settled at Coventry in 1595, was usher and then master of St. John's +Free School for twenty-eight years, and died in 1636 in his +eighty-fifth year. During his usher-ship Dugdale was a pupil of the +school.</p> + +<p>An engraved brass to John Whithead, who died in 1597, is interesting +for the sake of the costumes of himself and his two wives. Three stone +coffins have also been deposited here, and two sheets of lead from the +roof recording, in fine bold lettering, the repairs executed in 1660 +and 1728. In the middle window on the north side are the only +remaining fragments of ancient glass. As late as 1779 there were +"portraits" of Earl Leofric and the Countess, and also, it is said, a +smaller figure of the lady in a yellow dress on a white horse. Part of +a small figure <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span>holding a spray of leaves and part of a galloping +horse are pointed out as the remains of this. To the writer the figure +appears to be clearly that of a man, and the horse and rider's leg not +to have belonged to it.</p> + +<p>The modern stained glass is very unequal in character, and some is +very poor indeed. The windows at the west, especially one in memory of +Mr. Wm. Chater, a late organist, may be regarded as exceptions. There +are still, fortunately, many which are not filled with pious +memorials.</p> + +<p>The <b>font</b> is the original pre-Reformation one of the fifteenth +century, which was removed by the Puritans in 1645 (though devoid of +sculpture) and brought back after the Restoration. It stands on three +steps, is panelled on bowl and stem, and rather brilliantly adorned +with gold and colour.</p> + +<a name="imagep077" id="imagep077"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 20%;"> +<a href="images/imagep077.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep077.jpg" width="100%" alt="ALMS-BOX." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ALMS-BOX.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The south aisle was no doubt divided into two chapels, that on the +west belonging to the Barkers' or Tanners' Gild. A small piscina +against the south wall indicates the position of its altar. The wall +below the windows is recessed so as to form a seat the whole length of +the aisle.</p> + +<p>The <b>south transept</b>, containing the Corpus Christi and Cellet's +chantries, has lost its original character completely. The piscina, +high up on the south wall, shows that the floor level was some 9 feet +above that of the church. The reason for this has been already +explained. The organ chamber is quite modern. The best authorities +place the chapel of the Butchers' Gild in the south aisle of the +chancel, but do not say to whom the eastern chapel in the nave aisle +belonged. It is known that there was a Jesus Chapel, and, in view of +the proximity of Jesus Hall, it is believed by some that this was its +position.</p> + +<p>The present clergy vestry is a fine room, having an excellent dark oak +roof with heavy beams and well carved bosses at the intersections of +the timbers. The Royal Arms over the fireplace were painted there in +1632. Although usual, the placing of the king's arms in churches was +not compulsory until the Restoration; few earlier now remain, and this +placing of them in the vestry rather than the body of the church is +suggestive of a compromise between opposing factions. A portrait of +Walter Farquhar Hook, Vicar from 1828-37 and afterwards Dean of +Chichester is hung here.</p> + +<p>It seems probable that this was a chapel, perhaps that of the Holy +Trinity, to whom an altar was dedicated.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>The history, as traced in the church accounts, of the various organs +used in the church gives some idea of the fluctuations of opinion as +to the propriety of their use. In 1526 John Howe and John Climmowe, +citizens and organ makers of London, contracted to provide, for £30, +"a peir of Organs w<span style="vertical-align: super;">t</span> vij stopps, ov'r and besides the two Towers of +cases, of the pitche of doble Eff, and w<span style="vertical-align: super;">t</span> xxvij pleyn keyes, xix +musiks, xlvj cases of Tynn and xiiij cases of wood, w<span style="vertical-align: super;">t</span> two Starrs and +the image of the Trinite on the topp of the sayed orgayns." In 1570 +the "payer of balowes" were sold, and in 1583 the pipes, "wayeng +eleven score and thirteen pounds, went for fourpence half-farthing the +pound." In 1632 a new one was obtained but its life was short, for in +1641 the Puritan party caused it to be sold "for the best advantage."</p> + +<p>Once more, in 1684, another was purchased from Mr. Robert Hay wood of +the City of Bath for £100; then, in 1732, Thomas Swarbrick of Warwick +built one for £600, for which a gallery was erected across the nave.</p> + +<p>In 1855 this gave place to a new one by Foster and Andrews of Hull, +costing £800; and this was rebuilt by Messrs. Hill and Son in 1900.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%; clear: both;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "English Church Furniture." (Antiquary series.) J.C. Cox +and A. Harvey.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep080" id="imagep080"></a><a name="ST_JOHN_BAPTISTS_CHURCH" id="ST_JOHN_BAPTISTS_CHURCH"></a> +<a href="images/imagep080.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep080.jpg" width="95%" alt="CHURCH OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST, FROM BOND'S HOSPITAL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">CHURCH OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST, FROM BOND'S HOSPITAL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span><br /> + +<h3>ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S CHURCH<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The church of St. John Baptist has a history quite different from that +of the other parish churches and is specially interesting as a +building belonging to a very limited class, namely, Collegiate +Churches owned by a Gild. Though Dugdale says that the "first and most +antient of the Gilds here was founded in the 14th Ed. III (1340)" it +is probable that, as in other places, religious gilds had for long +existed here and that the royal license or Charter of this date was +like that of Stratford-on-Avon in 1332, really a reconstitution or +confirmation of the Gild's rights, privileges and possessions.</p> + +<p>This earliest one was known as the Merchant or St. Mary's Gild and its +first ordinances provided that "the brethren and sisteren of the gild +shall find as many chaplains as the means of the gild can well +afford." Then in 1342 that of St. John Baptist and in 1343 that of St. +Katharine was founded. The former at once founded a chantry of six +priests to sing mass daily in the churches of St. Michael and the +Trinity for "the souls of the King's progenitors and for the good +estate of the King, Queen Isabella his mother, Queen Philippa his +Consort and their children" and others, besides the members of the +Gild. In 1344 this Gild, desiring to have a building for its exclusive +use, received from Queen Isabella a small piece of land called +Babbelak on which to build a chapel in honour of God and St. John, two +priests being required to sing masses daily for the souls "of her dear +lord Edward," John, Earl of Cornwall and others. Did she seek to +satisfy her conscience thus for the woes she had brought upon her +<i>dear lord</i>? The site thus given measured 117 feet from north to south +and about 40 feet from east to west giving room for the chancel only +of the present church, this being dedicated in 1350. But in 1357 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span>William Walsheman, valet to the Queen and now her sub-bailiff in +Coventry gave further land, added a new aisle and increased the number +of priests while the Black Prince in 1359 gave a small plot on which, +perhaps, the tower and transept now stand. Within the next ten years +Walsheman and Christiana his wife gave to the Gild certain tenements, +called the "Drapery," in the city to build a chapel in honour of the +Holy Trinity, St. Mary, St. John, and St. Katharine "within the Chapel +of Bablake." William Wolfe, mayor in 1375, is mentioned as a "great +helper" in the work at the church, the original nave and aisles being +probably built at this time, and some reconstruction of the choir. +Records are wanting of the subsequent alterations which gave it its +present form. The north clearstory of the nave shows the original +design while that of the choir and the south side of the nave belong +to the fifteenth century as do the tower and the cruciform arrangement +of the building. Leland's "Itinerary" gives the following description: +"There is also a Collegiate Church at Bablake, hard within the West +Gate (Spon Gate) alias Bablake Gate, dedicated to St. John.... It is +of the foundation of the Burgesses and there is a great Privilege, +Gild or Fraternity. In this College is now a Master and eight +ministers and lately twelve ministers." Stowe adds that there were +twelve singing men and extant deeds mention "Babbelake Hall" in which +the warden and priests lived.</p> + +<p>Many interesting entries of expenditure are to be found in the gild +accounts showing how the Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve) and other +festivals were celebrated before the suppression of the gilds by +Edward VI. In 1541 we have the following (the spelling is somewhat +modernized):</p> + +<div class="block"><p>Expenses on Midsummer Even and on the day,—Item, 2 doz. & a half +cakes, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; spice cakes, 12<i>d.</i>; a cest' ale and 4 gals. +4<i>s.</i>; 2 gals, claret wine 16<i>d.</i>; 2 gals. malmsey, 2<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>; 2 +gals. muskedell 2<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>; to Mr. Mayor 3<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>; the Mayor to +offer, 8<i>d.</i>; to priests, clerks and children, 2<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>; the +waits, 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>; to poor people 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>; to the cross-bearers +and torch-bearers, 8<i>d.</i>; the bellman, 4<i>d.</i>; the hire of pots, +4<i>d.</i>; boughs, rushes and sweeping, 8<i>d.</i>; a woman 2 days to +cleanse the house, 4<i>d.</i>; half a hundred 3<i>d.</i> nails, 1½<i>d.</i>; +half a pound of sugar, 4½<i>d.</i>; to the crossbearer and torchbearer +for St. George Day, Holy Rood Day, Shire Thursday and Whit +Sunday, 12<i>d.</i>; to 2 children for the same days, 6<i>d.</i> Summa +(total) 38<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span>That these anniversaries and wakes led to much unseemly revelling we +have evidence that cannot be gainsaid. The Trinity Gild decided in +1542</p> + +<div class="block"><p>that no obite, drynkyng or com'en assemblie, from henceforth +shall be had or used at Babalake, except onelie on Trinitie even +and on the day, which shall be used as it hath been in tymes +past. And that also the P'sts of Babelack shall say <i>dirige</i> on +midsum' even and likewise masse of <i>requiem</i> on the morrowe, as +they have used to doo. And that the Meire shall not come down +thether to <i>dirige</i> ov(er) night for dyv's considerac'ons and +other great busynes they used. And on the morowe thei to go +thether to masse and brekefast, as thei have used to doo.</p></div> + +<p>Dugdale quotes from an old MS. an interesting passage bearing on this +question:</p> + +<div class="block"><p>"And ye shall understond and know how the Evyns were furst found +in old tyme. In the beginning of holi Chirche, it was so that the +pepull cam to the Chirche with candellys brennyng and wold <i>Wake</i> +and come with light toward nyght to the Chirch to their +devocions; and afterwards they fell to lecherie and songs, +daunces, harping, piping and also to glotony and sinne and so +turned the holinesse to cursaydnesse; wherefore holi faders +ordeined the pepull to leve that <i>waking</i> and to fast the Evyn. +But it is called <i>Vigilia</i>, that is <i>Waking</i> in English and it is +called the Evyn, for at Evyn they were wont to come to Chirche."</p></div> + +<p>In 1362 Queen Isabella helped to procure from the bishop a licence for +one Robert de Worthin, priest, to become an anchorite and to inhabit a +hermitage attached to the north aisle of the chancel. Traces of the +foundations of this have been found on the site of the modern vestry.</p> + +<p>When the college was suppressed in 1548 the King granted to the mayor, +bailiffs and corporation, on their petition, the church and its +appurtenances in Free Burgage for ever on payment of 1<i>d.</i>, per annum +and gave them "all the rents, revenues and profits of the said +church."</p> + +<p>But these gifts were not sufficient to support the church and its +services, so that the latter were irregular and repairs were +neglected. In 1608 Mayor Hancox procured the delivery of a Saturday +lecture "for the better fitting of the people for the Sabbath." In +1641 Simon Norton, alderman, left property to his son Thomas, on +trust, the condition being that if at any time St. John's should +become a parish church, he or his heirs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span>should pay £13 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> to +the minister out of rents of lands in Coundon, and also the tithes of +lands in Clifton.</p> + +<p>Prisoners from the Scottish army being quartered on the city in 1647, +many were confined in this church and wrought much damage and +desecration. From this time services were only occasionally held, +until 1734, when an Act of Parliament was obtained making it a Parish +Church, appointing a district to it and enabling the Master and Usher +of the Free Grammar School to be Rector and Lecturer of the church. +The mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty were made patrons, but in 1835, +these arrangements having failed to work satisfactorily, the patronage +was transferred to trustees who acted as managers of the school and in +1864 the lectureship was abolished, the rectory was severed from the +office of Head Master and the Trustees of the school were charged with +a payment of £200 per annum towards the stipend of the Rector. In 1874 +the advowson was sold to a private person. A great deal of +restoration, justifiable and otherwise, has taken place, the decay of +the local sandstone having made large repairs necessary. In 1861 much +renewal of the external stone work was carried out. Unfortunately +shortsighted ideas of economy led to the use of the same poor stone +and much has recently had to be done over again, this time with the +harder Runcorn stone used also at St. Michael's. The interior was +restored in 1875, galleries erected in 1735 and 1838, and high pews +were removed, the floor, which had been raised three feet, lowered, +the lantern stage of the tower opened up by removing a ringing floor +and a light iron gallery above the tower arches provided for the +ringers. The original groined ceiling has thus been made visible from +below.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE EXTERIOR</h4> + +<p>Although small in area compared with the other churches, both exterior +and interior give an impression of size and dignity which does not +belong to many much larger buildings. In the exterior this is no doubt +due to the pseudo-cruciform arrangement, the bold central tower and +the height of the main roof, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span>which would have appeared even greater +had the roadways not been so much raised.</p> + +<p>The <b>tower</b> is in two stages, a lofty lantern story having two +transomed two-light windows on each face and a shorter upper one +having smaller windows without transoms and a battlemented parapet. +Large skeleton clock-dials disfigure the windows of this story. Narrow +buttress strips on either side and between the windows run through and +serve to connect the stories. The north-east angle has an octagonal +stair turret carried up above the parapet. The other angles have +narrow buttresses running up to circular bartizans boldly corbelled +out from the battlements. This is an extremely unusual feature in +ecclesiastical architecture but is common on fortified structures. Of +the City gates, Gosford Gate had machicolated ones but not Spon Gate +adjacent to the church.</p> + +<a name="imagep085" id="imagep085"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 55%;"> +<a href="images/imagep085.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep085.jpg" width="100%" alt="ST. JOHN BAPTIST." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. JOHN BAPTIST.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The spacing of the windows and buttresses of the south aisle and the +position of the large transept window show how the later changes were +effected. The three windows and the buttresses with niches and +canopies almost certainly belong to the part built by Walsheman after +1357. The two in the chancel aisle are recent insertions. The doorway +at the south-west corner occupies the position where indications +showed that an original door had existed. There is also a small +priest's doorway of which the jambs are ancient. The clearstory was +restored in 1861 "from sufficiently clear indications" in the remains +of the original windows. The whole of this part is worthy of careful +study and should be compared with the corresponding parts of Trinity +Church. Everywhere we see signs of individual thought and design +mainly directed to softening the rigidity of the horizontal lines of +the square-headed and transomed "Perpendicular" windows. The method of +cusping the drop-arch and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span>the varied treatment of these in nave, +choir and transepts are noteworthy while the little quatrefoil at the +intersection of mullion and transom is a really happy innovation. The +flying buttress over the south aisle restores a feature of the old +building which had disappeared. Of the variously panelled and +battlemented parapets, of nave, chancel and aisles a view of 1864 +gives no visible hint. As the report of Sir (then Mr.) G.G. Scott in +1856 specifies as desirable the "renewing all the parapets according +to the portions of the original which remain," we can only hope (but +with no sense of certainty) that these parts are faithfully +reproduced.</p> + +<p>The limited site on which the chancel was built (only 40 feet deep) +caused the builders to omit any buttresses or other projections at the +east end. The east window was renewed in 1861 but the proportions are +not good and it is said that one light was suppressed although the old +sill remained intact.</p> + +<p>The west end has a large six-light window with two transoms. It was +restored in 1841 and is said to be a precise reproduction of the +original design. On the gable above it is a large niched pinnacle +which appears to be an "unauthorized" addition.</p> + +<p>While the north aisle is later than the south, the clearstory, as has +been said is earlier, being of late Decorated date with large +three-light windows of reticulated tracery. The north transept is more +consistent in style than the south. The large four-light window is +peculiar in design. It has one transom and the tracery is brought down +much below the spring of the arch. The centre mullion is very solid, +coming forward almost to the wall face both inside and out and running +up to the apex of the arch. The clearstory windows in both transepts +are similar in general design to those of the south clearstory of the +nave but with variations suggesting a rather later date. A very +effective view of the north side can be had from the quadrangle of +Bond's Hospital, though here too it loses on account of the depressed +site in which it lies.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE INTERIOR</h4> + +<p>The interior is not less impressive for its size than the exterior, +Sir G.G. Scott even saying that he knew of no interior more beautiful +than St. John's.</p> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep087" id="imagep087"></a> +<a href="images/imagep087.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep087.jpg" width="45%" alt="INTERIOR, ST. JOHN BAPTIST." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">INTERIOR, ST. JOHN BAPTIST.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep088" id="imagep088"></a> +<a href="images/imagep088.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep088.jpg" width="75%" alt="CLEARSTORY WINDOWS." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">CLEARSTORY WINDOWS.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>All at least will agree that there is something about it striking and +dignified which is obviously not concerned with mere size, is largely +independent of elaboration of detail and may therefore be safely +attributed to its satisfactory proportions and broad effects of light +and shade. Its plan is quite simple consisting of a nave and choir +with north and south aisles, a transept not projecting beyond the +aisles at either end and a central tower. Yet, although it is more or +less oblong as a whole, there is hardly a right angle or two parallel +walls throughout the church. In most cases these discrepancies are not +apparent, nor do they appear likely to have been intended to produce a +studied effect. Thus a diminution in width towards the east (as at +Manchester) may be expected to add to the apparent length, but here +the south aisles of both nave and chancel expand instead of +contracting. By standing within either transept and looking up at the +roof the want of parallelism of the walls and other irregularities are +plainly seen. The nave has only three bays, the arches being rather +lofty and the arch mouldings of the characteristic shallowness of the +period. The south-west pier had to be rebuilt on account of settlement +and there are signs of it in the south-east arch next the tower. The +name Bablake is said to have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>derived from a pond or conduit near +by and the site may have been swampy, thus affecting the foundations. +The district is even now liable to flooding from the Sherborne (or +Shireburn) stream and as late as January 1900 the waters rose over +five feet within the church as a brass plate at the west end +testifies.</p> + +<p>The graceful treatment of the windows of the nave and choir +clearstories is shown in the illustration. Comparing these with the +clearstory of Trinity nave (p. 71) questions of priority arise. If not +designed by the same mind the influence of one on the other is easily +seen. On the whole the greater rigidity of treatment and the anxiety +to increase the area of glass in the Trinity windows suggest that the +date is rather later and that the designs did not spring from the same +brain. The roof is very simple, the curved brackets springing from the +shafts which run down to the arches below. The wall is deeply recessed +beneath the windows. The north windows, however, are continued down in +plain panels, but this only makes more apparent the fact that they are +not placed centrally over the arches.</p> + +<p>The north aisle has a doorway and two north windows. The windows are +of good Perpendicular design, and the mullions are continued down the +wall below, forming panels. The lowered sill and recess probably +formed a convenient retable to an altar against the wall. The west +window preserves some fragments of glass dated 1532. There is an +obliterated inscription and small etched figures—among them an +acolyte carrying a cross, one of those whose services are mentioned in +the accounts after this wise: "to the crosebeirer and torchebeirer, +for Seynt George day, hollieroode day, shire thuresday and Whit +Sunday, 12<i>d.</i>; to 2 childern for the same dayes 6<i>d.</i>"</p> + +<p>The south aisle of the nave, including the lower part of the transept, +is doubtless the aisle erected for the Gild by William Walsheman in +1357. The two windows are not central with the nave arches, and the +third is not in the centre of the transept. Their tracery is somewhat +peculiar in design and refined in detail, and has the transitional +character one would expect from its date. There are signs on the face +of each western tower pier of the altars which once stood there, +probably those of the Trinity and St. Katharine, which are known to +have existed.</p> + +<p>The eastern piers of the tower are later than the western, and very +unlike them in plan. A bold and ingenious treatment of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>vaulting +shaft of the tower groining is used on these piers; on the western +ones the shafts stop upon the ends of the hood moulding.</p> + +<p>The choir is now closed by a screen carrying a large rood carved in +oak. Like St. Michael's, but to a smaller extent, the axis of the +choir inclines to the north. Whether symbolic, or only a part of what +may be described as the studied irregularity of the whole building it +is hard to say. The column on each side of the choir is later than the +east respond and also later than the west tower pier, but corresponds +with the east tower pier. The deep panelling beneath the windows must +have been carried out when the clearstories were constructed in the +fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>The south aisle of the choir, the original chapel of the patron saint, +is now fitted up and used as a morning chapel. The piscina still +remains in the south wall, and there is a trace of the old altar +visible on the wall.</p> + +<p>The east end of the north aisle is now the organ chamber, and was +originally the Lady Chapel. The base of the altar still exists, and so +does the piscina in the south wall.</p> + +<p>In connection with these or other altars we hear of a payment of +22<i>d.</i>, in 1474, for painting a cloth for the image of St. John +Baptist, and in 1462 sums of 40<i>s.</i> and 7<i>s.</i> were paid to a sculptor +of Burton-on-Trent for an alabaster statue of the Virgin and a base +for it.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the south-west tower-pier are some decayed but +interesting ancient tiles. The new ones have been copied from them.</p> + +<p>The vicissitudes in the church's fortunes have left little for us to +see that is not part and parcel of the structure.</p> + +<p>That there were "orgaynes" as early as 1461 we know from entries in +the city records giving the cost at different times of wire, glue, +nails, thread, etc., for the reparation of them, while a payment of +2<i>d.</i> for "a string" suggests that they were a combination of wind and +string stops, similar to the 1733 organ of St. Michael's as built by +Thomas Swarbrick. In 1519 the Prior bought the "metell of ye old +orgayns in bablake" for 9<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i>, but doubtless the new one +disappeared in the troublous times that followed. A new one has +recently been set up.</p> + +<p>The pulpit is of stone and quite new, and the font, erected in 1843, +is a copy of that of St. Edward's, Cambridge.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span>There are five bells, the inscriptions on them being as follows:</p> + + +<div class="block"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Bells Inscriptions"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="10%" style="vertical-align: top;">1st.</td> + <td class="tdl" width="90%">Henrycus Bagley. M.C. Fecit 1676.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" style="vertical-align: top;">2nd.</td> + <td class="tdl">Pack & Chapman. London 1778. Richard Eaton, Church-warden.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" style="vertical-align: top;">3rd.</td> + <td class="tdl">Henric Dodenhale, Fecit. M.C.E.I.C.R.I.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" style="vertical-align: top;">4th.</td> + <td class="tdl">(Illegible.) Probably of the end of fifteenth century.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" style="vertical-align: top;">5th.</td> + <td class="tdl" style="padding-left: 2em;">I ring at six to let men know<br /> + When to and from their work to go.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>Neglect and decay it has been seen had provided only too plausible +excuses for restoration. In 1858 the church had a narrow escape from a +worse fate, for it was proposed to extend it in some direction, and +the architect suggested the lengthening of the north transept and the +addition of a new north aisle. Probably lack of funds alone prevented +the carrying out of a proposal which would have completely spoilt the +proportions of this beautiful interior.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="THE_GREY_FRIARS" id="THE_GREY_FRIARS"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>THE GREY FRIARS' CONVENT<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>CHRIST CHURCH</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The third of the "three tall spires," albeit nothing else remains of +the church to which it belonged, deserves that some notice should be +given of it and of the men who reared it.</p> + +<a name="imagep092" id="imagep092"></a> +<div class="imgl" style="width: 30%;"> +<a href="images/imagep092.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep092.jpg" width="100%" alt="THE SPIRE OF CHRIST CHURCH." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">THE SPIRE OF CHRIST CHURCH.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>In 1234, eleven years after their first coming into England, the +Franciscan Friars are heard of at Coventry, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, +having granted them land for their oratory, and the Sheriff of +Warwickshire, on behalf of the King, giving them shingles from the +woods of Kenilworth wherewith to cover it. In 1359 the Black Prince, +then owner of the Manor and Park of Cheylesmore, just outside the +walls of the city and adjacent to their convent, granted them so much +stone from his quarry there, "as they should have occasion to use +about their buildings and walls," and probably at this time the +church, of which Christ Church spire is a remnant, was built.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>At the same time he gave them "liberty to have a postern into the +Park to carry out any of their convent that should be diseased."</p> + +<p>The house was surrendered to the King in 1539, the warden and ten +brethren being compelled to sign a humiliating document, in which they +professed to "profoundly consider that the perfection of Christian +living doth not consist in dumb ceremonies, wearing of a grey coat, +disguising ourself after strange fashions, ducking, nodding and +becking, in girding our selves with a girdle full of knots and other +like Papisticall ceremonies."</p> + +<a name="imagep093" id="imagep093"></a> +<div class="imgr" style="width: 30%;"> +<a href="images/imagep093.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep093.jpg" width="100%" alt="GREY FRIARS' CHURCH (CROSSING)." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">GREY FRIARS' CHURCH (CROSSING).</p> +</div> + +<p>It is certain at least that they had no accumulated wealth. Whatever +they had received had been distributed for the advantage of the Church +or the poor. At their suppression they had neither lands, tenements, +nor other possessions, save their church and house and the land these +stood on. The site was granted to the city and the buildings thrown +down, only the spire with its supporting walls and arches being +allowed to stand until 1829, when it was incorporated with the new +nave of Christ Church from the designs of Rickman, to whom we are +indebted for the first comprehensive and systematic account of English +Mediæval architecture. The work shows how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>imperfectly in those days +even a genuine admirer of Mediæval Art understood its spirit. +Unfortunately the tower and spire were recased with new stone, and the +original character of the work largely disappeared. The total height +is 204 feet, exclusive of the vane. The plan of the old church was +interesting, especially in the arrangement of the crossing. The short +transepts had little real relation to choir or nave, which were almost +completely separated from one another, the nave being intended for the +use of the public.</p> + +<p>The narrowing of the tower from east to west, and the insertion of +secondary north and south arches to carry the slender octagonal tower +is unusual and ingenious. The whole length was 250 feet, and the +transepts were 96 feet from north to south. The nave and choir +differed little in length.</p> + +<p>The connection of the Franciscans with the production of the +Mysteries, or sacred plays, should not pass unnoticed. Dugdale, who +had spoken with eye witnesses, thus alludes to the subject:</p> + +<div class="block" style="clear: both;"><p>Before the suppression of the Monasteries this City was very +famous for the Pageants that were played therein upon Corpus +Christi-day; which occasioning very great confluence of people +thither from far and near, was of no small benefit thereto; which +Pageants being acted with mighty State and Reverence by the +Friars of this House, had Theatres for the several scenes, very +large and high, placed upon wheels and drawn to all the eminent +parts of the City for the better advantage of spectators; and +contained the story of the Old and New Testament, composed in the +old English Rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. intituled, +<i>Ludus Corporis Christi</i>, or <i>Ludus Coventriæ</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Along with a number that were performed by the city companies they are +still to be seen in the British Museum. We know that the Friars +presented them as late as 1492, when Henry VII was present with his +Queen to see the plays "acted by the Grey Friars."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span>No remains exist of the domestic buildings of the Friary. The +well-known Ford's Hospital hard by is often called Grey Friars' +Hospital, but this arises merely from the situation. It was founded in +1529 by Mr. William Ford of Coventry, Merchant of the Staple, for five +men and one woman, but is now inhabited by women only. It is an +exceptionally beautiful example of Tudor timber construction in +perfect condition.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="THE_WHITE_FRIARS" id="THE_WHITE_FRIARS"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>THE WHITE FRIARS<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Carmelite or White Friars were, says Dugdale, fixed in Coventry in +1343 by Sir John Poultney who had been four times Lord Mayor of +London. Although their buildings were ornate and extensive, their +revenue apart from oblations amounted to only £3 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> per annum +and the whole came to less than £8. At the Dissolution the house and +its revenues came eventually to John Hales, Clerk of the Hanaper to +Henry VIII. Having amassed a great estate in monastery and chantry +lands, Hales founded the Free School in Coventry, the Church of the +White Friars being at first used for the purpose. Later, he made of +the Friary a dwelling and removed the school to St. John's Hospital, +granted to him by the king in 1545. Part of the church of the Hospital +still exists at the foot of Bishop Street, but the school has been +removed to new buildings in the Warwick Road.</p> + +<p>Of the buildings of the White Friars there are considerable remains +incorporated with the Union Workhouse at the top of Much Park Street. +The east walk of the cloister, 150 feet in length, has a fine groined +roof of the fifteenth century. A range of vaulted apartments runs +alongside the cloister on the east side, divided midway by the +vestibule to the Chapter House now destroyed. The upper story above +the cloister and the range of rooms was, we may assume, the friars' +Dormitory. A huge fireplace and a bay window are part of John Hales' +reconstruction. The gateway to the south-west corner of the cloister +remains, and the outer gate of the precincts may still be seen in Much +Park Street.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span><br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span><br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep096" id="imagep096"></a><a name="ST_MARY_HALL" id="ST_MARY_HALL"></a> +<a href="images/imagep096.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep096.jpg" width="50%" alt="ST. MARY HALL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. MARY HALL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span><br /> + +<h3>ST. MARY HALL<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The Gilds were so important a part of the religious and social life of +the city that it is imperative that some notice of their hall, which +stands in suggestive proximity to the churches, should be given. St. +Mary Hall, opposite the south side of St. Michael's is one of the most +complete and beautiful examples of a fifteenth-century town dwelling +now remaining in England. It originally belonged to the Gilds of Holy +Trinity and Our Lady to which were united at a later time those of St. +Katharine and St. John Baptist, the oldest to be founded. By the fine +groined gateway we enter the courtyard, on the south side of which is +the kitchen, probably the hall of an older structure of the first half +of the fourteenth century, the present hall and its undercroft on the +west side having been built between 1394 and 1414. On the east side is +the entrance to the staircase leading to a gallery from which the hall +is entered. At this end is the Minstrels' Gallery and beneath it are +three doorways, the centre one leading to the kitchens below, that on +the right to the old Council Chamber, that on the left to a smaller +room known as the Princes' Chamber. From the Council Chamber is +reached the stone-groined Treasury, now used for the safe keeping of +muniments and records. It forms the first floor of a low tower.</p> + +<p>The hall, 70 feet by 30 feet, is of five bays, with the usual dais and +oriel window at the far end from the entrance.</p> + +<a name="imagep098" id="imagep098"></a> + +<div class="imgl" style="width: 45%;"> +<a href="images/imagep098.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep098.jpg" width="100%" alt="ST. MARY HALL." /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. MARY HALL.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>The nine-light window over the dais has its original glass, made, it +is believed, by the John Thornton of Coventry who is known as the +maker of the east window of York Minster. The upper part has numerous +coats of arms of kings, cities, and princes, while the nine lights are +filled with "portraitures of several kings in their surcotes," William +I, Richard I, Henry III, IV, V, VI, King Arthur, the Emperor +Constantine, and another unnamed. The windows on either side of the +hall have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>suffered grievously. Those on the west (left) were deprived +of their heraldry and portraits in 1785. In those on the east new +glass with poor imitations of the ancient series of figures and +coats-of-arms was placed in 1824. At the same time the wainscotting +painted in 1580 with inscriptions and heraldry was cleared away and +replaced with cement. The inscriptions were copied with care, but "the +ornamentation was followed without any very fastidious copying of the +uncouth ancient style"!<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The timber roof is of low pitch, with +traceried spandrels above the tie-beams. Angels playing on a variety +of instruments are placed at the centre of each tie-beam and there is +much good carving of foliage and animals at the intersections of the +timbers. The most famous adornment of the hall is the tapestry behind +the dais. The following views as to its origin and subject are those +of George Scharf the antiquary. It is of Flemish design but probably +of English manufacture, is woven, not embroidered, and was made in the +early sixteenth century for the place it occupies, its compartments +corresponding with those of the window. It is in six compartments in +two rows. The upper central has a figure of Justice, an insertion +probably in the place of Christ, angels with the instruments of the +Passion being on either side. The lower central represents the +Assumption of the Virgin in presence of the apostles. The upper left +in order from the centre has eleven saints, SS. John Baptist, Matthias +(?), Paul, Adrian, Peter, George, Andrew, No. 8(?), Bartholomew, +Simon, Thaddeus. The corresponding female saints on the right are SS. +Katherine, Barbara, Dorothy, Mary Magdalen, No. 5 (?), Margaret, +Agnes, Gertrude of Nivelle, Anne, Apollonia.</p> + +<p>The lower left has a king kneeling at a prie-dieu on which is his +crown and an open book. A cardinal kneels behind him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>but there is no +other ecclesiastic among the seventeen courtiers standing behind. In +the opposite compartment is a queen kneeling with a number of ladies, +among whom are two in monastic dress. Although the work belongs to the +reign of Henry VII, the king and queen are almost certainly Henry VI +and Margaret of Anjou.</p> + +<p>On the walls are portraits of later sovereigns from William III to +George IV, that of George III being by Lawrence. The Mayoress' Parlour +opening from the dais has been drastically restored. It contains +portraits of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, and +four benefactors to the city, John Hales, founder of the Free School, +Sir Thomas White, Thomas Jesson and Christopher Davenport.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> "Coventry: its History and Antiquities," B. Poole, 1870.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="THE_CARTHUSIAN_MONASTERY" id="THE_CARTHUSIAN_MONASTERY"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Little remains of this monastery which stood on the south side and not +far from the city. The Order settled in Coventry in 1381 only ten +years after the foundation of the London Charter-house. At the +Dissolution the Prior and brethren, ten in all, did not emulate the +heroism of the London monks and were fortunate enough to obtain +pensions instead of martyrdom. Some trifling remains exist +incorporated in a modern mansion, and a wall of the garden shows the +position of doors which led to the isolated cells of the monks. The +Botoners had given freely to the building of the church and cloisters +of which Richard II laid the first stone in 1385 and afterwards +largely endowed "on condition that they should find and maintain +within the precinct of their house, twelve poor scholars from seven +years old till they accomplished the age of seventeen years, there to +pray for the good estate of him the said King and of his Consort, +during this life, and for the health of their souls after death."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span><br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span><br /> + +<h3>INDEX</h3> +<br /> + +<ul> +<li>Abbots of Coventry, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + +<li>Alms-boxes, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li>Apse, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Bells, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + +<li>Benefactors of Coventry, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + +<li>Botoner, William and Adam, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Carthusian Monastery, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + +<li>Chantries, Foundation of, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> + +<li>Christ Church, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + +<li>City, History of, <a href="#Page_1">1-15</a>.</li> + +<li>Cross, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Dissolution of Monasteries, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + +<li>Duel, Hereford and Norfolk, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Evens or Wakes, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Fonts, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li>Ford's Hospital, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + +<li>Friars, Coming of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Grey Friars Convent (Christ Church): + <ul class="nest"> + <li>History, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + <li>Plan of Crossing, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> + <li>Suppression, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Gilds, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + +<li>Glass, Ancient, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> + +<li>Godiva and Leofric, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Hales, John, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + +<li>Hermitage. <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Hospital, Ford's, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + +<li>Hospital, St. John's, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Lollards, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Martyrs, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + +<li>Midsummer Eve, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li>Misereres, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> + +<li>Monastery, History, <a href="#Page_1">1-15</a>.</li> + +<li>Monastery Ruins, <a href="#Page_16">16-18</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Orders of Angels, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + +<li>Organ, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Pageants and Plays, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> + +<li>Parliamentum Indoctorum, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> + +<li>Parliamentum Diabolicum, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li>Persecution, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + +<li>Pilgrims' Rest or Guest House, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li>Priory, Ruins, <a href="#Page_16">16-18</a>.<br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Royal visits: + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Henry VI, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + <li>Margaret, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + <li>Edward IV, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + <li>Richard III, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + <li>Henry VII, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + <li>Henry VIII, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> + <li>Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + <li>Mary Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + <li>Charles I, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>St. John Baptist Church: + <ul class="nest"> + <li>History, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + <li>Exterior, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + <li>Interior, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> + <li>Bells, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> + <li>Clearstory windows, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> + <li>Collegiate foundation, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + <li>Glass, ancient, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> + <li>Organ, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>St. Mary Hall: + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Glass, ancient, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> + <li>Plan, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + <li>Portraits, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> + <li>Tapestry, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>St. Michael's Church: + <ul class="nest"> + <li>History, <a href="#Page_21">21-26</a>.</li> + <li>Exterior, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> + <li>Interior, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span></li> + <li>Apse, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + <li>Bells, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + <li>Brasses, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + <li>Chapels: + <ul style="margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -3em;"> + <li>Cappers', <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + <li>Drapers' or Lady, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + <li>Dyers', <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + <li>Mercers, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Chapter, Constitution of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + <li>Chest, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + <li>Crypt, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + <li>Font, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> + <li>Glass, ancient, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + <li>Old church, position of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + <li>Organ, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + <li>Porch, south, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + <li>Proportions of Steeple, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + <li>Pulpit, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + <li>Spire, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + <li>Tombs: + <ul style="margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -3em;"> + <li>Berkeley, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + <li>Bond, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + <li>Nethermyl, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + <li>Skeffington, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + <li>Swillington, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> + <li>Wade's, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> + </ul> + <br /></li> + </ul></li> + +<li>Trinity Church: + <ul class="nest"> + <li>History, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + <li>Exterior, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + <li>Interior, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + + <li>Chapels: + <ul style="margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -3em;"> + <li>Archdeacon's, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + <li>Butchers', <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + <li>Corpus Christi, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + <li>Marler's, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + <li>St. Thomas's, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + </ul> + </li> + + <li>Clearstory, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + <li>Font, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + <li>Glass, ancient, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + <li>Lectern, Eagle, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + <li>Organ, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + <li>Plan, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + <li>Pulpit, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + <li>Spire, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> + + <li>Tombs: + <ul style="margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -3em;"> + <li>Philemon Holland, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + <li>Whithead (Brass), <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + </ul> + </li> + + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>White Friars' Convent, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep103" id="imagep103"></a> +<a href="images/imagep103.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep103.jpg" width="95%" alt="ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep104.png" width="15%" alt="CHISWICK PRESS Logo" /> +</div> + +<h5>CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br /> +TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + +<h2>Bell's Cathedral Series</h2> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED MONOGRAPHS ON THE GREAT<br /> +ENGLISH CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES</h4> + +<h5><i>Crown 8vo. Profusely Illustrated, in specially designed cloth +binding, 1s. 6d. net each.</i></h5> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<p>This series of monographs upon our great English Cathedral Churches +has been framed to give students of Architecture handy reference +volumes, and the visitor trustworthy guide-books, at once cheaper and +more fully illustrated than any previous works of similar character.</p> + +<p>Each volume contains not only a complete history of the see and of the +Cathedral fabric, but a critical and descriptive survey of the +building in all its detail; sufficiently accurate from the +archaeological point of view to furnish a trustworthy record of the +building in its past and present condition, and not too technical in +its language for the occasional use of the casual visitor. Brief +biographical accounts of the bishops and other notable men connected +with the Diocese are also included.</p> + +<p>The volumes are fully illustrated from modern photographs and +drawings, and contain also reproductions from old, and in some cases +rare, prints, for the purpose of tracing the gradual growth and +development of the existing buildings.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>Bell's Cathedral Series</h2> + +<h5><i>Profusely Illustrated. Cloth, crown 8vo, 1s. 6d. net each.</i></h5> + +<h4>NOW READY</h4> +<br /> + +<div class="block2"> +<p class="hang">ENGLISH CATHEDRALS. An Itinerary and Description. Compiled by J. +G. GILCHRIST, A.M., M.D. Revised and edited with an +Introduction on Cathedral Architecture by Rev. <span class="sc">T. +Perkins</span>, M.A., F.R.A.S.</p> + +<p class="hang">BANGOR. By <span class="sc">P.B. Ironside-Bax.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">BRISTOL. By <span class="sc">H.J.L.J. Massé</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">CANTERBURY. By <span class="sc">Hartley Withers</span>. 4th Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">CARLISLE. By <span class="sc">C.K. Eley.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">CHESTER. By <span class="sc">Charles Hiatt.</span> 2nd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">CHICHESTER. By <span class="sc">H.C. Corlette</span>, A.R.I.B.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">DURHAM. By <span class="sc">J.E. Bygate</span>, A.R.C.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">ELY. By Rev. <span class="sc">W.D. Sweeting</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">EXETER. By <span class="sc">Percy Addleshaw</span>, B.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">GLOUCESTER. By <span class="sc">H.J.L.J. Massé</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">HEREFORD. By <span class="sc">A. Hugh Fisher</span>, A.R.E. 2nd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">LICHFIELD. By <span class="sc">A.B. Clifton</span>. 2nd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">LINCOLN. By <span class="sc">A.F. Kendrick</span>, B.A. 3rd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">LLANDAFF. By <span class="sc">E.C. Morgan-Willmott.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">MANCHESTER. By the Rev. <span class="sc">T. Perkins</span>, M.A., F.R.A.S.</p> + +<p class="hang">NORWICH. By <span class="sc">C.H.B. Quennell.</span> 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">OXFORD. By Rev. <span class="sc">Percy Dearmer</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">PETERBOROUGH. By Rev.<span class="sc"> W.D. Sweeting</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">RIPON. By <span class="sc">Cecil Hallet</span>, B.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">ROCHESTER. By <span class="sc">G.H. Palmer</span>, B.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">ST. ALBANS. By Rev. <span class="sc">T. Perkins</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">ST. ASAPH. By <span class="sc">P.B. Ironside-Bax.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">ST. DAVID'S. By <span class="sc">Philip Robson</span>, A.R.I.B.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">ST. PATRICK'S, DUBLIN. By the Very Rev. Dean <span class="sc">Bernard</span>. 2nd +Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">ST. PAUL'S. By Rev. <span class="sc">Arthur Dimock</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">SALISBURY. By <span class="sc">Gleeson White</span>, 2nd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">SOUTHWARK, ST. SAVIOUR'S. By <span class="sc">George Worley</span>.</p> + +<p class="hang">SOUTHWELL. By Rev. <span class="sc">Arthur Dimock</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition.</p> + +<p class="hang">WELLS. By Rev. <span class="sc">Percy Dearmer</span>, M.A. 2nd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">WINCHESTER. By <span class="sc">P.W. Sergeant</span>. 3rd Edition, revised.</p> + +<p class="hang">WORCESTER. By <span class="sc">Edward F. Strange.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">YORK. By <span class="sc">A. Clutton Brock.</span> 3rd Edition.</p> +</div> + +<h5><i>Others to follow</i>.</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>Bell's Cathedral Series</h2> + +<h4>UNIFORM VOLUMES</h4> + +<h5><i>Profusely Illustrated. Cloth, crown 8vo, 1s. 6d. net.</i></h5> +<br /> + +<div class="block2"> +<p class="hang">BATH ABBEY, MALMESBURY ABBEY, AND BRADFORD-ON-AVON CHURCH. By +Rev. <span class="sc">T. Perkins</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">BEVERLEY MINSTER. By <span class="sc">Charles Hiatt.</span> 47 Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="hang">ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY. By Rev. <span class="sc">Canon Routledge</span>, +M.A., F.S.A. 24 Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="hang">THE CHURCHES OF COVENTRY. By <span class="sc">Frederic W. Woodhouse.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">ROMSEY ABBEY. By Rev. <span class="sc">T. Perkins</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">STRATFORD-ON-AVON. By <span class="sc">Harold Baker.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">THE TEMPLE CHURCH. By <span class="sc">George Worley.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S, SMITHFIELD. By <span class="sc">George Worley.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">TEWKESBURY ABBEY AND DEERHURST PRIORY. By <span class="sc">H.J.L.J. Massé</span>, +M.A. 44 Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="hang">WESTMINSTER ABBEY. By <span class="sc">Charles Hiatt.</span></p> + +<p class="hang">WIMBORNE MINSTER AND CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY. By Rev. <span class="sc">T. +Perkins</span>, M.A., F.R.A.S. 65 Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="hang">MALVERN PRIORY. By the REV. <span class="sc">Anthony C. Deane.</span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>Bell's Handbooks to Continental Churches</h2> + +<h5><i>Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net each.</i></h5> +<br /> + +<div class="block2"> +<p class="hang">CHARTRES: The Cathedral and Other Churches. By <span class="sc">H.J.L.J. +Massé</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">ROUEN: The Cathedral and Other Churches. By the Rev. <span class="sc">T. +Perkins</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">AMIENS. By the Rev. <span class="sc">T. Perkins</span>, M.A., F.R.A.S.</p> + +<p class="hang">PARIS (NOTRE-DAME). By <span class="sc">Charles Hiatt</span>.</p> + +<p class="hang">MONT ST. MICHEL. By <span class="sc">H.J.L.J. Massé</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang">BAYEUX. By the Rev. <span class="sc">R.S. Mylne</span>, M.A.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>Opinions of the Press.</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="block"> +<p>"For the purpose at which they aim they are admirably done, and there +are few visitants to any of our noble shrines who will not enjoy their +visit the better for being furnished with one of these delightful +books, which can be slipped into the pocket and carried with ease, and +is yet distinct and legible.... A volume such as that on Canterbury is +exactly what we want, and on our next visit we hope to have it with +us. It is thoroughly helpful, and the views of the fair city and its +noble cathedral are beautiful. Both volumes, moreover, will serve more +than a temporary purpose, and are trustworthy as well as +delightful."—<i>Notes and Queries</i>.</p> + +<p>"We have so frequently in these columns urged the want of cheap, +well-illustrated, and well-written handbooks to our cathedrals, to +take the place of the out-of-date publications of local booksellers, +that we are glad to hear that they have been taken in hand by Messrs. +George Bell & Sons."—<i>James's Gazette</i>.</p> + +<p>"The volumes are handy in size, moderate in price, well illustrated, +and written in a scholarly spirit. The history of cathedral and city +is intelligently set forth and accompanied by a descriptive survey of +the building in all its detail. The illustrations are copious and well +selected, and the series bids fair to become an indispensable +companion to the cathedral tourist in England."—<i>Times</i>.</p> + +<p>"They are nicely produced in good type, on good paper, and contain +numerous illustrations, are well written, and very cheap. We should +imagine architects and students of architecture will be sure to buy +the series as they appear, for they contain in brief much valuable +information."—<i>British Architect</i>.</p> + +<p>"Each of them contains exactly that amount of information which the +intelligent visitor, who is not a specialist, will wish to have. The +disposition of the various parts is judiciously proportioned, and the +style is very read-able. The illustrations supply a further important +feature; they are both numerous and good. A series which cannot fail +to be welcomed by all who are interested in the ecclesiastical +buildings of England."—<i>Glasgow Herald</i>.</p> + +<p>"Those who, either for purposes of professional study or for a +cultured recreation, find it expedient to 'do' the English cathedrals +will welcome the beginning of Bell's 'Cathedral Series.' This set of +books is an attempt to consult, more closely, and in greater detail +than the usual guide-books do, the needs of visitors to the cathedral +towns. The series cannot but prove markedly successful. In each book a +business-like description is given of the fabric of the church to +which the volume relates, and an interesting history of the relative +diocese. The books are plentifully illustrated, and are thus made +attractive as well as instructive. They cannot but prove welcome to +all classes of readers interested either in English Church history or +in ecclesiastical architecture."—<i>Scotsman</i>.</p> + +<p>"They have nothing in common with the almost invariably wretched local +guides save portability, and their only competitors in the quality and +quantity of their contents are very expensive and mostly rare works, +each of a size that suggests a packing-case rather than a coat-pocket. +The 'Cathedral Series' are important compilations concerning history, +architecture, and biography, and quite popular enough for such as take +any sincere interest in their subjects."—<i>Sketch</i>.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS<br /> +<span class="sc">York House, Portugal Street, W.C.</span></h4> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11403 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |