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diff --git a/22260-8.txt b/22260-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4bc8eb --- /dev/null +++ b/22260-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5073 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of +Tewkesbury, by H. J. L. J. Massé + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury + with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire + +Author: H. J. L. J. Massé + +Release Date: August 7, 2007 [EBook #22260] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABBEY CHURCH OF TEWKESBURY *** + + + + +Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + | The carat character marks the letter following as | + | superscript. For example: 15^o | + | | + | Diacritical marks found in some of the Latin text are not | + | available in Latin-1 and ASCII. These are presented in | + | square brackets as follows: Macron [=a] Tilde [~a]. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + [Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._ + TEWKESBURY ABBEY, FROM THE EAST.] + + + + +THE ABBEY CHURCH OF +TEWKESBURY +WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE +PRIORY CHURCH OF +DEERHURST +GLOUCESTERSHIRE + +BY +H.J.L.J. MASSÉ, M.A. +Author of "Gloucester Cathedral" +"Mont S. Michel," "Chartres," etc. + +WITH XLIV ILLUSTRATIONS + + +LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1906 + + + + +First published, April, 1900. +Reprinted with corrections, 1901, 1906. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +My heartiest thanks are here expressed to all who have helped me in +any way during the compiling of this book--to Sir Charles Isham, of +Lamport, for allowing me the use of his _Registrum Theokusburiæ_ for +several months, and for permission to reproduce two pages from it; to +Mr. J.T. Micklethwaite for permission to make use of his paper on +_Saxon Churches_ published in the Journal of the Archæological +Institute, and to the Institute for leave to reproduce the three +blocks of Deerhurst; to Mr. W.H. St. John Hope for several +suggestions; to Mr. A.H. Hughes, of Llandudno, Dr. Oscar Clark, and +Mr. R.W. Dugdale, of Gloucester, for so liberally supplementing my own +store of photographs; to Mr. S. Browett, of Tewkesbury, for the loan +of the wood block on page 17; and, lastly, to Mr. W.G. Bannister, the +sacristan of the Abbey, who placed his thorough knowledge of the +building, its records, and its heraldry, together with the whole of +his valuable MS. notes on these points, unreservedly at my disposal. + + H.J.L.J.M. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. History of the Foundation and Fabric of the Abbey Church, + and Some Account of its Benefactors 3 + + II. The Exterior 29 + North Porch 30 + The Tower 30 + The West Front 32 + The South Side 34 + The Cloisters 34 + The Lady Chapel 37 + +III. The Interior 39 + The Nave 39 + The Roof and its Bosses 42 + The Font 43 + The Lectern 44 + The Pulpit 44 + The Screen 45 + The Great West Window 46 + The Aisles 47 + North Aisle and its Windows 47 + South Aisle and its Windows 49 + North Transept 51 + Interior of the Tower 53 + St. James' Chapel 55 + Early English Lady Chapel 57 + St. Margaret's Chapel 58 + St. Edmund's Chapel 60 + The Clarence Vault 62 + St. Faith's Chapel 63 + The Vestry 65 + South Transept 68 + The Choir 71 + Altar 74 + Sedilia 75 + Tiles 76 + Windows of the Choir 76 + De Clares 77 + Despenser Graves 81 + The Tombs and Chantries--Warwick Chapel 83 + Founder's Chapel 88 + The Despenser Monument 90 + Trinity Chapel 91 + Tombs in the Ambulatory 93 + Abbot Wakeman's Tomb 95 + Abbot Cheltenham's Tomb 95 + Abbot John's Tomb 96 + Abbot Alan's Tomb 97 + The Organs 97 + Specification of the Grove Organ 98 + Church Plate 100 + Church Registers 100 + Arms of the Abbey 101 + Old Tiles 101 + Abbots of Tewkesbury 101 + Dimensions of the Abbey 132 + + +DEERHURST. + +The Priory Church 105 + + Exterior--Tower 108 + Interior--The Nave 108 + The South Aisle 111 + The North Aisle 112 + The Font 114 + The Choir 115 + +The Monastic Buildings 121 + +The Saxon Chapel 123 + +Index 127 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE +Tewkesbury Abbey, from the East _Frontispiece_ + +Arms of the Abbey _Title_ + +The Abbey, from the North-west 2 + +Tewkesbury Abbey in 1840, by Rev. J.L. Petit 3 + +Page from the "Registrum Theokusburiæ" 5 + +Richard Beauchamp, first husband of Isabelle Despenser, and his + Armorial Connexions, from the "Registrum Theokusburiæ" 11 + +The Detached Bell-tower, demolished in 1817 17 + +The West End in 1840, by Rev. J.L. Petit 19 + +The Choir before 1864, from an old photograph 22 + +The Nave before 1864, from an old photograph 23 + +The Abbey Gate 25 + +Tile showing the Arms of Fitz-Hamon and the Abbey impaled 27 + +Tewkesbury Abbey, from the North 28 + +The Abbey, from the South 31 + +The Cloister Doorway 35 + +The Nave, from the West End 40 + +Masons' Marks 41 + +The North Choir Aisle, looking West, showing the back of the + Despenser Monument 52 + +Interior of the Tower above the Vaulting 54 + +Wall Arcade in Early English Chapel 57 + +The Ambulatory, looking towards St. Margaret's Chapel 59 + +The North Choir Aisle and St. Edmund's Chapel 61 + +The Vestry Door, South Choir Aisle 66 + +The Apsidal Chapel, South Transept 68 + +The Choir, looking West 72 + +Rib-centres in the Choir Vault 73 + +The Sedilia 75 + +The Warwick Chapel 85 + +Chantry of the Founder, Fitz-Hamon 89 + +The Despenser Monument 90 + +The Trinity Chapel 92 + +The "Wakeman Cenotaph" 94 + +The South Choir Aisle, looking West 96 + + +DEERHURST. + +Deerhurst Priory Church, from the South 104 + +Interior, looking West 110 + +Font 114 + +Plan of Deerhurst Priory Church before the Conquest, by J.T. + Micklethwaite, F.S.A., from "The Archæological Journal" 118 + +The Tower, from "The Archæological Journal" 119 + +Fourteenth Century Window 122 + +The Saxon Chapel 123 + +Dedication Stone 124 + +Plan of Saxon Chapel 124 + +Dedication Slab of an Altar 124 + +Chancel Arch in the Saxon Chapel 125 + +PLAN of Deerhurst Priory and its Domestic Buildings as now + existing 129 + +PLAN of Tewkesbury Abbey 130 + + + + + [Illustration: _Photo. Dr. Oscar Clark._ + THE ABBEY--FROM THE NORTH-WEST.] + + [Illustration: TEWKESBURY ABBEY IN 1840. + By _Rev. J.L. Petit_.] + + + + +TEWKESBURY ABBEY. + + +CHAPTER I. + +HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION AND FABRIC OF THE ABBEY CHURCH, AND SOME +ACCOUNT OF ITS BENEFACTORS. + + +Tradition, originating in the desire to account for the name of the +town, would assign the foundation of a cell or chapel to Theoc, or in +Latin form Theocus, in or about 655. In support of this theory Camden +and others assert that it was called in Anglo-Saxon times Theocsburg +or Theotisbyrg. Others would derive the name from the Greek +"Theotokos," as the Church is dedicated to St. Mary, and others again +refer us back to a very early name, Etocisceu--Latinised as Etocessa. +In Domesday Book the town is called Teodechesberie, and throughout the +Chronicles of the Abbey is called Theokusburia. + +The Chronicles of the Abbey tell us that the first monastery at +Tewkesbury was built by two Saxon nobles, Oddo and Doddo, in or about +the year 715, a time when Mercia was flourishing under Ethelred, and +later, under Kenred and Ethelbald. It was dedicated to the Virgin +Mary, and endowed with the manor of Stanway and other lands for the +support of the Benedictine monks who, under a Prior, were there +installed. Oddo and Doddo died soon afterwards, and were buried in the +abbey church of Pershore. + +Much has been written about these mythical founders, and confusion in +the minds of the chroniclers, and in those of subsequent writers too, +has been caused by the similarity between the names of Oddo and Doddo, +and Odda and Dodda. It is stated in the old Tewkesbury Chronicle that +Oddo and Doddo were brothers, who in 715 founded a small cell at +Tewkesbury, and that Doddo built a church at Deerhurst to show his +love for a brother who had died some time before. They seem to have +been two noble dukes, members of an illustrious family and renowned +for their great virtue. Oddo is said to have become a monk, and after +his death to have been buried at Pershore Abbey. + +As Mr. Butterworth points out in his book on Deerhurst, this seems to +be a travesty of what actually happened. There were in the eleventh +century two brothers, Odda and Ælfric, with probably a third brother, +Dodda, who were related to Edward the Confessor, and were, besides, +his friends and followers. Charters are extant bearing their +signatures and names, and covering the period 1015-1051. It is this +Odda who caused to be built the "aula regia" at Deerhurst in memory of +his brother Ælfric, with a stone[1] bearing an inscription of which a +copy is now in the Saxon Chapel at Deerhurst. This Odda, with his +brother, was buried at Pershore. Odda's existence at this time is +further confirmed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (edited by Ingram), +which states that Odda was in 1051 made Earl over Devonshire, +Somerset, Dorset, and the Welsh. The same chronicle says that Odda was +also called Agelwin. Florence of Worcester says that he was also +called Ethelwin. + +It is perhaps easy to see how a chronicler writing 250 years later, +should be led to assume that Oddo and Doddo were identical with Odda +and Dodda. Sir Charles Isham's "Registrum Theokusburiæ" gives a +full-page illustration of this "_par nobile fratrum_," as Dr. Hayman +calls them, in which they are termed "_duo duces Marciorum et primi +fundatores Theokusburiæ_" i.e., two Earls of the Marches and first +founders of Tewkesbury. Each knight is in armour, and bears in his +hand a model of a church. Both are supporting a shield (affixed to a +pomegranate tree) bearing the arms of the Abbey, which the blazoning +on their own coats repeats. + + [Illustration: PAGE FROM THE "REGISTRUM THEOKUSBURIÆ." + (_H.J.L.J.M._)] + +According to the chronicle, Hugh, a great Earl of the Mercians, caused +the body of Berthric or Brictric, King of Wessex, to be buried in the +chapel of St. Faith in the church at Tewkesbury, in 799 or 800, and +Hugh himself was buried at Tewkesbury in 812. Of this fact +confirmation is given by Leland, who said that Hugh's tomb was there +in his time, on the north side of the nave. + +The Priory suffered terribly at the hands of the invading Danes--in +fact, it was in the centre of the theatre of war in which, under +Alfred, the decisive struggle was fought to an end at Boddington +Field, where a spot called the Barrow still marks the site. In +consequence of the continued ravages the Priory was so reduced in 980 +that it became a cell dependent on the Abbey at Cranbourn, in Dorset, +a Benedictine foundation of which Haylward de Meaux, Hayward Snow, or +Hayward de Meawe as the Isham MS. Chronicle spells it, was the founder +and patron. He and his wife Algiva are depicted in that MS. as sitting +on a mound with a cruciform building in their hands. The church has a +lofty embattled tower surmounted with a spire. Hayward fell at +Essendune in 1016, and was buried at Cranbourn. Tewkesbury Priory +continued to be dependent on Cranbourn for about one hundred years. + +Hayward's son, Earl Algar, inherited the patronage of Cranbourn and +Tewkesbury, and on his death it passed to his son Berthric, or, +according to the Isham MS., Britricus Meawe. This Britric, while on an +embassy in Flanders, refused the hand of the Earl's daughter Matilda, +who was subsequently the wife of William Duke of Normandy, the +conqueror of England. When the lady became Queen of England she had +Britric's manors confiscated, and he died in prison at Winchester. +Thus Tewkesbury passed into the hands of the Normans. + +At the time of the Domesday Survey the priory was possessed of 24-½ +hides (or 3,000 acres) of land, which in Edward the Confessor's reign +had been valued at £1 per hide. + +In 1087 William Rufus bestowed the honour of Gloucester, together with +the patronage of the Priory of Tewkesbury, upon his second cousin once +removed, Robert Fitz-Hamon, or, to give him his full titles as +recorded in the Charters, "Sir Robert Fitz-Hamon, Earl of Corboile, +Baron of Thorigny and Granville, Lord of Gloucester, Bristol, +Tewkesbury and Cardiff, Conqueror of Wales, near kinsman of the King, +and General of his Highness' army in France." + +Robert Fitz-Hamon is the reputed founder of the present structure, but +the credit of the founding, or rather refounding, is due to Giraldus, +Abbot of Cranbourn. Like Abbot Serlo of Gloucester fame, he had +originally come over from De Brienne, in Normandy, the ancestral home +of the De Clare family, and a town closely connected with Tewkesbury +at a later date. Giraldus had been chaplain to Hugh Lupus, Earl of +Chester, and subsequently to Walkelyn, Bishop of Winchester. He was +appointed Abbot of Cranbourn by William Rufus, who acted on the advice +of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and St. Osmund, Bishop of +Salisbury. Giraldus then secured the assistance of Fitz-Hamon, and the +munificent endowments of the latter supplied the means for building +the noble foundation at Tewkesbury. Fitz-Hamon is said to have been +inspired by a wish to make atonement for the wanton destruction of +Bayeux Cathedral by Henry I. + +By the year 1102 Giraldus and the members of St. Bartholomew's Abbey +at Cranbourn removed to Tewkesbury, which was by that time ready to +receive them; and the establishment at Cranbourn, under the rule of a +Prior and two monks, became in its turn (after 120 years) a cell +dependent on the new Abbey of Tewkesbury. After a few years Giraldus, +"having neither the inclination nor the ability to satiate the King's +avarice (Henry I.) with gifts," was obliged to leave Tewkesbury and +returned to Winchester, where he died in 1110. + +Fitz-Hamon had died in 1107 from the effects of a wound received at +the siege of Falaise, and was buried temporarily in the Chapter House, +which stood on the south side of the building. + +In 1123 the Abbey was complete, and was consecrated on November 20th, +with much ceremony, by Theulf, Bishop of Worcester, assisted by the +Bishops of Llandaff, Hereford, Dublin, and another whose name is +unknown. + +The main part of the church, as it now stands, is usually assigned to +about 1123, and substantially is as strong now as it was then. + +In the following year, 1124, Abbot Robert died, and soon afterwards +Theulf, the old Bishop of Worcester, also passed away. + +Of Fitz-Hamon's four daughters two became abbesses, another was +married to the Earl of Brittany, and Mabel was given to Robert, one of +the many illegitimate sons of Henry I. She seems to have been a +business-like lady, and to have hesitated at the proposed union with a +nameless lord, unless a title could be made to go with him. As Robert +of Gloucester writes: + + "The Kyng understood that the mayde seyde non outrage + And that Gloucestre was chief of hyre eritage. + 'Damozel,' he seyde, 'thy lord shall have a name + For hym and for hys eyrs, fayr wyth out blame, + For Robert of Gloucestre hys name shall be and is: + For he shall be Erl of Gloucestre and his eyres, I wis.'" + +This Robert Fitzroy, thus made the first Earl of Gloucester, was a +great benefactor to the Abbey. To him are due the completion of the +church and the greater part of the tower. According to Leland, the +stone was brought over from Caen, but some seems to have been local +stone from Prestbury and Cheltenham. He was as prominent in the arts +of peace as he was afterwards in those of war, inheriting his taste +for the former from his scholarly father. It is to him that the +chronicler William of Malmesbury dedicated his work. + +Robert Fitzroy died in Gloucester in 1147, but was buried at St. +James' Priory, Bristol, another foundation which was indebted to his +munificence. His successor was William Fitzcount, the second Earl of +Gloucester. + +In 1178 the monastery was partly burnt down, the church fortunately +suffering but little. There are some slight traces of fire on the +exterior walls of the south and west faces of the tower, and on the +interior of the south transept. The Annals of Winton say, "_Combusta +est et redacta in pulverem Ecclesia de Theokesberia_"--an untenable +hypothesis; but the Tewkesbury Chronicles merely mention that the +monastery and the offices were destroyed. John, Earl of Cornwall, +better known as King John, was entertained in the monastery soon +afterwards, so that the damage cannot have been quite so overwhelming +as the Winchester Chronicles allege it to have been. The fire might +have been much more serious than it was, and it seems that only the +fact of the wind being north-east saved the church. Judging by the +marks of calcination on the outside of the tower, and the chief arch +of the south transept, the roof must have been seriously damaged, and +the roof of the cloister walk abutting on to the south aisle must have +been completely burned. In all probability the group of roofing next +to the south transept was destroyed. + +William Fitzcount, dying in 1183, after a long and successful life, +was buried at Keynsham, a magnificent abbey built by him in memory of +a son who died young. Earl William's other children were girls, and +the lordship of Gloucester was vested in Henry II. for some years. In +1189 the Abbey lands were granted by Richard I. to his brother John +(who was afterwards king, 1199 to 1215), the first husband of +Isabella, third daughter of William Fitzcount. Being divorced from +John after his accession in 1199, she married Geoffrey de Mandeville, +Earl of Essex, who paid 20,000 marks for the honour of Gloucester and +the possessions of the Lady Isabel. + +The earldom of Gloucester finally passed in 1221 to Amice--sister of +the Lady Isabella--great granddaughter of Fitz-Hamon the founder, who +had married Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford. This Richard de Clare +was the ancestor of the Tewkesbury De Clares, a family which held the +honour of Tewkesbury for nearly a century. + +His son, Gilbert de Clare, married Isabelle de Marechal. His name, as +also that of his father, is among the signatories of Magna Charta, and +he was a strenuous supporter of the barons against the King. Though he +died in Brittany, his body was brought home and buried in Tewkesbury, +at the foot of the steps leading up to the high altar. In a few +months' time his widow, Isabelle, married Richard, Earl of Cornwall, +brother of King Henry III. At her death she wished to be buried next +to Gilbert de Clare, but as her husband objected to this, she +bequeathed her heart to the Abbey, and this was duly interred in +Gilbert de Clare's grave. As the Register quaintly says in its rhyming +hexameters-- + + "Postrema voce legavit cor comitissa + Pars melior toto fuit huc pro corpore missa + Hæc se divisit dominum recolendo priorem + Huc cor quod misit verum testatur amorem + His simul ecclesiæ sanctæ suffragia prosint + Ut simul in requie cælesti cum Domino sint." + +Gilbert de Clare bequeathed to the Abbey the manor called Mythe, on +the hill just outside the town, and Isabelle also left to it many +relics, besides vestments, and much valuable church furniture. + +On the death of Gilbert de Clare, his son Richard became a ward of the +King. Marrying Margaret de Burgh, a daughter of the great Earl of +Kent, without permission, he incurred the royal displeasure, and was +eventually forced to divorce his young wife in favour of the lady +chosen for him. He supported the barons against the King, with whom he +had never been in agreement. In 1262 he died, and was buried in the +Abbey. One of his wife's sisters married Robert Bruce, competitor for +the Scottish Crown and grandfather of King Robert Bruce. + +His son Gilbert the second, Rufus or Rubens, _i.e._ Red, is another +well-known figure. Like his father, he at first supported the barons, +but soon after the battle of Lewes he took the King's side, and fought +for him at Evesham. Again from pique he deserted him, returning to his +allegiance once more in 1270. He was buried in the Abbey in 1295. + +Gilbert de Clare the third, who was born at Tewkesbury in 1291, was +perhaps the most famous of the De Clares. Whilst he was still in early +manhood, he was twice chosen by Edward II. to serve as Regent of +England in his absence, once even before he had attained full age. His +promising career was cut short at Bannockburn in 1314, and the last of +the De Clares was buried in the Choir in 1314, his widow being placed +later by his side. + +The lordship of Tewkesbury then passed from the De Clares, who had +held it for ninety years, to Eleanor, Gilbert's eldest sister. By her +marriage in 1321 to Hugh le Despenser, the lordship came into the +hands of the Despensers. This Hugh the younger, or Hugo Secundus as +the Register calls him, was too faithful a supporter of Edward II., +and he paid for his fidelity with his life in 1326, having been +hanged, drawn, and quartered in Hereford about three weeks after his +aged father had suffered a similar fate at Bristol. His remains were +collected and buried in the tomb at the back of the sedilia, where +Abbot John's tomb was placed at a later date. + +The next lord of Tewkesbury was Hugh, the son of Hugh the younger and +Eleanor de Clare. His tomb is to be seen on the north side of the high +altar, with his effigy upon it, together with that of his wife, the +Lady Elizabeth, who, though thrice married, preferred to be buried +with him. She retained the manor of Tewkesbury after her marriage to +Sir Guy de Brien, and on her death in 1359 it passed to her nephew, +Edward le Despenser. + +This Edward le Despenser took part in the battle of Poitiers, and was +one of the first Knights of the Garter. On his death at Cardiff in +1375 his body was brought to Tewkesbury, and his effigy is to be seen +on the roof of the Trinity Chapel on the south side of the high altar. +He was buried close to the presbytery, and his wife was, in 1409, +buried next to him. + +Thomas le Despenser, the third son of Edward, was for two years only +Earl of Gloucester, and being attainted, was executed at Bristol in +1400. No trace remains of his grave at Tewkesbury. + + [Illustration: RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, FIRST HUSBAND OF ISABELLE + DESPENSER, AND HIS ARMORIAL CONNECTIONS. + From the _Registrum Theokusburiæ._ + (_H.J.L.J.M._)] + +With the death of his son Richard in 1414, the lordship of the +Despensers in the male line, after ninety-three years, became extinct. + +Once again the Manor of Tewkesbury passed by the female line, and into +the distinguished family of the Beauchamps, with whom Richard le +Despenser's sister Isabelle was connected by her marriage with Richard +Beauchamp, or Ricardus de Bello Campo as the Register calls him when +it does not give his name as Becham. He was killed at the siege of +Breaux in France in 1421, and his young widow erected the sumptuous +chantry chapel known as the Warwick Chapel over his remains. She then, +by special papal dispensation, married her cousin, also a Richard +Beauchamp, and from henceforth was generally known by her new title, +the Countess of Warwick. On her husband's death at Rouen in 1439, she +brought his body to England and had it conveyed to the Beauchamp +Chapel at Warwick. The widowed countess died in December of the same +year, but elected to be buried at Tewkesbury. + +Her young son Henry was a favourite of Henry VI., who bestowed most +unusual favours upon him, creating him Duke of Warwick and King of the +Isle of Wight, and later King of Jersey and Guernsey. The young Duke, +who was married to Cicely Neville, died at the age of twenty-one, and +was buried in the choir of the Abbey. As he left no children, the +manor passed in 1449 to his sister Anne, the wife of Richard Neville +the "King-maker." All the "King-maker's" estates were confiscated to +the Crown after he fell at Barnet in 1471, but were eventually shared +between his two daughters Isabelle and Anne. Isabelle married George, +Duke of Clarence, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, who in 1477, a few +days after Isabelle's supposed death by poison at Warwick, was put to +death in the Tower. Both were buried at Tewkesbury (_vide_ p. 62). + +The young Edward, son of the Duke of Clarence, was imprisoned in the +Tower till his execution in 1499. + +The Manor of Tewkesbury, as a possession of the Warwicks, passed into +the hands of Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the husband of Catharine Parr, +until his attainder, when they once more came into the hands of the +Crown. James I. sold the manor to the Corporation in 1609. During the +present century the lordship of the manor again passed by sale into +private hands. + +In the chronicles of the Abbey the following facts are recorded:-- + +In 1218 the dormitory roof fell down upon the monks when they returned +from an early service, and Gilbert, a monk, had a thigh broken and his +head injured, while the Prior Gunfrey escaped unhurt. + +In 1224, Robert Travers, Bishop of Kildelo (_i.e._ Killaloe), in the +winter dedicated two large bells in the tower. + +In 1234 the principal gate of the monastery and two stables were burnt +down. + +In 1237, Hervey de Sipton, the then Prior, pulled down and rebuilt the +chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas. Nothing can be said definitely as to +its size, owing to the later work done in this part. The chronicle, +however, distinctly states that divine service was first held in Prior +Sipton's new chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, on St. Nicholas' +Day.[2] + +The roof bears the arms of the Clares and Despensers, and this would +give the date of the bosses as 1321-1337, _i.e._, about a century +later than the date of the chapel. + +The two chapels which are now usually known as those of St. James and +St. Nicholas were, at one time, supposed, without authority, to have +been the chapter-house of the monastery. They were so described as +recently as 1881, in the plan used by the members of the Architectural +Association for their excursion to Tewkesbury. For many years they +were in use as a grammar school, and were walled off from the rest of +the church. + +In 1239 a grand altar was dedicated to the honour of the Virgin, +"gloriosæ Virginis Mariæ." This is by some supposed to refer to the +present altar-stone of Purbeck marble. + +In 1241, Oct. 25, the body of Fitz-Hamon, the founder of the existing +fabric, was brought in from the Chapter House and placed on the site +of the Founder's Chapel built later. + +In 1243 the dormitory, which had been rebuilt (chiefly by Abbot +Peter), was re-opened for use. + +In 1246 the Prior, Henry de Banbury, built an Early English Chapel, +dedicated to St. Eustachius. It seems probable that this was erected +on the site of the apsidal Norman chapel, and the space (6 feet) +between it and the Early English chapel. The vaulting corbels are all +that remain. + +In 1259 the Chapter-House was newly paved at the expense of the +Convent. + +The chronicles, as reprinted in "Annales Monastici" stop short in +1263, and from that time onwards there is a dearth of direct +information as to the Abbey and its history. + +The choir was altered in the time of Abbot Parker, by Elizabeth, the +wife, successively, of Lord Badlesmere, of Hugh Lord Despenser, and +Sir Guy de Brien. The original Norman clerestory was taken down and +the Norman columns of the choir slightly raised, as will be seen from +the choir aisle on the side where the original capitals were left +unaltered. At the same time the beautiful series of apsidal chapels +was added; stone vaulting took the place of the earlier wooden +roofing and the space between the four piers that support the tower +was vaulted. This work contains the arms of Sir Guy and of the +Montacutes. + +1397. The Founder's Chapel was erected by Abbot Parker. + +In 1422 Henry VI. granted the patronage of Deerhurst Priory to +Tewkesbury. Much litigation followed with Eton College in consequence, +but in 1469 the grant was confirmed and carried out by John Carpenter, +Bishop of Worcester. + +On May 30, 1471, the Abbey, which had been polluted with blood during +the battle of Tewkesbury, and had not been available for divine +service for a month, was cleansed with special ceremony by the Bishop +of Down and Connor, who was acting as suffragan to the Bishop of +Worcester and reconsecrated. + +At the Dissolution the whole establishment, which, from the lists of +what was to be kept and what was to be destroyed, was of considerable +size, was seized by the King's Commissioners. The houses and buildings +assigned to remain "undefaced" were "The lodging called the New Warke, +leading from the gate to the late Abbot's lodging, with buttery, +pantry, cellar, kitching, larder, and pastry thereto adjoining; the +late Abbot's lodging; the hostery; the great gate entering into the +court, with the lodging over the same; the Abbot's stable, bakehouse, +brewhouse and slaughter-house, the almery, barn, dairy-house; the +great barn next Avon; the malting-house with the garners in the same, +the ox-house in the Barton, the Barton-gate and the lodging over the +same." At the same time "the Church, with chapels, cloisters, chapter +house, misericord; the two dormitories, infirmary with chapels and +lodgings within the same; the workhouse, with another house adjoining +to the same; the convent kitchen; the library; the old hostery; the +chamberer's lodgings; the new hall; the old parlour adjoining to the +Abbot's lodging; the cellarer's lodging; the poulter house: the +gardner; the almary, and all other houses and lodgings not otherwise +reserved," were "deemed to be superfluous" and were committed to the +custody of Sir John Whittington. + +The eight bells in the tower were estimated at 146 cwt., and were +ordered to be melted down, as was also the lead upon the roofs of the +choir, the aisles and the chapels annexed, the cloister, chapter +house, frater, St. Michael's Chapel, halls, farmery and gatehouse. The +weight of lead was estimated at 180 fodders, _i.e._, about 190 tons. + +The jewels naturally were specially reserved to the use of the King's +Majesty, and the two mitres garnished with gilt, rugged pearls, and +counterfeit stones, and 1,431 ounces of silver and silver-gilt plate +were, together with the vestments, ornaments, and everything else of +value, taken away. + +The public-spirited inhabitants of Tewkesbury, however, meant to +preserve their cherished Abbey from destruction if they could compass +it, and after petitioning their "most dread victorious sovereign +lord," succeeded in doing so for a consideration, viz., the sum of +£453. This sum was arrived at by roughly valuing the lead on the roofs +at 5d. a square foot, and the bells at something like 2-½d. per lb. +They had to pay £200 down, £100 the ensuing Easter, and the balance, +£153, at Christmas. It was further stipulated that the said +parishioners should "bear and find the reparations of the said church +perpetually." + +The word "church" in this connection seems to be limited to mean that +part of the building other than the nave. The nave seems to have been +looked upon as belonging, as was the case elsewhere, to the +inhabitants of Tewkesbury, for their use, more or less as a parish +church. Mr. Hayman says that "parochial worship was enshrined there +side by side with the monastic, far in the past, before its +re-foundation in the eleventh century.... This parochial constitution +survived the great successive shocks of change which altered or +cancelled everything else. The change from Saxon to Norman, the havoc +of civil war, the concentration of power in the Tudor crown, the +Dissolution itself, and the Reformation which followed, all left this +as they found it, or left it stronger still. To this constitution +alone the noble church was indebted for its preservation. The King +could grasp all else from pinnacle to basement, but the nave was the +parishioners', and that he could not touch. The result is a church +surviving entire and substantially as its vanished patrons and +banished brethren left it. Therefore if this church is a monument of +baronial and abbatial power long departed, it is yet more so of the +strength of the popular principle, and of the vitality of the +parochial system which survives." + +In the same way the good people of Great Malvern, or Moche Malverne as +it was then termed, clubbed together and bought the Priory Church for +£200, to serve as their parish church in place of the older parish +church, which then, after two hundred and fifty years' use, was in +need of repair. Their Lady Chapel, cloisters, dormitories, Chapter +House, &c., were rased to the ground, and all that had a market value +was sold. + +After the purchase of the church by the good people of Tewkesbury, the +nave seems to have been utterly neglected, and only used for purposes +of burial and for the occasional performances of stage-plays. Such +plays were acted in 1578, 1584, 1585, as is shown by items which +appear in the list of "church goods," as "sheepe skins for Christ's +garments," "shippe skins for the sinners gear," "eight heads of heare +for the Apostles and ten beardes," together with a "face or vizor for +the devil." + +In 1559, on Easter morning, during divine service, the wooden spire +fell down, causing damage to the tower masonry in its fall. This +steeple may have been the original one which had been put up by +Robert, the first Earl of Gloucester. + +In 1576 the two chapels of St. James and St. Nicholas were cut off +from the church and turned into a free school. + +In 1582 the campanile, which stood on the north side of the church not +far from the North Transept, was converted into a House of Correction +for half the shire. + +In 1593 the Corporation records state that the long roof was taken +down, and replaced in the following year. Six years later there is +another interesting entry as follows: "The churchwardens after +Michaelmas, intending of themselves to build a battlement upon the top +of the church tower, offered to do the same without any charge, and +for that purpose did set forth three stage-plays, played in the Abbey +at Whitsuntide following." + +To raise more money they then proposed to hold a Church Ale, but there +were difficulties in the way, and the proposal was dropped. + +The cost of the battlements was £66. These same churchwardens, with +the help of others, "joined in entreating the benevolence of the best +disposed of the inhabitants, and thereby finished the free school by +glazing the windows, boarding the floors, and making the galleries." + +In 1602 the monks' stalls, which had been in the body of the church, +were removed into the chancel. + +In 1603 "the roof of lead over the chancel was taken down, new framed, +laid lower, and covered new," at the expense of the town. + +In 1607 a large grey marble slab was discovered buried in the church. +It measured 13 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 6 inches, and 7 inches thick. +This was placed for some time in the middle of the chancel and was +used for a Communion table. + + [Illustration: THE DETACHED BELL-TOWER, DEMOLISHED IN 1817. + _From Bennett's "Tewkesbury" lent by Mr. S. Browett._] + +In 1653-54 there is an interesting entry in the churchwardens' +accounts: "Item. Paid the ringers 24th December, my Lord Protector +being proclaimed that day--who was the Grand Rebel." (The last few +words are by a different hand, perhaps that of the other +churchwarden.) + +In 1661 the west window was blown in, and was rebuilt in 1686. + +In 1720 the external re-roofing of the nave was carried out, and the +western gable, occupying the space between the two western turrets, +disappeared in the process. + +By 1720 the "long roof," repaired in 1593, was again in want of +repair, and to raise money a brief was granted by Parker, the Lord +Chancellor. During the years 1723-26 the work was carried out and +finished. Before this, the eaves of the roof overlapped the side walls +of the nave. + +In 1726 the "old wall at the East end of the Chancel" was taken down, +and foundations were dug upon which an altar-piece was to be erected. + +About the same time, the marble Communion table, which Mr. Gough +called "the finest Communion table in the kingdom," was moved into the +nave. It was then cut longitudinally into two pieces, which were used +as seats in the porch. + +In 1737 the organ now in the choir was erected over the old screen. + +A stone altar-piece, Doric in character, with an elliptical pediment, +was set up in 1725, the cost being partly met by private +subscriptions. It must have struck most people as incongruous, for it +was not liked, and in 1848 it was removed. + +A flood in 1770 rose to such a height that service could not be held +in the church; and the old feoffee book states that "the graves in the +church were shocking to behold, for scarce a stone was to be seen that +was not removed from its proper situation. Several parts of this +venerable building were materially injured, particularly the large +pillar next the seats of the Corporation, and the arch over the same." + +In January, 1795, it was agreed at a parish meeting that "the church +shall be whitewashed as soon as convenient, and other repairs be done +... that shall appear necessary." The part of the church that was in +use was re-pewed, galleries were put up in the two transepts, and in +the easternmost bay of the aisles of the nave. + +During the years 1824-30, the exterior of the tower, probably +untouched from the date of its first completion, was repaired, all +decayed stones being made good. The windows which had been partially +bricked up were opened, and shelving stones inserted instead. One of +the pinnacles was entirely rebuilt, and the three others repaired. The +turrets on the west front were also restored. + +At this time also the transept walls and the roofs were repaired and +strengthened. The interior of the church previous to its +colour-washing was scraped and cleaned, and the walls and pillars +were repaired, pointed, and cemented. All the tombs were cleaned and +most of them restored. The greater part of the nave was paved with +Painswick stone, and in the rest of the church the gravestones were +relaid. + + [Illustration: THE WEST END IN 1840. + By _Rev. J.L. Petit_.] + +In 1825 the vicar and churchwardens posted to Worcester, that they +might inspect the colouring of the Cathedral and other churches there +with a view to decorating the Abbey. The committee decided in favour +of colour-washing the Abbey, and this was done three years later. + +1828. The monuments of Sir Hugh le Despenser and Sir Guy de Brien, +being very dilapidated, were extensively repaired. Most of the +buttresses and pinnacles were entirely renewed. All this restoration +involved the outlay of a considerable amount of money, and if more had +been forthcoming more would have been undertaken, such as the +restoration of all the tombs and chapels, and the old windows in the +choir. + +The font in 1828 was removed from the nave and placed in the apsidal +chapel in the south transept, from which position it was again removed +in 1878. + +A final restoration was set on foot in 1864, and Sir Gilbert Scott +reported that £15,000 was necessary to make good the dilapidation and +decay which extended, in his opinion, from the foundations to the +roof. The necessary amount was not forthcoming for several years. Then +a new committee was appointed, with Sir Edmund Lechmere as its +chairman. In 1875 the restoration began, the choir being undertaken +first. For this purpose the church was divided into two parts by means +of a hoarding. When the pavement in the choir was removed, the graves +there were all carefully examined and their identification verified +where possible. Many fragments of historic stonework were found, and +these have been grouped together in the south-east chapel, which forms +a kind of museum. + +After the work in the choir was advanced enough, the nave was +undertaken and thoroughly done; the floor was relaid on a foundation +of cement, all open graves being filled up. + +On September 23, 1879, the building was re-dedicated with a service +modelled somewhat on the lines of the original dedication service in +1123. + +During the last twenty years little has been done to the fabric. +Windows and other decoration have been lavished upon the interior, the +money expended amounting to several thousands of pounds, a sum which +might have been spent with more benefit to the fabric, upon purchasing +the precincts, and on repairing the timber-work which supports the +roof. + +Interesting though the general question of the "restoration" of +ancient buildings is, and interesting though Tewkesbury is as a +particular case, this is not the place to go into it, but it may be +well to quote from Mackail's "Life of William Morris," vol. i., p. +340, a letter which William Morris wrote to the _Athenæum_ about the +restorations proposed at Tewkesbury. + +"My eye just now caught the word 'restoration' in the morning paper, +and, on looking closer, I saw that this time it is nothing less than +the Minster of Tewkesbury that is to be destroyed by Sir Gilbert +Scott. Is it altogether too late to do something to save it--it and +whatever else of beautiful and historical is still left us on the +sites of the ancient buildings we were once so famous for? Would it +not be of some use once for all, and with the least delay possible, to +set on foot an association for the purpose of watching over and +protecting these relics, which, scanty as they are now become, are +still wonderful treasures, all the more priceless in this age of the +world, when the newly-invented study of living history is the chief +joy of so many of our lives? Your paper has so steadily and +courageously opposed itself to these acts of barbarism which the +modern architect, parson, and squire call 'restoration,' that it would +be waste of words to enlarge here on the ruin that has been wrought by +their hands; but, for the saving of what is left, I think I may write +a word of encouragement, and say that you by no means stand alone in +the matter, and that there are many thoughtful people who would be +glad to sacrifice time, money, and comfort in defence of those ancient +monuments; besides, though I admit that the architects are, with very +few exceptions, hopeless, because interest, habit, and ignorance bind +them, and that the clergy are hopeless, because their order, habit, +and an ignorance yet grosser, bind them; still there must be many +people whose ignorance is accidental rather than inveterate, whose +good sense could surely be touched if it were clearly put to them that +they were destroying what they, or, more surely still, their sons and +sons' sons, would one day fervently long for, and which no wealth or +energy could ever buy again for them. + +"What I wish for, therefore, is that an association shall be set on +foot to keep a watch on old monuments, to protest against all +'restoration' that means more than keeping out wind and weather, and, +by all means, literary and other, to awaken a feeling that our ancient +buildings are not mere ecclesiastical toys, but sacred monuments of +the nation's growth and hope." + +The interest of the quotation lies in the fact that the Society for +the Preservation of Ancient Buildings was formed, with Morris as its +first secretary--a very practical outcome to such a very forcibly +expressed letter. + + [Illustration: THE CHOIR BEFORE RESTORATION. + _From an old photograph._] + + [Illustration: THE NAVE BEFORE RESTORATION. + _From an old photograph._] + +A chance presented itself in 1883 of re-purchasing the Abbey House, a +building which stood in its own grounds on lands embracing the site of +the whole of the original monastic buildings. Subscriptions poured in, +and at the auction, held in the town, the Abbey House Estate was +bought for £10,500, and became once more, after 344 years, the +property of the church. This estate included the Abbey House, the +Abbey Gateway, three cottages, and about nine acres of land. A portion +of the latter, viz., that which comprised the Cloister Walk, was added +to the churchyard. The Abbey House comprises portions of the infirmary +and perhaps of the misericord, which survived destruction at the time +of the suppression of the monastery. Part of the original wall remains +on the north side, between the gateway and the church. It is a pity +that the inscription under the bay window is illegible. + +At the sale there was a curious lot (Lot 2) put up for sale, but it +was withdrawn, and eventually given to the church. This lot was known +as the _Vaulted Chamber_, and formed a portion of the south aisle of +the nave which had been cut off from the rest of the building, and to +which access was given by a stone staircase outside the church and a +doorway in the wall by the nave. + +Very few traces of the old monastic buildings are to be found, for +when the neighbouring ground has been levelled at various times large +quantities of stone have been dug up from the old foundations, and +utilised partly in constructing boundary walls, partly in repairs to +the building. The Abbey Gateway, which is well worth inspection, is +Perpendicular work, and is in surprisingly good repair, mainly owing +to the fact that for many years it was in private hands. It stands +very solid and square, and looks formidable with its battlements, but +the view through the open doorway is very fine--the foliage on the +trees beyond showing up the stonework. The work in the arches is good, +and the gargoyles are worthy of notice. The gateway was restored in +1849-50, and the gates are of about the same date. + +In the cloister there are traces at the west of the outer parlour of +the monks, and the size of the cloisters is clearly seen to have been +eighty feet. + +Of the place of this glorious Abbey in our own English history much +might be written, and in fact it has been a difficult task to steer a +course which, while avoiding too much history, should show that the +history is there. In all the great events of history down to the end +of the fifteenth century Tewkesbury Abbey has its place, and like the +Abbey of St. Peter at Westminster and the Cathedrals at Canterbury and +at Winchester, is in every respect a representative structure. "It +represents all the greatest influences in our social development, it +directly embodies in its memories both the Crown, at the time when the +Crown was a _primum mobile_ in politics, and all the estates of the +realm. It shows the Church as the keystone in which the various +thrusts of those contending masses met and balanced each other. It +exhibits in the Church patron the official link between things +spiritual and temporal. Its great lay potentates, Saxon or Norman, +either deduce their lineage from royal blood, or at once mix their own +with it, and renew again and again their touch of royalty by fresh +inter-marriages until the pedigree is absorbed into that of the +reigning or rival sovereign. The House, after blazoning a leading +name, often _the_ leading name of each successive period, after +scoring repeated Plantagenet affinities, at length shares the +internecine havoc of the York and Lancaster factions, and its last +scions which survived that havoc are cut off on the scaffold for the +crime of being too near the throne. But the almost princely rank of +these founders, patrons, and benefactors is their least claim to +historical remembrance. They are always to be found grouped in the +very focus where the light of history falls strongest, men of the +foremost mark for high trust and safe counsel for foreign strife, or +civil broil" (_Hayman_). + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + THE ABBEY GATEWAY.] + +Thus in the four centuries after the Conquest we find Fitz-Hamon, the +second founder, connected by marriage with the great Norman soldier. +In the civil wars of Stephen, Robert Earl of Gloucester and Lord of +Tewkesbury, and his half-sister, Maud or Matilda, played the parts we +know so well. Again, Gilbert de Clare, who is buried in the Abbey, was +one of the chief signatories of Magna Charta. The last of the three +Gilberts de Clare fell at Bannockburn in 1314, at the age of +twenty-three. The heiress of the latter married a Despenser, a family +closely connected with Tewkesbury, two prominent members of which, +viz., the favoured ministers of Edward II., will be remembered as +by-words in history. Sir Guy de Brien, the valiant standard-bearer of +Edward III., was the second husband of the widow of the fifth Lord +Despenser, and, with her, helped to rebuild the choir, in the +ambulatory of which his splendid monument is still to be seen. The +Despensers in turn passed away, the last heiress marrying in +succession two cousins, each named Richard Beauchamp. Of her second +marriage were born two children--a son, who married the sister of +Warwick the king-maker, and a daughter, who became the wife of the +Earl of Warwick himself. The king-maker's two daughters were +unfortunate in their husbands, one of them having been married to the +luckless Duke of Clarence, and the other to the young Prince Edward, +who fell in 1471 at the battle of Tewkesbury. Of these noble patrons +of the Abbey from the first Tewkesbury De Clare to the time of the +ill-fated Duke of Clarence, all save two, _i.e._, the second Richard +Beauchamp and the great king-maker, Richard Neville, who are both +buried at Warwick, found their last resting-place in Tewkesbury. + + [Illustration: TILE SHOWING THE ARMS OF FITZ-HAMON AND THE ABBEY + IMPALED.] + + [Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._ + TEWKESBURY ABBEY, FROM THE NORTH.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The original stone is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. + +[2] Mr. Blunt, in his "Tewkesbury and its Associations," assigns the +northernmost chapel to St. James, and the one between it and the choir +aisle to St. Nicholas, but in his plan he reverses them. The plan in +the _Builder_ of December, 1894, follows Mr. Blunt's plan in so naming +the two chapels. Some have thought the present Northern Chapel to be +that dedicated to St. Eustachius. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE EXTERIOR. + + +One of the most characteristic views of the exterior is to be got from +the iron gates which give admission to the churchyard. The view thus +obtained presents to us, with the exception of the windows and the +pinnacles on the tower, features almost entirely Norman. + +As it is impossible to make a complete circuit of the church, it is as +well to begin at the north transept. Here a wall will be found +projecting from the north-east corner, of which the western face is in +a very dilapidated condition. This wall contains a good Early English +pointed arch, which is now filled up with stonework and contains a +modern window. At the sides of the arch are Purbeck marble shafts with +a central shaft of the same, which divides it into two subordinate +arches, with an opening in the spandril between them. The base of the +dividing shaft is a block of marble, curiously carved, representing +four cats playing round the column. Each of the cats has in its mouth +the tail of the cat immediately in front. + +On each side are the remains of a smaller recessed arch, and the only +portion of the north wall which is still standing contains one bay of +a trefoil-headed arcading which formerly was carried round the walls +of this chapel. + +On the north wall of the transept the four bays of the vaulted roof +are discernible, and a fine Early English doorway in the wall (lately +restored) used to give admission to the main building. Originally, +when the church was perfect, this was an open arch. At the last +restoration a wall was built up inside, so that the arch might be left +clear. This chapel can hardly have been the one mentioned on p. 13, +which was dedicated to St. Eustachius, and was consecrated in 1246 by +Prior Henry de Banbury. It is much more likely to have been the nave +of the Early English Lady Chapel, of which the enclosed chapel to the +east was the choir. Bristol Cathedral has its elder Lady Chapel in a +similar position, though it was no doubt originally quite detached +from the main building. The corner buttress at the north-west angle of +the north transept was erected about the year 1720, and there is a +corresponding support to the south transept at its south-west angle. + +The clerestory on this north side of the nave has a Norman arcade, +supported on short shafts, which extends from the tower to the west +front. The insertion of the later windows, which presumably were +enlarged when the nave was vaulted, has destroyed the regularity of +the arcading. + +A flying buttress of very slight proportions will be seen on the north +side between the north transept and the north porch. + +=North Porch.=--For a porch of Norman construction this is of unusual +dimensions, measuring 24 feet by 20 feet and 39 feet high. It is +extremely simple in character inside and out. The roof is a plain +barrel vault of stone. + +Both the internal and the external doorway have a circular arch +composed of a series of mouldings supported by shafting, just as in +the arch of the great west window. + +Over the outside door of the porch stood an image of the Virgin Mary +with the infant Christ, typical of the Incarnation, but it has +suffered much at the hands of would-be zealots. Over the porch is a +room or parvise, very difficult of access and badly lighted. + +This north porch was in all probability built on to the church soon +after the completion of the rest of the Norman building, and this may +account for the difficult means of access. + +Between the porch and the west end there are traces of some earlier +building, abutting on to the north wall of the church. + +The iron gates at the main entrance to the churchyard near the "Bell +Hotel" were formerly mounted in the external doorway of the porch. +They were given to the church by Lord Gage in 1750. + +=The Tower.=--This is generally considered to be one of the finest and +most perfect Norman towers in existence. Its massive size (each side +measuring 46 feet) takes off from its actual height. It stands well, +and is impressive from its proportions and the simplicity of its +ornament. It is 132 feet high from the ground to the battlements +inclusive, and 148 to the top of the pinnacles. The pinnacles and +battlements were added in 1660, as the inscription on the north-west +pinnacle testifies. They were restored in 1825. + + [Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._ + THE ABBEY, FROM THE SOUTH.] + +As to what was there before 1660 one can only conjecture, but it had +been undoubtedly damaged by the fall of the wooden spire covered with +lead, which event occurred on Easter Day, 1559. + +From whichever point of the compass it be studied, there is ever a +different charm displayed, and the charm varies according to the light +that plays upon the time-honoured handiwork of the Norman builders. +The tower looks equally well from the north-west end of the +churchyard, seen through the trees, from the extreme west, and from +the open ground to the south-east, where the eye can also take in the +graceful battlementing of the choir. Perhaps the best view of the +tower and the building generally is that obtainable from the +Gloucester road, just as one turns the last corner coming into +Tewkesbury. + +The tower is supported by four piers, which, as will be seen from an +inspection of the plan, are very massive. The two easternmost piers +are in plan very similar to the two corresponding piers in Gloucester +Cathedral. + +There are two windows in each side of the lower storey or base, +immediately over the roofs of the nave and transepts, and between the +windows is the stone ridge or wall-plate which indicates the pitch of +the earlier roof. On three sides of the tower the dripstone is almost +perfect. + +The next stage or storey has an arcade with two lights in each side of +the tower. The third stage has a narrower intersecting arcade of great +beauty and delicacy, with a curious effect produced by the warm +colouring of some of the stones.[3] + +In the topmost stage there is another range of arcades and columns. + +=The West Front.=--The chief feature in this front is the noble +recessed arch, 65 feet high and 34 feet wide. There are seven columns +on each side of the arch, one being partially concealed by the +masonry of the Debased Perpendicular window which was inserted +originally to give light to the nave. Portions of the seventh shaft +have been, however, exposed for inspection. + +There is one slight defect in this unique west front as it now is, +viz., that apart from the window, the arch is on too large a scale for +the size of the front, or, as Dean Spence puts it (he himself is +quoting from some other writer), "As this noble arch stands at +present, it is extremely beautiful in itself, but it has an incomplete +appearance, seeming to want a _raison d'être_, and being too large a +jewel for its setting."[4] Exactly the same may be said of the window, +though its excessive size will not be felt so much from the outside as +from the inside of the church, where the low vaulting of the nave +further accentuates the excessive size of the window. + +As was the case at Gloucester, larger western towers were originally +contemplated to contain the bells, and there are indications of this +in the rough stonework in the clerestory on the south side, evidently +designed to carry a tower 22 feet square. The towers in the west front +at Southwell are an example of this design carried out. When it was +decided to build smaller towers, the bell tower or campanile (which is +shown on p. 17) was built. Later again the lantern or open part of the +interior of the tower was vaulted over (_vide_ p. 74), and the bells +were hung in the great central tower. The campanile was then diverted +to other uses. In later times it was used as a prison for several +years, but having become structurally unsafe, was demolished in 1817. + +It would be interesting to know the original scheme of windows in this +west front. There is a trace of the original Norman doorway inside the +present doorway, and it is supposed that the original window was +either a large round window, with possibly one or two tiers of +round-headed lights below. Later, a larger window, probably of +fourteenth century work, was inserted, which lasted till it was blown +into the church in 1661. The present window, which was built in 1686, +may probably have been an attempt to follow the lines of the previous +window. At either side of the large arch is a Decorated window of two +lights. + +The stonework of the towers, above the point where the arch springs, +is decorated with a Norman arcading in two tiers. They are finished by +two partly Norman turrets, with later pinnacles and spires. + +=The South Side.=--This side has a blank appearance owing to the total +disappearance of the claustral and conventual buildings, all of which +were "deemed to be superfluous." There are traces on the south wall of +the "outer parlour," and there is blocked up into it a doorway from +the west end of the south aisle of the nave. Traces are there, too, of +Norman work on the wall, which prove that the Norman cloisters were of +the same extent and size as those of Perpendicular times. + +=The Cloisters.=--These were of two periods of Perpendicular work, and +though smaller than those at Gloucester (80 feet as compared with 148 +feet) seem to have been enriched with panelling and arcading in every +way as fine, judging from the stone which shows the spring of the +arches near the cloister door. + +The doorway from the cloister to the south aisle is a beautiful piece +of fifteenth century work. It consists of a low pointed arch, struck +from two centres, in the hollow moulding of which are canopies. Below +are pedestals for figures. At the top the arch is embattled, and above +it are niches, seven in all, with pedestals and canopies, richly +ornamented and carved. On either side, over the canopy is an angel +bearing a plain shield. This doorway was filled with stonework up to +1892, and had been so filled for many years, but has since undergone +restoration of a very careful kind. The oak door is new, and is an +example of very florid work executed with the great mechanical +precision which now characterises modern wood-carving. One bay of the +cloister has been vaulted to protect the doorway; and the wall arcade +has been restored, at the expense of the Freemasons of the county. + +On the south front of the south transept there are to be seen traces +of a building of the same width, through which there were means of +communication with the church. The wall of this south transept has +been considerably strengthened since the Dissolution. + +Separated from the south transept by a slype or passage, was the +Chapter House, of which nothing is known beyond the fact that it was +repaved in 1259, and destroyed at the Dissolution with other buildings +on this side. Over the Chapter House there was a dormitory, also with +an entrance to the church. This entrance has been walled up. There +were stairs giving access to a room built over the apsidal chapel in +the south transept, and also to the transept itself. + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + THE CLOISTER DOORWAY.] + +To the east of the south transept a very good view of the choir and +its chapels is to be obtained. The westernmost chapel is the Norman +apsidal chapel, and here the original Norman work comes to an end as +far as the exterior is concerned. + +The Norman arcading on the east and west walls will be noticed, but it +has been lately restored. + +The chapel (marked Vestry in the plan) has an upper chamber with two +commonplace modern windows in it, the mullions having been destroyed. +There is a massive buttress attached to the wall of this chapel, much +larger than any of the other exterior buttresses. It is quite hollow, +and is entered from the interior of the chapel, which is now used as +the clergy vestry. + +The windows of the choir are elaborately decorated with a crocketed +gable. + +The east end of the church[5] and the exterior of the chapels on the +north side of the church are in private gardens, which unfortunately +extend up to the very wall of the church, and prevent access. + +The actual east end now consists of an arch which was formerly the +entrance to the destroyed Lady Chapel, of which nothing remains but +the modern masonry in the arch, now walled up, and containing a modern +window of three lights; and above this is the original west wall above +the vestibule of the Lady Chapel, with a restored window of four +lights. + +The parapet of open work which runs round the summit of the apse is +another beautiful feature of the exterior of the eastern part of the +church. It seems to be formed of stalks from a thorn tree intertwining +in such a way as to form triangular openings. This parapet or coronet +is as much like lacework as it is possible for stonework to be, and +gives to the building a peculiarly delicate and subtle finish. + +A very good exterior view of this east end can be obtained from the +battlement of St. Faith's Chapel. The pitch of the roof and the +character of the mouldings can thus be seen. + +=The Lady Chapel.=--Nothing is left but the partly concealed mouldings +of the arch in the east wall of the ambulatory of the choir. On the +outside of the east end may be seen portions of the lofty +vaulting--just where it sprang from the walls--which would indicate +that the masonry was very beautiful and delicate work. + +Much uncertainty exists as to the size of the Lady Chapel, though +traces of the foundations have been found for some distance to the +eastward of the present building. Unfortunately the ground in which +the foundations are hidden is private property, and the chance of a +thorough investigation of the site very remote. Traditionally, the +Lady Chapel is said to have been 100 feet long, or about a third of +the length of the building. There is no documentary evidence to +support this tradition, and in the absence of such confirmation Mr. +Blunt supposes that there was no large Lady Chapel,[6] but that a +chapel somewhat similar to those still surviving, and specifically +referred to as "Capella Beatæ Mariæ Ecclesiæ Conventualis," was +destroyed not long before the Dissolution for the purpose of making +room for a larger and more splendid chapel. This chapel, Mr. Blunt +adds, was never completed, the plans of the builders being upset by +the general dissolution of the monasteries. + +The Capella Ecclesiæ Conventualis above mentioned would rather imply +the existence of another Capella Mariæ to which the parishioners had +ordinary access, and this reference to it tends to strengthen the +theory that on the north side of the north transept there was a +detached Lady Chapel as at Bristol. + +On the other hand, the orders of Henry VIII.'s Commissioners expressly +mention the Lady Chapel as a part of the building to be pulled down, +as being superfluous. This is a matter of exact history, and we have +either to accept the conclusion that the Commissioners ordered the +chapel to be destroyed, and that it was done, or else that they +ordered the destruction of a building which did not exist. To support +the former alternative we have the tradition, and it is nothing more, +that the Lady Chapel was destroyed because of the delay of the good +people of Tewkesbury in buying the choir. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Some of the stone in the tower is undoubtedly Caen stone, brought +from Normandy for the work. + +[4] Mr. W. St. John Hope suggests that there was to be _one_ central +western tower, within which this arch would not look out of place. + +[5] A good view of the north-east end at close quarters can be +obtained from the Abbey Tea Gardens. + +[6] There are records of interments in the Lady Chapel: William Lord +de la Zouch of Mortimer in 1335, another Lord de la Zouch in 1371, and +the widow of the latter in 1408. In 1472 the Bishop of Worcester +appropriated the church of Little Compton to the Convent of Tewkesbury +to augment the salaries of the priests officiating in the chapel of +the Virgin Mary there. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE INTERIOR. + + +THE NAVE. + +The Norman nave bears a close resemblance to that at Gloucester, and +has the distinguishing feature of the simple cylindrical columns. +These massive piers are found at the Priory Church at Great Malvern, +and also at Pershore; but those at Gloucester and Tewkesbury are +considerably larger than the others.[7] At Tewkesbury the nave is +particularly impressive from the height of the piers, and from the +severely formal character of the arches supported by them. The +simplicity of the nave as a whole has led some to ascribe the building +of it to a date earlier than that of the nave at Gloucester; but if +the received accounts go for anything, the building of the two fabrics +was contemporaneous. Pershore, Gloucester, and Tewkesbury are by some +considered to have been the production of one master-builder. If this +be so, it is a matter of regret that his name has not come down to our +time. + +At Gloucester and at Tewkesbury many of the stones bear on their faces +the interesting devices incised by the Norman masons. These marks are +in many cases the same, but there are some found at Gloucester which +are not found at Tewkesbury, and _vice versâ_. One small point may be +noticed which may perhaps interest a few, viz., that the same workman +set out and worked at the first few courses of the stone work of the +staircases, and then was followed by others, possibly less +intelligent, but capable of following the indicated plan. A monk named +Alfred was the "Master of the Work," and it would be interesting to +know if the stones marked A are marked with his mark. + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE NAVE, FROM THE WEST END.] + +The nave here was being built in all probability while the great +Flambard was busy with Durham (1105-1130), and very soon after he had +finished his labours at Twynham or Christchurch, Hants. Gloucester is +generally assigned to Serlo, 1089 to 1100, and Norwich was begun in +1096. + + [Illustration: MASONS' MARKS.] + +Above the arches of the nave are small double round-headed openings +into a very narrow triforium walk, which is vaulted, as at Gloucester, +with a quadrantal arch. + +There is another peculiarity, too, here, in that the vaulting of the +roof springs from corbels which rest directly on the capitals of the +piers. As a result of this the roof looks low and heavy. + +The triforium openings, which are divided by small shafts, similar in +character to those in the tower chamber, are 5 feet 6 inches high and +4 feet 10 inches wide. The passage is 26 inches wide and 6-½ to 7 feet +high. + +The two western bays of the triforium are not alike. On the north the +openings correspond to those in the other bays, and are not contracted +to correspond with the narrowed arch below; whereas on the south side +they are so contracted. By this means the square angle of the western +pier was continued to the roof. On the north side the western pier +ends abruptly at the capital of the respond. + +The clerestory windows are partly concealed by the vaulting. Of course +the original windows were much smaller, and were removed and the space +enlarged when the re-roofing was done in the fourteenth century. + +=The Roof.=--Originally, no doubt, as at Peterborough, where it +remains, the inner roof was a flat panelled ceiling of wood, supported +by a moulded framing. Whether the wooden roof decayed or was destroyed +by fire, it was found necessary in the early part of the fourteenth +century to re-roof the nave, and the present vaulting was then +constructed. Beautiful though it is architecturally, it has the effect +of dwarfing the nave, as it springs directly from the tops of the +piers in the nave. In character it is a simple pointed vaulting, and +the ribs at their many points of intersection are lavishly decorated +with bosses. + +Originally the vaulting was painted and gilded, but owing to the +idiosyncrasies of those who fancied they were having things done +"decently and in order," it was colour-washed in the early part of +this century. The present scheme of colour decoration was carried out +by Mr. T. Gambier Parry. Its chief merit is that it throws out the +bosses in very strong relief. The bosses can be studied with an +opera-glass, but it is less fatiguing to examine them with the help of +a pocket mirror. There is a tradition that the bosses were carved by a +monk who was not held in much esteem by his companions, and was a butt +for their gibes and witticisms. Whether this was so or not, he knew +how to carve rudely and effectively in stone, and long may his work +remain with us. They represent in a highly pictorial manner the life +of our Lord. Beginning at the west end, the central bosses depict: (1) +The Nativity. (2) The Shepherds rendering homage. (3) The Magi on +their journey. (4) The Magi in adoration. (5) The finding of Christ in +the Temple. (6) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (7) The Last +Supper.[8] (8) The Betrayal. (9) The Flagellation. (10) The +Crucifixion. (11) The Resurrection. (12) The Ascension. (13) The Day +of Pentecost. (14) The Coronation of the Virgin. (15) The Last +Judgment. + +The other bosses contain angels bearing musical instruments of every +known kind, and alternating, more or less regularly, with angels +censing and angels bearing emblems of the Passion. + +On the south side: (1) Angels with pipe and tambourine. (2) Angels +with cymbals and bagpipes. (3) Angels with hurdy-gurdy and harp. (4) +Angels with dulcimer and organ. (5 and 6) Angels censing. (7) St. +Matthew and St. John with their emblems, a scroll and an eagle. (8) +Angel with a violin; others with emblems of the Passion, _i.e._, +posts, spear, and scourges. + +On the north side are to be found: (1) Angel with pipe and tabor; +another censing. (2) Angel with harp; another censing. (3) Angels with +rebec and zither. (4) Angels with tabor and zither. (5 and 6) Angels +censing. (7) St. Luke and St. Mark, with their emblems, a winged ox, +and a winged lion. (8) Angel with a harp; others with emblems of the +Passion, _i.e._, a crown of thorns, a sponge, a cross, and a scourge. + +Mr. Gambier Parry, who personally supervised, where he did not +personally execute, the decoration of the roof, termed it "a +marvellous specimen of English carving," and says that "together with +the cathedrals of Gloucester and Norwich, it combined some of the +finest features of mediæval sculpture." Further he adds that though +"fine details must not be looked for, yet it exhibited a vigour of +conception and a charm of inspiration which quite atoned for any +faults." + +At the west end of the building are two half-figures, male and female, +like the figure-heads of ships, which serve as corbels for the +vaulting of the roof. They have been thought by some to represent Adam +and Eve, and by others to represent the founder, Fitz-Hamon, and +Sibylla his wife. + +=The Font= (p. 40).--With the exception of the shaft, which has some +good hall-flower ornament,[9] and the Purbeck marble base, this is +entirely new work, dating only from the restoration carried out +1875-79. Formerly the old font, of which portions remain in the +church, stood in the apsidal chapel in the south transept, and the +choice of position for the new one is not quite happy. The canopy is +very fine work, but the font as a whole is as much too high as the +choir screen is too low. It is also placed at far too great a height +above the surrounding floor to be comfortable for a party of sponsors, +and from its height it interferes with the beautiful vista of the nave +as viewed from the outside of the open west door on a fine day in +summer. There is no reason for placing the font in this position, and +a Baptistery could have well been made in the north-west corner of the +nave. + +=The Lectern=, also a gift from Rev. C.W. Grove in memory of his wife, +was presented in 1878. Formerly it blocked up the central passage up +the nave, but was removed to counterbalance the pulpit. + +=The Pulpit= was given to the church by Mrs. Glynn, of Tewkesbury, in +memory of her husband. In style it is Perpendicular. The shape is +octagonal, and it is supported by seven shafts of Purbeck marble, +springing from a base of the same, polished; the bases and capitals of +the octagonal shafts being of stone. Of the seven panels, four are of +pierced work, and three are sculptured representing our Lord blessing +little children; preaching on the Mount; giving His charge to the +Apostle Peter. Below the panels is a brattice of Purbeck marble--from +this at the angles rise octagonal columns supporting angels, which +again support a canopy of elaborate work. The pulpit rests on a base +of Purbeck marble. + +The nave must have terminated in the same way as the nave at +Gloucester, viz., with an altar and with two side chapels--one in each +aisle. In the handbook to Gloucester, page 44, will be found the +illustration of the altar and chapels redrawn by Mr. Waller from the +drawing given in Browne Willis' "Survey of Gloucester Cathedral," +published in 1727. This arrangement no doubt obtained at Tewkesbury, +which, like Gloucester, was a Benedictine foundation. + +The space thus given up to the altar and chapels is indicated by the +step which comes in the nave near the second pillar, counting westward +from the western tower piers. In each of these, on the aisle side are +to be seen the ascending spiral made by the recently inserted pieces +of stone which show the exact position of the staircase that led up to +the rood-screen overhead.[10] This step no doubt marks the site of the +original western termination of the ritual choir. It seems strange +that, after undergoing so many vicissitudes as a whole, the survival +of so interesting a point should have been permitted. Gloucester +Cathedral was repaved in 1720, and no doubt the corresponding step +disappeared in the process in the levelling-up of the nave to a height +nearly ten inches higher than the original floor level. This step was +restored by Sir Gilbert Scott when the floor of the nave was lowered. + +On the face of the pillars here some traces of fresco-painting are in +some lights still to be seen. + +A screen of most uninteresting work separated the choir from the nave +up to the time of the restoration work that was begun in 1875, and +upon this stood the organ. In front of the organ was hung a huge and +unsightly gas corona, portions of which are still lying in the north +transept. + +Two bays of either aisle were also disfigured with low galleries, as +were also the transepts. These erections, with the screen and the +screens across the aisles, have fortunately disappeared. As Bennett +wrote, "These additions, however much they may add to the convenience +and comfort of those who attend divine service, little harmonise with +the general character of the building." + +=The Screen.=--This dates from the restoration of 1892, and was +erected in memory of Mrs. Glynn, by Archdeacon Robeson and Mr. E.F. +Glynn. The screen is of carved oak, and consists of a central door, +with wrought-iron gates, and on either side four openings. At the top, +which is seventeen feet above the floor level, is an overhanging +cornice with elaborate cresting of carved work on both sides. The +cross in the centre is richly ornamented on the stem and the arms. +These latter are terminated with pateræ, with pierced and carved work. +The centre of the cross is composed of a quatrefoil in which is +carved the Agnus Dei. Flanking the cross are two figures, one +representing St. John, and the other the Virgin Mary. These figures +are well carved (by Boulton, of Cheltenham), but, like the cross, look +too small on the top of the screen. + +The side sections of the screen terminate in ogee arches, elaborately +cusped and crocketed, with perpendicular tracery in the spandrils. The +separating shafts terminate with pinnacles. + +In the central section there are two arches, one being semi-circular +with very delicate foliated tracery; the other is an ogee trefoil +supported from brackets which take the form of angels. + +The lowest stage of the screen is solid panel work and calls for no +special mention. + +The gates were made by Clarke, of Brackley, and were designed by Mr. +J.O. Scott for the donor, Rev. W.R.F. Hepworth. Intricate in their +design, and cleverly wrought as they are, they seem slightly +incongruous in this wooden screen. The shields bear the correct arms +of the Abbey, and round the shields are intertwining iron rods. +Scrolls with leaves and other devices are also introduced. Across the +top of the gates is a band of square panels with varied design in +pierced work, and on the top is an elaborate cresting. + +On the inside of the gates, on the shields are the texts, "_Serve the +Lord with fear._"; and "_Rejoice unto Him with reverence._" + +The whole screen looks too low for its position, whether it be viewed +from the west end or from the triforium of the choir at the east end. +The workmanship will not bear any minute comparison with the loving +hand-craftsmanship of mediæval times; much of it is more skilful as +church furniture of a very mechanical kind than beautiful as real +carver's work. + +The =Great West Window= dates back, as far as the masonry is +concerned, to 1686, and was erected then to replace the window blown +in by the wind in 1661. The glass was inserted in 1886 by Rev. C.W. +Grove in memory of his wife, and represents various scenes in the life +of Christ. In the lowest tier is the Annunciation, with the Nativity +in the centre, and the Presentation in the Temple on the right. Above +is the Baptism by St. John in the Jordan, the Last Supper in the +centre, the Agony in the Garden on the right. In the topmost tier is +the Bearing of the Cross, the Crucifixion, and the appearance of our +Lord to Mary after the Resurrection. In the head of the window are +angels, those in the two side lights on either side being engaged in +censing. In the central top light is Christ in Majesty, with angels. +The glass is by Hardman. + +=The Aisles.=--The aisles of the nave are very much lower in height +than the nave, and the vaulting is simpler in character. There are, +however, many fine bosses, and, like those in the nave, they have been +treated in a tentative way with colour and gold. As a whole, the +effect of decorated bosses standing out in such strong relief from the +simple, unadorned stonework is rather spotty and distracting. The arms +of the Despenser family are to be found on some of the bosses in the +south aisle, and it is to the munificence of that powerful family that +the execution of the work is due. The Norman roof of the aisles was a +lean-to roof of wood, as is indicated by the half-arch between either +aisle and the transept. + +The fourteenth century windows in the =North Aisle= were partially +blocked up with stonework up to 1825, when they were restored and +reglazed. Most of the stained glass was inserted in 1892. The window +at the west end is a memorial, inserted in 1869, to Mr. John Terrett +and his sister. The subject is the "Adoration by the Magi"; the glass +is by Heaton Butler and Bayne. The _first_ window east of the porch +represents the "Angel appearing to the Shepherds" and "The Star of +Bethlehem," and "The Wise Men before Herod," in the lower part. The +_second_ shows "Christ Disputing with the Doctors," and below are "Eli +and Samuel," "David and Samuel," and "Saul at the feet of Gamaliel." +The _third_ represents the Sermon on the Mount, and below, Christ +talking to the Woman at Samaria, Christ with Mary and Martha, and +Christ with Nicodemus. The _fourth_ represents the Transfiguration; +the _fifth_ gives the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; beneath, Christ +is driving out the money-changers from the Temple and weeping over the +city; the _sixth_ depicts the removal of Christ from the Cross, and +the Entombment. + +These windows are more or less attempts to reproduce the style of the +old glass in the choir. Four of them contain groups under canopies, +with a background of grisaille and a wide border. Owing to the lights +being narrower in the fifth the border is omitted, and in the sixth +the grisaille work is also omitted. All the windows in the north +aisle, with the exception of that in the west wall and that next to +it, were presented to the Abbey by Rev. C.W. Grove. + +It will be noticed that the windows in the north aisle are slightly +longer than those in the south aisle. The curtailment in the latter +was due to the fact that the cloisters were built against the outside +of the south wall. There is more variety in the tracery of the windows +in this north aisle than in those of the south aisle. + +In the north aisle near the transept [P][11] is a recessed tomb, much +mutilated, with a very graceful arch. On the tomb lies a knight in +armour, with his hands clasped and his feet resting upon a lion. The +armour is worth noticing, as it is curious. The gorget is of +edge-ringed mail, the surcoat is blazoned with a chevron between three +leopard's faces. Banded mail, with which the knight is dressed, is +rarely met with in monuments, only three other instances being known, +viz., Newton Solney, Tolland Royal, and Dodford. + +This tomb has usually hitherto been assigned to Lord Wenlock, who was +killed by the Duke of Somerset at the fatal battle of Tewkesbury. +Against this theory is the fact that the tomb is of much earlier date +than that of Lord Wenlock's death, and the fact that Lord Wenlock +built a chantry chapel in Luton Church for his wife Elizabeth and +himself, to which, according to Leland, he is said to have been +removed. The figure is supposed, with considerable probability, to +represent Sir John de Burley. + +In the north aisle, on a brass plate inserted in a flat stone is a +Latin inscription to Amie Wiatt, of Tewkesbury, who died on August +25th, ... Following the inscription is a set of elegiac verses, the +initial letters of which form the lady's name. + + "A me disce mori, mors est sors omnibus una + Mortis ut esca fui mortis ut esca fores. + In terram ex terra terrestris massa meabis + Et capiet cineres urna parata cinis. + Vivere vis coelo, terrenam temnito vitam: + Vita piis mors est mors mihi vita piæ. + Iejunes, vigiles, ores, credasque potenti. + Ardua fac: non est mollis ad astra via. + Te scriptura vocat, te sermo, ecclesia, mater; + Te que vocat Sponsus, Spiritus atque Pater." + +A punning epitaph, also acrostic in form, but in English, is to be +found in the nave, to one Merrett, a barber chirurgeon, who died in +1669. + + "T hough only stone salutes the readers eye, + H ere in deep silence precious dust doth lye, + O bscurely sleeping in Death's mighty store, + M ingled with common earth till time's no more; + A gainst Death's stubborn laws who dares repine, + S ince so much _Merrit_ did his life resigne. + + M urmurs and tears are useless in the grave, + E lse he, whole vollies at his tomb might have; + R est here in peace, who like a faithful steward + R epaired the church, the poor and needy cured. + E ternall mansions do attend the just, + T o clothe with immortality their dust, + T ainted (whilst under ground) with worms and rust." + +In the pillar nearest to the north door in the nave is all that +remains of the stoup or bénitier for the holy water. We may probably +attribute the wanton damage it has sustained to one of the zealots who +ministered here after the Reformation. + +=South Aisle.=--This aisle has five Early Decorated windows. The +western four have three lights each; the other, near to the south +transept, has four lights, and the tracery in it is slightly more +elaborate. + +All the stained-glass windows in this aisle were presented to the +church by the Rev. C.W. Grove, in 1888, as a memorial to his wife. The +windows are by Hardman. + +The _first_ window, _i.e._, the westernmost, represents Christ walking +on the sea; the _second_ represents the cripple at the pool of +Bethesda; the _third_, the raising of the widow's son at Nain; the +_fourth_, the feeding of the five thousand; the _fifth_, the changing +of the water into wine at Cana. + +At the west end of the south aisle is a memorial window to Mr. H.P. +Moore. This is also by Hardman, and represents the home at Nazareth. + +At the easternmost end of this aisle is the door by which access was +given the church from the cloisters. The entrance to this door +consists of a depressed arch, with a square head over it; the +spandrils are pierced with an open quatrefoil. This door stands within +the original Norman doorway, which was filled in, and traces of the +supporting shaft with its capital may be seen. Above are seven niches, +with brackets and canopies of good carved work. Over the canopy on +either side is an angel with a plain shield. + +At the restoration of the church this doorway was very carefully dealt +with at the cost of the then Mayor, Mr. Thomas Collins. Up to the time +of the restoration of the church, 1891-92, this doorway had been +walled up with many pieces of broken carved work from other parts of +the church. The doors were designed by Mr. J. Oldrid Scott, executed +locally, and given by the late Mr. Thomas Collins. + +To the east of the cloister door [O] is a tomb with a fine crocketed +ogee arch, and with an angel bearing a plain shield in place of a +finial. On one of the cusps are to be traced the chevrons of the De +Clares, and another bears a lion rampant. Beyond the fact that it was +the tomb of a relation of the De Clares nothing definite can be said. +Some have thought it to be the tomb of Sir Thomas Morley, the husband +of Anne, daughter of Edward, Lord Despenser, and widow of Hugh, Lord +Hastings, who died in 1417. It may here be noted that a lion rampant, +sable, crowned or, are to be found on one of the shields at Lord +Despenser's feet in the Isham register. This tomb is generally known +as the Duke of Somerset's tomb, but the arms as they exist show no +resemblance to the arms he would be entitled to bear, viz., those of +the Beauforts. + +In the floor of the south aisle is an interesting stone with an +inscription in Norman French, in bold Lombardic capitals running round +the border: + + [Illustration: (in Norman: Leger de Parr lies here. May God have + mercy on his soul.)] + +_i.e._, "Leger de Parr lies here. May God have mercy on his soul." +According to Bennett, this stone had been moved from some other place +in the church. + +Up to the time of the restoration the extreme western portion of the +south aisle was part and parcel of the Abbey House Estate. In 1883, +when the estate was put up for sale, the room thus formed in the +church was withdrawn from the auction, and soon afterwards was +presented by the then owner to the Abbey, to be in future an absolute +part of the building. In the south wall near this Abbey chamber is a +blocked-up doorway which gave access to the Outer Parlour of the +monks. + + +TRANSEPTS AND AMBULATORY OF THE CHOIR. + +The whole of the nave, as in most cathedrals, is open to the +inspection of the visitor free of any charge; but the choir, the +tombs, the chapels and transepts, are reserved, and shown to visitors +on payment of a small fee. This fee is payable at the verger's desk at +the entrance to the north transept. A further fee is payable by those +who wish to photograph in this or in any other part of the building. + +=North Transept.=[12]--The whole of this north transept is taken up +with the Grove organ, of which an account is given on p. 98. The +dimensions of the transept are 40 feet by 34 feet, and 58 feet in +height. For the most part this transept consists of original Norman +work, very little altered with the exception of the fourteenth century +stone vaulting and the insertion of windows of the same period. + +On the north wall of the transept is a tablet, in painted alabaster, +to John Roberts. It has been neglected, but it is worth deciphering. +It runs: "Here resteth what was mortal of John Roberts of Fiddington, +gent. Careful he was to maintain tillage, the maintenance of mankind. +He feared God, was faithful to his country, friends, good to the poore +and common wealth, just to all men. Who left us Jan. 1631, aged 77." +The text is, "For Christ is to mee both in life and in death +advantage." + +The north side has two small pointed windows with geometrical tracery. +Below these are recessed Norman arches. On the floor level the masonry +is new, having been built up inside the Early English arch. + +On the south side are the backs of the choir stalls. On the west side, +in the wall is a large Decorated window containing five lights with +flowing tracery. This window was blown into the church in 1819, and +then rebuilt. + +The eastern wall contains two Norman arches, one of which is merely +the continuation of the north aisle, through the transept to the north +ambulatory. The other is in the north wall of the transept, and opens +into the choir vestry. Over these two arches were formerly two other +open arches. One of these, viz., that over the choir vestry, has been +walled up, and the other has a circular or rose window. After +undergoing repairs the window was glazed by Hardman, in 1892, as a +memorial to Mary Anne Moore. The subject is "The adoration of the +Lamb." In the central light is the Agnus Dei; while in the other six +encircling quatrefoils are angels censing, and representing Blessing, +Glory, Honour, Power, Wisdom and Strength. The glass has been designed +to give the effect of older glass, and, so far as that is possible, it +may claim to be a success. + + [Illustration: (_H.J.L.J.M._) + THE NORTH CHOIR AISLE, LOOKING WEST, SHOWING THE BACK OF THE + DESPENSER MONUMENT.] + +This rose window occupies the space which originally was the west end +of the original Norman triforium of the choir, to which access was +given by the staircase in the north-east corner of the transept. + +The =interior of the tower= for more than three centuries was +accessible only from the outside of the church, but is now approached +by a staircase in the north-east angle of the north transept. After +mounting the first flight, which is somewhat worn, the transept +vaulting is crossed by a species of bridge, and at the end of this +access is given by a narrow doorway to the first floor of the tower, +which contains a large room 33 feet square, with a curiously formed +floor. This room has some good Norman work on the walls, and when open +to the church, as it was originally, it must have been one of the +striking features of the interior from below. That it was open +originally may be inferred from the plain treatment of the western +side, _i.e._, the side that would not catch the eye of those using the +nave and looking eastwards. + +On the floor-level the arcading is practically uniform, with the +exception of one column.[13] Above, on the north, south, and east +sides is arcading, and still higher in each side are two round-headed +window openings. + +This spacious apartment owes the form of its curious floor to the +vaulting of the lantern-space in the time of Sir Guy de Brien, whose +arms are found in the lierne-vaulting which supports the floor. The +room was cleared and improved in 1887, when the hanging +ringing-chamber was removed, and the floor and ceiling put in good +order. The ringing-floor is on the next stage, and the belfry is the +floor above. + +The clock was erected as a Jubilee memorial in 1887, at a cost of over +£200. It is built on the lines of the clocks at Westminster and +Worcester Cathedral, and chimes the so-called "Cambridge quarters" as +arranged by Dr. Crotch. Small though the clock looks from the level of +the churchyard, it must be remembered that it is the massive tower +that dwarfs it--the diameter of the face is in reality 8 feet. + + [Illustration: (_H.J.L.J.M._) + INTERIOR OF THE TOWER ABOVE THE VAULTING.] + +Nothing is known of the place of origin of the pre-Reformation bells, +but, arguing from the proximity of Gloucester, it may be assumed that +out of the eight bells weighing 14,200 lb. or more, some may have been +cast by John Sandre, of Gloucester. + +The eight bells were bought from the King's Commissioners for £142, +_i.e._, at the rate of 5 lb. for a shilling. They may have been +bought to sell again, as the number was soon reduced to _four_. In +1612 a fifth bell was added, as a rhyme on the cover of the baptismal +register (1607-1629) tells us: + + "William Dixon and Thomas Hoare + Made us that bell which wee ring before, + Which men for that good deede praie we they maie thrive, + For we having but four bells, they made them five; + And out of the grownde this bell they did delve + The 24th of Julie, Anno Dom. 1612." + +Near the arcaded passage in the room in the tower are some memoranda +of the changes possible with five bells, rudely engraved in the +stonework. + +In 1632 the peal was recast and a sixth bell was added, and in 1679 +the two newest bells were recast. Two new bells were added in 1696. In +1797 the great or tenor bell was recast. From the time when the bells +were overhauled and tuned at Gloucester, in 1837, no further +alteration has been made. The present peal is about 500 lb. less in +weight than the peal in use at the time of the Dissolution. + +From the top of the tower a fine view is to be obtained--Cheltenham, +and Gloucester, with its beautiful Cathedral tower, on the south, the +Malvern Hills on the west, the Cotswolds on the east and north-east. +The Severn and the Avon wind through the landscape, and on the far +horizon may be seen the distant hills of Wales. + +The old shafting has been chipped away on the west face of the +stonework opposite to the north-east tower pier. As one turns round +the corner into the north ambulatory or choir aisle, it will be +noticed that on the wall is a monument by Flaxman to Lady Clarke; it +is small and unobtrusive, but the sculpture is thoroughly good and +worthy of a great artist. + +On the right hand opposite is the Warwick Chapel (p. 83), of which the +glory in part has departed, viz., the decoration in colour and in +gold, and much of the architectural detail. + +=St. James' Chapel.=[14]--This chapel (dimensions 28 feet by 24 feet), +which opens on to the north transept of the north ambulatory, was from +1576 up to 1875 walled off from the rest of the church and used as +premises for the "Free Grammar School of William Ferrers, citizen and +mercer of London." The school ceased to be held here about forty years +ago, but the inserted masonry and brickwork was not removed till the +restoration of 1875 and following years, when the chapel was restored +by the Freemasons of the county. From the time that the chapel ceased +to be a school it fell into a bad state of repair, and was open to the +sky before the recent restoration, when the present roof of timber, +covered with lead--the only wooden roof in the church--was erected and +the stonework repaired. + +There seems no doubt that this chapel was originally a Norman apse +with a vaulted chamber[15] above, like that in the sister transept, +and that it was enlarged in the thirteenth century by Prior Henry +Sipton. This is distinctly stated in Annals to have been done in the +case of the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas in 1237. No trace remains +of any of the work of Prior Sipton owing to the later works carried +out in this chapel. The nave of a Lady Chapel was built on the north +side of the north transept, and its chancel (the existing northern +part of the choir vestry) was carried out to the east, this portion of +the chapel being quite detached, as the windows (now blocked up) in +the upper part of the south wall plainly show. Access for the laity +was given by a door in the nave portion, while the monks had an +entrance through the adjoining chapel, which may, after its rebuilding +in 1237, have contained two altars, one to St. James and another to +St. Nicholas. This theory of the two altars in this chapel would +account for much of the confusion in the naming of the chapel by +subsequent writers. The vaulting of this chapel is at first sight a +difficult problem to solve, as the eastern side is divided into two +equal parts, while the western side is divided into two unequal parts. +A pillar seems to have stood in the centre, if the lists of noblemen +buried (after the battle in 1471) in the two chapels are trustworthy. +When the fourteenth century Lady Chapel at the east end of the church +was built, the _raison d'être_ of the Early English Lady Chapel +ceased, and the chapel entrances were enlarged to their present form. +Any distinctive features that they had in the way of wall decoration +were lost either at the Dissolution, when part was pulled down, or +during the subsequent use of the eastern chapels as a schoolroom. + +Passing through into the adjoining chapel on the north, which was +probably the chancel of an =Early English Lady Chapel=, the visitor +will note the great contrast between this and the adjacent chapel. It +is very much richer in its ornament, and though it has been terribly +mutilated, much work of surpassing interest is still left to us. The +north wall contains the remains of a trefoil-headed arcade of great +beauty, the spandrils of which show richly carved foliage, the effect +of which was further heightened by the application of colour. Of the +arcading eleven capitals remain, but only three pillars and bases, the +rest having been cleared away. + + [Illustration: (_H.J.L.J.M._) + WALL ARCADE IN EARLY ENGLISH CHAPEL.] + +In the wall of the present west end is a window decorated with a +moulding consisting of two series of chevrons, completely undercut, +pointing laterally in contrary directions.[16] Numerous interesting +remains of Early English mason's work are in the chapel, and many +have been built into the wall on the east side, the most important +being remains of a fine altar-piece in Purbeck marble. + +There is a window on the east side containing four lights, the +subjects, beginning from the north side, being as follows:--(1) The +mythical Saxon founders, Oddo and Doddo, A.D. 715. (2) The Norman +founders, _i.e._, Fitz-Hamon and Sibylla. (3) Earl Robert, 1089-1123. +(4) The Countess of Warwick, 1439. The figures are based on the MS. +Chronicle of the Abbey, belonging to Sir Charles Isham of Lamport. +This window, the tracery of which is new, is by Bourne of Birmingham, +and forms a memorial to a former churchwarden, John Garrison, who died +in 1876. The tracery contains the red and white roses of the rival +houses of Lancaster and York, appropriately enough, seeing that under +the floor, in front of the altar to St. James, are interred the +remains of Lord Edmund, the Duke of Somerset, Lord Thomas Courtenay, +the Earl of Devon, Sir Richard Courtenay, Lord John Somerset, and Sir +Humphrey Hadley, who were beheaded after the battle of Tewkesbury. Sir +Thomas Tresham, who also was beheaded at the same time, was buried +before a pillar between the altars of St. James and St. Nicholas. + +The whole of this part of the chapel was once the choir or chancel of +the detached Early English Lady Chapel which was erected early in the +thirteenth century. The Annals of Tewkesbury record that in 1239 the +_Church_ of Tewkesbury with a greater altar was dedicated in honour of +the glorious Virgin Mary. The word Church might mean this Early +English Lady Chapel, which with its nave and chancel would be a model +church, although somewhat small in size; but the words _majore altari_ +are generally taken to mean the large slab of Purbeck marble now in +its place in the choir as an altar slab. + +Lady Chapels were not invariably at the east end of the main building. +At Bristol there was and is still an elder Lady Chapel which at one +time was detached from the main building. + +The floor in these chapels is that which was formerly in the choir up +to the time of the restoration of the church. + +=St. Margaret's Chapel.=--This is one of the series of the fourteenth +century chapels which surrounds the ambulatory of the choir. + +An old altar-cloth which was given by Anne, Countess of Coventry, in +1731 to the church was removed to this chapel after the restoration of +the building. + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE AMBULATORY, LOOKING TOWARDS ST. MARGARET'S CHAPEL.] + +A very fine screen of stonework separates this chapel from the +ambulatory, the tomb of Sir Guy de Brien (late Decorated--erected in +1390) forming part of the screen.[17] Sir Guy was the third husband of +the Lady Elizabeth Despenser who is buried in the tomb on the other +side of the ambulatory. In the panelling are the arms of Sir Guy, who +was also Lord Welwyn, and those of his wife, who was by birth a +Montacute. This knight served Edward III. as standard-bearer at Creçy +in 1346, and was a great benefactor to the Abbey. He is credited with +the vaulting of the tower, as his arms occur in the bosses there. + +The vaulting, which springs from engaged shafts, is excellent work, +like that in the other chapels, and the bosses are worth notice. In +the central boss in the ceiling the Coronation of the Virgin is +represented, and surrounding it are heads of lions and of men. + +An aumbry, lavabo, and piscina are all worthy of study. + +=St. Edmund's Chapel.=--The ground-plan of this chapel is curious, as +it is apparently divided into two by a kind of re-entrant pier of +masonry, and the easternmost part is screened off from the ambulatory +by the curious tomb known by the name of the Wakeman Cenotaph, or the +tomb of the starved monk (_vide_ p. 94). + +In this chapel is a large aumbry, and a very perfect stone coffin +which was dug up in the south ambulatory near the Trinity Chapel. The +metallic sound given forth by the coffin when tapped seems to be of +more interest than anything else to the ordinary visitor. Various +interesting fragments of stonework are in the chapel, one being a +portion of a tomb. Portions of the font formerly in the Norman chapel +in the south transept are also here. Under the painted window is a +piscina, more than half of which is modern work. There were, no doubt, +two altars, _i.e._, one in each part of the chapel, but the dedication +of the other part is not known. + +At the intersections of the vaulting are some unusually interesting +carved bosses. For the most part they have reference to the legend of +St. Edmund, King and Martyr, viz:-- + +The head of the king bearing a crown. The king, bound to a tree, being +shot at by Danes. A greyhound watching by the body of Lodbrog in the +wood, murdered by the king's huntsman. Christ with a halo of glory, +triumphing over Sin personified as a monster. St. Michael destroying +the dragon. Other bosses are either floral or heraldic, the latter +containing the arms of the Despensers. The boss in the centre of the +roof is unique, containing a lion being attacked by various other +animals, _e.g._, a horse, a ram, a monkey, wolves, etc. + +There is one painted window in this chapel, which was erected in 1877 +to the memory of Rev. C.G. Davies, for thirty-one years Vicar of +Tewkesbury. The window is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. In effect it is +too kaleidoscopic. + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE NORTH CHOIR AISLE AND ST. EDMUND'S CHAPEL.] + +Opposite to the Wakeman Cenotaph (_vide_ p. 95) is the iron grating +which is the entrance to-- + +=The Clarence Vault.=--This vault [F] contains the remains of George, +Duke of Clarence, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, and his wife +Isabelle, who was the eldest daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of +Warwick, commonly known as the "King-maker." The Duchess died at +Warwick in December, 1476, from the effects, it is said, of poison. +She was buried in the vault which, as the chronicle says, was made +_artificialiter_ behind the great altar, in front of the door of the +chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the opening of the tomb was +made opposite the entrance of the chapel of Saint Edmund the Martyr. +The young Countess, after lying in the choir in state for thirty-five +days, was laid in the vault on February 8th. Ten days later her +husband, who had been put to death in the Tower--it matters little +whether in the butt of Malmsey wine or not--was buried beside her. + +Assuming that the tomb was desecrated and pillaged soon after the +Dissolution, and again later on in Commonwealth times, we find that in +1709 the royal remains were displaced to make room for the body of a +"periwig-pated alderman" by name Samuel Hawling; and later on, in 1729 +and 1753, his wife and son were interred there. The site then was lost +till it was identified in 1826. In 1829 the Hawling remains were +removed, and since then it has remained the Clarence Vault. In 1876 it +was fitted with iron gates, and in the pavement over the vault a brass +has been inserted with the inscription, composed by Mr. J.T.D. +Niblett:-- + +"Dominus Georgius Plantagenet dux Clarencius et Domina Isabelle +Neville, uxor ejus qui obierunt haec 12 Decembris, A.D. 1476, ille 18 +Feb., 1477. + + "Macte veni sicut sol in splendore, + Mox subito mersus in cruore." + +Or in English-- + +"Lord George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and Lady Isabelle Neville, +his wife, who died, she on Dec. 12, 1476, he on Feb. 18, 1477. + + "I came in my might like a sun in splendour, + Soon suddenly bathed in my own blood." + +On the brass are engraved two suns in splendour, the badge of the +House of York. + +The fourteenth century stone screen-work round the choir side of the +ambulatory, particularly at the back of the reredos and the north-east +portion adjacent to it, is very interesting work. The lower part is +panelled with tracery in low relief, with the arches springing from +diminutive heads. All the shafting is ornamented with a small +ball-like enrichment. Above the panelling is some open tracery of +beautiful design. By reference to the plan it will be seen that much +of this original screen-work has been set back several feet, possibly +to make room for the Clarence vault. + +At the east end of the ambulatory is the arch by which entrance was +formerly given to the destroyed Lady Chapel. It is now walled up, and +in such a way that it is difficult to picture the appearance of the +original work. However, from the battlements of the adjoining +south-east chapel it is possible to see the remnants of the vaulting +of the entrance to the Lady Chapel. + +In the modern cast wall is a window of three lights (by Hardman) in +memory of Rev. C.W. Grove, who presented most of the modern glass in +the church. The subject is the Pharisee and the Publican. It is not +known whether the Pharisee is intended to be a portrait of any one, +but the Publican's face is said to be an excellent portrait of Mr. +Grove, and the portrait of the lady in the top light (she lacks a +halo) is deemed to be an equally good picture of Mrs. Grove. + +=St. Faith's Chapel.=--The site of this chapel is not known for +certain, though it is supposed to have been one of the two south-east +chapels. + +The first and easternmost chapel is the largest of the series of +chapels built round the ambulatory. It is pentagonal in form and is 28 +feet by 24 feet, opening to the aisle with a richly moulded arch. The +vaulting, as in all these chapels, is excellent work, but the student +of such things will notice that the masons' work on the chapels on the +south side is in even courses, and that the stones are better dressed +than in the chapels on the north side of the choir. At the +intersections of the vaulting there are some good bosses, chiefly +foliage with some heads. In this chapel there are three stone coffins. + +The central window (by Kempe) is to the memory of Benjamin Thomas +Moore, for thirty-eight years churchwarden, who died in 1896. Though +detail of a most elaborate kind fills the window, yet in appearance it +is rather thin, a quality which the clear, strong light that shines +upon it as a rule somewhat accentuates. In the central light is St. +Faith, to whom this chapel is often ascribed, with St. Agnes on the +left and St. Cecilia on the right. There are two other windows, one of +four lights and the other of three. + +By standing at the entrance to this chapel the visitor will obtain a +very fine and interesting set of _coups d'oeil_ of the different parts +of the building. Towards the north there is the view of the work at +the back of the altar, and St. Edmund's and St. Margaret's chapels in +the background. To the north-west are the tombs at the back of the +altar and sedilia; to the west is a good view of the south ambulatory +and the south aisle of the nave. + +The next chapel, _i.e._, the middle one of the three on this side, has +no known dedication.[18] It is also pentagonal--somewhat irregular, it +is true, but its length and breadth are the same--20 feet. There are +two windows of three lights. + +This chapel has become the museum for the storage of many interesting +fragments of destroyed portions of the fabric. Some of the coloured +fragments are under glass, others are grouped against the eastern +wall. It is to be regretted that no list is hung up in the cases. The +larger of the two cases contains in one division pieces of the broken +upper part of the sedilia, all finely coloured. In the other division +are fragments from the Warwick Chapel and other mutilated tombs in the +choir. Most of these were found buried in the choir at the restoration +in 1875. There are some iron rings which belonged to the coffin of Sir +Hugh le Despenser. They were removed when the tomb was inspected in +1875. + +Portions of figures of the De Clares are also in the case--one with an +inverted torch, representing Gilbert de Clare, who died, the last male +of his line, at the battle of Bannockburn, 1314. Three bases of +figures contain inscriptions as follows: + + 1. Rob^s. Consull Filius Regis + 2. Willelm^s. Comes Gloces^r. + 3. . . . . . e Regis. + +Another portion of a figure, in a blue mantle, is said to be Thomas +Lord Despenser, the last Earl of Gloucester. It has upon it the arms +of Despenser and Clare. + +On the wall are some swords which recall the panic caused in 1803 by +Napoleon's projected invasion and humiliation of England. It is +difficult to see why they or the colours of the Volunteers were +removed to this position from the Town Hall. + +Against the eastern wall are portions of a beautiful frieze, with +ball-flower ornament, and many shields bearing traces of rich colour. +There is a fine head, and a curiosity in the form of a coffin of an +infant, a portion of a cluster of marble columns, and a figure in +camelskin and leather girdle representing St. John the Baptist. + +Across this chapel is the tomb of Abbot Cheltenham, who died in 1509 +(_vide_ p. 95). + +=The Vestry.=--The third of the chapels is the most regular in shape, +and is used, as it was in monastic times, as a Vestiarium or vestry. +The arch is closed entirely by masonry, built upon the original wall +which formed the outer wall of the Norman church. In the walled-up +space that corresponds to what is the entrance in the case of the +other chapels are a fine tomb and the doorway into the vestry. A +description of the tomb will be found on p. 97. The tomb of the Abbot +may have been removed from a grave outside the building, but it is not +known who was buried in it. Willis ascribed it to Robert Fortington, +who died in 1253. A fine doorway, richly decorated, with three +elaborately wrought brackets for images over it, gives access to the +Clergy Vestry. The door is of oak, plated with roughly wrought metal +plates, of which tradition has it that they were made by the monks out +of swords and armour found in and around the precincts after the +battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. + +This chapel is profusely enriched with ball-flower moulding, both +inside and on the side next the ambulatory. It will be noticed that +the windows are small and placed, for the sake of the security of the +sacristy, high up in the south wall. In the south wall is a piscina, +and close by on the south-east wall must have stood an altar. The +window nearer to this has richer detail than the other two. In the +south-west wall a small recess is formed inside a buttress. This may +have been used as a safe for plate and other valuables in the charge +of the sacristan. + + [Illustration: (_H.J.L.J.M._) + THE VESTRY DOOR, SOUTH CHOIR AISLE.] + +A special staircase in the north-west corner, entered from the +ambulatory, gives access to the room over the vestry. In this room, +which has a fireplace, the sacristan probably slept. He was able from +the windows on the stairs to see into the Vestiarium or Diaconum +Magnum, and also into the choir. In fact, this view is one of the most +interesting in the church. Two large square modern windows give light +to this room, and a doorway in the east wall communicates with the +space over the vaulting of the ambulatory and chapels. The room had +originally a low timbered roof, as will be seen by the holes once +occupied by the beams. + +There are two tombs of interest built into the wall between the vestry +door and the south transept, and space for them has been cut out of +the original Norman solid wall. One is quite plain and simple Early +English work [M], and contains the remains of Abbot Alan, a man of +learning and of considerable note, as he was a friend of Thomas à +Becket, the great Archbishop of Canterbury. This is the only tomb of +that period now surviving in the church, and it has been thought that +he was the first of the abbots who was honoured with an intramural +tomb. + +Close to Abbot Alan's tomb is another recess which now is without its +coffin. The arch is pointed and crocketed with pinnacles at the sides. +In the absence of a tomb the chief interest consists in the old +encaustic tiles which have been transferred here from other parts of +the building, a few of them having been found in 1875 under the then +stone pavement of the choir. They are now safe here from the +destroying power of the ubiquitous tourist's foot. + +On the south-east tower pier is a marble tablet in Renaissance style, +erected in 1890 to the memory of Mrs. Craik, the author of "John +Halifax, Gentleman," who is said to have written her story whilst +staying at the ancient "Bell Inn" near the Abbey gate. The memorial +was designed by Mr. H.H. Armstead, R.A., and is gracefully carried out +entirely in white marble. The only fault in the memorial is that there +is too much work in proportion to the size of the tablet. The topmost +portion above the projecting cornice is a charming piece of work, +illustrating Charity, but too high above the ordinary visitor's head +to be seen or appreciated as it should, and the group rather +overweights the memorial. + + [Illustration: _Photo by A.H. Hughes_ + THE APSIDAL CHAPEL, SOUTH TRANSEPT.] + +=South Transept.=--(Dimensions 40 feet 8 inches by 32 feet 10 inches.) +This transept has vaulting of the same character as the other, and a +large west window, rebuilt in 1820, filled with glass in memory of +Thomas Collins, of Tewkesbury. Beneath this window is a deeply +recessed doorway (now blocked up) which once gave access to the +cloisters. In this recess are to be found some of the old tiles which +formerly were in the choir. In the south wall too, like the north wall +of the other transept, there are recessed Norman arches with two +windows--enlarged later--under the roof. The doorway in this wall +formerly communicated with the Chapter House. One of Tewkesbury's +glories, the old organ, forms the north boundary of the transept. On +the east side there are four large Norman arches. Of these the first +is the archway which gives access to the south ambulatory, with a +triangular window (of fourteenth century work) over it, occupying the +position once taken by the arch of the triforium of the Norman choir. +In 1893 this window was glazed with stained glass by Rev. W.H.F. +Hepworth in memory of his mother, the subject of the window being +Faith, Hope, and Charity. + +To the south of this is the large arch which gives access to the +Norman chapel with its early Norman groined roof. This chapel will +give the student an idea of the original plan of the north transept +before the alterations in 1237 and in 1246. + +The east window was perforce blocked up when the ambulatory chapels +were built, and to give light to the chapel the south-east window was +inserted in the apse, no other position for a window being possible, +as will easily be seen by reference to the plan. + +An anonymous donor presented the Salviati mosaic now in the filling of +the east window, but the effect is not good, as too strong a light +falls upon the gold background. Probably the work will look better +when the south transept is entirely glazed with coloured glass. The +subject is our Lord enthroned, bearing a book in one hand, and having +the other raised as in blessing. The glass in this window was formerly +in the east window of the ambulatory of the choir, and was removed to +its present position in 1887. It is a memorial to Mr. A. Sprowle, a +former resident of Tewkesbury. The glass is by Clayton and Bell, but +the window is very poor and uninteresting. + +This Norman chapel[19] was at one time used as the Baptistery, and the +font, now in one of the two north-east chapels, was in use here up to +the time of the restoration in 1875. After this restoration the altar +from the choir was transferred to this chapel, and the various guilds +connected with the church subscribed towards the cost of fitting the +chapel for special devotional use. It is used for the daily morning +services in the week. + +There are remains of a piscina in this chapel, but very much battered. +It is to be hoped that money will not be frittered away on any attempt +at polychrome decoration of the ordinary kind in the chapel as has +been done at Gloucester in the chapel of St. Andrew. Mr. Blunt has +thrown out the suggestion as a possible ideal, but the simplicity of +the present chapel is far preferable. + +Immediately above it is a large vaulted room, similar in shape, but +less lofty, open to the transept. Its roof shows traces of having been +at one time elaborately painted with frescoes, and the room formerly +communicated with the original Norman triforium of the choir. This +room has at various times had absurd names given to it, perhaps the +most absurd being that of the Nun's Prison. As Mr. Blunt in +"Tewkesbury and its Associations" says, there are many people who +cannot hear about monks without immediately thinking of nuns. It would +seem that the room communicated with the dorter or dormitory, and was +designed for invalid monks, who from it might hear mass sung in the +church without going downstairs. In the south-east corner of the +transept a staircase gives access to this chamber, and communicates +with the triforium of the transept, the clerestory of the choir, the +vaulting of the ambulatory as well as that of the tower. + +Before 1875 a gallery filled up the south transept and two bays of the +south aisle, and communicated by means of the organ screen with the +similar gallery in the north transept. + +In the west wall is a recess, formerly a doorway of Early English +work. On the south wall is a brass tablet from the choir pavement, to +the memory of Prince Edward. + +At the corner of the south transept and the south aisle is a curious +recess in the masonry hidden by a curtain. + +At the extreme east end of the south aisle, near the niche or recess +just mentioned, is a rudely carved head which no doubt served as a +cresset. + + +THE CHOIR. + +This part of the building is usually entered from the south ambulatory +by the entrance opposite to the door of the clergy vestry. The +screen-work at this entrance to the choir was in a ruinous state in +the early part of this century, and has been most carefully repaired, +and in part renewed. + +It is a choir of great beauty, and though at first sight small and +low, its proportions are admirable in every way, the length being +almost exactly twice the breadth. + +From the centre of the eastern tower-piers to the back of the altar +the choir measures 63 feet, but the total length from the present +oak-screen to the altar is 103 feet. The breadth in its widest part is +33 feet.[20] + +The upper part of the choir was reconstructed in the early part of the +fourteenth century in its present polygonal form, the Norman pillars +being carried up three feet, and fitted on the choir side with +Decorated capitals. + +The curious effect of the carrying up of the columns will be seen from +the fact that the arches which spring from the Decorated capitals do +not correspond in pitch with the vaulting in the ambulatory. The +latter springs from the original Norman capitals on the columns in the +choir (_see_ illustration, p. 52). + +The moulding of these arches of the choir is exceedingly rich, and the +outer ones on the north side contain a double moulding of quatrefoil +flower ornament. + +The easternmost arch is somewhat stilted; the bare wall thus left +exposed having originally been concealed by the reredos, or at any +rate decorated in some way. + +In these alterations to the choir here the Norman triforium had to be +sacrificed; and those who wish to see on a larger scale what the +original triforium was like must study that at Gloucester. In fact the +two choirs alone will form the basis of much interesting study, the +Gloucester choir having been left comparatively intact below the +clerestory, and veiled over with richly wrought Perpendicular +stonework. + +The windows and the roof are of about the same date, _i.e._, early +fourteenth century; the roof is anticipatively Perpendicular. A great +feature of the choir is the skilful way in which the work of different +times has been so effectively combined, and brought into a harmonious +whole. + + [Illustration: _Photo A.H. Hughes._ + THE CHOIR, LOOKING WEST.] + +It is interesting to compare the ground-plans of Gloucester and +Tewkesbury, and to see how the two originally Norman choirs have been +treated. At Gloucester the apsidal formation has been destroyed, +traces only of it being left under the present reredos, but there the +actual removal of Norman work stopped. The Norman piers of the choir +and presbytery and the Norman triforium of the choir are all there, +though they are partly concealed by the later Perpendicular casing. +The choir at Tewkesbury has lost its distinctively Norman character, +as nearly all the original outside wall of the church to the east of +the tower was removed, but it has retained its apsidal formation. + + [Illustration: _Photo. W.G. Bannister._ + THE CHOIR VAULT.] + +Beautiful as the choir is, it owes much of its effect to its vaulted +roof, which is a fine specimen of early Decorated work. The vaulting +ribs spring from small engaged shafts, which are carried up the face +of the wall from the main piers, and then radiate from very ornate +capitals over the vault. A fine colour effect must have been presented +by the original ceiling painted and frescoed. + +The bosses are less elaborate and less varied than those in the choir +at Gloucester, but are well carved, consisting for the most part of +vine-leaves delicately treated. All this roof was colour-washed in +1828, when so much restoration was done in the church. + +The suns[21] in the centre are supposed to have been put up by command +of Edward IV. after the battle of Tewkesbury. The suns were a device +which was appropriated by the Yorkists after the downfall of the +Lancastrian party. Those in the tower vaulting are modern copies of +these original suns. The modern painting of the vaulting is subdued in +tone. + +The vault of the tower is a lierne vault, and from the occurrence of +the arms of Sir Guy de Brien, once quartered with those of Montacute +(_i.e._, of his wife), the vaulting has been credited to his +exertions. The Despenser fret is to be found twice. + +In front of the altar-rails is the large boss from which used to hang +the sanctuary lamp, the sacred flame of which was kept ever trimmed +and bright, as a sign that "the house was evermore watching to God." + +=Altar.=--The Purbeck marble altar is supposed by some to have been +the altar mentioned in the Abbey Chronicles of 1239, but any Early +English features have been destroyed beyond recognition. It is reputed +to be the largest altar in England, but, at any rate, it may be said +to be the longest. Originally set up in its present situation, it +seems to have been buried in the choir by the monks, perhaps by some +who were not so mercenary as the rest. Sixty-eight years afterwards it +was found, and its purpose being recognised, it was set up in the +middle of the choir as a Communion table. In 1730 it was transferred +to the aisle, the churchwardens' accounts stating that 12_s._ was paid +for so doing, and that 2_s._ 6_d._ was given "to the men that did it +for working all night." The "large entire blue stone" was then cut +into two lengthwise, and was further desecrated by being converted +into seats for the north porch.[22] Earl Beauchamp, at his own +expense, had the two slabs restored to their original use. Considering +what the marble has gone through, its size has been well maintained. +In 1607 it was 13 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 6 inches by 7 inches; and +now it is 13 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 5 inches by 5 inches. It is +supported by a massive framing of oak. + + [Illustration: _Photo D. Gwynne._ + THE SEDILIA.] + +=Sedilia.=--These are on the south side in the canted bay of the apse. +These sadly mutilated remains of a once glorious work are especially +interesting. Originally they were decorated with rich colour and gold, +much of which still in parts remains. The canopy of tabernacle work +has been ruthlessly destroyed, together with the major part of the +easternmost section. All the shafting is very richly moulded with a +great number of diminutive mouldings, principally ogee and hollow. +Foliage work of rare beauty and representations of grotesque animals +form the greater part of the ornament. There are interesting remains +of diaper work in the wall which forms the back. The plinth and seats +are probably modern work. At the top are placed some pieces of +battlement work, of which there is a great amount in different parts +of the building. It seems a pity that the remains of the sedilia which +lie elsewhere in the church cannot be placed together in position +here--not "restored," but honestly pieced as well as may be done with +care and patience. + +The north-east pier that supports the tower bears a plain corbel, +supporting what is supposed to be the remains of an oak case for the +Saunce-bell or Sanctus-bell. + +=Tiles.=--During the wholesale restoration of 1875 and following years +some old tiles were found, after the pattern of which the present +tiles were made. The fashion of paving buildings of the age of +Tewkesbury Abbey with glazed and glossy machine-made tiles, all cut +mathematically true, is much to be deprecated. Time has done much, and +will do more, to remove the glaze, but nothing will ever remove the +stiff printed look of the pattern. The black patches of tiles are +rather heavy in appearance, but the pavement looks better so than it +would if broken up with streaky slabs and squares of glaring white +marble incised with more or less pictorial designs relieved with a +background of black cement. The choir of Tewkesbury in this respect +has fared better than that of Gloucester, though a little more might +have been made of the graves of the illustrious dead who are known to +have been buried underneath. + +=Windows of the Choir.=--These fourteenth century windows are the +chief glory of the choir. There are seven in all, and though they have +suffered much from wilful damage and neglect, there are perhaps no +others in England containing quite so much glass of the same date, and +in such good condition as a whole.[23] Every one must rejoice that in +1828 lack of funds prevented these windows from being thoroughly +restored. + +The windows nearest to the tower have four lights each, and the +tracery is comparatively simple though flowing and free. The next two +on either side of the choir are slightly more elaborate and contain +five lights each, while the east window is quite different from the +rest. It has five lights, and the head of the window contains a fine +Catharine-wheel. + +In the north-west window (_i.e._, immediately over the Warwick Chapel) +are--1. Fitz-Hamon; 2. Robert Fitzroy; 3. Hugh le Despenser; 4. +Gilbert de Clare (third), the tenth Earl of Gloucester. In the +south-west window, _i.e._, the one exactly opposite to the last +mentioned, are--1. Gilbert de Clare (the first of the name); 2. Lord +de la Zouch; 3. Richard de Clare; 4. Gilbert de Clare (the second). +These knights are all in armour, and are valuable as giving accurate +representation of the armour and knightly gear of their time. Above +the knights are represented canopies, and in the heads of the windows +are scrolls of vine-leaves. + +The bodies of the De Clares lie below the choir pavement, almost in a +line with these two windows. + +The other windows on either side contain Scripture subjects, many of +them very fragmentary: Daniel, David, Abraham, Jeremiah, Solomon, and +Joel are, however, easily to be found. + +The east window represents the Last Judgment. In the centre Christ is +depicted with uplifted hands, on which are the stigmata of the +Passion. The side lights, from their unsymmetrical arrangement, would +seem to have been rearranged, or rather disarranged, at some time. The +Apostles would naturally be grouped on either side, in the outer +lights. The other two lights represent St. John and the Blessed +Virgin. Of these figures the heads, which are modern, were put in +(free of charge) in 1828 by a London glass-painter named Collins. In +the five panels below the figures are groups of persons arising from +their graves; one group represents an angel disputing with the evil +one for the possession of three persons bound with a chain. At the +bottom are armorial bearings. + +In the floor of the choir there are graves in which many notable +persons, who made their mark in history, were buried. + +Exactly under the central point of the vaulting of the tower is the +site of the grave of Prince Edward, son of Henry VI. and Margaret +Anjou. He died on the 4th of May, 1471, and with him the last hope of +the Red Rose party was finally crushed. + +A modern brass, with a Latin inscription which was composed by Mr. +J.D.T. Niblett, records that "Hic jacet Edwardus princeps Walliæ, +crudeliter interfectus dum adhuc juvenis Anno Domini 1471, mensis Maii +die quarto. Eheu, hominum furor: matris tu sola lux es, et gregis +ultima spes,"--or in English, that "Here lies Edward, Prince of Wales, +brutally murdered while but a youth, in the year of our Lord 1471, on +the 4th of May. Alas! the madness of men. Thou art the only light of +thy mother, and the last hope of the flock." Holinshed writes that the +body of the Prince "was homelie interred with the other simple corpses +in the church of the monasterie of the blacke monks in Teukesburie." +Another MS., which gives a list of noblemen slain in the battle of +Tewkesbury, states more definitely that he was "buried in the midst of +the convent choir in the monastery there." Traces of a coffin-lid were +found near the north-west pier of the tower, and from other evidence +it was taken to be the tomb of the young prince, and this would give +more colour to Hall's statement that he "was buried without any +solemnity among some mean persons in the church of the black friars in +Tewkesbury." + +In 1796, when several alterations were made in the church, a brass +plate was inserted in a stone over a tomb in the choir supposed to be +that of the Prince. This tablet is now on the wall of the south +transept. It runs: + + "NE TOTA PEREAT MEMORIA + EDWARDI PRINCIPIS WALLIÆ + POST PROELIUM MEMORABILE + IN VICINIS ARVIS DEPUGNATUM + CRUDELITER OCCISI HANC TABULAM + HONORARIAM DEPONI CURABAT + PIETAS TEWKESBURIENSIS + ANNO DOMINI MDCCXCVI." + +Or in English: "That the memory of Edward, Prince of Wales (brutally +murdered after the famous battle fought in the fields close by), +perish not utterly, the piety of the people of Tewkesbury had this +memorial tablet laid down, A.D. 1796." This tablet is mentioned in the +accounts for that year, and the cost is put down at £10; but perhaps +this included the composition of the Latin inscription, and the stone +in which the plate was inserted. This _pietas Tewkesburiensis_ still +survives, as flowers are annually laid upon the site of the grave. +Before this there was, according to Dingley, who wrote in 1680, a +"fair tombstone of grey marble, the brass whereof has bin pickt out by +sacrilegious hands, directly underneath the Tower of this Church, at +the entrance into the Quire, and sayed to be layd over Prince Edward, +who lost his life in cool blood in the dispute between York and +Lancaster, at which time the Lancastrians had the overthrow." + +Another grave under the tower was that of the Duke of Warwick, who is +sometimes said to have been created and crowned King of the Isle of +Wight by Henry VI. He died at the age of twenty-one, and was buried, +at his own request, between the stalls in the choir. At the time the +choir was repaved in 1875 a grave of stone filled with rubble was +found, together with some bones of a man of herculean size. These, no +doubt, were those of the Duke who was buried here in 1446. The large +marble slab that formerly covered the grave disappeared early in this +century, but the brasses that were originally in it had been taken +away long before. Cecily the Duchess of Warwick, a daughter of the +Earl of Salisbury, was buried in the same place in 1450. + +Further eastward, in a line with the Warwick Chapel, are the graves +known as those of the =De Clares=. + +The first is a stone with an inscription running round the edge, in +old French, as follows: "Ci gît Maud de Burgh la veuve comitisse de +Gloucestre et Hertford, que mourust le 2 juillet l'ann grâce 1315. +Nous cherchons celle que est à venir." This slab, which is of large +size, covers a well-wrought stone grave, and must have contained a +very handsome brass, judging by the matrix. The next grave contains +the remains of the Lady Maud's husband, Gilbert de Clare, the third of +that name, the tenth Earl of Gloucester and Earl of Hertford. Though +young in years he had a wise head, for Edward II. made him his regent +when he himself was fighting in Scotland, and later again in 1313 when +fighting in France. Gilbert de Clare the third was killed at +Bannockburn in 1314, and was laid to rest next to his father. The +tablet gives his arms, and the inscription runs: "Gilbertus tertius +nomine Glocestrie et Hertfordie comes decimus ultimus, obiit 23 Junii, +1314, proelio occisus, Scotus gavisus." Which being freely translated +is: "Gilbert, the third of the name, tenth and last Earl of +Gloucester and Hertford, died on June 23, 1314. He was slain in +battle, to the joy of the Scots." + +The tomb next to this is that of his father, Gilbert the second, +usually known as the _Red Earl_. He married the Princess Joan of Acre, +a daughter of Edward I. This Earl was at first an important figure in +the revolt of the Righteous Earl, Sir Simon de Montfort; but later, +having changed his views and his side, was an important factor in his +former leader's final overthrow at Evesham in 1265. Fragmentary +remains only of a coffin assumed to be his were found in 1875. His +tablet says: "Gilbertus secundus, cognomine Rufus, comes Glocestrie +octavus, et Hertfordie septimus, obiit septimo Decembris, anno domini +1295. Vir strenuus et fortis cui deerat timor mortis. Ora et pugna." +Or in English: "Gilbert the second, surnamed the Red, eighth Earl of +Gloucester and seventh of Hertford, died the 7th of December, A.D. +1295. A stout and brave man, who had no fear of death. Pray and +fight." + +In the next grave lies Gilbert de Clare, the first who bore the double +title. His interest to us consists in the fact that his seal is one of +those attached to Magna Charta, and he took a considerable part in the +Barons' struggles against King John. He died in Brittany, but was +buried here by his own wish. Very little of his coffin remains. + +The tablet to him says: "Gilbertus de Clare, nomine primus, comes +Glocestrie sextus et Hertfordie quintus, obiit 25^o Octobris, anno +domini 1230. Magna Carta est lex, caveat deinde rex"; _i.e._, "Gilbert +de Clare, the first of that name, sixth Earl of Gloucester and fifth +of Hertford, died October 25th, A.D. 1230. Magna Charta is law, let +the King henceforth beware."[24] + +The next grave is that of Richard, the second of that name, the son of +Earl Gilbert. He is usually believed to have been poisoned at the +table of Peter de Savoy at Emersfield in Kent. To his memory a most +gorgeous tomb was set up in the Choir, composed of marbles, precious +stones, mosaic, gold and silver, and bearing a large image of the Earl +in silver on the top. Weever, in "Funeral Monuments," gives the +epitaph: + + "Hic pudor Hippoliti, Paridis gena, sensus Ulyssis, + Æneæ pietas, Hectoris ira jacet." + +And he translates it: + + "Chaste Hippolite, and Paris fair, Ulysses wise and sly, + Æneas kind, fierce Hector, here jointly entombed lye." + +The brass tablet says: "Ricardus de Clare, comes Glocestrie septimus +and Hertfordie sextus, obiit 15^o Julii, anno que domini 1262. Dum +petit crucem sic denique petit lucem"; _i.e._, "Richard de Clare, +seventh Earl of Gloucester and sixth Earl of Hertford, died July 15th, +A.D. 1262. While he seeks the cross, he seeks thereafter light." This +alludes to his having been a Crusader. Richard de Clare's entrails +were buried at Canterbury, and his heart at Tonbridge, at which place +he had founded a monastery of Austin Friars. + +=Despenser Graves.=--Between the graves of the De Clares and the steps +of the altar are the Despenser graves. The grave on the north side +nearest to the Fitz-Hamon or Founder's Chapel is that of Richard +Despenser. His brass runs: "Ricardus le Despenser baro octavus, et +Burghersh baro quintus, obiit anno domini 1414, dum adhuc adolescens. +Flos crescit et mox evanescit"; or in English: "Richard, eighth Baron +Despenser and fifth Baron Burghersh, died A.D. 1414, whilst still a +youth. A flower grows and soon passes away." + +He was married to Elizabeth Nevill, daughter of the Earl of +Westmorland, but, dying at Merton at the age of 19, left no family. He +was the last of the male line of the Despensers, and is buried next to +his father, Thomas le Despenser, who was laid to rest in the central +grave of the three. His record on the brass is: "Thomas le Despenser, +baro septimus, et Gloucestriæ comes tertius decimus et ultimus +crudeliter interfectus 15^o Januarii, anno domini 1400. Cibell angau +na cywillydd." This being translated means: "Thomas, seventh Baron +Despenser, and thirteenth and last Earl of Gloucester, was brutally +killed on the 15th of January, A.D. 1400. Rather death than +dishonour." + +He had married Constance, daughter of the Earl of Cornwall and niece +of the Black Prince. Being attainted in 1399 after the deposition of +Richard II., whom he had faithfully served, he was deprived of both +his titles and executed at Bristol in 1400. His grave was under the +lamp which burned before the altar. In 1875 no trace of his grave was +found, but there is a fragment of a statue in the "museum" in which he +is clad in a blue mantle, wearing the badge of the Garter. + +The third and southernmost of the Despenser graves is that of +Isabelle, Countess of Warwick, Abergavenny, Worcester, and Albemarle. +The inscription on her brass is: "Mementote dominæ, Isabelle le +Despenser, Comitissæ de Warwick, quæ obiit, anno domini 1439, die +Sancti Johannis Evangelistæ. Mercy, Lord Jesu"; _i.e._, "Remember the +lady Isabelle le Despenser, Countess of Warwick, who died A.D. 1439, +on St. John the Evangelist's Day. Mercy, Lord Jesu." This lady was the +daughter of Thomas le Despenser, next to whom she lies here, and +though she was given in marriage to Richard Beauchamp when she was +only eleven years old, she is chiefly known from the title of her +second husband, who was her first husband's cousin. Her grave was +identified in 1875, and her remains were found enclosed in a shroud +and in a tomb of solid masonry, 7 feet by 2 feet 5 inches, by 2 feet 5 +inches. The covering slab had a cross incised with the words "Mercy, +Lord Jhu" (Jesu). The top of the slab had traces of mortar upon it, +pointing to the fact that her tomb was built immediately over it. We +know from the chronicle that it was a "very handsome marble tomb, +exquisitely carved." It was a table tomb bearing an effigy of the Lady +Isabelle upon it, clad in a plain linen garment. At the head stood St. +Mary Magdalen, at the right stood St. John the Evangelist, and at the +left stood St. Anthony. At the foot of the tomb was an escutcheon with +her arms and the arms of the Earl of Warwick, impaling the arms of +Clare and Despenser. + +In each of the two easternmost piers that support the tower (on the +north and south sides) will be seen a round-headed doorway, which gave +access to the choir from the aisles. They were walled up at an early +date, as they were probably too narrow for processional use. + +Since the restoration of the choir the old stalls of the monks have +been collected from the various places in the church to which they had +been removed, and placed in their present position across the arches +of the tower, eleven on the north side and twelve on the south. Those +on the north have lost most of their misericordes, and all the canopy +work. Those on the south side are more perfect, and the backs are in +better preservation, though the plain panels have been removed. + +In the majority of the misericordes the carving, originally fanciful, +has suffered at the hands of bigots. It is only possible to conjecture +what the stalls were like in monastic times, but they were probably, +though less elaborate, similar to those at Gloucester. As carvings +they cannot be compared with those at the Priory Church of Great +Malvern. + + +THE TOMBS AND CHANTRIES. + +One of the chief glories of Tewkesbury consists in the series of +historic tombs and chantries which encircle the choir and presbytery +and the surrounding ambulatory. It may safely be asserted that in no +church, with the single exception of Westminster Abbey, can such a +noble collection of sepulchral monuments be found. They are well +worthy of detailed study, and for that reason have been grouped +together in one section. It is not possible to examine or describe +them adequately from the ambulatory only, and the most important are +best viewed from the choir or presbytery, whence access to the +chantries is obtained. + +All these tombs have suffered terrible mutilation at the hands of +fanatics and bigots, but it is surprising to find how much of what was +really fine pierced work, almost as delicate as lace, has survived the +zeal of the destroyers. Close inspection will show that a considerable +amount of repair and refitting has been done in places. It must have +been a task of great difficulty, and involved that "infinite capacity +for taking pains" of which we hear so much but find so seldom; and +considering the date (1825) at which this piece of genuine restoration +was done, more praise must be given to the restorer. Had it not been +undertaken then it might have been done later, and certainly not so +lovingly, and possibly not so well. + +=Warwick Chapel.=--This beautiful piece of work [A in the plan] is a +chantry chapel, erected in 1422 by Isabelle le Despenser, to the +memory of her first husband, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Abergavenny +and Worcester, or, as the chronicle calls him, Ricardus de Bello +Campo. It is situate, as will be seen from the plan, under the +westernmost arch of the north side of the choir. An inscription, which +is only legible here and there, runs round the moulding: "Mementote +dñe Isabelle le Despenser, Cometisse de Warrewyk, quæ hanc capellam +fundavit in honor[~e] bte Marie Magdalene, et obiit Londiniis apud +Mn[~e]s a[~o] dñi MCCCCXXXIX. die Scti Jhis Evngste. Et sepulta est +[~i] choro [~i] dextra patris sui: cuj. a[~m]e ppitietur Deus. Amen" +(_i.e._, "Be mindful of the Lady Isabelle Despenser, Countess of +Warwick, who founded this chapel to the honour of St. Mary Magdalen, +and died in London in the Minories, A.D. 1439, on St. John the +Evangelist's Day. And was buried in the choir on the right hand of her +father. On whose soul may God have pity. Amen"). + +The chapel was dedicated in the names of St. Mary Magdalen, St. +Barbara, and St. Leonard just two years after Richard Beauchamp had +died. + +This Richard Beauchamp, after whom in truth the chapel should be +called, had shown his bravery at Agincourt in 1415, and in 1420 been +made Earl of Worcester. He was slain at the siege of Meaux, in France, +in 1421. In Dyde's "History of Tewkesbury" it is spoken of as "Mary +Magdalen's Chapel, now commonly called 'Spenser's Chapel." It may have +been designed to surpass in glory the chantries previously existing in +the building, and if so, the Countess, who was only twenty-one years +of age, spared no expense in causing this beautiful work to be made. + +The chapel consists of two parts or stories, the lower of which has a +door into the north aisle as well as into the choir. The lowest +portion or base on either side consists of figures of angels, much +mutilated, bearing shields. + +The chantry has two roofs, both with fine vaulting, formerly richly +painted, but the lower roof only covers the western half of the +chapel. The pendent bosses have been destroyed. At the top the canopy +work is so delicately sculptured that it resembles lace. + +The lower ceiling, extending over half the chapel, consists of large +and small circles. Of these, the larger ones are ribbed with sixteen +ribs, while the smaller ones are quatrefoils, each member being +composed of a trefoil with an elegantly carved cusp. Between these +smaller circles are still smaller ones composed of quatrefoils. This +ceiling is supported by two slender shafts. Along the exposed front of +the ceiling are four double cinquefoil arches, between which were +three busts. Of these, one only, viz., an angel with a scroll, +remains. + +In the upper storey of the chapel the ceiling is made up of hexagons +and octagons, the intervening space being filled up with circles, +trefoils of irregular shapes, though symmetrically disposed, and +quatrefoils. The points of the pendant have been ruthlessly destroyed. + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE WARWICK CHAPEL.] + +Of this chantry Mr. Knight wrote: "There can be but one opinion on the +praise which belongs to the exquisiteness of finishing by which the +several parts of it are distinguished; the entablature, wedged between +two of the old pillars of the choir, and appearing to rest upon light +columnar buttresses of singular beauty, give us an assemblage of +filigree and fretwork, which may vie with the finest specimens of +similar workmanship in the kingdom: the elegant palm-leaved parapet, +which occurs in the division between the storeys,--the numerous +escutcheons blazoned in their proper colours,--the niches, and +pedestals, under their respective canopies, once ornamented with +figures which fanaticism has dislodged,--the slender shafts supporting +a higher apartment, probably the rood-loft, in the inside of the +fabric, from whence half-figures of angels are seen to issue,--the +pendants dropping, like congelations in a grotto, from a roof adorned +with the most delicate tracery spread over it like a web,--these and a +countless multitude of minuter beauties, almost distract attention, +and overwhelm the judgment with their different claims to notice." + +Some have thought the upper portion was intended to serve as a private +pew for the Lady Isabelle. To this the difficulty of access may well +be urged as a valid objection. Others have thought that the upper part +was a rood-loft. Others again have thought that the half-roof was a +platform upon which a kneeling figure (in imitation of that in the +Trinity Chapel) was placed.[25] By her will the Lady Isabelle gave +instructions that her statue was to be placed on the right hand of her +father in the choir, and that it was to represent her entirely naked +(_i.e._ without any state robes), with her hair cast backwards; with +St. Mary Magdalen (one of the saints to whom the chapel was dedicated) +laying her hands across: with St. John the Evangelist on her right +side and St. Anthony on her left. At her feet there was to be an +escutcheon, bearing her arms impaled with those of her late +husband--who had died just three months before her--supported by two +griffins; and at the side there were to be statues of poor men and +women in humble apparel with their beads in their hands. From the +Abbey Register this part of the lady's last will and testament seems +to have been carried out; but nothing remains of these added figures +or of the tomb. The chapel is less perfect on the south, or choir +side, than on that which faces the north aisle. + +The appearance of the chantry when first finished, with all its rich +colour and profuse gilding, must have been very rich. Some have +thought it too elaborate and overweighted with ornament, but we may +well call it one of the most glorious specimens of its time. + +Among the heraldic decorations are to be found the chevrons of the +Clares, and the arms of the deceased Earl. On the outside are to be +traced the arms of the royal ancestors of Isabelle, of the Clares, and +of the Despensers. + +The arms upon the chapel are given in "Neale's Views of Tewkesbury" as +follows: + +On the side of the chapel next the choir, over the door-- + + 1. France and England, quarterly, King Edward III. + + 2. Castile and Leon, quarterly, and Peter, King of Castile and + Leon. + + 3. France and England, quarterly, Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. + + 4. France and England impaling Castile and Leon--for Isabelle of + Castile, Duchess of York. + + 5. Clare quartering Despenser (Thomas Despenser, Earl of + Gloucester). + + 6. Clare quartering Despenser and impaling France and England + (Constance, the mother of the foundress of the chapel). + +On the side next to the aisle--in the basement or lowest portion and +in the first division, three angels bearing shields--(1) as 1 above; +(2) destroyed but presumably as 2 above; (3) as 3 above. + +In the second division, two angels bearing shields--(1) as 4 above; +(2) as 5 above. + +In the third division, two angels bearing shields--(1) France and +England quarterly in chief. + +The arms on the fascia and over the door are, in each compartment, +three: + + 1. The royal arms of England. + + 2. The arms of the Clares, Earls of Gloucester. + + 3. Clare impaling England (Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, and + John, afterwards King of England). + + 4. Despenser (Hugh, Lord Despenser). + + 5. Despenser impaling Clare (Eleanor, Countess of Gloucester, wife + of Hugh, Lord Despenser). + + 6. Clare and Despenser, quarterly, impaling Burghersh (Sir Edward + Despenser, K.G.). + +The iron railings were probably removed as being an inconvenience when +the ugly rows of pews, which took up the whole of the choir and +presbytery, were placed in the chancel in 1796. + +The Lady Isabelle, after completing this tomb, married the cousin of +her first husband, who was also a Richard Beauchamp. He died in Rouen +in 1439, but his body being brought home by his countess, was buried +in the noble Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick, which is a further +development of that at Tewkesbury. She died in London in the same year +on St. John the Evangelist's Day, as the inscription on the Warwick +Chapel sets forth, and at her own request was buried at Tewkesbury, in +the following January. All traces of her handsome marble tomb have +disappeared, but the site of her grave was identified at the +restoration of the choir in 1875. The site is marked (8) in the plan. + +To the east of the Warwick Chantry is the chapel [B] known as the +=Founder's Chapel=. Fitz-Hamon, as already stated on p. 13, was buried +in the Chapter House, but Abbot Forthington removed his body to this +site in 1241. + +The open screen-work, which was erected in 1397 by Abbot Parker, is an +excellent specimen of early Perpendicular work. It is extremely light +and graceful. The cresting of oak-leaves is finely wrought; below it +is a frieze ornamented with roses. + +It is unfortunate that the brass has disappeared from the marble top +of the tomb. + +On the cornice there used to be the following inscription: + + "In ista capella jacet Dñus Robertus, + Filius Hamonis hujus loci Fundator." + +The fan-tracery of the ceiling is a beautiful piece of work, and +shows traces of its former decoration with colour and gold. There is +fan-tracery at Gloucester, where it is thought to have originated, +which is essentially the same as this. This specimen is one of the +most beautiful in every way. + + [Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._ + CHANTRY OF THE FOUNDER, FITZ-HAMON.] + +Brackets to support an altar remain in part, and there are faint +traces of a fresco painting on the east wall, which is said to have +represented scenes in the life of St. Thomas à Becket. + +The easternmost panel of the chapel on the south side has been +restored; the rest has been very little touched. Restoration was +necessary because no access to the chapel could be obtained when the +choir was all pewed, and the eastern end was ruthlessly cut away. Some +of the cresting on the north side is also new. + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE DESPENSER MONUMENT.] + +=The Despenser Monument.=--Still further to the east is the tomb [C] +of Sir Hugh Despenser, who died in 1349, and his widow, who died ten +years later, having in the interval married Sir Guy de Brien, the tomb +to whose memory is close at hand. This tomb is full of interest, and +consists of a richly panelled base with trefoil arches (each of which +must once have contained a statuette), in three sets of two each to +correspond with the open tracery in the tier above. + +On the tomb is a slab on which are two recumbent figures, carved in +white alabaster. The knight is clad in armour, viz., a spherical +bascinet, with a camail of chain-mail. His jupon is charged with his +arms. The shirt is also of chain-mail, while the arms and legs are +protected by plate armour. His head is resting upon a tilting helmet, +his feet upon a lion. The Lady Elizabeth, who was a daughter of +William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, has a dog at her feet, and is +robed in a long flowing dress, which, with the square head-dress, is +characteristic of the time of Edward III. + +The Decorated canopy is in two parts, viz., the arched portion which +covers the two figures, and the tabernacle work in four tiers above. +Three arches of marvellously delicate work support the arched roof, +which is like fan-vaulting on a diminutive scale; the ribs have been +indicated by colour. + +The tabernacle work tapers very gradually, and forms a charming finish +to one of the finest tombs to be seen anywhere. Trefoil-headed arches +are used throughout the design, but with such consummate skill that no +feeling of sameness is aroused. Of straight lines there are many, but +of stiffness there is none. Formerly the whole work was painted with +red, green, and gold, traces of which are to be seen on the side next +to the choir and underneath the canopy. + +The tomb is more perfect on the choir side than on the other. + +Of the statues that formerly formed part of the canopy or canopies, no +traces are left, but it is evident that they were removed with unusual +care. + +This tomb was formerly ascribed to George, Duke of Clarence, and also +to Thomas Despenser. The arms on the tabard, however, settle the +question definitely. If further confirmation be required apart from +the style of the architecture and the arms, Leland writes: "Hugo le +Despenser tertius ... sepultus est apud Theokesbury juxta summum +altare in _dextera_[26] parte." Of the Lady Elizabeth he says: +"Sepulta est juxta Hugonem maritum apud Theokesbury." + +=Trinity Chapel.=--On the south side of the choir in the bay opposite +to the Founder's Chapel is the Trinity Chapel [K], the building of +which is ascribed to Elizabeth, Lady de Burghersh, the widow of +Edward, Lord Despenser. Lord Despenser died at Cardiff in 1375, and +was buried before the door of the vestry, near the presbytery. His +widow, who died many years later (1409), was buried beside her chapel +in the choir. + + [Illustration: (_H.J.L.J.M._) + THE TRINITY CHAPEL.] + +The tomb has many beauties, of which the chief is the fan-tracery. +Much damage has ruthlessly been done to the niches and canopies at the +side. + +A curious feature in the chapel is the figure of Lord Despenser under +a canopy on the top of the chapel, kneeling in prayer, with his face +turned towards the high altar. The canopy is very rich, supported by +four slender shafts, and further enriched with carved pinnacles. The +figure is probably unique, in such a position.[27] It is represented +as wearing the martial equipment that was usual towards the end of the +fourteenth century. + +This chapel may have been built by the same builders as the Founder's +Chapel on the opposite side of the choir, but some variety of +treatment is very noticeable. The cresting is different in scale on +the two sides (portions of it are modern insertions). Owing to the +non-correspondence of the panelling in the lowest portion with the +open work in the next tier, it has been thought that the upper portion +is slightly later in point of date than that upon which it is built. + +The chapel derives its name from its dedication to the Trinity as well +as to St. Mary. At the east end of the chapel are traces of mural +painting. Some of these represent the symbols of the Trinity, others +the coronation of the Virgin Mary. + +Other tombs of interest in the church will be found in making the +circuit of the ambulatory. The first of these is the tomb of _Sir Guy +de Brien_ [D]. It has a central position in the stone screen-work +which separates the chapel of St. Margaret from the north ambulatory. +Sir Guy married Elizabeth, the widow of Hugh, Lord Despenser. The tomb +is very similar in design to the Despenser tomb over against which it +is placed. The knight is represented at full length, clad in his +armour, with a lion at his feet. A vault-like canopy, still showing +traces of the blue paint with which it was decorated, rises over the +effigy. The monument is very lofty in proportion to its width, is full +of rather heavy detail, and, though worthy of careful inspection, will +not bear comparison with the Despenser tomb opposite. + +The knight's lady elected to be buried in the tomb of her second +husband, Lord Hugh Despenser, who, like Sir Guy, was a liberal +benefactor to the Abbey. + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE "WAKEMAN CENOTAPH."] + +Three panels facing the aisle have shields with arms upon them. The +central shield bears the arms of Sir Guy de Brien, and the other two +bear his arms and those of the Montacutes, his wife having been +Elizabeth Montacute. + +The next chapel, that of St. Edmund, contains, lying across the +eastern half of the entrance, a magnificent tomb which goes by the +name of the _Cenotaph of Abbot Wakeman_ [E]. It is not known when the +tomb was built, but it is apparently earlier than Wakeman's time, who +was abbot from 1531 to the dissolution of the monastery in 1539. +Certainly Wakeman is not buried here, for he became the first bishop +of Gloucester, and was buried at Forthampton. + +The tomb is peculiarly beautiful, and consists of a slab supported by +a rich piece of open or pierced work, in the pattern of which may be +seen three crosses. Upon the slab rests a representation of the corpse +of a monk undergoing the process of decay, and being devoured by +various lizards, snails, &c. It is rather a gruesome subject for +contemplation, reminding one of some of the drawings in the Dance of +Death at Basle. Immediately over the body, in the centre of the tomb, +is a massive ogee arch, richly foliated, from which descends a rather +cumbrous pendant--itself ogee in form--which divides the main arch +into equal parts, or arches, with rounded heads. These arches are +again subdivided into two smaller round-headed arches, full of very +fine carved work. + +The front of the tomb, as seen from the ambulatory, is composed of a +very fine arch which springs from the piers at the side. Its lower +edge is foliated, and the spandrils are enriched with quatrefoils. + +At the top of all is a projecting canopy in three main sections--a +portion of the rest is gone--all of very delicate and intricate carved +work. + +In the south ambulatory in the middle one of the three chapels there +is a tomb to _Richard Cheltenham_ [I], who was abbot from 1481-1509. +It is a table tomb in the Perpendicular style, with very rich tracery +enriched with quatrefoils and shields. A depressed arch forms a +canopy, in the spandrils of which are the abbot's initials R.C. and +his pastoral staff. + +Almost opposite to this is a depressed arch which supports a mass of +delicate work decorated with vine-leaves and grapes. Over this are +many canopied niches (much mutilated). The images they once contained +have been destroyed. Under the arch is now a coffin of Purbeck +marble, with a cross on the lid, and the inscription "_Johannes Abbas +hujus loci_." + + [Illustration: _Photo. A.H. Hughes._ + THE SOUTH CHOIR AISLE, LOOKING WEST.] + +It is generally assumed that this is the coffin of John Cotes, who +died in 1347. The tomb [H] is supposed to be that referred to by +Leland as that in which some of the remains of Hugh Despenser the +younger, the Earl of Gloucester who was hanged and quartered in +Hereford in 1326--just three months before the murder of Edward II. in +Berkeley Castle--were interred. Close to this tomb, but more to the +east, is a fifteenth century tomb, presumably that of an abbot, but +his name is unknown. + +To the east of the door of the chapel which is now used as a vestry, +is another tomb of an unknown abbot. The coffin lid bears a rich +floriated cross, with a representation of an abbot at the one end, and +that of a lamb at the other. The arch over the tomb is crocketed, and +is enriched with a profusion of ball-flower ornament in the moulding. +The finial is very heavy, though beautifully wrought to represent +birds and foliage. At the spring of the arch is the very curious +figure of a devil. Two pinnacles[28] at the sides have most grotesque +faces at the corners instead of the conventional foliage. This idea +has been adopted in the decoration of the tomb-recesses in the nave in +Bristol Cathedral. + +On the western side of the vestry door is a beautiful Early English +tomb. The lid of the Purbeck marble coffin is inscribed "Alanus, +Dominus Abbas" along the moulded edge, and a similar inscription is to +be read at the right-hand end, "HIC IACET DOMINUS ALANUS ABBAS." This +is the tomb of Alan, who was made Abbot here in 1187, after having +previously been Prior at Canterbury. He was one of the most +distinguished of the Abbots of Tewkesbury: he had known Thomas à +Becket, and indeed wrote his biography. This tomb is no doubt the +oldest monument in the church. The arch over it is a moulded trefoil +arch, surmounted by a plain canopy of very simple and formal design. +The top of the coffin bears a very beautiful cross. + +Further westward, near to the south transept is a thirteenth century +recessed arch, with pinnacles at either side and a decorated arch. The +tomb has been removed. The floor has been laid with fragments of old +encaustic tiles removed from other parts of the building. + +=Organs.=--The church has two organs, both of which are noteworthy, +viz., the old organ in the choir, of which the interest is +historical, and the Grove organ in the north transept, the chief +interest in which, apart from its tone, is the perfection of its many +modern mechanical contrivances. + +The organ in the choir was brought to Tewkesbury in 1737 from Magdalen +College, Oxford, and was placed on the then existing screen, where it +remained till 1875. It was built by John Harris, the grandfather of +Réné or Renatus Harris, for Magdalen College, Oxford. By Cromwell's +orders it was removed to Hampton Court, and is said to have been +played upon there by Milton, who was Cromwell's Secretary. In 1660 the +organ went back to Oxford, and was repaired in 1672. In 1690 Renatus +Harris contracted, for £150, to put it into thorough repair, and make +it "an extraordinary instrument and the best old organ in England." In +1736-37 the Magdalen College organ was sold to the then organ +committee of Tewkesbury. + +Sixty years later (1796) a sum of £186 18_s._ 2_d._ was spent in +painting the case, in repairs, and in the addition of a swell organ; +and in 1848 it was enlarged by Willis at a cost of £322 15_s._ 8_d._ +Little of the original work remains, with the exception of some of the +diapasons, the principal, and the tin pipes in the choir front. The +old organ is in constant use for ordinary evening services, and for +the services on Sunday mornings and afternoons. For the Sunday evening +services the Grove organ is generally used. Sometimes the two organs +are used together. + +The Grove organ is a very fine instrument, but it is more fitted for a +concert-room than for the accompaniment of ordinary church music. It +was given, as the brass tablet sets forth, "_To the greater glory of +God, and to commemorate the Jubilee of the Queen in 1887._" The +specification is as follows: + + CHOIR ORGAN (CC to C in alt^o., 61 notes). + + 1. Spitzflöte 8 ft. + 2. [*]Viole Sourdine 8 ft. + 3. [*]Lieblich Gedacht (_w_) 8 ft. + 4. Gemshorn 4 ft. + 5. [*]Zauber Flöte 4 ft. + 6. Flautina 2 ft. + 7. Clarionet 8 ft. + + + _Accessory Stops._ + + 1. Ventil. + 2. Octave Coupler. + 3. Pneumatic Piston, acting on No. 1 off and on. + 4. Swell to Choir. + 5. Tremulant. + + GREAT ORGAN (CC to C in alt^o., 61 notes). + + 1. Violone 16 ft. + 2. Great Open Diapason 8 ft. + 3. Small Open Diapason 8 ft. + 4. Claribel (_w_) 8 ft. + 5. Octave 4 ft. + 6. Flute Octaviante 4 ft. + 7. Quint Mixture, 12, 15. + 8. [+]Great Mixture (4 ranks), 19, 22, 26, 29. + 9. [+]Tromba 16 ft. + 10. [+]Trumpet 8 ft. + + _Accessory Stops._ + + 1. Sub-Octave Choir to Great. 2. Swell to Great. 3. Solo to Great. + 1. Ventil Flue to Quint Mixture. + 2. Ventil Flue Great Mixture and Reed. + Two Pneumatic Pistons acting on Ventil placed beneath the keys as in + the Choir. + Three Composition Pedals. + + SWELL ORGAN (CC to C in alt^o., 61 notes). + + The swell-box is made in three thicknesses, each of one inch. + Between each thickness is a layer of felt. + + 1. Flauto Traverso 8 ft. + 2. Open Diapason 8 ft. + 3. [*]Viole d'Orchestre 8 ft. + 4. [*]Voix Celeste 8 ft. + 5. Geigen 4 ft. + 6. [+]Mixture--3 ranks, 15, 19, 22. + 7. [+]Contra Posaune 16 ft. + 8. [+]Horn 8 ft. + 9. Oboe 8 ft. + + _Accessory Stops._ + + Octave Coupler. Ventil Flues to Geigen, Mixture, and Reeds. + Two Pneumatic Pistons acting on Ventils, as in the Great Organ. + Tremulant. Three Composition Pedals. + + SOLO ORGAN (CC to C in alt^o., 61 notes). + + 1. Harmonic Flute 8 ft. + 2. [*]Violoncello 8 ft. + 3. [+]Tuba 8 ft. + 4. Voix Humaine (metal, enclosed in a Swell-box) 8 ft. + + _Accessory Stops._ + + Octave Coupler. Tremulant. + Two Ventils, two Pneumatic Pistons, as in the other manuals. + + PEDAL ORGAN (CCC to F, 30 notes). + + 1. [*]Harmonic Bass (_w_) 32 ft. + 2. Great Bass (_w_) 16 ft. + 3. [*]Dolce Bass (_w_) 16 ft. + 4. Great Flute (_w_) 8 ft. + 5. [+]Bombarde 16 ft. + + [*] Stops thus marked are of novel construction, being fitted with + prolongement harmonique. + [+] Stops marked thus are on heavy wind. + _w_ Stops marked thus are of wood. + + +Pedal Couplers: + 1. Choir to Pedals. + 2. Great to Pedals. + 3. Swell to Pedals. + 4. Solo to Pedals. + +Manual Couplers: + 1. Choir Octave. + 2. Swell Octave. + 3. Solo Octave. + 4. Choir Sub-Octave to Great. + 5. Swell to Great. + 6. Solo to Great. + 7. Swell to Choir. + + The Tremulants are set in action by one pedal, or by the use of + the draw-stops, separately or collectively. + + Pneumatic action is applied to the Organ throughout, except to + the Choir Organ, which is direct action. + + + * * * * * + +=Church Plate.=--The oldest pieces of plate are two silver chalices, +one dated 1576, the other 1618. There is also a paten of the latter +date. A flagon weighing 54 ounces was given to the church by the +bachelors and maidens of the borough in 1688, and another was given in +1724. Curiously they are both fitted with whistle-handles. There are +also two cut-glass cruets, said to be of the fifteenth century. + +=The Church Registers.=--These date from 1559, containing baptisms to +1598 and marriages to 1574, but are copies on parchment of an older +register (on paper) now lost. Another register, on paper, dates from +1595, and contains baptisms down to 1610, marriages to 1629, and +burials to 1608. Thenceforward, with few exceptions, the registers are +complete. The register of baptisms, 1607-1629, contains a quaint +composition: + + "Lo, heare thou maiest with mortall eie beholde + Thy name recorded by a mortall wighte; + But if thou canst looke but spiritualie + Unto that God which gives such heavenly sighte + Thou maiest behold with comfort to thy soule + Thy name recorded in the heavenly roule. + And therefore praie the Register of heaven + To write thy name within the booke of life; + And also praie thy sinns maie be forgeven, + And that thou maiest flee all ceare and strife: + That when thy mortall bodies shall have end, + Thy soule maie to the immortal bliss ascende. + "_Per me_, GUILIELMUS PARKE, 1609." + +=Arms of the Abbey.=--The arms are gules, within a border argent, a +cross engrailed or, and are so given by Willis in his _Seals of +Parliamentary Abbeys_, and by Tanner in _Notitia Monastica_. In Sir +Charles Isham's copy of the _Registrum Theokusburiæ_, in a window in +the choir, and also on the old organ the border is omitted. It is also +a disputed point whether the Abbot was a mitred prelate or not. +Fuller, in his _Church History_, is in doubt about it, while Bishop +Godwin admits that some of the Abbots sat in Parliament. The Abbots, +without enjoying any prescriptive right, were summoned to Parliament +in the reigns of Henry III., Edward I., and Edward II., and the last +Abbot (Wakeman) was certainly summoned as a mitred Abbot. It may be +that the Abbot received the dignity in the time of Abbot Strensham, +who died in 1481. + +=Old Tiles.=--In the Founder's Chapel (1397) are some tiles containing +the arms of Fitz-Hamon (a lion rampant), impaled with the arms of the +Abbey, a cross engrailed, and showing the head of a crosier above the +shield in the centre. In the Warwick chantry there is to be seen a set +of tiles with the arms of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester, in +whose honour the chapel was built. The arms are a fess between four +crosslets with a crescent for difference. There are also some in the +Trinity Chapel, showing the arms of the Despensers, impaled with those +of Burghersh. Other tiles found in the church at different times give +the arms of De Clare, Despenser, Berkeley, De Warrenne, De Bohun, +Corbet, and De la Zouch. + + +ABBOTS OF TEWKESBURY. + +=Giraldus= (1102-1109), previously Abbot of Cranbourn, was the first +Abbot of the Benedictine foundation. Deprived by Henry I. in 1109. + +=Robert I.= (1110-1124). In his time the greater part of the Abbey as +it stands was finished, and dedicated in 1123. + +=Benedict= (1124-1137). + +=Roger= (1137-1161). + +=Fromundus= (1162-1178). No new Abbot was instituted till-- + +=Robert II.= (1182-1183). + +=Alan= (1187-1202). His tomb is in the south ambulatory of the choir. +He was a friend of Thomas à Becket, having previously been Prior of +St. Saviour's, Canterbury. + +=Walter= (1202-1213), previously Sacrist of the monastery. He was +succeeded by-- + +=Hugh= (1214), who had been the Prior. Dying in a year, his successor +was Bernard, but the latter was never instituted. + +=Peter= (1216-1231) was a monk from Worcester. + +=Robert Forthington= (1232-1254), or =Robert III.= had previously been +Prior. A tomb ascribed to him is in the south ambulatory. + +=Thomas de Stokes= (1254-1275) had been Prior of St. James, Bristol. + +=Richard de Norton= (1276-1282). + +=Thomas Kempsey= (1282-1328). + +=John Cotes= ( -1347). + +=Thomas de Legh= (1347-1361). + +=Thomas Chesterton= (1361-1389). + +=Thomas Parker, or Pakare= (1389-1421). + +=William Bristow, or de Bristol= (1421-1442). + +=John de Abingdon= (1442- ), who was probably identical with + +=John de Salis, or Galys=. + +=John Strensham, or Streynsham= ( -1481). He was Abbot at the time of +the Battle of Tewkesbury. + +=Richard Cheltenham= (1481-1509). + +=Henry Beoly, or Bealy= (1509- ), was Abbot in 1526. + +=John Walker= (d. 1531). + +=John Wich, Wyche, or Wakeman= (1531-1539). This ecclesiastic was the +last Abbot of Tewkesbury. He, unlike the Abbot of Gloucester, seems to +have been in no wise unwilling to surrender his Abbey. In return he +obtained a pension of £266 13_s._ 4_d._, and also the house and park +at Forthampton. When, later, Gloucester was made a bishopric, he was +the first bishop. He was buried at Forthampton. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] In point of actual size the Tewkesbury piers are 30 feet 8 inches +high, and 6 feet 3 inches in diameter; while the piers at Gloucester +are 30 feet by 6 feet. Those at Malvern are considerably less in +height. + +[8] This boss represents the Virgin as being present at the Table. + +[9] The ball-flower here as well as that in the vestry differs from +that in the neighbourhood, as there is a curious little side-twist or +kink in it. + +[10] Mr. W.H. St. John Hope's description of this quoted _in extenso_ +in "Gloucester" (Cathedral Series) is most interesting, and should be +carefully studied. + +[11] Letters in brackets refer to the plan at the end. + +[12] This Transept was used from 1813-17 as a temporary National +School. + +[13] The columns are, with the exception of one which is round, +roughly hexagonal. + +[14] In some plans this chapel is ascribed to St. Nicholas. + +[15] The arch of this chamber shows distinct traces of fire, not +mentioned in any records, and the staircase to the tower, which then +communicated with this chamber, shows traces for a short distance on +the stonework. + +[16] The same moulding is found at Durham in the doorway from the nave +into the cloisters, but there it is much mutilated; it is also found +at St. Joseph's Chapel, Glastonbury, and in various forms in the West +of England. + +[17] It is not quite certain whether Sir Guy is actually buried here. + +[18] It is generally considered to be that dedicated to St. John the +Baptist. The other altar in this chapel may have been dedicated to St. +George, though the chapel of the latter was probably one of those in +the nave. + +[19] The dedication of this Norman chapel, like that of several others +here, is not known. + +[20] The choir at Gloucester is 140 feet long and 33 feet wide. + +[21] The sun was a favourite badge of Edward IV., and is said to have +been adopted in consequence of the appearance of three suns before the +battle of Mortimer's Cross. It appears upon some of his coins. + +[22] The altar-stone at Gloucester was at one time used to pave the +south porch, and is now in the crypt. + +[23] The safety of the old glass has been ensured by a protective +external window of rolled glass let in the mullions from the outside. +This was done in 1889. + +[24] This Gilbert de Clare is said to have had a copy of Magna Charta +and the Charta de Foresta made and deposited in the Abbey. + +[25] The floor of the upper part was never flat, and was in all +probability never intended for use. + +[26] Heraldically speaking. + +[27] Henry VII. left instructions in his will that a kneeling effigy +of himself should be placed on the top of the Confessor's shrine at +Westminster. + +[28] The western pinnacle was carved locally in 1825-8, and is a very +careful piece of work. + + + + +DEERHURST. + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + DEERHURST PRIORY CHURCH, FROM THE SOUTH.] + + + + +DEERHURST. + + +Deerhurst, or Deorhurst--the wood or grove of wild beasts, as its +etymology implies--lies close to Tewkesbury, and the visitor to the +latter must on no account omit to pay a visit to the older building. +It may be reached by a pleasant walk through meadows on the left bank +of the Severn, by the road or by a path across the fields. + +The Priory church of Deerhurst is one of the oldest buildings of any +importance that yet remain in use in England. Its exact date is more +or less a matter of conjecture, but it seems certain from documentary +evidence, which is still accessible, that in the ninth century the +Abbey or Priory was in a prosperous condition--the document referred +to above being a grant of lands in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire +to the Abbey in 804. No earlier authentic evidence than this exists, +though a _lapsus calami_ of Leland (who credits the Venerable Bede +with an acquaintance with Deerhurst about the year 700) would seem to +give it an earlier date. From the earliest time Deerhurst--situated +where it is, so near that great highway the Severn, and occupying a +position on the direct line of traffic by road between Worcester and +Gloucester, must have had an important part to play. Legend has it +that Edmund Ironside and Canute, intent on fighting a duel after +Essendune, met at Olney in 1016, but settled matters without coming to +blows, and later tradition affirms that this meeting took place in the +meadow--once an island or eyot, hence its present name--called the +Naight. + +Tradition, again, has it that the Abbey suffered from the Danes, and +this seems likely enough, seeing that they were encamped at +Cirencester for fully a year. Werstan, one of the monks who escaped +from the Danes, is said by Leland to have founded a cell at Malvern, +and was later murdered by the Danes in his own chapel there. In the +windows of Malvern Priory he is described as "Sanctus Werstanus +Martir," but little else is known about him. + +The Abbey, though small, was richly endowed with land, and is said to +have been possessed of nearly forty thousand acres. Its wealth in +landed property was the cause of its being transferred by Edward the +Confessor in 1054-56 to the great French Abbey of St. Denis; and what +was not so transferred was mostly given by the King, together with the +Manor of Pershore and other possessions, to his Abbey of St. Peter at +Westminster, which was then building. + +The Abbey lost its importance when it became an alien priory, and its +landed possessions, which had once surpassed those of the abbeys at +Gloucester and at Winchcombe, were dwarfed to very scanty dimensions. +It suffered, too, in prestige, having become a priory, and was +constantly being harried by successive monarchs. + +We find that the Conqueror confirmed the grant of the Abbey of +Deerhurst to St. Denis, but that King John confiscated its revenues. +In 1225 Pope Honorius III. by a Bull approved that the Priory should +be perpetual and conventual. In virtue of this the Prior could claim +not to come into the King's hands, but it was many years before this +claim was barely recognised. In this same year the Prior was again in +possession of the Priory and its lands; but in 1250 (_temp._ Henry +II.), the Priory was sold to Richard, Duke of Cornwall, who seems to +have driven out the monks and destroyed the greater part of their +buildings. Later in the same reign, 1260, the Abbot of St. Denis again +got possession of the Priory. + +In 1295 Edward I. took possession of all the existing alien priories +for the sake of the revenue they would bring into his exchequer. +Edward III.[29] again despoiled the monks of what was theirs, and his +grandson, Richard II., followed in his steps. + +The Priory had a respite from such continued harryings with the +accession of Henry IV. (1399). This king took possession of it as an +alien Priory, but immediately handed it over to William Forester, the +then Prior, with the stipulation that in the event of a war with +France the King should receive a sum of money equal to that which in +time of peace would be paid to the Abbey of St. Denis. With halcyon +days like these the Priory set about rebuilding what had been +destroyed, and works were undertaken--much of which is standing at the +present time. + +Henry V. by charter in 1419 confirmed the policy of Henry IV. in +giving the Prior all the rights and privileges enjoyed by William +Forester, and Henry V. acknowledged the claim of the Priory to be +conventual and perpetual, and as such, not to come into the King's +hands. However, one king proposes, another disposes. Henry VI. in +1463, while confirming all existing rights, made the Priory a denizen +priory with the same status as all other similar English foundations. +But this change was followed by yet another in four years' time. Henry +VI. being the founder of Eton College, and King's College, Cambridge, +was in want of funds, and he relieved the pressure on his exchequer by +appropriating the possessions of the Priory, and handing part of them +to his royal College at Eton, and part (in 1422) to the already rich +Abbey at Tewkesbury. Much litigation followed with Eton, and in 1469 +the Priory was united and annexed by Carpenter, Bishop of Worcester, +to the monastery at Tewkesbury, with the stipulation that the "Abbot +of Tewkesbury was to find and maintain there one monk in priest's +orders, to be called Prior or Warden, four other monks, and one +secular priest daily to perform divine service in that priory." + +The independence of Deerhurst was now at an end, and little is heard +of it again. At the Dissolution, like many of the Tewkesbury +possessions, it became private property, the site, the buildings and +the tithes being conveyed to George Throgmorton, a local personage, +who became the lay impropriator. The tithes passed later into the +hands of the family of Cassey, of Wightfield Court; but the lands +became the property of the Coventry family, and at the end of the +seventeenth century gave the title to Viscount Deerhurst, the fifth +Baron. At the Dissolution Deerhurst became a curacy, and remained so +till 1682, the advowson then being transferred from lay hands to those +of the Bishop of Worcester. + + +EXTERIOR. + +Of the exterior of the church there is not much to be said. The chief +feature is the =Tower=. It has been reduced in height, probably at the +time that the steeple was blown down in 1666, but no churchwardens' +accounts of that date remain. It is 70 feet high, 21 feet 8 inches +from east to west, and 14 feet 4 inches from north to south, with a +slight batter to the walls, which at the base are 32 inches in +thickness. For about 35 feet or so the masonry is Saxon work, but has +been subsequently severely handled, especially on the west side. The +east side contains a wall-plate of early date, and more of the +interesting early work. The upper part is later work, having ashlar +quoins at the four angles. + +The entrance door is a Pointed arch of the fourteenth century date +inserted within the earlier round-headed arch, of which the outer +edges have considerably crumbled away. Above the arch is a piece of +stonework, similar to one above the long, narrow window, considered by +some to be a mutilated carved head, but with more real likeness to a +broken mechanical contrivance for hoisting up weighty goods into the +upper part of the tower. On the right of the entrance door is the door +which now gives entrance to the belfry. In many parts of the exterior +there are traces of the coarse herring-bone work so prevalent in Saxon +masonry. At the north-west and south-west angles of the aisles are +gargoyles, that at the north-west corner being the better preserved. + +The church was rough-cast all over in the early part of this century, +but was restored in 1861-62 to practically its present appearance. +Part of the tower, that to the west, has a battlement, while the rest +has a low gabled roof. The windows in the belfry are decorated in +character, but much of the masonry near them seems to be re-used stone +from other parts. + +By obtaining entrance to the farmyard upon which the east end abuts, +traces of the original apsidal termination may be seen. It is much to +be regretted that the church precincts are so built upon that +examination is difficult. + + +INTERIOR. + +The western entrance is situate in the tower front, and by three +doorways gives access to the nave. + +=The Nave.=--The nave of the present church measures 60 feet by 21 +feet, including what was the original choir, which was under the +central tower, and which, from the plan, must have been 20 feet in +length. The nave proper would be 38 feet by 21 feet, making allowance +for the thickness of the choir arch wall. It is more than probable +that the wall which separated the choir from the nave was in character +like the present eastern wall, with a spacious and lofty arch spanning +the opening, which gave access to the apsidal eastern end. Traces of +such an arch were found at the restoration of the church in 1861-62. +As was the case at Tewkesbury, Gloucester, and elsewhere, the nave was +the parish church, and the choir and the rest of the building +eastwards the private chapel of the Priory. Small though the original +nave was--for the present aisles are later additions--it was, if the +walls are of the original height, unusually lofty for a church of its +date. The original nave had transepts, as shown in plan on page 118, +with a room, probably a sacristy, to the east of the north transept +and a similar room or a chapel at the east of the south transept. + +On either side of the nave the original walls have been pierced, and +an arcade of three good Early English arches was inserted in the +thirteenth century. It will be noted that the easternmost of the three +arches on each side is slightly wider in span than the other two. All +the capitals differ in their details. Over these arches on either side +is a triangular opening about 18 feet from the floor level, similar to +the opening in the west end of the nave. The edges of these openings +are left quite square, _i.e._, there is no splaying. + +The clerestory windows are, for the most part, early fifteenth +century, and replaced the early windows, which may have been of +circular form. + +At the west end of the nave there are several very curious features. +The arch of the doorway is a plain, round-headed arch with its edges +left quite square, and the impost is plain with the exception of a +hollow immediately below the abacus. In height the doorway is 10 feet, +and in width 5-½ feet, and it leans slightly to the north. Above this +doorway, in the corners of the west wall, are two impost members or +brackets, similar to those in the chancel, which may have been +intended to support the floor joists of a chamber or gallery at this +end of the nave. Not far above these brackets is a triangular opening +similar to those in the north and south walls of the nave, and +through which, from the room in the tower, a view is obtained of the +nave generally. It is on the same level as those in the nave. To the +right of this is a blocked-up round-headed doorway, which once gave +access from the room in the tower on this level to a gallery at the +east end of the nave. The jambs are each of two similar blocks of +stone. + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + INTERIOR, LOOKING WEST.] + +Above this, in the centre of the upper part of the west wall of the +nave, is perhaps the most curious architectural feature of the church. +It is a two-light window, each light having a head formed of an +isosceles triangle. The outer jambs, as also the broad central massive +pier, are slightly fluted, and in some of these flutings is a bar in +relief. On the church side the bars are inserted in the upper part of +the hollow; on the tower side they are in some cases at the top, in +others in the lower half. + +The following dimensions show how massive is this piece of primitive +work. The sill on which the window is built is of stone concealed by +plaster. Each light in its widest part is 18 inches, 13 inches between +the plinths on the sill. The plinths are 14 inches in thickness, and +that of the central pier is 21 inches. The central pier itself is a +trifle shorter than the jambs, 1 foot 8 inches, but this difference is +made up by a much more massive impost, the central impost being 9 +inches thick as compared with 8 inches in the case of the others. Each +impost is, as it were, in square-edged layers, each layer overhanging +the one below it. The head of each opening is formed of two single +stones so cut that they meet at an angle of about 30 degrees. These +stones are 11-¼ inches in thickness, and 3 feet 6 inches long on the +outside edges. In the angle between the two portions of the window +they measure 3 feet 1-½ inches. They are carried right through the +wall, with a plain label almost square in section. + +Above the window, resting on the label points is an oblong block of +stone which is thought at one time to have been painted, as no +inscription can be traced. + +Near the tower end is a portion of the Perpendicular timbered roof, +and the rest of the roofing of the nave and chancel is modern work +designed upon the basis of the older example. + +The =South Aisle= was added in the twelfth century. The south wall of +the south transept was continued to the west, the greater part of the +west wall of this transept being removed, a segmental arch being +inserted exactly where the oak-screen is now. The wall from the +original south-east corner of the tower was carried southwards to meet +the new wall mentioned above. Next, the solid walls of the nave were +pierced with three unequal openings, and, from the piers thus left, +arches were carried across the new south aisle to the new south wall +of the church, and the walls of the inner porch seem to have been +pierced with arches about the same time, one being also made to span +the space from the extreme end of the original wall of the nave to the +new south-east corner of the tower. A turret and staircase seem next +to have been made outside the church in the angle thus made by the new +works, but the plan seems to have been soon altered by the carrying +out of the west wall of the aisle till it was flush with the west +front. The then external doorway into the turret became an internal +one, but has been blocked up, access to the tower staircase being +obtained by the narrow door in the west front. The remains of +Transitional Norman work in the south aisle are scanty, but of extreme +interest. + +In the thirteenth century the =North Aisle= was constructed, and made +to correspond with the south aisle, though it is slightly narrower. +Its beautiful capitals inspired the workers to do their best and +harmonise those in the south aisle arcade with those in the other +aisle. + +The walls of the nave were carried up to receive the clerestory +windows about the year 1400, but as to their original height it is +only possible to conjecture. + +The Decorated windows of the north aisle all differ in style and date, +that in the north transept being the earliest. The westernmost window +in the south aisle is approximately of the same date, and contains the +only glass in the church that is of any interest. The other windows in +this south aisle are Perpendicular, and are high in the wall owing to +the existence of the cloister, a blocked-up door into which can be +seen under the westernmost window. Some fifteenth century oak seats in +this aisle are worth notice. + +In the north aisle the north-west window of four lights (by Wailes) is +a memorial to Hugh Edwin Strickland (1853). The head of the window +contains the fanciful device relating to the Persons of the Trinity, +and below are Noah, Aaron, David, and St. John the Baptist. + +In the lowest tier are Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, the +Annunciation, the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan. + +The next window (by Clayton and Bell) is a memorial window erected by +the Rev. G. Butterworth, till lately Vicar of Deerhurst. + +In the north wall near the font is a blocked-up doorway, containing +another memorial to a member of the Strickland family. + + [Illustration] + + Pater -- non est -- Filius + | | + est est + | | + | | + | Deus | + non | non + est | est + | est | + | | | + Spiritus + Sanctus + +Both the aisles of the nave had undoubtedly at one time altars at +their eastern ends. The north aisle contains three aumbries and the +south aisle has one, probably removed from elsewhere in the church. It +contains a piscina and a small circular recess or reliquary in its +eastern side. + +The north aisle contains a very fine specimen of a brass dated 1400, +which records the death of Sir John Cassy, Chief Baron of the +Exchequer in the reign of Edward III., and his wife Alicia. The +inscription runs (in finely cut black letters, with beautiful +ornaments between each word), "Hic jacet Joh[~e]s Cassy miles quondam +Capitalis Baro Sccii (_i.e._ Scaccarii) Regis qui obiit xxiii^o die +Maii Anno Dn[~i] MCCCC, et Alicia uxor ejus. qu[~o]r a[~i]abus pp[~e]r +deus." The Chief Baron is represented in his robes, with a lion at his +feet; his wife in a long loose flowing dress, fastened at the wrists +and round the neck. She has her dog at her feet, with his name "Tirri" +engraved upon his side. Only one other instance exists of a pet's name +being thus handed down.[30] Above the figures is a rich canopy, and a +figure of the Virgin and St. Anne, a figure of St. John the Baptist +being unfortunately missing. + +Close to this are one or two other brasses. One of Elizabeth, daughter +of Thomas Bruges, Esq., of Coverle, and wife of William Cassey, Esq., +of Whyghtfylde, and then of Walter Nowden, Esq., 1525. Another small +brass in the floor of the doorway to the choir records that "Here +lyeth the body of Edward Guy, gent., who married Francis the eldest +daughter of John Gotheridge, Esq., and had by her six sonnes and one +daughter, and was here buried the sixt day of Dec. A^o. 1612." + +Near to the Cassy brass is an old chest, and a stone coffin with a +foliated cross upon its lid. This had been under the pavement till the +1861-62 restoration--hence its excellent state of preservation. + +The blocked door in the east wall of this north transept once gave +access to the sacristy. + +=The Font.=--The font, one of the most interesting points in this +interesting church, has had a curious history. A lady in the +neighbourhood (Miss Strickland, of Apperley Court) found in a garden +close to the river, in 1870, an upright carved stone. It occurred to +this lady that the stone was in reality the stem or lower part of the +font then in Longdon church, in Worcestershire, as the ornament seemed +to be similar. The Vicar of Longdon was then asked to give up the bowl +portion which had been conveyed in 1845 from a Deerhurst farmyard to +Longdon church. The request was graciously entertained, and Longdon +church received in exchange a new font. The two portions--probably +long separated--were then replaced as they are now to be seen in +Deerhurst, and the font previously in use there was given to Castle +Morton church. + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + FONT.] + +The bowl is, like other early fonts, rather tub-shaped, made of +coarse-grained oolite, a Cotswold district stone, covered with +uncommon ornamentation. It measures externally 28-½ inches in +diameter, internally 24 inches, and 21 inches in height. The +ornamentation consists of eight panels, each containing spirals which +form an endless pattern, as they conjoin with other similar lines. Mr. +Westwood in the _Arch. Soc. Journal_ said of the ornament that it is +"especially Irish, and is found in the finest of the most ancient +illuminated Irish copies of the Gospels, and in those which were +executed in England under the influence of the Irish missionaries. +Thus it is found in all the illuminated Gospels of St. Chad and Mac +Regol (which is in the Bodleian Library and ascribed to 820 A.D.), and +in the Gospels of Lindisfarne or Durham Book, but I do not recollect +having seen it in manuscripts known to be more recent than the ninth +century." The ornament of the running border was thought by the same +writer to be a later addition; others deem it contemporary with the +scroll work, and think the design may have been obtained from some +Saxon goldsmith's work. + +Whether the stem belongs to the bowl, or whether the stem ought not to +be inverted, are perhaps questions of minor importance. The spiral +ornament in both parts is exactly the same, an interlaced strap +ornament occupying three out of the seven panels in the stem. The +effect of a heptagonal stem on an octagonal base or plinth is +certainly odd. The _base_, or step, is probably of the late +fourteenth, or of the fifteenth century. Originally there was not a +hole in the bottom to let the water drain away, but one in the side. +There is no trace of any leaden lining to the font-bowl. + +=The Choir=, with the destroyed sanctuary, had a total length of 38 +feet, a breadth of 20 feet. The actual height of the choir cannot now +be accurately estimated, though it seems to have been higher than that +of the nave. The interior at present is all of the same height. The +walls were apparently quite plain, and not pierced for any windows. + +There were in the actual choir space four doorways, _i.e._, a pair on +the north and another pair on the south side. Of each pair one doorway +gave access to the transept, and the other, in the earliest history of +the church, to the open air. These doorways are quite plain, and are +cut straight through the wall. Those on the south side and one on the +north have lintels or level tops; the other has a straight lined arch +composed of two long pieces of stone. + +In each side wall of the choir, above these doorways, is an open arch, +cut through the wall with a slightly projecting border at the sill, +which is 10 feet or so above the level of the present pavement. The +jambs are quite plain, with heavy impost members, slightly hollowed, +and a square label, much damaged and defaced. These two archways were +no doubt made to admit a modicum of light to what must always have +been a dimly lighted choir. + +The eastern wall of the present chancel contains the arch (now blocked +up) which formed the entrance to the apsidal sanctuary. This arch is +very spacious, being 12 feet 3 inches wide between the capitals, and +20 feet high. It is composed of a single broad, flat-faced member, +with well carved but primitive caps, supported by a semi-cylindrical +shaft on either side. The plinth, or base, is but slightly moulded, +and is 23 inches in height. The label is square and exceptionally +prominent, springing from carved heads representing tusked animals +(probably boars) of considerable size. + +Above the arch is a Perpendicular window, which was probably inserted +after the sanctuary had been removed, though it may have replaced an +earlier opening. Between the sill of the window and the blocked-up +arch there are impost members or brackets fixed in the wall, and +abutting against the side walls, the mouldings which return being +different in each. There were probably similar brackets in the western +wall of the choir which has been removed, and they may have been +supports for the floor of the central tower. On this same wall are two +stone slabs about 4 feet by 3 feet, with pointed tops flanking the +window, which look as if they were intended to block up the splayed +openings of former and possibly still existing window openings, though +they have been internally and externally blocked. + +There is no trace in any account of the church as to how or when the +eastern tower was removed or destroyed. Lyson's two drawings of the +church show the choir portion considerably higher than the rest of the +building, with a roof quite different in pitch. This might be due to +the fact that the choir had been loftier than the nave, or to the +partial removal of the masonry of this tower. It seems just a probable +explanation that this tower fell towards the end of the fifteenth +century--perhaps after a fire of which there are traces in the south +east corner of the building--and in its fall did such damage to the +sacristy, the apsidal sanctuary, and the chapel at the east of the +south transept, that the brethren of Tewkesbury, of which abbey +Deerhurst had become a cell in 1469, felt it to be beyond their means +to restore the fabric. This, of course, is merely a theory, but it +would account satisfactorily for the structural alterations carried +out about that time. The forced disuse of the old sanctuary would +involve the blocking up of the choir arch which gave access to it, and +also the making of an additional window in the then east wall of the +chancel. As there was no tower to support, the west wall of the choir +may have been removed and the rood-screen erected, the door of +entrance to which still exists in the south aisle, unblocked. It is an +open question when this west wall of the choir was removed. If it were +done, as some have thought, in the twelfth or the thirteenth century, +the removal may have been a predisposing cause of the fall of the +tower. + +The chancel contains some good oak seats and panelling which run all +round the three available sides of the square. These were the seats +for communicants, and the communion table until about sixteen years +ago stood in the middle of the chancel. This Puritan arrangement was +formerly not uncommon, but is now probably unique, seeing that +Winchcombe church, where it once existed, has lately been "restored." +Some of the panelling was part of a Jacobean pulpit, one panel of +which, with the date 1604, is to be seen. The chancel rail is of +carved wood, in keeping with the rest of the chancel furniture. + +Mr. Micklethwaite in his Paper on Saxon Churches (_Arch. Journ._ vol. +lxiii.) refers to Deerhurst specially, and his remarks are, by his +permission, here quoted, with one or two slight verbal alterations: + +"The Plan shows that in its last Saxon form it was a two-towered +church of like plan to the church at Dover, on the Castle Hill. The +central tower has gone, but the western one remains, and is a very +remarkable building. The plan of the church shows the side walls of +the nave black as still existing, which in fact they do, but only the +upper parts of them. They are carried by arcades of thirteenth century +work. These may take the place of earlier ones, and the church may +have had aisles at its first building. If it had, I suspect that it +lost them as Brixworth did, and was without when the east part of the +church was put into the form shown on the plan. That seems to have +been about the beginning of the eleventh century, but it is certain +that there is earlier work in the west end and in the tower, and +probable that there also is in the side walls of the nave. The +presbytery was round-ended and wide-arched, as at Worth, and there is +an arch in the east wall of the south transept leading to an altar +place beyond. In the corresponding position on the other side (_i.e._, +in the north transept) is a doorway which has led to some chamber +outside. + +"The openings from the tower to the transepts on the floor lines are +very small doorways, but there is an arch higher up on each side which +looks as if it might have opened from an upper floor or gallery.[31] + + [Illustration: PLAN OF DEERHURST PRIORY CHURCH BEFORE THE + CONQUEST. + _By J.T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A., from "The Archæological + Journal."_] + +"To the end of the Saxon time it was usual to make living-rooms in the +towers and roofs of the churches, but the evidence of it is clearest +in the fore-buildings of the early monastic churches. That at +Deerhurst gives more points than are found together in any other +single monument, but the parallels of all, except the division of the +two lower stories of the tower, may be found elsewhere, and nearly all +at Wearmouth and Brixworth. + +"Here is a section of the tower of Deerhurst looking north, with later +mediæval work left out, and indications given of missing parts, of +which those that remain supply the evidence. + + [Illustration: THE TOWER. + _From "The Archæological Journal."_] + +"The tower is considerably larger from east to west than from north to +south, and on the ground and second stories is divided into two +unequal parts, the eastern being the larger. The eastern division has +formed the usual porch of entrance from the fore-court, with an arch +eastwards towards the church, and two small doorways north and south +from the covered walks of the fore-court. These doorways were +destroyed in the thirteenth century, or later, when the walls were cut +away and pointed arches as wide as the chamber itself inserted. On the +west, an arch rather lower than that towards the church leads to the +western division, which was not the baptistery, but a sort of +vestibule to it. The baptistery itself stood, in the usual way, west +of the tower and in the midst of the fore-court. A doorway of the +thirteenth century now fills up the arch between it and the tower, +which gives us the latest date up to which it can have stood. + +"Ascent to the upper part of the tower must have been by wooden stairs +or ladders in the western division. The western room on the second +story probably had no use except as a landing. It received only a +borrowed light from the baptistery, which equalled in height two +stories of the tower. The eastern room was entered by a door from the +other. It has windows on the north and south sides, and a triangular +opening towards the church on the east. In the same wall, towards the +north side, is the doorway which led to the gallery in the church, and +which, I think, is an insertion of the tenth century or later. + +"The third stage is now divided, but was originally one room, and +that, as appears by the treatment of its details, an important one. I +have suggested that it may have been used as a night quire. On the +east is the very remarkable two-light window towards the church. There +are windows in the middle of the north and south walls, and close by +each is a round-headed recess very like those on the walls of the +crypt at Ripon, and, I believe, like them, intended to hold lights. + +"In the west wall is a doorway now towards space, but originally +leading to an attic in the gable above the baptistery. This room +cannot have been very convenient, but the treatment of its door-case +marks it as one of some importance. Perhaps it was the abbot's room. + +"Only part of the fourth stage remains, but enough to show that it was +a single room like the one below; and on the east side, where the wall +remains higher than elsewhere, is a doorway which led up one or two +steps into the space between the ceiling and the roof of the nave. +This seems to point to that loft having been used as the general +dormitory. + +"The tower must have gone up at least one more story, where the bells +would hang, but that has all been replaced by later work. + +"One reason for believing that the church at Deerhurst had aisles and +lost them is that on each side of the nave in the Saxon wall, above +the thirteenth century arches, is a three-cornered window like that +from the second stage of the tower to the church, and looking as if it +had served as a sort of squint from some chamber outside, which +chamber is more likely to have been an attic in the roof of an aisle +than anything else. If any such others existed at Deerhurst, there +must have been separate access to them from the church or from +outside, as they could not be reached from the tower." + + +THE MONASTIC BUILDINGS. + +The chief remaining portion of the domestic buildings runs parallel +with the wall on the right hand of the path leading from the gate in +the churchyard to the west entrance of the church, and must have +formed the east side of the larger cloister, as the corbels for the +penthouse roof still exist in the walls, as they also do on the south +wall of the church. Two doors into the cloister from the church, one +at either end of the south aisle, have been blocked up. + +The other sides of the cloister, which have entirely disappeared, +probably comprised on the south side a refectory, and on the west side +perhaps the Prior's apartments and a dormitory or infirmary. The +humbler domestic buildings were probably to the east of the block +composed of the church; and a smaller cloister, or at any rate a +smaller quadrangle of buildings may have existed to the east of the +present block now inhabited as a farm. + +These farm buildings, which measure 68 feet 9 inches by 26 feet, with +walls 30 inches in thickness, are probably late fourteenth or early +fifteenth century, but contain many later modifications. There is a +large upper room near the church with certainly a fifteenth century +panelled ceiling, added to the existing open roof. This roof has a +quatrefoil opening, through which it was possible to see what was +taking place in the hall below. + +Below this room (used as a granary) is a cellar three steps below the +ground-floor level, with a Norman shaft, introduced from some other +part of the buildings, to strengthen the floor above. + +The present parlour, when in use as a hall, seems to have had two +entrances on the south side, one of which, now blocked, serves as a +small pantry. + +The north wall of these buildings contains an early fifteenth century +two-light window, upon which the other windows seem to have been +modelled. The south wall contains two windows, one of two lights, the +lower one four. The east side is the most interesting from the +presence of a reticulated window, similar to one at Clevedon Court, +Somerset. This one originally measured 7 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 9 +inches, but has been carried up 3 feet higher. + +Near to this window, on the east, a wing has been rebuilt on the site +of older buildings, with old materials re-used. + + [Illustration: _Photo. Dr. Oscar Clark._ + FOURTEENTH CENTURY WINDOW.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] In 1339 the Priory had license given to it to hold two fairs +annually, each to last three days, outside the precincts. They were to +be held "_in inventione et in exaltatione Crucis_." + +[30] The tomb of Sir Bryan de Stapleton and Cecilia Bardolph at Ingham +(1438) has a dog upon it. His name is "_Jakke_." + +[31] The plan shows parts which now exist only in the form of +foundations below ground. They are taken from a plan made in 1860 +under the direction of Mr. Slater the architect, who was then carrying +out considerable alterations in the church. It is now in the +collection of the Society of Antiquaries. The southern apse was not +found by Mr. Slater, but is put in on the authority of Dr. J.H. +Middleton, who found evidence of it.--J.T.M. + + + + +THE SAXON CHAPEL. + + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + THE SAXON CHAPEL.] + +About eighty yards or so from the Church of St. Mary at Deerhurst was +discovered in 1885 in property known as _Abbot's Court_, a second +Saxon building. It was proved, after careful examination, that this +was a chapel, and the discovery of this fact threw considerable light +upon the inscribed stone in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, which had +been removed thither in 1675, bearing the inscription-- + + +-----------------------------------------+ + | [cross] ODDA DVX IVSSIT HANC | + | REGIAM AVLAM CONSTRVI | + | ATQVE DEDICARI IN HONO- | + | R[=E] [=S] TRINITATIS PRO ANIMA GER | + | MANI SVI ÆLFRICI QVE DE HOC | + | LOCO ASS[=V]PTA. EALDREDVS VERO | + | E[=P][=S] QVI EAND[=E] DEDICAVIT II IDI | + | BVS A[=P][=L], XIIII AVT[=E] ANNOS REG | + | NI EADWARDI REGIS ANGLOR[=V]. | + +-----------------------------------------+ + +_I.e._ to say in English: "[Symbol: cross] Duke Odda ordered this +Royal Hall to be built and dedicated to the honour of the Holy Trinity +for the soul of his brother Ælfric which was taken up from this place. +Bishop Ealdred it was who dedicated the same on the 12th April in the +14th year of the reign of Edward, King of the English." + + [Illustration: _From "The Archæological Journal."_] + +This stone, of which a facsimile has been erected in this Saxon +chapel, was for many years assumed to refer to the larger church at +Deerhurst, but as soon as the smaller chapel was discovered, it was +seen that the inscription could only refer to that building. The +finding of a second stone, the dedication slab of an altar, in a +chimney-stack, also seemed to confirm the idea that the building, with +its nave, its chancel arch, and its chancel, was the chapel dedicated +in 1056 by Earl Odda. + + [Illustration] + +The dedication stone has been mutilated by being converted into the +topmost portion of a window, and the inscription admits of two +interpretations. What remains is here shown. This may mean "_In +honorem sanctæ Trinitatis hoc altare dedicatum est_," or, as Mr. +Micklethwaite suggests, "_In honorem Sancti Petri[32] apli (apostoli) +hoc altare dedicatum est._" + +The chapel consists of a nave 25 feet 6 inches in length by 15 feet 10 +inches in breadth, and a chancel 14 feet by 11 feet 3 inches, entered +by a round-headed arch 6 feet 6 inches in width and 10 feet in +height.[33] + +The jambs of this curious arch are nearly 28 inches and the imposts +nearly 10 inches in thickness. The latter are chamfered and moulded +rudely with two hollows. The arch is distinctly horse-shoe-shaped, and +on the nave side has a square label merging into the abacus, while the +chancel side has none. The doorways were two in number, opposite to +each other, in the north and south walls. Of the latter only traces +remain. The north door was blocked when the chapel was discovered, but +is now opened to give means of access to the building. Only half the +doorway is original. + + [Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ + CHANCEL ARCH IN THE SAXON CHAPEL.] + +It is a doubtful point how the chancel was lighted, as there is no +trace of a window in the old portion of the east wall, while the rest +of this wall and the south wall were Tudor alterations. The north wall +contains a sixteenth century window. + +In the north-east corner of the chancel is an Early English bracket of +beautiful work, for the presence of which it is difficult to account, +unless the chapel were in use in the thirteenth century. + +The walls of the nave were originally 17 feet high, as compared with +15 feet for the chancel portion. There were also two windows in the +nave opposite to each other. That in the north wall has been altered; +that in the south wall is very curious and interesting. It is splayed +both inside and out, from an opening 3-½ × 2-½ feet, with a sill 10 +feet 6 inches above the level of the ground. The arch is of long, thin +slabs of stone, inserted in mortar with wide joints, in some cases two +inches in thickness. + +A ladder gives access to what was the floor above, when the chapel was +divided into two floors for domestic occupation. + +Externally the chapel measures 46 feet by 21 feet, the walls being on +an average 30 inches thick. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] The property even then belonged to the Abbey of St. Peter at +Westminster. + +[33] "Most small English churches were built on a plan which is purely +'_Scottish_,' all through the Saxon time and beyond it. There are +scores of them all over the country. The smaller church at Deerhurst, +built in the middle of the eleventh century, will serve for an +example. Note its small square presbytery and narrow arch. The church +at Kirkdale, near Kirby Moorside, is a contemporary dated building of +like form, but rather larger size" (J.T. Micklethwaite in _Arch. +Journal_, vol. liii.). + + + + +INDEX TO TEWKESBURY ABBEY + + +Abbey church purchased by the town, 15. + +Abbots, list of, 101. + +Aisles of Nave, 47-51. + +Altar, 74. + +Ambulatory, 51. + +Arcading, Early English, 57. + +Arms of the Abbey, 101. + +Aula regia, Deerhurst, 4. + + +Battle of Tewkesbury, 14. + +Bell-tower, detached, 16, 33. + +Bosses of vault of nave, 42, 43. + of St. Edmund's Chapel, 60. + + +Chantries, 83. + +Chapels and Chantries: + Fitz-Hamon, 88. + Lady (Early English), 30, 57, 58. + Norman, 69. + St. Edmund, 60, 95. + St. Eustatius, 13, 29, 30. + St. Faith, 63. + St. James, 55. + St. John Baptist (?), 64. + St. Margaret, 58. + Trinity, 91. + Warwick, 83. + +Chapter House, 34. + +Choir, interior, 71. + +Clare, Gilbert de (I), 9, 80. + Gilbert de (II and III), 10, 79, 80. + +Clarence vault, 62. + +Cloister, 34. + +Consecration of the Abbey, 7. + +Cotes, Abbot, 96, 102. + +Craik (Mrs.), monument of, 67. + +Cranbourn and Tewkesbury, 5, 6. + + +Despenser monument, 90. + +Despensers, The, 10. + their graves, 81. + +Dimensions, 129. + +Dissolution, the, 14. + +Doorway from cloister, 49. + + +Edward, Prince of Wales, grave of, 78. + +Eustatius, St., chapel of, 13, 29, 30. + + +Fitz-Hamon, Robert, 6, 7. + + +Font, 20, 43. + +Foundation of the Abbey, 4, 6. + + +Gateway, Abbey, 24. + +Giraldus, Abbot, 6, 7, 101. + + +Hugh, Earl (of Mercia), 5. + + +Lady Chapel, supposed, 30, 57. + Eastern, 37, 63. + +Lectern, 44. + + +Masons' marks, 41. + +Monastic buildings, 24. + +Morris, William, 21. + + +Nave, interior, 39. + + +Odda, 4. + +Organs, 97-100. + + +Parapet of apse, 36. + +Plate, silver, 100. + +Porch, north, 30. + +Pulpit, 44. + + +Registers, 100. + +Restoration, 20-22. + +Robert I, Abbot, 7. + +Robert, first Earl of Gloucester, 8. + +Roof of nave, 42. + + +Screen, choir, 45. + +Sedilia, 75. + + +Tiles, encaustic, 76, 101. + +Tomb in north aisle of nave, 48. + of Sir Guy de Brien, 59, 93. + Duke of Clarence, 62. + Abbot Cheltenham, 65, 95. + Abbot Alan, 67, 97. + +Tower, 18, 30. + Interior, 53. + +Transept, north, 51. + +Transept, south, 68. + +Triforium, 41. + + +Vault of Nave, 42. + of Choir, 73. + +Vestry, 36, 65. + + +Wakeman, Abbot, 95, 102. + Cenotaph, so called, 95. + +Warwick, Duke of, his grave, 79. + Countess of, 11. + +West front, 32. + window, 17, 33, 46. + +Windows, north aisle, 47. + south aisle, 49. + Choir, 76. + + + + +INDEX TO DEERHURST PRIORY + + +Aisle, north, 112. + south, 111. + + +Brasses, 113. + + +Choir, 115. + +Denis, St., Abbey granted to, 106. + +Dissolution, 107. + + +Eton, Priory granted to, 107. + +Exterior, 108. + + +Font, 114. + + +Interior, 108. + + +Monastic buildings, 121. + + +Nave, 108. + + +Plan, original, 117. + + +Saxon chapel, 123-126. + + +Tower, central, 116. + western, 108, 119. + + [Illustration: THE PRIORY CHURCH AND ITS DOMESTIC BUILDINGS AS + NOW EXISTING.] + + [Illustration: PLAN OF THE ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. MARY, + TEWKESBURY.] + + +DIMENSIONS OF TEWKESBURY ABBEY. + + Ft. In. + +Total Length (exterior) 331 0 +Total Length (interior) 311 1 +Breadth of West End (exterior) 80 0 + +NAVE: + Length 170 0 + Breadth 71 0 + Height of Vaulting 58 6 + Height of Piers 30 8 + Diameter of Piers 6 3 + +Total Length of Transepts North to South 122 4 + +CHOIR AND PRESBYTERY: + Total Length 103 2 + Breadth 33 0 + +TOWER: + Height to top of Pinnacles 148 3 + +WEST WINDOW: + Extreme Height 65 0 + Breadth 34 0 + +Area 25,110 square feet + + * * * * * + +CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. +TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page xi: FitzHamon replaced with Fitz-Hamon | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of +Tewkesbury, by H. J. L. J. 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