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diff --git a/38274.txt b/38274.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d23324 --- /dev/null +++ b/38274.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5466 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ecclesiastical Curiosities, by Various + +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: Ecclesiastical Curiosities + +Author: Various + +Editor: William Andrews + +Release Date: December 11, 2011 [EBook #38274] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ECCLESIASTICAL CURIOSITIES *** + + + + +Produced by David Wilson + + + + + + + + +ECCLESIASTICAL CURIOSITIES. + + + + + [Illustration: _From a Photo by A. H. Pitcher, Gloucester._ + PORCH, GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL.] + + + + +Ecclesiastical +Curiosities + + +Edited by +William Andrews + + +LONDON: +WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C. + +1899. + + + [Illustration: William Andrews & Co + The Hull Press] + + + + +Preface. + + +This volume is on similar lines to some of my previously published +works, and I trust it will be equally well received by the public and +the press. + + William Andrews. + +The Hull Press, + _December 1st, 1898._ + + + + +Contents. + + PAGE + The Church Door. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. 1 + + Sacrificial Foundations. By England Howlett 30 + + The Building of the English Cathedrals. By the Rev. + Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. 46 + + Ye Chappell of Oure Ladye. By the Rev. J. H. Stamp 76 + + Some Famous Spires. By John T. Page 101 + + The Five of Spades and the Church of Ashton-under-Lyne. + By John Eglington Bailey, F.S.A. 113 + + Bells and their Messages. By Edward Bradbury 119 + + Stories about Bells. By J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S. 133 + + Concerning Font-Lore. By the Rev. P. Oakley Hill 145 + + Watching-Chambers in Churches. By the Rev. Geo. S. + Tyack, B.A. 153 + + Church Chests. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. 161 + + An Antiquarian Problem: The Leper Window. By William + White, F.S.A. 183 + + Mazes. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. 186 + + Churchyard Superstitions. By the Rev. Theodore Johnson 206 + + Curious Announcements in the Church. By the Rev. R. + Wilkins Rees 216 + + Big Bones Preserved in Churches. By the Rev. R. Wilkins + Rees 230 + + Samuel Pepys at Church. 244 + + + + +Ecclesiastical Curiosities. + + + + +The Church Door. + +By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. + + +That first impressions have no small influence in moulding the opinions +of most people can scarcely be denied; and therefore in our estimate of +the architectural value of a church the door is an element of some +importance. A shabby and undignified entrance raises no expectations of +a lofty and solemn interior; and that interior must be emphatically +fine, if we are not to read into it some of the meanness of its portal. +On the other hand, though the church be but plain and simple--so that +it lack not a measure of the dignity which may well accompany +simplicity--our thoughts will be raised and fitted to find in it +something worthy of its high purpose, if we have been prepared by +passing through a noble porch, and beneath a doorway that speaks itself +the entrance to no ordinary dwelling. + + [Illustration: DOOR AT CROWLE CHURCH.] + +In primitive times the approach to a church must have been full of +dignity, the worshippers being warned, by successive gates and doors, of +the sacredness of the building which they were about to enter. Eusebius +gives us a full account of a splendid church built at Tyre by Paulinus, +from which we may gather the plan on which such buildings were erected +in the primitive ages, when the means were forthcoming, and no +opposition from the heathen world prevented. + +The whole church at Tyre and its precincts were enclosed within a wall, +at the front of which was a stately porch, known as the "great porch," +or the "first entrance." Passing through this the worshipper entered the +courtyard, or _atrium_, round which ran a covered portico, or cloister, +and in the centre of which was a fountain, or cistern, of water. +Opposite the "great porch" was the door into the church itself; at Tyre +there were (as in many of our cathedrals) three such doors, a large one +in the centre, flanked by smaller ones at some distance along the wall. +These opened into a vestibule, or ante-temple, from which admittance was +gained into the nave of the church by yet another door or gate. + +Each of the spaces formed by these several barriers had its special use. +Within the _atrium_ all the worshippers washed their hands as a +preparation, both literal and emblematic, for assisting in the sacred +mysteries; here, too, penitents under censure for the most flagrant sins +remained during the divine offices, and besought the prayers of their +brethren as they passed on to those holier courts, from which for a time +they were themselves excluded. Within this open courtyard, also, as in a +modern churchyard, burials were sometimes permitted. The portico beyond +the second entrance was the place for the "hearers," that is for those +who were not yet sufficiently instructed in the faith to be allowed to +be present except at the reading of the Scriptures and the sermons +(these were catechumens in their noviciate and the heathens and Jews), +and also for those Christians who were degraded temporarily to the same +position as a penance for some sin. Beyond this portico, the nave was +still further divided for the separation of different orders of +penitents; so that the faithful in possession of all their privileges +had quite a number of doors or gates through which to pass before +reaching that place, immediately outside the apse, or chancel, which it +was their right to occupy. + +In order that the several classes of persons attending church might be +kept strictly within those portions of the building which were assigned +to them, a special order of door-keepers existed in the Church. The keys +of the church were solemnly delivered to these _ostiarii_, and they were +accounted to form the lowest in rank of the minor orders. The simple +words of the commission, uttered by the bishop to the _ostiarius_, were, +"Behave thyself as one that must give an account to God of the things +that are kept under these keys." Such was the formula prescribed by the +fourth Council of Carthage (398 A.D.), and found in the Roman ritual of +the eighth century. This order of clergy was almost confined to the +west, however; we find traces of its existence at one time at +Constantinople, but for the most part the deacons guarded the men's +entrance, and sub-deacons or deaconesses the women's, in the east. + + [Illustration: WEST DOOR, HOLY TRINITY, COLCHESTER.] + +In the earliest English churches the entrance was of a very simple +nature; for the artistic skill of the people was small, and their ideals +were unambitious. The buildings consisted of a nave without clerestory, +and a chancel; the door being placed in the centre of the western wall. +A curious example of such a door meets us at Holy Trinity, Colchester, +although in this case it gives admittance not into the nave directly, +but through the ancient tower. This tower, the oldest part of the +church, has been constructed of the fragments of buildings older still; +the Roman bricks of the ruined city of Camulodunum having been used to +form it. In the western side is a narrow doorway, contained by two +square shafts with very simple capitals, and having a triangular head +with an equally simple moulding by way of drip-stone. The date is +supposed to be between 800 and 1000 A.D. A church perhaps yet older is +that of S. Lawrence at Bradford-on-Avon, which has a good claim to be +the veritable structure reared by S. Aldhelm in the first years of the +eighth century. Here there is a northern porch of unusual size in +proportion to the rest of the building; the entrance to which is by +means of an arched doorway, tall and narrow. The narrowness of some of +these ancient doorways is remarkable. At Sowerford-Keynes is one, now +built up, which, though nearly nine feet high, is but 1 foot 9 inches +wide at the springing of the arch, widening towards the base to 2 feet +51/2 inches. The jambs are of "short and long" work, and the abacus has a +very simple zig-zag moulding. The arch itself is not built up, but +carved out of one stone, which is cut square on the upper side and +scooped into a parabolic curve on the lower. A double row of cable +moulding decorates it. This, which has been called "one of the most +characteristic specimens of Saxon architecture in England," was the +northern entrance to the church. Another instance of a western door of +simple design is supplied by Crowle, or Croule, in north Lincolnshire. +Here we meet with a rectangular doorway, the top of which is formed of +one long stone, on which is some antique carving and a fragment of a +runic inscription.[1] Above this is a tympanum filled with +diamond-shaped stones of small size. + + [Footnote 1: See a full account of this stone in "Bygone + Lincolnshire,"--Vol. I, William Andrews & Co.] + +With the rise of the so-called Norman style of architecture the doors of +our churches took a handsomer form; and as the churches themselves were +now formed on a larger and nobler plan, more than one entrance was often +required. The usual door for the people was now commonly placed at the +south side, except in churches connected (as were so many of our +cathedrals) with monastic foundations. In this latter case the south +side was generally occupied by the cloisters and other conventual +buildings, and the people's door was therefore placed upon the north +side. At this period, too, the church-porch begins its development; for, +although porches in a strict sense were at any rate not usual, the +door-way deeply sunk in the massive wall and protected by three, four, +or even more concentric arches, suggests the more fully developed +shelter of the porch. Of doors of this kind any of our older +abbey-churches will supply adequate, and often splendid, examples. The +great north door of Durham Cathedral, and the smaller, but not less +beautiful doors into the cloisters there, are fine instances. The west +and north doors of the little cathedral of Llandaff supply examples in +another class of building; and even small and obscure parish churches +are sometimes dignified with the possession of an entrance full of the +massive solemnity of this Norman work. The village church of Heysham, on +Morecambe Bay, has a south door well worthy of mention in this +connection; and the Lincolnshire church already cited, Crowle, has an +interesting doorway of this kind. + +As art progressed in Christendom, and exhibited its growing force +especially in the churches, the entrances thereto shared in the +increasing splendour of the whole. The mouldings of the arches and the +pillars, the elaboration of capitals and bases, all showed the evidence +of devotion guided by taste and skill. And often something more than +mere decoration was attempted; the opportunity was seized to add +instruction, and figures of saints and angels, or complete scenes from +scriptural or ecclesiastical story, filled the expanse of the tympanum +or the niches of the columns. About the twelfth century, also, it became +customary to divide the main entrance into two by means of a pillar, or +a group of pillars; the two-leaved door being thus made symbolical of +the two natures of Christ, of Whom, as Durandus tells us, it is itself +the emblem, "according to that saying in the Gospel, 'I am the Door!'" + +The Continent presents some splendid examples of these decorated +porticoes. The cathedral of Strasburg, preserved as by a series of +miracles in spite of every danger that can assail a building, fire, +lightning, earthquake, and cannonade, has a very grand west entrance; +its tall doors set within a number of receding arches, and the +sharply-pointed gable which crowns them flanked and crested with +tapering pinnacles. The French artists of the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries were unrivalled in the beauty and wealth of statuary with +which they adorned their churches, and not least their doors. "The glory +and the beauty" of the great porch at Amiens has been set forth fully by +Ruskin, who has woven into one wonderful whole the meaning of the +statues, which, like "a cloud of witnesses," throng the western front. +But Amiens is not alone; S. Denis, Paris, Sens, Angouleme, Poictiers, +Autun, Chartres, Laon, Rheims, Vezelay, Auxerre, and other cathedrals +are all magnificent in this respect. The principal entrance to Seville +cathedral is flanked by columns upholding niches filled with figures of +saints and angels, while the tympanum contains a carving of the entrance +of the Saviour into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. In the island of +Majorca, the south door-way of the cathedral of Palma is exceptionally +beautiful. The statue of the Blessed Virgin crowns the centre column, +and above is the Last Supper. A record of the architect of this splendid +piece of work is preserved in an old account book of the cathedral: "On +January 29th, 1394, Master Pedro Morey, sculptor, master artificer of +the south door, which was begun by him, passed from this life. Anima +ejus requiescat in pace. Amen." The entrance in the west front is also a +fine one, and is inscribed, "Non est factum tale opus in universis +regnis." + + [Illustration: WEST DOOR, HIGHAM FERRERS CHURCH.] + +Although in England we cannot match the gorgeousness of detail exhibited +by the flamboyant architecture of some of the examples above noticed, +yet we too have instances of which we may well be proud. The western +front of Peterborough cathedral, over the partial renovation of which +there has recently been so much controversy between architects and +antiquaries, has been pronounced to be "the grandest portico in Europe;" +but this has reference to the whole facade rather than to the door-way +in itself. If our subject allowed of our taking so wide a view, the +splendid west fronts of Exeter, York, and others of our minsters, would +demand a place of honour in the list. Gloucester cathedral has a +dignified porch over the south door, in which are the figures of a +number of saints. The west door of Rochester is also interesting; its +decorated Norman arches are richly carved, and enclose a tympanum +covered with characteristic sculpture. Of a different type is the +graceful west door at Ely, whose pointed arches are upheld by delicately +cut shafts, the tympanum over the twin doorways being pierced by a +double trefoil within a vesica. The parish church of Higham Ferrers has +double western doors, separated by a bold shaft, above which is a niche +(now unoccupied) for a statue. The tympanum, anciently divided by this +figure, has five medallions on each side filled with sculptured scenes +from the New Testament, round which runs a scroll of conventional +foliage. The neighbouring churches of Rushden and Raunds have also good +double-leaved doors. To take one instance from the Northern Kingdom, +S. Giles's, Edinburgh, has a dignified west entrance. Many of the better +examples of our modern churches have admirable porticoes, of which one +example must suffice. All Saints' Church, Cheltenham, has double doors +within receding arches; the tympanum has the figure of Our Lord +enthroned in glory surrounded by the saints, and the central shaft and +the side pillars contain other statues. + +There is occasionally found in a cathedral, or other large church, a +porch of unusual depth, known as a Galilee. Here, during Lent, those +assembled who were bidden to do public penance; the coming of Maundy +Thursday being the signal for their admission once more into the church +itself. Ely has a western Galilee entered by an arch, divided by a +central pillar, and filled in the upper part with tracery. Lincoln has a +Galilee, deep and dignified in plan, with a vaulted roof. Another +English cathedral so provided is that of Chichester; and among parish +churches the Galilee is found at Boxley, Llantwit, Chertsey, and +S. Woolos. + +Of door-ways which, independently of considerations of date, size, or +form, are noteworthy for their sculpture, there are many that ought to +be mentioned. At Lincoln, for instance, we have a south door carved with +a Doom, or Last Judgment, wherein we see the effigy of the Divine Judge +surrounded by the dead rising from their opening graves. The north door +at Ely, the whole of the surrounding stone-work of which is elaborately +carved, is surmounted by the figure of the Lord enthroned within a +vesica, while adoring angels kneel before Him. At Rougham, in Norfolk, +the west door is surmounted by a crucifix, round which runs the +emblematic vine. Founhope church, Hereford, has in the tympanum of the +arch the Madonna and the Holy Child, a grotesque with birds and beasts +surrounding the figures. At Elkstone, Gloucestershire, the south +door-way, a specimen (like the one at Founhope) of Norman work, has some +interesting sculptures. In the centre of the tympanum is Christ +enthroned, with the apocalyptic symbols of the evangelists around Him; +beyond these on the right hand of Christ is the Agnus Dei with the flag, +an emblem of the Resurrection, while on the left is a wide open pair of +jaws, known as a Hell-mouth: above all the Father's Hand is seen in the +attitude of benediction. Elstow church has sculptured figures above the +north door; not within the containing arch, but within a separate arched +space divided from the door-way by a string-course. Haltham church, in +Lincolnshire, has some exceedingly curious designs on the tympanum of +the south door; they are mostly cruciform figures within circles, and +are arranged with strange irregularity. The north door of Lutterworth +church has over it a fresco painting. + + [Illustration: NORTH DOOR, ELSTOW CHURCH.] + +Several of the churches in Brussels have door-ways which, though +otherwise not remarkable, are noteworthy from the beauty of the carving +of the central post dividing the two leaves of the door. The church of +Notre Dame de Bon-Secours has the effigy of its patron saint crowned and +robed, bearing the Infant Saviour; below are the emblems of pilgrimage, +wallets, gourds, and cockle-shells. The church of La Madeleine has a +crucifix with a weeping Magdalene at its foot. The old church of +S. Catharine has its patroness on the door-post, and the Chapelle +Sainte-Anne similarly has S. Anne holding the Blessed Virgin by the +hand. Foliage or scrolls in each case fill up the rest of the column, +which is of wood, and in some instances has been painted. + +So far, the doorways have occupied our attention; something must, +however, be said of the doors themselves. The usual form of the old +church door is familiar enough to all of us; the massive time-stained +oak, the heavy iron nails that stud it, and the long broad hinges that +reach almost across its full breadth. There is dignity in the very +simplicity of all this; but not seldom far more ornate examples may be +found. + +The most elementary form of decoration consists in merely panelling the +door, as is the case in numberless instances; occasionally the panels +themselves are carved, as on the "Thoresby Door," at Lynn, or the door +of S. Mary's, Bath; or tracery, as in a window, is introduced, as at +Alford, Lincolnshire. These are but a few of the many instances which +might be cited. Another striking form of decoration is produced by +hammering out the long hinges into a design covering, more or less, the +surface of the door. The west door at Higham Ferrers, already noticed, +has on each of its leaves three hinges, which are formed into wide +spreading scrolls. Sempringham Abbey has very fine beaten ironwork +spread over almost the entire face of the door. A more curious example +is afforded by Dartmouth church; where a conventional tree with +spreading branches covers the door, and across this the hinges are laid +in the form of two heraldic lions. The date is added in the middle of +the work, 1631. + + [Illustration: DOOR AT LYNN CHURCH.] + +In the decoration of the church door the mediaeval blacksmith proves +himself in a thousand instances, at home and abroad, to have been an +artist. Free from the hurry of the present age, he could work according +to that canon of Chaucer's, + + "There is no workman + That can both worken well and hastilie, + This must be done at leisure, perfectlie." + +With him it was not the hand only that wrought, nor even the hand and +head; but the soul within him gave life to both. Of the contrast between +old ways and new, few examples are more striking than the hinges of the +door at S. Mary Key, Ipswich; where we have a simple but graceful scroll +of ancient date, and a clumsy iron bar of to-day, lying side by side. +For a beautiful design in beaten iron the doors of Worksop Priory may +claim to have not many rivals. + + [Illustration: SOUTH PORCH, SEMPRINGHAM ABBEY.] + +The most splendid doors in the world are probably the bronze doors of +the Baptistery at Florence. Other bronze doors there are on the +Continent, and all of them fine; Aix-la-Chapelle, Mayence, Augsburg, +Hildesheim, Novgorod, all have doors of this kind; at Verona, too, in +the church of San Zeno, are ancient examples, whereon are set forth in +panels a number of subjects from Holy Scripture and from the life of the +patron saint. All, however, fall into insignificance beside the "Gates +of Paradise," as the Florentines proudly call their doors. + + [Illustration: DOOR AT DARTMOUTH CHURCH.] + +In 1400 the Gild of Cloth Merchants of Florence decided to make a +thank-offering for the cessation of the plague; and the form which it +took was a pair of bronze doors for the baptistery of the church of +S. Giovanni, to correspond with some already there. These earlier ones +are the work of Pisana and his son Nino, from designs by Giotto; the +creation of the new ones was thrown open to competition. Many +competitors appeared, of whom six were asked to submit specimens of +designs for the panels; and, finally, when the choice lay between two +only, the elder, Brunellesco, himself advised that the commission should +be entrusted to Ghiberti, a youth then barely twenty years of age. The +doors when completed contained twenty scenes from the Saviour's life, +together with figures of the four Latin Doctors and the four +Evangelists, set in a frame of exquisite foliage. This splendid work was +surpassed by a second pair of doors subsequently made for the same +place. In this there are ten panels setting forth scenes from the Old +Testament history; and the frame is adorned with niches and medallions +in which are placed some fifty allegorical figures and portrait heads. +It was of these last doors, which were only completed in Ghiberti's +mature age, that no less a judge than Michael Angelo said, "They might +stand as the gates of Paradise itself." + +Aix-en-Provence claims that her doors are as peerless as examples of the +wood-carver's art, as are the Florentine ones as types of the +metal-worker's. They have been preserved, it is said, from the sixth +century, and are still wonderfully fresh and delicate. There are on each +door six upper panels filled with figures of the twelve Sybils; and +below one large panel, occupied, in one case, by effigies of the +prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and in the other by Ezekiel and Daniel. +The carving is only occasionally exhibited, two masking doors having +been cleverly contrived to protect and cover the real ones. + +Many of the doors of our cathedrals and great abbey churches have +knockers, often of very striking designs. These as a rule indicate that +the places in question claimed the right of sanctuary; and the knocker +was to summon an attendant, or watcher, to admit the fugitive from +justice at night, or at other times when the entrance was closed. A +curious head holding a ring within its teeth forms the knocker at Durham +cathedral; a lion's head was not an uncommon form for this to take, as +at Adel, York (All Saints), and Norwich (S. Gregory's); a singularly +ferocious lion's head knocker may be seen at Mayence. + +The deep porch which we so frequently see over the principal door of the +church was formerly something more than an ornament, or even a +protection; it was a recognized portion of the sacred building, and had +its appointed place in the services of the Church. Baptism was +frequently administered in the church porch, to symbolize that by that +Sacrament the infant entered into Holy Church. There are still relics of +the existence of fonts in some of our porches, as at East Dereham, +Norfolk. When baptism was thus administered in the south porch, it was +also customary, so it is alleged, to throw wide open the north door; +that the devil, formally renounced in that rite, might by that way flee +"to his own place." The font now usually stands just within the door. In +the pre-reformation usage of the Church the thanksgiving of a woman +after child-birth was also made in, or before, the church porch; and +concluded with the priest's saying, "Enter into the temple of God, that +thou mayest have eternal life, and live for ever and ever." The first +prayer-book of Edward VI. ordered the woman to kneel "nigh unto the +quire door:" the next revision altered the words "to nigh unto the place +where the table standeth;" and from Elizabeth's days the rubric has +simply said indefinitely "a convenient place." + + [Illustration: _From a Photo by Albert E. Coe, Norwich._ + ERPINGHAM GATE, NORWICH.] + +The rubric at the commencement of the Order of the Solemnization of Holy +Matrimony according to the Sarum use began also in this way: "Let the +man and woman be placed before the door of the church, or in the face of +the church, before the presence of God, the Priest, and the People"; at +the end of the actual marriage, and before the benedictory prayers which +follow it, the rubric says, "Here let them go into the church to the +step of the altar." Chaucer alludes to this usage when in his +"Canterbury Tales" he says of the wife of Bath-- + + "She was a worthy woman all her live, + Husbands at the church dore had she five." + +Edward I. was united to Margaret at the door of Canterbury Cathedral on +September 9th, 1299, and other mediaeval notices of the custom occur. + +The first prayer-book of Edward VI. introduced an alteration which has +been maintained ever since; the new rubric reading that "The persons to +be married shall come into the body of the Church," just as it does in +our modern prayer-books. In France the custom survived as late as the +seventeenth century, at least in some instances, for the marriage of +Charles I., who was represented by a proxy, and Henrietta Maria was +performed at the door of Notre Dame in Paris. In Herrick's "Hesperides" +is a little poem entitled "The Entertainment, or, _A Porch-verse_ at the +marriage of Mr. Henry Northly and the most witty Mrs. Lettice Yard." It +commences:-- + + "Welcome! but yet no entrance till we blesse + First you, then you, then both for white success." + +This was published in the midst of the great Civil War, and seems to +show that the custom of marriage at the church porch was still +sufficiently known, even if only by tradition, to make allusions to it +"understanded of the people." + +Burials sometimes took place in the church porch, in those days when +interment within the building was much sought after. + +Ecclesiastical Courts were frequently held in church porches, as at the +south door of Canterbury Cathedral; schools were occasionally +established in them; and here the dower of the bride was formally +presented to the bridegroom. This last-named use of the porch is +illustrated by a deed of the time of Edward I., by which Robert Fitz +Roger, a gentleman of Northamptonshire, bound himself to marry his son +within a given time to Hawisia, daughter of Robert de Tybetot, and "to +endow her at the church door" with property equal to a hundred pounds +per annum. We still have evidence of the fact that the church door was +of old considered the most prominent and public place in the parish in +the continued use of it as the official place for posting legal notices +of general interest, such as lists of voters, summonses for public +meetings, and so forth. + +There are often in connection with ancient ecclesiastical foundations +doors and gateways which are of great interest, though they can scarcely +be called church doors. Of this class are the entrances to the chapter +houses of cathedrals, many of which are very fine. At York, for +example, the chapter-house, which proudly asserts in an inscription near +the entrance that, "as the rose is among the flowers, so is it among +buildings," has a doorway not unworthy of the beautiful interior. + +The gateway which gave admittance to the sacred enclosure of the +abbey--the garth or close round which were ranged the monastic +buildings--is in many cases an imposing and elaborate piece of +architecture. Bristol has an interesting Norman gateway, and that at +Durham is massive and impressive, as are all the conventual remains +there. Norwich is specially rich in this respect. The Erpingham Gate was +the gift of Sir Thomas Erpingham, who died in 1420, and whom the King, +in Shakespere's play of "King Henry V." (Act iv. sc. I), calls a "good +old knight;" S. Ethelbert's Gate was built at the cost of Bishop +Alnwick, who ruled the see from 1426 to 1436. + +But to speak of these things is to wander from our present subject, and +even that is too wide to be dealt with fully in a paper such as this. +The legends and traditions of the church porch might occupy many a page, +while we gossiped over the mystic rites of S. John's Eve or of All +Hallow E'en; or while we told how Ralph, Bishop of Chichester, barred +his cathedral door with thorns in his anger against the King and his +friends; or how the skins of marauding Danes have in more than one +instance been nailed as leather coverings to the doors of English +churches. Enough, however, has probably been said to show the wealth of +interest which may often be found to hang about the old church porch, in +which the village church may often be as rich as the great cathedral or +the stately abbey. + + + + +Sacrificial Foundations. + +By England Howlett. + + +In early ages a sacrifice of some sort or other was offered on the +foundation of nearly every building. In heathen times a sacrifice was +offered to the god under whose protection the building was placed; in +Christian times, while many old pagan customs lingered on, the sacrifice +was continued, but was given another meaning. The foundation of a +castle, a church, or a house was frequently laid in blood; indeed it was +said, and commonly believed, that no edifice would stand firmly for long +unless the foundation was laid in blood. It was a practice frequently to +place some animal under the corner stone--a dog, a wolf, a goat, +sometimes even the body of a malefactor who had been executed. + +Heinrich Heine says:--"In the middle ages the opinion prevailed that +when any building was to be erected something living must be killed, in +the blood of which the foundation had to be laid, by which process the +building would be secured from falling; and in ballads and traditions +the remembrance is still preserved how children and animals were +slaughtered for the purpose of strengthening large buildings with their +blood." + + "... I repent: + There is no sure foundation set on blood, + No certain life achiev'd by other's death." + + King John, Act iv., Sc. 2. + Shakespeare. + +To many of our churches tradition associates some animal and it +generally goes by the name of the Kirk-grim. These Kirk-grims are of +course the ghostly apparitions of the beasts that were buried under the +foundation-stones of the churches, and they are supposed to haunt the +churchyards and church lanes. A spectre dog which went by the name of +"Bargest" was said to haunt the churchyard at Northorpe, in +Lincolnshire, up to the first half of the present century. The black dog +that haunts Peel Castle, and the bloodhound of Launceston Castle, are +the spectres of the animals buried under their walls. The apparitions of +children in certain old mansions are the faded recollections of the +sacrifices offered when these houses were first erected, not perhaps +the present buildings, but the original halls or castles prior to the +conquest, and into the foundations of which children were often built. +The Cauld Lad of Hilton Castle in the valley of the Wear is well known. +He is said to wail at night: + + "Wae's me, wae's me, + The acorn's not yet + Fallen from the tree + That's to grow the wood, + That's to make the cradle, + That's to rock the bairn, + That's to grow to a man, + That's to lay me." + +Afzelius, in his collection of Swedish folk tales, says: "Heathen +superstition did not fail to show itself in the construction of +Christian churches. In laying the foundations the people retained +something of their former religion, and sacrificed to their old deities, +whom they could not forget, some animal, which they buried alive, either +under the foundation, or within the wall. A tradition has also been +preserved that under the altar of the first Christian churches a lamb +was usually buried, which imparted security and duration to the edifice. +This was an emblem of the true church lamb--the Saviour, who is the +corner stone of His church. When anyone enters a church at a time when +there is no service, he may chance to see a little lamb spring across +the choir and vanish. This is the church-lamb. When it appears to a +person in the churchyard, particularly to the grave-digger, it is said +to forbode the death of a child that shall be next laid in the earth." + +The traditions of Copenhagen are, that when the ramparts were being +raised the earth always sank, so that it was impossible to get it to +stand firm. They therefore took a little innocent girl, placed her on a +chair by a table, and gave her playthings and sweetmeats. While she thus +sat enjoying herself, twelve masons built an arch over her, which when +completed they covered over with earth, to the sound of music with drums +and trumpets. By this process they are, it is said, rendered +immovable.[2] + + [Footnote 2: "Thorpe's Northern Mythology," vol. II., p. 244.] + +It is an old saying that there is a skeleton in every house, a saying +which at one time was practically a fact. Every house in deed and in +truth had its skeleton, and moreover every house was designed not only +to have its skeleton, but its ghost also. The idea of providing every +building with its ghost as a spiritual guard was not of course the +primary idea; it developed later out of the original pagan belief of a +sacrifice associated with the beginning of every work of importance. +Partly with the notion of offering a propitiatory sacrifice to mother +earth, and partly also with the idea of securing for ever a portion of +soil by some sacrificial act, the old pagan laid the foundation of his +house in blood. + +The art of building in early ages was not well understood, and the true +principles of architecture and construction were but little appreciated. +If the walls of a building showed any signs of settlement the reason was +supposed to be that the earth had not been sufficiently propitiated, and +that as a consequence she refused to carry the burden imposed upon her. + +It is said that when Romulus was about to found the city of Rome he dug +a deep pit and cast into it the "first fruits of everything that is +reckoned good by use, or necessary by nature," and before the pit was +closed up by a great stone, Faustulus and Quinctilius were killed and +laid under it. The legend of Romulus slaying his twin brother Remus +because he jumped the walls of the city to show how poor they were, +probably arises out of a confusion of the two legends and has become +associated with the idea of a sacrificial foundation. To the present day +there is a general Italian belief that whenever any great misfortune is +going to overtake the city of Rome the giant shadow of Remus may be seen +walking over the highest buildings in the city, even to the dome of St. +Peter's. + +Sacrifice was not by any means confined to the foundations of buildings +only. A man starting on a journey or on any new and important work would +first offer a sacrifice. A ship was never launched without a sacrifice, +and the christening of a vessel in these days with a bottle of wine is +undoubtedly a relic of the time when the neck of a human being was +broken and the prow of the vessel suffused with blood as a sacrificial +offering. + +In our own time the burial of a bottle with coins under a foundation +stone is the faded memory of the immuring of a human victim. So hard +does custom and superstition die that even in the prosaic nineteenth +century days we cannot claim to be altogether free from the bonds and +fetters with which our ancestors were bound. + +Grimm, in his German Mythology, tells us: "It was often considered +necessary to build living animals, even human beings, into the +foundations on which any edifice was reared, as an oblation to the earth +to induce her to bear the superincumbent weight it was proposed to lay +upon her. By this horrible practice it was supposed that the stability +of the structure was assured as well as other advantages gained." Of +course the animal is merely the more modern substitute for the human +being, just in the same manner as at the present day the bottle and +coins are the substitute for the living animal. In Germany, after the +burial of a living being under a foundation was given up, it became +customary to place an empty coffin under the foundations of a house, and +this custom lingered on in remote country districts until comparatively +recent times. + +With the spread of Christianity the belief in human sacrifice died out. +In 1885, Holsworthy Parish Church was restored; during the work of +restoration it was necessary to take down the south-west angle of the +wall, and in this wall was found, embedded in the mortar and stone, a +skeleton. The wall of this part of the church had settled, and from the +account given by the masons it would seem there was no trace of a tomb, +but on the contrary every indication that the victim had actually been +buried alive--a mass of mortar covered the mouth, and the stones around +the body seemed to have been hastily built. Some few years ago the +Bridge Gate of the Bremen city walls was taken down, and the skeleton of +a child was found embedded in the foundations.[3] + + [Footnote 3: "Strange Survivals," Baring Gould.] + +The practice of our masons of putting the blood of oxen into mortar was +no doubt in the first instance associated with the idea of a sacrifice; +however this may be, the blood had no doubt a real effect in hardening +the mortar, just the same as treacle, which has been known to be used in +our days. The use of cement when any extra strength is needed has put +aside the use of either blood or treacle in the mixing of mortar. + +It is a curious instance of the wide spread of the belief in blood as a +cement for ancient buildings that Ala-ud-din Khilji, the King of Delhi, +A.D. 1296-1315, when enlarging and strengthening the walls of old Delhi, +is reported to have mingled in the mortar the bones and blood of +thousands of goat-bearded Moghuls, whom he slaughtered for the purpose. +A modern instance is furnished by advices which were brought from Accra, +dated December 8th, 1881, that the King of Ashantee had murdered 200 +girls, for the purpose of using their blood to mix with the mortar +employed in the building of a new palace. + +A foundation sacrifice is suggested by the following curious discovery, +reported in the _Yorkshire Herald_ of May 31st, 1895: "It was recently +ascertained that the tower of Darrington Church, about four miles from +Pontefract, had suffered some damage during the winter gales. The +foundations were carefully examined, when it was found that under the +west side of the tower, only about a foot from the surface, the body of +a man had been placed in a sort of bed in the solid rock, and the west +wall was actually resting upon his skull. The gentle vibration of the +tower had opened the skull and caused in it a crack of about +two-and-a-half inches long. The grave must have been prepared and the +wall placed with deliberate intention upon the head of the person +buried, and this was done with such care that all remained as placed for +at least 600 years." + +The majority of the clergy in the early part of the Middle Ages +doubtless would be very strongly imbued with all the superstitions of +the people. The mediaeval priest, half believing in many of the old pagan +customs, would allow them to continue, and it is both curious and +interesting to notice how heathenism has for so long a period lingered +on, mixed up with Christian ideas. + +It is said that St. Odhran expressed his willingness to be the first to +be buried in Iona, and, indeed, offered himself to be buried alive for +sacrifice. Local tradition long afterwards added the still more ghastly +circumstance that once, when the tomb was opened, he was found still +alive, and uttered such fearful words that the grave had to be closed +immediately. + +Even at the present day there is a prejudice more or less deeply rooted +against a first burial in a new churchyard or cemetery. This prejudice +is doubtless due to the fact that in early ages the first to be buried +was a victim. Later on in the middle ages the idea seems to have been +that the first to be buried became the perquisite of the devil, who thus +seems in the minds of the people to have taken the place of the pagan +deity. Not in England alone, but all over Northern Europe, there is a +strong prejudice against being the first to enter a new building, or to +cross a newly-built bridge. At the least it is considered unlucky, and +the more superstitious believe it will entail death. All this is the +outcome of the once general sacrificial foundation, and the lingering +shadow of a ghastly practice. + +Grimm, in his "Teutonic Mythology," tells us that when the new bridge at +Halle, finished in 1843, was building, the common people got an idea +that a child was wanted to wall up in the foundations. In the outer wall +of Reichenfels Castle a child was actually built in alive; a projecting +stone marks the spot, and it is believed that if this stone were pulled +out the wall would at once fall down. + +Bones, both human and of animals, have been found under hearthstones of +houses. When we consider that the hearth is the centre, as it were, and +most sacred spot of a house, and that the chimney above it is the +highest portion built, and the most difficult to complete, it seems easy +to understand why the victim was buried under the hearthstone or jamb of +the chimney. + +There is an interesting custom prevailing in Roumania to the present day +which is clearly a remnant of the old idea of a sacrificial foundation. +When masons are engaged building a house they try to catch the shadow of +a stranger passing by and wall it in, and throw in stones and mortar +whilst his shadow rests on the walls. If no one passes by to throw a +shadow the masons go in search of a woman or child who does not belong +to the place, and, unperceived by the person, apply a reed to the shadow +and this reed is then immured. In Holland frequently there has been +found in foundations curious looking objects something like ninepins, +but which in reality are simply rude imitations of babies in their +swaddling bands--the image representing the child being the modern +substitute for an actual sacrifice. Carved figures of Christ crucified +have been found in the foundations of churches. Some few years ago, when +the north wall of Chulmleigh Church in North Devon was taken down there +was found a carved figure of Christ crucified to a vine.[4] + + [Footnote 4: "Strange Survivals," Baring Gould.] + +A story is told that the walls of Scutari contain the body of a victim. +In this case it is a woman who is said to have been built in, but an +opening was left through which her infant might be passed in to be +suckled by her as long as any life remained in the poor creature, and +after her death the hole was closed. + +The legend of Cologne Cathedral is well known. The architect sold +himself to the devil for the plan, and gave up his life when the +building was in progress; that is to say, the man voluntarily gave up +his life to be buried under the tower to ensure the stability of the +enormous superstructure, which he believed could not be held up in any +other way. + +It is well known that the extinguished torch is the symbol of departed +life, and to the present day the superstitious mind always connects the +soul with flame. It was at one time a common practice to bury a candle +in a coffin, the explanation being that the dead man needed it to give +him light on his way to Heaven. It is extremely doubtful, however, +whether this was the original idea, for most probably the candle in the +first instance really represented an extinguished life, and was thus a +substitute for a human sacrifice which, in the pagan times, accompanied +every burial. The candle, in fact, took the place of a life, human or +animal, and in many instances candles have been found immured in the +walls and foundations of churches and houses. + +Eggs have often been found built into foundations. The egg had, of +course life in it--but undeveloped life, so that by its use the old +belief in the efficacy of a living sacrifice was fully maintained +without any shock to the feelings of people in days when they were +beginning to revolt against the practices of the early ages. + +Sir Walter Scott speaks of the tradition that the foundation stones of +Pictish raths were bathed in human blood. In the ballad of the "Cout of +Keeldar" it is said: + + "And here beside the mountain flood + A massy castle frowned; + Since first the Pictish race, in blood, + The haunted pile did found." + +From Thorpe's "Northern Mythology" we learn that in Denmark, in former +days, before any human being was buried in a churchyard, a living horse +was first interred. This horse is supposed to re-appear, and is known by +the name of the "Hel-horse." It has only three legs, and if anyone meets +it it forebodes death. Hence is derived the saying when anyone has +survived a dangerous illness: "He gave death a peck of oats" (as an +offering or bribe). Hel is identical with death, and in times of +pestilence is supposed to ride about on a three-legged horse and +strangle people. + +The belief still lingers in Germany that good weather may be secured by +building a live cock into a wall, and it is thought that cattle may be +prevented from straying by burying a living blind dog under the +threshold of a stable. Amongst the French peasantry a new farmhouse is +not entered upon until a cock has been killed and its blood sprinkled in +the rooms.[5] + + [Footnote 5: "Strange Survivals," Baring Gould.] + +It is probable that sacrificial foundations had their origin in the idea +of a propitiary offering to the Goddess Earth. However this may be, it +is certain that for centuries, through times of heathenism, and well +into even advanced Christianity, the people so thoroughly associated the +foundation of buildings with a sacrifice that in some form or other it +has lingered on to the present century. Now in our own day the laying +the foundation of any important building is always attended with a +ceremony--the form remains, the sacrifice is no longer offered. For +ecclesiastical buildings, or those having some charitable object, a +religious ceremony is provided, while for those purely secular the event +is marked by rejoicings. We cannot bring ourselves to pass over without +notice the foundation laying of our great buildings, and who shall +venture to say that superstition is altogether dead, and that we are +free from the lingering remains of what was once the pagan belief? + + + + +The Building of the English Cathedrals. + +By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. + + +Of all the sins of the nineteenth century, the one which most militates +against its attainment of excellence in art is its impatience. A work +has been no sooner decided on, than there is a clamour for its +completion. Our cathedrals were for the most part reared in far other +times, and are therefore admirable. Growing with the stately, deliberate +increase of the ponderous oak, they speak of days when art was original, +sincere, patient, and therefore capable of great deeds; original, not in +extravagance or eccentricity, but in the realization of the natural +development of style, advancing from grace to grace, from the perfection +of solidity to the perfection of adornment, by an unforced growth; +sincere, in its confidence of its own capacity for fulfilling its +appointed end, in its grasp of the possibilities in its materials, in +its choice of the true, rather than the easy, method of working; and +patient, finally, in its contentment to do in each age a little solidly +and well, rather than a great deal indifferently, in its aim at +artistic perfection in preference to material completeness. Thus it is +that none of our cathedrals are the work of one age, save those of +Salisbury and London, and even they have details which they owe to +succeeding times. + +The above words are not intended to imply that our mediaeval builders +made no mistakes. The brief review of some of their work will show us +proof to the contrary; but the mistakes were rare exceptions. If, for +instance, a captious critic turns to Peterborough, and points us to the +defective foundations, which have recently required the rebuilding of +the central tower, and the supposed necessity of reconstructing the west +front, all that the case will prove is that our great monastic +architects' work was not always absolutely eternal. "So there was +jerry-building in those days too!" someone exclaims, with a note of +triumph at the dragging down of the great ideals of the past to the +level of the paltriness of the present. If such be the case, we reply, +there were indeed giants in those days, the very "jerry building" of +which rides out the storms of well-nigh seven centuries before revealing +any fatal weaknesses. + +In considering these splendid buildings, of which the present century +has happily proved itself no unappreciative heir, it will be of interest +to devote a few lines to the means which were employed to raise funds +for their construction. Several illustrations of the methods employed in +the case of cathedrals and other churches have come down to us. The +story of the foundation of the new buildings at Crowland Abbey in 1112, +exhibits an outburst of popular enthusiasm which irresistibly recalls +the free gifts of the Hebrew people for the building of the first +temple. "The prayers having been said and the antiphons sung," says +Peter Blesensis, vice-chancellor under Henry II., "the abbot himself +laid the first corner-stone on the east side. After him every man +according to his degree laid his stone; some laid money, others writings +by which they offered their lands, advowsons of livings, tenths of sheep +and other church tithes; certain measures of wheat, a certain number of +workmen or masons, etc. On the other side, the common people, as +officious with emulation and great devotion, offered, some money, some +one day's work every month till it should be finished, some to build +whole pillars, others pedestals, and others certain parts of the +walls." + +Indulgences, remitting so many days' penance, were sometimes issued to +encourage the gifts of the faithful. Thus in the time of Henry VIII. a +church brief was issued soliciting help towards the repair of Kirby +Belers Church, in Leicestershire, part of which runs as follows:--"Also +certayne patriarkes, prymates, &c., unto the nombre of sixtie-five, +everie one of theym syngularly, unto all theym that put their helpyng +handes unto the sayd churche, have granted xl dayes of pardon; which +nombre extendeth unto vij yeres and cc dayes, _totiens quotiens_." +Sometimes, by way of penance itself, a fine was imposed, which was +devoted to a local building fund. Gilbert, bishop of Chichester, in +certain constitutions promulgated in 1289 rules that every priest in the +diocese who shall be convicted of certain scandalous sins shall "forfeit +forty shillings, to be applied to the structure of Chichester +Cathedral." In modern money this fine would amount to something like +L40. Walter, Bishop of Worcester, also ordained in 1240 that beneficed +priests who dressed unclerically should be fined to the extent of a +tenth of their annual revenue for the benefit of the building of his +cathedral. A yet earlier order concerning laity as well as clergy was +issued by the Witan at Engsham, in Oxfordshire, in the year 1009, which +decides that "if any pecuniary compensation shall arise out of a mulct +for sins committed against God, this ought to be applied, according to +the discretion of the bishop," to one of several pious purposes, of +which two are "the repair of churches, and the purchase of books, bells, +and ecclesiastical vestments." + +Another way of raising money was to exact a contribution from church +dignitaries, as a kind of "entrance fee," on their accepting preferment. +William Heyworth, bishop of Coventry, (a see now owning Chester as its +mother city), decreed in 1428 that "every canon on commencing his first +residence should pay a hundred marks towards the structure of the +cathedral, the purchase of ornaments," and other similar expenses. + +In 1247, Bishop Ralph Neville, of Chichester, having died indebted to +some of the canons of the cathedral, left by will a sufficient sum to +discharge his obligations. But these ecclesiastical creditors decided +that it should be devoted to "the completion of a certain stone tower, +which had remained for a long time unfinished." The same canons bitterly +complained because the Pope had ordained that all vacant prebends +throughout the country should remain unoccupied for a year, in order +that their revenues might be devoted to the erection of the minster at +Canterbury; whereas they not unnaturally felt that the needs of their +own cathedral had the first claim upon them. + +Those churches which contained the shrines of popular saints drew, for +the repair or enlargement of the fabric, no small revenue from the +offerings of pilgrims. The eastern part of Rochester Cathedral was paid +for by the moneys deposited at the tomb of S. William of Perth; and the +large sums given by visitors to the shrine of S. Thomas of Canterbury +materially assisted in keeping the building in repair. + +Unquestionably the sums needed for rearing these massive piles were in +most cases given, either in money or in kind, by the faithful; sometimes +the princely offerings of a few wealthy men, sometimes the countless +small gifts of the multitude, have become transmuted into tapering +spire, or ponderous tower, "long-drawn aisle and fretted vault." The +poor, in some instances, as we have seen, voluntarily gave their +labour; in others the hands of the monks themselves raised and cut the +sculptured stones. + +In most cases the cathedrals which we now possess are not the first that +have occupied their sites. Some humble building, often reared by one of +the pioneers of the faith, was in the majority of instances the shrine +that first consecrated the spot to the service of God. + +It was in 401, during the visit of Germanus and Lupus, bishops of +Auxerre and of Troyes, to aid in exterminating the Pelagian heresy, that +the earliest shrine of S. Alban, a simple wooden oratory, was erected at +Verulam; S. Deiniol built a little stave-kirk, or timber church, at +Bangor about 550; and Kentigern, some ten years later, raised the first +religious establishment at Llanelwy, or S. Asaph; while where now the +ruined Cathedral of Man rears its weather-beaten gables and sightless +windows at Peel, tradition says S. Patrick consecrated S. Germain first +bishop of the Southern Isles in 447. + +Many causes, however, combined to sweep away not only all traces of +these earliest churches, but also in many instances more than one more +solidly constructed successor. The growth of architectural taste and +skill made men impatient of the rudeness of their forefathers' simple +fanes; in a surprising number of instances the lightning-flash or the +raging fire destroyed the buildings wholly or in part. The cathedrals of +the north felt more than once the shock of the Border wars; and civil +strife, or religious fanaticism, wrought mischief in many others. Thus +it has come to pass that the centuries have seen four cathedrals in +succession at Hereford, at Gloucester, and at Bangor; and three at a +multitude of places, Canterbury, London, Winchester, Peterborough, +Lichfield, Oxford, and half-a-dozen more. + +The incursions of the Danes were answerable for the destruction of +several of the earlier foundations. Canterbury had a cathedral, the most +ancient part of which had been erected, according to tradition, by +Lucius, the first Christian King of the Britons, and afterwards restored +by S. Augustine. To this, about the year 740, Cuthbert, the archbishop, +added a chapel for the interment of the occupants of the see; and Odo, +in the tenth century, enlarged and re-roofed it. But in the days of +saintly Alphege, in 1005, the Danish invaders fell upon the city, +making of the church a ruin, and of its bishop a martyr. A similar fate +befell the metropolitan church of the north. On the site where Paulinus +baptized King Edwin and his two sons into the Christian faith a little +wooden oratory was raised, over which ere long Edwin commenced to build +a stone church, which S. Oswald, his successor, completed. This, after +having been beautified by S. Wilfred, was burnt about 741, but re-built +shortly afterwards by Archbishop Egbert. It was this latter building +which fell before the Danes. + +At Ely the religious house founded by S. Etheldreda, which was the +precursor of the modern cathedral, was burnt by the same marauders about +870. Rochester suffered in the same way; and no trace of the church +built, so says the Venerable Bede, by King Ethelbert himself now +remains. Peterborough has been particularly unfortunate in this respect. +The first building here was begun by Peada, King of Mercia, in the +seventh century. In the year 870 the Danes, on one of their forays, +burnt church and monastery to the ground, and massacred the abbot and +all his monks. In 971 King Edgar raised the place once more from its +desolation, but again it was seriously damaged, though not absolutely +destroyed, by the sea-kings shortly before the Norman Conquest. Oxford +was partially burnt in 1002 owing to the same people, but in a different +way. A number of Danes took refuge in the tower of S. Frideswide to +escape the senseless and brutal massacre organised on S. Brice's day in +that year, and the English fired the structure rather than suffer their +prey to escape them. + +It will be convenient here, although it may take us in some cases away +from those primitive foundations which so far we have considered, to +glance at the other instances in which war has left its mark upon our +cathedrals. Hereford, lying near the Welsh border, felt the storm and +stress of warfare in 1056. Originally founded at some unknown date in +very early English times, the church at Hereford was rebuilt about 830 +by a noble Mercian, named Milfrid, and was repaired, if not actually +renewed, by Athelstan the bishop, who came to the see in 1012. Ten years +before the Norman Conquest, however, Griffith, prince of Wales, at the +head of a combined host of Welsh and Irish, crossed the marches and +plundered and burnt the church and city. In the reign of Hardicanute +(1039-1041) the citizens of Worcester, having risen against the payment +of the ship-tax, were severely punished, a military force being sent to +occupy their city. So thoroughly did it carry out the work of inflicting +discipline on the malcontents, that the church, amongst other buildings, +was left in ruins. The original church at Gloucester was built in 681, +as part of a conventual establishment; this was destroyed, and, after an +interval, rebuilt by Beornulph, King of Mercia, sometime previous to +825. This church was looted by the Danes, but restored by S. Edward the +Confessor. In the year after the Conquest, Gloucester was occupied by +the Normans, whose entrance was not, however, accepted quite peaceably +by the citizens; and in the tumult the Cathedral was seriously injured +by the one or the other party. Exeter provides us with another case. +Here was a cathedral in early English days, which lasted until the time +of Bishop William Warelwast, who began the erection of a new one in +1112. During the stormy reign of Stephen, the city was held for Matilda +and had to stand a siege by the King, to the great damage of the still +unfinished church. To quote one further illustration only: Bangor, whose +wooden church was replaced by a stone one somewhere about 1102, suffered +grievously in the wars waged between Henry III. of England, and David, +Prince of Wales, an episode in which was the destruction of the +Cathedral. + + [Illustration: _From a photo by Albert F. Coe, Norwich_ + NORWICH CATHEDRAL.] + +The conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, had a vast +influence on the ecclesiastical buildings of the country. On the +continent art had advanced at a pace unknown in this island, and the +plain and massive churches scattered over the land must have seemed very +rude structures in the eyes of the prelates who came in the victor's +train. S. Edward the Confessor, with his Norman predilections, had no +doubt accustomed his courtiers to some aspects of foreign art, and +through his influence the so-called Norman architecture preceded the +Normans in the country; but such instances of it as were to be seen must +have been few, and probably confined to the southern counties. + +Scarcely had the Conqueror's throne been secured before his countrymen, +placed in the abbeys and sees of England, began to rebuild, on new and +grander plans, the churches under their charge. + +Lanfranc, who ascended the throne of S. Augustine in 1070, set himself +to the work of rebuilding Canterbury Cathedral, not contenting himself +with any enlargement or embellishment of the older fane, but making a +clean sweep of that, and beginning from the foundations. S. Anselm, and +the prior of the monastery, Ernulph, took up the work and enlarged upon +Lanfranc's design, pulling down and re-building the choir. Early in the +next century, namely in 1130, the new Cathedral, completed under the +supervision of Conrad, successor to Ernulph, was solemnly dedicated with +great pomp in the presence of the Kings of England and of Scotland. + + [Illustration: RIPON CATHEDRAL.] + +Meanwhile, Thomas of Bayeux, who became Archbishop of York in the same +year as that in which Lanfranc obtained his English see, was busy +rebuilding his Minster at York. William of Carilef commenced the +magnificent pile, forming one of the finest Norman churches in +existence, which crowns the Wear at Durham, in 1093; and Ralph Flambard +took up the work three years later, completing it in 1128. London was +deprived of its Cathedral by fire probably about 1088, and the work of +restoration was at once undertaken by Maurice, its Norman bishop. In +1079 Bishop Walkelyn began the erection of a cathedral church at +Winchester, in the place of the old Saxon building which had first been +founded on the conversion of King Cynegils, about 635. In all parts of +the land, east and west, north and south, the builders were at work, +rearing massive temples to the glory and honour of God. The chink of +chisel and the blow of hammer rang everywhere in the ears of the +eleventh century in England. Bishop Herbert Losinga laid the first stone +of Norwich Cathedral in 1096, at which time Remigius of Fescamp had been +some twenty years at work on that of Lincoln, and had passed away, +leaving the completion to others. The new Norman Cathedral of Hereford +was begun by Robert Losinga, who reigned as bishop from 1079 to 1096. +Abbot Simeon began to build the Minster at Ely about 1092; Worcester was +commenced by Wulfstan in 1084; five years later the foundation of +Gloucester was laid; and in 1091 S. Osmund consecrated the church of +S. Nicholas at Newcastle. Other cathedrals which were built, or +rebuilt, at about the same date include those of Carlisle, S. Albans, +Rochester, Chester, Lichfield and Oxford. + +Surely never was an age so enthusiastic in building! All these +cathedrals, many still remaining largely as their Norman builders left +them, most retaining many relics of their work, were commenced within +the space of two reigns of by no means great duration, lasting only from +1066 to 1100. + +The energy of the time was not, however, exhausted by the fervour of +this outburst. The twelfth century took up and vigorously prosecuted the +tasks handed on to it by the eleventh. + +Among cathedrals which were entirely, or almost entirely, rebuilt during +this century we have Chichester, Rochester, Peterborough, Lincoln, +Oxford, Bristol, Southwell, S. David's, Llandaff, and Ripon. In the +first of these a great part of the work was done twice over within this +period. Ralph de Luffa was bishop of the see when the cathedral was +consecrated in 1108; two fires, however, did such serious damage to this +building, the first in 1114, and the second in 1186, that it had +practically to be re-constructed, and was re-dedicated in the year +1199. The Cathedral at Rochester was largely re-built by John of +Canterbury between 1125 and 1137, and like Chichester suffered twice +during the century from the ravages of fire. Indeed, so frequently do we +find mention of conflagrations in the cathedrals in the early mediaeval +days, that it is quite obvious that William I. was fully justified in +taking such precautions against this enemy as the use of the curfew +involved. In more than one instance the cathedral went up in flames as +part only of a fire which destroyed a large portion of the town. + + [Illustration: SOUTHWELL MINSTER.] + +The undertaking of new work at Peterborough was the result of a similar +cause. In the year 1116 fire destroyed almost the whole church and +monastery, but in two years' time the re-erection had commenced, and was +continued throughout the remainder of the century. The choir was ready +for the resumption of the Divine offices in 1143, but the builders did +not reach the end of their labours until 1237. Re-construction was +necessitated at Lincoln by the occurrence of an earthquake in 1185, +following once more upon a fire which took place in 1141. The stone +vaulting and the western towers were undertaken by Alexander, bishop +from 1123 to 1147; and in 1192 S. Hugh of Avalon, who held the see from +1186 to 1203, began a thorough re-building of the pile. This work marks +an epoch in the progress of architecture in England, as in the choir of +S. Hugh we meet with the earliest examples of the use of the lancet form +of arch to which we can assign a known date. About the middle of this +century a new church, not yet advanced to the dignity of a cathedral, +was commenced at Oxford, and by the year 1180 it was sufficiently +advanced to allow of the translation of the relics of S. Frideswide to +their new shrine. In 1142 was founded the Abbey of Bristol, and its +church was consecrated on Easter Day, 1148, although the completion of +the buildings occupied the attention of the abbots for many years after. +Southwell Minster was also building during the first half of the twelfth +century; Peter de Leia, who became Bishop of S. David's in 1176, +commenced the erection of his cathedral four years later, following the +example of Arban, who entered upon the neighbouring see of Llandaff in +1107, and reared a mother church for his diocese. Finally, Ripon also +saw the masons busily at work almost through the century. First +Thurstan, Archbishop of York in 1114, began the enlargement of the +Abbey Church, and after him Archbishop Roger (1154-1181) entirely +rebuilt it. + +But the record of the churches re-built during this century by no means +exhausts the tale of work performed during that time. At Winchester, for +example, in 1107 the central tower fell, necessitating the building of a +new one. Lucy, bishop here from 1189 to 1205, erected a new Lady Chapel +and made other alterations. At Hereford, too, operations were going +forward almost throughout the century, the bishops Reynelm (1107-1115) +and Betun (1131-1148) being especially energetic in pressing them on; +and the closing years of this period saw the rearing of the eastern +transepts. At this time also the beautiful Galilee Chapel was added to +Durham Cathedral; Ely was consecrated in 1106, and towards the end of +the century received its central tower and other additions; and +S. Albans, moreover, had a facade built on its western front by John +de Cella. + +The chronicle of the damages by fire during the twelfth century is not +complete without mentioning that S. Paul's, London, which was +re-building during a large portion of that time, was injured by it in +1136; and the same foe destroyed the roof of Worcester Cathedral in the +early days of the century. + +The period which our rapid survey has so far covered embraces broadly +the eras of the Norman and of the so-called Early English architecture. +In the thirteenth century the Decorated Style came into being, and with +its rise arose also the desire for greater richness of ornament even in +those churches which had already, to all appearances, been completed. On +all hands, therefore, in this new century, we find the pulling down of +portions of the stern Norman work and the substitution of lighter and +more graceful designs. + +The great work of the thirteenth century, however, was begun before the +birth of the more florid style, and shows little trace of the dawning of +its influence. Salisbury Cathedral was begun in 1220, the work +commencing, as was usual, at the eastern end and advancing westward. The +whole was proceeded with continuously, and since its completion no +alteration of any importance has been made in it. Other cathedrals in +England exhibit in almost every case a conglomerate of several orders of +architecture, blended generally with great skill, but necessarily +lacking to some extent in unity of design in consequence. In Salisbury +we have one complete and splendid example of English architecture of the +best period, carried out from beginning to end with unbroken unity of +purpose. + +Other churches which then were, or were subsequently to become, +cathedrals, dating in their present form from the thirteenth century, +are those of Lichfield, Wells, Manchester, Bangor, and S. Asaph. + +A Norman church had been reared at Lichfield of which very few relics +have survived to the present day, a new building having been begun about +the year 1200, and the work of construction carried on for the major +part of the century, the west front being reached about 1275. Bishop +Joceline was the chief founder of the existing Cathedral at Wells, most +of the previous work having been taken down in his time, and the new +church solemnly dedicated by him in 1239. The Church at Manchester was +probably built about 1220, but the present building is of a later date. +The Cathedral at S. Asaph suffered from the great mediaeval enemy of such +foundations, fire, twice during this period. On the first occasion, in +1247, the troops of Henry III. of England must be held responsible for +the destruction wrought; on the second, in 1282, the outbreak was +probably accidental. Repairs, if not actual rebuilding, took place in +consequence of these injuries towards the end of the century. Bangor +Cathedral was probably also rebuilt about 1291. + +Fire played its old part throughout the century in providing work for +the ecclesiastical masons, in other instances besides that referred to +in the Welsh diocese. The choir at Carlisle was rebuilt probably about +1250 and the following years, but had scarcely been fully completed +before it fell in a fire which destroyed a large portion of the city. In +1216, S. Nicholas, Newcastle, was almost destroyed by the same fatal +agency. Worcester Cathedral was again burnt in 1202, and was rebuilt +between then and 1218 sufficiently to be re-dedicated; although the +retro-choir, the choir, the Lady Chapel, and some details were added at +a later time in the same century. + +Imperfections in the work of the preceding age were answerable for a +certain amount of loss and consequent re-construction (not seldom +actually a gain) in this. At Lincoln, for instance, the central tower +fell in 1237, and was replaced by the present one, which has been +described as one of the finest in Europe. The east end of Ripon had to +be rebuilt owing to the structure giving way in 1280; and in consequence +again of the fall of the tower, repairs had to be undertaken at +S. David's in 1220. + +The popular regard for Hugh, the sainted bishop of Lincoln, led to the +building of one of the most beautiful sections of that Minster, namely +the Angel-choir, erected as a worthy chapel for the shrine of S. Hugh, +between 1255 and 1280. At Hereford, the Lady Chapel was built about the +middle of this century; and at Ely, the presbytery and retro-choir at +about the same date; at Bristol, the elder Lady Chapel probably a little +earlier; at Southwell, the choir between 1230 and 1250; and the choir +also at S. Albans, in 1256. + +Several of our cathedral towers, moreover, besides that at Lincoln, date +from the thirteenth century. York, S. Paul's, Chichester and Gloucester, +all had the towers erected during this period. + +Passing on to the fourteenth century, we meet with the same wide-spread +activity, but it is expended now rather in additions and embellishments +to existing buildings than in actual re-constructions. At Ripon, the +Cathedral was partially burnt by the Scots in 1319, and later in the +century the tower was struck by lightning. At S. Alban's, part of the +nave fell in 1323, as did the tower at Ely in 1322. In each of these +cases repairs were of course rendered needful. More important works were +the rebuilding of the nave and transepts at Canterbury at the end of the +century (1378-1410), the erection of the Zouche Chapel at York about +1350, the addition of both the central and the western towers to Wells, +the spires to Peterborough, and the towers also to Hereford. + +The fifteenth century is specially marked by the growing popularity of +chantries and side chapels. We find them erected at this time at +Hereford and elsewhere; but little building on a large scale is done. In +several cases the vaulting of the roofs dates from this period, and a +good deal of internal carving in wood or stone was also done. Among the +latter we may note the high altar screen at S. Alban's, and the stalls +at Carlisle and Ripon. Of the former work, reference may be made to the +vaulting of part of the choir and transepts at Norwich. + +The sixteenth century is not a pleasant one to contemplate in connection +with our ancient cathedrals. Ignorance and fanaticism were then +beginning to show themselves in their treatment of the miracles of art +bequeathed to the ages, and soon became more obvious than culture or +reverence. This century saw the nave of Bristol taken down, the spires +removed from the towers of Ripon, and other precautions against a +threatened collapse; but steps were not taken to repair the losses thus +caused. And in view of the nameless horrors perpetrated within the +hallowed walls of churches and cathedrals, first by the extreme +reformers, and in the next century by the Puritans, in the name of +religion, it is only wonderful that so much that is beautiful still +survives. + +The one constructive work of the seventeenth century was, of course, the +building of the Cathedral of London, S. Paul's, in the place of that +"Old S. Paul's" which perished in the fire of 1666. This building shares +with Salisbury the credit of complete unity, but is unique among English +Cathedrals in being classical in style. However much more admirable the +Gothic style may be admitted to be for ecclesiastical purposes, +probably all will admit that the grandeur of St. Paul's grows upon one +the more familiar one becomes with it; and certainly no tower, or +collection of towers, could possibly dominate a vast city like London in +the way that Wren's splendid dome does. + +The eighteenth century witnessed, among other things, the removal of +most of the spires which down to that time had crowned the towers of +many of the cathedrals. Such was the case with Hereford and Wakefield; +the same thing was attempted at Lincoln in 1727, but popular tumult +saved the spires; only, however, until 1807, when they were removed. + +Of one work of construction the eighteenth century was also guilty; the +year 1704 gave birth to that abortion among English cathedrals known as +S. Peter's, Liverpool; with which, for nearly twenty years, the +population of one of the wealthiest cities in the empire has been +content! Something in the way of restoration was attempted in this +century, but it was for the most part done ignorantly, and no small part +of the restoration of the nineteenth century has consisted in undoing so +far as possible the work of the eighteenth. + +The present century has seen the commencement, on noble lines, of the +Cathedral of Truro; and the beautifying of not a few of our old +minsters, which had been stript almost bare by the destroyers of past +times. Happily, the guardians of these treasures of art and devotion +have for the most part been conscious of the greatness of their trust, +and the fabrics have been dealt with reverently and with judgment. +Amongst others, Bristol, Chichester, St. Albans, and Peterborough have +required more or less extensive measures of re-building. + + + + +Ye Chappell of Oure Ladye. + +By the Rev. J. H. Stamp. + + +The sacred buildings designated by this title were dedicated to the +service of God, in mediaeval times, in honour of the Mother of our Lord. +The veneration of S. Mary, the Blessed Virgin, had been growing up in +the Church from the fifth century, when the reality of the incarnation +of the Son of God was first called into question by men who professed +and called themselves Christians. The defence of the true doctrine +brought clearly into view the high dignity which God had conferred on +the humble maiden of Nazareth, and so reverence for her memory, as the +most blessed among women, grew into veneration for her person as the +Mother of God. The faithful of the Middle Ages were, therefore, not +content with simply retaining her name at the head of the list of +saints, but raised the human mother to a position which was almost, if +not quite, equal to that of her Divine Son. They conferred on her the +title of "Our Lady," and hailed her as "The Queen of Heaven," just as +they were accustomed to address the Saviour as "Our Lord" and worship +Him as "The King of Heaven." This title still survives in the terms +which are so familiar to us, namely, "Lady Day" and "Lady Chapel." + +We see evidences of this growth of the _cultus_ of the Blessed Virgin in +the erection and elaborate ornamentation of Lady Chapels throughout +Christendom. It does not seem probable, however, that our pious +forefathers in the ancient Church of England intended to encourage +Mariolatry, by the introduction of these buildings into this country; +for it is a singular and significant fact that in Spain, where this +heretical and superstitious practice chiefly prevailed, Lady Chapels are +very rare, because the church itself has been made to serve the purpose. +English Churchmen, in their desire to honour the Mother of Christ, were +careful to avoid this evil example. The erection of smaller buildings, +and the setting apart, for the purpose, of one of the side aisles rather +than the sanctuary itself, tend to show that they did not assign to the +Blessed Virgin that _divine_ honour which was due only to her Son and +Lord. The usual position of the Lady Chapel, beyond the choir, has, +indeed, been considered as a proof that the honour paid to "Our Lady" +exceeded that which was rendered unto our Lord, since the altar +dedicated to her was set up beyond the High Altar in the most sacred +portion of the church, and, in that position, might be said to +overshadow it. But the usual situation of the Lady Chapel, at the east +end of the choir or presbytery, proves nothing of the kind. One +celebrated writer on the subject disclaims the idea in the following +words, "Poole principally objects to the position of the Lady Chapel at +the east end, 'above,' as he expresses it 'the High Altar.' Now we +believe the Lady Chapel to have occupied the place merely on grounds of +convenience, and not from any design--which is shocking to imagine--of +exalting the Blessed Virgin to any participation in the honours of the +Deity."[6] + + [Footnote 6: Durandus Symbol. lxxxviii.] + +It is true that the Lady Chapel was generally erected at the extreme +east end, or one of the aisles near the choir was used for the purpose, +because it was considered the most sacred part of the church next to the +sanctuary. It was erected at the east end of the Abbey Churches of +Westminster and S. Albans; in the Cathedral Churches of Winchester, +Salisbury, Chichester, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Wells, Hereford, +Chester and Manchester; at Christ Church, Hants, where there is a +chantry above, called S. Michael's Loft, which once served as the +Chapter House of the Priory, but in modern times has been converted into +a schoolroom; and also at the parish church of S. Mary Redcliffe, +Bristol, where it is situated over a thoroughfare, after the example of +several churches in Exeter. But the ecclesiastics and architects of the +Middle Ages did not consider themselves bound, by a hard and fast rule, +to set up the Lady Chapel at the east end. If an available site could be +found beyond the Choir the Chapel was erected in that position, +otherwise, the north aisle of the Church, or a convenient site near the +Choir, was utilised for the purpose. The building has been erected on +the north or south side of the Choir or Nave, and even at the west end +when deemed expedient. It was erected on the _north_ side at the +Cathedrals of Canterbury, Oxford, Bristol, and Peterborough; at the +Abbeys of Glastonbury, Bury St. Edmunds, Walsingham, Thetford, +Wymondham, Belvoir, Llanthony, Hulme, and Croyland, where there was a +second Lady Chapel with a lofty screen, in the south transept.[7] It is +on the _south_ side at Kilkenny and at Elgin Cathedral. It stands in a +similar position over the Chapter House at Ripon Minster. Sometimes it +was placed above the chancel, as in Compton Church, Surrey; Compton +Martin, Somerset; and Darenth, Kent; or over the porch, as at Fordham, +Cambs. At Ely Cathedral it is connected with the extremity of the north +transept. At Wimborne Minster it stands in the south transept, whilst at +Rochester Cathedral and at Waltham Abbey, Essex, it was erected at the +west of the south transept. At Durham Cathedral an attempt was made to +build a Lady Chapel at the east end, but owing, it is said, to the +supernatural intervention of S. Cuthbert, whose relics were deposited in +the Choir, the building was erected instead at the west end, where it +stands under the name of the Galilee Chapel. The original Lady Chapel at +Canterbury also stood in this unusual position, until the days of +Archbishop Lanfranc, 1070-1089, when it was removed and the present +building set up at the east end. The _aisles_ were also frequently used +as "ye Chappell of oure Ladye," as at Haddenham, Cambs. + + [Footnote 7: "Gough's History of Croyland. 1783."] + +The practice of dedicating Chapels to the Blessed Virgin was introduced +into this country during the twelfth century, shortly after the monastic +orders had gained the supremacy over the parochial clergy. These +buildings were generally founded not only to satisfy the spirit of the +age, which demanded the veneration of the Mother of our Lord, but also +to afford the necessary accommodation at the east end for the increased +number of clergy. The founders, moreover, hoped to secure an +augmentation of the revenues, by the offerings of the faithful at the +shrines of the new Chapels, as appears to have been the case at +Walsingham, Norfolk; All Hallows, Barking; and S. Stephen's, +Westminster. The building, in many instances, became the depository of +the relics of a saint. The Galilee Chapel at Durham, dedicated to +S. Mary the Virgin in 1175, contains the bones of the Venerable Bede, +the earliest historian of the Church of England, who died at +Jarrow-on-Tyne, on the eve of Ascension Day, A.D. 735. These relics +were translated, in 1370, from the tomb of S. Cuthbert, and placed in +the Chapel, in a magnificent shrine of gold and silver. The Lady Chapel +at Oxford contains the shrine of S. Frideswide, the daughter of the +founder of the convent, and its first prioress, whose relics were +translated from the north choir aisle in 1289. This Chapel is now called +the Dormitory, as the remains of several deans and canons have been laid +to rest within its walls. + +The Lady Chapel has frequently served as the mausoleum of saints, +princes, noblemen, and dignitaries of the Church. The stately and +magnificent edifice at Westminster, known as Henry the Seventh's Chapel, +was built for this purpose in 1502, by the first Tudor monarch, on the +site of the original Lady Chapel, erected by Henry III. in 1220. The +royal founder, his wife, and other royal personages now await the +resurrection in the tomb set up in this famous building. The Lady Chapel +at S. Mary's, Warwick, which is said to be the chief ornament of that +church, was also built as a tomb-house in 1443, by Richard Beauchamp, +Earl of Warwick. Their desire to rest in the chapel, dedicated to the +blessed Virgin, was closely associated with the idea which chiefly moved +our forefathers to erect these buildings. They had been taught to +believe in the invocation of saints, and were anxious to secure, for +themselves and their dear ones, the mediation and intercession of the +Mother of our Lord, whose influence with her Divine Son, they supposed, +was all prevailing. So they founded these chapels in her honour, and +solicited her good offices on their behalf by frequent services and +prostrations before her image, which occupied the place of honour above +"oure Ladye's Altar" crowned as the Queen of Heaven, and profusely +adorned with splendid jewels and exquisite embroidery. They believed, +moreover, that as she could succour the living, so she would prevail +with her Son on behalf of the dead. These sacred buildings were, +accordingly, used also as chantries, where masses were offered daily, +and the intervention of "oure Ladye S. Mary" was solicited to secure the +release of the souls of the faithful departed from the flames of +purgatory, through which, it was supposed, they must pass, to be +purified from all the defilements of their earthly course, and "made +meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." In frescoes on the +walls, and in paintings on the windows, the Virgin was represented, +interceding for the souls of the faithful as they came forth to +judgment. + +After the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII., and the suppression +of chantries by Edward VI., many of these buildings shared the fate of +the conventual churches to which they were attached. In some places the +Lady Chapel was left to decay, and disappeared in the course of a few +years, like that at Norwich, which fell into a ruinous condition as +early as 1569. In other localities it was allowed to stand until the +turbulent days of the Commonwealth, as at Peterborough, where it was +taken down to supply materials for the reparation of the Cathedral, +which had been greatly injured by Cromwell's soldiers. In several places +it was appropriated to other uses, and even divested of its sacred +character. The elegant chapel at Ely, erected 1321-49, and said to have +been one of the most perfect buildings of that age, was assigned at the +Reformation to the parishioners of Holy Trinity to serve as their Parish +Church, and is now called Trinity Church. The splendid specimen at +S. Albans was separated from the presbytery by a public thoroughfare, +which was made through the antechapel, and a charter of Edward VI. +transferred the sacred building to the authorities of the ancient +Grammar School, and it was used as a schoolroom until the restoration in +1870. At S. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, the Lady Chapel has also been used +for scholastic purposes, and at Waltham Abbey it has accommodated not +only parochial schools but public meetings and petty sessions. + +Among existing Lady Chapels, King Henry the Seventh's Chapel occupies +the first place for magnificence. The first Tudor monarch, in his +anxiety to make his peace with God before his death, and to commemorate +the union of the houses of York and Lancaster, determined to found a +chapel in honour of the blessed Virgin, "in whom," he declares in his +will, "hath ever been my most singulier trust and confidence, ... and by +whom I have hitherto in al myne adversities ever had my special comforte +and relief." He also made due provision for the celebration of masses +and the distribution of alms "perpetually, for ever, while the world +shall endure" for the welfare of his soul. The laying of the foundation +stone is recorded by the ancient chronicler as follows: "On the 24th +daie of January 1502/3 a quarter of an houre afore three of the clocke +at after noone of the same daie, the first stone of our Ladie Chapell, +within the monasterie of Westminster, was laid by the hands of John +Islip, Abbot of the same monasterie ... and diverse others."[8] After +its completion it was so universally admired, that Leland the antiquary +describes it as "_orbis miraculum_"--the wonder of the world. About +fifty years after its dedication the services, for which it was +specially designed by its royal founder, were brought to an end by the +Act of Parliament which suppressed the chantries throughout the kingdom, +and then followed three centuries of gross neglect which reduced it to +"an almost shapeless mass of ruins," as it was described in 1803. Four +years later, in 1807, Dean Vincent obtained a parliamentary grant for +the restoration of the building, and the necessary repairs were +completed in 1822. The Chapel still retains much of its ancient +splendour, and the elegant and elaborate ceiling is a marvel of +architectural skill. It has been used since the year 1725 for the +installation of the Knights of the Bath, and their banners are suspended +over the old carved _misereres_ or _misericordes_ of the monks. + + [Footnote 8: Holinshed.] + +"Ye Chappell of oure Ladye" at S. Alban's is also a most elegant +specimen of the buildings, dedicated to the blessed Virgin. The +foundations appear to have been laid by John de Hertford, abbot from +1235 to 1260. But at the election of Hugh de Eversdone, in 1308, the +walls had only reached the level of the underside of the window sills, a +height of ten feet above the ground. During his rule he laboured so +assiduously to complete the work, that in a short time he finished it. +The building, at its dedication, was so rich in detail that it is +described by ancient writers as "a magnificent sight." The work of Abbot +Hugh included the exquisite carvings in stone, which represent about +seventy different specimens of forms in nature. During its use as a +Grammar School, from 1553 to 1870, the interior suffered much injury +from the hands of the schoolboys, and was allowed to fall into a state +of ruin and decay. Shortly after the removal of the School in 1870, a +restoration was undertaken by the ladies of Hertfordshire, but their +good intentions were not carried into effect, through lack of the +necessary funds. Lord Grimthorp then generously came to the rescue, and +through his munificence the Chapel has been thoroughly and judiciously +restored. It now stands once more in all its glory, as a perfect gem of +architecture and one of the most elegant Lady Chapels in Christendom. + +"Ye Chappell of oure Ladye" at Waltham Abbey is said to be one of the +richest specimens of mediaeval architecture in Essex. The building has +been greatly defaced since the suppression of chantries, but still bears +traces of its original glory. "The Lady Chapel," says the late Professor +Freeman, "must have been a most beautiful specimen of its style, but few +ancient structures have been more sedulously disfigured." It was erected +before A.D. 1292, as, during that year, Roger Levenoth, an inhabitant, +endowed the chantry, with a house and 100 acres of land in Roydon. The +Chapel was in a flourishing condition in the reign of Edward III., as we +find from the return made in obedience to the royal order, which was +issued to the master of the ceremonies of every guild and chantry in the +King's dominions. In the Court language of that period, which was +Norman French, Roger Harrof and John de Poley, the chantry priests, are +described as "meisters de la petit compaignie ordeigne al honor de Dieu +et ure Donne seyncte Marie en la Ville de Waltham seynte croice." The +architect selected, as the site of the building, the space formed by the +easternmost bay of the south aisle of the nave and the western side of +the south transept. This peculiar position indicates that it was not the +work of the monks, but that of the parishioners, who were allowed the +use of the nave as their parish church from the days of King Harold II., +the founder. A well-known antiquarian writes: "It seems to have been +built by the parishioners, and not by the abbot and convent, and its +position is due to its occupying the only available spot, and where only +two walls wanted building. A similar case occurs at Rochester. Where the +Abbey built the Lady Chapel it was usually east of the transept--at the +east end if there was room, at the north side if otherwise."[9] The +parishioners could not erect their Lady Chapel at the east end, because +the choir or presbytery had been used as the monastic church from the +days of Henry II., who, to atone for the massacre of Thomas a Becket, +Archbishop of Canterbury, changed the secular foundation of Harold, and +introduced an abbot and monks of the Augustinian order. Another Lady +Chapel had probably been erected at the east end for the use of the +monks, in accordance with the custom of the age, but this shared the +destruction which befell the whole of the eastern portion of the church +after the dissolution of the monastery in 1540. The preservation of the +parish Lady Chapel is therefore due to its position at the west of the +presbytery. In a transcript by Peter le Neve, Norroy King at Arms, 1698, +it is stated that a chapel was dedicated at Waltham in the year 1188, by +William de Vere, Bishop of Hereford, "in honore Dei [et gloriosae +Virginis Mariae] et B. Martyris atque pontificis Thomae nomine."[10] +This has led to the conjecture that reference is made to the existing +building,[11] or to that which formerly stood at the east end.[12] But +the original Waltham manuscript shows that it does not refer to a Lady +Chapel at all, but to the Chapel of S. Thomas of Canterbury.[13] + + [Footnote 9: W. H. St. John Hope, F.S.A.] + [Footnote 10: Harl. MS. 6974, fol. 106.] + [Footnote 11: Gentleman's Magazine, April, 1860, and May, 1864.] + [Footnote 12: The Builder, April 2, 1898.] + [Footnote 13: Harl. MS. 391, fol. 100.] + +The masonry of the exterior of the two walls erected when the Chapel was +founded, consists of alternating bands of stone, squared bricks, and +flint, so that it produces a "poly-chromatic effect."[14] There are +three large buttresses of considerable projection, with pedimented +sets-off and slopes, one being situated at the south-west angle, and the +other two on the south of the building. Two smaller buttresses also +occupy a place on the south. Niches, with pedestals for images, are +still standing in the primary buttresses. + + [Footnote 14: Professor Freeman.] + +The interior of the Chapel measures 41 feet 7 inches in length, 23 feet +in breadth, and 23 feet in height. It is approached by a steep ascent of +nine long narrow stone steps, which are situated near the south-west +buttress. The ancient doorway is beautifully decorated with ball +flowers. The floor stands at an elevation of nearly five feet above the +floor of the chancel, an arrangement which appears to be peculiar to +Waltham. It was apparently built at this high level to add to the +loftiness of the crypt below, which was a capacious chamber of much +importance in olden times, and consists of two wide bays of +quadripartite vaulting. There is no way of access from the interior of +the Church, but "the chapel is connected with the south aisle by a +single arch of poor and ordinary architecture, a sad contrast to the +glorious Romanesque work of the nave."[15] At the west end there is a +large and beautiful six-light, square-headed window, with a rich and +peculiar arrangement of a double plane of tracery, the inner plane +consisting of three arches. This window, and the four elegant windows of +three lights on the south side, are supposed to have been filled with +stained glass, like that of the Chapter House at York Minster, and other +buildings of the same period. At the extreme south-east of the building +the remains of the ancient sedilia and piscina may still be seen. The +walls were adorned with distemper paintings, chocolate coloured +vine-leaves on a yellow ground running round the spandrels and windows. +This decoration probably included a series of paintings, representing +scenes in the life of the Mother of our Lord, and concluding with her +assumption and coronation as the Queen of Heaven. There was also a +representation of the Last Judgment in which "Our Lady" occupied the +place of honour near her Divine Son and Lord, interceding for the +faithful as they appeared before their Judge. On the removal of the +plaster from the east wall during the restoration in 1875, the remains +of a fresco of "the Doom" were discovered, and here are depicted the +Judge of all mankind in the scarlet robes of majesty, the Virgin as +intercessor, S. Michael the Archangel, presiding over the balances in +which souls are weighed, the Apostles as assessors, bishops and abbots +with the keys of S. Peter, admitting the faithful into the Holy Catholic +Church, human forms emerging from the grave, the path of life, the +chains of everlasting darkness, demons clothed in flames, and the jaws +of hell. The space under this fresco was probably occupied by beautiful +statuary, the image of the blessed Virgin standing in the centre, +immediately above the altar of "Our Ladye." At the dissolution of the +monastery "a table of imagery of the xii. apostles," belonging to this +Chapel, was valued at ten shillings. A few fragments of statuary, +supposed to have formed part of this decoration, were discovered during +the restoration of the Abbey Church in 1860, and have been inserted in +the south-east wall of the chancel. These relics of the splendid past +include the mutilated stone figures of four saints, probably the +evangelists, beautifully carved, and a representation of the crucifixion +in black marble, but the ornament of precious metal, with which it was +adorned, has long since disappeared. + + [Footnote 15: Professor Freeman.] + +The altars, desks, and tables in the Lady Chapel were covered with +plates of silver, as in the crypt beneath, which was also, in those +days, a splendid chantry, served by its own priest, who was called "the +Charnel Priest." The sacramental vessels and plate, which were of great +value, were sold after the suppression. Dr. Thomas Fuller, Incumbent of +Waltham Abbey in 1648, gives the following extracts from the +churchwarden's accounts: "1549. _Imprimis._--Sold the silver plate which +was on the desk in the charnel, weighing five ounces, for twenty-five +shillings. Guess," adds the historian, "the gallantry of our church by +this (presuming all the rest in proportionable equipage) when the desk +whereon the priest read was inlaid with plate of silver." "1551. +_Item._--Received for two hundred seventy-one ounces of plate, sold at +several times for the best advantage, sixty-seven pound fourteen +shillings and ninepence."[16] The inventory of goods made by order of +Henry VIII. also mentions "iiii. tables [of oure Ladye] plated with +sylver and gylte, every one of them with ii. folding leves." The Chapel +was furnished besides with "a lytell payre of organes," valued at xxs., +at the dissolution of the monastery, when Thomas Tallis, the father of +English church music, was organist of the Abbey Church, and presided at +the "greate large payre of organes" in the Choir. He was assisted by +John Boston, of Waltham, who probably performed on the smaller +instrument in the Lady Chapel. Both names are mentioned in the pension +list, Tallis receiving xxs. for wages and xxs. reward, and Boston iiis. +for wages and iiis. reward. + + [Footnote 16: History of Waltham Abbey, cap. 5.] + +A large number of wax tapers and candles was consumed annually at the +various services held in the Lady Chapel and Crypt. In the return made +by Sir Roger Harrop and Sir John de Poley, masters of the two chantries +in the reign of Edward III., it is stated that every man and woman in +this guild paid a yearly subscription of sixpence towards the expenses, +and at the feasts of "oure Ladye" all "Christiens" of the company gave +five burning tapers (_tapres ardant_); in honour of our Lord four large +torches; and on other special occasions fifteen tapers. Lights were also +kept burning during the solemn requiem and funeral services, when +prayers were offered that perpetual light might shine upon the souls of +the departed. It is most likely that this impressive ceremonial had been +observed in both chantries, when the body of Queen Eleanor rested for +the night in the Abbey Church on its way to Westminster, and again when +the remains of her royal consort, Edward I., were deposited for three +months before the tomb of Harold. The wax in stock for these memorial +services at the suppression was sold by the churchwardens as follows: +"_Item._--Sold so much wax as amounts to twenty six shillings." +Dr. Fuller remarks on this transaction, "So thrifty the wardens that +they bought not candles and tapers ready made, but bought the wax at the +best hand and paid poor people for the making of them. Now they sold +their magazine of wax as useless. Under the Reformation more light and +fewer candles."[17] + + [Footnote 17: History of Waltham Abbey, cap. v.] + +In the days of the chantry, lands, tenements, and other gifts were +presented and bequeathed that "obits" or prayers for the dead might be +offered before the altar and image of "oure Ladye." Dr. Fuller gives the +following account of "obits" at Waltham: "The charge of an obit was two +shillings and two pence; and, if any be curious to have the particulars +thereof, it was thus expended: to the parish priest, three pence; to our +Lady's priest, three pence; to the charnel priest, threepence; to the +two clerks, four pence; to the children (these I conceive choristers) +three pence; to the sexton, two pence; to the bellman, two pence; for +two tapers, two pence; for oblation, two pence. O, the reasonable rates +at Waltham! Two shillings and two pence for an obit, the price whereof +in S. Paul's, in London, was forty shillings! For, forsooth, the higher +the church, the holier the service, the dearer the price, though he had +given too much that had given but thanks for such vanities. To defray +the expenses of these obits, the parties prayed for, or their executors, +left lands, houses, or stock to the churchwardens."[18] These obits were +abolished when the chantries were suppressed in the first year of the +reign of King Edward VI. "Now," says Dr. Fuller, "was the brotherhood +in the church dissolved, consisting as formerly of three priests, three +choristers, and two sextons; and the rich plate belonging to them was +sold for the good of the parish. Superstition by degrees being banished +out of the church, we hear no more of prayers and masses for the dead. +Every obit now had its own obit, and fully expired; the lands formerly +given thereunto being employed to more charitable uses."[19] + + [Footnote 18: Cap. iv.] + [Footnote 19: Cap. v.] + +Since the suppression both chantries have been stripped of almost all +their glory. The beautiful statuary in the Lady Chapel has disappeared, +the decorated walls were covered with plaster, the west window blocked +up, three of the elegant south windows were partly bricked up, and the +fourth was converted into a door-way. The building was entirely +separated from the Church by a wall of lath and plaster, and the west +front obscured by the erection of an unsightly porch, which also +concealed from view the grand south Norman entrance to the Abbey Church. +The exterior walls were covered with cement, in imitation of classic +rustic work. The Chapel has been used during the last three centuries +for various purposes, some of which were degrading in the extreme to its +sacred character. It has been used as a vestry, parochial schoolroom and +lending library, also for public meetings and petty sessions, and, in +its darkest days, as a store-room. The crypt has also passed through +many changes, and has been stripped of its original splendour. It +retained much of its beauty for a century after the suppression, as Dr. +Fuller writes during his incumbency:--"To the south side of the Church +is joined a chapel, formerly our Lady's, now a school-house, and under +it an arched charnel-house, the fairest that I ever saw."[20] This +beautiful chantry, which is partly underground, has been used since as a +sepulchre for the dead, a prison cell for the living,[21] a receptacle +for human bones, a coal cellar and heating chamber. + + [Footnote 20: History of Waltham Abbey, cap. I., 9.] + [Footnote 21: The Quakers were incarcerated here during + the reign of Charles II.] + +The Lady Chapel resumed its sacred character in 1876, after it had been +carefully restored by Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Bart., K.C.M.G.[22] whose +seat, Warlies Park, is situated in the parish. The modern porch was +removed from the west end, the large arch in the south wall of the +Church re-opened, and the five elegant windows were made good. A +splendidly carved memorial screen has since been erected under the arch +by the parishioners, and some beautifully carved altar rails set up at +the east end. The arms of the Abbey and Parish of Waltham Holy Cross are +represented on the screen, namely, two angels exalting the Cross. The +appearance of the interior is, however, still mean and bare, when +compared with its former magnificence, although so much has been done to +rescue from a state of degradation and neglect, this interesting relic +of mediaeval times, "ye Chappell of oure Ladye." + + [Footnote 22: Now Governor General of South Australia.] + + + + +Some Famous Spires. + +By John T. Page. + + +It is practically impossible to point to the exact date when spires +first assumed a place in the category of ecclesiastical architecture. +They belong to the Gothic style, and like the pointed arch were evolved +rather than created. The low pointed roof of the tower gradually gave +place to a more tapering finish, but the transition was by no means +progressive, and cannot be clearly traced. Some of the earliest attempts +at spire-building were uncouth and ungraceful, and even in these days +the addition of a spire to a modern church does not necessarily add to +its beauty. This is nearly always the case where an undue regard is paid +to ornamentation, either at the base, or on the surface of the spire +itself. Undoubtedly the most beautiful spires are those which at once +spring clear from the summit of the tower and gradually rise needle-like +towards the blue vault of heaven. + +By far the greater number of our principal spires date from the +fourteenth century--a time when spire-building appears to have reached +the zenith of its glory. Splendour and loftiness combine to render the +examples of this period distinguished above those of any other. + +Northamptonshire has been well termed the county of "Squires and +Spires," and it is probably within its borders that the largest number +of really beautiful spires may be found. A journey from Northampton to +Peterborough along the Nene Valley is never to be forgotten for the +continually recurring spires which greet the eye of the traveller at +almost every point. Rushden, Higham Ferrers, Irchester, Raunds, +Stanwick, Oundle, Finedon, Aldwinckle S. Peter's, Barnwell S. Andrew, +and many others all combine to render the term "Valley of Spires" +peculiarly appropriate to this district. + +These spires of course cover a wide area. The two finest groups of +spires are those of Coventry and Lichfield. When the cathedral at +Coventry, with its three spires, was in existence in immediate proximity +to the churches of S. Michael's and Holy Trinity, the group formed "a +picture not to be surpassed in England," and even now, with Christ +Church added, the "Ladies of the Vale," of Lichfield, suffer somewhat +in comparison. + +In point of height the cathedral spires of Salisbury and Norwich hold +their own, while for beauty of outline Louth must be mentioned, and for +elaborateness of detail the spire of Grantham. + +It now remains to give a cursory glance at some of our most famous +spires, and to endeavour to enumerate some of their chief +characteristics. + +The spire of Salisbury Cathedral rises from the centre of the main +transept to a height of 410 feet. This is, without doubt, the tallest of +our English spires.[23] It is octagonal in shape, and springs from four +pinnacles. The surface is enriched with three bands of quatre-foiled +work, and the angles are decorated throughout with ball-flower ornament. +From a storm in 1703 it received some damage, and was, under the +direction of Sir Christopher Wren, braced with ironwork. It does not +appear to have moved since then, but from experiments made in 1740 it +was found to be out of the perpendicular 241/2 inches to the south, and +161/4 inches to the west. On the 21st of June, 1741, it was struck by +lightning and set on fire, but did not receive any great damage, and in +1827, by means of an ingenious wicker-work contrivance suspended from +the top, extensive repairs were carried out. The name of the architect +who conceived this lofty tower is unknown, but the date of its erection +was probably at the beginning of the fourteenth century. + + [Footnote 23: The spire of Old Saint Paul's, which dated from + the thirteenth century, rose to a height of 520 feet. + It was destroyed by lightning on the 4th of June, 1561. + The spire of Lincoln Cathedral measured 524 feet, and + was destroyed in 1548. These are the two highest spires + which have ever been erected in England.] + +The spire of Norwich Cathedral rises to a height of 315 feet, and on a +clear day can be seen for a distance of twenty miles. It was probably +built by Bishop Percy in the latter half of the fourteenth century. +About one hundred years after, it was struck by lightning, but the +damage was speedily repaired. In 1629 the upper part was blown down, and +was re-built in 1633. + +The three spires of Coventry are those of S. Michael's, Holy Trinity, +and Christ Church. Of these, S. Michael's is the chief, being 303 feet +high. Amongst parish churches, it is therefore the tallest. The base +consists of a lantern flanked by four pinnacles, to which it is +connected by flying buttresses. Its erection was commenced in the year +1373, and completed in 1394. At the restoration of the church, which +took place in 1885, the tower was found to have been erected on the edge +of an old quarry, and it cost no less a sum than L17,000 to add a new +foundation. During the most critical period of the work the structure +visibly moved, and the apex of the spire now leans 3ft. 5in. out of the +perpendicular towards the north-west. + + [Illustration: LOUTH CHURCH SPIRE.] + +Holy Trinity spire is 237 feet high, and much less ornate than +S. Michael's. During a violent tempest of "wind, thunder, and +earthquake," which occurred on the 24th of January, 1665, it was +overthrown, and much injury was done to the church in consequence. The +re-building was finished in 1668. It has been completely restored in +recent years. + +The spire of Christ Church is some little distance away from the other +two. It is octagonal in shape, and rises from an embattled tower to a +height of 230 feet. It was restored in 1888. + +Lichfield Cathedral contains three spires within its precincts. The +grouping is, therefore, more uniform than that of Coventry, although the +general effect is not thereby accentuated. The central spire rises to a +height of 258 feet, and the two which grace the west front are each 183 +feet high. In the time of the great civil war, when Lichfield was +besieged, the central spire was demolished. After the Restoration, it +was re-built by good old Dr. Hackett. + +The spire of Chichester Cathedral, built in the fourteenth century over +a rotten sub-structure, was destroyed by its own weight in 1861. It was +271 feet high, and has now been re-built in its original style on a +slightly higher tower. The story of its fall has often been told. On the +night of Wednesday, the 20th of February, 1861, a heavy gale occurred. +The next day, about twenty minutes past one o'clock, the spire was +observed to suddenly lean towards the south-west, and then to right +itself again. Soon after, it disappeared into the body of the cathedral, +sliding down like the folding of a telescope. Only the coping-stone and +the weather-vane fell outside, the rest of the masonry formed a huge +cairn in the centre of the edifice, which was practically cut into four +portions by the wreck. The present spire was completed in 1867. + +In Lincolnshire there are two remarkable spires at Louth and Grantham. +The one at Louth rises to a height of 294 feet. At the corners of the +tower are four tall turret pinnacles to which the spire is connected by +flying buttresses. In 1843 it was struck by lightning; steps were at +once taken for its restoration, which was completed three years later. + +Grantham spire is octagonal in shape, and 285 feet in height. It is very +light and graceful in appearance, and is richly ornamented with +sculpture. It suffered from lightning in 1797, and again in 1882. Since +the latter date sixteen feet of the masonry has been removed from the +summit and re-built. + +The church of S. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, has been aptly termed by the +poet Chatterton, "the pride of Bristowe and the Western land." The spire +rises to a height of 300 feet, and has lately been restored at a cost of +upwards of L50,000. In 1445, during a storm, the greater part of the +original spire fell through the roof of the church, and for about four +centuries it remained in a truncated state, although the damage done to +the interior was speedily repaired. + +The spire of S. Mary's, Shrewsbury, is 220 feet high, and rises from an +embattled tower, the four corners of which contain crocketed pinnacles. +During a gale on the night of Sunday, the 11th of February, 1894, about +50 feet of the masonry of the spire crashed through the church roof and +did enormous damage. This has, however, since been repaired. A memorial +stone on the west wall of the tower tells how one Thomas Cadman, was +killed on the 2nd of February, 1739, when attempting to descend from the +spire by a rope. + +For elaborateness of detail, the spire of S. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, +surpasses all others in this country. Its apex is some 90 feet from the +ground, and around the base of the spire clusters a mass of richly +decorated pinnacles, small spirelets, and canopies containing statues. +The effect is picturesque in the extreme, and lends to the town of +Oxford a unique charm. Its conception dates from the fourteenth century, +but it has been much restored and added to since. + +Of the Northamptonshire spires, Oundle is the loftiest, being 210 feet +high. It bears date 1634, but this evidently refers to a re-building. It +was partly taken down again and rebuilt in 1874. It is hexagonal in +shape, and the angles are crocketed. Raunds church is surmounted by an +octagonal broach spire 186 feet high. It was struck by lightning on the +31st of July, 1826, and about 30 feet of the masonry was shattered. This +was at once rebuilt at a cost of L1,737 15s. 3d. The octagonal spire of +Higham Ferrers is 170 feet high, and was rebuilt after destruction by a +storm of wind in 1632. Rushden spire is an octagon 192 feet high, and +richly crocketed. At its base flying buttresses connect it with +pinnacles at the corners of the tower. The spire at Finedon rises from +an embattled tower to a height of 133 feet; that of Stanwick is 156 feet +high, and that of Irchester 152 feet. + +Space forbids more than a passing allusion to the fine spires of +Newcastle Cathedral, S. Mary de Castro, Leicester, Ross, Herefordshire, +and Olney, Bucks. The latter rises to a height of 185 feet. At its +summit is a weathercock which, when taken down for regilding in 1884, +was found to contain the following triplet-- + + I never crow, + But stand to show + Where winds do blow. + +Several of the spires which have been mentioned are perceptibly out of +the perpendicular, but in this respect the "tall twisted spire of +Chesterfield has no rival either in shape or pose." It is no less than +230 feet high, and the wonder to many is that it has for so long +maintained its equilibrium. Various conjectures have been made to +account for the grotesque twist which the spire assumes; but none of +these seems so likely as that which accounts for it by the combined +action of age, wind, and sun. There are those who aver that it never was +straight, and never will be, and one such person even goes so far as to +attempt this statement in rhyme as follows:-- + + "Whichever way you turn your eye + It always seems to be awry, + Pray can you tell the reason why? + The only reason known of weight + Is that the thing was never straight, + Nor know the people where to go + To find the man to make it so." + +However this may be, it is satisfactory to note that a movement has +recently been set on foot to collect subscriptions towards its much +needed repair. + +When speaking of Salisbury Cathedral spire, allusion was made to the +repairs being carried out from a wicker-work contrivance suspended from +the top. This was not the first time that wicker-work had been used for +such a purpose, for in 1787 the spire at S. Mary's, Islington, was +entirely encased in a cage composed of willow, hazel, and other sticks, +while undergoing repair. An ingenious basket-maker of S. Albans, named +Birch, carried out the work, and constructed a spiral staircase inside +the cage. His contract was to do the work for L20 paid down, and to be +allowed to charge sixpence a head to any sightseers who liked to mount +to the top. It is said that in this way he gained some two or three +pounds a day above his contract. + +People and steeple rhymes are by no means uncommon; perhaps the most +spiteful is that relating to an Essex village:-- + + "Ugley church, Ugley steeple, + Ugley parson, Ugley people." + +The Yorkshire village of Raskelfe is usually called Rascall, and an old +rhyme says:-- + + "A wooden church, a wooden steeple, + Rascally church, rascally people." + +Mr. William Andrews, in his "Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church" +(London, 1897), gives many examples of "People and Steeple Rhymes." + +There is a never-ending romance connected with the subject of spires. +Every one possesses some story or legend. Spirits are supposed to +inhabit their gloomy recesses, and are even credited with their +construction. There is certainly an uncanny feeling connected with the +interior of a spire, even on a sunny summer's day, and given sufficient +stress of howling winds and gloomy darkness, one can almost imagine a +situation conducive to the acutest kind of devilry. So much for the +interior of spires. What sensations may be produced by climbing the +exterior is given to few to experience. The vast majority of mankind +must perforce content themselves with a position on _terra firma_, +whence they may with pleasure and safety combined behold + + "----the spires that glow so bright + In front of yonder setting sun." + + + + +The Five of Spades and the Church of Ashton-under-Lyne. + +By John Eglington Bailey, F.S.A. + + +On the old tower of the church of Ashton-under-Lyne there was formerly +an old inscription, which incidently testifies to the popularity of +cards in England at a period when the notices of that fascinating means +of diversion are both few and of doubtful import. Cards were given to +Europe by the Saracens at the end of the fourteenth century, and the +knowledge of their use extended itself from France to Greece. The French +clergy were so engrossed by the pastime that the Synod of Langres, 1404, +forbad it as unclerical. At Bologna, in 1420, S. Bernardin of Sienna +preached with such effect against the gambling which was indulged in, +that his hearers made on the spot a large bonfire with packs of cards +taken out of their pockets. Under the word [Greek: Chartia] Du Cange +quotes extracts from two Greek writers, which show that cards were +popular in Greece before 1498. Chaucer, who died in 1400, and who +indirectly depicted much of the every-day life of his countrymen, does +not once mention cards. But they begin to be noticed about the time of +Edward IV. and Henry VI. The former king prohibited the importation of +"cards for playing," in order to protect the English manufacture of +them. An old ale-wife or brewer, in one of the Chester plays or +mysteries, is introduced in a scene in Hell, when one of the devils thus +addresses her:-- + + Welcome, deare darlinge, to endless bale, + Usinge cardes, dice, and cuppes smale + With many false other, to sell thy ale + Now thou shalte have a feaste. + +A more interesting notice of cards occurs in the _Paston Letters_, where +Margery Paston, writing on "Crestemes Evyn" of the year 1484, tells her +husband that she had sent their eldest son to Lady Morley (the widow of +William Lovel, Lord Morley), "to hav knolage wat sports wer husyd [used] +in her hows in Kyrstemesse next folloyng aftyr the decysse of my lord, +her husbond [who died 26th July, 1476]; and sche sayd that ther wer non +dysgysyngs [guisings], ner harpyng, ner lutyng, ner syngyn, ner non +lowde dysports; but pleyng at the tabyllys, and schesse, and cards: +sweche dysports sche gaue her folkys leve to play and non odyr." The +lady adds that the youth did his errand right well, and that she sent +the like message by a younger son to Lady Stapleton, whose lord had died +in 1466. "Sche seyd according to my Lady Morlees seyng in that, and as +sche hadde seyn husyd in places of worschip [_i.e._, of distinction: +good families] ther as [= where] sche hath beyn." This letter opens up +an interesting view of the amusements which at the time were introduced +into the houses of the nobility and gentry during Christmas-tide. At +that festival cards from the first formed one of the chief amusements. +Henry VII., who was a great card player, forbad cards to be used except +during the Christmas holidays. Their ancient association with Christmas +is seen in the kindness of Sir Roger de Coverley, who was in the habit +of sending round to each of his cottagers "a string of hogs'-puddings +and a pack of cards," that good old squire being doubtless of the +opinion of Dr. Johnson, who, with a deeper human insight than +S. Bernardin and Henry VII., could see the usefulness of such a pastime: +"It generates kindness and consolidates society." + +The inscription I have alluded to takes us back to the reign of an +earlier English king than those named--Henry V., who reigned 1413-1422. +In his time, it seems, viz., in 1413, the steeple of Ashton Church was +a-building; when a certain butcher, Alexander Hyll, playing at noddy +with a companion, doubtless in the neighbourhood of the church, swore +that if the dealer turned up _the five of spades_ he would build a foot +of the steeple. The very card was turned up! Hyll, like a good Catholic, +performed his promise, and had his name carved, a butcher's cleaver +being put before _Alexander_, and the five of spades before _Hyll_. A +new tower was erected in 1516, when the church was enlarged; but the +stone containing the curious inscription was somewhere retained, for it +was visible in the time of Robert Dodsworth, the industrious Yorkshire +antiquary, and the projector and co-worker with Dugdale of the +_Monasticon_. Dodsworth, being at Ashton on the 2nd of April, 1639, +copied the inscription, stating that it was on the church steeple. He +wrote down the tradition, adding that its truth was attested by Henry +Fairfax, then rector there, second son of Thomas Fairfax, Baron de +Cameron (Dodsworth's MSS. in Bibl. Bodl., vol. 155, fol. 116). The +eldest son of Lord Fairfax was Ferdinando, the celebrated general of the +Commonwealth, and the generous patron of Dodsworth. Henry, the younger +son, at whose rectory-house Dodsworth was entertained on the occasion of +his Lancashire visit, is described by Oley (in his preface to George +Herbert's _Country Parson_) as "a regular and sober fellow of Trinity +College in Cambridge, and afterwards rector of Bolton Percy in +Yorkshire." He held, besides, the rectory of Ashton from, at least, 1623 +till 1645, when he was forcibly ejected; and that of Newton Kyme. He was +a correspondent of Daniel King, author of _The Vale Royal_, for he had +antiquarian tastes like his brother. He died at Bolton Percy 6th April, +1665. The tower of Ashton Church, as Rector Fairfax knew it, was taken +down and re-built in 1818, by which time all recollection of that +ancient piece of cartomancy in connection with the steeple had passed +out of mind. Let it be hoped that while the tradition was lively, +pleasanter things were said of Hyll, when the five of spades was thrown +upon the card tables of Ashton, than assailed the name of Dalrymple when +the nine of diamonds--the curse of Scotland--came under the view of +Tory Scotchmen. We may bestow on Hyll the card-player's epitaph:-- + + His card is cut--long days he shuffled through + The game of life--he dealt as others do: + Though he by honours tells not its amount, + When the last trump is played his tricks will count. + +"Noddy" is, of course, the very attractive game of "cribbage." A great +aunt of mine still living at Ashbourne, with whom I used to play when a +boy, always called it by that name. It is one of the Court games, +_temp._ James I., noticed by Sir John Harrington:-- + + Now noddy followed next, as well it might, + Although it should have gone before of right; + At which I say, I name not anybody, + One never had the knave yet laid for noddy. + +The same is also alluded to in a satirical poem, 1594, entitled, _Batt +upon Batt_:-- + + Shew me a man can turn up Noddy still, + And deal himself three fives, too, when he will; + Conclude with one and thirty, and a pair, + Never fail ten in Hock, and yet play fair; + If Batt be not that night, I lose my aim. + + + + +Bells and their Messages. + +By Edward Bradbury. + + +Do not imagine that this is an essay on campanology, on change-ringing, +grandsires, and triple bob-majors. Do not fancy that it will deal with +carillons, the couvre-feu, or curfew bell, with the solemn Passing bell, +the bell of the public crier, the jingling sleigh bell, the distant +sheep bell, the noisy railway bell, the electric call bell, the frantic +fire bell, the mellow, merry marriage peal, the sobbing muffled peal, +the devout Angelus, or the silvery convent chimes that ring for prime +and tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline. Do not conclude that it +will describe bell-founding; and deal with the process of casting, with +technical references to cope, and crook, and moulding, drawing the +crucible, or tuning. + +It is of bells and their associations and inscriptions that we would +write, the bells that are linked with our lives, and record the history +of towns, communities, and nations; announcing feasts and fasts and +funerals, interpreting with metal tongue rejoicings and sorrowings, +jubilees and reverses; paeans for victories by sea and land; knells for +the death of kings and the leaders of men. As we write, the bells of our +collegiate church are announcing with joyous clang the arrival of Her +Majesty's Judge of Assize. Before many days have passed another bell in +the same town will tell with solemn toll of the short shrift given by +him to a pinioned culprit, the only mourner in his own funeral +procession. + +Bells are sentient things. They are alike full of humour and pathos, of +laughter and tears, of mirth and sadness, of gaiety and grief. One may +pardon Toby Veck, in Charles Dickens' goblin story, for investing the +bells in the church near his station with a strange and solemn +character, and peopling the tower with dwarf phantoms, spirits, elfin +creatures of the bells, of all aspects, shapes, characters, and +occupations. "They were so mysterious, often heard and never seen, so +high up, so far off, so full of such a deep, strong melody, that he +regarded them with a species of awe; and sometimes, when he looked up at +the dark, arched windows in the tower, he half expected to be beckoned +to by something which was not a bell, and yet was what he had heard so +often sounding in the chimes." The bells! The word carries sound and +suggestion with it. It fills the air with waves of cadence. "Those +Evening Bells" of Thomas Moore's song swing out undying echoes from +Ashbourne Church steeple; Alfred Tennyson's bells "ring out the false, +ring in the true" across the old year's snow, and his Christmas bells +answer each other from hill to hill. There are the tragic bells that Sir +Henry Irving hears as the haunted Mathias; "Les Cloches de Corneville" +that agitate the morbid mind of the miser Gaspard; and the wild bells +that Edgar Allen Poe has set ringing in Runic rhyme. + +"Bell," says the old German song, "thou soundest merrily when the bridal +party to the church doth hie; thou soundest solemnly when, on Sabbath +morn, the fields deserted lie; thou soundest merrily at evening, when +bed-time draweth nigh; thou soundest mournfully, telling of the bitter +parting that hath gone by! Say, how canst thou mourn or rejoice, that +art but metal dull? And yet all our sorrowings and all our rejoicings +thou art made to express!" In the words of the motto affixed to many +old bells, they "rejoice with the joyful, and grieve with the +sorrowful"; or, in the original Latin, + + Gaudemus gaudentibus, + Dolemus dolentibus. + +An old monkish couplet makes the bell thus describe its uses-- + + Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum: + Defuncto ploro, pestum fugo, festa decoro. + +"I praise the true God, call the people, convene the clergy; I mourn for +the dead, drive away pestilence, and grace festivals." Who that +possesses--to quote from Cowper--a soul "in sympathy with sweet sounds," +can listen unmoved to + + ----the music of the village bells + Falling at intervals upon the ear, + In cadence sweet--now dying all away, + Now pealing loud again, and louder still, + Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on. + +The same poet makes Alexander Selkirk lament on his solitary isle-- + + The sound of the church going bell + These valleys and rocks never heard, + Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell, + Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared. + +Longfellow has several tender references to church bells. He sets the +Bells of Lynn to ring a requiem of the dying day. He mounts the lofty +tower of "the belfry old and brown" in the market place of Bruges-- + + Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour, + But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower. + + From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swallows wild and high; + And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky. + + Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times, + With their strange unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes. + + Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing in the + choir; + And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar. + + Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled my brain; + They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again. + +Who does not remember Father Prout's lyric on "The Bells of Shandon"? We +venture to quote the four delicious verses _in extenso_-- + + With deep affection and recollection + I often think of the Shandon bells, + Whose sounds so wild would, in days of childhood, + Fling round my cradle their magic spells-- + On this I ponder where'er I wander, + And thus grow fonder, sweet Cork, of thee; + With thy bells of Shandon, + That sound so grand on + The pleasant waters of the River Lee. + + I have heard bells chiming, full many a chime in + Tolling sublime in cathedral shrine; + While at a glib rate brass tongues would vibrate, + But all their music spoke naught to thine; + For memory dwelling on each proud swelling + Of thy belfry knelling its bold notes free, + Made the bells of Shandon + Sound far more grand on + The pleasant waters of the River Lee. + + I have heard bells tolling "old Adrian's mole" in + Their thunder rolling from the Vatican, + With cymbals glorious, swinging uproarious + In the gorgeous turrets of Notre Dame; + But thy sounds were sweeter than the dome of Peter + Flings o'er the Tiber, pealing solemnly. + Oh! the bells of Shandon + Sound far more grand on + The pleasant waters of the River Lee. + + There's a bell in Moscow, while on tower and kiosko, + In St. Sophia the Turkman gets, + And loud in air, calls men to prayer, + From the tapering summits of tall minarets, + Such empty phantom I freely grant them, + But there's an anthem more dear to me-- + It's the bells of Shandon + That sound so grand on + The pleasant waters of the River Lee. + +"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day," in Gray's "Elegy," the best +known, and, in its own line, the best poem in the English language. +More dramatic is Southey's story of the warning bell that the Abbot of +Aberbrothock placed on the Inchcape Rock. James Russell Lowell has a +beautiful thought in his little poem "Masaccio"-- + + Out clanged the Ave Mary bells, + And to my heart this message came; + Each clamorous throat among them tells + What strong-souled martyrs died in flame, + To make it possible that thou + Should'st here with brother sinners bow. + + * * * * * + + Henceforth, when rings the health to those + Who live in story and in song, + O, nameless dead, who now repose + Safe in Oblivion's chambers strong, + One cup of recognition true + Shall silently be drained to you! + +In the belfry of Tideswell and of Hathersage, in the Peak of Derbyshire, +are a set of rhymed bell-ringing laws. Those at Hathersage we give +below; the Tideswell ones are almost word for word similar. + + You gentlemen that here wish to ring, + See that these laws you keep in everything; + Or else be sure you must without delay + The penalty thereof to the ringers pay. + First, when you do into the bellhouse come, + Look if the ringers have convenient room, + For if you do be an hindrance unto them, + Fourpence you forfeit unto these gentlemen. + Next, if here you do intend to ring, + With hat or spur do not touch a string; + For if you do, your forfeit is for that + Just fourpence down to pay, or lose your hat. + If you a bell turn over, without delay + Fourpence unto the ringers you must pay; + Or, if you strike, miscall, or do abuse, + You must pay fourpence for the ringers' use. + For every oath here sworn, ere you go hence, + Unto the poor then you must pay twelve pence; + And if that you desire to be enrolled + A ringer here these orders keep and hold. + But whoso doth these orders disobey, + Unto the stocks we will take him straight way, + There to remain until he be willing + To pay his forfeit, and the clerk a shilling. + +Churchwardens' accounts abound with bell charges. We have before us the +accounts of the churchwardens of Youlgreave, in the Peak of Derbyshire, +for a period of a century and a half. Under the year 1604 we have "Item +to the ringers on the Coronation Day (James I.), 2s. 6d.; for mending +the Bels agaynst that day, 1s.; and for fatchinge the great bell yoke at +Stanton hall, 6d." In 1605 there is "Item for a rope for a little bell, +5d." In the following year is "Item to the Ringers the 5th day of +August, when thanks was given to God for the delyvering of King James +from the conspiracye of the Lord Gowyre, 5s." In 1613 we find the sum of +6d. expended in purchasing "a stirropp for the fyrst bell wheele, 8d." +The year 1614 is prolific in charges connected with the belfry, as the +following enumeration will show: "Item for the bellefonder, his dinner, +and his sonnes, with other chargs at the same time, 10d.; at the second +coming of the sayd bellfonder, 9d.; at the taking downe of the bell, +6d.; for castyng the fyrst bell, L4; for the surplus mettall which wee +bought of the bellfounder because the new bell waeghed more than ye old, +L3 15s. 10d.; to the bellfounder's men, 4d.; for the carryage of our old +bell to Chesterfield, 3s.; for carrying the great bell clapper to +Chesterfield, 4d.; for carrying the new bell from Chesterfield, 2s. 8d.; +to Nicholos Hibbert, for hanging the said bell, 1s. 1d.; to Nicholas +Hibbert the younger, for amending the great bell yoke and wheele, 6d.; +spent at Gybs house at the bellfounder's last coming, 3d.; for amending +the great bell clapper, 10d." + +The inscriptions on church bells would make an interesting chapter. On +the second bell at Aston-on-Trent appears in Lombardic capitals, the +words, "Jhesus be our spede, 1590," and on the fourth bell is inscribed, +"All men that heare my mournful sound, repent before you lye in ground, +1661." The fourth bell of S. Werburgh's at Derby is inscribed-- + + My roaring sounde doth warning geve + That men cannot heare always lyve.--1605. + +The third bell at Allestree bears the words-- + + I to the church the living call, + And to the grave do summons all.--1781. + +The second bell on the old peal at Ashbourne was inscribed-- + + Sweetly to sing men do call + To feed on meats that feed the soul. + +The fifth bell at Dovebridge has the words: "Som rosa polsata monde +Maria vocata, 1633." This is--according to the Rev. Dr. John Charles +Cox--a corrupt reading of "Sum Rosa pulsata mundi Maria vocata," a +legend occasionally found on pre-Reformation bells, and which may be +thus Englished-- + + Rose of the world, I sound + Mary, my name, around. + +A similar inscription--similarly mis-spelt--occurs on the third bell at +Ibstock, Leicestershire, the date of which is 1632. Mr. Sankey, of +Marlborough College, gives it a graceful French rendering-- + + Ici je sonne et je m'appelle, + Marie, du monde la rose plus belle. + +The fourth bell at Coton-in-the-Elms has the inscription-- + + The bride and groom we greet + In holy wedlock joined, + Our sounds are emblems sweet + Of hearts in love combined. + +The sixth bell is inscribed-- + + The fleeting hours I tell, + I summon all to pray, + I toll the funeral knell, + I hail the festal day. + +The seventh bell at Castleton has the following legend-- + + When of departed hours we toll the knell, + Instruction take, and spend the future well. + James Harrison, Founder, 1803. + +The second bell at Monyash is inscribed: "Sca Maria o. p. n." (Sancta +Maria ora pro nobis.) + +The old curfew custom is still kept up in the Peak district of +Derbyshire, notably at Winster, where the bell is rung throughout +November, December, January, and February at eight o'clock every work +day evening, except on Saturdays, when the hour is seven. There are +Sanctus bells at Tideswell, Hathersage, Beeley, Ashover, and other +Derbyshire churches. All Saints' Church, at Derby ("All Saints," _i.e._, +"the unknown good"), has a melodious set of chimes. They play the +following tunes: Sunday, "Old One Hundred and Fourth" (Hanover); Monday, +"The Lass of Patie's Mill"; Tuesday, "The Highland Lassie"; Wednesday, +"The Shady Bowers"; Thursday, "The National Anthem"; Friday, Handel's +"March in Scipio"; Saturday, "The Silken Garter." They all date from the +last century. + +Church bells have the subtle charm of sentiment. When they swing in the +hoary village tower, and send their mellifluous message across the +country side and down the deep and devious valley, or when they make +musical with mellow carillon the dreamy atmosphere of moss grown +cathedral closes, they have a poetical influence. How pleasant it is to +listen to the chimes which ring out from time to time from the towers +of Notre Dame, in the city of Rubens, and from the Campanile at Venice! + + Through the balmy air of night + How they ring out their delight! + From the molten golden notes, + And all in tune, + What a liquid ditty floats + To the turtle dove that listens, while she gloats + On the moon! + +Church bells in large towns, where one section of the community are +night workers and seek their rest in the day-time, are by no means +invested with sentiment. We have in our mind a church which is set in a +dense population of railwaymen, engine drivers, stokers, guards, +porters, &c. It possesses a particularly noisy peal of bells. They begin +their brazen tintinnabulations at breakfast time, and ring on, at +intervals, until past the supper hour. Sometimes the sound is a dismal +monotone, as if the bellman had no heart for his work. At other times a +number of stark mad Quasimodos seem to be pulling at the ropes to +frighten the gilded cock on the vane into flapping flight. Sunday only +brings an increase of the din, distracting all thought, destroying all +conversation, defying all study, turning the blessed sense of hearing +into a curse, and making you envy the deaf. It is well known that upon +many persons in health the clangour of bells has a very depressing +effect; but at night, when narcotics are given and the sick are wearied +out, it is very easy to imagine how irritating these bells must be both +to the invalids and their attendants. One is inclined to exclaim with +the Frenchman-- + + Disturbers of the human race, + Whose charms are always ringing, + I wish the ropes were round your necks, + And you about them swinging. + +How very wise those Spanish innkeepers were who, in the olden time, used +to make "ruido" an item in their bills, charging their guests with the +noise they made! + + + + +Stories about Bells. + +By J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S. + + +On the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi the choristers of Durham +Cathedral ascend the tower, and, clad in their fluttering robes of +white, sing the _Te Deum_. This custom is performed to commemorate the +miraculous extinguishing of a conflagration on that night in the year +1429. The legend goes that, whilst the monks were engaged in prayer at +midnight, the belfry was struck by the electric current and set on fire. +Though the flames continued to rage until the middle of the next day, +the tower escaped serious damage, and the bells were uninjured--an +escape which was imputed to the special interference of the +incorruptible S. Cuthbert, who was enshrined in that cathedral. These +are not the bells which now reverberate among the housetops on the steep +banks of the Wear, they having been cast by Thomas Bartlett during the +summer of 1631. + +The fine peal of bells in Limerick Cathedral were originally brought +from Italy, having been manufactured by a young native, who devoted +himself enthusiastically to the work, and who, after the toil of many +years, succeeded in finishing a splendid peal, which answered all the +critical requirements of his own musical ear. Upon these bells the +artist greatly prided himself, and they were at length bought by the +prior of a neighbouring convent at a very liberal price. With the +proceeds of that sale the young Italian purchased a little villa, where, +in the stillness of the evening, he could enjoy the sound of his own +melodious bells from the convent cliff. Here he grew old in the bosom of +his family and of domestic happiness. At length, in one of those feuds +common to the period, the Italian became a sufferer amongst many others. +He lost his all. After the passing of the storm, he found himself +preserved alone amid the wreck of fortune, friends, family, and home. +The bells too--his favourite bells--were carried off from the convent, +and finally removed to Ireland. For a time their artificer became a +wanderer over Europe; and at last, in the hope of soothing his troubled +spirit, he formed the resolution of seeking the land to which those +treasures of his memory had been conveyed. He sailed for Ireland. +Proceeding up the Shannon one beautiful evening, which reminded him of +his native Italy, his own bells suddenly struck upon his ear! Home, and +all its loving ties, happiness, early recollections, all--all were in +the sound, and went to his heart. His face was turned towards the +cathedral in the attitude of intently listening. When the vessel reached +its destination the Italian bellfounder was found to be a corpse! + +Odoceus, Bishop of Llandaff, removed the bells from his cathedral during +a time of excommunication. Earlier still they are assumed to have been +in use in Ireland as early as the time of S. Patrick, who died in 493. +In those days much superstitious feeling, as in later ages, hung around +the bells, and many sweetly pretty and very curious legends are known +respecting them. Thus it is said S. Odoceus, of Llandaff, being thirsty +after undergoing labour, and more accustomed to drink water than +anything else, came to a fountain in the vale of Llandaff, not far from +the church, that he might drink. Here he found women washing butter +after the manner of the country. Sending to them his messengers and +disciples they requested that they would accommodate them with a vessel +that their pastor might drink therefrom. These mischievous girls +replied, "We have no other cup besides that which we hold in our hands," +namely, the butter. The man of blessed memory taking it, formed one +piece into the shape of a small bell, and drank from it. The story goes +that it permanently remained in that form, so that it appeared to those +who beheld it to consist altogether of the purest gold. It is preserved +in the church at Llandaff, and it is said that, by touching it, health +is given to the diseased. + +The bell of S. Mura was formerly regarded with superstitious reverence +in Ireland, and any liquid drunk from it was believed to have peculiar +properties in alleviating human suffering; hence the peasant women of +the district in which it was long preserved particularly used it in +cases of child-birth, and a serious disturbance was excited on a former +attempt to sell it by its owner. Its legendary history relates that it +descended from the sky ringing loudly, but as it approached the +concourse of people who had assembled at the miraculous warning, the +tongue detached itself and returned towards the skies; hence it was +concluded that the bell was never to be profaned by sounding on earth, +but was to be kept for purposes more holy and beneficent. This is said +to have happened on the spot where once stood the famous Abbey of Fahan, +near Innishowen, in county Donegal, founded in the seventh century by +S. Mura, or Muranus. + +Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., tells us that, in days long ago, the +inhabitants of the parish of Forrabury--which does not cover a square +mile, but which now includes the chief part of the town of Bocastle and +its harbour--resolved to have a peal of bells which should rival those +of the neighbouring church of Tintagel, which are said to have rung +merrily at the marriage, and tolled solemnly at the death of Arthur. The +bells were cast. The bells were blessed. The bells were shipped for +Forrabury. Few voyages were more favourable. The ship glided, with a +fair wind, along the northern shores of Cornwall, waiting for the tide +to carry her safely into the harbour of Bottreaux. The vesper bells rang +out at Tintagel. When he heard the blessed bell, the pilot devoutly +crossed himself, and bending his knee, thanked God for the safe and +quick voyage which they had made. The captain laughed at the +superstition, as he called it, of the pilot, and swore that they had +only to thank themselves for the speedy voyage, and that, with his own +arm at the helm, and his judgment to guide them, they would soon have a +happy landing. The pilot checked this profane speech. The wicked +captain--and he swore more impiously than ever, that all was due to +himself and his men--laughed to scorn the pilot's prayer. "May God +forgive you," was the pilot's reply. Those who are familiar with the +northern shores of Cornwall will know that sometimes a huge wave, +generated by some mysterious power in the wide Atlantic, will roll on, +overpowering everything by its weight and force. While yet the captain's +oaths were heard, and while the inhabitants on the shore were looking +out from the cliffs, expecting within an hour to see the vessel charged +with their bells safe in their harbour, one of those vast swellings of +the ocean was seen. Onward came the grand billow in all the terror of +its might! The ship rose not upon the waters as it came onward! She was +overwhelmed, and sank in an instant close to the land. As the vessel +sank, the bells were heard tolling with a muffled sound, as if ringing +the death knell of the ship and sailors, of whom the good pilot alone +escaped with life. When storms are coming, and only then, the bells of +Forrabury, with their dull muffled sound, are heard from beneath the +heaving sea, a warning to the wicked. The tower has remained silent to +this day. + +Passing through Massingham, in Lincolnshire, a long time ago, a +traveller noticed three men sitting on a stile in the churchyard, and +saying, "Come to church, Thompson!" "Come to church, Brown!" and so on. +Surprised at this, the traveller asked what it meant. He was told that, +having no bells, this was how they called folk to church. The traveller, +remarking that it was a pity so fine a church should have no bells, +asked the men if they could make three for the church, promising to pay +for them himself. This they undertook to do. They were a tinker, a +carpenter, and a shoemaker respectively. When the visitor came round +that way again, he found the three men ringing three bells, which said +"Ting, Tong, Pluff," being made respectively of tin, wood, and leather. + +There is a tradition that John Barton, the donor of the third bell at +Brigstock, Northamptonshire, was one of several plaintiffs against Sir +John Gouch to recover their rights of common upon certain lands in the +neighbouring parish of Benefield, and that Sir John threatened to ruin +him if he persisted in claiming his right. John Barton replied that he +would leave a cow which, being pulled by the tail, would low three times +a day, and would be heard all over the common when he (Sir John) and his +heirs would have nothing to do there. Hence the gift of the bell, which +was formerly rung at four in the morning, and at eleven at morning and +at night. He is also said to have left means for paying for this daily +ringing. + +One Christmas Eve the ringers of Witham-on-the-Hill left the bells +standing for the purpose of partaking of refreshments at a tavern that +stood opposite the church. One of their number, a little more thirsty +than the rest, insisted that before going back to ring they should have +another pitcher of ale. This being at length agreed to by his brother +bell-ringers, the party remained to duly drain the last draught. Whilst +they were drinking, the steeple fell. Whether this is merely a tapster's +tale, or the sober statement of a remarkable fact, we are not in a +position to state. + +From a curious and rare pamphlet on "Catholic Miracles," published in +1825, we learn that a band of sacrilegious robbers, having broken into +a monastery, proceeded out of bravado to ring a peal of bells, when, +through prayers offered up by the "holy fathers," a miracle was wrought, +and the robbers were unable to leave their hold on the ropes. This state +of affairs was depicted by the inimitable George Cruikshank in a +woodcut, impressions of which are given in our "Curiosities of the +Belfry," (Hamilton). + +In the village of Tunstall, a few miles distant from Yarmouth, there is +a clump of alder trees, familiarly known as "Hell Carr." Not far from +these trees there is a pool of water having a boggy bottom, that goes by +the name of "Hell Hole." A succession of bubbles are frequently seen +floating on the surface of the water in summer time, a circumstance (as +Mr. Glyde, the Norfolk antiquarian author, truly states) that can be +accounted for very naturally; but the natives of the district maintain +that these bubbles are the result of supernatural action, the cause of +which is thus described. The tower of the church is in ruins. Tradition +says that it was destroyed by fire, but that the bells were not injured +by the calamity. The parson and the churchwarden each claimed the +bells. While they were quarrelling, his Satanic Majesty carried out the +disputed booty. The clergyman, however, not desiring to lose the booty, +pursued and overtook the devil, who, in order to evade his clerical +opponent, dived through the earth to his appointed dwelling-place, +taking the bells with him. Tradition points to "Hell Hole" as the spot +where this hurried departure took place. The villagers believe that the +bubbles on the surface of the pool are caused by the continuous descent +of the waters to the bottomless pit. + + [Illustration: THE BELL OF ST. FILLAN.] + +In 1778 there was a bell belonging to the chapel of S. Fillan, which was +in high reputation among the votaries of that saint in olden times. It +was of an oblong shape, about a foot high, and was usually laid on a +gravestone in the churchyard. Mad people were brought to it to effect a +cure. They were first dipped into the "Saint's Pool," where certain +ceremonies were performed, which partook of the character of Druidism +and Roman Catholicism. The bell was placed in the chapel, where it +remained, bound with ropes, all night. Next day it was placed upon the +heads of the lunatics with great solemnity, but with what results +"deponent sayeth not." It was the popular opinion that, if stolen, this +bell would extricate itself from the hands of the thief and return home +ringing all the way! The bell had ultimately to be kept under lock and +key to prevent its being used for superstitious purposes. This old time +relic is now in the National Museum, Edinburgh, of the Society of +Antiquaries of Scotland, and it is described as follows in the +catalogue: "The 'Bell of S. Fillan,' of cast bronze, square shaped, and +with double-headed, dragonesque handle. It lay on a gravestone in the +old churchyard at Strathfillan, Perthshire, where it was superstitiously +used for the cure of insanity and other diseases till 1798, when it was +removed by a traveller to England. It was returned to Scotland in 1869, +and deposited in the Museum by Lord Crawford and the Bishop of Brechin, +with the consent of the Heritors and Kirk-Session of S. Fillans." Near +Raleigh there is a valley which is said to have been caused by an +earthquake several hundred years ago, which convulsion of nature +swallowed up a whole village, together with the church. Formerly it was +the custom of the people to assemble in this valley every Christmas Day +morning to listen to the ringing of the bells of the church beneath +them. This, it was positively asserted, might be heard by placing the +ear to the ground and listening attentively. As late as 1827 it was +usual on this morning for old men and women to tell their children and +young friends to go to the valley, stoop down, and hear the bells ring +merrily. The villagers really heard the ringing of the bells of a +neighbouring church, the sound of which was communicated by the surface +of the ground, the cause being misconstrued through the ignorance and +credulity of the listeners. + + + + +Concerning Font-Lore. + +By the Rev. P. Oakley Hill. + + +When those sermons in stone--the beautiful fonts of the Decorated and +Perpendicular periods, which preached to a bygone age--come to be +translated into modern English on an extensive and systematic scale, +they will be found to be not only sermons theological, but treatises on +hagiology, music, contemporary history, symbolism, and art of the +highest order. One of the richest fields in font-lore is to be found in +East Anglia, and Norfolk alone contains examples of sufficient +importance and of vivid interest, to fill a whole volume on this +particular subject. Only to mention a few, that will rapidly occur to a +Norfolk antiquary, is to conjure up a varied and rich archaeological +vision, which can be extended indefinitely at will. + +Of canopied fonts perhaps that of S. Peter (Mancroft), Norwich, takes +the palm. The carved oak canopy is supported by four massive posts, +giving great dignity to the stone font which it overshadows. The canopy +at Sall is of a more graceful type, being in the form of a crocketed +spire, suspended by a pulley from an ancient beam projecting from the +belfry platform. Elsing, Merton, and Worstead also possess font covers +of great interest. + +Seven Sacrament fonts are numerous, that of New Walsingham being one of +the finest of its kind in England. It belongs to the Perpendicular +period, and is richly carved. On seven of its eight panels are +sculptured figures representing the Seven Sacraments, the eighth +exhibiting the Crucifixion. The stem carries figures of the four +Evangelists and other saints, and rests on an elaborately-carved plinth, +the upper part of which is in the form of a Maltese cross. A copy of +this magnificent structure has been erected in the Mediaeval Court of the +Crystal Palace. A counterpart of the Walsingham font (more or less +exact, though perhaps not so rich in carving) is to be seen at Loddon, +with similar Maltese cross base, but the Vandal's hand has nearly +obliterated the figuring of the Sacramental panels. Other instances of +Seven Sacrament fonts are to be seen in Norwich Cathedral, at Blofield, +Martham, and elsewhere. + +Fonts bearing the date of their erection are found at Acle and Sall, the +former having the following inscription upon the top step: "Orate pro +diabus qui huc fontem in honore dei fecerunt fecit anno dni millo cccc +decimo." An instance of a Posy font with date (sixteenth century) occurs +in one of the Marshland churches, the Posy being:-- + + Thynk and Thank. + +The leaden font at Brundall is believed to be one of three only of its +kind remaining in England; a fourth, somewhat damaged, existed at Great +Plumstead until a few years ago, when alas! it perished in a disastrous +fire which practically destroyed the church. Lion fonts are numerous, +those of Acle and Strumpshaw being excellent examples. + +Remarkable examples of carved fonts are those at Toftrees, Blofield, +Wymondham, Bergh Apton, Aylsham, Ketteringham, Sculthorpe, Walpole +(S. Peter), etc. At Hemblington, dedicated to All Saints, there is a +perfect little hagiology around the font-pedestal and upon seven of the +panels of the basin, the eighth panel shewing the mediaeval presentment +of the Holy Trinity, the Almighty Father being somewhat blasphemously +represented as an old man, while the Crucifix rests upon an orb, and +(what is perhaps somewhat unusual) the Holy Dove appears about to alight +on the Cross. + + [Illustration: FONT AT UPTON CHURCH, NORFOLK.] + +Of Decorated Fonts in the county of Norfolk, that of Upton must be +accounted _facile princeps_. In beauty of design, in fulness of +symbolism, in richness of detail, it is a faithful type of the elaborate +art of the Decorated Period. It was originally coloured, fragments of +red and blue paint being still visible. A massive base is formed by +three octagonal steps rising tier upon tier, the upper step divided from +the second by eight sets of quatrefoils, flanked at the corners by +sitting dogs with open mouths. Upon the stem of the font there are eight +figures in _bas relief_, standing upon pediments beneath overhanging +canopies exquisitely carved. These canopies are adorned with crocketed +pinnacles, and the interior of each has a groined roof, with rose boss +in the centre. Some of the pediments are garnished with foliage, others +exhibit quaint animals, _e.g._, a double dragon with but one head +connecting the two bodies, two lions linked by their tails, and two dogs +in the act of biting each other; all, of course, highly symbolical of +various types of sin. The canopied figures around the pedestal represent +the two Sacraments, an indication that even in the fourteenth century +the two Sacraments of the Gospel were esteemed as of the first +importance. Holy Communion is symbolised by five figures. A bishop in +eucharistic vestments, his right hand raised in blessing, his left +holding the pastoral staff, while the double dragon is beneath his feet. +It is not unlikely that this ecclesiastic was de Spenser, the +contemporary Bishop of Norwich, of military fame. The bishop is +supported to right and left by angels robed and girded, circlets and +crosses on their heads, each holding a candle in a somewhat massive +candlestick. The graceful lines of the wings suggest the probability of +the artist having belonged to a continental guild of stone carvers. The +next two figures are priests, each vested in dalmatic, maniple, stole, +and alb, acting as deacon and sub-deacon, the first holding an open +service book, the second the chalice and pyx. + +The three remaining figures portray Holy Baptism. Of the two godmothers +and the godfather in the lay dress of the fourteenth century, the first +holds a babe in her arms in swaddling clothes, the swathing band being +crossed again and again. The other sponsors carry each a rosary. + +To digress for a moment; here is an interesting deduction. The infant is +a girl--witness the two godmothers. The font cannot have been made later +than about 1380, at which time the Decorated merged into the +Perpendicular. Now the lord of the manor of Upton from 1358 onwards, for +many years, was one John Buttetourt, or Botetourt, who, with his wife +Matilda, had an only daughter and heiress, to whom was given the +baptismal name Jocosa. It appears highly probable that the lord of +Upton, rejoicing at the birth of his little heiress, caused the font to +be designed and built as a memorial of her baptism. But it would seem +that he did not live to see her settled in life, for in 1399 she had +grown to early womanhood, had won the affection of Sir Hugh Burnell, who +made her his wife, and by the following year, if not before, she had +inherited the manor in her own right. + +To return to the description of the font. Resting on the canopies above +described, and supported by eight half-angels with musical instruments, +etc., is the large and handsome laver. The principal panels are occupied +by reliefs of the four living creatures of the Revelation--the historic +emblems of the four Evangelists--the flying lion, the flying bull, the +man, and the eagle, the last named with scroll facing east. The four +alternative panels represent angels, two holding instruments of music, +two with heraldic shields. The panels are separated from each other by +crocketed buttresses. The musical instruments shewn upon the font are +of great interest. A kind of rebeck or lute twice occurs, and once a +curious pair of cymbals. One half-angel is playing on a crowth, an early +form of the fiddle, consisting of an oblong box, a couple of strings, a +short straight and round handle, and a bow. Another of the half-angels +holds an open music book, containing the ancient four-line score. + +The font has suffered some amount of mutilation in the five centuries of +its existence; three or four heads have disappeared, also the right hand +of the bishop, and the top of the pastoral staff; the chalice has been +broken off, and the flying lion is fractured. And as a reminder of the +iconoclastic century which was most likely responsible for the damage, +these dates are roughly cut into the leaden lining of the bowl: 1641, +1662, 1696. + + + + +Watching Chambers in Churches. + +By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. + + +The smallest acquaintance with the inventories, or the ceremonial, of +our mediaeval churches is sufficient to show anyone a glimpse of the +extraordinary wealth of which the larger churches especially were +possessed in those days. Vestments of velvet and silk and cloth of gold, +adorned with jewels and the precious metals; crosses and candlesticks of +gold, studded with gems; reliquaries that were ablaze with gorgeousness +and beauty; and sometimes shrines and altars that were a complete mass +of invaluable treasure; such were the contents of the choirs and +sacristies of our cathedrals and abbey churches. This being the case, it +is obvious that the greatest care had to be taken of such places. Then, +even as now, there were desperadoes from whom the sanctity of the shrine +could not protect it, if they could get a chance of fingering its +jewels; men who would exclaim, with Falconbridge in the play of "King +John" (Act III., Sc. 3)-- + + "Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, + When gold and silver beck me to come on." + +To protect the wealthier churches from desecration and loss, therefore, +bands of watchers were organized, who throughout the night should be +ever on the alert against the attacks of thieves; who would also, +moreover, be able to raise, if need were, the alarm of fire. At Lincoln +these guardians patrolled the Minster at nightfall, to assure themselves +that all was safe. To facilitate the inspection of the whole building +occasionally squints were made; as at the Cathedral of S. David's, where +the cross pierced in the east wall behind, and just above, the high +altar, is supposed by some to have been for this purpose, a view being +thus obtained of the choir from the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, or _vice +versa_. + +In several instances, however, it was found both more convenient and +more effective to erect a special chamber, so placed and so elevated as +to command a good view of the church, or of the portion of the church to +be watched; and here a constant succession of watchers kept guard. One +of our most interesting examples of this is at S. Albans. Near the +site of the shrine of the patron saint (on which the fragments of the +shattered shrine have been skilfully built up once more) is a structure, +in two storeys, of carved timber. The lower stage is fitted with +cupboards, in which were probably preserved relics, or such jewels and +ornaments as were not kept permanently upon the shrine. A doorway in +this storey admits to a staircase leading to the gallery above. This is +the watchers' chamber; the side fronting the shrine being filled with +perpendicular tracery, whence the monks in charge could easily keep the +treasures around them under observation. A somewhat similar structure is +still seen at Christ Church, Oxford, and is sometimes spoken of as the +shrine of S. Frideswide. It is really the watching-chamber for that +shrine; and was erected in the fourteenth century upon an ancient tomb, +supposed to be that of the founder of the _feretrum_ of the saint, +though popular report describes it as the resting-place of the bodies of +her parents. + + [Illustration: ABBOT'S PEW, MALMESBURY ABBEY.] + +In not a few cases, both in England and abroad, these chambers were +built in a yet more durable fashion. At Bourges may be seen a stone loft +on the left side of the altar; at Nuremberg also is one. In addition to +the wooden chamber, already described, S. Alban's Abbey (now the +cathedral) has a small one of stone in the transept. Lichfield has a +gallery over the sacristy door, which served the same purpose; and at +Worcester an oriel was probably used by the watchers. Westminster Abbey +has such a chamber over the chantry of King Henry VI., and Worcester +Cathedral has one in the north aisle; and there are several other +instances. Many churches had rooms over the north porch, as the +cathedrals of Exeter and Hereford, the churches of Christchurch +(Hampshire), Alford (Lincolnshire), and many others; and these in some +cases, as at Boston, had openings commanding a view of the interior. + +Another explanation of the existence of a few watching lofts is +sometimes given, besides the need of guarding the Church's treasures. It +is held by some that in the face of the deterioration of monastic +simplicity and devotion in the later times before the Dissolution in +England, the abbots felt the need of keeping a stricter eye upon their +community; and these rooms were consequently constructed to enable them +to look, unobserved themselves, into their abbey church, and to see +that all whose duty called for their presence were there, and properly +occupied. This theory is perhaps supported by the traditional name of +"the abbot's pew," by which a very simple and substantial +watching-chamber in the triforium of Malmesbury Abbey is called. With +this may be compared another example in the priory church of +S. Bartholomew, Smithfield. In these, and most of the other instances, +the watching-chamber is an addition to the original structure, dating +often considerably later than the rest. This is quoted by the believers +in the rapid spread of monastic depravity in later ages in support of +the theory just noticed; as is also the fact, that the "pew" is often +near what formerly constituted the abbot's private apartments within the +adjoining monastery. It is probable that both explanations are true; +some of these lofts forming "abbot's pews," as others certainly were for +the guardian watchers of the shrines. In a large community it would +certainly be wise for the head to be able at times to survey quietly and +unobserved the actions of the rest; but this admission no more implies +that the lives of all monks were scandalous, than does the presence of +watchers by the shrines prove that all worshippers were thieves. + +We have noticed in this paper the chief watching-chambers in this +country, but no doubt other examples occur which may have special points +of interest. + + + + +Church Chests. + +By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. + + +An interesting article of Church furniture which has scarcely received +the amount of notice which it deserves, is the Church Chest, the +receptacle for the registers and records of the parish, and sometimes +also for the office books, vestments, and other valuables belonging to +the Church. In recent years attention has frequently been directed to +the interesting character of our ancient parochial documents, but the +useful cases which for so many years have shielded them, more or less +securely, from damage or loss, have been largely overlooked. + +The present authority for the provision in every English church of a +proper repository for its records is the seventieth canon, the latter +part of which runs in the following words, from which it will be seen +that some of its details have been suffered to become obsolete: "For the +safe keeping of the said book (the register of baptisms, weddings, and +burials), the churchwardens, at the charge of the parish, shall provide +one sure coffer, and three locks and keys; whereof one to remain with +the minister, and the other two with the churchwardens severally; so +that neither the minister without the two churchwardens, nor the +churchwardens without the minister, shall at any time take that book out +of the said coffer. And henceforth upon every Sabbath day immediately +after morning or evening prayer, the minister and the churchwardens +shall take the said parchment book out of the said coffer, and the +minister in the presence of the churchwardens shall write and record in +the said book the names of all persons christened, together with the +names and surnames of their parents, and also the names of all persons +married and buried in that parish in the week before, and the day and +year of every such christening, marriage, and burial; and that done, +they shall lay up the book in the coffer as before." This Canon, made +with others in 1603, was a natural sequence to the Act passed in 1538, +which enjoined the due keeping of parish registers of the kind above +described. It is, in fact, obvious that the canon only gave additional +sanction to a practice enforced some years earlier; for Grindal, in his +"Metropolitical Visitation of the Province of York in 1571," uses +almost identical terms, requiring, amongst many other things, "That the +churchwardens in every parish shall, at the costs and charges of the +parish, provide ... a sure coffer with two locks and keys for keeping +the register book, and a strong chest or box for the almose of the poor, +with three locks and keys to the same:" the same demand was made, also +by Grindal, on the province of Canterbury in 1576. + +Church chests did not, however, come into use in consequence of the +introduction of the regular keeping of registers. The Synod of Exeter, +held in 1287, ordered that every parish should provide "a chest for the +books and the vestments," and the convenience and even necessity of some +such article of furniture, doubtless led to its use in many places from +yet earlier times. + +We have in England several excellent examples of "hutches," or chests, +which date from the thirteenth, or even from the close of the twelfth +century. Some there are for which a much earlier date has been claimed. +These latter are rough coffers formed usually of a single log of wood, +hollowed out, and fitted with a massive lid, the whole being bound with +iron bands. Chests of this kind may be seen at Newdigate, Surrey, at +Hales Owen, Shropshire, and elsewhere; and on the strength of the +rudeness of the carpentry displayed, it has been asserted that they are +of Norman, or even of Saxon, workmanship. Roughness of design and work +are scarcely, however, in themselves sufficient evidence of great +antiquity; many local causes, especially in small country places, may +have led the priests and people to be content with a very rude article +of home manufacture, at a time when far more elaborate ones were +procurable in return for a little more enterprise or considerably more +money. The date of these rough coffers must therefore be considered +doubtful. + +Of Early English chests, we have examples at Clymping, Sussex, at +Saltwood and Graveney, Kent, at Earl Stonham, Suffolk, at Stoke +D'Abernon, Surrey, and at Newport, Essex. The Decorated Period is +represented by chests at Brancepeth, Durham, at Huttoft and Haconby, +Lincolnshire, at Faversham and Withersham, Kent, and at S. Mary +Magdalene's, Oxford. The workmanship of the Perpendicular Period has +numerous illustrations among our church chests, such as those at +S. Michael's, Coventry, S. Mary's, Cambridge, the Chapter House of +Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford, and others at Frettenham, Norfolk, at +Guestling, Sussex, at Harty Chapel, Kent, at Southwold, Suffolk, and at +Stonham Aspel, Suffolk. + + [Illustration: CHEST AT SALTWOOD, KENT.] + +In the making of all these coffers, strength was naturally the great +characteristic which was most obviously aimed at; strength of structure, +so as to secure durability, and strength of locks and bolts, so as to +ensure the contents from theft. But in addition to this, artistic beauty +was not lost sight of, and many chests are excellent illustrations of +the wood-carvers' taste and skill, and several were originally enriched +with colour. + + [Illustration: CHEST AT UPTON CHURCH.] + + [Illustration: CHEST AT OVER, CHESHIRE.] + +A good example of those in which security has been almost exclusively +sought, is provided by a chest at S. Peter's, Upton, Northamptonshire. +The dimensions of this hutch are six feet three inches in length, two +feet six inches in height, and two feet in width. Its only adornment is +provided by the wrought iron bands which are attached to it. Four of +these are laid laterally across each end, and four more, running +perpendicularly, divide the front into five unequal panels; the bands on +the front correspond with an equal number laid across the lid, where, +however, two more are placed at the extreme ends. Each of the panels in +front and top is filled with a device in beaten iron roughly resembling +an eight-pointed star, the lowest point of which runs to the bottom of +the chest. Yet simpler is the chest at S. Mary's, West Horsley, which is +a long, narrow, oaken box, strengthened by flat iron bands crossing the +ends and doubled well round the front and back, while six others are +fastened perpendicularly to the front; there are two large locks, and +three hinges terminating in long strips of iron running almost the +complete breadth of the lid. The church of S. Botolph, Church Brampton, +has a chest equally plain in itself, but the iron bands are in this +case of a richer character. Elegant scroll-work originally covered the +front and ends, much still remaining to this day. S. Lawrence's, in the +Isle of Thanet, possesses an exceedingly rough example, with a curved +top; seven broad iron bands strengthen the lid, and several +perpendicular ones, crossed by a lateral one, are affixed to the front, +the whole being studded with large square-headed nails; a huge lock is +placed in the middle, with hasps for padlocks to the right and left of +it. It is raised slightly from the ground by wooden "feet." + + [Illustration: CHEST AT S. LAWRENCE, ISLE OF THANET.] + +For security and strength, however, the palm must be awarded to a coffer +at Stonham Aspel. The following description of this remarkable chest was +given in the "Journal of the British Archaeological Society" in +September, 1872: "This curious example is of chestnut wood, 8 feet in +length, 2 feet 3 inches in height, and 2 feet 7 inches from front to +back; and is entirely covered on the outer surface with sheets of iron +41/2 inches in width, the joinings being hid by straps. The two lids are +secured by fourteen hasps; the second from the left locks the first, and +the hasp simply covers the keyhole; the fourth locks the third, etc. +After this process is finished, a bar from each angle passes over them, +and is secured by a curious lock in the centre, which fastens them both. +The interior of this gigantic chest is divided into two equal +compartments by a central partition of wood, the one to the left being +painted red; the other is plain. Each division can be opened separately; +the rector holding four of the keys, and the churchwardens the others, +all being of different patterns." The writer of this description (Mr. +H. Syer Cuming, F.S.A., Scot., V.P.) assigns the chest to the fifteenth +century. + + [Illustration: CHURCH CHEST, S. MICHAEL'S, COVENTRY.] + +Turning now to those chests, whose makers, while not forgetting the +needful solidity and strength, aimed also at greater decoration, the +handsome hutch at S. Michael's, Coventry, claims our notice. The front +of this is carved with a double row of panels having traceried heads, +the upper row being half the width of the lower one. In the centre are +two crowned figures, popularly (and not improbably) described as Leofric +and his wife, the Lady Godiva. At each end of the front is a long panel +decorated with lozenges enclosing Tudor roses, foliage, and conventional +animals; while two dragons adorn the bottom, which is cut away so as to +leave a triangular space beneath the chest. At S. John's, Glastonbury, +is another fine example, measuring six feet two inches in length, and at +present lidless. Within six vesica-shaped panels are placed quatrefoil +ornaments, each divided by a horizontal bar. Above these are five +shields, three charged with S. George's Cross, and the others, one with +three lozenges in fess, and the other with three roundles, two and one, +and a label. The ends, or legs, are elaborately carved with dog-tooth +figures in squares and circles. Saltwood, Kent, has an ornately carved +chest, divided (like that of Stonham Aspel) into two parts, the lid +being correspondingly formed, and opening in sections. One half is +secured by three locks, and the other by one. The front is carved with +five geometrical "windows" of four lights each; and the ends of the +front have three carved square panels, divided by bands of dancette +ornament. The base has a long narrow panel, with a simple wavy design. +There is some bold carving on a chest at S. George's, South Acre, in +Norfolk; a row of cusped arches fills rather more than half the height +of the front, the rest being taken up with four panels containing roses +and stars, similar designs on a smaller scale being repeated at the +ends. The front is cut away at the bottom in a series of curves. + + [Illustration: CHURCH CHEST S. JOHN'S GLASTONBURY] + +At Alnwick is a massive coffer, over seven feet long, bearing on its +front a number of figures of dragons, and heads of birds and beasts, +amid foliage; above which are two hunting scenes, in which appear men +with horns, dogs, and deer, amid trees. These two scenes are separated +by the lock, and are precisely alike, save that the quarry in one is a +stag, and a hind in the other. Empingham, near Stamford, has a fine +chest of cedar wood, adorned with incised figures. At S. Mary's, +Mortlake, is one of walnut, inlaid with boxwood and ebony, and +ornamented with designs in metal work; the under side of the lid has +some delicate iron-wrought tracery, which was originally set off with +red velvet. The Huttoft chest is enriched with traceried arches, which +were apparently at one time picked out in colour; that of Stoke +D'Abernon is raised on four substantial legs, and is decorated with +three circles on the front filled with a kind of tracery; there are +other interesting specimens at Winchester and at Ewerby. In the old +castle at Newcastle-on-Tyne is preserved an old church coffer, which was +probably removed there for safety during the troublous days of the Civil +War. At Harty Chapel, Kent, we find the figures of two knights in full +armour, tilting at each other, carved on the front of a chest; the +legend of S. George and the dragon is illustrated in a similar way at +Southwold Church, Suffolk, and yet more fully on a chest in the treasury +of York Minster. + +Probably, however, the handsomest example of a carved church chest now +preserved in England is at Brancepeth, in the county of Durham. This +beautiful piece of work, which rests in the south chapel of the church, +has its front completely covered with elaborate carving. At either end +are three oblong panels, one above another, on each of which is a +conventional bird or beast; at the base is a series of diamonds filled, +as are the intervals between them, with tracery; and above this is an +arcade of six pointed arches, each enclosing three lights surmounted by +a circle, the six being divided by tall lancets, the crockets of the +arches and a wealth of foliage filling up the intervening spaces. This +fine chest dates from the fourteenth century. + +The Rev. Francis E. Powell, M.A., in his pleasantly-written work +entitled "The Story of a Cheshire Parish," gives particulars of the +parish chest of Over. "The chest," says Mr. Powell, was "the gift of +Bishop Samuel Peploe to Joseph Maddock, Clerk, April 30th, 1750." It +probably was an old chest even then. The donor was Bishop of Chester +from 1726 to 1752. He was a Whig in politics, and a latitudinarian in +religion, as so many bishops of that time were. That he was a man of +determined courage may be seen by his loyalty to the House of Hanover, +even under adverse circumstances. One day, in the year 1715, he was +reading Morning Prayer at the parish church at Preston. The town was +occupied by Jacobite troops, some of whom burst into the church during +the service. Approaching the prayer-desk, with drawn sword, a trooper +demanded that Peploe should substitute James for George in the prayer +for the King's Majesty. Peploe merely paused to say, "Soldier, I am +doing my duty; do you do yours;" and went on with the prayers, whereupon +the soldiers at once proceeded to eject him from the church. The +illustration of the chest is kindly lent to us by the Rev. Francis E. +Powell, vicar of Over. + +In the vestry of Lambeth Palace is a curiously painted chest; several of +an early date are preserved in the triforium of Westminster Abbey; there +is one at Salisbury Cathedral, and another in the Record Office, having +been removed from the Pix Chapel. + +One of the original uses of these coffers, as we have seen, was to +preserve the vestments of the church. The copes, however, being larger +than the other vestments, and in the cathedrals and other important +churches, being very numerous, frequently had a special receptacle +provided. At York, Salisbury, Westminster, and Gloucester, ancient +cope-chests are still preserved. These are triangular in shape, the cope +being most easily folded into that form. + +In not a few instances these large coffers, or sections of them, were +used as alms boxes, for which a very ancient precedent can be found. At +the restoration of the Jewish Temple under King Joash, we are told +(2 Kings xii., 9, 10) that "Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored +a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side +as one cometh into the house of the Lord: and the priests that kept the +door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the +Lord: and it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the +chest, that the King's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put +up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the Lord." + +At Llanaber, near Barmouth in North Wales, is a chest hewn from a single +block of wood, and pierced to receive coins. At Hatfield, Yorkshire, is +an ancient example of a similar kind; and others may be seen at +S. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, at Drayton in Berkshire, at Meare +Church, Somersetshire, at Irchester and Mears Ashby, in +Northamptonshire, at Hartland, in Devonshire, and in the Isle of Wight +at Carisbrooke. An interesting chest, with provision for the reception +of alms, is preserved at Combs Church, Suffolk, where there is also +another plain hutch, iron-bound and treble-locked. The chest in question +is strongly, but simply, made, the front being divided into four plain +panels, with some very slight attempt at decoration in the form of small +disks and diamonds along the top; and the lid being quite flat and +plain, and secured by two locks. At one end, however, a long slit has +been cut in this lid, and beneath it is a till, or trough, to receive +the money, very similar to the little locker often inserted at one end +of an old oak chest intended for domestic use, save that in this case +the compartment has, of course, no second lid of its own. This chest has +the date 1599 carved upon it, but is supposed to be some half a century +older, the date perhaps marking the time of some repairs or alterations +made in it. + +Hutches of the kind that we have been considering are not peculiar to +England, some fine and well-preserved examples being found in several +of the ancient churches in France. Among ourselves it is obvious that +great numbers must have disappeared; many doubtless were rough and +scarcely worthy of long preservation; others by the very beauty of their +workmanship probably roused the cupidity, or the iconoclastic prejudice, +of the spoiler. Near Brinkburn Priory a handsome fourteenth century +chest was found, used for domestic purposes, in a neighbouring +farm-house; a Tudor chest, belonging to S. Mary's, Newington, lay for +years in the old rectory house, and subsequently disappeared; and these +are doubtless typical of many another case. When the strictness at first +enforced as to the care of the parish registers became culpably relaxed, +and parish clerks and sextons were left in practically sole charge of +them, it is but too probable that these men, often illiterate and +otherwise unsuited to such a trust, were in many instances as careless, +or as criminal, in regard to the coffers, as we unfortunately know they +frequently were with respect to their contents. + +Few church chests of any interest date from the Jacobean, or any +subsequent period. Plain deal boxes were then held good enough for the +purpose of a "church hutch." + + + + +An Antiquarian Problem: The Leper Window. + +By William White, F.S.A. + + +These windows were called by Parker and other writers of the Gothic +Revival, "Lychnoscopes;" and then by the ecclesiologists, "Low-side +Windows." But the name given by the late G. E. Street has now become so +generally accepted that it seems necessary to look a little further into +the evidence of the fitness or unfitness of this designation for them. + +Behind some stalls in the Royal Chapel were discovered some remains of a +mural painting, apparently to represent the communicating of a leper +through some such window, and he at once concluded that it was for this +very purpose so many of them were introduced into the chancels of our +mediaeval churches. There seemed, however, nothing to indicate that it +was at one of these special windows at all that this function was +performed. And the very fact of the representation itself would seem to +indicate rather an exceptional instance, or special circumstance, such +as the communicating of some knight or person of note who might, for +instance, have brought leprosy in his own person from the Holy Land, +from whence probably in the first instance it came; and who would not be +admitted within the church. But the records of the existence of lepers +would seem to show their numbers to have been very limited, and confined +to few localities. And in any case this would be no sufficient cause for +the introduction of these windows as of universal occurrence throughout +the land, for these windows are found almost everywhere, and in very +many instances on both sides of the chancel. Moreover, in many cases the +act of administration through these windows would be exceedingly +difficult, if not impossible, on account of the position, or the +arrangement, of the window itself. + +To my mind a very much more practical and reasonable supposition would +be that they were introduced, and used, for burial purposes. At a period +when the body would not be brought into the church, except in the case +of some ecclesiastic or other notable person, the priest would here be +able, _from his stall_, to see the funeral _cortege_ come into the +churchyard, and then say the first part of the office through this +window; which was always shuttered and without glass. In some cases +there is a book-ledge corbelled out on the east jamb of the window +inside, which has puzzled antiquaries, but which has not otherwise +received a satisfactory explanation. In immediate proximity to the +window, at the end of the stalls (and sometimes in the earlier churches +_through_ them), was the priest's door, out of which he would then +proceed to the grave to commit the body to the earth. The grave itself +needs not necessarily be within sight of the window. But in a number of +instances the churchyard cross was so; and this may have served as the +recognised place for the mourners, with the body, to assemble. + +In the case of Foxton, Leicestershire, the "Lych Window," as I would +call it, is on the north side. Here the burials are chiefly on the north +side; a steep slope down towards the church on the south side rendering +it very difficult and unsuitable for them. At Addisham, Kent, the +priest's door is, contrary to the usual custom, on the north side, where +is also a principal portion of the churchyard, and, so far as my own +observations go, the position of the window would greatly depend upon +the arrangement of the churchyard, whether north or south. + + + + +Mazes. + +By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, B.A. + + +Something concerning the construction of labyrinths, or mazes, is known +even to the most general reader; it needs but a slight acquaintance with +classical literature to learn of the famous example formed at Crete by +Daedalus; the legend of the concealment of "fair Rosamond," within a maze +at Woodstock, is familiar enough; and the existing labyrinth at Hampton +Court, the work of William III. is well known. But probably few who have +not looked somewhat into the matter, have any idea of the number of such +mazes which still exist, or of the yet greater number of which we have +authentic records. A learned French antiquary, Mons. Bonnin, of Evreux, +collected two hundred examples, gathered from many lands, and stretching +in history from classical to modern times. + +Of the most ancient labyrinths it will be enough to indicate the +localities. One is said to have been constructed in Egypt by King +Minos, and to have served as a model for the one raised by Daedalus at +Cnossus, in Crete, as a prison for the Minataur. Another Egyptian +example, which has been noticed by several authors, was near Lake +Moeris. Lemnos contained a famous labyrinth; and Lar Porsena built one +at Clusium, in Etruria. These mazes consisted either of a series of +connected caverns, as it has been supposed was the case in Crete; or, as +in the other instances, were formed of courts enclosed by walls and +colonnades. + + [Illustration: LABYRINTH INSCRIBED ON ONE OF THE PORCH PIERS + OF LUCCA CATHEDRAL.] + +The use of the labyrinth in mediaeval times, has, however, greater +interest for us in this paper, especially from the fact that such was +distinctly ecclesiastical. Several continental churches have labyrinths, +either cut in stone or inlaid in coloured marbles, figured upon their +walls or elsewhere. At Lucca Cathedral is an example incised upon one of +the piers of the porch; and others may be seen at Pavia, Aix in +Provence, and at Poitiers. These are all small, the diameter of the +Lucca labyrinth being 1 foot 71/2 inches, which is the dimension also of +one in an ancient pavement in the church of S. Maria in Aquiro, in Rome. +That the suggestion for the construction of these arose from the +mythological legends concerning those of pagan days is proved by the +fact that in several of them the figures of Theseus and the Minataur +were placed in the centre. Probably from the first, the Church, in her +use of the figure, spiritualized the meaning of the heathen story, as we +know was her wont in other cases; and a labyrinth formed in mosaic on +the floor of an ancient basilica at Orleansville, Algeria, shows that +presently the mythological symbols gave place entirely to obviously +Christian ones. In this last-named instance, the centre is occupied by +the words _Sancta Ecclesia_. + +About the twelfth century these curious figures became very popular, and +a considerable number dating from that period still exist. They have for +the most part been constructed in parti-coloured marbles on some portion +of the floor of the church. One was laid down in 1189 at S. Maria in +Trastevere, in Rome; S. Vitale, Ravenna, contains another; and the +parish church of S. Quentin has a third. Others formerly existed at +Amiens Cathedral (made in 1288 and destroyed in 1825), at Rheims (made +about 1240 and destroyed in 1779), and at Arras (destroyed at the +Revolution). These are much larger than the examples before noticed; the +two Italian examples are each about 11 feet across, but the French ones +greatly exceed this. Those of S. Quentin and Arras were each over 34 +feet in diameter, and the others were somewhat larger; Amiens possessed +the largest, measuring 42 feet. France had another example of a similar +kind at Chartres. + +The Christian meaning which was read into these complicated designs was +more emphatically expressed in these twelfth-century instances. The +centre is usually occupied by a cross, round which, in some cases, were +arranged figures of bishops, angels, and others. + +The introduction of these large labyrinths, together with the name which +came at this time to be applied to them in France, namely, _Chemins de +Jerusalem_, suggests the new use to which such arrangements now began to +be put. It is well known that in some cases substitutes for the great +pilgrimage to Jerusalem were allowed to be counted as of almost equal +merit. Thus the Spaniards, so long as they had not expelled the infidel +from their own territory, were forbidden to join the Crusades to the +Holy Land; and were permitted to substitute a journey to the shrine of +S. Jago, at Compostella, for one to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. By +an extension of the same principle, especially when the zeal of +Christendom for pilgrimages began to cool, easy substitutes for the more +exacting devotion were found in many ways. The introduction of the +Stations of the Cross is ascribed to this cause, the devout following in +imagination of the footsteps of the Saviour in His last sufferings, +being accounted equivalent to visiting the holy places; and somewhat +similarly, the maze, or labyrinth, is said to have been pressed into the +service of religion, the following out (probably upon the knees) of its +long and tortuous path-way, being reckoned as a simple substitute for a +longer pilgrimage. + +From such a use as this, it was no great step to the employment of the +maze as a means of penance in other cases. The whole of the intricate +pathway was intended to remind the penitent of the difficulties which +beset the Christian course; and the centre, which could only be reached +by surmounting them, was often called heaven (_Ciel_). Nor could such a +penance be deemed a light one. Though occupying so small a space of +ground, the mazy path was so involved as to reach a considerable length, +whence it was sometimes named the League (_La lieue_). The pathway at +Chartres measures 668 feet; at Sens was a maze which required some 2,000 +steps to gain the centre. An hour is said to have been often needed to +accomplish the journey, due allowance being made for the prayers which +had to be recited at certain fixed stations of it, or throughout its +whole course. + +At S. Omer are one or two examples of the labyrinth. One at the Church +of Notre Dame has figures of towns, mountains, rivers, and wild beasts +depicted along the pathway, to give, no doubt, greater realism to the +pilgrimage. The existing drawing of another, which has been destroyed, +is inscribed, "The way of the road to Jerusalem at one time marked on +the floor of the Church of S. Bertin." Many of these designs are not +only ingenious, but beautiful. In the Chapterhouse at Bayeux is one +enriched with heraldic figures; that at Chartres has its central circle +relieved with six cusps, while an engrailed border encloses the whole +work. A circular shape was apparently the most popular; the maze at +S. Quentin, with some others, however, is octagonal. The pathway is +usually marked by coloured marbles, sometimes the darker, sometimes the +lighter shades in the design being used for the purpose; at Sens, lead +has been employed to indicate it. + +The Revolution, as we have seen, led to the destruction of several +ecclesiastical labyrinths; some, however, became a source of annoyance +to the worshippers, from children attempting to trace the true pathway +during the time of service, and they were removed in consequence. +Labyrinths of this kind do not appear to have been introduced into +England, the only instance known to the present writer being quite a +modern one. This is in the church porch at Alkborough, in Lincolnshire, +where, at the recent restoration, the design of a local maze (to be +noticed further hereafter) was reproduced. + +If England, however, has not imitated the continent in this respect, she +has struck out a line no less interesting, which has remained almost +exclusively her own; namely, in the mazes cut in the green turf of her +meadows. Shakespeare has an allusion to these in the "Midsummer Night's +Dream," (Act iii., 3) where Titania says, + + "The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud, + And the quaint mazes in the wanton green + For lack of tread are indistinguishable." + +Some twenty of these rustic labyrinths have been noted as still +existing, or as recorded by a sound tradition, in England; and no doubt +there have been others which have disappeared, leaving no trace behind. + + [Illustration: MAZE AT ALKBOROUGH, LINCOLNSHIRE.] + +Among those which have been preserved, the following may be noticed. At +Alkborough, in Lincolnshire, near the confluence of the Trent and the +Ouse, is a maze, the diameter of which is 44 feet; by a happy +suggestion, the design of this has been repeated, as was above remarked, +in the porch of the Parish Church, so that should the original +unfortunately be destroyed, a permanent record has been provided. +Hilton, in Huntingdonshire has a maze of exactly the same plan, in the +centre of which is a stone pillar, bearing an inscription in Latin and +English, to the effect that the work was constructed in 1660, by William +Sparrow. Comberton, in Cambridgeshire, possesses a maze, locally known +as the "Mazles," which is fifty feet in diameter. The pathway is two +feet wide, and is defined by small trenches, the whole surface being +gradually hollowed towards the centre. Northamptonshire is represented +by Boughton Green, which has a labyrinth 37 feet in diameter; and +Rutland has one at Wing, which measures 40 feet. + + [Illustration: THE MIZE-MAZE ON ST. KATHERINE'S HILL, WINCHESTER.] + +At Asenby, in the parish of Topcliffe, Yorkshire, is a maze measuring 51 +feet across, which has been carefully preserved by the local +authorities. At Chilcombe, near Winchester, a maze is cut in the turf of +S. Catherine's Hill; it is square in outline, each side being 86 feet. +It is locally known as the "Mize-maze." One much larger than any yet +noticed is found near Saffron Waldon, in Essex, its diameter being 110 +feet. There are local records which prove the great antiquity of a maze +at this place. The design is peculiar, being properly a circle, save +that at four equal distances along the circumference the pathway sweeps +out into a horseshoe projection. + + [Illustration: THE MAZE NEAR ST. ANNE'S CHAPEL, NOTTINGHAM.] + +A similar plan was followed in cutting a maze, once of some celebrity, +near S. Anne's Well, at Sneinton, Nottingham. The projections in this +case are bolder, and within the spaces enclosed by the triple pathway +which swept around them were cut cross-crosslets. The popular names for +this maze in the district were the "Shepherd's Maze," and "Robin +Hood's Race." This was, unfortunately, ploughed up in 1797, at the +enclosure of the lordship of Sneinton. Nottinghamshire has, however, +another example in the small square one at Clifton. + + [Illustration: MAZE FORMERLY EXISTING NEAR ST. ANNE'S WELL, + SNEINTON, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.] + +Many of these turf-cut labyrinths were destroyed during the +Commonwealth, before which period, according to Aubrey in his history +of Surrey, there were many in England. Not a few, however, which +survived that time of wanton destruction, have been obliterated since. + +In 1827 one which was on Ripon Common was ploughed up. Its diameter was +60 feet. Another existed till comparatively recent times at Hillbury, +between Farnham and Guildford. At Pimpern, in Dorset, there was formerly +a maze of a unique design. The outline was roughly a triangle, which +enclosed nearly an acre of ground; the pathway was marked out by ridges +of earth about a foot in height, and followed a singularly intricate +course. The plough destroyed this also in 1730. + +The names locally applied to these structures often imply very erroneous +ideas as to their origin and purpose. In some instances they are +ascribed to the shepherds, as if cut by them as pastime in their idle +moments; a suggestion, which a glance at the mazes themselves, with +their intricate designs and correctly formed curves, will prove to be +hardly tenable. Two other names of frequent occurrence in England are +"Troy Town," and "Julian's Bower"; the latter being connected with the +former, Julius, son of AEneas being the person alluded to. Some have +from these titles sought to trace a connection with a very ancient sport +known as the _Troy Game_, which arose in classic times, and survived +down to the Middle Ages. It consisted probably in the rhythmic +performance of certain evolutions, much after the fashion of the +"Musical Rides" executed by our cavalry. The origin of the idea is to be +sought in a passage in Virgil's AEneid (Bk. V., v. 583 _et seq._), which +has been thus translated by Kennett:-- + + "Files facing files their bold companions dare, + And wheel, and charge, and urge the sportive war. + Now flight they feign, and naked backs expose, + Now with turned spears drive headlong on the foes, + And now, confederate grown, in peaceful ranks they close. + As Crete's fam'd labyrinth, to a thousand ways + And endless darken'd walls the guest conveys; + Endless, inextricable rounds amuse, + And no kind track the doubtful passage shows; + So the glad Trojan youth, the winding course + Sporting pursue, and charge the rival force." + +Tresco, Scilly, has a maze known as Troy-town; and it would seem that +such were once common in Cornwall, since any intricate arrangement is +often locally called by that name. + +It has, however, been pointed out that most of these mazes date from a +time when classical knowledge was not widely spread in England; that, in +fact, the name has probably been given in most instances long after the +date of the construction of the work. + +It would seem rather that the original use of these quaint figures was, +as with those continental examples before noted, ecclesiastical. No one +who has had the opportunity of comparing the designs of the English and +the foreign mazes can fail to be struck with the great similarity +between them; suggesting, at least, a common origin and purpose. And +this suggestion is greatly strengthened when we notice that, although +the English mazes are never (with one modern instance only excepted) +within churches, as are the continental instances, yet they are almost +invariably close to a church, or the ancient site of a church. The +Alkborough and Wing mazes, for instance, are hard by the parish +churches; and those at Sneinton, Winchester, and Boughton Green are +beside spots once consecrated by chapels dedicated in honour of St. +Anne, St. Catherine, and St. John. The most probable conjecture is that +these were originally formed, and for long years were used, for +purposes of devotion and penance. Doubtless in later times the children +often trod those mazy ways in sport and emulation, which had been slowly +measured countless times before in silent meditation or in penitential +tears. + +A word or two may be added in conclusion on mazes of the more modern +sort, formed for amusement rather than for use, as a curious feature in +a scheme of landscape gardening. These _topiary_ mazes, as they are +called, usually have their paths defined by walls of well-cut box, yew, +or other suitable shrubs; and they differ from the turf mazes in that +they are often made purposely puzzling and misleading. In the +ecclesiastical maze, it is always the patience, not the ingenuity, which +is tested; there is but one road to follow, and though that one wanders +in and out with tantalizing curves and coils, yet it leads him who +follows it unerringly to the centre. + +From Tudor times this form of decoration for a large garden has been +more or less popular. Burleigh formed one at the old palace at +Theobald's, Hertfordshire, about 1560; and the Maze in Southwark, near a +spot once occupied by the residence of Queen Mary before coming to the +throne, and Maze Hill at Greenwich, no doubt mark the sites of +labyrinths now otherwise forgotten. Lord Fauconbergh had a maze at +Sutton Court in 1691; and William III. so highly approved of them that, +having left one behind him at the Palace of the Loo, he had another +constructed at Hampton Court. + +Literature and art have not disdained to interest themselves in this +somewhat formal method of gardening; for in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries more than one treatise on their construction was +published; while Holbein and Tintoretto have left behind them designs +for topiary labyrinths. + +The oldest and most famous maze in our history is "Fair Rosamond's +Bower," already mentioned. Of what kind this was, if indeed it was at +all, it is difficult to say; authorities disagreeing as to whether it +was a matter of architectural arrangement, of connected caves, or of +some other kind. The trend of modern historical criticism in this, as in +so many other romantic stories from our annals, is to deny its +genuineness altogether. + +Fortunately although so many of our ancient mazes have disappeared, the +designs of their construction has, in not a few cases, been preserved +to us by means of contemporary drawings; so that a fairly accurate idea +of the type most commonly followed may still be obtained. + +We have to thank Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S., editor of "Old +Nottinghamshire," for kindly placing at our disposal the two +illustrations relating to the St. Anne's Well Maze. + + + + +Churchyard Superstitions. + +By the Rev. Theodore Johnson. + + +Among all classes of English people there are mixed feelings relating to +our churchyards. They are either places of reverence on the one hand, or +superstition on the other. The sacred plot surrounding the old Parish +Church carries with it such a host of memories and associations, that to +the learned and thoughtful it has always been God's Acre, hallowed with +a tender hush of silent contemplation of the many sad rifts and partings +among us. We almost vie with each other in proclaiming that deep +reverence for this one sacred spot, so dear to our family life, and +affections, by those mementos of love which we raise over the +resting-places of our lost ones gone before. This is strangely apparent +in the stately monument, where the carver's art declares the virtues of +the dead, either by sculptured figure, or verse engraven, as well as in +the ofttimes more pathetic, and perhaps more beautiful, tribute of the +floral cross or wreath culled by loving hands, and borne in silence, by +our poorer brethren, as the only offering, or tribute, their slender +means allows them to make. Be sure of this one fact, that our English +Churchyards are better kept--more worthy of the name of God's Acre than +in the times past, for what is a more beautiful sight, than to see the +kneeling children around the garden grave of a parent, or a child +companion, adorning the little mound with flowers for the Eastertide +festival. Here we have a living illustration of the truth of the +concluding words of our Great Creed: "I look for the Resurrection of the +Dead and the Life of the World to come." + +On the other hand, to the ignorant, and unlearned in these things, the +Churchyard often becomes a place of dread, and it may be, some of the +strange behaviour sometimes seen there arises from this inner feeling of +awe, which in their ignorant superstition they are wont to carry off in +the spirit of daring bravado. + +From a close study of the subject, I am led to conclude that the common +unchristian idea, that the churchyard is 'haunted,' whatever that may +mean to a weak or ignorant person, has much to do with it. The evil +report, once circulated, will be handed on to generations yet unborn, +until the simple origin, which at first might have been easily +explained, becomes clouded in mystery as time goes on, and the deep +rooted feeling of horror spreads around us, until even the more +strong-minded among us, feel at times, somewhat doubtful as to whether +there may not be some truth where the popular testimony is so strong. + +In country districts, more than in towns, superstition is rife with +regard to our Churchyards. The variety and form of this superstition is +well nigh 'Legion,' and though many of my readers may enjoy an Ingoldsby +experience when read in a well-lighted room, surrounded by smiling +companions, few of them, after such an experience would care to pay a +visit alone to some neighbouring churchyard, renowned for its tale of +ghostly appearances. This will, I think enable me to show that by far +the larger number of churchyard superstitions are purely chimerous +fancies of the brain, and do not owe their origin, or existence, to any +other source, be that source a wilful fraud, or imposition, designed to +produce fear, or merely the imaginative delusion of some overstrained, +or weak brain, which called first it into existence. + +Yet there are prevalent ideas or notions, about the churchyard and its +sleepers, as deep-rooted as any wild superstition, and perhaps as +difficult to solve, or to trace to any rational source. I would here +mention one of the most strange, and probably one of the most prejudiced +notions to be met with relating to burial in the churchyard. I refer to +the East Anglian prejudice of being buried on the north side of the +church. That this prejudice is a strong one, among the country people in +certain parts of England, is proved by the scarcity of graves, nay, in +many instances the total absence of graves, on the north side of our +churches. + +Some seventeen years ago, shortly after taking charge of a parish in +Norfolk, I was called upon to select a suitable spot for the burial of a +poor man, who had been killed by an accident. After several places had +been suggested by me to the sexton, who claimed for them either a family +right, or some similar objection; I noticed for the first time, that +there were no graves upon the north side of the church, and I, in my +innocence, suggested that there would be plenty of space there; +whereupon my companion's face at once assumed the most serious +expression, and I immediately saw that fear had taken hold of his mind, +as he answered with a somewhat shaky voice, "No, Sir! No, that cannot +be!" My curiosity was immediately aroused, and I sought for an +explanation, which I found not from my good and loyal friend, who would +not trust himself to answer further than "No, Sir! No, that cannot be!" +The sexton's manner puzzled me greatly, for the man was an upright, +straightforward, open-hearted, servant of the Church--but I at once saw +that it would be fruitless to push the matter further with him, so after +marking out a suitable resting place for the poor unfortunate man, who +not being a parishoner of long standing, had no family burial place +awaiting him, I made my way home to think over the whole occurrence. + +The cause for non-burial on the north side of the Church was indeed a +mystery, yet that my parishoners had some valid reason for not being +laid to rest there, was apparent; so I set about the task of unravelling +the superstition, if so it may be called. + +My library shelves seemed to be the most natural place of research, but +here after consultation with several volumes of Archaeology, +Ecclesiology, and Folk Lore, I could find nothing bearing upon the +subject, beyond that in certain instances relating to Churchyard +Parishes on the sea-coast, the north side by reason of its exposure to +wind and storm, and being the sunless quarter of the burying ground, was +less used than other parts; but here the reason given was in +consideration of the living mourners at the time of the interment, and +not the body sleeping in its last resting place of earth. + +After some considerable correspondence with friends likely to be +interested in such a matter, I was rewarded with information that, in +some instances, the northern portion of the churchyard was left +unconsecrated, and only thus occasionally used for the burial of +suicides, vagrants, highwaymen (after the four cross road graves had +been discontinued), or for nondescripts and unbaptised persons, for whom +no religious service was considered necessary. Even this I did not +accept as a solution of my problem. That there was something more than +local feeling underlying this superstition, I was certain, but how to +get to the root of the subject perplexed me. + +The Editor of "Notes and Queries" could not satisfy me. His general +suggestions and kind desire to aid me were well-nigh fruitless, so that +there remained for me the course of watching and waiting, as none of my +neighbours could, or would, go beyond the conclusive statement of the +sexton, "It must not be!" or what was even more indefinite, "I have +never heard of such a thing." + +The subject was a fruitful source of thought for some months, and in +vain I tried to connect some religious custom of other days, or to find +some Text of Scripture, which might have given rise to the idea, if +mistranslated, or twisted by human ingenuity, to serve such a purpose, +but none occurred to me that in the least would bear of such a +contortion. + +In my intercourse with my older parishoners I sought in vain to test the +unbaptized or suicidal burying place theory as suggested above, but this +was entirely foreign to them. At length, the truth of the old saying, +"_All things come to those who wait_" brought its due reward. I was +called in to visit an aged parishoner, who was nearing the end of life's +journey, and among other subjects naturally came the thoughts, and +wishes, of this old saintly man's last hours on earth. He had been a +shepherd for well nigh sixty years, and a widower for the past fifteen +years, and in consequence he had lived and worked much alone. This had +produced a thoughtful spirit, and a certain slowness of speech, so that +he was quite the last man I should have consulted for a solution of my +mystery. Yet, here the secret was unfolded, or to my mind more +satisfactorily explained, than by any previous consultation with either +men or books. The grand old labourer, or faithful shepherd, as he was +laid helpless on his bed, with his life work symbol--the shepherd's +crook, standing idle in the corner, and his trusty dog, restless and +perplexed, roaming from room to room, was a wonderful picture of a +Christian death-bed. + +There I learned many a solemn life-lesson never to be forgotten. The +calm voice, the monosyllabic answers given in response to my questions +are still fresh to me; and there I learned the source of my Churchyard +Superstition in the following manner:-- + +With a strange, weird, unnatural light in the aged man's eyes, which +portrayed much anxiety of mind, he spoke about his burial-place, and +particularly emphasising the words "_On the south side, sir, near by the +wife_." When I ventured to inquire if he knew why such a strong +objection was held to burial on the north side of the church. He started +suddenly, and I shall never forget his reproachful, sad look as he more +readily than usual gave the answer:--"The left side of Christ, sir: we +don't like to be counted among the goats." + +As a flash of lightning illuminates the whole darkness of the country +side, and reveals for the moment every object in clear outline, so this +quaint saying of my dying friend dispelled in a moment the mists of the +past which clouded the truth of my strange superstition. + +Here was the best answer to the mystery, pointing with no uncertain +words to the glorious Resurrection Day, this aged, earthly shepherd at +the end of his years of toil recognised his Great Master, Jesus, as the +True Shepherd of mankind, meeting His flock as they arose from their +long sleep of death, with their faces turned eastward, awaiting His +appearing. + +Then when all had been called and recognised He turned to lead them +onward, still their True Shepherd and Guide, with the sheep on His right +hand, and the goats on His left hand, so wonderfully foretold in the +Gospel story: "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the +holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; +And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them +one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and +He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the +left."--_S. Matt, xxv., 31, 32, 33._ + +Surely, the above simple illustration explains much that is difficult +and mysterious to us in the way of religious superstition. Undoubtedly, +we have here a good example of how superstitions have arisen, probably +from a good source, it may be the words of some teacher long since +passed away. The circumstance has long been forgotten, yet the lesson +remains, and being handed down by oral tradition only, every vestige of +its religious nature disappears and but the feeling remains, which, in +the minds of the ignorant populace, increases in mystery and enfolds +itself in superstitious awe, without any desire from them to discover +the origin, or source, of such a strange custom, or event. + + + + +Curious Announcements in the Church. + +By the Rev. R. Wilkins Rees. + + +Years ago announcements in churches were of a distinctly curious +character, and the parish clerk in making the intimation seems to have +been left completely to his own indiscretion. In country districts, +where proper advertising would be quite impossible, the practical +advantages of some classes of announcements would be great, but none of +them accord with our modern sense of the fitness of things, and many can +only be accounted for on the ground of extraordinary familiarity between +clergyman, clerk, and congregation. A brief consideration of the subject +furnishes a few side-lights into the general condition of the church, as +well as into the laxity of church discipline, about fifty years and more +ago, especially away from large centres of population. + +In certain parts, the custom of crying lost goods in church was +undoubtedly prevalent, and did not then appear peculiar. The rector, who +had lost his favourite dog and told the parish clerk to do his best to +ascertain its whereabouts, may have been astonished to hear him announce +the loss in church, coupled with a statement that a reward of three +pounds would be given to the person who should restore the animal to its +owner. But such surprise was hardly natural when an announcement like +the following was possible:--"Mislaid on Sunday last! The gold-rimmed +vicar's spectacles of best glass, taken from his eyes in going into the +poor box, or put down somewhere when going into the font to fetch the +water after the christening." What a shock this rare jumble produced by +a country clerk must have been to the precise and classical vicar can +only be imagined. The thought, however, of a gold-rimmed vicar +diminutive enough to enter font or poor box is somewhat staggering! +Quite as muddled, but much more ingenious, was the clerk who announced, +in recent years, an accomplished D.Sc. and LL.D. as a Doctor of Schools +and a Lord Lieutenant of Divinity! + +"Lost, stolen, or strayed," shouted the clerk in church one Sunday, with +the strident voice of a town crier, and the manner of one not +unaccustomed to the task, "lost, stolen, or strayed. Four fat sheep and +one lean cow. Whoever will return the same to Mr. ----'s farm will be +suitably rewarded." It is well that the name of the parish in which it +was given, is missing from another specimen of this sort of +announcement, for it seems to indicate that honesty there could be but +the outcome of an inducement afforded by the promise of substantial +reward. "Lost," said the clerk, "on Sunday last, when the wearer was +walking home from this church, and before she reached the Town Hall, a +lady's gold brooch, set with pearls and other precious stones. The one +who has found it will consider it worth while to restore it, for the +reward of a guinea is offered." + +It is not a little surprising that the clergyman in charge did not +supervise more carefully the various announcements, especially when so +many a _contretemps_ occurred. Once a parish clerk announced in his +rector's hearing:--"There'll be no service next Sunday as the rector's +going out grouse shooting." The rector had injudiciously acquainted his +clerk with the reason of his approaching absence, and this was the +result. It happened, of course, a half century since, but it illustrates +an interesting state of things as existing at that period. With it two +similar incidents may well be mentioned, the first of which occurred in +Scotland, the second in the Principality. "Next Sawbath," said a worthy +Scotch beadle, "we shall have no Sawbath, for the meenister's house is +having spring cleaning, and as the weather is very bad the meenister's +wife wants the kirk to dry the things in." "Next Sunday," declared the +unconsciously amusing Welshman, "there'll be no Sunday, as we're going +to whitewash the church with yellow-ochre." Sometimes the omission of a +stop caused sore trouble to the clerk, while it hugely delighted the +congregation. "A man having gone to see his wife desires the prayers of +this church," was the startling announcement. But had not the clerk been +near-sighted and mistaken _sea_ for _see_, and had a comma been supplied +after sea, the notice would have been all right, for it was simply the +request of a sailor's wife on behalf of her husband. + +Once the clerk made the announcement that a parish meeting would be held +on a given date. "No, no," interrupted the vicar. "D'ye think I'd attend +to business on the audit day!" The audit days were recognised as times +of hearty feasting and convivial mirth, in which the vicar played no +unimportant part. This freedom of speech between clergyman and clerk was +not seldom fruitful of ill-restrained amusement when the announcements +were made. A vicar informed his congregation one Sunday morning that he +would hold the customary service for baptisms in the afternoon, and +requested the parents to bring their children punctually, so that there +might be no delay in commencing. Immediately he had said this, the old +clerk, sleepy and deaf, thinking the parson's announcement had to do +with a new hymn-book which at that time was being introduced, arose, and +graciously informed the people that for those who were still without +them he had a stock in the vestry from which they could be supplied at +the low charge of eighteenpence each. This is slightly similar:--"I +publish the banns of marriage between ... between ..." announced a +clergyman from the pulpit. But here for a moment he stopped, as the book +in which were the notices was not to be seen. The clerk, seeing his +vicar's predicament, and catching sight of the whereabouts of the +missing book, ejaculated:--"Between the cushion and the desk, sir." The +unique character of another notice will fully justify its inclusion. "I +am unwell, my friends, very unwell," announced a preacher one Sunday +evening, "and therefore I shall dispense with my usual gesticulation." +This happened not very long ago. + +So disregarded, indeed, were the proprieties of worship a generation +since, that the clergyman would sometimes pause during the delivery of +his sermon and make an announcement which, to say the least of it, had +no connection with the theme he was pursuing. Thus the Rev. Samuel +Sherwen, a well-known cleric in Cumberland, announced one morning that +he had just caught sight, through a window near the pulpit, of some cows +in a cornfield, and requested that some one would go and drive them out. +At another time he said there were some pigs in the churchyard which +were not his, and his servant Peter would do well to expel the +intruders. Very probably such announcements, though made from a pulpit, +would be excused because they resulted in a certain benefit. The same +plea could undoubtedly be put forward for the following trio, each of +which hails from beyond the Severn. "Take notice!" exclaimed the clerk. +"A thief is going through the Vale of Glamorgan selling tin ware, false +gold, trinkets, and rings, and other domestic implements and +instruments, and robbing houses of hens, chickens, eggs, butter, and +other portable animals, making all sorts of pretences to get money!" +Again, "Beware! beware! of a man with one eye, talking like a preacher, +and a wooden leg, given to begging and stealing!" And once more, "Take +notice! take notice! there's a mad dog going the round of the parish +with two crop ears and a very long tail!" Surely the intention of such +announcements was good, even though the literary form was bad. The last, +as might be inferred, was made at a time when rabies were prevalent. + +The Rev. Samuel Sherwen, already alluded to, was surpassed in this +direction by another Cumbrian clergyman, the Rev. William Sewell, of +Troutbeck. One Sunday morning the latter entered the pulpit of the +little church at Wythburn to preach. The pulpit sadly needed repair, +and, in leaning out from the wall, left an undesirable opening behind +it. Into this chink the parson's sermon fell, and the pulpit was so +ricketty in its broken-down condition that the preacher feared the +consequences of turning in it. Moreover, the manuscript had fallen so +far that it could not be reached. Mr. Sewell, bereft of his sermon, +announced to his congregation in broad dialect: "T' sarmont's slipt down +i' t' neuk, and I can't git it out; but I'll tell ye what--I'se read ye +a chapter i' t' Bible 'at's worth three on't." A similar story is told +in connection with the Rev. Mr. Alcock, who in the middle of the last +century was rector of Burnsal, near Skipton, in Yorkshire. Of this +clergyman another story is given which well illustrates the excessive +familiarity indulged in by occupants of the pulpit in bygone days. One +of his friends, at whose house he was wont to call previous to entering +the church on Sundays, seized a chance to unfasten and then misplace the +leaves of his sermon. In the service the parson had not read far before +he discovered the trick. "Will," cried he, "thou rascal! what's thou +been doing with my sermon?" Then turning to his people, he continued: +"Brethren, Will Thornton's been misplacing the leaves of my sermon; I +have not time to put them right; I shall read on as I find it, and you +must make the best of it that you can." He accordingly read to the close +of the confused mass to the utter astonishment of his congregation. + +Of such familiarity Scottish churches furnish well-nigh innumerable +instances. One or two will, however, be sufficient for my purpose. The +clergyman who was expected to conduct the morning service had not made +his appearance at the appointed time. After a dreadful suspense of some +fifteen minutes the beadle, that much-privileged individual, entered the +church, marched slowly along the accustomed passage, and mounted the +pulpit-stair. When half-way up he stopped, turned to the congregation, +and thus addressed them: "There was one Alexander to hae preached here +the day, but he's neither come hissel; nor has he sent the scrape o' a +pen to say what's come owre him. Ye'd better keep your seats for anither +ten meenits to see whether the body turns up or no. If he disna come, +there's naething for 't but for ye a' to gang hame again an' say +naething mair aboot it. The like o' this hasna happened here syne I hae +been conneckit wi' the place, an' that's mair than four-and-thirty year +now." As an announcement to the point, and for the purpose, that could +not easily be beaten. A clergyman of Crossmichael, in Galloway, would +even intersperse his lessons or sermon with any announcement that might +at the moment occur to him, or with allusions to the behaviour of his +hearers. Once, because of this method, a verse from Exodus was hardly +recognisable. The version given was as follows: "And the Lord said unto +Moses--shut that door; I'm thinkin' if ye had to sit beside that door +yersel', ye wadna be sae ready leavin' it open; it was just beside that +door that Yedam Tamson, the bellman, gat his death o' cauld, an' I'm +sure, honest man, he didna lat it stey muckle open.--And the Lord said +unto Moses--put oot that dog; wha is't that brings dogs to the kirk, +yaff-yaffin'? Lat me never see ye bring yer dogs here ony mair, for, if +ye do, tak notice, I'll put you an' them baith oot.--And the Lord said +unto Moses--I see a man aneeth that wast laft wi' his hat on; I'm sure +ye're cleen oot o' the souch o' the door; keep aff yer bonnet, Tammas, +an' if yer bare pow be cauld, ye maun jist get a grey worset wig like +mysel'; they're no sae dear; plenty o' them at Bob Gillespie's for +tenpence." At last, however, the preacher informed his hearers what was +said to Moses in a manner at once more accurate and becoming. + +It was, indeed, a usual custom for the clergyman publicly to rebuke +offenders, as when it happened that a young man, sitting in a prominent +position in the church, pulled out his handkerchief and brought with it +a bundle of playing cards, which flew in every direction. He had, so it +turned out, been up late the previous night, and had stuffed the cards +with which he had been gambling into his pocket, where they had remained +forgotten. The people were amazed and horrified, but the clergyman +simply looked at the offender and remarked with quiet, yet most +withering sarcasm, "Sir, that prayer book of yours has been badly +bound!" But some times the rebuke was deftly thrust back upon the +preacher. "You're sleepy, John," said the clergyman, pausing in the +middle of a drowsy discourse, and looking hard at the man he thus +addressed. "Take some snuff, John." "Put the snuff in the sermon," +ejaculated John; and the faces of the audience showed that the retort +was fully appreciated. + +In fact, such was the freedom tolerated, that this incident in Eskdale +might be taken as an example. Someone walked noisily up the aisle during +divine service. "Whaa's tat?" asked the clergyman in a tone quite loud +enough to rebuke the offender. "It's aad Sharp o' Laa Birker," +responded the clerk. "Afooat or o' horseback?" was the significant +query. "Nay," was the answer, "nobbet afooat, wi' cokert shun" (calkered +shoes). Frequently the clerk would interrupt the clergyman, and the +interruption would not enhance the devotional character of the service. +In a rural parish church a new pitch-pipe was provided, but the clerk +had not tested it before entering his desk on the Sunday, and when he +should have given the key-note the instrument could not be adjusted. The +clerk tugged at it, thrust it in, gave it several thumps, made sundry +grimaces, but the pipe was obdurate. "My friends," announced the +impatient parson, "the pitch-pipe will not work, so let us pray." +"Pray!" snorted the aggrieved official, "pray! no, no, we'll pray none +till I put this thing aright." And members of the congregation would +even stand up in their pews to contradict the parson or clerk when +making the announcement. "There will be a service here as usual on +Thursday evening next," announced the clerk one Sunday morning. "No, +there won't," declared the churchwarden as he rose from his seat. "We be +going to carry hay all day Thursday." "But the service will be held as +usual," asserted the clerk. But the churchwarden was not to be thwarted. +"Then there'll be nobody here," said he. "D'ye think we're coming to +church and leave the hay in the fields? No, no, p'r'aps it'll rain +Friday." + +But of all amusing instances of curious announcements in church those +given by the Rev. Cuthbert Bede in _All the Year Round_, November 1880, +may take the palm and fittingly conclude this chapter. "An old rector of +a small country parish," so runs the story, "had sent his set of false +teeth to be repaired, on the understanding that they should be returned +"by Saturday" as there was no Sunday post, and the village was nine +miles from the post town. The old rector tried to brave out the +difficulty, but after he had incoherently mumbled through the prayers, +he decided not to address his congregation on that day. While the hymn +was being sung, he summoned the clerk to the vestry, and then said to +him: "It is quite useless for me to attempt to go on. The fact is, that +my dentist has not sent me back my artificial teeth, and it is +impossible for me to make myself understood. You must tell the +congregation that the service is ended for this morning, and that there +will be no service this afternoon." The old clerk went back to his desk; +the singing of the hymn was brought to an end; and the rector, from the +vestry, heard the clerk address the congregation thus: "This is to give +notice! as there won't be no sarmon nor no more sarvice this mornin', so +you' better all go whum (home); and there won't be no sarvice this +aternoon, as the rector ain't got his artful teeth back from the +dentist!" + + + + +Big Bones Preserved in Churches. + +By the Rev. R. Wilkins Rees. + + +In a lovely and secluded valley in Montgomeryshire is situated the +interesting old church of Pennant Melangell, of whose foundation a +charming legend is told. The romantic glen was in the first instance the +retreat of a beautiful Irish maiden, Monacella (in Welsh, Melangell), +who had fled from her father's court rather than wed a noble to whom he +had promised her hand, that here she might alone "serve God and the +spotless virgin." Brochwell Yscythrog, Prince of Powys, being one day +hare-hunting in the locality, pursued his game till he came to a +thicket, where to his amazement he found a lady of surpassing beauty, +with the hare he was chasing safely sheltered beneath her robe. +Notwithstanding all the efforts of the sportsman to make them seize +their prey, the dogs had retired to a distance, howling as though in +fear, and even when the huntsman essayed to blow his horn, it stuck to +his lips. The Prince, learning the lady's story, right royally assigned +to her the spot as a sanctuary for ever to all who fled there. It +afterwards became a safe asylum for the oppressed, and an institution +for the training of female devotees. But how long it so continued cannot +be said. Monacella's hard bed used to be shown in the cleft of a +neighbouring rock, while her tomb was in a little oratory adjoining the +church. + +In the church is to be found carved woodwork, which doubtless once +formed part of the rood-loft, representing the legend of Saint +Melangell. The protection afforded by the saint to the hare gave such +animals the name of Wyn Melangell--St. Monacella's lambs--and the +superstition was so fully credited that no person would kill a hare in +the parish, while it was also believed that if anyone cried "God and St. +Monacella be with thee" after a hunted hare, it would surely escape. + +The church contains another interesting item in the shape of a large +bone, more than four feet long, which has been described as the bone of +the patron saint. Southey visited the church, and in an amusing rhyming +letter addressed to his daughter, thus refers to it: "'Tis a church in a +vale, whereby hangs a tale, how a hare being pressed by the dogs was +much distressed, the hunters coming nigh and the dogs in full cry, +looked about for someone to defend her, and saw just in time, as it now +comes pat in rhyme, a saint of the feminine gender. The saint was buried +there, and a figure carved with care, in the churchyard is shown, as +being her own; but 'tis used for a whetstone (like a stone at our back +door), till the pity is the more (I should say the more's the pity, if +it suited with my ditty), it is whetted half away--lack-a-day, +lack-a-day! They show a mammoth rib (was there ever such a fib?) as +belonging to the saint Melangell. It was no use to wrangle, and tell the +simple people that if this had been her bone, she must certainly have +grown to be three times as tall as the steeple!" + +In Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary of Wales" (1843), we are told that +on the mountain between Bala and Pennant Melangell was found a large +bone named the Giant's Rib, perhaps the bone of some fish, now kept in +the church. But where the bone came from it is quite impossible to say. +Old superstitions have clung to it, and beyond what tradition furnishes +there is practically nothing for our guidance. + +It is somewhat strange that in the same county, in connection with the +church at Mallwyd, other bones are exhibited. Of this church, surrounded +by romantic scenery, the Dr. Davies, who rendered into Welsh the +Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and assisted Bishop Perry +in the translation of the Bible, was for many years incumbent. The +sacred edifice was far-famed for its magnificent yew trees, and for the +position of the communion table in the centre. Archbishop Laud issued +orders that it should be placed at the east end, but Dr. Davies defied +the prelate, and restored it to its old position, where, according to +Hemmingway's "Panorama of North Wales," in which the church was +described as a "humble Gothic structure, the floor covered with rushes," +it remained till 1848. It is not, however, so placed now. Over the porch +of this church some bones are suspended, but no palaeontologist has yet +decided as to their origin. It has been said that they are the rib and +part of the spine of a whale caught in the Dovey in bygone days! +Whatever may be the truth, however, it is not now to be ascertained, but +must remain shrouded in mystery with that concerning the bones at +Pennant Melangell. The bones were in their present position in 1816, +for they are then mentioned by Pugh in his _Cambria Depicta_. + +England has several instances of big bones preserved in churches, and +one story seems to be told regarding almost all. A most interesting +example is to be found over one of the altar tombs in the Foljambe +Chapel, Chesterfield Church. This bone, supposed to be the jawbone of a +small whale, is seven feet four inches in length, and about thirteen +inches, on an average, in circumference. Near one end is engraved, in +old English characters, the name "Thomas Fletcher." The Foljambes +disposed of their manor in 1633 to the Ingrams, who in turn sold it to +the Fletchers, and thus the name on the bone is accounted for. A +generally-accepted explanation about this bone--not even disbelieved +entirely at the present day--was that it formed a rib of the celebrated +Dun Cow of Dunsmore Heath, killed by the doughty Guy of Warwick, with +whom local tradition identified the warrior whose marble effigy lies +beneath the bone, sent to Chesterfield to celebrate the much-appreciated +victory. + + [Illustration: THE DUN COW, DURHAM CATHEDRAL.] + +It is interesting to remember here the legendary story of the foundation +of Durham Cathedral, which explains certain carving on the north +front of that majestic pile. While the final resting-place of St. +Cuthbert was still undetermined, "it was revealed to Eadmer, a virtuous +man, that he should be carried to Dunholme, where he should find a place +of rest. His followers were in distress, not knowing where Dunholme lay; +but as they proceeded, a woman, wanting her cow, called aloud to her +companion to know if she had seen her, when the other answered that she +was in Dunholme. This was happy news to the distressed monks, who +thereby knew that their journey's end was at hand, and the saint's body +near its resting-place." It has been said that the after riches of the +See of Durham gave rise to the proverb, "The dun cow's milk makes the +prebend's wives go in silk." + +But to return to the dun cow slain by Guy. That the champion was +credited of old with having overcome some such animal is evident from +the matter-of-fact fashion in which it is recorded by ancient +chroniclers. In Percy's "Reliques of Antient Poetry," occur the +following verses in a black-letter ballad which sings the exploits of +Guy:-- + + "On Dunsmore heath I alsoe slewe + A monstrous wyld and cruell beast, + Called the Dun-Cow of Dunsmore heath, + Which manye people had opprest. + + Some of her bons in Warwicke yett + Still for a monument doe lye; + Which unto every lookers viewe + As wondrous strange, they may espye." + +A circumstantial account is given in the "Noble and Renowned History of +Guy, Earl of Warwick," as translated from the curious old French +black-letter volume in Warwick Castle, and of this a somewhat modernised +version may be submitted. "Fame made known in every corner of the land +that a dun cow of enormous size, 'at least four yards in height, and six +in length, and a head proportionable,' was making dreadful devastations, +and destroying man and beast. The king was at York when he heard of the +havoc and slaughter which this monstrous animal had made. He offered +knighthood to anyone who would destroy her, and many lamented the +absence in Normandy of Guy, who, hearing of the beast, went privately to +give it battle. With bow and sword and axe he came, and found every +village desolate, every cottage empty. His heart filled with compassion, +and he waited for the encounter. The furious beast glared at him with +her eyes of fire. His arrows flew from her sides as from adamant itself. +Like the wind from the mountain side the beast came on. Her horns +pierced his armour of proof, though his mighty battle-axe struck her in +the forehead. He wheeled his gallant steed about and struck her again. +He wounded her behind the ear. The monster roared and snorted as she +felt the anguish of the wound. At last she fell, and Guy, alighting, +hewed at her until she expired, deluged with her blood. He then rode to +the next town, and made known the monster's death, and then went to his +ship, hoping to sail before the king could know of the deed. Fame was +swifter than Guy. The king sent for him, gave him the honour of +knighthood, and caused one of the ribs of the cow to be hung up in +Warwick Castle, where it remains until this day." Old Dr. Caius, of +Cambridge, writes of having seen an enormous head at Warwick Castle in +1552, and also "a vertebra of the neck of the same animal, of such great +size that its circumference is not less than three Roman feet seven +inches and a half." He thinks also that "the blade-bone, which is to be +seen hung up by chains form the north gate of Coventry, belongs to the +same animal. The circumference of the whole bone is not less than eleven +feet four inches and a half." The same authority further states that "in +the chapel of the great Guy, Earl of Warwick, which is situated rather +more than a mile from the town of Warwick (Guy's Cliff), there is hung +up a rib of the same animal, as I suppose, the girth of which in the +smallest part is nine inches, the length six feet and a half," and he +inclines to a half-belief, at any rate, in the Dun-Cow story. + +In connection with the legend it should be mentioned that in the +north-west of Shropshire is the Staple Hill, which has a ring of upright +stones, about ninety feet in diameter, of the rude pre-historic type. +"Here the voice of fiction declares there formerly dwelt a giant who +guarded his cow within this inclosure, like another Apis among the +ancient Egyptians, a cow who yielded her milk as miraculously as the +bear Oedumla, whom we read of in Icelandic mythology, filling every +vessel that could be brought to her, until at length an old crone +attempted to catch her milk in a sieve, when, furious at the insult, she +broke out of the magical inclosure and wandered into Warwickshire, +where her subsequent history and fate are well known under that of the +Dun Cow, whose death added another wreath of laurel to the immortal Guy, +Earl of Warwick." The presence of bones at Chesterfield and elsewhere +is, of course, accounted for by the fact (?) that they were distributed +over the country so that in various places Guy's marvellous feat might +be commemorated. + +In Queen Elizabeth's "fairest and most famous parish church in England," +St. Mary Redcliff, Bristol, is preserved a bone said to have belonged to +a monster cow which once supplied the whole city with milk. Bristolians, +proud of their connection with the great discoverer, Cabot, assert that +it is a whalebone brought to the city by the illustrious voyager on his +return from Newfoundland. But here the story of Guy of Warwick and the +cow has also been introduced. The bone, which is now fixed not far from +the stair leading to the chamber containing the muniment chest where +Chatterton pretended to have found the Rowley poems, was formerly hung +within the church, while near to it was suspended a grimy old picture +now banished to a position on a staircase just where the room in which +the vestry meetings are held is entered. The picture, so far as it can +be made out, contains a big figure of a man on the right hand side, +while in the foreground lies a prostrate man, behind whom stands a cow. +To the left of the picture are certain human figures in attitudes +expressive of surprise. This ancient painting was said to refer to Guy's +exploit, and the rib was pointed out as a positive proof that the daring +deed was done. + +It may be presumed that all, or nearly all, these bones preserved in +churches are those of whales, though in some instances they have been +supposed to be those of the wild BONASUS or URUS and most are associated +in some way or other with the legend of Guy and the Dun-Cow. Indeed, it +seems almost strange that the story has not been connected even with the +bone at Pennant Melangell, especially as on the mountain between +Llanwddyn and the parish is a circular inclosure surrounded by a wall +called Hen Eglwys, and supposed to be a Druidical relic, which would +have been just the spot to have lent itself to the statement that there +the animal was confined. + +The late Frank Buckland, in his entertaining chapter on "A Hunt on the +Sea-Shore," in his second volume of "Curiosities of Natural History," +says: "Whale-bones get to odd places," and writes of having seen them +used for a grotto in Abingdon, and a garden chair in Clapham. Not far +from Chesterfield there were, until recently, some whale-jaw gate posts +which formed an arch, and in North Lincolnshire such bones, tall and +curved, are still to be seen serving similar purposes. But the presence +of such bones, carefully preserved in churches, though it may occasion +considerable conjecture, cannot, it seems, be properly explained. As +yet, at any rate, the riddle remains unsolved. + + + + +Samuel Pepys at Church. + + +The Diary of Samuel Pepys, from 1659 to 1669, presents us with a picture +of London in the days of Charles II. that has perhaps not been equalled +in any other work dealing with the manners, customs, and the social life +of the period. We get a good idea from it how Sunday was spent in an age +largely given to pleasure. Samuel Pepys had strong leanings towards the +Presbyterians, but was a churchman, and seldom missed going to a place +of worship on Sunday, and did not neglect to have family prayers in his +own home. He generally attended his own church in the morning, and after +dinner in the afternoon would roam about the city, and visit more than +one place of worship. Take for an example an account of one Sunday. +After being present at his own church in the forenoon, and dining, he +says: "I went and ranged and ranged about to many churches, among the +rest to the Temple, where I heard Dr. Wilkins a _little_." + +It is to be feared pretty faces and not powerful preachers often induced +him to go to the house of prayer. Writing on August 11th, 1661, he +says: "To our own church in the forenoon, and in the afternoon to +Clerkenwell Church, only to see the two fair Botelers." He managed to +obtain a seat where he could have a good view of them, but they did not +charm him, for he says: "I am now out of conceit with them." Another +Sunday he writes: "By coach to Greenwich Church, where a good sermon, a +fine church, and a good company of handsome women." At another church he +visited he says that his pretty black girl was present. + +Pepys has much to say about the sermons he heard, and when they were +dull he went to sleep. Judging from his frequent records of slumbering +in church, prosy preachers were by no means rare in his day. + +Writing on the 4th August, 1662, he gives us a glimpse of the manners of +a rustic church. His cousin Roger himself attended the service, and says +Pepys: "At our coming in, the country people all rose with so much +reverence; and when the parson begins, he begins, 'Right worshipful and +dearly beloved' to us." + +Conversation appears to have been freely carried on in city churches. +"In my pew," says Pepys, "both Sir Williams and I had much talk about +the death of Sir Robert." Laughter was by no means unusual. "Before +sermon," writes Pepys, "I laughed at the reader, who, in his prayer, +desired God that he would imprint his Word on the thumbs of our right +hands and on the right toes of our right feet." + +When Pepys remained at home on Sunday he frequently cast up his +accounts, and there are in his Diary several allusions to this subject. + + [Illustration: THE END] + + + + +Index. + + Abbot's Pew, Malmesbury Abbey, 155, 159 + Addisham, Priest's door at, 185 + Alkborough Maze, 193, 194 + All Hallows, Barking, 81 + Alms boxes, 180 + Alnwick, chest at, 174 + Announcing cows in a cornfield, 221 + Antiquarian Problem: The Leper Window, 183-185 + Artificial teeth missing, 229 + Asenby, Maze at, 196 + Ashbourne bells, 121 + Ashton-under-Lyne, 113, 116-118 + + Bailey, J. E. The Five of Spades and the Church of + Ashton-under-Lyne, 113-118 + Baptisms performed in porches, 24 + Beadle's announcement, 224 + Bede, Venerable, 81 + Bell-ringing laws, 125 + Bell-robbers, 141 + Bells and their Messages, 119-132 + Belvoir, 80 + Beware of thieves, 221 + Big Bones Preserved in Churches, 230-243 + Blacksmith, mediaeval, 19 + Blood, foundation laid in, 30, 43 + Bocastle, 137 + Bottreaux, 137 + Bradbury, Edward. Bells and their Messages, 119-132 + Bradford-on-Avon Church, 7 + Brancepeth, chest at, 178 + Briefs, 49 + Brigstock bells, 139 + Briscoe, J. P. Stories about Bells, 133-144 + Bristol, 62, 75, 79 + Bronze-doors, 21 + Brundall, 147 + Building of the English Cathedrals, 46-75 + Burial customs, 26 + Burial at north side of church, 209-215 + Buried alive, 40 + Burials in Lady Chapels, 82-83 + Bury St. Edmunds, 80 + + Candle in a coffin, 42 + Canterbury, 51, 53, 72, 79 + Carlisle, 62, 70, 72 + Carthage, Council of, 4 + Cauld Lad of Hilton, 32 + Chantries, 72 + Chappell of Oure Ladye, 76-100 + Charm of country bells, 131 + Chartres, Maze at, 191 + Cheltenham, All Saints' Church, 14 + Chester, 62, 79 + Chesterfield, bones at, 234; spire, 110 + Chichester, 49, 50, 62, 65, 75, 79 + Chimes, 130 + Christening ships, 35 + Christmas games, 115 + Christ Church, Hants., 79; Christ Church, Oxford, 157 + Church Chests, 161-182 + Church Door, 1-29 + Churchwardens' accounts, 126-127 + Churchyard Superstitions, 206-215 + Cocks, live, built into walls, 44 + Coins, burial of, 35 + Colchester, Trinity Church Door, 5, 7 + Cologne Cathedral, 42 + Combs, chest at, 181 + Compton Martin, 80 + Concerning Font-Lore, 145-152 + Conversation in church, 245 + Cope chests, 180 + Cornish bell-lore, 137 + Coventry, chest at, 171, 173; spires, 102, 104 + Courts in the porch, 27 + Cromwell's soldiers, 84 + Crowle Church, 1, 8, 10 + Crowland Abbey, 48 + Curfew bell, 125, 129 + Curious Announcements in Church, 216-229 + + Danes, incursions of, 53-55 + Darenth, 80 + Darrington church, 38 + Dartmouth Church, 19, 21 + Decorated Style, 68 + Dedicating chapels, 81 + Devil, sold to the, 42 + Dickens, Charles, on Bells, 120 + Dissolution of monasteries, 84 + Dogs haunting churches and castles, 31 + Doom, 15 + Door-keepers, 4 + Dun Cow, 234, 238 + Durham, 9, 58, 67, 80, 81, 133, 234 + + Early Cathedrals, 52 + Early English chests, 164 + Earthquake, 65 + Eggs in foundations, 43 + Elgin, 80 + Elkstone Church, 16 + Elston Church, 16, 17 + Exeter, 79 + Ely, 54, 72, 80, 84 + + Fair Rosamond, 186 + Finedon, 109 + Fire, 65, 67, 70 + First burial in a churchyard, 39 + First Prayer Book of Edward VI., 25, 26 + Fives of Spades and the Church of Ashton-under-Lyne, 113-118 + Florence, doors at, 22 + Flowers in churchyards, 207 + Fordham, 80 + Forrabury, 137 + Founhope Church, 16 + Foxton, 185 + France, card playing in, 113 + + Galilee Chapel, Durham, 67 + Gambling, sermon against, 113 + German bell-lore, 121; mythology, 36 + Gild of Cloth Merchants, 22 + Glastonbury, 79, 175 + Gloucester, 13, 56, 61, 79 + Grantham, 107 + Guy, Earl of Warwick, 238 + + Haddenham, 81 + Haltham Church, 16 + Hampton Court, maze at, 186 + Harold's tomb, 96 + Harty Chapel, chest at, 177 + Hearthstones, bones under, 40 + Hel-horse, 43 + Henry the Seventh's Chapel, 82, 85 + Henry VII. a card player, 115 + Hereford, 61, 72, 74, 79 + Heysham, 10 + Higham Ferrers, 13, 14, 18, 109 + Hill, Rev. P. Oakley. Concerning Font-Lore, 145-152 + Hillbury maze, 200 + Hilton maze, 194 + Holland, 41 + Holsworthy Church, 36 + Holy Land, leprosy brought from, 184 + Horses interred alive, 43 + Howlett, E. Sacrificial Foundations, 30-45 + Hulme, 80 + + Importation of cards prohibited, 114 + Indulgences, 49 + Inscriptions on bells, 128-129 + Iona, 39 + Ironwork, 19-20 + Islington, 111 + + Jarrow-on-Tyne, 81 + Johnson, Rev. T. Churchyard Superstitions, 206-215 + + Kilkenny, 80 + Knockers, 23 + + Laughter in church, 246 + Lambeth Palace, 179 + Leper-Window, 183-185 + Lichfield, 62, 68, 104, 107, 158 + Lights in Lady Chapels, 95 + Limerick bells, 134 + Lincoln Cathedral, 15, 65, 70, 71, 154 + Lion Fonts, 147 + Liverpool, 74 + Llanaber, chest at, 180 + Llandaff, 9, 62, 135 + Llanthony, 80 + Lost goods cried in church, 215 + Louth, 105, 108 + Low-side windows, 183 + Lucca Cathedral, maze at, 187, 188 + Lych window, 185 + Lynn, Thoresby door, 18, 19 + + Malmesbury Abbey, 155, 159 + Mallwyd, bones at, 233 + Manchester, 69, 79 + Mariolatry, 77 + Marriage customs, 25 + Massacre of Thomas a Becket, 90 + Massingham bells, 139 + Maundy Thursday, 15 + Mazes, 186-205 + Modern mazes, 203-205 + Mortar, blood in, 37 + Mortlake, chest at, 177 + + New Walsingham, 146 + Newcastle-on-Tyne, 70 + Newington chest lost, 182 + Norman architecture, 8, 57-68 + Norman Conquest, 57 + Northamptonshire spires, 102 + North side of church, burial at, 209-215 + Northorpe, 31 + Norwich, 28, 61, 84, 103, 104, 145 + + Old Saint Paul's, 103 + Olney, 109 + Oundle, 108 + Over, chest at, 167, 178 + Oxford, 62, 66, 79, 82, 108 + + Page, Jno. T. Some Famous Spires, 101-112 + Paris, 11 + "Paston Letters," 114 + Penance, 49 + Pennant Melangell, legend of, 230 + People and Steeple Rhymes, 111 + Pepys, Samuel, at Church, 244-246 + Peterborough, 12, 47, 62, 65, 72, 75, 79, 84 + Pimpern maze, 200 + Poetry on bells, 122-125 + Porches, 24 + Preferment fee, 50 + + Rees, Rev. R. Wilkins. Curious Announcements in Church, 216-229; + Big Bones Preserved in Churches, 230-243 + Relics of a Saint, 81 + Ripon, 59, 62, 72, 73, 80, 200 + Rochester, 51, 62, 65, 80 + Rome, founding of, 34 + Rooms over porches, 158 + Rougham Church, 16 + Roumania, 40 + Rushden, 109 + + Sacrificial Foundations, 30-45 + Saffron Waldon, maze at, 196 + Salisbury, 47, 68, 79, 103 + Samuel Pepys at Church, 244-246 + Saxon architecture, 8 + Scutari, 41 + Sempringham Abbey, 18, 20 + Sermon lost, 222 + Seven Sacrament Fonts, 146 + Seville Cathedral, 11 + Shakespeare, 28, 31, 193 + Shandon, bells of, 123 + Shrewsbury, 107 + Shrine of St. Frideswide, 82 + Shrines, 51, 82 + Skipton, 223 + Sleeping in church, 245 + Sneinton, maze at, 196-199 + Spires, 101-112 + Some Famous Spires, 101-112 + Southwell, 62, 63, 66 + Southwold chest, 165 + Sowerford-Keynes, 8 + Stamp, Rev. J. H. Ye Chappell of Oure Ladye, 76-100 + Stonham Aspel, 170 + Stories about Bells, 133-144 + Strasburg Cathedral, 11 + St. Albans, 52, 62, 72, 75, 79, 85, 87, 154, 158 + St. Anne's Well and Maze, 196, 197, 199 + St. Asaph, 69 + St. Cuthbert, tomb of, 82 + St. David's, 62, 154 + St. Fillan's bell, 144 + St. Frideswide's shrine, 157 + St. Giles's Cathedral, 14 + St. Hugh, 66, 71 + St. Lawrence's, Isle of Thanet, 169 + St. Mary's Redcliff, 79, 85, 107, 241 + St. Monacella's lambs, 231 + St. Mura, bell of, 136 + St. Odhran, 39 + St. Paul's, 73 + St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, 145 + St. Quentin, maze at, 192 + Suicides, Burial of, 211 + Swedish folk-tales, 32 + + Thetford, 80 + Thorns, barring a door with, 29 + Tintagel, 137 + Torch, symbol of, 42 + Town bells, 131 + Truro, 75 + Tunstall, legend of, 141 + Tyack, Rev. G. S. The Church Door, 1-29; The Building of the + English Cathedrals, 46-75; Watching-Chambers, 153-160; + Church Chests, 161-182; Mazes, 186-205 + Tympanum, 5, 12, 14, 16 + Tyre, church at, 2 + + Unclerically dressed, 49 + Upton chest, 166, 167 + Upton font, 148 + + Vestments 153 + Voluntary labour, 52 + + Wakefield, 74 + Walsingham, 80 + Waltham Abbey, 80, 88 + Warwick, 82 + Watching-Chambers in Churches, 153-160 + Weathercock rhyme, 109 + Wells, 69, 72, 79 + Welsh border, 55 + West doors, 13, 14 + Westminster, 79-81, 82, 179 + White, William. An Antiquarian Problem: The Leper Window, 183-185 + Wimborne, 80 + Winchester, 61, 67, 79, 177, 195, 196 + Witham-on-the-Hill bells, 140 + Worcester, 56, 61, 68, 70 + Wymondham, 80 + + York, 71, 72 + + + + +"Mr. Andrews' books are always interesting."--_Church Bells._ + +"No student of Mr. Andrews' books can be a dull after-dinner speaker, +for his writings are full of curious out-of-the-way information and good +stories."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + * * * * * + +England in the Days of Old + +By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.H.R.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations_ + + +This volume is one of unusual interest and value to the lover of olden +days and ways, and can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. +It recalls many forgotten episodes, scenes, characters, manners, +customs, etc., in the social and domestic life of England. + +CONTENTS:--When Wigs were Worn -- Powdering the Hair -- Men Wearing +Muffs -- Concerning Corporation Customs -- Bribes for the Palate -- +Rebel Heads on City Gates -- Burial at Cross Roads -- Detaining the Dead +for Debt -- A Nobleman's Household in Tudor Times -- Bread and Baking in +Bygone Days -- Arise, Mistress, Arise! -- The Turnspit -- A Gossip about +the Goose -- Bells as Time-Tellers -- The Age of Snuffing -- State +Lotteries -- Bear-Baiting -- Morris Dancers -- The Folk-Lore of +Midsummer Eve -- Harvest Home -- Curious Charities -- An Old-Time +Chronicler. + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:--The House of Commons in the time of Sir Robert +Walpole -- Egyptian Wig -- The Earl of Albemarle -- Campaign Wig -- +Periwig with Tail -- Ramillie-Wig -- Pig-tail Wig -- Bag-Wig -- +Archbishop Tilotson -- Heart-Breakers -- A Barber's Shop in the time of +Queen Elizabeth -- With and Without a Wig -- Stealing a Wig -- Man with +Muff, 1693 -- Burying the Mace at Nottingham -- The Lord Mayor of York +escorting Princess Margaret -- The Mayor of Wycombe going to the +Guildhall -- Woman wearing a Scold's Bridle -- The Brank -- Andrew +Marvell -- Old London Bridge, shewing heads of rebels on the gate -- +Axe, Block, and Executioner's Mask -- Margaret Roper taking leave of her +father, Sir Thomas More -- Rebel Heads, from a print published in 1746 +-- Temple Bar in Dr. Johnson's time -- Micklegate Bar, York -- Clock, +Hampton Court Palace -- Drawing a Lottery in the Guildhall, 1751 -- +Advertising the Last State Lottery -- Partaking of the Pungent Pinch -- +Morris Dance, from a painted window at Betley -- Morris Dance, temp. +James I. -- A Whitsun Morris Dance -- Bear Garden, or Hope Theatre, 1647 +-- The Globe Theatre, temp. Elizabeth -- Plan of Bankside early in the +Seventeenth Century -- John Stow's Monument. + +A carefully prepared Index enables the reader to refer to the varied and +interesting contents of the book. + +"A very attractive and informing book."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"Mr Andrews has the true art of narration, and contrives to give us the +results of his learning with considerable freshness of style, whilst his +subjects are always interesting and picturesque."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"The book is of unusual interest."--_Eastern Morning News._ + +"Of the many clever books which Mr. Andrews has written none does him +greater credit than "England in the Days of Old," and none will be read +with greater profit."--_Northern Gazette._ + +"Valuable and interesting."--_The Times._ + +"Readable as well as instructive."--_The Globe._ + +"A valuable addition to any library."--_Derbyshire Times._ + + * * * * * + +The Bygone Series. + + +In this series the following volumes ate included, and issued at 7s. 6d. +each. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. + +These books have been favourably reviewed in the leading critical +journals of England and America. + +Carefully written articles by recognised authorities are included on +history, castles, abbeys, biography, romantic episodes, legendary lore, +traditional stories, curious customs, folk-lore, etc., etc. + +The works are illustrated by eminent artists, and by the reproduction of +quaint pictures of the olden time. + + * * * * * + +BYGONE BERKSHIRE, edited by Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A. + +BYGONE CHESHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE DEVONSHIRE, by the Rev. Hilderic Friend. + +BYGONE DURHAM, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE GLOUCESTERSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE HERTFORDSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE LEICESTERSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE LINCOLNSHIRE (2 vols), edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE MIDDLESEX, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE NORFOLK, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE NORTHUMBERLAND, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, by William Stevenson. + +BYGONE SCOTLAND, by David Maxwell, C.E. + +BYGONE SOMERSETSHIRE, edited by Cuming Walters. + +BYGONE SOUTHWARK, by Mrs. E. Boger. + +BYGONE SUFFOLK, edited by Cuming Walters. + +BYGONE SURREY, edited by George Clinch and S. W. Kershaw, F.S.A. + +BYGONE SUSSEX, by W. E. A. Axon. + +BYGONE WARWICKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + +BYGONE YORKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + + + + +Bygone Punishments. + +By William Andrews. + +_Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +CONTENTS:--Hanging -- Hanging in Chains -- Hanging, Drawing, and +Quartering -- Pressing to Death -- Drowning -- Burning to Death -- +Boiling to Death -- Beheading -- The Halifax Gibbet -- The Scottish +Maiden -- Mutilation -- Branding -- The Pillory -- Punishing Authors and +Burning Books -- Finger Pillory -- The Jougs -- The Stocks -- The +Drunkard's Cloak -- Whipping and Whipping-Posts -- Public Penance -- The +Repentance Stool -- The Ducking Stool -- The Brank, or Scold's Bridle -- +Riding the Stang -- Index. + +"A book of great interest."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"Crowded with extraordinary facts."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"Contains much that is curious and interesting both to the student of +history and social reformer."--_Lancashire Daily Express._ + +"Full of curious lore, sought out and arranged with much +industry."--_The Scotsman._ + +"Mr. Andrews' volume is admirably produced, and contains a collection of +curious illustrations, representative of many of the punishments he +describes, which contribute towards making it one of the most curious +and entertaining books that we have perused for a long time."--_Norfolk +Chronicle._ + +"Those who wish to obtain a good general idea on the subject of criminal +punishment in days long past, will obtain it in this well-printed and +stoutly-bound volume."--_Daily Mail._ + +"Mr. William Andrews, of Hull, is an indefatigable searcher amongst the +byways of ancient English history, and it would be difficult to name an +antiquary who, along his chosen lines, has made so thoroughly +interesting and instructive the mass of facts a painstaking industry has +brought to light. For twenty-five years he has been delving into the +subject of Bygone Punishments, and is now one of the best authorities +upon obsolete systems of jurisdiction and torture, for torture was, in +various forms, the main characteristic of punishment in the good old +times. The reformation of the person punished was a far more remote +object of retribution than it is with us, and even with us reform is +very much a matter of sentiment. Punishment was intended to be +punishment to the individual in the first place, and in the second a +warning to the rest. It is a gruesome study, but Mr Andrews nowhere +writes for mere effect. As an antiquary ought to do, he has made the +collection of facts and their preservation for modern students of +history in a clear, straightforward narrative his main object, and in +this volume he keeps to it consistently. Every page is therefore full of +curious, out-of-the-way facts, with authorities and references amply +quoted."--_Yorkshire Post._ + + + + +The Church Treasury of History, Custom, Folk-Lore, etc. + +Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +CONTENTS:--Stave-Kirks -- Curious Churches of Cornwall -- Holy Wells -- +Hermits and Hermit Cells -- Church Wakes -- Fortified Church Towers -- +The Knight Templars: their Churches and their Privileges -- English +Medieval Pilgrimages -- Pilgrims' Signs -- Human Skin on Church Doors -- +Animals of the Church in Wood, Stone, and Bronze -- Queries in Stones -- +Pictures in Churches -- Flowers and the Rites of the Church -- Ghost +Layers and Ghost Laying -- Church Walks -- Westminster Waxworks -- +Index. Numerous Illustrations. + +"It is a work that will prove interesting to the clergy and churchmen +generally, and to all others who have an antiquarian turn of mind, or +like to be regaled occasionally by reading old-world customs and +anecdotes."--_Church Family Newspaper._ + +"Mr. Andrews has given us some excellent volumes of Church lore, but +none quite so good as this. The subjects are well chosen. They are +treated brightly and with considerable detail, and they are well +illustrated. ... Mr. Andrews is himself responsible for some of the most +interesting papers, but all his helpers have caught his own spirit, and +the result is a volume full of information well and pleasantly +put."--_London Quarterly Review._ + +"Those who seek information regarding curious and quaint relics or +customs will find much to interest them in this book. The illustrations +are good."--_Publishers' Circular._ + +"An excellent and entertaining book."--_Newcastle Daily Leader._ + +"The book will be welcome to every lover of archaeological +lore."--_Liverpool Daily Post._ + +"The volume is of a most informing and suggestive character, abounding +in facts not easy of access to the ordinary reader, and enhanced +with illustrations of a high order of merit, and extremely +numerous."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The contents of the volume are very good."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +"The volume is sure to meet with a cordial reception."--_Manchester +Courier._ + +"A fascinating book."--_Stockport Advertiser._ + +"Mr. Andrews has brought together much curious matter."--_Manchester +Guardian._ + +"The book is a very readable one, and will receive a hearty +welcome."--_Herts. Advertiser._ + +"Mr. William Andrews has been able to give us a very acceptable and +useful addition to the books which deal with the curiosities of Church +lore, and for this deserves our hearty thanks. The manner in which the +book is printed and illustrated also commands our admiration."--_Norfolk +Chronicle._ + + + + +Historic Dress of the Clergy. + +By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A., + +Author of "The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art." + +_Crown, cloth extra, 3s. 6d._ + + +The work contains thirty-three illustrations from ancient monuments, +rare manuscripts, and other sources. + +"A very painstaking and very valuable volume on a subject which is just +now attracting much attention. Mr. Tyack has collected a large amount of +information from sources not available to the unlearned, and has put +together his materials in an attractive way. The book deserves and is +sure to meet with a wide circulation."--_Daily Chronicle._ + +"This book is written with great care, and with an evident knowledge of +history. It is well worth the study of all who wish to be better +informed upon a subject which the author states in his preface gives +evident signs of a lively and growing interest."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"Those who are interested in the Dress of the Clergy will find full +information gathered together here, and set forth in a lucid and +scholarly way."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"We are glad to welcome yet another volume from the author of 'The Cross +in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.' His subject, chosen widely and +carried out comprehensively, makes this a valuable book of reference for +all classes. It is only the antiquary and the ecclesiologist who can +devote time and talents to research of this kind, and Mr. Tyack has done +a real and lasting service to the Church of England by collecting so +much useful and reliable information upon the dress of the clergy in all +ages, and offering it to the public in such a popular form. We do not +hesitate to recommend this volume as the most reliable and the most +comprehensive illustrated guide to the history and origin of the +canonical vestments and other dress worn by the clergy, whether +ecclesiastical, academical, or general, while the excellent work in +typography and binding make it a beautiful gift-book."--_Church Bells._ + +"A very lucid history of ecclesiastical vestments from Levitical times +to the present day."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +"The book can be recommended to the undoubtedly large class of persons +who are seeking information on this and kindred subjects."--_The Times._ + +"The work may be read either as pastime or for instruction, and is +worthy of a place in the permanent section of any library. 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