THE FURNITURE OF A MEDIEVAL PARISH CHURCH: CONCLUSION
§ 46. Our parish churches, as we have them to-day, are stripped of much
that made them beautiful. The cold walls, often scraped of all their
plaster and whitewash; the windows, glazed with white glass, or with
modern glass of very uncertain merit, reveal merely the structural
skeleton of the building. The robe of colour with which the interior
was clothed is gone; and only fragments here and there remain to tell
us of the beauty of the decorative art which was, at the close of the
middle ages, at its very highest point. But enough is left to enable us
to picture to ourselves the appearance of the interior of an English
medieval church, and reconstruct that arrangement of furniture and
pictorial decoration which made it so beautiful.
§ 47. To take, first, the features common to nave and chancel alike,
the walls of the building were covered with paintings executed on a
plaster surface. As might be expected, the best remains of such
paintings are to be found in districts where the churches are built
of rubble, and the plaster covering, necessary to the internal
wall-surface, afforded the fullest field for this form of decoration.
There are numerous and beautiful examples in Sussex and Surrey, from
which a good idea may be gained of the general scheme of painting in a
medieval church. The earlier wall-paintings, such as those at Copford
in Essex, or South Leigh in Oxfordshire, or the probably thirteenth
century paintings at Easby in Yorkshire, are stiff in drawing and
somewhat crude in colouring. From the earliest times, however, this
method of decoration was adopted, and gradually assumed a more
independent existence and a more pictorial character. As the history
of art advanced, and the demand for special kinds of work increased,
the lesser arts, hitherto treated as mere servants of masoncraft,
began to strike out paths for themselves. The painters at Pickering
in Yorkshire or at Raunds in Northamptonshire, treated the walls on
which they worked as the backgrounds of strong and brightly coloured
designs bearing no relation to the architectural divisions of the
building. Where the space to be covered was limited, like the wall
between two aisle windows, the treatment was more restrained: in these
positions there occur, as at St Breage in Cornwall, panel pictures
of saints. In the north aisle at Kettering there is a faded picture
of St Roch, the blue background of which, studded with gold stars,
is a beautiful example of medieval colour. But the general treatment
pursued by the later medieval painters, in their subject and figure
painting, was unconfined by architectural limits, and sometimes a
single subject spreads below and round a window. Above the chancel
arch was usually a painting of the Doom, of which traces remain in
many churches, as at Holy Trinity, Coventry, and (much restored) at
St Thomas, Salisbury. At Liddington in Rutland and at Kettering, the
Doom seems to have been extended to the north and south walls of the
nave: there is on the north clerestory wall at Kettering, a figure
of an angel looking towards the middle of the wall above the chancel
arch; while there are remains on the south wall at Liddington, of a
huge whale-like figure representing the mouth of Hades. The subjects
represented in these paintings were of the utmost variety. A good
idea of the beauty of colour attained by the artists of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries may be gained from a study of the fragmentary
figure and pattern paintings at Cirencester or the important remains
at Bloxham. To the end of the middle ages much pattern and diaper work
was used in painting large surfaces or filling in backgrounds. In
several Northamptonshire churches the soffits of arches are covered
with reddish brown scrolls of leafage, at its best most elaborate
and delicate. The shafts in the angles of the tower at Fairford are
painted with a spiral pattern in two colours, like a barber's pole, and
at Fairford and Burford there are important remains of late diapered
backgrounds. One of the best pieces of fifteenth century diaper
painting known to the present writer is that above the chancel arch at
Llanbedr-ystrad-yw in Breconshire, which served as a background to a
rood and figures of St Mary and St John.
[Illustration: Fig. 15. Patrington, Yorks: interior, looking across
nave from south transept.]
§ 48. Mural painting, however, was little more than a complement to the
stained or painted windows, which were the most gorgeous note of colour
in the medieval fabric. There is no more familiar feature of medieval
architecture than the gradual increase in the size of windows, due to
that constant progress in the science of architectural construction, in
which the timber-roofed parish church followed the vaulted cathedral.
The low round-headed windows of the twelfth century were followed by
the long lancets of the early thirteenth century. Lancets gradually
drew closer and closer together, and were united with spherical
openings above, until the mullioned window with its geometrical
tracery was formed. The restless spirit of the medieval craftsman was
not satisfied with tracery imprisoned within geometrical limits: the
enclosing circles and triangles were removed, and the tracery twined
in naturalistic curves in the head of the window. Then, at the middle
of the fourteenth century, the limit of the imitation of nature was
reached. The Black Death formed a sudden division between the work of
the old school and the new age, and that formalism in window tracery
began, which lasted for years, and left its mark on our architecture
as late as the days of the Stewarts. It was long the fashion among
those who saw merely the decline in architectural detail, distinctive
of the 'Perpendicular' style, to speak of the magnificent achievements
of the fifteenth century masons with an overbearing contempt. As a
matter of fact, fifteenth century builders were gifted with a power of
design, and an ability to plan a parish church as a whole, unequalled
in the previous history of medieval art. They lost their interest
in sculptured detail, because their main concern was with the broad
contrasts of light, shade, and colour, which their large windows and
high walls afforded--contrasts in which there was no use for minute
detail, and the deep under-cutting and delicate carving of the earlier
styles became mere waste of time. The great sheets of coloured glass,
in which, as time went on, painting became of more and more importance,
and large figures beneath tall canopies of white glass took the place
of the smaller subjects and more deeply coloured canopies and grounds
of an earlier time, supplied an effect fully as beautiful as that once
given by the contrasts of bold projections and deep hollows in moulded
arches and carved foliage. The mason in no small degree sacrificed
his skill to the glazier; but, in the service of the glazier, his
power of noble design on a large scale increased. No effect of colour
can well surpass that which is still to be seen in some of our late
medieval churches--the grisaille windows of the chancel at Norbury in
Derbyshire, the late fourteenth century figure glass of the north aisle
at Lowick in Northamptonshire, the fifteenth century east window of
the south aisle at St Winnow in Cornwall, the fourteenth century Jesse
tree, once in St Chad's, and now in St Mary's at Shrewsbury, or the
fifteenth century Jesse tree at Llanrhaiadr-yn-Cynmerch, near Denbigh.
Some of the parish churches of York are almost as rich in glass as the
cathedral itself. But, in those churches which are still so fortunate
as to retain nearly all their medieval glass, like All Saints, North
Street, at York, St Neot in Cornwall, and Fairford, the lack of the
connecting link which the mural paintings between the windows formed
in the colour-scheme is sadly felt. At Fairford, in particular, where
the wall-painting which remains is not near the windows, the glass, in
its frame of cold plastered wall, gives the effect of isolated masses
of almost violent colour, which need to be reduced to their proper
key by the painting of the intermediate wall surfaces. On the other
hand, at Pickering or Raunds, where we have the mural paintings, the
glass is wanting. Often, where painting and stained glass have both
disappeared, as in the chapel at South Skirlaugh, their necessity to
the building forces itself on the attention. Probably, the full value
of stained and painted glass in architectural design, and the relations
which prevailed at the close of the middle ages between the mason and
glazier, can be judged nowhere in Europe better than in King's college
chapel at Cambridge.
§ 49. The third source of colour to the church, apart from the
stonework and the stained glass, was the woodwork of roofs, screens,
and other pieces of furniture. With this must be reckoned also the
colour of the stone furniture of the church, the sedilia, canopied
tombs, stone reredoses, pulpits, and so on. As a rule, the colouring of
the stone, here as upon the walls, has faded away or has been obscured
by later coats of plaster or whitewash. Here and there, as at Higham
Ferrers, a tomb-canopy keeps not a little of its original brilliance.
There is a gorgeous coloured frame, probably much restored, for a
reredos in the north chapel at Worstead in Norfolk. The panels of the
reredos in the south aisle at Northleach contain certain figures of
saints, in faded green, red, and blue. The fine reredoses in the side
chapels of St Cuthbert's at Wells have brilliant remains of gilding.
But coloured woodwork, which has lost little of its brightness, is
fairly common, and, though it has often been subjected to drastic
restoration, is sometimes almost untouched by time. This type of art
reached its highest point in the churches of East Anglia, in the great
roofs, with their figures of angels at the end of the hammerbeams or
at the foot of the principal rafters, extending from end to end of
the building, in the canopies of the fonts, like that at Ufford St
Mary, near Woodbridge, and in the rood screens, like that at Ranworth,
its openings fringed with cusping of gilded plaster, and its panels
painted with figures of saints and archangels, which sometimes, as at
Southwold, were set within a raised frame of gilded gesso work.
§ 50. This setting of colour, towards which stone, wood, and glass all
contributed their share, constituted the great beauty of the internal
effect of a medieval parish church; and naturally, the more the various
craftsmen who worked there advanced in skill--their skill growing in
proportion to their opportunity--the more gorgeous was the effect of
the assemblage of brilliant windows, screens, and pictured walls. The
usual entrance would be through the south porch. Near the entrance, or,
at any rate, near the west end of the church, stood the font, beneath
its canopy. No piece of church furniture was subject to so much variety
of design as the font; and the types vary from perfectly unadorned
examples to structures of the utmost richness. The canopy was sometimes
a simple cover, which could be moved by hand: often it was a towering
structure, suspended by pulleys from the ceiling: sometimes it formed
a roofed enclosure on carved uprights, within which the font stood,
of stone at Luton in Bedfordshire, of wood at Trunch in Norfolk. Some
fonts, like the famous one at Little Walsingham in Norfolk, perhaps the
most beautiful of those on which the seven Sacraments are represented,
stand on high stepped platforms: others are on a low plinth, which is
occasionally continued from the base of a neighbouring column. In fact,
the arrangement of fonts is as various as their shape. The rest of the
furniture of the nave would vary. Some of the East Anglian churches,
such as Irstead in Norfolk, or Dennington and Fressingfield in Suffolk,
keep many of the medieval benches, with narrow seats, backs with carved
lines of open-work, and projecting ledges which to-day are used for
book-rests, but were originally intended as kneelers. Worshippers would
kneel on these ledges, with their feet on the seats behind: the age
of hassocks had not come, and the floor was hardly an ideal kneeling
place. Many English churches were seated with benches of this kind
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Few parts of England
are without their examples of bench-ends. Many fine examples remain in
Cornwall, as at Launcells, and in Somerset, as at Trull; and in some
churches, as Down St Mary and Lapford in Devon, the early sixteenth
century bench-ends are almost complete. Wooden benches, however, do not
seem to have become general till a comparatively late date, and there
was probably little seating accommodation in the earlier churches.
The plinths of columns were sometimes made of some size, as at
Coddington in Notts, to afford seats; and in some churches, as Belaugh
and Tunstead in Norfolk, and Cotterstock, Tansor, and Warmington in
Northamptonshire, there are stone benches round the inner walls of
various parts of the church, apparently for the same purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 16. Well, Yorkshire: font cover.]
§ 51. At the east end of each aisle, as has been shewn, there was
very frequently an altar. This was enclosed within screens, shutting
off, as a rule, the eastern part of the aisle. The screens remain at
Dennington, where the loft above the rood screen was continued round
them, with fine effect. At Wolborough in south Devon, the side screens
also project from the main screen; and, in many cases where the screens
themselves have disappeared, holes in the adjacent columns, vertical
grooves in the bases, and other similar signs, bear witness to their
former existence. All the side altars of a church would be fenced in
by screens. In large churches, such as Grantham, there was often more
than one chapel in an aisle: the north and south aisles of the nave at
Grantham contained at least two chapels each. There were four chapels
in the south aisle at Ludlow, three in the north: the transepts each
contained two chapels; and, in addition to these, five of the arches of
the nave had chapels beneath them, while the altar of the Cross stood
at the east end of the nave in front of the tower.
§ 52. A nave like this would be broken up by a great variety of
screen-work; for the clear vista from end to end and side to side of
a building, so dear to the restorer of the middle of the nineteenth
century, formed no part of the medieval ideal. A space, however, would
be kept clear near the pulpit, which, at Ludlow, stood west of the
first pier from the east of the north arcade. The stone pulpit at
Cirencester is in much the same position; at Wolverhampton, it is on
the south side of the nave; at Nantwich it is against the north-east
pier; at Holy Trinity, Coventry, against the south-east pier of the
central tower. The medieval pulpits of Devonshire stand just west
of the rood screen; some, like Kenton, on the north; others, like
Dartmouth, on the south side of the entrance. The sermon was hardly
so prominent a feature in the services of the medieval church as it
became at a later date; but many medieval pulpits remain, and those at
Wolverhampton and Coventry, in particular, are imposing structures. The
regular furniture of the nave was completed by the pulpit. However,
there are some other features to notice. Each altar, or, at any rate,
each of the more important altars, would have its own piscina: the
chantries at the ends of the aisles sometimes had their own sedile or
sedilia. On a bracket near, or in a niche behind each altar, would be
a figure, carved and painted, of the saint to whom it was dedicated;
and before certain altars where a light or lights were maintained
there would be hanging lamps or stands for candles according to the
endowment. Thomas Sibthorpe, when he founded his chapels at Beckingham,
provided for lights before each altar: in the chantry certificates made
under the chantry act of Edward VI, many notices are found of stocks of
money by which lights were maintained to burn before specified altars.
There would be a holy water stoup in the wall, on the right hand as one
entered the church: often the stoup is found in the porch. In some of
the Norfolk churches--Sall, Cawston, Aylsham, and Worstead are the best
instances--the lower part of the tower is screened off from the nave,
the screen supporting a floor which forms a ringers' gallery. In the
ringers' gallery at Sall there is a kind of crane, by which the cover
of the font, which stands close to the west end, is lifted. In a few
churches, as at Weston-in-Gordano in Somerset, there are remains of a
small gallery above the main doorway of the church. This is sometimes
explained as a gallery used on Palm Sunday by the semi-chorus who
joined in chanting the processional hymn. Such a gallery might be used
by singers or minstrels on special occasions.
§ 53. The transepts, where they occur, were, as has already been said,
used as chapels, or divided off into more than one chapel. Little need
be said of the chapels on either side of the chancel, as the general
arrangement of their altars and furniture was not very different from
that of the chancel itself. The quire and chancel were divided from the
nave by the rood screen. This important piece of furniture, usually of
wood, but sometimes of stone, crossed the chancel arch from side to
side; and was often continued, in churches where the chancel arch was
omitted, across the west end of the chancel aisles. Where there was
a chancel arch, the chancel chapels had their own screens. The rood
screen was elaborately carved, and its lower panels were painted with
figures of angels, saints, prophets, apostles, and other designs. The
uprights dividing the panels were continued upwards on either side
of open panels, sometimes treated as tall arched openings, at other
times imitating the form of mullioned windows, and were framed into a
plinth at the bottom, and a horizontal beam at the top. The central
division of the screen was closed by folding doors: on either side
of this entrance was sometimes, against the west side of the screen,
an altar. At Ranworth in Norfolk the screen altars are enclosed by
panels returned from the face of the screen: there are distinct
traces of this arrangement at Weston-in-Gordano and other places;
and, at Lapford and Swymbridge in Devon, there are large rectangular
openings in the traceried panels of the upper part of the screens,
across which painted cloths seem to have been stretched at the back of
the side altars. Above the screen, with its floor-beams laid across
the top, and attached to either face by a series of trusses which
formed a deep coved and ribbed cornice to the screen, was the loft,
gallery, or, as it was often called, the 'solar.' Sometimes, as at
Montgomery and Llanwnog, the screen was double, the floor of the loft
forming a roof to the space between. This upper story had a projecting
parapet on either side, the front of which was divided into panels
and painted. It was approached by a staircase, the position of which
varied greatly. In churches with an aisleless chancel, the stair was
contained in a turret to the north or south of the chancel arch, which
was, if there was little room for it, sometimes built out into the
adjacent chapel. At Dennington, however, where the loft was continued
round the screens at the end of the nave aisles, the staircase is in
the south wall of the south aisle. At Ropsley, near Grantham, the stair
is in the outer wall of the north aisle, near the north-east corner;
and the loft was approached by a bridge thrown across the end of the
north aisle. In the aisleless church of Little Hereford, near Tenbury,
where there is a very narrow chancel arch, the loft was approached
by a straight stair in the thickness of the south half of the east
wall: a right-angled turn at the top led straight into the loft. In
churches with aisled chancels, the stair was commonly contained in
a turret projecting from the outer side of the north or south wall,
and there were lofts continued across all the screens of the chancel
and its chapels. At Llywel in Breconshire, there is a fairly broad
straight staircase at right angles to the loft, contained in a broad
projection from the north wall of the aisleless nave: this was a
favourite arrangement in Wales, and occurs at Patricio, and, in the
more primitive form of a wooden stair within a projecting window, at
Llanwnog in Montgomeryshire. Wooden stairs and even ladders to lofts
were probably not unusual. At Totnes the chief approach to the loft of
the stone screen was a stairway in a half-octagon, projecting into the
north part of the chancel, from the head of which the way lay along the
loft of the adjoining parclose screen. Few lofts, however, remain. The
Totnes loft, which was of wood, is gone. Several Welsh lofts, owing, no
doubt, to their remote position, escaped destruction when the general
dismantling of rood lofts was carried out in the reign of Elizabeth.
The most magnificent of these are at Patricio in Breconshire, Llanegryn
in Merionethshire, Montgomery and Llanwnog in Montgomeryshire, and
Llananno in Radnorshire. Less beautiful, but remarkable for the very
perfect state of its painted back-board, is the loft at Llanelieu in
Breconshire. But in remote English places, such as Blackawton, near
Dartmouth, Cotes-by-Stow in Lincolnshire, and Hubberholm in west
Yorkshire, lofts are left in a fair state of perfection.
[Illustration: Fig. 17. Banwell, Somerset: rood screen.]
§ 54. The use of the loft was, it has often been said, for the deacon
to sing the gospel from at high mass on great festivals. This was
certainly the case with the stone _pulpita_ above the quire screens
of collegiate and monastic churches. But, in most parish churches the
stair was so narrow and inconvenient that certainly the vestments and
probably the temper of the deacon who attempted to climb it would be
easily spoiled. In many lofts, it is true, there was an altar. The
piscina of one remains in a few churches, as at Little Hereford: there
was a chantry founded in 1349 at one in Grantham church, where the
screen was a large one of stone. But the habitual use of the loft was
as an organ gallery; and the fine screen at Newark-on-Trent still has
at its east side the rectangular projection which was occupied by a
'pair of organs.' The rood itself, the great cross bearing the figure
of our Lord with statues of St Mary and St John upon either side,
stood upon a beam which crossed the chancel arch above the loft. The
beam was, of course, painted, and, in addition to the statues which
it carried, bore sockets for candles, which were lighted on festival
occasions. The corbels which supported rood beams are sometimes seen:
beams themselves, however, do not often remain. There is a finely
painted example of one at Tunstead in Norfolk; and another remains
at Cullompton in Devon. Here and there, where the beam was fixed in
the wall, and had to be sawn away, the end may still be seen. Some
screens had no loft: in these cases the rood frequently stood upon the
top of the screen. In some cases, as at Llanelieu in Breconshire and
Wenhaston in Suffolk, the rood and its attendant figures were fixed
upon a painted board which formed a back to the loft, and filled the
upper part of the chancel arch. In other places, as at Hickleton, near
Doncaster, and Llanbedr-ystrad-yw, they were fixed against the wall
above the chancel arch. This would be the case where, as at Hickleton,
the arch was low and narrow, and there was no room for a separate beam
beneath it. No piece of church furniture is more interesting than the
rood screen and its accompaniments: the variety of local design and of
its arrangements, and the great beauty of the finished work, make it,
of all special topics of ecclesiology, perhaps the most attractive.
§ 55. It has been said before that the hooks by which the Lenten veil
was suspended across the chancel arch are still to be seen in several
churches. The western part of the chancel was occupied by the quire,
whose stalls were returned along the back of the screen, the rector's
stall being the end return stall on the south side. Quire stalls in
parish churches were often carved with great refinement and beauty:
the stalls at Walpole St Peter have each a stone canopy, formed by
recessing panels in the chancel wall. The finest stalls, with their
hinged seats, rightly called misericords, and wrongly misereres, are
usually to be found in collegiate or chantry churches, like Higham
Ferrers or Ludlow, where the chantry priests of the Palmers' guild
said their offices together in the high chancel. The stalls of the
chantry college at Fotheringhay are now in the churches of Tansor and
Benefield; the quire stalls of St Mary's at Nottingham are in the
suburban church of Sneinton. An excellent instance of the combination
of stalls and rood screen is found in the village church of Ashby St
Ledgers, near Daventry, which contains a large amount of old woodwork.
In the centre of the quire or, as a gospel-desk, on the north side of
the altar would stand the lectern. The number of medieval lecterns
remaining in England is not great, the finest being the great brass
lectern given by provost Hacomblen to King's college, Cambridge.
Lecterns in which the desk takes the form of a bird are sometimes
found, as in Norwich cathedral and at Ottery St Mary.
§ 56. When interest was first revived in ecclesiology, the fashion
of raising the quire and chancel above the rest of the church, by a
number of steps intended to be symbolical, became very prevalent. This,
however, was not in keeping with medieval practice. It is true that
occasionally chancels were raised high above the rest of the church.
At Walpole St Peter the chancel, rebuilt in the fifteenth century, was
brought up to the churchyard boundary, and apparently interfered with
a right of way which led round the back of the old chancel. It was
therefore built with a floor raised high above the nave, and the right
of way was preserved by piercing an arch below. St Leonard's at Exeter
has a chancel built over an archway which affords access to a narrow
street. A church built on a slope, like Tansor, ascends noticeably from
west to east. But the ascent is contrived, not by means of flights of
steps, but by an inclined plane. As a rule, floors of churches sloped
slightly upwards towards the altar. A perfectly level floor gives the
false effect in perspective of a downward slope: a floor, on the other
hand, with a gradual upward slope has a level effect. The floor of the
quire was sometimes elevated by a single shallow step above the floor
of the nave: very generally, it was on the same level: at St Michael's,
Cambridge, the level was slightly lower. The chancel, again, was a step
higher than the quire, and the altar stood slightly raised upon its
own oblong altar pace. The levels at Geddington in Northamptonshire
remain much as they were. The quire is on a level with the nave: the
chancel is a pace higher, and the altar stands upon its own pace. An
inscription round the foot of the chancel wall records the making of
the pavement (now renewed) and the _scabella_, by which the foot-paces
are almost certainly implied, of the altar in 1369. Round the lower
foot-pace of the south chapel is another inscription, apparently of the
same date. In no respect have modern restorations been so disastrous
as in the altering of original levels, in order to give the altar the
elevation which was supposed by the restorers to be necessary.
§ 57. The altar itself, as can be seen from the many altar-slabs
which remain, was a long and fairly broad stone table: it was usually
less than three feet high, and was covered by a cloth and frontal.
It is probable that the frontal, like the vestments of the clergy,
followed, in the ordinary parish church, no very strict sequence of
colour according to the seasons. For festivals the handsomest and
newest frontal and vestments would probably be used. The altar was
kept fairly low, to make room for the reredos, which extended across
the east wall above the altar, and below the sill of the east window.
It will be found that modern restorers, in nine cases out of ten,
have disregarded old English uses, by raising an altar until its upper
surface is close to the sill of the window, and then by blocking up
part, or even the whole of the window, by reredoses or altar screens
of stone or wood. High reredoses and altar screens were not unknown,
of course, in England; but the ordinary reredos was a single or
double band of carving below the east window, as at Geddington or
Ludlow. At Stanion in Northants, the string-courses of the east walls
of the chancel and north chapel are raised, below the east windows,
to form frames for mural paintings or carved retables above the
altar. Sculptured tablets were not rare, and indications of their
presence may be traced: in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the
alabaster, dug out of the Chellaston 'plaster-pits,' and worked by the
'plasterers' of Nottingham, was used, among other purposes, for such
tablets. On the north and south sides of the reredos the altar was
enclosed by curtains hung on brass rods projecting from the wall or
from upright standards. These curtains, known as riddels, had sockets
for candles at the ends of the rods. They appear to be derived from the
curtains which hung round the altar canopies of basilican churches, and
were drawn at the consecration of the elements. Probably the reredos,
in most churches, was formed by a painted cloth--that is, a piece of
embroidered tapestry--hung behind the altar, or stretched from the
upright of the one to the upright of the other riddel. It may be added
that the arrangement of cross, candles and flower vases on a shelf,
or even on several shelves, at the back of the altar, with which we
are so familiar, was not frequent in the middle ages. The cross was
usually the central carved or embroidered feature of the reredos: one
or two lighted candles were placed upon the altar at mass; and flowers
and sweet smelling herbs would be strewn at certain seasons on the
chancel floor. Richness of colour and simplicity of furniture were the
distinguishing features of the medieval altar. There is a curious ledge
upon the back part of the upper surface of the crypt altar at Grantham:
it actually lies _upon_ the altar, and its height, as contrasted with
that of the modern gradine or shelf, affords the same contrast that
there is between the low foot-paces of the medieval, and the flights of
steps of the modern chancel.
§ 58. The statue of the patron saint stood near the altar, on a corbel
in the wall, in a canopied recess, or, as at Abbots Kerswell in
Devon, where there is a very large figure of the Virgin, in the jamb
of a window. In front of the altar, the pyx, or receptacle for the
reserved Sacrament, hung by chains from the roof: it was covered by an
embroidered veil, which was drawn aside when the pyx was opened. The
rest of the ordinary furniture of the chancel was of a more permanent
description. The piscina and sedilia, which are frequently of one date
and form part of one design, were on the south side of the chancel,
forming arched recesses in the wall. The number of sedilia varied from
one to three: more than three are seldom found in a parish church.
Permanent stone sedilia were usually regarded as part of the regular
furniture of the chancel. Occasionally their place was supplied by the
lowering of a window sill; but there were also instances, no doubt, in
which the sedile or sedilia were simply wooden chairs placed near the
south wall of the chancel. The piscina was frequently supplied with an
upper ledge for cruets. In the piscina of the south aisle at Hawton,
near Newark, there is an inner recess for this purpose on the east
side; at Tansor a shallow niche is provided in the head of the arch
of the piscina. The drain of the piscina was usually within the wall;
but there are a number of twelfth century, and a few later, examples,
in which the bowl forms a projection from the wall, and the drain was
contained in a detached column, the base of which is frequently united
to the foot of the wall. Projecting bowls are common, with drain-holes
which slant downwards into the wall. A piscina is sometimes found
in the sill of a window: one at Grantham is fitted with a removable
drain, and there are other such examples. A drain in the chancel floor
is sometimes found, usually of a rather early period. In addition
to the piscina, most churches contain plain almeries or cupboards,
rectangular recesses with rebates for wooden doors: these are generally
in the north or east wall of the chancel.
§ 59. More exceptional--indeed, very uncommon--as a piece of furniture,
was the permanent Easter sepulchre, which usually was on the north, but
sometimes on the south of the chancel. This was the place to which the
Host was carried on the evening of Holy Thursday, and left until Easter
eve: it was symbolical of the sepulchre of our Lord, and the services
which took place in connexion with it were sometimes of a somewhat
dramatic character. A permanent Easter sepulchre, like those at Hawton
and Heckington, was a luxury. These, and the sepulchre at Navenby, have
carvings referring to the story of the Resurrection, and in the lower
panels are represented the guards at the tomb. The recess at Hawton,
forming a triple opening, has an inner recess at the back, which could
be shut and locked. At Heckington and Navenby the recesses are merely
single cupboards, surrounded by elaborate carving. Frequently, an
almery was used for the purpose; and where, as at Frating in Essex,
Claypole in Lincolnshire, or Sefton in Lancashire, an almery is treated
with special care, as, for example, with a floral hood-mould, this
special use is indicated. There may also have been removable sepulchres
of wood: a piece of furniture which remains at Cowthorpe in Yorkshire,
is said to be one. Another was made for St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol,
in 1440. Certainly, the sepulchre was often a temporary arrangement,
like the _reposoir_ in a French church to-day. Thomas Meyring of
Newark directed his burial to take place 'where the sepulchre of our
Lord was wont to be set up at Easter.' A founder's tomb near an altar
was also used for the sepulchre, the receptacle for the Host being
probably placed inside the tomb-recess or against it. At Sibthorpe near
Newark, the small sepulchre is immediately above the founder's tomb:
this was probably the case at Fledborough. At Owston, near Doncaster,
a tomb-recess in the north chancel wall is often called the Easter
sepulchre, and a projecting stone at one side of it is pointed out as
a stone for the watcher who kept guard over the tomb at Easter. The
majority of Easter sepulchres which are left belong to the fourteenth
century. The imposing structure at Northwold in Norfolk, which is on
the south of the chancel, is of the fifteenth century, and, in at
least one example, at Wymondham in Norfolk, also on the south side,
there are details which approach the Renaissance period. The frequent
identity of the founder's tomb with the Easter sepulchre, for which
there is documentary evidence, is proved further by the tombs of the
rector and vicar, under whose auspices, in the second quarter of the
sixteenth century, the chancels of South Pool and Woodleigh churches
in south Devon were restored. These are vaulted recesses north of the
altar, containing table tombs with effigies, and a large amount of
florid carving, which shews signs of Renaissance influence. On the wall
at the back of either tomb are sculptures dealing with the burial and
resurrection of our Lord, which clearly point to the use of the tombs
at Easter, and justify the name of Easter sepulchre, frequently applied
to them. A third tomb of rather later date is at West Alvington, in
the same neighbourhood: its details were suggested by South Pool and
Woodleigh, but the brasses of the back wall are gone, and its inclusion
in the list of Easter sepulchres is doubtful. There is a curious late
thirteenth century piece of work, projecting inwards from the north
wall of the chancel at Twywell, near Kettering. A tomb-recess forms the
lowest stage; above this is a double almery, which may have been an
Easter sepulchre, and above this, again, is a sloping stone desk with
a book-rest for the reader of the gospel. Stone gospel-desks are found
in a few Derbyshire churches, like Crich, Spondon, and Etwall; and in a
few other rare instances. A founder's tomb is, of course, by no means
an invariable feature of a chancel. The natural place for the burial of
the founder of a chantry would be close to the altar where his chantry
was celebrated; and often, as at Grantham, the presence of a tomb in an
aisle wall indicates the existence of a chantry altar near that spot.
[Illustration: Fig. 18. Hawton, Notts: Easter sepulchre.]
§ 60. The sacristy has been referred to in the previous chapter; and
with this description of the furniture of the chancel, our account of
the English parish church is nearly come to an end. Few persons who
are in the habit of visiting parish churches will fail to meet with
exceptional or unique features. For example, in the north wall of the
chancel at Scawton in north Yorkshire, there is a long oblong trough,
with a drain in the wall behind it, the use of which is difficult
to conjecture. At Tunstead in Norfolk, there is a narrow platform
behind the altar, the whole width of the east wall. At its south end
is a stair from the floor of the chancel; and near the stair is a
door leading into a chamber below the platform. This narrow room,
far too small for a sacristy, is lighted by a grating in the floor
of the platform. It is supposed that this was an arrangement for the
exhibition of relics. At Tanfield, near Ripon, there is a little
cell-like recess in the wall between the chancel and north chapel, with
a window commanding the altar. The problems which are set by these
details bring us by degrees into relation with the whole of medieval
life; and the history of the parish church becomes an important part of
the social history of the parish. The magnificent tombs of the Marmions
at Tanfield also recall to us an artistic feature of the parish church
which opens out a wide field, and can be dealt with here only so far as
the tombs themselves afford evidence as to the date of the part of the
church in which they occur.
§ 61. The actual development of the parish church comes to an end
with the Reformation. The building of great churches, cathedral
and monastic, ceased with the suppression of the monasteries.
The suppression of the chantries, and the new doctrines which it
symbolised, did away with one object which had been a powerful
consideration with the lay benefactor of parish churches. Henceforward
the best work of those English masons who, in every county, had for
generations shaped the course of medieval art, and, with it, the best
work of the wood-carvers and glaziers, is found in private houses.
In the early part of the seventeenth century, under the influence of
Laud, much restoration and rebuilding was done. Wood-carvers filled
many churches with furniture of great beauty and historical value.
Churches like St John's at Leeds, or the little chapel of Carlton
Husthwaite in Yorkshire, are, in stone and woodwork alike, complete
examples of the work of this period. Brancepeth, Sedgefield, and
Eaglescliffe in Durham; Burneston in north Yorkshire; and, above all,
Croscombe in Somerset, contain wooden furniture which one would not
willingly exchange for medieval work. But, in spite of the richness and
picturesqueness of seventeenth century woodwork, the art of the Laudian
revival had no power to strike out new lines for itself. The chancels
of Astley Abbots in Shropshire, Kelmarsh in Northamptonshire, and
Barsham in Suffolk, interest us by their quaint adaptation of Gothic
detail: they tell us nothing new. The art of the mason, as regards the
parish church, is exhausted.
§ 62. At a later date, Wren built parish churches with an extraordinary
elasticity of style and plan. But the study of Wren's plans is simply
the study of the plans of an individual architect: they are the
outcome of his relation to the fashions of his day, and his unrivalled
capacity for dealing with them. He established firmly the use of a
modified Palladian style in church architecture, which his successors
imitated until nothing further could be done with it. But, when we
look at his churches, we never can forget the architect behind them.
St Martin's-in-the-Fields and St Mary-le-Strand, by Gibbs; St Philip's
at Birmingham, by Archer, fine churches though they are, fall short
of his designs; and we instinctively compare and contrast their plan
and elevation with the models supplied by Wren. In the medieval parish
church, on the other hand, the individual architect had no place;
the whole artistic activity of an age was represented; the builder
was an original artist, and a member of a nation of artists; and the
development of the parish church was the work of a national interest,
not merely confined to one highly specialised profession. When the
Gothic revival came in the early nineteenth century, it was thought
that medieval art was once more re-born. But, when we look to-day
at the scholarly and often extremely beautiful work of artists like
Pugin, Sir Gilbert Scott, Street, Pearson, Butterfield, Bodley, or the
younger Gilbert Scott, we still feel the force of individual design and
style rather than the force of a great collective movement. All these,
like Wren, have added individual contributions to church planning and
decoration; but their art is a by-path of national life, and is merely
the result of a purely individual type of thought.
§ 63. At the same time, to say this is not to belittle post-Reformation
church architecture. It is simply to point out the contrast between
the work of the architect and the work of the medieval mason, between
a sporadic development of art, and a development which was general in
every part of the country.
But, while the work of later generations differs in quality and
spirit from that of the medieval craftsman, while it is necessarily
more sophisticated and less spontaneous than his, no greater mistake
can be made than to drive it out of our churches. The Reformation
and Cromwell have been made responsible for much destruction: yet
no one has destroyed so light-heartedly as the modern restorer, in
his efforts to bring back churches to what is called their 'original
state.' To-day, people are waking up to the value of post-Reformation
masonry and furniture. They realise that when an eighteenth century
church is swept away, and a handsome building, in an eclectic Gothic
style, decked with the best products of modern arts and crafts, rises
in its place, the advantage is questionable. Not merely does much good
furniture inevitably perish, but a link with the past is destroyed.
Eighteenth century pews may not be altogether suited to a fifteenth
century church; but they remind us at any rate that the fabric in
which they stand has a continuous history. The age which produced
them followed its own taste and worked on its own lines, and did not
merely strive after an ideal of harmonious imitation. Not only the
work of recent centuries has been touched, but medieval work has been
altered: screens have been mutilated and removed, old glass has been
destroyed, even whole fabrics have been rebuilt with very slight
regard to their earlier plan. It can never be impressed too strongly
upon the average Englishman that, quite apart from their religious
associations, the parish churches of this country form, as a body,
one of the most remarkable historical monuments which any European
nation possesses. We may regret, perhaps, that past generations have
tampered with them; but for that very reason we should hesitate to
tamper with them ourselves, or to replace incongruous work of the past
by imitative work of our own. We may well use our individual energy
and our new ideas in adding to their number; but our treatment of the
older work, where it positively calls for renewal, should be tender,
conservative, and self-effacing. The excellence of the medieval mason's
work consists largely in his avoidance of self-consciousness, in its
perfectly natural and spontaneous feeling: if we attempt to impose our
individuality upon his work, we are in danger of supplying to future
and, it may be hoped, wiser generations a contrast from which they will
not fail to draw a melancholy profit.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Books exclusively devoted to the subject of the English parish church
are few in number, and generally are in the form of descriptions of the
churches of special districts, or of monographs on individual churches.
1. Among the older books in which special attention is paid to parish
churches, the following may be mentioned:
BLOXAM, M. H., _Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical
Architecture_, 11th ed., 2 vols., London, 1882.
BRANDON, J. R. and J. A., _Parish Churches_, London,
1888. [Perspective views, ground plans, and short descriptions.]
ECCLESIOLOGICAL [Cambridge Camden] SOCIETY, _A
Hand-Book of English Ecclesiology_, London, 1847.
NEALE, J. P., and LE KEUX, J., _Views of the most
interesting collegiate and parochial churches in Great Britain_, 2
vols., London, 1824-5.
PARKER, J. H., _Introduction to the study of Gothic
Architecture_, 12th ed., Oxford and London, 1898.
RICKMAN, T., _An attempt to discriminate the styles of
English Architecture_, 7th ed., Oxford and London, 1881.
WICKES, C., _The spires and towers of the mediaeval churches
of England_, London, 1859.
2. More modern works, in which the development of the ground plan is
treated as part of the general subject, are:
BOND, F., _Gothic Architecture in England_, London, 1905.
BROWN, G. BALDWIN, _The Arts in Early England_, vol.
II, London, 1903.
PRIOR, E. S., _A history of Gothic art in England_, London,
1900.
SCOTT, G. G., _An essay on the history of English Church
Architecture_, London, 1881.
3. Among volumes dealing with special districts, the following may be
mentioned:
BUCKLER, G., _Twenty-two churches of Essex_, London, 1856.
COX, J. C., _Notes on the churches of Derbyshire_, 4 vols.,
Chesterfield and London, 1875-9.
CRANAGE, D. H. S., _An architectural account of the churches
of Shropshire_, Wellington (in course of publication).
MCCALL, H. B., _Richmondshire Churches_, London, 1909.
NORTHAMPTON, _Architectural notices of the churches of the
Archdeaconry of_, London, 1849.
SHARPE, E., _An account of the churches visited during the
Lincoln excursion of the Architectural Association_, London, 1871.
SHARPE, E., and others, _Churches of the Nene Valley_,
London, 1880.
WILSON, F. R., _An architectural survey of the churches in
the Archdeaconry of Lindisfarne_, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1870.
4. Books upon individual churches cannot be mentioned here, nor can
any detailed list be given of the numerous valuable articles in such
publications as _Archaeologia_ and the _Archaeological Journal_. Some
of the most enlightening work upon the subject is to be found in the
papers contributed by the late J. T. Micklethwaite to the transactions
of various societies. Those on Saxon churches in vols. LIII
and LIV of the _Archaeological Journal_, and the plans contributed by
him to J. W. Walker's _History of All Saints, Wakefield_(Wakefield,
1888), may be specially mentioned.
5. Books on the subject of church furniture are numerous. The most
comprehensive modern handbook on the subject is J. C. Cox and A.
Harvey's _English Church Furniture_, London, 1907. More detailed
treatment of separate articles of furniture is given in F. Bond's
_Screens and Galleries_, _Fonts and Font-Covers_, etc., volumes of a
series now in course of publication. J. T. Fowler's edition of _The
Rites of Durham_ (Surtees Society, 1903), and Rock's _Church of our
Fathers_, edited by G. W. Hart and W. H. Frere (4 vols., London,
1903-4), are a mine of information on points connected with church
services and furniture.
6. The historical aspect of the parish church is treated excellently
by E. L. Cutts, _Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages_
(London, 1898). But, to gain an adequate knowledge of this side of the
question, the study of original documents is necessary, and chiefly of
the contents of episcopal registers. Of these invaluable texts some
have been printed in full, and of others there are printed abstracts,
but the vast majority remain in manuscript. The fullest printed series
is the _Exeter Episcopal Registers_ (ed. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph),
covering the period 1258-1455: the York registers from 1216 to 1285
(ed. J. Raine and W. Brown for the Surtees Society), and the Hereford
registers from 1275 to 1327 (ed. W. W. Capes and others for the
Cantilupe and Canterbury and York Societies) are also full and accurate
editions. Much information with regard to the foundation of chantries
and other important subjects may be obtained from the Calendars of the
Patent Rolls and of Letters from the Papal Registers, published under
the direction of the Master of the Rolls. The Chantry Certificate Rolls
and Inventories of Church Goods drawn up between 1547 and 1549 are also
sources of great value: these have been printed for some counties, but
the greater number are still unpublished.
J. C. Cox and R. M. Serjeantson's _History of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, Northampton_ (Northampton, 1897) may be cited as a model
history of a parish church. The arrangement of the topographical
sections of the various Victoria County Histories makes it possible to
study the history of a large number of churches in company with their
architecture.
INDEX
Abbots Kerswell, Devon, 122
Abingdon, Berks., 33
Acaster Malbis, Yorks., 92
Acton Burnell, Salop, 79
Adlingfleet, Yorks., 19
Ainderby Steeple, Yorks., 82
Aldwinkle St Peter, Northants., 88
Alveley, Salop, 36
Alvington, West, Devon, 127
Arnold, Notts., 83
Arundel, Sussex, 37
Ashby St Ledgers, Northants., 118
Astley Abbots, Salop, 130
Auckland St Andrew, Durham, 79
Avening, Glouces., 77
Aylsham, Norfolk, 111
Aysgarth, Yorks., 30
Banwell, Som., 113
Bardfield, Great, Essex, 80
Barnack, Northants., 4, 53, 70
Barsham, Suffolk, 130
Barton-le-Street, Yorks., 67, 68
Barton-on-Humber, Lincs., St Peter's, 54
Bath, Som., cathedral priory, 35
Battlefield, Salop, 28
Beccles, Suffolk, 73
Beckingham, Lincs., 21, 22, 33, 82, 111
Bedale, Yorks., 74, 96
Bedminster, Som., 49
Belaugh, Norfolk, 109
Benefield, Northants., 118
Berkeley, Glouces., 34
Beverley, Yorks., St Mary's, 69
Beverstone, Glouces., 36
Biggleswade, Beds., 33
Birmingham, Warwicks., St Martin's, 31;
St Philip's, 130
Blackawton, Devon, 116
Blakeney, Norfolk, 87
Bloxham, Oxon., 101
Boothby Pagnell, Lincs., 82
Bosham, Sussex, 97
Boston, Lincs., 31, 36, 62
Bottesford, Lincs., 79
Boughton, Northants., 30
Boxgrove, Sussex, priory church, 35
Bracebridge, Lincs., 76, 77
Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts., 70, 77
Bradwell-juxta-Mare, Essex, St Peter's on the Wall, 2, 3
Brancepeth, Durham, 129
Branston, Lincs., 9, 10, 15, 58
Bridgnorth, Salop, 29
Bridgwater, Som., St Mary Magdalene's, 96
Bridlington, Yorks., priory church, 17
Bristol, St Mary Redcliffe, 48, 49, 66, 95, 96, 126
Brixworth, Northants., 4, 53, 54, 55, 56
Bunbury, Cheshire, 28
Burford, Oxon., 35, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 88, 97, 102
Burgh-next-Aylsham, Norfolk, 78
Burneston, Yorks., 84, 85, 129
Burnsall, Yorks., 30
Burton Lazars, Leices., 92
Caistor, Lincs., 58
Cambridge, Clare college, 38;
Corpus Christi college, 31, 89;
Jesus college chapel, 38, 39;
King's college chapel, 105, 118;
Michaelhouse, 38;
St Peter's college, 34, 38, 89;
Trinity Hall, 38;
St Benedict's, 89;
St Botolph's, 35;
St Edward's, 38;
Little St Mary's, 34, 38, 89;
St Michael's, 38, 119
Canterbury, Kent, cathedral, 4, 70;
St Martin's, 2
Car Colston, Notts., 83
Carlton Husthwaite, Yorks., 129
Carlton-in-Lindrick, Notts., 57
Castle Rising, Norfolk, 77
Cawston, Norfolk, 111
Chaddesden, Derby, 38, 84
Chellaston, Derby, 121
Cherry Hinton, Cambs., 79
Chesterfield, Derby, 32, 33, 41
Chipping Norton, Oxon., 32
Chipping Sodbury, Glouces., 32
Churchdown, Glouces., 68
Cirencester, Glouces., 39, 40, 41, 48, 49, 72, 73, 101, 110
Claypole, Lincs., 84, 88, 124
Cleobury Mortimer, Salop, 36
Clovelly, Devon, 28
Coddington, Notts., 109
Coln St Denis, Glouces., 56
Coneysthorpe, Yorks., _see_ Barton-le-Street
Copford, Essex, 100
Cotes-by-Stow, Lincs., 116
Cotterstock, Northants., 28, 37, 83, 109
Coventry, Warwicks., Holy Trinity 45, 48, 49, 101, 110;
St Michael's, 45, 46, 47, 49, 65
Cowthorpe, Yorks., 124
Crediton, Devon, 32
Crich, Derby, 127
Croft, Yorks., 36, 82, 84
Cromhall, Glouces., 75
Croscombe, Som., 36, 129
Croyland abbey, Lincs., 14, 88
Cullompton, Devon, 117
Darlington, Durham, 90
Dartmouth, Devon, St Saviour's, 110
Deerhurst, Glouces., 54, 55
Dennington, Suffolk, 80, 108, 109, 114
Dereham, West, Norfolk, abbey, 11, 12
Donington, Lincs., 75
Down St Mary, Devon, 108
Dronfield, Derby, 84
Durham, cathedral, 8
Eaglescliffe, Durham, 129
Earl's Barton, Northants., 53
Easby, Yorks., 100
Easingwold, Yorks., 68
Elm, Cambs., 59
Elmley, Worces., castle chapel, 29
Elstow abbey, Beds., 88
Ely, Cambs., cathedral, 6, 59, 81
Escomb, Durham, 77
Etwall, Derby, 127
Exeter, Devon, St Leonard's, 119
Exton, Rutland, 61, 62
Fairford, Glouces., 102, 104
Farnacres, Durham, 29
Fledborough, Notts., 82, 126
Fleet, Lincs., 75
Fotheringhay, Northants., 28, 37, 118
Fowey, Cornwall, 75
Frampton, Lincs., 61
Frating, Essex, 124
Fressingfield, Suffolk, 108
Frome Selwood, Som., 45
Geddington, Northants., 120, 121
Gedney, Lincs., 60, 65
Gisburn, Yorks., 11
Gloucester, cathedral, 8
Grantham, Lincs., 24, 25, 31, 34, 42, 49, 61, 65, 71, 72, 74, 89, 95,
96, 109, 116, 122, 123, 127
Gretton, Northants., 92
Grinton, Yorks., 30
Haccombe, Devon, 28
Hale, Great, Lincs., 56
Hallaton, Leices., 25, 97
Halsall, Lancs., 84, 89
Harringworth, Northants., 88
Hawstead, Suffolk, 93
Hawton, Notts., 82, 88, 123, 124, 125
Heckington, Lincs., 82, 85, 89, 124
Hedon, Yorks., 30, 79
Hereford, cathedral, 34
Hereford, Little, Heref., 114, 116
Heslerton, West, Yorks., 79
Hessle, Yorks., 30
Hexham, Northumb., priory church, 4, 35
Hickleton, Yorks., 117
Higham Ferrers, Northants., 28, 37, 66, 90, 97, 105, 118
Hitchin, Herts., 33
Hodgeston, Pembroke, 85
Hooton Pagnell, Yorks., 59
Hough-on-the-Hill, Lincs., 53
Houghton-le-Spring, Durham, 78, 79
Hubberholm, Yorks., 116
Hull, Yorks., Holy Trinity, 30
Hungerton, Leices., 36, 68
Hythe, Kent, 96
Immingham, Lincs., 64
Irstead, Norfolk, 108
Islip, Northants., 88
Jarrow-on-Tyne, Durham, St Paul's, 4
Kelmarsh, Northants., 130
Kenton, Devon, 110
Kettering, Northants., 62, 66, 100, 101
Ketton, Rutland, 66
Kewstoke, Som., 35
Keyston, Hunts., 66
Kirkburn, Yorks., 56
Kirkby in Malhamdale, Yorks., 11, 12
Kirkby Wiske, Yorks., 82
Langton, East, Leices., 83
Lapford, Devon, 108, 114
Lastingham, Yorks., 96
Launcells, Cornwall, 108
Lavenham, Suffolk, 70, 87, 90
Lawford, Essex, 80
Leeds, Yorks., St John's, 129
Leicester, St Mary's in the Castle, 65
Leigh, South, Oxon., 100
Leighton Buzzard, Beds., 33
Leverington, Cambs., 59
Lichfield, Staffs., cathedral, 81
Liddington, Rutland, 101
Lincoln, cathedral, 9, 10, 16, 34
Lindisfarne, Northumb., 5
Llananno, Radnor, 115
Llanbedr-ystrad-yw, Brecon, 102, 117
Llanegryn, Merioneth, 115
Llanelieu, Brecon, 116, 117
Llanfair-ar-y-bryn, Carmarthen, 74
Llanfihangel-cwm-du, Brecon, 74
Llanrhaiadr-yn-Cynmerch, Denbigh, 104
Llanwnog, Montgom., 114, 115
Llywel, Brecon, 74, 115
London, old St Paul's, 80;
St James Garlickhithe, 26;
St Martin in the Fields, 130;
St Mary-le-Strand, 130
Louth, Lincs., 32, 33, 62
Lowick, Northants., 104
Lowthorpe, Yorks., 26, 27, 37
Ludlow, Salop, 31, 34, 48, 110, 118, 121
Luffenham, North, Rutland, 85
Luton, Beds., 33, 108
Madley, Heref., 96
March, Cambs., 94
Margaretting, Essex, 60
Melford, Long, Suffolk, 34, 36
Melton Mowbray, Leices., 67
Middleham, Yorks., 28
Mitford, Northumb., 78
Monkwearmouth, Durham, 4, 5, 53
Montgomery, 114, 115
Morpeth, Northumb., 93
Nantwich, Cheshire, 84, 110
Navenby, Lincs., 82, 124
Newark-on-Trent, Notts., 31, 35, 42, 65, 96, 116, 126
Newport, Salop, 28
Newton Nottage, Glamorgan, 74
Norbury, Derby, 75, 84, 104
Northampton, All Saints', 32
Northleach, Glouces., 105
Northwold, Norfolk, 126
Norton-on-Tees, Durham, 52
Norwich, Norfolk, cathedral, 8, 118;
St Peter Mancroft, 90
Nottingham, St Mary's, 32, 118
Oadby, Leices., 64
Oakham, Rutland, 61
Oswestry, Salop, 50
Othery, Som., 94
Othona; _see_ Bradwell-juxta-Mare
Ottery St Mary, Devon, 118
Oundle, Northants., 62, 66, 96
Owston, Yorks., 126
Oxford, Merton college chapel, 39
Patricio, Brecon, 115
Patrick Brompton, Yorks., 82, 84
Patrington, Yorks., 62, 82, 83, 84, 99
Peterborough, Northants., cathedral, 4, 5, 6
Pickering, Yorks., 100, 104
Pleshy, Essex, 28
Pool, South, Devon, 70, 71, 126, 127
Preen, Salop, 93
Preston-in-Holderness, Yorks., 30
Quenington, Glouces., 67
Ramsey, Hunts., abbey church, 6
Ranworth, Norfolk, 106, 112
Raskelf, Yorks., 68
Rauceby, Lincs., 61
Raunds, Northants., 66, 89, 100, 104
Ripon, Yorks., cathedral, 4
Rochester, Kent, cathedral, 4
Romaldkirk, Yorks., 82
Ropsley, Lincs., 114
Rotherham, Yorks., college of Jesus, 25
Rothwell, Northants., 96
Rushden, Northants., 66, 90
Rushton, Northants., 90
St Breage, Cornwall, 100
St Michael Penkivel, Cornwall, 38, 73
St Neot, Cornwall, 104
St Peter's on the Wall; _see_ Bradwell-juxta-Mare
St Winnow, Cornwall, 104
Salisbury, Wilts., cathedral, 49;
St Thomas, 101
Sall, Norfolk, 73, 87, 111
Sampford, Great, Essex, 80
Sandiacre, Derby, 78, 84
Sawley, Derby, 90
Scarborough, Yorks., 42
Scawton, Yorks., 76, 128
Sedgefield, Durham, 129
Selby, Yorks., abbey church, 17
Sherburn-in-Elmet, Yorks., 35
Sherston Magna, Wilts., 36
Shrewsbury, Salop, St Chad's, 104;
St Mary's, 104
Sibthorpe, Notts., 22, 26, 37, 82, 126
Skipwith, Yorks., 55
Skirlaugh, South, Yorks., 30, 105
Sleaford, Lincs., 61
Sneinton, Notts., 118
Snettisham, Norfolk, 67
Sompting, Sussex, 61
Southwell, Notts., cathedral, 81
Southwold, Suffolk, 106
Spalding, Lincs., 13, 14, 32
Spondon, Derby, 127
Stainfield priory, Lincs., 11
Stamford, Lincs., St Mary's, 31
Stanion, Northants., 121
Stebbing, Essex, 80
Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, 87
Stony Stratford, Bucks., 33
Stottesdon, Salop, 36
Stratford-on-Avon, Warwicks., 32, 66
Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, 36
Sutton, King's, Northants., 67
Sutton, Long, Lincs., 32, 60, 89
Swymbridge, Devon, 114
Tamworth, Staffs., 29
Tanfield, West, Yorks., 128
Tansor, Northants., 56, 73, 90, 109, 118, 119, 123
Tattershall, Lincs., 28
Terrington St John's, Norfolk, 74
Tewkesbury, Glouces., abbey church, 35
Thaxted, Essex, 33, 73
Thirsk, Yorks., 96
Tickhill, Yorks., 63
Tideswell, Derby, 84, 90
Tilney All Saints, Norfolk, 60
Tilty, Essex, 80
Tong, Salop, 28
Totnes, Devon, 115
Trull, Som., 108
Trunch, Norfolk, 91, 108
Tugby, Leices., 58, 59
Tunstead, Norfolk, 87, 117, 128
Twywell, Northants., 127
Tydd St Giles, Cambs., 75
Ufford St Mary, Suffolk, 106
Wakefield, Yorks., cathedral, 35
Walpole St Peter, Norfolk, 86, 87, 88, 93, 118, 119
Walsingham, Little, Norfolk, 108
Walsoken, Norfolk, 60
Walton, West, Norfolk, 60, 75
Warmington, Northants., 109
Warwick, St Mary's, 97
Wath, Yorks. (North Riding), 89
Weaverthorpe, Yorks., 58
Well, Yorks., 107
Wellingborough, Northants., 88
Wells, Som., St Cuthbert's, 105
Wenhaston, Suffolk, 117
Wenlock priory, Salop, 93
Wensley, Yorks., 91
Westborough, Lincs., 88
Westbury-on-Trym, Glouces., 29, 47
Weston-in-Gordano, Som., 111, 114
Whaplode, Lincs., 60
Willingham, Cambs., 88
Winchester, Hants., cathedral, 6, 8, 34
Witham, North, Lincs., 76, 77
Witney, Oxon., 36
Wolborough, Devon, 109
Wolverhampton, Staffs., 29, 110
Woodborough, Notts., 83
Woodleigh, Devon, 126, 127
Worcester, cathedral, 34
Worstead, Norfolk, 105, 111
Wrexham, Denbigh, 47
Wymondham, Norfolk, 126
Yarmouth, Great, Norfolk, 42
York, cathedral, 85;
St Mary's abbey, 85;
All Saints', North Street, 104;
St William's college, 25
Ythanceaster; _see_ Bradwell-juxta-Mare
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.