There is no country in Christendom where so many screens are still
preserved and standing, as in England. Till within a very recent period,
every cathedral church had retained its ancient separation between the
nave and choir; but sad to relate, one of the most venerable of our
churches is now denuded of this most essential and ancient portion of
the fittings of a cathedral. I refer to Durham: where choir and nave are
thrown into one great vacant space, and all the dignity and reverence of
choir worship, suited to a capitular body, destroyed. Although the
screen was of most debased design, and erected by a Pagan architect
(Inigo Jones), at a Pagan period; yet, being placed in the old and
proper position, and having attained a respectable colour, through age,
it did its work, and was ten times preferable to the modern vacuum
caused by its removal. Indeed, all the alterations at Durham are so many
enormities. For centuries the western doors of the cathedral were
closed, a chapel built outside them, termed the Galilee, and an altar,
dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin, stood in the recess of the
centre door, but lately, without any reason, for, as I have before said,
no entrance can be obtained to the church from that end, have these
doors been opened, and the remains of the altar removed, thus destroying
one of the most curious traditions belonging to this venerable
cathedral. Even the old Cromwellian Puritans did not injure the church
so much as _its present restorers_, and it is greatly to be regretted
that there are no means to compel these authorities to desist from their
insane innovations. In the eyes of all true ecclesiologists Durham has
lost half its apparent length, half its grandeur, since it has lost its
screen, and it has got somewhat of the conventicle. But to return—York,
Lincoln, Southwell, Wells, Exeter, Bristol, Chichester, Canterbury,
Rochester, Chester, Norwich,[18] have all their old screens and
rood-lofts standing. These are too well known amongst persons interested
in this subject to need detailed description, but I may observe that
they nearly all are ascended by staircases in the thickness of the
eastern walls, rising up on each side, and that lateral altars in the
screens were not so common as on the continent. The roods, in all cases,
have been replaced by organs, which are badly placed both as regards the
chanters and the effect of the building. The only instance I have ever
met with the remains of a rood is at Columpton, near Exeter, where a
large block of oak, carved like rock-work, with a skull and bones,
evidently intended to represent Calvary, is still left, and in its upper
part a deep mortice to receive the end of the rood.
Our parochial churches are yet rich in screens; of wooden rood-lofts we
may particularize Sleaford, Newark, Bury St. Edmunds, Fairford, Tong,
Lanryst, Sefton, Ranworth, and Southwold as some amongst the most
remarkable. The countries most abounding in screens, are Norfolk,
Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Devonshire, but each county
presents many interesting examples, and it must be distinctly understood
that every church, small or great, was originally provided with a screen.
In Norfolk, the churches of Cawston, Sall, N. Walsham, Worsted, Walcot,
Trunch, Happisburgh, Bacton, Paston, Lynn, Ranworth, Cley, Castle Acre,
Cressingham, Snetisham, and Ackle, &c., have all fine screens. Many of
them are richly painted, and the lower panels filled with images of
saints on gold and diapered grounds. The best preserved are those at
Ranworth and Cawston. About five different painters were employed in the
decoration of these, as the various styles may be distinctly traced over
various parts of the country. Some of them exhibit far greater skill
than others, but all have a deal of quaint character, and the images
fill up the spaces in which they are placed, by the adjustment of
drapery, &c.
There is a great deal of fine screen-work in Suffolk, at Woolpitt,
Elmswell, Thurston, Lavenham, Long Melford, Brandon, Southwold,
Blythburgh, Hawsted, and many other churches.
In Lincolnshire there are splendid screens at Winthorpe, Ingoldmills,
Orby, Burgh, Croft, Boston, Hackington, Swineshead, Tattershall, Ewerby,
Newark, Grantham.
In Devonshire the screens have been generally preserved, and on many of
them the painted panels with saints and imagery are quite perfect. They
are mostly constructed on one principle, with projecting wooden
ribbed-work crossing the rood-loft; at Honiton, Feniton, Bradwinch, West
Buckland, Columpton, Dartmouth, Kenton, Pinhoe, Plymtree, Tollaton,
Tiverton, Atherington, Dawlish, &c., are screens surmounted by
rood-lofts; but at Bridford, Burlescombe, Clayhanger, Dartington,
Hempston, Plymstock, West Ogwell, &c., there are only screens without
lofts, but of exceedingly elaborate design, and for the most part richly
painted and gilt, some with saints in the lower panels, like those in
Norfolk. A very numerous list, indeed, might be made of churches in this
country, where screens of some kind are to be found; they are not always
of the same material, for the examples of stone are numerous, as at
Totness, Culmstock, Colyton, and Paignton, &c., this latter being
monumental, and containing family tombs, introduced in the screen-work.
Although the counties above mentioned are those which abound the most in
fine examples of screen-work, yet most numerous and interesting
specimens may be found in every county.
Sefton church, in Lancashire, has a splendid rood and side screens
enclosing the chancel, of a later period, but most elaborate detail.
The parish church at Lancaster contains some very magnificent screen and
canopy-work of the time of Edward I. The treatment of the crockets is
quite peculiar, as they are joined together, forming a sort of solid
enrichment on the gablets.
The priory church of Hexham is rich in carved fittings. The stalls and
screen-work of the choir are perfect, and though rude in execution are
extremely interesting; this being a conventual church, the screen-work
is quite solid. If we proceed further north, we shall find the same
system of enclosure of choirs and chancels by screens. The rood-loft at
Glasgow is still perfect, and though the Scotch churches have been
horribly mutilated, the ancient position of the enclosures is to be
traced in most of them.
The churches in Wales were mostly furnished with rood-lofts. The screen
and loft at Lanryst are most elaborate in carved enrichments; they were
probably erected in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and it is
worthy of remark that in this, as well as others, there is a striking
similarity between the screens in Wales and Brittany.
Were it not tedious, I could supply a long list of fine screens yet
remaining in every part of the country, but there are few of an older
date than the thirteenth century, as so many of these churches have been
rebuilt or refitted since that period. There can be no doubt that even
the Saxon churches were provided with some enclosure across the arch
which divided off the chancel. Indeed, so natural and right does it seem
to have this separation, that the principles of screens survived the
Reformation, as will be mentioned hereafter. But not only do we find the
cathedrals and parochial churches to have been furnished with screens,
but also chapels in private houses and hospitals for the poor. The
archbishop's chapel at Croydon is divided by a plain but very
substantial and effective screen, figured in the first volume of Pugin's
examples.
Browne's hospital at Stamford, Bishop Bubwith's almshouses at Wells, S.
John's hospital at Sherburne, the bede-houses at Northampton and
Leicester, the Vicar's chapel at Wells, have all screens in their
chapels, and some of them of most elegant design. In the private chapel
of an ancient mansion at Cothele, on the banks of the Tamar, is an open
screen of perpendicular work. In short, I do not imagine that any
building dedicated to divine worship was considered complete, unless
furnished with a suitable screen.
In the reign of Edward VI., the roods, with their attendant images, were
removed, and it is probable that the lofts were stript at the same time
of the candlesticks and basons of latten, wherein the lights were set
up. But the screens themselves do not appear to have suffered, and
indeed, in accordance with the decree that the chancels were to remain
as in time past, the screens were absolutely necessary. Considering the
great number of screens yet standing, it is evident that those which
have been removed, were demolished, through the ignorance or
indifference of the authorities during the repairs that the buildings
have undergone, and I am personally acquainted with several instances
which corroborate this fact. There are several examples of
post-Reformation screens, one at Gedington church, of a simple but good
character, and another at Martham church, Norfolk, which is painted and
gilt.
The choir of Wimborne Minster, Dorsetshire, was fitted up in the
beginning of the seventeenth, or end of the sixteenth century, quite
after the old traditions, as regards screen-work and arrangement, though
the details were of course debased.
The collegiate chapels of the universities present several remarkable
examples of post-Reformation screens, as Wadham, Baliol, Lincoln, the
old screen of Magdalene, before the recent alterations, at Oxford; and
Peterhouse, Caius college, Clarehall, at Cambridge; even the screen of
King's college chapel itself was not erected till after the schism, as
the initials of Anna Boleyn occur in its decorations.
I have been informed of a screen in one of the churches at Leeds,
erected in the seventeenth century; and an oak screen of a still later
date is standing in the church of St. Peter, upon Cornhill, London. Lady
Dudley, a most pious lady, in the time of Charles I. set up a screen in
the church of St. Giles-in-the-fields, which was afterwards destroyed by
the Puritan faction. The whole transaction is so illustrative of the
spirit of those times, and so applicable to the fanatics of our own
days, that I have printed it at length at p. 74.
From these instances it will be seen that the principle of screening off
chancels has been retained in the church of England since its separation
from Catholic unity, and the partial discontinuance in the eighteenth
century was purely owing to extreme ignorance of ecclesiastical
traditions, which prevailed throughout the members of this communion at
that period, remarkable only for debased taste, and a total disregard of
the wonderful productions of Catholic antiquity.
To this brief account of screens in England, I have subjoined some
interesting extracts from churchwardens' accounts and other documents,
printed in Nichol's illustrations, which will illustrate their history
and decoration.