The floral badge of the house of Lancaster, it may be well to say, is
the purely heraldic rose, the outline being conventionalised, as is
the case also with the white rose of York. When used as the emblem of
England, and associated with the thistle and the shamrock, the queen
of flowers is represented as an artist would draw it--_i.e._
truthfully to nature, or with stalk, leaves, and buds, the petals
still, as in the Lancastrian, of a soft crimson hue, "rose-colour"
emphatically. The titles of the various subjects are all in old black
letter.
The history of Cartmel Church reads like a romance. The original
building was of earlier date than the Conquest, but changes
subsequently made bring it very considerably forwards--up indeed to
the time of Edward III. It was then that the windows of the south
aisle of the chancel were inserted, and painted as usual in that
glorious art-epoch, as shown by the few portions which remain. Other
portions of the coloured glass were probably brought from the priory
when broken up by the unhallowed hands of Henry VIII., under whose
rule the church was threatened with a similar fate, but spared, in
answer to the cry of the parishioners, who were allowed to purchase it
at an indulgent price, with the loss of the roof of the chancel. Thus
laid open to the rain and snow, these were allowed to beat into it for
eighty years, with results still plainly visible upon the woodwork. A
partial restoration of the fabric was then effected, and within these
last few years every part has been put in perfect order.
The ground-plan of this interesting old church is that of a Greek
cross. The nave, sixty-four feet in length (Furness exceeding it by
only a few inches), leads us through angular pillars, crowned with the
plain abacus, to a choir of unusual proportionate magnitude; and here,
in contrast to the pointed nave-arches, the form changes to round,
while the faces are carved.
In one of the chapels to which the chancel-arches lead there is some
fine perpendicular work. Similar windows occur in the transepts; and
elsewhere there are examples of late decorated. The old priory-stalls,
twenty-six in number, are preserved here, as at Whalley.
Externally, Cartmel Church presents one of the most curious
architectural objects existing in Lancashire, the tower being placed
diagonally to the body of the edifice, a square crossways upon a
square, as if turned from its first and proper position half-way
round. What particular object was in view, or what was the motive for
this unprecedented deviation from the customary style of building,--a
parallel to which, in point of the singularity, is found, perhaps,
only in Wells Cathedral,--does not appear. We owe to it, however, four
pillars of great beauty and strength, necessarily placed at the points
of the intersection of the transepts.
The interior of the church is encrusted with fine monuments, many of
them modern, but including a fair number that give pleasure to the
antiquary. The most ancient belong to a tomb upon the north side of
the altar, within a plain arch, and inscribed, upon an uninjured slab
of gray marble, in Longobardic characters, _Hic jacet Frator Willemus
de Walton, Prior de Cartmel_. Opposite this there will be found record
of one of the celebrated old local family of Harrington--probably the
Sir John who in 1305, when Edward I. was bound for Scotland, was
summoned by that monarch to meet him at Carlisle. An effigy of the
knight's lady lies abreast of that of the warrior; the arch above it
is of pleasing open work, covered with the grotesque figures of which
the monks were so fond.
Had exact annals been preserved of early church-building in Lancashire
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they would tell most
assuredly of many important foundations. The beginning of Eccles
Church, near Manchester, on the west, is referred by the archæologists
to about the year 1120, but probably it is one of the two mentioned in
"Domesday Book" in connection with Manchester. The first distinct
reference to Eccles occurs in the "Coucher Book" of Whalley Abbey, or
about thirty years later than 1120. The Whalley monks held large
estates both in Eccles and the neighbourhood, with granaries,
etc.,--the modern "Monton" is probably a contraction of "Monks' Town,"
and the very name is thought to indicate a church settlement.
Ecclesiastical relics of age quite, or nearly, corresponding are found
also near Preston, especially in the tower and chancel near the church
of Walton-le-Dale, the former of no great elevation, but very strong,
buttressed and embattled. Placed in a skilfully chosen position on the
crest of a little hill near the confluence of the Darwen with the
Ribble, the aspect of the old place is distinctly picturesque; the
site at the same moment explaining the local appellation of "Low
Church,"--the Anglo-Saxon _low_ or _law_ denoting an isolated
eminence, as in the case of Cheshire Werneth Low and Shuttlings Low.
The date assigned to this ancient tower is 1162; to about thirty years
after which time the oldest existing portions of Samlesbury, a few
miles distant, appear to belong, the relics of the original here
including the baptismal font. Didsbury Church, near Manchester,
represents a chapel built about 1235, originally for the private use
of the lord of the manor and a few families of local distinction, but
a century afterwards made parochial.[42]
[42] The existing church dates only from 1620, and in many of
its details only from 1852 and 1855.
There are numerous indications also of ecclesiastical energy, if not
of enthusiasm, temp. Edward III., to which period seem to belong the
choir of Rochdale Church, with its rich window tracery, the choir,
probably, of Burnley Church, and perhaps the older portions of Wigan
Church. As happens with many others, the history of the last-named is
very broken. A church existed at Wigan in 1246, but the larger portion
of the present pile belongs to two centuries later. That it cannot be
the original is proved by the monument to the memory of Sir William
Bradshaigh and the unfortunate lady, his wife, the principal figure
in the legend of Mab's, or Mabel's cross. The knight is cross-legged,
in coat of mail, and in the act of unsheathing his sword; the lady is
veiled, with hands uplifted and conjoined as if in prayer. The deaths
of these two occurred about the time of the Flemish weavers' settling
in Lancashire, and of Philippa's intercession for the burghers of
Calais.
Manchester "old church," since 1847 the "Cathedral," was founded, as
before stated, in 1422, the last year of Henry V. and first of Henry
VI.--that unhappy sovereign whose fate reflects so dismally upon the
history of Lancashire faithfulness. The site had previously been
occupied by an edifice of timber, portions of which are thought to
have been carried away and employed in the building of certain of the
old halls for which the neighbourhood was long noted, the arms of the
respective families (who, doubtless, were contributors to the cost of
the new structure) being displayed in different parts. But there does
not appear to be any genuine ground for the belief; and at a period
when oak timber was so readily procurable as in the time of Henry VI.,
it is scarcely probable that men who could afford to build handsome
halls for their abode would care to introduce second-hand material,
unless in very small quantity, and then merely as commemorative of
the occasion. Choice of a quarry by the builders of the new church was
not in their power. They were constrained to use the red-brown friable
sandstone of the immediate vicinity, still plainly visible here and
there by the river-side. The exterior of the building has thus
required no little care and cost to preserve, to say nothing of the
injury done by the smoke of a manufacturing town. There was a time
when Thoresby's quotation from the Canticles in reference to St.
Peter's at Leeds would have been quite as appropriate in regard to the
Manchester "Cathedral"--"I am black, but comely." The style of the
building, with its square and pinnacled tower, 139 feet high, is the
florid Gothic of the time of the west front and south porch of
Gloucester. The interior, in its loftiness and elaborate fretwork, its
well-schemed proportions and ample windows, excites the liveliest
admiration. The chancel-screen is one for an artist to revel in; the
tabernacle work is, if possible, more beautiful yet.
The second best of the old Lancashire ecclesiastical interiors belongs
to Sefton, near Liverpool, a building of the time of Henry VIII., upon
the site of a pre-Conquest church. The screen, which contains sixteen
stalls, presents a choice example of carved work. There is also a
fine carved-canopy over the pulpit, though time with the latter has
been pitiless. Striking architectural details are also plentiful with,
in addition, some remarkable monuments of Knights Templars with
triangular shields. Sefton church is further distinguished as one of
the few in Lancashire more than a hundred years old which possesses a
spire, the favourite style of tower in the bygones having been the
square, solid, and rather stunted--never in any degree comparable with
the gems found in Somerset, or with the circular towers that give so
much character to the churches of Norfolk and Suffolk. A very handsome
octangular tower exists at Hornby, on the banks of the Lune, built
about the middle of the sixteenth century. Winwick church, an ancient
and far-seen edifice near Warrington, supplies another example of a
spire; and at Ormskirk we have the odd conjunction of spire and square
tower side by side. Leland makes no mention of the circumstance--one
which could hardly have escaped his notice. The local tale which
proposes to explain it may be dismissed. The probability is that the
intention was to provide a place for the bells from Burscough Priory,
some of the monuments belonging to which were also removed hither when
the priory was dissolved.
Many remains show that in Lancashire, in the time of Henry VIII., the
spirit of church extension was again in full flow. Indications of it
occur at Warrington, Burnley, Colne, and St. Michael-le-Wyre, near
Garstang, also in the aisles of Middleton Church, and in the towers of
Rochdale, Haslingden, Padiham, and Warton, near Lancaster. Here,
however, we must pause; the history of the old Lancashire churches
treated in full would be a theme as broad and various as that of the
lives and writings of its men of letters. There is one, nevertheless,
which justly claims the special privilege of an added word, the very
interesting little edifice called Langho Chapel, four miles from
Blackburn, the materials of which it was built consisting of part of
the wreck of Whalley Abbey. Sculptured stones, with heraldic shields
and other devices, though much battered and disfigured, declare the
source from which they were derived; and in the heads of some of the
windows, which resemble the relics of others at the Abbey, are
fragments of coloured glass in all likelihood of similar origin. The
date of the building would seem to have been about 1557, though the
first mention of it does not occur until 1575. How curious and
suggestive are the reminders one meets with in our own country
(comparing the small with the great), of the quarrying of the
Coliseum by the masons of mediæval Rome!
In old halls, mansions, and manor-houses, especially of
sixteenth-century style, Lancashire abounds. A few are intact, held,
like Widnes House, by a descendant of the original owners; or
preserved through transfer to some wealthy merchant or manufacturer
from the town, who takes an equal pride in maintaining the integrity
of all he found--a circumstance to which we are indebted for some of
the most beautiful archæological relics the county possesses. On the
contrary, as would be expected, the half-ruined largely predominate,
and these in many cases are now devoted to ignoble purposes. A
considerable number of stronger substance have been modernised, often
being converted into what are sometimes disrespectfully called
"farmhouses," as if the home of the agriculturist were not one of the
most honourable in the land;--now and then they have been divided into
cottages. Still, they are there; attractive very generally to the
artist in their quaintness, always dear to the antiquary and
historian, and interesting, if no more, to all who appreciate the fond
care which clings to memorials of the past, whether personal or
outside, as treasures which once lost can never be recovered. They
tell of a class of worthy and industrious men who were neither barons
nor vassals, who had good taste, and were fairly well off in purse,
and loved field-sports--for a kennel for harriers and otter hounds is
not rare,--who were hospitable, and generous, and mindful of the poor.
The history of these old halls is, in truth very often, the history of
the aboriginal county families. As wealth increased, and abreast of it
a longing for the refinements of a more elevated civilisation, the
proprietors usually deserted them for a new abode; the primitive one
became the "old," then followed the changes indicated, with departure,
alas! only too often, of the ancient dignity.
In the far north a few remains occur which point to a still earlier
period, or when the disposition to render the manorial home a fortress
was very natural. Moats, or the depressions they once occupied, are
common in all parts, even where there was least danger of attack. In
the neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay the building was often as strong as
a castle, as in the case of the old home of the Harringtons at
Gleaston, two miles east of Furness Abbey. These celebrated ruins,
which lie in a hollow in one of the valleys running seawards, are
apparently of the fourteenth century, the windows in the lower storey
being acutely pointed single lights, very narrow outside, but widely
splayed within. Portions of three square towers and part of the
curtain-wall connecting them attest, with the extent of the enclosure
(288 feet by 170 where widest), that the ancient lords of Aldingham
were alike powerful and sagacious. On the way to Gleaston, starting
from Grange, a little south of the village of Allithwaite, Wraysholme
tells of similar times, though all that now remains is a massive
tower, the walls 3-1/2 feet thick as they rise from the sod. It was
near Wraysholme, it will be remembered, that according to tradition
and the ballad, the last of the English wolves was killed. The fine
old tower of Hornby Castle, the only remaining portion of a stronghold
commenced soon after the Conquest, is of much later date, having been
built in or about 1520. That without being originally designed to
withstand the attack of a violent enemy, more than one of these
substantial old Lancashire private houses held its own against
besiegers in the time of the civil wars is matter of well-known
history. Lathom House (the original, long since demolished) has
already been mentioned as the scene of the memorable discomfiture of
Fairfax by Charlotte, Countess of Derby, the illustrious lady in whom
loyalty and conjugal love were interwoven.
The Elizabethan halls so termed, though some of them belong to the
time of James I., are of two distinct kinds,--the half-timbered,
black-and-white, or "magpie," and the purely stone, the latter
occurring in districts where wood was less plentiful or more costly.
Nothing in South Lancashire, and in the adjacent parts of Cheshire,
sooner catches the eye of the stranger than the beautiful old
patterned front of one of the former;--bars vertical and horizontal,
angles and curves, mingling curiously but always elegantly, Indian ink
upon snow, many gables breaking the sky-line, while the entrance is
usually by a porch or ornamental gateway, the windows on either side
low but wide, with many mullions, and usually casemented. The features
in question rivet the mind so much the more because of the proof given
in these old half-timbered houses of the enduring vitality of the
idea of the Gothic cathedral, and its new expression when
cathedral-building ceased, in the subdued and modified form
appropriate to English homes--the things next best, when perfect, to
the fanes themselves. The gables repeat the high-pitched roof; the
cathedral window, as to the rectangular portion, or as far as the
spring of the arch, is rendered absolutely; the filagree in
black-and-white, ogee curves appearing not infrequently, is a varied
utterance of the sculpture; the pinnacles and finials, the coloured
glass, and the porch complete the likeness. Anything that can be
associated with a Gothic cathedral is thereby ennobled;--upon this one
simple basis, the architecture we are speaking of becomes artistic,
while its lessons are pure and salutary.
Drawing near, at the sides of the porch, are found seats usually of
stone. In front, closing the entrance to the house, there is a strong
oaken door studded with heads of great iron nails. Inside are chambers
and corridors, many and varied, an easy and antique staircase leading
to the single upper storey, the walls everywhere hidden by oaken
panels grooved and carved, and in the daintier parts divided by fluted
pilasters; while across the ceilings, which are usually low, run the
ancient beams which support the floor above. So lavish is the
employment of oak, that, when this place was built, surely one thinks
a forest must have been felled. But those were the days of giant
trees, the equals of which in this country will probably never be seen
again, though in the landscape they are not missed. Inside, again, how
cheery the capacious and friendly hearth, spanned by a vast arch;
above it, not uncommonly, a pair of huge antlers that talk of joy in
the chase. Inside, again, one gets glimpses of heraldic imagery,
commemorative of ancient family honours, rude perhaps in execution,
but redeemed by that greatest of artists, the Sunshine, that streaming
through shows the colours and casts the shadows. Halls such as these
existed until quite lately even in the immediate suburbs of
Manchester, in the original streets of which town there were many
black-and-white fronts, as to the present moment in Chester, Ludlow,
and Shrewsbury. Some of the finest of those still remaining in the
rural parts of Lancashire will be noticed in the next chapter. Our
illustrations give for the present an idea of them. When gone to decay
and draped with ivy, like Coniston Hall, the ancient home of the le
Flemings, whatever may be the architecture, they become keynotes to
poems that float over the mind like the sound of the sea. In any case
there is the sense, when dismemberment and modernising have not
wrought their mischief, that while the structure is always peculiarly
well fitted for its situation, the outlines are essentially English.
It may be added that in these old Lancashire halls and mansions the
occurrence of a secret chamber is not rare. Lancashire was always a
stronghold of Catholicism, and although the hiding-places doubtless
often gave shelter to cavaliers and other objects of purely political
enmity, the popular appellation of "priest's room," or "priest's
hole," points plainly to their more usual service. They were usually
embedded in the chimney-stacks, communication with a private cabinet
of the owner of the house being provided for by means of sliding
shutters. Very curious and interesting refuges of this character exist
to this day at Speke, Lydiate, Widnes, and Stonyhurst, and in an old
house in Goosenargh, in the centre wall of which, four feet thick,
there are two of the kind. In a similar "hole" at Mains Hall, in the
parish of Kirkham, tradition says that Cardinal Allen was once
concealed.