dealing with the interesting subject of early INCISED SLABS. It is
well done, but much more has come to light on the subject since it was
written (1849), and a new manual is much wanted. In some counties,
where stone abounds, remains of this description are found in most
churches. If any part of the church is being rebuilt, the debris
should be most carefully looked over; and a minute inspection of the
existing masonry will often detect more or less perfect specimens of
incised crosses that have been utilised in the masonry by the church
restorers of past generations. The lintels of the windows (especially
of the clerestory and of the tower), the inner side of the parapets or
battlements, the stone seats of the porch, and of course the whole of
the flooring, should be critically scanned for these relics. See also
Boutell’s “Christian Monuments.”
Haines’ “Manual of Monumental BRASSES” (2 vols. 8vo., 1861) is the best
book on that class of memorials. The second volume consists of a fairly
exhaustive list of brasses throughout the kingdom.
There is no good handbook dealing exclusively with STONE EFFIGIES, a
great desideratum; the big illustrated folios of Gough’s “Sepulchral
Monuments,” and Stothard’s “Monumental Effigies,” may be consulted
with advantage. For the details of ARMOUR, Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour
and Weapons in Europe” (3 vols) is the most exhaustive work; for the
details of COSTUME there are several expensive works, but the best
handbook is Fairholt’s “Costume in England,” to which is appended an
illustrated glossary of terms.
In connection with stained or painted GLASS, Winston’s “Hints on
Glass Painting” (2nd edition, 1867) should be read, wherein the
different styles of successive periods are critically distinguished and
illustrated.
For the important item of HERALDRY, both in glass and on monuments,
the best of the numerous manuals (and there are several very trashy)
is Cussan’s “Handbook of Heraldry.” Burke’s “General Armoury,” of
which a new and extended edition was published in 1878, is a dictionary
of arms classified under families. Papworth’s “Dictionary of British
Armorials” is arranged on the opposite principle, viz., the blazonry
or description of the arms is given first, and the name of the family
or families to which it pertains follows. It is an expensive work, but
indispensable in the identification of arms. It will also be found to
be far more accurate than Burke, and gives references to the various
rolls and other MSS. from which the arms are cited.
FONTS are almost a speciality in themselves. Simpson’s “Series of
Ancient Baptismal Fonts,” 1825, has a large number of beautifully
finished plates of the more remarkable examples. Paley’s “Baptismal
Font,” 1844, has illustrations and critical descriptions of a great
number, arranged alphabetically. See also the “Archæologia,” vols. x.
and xi.
BELLS have now a literature of their own. Ellacombe’s “Bells of the
Church,” and Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing” are admirable works.
The inscriptions, etc., on the church bells of the majority of English
counties have already been published, and most of the remainder are
now in progress. North’s “Bells of Leicestershire,” and “Bells of
Northamptonshire,” are the best books of their class, but the “Bells
of Derbyshire,” now in course of publication in the “Reliquary,” and
chiefly contributed by St. John Hope, are being yet more thoroughly
treated, both in description and illustration.
Church PLATE should always be inspected, and the date, character,
inscription, or arms on each piece carefully recorded. Chaffers’ “Hall
Marks on Plate” gives the fullest description of the different marks,
and how the precise date can be thereby ascertained. The fifth edition,
published in 1875, is a considerable improvement on its predecessors.
INVENTORIES OF CHURCH GOODS often need explanation, or remains of
various ancient church furniture may make some description necessary.
There is no one book that can be thoroughly recommended on this
subject; but, perhaps, the most satisfactory in some respects is
Walcott’s “Sacred Archæology,” a popular dictionary of ecclesiastical
art and institutions. Jules Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire d’Archéologie
Nationale” may be consulted with advantage; it is a better done
work than anything of the size and scope in English, and is well
illustrated. For the various details of Church worship and ceremonies,
reference should be made to Rock’s “Church of our Fathers,” and to
Chambers’ valuable work, “Divine Worship in England in the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth Centuries, contrasted with and adapted to that in the
Nineteenth.”
Before beginning the description of the Church, it will be well, in
the first place, in order to ensure clearness and accuracy, that some
general PLAN OF PROCEDURE should be adopted. We give the following
skeleton of a suggested outline, that has been proved to be useful and
orderly, but it can, of course, be altered or expanded or re-arranged
in any direction.
1. Enumeration of component parts of structure, remarks as to its
general or special characteristics.
2 Ground plan, _i.e._, dimensions of area of chancel, nave, etc.,
different levels, and number of chancel and altar steps.
3. Description of parts of the permanent structure that are (_a_)
Saxon, (_b_) Norman, (_c_) Early English, (_d_) Transition, (_e_)
Decorated, (_f_) Perpendicular, (_g_) Debased, (_h_) Churchwarden, and
(_i_) Restored. Some definite order should be observed under each head,
otherwise it is likely that some details may escape, _e.g._ doorways,
windows, piers, arches, etc., of chancel, nave, aisles, porches,
transepts, tower, and chapels.
4. External details--parapets, gurgoyles, niches, stoup, arms,
inscriptions, “low side windows.”
5. Internal details--[Stone] altar or altar stone, piscina,
almery, hagioscope, Easter or sepulchral recess, niches, brackets,
roof-corbels, and sedilia of (_a_) chancel, (_b_) south aisle, (_c_)
north aisle, and (_d_) chapels or transepts; also groined roofs,
doorway or steps to roodloft, and stone screens--[Wood] altar table,
altar rails, reading desk, lectern, pulpit, pews, benches, poppy-heads,
panelling, roofs, doors, galleries, rood or chancel screen, other
screens or parcloses, parish or vestment chests, alms boxes--[Iron or
other metal]--any old details.
6. Font--(_a_) position, (_b_) description, (_c_) measurements, (_d_)
cover.
7. Monuments--beginning with early incised stones, and carefully
following them down in chronological order, an order which should not
be broken except for the purpose of keeping a family group together.
Arms should be correctly blazoned, and inscriptions faithfully copied.
8. Stained glass, according to age.
9. Encaustic tiles--pavement generally.
10. Fresco paintings, black-letter texts, patterns on roof or
elsewhere, royal arms, charity bequest boards.
11. Bells--(_a_) number, (_b_) inscription and marks, (_c_) frame,
(_d_) remarkable peals, or bell-ringers rhymes, (_e_) legends; also
sanctus bell, or bell cote on nave gable.
12. Parish registers and other documents; church books, or library.
13. Church plate.
14. Church yard, (_a_) cross, (_b_) remarkable monuments or epitaphs,
(_c_) yew tree, (_d_) lychgate, (_e_) sundial.
15. More recent fittings or ornaments, such as altar appurtenances,
organ, etc.; the previous headings being supposed to be confined to
older details possessing some historic value. But if the date, or
probable date, is given of each particular, it might perhaps be as well
to describe everything (if a complete account up to date is desired)
under its proper head; thus a modern altar cross and candlesticks might
be mentioned under the 5th head.
A few words on church “RESTORATION” may be here introduced; for
it cannot surely be inappropriate to include a sentence or two in
these pages (whose object it is to further the preservation of local
records), that may possibly have some small influence in preventing
the needless destruction of any part of those noble buildings round
which the history of each English parish so closely clusters. From the
standpoint of a local annalist nothing has been more painful in the
“restorations” of the past forty years than the wanton way in which
monuments, and more especially flat tombstones, of all ages, have been
often treated.
It is necessary to enter a warm protest against the notion that any
honour can be paid to God, or respect to the memory of those that He
created in His own image, by burying inscribed gravestones beneath many
inches of concrete in order to stick therein the glossy tiles of recent
manufacture. The effacing or removal (wherever it can be avoided) of
the memorials of the dead should in all cases be strongly resisted,
no matter what be the eminence of the architect that recommends it.
There are not many unrestored churches left in the country, but there
are some of much value and interest for whose fate we tremble. When a
“restoration” (the term is a necessity for the lack of a better) is
contemplated, let it be recollected that all work--beyond the removal
of galleries, and modern fittings, the opening out of flat plaster
ceilings, above which good timber roofs often lie concealed, the
scraping off the accumulated layers of whitewash and paint, the letting
in of light through blocked-up windows, the allowing of feet to pass
through doorways closed in recent days by the mason or bricklayer, and
the making strong of really perishing parts--all work beyond this is
in great danger of destroying the traces of the historic continuity
of our Church, and of doing a damage that can never be repaired. And
in preserving this historic continuity, let it not be thought that
any service is being rendered to history or religion by sweeping
clean out of the church all fittings of a post-Reformation date. The
sturdy Elizabethan benches, the well-carved Jacobean pulpit, or the
altar rails of beaten iron of last century, should all be preserved
as memorials of their respective periods; in short, everything that
our forefathers gave to God’s service that was costly and good, should
be by us preserved, provided that it does not mar the devout ritual
ordered by the Common Prayer, or in other respects interfere with
the Church’s due proclaiming of her Divine mission to the nineteenth
century. The reaction against over-restoration is now happily setting
in, but a word of caution is also necessary lest that cry should be
adopted as the cloak of a lazy indifferentism, or be used as an excuse
for regarding the parish church as a local museum illustrative of
byegone times, to be carefully dusted and nothing more. Where much
new work, or any considerable extent of refitting, seem absolutely
necessary, it is best to hasten slowly, and to do a little well rather
than to aim at a speedy general effect. Thus, if one of our old grey
churches requires fresh seating, how much better to fill a single aisle
or one bay of the nave with sound and effectively carved oak, and only
repair the remainder, rather than to accomplish the whole in sticky
pine. The best material and the best art should surely be used in God’s
service, and not reserved to feed our pride or minister to our comfort
in private dwellings. It has often been noticed how far better the work
of redeeming the interior of our churches from that state of dirt and
neglect that had degraded some at least below the level of the very
barns upon the glebe, has been carried out where money has come in
slowly, and at intervals, rather than where some munificent patron has
readily found the funds to enter upon a big contract.
Religious Houses.
If the parish includes within its boundaries the remains or the site of
any abbey, priory, hospital, monastic cell, or other religious building
otherwise than the parish church, the history and description of such
places must of course be separately undertaken. And let not the local
historian consider it is needless for him to explore into a subject
that has probably been treated of with greater or less detail in the
original edition of Dugdale’s “_Monasticon_,” or with more precision
in the expanded English edition. The English abbeys or priories, whose
history can be said to have been exhaustively written, could certainly
be counted on the fingers of both hands.
Should any one desire to thoroughly search into the history of a
religious house, it will be best in the first place to ascertain
whether there is any chartulary or chartularies extant (to printed
lists of which we have previously referred) for Dugdale and subsequent
writers have often only quoted some two or three out of a hundred
charters, or ignored them altogether. Secondly, the numerous references
to national records, all now to be found at the P. R. O., which are
given in Tanner’s “Notitia,” or in the big Dugdale, should be referred
to seriatim. Thirdly, the indexes and calendars to the various Rolls,
etc., at the P. R. O., which have been mentioned under the manorial
history, should be looked through for those more or less frequent
references that are almost certain to have been omitted by Tanner.
Fourthly, the Augmentation Books, and other likely documents of the
time of the Suppression of the Monasteries, should be overhauled.
Fifthly, special MSS. dealing with the order to which the house
pertains, should be sought after; _e.g._, if of the Premonstratensian
order, a store of unpublished matter is almost certain to be found
in the Peck MSS. of the B. M., and in the Visitation Book of the
B., numbered Ashmole MSS. 1519. Sixthly, search should also be made
through the indexes of the various Blue Book Reports of the Historical
Manuscript Commission, and inquiries set on foot as to local private
libraries. Seventhly, and though last, this suggestion will often be
found to be of great value, questions should be asked through the pages
of that invaluable medium between literary men--_Notes and Queries_.
It may also be found of use to study the precise statutes and
regulations of the particular order. They will be found in full in
the bulky folios of Holstein’s “_Codex Regularum Monasticarum et
Canonicarum_,” 1759. Dugdale only gives an abstract of the majority of
them.
General Topics.
Under this head we may classify the more general and modern subjects
that should not be left out of any complete parochial history, but
which it is sufficient just to indicate without further comment, only
premising that the annalist should keep constantly before him that it
is the history of a parish, and not of a county or country, on which he
is engaged, and that the more sparing he is of general disquisitions
the more likely he is to please his readers.
The value of a thorough study of the field-names, of which we spoke
in the first section of this manual, will now also become apparent.
Some names will tell of a change of physical features, of swamps and
islands, where all is now dry and far removed from water, or of forests
and underwood, where the blade of corn is now the highest vegetation;
whilst others will point to the previous existence of the vast common
fields, and their peculiar cultivation (concerning which Maine’s
“Village Communities” should be read). Some will indicate the foolish
ways in which special crops were attempted to be forced by law upon
the people, for it is few parishes that have not a “Flax Piece” as a
witness to the futile legislation of 24 Henry VIII.; whilst others tell
of trades now extinct, or metals long since worked out. Some speak of
those early days when the wolf or the bear roamed the woods and fields,
the beaver dammed up the streams, or the eagle swooped down upon its
prey; whilst others tell of the weapons whereby these fauna were
rendered extinct, for scarcely a township can be found where some field
is not termed “the Butts,” names that certainly date back as far as
Edward IV., when it was enacted that every Englishman should have a bow
of his own height, and that butts for the practice of archery should
be erected near every village, where the inhabitants were obliged to
shoot up and down on every feast day under penalty of being mulcted a
halfpenny.
It will, of course, be a matter of taste whether the topics here
enumerated should precede or follow the manorial and ecclesiastical
history.
I. Situation--extent--hill and river--caverns and springs--scenic
character--climate and temperature.
II. Geology--mineral workings--quarries.
III. Special vegetable productions, past and present.
IV. Special Fauna--mammalia--birds--fish--reptiles--insects.
V. Agriculture, past and present. Inclosures of different
dates--Inclosure Acts; for the mostly sad effects of these most selfish
Acts, which profited the rich at the expense of the poor, for lists of
inclosures from time of Queen Anne, and for other valuable information
on this topic, see “General Report on Enclosures,” drawn up by the
Board of Agriculture in 1808. The Board of Agriculture, in the first
quarter of this century, drew up most valuable Surveys of Agriculture
for the different counties, many of which are replete with varied and
interesting information. On the economic and antiquarian side of this
question, read Professor Rogers’s “History of Agriculture and Prices in
England.”
VI. Trades and manufactures, past and present.
VII. Fairs and markets.
VIII. Roads, canals, railways, and bridges--past and present. Care
should be taken in tracing out disused roads, bridle paths, or
pack-horse tracks.
IX. Folk-lore. Under this head will come customs and ceremonies
relating to childbearing, churching, christening, courtship,
betrothal, marriage, death, and burial--public-house
signs and their meaning--customs and superstitious
pertaining to wells and streams--used and disused sports
and games--obsolete punishments, such as ducking-stool or
stocks--omens--witchcraft--ghosts--charms--divinations--and other
quaint or original customs. Several books have lately been published on
this subject, but they are mostly instances of book-making, and none
come up to or surpass Ellis’s edition of “Brand’s Popular Antiquities.”
A most useful publication society has been recently started, termed
“The Folk Lore Society,” which has already begun collecting and
publishing. The Hon. Sec. is G. Lawrence Gomme, Esq., Castelnau, Barnes.
X. Dialect. On this subject see the invaluable publications of the
“English Dialect Society,” now (1879) in the seventh year of its
existence. The hon. secretary is J. H. Nodal, Esq., The Grange,
Heaton Moor, Stockport. One of their publications, price 6s. to
non-subscribers, is “A List of Books relating to some of the counties
of England.” Halliwell’s “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words”
will be found very useful.
XI. Poor Law and general Rating, history and statistics.
XII. Population, inhabited houses, and other census details at
different periods.
[Illustration]
INDEX.
Advowson, 76.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 16.
Armour, 89.
Attainders, 53.
Bacon’s “Liber Regis,” 82.
Banks’ “Dormant and Extinct Baronage,” 48.
Bateman’s “Ten Years Diggings,” 15.
Bells, 91.
Bigelow’s “Placita Anglo-Normannica,” 35.
Black Book of the Exchequer, 20.
Blount’s “Ancient Tenures,” 19.
Bloxam’s “Monumental Architecture,” 87.
Bohn’s “Antiquarian Series,” 16.
Boldon Book, 18.
Book of Ely, 17.
Book of Exeter, 17.
Book of Winchester, 18.
Borough Records, 56.
Boutell’s “Christian Monuments,” 88.
Brand’s “Popular Antiquities,” 107.
Brasses, 88.
Briefs, 74.
Burke’s “Armoury,” 89.
Burke’s “Landed Gentry,” 48.
Burn’s “Parish Registers,” 58.
Calamy’s “Ejected Ministers,” 81.
Chaffers’ “Hall Marks,” 91.
Chalmers’ “Biographical Dictionary,” 57.
Chambers’ “Divine Worship,” 92.
Chantries, 69.
Charities, 66.
Charnock’s “Local Etymology,” 14.
Charter Rolls, 25.
Church Details, 93-6.
Church, Description of, 84.
Church, History of, 67.
Churchwardens’ Accounts, 62.
Close Rolls, 24.
Collins’ “Peerage and Baronetage,” 48.
Commonwealth Survey, 73.
Constables’ Accounts, 62.
Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire,” 92.
Costume, 89.
County Records, 55.
Court of Chancery, 33.
Cowel’s “Interpreter,” 78.
Cussan’s “Heraldry,” 89.
Cutts’ “Incised Slabs,” 87.
Dialect, 108.
Dedication of Church, 81.
Domesday Book, 16, 67.
Domestic Architecture, 44.
Dugdale’s “Baronage,” 48.
Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” 101.
Ecton’s “Thesaurus,” 82.
Edmondson’s “Baronagium Genealogicum,” 48.
Edmund’s “Names of Places,” 14.
Ellacombe’s “Bells of the Church,” 91.
Ellis’ “Introduction to Domesday Book,” 17.
English Dialect Society, 108.
Episcopal Registers, 79.
Etymology, 13.
Fairholt’s “Costume,” 89.
Feet of Fines, 40.
Ferguson’s “River Names,” 15.
Ferguson’s “Teutonic Name System,” 15.
Fergusson’s “Rude Stone Monuments,” 15.
Fergusson’s “History of Architecture,” 48.
Feudal Tenure, 18.
Field Names, 13, 104.
Fine Rolls, 26.
Folk Lore, 107.
Folk Lore Society, 108.
Fonts, 90.
Forfeitures, 53.
Fosbrooke’s “Encyclopædia of Antiquities,” 44.
Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing,” 91.
Fuller’s “Worthies,” 57.
General Topics, 103-8.
Glass, 89.
Gomme’s “Index of Municipal Offices,” 66.
Gough’s “Sepulchral Monuments,” 89.
Greenwell’s “British Barrows,” 15.
Guilds and Fraternities, 72.
Haines’ “Brasses,” 88.
Halliwell’s “Archaic Dictionary,” 108.
Hamilton’s “Quarter Sessions,” 56.
Heralds’ Visitations, 49.
Heraldic Church Notes, 73.
Heraldry, 89.
Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour,” 89.
Historical MSS. Commission, 56.
History of the Church, 67.
Holstein’s “Codex,” 103.
Hundred Rolls, 27.
Incised Slabs, 87.
Inclosure Acts, 106.
Inclosure Commissioners, 14, 106.
Incumbents, Lists of, 78.
Inquisitiones ad quod damnum, 39.
Inquisitiones post mortem, 36.
Inventories of Church Goods, 71, 92.
Itinerant Justices, 31.
Justices in Eyre, 31.
Justices of the Forest, 31.
Kemble’s “Saxons in England,” 16.
Knight’s Fees, 18.
Le Neve’s “Fasti,” 80.
Le Neve’s “Monumenta Anglicana,” 88.
Leo’s “Local Nomenclature,” 14.
Local Etymology, 13.
Lubbock’s “Scientific Lectures,” 15.
Maine’s “Village Communities,” 104.
Manorial History, 16.
Maps, 14.
Marshall’s “Genealogist’s Guide,” 49.
Marshall Rolls, 20.
Mayors of Boroughs, 54.
Members of Parliament, 54.
Merewether’s “History of Boroughs,” 57.
Monuments, 86.
Muster Rolls, 54.
Nichols’ “Collectanea,” 77.
Nicolas’ “Notitia Historica,” 53.
Nonarum Inquisitiones, 21.
Nonconformist Registers, 61.
“Notes and Queries,” 103.
North’s “Bells of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire,” 91.
Originalia, 26.
Overseers of the Poor, 62.
Paley’s “Fonts,” 90.
Papworth’s “Armorials,” 89.
Pardons, 53.
Parish Registers, 58.
Parker’s “Calendar,” 84.
Parker’s “Domestic Architecture,” 47.
Parker’s “Glossary of Architecture,” 86.
Parochial Records, 58.
Patent Rolls, 23.
Pedes Finium, 40.
Personal History, 48.
Pipe Rolls, 22.
Placita, 29.
Placita Itinerum, 32.
Plate, 91.
Prehistoric Remains, 15.
Quo Warranto Rolls, 32.
Re-consecration, 82.
Records of Assize, 32.
Recusant Rolls, 53.
Re-dedication, 83.
Religious Houses, 100.
“Reliquary,” 91.
Report on Enclosures, 106.
Report on Municipal Corporations, 57.
Report on Public Records, 53.
Restoration, 96.
Rock’s “Church of our Fathers,” 92.
Roger’s “History of Agriculture,” 106.
Rotuli Curiæ Regis, 30.
Scutage Rolls, 20.
Sequestrations, 53.
Sharpe’s “Seven Periods,” 86.
Sheriffs, 54.
Simpson’s “Fonts,” 90.
Sims’ “Index to Pedigrees,” 52.
Sims’ “Manual,” 39, 52, 54, 77, 87.
Stone Effigies, 89.
Stothard’s “Monumental Effigies,” 89.
Stubb’s “Registrum Sacrum,” 86.
Styles of Architecture, 84.
Tanner’s “Notitia,” 101.
Taylor’s “Words and Places,” 14.
Taxation of Pope Nicholas, 67.
Testa de Neville, 20.
Thomas’ “Handbook,” 42.
Thorpe’s “Diplomatarium Anglicum,” 16.
Tithe Commutation Maps, 14.
Toulmin Smith’s “English Guilds,” 73.
Toulmin Smith’s “Parish,” 65.
Valor Ecclesiasticus, 68.
Village Officers, 66.
Viollet-le-Duc’s “Military Architecture,” 46.
Walcott’s “Sacred Archæology,” 92.
Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy,” 81.
Weever’s “Funerall Monuments,” 87.
Wills, 52.
Winston’s “Glass Painting,” 89.
Wood’s “Athenæ,” 57.