graves, is in every respect preferable to that which we see practised in
Continental burial-grounds, where the graves are often covered with
immortelles, vases of gaudy artificial flowers, images, &c. We have seen
as many as fifty wreaths of artificial flowers and tinselled paper, in
every stage of decomposition, over one grave in the cemetery of Pere la
Chaise, in Paris. In Wales it is a more general practice than in
England, to adorn the graves with fresh flowers on Easter Day.
18: This story is true of a parish in Monmouthshire.
19: It is comparatively seldom that any other than the funerals of the
_poor_ take place on Sunday, and the reason commonly assigned is--that
it is the only day on which their friends can attend. In one, at least,
of the large metropolitan cemeteries, exclusively used as a burial-place
for the _rich_, no funerals _ever_ take place on a Sunday.
20: Let us hope that the time is near when this objectionable and
unsightly appendage will be banished from our funeral processions. The
late Mr. Charles Dickens, in his will, forbad the wearing of hat-bands
at his funeral.
21: "In several parts of the north of England, when a funeral takes
place, a basin full of sprigs of boxwood is placed at the door of the
house from which the coffin is taken up, and each person who attends the
funeral ordinarily takes a sprig of the boxwood and throws it into the
grave of the deceased."--_Wordsworth_ (_Notes, Excursion_, p. 87).
22: Great care was taken by the medieval architects to make the porches
of their churches as beautiful as possible. During some periods,
especially the Norman, they seem to have bestowed more labour upon them
than upon any other portion of the building. Both externally and
internally they were richly decorated, and often abounded in emblematic
tracery.
23: "The custom formerly was for the couple, who were to enter upon this
holy state, to be placed at the _church door_, where the priest was used
to join their hands, and perform the greater part of the matrimonial
office. It was here the husband endowed his wife with the dowry before
contracted for."--_Wheatley._ In a few church porches there are, or have
been, galleries, which seem to have been intended to accommodate a choir
for these and other festive occasions.
24: "The porch of the church was anciently used for the performance of
several religious ceremonies appertaining to Baptism, Matrimony, and the
solemn commemoration of Christ's Passion in Holy Week," &c.--_Brandon's
Gothic Architecture._ The Office for the Churching of Women also used to
be said at the church porch.
25: As our Commination Service declares, persons who stood convicted of
notorious sins were formerly put to open penance. The punishment
frequently inflicted was--that they should stand at the church door,
clothed in a white sheet, and holding a candle in each hand, during the
assembling and departure of the congregation on a Sunday morning. The
old parish clerk of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, remembers, when a boy,
seeing a Jew perform this penance in Walton church.
26: "Formerly persons used to assemble in the church porch for civil
purposes."--_Brandon._
27: "At a very early period, persons of rank or of eminent piety were
allowed to be buried in the porch. Subsequently, interments were
permitted within the church, but by the Canons of King Edgar it was
ordered that this privilege should be granted to none but good and
religious men."--_Parker's Glossary._
28: The parvise is to be found over church porches in all parts of
England. It is more common in early English than in Norman architecture,
and very frequently to be found in churches of the Decorated and
Perpendicular periods. Probably the largest parvise in England is at
Bishop's-Cleeve, near Cheltenham. There are interesting specimens at
Bridport, Bishop's Auckland, Ampthill, Finedon, Cirencester, Grantham,
Martley, Fotheringay, Sherborne, St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, Stanwick,
Outwell, and St. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford. In a few instances there
are two parvises, one over the north and one over the south porch, as at
Wellingborough. In some cases, as at Martley, Worcestershire, the upper
moulding of the original Norman doorway has been concealed by the
parvise of later architecture.
29: "The name was formerly given to a favourite apartment, as at
Leckingfield, Yorkshire. 'A little studying chamber, caullid paradise.'
(Leland's Itinerary.)"--_Glossary of Architecture._
30: The room may have been the residence of one or more of the ordinary
priests of the church, or perhaps only a _study_ for them (see previous
note), or it may have been occupied by an anchorite or hermit, or by a
chantry priest. Rooms for these several purposes are also not
unfrequently to be found over the vestry, as at Cropredy, near Banbury,
and at Staindrop, Durham.
31: Fire-places are of frequent occurrence in these chambers; many of
them are coeval with the porch, but others appear to have been erected
at a later date.
32: At Hawkhurst, Kent, the porch-chamber is called _the treasury_. At
St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, the room over the grand north porch, in
which are the remains of the chests in which Chatterton professed to
find the manuscripts attributed to Rowley, was at one time known as the
_treasury house_.
33: "The chamber over the porch was generally used for the keeping of
books and records belonging to the church. Such an appendage was added
to many churches in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; and some of
these old libraries still remain with their books fastened to shelves or
desks by small chains."--_Brandon's Gothic Architecture._
Over the porch at Finedon (of which we give an engraving) is a parvise
in which is contained a valuable library of about 1000 volumes, placed
there by Sir John English Dolben, Bart., A.D. 1788. At St.
Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, and many other places, are similar
libraries.
34: These were probably small chantries. It is comparatively seldom that
any vestige of the altar remains; but the credence and piscina--certain
proofs of the previous existence of the altar--are very commonly found.
35: "The custom of teaching children in the porch is of very early
origin; it is distinctly mentioned by Matthew Paris in the time of Henry
III."--_Glossary of Architecture._
After the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., in which reigns all
chantries were suppressed, the children were promoted from the porch to
the parvise.
36: "Above the groining of the porch is a parvise, accessible by a
turret-stair, having two Norman window-openings, unglazed, and a
straight-gabled niche between them on the outside. In former days this
chamber was constantly inhabited by one of the sextons, who acted as a
watchman, but since the restoration of the church it has been
disused."--_Harston's Handbook of Sherborne Abbey_.
In the church accounts of St. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, A.D. 1488,
there is a charge for a "key to clerk's chamber." This no doubt referred
to the parvise.
37: As, a few years ago, at Headcorn in Kent.
38: There was frequently, but not always, a window or opening from the
room into the church; and it would seem that it was so placed to enable
the occupant of the room to keep a watchful eye over the interior of the
church, and not for any devotional exercise connected with the altar, as
we never find this window directed obliquely to wards the altar, as is
commonly the case with windows opening from the vestry, or chamber above
the vestry, into the church.
39: Many porches seem originally not to have had doors, but marks exist
which indicate that barriers to keep out cattle were used.
40: It is composed of lamp-black, bees'-wax, and tallow, and is commonly
used by shoemakers to give a black polish to the heels of boots.
41: These superstitions existed a few years since in connexion with an
old incised slab in the chancel of Christ Church, Caerleon.
42: "In the year 1657, the adherents of a Preacher of the name of Cam
obtained the grant of the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church, Hull, from
the council of state under the Protectorate, and whilst the mob without
were burning the surplice and the Prayer Book, those within were tearing
the brasses from the grave-stones."--_History of Kingston-upon-Hull._
s. d.
"1644, April 8th, paid to Master Dowson, that came with
the troopers to our church, about the taking down of
images and brasses off stones 6 0
"1644, paid, that day, to others, for taking up the
brasses of grave-stones before the Officer Dowson came 1 0
--_Churchwarden's accounts_; _Walberswich, Suffolk._
"This William Dowing (Dowson), it appears, kept a journal of his
ecclesiastical exploits. With reference to the Church of St. Edward's,
Cambridge, he says,--
"'1643, Jan. 1, Edward's Parish, we digged up the steps, and broke down
40 pictures, and took off ten superstitious inscriptions.'
"Mr. Cole, in his MSS., observes,--
"'From this last entry we may clearly see to whom we are obliged for the
dismantling of almost all the grave-stones that had brasses on them,
both in town and country; a sacrilegious, sanctified rascal, that was
afraid, or too proud, to call it _St._ Edward's Church, but not ashamed
to rob the dead of their honours, and the church of its ornaments.--W.
C.'"--_Burn's Parish Registers_.
43: The very interesting brasses in Chartham Church, Kent, were found a
few years since as here described, by the present rector, and replaced
by him on the chancel pavement.
44: "Manual of Monumental Brasses," vol. i. p. 34.
45: "If any one will lay the portrait of Lord Bristol (in Mr. Gage
Rokewode's _Thingoe Hundred_) by the side of the sepulchral brass of the
Abbess of Elstow (from whom he is collaterally descended) figured in
Fisher's _Bedfordshire Antiquities_, he cannot but be struck by the
strong likeness between the two faces. This is valuable evidence on the
disputed point whether portraits were attempted in sepulchral
brasses."--_Notes and Queries_.
46: See page 77.
47: See page 85. [The engravings of sepulchral brasses and of stained
glass windows are kindly supplied by the Editor of the _Penny Post_.]
48: See page 67.
49: _Hamlet_, Act i. Sc. 3.
50: Monumental slabs of this description are most common on the pavement
of churches in the midland counties.
51: This is the case in Ely Cathedral.
52: At Bawsey, Lynn; Droitwich; Great Malvern; and recently near
Smithfield, London, when excavating for the subterranean railway.
53: Thus translated in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for October, 1833:--
"Think, man, thy life | But that thou keepest
May not ever endure, | Unto thy executor's care,
That thou dost thyself | If ever it avail thee
Of that thou art sure; | It is but chance."
54: "Anno 1210. Let the Abbot of Beaubec (in Normandy), who has for a
long time allowed his monk to construct, for persons who do not belong
to the order, pavements, which exhibit levity and curiosity, be in
slight penance for three days, the last of them on bread and water; and
let the monk be recalled before the feast of All Saints, and never again
be lent, excepting to persons of our order, with whom let him not
presume to construct pavements which do not extend the dignity of the
order."--Martini's _Thesaurus Anecdotorum_.--Extracted from Oldham's
"Irish Pavement Tiles."
55: Specially in Normandy, where they are occasionally found under
trefoil canopies, resembling our sepulchral brasses.
56: Some excellent coloured engravings for cottage walls, of a large
size, have been published by Messrs. Remington, under the direction of
the Rev. J. W. Burgon, of Oriel College, Oxford. Others, both large and
small, suitable for this purpose, are published by the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, and also by several other publishers.
57: These wall paintings exist (or did till recently) on the outside of
a church at High Wycombe. They are curious, and very grotesque; no
doubt, however, in their day they have served a good and useful purpose.
58: These mural paintings still remain, as here described, on the north
wall of the chancel of Chalgrove Church, Oxon. There are also on the
east and south walls of the chancel of the same church, many other
paintings possessing great interest.
59: A very interesting mural painting, of which the above is a copy, has
been lately discovered in a recess in the north wall of the nave of
Bedfont Church. The colour is exceedingly rich and well preserved. The
painting measures 4 ft. 6 in. by 4 ft., and is supposed to be of the
thirteenth century. It represents the Last Judgment. Our Lord is sitting
on His Throne, showing the five wounds. On the right hand is an angel
showing the Cross, on the left an angel with a spear. Four nails are
represented near the head of our Lord. In the lower part of the painting
are two angels holding trumpets, and below them three persons rising out
of the tomb.
It is probable that the interior of almost every old church in the
country has at some time been decorated with wall-paintings--very many
of them have been brought to light in recent works of church
restoration. The favourite subjects were representations of Heaven and
Hell, and of the Day of Judgment. In many cathedrals and some parish
churches the _Dance of Death_ was painted on the walls. This was one of
the most popular religious plays about four centuries ago.
60: No doubt the earliest church walls were made of wood. Greenstead
Church, in Essex, affords a most interesting example of these old wooden
walls.
61: Roman bricks are generally easy to be distinguished from others by
their colour and shape. They were not all made in moulds of the same
size, as we now make bricks, and on this account we find them to vary
much in size and form.
62: As at Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, of which an engraving is given.
63: At Godmersham, Kent.
64: It is certain that many of the splendid yew-trees in our old
churchyards are far older than the churches themselves. And it is more
than probable that in many instances they mark the places where heathen
rites were once celebrated. It was natural for our Christian forefathers
to select these spots as places of worship, since, being held sacred by
the heathen people around them, they would be regarded by them with
reverence and respect, and thus the cross which they reared, and the
dead which they buried beneath the wide-spreading branches of these old
trees would be preserved from desecration.
65: These styles are now frequently called _first_, _second_, and _third
pointed_.
66: "The glass windows in a church are Holy Scriptures, which expel the
wind and the rain, that is, all things hurtful, but transmit the light
of the True Sun, that is, God, into the hearts of the faithful. These
are wider within than without, because the mystical sense is the more
ample, and precedeth the literal meaning. Also, by the windows the
senses of the body are signified: which ought to be shut to the vanities
of this world, and open to receive with all freedom spiritual gifts. By
the lattice-work of the windows, we understand the Prophets or other
obscure teachers of the Church Militant: in which windows there are
often two shafts, signifying the two precepts of charity, or because the
Apostles were sent out to preach two and two."--_Durandus on Symbolism_.
67: Stained glass is said to have been first used in churches in the
twelfth century. Windows were at first filled with thin slices of talc
or alabaster, or sometimes vellum. As the monks spent much time in
illuminating their vellum MSS., it has been thought likely that they
also painted on the vellum used in the windows of their monasteries, and
that afterwards, on the introduction of glass, their vellum
illuminations suggested their glass painting.
68: At Brabourne, Kent, is a Norman window filled with stained glass of
the period, which is still quite perfect.
69: "One who calls himself John Dowsing, and, by virtue of a pretended
commission, goes about ye country like a Bedlam, breaking glasse
windows, having battered and beaten downe all our painted glasse, not
only in our Chappels, but (contrary to order) in our Publique Schools,
Colledge Halls, Libraries, and Chambers."--Berwick's _Querela
Cantabrigiensis_.
70: The rubric in the Service for the Public Baptism of Infants directs
the priest, _if the godfathers and godmothers shall certify that the
child may well endure it_, to _dip it in the water_. In the first Prayer
Book of Edward VI. the priest is directed to "_dyppe it in the water
thryce_."
71: Acts xvi. 15, 33. 1 Cor. i. 16.
72: As at Dorchester and Warborough in Oxfordshire, and Brookland in
Kent; each of these have very elaborate mouldings upon them.
73: At Llanvair Discoed, Monmouthshire.
74: The Font at West Rounton, of which we have given an engraving, is
one of many examples of this. The _Centaur_, the arrow from whose bow is
just about to pierce the monster, probably represents the Deity
conquering Satan, or perhaps the continual conflict of the baptized
Christian against sin and Satan. The other figure may represent the
Divine and human natures united in our Lord. This exceedingly curious
Font was discovered during the recent restoration of the little Norman
Church of West Rounton, Yorkshire. It was found under the pulpit, of
which it formed the base, having been turned over so that the bowl
rested on the floor, and so carefully plastered that there was no
external indication of its original form. It has now been restored to
its former position near the south-west door of the church.
75: Ezek. iii. 7, 8; ix. 4. Rev. vii. 3; ix. 4; xiii. 16; xiv. 1, 9;
xxii. 4.
76: {~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~} [baptizo], to baptize, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA~} [ana], again.
77: "God planted a garden eastward;" man went westward when he left it;
he turns eastward to remind him of his return. Almost every church in
England is built _east and west_, with the altar at the east.
78: Phil. ii. 10.
79: Canon XVIII. 1603.
80: "Many monuments are covered with seates, or pewes, made high and
easie for parishioners to sit or sleepe in, a fashion of no long
continuance, and worthy of reformation."--Weaver's _Funeral Monuments_.
Temp. James I.
81: It is likely that the idea of a gallery at the west end of the nave,
was first suggested by the gallery of the Rood Screen at the eastern
end.
82: At H.... church, Kent, for instance.
83: Chertsey, Surrey.
84: One of the churches in Edinburgh, for instance.
85: 2 Chron. vi. 13.
86: Nehem. viii. 4.
87: As at Magdalene College, Oxford. "Formerly, when the annual sermon
was preached on the feast of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, from
the stone pulpit before the chapel of Magdalene College, Oxford, the
whole area before it was covered with rushes and grass, to represent, it
is said, the wilderness: and doubtless also for the accommodation of the
hearers; the seats being set for the University authorities."--_History
of Pues._
88: Such an one formerly existed near the cathedral of Exeter.
89: Parker's "Glossary of Architecture," part i. p. 171. At the west end
of Boxley Church, Kent, is a Galilee. There are very few--if any--other
churches in which the ancient _Galilee_ is to be found.
90: Many of the wooden pulpits have dates upon them. The earliest of
these is A.D. 1590, on a pulpit at Ruthin, Denbighshire.
91: "The Churchwardens, at the common charge of the Parishioners in
every parish, shall provide a comely and honest pulpit, to be set in a
convenient place within the Churche, and to be there seemly kept, for
the preaching of God's worde."--_Injunctions given by the Queen's
Majestie_, 1559.
92: It seems most probable that the last of these was the real object.
In some old discourses the following phrase is met with:--"Let us now
take another _glass_," meaning another period of time to be measured by
the hour-glass: and the preacher reversed the glass at this point.
Ancient hour-glasses remain in the church of St. Alban's, Wood Street,
City; and at Cowden, Kent. The iron frames of hour-glasses still remain
in the churches of Stoke Dabernoun, Surrey; Odell, Bedfordshire; St.
John's, Bristol; Cliff, Kent; and Erdingthorpe, Norfolk, and doubtless
others are to be found elsewhere. The Queen has lately presented an
hour-glass of the measure of eighteen minutes for the pulpit of the
chapel royal in the Savoy, to replace the old one, which was destroyed
in the recent fire.
93: Some few of these sounding-boards are, however, very handsome. At
Newcastle there is, or lately was, a sounding-board which was a
representation of the spire of the church.
94: _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. 1. p. 364. Preaching-Crosses are also
at Hereford, near the Friary of the Dominican (or Preaching) Friars; and
in the churchyards of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and Rampisham,
Dorsetshire.
95: See a curious letter on this subject in the _Gentleman's Magazine_,
vol. 1. p. 527.
96: See Walker's "Sufferings of the Clergy," p. 310.
97: S. Luke vi. 26.
98: The Vicar of the church here referred to has lately deceased, and
his successor has commenced the much needed improvements. The Vicar's
good daughter, who was quite a _sister of mercy_ in the parish, is not
likely to be forgotten, though the old pew has gone. A beautiful window
of stained glass has been erected to her memory by the parishioners.
99: This phase of the pew system is not over coloured. A few years
since, a pew in the nave of Old Swinford Church was so nailed up; but
other instances of this might be mentioned.
100: James ii. 1-4.
101: James ii. 5, 6.
102: Sermon by the Rev. E. Stuart, preached at the Church of St. Mary
Magdalene, Munster Square, London.
103: 2 Cor. viii. 9.
104: Much information on this subject can be obtained from "The History
of Pues: a Paper read before the Cambridge Camden Society, November 22,
1841."
105: Stone seats were often placed round the bases of the columns of the
nave; examples are at St. Margaret-at-Cliffe, and Challock, in Kent.
106: _British Critic_; see _History of Pues_.
107: "'1612, 27 May.--Ye Ch. Wardens meeting together for seekeing
for workmen to mak a fitt seete in a convennent
place for brydgrumes, bryds, and
sike wyves to sit in ijs.
--_Extract from Parochial Books of Chester-le-Street, Durham_.
"It is plain that at this period the privilege of a separate pew was
confined to persons of the first rank; the rest sat promiscuously on
forms in the body of the church, and the privilege is here extended only
to sick wives and brides, who sat to hear the preacher deliver 'The
Bride's Bush,' or 'The Wedding Garment beautified.'"--Surtees' _Hist. of
Durham_.
108: Blomfield's _Norfolk_, vi. 317.
109: "Several congregations find themselves already very much
straitened; and if the mode increases, I wish it may not drive many
ordinary women into meetings and conventicles. Should our sex at the
same time take it into their heads to wear trunk breeches, a man and his
wife would fill a whole pew."--_Satire on Female Costume. Spectator_,
No. 127.
"At church in silks and satins new,
And hoop of monstrous size;
She never slumber'd in her pew
But when she shut her eyes."--_Goldsmith._
110: "He found him mounted in his pew,
With books and money placed for shew."
_The Lawyer's Pew_, Butler's _Hudibras_.
"A bedstead of the antique mode,
Compact of timber many a load,
Such as our ancestors did use,
Was metamorphosed into pews;
Which still their ancient nature keep
By lodging folks disposed to sleep."
Swift's _Baucis and Philemon_.
111: _European Magazine_, 1813.
112: _History of Pues_, p. 77.
113: "1617. Barnham _contra_ Hayward Puellam.--Presentatur--for that she
being but a young maid sat in ye pew with her mother, to ye great
offence of many reverent women: howbeit that after I Peter Lewis the
Vicar had in the church privately admonished her to sit at her mother's
pew-door, she obeyed; but now she sits with her mother again."--_God's
Acre_, by Mrs. Stone.
114: Whittaker's _Whalley_, p. 228.