ST MARGARET'S HOSPITAL
About a quarter of a mile to the north-west of Wimborne stands the
chapel of #St Margaret's Hospital#. The date of the foundation of
this hospital is uncertain; tradition has it that it was founded by
John of Gaunt, son of Edward III., but this is without doubt wrong,
as documents--the character of which seem to indicate an early
thirteenth-century date--have been found, from which it appears that
this hospital existed at that time, and was set apart for the relief and
support of poor persons afflicted with leprosy. This disease was at one
time so common in England that a great number of lazar-houses were
erected in the country, and many were well endowed; but when, after a
time, the disease became less violent, many abuses crept in, persons not
really suffering from the disease pretended to be lepers in order to get
pecuniary benefits, and hence in many cases the leper hospitals were
suppressed, or converted to other purposes. At the present day we find
in many places, as here at Wimborne, that they are used as almshouses.
[Illustration: ST MARGARET'S HOSPITAL.]
This hospital, however, was not one of the well-endowed. It appears from
a deed, dated in the sixteenth year of Henry VIII., that the hospital
was chiefly maintained, not by endowments, but by the gifts of the
charitable who were willing to contribute to its support; and to
encourage the benevolent to give, the deed recites that "Pope Innocent
IV, in the year 1245, by an indulgans or bulle did assoyl them of all
syns forgotten, and offences done against fader and moder, and all
swerynges neglygently made. This indulgans, grantyd of Petyr and Powle,
and of the said pope, was to hold good for 51 yeres and 260 days,
provided they repeated a certain specified number of Paternosters and
Ave Marias daily." The date of this indulgence proves the antiquity of
the hospital, as it shows that it was in existence before the middle
of the thirteenth century. A chantry was also founded in the chapel
here by John Redcoddes of one priest to say masses for his soul. To this
chantry, according to a deed dated in the sixteenth year of Henry VI.,
many tenements in Wimborne belonged. In later times the Rev. William
Stone, who has been mentioned before as the founder of the Minster
Library, by his will left his lands and tenements in the parish of
Wimborne Minster to be applied to the benefit of almsmen only who should
live in St Margaret's Hospital.
There is a further endowment, but how it came to this hospital has not
been discovered. The advowson and tithes of the Rectory of Poole were,
in the reign of James I., granted to the Mayor and Corporation of Poole
for forty years, on the corporation undertaking to find a curate to
discharge the duties lately discharged by the vicar, and to pay a rent
to the crown of £12, 16s. per annum. In the reign of Charles I., the
advowson and tithes were granted to two men, Thomas Ashton and Henry
Harryman, and their heirs for ever, on the same conditions; but they are
now again held by the Corporation, who pay out of the revenues--to St
Margaret's hospital £9, 16s.; to the churchwardens of Wimborne Minster,
for the maintenance of the Etricke tomb, £1; and to the fellows of
Queen's College, Oxford, to be spent in wine and tobacco on November
5th, yearly £2.
The Redcotte chantry possessed sundry vestments, the gift of Margaret
Rempstone, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry VI., and plate, an
inventory of which exists. This plate, on the dissolution of chantries,
was given by the parishioners to the king, Edward VI. The hospital or
almshouses stands on the high road from Wimborne to Blandford; the
chapel joins one of the tenements occupied by the almsmen. These
tenements are nine in number; three are inhabited by married couples,
three by men, and three by women. Some of these cottages are of half
timber, and thatched, others of modern brick. The chapel, at which there
is now a service every Thursday afternoon, conducted by one of the
minster clergy, is a plain building, which has been recently refitted,
but remains, as far as windows and walls are concerned, in its original
state. There are three doors in the north wall; the heads are pointed,
and it is noteworthy that in the central door, that generally used
for access to the chapel, the two sides of the arch are of different
curvatures, so that the point of the arch is nearer to the right-hand
side. The edge of the wall is chamfered round the doorways. The east
window has a semicircular head, and plain wooden tracery dividing it
into two lancet-headed lights with an opening above them. There is a
window in both the south and north walls, near the east end, each of
two lights; the south window is widely splayed inside; the head of each
light has one cusp on each side. The head of each light of the north
window has two cusps on each side. Farther to the west, on the south
side, is a single narrow lancet, widely splayed, and still farther to
the west is a semicircular opening with wooden tracery. The general
character of the masonry would indicate that local workmen were employed
in building this chapel, and that little was spent in ornamenting it at
the time of the erection. There are, however, some traces of frescoes
on the inside of the walls, both geometrical patterns and figures. The
pointed doorways and the lancet window on the south side would indicate
the thirteenth century as the date of the original building, and this
agrees with the documentary evidence mentioned above for the foundation
of the hospital. The roof is an open one of massive wooden rafters, with
the beams running across at the level of the wall plates.
DIMENSIONS OF WIMBORNE MINSTER
Extreme length, exterior, E. to W. 198 feet
Extreme width, exterior, N. to S. 102 "
Length of Nave, interior 67 "
Width of Nave, interior 23 "
Height of Walls 40 "
Length of Nave Aisles, interior 70 "
Width of Nave Aisles, interior 13 "
Length of North Transept, interior 42 "
Width of North Transept, interior 18 "
Height of Walls, interior 30 "
Length of South Transept, interior 33 "
Width of South Transept, interior 18 "
Height of Walls 30 "
Length of Choir, interior 32 "
Width of Choir, interior 21 "
Height of Choir Walls 28 "
Length of Presbytery 30 "
Width of Presbytery 21 "
Length of North Choir Aisle 53 "
Width of North Choir Aisle 21 "
Length of South Choir Aisle 53 "
Width of South Choir Aisle 20 "
Length of Side of Central Tower (square), interior 31 "
Height of Central Tower 84 "
Length of Side of Western Tower (square), exterior 31 "
Height of Western Tower 95 "
Length of North Porch, N. and S., interior 15 "
Width of North Porch, E. and W., interior 14 "
Length of South Porch, N. and E., interior 6 "
Width of South Porch, E. and W., interior 7 "
Length of Vestry, N. and S., interior 15 "
Width of Vestry, E. and W., interior 14 "
Length of Baptistery, E. to W., interior 18 "
Width of Baptistery, N. to S., interior 19 "
AREA 10,725 sq. feet.
CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY
[Illustration: CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY, FROM THE BRIDGE.]
CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
On the promontory washed on the one side by the slow stream of the
Dorset Stour, and on the other by the no less sluggish flow of the
Wiltshire Avon, not far from the place where they mingle their waters
before making their way amid mudflats and sandbanks into the English
Channel, stands, and has stood for more than eight hundred years, the
stately Priory Church which gives the name of Christchurch to a small
town in the county of Hants. The massive walls of its Norman nave, its
fifteenth-century tower, and its great length--for, from the east wall
of its Lady Chapel to the west wall of its tower, it measures no less
than 311 feet--make it a conspicuous object from the Channel, especially
after sundown, when its form, rising above the low shore of Christchurch
Bay, is silhouetted against the sky. It is one of the finest churches
below cathedral rank that is to be found in England. It is a perfect
mine of wealth to the student of architecture, containing examples of
every style from its early, possibly Saxon, crypt to the Renaissance of
its chantries. Here we may see the solid grandeur of Norman masonry in
the nave, with its massive arcading and richly-wrought triforium; the
graceful beauty of the Early English in its north porch and in the
windows of the north aisle of the nave; the more fully developed
Decorated in the windows of the south aisle of the same; and
Perpendicular in the tower and Lady Chapel.
The crypts beneath the north transept and the presbytery may have
belonged to the original church, but of that which is visible above
ground the oldest part was due to Flambard, of whom more hereafter.
When the first church was founded we cannot tell. Here, as in many other
places, the origin is lost in the haze of antiquity and legend. Here,
as at many other places, we find the original builders choosing one
site, and the stones that they had laid during the day being removed by
night by unseen, and therefore angelic, hands to another. It was on the
heights of St Catharine, about a mile and a half away from the present
site, that the human builders strove to raise their church. It may be
that this hill, still marked by the ramparts of an ancient encampment,
was not holy ground on account of its former occupation by heathens,
though in after time, a chapel, built in the early part of the
fourteenth century, existed there; but, anyhow, not on this hill, but on
the flat lands of Saxon Tweoxneham, a name which passed into the forms
of Thuinam and Twynham, that the great Priory Church was destined to
stand. But not even when the human builders began to erect the church
on the miraculously chosen ground did supernatural interposition cease.
A stranger workman came and laboured at the building: never was he seen
to eat as the other workmen did, never did he come with his fellows to
receive his wages. Once, when a beam had been cut too short for the
place it was to occupy, he lengthened it by drawing it out with his
hand; and when the day for consecration came, and the other workmen
gathered together to see their work hallowed by due ceremonial, this
stranger workman was nowhere to be seen. The ecclesiastics came to
the conclusion that this was none other than the carpenter's son of
Nazareth, and the church which had in part been builded by the hands
of the Christ Himself in later days became known as Christchurch.
But, if we disregard these legends, we do not at once find ourselves
on sure and certain ground. The foundation has been attributed to
Æthelstan, but this is hardly likely, as, in a charter dated 939, he
gives one of the weirs on the Avon at Twynham to the Abbey Church of
Middleton, now Milton Abbey in North Dorset, which he would be hardly
likely to do if he had founded, or were thinking of founding, a
religious house at Twynham; and as he died in 940, not much time was
left for any foundation after this grant. Again, we find King Eadred
granting land and fishing near Twineham to Dunstan. However, in the
time of the Confessor, mention is made of the canons of Holy Trinity
possessing lands in Thuinam. It must be remembered that it had been
intended, according to the legend, to dedicate the church to the Holy
Trinity, and no doubt this was done, although it was afterwards
identified especially with the second Person.
In Domesday it is stated that the canons of the Church of the Holy
Trinity hold lands in the village, and also in the Isle of Wight
opposite. Certain it is that in the days of Eadward the Confessor there
was a church at Twynham dedicated to the Holy Trinity, held by a
collegiate society of secular canons. This church was swept away by
Ranulf Flambard, the notorious justiciar and chaplain of William II.,
whose evil deeds, contrary to the oft-quoted passage from Mark Antony's
speech in Julius Cæsar, are now generally forgotten; while the good
deeds that he wrought,--the nave of this church, and the still grander
nave of Durham Cathedral Church, Durham Castle, "Norham's castled
steep," and Kepier Hospital, built while he held the most important
diocese in the North of England,--live after him, and have shed a glory
on his name. Evil he was in moral character without doubt, but a
glorious builder nevertheless. Though he oppressed the clergy, though it
was through his instrumentality and by his advice that sees were kept
vacant for years, and when filled, only given to those who were able and
willing to pay large sums to the king, yet it is rather as a great
architect than as an ecclesiastic that we, who gaze with delight and
admiration on his work that has come down to us, will regard him. It is
said that, as his end drew nigh, he realised the amount of evil he had
done, and strove to make his peace with heaven and restitution to some,
at least, of those whom he had wronged. He died in 1128, and his body
rests in the great Cathedral Church of St Cuthbert that he had done so
much to raise. But it was in the earlier part of his career, before
he received the bishopric of Durham in 1099, that he probably began
the work at Christchurch with which we are at present concerned.[4]
He was succeeded there by Godric, who is called Senior and Patron
and afterwards Dean; but Flambard seems still to have exercised some
authority over him, illegal probably, but none the less real. We find
him granting to Godric, for the work of building, all the offerings
made by strangers and pilgrims, and when a canon died his share of the
revenues of the college was devoted to the same object, the vacancy not
being filled up by the appointment of any new canon.
[4] Sir Gilbert Scott, however, thought that the Norman nave of
the Cathedral Church at Durham was commenced before Flambard
became bishop, and that the new church at Christchurch was
begun after that date, so that the work at Christchurch was
copied by him from what he found already commenced at Durham
when he went there.
The length of Godric's tenure of office is uncertain. On his death Henry
I. appointed Gilbert de Dousgunels dean, having appropriated to himself
the accumulated fabric fund. Henry I. granted the patronage of the
church to Richard de Redvers, Earl of Devon, who appointed his chaplain,
Peter, a Norman of Caen, dean. This dean seems to have diverted the
funds from the work of completing the church, but his successor,
Randulphus, carried on the work again, so that in his time the church
and the conventual buildings were roofed in. In the time of Hilary, in
the year 1150, the secular college of canons was converted into a Priory
of Augustinian Canons. This change was made with the consent of Baldwin
de Redvers, in accordance with the wishes of Henry of Blois, brother of
King Stephen, and at that time Bishop of Winchester, who is well known
from the fact of his founding the Hospital of St Cross, near Winchester.
Hilary, two years before this change was made, had been consecrated
Bishop of Chichester, and subsequently became one of the episcopal
opponents of Thomas Becket. Henceforth, until the dissolution in the
reign of Henry VIII., the head of the religious community at
Christchurch was a prior, who was, according to a charter granted by
Richard de Redvers in 1160, elected by the canons. There were, in all,
twenty-six priors, and their names have come down to us, but with only
the most meagre notices of the architectural work which was carried on
by each of them. Extensive, however, it must have been; and from what we
see of the church itself, it would seem as if building operations must
have been almost constantly in progress.
In all probability there was, according to the usual plan of Norman
churches, a tower at the junction of the nave and transepts, and beyond
this an apsidal choir. But there is no documentary record of such a
tower ever having been built or fallen, although its existence is
rendered probable by a carving of a church with tower and spire on
Draper's chantry, and by a similar representation on a seal, and in
two other parts of the building. It is probable that the original
choir extended westward beyond the transept, as at Westminster to the
present day.
As has been stated above, the Norman church was commenced by Flambard
towards the end of the eleventh century; and of the work so begun, the
earliest existing remains are the arcading of the nave, the triforium,
and the transepts with the eastern apsidal chapel attached to the south
transept. Next to this in order came the walls of the aisles of the
nave, and the cloisters and chapter-house, which, however, have
disappeared; cloisters would come to be considered a necessity as soon
as the secular canons were superseded by regulars. The early English
clerestory of the nave seems to have been built in the time of the third
prior, Peter, about the beginning of the thirteenth century. To the end
of same century may be approximately assigned the vaulting of the nave
aisles, the north porch, and a chapel attached to the north transept.
Alterations of an extensive nature seem to have been begun in the
fourteenth century; for to this date belong the rood screen, placed
farther to the east than the old division between the ritual choir of
the canons and the western part of the nave, which was probably given up
to the lay dwellers in the parish,--and the splendid reredos. The Lady
Chapel also was completed certainly before 1406, probably eleven years
earlier. The fifteenth century saw the western tower built and the choir
commenced and a great part of it finished, though the vaulting seems not
to have been completed until the early part of the sixteenth century, as
W. E. the initials of William Eyre, who was prior from 1502 to 1520, are
to be seen on the bosses and the arch of the south choir aisle. Somewhat
later still is the chantry at the east end of the south choir aisle,
built by the last prior and dated 1529, and the chantry built by the
last of the Plantagenets, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of
the Earl of Clarence and mother of Cardinal Pole, who at the age of
seventy was executed by Henry VIII. in 1541.
Shortly before the dissolution in 1536 Prior Draper addressed a
petition to Henry VIII. which is still in existence in the Record
Office, praying that he would spare the Priory church, basing his
request upon the desolate character of the district, the poverty of
the house, and the fact that the church was not only a place for poor
religious men, but also a parish church to the town and hamlets round
about, whose inhabitants numbered from fifteen to sixteen hundred, that
there was no place where any honest man on horseback or on foot might
have succour or repose for the space of eight or nine miles, "but only
this poor place of Christchurch, to which both rich and poor doth repair
and repose." He goes on to say how it was of late years a place of
secular canons, until the king's antecessors made it a place of canons
regular, that "the poor, not only of the parish and town, but also of
the country, were daily relieved and sustained with bread and ale,
purposely baked and brewed for them weekly to no small quantities
according to their foundation, and a house ordained purposely for
them, and officers according duly given attendance to serve them
to their great comfort and relief." But all the pleading was in vain.
Commissioners were appointed, who presented their report to Lord
Cromwell December 2, 1539. They say that "we found the Prior a very
honest and conformable person, and the house well furnished with jewels
and plate, whereof some be meet for the king's majesty's use." Then
follows a list of the treasures of the abbey, of the yearly value of
the several endowments, and of the officers of the Priory, thirteen in
number besides the Prior. Prior Draper retired on a pension, and the
site of the domestic buildings was conveyed to Stephen and Margaret
Kirton. The domestic buildings themselves gradually disappeared, but the
whole of the church was handed over to the parish as a church, the grant
to the churchwardens being made by letters patent 23 October 32 Henry
VIII. It conveyed to them "the choir body, bell-tower with seven bells,
stones, timber, lead of roofing and gutters of the church and the
cemetery on the north side." Since then the church has been served by
vicars, the patronage being in the hands of the dean and chapter of
Winchester until the nineteenth century, when the advowson was purchased
by Lord Malmesbury. The living is now in the gift of the Bishop of
Winchester.
During the present century much restoration has been done. The nave was
vaulted in stucco in 1819; the west window was taken in hand in 1828;
the pinnacles of the tower and the upper part of the turret containing
the stairs were renewed in 1871; and constant repairs have been going on
up to the present time; and the principle that has guided the restorer
has been, when any stonework has been removed to put in its place as
exact a copy of the old as possible,--a principle that cannot be
approved of, as it will lead, when the newness of the modern work has
been toned down by time, to confusion between the genuine old work and
the modern imitation of it. It is far better, when there is no question
of stability but only of appearance, to leave the old stonework, even
though much decayed, as it is, unscraped, untouched by the chisel, and
where strength is needed to put in frankly nineteenth-century work,
which could never by any possibility be mistaken for part of the
original building.
One of the most glaring instances of injudicious restoration is to be
met with in the apsidal chapel attached to the eastern side of the south
transept. This work was carried out by the Hon. C. Harris, late Bishop
of Gibraltar. The arcading is a nineteenth-century imitation of Norman
work; the pavement is glaringly modern. Of what interest, it may well be
asked, is such work? Who would care to visit Christchurch to see it? The
nineteenth-century carver cannot possibly produce work similar to that
of the carver who lived in the twelfth century,--the conditions of his
life are altogether different, his training bears no resemblance to that
of the old artist, his work is a forgery, and a most clumsy one too. In
this chapel we see this reprehensible practice carried to its fullest
extent, but there are many other parts of the building which have
suffered. Most of the arcading on the exterior of the transept is modern
imitation, and the tracery of the windows of the south choir aisle has
been entirely renewed; no old stones, though many might have been used,
have been reset in their original position. The arcading of the south
aisle of the nave has been terribly tampered with. Possibly under the
influence of time many of the shafts had partially crumbled, and the
surface of the carved capitals had perished, so that the original design
could not be made out; but that was no reason for cutting away the
ornamental work to make way for modern decoration which may or may not
bear some slight resemblance to what was there before. Some of the piers
of the nave arcading have also been partially renewed. By an act of
much-to-be-condemned vandalism the sub-arches of the two eastern bays
of the south triforium of the nave were cut away to make room for
faculty pews; recently a glaring white pillar has been introduced into
the westernmost of these two bays, and two sub-arches built. If the
same kind of work is carried out in the other, we shall see in all
probability an attempt to copy the unique scale decoration which still
exists on the tympanum under the corresponding principal arch on the
north side, cut with modern tools with all the lifeless rigidity of
modern work. Another mistake which has been made, is the scraping off of
the plaster from the interior walls of the chamber known as St Michael's
Loft, over the Lady Chapel, and the re-pointing of the stonework. Old
builders invariably covered their rubble walls with plaster, but the
modern restorer for some reason seems to hate plaster and prefers, to
show the coarse stonework which the builder never intended should be
seen, and to emphasise the roughness by filling up the joints with
conspicuous pointing. This, however, is not so destructive as much of
the work which has been condemned above, because at any time the walls
could be recovered with a thin coat of smooth plaster laid on with a
trowel, but not "floated,"--that is, not brought to a smooth surface
by a long straightedge.
A large and old building such as this Priory Church will need almost
constant repairs to keep it sound and safe, and the income from
visitors' fees is quite sufficient for this purpose. It is, however,
much to be feared that restoration and reconstruction will form far too
large a part of the work done in this building. Every new ornamental
stone, to make room for which some original stone is displaced, detracts
from the value of the building from an archæological point of view; and
though there may be some, or even many, who prefer the trim and smug
appearance of modern work to that of the old, instinct with life, full
of the thoughts of the builders and workers in wood and stone, whose
bones have mouldered into dust in the garth of the vanished cloisters,
and whose very names have in many cases been forgotten, yet we hope that
those who have this priceless treasure in their keeping may recognise
ere it is too late, that the result of a continuance of the process of
restoration commenced about the middle of the nineteenth century will
be the gradual conversion of a splendid memorial of bygone ages into a
modern sham, and they themselves will be regarded, when true love of art
becomes general, with the same indignation as that which they themselves
feel with regard to those who pulled down the roof of the south transept
and cut out the columns and sub-arches of the triforium in days before
the Gothic revival set in. And the modern restorer has less excuse than
the destroyer of a hundred years ago. If, like the vandals of the
Georgian period, they had been blind to the beauties of architectural
art, they would have had no sin, yet since they profess to see,
therefore their sin will remain and their names will be held in
perpetual reproach and everlasting contempt.
The foregoing historical sketch of the building has perforce been
somewhat vague in dates, for, in the absence of documentary evidence, it
is not easy to fix from architectural considerations alone the date of
any particular piece of work within a limit of some twenty years or so.
The out-of-the-way position of the Priory of Christchurch--for no great
road ran through the town, and though it is near the sea there is no
convenient harbour near it--has brought it to pass that it is scarcely
mentioned in any mediæval chronicles. Its own fabric rolls and annals
have been lost. Here and there, however, the date of a will or the
inscription on a monument has enabled a more definite date to be arrived
at. The dates also of the dedications of some of the many altars are
known--viz. that of the Holy Saviour, used by the canons as their high
altar, and that of St Stephen, dedicated by the Bishop of Ross in 1199;
that of the altar of the Holy Trinity, which stood in the nave, and was
the high altar of the parish; and those of the altars of SS. Peter and
Paul, SS. Augustine and Gregory and all the Prophets, dedicated by
Walter, Bishop of Whitherne, on November 7, 1214; that of the altar of
St John the Baptist and St Edmund, dedicated on December 7, 1214, by the
same bishop; and that of the altar of SS. Michael and Martin, dedicated
by the Bishop of the Isles in 1221.
CHAPTER II
THE EXTERIOR
The exterior of the church of Christchurch Priory may be well seen from
several points of view. The churchyard lies to the north of the
building, extending beyond it both to the east and west. On the south
side, where all the domestic buildings of the Priory once stood, there
is a modern house and private grounds. All that belongs to the church is
a path running under the walls as far as the east corner of the
transept, where a garden door stops farther progress. Several glimpses
of the building, however, may be obtained on the way down to the Stour,
and seen from the south side of this river, the church rises above its
surroundings, and forms a conspicuous object. A good general view on the
north-east may also be obtained from a bridge over the Avon. From this
point of view the great length of the church is apparent; on the
right-hand side may be seen the ruins of the Norman keep of the castle
on its artificial mound, and nearer to the bridge the remains of a
twelfth-century Norman house. From the churchyard, also, the whole north
side of the church may be seen at once, and many striking features will
be noticed. Among these, the circular staircase attached to the
transept, with its rich diaper work; Norman arcading of interlacing
arches running round the transept; the large windows of the choir
clerestory, so wide and closely set together that the whole wall seems
as though composed of glass--through which, and the windows of the
opposite wall, the light of the sky can be seen; and lastly, the upper
storey of the Lady Chapel with its row of windows of a domestic type.
[Illustration: CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY, FROM THE NORTH-EAST.]
[Illustration: TOWER DOOR.]
A systematic examination of the exterior may best be begun with
the #Western Tower#. This is of fifteenth-century date, and is set
partially within the church--that is to say, its builder did not add
it to the west of the church, making an archway through the previously
existing west front, but pulled down the whole west wall of the nave,
leaving, however, the west walls of the aisles, and carried the north
and south walls of the new tower as far back into the church as the
space occupied by the western bay, thus leaving two spaces at the
west end of the aisles, one now used as a vestry, the other as a kind
of lumber-room. In the west face of the tower is a doorway under a
rectangular label; in the spandrels are two shields, bearing the arms of
the Priory, and of the Montacutes and Monthermers, Earls of Salisbury.
The doors are modern. Immediately above the doorway is a large window
with three tiers, each containing six lights. The head of the window
above these is of an ordinary Perpendicular character. The tracery was
restored in 1828. Above this window is a niche containing a figure of
Christ. The upper stage, which contains the bells, has two two-light
windows in each face, each light being divided by a transom. These
windows are not glazed, but are furnished with louvre-boards. The tower
is crowned with a pierced battlemented parapet having pinnacles at
the corners and at the middles of each side; within this rises a low
pyramidal roof. The stair turret runs up at the north-east angle of the
tower; this is octagonal, and is crowned with a parapet and crocketed
pinnacles; the upper part of this turret and the pinnacles were renewed
in 1871. The tower is strengthened by two buttresses at right angles
to each other at each of the two western angles. On either side of
the tower, as already explained, may be seen the west end of the nave
aisles; these have windows with Perpendicular tracery, and on the north
wall of the north aisle is a plain, round-headed doorway cut through the
wall in modern time, with a Perpendicular window over it.
[Illustration: NORTH PORCH.]
Next comes the #North Porch#, with a chamber above it--here, as in
many other churches, the chief entrance into the building. Its great
dimensions, both in length and height, however, are remarkable; it
projects 40 feet beyond the aisle wall, and its own side walls rise
nearly to the height of the clerestory of the church. Its south end
does not extend beyond the wall of the aisle, so that there is a space
between the upper part of the porch and the clerestory. The upper part
above the porch proper contains, as mentioned above, a lofty chamber,
probably originally the muniment-room. This is lighted by two pairs
of narrow single-light windows on either side, and by a similar pair
in the north face beneath the obtuse-angled gable. This room is, no
doubt, a later addition. The entrance into the porch is a beautiful,
deeply-recessed archway of thirteenth-century date, with numerous shafts
of Purbeck marble on either side. Within the porch the side walls are
divided into two compartments, each of which is composed of two pointed
arches beneath another larger pointed arch, with a cinquefoil in the
head. On the west side, near the outer archway, is a cinquefoiled
recess, with shafts of Purbeck marble and foliated cusps. This is
said originally to have contained a desk, at which the prior met the
parishioners and signed deeds. A stone seat runs along each side of
the porch walls. The double doorway which leads into the church is very
beautiful and rich Early English work. From six Purbeck marble shafts on
either side spring the orders of the enclosing archway; the heads of the
double doorways themselves are cinquefoiled arches with foliated cusps.
At the jambs, and dividing the two doors, are clusters of Purbeck marble
shafts, with moulded capitals. In the tympanum is a quatrefoil, the
upper part of which projects so as to form a canopy. This was, no doubt,
intended to contain some carved subject, possibly the Doom. Very
extensive restoration was carried out in the groining and porch
generally, in 1862.
[Illustration: THE NORTH DOOR.]
The wall of the #North Aisle# between the porch and the transept is
divided into six compartments by Early English buttresses with gabled
heads. This wall was built in Norman times, as may be seen from the
small round-headed windows which light the clerestory, but was in
Early English times faced with fresh ashlar, which conceals the Norman
arcading of intersecting arches which ran along this wall. The triforium
windows on this side are not, though they are on the south side,
regularly arranged; there are none in the two western divisions, while
between the easternmost buttress and the transept there are two. Six
late thirteenth-century windows were cut through this wall--these are
all of similar design; they consist of two lights under a comprising
arch, with a circle in the head. The clerestory windows are of plainer
character. Each window consists of two simple lancets set under a
recessed arch without any hood moulding; the tympana also above the
lancet heads are not pierced or decorated in any way; in fact, the whole
clerestory is remarkably plain. Between the windows are flat buttresses.
The aisles are covered with lean-to roofs of lead, the nave itself with
a tiled roof of medium pitch. The gable at the east end of the nave, and
indications on the east face of the tower, show that the pitch of the
roof was once higher, and that it must have been lowered at some time
after the tower was built in the fifteenth century.
[Illustration: THE NORTH TRANSEPT IN 1810.
(From Britton's "Architectural Antiquities.")]
The #North Transept# is most interesting. Its west wall contains
two round-headed windows with billet moulding, the northern one blocked
up; and at the north-west corner is a cluster of cylindrical shafts
running up to about the same height as the walls of the aisle. Why they
terminated here it is hard to say; they may mark the termination of the
original Norman wall. This wall may not have risen above this height,
or the upper part may have been taken down and rebuilt when the large
Perpendicular window was inserted in the north end of the transept. At
the north-east corner of the transept stands a richly-ornamented turret
of Norman date. Round the lower part of this the arcade of intersecting
arches which runs round the whole transept is carried; above this, round
the turret, runs an arcading of semicircular-headed arches springing
from pairs of shafts; above this the wall is decorated with diaper work;
and finally, another arcading, this time of round-headed arches rising
from single shafts, encircles the turret. The turret is capped by a
sloping roof of stone attached to the transept wall. This turret is
worthy of close attention, because it shows how the Norman builders
hated monotony; each stage has its own decoration unlike that of
any other; and, moreover, there are variations in the shafts of the
arcading--some are plain, some decorated in one way, some in another.
The same love of variety may be seen here that lends so great a charm
on a larger scale to Flambard's glorious nave at Durham. No doubt this
north transept had attached to its east wall an apsidal Norman chapel
similar to that which still exists on the eastern side of the south
transept, but this had to make way for an addition of two chapels, which
we may assign, from the character of their architecture, to the latter
end of the thirteenth century. The northern chapel is lighted by a
three-light window with three foliated circles in the head, which is
rather sharp pointed, and the southern one by a two-light window with
one foliated arch. These are beautiful examples of plate tracery. Above
these chapels is a small chamber lighted by a window of similar
character. This is supposed to have been the tracing room, where the
various architectural designs for the building were drawn.
To the east of the transept may be seen the #Choir# and #Presbytery#,
with its four clerestory windows; the #Choir Aisle#, also with four
windows; the #Lady Chapel#, with the octagonal turret-staircase leading
into Saint Michael's Loft above it. It will be noticed that there is no
window in the aisle under the western clerestory window of the choir,
as the space where this would have been found is occupied by the two
chapels to the east of the transept, and also that the aisle extends
beyond the choir and flanks the western part of the Lady Chapel. The
whole of this part of the church is of Perpendicular character. The
windows of the choir aisles are low, the arches are depressed, and the
curvature of each side of the arch is so slight that they appear almost
straight lines. The body of these windows contains four lights; in the
head, each of these is subdivided into two. Between the aisle windows
are buttresses, which, with the exception of the one opposite the east
wall of the choir, which terminates in a gable, have pinnacled cappings;
and from each of these, save the gabled one, a flying buttress is
carried over the roof of the aisle and rests against the choir wall.
The aisle roof is flat, and at the top of the outer wall runs a plain
parapet pierced with quatrefoil openings. The clerestory windows are of
great size and are set close together. The choir roof is flat and is
quite invisible from the exterior. There can be little doubt that a
parapet at one time ran along the tops of the clerestory walls, but
this has disappeared. The Lady Chapel has on either side three large
Perpendicular windows; the arches of these as well as those of the
clerestory have pointed heads. The western half of the central window
of the Lady Chapel is blocked up by the later-built octagonal turret
containing the staircase to Saint Michael's Loft. The staircase
commences in an octagonal turret at the north-east corner of the choir
aisle,--this rises above the aisle roof,--the stairs are then carried
above the east wall of the choir aisle and then into the octagonal
turret, which runs up the wall of the Lady Chapel and the loft above,
and rises to some height above the parapet. There is a similar staircase
on the south side, but the turret does not rise quite so high above the
roof. There are five square-headed two-light windows on either side of
St Michael's Loft, the lights being divided by transoms, the upper parts
foliated. At the east end is a three-light window without any transom,
with an obtuse arch under a dripstone. The loft has a parapet all round
it pierced with quatrefoil openings. Some of this parapet, at any rate,
is modern, as, in a photograph of the north side taken in 1884, the
parapet is only shown to the east of the turret. As restoration work
is constantly going on at the church, the money paid by visitors for
viewing the interior (sixpence a head, which produces over £500 a year)
being devoted to this object, the parapet will doubtless in course of
time be extended along the walls of the choir, and will certainly add to
the beauty of the church; and as nothing will be destroyed to make room
for it, such an addition will not be open to the same objection as much
of the work done by restoration committees.
[Illustration: THE NORTH TRANSEPT.]
The buttresses at the east angles of the Lady Chapel are set diagonally,
and rise in five stages; the upper stage of each is square, in section,
with the faces parallel to the walls of the church, and reaches a higher
level than the parapet, and is finished with a flat cap. The large east
window is a Perpendicular one of five lights. From the base of the
south-east buttress runs a wall dividing the burying-ground from the
gardens of the house, to the south of the church, which stands on the
site of the domestic buildings of the priory. The portion of the wall of
the Lady Chapel beneath the eastern-most window on the north side is
modern. Here Mr Ferrey, the architect, by whom much of the restoration
was carried out, discovered traces of an external chantry and the marks
of an arcading corresponding to that still remaining on the inside.
[Illustration: THE SOUTH AISLE OF NAVE.]
The object of the chamber above the Lady Chapel is uncertain,--in
1617 it is described as "St Michael's Loft," in 1666 the parishioners
described it as "heretofore a chapter-house," when petitioning the
bishop to allow it to be used as a school. But if it was ever used as
a chapter-house, it could only have been for a short time, as there is
evidence that there was a chapter-house to the south side of the choir
in the twelfth century, and that this remained as late as 1498. The
south side of the Lady Chapel and choir correspond very closely with the
north side, but there are several differences to be noticed between the
south and north transepts. On the eastern side of the #South Transept#
the Norman apsidal chapel still remains. This has a semi-conical roof
with chevron table moulding under it, and two windows--one of original
Norman work, the other a three-light Early English window. A sacristy
of Early English date stands to the east of the apsidal chapel, and
occupies the space between the apse and the south choir wall. At the
south-east corner of the transept there is a circular stair turret
corresponding to some extent with the turret at the north-east angle
of the north transept; this, in the second stage, becomes octagonal in
section, and rises above the parapet of the transept. In the south face
is a depressed segmental window, much smaller than the corresponding
window on the north side, under a gabled parapet. The pitch of the roof
of the south transept is much higher than that of the north transept,
and the upper part of the transept does not abut against the walls of
the church. Two tiers of corbel brackets on the south wall, and traces
of two Norman windows seem to indicate that here, as elsewhere, a slype,
with a room above it, intervened between the south end of the transept
and the chapter-house. This slype was generally a passage connecting the
cloister garth with the smaller garth to the south of the choir which
was often used as a burying-place for the abbots or priors, as the case
may be, and was the place where the monks or canons interviewed visitors
and chapmen. The room above was often used as the library. The south of
the #Nave# is decidedly inferior in interest to the north. The cloisters
have entirely disappeared, but a series of round-headed arches, formed
of stucco, may conceal a stone arcading similar to that hidden by the
Early English facing of the north wall. The small round-headed windows
giving light to the triforium are more regularly arranged than on the
north side; there is one, and only one, in each division between the
buttresses. There were, as usual, two doors in this wall: one for the
canons, in the wall opposite to the west of the cloister, one close to
the transept for the prior; both are now blocked up. The prior's door,
in the injunction of Langton, 1498, is directed to be kept locked, save
when on festivals a procession passed through it. This doorway is of
early thirteenth-century work; it is round-headed, and is French in
character. There is a legend that a party of French monks, terrified
by a dragon which rose out of the sea, possibly an ancestor of the
sea-serpent of more modern days, put in to Christchurch haven, and were
entertained by the canons, with whom they abode for many years; possibly
this door may be of their workmanship or design. In the south wall a
large aumbry or cupboard, in the thickness of the walls, may be seen;
in this possibly the canons kept the books that they had brought from
the library for study. What the windows in this aisle were we cannot
say--originally, no doubt, Norman, for the westernmost window is still
of this style; but the others, which were widened either in Early
English or Decorated times, are now all filled with nineteenth-century
tracery of Decorated type. The buttresses between the windows, unlike
those on the north side, are flat Norman ones. Towards the west end of
the aisle a passage has in modern times been cut through the wall, and
when this was done remains of a staircase which, no doubt, led to the
dormitory, were discovered. The clerestory, on this side, is of the same
plain character as on the north side.
In a line with the south wall, but some little distance to the west,
still stands a house which was once the porter's lodge, close to the
site of the gatehouse. The porter's lodge was built by Prior Draper
II. in the sixteenth century. The remains of the domestic buildings are
very scanty--some old walls near the modern mill, occupying, no doubt,
the site of the mill where the canons' corn was ground; some vestiges
of the fish ponds; some few traces of walls and foundations, are all
that have come down to modern days. From the similarity of arrangement
in the buildings of religious houses, however, we can, with great
certainty, assign the sites for the various parts--the dormitory over
the cellarage, to the west of the cloister garth; the refectory to south
of it; the calefactory, chapter-house, slype, to the east; and the
prior's lodgings to the south of the choir, forming the lesser garth;
the barns, bakery, and brew-house to the south-west of the church,
near the porter's lodge and gatehouse. The prior had a country house
at Heron Court, a grange at Somerford, and another at St Austin's, near
Lymington. It must be understood that the choir was the church of the
canons, and, as was common in churches served by Augustinian canons, the
nave was used for the services which the laity of the district attended.
It is noteworthy that whether owing to the purity of the air, so
different from that which exists in the large cities where so many of
the cathedral churches stand, or from the goodness of the stone, most of
the Priory Church is in most excellent preservation. Carving which, we
are assured, has never been retouched with a chisel since it was first
cut, remains as sharp and clearly cut as though it were the work of
the nineteenth century; possibly some of its excellence is due to the
preservative effect of the whitewash with which it was once covered, and
which has been cleaned off with water and a stiff bristled brush.
The stone of which the north side of the nave is built came from
Binstead; the limestone columns from Henden Hill; the Norman round
turret and the choir is built of Portland stone; while Purbeck marble
shafts are used in the north porch, and of the fine white stone from
Caen in Normandy, the Salisbury and Draper chantries in the interior
are constructed. These, though now about four hundred years old, are
absolutely sharp in all the carving. There is a tombstone to the north
of the porch which bears a curious inscription as follows:--"We were
not slayne but raysd, raysd not to life but to be byried twice by men
of strife. What rest could the living have when dead had none agree
amongst you heere we ten are one. Hen. Rogers died Aprill 17 1641."
This inscription has been variously explained. It is said by some that
Cromwell, afterwards Protector, was at Christchurch, and dug up some
lead coffins to make bullets for his soldiers, and flung the bodies out
of ten such coffins into one grave; but this is manifestly incorrect.
Oliver Cromwell was never at Christchurch, though Thomas Cromwell
probably was, and here, as elsewhere, the two have been confounded.
In many cases poor Oliver has had to bear the blame for destruction
caused to churches by his less well-known namesake, the great destroyer
of religious houses in the days of the eighth Henry. But neither of
them had anything to do with this tomb, nor were the Parliamentary
forces guilty of tampering with the coffins of the dead in the parish
burying-ground at Christchurch. The very date precludes the idea, for
the civil war did not begin till more than fifteen months after the
date carved on this stone; and we may give the Roundheads credit for
more sense than to be digging up coffins to make their bullets with,
when there was abundance of lead to be had for the stripping on the roof
of the Priory Church. A far more probable explanation is that which
states that the ten bodies here interred were those of ten shipwrecked
sailors, who were first buried on the cliffs near the spot where they
were washed ashore; but the lord of the manor, when he heard thereof,
waxed exceeding wroth, and a strife ensued between him and one Henry
Rogers, Mayor of Christchurch, the former insisting on their removal to
consecrated ground, the latter objecting to the removal, probably on the
ground of expense; but in the end the lord of the manor had his way. But
the mayor, to save the cost of ten separate graves, had them all buried
in one, and placed this inscription over their remains as a protest
against the conduct of the lord of the manor in moving their remains
from their first resting-place.
The graveyard at the present time is neatly kept and well cared
for. The headstones have not, as they have been in many other
places, tampered with; and though many of the alterations made in the
restoration will not gain the approval of archæologists, yet some have
been judiciously done, and some that are in contemplation will certainly
have the result of rendering once more visible beautiful mediæval work,
long concealed by ugly modern additions.
CHAPTER III
THE INTERIOR
A rapid walk round the interior of the Priory Church shows that it
practically consists of three main portions, almost entirely divided
from each other--the #Nave#, the #Choir#, and the #Lady Chapel#. The
solid rood screen, pierced by one narrow doorway, forms an effectual
division between the nave and choir, while the stone reredos and the
wall above it, running right up to the vaulting, entirely separates the
latter from the Lady Chapel. In mediæval times the choir was reserved
for the use of the canons; the nave was the parish church with its own
high altar; the rood loft was an excellent point of vantage from which
a preacher could address a large congregation. In those times pews had
not been introduced; open benches may have existed. At present the nave
is occupied by pews; these with their cast-iron poppies were erected in
1840, and were then higher than at present. Still, even in their present
form, they hide the bases of the pillars, and might with much advantage
be swept away, and their places taken by open benches or movable chairs.
The pews in the transepts are of older date; these, together with
the galleries above them--that in the south transept supporting the
organ--are a sad disfigurement to the church, and it is to be hoped that
they will be soon removed; they hide some splendid Norman work. The case
of the north gallery is worse than the south, as a staircase leading to
it disfigures the beautiful Early English chapel attached to the east
side of the transept. This gallery, however, contains some faculty pews.
All the owners of these, save one, consented to its removal; but one
stood out against it, and, having the legal right to prevent any
alteration, has up to the present time kept the gallery intact. But as
he has recently died there can be little doubt that no long time will
now elapse before this disfigurement to the church will be a thing of
the past. There seems little need for the gallery, as there is ample
accommodation on the floor of the church for any congregation that is
likely to assemble within the walls. Many alterations, some of which are
certainly improvements, have already been made. In an engraving, dated
1834, the organ is represented standing on the rood screen, probably the
best place for it; and the four eastern bays of the nave are seen to be
partitioned off by a wooden screen with a rod for curtains. On a level
with the capitals of the pillars, to the west of this partition, stands
the font. At this time also the triforium was boarded off in order to
shut out draughts and cold; but this boarding has happily been swept
away, the partition across the nave has been removed, and an oaken
screen with glazed panels runs across the church, cutting off the
western bay from the remainder of the nave. The font, a modern one,
now stands under the tower; a modern pulpit on the south side, under the
crossing, where also desks for the clergy and choir have been placed. It
is now the custom on Sunday mornings to read the whole of the service up
to the end of the Nicene Creed, in the nave; after the sermon is over,
the communicants alone enter the choir to receive the sacrament. The
choir is also used for week-day services. The Lady Chapel is not used.
The nave is Early Norman work, and was chiefly built during the reign
of William II.; the clerestory, however, was added at the beginning of
the thirteenth century by Peter, who was prior from 1195 to 1225. The
original nave was probably covered by a flat wooden ceiling, the Early
Norman builders rarely venturing to span any wide space by a stone
vaulting. The present vaulting is of stucco, and was added by Garbett
in 1819. The roof was altered in Perpendicular times more than once, as
indications of a higher pitched roof than the present one exists on the
east face of the fifteenth-century tower. As springing stones for a
vaulted roof exist, it is probable that a stone roof was at one time
contemplated; but possibly the idea was abandoned on account of the fear
that the walls, unsupported by any exterior flying buttress to resist
the thrust, would not have borne the weight. It will be remembered that
such buttresses are to be met with along the walls of the choir, which
is covered with a stone vaulting. The nave consists of seven bays. The
pillars of this arcading, unlike those of Flambard's nave at Durham,
are not cylindrical, but consist of half columns set against piers
rectangular in section. The capitals are of the early cushion shape;
some of them seem to have been subsequently carved with ornamentation
which bears some resemblance to classical forms. The wall spaces above
the semicircular arches, and below the chevron string-course which runs
beneath the triforium, are decorated with hatchet-work carving, as will
be seen from the illustrations. The triforium on either side consists,
in each bay, of two coupled arches supported by a central pillar,
enclosed by a comprising arch with bold mouldings and double columns,
separated by square members. The most beautiful bay is the easternmost,
on the north side, where the wall surface above the smaller arches,
and beneath the enclosing arch, is carved with a kind of scale-work.
Possibly the opposite bay, on the south side, was as richly ornamented,
but the lower arches and the central column no longer exist, as they
were cut away to make room for a faculty pew in 1820. These two bays
were included within the original Norman choir. The central shaft, on
the north side, is twisted. Two of the central shafts, on the south
side, are richly ornamented--one with twisted decoration, the other with
a projecting reticulated pattern. The shaft and sub-arches of the second
bay from the east on this side is a modern renewal, as here also the old
work was destroyed in 1820 to make room for a pew. The north triforium
can be reached by a staircase continued up into the tower, entered from
the western part of the aisle; access to the south triforium can only be
gained by the use of a ladder. The north triforium deserves examination.
It will be found that pointed arches have been added at the back, and
buttresses have been built against the back of the wall behind the
arches; the floor is rendered uneven by humps necessitated by the Early
English vaulting of the aisle below--probably the aisles were originally
covered with a barrel roof. At the east end of the north triforium an
arch may be seen, which once opened out into the transept; this is now
walled up, and traces of painting may still be seen on it. There is
a passage under the clerestory, to which access may be obtained by a
passage across the transept; this was, no doubt, made in order that
the shutters of the windows might be opened or closed, according to the
state of the weather. From the staircase which leads up to the north
triforium a passage leads into the chamber over the north porch. This is
a large room, about 40 feet in length from north to south, and is now
used as a practising room for the choir; it is fitted with benches and
a grand piano, and has a modern wooden gallery running along its south
end.
[Illustration: THE NAVE IN 1834.]
[Illustration: THE NAVE.]
[Illustration: NORTH ARCADE OF NAVE.]
[Illustration: FROM THE NORTH TRIFORIUM.]
[Illustration: BAY OF THE TRIFORIUM, SOUTH SIDE.]
The #South Aisle# is much more elaborately decorated than the north.
Along the south wall runs a fine Norman arcade, the arches ornamented
with billet and cable moulding. The window in the western bay is the
original Norman one; the others were altered either in Early English or
Decorated times, and are now filled with modern tracery in the Decorated
style designed by Mr Ferrey. In the third bay is a holy water stoop, and
in the fifth a large aumbry or recess, entered by a door; in this used
to be kept the bier and lights used at funerals. Along the walls of each
aisle runs a stone bench. There is no arcading on the wall of the north
aisle. The vaulting of both aisles is Early English, dating from the
time of Peter, the third prior, who, as previously stated, built the
clerestory. The tracery of the north aisle windows is transitional in
character between Early English and Decorated.
[Illustration: THE SOUTH AISLE OF NAVE.]
[Illustration: THE MONTACUTE CHANTRY.]
The #Transepts# are much encumbered by modern pews and galleries,
and it is only by careful examination that much of the beautiful work
that they contain can be seen. The arch opening from the south aisle
into the transept is Early English, and the skilful junction of Early
English and Norman work at this point is deserving of attention.
This transept was at one time covered by a stone vaulting, which was
destroyed at the latter end of the eighteenth century and in the
beginning of the nineteenth. Some of the bosses taken from this may be
seen, piled up with the old font and other fragments, at the west end of
the north choir aisle. The west wall of the transept contains a Norman
window. A doorway into the slype remains in the wall, and communicates
with a wall passage. At the eastern side of the transept an arch opens
out into an apsidal chapel, but pews block up the entrance. This chapel
has been so completely restored that it has a thoroughly neat and modern
appearance, and has lost all its archæological value; round it runs a
Norman arcade, and on the north side an aumbry may be seen. The north
transept retains its Norman arcading, which, fortunately, has not been
touched by the restorer's hand; how long it may escape is doubtful,
as it is much mutilated. Still, as it is simply decorative, and not
necessary for the stability of the wall, it would be well to leave it
untouched, as genuine old work, even though it may have suffered at the
hand of time or of former generations, is, from a decorative point of
view, infinitely preferable to any modern reproduction. There are
two small windows in the west wall to light the wall passage to the
clerestory, which is reached by a gallery running across the base of
the north window. In the north wall, behind the back of the pews, is a
thirteenth-century recess. From this transept access is gained to the
circular staircase leading downward to the crypt and upward to the small
chamber above the eastern chapels. This is popularly known as Oliver
Cromwell's harness room, and marks are shown on the wall supposed to
have been holes for the insertion of pegs whereon he hung his harness;
but as the Protector never came to Christchurch, all this is purely
mythical. On one of the walls Mr Ferrey, the architect, found a design
for a window; this he copied, and used when designing the tracery of the
window he inserted over the prior's door at the east end of the south
aisle of the nave. This tracing chamber is lighted by a two-light window
with a quatrefoil in the head in the eastern wall. The two chapels below
are beautiful examples of transition work from the Early English to the
Decorated style; they were built by the De Redvers, Earls of Devon, the
last of whom died in 1263. The eagles of the Montacute and Monthermer
families appear in this chantry. There are two windows in the eastern
wall. The larger, on the north, consists of three lights, with three
circles in the head; the foliation of these outside the glass forms
cinquefoil openings; the smaller window is of a similar character, but
consists of two lights only, with a single foliated arch above them. An
archway, widely splayed, on the western side, opens into the transept,
and another archway opens into the choir aisle; this has a panelled
pier, standing a little apart from the eastern side, designed to support
the arch, which probably was found to be giving way. The shafts along
the eastern wall, the capitals of one of which is carved with a number
of heads said to represent the twelve apostles, should be noticed; the
vaulting ribs are also interesting, especially the joggled ribs seen
over the window. A stone altar stood in one of these chantries until
1780. These chapels are sadly disfigured by a mean staircase which leads
into the transept gallery; it is devoutly to be hoped that before long
this may be removed, and the exquisite beauty of the chapels seen
without any inharmonious and irritating feature such as this staircase
undoubtedly is. Below the transept is an Early Norman crypt; it is
thought by some, from the rudeness of the work, that it may be of
earlier date than the existing church, and that it belonged to the
original church which Flambard destroyed to make room for his more
splendid edifice. In it were discovered a number of human bones, which
were reinterred in the churchyard. It has a plain barrel roof, divided
by broad flat arches rising from pilasters.
[Illustration: THE NORTH AISLE OF NAVE.]
It has often been debated whether or not the church ever possessed a
central tower. There is no documentary evidence bearing on the question.
It may be said that if a tower existed and fell, or was pulled down for
any reason, some record would have remained; but the records connected
with the building are fragmentary, and it by no means follows that the
absence of record proves the non-existence of such a tower. In the case
of Wimborne Minster the churchwarden's accounts contain no record of the
building or of the fall of the spire, yet we know from outside testimony
that such a spire did fall in 1600, and that a representation of it
occurs on a seal. So here at Christchurch a seal is in existence on
which the church is represented with a central tower of two storeys, the
lower plain, the upper lighted by two round-headed windows and capped by
a low pyramidal spire or roof with a tall cross on the summit. This is
exactly what one would expect to find: a central tower is almost always
found in Norman churches, especially collegiate churches; and the
pyramidal roof was almost certainly the usual form in which these early
towers were finished. The battlemented parapets which we so often meet
with in Norman towers are in all cases more recent additions. Moreover,
the massive arches and piers at the corners indicate that a tower was
contemplated, even if it were never built. In the east gable of the nave
as it at present exists, two round-headed windows may be seen. It is
highly probable that this gable once formed part of the east wall of the
tower, and when the tower was removed this wall was converted into a
gable. Everything to the east of the crossing being of late fourteenth
or early fifteenth century date, indicates that extensive alterations
were made at that time; and if a tower and spire had previously existed,
it must have been removed before this date. In the centre of the carving
over the doorway leading into the Draper chantry, dated 1529, there is a
representation of a church with a central tower and spire. Of course, no
such steeple existed at the time this chantry was built, but it may have
been a copy of some then existing representation of the building as it
had appeared in former times. There are also two other carvings of
angels carrying a model of a church with a central tower--one near the
Salisbury chantry, one on the choir roof.
[Illustration: THE CRYPT.]
The nave is divided from the choir by a splendid rood screen 16 feet 6
inches high, 33 feet long, and 9 feet thick. The western face of this
projects beyond the line joining the east walls of the two transepts;
its eastern face rests against the eastern piers intended to support the
central tower. It was extensively restored by Mr Ferrey in 1848, who
considered that it may have been removed from some conventual church
after the dissolution of the monasteries in the time of Henry VIII. and
re-erected here. But there does not seem to be any real grounds for
supposing that it was not expressly built for this church. Its character
indicates a date somewhat late in the fourteenth century. In the centre
is a narrow doorway and a passage into the choir; from the north side
of this passage a flight of steps leads to the top of the loft. The
base of the screen is plain; above this is a row of thirteen panelled
quatrefoils on each side of the doorway--each containing a plain shield,
over these a string course, then two rows of canopied niches, the upper
row consisting of twelve, the lower, owing to the doorway occupying the
central space, of only ten. The lower niches have pedestals, each formed
of four short columns with detached bases but with large capitals, which
meet one another above; these capitals are richly carved with foliage.
No doubt, on the level space thus formed statues at one time stood.
Woodwork screens with glazed doors and panels, made from an oak screen
which formerly was placed across the south transept, run across the
western ends of the choir aisles, so that when the doors of these and of
the rood screen are locked, the eastern arm of the cross is entirely
shut off from the rest of the church.
[Illustration: THE ROOD SCREEN.]
[Illustration: STALL SEAT. South Side.]
[Illustration: STALL SEAT. North Side.]
[Illustration: STALL SEAT. North Side.]
The #Choir# is entirely Perpendicular in character, and it seems to
have been begun in the time of Henry VI. but not to have been completed
until the time of Henry VII., and some of the carving of the stalls
is of still later date. Leland says of it, "Baldwin, Earl of Devon,
was the first founder, and his successors to the time of Isabella de
Fortibus,[5] and at present the Earls of Salisbury are regarded as
founders." Four large clerestory windows on either side light the choir.
The wall beneath these is continued downwards to the floor, but under
each window a low obtusely-pointed depressed archway is cut leading
into the aisles. Between the bottom of each clerestory window and the
heads of these arches the wall is panelled as with window mullions
and tracery, so that the appearance from the inner side may be best
understood by imagining that each window extended from floor to roof,
but that the upper part alone is glazed, the lower cut away for the arch
leading into the aisle, and the lower lights beneath the transom blocked
up with masonry. These lower arches are more or less blocked up.
The Salisbury chapel blocks up the north-eastern one completely; the
sedilia, no doubt, occupied the opposite one, where now a modern altar
tomb may be seen. The next on each side to the west is open, and flights
of steps under them lead down to the aisles; the woodwork at the back
of the choir stalls close the remaining two on the inside, and on the
outside chantry chapels, opening one into the north one into the south
aisle, stand under the second arch on each side counting from the rood
screen. The upper stalls number in all thirty-six, fifteen on either
side, and six with their backs to the rood screen. There is, also,
a lower range of stalls on the north and south. The prior's and
sub-prior's stalls on either side the doorway in the screen looking
east are canopied, as also is the precentor's at the east end of the
south side. The arms of the stalls are quaintly carved with various
grotesque figures, as are also the misereres; the upper parts of the
panels behind the upper stalls are also carved in low relief; above
these is a projecting cornice decorated with pinnacles. The stalls are
late Perpendicular work, the wainscoting behind the stalls being later
still, as we can see from the subjects carved on the upper part of each
panel. Some of the misereres are, however, very old--one dates back to
about 1200, another to 1300, others are of later date, and most of them
belong to the same period as the stalls. The older ones were found lying
about in the lumber of the church, and have been placed in recent years
in some of the stalls the seats of which had been lost or stolen.
The older seats may have belonged to the original Norman choir. As the
term "miserere" may not be understood by all our readers, it may be
well to quote from Parker's "Glossary of Architecture" the following
description:--"Miserere, Misericorde, Patience, or Pretella, is the
projecting bracket on the under-side of the seats of stalls in churches:
these, where perfect, are fixed with hinges so that they may be turned
up, and when this is done the projection of the miserere is sufficient,
without actually forming a seat, to afford very considerable rest to any
one leaning upon it. They were allowed as a relief to the infirm during
the long services that were required to be performed by ecclesiastics
in a standing posture. They are always more or less ornamented with
carvings of leaves, small figures, animals, etc., which are generally
very boldly cut. Examples are to be found in almost all ancient churches
which retain any of the ancient stalls--one of the oldest remaining
specimens is in Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster; it is in the style
of the thirteenth century." When Parker wrote the last sentence the
still older miserere now to be seen at Christchurch had not been
discovered.
[5] She lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century.
[Illustration: CHOIR STALLS.]
[Illustration: MISERERE ON STALL SEAT. (_Circa_ 1300.) NORTH SIDE.]
It is curious to notice the absence of reverence on the part of the
mediæval canons, according to our modern notions, that these quaint
carvings indicate. One might have expected that inside the church the
subjects would have always been of a sacred nature, rude perhaps, and
grotesque from their rudeness. Such carvings are found in many places,
but here at Christchurch we have satirical subjects, caricatures of
contemporaries, some indeed of so objectionable a character that they
have been removed of late years. A few examples of these carvings will
be given. On the arm of one of the stalls a fox is represented preaching
to a flock of geese, a cock acting as clerk. On one of the misereres we
have a pair of devils somewhat resembling monkeys tempting an angel, a
goose bringing an offering on a plate to a quaint figure, a man with
a hatchet employed in carving, a man with a hole in the back of his
garments fastened with a pin, besides various animals, fishes, mermaids,
and monsters. On the wainscoting we have the heads of Henry VII., Henry
VIII., Catharine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Campeggio, the King of
Scots, and the Duchess of Burgundy, who assisted Perkin Warbeck in his
attempt to gain the crown of England, and two canons disputing over a
cup, which is placed between their faces. This last carving probably has
some reference to the granting of the cup to the laity in time of Henry
VIII.
[Illustration: THE CHOIR.]
The vaulting of the choir is of a somewhat unusual character: the
pendants are especially worthy of notice. It is difficult to describe
the manner in which they are placed, but the illustration shows their
character and position. The short connecting ribs of the vaulting form
a stellated cross over the presbytery. Some colour may still be seen on
the carved work of this portion of the church, and the initials of
William Eyre, prior 1502-1520, appear on the bosses.
[Illustration: THE REREDOS.]
The east wall of the presbytery contains no window, but is occupied by
a beautiful stone reredos carved with a representation of the tree of
Jesse. It is divided into three tiers with five compartments in each,
the central one wider than the two on either side; the space above it
and beneath the vaulting is occupied by a wall, in which a doorway now
blocked up may be seen. The outer compartments of the lowest tier
contain doors leading to a platform behind the reredos; between them
stands an oak altar, the gift of A. N. Welby Pugin in 1831. Above the
altar in the central compartment Jesse lies asleep, on the left hand
David plays upon his harp, on the right sits Solomon deeply meditating.
Above Jesse we have in one carving an amalgamated representation of the
birth of Christ and the visit of the Wise Men. On the left hand sits the
Virgin Mary with her Child, fully clothed in a long garment, not wrapped
in swaddling clothes, standing in her lap; behind her stands a man,
probably Joseph; and before her kneels one of the Wise Men offering
his gift of gold in the form of a plain tankard; on the right behind
him stand his two fellows, one carrying a pot of myrrh, the other
a boat-shaped vessel, probably intended for a censer containing
frankincense. On a bracket above the head of the kneeling Wise Man,
the shepherds kneel in adoration; nor are the flocks that they were
tending forgotten, for several sheep may be seen on a hill-top above
their heads. Thirty-two small figures may be counted in niches in the
buttresses dividing the compartments; crockets, finials, and pinnacles
decorate the various canopies over the carvings. This reredos is
apparently of late Decorated date, and therefore earlier than the
fifteenth-century choir. Possibly it was an addition to the Norman choir
before this was removed to make room for the existing one. Mr Ferrey
was of opinion that it may have once stood across the nave between the
second piers from the east, thus forming a reredos for the western part
of the nave, which was used as the church of the parish. Below the
presbytery is a Norman crypt, now converted into a vault for the
Malmesbury family. It has already been mentioned that there are doors
on either side of the altar, leading to a kind of gallery or platform
behind the reredos; these were designed to allow certain ceremonial
compassings of the altar, and it is possible that steps led down from
the platform to the ambulatory. On the east side of these doorways
there are corbel heads under the arches, and the walls of the platform
are panelled. Within the altar rails is a slab bearing the name of
Baldwin IV., the seventh Earl of Devon. On the south side is the
monument of Lady Fitzharris, who died in 1815; it is a statue by Flaxman
representing the Lady teaching her two sons from the Bible. Farther to
the east is the altar tomb of the Countess of Malmesbury, who died in
1877, occupying the place of the sedilia; and on the north the exquisite
chantry of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the last bearer of the royal
name of Plantagenet, whose tragic fate and horrible execution is one
of the foulest stains on the memory of Henry VIII. She was the daughter
of "false, fleeting, perjured Clarence" and of the kingmaker's eldest
daughter Isabella, and was mother of the celebrated Reginald Pole who,
being ordained deacon at the age of sixteen, was appointed Dean of
Wimborne a year later, and rose in time to the high rank of
Cardinal-Archbishop of Canterbury, and played an important part in
history in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Mary. She erected this lovely
chantry as her last resting-place, wishing to lie after her troublous
life in this quiet spot, but it was not so to be. Her son, by the
publication on the Continent of a violent attack on Henry VIII.,
incensed the king to such an extent that he laid his hands on all the
kindred of the Poles he could find in England; some were tried and
executed, others attainted without trial, among them the Countess of
Salisbury, who was at the time over seventy years of age. She refused to
lay her head upon the block, and the headsman hacked at her neck as she
stood erect; her body was not allowed to be buried in the chantry which
she had erected for herself,--so far did the spite of Henry go,--but she
lies among the ambitious and unfortunate, the aspiring, and unsuccessful
of many a sect and party in the cemetery of St Peter's Chapel in the
Tower. Hers was an ill-starred race. Her grandfather was slain at
Barnet, 1471; her father murdered by his brother Edward IV., 1478; her
own brother, the Earl of Warwick, imprisoned by Henry VII., and
subsequently beheaded on Tower Hill, 1499; her eldest son, Lord Montagu,
was executed for high treason; and Margaret herself met a like fate on
May 27, 1541.
[Illustration: THE SALISBURY CHANTRY.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE SALISBURY CHANTRY.]
Her chantry is built of Caen stone, and the decoration is of Renaissance
character. It is conjectured to be the work of the Florentine sculptor
Pietro Torrigiano, who died in the prison of the Inquisition in Spain in
1522. He was engaged on Henry VII.'s tomb in Westminster, and other
works ordered by Henry VIII. at Westminster and Windsor, from 1509 till
1517; and if this chantry at Christchurch is his design the date must
lie between these two years. Two four-light windows with battlemented
transoms look out on either side; to the west of these two doorways
lead, one to the presbytery the other to the north aisle; on the east
wall are three canopied niches, beneath which an altar stood or was
intended to stand; the ceiling is richly carved with fan traceries and
bosses; the latter have been mutilated--by order, it is said, of Henry
VIII. A letter from the King's Commissioner thus describes the work
done:--"In thys churche we founde a chaple and a monumet curiosly made
of cane stone p^rpared by the late mother of Raynolde Pole for herre
buriall, which we have causyd to be defaced and all the Armis and Badgis
to be delete." On the north side are twelve tabernacles. This chapel
stands on a richly carved panelled basement, and all the walls are
covered with minute carving; but here, as elsewhere, in late work we
find the same forms repeated again and again, and we miss that wealth
of fancy which gives each boss or capital carved by the earlier workers
such a life and individuality. The side of this chapel that faces the
north aisle is more elaborate than that facing the choir, and is
necessarily more lofty, as its base rests on the floor of the aisle,
which is lower than the floor of the presbytery. On the west face is
one of several memorial tablets to members of the Rose family, who are
buried in this aisle.
In the north choir aisle, at the western end, may be seen a kind of
small museum of fragments from various parts of the church, collected at
the time of the restoration, among them some bosses from the vaulting of
the south transept, destroyed about a hundred years ago, and fragments
of a Norman font. The vaulting of this and the corresponding aisle on
the south side is of the same character as that of the choir, but is
somewhat plainer, and is not decorated with crosses or pendants.
On the south side of this aisle is a late Perpendicular chantry, built
in accordance with the will of Sir William Berkeley, dated 1486, to
commemorate himself and his wife. Part of the inscription ... ARMIGERI
MARGARETE QUE CONSOR ... can still be read on the frieze; on its flat
ceiling are painted two large roses, one white, one red; it contains two
brackets for cruets; over the entrance to it is placed an oval memorial
tablet to one John Cook, who died in 1787. Eastward of this is the
Salisbury chapel already described. On the north wall of the aisle is a
monument, consisting of an altar-tomb with a front of carved quatrefoils
and a purbeck slab, dating about 1550. The canopy over it is later, and
the coat of arms beneath it is that of Robert White of Hadlow, Kent, who
is commemorated on a board at the west end of the church as a benefactor
who left £100 in land for the poor in 1619, thus fixing the date of this
portion of the tomb. The scroll beneath the arms has the initials R. W.,
and the motto "Suffer in Tym." A chantry is formed at the eastern end of
the aisle by the western end of the north wall of the Lady Chapel. It
contains an altar tomb with the recumbent figures of Sir John Chidioke,
a Dorset knight, slain in 1449 in the Wars of the Roses, and his wife.
This monument has occupied its present position only from 1791,--it
previously stood in the north transept.
[Illustration: THE DRAPER CHANTRY.]
The east end of the south choir aisle is occupied by the chantry chapel
of John Draper II., the last of the priors and titular bishop of
Neapolis in Palestine, near the ancient Shechem in Samaria; it is dated
1529, and is formed by a screen of Caen stone stretching across the
aisle. There is a central doorway with a depressed arch at the top, and
canopied niches over it, and on either side are two transomed four-light
unglazed windows under arches of the same character as that over the
doorway; along the top of the screen runs a battlemented parapet. Within
the chantry, on the south wall, is a very beautiful piscina, the finest
in the church. Just outside the screen is a square-headed doorway.
Along the south wall of this aisle, as along the north wall of the
corresponding north aisle, a stone bench-table runs. On the north side
the panelled wall on which the Countess of Malmesbury's altar tomb
stands is decorated with carvings of angels; the largest of these holds
a shield with a death's-head. Farther to the west, beyond the steps
leading down from the choir, is a Perpendicular chantry, known as the
Harys chantry; it has open tracery above cusped panels, canopied niches,
and a panelled bench table. Robert Harys was rector of Shrowston, and
died in 1525; his rebus, a hare under the letter R, may be seen on the
panels. On the opposite side of the aisle is the doorway leading into
what is known as the #sacristy#. This is a thirteenth-century addition
to the church, and is of irregular shape, as it is wedged in, as it
were, between the apsidal chapel on the east side of the transept and
the south wall of the choir aisle. In the south wall are triple sedilia
with Purbeck shafts and foliated heads; in the north wall is a square
opening or squint.
[Illustration: PISCINA IN THE DRAPER CHANTRY.]
[Illustration: THE SACRISTY.]
Behind the reredos is an ambulatory or processional path; from this may
be seen, over the archway leading into the south aisle, the end of the
"miraculous beam," lengthened, according to the legend, by Christ, when
He appeared as a workman and took part in the building of the original
church. How this came to be preserved, and how it came to occupy a
position amidst the latest work in the church, is not recorded. The Lady
Chapel is very beautiful Perpendicular work; it had its own altar and
reredos under the east window. The reredos is much mutilated, but
besides the part that is still attached to the wall, there are many
loose fragments now set up on the altar. This is a slab of Purbeck
stone, 11 ft. in length and 3 ft. 10 ins in breadth. On the north and
south sides of the altar are the tombs of Thomas, Lord West, and Lady
Alice West, his mother. These tombs are of Purbeck marble and of a form
by no means uncommon in the churches of Wessex. The ten shafts
supporting the canopy of the tomb on the north still remain; from the
other tomb such shafts as it had have disappeared. Thomas, Lord West,
died in 1406, his mother in 1395: these dates fix within reasonable
limits the date of the building of the Lady Chapel. Thomas West, in his
will, directs that his body should be buried in the "_New_ Chapel of Our
Lady in the Mynster of Christchurch." It is noteworthy to remark that
the original arcading is cut away to make room for this monument, so
that the chapel had been finished before he died. Both Sir Thomas West
and his mother were benefactors to the church. Besides other bequests of
money towards the building fund and for perpetual masses, each of them
gave about £18 for the singing of 4500 masses within six months of the
day of their deaths. On the south side of the chapel is the original
doorway leading into the canons' burial-ground; a corresponding door is
to be seen on the north side. The splays of the arches of the windows
are elaborately ornamented with panelling. The arcading under the
window, a series of ogee arches, is worthy of notice. The tattered
colours of the "Loyal Christchurch Volunteers," one of the earliest
regiments of volunteers, which was enrolled in 1793, hang at the
entrance to the Lady Chapel. The vaulting is of the same character as
that of the choir, with curious pendants in the form of church lanterns.
[Illustration: THE MIRACULOUS BEAM.]
[Illustration: THE TOMB OF THOMAS, LORD WEST.]
[Illustration: THE LADY CHAPEL.]
[Illustration: ST MICHAEL'S LOFT.]
#St Michael's Loft# is reached by long flights of steps running up the
turrets described in the last chapter. It is a plain, low room with a
low-pitched tie-beam roof of oak. It was once a chapel, as the piscina
in the east wall clearly shows. The site of the altar is now occupied by
a disused desk of the character familiar to us in our own school days
some half-a-century ago; it is a sort of pew with doors, within which
the master sat enthroned and ramparted. This room was used as a public
grammar school from 1662 till 1828, and subsequently as a private
school, which was finally closed in 1869. The boys went to this school
and returned from it by the staircase on the north side which has an
entrance from the churchyard; the stairs on the south side were used
when anyone had occasion to go into the church or to go from it to the
room above.
An upper chamber or chapel is an uncommon feature in England. Remains of
staircases give rise to the conjecture that there was a similar chapel
over the Lady Chapel at Chester, and somewhat similar erections are to
be met with on the Continent; but Christchurch Priory is unique in
possessing such a perfect specimen. The dedication of the upper storey
to St Michael, the conductor of souls to Paradise, is appropriate.
Churches built in elevated positions were frequently dedicated to him,
and few if any mediæval churches dedicated to this archangel are to be
met with on low-lying ground.
Under the western tower stands a modern font. The fragments of a
Norman font, with carvings representing various incidents in the
life of Christ, may be seen, preserved in the north choir aisle. The
fifteenth-century successor has been removed to Bransgore Church, four
miles off.
Against the north wall of the tower stands the monument of the poet
Shelley, the work of the sculptor Weekes. Needless to say, it is but
a cenotaph. The "heart of hearts," "Cor Cordium," and the ashes of the
poet cremated on the Tuscan shore, lie far away, hard by the pyramid
of Caius Cestius, in the grave where the loving hands of Trelawney laid
them in 1823. Here we have an ideal representation of the finding of the
drowned body--not a pleasing one, but less ghastly than the reality; and
below the inscription which tells his name and the number of his years
and the manner of his death, the following stanza from his own "Adonais"
may be read:--
"He hath out-soared the shadow of our night:
Envy and calumny and hate and pain,
And that unrest which men miscall delight,
Can touch him not and torture not again;
From the contagion of the world's slow stain
He is secure, and now can never mourn
A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain,
Nor, when the spirit's self has ceased to burn
With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn."
The choice of Christchurch Priory as the site for this monument was due
to the fact that the poet's son, Sir Percy Florence Shelley, who erected
it, lived at Boscombe Manor, between Christchurch and Bournemouth.
The tower contains a peal of eight bells. These are all old; the fifth
and sixth bells have fourteenth-century inscriptions round their crowns,
the others appear to have been cast early in the fifteenth century.
[Illustration: THE SHELLEY MONUMENT.]
CHAPTER IV
DEANS OF THE SECULAR COLLEGE
1. Ralf Flambard, afterwards Bishop of Durham.
2. Godric.
3. Gilbert de Dousgunels.
4. Peter de Oglander.
5. Randulphus.
6. Hilary, afterwards Bishop of Chichester.
PRIORS OF THE AUGUSTINIAN COLLEGE
1. Reginald, 1150.
2. Ralph.
3. Peter, 1195. He built the clerestory and carried out other Early
English work.
4. Roger, 1225.
5. Richard.
6. Nicholas de Wareham.
7. Nicholas de Sturminster.
8. John de Abingdon, 1272.
9. William de Netheravon, 1278.
10. Richard Maury, 1286.
11. William Quenton, 1302.
12. Walter Tholveshide, 1317.
13. Edmund de Ramsbury, 1323. During his time Bishop Stratford's
Injunctions were issued, 1325. See page 129.
14. Richard de Queteshorne, 1337.
15. Robert de Leyghe, 1340.
16. William Tyrewache, 1345.
17. Henry Eyre, 1357. He became blind in 1367 and was allowed a
coadjutor.
18. John Wodenham, 1376.
19. John Borard, 1398. During his time Archbishop Arundel issued
Injunctions, 1404. See page 130.
20. Thomas Talbot, 1413.
21. John Wimborne, 1420.
22. William Norton.
23. John Dorchester.
24. John Draper I., 1477. Bishop Langton's Injunctions were issued
during his tenure of the priory.
25. William Eyre, 1502. During his time the choir was completed.
26. John Draper II. He surrendered the priory to Henry VIII.'s
commissioners, 1539, and was allowed to retain Somerford Grange
for life, and received a pension of £133, 6s. 8d. He died in
1552, and was buried in the nave near the entrance to the choir.
VICARS OF CHRISTCHURCH
By the council of Arles 1261, religious orders that held parish churches
were bound to supply vicars to officiate. These were appointed by the
canons, and were taken from their own body.
The names of many of these are known. The 13th was Robert Harys, whose
chantry stands in the south choir aisle; he died in 1325. In the time of
the 15th, William Trapnell, the church was granted by Henry VIII. to the
parishioners, 32nd year of Henry VIII. In the time of the 17th, Robert
Newman, an inventory of the property was made by order of Edward VI.'s
commissioner. John Imber, the 21st vicar, was expelled by the Parliament
from 1647-1660, but was restored to his preferment in the same year as
Charles II. gained the throne. The present vicar is the 32nd.
STRATFORD'S INJUNCTIONS, 1325
1. Every canon save the seneschal and cellarer must attend Matins, High
Mass, and the Hours. The seneschal, if present in the priory for two
nights together, must attend one Matins, and the cellarer must be
present at service on alternate nights at least.
2. Six canons must be enrolled for celebrating Our Lady's Mass; the
prior must celebrate on all great feasts at High Mass, and on Saturdays
at Our Lady's Mass, and must wear a surplice not a rochet.
3. Canons in priests' orders must celebrate daily, those who are not
must repeat eleven Psalms with a Litany or Psalter of Our Lady every
day.
4. Four confessors must be appointed to hear the confessions of the
canons.
5. Latin or French must be the languages spoken.
6. No one save the prior or officers, without special leave, must ride
or leave the Priory.
7. Two-thirds of the canons must dine daily in the refectory; the door
must be kept by a secular watchman whose duty it is to remove servants
and idle people from the door during dinner; the almoner must prevent
any canon carrying his commons to the laundry-people or people of the
town.
8. All the canons must sleep in the dormitory, each in his own bed.
9. The infirmary must be visited daily by the prior or sub-prior.
10. Two canons must act as treasurers, and a yearly account must be
presented.
11. The common seal must be kept under four locks, and documents sealed
in full chapter, not as heretofore during Mass.
12. Canons must not play at chess or draughts, nor keep hounds or arms
(save in the custody of the prior), nor have a servant (save when on a
journey), nor write nor receive letters without leave. The prior may
keep hounds outside the priory buildings.
ARCHBISHOP ARUNDEL'S INJUNCTIONS, 1404
No. 1. Ordered the destruction of an old hall and an adjoining chamber
known as the sub-prior's hall after the departure of Sir Thomas West its
then occupier, as noblemen were in the habit of occupying it to the
great disturbance of the order and the keeping open of gates which ought
to be closed.
No. 2. Enjoined the building of a house for the proecentor, and a new
chamber for the sick.
No. 3. Ordered the setting apart of a chamber for recreation apart from
the infirmary (it may be supposed that the canons during recreation
hours were noisy, thereby disturbing the sick).
No. 4. Directed the provision of separate studies for the canons. It
would appear that nobles, such as the Montacutes and Wests, put the
priory to such great expense by taking up their abode, together with
their retainers, in the domestic part of the buildings.
THE NORMAN CASTLE
Very little of the castle erected by Richard de Redvers, who died in
1137, remains; but on an artificial mound at no great distance to the
north of the Priory Church stand fragments of the east and west walls of
the square Norman keep, about 20 feet high and 10 feet thick. The castle
belonged to the De Redvers, Earls of Devon, till they were alienated to
the crown in the 9th year of Edward I. (1280), the last earl having died
in 1263, though the last female descendant lived till 1293. In 1331,
Edward III. granted the castle and land to William de Montacute, Earl of
Salisbury; after the execution of John de Montacute in 1400 for the part
he took in the plots against the new king, Henry IV., Sir Thomas West,
who lies buried in the Lady Chapel, was appointed constable. He died in
1405, then Thomas, Earl of Salisbury, held the castle till 1428. After
this it was held by various persons, and we find a constable of the
Lordship of Christchurch as late as 1656. The manor held by the De
Redvers, and then by the Montacutes, passed through various hands. Among
the holders we may notice the Nevilles, hence the connection with the
Priory of the ill-fated Margaret, the kingmaker's granddaughter, who was
Countess of Salisbury in her own right, the Earl of Clarendon, Sir
George Rose, and the present owner, the Earl of Malmesbury, who obtained
it in 1862.
In early days the bailiff of the de Redvers regulated all markets,
fairs, tolls, and fines, and had the right of preemption and sat as
judge in the tenants' court. Edward I. relieved the burgesses of
Christchurch from all arbitrary exactions, and established a fixed
fee-farm rent instead. The castle was taken for the Parliament by Sir
William Waller with 300 men on April 7, 1644.
A little to the north-east of the castle stand the remains of one of
the few Norman houses that have come down to the present time. It is
thus described in the first volume of "The Domestic Architecture of the
Middle Ages" by Turner and Parker, pp. 38, 39. This volume was published
in 1851. "At Christchurch, in Hampshire, is the ruin of a Norman house,
rather late in the style, with good windows of two lights and a round
chimney shaft.[6] The plan, as before, is a simple oblong; the principal
room appears to have been on the first floor. It is situated on the bank
of the river near to the church, and still more close to the mound,
which is said to have been the keep of the castle; being between that
and the river, it could not well have been placed in a situation of
greater security. Whether it formed part of another series of buildings
or not, it was a perfect house in itself, and its character is strictly
domestic. It is about seventy feet long, and twenty-four broad, its
walls, like those of the keep, being exceedingly thick. On the ground
floor are a number of loop-holes: the ascent to the upper storey was by
a stone staircase, part of which remains; the ground floor was divided
by a wall, but the upper storey seems to have been a long room, lighted
by three double windows on each side; near the centre of the east wall,
next the river, is a large fireplace, to which the round chimney before
mentioned belongs. At the north end, there appears to have been a large
and handsome window of which part of the arch and shafts remain, and
there is a small circular window in the south gable. From what remains
of the ornamental part of this building, it appears to have been
elegantly finished and cased with squared stones, most of which are,
however, now taken away. There is a small projecting tower, calculated
for a flank, under which the water runs; it has loopholes both on the
north and east fronts, these walls are extremely thick. By the ruins of
several walls, there were some ancient buildings at right angles to this
hall, stretching away towards the keep. This was probably part of the
residence of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, to whom the manor of
Christchurch belonged about the middle of the twelfth century."[7]
[6] Since rebuilt.
[7] Grove's "Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 178.
[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE NORMAN HOUSE.]
This building is much overgrown with ivy, which by a comparison of the
illustration given in the work just quoted with its present condition,
as represented in the photograph here reproduced, has increased
considerably during the last fifty years. It is due to the memory of the
Rev. William Jackson, who was vicar of Christchurch from 1778 to 1802,
that it should be recorded that he saved this valuable relic of Norman
domestic architecture from destruction. He was evidently imbued with a
spirit of love for antiquity by no means common a hundred years ago, and
far too rare even at the present day.
DIMENSIONS OF CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY
Extreme length 311 feet.
Length of Nave 118 " 9 inches.
Width of Nave 58 " 5 "
Height of Nave 58 "
Length of Transept 101 " 2 "
Width of Transept 24 " 4 "
Length of Choir 70 "
Width of Choir with Aisles 60 " 6 "
Height of Choir 63 "
Length of side of Tower, E. to W. 27 " 9 "
" " " N. to S. 22 " 4 "
Height of Tower 120 "
Length of Lady Chapel 36 " 4 "
Width of Lady Chapel 21 " 1 "
Length of St Michael's Loft 58 " 3 "
Width of St Michael's Loft 19 " 7 "
AREA 18,300 sq. feet.
PLANS
[Illustration: PLAN OF WIMBORNE MINSTER]
[Illustration: PLAN OF CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY]
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Page 5: "commemerated" corrected to "commemorated."