MISCELLANEOUS WORK.
HOUSES IN STREETS, SCHOOLS, MARKET-HOUSES, &c.
[Illustration: 184.--HOUSE FORMERLY IN NORTH STREET, EXETER.]
The houses built in towns followed much the same lines as those erected
elsewhere in general treatment, but the plan was of course restricted
by the situation of the house, and by the fact that it could not derive
light from the sides. The fronts were often constructed of wood and
plaster, and the upper floors were corbelled out over those beneath
in the same fashion as had been customary for many years. Owing to
the nature of their materials most of these houses have disappeared
through fire or decay. Others have been swept away in the improvements
which inevitably accompany prosperity in a town; others have been
altered to suit the changes and development of trades. There are not
many examples, therefore, to be found except in out-of-the-way places,
or in districts of large towns from which the main stream of business
has been diverted. There are a few examples in the older parts of
Bristol and York, for instance, but they have been much mutilated
and altered. Some years ago there was an unusually good specimen in
North Street, Exeter (Fig. 184), but it has now disappeared. Here the
columns on the storey above the bays were particularly good both in
proportion and in general effect, and there was an unusual amount of
richness bestowed upon the carving of the corbels and the strings and
cornices. Towns near the coast seem to have been richer in houses of
this kind than those further inland. The Butter-market at Dartmouth is
a good specimen; the first floor is carried on columns, thus forming a
covered walk; the bay windows are supported by boldly-carved corbels
fashioned, some like fabulous animals, some like human figures.
Ipswich has some excellent examples of carved strings and beams; it
was customary to enrich the faces of the large beams which carried
the projecting storeys, and a considerable amount of fancy in design
and dexterity of execution were expended upon them. In the eastern
counties generally there is some capital work to be found, both in wood
and in modelled plaster. Canterbury has a few remains, one of which,
of somewhat late date, is shown in Fig. 185. The general treatment of
the windows on the first floor is in accordance with Jacobean methods,
but the handling of the boldly-modelled plaster-work above them points
towards the latter half of the seventeenth century as the time of its
execution. Two of the objects aimed at in these street fronts seem
to have been to get plenty of light and to introduce bay windows. In
the example from Canterbury, the whole front of the first floor is
occupied with windows, and there are two bays introduced in the range
which serve as large corbels to the straight front above them. Another
example, from Oxford (Plate LXXIX.), also shows the whole front of
two floors occupied by window space. But this front is gabled, and
has one large bay window in the centre, which is covered by a broken
pediment embracing a kind of dormer, all enclosed within the lines of
the gable itself, which, however, has undergone some alteration since
it was first erected. The difference in the treatment of the arched
lights in the several floors should be noticed. Another variety is
to be seen in a house in Stratford-on-Avon (Plate LXXIX.), where the
general disposition is rather simple, but all the woodwork is highly
ornamented. The main beams which carry the projecting storeys are
carved in the manner already mentioned as being prevalent at Ipswich.
Here, again, there is a bay window on the first floor helping to carry
the storey above it, and another projecting window on the top floor,
the upper corners of which are hidden behind the barge-boards. The
same general treatment is to be seen in an old house in the High Town
at Hereford (Fig. 186), where the excellent effect is produced by very
simple means. The woodwork of the framing is all straight, but it
is massive, and not much less in width than the plaster panels. The
upper storey projects far enough to give good shadow, which is varied
by the shallow bays just beneath it. The gables have heavy carved
barge-boards, and in each of them is a bay window, the top of which,
unlike the example from Stratford, is free from interference by the
barge-board. The pendants between the bays on the first floor are of
the ordinary pierced pattern. In considering these specimens from busy
towns, it should be remembered that they have all been more or less
restored.
[Illustration: 185.--HOUSE IN THE HIGH STREET, CANTERBURY.]
[Illustration: 186.--OLD HOUSE, HIGH TOWN, HEREFORD.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXIX.
HOUSE IN THE HIGH STREET, OXFORD.
HOUSE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON, WARWICKSHIRE.]
The fashion of building with timber on the narrow streets of the time
was felt to be dangerous, and in the year 1605 a proclamation was made
in London that the fore-front and windows of all new houses within the
city and one mile thereof should be of brick or stone. The old houses,
however, were left until the great fire of 1666 swept them away: it was
these charming half-timbered dwellings which afforded the chief fuel
for that huge bonfire.
In Thorpe's book there are several plans drawn for "London Houses." One
(on page 18) is entitled "Three houses for the city, or for a country
house at 8 parts to the inch." It shows a row of three houses, two of
which have a frontage of 33 feet each, while the third has 24. The
plans are very rough and unfinished, but they show alternative ways
of providing the accommodation. One house has a hall and kitchen on
the front, and a parlour, staircase and buttery at the back, while a
"vault" is contrived in the centre in a most insanitary manner. The
second has the hall and buttery to the front, the stairs at one side,
and the parlour and kitchen to the back. The third (having only 24
feet of frontage) has merely an entrance passage and kitchen to the
front, and a parlour at the back, while the staircase is opposite
the front door--the plan being a forerunner of the type which later
became of universal adoption. The second part of the title, indicating
that the plan might be used for a country house, is rather obscure,
inasmuch as no redistribution of names among the rooms shown could
have converted them into a workable plan for a single house. Another
plan (on pages 135, 136) is called a "London house of 3 breadths of
ordinary tenements." It has a frontage of 51 feet, thus giving 17 feet
as the breadth of an ordinary tenement. With such a frontage, it is of
course a much better house than those already described for the city.
It was entered at one end, the entry communicating with a narrow yard
which gave access to the garden in the rear. The hall looked out into
the street, as also did the parlour and buttery. At the back were the
winter parlour, the kitchen, and the stairs, with the larder under
them. The rooms were not large, the parlour being 18 feet by 13 feet,
and the winter parlour 15 feet by 12 feet: as usual, much space was
occupied by the large fireplaces. The first-floor plan is not given,
but on a higher storey appears an open leaded terrace along the street
front, behind which is a narrow and low gallery (only 5 feet to the
rafters) extending the whole length of the house, and again behind
that there are "sundry lodgings for servants, etc." There are no means
of fixing the date of the plan, but it appears to have been prepared
for Sir Thomas Lake, who was clerk to the signet in 1595, and a
Secretary of State in 1616. If we are to presume that a high official
complied with the proclamation as to houses being of stone or brick,
the date would be prior to 1605, for although the ground floor is shown
with stone walls, those of the upper floor are only of wood and plaster.
[Illustration: 187.--CORBELS, "KING'S ARMS," SANDWICH, KENT.]
[Illustration: 188.--CORBEL AT CANTERBURY.]
[Illustration: 189.--CORBEL AND PENDANT AT CANTERBURY.]
[Illustration: 190.--CORBEL, ORTON WATERVILLE, HUNTINGDONSHIRE.]
There is one other plan for a town house; it is called "A London house,
Lady Derby, Channell Row" (page 110). It is the plan of a much finer
house than any of the foregoing, and as it is built round a courtyard,
there were no special difficulties in providing light and air. It
follows the usual type of large houses, having a central entrance, from
which a flagged path leads across the court into the screens of the
hall. The staircases, chapel, winter parlour, kitchen and other rooms
are grouped round the court in the ordinary way, the only difference
being that those which occupy the sides of the court have no windows
on their outside walls, but only such as look inwards into the court
itself. The restrictions imposed by the fact of the house being a
"London house" are therefore very slight. The "Channell Row" where this
house was built was probably the street of that name in Westminster.
These plans of Thorpe's are of considerable interest, as they show the
first steps taken towards developing a plan suitable for the confined
spaces available in large towns.
[Illustration: 191.--THE "SWAN" INN, LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]
Reverting to the smaller examples under consideration, we find that
a great variety was introduced into the corbels which carried the
projecting floors; many of them were grotesques after the fashion of
that on the "King's Arms" at Sandwich, in Kent (Fig. 187), others were
simpler, like the examples from Canterbury (Figs. 188, 189), while
others, like that from Orton Waterville, Huntingdonshire (Fig. 190),
combined both ideas. But the characteristic common to them all is
boldness, both of size and treatment. They generally had a spiral about
them in one form or another, varied by foliage or projecting bosses,
or some variation of the strap-work _motif_. The great corner-posts of
such houses as formed the corner of a street were often wrought with
a remarkable amount of care. They were not only of sufficient size to
make suitable angle-posts, but they were brought out at the top in a
diagonal manner in order to support the storey above, which overhung
the lower one on both faces; an instance of this treatment may be
seen in the example from Sandwich (Fig. 187). In some places it was
customary not only to bring out the face of each storey beyond that of
the one below, but to bring the whole house out over the footwalk. The
Rows at Chester are a well-known example of this practice. The Long Row
on the great market-place of Nottingham is another instance, but here
the arcade has been almost entirely rebuilt, one of the last specimens
of a Jacobean front having recently been removed in the course of
making a new street.
In stone districts the local material was chiefly employed, and
all through the small towns and villages of Somerset, Wiltshire,
Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire charming little
examples, such as the "Swan" Inn at Lechlade (Fig. 191), may be found
here and there. The idea is of the simplest--a door in the middle, with
a bay window on each side, crowned with a gable. But the disposition
of the small windows, the treatment of the door, and the change from
the canted side of the bay to the square base of the gable afforded
opportunities for variety and for careful treatment sufficient to
render these minor examples well worth attention.
MARKET-HOUSES, SCHOOLS, ALMSHOUSES, &c.
[Illustration: 192.--DESK IN ALMSHOUSE, CORSHAM, WILTSHIRE.]
Most of the work of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries which
has come down to us is to be found in houses; but there are a certain
number of other buildings left, such as town-halls, market-houses,
schools, and almshouses. Of almshouses, or hospitals, as they are
often called, there are some excellent examples in many parts of the
country. Ford's Hospital, in Coventry, built in 1529, is an extremely
good specimen of Late Gothic woodwork; St. John's Hospital, Rye, is
another. The almshouses at Corsham, in Wiltshire, are not only very
picturesque outside, but contain some capital woodwork inside, of
which a reading-desk is illustrated in Fig. 192. Another set, equally
substantial and of greater extent, is to be found at Chipping Campden,
in Gloucestershire (Fig. 193). The work in these places is simple and
substantial; there is no display of ornament, unless perhaps over the
entrance, where the donor would place his arms with a certain amount
of flourish, partly in carving, partly in inscription; there are no
elaborate ceilings nor chimney-pieces, but tables, desks, and chairs
of careful design and workmanship have survived in places, and these
simple buildings are often valuable in affording examples of plain,
unpretentious work.
[Illustration: 193.--ALMSHOUSES, CHIPPING CAMPDEN,
GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]
[Illustration: 194.--MARKET-HOUSE, SHREWSBURY.]
[Illustration: 195.--MARKET-HOUSE, WYMONDHAM, NORFOLK (1617).]
[Illustration: 196.--MARKET-HOUSE, CHIPPING CAMPDEN, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.]
There are not many town-halls of this period to be found. Civic life
did not express itself in concrete form in nearly so pronounced a
manner as, for instance, in the Low Countries during the period under
consideration, and as it is doing at home at the present day. The
most striking example of a town-hall of the time is the picturesque
Guildhall at Exeter, which has a richly-ornamented front projecting
over the pavement and carried on arches. But there were a great
many market-houses built. The finest of these, so far as design and
workmanship go, is the well-known Market-house at Rothwell, presented
to the town about the year 1577 by a neighbouring squire, Sir Thomas
Tresham, but left unfinished owing to the donor being harassed on
account of his zeal as a Roman Catholic. Like most market-houses, this
building was to have consisted of an open market-hall on the ground
floor, with a room over it. There is a good example on a larger scale
at Shrewsbury (Fig. 194), substantially built in stone, with mullioned
windows and an ornamental parapet. The ground floor serves as a covered
market, and the upper floor is carried on open arches. At Wymondham,
in Norfolk, is a smaller specimen (dated 1617), serving the same
purposes, but it is built of timber and plaster (Fig. 195). The upper
floor stands on stout posts and brackets, set some two feet within the
outside face, and is approached by a quaint wooden staircase. There
is a one-storey market-house at Chipping Campden (Fig. 196), built
of stone, with arches on each side; the five down the long side are
supported on pillars, and have a gable over every alternate arch, while
the two at each end are divided by a short length of wall and have a
gable over each, thus securing a pleasant variation of treatment: the
detail throughout is quite plain. There were also a few market and
village crosses erected at this time, but there are not many examples
to be found: one of the best is at Brigstock, in Northamptonshire
(Plate LXXX.), where its situation in an open space, and backed by
stone-built and thatched cottages, renders it a quaint and pleasant
feature. The shields at the top bear alternately the royal arms and
Elizabeth's initials, E. R., with the date 1586.
[Illustration: PLATE LXXX.
VILLAGE CROSS, BRIGSTOCK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (1586).]
[Illustration: 197.--SCHOOL AT BURTON LATIMER, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
(1622).]
During the reign of Edward VI. a large number of schools were founded,
and there are numerous examples left of those built during the next
fifty years. There is a good specimen of the late sort at Shrewsbury;
and of the smaller kind, such as were founded in villages, that at
Burton Latimer, in Northamptonshire, is one of the quaintest (Fig.
197). Its features are quite simple; mullioned windows, on which are
inscribed the date 1622, and the names of donors or, as we should now
call them, subscribers; steep gables with finials at the foot; the
ordinary excellent chimney of the district, and a rather elaborate
doorway surmounted by a curved gable; such are the means employed to
produce this attractive little building. Of other kinds of buildings,
which come under no class because there were so few built, may be
mentioned the pretty little mill at Bourne Pond, near Colchester, and
the Hawking-tower in Althorp Park, Northamptonshire. The former (Fig.
198) is built chiefly of flint, but mixed with the flint are bricks,
tiles, and stones. The stone embellishments are somewhat elaborate
and varied, and the curious curved and broken outline of the gables
points to the Low Countries as the source of its birth. The mill is
dated 1591, and bears the arms of its founder, who was a citizen of the
adjacent town of Colchester. The Hawking-tower at Althorp is probably
unique (Fig. 199). It was built by Robert, Lord Spencer, in 1612 and
1613, and is said to have been erected by him as a token of gratitude
for having been raised to the peerage; but if so, the acknowledgment
followed the event at an interval of ten years. There is no suggestion
of the kind in the only inscription upon it, which runs thus, "This
Staninge was made by Robert Lord Spencer 1612 et 1613." It not only
bears the arms of Lord Spencer, but also those of the sovereign, very
cleverly modelled. The plan (Fig. 200) comprises on the ground floor an
entrance, a room with a fireplace, and a staircase, which leads up to
the floor above, where the walls were pierced with a number of arches,
through which the spectators could watch the sport. These arches have
been built up in order to render the place habitable, and one or two
rooms have been added at the back with a like purpose, but a little
care enables the original arrangements to be made out with tolerable
certainty.
[Illustration: 198.--MILL AT BOURNE POND, COLCHESTER, ESSEX (1591).]
[Illustration: 199.--HAWKING-TOWER, ALTHORP PARK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
(1612-13).]
[Illustration: 200.--HAWKING-TOWER, ALTHORP PARK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
(1612-13).]
At Scole, in Norfolk, a very curious survival of the old classical
_motifs_ was to be seen, till the end of last century, in a great sign
erected in 1655 for the "White Hart" Inn (Fig. 201). The hart itself
lies couchant on the middle of the main beam, beneath a pediment
supported by Justice and Plenty, two qualities for which the host
may be excused if he considered his house noted. On one side of the
centre-piece stands Actæon, about to be torn in pieces by his dogs, to
whom he is supposed to be addressing the Latin legend beneath him:
"I am Actæon, know your master." On the other side stands Diana, and
beyond her is Time, about to devour his child, beginning with its hand;
beneath him his identity is made quite clear by the sentence "Tempus
edax rerum." In the frieze below the beam are two figures representing
(probably) Bacchus and Gambrinus, supported on either side by coats of
arms. Angels and lions hold further coats of arms. There is Cerberus
with his three heads, while numerous bunches of grapes, men blowing
horns, and other devices suitable to the purpose occupy the rest of
the space. The whole design might have come from the fertile brain of
George Gascoigne, who was responsible for most of the entertainments at
Kenilworth when Queen Elizabeth paid her celebrated visit there nearly
eighty years before this sign was erected. The fundamental idea which
underlay all design of the time was to combine strong classic feeling
with picturesqueness of expression.
[Illustration: 201.--THE SIGN OF THE "WHITE HART" INN, FORMERLY AT
SCOLE, NORFOLK (1655).]
WORK IN CHURCHES.
[Illustration: 202.--CHICHESTER TOMB, PILTON CHURCH, DEVONSHIRE
(1566).]
It has already been stated that there is no ecclesiastical architecture
of early Renaissance character in England. There were a number of
churches built during the first thirty years of the sixteenth century,
but they are all Gothic in treatment. The influence of the Renaissance
on certain features to be found in churches, such as chantries and
tombs, has already been dealt with. It remains to glance at the changes
that occurred in church fittings as the century grew older. Although
no churches, or extremely few, were built after the Dissolution of
the Monasteries, still the Elizabethan and Jacobean squires were not
backward in embellishing the ancient structures, and there are plenty
of screens, pulpits, font-covers, and particularly tombs, to be found
all over the country, although it cannot be denied that under the
influence of the revival of Gothic feeling which took place about fifty
years ago, a great deal of Elizabethan and Jacobean work was either
destroyed, or removed to the vestry, into which confined space it was
made to fit by a ruthless exercise of the axe and saw.
[Illustration: 203.--FROM ONE OF THE FOLJAMBE TOMBS, CHESTERFIELD
CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE (1592).]
[Illustration: 204.--TOMB OF G. REED (D. 1610), BREDON CHURCH,
WORCESTERSHIRE.]
The progress of style in tombs has already been traced to a certain
extent in dealing with the early stages of the Renaissance movement.
It has been shown how the old idea of the altar tomb, with recumbent
figures, lingered on till quite late in the sixteenth century. In the
closing years, however, it became fashionable to place the figure,
still recumbent, beneath an arched canopy, upon which was lavished an
extraordinary amount of ornament. The arch itself was coffered and
adorned with bosses and stiff flowers of various kinds. It was flanked
with columns which carried an entablature, above which again rose a
superstructure displaying the family arms, and so designed that with
its supporting obelisks and detached figures it formed a more or less
pyramidal finish. The back of the tomb above the figures, and enclosed
by the arch, was usually occupied by a tablet setting forth the name
and qualities of the defunct person, together with his alliances, if
they were thought at all worthy of record; and round this tablet was a
frame of strap-work of intricate design filling up the remainder of the
space, and decked with all manner of delicate ribbons and garlands. In
every suitable place appeared the arms of the chief person concerned,
or those of his wife, or some notable family to which they were allied.
The whole monument was brightly coloured, where the use of different
kinds of marble did not render such embellishment unnecessary, and the
effect was striking in the extreme. The nobleman and the squire of
Elizabeth's days had each a very high opinion of his family, and of
his own importance in the scheme of the universe, and nothing would
have pleased him better than to see the monument under which he was
buried. Some of these great tombs are pretentious in idea and poor in
design, but some of them are full of delightful detail, consistent in
scale, varied in treatment, and beautifully modelled. There is a good
example in the Chichester tomb at North Pilton, in Devonshire (Fig.
202), which departs from the usual arched type, and which, if it were
erected soon after the death of those whom it commemorates, in 1566,
is quite an early example of the use of strap-work. The detail of
this monument, shown on Plate LXXXI., is of unusual delicacy, and the
elaborate frame which encloses the black marble panel is handled with
a delicacy and lightness of touch too seldom met with. The Foljambe
tombs in Chesterfield Church, Derbyshire, are treated with considerable
originality. One of them (dated 1592) is in the form of a sarcophagus,
and is adorned with beautifully modelled carving (Fig. 203). These
examples are of unusual excellence. The tomb in Bredon Church (Fig.
204) to G. Reed, who died in 1610, and that in the Spencer aisle at
Yarnton (Fig. 205) to Sir William Spencer, who died in 1609, are
specimens of the ordinary treatment of arched monuments. As time went
on this kind of tomb became much coarser in design. The detail was less
refined, and the recumbent figures were placed no longer in a simple
and dignified attitude, with faces turned towards the sky and with
hands folded in the attitude of prayer; but they were placed awkwardly
on their sides, leaning on their elbows, sometimes lodged in
precarious positions on a kind of shelf, sometimes with cheek resting
on the hand, as though, in the words of Bosola in the _Duchess of
Malfi_, "they had died of the toothache." All dignity and romance were
eliminated from the work, and the Jacobean squire appeared in death
what he frequently was in life--a very commonplace creature.
[Illustration: 205.--TOMB OF SIR WM. SPENCER (D. 1609), YARNTON CHURCH,
OXFORDSHIRE.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXI.
PILTON CHURCH, NORTH DEVON.
DETAIL OF THE CHICHESTER TOMB.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXII.
SCREEN AT TILNEY ALL SAINTS, NORFOLK (1618).]
[Illustration: 206.--PULPIT, WORTH CHURCH, SUSSEX (1577).]
There were many screens erected during the early years of the
seventeenth century. The finest specimens are at St. John's Church,
Leeds, and at Croscombe in Somerset, near Wells, in both of which
churches most of the woodwork is of this period, including the
excellent oak seats. The general effect of the richly ornamented
woodwork at Croscombe, including the pews, the pulpit, and the lofty
screen, is unusually striking. But in many churches in different parts
of the country screens may be found of more or less importance. A
good example is illustrated from Tilney All Saints, in Norfolk, near
King's Lynn (Plate LXXXII.), which bears the date 1618 in a little
panel over the central arch. The design, it will be seen, is somewhat
unconstructional, for the main posts of the lower part are not carried
up to support the crowning cornice, but terminate in obelisks, leaving
the cornice to be carried by turned balusters; the effect being to
render the upper part rather insecure in appearance. There is a screen
at Stonegrave, in Yorkshire, of simple but rather unusual design, in
which the detail is very carefully managed. Although it is dated 1637,
its general character places it in the category of Jacobean work.
Of pulpits there were a large number erected in Elizabeth's time, and
still more in King James's, for in the canons of 1603 a pulpit was
ordered to be placed in every church not previously provided with
one. Many of these have disappeared, through decay or the fury of
Gothic restoration, but there are still plenty left, of which several
types are illustrated. There is the elaborate one at Worth Church, in
Sussex, dated 1577, built up with columns at the angles. The faces are
occupied by niches containing figures of the Evangelists (Fig. 206),
and the frieze above bears an inscription in the Dutch language. On the
panels between the pilasters of the lower stage is some of the applied
carving, previously referred to in treating of panelling.
[Illustration: 207.--PULPIT, BLYTHBOROUGH CHURCH, SUFFOLK.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXXIII.
PULPIT, EDINGTON CHURCH, WILTSHIRE.]
There is a simpler form from Blythborough, in Suffolk (Fig. 207),
which consists of panelling framed together, all the framework and the
panels themselves being covered with carving in low relief. The
widely-projecting bookboard is also ornamented on the underside, and
is supported by large carved brackets. The pulpit stands on four short
posts let into a wood sill and supported by brackets. Another type is
to be seen in Edington Church, Wiltshire (Plate LXXXIII.), of simple
and elegant design. The octagonal body of the pulpit consists of plain
moulded panelling without ornament; the bookboard forms a cornice,
which is slightly enriched with dentils and carving. The whole stands
on a single turned stout post, from the upper part of which spring
brackets of simple form. There is a panelled sounding-board with a
carved frieze and an acorn drop at each angle. The whole work exhibits
unusual restraints and refinement both of design and detail. Of
somewhat similar type, but rather more florid in detail, and probably
later in date, is the pulpit at Chesterfield Church (Fig. 208).
[Illustration: 208.--PULPIT, CHESTERFIELD CHURCH, DERBYSHIRE.]
Font-covers of the seventeenth century are also fairly numerous, and
a few of them still retain the elaborate bracket from which they were
suspended in order to be raised or lowered with little trouble. There
is a good specimen of such a bracket at Pilton Church, in North Devon
(Fig. 209), of which, however, the upper part, above the tilted hood,
is of later date and coarser design: and there is a still finer example
at Astbury Church, near Congleton, in Cheshire.
[Illustration: 209.--FONT-COVER AND CANOPY, PILTON CHURCH, DEVONSHIRE.]
Of the very few churches which were built during the century that
succeeded the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the most important was
St. John's Church at Leeds. There is nothing particularly striking
in the treatment if we except the beautiful wood fittings. The plan
consists of a double nave, divided by an arcade, and the stonework
details are plain in character and of no great interest. It might
have been expected that window tracery would afford opportunities
to the ingenious masons of the time; but either they clung to the
old traditions, as did the masons employed by Nicholas Wadham on the
chapel of his college at Oxford, where in the years 1610-13, they
produced windows of excellent Perpendicular character: or else they
tried in a half-hearted kind of way to give to the tracery forms in
keeping with those used elsewhere. Such an attempt was made in the
church of Kelmarsh, in Northamptonshire (Fig. 210), but it had not
much to recommend it, nor were other efforts--in the hall at Wadham
and a few other places--of such singular success as to lead further in
this direction; and the call for church windows being very limited,
no development worth mentioning occurred. The most noteworthy attempt
to give a new character to window tracery was made in later years
(subsequent to 1634) at the chapel at Burford Priory, Oxfordshire,
where tracery founded on ancient precedents, but following lines of
its own, was surrounded by a fully-developed classic architrave.
Elizabethan and Jacobean detail lingered on in out-of-the-way places
long into the seventeenth century, and at Compton Winyates, in
Warwickshire, the church, which was rebuilt in 1663, has some quaint
little bits of stone detail (Fig. 211), in which the old forms have
not yet been replaced by the more strictly classic features which were
being more and more generally employed.
[Illustration: 210.--WINDOW, KELMARSH CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.]
Another instance of the survival of ancient forms is to be seen in
the woodwork in the chapel at Peterhouse, Cambridge (Fig. 212), where
Jacobean balusters of elegant contour surmount panels treated in
the Gothic manner and finished at the top with cusping and foliated
spandrils. The date of this door is about 1632.
[Illustration: 211.--FROM COMPTON WINYATES CHURCH, WARWICKSHIRE.]
[Illustration: 212.--DOOR IN THE SCREEN OF THE CHAPEL, PETERHOUSE,
CAMBRIDGE (CIR. 1632).]
There are not many specimens of ornamental plaster ceilings to be found
in churches, but at Axbridge, in Somerset, there is such an instance in
the nave, where the ceiling is in the form of a pointed barrel vault,
with plaster ribs springing from a cornice adorned with strap-work. The
ribs form a simple pattern consisting mostly of squares of different
sizes, and there are large Jacobean pendants and bosses at intervals;
but out of deference to ecclesiastical tradition, the square panels are
ornamented with cusps, which give to the whole design a rather feeble
flavour of Gothic; of its kind, however, it is an interesting ceiling,
and is one among many indications of the attention bestowed upon
churches during the early years of the Reformation. Another indication
is the frequent presence of texts upon the walls. They are generally
surrounded with an ornamental strap-work border, such as roused the
admiration of the narrator of an entertainment at Antwerp in honour
of the Duke of Anjou in 1581, when he commended the "compartments of
Phrygian work, very artificially handled." These texts seem to have had
their origin from a singular circumstance. Queen Elizabeth attended
service at St. Paul's on New Year's Day, 1561, and the Dean, thinking
to present her with an acceptable New Year's gift, caused a number of
beautiful pictures representing the stories of the saints and martyrs
to be handsomely bound in a Book of Common Prayer, which he laid upon
the Queen's cushion. On opening it, however, she frowned and blushed,
and calling the verger to her, caused him to bring the old prayer-book
which she had been accustomed to use. At the close of the service she
gave the Dean a very uncomfortable quarter of an hour, for having
thus gone counter to her proclamation against "images, pictures, and
Romish reliques." He excused himself, according to the account, like a
lectured schoolboy, and promised that nothing of the kind should occur
again. In consequence of this incident there was a general searching of
all the churches in and about London, and the clergy and churchwardens
"washed out of the walls all paintings that seemed to be Romish and
idolatrous," and wrote up "in lieu thereof, suitable texts taken out of
the Holy Scriptures."